7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

1/12

soC!:N.o.823 ~ X - 6 2 3 ' 2 April 2004

Spain: Heinous Bombing andOfficial Lies 'Topple GovernmentFollowing the criminal bombing ofpassenger trains in Madrid on March11, which killed some 200 people, the

population's grief and horror turned tofury over the lies manufactured by thePopular Party (PP) and Prime MinisterJose Maria Aznar. The PP is the political heir to the bloody military dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco,

who came to power in the late 1 9 3 0 ~ after crushing the insurgent proletariatduring the Spanish Civil War. AznaJ:personally phoned the major newspapers to plant the lie that the bombingwas the work of the Basque separatistgroup ETA, despite the organization'sdisavowal and condemnation of thisheinous crime. The mounting evidence

that the bombing was the work ofIslamic fundamentalists in payback forSpain's stalwart support to US. imperialism's Iraq war, which was opposedby 90 percent of Spaniards, was thepolitical bombshell that dumped Aznarout of office in a surprise upset in thegeneral election three days later.Azmir had staked his career on re-

pressing the Basques and J}o doubtthought the Madrid bombing could bemanipulated for his political convenience. But on the eve of the election,thousands took to the streets and laidsiege to PP headquarters around thecountry, chanting, "The dead are ours 1The war is yours!" Families of thecJntinued on page 4

Grotesque Assassination of Reactionary Hamas Leader. ,v: ,.Bloody Zionist Provocation~ ~ ~ M ~ h : 2 ' t a ' i s a s -sination of the "spiritual leader" ofHamas, Ahmed Yassin, a partiallyblind 67-year-old quadriplegic, expressed the supreme arrogance andbarbarism of Israel's rulers. Threeshrapnel-packed missiles were firedfrom helicopters, hitting the wheelchair-bound cleric, killing seven OCh-ers and injuring 17. Since the assassination, at least 18 Palestinians haveb!!en killed, including five in themassive protests in Gaza and theWest Bank. Israeli prime minister

Ariel Sharon wants to make cleaf notonly to the besieged Palestinians butalso to his ministerial critics on thefar right that his much-vaunted 0"withdrawal'; from Gaza does notmean that the Zionist rulers are anyless determined to destroy any vestige of Palestinian resistance.The day following Yassin's assassination, General Mo she Yalon of theIsraeli military responded whenasked if Yasir Arafat and H e ~ b o l l a h leader Hassan Nasrallah were targetsfor elimination: "Judging by yesterday's reactions they understand thattheir turn draws closer." As we wrotein "Israel Hands Off Arafat!" (WVNo. 810, 26 September 2003), thefull intent of the threats against Arafatwas clear: "The Zionist regime wasannouncing to the world that they wereready for a mass slaughter of Palestiniansthat would far overshadow the April 2002bloodbath in Jenin ... The threat to 'liqui date' Arafat is only the most recent provocation in the Zionist state's long historyof assassination as policy." The Israeliruling class is sending a message to the

14

7 1112 5 2 7 4 11 8 103 01 III 7

!'( i ~ ; < l " M ' ~ ~ ~ ' 7 '

Palestinian masses-to those imprisonedin Gaza by an electric fence and thosetrapped in the West Bank by concretewalls-that it has license to obliterateevery Palestinian leader of any stripe.Defend the Palestinian people! Al l Israelitroops and settlers out of the OccupiedTerritories now!On March 25, the U.S. vetoed a UnitedNations Security Council resolution condemning the assassination of Yassin.U.S. imperialism certainly h?s nOJJr9blem with "extrajudicial executions," asits history, from the repeated attempts onthe life of Cuban leader Fidel Castro andLibyan leader. Muammar el-Qaddafi tothe coldblooded killings of leaders of theformer Iraqi regime, demonstrates. This

March 25: Palestiniansgather around housesdemolished by .escalating Israeliincursions into Gazafollowing Yassinassassination.Above: Ariel Sharonand imperialist patronGeorge Bush.

has been the policy of both Republicanand Democratic administrations. In fact,when it comes to support to Israelincluding massive U.S. military aid-=-theDemocrats ' are at least as rabid as theRepublicans. The U.S. rulers' main concern right now is that Israel"s provocations in the Occupied Territories do notfuel further outrage toward Americanimperialism's oloody occupation of Iraq.We say: Down with the colonial occupa-tion of Iraq! A(l U.S. troops ou t now!The assassination of Yassin sparkedwidespread protests throughout the NearEast, from Cairo to Damascus and occupied Iraq. Many of the protesters carriedgreen Islamic flags and large portraitsof the slain cleric. The Egyptian-based

Al-Ahram Weekly (25 March) headlined one of its articles, "We Are AllHamas Now." The killing of Yassinwill likely drive many Palestiniansfurther into the arms of reactionary,anti-woman and anti-Jewish fundamentalists like Hamas. But Hamasis a deadly enemy of Palestinianwomen, workers and leftists. Abhorring secularism and women's rights,they have forced many Palestinianwomen in the Gaza Strip into thehijab (headscarf).In the 1980s, ISrael encouraged thedevelopment of Hamas as an alternative to the secular-nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)of Arafat. As Palestinians gn.w frustrated with the bankruptcy of thePLO, especially after the treacherous1993 Oslo accords, Hamas and otherfundamentalist groups grew. At thesame time, Hamas has gained prominence in Gaza by providing many of'the social services that the population lacks. It is a tragedy that the violence inflicted by the Zionist rulersagainst the Palestinians has driven alarge' chunk of that historically cosmopolitan population into supporting thoroughly reactionary religiousobscurantist groups like Hamas.The murder of Yassin will not, asIsraeli government spokesmen, wouldclaim, prevent terror attacks but ratherguarantees there will be more of them.Such terror attacks against I ~ r a e l i civilians, like the March 14 suicide bombingsin the port city of Ashdod which killedten port workers, are entirely criminal andreprehensible from the viewpoint of theinternational working c\a,ss. They onlyserve to reinforce the reactionary grip ofIsrael's capitalist rulers over the Hebrewspeaking working masses.There is no solution to the oppression

of the Palestinian masses within the framework of decaying capitalism, which basesitself on racist national aggrandizementcontinued on page :2

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

2/12

On April 9, New York City attorneyLynne Stewart faces another day in court.This time, though, she isn't there to fightfor freedom from the clutches of the statefor the leftists, black activists and othersdeemed enemies by the U.S.' racist rulers,as she has for the past three decades. Thistime Stewart, a 64-year-old grandmother,is fighting for her own freedom.

Egyptian sheik Omar Ahmed-Rahman,. who is imprisoned for life on "seditiousconspiracy" charges stemming from the1993 World Trade Center bombing.Yousry is included in the indictment forhaving acted as Rahman's interpreter.Stewart's paralegal Sattar, alleged to be amember of Rahman's Islamic Group, hasbeen imprisoned for two years. They arecharged simply for having cOrrullunicatedwith Rahman or with each other. TheFeds are also charging Stewart with fraudfor violating the "Special AdministrativeMeasures" she allegedly agreed to in1999, which allowed her access to her.client Ahmed-Rahman on the conditionthat she not convey any communicationsto or from him.

She and two Arab men, Ahmed AbdelSattar and Mohammed Yousry, were indicteq on charges of supporting "terrorism" under the USA-Patriot Act. Enactedshortly after the September 11 attack onthe World Trade Center, this draconianlaw broadens the definition of "terrorist"to include just about anybody deemed anopponent of the government. Stewart isfacing up to 40 years in prison for the"crime" of being an attorney for blind As we wrote two years ago when thecharges were first announced, the frame-

TROTSKY

Proletarian Democracy vs.. Bourgeois Democracy.Leading Bolsheviks Nikolai Bukharin andEvgeny Preobrazhensky wrote The ABC ofCommunism in 1919, following the victoryof the October 1917 Russian Revolution, asa textbook for communist cadre education.In the fallowing excerpt, they unmask thefraud of bourgeois democracy, counterposing to it the proletarian democracy of theearly soviet workers republic. Such democracy for the working and oppressed masses LENINcan only be achieved through a working-class revolution against the bourgeois order.

How can there be a " c o ~ o n " will for bourgeoisie and proletariat? It is manifest thatthe very phrase about a will common to the whole nation is humbug if the. words areintended to apply to all classes. No such common will has been realised or can be realised.But this fraud is necessary to the bourgeoisie, necessary for the maintenance of capitalist rule. The capitalists are in the minority. They cannot venture to say openly thatthis s ~ a l l minority rules. This is why the b . \ > u ~ ~ e o ~ ~ i e ..h a . ~ t ~ .. s h ~ a t ~ ; . ~ ~ c ~ a E i p n ; . , ~ ~ < l ~ itrules II I the name of "the whole people," "all classes," "the entIre natioIi," and so on.How is the fraud carried out in a "democratic republic"? The chief reason why theproletariat is enslaved to-day is because it is economically enslaved. Even in a democratic republic, the factories and worksheps belong to the capitalists, and the land ,belongs to the capitalists and the landlords. The worker has nothing but his labourpower; the poor peasant has nothing beyond a tiny scrap of land. They are eternallycompelled to labour under terrible conditions, for they are under the heel of the master.On paper, they can do a great deal; in actuai fact, they can do nothing. They can donothing because all the wealth, all the power of capital, is in the hands of their enemies.This is what is termed bourgeois democracy.... .The Soviet Power realises a new, a much more perfect type of democracy-proletarian democracy. The essence of this proletarian democracy consists in this, that it isbased upon the transference of the means of production into the hands of the workers,thus depriving the bourgeoisie of all power. In proletarian democracy, those who formerly constituted the oppressed masses, and their organisations, have become the.instruments of rule. In the capitalist system of society, and therefore in bourgeoisdemocratic republics, there existed organisations of workers arid peasants. They were,however, overwhelmed by the organisations of the rich. Under proletarian democracy,on the other hand, the rich have been deprived of their wealth. The mass organisationsof the workers, the semi-proletarian peasants, etc. (soviets, trade unions, factory committees, etc.), have become the actual foundations of the proletarian State authority. Inthe constitution of the Soviet Republic we find at the outset the statement: "Russiadeclares itself to be a republic of workers', soldiers', and peasants' delegates. Allpower, bQth l:entral and local, is vested in these soviets."

2

- Nikolai Bukharin and Evgeny Preobrazhensky, TheABC of Communism(Ann Arbor, 1967)

! . ' l ! ! f . . ' ! y o r . . . ' 1 ! ~ l ! . ~ l ! . ! IRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Alison Spencer

EDITOR: Alan Wilde~ D I T O R , YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Michael DavissonPRODUCTION MANAGER: Susan FullerCIRCULATION MANAGER: Jeff ThomasEDITORIAL BOARD: Hosemary Palenque (managing editor), Bruce Andre, Ray Bishop, Jon Brule,Karen Cole, Paul Cone, George Foster, Liz Gordon, Walter Jennings, Jane Kerrigan, Len Meyers,James Robertson, JoseP.h SeymourThe Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League(Fourth Internationalist).Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276-0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July andAugust (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3-week interval in December, by the SpartacistPublishing Co., 299 Broadway, Suite 318, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 ( Editorial), (212) 732-7861(Business). Address ali correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. E-mail address:vanguard@tiac.net.Domestic subscriptions: $10.00/22 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send "ddresschanges to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116.Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint.The closing date for' ne'jVs in this issue is 30 March.

No. 823 April 2004

up "is part of the frontal attack on civil ing new. In the 1950s, when the Commu-l i b ~ r t i e s that accompanies the U.S.-led nist Party was declared an illegal organ-'globa l war on terror. ' Using the fear ization and its members and anyone hav-born of the attack on the World Trade ing contact with them were draggedCenter as a pretext, the Bush admin- before the House Committee on Un-istration, with most Democrats in tow, American Activities (HUAC), their law-pushed through a package of legislation, yers were vilified or indicted as well.executive fiats and Justice Department A centerpiece of the government's warregulations which marked a qualitative on civil liberties is the denial of legaldiminution of democratic rights" (WV process for anybody Bush, Cheney orNo. 779, 19 April 2002). We demand that Ashcrof t deem a "bad guy." Hundredsall charges against Stewart, Yousry and imprisoned in Guantanamo for over twoSattar be dropped now! years. many of them tortured, have noWhat 's at stake here is the Sixth way to challenge their detention. HavingAmendment right to legal representation, been pronounced "enemy combatants"without which any individual running by Bush, U.S. citizens Yaser Esamafoul of the state is thrown defenseless Hamdi and Jose Padilla remain lockedirito the capitali st courts. As the Stewart up in a South Carolina military brig,case demonstrates, those caug ht in the without charges against them, withoutgovernment's anti-terror web who are access to their attorney, and with nolucky enough to be allowed access to legal prospect of a hearing to challenge thecounsel may find their lawyer in the cell accusations against them. With the p e r s e ~ next door. Stewart's attorney, Michael cution of Lynne Stewart, Bush, AshcroftTigar, accurately states in motion papers & Co. seek to inscribe in the Americandemanding the charges be dismissed, judicia l system that virtually no one will"This case is a vindictive effort to chill have any rights the government is boundcourageous advocacy by all lawyers." to respect-from undocumented immi-The prosecution suffered a blow last grants to attorneys who are supposed toJuly when district court judge John Koeltl have certain protections, riot least ofdismissed the "terrorism" charges as un- which is the assurance that representingconstitutionally "void for vagueness," i.e., the a c c m ~ e d doesn't make you a p!lfl:y tothat no "reasonable person" could under- the crimes of which they are charged.stand that the acts for which Stewart was . In the gun sights of the government'sbeing prosecuted are against the law. In anti-terror witchhunt is jus t about every-November, the Feds vindictively filed a one perceived as an opponent by the cap-"superseding indictment," which merely italis t rulers-from those who opposerepackages the same charges tossed out U.S. imperialis t wars abroad to those whoby the court four months earlier. speak out against racist oppression orIn dismissing the terrorism charges, fight to defend their unions and liveli-Judge Koeltl admonished, "The Govern- hoods against attacks by the employers.ment accuses Stewart of providing per- The fact that the government is goingsonnel, including herself, to IG [Islamic after lawyers signifies an ominous attempt' ~ ' * ' 6 r o u p ] . InsodoiBg ; however, the(Jove m .. ,"" . to.eviscerate. the . : 4 0 ~ e c t i v e ~ e l ment fails to explain how a lawyer, acting in the American legal system. The laboras an agent of her client, an alleged leader movement, fighters for black rights andof an FTO [Foreign Terrorist Organiza- all opponents of capitalist injustice havetion], could avoid b ~ i n g ' s u b j e c t to crimi- a direct interest in joining in defense ofnal prosecution as a 'quasi-employee' Lynne Stewart, Ahmed Abdel Sattar andallegedly covered by the statute." That 's Mohammed Yousry and in calling forexactly the point. Equating lawyers with freedom for all those detained in the anti-the alleged crimes of their clients is noth- immigrant w i t ~ h h u n t . .

Israel...(continued from page 1)and predatory war. The Palestinians andHebrew-speaking people are interpenetrated, two populations with competingclaims to the same piece of land. Unlessa class axis is brought to the fore in thisnationalist conflict, the most reactionary. forces on both s ides will predominate.The right of national self-determinationfor both the Hebrew and Palestinian peo- pIes can only be secured by the strugglefor ArablHebrew workers revolutions andthe building of a socialist federation ofthe Near East. We have no illusions that itwill be easy to break the Hebrew proletariat from Zionism, but it is the task of

March 23: Copsbrutalize Israelistudents atJerusalem'sHebrewUniversityprotestingassassinationof Yassin.

II!Q)"SQ)a:

revolutionaries to use every strike, every.protest, every means to drive a widerwedge between the worlcing class ofIsrael and the Zionist rulers.Significantly, on March 23, studentsprotested at Jerusalem's Hebrew University campus where Sharon was visiting,Mlding signs condemning the Yassinassassination and calling on the government to end the occupation. What is mosturgently posed is the construction of international working-class parties, sectionsof a reforged Trotskyist Fourth Internationai, in opposition to Zionism, Arabnationalism and all variants of religiousfundamenfalism. This is the task to whichthe International Communist League,both in the imperialist lieartland andthroughout the world, is committed

WORKERS VANGUARD

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

3/12

Utah Prosecutes Mother inChildbirth Tragedy.Melissa Ann Rowland, a poor 28-yearold mother, has been charged with murderby Salt Lake City authorities and faceslifetime imprisonment. .. because one ofthe twins she gave birth to last January 13was stillborn! Medical staff at the hospital claim that Rowland was told one of thetwins would die if she didn't have a Caesarean section (where the belly and uterusare cut open to deliver the child). Rowland did give birth by C-section, but notquickly enough to satisfy the depravedUtah prosecutors who threw her in jail

one day after her Caesarean. First theycharged her with "child endangerment"of the surviving twin by alleged drug use;then in March, while Rowland still languished in a jail cell, they slapped acharge of criminal homicide on her. Wesay: Drop the charges against MelissaAnn Rowland!This prosecution is gross interferenceby the state into a private medical matter,as well as ruel torture of a mother.

against pregnant women for supposedlyharming their fetuses. The magazinestates:"In the last few months alone, a wQmanin New York was charged with childendangerment for delivering a drunkenbaby, a mother in Hawaii was chargedwith manslaughter in the death of hernewborn son from meth-amphetaminepoisoning and a drug user in Californiawas sentenced to life in prison for poisoning her newborn through m e t ~ -tainted breast milk."

These are very sad stories, but theyaren't crimes. These pregnant womenweren' t helped to have healthy babies bythe fact that this country has no decenthealth care for whole sectors of the population. Poor and minority women arebeing criminalized and blamed for thehorrible cruelties of the capitalist system,while prison populations and povertyrates soar, and increasing numbers ofchildren face near-starvation conditionsand homelessness.

WV PhotoSL placard calls for free abortion on demand at March 20 antiwar demo, SanFrancisco,As Rowland's court-appointed lawyer,Michael Sikora, said, "I f a doctor saysthis will be a very difficult pregnancy andyou should get complete bed rest for thelast three months and the mother doesn'tand the baby is stillborn, is she guilty ofmurder? I f she smokes, is it murder? I fshe doesn't eat right, is it murder?" Thepress stoked an ugly misogynist hysteriaagainst Rowland, lyingly asserting thatshe was a vain woman who killed herunborn child because she didn't want ascarred body. Yet Rowland had alreadyhad two previous children by C-section!Newsweek (29 March) reports that aspokesman for the National Advocatesfor Pregnant Women estimates there arecurrently some 30 cases in state courts

The Utah assault is part of the continuing storm of religious fundamentalismand patriarchal "family values" reactionwhose focus on "fetus rights" seeks tostrip women of their right to abortion. OnMarch 25, the Senate passed the "UnbornVictims of Violence Act," which waspassed by the House last month and nowgoes to Bush for signing. This bill recognizes the fetus as a separate and distinctperson under the law and crucially undermines abortion rights in this country.Utah was already one of 31 states with"fetal homicide" laws.Another blow against abortion rights isan attempt by the Justice Department toforce hospitals to tum over medicalrecords on abortions, ostensibly to defend

Saturday, April 17, 4 p.m. ..University of Chicago, Bartlett Gymnasium-Student Lounge57th and University Ave.

For more information: (312) 563-0441 or e-mail: spartacist@iname.comCHIGAGO

2 APRIL 2004

the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act"passed by Congress in 2003. While federal judges in Chicago, Philadelphia andSan Francisco have thus far refused toorder clinics and hospitals to tum oversuch records, in Manhattan on March18, a federal judge ordered New YorkPresbyterian Hospital to give up itsrecords, claiming they were not coveredby laws governing medical privacy becausewomen's identities supposedly could behidden. This extremely ominous invasionof privacy sets up both women and' theirdoctors for potential criminal chargesas well as out-and-out terror from antiabortion fanatics.There have already been decades ofterrorist bombings of clinics and murdersof doctors and clinic staff; years ofRepublican and Democratic administrations squeezing abortion rights by barring federal and state funding; hospitalsand medical schools intimidated fromeven teaching the procedure; "squeallaws" and religious lectures poundingfear and ignorance about sex and its consequences into kids.

I f this country's rulers want to prosecute those who cause the death of babies,then they ought to prosecute themselves.It is the ruling class that deprives poor,minority and working women of qualityhealth care. Most women in the UnitedStates do not get paid maternity leaves,which should be a basic right. For all t h ~ . drivel that America's rulers-and theirmedia mouthpieces-spew about children, this country has always had one ofthe highest infant-mortality rates amongthe world's advanced capitalist countries.According to a February report by theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, the infant-mortality rate in the U.S.went up in 2002 to 7.0 deaths per 1,000live births-the first increase in 40 years.The struggle for decent, quality healthcare is a vital question for working people in America, as shown by the recentUFCW grocery workers strike, wheretens of thousands of workers mobilizedin defense of their health care benefits.And the fight for full access to abortionfor all women is part of this struggle.Today, state punishment of single mothers doesn't end with pregnancy. We

APMelissa Ann Rowlandpointed out in "Depraved Court ConvictsMother for Son's Suicide" (WV No. 812,24 October 2003) that last fall in NewYork City a working mother from Trinidad was charged with "reckless endangerment" when her two children diedin a fire in their tiny illegal basementapartment, and another working motherwas convicted in Connecticut on felonycharges for her 12-year-old son's suicide.As we wrote: '''Family values' anti-sexhysteria is used to punish kids and working people, setting up a patriarchal modelat total variance with the way most people, actually live, a fake ideal to cover thelack of social services, health care, education and day care working peopleurgently need."Working and poor women urgentlyneed the right to free, safe abortion ondemand and the right to free, qualitymedical care. Decriminalizing drug useis also vitally important for the workingclass and oppressed. Anti-drug laws areused purely for intimidation and punishment-the "war on drugs" is a racistwitchhunt that means police occupationof the ghettos and barrios. The only criminals involved in the case of Melissa AnnRowland are the capitalist rulers responsible for the daily hideous tragediesafflicting'such poor women and their children. As we said in our previous article,"A pack of wolves shows more solidarityand concern for its nursing females andyoung than the capitalist rulers do.".

Web site: www.icl-fi.org E-mail address:vanguard@tiac.netNational Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 (212) 732-7860Boston Los Angeles OaklandBox 390840, Central Sta.Cambridge, MA 02139(617) 666-9453ChicagoBox 6441, Main POChicago, IL 60680(312) 563-0441Public Office:Sat. 2-5 p.m.222 S. Morgan(Buzzer 23)

Toronto

Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta.Los Angeles, CA 90029(213) 380-8239Public Office: Sat. 2-5 p.m.3806 Beverly Blvd., Room 215New YorkBox 3381, Church St. Sta.New York, NY 10008(212) 267-1025Public Office:Sat. 1-4 p,m.299 Broadway, Suite 318

Box 29497Oakland, CA 94604(510) 839-0851Public Office:Sat. 1-5 p.m.1634 Telegraph3rd FloorSan FranciscoBox 77494San FranciscoCA 94107

VancouverBox 7198, Station AToronto, ON M5W 1X8(416) 593-4138Box 2717, Main P.O.Vancouver, BC V6B 3X2(604) 687-0353

3

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

4/12

Spain...(continued from p age 1)vIctIms issued a statement denouncingthe Aznar government and demanded,"No more blood! No more manipulation!No more lies!"The Madrid bombings were monstrouscrimes against workers and immigrants.Intended to cause the maximum amountof carnage, the bombs were placed ontrains coming from working-class districts on the outskirts of Madrid, such asthe historically militant area of El Pozodel Tio Raimundo. A quarter of thosekilled were immigrants of 13 differentnationalities. With this bloody deed, aswith the criminal attack on of the WorldTrade Center, the Islamic fundamentalistswho claimed responsibility for the attackdemonstrate the same murderous nationalist mindset of the American and European rulers by punishing the workingclass for the policies of their rulers. Therace-hatred and blood scores inculcatedby religious fundamentalism of all typesare indicated by a note received by anArabic-language newspaper in Londonwhich spoke of "settling old accountswith Spain," a reference to the ISthcentury Spanish Reconquista which reversed the Arab conquest of Spain nearly800 years earlier!

Guerrero/EI PaisRescue workers aid the injured on the tracks outside Madrid's Atochastation, March 11.

The unexpected victory of the socialdemocrats of the Partido SocialistaObrero de Espana (PSOE) sent shockwaves through Europe and the BushWhite House and cracked George Bush's

Enoch SoamesAngered by government lies, crowdsprotest outside Popular Party headquarters in Madrid, March 13."Coalition of the Willing." IncomingSpanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero immediately announcedthat he would stick by his campaignpromise to pull the 1,300 Spanish troopsfrom Iraq if the United Nations did riottake command of the occupation. Thebreach in the coalition then widened, withthe Polish president complaining that ithad been "misled" into Iraq on the falsepretext of "weapons of mass destruction,"and South Korea refused to carry outthe scheduled deployment of its con-

tingent of troops to Kirkuk.In addition to the diplomatic blow ofthe Spanish elections, the Bush administration is taking hits on the home frontas Richard Clarke, former national security adviser to both Clinton and Bush,testified to the lies of both administrations before a Congressional committeeinvestigating the September 11 attacks.Clarke's just-published memoir, AgainstAll Enemies, became an instant bestseller despite desperate attempts bythe White House to discredit him. Whilethe Bush gang's lies justly anger theAmerican electorate, no one should haveany illusions that the Democrats offer analternative. When Zapatero announced hissupport to John Kerry as an "antiwar"candidate, Kerry responded by askingthat Zapatero take back his pledge towithdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.The UN's Kofi Annan and Spanishleaders are scrambling to find a way tokeep the Spanish in Iraq and allow.;.Zapatero to save face. Zapatero has offered tosend more troops to Afghanistan, whereSpain already has a presence. Spanishtroops are part of "peacekeeping" occupations under UN mandate in Kosovoand Bosnia. Spain also maintains colonial enclaves in Morocco.''Anti-Terror'' Laws TargetLabor, Immigrants andMinorities

While striking a pose against the Iraqwar, Zapatero speaks for the imperialistinterests of America's European rivals,led by France and Germany. They view aUN-administered occupation as a way toenhance their own interests in the regionand to get a better share of the spoilsthan that allotted by the Bush administration, with its ties to American oil companies and firms like the infamous Halliburton, which have been awarded thecontracts to pillage Iraq.The European rulers have embracedthe "war on terror" because it servestheir interests against workers and theoppressed, especially immigrants at home.Zapatero vowed that "Spain could be

Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League

4

$10/22 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 Ne w 0 Renewal(includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle)international rates: $25/22 issues-Airmail $10/22 issues-Seamai/o $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist)o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish-language Spartacist)Name ____________________________________________________ ___Address ______________________________________ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Apt. # ___________City _________________________ _ State _____ Zip _____________Phone (_____ ) ___ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - E-mail _____________________823Make checks payable/mail to: Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

counted on for an 'intransigent fightagainst terrorism"'(Financial Times, 19March). The PSOE's "anti-.terror" fightthe last time it held office meant launching the fascistic death squads knownas GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas deLiberaci6n) in the 1980s against Basquenationalists.Other European states lost no time inopportunistically seizing on the Madridbombing for a domestic crackdown.France escalated its Vigipirate cop terrorplan to "code red" for train stations andairports. The train station in Rouen, aheavily industrial working-class center,was occupied by cops in full riot gear.Over 12,SOO people were snagged inpolice identity-checks in the first fewdays after the Madrid bombing, a dragnetto harass, detain and deport individualsfrom France's huge North African immigrant population.On March 2S, European Union leaderscreated a Europe-wide post of "counterterrorism coordinator." Tony Blair's Britain wants EU member states "to be morerigorous in tackling money flows tobanned organisations. It wants to widen, he net to charities, individuals and groups", (Financial Times, 19 March). Ultimately,the domestic target for Europe's capitalistrulers is the labor movement, whichbegan to flex its muscle in opposition tothe Iraq war with disruptions of munitions deliveries by train drivers in Scotland and Italy and which is resisting austerity attacks on hard-won gains of thelabor movement all across Europe.Down With Repression ofBasque Nationalists!

Although immigrants are in the crosshairs of the anti-terror hysteria, there hasalso been an outpouring of support forthem in the wake of the bombing. A12 March communique by the popularfrontist Izquierda Unida (IU--UnitedLeft coalition, which includes the oldSthlinist Communist Party and has thesupport of many pseudo-Trotskyistgroups) commendably called "to facilitate the immediate legalization of thoseworkers from other countries affected bythe crime and who fear expulsionbecause of their administrative situation.We cannot allow these people to beafraid to cry for their loved ones." Eventhe right-wing Aznar government feltcompelled to grant citizenship to the victims and their families.Yet the national question is theAchilles' heel of the chauvinist Spanishleft. The IU peddled the same lie as thePP government, issuing a communiqueon the very day of the bombing, titled"Democratic Unity Against Terrorism,"in which it snarled, "With this fasciststyle massacre, perpetrated with repugnant cowardice against hundreds ofworkers and students, with this act ofNazi barbarism, ETA is trying to endSpanish democracy and to bring to itsknees the rule of law ... Izquierda Unidasupports all actions by the state security

forces leading to arresting and bringingto justice the murderers." IU helps tobind the workers to their exploiters as"Spaniards" against the oppressedBasque and Catalan peoples fightingCastilian Spanish domination.The International Communist Leaguehas steadfastly fought against repressionof Batasuna, which is viewed as thepolitical arm of ETA, and ETA itself bythe Spanish and the French states. TheBasque region represents a classic caseof an oppressed nation forcibly deniedthe right of self-determination, that is,the right to form an independent state.While the heart of the Basque country isin northern Spain, the Basque nationextends into southern France. As ourcomrades in the Ligue Trotskyste deFrance declared in protest of the Spanishgovernment's suspension of Batasuna in2002, which paved the way for the complete ban of the party last year (WV No.787, 20 September 2002):"I t is the urgent task of the proletariat,particularly in Spain and France, tomobilize against this sinister ban, whichnot only targets radical Basque nationalists but also sets the stage for repressionof any political dissent by workers oryouth. Down with the ban on Batasuna!Freedom now for the hundreds ofBasque nationalists, some of whom havebeen in prison for many years in Spain

and France!"While defending Batasuna and ETAagainst state repression, we Marxistsoppose their nationalist outlook as wellas the petty-bourgeois strategy of individual terrorism, which is a desperate,losing substitute for and obstacle to themobilization of proletarian, internationalist class struggle. The elimination ofindividual representatives of the capitaliststate and ruling class does not addressthe fundamental need to replace the

Spanish elections dealt a blow toBush's "Coalition of the Willing"remaining are Britain's Blair andAustralia's John Howard.entire rotting capitalist system itself,which requires the collective struggleof a politically conscious workingclass. Moreover, the reactionary logicof nationalism leads to appalling actsof indiscriminate terror, such as ETA's1987 bombing of a supermarket in aworking-class suburb of Barcelona,which killed 21 people.As we wrote in protest of the ban onBatasuna last year (WV No. 80S, 6 June2003):,"The rich history of united working-classstruggle in Spain-from the Spanish

Revolution of the 1930s to the prerevolutionary upsurge that followed thedeath of Franco in 1975-has demonstrated that the resolution of the nationalquestion in Spain is inextricably linkedwith the struggle for workers powerthroughout the Iberian peninsula. Only aLeninist vanguard party defending thisdemocratic right will be able to unite theBasques with workers throughout Spain-as well as with workers in Portugaland across the Pyrenees in France-in acommon struggle for workers power."

For the right of self-determination for theBasque people! Down with "war on terror" repression of labor, the left, immigrants and minorities!.WORKERS VANGUARD

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

5/12

Defend Redfern Aborigines-Mobilize Union Power!

We reprint below a 22 February leafletiss.ued by the Spartacist League/Australiain solidarity with the militant Aboriginalyouth ofRedfern, Sydney, who continue toface brutal state repression in the aftermath ofprotests against the police killingof a young Aborigine, Thomas "T]"Hickey, in February (see "For a ClassStruggle Fight fo r Aboriginal Rights!"WV No. 820, 20 February). ,The long-felt anger of the RedfernAboriginal community at their brutalracist oppression erupted on the eveningof Sunday 15 February, as Aboriginalyouth fought a nine-hour pitched battlewith marauding cops. This explosion,which made headlines around the world,was sparked by the death that morning ofpopular 17 -year-old Aboriginal youth,Thomas "TJ" Hickey. The previous day,while fleeing from police, Thomas wasimpaled on a steel fence, reportedly catapulted from his bicycle. Residents livingin the Redfern Aboriginal communityknown as The Block, told a public meeting that Thomas' bike was struck by 'apolice car. Witnesses described how, contrary to normal medical practice in suchcases, police simply wrenched Thomasfrom the fence causing him to bleedbadly. With obscene. callousness, theythen proceeded to search him, reportedlypinning him to the ground with theirboots. It was up to a witness to call for ane t , ~ ~ m ~ A ~ O ~ ~ n ~ ' y 8 f i t h ~ [ a d /

We reprint below a statement issued bythe Spartacist League/Australia, sectionof the International Communist League,on March 20.Attention Brothers and Sisters,

We write to alert you to outrageousceJ)sorship being carried out against thosewho defend the eIpbattled Aboriginalpeople against racist cop terror. TradesHall in Melbourne has cancelled theSpartacist League's current meeting roombookings at its building, reportedly at thebehest of the Police Association.On 17 March, Spartacist League comrades were refused entry to a room atTrades Hall that we had pre-booked for a. public meeting. SL supporters were toldthat Trades Hall had withdrawn this andsubsequent room bookings following acomplaint by the Victorian Trades HallCouncil (VTHC)-affiliated Police Association regarding the SL's position onrecent events in Redfern where we calledfor working-class defence of Aboriginesin the face of mounting police terror. Ourbookings include one for an advertised 31March public forum titled "Solidarisewith Militant Aboriginal Youth AgainstRacist Cop Terror! Defend RedfernAborigines-Mobilise Union Power!"The SL has been holding meetings atTrades Hall for decades. However, on thisday our supporters were told that thebuilding manager had ordered that the SLroom bookings be stopped. Another person stated that VTHC Secretary LeighHubbard demanded the room-bookingcancellations, brandishing a letter fromthe Police Association, which reportedlymade the outrageous allegation that meetings a,t Trades Hall on the Redfern events,2 APRIL 2004

cause to be fearful of the racist cops.Indeed he had been beaten by a group ofpolice only last December in what thecops described as a case of "mistakenidentity." Speaking of the police, Thomas'distraught mother, Gail, declared: "They'renasty ... They inanhandle our kids, theytreat them like dogs ... They've got to stopchasing our kids and hurting our kids"(Sydney Morning Herald, 17 February).Immediately following Thoma s' d e ~ t h the police' waged a series of vile provocations against the Aboriginal community. As early as midday on Sunday localssay patrolling police taunted Aboriginalyouth with racist epithets. Mobilising todefend themselves, some in the Aboriginal community began pasting up posterswith pictures of police and headlined"Wanted Child Murderers." The leafletdefiantly stated: "There is a gang of childkillers operating in the Redfern area.They can be easily identified as they alldress the same. They are serial killers andwill reoffend. Do not approach them asthey are armed. Report any you see ..."AFP

Youth in Redfern; Sydney protest racistcop killing of Aboriginal teenagerThomas ''T " Hickey, February 23.

A woman who has lived in the community for nine years, Victoria Dunbar,described the police provocations thatday: "We kept going up [to look] andthere were hundreds of them, arms'locked, visors down. I've never seen so' Carr state Labor government's cops; up tomany police. Finally the kids started yell- one hundred and fifty Aboriginal youth,ing, 'C 'mon, bring it on'" (Sydney Morn- many of them friends of Thomas Hickey,. ~ ~ E H c ; ! ~ # " . t 4 " , ~ ; b , E ! ! m fe d uF,. 't'ith _ J ~ . ! ~ 8 . h L P a . ~ K ' ! ! l d !;lefen?ed" t h ~ m J ' e l v ~ ( ! s -years of systematic raCIst terrty''trrom the throughout Sunday evemng agamst pha-

and/or flyers advertising them, were promoting illegal activities.Tije long-felt anger of the RedfernAboriginal community at their brutalracist oppression erupted on 15 February

following the death of popular 17 -yearold Kamilaroi Murri youth Thomas "TJ"Hickey while fleeing the NSW [NewSouth Wales] Labor government's cops.In the wake of the courageous protests,the SL faxed to unions and distributed atwork sites a leaflet which declared; "Toprotest the racist state attacks on the Redfern Aboriginal community, we say thesocial power of the working class shouldbe mobilised in strikes, walkouts anddemonstrations." We received a' warmresponse including from young buildingworkers and Aboriginal people for whomour forthright defence of the Aboriginalpeople in Redfern struck a chord.The SL is a Marxist political organisation that openly proclaims its program for

a workers republic of Australia as part ofa socialist Asia. The smearing of leftistorganisations by the police is a sinisterpretext for censorship, disruption andrepression' against all those that wouldoppose the racist capitalist status quoand constitutes a threat against the multiracial working people. One only has torecall the 1997 exposure of massive Victorian police spying against socialists,trade unions, Aboriginal, immigrant andwomen's rights groups.As part of the armed fist ofthe capitalist state, which exists to defend the rule ofthe capitalist exploiters, the police are thedeadly class enemies of the workersmovement and oppressed minorities. Theyact to try and break strikes and bust up

workers pickets such as when mountedcops brutally attacked maintenance workers pickets at BHP Steel in Victoria inJune 2002. For the leader of the peakunion body in Victoria to bow to the diktats of this police body against an organ- .isation in the workers movement is a grosstravesty. What is the VTHC going to do ifthe Police Association demands that ithand over to the state the names ofCFMEU [Construction, Forestry, Miningand Energy Union] building union militants who are being targeted by the courts .and the police auxiliary Building IndustryTask Force? Who are they going to c o m ~ after next? Police associations are notunions of workers and have no place in theworkers movement. In response to theRedfern events, the NSW Police Association have been campaigning for a "publicorder-type riot squad" to carry out morevicious racist repression in Redfern.

Instead'of embracing the bosses' cops,union leaderships should be mobilisingtheir memberships to defend the arrestedRedfern Aboriginal militants and defendthe targeted CFMEU and AMWU [Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union]unionists as part of defending the interestsof all the working class and oppressedagainst the racist bosses and their repressive state. In August 1996 at an ACTU[Australian Council of Trade Unions]called rally in opposition to the Howardgovernment's anti-union legislation andattacks on welfare, CFMEU membersand other unionists came to the defenceof an Aboriginal contingent which wasattacked by the police. This led to thes p e c t ~ c u l a r storming of parliament inCanberra by workers, Aborigines and

lanxes of police "stormtroops." The Aboriginal youth defended themselves withgreat tactical nous [savvy]. And this timethe strutting arrogant "bluecoats" gotmore than they bargained for. Up to 50cops were injured during the clashes.However, by 1 a.m. on Monday morning some 250 police assembled in riotgear. They attacked and dispersed theAboriginal protesters using shields andfire hoses and occupied the. top of TheBlock in Eveleigh Street. A number ofpeople have already been arrested and thepolice, itching for retaliation, are planning a "sweep" of up to 40 arrestsdoubtless via gestapo-style raids forwhich they are notorious in Redfern.David Webb, a cousin of Thomas Hickey,was one of the many who quickly sent hischildren away from Sydney. He said:"Everyone is taking their kids out.... TheTRG [Tactical Response Group] will kickin doors, I don't want my kids around it"(Sydney Morning Herald, 18 February).Already police from strike force "TimePiece" have arrested Thomas' 37-year-oldaunt, charging her with riot, affray, violent disorder and throwing a missile. Shehas been denied bail to attend Thomas'funeral. Despicably_ the cops have alsotargeted Thomas' 14-year-old girlfnend,April, who was arrested after his memorial service and charged with resisting/hindering police and possession of can-, _ , ~ a b i , ~ . ,)V.jiay:... p r c p , ~ ~ h e charges now!continued on page 11

leftists. The interests of Aborigines, immigrant minorities and those of the working people will go forward together or fallback separately. The police force whichattacks workers piGket lines and seeks tojail former AMWU leader Craig Johnstonfor miljtant actions against notoriousunion-buster Skilled Engineering is thesame police force which bashed Melbourne Aboriginal man Raymond Merrittin a Rodney King style beating-. Assistingthe campaigns of police organisations tosilence defenders of Aboriginal rights ismanifestly against the interests of allunion members and the oppressed.

We urge fighters for workers rights,Aboriginal militants and all opponents ofcapitalist state repression to reject thesmears of illegality against opponents ofracistc op terror and send protest letters tothe VTHC demanding that it rescind theattempted ban on the Spartacist League'shiring of m.eeting rooms at Trades Hall.Censorship within the workers movementacts to choke off the full debate and discussion so vitally necessary for the working class to go forward. And especially atthis time, when the "war on terror" and"war on crime" provide cynical pretextsfor increased anti-union, anti-Aboriginaland anti-immigrant repression, such censorship only serves the sin ister aims of theenemies of all working people. An injuryto one is an injury to all!

Send protest statements to VictorianTrades Hall Council, 54 Victoria Street,Carlton South VIC 3053, Australia.Send copies of statements to the Spartacist League, GPO Box 3473, SydneyNSW 2001, A u s t r a l i a ~ phone: 612-9281-2181, fax: 612-9281-2185.

5

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

6/12

Young SparlacusRevolutionary Communist Party:

Revolutionary in NameOnlyWe reprint the following leaflet issuedon March 18 and distributed nationwide at the March 20 anti-occupationdemonstrations.On March 20, as protesters take to thestreets against the U.S. occupation ofIraq, we in the Spartactis Youth Clubs andSpartacist League will march under theslogans: "U.S. Out of Iraq! Israel Out ofthe Occupied Territories! Break with theDemocratic Party of War and RacismFor a Workers Party That Fights forSocialist Revolution!" The official leadership of these protests seeks to channel

the outrage against the imperialist waragainst-and subsequent colonial occupation of-Iraq into the dead ends ofmoral-witness pacifism and electoralpressure politics. For our part, the SYCsseek to win militant aCtivist students andyouth to take a side with the peoples ofIraq against the imperialist occupiers, aswe did during protests against the Iraqwar, when we bJ.lilt revolutionary internationalist contingents that raised the call:"Defend Iraq Against U.S. ImperialistAttack! For Class Struggle Against U.S.Capitalist Rulers! Down With UN Starvation Blockade!"Sponsors and spokesmen for the NotIn Our Name (NION) coalition, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) andits affiliate the Revolutionary. CommunistYouth Brigade (RCYB), also had substantial contingents in the antiwar demos,including youth attracted to the red-flagwaving, "street-fighting," "anti-imperialist" posture of the RCP/RCYB. No doubtmany youth around the RCYB felt revulsion at the blatant arrogance of U.S.imperialism in its drive to exert its dominance over the globe, and RCYB contingents included many black and Latinoyouth, who are daily treated with racistcontempt by the ruling class. But for allits militant anti-imperialist posturing, theRCP/RCYB refused to defend Iraq whenthe U.S. imperialist rulers, commandingthe largest military machine on the planet,geared up for and carried out a war ofdepredation against neocolonial Iraq, already ravaged by over a decade of UnitedNations-imposed sanctions. Instead, theRCP/RCYB opted to "unite all who canbe united," not least open representativesof the bourgeois Democratic Party andthe Green Party" in the NION coalition.

It is no acCident that the NION "Pledgeof Resistance" does not mention capital-

6

BAY AREAThursday, 5 p.m.

April 22: The Green Party: NoAlternative to Capitalist OppressionSan Francisco State UniversityCesar Chavez Student CenterRoom C-114, DownstairsInformation and readings: (510) 839-0851or e-mail: sfsyc@sfsu.edu

LOS ANGELESSaturday, 2 p.m.

April 10: Workers Revolution vs.the Guerrilla Road3806 Be-.erly Blvd., Room 215(Corner of Beverly Blvd. ~ n d Vermont Av.)Information and readings: (2"13) 380-8239or e-mail: slsycla@cs.com

ism-the system which is the root causeof imperialist war and which must beuprooted. and replaced in order to bringan end to such "carnage. Rather, appealingto "peace patriots," NION announced:"We want to build this campaign broadly.It needs to include people who want to'cleanse the U.S. flag' as .well as thoseWho would never under any circum-. stances fly the U.S. flag" ("Million GlobesCampaign," undated, posted at notinour, name.net). Lest it repel the Democrats likeMaxine Waters who appeared on NIONsponsored platforms, NION spoke the lan-

guage of bourgeois hypocrisy, mouthingempty pacifist slogans and building illusions that "our own government" can bestopped from "this course of war andrepression" throug4 pressure politics.Predictably, despite large numbers ofpeople taking to the streets, such "moralwitness" as organized by NION and otherclass-collaborationist lash-ups like Workers World Party's ANSWER and Unitedfor Peace and Justice did not stop the war

NEW YORK CITYTuesday, 8 p.m.

April 13: Revolution vs. Reform:The Russian RevolutionHow the Working Class Took Power

Columbia University116th St. and BroadwayFayerweather Hall, Room 302Information and readings: (212) 267-1025or e-mail: nysl@compuserve.com

against Iraq. RCP leader Bob Avakianserved up the following solace:"Let's be real clear: if it weren't for ourprotests-in unity with people aroundthe world-then Bush would probablybe marching into Iraq with the UN fullybehind him, draped in an aura of right-,eousness and legitimacy. Public opinionwould be eating out of his hand andbelieving his every lie ... Bush has notbeen stopped, but his freedo[l1 of actionhas been constrained by the people'sstruggle."-"The Challenge Ahead: We MustStop This War," RevolutionaryWorker (RW), 30 March 2003

March 20: NION banner at SFrally against Iraq occupationpushes anti-Bush protest inAugust. At same time, RCP-builtNION promotes illusions inDemocrats like Dennis Kucinich(left), who spoke at NIONendorsed protest in NYC.

Bush's sagging poll figures may warmthe hearts of those in the other party ofAmerican capitalism, but his dip in bourgeois "public opinion" is cold comfort forthe Iraqi victims of mass murder andoccupation.As Marxist revolutionaries, we stand inthe tradition of V. I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky, co-leaders of the 1917 Russian RevolUtion, the only successful workers revolution to date. Trotsky observed how it isimpossible to stop war short of shatteringthe imperialist order in his "Declarationto the Antiwar Congress at Amsterdam"(July 1932): .

"To condemn war is easy; to overcome itis difficult. The struggle against war is astruggle against the classes which rulesociety and which hold in their handsboth'its productive forces and its destructive weapons. It is not possible to preventwar by moral indignation, by meetings,by resolutions, by newspaper articles, andby congresses. As long as the bourgeoisie has at its command the banks, the factories, the land, the press, and the stateapparatus, it will always be able to drivethe people to war when its interestsdemand it."Carrying the "unite all who can beunited" line to its logical conclusion, on5 April 2003 NION-Los Angeles cosponsored a campaign rally for Democratic Party presidential candidate DennisKucinich. And the RCP's RevolutionaryWorker newspaper appealed for a "resounding NO!" in the California recallelection last autumn, which its readers

logically concluded meant voting againstthe recall of, thus giving backhanded support to, the justly unpopular Democraticgovernor Gray Davis. We advocated a"yes" vote to recall Davis as a vote ofworking-class opposition to the capitalistDemocratic, Party and extended criticalsupport to the Socia list Workers Party'(SWP) candidate Joel Britton, whosecampaign drew a crude class line againstcapitalism and war. Now, in the run-up toU.S. presidential elections, the pressureto "unite all who can be united" in onj.erto elect a Democrat will be, if anything,more in play at protests against the occupation of Iraq. In its February 9 posting onthe March 20 protests, NION consciouslytailors its statement for the anti-Bushbandwagon: "March 20 is a day to buildour strength for the future-for the mostmassive resistance ever, more than a million people in the streets of Ny C at thetime of the Republican National Convention to say NO to the whole Bush agenda!"Supporters of the RCP/RCYB whoconsider NION a "revolutionary" alternative to the (other) reformist-led coalitions formed against the Iraq war maydiscern a contradiction here. On the onehand, there is the red flag waving, callsto "break out," acts of civil disobedienceand rhetoric in the Revolutionary Workersuch as: "The precious resources and"'organized "energy 61 oii't' r e ~ i s t a r i C e 'fttliSf;c,.not get channeled and drained into aelectoral black hole that is fully dominated by . the imperialist ruling class"("Delivering the NO to Bush and AllThat He Stands For," RW, 21 March,posted at rwor.org-emphasis in original). On the other hand, in reality andnot in rhetoric, is the namby-pamby pacifist pablum thai serves as very thincover for NION's very own contributionto channeling and draining toe anger of. youth and others into .. the electoral blackhole.NION: The Rep's"People's Front"

Despite the RCP's appropnatIOn oftrendy "anti-globalization" jingles suchas "another world is possible," there isnothing new in its strategy and practice intoday's antiwar movement. It.is a strategynot of class struggle but of class collaboration, the subordination of the proletariat in the name of the broadest "unity." Inthis, the Maoist RCP has taken a pagefrom the "People's Front" (against war,against fascism) policy of the StalinistCommunist Party (CP). Indeed, EarlBrowder's report to the Central Committee of the CPUSA on 4 December 1936may ring a familiar bell: "We can organize and rouse them [the majority of 'thepeople'] provided we do not demand ofthem that they agree with our socialistprogram, but unite with them on the basisof their program which we also make ourown."

Anticipating that the CP's class collaborationis'm would eventually lead it tooutright s o c i a l ~ p a t r i o t i s m in World WarII, James Burnham, then a revolutionaryTrotskyist, wrote in The Peoples' Front:The New Betrayal (1937):"Most significant of all is the applicationof the Peoples' Front policy to 'anti-warwork.' Through a multitude of pacifistorganizations, and especially through thedirectly controlled AmeriCan Leagueagainst War and Fascism, the Stalinistsaim at the creation of a 'broad, classless,Peoples' Front of all those opposed toWORKERS VANGUARD

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

7/12

war.' The class collaborationist characterof the Peoples' Front policy is strikinglyrevealed through the Stalinist attitude inthese organizations. They rule out inadvance the Marxist analysis of war asnecessarily resulting from the inner conflicts of capitalism and therefore genuinely opposed only by revolutionary classstruggle against the capitalist order; and,in contrast, maintain that all persons,from whatever social class or group,whether or not opposed to capitalism,can 'unite' to stop war ... The truth is, ofcourse, that through the Peoples' Front,the Stalinists are making ready to supportthe government, and to recruit the massesfor such support, in the new imperialistwar."

Such was the case. In line with the popular front, the American CP directed itssupporters, many won through courageous campaigns to organize industrialunions and the fight for black rights, intosupport for the Democrat Roosevelt inthe 1936 elections. When Hitler launchedthe attack on the Soviet Union (puttingpaid to Stalin's attempts at a pact withGermany), the CP wrapped itself in theStars and Stripes, jingoistically goadingRoosevelt to prosecute the imperialist"people's war." Once the U.S. was in theinterimperialist war, the CP hailed the nostrike pledge of the CIO union tops andengaged in outright strikebreaking at thesame time as it removed from its ranks itsethnically Japanese members being sentto the internment camps. Entangled by its"unity" with the Democrats, the CP wentso far as to welcome the A-bombing ofHiroshima and Nagasaki. In contrast, theTrotskyists were imprisoned fo r theirrefusal to support any of the imperialistcombatants in the war . Where the Stalinists sold out the fight for independence

MagnumBeijing, 1972: Mao seals anti-Soviet alliance withNixon even as U.S. 'imperialism carpet bombed,dropped napalm on V i e ~ n a m . countries of the West. But the youngSoviet workers state reeled under the.blows of imperialist encirclement, abloody civil war and the failure of theGerman Revolution of 1923. Under theseconditions, a conservative, nationalistcaste-of which Stalin was the l e a d e r ~ usurped political power, brutally purgingthe Soviet Communist Party of those, likeTrotsky'S Left Oppositi on, who sought tomaintain the revolutionary internationalism which animated the October Revolution and the early Communist International. The "theory" which accompaniedthis Stalinist political counterrevolutionwas "socialism in one country," whichwould translate into bloody. betrayal ofrevolutionary opportunities internationally via the popular front, in which theworkers were subordinated to their class

Ut/APand unequal sfates victory over theoppressor, slave-holding and predatory .'Great' Powers."

number possible ..." Just what form doesthe RCP's proclaimed "proletarian internationalism" take? It was over the U.S . bombing of Afghanistan that the RCP Given the overwhelming U.S. militarytried to cover its blatant refusal to take a superiority, we stressed that' the chiefside and call for the military defense of the ~ e f e n s e of Iraq was through pursuingvictims of U.S. imperialist aggression by ~ n t e r n ~ t i ? n a l class struggle against theinvoking "revolutionary defeatism." Thus, Impen alls t rulers, first and foremos t inRevolutionary Worker (28 April 2002) the U.S. Just as we fight for the completecar:ied an article titled "The Meaning p ~ l i t ~ c a l i n d ~ p e n d ~ n ~ e of the proletariatof Revolutionary Defeatism'" which in- wlthm the ImpenalIst centers, so tootoned: "Revolutionary defeatism does not throughout the Near East there can be nomean that you should actually support emancipation of the women of the region,the enemy of your government if that of oppressed national minorities, ofe n e ~ y and the war it is waging is equally exp!oi.ted w o r k e ~ s short of thoroughgoingreactIonary." SOCIahst revolutIons which sweep away

For Marxists, revolutionary defeatism the imperiali st occupiers and the sheiks,is the policy of revolutionaries in interim- colonels and Zionists, and which link upr e ~ a l i s t wars or any wars between qual- w i ~ proletarian r e ~ o l u t i o n in the West.ItatIvely equal capitalist states (such as ThIS IS ~ h e perspectIve of permanent rev-the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s). In such olution as opposed to the failed Maoist-wars, the working class has no side and Stalinist formulas for "two-stage revolu-t\le working class of each belligerent tion" and the "bloc of four classes."oountry should desire the defeat of its Many of the "progressive" Democrats"own" ruling class. But this was not the who campaigned from antiwar platformscase in the neocolonial military opera- made no secret of their preference to put

,V.VV .. . .'. tions led by t ~ e U.S. against ~ f g h a n i s t a n the .arsenal of U.S. imperialism to work15th Column SIiaU _ ~ ! ...' .1 .. ~ , t :.'. ... ,,*". __ " , e : t M ~ a E a g a t f l s t - I n t q - . T h e F e l S a - q u a l ; t t l - .,.".,.Jlgamst the North .Korean d e f o ~ e d work-itu Bay ShipyardS ~ I J D w a r U : ; P ! : I ~ t,ve dif(erence b e t w e e ~ i ~ p e r i a l i s t ers state. RevolutIonary T r ? ~ s k Y l s t s . s ~ a n d power lIke the U.S., whIch m Its pursuit foursquare for the unconditIOnal militaryIn name of "anti-fascistunity" du ring World War II,the Stalinist American CPendorsed no-strike pledge,lauded A-bombing ofHiroshima and Nagasaki.

from imperialism in order to form a blocwith the allied "democratic" imperialists,the Trotskyists championed the liberationof all colonized peoples. Above all, at greatpersonal risk, the Trotskyists fought forand acted on their program for the unconditional military defense of the SovietUnion.While the RCP today lacks the working-class base of the Stalinist CP, andlacks association with any workers statepower, the fundamental differences between us Trotskyists in the SYC and theMaoist RCP/RCYB remain: the road ofclass independence and proletarian revolution vs. the road of class collaborationand betrayal. For RCYBers who considerthemselves revolutionaries, it is necessaryto understand the history of how theCommunist parties -throughout" the worldwere transformed from instruments ofinternational proletarian revolution tothose of class collaboration. The OctoberRevolution of 1917, led by the BolshevikParty, was not only the first and onlyworkers revolution in history, but a beacon for the world's working people andoppressed. The Bolshevik leaders wereunder no illusions that "socialism" couldbe built in a single, backward country;they looked to and worked for the extension of the revolution to the advanced2 APRIL 2004

enemy in "broad fronts" and/or coalitiongovernments. In 1935, the Seventh Congress of the Communist Internationalformally adopted the anti-revolutionarypopular front schema. Dimitrov's reportto the Congress was explicit: "Now thetoiling masses in a number of capitalistcountries are faced with the necessity ofmaking a definite choice, and of makingit today, not between proletarian dictatorship and b o u i g e ~ i s democracy,. butbetween bourgeois democracy and fascism." Indeed, by 1943 Stalin drew thelogical conclusion in yet another concession to the "democratic" imperialists anddissolved the Communist International.Further material on this history and thestruggle between Trotskyism and Stalinism-including its Maoist variant-iscontained in the Spartacus Youth Leaguepamphlet The Stalin School of Falsification Revisited.The Rep's BogusAnti-Imperialism

Avakian, in "U nited With All Who

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

8/12

YOS ConferenceTwo Spartacist League supportersattended a February 21 plenary, titled"The Future of Radical Democracy," ofthe Young Democratic Socialists (YDS)"Life After Bush" conference at the CityUniversity of New York's Graduate Center. Our intent was to present Marxistpolitics and expose to all revolutionaryminded youth present how these tepidreformers serve to reinforce the rule ofcapital. In fact, the YDS tradition is that. of the "stinking corpse," as revolutionaryMarxist leader Rosa Luxemburg aptlydescribed the reformist social democrats

of her time when they betrayed theproletariat by delivering it to the imperialist military machines at the outset ofWWI. Ninety years later, the "corpse"still walks the earth, in this country helping to shackle workers to the racist, imperialist Democratic Party."Life After Bush" for the YDS and itsparent organization, the "State Department socialists" of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), means life withDemocrat John Kerry as president. "Anysuch differences in the p r i m a r ~ e s must notbecome obstacles to unity in the fight todepose the Bush regime democraticallyin the fall elections," counsels the DSAPolitical Action Committee resolution onthe 2004 ~ l e c t i o n s (adopted June 2003).The bottom Hne for the DSA is: too badabout Dean and Kucinich, now we haveto hold our noses and get out the vote forKerry. And a pox upon that inconsiderateegomaniac Ralph Nader for stealing votes(despite the fact that he wants nothingmore than to refurbish t h e ~ l i b e n i i c r e d e n ~ tials ofthe Democrats)!Conference participants, some 200mostly white high school and college students, attended a series of workshopswith titles like "Election 2004: What is tobe Done?" and "Between Iraq and a Hard

Rep ..(continued from page 7)abrmid, is greatly conditioned by the finalundoing of the October Revolution.The RCP's Draft Programme (Part I,p. 14) speaks of the "gre at revolutionaryachievements of our class in this pastcentury-especially in the Soviet Unionbetween 1917 and 1956 and then in China,where the proletariat seized and heldpower between 1949 and i976 and madegreat advances on the socialist road." TheRCP coyly 6mits the fact that its slavishfollowing of the Beijing Stalinist regimeled it to denounce as "social imperialist"the Soviet degenerated workers state,. which the Maoists claimed turned capitalist following a 1956 speech made byKhrushchev in which he exposed someof the crimes of Stalin. Afterwards, theRCP tailed every grotesque twist and turnof Maoist China's bloc with U.S. imperial-ism against the USSR-epitomized by "Mao's welcome to Nixon in 1972 as U.S.imperialism rained terror upon the heroicVietnamese workers and peasants. Such"anti-imperialism," particularly whenWashington geared up for Cold War IIagainst the Soviet Union, exposed theMaoists of various stripes within the U.S.as mouthpieces for their "own" rapaciousrulers and led to a richly deserved declineof those organizations. As for China, theRCP went from fawning obeisance toBeijing to writing off the gains of the 1949Revolution t5ecause its preferred faction inthe Chinese bureaucracy (the "Gang ofFour") lost an intra-bureaucratic powerstruggle in the mid-1970s. This is not8

Place: Towards a Democratic US ForeignPolicy."As the workshops were breakingup and participants milled around, wetalked to some youth and distributedWorkers Vanguard. We attracted curiosity, as no other left groups were in atteiIdance; around the hall were tables representing only liberal Democratic Partygroups like the National Organization forWomen, the Working Families Party andDissent magazine.The highlight of the afternoon plenary session was to be a speech byPrinceton professor of religion CornelWest, an honorary chair of the DSA whowas recently immortalized in the lasttwo Matrix movies as one of the councilof elders in 'weird robes". But first wehad to grit our teeth through two longDSA speeches; when he finally spoke,West awoke the audience with his theatrical style. His talk was very abstract, citing Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and JohnDewey. In the end, his concept of "radical democracy" amounted to teary-eyedliberal humanism, boiling down to callingthe Bush gang "fascists" to justify votingfor Kerry. Anyone looking for any discussion of socialism from the DSA wouldhave about as much luck as a thirsty traveler seeking a bar in a dry county.When the floor was opened for discussion, Spartacist spokesman Carla Norrisaddressed the crowd:"Hello, I'm a supporter of the SpartacistLeague, a communist organization. I camehere today to help anyone who has mistakenly come to the DSA thinking thatthey are a socialist organization; they arenot. What they are is a Democratic Partysupport group, avery thin veneer of leftliberalism on the racist, union-bustingDemocratic Party, party of waf and cap-_, iWist imperialism. The. DSA exists .topreveTit working-class r e v o l u t i o n ~ ~ j U s T like their historical forebears of the Second International. [Here she was nearlydrowned out with catcalls.]"We of the SL are revolutionaries-not.'Christian Marxists' but the kind ofMarx-lists that Marx and Engels, Lenin andTrotsky meant. We are revolutionaries

becaus.e we hate capitalism! We hate the are politically. t? the r i g ~ t o ~ , the Demo-police gunning down black kids! We hate crats X poiemicized agamst?the dismantling of hard-w?n union gains! The SL speaker explained that the DSAIWe h a t ~ t h ~ U.S. rampagmg around the YDS in its support to the Democrats, isworld lIke m Iraq! The DSA leaflet says, , . . .'The people of Iraq got shortchanged.' suppor tmg .the raCIst ~ a ~ I t . a l i s t system, aThe people of Iraq got massacred! We system whIch tpost VICIOusly oppressessaid: Defend Iraq-now we say: Down blacks as well as the working class,with the colonial occupation of Iraq! w o m e ~ and immigrants "We in the SL "[Cries of "What's your question?"] h f d " t t ~ e t to the root"So what if Iraq had 'weapons of mass e con mue, w ~ n 0 .destruction'? We wish they had! Maybe the problem-we re for the revolutIOnaryit wouid have made the U.S. murderers mobilization of the working class tothink twice before bombing Iraq." smash capitalism in the interest of all theNorris pointed' to a central difference oppressed." He concluded by saying thatbetween revolutionary socialists and the breaking. the working class from relig-DSA: we fight for unconditional military ious backwardness and illusions in thedefense of those countries where capital- Democratic Party "is key to unleashingism was expropriated, including support- the power of labor."ing the right of the North Korean and West et"al. felt constrained not toChinese deformed workers states to pos- denounce Malcolm X, so instead theysess nukes, while the DSA sides with the tried to weasel out of the conclusions ofimperialists against the workers states. the SL speaker's remarks. Outrageously,She concluded: West implied that because Malcolm X in"Here's a ques!ion for the DS,A: The SL later life changed his mind about whitehailed the SOVIet Red Army mAfghan- people being "blue-eyed devils" andistan in the late '70s-the only force ... h d bfighting the murderous Islamic funda- broke WIth E ~ I J a h . Mu amme ... may ementalist mujahedin. You guys supported he changed hIS mmd about the Demo-the CIA-backed forces in Afghanistan. crats, too. At the same time that a Sparta-How do you justify that now?" cist yelled from the back, "He did noCornel West then interjected to lecture such thing!" , West said that he "respectsthe "democratic socialists" about democ- the Spartacists for their stand againstracy. West remarked that "the Spartacists racism and agains t the KKK," remarkinghave the right to disagree with us," noted that when the police gun down a blackthat we were the only leftists from youth, "you only 'see Al Sharpton outanother organization present and went on there protesting, and the Spartacists."to chide us for taking all of three minutes (As for Sharpton, to get the goods on thisto comment on the speeches. black front man for the Democrats, seeAfter a series of softball questions to "AI Sharpton: Political Hustler for Hire"which all three panelists responded ad in WVNo. 822,19 March.)nauseam, a second Spartacist was called When people began to leave the hall,on. He raised the key question of the Workers Vanguard attracted a lot ofAmerican workers revolution, the fight notice, especially the article in' WV No.for black liberation: 819 (6 February) condemning the recent

. , - : " ~ . : I o d a y ~ t . h e . a A A i ~ Q f ~ l > I u - - ~ "NYPn killing of black youth Timothytal assassinatIOn of Malcolm X, a great" b f Itruth-teller of the "black population. X Stansbury. Anum er 0 peop e. camecondemned any reliance on the Demo- to us afterward to talk, and eIther dIS-cratic Party and said: When you, vote ~ o r agreed and argued with us "Or mentionedthe Democrats, you vote for the DIX- they liked what we said for providing ait;crats . So h?w come everyone on the revolutionary antidote to the DSA's Dem-panel IS talking about the Democrats . . .hey supported, when these Democrats ocratIc Party electIoneenng ity of workers around the country, including a work stoppage and mass picket lineby longshoremen last November-the socalled Revolutionary Worker said nothinguntil over four months into the battle,when a perfunctory article appeared inits 22 February issue. Those in theRCPIRCYB disturbed by such apathy inthe face of a key class battle shouldunderstand that this shows that, despite itsritual mention of the proletariat as thegravediggers of capitalism, the RCP'spractice relegates the struggle of theworkers to one of many "fronts" andoffers no perspective for the necessarypolitical struggle within the trade unionsagainst the sellout policies of the procapitalist trade-union bureaucracy.

Young SpartacusSL/SVC contingent intervenes into March 20 protests in Los Angeles withrevolutionary Trotskyist program.

We in the SYCs campaigned for student strike support and financial aid tothe UFCW workers, as part of our struggle to win youth and students to theunderstanding that the working class hasthe social power to do away with the capitalist system, its wars, racist terror,oppreSSion of women and homosexuals,once and for all. At ,bottom, what is crucially necessary to unleash this power isa revolutionary program for the workingclass, a program brought to the class andfought for within the class by a Leninistvanguard party which can break the proletariat and oppressed from their classenemy. The SYCs are dedicated to forging such a party, as part of an international party of world revolution, and theconquest of new October Revolutions.Our road is that of Lenin and Trotsky'sBolsheviks; the RCP/RCYB's is that ofChairman Avakian's bankrupt, reformist,Mao-oid shell game. Join us!

ancient history to be easily dismissed:today Washington longs to open China tounfettered imperialist exploitation andplunder, exerting both economic pressureaimed at strengthening the forces of internal counterrevolution and military" threatsagainst China." No amount of Avakianspeak can obscure the fact that the RCP,here in the "belly of the beast," is virulently hostile to'the defense of China. And "while individual RCPers would argue thatthey would defend North Korea on thebasis of defense of a small country againsta big imperialist power such as the U.S.,the fact is the RCP recognizes no Class. difference between North Korea and cap-

italist South Korea. Indeed, capitulatingto the imperialist hue and cry over NorthKorean nukes, Revolutionary Worker (25May 2003) wrote: "Nevertheless, afterthe death of Mao Tsetung, North Koreamainly relied on the social-imperialistUSSR. Now, i.t has been applying the sametactics or" nuclear blackmailing, nucleargambling and playing with nuclear bombsthat Khrushchev developed after he restored capitalism in the USSR."As for the working class, it says a lotabout the preoccupations of the RCPIRCYB that during the recent UFCW grocery workers strike in Southern California-a strike which aroused the solidar-WORKERS VANGUARD

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

9/12

South Africa ...(continued from page 12)World" standard of living, many in greatopulence, the black masses face deprivation of every basic necessity. Consistentaccess to clean water is enjoyed by aminority, electricity cutoffs are common,houses are ramshackle and overcrowded,the infrastructure for public medicalcare, transport and education-substandard when it was new-is crumbling.And let me underscore that this is in theformal urban townships. This is the pinnacle of black life in South Africa.As you go further afield from thetownships, the situation degrades qualitatively. Every major urban center is surrounded by squalid slums called squattercamps. These are some of the fastestgrowing communities in the country,with explosive migration from the ruralareas and neighboring countries. Thesquatter camps consist of plywood, plastic and wire shacks. Among the children,malnutrition and waterborne diseases areendemic. Flash fires snuff out hundredsof dwellings in an instant. In the ruralareas where almost half the populationlives, there is yet another still more brutalkind of life where poverty, disease andisolation combine with a kind of hopeless desolation. Villages serve as holdingpens of youth with no future and the oldscratching out their final years. While theformal segregation is gone, we call thisreality neo-apartheid.The ANC has shown itself to be everybit as capable as the apartheid arch-racistsbefore them in attacking and suppressingthe working class. There have been murders on the picket line, such as the ERPMminers strike last year; brutal cop attacks,as in the metal workers strike at Columbus Stainless; and the army called out, asagainst striking municipal workers in Durban last year. There are myriad attacks onthe oppressed every day. Immigrants arerounded up and deported, tortured and setupon by police dogs. Landless peoplesquatfing are being brutany' removedfrom land by the state and by hired security thugs. And then we encounter anotherfamiliar signpost; with some 187,000people in jails, South Africa is the fourthmost aggressive jailer in the world.Black people of South Africa are themajority peoples, but are marginalized intheir own land. It is all a far cry from theadulation and praise heaped on the ANCby radical liberals and the reformist leftduring the heyday of the anti-apartheidstruggle.So now what is the way forward? TheSouth African working class is combative and fts organizations, such asCOSATU, have great social power. Thereis no lack of militancy. Being againstcapitalism is not considered a dead letterin South Africa today. Quite the contrary.The key obstacle that holds back theworking class in South Africa is stillthe question of nationalism. The SACP/COSATU leadership keeps the workingclass chained to its class enemies in thename of "national liberation."As Marxists, we are for new OctoberRevolutions, for workers revolution.Mobilizing the working class in the struggle for power requires the construction ofa revolutionary workers party. The Lenin-

Make c h e C k s p ~ y a ~ l e J m e Spartacist Pub, COe, Box 13.,.-760nNewYotk,NY 10116Spartacist, PostNet Suite 248Private Bag X2226 . . .Johannesburg 2000, Sot.JthAfrlca

2 APRIL 2004

Glynn GriffithsBlack people turned out in massive numbers to exercise their hard-won rightto vote, 1994.ist conception of a workers party is that itmust be not merely a party that intervenes. in fighting the oppression of the workingclass under capitalism. To be a party likethe one the Bolsheviks built that smashedcapitalism in Russia in the October Revolution of 1917-the world's first andonly successful workers revolution-itmust be a party that fights all manifestations of oppression that exist in capitalistsociety, that defends the oppressedagainst all manner of state repression. Iwant to spend some time this afternoonon some aspects of special oppression,particularly the AIDS pandemic and themurderous oppression of immigrants.Interlinked with these issues is thecentral question of national liberation.The ANC and SACP say that there was arevolution in 1994 that was the first stageof the "national democratic revolution."-

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

10/12

South Africa ...(continued from page 9)fundamentally beholden to the tra,ditionalist tribalist sector of their base.A recent shift in November 2003 represents a formal change in posture. Nowthe ANC government says that it willmake drugs available, but nothing is hap-pening on the ground. The drugs are notbeing distributed at the governmenthealth institutions. Anger is mountingbecause each moment's delay meansmany more continue to die prematurely.So you have this coming to the surface,like the youth at the recent forum.The crushing weight of oppressionmakes all the more impressive some ofthe women impelled into political life bythe AIDS epidemic and the sacrifices ofGugu Dlamini and Lorna Mlofana. I willalways remember a TAC protest at thePretoria High Court where we met a number of TAC women activists who hadtraveled from Tembisa, the huge townshipnorth of Jo'burg. One of these womensaid, "These ANCers work for the rich;for us they have nothing." Women such asthese played an instrumental role in thestruggle against apartheid. A revolution-'ary workers party will fight to win themto the banner of workers revolution.

Our program for the emancipation ofwomen is based on a socialist recon-struction of South Africa. We say: Freetreatment for all! Free quality health carefor all! Free abortion on demand! Downwith labala and forced polygamy! Forfull integration of women into the workplace and equal pay for equal work! Weknow that providing decent health carefor all, education, housing, electrification, clean water, is not going to happenunder the capitalist system. For women'sliberation through socialist revolution!Murderous Oppressionof Immigrants

Now I want to tum to the less wellknown but crucial question of the oppression of immigrants in SouthAfrica today.Historically, immigrants have made aprofound contribution to building thewealth of the society-in the mines, thefields, the factories. Immigrants continueto be integrated into the South Africanworkforce, particularly in mining. Bordering countries harbored ANC guerrillafighters and were the target of bloodycross-border raids by the apartheidregime. They felt the brunt of SouthAfrican-backed right-wing armies ofdeath in Mozambique and Angola.Immigrants come to South Africa fromevery place in Africa. The majority ofimmigrants are from the border states ofZimbabwe and Mozambique, but thereare many from Nigeria, Angola, Senegal,Ivory Coast. In a situation where a substantial proportion of the African GrossContinental Product is created in SouthAfrica, and more specifically in theindustrial area around Johannesburg, thecountry will continue to be a magnet forthe d i s p ~ s s e . s s e d across the continent.Immigrants literally come risking death.Immigrants are routinely devoured bylions in Kruger National Park, which was

partly set up along the Mozambique border to de ter migrants.Anger at the lack of progress in thesociety is being deflected into a chronic,unremitting level of scapegoating of immigrants over jobs and drugs. My partner had the privilege of teaching English to young people from French- andPortuguese-speaking Africa. These youthwere routinely targeted for extortionaterents, hassled for bribes by police andsingled out as targets of violent crimes.South Africa has earned a reputation asa place of murderous hatreds for immigrants from other African countries. Andfor this the ANC is responsible. The government runs deportation trains wherepeople are systematically beaten, thenstacked like wood on the floors, on theseats, in overhead luggage racks.

South African proletarian revolutionwould bring the material power to beginthe transformation of sub-Saharan Africa,laying the infrastructure of modem society to lift it up from a place of endemicpoverty, disease and conflict.Colenial Origins of Apartheid

What is today South Africa was originally colonized by the Dutch East IndiaCompany in the mid 17th century. Thenext 350 years of South African history isthe story of segregation in the interests ofestablishing and maintaining slave-laborconditions by the European colonial settlers over the indigenous people. Theunfolding history was in sharp contrast tothose colonial societies like the U.S.where the indigenous popUlation wasmassacred, killed by new diseases or

Omar Badsha1985: Dairy workers march in solidarity with bakery workers on strike inDurban. Black labor struggles were key to bringing down apartheid regime.The COSATU leadership has refusedto defend immigrant workers facing deportation, for example, in the mines lastyear. This underscores the need for a revolutionary leadership of the trade unions

,whi'cll'would 'have" seI'iM on"%

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 823 - 02 April 2004

11/12

ing class to come into play. 1987 was aparticularly crucial year of intense strikeactivity against the apartheid regime.Railway and postal workers and retailworkers went on strike. Workers from 28gold mines and 18 coal mines, totalingmore than 340,000 workers, went onstrike under the leadership of the NationalUnion of Mineworkers. And these struggles were followed in the subsequentyears by still further, even more powerfuland comprehensive strikes that broughtproduction to a standstill.So why didn't the workers triumph?We Marxists sometimes say that while it~ t i l l holds state power nothing is impossible for the bourgeoisie. In this case, thepower of the working class was divertedand used ultimately to install the ANCbourgeois nationalists in power.The ANC, the party of the black elitesand the party l ooking to cut a deal, said tothe masses: "We will be your liberators."And this was where the Stalinist SouthAfrican Communis t Party and its programof class collaboration came so heavily intoplay. To a working class hungry for bothnational and social liberation, the SACPpromised both, but in stri ct sequence. Thiswas the "two-stage revolution"-twostage because the first stage is supposed tobe democratic, the second is supposed tobe socialist. Time and again in history, wehave seen how the first stage is a sham inwhich the bourgeoisie, aided by thereformist left, reorganizes itself, stabilizesitse lf in order to hold power. We often saythat the second stage is where the capitalists massacre the workers.

In the sharply polarized situation of theday, the missing ingredient was the workers vanguard party, fighting to inseparably link the questions of ,national andsocial liberation. Without such a party,the workers always lose. And so it was.Our line on the 1994 elections was thatthe "power sharing" deal was a betrayal ofblack freedom. As we said then, a vote fordie ANC-including its Communist Partymembers and affiliated trade-union leaders of COSATU-is a vote to perpetuate"the'Tacist oppressi on and s u p e r e x p l o i t a ~ tion of the' black, coloured and Indian,toilers in a different political form .In contrast, the rest of the left internactionally, almost in the same language asthe hugely relieved bourgeois press,hailed the ANC victory. The Wall StreetJournal and the Socialist Workers Party'sMilitant had similar headlines. The International Socialist Organization ran the

DefendAborigines ...(continued from page 5)Free all those arrested! Defend RedfernAborigines!The reactionary bourgeois media, notoriously anti-immigrant racist Carr and hiscops, and Liberal opposition leader, JohnBrogden, are now in overdrive fuelingand promoting an outpouring of violencebaiting and hate against Aborigines inRedfern. Immediately after the incidentCarr announced his "full confidence inthe way police tackled this incident"while Brogden, with icy racism, calledfor The Block to be razed. "I'd bring thebulldozers in," he said.Following the clashes, Carr quicklyannounced on Monday morning no lessthan three inquiries, while some socalled Abotiginal "community leaders"sought to stifle the just anger of Aboriginal youth. While accusing the police ofprovocations, Ray Jackson, IndigenousSocial Justice A