W(JRKERS 'AMIIIAR' soC!: No.83S @~il~c'701 29 October 2004 Elections 2004 Scull/Newsweek AP Rel,gion, '. Racism and Reacli on t.'. B.'.. ' reak.·· ...· ••···.· •..... ·._. ···•···.. ·.··it ..• ...· ..·.' .. ,.I ..•...' .....'.'.~ ·::.. .... ,.:·.....•• · •... ··· .. ·.· .. ' ..........••. ·.b ........ ,.8.' •.............. D.··••.····. 8:1D......·.:.· ... 0.·.. c.···:.r ......·.· .. a.. ··,. I.·.S!· We!I'.. ~a .. Revolllli8I!a~I;~_orkersParq! The Bush cabal that occupies the White same-sex marriage, favored restrictions House is fanatical, arrogant and believes on abortion and imposed limits on embry­ it is doing the work of God. One would onic stem cell research. He has promoted think the U.S. were some kind of theo­ vouchers for religious schools and shifted cratic state given all the heavy emphasis money for sex education and reproductive on religion, Newspaper articles detail health programs to those that instead pro­ how God supposedly told evangelist Pat mote abstinence." The Bush administra­ Robertson that the Iraq war would entail tion is certainly a pack of crazed woman­ heavy casualties. Bush supporters testify hating, anti-black, anti-gay bigots. that they believe that through Bush, "God It is understandable that many would is in the White House." There is an open see Kerry as some kind of "lesser evil" disdain for facts and reality. A New York to the Bush gang-it's not so much that Times Magazine (17 October) article by people are voting for Kerry but that Ron Suskind describes how a senior Bush they're voting against Bush. But from the advisor told Suskind that "guys like me standpoint of the interests of the working were 'in what we call the reality-based class, black people and the oppressed. community: which he defined as people the capitalist Democratic Party of John who 'believe that solutions emerge from Forbes Kerry (who if elected will be the your judicious study of discernible real­ third-richest president in history) is no ity: I nodded and murmured something alternative .. Kerry just wants to better about enlightenment principles and empiri­ and more rationally (for the capitalists) cism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the administer American imperialism abroad world really works anymore' ." and repression at home to further the Suskind points out that Bush does not exploitation of working people for capi­ have to claim that he is ordained by God; talist profit. Although basing their elec­ others do it for him. He quotes zealous toral support on different sectors of the Bush supporter Hardy Billington declar­ population-which can often be very ing, "God gave us this president to be the hostile to each other-both Republicans man to protect the nation at this time." and Democrats at bottom are. as Gore "We may be that generation that Vidal puts it, "two right wings" of one sees Armageddon." Ronald Reagan infa­ party, the "Property Party." mously remarked. Though Reagan was Kerry wants to "win" in Iraq, project­ probably thinking of a nuclear showdown ing that troops may stay four more years. with the Soviet Union, today many relig­ He supports Israel's concentration-camp ious fundamentalist leaders are predicat­ walls going up around Palestinian com­ ing their positions on the Near East, par­ munities. He wants to wage a more ticularly Israel/Palestine, on a desire for effective "war on terror" at home, which an apocalyptic battle of titanic propor­ would mean more repression of immi­ tions in the region. This has led to an grants, black people and labor. And. unholy alliance between the Zionist neo­ whatever his personal beliefs, he has not cons and the largely Protestant funda­ shied away from pandering to the relig­ mentalist right in the U.S. The two groups New York City: Local 1199 SEIU home health aides strike rally in June, ious vote. The New York Times (25 Octo­ have drawn together in spite of the demanding better wages and health coverage (top). Some 2,000 people march ber) notes: "Mr. Kerry demonstrated a anti-Semitism of the bible-thumpers-Pat across Brooklyn Bridge in May in support of legalizing gay marriage. wide liturgical reach, quoting from Mat­ Robertson, for example, an ardent sup­ thew, James, John, Luke, the Ten Com­ porter of Israel, assigns Jews a role in his These Christian fundamentalists want hot buttons of American religious mania mandments and 'Amazing Grace' before imagined conspiracy spelled out in his to see Armageddon, even if it means and sexual hysteria. recalling for cheering Jews in Boca book The New World Order that reminds nuclear war in the Near East; they want to The fanatical religiosity of the Bush Raton how he once shouted 'the Israeli one of the lies in the anti-Semitic screed see the "Second Coming" and the end of administration, its war-crazed policies, people lives' in Hebrew atop Masada." The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. the world. And they know to play on the its supreme imperial arrogance and its It is a measure of how loathsome the deep religiosity that pervades thi, cpun­ attacks on the rights of labor and black Bush regime is that Kerry-a man people have produced a sharp polariza­ who voted for the war in Iraq, a man who 44 try, where, according to a recent Gallup Poll, some 42 percent of Americans tion in this country. "When it comes to wants to increase American troop strength describe themselves as "born again'~ or policy," the New York Times (26 October) by 40,000 men, a man who voted for the evangelical Christians. It is not an acci­ noted, Bush "has done more than any USA-Patriot Act-is seen as an alterna­ dent that gay marriage is blown up into president in recent history to advance the tive. The problem, though, is fundamen­ some huge supposed threat to civilization agenda of Christian social conservatives. tally not one of individual candidates but 7111.252741181'03011117 as we know it, pushing the ever-popular On domestic issues, he has opposed continued on page 10 • Letter The Bush administration has undeni­ Bush and Hitler? ably been exceptional in the extent to which it has succeeded in shredding 27 September 2004 crazed petty bourgeoisie and lumpen­ bourgeois-democratic rights and rolling WV, proletariat, whipped into a frenzy to phys­ back gains of the working class and all. Do me a little favor. Come up with an ically destroy the mass organizations of the oppressed. But the fact is that this article, analysis, on just why the coming the working class. Normally, the bour­ regime's assaults on democratic free­ presidential election is not like the elec­ geoisie keeps the fascists in reserve as a doms, and its "war without end" against tion in Germany which ended in Hitler's last resort, but it turns to them when the "terrorism," have been carried out within victory, not analogous. repressive organs of the state are inca­ the framework of bourgeois democracy. Cuz damn near every "anybody but pable of containing explosive class con­ The way to fight the continued eviscera­ Bush" person I talk to is convinced it is flict in periods of capitalist crisis. In this Indymedia tion of such rights was demonstrated in analogous, like the Democratic Party is country, the face of fascism is seen in the Antiwar protest in San Francisco, Oakland on 9 February 2002, when the analogous to the German Social Demo­ Ku Klux Klan, the white-supremacist January 2003. Partisan Defense Committee and the Bay crats of that time, with that German CP militias and their ilk. Area Labor Black League for Social refusing (by Stalin's orders) to bloc with The Spartacist League has a long his- unlike the German Social Democratic Defense initiated a united-front protest . tory of organizing working-class-centered Party, part of the workers movement. the Social Democrats, even calling 'em Moreover, Trotsky's point in Germany against the USA-Patriot and Maritime social fascists, as they today call or mobilizations against the fascists where was not electoral support to the Social Security Acts. This demonstration brought imply Bush as fascist. and when they have raised their head. Democrats, which implies an endorse­ together the struggles of immigrants, So get on with that article, critique! And at every step, we have had to mobi­ ment of their political program. He blacks and organized labor in opposition argued for a fighting united front-a ]' II then fling it in the faces of those lize against sabotage by the capitalist to the government's anti-immigrant hys­ Democratic Party and its supporters on series of actions-between Communist '"anybody but Bush" folk, those having a and Social Democratic workers organ­ teria. Meanwhile, the same Democratic helluva time making distinctions, like be­ the left. In New York City, where we ini­ izations to defeat the fascists, in the pols who sought to undercut working­ tween current USA and Germany of '32. tiated a mobilization on 23 October 1999 course of which the Communists could class mobilization against the fascists in And just now recalling-ya did go against the KKK that brought out thou­ make clear to the Social Democratic the streets of NYC in 1999 lifted not a sands of people, AI Sharpton and other ranks that only the Communists had the into this seeming analogy a few years program that could make the necessary finger as political dissent was criminal­ back, though in just a sentence or two: Democratic politicians filed court papers socialist revolution." ized during the Republican National This time make it-okay?-afull-length seeking to allow the Klan to mobilize for The fight against the fascists is not a Convention this summer.