workers vanguard no 714 - 28 may 1999

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 714 - 28 May 1999

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50C!:No. 714 . . . . 23 28 May 1999

AP China: Harrity/U.S. News & World ReportFight Capitalist Restoration!For Workers Political Revolution!We print below in edited form the firstpart of a presentation by SpartaeistLeague Central Committee member RayBishop at an SL forum in Chicago onMay 15.In the past year, just about everymajor newspaper has had articles aboutthe approach on June 4 of the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacrethe Chinese government's bloody crackdown on mass protests. Beginning withstudents but increasingly drawing inworkers chafing under the impact of procapitalist "market reforms," this upheaval

Beijing bureaucracy's drive toward capitatist restoration has created massiveunemployment, deepening poverty. In April U ~ S : visit, Chinese premier ZhuRongji sought entry into Imperialist-dominated World Trade Organization.

threatened the rule of the Beijing regime.The mass outpouring of defiance heralded the beginnings of a proletarianpolitical revolution which would haveswept away the corrupt and despised Stalinist bureaucracy in Beijing.

Western bourgeois propaganda hasfalsely portrayed these protests as outbursts of anti-Communism and of fervor for Western-style "democracy:' Andthe imperialists were hoping that theanniversary would be marked by anti-

Communist protests. As you've seen onTV, there certainly have been protestsrecently-four straight days of studentsand working people coming out in Beijing, throwing rocks at the U.S. embassyand shouting, "Down with U.S. imperialism!" Not quite what the U.S. had bargained for.Now, we're not in a position to know,so we can't tell you if the Americanbombing of the Chinese embass}' in Belgrade, which is what these people weredemonstrating about, was a deliberatecontinued on page 6

Defeat U.S. ImRerialism Through Workers Revolution!Down With U.S./NAJO Jerror WarAgainst Serbia!MAY 25-ln a step toward a possibleground invasion, the Clinton administration last week pressed its Europeanpartners to almost double the U.S.! .NATO military force on Serbia's borders to a total of 50,000 troops. At thesame time, NATO has stepped up themassive bombing campaign againstSerbia, which has killed over 1,300civilians and is destroying the entire

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infrastructure of the country-fact oriesand office buildings, roads and transportation netwOI:ks, water and powerdistribution systems. Despite NATO'sritual "regrets" about "collateral damage"-Pentagon-speak for murder of.civilians-the imperialists -no longereven seek to obscure the indisputablefact that the whole aim of the onslaughtis to inflict mass terror against the Serbpopulation.Yesterday, NATO planes againattacked electrical transformers throughout Serbia, knocking out power supplies_ and water pumping stations. With Belgrade's water reserves already reducedcontinued on page 10

APBelgrade hospital destroyed by U.S./NATO terror bombing, May 20, killingfour people.


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As New Shipyard Strike Breaks Out in Mississippi sion in how the USWA International topshave been dispensing the meager strikebenefits has led to growing bitterness,One grim-faced striker told WV, "Thecompany is playing with us and the unionis playing with us."Newport News: Shut It Down Tight! A strike depends on the strength of theworkers; it is won or lost on the picketlines. That means solid, mass picket linesoutside all the gates which no one darescross, drawing on the thousands of Tidewater unionists, from !LA longshoremento Teamsters. This can be dqne if theunion makes it clear that it is fighting abattle on behalf of all working people inthe area-against the "right-to-work"laws, against the "open shop" and alsoagainst racist discrimination on and offthe job. Newport News management isitself notorious for its racist practices,like discriminatory "merit pay raises"and playing favorites for promotions andapprentice programs

MAY 24-Newport News Shipbuildingand United Steelworkers (USWA) Local8888 are meeting today for the first timesince the strike agaiIrst this major militarycontractor in the Virginia Tidewater areabegan almost two months ago. But thecompany has continued to hardline itagainst the union's demands for higherwages and improved pensions and medical benefits. The strikers remain determined, but their battle against the racist,profit-bloated Newport News management has been seriously undermined by. the union tops, leading to a number ofhourly workers scabbing.Last week, over 7,000 shipyard workers also went out in a strike againstIngalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, which is owned by Litton Industries and is the largest private employer inthat state. Worker protests are also continuing at Louisiana's Avondale shipyard,where the union is fighting for its firstcontract. Since Litton wants to buyoutboth Newport News and Avondale to become the largest shipbuilder in the U.S.,

the Newport News strike will have amajor impact on these labor struggles.In fact, the Newport News strike posesa battle against the entire racist, "openshop" edifice of the South, where entrenched racist oppression of black workers is used to prevent unionization anddrive down the living standards of allworkers. Until a few years ago, manywhite workers at Newport News were notin the union. A black union committeewoman told a Workers Vanguard teamhow one white worker explained to her:"White guys didn't join the union because it was mostly blacks in it. But thenthe situation got bad, so the only way toprotect themselves was to join the union."A victory in this strike could pave theway for union organizing throughout theSouth and strike a blow against racialoppression, the cornerstone of Americancapitalist exploitation of the entire working class. But instead of seeking tomobilize workers from throughout theregion-including the ranks of the integrated unions-to join the Newport

The Stalinist Bureaucracy andCapitalist CounterrevolutionThe Chinese bureaucracy's open drivetoward capitalist restoration threatens theworking masses with a level of devastationand mi.sery that may well surpass what hasbefallen the working people of the formerSoviet Union in the aftermath of counterrevolution there. In 1937, Bolshevik leaderLeon Trotsky insisted that despite the crimesTROTSKY of the Stalin regime, the USSR remained a LENINworkers state-albeit degenerated-as longas i t was based on collectivized property. At the same time, he warned that unless thebureaucracy was overthrown through proletarian political revolution, its continuedrule would necessarily lead to the final undoing of he gains of he October Revolution.

I f the workers' state loses its bureaucratization and gradually falls away, this meansthat its development marches along the road of socialism. On the contrary, if thebureaucracy becomes ever more powerful, authoritative, privileged, and conservative,this means that in the workers' state the bourgeois tendencies grow at the expense of thesocialist; in other words, that inner contradiction which to a certain degree is lodged inthe workers' state from the first days of its rise does not diminish, as the "norm"demands, but increases. However, so long as that contradiction has not passed from thesphere of distribution into the sphere of production, and has not blown up nationalizedproperty and planned economy, the state remains a workers' state ...This degeneration, as the present orgy of Bonapartist terror shows, has approached acrucial point. That which was a "bureaucratic deformation" is at the present momentpreparing to devour the workers' state, without leaving any remains, and on the ruins ofnationalized property to spawn a new propertied class. Such a possibility has drawnextremely near. But all this is only a possibility and we do not intend beforehand tobow before it.. ..The recognition of the USSR as a workers' state-not a type but a mutilation of atype-does not at all signify a t h e o r e t i c a r ~ n d political amnesty for the Soviet bureaucracy. On the contrary, its reactionary character is fully revealed only in the light of thecontradiction between its antiproletarian politics and the needs of the workers' state.Only by posing the question iii this manner does our exposure of the crimes of the Stalinist clique gain full motive force. The defense of the USSR means not only thesupreme struggle against imperialism, but a preparation for the overthrow of the Bonapartist bureaucracy.

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-Leon Trotsky, "Not a Workers' and Not a Bourgeois State?" (November 1937)

! . ~ ! ! ! ~ ~ ~ ~ ! ~ ! ! . ~ { ! ! EDITOR: Len MeyersEDITOR, YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Jacob ZornPRODUCTION MANAGER: Susan FullerCIRCULATION MANAGER: Mara CadizEDITORIAL BOARD: Ray Bishop (managing editor), Bruce Andre, Helene Brosius, George Foster,Liz Gordon, Jane Kerrigan, James Robertson, Joseph Seymour, Alison SpencerThe Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League (FourthInternationalist)Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276-0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July andAugust (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3-week interval in December, by the Spartacist Publishing Co., 299 Broadway, Suite 318, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial), (212) 732-7861(Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. E-mail address:[email protected] subscriptions: $10.00/22 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116.Opinions expressed n signed allicles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint.The closing date for news in this issue is May 25.No. 714 28 May 1999

News picket lines, the pro-capitalistUSWA International bureaucracy haspushed reliance on capitalist politiciansand the agencies of the capitalist government, from lobbying Congress at a rallyin Washington, D.C. last month to recentappeals for intervention by the NationalLabor Relations Board.It is significant that in the midst of theU.S. capitalist rulers' war against Serbia,16,000 shipyard workers in Virginia andMississippi are striking two major military contractors. As we have warnedthroughout the Newport News strike,flag-waving appeals by the Steelworkersunion tops for support from capitalist politicians based on the "national interest"and "national defense" will backfirewhen the capitalists use the war as anexcuse to break the strike. In ordering theNewport News talks, a spokesman for theFederal Mediation and Conciliation Service stated that the strike has "nationaldefense implications" and that the navy"needs their boats back."The way that this strike will be won iswith mass picket lines that stop all scab-bing. Although the workers who are outremain dedicated to the strike, shipyardgates have stayed open throughout thestrike and the lines are becoming smallerbecause of the bureaucrats' treachery.Emboldened cops are intimidating pickets and laughing about their "stick time in'79," when they rampaged against picketers during the three-month strike thatestablished Local 8888. Hundreds uponhundreds of strikers stand in lines at theFreemarket Mall three miles away, seeking promised union financial assistance,while only 20 strikers-and in somecases as few as three-man the picketlines at the gates. The chaos and confu-

Union tops refuse tobuild mass pickets toshut down shipyard.Meanwhile, milesaway strikers stand inlong lines for meagerstrike assistancefrom the union.

The experience of WV sales teams inthe T i d e w a ~ e r area demonstrated thepotential for mobilizing other sections ofunionized workers: UPS Teamsters, ILAlongshoremen and workers at the nearbyNorshipco shipyard snapped up copies ofWV covering the Newport News strike. Ablack Newport News bus driver in theAmalgamated Transit Union immediatelybought WV and told us that bus driverswere tooting their horns as they passedthe picket lines to support the strikers.The bus company ordered a halt to suchdisplays of solidarity at the demand ofNewport News management. One womanbus driver reportedly slammed the door ina scab's face rather than allow such vermin on the bus.But mobilizing the power of the multiracial working class is sabotaged bythe AFL-CIO misleaders who bind theunions to the racist, capitalist DemocraticParty. What's needed is a political fightinside the unions to oust the pro-capitalistbureaucracy and replace it with a classstruggle leadership-one which recognizes that the interests of labor are counterposed to those of the employers. For aworkers party that fights for a workersgovernment!

SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORYNational Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 (212) 7-32-7860

BostonBox 390840, Central Sta.Cambridge, MA 02139(617) 666-9453ChicagoBox 6441, Main POChicago, IL 60680(312) 454-4930

Los AngelesBox 29574, Los Feliz Sta.. Los Angeles, CA 90029(213) 380-8239New YorkBox 3381, Church St. Sta.New York. NY 10008(212) 267-1025

OaklandBox 29497Oakland, CA 94604(510) 839-0851San FranciscoBox 77494:San Francisco, CA 94107. (415) 777-9367

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

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


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German Spartacists Detained by Berlin Cops University in Mexico City, which hasbeen rocked by militant protests againstthe imposition of tuition. In Japan, at a50,OOO-strong protest against revisions tothe Japan-U.S. security treaty on May22, metal workers, medical workers andrail workers reached into their pockets togive to the campaign-as did youth supporters of the Communist Party, despitetheir leaders' attempts to exclude andsilence us. And students from the Chinese deformed workers state studying inthe U.S., Canada and Australia havedonated to the fund drive, including atprotests against NATO's bombing of tfieChinese embassy in Belgrade.

24 MAY-Following the U.S.lNATObombing of the Zastava car factory inKragujevac, Yugoslavia on April 9, workers at the Alfa Romeo plant in Milano,Italy downed tools in protest and the AlfaRomeo COBAS (Rank-and-File Committee) launched a fund drive for Yugoslavworkers. Strikes and workers demonstrations against the war have been steadilyescalating in Italy, now ruled by the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Massimo D' Alema's Party of theDemocratic Left. On May 13, COBASled a political general strike aroundthe slogan "Not a life, not a lira for thiswar!"Sections of the International Communist League around the world have activelyjoined in the COBAS-initiated campaignof material aid, which aims to raise a billion lire (some $5.60,000) for the workersof Zastava and other factories. Despiteour political differences with many of theparticipants in this campaign, includingthe syndicalist-influenced COBAS, theICL has participated in the spirit ofthe united front-march separately, striketogether! In doing so, we have been ableto make the fund drive an internationaleffort, providing a way for workersthroughout the world to express class solidarity with Yugoslav workers and opposition to the death and destruction that theU.S.INATO imperialists have been raining down on the people of Serbia for twomonths now. Indeed, the imperialists'murderous attack on the Zastava plantkilling tens of workers, injuring scoresand putting tens of thousands out of work. -epitomizes the nature of the U.S.!NATO war, which is clearly aimed at terrorizing the Serbian population.German imperialism, which instigatedthe counterrevolutionary breakup of theYugoslav deformed workers state, is nowengaged in its first direct military combatsince the defeat of the Nazi regime. Thecoalition government headed by SocialDemocratic (SPD) chancellor GerhardSchrOder has sought to quell growingpopular opposition to the war againstSerbia, which suffered under Nazi occupation during World War II. On May 18,police detained two Spartakist salesmenin front of a Berlin Daimler-Chryslerplant to stop them from collecting for thefund drive. As described in a May 24protest statement by our comrades of theSpartakist Workers Party (SpAD):"Our supporters were packed into apolice van and held against their will for45 minutes while astonished Mercedesworkers and apprentices streamed out ofthe factory gate. Worker donations collected before the cops arrived wereimmediately confiscated along with thecollection bucket under the pretext of'suspicion of fraud.' At the same time, ofcourse, thousands of buckets are beingpassed for the Kosovo refugees, and thatis allowed because it enhances the pretext for this murderous war (while theborders of racist Germany remain tightlyshut to the refugees). This attack by theSPD-led German capitalist state onbasic working-class solidarity is meant tointimidate and regiment all workers whodare to demonstrate their opposition tothe war of u.s. and German imperialismin the Balkans and must be vigorouslyfought ..."It is not an accident that the police wereapparently called by the Werkschutz[company cops] of Daimler, which asarms manufacturer and pillar of both theThird and Fourth Reichs of Germanimperialism has its strategic interests inthe Balkans, too."The SpAD statement pointed to theZastava workers' history of class struggle, including a bitter strike two and ahalf years ago against the bourgeoisnationalist Milosevic regime, which hadfired more than half of the workforce in28 MAY 1999

Zastava auto plan tfollowing U.S./NATOterror bombing onApril 9.' Below:Spartakist WorkersParty comrades collectdonations at Berlin'sHumboldt Universityin fund drive forYugoslav workers.

Spartakistthe wake of capitalist restoration. Thestatement declared that the "murderousact of NATO terror against them-likethe bombing of other key factories thathave so far destroyed the workplaces ofa hal f million workers-was intended asa warning to the proletariat throughoutthe Balkans."

In the imperialist "belly of the beast"in the U.S., our comrades have collectedfunds from trade unionists outside workplaces and union meetings, includingamong the heavily black and immigrantNew York City transit workforce. In Britain, where Tony Blair's Labour government has distinguished itself as the most

no creditbellicose of the NATO powers, shopstewards from the Cowley car plant,workers at Ford Dagenham near Londonand London Underground transit workershave contributed. So, too, have immigrant workers-in Britain and elsewherein Europe-who are on the receiving endof racist state repression and the fascistterror it spawns and have not bought intothe cynical "humanitarian" pretext forNATO's Balkans war.In Mexico, subjected to U.S. imperialist plunder, the Grupo Espartaquista wasinvited to address and pass the hatamong 600 delegates of the workerscommittee at the National Autonomous

While anger and revulsion against theNATO slaughter is widespread, the capitulation of an array of so-called "socialist" outfits to their "own" bourgeoisies,presently served by social-democraticgovernments in many cases, is apparently without limit. The British SocialistWorkers Party (SWP) of Tony Cliff andits international cothinkers are a case inpoint. When our comrades of the Spartacist LeaguelBritain first collected for thefund drive at a May 8 London antiwarprotest, a number of SWPers contributed.But the SWP leadership soon brought ahalt to this. At a subsequent protest onMay 18, SWP spokesman Julie Watersonbecame so rabid in trying to thwart theefforts of our comrades that she grabbeda big handful of leaflets out of a collection bucket.Our participation in the campaign foraid to the workers under NATO's gunsnecessarily entails a political struggleagainst the reformists and centrists whohave given aid and comfort to theirrespective bourgeoisies. As Leninists, weunderstand that opposition to imperialismabroad means class struggle at homethat socialist revolution, requiring theinstrumentality of a revolutionary party tolead it, is the only way to put an end to thecapitalist system which breeds war.

We urge our readers to donate generously to the Zastavacampaigntruly a cause in the interest of thewhole of the working people. Contributions can be made out to the Partisan Defense Committee (earmarked"For Yugoslav Workers") and sent to:Part isan Defense Committee, P.O. Box99, Canal Street Station, New York,NY 10013.

LO Covers for Imperialism's War in the BalkansProtest LO Gangsterism Against leL Trotskyists!

We print below a protest statementissued on May 25 by our comrades ofthe Ligue Trotskyste de France.. This year's Lutte Ouvriere (LO) feteconcluded on 24 'May with a violentphysical assault. Around 6:30 p.m., a20-man goon squad decked out inleather jackets, black leather gloves andLutte Ouvriere security squad armbandssurrounded International CommunistLeague comrades engaged in politicaldiscussion. Our comrades were grabbedby the throat and choked, jumped andbrutally dragged out of the fete whilebeing punched by this gang of thugs.Our comrade Xavier Brunoy, editor ofour French paper Le Bolchevik, wasseized and his arm deliberately broken infour places by a leading LO gangster.He was taken from the scene by a m b u ~ lance and required surgery. ICL comrades quickly regrouped and went backto the many shocked witnesses to mobilize political opposition to this atrocity.Violence is the recourse of politicalcowards. Unable to defend its politicalsupport to the capitalist Jospin/Gayssotgovernment-a government of imperialist war in the Balkans, racist deporta-tions and strikebreaking on the domestic front-LO substituted the fist forthe brain as an "answer" to the revolu-, tionary program of the ICL.

The immediate precedent to LO'sviolent assault was the ICL's exposureof LO's social-chauvinist support to itsown ruling class in the Balkans war.Aping the ruling PSIPCF [SocialistParty/Communist Party] government,which has of course quashed antiwardemonstrations while they bomb Serbiaback to the Stone Age, LO too tried toconduct a "Marxist" fete while ignoringthat a war is going on! At the LO-LCR[Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire]debate, no discussion on the war by thepublic or even LO members wasallowed. Finally, the troublesome topicwas opened for discussion only on thefinal day, in the final forum, when mostparticipants had already left. Despite aveneer of opposition to the bombing,LO joins in the imperialists' war cryover "poor little Kosovo" whiCh is thepretext for a terror war against theYugoslav people and for moving in amassive imperialist army of groundtroops disguised as "peacekeepers."In sharp counterposition to LO, ICLcomrades motivated the attitude ofproletarian revolutionary internationalists: Defeat imperialism through workers revolution! Defend Serbia againstimperialistattack!At this time, the rightof independence for Kosovo is necessarily subordinated to the fight againstNATO imperialism. Against the social-

chauvinism and opportunism of LO andthe LCR, ICL comrades argued that youcan't fight imperialist war without fighting for socialist revolution to overturnthe capitalist system which breeds war.LO-LCR's accommodation to the capitalist order is seen in the LCR's explicitcall for ground troops to the Balkansand in the platform of the LO-LCR slatefor the European Parliament, whichdoesn't even mention the word "socialism." With "Euro-Socialists" like LOLCR, who needs the stinking corpse ofsocial democracy which currently rulesmost of capitalist Europe!LO is in trouble, and no amount ofgangsterism can cover up its politicalcrisis. Recent polls predict the LO-LCRslate won't muster the necessary votesto make it into the European Parliament. For a group which has given upon proletarian revolution in favor ofbourgeois parliamentarism, includingfeeding at the financial trough of thebourgeois state, electoral defeat spellsdisaster. Thus LO is ~ u r c h i n g even further to the right in a desperate scramblefor votes. LO has stooped to the campaign style of American bourgeoispoliticians, trashing even the pretenseto political program, hustling caps andT-shirts with no message except "VoteLO-LCR." continued on page 10

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We reprint the following letter as wereceived it via the'lnternet.7 May 1999Dear Editor,Your hit piece hypocritically titled"Mobilize the Power of Labor! FreeMumia Now!" (WV 16 April, 1999) inanticipation of the powerful April 24West Coast longshore workers' shutdownin defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal reflectsa continuing political degeneration of theSpartacist League, exemplified by your

abstention from and open hostility toclass struggle. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU),despite opposition from reactionary elements, took this action in order to mobilize our membership for the April 24demonstration for Mumia in San Francisco. Your sectarian opposition to theApril 24 Mumia mobilization was basedon the grounds that one of its demandswas for a new trial. The ILWU and otherunion contingents carried banners callingfor freedom for Mumia, implementingthe united front slogim: "March separately, strike together".April 24 was the most significant stepto date in the struggle to free Mumia, notso much because it was the largest demonstration, but because longshore workers utilized their power to shutdown allports on the West Coast to demand 1)Stop the Execution and 2) Free Mumia!Our union resolution specifically statesthat Mumia can't get a fair trial anddemands his freedom. Yet, WV intentionally tries to obfuscate this point bysimply disappearing it and minimizes theimpact of our work stoppage by falselyreporting it as only two hours. WV musthave confused the "two hours" with thework stoppage of the teachers' union inthe state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil onApril 23. Both labor actions called for. reedom for Mumia and both actionswere the result of resolutions presentedby critics of your tendency, the International Communist League, ergo yourjaundiced reporting.To not participate now in the April24 protest in defense of self-proclaimedrevolutionary and former Black PantherMumia Abu-Jamal, for whom the Partisan Defense Committee had doneimportant, early groundbreaking defensework, is to abstain from the class struggle at a critical time. I f Philadelphia

,. RepliesJack Heyman's letter, like the letterfrom the International BolshevikTendency (ffiT) and the polemic bythe Internationalist Group (IG) in theApril-May issue of its 11Jternationalist(see page 5), is intended to cover for theclass-collaborationist character of theApril 24 "Millions for Mumia" demon-'stration he supported and built. Our attitude toward that mobilization was informed by the same criteria on which wehave based our years-long efforts to freeMumia. We have stressed that the fightto save the life of this outspoken blackjournalist, MOVE supporter and formerBlack Panther Party spokesman is partand parcel of the struggle to abolish theracist death penalty. We have sought towin workers to the understanding thatthe bourgeois state, with its cops andcourts, is not some "neutral" agencywhich serves society as a whole butrather exists to defend the class rule andprofits of the capitalists against thosethey exploit. We have aimed at infusingthe multiracial proletariat with the consciousness that the fight against blackoppression is central to the struggle forthe emancipation of labor itself.From the time the Spartacist Leagueand Partisan Defense Committee firsttook up Jamal's cause 12 years ago, wehave fought for a class-struggle defensestrategy centered on mobilizing thesocial power of the integrated labormovement, requiring its political inde-4

Labor Opportunism,the Democratic Partyand the Defenseof Mumia Abu-Jamal

longshoremen were to raise a resolutionin their union demanding a new trialand shutting down the port to senda strong message to Governor Ridge,the logical extension of the SL's position would be to oppose such a motionfor bold labor action because it heldillusions in the state. Union militantswould warn against illusions of justicein the capitalist courts while criticallysupporting the motion and trying tobuild mass mobilizations and spreadingthat class struggle action to other sections of the working class, especially theheavily black transportation unions inPhiladelphia.Larry Wright and I, both ILWU Local10 stewards and organizers of the 1984San Francisco longshore anti-apartheidaction, participated in the March 6 University of California, Berkeley Conference to build for the April 24 mobilization. In the first labor workshop at theend of the panelists' presentations, aschair, I asked those who wanted to speakto identify themselves, their union ororganization and what they or their supporters had done in the unions to defendMumia. One SL supporter said he hadhelped raise money in his union forMumia's legal defense. Later, another SLsupporter made a hypocritical speechcalling on longshoremen to shutdown theCoast, but didn't say what action SL supporters in their transportation unions had

pendence from the capitalist parties. Wehave publicized Jamal's cause, raisedcritically important funds for his legalbattles and fought to mobilize the broadest range of social forces in his defense.We recognized from the outset thatlarger forces than our own would have tobe brought into the struggle to freeJamal . And largely as a result of ourefforts, larger numbers of liberals andreformists did finally get involved whenMumia was threatened with execution inthe summer of 1995. But we also knewthat these other forces would be farremoved from our Marxist perspective.The April 24 demonstrations werededicated to something we support-thedefense of Jamal-but with slogans consciously formulated to spell out something we don't support: the notion thatJamal will get justice in a capitalistsociety. With the central focus the callfor a new trial, the demonstrations wereaimed at a bloc with the liberal Democrats who want ~ t o clean up the moregrotesque and embarrassing aspects ofthe frame-up trial. They were politicallyorganized along the lines of a classicpopular front-a class-collaborationistbloc in which the working class is subordinated to the program of a wing of thecapitalist ruling class, represented by theDemocratic Party.The social power of the integratedlongshore union lies in the ability to shutdown the docks, stop the movement ofgoods and thereby halt the flow of capitalist profit. Although undermined by

called for. It would be gratifying to knowthat they fought for work stoppages indefense of Mumia, but, alas, their silencespeaks loudly.During the 1984 longshore antiapartheid action the SL at first refused tosupport it, then in the midst of the II dayaction switched their position to criticalsupport without publicly acknowledgingtheir change. Both Larry Wright and I(amongst others) organized in 1984 todefy the injunction against the antiapartheid action and had for several yearsbeen organizing longshore workersthrough the Stewards' Council, the Executive Board, international dockers conferences, membership meetings and finallyat the '99 Longshore Caucus for laboraction to defend Mumia. The coastwiseshutdown to free Mumia didn't just fallfrom the sky. To organize a successfulworkers' struggle the sense of isolationmust be eliminated and the spirit of solidarity reinforced. That is why I requestedin the January 22, 1999 letter fromthe Rank and File ILWU Committeeto Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal to the SLinitiated Partisan Defense Committee,"a list of trade unions which have supported Mumia's defense in one wayor another, endorsements, letters, resolutions, donations etc." We were attemptingto organize solidarity for labor actionfor Mumia, not knowing in advance theoutcome.

Heyman's treachery, the ILWU stopwork on April 24 posed the possibility ofa major disruption of shipping thatwould be a giant blow against thecapitalist frame-up system. Such a politcal strike would be more effective inthe fight to free Mumia than a thousand demonstrations. It would advancethe struggle of longshoremen and allworkers against the capitalist employersand be a powerful blow for blackfreedom-a cause which must be actively championed by labor as part ofthe fight for workers revolution to

Your sectarian refusal was compounded further by WV's absurd andscurrilous charge that my aim was "to goafter the reds, in the service of the laborbureaucracy". What is the name of thatleading union bureaucrat? ILWU International President Brian McWilliams whospoke at the Longshore Caucus in favorof the resolution to shutdown the Coastfor Mumia? Who is prominently picturedin the same WV article speaking at a 1995PDC rally to stop the execution ofMumia? Who called for Mumia's freedom at the April 24 San Francisco rally?Who, last year, gave instrumental supportto union militants organizing to shutdown Bay Area ports to fend off a legalwitchhunting attack by the employers'association? It is instructive that again, asin the '84 anti-apartheid action, the SLabstained from supporting the international solidarity picket line of labor activists for the Liverpool dockworkers in thisNeptune Jade struggle, but begrudginglybacked our legal defense case.With this kind of slander against classstruggle militants who have actuallyorganized workers to take concrete actionto free Mumia Abu-Jamal, a step towardfreeing the whole of the internationalworking class from the shackles of capitalism, the SL has descended into adeeper, darker political abyss.For labor action to free Mumia,Jack Heyman

sweep away the entire racist, capitalistsystem in which black oppression isrooted.When the workers at UPS and GMwent on strike, the withdrawal of theirlabor economically paralyzed two of thebiggest corporations in the U.S., costingthem billions in lost profits. These areexamples-albeit expressed solely on theeconomic plane--of what we mean bythe social power of labor, when we callto "Mobilize the Power of Labor! FreeMumia Now!" To be really effective, apolitical strike must be conducted with

WVPhotoSan Francisco: PDe and Spartacist League intervened with Class-struggleprogram against pro-Democratic Party reformism at April 24 "Millions forMumia" rallies.WORKERS VANGUARD


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Labor Organizations C.DiD, for a New T"ialfor Mumia AbllJamal

on tb4! ~ c a s i o n of tht" Milliob$ for Munda .marches, Ap m 14.1999 r-------L----------- ....(partial ist) fadivjdgI laboreu4tP""""11 (p"rtW UstJlJ::abor organiptiog repnsea!ing mOtethan3,sQO,ooo ",om'll 8r U . MeWiltia.." l.'emat'l hesW."t,ILwtJLa...,. A .. . !'...,u Majillalldkn Local

lOO,UllNAIntnnat" Longshore &Warellonse Uniob Ar1hluki, F.xee!adve ~ T n a s . , C a l i f . (ILWU ) lA .... I!'e4et-atIou. AfL.CIO San1199 National HeaUbiob/SEUJ

ILWU presence at April 24 rally was labor fac;ade fo r class-collaborationistappeals to Democratic Party. ILWU Local 10 bureaucrat Jack Heyman, joinedby longtime IBT supporter, explicitly endorsed call for "new trial," sowingillusions in racist capitalist courts.

complete independence from the bourgeoisie and all its institutions.Window Dressing forClass CollaborationHeyman worked on two levels insideand outside the ILWU to create the illusion that this Democratic Party-centeredrally was a "labor mobilization" to defendMumia. As an exec board member of S.P.longshore Local 10, he helped create theimpression that the ILWU was engagingin a political strike to shut down the WestCoast ports, when in fact what was donewas to shift the regular monthly unionmeetings to coincide with April 24, touting these as "work stoppages." Outsidethe. union, he worked with the IBT, withwhom he has a long association, to set upa fake organization called the "LaborAction Committee to Free Mumia AbuJamal" (LAC), whose purpose was to pretend that they were the coordinators of"labor support" to the April 24 demonstration. As we wrote in our article, theLAC "obscures the class nature of thecapitalist state, deep-sixes any mention ofthe Democratic Party and completelyobviates the centrality of the fight forblack liberation to the cause of the emancipation of all of labor" ("No Illusions inCapitalist Courts! Mobilize the Power ofLabor! Free Mumia Now!" WV No. 711,16 April).It is a measure of the fundamental dishonesty of Jack Heyman and the centristIG of Jan Norden that in nearly identicallanguage they both blatantly attempt todeny what every endorser and most participants knew: that the explicit basis forthe April 24 mobilizations was the call fora "new trial." Apparently assuming noone will bother to read union resolutions,Heyman writes: "Our union resolutionspecifically states that Mumia can't get afair trial and demands his freedom." Similarly, his apologists in the Internationalist write of the ILWU action, "An unaware reader would deduce that the actionor its initiators are calling for a new trial.Not so." Thus, these people attempt toconceal the simple' fact that, like similarmotions passed by dozens of other unions,the ILWU resolution endorsed the April 24rally and its call for a new trial. Here iswhat the main part of the resolution actually says, including the key sections omit-28 MAY 1999

ted by Heyman, the IG and the IBT:"WHEREAS: On April 24, 1999, therewill be national demonstrations to demand a stop to the execution of and anew trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal--on theEast Coast in Philadelphia and on theWest Coast in San Francisco, as wel1 asinternational demonstrations; and"WHEREAS: The organized labor movement has the power through action to ensure justice for this principled and courageous freedom fighter, which he can'tget in the courts; THEREFORE BE IT"RESOLVED: That the ILWU go onrecord to:"I ) Support the San Francisco demonstration and mobilize our membership onthe coast to participate by coordinatingour April stop-work meetings for the24th to demand: 'Stop the Execution!Free Mumia!'"

So Jack Heyman and his lawyer JanNorden "disappear" the first WHEREASabove, the ILWU's endorsement of thecall for a new trial, in their clumsyattempts to provide l! cover for the proDemocratic Party labor bureaucracy.Heyman shamelessly continues his charade, declaring: "Union militants wouldwarn against illusions of justice in thecapitalist courts while critically supporting" a hypothetical motion calling for anew trial in the Philadelphia longshoreunion. What Heyman doesn't say is thathe was the author of just such a motion,in which he inclu ded as window dressingthe counterposed statement that Mumiacannot get justice in the bourgeois courts.We learned of Heyman's central role inthis bit of deception from the letter by hisfriends in the IBT, who info rm us that theILWU motion "had been initiated by JackHeyman, a former SL supporter."The complete text of the ILWU resolution authored by Heyman is contained ina bulletin-type brochure published by theLAC, along with copies of other unionresolutions endorsing the call for a newtrial. At the end of this collection of resolutions, the LAC conveniently prints a"partial list" of "Labor OrganizationsCalling for a New Trial for Mumia AbuJamal" which includes 83 national andinternational union endorsers an.d 74"individual labor endorse ments" for April24. At the top of the list-no surprisewhatsoever-is the ILWU. Among theindividual endorsers of the call for a newtrial we find ... Jack Heyman and longtimecontinued on page 8

We publish below excerpts from anarticle headlined "WV Blames Victims,Distorts April 24 Shutdown for Mumia"in the Internationalist Group's Internationalist (April-May 1999).

...The SL is in fact pursuing a completely unprincipled vendetta. This isunderscored by its response to theILWU's decision to shut down all WestCoast ports on April 24 to demand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal-the firstsuch political work stoppage in the U.S.in defense of Jamal (see article in thisissue). In a lpng back-page article titled"Mobilize the Power of Labor! FreeMumia Now!" Workers Vanguard" No.711 (16 April 1999) makes a passing reference to the work stoppage, grudginglyadmitting that "to pull the thousandsof longshoremen coastwide of f the job,even if only for a few hours, wouldbe a powerful statement of the socialpower that can and must be mobilizedin broader actions-from mass laborcentered protests to political strikes-forJamal's freedom."".Meanwhile, the WV article willfullymisrepresents the ILWU action. It focuseson denouncing calls by Workers World,Socialist Action and others for a "newtrial." There can be no "fair trial" forMumia in the racist capitalist courts thathave relentlessly hounded black radicalsand him in particular. We demand thatMumia be freed, now! In the middle of itsarticle, WV charges the initiators of theILWU work stoppage with "concealing. the true nature of the capitalist state." Anunaware reader would deduce that theaction or its initiators are calling for anew trial. Not so. WV deliberately omitsthe fact that the motion voted by the delegates to the union's Longshore Caucuson March 26 does not call for a newtrial-in fact it states that "the organizedlabor movement has the power throughaction to ensure justice for this principledand courageous freedom fighter, whichhe can't get in the courts." And the ILWUwork stoppage is explicitly to demand"Stop the Execution! Free Mumia!"The WV article never cites that motionand never explains how the ILWU workstoppage came about. Moreover, it misinforms its readers that the action consistsof "two-hour stop work m e e t i n g s : ~ . w b e n the union has officially called for shuttingdown work on all ships "from 8:00 a.m.to 6:00 p.m. from Bellingham, Wash. toSan Diego, Calif." as spelled out . in theILWU newspaper (The Dispatcher,March 1999). So WV cynically misrepresents both the demands and the nature ofthe union action for Mumia, and it usesthe classic technique of the amalgam tocarry out this lying sleight-of-hand ...The WV article goes so far as to chargeILWU Local 10 executive board memberJack Heyman, who presented the motionfor the stoppage which was approved bythe local and the Coast Caucus, withseeking to "go after the reds"! What is theevidence for this outrageous charge ofwitchhunting? That Heyman asked thePartisan Defense Committee (the defenseorganization associated with the Spartacist League, which has played a veryimportant role in Mumia's defense forover 12 years) for help in putting togethera list of uniorts and labor offiCials whohave publicly come out in Mumia'sdefense ....There is a connection here. The SLand International Communist League(ICL) have regularly solicited Heyman inthe past for endorsement of various demonstrations. But while not a supporter ofthe IGILFI, Heyman won union support(from the ILWU and International Dockers' Conference) for the Brazilian Trotskyist workers facing bourgeois staterepression. And he had the gumption tospeak out against the ICL's betrayal of

the struggle by the LQB to expel copsfrom the unions in Brazil.. ..* * *The following excerpts are from anApril 25 letter by the International Bol-.

shevik Tendency.Comrades:As we have occasionally pointedout in the past, the Spartacist League/Partisan Defense Committee (SLIPDC)deserves credit for its pioneering work inpublicizing the case of Mumia AbuJamal and organizing for his freedom.Since 1995 Mumia's case has won everbroader support within the left and labormovement internationally. Regrettablyyou have not seen this as an opportunityto engage in common work and politicalstruggle with activists from other organizations. Instead you have tended to allowpetty sectarian organizational considerations to take precedence over principledunited-front activity to free Mumia.The 16 April Workers Vanguard (WV)commentary on recent events in Mumia'sdefense campaign is a case in point. Thearticle, headlined "Mobilize the Power ofLabor! Free Mumia Now!," treats in anextremely cursory manner the exceptionally important work-stoppage by theInternational Longshore and WarehouseUnion (ILWU) on 24 April. Every portfrom San Diego to Bellingham Washington was shut down for the day in solidarity with Mumia! ... You claim that it wasorganized so as "!O minimize the cost tothe company," but Saturday can be oneof the busiest days on the docks. Youalso mistakenly report that the workstoppage was only for two hours, ratherthan for the entire day shift.You grudgingly admit that it was, "apowerful statement of the social power"of labor to win Mumia's freedom ....You reported that "the ILWU" hadcalled for the action, but did not informyour readers that it had been initiated byJack Heyman, a former SL supporter,who is currently on the executive boardof the ILWU's San Francisco local, andis also active in the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia (LAC), along withIBT comrades, former SL trade-unionsupporters and others ....Brother Heyman is introduced in theWV article as someone "who postures asthe left wing of the ILWU Local IO executive Board" and roundly denouncedfor having the temerity to ask the "nonsectarian" PDC for a list of unionendorsements gathered in the past forMumia ...You prefer the call to "Free Mumia!"So do we. Nonetheless we do not see thisas a reason to abstain from participatingin national events that are many timeslarger than any rallies the SLIPDC hasbeen able to organize ....

The ILWU contingent, which headedthe 24 April demonstration in San Francisco, raised the call to "Free Mumia!" Itdid not, to my knowledge, call for a"New Trial."WV approvingly quoted the remarks ofa participant in an SL meeting last February who asked:"How about somebody telling the truth,that there's no way that Mumia's goingto get justice in the courts. It's going tobe exactly the same frame-up bul1shitthat happened the first time."It is not impossible that a new trialcould result in 'an acquittal. To assert otherwise is fake ultra-leftjsm. Fake, becausethe SL doesn't truly believe it. I f a newtrial can only result in "exactly the sameframe-up bullshit," why is the PDC'sRachel Wolkenstein still participating inMumia's defense team which has beenpursuing every possible legal avenue,including trying to win a retrial?..Samuel T. for theInternational Bolshevik Tendency

5


6/12

China...(continued from page 1)provocation or not. The student-centereddemonstrations outside U.S. embassiesand consulates certainly expressed theoutrage of the Chinese people, historically oppressed by Western and Japaneseimperialism. At the same time, the Beijing regime was careful to restrict theseprotests. Reportedly, they banned factorycontingents for fear that the workersmight voice their own grievances againstthe regime's drive toward a capitalistmarket economy.In the United States, students fromChina staged their own protests. TheSpartacist League participated in these,carrying placards in Chinese reading:"For Workers Revolution to Defeat U.S.Imperialism!", "Defend Serbia AgainstU.S.INATO Attack!" and "For WorkersPolitical Revolution to Stop CapitalistCounterrevolution in China!" Many ofthe Chinese students were shocked to findcommunists in the U.S.-the heartland ofworld capitalism. Underlying this responseis the nationalist outlook historically fostered by the Chinese Communist Party(CCP), which denied the possibility ofworkers revolution in Japan and the West.

The Spartacist League fights for thedefeat of .U.S. imperialism and all theimperialist powers raining terror on theSerbs. We do this in the tradition of theBolshevik Party of V. I. Lenin and LeonTrotsky-the party which led the multinational proletariat of Russia to power inthe October Revolution of 1917. We fightfor mobilizing the multiracial Americanworking class in socialist rt(volution. Andfrom that standpoint, we defend Serbiamilitarily.China on the Brink

When we talk about China, it isfrom the same standpoint of communistsfighting for a socialist society-fornew October Revolutions internationally.The 1949 Chinese Revolution led byMao Zedong expelled Chiang Kai-shek'sGuomindang bourgeoisie-as well as theimperialists his regime served-from theChinese mainland. It created a plannedeconomy which laid the basis for hugestrides for workers, peasants, women andminorities like the Tibetans. And on that

6

Declaration of Principles andSome Elements of ProgramInternational CommunistLeague (Fourth Internationalist)Adopted in 1998 at theThird International Conferenceof the ICL.

$1 (20 pages)Make checks payable/mall to: ,Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377GPO, New York, NY 10116

APMay 8: Thousands of students in Beijing protest U.S. bombing of Chineseembassy in Belgrade.basis we have always, as Trotskyists,given unconditional military defense toChina against imperialism and internalcounterrevolution.But today Mao's heirs are pursuing adrive toward capitalist restoration fullspeed ahead which would destroy thesocial gains of that revolution, which arealready in fact massively eroded. So after20-plus years of "market reforms," thesame Guomindang bourgeoisie, the sameimperialists that were kicked out in 1949are today exploiting workers in largesections, and growing sections, of China.The Communist Party regime has nowbrought China to the brink. Whether thedrive toward capitalist counterrevolutionsucceeds there, or whether the Chinese proletariat acts to stop that disaster by ousting the Stalinist bureaucracyand imposing its own political rule, isa centrally important question for working people and opponents of capitalistexploitation and imperialist depredationeverywhere.To understand what is happening inChina today, you have to understand thenature of what happened in 1949. Thatsocial revolution, while massively popular, was bureaucratically deformed fromits inception. Unlike the October Revolution in Russia, it was not a revolution

ICL sign in Chines4freads: "For WorkersRevolution to DefeatU.S. Imperialism!Defend SerbiaAgainst U.S./NATOAttack!"

I . . . . . . .u . - . ~ a . l : _ c - . . . . . I 2...-..-.. ..l .a- - . . . . ............ ............. --- -aa.e-.ea.................. l:Aa-... ._'1.1....1 . ~ _ . . - - . ~ ................................................. ........ .. ........ M...... ...- - - - - ~ ....................................."11 "' -A--1'a ~ . . . . ........................-.--. . .......................... -... . tl ............................................. ..

---...IIL .. , . . . . . , ~ ....._=.-.::-


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authoritarian state with a governing partythat chooses to call itself communist." -And he warns: "A Sino-American ColdWar would, in fact, produce a classic nowin situation for both sides." Kissingerwas a trailblazer in the U.S.-China "rapprochement," going there in 1970 to cut adeal with the Mao regime directed againstthe Soviet Union. Kissinger wants to keepthe Chinese regime on a pro-Western.course moving toward capitalist restoration. And to that end, he is quite preparedto brandish military threats: "A seriousAmerican policy will hold China to thatundertaking. The American record in twoworld wars, as well as in the Korean andGulf wars, should leave no doubt aboutour seriousness in this regard."Imperialist spokesmen like Kissingerlook to the Stalinist regime to carry out acold restoration of capitalism-and that'sprecisely the program of the Staliniststhemselves. It's pretty clear that the protests outside the American embassy inBeijing were orchestrated by the Chinesegovernment. In so doing, they tried topresent themselves as "anti-imperialist."This is the most eJlormous hypocrisy.When Chinese premier ~ h u Rongji came

Street Journal coming out and hailingthe premier of what used to be calledRed China and denouncing the Americanpresident.The Beijing bureaucracy right nowpreaches that through free-market measures they can catapult China to becomethe next century's first new superpower.This is a utopian and reactionary notion.A capitalist China would be an arenaof intense imperialist rivalry, with theU.S., Japan and other imperialist powersfighting for the spoils, for who would bethe main exploiter of that country. It isworth remembering that the Pacific Warbetween the U.S. and Japan in World WarII was fought largely over which imperialist power would control China.A capitalist China would mean untoldmisery for the vast working-class andpeasant masses. Already, the "iron ricebowl" system of guaranteed jobs, housing and benefits has been shattered. Withstate industries being privatized, everyyear several million workers are beingthrown out of work, told to fend forthemselves in the growing private sector.So side by side with yuppies makingmoney in Shanghai, Beijing and other

Burke/uteVictorious People's Liberation Army enters Beijing, 1949. Mao Zedong's heirsin Stalinist bureaucracy threaten destruction of remaining gains of theChinese Revolution.to the United States in April, he didn'tmake a peep of protest about U.S. aggres:sion against Serbia, even though that's theofficial Chinese position. He had moreimportant things on his mind: to strike adeal with Clinton for China's entry intothe World Trade Organization. What thatwould mean, and they're still working atit, is throwing China's domestic marketwide open to foreign profiteers.Clinton backed off from a deal withZhu, bowing to the anti-China lobby inwhich the American anti-communist laborbureaucracy is in the forefront. But business leaders started screaming, becausethey saw a lost opportunity to extend theirenormous inroads on the Chinese mainland during the past 20 years. It wasreally quite a spectacle. You had the Wall

28 MAY 1999

Cities, you have tens of millions ofunemployed workers. In the hinterland,it's even grimmer. In 1997, a World Bankstudy reported that most Chinese peasants live on an income of about $1 perday. With the return of private farming,some 100 million or more people fromthe countryside have flocked to citiesand towns looking for work.Adding to that situation is the collapsein trade with the capitalist countries ofSoutheast Asia, because of the economiccrisis that still wracks that area. Thosetaken with the myth of the free marketshould look at what happened in countries like Indonesia in the last couple ofyears. With the economic collapse there,you have mass unemployment, starvation,horrific interethnic bloodshed. And that's

Taiwanese-ownedelectronics factoryin Guangdongprovince, part ofmassive capitalistincursions inChina over lasttwo decades.

Peter TurnleyMay 1989: Workers contingent arrives in Tiananmen Square. Entry ofproletariat into mass student protests heralded inCipient political revolution.the kind of future facing the Chinesemasses if counterrevolution succeeds.In his 1936 book The RevolutionBetrayed, which I encourage everybodyhere to read, Leon Trotsky posed pointblank: "Will the bureaucrat devour theworkers' state, or will the working classclean up the bureaucrat? Thus stands thequestion upon whose decision hangs thefate of the Soviet Union." Trotsky's pointwas confirmed in the negative in theUSSR, where after decades of Stalinistmisrule, capitalist counterrevolution triumphed. This was a historic defeat for theworking class internationally. It threw theworking people of the former USSR backto conditions of miserable poverty andhopelessness. It has unleashed nationalistbloodletting throughout the region.China is much further down the road tocapitalist counterrevolution than was theSoviet Union in Trotsky's time. But thatdoes not have to be the fate of the Chinese masses. Last year, we published theInternational Communist League's "Declaration of Principles and Some Elementsof Program." We wrote: ''The essenceof 'market reforms' counterrevolution inChina is the bureaucracy seeking tobecome partners in exploitation with capitalist forces and especially the Chinesecapitalists who were not destroyed as aclass (as were their Russian counterpartsafter October 1917) but continued tofunction in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere." "This course," wewrote, "cannot be accomplished withoutbreaking the resistance of the militantworking class."And that's the critical question. Capitalist restoration in China would requirethe consolidation of a new, counterrevolutionary state apparatus, one that iscommitted to defending private ownership of the means of production. But theforce standing in the way of that happening is the Chinese working class. Today,even Chinese government spokesmenadmit that strikes, sit-ins, marches andother forms of labor protest have broken

Spartacist(English Edition)

No. 53Summer 1997(56 pages)$1.50

Make checks payable/mall to:Spartacist Publishing Co.Box 1377 GPONew York, NY 10116

out daily throughout the country. Theanger of the workers is captured in thisstatement by a woman who lost her jobin a state-owned textile factory in Shanghai: "It's the laid-off workers who arethe poor ones, not the factory leaderstheir pockets are full." It's become common for protesting workers to carry signsreading simply, "We want to eat." Thecountryside is also wracked with unrest.In January, thousands of peasants inHunan province demonstrated againstthe corruption of government officials.Hundreds of police were called out, killing one protester.What is needed is the mobilization ofthe proletariat-at the head of the poorpeasants, women and all the oppressedin a fight for political power to get rid ofthe venal Stalinist bureaucracy. Thebeginnings of just such a struggle wereseen with the entry of the working classinto the Tiananmen protests in May-June1989. As was underscored by that incipient political revolution, for the proletariat to successfully fight for politicalpower, it needs revolutionary leadership.We seek to forge a Leninist-Trotskyistvanguard party, recruited from the mostadvanced workers and left-wing intellectuals. To that end, we've translated ourdocuments like the ICL's "Declaration ofPrinciples" into Chinese.Against both the nationalism fosteredby the Stalinist bureaucracy and illusions in Western-style bourgeois democracy, we stress the need for a proletarianinternationalist perspective. As we wrotein "China on the Brink" (Spartacist[English-language edition] No. 53, Sum-mer 1997): .''To smash the threat of capitalist reenslavement and open the road to asocialist future, Chinese workers mustlook to the international class struggle. It

is by linking their fight for political revolution with the struggle to smash capitalist rule from Indonesia and SouthKorea to Japan and the U.S. that the Chinese proletariat will form the bridge tothe socialist future."[TO BE CONTINUED]

/SPARTACJSTr-:~ 5 : I J:MftI . . . . . . . . . .__ SUMMER 1.7

Original Documents Published from SOViet ArchivesTrotsky's Fight Against Stalinist Betrayalof Bolshevik Revolution

SEe PAGE 38

ReVOlutionary Regroupment orCentrist Alchemy?SEE PAGE II- ..... "" ""1"

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Opportunism...(continued from page 5)IBT supporters Bob Mandel and Andrew("Drew") Bonthius, organizers along withHeyman of the LAC. Here we have thetruth of the matter: Heyman endorses thecall for a new trial while trying to concealthis fact from longshoremen and the readers of WV. Thus he and his centrist apologists are revealed as the most despicableswindlers of the working class whose liesonly prove that they are not to be trusted.Despite their long list of endorsements,the only union contingent at the April 24march was the small ILWU contingent.Marching at the head with its "FreeMumia" banner, this contingent was cynically conceived as camouflage for therally's real purpose. And the "Labor Contingent" organized by the IBT-which organi!-ed virtually no one other than themselves-was their fake-labor f a ~ a d e forthis bourgeois-liberal mobilization that obscenely made Mumia a poster boy for theinherent justice of capitalist "democracy."Tacking the slogan "Free Mumia"ontothe call for a "new trial" is not warningthe workers about illusions of justice inthe capitalist courts, it is deceiving theworkers with such illusions in the serviceof the Dt


9/12

slogans .... These endorsements are notseen either by the PDC or by the union orunion official as a standing endorsementfor subsequent events and certainly not asa blank check or part of a 'list' to bepassed around to any organization uponrequest."As shown by the long list of "laborendorsements" pushed by the LAC, Heyman & Co. clearly didn't need the PDCfor names of union officials. Heyman'srequest, made in the name of somethingcalled "The Rank-and-File ILWU Committee to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal,"was never intended as anything otherthan a club to bad-mouth the PDC as"sectarian." (Les Friedman had earliermade the same demand to the PDC onbehalf of the IBT's "Labor Action Committee.") And that's the only use towhich this phony request has ever beenput-first at the March 6 Berkeley conference "labor workshop," where Heyman and his friends used it to slander thePDC as an obstacle to Mumia's defense,and in the current contributions by Heyman and his twin tails.Heyman then tries to cause troublebetween the PDC and ILWU International president Brian McWilliams byputting words in our mouths when hechallenges in his letter, "What is the nameof that leading bureaucrat? ILWU International President Brian McWilliams."No, his name is Jack Heyman. In oureyes, Heyman is a lot worse than McWilliams, because he pretends to be something different, a left-talking friend of theworkers who is more radical than McWilliams. McWilliams makes no bones abouthis politics. He is a Democrat and proudof it. In this he is no worse than the restof the American labor bureaucracy, andwhen it comes to Mumia's defensebetter than many others who did not raisetheir voices against Jamal's threatenedexecution in 1995, as McWilliams did ata PDC-initiated protest.

For his part, Heyman said nothing onApril 24 when McWilliams lauded theILWU's refusal to load scrap iron toJapan in 1938-a chauvinist act of support for the U.S. bourgeoisie's mobilization for interimperialist war over domination of the Pacific. On the contrary, inbuilding for April 24, Heyman repeatedly invoked the ILWU's "long historyof taking stands for social justice" andthe image of "progressive unionism" cultivated by the ILWU leadership, explicitly harking back to the days of HarryBridges. What this means is talking "progressive" as you sell out the workers.During World War II, Bridges, in linewith the politics of the Stalinist Communist Party (CP), enforced a no-strikepledge as part of his ardent support forU.S. imperialism-painting this imperialist war for plunder .and profits as a"war against fascism." The Stalinists alsoopposed any struggle for black equalityduring the war.The "progressive" Bridges continuedhis services to the capitalists and theshipping companies in later years. Heimposed a no-strike clause in the ILWUcontract. He enforced speed-up throughthe "Modernization and Mechanization"contracts-which he called a "beautifulpiece of class collaboration"-that eliminated tens of thousands of obs. He institutionalized the discriminatory divisionbetween A-men and B-men, as well as theobstacles that keep thousands of casualsout of the union. This is the tradition Heyman embraces. We oppose the B-list category, which ghettoizes a large segmentof the ILWU membership, and fight forfull union rights for all longshoremen.Heyman did, too, when he was still animated by the Trotskyist program. Butnow his loyalties lie elsewhere.Heyman represents a type familiar inthe labor movement since the 1930s: theex-radical who, because of his own pessimism regarding the revolutionary capacity of the working class, abandons thestruggle fm workers revolution in favorof a career in the pro-capitalist laborb u r ~ a u c r a c y . He knows how to talk the28 MAY 1999

talk and is thus very useful to thebureaucracy in deceiving the workers.Many in Local lO's heavily black membership identify with Jamal's cause andwant the union to take action in hisdefense. As the house "leftist" in theleadership of Local 10, Heyman makes ithis job to keep this impulse withinbounds acceptable to the bourgeoisie.Heyman is well-practiced at this job.When the ILWU leadership wants to dosomething that will make it look goodto its members without violating the nostrike clause or other legal restraints,Heyman and his "leftist" buddies likethe IBT will come in and set up an "unofficial picket line"-like with the Nep-tune Jade in September 1997 in solidarity with locked-out dockers in Liverpool,England. Such stunts just reinforce theline foisted on the workers by the procapitalist bureaucracy that the union can' tbreak the law-Le., its no-strike commitment to the bosses. The ILWU leader-

of "community organizing." One of ourlast fights with ILWU Local 10 memberHoward Keylor, before he broke politically with the SL and became a supporterof the External Tendency, was over hisassociation with racist Portland ILWUofficials who had for years kept blacksout of their longshore local. This groupalso denounced the SL for honoring thevictims of the 1985 government bombingof the MOVE home in Phihide1phia.Now the IBT's missive comes right outand argues that Mumia can get justicefrom the capitalist courts, stating that "itis not impossible that a new trial couldresult in an acquittal." They denounce thestatement by a spokesman for the LaborBlack League quoted in our article that anew trial is "going to be exactly the sameframe-up bullshit that happened the firsttime." Why then is the PDC's RachelWolken stein involved in Mumia's legaldefense, they demand. Because while theIBT treated Mumia and MOVE as pari-

IBT. In 1984, Keylor, then on the Local10 exec board, helped the bureaucratsscuttle a union boycott of the NedlloydKimberley, a ship carrying South Africancargo, which had been called in solidarity with embattled black workers fighting the hated apartheid regime. As editorof Workers Vanguard, Norden editedan article on that betrayal headlined:"ILWU Anti-Apartheid Action Sabotaged-Labor Traitors and Their Lacl).eys"(WV No. 374, 8 March 1985). Last year,the IG raised a criticism of the NeptuneJade "picket" similar to ours. But nowNorden hails this as a "legitimate actionof labor solidarity" as he cynically ralliesto defend Heyman's "honor" against theSL, praising this labor opportunist forhaving the "gumption to speak out"against us on Brazil.

WV PhotoAugust 1995 labor-centered Oakland protest fo r Mumia Abu-Jamal initiatedby poe was part of international campaign which stayed Jamal's execution.Marxists look to social power of integrated labor movement, not to capitalist"justice" system.

In Heyman, Norden sees a kindredspirit. Norden and his clot broke withus when we moved to break fraternalrelations with a group in Brazil whichproved to be more interested in holdingonto union office in a cop-riddled unionthan in building the revolutionary party.Why shouldn't the IG alibi appeals bytrade-union opportunists to the justiceof the capitalist courts? The IG has spentmuch of the last three years tryingto cover up for the fact that this Brazilian group which is now its affiliate, theLiga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil(LQB), has dragged the SFPMVR municipal workers union in Volta Redondathrough the capitalist courts three timesas part of a squalid fight for control of theunion against an equally unprincipledbureaucratic faction. Norden's group hasnever answered our challenge to publishthe documentation of these court suits(court case numbers 30.831, 30.832,30.833).

Brazil is far enough away that Nordencan deny anything because no one exceptus will take the trouble to go there toprove him a liar, as we have done (see"Lies, Damned Lies and Anti-UnionLawsuits: IG's Brazil Fraud Exposed"and "IG's Brazil Cover-up: Dirty Hands,Cynical Lies," WV Nos. 669 and 671, 30May and 11 July 1997). But now he hasshown his true colors here by makingcommon cause against the revolutionarySpartacist League and the PDC with thislabor bureaucrat in leftist clothing, JackHeyman, who uses the ILWU to furtherhis career as a deceiver of the workers.

ship's refusal to mobilize union power topicket out the Neptune Jade emboldenedthe PMA bosses, who responded with asinister witchhunt aimed at the union andits officers (see "Bay Area LongshoreUnion UnderAttack-Defend Supportersof Liverpool Dockers!" [WV No. 681, 2January 1998]).A Short S.yphilitic Chain

While Heyman openly supports thepro-Democratic Party labor bureaucracyand endorses the call for a "new trial," theIBT and IG cover for Heyman-not avery long edition of what Trotsky referredto as the "syphilitic chain" in which centrists and reformists are key links in tyingthe working class to the racist, capitalistprder. The IBT says it "prefers" the callto free Mumia"":"-as though it were simplya matter of t a s t e - w h i ~ e echoing Heyman's denunciation ofour "sectarian opposition" to the "new trial" mobilizations.Norden, in his typically slimy manner,portrays the ILWU work stoppage as independent from the April 24 demonstrationby simply "disappearing" the demonstration in the pages of his Internationalist.But Norden certainly knew of the demonstration: in San Francisco, he marchedshoulder to shoulder with Heyman in thismobilization for capitalist ' ~ u s t i c e , " thoughhe didn't bother to sell the International-ist at the longshore stop-work meetingswhich he claimed we denigrated.For years, the IBT refused to get anywhere near Mumia's case, taking it up onlywhen the international campaign whichstayed Jamal's execution in 1995 madeMumia's cause popular among the reformists and liberals. The IBT's hostility tothe fight against black oppression wasevident from this group's inception inthe early 1980s. After the SL initiated a5,OOO-strong labor/black mobilization thatstopped a KKK march in Washington, D.C.in November 1982, the IBT's forerunner,the External Tendency, sneered that our- black-centered proletarian perspective wasa retreat from "the working class" in favor

ahs, the PDC has fought to pull everylegal lever to win his freedom, whilestressing-in the words of InternationalLabor Defense founder James P. Cannon- that we place "all faith in the power ofthe masses and no faith whatever in thejustice of he courts." Even Jamal's legalpapers call for his immediate freedom!When the handful of SL cadre whoformed the IG split from our organization in 1996, they protested indignantlywhen we called them "the IBT of theNineties." Yet here they are now joiningthe IBT in their groveling suPport toHeyman's treacherous role. The IBT andthe IG play the classic role of centrists:directing all their fire against the left inorder to alibi the right. As Trotsky put itin his 1934 article "Centrism and theFourth International": "A centrist alwaysremains in spiritual dependence on rightist groupings and is inclined to cringebefore those who are more moderate, toremain silent on their opportunist sinsand to coverup their actions before theworkers." .The kind of maneuvering practicedby Heyman to prevent mobilizing unionpower has long been the preserve of the

Through our propaganda and our laborcentered united-front mobilizations, ourclass-struggle defense work aims to bringto the proletariat the necessary consciousness of the nature of the capitalist stateand of the centrality of the fight for blackfreedom to socialist revolution in thiscountry. We aim to break illusions in theDemocrats and bring home the understanding that the working people needtheir own class party, a revolutionaryworkers party. What Heyman and his"left" lawyers do is reinforce the obstacles to mobilizing the social power ofthe working class on Jamal's behalf, andin every cause of the exploited andoppressed. Their road serves the capitalist masters; ours the fight for asocialist future._

Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League0$10/22 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 New 0 Renewal

(includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle)international rates: $25/22 issues-Airmail $10/22 issues-Seamailo $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist)o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish-language Spartacist)Name ____________________________________________________ _Address __________________________________________________ _

Apt. # __ Phone (__ _____City State Zip ------=-c714Make checks payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

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Serbia...(continued from page 1)by 90 percent, the NATO bombing threatens to plunge the Serbian populationinto epidemics of dysentery and otherdiseases. Last week, NATO warplanesbombed a prison in Kosovo, which theylyingly claimed was serving as an armybarracks, killing 19 people. The previous day, U.S. bombers hit a Belgrade hospital, killing four p e ~ p l e . As rescue workers carried wounded women from thematernity ward, one remarked bitterly:"This is of course a military target if youjust take the longer view. In 20 years orso, these babies will be soldiers."For all the boasting about "precisionbombing," NATO bombs last week damaged the official residences of the ambassadors to Belgrade from Sweden,Switzerland, India and several othercountries, as well as the Libyan andIsraeli embassies. A few days later, warplanes blasted a base ofthe Kosovo Liberation Army auxiliaries of the NATOimperialist forces.The U.S.INATO bombing of Serbia isno "humanitarian" mission to defend theAlbanians of Kosovo, as the imperialistscynically claim. The U.S. rulers are waging a war of aggression against a tinycountry to project their military power inthe Balkans while maintaining Washington's position as top dog against itsimperialist rivals. We seek the defeat ofU.S. imperialism through the revolutionary mobilization of the American working class. We stand for military defenseof Serbia against U.S.INATO attackand demand the withdrawal of all imperialist troops from the Balkans. At thesame time, we give no political supportto the bloody regime of nationalist Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, andwe fight for a socialist federation of theBalkans through proletarian revolutionsthroughout the region.As the bombing enters its third month,the New York Times (21 May) reportsthat NATO leaders "feel they have to havea military breakthrough or a diplomaticbreakthrough. Everyone is tired of this."Divisions within the capitalist ruling classin this country and among the NATOpowers have become increasingly open.In Washington, the House voted early thismonth that Clinton must seek Congressional approval before sending groundtroops into Kosovo and, on a tie vote,rejected a resolution supporting the airstrikes against Serbia. At the same time,Democratic Party liberals in particular areincreasingly calling to prepare an invasion of Kosovo. A recent editorial in the

LO Fete ...(continued from page 3)

That's why those looking for a genuineTrotskyist party were interested in theICL at the LO fete. Immediately prior toLO's despicable thuggery, an Italian ICLcomrade urged tete participants to support the campaign of material aid to theworkers of the Zastava car plant and otherfactories bombed by imperialism, a campaign which was initiated by Italian syndicalists. Many participants welcomedthe opportunity to concretely expresstheir opposition to their own bourgeoisieand their solidarity with the victims of theU.S.INATO bombing. The last thingNATO wants to see is a revolutionaryclass struggle by Yugoslav workersagainst the capitalist butcher Milosevic(indeed the Zastava workers have a history of militant strikes). That, and ourproletarian internationalist fight for asocialist federation of the Balkans to putan end to the ethnic bloodletting whichcapitalist counterrevolution has wrought,are things the imperialists seek to impede.LO howled with the imperialist wolvesagainst the Soviet degenerated workersstate and cheered the forces of capitalistcounterrevolution across East Europe,which set the stage for the all-sided communalist bloodletting and imperialist war10

Times (20 May) declared that "if thenegotiations falter or fail, NATO shouldhave other options available," and concluded that "preparations for an invasionshould move ahead."As British Labour prime minister TonyBlair campaigned aggressively for sending ground troops into Kosovo, GermanSocial Democratic chancellor GerhardSchrOder declared that "sending inground troops is unthinkable. This isour position and it won't change in thefuture." SchrOder was reportedly furiousthat, as a result ofthe U.S. bombing of theChinese embassy in Belgrade, his trip toBeijing as new chairman of the EuropeanUnion became an occasion for apologies.Earlier this month, a conference ofSchrOder's coalition partners, the Greens,narrowly rejected a motion calling for anunconditional end to the bombings,which would have forced them to quit thegovernment. Greece and Italy have defiedWashington by calling for a pause in thebombing. Meanwhile, Russia and Chinainsist on a halt to the bombing as a precondition for any UN Security Councilvote on an imperialist "peace" deal.Tensions among the NATO partnershave also flared over the question of whowould lead an occupation force. Germany and France had earlier pushed foroccupation under the banner of theUnited Nations or the Organization forSecurity and Cooperation in Europe(OSCE), a European-dominated alliance,as a way of undercutting U.S. influencein the region. The Clinton administrationresponded by angrily insisting that anymilitary force in Kosovo must be underNATO command. When UN secretaryin the Balkans today. Still riding the coattails of its own bourgeoisie, now LO triesto silence the ICL's revolutionary opposition to the war and to the capitalist governments waging the war.We will not be silenced by LO'sgoons. The entire workers movement andespecially LO members themselves mustprotest this outrage. At bottom, this violence is a desperate attempt to shield LOmembers from open political debate anda clash of views which is vital to politically clarify differences within the workers movement. Every year, LO's goonscreate a new scandal which reveals thedisgusting values of these French socialchauvinists. In 1992, the homophobicLO chauvinists denied ACT-UP a stand.For offering our stand to ACT-UP, theICL has been forever banned from having a stand of our own at the J-,O fete. Inrecent years, LO's goons have repeatedlybeaten up second-generation youth ofNorth African origin and immigrantswho sought admission to the fete. Lastyear, LO censored the Basque nationalistorganization Herri Batasuna. The ICLhas exposed and protested each andevery one of these atrocities. Don't waitto find out who will be next on LO's hitlist. Act now! Stop LO's political gangsterism and thuggery! We urge all workers organizations to publicly condemnthis cowardly and despicable violence!.

Join the March on the PentagonGather at lilaVieInam Votarana Memorial. Woshlngtoo. DC.JUNE 5 12 NOONMoney 101'Jobs& Educallon-not WAR1.S.oWA1Q .... _ .. . -- - .... - .. "" ' , . , . . . ." ' ....= = - . . . : : : r . : : . , , : : - ~ = ' = : . ~ . : . ' ; ! : : = - " ' : __ .. _.CM.. ..... _ ..__... ,........-.""'--' ,...... ........._..... . ..-.-... . . . 1 o o 4 . ~ o o o I __ .

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Serbian chauvinist bannersat New York "antiwar" rallyorganized by WorkersWorld. WWP promotesSerbian nationalism whileappealing to imperialistrulers for more "humane"pOlicies.general Kofi Annan appointed two special envoys to participate in negotiationswith Belgrade, he was curtly told by U.S.officials that an occupation force inKosovo will "under no circumstances"be under UN control and that the UNshould '!be content with its own business,that is, humanitarian questions" (LeMonde, 9 May).Two political advertisements in theWest Coast edition of the New YorkTimes (13 May) bracket the cunentspread of bourgeois opinion on the imperialist bombardment of Serbia. Onesigned by the "Balkan Action Council"proclaims that "Only Ground Troops WillEnd Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo" andcalls for the "establishment of a NATOsafeguarded international protectorate forKosovo." Its signatories range from sinister right-wing types like formernational security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to liberal writer Susan Sontag andrad-chic celeb Bianca Jagger.The other, titled "10 Reasons to StopBombing Yugoslavia," was placed by the"California Peace Action EducationFund," which is composed of the Quakers, the social-democratic Los AngelesCommittee of Correspondence and otherradical-liberal pacifist types who want akinder, more gentle imperialism. Complaining about a "double standard," theyask: "Why are we not taking action tostop Turkey's violent repression" ofKurds. Presumably, they favor a single"standard" for imperialist terror bombing. They also complain about the moneybeing "wasted" on missiles and bombsinstead of being spent on ','humanitarianrelief efforts." Echoing the Europeansocial democrats, they urge Clinton to"work towards the immediate deployment of non-military peacekeepers"through the OSCE or the UN.Both these ads start from the standpoint of what is best for U.S. imperialism.This is also the terrain of fake-left groupsin this country like the InternationalSocialist Organization (ISO) and theWorkers World Party (WWP). Like therad-lib ad cited above, one of the mainreasons the ISO offers for a bombing haltis that it has strengthened Milosevicinstead of weakening him. The ISO joinsthe rad-Iibs in deploring U.S. "hypocrisy"for not acting against ethnic or communalist massacres in Rwanda, Turkey, etc.The pages of both Workers World and theISO's Socialist Worker are full of plaintive calls on the capitalist rulers, such as"Stop the Bombing" and spend "Moneyfor Jobs & Education-NotWar."As Marxists, we understand that imperialism is not a policy that can be"reformed" by pressuring a wing of theruling class. It is a worldwide system ofexploitation and oppress ion-capital ismin its highest stage of developmentwhich must be overthrown through international socialist revolution.ISO/WWP: Left Face ofAmerican Liberal ImperialismBehind the U.S. bourgeoisie's dread ofgetting into a "quagmire" in the Balkansis the "Vietnam syndrome," the ever-

present memory of its humiliating defeatby the revolutionary struggle of the Vietnamese workers and peasants in the1960s and early '70s. In parallel fashion,the fake left in this country calls for "NoMore Vietnams" and harks back to thepeace crawls of that period, which werepolitically dominated by the craven reformists of the Socialist Workers Party(SWP).While tens of thousands repeatedlymarched against the Vietnam War inWashington, D.C. and other cities, theSWP kept the demonstrations limited topressure on Democratic Party liberalswith "single-issue" slogans like "OutNow!" That demand was an undisguisedappeal to imperialist "doves," exemplifiedby Democratic Senator Vance Hartke,who sat on the steering committee of theSWP-dominated National Peace ActionCoalition (NPAC). A wing of the capitalist ruling class increasingly realizedthat, especially after the Sino-Soviet splitand the 1965 crushing of the IndonesianCommunist Party, an anti-Communistrestabilization of Southeast Asia was possible without pursuing the losing Vietnamadventure.The Spartacists alone fought for a program aimed at mobilizing the workingclass in struggle against the U.S. capitalist rulers. We called for the military victory of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front while at the same time warningagainst the nationalist policies of theStalinist bureaucracy in Hanoi. Our resolute class solidarity with the Vietnameseworkers and peasants and our calls forworking-class action-inc luding politicalstrikes-in the U.S. against the war provided the objective bases for uniting radical students, trade unionists and theblack population around opposition toU.S. imperialism.We politically opposed the pettybourgeois "draft resistance" movementby socially privileged college students.We maintained that, if drafted, antiwaractivists should go into the army, toexplain to their fellow soldiers that theywere being forced to fight and perhapsdie in a racist imperialist war and toorganize opposition among workingclass youth within the military againstthe capitalist rulers. Toward the end ofthe war, U.S. troops in Vietnam were infact becoming semi-mutinous.In the unions, among antiwar activists,on the campuses, among soldiers, thesmall forces of the Spartacist Leaguefought for the principled program of classstruggle which, if it had become rooted inthe working masses, wnuld have givenpowerful assistance to the VietnameseRevolution and laid the basis for creatinga revolutionary workers party in thiscountry.Groups like the ISO and WWP todayaim to build a new version of NPAC byappealing to liberal bourgeois sentiment.But the imperialists today are not, as theywere in the '60s in Vietnam, engaged in alosing war to crush a social revolution. Infact, the liberals are today the chief warhawks. Consequently, much of the leftnot only refuses to call for the defense ofSerbia and the defeat of the U.S.INATOimperialists, but even downplays the callfor withdrawal of U.S.INATO troopsfrom the Balkans, Lenin described as"social-chauvinism" just such support tothe imperialist aims of the capitalist ruling class under a smokescreen of "socialist" phrasemongering.When the Cliffite Socialist Workerprinted a rare call last month for NATOto "get out of the Balkans," we wrote:"What they really mean is that the UN'international forces' should "eplace theU.S.-led NATO forces" (WV No. 712, 30April). And that is exactly what theymeant. Alex Callinicos, a leading spokesman for the British Socialist WorkersParty, the ISO's patron, recently joinedNoam Chomsky and other liberal academics in signing a statement in the NewStatesman (10 May) which declares:"Nato is not the only or above all thebest fulcrum for an agreement. Onecould find the eJemen,ts of a multinational police force (embracing nota-

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bly Serbs and Albanians) in the ranksof the OSCE to enforce a transitionalagreement."This is an open call for military intervention under the auspices of the OSCE,reflecting the particular interests of theWest European imperialist powers.Meanwhile, the WWP has issued acalI for a June 5 "Stop Bombing Yugoslavia" demonstration in Washington,D.C. that doesn't even mention the wordimperialism. WWP even chose as itsstarting point for the march the VietnamVeterans Memorial, the bourgeoisie'smonument to its dirty, counterrevolutionary war! The featured speaker will benone other than Ramsey Clark, who wasattorney general for Democratic president Lyndon Johnson as his administration rained down napalm on the Vietnamese people. As head of the JusticeDepartment, Clark was the boss of J.Edgar Hoover's FBI as it was carryingout its murderous COINTELPRO operation against black radicals.Logically, the ISO and WWP shouldfind themselves on opposite sides of thewar in Kosovo. WWP walIows in Serbchauvinism; its "antiwar" protests feature Serbian monarchist flags and chantsof "Kosovo is Serbia." The ISO, althoughit has retreated from its patently proimperialist call of "independence for Ko-sovo," still p r ~ s e n t s Milosevic as thegreatest evil in the Balkans and echoesNATO war propaganda over the plight ofthe Kosovo Albanians. Yet the WWP andthe ISO share a common policy of pressuring U.S. imperialism, as seen in theiramicable coexistence at a May 19 antiwar "teach-in" at the New School in NewYork City. After an ISO spea\


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WfJ/lllE/IS """,/11)NYC Labor Rally:Angry Ranks, Sellout, Bureaucrats

NEW YORK-On May 12, up to 50,000members of New York City trade unionsflooded the streets of downtown Manhattan in the biggest labor demonstrationseen here in decades. The turnout wasfueled by anger over years of wagefreezes imposed on