No 197 WINTER 2006-2007 40p Newspaper of the Spartacist League No to racist state bans on Muslim dressl

~ HANDS OFF MUSLl~ • STOP POLICE BRUTAL TONY BLAIR CRUSADJ Ray Tang/Rex Features Protest (left) at police raid in Forest Gate, East London in June 2006 in which Mohammed Abdul Kahar was shot. Aishah Azmi (right), sacked with the backing of Blair for wearing niqab at work. Racism and the Islamic veil

When cabinet mmlster Jack Straw into the imperialist countries as cheap declared in October that he would prefer labour in previous decades to work in Muslim women not to wear the veil that For women's liberation the lowest paid, dirtiest jobs, just like covers the face (the niqab) he opened the today's new generation of immigrants. floodgates for a torrent of racist bigotry through socialist revolution! In Britain, the majority of Muslims are particularly directed against 1\1uslim of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and women. He also unleal?hed a campaign constitute the most impoverished sec­ for banning the niqab in certain areas of press had a field day denouncing the Muslim jilbab (which covers the body tion of the population. public life. This comes in the wake of veil, and all things Muslim. Straw of but not the face). This overturned a pre­ The "war on terror" is a classic the ban on the hijab (headscarf) course says that it is Muslims wearing vious Court of Appeal decision that "divide and rule" ploy, stigmatising imposed in French schools in 2004 the veil that "could make community Begum's exclusion was unlawful and Muslims as an excuse for a sweeping which was followed by similar bans in relations more difficult". His opposition that she had a right to manifest her reduction in the legal rights of the entire some German states and now the to the veil soon took on the status of a religion. population. It is also aimed at the work­ Netherlands government proposes to government-backed campaign. Tony As Marxists-and therefore atheists ing class, intended to stifle class struggle ban the niqab in public places. Blair proffered that the veil could make and fighters for women's libera­ by insisting on "national unity" against a Straw's attack on Muslim women some "outside the community feel tion-we oppose the veil as both a supposed common enemy. The "war on comes in the context of an escalation of uncomfortable". Local government symbol and an instrument of women's terror" must be fought by mobilisations the racist "war on terror" which seeks to minister Phil Woolas called for the oppression. Nonetheless we unambigu­ of the multiethnic working class, involv­ brand Muslims the "enemy within". sacking of teaching assistant Aishah ously oppose any state or government ing its immigrant component, in a strug­ Labour ministers are trying to drum up Azmi for wearing the niqab at work; bans and restrictions on the veil, which gle against the hated Blair government support among the public, which is Blair backed Kirklees Council in sus­ arc racist and discriminatory against and against the capitalist system as a deeply opposed to the occupation of pending her from her job, which was in Muslims. Contrary to liberal claims whole. This system based on production Iraq. There is also much scepticism a Church of England school with a that banning the veil is designed to inte­ for profit is the root cause of racism and about government "terrorism" scares, majority of Muslim pupils. When Azmi grate Muslims into society, bans will of the oppression of women in society. following the 2005 shooting of Jean was subsequently sacked she denounced lead to expulsions of Muslim women Straw's provocation ignited a fierce Charles de Menezes and the police raid ministers who called for her dismissal, from schools, universities and the controversy over race relations, religion in Forest Gate in June 2006 in which rightly saying it made her "fearful of the workforce, which will reinforce their and women's rights. Supporters of Mohammed Abdul Kahar was shot in consequences for Muslim women in this isolation and oppression. Bans will also Labour's "war on terror" waxed ven­ the chest. He and his brother were country who want to work". fuel racism and play into the hands of omous against the religious strictures of arrested although they were totally Meanwhile the city council in nearby the fascist BNP. Islam, which in Britain is a minority innocent. Meanwhile despite the mas­ Bradford - home to one of the largest Across Europe, bans and strictures religion of the most deprived and down­ sive "security" scare at the airports in concentrations of Asians outside on Islamic dress are an extension of the trodden. The British capitalist state has August, no evidence whatsoever of a London - is drawing up guidelines racist "war on terror" directed in the its own established Christian churches terror plot has been presented to the stating that pupils and staff should not first instance against Muslims, who are in England and Wales that are tied to the public. wear veils during lessons. And in a falsely and indiscriminately branded heart of the conservative establishment, In November, to whip up support for landmark ruling, the House of Lords terrorist suspects as a pretext for state the monarchy and House of Lords. yet another tranche of "anti-terrorism" unanimously backed Denbigh high repression. In Europe, people of British society at large has been rela­ laws, MIS head Eliza Manningham­ school in Luton in their exclusion of a Muslim origin are mainly the descen­ tively secular for decades, but the Blair Buller was wheeled out to give a speech pupil, Shabina Begum, for wearing the dants of immigrant workers brought continued on page 2 that made the country appear to be awash with terrorist plots and potential terrorists. She claimed there are 30 "major terrorist plots being planned", while 1600 individuals are "actively engaged in promoting attacks here and abroad" and no less than I 00,000 people Defend, extend the gains of the "considered the London bombings to be justified" (Guardian, 10 November 2006). 1949 Chinese Revolutionl Soon after Straw's statement a woman in Liverpool had her veil ripped For proletarian political revolution! off, there were arson attacks on mosques and the xenophobic capitalist ______------~rPage61~------on terror", was hailed in the racist gut­ This is rich indeed, coming from the school teacher, Mohammed Halim, who Racism ... ter press for having said "veils suck". head of the Catholic Church which is was savagely killed and disembowelled by Labour MP Harriet Harman also responsible for the Crusades and the the Taliban in a series of murders of teach­ (Continued from page 1) denounced the veil saying "if you want Inquisition. ers who dare to educate girls. government has done its utmost to equality, you have to be in society, not Outrageously, the Alliance for Workers There is nothing new in the imperial­ change that, by funding a huge growth hidden away from it". This hypocrisy is Liberty (AWL) leapt to the Pope's ists using the oppression of women in the in religious schools while over 40 of the breathtaking coming from a cabinet defence! Condemning the international colonial world to justify enslavement of a 100 new "city academies" are to be run member in a government that is respon­ outcry from Muslims that forced him into weaker country. In Victorian times Lord by Christians. sible for the bloody occupations of Iraq a half-hearted apology as "the effort to Cromer, the Empire's chief overlord in From Blair's crusading Christian god­ and Afghanistan. Try telling relatives of silence the head of the Catholic Church", colonial Egypt, cited the fact that women liness to local government minister Ruth the countless thousands of women and Sean Matgarnna opined: "If the spiritual there wore veils to justify the British Kelly's membership of the far-right children slaughtered in Iraq that they absolute monarch of a billion and a quar­ occupation which began in 1882. Catholic sect Opus Dei, Christianity con­ ought to be "in society"! ter Catholics can be treated like that, the Cromer's claim was bogus, to put it mild­ stantly interferes in the private lives of cause of free speech and freedom to criti­ ly: so vehement was his opposition to the population. The social consequences Imperialist butchers of Iraq will cise religion, is surely in a very bad way" women's rights that in London in 1910 he are all around. Creationism - once not liberate women! (Solidarity, 28 September 2006). The became president of the National League the preserve of Christian fundamental­ Liberal journalist Polly Toynbee also AWL's Islamophobia is an extension of for Opposing Women's Suffrage! He also ists - is increasingly being taught in backed Straw, arguing that "because their craven loyalty to "democratic" opposed suffrage for working-class men, schools, repackaged as "intelligent some racists may jump on the band­ British imperialism born out of anti­ seeing it as a slippery slope towards design" while reactionaries of all stripes wagon to attack Muslims, that's no rea­ communist hostility to the Soviet Union socialism. have been beating the drums for a son to pretend veils are OK" (Guardian, during the Cold War. Their defence of reduction in the time limit on abortion. 17 October 2006). In the name of imperialist "democracy" against Islam Soviet bureaucracy's betrayal Religion ought not to have any official secularism, Toynbee is echoing the today is a basic denial that the biggest in Afghanistan backing by the state and people should Islamophobia being whipped up by force for terrorism on earth is US and The US and British imperialists are be free to practise their religion without Labour ministers. This campaign has British imperialism. responsible for the growth of the global state interference and persecution. nothing to do with secularism. It is not Prominent liberals from Muslim network of Islamist forces, including Abolish the monarchy, the House of directed at Christianity (as can be seen backgrounds reluctantly lined up with Osama bin Laden, committed to jihad Lords and the established churches! in Blair's backing of a Christian airport Jack Straw, whom they otherwise against the West. In the 1980s, the CIA For separation of religion and state! worker's right to wear a crucifix at despise. Independent columnist Yasmin organised and armed the Afghan muja­ For free abortion on demand! For an work) but is part of a generalised Alibhai-Brown said "Jack Straw's poli­ hedin (holy warriors) who were known end to state funding of religious assault on Muslims worldwide. Pope tics usually make me either furious or for throwing acid in the faces of schools~for free, secular education! Benedict gave it his seal of approval in bilious", but on the veil, "I find myself unveiled women and shooting school­ In the polarisation over the veil, September when he provocatively agreeing with his every word". Alibhai­ teachers for educating girls. This Salman Rushdie, who supports the "war described Islam as "evil and inhuman". Brown was scathing against liberal apol­ massive mobilisation by US imperial­ ogists for the veil in Britain. Noting that ism was directed against the Soviet unveiled women in Iran are imprisoned, Union and its allies in government in "branded whores and beaten" while Afghanistan. women in Afghanistan and Palestine suf­ NEP V 'market reforms' When the Soviet Army entered fer a similar plight, she complained bit­ Afghanistan in December 1979, we said In 1921, due to the ravages of World terly that: "Instead of expressing solidar­ "Hail the Red Army!" and "Extend the War I, the civil war and widespread ity with these females, sanctimonious social gains of the October Revolution famine, the revolutionary government in the British niqabis are siding with their foes" to the Afghan peoples!" The Soviet Soviet workers state was forced to introduce (Independent, 9 October 2006). Stalinist bureaucracy - for its own rea­ the "New Economic Policy". This had sim­ Also backing Straw was Houzan sons - sent in the army at the request of ilarities to the "market reforms" in China Mahmoud of the Worker Communist the nationalist government in Kabul today, which the bureaucracy claims will Party of Iraq (WCPI) who said "I could which was attempting to lower the bride lead to communism, just as they claim to be never have imagined having anything in price and to introduce land reform. building "socialism in one country". In common with Jack Straw, but I find TROTSKY LENIN These modest measures provoked the contrast, Lenin regarded the NEP as a nec- myself in agreement with him about how reactionary Islamic fundamentalists essary and temporary retreat in the overall it feels talking to a woman covered up in struggle to defend the dictatorship ofthe proletariat and extend it internationally, while hijab or the 'niqab' that covers women into a "holy war" against the govern­ warning ofthe dangers it posed Especially important was that the young workers state fully" (guardian.co.uk website, 7 ment forces. The reformist Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the AWL and maintained a strict monopoly on all foreign trade, unlike in China today. October 2006). Despite the name, the WCPI is an anti-clerical reformist organ­ other reformists around the world lined The New Economic Policy means substituting a tax for the requisitioning of food; it up with the imperialists, howling means reverting to capitalism to a considerable extent - to what extent we do not know. isation which often looks to the imperial­ ist powers as allies in the fight for against the Soviet troops, in the first Concessions to foreign capitalists (true, only very few have been accepted, especially war in modem history in which when compared with the number we have offered) and leasing enterprises to private cap­ women's rights in the semi-colonial world. Mahmoud points to the horrors of women's emancipation was a central italists definitely mean restoring capitalism, and this is part and parcel of the New issue. The reformists lined up with their Economic Policy; for the abolition of the surplus-food appropriation system means allow­ Iraq, where "the veil is being imposed at gunpoint". Yet despite the British gov­ own "democratic" bourgeoisie because ing the peasants to trade freely in their surplus agricultural produce, in whatever is left what was at stake was not only social over after the tax is collected-and the tax takes only a small share of that produce .... ernment's role in Iraq she sees no contra­ diction in calling on them to defend progress within Afghanistan but also The issue in the present war is-who will win, who will first take advantage ofthe the defence of the Soviet Union. situation: the capitalist, whom we are allowing to come in by the door, and even by women at home by banning the veil. The very institutions these people look The Soviet Union was a workers state several doors (and by many doors we are not aware of, and which open without us, and that emerged from the victorious in spite of us), or proletarian state power? .. to and support are responsible for the bloody mess in the semi-colonial world. October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in The whole question is who will take the lead. We must face this issue squarely - who Russia that overthrew the rule of the will come out on top? Either the capitalists succeed in organising first-in which case It is absurd to appeal to the British impe­ rialist state, whose military occupying landlords and capitalists and established they will drive out the Communists and that will be the end of it. Or the proletarian state the dictatorship of the proletariat sup­ power, with the support of the peasantry, will prove capable of keeping a proper rein on forces in Iraq are actively fomenting the communalist terror Mahmoud so vehe­ ported by the vast peasantry. Even those gentlemen, the capitalists, so as to direct capitalism along state channels and to though Tsarist Russia was the most create a capitalism that will be subordinate to the state and serve the state. mently opposes. The imperialists are per­ fectly capable of seizing on the oppres­ backward of the imperialist countries, - VI Lenin, "The New Economic Policy and the tasks of the political education sion of women in the Muslim world and the Russian Revolution was a beacon to depaltments", 17 October 1921, printed in VI Lenin Collected Works, Volume 33, elsewhere, but only to justify colonial workers and the oppressed in all (Lawrence & Wishart, 1976) subjugation. It is fatal to fall for the illu­ advanced capitalist countries and of sion that they will actually improve the course to the oppressed masses of status of women. Central Asia. Despite the Stalinist Afghanistan today is a case in point. In bureaucratic degeneration that took 2001, George Bush cited the status of place in the Soviet Union beginning in women-who are brutally oppressed-as 1923-24, it remained a workers state WORKERSIlAMMER~ part of the justification for a devastating until counterrevolution in 1991-92. Nowhere were the remaining gains of Marxist newspaper of the Spartacist League/Britain military assault on one of the poorest coun­ tries on earth. Among the liberals who the Bolshevik Revolution more clearly For a federation of workers republics in the British Isles I fell for this lie was feminist journalist visible in 1979 than in Soviet Central For a Socialist United States of Europel N atasha Walter who visited Afghanistan Asia. An Afghan schoolteacher looking The Spartacist League is the British section of the International Communist League at the time. On a recent return visit she across the northern border at that region, (Fourth Internationalist). was shocked by the situation of women: which two generations earlier was as wretchedly poor as Afghanistan, saw a EDITOR: Eibhlin McDonald the majority of girls cannot go to PRODUCTION MANAGER: James Palmer school; women who participate in pub­ literate, relatively modem society where CIRCULATION MANAGER: Mick Connor lic life, including a well-known member women were no longer degraded slaves. Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY of parliament and a TV presenter, live The Soviet Army presence could have E-mail: [email protected] in constant fear of being killed by funda­ resulted in the incorporation of Subscriptions: £3 for 1 year, Europe outside Britain & Ireland £5, overseas airmail £7 mentalists (Guardian, 28 November Afghanistan into Soviet Central Asia, Opinions expressed in signed artides do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. opening up the possibility of a social The closing date for news in this issue is 9 December 2006 2006). The Independent (29 November Printed by Newsfax International Ltd (trade union) ISSN 0267-8721 2006) also reported on a 46-year-old continued on page 4

2 WORKERS HAMMER Letter======The IT and the light to Iree Mumia London rally the social forces necessary to win from WVno 627, 25 August 1995. After "Millions for Mumia" saying: "Tonight's 7 December 2006 Mumia's freedom.' the piece they quote, the WV article meeting showed there is broad support to ~ Workers Vanguard (WV) no 627, continues: demand a new trial for Mumia." Dear comrades, 25 August 1995" "In any case, to argue as the IBT does in The BT is also capable of talking out This is a classic BT sleight of hand. The its letter to the SLIB, that the absence of of the other side of its mouth on occa­ At Mumia events in London the dubi­ above paragraph quoted from WV was writ­ such a committee kept other left organi­ sion and arguing against the call for a ous International Bolshevik Tendency ten in reply to the BT arguing that the zations from really mobilizing for a new trial. A BT internet posting of 8 PDC-initiated demonstration in defense (BT) has been insinuating that the SL Spartacist League has undermined Mumia's of Jamal that was held in London on July March 2000 about a split in the Bristol and the Partisan Defence Committee are defence by not setting up a "united-front 22 is laughable. The very same day, at the Mumia campaign by "Alan, for the unwilling to join in united-front protests committee", not as they assert, in reply to very same time, these very same 'leftists' IBT" concludes: for Mumia's freedom. This lying allega­ their call to build a demonstration. had mobilized their forces for a pro- "Finally, I think it is important that MML tion also appears in a September inter­ net posting on their website, "On Recent Spartacist League Polemics", which complains of the SL's "apparent desire to avoid working with us in defense ofMumiaAbu-Jamal". A letter in Workers Vanguard no 876 (15 September 2006) exposed this claim as a lie. For starters, the Brs posting appeared on 1 September, one week utter the PDC had informed the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu­ .!amal (LAC), in which the BT is a key player, of its endorsement of their 15 London 22 July September rally in Oakland, California. 1995: POe-initiated The SL and PDC built for this rally united-front (more than can be said for the LAC) demonstration for which was based on the slogans: Mumia's freedom. "Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent! For BT's Alan Gibson Labor Action to Free Mumia! End the (extreme right) Racist Death Penalty!" spoke from But the Brs allegation that the SL platform. and PDC are sectarian is not about the truth, or about joining genuine united­ front protests. It's a cover for the Brs role in building committees that are vehicles for unity with the liberals and reformists who call for a new trial. Thus they build illusions in the "justice" of the capitalist courts which have upheld The Brs ability to disappear facts imperialist demonstration calling to 'Stop does not add a call for a retrial to its basis the racist frame-up ofMumia for a quar­ is notable in the sentence: "In August the Rape of Bosnia. ' This was a quite con­ of unity. Judge Yohn can rule that Mumia ter of a century. The Brs lie about SL 1995, when a wave of demonstrations scious decision for all of these groups should go free ~ why should we demand sectarianism goes all the way back to erupted around the world to protest whose demonstration was called some anything less? The demand for a retrial can time after the Jamal protest had been create illusions in the racist justice system 1995, when they belatedly got involved Mumia's scheduled execution, our widely advertised. Remarkably, but not at in America. And a retrial can result in a in campaigning for Mumia. Their comrades in London approached the all surprisingly, the BT has not a word to new frame-up, as it did for Hurricane account of what happened in Britain in Spartacist LeaguelBritain (SLIB) with say against those whose own perceived Carter. Yet while I oppose adding such a 1995, as retold in their September inter­ a suggestion for initiating an emer­ sectarian advantage and capitulationist demand to the basis for unity of MML, I net posting, is a masterpiece of BT dis­ gency demonstration." This letter was political priorities led them to counter­ believe that those (like the SWP) who tortion and falsification. It says: dated 7 August 1995 (and not 6 August pose their 'Workers Aid for Bosnia' want to call for a new trial should be free as cited by the BT above). What the march to a demonstration in defense of to do so in their ·own name." "At a 21 June public meeting in Toronto Jama\''' (which had been billed as a PDC organiz­ BT doesn't say is that just over two This is the best they can do when they ing meeting for Mumia) ICL members weeks earlier, on 22 July 1995, the The BT has been a key player in the decide to muster an argument for free­ brusquely dismissed our proposal to coop­ PDC had initiated and organised a London-based Mumia Must Live! dom for Mumia. Obviously it is not erate in seeking to initiate another round of united-front demonstration in London. coalition which, like the LAC in the intended to destroy the liberal illusions united action. It's not as if the BT doesn't know US, has a track record of organising in the capitalist justice system that the "This, unfortunately, is not the first time about it, leading BTer Alan Gibson activities on the basis of a call for a new call for a new trial stems from and fos­ the ICL has taken such a sectarian trial. In March 1999, leading BTer Alan approach. In August 1995, when a wave of spoke from the platform! The PDC had ters. It is crafted in such a way as to demonstrations erupted around the world also organised an emergency protest Gibson sent an email on behalf of cause no disruption to unity with the to protest Mumia's scheduled execution, outside the US embassy on 8 June of Mumia Must Live! asking organisations new trial crowd, which is what really our comrades in London approached the that year when a death warrant was (including the SL) to endorse an matters to the BT. Spartacist LeaguelBritain (SUB) with a signed which was attended by about upcoming 25 April rally, and the The foregoing illustrates the wretched suggestion for initiating an emergency 150 people, at which the BT also Mumia Must Live! coalition. On the political record of a group that mouths demonstration: spoke. political character of the rally Gibson "Trotskyist" principles while mingling 'Time is short, but it is still not too late to Having deliberately conflated their said: "We are hoping that this event on happily with the most abject reformists. initiate a sizeable national demonstration April 25th, as part of the international before 17th August. Other groups are plan­ call for a committee and their call for a But there are more shady sides to them. ning various events, but these will be frag­ demonstration, the Brs posting con­ weekend of action in support of Mumia At the height of the emergency protests mentary and isolated in the absence of a tinues: Abu-Jamal, will have something of the against the death warrant in June 1995, flavour of the recent rally in New York co-ordinated campaign. There has been "We [the BTl replied: the Wall Street Journal ran an article considerable coverage ofMumia's case in attended by 1700 people--I attach a smearing the organisations defending the bourgeois press and most of the left 'it is precisely the fact that "a bunch of report of this meeting at the end of this Mumia, centrally going after the PDC groups would probably come on board for other small leftist [and other 1 organiza­ email." The report he circulated left no tions" all began to mobilize around the and SL. The cited source for their slan­ united action. The SLIB, of all the groups doubt that the "flavour" of the New on the British far left, is probably best same issue at the same time, that made the ders of the SL as a deranged "cult" was positioned to initiate such a united front demonstrations for Jamal successful. In York rally was unequivocally for a new none other than the BT, a group which because of the years of work by your order to build the mass support necessary trial. at the time had written a total of zero AmerIcan comrades in Mumia's defence. for winning his freedom, it makes sense to The report was of a 26 February articles defending Mumia. As the PDC We pledge our fullest support in building organize this woperation .... True, the com­ 1999 "Millions for Mumia" rally. One leaflet for the Oakland rally in any such action .... ' bined forces of the left are less than mas­ of its headlines is: "Undeterred by PBA September put it, "The intent of sive. But is the SL suggesting that it alone Threats, Supporters of Death-Row ~ letter to the SLlB, 6 August 1995 is capable of mobilizing greater numbers the Wall Street Journal in smearing Activists say, 'Stop the Execution, New "The ICL leadership responded: than small groups working in concert?' Mumia's supporters was transparent Trial for Mumia! All Out for April 24!" 'We drm't know what world the BT lives enough. How and why the minuscule --- 'For United Front Defense of Mumia The report continues: "Speakers said in, but we have a lot more grasp of social Abu-Jamal!', 1917 no 17, 1996" BT was so readily wielded as a tool for reality and our own social weight than to Abu-Jamal must receive a new trial and the WSJ is not." believe that a "Free Mumia Committee" of Possibly the reason they didn't men­ no death warrant must be signed by ourselves, the BT and a bunch of other tion the PDC July demonstration is to Gov. Tom Ridge." It quotes Monica Comradely, small leftist organizations would be able to be found in what's left out oftheir quote Moorehead, a national coordinator of Kate Klein

WINTER 2006-2007 3 tices, and the occupation of Iraq. But in Racism ... keeping with the SWP's gross capitula­ (Continued from page 2) tion to Islamic forces, the declaration says not one word on the rights of transformation, something that did not women. Referring only obliquely to the exist before because a proletariat as veil, it does so positively, presenting the such did not exist. But rather than fight­ issue as if it were a lifestyle choice and ing to defeat the brutal mujahedin, the a welcome example of "diversity". Kremlin Stalinists under Mikhail It said: Gorbachev criminany withdrew the "In particular we condemn the statements Soviet troops in 1989. This was a huge made by government ministers designed to betrayal of Afghanistan, especially its isolate, demonise and even criminalise women. It also paved the way for hand­ Islamic religious practices, choice of dress ing over East Germany and the USSR and cultural expression. We affirm that itself to counterrevolution, a colossal such diversity in fact makes an important contribution to the overall development of defeat for the working masses of the our society." entire world. The notion that the veil is just some SWP extols the virtues of "choice of dress" or a matter of "cultural Islamic reaction expression" is liberal nonsense. Marxists reject such "cultural relativism" which

Today the SWP is allied with Islamic serves to prettifY hideous oppression in AFP organisations in Respect and the Stop the neo-colonial world as merely "cultur­ Soldiers of British paratroop regiment near Nawzad, southern Afghanistan in the War Coalition (StWC). In response al differences". Often those who speak shootout that left 21 Afghans dead. to Straw's statement, StWC held a of "cultural relativism" do so in a laud­ "People's Assembly" in London on 18 able effort not to impose Western cultur­ excludes women from society. It embod­ men into "sin" and is a sign of Western November against Islamophobia and al standards on the rest of the world. ies the submission of women to men and "decadence". We solidarise with the the "war on terror". This gathering However it can also be used to condone their supposed inferior status. The hijab countless thousands of women who (which provided prayer rooms, as is gruesome crimes like female genital too is a tool of oppression, covering the have sought to escape the tyranny of now standard at SWP events) issued a mutilation or so-called honour killings. hair based on the notion that female the veil, whether in the Muslim world declaration condemning the govern­ Contrary to such drivel, the head-to-toe attractiveness and sexuality must be or in the imperialist centres. ment's attack on Islamic religious prac- veil is a walking prison that physically suppressed and hidden, because it leads continued on page 8

Workers Hammer welcomes new readers! Subscription drive success Colchester and Brighton and held stalls A central part ofthis year's subscrip­ rent issue of the ICL's international theo­ and sales at a number of London cam­ tion drive was building the international retical journal Spartacist helped explain puses. We also had a very successful campaign undertaken by the Partisan what a true social revolution achieved for trip to Belfast with comrades from the Defence Committee to free American women and to concretise the revolution­ Spartacist Group Ireland. death row political prisoner Mumia ary programme that working people Our opposition to the "war on terror" Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and need to fight to end capitalist exploitation and our defence of Muslims and others later an award-winning journalist and and oppression. targeted for repression were central to our supporter of the MOVE organisation. Workers Vanguard articles published discussions with students, youth and Our subscription drive was an opportu­ during the subscription drive explained workers. We vehemently defended our­ nity to introduce his case to a wider the Russian Revolution of 1917 and selves against attempts by student union layer of students and trade unionists. We motivated the Trotskyist programme in bureaucrats on several campuses to cen­ gathered a number of signatures on the defence of the deformed workers states sor our communist propaganda during PDC's statement of support for Mumia of China and North Korea-a pro­ this year's freshers fairs. At London (see page 5) and held a showing of the gramme that the ICL uniquely upholds. South Bank University, our comrades PDC's DVD "From Death Row, This is Our subscription drive concluded with a fought for our right to display our placard Murnia Abu-Jamal" at SOAS. forum titled "Defend, extend the gains of which calls for "USlBritain hands off Our slogan for "Free Abortion on the 1949 Chinese Revolution!" (see arti­ Iran! Iran needs nuclear weapons!" At Demand!" created quite a bit of contro­ cle, page 6). SOAS, our comrades protested an versy during our trip to Scotland. In Congratulations to comrade Dan who Comrades and sympathisers of the attempt to censor our foreign-language Scotland, where the left has been with 47 points sold the most subscrip­ Spartacist LeaguelBritain and Spartacus literature under the pretext of an embroiled in moralism over the "sex tions. Thanks to aU comrades, and to our Youth Group spent six weeks participat­ "English-only rule" (see article page 12). scandals" surrounding Tommy Sheridan, sympathisers who joined us in making ing in our annual SUbscription drive cam­ We encountered much opposition to our comrades argued that for Marxists, this campaign a success! We encourage paign, exceeding our quota of 200 points the imperialist occupations of Iraq and all sexual activity ought to be a private our readers to let us know what they with a total of 320 points, our best result Mghanistan as well as to the bloody matter in relation to the state and that sex think of our press and to contact us to in a decade. These points represent 129 Zionist war on the Palestinians. Yet many with a prostitute is consensual sex. Our discuss its contents and get involved in subscriptions to Workers Hammer, 64 believe that the imperialist bour­ article on "The Russian Revolution and the activities of the Spartacist League subscriptions to Workers Vanguard, the geoisie-which has unleashed unparal­ the Emancipation of Women" in the cur- andSYG. Marxist, working-class bi-weekly news­ leled misery and violence on the peoples paper '. of our American section, the of the world-can be pressured to serve Spartacist League/US, 57 subscriptions the interests of the oppressed. This illu-' to Spartacist Ireland and 6 subscriptions sion is nurtured by the reformist left, most to other International Communist League of whom peddle the view that British B fOjl:i¥jlf;('IUIU;j) sectional newspapers. imperialism can be persuaded to adopt a Workers Hammer welcomes its new more benign foreign policy. For exam­ Marxist Newspaper of the Spartacist League readers and greets those who renewed ple, the overwhelming theme at the their subscriptions. The Spartacist League o 1-year subscription to Workers Hammer: £3.00 (Overseas subscriptions: "Time to Go" demonstration in Man­ Airmail £7.00; Europe outside Britain and Ireland £5.00) is a fighting propaganda group whose aim chester on 23 September was to call on is to build a revolutionary vanguard party Blair to resign and pressure the Labour o 1-year sub to Workers Hammer and 4 issues of Spartacist Ireland: £5.00 of the kind that VI Lenin and the Party to change course. A common issue o 1-year sub to Workers Hammer PLUS 21 issues of Workers Vanguard, Bolsheviks forged in order to lead the in discussions with students was the Marxist fortnightly of the Spartacist League/US for £10.00. Sub includes working class to power in the October search for a "lesser evil", a solution Black History and the Class Struggle Revolution of 1917 in Russia. We make a between the horrors of capitalism and o 1-year sub to WH, WV, and 4 issues of Spartacist Ireland: £12.00 special effort to sell subscriptions to our the fight for socialist revolution. On sev­ press because it is our main tool for eral campuses our comrades engaged All subscriptions include Spartacist, organ of the International Communist seeking to influence and to lead strug­ with students who thought that the UN, League (Fourth Internationalist) gles and for winning workers and youth despite its bloody history in the Balkans Name ______to our ranks. Our annual subscription and in the Near East itself, was the only Address ______drive is crucial to maintaining an ongo­ solution to the desperate situation of the ______Postcode ______ing readership and reaching out to new Palestinians. Our comrades emphasised layers and to regions where we do not instead that opposition to militarism and E-mail Phone ______--;"" 197 have branches. Our supporters went war must be based on a fight against the Make cheques payable/post to: Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY to Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, system that breeds it-capitalism.

4 WORKERS HAMMER We demand the immediate freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent man.

Mwnia Abu-Jamal's appeal is now on the "fast track" in the federal appeals court and the state is deter­ mined to carry out his execution. Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man. A former Black Panther Party spokesman, supporter of the MOVE organisation and award-winning journalist known as the "voice of the voiceless", Mumia was framed up in 1982 on false charges of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Sentenced to death based on his political history and beliefs, Mumia has spent 24 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. The frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal shows what the death pen'alty is all about. It is a legacy of chattel slavery and a barbaric outrage, it is the lynch rope made legal. The case ofMumia Abu-Jamal exemplifies the race and class bias ofthe US justice system against work­ ers, black people, the poor and all the oppressed. The notorious trial judge, Albert Sabo was overheard at the time promising, "I'm going to help them fry the n----r". Racist jury-rigging, false testimony coerced through police threats, and prosecutorial cover-up were the basis for Mumia's conviction. Both the Penn­ sylvania state courts and the federal courts have refused to consider the reams of docwnented evidence that prove Mumia's innocence. Foremost is the sworn confession of Arnold Beverly that he, not Mwnia, shot and killed the police officer, and that Mwnia had nothing to do with the shooting. We stand with the millions around the world-workers, students, death penalty abolitionists, fight­ ers for black rights and immigrant rights, socialists-who have taken up the fight to free MumiaAbu­ Jamal now! An injury to one is an injury to all! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal now! Abolish the racist death penalty!

International: Henri Alleg. Association des combattants de la cause anti-coloniale (ACCA) (Association of Fighters for the Anti-Colonialist Cause): Palaiseau, France' Hadi Almas, Chairman, Navenda Civata Demokratika kurd Berlin-Brandenburg eV (Democratic Kurdish Society Centre. Berlin-Brandenburg), Berlin, Germany· Amirul Haque Amin, General Sec'y, National Garment Workers Federation: Dhaka, Bangladesh' Anti-Kriegs-Komitee Neukolln, Berlin. GermanY'Australia Asia Worker links, Melbourne, Australia- Uri Avnery. Tel Aviv, Israel-Cecilia Balcazar, Poet, Bogota, Colombia-Hector Banda, Author, Lusaka, Zambia-Marti Batres Guadarrama, President, Mexico City PRD, * Mexico City, Mexico-Walden Bello, Exec Director, Focus on the Global South: Bangkok. Thailand'Tony Benn, London. England'Berlin-Lichtenberg, Gesellschaft zur rechtlichen und humanitilren Unterstutzung e.V. (Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support), Berlin, Germany·Joel Biard, President. Institut d'Histoire SOCia Ie CGT lie de France: Paris, France-Kevin Bracken, Victorian Sec'y, Maritime Union of Australia, West Melbourne, Australia-Claude Cabanes, L'Humanite newspaper,* Paris, France-Pedro Carrion, Campi6n Mundial, Federaci6n de Boxeo: Boxeo Wiking: Berlin, GermanY'Alfredo Chiv Velazquez, Coordinator of Press and Propaganda, Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO);' Secci6n 22. SNTE-CNTE: Oaxaca, Mexico'Cobas PT CUB (Postal Workers Union), Milan, Italy-Comite de Ingenieria por la Otra Campana, Del Coyoacan, Mexico-Coordinadora Nacional Politecnica, Mexico City, Mexico-Jeremy Corbyn, Member of Parliament,* London, England-Patrick Cosgrove QC, Broad Chare Chambers*, Newcastle upon Tyne, England'Bob Crow, General Sec'y, Rail, Maritime & Transport Union: London, England·Michael Czech, DKP (German Communist Party): Berlin, Germany·Didier Daeninckx, Novelist, Aubervilliers, France'Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, New Democratic Party: Vancouver. BC, Canada'Jeremy Dear, General Sec'y. National Union of Journalists: London. England·Mamadou Diop, Ligue Democratique/Mouvement pour Ie parti du travail (LD/MPT): Rufisque, Senegal·Tony Donaghey, President, Rail. Maritime & Transport Union: London, England'Terry Downey, Exec. Vice President, Ontario Federation of Labour: Toronto, Ontario, Canada·Joan V. Doyle, Branch Sec'y, CEPU Postal and Telecommunications Vic: North Melbourne, Australia·Jean-Luc Einaudi. Writer, Garges-Ies-Gonesse, France'Ejercito Zapatista de Liberaci6n Nacional, Mexico·EI Cultr"n e.V. (Chilean cultural association). GermanY'Christiane Ensslin, Exec. Committee member, Kainer Appell gegen Rassismus eV (Cologne Appeal Against RaCism), Cologne, GermanY'Michael Evers, Betriebsrat Eurogate, ver.di: Buxtehude, GermanY'Federazione dei Lavoratori della Conoscenza-CGIL Tuscany, Florence, ItalY'Detlef Feye, VK-Leitung (Head of Council of Shop Stewards), IG Metall Still GmbH. Hamburg, GermanY'Dario Fo, Nobel Prize Winner, Actor, Playwright, Milan, ItalY'Frente Socialista, San Juan, Puerto Rico'Yasumasa Fujinaga, Associate Professor, Yamaguchi University: Yamaguchi, Japan-Janice Gairey, Human Rights Director, Ontario Federation of Labour,* Toronto, Ontario, Canada-Eduardo Galeano, Writer, Montevideo, Uruguay-Manuel Garcia Mois, Artist, Sandinista, Nicaragua-John Witmer Gilbert, President, Regional Directorate, Federazione de; Lavoratori della Conoscenza - CGIL Tuscany, Florence, Italy-Kurt Goldstein, Interbrigadist (Fighter in the International Brigades, Spanish CiVil War); Ehrenprasident, Auschwitz Komitee (Honorary President, International Auschwitz Committee),' Berlin, GermanY'Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize Winner, Author, South Africa'Victor Grossman, Joumalist, Author; member, PDS-Mitte,' Berlin, GermanY'Grupo de Acci6n Revolucionaria, Del. Coyoacan, Mexico·Jiri Grub, President, PEN International"lshmael Guadalupe Ortiz, Freedom Fighter, Vieques, Puerto Rico·Dr. Gregor Gysi, Chairman, Parliamentary Fraction DIE LINKE: Berlin, GermanY'lIona Hepp. Anti-Kriegs-Komitee Neukalln, Berlin, Germany-Gerardo Hernandez Estrada, Secretario de Relaciones y Solidaridad, Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores de la Universidad Aut6noma Metropolitana (SITUAM), Mexico City, Mexico-Evert Hoogers, National Union Representative, Canadian Union of Postal Workers: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada'Hospital Employees Union, Vancouver, BC, Canada'Chenjerai Hove, Poet. Zimbabwe/NorwaY'IG Metall VK-Leitung (Shop Stewards Council) Still GmbH, Hamburg, GermanY'lnstancia de Coordinaci6n Seccional CNTE, Secci6n 22. SNTE (National Trade Union of Education Workers. Local 22. Coordination of Education Workers), Mexico City, Mexico'The International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR). Tokyo, Japan·Justice Action, Sydney, Australia'Bernt Kamin-Seggewies, State Vice Chairman, Transportation Department ver.di (Public Service Union): Hamburg, GermanY'Heinz KeSler, Berlin, GermanY'Johannes Kobler. Professor, Berlin, GermanY'Andreas Kohn, Vice Chairman, ver.di Berlin-Brandenburg (Public Service Union): Berlin, GermanY'Kolner Appell gegen Rassismus e.V. (Cologne Appeal Against Racism), Cologne. GermanY'Konstanze Kopping, MUtter gegen den Krieg Berlin/Brandenburg (Mothers Against War): Berlin. GermanY'Dietmar Koschmieder, Business Manager, Verlag S. Mai, Junge Welt (Sth of May Publishers Young World Newspaper): Berlin, GermanY'Michael Mansfield QC, Tooks Chambers: London, England'Peter March. Sec'y. Rail. Maritime and Transport Union Hull Rail Branch (0746), Hull, England'lnsurgente Marcos. Subcomandante, Ejercito Zapatista de Liberaci6n Nacional, mountains of southeast Mexico·Maritime Union of Australia, West Melbourne, Australia-Hans Modrow, Honorary Chairman, Linkspartei.PDS,* Berlin, Germany-Paul Moffat, Eastern Region Secretary, Communication Workers Union,* England-Lothar Natebusch, Chairman, IG Bau Berlin (Construction Workers Unlon),* Berlin, GermanY'National Council of Trade Unions, Johannesburg, South Africa·Navenda Civata Demokratika kurd Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (Democratic Kurdish Society Centre, Berlin-Brandenburg). Berlin, GermanY'Antonio Negri, Venice, Italy-Winnie Ng, Ontario Regional Director, Canadian Labour Congress,· Toronto, Ontario, Canada-Bahman Nirumand, Journalist, Berlin, Germany·Partisan Defence Committee, Sydney, Australia-Partisan Defence Committee, London, England-Partisan Defense Committee, Toronto, Ontario, Canada-Gareth Peirce, Lawyer, Birnberg Peirce & Partners,* London, England-Gilles Perrault, Author, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, France-Rainer Pommrich, DKP Sachsen-Anhalt (German Communist Party Saxony Anhalt): Halle. GermanY'Dave Proctor. National Casework/Negotiator, Community & Youth Workers Union: Birmingham, England·Prof. Dr. Siegfried Prokop, Chairman, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brandenburg: Berlin, GermanY'Rokeya Rafique, Exec. Director. KarmoJibl Nari (Working Women): Dhaka, Bangladesh'Rail, Maritime and Transport Union 0543 Finsbury Park Branch, London, England'Rail, Maritime and Transport Union Hull Rail Branch (0746), HUll. England·Jose M. Ramos. Treas.-Sec'y. UAW Local 2312: San Juan, Puerto Rico·Kathe Reichel, Actress, Brecht Theater: Berlin, Germany·Reprieve, London, England'Salvador Rodriguez P., Coordinator, Coordinadora Nacional Politecnica, Mexico City, Mexico'Ashim Roy, New Trade Union Initiative: New Delhi, India'Matthew Ryder. Barrister, Matrix Chambers: London, England'Nighat Sahi, Solicitor, Christian Khan Solicitors: London, England'Bernard Saincy. ConfedEnation generale du travail (CGT): Paris, France-Sergio Saito Zamudio, Regional Coordinator, SNTE-National Union of Education Workers, Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico-Frank Schafer, Betriebsrat Eurogate, ver.di,· Hamburg, Germany-Jinny Sims, President, British Columbia Teachers Union: Nanaimo, BC. Canada'Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores de la Universidad Aut6noma Metropolitana (SITUAM), Mexico City, Mexico'Mahlomola Skhosana, General Sec'y. National CounCil of Trade Unions, Johannesburg, South Africa'Clive Stafford Smith, Legal Director, Reprieve, London, England'SNTE-National Union of Education Workers, Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico'SNTE-CNTE Secci6n 10, Mexico City, Mexico'Spartacist League/Britain'Spartacus Youth Group'Kurt Stankewitz. Chairman Berlin-Lichtenberg, Gesellschalt zur rechtlichen und humanitaren Unterstutzung eV. Berlin, GermanY'Dawn Staple, Solicitor, Hodge Jones & Allen: London. England'Heinz Stehr, National Chairman. DKP (German Communist Party),' Essen. GermanY'Bernhard Stietz-Leipnitz. Chairman of Factory Local, ver.di,' Hamburg, GermanY'SUTIN (Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de la Industria Nuclear). Mexico City. Mexico'Frances Swaine, Partner. Leigh Day & Co: London. England'Maria Szyszkowska, Full Professor, Stowarzyszenie Kultury Europejskiej (SEC) (Society for European Culture): Warsaw, Poland'Sylvie Thenault. Historian, Argenteuil, France·Bernhard Thiesing, Journalist, ver.di: Berlin­ Brandenburg. GermanY'Patrick Tort, Director, Institut Charles Darwin International: PUYl'elsi, France'Lautaro Valdes. President. EI Cultr"n eV (Chilean cultural association), GermanY'Salim Vally, Palestinian Solidarity Committee of South Africa: South Africa'Rinaldo Walcott, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education: Toronto, OntariO, Canada'Markus Wolf, Author, Colonel General (DDR) Retired, Berlin. Germany· United States: 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, NY. NY·Jeanelta M. Adams, President, Southern California Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU): Los Angeles. CA'Royce Adams, Former Vice President, International Longshoremen's Association (I LA) Local 1291: Phila .. PA'AFRAM SEIU Caucus-United Healthcare Workers-West. Los Angeles. CA·Pam Africa, Chairwoman. International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Phila., PA'Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 308, Chicago, IL'Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 610. Charleston. SC'Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1560, New Orleans, LA·Jose A. Arroyo, Vice Chair of Section 115. TWU Local 100: NY, NY' Nellie Hester Bailey, Director, Harlem Tenant Council: NY, NY'Charles Barron, member. New York City Counci;: NY, NY'Crispin Booker, Vice President. Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local 402: Brooklyn. NY'Elombe Brath, Chairman. Patrice Lumumba Coalition, NY, NY' Bill Apollo Brown. Composer/Pianist, NY, NY'Vinie Burrows, U.N Representative. Womens International Democratic Federation, NY, NY'Tanaka Charles, Exec Board member, AFSCME Local 199;' Sec'y, Peoples Region 5: Miami. FL·Chicago Area UAW Region 4 Women Committee, Chicago, IL'Kathleen Cleaver, Senior Lecturer, Research Fellow. Emory Law School: Atlanta. GA·Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Long Island Chapter. Garden City, NY'Coalition of Black Trade Unionists New York City Chapter, NY, NY·Colectivo Cannabico de Mexico, Houston, TX'Luis E. Corretjer. Chairman, East New York Central Maintenance Facility. TWU Local 100: NY, NY'Santos Crespo, Exec. Vice President. Local 372. AFSCME DC 37: NY, NY'Annette Cruz. Exec. Board, TA Surface Bus Operators, TWU Local 100: NY, NY'Congressman Danny K. Davis, 7th District Illinois, U.S. House of Representatives: Chicago. IL'Louelia Day-Jeter, Chapter PreSident, OCSEAlAFSCME Local 11: Columbus, OH·Donna S. DeWitt, President. South Carolina AFL-CIO: Columbia. SC·Melvin Dickson, Editor, Commemorator: Berkeley. CA'Bernardine Dohrn, Chicago, IL·Kim Doss-Patterson. President. AFSCME Local 1272: Chicago, IL'Emory Douglas, Revolutionary Artist; Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party: San Francisco. CA'Angela Doyle, Vice President, 1199 SEIU, NY. NY'Grigoriy Dunichev, Exec. Board member. TWU Local 100: NY, NY'Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Princeton, NJ'Mike Elliott, Chair, Education Committee. UAW Local 551 : Park Forest. IL·Chris Fisher. member, former Sec'y-Treas .. AFSCME Local 444: Oakland. CA'Cyril A. Francis. Chairman, Pitkin Maintenance Shop, TWU Local 100: Brooklyn. NY'Federico Galdones. President. ILWU Local 142: Honolulu. HI'Henry Louis Gates. Jr.. W.E.B DuBois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University: Cambridge, MA'Frances Goldin. NY. NY·Marty Goodman, Exec. Board member. TWU Local 100: NY, NY'Oliver Gray, Associate Director. AFSCME DC 37: NY. NY· Haiti Support Network, Brooklyn, NY·Stuart Hanlon. Attorney for Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt), San FranCISco. CA· Noelle Hanrahan, Prison RadiO: San Francisco, CA· Howie Hawkins. Candidate for U.S. Senate, Green Party: Syracuse. NY'Nathan Head, President, Metro Detroit CBTU;' UAW International Civil Rights Dept.: DetrOit. MI'Lennox Hinds. Professor and Lawyer. NY. NY'Madison Hobley. Board member. Campaign to End the Death Penalty;' Ex-Death Row Inmate, Chicago. IL'Marvin Holland. Exec. Board, TWU Local 100: NY. NY'Larry Holmes. Co-Director. International Action Center: NY. NY'Gerald Horne. Professor, University of Houston: Houston, TX'Ray Horne. Exec. Board member. Trustee. Glaziers Local 718,* San Francisco, CA'ldrin Stelley Foundation, San Francisco, CA-International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5, Portland, OR-International Longshoremen's Association (I LA) Local 1422, Charleston, SC·lnternational Longshoremen's Association Local 1422-A, Charleston, SC-Robert Irminger, Vice Chair, Inland Boatmen's Union San Francisco Region,* San Francisco, CA'Georgette Johnson, Exec Board member, AFSCME Local 1276,· Chicago, IL'William Johnson, 1199 SEIU Bread and Roses Cultural Project,' NY. NY·Jamal Joseph. Professor, Columbia University: Ny' NY'Clifford Kelley, RadiO host. Midway Broadcasting (WVON 1450): Chicago. IL·Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu­ Jamal. Oakland. CA'Labor Black League for Social Defense. Los Angeles, CA, NY. NY; Oakland, CA· Labor Black Struggle League. Chicago, IL'La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco, CA'Coraminita Mahr. Vice President. 1199 SEIU. NY. NY·Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Economist, Author, Wash .. DC'Glennis Mason, PreSident. AFSCME Local 20S1: Chicago Heights. IL'Erin McKee. President. Charleston Labor Council;' OPEIU Local 277: Charleston. SC'Keith W. Mickens, International Representative, UAW.* Detroit, MI-MOVE Organization Family Africa, Phlla., PA-Salikoko S. Mufwene, Professor of Linguistics, UniverSity of Chicago,· Chicago, IL-Kiilu Nyasha, Revolutionary Journalist, San Francisco, CA-Sally O'Brien, Exec Producer/Host. WBAI RadiO Program "Where We Live". NY. NY·John Paul Patafio. Chairperson. Jackie Gleason Depot. TWU Local 100: Brooklyn. NY'Darryl "Mike D." Payne. Civil Rights Designee. International Longshoremen's Association AFL-CIO: Ft. Lauderdale, FL·John H. Perkins, President, 1199 SEIU Retired Members DiVISion: NY, NY'Togba R. Porte. Second Vice President, Local 420. AFSCME DC 37: NY, NY'Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, NY-Junta, NY, NY'Connie Reynolds, Vice President. AFSCME Local 2302: Atlantic City. NJ'Kenneth Riley. President. ILA Local 1422. Charleston. SC'Nelson Rivera, Chairman, 207th St. Overhaul Shop, TWU Local 100: NY. NY· Richard Rivera. Chairman, Coney Island Section 113. TWU Local 100: Brooklyn. NY· Marie M. Runyon, Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal: Granny Peace Brigade: NY. NY'Sonia Sanchez. Poet·Sadie Sanders. Chapter Chair, Social Service Employees Union (SSEU) Local 371: Brooklyn. NY'Jennifer Scott. Vice President. AFSCME Local 2534: Harrisburg, PA·Mary Selvie, Chairman, Chicago Area UAW Region 4 Women Committee. Chicago, IL'Dennis L. Serrette. Director of Education. Communication Workers of Amenca (CWA): Wash, DC'Cindy Sheehan. Founder/President, Gold Star Families for Peace: Venice. CA'Gregg M. Shotwell. Delegate to 2006 Convention, UAW: Grand Rapids. MI'Chris Silvera. Sec'y-Treas . International Brotherhood ofTeamsters LocaISOS: Long Island City. NY·Willie Simms, President, ATU Local 1560. New Orleans. LA'Spartacist League/U.S.-Spartacus Youth Clubs, Bay Area. Chicago, Los Angeles. New York'Samuel Staten, Jr.. PreSident. Laborers Local 332: Phila. PA'David Stepp. President. United Steelworkers Local 216: Ridgeville. SC'Lynne Stewart. NY, NY·Shirley E. Suddoth-Lewis, President, AFSCME Local 979: North Plainfield. NJ'Brooks Sunkett. Vice President, CWA: Wash .. DC·Ryan Takas, Union Representative, ILWU Local 5, Portland, OR·Carol Taylor, PresidenUFounder, Institute 4 "Interracial" Harmony. Inc;' First black flight attendant in the US., Brooklyn, NY'Mark L. Taylor. Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Princeton Theological Seminary: Princeton. NJ'Calvin Tillery, Jr., 1st Vice President, ATU Local 308, Chicago, IL'Darby Tillis, Friends to Strangers Ministry: Exonerated Death Row Inmate, Chicago, IL'Chuck Turner, City Councilor, District 7: Boston, MA'Pamela Veal. Judge. Circuit Court of Cook County;' Chicago Council of Black Lawyers: Chicago. IL'Pedro Villa, Colectivo Cannabico de Mexico, Houston, TX·Paul Von Blum, Professor, UCLA: Los Angeles, CA'Henry Walton. Host, Labor Review Radio Program. KPFK: Los Angeles, CA·Gene Washington, President, CBTU Savannah Chapter;' ILA Local 1414: Savannah, GA'Kemah Washington, Chair, Fair Practice Committee, UAW Local 1069: Aldan, PA'Walter J. Washington, President. UAW Local 900: Wayne, MI'Alva Watson, President, CSEA Local 646: Brooklyn. NY'Frank Wells, President, UAW Local 11S: Akron, OH·Cheryl White, Chicago Area UAW Region 4 Women Committee. Chicago. IL·John Wideman, Writer-Rob Williams, Editor, UAW Local 919: Newport News, VA·Wanda Williams. Director of Political Action and Legislation. AFSCME DC 37: NY, NY'Standish E. Willis, Attorney, National Conference of Black Lawyers: Chicago. IL·Women of Color of the New School. NY, NY'Womens International Democratic Federation. NY, NY·Howard Zinn "Organisation listed for Identification purposes only This statement was initiated by the Partisan Defense Committee. Partial list. For full list of signatories, visit www.partisandefense.org. The time to act is now! Join the campaign to free Mumia Abu-Jamal now! Contact the Partisan Defence Committee, BCM Box 4986, London WC1 N 3XX 020 7281 5504. [email protected] • www.partisandefense.org

WINTER 2006-2007 5 "Market relorms" exacerbate contradictions in China

Left: Steel plant in China. State owned sector is strategic backbone of economy. Above: Hu Jintao, now Chinese president, visits Wall Street, April 2002. Defend, extend the gains of the 1949 Chinese Revolutionl

We reprint below in edited form the special hatred reserved for these coun­ ing private industry in China was talist. The core of China's economy presentation given by comrade James tries where the capitalist class has had nationalised and a state monopoly on remains collectivised. Moreover, the Palmer at a Spartacist League public their wealth and power ripped away foreign trade was imposed. The social claim that China is capitalist ignores the meeting in London on 4 November from them. We welcome the news that effect of these changes to the relations implacable hostility of the imperialist 2006. North Korea may now have a more of production after the revolution can bourgeoisies to the People's Republic The world is a very different place effective deterrent against the very real be seen most clearly by thc gains in the of China. The British ruling class dis­ from 15 years ago. The Soviet Union, threat shown by the "axis of evil" hit conditions for terribly oppressed cussed the possibility of persuading the the first and only workers state created list. Nevertheless, China is the real women, who were enabled to advance US to mount a nuclear attack on China in a proletarian revolution and led by a prize for all the imperialists, and their by orders of magnitude over their pre­ in the 1960s and today imperialism revolutionary party, no longer exists. economic and military manoeuvreS are vious miserable status, historically targets China because it remains a Under the leadership of Lenin and focused on re-conquering China to once symbolised by the barbaric practice of workers state that issued out of the 1949 Trotsky's Bolsheviks, the Soviet Union again allow the unlimited exploitation foot-binding. revolution. had been a great beacon of world revo­ of over a billion workers and peasants. Nevertheless the state that issued out In seeking to replicate what hap­ lution for the working class and The Chinese Revolution of 1949 was of the 1949 revolution was a bureau­ pened in the USSR in 1991-92, the oppressed. In Lenin's time, for the first a social revolution of world historic cratically deformed workers state ruled imperialists are trying to promote a time, it had been shown that the work­ importance. Despite having deep by a privileged caste headed by the political opposition in China that will ing class could take control of a society bureaucratic deformations from the Chinese Communist Party leadership. A rely principally on the new class of cap­ and run the economy, administering it start, it overthrew the bourgeoisie. key factor in determining the outcome italist entrepreneurs. At the same time, democratically through workers coun­ Hundreds of millions of brutally was the fact that the Chinese proletari­ American imperialism is increasing the cils otherwise known as soviets. A oppressed peasants rose up and took at was not mobilised for the revolution, military pressure on China, trying for bureaucratic degeneration began in possession of the land. The victory of which brought to power a nationalist, example to encircle China with military 1923-24, accompanied by the anti­ the peasant-based Red Army, led by anti-working-class bureaucracy who bases, including in Central Asia. The Marxist dogma of "socialism in one Mao and the Chinese Communist Party falsely proclaimed they would build US rulers concluded an agreement with country". Despite this, throughout its (CCP) shattered and destroyed the socialism in a single, very backward Japan, on the pretext of defending the existence the Soviet Union still served Chinese capitalist state and its military country. The proletariat at the time was offshore capitalist bastion of Taiwan, as a massive military counterweight to apparatus. The Chinese capitalist rulers, atomised, having suffered two decades and have established a common mili­ the imperialist powers, especially the together with Chiang Kai-shek and the of deadly repression under both the tary command with the Japanese mili­ US. The Soviet nuclear umbrella had remnants of his nationalist army, fled Guomindang and the brutal Japanese tary at Yokohama against China. The prevented the US from using nuclear to Taiwan under the protection 6f occupation (which began in Manchuria Pentagon is actively developing new weapons against Vietnam, North Korea American imperialism. The remainder in 1931 and extended to the major cities weapons against China's limited and China itself. The USSR's attain­ mostly ended up in Hong Kong. In in eastern and central China after the nuclear arsenal to allow the option of an ment of such military and economic China the power of the warlords, land full invasion in 1937). Moreover, this American nuclear first strike, a strategy might also proved the superiority of the owners and bourgeoisie (often one and working class had been repeatedly which has been openly proclaimed by planned economy over capitalist the same) had been finally destroyed. betrayed by Stalinism, most notably in the Bush gang in Washington. exploitation. And a nation that had for a century been the bloody defeat of the 1925-27 revo­ After the creation of the joint mili­ Since the destruction of the USSR, ravaged and divided by the Western lution. tary command at Yokohama, we pub­ the imperialist powers have been fix­ powers was unified and liberated from lished a statement titled "Down ated on the destruction of the remaining the imperialist yoke. China is not capitalist With U.S./Japan Counterrevolutionary workers states: Cuba, Vietnam, North The revolution created a workers Today, we do not minimise the dan­ Alliance!" and said "The U.S. and Korea and most importantly China. state based on a centrally planned econ­ ger posed to the Chinese deformed Japan will not hesitate to crush any Although the bourgeois rulers have omy which was the basis for the huge workers state by the capitalist econom­ challenge in their drive to exploit the hailed the "death of communism" since leap forward in social progress. The ic penetration to which the Stalinist working masses of the r~gion". the end of the Soviet Union, for them new state redistributed land to the peas­ bureaucrats have opened the Chinese We Trotskyists stand for uncondi­ there is no such thing as the death of ants, expropriated key industries and economy. However, we disagree with tional military defence of China and the anti-communism. The recent furore developed the state-owned industrial the majority of liberals and reformist other remaining deformed workers over North Korea's demonstration of an sector with aid from the USSR. After organisations who have declared the states against imperialist attack and all atomic bomb is ample illustration of the the Korean War of 1950-53 the remain- "market reforms" mean China is capi- threats of capitalist counterrevolution. For proletarian political revolution!

6 WORKERS HAMMER In particular, we support China's pos­ that came about from a peasant guerrilla session and testing of nuclear arms as a war led by Stalinist-nationalist forces. necessary deterrent against imperialist The CCP used Stalin's Russia as a nuclear blackmail. model, meaning that they established a China's "market reforms" have complete monopoly on power and polit­ intensified the contradictions that are ical organisation. All working-class inherent in a deformed workers state. political activity was ruthlessly re­ The rapid economic and industrial pressed, including economic struggles. growth has created the largest single Lenin and Trotsky's Bolsheviks knew industrial proletariat in the world. This that the only way for the workers state is of strategic importance internationally. to survive was through building social­ At the same time inequalities within the ism on a worldwide basis. They created society are stark and growing. There the Third International as an instru­ have been ongoing workers protests and ment to extend the revolution interna­ the countryside has seen massive tionally, especially to the advanced protests by peasants, particularly capitalist countries of Europe. against seizure ofland by CCP officials. However, the failure of international The ruling bureaucracy is an unstable revolution, particularly the defeat of the caste, not a ruling class. Currently it is 1923 German revolution, and the divided between elements who want the increasing isolation of the young economic reforms to continue unabated, Soviet workers state, combined with those who want more state intervention the devastation of World War I and the to curb the ravages of marketisation and Civil War, laid the material basis for to stifle discontent, and others who seek the growth of a bureaucratic caste. • a return to a bureaucratically planned Beginning in 1923-24, the Soviet economy. At some point, the explosive Union underwent a bureaucratic­ social tensions of Chinese society will nationalist degeneration under the rule Above: Mao's shatter the political structure of the of Joseph Stalin. This constituted a peasant-based bureaucratic ruling caste. As we have political counterrevolution, not a social People's Liberation said, when that happens, the fate of the one. The revolutionary proletarian Army enters Beijing most populous country on earth will be internationalist programme of Bol­ in 1949. Left: Former posed: either proletarian political revolu­ shevism was repudiated for the pro­ landlord denounced tion that will open the road to socialism foundly anti-Marxist "theory" that by peasant. or a return to capitalist enslavement or socialism could be built in a single Revolution smashed imperialist subjugation. country, and that the Soviet workers rule of landlords and We stand for a proletarian political state could "peacefully coexist" with capitaliSts. revolution to sweep away the oppres­ world imperialism. The Chinese sive and parasitic Stalinist bureaucracy bureaucracy modelled itself on its and replace it with a government based Stalinist counterpart in the USSR. on democratically elected workers and peasants councils. Such a government, The reactionary utopia of USSR's counterrevolutionary destruc­ weapons is a historic gain of the inter­ under the leadership of a Leninist­ "socialism in one country" tion, a historic defeat for the working national working class. In the face of Trotskyist party, would re-establish a The bureaucratic caste resting on top people of the world. China's alliance US imperialism's unchallenged global centrally planned economy, including of the Chinese workers state is a mortal with US imperialism helped set the nuclear hegemony, the only meaningful reinstating the state monopoly of for­ threat to its continued existence. Its stage for Deng's "open door" to impe­ guarantee of any nation's sovereignty eign trade, administered not by the anti-revolutionary nature can be seen rialist exploitation in the next period. today is the possession of a credible "commandism" of a bureaucratic caste historically in the Chinese bureaucra­ This policy of "peaceful coexist­ nuclear deterrent. but by the widest workers democracy. It cy's alliance with US imperialism ence" continues today. Hu Jintao and Maoists and Stalinists reject in par­ would expropriate the Chinese capital­ against the Soviet Union, which was the Co support Bush's "war on terror", the ticular the possibility of proletarian ist entrepreneurs and renegotiate the logical outcome of the policy of "peace­ political rationale for the US occupation socialist revolution in advanced capital­ terms of foreign investment so that it ful coexistence" with imperialism. In of Iraq and Afghanistan and for their ist countries. The Stalinist-Maoist served the interests of Chinese working 1972, while American bombs were rain­ threats against Iran-one of China's dogma of "socialism in one country" is people, insisting for example at least ing down on Indochina, US war crimi­ main energy suppliers. The Chinese the antithesis of the Trotskyist perspec­ on conditions the same as in the state nal Richard Nixon was hosted and Stalinist regime has criminally joined tive for permanent revolution which sector. A revolutionary workers govern­ toasted by Mao in Beijing. This policy the imperialist-led uproar against North posits that the modernisation of China ment in China would encourage the vol­ continued under Deng Xiaoping. Four Korea. On 8 October, China joined must be part of a globally integrated untary collectivisation of agriculture on years after the US had been defeated in imperialist Japan in a common declara­ and planned socialist economy, follow­ the basis of large scale mechanised and Vietnam-which amounted to an enor­ tion that a nuclear weapons test "cannot ing socialist revolution in the imperial­ scientific farming, recognising that this mous victory for the toiling masses of be tolerated". This is despite the fact ist centres. This is the only road to the requires substantial material aid from the world-China criminally invaded that any weakening ofthe North Korean all-round liberation of China's worker successful workers revolutions in the the Vietnamese deformed workers state. workers state against imperialist mili­ and peasant masses. more economically advanced countries, Shortly after receiving a stinging defeat tarism would also weaken China's particularly Japan. by Vietnam, China gave its support to defence. Korea is a historic invasion The class nature of the Chinese There is a qualitative difference the reactionary, woman-hating, imperi­ route into China and is adjacent to deformed workers state between the Russian October Revo­ alist backed mujahedin in Afghanistan important industrial regions. We regard China is a deformed workers lution, which was carried out by the who fought against the Soviet Red nuclear weapons as necessary to deter state - a form of the dictatorship of the class-conscious proletariat and guided Army following its 1979 intervention. imperialist attack and defend the work­ proletariat. For Marxists, any state is by the internationalism of the Mao and Deng and the Chinese ers states in the region. The ability of composed of bodies of armed men Bolsheviks, and the Chinese Revolution Stalinists must share the blame for the the workers states to develop these continued on page 9

Right: Mao greets Nixon in 1972 as US bombers rain death on Vietnam. Far right: Spartacists protest China's 1979 invasion of Vietnam, perpetrated as part of Beijing bureaucracy's anti­ Soviet alliance with US imperialism.

Magnum Workers Vanguard WINTER 2006-2007 7 actually non-existent. The US and Racism ... British imperialists are not about to set (Continuedfrom page 4) up secular democracies in either Afghanistan or Iraq, or anywhere else in To justify their capitulation to Islam, the neo-colonial world. the S WP sometimes cites the fact that Islam is not uniquely reactionary or Lenin's Bolshevik Party regarded reli­ anti-woman, in fact anti-woman bigotry gion as a private matter. Lenin made it is just as much an integral part of very clear that Marxism is based Christianity and Judaism as of Islam. on dialectical materialism which is However, while Christianity and Juda­ "absolutely atheistic and positively hos­ ism adapted to the rise of industrial cap­ tile to all religion" and "has always italism, Islam remained rooted mainly regarded all modern religions and in those parts of the world that churches, and each and every religious remained poor and undeveloped, due to organisation, as instruments of bour­ the world system of capitalism. geois reaction that serve to defend Historically and today, the development exploitation and to befuddle the work­ of the weaker countries has been arrest­ ing class". At the same time he noted ed and retarded by imperialism. that religion serves to solace the Capitalist imperialism is based on the oppressed masses in a cruel world and domination of the world by a handful of therefore to free the masses from its wealthy states using their military yoke requires class struggle for socialist might to protect their markets and revolution against the capitalist system spheres of intluence. All religions rein­ that gives rise to the brutal social condi­ force the patriarchal family and the tions religion thrives on. However institution of the family is the main Lenin was adamant that revolutionaries source of women's oppression in socie­ "regard religion as a private matter in ty. It is the mechanism for inheriting relation to the state, but not in relation property, for socialising new genera­ to themselves, not in relation to tions of workers and for inculcating Marxism, and not in relation to the the moral and sexual codes of the ruling workers' party" ("The Attitude of the class. Workers' Party to Religion", 1909). The SWP's adaptation to Islam is Hue and cry over "multiculturalism" based on the utterly false notion that Afghan women in 1980 (top); Red Army intervention opened prospect of social political Islam is "anti-imperialist". The row over the veil in Britain over­ emancipation. Soviet soldier from Central Asia fighting Islamic reaction (left). Since counterrevolution in the Soviet laps with a controversy over "multicul­ Kabul today: veiled woman begs on streets (right). Union in 1991-92, the imperialists have turalism", a policy of voluntary cultural sought to portray Islamic fundamen­ and racial segregation of minority com­ requires a revolutionary struggle, act of solidarity against the common talism - exemplified by Osama bin munities that has been promoted by mobilising the power of the proletariat, enemy - the Thatcher government. Laden's Al Qaeda-as the replacement governments for decades. It has always to uproot capitalism and liberate The Heathrow airport wildcat strike for the "red menace" in order to justify been hated by right-wingers as a con­ humanity from poverty and want. that paralysed BA last year and cost domestic repression and imperialist cession to racial tolerance. Now it is Predictably, the reformist SWP defends them millions, carried out by the military aggression. The US imperial­ being denounced as "self-segregation" multiculturalism. This denies that ground crews in support of over 600 ists feel emboldened in their military and Blair has declared that everyone minority communities, like the rest of sacked catering workers, was a power­ adventures and are seeking to strength­ has a "duty to be part of an integrated society, are class-divided and that the ful demonstration of the social power en their hold on the historically-Muslim United Kingdom". This means conform struggles of immigrant and other minor­ of the working class. The racially inte­ oil-rich Near East. to so-called British values, or, in Blair's ity workers for jobs, unions and equal grated workforce struck in class soli­ The dramatic rise of political Islam words "don't come here" (Guardian, 9 status means breaking the grip of reli­ darity with the catering workers, the in this region is a result of the bankrupt­ December 2006). Multiculturalism is gious and other conservative communi­ majority of whom were Sikh women, cy of secular nationalism and of also detested by liberal Muslims ty leaders. Moreover supporting multi­ showing how class struggle can tran­ Stalinism, forces that were once domi­ because it strengthens conservative, culturalism promotes illusions that the scend ethnic lines. nant among the poor and oppressed in patriarchial and religious forces within capitalist state can be used as an instru­ Within the Respect coalition the Iraq, Iran and Egypt. Today the masses minority communities. It was invoked ment to fight racist oppression. The SWP has dropped their reformist increasingly look to Islamic jihadist to justify the government's tacit support capitalist state exists to defend class claim to fight for "socialism" or the forces that are reactionary and hostile to to reactionary protests by Sikh elders rule based on private property; it is the working class. They have disavowed any form of social progress. These that shut down the play Behzti executive organ of the capitalist class secularism and any meaningful fight forces are reacting in their own distort­ (Dishonour) in Birmingham in Decem­ for the suppression and exploitation of for women's or gay rights in order to ed way to the crimes of US and British ber 2004. Written by a Sikh woman, the the working class. maintain their bloc with Islamists. In imperialism against the peoples of the play was savagely critical ofthe oppres­ The increased prevalence of the its own way, this shows the S WP has Near East, including their backing for sion of minority women, including by Islamic veil in Britain is in part due to absorbed the "death of communism" Israel's bloody repression of the religious elders. the rise of political Islam international­ myth to the same degree as Jack Palestinians. The fundamentalists also We Marxists fight for voluntary inte­ ly. It is also a result of relentless racism, Straw, who argues that unlike 50 years utilise the perceived threat by the impe­ gration of all minorities based on full poverty and hardship suffered by immi­ ago when the divisions in society rialists to "Westernise" Muslim soci­ equality. But we understand that the grant workers and their descendants "were ones of class", in the post­ eties as a justification for the degrada­ eradication of racism, women's oppres­ under British capitalism. Two decades Soviet world and especially since 9/11 tion of women. However this threat is sion and all forms of discrimination ago, religion had much less influence they are "principally ones of religion" among minorities from South Asia. In (New Statesman, 18 September 2006). 1985 the film My Beautiful Laundrette, This myth must be combated and shat­ based on a novel by Pakistani-derived tered through class struggle. A class­ writer Hanif Kureishi telling of a gay struggle fight to defend the rights of relationship between a young Asian Muslims and all immigrants and minori­ man and a National Front "hard man", ties against the racist capitalist state is in was hugely popular. Today an Asian the interests of all the working class. gay film would cause uproar. Against anti-immigrant racism, we In so far as integration of minorities call for full citizenship rights for all exists in this country it was not handed immigrants. down by government policy, but was We are dedicated to building a multi­ fought for in the streets and on picket ethnic revolutionary workers party lines. In 1958 in London's Notting Hill which will champion the rights of all the and in Nottingham, black and Asian oppressed and whose task is to bring residents fought back racist mobs revolutionary consciousness to the backed by police in scenes similar to working class, overcoming backward­ those in Oldham in 2001. Blacks and ness and prejudice in the struggle for the Asians have been integrated into the overthrow of capitalist class rule. The workforce and the trade unions and liberation of women requires successful have historically played a prominent struggle for working-class rule. This role in the class battles of this country. will lay the basis for an egalitarian com­ The Grunwick strike in 1976 in munist society of material abundance, London was a landmark battle by which alone will make it possible to Asian women for decent working con­ replace the family, the key institution of Central Museum of the Revolution, Moscow ditions. In the great miners strike of women's oppression. This is also the Soviet Central Asia, 1924: Communist cadres of Zhenotdel, Soviet comm­ 1984-85, the black and Asian commu­ only route to the eradication of racism ission for work among women, teach literacy. Bolshevik Revolution was a nities provided huge support to the and inequality and will open the road to beacon to women of the East. overwhelmingly white miners, as an the full emancipation of women .•

8 WORKERS HAMMER tionary "anti-Stalinist" force, from China ... Solidarnosc in Poland to the Afghan (Continued from page 7) mujahedin in the 1980s to Yeltsin's counterrevolution in Moscow in 1991, (the police, army, prison guards, when they vilely proclaimed "Comm­ courts) who are charged with defend­ unism has collapsed .... It is a fact that ing and protecting the ruling class and should have every socialist rejoicing" its interests against the dominated (Socialist Worker, 31 August 1991). classes. Karl Marx explained the con­ In 1996 these reformists also sided cept of the dictatorship of the proletari­ with the political heirs of Chiang Kai­ at, emphasising that post-revolutionary shek, who for decades ran the brutal society will need to retain a coercive capitalist state of Taiwan. As US war­ Beijing, May 1989: state apparatus. In Critique ofthe Gotha ships plied the Taiwan straits in one of Workers defended Programme, Marx writes: "Between many provocations against Beijing, the Tiananmen student capitalist and communist society lies Cliffites proclaimed that "China's claim protests, opposed the period of the revolutionary transfor­ to Taiwan is a colonialist one. We would effects of pro-capitalist mation of the one into the other. oppose any Chinese invasion of Taiwan "market reforms". We Corresponding to this is also a political as an act of imperialist aggression" called for proletarian transition period in which the state can (Socialist Review, April 1996). political revolution to be nothing but the revolutionary dicta­ Ever since the counterrevolutionary sweep away venal torship of the proletariat." nationalist army and the Chinese bour­ Stalinist regime. When we say we stand for the geoisie fled to Taiwan after the revolu­ unconditional military defence of tion, Taiwan has been an outpost for China, we mean what Trotsky meant US imperialism's counterrevolutionary about the Soviet Union: "we do not schemes, military threats and interfer-

that the complete and genuine solution of of imperialism is totally contradicted by their tasks of achieving democracy and history. It shows that the reformist SWP ",'" national emancipation is conceivable only would have stood with the Mensheviks ~ through the dictatorship of the proletariat as the leader of the subjugated nation, in Russia in 1917 in supporting the above all of its peasant masses. "liberal" bourgeoisie. The Bolsheviks "Not only the agrarian, but also the counterposed to this the need to break national question assigns to the peas­ with the liberal bourgeoisie and to fight antry-the overwhelming majority of the for the dictatorship of the proletariat! popUlation in backward countries - an The colonial bourgeoisie's true role was exceptional place in the democratic revo­ clearly demonstrated in the 1925-27 lution. Without an alliance of the prole­ defeated Chinese revolution, which the tariat with the peasantry, the tasks of the democratic revolution cannot be solved, Chinese bourgeoisie drowned in blood. nor even seriously posed. But the alliance They were aided by the treachery of Stalin of these two classes can be realized in no under whose leadership the CCP was other way than through an irreconcilable instructed to subordinate itself to the struggle against the influence of the bourgeois Guomindang. national-liberal bourgeoisie." - The Permanent Revolution (1969) Permanent revolution According to the Cliffites, permanent confirmed in the negative US warships in massive "Valiant Shield" military exercises in Asian Pacific in revolution was "deflected" in the 1949 How could the Chinese Communist June. US imperialism has strengthened its deployment in the Pacific Rim as Revolution, as a result of which part of its military pressure against China, North Korea. Party, based on a peasant army, ie a "bureaucratic state capitalism simply petty bourgeois force, establish a work­ replaced private capitalism" (SWP ers state? This presented a theoretical lay any conditions upon the bureauc­ ence in Chinese internal affairs. pamphlet by Charlie Hore, China­ racy. It means that independently of Taiwan has been since ancient times a problem for the Trotskyists at the time Whose revolution? 1987). While main­ and for some years afterwards, until a the motive and causes of the war we part of China - it is both ethnically, taining that the class nature of the state defend the social basis of the USSR, if linguistically and historically Chinese. contribution by the founders of the that emerged from the revolution was Spartacist League regarding the Cuban it is menaced by danger on the part of We Trotskyists will stand with China capitalist, because one bourgeoisie was imperialism" ("Again and Once More in the event of any military conflict Revolution retrospectively illuminated simply replaced by a more nationalistic the course of the Chinese Revolution. Again on the Nature of the USSR", In with imperialism over Taiwan. We are capitalist ruling class - Hore admits defense of Marxism). But we also also opposed to the Chinese Stalinists' In Cuba, under exceptional circum­ that "1949 was a genuine revolution, in stances - the absence of the working give not an iota of political support proposals for reunification embodied which a millions-strong peasant army to the programme of the Stalinist bu­ in the slogan of "one country, two sys­ class as a contender for social power; overthrew the old ruling classes, broke the flight of the Cuban bourgeoisie; reaucracy. tems". We call for the revolutionary the power of Western imperialism and reunification of China: that means a hostile imperialist encirclement plus SWP's rabid anti-communism laid the basis for a new social order." the lifeline that was thrown by the workers socialist revolution in Taiwan The notion that the nationalist bour­ In Britain, the Socialist Workers to overthrow and expropriate the bour­ Soviet Union - a petty bourgeois geoisie in China, or any semi-colonial movement did overthrow the old Party of the late Tony Cliff does not geoisie and a proletarian political rev­ country, would institute a genuine claim that capitalism has recently been olution on the mainland, as well as the social revolution and break the power continued on page 10 restored in China. For them, China has expropriation of the Hong Kong capi­ been "state capitalist" since the 1949 talists. Likewise with Hong Kong, we revolution, with the bureaucracy con­ Trotskyists cheered as the decrepit veniently deemed a ruling class. The British Empire lost its last major colo­ anti-Marxist theory of "state capital­ nial holding with the lowering of the ism" is nothing but a fig leaf for the fact bloody Union Jack and the raising of that these reformists have sided with the the red banner of the People's capitalist "democracies" against the Republic in 1997. As we wrote at the workers states ever since the inception time in an article "Britain out of Hong of this group. The Cliff tendency came Kong" (Workers Hammer no 109, into existence in a capitulation to anti­ September 1989), we are for "One communist hysteria that accompanied country, one system - under workers the Korean War of 1950-53. In a cow­ rule!" ardly capitulation to the Labour govern­ ment which sent troops to Korea, Cliff China and permanent rejected the Trotskyist position of revolution unconditional military defence of the The Cliffites maintain that the 1949 Massive Three USSR, North Korea and China, thus Revolution disproves Trotsky's theory breaking with Trotskyism. As an illus­ Gorges Dam of permanent revolution. This is the project illustrates tration of what an enormous defeat for Marxist programme for the countries of power of planned US imperialism the Chinese Revolution belated capitalist development and in economy in had been, it was the intervention of essence it was also the programme on China. China's People's Liberation Army in which the Bolsheviks led the Russian the Korean War that saved North Korea October Revolution. In Trotsky's words from being overrun by American impe­ it says: rialism and their South Korean puppet "With regard to countries with a belated regime. bourgeois development, especially the Throughout its existence, the Cliff colonial and semi-colonial countries, the tendency has supported every reac- theory of the pennanent revolution signifies

WINTER 2006-2007 9 and destruction of capitalism as a world But while this is true, the "market reasons behind it were valid - to China ... system, lay the basis for the elimination reforms" have massively widened the secure the resources needed to extend (Continuedfrom page 9) of exploitation, scarcity and war. gap in living conditions within China, and defend the revolution. However, its success or failure to impoverishing millions of rural toil­ In contrast to China today, the Batista dictatorship and eventually achieve victory depends on its organisa­ ers and are also creating a wealthy Bolsheviks maintained a strict applica­ eliminated capitalist property relations. tion and consciousness, ie on revolu­ new class of capitalists within China tion of the state monopoly on foreign But Castroism or Maoism cannot bring tionary leadership. The revolutionary who have links to the CCP official­ trade. In China the market reforms are the working class to political power. party is the indispensable weapon in dom as well as to offshore Chinese motivated by the appetite of the As we have noted, even under the this struggle. By 1949 the working class capitalists. bureaucracy to enrich themselves. The most favourable historic circumstances in China had undergone 20 years of bureaucracy has proved more than repression and disillusionment, and was Chinese "market reforms" v happy to act as gangmasters for the conceivable, petty-bourgeois forces NEP under Lenin were only capable of creating a bureau­ politically atomised, largely thanks to world's bourgeoisies. Capitalist prop­ cratically deformed workers state, the Stalinist CCP. In considering these "market re­ erty owners are now allowed to join which means a state qualitatively the forms" it is useful to make a compari­ the CCP and it has been possible to Contradictions of the son with the New Economic Policy inherit wealth, putting in place a key same as that resulting from the political "reform" era counterrevolution in the Soviet Union implemented in the USSR in 1921. This element for the return of the bour­ under Stalin. In Cuba and China the Deng's opening of the economy to was done under the revolutionary lead­ geoisie as a class. results were anti-working-class regimes foreign (and Chinese) capitalists has ership of the Bolshevik party as an allowed rapid growth. It is easy to view emergency measure in an attempt to Pro-imperialist accomplices of that blocked the possibilities of ex­ counterrevolution tending social revolution, into Latin America in the case of Cuba and into Leader of the reformist Socialist Japan and the rest of Asia in the case of Party Peter Taaffe says: China. To place the working class in "The present regime in China is increas­ ingly capitalist with a peculiar amalgam of political power and open the road to a growing capitalist economy (particularly socialist development requires a further in the export sector) together with the political revolution led by a Leninist­ remnants of the \1aoist-Stalinist state Trotskyist party. Since counterrevolu­ machine, which is also seeking to move in tion in the SQviet Union, with no read­ THE REVOLUTION the direction of capitalism." ily available life-line against imperialist --- The Socialist, 6-12 October 2005 encirclement, the narrow historical BETRAYED WIllY 15 Til sOVln DIIIOII UD WMERE IS IT GOII"! Taaffe's claims that the Chinese state opening in which petty-bourgeois is "gradually" becoming capitalist is an forces were able to overturn local capi­ example of what Trotsky polemicised talist rule has been closed. against in the 1930s when he said "He The experience of both of these rev­ who asserts that the Soviet government olutions has completely validated the has been gradually changed from prole­ Trotskyist theory of permanent revolu­ tarian to bourgeois is only, so to speak, tion, in the negative: only under the running backwards the film of dictatorship of the proletariat can the ..TRAJISLATm BY MAX rnTlA" reformism" ("The class nature of the colonial and semi-colonial countries Soviet state"). Taaffe's notion that a obtain genuine national emancipation. restoration can come about through To open the road to socialism requires incremental shifts from state ownership the extension of the revolution to the AP Leon Trotsky's 1936 The Revolution Betrayed presents Marxist analysis of to private ownership, without a counter­ advanced capitalist countries. degeneration of October Revolution under Stalinist bureaucracy which applies revolution, goes hand in hand with the In drawing out the lessons of the equally to the Chinese deformed workers state today. SP's belief that "socialism" will come Russian October Revolution, which through nationalising the "commanding was led by the proletariat, Trotsky says the "market reforms" that Deng initiated revive the economy after three years of heights" of the capitalist economy that: "The peasantry can either support at the beginning of the 1980s either as a bitter civil war against the White forces through an "Enabling Act" In the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, or total betrayal of the PRC or as the rea­ and imperialist armies. The economy Parliament. These reformists utterly serve as a prop to the dictatorship ofthe son for its current growth level. Both of had been crippled- starvation was reject the idea that the proletariat must proletariat. Intermediate forms are only these would be false. The "market rampant in the countryside and manu­ smash the bourgeois state and establish disguises for a dictatorship of the bour­ reforms" were initially an attempt to facturing had declined to the point the dictatorship of the proletariat. geoisie .... the peasantry can follow respond, within the framework of where the proletariat had almost ceased We insist that, like in the former either the bourgeoisie or the proletariat" Stalinist bonapartism, to the inefficiency to exist, a very bad situation for a state Soviet Union, the decisive arena in (The Permanent Revolution, 1969). of bureaucratic "commandism" (poor power that was based on proletarian which a capitalist counterrevolution Only one of the two fundamental class­ productivity, mediocre quality, scarcity rule. Lenin saw the NEP as a necessary would have to triumph is at the politi­ es in society can hold state power, ie the etc). As we wrote in the 1980s: compromise to buy the revolution time cal level. A likely scenario will be working class or the bourgeoisie. In "Within the framework of Stalinism, there until it could be extended by proletarian when bourgeois elements move to destroying the army of the Chinese is thus an inherent tendency to replace cen­ revolutions in more developed coun­ eliminate CCP political power by sup­ bourgeoisie and large landowners, the tralized planning and management with tries, specifically Germany. The clear porting capitalist restorationist forces. Maoist army had destroyed the dictator­ market mechanisms. Since managers and danger inherent in this plan was the cre­ workers cannot be subject to the discipline In such an event the Taaffeites will be ship of the bourgeoisie and put in place of soviet democracy (workers councils), ation of a new class of petty capitalists on the side of counterrevolution, just the dictatorship of the proletariat. increasingly the bureaucracy sees subject­ (the "NEP men") and rich peasants who as they were in the former USSR when Our 1966 Declaration of Principles ing the economic actors to the discipline of would act as a force against the dicta­ they supported Boris Yeltsin's coun­ of the Spartacist League characterised market competition as the only answer to torship of the proletariat. As part of the terrevolution in 1991. The Taaffeites those revolutions led by petty-bour­ economic inefficiency." NEP, the Bolsheviks also sought to have never stood for defence of the geois guerrilla forces which came dur­ - "For Central Planning Through Soviet bring in foreign investment and tech­ workers states, including China. In ing a particular historical window of Democracy", Workers Vanguard no nique (the term used at the time was August 2005, six months after the opportunity after the Second World 454, 3 June 1988, reprinted in "Market "concessions") to certain areas of the Socialism" in Eastern Europe (July American and Japanese imperialists War: 1988) economy, especially those centred on signed a military agreement against "Movemtmts ofthis sort can under certain natural resources which they them- China, Taaffe clearly declared that the When Mao died, China, while hav­ conditions, i.e., the extreme disorganiza­ , selves were not well equipped to take CWI will stand with the imperialist tion of the capitalist class in the colonial ing constructed a substantial, relative­ advantage of. The foreign currency forces and "democratic" capitalist country and the absence of the working ly modem heavy industrial sector, earned would have been important for Taiwan in any military confrontation class contending in its own right for social was still a predominantly rural, peas­ buying what they could not yet make. with the Chinese workers state. He power, smash capitalist property rela­ ant country. Over three-quarters of the tions; however, they cannot bring the In the end, the Bolsheviks failed to said: working class to political power. Rather, labour force was engaged in farming obtain any significant foreign invest­ and over 80 per cent of the population "Nevertheless, the Chinese regime is a they create bureaucratic anti-working ment from the hostile imperialist dictatorship. Moreover, from the stand­ class regimes which suppress any further lived in the countryside. Agricultural countries, but the programme and the point of the Taiwanese masses they development of these revolutions towards output had failed to keep pace with socialism." industrial growth and low agricultural -Spartacist no 8, November-December productivity was a barrier to industri­ 1966 alisation. Foreign investment allowed II Contact Addresses II I would like to say one further thing certain areas of rapid growth that about the role of the working class in would not otherwise have been possi­ Spartacist League/Britain Spartacist Group Ireland the 1949 revolution. The SWP's Charlie hIe in an isolated and largely undevel­ PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY PO Box 2944, Dublin 6, Ireland Hore claims that Trotsky assumed that oped workers state. Today, over 50 Tel: 020 7281 5504 the working class was at all times a con­ per cent of the labour force is Tel: 01 855 8409 sciously revolutionary force, and that employed in manufacturing, construc­ their lack of action in 1949 also proved tion, transport and the service sector, International Communist League Trotsky, and permanent revolution, while 40 per cent of the population is Box 7429 GPO, New York, New York 10116, USA wrong. Trotsky did not make such a urbanised. From a Marxist standpoint, sweeping assertion. The proletariat is this is a progressive development. So the only class in society that can, too is the expansion of China's indus­ Visit the ICL website: www.icl-fi.org through the seizure of political power trial capacity.

10 WORKERS HAMMER of class struggle opposing it; that is the working class has the social power backed mujahedin cut-throats who Witch hunt ... whether the multi ethnic working class and historic interest to lead the struggle threw acid in the faces of unveiled (Continued from page 12) is mobilised to defend itself, including to smash the capitalist system through women and shot school teachers who immigrants and minorities who are in proletarian revolution and the establish­ dared to teach girls to read. mirror-image of the Zionists' denial of the cross-hairs of increased state ment of a socialist society. This forth­ Against the occupation of Iraq and the national rights of the Palestinians repression. At the same time, racism right revolutionary perspective is Afghanistan today, the StWC's strategy and illustrates the genocidal logic of all and violent repression of workers and counterposed to that being offered by is to echo bourgeois-defeatist voices nationalism. minorities is intrinsic to the capitalist the reformist left. At a 15 November that it is in British imperialism's best What drives the bloody cycle of state and cannot be eradicated short of 2006 SOAS student union general interest to get out of Iraq and to be less Zionist slaughter and Palestinian defi­ proletarian revolution. Those students meeting, the SWP's Clare Solomon put slavish to the Bush White House, ance and despair is the root cause ofthis who still make it to university in this a motion "to oppose the current racist including General Sir Richard Dannatt, conflict: two peoples lay claim to the racist, capitalist society, despite tuition and lslamophobic backlash" and "to the head of the British Army, whom the same land. There can be no equitable fees, high living costs and enormous defend the right for Islamic societies StWC even invited to join their plat­ resolution to the conflicting national debts, are being threatened that if you and other groups to organise politically forms. The open letter for the "People's claims of the Palestinian Arab and oppose the occupation of Iraq or on campuses". Not surprisingly, Assembly" complained that the "disas­ Hebrew-speaking peoples under capi­ Afghanistan or defend the Palestinians, Solomon's motion neglected to oppose trous 'war on terror', of which this gov­ talism. So long as the national axis is you do not belong there. But the the chauvinist "English-only" rule for ernment has been such a prominent emphasised, the situation will always Achilles heel of this racist Labour gov­ societies' literature, since Solomon her­ supporter ... has made Britain more vul­ be bleak and hopeless. But if the class ernment and all its armoury of state self is enforcing the ban! A separate nerable not less to terrorist attack" and axis is emphasised there is at least a repression and violence is the exploited motion at the same meeting opposed argues that the government should chance of a just solution. Against all multi ethnic working class, on which the ban, not because it augments the "abandon its support for the foreign variants of nationalism, we counterpose this "flexible" economy depends. "war on terror", but because it policy of the US administration, includ­ a programme of proletarian revolution­ Militant protest by students against the "infringes on the school's image", and ing the occupations of Iraq and ary internationalism. The road to the latest proposals for spying on Muslim it proposed "to allow banners contain­ Afghanistan". Such craven appeals to social and national liberation of the students and political societies could be ing any language that we have the the Blair government, butchers of Iraq Palestinian people lies through com­ the spark for a protest by workers, resources to translate". Translate for and Afghanistan to introduce a kinder, mon class struggle by the Hebrew­ against the Labour government's racist whom, Special Branch? In fact, this gentler imperialism is what reformism speaking and Arab workers against both "war on terror" more generally. On 13 mere amendment to the foreign-lan­ boils down to. British imperialism is the Israeli and Arab ruling classes, March 2002, the SYG held a united­ guage gag, facilitating the work of the no less savage and brutal than US who likewise are oppressors of the front protest at SOAS against the "war secret police, is entirely within the imperialism, simply weaker and more Palestinians. Only within a socialist on terror" in defence of Fahim Ahmed, framework of the new government decrepit. federation of the Near East can the right a member of the Socialist Labour Party guidelines. In contrast to the reformists and to national self-determination for both Youth who was detained and tortured Central to Solomon's motion was a opportunists of all shades, we stand in the Palestinian and the Hebrew-speak­ under the Terrorism Act. The protest call to back the Stop the War Coalition's the tradition of the Bolsheviks who led ing peoples be equitably realised. This demanded: "Down with the Labour (StWC) "'Islamophobia and the War on the working class to power in Russia in requires the revolutionary overthrow of government's anti-terrorist laws and Terror' people's assembly" on 18 October 1917, taking proletarian revolu­ the Zionist state and all capitalist anti-immigrant witch hunt!". We also November 2006. The SWP opposes tion out of the realm of theory and into regimes in the region. For a socialist emphasised that "Anti-terrorist laws Islamophobia but this goes hand-in­ flesh and blood reality. As the SYG speak­ federation of the Near East! Down with target immigrants, minorities, the hand with a wholesale capitulation to er at our March 2002 protest made clear: the US/British occupation of Iraq and working class and the left!". This is Islam and religious obscurantism. This "British imperialism is not a policy that Afghanistan! All Israeli troops and set­ amply proven by the fact that the is nothing new: during the 1980s the can be changed; Blair cannot be pressured tlers out of the Occupied Territories! "English-only" rule for societies' liter­ SWP stood with the imperialists in their to be kinder to workers and minorities. For UN troops out ofLebanon now! ature was used against us communists anti-Soviet crusade. In response to the us imperialism is a system that must be at SOAS. December 1979 Soviet intervention in replaced by a socialist society where all Protest the "war on terror" at Through our protest in 2002 we Afghanistan, we said "Hail Red Army!" those who work, who produce the wealth SOAS sought to explain to youth and students and "Extend the gains of the October of this country, must rule!" The extent to which the Blair gov­ that the working class must take up the Revolution to Afghan peoples!" whilst If you want to fight against imperialist ernment can succeed in enforcing the fight against the "war on terror" and the SWP along with most of the left war and to see a world free from racism "war on terror" depends on the amount anti-immigrant hysteria because only supported the reactionary, imperialist- and oppression, join us! •

would not wish to put themselves under exchangeable on the international cur­ nomic policies are limited by fear of benefits that state enterprises provided its control, preferring the democratic rency markets, although the imperial­ social unrest. The massacres perpe­ them with. However, salaries have rights, however limited, which they enjoy ists want to force the Beijing regime trated on 4 June 1989 in Tiananmen and grown and major industrial centres have under a bourgeois-democratic regime, to revalue the Yuan and to make it which is what Taiwan is." elsewhere were unleashed by the begun to suffer a shortage of workers, totally convertible in order to open bureaucracy when the Chinese working which means employers are offering - Marxists, "Taiwan and the national question" Chinaworker.org 26 August China up further to financial penetra­ class began to mobilise. At the start, the higher wages and better benefits to 2005. tion by the banks of Wall Street, protests were largely the result of stu­ attract workers. Taaffe's CWI forces literally stood Frankfurt and Tokyo. This represents dent unrest, opposing corruption and Restrictions on immigration from on Yeltsin's barricades in Russia with a mortal danger. seeking politicalliberalisation. The first the country to the cities have been the rest of the counterrevolutionary rab­ When a conference of the National units of the People's Liberation Army relaxed, but still exist. Migrants, many ble in August 1991, playing a direct part People's Congress voted a constitu­ failed to put down the protests because of whom are women, lack the rights of in the devastation that followed capital­ tional amendment to "protect private they solidarised with them. Soon how­ city residents, are often forced to live ist restoration. We fought instead to property", it simply reflected reality. ever the movement was joined by mil­ in segregated areas and are often mobilise the Soviet working class to In legally recognising private proper­ lions of workers. Protesters began to looked down upon by urban workers. sweep away Yeltsin's barricades and ty and the right to inherit, the bureau­ hold mass meetings and create embry­ A revolutionary vanguard party in fight for proletarian political revolution. cracy is trying to assure its privileges. onic workers councils. Fear of the China today would struggle to unify all However, it is not resolutions adopted working class entering the scene terri­ sectors of the working class and rural The Chinese economy today by the bureaucracy that will deter­ fied the bureaucracy and brought forth poor and would see the migrant work­ mine the class character of China, but the fierce repression, and for this, army ers as a potential bridge between the The basic political power of the social struggle. Private property in units considered more loyal had to be working class and the peasantry. Such Stalinist bureaucracy in Beijing con­ China is as unstable as the bureaucra­ brought into the city. This also illus­ a party would also oppose land tinues to be based on the collectivised cy itself, it exists to the extent that the trates a key point about the army in a seizures for industrial or commercial sections of the economy, which still bureaucracy authorises it to exist. workers state-it can be split vertically development, arguing instead that constitute the most vital parts. The This supposedly inviolable private during a political revolution, with sec­ peasants should only have to give up private sector (including foreign com­ property could be violated by the tions of the officer corps coming over to their leases in exchange for significant panies) is principally made up oflight bureaucracy under the impact of open the workers. This is impossible to imag­ compensation. industry. Heavy industry -the high counterrevolutionary threats, or by ine in a bourgeois army, where the offi­ A proletarian political revolution in tech sector, steel production, non­ the working class in a struggle for cer caste is always loyal to the capitalist China would put an end to the ideolog­ ferrous metals, machine tools, political power. state in a mutiny, which means the army ical climate of the "death of commu­ telecommunications, electricity gen­ Of the companies quoted on the two must be split horizontally, along class nism". It would radicalise the powerful eration, petroleum and gas extraction, main Chinese stock exchanges, the gov­ lines. Japanese working class; serve as the oil refining, modem armaments - are ernment either keeps a majority of the spark for a political revolution in encir­ all concentrated in the state enterpris­ shares or a strong minority share. The The Chinese powderkeg cled North Korea and have huge reper­ es and are strategically much more shareholders of Chinese companies do Chinese society today is very explo­ cussions amongst the masses of South important. The four largest banks in not have property rights in the capitalist sive and unstable. The growth rate has Asia. A revolutionary socialist govern­ China are controlled by the state; the sense of the term. They have the right to been almost 10 per cent a year for more ment in China would actively favour control exercised by the government income from their stocks, and they can than 20 years, but not all workers have proletarian revolutions internationally. over the financial system is crucial to sell their shares. But they can neither benefited. One of the results of the And it is for the purpose of providing state industry. This has up until now determine nor influence the manage­ "market reforms" has been the creation the necessary leadership to the prole­ allowed the regime to effectively con­ ment of the enterprises. of 20-30 million unemployed, largely tariat in these struggles that the ICL trol the flow of finance capital enter­ The bureaucracy in China preserves women. Those that do find work, main­ seeks to reforge Trotsky's Fourth ing and leaving continental China. state property only to the extent that it ly in the private sector, have to accept International-world party of socialist The Chinese currency is not legally fears the proletariat. The CCP's eco- lower wages and see none of the old revolution .•

WINTER 2006-2007 11 WORKERS Anti-Muslim witch hunt on universities

The racist Labour government, with its hands soaked in the blood of the people ofIraq and Afghanistan, is ratch­ Down with SOAS "English-only" gag on societiesl etting up the "war on terror" on univer­ sity campuses. An article in the Guardian (16 October 2006) revealed leaked governmcnt plans, according to which "lecturers and university staff across Britain are to be asked to spy on 'Asian-looking' and Muslim students", while admitting that "universities will be anxious about passing information to special branch", for fear it amounts to "'collaborating' with the 'secret police"'. A month later Bill Rammell, minister of state for higher education, issued a widely-publicised report on universi­ ties, stating that "there is a real, credible Young Sparlacus

and sustained threat to the UK from violent extremism in the name of Islam" and issuing guidelines on "tack­ ...... ~ ling extremism in the name of Islam" Workers Hammer ("Promoting Good Campus Relations", Police patrol train in July 2005 in aftermath of 17 November 2006). These "guide­ London bombing (left). "War on terror" is pretext for increasing police powers. SYG literature that lines" amount to a state-sponsored the SWP wanted to ban at 30 September 2006 witch hunt of Muslim societies. Make SOAS freshers fair (above). no mistake, this is an attempt to silence or purge any student, campus organisa­ lish". This was specified in an e-mail sent "those peoples who are being denied a as an opponent of Zionism at SOAS, in tion or lecturer who speaks out against by Jack Footitt (SOAS Student Union, right to self-determination in their native a 29 January 2006 interview with the the brutal colonial occupation of Iraq or Co-President: Sports and Societies) to all soil by foreign colonialist occupations~ Muslim Public Affairs Committee, Nasser Afghanistan, or defends the Palestinians SOAS societies. Our comrades were a right their tormentors take for granted Aminsaid: with respect to themselves ~ and suffer as against murderous assault by the Zionist promptly informed by all three student a result, have a right to armed resistance, "There has been a feeling of extreme fear state, by branding them as potential "ter­ union Co-Presidents, including Lauren if no other way is available. By contrast, and trepidation amongst all students criti­ rorists". Evans and Clare Solomon (a prominent there is no right to violence if the o~iective cal onsrael at SOAS, whether Muslim or Paul Mackney, joint general secre­ representative of the SWP on campus) is ultimately to exploit further, conquer non-Muslim. People are terrified of being tary of the University and Colleges that we would have to remove foreign­ even more and steal more land, as is the defamed in the media, threatened in Par­ case with Israeli violence." liament with arrest, bullied by the British Union (UCU) has stated that UCU language material from our literature Board of Deputies with a lawsuit or being members "will not be police informers" table or leave. This included a Chinese­ This sent the handful of Zionists at sent death threats." and warned that lecturers "may be language placard defending the 1949 SOAS into a frenzy, while revealing sucked into anti-Muslim McCarthy­ Chinese Revolution as well as literature their well-placed connections to the For a socialist federation of the ism". State repression is a daily fact of in Arabic, Tagalog, Japanese, Polish and right-wing gutter press in Britain and to Near East! other languages. We vigorously protested forces connected to the Bush administra­ life for Muslims, blacks, Asians and Key to defeating this campaign on this anti-communist censorship, an out­ tion. In Parliament, Labour MP David other minorities. For supposedly "look­ campuses is forthrightly taking up the rageous attempt to prevent the multilin­ Winnick howled for Amin to be prose­ ing Asian", Brazilian electrician Jean defence of the Palestinian people. gual student population from reading cuted for incitement to racial hatred Charles de Menezes was executed by The SYG intransigently defends the communist propaganda. On this occasion while rabidly reactionary Daily Mail the cops in July 2005; the "war on ter­ Palestinian people in their just struggle these bureaucrats backed down. columnist Melanie Phillips called for ror" targets Muslims in the first instance against Zionist state terror. However, as The chauvinist "English-only" rule Amin's article to be "brought to the but it will also be used to regiment the Marxists we insist that as long as the for societies' literature is the thin end of attention of the police". Amin says he whole population and to repress social conflict remains one of nation against the wedge of the government's "war on received death threats and was slurred as struggle. It is essential for students and nation, the Palestinians can only lose terror" on universities. Zionists on cam­ an "Islamofascist" and "anti-Semite". most importantly the university unions out to the far wealthier, heavily armed pus have been acting as auxiliaries of Equating criticism ofthe Israeli state with to oppose this witch hunt of Muslim Zionist state. The Palestinian nationalist the US, British imperialists and the anti-Semitism is a standard smear of the students. We say: Down with Labour's PLO have tried nearly everything to state of Israel, targeting the lecturers Zionists; Melanie Phillips brands SOAS racist "war on terror"! beat the Israeli garrison state: from union, Muslim students and Palestinian itself as the "School of Orchestrated Anti fighting to negotiating to appealing to activists. Some months ago, the UCU ' Semitism". SOAS student union bureau­ the UN and Western imperialists, and it faced a vitriolic Zionist backlash when Gavin Gross, a prominent Zionist at crats enlist in "war on terror" has all been futile. Despair amongst the the union adopted various resolutions SOAS who was instrumental in the Palestinian population has led to grow­ Ominously connecting foreign-lang­ calling for a boycott of Israel in protest witch hunt of Amin, was sympathetical­ ing support for reactionary Islamic fun­ uage leaflets with "suspected extremist against Israeli repression of the ly interviewed in FrontPage Magazine damentalist forces such as Hamas and literature on campus", the guidelines give Palestinians. We defend the UCU on 27 June 2005. FrontPage is the Hezbollah. a scenario in which "some leaflets were against this witch hunt, while disagree­ mouthpiece of racist ideologue David Whilst we defend Nasser Amin written in English, and others appeared to ing with open-ended boycotts of Israel Horowitz who is part of a reactionary against the right-wing backlash, we be in Arabic" and suggest that such mate­ (see "Zionist backlash over 'boycott cabal in the US that includes Daniel have fundamental disagreements with rial could "constitute a criminal offence". Israel''', Workers Hammer no 196, Pipes and his Campus Watch website his outlook. We vehemently oppose However, well before these guidelines Autumn 2006). and has orchestrated witch hunts against were issued, a crackdown on campus Middle Eastern studies departments and Amin's equation of the Israeli civilian societies distributing foreign-language Defend Nasser Amin! pro-Palestinian professors such as population with the armed forces. He material was underway at the School of Nasser Amin, a Muslim student at Joseph Massad at Columbia University. states that all Israelis "benefit from the Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and SOAS was viciously witch-hunted for Horowitz is high in the councils of the immoral actions of a colonial state in is being enforced by student union an article he wrote in the March 2005 Republican Party and Pipes is part of the which they have chosen to reside" and bureaucrats and the ostensible leftists of soasspirit entitled "When Only Violence neo-conservative Project for the New therefore, according to Amin, Israeli the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). At the Will Do", advocating the Palestinian American Century, which has even civilians "cannot be considered as 30 September 2006 freshers fair, Spar­ people's right to defend themselves with included Vice President Dick Cheney innocent". This amounts to a denial tacus Youth Group (SYG) members violence against murderous Israeli ter­ and former Secretary of Defense Donald of the Hebrew-speaking people's were informed that "all informa­ rorism. In an exchange with Sheikh Rumsfeld. very right to exist as a nation. It is a tionlleafletslhandouts must be in Eng- Harnza Yusuf, Amin wrote: Describing the intimidation he faced continued on page 11

12 WINTER 2006-2007