W'RKI/tS ""'(J,lt, 25¢ No. 354 ..~~) X:523 11 May 1984 Put Butcher Duarte on the Run! • • nvaslon ee Ions •

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MAY 6-Ronald Reagan is waging his Pentagon war dirty war in El Salvador with bullets, machine poised on ballots and bullshit. And none of it is Honduras-Salvador working. From the battles in Morazan border as phony province to fighting the "Vietnam "election" of syndrome" on the home front, the Butcher Duarte Yankee butchers are losing. The Rea­ covers for Reagan's ganites are becoming more desperate, invasion plans. and thus more dangerous. U.S. imperi­ alism is trying to prop up its falling dominos as Navy war flotillas converge off the Central American coasts for one "exercise" after another. Newsweek asked if the latest, "Ocean Venture '84," involving 32,000 U.S. military person­ nel. were "Invasion War Games?" This operation spanning more than two weeks included a mock evacuation (and real reinforcement) of the U.S. base at Guantanarno, Cuba-a naval fortress held in defiance of the Cubans' demand for its return-and a full-scale invasion of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Ocean"Venture '84, a gigantic war provocation, was a dry run for an invasion of Central America, as well as I an attempt to intimidate the Cuban sJ deformed workers state and Sandinista Nickelsberq/Tirne Nicaragua. We say: Smash Reagan's government" to "request" Washington's CIA provided the publicity apparatus, How did he get to be a "moderate"? Caribbean war drive! Defense of aid. (It was awkward enough in Grena­ and Christian Democrat Jose Napoleon By running against a certified pathologi­ Cuban/ USSR begins in El Salvador! da where they had to dig up an obscure Duarte was duly "elected" president of cal killer, the cashiered colone! "Blow­ U.S. out of Guantanarno! Independence representative of the British queen.) So the republic. Duarte should have no torch Bob" D'Aubuisson, who earned for Puerto Rico! yesterday the- second round of the trouble serving as front man for a U.S. his nickname because of his torture To send in the Marines and the 82nd "Intervention Elections" were held in EI invasion. For years he has 'been the techniques. Notorious for carting his Airborne to "save democracy." italways Salvador. The U.S. embassy and the "moderate" front man for death squad death squads around town in armor- helps to have a "demo~ratically elected Salvadoran army picked their man, the terror. continued on page 10 Soviet Athletes Targeted by Reagan Cold War Provocations Force Russia Out of Olympics

MAY 8-The government ofthe United conditions for holding the games." States has incited and sanctioned a According to TASS, the International campaign of intimidation, harassment, Olympic Committee agrees that the possible kidnapping and right-wing Soviet position is "just" and "substan­ violence against the Soviet Olympic tiated" (U PI, 8 May). Indeed the LAPD team during the summer games in Los and FBI were turning the Olympics into Russian Angeles. After putting up with countless an armed camp while the bourgeois world provocations, the Soviet authorities press whipped up anti-Soviet hysteria." record have had enough. They announced The Reagan gang's targeting of the breaking today that they're pulling out of the L.A. Soviet Olympic team is part of a series swimmer, Olympics because the U.S. government of flagrant attacks on Soviet diplo­ Vladimir "does not intend to ensure the security matic personnel, civilians and military $alnikov. of all athletes, respect their rights and forces around the globe. To take but a human dignity, and create normal continued on page II out of line. Hess Oil making St. Croix its own private colony is standard proce­ Labor SoIidarijJ. RallY. in NYC dure for these oil multinationals: Exxon in Aruba, Texaco in Trinidad, Royal Dutch Shell in Curacao, The spectre of"another Cuba" haunts the capitalists who have established hugely profitable enterprises with enor­ mous tax dodges throughout the Carib­ Black Caribbean Workers bean. At every outbreak of labor struggle, they tremble with fear of revolution. Hess & Co. surely sleep better knowing that the white U.S. imperialist slavemasters didn't hesitate to send down troops to crush the people V$. Hess Oil Empire of Grenada when they got "uppity." With Reagan's enormous military buildup in the region.-aimed most Black workers who have been slaving directly at toppling Sandinista Nicara­ away for Hess Oil Company on the gua, backing the murderous Salvadoran small Caribbean island of St. Croix in regime and menacing Cuba-the tiny the U.S. Virgin Islands are today fight­ . Caribbean ruling classes and their ing a bitter class battle against oil imperialist masters know that the U.S. magnate Leon Hess. Nearly 400 workers military isn't just their ultimate but their were locked out at the HOVIC refinery first line of defense. on April 16 after they had voted down But the Virgin Islands, although as the company's racist union-busting small as tiny Grenada, have a black contract "offer." Hess wants to return to proletariat with significantly more the days of plantation slavery, cracking social power. This weight is seen in the down across the board, eliminating the more than 8.500 workers organized into right to grieve layoffs, recalls, promo­ the USW A throughout St. Croix and tions or demotions. Attacks on seniority St. Thomas, from the big Martin­ rights include Hess's plan to administer Marietta aluminum plant to phone tests to employees. As the union put it in workers to HOVIC oil workers to a their full-page ad in the St ..Croix A vis, if !.Ooo-strong USWA construction local. this contract-is rammed through, when These black workers are conscious of Hess wants to get rid of someone, they their ties to their brothers and sisters on merely test him and it's "out the gate!" the U.S. mainland, as evidenced by signs In New York City on May 7 an at the May 2 Christiansted mass march: emergency protest was held outside the "First it was Reagan, then the Grey­ Amerada Hess international headquar­ ...... hound bus line, now it's Hess-These ters at Sixth Avenue and 47th Street, to WV Photo union-busters need a busted ass!" And, support and publicize the struggle of 1,200 black unionists and supporters march through Christiansted, 51. Croix in turn, the strategically important these locked-out black workers. More on May 2: "Get up, stand up for your rights!" black proletariat of the U.S. will be than 40 demonstrators marched, chant­ and-file trade unionists-including thinks nobody is going to find out decisive in shattering American imperi­ ing "Teamsters, longshore, maritime, members of the National Maritime what's happening down there in St. alism from within and so liberating the steel-Hot cargo Hess! Make him Union, Transport Workers Union, Croix." A statement by Ronnie Davis, desperately poor colonial masses of the kneel!" and"PATCO, Greyhound, now Communications Workers of America, recording secretary of the embattled oil Caribbean. Hess-Smash union-busting!" The New AFSCME, carpenters, plumbers-and workers union, was read thanking Hot Cargo Hess Oil! York demonstrators carried placards the Labor Black League of America. people on the mainland for their with slogans raised by the St. Croix Militant seaman Gene Herson called support. workers including: "No rest for St. for labor action starting with transport Hess oil workers, organized into Croix workers: You work our brothers workers "hot-cargoing" (refusing to United Steelworkers of America for 12 hours. Now you lock your gate handle) all Hess Oil products. Maire (USWA) Local 8526, already toil under and we have to protest" and "Don't Hayes-who marched in the impressive barbarous conditions, with the com­ forget: The whip that beat the black dog solidarity demonstration on the island pany having replaced the three shifts beat the white dog also. Unity!" The last week-stressed the urgency of the needed to operate the refinery around NYC protest was called by area rank- New York support action "because Hess the clock by two brutal 12-hour shifts. The giant refinery-the world's largest, with a capacity of 700,000 barrels of oil a day-operates on St. Croix·exempt from all corporate taxes. Under the Destroy the Siavocracy! ruthless domination of rogue-capitalist Leon Hess and his' Amerada Hess When the Civil War began in 1861 with Corporation, the oil company is now the South's attack on the Union garrison at operating at the refinery withscabs from Fort Sumter, South Carolina, the great Hess's Mississippi plant, subcontractors black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and management. Workers at St. Croix calledfor total war against the slaveholders make more than $2/hour'less than {rom without and a massive slave rebellion workers at the Hess oil refinery in {rom within.. Purvis, Mississippi, that notoriously racist, low-wage state! TROTSKY I.ENlN On May 2 in Christiansted, the Let the ports of the South be blockaded; let business there be arrested; let island's capital, the locked-out workers provisions, arms and ammunition be no longer sent there; let the grim visage of a took to the streets. A massive solidarity Northern army confront them from one direction, a furious slave insurrection meet march of 1,200 unionists and their WV Photo them at another, and starvation threaten them from stillanother, and they will begin families and supporters-reportedly the New York protest at HessOn head­ to murmur a discontent which will surely break out at last in bitter execration and largest labor demonstration ever held in quarters'May 2 supports locked-out curses upon the guilty authors of their triple woes. The confederate slaveholding the Virgin Islands-ina festive mood oil workers in 51. Croix. traitors are now only on the outer wave of the whirlpool oftreason: every circle they marched in step with Bob Marley's he established the giant HOVle oil re­ now make will bring them nearer the centre that is certain to swallow them up, and "Stand Up For Your Rights" blaring finery on the island in 1966. A Howard hurl them to the bottom of its howling waters. from a sound truck. As the workers Hughes-type eccentric, Hess avoids the approached the marketplace by the -Frederick Douglass, "Sudden Revolution in Northern Sentiment" (1861) public and won't talk to the press. He harbor at the site ofthe old slave auction tries to personally control every aspect block, their placards took onaspecial of his far-flung operation right up to meaning: "Dark Ages Slavery by $ surprise inspections of Hess gas station Diplomacy-We Will Stand Up for Our attendants. He is a "buccaneer," wrote Rights!" was one sign. Here, Lonnie James, president of Steelworkers Local Tad Szulc inhis profile of the sinister 8526, vowed: "We marched here today Hess, "Playing for High Stakes in the Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the SpartacistLeagoe of the U.S. ~ to show we will not be sold and we will Virgin Islands." in Forbes, I August .'11/(1111"."'11'·. 1977. Indeed, Hess's oil piracy has not be bought." EDITOR: Jan Norden Like the old plantation owners, Leon paid off plenty. The company is offi­ PRODUCTION MANAGER: Noah Wilner Hess and his ilk have nightmares about cially listed as worth some $3 billion, but CIRCULATION MANAGER: Darlene Kamiura slave uprisings on their "paradise" given the secretive nature of his opera­ EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule, Charles Burroughs. George Foster. Liz Gordon. James Robertson. islands of tax shelters and naked racist tion, analysts say it is systematically Reuben Samuels. Joseph Seymour. Marjorie Stamberg (Closing editor for No. 354: Liz Gordon) undervalued. Workers Vanguard (USPS Q98.770) published biweekly. skipping an issue in August and a week in December. by exploitation. From the time the St. the Spartacist Publishing Co .• 41 Warren Street. New York. NY 10007. Telephone: 73Z·786Z (Editorial). 73:1·7861 Croix refinery was first opened until Hess lords it over the black workers (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377. GPO. New York. NY 10116. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00/24 on St. Croix. because that is what the issues. Second-class postage paid at New York. NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workers Vanguard. recently, "bonded" black workers, little Box 1377. GPO. New York. NY 10116. Virgin Islands setup is all about. Known more than indentured servants, were Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express tne eauons! viewpoint. "imported" from islands throughout the as a tourist spot by most Americans, the Virgin Islands are the scene ?f a multi- No. 354 11 May 1984 Caribbean for six-month periods. and threatened with deportation if they got continued on page II 2 WORKERS VANGUARD NYC Transit Union: Smash Koch/Kiley/GunnGaQg! / New York mayor Ed Koch, Metro­ was the real target of this attack and fi­ politan Transit Authority (MTA) czar nally issued a watered-down. c1ass­ Robert Kiley and Transit Authority collaborationist statement opposing (T A) president David Gunn have TWU Has the Power! this attack on the supervisors. brought their union-busting machine to In early April, five elected officers of the 207th Street subway repair shop in the Track and Power Division including Manhattan. A traditional center of The TWU is the most powerful and Committee members proposed a simple division chairmanBenny Foster were Transport Workers Union (TWU) strategically located municipal union in statement-of solidarity with the supervi­ summarily fired from their elected militancy, this work location now the country. And transit wbrkers acute­ sors against the crackdown, Lawe first safety committee posts for distributing constitutes the union's front line against ly feel the need to mobilizethat power in responded with red baiting. But even so-called "unauthorized literature," a system-wide attack by the T A bosses. their defense. Under mounting pres­ this piecard recognized that the TWU continued on page I J At least 213 workers have been disci­ sure from the ranks the 207th Street plined in a ten-day period since Gunn's shop committee on May 2 convened a hatchetman Ronald "Col. Jefferson" morning shop stewards and delegates Committee for a. Fighting TWU Leaflet Davis took over the shop. In response to meeting and a lunchtime shop gate - ,- massive management provocations, meeting attended by 800 workers. We TWU members have refused to work reprint at right a leaflet issued for those overtime and have implemented a meetings by the class-struggle Commit­ "Stop Victimizations With "work to rule" enforcement of safety tee for a Fighting TWU, calling for' .standards. mobilizing the power ofthe entire union Solid United TWU Action!" On a SundayTV news program TWU . against the victimizations. Defend the president John Lawe denounced the 207th Street shop! Koch, Kiley and Gunn have MOTION: That an immediate emer­ TA's "Gestapo tactics" at 207th Street. This assault ontheTWU is merely the brought a grueling occupation mer­ gency executive board meeting be But Lawe's,program(likeex-UAW head ..Iat~in .. ex·CIAspymaster·, ~i1eY'and cenary army under colonel "Jeffer­ cidkd tonight.· and that the power ' Fraserat Chrysler)is tooffer his serviees "Hired" Gunn:s .union-busting offen­ son" Davis to bust our union! They ofthe entireTWUMbrought tobesr in disciplining.the workforce by getting sive. Kite)' (appointed by "friend of act like British troops in Ulster! The against all vktimizations .01 TWU a seat 'on the MTAboard. on May 3 labor" Democratic governor Cuomo) 201thstreet shop is at Hlis point the . membeB' at .the 207th Strtet shop. WCPS News came-4ptotheshopand and -Goon ibegantheirtenureby pro- .front line ofthe.TWU; In accordance Thew rnnnben. 'art ,now aetini lit recorded the workers' angt:y response .claiming.they were going to give the. with Kiley's and Gunn's grand accordanee .with the union leader· every time Davis ventured out onto the supervisors association the ..PATCO scheme .to crush the TWU.. the ship's call to refuse to work overtime floor. Amid shouts, horn honking and treatment," taking away their civil appointee to the 207th street shop, to protest management's speed-up, the din of banging tools. Davis was service status so the TA can hand-pick "Jefferson" Davis, has provoked, intimidation and disregard of safety driven back into his office. its slavedrivers and impose a sweatshop intimidated and victimized union standards! Lawe and the entire But protests, no matter how vocal, are regimen on a workforce already subject­ members. Under the smokescreen of executive board must make it clear to not going to stop Kiley's union-busting. ed to lousy working conditions. When "improving productivity" Davis has the Kiley appointed shop boss Davis attempted to impose speed-up and that if all victimizations are not disregard safety standards in subway immediately dropped .the entire cars repaired at the shop. Davis" subway system will come to a solid "Final Solution" for the 207th street halt! shop is to provoke, victimize and' P.S., isolate us so he can impose sweatshop We've heard that foremen have conditions on the whole union! His been working our jobs on the disregard for safety standards on weekend. Scabs are a brand of subway cars will result in more disgusting filth. This filth will sell deaths of conductors and motormen blood from the veins of its dying, and poses a deadly threat to the crippled .mother for a quick buck. riding public! In response to this This ugly, blood-sucking worm likes provocation we have refused to work to work overtime while TWU work­ O.T. And we insist on enforcing ers are protestingspeed-upand safety safety standards! violations. On the NY docks there is a This isn't just a 207th street shop saying: "You Can't Cross a Picket fight-this is a TWI.j _and city Line on Two Broken Legs." workers fight! The following motion -KARTSEN, BREWER, SMITH is posed to the 207th Shop Stewards and the COMMITTEE FOR Der Spiegel and Delegates meeting and the 207th A FIGHTING TWU Derailmentl TA's speedup and attacks on safety standards are a deadly threat street Shop Gate meeting: 2 May 1984 to transit workers and riding p'.Jblic. . -.-- \ Natiunal Guard Out of the Cugger Fields! Defend Phelps Dodge Strikers!

On May 6 Arizona Democratic governor housing where they live. Bruce Babbitt ordered hundreds of National The copper workers have held out Guard troops into the mining towns of militantly and courageously for almost a Clifton/ Morenci after striking copper work­ year against the massive company/state ers pelted scabherding cops with stones at a strikebreaking effort. But they cannot win union rally the day before. It is the second alone. Labor solidarity is the key to victory. time this "friend of labor" Democrat has Phelps Dodge's pure copper ingots are called out the National Guard to help Phelps transported in Southern Pacific's unionized Dodge break the largely Chicano and Indian freight trains. This scab copper is too hot to copper workers union. Beginning last July, handle! All copper miners have a stake in this strike has become oneofthe longest and this fight. Shut down the entire industry! most violent labor struggles in the U.S. in What's needed is a massive mobilization of recent years. Phelps Dodge, the country's the labor movement-and not just from largest copper producer, has assembled an Arizona-to put the fear of god into the army of gun-toting scabs backed up by the Phelps Dodge bosses and Governor cops and National Guard. Now the copper "Scabbitt." National Guard, out of the bosses are trying to evict 400 strikers and copper fields! Victory to the Phelps Dodge their families from the company-owned strikers! UPI Phelps Dodge strikers battle. cops at union rally, May 5.

11 MAY 1984 3 'Smash IMF Bloodsuckers-For Workers Revolutionl Hunger Revolt in Santo Domingo

by hungry crowds, In July and August, Brazilian Industrial unions called a Army, Police series of illegal strikes against an­ nounced wage cutbacks. Earlier this year, in March, the Peruvian army was Shoot called out to put down a union protest against 1M F cutbacks. And while. fires, Hundreds were burning in Santo Domingo, the' Bolivian Labor Central called a 72-hour general strike protesting the 300 percent t"" It was the social explosion everyone knew was coming. Sooner or later, increase in the price of the dollar. Last week, as a young Dominican somewhere in Latin America desperate masses would revolt against the mon­ poet in New York, / Hector Rivera. strous austerity measures' imposed by wrote: "hunger died on every street .their capitalist rulers at the instigation corner, with stomachs full of gunpow­ der." Now thereturn of"normality" has of the imperialist bankers cartel. the International Monetary Fund (lMF). It been announced, the times when the broke out in Santo Domingo. on April poor starve in silence and their exploit­ 23. Pushed beyond endurance. crowds ers rule in the name of "the people." of starving slum dwellers broke into Such "tranquility" is the result of a grocery stores in search of food. Cops bloody defeat, and for this the Domini­ and troops responded with a vengeance, can left bears responsibility. The "popu­ killing scores, wounding hundreds, lar front" of pseudo-socialists and arresting thousands. It was the eve ofthe bourgeois populists contented itself with rejecting, denouncing, repudiating anniversary of the 1965 uprising when a people in arms rose up against the the government actions. When it was necessary to organize mass action, Yankee puppet, managing to hold out for weeks against the Dominican mili­ however, they lamented the looting. In the middle of the rioting, when every­ tary and 40,000 U.S. Marines. This time Santo Domingo thing was stopped anyway, the unions it was the Dominican Republic, but poor rise up against throughout the region nervous presi­ bankers' starvation/ called a meaningless one-day work stoppage. This was then called off, to dents and generals knew the next austerity program volcanic eruption of popular anger (above). One of the give the PRD a "deadline" (i.e., a truce) could mean their downfall. thousands of victims of one week. And once "passions were The day after the Easter holidays, dragged off by cooled off," they sagely declared that the police (right). Free Dominicans were confronted with army had the upper hand and nothing the hunger could be done. But it could have been drastic government-decreed price in­ protesters! creases for basic necessities like sugar and can be again. What's needed is (up 17 percent), bread (35 percent) and revolutionary struggle for workers rule. cooking oil (nearly a 100 percent Death to the IMF, increase), while the cost of an airplane Workers to Power! ticket to New York tripled. There was an areas and disguised unemployment in Two weeks later the government shut outpouring of rage in the poor barrios of the countryside probably twice as much. down two radio stations and a TV Protests against the PRD gov­ the capital. But in the absence of The minimum wage (many make less) is channel for accurately reporting the ernment's austerity plans and the revolutionary leadership, the protests $48 a month, while sugar cane workers mass revolt, and sent troops to occupy agreements with the Monetary Fund became classic hunger riots. On the get a bare $1.35 a day! Even factory union headquarters in order to prevent have been multiplying for months in the night of the 23rd, tires were burning on workers next door in impoverished labor from organizing protest demon­ Dominican Republic. A march against virtually eVfry street corner in the slums Haiti make more than this. And when strations. A planned May Day march hunger called by the five union federa­ of the Dominican capital; within two looters broke into stores all over the .was called off in the face of official tions held on February 4 drew some ' days, 21 cities and towns of the country. they didn't cart away color threats to break it up. 30.000 people in the capital. A second Caribbean island republic had been hit. TVs-they were after food. There was noleadership,'and yet the "day of'. struggle" against hunger on The police responded with murderous This is a chronicle of a long-awaited people fought. The streets were dyed red April 7 was brutally attacked by the gunfire and soon there were running revolt. At the beginning of .the year, with the blood ofthe Dominican people. police with tear gas and arrests by the battles between stone-throwing youths Jorge Blanco wrote to his imperialist The hungry were shot for looting stores, secret service. There was much talk of and cops with machine guns and shoot­ master in the White House warning that by the armed butchers'ofa "democratic" uniting the struggle of different sectors to-kill orders. the drastic. cutbacks and price rises regime which loots the Rational treas­ (workers, peasants, housewives, etc.). Scores of stores were looted and at dictated by the 1MF "could undoubted­ ury. "Subsidies must go," declare the Some leftists, such as the Movimiento least ten local offices of the ruling ly provoke social tensions so strong that PRD "social democrats" who raise the por el Socialismo (M PS), had even bourgeois-liberal Dominican Revolu­ it could alter the peace." Three months price of bread while subsidizing the been agitating with big headlines 'To­ tionary Party (PRD) were bnmed to the later Ronald Reagan replied, telling the profits of Gulf and Western through ward a General Strike!" (Fuerza Socia­ ground. The police eventually an­ Dominican president to bite the bullet exchange rate devaluation. The country lista, 16 and 30 March). Yet at the point nounced that 62 people had been killed: and tighten the belts of the poor. When is mortgaged to the bloodsucking Wall when the popular anger boiled over all shot by the forces of"law and order," Jorge Blanco visited Washington in Street bankers just as it was 70 years there was no apparent leadership but there were at least another 300 mid-April, Reagan said the Dominican ago; in 1916 the U.S. sent in the Marines provided either by organized labor or seriously wounded and a reported 100­ Republic "shines like a beacon for to collect the interest due out ofcustoms the left. This was key to the govern­ 200 disappeared, so that the actual freedom-loving people everywhere." ,receipts~today the IMF issues a stop ment's ability to regain control of the death toll could run into the hundreds. payment order on a puny $400 million situation. Some 6,000 people were arrested. Yet loan and the Dominican army does the During the April protests when the President Salvador Jorge Blanco went dirty work. But they may yet need the masses were in the streets, the most on national TV, flanked by the entire Marines, for the Dominican masses "advanced" demand put forward by the general staff.to praise the"equanimity," vividly remember April 1965, when the Dominican Left Front (FID), the the "professionalization" and "respect "Santo Domingo Commune" held off popular-frontist umbrella coalition, was for life" shown by the uniformed thugs the U.S. expeditionary force until a to "broaden the struggle" and turn it of the police and army. sellout "negotiated solution" was into a "great day [of struggle)"! Mean­ The French Revolution of 1789 was worked out by their bourgeois leaders at while an FID statement "condemned" sparked by hunger: As the historian the bargaining table. . the numerous popular attacks against Michelet wrote of the bankrupt ancien And this time the Dominican poor' offices of the ruling PRD and warned regime, "Famine is a normal condition and working people are not alone. The against "adventurist actions" (Listin of existence; hunger comes. by royal spontaneous, undirected outburst of Diario, 24 April). The Communist decree." Showing all the historical April 23-25 could be-e-should be~the Party (PCD) contented itself with perspicacity of a two-bit Louis XVI, harbinger of workers' .revclts through­ expressions of "unconditional support" Jorge Blanco denounced the hunger out the continent against the starvation for the movement and a weak protest revolt of April 1984 as the work of policies ofthe international bankers and over the arrest of its leaders Narciso Isa "sinners. delinquents and conspirators." their bagmen, the local bourgeoisies, A Conde, Jose Israel Cuello and others. Of The head of the Dominican Central year ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil.thousands the leaflets put out by the various Bank sounded like a Marie Antoinette marched. on the governor's palace. to Dominican groups in New York, the in pinstripes: "Some are shifting their protest 1MF-ordered., starvation poli­ maximum demand was the M PS's call consumption habits." As the people WV Photo cies; whenthey. were.brutally dispersed to "continue the national protests until " were starving, the government declared, New York City, 26 April-Spartaclst by the police, it turned into a "riot" and the government gives into these popular .t "Let them ,eat lead," Official uncmplo)': C9rttil"lgent says: V/orkerspower not soon.supermarkets. and food ware- demands"! But the massesdid-continue . ~ousesaUover the country wece overrun the struggle as long, ~s possible-:::\Vhat ~,-::.. ;~~!l}" is.. ~~e,~2q·~.5r,f~I1!;.~Q>\~h~~".p~-&~J}1~(~~J\~~1~t" st.r:v.~~lp"J"./< ~'f.' .i.,'r ' . 4 WORKERs,;VANGtIARD 'ing almost all the French military 30 Years After Dien Bien Phu operations in Indochina. Dien Bien Phu dealt a blow to imperialism's ambitions. On both these counts we today commemorate the anniversary of the Hail Victory Phu, of victory at Dien Bien first and foremost as a victory against our "own" imperialists. We are carrying Vietnamese Revolution! forward the _fight the Trotskyists waged in 1946-47 when the first Indochina War began. Just as the The following article is translated French Communist Party. today votes from Le Bolchevik No. 46, April 1984. for Mitterr~d's anti-Soviet war budg­ published by our comrades of the et, their ministers in 1947, members Ligue Trotskyste de France. of the popular-front {"tripartite") Thirty years ago. on 7 May 1954. government that unleashed the war, , French imperialism lost its "dirty war" approved the budget for war against in Indochina in the valley of Dien Bien the Indochinese peoples. In contrast. Phu. What was intended as a trap for our comrades, faithful to proletarian the Vietnamese was turned into a internationalism and intransigent op­ memorable rout of the cream of the' ponents of the popular front, declared crop from Saint-Cyr [the French West themselves at this very moment "for Point]. The Navarres, Bigeards and the military defeat of French imperial­ other beribboned butchers command­ ism, for the victory of Vietnam" ing the professional criminals of the (resolution of the PCI [Parti Cornrnu­ Foreign Legion-the elite French niste Internationaliste] central com­ expeditionary corps-wading in' the mittee, February 1947). mud and muck. hammered relentlessly Our commemoration of Dien Bien by Viet Minh artillery, were caught in a Phu has a burning relevance today. bloody trap. Humiliated and crushed Vietnam is once again on the front line after 57 days of fighting. they surren­ in the new imperialist Cold War drive. dered to those "little yellow men" they China, Reagan's pawn. is bombarding Historic defeat for Western imperialism: Viet Minh so despised in their arrogant race and garrison at Dien Bien Phu,.1 May 1954. northern Vietnam. Pol Pot's gang­ caste "superiority." Imperialist France sters, based in Thailand and supported wanted to make Dien Bien Phu a table much of what had been won on erupted in Algeria. But the French war by the CIA. are attacking Cambodia­ symbol of its colonial power. The the battlefield; the war ended with the. in Indochina was not simply a colonial where they were driven out by the Vietnamese workers and peasants taking of Saigon 21 years later.. war; it was explicitly part and parcel of Vietnamese army in 1979 after they inscribed it in history as one of the Dien Bien Phu nevertheless gave the imperialist policy of "rolling back" subjected their people' to genocide. most glorious pages in the struggles of tremendous encouragement to the Communism. Indochina was also a Hands off Vietnam! U.S. imperialism the oppressed and exploited masses for independence struggles in the French front line in the imperialist war drive out of Southeast Asia! Dien Bien Phu their emancipation. But the Stalinist colonies. Six months after Dien Bien against China and the USSR, to the was a victory! Two, three. many leadership gave up at the negotiating Phu, the national liberation movement point that the U.S. ended up financ- defeats for imperialism!

was needed was direction. ists" like Mitterrand in France and also intimately linked to the current failed to fight at all-at most exhorting Question: why was there no general Felipe Gonzalez in Spain are slashing struggles in Central America. The FlO the masses to keep up the struggle. at strike'! Answer: because things were so thousands of jobs as part of austerity and virtually the entire Dominican left worst urging them to call it off. This is explosive that such a measure, even programs; and that countries like (with the exception of the MPS) calls for an unusually crass example of reformist called by the reformists. could have Hungary. Romania and Yugoslavia are a "negotiated solution" in EI Salvador betrayal. In Bolivia, the powerful COB brought down the government ofJorge members of the 1MF. not to mention the and supports the "Contadora process." labor federation called a three-day Blanco. and no one on the Dominican economic mess Poland is in. He then But as we pointed out in a recent "Open general strike-amounting to a long left was prepared to wage a revolution­ warned the FlO and the populist Letter to the PCD"': weekend holiday-while refusing to ary struggle for power. This was bourgeois opposition party, Juan " ... there is another 'negotiatedsolu­ declare a real, "unlimited"general strike recognized early on by the head of the Bosch's PLD (Dominican Liberation tion' whose ill-fated consequences are to force the government to rescind 1MF­ PRO. Francisco Pefia Gomez. the most Party) that: well known bv the entire Dominican left: that which sealed the fate of the decreed starvation/austerity measures. sophisticated and "leftist" leader of the " ...any action headed toward bringing April '65 insurrection. And just as the In both cases, the labor fakers and ruling party, in a two-hour speech down this government directly affects danger of a 'negotiated' sellout of the pseudo-socialists feared a revolutionary the Dominican left, whose leaders will _Salvadoran civil war is prepared by the directed at the left. The bourgeois­ be persecuted, jailed. deported or struggle for power. Attempts to pressure liberal PRO is a member of the social­ popular-front character of the FDR ' their "own" bourgeoisies to "share the killed." (which includes small.social-democratic democratic Second International. and -£1 Nacional de Ahara, 25 April and Christian Democratic formations sacrifices" are a vile betrayal-and to buttress the government position Challenged to put up or shut up, the left who fear that a guerrilla victory could doomed to failure besides. A "debt Pefia Gomez pointed out that "social- shut up. lead to social revolution). the notorious moratorium" for a few years does not conciliation agreement that put an end take the burden of paying for the The perspective of the entire panoply to the revolutionary situation in Santo of self-proclaimed revolutionaries was Domingo was prepared by the political capitalist crisis off the working masses. CORRECTIONS to pressuretue PRO regime. This was submission of absolutelv all the Domin­ but only stretches out the agony. seen clearly in New York at a demon.. ican left to the 'Constitutionalism' of Canceling the imperialist debt, on the In the article "Racist Pig Ed stration on April 26 where the chants Caarnafio Dena and Bosch. In the case other hand. is a revolutionary measure Koch" ( WV No. 351,30 March). we of a new revolutionarv situation on which not even Castro's Cuba has dared were dominated with such calls as the island. the 'Dominican Left Front' noted that NYC mayor Koch was "Raise wages, lower food prices!" and promises to repeat the betrayal of to propose. Only the Trotskyists. booed by hundreds of thousands of "IMF out of the country!" There were 1965." advocates of permanent revolution. black youth when his name was no calls for a general strike. The -e-Sparracist [Spanish edition] have a program to break the imperialist mentioned from the bandstand Spartacist League was present with No. 14. April 19K4 financiers' stranglehold-through so­ during a Diana Ross concert. signs calling for: "Workers: Smash the Now they not only promise to repeat it. cialist revolution on a continental and However. the mayor was not IMF and Its Local Bourgeois Puppets!" as we predicted, they have made it into a global scale. From Santo Domingo to himself present. as we incorrectly "Down with the PRO and Its Im­ slogan! Sri Lanka, the battle cry must be: Smash stated. Also, the police brutality perialist Masters-i-Workers to Power!" In the Dominican Republic. the left the IMF, for Workers Revolutiontjs hearings from which Koch was run "Free the Leftists-Troops Out of the out last July were held in the Barrios-For Workers Militias!" and Harlem State Office Building, not "For a Trotskyist Party in the Domini­ the armory (where subsequent can Republic!" Thus the program ofthe hearings were held). ,Trotskyists, in sharp contrast to the In "Sri Lanka: Deadly Lies reformists, was to lead themasses' anger Marxlsl Working-Class Biweekly of Ihe Sparlaclst League Target Spartacists" ( WV No. 352. and will to struggle toward workers 13 April). we incorrectly stated that revolution. a Spartacist protest last August 6 [ : $5/24 Issues of Workers Vanguard [] $2/4 issues of The question of power was posed (Includes Spettecists International rates Women and Revolution was physically attacked by rightist sharply by the most popular slogan of [ •New U Renewal $2024 Issues -Airmail Sinhalese thugs. On that date a the demonstration: ..La guerra de abril, $5/24lssues-Seama.1 LJ $2/10 introductory issues of Spartacist League spokesman re­ Workers Vanguard la vamos a repetir" ("We are going to $2/9 Issues of Young Spartacus (Includes Spartacist) ceived anonymous phone calls repeat the April war"), calling for a threatening bloody revenge if we replay of the 1965 struggle. But the first Name --'- _ dared to demonstrate. and a hand­ time was a disaster, which led to 20 years ful of Jayewardene supporters of bourgeois strong-arm regimes. both Address __------'------attempted to disrupt the protest. under the former Trujillo puppet presi­ ______- ----'-_ Phone ( .But despite theirjeeringand menac- dent Joaquin Balaguer and under the ing from the sidelines. demonstra­ PRO! What's needed is to go beyond the City --'- State ---'-----'-ZiP-----:;;a tion monitors successfully prevent.. bourgeois limits that were imposed on 354 ed-physical attack. the struggle: as anSl, sign proclaimed. ....cIJec:Q ..-rabittl..... eo: ...... PUtIIlINnI to.•Bol 1377 GPo, New York. HY1OJ" . "For a Proletarian '65'" This question is 1111A.Y .... 5 Good Jazz for a Good Cause

WV Photos

More than 300 celebrate anti-racist victories at jazz benefit at Small's Paradise in Harlem (left). Performers from left: David Braham, Houston Person, Etta Jones and Frankie Jones.

More than 300 people packed Small's who talked politics. danced and simply SLer Richard Bradley cutting down the contributed their talents to benefits for Paradise on Sunday. April 29 to hear enjoyed great music from 6 p.m. till hated Confederate flag of slavery and causes like the Scottsboro Boys defense the classic jazz combination of Houston midnight. The atmosphere was vibrant racist terror from atop a 50-foot led by the Communist Party. The PDC, Person and Etta Jones. backed up by and many new supporters became flagpole in front of the San Francisco a class-struggle. anti-sectarian defense drummer Frankie Jones and organist acquainted with the PDC and the Civic Center on April 15. Other placards organization in accordance with the David Braham. at the Partisan Defense Spartacist League. read. "Lauren Mozee and Ray Palmiero political views of the Spartacist League. Committee's first benefit in Harlem. It was a celebration of important Must Not Go to Jail!" Thanks to the stands in the tradition of the early CP's The highly integrated crowd included victories for working people and blacks PDC-backed defense campaign. they International Labor Defense. The PDC many union members. black activists. in Reagan's racist America. When you won't, These victimized phone company benefit raised over $3.000 to help pay socialists. students and jazz enthusiasts entered the club YOy saw a big photo of strikers. an interracial couple, have the costs for PDC-supported cases. beaten back a vicious state/company Transit workers of the powerful and frame-up. "Stop the KKK!" proclaimed heavily black TWU Local 100 were posters from the 5.000-strong Labor/ especially active in building the event. Black Mobilization which stopped the purchasing more than 100 of the 500 Conrad Lynn at Small's Paradise Klan from marching in the nation's tickets sold. capital on 27 November 1982. Recently During the evening veteran civil the Spartacist League forced the Wash­ rights attorney Conrad Lynn was ington Times. owned by the sinister warmly applauded as he described his Black and Red in Harlem political cult of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, first introduction to the black militants to retract its deadly violence-baiting of Harlem in Small's Paradise in 1932 had defended Angelo Herndon. a (see box). Ed Kartsen, speaking for the young black man who was charged libel against that demonstration. Cur­ Local 100 Committee for a Fighting with insurrection because he led a rently the PDC is backing an SL lawsuit against the FBI's Mc(:arthyite "Do­ TWU. summed it up: "For November 27 huge crowd of blacks and whites. in and continued victories to come. against Georgia. in the state capital. to mestic Security/ TerrorismGuidelines." The noted Harlem jazz club was a demand food for starving people in every manifestation of ruling-class 1932. fitting place for a labor/black benefit. oppression. we should celebrate the Malcolm X once worked at Small's So it was in this place. and you existence of the PDC and fight to Paradise, and his portrait now hangs have a great historic tradition here. organize a proletarian offensive in this prominently in the front bar. As far The Harlem Riot of 1935. I remem­ country that will bring Reagan. the Klan back as the 1930s. performers at Small's ber that very well. When the riots and the Confederate flag down!". started. I was with a young Russian. who was a Russian Communist-his name was Epifanovich, and we were in the Alhambra Theatre. 126th Street and Seventh Avenue. And as I BLUES BENEFIT came out the mob was very angry because they had heard that a black Sponsor: Partisan Defense Committee boy had been beaten to death by the cops in Woolworth's on 125th Street. Phil Lowman Blues Band and When they saw the white face of JIMMY JOHNSON • JIMMY WALKER • BYTHER SMITH Pyotr, the mob came at him. And I SUNNYLAND SLIM • STEVE FREUND • DIANE HOLMES just stood in front of him and said. WV "He's a Russian and he's a Commu­ Monday, May 21 North Branch Saloon In 1932 my first job was right on nist!" And they embraced him. the corner of 135th Street and You have a great tradition. It 8:00 p.m.-Midnight 1505 West Fullerton (east of Ashland) Seventh Avenue. That's where I got sometimes seems. you know. 52 years Tickets: $5 advance $8 at the door $10 contributing my first introduction. it actually was ago now. and you feel that, what's all in Small's Paradise. to the black this struggle been about'? It is'true militants of Harlem who used to drop that history ebbs and flows. but I • Celebrate the victory against the Moonies' Washington Times libel of in. That was at the bottom of the believe this meeting tonight is an the November 27, 1982 Labor/Black Mobilization that stopped the KKK! Depression. Occasionally a man indication again. like in the Latin • Celebrate! Lauren Mozee and Ray Palmiero-victims of racist from Abyssinian Baptist Church. Quarter of Paris where some students union-busting frame-up-will not go to jail! who liked his liquor-his name is planned the overthrow of an oppres­ • Support the Spartacist League lawsuit against the sinister, McCarthyite Adam Powell-used to drop in and sive status quo. so Small's Paradise in FBI Domestic Security/Terrorism Guidelines! then he would meet with Ben Davis 1984 will live up to the reputation it [later Communist Party city council­ gained in 1934. and be the source ofa man from Harlem). Now. Ben Davis new movement in order to transform was a black lawyer from Georgia who American society. For more information: (312) 427-0003

6 WORKERS VANGUARD Hail Ritcllie<>Bradley·-Feinstein Flops

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3-Every­ it by hoisting the historic Union flag that body knows that SF mayor Dianne flew over Fort Sumter, black people and Feinstein is as haughty and arrogant as all decent people throughout the Bay Chicago's racist, union-busting former Area cheered his actions. But Feinstein mayor Byrne. Now Feinstein seems and her district attorney Arlo Smith are intent on proving she's just as nuts as pressing three separate sets of petty "Crazy Jane."When Richard Bradley of criminal charges against Bradley for the Spartacist League and the Labor his widely hailed feats, including on a Black League for Social Defense twice truly obscure park code violation Richard tore down the Confederate flag of of "climbing a monument without Bradley In slavery, racism and the Ku Klux Klan authorization"! Union Army from an ,Official display in the' city's Do the mayor and the D.A. really uniform Civic Center and subsequently replaced want a public trial in San Francisco, on stands in front the eve of the Democratic National of historic Fort Sumter Convention, to prosecute a black garrison flag, militant for tearing down the racist presented to banner of the slavocracy-used today City of San by the murderous KKK-and replacing Francisco. it with the flag of the victorious Union? If they do, let them come ahead. Our defense will be to put Mayor "Jefferson Davis" Feinstein and her cohorts on Ritchie's attorney, Partisan Defense to note that Ritchie had already given a trial: for flying the Confederate flag of Committee staff counsel Valerie C. flag of historic significance to the city. race-terror for years, for immediately West, responded that Bradley had The judge has set a trial date of May 29. replacing it after we tore it down the first already done his community service in When his clerk asked if he wanted the time, for arrogantly removing the Union twice tearing down the Confederate trial scheduled in his courtroom, the flag we donated to the city! flag. She added that Ritchie is 34 years judge replied, "Would I miss trying this These issues were joined at a pre-trial old, has no record, and is not particuiar­ case?" We share this sense of anticipa­ hearing on May 2 in the SF Municipal Iy concerned about one stemming from tion. If "Dixie Dianne" Feinstein wants Court. Before a judge who was clearly these absurd charges. In ripping down to prosecute this case on behalf of the conversant with the whole story, an the Confederate flag twice, Ritchie has Confederacy, if she wants to fight out in assistant D.A. presented the charges on already handled enough garbage. Let the courtroom the battle over slavery Ritchie's taking down the Confederate Dianne Feinstein pick some up to pay that was settled by blood and -iron in the flag the second time. The possibility was for flying the filthy racist Confederate Civil War, we are ready! raised of offering Bradley a "deal": to rag! Keep the flag of slavery down. Let plead guilty in exchange for 15-20hours The D.A. also said her office wants the Union flag fly. Send money for Ressmeyer of "community service" (like picking up Ritchie to make "restitution" to the city Bradley's legal defense to the Partisan "Dixie Dianne" Feinstein sports garbage), following which the charges for the destruction of the Confederate Defense Committee, Box 99, Canal St. police jumpsuit. would be expunged from the record. flag. At this point, the judge intervened Station, New York, NY 10013.• Black Press Features Anti-Racist Victory

o n Prolil 0", i LOCAL NEWS u.s.POSTA<;E i PAID i BRIEFS A11anla, Ga. i IIKIAIID POST PAGE-22 ~pum~o~l pole and tore down :j Confederate flag last Confederate Flag Ripped Heripsdown week thai had flown fly in San Francisco's The flag was first torn Members of the Spar­ outside the San Francisco Civic CenterPlaza. City down Sunday by League City for several years. tacist League and the Confederate/Flag Tom officials seem just as member Richard A~ supporters cheered. Labor Black League for Bradley and burned. Dixie symbol Ritchie Bradley cui the Social Defensesay they determined to tJy the Consumer News of of while about 50 league flag into pieces and From Pole In S.F., Cal. are determined that the banner-part a set A member of the Ing uniform of the Union threw it 10 the ground, COnfederate flag will not 18 flags (rom various members cheered, The Spartacist League wear- Army, climbed a 4().foot where about 13 while Richard Bradley, ladder. The PO/ift then decision to pUI the flaa & SHOPPER'S GUIDE periods of U.S. history. flag was replaced Mon­ . San Francisco cops scur­ fonner Spartacisl can sei~cd the Black.militlnt, back up came one day day but Bradley retur­ didak lor the San Fran, ti,htly handcuffina his after the acquittal by an Tied 10 pick up the i'UBUCAT_IO_N_~A",p",ril ned to tear it down cisco Board of Supcr­ hands behind his blick, all-white jury in Green­ A VOICE NEWS NETWORK '-81h - Mal 4,1984 shreds. Bradley was later again. arrested. vlscrs, and foundil'll and mlnhandled him in­ sboro, N.C. of the sill This particular flag was member of the Labol. to a police car. whiUinl KKK Ind Nazi mur­ He was arrested each Black. Lea,ue for Social him away to jail, wbere derers who killed five time and issued one- of a series of 18 Delft'lSC, climbed a so­ he was charled wilh civil riabls and labor ec­ historical banners foot n"pole in San "maikioul mischief." tivisls in 1979 in a misdemeanor citations donated to the City three Francilco'sCivicCenter The Spartac:ist lUllie ma55iltle ldecast across (or malicious mischief. years ago by the Bechtel rKently and sere down and Labor Black LelJue the country, The He has vowed. to con­ Power Corporation. "We the Conlederate na" have vowed thlt "this ouuqeous Greensboro tinue tearing down flal Will not fly," Spar• venlid,i..esavcenliJht feel the City's decision 10 every CanCerate flag put up this flag is a racist As supporters tacin spokesman Diana 10 I'ICist murder across affront. and a real pro­ cheered, Bradley cut tbe Colemln said. "tr Fein· the United Stales, Put­ raised in the Plaza, vocation," said Bradley. f1a. into pieces and stein waats this nil to tinl the Confederate Raa "The.-Conferate flag is threw it to tbe ,round, fly, she will need to put a back up in Ihis city of the banner oC racist He vowed to prevent it where l:twhite San steel fence around il with labor and minorilies is I from flying. "II Mayor Francisco cops scurried luar&2. heurs a day." calculated polilical ael terror," League memo Diane Feinstein wants to pick up the shreds Mayor .Diane Fein· by Ihe Feinstein ad· ber Janice Gerard told this flag 10 fly," Bradley Bradley was arrested af­ slein's .:ity ad­ ministration ,. a the Post Monday, "It is continued, "she will have ter descendinl from lhe ministration pul the con­ declaration thai it is «e flag pole, Police had federate n.. back up in open ~cason on Black. the flag of the 24 called in Ihe Firc.Qeplr, Ihe Civit Center Ifter people in San Francisco slaveowner's whip and Iment to reecve Bladley this hlled symbol of too and an invitation to the Ku Klux Klan's sliVery Ind the KKK was Klan wiolence alainS! all ~e ~ hom the pole, after years of lynching, bur­ SUD ltportef rdusi", 10 allow SUpPOr· torn down Ind burned at tbo~on rhe ratists' hit leu to assist him wilh a '" r.Jly. Feinslein's Iisl. ning, shooting and bom­ bing, Everywhere the r::======~~==~~ banner oC the race We WISh To Plead Ou, Own Cause Too long Have Others"Spokenfleedoms Journal. forMalcllUS.'16. 18n terrorists is the Con­ federate flag." On- Monday, League members tried to ad­ dress the Boa rd of An UnneededSymbo Supervisors meeting but .--""'ague member Richard Bradlev were ruled out of order in San Francisco'S Civic Ce-nte'r by president Wendy We were bemuled and at the ..me time Indi,tlflnt at lOme aeti..ilin tear down Confederate nag. The Neider. They were occurred in the Civic Center not lonla«o. Some civic minded ("lliac-n. h...e .pent mut by City officials on Monday but asked to leave under of Ih~ir time and effort. to malLe the Ch'it Center one of the .howpl__ 01 the city I to tear it down again. League­ police escort after which they cln point out wilh pride a_. pl.ce which "i.itoro! mu.' _, l .. ~y will continue to tear down any shouting their protests sed in the Plaza. against the presence of the "seditious banner of whitesupremacy." A Recreation and Parks Department of­ ficial attempted to defend the banner

.aI, IX\' .... 5, .... Art! 11, I'" Confederate Flag Downed In San Francisco Commission P, h\ 'tailllt'" S4:oll For ;\\\' -traiuhr davv, a mall drl""L·d ill a -l·l1itlll Arn1\ BIGREDNEWS Ci\ll War uniform dimhed atop a ~O·ln,,! I'llk in front of AtQueensHOSJ San I ,,·,1', Cuv Hall and l'UI ;( C(\IIh:derale flag a-, ;t 1'(":"" that denounced till' n:' .r- a "banner of racist

Ibc protect \\US conducted hy t he Spanacisr League and other leftist group" 10 com­ memo-ate the 119th an nivcr­ varv of rhc surrender of the Contcderacv and the April 16 aquinal tlf rbc Ku Kim: Klan and Nali Panv members who were involved in the deaths ot five civil rights and labor ac­ nvists during a dcmonsuation in 1979, The flag and the aquiual were seen as "invita­ dons to Klan violence" hv the protest ing o rganiz a t ion", Richard Bradley was charg­ ed wilh "malicious mischief" by police after cutting the flag into pieces and throwing them 10 the 'Hl n w " • w •

11 MAY 1984 7 Witchhunters' Lies Exposed No sooner had the Confederate flag come down in San Francisco than ~an cr~roniclr S.F. Chronicle reporter Katy Butler's unnamed "police sources" launched a %runcisco letter (left) helps to expose the THE" VOICE 0'" ,HE WEST disinformation campaign aimed at. media smears of SL (below). among others. the Spartacist League. Even as San Franciscans hailed the The Managing Editor Asso~iated Fress -23 April 1984 successful and eminently peaceful ac­ Fox Plaza San Franciscc, CA. tion of pulling down the hated flag of April 2S, 1984 slavery, the San Francisco Chronicle listed the SL among groups "that police Dear Managing Editor; fear may playa violent role in demon­ strations at the Democratic National On Ap~i: 2~, I was co-author of ~~ article about fears of certain San Francisco and FBI agents are Convention in July" (see "S.F. Chroni­ political grups d' . ~srupt1n9 demonst~~~io~s near the upcomi~9 known to be paying cle: Retract Your Dangerous Smear." Democratic N~tional Convention. particular attention to WV No. 353, 27 April 1984). three mUltant groupe 0p- In the int.erest:s of f,airo-ess, I would like to make sure you also saw the erating in San Francl8co This threatening frame-up was picked the revolutionary up and further elaborated with outright article ~e ran the next day, in which the Spartacist League specifically Communist Party, the inventions by New York Post disinform­ said it has nc aesire, nor Pralrle Fire Organizing any plans, to attend or disrupt the :::-onvention er Niles Lathem, who claimed the SL Committee. and the or related rien~nstrations_ Spartaciat Leque. had played a violent role at the anti­ OffIcials say tn.. In ~dQitlon. the Spartacist Le3gu~ was Kissinger demonstration which was hit removed in1981 by t~en- groupe were involved in by a cop riot. Subsequently, the San Attorney General Deukmejian from ~ list of agitattna the crowd last left-wing terrorist organizations. week. Francisco Examiner (24 April) pub­ Copies o~ th€ relevant clippings a~= e~=los.d. lished the lie that the SL would I would particUlarly like to p~int "provoke a violent confrontation" at a this out because the New York Post recently ran a column usinq recent demonstration against U.S. war some of the information from the first -24 April 1984 story. in a ds,:;torted form. That article speci~ically sa'd minister Weinberger. And it all fits too . ... the Spartacist League had attended and disrupted th-_ ' neatly with the Reaganites' "anti­ anti-Kissinqer demonstrotion. terrorism" crusade against political when it was not present. opponents.· Thus right-wing columnist • ed to the Guy Wright lectures SF mayor Fein­ Police intelligence sources had stein because she supposedly "caved in Sincerely y~~~s. pressed concern that radical dissi­ to terrorist tactics" (San Francisco J::{J. dents - members of the Revolution­ I ary Communist Party, the Sparlacist Examiner. I May) in not putting the Xaty Butler League and the Prairie Fire group­ Dixie flag up for the third time! 777-7153 would attemptto infiltratelastnight's This chain of lies is typical of rally and provoke a violent confronta­ "disinforrnation" campaigns. Libel be­ tion withofficers in riot gear and on gets libel. And at the source you will orseback. ".1\1 f H/U~ __.l 41 .r(lHr....1l1\ "4119 invariably find it linked to government (415) 777.1111 authorities, from local police red squads to the FBI. We will not stand for this frame-up which threatens not only our The smear stands exposed! and dangerous accusations that the by or pressure this party of racism and reputation, but the safety of our One of the police "sources" cited for Spartacist League and its supporters are imperialist war." Wolkenstein asked engaging in or planning violent conduct members and friends. We have success­ "fears" of violence at the Democratic or provocation of violence." just who will benefit from all the fully fought such libels in the past. Convention by the New York Post was witchhunting hysteria being generated compiling an impressive record of the U.S. Secret Service. Spartacist This campaign of disinformation is around the Democrats' Convention. victories against the witchhunters. So League general counsel Rachel Wolken­ part of a wider "anti-terrorism" witch­ "The real facts thus compel the we are not about to sit back and let stein wrote on May 3 to John R. hunt by the Reaganites. They are setting conclusion that the S.F Chronicle and up left-wing groups for secret police N. Y. Po.H articles. falsely characterizing ourselves be set up for government Simpson. director of the Secret Service. the Spartacist League as violent and repression as "violence't-mongers and Wolkenstein not only stated the abso­ surveillance and "preventive strikes" by intending to disrupt the Democratic even "terrorists." Our lawyers immedi­ lute falsity of the charges, but reminded "anti-terrorist" hit squads. This latest National Convention. are a renewed ately demanded retractions from the the director of the Jane Margolis case in smear campaign centers its witchhunt­ governmental COINTELPRO-type ef­ San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner 1979. Margolis, a well-known supporter ing on a supposed threat to the Demo­ fort. an attempt to foment the Reagan administration's "anti-terrorist" cam­ and the New York Post. of the Spartacist League, was dragged cratic Convention. Rachel Wolkenstein paign and intimidate all those who want Already the record is being set from the floor of the Communications wrote on April 26 to Charles Manatt, to exercise their democratic rights. straight. Importantly, Katy Butler who Workers of America union convention chairman of the Democratic National Although not within the domain of the wrote the original article in the Chroni­ where she was an elected delegate as if Committee, making it known to him Spartacist League's direct concerns. one cle did the right thing instead of pulling she were too dangerous to be present that "not only has the Spartacist League wonders if an object of this provocative and false reportage is the Democratic the usual "absence of malice" alibi. We when then-president Jimmy Carter no intention or desire of disrupting the National Convention itself? The benefi­ are reprinting above her letter of spoke. After a lawsuit, the Secret Democratic National Convention, but ciaries of this campaign of 'fears of rectification to the Associated Press. Service was obliged to issue an apology it has no intention of even selling violence' at the Democratic National She has also written to the UPI. the New along with $3,500 in damages (which she its newspaper. Workers Vanguard. Convention is the Reagan administra­ tion-certainlv not the American York Post and Niles Lathem. On 21 donated to the CW A's defense fund). As to convention delegates." She quotes people." . April the Chronicle published a state­ Wolkenstein insisted in her letter to Spartacist spokesman. Al Nelson. We have spent much of our precious ment by SL spokesman AI Nelson in Simpson: speaking to the Chronicle: "For our another article on the subject, and part. we think the Democratic Party resources in the fight against the "There should he no repetition of the "terrorist" smear. particularly the cur­ followed this with the publication of a Margolis case. Your office must stop Convention will be a monumental bore. letter (28 April) which we reprint below. the dissemination of false, defamatory We have no interest in seeking to lob- rent governmental campaign to define Marxists and other political opponents as "terrorists." Against this sinister '""\28 April 1984 campaign. of "McCarthyism with a San lfranrisco Q:~roniclt 1------, drawn gun." the SL has launched a lawsuit against the new FBI Domestic PeaceFul Prolesls violence at the Democratic conven­ Security/Terrorism Guidelines. In 1981 tionisa smear calculatedto diminish we sued then-attorney general of Cali­ Editor - In the article "Three the popularity of our .actions. . fornia George Deukmejian when the Militont Groups Cause Convention Wehave no desireto even sell our Spartacist League was included in the Fears,". April 20, you falsely list the newspaper, let alone demonstrate at "Terrorism" section of the 1979 Report Spartacist League as among "some the Democratic Party Convention. on Organized Crime. And we forced of the small, ultra-left groupsoperat­ But weemphatically upholdthe right Deukrnejian's office to issue a statement ing in the Bay Area that police fear of those who do wish to demon­ of error to police agencies throughout mayplan a violent roleindemonstra­ strate, despite our belief thot the the country. Most recently the Sparta­ tions at the Democratic National working class can only realize its cist League libel lawsuit secured a Convention in July." historic interests if it breaks with this retraction from the Moonies' Washing­ The story wos picked up by a capitalist. party. Further, the climate ton Times which had falsely accused the New York newspaper in an e"en of hysteria produced by your article SL of provoking violence against the more distorted form, claiming the benefits only Ronald Reagan. police at the successful Labor/Black 5pcartacist League had "agitated the Your false branding of us as vio­ Mobilization of5,000 which stopped the crowd" at the demonstration against lent sets us up as "terrorists", to be Ku Klux Khm in November 1982. We Henry Kissinger. In fact, and unfor· targeted.for infiltration, investigation cannot help noticing that the Washing­ tunately, wewere not presentat that and harassment. We are Marxists ton Times, predictably. has published a demonstration as we were then pre­ not terrorists or criminals and as a column on "fears" of violence at the paring to teor downthe Confederate workers party havethe rightto orga­ Democratic Convention, including the ~ flag 0 second time. linking our nize for our views. question: "can a riot befar behind'?" But san Francisco, April 29-Supporter. cheer 81 peaceful protests against that ban­ AL NELSON, for the this time the Washington Times had the Union flag goes up where Confederate flag n,r of s10verywith po!ic,fantqsies of Spcartocist league good sense .not to mention the Sparta­ once flew. '. . . ' .. eist League.• • WORKERS VAMGUARD ~ I~aulrant~,o~xnmintr

30 April 1984' S. F. Examiner on Battle of the Flags

-s-Reprinted from San Francisco Examiner, 30 April /984 Clad in the uniform of a Union sergeant, activist April 1861. Richard Bradley shinnied up a Civic Center Fighting went on for two days before the flagpole-the same 50-foot staff he'd scaled twice Southern forces seized the fort. But by that time a this month to rip down Confederate flags-and handful of defenders had retreated and spirited unfurled a replica of the 33-star Fort Sumter away the 33-star flag. banner. Police whisked Bradley "away in handcuffs to Cheered on by. 50 demonstrators from the Northern Station immediately after his descent. Socialist-oriented Spartacist League, 34-year-old He was cited for disturbing the peace and trespass­ Bradley made his ascent about II :30 a.m. yesterday ing, then released. His previous adventures ended in with a copy ofthe Union standard stuffed in a bright arrest on charges of malicious mischief. Both times Manwho red nylon sack.".. he was released on his own recognizance. tore down Waving their own banners, which bore slogans Yesterday's demonstration, staged amid prep­ flag now such as "Down with the Confederate flag of slavery arations for closing ceremonies of the Cherry hangs one & the KKK," Bradley's supporters chanted "Right Blossom festival, was the latest in a skirmish on, Richie" as the one-time San Francisco Board of between the Spartacist League and city officials Supervisors candidate hoisted aloft the Fort Sumter over the Confederate flag. flag. Bradley first clambered up the pole supporting Denouncing the Confederate flag as "a symbol of the "Stars and Bars"-one of 18 flagpoles in Civic racism," Spartacist League spokesman Jeff Higgins Center plaza-on April 15. He cut the flag down said, "We took the Confederate flag down and we and set it ablaze. want it to stay down. The next day, another Confederate flag was sent "This flag (the Fort Sumter flag) is a very great up and Bradley tore it down, hurling the shredded . and gracious symbol ... we think it's a fitting flag for. remains to the ground. San Francisco." Shortly after, Mayor Feinstein announced she By some historic accounts, the banner chosen by would not replace the flag a second time. She said the Spartacist League is a replica of the standard her decision was based on a request from Supervisor Northern troops flew above Fort Sumter when the Doris Ward, not on the Spartacist League's stronghold was besieged by the Confederates in demonstrations.

Feinstein: Anti-Gay "Sex CORS" to Make S.F. Safe for the Democrats Government Out of the Baths! SAN FRANCISCO-Mayor Dianne (Democratic Socialists of America) and minimal reform that would ban dis­ assault to crack down again. Feinstein and the Democratic Party leader of the city's major gay Democrat­ crimination based on "sexual orienta­ What's all too likely to happen in San administration, in one of the more ic club. Neider admitted the maneuver­ tion" in hiring. As Marxists, champions Francisco, where Dan White was crudely cynical political maneuvers in ing that was going on: "I think it's of democratic rights for the working acquitted of murder charges after recent memory, finally forced the city's terrific that this idea [for the ban] has people and the oppressed, we support slaying homosexual SF official Harvey public health director to ban "sexual come out of the gay community, be­ bills like AB-I as a statement of legal Milk and an ceo-freak racist was activity" in gay bathhouses, sex clubs cause none of us wanted to say it and .equality for gays. At the same time we acquitted for stabbing a black woman and bookstores. They wanted to shut look like we were discriminatory." And point out that such laws do little to smoking a cigarette, is the next time down the baths permanently; SF health one officer of a major Democratic club change the oppressive reality of Ameri­ someone firebombs a gay bar he will director Mervyn Silverman's "compro­ cynically remarked: "When the Demo­ can capitalist society. probably get off on the claim he did it cratic Convention comes to town with in the interests of public health! mise" decision, as he stated April 9, is Pro-Feinstein gay Democrats in San that. "All sexual activity between 10,000 reporters, we don't want the big Francisco are cynically playing on the The ban on sex in gay baths is part of individuals [must] be eliminated in local 'issue to center on gays' right to genuinely terrifying nature of AIDS. a broader assault on democratic rights public facilities in San Francisco where commit suicide in bathhouses" (San Death rates are still climbing, and while for the oppressed. From the Moral the transmission of AI DS is likely to Francisco Chronicle, 29 March). a virus has now been identified which is Majoritarians in the WhiteHouse to the occur." So now in "liberated" San Of course, "suicide" isn't the issue but the possible cause of AIDS, no cure for Ku Klux Klansmen in the streets, the Francisco. Feinstein's "sex cops" are to the right of consenting individuals to this deadly outbreakhas yet been found. central target of the reactionary offen­ police the baths! engage in sexual activity. Simply put: If AIDS is finally eliminated, it will be sive is black America. Communists, said This vicious attack on homosexuals government out of the bedrooms-and the result of intensive scientific Lenin, must be tribunes of the people. has nothing to do with stopping AIDS the baths! As we wrote in Women and research-not brutal cop raids on gay Thus tearing down the racist flag of the and everything to do with furthering Revolution (No. 27, Winter 1983-84) bars and baths. The gay communities in Confederate slavocracy is fighting for Feinstein's grandiose political ambi­ about reactionary uses of the A IDS America's major cities are already the rights of gays as well as blacks. And tions. She wants to "clean up" "her" city scare: traumatized by the AIDS tragedy. by mobilizing to stop a Nazi assault on a before the Democratic Party' conven­ Everybody knows sorneone's friend or gay pride march, as the SL did in tion comes to town this summer. As one "While the fundamentalist. paranoid lover who has the dread disease, or who Chicago on 27 June 1982, we struck a of Feinstein's political cronies put it: Puritan ethic encouraged by our rulers alleges otherwise. the fact is: sex docs has already died. But AIDS is not a "gay blow for black people against the racist "She wants to be vice-president so bad not equal disease. docs not equal death. disease" or the "responsibility" of terrorists. she can taste it" (San Francisco Exam­ AliI' kind of sex. Aside from the homosexuals' to "cure themselves." Down with Feinstein's sex ban! iner, I April). But San Francisco's fundamental question of saving lives, Nobody suggested banning the "hetero­ Government out of the bedrooms and freewheeling "Babylon by the Bay" one damn good reason to get this frightening outbreak cleaned up is so sexual lifestyle" because it was responsi­ baths! • image doesn't go over well with South­ people can enjoy sexual activity in safe. ble for spreading herpes, gonorrhea and ern Dixiecrats and middle-American healthy conditions-including the syphilis-the latter a genuinely horrible racist ethnic ward heelers who are a oaths and oars if that's their scene." and fatal disease until the discovery of major base of the Democratic Party. Spartacist League/ Salvarsan in 1910. When the Democrats came to New York Does anyone think that Feinstein really Spartacus Youth League wants to stop all "sexual activity City in 1980, the cops swept the streets Although the SF ban is presented as a Public Offices of prostitutes, even grabbing anun who between individuals in public facilities" "self-policing" measure proposed by -MARXIST LlTERATURE­ in the name of "public health"? She later sued. Feinstein wants to show she gays, in fact, national gay organizations Bay Area could try to "stop gonorrhea" by can get tough with gaysthe way she's are rightly fearful and indignant about Fri.: 5:00-8:00 p.rn.. Sat.: 3:00-6:00 p.rn, shutting down the motels for instance, 1634 Telegraph. 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) done with labor and racial minorities. it. "Personal behavior should not be or the straight hot tub establishments. Oakland. California Phone: (415) 835-1535 Thus the massive police riot at the anti­ regulated by the state, which historically And what about closing the .prisons, Kissinger demonstration April 16 at has been an instrument of our oppres­ Chicago which are real hotbeds of AIDS Tues.: 5:30-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 2:00-5:30 p.rn. the Civic Center was an expression of sion," stated the National GaY' Task infections. ~ 523 S. Plymouth Court, 3rd Floor her determination to crack down onan\' Force. The Gay Men's Health Crisis Chicago, Illinois Phone: (312) 427-0003 public protest activities as the conven­ "Out of the tubs and into the shrubs!" group said, "data has not shown any New York City tion approaches. chanted gay protesters wearing bath­ clear justification for governmental Tues.: 6:00-9:00 p.rn.. Sat.:12:00-4:00 p.rn. The Democrats in San Francisco house towels in San Francisco, making involvement on grounds of public 41 Warren St. (one block below Chambers St. near Church SI.) have a highly organized gay constituen­ the point that Feinstein can't ban sex health.... GM He does not believe that New York. N.Y. Phone: (212) 267-1025 cy and pro-Feinstein faction. Support anyhow. All this new measure will do is hasty, politically inspired moves benefit for the mayor's sex ban came not only increase police harassment and state either public health or the individual Trotskyist League from Board of Supervisors president terror against an already oppressed rights of all Americans" ( Villagfyoicf', Toronto~anada Wendy Neider and ex-cop and rad-lib minority. The Moral Majority is 10 April). And in Toronto, where the Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.rn. darling Richard Hongisto, but also screaming for god's retribution against cops have brutally and repeatedly 299 Queen St. We,Suite 502 from gay supervisor Harrv Britt, a hornosexuatsvand California governor raided gay bars and baths, thereis much Toronto, Ontario Phone: (416) 593-4138 member of Michael Hanington's DSA- George Deukmejian just vetoed a fear that they'll use this. latest vicious 9 headed the Salvadoran murder-junta League banner proclaimed, "Military Salvador," and "Smash Reagan's Bay of EI Salvador... between December 1980 and March Victory to Salvadoran Leftists! U.S. Get Pigs, Nicaragua needs MIGs!" The 1982, nearly 30,000 workers, peasants Your Bloody Hands Off the World!" problem is, Stalinist bureaucrats from (continued from page I) and leftists were slaughtered by the As popular revulsion deepens against Havana to Moscow look at Central regime. In the movie Revolution or the Reagan war policies, however, the America through narrow nationalist plated Cherokee Chiefs (locally known Death Duarte appears at a press eyeglasses. They seek to reduce their as "garkrnobiles" because so many reformists are deeper and deeper into conference to absolve the security forces exposure to Reaganite counterrevolu­ oligarchs drive them), Constituent the Democratic Party. We have pointed of blame for the massacre at Archbishop tion by withdrawing advisers from Assembly president D'Aubuisson is out how in the face of the CIA's Romero's funeral. Yet the movie has Nicaragua, striking deals with apartheid unpalatable to the U.S. Congress which increasingly overt war on Sandinista just shown pictures of uniformed South Africa over Angola, etc. Authen­ has to approve Reagan's multimillion Nicaragua the CISPES cesspool has National Police snipers on roofs over­ tic communists seek to take advantage aid bills. So now the Reagan adminis­ failed to organize a single sizable tration has got itself a figurehead with looking the cathedral square shooting protest. The reason for "the movement's of the Yankee, imperialists' present more "moral authority" than the man down into the crowd. slow response," as the rad-lib Guardian difficulties in Central America by who ordered the assassination of Arch­ In May 1980 some 600 refugees were (9 May) delicately puts It, is that they waging revolutionary war throughout bishop Romero. massacred by Salvadoran and Hondu­ have been too busy drumming up votes the isthmus. "U.S. Said to Plan to Invite Duarte If ran soldiers at the Sumpul River trying for Democratic "doves." "JesseJackson Napoleon Duarte, "Mr. Political He Is Elected," headlined the 5 May to escape across the border. In Decem­ is the real peace candidate in 1984," says Solution," will present a hell of a New York Times. Their purpose is to get ber 1981 junta troops murdered over CISPES leader Suzanne Ross, calling problem for the reformists when he local Rainbow Coalitions "key forces in more bucks in order to drown the 900 civilians in and around the village of comes to the U.S. Everyone who'knows Salvadoran leftist rebels in blood. And EI Mozote after FMLN insurgents had the anti-intervention movement." Yet the bloody record of this butcher will leading Democratic "dove" Michael slipped through a government army net. Jackson's position on Central America want to give him the "greeting" he Barnes told CNN news today that That same month the top leadership of is virtually indistinguishable from that deserves. But the "solidarity" sellouts the opposition political coalition, the Congress would indeed show more of the other two Democratic presiden­ know well, even ifthey do not say it, that Democratic Revolutionary Front "patience" and "flexibility" with Duar­ tial candidates. They all agree that aid to Duarte is the political linchpin to a (FOR), was seized by a government te, who is popular with both Christian EI Salvador should be linked to "prog­ "negotiated" betrayal of the Salvadoran commando in the capital and executed. ress on human rights." And Duarte's Democrats and social democrats in revolution. What will they do when this A few days later, four American nuns Europe. But if Butcher Duarte has election is considered proof positive of object of FOR/ FM LN wooing comes to were killed by soldiers armed with friends in the White House and on such paper "progress." town? The Trotskyists, advocates of American guns. And all this occurred Capitol H ill, it is urgent that opponents If Sornozaist mercenaries are too military victory for the leftist insurgents under the reign of the "moderate" and workers revolution, are clear on of the Salvadoran dictatorship mobilize unsavory, Reagan will use ex­ Duarte. on the streets to expose this cynical Sandinista Eden Pastora as figurehead Duarte. We say: put Butcher Duarte on Yet it is to this front man for mass "Operation Moderation." of the contra counterrevolution in the run. This is a key point in the murder that the FDR/FMLN look fora Nicaragua. And in El Salvador he can political struggle over Central America. "Death Squad Democracy" "negotiated settlement" (read: sellout) sell a Christian Democrat to Congress, Reagan knows it. The Democrats know of the Salvadoran civil war. An FOR as CISPES goes along in the hopes of it. The Salvadorans know it. If the An American churchman who ob­ call for a "provisional government of wangling a "negotiated settlement." But administration puts over "Operation served the first round ofthe Salvadoran broad participation"issued in January this means preservation ofthe genocidal Duarte" in Congress, the Salvadoran "vote" on March 25 reported, "What I would only exclude "the oligarchy" (a army and thus a massacre for the masses will pay with their blood. witnessed on election day was not an conveniently elastic category) and Salvadoran masses. The several hun­ Widespread doubts, fear and anger outpouring of 'democratic efferves­ 9'Aubuisson'sc ultrarightist ..ARENA. dred workerswhocourageouslydemon­ among the American people over cence' (to use Ambassador Thomas Andwbowouldbe'theprime candidate strated in San Salvador on May Day Reagan's- war drive in central America Pickering's phrase) but an outpouring to head such a provisional government? rightly denounced the electoral farce and a renewal of anti-militarist protest of fear" (San Francisco Chronicle, 7 None other than Butcher Duarte. And (something the FDR/FMLN has been among student youth present revolu­ April). Salvadorans must have their why not? In the 1972 electoral farce, loath to do). The leftist guerrillas must tionaries with urgent opportunities. identity cards stamped at the polls: to Christian Democrat Duarte ran for win on the battlefield, to open the wayto This sentiment must be mobilized fail to do so would risk losing theirjobs president together with small-time social revolution against the landlord/ through internationalist socialist propa­ ... or their lives. In this "death squad bourgeois reformist Guillermo Ungo for capitalist/military dictatorship. A Trot­ ganda and agitation: the imperialists' democracy," those labeled as "subver­ vice president. Today Ungo is head of skyist party, forged around the program anti-Soviet war drive, from EI Salvador sives" are likely to wind up a bullet­ the FOR opposition popular front, of permanent revolution, is key to to white supremacist South Africa, must ridden corpse along the roadside. For seeking to reunite with his former achieving a genuine workers and peas­ be fought by class struggle in America. the American press, which has difficulty running mate in order to keepthe heroic ants government. The Spartacist League calls on U.S. distinguishing baby kissers from baby struggle of the Salvadoran masses The Reaganites -have turned Central workers to boycott all military goods to killers, the important thing is "How long within capitalist limits. America into the front line of the Cold Central America. For labor strikes are the lines?" War. For them, Sandinista Nicaragua is against an imperialist invasion! The Intervention Elections were Put Butcher Duarte on the Run! a fallen domino, becoming a "Soviet While the reformists rely on the made to play in Peoria, and on Capitol surrogate" some time ago. While the cooing imperialist doves, we seek Hill. One Salvadoran bitterly remarked, How soon they forget. But the am­ Democratic liberals have a better grasp to organize active class solidarity with "Elections have surpassed coffee as our nesia of the reformists and rad-libs is on reality, they too are wedded to the the embattled working masses of Cen­ leading export to the United States." It eminently political. In September 1981 anti-Soviet war drive. And thus, despite tral America. Where CISPES et al. look was the State Department and not its when Duarte came to the U.S. on a their pious protests over CIA mining of to Congress to certify "human rights" Salvadoran puppets which pushed for shopping trip for arms for the junta, he Nicaraguan harbors, the "doves" have progress in the land ofthe death squads, (and paid for) these elections. Now was met in San Francisco by 6,000 angry voted for every single appropriation to the Spartacist League calls on labor to Congressional liberals can vote millions demonstrators chanting "Duarte asesi­ the contras. The only way to defend the "hot cargo" (boycott) all military in military and "economic" aid to the no!" SF cops in riot gear and on Nicaraguan Revolution against imperi­ shipments to Central America. Where Salvadoran butchers with enthusiasm horseback charged into the anti-Duarte alist attack is to complete it byexpropri­ the rad-libs look for a pot of gold (they did it anyway before, albeit "with a demonstrators, clubbing fleeing pro­ ating the capitalists and extend it-for at the end of Jesse Jackson's mythical heavy heart"). The dictators get their testers and passers-by alike. Even then workers revolution throughout .Central rainbow coalition, the Marxists call for dollars, the Reagan administration gets some of the. CISPES (Committee in America. a multiracial revolutionary workers to escalate U.S. intervention, the Dem­ Solidarity withthe People of El Salva­ The CISPES/USOCA/NICA crowd party. Where they call for a deal with ocrats get off the hook for "losing dor) types joined the cops in accusing is for "solidarity" everywhere except Duarte, the communists say: "Put the Central America" to the Communists the Spartacist League of "provoking" where it counts. From Washington to butchers on the run, leftist rebels need ... and the peasants get more phospho­ the police riot, because we were chant­ Moscow, it is understood that global Russian guns!" rus bombs. ing our slogans for military victory to interests are at stake in Central Ameri­ Drive out Duarte! No negotiated Unless they get a drastic increase in leftist insurgents in EI Salvador. Today ca. The Spartacist League says openly: sellout! Military victory to Salvadoran military aid, soon, remarked a "con­ Joe Duarte, "Mr. Political Solution," is "Defense of Cuba, USSR begins in El guerrillas! • cerned" Robert Mcf-arlane, Reagan's the "moderate" sensation in the govern­ national security adviser, EI Salvador ment of"broad participation." Only the could go "down the drain" (New York Trotskyist advocates of workers revolu­ Times, 4 May). Duarte, who is said to tion are denouncing Mr. Political SPARTACIST LEAGUE/ U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY talk to more U.S. Congressmen than Solution. Reagan, is the man for the job. Salva­ Meanwhile, two-thirds of the U.S. National Office Cleveland New York Box 1377, GPO Box 91954 Box 444 doran armed forces minister Vides population isn't buying the Reagan New York, NY 10116 Cleveland, OH 44101 Canal Street Station Casanova opined that, during his term policy on Central America, and nearly (212) 732-7860 '(216) 621-5138 New York, NY 10013 as head of the junta, "many people half are afraid the administration will (212) 267-1025 Ann Arbor learned. that they could live with land the country in a war over EI c/o SYL Detroit Norfolk Duarte." But as the countryside was Salvador. Increased public opposition P.O. Box 8364 Box 32717 Box 1972, Main P.O. Ann Arbor, MI 48107 Detroit, MI 48232 Norfolk. VA 23501 stained blood red with his program of to U.S. policy has been seen in recent (313) 961-1680 "reforms and repression," many of the Bay Area demonstrations against prom­ Atlanta Oakland P.O. Box 32552 Salvadoran masses learned that they inent Reaganite war criminals, surpris­ Box 4012 Los Angeles Atlanta, GA 30302 Oakland, CA 94604 couldn't. So as the death squads ing both police and protest organizers Box 29574 (415) 835-1535 escalated their terror, thousands of the by their size and militancy. On April' 16, Los Feliz Station Boston Los Angeles, CA 90029 San Francisco urban and rural poor joined the guerril­ some 1,500 picketed a speech by Henry Box 840, Central Station (213) 663-1216 Box 5712 las of the Farabundo Marti National Kissinger at San Francisco's Common­ Cambridge. MA 02139 San Francisco. CA 94101 (617) 492-3928 (415) 863-6963 Liberation Front (FMLN). wealth Club. More than 190 people were Madison The New York Times (I May) arrested as the police T AC squad waded Chicago c/o SYL Washington, D.C. headlined, "Duarte Vows to Crush into the crowd: once again the cops Box 6441, Main P.O. Box 2074 P.O. Box 75073 Chicago. IL 60680 Madison, WI 53701 Washington, D.C. 20013 Death Squads." What do you know. blamed leftists, and media disinformers (312) 427-0003 (608) 251-4321 (202) 636-3537 You and whose army, one is tempted to tried to set up the SL. A week later a ask. But the article itself only promises a crowd of 2,000-3,000 came out to revile special commission to study death Reagan's war secretary, Caspar Wein­ Toronto TROTSKYIST LEAGUE Box 7198, Station A squad murders. Considering his record berger. A Spartacist contingent raised Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X8 covering up for these killers, these are the call to "Defend Nicaragua-Kill the OF CANADA (416) 593-4138 hollow words indeed. While Duarte Invaders!" and a Spartacus Youth 10 WORKERS VANGUARD cratic degeneration retains the funda­ Olympics ... mental social gains of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. We fully under­ (continuedfront page I) stand the decision of the Russian Class War in Vegas few examples: Last October the U.S. authorities to protect Soviet athletes Marines invaded the Soviet embassy in targeted by the U.S. government's A 23-year-old striker, Grenada and marched Soviet diplo­ virulent anti-Communist hysteria. As Jim Turner, lies pinned mats, hands behind their heads, to the American communists we are commit­ under a car driven by a I airport at gunpoint. World wars have ted to smashing the American imperial­ scab "security guard" at been started for much less. In March a ist order and building a socialist world Caesars Palace in Las Soviet oil tanker docking at Puerto which alone can end the threat of war. It Vegas. Over 17,000 work­ Sandino in Nicaragua struck an under­ will be under the banner of socialist ers, including cooks, water mine laid by CIA demolition internationalism that individuals can at waitresses, musicians and squads, ripping a hole in the hull and last begin to realize their full potential other hotel workers in critically injuring five Soviet seamen. and athletes will compete without fear four unions, went on The following day on the other side of of political violence.• strike April 2 against the the world the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty takeaway demands ofthe Hawk deliberately rammed a Soviet Nevada hotels' associa­ nuclear-armed submarine in the Sea of tion in this racist Mafia­ Japan and almost sunk it. The list of Hess Oil ... run town. Emboldened similar bloody provocations is endless (continuedfront page 2) by Reagan's smashing of and appallin9. billion-dollar scam for the capitalist oil the air traffic controllers Spearheading the campaign against looters like Leon Hess. On the one hand, union (PATCO) in 1981, the Soviet Olympic team is the much­ the refinery can be regarded as "for­ the bosses have decided publicized "Ban the Soviets Coalition," eign," meaning it is exempt from the it's open season on un­ a melange of right-wing Southern Jones Act. which requires American ions, blacks, the poor, California businessmen, South Korean companies to use much more expensive illegal aliens, radicals, etc. anti-Communists and East European American (unionized) ships, But since They're not satisfied with "freedom fighters." This sinister group the Virgin Islands are a U.S. territory, wage cuts, they want dead Kodey/Las Vegas Review-Journal planned to practically kidnap Soviet Hess Oil can claim various U.S. bene­ strikers to display, as in the recently sters union has vowed that its drivers athletes. "Safe" houses were readied as fits, such as federal subsidies for those defeated Greyhound strike. will not deliver food and liquor or pick they prepared to send their agents into who must use expensive "foreign" crude The violently racist anti-union up garbage at the struck hotels. AFt­ the Olympic village to "recruit" defec­ oil (Hess accumulated a total of $1 bosses in Las Vegas took the cue: the CIO secretary-treasurer Thomas tors. Asked about the activities of the billion in these entitlements in the late hotels have imported a scab army of Donahue emphasized, "Any time you "Coalition," State Department spokes­ 1970s, until his competitors got most of over 1,500 and showgirls are making have 17,000 people fighting for their man John Hughes stated: it canceled), To rely on .appeals for the beds. Local cops have arrested rights it's a national fight:' But ac­ "I know it is difficult for the Soviets to "better labor laws" for the Virgin over 600 strikers, including ten union tions speak louder than words, and understand, but this is a free countrv.... Islands really misses the point: the laws leaders, while blatantly ignoring the the former PATCO strikers know too Many people find things in the Soviet are set up to make these territories an murderous scab attacks on picketers. well the treachery of the AFt-ClO Union to be abhorrent." -UPI. H May exploiters' paradise. Hauling away strikers like cattle with labor fakers. As we wrote in March, Today, as the island's main employer, their hands tie-wrapped behind them "Labor's Gotta Play Hardball to Who could disagree with the Soviet Hess has repeatedly blackmailed the is becoming commonplace in the Win": the key to winning is relying on Olympic Committee when it says that local government into exempting it Ll.S, (As we go to press two Hilton labor's own strength, especially the the Reagan administration is using "the from local and most federal taxes. When defense of the picket line through games for its political aims," while hotels and Caesars Palace, covering the poverty-stricken island regime tried 4,300 workers, have settled, but for mass mobilization of labor. Genuine "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti­ in 1981 to renegotiate the company's 16­ labor solidarity could win this strike Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in the rest this bitter and hard-fought year tax "holiday" which was then overnight ifthe airline unions refused the country." strike goes on.) expiring, Hess threatened to close the l 1pwards of 7,500 unionists and to bring'in the daily planeloads of Groups like the "Ban the Soviets their families marched down Las people for the gamblmg casinos. Coalition" are not to be taken lightly. entire plant. Hess won. Vegas Strip in mid-April to demon­ Smash the scab/cop union-busters! They are not playing games. Southern Among Hess's overtime-wracked em­ strate their solidarity, and the Team- Victory to the Vegas strikers! California, in particular, is fertile ployees it is said that Hess stands for terrain for right-wing crazies. An working "Holidays, Evenings, Satur­ days and Sundays." At the May 2 open member of the Ku Klux Klan, selves as being fired as a direct result of Law, was smashed. Tom Metzger, ran for Democratic protest in St. Croix, many marchers brought handwritten signs expressing the T.A.'s actions against the TWU Today in capitalism's world financial Congressman from San Diego. And both their class hatred for this blood­ officials in Track and Power. center, the transit system and everything there's a joke about an Orange County ,,** New elections should be immedi­ sucker Hess, as well as knowledge of else is falling apart. Bridges and tunnels politician who joined the John Birch ately held to re-assert that the power to their collective power: "Hess: You are select union officials rests solelv with collapse. hundred-year-old water mains Society because he wanted to be seen as dealing with the people that help build the membership! These new elections burst and major electrical fires and their a middle-of-the-reader. your empire!" St. Croix Central Labor must include elected shop stewards in accompanying blackouts are regular While the Reagan gang incited its each area responsible for dues Council president Cecil Benjamin told occurrences. Only a workers govern­ friends in the "Ban the Soviets Coali­ collection! the workers that "The company has ment can save America, and working tion," it prevented the Soviet govern­ ,,** All union officials must be paid by initiated a volcano that is about to the union! We must protect all of our people are interested in having a country ment from protecting its athletes. In erupt." union officials from. financial depend­ early March the State Department left to rule. In an open letter to Lawe on Hess and the rest of the capitalist ence on the T.A. bosses! April 6, the Committee proposed that refused to allow a senior Soviet Olympic ,,** The union must launch a law suit rulers of this U.S. colony are now official. Oleg N. Yermishkin, into the against the actions taken by the T.A. "the TWU should make public who desperate to prevent this erupting country on the grounds that he was a against its elected officials. These really cares for the subways and the volcano. A court order obtained on actions are clear violations of laws KGB agent. It is irrelevant whether or interests of the public. In addition to Easter Sundavbets picketing at HOV IC protecting the right of unions to exposing Kiley's fake subway renova­ not Yermishkin had any connections organize and the democratic right of and the workers have been denied with the KG B, but the Soviet govern­ free speech! If need be this suit should tion, the TWU should demonstrate ment was duty-bound to try to provide unemployment compensation. At the be taken to the Supreme Court!" concern about the real causes for the NYC demonstration outside Hess world its athletes with some. protection and Kiley's Gestapo tactics are not re­ decay of the subways." In particular the security. headquarters May 7, militant trade stricted to 207th Street. Recently TA leaflet described how the city's use of unionists called on the USW A to back This is the second time that U.S. cops beat up a signal helper who salt for snow removal is leading to the locked-out St. Croix brothers with massive corrosion of structural support imperialism has used the Olympics as a allegedly refused to show his pass. A generous contributions from the strike beams in the subway tunnels as well as major provocation against the Soviet female car maintainer was arrested, fund. Real labor solidarity on the part of damage to equipment. Cave-ins, fires Union. When in December 1979 the handcuffed to a chair and physically the U.S. labor movement is key to and power shortages are the results. Soviet army intervened against the CIA­ abused because transit police didn't bringing Hess to its knees. As NM Uer backed feudalist cutthroats in Afghani­ believe she was a transit worker even A few years back columnist Russell Gene Herson summed up, "Picket lines stan, the Carter/Mondale administra­ after she showed her pass. Undercover Bakerjoked that Carterwas planning to mean don't cross! Labor should hot­ tion announced it was boycotting the transit cops ("beakies") prowl the Coney deploy MX missiles in the New York cargo Hess Oil! Seamen, Teamsters, Moscow Olympics the following sum­ Island repair shop disguised as car subway system. He had a point. And steel workers, oil workers and long­ mer. This, along with cutting off grain cleaners to intimidate and discipline what does Grumman care if their buses shoremen must refuse to handle Hess oil shipments to the USSR, marked the workers. It is in this climate that Dennis break in two? Their real business is hi­ until the St. Croix workers win!". opening shots of "Cold War II." At the Dixon-a TWU member who barely tech weaponry for use against the time we wrote: escaped the racist lynch mob which Russian workers. It is to pursue capital­ "Unlike the liberal athletes opposing killed transit worker Willie Turks near ist profits and imperialist wars that Carter, communists are not sports the Coney Island shop in I982-is Kiley and Koch go after our unions, our purists. Rather we oppose Carter's NYC Transit... thrown out on the street by the TA standard of living and the cities Olympic boycott because it is a diplo­ (cont inuedFum page 3) ~ themselves. matic attack by U.S. imperialism on the (while the lynch mob's ringleaders got Soviet degenerated workers state, one This consisted of union bulletins which early parole). The Lawe regime is badly discredited momentarily important in mobilizing called on trackmen to follow the T A's Kiley, Gunn, Davis and their ilk want and the Committee for a Fighting TWU popular support for Washington's war own safety rules and to refuse "volun- . to turn the clock back to the early 1930s has the program to win. These militants drive. Oppose Carter's Cold War iron tary" overtime in response to seniority before the TWU was built. To stop the are now seen important layers of the curtain! Let the U.S. Olympic team go by to Moscow!" violations. (Every year 10 percent of wholesale attacks, the class-struggle membership as the alternative to Lawe -"Break Carter's Olympic the trackmen are seriously injured.) In tactics that built the TWU and the & Co. Their candidate for Local 100 Bovcott." WV No. 24H, an April 9 leaflet the Committee ClO-solidarity strikes and mass pick­ president, Ed Kartsen, received over 25 January 19HO demanded: eting to stop scabs-must be imple­ 1,000 votes in the last election. If the The intent of the Reagan gang and its ,,** In protest and solidarity with mented. TWU president Mike Quill Committee can g'~ow and root itself right-wing vigilantes to make life hell for Brother Foster and the other officials went to jail during the 1966 strike but among these workers, they can point the elTectivcly .expelled from union held Soviet Olympic athletes expresses the offices bv the T.A., all union officials the union ended up with the industry's way forward for all of NYC labor-a U.S. ruling class's drive to destroy the must immediately resign their posts. best contract and the Condon-Wadlin proletarian offensive that can save this USSR, which despite Stalinist bureau- The La we leadership must view them- Act, forerunner ofthe anti-union Taylor city.• 11 MAY 1984 11 WfJllltfliS ,,111(;11,1111) "Dixie Dianne" Feinstein Pulls Down Fort Sumter Flag •• •• lOIS IVI ar! We Tore ...And Put Up Down the Flag the Historic of Slavery... ' Union Flag

On April 15 Richard Bradley of the honorable and heroic past. The surren­ Spartacist League and the Labor Black der of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861. League for Social Defense, wearing the after two days of fierce bombardment uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil by Confederate forces marked the War, tore down the Confederate flag of beginning of the Civil War. The be­ slavery and racist terror from atop a sieged defenders retreated with honor flagpole outside San Francisco City taking the garrison flag with them. Four Hall. This set offa "battle ofthe flags" as years later to the day, after the Confed­ Democratic mayor Dianne' Feinstein eracy had surrendered, by special order ordered the Dixie flag raised again. of President Abraham Lincoln, the very After Bradley ripped it down a second same flag was re-raised with great cere­ time, Feinstein was forced to give in. But mony at Fort Sumter and every rebel when Bradley put up in its place a battery that had fired on it was ordered replica of the Union battle flag which to fire a IOO-gun salute in its honor. waved over Fort Sumter, it was too On Monday, April 30, Mayor Dianne much for "Dixie Dianne." In a deliber­ "Jefferson Davis" Feinstein, in yet ate act of political racism she had this another act of calculated political historic banner of the war against the racism, abruptly ordered this proud slavocracy removed. Union flag taken down. Now the flag­ The dates are significant, both .. pole stands bare again. Dixie Dianne's historically and today. April 14, the day arrogant actions are despicable, deeply Fort Sumter fell after heavy fighting in insulting to all decent people especially 1861, is also the date of the assassination black people and puts her on the side of of Abraham Lincoln four years later by the slaveholders defeated in the Civil a Confederate fanatic. And on April 15 War. of this year, the same day Ritchie The Mayor was quite content to fly Bradley tore down the banner of racism. the racist Confederate flag for years. Yet an all-white jury acquitted the members she instantly removed the flag of the of a KKK/Nazi death squad who had victorious Union side. Mayor Feinstein murdered five leftists, civil rights organ­ might recall that the last people to force izers and unionists during a rally against down this heroic banner were the Klan terror in Greensboro, North Confederate forces at Fort Sumler. Carolina. While blacks and all decent We have learned that Mr. Wallace San Franciscans applauded Bradley's Levine, head' of the Veterans Affairs action, the government was giving a Council, has recommended. and the green light to racist murder. And Mayor-feeling the heat-has agreed, meanwhile, its journalistic mercenaries to replace the Confederate flag with the were trying to brand the Spartacist "California Hundred" flag, the banner League as "violent" and even "terrorist" of the first 100 California volunteers for peacefully removing a racist provo­ who paid their own way back east to cation (see "Witchhunters' Lies Ex­ fight against the slaveowners. This is a posed," page 8). To finish the Civil War real victory for all those who hailed the and make good on the promise of black Spartacist League's removal of the equality will require a Third American Confederate flag! Revolution, under the red flag of Raising the California Hundred flag socialism. Social Defense-climbed the flagpole in the Confederate flag twice torn down by instead of the hated banner of slavery We print below the SL press release San Francisco's Civic Center for a third Bradley. Following widespread support and the Ku Klux Klan rightly puts San issued in San Francisco on May I. time and put up an exact replica of the for Bradley's actions, Mayor Dianne Francisco and California back on the historic 33-star Fort Sumter garrison Feinstein was forced to announce that Union side of the Civil War. It is a fitting On Sunday, April 29, Richard flag. TJ1is historic Union flag was she would not replace the Confederate tribute to California's sons who fought Bradley-member of the Spartacist donated to the city by the Spartacist flag again in Civic Center. and died in the great conflict to end League and the Labor Black League for League in celebration of the removal of The Fort Sumter garrison flag has an slavery. California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state, over the objections of the slave states, and r~mained staunchly pro-U nion throughout the Civil War. We have donated the Fort Sumter garrison flag to the city ofSan Francisco and in view of its historical significance a suitable place for its display is side by side with the ,California Hundred flag in Civic Center. On May 2, 1984, Richard Bradley will appear in the San Francisco Municipal Court on charges of malicious mischief for tearing the Confederate flag down a second time after its replacement by , WV Photo Mayor Feinstein. He will be demand­ San Francisco, April 29-Richard 'Bradley being ing and welcomes an immediate trial arrested after putting up Union Army.f1ag to replace on these outrageous and ridiculous Confederate flag of slavery. charges.• 12 11 MAY 1984