May-June 2008 No. 27 The $2 2 Internationalist MayMay DayDay 2008:2008: PortPort StrikeStrike AgainstAgainst pp. 24-58 thethe WarWar ILWU contingent marches in San Francisco, May 1, during historic West Coast port strike against the war. Brazilian Teachers Strike for Mumia Abu-Jamal . 13 Defend Puerto Rican Teachers . 59-68 Australia $2, Brazil R$3, Britain £1.50, The Fight to Save Sacco and Vanzetti . 16 Canada $2, Europe 2, India Rs. 50, Japan ¥200, Mexico $10, Philippines 50 p, Constituent Assembly Mania. 79 S. Africa R10, S. Korea 2,000 won 2 The Internationalist May-June 2008 In this issue... Free the Cuban Five! ................................. 3 Order Now! The second expanded Defend Gaza! Defeat U.S./Israel edition of this important War on the Palestinian People! ................ 5 bulletin on Marxism and the Battle Over Education includes 90 Years of the October Revolution ......... 7 several new articles on the struggle of teachers Ruling Against Mumia, No Justice for in Oaxaca, Mexico, on the Oppressed in Capitalist Courts .... 12 New York City schools, as well as translations Brazilian Teachers Strike Again for from Russian on Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal........... 13 education in the early years of the USSR. The International Struggle to Save Sacco and Vanzetti ..................... 16 98pp US$3 May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down U.S. West Coast Ports ............... 24 Order from/make checks payable to: Mundial Publications, Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, New York 10008, U.S.A. Mumia Abu-Jamal, ILWU Strikes for Peace ............................................... 27 Visit the League for the Fourth International/ Iraqi Dock Workers Salute ILWU May Internationalist Group on the Internet Day Antiwar Port Shutdown ................ 30 http://www.internationalist.org The Opportunist Left and the Port Now available on our site: Founding Statement of the Strike Against the War: The Sound Internationalist Group of One Hand Clapping .......................... 34 Declaration of the League for the Fourth International NYC May Day Articles from The Internationalist in Solidarity with the ILWU ...................... 44 Articles from Vanguarda Operária Articles from El Internacionalista Articles and documents in German, Why We Fight for Workers Strikes French and Russian Against the War (and the The fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal Opportunists Don’t) .............................. 47 Marxist readings ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Visita la página del Grupo Internacionalista en Internet Ports May 1 to Protest War .................. 51 Visite a página da Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil All Out on May Day! ................................. 54 Matérias de Vanguarda Operária A luta para libertar Mumia Abu-Jamal Documentos marxistas sobre a luta pela libertação do negro e da mulher A Case of Labor Colonialism: AFL-CIO and Change to Win vs. the FMPR ....... 59 Puerto Rican Teachers: Unbought and The Internationalist Unbowed ............................................... 64 A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism Trotskyism vs. Constituent Assembly for the Reforging of the Fourth International Mania ..................................................... 79 Publication of the Internationalist Group, section of the League for the Fourth International The Buying of the Presidency 2008 EDITORIAL BOARD: Jan Norden (editor), Mark Lazarus, Abram Negrete, U.S. Imperialism Seeks New Face Marjorie Salzburg. on System of War and Racism ............... 88 The Internationalist (ISSN 1091-2843) is published bimonthly, skipping July-August, by 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. 27 C-701 May-June 2008 May-June 2008 The Internationalist 3 For Revolutionary Defense of Cuba! Free the Cuban Five! Fernando GOnzitez Ram6n Labafimo Antonio Guerrero Gerardo Hernandez Ra6omi1ez Heroic Fighters Against U.S. Imperialist ·Terror that they successfully infiltrated some of these murderous No to the Democrats - Imperialist War squads. The information they supplied to Havana was then Party from Bay of Pigs to Iraq passed on to the U.S. government. When Washington natu­ rally did nothing about it (after all, the U.S. is the sponsor of Build a Revolutionary Workers Party! these mercenaries), the Cubans gave the New York Times names and addresses of these assassins, and locations of their On June 5, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta paramilitary training camps. The Times, which considers it­ upheld the convictions of the "Cuban Five." The sentences of self the quintessence of the "free but responsible" imperialist Rene Gonzalez (15 years) and Gerardo Hernandez (2 life sen­ press, didn't publish a word about this, just as it suppressed tences plus 15 years) were upheld. At the same time, the three­ news of preparations for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The judge panel vacated the sentences of the other three. Ramon · Five also reportedly gathered information about U.S. mili­ Labanifio (life sentence plus 18 years), Fernando Gonzalez tary activities, but all of this was gleaned from publicly avail­ (19 years) and Antonio Guerrero (life plus 10 years) are to be able sources. resentenced in a hearing to be held in Miami, which is noto­ The legal odyssey of the Cuban Five is a case history in riously infested by Cuban gusanos ("worms"), the counter­ capitalist injustice. The 2001 trial was held in Miami, home revolutionary scum who for decades have waged a dirty ter­ to 650,000 Cuban exiles. The right-wing press whipped up a rorist war against the Cuban people. The Five have commit­ hysteria against the government of Fidel Castro. The fore­ ted no crime, but rather they heroically risked their lives to man of the jury openly expressed his hatred of the Cuban defend the Cuban Revolution against terror attacks launched leader, and the jury declared the defendants guilty on all 26 from the U.S. We demand that the Cuban Five be freed, now! counts without asking a single question. In August 2005, a For almost a decade the Cuban Five have been held in three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unani­ separate federal high security prisons in Florida, California, mously threw out all the convictions and ordered a new trial Colorado, Kentucky and Indiana. They were among ten Cu­ on the grounds of the location and prejudicial publicity. But ban immigrants arrested in September 1998 and accused of the U.S. government appealed the ruling to the full court, being part ofl a Cuban spy ring. At the time, prosecutors pre­ which in November 2005 reinstated the original convictions. sented evidence that the five had infiltrated the gusano outfit The defense then appealed, leading to the latest ruling by Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue) and other ul­ another three-judge panel of this court. tra-rightist terror groups in Miami. Some were also accused Various human rights organizations have objected to the of conspiracy to commit espionage. Since there was no evi­ rigged trial and persecution of the Cuban Five. The United dence of secret U.S. military or intelligence information be­ Nations Commission on Human Rights denounced the arbi­ ing obtained, or even sought, the prosecutors later threw in trary detention of the prisoners, calling on the U.S. to rectify the additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder. Under this abuse. Amnesty International has criticized the U.S.' re­ draconian U.S. conspiracy laws no actual espionage or mur­ fusal to grant visas to the wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo der has to be proved, only a supposed agreement (even im­ Hernandez so that they can visit their imprisoned husbands. plicit) to commit such acts. Eighteen Nobel prize winners have written to the U.S. attor­ There is no question that the Five sought to obtain infor­ ney general asking for release of the Five. All of this has mation about the activities of gusano terrorists in Miami, and predictably fallen on deaf ears, for the Yankee imperialists 4 The Internationalist May-June 2008 are still desperate to crush the Cuban Revolutiol) almost half a century after Castro's guerrillas toppled the corrupt U.S.­ backed dictator Fulgencio Batista on 1 January 1959. A number of the defenders of the Cuban Five seek to tiptoe around the issue of the Hermanos al Rescate, two of whose planes were shot down by Cuban Air Force pilots on 24 Eebruary 1996. They emphasize that there is no evidence that the Five "conspired" to have the gusano planes shot down, which is true. But as Trotskyists who defend Cuba against imperialism, we unequivocally defend the shootdown of ~he Hermanos planes as an act of self-defense. The planes v10- lated Cuban airspace that day and had repeatedly done ·so in the previous weeks. A Cuban air force pilot who had infi~­ trated the Hermanos gang returned to Cuba to denounce their provocative activities at a press conference the day before the incident. The U.S. was well aware of these brazen provoca­ tions. An internal State Department memo warned that "one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes." 0n February 24, the pilots were told by Cuban air traffic con­ trol that they were entering prohibited airspace and putting themselves in danger. The Hermanos leader, Bay of Pigs vet­ eran and "ex-"CIA agent Jose Basulto laughed (he survived), and they continued on. The United States has waged a relentless war on Cuba, from the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to the hundreds of plots to assassinate Fidel Castro to the decades-long. economic embargo aitned at starving the island into sub~ssion. The Protest outside federal building in New York against gusano terrorist attacks could not take place without the court decision on Cuban Five case, June 6.