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7/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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Contents:Marikana Massacre p. (1)
Chevron Richmond Refinery p. (1)
The Elections p. (4)
Defeat Stop and Frisk p. (5)
Down with the Sugar Tax p. (7)
Occupy May Day/Occupy Lenin p. (7)
Letters p. (9)
The spit in the HWRS p. (12)
Where we stand p. (14)
Marikana Massacre
Down with the ANC! For a
Workers and Poor Farmers
Government
The cold blooded killing of 40
miners by SAP (South African
Police, 2 by the NUM) at
Marikana (more correctly
Maritlwana in Sesotho language)
on August 16th was a deliberate
warning by the ANC (African
National Congress) that a militant
breakaway of rank and file unions
from COSATU (Congress of South
African Trade Unions) will not be
tolerated. The evidence is there
that the ANC and its SACP (South
African Communist Party)
leadership instructed the police toshoot to kill. The global crisis
has put pressure on ANC to make
South African workers pay for the
crisis. The militant miners are the
vanguard of the proletariat and
have begun to break from the
Tripartite (ANC/SACP/COSATU)
regime.
The militant minerswere members of
the AMCU (African
Miners and
Construction Union)
a breakaway union
that split from NUM
(National Union of
Miners) when its
founding leader was
disciplined by the
NUM for leading a
2 week mine
occupation for his reinstatement by the
company. As the NUM has become
more bureaucratised and oriented
towards the better paid workers the
AMCU has grown to represent the
poorest and most militant workers.
This poses a problem for the ANC as
imperialism demands that it uses
COSATU to discipline the workers
but workers are breaking from
COSATU to form independent unions
to resist paying for the imperialists
crisis.
The ANC has no choice but to try to
blame the striking workers and turn
other workers against them, and when
that fails, to shoot to kill. Thus
South Africa is entering a
revolutionary situation of open class
war to decide which class will contro
and benefit from its vast labour and
mineral resources.
Imperialists Mine Southern
Africa for super-profits
This clearly exposes the role of the
ANC as a capitalist party that runs the
SA semi-colonial capitalist economy
on behalf of international finance
capital. (Continue pg. 3)
Chevron Contaminates
Richmond! Again! And
Again!
Rockefellers Standard Oil came to
Richmond in 1901 but were herenow! Chevron, spawn of StandardOil, poses as a good neighbor andresponsible corporate citizen buactions speak louder than theirpropaganda puff pieces found infullpage advertisements and in all theirYouTube PR videos. (Continue pg. 2)
CLASS WARNEWS AND ANALYSIS
Volume 1 Number 1 August/September 2012 $1.00 Solidarity $3.00
http://www.workersinternational.org.za/wesupportMarikanastrikers17.8.2012.htmhttp://www.workersinternational.org.za/wesupportMarikanastrikers17.8.2012.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.miningmx.com/special_reports/mining-yearbook/mining-yearbook-2012/A-season-of-discontent.htmhttp://www.workersinternational.org.za/wesupportMarikanastrikers17.8.2012.htm7/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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The 2012 Richmond fire is therule not the exception. TheChemical Safety Boardinvestigation showed that thevapor cloud engulfed workersat the plant. Had a sparkignited the vapor cloud wewould have had fatalities likethose experienced at theChevron oil rig platformcollapse and fire in Nigeria.Chevrons disregard for the
communities, for theenvironment and for theworkers is willful, persistent and welldocumented. On May 28th, 1998Nigerian security forces hired, paid forand closely supervised by Chevronopened fireon peaceful demonstratorson an off-shore barge in the oil-richNiger Delta, killing two men andinjuring at least two more. InEcuador Chevron runs from its
responsibility for poisoning theindigenous people and their Amazonriver basin home. Even in the firstworld in Wales four workers werekilled at Chevrons Pembroke firelast year. Looking at Chevrons cases,
the Exon Valdez and B.P.s Deep
Water Horizon we find criminalneglect is the norm not the exceptionin this industry.
The disregard for the environment,health and safety which was the norm
in the early days of industrializationwas never sustainable and is no longertolerable. Far from the ReaganesqueMorning in America mythology, our
world, run for capitalist profit, nowreplicates the grade B movie Zardozin which the privileged few live farfrom the polluted environs sustainedoff the product of the masses labor
while those masses live in theubiquitous contamination generated byarchaic production methods.
Workers and our communities fromRichmond to the Amazon, Nigeria,Wales and beyond are subject to theconsequences of a hundred years ofunsafe practices. Despite federalregulations and mandated standardsthe capitalist imperative for profitprevents those standards and bestpractices from being implemented,just as the big shareholders demand
that the board of directors refuse tobow to any adjudicated liabilities.
Control of energy resources is acornerstone of the capitalist system.Their profits thrust nations into war,they act to crush national and socialliberation struggles around the world,and their disregard for the
environment has created globalwarming, poisoned the water and airand threatens our survival. Theirsurvival means our death! Big oil, theenergy industry, the military industrialcomplex and the imperialist warmachine take a lions share of the
responsibility to defend Wall Streetand the 1%s interests from the
democratic and economic aspirationsof the people.
Today it is Richmond that takes a
stand but we know we are not alonehere and that our fight is echoed byworkers, indigenous and poor peopleacross the planet. We know ourcommunity is connected by theinsidious web of capitalist corporateinter-ownership and their thousandsof bureaucratic, financial, military andpolitical tentacles to the victims ofDOW Chemicals Napalm and Agent
Orange used against the Vietnamese,to the Bhopal victims of UnionCarbide and to all the willful neglectendemic to the capitalist organization
of production.
Our peoples lives are too precious,
our environment is too fragile and theconsequences of the continued rule ofthe corporations are too dire for us tocontinue to allow these industries tobe run for profit. To apply the highestlevels of environmental health &safety standards and practices, these
industries need to benationalized and the assets ofthe big ruling classshareholders need to be put touse to remediate the damageBoth the remediation and theenergy industry itself must berun under democratic workingclass/community control!
Only the working class andthe community can guaranteethe highest levels of sciencetechnology, land-use planning
maintenance, and oversight areapplied.
Wrestling ownership and control of
the energy industry from the profit
takers will not be achieved through the
ruling class twin capitalist politica
parties, the governmental institutions
nor as a result of the moral effluvia othe liberals, progressives, Greens, the
lawsuits of the NGOs, CBOs and the
meditation of the New Age movemen
combined. This task falls to the self
organization of the working class.
The working class requires its own
political party, fighting for the
interests of workers, poor farmers and
the oppressed internationally. Such a
workers party must not foster
reformist illusions in capitalism or itsinstitutions.
Working class action committeesinitiated in the workplaces, schoolsthe building of popular assemblieslocally, regionally and internationallyare the natural method of workingclass self-organization. Yet historyteaches us the development of locaorganizations of workers democracymust be coordinated through the workof an international revolutionary
workers party, conscious of its historictask, in order to coordinate and guidethe working class in the art andscience of revolution, leading to theseizure of political and economicpower from the capitalists by theworking class.
(continue pg.3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28c3Yrq5Qlchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28c3Yrq5Qlchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIau6hBvjTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIau6hBvjTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIau6hBvjTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CuoUIlpNdshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CuoUIlpNdshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgO4_dt4DgQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgO4_dt4DgQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgO4_dt4DgQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CuoUIlpNdshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIau6hBvjTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIau6hBvjTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28c3Yrq5Qlc7/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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(Chevron Refinery fire continued from pg. 2)
Thus to achieve a clean
community in Richmond we fight
to:
Form up local, national andinternational rank and file
workers, community, student
action committees/councils.
To build a workers partyindependent from the ruling
class, to institute the workers
program!
Nationalize Chevron, the entireenergy industry, the financial
sector, the health care and war
equipment industries, with no
reimbursement to the big
shareholders!
Put the assets underworkers/community control and
democratic planning!
(Marikana Massacre continue from pg. 1)
The owners make huge super-profits
at the cost of workers poverty and
lives. Apartheid slavery was the
method used in SA until 94. Equally
or more barbaric conditions still exist
all over Southern Africa. Africa was
divided up by the imperialist powers
into many artificial states that cut
across whole peoples and nations as
well as the rich mineral belts of gold,
copper, diamonds, platinum, etc., all
plundered by imperialism. Masses of
workers migrate across Southern
Africa to work for imperialist
corporations or traders. In the DRC
warlords from Rwanda and Uganda
control mining in the North-East while
theChinese minesflout labour laws in
Katanga. In Zimbabwe the army andZANU-PF control diamonds. In
Zambia and Tanzania Chinese and
other mines have a poor safety record.
As the global crisis worsens, we see
the conditions of miners deteriorate
across the whole of Southern and
Central Africa as the rival imperialist
powers compete to pump surplus
profits out of the mines. This means
that to defeat imperialism and their
client regimes and warlords in Africa,
workers have to unite across the
colonial borders to create a Socialist
Federation of Southern Africa!
Popular Front
The brutality of apartheid gave way in94 to the power sharing government
with the ANC as the party
representing the black majority. But
the black majority never got to rule.
The ANC was chosen by theStalinist
SACP as a vehicle for national
liberation and the end of white racist
capitalist rule. But it could never fulfil
this task. Even before it shared power
in government with the white
bourgeoisie, the ANC was a popular
front party in which the black
working masses were subordinated to
a black petty bourgeoisie who aspired
to become black capitalists serving
imperialist finance capital. The fake
Trotskyist left betrayed the socialist
revolution and became apologists for
the Stalinist ANC popular front. The
Cliffite, Mandelite, Barnesite and
Militant tendencies voted for ANC as
if it would bring about the Freedom
Charter. A few Trotskyist currentssuch as the British Workers Power
called for a vote for workers
candidates and a break from the
ANC. As the Trotskyists predicted, the
ANC victory turned national
liberation into a new form of
imperialist domination and over the
last 18 years the ANC has presided
over the super-exploitation and
impoverishment of the masses while
pocketing its share of the spoils of
imperialist plunder.
Today the Trotskyist program
demands a break from ANC popular
front regime. Against the Stalinist lie
of bourgeois democracy for the
masses we can see that to survive the
ANC must use the guns of bourgeois
dictatorship to kill the masses. We
reject the call byJulius Malembafo
strikes to change the corrupt ANC
leadership. He is trying to keep the
workers in the popular front to be
betrayed again and again. What we
call for is a political general strike to
bring down the ANC regime to expose
it fully as the agent of imperialism. A
general strike will force a showdownThe regime is fragile and it will try to
use the army to stay in power. We
have to spell out that the strike
committees and defence guards of
today must become workers councils
and workers militias, and that the
ranks of the army must be won over to
defend workers from a military
clampdown. This is eminently
possible as the rank and file of the
military has unionized despite the
attempt by the ANC to crush theorganizing drive. The unionization o
the military drove a wedge between
the most militant youth and the
leadership of the Tripartite regime
Workers councils and militias wil
become the basis of workers power
and a Workers and Poor Farmers
Government that will empower the
working masses to fully participate in
the permanent revolution for
socialism.
Trotskyist program: Permanen
Revolution the order of the day
We support the immediate demands
of the WIVP for workers in al
unions and all sectors to go out on
strike against this massacre and to
form self-defence squads against
further repression. We also support
the WIVP call to build for a genera
strike, and to break with the ANCand SACP!
General Strike to break withthe ANC, Smash the Popular
Front!
Down with SACP Stalinisttraitors!
http://raid-uk.org/docs/ChinaAfrica/EXSUM%20ENG%20LR.pdfhttp://raid-uk.org/docs/ChinaAfrica/EXSUM%20ENG%20LR.pdfhttp://raid-uk.org/docs/ChinaAfrica/EXSUM%20ENG%20LR.pdfhttp://www.chinaafricarealstory.com/2012/04/are-chinese-worst-comparative-ilo-study.htmlhttp://www.chinaafricarealstory.com/2012/04/are-chinese-worst-comparative-ilo-study.htmlhttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/africa/120816/africa-barrick-gold-china-mining-economyhttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/africa/120816/africa-barrick-gold-china-mining-economyhttp://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/afpro/lusaka/download/publication/impactofglobal2010.pdfhttp://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/afpro/lusaka/download/publication/impactofglobal2010.pdfhttp://www.fifthinternational.org/content/congress-militant-and-anc-waiting-inevitablehttp://www.fifthinternational.org/content/congress-militant-and-anc-waiting-inevitablehttp://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Malema-Brace-for-a-mining-revolution-20120823#.UDjiA6Ot584.facebookhttp://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Malema-Brace-for-a-mining-revolution-20120823#.UDjiA6Ot584.facebookhttp://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Malema-Brace-for-a-mining-revolution-20120823#.UDjiA6Ot584.facebookhttp://www.workersinternational.org.za/wesupportMarikanastrikers17.8.2012.htmhttp://www.workersinternational.org.za/wesupportMarikanastrikers17.8.2012.htmhttp://www.workersinternational.org.za/wesupportMarikanastrikers17.8.2012.htmhttp://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Malema-Brace-for-a-mining-revolution-20120823#.UDjiA6Ot584.facebookhttp://www.fifthinternational.org/content/congress-militant-and-anc-waiting-inevitablehttp://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/afpro/lusaka/download/publication/impactofglobal2010.pdfhttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/africa/120816/africa-barrick-gold-china-mining-economyhttp://www.chinaafricarealstory.com/2012/04/are-chinese-worst-comparative-ilo-study.htmlhttp://raid-uk.org/docs/ChinaAfrica/EXSUM%20ENG%20LR.pdf7/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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Rank and file take control ofCOSATU, throw out the
corrupt leadership!
But a call for a general strike to
break with the ANC must show
what will replace this regime. We
need socialist demands for workers
councils, workers militias, for the
ranks of the army to refuse to shoot
workers and form soldiers councils.
For a general strike tobring down the capitalist
Government and form a
Workers Government!
Build Workers and Soldierscouncils, and Workers
militias!
For a Workers and PoorFarmers Government!
For a Socialist South Africain a Socialist Federation of
Southern Africa!
For a New World Party ofSocialist Revolution.
Liaison Committee of Communists.
20 August 2012
The Franchise and Elections
2012Until recently we were members ofthe HWRS. We were expelled thoughit feels like we were sprung fromjail(!,) on the pretext that we urged atactic of critical electoral support forSYRIZA upon the Greek workers inan unauthorized departure fromHWRS policy toward parties of the 2ndInternational. Of course SYRIZA isnot one of these. The flimsy pretextcovered up something else altogether.
By pulling this on us they exposed dirtunder another side of their carpet,which dirt combined a conception ofcritical support irrationally weightedon the side of political support with aneo-anarchist contempt for theworkers right to the franchise, i.e. tothe vote. This, while ultra-lefts sneerat this right and as capitalist politicaloperators attack it everywhere in the
US, and even have carried off thepassing of onerous voter ID laws intwelve states.
A constitutional challenge to theparticularly reactionary Pennsylvaniavoter ID law just failed in court.Building Trades Department unionsprotested this ruling in Philadelphia,Pa. on August 11th, but shotthemselves in the foot right awaymaking a support the friends of
labor rally out of the militant protest.
Members did get to see one more timethat the bureaucrat leadership are
more Democratic Party than UNION!The very thing we need the mostclass political independenceis whatthey have none of.
Still the franchiseitself is a right tobe defended and
extended to thosewho have neverhad it, even lothis many yearsafter the Voting
Rights Act of1965. We
would wish thatthere was afighting workerslabor party on theballot everywhereto champion
every struggle ofour social classand all theoppressed.Within such a party we would fight fora transitional program, exactly asoutlined by Leon Trotsky in How to
Fight for A Labor Party in the US, in
March 1938. In such a party wewould fight all delusions about apeaceful electoral road to socialism,whether of the linear extension ofdemocracy or the accumulation ofreforms or any other pipe dream type.
Because no such independent party ofthe working class exists and becausethe principal work of one would bepropaganda and agitation for extra-parliamentary militant direct action,we have to consider whom and whatwe could vote for, in thecircumstances of the Presidentialcarnival and the rest of this rigmarole
where the choices we get to select
are exclusive of whats good for us.
We can vote as a protest and a poll forcandidates of the left groupusules.
We had hoped to convince some oftheir candidates to popularize andotherwise involve their campaigns insupporting the Sean Gillis casedefending the Marikana minersagainst the South African state, andchampioning the rights of thePalestinian people in condemningZionism. We have had no luck yeand will make no endorsement untiland unless we do. The reader can beguided by her/his ownconscience/consciousness re criticasupport. Our criticism would surely
hang the political projects of partieslike the Peace and Freedom Partyand the Freedom Socialist Party whocan not bring themselves to championall class war fighters.
We find no useful reasoning tosupport bond measures or propositionthat tax or insure indebtedness for thetax payer, either the workers or even
the dodging rich, to pay the bills of thegraft machines that are the stategovernments. Taxing the rich as somepropose (the millionaires tax) movesthe bourgeois money clip from onepocket to the other, in conditionswhere all public education and sociaservices are being abolished and nomechanism is in place to enforce the
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spending of specific levies on theirdedicated purposes. Nor would suchlegal mechanisms be approved by anyprofessional flimflammers, by thepoliticians. So Jerry Brownblackmails parents in California withproposition 30. The parents tax
increase in this plan would supposedlyreplace the money Browns ownbudget took from the schools! Thegovernors reps and the Democrat US
Senators also threaten, saying thatmore than one measure on the ballot tosupport school funding will mean thatno measure will pass.
Of course thats just more blackmail.
This is aimed at supporters ofproposition 38, backed by the PTA ofCalifornia, which would tax the rich
for thirteen yearsbut not beginningthis year !with the result thatshortfalls would give the go-ahead for
all the school cuts included inBrowns budget! Who can win thisgame? Certainly you cant! Not in
the voting booth!
The capitalists seek to dumb down
your kids to prepare them for adegraded life in sweat shops andshantytown. Or the prison industrialcomplex. Or for cannon fodder for awar with China and Russia to re-divide the worlds markets. You do
not have to accept this. To effectively
resist their plans for your kids,electoral politics will play only aminor part in what we as a class willdo. Principally we will vote with ourfeet, sometimes on the streets, moreand more in our work places. Weneed to prepare a General Strikemovement to establish a changedrelationship of forces in favor of theworking class. We need GeneralStrikes of unspecified duration to beatback the austerity and privatizationattacks. Ultimately we can not finishwith living under incessant bourgeoisattacks until we have a workers
government. And for that we musthave self-organized workers power,workers councils with workers militiasto back them up, replacing thecapitalist class dictatorship with theexclusive power of our own state.Then you yourself will decide onevery important matter. And as the
occupy saying goes, You will voteevery day!
______________________________
NO STOP AND FRISK, DEFEATRACIAL PROFILING,
COPS OUT OF SCHOOLS! COPSOFF PUBLIC TRANSIT!
Organize Political StrikesAgainst Racist Cop &
Vigilante Killings! Organizemultiracial labor/community
self defense guards!
Last year, on July 16, 2011, theunarmed Kenneth Harding Jr.,19, wasshot in the back by the SFPD forallegedly not paying the $2.00 fare onthe MUNI "T" line. This murderenraged theBlack andBrowncommunitiesbeleagueredby unendingracist cop andvigilantemurders, likethose of OscarGrant,RaheimBrown Jr.,LutherBrown, James
Rivera andnow AlanBlueford, Derrick Gaines and the listof victims keeps growing, by latestestimates one every 32 hours!
These murders took place on streetsor in schools you all know, but only alittle further afield in other victimizedcommunities like yours, rightist racistvigilantes and neo-Nazis expressthemselves politically with gunplayand rising fatalities. These events took
place in an atmosphere of approvingpolice opinion, where a Black or aBrown person is killed by cops onceevery 32 hours nationwide and thecorporatists campaign (i.e. A.L.E.C.)
for Stand Your Ground laws.
Thus we have the Trayvon Martinmurder in Florida and the attack on theSikh Temple in Michigan to
accompany Bloombergs NYPD
snooping and harassment campaignagainst Muslims (illegal secret NYPDagents cross the river into NewJersey!) No paranoia or hysteria isinvolved in noting that the prisonguards have been the recruitingground of the Nazi party for ageneration and they are recruitingpolice nowadays and sending theiryouth into the army (and not just inGreece, as the papers would have youthink and where the fascist GoldenDawn party got more than half thepolice vote.)
We stand shoulder to shoulder withthe activists, friends and family of theKenneth Harding Jr. FoundationOccupy, Decolonize Oakland, andLabor Black and Brown who shut
down a section of MUNI in a directaction on the July 16th anniversaryToday we stand with the street actionsof blue collar Anaheim, CA, whichchallenged the racist police murders ofManuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo. Thiscan happen in your neighborhoodtomorrow!
Like foxes guarding the hen housesthe reformists, church leaders
pacifists and the petty bourgeoisiegenerally want to channel your angeroff of the streets and into electoralfrauds and phony Police ReviewCommissions. This flimflam was puover in New York in the Lindsay era(1966-73) for that purpose. Weremember the Civilian Complaint
Review Board like we remember the
victims and we say dont fall for it!
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We ask where is the revolutionaryparty of the working people and theoppressed? We ask because like sucha party we and only some few otherindividuals call for Labor-initiated,Community/Labor Defense Guards forthe neighborhoods targeted by thecapitalists for racist terror. Thisterrorism is a policy. It has theoverarching purpose of revitalizingracist white skin privilege amongsuckers and shopkeepers, offrightening the white elderly intobelieving they must identify with thehaves of America and their police,
and to mask real racketeering ofgovernment institutions (see the SeanGillis story.) We want to build such aparty to unite the working class and itsallies for the defeat of all oppressionand its root causes in the dictatorshipof the capitalist/imperialist elites.
Learning from the ILWU October23rd, 2010 political strike to Jail KillerCops who murdered Oscar Grant, theJames Rivera family, in Stocktoncalled for a "May 31st GeneralStrike demanding: No Work, NoSchools, Shut it Down!" It was in thisspirit that the July 16th MUNI shutdown was called. The movementagainst racist terror is beginning tolook to strike actions to shut thebosses system down! Labor must
reestablish its leading role in thedefense of the most oppressed andorganize the fight against racist terroracross the entire working class.
Networking of the families ofvictims of racist state and vigilantemurder is essential and building. Butthe victims families cannot win
justice alone! The weight of organizedlabor arm in arm with the Black andBrown communities is required to endracist vigilante and cop terror/murder.Only by united action can labor, Blackand Brown people defeat the terrorismcapitalism uses to demobilize us!
Rather than adopting the families ofthe victims as labors own as our
motto AN INJURY TO ONE IS ANINJURY TO ALL! demands, theclass collaborationist labor fakers whohave captured our unions run from thefamilies of the murdered Black and
Brown youth. It is against theinterests of labor to ignore the victimsof racist capitalisms state terror.
Ignoring our class duty to the mostoppressed perpetuates a slavementality that arrests the developmentof class unity and class consciousness.
The enforcement of austerity on theworking class and poor is carried outinternationally as the capitalists seekto boost their profits in a world crisisof their system. The violence of thestate against our youth is how theruling class acts to prevent labor,Black and Brown awakening andunification. The capitalist class isafraid of multi-racial working classunity in action for good reason!
To survive labor must organizealongside the terrorized Brown andBlack communities, achieve political
independence from the bosses twincapitalist parties and develop atransitional program to help themasses progress from where we find
ourselves now to the logic of
smashing the capitalist state
through the building of our own
working class democratic
organizations.
To be successful we must unite rankand file workers by building classstruggle caucuses in our unions which
initiate anti-racist self-defense andstrike actions! We need to buildaction committees, factorycommittees, workers and oppressedpeoples local, regional, national and
international assemblies to organizeour own self defense. These willchallenge the controlling power of the1%.
Self-organization, indefinite generalstrikes and insurrection are all toolsthe working class will need to employto end racist capitalism. Multi-racialclass unity in action is the glue thatbuilds our movement. To unite theentire class around a winning programwe need to build a revolutionaryworkers party based on the method ofthe 1938 Transitional Program of the4th International.
Defend Fly Benzo Bayview/HunterPoint persecuted community activist
and leader! Hands off Sean Gillis whoexposed the Oakland EMT for failureto investigate the withholding ofmedical treatment for Oscar GrantRehire Dorian Maxwell who blew thewhistle on MUNI unsafe conditions.
Develop transitional demands that
link immediate needs to the logic of
a workers government:
Cops off public transit! Copsout of schools! End stop and
frisk nationwide!
Form up labor Black & Browndefense guards at our union
halls and in our communities to
defend our communities from
racist killer cops, vigilantes
scabs, union-busters, KKK and
neo-Nazi's.
Establish labor Black & Browntribunals to arrest and try killercops, vigilantes, scabs, union-
busters, KKK and neo-Nazi's.
Demand labor federations formup unions of the unemployed
and precarious workers!
Free Public transit for youthand unemployed.
End school closures! Endcharter schools and university
privatization! Nationalize
private educational institutions
& run all education under
student, parent, teacherworkers control!
Free education from day care touniversity level. Open
admissions and free tuition!
Jobs for all at union rate! Sharethe work! 30 hours work for 40
hours pay! For a sliding scale of
wages & prices--abolish
poverty!
Build a general strikemovement to prepare the
indefinite General Strike!
Communist Workers Group
www.cwgusa.wordpress.com
August 18, 2012
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DOWN WITH THE BOSSES
SUGAR TAX & BOTTLE
BILLWe think you should vote down thesugar tax and big bottle bill on the
two coasts. This started as anotherone of Mayor Blumbergs nanny
state ideas whose time has never
come. In New York this proposalwould hit 32 oz and up soda bottlesexactly the sizes families buy toeconomize. In Richmond California,
under the leadership of the capitalistGreen Party the ostensibly leftSolidarity in their cross class alliance,the Richmond Progressive Alliance,has outdone even Bloomberg inabsurdity with a tax on all soda bottlesat the rate of .01 per oz.(!!) Sincetastes have never had anything to dowith laws (think of obscenity laws,)
in the entire history of bourgeois rule,we think this is another regressiveghetto/barrio tax, a racist supertax.
The scientific fig leaf provided bybought dieticiansunless they arepolitical chumpsconcerningfighting childhood obesity is
completely beside the point. We werejust reminded by the Weather Channelthat New York had the hottest summersince 1936, and the US had the hottestsummer ever recorded. This remindedus that in 1936, when the working
class was forging the CIO in that heat,a frightened bourgeoisie was buildingplaygrounds, athletic parks andswimming pools all over Americas
cities and the vanguard was attemptingto integrate them.
That was when US imperialism wason the rise, even as it was in a deeperdepression than this one. Now it is indecline, has trouble selling its goodsand at making capital flow at all.Then they were frightened by theGeneral Strike in France. Now theyare in a mean frame of mind, muchlike the French capitalists were thenand they plan to take it out on us. Thistax is an example of that meanness.
Dont go for it!
Occupy May Day!Occupy Lenin!
Reprinted from CWG/A/NZ blog
http://livingmarxism.wordpress.com/
First, lets get this idea that Occupy is
finished out of the way. It hasnt
finished and this is why. You cant
evict an idea when that idea is to makethe Bankers pay for their crisis. Theywont and they cant withoutrenouncing the whole basis ofcapitalismmaking profits. ThereforeOccupy is forced to confront thesystem in all of its dirt and blood.Physically Occupy lives on in themany actions and meetings that aretaking place globally. Occupy isoutreaching to working class strugglesin workplaces, education, housing,unions, media etc., and much of thisactivity is live-streamed, tweeted or
blogged continuously.
The #Occupy Mayday GeneralStrike call is an attempt at aglobal general strike. There isintense political and theoreticaldiscussion among liberals,radicals and Marxists aboutwhat Occupy is, its classcomposition, its demands, itsprospects, and so on. This is notnew as liberals, radicals andMarxists have had to debate
Occupys progenitors the ArabRevolution and theEuropean revoltothe Indignados and the British youthriots. So what do revolutionarycommunists make of Occupy as asocial movement and the ideologicastruggle between reformists, radicalsand revolutionaries?
The reformists want to suck occupyback into legislative politics on theinstallment plan. Bad! The radicalswant a movement of the streets andworkplaces that occupies everythingGood! But can the mass radicamovement resist the reformistswithout an organized, disciplinedleadership? As Bolshevik/Leninistswe say that Marxism does nospontaneously grow on the streetsunder attacks from the cops. You canbe academically anti-capitalist likeChomsky or violently anti-capitalis
like black bloc without understandingwhat capitalism is.
Those who want to challengecapitalismhave to take powerand thameans the class conscious, organizedarmed insurrection to take power. Sohow is the revolutionary left workingtowards this? Lets look at a
discussion kicked off by Pham Binhthat is directed at the failure of theorganized Leninist left to relate to
Occupy fruitfully. Binh argues that i
is because todays Leninists are acaricature of Lenin. He remonstratesthat Lenin would have done a muchbetter job. So the question is whatwould Lenin have done? At its heartthis is the question posed by manyrevolutionaries today. Lets lookat thethree positions in turn.
Reformists co-opting occupy?
The reformists in Occupy are trying toturn Occupy into a support base forthe re-election of Obama. Leading thisco-option is the 99Spring which is acampaign fronted by organizations
like Move-On, Jobs with JusticeGreenpeace and others who havesigned the99% Spring pledge?(sic)
http://livingmarxism.wordpress.com/http://livingmarxism.wordpress.com/http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004785http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004785http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616.phphttp://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616.phphttp://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616.phphttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/riots-from-looting-to-expropriation.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/riots-from-looting-to-expropriation.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/riots-from-looting-to-expropriation.htmlhttp://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/humans-who-still-dream-of-being-human-john-holloway-at-left-forum/http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/humans-who-still-dream-of-being-human-john-holloway-at-left-forum/http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/humans-who-still-dream-of-being-human-john-holloway-at-left-forum/http://the99spring.com/who-we-are/http://the99spring.com/who-we-are/http://the99spring.com/who-we-are/http://the99spring.com/who-we-are/http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/humans-who-still-dream-of-being-human-john-holloway-at-left-forum/http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/riots-from-looting-to-expropriation.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/riots-from-looting-to-expropriation.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616.phphttp://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616.phphttp://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004785http://livingmarxism.wordpress.com/7/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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It claims to be a broad basemovement based on the grassroots. The 99% Spring labelattempts to trade off both theArab Spring and the 99%concept of Occupy. Yet itsobjective is to co-opt Occupybehind Obama. That is why ithas not endorsed the MayDayGeneral Strike. That is the test.Since the call for thereclaiming of MayDay is aradical initiative to putInternational Workers Day onthe agenda of Occupy andmaking clear that Occupy andthe base of the labor movement mustjoin forces, this will embarrass themachine politics of the Democrats. So99% Spring is using its trainingschools for nonviolent direct action
as a way to divert Occupy fromMayDay. There is also the Occupy
NATO in Chicago, but that would betoo close to the bone for the party ofBomber Obama!
At the same time we dont want to
write off Occupy just because it has alarge number of reformists. This is afactor of the backwardness of USpolitical culture where no workersparty exists and the weak unions act asconveyor belts into the DemocratParty. But Occupy signals a hugeupwelling of anger at the effects of the
capitalist crisis especially as it effectsmiddle class youth. The whole point isthat Occupy has the capacity todevelop into a revolutionarymovement.
But first it has to outgrow its reformistlimits, and this is made more difficultwhen some radicals inside Occupy donot present a clear alternative to theDemocrats. This is the result ofadopting key electoral slogans likeTax Capital or Tax the Rich that are
directed at the political parties. On topof that there are prominent supposedradicals like Chomsky, who when itcomes to the election will give criticalsupport to the Democrats.
Chomsky is a classic case of thecelebrity anarchist who is trapped inthe petty bourgeois politics ofindividualism that offers no way out
of the existing state apparatus otherthan to adapt to it. Much pseudo-radicalism is based on the notion ofhorizontalism, ostensibly directed at
the hierarchy of political parties. It
implies Occupy can operate without aleadership and function on the basis of
direct democracy. It can build acounter-power that does not need tochallenge the bosses state power. But
inevitably if you dont contest the
power of the state uncompromisinglythen you end up joining that state.Chomsky and Co. are the reverse sideof the anarchist coin to the BlackBlock. Both offer no alternative tocapitalism because they have noprogram to replace it.
Radicals: Occupy Mayday!
Occupy proved in a few short weeksthat the reformist platform is bankrupt.This is why reformists like Hedgesattacked the Black Bloc. But the BlackBloc is an easy target and does notrepresent more than a tiny minority ofOccupy. The reformists have moredifficulty in neutralizing the realbreakthrough, which is the radicalunity of Occupy with union rank andfile. This proved to be the circuitbreaker that built mass support for
port closures and forced the ILWUunion bosses to expose themselves asin the bosses pocket at Longview.That is to say, as soon as Occupy,rebounding from the vicious attacks ofthe state forces, joined up with themilitant union rank and file, thereformists strategy to recruit Occupy
to Obama was blown out.
What was blown out was thepacifist politics of electoralismwhere Violence is reserved
for Obamas bombs and
drones. In its place Occupyfound that the mass pickejustifies violence in defense ofthe 99%, and in the processconfronting state violence puthem in solidarity with thewildcat strike at LongviewThe linking of Occupy and theILWU rank and file aLongview also exposed theunion officials who, panickedby the fear of losing control of
the dispute, signed a sell-out deal withthe EGT bosses. To its creditPortland
Occupy, who were not shown therotten terms of this deal, saw it as asmall victory as part of the ongoingwar against the 1%. There is a longway to go to build solidarity to the
point where the unions take strikeaction against Taft-Hartley and returnto the militancy of the early days ofthe US labor movement.
The Occupy decision to reclaimMayDay as a general strike followsdirectly from the experience ofsolidarity with workers in struggleIts a first attempt at a national strike
which falls far short of a generalstrike. But it is a political strike thatprepares the ground for a politica
general strike at the power of the 1%But the labor solidarity at Longviewand other struggles may not leaddirectly to militant class consciousstruggle in the ranks of the unions orOccupy unless revolutionariesintervene directly. This is becauseneither the unions or Occupy as yethas a Marxist analysis which explainsthat the labor bureaucracy act as thelabor lieutenants of capital that keepthe unions confined to the labor lawThe labor bureaucracy is no friend of
the workers!
As Earl Gilman says, Yes, labor
unions of course are prohibited fromstriking for political demands.they
are prohibited from striking to supporother unions, etc. The list of legaprohibitions on unions goes on andon
http://communistworker.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=Chomskyhttp://communistworker.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=Chomskyhttp://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://westcoastportshutdown.org/content/longshore-workers-name-occupy-movement-crucial-settlement-egthttp://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/22/a-contract-is-a-contract-clarifying-the-ilwuegt-outcome-in-longview/http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/22/a-contract-is-a-contract-clarifying-the-ilwuegt-outcome-in-longview/http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/22/a-contract-is-a-contract-clarifying-the-ilwuegt-outcome-in-longview/http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/22/a-contract-is-a-contract-clarifying-the-ilwuegt-outcome-in-longview/http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/22/a-contract-is-a-contract-clarifying-the-ilwuegt-outcome-in-longview/http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/22/a-contract-is-a-contract-clarifying-the-ilwuegt-outcome-in-longview/http://westcoastportshutdown.org/content/longshore-workers-name-occupy-movement-crucial-settlement-egthttp://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004774%20http://communistworker.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=Chomsky7/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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The reason the unions in the U.S. aregradually dying is because they obeythe law. The law was made by the richto protect themselves from the poor.The auto workers who occupied theDetroit auto plants were defying thelaw. John L. Lewis, when he was headof the miners during the SecondWorld War, called strikes in defianceof the law. I dont think we on the Left
should let the labor bureaucracy offthe hookso the courts throw them injail for a few daysso what? But we
have to educate/prepare/organizeworkers that defying the bosses laws
are the only way to save their jobs.Thanking the union bureaucracy forsupporting the movement with
resolutions is political bootlicking!
Fortunately Occupy has laborsolidarity groups like#OOlaborsolidarity where
revolutionaries can put forwardanalyses of what must be done. Itrequires the revolutionary Marxiststo speak plainly and tell the truth.So this means Marxists advocatinglabour solidarity actions that uniteworkers strikes against the
employers with Occupys
commitment to breaking the law
to advance the 99%. In essence itmeans making Occupy MayDayGeneral Strike the launching padfor an unlimited political general
strike for an insurrection to bringdown the ruling class and put aWorkers and Oppressed peoples
Government in power!
The radical reclaiming of MayDay byOccupy is an attempt to generalize thisrevolutionary thrust. But its not
enough. Lenin and Trotsky recognizedthe limits of Trade UnionConsciousness as falling short ofrevolutionary consciousness. Tradeunions operate as economist
institutions that negotiate wages butdo not fight to end the wage system!Without a revolutionary Marxist partyneither the unions or Occupy cannotdevelop beyond an economistconsciousness of capitalism into aclass conscious revolutionarymovement. Lets examine this point
because it is central to the debate on
what kind of revolutionary party isneeded to lead workers to revolution.
What would Lenin have
done?
The need for a revolutionary Marxistparty is the need for a revolutionaryMarxist program. Capitalism throws
up a smoke screen that hides the classbasis of exploitation. A Marxistprogram proves that capitalism cannotbe reformed and that to survive theworking class must become classconscious and overthrow it. Theprogram also spells out how to goabout making a revolution. Such aprogram needs to be kept alive and
kicking by a revolutionary party.Whether a program works or not isdecided by testing it in practice. So arevolutionary party must be organizedto put the program into practice, andto change it if it doesnt work. The
Marxist left sees the need forleadership and a revolutionary party,but what does this party look like?
There are two basic models of aMarxist party. The first is a class
party (or multi-tendency party)including reformists, radicals andMarxists. The second is the so-calledvanguard party of class-consciousMarxists. The question of howMarxists should intervene in Occupyhas raised this question again. And the
advocates of both types of party bothclaim to be Leninists.
For the class party side isPham Binhwho argues against Paul LeBlanc andothers that the idea that Lenin built anew type of vanguard party is a mythHe claims Lenin didnt form a party of
Bolsheviks separate from the broad
party of the class in 1905 or 1912. TheBolsheviks in 1905 were a smallminority inside the Russian SociaDemocratic Workers Party (RSDWP)which was a mass party including anumber of currents which shiftedcourse so that both Bolsheviks andMensheviks (minority) where neveractually distinct or separate parties.
What Binh is arguing here is thatoday left parties are tiny sectsmodeling themselves on themythical Leninist vanguard and
competing in a sectarian way towin support in Occupy andmeeting resistance. He looks backto Leninism as he understands ifor the model of a broad class partythat contains workers at differenlevels of political consciousnesswhere the different factionscompete to demonstrate how aMarxist program can be applied tosolve the problems of the 99%.
There is some truth in this as theBolsheviks did function as afaction in the old RSDWP unti1917. Yet that faction acted moreas a vanguard party within a much
broader party from 1905 when itdeclared itself to be a separate partyand after 1912 when it actuallybecame a separate party. TheBolsheviks growing split from theMensheviks was necessary to defendthe Marxist program. The basis onwhich the Bolsheviks formed afaction/party distinct from the rest in
the RSDWP was a programmaticprinciple: the refusal to liquidate
the proletarian class into subordinationand even political alliances with theexploiting classes. In other words theBolshevik faction stood for theindependence of the workers as therevolutionary class against those wholiquidated this class independence
https://www.facebook.com/notes/humanists-for-revolutionary-socialism/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-oakland-labor-solidarity-committee/10150549443512283https://www.facebook.com/notes/humanists-for-revolutionary-socialism/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-oakland-labor-solidarity-committee/10150549443512283https://www.facebook.com/notes/humanists-for-revolutionary-socialism/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-oakland-labor-solidarity-committee/10150549443512283http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/26-8http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/26-8http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/occupy-and-unions-provide-free-subway-in-new-york-city-via-jaihttp://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/occupy-and-unions-provide-free-subway-in-new-york-city-via-jaihttp://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/occupy-and-unions-provide-free-subway-in-new-york-city-via-jaihttp://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/26-8http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004785http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004785http://www.blogger.com/goog_2070058234http://www.blogger.com/goog_2070058234http://www.blogger.com/and%20Platypus%20%28Wolff%29%20http:/rosswolfe.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/reflections-on-occupy-wall-street-what-it-represents-its-prospects-and-its-deficiencies/http://www.blogger.com/and%20Platypus%20%28Wolff%29%20http:/rosswolfe.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/reflections-on-occupy-wall-street-what-it-represents-its-prospects-and-its-deficiencies/http://links.org.au/node/2711http://links.org.au/node/2711http://links.org.au/node/2711http://www.blogger.com/and%20Platypus%20%28Wolff%29%20http:/rosswolfe.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/reflections-on-occupy-wall-street-what-it-represents-its-prospects-and-its-deficiencies/http://www.blogger.com/goog_2070058234http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004785http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/draft-action-program-for-europe-rising.htmlhttp://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/26-8http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/occupy-and-unions-provide-free-subway-in-new-york-city-via-jaihttp://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/26-8https://www.facebook.com/notes/humanists-for-revolutionary-socialism/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-oakland-labor-solidarity-committee/10150549443512283https://www.facebook.com/notes/humanists-for-revolutionary-socialism/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-oakland-labor-solidarity-committee/101505494435122837/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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into cross-class or popular fronts withthe bourgeoisie. Allied to theliquidators were the conciliators
who while formally opposed toliquidation, in practice vacillatedtowards the liquidators. Theliquidators in various degrees all tookthe Menshevik position thatbackward Russia would have to go
through a prolonged bourgeoisrevolution before it was ready for asocialist revolution.
The long battle againstliquidationism faced the critical testover the question of whether theRSDWP would give conditional
support to the bourgeois Provisional
Government in Russia after theFebruary 1917 Revolution. Up to thatpoint the Bolsheviks had won supportfor a Bourgeois revolution led by theworkers and peasants (the
Revolutionary DemocraticDictatorship of the Proletariat andPeasants) since the bourgeoisie was
too weak and dependent on Tsarism.The Bolsheviks would giveconditional support; to a bourgeois
government insofar as it acts in theinterests of the revolution. That is,
mobilize workers and peasants tocontrol it and push it left (for peace,land, and bread) to complete the tasksof the Bourgeois revolution and soprepare for the socialist revolution.
Yet when the workers rose up in
February and a Bourgeois
provisional government was formed
Lenin rejected conditional support
for this government as liquidation
into the class enemy. He argued that
the working class was capable of
completing the bourgeois revolution
uninterrupted, or in Trotskys
terms, in a permanent revolution
for socialism. Subordinating the
workers and peasants to theProvisional Government would
leave workers defenseless against a
Bourgeois/Tsarist counter-
revolution. There would be no
peace, land or bread. No road
forward to socialism, only back to
barbarism.
The lesson for Leninism in Occupy
today is that after 1903 the
Bolsheviks formed a faction in
which the principle of revolutionary
independence of the working class
against any political alliances that
subordinated it to the bourgeoisie
was the test of membership. When
revolution broke out in Russia the
Bolsheviks had the history of
building an organization with a long
experience of both democracy and
discipline to act to defend this
principle and change its program
from one which involved a popular
front with the bourgeoisie, to that
of socialist revolution. The change
in program defeated the counter-
revolution and made the revolution.
So if this is the Leninist party we
need today how do we go about
building it?
Lenin in Occupy
The global capitalist system is facing aterminal crisis. The world economymust go through a deep depression torestore the rate of profit. No bourgeoisor capitalist party can stop this, only aworking class revolution. We facesocialism or barbarism. Thebourgeoisie cannot rule withoutinvoking extreme repression, firstsmashing of democracy and thenunless workers stop it, fascism. Theworkers cannot live with capitalism.For workers to live, capitalism mustdie. Lenin would call it arevolutionary situation where theextreme rottenness of globalcapitalism threatens destruction ofhumanity and where the working classis ready and willing to fight to thedeath but has yet to overcome a hugelack of class consciousness andorganization.
So Lenin would recognize Occupy asa spontaneous mobilization ofobjectively anti-capitalist youth andother workers but with its majoritytrapped into an economist ideologyand still misled about the possibility ofreforms. However the severity of thecrisis means that the capitalist attacksand resistance of Occupy to them willquickly prove that the capitalists mustdestroy rather than grant reforms. One
term of Obama has gone a long way todestroy economist illusions. Severasocial democratic governments inEurope have been voted out afterimposing drastic austerity programsEven so the reformists are fightinglike hell to hijack Occupy and stop itsrevolutionary development. SoLeninists must join in this fighagainst all attempts to subordinate theworking class to the bourgeoisie viathe Democrats, Social Democracy andthe labor bureaucracy, and raiseinstead the need to build anindependent mass workers party witha revolutionary program.
Leninism is about how Marxists leadin the wider working class strugglesThis means a program for socialisrevolution. It means to fight againsttodays liquidators and conciliators
who want to bury the Marxist program
into the popular front of the workerspetty bourgeois and bourgeoiselements who make up the 99%Leninists intervene to oppose thepolitics of all those who claim to beanti-capitalist yet act as the agents ofthe popular front with the bourgeoisie.
Lenins tactic of a Bolshevik faction
engaging in patient explanationcombined with contesting theleadership of the class struggle wouldweed out those among the 99% who
are agents of the bourgeoisie. CopsRon Paulites, libertarians, etc. Bumore dangerous are those that pose asworkers. We oppose pacifist andreformist appeals to the 1%, the copsthe middle class, the DemocratsSocial Democracy and the laborbureaucrats of the trade unionfederations.
We do this by calling on Occupy to
follow Occupy Oaklands lead and
unite with the union rank and file
members to Occupy all the strategicsites of production of profits the
workplaces, the banks, transport
and communications, schools
hospitals, etc. to demand workers
administration and control
Reformists will oppose such direct
action, and radicals will join with
Leninists to build workers councils
and workers militias
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capable of smashing the capitalist
state and installing the Dictatorship
of the Proletariat.
We advocate reading Marx, Lenin,Trotsky, and Luxemburg but not thepetty bourgeois radicals Zizek orChomsky, Bourdieu or Badiou. Thelatter offer no revolutionary answers
as in their various ways they opposethe Leninist-type party and thepractice of democratic-centralism. Forus the only way that the Marxistprogram can be tested is if a majorityagrees to unite in action to test it, andthen to debate the resultsdemocratically to see if it works ornot. That is the basis of democraticcentralism, or, dialecticswhich in itshighest form is the class consciousintervention of the vanguard of theworking class to resolve thecontradiction between
socialized production andprivate profit by means of asocialist revolution.
That is the method of Leninistsin Occupy. The crisis ofcapitalism is destroying theworking class and driving it toresist its destruction. Leninistsare Marxists; we do notseparate ourselves from themasses, but champion theirclass interests locally andglobally. We intervene only tohelp workers become classconscious fighters, organizedin strike committees, democraticcouncils of action, defense militias,and as militants of an internationalparty of socialist revolution, able tounite internationally as a force tosmash the capitalist system and itsmilitary machine and replace it with asocialist society producing for needand not profit!
Turn Occupy into revolutionary
workers councils!For a new World Party of Socialist
Revolution!
_______________________________
Letters:
Could the Caterpillar strike been
won?
The IAM struck one plant in Joliot, Ill.But Caterpillar says it has 500factories, service centers, dealersthroughout the world. It just opened a
new factory in China. Striking onefactory of a multi-national corporationis an exercise in futility.
Of course, striking other factories,service centers, etc. would haveprobably resulted in defying the Taft-Hartley Law. But unions willcontinue to be defeated if they obeylaws and injunctions that benefit onlycapitalists. Caterpillar is carrying outCLASS WAR against its workers, but
the present union leaders think theycan negotiate contracts withoutwinning strikes because the unionlawyers tell them to.
The current unions in the U.S. arenegotiating themselves into non-existence. If we are save the unions,we will need a different kind of union:like when the auto workers in 1937occupied the auto plants....
Earl GilmanAugust 18, 2012
***
It appears that the indigenousmovement in Colombia is being usedby the Colombian government."Peace" of the oppressors is the
perpetuation of exploitative
capitalism. There is a class war takingplace in Colombia: the guerrillamovement may have made mistakesbut I believe we should support themin their struggle. The danger is arepetition of "Peace Accords" as in ESalvador, which did not punish theright wing death squads and where thesystem continues the policies of neoliberalism under a so called"progressive" President.
Earl GilmanAugust 12, 2012
***The "ObamaCare" Sham
The New York Times (8/12) publishedan article entitled: "Ambiguity inHealth Law Could Make Family
Coverage Too Costly ForMany":
"Under rules proposed by theservice (IRS), some workingclass families would be unableto afford family coverageoffered by their employers, andyet they would not qualify forsubsidies provided by thelaw....Critics say theadministration should also takeinto account the costs ofcovering a spouse and childrenbecause family coverage
usually costs more....Under theIRS proposal, such costs wouldbe deemed affordable for a
family making $35,000 a year, eventhough the family would have tospend 12% of its income for fulcoverage under the employer's planThe debate over the meaning ofaffordable pits the Obamaadministration against its usual alliesMany people who support the new lawsaid the proposed rules could leavemillions of people in the lower middle
class uninsured...."
Many advocates of the "AffordableCare Act' have seen it as a stepforward and have given up on "SinglePayer". But we are now in a capitalistcrisis where "reforms" may not bereforms at all or they are given to uswith one hand and taken back withanother. It appears we may need a
http://links.org.au/node/2767http://links.org.au/node/2767http://kasamaproject.org/2012/01/10/interview-with-zizek-occupy-renascent-left-and-marxism-today/http://kasamaproject.org/2012/01/10/interview-with-zizek-occupy-renascent-left-and-marxism-today/http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/11/chomskys-occupy/http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/11/chomskys-occupy/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieuhttp://kasamaproject.org/category/authors/alain-badiou/http://kasamaproject.org/category/authors/alain-badiou/http://kasamaproject.org/category/authors/alain-badiou/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieuhttp://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/11/chomskys-occupy/http://kasamaproject.org/2012/01/10/interview-with-zizek-occupy-renascent-left-and-marxism-today/http://links.org.au/node/27677/31/2019 Class War V1.#1
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REVOLUTION to even get genuinereforms!EARL GILMANAugust 12, 2012
***The CWG USA, publisher of CLASS
WAR has recently emerged from
within the ranks of the Humanist
Workers for Revolutionary Socialism
(HWRS). A bitter factional fight
resulted in the expulsion of the
comrades who founded the CWG. The
following is a letter explaining the
CWG A/NZs view of the split. The
CWG US is building the Liaison
Committee of Communists alongside
the comrades of the CWG A/NZ &
RWG (Zim) as a step toward the
founding of a new communist
international.
Dear Comrades of the HWRS,
We don't claim to have all thedocuments or correspondence aroundrecent developments in HWRS. Wehave some of the pre-congressdocuments forwarded by CR and DJC.And we have a certain amount ofemail correspondence, including twoletters from DW to CWG and to DBpersonally. We also draw on ourcommon experience in the LiaisonCommittee since mid 2010 and ourexperience from our joint work aroundthe LRCI in 1990-91 and the Liaison
committee between CEMICOR andWorkers Voice in 1997-8. We willhowever try to keep this letter tightand to the point.
On the basis of what we have read
we have come to the conclusion that
the factional fight in the HWRS is
another instance of an internal fight
that leads to an unnecessary split. In
our view the two sides to this
dispute remain factions of HWRS
and recourse to formal rules of
majorities and minorities of one,
two or three, only makes an
unnecessary split appear inevitable.
Lets start with what the two
factions have in common and then
see how differences blew up to bring
about an unnecessary split. Then we
can conclude with a proposed
solution.
The pre-congress documents
circulated during May raised many
important questions about how to
overcome the problems facing the
small group.
DWs contribution "What must beDone?" argued that given the lack ofcommitment of members, the groupneeded to put its efforts into contacts,recruitment and educationals.Someone needed to organise this.Without this the group would remainMenshevik rather than Bolshevik.'Mass work' in unions was not possibleuntil the group got bigger. "Personalcommitment" was the immediatepriority of members. The fact that DWwrote a pre-congress discussion paperindicates that he was planning toreturn to membership.
SH's "Balance sheet" also identifiedlots of problems but also important
gains, and it too saw trade unioncaucus work as beyond the capacity ofa small group. Lack of organisationtoo was the main issue.
CR and DJC in "Tasks andPerspectives" argued that it wasnecessary to develop theoretical andpractical work in tandem, trade unionwork was part of that necessarypractical work, lack of a full timeleadership was a problem but the realproblem was lack of commitment of
individual members.
Up to that point no problems had
been identified out of the ordinary
for any small struggling
propaganda group.
CR and DJC then went on in anotherdocument on 'Alienation' to try toidentify what was causing the failureof particular members to commit toactive membership. DW was seriouslysick and had resigned. SH although amember had personal reasons for notbeing active. EB a supporter was moreinterested in his social life thanpolitics. This left CR and DJC (thetwo EC members) and the newlyrecruited CD as the only activemembers.
The EC then talked of the 'elephant inthe room' as the problem that wasbehind the inability of the group to
function effectively. This was thetendency of DW, despite being on sickleave for long periods of time since2009 when the group became activeagain, and currently not a member, todominate the group
They spoke of DW being an expert inalienation who was advanced in theoryand method, and yet at the same timeexpressed alienated behaviour in theform of his 'egoism' in dominatingmembers and preventing them fromdeveloping as fully functioningmembers. In particular they said thatDW dominated his partner SH andheld back her development as a fullmember.
Although this was a strong
criticism, in itself it was within the
scope of a frank internal pre
congress discussion when Marxists
have to be brutally honest in theircriticism of the material bases of
deficiencies. Moreover the reference
to alienation as an explanation for
the groups dysfunction can be seen
as not a personal attack on DW but
a particular problem all members
shared since they had put up with
DWs egoism for years and were
therefore alienated co-dependents
DW, however, saw these criticisms asa personal attack, and because the EC
compared his alienated behaviour toHealyite and even Stalinist practices (aclumsy comparison in our view) tookit to be personal slander, demanding aControl Commission to look at theevidence and come to a decision. Inresponse the EC said that it would nomeet with those who accused it ofslander unless the charge waswithdrawn.
At this point the publication of anarticle written by the EC for the RWGnewspaper Revolutionary Worker onthe Greek elections became a newissue. DW opposed the EC articlebecause a late amendment calling for acritical support tactic for SYRIZA
had not been discussed with almembers. DW accused the EC ofbeing undemocratic in failing todiscuss an amendment to the HWRSprogram.
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DW then rejoined, sympathiser EB
was made a member, and the foursignatories, DW, SH, CD and EBpublished an alternative majority
position on SYRIZA refusing to givecritical support and calling for anunlimited general strike. What was atactical difference now resulted in twopublic positions on SYRIZAsignalling a deeper disagreementwhich led to both CWG and a memberof GB (France) to write that thistactical difference was not the basisfor a split.
The EC members rejected the chargeof lack of democracy over the article.They said they had applied the HWRSmethod on critical support in the caseof SYRIZA And in any case it was atactical question which as the EC theywere authorised to take. DW thenaccused the EC of Stalinism,
cowardice, etc. in refusing to debatethe political question of criticalsupport. The EC said it would notdiscuss politics with those whoaccused them of slander. DW offeredto withdraw his accusation of slanderbut reserve the right to take it to a CCafter the congress. The EC saidwithdraw it in total and we willdiscuss SYRIZA even with someonewho is still a non-member.
The EC declared that SH and CD who
were members, and DW who hadresigned for health reasons inFebruary, and EB who was a supporternow constituted an "inside/outside'faction as they had broken Leninistnorms to create a majority of theHWRS. The EC did not recognise anymeetings between these individualsand asked that members SH and CDdissociate themselves from the chargeof slander and meet with the EC,which they failed to do.
The new 'majority' of HWRS thenexpelled the 'former' EC for a breachin democratic centralism. The internaldiscussion on alienation had nowbecome an public dispute overdemocratic centralism. There werenow two public factions of HWRS, themajority and the EC. There weremore exchanges on email lists and insome public meetings over method ofwork in trade unions, gangs,
community groups, etc., where thetwo factions had, apparently, differentideas. These 'differences' like that ofcritical support for SYRIZA however,were no more than would have beennormal in any functional, let alonedysfunctional group, except now theywere infused with public factionalcontent in two rival HWRS groups.
In our view, the two factions are still
adhering to the program and
method of HWRS, even if that
common approach is now poisoned
by strong feelings of personal insult
and slander. We can see no
programmatic reason why the
HWRS shouldn't make a big effort
in the interests of the international
proletariat and try to resolve these
differences. They stem from a
dysfunctional group where most if
not all the active work was loaded
onto two comrades in the EC. Evenwith DW on leave or out of
membership the EC came under
criticism for 'mass work' when that
mass work was necessary to keep in
touch with potential contacts and
recruits. As a result those comrades
felt they were still under the
domination of the physically
disabled historic leader in absentia.
When they honestly ventured to get
to what they saw as the root of the
problem and confront the leader in
the terms of the theory of alienationthat he had himself developed, DW
'saw red' and turned the pre-
congress discussion into a personal
attack on himself and his political
reputation and pursued a split to
remove his critics.
DW needs to recognise the effects thathis long-term disability has on his roleand functioning in the HWRS, andthat this has disqualified him fromacting as the main leader. Like
anyone isolated from the activestruggle, DWs isolation from eventshas led him to take sectarian, abstractpositions on most questions, SYRIZAbeing the latest. It is not the activismor opportunism of the EC that is the
problem. As the EC argues, activity inthe class struggle is the only course toovercome elements of alienation shortof socialism. Inactivity compounds thealienating pressures of capitalist
society. For sure, having writtenstrongly about alienation, it would behard for DW to have this very goodtheoretical work reflected back as aweakness. It would be difficult to takea critical look at ones self and role in
HWRS. Yet this has been a big poinin DWs theory of leadership theneed to show responsibility andmaturity as an example to others.
Further, DWs response to the
question of alienation is surelyevidence of his alienated conditionHe responds to an internal criticism ofhis domination of the group with apolitical offensive. He makes a chargeof slander that shuts down politicadiscussion with the EC. He refuses towithdraw it unconditionally whichsurely would have allowed thequestion to be resolved inside theHWRS. Then along comes SYRIZA
DW accuses the EC of a breach ofdemocratic centralism for refusing tohave a political discussion onSYRIZA. Then he creates a publicinside/outside faction. Then hedredges up minor political differencesto prove that this breach of democraticcentralism is rooted in the past wrongmethods of the EC members. Minordifferences are blown out ofproportion to create a smoke screenrather than confront the real cause of adysfunctional group.
So far the CWG has viewed the twofactions of the HWRS as potentiallycapable of resolving their differencesHowever, we agree with the comradesof the EC that DW has created anunprincipled faction and is nowclaiming that the faction fight is overWe appeal to DW and his faction towithdraw the charge of slanderdirected at the EC and return to a precongress discussion with a view toovercoming the root causes of thegroups dysfunction. DWs work on
alienation essentially described theideal comrade as a "compassionateloving person": the HWRS factionsneed to get back around a table with atleast comradely respect. Failure totake this step will mean CWG endingits relations in the Liaison Committeewith the majority faction.
Fraternally,DB & AS
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What we Fight For
We fight to overthrow Capitalism
Historically, capitalism expanded world-wide to free much of humanity from the bonds of feudal or tribal society, and
developed the economy, society and culture to a new higher level. But it could only do this by exploiting the labor of the
productive classes to make its profits. To survive, capitalism became increasingly destructive of "nature" and humanity. In the
early 20th
century it entered the epoch of imperialism in which successive crises unleashed wars, revolutions and counter-
revolutions. Today we fight to end capitalisms wars, famine, oppression and injustice, by mobilising workers to overthrow
their own ruling classes and bring to an end the rotten, exploitative and oppressive society that has exceeded its use-by date.
We fight for Socialism.
By the 20th century, capitalismhad created the pre-conditions forsocialism a world-wide workingclass and modern industry capableof meeting all our basic needs. Thepotential to eliminate poverty,
starvation, disease and war haslong existed. The OctoberRevolution proved this to be true,bringing peace, bread and land tomillions. But it became the victimof the combined assault ofimperialism and Stalinism. After1924 the USSR, along with itsdeformed offspring in Europe,degenerated back towardscapitalism. In the absence of aworkers political revolution,
capitalism was restored between1990 and 1992. Vietnam andChina then followed. In the 21sstcentury only Cuba and NorthKorea survive as degenerateworkers states. We unconditionallydefend these states againstcapitalism and fight for politicalrevolution to overthrow thebureaucracy as part of worldsocialism.
We fight to defend MarxismWhile the economic conditions forsocialism exist today, standingbetween the working class andsocialism are political, social andcultural barriers. They are thecapitalist state and bourgeoisideology and its agents. Theseagents claim that Marxism is dead
and capitalism need not beexploitative. We say that Marxismis a living science that explains
both capitalisms continuedexploitation and its attempts tohide class exploitation behind theappearance of individual"freedom" and "equality". Itreveals how and why the reformist,
Stalinist and centrist misleaders ofthe working class tie workers tobourgeois ideas of nationalism,racism, sexism and equality. Suchfalse beliefs will be exploded whenthe struggle against the inequality,injustice, anarchy and barbarism ofcapitalism in crisis, led by arevolutionary Marxist party,produces a revolutionary class-consciousness.
We fight for a Revolutionary
PartyThe bourgeoisie and its agentscondemn the Marxist party astotalitarian. We say that without ademocratic and a centrallyorganised party there can be norevolution. We base our beliefs onthe revolutionary tradition ofBolshevism and Trotskyism. Sucha party, armed with a transitionalprogram, forms a bridge that joinsthe daily fight to defend all thepast and present gains won fromcapitalism, to the victorioussocialist revolution. Defensivestruggles for bourgeois rights andfreedoms, for decent wages andconditions, will link up thestruggles of workers of allnationalities, genders, ethnicities
and sexual orientations, bringingabout movements for workerscontrol, political strikes and thearming of the working class, asnecessary steps to workers' powerand the smashing of the bourgeoisstate. Along the way, workers willearn that each new step is one ofmany in a long march to
revolutionise every barrier put inthe path of the victoriousrevolution.
We fight for Communism.
Communism stands for thecreation of a classless, statelesssociety beyond socialism that iscapable of meeting all humanneeds. Against the ruling class liesthat capitalism can be made "fair"for all; that nature can be"conserved"; that socialism andcommunism are "dead"; we raisethe red flag of communism to keepalive the revolutionary tradition ofthe' Communist Manifesto of 1848the Bolshevik-led OctoberRevolution; the Third CommunisInternational until 1924, therevolutionary Fourth Internationaup to 1940 before its collapse intocentrism. We fight to build a newCommunist International, as aworld party of socialism capable ofleading workers to a victoriousstruggle for socialism.
Join us in the task of overthrowingcapitalism!cwgclasswar@gmail.comwww.cwgusa.wordpress.com
Labor Donated
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