WfJRltERS ",1N'(J,1R' 25¢ No. 144 11 February 1977

The Great Helsinki Hoax Dissidents and Cold Warriors

President Jimmy Carter's inaugural address was "received with deep satis­ faction by all sober people," declared the official Soviet news agency on the changing of the guard in Washirigton, adding: "Attention is caught by ... his intention to move this year a step toward the ultimate goal, the removal of all nuclear weapons from the earth." A week earlier, in a major speech Soviet Communist Party general secretary Leonid Brezhnev similarly heralded "a new major advance in relations between our countries." The paeans to detente emanating from Moscow, however, indicate only that the Kremlin bureaucrats, who pride themselves in being hard-headed real­ ists, can indulge in positively childish flights of fancy when it comes to their cherished pipedream of a deal with U.S. imperialism. Actually, in its first two weeks in office the Carter administra­ tion has made several moves that point not to relaxation of fJ.S-PSSR re'a­ tions but instead toward heating up the ~••Si~{,f~4~4m~~%i'tt1b~~}}T~__.i&%'0t*~ AP "cold war." i--ereSd Zabah3./i'Jew York Tjmes Thus, earlier talk of $5-7 billion cuts Imperialist chiefs talk of "human rights," build NATO war machine. in defense spending was pared down in Congressional testimony by "defense" Actually, the document is a political secretary Harold Brown to a maximum manifesto calling for a return to the of $2.8 billion in reductions, and even liberalized conditions that prevailed this is being "reviewed." Shortly after­ under Stalinist reformer Dubeek. Pred­ wards, General George Brown, chair­ ictably the reaction ofthe Husak wing of man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Czech bureaucracy, which came to senators that the USSR is "engaged in a power behind the Soviet tanks in 1968, program to achieve strategic superiori­ has been harsh. A number of the ty" over the U.S. The Joint Chiefs are signatories to Charter 77 have been reportedly pushing for major new subjected to police harassment and weapons programs. arrest. Zdenek Mlynar, Milan Huebl, Now, in what has been termed Frantisek Kreigel, Ludvik Vaculik, Jiri "probably the most important docu­ Hajek and Pavel Kahout, all prominent­ ment to be placed before President ly associated with the Dubeek era, are Carter in his first days in office," it threatened with deportation to the appears that a "National Intelligence West. Estimate" concurs with the Pentagon. Party leader Gustav Husak has The "estimate" was arrived at by a whipped up a campaign with echoes shadowy "Team B" made up of well­ reminiscent of the early 1950's when known anti-Soviet hard-liners, whose Rudolf Slanski, former secretary of the chairman, Richard Pipes of Harvard, is Czech Communist Party, was hanged. talking of"preventively destroy[ing] all, (Slanski's widow and son are among the or virtually all" of "the opponent's" endorsers of Charter n.) Many of the missiles. Already comparisons are being signatories have lost their jobs. Houses made to Eisenhower's Gaither Commit­ George Meany with Solzhenitsyn have been ransacked, telephones cut off tee which conjured up the mythical and drivers licensesconfiscated. Resort­ "missile gap" used to justify escalated ing to the crudest character assassina­ systematically deny even the most arms spending in the early Kennedy international standards of human tion, a Czech magazine published a elementary democratic rights to the years. rights" (New York Times, 28 January). snapshot of Vaculik in the nude, working masses, as they have done for Of a piece with this talk of"preventive Pretty cheeky for the gang that tried to reclining against a tombstone, with the decades. This is a gift of incalculable destruction" is Carter's "moralistic" portray U.S. imperialism's bloody war comment that this "reveals his concep­ value to counterrevolutionary forces, foreign policy. The first action by the in Vietnam as a defense of "human tion of morals." and is one of the greatest crimes of State Department under the new regime rights"! These are the people who train The party newspaper, Rude Pravo, was a pair of peremptory warnings to and supply the murderous Iranian secret Stalinism. warns: "The people who wanted to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia police. Clearly, the statement's purpose The State Department note on smuggle counterrevolurion into our over treatment of dissidents. "We're not had little to do with dissidents' rights Czechoslovakia was occasioned by the home have already received their just going to back down" on the issue of and a lot to do with whipping up anti­ publication of a manifesto, entitled desserts. They must be aware than any "human rights" blustered Carter, a long­ communist hysteria in preparation for a "Charter n," signed by some 300 new attempts will founder in the time Vietnam hawk and former lieuten­ new build-up of strategic forces against intellectuals and ex-party members embryo. The year 1968 will not be ant of ax handle-wielding racist Geor­ the USSR. associated with the ill-fated Dubeek repeated" (quoted in New York Times, 13 January). Behind that assertion lies gia governor Lester Maddox. Charter 77 regime that was crushed by a Soviet The State Department notes were invasion in 1968. "Charter n," on the the determination and armed might of dripping with hypocrisy. Calling on What is truly revolting about the face of it, amounts to little more than a the Kremlin. demand that the Prague government Moscow to stop harassing nuclear situation is that the bourgeoisie has no Helsinki Backfires scientist Andrei Sakharov, one said: need to fabricate atrocity stories about reform itself by implementing rights "Any attempt by the Soviet authorities the nature of Stalinist rule in the Soviet ostensibly guaranteed to Czech citizens The events in Czechoslovakia have in to intimidate Mr. Sakharov will not Union and East Europe in order to build by the country's constitution and by the turn had their effects on the rest of East silence legitimate criticism in the Soviet support for its war machine. In all these "human rights" convention contained in Europe. A grouping in Hungary has Union and will conflict with accepted countries the parasitic bureaucracies do the Helsinki agreement of August 1975. continued on page 4 SadlowskilMcBride: Non-Stop Hustle How the New York Times Defends Union ·Independence ...

Believe it or not, the New York Times, elections for union officers have been a that well-known mouthpiece for the focal point for federal intervention liberal imperialist bourgeoisie, has throuigh the Landrum-Griffin Act, and suddenly come out for "trade union goes on to question the benefits of such independence"! In a 4 February editori­ intervention. Raskin even raises doubts al entitled "Union Funds for Union about the UMW experience. Miller has Politics," the Times inveighs against not succeeded in consolidating a bu­ United Steelworkers (USWA) presiden­ reauCiracy able to discipline the mine tial candidate Ed Sadlowski's accept­ workers. Raskin writes: "Now that rebel ance of funds from liberal politicians \ leaders have taken over with the aid of and industrialists: "To encourage exter­ the Landrum-Griffin Act, the union is in nal contributions is to open the way to chaos, with the three top officers at contributors seeking to buy something sword's point. ... White House energy other than the well-being of a union or officials are already worrying that the of the labor movement." wrangling will spill over into a pro­ Coming from the Times this is the longed coal strike when the present most ludicrous hypocrisy. The Times contracts run out in December." has been the strongest advocate of The articles in the New York Times "outside interference" in the labor indic~te a hardening of mainstream movement when it has suited its inter­ bourgeois opinion against the wholesale Judith Coburn ests. It has had no qualms about use of government intervention to oust Ed Sadlowski supporting New York's Taylor law, established union bureaucracies. The which outlaws strikes by public employ­ Mine Workers case was exceptional, ees; or the Taft-Hartley law, which involving a maverick union not affiliat­ Maoist OL Somersaults Over forbids secondary boycotts and gives ed with the AFL-CIO, one whose legal backing to reprisals against com­ leadership had become a liability in munists in the labor movement. enforcing labor peace-and even here Sadlowski And as for Sadlowski's solicitation of there is now considerable second guess­ funds from liberal industrialists, politi­ ing among bourgeois pundits. Active In an attempt to strike an unaccus­ of gangster miner-union leader Tony tomed "left" pose, the Maoist October Boyle and USW boss I.W. Abel, it was cians, etc., this is no different from what SUppMt for Sadlowski in bourgeois the duty of the entire working class and Arnold Miller did in the United Mine polit~al circles is limited to a small League (OL) has renounced its support its leadership to stand behind these two Workers (UMW) in 1972. Joe Rauh, the minority in the Democratic Party. The for Ed Sadlowski. The OL is calling for campaigns, which had the solid support cold-war liberal ADA (Americans for Mea~yI Abel bureaucracy has, after all, a boycott of the February 8 elections, of the rank and file." Democratic Action) lawyer who ran the functioned as a reliable point ofsupport insisting that "The most important Today, however, the OL tells us that Miller campaign, plays the same role for the capitalist class in maintaining struggle in the steel union today is not Miller, Sadlowski, etc., are labor lack­ with Sadlowski today. Yet the Times did laboll discipline. between McBride and Sadlowski; it is eys of capitalism deserving of no not make an issue of Miller's campaign­ This only underscores the futility of between these labor bureaucrats and the support. But what has changed? Cer­ ing techniques in 1972. the reformist strategy of relying on rank and file" (Call, 24 January). tainly it is not Sadlowski and Miller, What's really at stake is that bour­ government intervention to oust the Over the years the OL has been who were every bit as reformist three geois political circles are far less en­ conservative labor bureaucracy. The among the most shameless apologists years ago as they are today. Nor has the amored of Sadlowski than they were of real targets of Taft-Hartley and for liberal bureaucrats like Sadlowski October League suddenly rejected Miller. The same editorial notes that Landrum-Griffin are not the elder labor and Arnold Miller. In an August 1973 trade-union reformism. This is under­ Abel's candidate McBride favors exten­ statesmen, but leftists and labor mili­ editorial the Call blasted the Revolu­ scored by its refusal to criticize its past sion of the no-strike Experimental tants. Marxists reject class­ tionary Union (RU), its principal support for Sadlowski as well as its Negotiating Agreement, which the collaborationist schemes for calling on Maoist rival, for having the temerity to assurance that "alliances with the labor Times labels a "constructive the bosses' government as a weapon utter a few mealy-mouthed words of union misleaders" cannot be ruled out in understanding." against the labor bureaucracy and criticism of these labor traitors: the future. "On the question of supporting the Zigs and zags in the workers An interesting companion piece to the counterpose to this a strategy of Miller and Sadlowski campaigns, the editorial is an article in the 6 February defending and making real the indepen­ OL takes sharp issue with [RU leader] movement are nothing new for Stalinist Times by its chief labor columnist, A. H. dence of the labor movement through Avakian's line of 'critical support.' groupings. The OL's "left" zag in the Raskin. Raskin notes that referendum militant class struggle.- Faced with the growing fascist assault trade unions is not only designed to cover up its putrid record in the labor movement, but is closely bound up with its emergence as the Peking-loyal faction among American Maoists, most of whom have balked at endorsing the new Hua regime andlor supporting SWP's Traveling Con Man for Sadlowski uncritically the increasing rightward ary person"! thrust of Chinese foreign policy. Seek­ Touring several Midwest cities this ing to pose as the hard pole of past week, Socialist Workers Party Fortunately, Barnes' gross falsifica­ tions did not go unanswered. Steel orthodoxy within the Maoist move- (SWP) national secretary Jack Barnes continued on page 10 reached new heights of cynicism in his worker militants in Chicago denounced Sadlowski for his failure to fight layoffs efforts to portray Ed Sadlowski as a "class-struggle unionist." In his hour­ in District 31 and his support to a long presentations Barnes avoided any resolution at the August United Steel­ workers (USWA) convention calling for WfJ/iNEIS criticism of the reformist Sadlowski, concentrating instead on blasting the trials of suspected communists. Sparta­ cist League (SL) comrades present neanderthal Abell Meany wing of the VIINti1111RD AFL-CIO for "calling for government pointed out that Sadlowski-as well as Marxist Working-Class Weekly interference" in the unions, collaborat­ McBride-supported Jimmy Carter of the Spartacist League of the U.S. ing with government pay boards and and that far from opposing government supporting the Democratic Party. interference, Sadlowski's previous elec­ EDITOR: Jan Norden In contrast Barnes heaped praise on tion as District 31 director and his PRODUCTION MANAGER: Karen Allen Sadlowski, depicting him as a stalwart current campaign were based on the CIRCULATION MANAGER: Anne Kelley demand for full-scale Labor Depart­ defender of union democracy and an EDITORIAL BOARD: Charles Burroughs, opponent of business unionism. Barnes ment supervision of the USWA elec­ George Foster, Liz Gordon, Chris Knox, James Robertson. Jose'ph Seymour, even had the audacity to defend Sad­ tions. SL supporters also pointed out lowski's notorious Penthouse interview, that Sadlowski's rhetoric about rank­ Published weekly, except bi-weekly in August and-file control is the stock-in-trade of and December, by the Spartacist Publishing in which the candidate asserted that the Co" 260 West Broadway, New York, N,Y. way to deal with unpleasant working any out-bureaucrat seeking higher 10013, Telephone: 966-6841 (Editorial), conditions in the mills was to slash the union office. In 1965 current Steelwork­ 925-5665 (Business), Address all correspond­ ers president l. W. Abel, whom Barnes ence to: Box 1377, G,P,O" New York, N,Y, number of jobs in basic steel by 75 10001, Domestic SUbscriptions: $5.00 per year. percent. Barnes claimed this demon­ castigates today, ran a similar campaign Second-class postage paid at New York, N,Y. WV Photo against McDonald's "tuxedo union­ strated Sadlowski's sensitivity to prob­ Opinions expressed in signed articles or on pro- Chicago: Jack Barnes leIllS _of the environment and proved ism," and was supported by the SWP. letters do not necessarily express the editorial Sadlowski tour. viewpoint. that he was a "truly human, revolution- continued on page 10 2 WORKERS VANGUARD Court Sentences ILWU Militants

SAN FRANCISCO, February 5~In ILWU attorney accepted a plea­ several trials over the last three weeks, bargaining deal: "Local 6 will payout dozens of strike militants from the over $5,000 in fines in this one case with International Longshoremen's and other cases still on the Northern High court guts civil rights laws. Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) have California court dockets," wailed the been forced to plead guilty to frame-up Dispatcher (28 January). charges. Their crime: walking the picket At this point over 50 ILWU members, §!!~reme Court UK's Defacto Segmgation lines during last June's warehouse including Local 6 president Curtis master contract strike and in related McClain, have been convicted of vari­ disputes. Because of the ILWU official­ ous charges, due to the bureaucracy's dom's refusal to wage a militant and failure to mobilize the membership to united defense these militants have win last summer's strikes and to protest Integrote Arlington Heightsl

CHICAGO~OnJanuary II the United a legal fence around white suburbs, States Supreme Court by a vote of five locking poor and minority families into to three upheld the right of racist white overcrowded and decaying inner cities. communities to exclude low-income The struggle against residential black and minority families through segregation in Chicago has a long zoning out all multi-unit housing. The history. In the summer of 1966 Martin particular case involves Chicago's sub­ Luther King and his Southern Christian urb of Arlington Heights, which for five Leadership Conference targeted Chica- . Cops arrest years has fought a Metropolitan go for its open housing campaign, pickets at announcing plans for peaceful marches Folger's Housing Development Corporation Coffee. (MHDC) plan to build a government­ through Chicago's all-white suburbs. subsidized housing project in this lily­ Mayor Daley, wanting to keep the lid white town. on, allowed the marchers to go through The MHDC plan for Arlington Gage Park, Cragin and other areas, but blew the whistle when King announced Arthur Frisch Heights was for 210 apartments built in two-story units over 13 acres and made a major march through Cicero. King available to low- and medium-income never went to Cicero-instead Daley, in become victims ofthe employers' union­ the judicial frame-up since then. Proba­ families. In 1972, after the Arlington a smooth political maneuver, phonied busting offensive aimed at crippling the bly the only victory for the union was Heights village board refused to rezone up a commission to "study the prob­ powerful Bay Area labor movement. the dropping of charges against Andy the tract of land for multi-unit dwell­ lem." King soon left Chicago, and six The biggest legal defeat came on Su.tter,chiefsteward at CP.C. \\1M. faced ings, the MHDC lawyer~ went to court, months later the whole thing was January 18, when 31 Local 6 members a possible life sentence for"assauit with charging a violation of the 1968 Fair forgotten. arrested at the Folger's Coffee plant a deadly weapon." The trumped-up Housing Law. During his two-decade reign Daley entered "no contest" pleas, receiving charge was so obviously absurd that Over the last decade, several hundred assiduously avoided any actions which fines of $150 each and six months' Sutter easily passed a polygraph test. thousand jobs have disappeared in would infringe upon the strict ra­ summary probation. These cases were The prosecution thereupon dropped the Chicago, pushing thousands of unem­ cial/ ethnic neighborhood divisions in the result of the company's attempts to case. ' ployed onto the welfare rolls. Recently Chicago, both because (like all signifi­ drive a convoy of scab trucks through In a taped interview with Berkeley the New York Times (24 January) cant capitalist politicians) he endorsed the picket lines there. Despite a nego­ radio station KPFA on January II, two reported that "during the 1960's half a the racist status quo and because these tiated agreement for amnesty, Folger's of the victimized ILWU militants million whites moved to the new community divisions were the basis for continued pressing charges and the described the strike events and ensuing housing tracts in what had been corn­ his powerful machine organization. legal battles. Jack Dow, a steward and fields outside of Chicago, while the Last summer the small Martin Luther 18-year member of Local 6, spoke ofthe urban core gained a third of a million King Jr. Movement attempted to lead SPARTACIST LEAGUE strike at Automatic Plastic Molding, marches into Marquette Park. This LOCAL DIRECTORY black residents." Arlington Heights and where a three-month ILWU organizing other white suburbs around Chicago solidly white area, bordering on Chica­ ANN ARBOR (313) 769-6376 drive was broken with the aid of go's Southwest Side black ghetto, has c/o SYL. Room 4316 have been fighting to maintain their elite Michigan Union, U. of Michigan scabherding Berkeley police: enclaves from an influx of blacks in been the focus of escalating racial Ann Arbor. MI 48109 "A scab stabbed one of the strikers search ofjobs and a higher standard of tension. Egged on by the Klan and Nazis BERKELEY/ there, for just talking to him,just asking who handed out "White Power" T­ OAKLAND (415) 835-1535 him not to go to work there. He stabbed living. Box 23372 him three times in the back. The police The federal appeals court maintained shirts, hostile whites pelted the marchers Oakland, CA 94623 with rocks and stones. While off-duty BOSTON (617) 492-3928 were going down there every morning. that the restrictive zoning in Arlington Box 188 There'd be a bunch of women on the Heights was, in its impact, discriminato­ police joined in the rock throwing, M.I.T. Station picket line and very few men and the Cambridge, MA 02139 ry and therefore unconstitutional. The uniformed cops arrested the marchers. police would come in eight at a time, It is not only in housing that CHiCAGO (312) 427-0003 and just clear the driveway every high court, however, has since sharply Box 6441, Main P.O. Chicago's rulers have held firm against Chicago. IL 60680 morning with their batons.... One changed its guidelines in judging discri­ CLEVELAND (216) 281-4781 morning a cop actually picked me up mination cases. It is now not enough to integration. The city has missed several Box 6765 and threw me at the strikers, just to get prove the de facto segregationist effects court-designated deadlines to submit a Cleveland, OH 44101 me out of the driveway." laws~intent substantial busing plan, preferring to DETROIT (313) 869-1551 of the zoning to segregate Sox 663A, General P.O. Dow, a member of the Militant must also be demonstrated, an almost stall while anti-busing forces mobilize. Detroit, MI 48232 Caucus of Local 6, and Stan Gow, a impossible task. Recently a crowd of 150 "interested HOUSTON Local 10 (longshore) executive board parents" including the "Mothers for Box 26474 The Supreme Court's decision on Houston, TX 77207 member and a pUblisher of"Longshore Arlington Heights opens the floodgates Neighborhood Schools American LOS ANGELES 1£1;3) 385-1962 Militant," were both given 30-day Style" (!) attended a Chicago school Box 26282, Edendale Station for reversals of most of the limited gains Los Angeles, CA 90026 suspended sentences, one year's proba­ in open housing and integrated schools board meeting, where a consultant on MADISON tion and $50 fines. Gow had been which blacks and minorities won bus~ng to the Chicago school board, c/o SYL, Box 3334 charged with "assaulting a police offi­ Edward A. Welling, fielded questions. Madison. WI 53704 through militant struggle in the 1960's. larceny"~ NEW YORK (212) 925-2426 cer" and "attempted grand Already several plans for school de­ He was so conciliating toward the Box 1377, G.P.O. for, allegedly trying to take away the segregation through busing have been racists that one of the anti-busing bigots New York, NY 10001 nightstick a cop was using to strangle finally yelled out: "Well, if he's on our PHILADELPHIA overturned on appeal. In the last two P.O. Box 13138 Dow! Other ILWU members received months' alone, the Supreme Court side, and the state legislators are on our Philadeiphia, PA 19101 jail time as a result of the APM strike: ordered reversals and "re-examination" side and the governor's on our side, SAN DIEGO P.O. Box 2034 Winford Adams was sentenced to ten of busing plans in Austin, Texas; what the hell's going on? Why are we Chula Vista, CA 92012 days in jail, and newly elected executive Indianapolis, Indiana; and Dayton, here?" (Chicago Sun Times, 25 SAN FRANCiSCO (415) 564-2845 board member Tony Wilkinson got two January). Box 5712 Ohio. San Francisco, CA 94101 days imprisonment. The struggles which raged in the The rigid separation of blacks and TROTSKYIST LEAGUE In the KPFA intt:rview, Dow exposed 1960's throughout the Kennedy and whites in capitalist America must be OF CANADA the "neutrality" ofcapitalistjustice: "We Johnson administrations were not attacked at its most fundamental level: had this strike at Handyman too, where ghettoiziltion ofoppressed racial minor­ TORONTO (416) 366-4107 against de jure segregation laws, most of Box 7198, Station A one of the supervisors just ran over one which were declared unconstitutional in ities. Integration is a strategic necessity Toronto, Ontario of the strikers and killed him. He's now for the working class-only with the VANCOUVER (604) 291-8993 the late 1950's, but against de facto Box 26, Station A out on $3,000 bail and he's charged with segregation in housing, education and greatest possible unity can the working Vancouver, B.C. continued on page 9 jobs. Now the court's decision throws up continued on page 10

11 FEBRUARY 1977 3 ity for the Berlin Wall. We point out that Dissidents ... it was the bureaucracy's crimes that (continued from page 1) made it necessary, and that it would be torn down in a revolutionary reunifica­ declared its solidarity with the Charter tion of Germany. It is a bureaucratic 77 group. A similar statement was solution to a genuine problem of the issued by the Polish Workers Defense German Democratic Republic (DDR), Committee, which said it was adding its namely massive hemorrhaging of its voice to that of the Hungarians and workforce, particularly of skilled work­ Sakharov. The Committee also solidar­ ers, in the years before it was built in ized with East Germans victimized for 1961. But any attempt by the Ameri­ protesting the forced exile of singer canl French/ British occupation troops Wolf Biermann to West Germany. or the West German government to The bourgeois press has had a field dismantle this bureaucratically con­ day with the fact that Soviet bloc ceived measure of self-defense must be dissidents like Biermann have been adamantly opposed. deported to the West while reportedly more than 100,000 East Germans have The bourgeoisie has a program of applied for permission to emigrate, UPI removing the deformities of the bu­ claiming their "rights" under the Helsin­ Russian police attack demonstration for rights of Crimean Tatars. reaucratically deformed workers states ki treaty. It is indeed ironic that the 1975 by dismantling the dictatorship of the European security agreement, which take up the cause of"fighters for human camp of the imperialists. proletariat itself and restoring this vast was pushed most forcefully by the rights" in the Soviet Union. Another For the bourgeoisie, "democracy" region to the sphere of capitalist Stalinists as a milestone of detente, has group of Russian dissidents issued an means capitalist democracy, full free­ exploitation. Trotskyists call for the now become a weapon in the hands of appeal to Pope Paul VI, Queen Eliza­ dom for the exploiters and oppression most vigilant defense against capitalist various dissident currents and the beth II and President Jimmy Carter to for the toilers. When Carter calls for restoration, by constructing a Leninist imperialists. "use your high authority to defend "democracy" in the Soviet Union he vanguard party to lead the proletariat in At bottom the Helsinki accord was Andrei Sakharov" (New York Times, 29 means the restoration of capitalism. To a political revolution to oust the simply a pact between Moscow and January). bloc with such elements is a vile betrayal Stalinist bureaucracy and institute Washington that blessed in official This ilS a call on the imperialists to use of the interests of the working class and soviet democracy. Only in this way can terms the post-World War II map of all the power at their command, from the future of humanity. the world-historic gain represented by Europe, itself the product of deals econOmic blackmail to nuclear threats, the overthrow of capitalism be pre­ between the imperialist "democracies" against a state which~despite the The Berlin Wall served and extended. and Stalin in the 1943-45 period. In autocratic rule of a usurping bureauc­ A case in point is the question of the In this regard, the 1975 call by the exchange for this worthless piece of racy~still preserves precious gains of Berlin Wall. From John F. Kennedy on, Vargaite sect to hold a demonstration paper, the Kremlin bureaucrats gave the October Revolution. every bourgeois U.S. politician with the (subsequently canceled) on July 4 (!) at Washington a pledge of non­ The counterrevolutionary import of slightest pretense of being a "national the Berlin Wall around the main interference in Portugal (then in an such appeals was made even more leader" has made his anti-communist slogans, "Down with the Berlin Wall! acute pre-revolutionary situation) and explicit in testimony last month by pilgrimage to Berlin. There they are Down with the Imperialist and Stalinist acceded to Fordl Kissinger's demands Andrei Amalrik, the author of Will the photographed at the Berlin Wall, Bureaucracies!" was an anti-communist for formal commitments to freedom of Soviet Union Survive Until 1984? who preferably in the company of sad-eyed provocation which it would be perfectly children, and quoted in press dispatches principled for a Trotskyist group to as saying, "I, too, feel like a Berliner." militarily disperse. As for the Maoists of Carter's vice president Mondale is the the West German KPD who held a latest to make this hypocritical trek. demonstration in East Berlin around As Trotskyists we take no responsibil- pro-NATO slogans, as well as for

/ Scandinavian USec in the Camp of Maoist Anti-Sovietism STOCKHOLM-Increasingly over This caused considerable embar­ the past few months, pious concern rassment to the ostensibly Trotsky­ for (supposedly classless) "demo­ ist KAF (Communist Workers cratic rights" in the Soviet Union League-Swedish supporters ofthe Der Spiegel and Eastern Europe has become a "United" Secretariat [USec]), Ex-Soviet dissidents Amalrik (left) and Vanig at Stockholm forum. rallying point for liberal anti­ which had signed the joint state­ communists and left-wing organi­ ment. Only shortly before the speech, press, assembly and the right to was expelled from the USSR in July zations who reject the uncondition­ demonstration did it dawn upon 1976. Amalrik, who has criticized travel abroad. al military defense ofthe degenerat­ these Pabloists that their role was Kissinger as "the strategist of retreat," Unlike Washington, the Stalinists ed/deformed workers states against simply that of a left cover for an insisted that the Helsinki agreement was told the U.S. Commission on Security imperialism. In the latest example anti-communist mobilization. At legally binding and trumpeted it as a and Cooperation in Europe, according of this anti-Soviet unholy alliance, the last minute, the KAF withdrew major accomplishment of their policies to the New York Times (7 January), that the Swedish Maoist cultural front its support for the demonstration of "peaceful coexistence." The U.S. the U.S. "should use technology, credits Folket i Bild issued an appeal for a citing the presence of Per Gahrton Communist Party's Daily World (7 and grain as leverage to insure progress February 4 demonstration in (a rabid pro-Zionist parliamentari­ August 1975) ran the glowing headline, toward more democratic policies. But Stockholm around the slogans "For an from the People's Party). "Heads of State Sign Pact to End Cold he said he doubted that the United democratic rights in Czechosolvak­ However, the KAF did not States would be tough enough with the War." At the time, rabidly anti-detente ia," "Stop the persecution of the withdraw its endorsement of the Russians." He also praised the CIA­ forces in the American bourgeoisie Charter 77," and "Soviet Union out signed declaration which was the funded Radio Liberty. railed against Helsinki, playing the of Czechoslovakia!" basis for the rally! Moreover, The Stalinists' suppression ofworkers theme of"Western retreat" on the "basic The 500 people who attended the echoing the "democratic" railings of democracy is a fundamental roadblock principle of self-determination." Today demonstration did not, however, Peking apologists and bourgeois elements~represented to socialism. A classless society cannot the same by, for participate in a working-class de­ liberals, the KAF's statement dis­ be built by using police-state measures example, Carter's "National Security fense ofthe Czech dissidents. While tancing itself from the demonstra­ Brzezinski~find against dissidents who do not militarily Advisor" Zbigniew Trotskyists defend the fullest work­ tion repeated the treacherous equa­ threaten the fundamental achievements comfort in using the Helsinki accords to ers democracy in East Europe and tion of repression in capitalist states of the dictatorship of the proletariat. bludgeon the Kremlin over "human oppose both the Russian invasion and in the degenerated/deformed But the grim reality of bureaucratic rights." of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the workers states: "in other parts of repression in no way excuses the But the Stalinists are incorrigible. subsequent victimization of Dub­ Europe-Poland, the Soviet Un­ When Soviet ambassador Dobrynin Sakharovs and Amalriks who wish to cek supporters, we recognize that ion, East and West Germany­ met with Carter on the issue, he make common cause with imperialism appeals for abstract "democracy" in writers, journalists and workers are complained ... that the U.S. had violat­ (more precisely, with imperialist hawks) Eastern Europe serve as an open rising in opposition to bureaucratic ed the section of the Helsinki treaty against the Kremlin. In this case, the invitation to capitalist­ abuse and the Berufsverbot [exclu­ syllogism "the enemy of mine enemy is prohibiting "interference in internal restorationist forces. Thus it came sion of"radicals" from government my friend" lands these dissidents in the affairs" of other signatories! as no surprise when the pro-NATO, jobs] in West Germany" (lntemo­ tiontllen, 4 February). For these Cold Warrior/Dissident Peking-loyal SKP (Swedish Com­ renegades from Trotskyism not Alliance? China's Alliance with munist Party) which controls Fol­ U.S. Imperialism ket i Bild turned the demonstration only is there no mention of the The Carter administration was quick into a platform for a keynote obligation of the world proletariat A Spartacus Youth League speaker from the bourgeois-liberal to militarily defend the deformed to exploit the unrest in the Soviet bloc Pamphlet states for the purposes of anti­ People's Party (a member of the workers states, but there is not even government coalition, which cam­ a hint of the class line which communist propaganda. But it has Price: $1 paigned in last September'selection separates the Soviet Union, Poland received considerable aid and encour­ Order from/pay to: Spartacus Youth agement in this direction from some of Publishing Co., P. O. Box 825, Canal St. on the slogan "reforms without and East Germany from imperialist the dissidents themselves. Sakharov Station, New York, N.Y. 10013 socialism']. West Germany! appealed to imperialist chief Carter to 4 WORKERS VANGUARD "democratic rights" (for whom?), and its recent election campaign, SWP were arrested by East German Volkspo­ presidential candidate Peter Camejo lizei, we merely defend their right to a told the U.S. House of Representatives No to Protectionism­ fa:r trial, nothing more. Intelligence Committee that his party is "opposed to totalitarian regimes every­ Fake-Trotskyists Tail where in the world, whether in the Pro-Imperialist Dissidents USSR or in Spain"! All that is left for Organize Seamen It is an unfortunate fact that, despite these preachers of"consistent democra­ many instances of great individual cy" is to call on Carter to send federal courage, the majority of the current troops or missiles to Moscow to enforce Internotionallyl generation of Soviet and East European "democratic rights." di~sidents, the bulk of whom are drawn If such fake-revolutionists are blind from the intelligentsia, have shown little to the class line, the bourgeoisie is not. concern for anything outside their own The State Department was quick to cc,llective sufferings at the hands of the raise its cudgels for a Sakharov or a Stalinist bureaucrats. This deliberate Solzhenitsyn, but in all its recent Chauvinist Outcry political blindness has led to such warnings against victimization of East outrages as Sakharov's refusal to European dissidents there is a curious comment on the 1973 bloodbath in omission: nothing has been said about Chile because it was "too far away," and the Polish Workers Defense Commit­ Over Oil Spills Bllkovsky's joking remark after being tee, which has suffered from bureaucrat­ eJichanged for Chilean Communist ic repression no less than the signers of leader Luis CorvalflO that he would Charter 77. The reason is clear: behind The leaflet we reprint below was recently distributed in New York City by gladly trade Brezhnev for Pinochet. the Workers Defense Committee stand the Militant Solidarity Caucus, a class-struggle opposition in the National Maritime Union (NMU).

31 January 1977 tionally. As long as a substantial section of the maritime industry internationally Recently the news media has been is unorganized, with substandard wages filled with stories of foreign flag ships and conditions, this serves as a club for breaking up. On Nantucket Shoal the the shipowners, who will continually Liberian-registered Argo Merchant threaten to go abroad if the unions here grounded, spilling over 7.5 million don't knuckle under to them. gallons of oil and endangering the The oil import quota bill might fishing grounds in that area. In Los initially provide a few more jobs for Angeles harbor an explosion aboard the American seamen and some of these tanker Sansinea killed seven persons. In jobs might end up in the NMU-but another incident the tanker Olympic only at the expense of further contract Games leaked 135,000 gallons of oil into concessions and reduced manning the waters at Marcus Hook. scales. But even more importantly, NMU president Shannon Wall support for such protectionist legisla­ suddenly claims to be an ardent sup­ tion like the oil import quota bill, which WVPhoto porter of the environment against oil limit trade and transport by foreign Leonid Plyushch (right) joins cold warrior Senator Jackson in NYC. spills, The January Pilot contains a nations, is dangerous to the labor story which asserts, "In radio and movement. It is not only the leaders of Along with a boundless faith in the the Polish workers' protests last June television interviews and in signed the maritime unions that preach this democratic intentions and good will of and the powerful December 1970 articles in the Daily News, President chauvinist viewpoint. The heads of the the imperialist bourgeoisie has gone a uprising by Baltic port workers. As in Wall hammered away at the lack of steel workers, textile, auto workers peculiar blindness to imperialist crimes the East German uprising of 1953 and 'competent authority' that would see to unions also support limitations on ar,ainst the working masses, from the Hungarian revolution the bourgeoi­ it that foreign ships that enter our ports foreign imports, claiming that this will \ ietnam to South Africa. sie instinctively recognizes in these abide by international safety provide more jobs for American work­ In this context the failure of ostensi­ proletarian movements a threat not only standards." ers. However, it is obvious that this will btIe Trotskyists, such as in particular the to the Stalinists but to its own class rule. But Shannon Wall's new-found inter­ only drive governments abroad to American Socialist Workers Party Its silence is the expression ofa fear that est in "international safety standards" is retaliate by demanding controls on (SWP) and the French Organisation such protests could spread across the pure hypocrisy. Wall and the NMU American imports, thus leading to slowdown in the recruitment rate the halls of state legislatures to defeat combined with some losses, adding up ERA amendments, and the equally to a slight contraction in membership. thunderous stampede to pass new laws Prospects for substantial regroupments for the restoration of the death penalty. have become meager through prior Furthermore, the international position absorption, and the remaining centrist of the U.S. remains strong vis-a-vis its Charleston Daily Mail fragments evidence sharp rightward main imperialist rivals, and the domes­ West Virginia miners battle cops during wildcat over right to strIke. motion. tic arrogance of U.S. imperialism is 6 WORKERS VANGUARD Blood and Coal: Harlan County, U.S.A.

Bloody class warfare is a rare theme in see the Brookside women lie down in the American movies. Barbara Kopple's street.to stop the gun-toting thugs. The Harlan County, U.S.A., which recently cops drag them away, but they return. opened in New York City, is a documen­ We see men and women defying court tary film about one of those battles, a injunctions which would mean death to 13-month strike in the Appalachian coal the strike. They have no illusions that fields that ended in a limited victory for the cops who arrest them Qr the courts Cops arrest strikers at Brookside, Harlan county the miners. who jail them are anything but an The film is a first-rate documentary. official extension ofthe company and its Miners Union in Harlan and Bell behavior was utterly predictable (and It has impact because it is not only the gunmen. counties, but also a hysterical scare Yablonski's would have been the same story of a strike but also a compelling Over and over again Kopple sees the campaign against "Marxist atheism." had he lived). Unlike their fans in portrayal of the power of labor tradi­ source of the strikers' courage in the Today UMW bureaucrats play on the virtually every allegedly socialist group tions. It is a historical document of memory of prior battles, in the class­ same backwardness to harass militant in the U.S., the Spartacist League struggle traditions of the coal mines of oppositionists and try to purge "reds" warned from the outset against illusions Review of Harlan County, Harlan. After numerous confrontations from the union. Last September's Mine in these darlings of the liberals (see U.S.A., directed and produced and mass mobilizations, the miners are Workers convention turned into a "Labor Department Wins Mine Work- faced with the decision to defend virtual witchhunt as a result. In this ers Election," in WV No. 17, March by Barbara Kopple themselves with arms against the guns of respect Arnold Miller, Mike Trbovich 1973). the union-busters and the cops. Work­ and the rest of the bureaucrats follow in Miller's reliance on the capitalist union militancy and working-class ers self-defense is also a tradition in the footsteps of their anti-communist government-through its courts and solidarity. Harlan, and the climax of the film is predecessors, from John L. Lewis on. Labor Department-to climb to power It also records, but has no answer for, surely when the strikers train their gun While the film is able to record the in the UMW presaged his later collabo- the treachery of the United Mine barrels on a convoy of scabs trying to class-struggle traditions in Harlan, it ration with the class enemy in breaking Workers (UMW) leadership under enter Highsplint Mine. fails to explicitly deal with the political reality wildcats, his stifling of the miners' right Arnold Miller, which withheld active The central figures of the movie are of the bureaucratized labor movement to strike and his heavy-handed suppres- support to the Harlan County strikers the miners' wives, whose Brookside which dragged out the Brookside strike sion pf internal opponents in the union. for over a year and then sold out the Women's Club was in many ways the and made it into such an agonizing Today those who backed Miller- right to strike over grievances in the backbone of the strike. Their gritty struggle. As a political statement. "critically" or otherwise-are fleeing 1974 national coal contract. defiance of gun thugs and state troopers Harlan County. U.S.A. never goes like rats from his sinking ship, as the Kopple's use of historical clips from sustained the picket lines through beyond the militant unionism it depicts. treachery of this "reform" bureaucrat the 1930's never allows the audience to months ofstrikebreaking terror. Forthe Acknowledging Miller's betrayals-and has become obvious to all. forget that this is Harlan County. This is Brookside women, as well as their the miners' anger in response, as they But there is one group of Miller bloody Harlan: "there are no neutrals husbands, the union meant survival. burn his 1974 contract-the film shows enthusiasts which has remained loyal to here." Dramatic scenes ofclass confron­ (See "Brookside Organized. After 13­ nothing of the political roots of these the bitter end. The Communist Party's tation in the 1970's are prepared by Month Strike," in Women'and Revolu­ betrayals. . review of Harlan County, U.S.A. images ofpitched battles in the past. The tion No.7, Autumn 1974, for an on-the­ When the movie was first shown at attacks "Barbara Kopple's limitations screen is filled by the government's spot report of the strike and the role of the New York Film Festival last fall a as a labor documentary filmmaker" ... tanks ripping through the streets on the the Women's Club.) militant unionist commented in the for putting Miller in a bad light! This, it way up to the mines. The troops form a The urgency of class solidarity ensuing discussion that the story of the says, aids the "unholy alliance" of pro- corridor of the state's armed might undercut traditional racial and sexual strike showed the need to link the trade- Boyle forces "skilled at taking advan- through which scabs are driven. prejudices. The powerful contradiction, union struggle to a fight for power-for tage of the disruptive attacks on Miller In these times when the slick pervasive th:-oughout the U.S. proletari­ socialist revolution-or the limited by some of the so-called 'leftist' sects bureaucrats of business unionism boast, at, between militant unionism and gains would again be taken away. The operating among the miners" (Daily as AFL-CIO head George Meany does, reactionary social attitudes is particu­ audience cheered, and one "old-timer" World, 2 November 1976). that they never walked a picket line; larly intense in the isolated mining commented, "Well, I'm glad somebody The Daily World complains that, "As when "labor statesmen" like the Steel­ regions. The West Virginia textbook­ finally said it." presented in the film, the UMW presi- workers I. W. Abel sign no-strike burning campaigns are an example. The In the film, "Jock" Yablonski, the dent is apparently turning out to be just agreements; when "rebel" bureaucrats appeal to god-fearing anti-communism long-time UMW bureaucrat who one more labor bureaucrat. Actually in like Ed Sadlowski appeal to the bosses' has traditionally been the bosses' rally­ founded Miners for Democracy and was the real miners' world, it's a different government as a "neutral arbiter" ing cry in the coal fields. In the 1930's it killed by Boyle supporters, dies an situation." In the spirit of the Stalinists' between labor and ca~ital, Harlan was not only prosecution on charges of untarnished martyr; Miller is seen as "documentary films" of the Russian County, U.S.A. presents an unsophisti­ "criminal syndicalism" that defeated the just one more personally corrupted Revolution that "edited out" the role of cated truth and drives it home in graphic Communist Party (CP)-led National bureaucrat. But in fact Miller's political continued on page 8 scenes: the class struggle is not dead. The miners and their wives speak for themselves in this story of a year-long struggle at Brookside, Kentucky. Con­ temptuous and paternalistic, the Duke Power Company which owns the mine refused to accept the standard UMW contract, forcing the miners to strike in July 1973. Jailed en masse by mine­ owning judges, beaten by state troopers, shot at by scabherding gun thugs, the strikers held out and finally forced recognition of the union by the mine bosses. Kopple's camera allows us interviews of the older folks who remember the martyrs who died. For them the UMW slogan, "fight like hell for the living," is no abstract rhetoric. Throughout the film are woven the miners' own songs, articulating their plight and their deter­ mination. At a strike rally, Florence Reese sings "Which Side Are You On?"-the song she wrote during Harlan County's labor battles of the 1930's. Things are straightforward in Harlan. We see picket lines held by the wives on the highway because the mines are held by machine guns. Those who cross are Miners march at Harlan, Kentucky, during UMW "memorial" in August, 1974. scabs-there's no confusion here. We 11 FEBRUARY 1977 7 organized mine in the country. A subsequent NLRB representation elec­ Harlan County ... tion was losl at Highsplint Mine and Fusion With LSA Planned (continued from page 7) Miller agreed that Brookside would be exempted in any contract strike later in Leon Trotsky, the CP would prefer a the year. flbove all, the necessary "documentary" about the coal miners in support-a nationwide coal strike­ which Arnold Miller is not seen as a deliberately withheld by UMW leaders sellout. The problem is, Kopple's for months, could have won the strike in Canadian RMG: Back to camera and microphones recorded what short order at the onset. The "reformer" UMW miners thought ofMiller's sellout Miller, howf'ver, was committed not to contract; they reflected tht: fact that the class struggle but to accommodation membership struck for a month before with the coal bosses. the Reformist Fold he could shove it down their throats. For many in the movie theater That's what the Daily World doesn't audience, Harlan County, U.S.A. must At a plenum held over New Year's principled differences"! want to see on film. seem a curious historical oddity. Not weekend, the Central Committee of the The New Year's plenum document Kopple has limitations, but they are only bloody Harlan of 1931 but Harlan Canadian Revolutionary Marxist and Samuels' report are replete with not that she shows what the angry of 1974 must seem like ancient history, Group (RMG) resolved unanimously to polemics against "sectarianism"-i.e., miners thought of Miller's sellout. fighting labor traditions of days gone call for a fusion with the League for Bolshevik insistence that a revolution­ Unfortunately, the film's indictment of by. For the labor fakers-who have Socialist Action (LSA-Canadian sec­ ary party be built on a foundation of the UMW leaders is only implicit and corrupted these traditions as much as tion of the fake-Trotskyist United solid programmatic agreement. "On incomplete. The director sees the strike they can, instituting the "informational" Secretariat [Usee]) from which it had paper we understood these questions," through the eyes of the most militant picket line, the "productivity clause," issued as a split to the left three and a states the Samuels document, "but in miners in the area, who were frustrated the no-strike agreement-this film must half years ago. At the time of the split, reality we had a sectarian notion of by Miller's betrayals yet had no strategy cause them to shudder in fearful party building. Fusion yes but on our to defeat them. Toward the end of the recognition of the class militancy which the RMG had heralded the impending line." Abandoning this "sectarian" film one sees the Harlan miners trying to built the unions they now lord over and collapse of the LSA and had denounced notion, the document goes on to pay grapple with the Miller bureaucracy; which will one day drive them out of both it and its co-thinkers in the U.S.­ there are arguments, a young miner their cushy positions. the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)-as homage to the bankrupt tradition ofthe Second International by pointing to the talks of the need to continue the Harlan County, U.S.A. shows that incorrigible reformists. "important opportunities for .fusion struggle. Here one hopes for an analysis the basis for class struggle is rooted deep But now the weak and demoralized with centrist currents in Europe and of the role of the union bureaucracy, a in the capitalist mode of production remnants of the disintegrating RMG Latin America [which] have posed very call for constructing a class-struggle itself. The old-timers recall the bloody have not only proclaimed their intention critically the capacity ofthe Internation­ opposition in the UMW against all the battles fought a generation ago in to reunite with the LSA but have al to be able to embrace different labor fakers and an explanation of the eastern Kentucky, only to be fought renounced their own centrist heritage as political currents...." In a paroxysm of need for a political struggle by the again when the mine bosses drove the "ultra left" and "sectarian." A document self-criticism, Samuels belatedly de­ working class against the parties and union out. But if today's militant young adopted at the RMG's recent five-day nounces the RCT as a "disloyal state of big business. Instead there is an miners are to go forward they must go plenum declared that the RMG and the faction with a split perspective [which] emptiness, at best platitudes of the kind beyond the limits of labor reformism LSA have "no principled differences." had ultraleft positions on the NDP that one can find in endless stories about and the tenuous victories of defensive (For a detailed analysis of the RMG's [New Democratic Party] in particular." Harlan in the pages of the Communist battles. It is through the fight to throw recent evolution, see Spartacist Canada, (The RCT had opposed the LSA's Labor Party's People's Tribune. out the Abels and Sadlowskis, the Nos. 12 and 13, January and February orientation of "unconditional support" The strike is finally won-after a Boyles and the Millers that the workers 1977.) to Canada's party of right-wing social young miner is murdered, shot in the will recover their militant traditions, The RMG's circular course from left democracy.) face-through the mobilization of forge a class-struggle leadership and go centrism through right centrism and But while the RMG leadership (which 120,000 miners in a five-day "memorial on to make the revolutionary history of back to the craven reformism it had is largely composed of ex-NDPers) has period" which shut down every UMW- the future.• rejected in 1973 has been marked by an made its peace with the LSA, it is unending series offailures and disasters. worried about rebellion within its ranks, Founding documents predicted rapid particularly in the Vancouver and are claiming that another Democrat in growth for the new group. It was Winnipeg branches. Samuels notes Oil Spills ... the White House-Jimmy Carter- will expected that the RMG's mentors in uncomfortably: defend the interests of seamen better Ernest Mandel's International Majority "There has been a real concern among (continued from page 5) than the anti-labor Ford administra­ Tendency (lMT) of the USee would comrades that the leadership was acting tion. This is false. Carter, like Ford, is an dump the SWP-led "Leninist-Trotskyist too quickly in making decisions about relations with the LSA. A certain U.S.-flag NMU standards. However, experienced capitalist politician. As Faction" (LTF) and lead North Ameri­ even this was surrendered without a suspicion and paranoia about the governor of Georgia, peanut millionaire can IMT supporters toward the creation decisions of the plenum has manifest fight by Curran when the Kennedy Carter was a proven enemy of civil of new sections of the USee. Instead, itself in the suggestion that somehow administration, supported by the NMU rights for blacks, a supporter of the Mandel demanded that the RMG rejoin the leadership is trying to pull the wool officials, passed legislation prohibiting Taft-Hartley Act. Carter protected the LSA and ordered the IMT support­ over the eyes of the membership...." the maritime unions from organizing runaway sweat shops in Georgia and ers who had been expelled from the The RMG, like all centrist foreign seamen. Today, Wall and Co. will do the same for runaway ship SWP in 1974 to crawl back in. By late formations, has also been placed in an operators. 1976 half of the RMG's founding uncomfortable contradictory situation BULLETIN from the No less crucial is an end to the mutual membership and fully two-thirds of the by reason of its own rhetoric. While it Bay Area Group for the Defense of raiding practiced by union hacks like Revolutionary Communist Tendency has moved very far to the right in order Paranagua and Pilla Shannon Wall and Paul Hall. The (RCT), the oppositional tendency with­ to prepare for its reconciliation with the NMU raid on the west coast PFEL in the LSA from which the RMG LSA, it still retains a more militant Paranagua, Pilla [Pacific Far East Lines] ships did not developed, had quit or were expelled. veneer than its ultra-"respectable" produce jobs for the NMU-it only led Worn out and rendered cynical by putative fusion partners. Thus, for Released! example, RMG supporters in the to the SIU raid on the NM U-contract both their own failures and the back­ 1 February 1977 TIT [Puerto Rican government ship­ stabbing "unity" maneuvers of the IMT Vancouver postal union (who partici­ pated in an oppositional caucus) have ping agency] ships and accelerated the leadership, the RMG leadership is now On 22 January 1977 Paulo had a hellish time trying to convince cut-throat competition among the mari­ ready to re-tmbrace the until recently Antonio de Paranagua and Mar­ time unions, offering further contract scorned LSA. A report on RMG-LSA fellow caucus members to work more ia Regina Pilla arrived by air in concessions to the companies in the false fusion discussions delivered to the closely with LSA postal workers (who Paris, France. are open bootlickers of the incumbent hope of grabbing a few jobs. Disunity Toronto branch of the RMG by Julie Paranagua and Pilla were trade-union bureaucracy). among maritime labor-including Samuels says: released with several comrades scabbing-has become commonplace. "At one time we were unsure about The March 1975 expulsion of the after almost two years' imprison­ Recently, while Texaco and Gulf oil whether the LTF belonged within the Bolshevik-Leninist Tendency (B-LT) ment by the military government workers (OCAW) were on strike, the Fourth International. Then we agreed and the departure of other left-wingers of Argentina. NMU officials continued the operation that despite very important differences laid the basis for the RMG's reconcilia­ On this happy occasion we such as Angola, Viet Nam, China, etc., tion with reformism. The B-LTers and of those companies' tankers, just as the the LTF is Trotskyist and does support offer a warm embrace to all NMU bureaucrats sanctioned scabbing the program of revolutionary Marxism other ex-RMGers who today adhere to those friends of liberty whose during the long Shell strike in 1973 (see and the FI." the Trotskyist League of Canada and solidarity contributed to the Beacon No.8, June 1973). This is what is described as "no the international Spartacist tendency success of the Paranagua-Pilla Union raiding as well as protectionist (iSt) comprised a full fifteen percent of defense effort. policies designed to boot foreign seamen the membership of the RCT-its best, In particular, our appreciation offthe ships are dead-end policies. What most subjectively revolutionary goes to the Partisan Defense is necessary is a joint struggle of Australasian elements. Committee (PDC), the U.S. maritime labor against the companies: SPARTACIST The impending dissolution of the Committee for Justice for Latin organizing the unorganized, creating shell of the RMG into the LSA holds an American Political Prisoners more jobs for all through a 4-watch a monthly organ of revolutionary Marxism for important lesson for militants who (USLA);City Lights Books, The system and increased vacation time (one the rebirth of the Fourth International published seriously seek to construct a revolution­ Berkeley Barb, and Radio day off per one day on). Such a struggle by Spartacist Publications for the Central ary international. There is no middle Committee of the Spartacist League of Australia KPOO-FM. will inevitably pose the need for expro­ and New Zealand, section of the international road between reformism and Trotsky­ And let us not forget the priation of the parasitic shipowners, Spartacist tendency ism; centrist organizations are inherent­ thousands still behind bars in workers control of industry, and a U.S. $5-12 issues (airmail) ly unstable and must ultimately choose Latin America, in the whole workers party to fight for a workers U.S. $2-12 issues (surface mall) between reform and revolution. The world. government. Such a task cannot be RMG leadership has chosen the former. order from/pay to: Those comrades who wish to make a For solidarity carried out by the present gang of pro­ Spartacist Publications capitalist hacks that run the unions; this GPO Box 3473 proletarian revolution on this continent Bay Area Group for the Defense of Paranagua requires a new class-struggle leadership. must look to the Bolshevik program and and Pilla. P.O. Box 26481. San Francisco, Calif. Sydney, NSW 2001 9412p It is to this end that the Militant­ Australia practice of the international Spartacist Solidarity Caucus is dedicated. tendency.• 8 WORKERS VANGUARD explosive labor struggles. This projec­ the SL's forward movement than [to] tion retains its general validity, with the the major reverses suffered by these Explosion organizations," which flowed mainly ILWU ... note that an upsurge has not occurred as (continued from page 3) soon as expected, and with the recogni­ from "the collision ofthe overambitious Brewing... tion that further delay in significant goals and inflated expectations peddled 'vehicular manslaughter·.... He really to their members with the sharp decline should be charged with murder. He ran (continued from page 6) outbursts is likely. The near general strike of spring 1976 in San Francisco in labor and social struggle in the 1971­ over the picketer and then afterwards Watergate clearly hurt both parties demonstrated the ease with which the 73 period." backed up his truck and ran over him more of less equally. It is noteworthy ossified labor lieutenants, given the Since then, the period has continued again and killed him." A scab murderer that while the SL prediction (Perspec­ right intersection of circumstances, to be a rocky one for the left, in gets off lightly, while innocent strikers tives and Tasks ofthe SL/ u.s., August could lose control ofan elemental, class­ particular for the centrists and Maoists. are convicted: the bosses' courts are 1974) that Watergate would put the struggle upsurge. Striking coal miners in The contradictions inherent in the game accomplices in the anti-labor offensive. Democrats in the White House proved the hills of West Virginia-about as far offake revolutionist, with its attendant During the court battles the Militant correct, Carter didn't dare use the removed as possible from the petty­ gimmicks, fictions and underlying Caucus (MC) had tried to mobilize a militant working-class defense ofall the scandal as a-club to beat the Republi­ bourgeois cultural milieu of San opportunism, have made existence in cans, and the Democratic victory was no Francisco-made the same point. The this period very difficult if not impossi­ victimized unionists, despite the sabo­ tage of the ILWU leadership. The MC landslide. events in the mine fields showed the ble for centrist organizations such as the pushed for the union to organize mass The characteristic pressures of the qualitative identity between the newly RSL, the (unmourned) CSL, and the ex­ demonstrations outside the courtroom period are producing increasing frustra­ elevated Miller wing of the bureaucracy IT. The impulse to cave in to the tion with objective conditions, decreas­ and the old buzzards still haunting Bay pressures of the period has meant a and to prepare for defensive strikes to enforce the negotiated amnesty. But an ing confidence in the future and a Area labor temples. rapid evolution to the right for most of general turning away from many of the them, as exemplified by Spark and the MC motion to this effect was defeated traditional props ofthe capitalist system Elsewhere, however, the union Landau group, both of which long for by the McClain bureaucracy at the throughout the petty bourgeoisie and bureaucrats played on demoralization the warm bosom ofthe SWP, and by the November 23 Local 6 general executive working class. The Catholic Church among the workers over rising unem­ RSL, which is trying to ape SWP-like board meeting. battles for public money to finance its ployment rates and past defeats, and "mass movement" pop fronts. In the radio interview before the school system as the "faithful" abandon managed to hold the lid on outbursts. Qualitatively reformist organizations trials, MC member and Local 6 execu­ it in droves. With worsening economic The present collapse ofthe very narrow­ such as the SWP and CP, which long tive board member Bob Mandel pointed conditions weighing on it like a great ly based economic recovery of 1975-76, ago gave up the difficult pretense of out that"the employers and government weight, the bourgeois family structure and the projection of increasing unem­ revolutionary politics, have benefitted had to prove that they could actually shows increasing instability through ployment, make the chances of an quantitatively at the expense of the break the unions on the line.... Having high rates of divorce and remarriage. immediate escalation of class struggle centrists within the general rightward taken on some ofthe strongest unions in drift. Following a left-right split in 1973, the Bay Area and having inflicted the I.S. has consolidated on the basis of certain severe defeats on them, they're rejection of the Trotskyist Transitional now trying to make an example to Program, craven capitulation to left­ intimidate workers against striking in liberal bureaucrats, and hard trade­ the future.... If they can whip the union economism. Political bandits and ILWU, which is one of the strongest mavericks such as the Healyites and PL unions in the area, and put these 40 enjoy a dubious and lonely continued people behind bars, they'll feel confident existence through the mechanism of that they can go ahead and extend their vicious slander and trade-union oppor­ anti-labor legislation." tunism respectively. The Maoists, Stan Gow drew the political lessons of meanwhile, who have also evolved to the anti-strike repression, arguing that the right over the past several years, are labor needs its own party and govern­ now going through an exquisite (for ment: "[S.F mayor] Moscone, Ford, Trotskyists!) and possibly terminal Carter, the Berkeley City Council and crisis of confidence in the deformed­ the San Francisco Board ofSupervisors workers-state bureaucratic ruling elite are all anti-labor," he warned. It was through which they define their political precisely the bureaucrats' reliance on existence. the Democratic "friends of labor" ~a The grossly opportunist and, in some policy promoted by supporters of the cases, adventurist behavior of the reformist Communist Party-which set ostensibly revolutionary organizations up the union for defeat in the first place. in the near-general strike in San Fran­ Gow asserted "the trials are part of an cisco in spring 1976 brought home the attack on the right to strike," and called bankruptcy of the U.S. left when faced for mobilizing the entire labor move­ with the prospect of a real class struggle ment as well as civil liberties groups and situation. While the consciousness of socialist organizations to defend the victimized militants.• Auto workers at Ford go out on strike In September. the active minority of workers made noticeable advances, the left organiza­ The turn to the narcissism of "self­ small. Since the economic strike is the tions were increasingly revealed as fulfillment" gimmicks like new religious only perceived form of class struggle in helplessly unable to influence the cults, drugs and health foods is perva­ the U.S., an increase in unemployment forward motion of the class struggle, Young sive. Forthe working class, however, the in the coming year will probably have a and, in general, hopelessly rightist. dream of escaping alienated labor by further depressing effect on the class While the CP (predictably) concentrat­ Spartacus rising into the petty bourgeoisie-a struggle, especially at first. The pres­ ed its fire on the left in order to protect traditionally strong restraining influ­ sures at the base will continue to mount, the bureaucracy, the SWP and the RCP ence on class consciousness in the U.S. however, and the consciousness of the actually opposed implementing the call Subscription -necessarily. becomes dimmer as the working class can be turned around for the general strike! job lines lengthen. rapidly, as San Francisco showed. There is a reason for the galloping Drive As the bourgeoisie becomes more Given the right intersection of a rather motion to the right on the part of the arrogant and the working class and less abrupt decline in employment centrists, and it lies in the nature of petty bourgeoisie more disillusioned in with a militant strike in a major centrism: for these weather vanes ofthe February 1 the system, the traditional role of the industrial center, class-struggle mili­ left, program is determined by whatever trade unions as the last line ofdefense of tants can still expect to encounter happens to be popular at the moment or to capitalism becomes more important. opportunities. As we pointed out in the by what forces are available to tail after February 28 The encrusted bureaucracy played this "Perspectives and Tasks" document, or capitulate to. "Program" is required role to the hilt in the recent elections, such opportunities as do arise are likely by the simple fact that they find dragging out every conceivably reviv­ to be fraught with the danger of our themselves together in an organization able illusion and making a maximum friends being thrust prematurely into one day and decide that they really effort to resurrect the old "Roosevelt the leadership of major struggles. ought to have something to stand for. Young coalition" of labor and blacks in the Yet is the general stagnation of class Thus the Ellensites left the SL unsure of Democratic Party. The Meany­ struggle, rather than opportunities their positions onjust about everything; Woodcock-Fitzsimmons gang's contin­ posing the danger of premature leader­ Passen and Gregorich spent months Spartacus ued holding of the line ofwage increases ship, which we must recognize as the looking for a political excuse to avoid has resulted in falling comparative wage major aspect ofthe objective situation at talking to the SL; the RSL came MONTHLY NEWSPAPER rates for U.S. workers as against the present time. Dealing with this together and split from the I.S. prior to OF THE SPARTACUS workers in other major industrial general stagnation, and with the cynical, deciding what its position on the YOUTH LEAGUE countries. With the onset of heavy personalist and escapist moods connect­ Russian Question was, etc. layoffs and drastically increasing unem­ ed with it-and with their effect on our For revolutionists, the program of Make checks payable/mail to: ployment in 1974-75, the labor fakers ranks-is the biggest conjunctural revolutionary Trotskyism is the sole Spartacus Youth Publishing Co., went all out to prevent any militant problem facing the SL/ U.S., and its basis for existence. Gimmicks, fictions, Box 825, Canal Street Station, response, channeling protest instead trade-union friends in particular. fakery and cliquism have no place in an New York, N.Y. 10013 into reactionary protectionist schemes The existence of a general stagnation organization which genuinely seeks an Name _ and bourgeois utopian jobs legislation in the class struggle, imposed largely international proletarian revolution Address _ such as the Humphrey-Hawkins bill. through the "class peace" policies ofthe rather than new get-rich-quick "solu­ The SL projected in August 1974 that trade-union bureaucracy, and affecting tions." The SL's practice of recruitment City _ enormous pressures were building up at the entire left, has already been noted. In on a sound political basis and setting State Zip,__--,-,--; the base of the labor movement, the 1974 "Perspectives and Tasks" realistic organizational goals has en­ 144 threatening to shatter the hold of the document, we attributed our surpassing abled it to survive the present period SUBSCRIBE NOW! encrusted and brittle labor bureaucracy of four of our central competitors in without a major faction fight, split, or and resulting in a series ofelemental and strength and influence as due "less [to] hemorrhaging of the cadre.• $2/ 11 issues 11 FEBRUARY 1977 9 militants-with the bureaucrats' eager mands on black communists, in particu­ Active Workers complicity and the apparent fearful lar the firm rejection of any form of acquiescence of the workers-can in­ acquiescence to lumpenized life styles. Arlington duce frustration and defeatism, leading A reporter to the first plenary session Conference ... to opportunism. even within the Lenin­ noted: Heights ... (continued from page 6) ist vanguard. While inevitable tactical "The race question could prove to be (continuedji'om page 3) mistakes elicited by this currently either a great motor for social revolu­ Socialists hope to wheedle the workers unequal battle must be painstakingly tion or the insuperable barrier to social class overthrow the rule of the exploit­ into supporting them as "good guys" in and patiently combatted, the SL trC!de revolution. I can think of no more ers, whose chief defense is the time­ spite of their politics. "We want people unionists demonstrated that they would significant and decisive element in that honored tactic of "divide and rule." to know that the reason we fight for the not tolerate cynical tinkering with the choice than the issue of whether or not Communists call for the construction of workers is because we're against capital­ at that juncture there is an effective class line and insisted upon the removal Leninist vanguard with components low-rent, racially integrated quality ism and want to oust the reformist from trade-union work of one comrade from both races." public housing and must support the bureaucracy," she said. whose weakness under pressure could current school busing plans, however Another comrade cited James P. Fruitful commissions were also held corrode our principled program. Many dealing with the vital areas of finances minimal, while demanding that busing Cannon's remark: tactics are nothing comrades took the floor to insist that be extended to the white suburbs. Such but fingerwork-fingers don't mean and press. A high point of the confer­ those who put themselves forward as a ence was the session on current perspec­ demands are essential to turn the black much if your· arm is broken, and that class-sttuggle leadership for the work­ tives of the international Spartacist and white working masses' present arm is the revolutionary program. The ing claS5 must safeguard, as a precious vicious competition for a larger share reformists seek instant success by tendency (iSt), enriched by the partici­ and irreplaceable acquisition, their pation of senior comrades from the of the shrinking pie into a united adapting to a supppsed layer of"honest unblemished reputation for integrity struggle against the common enemy­ trade-union militants" who are idealized tendency's German and Australian and the revolutionary program of sections. The validity of the iSt's the capitalist class. as "unconscious" socialists. But lacking Trotskyism, which alone can lead the Mobilization of Chicago's powerful a revolutionary program, trade-union insistence on construction of a disci­ working class to victory. plined tendency based on programmatic multi-racial labor movement to defend militants are politically defined by the The intersection of trade-union and black and minority rights and fight for reformist limits to the struggles they cohesion is strikingly reconfirmed by legal defense work was the subject of a the fake-Trotskyists' wild maneuvers as decent integrated housing for all is the engage in. Leninists refer to such politics panel discussion. The consolidation ofa they frantically scramble for unstable only answer to the festering racial as "simple trade unionism," emphasiz­ professionalized legal defense fraction alliances in a grotesque travesty of hatred. Reformists like the Communist ing that it is a reformist ideology which was apparent. It was noted that defense internationalism. Party (CP) and Socialist Workers Party must be combatted if the workers' against bureaucratic reJ1ression is an (SWP), however, have looked instead to While soberly facing up to the reality struggles are to be freed from the integral part of trade-union work and liberal politicians and above all to the of relative political stagnation, it was bureaucratic straitjacket. that the success of campaigns to defend federal courts to defend blacks against noted at the plenary that the present Unremitting company harassment of victimized worker militants is ultimately racist attack. With this "strategy" of dependent upon the ability to mobilize conjuncture is fundamentally different pressuring the courts gone up in smoke, in the unions. from that during the Cold War, when a the SWP is now pressuring the liberal massive political contraction of the NAACP, Urban League and the "World OL on The Race Question: Motor for entire left prevailed for nearly two Community of Islam" to take'to the Social Revolution or Barrier to decades. The conference adjourned on streets, .. to pressure Carter. Social Revolution an optimistic note, with the participants On the other hand, those so-called Sadlowski. • • confident of the organization's ability to (continued from page 2) revolutionaries like the Maoist Revolu­ Much of the discussion in the black withstand the corrosive pressures of the tionary Communist Party or the third ment, the OL proclaims: "From concili­ commission dealt with the urgency of period and to change reality through campist Revolutionary Socialist League ating with the revisionists and with the creating a genuinely racially integrated intervention in the class struggle on the who oppose busing as a "bour­ Soviet Union, to prostrating before the communist organization with a signifi­ basis of the Transitional Program. As geois plot" must be grateful indeed to liberals and the labor bureaucrats" cant black component in its leadership. one comrade observed during the final the Supreme Court and the racist village various of its Maoist competitors "all U.S. society is deeply, poisonously plenary: fathers of Arlington Heights for siding now find common ground in their racially polarized and the only signifi­ "The most important accomplishment with them. cant degree of racial integration takes since the transformation of the SL is attacks on the party building forces and more than the trade-union work, the In Chicago, racist attacks-often the October League at home and against place at the lower levels of industrial weekly and the international work. covertly aided by the police and con­ China and the Marxist-Leninist move­ production. The lack of a significant What is revealed by yesterday's and doned by city officials, as in the ment internationally" (Call, 10 black leadership component impedes today's discussion is the existence of a Marquette Park incidents-have been SL'~ layer of Bolshevik cadre which will not January). the transformation into a Leninist growing in intensity. Last fall new party, as well as to carrying out certain be easily lost despite contraction and There are two interrelated reasons reversals. Organizational growth is incidents were reported almost every why the OL would want to switch gears immediate tasks, particularly in the measured not just in numbers but in week in the Chicago papers. And now, and come out against Sadlowski. For trade uhions. The racist character ofthis political depth, experience and pro­ in its Arlington Heights decision, the one thing, having more or less sewn up bourgeois society imposes special de- grammatic solidity." • Supreme Court has thrown up a major the Peking franchise Klonsky & Co. roadblock to residential integration. figure they are free to sound more "left" Especially in the present climate of on domestic affairs-and in fact have a social reaction, it will be virtually strong interest in doing so. In the last impossible to prove racist motivation period, the Revolutionary Communist behind the smokescreens of pleas for Party (RCP-formerly the RU) had "neighborhood schools," "maintaining struck a more militant pose than the OL SWP on Sadlowski. • • property values" and the like. But the in the trade unions, even at one point (continued from page 2) Supreme Court decision in the Arling­ going so far as to denounce Sadlowski­ Barnes was unable to reply to these bad as right-wing support for McBride ton Heights case has only given legal like bureaucrats as "OOO's" ("Oppor­ criticisms without abandoning any and AbeL" And in Cleveland, after sanctivn to the policy that the bourgeoi­ tunists Out of Office"). Now, with the pretense of standing on the Trotskyist known SL supporters were demonstra­ sie has more or less consistently upheld RCP firmly on the Sadlowski bandwag­ Transitional Program. In Chicago he bly denied the right to speak, this would­ in practice. Rather than reformist on and "Oilcan Eddie" himself embar­ laid it out on the table: "Abel never be supporter of "democracy" blustered: illusions in the "neutrality" of the rassed over contributions from bour­ proposed the rank and file taking over, "I believe your organization is the most capitalist courts and cops, the Spartacist geois liberals, the OL has a perfect only reform of McDonald's practices. reactionary on the American left. I League calls for integrated working­ opportunity to jump over its main rival But that's good. We say do it again." believe you are the left wing ofthe Abel­ class defense against racist terror and within the Maoist spectrum and plant its Throwing out the principle of trade­ McBride team. You echo the worst and massive mobilization of the labor banner just to the left of Avakian in the union independence from the bourgeois most reactionary charges of the right movement, black organizations and unions. state, he blubbered: "Sadlowski and the wing." other defenders of democratic rights to jockeying for position. In opposing workers are fools if they don't use the enforce and extend busing and other Sadlowski, the OL harps on the fact that Landrum-Griffin act, using every What Barnes means by this mud­ desegregation measures.• he is supported by the Communist Party clause." In Pittsburgh he justified slinging is that neither he nor his touted (CP), adding that the CP "hopes to use Sadlowski's court suit to open up Steel "steel rebel" has been able to answer the this left-liberal coalition tactic to ex­ Labor, claiming that the "union news­ serious charges raised by the SL The pand support for the Soviet Union and paper was turned over to the bosses slanders of this tin-pot booster of WOMEN AND its phony 'detente' propaganda" (Call, years ago and that to get it back, reformist labor fakers will not succeed, 24 January). (The fact that yesterday the Sadlowski has to go to court." but Barnes is right in seeing in the REVOLUTION OL lined up with the CP in supporting Spartacist League the most vigorous But even this wasn't enough. The Sadlowski and Miller is handily "forgot­ opponent of all brands of labor reform­ No. 13 SWP felt compelled to descend to ten.") Here the OL appeals to reaction­ ism, both Sadlowski's and his own. The Contents: Stalinist-style slander. In Pittsburgh • Before "Socialist Realism" in the ary anti-Sovietism, ostensibly as an SL has repeatedly warned that the Barnes attacked the SL charging: "Left­ Soviet Union argument for support to neither of the "Steelworkers Fightback" campaign wing support for McBride and Abel is as aims at rejuvenating the hidebound • On Gay Liberation": A Marxist competing pro-capitalist bureaucrats. Analysis But just as Peking's assertion that American labor bureaucracy so that it "Soviet sociiil-imperialism" represents can better contain threatened militant • Seattle Radical Women class battles. Drawing the lessons ofpast • Women Scapegoated for Rising the greater danger leads to support to Now Available as a Pamphlet! NATO and the most reactionary imperi­ bureaucratic "insurgencies," we pointed Unemployment alist warmongers against the Soviet The Fight to Implement out that the Ed Sadlowskis of today are • DEFEND:-Susan Saxe­ Union, so must it lead inevitably to Busing the strikebreaking, autocratic tW. Johnny Ross-Yvonne Wanrow political support to the most conserva­ Abels and Arnold Millers of tomorrow. For Labor/Black Defense to Stop The SL has generated, and will continue tive, anti-Soviet wing of the labor Racist Attacks and to Smash Fascist SUBSCRIBE $2/4 issues bureaucracy. This is the clear logic ofits Threats to generate Marxist clarity in the Make checks payable /mail to: workers movement with its principled politics and the logic ofStalinism, which Price: 75C SPARTACIST PUBLISHING CO. everywhere betrays the interests of the political opposition to both the Box 1377, GPO Make checks payable/mail to: McBrides and the Sadlowskis and to working masses to the nationalist Spartacus Youth Publishing Co., Box 825. New York. N.Y. 10001 appetites of the bureaucracies of the Canal St. Station, New York. N.Y. 10013 all other exponents of class­ deformed workers states.• collaborationism, • WORKERS VANGUARD 10 "rights" in the NEe, which held several capital, is wholly justified. r British Labour ballots on the issue. The most important Callaghan, Wilson & Co. know full defender of Bevan's appointment is well that the Militant group and other minister of energy Tony Benn, present self-styled Trotskyists in the Labour Cleveland Party ... acknowledged leader of the Labour left. Party do not pose the slightest threat to (continued from page 12) Benn upheld the proscription of mem­ their leadership. At bottom the current WLer bers of other parties, but observed that: red scare reflects the anxiety of the around former Labour cabinet minister "Marxism has, from the earliest days, British bourgeoisie and its agents in the Reg Prentice, who was rejected as a always been openly accepted by the workers movement about their ability to Attacks parliamentary candidate by his constit­ Party as one of the many sources of inspiration within our Movement along maint&in the tenuous class peace em­ uency party in the London district of with-though much less influential bodied in the "social contract." With Spartacist Newham Northeast last fall. Prentice is than-Christian Socialism, Fabianism, renewed unrest at the important nation­ Last week WV published a letter not only an extreme, red-baiting right­ Owenism, Trade unionism, or even alized auto manufacturer (Leyland), the winger, he is a notorious boor who radical Liberalism." by David North, national se«:retary managed to alienate even middle-of-the­ -Militant, 7 January of the Workers League (WL), hypo«:riti«:ally protesting alleged road Labourites. In alliance with some Benn's current tolerance for "Marx­ Spartadst League (SL) atta«:ks on typical "Labour lefts," Militant sup­ ists" in the Labour Party is a cynical the WL, and denying the "use of porters toppled Prentice in his own manoeuvre. The Militant group and violen«:e" in the "sodalist move­ bailiwick and successfulIy resisted much similar tendencies provide a hard­ ment." In response, we reiterated bureaucratic pressure to reverse that working, disciplined corps of activists our long-standing prindpled de­ decision. ) for .any pretended "left" oppositionists fense of workers democra«:y and Prentice screamed like a stuck pig within the framework of British social about "communist infiltration" and his pointed to the WL's wret«:hed democracy, a role played by Aneurin history of assaulting its opponents cause was aggressively championed by Bevin in the post-World War II years, on the left. Unfortunately, we must later by Harold Wilson, then Michael now report that a mere six days Foote and now Tony Benn. Aneurin after North's January 27 letter the Bevin died before he could become WL has on«:e again physkally prime minister and dash the illusions of attacked a Spartadst supporter. his would-be Marxist supporters. Wil­ The inddent occurred on son and Foote (who led the fight against February 2 in Cleveland, where Andy Bevan's appointment as youth salesmen for both WVand the WL's officer) did live long enough to attain Bulletin were selling in front of a high office and become red-baiting downtown unemployment office. "moderates." Benn will follow in their When asked by the WV salesman path. how the Workers League could Andy Bevan, like the Militant group Andy Bevan pretend to be for a labor party while I as a whole, has pledged himself to supporting such pro-capitalist, pro­ loyally carry out the policies of the Democratic Party labor fakers as Labour Party's current leadership: National Union of Miners' upcoming Ed Sadlowski, the WLer flew into a "There is a standard document every wage claim and other pay negotiations, single Labour official signs. In addition, British rulers cannot afford significant rage. He attacked our salesman, I had to agree, it was no part of my dissidence in any sector ofthe organized landing a few glancing blows, but duties to promote in any way ideas or workers movement. was unable to inflict any serious proposals of any unofficial group or damage. Our comrade stood his party, or to appear on any platform or attend a meeting unless authorized by For a Trotskyist Opposition to ground and continued selling, while the national agent [e.g., Reg Underhill, Labourism taking the Workers League to task who has been leading the campaign to for its trade-union opportunism stop Bevan's appointment]. I say 100 Over the past period, the Callaghan and two-bit desperado violence. percent here and now that I will abide government has been able to rely on the The disparity between North's Tony Benn by these undertakings." trade-union bureaucrats to police the -Guardian, 31 January pious words and his membership's working class. However, even as an actions is certainly nothing new for In defending the appointment, Benn escape valve, the NEC forum for the political bandits of the WL. the big business press. However, in commented: "I accept Andy Bevan's Tribunite "left" demagogy has been an terms of the general motion within the Nevertheless, such despic~ble vio­ word that, as National Youth Officer, he embarrassment.to the cabinet. The anti­ lence is a matter of serious concern Labour Party, the unseating of Prentice would faithfUlly serve the party, giving Trotskyist campaign is a means to whip by left-wingers in his constituency is an to all tendencies in the workers ~ exception by far. On the whole it is the movement and carmot be left, not the Prentices, which faces a as simply one more example of purge. In the recent past a number ofleft WL cynicism. We insist that the WL activists have been suspended from their bring its actions into line with its constituency parties, among them Keith professed denundation of ltiolence Veness from the London district of within the socialist movement. For Islington North. our part, we continueto stand ready The main current focus of the anti­ to protect our members and our Trotskyist campaign has been the legitimate rights-as well as those appointment of Andy Bevan, a Militant of the Workers League-in line group supporter and past president of with our consistent defense and enforcement of the principles of the LPYS, as the full-time salaried party workers democracy. officer for youth matters. As part of a right-wing attempt to block his appoint­ ment, the National Union of Labour Capitalist press carried hysterical campaign against "Trotskyist infiltration" agent of an international communist Organizers refused to work with him on in Labor Party. conspiracy. the grounds that he was not a member of Of all the groups in Europe claiming that union. The political motivation of us his first loyalty and adhering to its the NEC majority into line and to to be Trotskyists, the Grant group is this move was clear since, in the past few constitu~ion, programme, and policy" prevent the emergence of an alternative undoubtedly the mOst organically years, half of the similarly appointed (Militant, 7 January). From our know­ pole in the workers movement to the social-democratic. It refuses to call for functionaries were not members of the ledge of the Grant group, we can affirm Callaghan/TUC axis. Numerous com­ unconditional withdrawal ofthe imperi­ union either. that Benn's faith in its loyalty to the mentators are strongly suggesting that alist British army from Northern Ire­ The Bevan appointment produced a British bourgeois-workers party, the Jack Jones and the union bureaucracy land, on the grounds that its presence confrontation between the "lefts" and faithful executor of the will of finance purge the Benn-Tribunite majority in there supposedly prevents sectarian civil the party executive, something they war. It supports voting for the Labour could easily do with the trade-union government's state budget, including bloc of votes. Andy Bevan turns out to expenditures for nuclear weapons, be a very convenient whipping boy to military intelligence and the like. Even start with. the centrist United Secretariat of Ernest While the bourgeois media now Mandel-despite its "family ofTrotsky­ WfJlillEliS present the Militant group as the most ism," come-one, come-all policies-has cunning, insidious and dangerous reds, written off the Militant group for its it is actually utterly reformist, wedded to avowed agnosticism on the possibility of and legitimately within the program­ a "peaceful road to socialism" in Britain. matic framework of the Labour Party. The bourgeois and right-wing social­ It would be truly unjust for poor old Ted democratic hysteria against Trotskyism , Grant, presenting his Kautskyan poli­ is not testimony to the Militant group's ! Name _ i "''''''111) tics in the manner of a Victorian revolutionary credentials but rather to [ headmaster, to be proscribed from the extreme fragility of class peace in [ Address _ Labour. When he says, "We want to Britain. A genuinely Trotskyist organi­ strengthen the Labour Party and the zation in Britain would not use the City/State/Zip ------:-;:144 Labour government on the basis of authority and program of Marxism as a I includes SPARTAC/ST socialism" (Times [London], 10 Decem­ cover for liquidation into social democ­ r, o Enclosed is $5 for 48 issues (1 year) ber 1976), he really means it. Grant is racy, but as a means for organizing th~ "'~ o Enclosed is $2 for 16 issues {4 months)-INTRODUCTORY sub completely sincere in claiming that his working class to smash the "social Ii, order from/pay to: Spartacist Publishing Co./Box 1377 GPO/NY, NY 10001 loyalty to Labourism is stronger than contract" and for the mobilization INTERNATIONAL RATES: 48 issues-$20 airmail/$5 seamail; 16 introductory issues-$5 airmail. that of most of the right-wing social toward a workers government to ex­ democrats who denounce him as an propriate the capitalist class.• 11 FEBRUARY 1977 11 WfJRIlERS 'AHIIIARD Geriatric "Tro~!m" the Targ!t Red Scare in the British Labour Pa LONDON, February 6-Under the politics during the last t'wo years. Ex­ implacable pressure of international prime minister (now Sir) Harold Wilson finance capital, exercised through such alluded to the Militant group as "politi­ agencies as the International Monetary C? 1 asset strippers" who used the Fund, Britain's Labour government is "cynical methods of the takeover bid­ presently forcing a massive cut ,the ders." Current prime minister Calla­ standard of living of the working ghan weht even further, asserting that people. The two primary policies used to "there aIle too many people who have attain this end are the "social contract" infiltrated this party already." "Get (de facto government wage control) and them out," he demanded. wholesale dismantling of the "welfare Typical of the anti-Trotskyist venom state." pouring out of the leaders of British Prime Minister James Callaghan's social democracy these days is that of "austerity" pOlicies have been sufficient­ right-wing cabinet minister Shirley ly conciliatory to "City" financiers, Wall Williams, in a speech that was reprinted Street bond dealers and the nebulous in full in the liberal Guardian (22 "gnomes of ZUrich" to secure several January)! massive loans and IMF "stand-by" "Leo~ Trotsky. himself cared nothing credits to cope with a whopping for IndlVl~Ual lIberty; he cared nothing balance-of-payments deficit. Key to the for. parlIamentary democracy. His elaborate financial juggling, however, is actIO lIS In the 1920's as one of the acquiescence of the hard-put working leadels of the Soviet State-for exam- . pIe, his part in the crushing of the class. Kronstadt rising-make this clear. So So far this has been forthcoming, as do his voluminous writings.... What Trades Union Congress (TUe) chief they reveal makes one deeply uneasy Len Murray and Transport Workers about Trotskyism-and I regret to say, about people who call themselves or leader Jack Jones have vigilantly sup­ permit themselves to be called Trotsky­ pressed opposition in the unions to the IStS. I could recite quotation after Labour prime minister calls on party's executive committee to carry out anti­ 4.5 percent pay ceiling. Yet the bour­ quotation, making clear Leon Trotsky's Trotskyist red purge at meeting last fall. geoisie remains worried lest the slightest profound and total disdain for individu­ crack appear in the cabinet-TUC agree­ al liberty and the process ofparliamen­ senator Joe McCarthy, the article Labour's National Youth Officer. tary d.emocracy.... Modern Trotsky­ warned: ment on wage policy. First among its Ism, lIke the Trotskyism of Trotsky In actual fact, the group around Ted preoccupations is guarding against any himself, holds liberty and democracy in "A secret organization of Trotskyists, Grant's weekly Militant is no threat at total contempt. Its vision of socialism with its own national policy, full-time all to the stability of the Labour Party. "maverick" behaviour by the so-called officials and strictly disciplined mem­ has nothing to do with the British The Grant group is the most successful "left-wing majority" on the Labour Labol.r Party's vision." bership, is operating inside the Labour Party National Executive Committee Party. Its aim is to use the party as a step of several ostensibly Trotskyist tenden­ (NEe). Two weeks later this diatribe was to revolution. It clings to conspirational cies committed to "entrism" (organizing Thus the current "red scare" over followed by a special feature article in anonymity to avoid being expelled from itself as a current within the Labour the party.... It controls a majority of Party). But the Militant group is so "Trotskyist infiltration" in the Labour the Guarriian entitled, "So, Who Are the the executive of 17 of the 18 regions of Party left wing aims much higher than Trots?" the Labour Party Young Socialists "successful" that it has controlled the its ostensible target, the small Militant The anti-"Trotskyist" witchhunt has (LPYS).... The RSL [Revolutionary official LPYS for more than a decade, a group led by Ted Grant. Fundamental­ been going on for some time. In the Socialist League] works behind the fact that is well-known to Labour Party front of the Militant." ly, the "anti-Trot" campaign is a summer of 1975, a report on "Trotskyist leaders and within the British workers warning to the loose grouping of infiltration" was prepared by the La­ The Underhill report was subse~ movement. Furthermore, this grouping Tribunite MP's [Members of Parlia­ bour Party national agent, Reg Under­ quently tabled by the Tribunite "left" is so fossilized and thoroughly social­ ment], "militant" union leaders and left­ hill. It provoked a welter of paranoid majority on the NEe. However, in democratic that it is at best a limp wingers in the constituencies to toe the "reds under the beds" articles through­ response to a virulent campaign in the caricature of revolutionary Trotskyism. line should there be an outbreak of out the bourgeois press. A prime bourgeois press since early December struggles over pay claims in the coming example was the front-page story in the and under pressure from Callaghan, the The Grant Group: Tony Benn's weeks and months. London Observer (31 August 1975) NEC reversed itself in late January and Left Flank entitled "'Trot' Conspirators Inside agreed to consider the report. The "Reds Under the Beds" Labour Party" and sub-titled "Revolu­ excuse for the current witchhunt was Much of the fury surrounding the The cry of "Trotskyist infiltration" tionary Plot Is Exposed." Recalling the controversy over appointment of a anti-Militant campaign has centered has become a serious issue in British scurrilous innuendo of the late U.S. supporter of the Militant group as continued on page 11

Movie Review Blood and Coal: Harlan County,

U.S.A. Scene from the film: strikers take aim at scabs.

. '.,12, . 11 FEBRUARY 1917