(JIiIlEIiS ,,1N(;(J,1Ii' 25¢No. 300 ;"'::;;:. X·S23 5 March 1982

Anti-Soviet War BuilduR Is Killing Auto Workers

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WV Photo

Detroit auto workers demonstrate outside Cobo Hall, February 20,against Fraser's billion-dollar betrayal as city is hit with depression­level unemployment.

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"Cooperative Economy":Workers Give, Bosses Take

Needless to say, capitalist spokesmenare celebrating the end of union power.In the Sen York Times (14 February)anti-labor columnist A. H. Raskin an­nounces the emergence of "The Coop­erative Economy" and crows that "con­frontation has gone out of fashion." Hereports that AFL-CIO head LaneKirkland and Exxon chairman Clifton

continued on page 9

which now is gutting whole sectors ofbasic industry in this country. Workersmust use their ultimate economic powerin the capitalist order: the power towithhold their labor. In the growingindustrial ghost towns of the Midwestthe appropriate tactics are the ones thatbuilt the unions-like the sit-downstrike. This could spark the kind of classstruggle that could turn things around inAmerica.

s••I

When U.S. capitalism was a risingpower early in this century, the foundingfather of American business unionism,Samuel Gompers, was asked what wasthe goal of organized labor. "More," heresponded. Today, as American capital­ism visibly decays all around us,Gompers' descendants have a newanswer: "Less"!

In 1982 organized labor is in full-scaleretreat, meekly accepting a wave ofgivebacks that is unheard of in modernAmerican history. Why? And what canlabor militants do to fight this plaguethat threatens the future of the unionmovement and the working class?

Cnited Auto Workers (UAW) presi­dent Doug Fraser's SI billion giveawayto Ford Motor is the most spectacular ofa number of recent givebacks in thetrucking, rubber, airline and autoindustries. Hard-won union gains goingback decades-the principle of equalpay for equal work, the uniformindustry-wide contract. the cost-o£­il'vll1g adjustment--huve ali beenscrapped.

Thousands of auto workers votedagainst the Fraser sellout knowing theyhad nothing to lose by refusing to crawlbefore Henry Ford. But neither do theranks see what they have to gain todayfrom Jabor reformism. The demand for"more" appears hopeless when theredoes not seem to be any more. Businessunionism as usual just can't operatewhen capitalism is in economic crisis.The old snake oil won't sell and thesellout artists don't even bother to try.For years they pushed the DemocraticParty. but who is now offering COPE asthe way to stop the givebacks?!

The bureaucrats say nothing can bedone. And if you accept the demands ofthe capitalist system they are right. Thefight against givebacks requires aprogram to mobilize labor against theboom-bust system of production forprofit \vhicn has subjected workers toalternating speedup and layoffs untilthey are thrown on the scrapheap, and

Rouge Militants Say~

Ford WorkersMust FightlDETROIT, February 27-The hard sellbegan a week ago. The UAW Interna­tional ripped off the strike fund to send1.000 Ford union officials to Cobo Hallto hear the company line on Doug

Fraser's billion-dollar betrayal. Thebureaucrats were particularly con­cerned with the rank and file at Ford'sstrategic River Rouge Local 600 planthere. Voting was scheduled at the end of

the week, with the hope that a signifi­cant "yes" vote at outlying regionswould be piled up. International repswere rounded up to attend the "informa­tional" meetings at the Rouge. In theend, Fraser's Solidarity House gangsucceeded in ramming through itshistoric betrayal. Even so the vote at theRouge, 5,800 to 3,400, reflected signifi­cant opposition.

At Local 600 only the Rouge MilitantCaucus (RMC) organized for a class­struggle fight against this Reagancontract. The RMC distributed a leafletand resolution at plant gates, unitmeetings and the polls entitled, "DumpFord/Fraser's Billion Dollar Ripoff!Organize a Two-Day Sitdown!" Theleaflet stressed that for younger andolder workers alike Fraser's promise ofjob security was a big lie: "For laid offworkers. four weeks of SUB pay won't

save your homes, or keep you offReagan's soup lines or minimum wagejobs." Higher seniority workers wouldnever even get the humiliating provi­sions of Fraser's "guaranteed incomestream" (GIS). "Because when Fordstarts laying off I5-year workers, they'llspit in our faces, tear up the agreementand demand more concessions.... Thisdeal is designed to starve us intosubmission, carve up our union and setus up so Ford can finish the job."

Emphasizing that only bold classstruggle can halt the devastation ofworkers and blacks in Detroit, the RMCstated:

"Crawling to the company and waitingfor Jimmy Carter's Democratic Partywon't save us. Everv worker has theright to a job. but this right has to befought for. We have the power: use itbefore they throw more of us out into

continued on page 11

Fremont Auto Militants Say~

Keep the Plant Open .Sit Down!

International Women's DaySpartacist Forums

50<1: eachsubscription (4 issues) $2Make payable/mail .to:Spartacist Publishing Co ..Box 1377 GPONew York, N.Y. 10116

WV Photo

the auto workers' real enemy: their ownbosses and the bosses' government.

Karen Allen was applauded when sheaddressed the meeting a second time:

"I want to answer the anti-Japanesestatements.... What [a committeeman]was calling for was a return to WorldWar II. Every union member shouldunderstand that historically trade warshave blown up into shooting wars.These anti-Japanese statements areracist shit, and they are also theprogram of Metzger of the KKK. who'srunning for office in California. Whatthis program means is jobs for whiteAmericans only. not for blacks orChicanos. If plants are closing inCalifornia to go to Mexico becausewages are lower there. then the U AWshould be organizing in Mexico for fullwages and there won't be any morerunaways. Our union should have nopart of this anti-Japanese policy, it is theopposite of everything we stand for.''I'd also like to say something aboutthis call to bring back the DemocraticParty. I think we remember all too wellthe last Democratic president we had.In fact, guys twice my age will tell youthat year after year no matter whatpresident we had, Democratic orRepublican, the facts of life were thesame. What we need is a labor party tofight for our interests."

The protectionist chauvinism of thebureaucrats is being used to ideological­ly line up the working class to bemarched off in another imperialist war.The Maoist and Stalinoid junior bu­reaucrats like Liz Stanley and CharlotteCasey of the pro-Peking CPML andsupporters of the LRS (Unity) stronglybacked this racist campaign for protec­tionist legislation at today's meeting.Communist Workers Party supportersin the plant sat silent through all theanti-Japanese diatribes, then issued aleaflet the next day complaining aboutFord's and GM's imports from Japan!The "buy American" jingoism has alsobeen echoed by the Stalinist People'sWorld. In every previous layoff theCasey/Stanley bunch opposed a sit­down (and now push concessions "taskforces" and "stress counseling" forunemployed auto workers). Those whosabotaged class struggle at home nowaid the drive to get U.S. workersshooting at their class brothers abroad.

The UAW Militant Caucus hasfought to expose and replace thebankrupt union bureaucrats and theirreformist junior partners whose politicsgot the union in this condition. TheFremont shutdown captures in micro­cosm the historical crisis of revolution­ary leadership faced by the workingclass. A sitdown is objectively needed,and yet as Leon Trotsky wrote in theTransitional Program:

'''Realizability' or 'unrealizability' is inthe given instance a question of therelationship of forces, which can bedecided only by the struggle."

The militants at Fremont, howeverinsufficient their forces, have fought toget a section of the class moving andchange that relationship of forces. Thisis still the task that remains to be done.•

Women and CommunismSpeaker: D.L. Reissner

Saturday, March 6, 7:30 p.m.Pendarves LoungeInternational Student CentreUniversity of TorontoTorontoFor more information (416) 593-4138

Women and RevolutionSpeaker: D.L. Reissner

editorial board member,Women and Revolution

Thursday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.Room 102, Lincoln HallUniversity of IllinoisChampaign-UrbanaFor more information (217) 384-7793

Women and Communism ISpeaker: D. L. Reissner

Sunday, March 7, 7:30 p.m.Wilder Hall, YW LoungeOberlin CollegeOberlinFor more information: (216) 621-5138

threatened was to run to the Fremontcity council to request the formation of a"Task Force" that would lobby GM tokeep the plant open longer. The March ISan Jose Mercury reports that a TaskForce subcommittee including themayor of Fremont (a Volkswagendealer) and John Scrempos, local unionvice president, has been delegated tomeet with GM officials in Detroit to "tryto persuade GM to keep the Fremontplant open until it can work out withGM what incentives may be necessaryfor the company to continue to buildcars in California." The key word is"incentives" and it means separate localconcessions agreements. Since Screm­pos would hardly undertake such aventure without the International's OK,it may well signal the International'snew strategy to force Ford-style con­cessions on GM workers.

Concessions and putting the blame onforeign auto workers are two sides of thesame coin. The International's programis to keep U.S. auto companies "com­petitive," as Whipple said, i.e., increasetheir profits at the expense of theworkers. So on the one hand, Fraser &Co. directly negotiate for union conces­sions to the companies (under the termsof the new Ford contract not one of thecurrent wave of plant shutdowns wouldbe prohibited). Secondly, they pushdangerous protectionist legislation,including H. R. 5133, the proposed "FairPractices in Automotive Products Act"requiring that a certain percentage ofparts and labor going into vehicles beproduced in the U.S. Both strategies arecompletely opposed to any fight against

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Against SolidarnoscCounterrevolutionHail Rosa Luxemburg!Speaker: Diana ColemanFriday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.UC Extension55 Laguna, Room 202San FranciscoFor more information: (415) 863-6963

Against SolidarnoscCounterrevolutionHail Rosa Luxemburg!Speaker: Diana Coleman

Sunday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.2003 Life Science Bldg.UC BerkeleyBerkeleyFor more information: (415) 835-1535

Fremont GM:Once the

largest planton the

West Coast,now on the

capitalistscrap heap.

that the companies spent millions ofdollars to prevent us from bettering ourstandard of living. But now they don'thave to because our dues money paysFraser and Whipple to do it for them.You're not interested in using the powerof the union to increase our benefits orsave our jobs. But I say our membersare. The unions will fight. There will bestrikes. And you guys will be sweptaside. Therefore Mr. Chairman, giventhat GM made $333 million last yearand doesn't have to close this plant, Imove that this local immediately organ­ize a sit-down strike to begin Mondaymorning."

The UAW Militant Caucus has workedconsistently and repeatedly to fight thelayoffs and keep the plant open (see therecent Caucus leaflet reprinted on pageII). The fight has got to start some­where: with fully half of all GM workerslaid off nationwide and a quarter­million UAW members thrown out onthe street, a sitdown at anyone plantcould be a turning point and spark afight for jobs in auto.

WV asked Karen how the membersresponded at the meeting and sheexplained, "Well, there was scatteredapplause. The local bureaucrats and ofcourse the International has beenworking pretty hard to beat these guysdown, and they are feeling demoralized.But there's still a lot of anger there, and Iwas expressing something they've beenfeeling for years that no one else wassaying. The local president Willie Maysruled my motion out of order right awayand got on tb the speeches trying to steerthe members' anger against Japaneseauto workers."

The Local 1364 bureaucrats' firstinstinct when their own jobs were

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IssueNo.24

JustOut!

FREMONT, California, February 28­Today was the last meeting of UAWLocal 1364 before the General Motorsassembly plant closes its doors onMarch 5. Opened in 1963, the sprawlingFremont GMAD facility used to be thelargest auto plant on the West Coast. Inattendance at the meeting were mostlyolder workers with seniority rangingfrom 14 to over 30 years. They are thelast ones left in the plant after successivelayoffs in the last three years cut thelocal from 6,800 workers to 2,500. Thesemembers, facing the loss of their jobsand their homes, listened as regionalrepresentatives of the UAW Interna­tional repeated the insulting insinuationof the Fraser bureaucrats that autoworkers are to blame for their ownlayoffs.

Region 6 director Jerry Whipple saidthe majority of American workers votedfor Reagan (and presumably deserve theconsequences). If the workers had gonealong with concessions to GM, headded, then "perhaps" that would havestopped these plants from closing. (GMalso announced it will close the SouthGate plant in Los Angeles and a halfdozen others because the company canmake more money by consolidatingproduction at fewer, more centrallocations.) Whipple and Earlie Mays,former local leader of the BrotherhoodCaucus and now International rep,advocated "fighting all the way toSacramento" for chauvinist anti-importlegislation.

The International reps did not gounanswered. After dozens of anguishedquestions from the floor (for example,"If I have 19 years seniority and I'munder 40, will I get any pension?"),Karen Allen of the UAW MilitantCaucus, a class-struggle opposition witha ten-year history in the local, took thefloor:

"How can Earlie Mays expect us tobelieve that he's going to fight this whenWhipple has already said he's sorry hecouldn't get the concessions and he'splanning on going back into negotia­tions with GM. It's criminal for you tostand here and tell us about our benefitswhen inside you're laughing, you're gladthis plant is closing, because you'll use itas a hammer against the rest of theunion members to get them to acceptconcessions."Before the union was built it used to be

2 WORKERS VANGUARD

Reagan's Junta Holds"Elections by Death"

WfJRIlERSVANGUARDMarxist Working-Class Biweeklyof the Spartacist League of the U.S.EDITOR: Jan Norden

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Charles BurroughS

PRODUCTION: Darlene Kamiura (Manager),Noah Wilner

CIRCULATION MANAGER Linda Jarreau

EDITORIAL BOARD: George Foster. LizGordon, Mark Kellermann. James Robertson,Reuben Samuels, Joseph Seymour, MarjorieStamberg

Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) publishedbiweekly, skipping an Issue in August and aweek in December, by the Spartacist PublishingCo. 41 Warren Street. New York, NY 10007.Telephone: 732-7862 (Editorial), 732-7861(Business). Address all correspondence to: Box1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116 Domesticsubscriptions: $5.00/24 issues Second-classpostage paid at New York, NY.

Opinions expressed in signed articles or lettersdo not necessarily express the editorialviewpoint.

5 March 1982No. 300

L'Express

context of bloody civil war are eitherdisgusting imperialist hypocrisy or, in.the case of the reformist leaders of theFDR and FMLN, a preparation for asellout. FDR leader Guillermo Ungosays that the junta's March 28 exercise isa fraud, and the FMLN is stepping upthe fighting. Yet last. Octo~ t.b.e EDP IFMLN presented their latest minimumprogram to the United Nations, callingfor a so-called "political solution"consisting of "restructuring the armedforces" and elections!

To talk of any kind of elections whilethe junta's army is intact, not to men­tion the economic underpinnings oflandlord-capitalist rule, is preparing agigantic defeat for the Salvadoranmasses. The heroic worker and peasantfighters are not shedding their blood toget more electoral farces but to breakthe chains of oppression that bind them.Imperialism in its death throes erodesand destroys what limited democraticgains have been achieved in the past,which in a backward capitalist stateletlike EI Salvador are practically nil.Pleading for a "political solution" andpushing illusions in "free elections"won't stop Reagan and his killer junta.Military victory to the leftist insurgents!Workers revolution will establish genu­ine democracy for the exploited andoppressed.•

Only two parties, junta member JoseNapoleon Duarte's Christian Demo­crats and extreme rightist RobertoD'Aubuisson's Nationalist RepublicanAlliance, are on the ballot in everydistrict. Yet D'Aubuisson's armed thugsprevent Duarte's supporters from cam­paigning in much of the country.D'Aubuisson was the head of the secretpolice under former dictator HumbertoRomero and was thrown out of thearmy in 1979 when Carter's "humanrights" junta took power. The leader ofawell-known death squad, he is termed a"colorful and controversial figure" bythe U.S. embassy. The previous ambas­sador, Robert White, termed him a"pathological killer." D'Aubuisson isresponsible for the assassination ofArchbishop Oscar Romero last year, atleast twice attempted to overthrow thecurrent junta and was even deportedfrom the U.S. for threatening the lives ofU.S. diplomats.

Should D'Aubuisson and his gangachieve power "democratically," theirfirst goal will be to "exterminate" the left"within three months." "Napalm isessential," his press aide explained (NewYork Times, 19 February). Even theChristian Democratic front men for thejunta are on his hit list. Duarte associateJulio Prendes predicts that shouldD'Aubuisson take control, "more than5,000 Christian Democrats will be killedlike rats" (New York Times, 16 Febru­ary). Meanwhile, the "honesty" of theelectoral farce is to be certified byobservers from Uruguay and otherright-wing Latin American dictator­ships! Alone among NATO "allies,"Britain will also send observers. MaybeMaggie Thatcher is looking for a fewtips on how to stay in office come thenext British election.

Elections and the "PoliticalSolution"

The only way the will of the masses ofoppressed Salvadoran working peoplewill be expressed is if the junta, itsofficer corps and the landlords that backthem are swept away in workersrevolution. The military victory of theleftist forces is an absolute necessity onthe road to workers power in ElSalvador and the extension of therevolution throughout the region. Pro­grams for elections in the present

FMLN guerrillashave the juntaon the run.

Io'"<Di":00-

Q'"33':'c:'"iiio:0

"Voterregistration"

Salvador-style.

peasants under the leadership of Com­munist Farabundo Marti rebelled,resulted in la matanza, the massacre of30,000 peasants and leftists. Once againtoday, "elections" could lead to amonstrous bloodbath if the extremeultrarightist front-runner "wins." Thistime around the oligarchic exiles inMiami and their military butchers in EISalvador are talking of a "peace of200,000 dead."

If last year's "land reform" wasproperly known as the "reform bydeath," this month's balloting may wellbecome known as "elections by death."The only real opposition-the leftistRevolutionary Democratic Front(FOR), a popular-front alliance of theFarabundo Marti National LiberationFront (FMLN) guerrillas and bour­geois / petty-bourgeois politicians-iseffectively prohibited from running bythe simple fact that government-linkeddeath squads would kill any candidatewho attempted it. Even U.S. ambassa­dor Deane Hinton admitted this byrecommending that the FOR campaignvia videotape from exile! There will beno voter registration, as the electioncommission recognizes that Salvador­ans are loath to provide the rightist hitsquads with a ready-made death list. Soanyone who presents an 10 card will beallowed to vote.

Elections by Death?

As we have said before, EI Salvador isa country where "electoral" is a wordused only as an adjective describingfraud. In fact, the head of the Salvador­an Election Commission admits that hehasn't bothered to vote since 1972."Why vote in fake elections?" he asked.The last (and only) time anything faintlyresembling a free election took place inEI Salvador was 1931. The election of aliberal reform president prompted amilitary takeover and, when the Indian

While Reagan and Haig thunderabout doing "whatever is necessary"(blockade? invasion? Marines?) todefeat the leftist rebels in EI Salvador,American liberals are worried aboutgetting involved in another losing war toprop up a corrupt and murderous clientdictatorship. And Reagan's junta islosing. In mid-February junta presidentDuarte himself admitted, "We are losingthe fight with the guerrillas in thecountryside." Now the New York Times(I March) reports that:

"President Reagan's senior advisers saythey are not optimistic about thechances of a successful election nextmonth in El Salvador. or about theSalvadoran Government's abilitv toachieve a militarv victory over' therebels." . .

The phony March 28 elections hadbeen intended as a propaganda gimmickto prove that EI Salvador's junta is alegitimate part of the "free world." Thusthey could be used to pry more militaryaid out of the U.S. Congress, despiteannoying "human rights" restrictions.Instead the "vote" may demonstrate thejunta's isolation, thus encouraging theDemocrats to make EI Salvador anelection issue.

In particular, liberals fear that theU.S. is sinking into "another Vietnamquagmire." And if the body counts,"domino theory" rhetoric and bit-by-bitU.S. intervention evoke memories ofIndochina, so too do the crude ploysbeing used to "win the hearts andminds" of U.S. public opinion. TheMarch "elections" recall nothing somuch as the days when Ngo Dinh Diemor Marshal Ky were staging "freeelections" South Vietnam-style. With agun to their heads, the Salvadoranpeople are being forced to choosebetween one or another gang of rightwingers ... or else. Reagan's "elections"are a threat to the life and limb of everySalvadoran worker and peasant.

5 MARCH 1982 3

TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA

SPARTACIST LEAGUE LOCAL DIRECTORY

(416) 593-4138

Trotskyist Leagueof Canada

TorontoSat. 100-500 pm299 Queen St W, Suite 502Toronto, Ontario Phone

New York CityTues 6:00-9:00 pmSat.: 12:00-400 pm41 Warren St (one block belowChambers St near Church St )New York, NY Phone (212) 267-1025

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rally of military victory supporters:"The point about all of this is they don'twant communists in that demonstra­tion. people with red flags. They didn'twant people with signs that said'Military victory' and above all theydidn't want people who said 'Defend theUSSR and Cuba!' ... The main strategyof the reformists is to form an alliancewith a sector of the Democratic Party.... They want to keep their movement'ready for Teddy' Kennedy."

More than two dozen joined us onFebruary 20. A week later there wereeven more new faces at an NYCSpartacist forum on EI Salvador. Thebest answer to the pro-imperialist"doves" who call the cops on reds andpush a treacherous "political solution"with the bloodthirsty junta, is to build apowerful Anti-Imperialist Contingentin Washington, D.C. March 27!.

WV Photo

madder."Moreover, the CISPES/SWP/PAM

goons attempted not merely to segregatethe communists at "the back ofthe bus,"but to prevent us from marchingaltogether. When the parade had begunand it was abundantly clear they weregoing to seal us off, we moved out. Thisincident took place in front of TVcameras and in full view of many of the5,000 participants in the march. It wasclear to everyone that the marchorganizers were the disrupters. And thepurpose of such slimy articles is toharden up the reformists' ranks forfurther attempts at anti-communistexclusion in the future.

Even the bourgeois media couldfigure out that the communists werebeing excluded. On ChannelS news thatnight you could hear the Anti­Imperialist Contingent chanting "Wecall for rebel victory, they call the cops!"The newscaster commented: "The maingroup of demonstrators did not want tohave anything to do with the Trotskyiteswho had come along." Channel 7reported that there was a group of"radicals and communists." Theyshowed the militant Spartacist march­ers, signs for "Military Victory to LeftistInsurgents" and red flags with theemblem of Trotsky's Fourth Interna­tional, commenting: "The Salvadoranorganizers didn't want the extremists intheir parade and that led to a scuffle."The reformists' attempts to silence andisolate the revolutionaries failedmiserably.

Why are the reformists so anxious tokeep out the Spartacists? At the conclu­sion ofthe march, while the liberals weremaking pacifist speeches outside right­wing Senator Al D'Amato's office, anSL spokesman explained to a sidewalk

Young Spartacus

NYC, February 20: Reformist goons call the cops, but can't silencecommunists.

HoustonBox 26474Houston, TX 77207

Los AngelesBox 29574Los FeliZ StationLos Angeles. CA 90029(213) 662-1564

Madisonc/o SYLBox 2074Madison WI 5370 1

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groups of goons to try to stop us fromreaching the assembly site, even throw­ing up a police barricade which wasquickly swept away. Their actions werea deliberate provocation to get the copsto intervene, which they did. By thattime the advocates of leftist militaryvictory were firmly .established in themidst of the crowd. The same scene wasreplayed as the rally moved into thestreets for a.. march crosstown: thereformist goon squad tried vainly tokeep the SL from marching and then aswe were breaking through their lines,the police intervened again. During themarch a police van separated thecommunists from the dispirited goons,who kept turning around to listen to ourchants and to make sure the cops werestill there.

The SWP has since published adisgusting apology for this anti­communist cop exclusion, "SpartacistLeague Tries Disruption" (Militant,SMarch). According to this piece ofdisinformation,

" ... march organizers had decided to tryto minimize the possibility of a confron­tation by urging them [the SL] toparticipate at the end of the march."The Spartacists refused to negotiate,and when the march stepped off theysurged through the marshals, punchingseveral people and knocking othersdown."

In the first place, there were nonegotiations, attempted or otherwise.This cock-and-bull story is intended tohide the fact that CIS PES provoked thecops to set up barricades; later they gotthe police to prevent the SL from usingbullhorns. This collaboration with thepolice was so blatant that one copremarked to the CISPES spokesmanduring the march, "Look lady, stophanging around us. Every time they [theSL] see you talking to us they get

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~~WeCall forRebel Victory,They Callthe Cops!"

Chanting "Down with the junta,workers to power!" more than 100 anti­imperialist protesters marched to theassembly site of a February 20 NewYork City demonstration against U.S.intervention in EI Salvador. But fromthe moment the red flags and bannersreading "Military Victory to LeftistInsurgents!" came into view, the refor­mist and liberal organizers ofthe protesttried frantically to keep revolutionarypolitics out of their carefully orchestrat­ed rally for the Democratic Partyliberals. The failed attempt by theirgoon squad to turn back the SpartacistLeague (SL)-led contingent brought inthe cops, physically drawing the linebetween the politics of class struggle andclass collaboration-by excluding thereds.

Despite their best efforts, the Com­mittee in Solidarity with the People ofEI Salvador (CISPES), aided andabetted by the Socialist Workers Party(SWP) and the People's Antiwar Mobi­lization (PAM), were unable to silencethose who fight for a rebel victory on thebattlefields in EI Salvador. More thantwo dozen protesters, outraged at thisanti-communist exclusion attempt,crossed police barricades to join the SL­organized Anti-Imperialist Contingent.And as the march paraded throughmidtown Manhattan, the chants of "I,2, 3, 4-Leftist rebels win the war; 5,6,7, 8-Nothing to negotiate" rang louderthan the "No draft, no war" pacifism ofthe "official" demonstration. Where thepro-imperialist "doves" called for "nomore Vietnams," SL signs said "Viet­nam Was a Victory" over imperialism.And the Spartacist banner which theytried so hard to exclude proclaimedboldly, "Defense of Cuba, USSR Beginsin EI Salvador!"

As we marched up, they sent out

NYC Salvador Demo, FebruarY 20

4 WORKERS VANGUARD

Who Called ~2~ on=Reds~

Guardian's Anti-Communist "Unity"We publish below a statement from a

former supporter of the "independentradical" Guardian and the latter'srevealing response to his protest oftheirparticipation in the cop exclusion of theSpartacist League contingent in anNYC El Salvador demonstration lastNovember. Clearly, the Guardian isfeeling the heat of widespread discon­tent over this appeal to the bourgeoisstate as "thought police" against reds.

The Guardian's Stuart Ozer tries topin the blamefor calling the cops on theCPprimarily, along with"Latin Ameri­can groups" and the Marcyites. ButOzer's whole letter is an attempt tojustify anti-communist exclusion; nowhe wishes they could have avoided theembarrassment ofusing the police to dotheir dirty work. The Guardian letter isalso useful because it unabashedly stateswhat the reformists reallyfearabout theSL: the revolutionary content of ourbanners and slogans.

In "movement" newspeak, Ozercomplains that we supposedly tried toprevent the "coalition" from "puttingforward its principles of unity.... " Notat all. In fact, with their appeal to thecops to censor demands for defense ofthe Soviet Union against imperialism,these El Salvador "doves" made itperfectly clear that their real unity iswith the capitalist state.

NYCFebruary 1982

The letter from the Guardian repro­duced here is in response to mydropping out of their sustainer programin December of 1981. The reason for mytermination of support was over the useof the New York City police to excludethe Spartacist League from an EISalvador demo on November 21, 1981.

I was in attendance at this demo andobserved members of the Guardian staff(who were security people there) inobvious support of this cynical anddangerous tactic.

I therefore wrote a letter to theGuardian calling for a condemnation ofall acts of this kind in their paper. Sincethis has not happened I have withdrawnmy support.

Truly,Stephen R. Evans

Publisher of the GuardianJanuary 20, 1982

Stephen R. EvansNew York, NY

Dear Stephen R. Evans,We are dismayed to hear that you

have dropped out of the Sustainerprogram, particularly on the basis ofwholly inaccurate information. We'redisappointed that, as a Sustainer, you

did not even bother to inquire with theGuardian about what actually hap­pened at the Nov. 21 st march, andespecially to hear our side of the story.

I was away in Cuba over the lastseveral weeks and apologize for notreaching you sooner. The facts of thecase are these:

A number of groups, including theGuardian, had representatives on thesecurity committee. I was one of theGuardian's security people at the march.The committee included WorkersWorld, Cispes, SWP, CPUSA andseveral latin american exile groups. Itwas led by the CP and latin americangroups.

When the Sparticist League [sic] firstshowed up, they had a separate soundsystem. We asked that, if they wished tojoin the march, they march under theofficial sound system directed by themarch organizers. In addition, theirmain banner, far larger than any otherbanner at the march, carried a slogancalling for more military aid from theUSSR to EI Salvador. Now, everyonemarching would· probably have wel­comed military aid from any source torevolutionary movements in LatinAmerica. But the purpose of the demo,the main political point that was to bemade-as developed by the coalitionwhich organized the march, was toprotest US intervention.

We asked that the Sparticist Leaguemarch under the principles of unity ofthe coalition which organized themarch, and not to use a separate soundsystem. They refused, and then theyrefused to march separately behind us.By doing so, they tried to prevent thecoalition which had spent weeks organ­izing this demonstration from puttingforward its principles of unity to thegeneral public.

The decision to rely on the Police wasmade by the person in charge of securityover the opposition of the Guardian,SWP, and CISPES. Had we beendirecting security, things would havebeen done differently-the march secu­rity itself would have separated the twocontingents. We expressed our vocalopposition to calling in the police, butthe power wasn't in our hands-and theprimary work to be done was to pull offan effective action, which we were allunited around.

At such a time of dangerous warthreats from Imperialism, our majortask is to build support for anti­imperialist coalitions, and not use spacein the Guardian to print criticisms ofsecondary issues. That is the job of theSparticist League, which devotes farmore energy to wrecking coalitions thanbuilding the left.

Sincerely,Stuart Ozer

SYL Film Showingand Discussion

o I want to help build theAnti-I mperlalist Contingent

WV Photo

o Enclosed is $, _contribution to theAnti-Imperialist Contingent

For transportation and information about the Anti-ImperialistContingent at the March 27 demonstration, call or write yournearest SL/SYL branch.

Name Ph0 ne __

Get onthe Bus!

________. . . ~ State Zip

SPARTACIST LEAGUE, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116

Address .

~-------------------------------~

NYC EI Salvador protest, February 20.

--------------------------------

planks and broken bottles. When suchgangster tactics didn't work, thereformists-including the CommunistParty (CP) and Socialist Workers Party(SWP)-called in the cops to keep outthe communists. They did it on May 30in Chicago, in New York on November21, and on February 20 provocativeattempts by goons of the Committee inSolidarity with the People of EI Salva­dor (CIS PES) again brought in thearmed fist of the capitalist state. TheWWP/CP/SWP/CISPES resort toanti-communist cop exclusions becausered flags and revolutionary politicsthreaten their alliance with the Demo­cratic "doves."

Today the slogans of the Anti­Imperialist Contingent are more urgentand obviously necessary than ever.Salvadoran leftists, PATCO strikers,black welfare mothers-we're all onReagan's Cold War hit list. For thereformist thugs and betrayers, classcollaboration abroad means class col­laboration at home. For us, anti­imperialism abroad means class struggleat home. As we chanted on February 20,"We Call for Rebel Victory, They Callthe Cops~"

There is a fundamental politicalcontradiction within the El Salvadorprotests between those who want topressure imperialism and those whofight to defeat it. Genuine anti­imperialist militants must be for Salva­doran left-wing rebels getting as manyguns as they can, wherever they can,certainly, if they can, from the treacher­ous and reluctant Soviet bloc. Revolu­tionaries say: FDR/FMLN attempts toplacate Yankee imperialism by beggingfor a "political solution" will leaveoligarchic-landlord capitalist rule in­tact. No popular-front illusions-Breakwith the bourgeoisie! Sweep away themurderous generals and their deathsquads through workers revolution!

The line is drawn in El Salvador.Those who fight for a victory of theSalvadoran masses over their oppres­sors, who oppose Reagan's anti-Sovietwar drive, will march in Washington onMarch 27 with the Anti-ImperialistContingent initiated by the SpartacistLeague/Spartacus Youth League. In ElSalvador the choice is revolution ordeath! Which side are you on? Join us!.

II

CAMBRIDGE .__._.J

Organizing meeting forAnti-Imperialist Contingent

Wednesday, March 17, 7:30 p.m.Emerson 305Harvard UniversityFor more information (617) 492-392B

EI Salvador:"Revolution or Death"

MilitaryVictory ...(continued from page 12)

Military cargo to right-wing juntas inCentral America must be stopped bylabor boycotts. But this will never bedone by the Cold War givebackbureaucrats, linked to the Democrats.When half a million workers marchedon Washington September 19 it showedthat labor has the power. Class-strugglemilitants fight against the anti-Sovietwar drive, against Reagan racism, forworkers action to bring Reagan down.

The reformists look not to theworking class but to the DemocraticParty. The imperialist liberals want to"stop Communism" too, but worry thatReagan's shoot'em up methods couldbackfire. The reformists want to get themovement "ready for Teddy" Kennedy(just like they kept the Vietnam antiwarmovement "clean for Gene" McCarthy).And so they do everything possible toexclude the reds. After all, they don'twant their speakers to be embarrassedby chants of "Remember Bay of Pigs,Remember Vietnam-DemocraticParty. We Know Which Side You'reOn~"

Last May 3. the SL/SYL organized aSOO-strong Anti-Imperialist Contingentto march for military victory to Salva­doran leftists. The reformist WorkersWorld Party/People's Anti-War Mobi­lization (WWP/PAM) tried to seal usoff with a line of goons; a month later inNew York they attacked a Spartacistprotest outside a PAM meeting with

5 MARCH 1982 5

Jack Heyman (S.F.)Comrades and friends, most of us in

this room knew Toni as a communist,a Spartacist. Becoming a communist isa conscious act. So I want to delve alittle into Toni's background. whichmay help to explain why she chose thisrevolutionary path. why she rejectedtraditional bourgeois values, why shetranscended her social backgroundand committed her life to the strugglefor socialism.

Toni was an honor student in highschool. She was a cheerleader. She wasa homecoming queen in high school.She even taught Sunday school andwas awarded a DAR medal. As amatter of fact, Toni and I, about a yearago. were going through Fortunemagazine and her boyfriend from highschool had an entire article on him­the new breed of millionaire. He's thisgrain speculator, who one day makesthree million, and the next day loses amillion, and so on,

So she had the options. She couldhave lived a very comfortable life withthe country club set. But she rejectedthe American dream. Because, I think,she had a sharp and inquisitive mind.And she saw the American dream asshallow, empty and meaningless.

I'd like to sketch just a little bitearlier in Toni's life. what those yearswere like. She was raised in a towncalled Galesburg, II1inois. Which ifyou know anything about the Mid­west, the northern fringe around theGreat Lakes is an industrial belt. Thesouthern fringe along the Ohio isbasically Klan territory, and in be­tween is very rural.

And Galesburg was sort of inbetween-it just happened to be in acentral location in terms of the UnitedStates, geographically, so that it was a

WORKERS VANGUARD

who went to the Central Committeelibrary to check the model of theDewey Commission.

When she transferred to the WestCoast, she was frightened about doinglocal work for the first time. But shebrought with her a wealth of skills andknowledge and applied it to her workthere. I was very pleased to learn thatiust before her illness she had served as'actmg organizer during the absence ofthe organizer in Oakland.

She made hard choices about herlast days, To the extent of her physicalcapacity. she was politically activeuntil her death. In the midst of thepainful process of determining theseverity of her illness, she synthesizedthe fund-raising letter for the Deuk­mejian case.

I want to read a portion of astatement James Cannon made at thememorial for comrade Goldie Geld­man. There are numerous parallels intheir lives. Although their ethnicbackgrounds .were different, they bothcame from small towns in the Mid­west, both served as secretaries fordefense organizations:

"She did not waste her life in the vainpursuit of trifles. She concernedherself with the large affairs and greatgoals which are in themselves enno­bling. That IS the significance of herbeautiful and heroic life. Her life, thusinspired by ennobling ideals, was fulland satisfying because she knew thatshe was contributing to a movementthat would survive her and carryonher work."If we memorialize her in this sense, Ithink we will do her the most justice.We mourn for her, for we loved herdeeply. but we celebrate her too. Herlife. her associations with us, hercontributions to our cause, were oneof our victories, and not a smallvictory either. The movement whichcan attract the Goldie Geldmans, andcall out their full devotion, already hasthe pledge of its future victory. forsuch people as she really represent thefuture."

wound he received during World WarII. Her mother, Viola Randell, livestoday in Minneapolis. Toni was theoldest of five children. The family wasvery poor until she was about 12 yearsold. She attended c 'lege on a scholar­ship from the Brotherhood of RailwayBrakemen-Knox College in Gales­burg-for one and a half years. Shemoved to New York at the age of 21 in1963 and worked at NBC in the publicrelations department.

In 1967 she attended courses atColumbia and engaged in the sit-insand protests. She met Jack during thistime. In 1969 Jack and Toni startedliving together. In 1970 she attendedRevolutionary Women meetings.Jessica was born 17 November 1970.

I've been told that she had herpolitical waverings and softness, butthe lawyers never saw it. To us, she wasa party rock.

She was administrative assistant ontwo international Control Commis­sion proceedings. She brought to thesetasks the same qualities of thoughtful,meticulous and consistent work. Iworked with her on the Logan Com­mission and we cried together review­ing the tapes of that proceeding. Whenwe hit a roadblock over how tosummarize the evidence, it was Toni

tl'~

"'...d__ ...it"" ", "'~&"~'h---ll

Toni Randell~

1943·1982

. At ,rl~nw~.tR1AClST/sn

another small town in Illinois, Gales­burg, when an infant. Her father wasfor 25 years a railroad worker and amember of the Brotherhood of Rail­way Brakemen. He died in 1970 from a

Rachel Wolkenstein (NYC)We are here to remember our

comrade and friend, Toni Randell,who died 12 February. She was 38years old, a member of our movementsince 1971, wife and mother of an 11­year-old daughter, Jessica.

Toni was born 8 November 1943 in asmall town in Wisconsin and moved to

* * * * *

Our comrade Toni Randell diedFebruary 12 of cancer. A cadre of theSpartacist League for over ten years,she was a founder of the PartisanDefense Committee, a member of theCentral Control Commission and hadbeen a candidate member of the SLCentral Committee.

On February 27 memorial meetingsin honor of comrade Toni were held inNew York and San Francisco. Wepublish below abridged and editedtranscripts of speeches made at thesemeetings. The New York speakersincluded Rachel Wolkenstein, staffcounsel for the PDC and chief counselfor the Spartacist League; NancyRossi, SL national treasurer; ReubenShiffman, co-chairman of the PDC;and Jim Robertson, SL nationalchairman. In San Francisco thespeakers included Toni's husband,Jack Heyman; Valerie West, PDC co­counsel; Dr. Steve Becker, the com­rade who attended Toni during herillness; and George Foster, deputynational chairman of the SL.

The meetings were highly emotion­al, reflecting the tragedy of comradeToni's death at the age of 38. In NewYork, comrade Reuben understanda­bly broke down in the middle and wasunable to complete his remarks. In sodoing, he shared more than most thedeep loss that was felt throughout theroom-our Toni Randell is no more.

In the California meeting, theobservation that comrade Toni hadnothing but contempt for quittersactually triggered a walkout by someof the ex-members present. Those ex­members who did not join this un­seemly display were Pat, who workedwith comrade Toni on the WVproduction staff; Dave, an ex-memberof the Australian section presentlyliving in Oregon; and Barbara, whoworked with Toni in the apparatus inNew York and later in the Bay Area. InNew York numerous ex-memberswere present and understood andaccepted the truth and justice of Toni'sobservation as she lay dying.

Contributions in comrade Toni'shonor may be sent to the PartisanDefense Committee.

6

--

Valerie West (S.F.)I first met Toni on a visit to New

York in 1973. I met her again in 1974when I had just moved to New York.And we had a meeting to discuss thefounding of the Partisan DefenseCommittee. The mandate from theparty was for a defense organization inthe tradition of the InternationalLabor Defense, particularly in theyears 1925-27, when it was headed byJames P. Cannon.

a long time to pick up the phone and Ionly managed to do so after I learnedthat she hadn't called me because shewas afraid of upsetting me. Hercourage and strength throughout theillness were remarkable. She was angryas hell at being cheated out of a lot ofyears and she was scared. She cried hereyes out at not being able to see herdaughter grow up. But she spent somuch energy trying to ease the pain ofthe people who were close to her.

Toni was the first one of us to die acommunist. But I'm convinced thatshe would have remained a hardcommunist if she had lived to old age.One thing she had no patience at all forwas quitters-people who gave up ontheir work, their commitments, or whogave up on just trying to enjoy life.

The translation and implementationof this mandate from the party was inlarge measure due to the efforts ofcomrade Toni Randell. She had aremarkable ability to research, verify,absorb and synthesize the history ofcommunist defense work. She under­stood the importance of relearning andrecapturing those traditions for theSpartacist League and for the workingclass as a whole. She researched theInternational Labor Defender, Inter­national Red Aid, resolutions on TomMooney from early labor conferences.She carefully, meticulously andthoughtfully gathered these materialsand most importantly made theessential available and accessible tocomrades.

She did the consistent work toimplement and teach these traditionsand learn to apply them in a verydifferent period from that of the ILD.The integrity, accountability andreliability that Toni consistentlybrought to the work of the PDC willalways be a credit to our movement.On a day-to-day basis, she was thestable element that made the PDC run.

She was frequently harried by thenew, very young and aggressive law­yers who knew little about the partyprogram and were often agitating forthis or that wrong policy or procedure.While she was not the one whospearheaded the fights to try to moldthe lawyers, she was the one who heldthe party line on a day-to-day basis.

continued on next page

"'1011 • ,,*,'_.~_, §I§1ft

party counted on that.The other struggle I remember going

through with Toni in the early dayswas learning how to be a communistand a mother. The party was small andyoung, and hadn't had much experi­ence with babies either. I like to saythat the first WV comp crew wasn'tjust me and Toni, it was me and Toniand Karl and Jessica. We had aplaypen in the middle of the comproom and brought the kids to workwith us every day. Karl would spendthe day teasing Jess-picking up her

Withdaughter

Jessica,Hawaii

1981

toys and throwing them outside thepen. She'd scream, we'd retrieve thetoys, he'd throw them out again,grinning the whole time. I rememberToni sitting at the typewriter for hourswith Jessica on her lap.

The situation of course becameintolerable, especially as they got alittle older, and we had to deal with it.There was a whole discussion, com­plete with documents, on whether ornot the party should hold any respon­sibility for childcare for members whowere parents. Positions ranged fromthose who wanted to turn the partyinto a petty-bourgeois service organi­zation to those who would just as soonexclude parents from membership.WelL we got the kids out of the office,learned to transfer the burden ofchildcare outside the organization asmuch as possible, and learned tosubstitute money for time whennecessary. Along with the justowriterswe got a hired babysitter who tookKarl and Jessica from Friday night toMonday morning of production week­end and the party paid for it. I like tothink that parents have it a little easiernow because of the experiences Toniand myself and some others wentthrough, which included proving thatparents despite all the problems couldstill be valuable cadres.

I'm grateful that I got to spend a lotof time with Toni during the last fewmonths and hope that I gave her someof the comfort she once gave me. WhenI was first told of the cancer it took me

Nancy Rossi (NYC)Toni was my comrade and closest

friend for more than ten years. Weworked together, lived together, raisedour kids together.

I first met Toni in 1970, but didn'tget to know her until a year later whenI moved to New York. That's when westarted publishing Workers Vanguard.Getting the paper out back then washard-we didn't have the experienceand our typesetting equipment consist­ed of one IBM executive typewriter.Toni and I were the comp crew. Thepaper came out once a month andproduction went on for three weeksout of four. The other week we spentrecovering. The whole paper had to behand-justified. One or the other of uswould always go out to the printer withit and spend hours doing the photowork-invariably in the middle of thenight-and then drive back out to pickit up.

I remember the time WV came backwith some blank spaces because someof the copy had fallen off the flats. Wetried to blame it on the printer but hemerely picked up one of the flats,shook it a little and pieces went flying.That's when we learned about tapingthings down.

All of us who worked on the paperfelt a great deal of satisfaction everytime we got the finished product back.The real problem with comp was thatwe had a comp chief who didn't knowhow to use her people-there was a lotof friction, tension, not much sense ofdoing it together. Toni had more talentand patience than I did-she was themodel, I was the troublemaker.

We both wanted out. I was first­Toni was somewhat resentful andupset. But her turn came soon after­ward when she got the PDC assign­ment. She was ecstatic at the prospectof running a section of party work incollaboration with her comrades. Weboth knew, though, that even afterwe'd been transferred to other partyassignments, if there were ever anykind of crisis in comp we'd be rightback putting out the paper because wewere the ones who knew how. The

She later did work on the WorkersVanguard comp crew. She was verymeticulous and dedicated. And shemoved on to do work with the PartisanDefense Committee. She worked tire­lessly to free the Chilean militantsthat" were trapped [in Argentina],and did defense work around blackmilitants that were being victimized.She did work in defending JaneMargolis in the case against the SecretService. And up until her last days shedid work defending the SpartacistLeague against Attorney GeneralDeukmejian.

Toni didn't live to see the comingAmerican revolution. But she dedicat­ed her life to building the party thatwill lead that revolution. It would doher honor for us to continue thatwork.

~~~i:-*:kf%W>%~:

Memorial meetings: New York City (left), San Francisco (right).

Vt

railroad center. And her father was arailroad man. She was a product oftheMidwest working-class family, filledwith its contradictions, conservativevalues on the one hand, yet proletari­an. And her father, like many otherworkers, had aspirations for hisfamily. Namely, to build them a house.He started out well-intentioned, withsome monpy to build that house.Except that they only got the founda­tion built and then ran out of money.And they just put the floor over thatfoundation, that's what's called abasement house, and they lived in thathouse for several years. And Toniassumed a role sort of as a secondmother. helping to raise the rest of thefamily.

And I think that during that periodshe developed a real sense of classconsciousness. Because several yearslater when they had the money, theymoved literally across the tracks to abetter neighborhood. And she alwaysfelt out of place. But her father beingthe union man that he was left a verystrong impression in Toni's mind. Shementioned to me on several occasionsthat he had said, "Never, never cross apicket line."

I just want to read a brief quote here,once again from Cannon, which willexplain a little bit about Toni: "Herfirst revolt against the environment ofprovincial prejudice and ignorance, aswith so many rebels in history, tookthe form of flight." And that's exactlywhat happened with Toni. Because sheleft Galesburg and went to New YorkCity.

And she came in contact with theSpartacist League. And she took upwork in the women's arena, did battlevery fiercely against our opponents. Ithink there are some in this room thatcan vouch for that, some of them thatat a later point in history came over tothe Spartacist League.

5 MARCH 1982 7

pretty hardened, cynical operators­completely disarm them and convincethem of the PDC, its goals and itsintegrity. We could approach people,many of whom had been burned in thepast by left-wing sponsored defensecases, many of whom we couldapproach many times over, whotrusted in the integrity of the PDC inlarge measure because their intersec­tion with the PDC was knowing Tonipersonally, in their dealings with her.

This was particularly true with

the Stalinists, but also the socialdemocrats and New Left guilty liberalborn-again Stalinoids. Rachel referredto Toni's appreciation of the ILD, anappreciation which she internalizedand assimilated personally, and im­parted as if she herself had servedbeside James Cannon on the ILD. Shewas able to make this accessible, notonly through the documents, but byweaving the lessons of the ILD andthat experience into almost everythingshe wrote and the many reports thatshe gave and the speeches that shegave.

Politics is engendered in people, andcrucial to the success of the POC wasToni's embodiment of integrity and ofrigorous intelligence and compassion.In particular, I saw her-especially inperiods like the Munoz campaign,where we had to deal with a very widespectrum of people, many of them

Toni died at home, as she wished.She died a Bolshevik, and has left anaffectionate and inspiring memory toall of us who knew her.

Jim Robertson (NYC)

As should be completely clear, thedeath of comrade Toni Randell has hitus where we all live.

Lizzie and I had a chance to have anhour or so with Toni just before shedied, and I guess the main thing I cameaway with was: "My god, she died ahard commie."

She died without pain, because theorigin of the cancer was very close toher liver. She didn't want to live anylonger once it was clear. And she didnot try, with radioactive needles orhideous chemotherapy that wouldhave done no good and merelyrendered her more of a physical wreck.She died conscious and knowing, andshe starved to death. But she retainedher intelligence and her integrity in aperfect fashion. And to the very end,she was deeply interested in the affairsof the party. I gave her a generalinternational report, and she was notinterested in the partial situations, shewas interested in victory and defeat.

She was interested in what wouldhappen to her daughter, who's aboutII. I said it's a bad time for a girl to loseher mother. And she said, "Yes, but Ithink her character is shaped."

She did increasingly importantwork. She was one of the two foundersof our composition department of ourregular newspaper. She served a longtour in legal defense work. She was thesecretary of the Logan trial commis­sion. Because she was interested inprotecting the clarity and purity of ourorganization. Insofar as I can recall,she was very quiet in our variousinternal disputes, but was a hard,knowing supporter in defense ofprogrammatic questions.

I want to come back again to thepoint that she died such a hardcommunist. And something thatshould properly make the ex-membersin the room uneasy: she so despisedyou. She did. As Trotsky spoke of thedifference between the communists ofthe East and the communists of theWest: the communists of the West,they come, they go-the easy affirma­tions of youth are diluted and modifiedand drift away. Unlike the communistsof the East-the 500 people whofounded the Chinese CommunistParty, for example, everyone of whomdied in service as they understood it.And Toni was one of those kind.

Other comrades have spoken of thework that she did. To put it in moregeneral terms, she was the epitome ofan apparatchik. What needed to bedone, and what she could do, shewould do. And at the same time shewas a mother, and a good mother,without a trace of "momism."

A number of us on the West Coastsaw her remains placed in the ground. Ithink it was done fittingly, on a hillsidewith the fog coming right down intothe redwood trees, a volley of rifle fire,the rain. That's the way it should bedone, because she died a serving officerin a communist party.

Her history has stopped, abruptly.But her memory goes on as long asthose, any of those, who knew andcared about her continue to themselveshave consciousness. That's a contra­diction. And it's not until the last ofthose who have known her have diedthat some flickering continuation ofher own consciousness ceases to existwithin us. And since she died tragicallyyoung, she leaves behind a mass of rea!mourners.

And if there is any message regard-

Steve Becker (S.F)I want to share with you some of

what I remember of Toni. I came toknow her well only during her illness.

When she died, Toni was proud ofherself. She had worked hard through­out the years to become a Bolshevik.She had made it, and she was proud.And she had every right to be. Toni'sconcern throughout her illness was notherself, but rather politics, her com­rades and her family. She would oftenjoke with me and kept her sense ofhumor. She wanted to' know when Iwould be through with the medicalquestions, so that we could get on tomore important business. She talkedwith me at length about the progressand resolution of our case againstAttorney General Deukmejian, thevictory and the protection it affords us.

The day before her death, Toniasked me to read to her the recentYoung Spartacus article, "StrangeThings Under Harvard's Rocks." Sheenjoyed it immensely, laughing inparticular at the role estate gardenershave had in improving Harvard's genepool.

Toni asked repeatedly about hercomrades and family. Her concern forJessica, her daughter, was foremost.And her sense of loss in not being ableto watch Jessica grow into adulthoodwas great.

Philip Allen's mother, whose defensecase was taken up, the defense case ofPhilip Allen, by many organizations ofa left and liberal nature on the WestCoast. But Toni was able to make herfeel, when she came to Boston andNew York, that she was genuinely partof an international movement thatchampioned the freedom of her son.

To give you a sense of Toni's graceand acute political intelligence, I'd liketo just read a brief passage from amemo she wrote in November 1974.She wrote, and this was regarding thequestion that was much disputed at thetime, which was the relationship anddivision oflabor between the party andits defense arm:

"The SL and SYL are pushy and turnup with banners and slogans. ThePOC is not combative and comes oninvitation. The SLjSYL makes propa­ganda, the POC funds. (As Cde.Robertson says: 'Yes, the POC is acharity, but remember that charitybegins at home!')"

And the importance of this has ofcourse been escalated....

WfJ6Nl6S VANCfJA6D~ian Talles Bac:/( "Terrorist" Charg~

Spartacist league WinsCalifornia Smear Case

Toni fought for her party against thesmear by California attorney general,George Deukmejian. New York Timesannounced victory, 26 December 1981.

MARXISTS DROPPINGSUll IN CALIFORNIA

State Official Admits Error inPutting Group on '79 List

of Left·Wing Terrorists

By ROBERT LINDSEYSfedal. to Tbe NI9 YnnlDl!S

LOS I,NGELES. Dec. 25 - A ManrlstpuUtlcal Ofllanlzatlon. the SpartaclstLeague. has droppe<! a suit againSt theC&1ilomla Attorney General's officeafter the office acknoWledged that It hadbeen wrong to lnclude the group In a Ustof left.wIng terroriSt~tions pub­Uabed In 1979.

The oll:aniZ3tlon had contended thatthe state had~Iy depleted It asprooe to violence. The Spartaclsts had..~~~~

•A Marxist group dropped a suit

. against the California Attorney Gener.al's office after the agency acknowl.edged that it had wrongly included thegroup in a list of left·wing terrorist or·ganizations published In 1979. TheMarxists, the Spartaclst League, hadcontended that the state had wrong.fully depleted it as prone to violence aspart of a campaign of "renascentMcCarthyism." [12:1.]

Reuben Shiffman (NYC)I knew Toni for over a decade, since

she joined the Spartacist League inNew York and before. And for fiveyears in the mid-'70s she was myclosest political collaborator, particu­larly but not exclusively in initiatingand building the Partisan DefenseCommittee. It was her organizationaland administrative talent that turnedthe Partisan Defense Committee intosomething more than a paper organi­zation and a file drawer of unfinishedPDC brochure drafts. Without that.with the modest resources that we hadat our disposal at the time, we couldhave never launched the campaign thatfreed anti-popular-frontist Chileanminers from the Argentine junta.

She brought the same thoroughnessto other crucial areas of party anddefense work which have been referredto: the indexing of Workers Vanguard,the indexing and annotating of themassive FBI files, and internationalcommissions. She brought to these acharacter that was indispensable forpolitical leadership-the ability toorganize a mass of material into ausable whole and to pick out what wasessential and, equally important, whatneeded to be acted upon. This charac­teristic was indispensable to our publicdefense work as well, especially duringthe Nixon years, which generatedmany cases of political persecutionwhich were in the interests of the labormovement to fight. Dozens of appealsfor support came in the mail every day,most of them deserving. And she hadthe unenviable job of sorting throughand selecting the ones that we had tosupport. She was a rare person whocombined coequally the strengths ofgreat compassion and acute judgment.

When we launched the PDC, thesacred labor tradition of non-sectarianclass-struggle defense-like the picketline to which it is akin-had beenpoisoned and corrupted by especially

(continued from previous page)She was patient, she listened andresponded thoughtfully. And shedidn't budge.

Toni kept up the regular correspon­dence with those outside the party weappealed to for funds and otherassistance. We relied on her withconfidence. She embodied personallythe political and financial integrity andaccountability of our work.

The campaign to free Mario Munozfrom Argentina was perhaps the highpoint of the PDC's public campaigns.We broke the issue of Argentinerepression in the press. The apparatusconstructed by Toni made this interna­tional campaign possible. She puttogether the pieces, the connectionsand people that made possible visits tothe National Council of Churches, theUN Commission on Human Rights, aletter in the New York Review ofBooks and many other things.

Perhaps the most significant exam­ple of her capacity to extract theessence from meticulous reading ofvoluminous materials was the abstractshe did of some 20 volumes of the filesthat the FBI kept on the SpartacistLeague. And it's notable that sheinsisted on finishing this work, andworked on it practically until the dayshe left New York to come to the BayArea.

In retrospect, I must say that muchof the work that she did I don't think Iappreciated at the time so much as inrecent years. I remember that she gotus ready to go to the National LawyersGuild convention and I didn't reallyunderstand what was involved. Butwhen we arrived there we had thepapers, the resolutions, the reprints, allthe things that were essential.

8 WORKERS VANGUARD

A display of comrade Toni's work at the New York memorial meeting.

ing her memory, it is this: that she was,while personally very sweet, an intoler­ant communist to those who woulddestroy the line between the workingclass and the bourgeoisie in the classstruggle, however subtly. She was acommunist. And she died despisingthose who withheld their personalitiesfrom the necessary direct participationin the class struggle. And if she leavestherefore to us a legacy, it is this: that ifwe individually or collectively deflector betray, we betray everything thatToni lived for and that Toni died for.

George Foster (S.F.)We meet here to honor our comrade

Toni Randell, a good communist. Heruntimely death two weeks ago at age38 of cancer has sent a shock of griefthrough our party. Toni was a partyperson, a cadre. She joined theSpartacist League on 7 November1971, and until her last days unselfishlyand cheerfully worked hard for theprogram of revolutionary Marxism­Trotskyism.

We are a Leninist organization. Andconsequently our cadre are precious tous. Bolsheviks are not born. They arecreated, forged, through a process ofapprenticeship and political struggleas members of a party. Marxism iscarried by living human beings work­ing together as a collective. Toni'sfriendship, her years of political,organizational and technical experi­ence are and will be deeply missed bythe party.

I first met Toni on InternationalWomen's Day in 1971, when she cameto Washington, D.C. to march in ourcontingent. I also recall meeting heragain on International Women's Day ayear later in Boston. She had returnedfrom an intervention against theSocialist Workers Party's reformist,feminist front-group WONAAC, filledwith contempt for the SWP's anti­democratic attempts to silence ourrevolutionary criticism of their class­treason policy of allying with BellaAbzug. Our leaflet aimed at theintervention called the SWP trainedseals clapping for the bourgeoisie.Toni liked that image a lot.

Tonijoined the Spartacist League atthe point where we set for ourselves aseries of tasks to transform ourorganization from an unstable sub­propaganda group into the nucleus ofthe vanguard party. Her life over thepast decade is very much a part of ourhistory in meeting those tasks. Shehelped set type for the first issue ofWorkers Vanguard and worked on thecomp crew for four years during thetime when, as comrades have stated,conditions were very difficult. In 1975she left comp to help establish thePartisan Defense Committee.

Toni had a very keen sense of social

5 MARCH 1982

justice, and a fierce hatred of racismand racial oppression. She worked atmodeling the PDC on the traditions ofthe International Labor Defense ofJames Cannon. It was therefore fittingthat she was recently elected to ourCentral Control Commission.

We grieve, but we have a right to beproud. Toni was a hard communist. I'llsay the truth: she especially despisedquitters. With the onset of the Reaganyears and the threat of war we havehad our share of defectors, many ofwhom have left the party for so-calledpersonal reasons. Toni was proud ofthe name Spartacist. Our organizationtakes its name from the SpartacistLeague of Rosa Luxemburg and LeoJogiches, the organization which wasthe heroic forebear of the GermanCommunist Party. Today imperialistchief Ronald Reagan, bent on prepar­ing for war against the Soviet Union,smashes PATCO and embraces thecounterrevolutionary Polish Solidar­nose. Solidarnose in turn embracesReagan, the Catholic church, anti­Semitism and the pre-World War IIfascistic dictator Pilsudski. To be aSpartacist is to stand with RosaLuxemburg, the pre-eminent PolishMarxist, revolutionary communistand workers' leader, against Reaganand the CIA company union Solidar­nose. It is a stand against U.S.imperialism and for a proletarianrevolutionary solution to the crisis ofPolish Stalinism.

Toni's political life as a Marxistspans just over a decade, a short time.But as revolutionists, we know of nobetter life than that dedicated tobuilding the party that aims to lead theproletariat to victory.

I'd like to read a passage from theTransitional Program:

"Opportunist organizations by theirvery nature concentrate their chiefattention on the top layers of theworking class and therefore ignoreboth the youth and the womanworker. The decay of capitalism,however, deals its heaviest blows tothe woman as a wage earner and ahousewife. The sections of the FourthInternational should seek bases ofsupport among the most exploitedlayers of the working class, conse­quently among the women workers.Here they will find inexhaustiblestores of devotion, selflessness, andreadiness to sacrifice."Down with the bureaucracr andcareerism' Open the road io thel'outh.' Turn to the woman worker.'these slogans are emblazoned on thebanner of the Fourth International."

The task remains before us: to reachout to the youth, to the proletariat, torecruit comrades such as Toni, by thetens, hundreds, thousands and tensand tens of thousands. To constructthe Leninist vanguard party to fightfor the communist future of mankindto which she dedicated her life.

Sit-Ins...(continued from page 1)

Garvin have recently set up a LaborManagement Group based on theprinciples of "free enterprise." Accord­ing to Raskin, "In a troubled economy.unions and companies are finding thateach must give a little." In reality, ofcourse, the unions have been giving alland getting nothing. A typical exampleof the new "cooperative economy" isthe rubber industry. Uniroyal justagreed to let the Rubber Workersspeak to the board of directors once ayear. In return for this dubiousprivilege the union is giving up $55million in wages and benefits! Andnow the powerful Teamsters haveagreed to a two-year wage freeze.

The anti-Soviet war drivecommanded by the White House isalso and necessarily a war against theAmerican working class and poor.Especially with the economy collap­sing, givebacks and savage budget cutsare demanded as "necessary sacrifices"for the "national defense" against theUSSR. When Reagan smashed the aircontrollets union (PATCO), he sent amessage (if any was needed) to theFortune 500 executives that hence­forth unionized workers should betreated like black welfare mothers orCentral American peasants.

And the union bureaucrats arewilling to accept that treatment! Butunlike welfare mothers, the unionshave tremendous social power if theywould only use it. Not for years has thelabor movement attempted to standand flex even some of its social andeconomic muscle. Why? Because thebureaucrats are deathly afraid of theanger and organization of their ownranks, as was shown last September 19when 500,000 workers marched onWashington.

It is not so much fear of the unionbuster in the White House in thecontext of a deepening economic crisisthat motivates the AFL-CIO tops.Instead it is their fundamental agree­ment with the Republicans' andDemocrats' main economic and politi­cal aim: to gear up the U.S. for waragainst the Soviet Union. No unionleadership can be for the massive anti­Soviet war drive and at the same timefight for the workers' interests, even inthe most minimal economic sense. TheAFL-CIO leadership opposes sit­downs in Detroit for the same reason itis for sitdowns in Gdansk. The LaneKirklands and Doug Frasers supportcapitalism, whether it means "rollingback Communism" in Poland orrolling back union gains at home.

In fact, over Poland Kirkland is nowdenouncing Reagan for being soft onRussia. A recent article by the AFL­cia chief on Poland was entitled,"Why Not Economic War?" againstthe Soviet Union. There is nothing newhere. The Cold War has long been apolicy of the trade-union tops, many ofwhom came to their posts in the anti­Communist witchhunts of the late '40s.It has always been their program tosacrifice the interests of the workers onthe capitalist altar of anti­Communism. But now with the veryfuture of the union movement at stake,this contradiction has become clearand acute. A fight can be made and canbe won, but not by the Cold Warriorsin the union offices vs. the ColdWarriors in the White House andcorporate board rooms. The anti­Soviet war drive has come home toAmerican factories, and a politicalfight must be waged to throw out thepro-capitalist fakers running the un­ions, to get the unions off their kneesand fighting again.

For a Class-StruggleCounterattack in Auto!

The front line of Reagan's war onlabor is now in auto. If Ford workersgrudgingly voted to accept Fraser's

billion-dollar giveaway, it is onlybecause they were afraid of beingthrown onto the streets if they didn't.They know that after the concessionsnegotiations with GM broke off, thecompany retaliated by closing downthree plants indefinitely. But Fraser'sline that the wage givebacks will buyjob security is a lie. None of Ford'spromises are worth a plug nickel if theeconomy keeps going down the tubes.Business Week (I March) told itsmanagement readers: "Ford is notprohibited from shutting plants whenbusiness slumps."

Remember Chrysler! There tooworkers were fed the line that wageconcessions would save jobs. Andwhat happened? When Chrysler start­ed to close down its Dodge Main plantin 1979, there were already about20,000 layoffs. Today there are over43,000 indefinite layoffs from Chrys­ler, with no end in sight. And once aworker is out the door, he loses hispower to fight. Back in 1979 wewarned that the government bailout ofChrysler would be used to gut theunion, setting a pattern for GM andFord. We said if Chrysler's broke, theworkers should seize it and sell it offrather than take wage cuts. "WhateverChrysler's Worth-Give It to theWorkers!" That was our slogan. Theseizure of Chrysler could have sparkeda class-struggle response to capitalistausterity, layoffs and plant closures.

Instead, things got worse for autoworkers. Now there are a quartermillion auto production workers onindefinite layoff, 600,000 if the suppli­ers are included. Unemployment inMichigan is over 15 percent and nowplant closings are spreading fromCleveland to California. The sorrystate of auto today is not just a case ofmanagement and stockholders bleed­ing ~he company: dry, as in Chrysler,but a general crisis of the capitalisteconomy. When Ford and GM execu­tives say they don't have the money tore-employ hundreds of thousands ofauto workers at existing wage levels,they're not lying. They don't have themoney. But that money is there inWashington-that is, in Reagan'shands.

There can be no successful fightagainst the auto givebacks withoutradically breaking the bounds oftraditional bread-and-butter union­ism, including its more militant varie­ty. It means a labor struggle to bringdown Reagan, to wrest the billionsfrom the Dr. Strangeloves of thePentagon. The UAW with its largeblack membership can lead the work­ing class and ghetto poor against theright-wing, racist onslaught. That isthe perspective raised by the FordRouge Militant Caucus, which calledfor a two-day sit-down strike againstthe givebacks:

"If Henry Ford claims he can't pay us,then let him get help from his friend inthe White House...."Screw Reagan, Ford and Fraser. It'sthe working class in industrial areaslike this that creates the wealth in thiscountry. Without us, the economydoesn't run. If Rouge workers take thelead, we can trigger similar sitdownstrikes throughout the auto towns ofsouthern Michigan, from Detroit toPontiac to Flint. We can make thebosses pay and take a big step inpacking the racist, union-bustingReagan back to his ranch, for good."

AFL-CIO Tops:For Guns and Taxes

It's become cheap and easy forliberal and not-so-liberal Democratsand labor bureaucrats to denounceReagan for starving the poor toprovide tax giveaways to the rich."Jonestown economics ... economicKool Aid to the poor," Kirkland calledWhite House policies. Very true. InReagan's latest budget proposal thehardest hit will be food stamps,Medicaid and Aid to Families withDependent Children (welfare). Every

continued on page 10

9

NEW YORK CITY

Alternate Thursdays startingMarch 11 at 6:30 p.m,41 Warren Street, Manhattan(ring bell)(one block below Chambers St near Church St I

For more information cai! (212) 267-1(21)

Workers VanguardReaders Circles

Alternate SaturdaysNext meeting March 13, 3 p,m,1634 Telegraph AvenueFor more information call (415) 835-1535

BERKELEY/OAKLAND

Topic: Lead article ofWorkers Vanguard

Doug Fraser, who sits on the board ofdirectors of the near-bankrupt Chrysler,who is spending every working hourtrying to reduce his members to poverty,whose answer to the depression in autois economic war against Japaneseworkers? The fight against Reaganreaction is a fight against the Kirklandsand Frasers and for a revolutionaryleadership.

What is needed to spark a fightagainst the giveback offensive and masslayoffs is sit-down strikes-raw laborpower. The top labor bigwigs will nevercarry out such militant actions becausethey are a direct attack on the capitalists'property rights. Nor will the out­bureaucrats, the Sadlowskis (steel),Camaratas (Teamsters) or Gardners(auto), who want only to be slicker laborfakers within the system. A c1ass­struggle opposition must be built in theunions, like the militants at Fremontand Ford's River Rouge, who call forsitdowns as powerful protest actionswhich could galvanize the entire labormovement.

But even such dramatic actions arenot sufficient to win labor's fight. Whatabout "runaway shops"? This requiresan all-out drive to unionize the open­shopSouth, mobilizing black and whiteworkers in a joint struggle to smash JimCrow racism. A class-struggle leader­ship of the unions would mobilize tensof thousands to crush the Klan and Nazirace terrorists wherever these fascistscome into the open. To promote laborsolidarity internationally it would fightthe nationalist poison of protectionism.To defend the gains of the workersmovement and to fight the threat ofthermonuclear imperialist war, it mustsmash the Reagan/Democrat war driveand fight any imperialist attempt torestore capitalism in Cuba, Poland orthe Soviet Union.

All this requires a revolutionaryworkers party to lead the struggle for aworkers government, to expropriatecapitalism and end once and for all theirrational social system that turns theenormous wealth squeezed out of theworking class into misery, poverty andthe threat of nuclear holocaust. Organ­izing such an international party ofsocialist revolution, the key to victoryfor the workers and all the oppressed, isthe task of the Trotskyists.•

They say Shut Down-We say Sit Down!

For a RevolutionaryWorkers Party!

In the past the union bureaucracycould sell the idea that a Democraticadministration would somehow restoreeconomic prosperity. John F. Kennedygot elected in 1960 by promising to "getthis country moving again." But allremaining illusions in New Deal liberal­ism died an ignominious death underCarter. In fact, so fed up were workerswith Carter's incredible economic mis­management that about half the AFL­CIO membership voted for the right­wing Republican in 1980. And if theseworkers have turned angrily againstunion-buster Reagan, they have noenthusiasm for the Teddy Kennedys andthe Fritz Mondales.

By their anger and their discipline thehalf million workers who marched onWashington last September 19thshowed they wanted to fight Reaganreaction. But who will lead that fight?Lane Kirkland, who calls for all-outeconomic war against the Soviet Union,who demands more missiles and taxes?

nuclear warheads and the means todeliver them.

While some liberals and financiersexpress concern that a too rapid militarybuildup may be economically disrup­tive, all of them share Reagan's purposein being able to counter and defeat thesupposed "Soviet threat." All talk aboutlong-term economic effects of the armsrace misses the simple point that Reaganintends to use these weapons to start andwin World War III.

Charles DuBois, of the RougeMilitant Caucus, was quoted onDetroit TV Channel 4 on February 20.

"We're talking about sit-downstrikes to show workers in Detroit andaround the area what kind ofpower weactually have, flexing our muscles,saying that we're not going to leave thisplant. When you say you're going toshut it down, we're going to sit down.So we say vote 'no,' and ifthey're goingto close the plant, occupy it as apolitical strike and as a politicalmessage to workers around the coun­try that this is the way you fightconcessions."

U.S. Imperialism's Labor Hawks

And in this aim Reagan has no moreloyal ally than the union bureaucracy.What the Trotskyists said of the utterlyreactionary labor bureaucracy of the1920s holds true today in spades:

"The distinctive features of these[American] labor leaders in comparisonto the social-reformist leaders of Eu­rope consists in the fact that they areoutspoken defenders of the wholecapitalist regime and all of its institu­tions, without 'socialistic' pretense orclass-struggle phraseology. Their pro­gram is a program of stark reaction.They repudiate the class struggle inwords as well as deeds. They oppose anykind of independent political action.They support the whole military pro­gram of American imperialism and willindubitably be a powerful ally of thecapitalists in lining up the workers ofthe coming war and demoralizing thestruggle against it."

-"Platform of the CommunistOpposition" (1929)

Much of the plant-level CIO leader­ship that organized the sitdowns andpicket lines of the 1930s consisted ofself-described communists and social­ists. However, with the onset of the ColdWar that layer was either purged orcorrupted, creating a union bureaucracywhich was committed to U.S. imperial­ism and fanatically anti-Communist. Itis no accident that the Meany / ReutherAFL-CIO never fought the anti-laborTaft-Hartley Act. For this law tied theCold War bureaucracy to the Cold Wargovernment, as it simultaneously out­lawed class-struggle tactics (the second­ary strike) and banned reds fromholding union posts.

84

83' I I'72 '73 '74 '75 '76 '77 '78 '79 '80 '81

85

Real Spendable WeeklyEarnings (1972=100)

consuming too much and must savemore and invest more. And this whilereal take-home pay for the averageworker has plummeted about 15 percentin the past decade!

American imperialism is seeking toreconquer its place in the sun notthrough superior economic competitionbut through militarism. The U.S.answer to Toyota is not to build better,cheaper cars but to build neutronbombs. And remember Hiroshima!

The Reagan/Carter/Kirkland Pen­tagon budget is not only a deathcertificate for black welfare mothers, forelderly couples trying to survive onSocial Security, for laid-off auto work­ers. It is a death certificate for anygenuine reindustrialization of America.Business Week estimates that this yearall-IOO percent-of net private savingswill be absorbed by federal governmentborrowing. The only firms seeing anynew capital will be those producing

sands of socialist pamphlets.Capitalism, as Marx wrote, "comes to

a standstill at a point determined by theproductipn and realization of profit, notby the s<4tisfaction of social needs." TheU. S. is now in its second recession in lessthan a year and by all accounts its worstsince the Great Depression of the 1930s.Official unemployment figures areexpected to soar over 9 percent this year.Even the Reagan administration isbacking off from its idiot optimisticprediction of an upturn this spring.

A growing number of respectedcapitalist spokesmen are projecting atotal economic collapse. For example,the chief economist for E.F. Hutton,Edward Yardens, warns, "We thinkthere are increasing risks that thedepression in the auto and housingindustry will intensify and spill over intothe rest of the economy" (New YorkTimes, 19 January). These fears areseconded by right-wing economist andReagan adviser Alan Greenspan, whoargues that record-high interest ratescould lead to "a crack in long-termconfidence and a decline into whatwould be generally described, even bytoday's jargon, as a depression" ( WallStreet Journal, 22 February).

But the decay of American capitalismrum deeper than the current recession/possible depression and the effects ofReaganomics. America's rulers havedriven basic industry in this country intothe ground. The average age of U.S.industrial plant is twice that of Japan's.Small wonder GM and U.S. Steelcannot compete in the marketplace withToyota and Nippon Steel. In the lastyear or so "the reindustrialization ofAmerica" has become a fashionableslogan in U.S. ruling circles. Liberaleconomists as well as big businessspokesmen are lecturing Americanworking people that they've been

154 100Source:

::~Source:

1531 A't! "Bureau of Bureau of

labor laborStatistics Statistics

15297

15196

150 95

149 94

14893

92147

91

14690

145 89

144 I 88

87

Sit-Ins...

Karl Marx Was RightFor decades liberals and con­

servatives alike and union bureaucratsproclaimed that Marxism had nomeaning for American workers, that"the American way of life" was the envyof the whole world. But today they'resinging a very different tune, A walkthrough Detroit is a more powerfulargument for Bolshevism than thou-

141

140JFMAMJJASONDJ

'81 '82

Industrial Production(1967=100)

(continued from page 9)

Reagan on this score is that the MXmissiles and B-1 bombers should be paidfor through higher taxes rather thanmore government borrowing. Hereagain the AFL-CIO tops are in fullagreement with Wall Street. The WallStreet Journal (19 February) notesapprovingly:

" ... the hawkish labor leaders weren'tbuying any of that talk about bombs vs,babies. Instead thev bit the bulletcheerfully and proposed a hike inpersonal and corporate taxes to pay forthe increased defense."

social program that helps low-incomefamilies, such as subsidized housing,jobtraining and education, will come underthe budget ax. A Congressional studyshows that Reagan's budget and tax cutswill cost poor families several hundreddollars each, while those with incomesover $80,000 will get a windfall averag­ing $15,000 apiece! So much for the"trickle-down" effects of the "supply­side" "voodoo economics." What thisracist austerity means can be seen todayin Detroit, which has become a veritablehellhole. Unemployment and SUBbenefits have run out, and who can liveon welfare? Young blacks who workedin auto plants a year or so ago are nowforced onto Salvation Army soup lines.

Yet despite all the ritualistic attackson Reaganomics, the Democrats havenothing better to offer working people.Congressional opposition to Reagan'slatest budget is not directed at defendingsocial programs for the poor, but ratherat reducing the massive deficit. Andwhile there is some grousing aboutPentagon extravagance and wasteful­ness, Democrats are not proposingmore than a slight trimming of themilitary budget. The "liberal" alterna­tive to Reaganomics can be summed upin two words: raise taxes.

As for Lane Kirkland and his fellowAFL-CIO bureaucrats, they're right upthere with Reagan doling out the KoolAid. The heart of Reaganomics is not"supply-side" fiscal quackery. It is themassive military buildup intended tosecure first-strike nuclear capabilityagainst the USSR as well as to fightconventional wars, from the massgraves in EI Salvador to the shores ofTripoli. Kirkland's only quarrel with

10 WORKERS VANGUARD

Fremont Militant CaucusSit-Down Leaflet

Zip ._--

We reprint below a leaflet distribut­ed by the VA W Militant Caucus at theFremont, California GM plant.

GM says it's going to close FremontGMAD on March 5th, putting over2,000 workers with 14 years and upseniority out on the street for good. Ifwe allow them to do this it's the end ofthe line for all of us, including thethousands on layoff-lost homes,slums, ruined lives, minimum wages,welfare, or worse. The question is whatare we going to do about it-fight it orbecome poverty statistics.

Five months ago in September theUAW Militant Caucus fought for a sit­down strike to stop the truck fine frombeing shut down. We said, "If we letthis happen it will be a disaster . .. wehad better understand that withouttruck production Fremont becomessolely dependent on passenger carsales. That means total plant closurebecomes a real possibility ... we betterfight now.... " Predictably, the localunion bureaucrats opposed a sitdown,did nothing, and in January 1,900more workers were put out the door.

Mays, Nano, Scrempos [UAWLocal 1364 bureaucrats] and the othersare now pushing the stupid andtreacherous line that the plant closureis just a "ploy" by GM to force throughwage concessions. What they reallywant is for us to walk quietly out thedoor March 5th thinking it's only"temporary." THIS IS NOT TRUE!G M is dead serious about closingFremont and Southgate in L.A. Theproduction of both plants is to beshifted to the Midwest and East wherelaid off shifts are to be called backwhen we close. Plans have alreadybeen made to ship out the robots andother machinery. And don't count onthe SUB [Supplemental Unemploy­ment Benefits] fund to last a year,seniority or not.

Rouge ...(continued from page 1)

the streets. We need to organize a two­day sitdown, beginning right here at theRouge, the heart of Ford's operations.With a wave of such sit-down demon­strations, we can lead millions ofworkers, black and white. into actionand smash concessions for good. ScrewReagan's anti-Soviet war budget: let'ssqueeze concessions out of them' Thefuture of our union. working people andpoor in this labor/black town is atstake. It's sitdowns or soup lines."

Militant workers stayed away fromthe bureaucracy's unit meetings indroves. Most were a third to a quarterthe size of normal contract meetings.Those who did come found out that thecontract is even worse than they hadthought. that the SUB [SupplementalUnemployment Benefits] was to befinanced by deducting up to $100 frompaychecks of workers who had previ­ously received TRA [Trade Readjust­ment Allowance] benefits and that thosealready on layoff were ineligible forGIS. Officials bureaucratically ruledout of order the RMC's sit-downresolution and steamrollered anyonewho protested their cozy relationshipwith the bosses. One 50-year-old blackworker who had been put on four jobs inthe body shop before the companyfound one he couldn't do was told byDearborn Assembly Plant unit headHank Wilson that he was lucky to haveany work at all.

Many of the workers who voted forFraser's rip-off undoubtedly had illu­sions that this deal would guaranteejobs. But others voted "yes" simplybecause they knew that no one in the

5 MARCH 1982

It's the traitor Doug Fraser whowants to use these plant closures toblackmail other GM and Ford work­ers into giving up billions of dollars ofhard-won wages and benefits to fattenthe profits of GM and Ford. Theconcessions and plant closings are aReagan contract and Fraser is theenforcer. Reagan and Fraser must bestopped by militant labor action. A sit­down strike to keep Fremont opencould spark similar actions across thecountry, giving the lead to millions ofdesperate workers fed up with layoffsand giveaways. This same situation ishitting auto workers all across thecountry in plant after plant in GM,Ford and Chrysler.

GM doesn't have to close theseplants. They just make more money byshifting production elsewhere and tohell with us. Fraser and the Interna­tional openly uphold the "right" ofGM to lay us off. We say it's not thebusiness of working people and theunion to worry about GM's million­aire shareholders. The most basicright a working person has is the rightto a job. But that right has to be foughtfor.

In 1974 and 1975 the UAW MilitantCaucus fought against the massivelayoffs. We said, "Organize an effec­tive sit-in demonstration which couldinspire a wave of full-scale sit-downstrikes into the heart of the industry,Detroit. ... "

In March 1977 when the local wason strike over the firings of EarlieMays and the whole shop committee,we fought for tactics to win the strike.We said, "Seal off the plant with solidmass picket lines" and "Extend thestrike to other UAW locals and unionsin Region 6."

In 1979 when Fraser wasvolunteering to enforce Carter's 7percent wage guidelines (the UAW got

UAW leadership was prepared to fightfor a real alternative. Rouge workerswere particularly disgusted as they sawone bureaucrat after another who hadpostured against concessions knuckleunder to Fraser.

Doug Thompson, head of Local 600parts workers, and Hank Wilsonchanged their votes to back Fraser allthe way. Wilson asserted at one meetingthat UAW flying squads should bemobilized against opponents of thecontract! Rick Martin, head of Coke,told WV reporters that he was againstthe contract, but there was no point infighting it. Martin, who helped ramthrough the Rouge's first concessionpackage in the steel division a year ago,didn't want any militants around thistime, and excluded RMC supportersfrom Coke unit meetings.

Al Gardner of Locals Opposed toConcessions (LOC) campaigned againstthe contract but opposed sit-downaction for jobs. The International madehay of the fact that Gardner'soverwhelmingly white tool and die unitwas working seven days a week while 40percent of the Rouge was on layoff.Coming from Fraser, who negotiates60-hour workweeks, helps administerdozens of plant closings and is nowhanding over billions more, this wassheer hypocrisy. But he did haveGardner's number. Gardner's onlyadvice to unemployed auto workers is towait for Reagan's economy to improve!

Phony militants in Local 600 tailedafter Gardner. The United Front Cau­cus (UFC), consisting of Jim Rothe's"Local 600 Organizer" and the so-calledCMDUAW (a group backed by the AnnArbor-based RWL sect which justifies

3 percent), we wrote, "We must answer[the auto companies] with an industry­wide strike combined with a rollingWave of plant sitdowns. When thebosses try to shut down a plant or layoff an entire shift like at Fremont wemust stop them by occupying theplants."

Since we formed in 1973 we havefought to give leadership and mobilizethe union economically and politicallyagainst our class enemies, the autocompanies and their political parties,the Democrats and Republicans. Theheart of our program against layoffsand unemployment has been jobs forall through a shorter workweek withno loss in pay. We have fought againstthe pro-capitalist UAW bureaucracywhose ties to the Democratic Partysubordinates our interests to theinterests of the bosses.

In Fremont the union "leadership"has been nothing but a series ofopportunist cliques who when notstabbing each other in the back forunion office have been stabbing themembership in the back. Their collec­tive record is one of criminal sabotage,working with the International to ramthrough secretly negotiated sellouts byevery sort of cheating and trickery,suppressing internal opposition, andsquandering the membership's willing­ness to fight. In short, from theInternational to the local they act ascops for the companies inside theunion.

But they've had some junior part­ners along the way in the form of amotley variety of Maoist fake-radicalgroups. When they weren't busycompeting with each other to kiss theass of one of the out cliques, hopingthereby to get into office themselves,they were busy giving a "left cover" tothe sellout policies of the Internationaland local bureaucrats, opposing sit-

and practices scabbing), opposed sit­downs. Their answer to concessions wasa one-day work stoppage-to be organ­ized by the same UAW Internationalthat engineered the billion-dollar give­away! Their con game is to convince autoworkers that the pro-capitalist UAWbureaucrats will fight. A February 24leaflet issued by CMDUAW blustered,"UAW members must. .. force thebureaucrats to fight for jobs." Theleaflet had no criticisms of Gardner andwhined that bureaucrats like HankWilson were sitting on the fence. So nowWilson got off the fence. He's backingFraser. Meanwhile the "Local 600Organizer" published a statement de­fending "Gardner's manhood" againstFraser's attacks. The UFC phoniespaint up Gardner, Wilson & Co.because they share the no-fight programof these reformist bureaucrats.

The capitulation of the houseopposition to the Fraser gang under­scores the bankruptcy of trade-unionreformism. You can't fight the conces­sions drive without going up against thecapitalist system. The pay cuts, plantclosings, mass layoffs and pauperizationof large sections of Detroit's predomi­nantly black proletariat are organicallyrooted in the decay of Americanimperialism and the desperate drive ofU. S. bosses to recoup their flaggingprofits. Ultimately the ruling classanswer to foreign competition is a newimperialist war. The money is there soworkers and the unemployed can livedecently, but it's going to Tridentsubmarines. The Gardners and theirhangers-on don't want to take over theplants because they are no more willingthan Fraser to challenge capitalist

downs and other labor action in favorof "pressure tactics." Education direc­tor Liz Stanley and E-Board memberCharlotte Casey are the leftovers ofone of these groups (CAM, the Call,etc., etc.). They started their careerswith the Brotherhood Caucus in '73,then went on to be the originators ofthe 1974 seniority-busting, anti-unionWomen's Lawsuit (their answer to thelayoffs). They eventually rode intooffice with Nano's "United Independ­ents." Liz is currently in charge ofretraining for laid-off auto workers.(We understand only 65 workers havefound jobs so far.)

None of the union bureaucrats andtheir junior partners want us to fightGM. Letters to GM, to Congressmen,mayors' task forces, demonstrations,etc., are worthless and a con game.There is only one real answer to GMand that is to use the power of theunion before that power is taken awayby putting us out on the street. GMcares a lot more about their machinerythan about us and our families. Aslong as we occupy the plant GM can'tmove it. And as long as we're inside theplant we make the decisions, not Maysor Nano. Holding the plant as hostagewe can squeeze concessions for us: (I)Keep Fremont open; (2) Union-levelwages through unconditional, unlimit­ed unemployment compensation withfull cost-of-living protection, paid forby the federal government to keep autoworkers and the rest of the unem­ployed off welfare. GM's got themoney. So does the government. It'sjust going into Reagan's trillion-dollarwar drive against the Soviet Union.Millions for his butchers in EI Salva­dor while he rolls back union gains andblack rights at home. Labor mustbring down the uriion buster Reaganand his labor lieutenants like Fraser.But labor has power only when it has ajob. That means a fight now to keepthis plant open. There are no jobs outthere, especially for banged-up ex­auto workers. We need a sitdown!

UAW Militant CaucusFebruary 21, 1982

property relations and Reagan's anti­Soviet war drive.

Doug Fraser's gigantic rip-off is ablow to auto workers but not anirrevocable defeat. Illusions in Fraser'sbogus job security won't last long. Autoworkers will remember those who lied tothem-from Fraser to his small-fryhenchmen-who told them that theycould win jobs without class struggle.The RMC must marshal a dedicatedcore of anti-capitalist militants who cango out and organize mass sitdowns tosmash the concessions drive. Only suchactions can keep labor/black Detroitfrom going down the tubes, and spark aworkers offensive to bring downReagan.•

WORKERS"NGIJ'RIJMarxist Working-Class Biweeklyof the Spartacist League

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APMay 3 Anti-Imperialist Contingent

Defense of Cuba and USSR Beginsin EI Salvador!

Break with the Del'nocrats-­Workers Action to Bring Down Reagan!

Defense of Cuba/USSR Begins inCentral America!

Reagan has brought the Cold Warhome. Auto plants are closed while warproduction booms. Race terrorists inwhite sheets and blue uniforms are onthe rise. Desperate Haitian refugees areput in concentration camps, whilePolish anti-Communists are welcomedwith open arms. Anti-imperialismabroad means class struggle here.

continued on page 5

The reformists try to hide from theCold War and the class war. On EISalvador they are in cahoots with theDemocrats (who brought us the "humanrights" junta). Over Poland many ofthem join the obscene hypocrisy ofReagan, who crushes PATCO andproclaims "solidarity with Solidar­nose," the company union for the CIAand the bankers. The U.S. imperialistsare taking aim at Nicaragua, Cuba,Poland, the Soviet Union. We say:

Vietnams!" But as the Republicans talkof falling dominos in Central America,the Democratic Party "doves" areflapping their wings in fear of beingdrawn into "another Vietnam." Todaythe reformists call for "No MoreVietnams," appealing to the liberals'fear of becoming mired in one morelosing imperialist adventure. On March27, only the SL-initiated Anti­Imperialist Contingent will say "Viet­nam was a Victory" over imperialism.

The bloody civil war in El Salvador israging at white heat. Leftist guerrillafighters have got the butcher junta onthe run. Reagan has proclaimed CentralAmerica the front line of his anti-SovietCold War. Frustrated by the blow totheir "rollback" plans in Poland, thewarhawks in Washington want to"teach the Russians a lesson" bydrowning the Central American massesin a sea of blood. Which side are you on?

Daily, Reagan and Haig escalate theirthreats to use a Big Stick to stopCommunism in "America's backyard."Helicopter gunships, Green Beret tor­ture training for Salvadoran troops,CIA hit teams of Cuban gusanos andNicaraguan exiles, now talk of aCaribbean blockade and sending in theMarines. Yet the reformist organizers ofthe "official" EI Salndor protests, eagerfor an alliance with Democratic"doves," refuse to call for leftist rebels towin the war.

Last May 3 we marched on thePentagon calling for the leftist rebels towin the war in EI Salvador, protestingU.S. imperialism's anti-Soviet wardrive. Now more than ever! TheSpartacist League and Spartacus YouthLeague are calling for an Anti­Imperialist Contingent to march inWashington, D.C. for "Military Victoryto Leftist Insurgents in EI Salvador!""Defense of Cuba iUSSR Begins in EISalndor!" and "Break with theDemocrats-For Workers Action toBring Down Reagan!"

A decade ago the New Left marchedto chants of "Ho. Ho, Ho Chi Minh,NLF is Going to Win!" Today the ex­radicals call for a "political solution" in0- 0 Salvauor--a coalition with sections,,;, milita:j/Christian Democraticj1l113 It is dangerous illusion to thinkllat the miissacres can be stopped byLIking with the hir'0d-crazed militaryhutchers. For the brutally oppressedV\ irking masses of El Sa lvador, the onlyj'l\! "political solution" is workersrevolution

A decade ago the New Left marchedto chants of "Two, Three, Many

~~~~~"b~~P{~~t,'mjj~~~II!b'~~I~P~tlMarchwilh Us March '271.. \fVctlhinmon, D.G.!

12 5 MARCH 1982