Winter 2019 No. 55 The $2 €2 Internationalist Trump Picks Puppet, Calls for Military Revolt, Threatens Invasion … and Democrats Applaud Venezuela: For Revolutionary Workers Action to Smash U.S. Coup Tribuna Popular Tribuna CSEW: Teachers Strikes Shake California. 13-26 Dossier: Imperialist Feminism and the Democrats . 38-51 Australia $2, Brazil R$3, Britain £1.50, Unionize Amazon & Whole Foods. 28 Canada $2, Europe €2, India Rs. 50, Japan ¥200, Mexico $20, Philippines 50 p, Mexican Workers vs. Corporatism. 8 S. Africa R10, S. Korea 2,000 won 2 The Internationalist Winter 2019 In this issue... Venezuela: For Revolutionary Workers Order Now! Action to Smash U.S. Coup ................... 3 Matamoros, Mexico: Workers in the Ma- A 70-page pamphlet quiladoras Battle Corporatism.............. 8 analyzing the organi- Teachers Strikes Shake California: zational and political Victory to Los Angeles history of the Demo- Teachers Strike! .................................. 13 cratic (Party) Social- To Win the Teachers Strike ists of America. We Must Shut Down L.A. ...................... 15 Powerful L.A. Teachers Strike Was Betrayed in Settlement ................ 18 US$5 including shipping Mobilize Bay Area Workers to Win Oakland Teachers Strike .............. 21 Order from/make checks Oakland Teachers: The Deal Stinks – payable to: Vote It Down! ........................................ 26 Mundial Publications, Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, New York 10008, U.S.A. NYC Taxi Workers to Gov. Cuomo: No to “Suicide” Surcharge ..................... 27 Visit the League for the Fourth International/ Unionize Amazon and Whole Foods! ........ 28 Internationalist Group on the Internet “Socialists” Chase After Anti-Gun Movement .............................. 31 http://www.internationalist.org Nancy Pelosi, Icon of Now available on our site: Female Capitalist Power ....................38 Declaration of the League for the Fourth International Imperialist Feminism Articles from The Internationalist and the Democrats ................................ 40 Articles from Vanguarda Operária Articles from El Internacionalista and DSA Members of Congress Vote to Revolución Permanente Fund “Homeland Security” Cops ......... 43 Articles from L’Internationaliste Articles from L’ internazionalista Democratic Party Feminism Articles in in German and Pilipino and the “#MeToo Movement” .............. 44 Marxist readings In Defense of Woody Allen ....................... 52 Visita la página del Grupo Internacionalista en Internet From “Occupy Wall Street” to Trotskyism ......................................... 54 Visite a página da Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil Italy: Block the Racist Salvini Matérias de Vanguarda Operária A luta para libertar Mumia Abu-Jamal “Security and Immigration” Decree ...... 55 Documentos marxistas sobre a luta pela libertação do negro e da mulher Argentina’s Left Front: A Reformist Electoral Cartel ............... 56 The SL on Corporatism in Mexico: Internationalist Games Centrists Play ............................ 65 A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism for the Reforging of the Fourth International Venezuela: ¡Acción obrera revolucionaria para aplastar el golpe de EE.UU.! ......... 80 Publication of the Internationalist Group, U.S. section of the League for the Fourth International Front page photo: Venezuelan workers demand: EDITORIAL BOARD: Jan Norden (editor), Fred Bergen, Mark Lazarus, “Power to the Working Class Against Imperial- Abram Negrete, Marjorie Salzburg, Ines Young, Jay Wood ism and for the Rights of Working People.” 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: [email protected] Subscription blank graphic based on a Subscriptions: US$10 for five issues. poster by V.A. Rodchenko, Books (1925). No. 55 1162-M Winter 2019 Winter 2019 The Internationalist 3 Venezuela: For Revolutionary Workers Action to Smash U.S. Coup For Armed Workers Militias to Crush U.S. Stooge Guaidó and Rightist Plotters Internationalist photo For a Military Bloc with the Bolivarian Militias – No Confidence in Maduro Not a Bourgeois Populist Military Regime But a Workers and Peasants Government Forge a Trotskyist Party to Fight for International Socialist Revolution! Down with Sanctions on Venezuela – For Revolutionary Defense of Cuba, China, North Korea and Vietnam Against Imperialism and Counterrevolution! FEBRUARY 22 – On January 23, the international Internationalist contingent at February 23 “No War in Venezu- (imperialist) media suddenly announced the “break- ela” protest in New York City. ing news” that a certain Juan Guaidó, the head of the National Assembly legislature in Venezuela, had declared him- mander in chief of U.S. imperialism went to Miami to deliver self president of the country, claiming that the actual elected a sabre-rattling speech to the counterrevolutionary mafias of president, Nicolás Maduro, was illegitimate. Within minutes, Cuban and Venezuelan exiles, denouncing the “tyrannical U.S. president Donald Trump recognized the pretend-president, socialist government” of Venezuela which “nationalized pri- and in little more than an hour, right-wing governments in vate industries”; threatening to go after Nicaragua and Cuba; Latin America and Canada followed suit. Europe signed on denouncing “those who would try to impose socialism on the to the operation a week later. In the U.S., top Democrats in United States”; and warning the Venezuelan military to break Congress joined Republicans in praising Trump’s move. This with the regime or else “you will find no safe harbor, no easy is a naked imperialist coup d’état – and working people the exit, and no way out. You will lose everything.” In case anyone world over must act to crush it. missed it, he added: “We seek a peaceful transition of power, However, to the chagrin of the coup plotters in Washing- but all options are open.” ton and their toadies in Caracas, the Maduro government did This blatant threat of a U.S. military invasion was tied not fall. The military brass declared its loyalty and ridiculed to a warning not to block the delivery of “humanitarian aid” the would-be “president-in-charge” appointed by Trump. which the U.S. has been sending on military planes to stockpile Repeated calls on the Venezuelan military – by U.S. vice across the border in Cúcuta, Colombia and in Brazil. Having president Mike Pence, the secretary of state Mike Pompeo, received his orders, the next day the imperialist puppet Guaidó the national security advisor John Bolton and Republican announced a deadline, that the military had four days, until senator Marco Rubio – to topple the president (in the name Saturday, February 23, to make up its mind, as a caravan was of “democracy,” of course) went nowhere. In subsequent days going to the Colombian border to “receive” the “aid.” This there were large mobilizations (unreported in the imperial- sets the stage for a conflict with Venezuelan troops guarding ist media) in the capital and major cities around Venezuela the border. If there are civilian casualties, which is what the denouncing the coup. putschists intend, this would be denounced as a massacre and So in a dramatic escalation, on February 18 the com- serve as the signal for a U.S./Colombian invasion. Defend Venezuela Against Yankee Imperialism! 4 The Internationalist Winter 2019 A deadly imperialist provocation is underway in Venezu- masses” of plebeian chavistas would surely lead to a bloody ela. If there are casualties, the responsibility lies entirely with settling of accounts. There would be murders of members of the the U.S. coup-mongers and their stooges, who are clearly look- ruling party, the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), ing for a casus belli – a phony “cause of war,” like “Remember quite likely a reign of terror in the hillside shantytown neigh- the Alamo” in the 1848 U.S. war to seize half of Mexico, or borhoods that were PSUV strongholds, hunting down militant “Remember the Maine” in the 1898 imperialist war to seize trade-unionists and peasant leaders, and a brutal repression Puerto Rico, Cuba and Philippines as U.S. colonies. Since of leftists in general, including the many who have become they can’t conjure up “weapons of mass destruction,” the ploy critical of the capitalist policies of Maduro. used to sell the U.S.’ 2003 invasion of Iraq, Trump & Co. want Success for this coup for “democracy” would include a the visuals of dead bodies and troops stopping “humanitarian draconian curtailment of democratic rights by turncoat generals aid.” In the midst of this scenario, British multibillionaire Sir who had switched sides. And the economic policies pursued Richard Branson announced a “Venezuela Aid Live” rock by the golpistas (coup plotters) would make the austerity concert at the border bridge in Cúcuta. An ad shows Branson imposed by Maduro pale in comparison. Their Plan País holding the world in his hands. Maduro responded with plans (plan for the country), presented by Guaidó last month, calls for a concert on the Venezuelan side at another bridge. to “reestablish market mechanisms and economic freedoms.” As the situation careens toward a showdown, the Interna- What that means is reducing to absolute penury the millions tionalist Group and League for the Fourth International call to who have withstood privations because of subsidized food defend