Founding Conference of Spartacist League • • . Pages 10, 11

NUMBER 8 NOYEMBER·DECEMBER 1966 10 CENTS "GREAT PROLETARIAN " RUN AMOK The Red Guards, bearers of Mao Tse-tung's thought, instruments of the Great Proletarian Cultu·ral Revolu­ tion, have answered their critics: "Revolutionaries are Monkey Kings, their golden rods are powerful, their supernatural powers far-reaching and their magic om­ nipotent, for they possess Mao Tse-tung's great invinc­ ible thought. We wield ouI' golden rods, display our supernatural powers' and use our magic to turn the old world upside down, smash it to pieces, pulverize it, create chaos and make a trem~ndous mess, the bigger the betted We must do this to the present revisionist middle school attached t9 the Tsinghua University, make rebellion in a big way, rebel to the end! We are bent on creating a tremendous proletarian uproar, and hewing out a proletarian new world!" MAO's HEAD floats down. the Yangtze while And Peking Review (9 Sept. 1966), the authoritative Stalin's has come to rest on a Budapest street. foreign-language political organ of the Chinese govern­ ment, approves. , "Not a single one of the tasks of the 'bourgeois' revolu­ Bureaucratic Dangers tion can be solved in these backward countries under Such grotesqueries are symptoms of the dangers a the leadership of the 'national' bourgeoisie; because the bureaucracy, once its power is consolidated, poses to latter emerges at once with foreign support as a class any workers state. When such a bureaucracy attempts alien or hostile to the people. Every stage in its develop­ to build' in one country, surrounded by the ment binds it only the more closely to the foreign fi­ pressures of imperialism and cut off from the world nance capital of which it is essentially the agency." revolutbn, it can view the economic and political needs (Introduction to Isaacs' The ·Tragedy of the Chinese of socialist development only in terms of maintaining Revolution) its own privileged position. The position of the Chinese bureaucracy is apparently now so ossified that it threat­ Revolutionary Defeat ens to destroy most of the gains made by the third The defeat of the second Chinese revolution of 1927- Chinese revolution. If, as the above quote would indi­ 29 occurred in great measure due to the policy of Sta­ cate, the Chinese bureaueracy has chosen chaos and lin's Com intern, which subordinated the Chinese Com­ mysticism l1s the means of curing 's problems, we munist Party (CCP) to the bourgeoi~-dominated KMT. can validly question whether there was any other choice Despite a series of bloody massacres of workers and open to this "Marxist" bureaucracy, short of its own CCP cadres carried out by Chiang in 1926-27, Stalin removal through a workers revolution which would in­ continued to look on him as a revolutionary. More cor­ stitute soviet democracy and the whole range of asso- rectly, Stalin wanted a "friendly" bourgeois govern­ ciated fundamental advances. I ment on the southeastern border, and to that end he The first Chinese revolution of 1911, a bourgeois­ sacrificed the Chinese workers movement. (Although in democratic movement led by Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang 1927 he was to "discover" that the person "responsible" (KMT), was unable to complete the two most pressing for these defeats was CCP chairman Ch'en Tu-hsiu, tasks confronting it: agrarian reform and bourgeois­ from 1924 to 1927 Stalin refused to listen to Ch'en's nationalist unification of the country. The subsequent objections to the Comintern policies.) Only when Stalin history of the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek totally con­ and the other bureaucrats, trying to consolidate their firms Trotsky's general analysis of such a revolution: (Continued on Page 5) . Hungarian Tragedy - Ten Years· After ... Page 8 SPARTACIST

ogy. Our comrades formerly in the Socialist Workers Party first fully tasted Wohlforth's talents in 1963 when, as' de facto party' prosecutor, his lying accusa­ tions were ~he basis for their expulsions. The April SPARTACJS1 conference debacle has again revealed Wohlforth's and Healy's expertise. Striving defensively to Jlroject the A Bim~nthly Organ of Revolutionary image that everybody is a bit of a--liar, they challenge' l EDITORS: James Robertson; Managing, Helen Janacek; our assertion that James Robertson, SPARTACIST editor Wf/st Coast, Geoffrey White; Southern, Joseph VeHer. and a delegate, was expelled from the conference for refusing to acknowledge our "petty-bourgeois" nature and other characterizations. These charges constituted Subscription: SOc yearly. Bundle rates for 10 or more copies. Main address: Box 1377, G.P.O., New York, N. Y. 10001. Tele· the bizarre motivation of a demand for an "apology" phone: UN 6·3093. Western ."ddress: P.O. Box 852, Berkeley, <;alif. for Robertson's absepce from a session. 94701. Southern address: P.O. Box 8121, New Orleans, La. 70122. ACFI brands our version as "mythology"; but they Telephone: 522·2194. and Healy have inadvertently let slip a glimmer of the , ' Published by the Cen1ral CommiHee of the Spartacist League. truth. The 12 September Bulletin, while ignoring Rob­ Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent ertson's several apologies to the delegates for an unin­ an editorial viewpoint. tentional infraction of "protocol," describes the ulti­ matum thus: "Only when he continued to refuse to Number 8 ~1I8 Nov.-Dec. 1966 acknowledge that he had caused the conference to be inconvenienced was his attitude characterized as that of a petty-bourgeois . ... But he continued, for the next 24 hour period of the conference ... to refuse to apol­ ogize." Healy's letter of 15 April to Turner picks- up Revolution and the story: "At the end of this session .•. Robertson was then asked if he would carry out the uanimous re­ Truth quest of the Congress and apologize for his attitude G. Healy, general secretary of the British Socialist towards the Congress. He refused to do this and was Labour League, and his publicists in the American Com­ accordingly asked to leave.'. : ." (Our emphasis.) mittee for the are evidently striv­ Healy's docile words fail to convey the full flavor of ing to compensate with volume for what they lack in this verbal hate session, culminating in our delegate's cogency. Determined to do a "job" on the Spartacist expulsion. League, Healy's efforts 'to discredit Leninism" (actually an NOVEMBER.DECEMBER 1966 -3

Aesopian re-run of the split aimed at nating theory and truth to his tactical SWP, 12 November 1962.) hardening ACFI's membership) Wohl­ needs. Thus, to resurrect the slander As ~ the servant reflects the master, forth codified his "method." Discussing of Spartacist's denial of the working Wohlforth exposes the political charac­ Trotsky's 1925 denial ()f Lenin's Testa­ class, Wohlforth in the Bulletin of: 10 ter of Healy; and their performance ment, Wohlforth acknowledged that October isolates a quotation from our as micro-careerists repudiates their' Trotsky misled his comrades. But, said last issue referring to the New' L~ft­ literary Leninism. The latest manifes­ Wohlforth, exalting this desperate eva­ ists' "image of an apathetic white tation of ACFI's left-centrist behavior sion into a principle, "TROTSKY working class"-in order to attribute has been their electoral positions: in TAUGHT US WHEN TO LIE AND this view to us in the very article by they supported the mid­ WHEN NOT TO LIE." us calling for "arousing the working dle-class Hal Levin campaign; mean­ The fact that Trotsky's disavowal class" to a political strugg'le against while ACFI's man on the West Coast was committed at the decision of the capitalism! Similarly Wohlfortp., like caved in to the "boycott" line of the leading body of the Opposition, and Healy, relishes in endlessly slandering Scheer liberals-placing ACFI to the under terms dictated by Stalin, did not individuals who break with the move­ right of even the' National Guardian, prevent it from accruing heavily to ment. Thus Wohlforth vituperates which supported the SWP's write-in Stalin's advantage and producing no Shane Mage wh~le printing in the 24 campaign. Such opportunism links to little disorientation among Trotsky'S October Bulletin, without a single ac­ Healy's own shortcomings which we followers. But the profoundly cynical knowledgement, an article on Hungary wQuld have sought to correct within assertion of deception as a principle­ almost wholly adopted and plagiarized the International Committee had we which represents Wohlforth's abdica­ from Mage's work! not been expelled: especially his ten­ tion of any intention to function as a Our experience with Healy's and dency towards a Great-Power insensi-' revolutionist-was learned from Healy, Wohlforth's opportunism, which predi­ tivity on the national, question; the not Trotsky. In fact, Wohlforth takes 'cates such dishonesty, dates back to SLL's tactical vacillations between un­ that action which our opponents have our' original split in 1962. Rewriting principled concessions and violent sec­ sought to exploit as the "co're" of Trot­ the history of his relations with us in tarianism; and the Healy regime'S skyist practice and himself turns it a series, "Problems _of the Fourth In­ anti-Leninist bureaucratism. ACFI, into the essence of Trotskyist practice! ternational" (N ewsletter, 22 and 29 parodying Trotsky, begs these ques­ The minuteness of Wohlforth's liter­ October), Healy serves up as "educa­ tions by "defying" us to explain the ary sect does not deflect from the pow­ tional assistance" the ultimatum given "social roots" of Healy's practices, The er of this poison. What is at stake is our comrades then in the SWP-not yoix Ouvriere comrades have observed no less than whether the future Lenin­ simply to accept the discipline of his that while a bureaucracy such as the ist vanguard-of which we today' are group with which they had only close Stalinists' has a basis in social and eco­ the progenitors-will have the capacity but ill-defined relations, but to renounce nomic causes, including the conserva­ to carry through the task of leading their views before the party. Healy tive protection of material privilege, working people to revolutionary vic­ explains that he was "opposed to any Healy's bureaucratism is a product tory. But the proletariat's conscious attempt to sharpen up the internal primarily of his incapacity as a revo­ understanding of its tasks, central to faction struggle im,jde the SWP ..." lutionist! (Newsletter, 22 October), and, through Marxism, is only' nourished to the ex­ and Truth tent that the workers realize the clear Wohlforth at the time, circulated and sober truth-including sbout our­ charges of our comrades' "indiscipline" While Healy's practices, aped by selves and our opponents: and "split perspective" (SW P Discus­ Wohlforth, increase our opponents' Treating this problem in Their' sion Bulletin, June 1963); yet Healy's vulnerability, the Spartacist League Mora.ls. and Ours, Trotsky reasoned: 29 October version endeavors to prove takes no pleasure in the business; the "The liberation of the workers can our alleged anti-internationalism by 29 March B1llletin's sober commentary come only through the workers them~ citing that we were "ready to accept on PL ironically well foretold our pres­ selves. There is, therefore, no greater SWP discipline"! Healy's contradiction ent assessment of ACFI: ", . , We do crime than deceiving the masses, palm­ reflects his flip-flop at the time: Healy not simply gloat over the self-destruc­ ing off defeats as victories, friends as was willing to police our tendency in tion of a political organization. Pro­ enemies, bribing workers' leaders, fab­ exchange for a deal with Dobbs; when gressive Labor's behavior can have no ricating legends, staging false trials, this proved fruitless, Healy had Wohl­ other eF..'ect than to isolate and de­ in a word, doing what the Stalinists forth drop the "party loyalty" line and moralize its own membership as well do, These means can serve only one virtually invite expulsion. Our com­ as creating skepticism and mistrust in end: lengthening the d9mination of a rades, on the other hand, steered one the minds of workingclass and student clique already .condemned by history. straight course until their expulsion: militants toward communist organi­ But they cannot serve to liberate the a principled, vigorous struggle inside zation and struggle. All in all, a crimi­ masses." the SWP for a revolutionary program. nal waste!,' The Bulletin itself of 29 March 1966, While Healy largely just rehashes Yet Wohlforth assails us for not describing the "political methodology" the Bulletin's well-worn lies, these ar­ "closing ranks with the lC" by denying of Progressive Labor, anticipated its ticles further reveal the man's Stalin­ that a crime was committed! There is own tragedy: "It has been said by ist-conditioned idea of an International: compounded irony here-the Spartacist someone who probably learned the hard not a disciplined collective of peer sec­ League is politically much closer to the way, 'never trust anyone who lies to tions, guided by a democratically-se­ Ie than, for example, to Voia, Oltvriere, you.' ... It would be thought that any­ lected center, but a network of puppets with whom we have strong differences one belOIiging to an organization that obedient to Healy for his "revolution­ over their state-capitalist po_sition on aspires to revolutionary victory of the ary integrity and rich experience." A the Sino-Soviet states, their tendency working class would examine the his­ dubious integrity, indeed, after the towards syndicalism, and theii' enone­ tory .•. and see the political method "rich experience" of "advice" to our ous assessment of the Fourth Interna­ ; ,of, the lie ,M an important coinponent "goodselves" like the following: "We tional. But we, like VO, recognize that ,of. ,the r!!~o:rmist degeneration of the do not want to impose [our proposals] true solidarity with the Int~rnational . ,Communist parties: throughout the. o~ you. If y()u do not like to accept Committee forces requires that we -pelll world." them, then there is no need to accept it purge its ranks of criminals, not them. All those comrades who do ac­ dt\I1y their deeds. The honest EYlgage­ W ohlforth's Method cept them will be considered as part of ment of this task itself facilitates the Armed with this "method," Wohl­ an international tendency... ." (Healy'S rebuilding of a Leninist Fourth Inter­ forth has had no difficulty in subordi­ letter to Revolutionary Tendency of national•• '\ 4- SPARTACIST Texas ~ Farm Strike Austin: This summer a farm work­ ers began training local labor as pack­ will try to restrain.'it. ers' ,union in the Rio Grande Valley ers, and annou~ced that no delay in the Tbe gradual takeover ~f, the farm called its first strike; it was lost, but harvest was anticipated. union by religious types is only part of the battle to organize the lowest-paid Confused by the partial failure of th~ picture. The leadership of the union workers in Texas has only begun. The the picketing to affect the growers, has not so far proven itself capable of AFL-C1'O has mllde perfunctory at­ Nelson advocated individual "civil dis­ uniting all the Valley workers behind a tempts to organize the Valley field obedience"; he himself was arrested for militant program. Nelson came into the workers for five years, but serious ef­ blocking a moving produce train. Such valley with good intentions, but little forts only began in May when local tactics had no effect on the employers. experience, and has not been ,able to men started the Independent VVorkers On 2 June the growers obtained an in­ break loose from local religious and Association. The IVV A was joined by junction against mass picketing of the conservative control. Margil Sanchez, Eugene Nelson, staff member of the farms in Starr County. N-elsonand his IVV A leader, was opposed to affiliation National Farm VVorkers Association, lieutenants called off the pickets-and with the NFVV A because of "revolu­ while he was in, Texas to get support the strike was dead. (The workers tionaries" among its leadership; he for the boycott of Schenley products. were not so legalistically minded-the prides himself that "every leader of the VVhen Schenley recognized the NFVV A FBI investigated "complaints of in­ Rio Grande City union has signed an on 5 April, Nelson decided to stay and timidation and threatened violence" oath saying he is not a member of any help organize a similar union in Starr against the scabs!) organization found to be subversive by County. The union put out a strike newsletter the Federal Government." (San Anto­ entitled "Voz de la Gente." The first nio Express, 6 July 1966.) Strike Called one (30 June) reveals some roots of the The union has also been weakened Soon after Nelson's arrival the union strike failure. It contains an amalgam by' its nationalist orientation and lack leaders began organizing the workers of good explanations of bosses' tactics of a working-class, program. Many a,t night rallies in Rio Grande City; at for strike-breaking, some ultra-radical members 'are unemployed and are the 29 May meeting to elect officers demands and opportunist appeals to the therefore limited to protest action there were over 400 members. By the reactionary religious background of the rather than actions with significant following day, Nelson claimed 1,000 workers. One quotation will illustrate economic leverage. The union leader­ members, and a strike was called for this: ship has failed to advance any pro­ 1 June-if the growers refused the un­ "The people of Starr County hav-e gram other than higher wages. A ion's demands for recognition and the shown the people of Texas and the strong union cannot be built on wage $1.25 minimum wage for the field work­ world that they a~e the sons of Zapata. demands alone, but must recognize the ers. By 2 June Los Puertos, La Casita The'y are marching under the banner interests of the working class. For the and Suntex farms were struck and of our country, our union and the Vir_ union to grow and accomplish even picket lines set up. Although the union gin of Guadelupe for JUSTICE NOVV." minimal goals, there should be an ori­ leaders claimed that 95 'per cent of the VVhen it became clear that the strike entation to all the farm workers in workers manned the picket lines, they was lost, Nelson began to accept the Texas and cooperation with any' simi­ stated that there was no hope of halt­ 'support of organized religion, deflect­ lar efforts, elsewhere in the South. ing the melon harvest-and the grow­ ing the energy of the workers to "sym~ ers claimed there was no strike at all, bolic," rather than economic, actions. TeXas Labor Party merely picketing by unemployed work- A series of marches was begun to pro­ A strong farm 'workers' union could ~ ers and "outside agitators." To assist test the plight of the workers and their also form the nucleus. for a labor par­ the workers who scabbed, the growers families. The first of these, on 7 June, ty, a neressary beginning ste'p towarcis brought over Mexican "commuters" was headed by union members carrying the achievement of workers' political early in the mornings before the picket U.S. and Mexican flags and pictures of power. A Committee for a Texas La­ lines were set up. Although the AFL­ "Our Lady of Guadelupe," and ended bor Party was formed last April but affiliated produce packers from Califor­ in mass in a, church in Garciasville. has failed to function, due to its isola­ nia honored the picket lines, the grow- VVhat is the' role of the Church in tion from and civil rights this struggle? Perhaps Jhe most reac­ struggles, and its poor understanding tionary segment of the ruling stratum of working-class politics. It was com­ SUBSCRIBE TO THE in the capitalist world is the church. posed of liberals" unaffiliated radicals Not only the churches but the very and Stalinists who follow the llne of existence of reJigion itself is an im­ the Communist Party. SPARTAC)ST pediment to the development of class The reactivation of the Committee consciousness. Marx, in the "Introduc­ working in conjunction with the farm Box 1377, G.P.O. tion to the Critique of Hegel's Phil­ union wouki be immensely helpful 'to New York, N. Y. 10001 osophy of Right," stated: " ... Religion both efforts. The union would gain a twelve issues - $1 is the sigh of the oppressed creature, great advantage in its fight if it raised the heart of a heartless world, just as .the demand for a labor party and im­ I six issues - 50¢ it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. plemented this, demand in the Valley It is the opium of the people. The by running its own independent candi­ Name ______abolition of religion as the illusory dates on a working-clas's program, happiness of the people is r,equired for 'against the . RepUblican!;! and' Demo­ their real happiness." The support crats; Mexican-American' bi' Anklo. Address ______which workers may receive" from' the The Co~mittee would gain' tremen­ churches should be used gingerly ',artd dously by having the' suppiJrt; of a un­ viewed with suspicion. As a union be­ fon behind it and would be able to comes more and more militant, and coordinate any otlier efforts toward a City comes into greater conflict with the ex­ labor party from within other un­ isting society. the-religious elements ions•• NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1966 -5

June 1966. Liu Shao-shi, Chu Teh, the purged Chou Yang, a "Ringleader • • . MAOISM' Chen Yun and 'Teng Hsiao-ping have of the Sinister Gang in, Literary and all been "demoted" in recent months, Art Circles"; Confucius, "an <;lx, a de­ (Continued from Page 1) contrary to party procedure for such mon, a snake and a devil"; and Greek own position in Russia, were embar­ changes. In addition three' others are sculptures" smash~d. rassed by the pointedly eorrect analy­ no longer listed and may also have (We can imagine the number of ses of the Left Opposition, did the been demoted. penitential swims in the Hudson River Comintern call for the Canton uprising. Between several hundred and several Progressive Labor Party leader Milt This adventure, dictated from the top, thousand other top cadre have been Rosen has taken since the last PL at a time when the workers movement purged, so far, the concentration fall­ magazine goofe'd. Not only did an ar­ had already' been bloodily defeated, ing on the military, high ranking party ticle on China credit Mao's v'ersion of ended in the still bloodier Canton com­ officials, including the whole Peking Marxist thought to his background' in mune. Municipal Committee, university pro­ Confucian studies: "this fourth current This is the heritage with which Mao fessors and administrators, and econo­ [Chinese classical philosophy] is the associates himself - the betrayal of mists. In addition the Young Commu­ source of some distinctive features of workers movements by Stalin's zig-zag nist League has been dissolved and all Marxist theory as developed by Mao policies of bureaucratic self-interest schools closed. Tse-tung . . ."; the article also de­ and the still-born bourgeois-democratic scribed a recent Chinese celebration as Political Purges revolution of Sun Yat-sen. the now "revisionist" music: "a mil­ During the 30s and 40s, Mao kept Those purged certainly do not form lion people, who danced all night long, .refurbishing, the alliance, with the a coherent political opposition to Mao hour after hour, rejoicing, a living KMT-a "patriotic" alliance designed -the sterility of the CCP's political embodiment of the last movement of to defeat the Japanese bourgeoisie by history itself would militate against Beethoven's Choral Symphony with its aiding the Chinese bourgeoisie-despite such a possibility. Apparently some prophetic hym,n to the brotherhood of continuous betrayals on the part of purged have wanted closer ties with man." It must be uncomfortable to be Chiang. After the Japanese were de­ Russia and even with the U.S.; but a Maoist today, not being able to guess feated, Mao and the People's Libera­ others have protested the lack of 'what will ,be "true" for tomorrow.) tion Army (PLA) , dampened peasant workers' control over the state appara­ Lenin, Trotsky, Marx and Engels reo efforts at land' reform, so' as .not to dis­ tus. What all do have in common peatedly attacked the idea that the turb Chiang and his landlord, backers. seems to be disagreement with the con­ mission of the proletariat was to de­ 'Only when Chiang rebuffed the last at­ trol.clamped on the party, and with stroy the old culture: "Marxism has tempt at a coalition government in' bureaucratic anti-intellectualism which won its world-historic significance as 1947 did the PLA issue its own call: substitutes Mao for technical knowl­ the ideology of the revolutionary pro­ 'for a "democratic coalition govern­ edge and scientific investigation. letariat because, far from rejecting the ment." , Most significantly, almo~t all the im­ most valuable . acqievements of the The nature of this "democratic coali­ portant officials purged, no matter bourgeois epoch, Marxism, on the con­ tion government" can be seen from the what their field, have at one time or trary, has assimilated and reshaped actions of the CCP as it was driving another criticized the last Great Leap the more valuable elements acctl111ulat­ 'out Chiang: in response to wo'rkers' Forward, in 1958-59. The removal of ed in the course of more than two thou­ uprisings in Shanghai and other cities this opposition would be a logical prep~ sand years of development of human the CCP put a ban on stl'ikes, institut- - aratory step for the attempted next thought and culture." (Lenin's Draft ed compulsory arbitration, slashed leap. Resolution on Proletarian Culture) wages and lengthened the working day Through these purges, the Central Now as for the proletarian aspect to appease the "nationalist" bour­ Committee has been turned into a rub­ -metal workers in K wei yang clashed geoisie. ber stamp, allowed only to approve with the' bearers of proletarian cul­ past actions,' never to discuss present tlire; textile workers in Shanghai op­ "Bloc of Four Classes" or future ones. (The communique from posed the seizure of party headquar. The CCP came to pow.er in this third the August Plenum is direct confirma­ tel'S by the' young students; factory Chinese revolution representing a co­ tion of this.) Similarly, the Great Pro­ workers in Canton fought the Red alition of classes. It introduced into the letariall- Cultural Revolution is designed Guards until troops were brought in t,o newly forming workers state many of to fix absolutely the hierarchical suc­ protect the young students; other such the old contradictions from the bour­ cession, of directives frpm top to bot­ clashes occurred in Harbin, Tsingtao, geois system. Having to rely on the tom. The juveniles currently passing Tientsin, Hangchow, Changsha, Sian workers and peasants to liever ,China's under the pseudonym of Red Guards and Wuhan. dependence on imperialism, tp.e bu­ can be whipped up into a demonstra­ Apparently in their efforts to teach reacracy also believed it had to rely on tion whenever Mao & Co. find the need the proletariat what proletarian cul­ the patriotic "nationalist" bourgeoisie to bring recalcitrant local party orgltn­ ture is, these young students have en­ to guarantee its own survival. Balanc­ izations to heel. But then, since fhe countered a true Maoist "contradic­ ing between all these classes, the bu­ schools have been' emptied, marriage tion." reaucracy has been forced ,more and and sexual relationships forbidden un­ more to elevate itself above the popula­ til age 26, and little work provided for Double-Talk=No Criticism tion, to assume the role of arbiter be­ the hordes strj!aming into Peking, Mao The double-talk aspect of the Great tween classes, eventually to take on the & Co. have found little difficulty in sug­ Proletarian Cultural Revolution is of cover of infallibility. gesting a whole host of spontaneous course much less significant than the By 1966, the infallibility had slipped "proletarian" actions to their "mon­ use Mao & Co. make of it. The various ~Mao. Lin Piao & Co. must nQw resort ster"-chasers. versions of Mao-culture, purges and ,to', wide-scale purges to silerce the juvenile shock troops all make the ,9oubts. In defiance of' party niles, thel'e "Cultural'1 Revolution point very cleady: "There is to be no has, been. 110 party conference i:\i!1~e .1 kut let us overlook its juvenile shock criticism of the bureaucracy or of its 1955',and the previous CC plenJ¥ll; was ,troops and instead examine the "cul­ program." The bureaucracy must now in ,1962. Of the 12 men listed as Politi­ tural" and the "proletarian" aspects totally mobilize and absolutely control cal Bureau members in 1955, only four, of this revolution. all China's resources if it is to impose Mao, Lin, C}Jou, En-lai and Kang To the Red Guards, Beethoven and its own program on the workers and -Sheng, are still on the ·PB. Peng Teh­ Bach are "bourgeois revisionists"; peasants. The Proletarian Cultural huai was purged in 1960, Peng Chen in Shakespeare and Goethe, "royalists"; (Continued Next Page) 6- . SPAITACIST '

the industrial working class is so em­ alkalinization of great sections of for­ ... MAOISM ployed.' Moreover, to have developed an merely arable land in· North China. intermediate range missile with nu­ Moreover, by building the revolution' Revolution means nothing ,more than clear warhead in so few years is not on a nationalist sentiment (now devel­ the destruction of all political-social proof of the "miracles" attained by so­ oped to the pofnt of xenophobia), and culture in order' to destroy the ideo­ cialist construction; 'rather it indicates by asserting that China would build logical basis for opposition to the bu­ that jlll research has been vertically socialism in its own country in its own reaucracy. directed to the narrow empirical result way, the bureaucracy cut itself off desired, a nuclear weapon, and not 'from outside help. The bureaucracy has The need of the Chinese bureaucracy horizontally developed so that all in­ already beg1,ln to sacrifice workers and for absolute control and the need to dustrial fields ,could share in the results peasants movements in other countries infuse that control with the sense of of scientific investigation. (see SPARTACIST No.5 on the 'Indone­ "revolutionary" orthodoxy could al­ sian slaughters) to the exigencies of ready be seen ten years ago. The purge Misstructured Economy internal economic development, just as of Kao Kang and J ao Shu-shih in 1955 This misstructure is directly related Stalin sacrificed China in 1927-29, and allparently resulted from a dispute to China's agricultural situation. Esti­ just as the Russian bureaucracy is do~ over production sector allotments. The mates of this year's grain harvest put ing again today with China. bureaucracy, in an attempt to prevent it at about 5 million metric tons lower China under the CCP began its plan­ future such "evil-doers," set up a con­ than last year's; this decrease will ned development starting from a much trol commission, justifying it with a "nearly double the amount of grain lower stage than did Soviet Russia, quote from Lenin's Left-Wing Commu­ China has been forced to import an­ with a per capita income approximate­ nism, an Infantile Disorder. Predict­ nually since 1961. The decrease is su­ ly one-fourth that of Soviet Russia in ably, ,the quote was taken out of con­ perficially the result of drought or flood 1920. In 1952, just before the begin­ text-so out of context that the mean­ in some sections of China. But more ning of the first five-year plan, it was ing was nearly reversed. The Chinese basically, it results because there is probably less than $80 a year. During version of Lenin indicated that no one no reserve in the ag:r;icultural sector the years of the first plan, China de­ sllould be allowed to weaken "the iron able to absorb a calamity hitting any veloped at an average rate of 120/0 an­ discipline" of the party. I.enin's ver­ section of the country. Agriculture .is nual growth in ·gross national product, sion of Lenin, however, indicated that strained, to its limit under the present partially achieved by taking up the such control is possible only when the methods of production: intensively slack in the economy left over from party is reinforced by the participa- farmed, the Chinese land already pro­ Chiang Kai-shek's corruption, internal ~ ,tion of the toiling masses. duces one of the highest per acreage warfare and capitalist plunder. By yields in the world, achieved almost 1959 the income had been raised to Imperialist Pressures wholly through 'un mechanized labor about $100 per capit~. , Wltat in the current Chinese situa­ power,; but there is little even potenti­ tion necessitates all this fake Marxism­ ally arable land left. Great Leap Forward Leninism? First, China now feels. very As long as agriculture remains non­ Then, in the middle of the second acutely the pressures, of imperialism mechanized and as long as the economy five-year plan came the Great Leap refracted through and mediated by the is so disbalanced by armament produc­ Forward. To label this, adventurism is bureaucracy. The U.S. has continually tion, the rest of the economy must surely to miss the main point. By 1958, menaced China-through the Korean nearly stagnate. Two pairs of figures China was able to ascertain its posi­ War, through its refusal in the early indicate the acuteness of this danger: tion. The rate of economic growth had '50s to make China a nuclear-free zone, in 1954, over 85% of the population dropped back nearly to its present 5 to thro.ugh its support of India's attacks was rural, only 2.4% of the popula­ 7% 0/0; the population continued to In­ on China's border, through the overall tion belonged to the industrial working crease at a rate between 2 and 2% 0/0 thrust of the . The bu­ force; today, over 850/0 is still rural, annually. Given these ,rates of growth, reaucracy has reacted to these pres­ and the industrial work force has not China could not have been expected ,to sures by trying to match U.S. military yet risen to 30/0. China has come near­ reach the 1930 level of Soviet Russia, technology and by linking itself to ly to the end of its present course of that is the level before Stalin's forced "friendly" bourgeois governments, such economic development. , industrialization, until 1980, much less as Ghana, Pakistan, and Indonesia, In analyzing the direction of the So­ to approach the leVel of technology in rather than by linking itself to ~prole­ viet Union under Stalin, Trotsky noted, present day Russia or the advanced tarian revolutionary struggles. As the "The instability of the Soviet regime, capitalist nations. China had to find a bourgeois governments one by one re- ' on the contrary, is due to the fact that short cut for converting its' peasant treat from China, and the links with its productive forces have far from population into the capital goods n~ed­ Russia . and other workers states are grown up to the forms of socia,list ed for industrialization. This was to broken, the bureaucraey retreats more property." (The Revolution Betrayed) be accomplished through the Great and more into the isolated circle that The same analysis is even more ap­ Leap Forward. The Great Leap in­ U.S. imperialism has plotted for it. propriate for China today. Obviously volved sufficient risks so that when Accordingly the success of the latest this contradiction between property these were compounded by three years nuclear test cannot be viewed as an form and technology will exist in any of drought, a retreat was necessary. uncomplicated triumph once the eco­ underdeveloped workers state. What is The bureaucracy in an attempt to short nomic' meaning of that test is clear. particularly crucial about China and cut urban industrialization had to de­ To have developed nuclear capacity to other deformed workers states is that pend heavily on the peasantry, a petty­ the present Chinese level, the bureaue'­ the bureaucracy by its very existence bourgeois class, to achieve many of the racy lias been forced to un structure neutralizes the workers and creates tasks of socialism. When the pressures the economy in a number of dangerous waste. The myth of Mao's infallibil­ accumulated, tile peas~nts could not ways. The amount of money funneled ity, protected by the elimin'ation of maintain their "collective spirit" and 'into' defense work has been estimated contradicting technical studies, will the bureaucracy retreated. 'as high as. 50% of govp.rnment expen­ hinder rational planning; erroneous in­ Thus, the Great Leap Forward was ditures. More than half of the physi­ structions, never questioned because defeated and with that defeat the econ­ cists, chemists and engineers working they- come from the top, will continue omy was set back approximately five in China work on armament projects; to add to the waste-just as erroneous years. Productio. of grain did not re­ undoubtedly a comparable section of irrigation instructions resulted in the *urn to the 1968 level until 1963; since NOVEMBER·DECEMBER 1966 -7

then it has remained constant at about now with economic conditions less fa­ mense amounts of its available re­ 180 million metric tons. T.he same pat­ vorable than those of 1958, has been sources into military power. And yet tern of fluctuations is true of the total forced into· this measure by the inter­ such a serious disbalancing of the national income. But since 1958, the national policies and internal waste of economy cannot create a military pow­ population has increased by between its bureaucracy. er capable of defending the socialist 75 to 100 million more people; there­ At this point the bureaucracy has gains of the third revolution. Moreover, fore per capita production of grain and chosen to .make a new forced march to if an economic crisis leaves Mao with­ per capita share of national income has industrialization-this will mean that out the support of the population there dropped from its high point in 1958. little more than bare means of subsist­ will be no guerrilla defense of China­ One result of that defeat serves as ence can be allowed the population. But no matter how much thought of Mao illustration of the vicious circle con­ we can see where this will lead. Trot­ has been forced onto the population. fronting a workers state bureaucracy sky (again in The Revolution Be­ If imperialism didn't also have its attempting to industrialize an underde­ trayed) described a similar situation own problems, all it would need do is veloped country. Because the Great in Russia: ".On a basis of 'generalized maintain the pressure and wait-for a' Leap had been instituted from the top, want,' the struggle for the means of capitalist mode of production in Rus­ to have IMmitted the magnitude of the subsistence threatens to resurrect 'all sia and economic collapse in China. But defeat would have called into question the old crap,' and is partially resur­ imperialism is also faced with all the the infallibility of the bureaucracy. recting it at every step." ·sharp contradictions of its own decay­ Even to have allowed release of st~tis­ The Chinese bureaucracy now speaks ing system. Because the Russian and tical analyses to the top party cadre of Russian revisionism, particularly in Chinese bureaucracies find their own position in contradiction with the need would have 0 given ammunition to op­ re,lation to Libermanism; what they ponents of Mao & Co. Starting early don't recognize about their' own coun­ to exert pressure on imperialism, they each allow Viet Nam to face imperialist in 1958, statisticians were warned 0 try is what Trotsky recognized very through official publications that they early about Russia-that the seeds of aggression alone, and each blame, the lacked "political consciousness." Even­ Libermanism are sown at an early other. The final proof of the need to tually the State Statistical Bureau not stage in the revolution. Just last year, remove them lies in their' inability to only quit publishing the immensely de- the bureaucracy was forced to give provide joint international revolution­ , tailed studies of China's economic sit­ back small individual holdings on the lll'y leadership (a task not p'Ossible' be­ uation, but also stopped most of its land to the Chinese peasants-the bu­ tween two Stalinist bureaucracies, research. reaucracy, no matter how much it in­ each determined to institute "socialism" veighs against the "four oIds," is re­ in only one country and each coun~ry Planned Economy 7 surrecting "all the old crap." This at a different stage in its 'development, therefore with different self-interests). But this "little" matter is immensely didn't just h&ppen, ·of course; it result­ ed from the bureaucracy's need to important for a planned economy. Is Workers Revolution the population 760,300,000 or 800,292,- maintain its own position. This step, 000 or 894,493,000? A plan based on feeding petty-bourgeois ideology, must -Only the revolutionary Chinese pro­ letariat can lead the Chinese workers 760 ~illion could turn out d1sastrously lead to the next step back--or to a if it gradually became evident that Stalinoid attempt to crush the peasant state out of its present deformity. The there were 894 million people to feed. "obtusiveness" through slaughter. Nei­ task of building a Leninist party in­ side China, able to lead the proletarian Thus the pressures of problems in ther is the means for building social­ ism. vanguard and the peasantry to a defi­ the economic base forces the bureauc­ nitive clash with Mao's. bureaucracy, is racy to negate the political gains of The particularly crucial problems facing China today result from the in-' of utmost importance. Without leader­ the third revolution. As these are ne­ ship, the Chinese proletariat will not be gated and the bureaucracy is revealed tersection, within the boundaries of an underdeveloped, massively-populat­ able to establish itself as ruler of its more and more as a Bonapartist dic­ own state. tatorship, the political decay serves to ed country, of various lines of self­ destroy the economic gains made in the interest: U.S. imperialism with its Pax The destruction of Maoism in China~ early years of the revolution. Americana; the Russian bureaucracy at the ham.!! of the proletariat, will Faced with the bristling threat of which, although casting off Stalin, has open the door to the victory of the ex­ American imperialism and weakened not cast off Stalinism; and the neo­ ploited masses of Asia and it will ac- , by Russian opportunism, China must Stalinist Chinese bureaucracy. celerate the revolutionary struggle in break out of the circular nature of de­ Viet Nam, ~ndia and Japan. In turn, velopment in an underdeveloped coun­ Imperialism Served workers' .governments in these coun­ try. But because' its own interests don't Imperialism could not have found a tries, particularly in. industrially ad­ allow the bureaucracy to choose ulti­ better way to serve its own interests vanced Japan, can help China to break mate self-removal, it must force China than if it had itself severed the ties out of, its present viciously limitwg into the mold of its own solutions. The between Russia and China. So long as circle of economic development. only solution the bureaucracy has left the two are at odds. imperiltlism is Similarly, in order for the Russian itself is another attempt at forced in­ free to gradually annihilate Viet Nam bureaucracy to be defeated, opening dustrialization, i.e., another Great Leap and other countries like it, with China the way to European and Latin Ameri­ Forward. Apparently this is the choice itself the prime target. can workers struggles, demands the the bureaucracy has made, for a hard­ So long as the Russian bureaucracy building of a new Leninist party inside sell campaign to institute "a new big avoids its responsibility of giving aid Russia. leap forward in China's socialist con- to the world revolutionary movement, Finally, a workers revolution in any of the technologically advanced coun- o struction" has been dominating Peking it will find it easy to concentrate on Review in recent months. Once again means of making its own position se­ o tries would speed immensely the over­ the bureaucracy will attempt to prole­ cure. In Russia that means passing off turns of the Russian and Chinese Stal­ tarianize the peasant and decentralize ·as "socialism" all the economic "re­ inists. industry. forms" taking place in the Soviet bloc Stalinism must be defeated in order today. that the imperialist exploitation ·of Af­ New Leap So long as the Maoist bureaucracy rica, Asia and Latin America and the What is most significant is not isolates China from the aid and the capitalist exploitation of workers can whether this particular leap will suc­ responsibilities of the ­ be erased forever from the face of the ceed or fail; rather, China, starting ary movement, China will pour im- earth•• ' ' 8-- . SPARTACIST ,in I

Beg,inning on 23 October a decade ago, Hungary's the soviets and called for a government of "Commu­ wqrking people rose in an historic attempt to overthrow nists devoted to the principles of proletarian interna­ Stalinist political rule and move forward to a socialist tionalism." ","orkers republic in their country. The Hungarian . Vigilantly hostile to capitalism, as to bureaucratic working class fought valiantly for several weeks before oppression, the masses were forced to defend their rev­ their revolution was crushed-but not before it created olution not only against .the Khrushchev bureaucracy an example of heroic. struggle capable of inspiring and but against small but potentially dangerous right-wing guiding the international proletariat in its warfare elements who endeavored to utilize'the revolutionary against imperialist and Stalinist oppressors alike. crisis (a relatively puny threat which the Stalinists The 1956 revolution not only devastated all mysti'ques have grotesquely exaggerated in order to slander the regarding the deformed workers states but provided a revolution and anoint their own treachery). Fascist powerful vindication of the Trotskyist position. Thus activities were suppressed. The Hungarian Army news­ the counterrevolutionary policies of the Stalinist bu­ paper Magyar Honved of 1 November reported: "At reaucracy decisively exposed it as an ally, when neces­ Gyor, certain extreme right-wing elements wanted to sary, of imperialism against the working c.lass-a rev­ hold a big meeting.... But the workers of Gyor pre­ elation leading to defections of cadres from Stalinist vented them from doing it. We want no fascism, we parties over the globe. The familiar image, projected by havE\ had enough of. tyranny, whether it be the tyranny middle-class cynics, of an emasculated 'working class of Rakosi or Szalasi." Similarly, the 2 November Igaz­ forever reduced to mindl~ss passivity and impotence sag (Truth), paper of the Revolutionary Youth, gave under totalitarianism, also crumbled as hundreds of an abrupt but poignant expression of popular, feelings: thousands of Hungary's industrial workers appropri­ "We hate the fasCists who are lurking in the shadows ated direct control of their factories and mines and took and who want to exploit the revolution." Not fascism, to the streets to defend their newly-acquired power. but Stalinist terror was the dominant force of counter­ And the imperialists' contention that the Hungarian revolution In Hungary. masses would embrace fascists and monarchist reac­ Clearly, the Hungarian proletariat, overwhelmingly tionaries of the Horthyite-Catbolic variety in a head­ supported by the peasantry, stood at the threshold of long rush to return to capitalist exploitation (a slander state power in 1956. Eighty per cent of the Hungarian which especially the Stalinists have assisted them in Workl'!rs Party (Communist) supported the revolution­ promoting) was demolished not only by the actions of ary masses. Many students and intellectuals, courageous the revolutionaries-including the violent suppression partisans, of the working class, fought and died val­ of what anti-Semitic and White Guard threats actually iantly alongside their comrades from the industrial en­ existed-;-but by the workers' militantly communist terprises. Workers and students marched through the aspirations and their unambiguous hatred for capital­ streets of Budapest bearing portraits of Lenin. As in ism. any truly popular revolution, the armed forces were The spontaneous creation of industrial workers coun­ profoundly shaken, with large sections of the Hungar­ cils throughout the country as the elementary machin­ ian Army joining the insurrection. (Even among the ery of proletarian rule carried forward the example set Russian troops, many of whom were duped to believe by the Paris Commune of 1870-71 (the inspiration for they were fighting Anglo-French imperialists in Egypt Lenin's State and Revolution) which was bro'ught to or fascists in Berlin, there were defections to the revo­ fruition in the establishment of the Russian Soviet lution.) Republic in November 1917. The Hungarian soviets, Dual Power ass~sted with food supplied by the peasantry, effectively Thus, a, condition of civil war existed between the democratized political and economic life for most of ,the power represented by the workers councils and de­ . pt!ti~d of their existence. ' fended by the armed masses ... and that of the Stalin­ ist apparatus, backed up only by the secret police and Communist Principles Russian troops. Why, in this most favorable of revolu­ The revolutionaries, while denouncing the Stalinist tionary situations, did the workers lose? It is not suf­ "prostitution" of , were unequivocal in ex­ ficient simply to enthuse about the revolutionary suc­ pressing their determination to build upon the existing cesses and vituperate the triumphant enemy. Solidarity achievements of nationalized property, agrarian re­ with our fallen comrades compels us to examine and form, and planned economy. The National Writers seek to understand the weakness of the 1956 revolution. Union, at the.start of the uprising, voiced many of the As with all previous confrontations of dual power in revol.ytion's ambitions, which included "an independent labor history, t~e outcome of the revolutionary strug­ national policy based on the principle of socialism" and gle in Hun~ary balanced on the problem of its leadership, "troe', ,and sincere friendship with our allies-the To whom, and to what program, did the masses look to U$.S.R. and the Peoples Democracies. This can be guide them? This question, flows ineluctably from the realized "Only on the basis of Leninist principles." fact that Marxism is founded upon the capacity of the (P"oclamation, 23 October 1956.) In a similar declara­ working class to consciously assume direction of society. tion issued 26 October,. the Miskolc Workers Council The self-emanc~pation of the proletariat depends upon echoed the resounding demands for political power for the proletarians' conscious recognition of their tasks. NOYEMBEI~DECEMBER1966 -. tgary -Ten Years After

\ \ ~ ) Much of Lenin's contribution to Marxist theory is sum- accepted power reluctantly and all but handed it back marized in his observation that "in its struggle for to Khrushchev. Far from fighting for the supremacy of power the proletariat has no other weapon but organ- the soviets as organs of proletarian class dictatorship, ization." This voices concretely what the world prole- the revolutionaries called rather for universal elections tariat has to a great extent learned intuitively; and it from all classes to a democratic parliament-a process is obvious to every worker that organization posits which would have transferred power to the Catholic.. leadership. Indeed, program and leadership are, for the peasant majority of the population, thus potentially working class, the most crucial expression of organiza- menacing the workers' truly socialist demands and giv- tion, to the extent that organization is a manifestation ing a foothold to the. imperialists-restorationists. Per- of the "class-for-itself." haps as equally a product of confusion, some revolu­ tionaries looked for help to Stalinist bureaucracies Leadership' Lacking abroad, such as China's, which meantime was support­ It was on this critical level that the Hungarian in­ ing Khrushchev to tM hilt and preparing to·send "anti­ surrection foundered. The working masses, crying out revisionist". Chou En-Iai on a tour of Europe to lend for drastic changes, for socialism, groped for. a leader­ Peking's prestige and blessing to the butchery. ship which would clarify, focus, and consolidate their aspirations-a revolutionary leadership, consisting of Defeat in Isolation the most milit~mt and class-conscious workers, and con­ .Perhaps the ~ost serious weakness of the 1956 up­ stituting the class vanguard. Writing in 1924, Trotsky rising, however, was its predominantly isolated, nation­ put forth in Lessons of October certain revolutionary alist character. The revolt against Stalinist suppression maxims whose burning validity is underscored by the of national identity assumed at times almost bourgeois­ Hungarian events: " ..• without a party capable of nationalist forms. The revolution was sparked by, and directing the proletarian revolution, the revolution it­ prepared during the insurgent wave which traversed self is rendered impossible. The proletariat cannot seize the deformed workers states at this time; yet the mili­ power by a spontaneous uprising." And further: " ..• tant workers and radical intellectuals, whose demands circumstances may arise where all the prerequisites f(>r for political and economic reforms led to the outbreak socialism exist, with the exception of a far-seeing and on 23 October, made virtually no effort to extend their resolute party leadership grounded in the understand­ activities beyond Hungary's boundaries. Hence the rev­ ing of the laws and methods of the revolution." olution neither received succor from nor expanded its thrust into the other "tates of Europe-ultimately the Such a party in Hungary would have had the task ~ine qua non of victory. Even with the existing flaws, of winning the workers to a program transforming the soviets from organs of insurrection to the organs of / the chances df revolutionary survival wO,uld have been dominant state power in the country. While endeavor­ enormously enhanced had the Hungarian workers been emulated by their brothers in adjoining lands; isola.i 'ing to win over the Communist Party insurgents, a revolutionary party should have posed the necessity of tion, on the other hand, promised certain defeat. completely smashing the Stalinist state apparatus in Thus a revolutionary party in Hungary would not only have assumed the task of. leading the Hungarian' Hungary, and urgently sou~ht to establish, for example, workers to state power, but, as a section of a disci­ a national congress of representatives from the revolu­ tionary and workers councils in its place. Its members plined international party, would have as~isted in the· vital work of preparing and leading insurrections in rooted in the ~orking class across the land, and thus other European countries. Such an international revo­ instantly cognizant of and responsive to the needs of the masses and to developments in eyery area, such a lutionary center, representing the continuity and inter­ party would have made possible the centralized co­ national linkages which the ij:ungarian insurgents so ordination of economic life and Jhe military struggle desperately lacked, could have prepared the workers of which was so fatally absent. And, while advancing the these areas for action in solidarity with the Hungar­ necessity of blocking with the deformed workers states ians. Such a center, by transmitting the revolutionary against world imperifllism, the party should have sought example of Hungary to the proletariat of all Europe and to dispel all illusions of the "friendliness" of the bu­ co-ordinating it with the upsurges in "'other workers reaucracies, of these states towards a popular socialist states, might well have triggered a final historic con­ reyolution, and urged the workers to depend upon their frontation with imperialism during which the Stalin­ own strength and determination to' win. ist bureaucracies would simply have been swept away~ But no revolutionary leadership materialized to ad­ For the Fourth International vance such a program and give culmination to the rev­ The -tragedy of the Hungarian commune must' not olut.on. The workers, headless, called merely for re­ blind us to the. power of its- example. As the Paris forms in the regime and saw their councils, not as a Commune of 1870-71, even in defeat, inspired the Rus-. counter-apparatus of state power, but merely as machin­ sian Bolsheviks to eventual victory, so the energy of ery to give them a "share" in management arid defend the Hungarian workers' struggle must flow into the . their interests. Searching for leaderShip, they fixed veins of a world revolutionary party-the Fourth Inter­ upon certain vacillating, conciliatory liberal-reform ele­ national-which alone can enable the international pro­ ments of the Communist Party, led by Imre Nagy, who letariat to seize victory fEom such defeats•• 10- SPARTACJST WEARE HERE! Founding Conference

The Spartacist League held its Found­ class will emerge." This orientation re': Trotskyist movement was the fraternal ing Conference in Chicago over Labor mains central to the goals of the Spar­ presence at the Conference of two vet­ Day weekend. This Conference, attend­ tacist Lea-gue today.' ~ran Trotskyist leaders, Richard Fra­ ed by some 50 delegates and observers ser; an able theoretician on the Negro from all parts of the country, laid a Cadre Origins Question and co-leader of .the Freedom firm political basis for the new organ­ The beginnings of the realization of Socialist Party of Washington State, i7Ation by adopting a declaration of its this perspective can be seen in the and A. Philips, spokesman for his ten­ revolutionary aims and principles. Also present composition of the League. dency and a very experienced trade adopted, with 'large decisive margins, Present at the Conference and driving unionist. The tendencies represented by were resolutions to guide Spartacist the organization forward was a living these two comrades had both' been League work in the Negro struggle, communist cadre that has evolv'ed as a forced' out of the SWP at the height of u,p.ion movElment, anti-war movement, deep fusion in struggle of several ten­ its gross class-collaborationist betrayal and other major arenas. In addition, the dencies and elements. In addition to of the anti-war movement. Comrades Conference elected an authoritative and those .from the SWP, a number had Fraser and Philips presented greetings representative national leadership to previously formed the Revolutionary to the Conference on behalf of their unite and lead forward the new.organ­ Tendency of the Young Peoples' Social­ groups, and Comrade Fraser, a co­ ization over the coming period. ist League (Socialist Party youth reporter on the Negro Question, traced The Spartacist League, with local group). These latter left the YPSL to the evolution' of the SWP's theoretical committees and supporters in more unite with the Spartacist tendency late bankruptcy and unprincipled practice ,than 15 areas, has indeed come a long in 1964 after a long development to­ and our present Marxist position on way since the expulsion of its initial wards revolutionary internationalism this question. cadres from the Socialist Workers Party and "Lenin's and Trotsky's conception Despite some differences, the Con­ (SWP) in December 1963. Expelled for of the nature and role 'of the revolu­ ference decisions on the wide range of their ideas alone, these cadres had tionary party.... " Several of the older subjects brought before it were char­ been struggling inside that party as its' . Spartacist comrades had formerly been acterized by large decisive votes and Revolutionary Tendency ,for three members'of the Communist Party. Ally­ broad agreement. Unlike the SWP, the years for a revolutionary international ing themselves with these more expe­ work of the Conference was conducted perspective, for the Trotskyist position rienced comrades have been the sfzeable in the spirit of free discussion and in number of students and young people on Cuba, and against the SWP's un­ accordance with the principles of dem­ critical adaptation to Black National­ and a small but significant number of ocratic centralism, with minority ten­ ism. Following their expulsion, the ex­ militants won from the Negro strug­ dencies exercizing full factional rights. members began the publication of gle in such diverse areas as Harlem The Declaration of Principles adopt- '(' SPARTACIST, the first issue of which ~nd the deep South. ed by the. Conference is reprinted in stated their determination "to further this issue. It places the new organiza­ a revolutionary regroupment of forces Fraterp.aI Guests Giving testimony to the continuity ,of tion firmly within the revolutionary, within this country such that a Lenin­ international working-class struggle the Spartacist League with the earlier ist vanguard party of the working for the final destruction of the bar­ barism ot capital and the establish­ ment in its place ofa new, socialist order. Comrade Rader was reporter on GREETINGS TO THE this declaration. For Black Trotskyism Comrade Stoute. co-reporter with SPARTACIST CONFERENCE, , Comrade Fraser on the Negro Question, analyzed the mood of "pse~do-national­ By Dirk Frllser ism" now prevalent in the ghettoes, and pointed out that the struggle for ,On behalf of. the Freed~tp- Soc,alist Socialist Workers Party. Others come black liberation "is actually the van­ Party of Washmgton, I, WIsh to greet from the Communist Party and the guard struggle of the working class," this national gathering of the Sparta- ranks of the independent socialists and black and white. The Conference then cist League. , previously unaffiliated "" youth. adopted the mainline of the draft res­ It is an admirable achievement for a We anticipate a close cQllaboration olution which demonstrated that so~ small organization to be able to ex­ with you in the future. We feel a mu­ cialism will only be achieved by the pand into so many cities across the tual political attraction, I believe, he­ common struggle of black and' white country and then to organize such a cause of a common belief, in persistent workers for common goals under the representative conference: adherence to the ideas of , leadership of a unified vanguard party. Let me tell you about ourselves. We and the close proximity of our ap­ The document found that Negro na­ are an independent local organization proach to the Negro question, a deci­ tionalism has no social basis in terms with ,some national supporters, brought , sive key to the American Revolution. of American clas~ reality and has together in the spirit of revolutionary We wish you well. We hope your c0I\r therefore been unable to generate a regroupment. Ours is, however, a much ference will be successful and we ex­ program of struggle. 01). the other narrower regroupment than we believe pect it will mark an important episode hand, because of the present hostility to be possible on a national scale in in the process of rebuilding the revo­ of large sections of white workers to the not-too-distant future; lutionary socialist movement in the the special' needs of black workers The main body of our party ~omes United States. stemming from centuries of exceptional from the former Seattle Branch of the Thank you. (Continued Bottom Page 14) Photos by Ron Burkholder "FOUNDING THE SPARTACIST LEAGUE," subject of the public meeting at the Conference. Speakers from left to. right were national chairman James Robertson, West Coast editor Geoffrey White, and Central Committee member Paul Gaillard. A comrade from the deep South also spoke. New york organizer Albert Nelson chaired. Declaration of Principles of the Spartacist League 1. The Socialist Revolution for war inherent in the world economic 3. The Theoretical and Historical Roots and the Spartacist League system of capitalism. For the first time of the Spartacist League The· Spa!'tacist League of the U.S. is mankind wiII grasp the reins of his­ The Spattacist League continues the a revolutionary organization which, as tory and control its own creation, so­ revolutionary traditions of the inter~. part of the international revolutionary ciety, resulting in an undreamed-of national working-class movement ex­ movement, is committed to the task of emancipation of human potential, the emplified in the work of revolutionistS building the party which will lead the limitless expansion of freedom in every such as Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, , working class to the victory of the so­ area, and a monumental forward surge Luxemburg, and Liebknecht. Above aU cialist revolution in the United States. of civilization. Only then will it be pos­ we look to the experience of the Bol­ Only the proletariat, through the sible to realize the free development of shevik Party which culminated in the seizure of political power and the de­ each individual as the condition for the Russian Revolution of 1917, the only struction -of capitalism in all countries, free development of all. revolution as yet made by the working can lay the basis for the eliminatiOfl of class. exploitation and the resolution of the 2. The Crisis of contradiction between the growth of Proletarian Leadership We seek in particular to carry for­ the productive forces of, the world econ­ History has shbwn that the self­ ward the international working-c1~ss perspectives of Marxism as developed omy and national-state barriers. Capi­ emancipation of the working class, and in theory and practice by V. I. Lenin talism has long since outlived its pro­ therewith the oppressed of all the gressive historical role of creating a and L: ;I). Trotsky,' as embodied in the earth, balances on the question of lead­ decision's ;;f the first four Congresses modern industrial economy. Now in or­ ership. The economic preconditions for der to maintain their rule, the national of the Communist International and by socialism have long since been reached. the Transitional Program and other­ capitalist classes must intensify na­ But the contradictions of capitalism in tional and' racial divisions, through im­ documents adopted by the 1938 Found­ its epoch of imperialist decay produce ing. Conference of the Fourth Inter­ perialism oppress the colonial peoples not only wars, but also revolutionary and impoverish the masses of the en­ national. These materials are the in­ opportunities. The success or failure of dispensible documentary codification of tire world, engage in continual wars the working class to achieve victory in for the maintenance and redivision of the communist movement internation­ these historic opportunities depends ally, and are fundamental to the revo­ the world markets in order to prop up upon the organization and scientific the falling rate of profit, anq attempt consciousness of the struggling masses, lution~ry ·tasksof oUI: organization. to smash the revolutionary struggle of i.e., on revolutionary leadership. Only We also look for inspiration to the the workers wherever it breaks out. In a revolutionary leadership-the indis­ example of such revolutionists in the its final frenzied effort to maintain its pen sible weapon of the working people United States as F. A. Sorge, Vincent close rule, the bourgeoisie wiII not hes­ -has proved to have the strategy and St. John, , Louis Fraina, itate to plunge humanity into a nuclear determination to lead the working and James P. Cannon. The Spartacist holocaust or totalitarian oppression of masses to victory. The responsibility League is the continuator of the revo­ unprecedented ferocity. The . United for the defeats suffered by the working lutionary heritage of the early Com­ Stl\te!j of America is. today the, key­ class and the abortion' of previous revo­ muniste.Party and the ,Socialist WOl'k~·. !jtOp~:of. the entire lntez;riationalc~pi­ lutionary opportunities lies at the door ers Party. The immediate ,origins. of; t,a.1\!'I~ order. . . , " . . of treacherous Social-Democratic and the Spartacist League are in the ,Re'!o-; . ,qri theoth¢r halld, the victo~y o~ ,the Stalinist misJ.eaders. But the revolu­ lutiolilary Tendency of the SWP wh~hf ~roletariat on a world scale" would tionary wiII of the proletariat will tri­ basM't 'itself primarily upon the ,state-. place un imagined material abundance umph! The crisis of ~eadership will be ment In :Defense of a Revolutionary at the service of human needs, lay the solved! It is to the solution of the .crisis Perspective and the document World basis for the elimination of social of proletarian leadership that the Spar­ Prospe~· for Socialism. clas(5es, and eliminate forever the drive tacist League directs its work. (Continued Next Page) 12- I SPARTACIST

I class across the national and sectional the dominance of its ideas among the • • • PRINCIPLES boundaries which divide, it and t.o c.o­ oppressed, fostering' illusions and con­ ordinate the interdependent struggles cealing its bloody essence. The ideas 4. The Vanguard Role of the Working of the workers of every country. While of the bourgeoisie penetrate into the very movements and organizations of Class and the Road to Socialism the revolution may begin in a single country, any partial victory will be the workers through the agency of the Central to the Marxist perspective of only finally secured with the spread of petty-bourgeois labor lieutenants-par­ world socialism is the vanguard role of revolution to other countries and the ticularly the parasitic trade union, So­ the working class, and particulart~ the eventual :world dominance of socialist cial-Democratic, and Stalinist bureauc­ decisive weight of the proletariat' of economic organization. The Fourth In­ racies which are based on the "aristo­ the industrialized countries. Only the ternational is the world party of the cratic" upper strata of the working working class has the social power and socialist revolution, whose' program class. Enjoying privileges not accorded compulsion of clear objective interest and purposes ~ema:in as valid today as to the vast majority of workers, these to liberate mankind from oppression. at its founding in 1938, despite its misleaders betray the masses of work­ Having no stake in maintaining the present organizational disarray. We ing people through class collaboration, bourgeois order, its enormous power stand with all those groups seeking the social-patriotism, and chauvinist-racist rests in its productive role, its numbers rebirth of t.he Fourth International and, policies which sabotage proletarian un­ and organization. as a first step, the creation of a bona­ derstanding and solidarity. If not re­ , The continued rule of a small hand­ fide International Committee of revolu­ placed by revolutionary leaders hips, ful of capitalists is maintained, only tionary Trots,kyists based upon a real they will allow the organizations of the through keeping the working class di­ and living democratic centralism. workers to become impotent in the vided and confused as to its true situ­ fight for the economic needs of the ation: In the United States, the ruling 6. The Necessity workers under conditions of bourgeois class has succeeded in creating deep for Rev.olutionary Consciousness democracy or will allow these organi­ divisions along racial lines. The Black zations to be destroyed by victorious workers as a doubly-oppressed race­ The ruling class has at its command fascism. color caste require special, mo~es of a monopoly of the means of violence, The degeneration and ,capitulation of ,struggle as long as racist attitudes, its dominant p.olitical and bureaucratic tendencij!s within the Marxist move­ c6ntinu€ to permeate the outlook of the apparatus, its enormous wealth and ment ,has been' of especially critical working class as a whole. Socialism in Cl)nnections, and its control of, educa­ value to the preservation Of imperial­ tHis country will be achieved .only by tion, the mass media and all other in­ ist rule. Submission to the pressure of the c.ommon struggle of, Black and stitutions of capitalist society. Against bourgeois society has repeatedly tHrust white workers under the leadership of such a force a workers state can be nominally Marxist currents towards a' unified revolutionary vanguard. brought into existence only by a pro­ revisionism, the process of ruling out , : Historic experience has shown that letariat fully conscious of its tasks, or­ Manc:ism's essential conclu'sions. Bern ganized to carry them out, and deter­ steinian revisionism, Menshevism, Stal­ the 'r6ad to socialism can be opened only mined to defend its conquests against by the intervention of the masses in inism, and its Maoist variant, are all the couhterrevolutionary violence of illustrations of this process which con­ ihecourse of history and the cr{'ation the ruling class. The decisive struggle pf'dual power culminating in the de­ stitutes a bridge to .overtly' reformist -the conquest of state power"'::"re~ ;i;tttlction of the capitalist state and the practices; , quires political consdousness. Through Withih the Trotskyist movement the ivtctory of the workers state and devel­ its. acquisition of political conscious­ opment of a new social order. The po- problems posed by the post-1943 Stal­ nEss the working class ceases to be infst expansions have given rise to the 'lice, military, bureaucratic, juridical, merely a class in itself and becomes a and political apparatus of the old rder ,revisio~ist current of Pabloism. Pablo­ class fDr itself. Such consdousness is ism is characterized chiefly by a re­ :will be replaced by the dictatorship of not spontaneously generated in ,the ~he proletariat based on eounc;j]s of nunciation of the' necessity for revolu­ : course of the day-to-day class strug­ tionary leadership and an adaptation working people and supported by the gles of the workers; it must be brought 'Workers' armed strength. Such a state to existing petty-bourgeois and Stalin­ to the workers by the revolutionary ist leaderships. This deterioration of would defend itself : against the coun­ party. Thus it is the task of the revo­ terr'evolutionary efforts of the deposed theory has led to the degeneration of lutionary party to forge the proletariat the Fourth International founded by l'bling class to return to, power and into a sufficient political, force by in­ would reorganize the economy along Leon Trotsky; and to its organizational fusillg it with a consciousness of its breakup.' , rational lines. As the economic basis of real situation, educating it in the his­ social classes dwindled, the workers torical lessons of the claS's struggle, The Spartacist League, by contribut­ state would more and more assume a tempering it in ever deepening strug­ ing to the theoretical clarification of purely administrative fu'nction, eventu­ gles, destroying its illusions, steeling the Marxist movement 'and to the re­ ally withering away with the advent of its revolutionary will and self-confi­ forging, of the workers' necessary or­ classless commllnism. dence, and organizing the overthrow of ganizational weapons, upholds the rev­ all forces standing in the way of the olutionary proletarian principles of 5. 'The International Character conquest of power. A conscious work­ Marxism and will carry them forward . of the Socialist Revolution ing class is the decisive force in his­ to the vanguard, of the working class. Capitalism is a world economic 'sys­ tory. tem which has created an international 8. The Deformed Workers States working class with identical class in­ 7. The Bourgeois Basis and the PDlitical RevolutiDn ttn1ests the world over. Th~interna­ of RevisiDnism Historic ga\ns have been made in ex­ ~i;o{lal ,~haracter of the working' :c.Iass Insofar as revolutionary conscious­ pelling imperialism trom anp destr6y­ gj'V~ it a potentially enormous superi- ness is not prevalent among the work~ irig capitalist property relatio,ns 'in' cer­ 9ritY,QY,ei: the bourgeoisie as capitalism ers, their consciousness is detel'triihE!d tain b'ilckwi'rQ countries, i.e:, tl\:e de~ operates by anarchistic methods) which by the ideology of the rllling eta,s.: genetatet\'w()ilkeis ~tate 'ugn tHe' "aefortned' workers ' siates in: East another and constantly create new un­ finance capital, its monopoly of the Europe, aild of China, North Korea, evennesses and crises. In order to real­ means of violence, and its control of all North Viet Nam, and Cuba. The nation- ' ize this superiority, the prpletili-iat needs existing social institqtions. But it pre­ alization of the meabs of production, an jnternational' party to' unify the fers, when possible, to rule through establishment of economic planning, " , .NOVEM.BER-DECEMBER 1966 -13'

and, the state monopoly of foreign The Spartacist' League fundamentally demands and tasks in a way that lead " trade have brought tangible increases opposes the Maoist doctrine, rooted in inalterably to one final conclusion: the in the living standards of the masses Menshevism and Stalinist reformism, conquest of power by the proletariat. together with advances in industrial which rejects the vanguard role of the The of differing and\other­ growth in spite of the hostility of im­ working 'class and substitutes peasant­ wis,e.hostile organizations of the work­ perialism. On the other hand, the fail­ based guerrilla warfare as the road to ing ,clas's is' a primary tactic in unset­ ure as yet of the proletariat to success­ socialism. Movements of this sort can tled periods to both mobilize a broad fully carry through a under certain conditions, i.e., the ex­ mass in struggle and to strengthen the in any of the advanced countries, the treme disorganization of the capitalist authority of the vang'uard party within relatively low labor productivity and class in the colonial country and the the class. The transitional program di­ cultural levels of the workers states absence of the working class contend­ rects the struggle ever more openly compared to the leading' capitalist ing in its own right for social power, and decisively against the very bases countries, and the numerical prepon­ smash capitalist property relations; of the bourgeois regime and mobilizes derance of the peasant class have al­ however, they cannot bring the work­ the masses for the proletari-an revolu­ lowed the formation of ·bureaucratic ing ,class to political power. Rather, tion. ruling castes which exclude the work­ they create bureaucratic anti-working The organizational principle of the ing class from political power and class regimes which suppress any fur­ Spartacist League is democratic cen­ 'Vhichare susceptible to the develop­ ther development of these revolutions tralism, a balance between internal de­ ment of capitalist restorationist ten­ towards socialism. Experience since mocracy and functional discipline. As a dencies.These privileged bureaucracies, the Second World War has completely combat organization, the revolutionary themselves a reflection of the continued validated the Trotskyist theory of the van/tuard must be capable of unified domination of capitalism on a world Permanent Revolution which declares and decisive action at all times in the scale, stand as a barrier to the elimina­ that in the modern world the bourgeois-. class struggle. All members mus,t be tion of class differences within their democratic revolution can be completed mobilized to carry out the decisions of own national boundaries and, the only by a proletarian dictatorship sup­ the' majority; authority must be cen­ achievement of socialism on a world ported by the peasantry. Only under tralized in its selected leadership which scale; through their increasingly na­ the leadership of the revolutionary nro­ interprets tactically the organization's tionalist deviations, they weaken these letariat can the colonial and semi-co­ program. Internal democracy permits conquests of the working class in the lonial countries obtain the complete the collective determination of the face of imperialism and open the way and genuinf) solution to their tasks of party's line in accord with the needs for the repenetration of capitalist eco­ achieving democracy and national felt by the party's ranks who are clos­ nomic forms. emancipation. est to the class as a whole. The right The Spartacist League stands for the to factional democracy is absolutely unconditional defense of these coun­ 10. The Revolutionary Party: vital to a living movement. The very tries against all attempts of imperial­ Its Program, Organization, and existence of thil\ right helps to channel ism to reestablish its control. At the Discipline differences into less absorbing meims sarr ~ time we assert the necessity for of resolution. "Without a party, apart from a par­ The discipline of the Spartacist the working class to take dir~t con­ ty, over the head of a party, or with a trol and defense of these states into League flows from its program and sUbsf;itute frir a party, the proletarian purpose; thp victory of the socialiat their own hands through political, rPvo­ revolution cannot conquer." The revo­ lution and thus sweep away th~ inter­ revolution md the liberation of an lutionary party is not only the instru­ mankind. nal barriers to the advance towards ment for bringing political conscious­ socialism. Only the spread of, revolu~ ness to the- proletariat, it is also the 11. We Will Intervene ,tJon internally and internationally ean main oft'ensive and guiding force successfully maintain these partial COn­ to Change History! through which the working- class makps "Marxism is not a dogma, but a guide quests of the workers. It is an imme­ and consolidates the socialist revolu­ diate and pressing .necessity to build to action." The Spartacist League, as tion. The revolutionary party is the a natiorial section of the international sections of the Fourth International in general staff of the revolution. Its lead­ the deformed worker" states to guide Trotskyist movement, is in the' fore­ ing cadre have been trained and tested front of the struggle for a socialist the struggle of the workers for politi­ in th,e class strug-gle: it has gained cal power and to coordinate their strug­ future. Our day-to-day preparation of the leadership of the class on the basis the working class and our interventiQr,l gles with those of the proletariat in the of its program and revolut;onary dpter­ advanced and colonial countries. and leadership in the decisive moments mination; it has understood the whole of the class struggle wHl propel the of the past in order to assess the pres­ sh'uggle forward to the final victory. 9. The Colonial Revolution ent situation with crystal clarity; it "To face reality squarely; not to seek and the Permanent 'Revolution recog-nizes and boldly rpsponds to the the' line of least resista~ce; to call The partial character of the anti­ revolutionary moment when it comes, things by their right names; to speak capitalist revolutions in the colonial that moment when the forces of the the truth to th·e masses, no matter how world over the past two decad~s (China, proletariat are most confident and pre­ bitter it may be; not to fear obstacles; Cuba, North Viet Nam and North pared and the forces of the old order to be true in little' things as in big Korea) leads us to reaffirm the Marx­ most demoralized and disorganized. In ones; to base one's program on the ist-Leninist concept of the proletariat the revolutionary party is crystallized lo~ic of the class struggle; to be bOld as the key to the socialist revolution. the aspiration of the masses to obtain when the hour for action arrives­ Although existing petty-bourgeois na­ their freedoIp; it symbolizes their revo­ these are the rules of the Fourth Intet­ tionalist-led mO,vements against impe­ lutionary will and is the instrument of national:' These are the rules of -'the rialism. must be defende~, the task of their victory. Spartacist League as we go forward -iIi cO{ll~p.nists ,is to ,lea,~ the ~~tive inter~ The program of the Spartacist the historical task of leading the work/. veptlOJlt of the, wor;k;lhg .claas, to ta~ League,> as part of the Fourth Inter­ ing c).ass to the victory of socialism 'itt hegemony ~ 'oyer, , the, ~~t,iol).,l~soCia! na~ional•. is. ,transitional in nature. It the ,United States! ' struggle. The ,struggle. by thEl'.JlrQI~~ forp;ls a bridge in the course of daily -General line unanimously adopt~ tanan leadership for self-determination struggle between the present demands ed by Founding Conference, 2 of the oppressed nations is a powerful and the socialist program of the revo­ • September 1966. tool to break the grip of petty-bour­ lution. From the consciousness of the -:-:-:-Final draft approved by Politi­ eeois nationalist leaders on tl1e masses. working class today it formulates its cal Bureau, 8 November 19613. 14- SPARTACIST Delentl Llltin Americlln Revolutionists!

Hugo Blanco, the Peruvian peasant leader, is again in d.esperate LETTER FROM peril~ He was initially sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for th~ RED FLAG deaths of three rural guards in l;t clash growing out of his successful London, England organization'of the utterly downtrodden and mercilessly abused land- We have just received the last edi­ \ tion of 'Spartacist.' We were very less Indians. He is now being retried before the "Supreme Council of pleased to see the article protesting Military Justice" and the prosecution is demandi~g the death sen­ against, the arrest and persecution of Trotskyists in Mexico, and tence! All concerned with his safety and freedom should immediately the Workers States. You are doing a cable protests to "Consejo Supremo de Justicia," or to Presidente great service to the World Revolution and to the IV International by the cam­ Belaunde; address: Lima, Peru. paign you are waging for the release A united committee in the U.S. fO,r the defense of Latin American of Gilly and the seven Trotskyists im­ prisoned in Mexico. In Central America political prisoners is now being set up. there is' a united front of. Imperialism, the Soviet Bureaucracy and all the , cqnservlj.tive leaderships who, by strik­ Subscribe to The following is the text of a cable­ ing at the Trotskyist vanguard, are ESPARTACO gram sent Friday evening, 11 Novem­ trying to intimidate the masses. In this Monthly Spanish publication of ber 1966: situation it is the duty of all honest the Spartacist League "CONSEJ~ SUPREMO DE JUSTICIA revolutionaries to struggle against this Box 1377, G.p.a., New York, N.Y. 10001 LIMA, PERU: campaign of intimidation and terror. 12, issues - 50c We thank you for your efforts, and Write for issue no. I, free, containing: HUGO BLANCO HAS BECOME A send to the 'Spartacist' comrades the _ p'uerto Rico Socialista y el Nacionalismo DEDICATED SYMBOL TO THE OP­ warm fraternal greetings of the British _ Una Tricontinental Castrada ' PRESSED. IF YOU KILL HIM, YOU section of the IV International. _ l'

development of the Spartacist League' and visitors had picketed the Mexican , ••• , CONFERENCE ,into a propaganda group sufficient in Tourist Office demanding the release of size to intervene in action in every ma­ these comrades. An open meeting Sat­ (Continued from Page 10) , jor class struggle, with a regular urday night made public the formation monthly press, as the goal in the next and aims of the Spartacist League, and exploitation, a mass organization of period. Amendments on anti-war work, several members described the expe­ black workers around a prograI:lJ' of cadre-building, and press policy were riences in struggle which led them to organized self-defense, independent po­ adopted to make the draft theses more recognize the !lecessity for revolution­ litical action, and other transitiQnal comprehensive. This document, which ary struggle in this country. demands is needed. The tasks of black­ will serve as a guide to action and as ening the Spal'tacist League and'tiavel­ an introduction to the Spartacist Leninist Vanguard oping a black Trotskyist cadre ,- were League, is presently being prepared for Final point on the Conference agen­ described as central to the goals of the publication. ' da was the election of the new Central SL during the coming period. Local reports by representatives of Committee following a thorough dis­ the various areas indicated the accom­ cussion by the delegates of the qualifi­ Guide to Action plishments, problems, and plans of cations of each nominee. The entire Another key point on the Confl/rence each group. The National Report by Conference then reconvened, the new agenda was the discussion and 'adop­ Comrade Nelson pointed to the growth leadership was announced, and the tion of the main line of "Ta,s},s. 9f the of the Spartacist tendency from two Conference adJourned with the singing Spartacist League: Theses on Building locals to a national network with com­ of The internationale. The founding of the Revolutionary Movement- in the mittees in all sections of the count'ry. the Spartacist League in the United >, JJ.S.!' 'fheqocument and report ;w'Na­ The need was emphasized to build States is a major step forward in the tional Chairman James Robertson af- cadre to overcome the break-up and construction of a I;.enini~t, vanguard • firmed the determination of the Spartu­ stagnation in the revolutionary' m,ove­ Pllrty in, this cOl.lntl'Y ~nd at). advance "cisf'League fo' root itself in Hie vili:'ious ment which the SL faces as the inheri­ ,'in the, world l'evolutipnal'y, .struggle. for ",al:enas of ,class struggle in...lJ»sooul1- tor of the Mal'Xist tradition in this , soCialism. Above ali, it symbolized, the • try, and outlined the genel'al and spe­ country. Also heard was a report' on continuing'validity of Marxism-Lenin­ cific tasks necessary to' implelIl;~p,tA~~is. the necessity of building a united left­ ism by defiantly' proclaiming to the Discussing problepls of the tni

-Organization of the unemployed-by ,,------~, ••• SNCC the unions, so links ar~ created between NOW AVAILABLE- the employed and' unemployed worker. (Continued from Page 16) MARXIST BULLETIN Series dllusions about the nature of the bour­ Along with these demands, of course, geois State, implying that all that is the Black Power advocates should. con­ #1 In Defense of a Revolutionary Per­ needed is to put Black men into the tinue to raise demands designed to spective-basic position of the Rev­ State bureaucratic machine. Marxists meet the special needs of the Black olutionary Tendency 25c must point out that the State itself, people, who suffer the extra burden like the Democratic Party, is a tool of of racism which white workers db not #2 Nature of the Socialist Workers the ruling class and cannot be "taken face. Such demands should include: Party-Revolutionary or Centrist? over" by class-cons<;ious elements-it -For organized, armed self-defense­ 50c must be smashed. to protect against racist terror and po­ lice brutality; # 5 For the Materialist Conception of One corollary of the black-white out­ the Negro Question-reprint of R. look has been the idea that only Black -For the right of inspection of the jails' and for the disarming of ' the po­ Fraser's critique of Black Nation­ people must organize in the Black alism ' 200 community, and whites must organize lice-to reduce the power of the cops whites, whether for civil rights or any to terrorize innocent people. #8 Cuba and Marxist "eory-Select­ other struggle. As a tactic this idea is ed Documents on the Cuban Ques­ probably wise for neighborhood organ­ One Social Revolution ! tion' 35c ization, but it has been raised to the These demands and the struggle ne­ Order from: SPARTACIST level of principle by many Black Power cessary to achieve them can only be advocates, thereby becoming an ob­ Box 1377, G.P.O. seriously considered within the context New York, N.Y. 10001 struction to class-oriented organization of a social revolution, which alone can ,.----______~---J/ for struggle. achieve' political and economic power and social justice for the majority of ,,------~------~, Bridge to White Workers Black people-that is, workers .. But the Spartacist Local Directory Can the white working class be won need for social revolution is not felt over to a Black workers' struggle only among Black people;. unemploy­ AUSTIN. Box 8165,' Univ. Sta., Austin, Texas 78712. phone: GR 2-3716. against capitalism? The white working ment, inflation, poverty and all the class has been generally quiescent and problems of this society are imposed ·BALTIMORE. Box 1345, Main P.O., Baltimore, lal'gely racist for about 20 years, but by the capitalist ruling class on black Md_ 21203. phone: LA 3-3703. and white workers alike. There is only with the deepening of contradictions in BERKELEY. Box 852_ Main-- P.O;. Berkeley, Calif. the American economy white workers one ruling class, one State power, and 94701. phone: TH 8-7369. are being hit hard by inflation and the one struggle must be waged against' domestic repercussion of a growing im­ that power. CHICAGO. Box 6044, Main P.O., Chicago, III. perialist war. Recent signs of revolt, 60680. phone: 181-4296. such as the Machinists' bittel" strike Black and White Vanguard COLUMBUS. Box 3142, Univ. Sta., 'Columbus, against the airlines, indicate that sec­ To unite and lead the working class Ohio 43210. tions of the white working class may in this fight is the task of the vanguard be ready for militant anti-capitalist EUREKA .. Box 3061, Eureka, Calif. 95501. party. The division of the working phone: 442-1423. struggle. Black militants, being in gen­ class into hostile black and white sec­ eral more class conscious (as well as 'tions is a direct result of the oppres­ HARTFORD. Box 57, Blue Hill .Sts., Hartford, race conscious), can help considerably sion by the ruling class and is care­ Conn. 06112. phone: 525-1257. in I'aising the class consciousness of fully nurtured by it in order to alle­ HOUSTON. Box 18434, Eastwood Sta., Houston, white workers and thereby gain valu­ viate some of the contradictions of cap­ Texas 77023. able allies for the Black, Liberation italism. And it would be a fatal I error struggle. The formulation and execu­ ITHACA, Box 442, Ithaca, N.Y. 14851. phone: to assume that the centuries-old racial 549-9119. tion of a class program for Black work­ antagonisms will aU be gone before el'l would form the necessary bridge the working class can come to power. LOS ANGELES. Box 4054, Terminal Annex, Los to the white working class, stimulating The American revolution, if it is to Angeles, Calif. 90054. phone: 783·4793_ its consciousness and militancy. succeed, will be the result of struggle MISSISSIPPI. (contact New Orleans) Such a program should at least in­ by black and white working people, led clude the following demands: by class-conscious militants joined in NEW ORLEANS. Box 8121, Gentilly Sta., New -For a Freedom-Labor Party - to the Marxist-Leninist party. Black mili­ Orleans, La. 70122. phone: 522-2194_ break the labor 'movement from its tants can and must play a key role in NEW YORK. Box 1377, G.P,O., New York City, bondage to the Democrats, who provide the building of this vanguard party, only war, inflation 'and wage freezes; N.Y. 10001. phones: National Office-UN 6- and only the sucS!ess of revolutionary 3093; Uptown-UN 5-6670; Downtown- 477- -For a Southern organizing drive, forerunners....:.. such as the Spartacist 2907. supported by organized labor - to League-in winning the allegiance of strerigthen both the labor movement PHILADELPHIA, Box 1827, Wm. Penn Annex, militant Black workers and students Philadelphia, Pa. 19105. and the Black people; now can assure the success of the fu­ -For a workers' united front against ture vanguard. Those who feel that the SAN FRANCISCO (contact Berkeley) Federal intervention-to counter the principle of race is more important SEATTLE (contact Berkeley or New York) increasing tendency of the government than the reality of class in the strug­ to intervene in struggles with forces to YOUNGSTOWN (contact Columbus' or'.· New gle against the "Establishment" are York) uphold the ruling class; doomed to failure; even as is either ''-For a sliding scale of wages-to keep the black or white sections of the work­ ',------~--~~ _____.~'J, purchasing power in pace with living ing class if it attempts to carry out a costs; social revolution alone. It is for these , , -For a shorter work week with no loss reasons that we urge SNCC and other Fraternal Group in pay-to provide more jobs without Black' militants to fight with us, for a SEATTLE. of Washing­ making the white worker feel threat­ united, working class program, for the ton. Freeway Hall, 3815 Fifth Ave. N.t, ened by job loss; Seattle, Wash. 98105. phone: ME 2-7449. coming revolution! • , . I 16- SPARTACI-ST NOVEMBER·DECEMBER'1966

REPORT FROM NEW ORLEANS SNCC and Revolution

In 1964 the Student Non-Violent Co­ kind of "independence" from the power been traditionally used by the ruling ordinating Committee worked with the structure so they can achieve libera­ class to maintain its hold on society. It Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party tion. However, one must have a pro. is precisely the lack of a class-conscious in an attempt to seat the MFDP at gram to steer by, 'and SNCC's is at position, . and the' predominance of a the Democratic Convention. They were best rather vague. So-called Marxist race-nation outlook in the SNCC posi­ refused in favor of the white racists. organs like The Militant ,and Progres­ tion which leaves it open to ser.ious The result of this snub by the ruling stve Labor offer no help in this prob­ practical errors. class was to push SNCC and its follo:w­ lem, as they applaud uncritically every In the deep South SNCC found it ers into a mf)re radical posture. SNCC new development in the Black libera­ impossible to work in the racist Demo­ wQrkers began to question the purpose tion movement. cratic Party; however, in the North, oj voter registration if voters then had , SNCC's position is much more ambigu­ ,nothing worthwhile for which to vote, Class Politics ous-for instance, Carmichael endorses and they began to raise the question of SNCC's program is essentially con­ the "National Conference for New Pol­ independent politics. tained in the recent position paper ex­ itics," a peace group organized by In early 1966 other incidents gave plaining the concept of Black Power. right-wing socialists, Stalinists, and rise to more radical ideas. At a "Poor The paper states in part: "If we are to reform Democrats. The group is not in­ People's Conference," held at Mount, proceed to~ards true liberation, we dependent' from the bourgeois parties, Beulah, Mississippi, in January 1966, must cut ourselves off from white peo­ and its preferred "peace" candidate for the participants, desperate for food and ple. . • • We must form our own in­ President in 1968 is Robert Kennedy! shelter, decided to occupy the deserted stitutions, credit unions, co-ops, politi­ SNCC's black-white outlook also tends Greenville Air Force Base. They were cal parties, write our own histories." to gloss ovel' the serious conflict in promptly and violently removed by But as a program such a view can lead class interests between the petty-bour­ Federal authorities. This incident to no serious improvement of the con­ geois Black leaders and the Black smashed many illusions about the na­ ditions of Black people. For the pri­ workers. ture of the Government. mary division of capitalist society is The black-white outlook also fosters class division, and racial divisions have (Continued on Pag'e 15) Anti-War Stand 'Meanwhile SNCC militants, seeing 'the connection between the oppression at home and the U.S. war in Asia, is­ sued an angry statement, which read in part: . "Weare in sympathy with and sup­ Vittory lor GlIlllIslillw .port the men in this country who are unwilling to respond to the military The acquittal of 17-year-old Ernest cops will neve~ admit that it is white draft which would compel them to con­ Gallashaw of framed-up murder terrorism and white racism that causes tribute their lives to U.S. aggression, charges on 13, October in N.Y. State the so-caIled 'It-iots.'' • in the name of the 'freedom' we find so Supreme Court was a defeat for the false in this country." racist cops in Brooklyn who plotted All ~hese trends culminated in the the frame-up, and an example to Black May 1966 election, of Stokely Carmi­ people in all the ghettoes that oppres­ chael as SNCC chairman. The organ­ sion by the ruling class can be success­ ization's new position was summarized fully fought. Gallashaw was freed pri­ in the 23 May statement on the White marily because the "evidence" was so House Civil Rights Conference. SNCC blataritly invented, and the testimony denounced the conference as an attempt of the brow-beaten witnesses obviously by Johnson to improve the image of the result of coercion that even the' the U.S. New York Times made an expose of it. SNCC's empirical rejection of the But actuaIly winning the victory de­ more obvious brands of reformism ad­ pended on the articulate, determined vocated by white liberals and petty­ defense campaign waged by Mrs. Gal-, bourgeois Black "leaders" has taken lashaw, friends and Black militants the form of a call for "Black Power," from several organizations, including' a militant-sounding phrase which N.Y. CORE and the Harlem Organiz­ frightens the white liberals and Uncle ing Committee. Reform Democrat law­ Toms. The concepts implied in the yer Paul O'Dwyer included in his de­ SNCC slogan of "Black Power" are fense summary a strong indlctmentof radical enough to have caused the the Brooklyn police and D.A. for; t~ir bourgeois press and politicians to show­ "strong desire" to see that a Ne.gro er vicious abuse, on it, precisely because was found guilty of shooting a Negro the slogan is a groping for solutions during the East New York ,disturb­ outside the framework of the capital­ anc,es. The real Ipurderer of Ene Dean, ist society. of course, wiIl never be prosecuted al­ Ernest Gallashaw It is clear that SNCC and Carmi­ though defense witnesses identified him chael· want Black poopl,- to have some as a' white boy "called little Joe." The (in police car)