January-February 2001 No.9 $2 Internationalist Defend the Palestinian People! For an Arab/Hebrew Workers Republic in a Socialist Federation of the Near East! Zionism, Imperialism and Anti-Semitism ........... 24 Arab/Hebrew Workers' Struggles Before the Birth of Israel. ... 38 Bourgeois Election Fiasco U.S.A. .... 3 Mexico: Death Agony of PRI Regime .. 58 2 The Internationalist June2000 In this issue ... Mexico: The UNAM Bourgeois Election Fiasco U.S.A .......... 3 Strike and the Fight for Workers 1876 ·························································· 8 Revolution Workers Revolution Will Avenge March 2000 US$3 Sankofa! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! .... 12 For almost a year, tens of thousands of students Defend the Palestinian People! occupied the largest university in Latin America, For an Arab/Hebrew Workers Repub­ facing repression by both lic in a Socialist Federation of the the PRI government and Near East ............................................ 16 the PRO opposition. This 64-page special supplement tells the story Zionism. Imperialism and of the strike and Anti-Semitism ................................. ... 24 documents the intervention of the Grupo Zionist Complicity in the Destruction I nternacionalista. of Hungarian Jewry .......................... 30 Order from/make checks payable to: Mundial Publications, Box 3321 , Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008, U.S.A. Zionist Terror and the "lngathering" of.Iraqi Jews ...................................... 36 Visit the Leagueforthe Fourth International/ Arab/Hebrew Workers' Struggles Internationalist Group on the Internet Before the Birth of Israel .................. 38 http://www. international ist.org Now available on our site: "Anti-Imperialist United Front" ... with • Founding Statement of the the Mufti of Jerusalem .............. ........ 43 Internationalist Group • Declaration of the League for the Fourth International Egypt: Stalinism Against • Articles from The Internationalist Arab Workers' Struggles .................. 50 • Articles from Vanguarda Operaria • Articles from El lntemacionalista Mexico: Down with PRl/PAN/PRD! ...... 58 • Articles and documents in German and French • The fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal U.S.: Break with All the Capitalist • Marxist readings Parties - Forge a Revolutionary Workers Party! ................................... 65 Trotskyists Fight for Class-Struggle Visite a pagina da Liga Quarta-lnternacionalista do Brasil Program at Brazil Labor Congress .. 72 • Materias de Vanguarda Operaria • A luta para libertar Mumia Abu-Jamal • Documentos marxistas sobre a luta pela liberta9§o do neg"? e da mulher Popular Front in Brazil Steel Town Goes After Reds ...... ............. ............. 75 Stalinists Ledthe Counterrevolution? ICL Internationalist Between Shachtman and Trotsky_ ..... 76 A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism for the Reforging of the Fourth International "Human Rights Imperialism" and the Publication of the Internationalist Group, Congo Holocaust ................. .... .. ........ 88 section of the League for the Fourth International EDITORIAL BOARD: Jan Norden (editor), Abram Negrete, Front page photo: Palestinian child Marjorie Salzburg, Buenaventura Santamaria, Socorro Valero. confronts Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip, The Internationalist (ISSN 1091-2843) is published bimonthly, skipping July-August, by 29 October 2000. Mundial Publications, P.O. Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008, U.S.A. Telephone: (212) 460-0983 Fax: (212) 614-8711 E-mail: Subscription blank graphic based on a [email protected] Subscriptions: US$10 for five issues. poster by V.A. Rodchenko, Books (1925). No. 9 ®~ January-February 2001 June 2000 The Internationalist 3 Break with the Capitalist Parties - Democrats, Republicans, Greens! Bourgeois Election Fiasco U.S.A. The following article is ex­ panded.from a talk by Jan Norden at an Internationalist Group edu­ cational on 30 December 2000. The recent U.S. presidential election campaign was a pretty tepid affair, until it was over. The differences in the campaign themes between self-proclaimed "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush and ''New Demo­ crat'' Al Gore were miniinal, at best: slightly different Medicare drug prescription plans, differences in degree of privatization of Social Security, a $500 billion tax cut vs. $1.6 trillion tax cut for the wealthy. Republicans and Democrats face off over who will be commander in chief of Formally there were underlying dif­ U.S. imperialism. Election fracas helps expose lie of bourgeois -"democracy." ferences over such issues as abor­ tion (disguised as the "right to life" vs. the ''right to choose"), the period since the Vietnam War, one party has controlled the gun control, and so on, but both Republicans and Democrats White House while another controls Congress, leading to a played these down in order to appeal to the ",center." general stalemate. In the 2000 election, prominent Wall Street Both candidates strongly supported the racist death pen­ spokesmen said that was exactly what they wanted. alty, both backed the Persian Gulf War waged by George Bush, Yet when there was a virtual photo finish in the November Sr., both were certified anti-Communist Cold Warriors. In fact, voting this year, with each candidate getting about 48 percent Bush and Gore were "cookie cutter" candidates from practically of the ballots cast, suddenly the capitalist parties were at each the same mold. They were both scions of political dynasties others' throats. Through one legal maneuver after another, (Gore's father was a long-time U.S. senator, Bush's father was accompanied by blatant intimidation tactics, for weeks the· president after being senator, as was his grandfather). While outcome hung ,in the balance. The focal point was on three Gore portrayed Bush Jr. as the candidate of Big Oil, Al Gore has countie~ in Florida, and soon the major newspapers and TV major holdings in Occidental Petroleum whose properties include networks had separate reporting teams for Miami-Dade, oil fields in Colombia, where the Clinton administration is escalat­ Broward and Palm Beach counties filing stories day by day, if -ing U.S. military intervention in a_counterinsurgency campaign not hour by hour. The whole world learned a bizarr~ vocabu­ masquerading as a "~ar on drugs." lary about "dimpled," "pregnant" and "hanging chads," which The lack of sharp differences is typical for U.S. elections, are the holes punched out by voting machines, as well as where only occasionally do the twin cap.italist parties present "butterfly ballots," "protests" and "contests" and other ar­ sharply different programs. The emphasis on personalities, cane terminology of electoral mechanics. The bourgeois par­ the negative campaigning and hoopla are a reflection of broad ties comically discard historical positions, liberal Democrats agreement on fundamental Class interests among different sec­ coming out for "states' rights" (long the watchword of conser­ tors of the bourgeoisie. Since they hardly even· present an vatives) while Republicans champion federal interVention. illusion of a real political choice, it's not surprising that recent This had the effect of making American-style elections a elections have been marked by falling rates of voter participa­ laughing stock in the rest of the world, which is very beneficial tion and a relative political "balance" between Democrats -and since U.S. imperialism is constantly dictating to Third World Republicans in Washington. Around half of adults vote, in countries and what Washington calls "rogue states" about this case a little over l 00 million out of 205 million, so that with how they must hold U.S.-style elections. And then, of course, a nearly even split the "winning" bourgeois candidate was they send in former president Jimmy Carter to make sure the supported by at most a quarter of the population. For most of right candidate is duly elected. Gleefully Saddam Hussein in Forge a Revolutionary Workers Party! 4 The Internationalist January-February 20Q1 elect the president, Chief Justice Rehnquist corrected him, pointing out that there is no such right in the U.S. Constitu­ tion. This is true, and in fact many states didn't even hold ~lections for president until well into the 19th century. In reality, the spectacle revealed how the U.S. system of bourgeois "democracy" is hardly representative and in fact elabo­ rately rigged to prevent "excesses" of the plebeian masses from disturbing capitalist stability. The Democrats got the short end of the stick, but had it gone the other way (with a Bush majority in the popular vote and Gore ahead in the electoral college), they had a whole game plan to pull off the same kind o("coup" as the Republicans did. Now, since Bush ''won" the election by a vote of 5 to 4 (the split among the Supreme Court justices, who are the only ones whose vote really counted), various "mainstream" media have been counseling the Republicans to keep to the cen­ ter of the road and push "bipartisan" policies. But Republican hardliners are having none of it. They figure they stole the elec­ tion fair and square (as a conservative ideologue said some years ago about how the U.S. created the Panama Canal Zone). And George W. Bush since they prevented Gore from stealing it back, as far as they're concerned, to the victor go the spoils. Iraq, Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Aristide in Haiti and Mugabe Meanwhile, various supposed socialist outfits have been in Zimbabwe1alked of sending election observers to Florida