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50C!:No. 788 ~ X - 5 2 3 4 October 2002

elengainst OCTOBER I -As the people of Iraq girdthemselves for another round of massslaughter at the hands of "democratic"America, the imperialists shamelesslytrade in the commodities futures of blood,oil and votes. Despite the Senate Democrats' being effectively labeled traitors bythe president, Senate majority leader TomDaschle corrals them to push through awar resolution for Bush, concerned thatthey're being out-flanked by the Republicans for the upcoming Congressionalelections. In the United Nations, theEuropean powers and the Arab states lookto the "world's only superpower" to buyoff their opposition to the impending war.

wording of Security Council resolutions,the question is not whether but when theU.S. will launch its invasion. After theUN and Iraq reached an agreement overthe return of weapons inspectors today,the U.S. responded by declaring that itwill not accept inspections unless they arepreceded by a new, "tougher" UN resolution demanding, among other things, theinstallation of foreign soldiers in Iraq to"guard" the inspectors. One administrationofficial described the U.S. government'sresponse as going into "thwart mode."u.s. NavyUSS George Washington aircraft carrier, currently in the Persian Gulf, part ofU.S. armada being assembled for attack on Iraq.

The U.S. and Tony Blair's Britain havebe'en engaged in a steady buildup of military deployments to the region and ofdeadly bombing sorties against Iraq. Notwithstanding all the diplomatic jockeyingover UN weapons inspectors and the

With little respite, the five million residents of Baghdad have lived under waror the shadow of war for 12 years, theirhomes destroyed by bombs and missiles,their children's lives snuffed out by malnutrition and disease. Some one and ahalf million people have died as a resultof the UN embargo, half the schools arenow unfit for use, female adult liter-

acy has plummeted from 87 percentin the mid 1980s to 45 percent in 1995,and one in five children have had theirgrowth permanently stunted.

continue to sow terror against the Palestinians. Israeli troops occupy the Ramallah compound of Yasir Arafat, havingdestroyed almost all of the buildings,where he has been imprisoned sinceDecember. Israeli troops have repeatedlyfired into crowds of Palestinians whoArab leaders throughout the NearEast, fearing turmoil in their own countries, have warned Washington against aU.S. invasion of Iraq while the Zionists continued on page 10

West Coast Shipping Bosses Lock Out Longshore Union

OAKLAND, October I -As of 6 p.m. Sunday, thePacific Maritime Association (PMA), representingshippers and terminal operators, has indefinitelylocked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (lLWU) from all WestCoast docks. Union members have no intention ofsitting idle while the bosses attack them; over theweekend, union members in Oakland mobilizedto stand "curbside to keep a 24-hour watch onbehalf of the union, making sure the cranes stayedstill during the lockout" (SanFrancisco Chronicle, 29 Sep-tember). To prevent the PMA

I'- from using non-union labor too move cargo, the ILWU set uppickets outside the docks inports up and down the coast.The entire labor movement1St mobilize in solidarity

Lt'I with the longshore workers toN ensure that nothing moves inor out of West Coast docks.

The International Longshoremen's Association(ILA) has indicated that any picket lines set up byILWU members at East and Gulf Coast ports tostop diverted ships would be honored. Especiallygiven the interconnected character of "intermodal"shipping, the solidarity of transport workers-fromTeamsters to railway workers to port truckers-iskey. The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has expressed its solidarity with theILWU against "anti-union bullying," while theMaritime Union of Australia reaffirmed an earlierpledge of "full financial, political and industrialsupport." With dock workers under assault globally,workers in every country must come to the defenseof the ILWU. This is particularly important in Canada, where ILWU members work under a separatecontract.A 36-hour lockout of the ILWU was first imposed last Friday, a provocative action which thePMA arrogantly called a "cooling-off period."Then after workers had been back at work for onlycontinued on page 15

PMA Brings Armed Ttlugs toFederal Mediation MeetingAs we go to press, we have learned from a 1 OctoberILWU press release that ILWU officers walked ou t oftalks with the PMA and federal mediators in Oaklandwhen union representatives were "greeted by gun-totingsecurity guards under the employment of the PMA." AsILWU International president Jim Spinosa declared:

"This is an outrageous action taken by [PMA head]Miniace and the PMA. This shows how they approachnegotiations, hiding behind the government and armedthugs. PMA's lockout is holding a gun to the head of theAmerican economy and now they move to aim real gunsat us. We will not be intimidated by these kinds o,f tacticsand we will never reach an agreement as long as thePMA acts as if it can force a settlement at gun pointrather than negotiate."

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Since September 11, the U.S. government has carried out a racist dragnet targeting anyone perceived to be of SouthAsian or Arab descent. The wanton hysteria and government-stoked racist paranoia behind the "war on terror" was dramatically demonstrated. over the pastmonth against three people of Indiandescent. None of these men committedany crimes, intended to commit anycrimes or had any connection whatsoeverto organizations deemed "terrorist" by theU.S. government.

the action. One of them drew his gunand brandished it at the passengers. Themarshals commanded the passengers toremain in their seats and began snappingorders. They refused to allow anyone tostand or use the bathroom or even stretchtheir legs.With the marshals stomping aboutthe plane, waving their guns about likedemented desperadoes, passengers wereterrified. "I was afraid there was going to be a gun battle in that pressurizedcabin," James A. Lineberger, a Philadelphia judge and military veteran, said. "Iwas afraid that I was going to die from thegunfire in a shootout" (New York Times,

23 September).

The ordeal for Dr. Bob Rajcoomar,a former U.S. military doctor, began onAugust 31 when a white passenger,Steven Feuer, began behaving erraticallyin the coach section of the plane. Feuerwas disoriented and refused to remain inhis seat. This was a minor disturbance, buttwo U.S. marshals, Shawn B. McCullersand Samuel Mumma, on the plane as partof the security measures instituted afterthe September 11 attacks, jumped into

When the marshals seated Feuer nextto Rajcoomar in first class, Rajcoomarasked to be reseated and a flight attendant obliged him, seating him elsewherein first class. When the flight arrived inPhiladelphia, not only was Feuer takeninto custody, but, incredibly, Rajcoomar

War and the StruggleAgainst ImperialismAs U.S. imperialism gears up for waragainst Iraq, Leninists uphold the positionof revolutionary defensism, defending semi-colonial Iraq against imperialism whilegiving no political support to the Hus-sein regime. In the Transitional Program,adopted on the eve ofWorld War II, Bolshe-vik leader Leon Trotsky advocated a positionTROTSKY of revolutionary defeatism toward all the LENINbelligerent imperialist powers. At the sametime, he emphasized the necessity of supporting the colonial and semicolonial peoplesin their struggles against imperialist subjugation and defending the Soviet degener-ated workers state against imperialist attack a nd capitalist counterrevolution.

Imperialist war is the continuation and sharpening of the predatory politics of thebourgeoisie. The struggle of the proletariat against war is the continuation and sharpening of its class struggle. The beginning of war alters the situation and partially themeans of struggle between the classes, but not the aim and basic course.The imperialist bourgeoisie dominates the world. In its basic character the approaching war will therefore be an imperialist war. The fundamental content of the politics ofthe international proletariat will consequently be a struggle against imperialism and itswar. In this struggle the basic principle is: "the chief enemy is in your own country," or"the defeat of your own (imperialist) government is the lesser eviL"But not all countries of the world are imperialist countries. On the contrary themajority are victims of imperialism. Some of the colonial or semicolonial countrieswill undoubtedly attempt to utilize the war in order to cast off the yoke of slavery.Their war will not be imperialist but liberating. It will be the duty of the international proletariat to aid the oppressed countries in their war against oppressors. Thesame duty applies in regard to aiding the USSR, or whatever other workers' government might arise before the war or during the war. The defeat of every imperialistgovernment in the struggle with the workers' state or with a colonial country is thelesser eviL .. .In supporting the colonial country or the USSR in a war, the proletariat does not inthe slightest degree solidarize either with the bourgeois government of the colonialcountry or with the Thermidorian bureaucracy of the USSR. On the contrary, it maintains full political independence from the one as from the other. Giving aid in a just andprogressive war, the revolutionary proletariat wins the sympathy of the workers in thecolonies and in the USSR, strengthens there the authority and influence of the FourthInternational, and increases its ability to help overthrow the bourgeois government inthe colonial country, the reactionary bureaucracy in the USSR.

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-Leon Trotsky, "The Death Agony of Capitalism and theTasks of the Fourth International" (1938)

! . ~ ! ! . ! ~ ! ~ ~ t ' ! / ! ! . ~ l ! . ! . EDITOR: Alan WildeEDITOR, YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Michael DavissonPRODUCTION MANAGER: Susan FullerCIRCULATION MANAGER: Irene GardnerEDITORIAL BOARD: Ray Bishop (managing editor), Bruce Andre, Jon Brule, Karen Cole, Paul Cone,George Foster, Liz Gordon, Walter Jennings, Jane Kerrigan, Len Meyers, James Robertson, JosephSeymour, Alison SpencerThe Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League(Fourth Internationalist).Workers Vanguard (ISSN 02760746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July andAugust (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3week interval in December, by the SpartacistPublishing Co., 299 Broadway, Suite 318, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 7327862 (Editorial), (212) 7327861(Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Email address: vanguard@tiac.net.Domestic 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 in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint.The closing date for news in this issue is 1 October._No. 788 4 October 2002

was dragged of f as welL The Transportation Security Administration, which employs the marshals who were on theflight, lamely asserted that Rajcoomarwas swept up because he was watching the pandemonium around him "tooclosely"! "I had never been treated likethat in my life," he told New York Timescolumnist Bob Herbert. "I was afraid thatI was about to be beaten up or killed."At least Rajcoomar was able to get outof custody with no charges against him.That cannot be said for Gurdeep Wander,a U.S. citizen of Indian descent, andHarinder Singh, a citizen of India. Thetwo gas station employees flew out ofNew York's La Guardia Airport for anExxon/Mobil convention in Las Vegas.They left on September lOin the hope ofavoiding flying on September 11, fearing,quite reasonably, that they might face particular trouble because of their ethnicity.However, due to a plane delay, theymissed their transfer in Minneapolis andhad to spens! the night at a hoteL The nextmorning, the two barely caught a flight toMemphis with a transfer to Vegas, dashing on board at the last moment.As the plane was approaching itscruising altitude, Wander asked if hecould go to the restroom despite the "fasten seatbelt" sign remaining on. DeborahSummers, a flight attendant, gave himpermission. Upon reaching the bathroom, Wander began to shave, using a kitNorthwest Airlines had issued to him.After about ten minutes, the flight attendant began knocking on the door, askingif he was okay and telling him to finishup. At one point Wander opened the doorwith shaving cream on his face andasked if he could finish up. He alsoallowed Summers to check his razor asshe demanded.Soon afterward, Carlos Nieves, aLatino man who did not know Wander orSingh but had boarded at the same time,went to use the bathroom. Immediatelyafterward, Singh also went to use therestroom. The flight attendants informedthe captain of this "suspicio us" activity.The pilot placed an emergency call to theFort Smith airport in Arkansas and madean emergency landing there. Singh, Wander and Nieves were detained by the cops.Also detained was one Alaaeldin Abdelsalam, an Egyptian man who happened tobe on the flight and had absolutely nothing to do with anything. As Wander's lawyer, Matthew J. Ketcham, noted, "It'sno coincidence that these dark-skinnedmen were singled out" (New York Times,20 September).

WV PhotoBrooklyn: Spartacist contingent atMarch protest against detention ofimmigrants.Abdelsalam was arrested and his luggage blown open by water cannon after abomb-sniffing dog noticed the smell ofpetroleum. He was only released after heexplained that he was an oil worker andhad his hard hat and boots in his luggage.Nieves was also released without charges.But Singh, hoping to end the ordeal towhich he'd been subjected, was set freeone week later after he paid a $500 finefor the "crime" of using the bathroom.Wander, whom everyone admits did nothing more serious than shave his face,originally faced up to 20 years in prisonon charges of interfering with the flightand intimidating the flight crew. He waseventually released on September 19 with

12 months' probation and a $1,000 fine.As with Rajcoomar, no one suspectsany of the individuals swept up in FortSmith of being "Islamic terrorists" (agiveaway might have been the fact thatWander was shaving his beard!). But inthe context of the "war on terror," itdoesn't matter one whit to the prosecutors, government agencies and policedepartments who feel they can sweepup dark-skinned people for any reasonwhatsoever-or no reason at all. Inhis 1998 treatise, All the Laws but One:Civil Liberties in Wartime, Chief JusticeWilliam Rehnquist favorably quotesFranklin Roosevelt's attorney general,Francis Biddle, as saying: "The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime president." With an endless " war oncontinued on page 9

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Northern IrelandCatholic Minority Under S,iegeThe following article is reprinted from

Spartacist Ireland (No.2, AutumnlWinter2002), pub lished by the Spartacist GroupIreland, section of he International Com-munist League. 'frade Unions Act Against Sectarian 'ferrorSPARTACIST I R E L A N ~

This summer, violence in NorthernIreland reached the highest level sincethe signing of the 1998 Good FridayAgreement. An article about Belfast inthe [London] Guardian (11 June) noted,"Almost incredibly for a city supposedlyunder ceasefire. the number of bombingsand shootings in Belfast last year was thehighest for 20 years." In August theCatholic captain of the Northern Irelandteam, Neil Lennon, was forced to retirefrom internat!onal soccer after [Protestant] Loyalists threatened to kill him.Particularly in working-class areas, theCatholic minority live under siege. InEast Belfast's Short Strand, Catholics aresegregated within a ghetto and subjectedto nightly terror by Loyalists, the armyand police.Tony Blair blithely asserted on 4 Julythat Northern Ireland is in the process of"transition from violence to democracy,"meaning his prized "peace" deal is working. The myth of British "democracy"was never much in evidence in Ireland,and the "peace process" is a fraud. Wecall for immediate, unconditional withdrawal of the British troops, and haveconsistently warned against illusions inany imperialist deal, which of necessityhas been, is and will be at the expense ofthe oppressed Catholics, and does notserve the interests of the Protestant working class either.

News LetterBelfast, August 2: Mass trade-union protest against sectarian violence following July murder of teenager by antiCatholic gunmen.

Oppression of the Catholic minority isat the very foundation of the bourgeoisorder in Northern Ireland; it is reinforcedby British imperialism and enshrined inthe so-called "peace" deal which restson the British Army presence. Sectarianism serves the interests of the capitalist exploiters by keeping the workingclass divided. To be effective, any fightagainst Loyalist terror must politicallyconfront the capitalist system that breedsit as well as the state forces that back theLoyalists-the British Army and therenamed RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary], the Police Service of NorthernIreland (PSNI). Key to making workers

conscious of this fact and to breakingthem from illusions in the imperialist"peace" fraud is the intervention of a revolutionary internationalist party.In the last 18 months teachers, postalworkers, hospital staff and ambulanceworkers have been threatened by Loyalistparamilitaries and their un ion brothersand sisters have responded. The murderof a Catholic teenager, Gerard Lawlor, inBelfast in July by Loyalist gunmensparked renewed fears among workers.On 1 August, following yet another deaththreat against a Catholic worker by a Loyalist death squad, Catholic and Protestanthealth workers staged a one-day strike. InJanuary postal workers throughout theNorth struck for five days protesting theLoyalist murder of a Catholic unionbrother, Daniel McColgan. At the time,the Irish Council of Trade Unions (ICTU)organised a IS,OOO-strong protest rally inBelfast and smaller rallies in other cities. while public sector workers staged a half-

Britisb ' f r o o . p s O u t N ~ w !

APCatholic residents of Portadown, Northern Ireland under siege by Britishforces called out on behalf of Orange Order, July 1997.4 OCTOBER 2002

day strike. Since then, postal workers inDerry have walked off the job a numberof times in response to death threats fromLoyalists.Loyalist paramilitaries condemned theunion protests-according to the BelfastTelegraph (15 February), the "WatersideYoung Loyalists" issued threats not onlyto Catholic postmen in Derry but alsoagainst Protestant workers who haddefended Catholics. Workers at three Belfast hospitals also protested last monthwhen the "Catholic Reaction Force"threatened to kill three members of staffif they turned up to work. Although Loyalist violence far exceeds that of the[Catholic Republican] nationalists, on 1August dissident Republicans placed abomb in a lunchbox at a Territorial Armybase in Derry which has been closedsince July 2001, killing Protestant construction worker David Caldwell. Thiswas criminal and can only help pushProtestant workers towards the Loyalistreactionaries.The union mobilisations demonstratethe social power of a united proletariatand present an opportunity to win Protestant and Catholic workers to a proletarianrevolutionary perspective, to transcendthe sectarian divide by understanding theneed to get rid of the capitalist system.However, the trade union tops undermine the social power of the unions byseeking to re-direct working-class angerinto support for the imperialist "peace"deal. Under mounting pressure from theirmembers to act in response to the murderof Gerard Lawlor, the ICTU pleaded withBelfast City Council to lead an "antisectarian" rally, which they did on 2 August. This brought howls of anti-Catholicvenom from Ian Paisley's DUP [the ultrachauvinist Loyalist Democratic UnionistParty], enraged that the rally was led bySinn Fein's Alex Maskey, Lord Mayor ofBelfast. The rally drew several thousandworkers from many unions. But the spectacle on the speakers platform showedthe utter political bankruptcy of thetrade union bureaucracy-workershad toendure speeches from the CBI [Confederation of British Industry], the bosses'organisation, the petty-bourgeois nationalists of Sinn Fein, and the leaders of four

Christian churches, who led the demonstrators in prayer!Reformists PromotedImperialist "Peace" Fraud

The Socialist Party (SP) [linked toSocialist Alternative in the U.S.] andSocialist Workers Party (SWP) [formerlyaffiliated with the U.S. InternationalSocialist Organization] both claim tofight for "class unity against sectarianism" but this is bogus. Both organisationsrefuse to call in Britain for troops out ofNorthern Ireland and peddle illusions inBritish imperialism's "peace deal," whichis premised on the presence of Britishtroops. This makes them obstacles to thefight against Loyalist terror.The Socialist Party correctly criticisedthe Belfast City Council-sponsored rallybecause of its leadership and called for"Independent workers action," by whichthey meant the ICTU bureaucracy shouldlead it. According to their British paper,"unfortunately NIC-ICTU rejected theproposal for independent mass action"(The Socialist, 9 August 2002). Likewisethe SWP says "it is up to the trade unionsto take the lead. Leaving it to politiciansto lead the call only blunts the message"(Socialist Worker, No. 180 [undated]).The Socialist Party and SWP act asleft tails of the trade union misleadersby calling for "independent" trade unionaction without stating that even whenthe trade unions call their own actions,the union tops push class collaboration.In January, when the bureaucracy didlead a workers rally, they got endorsements from the CBI and the British government's Northern Ireland secretary,John Reid. Class independence requiresa struggle within the unions against thepro-capitalist bureaucracy.The Socialist Party helped organise aseparate rally of 400 workers in Belfaston 1 August, but their "anti-sectarian"posture is nothing but a cover for blindness to the oppression of Catholics. Theneed to combat the oppression of Catholics is a critical point that Protestantworkers must understand in order to fightin their own class interests. The SocialistParty are known for defending the "right"

continued on page 133

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On September 22 the ruling SocialDemocratic Party (SPD), in coalitionwith the bourgeois Green Party, was narrowly re-elected in a hotly contested election in Germany. Gerhard Schroder'sSPD was trailing in the polls behind theconservative opposition led by the Christian Democrats (CDU) until only a fewweeks prior to the balloting. But inAugust SchrOder declared that Germanywould not participate in a military intervention in Iraq, even if the United Nationsendorsed it. Schroder's statement got asympathetic response among the Germanelectorate and turned the tide. The NewYork Times .(24 September) observed:"This was the first time since World WarII that a leader of a major ally won anelection by campaigning against American policy." Schroder's victory alsobucked a recent trend in Europe in whichright-wing parties have defeated theirsocial-democratic opponents, most recently in France where Jacques Chiracdefeated Lionel Jospin' s Socialist Party.

surprising in a country that has lost twomajor interimperialist wars. Indeed, thestrength of pacifism among the Germanmasses makes the American "Vietnamsyndrome" look rather tame in comparison. Thus, there was substantial opposition in the trade unions to German participation in both the U.S.INATO Kosovowar in 1999 and the war in Afghanistanmore recently. In fact, Schroder, who enthusiastically signed up to support theAmerican imperialists in both these ventures, pointedly denounced IG Metall,Germany's largest union, for calling fora halt to the bombing of Afghanistan.Schroder arrogantly warned the union to"keep your fingers out of foreign policy."However, SchrOder's opposition to aninvasion of Iraq was not simply a ploydesigned to flatter popular sentiment in a

will lead from trade and economic conflict to military conflict. As we noted atthe time of the earlier Gu lf War in 1989-90, Bush Sr.'s attack on Iraq was also athinly disguised blow directed at America's chief rivals, Germany and Japan,and in particular an assertion on the partof the U.S. imperialists of their right todispose of key oil resources. At the time,the German and Japanese governmentsgrudgingly went along with the war andin fact ended up footing a good portionof the bill. According to the New YorkTimes (30 July), out of a $61.1 billionexpenditure on that earlier war, an estimated $48.4 billion was paid by America's "allies."Now, with the world economy ina major downturn, economic tensionsamong the imperialists have climbed.

The election set off a sharp roundof recriminations between German andAmerican government officials. Bushrefused to deliver the customary congratulatory phone call to Schroder uponhis re-election. The Bush administration was particularly incensed by theremarks of SPD justice minister HertaDaubler-Gmelin. As reported by the German newspaper Schwiibisches Tagblau,Daubler-Gmelin told a meeting of metalworkers that "Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler also used."This not unfair observation prompted U.S.defense secretary Rumsfeld to declarethat the German-American relationshiphad been "poisoned." Ronald Asmus, aformer senior U.S. State Department official, opined: "For most of the last decadewe thought that Germany was moving inthe right direction, and becoming a morenormal country prepared to assume moreinternational responsibility. We thoughtGermany had overcome its history. Butnow there's a big question mark" (New

SpartakistSpAD supporters at September 21 immigrant rights protest in Berlin call todefend the Palestinian people and for full citizenship rights for allimmigrants. Sign in the middle reads: "Imperialist Hands Off Iraq!"

York Times, 23 September ). -

difficult election. The developing fissurebetween the American and German governments is not something that can easilybe papered over. Bush's arrogant contempt for the opinions of his putativeallies has certainly added fuel to the fire.But at bottom these frictions reflect themerciless competition among rival imperialist powers for larger shares of theworld market-a system that ultimately

Underlying the election results is adeep aversion to militarism among muchof the population of Germany. This is not

4

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Bush's imposition of tariffs on steel products outraged governments .around theworld. Interestingly, it was the Germangovernment that struck a more conciliatory posture over this, heading offa major confrontation between the U.S.and the European Union. But the European bourgeoisies, which are more dependent on Near East oil than the Americans, are extremely nervous about theramifications of a U.S. oil grab in Iraq,which could also destabilize the region.The German capitalists and their socialdemocratic agents are particularly unsettled over the impact this could haveon the economy. The unemploymentrate currently hovers around 10 percent nationally, and is much higher inmore devastated areas like eastern Germany. This was deeply embarrassing toSchroder, who had promised to reducejoblessness substantially. His failure to doso almost cost him the election.German Imperialism:No "Lesser Evil"

Should SchrOder stand by his promisenot to support an invasion of Iraq, thiswould not frustrate the plans of Bush,Rumsfeld & Co. but it would make themmore difficult. No sensible Marxist woulddenounce a measure that would create anobstacle, albeit a modest one, for the warcrazed Bush gang. However, it is particularly incumbent on communists in Germany to maintain intransigent politicalopposition to German imperialism and itssocial-democratic agents. In particular,Marxists in Germany must combat thefatal illusion that the German bourgeoisie

GettySPD chancellor Gerhard Schroderand Green Party foreign ministerJoschka Fischer.

and the social democracy in particular area force for peace. The SPD went overdefinitively to the bourgeois order inAugust 1914, when it voted for war credits for the German government and linedup the proletariat as cannon fodder forWorld War I. A few years later, the SPDorganized the fascistic Freikorps to carryout the murder of the revolutionary Marxists Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who had opposed that interimperialist slaughter. The SPD has been aconsistent opponent of revolution and hassought to throttle revolution wherever ithas succeeded in sweeping away capitalism, as in the former Soviet Union.In the post-Soviet world it has been theSPD that has spearheaded the deploymentof German troops abroad. The dispatch ofGerman troops to Kosovo and their intervention in Afghanistan represent the firstsignificant deployment of military forcesabroad since World War II. Significantly,the task of refurbishing the credentials ofthe German military was entrusted to thesocial democrats and the Green Party,which is headed by the ex-leftist JoschkaFischer, and not to the conservative rightwing. By virtue of its ties to the tradeunions and consequent authority with theworking masses, the social democracywas the ideal tool for the bourgeoisie touse in an attempt to overcome the deepsuspicion and hostility of much of thepopulation toward the military and itsofficer corps. It is hardly surprising thattoday many Germans remain skeptical ofSchroder's promise to stay clear of a military adventure in Iraq. A poll taken forGerman N-TV showed that 58 percent ofthose interviewed agreed with the statement: "The government's declaration thatGermany will not take part in an expansion of the U.S. war against terrorism isnot credible because it was made duringthe election campaign."Since the election SchrOder andFischer have sought to mollify the Americans, with Fischer playing the role ofchief conciliator. SchrOder apologizedfor the reported remarks of DaublerGmelin and subsequently announced thatshe would not be reappointed in his newgovernment. The SPD also removed parliamentary floor leader Ludwig Stiegler,who had compared Bush to Augustus,the Roman emperor who subdued theGermanic tribes. More substantively,Fischer pledged that Germany wouldcontinue to cooperate with the U.S. inthe fight to round up Al Qaeda. Meanwhile, German defense minister PeterStruck said Berlin had offered to expandits military commitments in Afghanistan.At a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Struck said Germany and the Netherlands were considering taking over aninternational force in Kabul when Turkeyrelinquishes command at the end of theyear. Germariy has deployed over a thousand soldiers in Afghanistan while hundreds of German special forces took partin Operation Anaconda, fighting alongside British and American soldiers.TheSPD/Gre en government enthusiastically supported Bush's bloody forayinto Afghanistan, not least because thisgave it a pretext to crack down onthe immigrant population at home underthe pretext of "fighting terrorism." The

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newly instituted racist Rasteifahndung, asystem of computerized "racial profiling," targets millions of mainly Muslim immigrants. While Germany has asubstantial immigrant popUlation thatforms a strategic component of the working class, very few of these immigrantshave German citizenship because ofchauvinist laws that discriminate in favorof ethnic Germans. In further crackingdown on Turkish, Kurdish, Palestinianand other immigrants, the SPD government is simply doing the bidding of itsbourgeo}s masters who find immigrantlabor redundant in a period of economicdownturn. This underlies the vital importance of the struggle for full citizenshiprights for all immigrants. Moreover, theattacks on the more vulnerable immigrantpopulation have served as the cuttingedge of a broader attack on the workersmovement. Thus the Security Check Law,modeled after Bush's Maritime Security Act, authorized secret service background checks on airport, transport andother workers, including tracking downaffiliation with socialist or communistorganizations. Johann Hartshauser,amember of a factory council at the airportin Munich, was driven from his jobbecause 18 years ago he posted up placards for the small leftist Gruppe Internationaler Marxisten.SchrOder's implementation of policiesof war, racism, capitalist austerity andwitchhunting leftists certainly did have anegative impact on the SPD's workingclass base. The trade unions, whoseleadership is aligned with the socialdemocracy, acted belatedly, if at all, tomobilize their membership to back theSPD. Despite the last minute spurt insupport for SchrOder, the SPD lost 5 percent of its working-class voting base. Itwas only a strong showing by its coalition partner, the Greens, that rescued theelection for SchrOder.The enthusiasm of some bourgeois elements in Europe for Schroder's victorywas reflected in the Italian left-liberalnewspaper La Repubblica (24 September), which crowed: "After Fischer andSchroder's victory, the equation is pacifism equals electoral victory, where pacifism means no to Bush's war againstIraq, thus no to Bush, thus no to Italian(and European) servile disposition towardthe U.S." This unvarnished call on theEuropean capitalist ruling classes toadopt a more independent stance fromtheir American counterpart was alsoencapsulated in a statement of the European Social Forum earlier this monthendorsed by several reformist and centristgroups. The statement posited "thechance to influence European governments" and appealed to "all the Europeanheads of state to publicly stand againstthis war" (see " Defend Iraq Against U.S.Attack!" on page 1). What the BritishSocialist Workers Party, Workers Power,the French Communist Party and LigueCommuniste Revolutionnaire and ItalianRifondazione Comunista fake leftists arepushing is the thoroughly fraudulent ideathat the European imperialists are morebenevolent and progressive than theirAmerican rivals.This is nothing but vile socialpatriotism. Presumably then the Germanbourgeoisie of Auschwitz is morally better than the American rulers? And whatabout the dirty history of French colonialism in Algeria and Indochina, or theBritish empire's history of pillage andmurder in Ireland, the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Middle East? O r thebloody occupation of the Congo by Belgian imperialism and Indonesia by theDutch? It was the Italian bourgeoisiewhich invented concentration camps inLibya and which first used poison gasagainst the Ethiopian population. Theargument that one's own imperialistbourgeoisie is somehow less reactionarythan an imperialist rival is exactly theargument used by the SPD in 1914 toline up the German proletariat for interimperialist slaughter. And while the SPD,argued that "German civilization" had tobe defended from Russian tsarist backwardness, the French social-patriots were4 OCTOBER 2002

M. MatzeiSPD/Green government ordered German troops to Macedonia on eve of 1999U.S./NATO war aga inst Serbia. Germany now heads up imperialist occupationforce in Macedonia.arguing that the French workers had todefend France from the German Kaiser'sbrutality.The German reformist Linksruckgroup published a petition on its Webpage demanding:"We appeal to the Gennan Federal Government with much concern: To doeverything possible in the framework ofthe UN in response to the U.S.A., toavoid the threatened war! To refrain fromany military, financial and political support to this war! To withdraw all Gennantroops from the crisis area, especially theABC tanks out of Kuwait and the Marineunits out of the Gulf region and Africa!"

This statement by Linksruck goes farbeyond demanding that SchrOder keep his"hands off Iraq"; it openly accepts theframework of the United Nations, whichis a tool of imperialist domination. In thatregard it is to the right of the stated position of SchrOder, who promises to withhold German military support regardless of what the UN does. Moreover,Linksruck's bogus "anti-imperialism" iscrafted so as not to conflict with the SPDgovernment's war policies. Thus, the petition omits any mention of Afghanistan orthe Balkans, where the German imperialists are working in tandem with theAmericans! But then this bootlicking forthe social-democratic agents of Germanimperialism is hardly surprising comingfrom a group that published an articleidentifying the American state as themain war criminals of the 20th century.Needless to say, this displays touchingamnesia about the crimes of the Germanruling class, from Kaiser Wilhelm toAdolf Hitler.In contrast, our comrades of the Spartakist Workers Party of Germany (SpAD),section of the International CommunistLeague, dellland: "BundeswehrlNATOIUN-Out of the Balkans! Out of the NearEast! Out of Afghanistan!" Our comradesforthrightly stand for military defenseof Iraq against imperialist attack andoppose the lie that German imperialismis a lesser evil than its imperialist rivals.In the recent elections, the SpAD wasunique on the German left in explainingthat the SPD's anti-immigrant, warmongering policies paved the way for theright-wing resurgence and calling for novote to the SPD or the smaller but equallysocial-democratic Party of DemocraticSocialism (PDS).Interimperialist RivalriesEscalate

In an attempt to rebuke the German government for Daubler-Gmelin'sremarks, Bush's national security adviserCondoleezza Rice complained, "How canyou use the name of Hitler and the nameof the president of the United States in thesame sentence? .. Particularly, how can aGerman, given the devotion of the U.S. inthe liberation of Germany from Hitler?"The idea that the Allies liberated Germany from Nazism is a standard Westernimperialist myth. In reality it was theSoviet Red Army that smashed Hitler'sNazis. This Soviet victory was carried outat exceptional cost: well over 20 milliondead. In eastern Germany, the DDR, adeformed workers state, was erected,where capitalism had been rooted out but

where the proletariat was deprived ofpolitical power. In West Germany, wherecapitalism was preserved, the victoriousdemocratic imperialists willingly employedleading "former" Nazis to staff intelligence services, the courts continued to berun by the same judges who presided overThird Reich courts, etc.In the pt}stwar period there was indeeda shared ideological consensus amongthe imperialist powers, based on mutualhatred of the Soviet degenerated workersstate and the deformed workers stateswhich represented a part of the world thathad been ripped out of the sphere of capitalist exploitation. West Germany, as a"front line" state of the Cold War, wasclosely allied with the U.S. imperialists.Indeed, the German social democracy foryears acted as a regional paymaster, funneling CIA funds to various reactionaryforces in Europe, which ranged fromthe social democrats in Portugal to counterrevolutionary Polish Solidarnosc (thefavorite "union" of Ronald Reagan andthe Pope). The SPD vigorously supportedthe drive of both U.S. and German imperialism to overthrow the collectivizedproperty gains of the DDR and the SovietUnion.In 1989, an incipient political revolution erupted in the DDR, posing thepossibility of ousting the Stalinist bureaucracy, the SED, and replacing it with genuine workers democracy based on workers councils. Our international party, theICL, intervened vigorously. We foughtfor proletarian political revolution in theDDR and for socialist revolution in western Germany. We strongly opposed capitalist reunification. Bu t larger forces prevailed, namely the Kremlin bureaucracyand the decomposing Stalinist bureaucracy of the DDR, whose remnants became the PDS. Criminally, then-Sovietleader Gorbachev and the PDS openedthe door to capitalist restoration in theDDR. This foreshadowed capitalist restoration in the USSR two years later. Andit spelled catastrophe for the proletariatof the former workers states and theworkers movement internationally. Theformer DDR became an industrial wasteland with the highest unemploymentrates in Germany; its lumpenized population became a prime target for fascistrecruitment.

SpartakistPublication of theSparta kist Workers Party

of GermanyOne-year subscription(4 issues): 4Overseas subscription: 7,50Overseas airmail: 10includes Spartacist (German edition)

Make checks payable/mail to:SpAO, c/o Verlag AvantgardePostfach 2 35 55, 10127 Berlin, Germany

The demise of the Soviet Union alsoremoved the material basis for the antiSoviet alliance of imperialist states thatexisted during the Cold War. Withoutthe Soviet Union to serve as a common enemy, there was no "glue" tohold together the alliance. The particularimperialist powers began to act in accordwith their conflicting national appetites.To the extent that there has been an apparent consensus since then, it does notreflect any ideological solidarity betweenthe imperialists, but merely reflects thestrength of the brute military superiorityof the U.S. imperialists.One of the legacies of the post-warmilitary occupation of Germany is theproliferation of U.S. military bases in thecountry, which house some 70,000 American troops and include key air bases fora Near East operation. While Schroderhas declared that Germany will not provide troops for a war against Iraq, it ishighly unlikely that he will seek to interfere with these NATO operations. Nonetheless, U.S. bases have already been thetargets of demonstrators, including sometrade unionists, protesting the involvement of these bases in Near Eastern operations. Certainly those desiring to defendIraq against imperialist incursion wouldhave good reason to protest the use ofthese bases to launch attacks on Iraq. InItaly during the Balkans War, there weremass protests outside NATO bases, aswell as proletarian struggle culminatingin a million-strong general strike againstthe war. In Germany the question isposed: will such protests proceed alongan axis of nationalism or of proletarianinternationalism?In the past, social democrats, nationalists and outright fascists have raised thecall for foreign troops to quit Germany. In fact, this was first directed atSoviet troops in East Germany, when thedemand "foreign troops out of Germany"was raised in the 1980s by social democrats and pacifists in West Germany. Thisnationalist "peace" movement remainedultimately directed against the USSR andDDR. In contrast, our comrades counterposed the call: "Defend the Soviet Union!Smash NATO through workers revolution!" When we demanded Pershing missiles out of Germany and defended thepresence of the Soviet SS20s in the DDR,everyone knew exactly what that meantunconditional military defense of theUSSR against imperialism. In counterposition, many of those who cut their political teeth screaming "foreign troops out"are today running the bourgeois Greens,an ardent party of German imperialism.(See "Interimperialist Rivalry in the 'NewWorld Order'," WV No. 667, 2 May1997.) The problem with "U.S. militaryout of Germany!" is that it begs the question of how the U.S. military will leaveGermany: as a consequence of moves ofan increasingly assertive German imperialism or through proletarian revolution.A central issue posed by the protestsat the U.S. bases is the need to link thecall to oppose imperialist incursions inIraq with opposition to German imperialism. To only protest the depredationsof American imperialism in the NearEast would be a gross capitulation tocontinued on page 9

:lilt, 41a 11r 141 HERB8T2OO (0,110Keine Stimme fiir SPD, Griine, PDS!SPD/Griine bahnen derRechten den Weg

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From Labourite Reformismto Revolutionary TrotsWe reprint below an article fromWorkers Hammer No. 182 (Autumn 2002),newspaper of the Spartacist League!Britain. The article is an edited version ofa talk given by comrade James Palmer

at a puhlic meeting of the SUB heldin London in July in conjunction with ourinternationalist intervention into theannual "Marxism" event of the reformistSocialis t Workers Party (SWP). ComradeJames was a leading member of theSWP's Oxford branch before being won tothe revolutionary Trotskyism of the Inter-national Communist League.For most of its history, the Interna-tional Socialist Organization (ISO) wasthe American affiliate of the interna-tional tendency founded by Tony Clif f andheaded by the British SWP. FollowingCl(ff's death in spring 2000, a bitter fac-tional struggle erupted between the ISOand the SWp, not over program but ratherover expressions of competing opportun-ist appetites conditioned by their differentnational terrains. The formal organiza-tional split consummated in March 2001notwithstanding, the ISO shares the samereformist political program as the SWp.Foremost among the positions held incommon by the ISO and the SWP isthe bankrupt "theory" of state capital-ism, which at bottom is a cover for hav-ing dumped the Trotskyist program ofunconditional military defense of thedegenerated and deformed workers statesagainst imperialism.

W O R K E R S l I A M M E R ~ I was previously a member of theSocialist Workers Party of Tony Cliff.My purpose here today is to explain how

it is that I came to understand thatthe SWP was not the sort of party ~ t h a t Ihad believed it was,' and how I waswon over to the Leninist/Trotskyist programme of the Spartacist League, Britishsection of the International CommunistLeague, by learning the principled political differences in programme that drawthe real line between revolutionaries andreformists.

Something that concerns many youngmembers in the SWP is the lack of internal democracy within the organisation.The reasons for this flow from the contradictions between their professions tobe revolutionary and their actual programme of pressuring the Labour Party.This is reflected in the composition ofthe membership, where you have manyyoung members who stay for a year or sountil they become disillusioned, but youalso have a layer of permanent, mainlyolder, "cadre" who are cynical Labourites in the leadership using the youth todo the leg work in the SWP's manyreformist campaigns.How I Joined andWhy I Left the SWP

At the end of 1999, I was amazed bynews that the city of Seattle had beenrocked by what were described as "anticapitalist riots." I was fascinated by theidea that it was possible to build anyorganised resistance to capitalism. Fromthe way it was reported, this seemed morelike an insurrection than a political demonstration or the CND [Campaign forNuclear Disarmament] movement of the1980s. So when I ran into some SocialistWorker sellers doing a petition of support,I signed it and bought the paper and alsoleft my phone number. This was the firstorganised grouping on the left that I hadmet and it was not long before I wasrecruited by them. I had not read any. communist literature at this point and wasnot able to tell the difference betweenreformist politics and revolutionary politics. I noticed that the SWP never saidmuch about the former USSR or Cuba,merely classing them as "state capitalist."I didn't feel that this analysis did thesestates justice, but now that the Cold War

Cliffites peddle illusions in capitalist etectoralism. In Britain, SWP's SocialistAlliance seeks to corral youth, workers into "Old Labour" parliamentarism,while during U.S. 2000 election, the ISO hustled vote for capitalist politicoRalph Nader.6

was over and it didn't seem to be the mainissue, I said nothing.Being a campaigning member of theSWP, however, brought me into contactwith other left groups (despite the SWP'sapolitical argument that other parties wereall "tiny sectarian groups"). One of thesegroups was the Spartacist League, with

Lenin talked of the need for a vanguardparty. In Britain, the strategic goalis to split the working class politicallyfrom social democracy, historically, theLabour Party. Today, the Labour Party isso openly right-wing that it is hated bymany working-class people and minorities. For a real Leninist revolutionaryparty, this presents an opportunity to winworkers away from Labour and Labouritepolitics. The SWP acts as a barrier tothis by offering the Socialist Alliance, asocial-democratic grouping designed toplay the same political role as the oldLabour Party, that is to say, it is forreforming the capitalist state. One of thethings that was said during the time I was

Spartakist1990: Spartacist-initiated, 250,000-strong demonstration against fascist desecration of Soviet war memorial in Treptow Park, East Berlin. We fought againstcapitalist reunification, for a red soviet Germany in a socialist Europe.the newspaper Workers Hammer. Trotskyist ideas had been denied to me in theSWP, none of his books were ever on saleat the SWP book stalls, but in WorkersHammer Trotsky's position on defending the former USSR was explained andhit me as being a thousand times moreconvincing than Tony Cliff's negative,defeatist concept of "state capitalism." I fall the revolutions so far had become statecapitalist beyond repair, then the prospects for the working class were verybleak indeed; there hardly seemed anypoint in being a revolutionary!In addition to this, the idea of votingfor the Labour Party in the local elections where there weren't any SocialistAlliance candidates didn't seem like theway to develop the sort of revolutionaryworking-class movement needed to bringdown the entire capitalist system, and Iwanted to be able to discuss this with people who had politics that were not insome way tied to the Labour Party. Thisis what led me to more serious politicaldiscussions with the Spartacist League.According to Lenin, in his pamphletWhat Is To Be Done?, the task of a revolutionary party is to build revolutionaryconsciousness in the working class fromthe outside as the basis for revolution.I t doesn't come naturally, that's why

onboard the campaign was: "There is amassive political vacuum where theLabour Party used to be!", i.e., the SWPintend the Socialist Alliance to fill thatgap, rather than taking advantage of thehuge divide to split the working classfrom Labourism. The final discrediting ofthe Labour Party during recent years inpower represented a direct opportunity tointervene and utilise this split from parliamentary politics; instead the SWPchose to repair the credibility of socialdemocracy by founding the SocialistAll iance to plug the gap. Once it had becomeclear to me that the SWP was another barrier to achieving a revolution, I resigned.Being Won to theTrotskyist Programme

My point today is to explain the basicpolitical differences and what they actually mean. Why did the SWP not defendthe Soviet Union, what we Trotskyistsunderstood to be a degenerated workersstate; and the deformed workers states ofChina, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam?And why do Trotskyists defend them? InTrotsky'S book The Revolution Betrayed,he explained that the Soviet Union, as thefirst workers state, was different not justbecause its government had been foundedby workers councils called soviets and ledWORKERS VANGUARD

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by the Bolshevik Party, but because of thenew property forms that this society wasbased on, property forms resulting fromthe 1917 Russian Revolution. This was asociety where there were no privatelyowned factories, no one owned shares andbonds, there was no stock exchange, nocapitalists could get rich off the workers'backs by playing the stock market or liveoff the interest and consequently therewas no economic cycle of boom and bustto cause misery and impoverishment toworkers. This was a system that could inno way be described as capitalist. It wasbased on a system of collectively ownedmeans of production, a planned economy.Stalin's bureaucracy first ascendedto power in 1924 in the aftermath ofthe defeat of the 1923 German Revolution and Lenin's death. Some monthslater, Stalin would preach the nationalist dogma of building "socialism in onecountry." Originally a recipe for utopian economic autarky, "socialism in onecountry" would become the justificationfor sacrificing socialist revolution internationally in the illusory belief that theimperialists would, in exchange, ceasetheir drive to recapture for the capitalistmarket the one-sixth of the globe rippedfrom them by the October Revolution.Trotsky fought this betrayal of the Bolsheviks' internationalism down the line,and fought as the staunchest defender ofthe gains of the Bolshevik-led OctoberRevolution. He understood that Stalin& Co. eventually were able to consolidatea political counterrevolution, but not asocial one. For this reason, Trotsky considered the planned economy and collectivisation to be a massively progressive feature of the new society and,although workers no longer had controlof the political apparatus any more thanthey did in the West, he knew that thoseremaining gains for workers needed to bedefended from a return to capitalism. TheUSSR, a formerly backward country, wasable to modernise itself even during theepoch of imperialism. From being a backward, largely agricultural nation in 1917,the USSR's planned economy enabled itto industrialise, to mobilise the Red Armyto smash Hitlerite fascism throughoutEastern Europe and, at the end of the Second World War, to emerge as one of twosuperpowers.Against the Stalinist bureaucracy, Trotsky called for proletarian political revo-lution, that is for workers to retake political control of the state, and return theSoviet Union as a beacon of internationalproletarian revolution against capitalismthroughout the globe. Trotsky was a scientific socialist, and his conclusiOfls..arebased on Marxist science. Thus, he wasquite clear that the bureaucrats were nota capitalist class, but a new type of parasitic ruling caste; their social existencewas dependent upon the collectivisedproperty established by the Russian Revolution and therefore-and this is veryimportant-they were based on a contradiction. That contradiction meant they

i,r

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were sometimes compelled to defend theSoviet Union against capitalism. Eventhough this ruling caste lived relativelyprivileged lives by comparison to themass of the working people, even thoughthey carried out often terrible repression--es pecially against the supporters ofTrotsky's Left Opposition-to protecttheir existence, they had not destroyed thesocial basis of the Revolution.In The Revolution Betrayed, written in1937, Trotsky explained:"As a conscious political force the bu-reaucracy has betrayed the revolution.But a victorious revolution is fortunatelynot only a program and a banner, notonly political institutions, but also a sys-tem of social relations. To betray itis not enough. You have to overthrowit. The October revolution has beenbetrayed by the ruling stratum, but notyet overthrown."You can draw a very simple analogy: imagine a trade union run by rotten leadersthat was involved in a strike. No socialistin his right mind would call for the unionto be smashed just because the union topswere corrupt, or because the strugglecaused hardship, because this would be ahuge defeat for the workers, too. The veryexistence of the union is a gain to defend.Trotsky went on to outline two possibleoutcomes to the class struggle with regardto the USSR. One was that the workerswould struggle, the Revolution wouldspread to the citadels of imperialism inter-

noThousands of courageous Afghan women took up arms alongside Soviet RedArmy in struggle to the death against Islamic fundamentalists. Cliffites sidedwith CIA-backed mujahedin cutthroats, cheered Soviet withdrawal.4 OCTOBER 2002

Novosti

The Bolshevik Revolution of1917 abolished capitalism andcreated the world's first workersstate. Unlike British SWp, ISO,Trotskyists defended the gains ofthe Russian Revolution againstimperialist attack, domesticcounterrevolution.Above: Revolutionary soldiersmarch in Moscow under bannerreading "Communism."Left: Bolshevik leader LeonTrotsky with Red Army graduatecommanders in 1924.

nationally and in the USSR the workerswould make a proletarian political revolution against the Stalinists, returning theirstate to the revolutionary internationalistperspective on which it was founded. Theother was that counterrevolution wouldtriumph, which was always a danger dueto hostile imperialist encirclement of theworld's first workers state, the bureaucratic and vacillating policies of the Stalinist bureaucrats both domestically andinternationally, i.e., Stalin & Co.'s conciliation of imperialism at the expense ofrevolution internationally. Unfortunately,Trotsky was later proved correct in thenegative. I should mention that we foundworkers in the former East Germany wereamazed to read this book for the firsttime, and many could not believe that ithad been written 50 years before."State Capitalism"-A Capitulation

So why was it that Cliff's SocialistReview Group (the SWP's forerunner)came into existence on the basis of abandoning Trotskyism and refusing to defendthe Soviet Union, the North Korean andChinese deformed workers states duringthe Korean War? The SWP's leaderswon't tell it to you. Under the fig-leaf ofthe United Nations, Britain (then ruledby a Labour government) and the U.S.were at war with North Korea, which wasbacked by China and the Soviet Union.Any support for the Communist forcesmeant coming head to head with the British ruling class and state at their mostaggressive. This was unacceptable forthe Cliff group, so they dropped it. Theycouldn't take the heat, so they got out ofthe kitchen, as they say. Rather than calling for unconditional military defenceof China and North Korea, which meantcalling for the military defeat of. their"own" bourgeoisie, they refused to defend the workers states. In order to covertheir capitulation, the Cliffites resorted toequating both sides as waging war fortheir own "imperialist" interests.This line was also flavoured with ahefty dose of patriotism: "Why must ouryoung lads fight and die in far-off Korea?"(Socialist Review, December 1952-January1953). By reneging cin revolutionarydefensism and placing themselves inthe so-called "Third Camp"-which wassupposedly for neither Washington norMoscow-in the reality of the interna-

tional class struggle they had crosseda clear class line and put themselvesfirmly in the camp of their own bourgeoisie, together with the Labour Party. Theywere rightly expelled from the FourthInternational, founded by Trotsky in 1938.In order to proVide a theoretical justification for not defending the USSR, Chinaand North Korea, Cliff & Co. promotedthe "theory" of state capitalism. TonyCliff is generally credited with the invention of this theory, but it was in fact firstused by the infamous revisionist andapologist for the crimes of the SecondInternational, Karl Kautsky, long before."State capitalism" is not a serious Marxist theory, rather it is a way of rationalising defection from the essential task ofdefending the dictatorship of the proletariat. I can give you a quote from someyears later in a paper called The Levellerin September 1979 where Cliff is caughtin a moment of rare honesty. He says:"And I say no, no, we have nothing to dowith bloody Russia, because it is not asource of strength." I think that makes itabout as clear as it is going to be.So this was how the SWP came to takethe side of British imperialism, but Iwant to give you some other examplesof enthusiastic support for the aims ofits "own" ruling class. This wasn'r someone-off failure based on a theoretical departure from Trotskyism; it was and isa fundamental part of the SWP's programme of class collaboration.From Northern Ireland ..

In 1969 the Labour government sentBritish troops to occupy Northern Ireland, and assist in the repression of theCatholic minority there. Revolutionariesin Britain have a particular responsibilityto oppose British imperialism's oppression in Ireland which, for a start, meanscalling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of British troops. Cliff,however, managed to find a rationale forsupporting the British Army, encouraging faith in the supposedly democraticcredentials of British imperialism. Hisargument was that it provided a "breathing space" needed for the Catholic population to avoid a pogrom. The pogromdid indeed occur: in Derry three yearslater when British paratroopers openedup into a crowd, killing 14 on "BloodySunday." This is the bloodsoaked realityof the SWP's unstinting support for theLabour Party....To Afghanistan andCounterrevolution in the USSR

Let's look at the restoration of capitalism in Russia in 1991-1992. The SWPactively supported this. It is totally clearthat this was a disaster for hundreds ofmillions of workers. The remaining gainscontinued on page 8

SociIIlist_.....!'I!te:.lct., . 'ca_ullsm haS coftaDS'NOW FIGHTFOR REALSOCIALISM

Socialist Worker,September 1991(American ISO)Papers aDd politicians can try

to give the impression the col-lapse of one party rule in the1,JSSR means the collapse of s0 -cialism. It does not.It sa fact that should have em') 'g e m d n e ~ rejoicing.

British SWp, ISO hailed Yeltsin counterrevolution in Soviet Union whichbrought misery and hunger to work-ers, national and ethnic minorities.7

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Trotskyism ...(continued from page 7)of the October Revolution were finallyundone. But Chris Harman of the SWPcharacterised the return to capitalism as a"step sideways" from one form of capitalism to another. Unemployment, virtuallyunknown in the former USSR, now existson a huge scale; life expectancy hasplummeted and industrial productivity isdown to about 50 per cent of what it wasbefore. Reactionary forces are on ther i s e ~ G r e a t Russian chauvinism, Islamicfundamentalism, anti-Semitism and appalling oppression for women. U.S. imperialism and its partners, such as Blair'sLabour government, feel unrestrained intheir military adventures abroad. Theseare the concrete realities of Harman's"step sideways."But the SWP grotesquely hailed BorisYeltsin's counterrevolutionary countercoup as "The Russian Revolution of1991," and the Socialist Worker of 31August that year proclaimed: "Communism has collapsed .... It is a fact thatshould have every socialist rejoicing."For our part, ttIe ICL actively fought todefend the gains of October, includingwithin the Soviet Union, where our Moscow group distributed tens of thousandsof leaflets headlined "Soviet Workers:Defeat Yeltsin-Bush Counterrevolution."One of the crucial events leading tothe destruction of the USSR was thewithdrawal of the Red Army fromAfghanistan. The SWP denounced theSoviet presence as Russian "imperialism." Against the CIA-backed mujahedinforces waging bloody civil war againsteven modest improvement in the condition of women in Afghanistan-the reduction of the bride price, the liftingof the veil and education of girls andwomen-we Spartacists recognised theprogressive role played by the Red Armyforces in Afghanistan. Our slogan was:"Hail Red Army! Extend social gains ofthe October Revolution to Afghan peo-

8

BOSTONAlternate Thursdays, 7 p.m.

October 10: The State, the Familyand Class Society-For Women's Liberation ThroughSocialist Revolution!Boston University, CAS Room 237

725 Commonwealth Ave.Information and readings: (617) 666-9453or e-mail bostonsyc@yahoo.comNEW YORK CITY

Alternate Tuesdays, 7 p.m.October 8: Black Oppression Is theBedrock of Racist AmericanCapitalism-For Black LiberationThrough Socialist Revolution!

Columbia University(116th and Broadway)Meet at Hamilton Hall LobbyInformation and readings: (212) 267-1025or e-mail nysl@compuserve.comTORONTO

Thursday, 6:30 p.m.October 17: Down With U.S./CanadaTerror War Against Afghanistanand Iraq! Only Socialist RevolutionCan End Imperialist War

University of TorontoSidney Smith Hall, Room 2116100 St. George St. (north of College)Information and readings: (416) 593-4138or e-mail spartcan@on.aibn.com

u.s. Air Force photo Captain C.w. Huff/National ArchivesLeft: U.S. bombing destroys warehouse at a North Korean port. Right: Korea's largest city, Seoul, in ruins. Tony Cliffbroke from Trotskyist Fourth International over his refusal to defend North Korean deformed workers state underattack by U.S., British imperialists during Korean War.pIes!" Workers in the West needed to becalled on to stand against the sending ofarms and money to the mujahedin, justas trade unions were mobilised to stopsupplies of arms to the counterrevolutionary White forces during the RussianCivil War that followed the 1917 Revolution. We offered to recruit volunteers tofight for the Kabul government after theKremlin had decided to withdraw. Whileour offer was refused, we took up thesuggestion of the Afghan government toraise funds for the besieged fighters atJalalabad and in fact were able to raisethousands of pounds internationally ontheir behalf.As for the SWP, one of its leaders, PaulFoot, actually attacked Margaret Thatcher(who, along with the U.S. rulers, was inthe forefront of backing the reactionary Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan) from the right in his column in theDaily Mirror (25 June 1980), complain-

BAY AREAAlternate Tuesdays, 7 p.m.

October 8: The Fight for SocialistRevolution-The Russian Revolution: How theBolsheviks Came to PowerUC Berkeley, 246 Dwinelle HallInformation and readings: (510) 839-0851

CHICAGOAlternate TuesdaY$, 6 p.m.October 15: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!No Illusions in the RaCist, CapitalistState and Its Courts!

University of Illinois at ChicagoRoom 117 Lincoln Hall707 S. Morgan St.Information and readings: (312) 563-0441or e-mail spartacist@iname.comLOS ANGELESSaturdays, 2 p.m.

October 5: Introduction to Marxism:Historical MaterialismOctober 12: The Economicsof Capitalism

3806 Beverly Blvd., Room 215(Vermont/Beverly Red Line station)Information and readings: (213) 380-8239or e-mail slsycla@cs.comVANCOUVER

Alternate Tuesdays, 6 p.m.October 8: Fight Anglo-Chauvinism:Independence for Quebec!

University of British Columbia,- Student Union Building, Room 213Information and readings: (604) 687-0353or e-mail tIIt@look.ca

ing that e x p ~ r t s of EU [European Union]meat ("our beef") may have been usedin rations for the Red Army. When theRed Army was finally withdrawn, Social-ist Worker (4 February 1989) said: "Therepercussions of this defeat will echo waybeyond the borders of Afghanistan. Allsocialists should welcome it." I think thismakes pretty clear the side which theSWP had taken in the wider struggle.The SWP and Labourism

How can we explain these betrayals ofthe international working class by theSWP? They are based on a split fromTrotskyism to join the camp of Labour,the party that serves to tie the workingclass to British imperialism. This is whythey will not oppose them in elections.This has always been true, long before theSWP's turn towards electoralism via theSocialist Alliance. The politics of the Socialist Alliance, meanwhile, are even tothe right of the politics of "Old Labour."Subordinated to the goal of getting NewLabour re-elected, it is nothing more thana pressure group on Blair & Co. This wasmade clear when the SWP announced inthe last general election: "Our approachin the coming election should be voteSocialist where you can, vote Labourwhere you must" (Internat{onal Social-ism No. 90, Spring 2001). ..The historic role of the Labour Partyin Britain can be seen in regard to theRussian Revolution. Labour vehementlyopposed it. In the years immediatelyafter the Russian Revolution, workersin the West knew that something historichad been achieved for their class, andthey wanted it here, too. What they didn'tknow was how to get it. To head of f revolutionary explosions, Labour adoptedmeasures like Clause IV in its constitution, which called for collective ownership of the means of production. At thetime, the Labour Party had never been inpower, and Lenin advocated tactics, suchas critical electoral support, in order toexpose its real purpose-to rule for thebourgeoisie-and thus to effect a splitby the working-class base from the procapitalist tops of what Lenin called abourgeois workers party. I think it isquite clear that this is a tactic which doesnot apply today to Blai r's "New Labour."In the last general elections, we didapply the tactic of critical support forArthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party(SLP). The SLP are based on Old Labour"Clause IV" socialism, and there is noway they can lead workers to revolution.Our critical support was based on theirrefusal to support Labour in any way andthe fact that, unlike the Socialist Alliance' they advanced basic demands inthe interest of the working class, including the demand for British troops outof Northern Ireland.The SWp's Labour-Ioyalism is thetotal antithesis to the whole concept

of building revolutionary consciousness,serving to tie workers to illusions inthe "mother of parliaments," as Labourleaders obsequiously worship institutionssuch as the monarchy, House of Lordsand established churches. And this iswhat the SWP has always done: at eachelection the SWP says, "Vote Labour withno illusions," and then four years later,"Vote Labour with no illusions," ad nauseam. Today, there are a lot of youth andworkers who are a million miles to theleft of Tony Blair and would rather cuttheir own throats than vote for him. Thehuge gap between New Labour and workers and youth today is an opening we seekto utilise in order to build a revolutionary Leninist/Trotskyist party. The SWP,through its various coalitions, alliancesand electoral campaigns, seek on the contrary to rope radical youth and advancedworkers back into the Labourite fold.The "Third Camp" vs.Revolutionary Internationalism

The position taken by the SWP overthe Russian Question is not some irrelevant piece of history. It is their political credentials. It mattered then andit matters now because capitalism hasnot yet been restored in China, NorthKorea, Vietnam and Cuba. There havebeen major battles fought by millionsof workers against the introduction of"market reforms" being introduced inChina and elsewhere. How can you seriously fight against capitalism if youdon't fight against its return to thesestates where capitalism has been overthrown by mass insurgencies? Should,for instance, the proponents of capitalist counterrevolution prevail in China,another billion workers to exploit inChina will only strengthen huge corporations and weaken the position of workerseverywhere. This is not an abstract argument for internationalists.There is no, and can be no, third campbecause the third camp is merely thecamp of imperialism. The Labourism inherent in the politics of the SWP reflectsthe basic capitulation to its "own" bourgeoisie codified by its abandonment ofthe Trotskyist programme for unconditional military defence of all those stateswhere capitalism had been overthrown,not least in the homeland of the OctoberRevolution.Comrades of the Spartacist Leaguefight for the international, proletarianand revolutionary communism of Leninand Trotsky, for new Octobers. The SWPdenounce us as "sectarians" for this. Weare proud to do the groundwork neededto build a revolutionary party here inBritain, carrying out the necessary fightsagainst social democracy and its hangerson, fighting to win serious r e v o l ~ t i o n a r i e s to the struggle to reforge the Fourth International, world party of socialist revolution. Join us! .

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Hysteria...(continued from p age 2)terror" declared, such assertions are particularly ominous.A clear example of the government'sassault on civil liberties is the prosecutionof the alleged "AI Qaeda sleeper cell" inLackawanna, New York. The suspectsShafal A. Mosed, Yahya A. Goba, SahimA. Alwan, Yasein A. Taher, Faysal H.Galab and. Mukhtar al-Bakri (who wasarrested in Bahrain)-are all Americancitizens ofYemeni background who grewup in the steel town in upstate New York.The government's case states that thesemen, whom they have been monitoringfor over a year, spent time in Pakistanin early 2001. According to the prosecutors, Alwan and al-Bakri went on toAfghanistan and spent time at an allegedAl Qaeda training camp. But even according to the government's case, none ofthese men had actually done anything,nor did they plan to do anything. The FBIitself admitted that the men did not have."anything specific that they were planning that would jeopardize the health andsafety of anybody in the United States orWestern New York" (CNN, 15 September). In fact, Alwan faked an ankle injuryduring his ten-day stay at the camp inorder to get out.But as the U.S. gears up for an attackon Iraq, the Bush administration is des-

Germany...(continued from page 5)German nationalism. Marxists in Germany must insist: Not one man, notone penny for the German bourgeoismilitary! What about German militaryrampages in Afghanistan and the Balkans, the anti-"terror" witchhunt whichtargets immigrants and leftists at home,as well as the unemployment and immiseration that threatens working people?The struggle against war abroad mustbe linked to the fight against capitalism through a proletarian internationalistperspective; only in such a fashion canthe struggle for socialist revolution goforward.Pacifism VS. Marxism

Leon Trotsky, co-leader with Leninof the 1917 Russian Revolution andfounder of the Fourth International, distinguished between the pacifism of themasses and bourgeois pacifism. Writingin the 1938 Transitional Program, heasserted:"In addition, it is necessary to differen

tiate strictly between the paciftsm of thediplomat, professor, journalist, and thepaciftsm of the carpenter, agriculturalworker, and charwoman. In one case,pacifism is a screen for imperialism; inthe other, it is the confused expressionof distrust in imperialism. When thesmall farmer or worker speaks about thedefense of the fatherland, he meansdefense of his home, his family, andother similar families from invasion,bombs, and poisonous gas. The capitalistand his journalist understand by thedefense of the fatherland the seizure ofcolonies and markets, the predatoryincrease of the 'national' share of worldincome. Bourgeois paciftsm and patriotism are shot through with deceit."Bourgeois pacifism is indeed shotthrough with deceit. A clear if somewhatextreme example was Adolf Hitler. Thefirst couple of years after taking power,Hitler swore high and low that his intentions were peaceful. Why? Under theVersailles Treaty that ended World War I,Germany had been effectively disarmed.Hitler lacked the means to wage war, sohe talked peace. But all of this changedonce he had assembled a sizable arsenal.I f today the German imperialists clothethemselves in more pacific garb thantheir American counterparts, it does notat all mean that they are inherently more"peaceful." It simply reflects the fact thatat the present moment they lack the mili- -tary means to challenge their Americanrivals. But if and when the relationshipof forces changes on the international

4 OCTOBER 2002

Buffalo: Protest atSeptember 18 bailhearing for six U.S.citizens of Yemenidescent accused ofbeing an AI Qaeda"sleeper cell."

perate for anything it can point to as anintelligence victory in the "war on terror."The prosecution of the Lackawanna menhas been run from the highest level.Defense lawyers say that any plea bargains for individual defendants will haveto be run through Attorney General JohnAshcroft, if not Bush himself.Not only have the Democrats marchedin lockstep with Bush & Co. in the "war

arena, so will the methods of struggle.The Greens are yet another example ofa bourgeois party that began by proclaiming its "pacifism" but ended up participating in a government that bombed Serbiaand invaded Afghanistan. The Greensplaya particular role in the alliance withthe social democrats. Unlike the SPD, theGreen Party is not connected to the organized workers movement and is thereforethe vehicle through which the Germanindustrialists can push for the labor mar-

on terror," but it was Democratic president Bill Clinton's 1996 "Anti-Terrorism"act-with its secret hearings, "preventive" detention and broad definition of"terrorism",-that laid the groundworkfor the Bush administration's USAPatriot Act. The young men in Lackawanna are being charged under provisions of the 1996 law, which holds that"material support or resources" provided

SPD in Berlin. The purpose of this wasto give a "left face" to a governmentwhose task has been to bailout a financially bankrupt city by means of cutsin social spending and attacks on theworking class. The PDS' direct complicity in enforcing cap italist belt-tighteningin Berlin and elsewhere in eastern Germany was an important factor in its disastrous showing in the elections, where itlost everything but two parliamentaryseats. As Winnie Wolf, it perennial loyal

SpartakistBerlin, May 13: IG Metall strikers at DaimlerChrysler auto plant, one of aseries of rolling strikes that shook SPD-Ied government.ket "reforms" they clamor for, which inpractice amount to attacks on the unions.Recently the SPDIGreen government hasdrastically slashed unemployment benefits and instituted regulations that make itmore difficult for unemployed workers torefuse jobs that offer low pay rates orrequire moving great distances.In the past, the PDS has attractedsome young people who regard it as aleft alternative to the SPD. In the recentelections the Sozialistische A l t ~ r n a t i v e Voran (SAV), affiliated to Peter Taaffe'sSocialist Party in Britain and SocialistAlternative in the U.S., supported a voteto the PDS. The SAY regards the PDS asbeing somehow a "peace party" andtherefore qualitatively superior to theSPD. In actuality, having embraced thebourgeois order with its sellout of theDDR, the PDS is simply a second-rateversion of the SPD. In all essentialrespects its program is the same, notleast of all in its willingness to administercapitalist austerity. Last year the PDSformed a government coalition with the

left critic in the PDS, frankly acknowledged: "Its [PDS'] policies as a governmental party are scarcely distinguishablefrom those of the SPD and Greens.That's why the losses in MecklenburgVorpommern and Berlin are particularlyhigh" (Junge Welt, 24 September).In fact, since selling out the DDR in1989-90, the PDS has never been anopponent of imperialism; it has simplyquibbled over the means to achieveimperialist objectives. In the 1990-91Gulf War, the PDS preferred to starverather than to bomb the Iraqis into submission, advocating a UN embargo (aposition which it later dropped). Sanctions are in fact a step toward war and inthe case of Iraq, over the course of manyyears they have killed far more Iraqisthan the imperialist armed forces. In theBalkans conflict three years ago, thePDS supported an occupation of Kosovo,differing in that they wanted it carried out by the UN or the Europeancontrolled Organization for Security andCooperation in Europe (OSCE) rather

to groups the U.S. government deems"terrorist" is the same as terrorism itselfeven if, as in this case, this means simplybeing in an Al Qaeda camp and apparently not enjoying it. The governmentis seeking to bolster its thought-crimeconspiracy laws, whose victims are prosecuted on the basis of political viewsand association rather than any actionsthey've carried out. Historically, suchlaws have been used to imprison countless union militants, fighters for blackrights, leftists and anyone the governmentperceives to be an "enemy."The Bush administration has been ableto ram through its new repressive measures by pushing the illusion that they areintended for a specific small and vulnerable sector of the population-immigrants from Muslim countries. But asthe arrests in Lackawanna and elsewhere demonstrate, the line between noncitizen and citizen is becoming increasingly blurred. The American populace isnow expected to accept curtailmentof their rights as the n o r ~ . But whatthe government can actually get awaywith will be determined by the levelof social struggle. The working class inthe U.S. has every stake in mobilizing against the truly frightening "war onterror," which will ultimately be usedto attack the labor movement. Downwith the government's "war on terror"!Defend immigrant rights! Defend demo-cratic rights!.

than the American-controlled NATO.The PDS' line is no more motivatedby opposition to imperialism than isSchroder today. They want Germanimperialism to be more independent ofthe American imperialists. Indeed thePDS (as well as some SPD dissidentslike Oskar LaFontaine) has long advocated a closer alliance with capitalistRussia. Such a lash-up, which is notinconceivable, would provide Germany. with what it has the technology forbut does not yet possess: an arsenal ofnuclear weapons.Marxists are not pacifists. We do nothave a position against "war in general."Our line on particular wars is determinedby our programmatic opposition to theimperialist order and our struggle in theinterests of the working class internationally. In the event of an imperialist invasion of the Gulf, a war waged by Iraqwould be a just, defensive war. We aretherefore for military defense of Iraq,without giving one iota of political support to Saddam Hussein. Any other position would constitute a capitulation to theexisting bourgeois order, in which a smallnumber of rich imperialist states dominate and exploit the vast majority ofworking people and oppressed worldwide. Likewise we stand for the unconditional military defense of the remainingdeformed workers states-China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba-againstimperialist attack and internal counterrevolution. One cannot win new gainswithout defending what has already beenripped out of the sphere of capitalistexploitation.There is no shortcut to genuine peaceshort of the overthrow of the capitalistorder and its replacement with a worldsocialist order. As Bolshevik leader V. I.Lenin emphasized:"The temper of the masses in favour ofpeace often expresses the beginning ofprotest, anger and a realisation of thereactionary nature of the war. It is theduty of all Social-Democrats to utilisethat temper. They will take a most ardentpart in any movement and in any demonstration motivated by that sentiment, butthey will .not deceive the people withadmitting the idea that a peace without annexations, without oppression ofnations, without plunder, and without theembryo of new wars among the present'governments and ruling classes, is possible in the absence of a revolutionarymovement."-Socialism and War (1915)

It is to the forging of a proletarian internationalist party that can lead such arevolutionary movement to victory thatwe are dedicated

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Iraq ...(continued from page 1)have defied curfews to come out on thestreets and demonstrate. Almost theentirety of the West Bank is now againunder the iron fist of Israeli militaryoccupation, the oppressed Palestinianpopulation confined to their villages andtowns by a network of military checkpoints, barbed wire and trenches andimprisoned in their homes for days andweeks at a time by 24-hour curfews.Around the globe, there is mountingfear and anger over Washington's warmoves against Iraq, accentuated by therelease of the "Bush doctrine" earlierthis month threatening any perceivedadversary with "pre-emptive" militarystrikes. On Saturday, over 400,000 people marched in London to oppose theBlair Labour government's support forwar against Iraq. In Germany, GerhardSchroder's Social Democratic (SPD)IGreen coalition, which had been trailingin the polls, was re-elected on the basisof opposition to an American war. InMexico City, one television poll elicitedover 40,000 calls, with more than 80 percent opposed to any endorsement by theneocolonial Fox government of the coming U.S. onslaught.Our opposition to this war is based onour struggle in the interests of the working people and oppressed internationallyagainst an imperialist order in whicha handful of rich and powerful statesdominate and exploit the world. A warbetween the U.S. and Iraq would be reactionary and predatory on the part of theU.S., but just and defensive on the'part ofIraq. We stand for the military defense ofIraq against imperialist attack withoutgiving one iota of political support to thebloody Saddam Hussein regime, which isrun by a Sunni Arab minority oppressingthe Shi'it e and Kurdish populations.The defense of neocolonial Iraq againstthe American imperialist behemoth is inthe interests of working people and theoppressed around the world, not least inthe United States. A decade of imperialist attacks against defenseless peoplesabroad has been accompanied in the U.S.by the loss of millions of jobs, theincreasing erosion of any health carebenefits for tens of millions of people,the virtual destruction of welfare and anunparalleled widening of the gap betweenrich and poor. The domestic "war onterror," directed overwhelmingly againstMuslims and Arabs, is ultimately aimedat organized labor. This is most sta rklydemonstrated by government threats ofmilitary strikebreaking against the WestCoast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (lLWU).Every unchallenged act of aggrandizement, every new e\lsy win furtheremboldens America's capitalist rulers tolash out against their perceived enemiesat home and abroad. Small, neocolonialIraq is in no position to militarily prevailover the U.S. imperialist war machine.The Bush administration screams thatSaddam Hussein has "weapons of mass

Current U.S. troop deployment in Near East.

destruction." But the fact is that the onesided slaughter carried out by the U.S.led coalition in 1991 and 12 years ofsanctions-as well as the loss of its overtSoviet and covert American military suppliers-have left the Iraqi military muchweaker even than it was during the GulfWar, with the army barely one-third itsformer size and most of what equipmentit has in need of spare parts.Pursuit ofthe class struggle in the U.S.and other imperialist countries is the chiefmeans of defending Iraq against imperialist attack. "Imperialist war is the continuation and sharpening of the predatorypolitics of the bourgeoisie. The struggleof the proletariat against war is the continuation and' sharpening of the classstruggle." These words from the 1938Transitional Program, written by revolu-. tionary fighter Leon Trotsky in the lead.up to the second interimperialist worldwar, must guide class-conscious workersand antiwar youth on the eve of this predatory war against Iraq. Every strike, everylabor mobilization against the government's war plans and its attacks on wor