Workers Vanguard No 833 - 01 October 2004

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 833 - 01 October 2004

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WfJ/iIlE/iS '.MIII.RD oeNo. 833 E U ~ C . 7 0 1 1 October 2004

Down With the:' n01 Iraq!'".-''.

APImperialist "democracy": American occupation forces bomb Najaf.We Need a Revolutionary

The nasty, brutish and long 2004electoral campaign is poundinginto its final weeks as the two capitalist candidates, Bush and' Kerry, Workers Party! tional working class, the only classthat can liberate all humanity fromcapitalist exploitation through socialist revolution, most centrally inthe United States, the most powerful imperialist power on earth. Wejudge every question from that perspective, including the elections inthe U.S. There's no choice forworking people in this year's presidential elections. The two capitalist politicians obviously representtheir own capitalist class interests,counterposed to ours. Ralph Nader'seccentric small businessman campaign represents no break with capitalism and is opposed to socialism.Fake-Marxist..groups like the International Socialist Organization(ISO), which calls for a vote toNader, claim that such is a votefor "peace." Hardly. Nader is foran "expeditious" withdrawal fromIraq and for the United Nations,filthy handmaiden of U.S. interests, taking over. He owes muchof his ballot status to Patrick Buchanan and the Reform Party, whoare obviously pushing him as aspoiler against the Democrats.

- ~ n d torthe-'1rloody mantle ofimperialism's Commander in Chief,each claiming to be the best warpresident, the hardest on "terrorism," Democrat Kerry says it'lltake another four years, but he'll"finish the job in Iraq and refocusour energies On the real war on ter-ror" (New York Times, 25 Septem-ber), while Bush arrogantly claimseverything is great in Iraq, lecturing the United Nations and paradinghis toady Ayad Allawi, But theU.S. occupiers and their loathed,dictatorial puppets face growingchaos, as the American empirebrings war, disease, hunger anddeath to the people of Iraq.

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WV Photo

We call for the unconditional,immediate withdrawal of all U.S.troops from Iraq! Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been slaughtered, and over 1,000 Americansoldiers have died, sent to kill andbe killed to maintain the power andprofits of U,S. imperialism. Anarticle in the New York Times (26September) titled "What If Amer-Spartacist contingent at San Francisco antiwar demonstration, March 2004. The main political obstacle toour perspective in the U.S. is thecontinued hold of the capitalistDemocratic Party over the labormovement through the AFL-CIOunion bureaucracy. We say work

ers and black people must breakfrom the Democratic Party-theother party of war and racismand build a revolutionary workers

ica Just Pulled Out'?" captured whyno capitalist politician is callingfor an immediate withdrawal:"Withdrawal in the absence of sta-bility would amount to a devastat-ing admission of failure and a blowto America's world leadership. Thecredibilty of the United States,already compromised, would be devastated. More than 1,000 young [American!] lives would appear to have beenblotted out for naught" Well, yes.Against the bloody occupation of Iraq,the American working class should takea side: with those fighting against the neocolonial occupiers and against the U.S.

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workers' own rulers, who enforce exploitation and racist oppression abroad and athome. Every blow struck against the U.S.occupiers, their allies and Iraqi puppets isa blow struck against the enemy of workers and the oppressed all over the world.Insofar as the insurgent forces on theground in Iraq aim their blows against theimperialist occupiers (including the Qver20,000 private mercenaries operating inthe country), we call for their militarydefense against U.S. imperialism. However, we vehemently oppose the fundamentalism, terrorism, communalist violence, car bombings that indiscriminately

blow up innocent people on the street,thekidnapping of civilians, as the opposite ofeverything we Marxists stand for. We arefor national and democratic rights foreveryone, for the liberation of women, forabolishing the capitalist profit system andtaking the oil fields and factories out ofthe hands of the capitalists and puttingthem under the ownership and control ofthe working class, so that the wealth ofsociety will serve human needs. It willtake working-class struggle, throughoutthe region and internationally, to achievethese goals.Our standpoint is that of the interna-

party to fight for a workers governmentThe following presentation, edited forpublication, was given in Chicago onSeptember II by Spartacist Central Committee member Ed Clarkson. ComradeClarkson motivates our Marxist perspective in the context of the last half-centuryof American imperial politics, faithfullycarried out by both the Republicans andDemocrats.

* * *I have a large "9111" written herebecause I realized I was giving this forumcontinued on page 8


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~ c : : > Pdr t idU De f eu e.. . 0 . . . . . t e eCLASS-STRUGGLE DEFENSE NOTES ,

SWP Office, Black CafeFirebombed

Hazleton, PAA potentially deadly firebombing destroyed much of the Socialist WorkersParty (SWP) campaign headquarters inHazleton, Pennsylvania, in the early hours

of September I I. A neighbor's alert reaction and call to the fire departmentundoubtedly saved the lives of families'upstairs. In the black community in nearby Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the WhiteHouse Cafe was torched at the same time.These attacks on leftists and black peoplehighlight the deadly danger posed byincreasingly bold far-right fanatics.Ominously, some 100 miles fromHazleton, at the Valley Forge NationalHistorical Park, 100 neo-Nazi terroristsfrom the "National Socialist Movement"

massed on September 25. Anti-fascistprotesters outnumbered the Nazis by twoto-one, but an even larger mobilization ofpolice protected the fascists. The fascistsbegan their race-hate provocation, organized on the Jewish observance of YomKippur, by reviling Jews. The fascist killers should be stopped in their tracksthrough massive mobilizations of labor,bla


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LettersVenezuela: Workers DeserveBetter Than Chavez

run out and Peron was smashing strikeseven by the corporatist CGT unions (hehad already systematically crushed independent labor organizations).The most devastating defeat for theLatin American proletariatwas the bloodbath of the Chilean proletariat and the leftin the Pinochet coup of September 1973.The road to this was paved not by a bonapartist strongman, but rather by a popularfront coalition government of workingclass and bourgeois parties, headed bySalvador Allende. This popular front wasa different instrument to achieve the samegoal: to detlect the workers from a politically indepe ndent class-struggle roadand subordinate them to a parliamentarycoalition. When the workers were nolonger pacified with piecemeal reforms,the popular front was replaced by a ruthless military dictatorship.

8 September 2004Your posItIon on Venezuela ("U.S.Imperialism's Referendum Ploy Fails,"WV 831 [3 September]) is an exercise indogmatism. Its logical content is merelythat the Chavez regime is not a workersgovernment, therefore it's capitalist. Youimply that Chavez represents the "nationalbourgeoisie" against US imperialism,whereas he seems to have zero supportfrom local capitalists. You call him a"bonapartist strongman," which buys intothe imperialist line that he is "undemocratic" despite operating via frequentelections and referenda. You make muchof Venezuela supplying oil to the USA, asif entering a trade war would be anythingother than economic suicide.

The situation in Venezuela has comeabout because of the triumphalist dismantling of authoritarian structures inLatin America after the Cold War. "Liberal democracy," however, is not a suitable system when so much of the population is dirt poor. The result has been theelection of Chavez. The capitalist rulingclass controls the political system byconcrete means and several have beenused against Chavez: media campaigns,economic sabotage, a coup, and politicalmanoeuvring. These have failed due toChavez's popular support, military ties,and control of the oil industry. Thereforethe capitalists have a practical problemin asserting their control over their political system. But to a dogmatist, concreteand practical issues have no importance.While it is true that Chavez is not a revolutionary, he is a rogue element from thecap.italist point of view.Moreover, even by your own admission, the referendum was an imperialistploy, and surely you should side againstimperialism and not abstain. Niall C.WVrepJies:

As Niall C. argues, it is indeed the"logical content" of our argument "thatthe Chavez regime is not a workers government, therefore it's capitalist." Ourarticle quotes Chavez in his own wordsforeswearing any intention to abolishprivate property-the foundation of capitalist class rule. Chavez does have a popular base of support among the poor andhe is opposed by key players in the Venezuelan capitalist class. But contrary toNiall C.'s assertion that "the capitalistshave a political probJem in assertingtheir control over their political system,"their class rule is protected and guaranteed by Chavez who opposes ex propria-


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Mexican Trotskyists Say: No Reliance on PRD!Class Battles in Mexico. We publish below an article put outas an August 2004 Espartaco supplementby the Grupo Espartaquista de Mexico,section of the International CommunistLeague, addressing the Mexican government's attacks on the Sindicato Nacionalde Trabajadores del Seguro Social (SNTSS-National Union of Social SecurityWorkers), which organizes the workers ofthe Mexican Institute of Social Security(IMSS). The IMSS provides medical careand other benefits for all workers exceptthose employed by the state.

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than 200,000 pesos a month [approximately $20,000] (look who's talking about"privileges" !), the health system requiresmuch greater economic resources thanare currently expended in order to guarantee the right to free, quality health care forall. This would require an enormousexpansion in facilities, medicine, ambulances and in workers' salaries. The samecould be said of the education system andhousing. This society p r o d u c ~ s muchmore than the meager resources actuallyallocated for social expenditure, but thefunction of the Mexican capitalist state isto maintain a status quo where the bulk ofthe wealth produced by workers is destined, through exploitation, to fatten theprofits in the pockets of a few millionaires while at the same time to increasingly subordinate the Mexican economyto the imperialists. While working-classfamilies wait hours to be treated in SocialSecurity hospitals, private hospitals havefacilities and medicine that could save thelives of thousands of patients but which. are inaccessible through high prices. It isnecessary for workers to throw the repre- Isentatives of the bourgeoisie out ofpower, destroy their state through socialist revolution and construct a new state, aworkers state where the wealth producedby society goes directly toward humanneeds through a planned, collectivizedeconomy. This includes the. struggle toextend the revolution to the imperialist

Mexico City, August 29: 200,000 rall y insupport of PRO mayor Lopez Obrador(inset), accused of corruption by Foxgovernment.countries so that their immense resourcesare put at the disposal of the impoverished of the whole world. The first effectssuch an economic system would have onhealth care can be seen clearly in the collectivized economy of Cuba, where, despitean inhumane blockade by imperialism, theeconomic isolation of the revolution andthe Q ~ t i < 1 Q ~ ~ l i s t politics ;md blijJ!aUcraticadmiriistfatr()u"of the Castro regime,access to..,a, q J l ~ l i t y health Care .system isguaranteed for even the poorest people,and their achievements in the medicalfield are internationally renowned. Extending this new form of property internationally to more advanced economies wouldbe the first step toward a classless societybased on abundance, a socialist society.For a system of ree, quality health carefor all! Expropriate the private hospitals!Those who labor must rule!For the Political Independenceof the Proletariat!

A national work stoppage against theIMSS reforms would be an action without precedent in the last few decades andwould display workers' immense power.However, this class-struggle programrequires the political independence of theproletariat from the capitalist class, something totally alien to the perspective of the1 OCTOBER 2004

current leadership of the union movement. Instead, the union leaders seek toadvance their own interests through classcollaboration with the politicians and representatIves of the bourgeoisie. A particularly gross example is the leadership ofthe CTM [Confederation of MexicanWorkers] and the Congreso del Trabajo,historically affiliated to the PRI [Institutional Revolutionary Party], who have notonly endorsed the proposal to dismantlethe pension plan, but have even called forbreaking the national work stoppage proposed by the SNTSS, the UNT and SME(see Web site of the STRM [telephoneworkers union], II August).Another case is that of Roberto VegaGalina himself, the general secretary ofthe SNTSS, who continues to belong tothe PRI-whose support to the antiw o r k i n g ~ c l a s s reform was decisive for itsapproval. This political collaboration withthe exploiters is a betrayal of the workingclass. In fact, workers- affiliated to thisunion vividly remember that the originalposition of their leader )Vas in favor of thebosses' proposal, and that a massivestruggle at their union congress laslMarch was required to convince him thatif he wanted to keep his post he. must takeup, even if only in his speech, the defenseof union gains. In a truly instructive episode, the general secretary affirmed: "Ican't keep these people under control anymore. The (government) truly has no idea

of the dimension of the social bomb that isabout to explode" (La Jornada, 5 August).As faithful intermediaries .for the bourgeoisie in the workers movement, VegaGalina and his cohorts will do everythingpossible to prevent the general work stoppage that they themselves called for September 1, or in the event that they feelforced to carry it out, they will seek tominimize its impact as much as they can.The SME bureaucrats, who, in front oftheir membership keep priding themselves on their solidarity with the SNTSSworkers, have made clear that on September 1 they will carry out a stay-awayaction, but will ensure electricity isprovided during the 24 hours the workstoppage lasts! A work stoppage meansnobody works! For solid strike pickets!In the course of the struggle againstthe bourgeoisie the pro-capitalist unionleaders must be replaced by class-struggleleaderships, which necessarily will beconsciously revolutionary. Without thischange, no union struggle will be capableof challenging the oppressive capitalistframework in which it takes "place.Clearly, resorting to the "help" of thebourgeois state's courts to oust thesemisleaders is class betrayal. The intervention of the bosses' state can only furthersubordinate the leadership of the unions to

Gloria TreviFreed!Flashing a victory sign, GloriaTrevi celebrates he r release fromprison on September 21. Afternearly five years of imprisonmentin Mexico and Brazil, Trevi wasfOund not guilty of the bogusrape, kidnapping and "corruptionof minors" charges she faced aspart of a government anti-sexvendetta targeting the pop singerand he r entourage. Congratulations, Gloria! (For more on Trevi,see "Free Gloria Trevi! DownWith the Anti-Sex Witchhunt!"WV No. 780, 3 May 2002.)

the decisions of its class enemy: Labormust clean its own house!As Marx and Engels explained, allclass struggle is a political struggle. Forthis reason, making proletarian politicalindependence a reality requires that workers have their own political party, asocialist, revolutionary party. At uniondemonstrations such as on August 4, hundr"eds of workers affiliated to the SNTSS,justifiably angry that their leader belongsto one of the parties that supported thereform, chanted at him, "Quit the PRI!"We Spartacists solidarize with this anger, .but 'recognize that many of these sameworkers see no problem with their leaderscollllborating with another bourgeoisparty; the PRD. At different demonstrations we have attended, such as on July23, workers have shouted slogans againstvoting for the PRI and PAN [Fox's N a t i o n ~ al Aiction Party], but notably exClude thePRD. In fact, other union leaders maintainwell-known ties of political solidarity 'with this party, such as AgustinRodriguez of the STUNAM [UNAMworkers union]; who is even a PRD congressman. With the goal of keeping up theappearance of being a ~ ' f r i e n d of theworkers," maintaining the political leadership of the movement and winningsome working-class votes along the way,the PRD has distanced itself from the PRIand PAN in opposing the anti-workingclass reform in the Senate. Don't befooled! Just like the PRI and PAN, thePRD is a party committed to the maintenance of capitalism, arid its defense of therights of workers is nothing more than ahypocritical and transient posture. I f thePRD had the luxury of being able to voteagainst the reform it was because it neither heads the federal government nor hasa majority in Congress, so its vote didn'trepresent much. When this party is in aposition to make real decisions, its posture is as furiously anti-union as that ofthe PAN or PRI, as evidenced by the caseof the metro workers union or theSUTGDF [Mexico City public workersunion], unions which Mexico City mayor. Lopez Obrador [of the PRD] has soughtto destroy under the pretext of "putting anend to mafias." In the same vein, the PRDin government doesn't hesitate when itcomes to repressing social struggle, aswas so vividly demonstrated by the Mexico City government unleashing its riotpolice against the UNAM university student strikers in 1999 and 2000. No reli-

GEM comradesmarch inMexico CitydemonstrationagainstU.S. invasionof Iraq,February 2003.

ance on the bourgeois PRD!The ideological cement that currentlykeeps workers bound to their exploitersis nationalism, that is, lie that allMexicans, independent of their socialclass, share a common interest against allforeigners. This is false! In the epoch ofimperialist decay in which we live, thereis no wing of the national bourgeoisie(whether it be the PRI, PAN or PRD)that can in fact take the side of the popular masses and stand against imperialism,not even on democratic questions as elementary as national emancipation or landreform. It is up to the workers alone tolead the struggles for these demands,independently of the national bosses andagainst them, as part of the struggle forworkers power and socialism. The iinperialist system must be dt


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BerkeleyloteYesonMeasure


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Young SparlaeusBlack Student Alliance Suspendedfor Protesting Racist Frat

Georgia StateUniversityWhile on a Workers Vanguard subscription drive trip to Atlanta, the Spartacus Youth Club visited the multiracialGeorgia State University (GSU) campus,which was still simmering from last

spring's months-long clash between blackstudents and the cretins in the Pi KappaAlpha fraternity (Pikes). In return forjointly apologizing for the "trouble," aswell as meeting other conditions, thepreviously suspended Black StudentAlliance (BSA) and the Pikes had beenreinstated shortly before we a ~ r i v e d twoweeks ago. "Guilty" only of protestingagainst the racist creeps in the nearly allwhite, conservative fraternity, the blackstudents have nothing to apologize for!It all started in late January when thePikes hosted a racist "Straight Out ofCompton" theme party, for which partygoers were encouraged to don their most"ghetto fabulous attire." Playing on everyhip-hop stereotype, the frat rats showedup in "urban" clothing and fake tattoosto mock black youth (who make up onethird of GSU's student body). Two Pikesdecided to add to the "fun" by wearingblackface to complete their costumes.This party polarized the campus, sparking a series of speakouts and rallies overthe next three months organized by theBSA and campus NAACP, among othersoutraged by the racist practices of thewhite fraternity "brotherhood." Hundredsof students, including some from Morehouse and Spelman colleges. came out tothe protests to demand "Punt the Pikes!"In response, the Pikes presented themselves as the innocent victims of a discriminatory campaign to brand their fraternity"racist," seeking a stamp of approval fortheir real bigotry. The College Republicans even held an "anti-bigotry bakesale" in late March to smear the BSA as"bigots" for protesting the Pikes! Onceagain in this racist country, black people wh? protest against racist smears are

Black History andthe Class Struggle No.2$.75 (32 pages)

Order from:Spartacist Publishing Co.Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

1 OCTOBER 2004

portrayed as the source of the problem.In fact. this frat, founded by a circle ofConfederate soldiers and supporters soonafter the Civil War, has a long history ofracism. For instance, a photo from a 1968yearbook shows a Pike member dressedin blackface; in the ear"Iy '90s the Pikeswould perform skits wearing blackfaceand afterward would post pictures indisplay cases on campus. When one

WlAKE HISTORY . OR BUVICTIM Of IT.THE CHOICE IS YOURS UNTIl ITS NOT.

another in a Klansman's robe and thethird in blackface with a noose aroundhis neck, from an infamous Halloweenparty at Auburn University in 2001. Useof the photo was a device to connectthe blackface incident at GSU with themany others that have occurred on college campuses in recent years.For their part, right-wingers on campuses nationwide have claimed the man-

The GSU Administration has notadequately addressed racism oncampus.1ti . . . . _'incll: .............WllhvourlOl1lOVAT GlIOllGiA Sl'A'l'.'

1'lJBLlC l'mn'IIST IUlSIJJ:I'SIN SllSI'IINSION.

Black StudentAlliance flyerprotestingJim Crow on fratrow (far left).Appealing toadministration,through consumerboycotts orotherwise, is adead-end strategy;university"addressed racismon campus" bysuspending BSA.

DO NOT SPEND "- BSA s charged with:. Discriminatory Harassment forDefending Our Right to Protect ourCultureMONEYATOSDear""'"" 10IIIl St11CII .achinos .GSU .0 ..__.._ . Discriminatory Harassment forInformingStudents

UOll11OO Pikes aregone, lal on campuslStudl!!ll",a!SpecialsatNegr1 (Caribbean Food, on Aubum A ~ e . & PIedmont) andAfroDtsll\SweetAuburn Cum Mkt on Ed9ewood j

RETALIATION IS HARRASSMENTMAKE HISTORY.nOR BE AVICTIM OF IT.THE CHOICE IS YOURS ..UNTIL IT'S NOT.

such "performance" was followed shortlyafterward by the discovery of a racial slurwritten by a member of another frat on atrash can in 1992, the campus boiledover. In a united action by blacks, gaysand anti-racist whites, some 200 studentsstaged a two-day sit-in. shutting downadministrative offices, the cafeteria andclassrooms. The Altanta SY C activelyintervened into the protests, pushing fora citywide demonstration against racistterror, as the city was still seething fromsavage cop violence against black AtlantaUniversity students protesting the Rodney King verdict. The sit-in forced theadministration to meet several of the protesters' demands, including padlockingshut the Pikes frat house.

tie of "free speech" to carry out racist provocations. So while the Pikeswere raising a hue and cry over alleged"harassment" from the BSA, their lawyerswere sending letters to the GSU administration invoking First Amendment protection from persecution for their blackface antics! With the assistance of outfitslike the Foundation for Individual Rightsin Education, many frat rats expelledrecently for wearing blackface have beenreinstated by court order, including thoseat the 200 I Auburn Halloween party.We shed no tears for the expUlsions ofthese pigs, but neither do we rely on theadministration to fight racism, as did theBSA in its repeated appeals for theuniversity to take action. This strategydoesn't work. At every turn, the GSU

administration-which runs the campusin the interests of the capitalist rulingclass-showed it is far from neutral. Forexample, it declared that the actions ofthe frat did not pose an "immediatethreat." Instead, the administration soonidentified its own "threat"-the blackstudents. At an early March "communitydialogue," it posted police throughoutthe room to protect the vastly outnumbered Pikes in attendance .In-step withthe culture of suppressing dissent inpost-9/11 America, the administrationhas used the anti-racist protests as a pretext to try to ban all "unauthorized"political expression, according to anotherBSA member.It is militant, mass, integrated socialstruggle that would make the raciststhink twice about spewing their filth.When protesting racist provocations oncampus-from cop terror at the University of Chicago and an anti-affirmativeaction "bake sale" at Columbia University last February to appearances bypro-imperialist ideologue and slaveryapologist David Horowitz-the SYCshave called for students to link theirstruggles to the social power of themultiracial working class, such as unionized transit, heath care and city workers inAtlanta. As we wrote in WV No. 563(13 November 1992) at the time of the1992 sit-in:

"I n January 1989, many GSU studentsparticipated in an exemplary display oflaborlblack power when they responded tothe Partisan Defense Committee's call tostop the KKK from parading in downtownAtlanta. A citywide action, linking students, blacks, gays and immigrants to thesocial power of abor, would have an electrifying impact in combatting the racistclimate at GSU and beyond. Students:Ally with labor to smash racist attacks!"Ultimately, it will take a revolution byworking people and all the oppressed toshatter the racist capitalist order and winblack liberation in a workers America n effect siding with the frat rats, theGSU administration attempted to squelchprotest against racism on campus and, inApril, suspended the BSA the week afterit had suspended the Pikes. One BSAmember said to a WV salesman that thesuspension of the BSA is redolent of theJim Crow era when "uppity Negroes" l osttheir jobs, were run out of town and notinfrequently lynched by white racist mobs.The term "Jim Crow" is taken from thestage name of the popularizer of blackface,a cultural expression of white supremacistideology dating from the 1820s.

. --Spartacist LeagiJe/Trotskyist League Forums----".

The BSA was convicted of intending"to incite others by making a misleadingflyer" and "discriminatory harassment" ofa frat member after the Pikes filed formalcharges against them. The Spartacus YouthClub has long warned against faith inspeech codes of conduct, which are usually applied, as in this case, to disciplineminorities and leftists. Tellingly, in addition to suspending the BSA, the administration ruled that its leaders had to participate in a "diversity education" program,presumably to learn to love racists!However couched in the languageof "diversity" and "tolerance," speechcodes give enhanced power to university administrators and the cops to actagainst, for instance, anti-racist youthand leftists who want to expose thebigots on campus or protest the imperialist occupation of Iraq. At GSU, the"misleading" BSA flyer was intendedto warn students about the racist Pikes.It featured a photo of three white fratmembers, one dressed in hunting garb,

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Workers Party...(continued from page 1)on September I I, and the destruction ofthe World Trade Center has some significance in the current election campaign.The attack on the World Trade Center was. a criminal act, perpetrated against peoplewho had done nothing wrong except to goto work. As we pointed out at the time,the people who carried out that act thinkapproximately in the same way that imperialists do, that is, that ordinary people areguilty for the crimes of their rulers.Unlike the World Trade Center, the Pentagon is the command and administrativecenter of the U.S. imperialist military,and being a military installation, the possibility of getting hit comes with theterritory. But as we wrote in Workers Van-guard (No. 830, 6 August): "That recognition does not make the attack an 'antiimperialist' act, nor does it change thefact that terrorism almost always getsinnocent people-in this case, the passengers on the plane as well as the maintenance workers, janitors and secretaries atthe Pentagon."The September I I attacks were seizedupon as the reason for the subsequentwars on Afghanistan and Iraq. The imperialist powers, when they attack smallercountries, almost always need to manufacture something as a reason. Ofcourse, if you think about it, the idea thatAfghanistan's a danger to 'the UnitedStates is, on the face of it. ridiculous. Inthis case, the act 'of terrorism providedU.S. rulers with what they construed to bea reason. But it's not the real reason. Andthen of course, Bush had to invent the"weapons of mass destruction," just likeduring Vietnam Lyndon Johnson inventedthe Gulf of Tonkin incident, and just likein the beginning of U.S. imperialism'sentry on the world stage-the 1898 waragainst Spain-it invented the "Remember the Maine" incident. Such inventionsare really rather common.We're in a subscription drive, and sowe've been asking people on campuseswhat they think about the elections. Forthe most part they're not too impressedwith Kerry. On the other hand, they'rescared to death of Bush. So pretty muchwhat we hear is that although they'renot sure Kerry's any good, they'll probably vote for him and against Bush,and that's understandable on both sides.Kerry really hasn't said much that's anydifferent than wh;lt Bush has to say. Onthe other side, Bush does seem a little bitmad-as we've described him, oddlydemented. In addition to two wars, we'vehad the not-so-surprising torture at AbuGhraib. Not surprising because Bush isafter all the guy who put out "WantedDead or Alive" contracts for Osama binLaden and Hussein, and describes as"evil" people who were fighting the U.S.It's hardly surprising that the U.S. didevil things to those people.Then there are his loyal supporters, thevacant-eyed, largely racist Christian fundamentalists, who give people pause. One

Oregon woman supporter of Bush, fromthat particular portion of the population,described the reason for her vote, that godis in the White House. Now as a Marxist,materialist and an atheist, I was actuallykind of pleased to have a believer finallyadmit that god was a vastly ignorant, bullying and lying Texan. These types an!rather scary. It's not just that they believeBut they think belief is superior to factsand reality. Thus Cheney, who knows thisaudience well. drones on and on abouthow Saddam and Osama used to play cro!quet every day on the palace lawn, andnuclear weapons were stacked like firewood on the streets of Baghdad. Nowthose things are lies, but 50 percent of theU.S. population thinks that they're true.There are some differences betweenthe Democrats and the Republicans. I fyou looked at the conventions on TV, theDemocratic Convention looked a littlelike this room-a little of this, a little ofthat, a little black, a little Hispanic, a lot

held that job for a century or so until the'60s and '70s. Usually the top members ofthe KKK were also Democratic Partymembers and often elected to office assuch. The Republicans tend to pushAmerica the strong, the pure, the just: jingoism. The Democrats do that normallytlrroagh the vehicle of "America First"protectionism for workers, which is soldvery much by the labor bureaucracy. It'sthe same message, but it's wrapped ratherdifferently. So young people tend to hopeperhaps that the Democrats will be lesscruel than the Republicans. In this theyare assisted by the anarchists and socialist groups, like the International SocialistOrganization, that pander to the "anybodybut Bush" campaign. You don't have to bea genius to figure out who the anybody isthat they're asking you to vote for.The short form of this presentation isthat it's the American imperialist rulersand their capitalist system, and not particular governments, whether Republican or

appears on the scene. The Cold War, whatit meant for me as a kid, was that everyday I got on my knees and faced the wallof my classroom, put my head down.That's an atomic bomb drill-it was supposed to keep you safe. And as we said atthe time, "and kiss your ass goodbye."Because we all were kind of aware thatthis was not going to defend us fromatomic attack.The red purge of the trade unions wassomething I didn't exactly understand,nor did I understand why it was "bad" tobe a socialist. Socialism certainly seemedto me not an insane thought, and one perhaps Americans should be permitted tohold. I can't say I was a socialist myself.The Cold War seemed to me to make nosense, because after all hadn't we justbeen the allies of the Soviet Union, whoseemed to have done a very nice job mopping up the Nazis, without much help,incidentally, from the United States. Andthen they put the Rosenbergs on trial under

AP Asahi Shim bunDemocratic president Truman with General MacArthur (far left) in 1948: architects of nuclear holocaust at Hiroshima(right) and Nagasaki.of women. At the one four years ago, 28percent of the delegates were tradeunionists. It was probably as high thistime. The Republican Convention wassort of "Unpleasantville": people that arekind of strange, that you may not want t6know. On the one hand, the Democratsplay to a base that's largely composed ofliberals, working-class people, blacks; .and so they tend to express concerns forthings like health, jobs, education, some:times even peace. Republicans, on theother hand, like to emphasize small government, low taxes, fiscal responsibility,no restrictions on enterprises, and tend topush the idea that if the rich are reallyrolling in it, everyone profits. "High tidyraises all boats," as they say. And thisplays well to the very wealthy. It alsogoes for small businessmen, who think iftheir employees are real frugal and watchtheir diet, they can get by on three otfour dollars an hour just fine.The Republican Party, in the process ofhistory, has gone from the party that ledthe progressive Civil War in the middle ofthe 19th century to becoming the mainparty of racist reaction. The Democrats

Democrat, which are responsible for war,exploitation, the race-caste oppression ofblacks in this country, for the shreddingof our rights, for our lack of access tohealth care and education and, indeed, insome ways, for our lack of access to afuture. So it's really the system that's gotto go, and that requires a socialist revolution in this country, which means we mustlink the cause of black freedom to thefight against all exploitation and injustice.Note that the situation of black peopleprobably hasn't been mentioned in thecontext of a presidential election in perhaps three decades now. It's just not considered polite. A vote for anyone of thebourgeois candidates.is a vote of confidence, in fact, in their imperialist system,a vote that says that this system can befair and humane, and a vote against thecrying need for a socialist revolution andfor building the revolutionary workingclass party that is necessary to have sucha revolution.From Truman to Kennedy:From Hiroshima to Vietnam

Let me go through my experiences as I

Truman. They weren' t executed until 1953when Eisenhower came into office.Most scary for me was the Korean War,because then I was a little older, I was thenI I or 12, and I was getting close to draftage. In the Korean War, in about the sametime frame that this Iraq war has gone on,30,000 American soldiers died. It was hot,plenty hot. And no one in the countrymuch liked it. At the time I wonderedwhat business the United States had interfering in those affairs, which shows you Iwasn't a Marxist. Now I know why theUnited States interferes in those affairs.Most of the country really didn't like it,except it was the McCarthy period, so youcouldn't say anything, or else you'd bedriven out of your job and harassed byCongressional investigating committees.

Spartacus Youth Club Class Series'was growing up with this process. Thefirst election I remember was Harry Truman's in 1948. I was nine years old,already a Democrat-it came with theneighborhood. I f you had asked me, Iwould have said,' sure, vote for Truman,even though I knew he just nuked Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and I didn't thinkthat was especially charming. It seemedmore like an act of terror than an act ofwar. But I was pleased when he waselected: it was actually a big upset. Thoseof you who know a little bit about historyknow the august Chicago Daily Tribuneprinted a headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman." Well, he didn't win, Harry did.

Instead, people elected RepublicanDwight Eisenhower, who had a tremendous preference for golf, and who didimmediately end the Korean War by simply drawing a line in the sand and notsigning a peace treaty, and walking awayfrom it. There is no peace treaty withNorth Korea to this day. The Republicansare supposed to be good for business. Butin Eisenhower's eight' years in office,there were two major recessions. I said,jeez, this doesn't make much sense. I waslooking for a job in the secoIid recessionand didn't find much. 'Eisenhower'sresponse to the civil rights struggles inthe South was essentially to let the racistmobs be. On those occasions when thegovernment intervened, it was usuallywhen black people were doing somethingto defend themselves. So that didn 't seemvery promising.

8

NEW YORKTuesday, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.

You Can't Vote Capitalism Out ofOffice: Marxist Understanding of theState, Bourge ois Elections and theNeed for a Workers PartyColumbia University

325 Pupin Hall (116th and Broadway)Information and readings: (212) 267-1025or e-mail: [email protected]

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 6:30 p.m.Defend the Gains of theChinese Revolution!For a China of Workers and PeasantsCouncils in a Socialist Asia!York University Student Centre Roon') 315CInformation and readings: (416) 593-4138or e-mail: [email protected]

CHICAGOTuesday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m.Socialism vs. Capitalism

University of ChicagoCobb Hall, Room 1075811 S. Ellis Ave.Information and readings: (312) 563-0441

or e-mail: [email protected]

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 6:30 p.m.Marxism: A Guide to ActionHarvard University, Loker Common(Basement of Memorial Hall)Information and readings: (617) 666-9453or e-mail: [email protected]

Vis i t fhe l e I . Web Si te :www. i c l f i . o rg

But then the aftermath gave me somepause. Because it was the Democrats,under Truman's leadership, who launchedthe Cold War, what has come to be knownas McCarthyism. It's actually an inadequate description, because McCarthy wasa latecomer. The Democrats drove thereds out of the trade unions by 1950,using their "America First" supporters inthe unions, and that's when McCarthy

Then the 1959 Cuban Revolution happened at the end of his term, and Iremember being kind of pleased withthat. Actually Castro came to the UnitedStates, appeared on the Jack Paar showat the time, stayed in Harlem, which wassmart. And of course Eisenhower hatedit, but he couldn't do anything about itbecause of the Korean War-too manybodies already. I mean, the reason peoplein the United States didn't like Korea isthey just fought a major war and theydidn't want another one. But Eisenhowerdid stonewall, and probably actuallyWORKERS VANGUARD


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influenced the Cuoan regime in the final,tep" it wok, in the sensc that Castrodecided there wa, to oe nothing forthcoming from the American imperialists,so he nationalizcd everything on theisland of Cuoa.I've never voted for a bourgeois candidate of any sort. I cayTIe close once with apresidential candidate. Before I turned21, which was both thc voting and thedrinking age at that time, I became in mymind a communist with the help of somefriends who cOl1\'inced me of the essentials of the Marxist analysis of capitalism-that is, the fundamental motor ofthe system is the drive for profits. Thefundamental classes in capitalism are, onthe one hand, the class that owns everything, the bourgeoisie, and on the otherhand, the class that makes eve rything, theproletariat. Imperialism was in fact theexportation of this system of exploitationto backward and weak countries. Some ofus had connections with the working

AN:'

This guy was quitc crazy. I thoughtmaybe in this case I should go for LBJ.And if this reminds you somewhat of thecurrent Bush regime, .this is why I bringit up. B'ut fortunately, I had a friend inProgressive Labor Party who convincedme that "a boss is a boss is a boss." Ididn't make it to the polls, though I washighly tempted.So we know what Johnson did. Therewas some civil rights legislation passedin response to the mass battles for civilrights that occurred, mainly in the South,but also in the North of this country.There was a "war against poverty" thatevolved out of the ghetto upheavals, inan effort to buy people off. But, it turnsout, Johnson then went on and bombedthe north of Vietnam. The U.S. in factdropped more bombs on Vietnam thanhad been dropped in the entire Europeantheater during the Second World War.Three million Vietnan'lese were dead as aresult. So it goes to show you.

he had to say once he got into office. sothey immediately elected Ronald Reagan.The aii' traffic controllers union, PATCO,went on strike, and he smashed the U11ion.It doesn't exist today. What most peopledon't know is he did it with a plan devisedby Jimmy Carter when he was in office.because the strike had oeen pending forsome time. He also had a tax cut. Onc ofthe things about the PATCO strike thattells you something about the currentleaders of the American trade unionmovement was that they let that unionsink. Normally you'd think of the tradeunion tops as bound to the DemocraticParty. But remember Reagan was inoffice. Some of them go Republicanoccasionally. But their real allegiance isto the system of capitalism. That's what'sbehind their allegiance to the Democrats.All they had to do was close down the airports. Period. That strike would neverhave failed. One week, and it would havebeen over. The heads of some of the

Democrats' dirty, losing war in Vietnam: Kennedy's escalation of the war in Vietnam set the stage for massive carpetbombing of the country by Johnson (pictured above in Vietnam in 1966).class, and the giant civil rights struggle'swere going on, beginning in about 1955 orso and escalating throughout the period.So we were very much convinced thatunless you fought racism in this country,the necessary working-class revolutionwould not be able to occur. We did notunderstand the race-caste oppression ofblacks in this country, but we understoodthat if it wasn't fought there was no waythe American working class was going tobe able to unite. So Kennedy didn't getmy vote. And he doesn't even know it.But those ideas compelled me then,and they compel me now. In any event,JFK didn't seem very appetizing, althoughhe was dressed up like a Boston'liberal, asis Kerry today, and was Catholic and allthat. He ran to the right of Nixon. Heran on a program of rearming Americanimperialism, accused Eisenhower of having given the store away because of therevolution.in Cuba. And I had just sort ofbeen there, under Harry Truman, and Ididn't particularly think that was veryappetizing. Sure enough, Kennedy gets inoffice, we have the .Cuban Missile Crisis,when every thinking person in the UnitedStates thought it could well be over. Youhad the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cubabefore that, which was only droppedbecause nobody showed up for the CIAled invasion, and Kennedy kicked up thelevel of the U.S. in Vietnam a little bit.Part of the Way with LBJ?

SoKennedy disappears, for reasons weall know, and LBJ takes his place. Nowwe come to the point of my weakness, theelection that pitted Lyndon Baines Johnson against Barry Goldwater. LBJ waskind of a typical New Deal Democratbut Southern, and at that time, that meanthe hadn't exactly played a great role onthe race question. He was better thansome, but pretty much in that bloc. Theessence of the campaign was about whatwas going to be done in Vietnam. BarryGoldwater had this very interesting idea.At that time the United States was notbombing North Vietnam. He thought itwould be good to bomb them back intothe Stone Age, and was even prone toconsider using nuclear weapons to do it.1 OCTOBER 2004

Johnson, unlike the myth about Democrats raising taxes, raised no taxes, whichis almost impossible in a war because youhave to spend. As a result, at the end of histerm, the U.S. was on the ropes economically. And the reason he didn't raisetaxes is that he wanted to buy off theblack population with some measuresand in some sense there were some genuine progressive measures there, especially the end of de jure segregation-andhe also wanted to buy off the workingclass by not making them pay for the war.Johnson figured, rightly, that raising taxeswould have further inflamed antiwarsentiment. Well, since the working classdidn't begin to strike until the end of thisperiod, in that sense he was successful. Inturn, what the civil rights legislation andthe "war on poverty" did was give anexcuse for the black Democrats, some ofwhom are still around today, like JesseJackson Sr., to return to the fold of theDemocratic Party. The Panthers and others who thought social justice hadn't beenachieved yet, quite correctly, but didn'tquite know how to get there-they wereleft out there on the streets by the blackDemocrats who for the most par t allowedthem to be mowed down by the FBI without much of a protest. Over thirty members of the Black Panther Party werekilled in the aftermath of that.The next candidate of interest wasJimmy Carter, who was sort of theopposite of what you would construe asa Democrat. In fact he looked.a littlelike George Bush does. He said peopleshouldn't expect justice in this society,"life is unfair," we're going to have to .give up some things, we' re getting a littletoo fat. He talked about family values andthe importance of religion-all that kindof stuff. Mostly he was interested inrebuilding the strength of the UnitedStates, which had lost its ability to intervene in the world. This was the result ofthe fact that the Vietnamese, with justice,drove the U.S. out of Vietnam. That warwasn't very popular amongst the population. And Jimmy Carter thought this wasunfortunate, and he should change this.The people who voted for JimmyCarter weren't very impressed with what

unions that refused to do that called themselves socialist-like Winpisinger in themachinists.Ronald Reagan did a very uncharacteristic Republican thing-he was a fiscal conservative, small government, andall that. But he spent more money andexpanded the government more than anyDemocrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He did this because he had intensified what we describe as "Cold War Two,"which started under Carter. There wasimmense, vast, military spending, againwithout taxation, which again put the U.S.in hock, so that George Bush Senior, hissuccessor, had to suffer the consequences,and he was voted out of office.Bush Sr. was r eplaced by Bill Clinton,who I think in some ways is the mostamazing president of the 20th century.Anybody who watched the conventionsaw that they would have re-elected him,fellatio or not. I f they could have done it,they would have brought him on again. Imean, they were ecstatic when he was onthat stand. And there's no question he'squite personable and seems to have acertain charm; he plays the saxophone, .eats bad food and gets down and talks topeople. I f you look at what happenedduring his regime-and you know, Clinton is still a big favorite among manyblack people-more black men went tojail during the Clinton years than hasever happened. Look what happened in

Iraq during the Clinton years. More Iraqis were killed by Bill Clinton, by far,than have been killed by either of theBushes to date. Over a million by his UNsanctions policies. All the "anti-terror"legislation, people now being deprived oftheir rights, immigrants being picked upon the street, etc.-all passed by Clinton.So this guy is really a consummatepolitical swindler. Which shows you thetask we have, the obstacles to forging arevolutionary party, because there are alot of illusions in this country. And insofar as they tend to exist among workingpeople, they tend to exist in the favorof the Democrats. It also simultaneouslyshows you the disservice the rest of theleft does by giving a backhanded vote tothese guys, because what that does is of

course add to those i l l l l s i o n ~ , that there i.\a possibility for fundamental reform till": C.Now the interesting thing is, my fatllercould have told exactly the same sWryabout a vastly different America than Iwas raised in, just as the America I wasraised in is vastly different than the ollethat exists now. He could have told mcabout two presidents, both Democrats,who ran on peace platforms and thenimmediately went to war. He could havetold me about the first war against terrorin this century, which was called thePalmer Raids, which was launched underthe Democratic president Woodrow Wilson, in which thousands of socialists wereimprisoned and immigrants-and that'swhat the American working class wasat that time, immigrant-were deported.Some of them went back and joinedthe Bolsheviks, which is quite good. Hecould have told you about the roaring'20s, when the working class had the bootin its back, and how the initial Rooseveltmeasures against the Great Depressionwere actually pro-boss. And that nothingreally happened in this country until thegiant class struggles that built the CIO,that is. from 1934 and after.U.S. Government:Executive Committeeof the Capitalist Class

Why do I bring this all up? Imagineyou're a Martian now; you're taking yourcourse on U.S. history. You've been toldwhat the Democratic Party says it is, andyou've been told what the RepublicanParty says it is. And then I give you someof these incidences that I've just gonethrough: the Korean War, the Cold War.the destroying of PATCO. You could notguess, from the incident. which party wasin power. Nor could you guess whatthe politics of the particular presidentwere. Because all that, in the tinal analysis, is hype. It's window dressing. It's notwhat's involved.What the government is, whether it'sRepublican or Democrat, is what Marxand Engels called "the executive committee of the ruling class." Its job is to realizethe dominant program and aspirations ofthe American ruling class and of Americanimperialism. If it fails to do so, it will bereplaced in one way or another. Sometimes, in some countries, this has beenthrough military coup. Now what are thesedominant aspirations of the American ruling class? Fundamentally, they're toincrease profits and to increase the abilityto make profits. And what that requires, ofcourse, is a constant effort to reverse andcombat the working class in its strugglesagainst the capitalist system, and also therest of the oppressed."And of course occasionally, when subjected to mass struggle,the ruling" class gives out a few goodies.But then of course, subsequently continues to take them away. And as I said,imperialism is really just the exportationof this, in a meaner way, to countries inwhich people really starve to death.Now one very important countermanifestation to this, since the BolshevikRevolution, is something we call the"Russian Question." In the Russian Revolution the working class took power andkicked out the capitalist exploiters. Isolated, increasingly impoverished and surrounded by hostile imperialist powers,the young Soviet workers state wentthrough a conservatization. Stalin tookthe political power away from the working class by 1923-24, and went on toeventually consolidate a dictatorshipbased on a bureaucratic caste. The primary appetite and the task of the American imperialists since Day One, as themost powerful imperialist country on theplanet, was to destroy the Russian Revolution, the most historic and fundamentalgain of the working class. Secondarily,they've also operated to attenuate theunions. The bourgeoisie has operated,with its willing labor lieutenants in thelabor movement, to pretty much hamstring and domesticate the organizedlabor movement, and also simultaneouslyto reduce it considerably in size, so nowit's about IO percent of the workforce.

continued on page J09


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Workers Party...( continued from page 9)

Trotsky pointed out that if you don'tfight for past gains, you can't fight forfuture ones. Thus our position defendingthe Soviet Union, where the last remaining gains of the Bolshevik Revolutionwere overturned in 1991-92, with Yeltsinat its helm. Our position towards theremaining societies where capitalism wasoverthrown-North Korea, Cuba, China,Vietnam-is that we defend them againstthe bosses, against any attempt to restorecapitalism. In the same regard we defendthe trade unions from attacks by thebosses. We recognize that the politicalleadership in these societies does notoperate in the interest of proletarian revolution, and so we are for a political revolution to overturn them, just as we arefor, in this country, replacing the existingleadership of the trade unions with aclass-struggle leadership.

Our socialist opponents are rather different in that regard. They didn't defendthe Soviet Union, in fact they rathercheered when it fell apart. The immedi-'ate effects of counterrevolution on thepopulation in those areas have been devastating. But also that counterrevolutionis responsible for what the U.S. is able todo to the world right now-war after warafter war. It wouldn't have happened ifthe Soviet Union was still around. Not in.that way, at least-because the USSRwas a military counterweight against theU.S. But the fake-Marxists all cheerled,Now they tend to hide that. And they didnot defend Iraq or Afghanistan againstimperialist attack. They didn't call forwhat is sort of elementary, that is thedefense of the victims. The absence ofsuch defense on the part of the workingclass signifies that the working class issti II tied to th e program of its imperialistmasters, And unless that tie is broken,the working class cannot proceed to tryto realize its historic aspirations, whichare to liberate humanity from all formsof constraints except those imposed bybiology and the pursuit of sex, Or, assome would say, love.Fight for Socialism!

Now, Kerry. He's for increasing theU.S. military, for increasing the war

Mexico...( continued from page 5)social struggle, as has happened before.The occasional criticisms that Militantemakes of the bourgeois politics of thePRO are directed toward pressuring itsleadership to adopt policies that. according to Militante, would better serve thefunction of the PRO as a "left" bourgeoisparty, that is, as an escape valve to contain social discontent within the framework of bourgeois politics. Political support to a bourgeois party necessarilymeans support to the continuation ofcapitalism.Against All Manifestations ofOppression and Backwardness!

As clearly exemplified by the SNTSSwith its important component of womenworkers, the integration of women intoproduction and service dema.nds thatworking-class women playa leading rolein the struggles of their class. Furthermore, the full emancipation of all womenrequires the destruction of the capitalistsystem and its replacement with a plannedeconomy. In this sense. the fight againsttheir special oppression constitutes anindispensable motor force for revolutionary struggle in general. The workersmovement must combat. the prevalentmachismo among its own members andpresent. broade r demands than those ofthe current economic struggle. Free abortion on demand! Free. quality, 24-hourdining halls, laundries and chi ldcar e'Equal pay ~ f o r equal. work! For women'sliberation through socialist revolution!A particularly grotesque expression of10

ReutersPolit ical swindler Bill Clinton signsbill to "end welfare as we know it " in1996, consigning multitudes to evengreater poverty and deprivation.against terror, which I assume will eventually lead to cavity searches at the EIstops. As we've noted, in the recentperiod, under Bush and under Bill Clintonbefore him, and evidently under Kerryand the Democrats, who are really worried that Bush hasn't made us "safe"enough, the government has operated insuch a manner as to essentially assert thatcitizens have no rights that the government is bound to respect. Like mostDemocrats, Kerry is interested in increasing pressure on North Korea, as part andparcel of what the Democrats consider tobe the appropriate role for U.S. imperialism, which is to drive off the map anysocieties that have expropriated capitalism. He's very much for what the Israelisare doing to the Palestinians, which ispotentially genocidal in nature, He wrotea little tract called "The Cause of Israel Isthe Cause of America." The good thing,he says, is "help is on the way"; there's alight at the end of the tunnel. Well, unfortunately it is a train, I believe.

There'll be no substantIve change inthe condition of working people unlessthere is class struggle in this country.Wages will go up and down. Some morewill be hired or not hired. But the generaldirection is down, unless there's strugglein the factories and struggle in the streets.

bourgeois nationalism among workershas been the emergence of fairly widespread anti-Semitic prejudices, generallydirected against the bourgeois politicianwho runs the IMSS, Santiago Levy. Thisindividual is certainly a leech and enemyof all workers, but this has absolutelynothing to do with his ethnic or religiousorigins. In reality, anti-Semitism is a stupid and reactionary ideology that thebourgeoisie uses to deflect social discontent and confuse more backward workersas to who their real enemy is, that is, thebourgeoisie as a class. That is why antiSemitism is known as the "socialismof fools." On more than one occasion,our comrades have had to combat antiSemitic prejudices at SNTSS rallies andmarches. What is incredible is that thereare organizations that claim to be "leftist" that not only tolerate these prejudices, but sometimes even participate inthem. So, for example, the widely distributed "leftist" newspaper Macheteartepublished in its 12-13 April issue a disgusting article on the IMSS whichblamed the anti-working-class attacks ona "new world order run by the international Jewry." The false identification of aparticular ethnic group with the exploiters and bankers was a central componentof the ideology of the Nazis, who assassinated six million Jews in the Holocaust.No decent worker. and much less a genuine leftist. should tolerate this garbage!As Trotsky explained on the eve ofWorld War II:

"Before exhaw,ting or drowning mankindin blood. capitali\m befouls the worldatmosphere with the poisonous vapors ofnational and race hatred. Anti-Semitismtoday is one of the more malignant convulsions of capitalism's death agony.

Eighty percent of the delegates at theDemocratic Convention were against theIraq war. And yet Kerry isn't. Why? Thereason is the American imperialists cannotabide the idea of giving up their positionin the Near East. which has both geopolitical and oil resources of untold imporlarPce. And so they can't. in any meaningful way, pull out. They might end themilitary hostilities in some way, althoughit's still a mystery how they're going todo that. But they cannot really give uptheir influence in that part of the world.This could happen through a couple ofmechanisms: either proletarian revolutionin the area, or if they lost it to their imperialist competitors. And this the Americanimperialists are not going to abide. Nobourgeois candidate could promise, infact. to get out of the Near East, andindeed Kerry doesn't.Nor does Ralph Nader. for that matter.He says he'll leave expeditiously. I haveto admit I have trouble seeing what people find in Nader. He's in many ways atypical small businessman. He doesn'tlike unions in his business, doesn't likeChinese imports, noLa word about blackpeople, worries about immigration, toomany people coming in, supports capitalism but thinks the big corporations areunfair. I mean, this is not very exciting,

and his main purpose for running, as hestates it, is to pressure the Democrats.Nevertheless, there are a couple groups,the International Socialist Organizationand Socialist Alternative, that are hypinghim in the elections, which reveals, Ithink, their reformist core. That is, whatthey really stand for is not socialism, buta reform of the capitalist order. SocialistAlternative describes this as "criticalsupport." Now sometimes in fact we, theSpartacist League, have given criticalsupport to working-class parties. Nothingwrong with that. But what is critical support of a capitalist? It can only be construed as critical suppo!,t of capitalism.Moreover, Socialist Alternative calls onNader to build a workers party in thecountry. As my daughter would say,"what have these guys been smoking?"How can somebody who's not fond oftrade unions form a workers party in thiscountry?Elections and voting can be good forsome things. But the government is theexecutive committee of the ruling class,

"An uncompromising disclosure of theroots of race prejudice and all forms andshades of national arrogance and chauvinism, particularly anti-Semitism, shouldbecome part of the daily work of all sec-tions of the Fourth International, as themost important part of the struggleagainst imperialism and war. Our basicslogan remain.s: Workers of the WorldUnite!"-"The Death Agony ofCapitalism and the Tasks of theFourth International" (1938)The workerscause requires the forging

of a party that is not only capable ofrepresenting the interests of the workers

and the core of capitalist class rule is thecops, the army and the courts. In the finalanalysis. it's the gun. Guns don't respondto votes. The cops and the army, thoseclass institutions. have to be smashed ifthere's going to be a socialist revolution.If there was such a party in power. theimmediate effects would be: Free healthcare for everyone, next day. Free education at all levels for everyone, next day. Amove to end the forced segregation ofblacks in this society, next day. A move toemploy everybody in this society, nextday. Everybody's wage is livable. That'seasy. And then We begin to build for reaLfor a real socialist future.Now we're not that party. Our numbersare too modest. our influence in the working class is too small. But we do have elements: we have the program and we havethe will. We have the program for socialist revolution, which comes from Marx,Lenin and Trotsky, applied to these circumstances. And we have the necessarywill to fight to forge that party, and neverto cave in to one liberal or bourgeois fador another, as do our opponents. Ouropponents generally accuse us of notdoing much. Actually, if you were to joinus, you would do more than you wantedto. There are leaflets to write. There arethings to be learned about socialism,about the history and structure of thethought of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky.There are demonstrations to be had.There are interventions to make, to expose the people who prop up this systemthrough their illusions.

So there's lots of work. We built demonstrations against the Klan, in the urbancenters, a couple around Chicago. Webuilt a demonstration out in Oakland several months af ter September I I, whichcalled for "Down with the war on immigrants! Down with the Patriot Act!" Inproportion to our size and abilities, wecarry out such actions as we can, arounda program that is for the working class.So, to those of you who burn, I guess thatwould be the word, at the current injustice, oppression and slaughter that wehave been offered by the capitalist system, you can of course continue to voteand hope that things don't get worse. Theodds are they will. Or, you can join us andconsider fighting for the end of injustice,oppression and -exploitation for all time.And that's not a bad deal. .

against all the capitalist parties, but thatcan also unite all the oppressed who fightagainst the brutality of the capitalistsystem behind the workers movement,whether they be women, peasants, students, homosexuals or indigenous people-in other 'words, a party capable ofleading a workers revolution. The struggleto build such a party is the reason why theGrupo Espartaquista de Mexico exists.We invite all thoughtful workers who areconsidering how to advance the workingclass cause to read our press and discusswith us . --- SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S.--Local Directory and Public Offices

Web site: www.icl-fi.org E-mail address:[email protected] Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 (212) 732-7860Boston Los Angeles OaklandBox 390840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. Box 29497Cambridge, MA 02139 Los Angeles, CA 90029 Oakland, CA 94604(617) 666-9453 (213) 380-8239 (510) 839-0851Chicago Public Office: Sat. 2-5 p.m.3806 Beverly Blvd., Room 215 Public Office:Sat. 1-5 p.m.1634 Telegraph3rd Floorew YorkBox 6441, Main POChicago, IL 60680(312) 563-0441Public Office:

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Box 77494San FranciscoCA 94107299 Broadway, Suite 318

TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA/LiGUE TROTSKYSTE DU CANADATorontoBox 7198, Station AToronto, ON M5W 1X8(416) 593-4138

VancouverBox 2717, Main PO.Vancouver, BC V6B 3X2(604) 687-0353WORKERS VANGUARD


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Black ...(continued from page 12)Department of Law Enforcement has sentarmed state troopers into elderly blackvoters' homes on an "investigation" ofvoter fraud-despite the department having decided in May that the charges werebaseless! The president of the FloridaVoters League (a group that works toincrease black electoral turnout), EugenePoole, stated:

"These guys are using these intimidatingmethods to try and get these folks to stayaway from the polls in the future. Andyou know what? It's working. Onewoman said, 'My God, they're going toput us in jail for nothing.' I said, 'That'snot true'."-Nell' York Times, 20 August"Not true"? In 1985, longtime Alabamacivil rights activist Spiver Gordon wasconvicted of "voter fraud" for the "crime"of assisting elderly black people to fileabsentee ballots, which allowed blacks tovote without fear or intimidation in theprivacy of their own homes. The prosecution and conviction of Gordon were partof a concerted campaign by the Reaganadministration to disenfranchise blackvoters, particularly in the South.

Today, a national law, ironically namedthe Help America Vote Act of 2002(HAVA), has significantly tightened IDrequirements for those newly registeringand voters across the country, making iteasier to turn voters away. In a test run ofthese requirements in Chicago, 95 percentof the provisional ballots cast by thosewhose "identity" was in question wereinvalidated. In an amusing twist, Senator Kit Bond of Missouri, who pushedthrough the HAVA, found himself struckfrom the rolls in his hometown and had togo through a tedious rigmarole to votefor himself. The Spartacist League standsopposed to any and all restrictions on therights of citizens to vote and for the rightof all immigrants (documented or not)to full citizenship rights-induding theright of franchise.Many states are moving toward electronic b a l 1 ~ t i n g . The companies that provide these machines have close links tothe Republican Party: Election Systemsand Software (its predecessor companywas headed by current Republican Senator Chuck Hagel), Sequoia Voting Systems (whose products were rejected asinsecure against fraud in the 1990s byNew York City), Hart InterCivic (one ofwhose main investors was an early financial backer of Bush's business schemes)and Diebold Election Systems (alsolinked to the GOP). These systems eliminate any paper trail and, as the Nation(16 August) put it, could be used "toinvisibly falsify the outcomes" of elections. With a little finagling with the software, these "innovations" could renderold methods of stealing an election, likeleaving dead people on the rolls and stuffing ballots, superfluous. And there wouldbe no gravestones to check.Stealing elections is nothing new, andit's hardly limited to the Republicans. Infact, one could say that this old American "art" was perfected by DemocraticParty machines in cities like New York(Tammany Hall) and Chicago (the Daleymachine-"vote early, vote often").Beyond dicey electronic voting systemsand police intimidation, though, and farmore instrumental in the purge of blackpeople from the rolls, is the racist "war ondrugs." We have long declared that this"war" is a war against black people. Overtwo million people are in state and federalprisons, largely on drug charges. Thisattack focuses on black people, whetherthrough cop rampages through the ghettosof the inner cities or through the depredations of regional narcotics task forces,likethe one in rural Texas that framed up46 people in 1999 (see "Tulia VictimsFreed, Finally," WV No. 813, 7 November 2003). While the white population inprison for drug offenses increased by 306percent between 1985 and 1995, the number of black people incarcerated for thesame period shot up by 707 percent undermandatory sentencing schemes supportedby both Republicans and Democrats-1 OCTOBER 2004

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Library of CongressMassachusetts 54th, first black regiment, charging Fort Wagner, July 1863.Civil War smashed s l a ~ e r y and won the franchise fo r black men.including John Kerry. We are for thedecriminalization of drugs. -The war on drugs has a direct effect onwho votes and who doesn't. Five statespermanently ban felons and ex-felonsfrom voting (including Florida), whileonly two states allow prisoners to vote(Maine and Vermont-both of whichhave tiny black popUlations), and the resthave policies that to one degree oranother fall between these two poles. Theresult is clear. Felony convictions bar 4.6million Americans from voting (some 2.3percent of the electorate), of whom overa third are black men. Indeed, 13 percentof black men are currenrly barred fromvoting, and many more felons who couldvote believe they cannot.All of this emphasizes the tenuousnessof basic democratic rights in capitalistAmerica-especially for black people.The Republicans know that they are notgoing to get the black vote; they are aparty of plutocrats, racist bigots and!Jible-thumping yahoos and make nobones about it. But what of the Democrats, the party that stands to lose fromthe purge of black voters? At first blush,one would think that they would vigor"ously defend black voting rights, if onlyfor the obvious electoral advantage.But no. Even after their betrayal of theblack masses following Reconstruction,the Republicans, guaranteed the blackvote given that the Democrats were theparty of choice for the KKK, were quitewilling to let the Democrats terrorize anddisenfranchise the black populacewhich generally voted Republican untilthe era of the New Deal, an alliancebetween Northern liberals and SouthernDixiecrats that did nothing to enfranchise the majority of black people, mostof whom then lived in the Jim CrowSouth. In the aftermath of the civil rightslegislation of the 1960s, and with theRepublicans' strategic drive to becomeidentified as the party of right-wing reaction, the Democrats have been guaranteed the lion's share of the black vote.Democrats have been at most tepid intheir defense of the franchise for blackpeople. According to the New York Times(26 September), there has been a bigincrease in the registration of new voters,mainly black and minority, in swingstates. But the key thing here is swing. states. In states where a Democratic victory is all but assured, black disenfranchisement continues apace. For example,more than 40 percent of black men inseveral neighborhoods in south Providence, Rhode Island are barred from voting because of felony convictions.One of the most striking scenes inMichael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 showedAl Gore, as President of the Senate,ruling a series of black Congressmen out oforder as they contested the 2000 presidential election results due to the eventsin Florida-the very events that almostcertainly cost him the presidency. Because of the black constituencies .thatthese Congressmen represented (or misrepresented), they felt even more robbedby the election outcome than the manfrom whom the election was actuallystolen. But in ruling out these Congress-

men, Al Gore was not acting out of faintheartedness. Rather, it was due to theclass nature of the Democratic Party. As a capitalis t party, the Democrats are everybit as committed to the maintenance ofthe racist, capitalist order as the Republicans. They merely argue over the details.The overriding factor for Gore and theDemocratic establishment was that the.isanctity" of the imperial American presidency not be blemished by a dispute overwho won. In urging Gore to back down,for example, the New York Times (9 November 2000) wrote: "This is a time forboth presidential candidates, their advisersand their parties to proceed with extremecaution-a caution merited by the dangerthat events could lurch suddenly towardpolitical or constitutional crisis. The tradition of regular, reliable elections andorderly transitiol1 of power is one of theglories of American democracy."

Another "one of the glories of American democracy" is the oppression ofblack people, which forms a key structyral component of American capitalism;

Hotel ....(continued from page 12)on an industrial basis. On top of this,Local 11 workers continue to work inthe Wilshire Grand while their sistersand brothers are locked out! The LosAngeles Times (17 September) noted,"Maria Elena Durazo, president of UniteHere Local 11, said its 2,800 workerswould strike if asked" by Local 52.','Asked"?! It is scandalous that workersare continuing to work a hotel where otherworkers are locked out! Meanwhile, Local52 is passing around leaflets that lamelyask Wilshire Grand customers if they are"having Problems with your Linen S e r v ~ 'ice," while making clear that the uniondoes not intend "that anyone shouldrefuse to deliver or provide goods or services or stop work"! These developmentsare a stinging indictment of the UNITEHERE bureaucrats.The potential hotel workers strike inL.A., San Francisco and D.C. is aimed atsecuring common hotel contract expiration dates in 2006 with six other citiesand Hawaii to present a solid union frontagainst the major national and international hotel chains. As we wrote in "For aSolid Strike! For a National Contract!Hotel Workers Confront Bosses' UnionBusting (WV No. 832, 17 September):"The bosses' strong-arm unity must bemet with the strong, united determinationof the labor movement, a solid hotel work-ers strike shutting down the hotels withmass pickets that no one crosses!" Organ-ize the hotels on an industrial basis!"In Queens, the workers are strikingfor union recognition and against miserable working conditions and humiliating treatment by the bosses. A youngblack woman told Workers Vanguard, "Iwork seven days a week, 365 days ayear, on call. I have to call at 7 0 ' clockevery morning. I have two small children'to worry about. I barely make enoughmoney to pay the babysitter. I'm only mak-

the ruling class wields racism to maintain a pernicious division in the working class. Whether it be "ending welfareas we know it" under Clinton, consigning already poverty-stricken familiesto greater privation, rining up pehind theracist "war on drugs" or throwing themselves foursquare in support of the "waron terror," the Democrats have proven,and every day continue to prove, that theyare no friends to black and workingpeople. Even a longtime hustler for theDemocrats (and sometime wire for theFBI), Al Sharpton, faced a barrage of hostility when he attempted to simply addressthe racism black people face in the UnitedStates at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer. (Thespeech of the current black Democraticrising star, Barack Obama, which whitewashed the bitter reality of racist oppression in America, went over much better.)But while the ballot is a fundamentalright, a right we tenaciously defend, fundamental change will not come throughvoting. It was not by the ballot that slaverymet its demise; it was not by the ballotthat Jim Crow was ended. Union rightsdid not come from Congress qr the president. All the gains working people andblack people have made came throughtheir seizing them, by mass struggles onthe battlefields, in the factories and on thestreets, from the racist rulers.These gains, though real, are also, asone can see from the erosion of blackvoting rights, reversible, and the racist,warmongering Democratic Party is nodefense against the racist, warmongeringRepublican Party. Working people needtheir own party, a revolutionary partythat recognizes that the fight for blackfreedom and the fight for the emancipation of labor are inextricably linked. Wein the Spartacist League seek to buildsuch a party to do away with the capitalist order and create an egalitarian socialist society in which the perfidies of thepast shall be relegated to the historybooks and expunged from the lives offuture generations. ing $10 an hour, not even 40 hours. I'venever made five days." She explained thatworkers qualify for medical after threemonths, and many, like her, cannot affordthe $65 per week for benefits. Anotherworker told WV, "The workers that arefor the union, they get harassed. Theytreat us like children. They want to writeyou up if you punch in a minute too lateor [out] a minute early. They want toassign a time for us to go to the cafeteriaand eat like little kids in schoo!." Indeed,the b o s s e ~ ' attitude was most despicablyexpressed by one Martin Fields, ownerof the New York City airport motels,who said, "J feel like my children arerebelling" (New York Times, 23 September)! He went on to describe the union asa "cult," blathering on, "Think of JimJones. You just get them to drink theKool-Aid," referring to the mass cult suicide in Guyana in 1978!UNITE HERE is attempting to establish common contract expiration dates nationally for hotel workers, as well ascommon expiration dates for casino workers, while conducting organizing drives.To win, the union has to rely on its ownpower and the mobilization of its allies inlabor. Given the composition of thisworkforce, the struggle to organize thehote!" industry is also a struggle for immigrant, black and women's rights.In order for the working class to fightfor its interests, it has to be independentof and in opposition to the capitalistrulers. The labor movement must opposeU.S. imperialist adventlues abroad andthe capitalists' drive to increase theexploitation of workers at home, as wellas the "war on terror," which meansincreased attacks on i m m i g r a n t s ~ blackpeople and the working class. This meansa fight to build a new class-struggle leadership in the unions to replace the procapitalist union bureaucracy that keepsworking people chained to their capitalist enemies, most often through supportto the Democratic Party. Victory to thehotel workers!.

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W(JItIlEItS "."'ltl)

AP1965: In Selma, Alabama state troopers attack black civil rights demonstrators marching against racist voter registration procedures. 2000: Protesters againstracist intimidation of black voters in Florida.

Black Disenfranchisementand American "Democracy"In the 2000 elections, Florida madeheadlines across the globe as its electoralmachinery worked to spit out a result favorable to George W. Bush-an outcome subsequently assured by the blatantly partisanintervention of the U.S. Supreme Court,whose chief justice, William Rehnquist,

.Iaunched his career 40 years ago by purging blacks from Arizona's voter rolls.While confusing ballots that led manyold Jewish women to vote for sinisterrightist Patrick Buchanan dominated thenews, black people were the target of aconcerted effort to rob them of their rightto vote. Police roadblocks barred theways to polling places, and many blackpeople who managed to get through foundthemselves barred from voting even ifthey carried a voter registration card.Nearly 140,000 black men in Floridawere denied suffrage in the last presidential election due to felony convictions, many of them resulting from theracist, bipartisan "war on drugs." In Jacksonville, an astounding 9 percent of ballots cast were invalidated, over a third of

Finish the Civil War!For Black Liberation ThroughSocialist Revolution!

them cast by black people. Meanwhile,over in Missouri, the corpse of DemocratMel Carnahan beat the still breathingJohn Ashcroft, now Bush's AttorneyGeneral, for a seat in the U.S. Senate ina stinging repudiation of Ashcroft's fanatical conservatism--':and with a heavy'turnout of black voters.Florida was not alone. In many blackprecincts in Chicago, as many as one insix ballots were tossed out. The Republicans have forgotten none of this and arehatching new plans to prevent black people, who overwhelmingly vote Dem-

ocrat, from voting. A Republican statelegislator in the bitterly contested state ofMichigan, John Pappageorge, has statedbluntly, "I f we do not suppress theDetroit vote [in a city that is over 80 percent black], we're going to have a toughtime in this election" (New York Times,13 September). Florida election officialsdrafted a list of those disqualified due topast felony convictions; of some 48,000felons, roughly 22,000 were blacks.Strikingly, the list included only 61 Hispanics, who in southern Florida arelargely anti-Castro gusano reactionaries,

a key Republican constituency.These are nothing less than a frontalattack on the basic democratic right ofblacks to vote. While there is not a candidate in this election who represents theinterests of workers, black people andother oppressed minorities, we are intransigent defenders of the hard-won right tovote. The bloody Civil War that smashedchattel slavery won black men the rightof the franchise, which was then largelystripped from them in the South during the Jim Crow era. Black people in theSouth regained voting rights throughthe courageous struggles of the civil rightsmovement-struggles that faced brutalpolice repression and KKK nightridingterror. Civil rights activists AndrewGoodman, Michael Schwerrrer and JamesChaney, whose bodies were dredgedfrom a muddy dam in Neshoba County,Mississippi in 1964, were among thoselynched for fighting for black people'sright to the franchise.In a throwback to that era, Florida's

continued on page 11

Victory to NYC Airport Hotel Workers Strike!

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Fight L.A. Hotel Laundry Worker Lockout!n September 22, ISO hotel workers in Queens,New York went on strike against three airport

hotels-the Holiday Inn and the Hampton Inn nearKennedy and the Crowne Plaza near La Guardiaafter management fired ten workers active in unionorganizing. Led by the New York Hotel TradesCouncil, an umbrella organization for the area localsof UNITE HERE hotel workers union, the strikersare rightly calling on pilots, flight attendants andothers who normally patronize the hotels not to usethem during the strike. Meanwhile, on September16, just two days after 10,000 union hotel workersin Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington,D.C. overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, theWilshire Grand hqtel staged a provocation by locking out 17 laundry workers in UNITE HERE Local52, whicQ. has been in negotiations with the hotel.With no warning, the laundry workers, reportingfor work at 6:00 a.m., just hours after their contract

expired. were summarily handed the followingnotice by management: "You Are Hereby LOCKEDOUT Until Further Notice. Do Not Attempt To EnterThe Facilities." Many of these workers have workedat the hotel for decades. The laundry workers' lockout is an explicit chalienge to UNITE HERE tostrike. John Stoddard, Wilshire Grand general manager and outspoken member of the Hotel Employers Council, said he took the action knowing it couldprompt a strike, bragging, "We brought in replacement workers. We had them all lined up in case thishappened" (Los Angeles Times, 17 September).These workers were easily targeted because theunton tops did not merge the laundry workers inLocal 52 (formerly a UNITE local) into the generalhotel workers UNITE HERE Local II in July whenthe national merger of UNITE and HERE tookplace, so that all hotel workers would be organizedconti;lUed on page 11 September 25: Striking hotel workers indemand union recognition.

1 OCTOBER 2004

Documents

Workers Vanguard No 833 - 01 October 2004