workers vanguard no 835 - 29 october 2004

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 835 - 29 October 2004

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W(JRKERS 'AMIIIAR' oC!:No.83S @ ~ i l ~ c ' 7 0 1 29 October 2004

Elections 2004Scull/Newsweek Rel,gion,Racism and Reacli AP'.on

t.'. B.'' eak.. ._..it...'.,.I'....' . ' . ~ . :: ..' .b.......,.8.'.............. D. . . 8:1D.:. 0.. c. .r..... a,. I..S!We!I' . .. R e v o l l l l i 8 I ! a ~ I ; ~ _ o r k e r s P a r q ! The Bush cabal that occupies the WhiteHouse is fanatical, arrogant and believes

it is doing the work of God. One wouldthink the U.S. were some kind of theocratic state given all the heavy emphasison religion, Newspaper articles detailhow God supposedly told evangelist PatRobertson that the Iraq war would entailheavy casualties. Bush supporters testifythat they believe that through Bush, "Godis in the White House." There is an opendisdain for facts and reality. A New YorkTimes Magazine (17 October) article byRon Suskind describes how a senior Bushadvisor told Suskind that "guys like mewere 'i n what we call the reality-basedcommunity: which he defined as peoplewho 'believe that solutions emerge fromyour judicious study of discernible reality: I nodded and murmured somethingabout enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That 's not the way theworld really works anymore' ."Suskind points out that Bush does nothave to claim that he is ordained by God;others do it for him. He quotes zealousBush supporter Hardy Billington declaring, "God gave us this president to be theman to protect the nation at this time.""We may be that generation thatsees Armageddon." Ronald Reagan infamously remarked. Though Reagan wasprobably thinking of a nuclear showdownwith the Soviet Union, today many religious fundamentalist leaders are predicating their positions on the Near East, particularly Israel/Palestine, on a desire foran apocalyptic battle of titanic proportions in the region. This has led to anunholy alliance between the Zionist neocons and the largely Protestant fundamentalist right in the U.S. The two groupshave drawn together in spite of theanti-Semitism of the bible-thumpers-PatRobertson, for example, an ardent supporter of Israel, assigns Jews a role in hisimagined conspiracy spelled out in hisbook The New World Order that remindsone of the lies in the anti-Semitic screedThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

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New York City: Local 1199 SEIU home health aides strike rally in June,demanding bett er wages and health coverage (top). Some 2,000 people marchacross Brooklyn Bridge in May in support of legalizing gay marriage.These Christian fundamentalists wantto see Armageddon, even if it meansnuclear war in the Near East; they want tosee the "Second Coming" and the end ofthe world. And they know to play on thedeep religiosity that pervades thi, cpuntry, where, according to a recent GallupPoll, some 42 percent of Americansdescribe themselves as "born a g a i n ' ~ orevangelical Christians. It is not an accident that gay marriage is blown up into

some huge supposed threat to civilizationas we know it, pushing the ever-popular

hot buttons of American religious maniaand sexual hysteria.The fanatical religiosity of the Bushadministration, its war-crazed policies,its supreme imperial arrogance and itsattacks on the rights of labor and blackpeople have produced a sharp polarization in this country. "When it comes topolicy," the New York Times (26 October)noted, Bush "has done more than anypresident in recent history to advance theagenda of Christian social conservatives.On domestic issues, he has opposed

same-sex marriage, favored restrictionson abortion and imposed limits on embryonic stem cell research. He has promotedvouchers for religious schools and shiftedmoney for sex education and reproductivehealth programs to those that instead promote abstinence." The Bush administration is certainly a pack of crazed womanhating, anti-black, anti-gay bigots.

It is understandable that many wouldsee Kerry as some kind of "lesser evil"to the Bush gang-it 's not so much thatpeople are voting for Kerry but thatthey're voting against Bush. But from thestandpoint of the interests of the workingclass, black people and the oppressed.the capitalist Democratic Party of JohnForbes Kerry (who if elected will be thethird-richest president in history) is noalternative. . Kerry just wants to betterand more rationally (for the capitalists)administer American imperialism abroadand repression at home to further theexploitation of working people for capitalist profit. Although basing their electoral support on different sectors of thepopulation-which can often be veryhostile to each other-both Republicansand Democrats at bottom are. as GoreVidal puts it, "two right wings" of oneparty, the "Property Party."Kerry wants to "win" in Iraq, projecting that troops may stay four more years.He supports Israel's concentration-campwalls going up around Palestinian communities. He wants to wage a moreeffective "war on terror" at home, whichwould mean more repression of immigrants, black people and labor. And.whatever his personal beliefs, he has notshied away from pandering to the religious vote. The New York Times (25 October) notes: "Mr. Kerry demonstrated awide liturgical reach, quoting from Matthew, James, John, Luke, the Ten Commandments and 'Amazing Grace' beforerecalling for cheering Jews in BocaRaton how he once shouted 'the Israelipeople lives' in Hebrew atop Masada."It is a measure of how loathsome theBush regime is that Kerry-a manwho voted for the war in Iraq, a man whowants to increase American troop strengthby 40,000 men, a man who voted for theUSA-Patriot Act-is seen as an alternative. The problem, though, is fundamentally not one of individual candidates butcontinued on page 10


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Bush and Hitler?27 September 2004

WV,crazed petty bourgeoisie and lumpenproletariat, whipped into a frenzy to physically destroy the mass organizations ofthe working class. Normally, the bourgeoisie keeps the fascists in reserve as alast resort, but it turns to them when therepressive organs of the state are incapable of containing explosive class conflict in periods of capitalist crisis. In thiscountry, the face of fascism is seen in theKu Klux Klan, the white-supremacistmilitias and their ilk.

Do me a little favor. Come up with anarticle, analysis, on just why the comingpresidential election is not like the election in Germany which ended in Hitler'svictory, not analogous.Cuz damn near every "anybody butBush" person I talk to is convinced it isanalogous, like the Democratic Party isanalogous to the German Social Democrats of that time, with that German CPrefusing (by Stalin's orders) to bloc withthe Social Democrats, even calling 'emsocial fascists, as they today call orimply Bush as fascist.

The Spartacist League has a long his-. tory of organizing working-class-centeredmobilizations against the fascists whereand when they have raised their head.And at every step, we have had to mobilize against sabotage by the capitalistDemocratic Party and its supporters onthe left. In New York City, where we initiated a mobilization on 23 October 1999against the KKK that brought out thousands of people, AI Sharpton and otherDemocratic politicians filed court papersseeking to allow the Klan to mobilize forrace-terror in the name of defending theirright to "free speech."

So get on with that article, critique!]' I then fling it in the faces of those'"anybody but Bush" folk, those having ahelluva time making distinctions, like between current USA and Germany of '32.And just now recalling-ya did gointo this seeming analogy a few yearsback, though in just a sentence or two:This time make it-okay?-afull-lengthwriteup. S.C.WV Replies: In our response to a similar letter fromS.c. about a year ago, printed in WV No.816 (26 December 2003), we wrote:ad as he is, George W. Bush is notthe harbinger of American fascism. Fascism is a mobilization-not in the hallsof Congress but in the streets-of the

"Contrary to what S.c. implies, theRepublican Party is not a fascist party;nor is the capitalist Democratic Party,

For New October Revolutions!November 7 (October 25 in the old Russian calendar) marks the 87th anniversary ofthe Russian Revolution, led by the BolshevikParty of Lenin and Trotsky. Despite itsdegeneration at the hands of the Stalinistbureaucracy, which ultimately resulted. incapitalist restoration in 1991 -92, the Bolshevik Revolution was a world-historic victory

for working people and the oppressed internationally. We print below excerpts from anTROTSKY article by American Communist leader John LENINReed on Bolshevism, first printe d in 1919 inWorkers' World, a newspaper aligned with Reed's Communist Labor Party.

Bolshevism is the Social Revolution to which Socialists have looked forward for morethan half a century. It is the inevitable struggle which must accompany the transitionofsociety from Capitalism to Socialism. It is the final battle of the workers of the worldfor power to end forever the tyranny of class rule, and the misery of exploitation ....In Socialism the working class for the first time based its aspiration to freedom onscientific fact. Bolshevism is Socialism put into practice. Today the workers are becoming conscious of their power and ability to win the world for Labor. They always hadthe power, and sometimes the wish. But they lacked the will and the knowledgeof theway. Bolshevism is the will and the way ...Bolshevism is practical. It does not assume that the capital class is going to be legislated out of power without a fight. Power is based on private ownership. In order tosecure power the workers must control capitalist property, and abolish ownership. Thisthey can only do by the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. ...The Socialist Commonwealth is not born without fearful birth-pangs-the Proletarian Dictatorship. Russia today is not a Socialist Commonwealth-nor does it pretend tobe. There is a Proletarian Dictatorship, engaged in conducting the final struggleof theworking class against the capitalist class-not, however, its own capitalist class, forthat has been conquered, but International Capitalism. Until International Capitalism isoverthrown,. Proletarian Dictatorship will not, cannot end ...Bolshevism is Socialism arrived at the point of social revolution-at the dictatorshipof the proletariat foretold by Karl Marx.

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-"John Reed on Bolshevism," Workers'World, 5 September 1919

! ~ ! ! ! l ! J ! l l / : ! f ! ! ! . ~ ! ! . 1 ! . . IRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Alison Spencer

EDITOR: Alan WildeEDITOR. YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Michael DavissonCIRCULATION MANAGER: Jeff Tho masEDITORIAL BOARD: Rosemary Palenque (managing editor), Susan Fuller (production manager),Bruce Andre, Jon Brule, Helen Cantor, Paul Cone, George Foster, Kathleen Harris, Walter Jennings,James Robertson, Joseph SeymourThe Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League(Fourth Internationalist).Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276-0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July andAugust (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3-week interval in December, by the 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 Vangt,lard, 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 26 October.

No. 835 29 October 2004

IndymediaAntiwar protest in San Francisco,January 2003.

unlike the German Social DemocraticParty, part of the workers movement.Moreover, Trotsky's point in Germanywas not electoral support to the SocialDemocrats, which implies an endorsement of their political program. Heargued for a fighting united front-aseries of actions-between Communistand Social Democratic workers organizations to defeat the fascists, in thecourse of which the Communists couldmake clear to the Social Democraticranks that only the Communists had theprogram that could make the necessarysocialist revolution."The fight against the fascists is not amatter that can be addressed throughelections; it requires the independentmobilization of the power of the workingclass and all the oppressed. This was madecrystal clear in the 1932 elections in Germany that S.c. refers to. In the variouselections that took place that year, theNazis never came close to winning amajority. But the powerful German proletariat was disoriented and demobilizedby the craven refusal of its leaders tomobilize to smash the fascists in thest;eets. In November 1932, the last "free"election in the Weimar Republic, theCommunists and Social Democrats combined to poll almost 1.5 million votesmore than the Nazis. However, the capitalist rulers, who called the shots, haddecided that stability could not beachieved without bringing the Nazis intothe government. In January 1933, President von Hindenburg appointed Hitler aschancellor, setting the stage for the Nazifuhrer to assume dictatorial powers twomonths later. Ironically, Hindenburg hadbeen elected the previous year with thesupport of the Social Democrats, whotouted him as a "les ser evil" against Hitler.

This week, leftist attorney LynneStewart takes the stand in her owndefense against the government's sinister terrorism smear, which cou ld sendher to prison for up to 40 years. Weurge our readers to help pack thecourthouse in a show of solidarity with Lynne Stewart and her codefendants Mohammed Yousry andAhmed Abdel Sattar. The trial resumed at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, October 25, in United States District Court,40 Foley Square in New York City,courtroom 110.

As the attorney for sheik OmarAbdel Rahman, a reactionary Egyptian cleric imprisoned for life oncharges stemming from the 1993bombing of the World Trade Center,Lynne Stewart, and her co-defendants,are themselves now charged with aiding and abetting terrorism. In the permanent shadow of the heinous 2001destruction of the World Trade Centerin lower Manhattan, the prosecutionhas outrageously been allowed topresent even Osama bin Laden asa "witness," showing the jury old videotapes of bin Laden which havenothing to dQ with Stewart, Yousryor Sattar, yet tar them, by lyingly

LetterThe Bush administration has undeniably been exceptional in the extent towhich it has succeeded in shreddingbourgeois-democratic rights and rollingback gains of the working class and all.the oppressed. But the fact is that this

regime's assaults on democratic freedoms, and its "war without end" against"terrorism," have been carried out withinthe framework of bourgeois democracy.The way to fight the continued evisceration of such rights was demonstrated inOakland on 9 February 2002, when thePartisan Defense Committee and the BayArea Labor Black League for SocialDefense initiated a united-front protestagainst the USA-Patriot and MaritimeSecurity Acts. This demonstration broughttogether the struggles of immigrants,blacks and organized labor in oppositionto the government's anti-immigrant hysteria. Meanwhile, the same Democraticpols who sought to undercut workingclass mobilization against the fascists inthe streets of NYC in 1999 lifted not afinger as political dissent was criminalized during the Republican NationalConvention this summer. Working peopleare betrayed by those who retail thelie that democratic rights can be defendedby voting for the Democrats, the partywhich, in the aftermath of September I I,voted overwhelmingly for the USAPatriot Act. John Kerry has promisedthat he will "finish the job" in Iraq andthat he will be more aggressive than Bushin pursuing the "war against terror,"which we have repeatedly pointed out isin reality a war against workers, blacksand immigrants.The Bush gang has been so heavyhanded and provocative-not only againstthe oppressed in this country and againstweak countries like Iraq but also againstthe European capitalist powers-thateven a significant chunk of the rulingclass in this country is ready for a

change. But while Kerry talks about tinkering with Bush's tax cuts for the superrich, he and his party are just as firmlycommitted to the rule of those samesuper-rich. Thi s is why today we call tobreak with the capitalist parties and builda workers party to fight for a workersrevolution, which alone can provideworkers democracy

APimplied association, as "terrorists."The prosecution of Lynne Stewart,her translator and her paralegal is aframe-up that threatens everyone. I fattorneys can't provide legal defensefor the accused without being accusedof the crimes themselves, then everyone's right to legal defense fromgovernment prosecution is threatened.Workers Vanguard has covered thiscase and its broader implications (seeWV No. 829, 9 July for our latest article) and will cover Stewart's defensein upcoming issues of the paper.Come to the courthouse! Make adonation to the Lynne StewartDefense Committee, 350 Broadway,Suite 700, New York, NY 10013.

WORKERS VANGUARD


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On 3 November 1979, in broaddaylight, nine carloads of Klansmenand Nazis drove up to a black housing project in Greensboro, NorthCarolina, where an anti-Klan rallywas gathering. With cool deliberation, the killers took out their weapons, aimed, fired and drove off. Fiveunion officials and organizers andcivil rights activists-supporters ofthe Communist Workers Party-laydying in pools of blood. Ten otherswere wounded or maimed for life.The Greensboro Massacre was thebloodiest fascist attack in the U.S. indecades.

Greensboro was a conspiracy ofthe fascists and their capitalist statepatrons. From the outset, the fascistswere aided and abetted by the government, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent whohelped train the killers and plot theassassinations, to the "former" FBIinformer who rode shotgun in themotorcade of death and the Greensboro cop who brought up the rear.When the two-minute fusilladeended, the cops moved in to arrestthe survivors for "rioting."Signe Waller, widow of Greensboro martyr Jim Waller, recounted,"The FBI had men going around thetextile mills and showil)g people pic

:1:::.:::::::::>:.:. ; i ~ l r " , , >., ," :. . :~ ~ : : ' ~ ' : . ' : / : : : : " :::.\j:;? ; ' "' : .Greensboro Massacre:We Will Not Forget!

Greensboro Daily News1979: Five supporters of the Communist Workers Party, including union organizers,were shot and killed by Klan and Nazi terrorists, abetted by cops and Feds.

state whose forces he1ped to orchestrate the killings in the first place."Reconciliation" with the. forces ofracist reaction and with the capitalist rulers who keep the fascistbands in reserve to unleash againstthe working class in times of socialcrisis can only serve to politicallydisarm and demobilize workers andthe oppressed in the face of fascistterror.

We honor the Greensboro martyrs-Cesar Cauce, Michael Nathan,Bill Sampson, Sandi Smith andJames Waller-as well as the manyothers who were wounded thatNovember day. They take their placeamong a proud roster of fighters forthe working people and oppressedbefore them, whose memory must beseared into the consciousness of theworking class.Citing the executions of the Haymarket martyrs in 18'87 and of JoeHill in 1915 and the brutal 1919attack and subsequent frame-ups ofIndustrial Workers of the World members in Centralia, Washington on theone hand and the greates t victory forthe international working class, theRussian Revolution of 7 November1917, on the other, James Cannon,then secretary of the InternationalLabor Defense and later founder oftures, asking for their identification. Many of the pictureswere of people who were later killed in the GreensboroMassacre, and one of them was Jim's" (The CarolinianOnline, 18 October). Two successive all-white juriesacquitted the killers of all charges, affirming once againthe meaning of "justice" in this racist capitalist country.

when KKK and fascist provocations have been threatened, we have repeatedly brought out core battalions ofblack and labor militants who understand we can't ignorethe fascists and Klan-we must stop them.

American Trotskyism, wrote in "The Red Month ofNovember" (Labor Defender, November 1927):

Carried out during the Democratic Carter administration, the Greensboro Massacre was the opening shot ofwhat would be the Reagan years' war on labor andblacks. When the Klan announced it would "celebrate"this massacre on November 10 in Detroit, the SpartacistLeague initiated a labor/black mobilization that drewover 500, many of them black auto workers, who madesure that the Klan did not ride in the Motor City. In organizing the protest we had to overcom e opposition from theunion and black misleaders and face down a ban on antiKlan marches ordered by black Democratic mayor Coleman Young. In city after city over the following years,

In recent years, efforts to commemorate the Greensboro Massacre have been directed toward establishing a"Truth and Reconciliation Commission," which was.empanelled in June, and on November 13 a march "forJustice, Democracy and Reconciliation" will be held inGreensboro. The commission is modeled on the SouthAfrican commission, which has served to whitewash thecrimes of apartheid-era butchers and to assure a peacefultransition to neo-apartheid rule under the ANC (AfricanNational Congress), which continues the superexploitation and oppression of the black and other non-whitemasses.The Greensboro Massacre was racist murder. Thetruth is that no justice can come from the same capitalist

"A red stream runs through the month of November, marking in its course many struggles of the working class ofthis country, here with defeat there with victory, always withinspiring record of working class courage, exemplary in itsnoble devotion to the cause of the oppressed, magnificentincidents of solidarity and self-sacrifice, instructive milestones along the difficult road to liberation. It is a recordto sharpen the hatred of labor to jailors and assassins, toincrease the respect and pride we have for our fighters."We remember and honor the Greensboro martyrsby fighting for the freedom of imprisoned victims

of capitalist state repression, like death row politicalprisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. We honor them by fighting to build a revolutionary workers party that will fightto put the working class in power through a socialistrevolution that will make sure there will be no moreGreensboros.

Editorial Note

Army Reservists Refuse "Suicide Mission"u.s. Out of I r aq ! - -On October 13, 18 reservists of the343rd Quartermaster Company refused todrive their trucks, bearing jet fuel of questionable quality, from the Tallil air base inthe relatively secure Shi'ite south of Iraqinto the current inferno of resistancearound Baghdad. Their reasons were bothmundane and compelling. Assigned todrive decrepit vehicles without a semblance of armoring and denied other military support or even radios to communicate should they encounter difficulties,the 18, led in their resistance by a 24-year

Arm/veteran, Staff Sgt. Michael Butler,saw their mission as a potential deathmarch. For months, members of the company had complained to their officers, the"chain of command," about these conditions. That mattered not. The view ofassorted experts polled by the ever-soobjective New York Times (17 October) asto whether soldiers can justly disobeysuch an order was encapsulated most succinctly by Eugene R. Fidell, a teacher ofmilitary justice at the Harvard LawSchool: "The short answer to the questionis no." The "chain of command" is muchlike the one in the tank of a toilet: oncepulled, the fundamental motion is down.The fact that two of the targeted leaders of the 18 reservists are black men is29 OCTOBER 2004

not surprising. Though the American military is volunteer, its ranks are madeup largely of working-class, black andminority youth who join overwhelminglyfor economic incentives (what is knownas the "economic draft"). And within thatcontext, black soldiers have historicallybeen saddled with some of the most dangerous, and dirty, work. For the capitalistrulers, whether in pursuit of imperialismabroad or profits at home, the lives ofblack working people are utterly expendable. At the same time, with a stretchedmilitary where reservists in their fortiesare called up for duty, and where thosewhose tours of duty have expired areforced to remain in Iraq (what the military euphemistically calls "stop-loss"),there is palpable resentment among thetroops. The New York Times (24 October)quoted a lance corporal saying, "Thefunny thing that we laugh at sometimes isthat the terrorists and us want the samething. We don't want to be here and theydon't want us here." It is because theywant their loved ones back home tBat military families have been prominent inantiwar demonstrations in the U.S.

We have a side in the current occupation, as we did during the war-againstbloody U.S. imperialism. We say, "De-

fend the peoples of Iraq against U.S.attack!" and call for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troopsfrom Iraq. Not one person, not one pennyfor the imperialist military! Insofar as theIraqi forces on the ground aim theirattacks against the occupation forces, westand for their military defense againstU.S. imperialism, no matter how reactionary the politics of these Iraqi forcesmay be. Every blow inflicted against theoccupation forces is in the interest ofworkers and the oppressed around theworld, as well as being in the interests ofthose soldiers who despise the predatoryand imperialist cause for which they havebeen mobilized in. Iraq.At the same time, we do not groove onthe deaths ofAmerican soldiers. Whateverthe political sympathies of the reservistswho disobeyed their orders, their act represented a cry of the cannon fodder refusing to be the cannon fodder. And it is historically the refusal to die that has sparkedsome of the most heroic resistance by soldiers to their imperialist militaries.The ongoing bloody military offensivesagainst rebellious cities in Iraq are in theservice of suppressing an anti-occupationstruggle that is just and defensive. For hispart, Kerry, who opposed the Vietnam Warmany years ago-at a time when significant sections of both parties acknowledged it had become a losing war for the

rsMildred McHugh joins other militaryfamilies at June press conferencein support of Michael Moore filmFahrenheit 9/11.U.S.-now stands as the candidate who,more vigorously than Bush, would "finishthe job" in Iraq. The situation requires theforging of a working-class party in theU.S. to marshal the forces of all thoseopposed to injustice, exploitation andoppression to overturn the bloodsoakedimperialist order. Defeat U.S. imperialismthrough workers revolution!.

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London: Anarchist Protests Enrage S o c i a l D ~ m o c r a t s Uproar at European Social Forum

LONDON, October 24-The EuropeanSocial Forum (ESF) came to London lastweekend, bringing in over 20,000 people,overwhelmingly from continental Europe.But those who bought into the standardESF promise that "another world ispossible" found themselves trapped in"Ken's World." That is Ken Livingstone,New Labour's Mayor of London. Thisevent was bankrolled, orchestrated andtightly controlled by the Mayor's officewith the able assistance of supporters ofSocialist Action who are highly paidexecutives in his administration and theunpaid services of the Socialist WorkersParty (SWP). This "anti-capitalist" shindig was so tame that it was endorsed bythe labour statesmen and House of Lordshopefuls of the Trades Union Congress(TUC). At the recent Labour Party conference the TUC tops were instrumentalin defeating a motion calling for withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.Amidst the ongoing carnage in Iraqunder the savage occupation by ,U.S. andBritish imperialist forces, a plenary session on the opening ~ a y of the ESF featured a stooge of the imperialists' stoogegovernment, Sobhi AI-Mashadani, representing the Iraq Federation of TradeUnions (IFTU). The IFTU achieved notoriety at the Labour Party conference as ashill for Tony Blair and British imperialism. Invited by British trade-unionbureaucrats, IFTU representative Abdullah Muhsin's intervention was key todefeating the motion calling for earlywithdrawal of British troops from Iraq. Inan (undated) open letter to "trade uniondelegates at the Labour Party conference," Muhsin argued that "the multinational force is there to help our democracy" and opposed the call for the earlywithdrawal of troops, saying it "would bebad for my country, bad for the emergingprogressive forces, a terrible blow for freetrade unionism, and would play into thehands of extremists and terrorists."Now the IFTU was being trotted out atthe ESF for a session calling to "End theoccupation of Iraq"! Small wonder thatenraged Iraqi exiles and others kicked upa storm of protest against AI-Mashadani.As Iraqi novelist Haifa Zangana, who hadencouraged people to protest, argued: "I fhe is the trade union secretary he shouldhave been elected by the workers but hehas been appointed by the government.He is part of the puppetry" ([London]Guardian, 18 October).In the aftermath, the TUC issued a public statement condemning "the attemptsof a few to prevent the views of Iraqitrade unionists from being heard." While

"This pamphlet presents a comprehensive historical analysis of the origins of anarchism and the views of itsleading figures through the 1871 ParisCommune and the split in the FirstInternational. Later articles discuss thepre-World War I period and the impactof the war, the 1917 October Revolution and the founding of the Communist International on the anarchistand syndicalist movements.The first article addresses radicalyouth today who. in an ideologicalclimate conditioned by the so-called"death of communism." are drawnto all variants of anarchism. Greenradicalism and left liberalism. Thepamphlet is dedicated to the fightto win a new generation to revolutionary Marxism, the communismwhich animated Lenin and Trotsky'sBolshevik Party.

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even this labour apologist for imperialistoccupation has the right to be heard-andto be vigorously challenged-as proletarian revolutionary internationalist opponents of the imperialist occupiers, oursympathies lie with the protesters. At thesame time we can't help but note thatthere were no protests against the British trade-union tops like Dave Prentisof Unison, who also spoke at the ESF.Prentis was among the union bureaucratswho invited the IFTU to the Labour and

Britain due to the racist immigration policies of the Labour government.In his first campaign for the mayor'sseat in London, Livingstone backed amassive police assault on young MayDay 2000 "anti-capitalist" protesters whohad suitably and irreverently decorated astatue of imperialist butcher WinstonChurchill. This didn't stop the likes of theSWP, Workers Power and the SocialistParty from campaigning for Livingstone,who has subsequently vastly augmented

London, October 17: Some 75,000 march in opposition to imperialist occu-pation of Iraq. .TUC conferences. These labour lieutenants of capitalism were the real shills forBritish imperialism-and hardly for thefirst time: It was their votes that savedBlair from embarrassment at the LabourParty conference by defeating the motionopposing the occupation.A Very British Coup

The following night a grouP. of 150-200 anarchists staged their own "palacecoup" at Alexandra Palace, the citadel ofLivingstone's ESF. Marching into a meeting where Livingstone was scheduled tospeak, the anarchists got on the platform,hoisted banners reading "Ken's Party WarParty" and "Another World Is for Sale."Various anarchist speakers addressed theassembled for about half an hour, protesting about harassment by Livingstone'scops and the FBI seizure of Indymediaservers in Britain and elsewhere (see WVNo. 834, 15 October). A statement wasalso read out by Babels Co-ordinators,an organisation of voluntary interpreters,which protested that some of their fellowinterpreters were barred from entering

the notoriously racist London policeforce. During the mayoral election campaign this summer, the SWP's LindseyGerman stood as a candidate for theRespect Coalition, and once again calledfor second preference votes to Livingstone. Back in the days when he waSknown as "Red" Ken, Livingstone playedfootsie with Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party, which played a centralrole in the anti-Communist witchhuntof miners union leade r Arthur S cargillfeeding former prime minister MargaretThatcher's efforts to smash the militantminers union on the eve of its heroic1984-85 strike. Today a lighter shade ofred, Livingstone has been welcomed backinto the fold of Blair's New Labour Partyas its Mayor of London, from which seathe aimed to bust a strike by LondonUnderground subway workers this summer, calling on RMT members to crosstheir own picket lines.Presumably having been tipped offabout the protest, Livingstone didn'tshow his face at the Alexandra Palacemeeting. Incensed that the anarchists hadrained on Livingstone's and their parade,leading SWPer Weyman Bennett, whochaired the meeting, tried to violence-baitand race-bait the anarchists. But even thebourgeois Guardian-which had specialstatus as "media partner of the ESF" andthus was hardly sympathetic to the protest-noted (18 October) that "Saturdaynight's storming of the stage by severalhundred people denouncing mayor ofLondon Ken Livingstone for hijackingthe event reflected genuine anger aboutthe way the event had been organised."After their half-hour political protest theanarchists led a walkout from the ESFand the meeting continued.

Make checks payable: Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

For our part, we have to give the anarchists an "A" for audacity for protestingLivingstone and trying to lead a walkoutfrom the bureaucratic reformist circus ofthe ESF. At the same time we have topoint out that they are hardly an alternative politically, and certainly not to the"authoritarianism" they claim to disdain.On the contrary, when it comes to anticommunist exclusion, the anarchist grouping known as the Wombles proved them-

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selves to be more than equal to thebureaucratism and thuggery of the SWPwhom they so despise. As soon as ourcomrades set up a literature table outsidethe Wombles' alternative event, "BeyondESF," at a North London campus, theorganisers shut it down, grabbing ourpapers and telling us to get "that Spartacist shit" out of here. They howled anticommunist abuse and, with no sense ofirony, condemned us as "authoritarian"while hounding us out of the grounds ofa public campus. Nonetheless we defendthem against the forces of the capitaliststate and the scurrilous charges beinghurled by the SWP.Blood Line in Genoa

In the aftermath of the ESF, AlexCallinicos in Socialist Worker despicablyrevived the slander campaign against theanarchists that blamed them for thepolice-state violence that led to the murder of protester Carlo Giuliani in Genoain 2001. He writes: "There was a downside to the ESF. There were a few uglyincidents that marked the re-emergenceof the anarchist Black Block whose thuggish behaviour during the Genoa protests of July 200 I played so disastrouslyinto the hands of the police" (SocialistWorker, 23 October). As exposed in a 19October statement by the Italian COBASunions, marshals at the October 17 ESFdemonstration sponsored by the SWPdominated Stop the War Coalition calledthe cops on anarchists and others whowanted to inform the crowd that anarchists had been arres ted on the way to themarch. From their vantage point at thefront of the march, representatives of theCOBAS unions wrote:"The closing rally for the EuropeanSocial Forum in London has been deeplymarred by the intolerable behaviour ofthe British Organising Committee, and inparticular by the forces that dominate it:the Socialist Workers Party, SocialistAction (the group behind London'sMayor Ken Livingstone) and some tradeunions. Several hundred young peoplecoming from the 'autonomous spaces' ...were coming to the demonstration whenthe police attacked them making fourarrests (two Italians and two Greeks)."Despite the insistent requests fromthe Italian delegation at the head of themarch to demand their liberation, theBritish Committee did not say a word."At the end of the march, when trying togive news of these events from the stage,we discovered that access to this was

restricted to the British Committee ..."At this point the young people previously surrounded by police were try-ing to access the stage, upsetting thestewards of the rally, who called thepolice provoking further arrests, bringingthe total to a number of nine."continued on page J J

W O ~ R S ~ q S .. aIteur.. . . . s. . . . . . . . eftFir Iree abonlon on delland!

~ ~ ~ ~ ; ! : . ~ ~ ~ " i ' ~ ~ ~ g g f ; ~ ? ~ ~ ~ ~ ' ~ ' jlaH> tT J

Marxist newspaper of theSpartacist League/Britain311 yearInternational rate: $10-AirmailOrder from/make checks payable to;Spartacist PublicationsPO Box 1041, London NW5 aEU, England

WORKERS VANGUARD


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High School Students DriveMilitary Recruiters Off CampusChicago

This article is based on a report by a .Spartacist comrade on an October 5meeting at Senn High School, a heavily'immigrant and minority public school onChicago's North Side.It's not every day you get to drive themilitary off campus! Around 800 students, parents, teachers and othe r activistspoured into the auditorium of Senn HighSchool, where Colonel Rick Mills, alderman Mary Ann Smith and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Deputy CEO DavidPickens were trying to sell a proposal totum part of Senn into a naval academy.They encountered more than they bargained for when the angry audience drovethe military out of the meeting.There are already two high schools thatare military academies around the ci ty-the most notable one being the predominantly black B r o n z e v i l l e ~ on Chicago'sSouth Side, whose signature is strict discipline, with students parading around in

military uniform. As in many othe r cities,there are also Junior Reserve OfficerTraining Corps (JROTC) programs inmany of the high schools.The auditorium was filled with indignant students, parents, some youth fromthe Revolutionary Communist Party-builtNot In Our Name (NION) and our comrades from the Chicago SYC and Spartacist League. Many people were standingup holding protest signs in different languages (a reflection of the diversity of thehigh school). A group of youth marchedthrough the auditorium holding theirsigns up high. While most signs werecalling to "Save Senn" and "ProtectDiversity," there were signs against theoccupation of Iraq and the "Renaissance20 I 0" plan, a program designed to closedown the I 00 "worst performing" schoolsin the city (i.e., poor and predominantlyblack) and replace them with unionbusting charter schools (see "CharterSchools: An Attack on Public Education,"Workers Vangllard No. 825, 30 April).The CPS official was first to speak,receiving catcalls and scattered shoutsuntil the principal calmed everyoned o w n ; t ~ ' ~ f l 1 i H t a r y guys didn't come in

uniform so it was not immediately clearwho the colonel was when he got upto speak; once it became apparent, theboos began. SYCers shouted, "Militaryoff campus!", "ROTC off campus!" and, booed as he tried to speak. One parent gotup and shouted something that no onecould hear, but the whole audience knewhe was going after the military so theybroke out into loud applause.Realizing his attempts to "talk sense"to the crowd were going nowhere, Colonel Mills decided to show a Navy promotional video. As soon as it started we

tary entourage stormed out, and the placewent up in cheers! Jesse Sharkey, ateacher at the school and a writer for theInternational Socialist Organization's(ISO) Socialist Worker, later wrote onSavesenn.org: "I personally appealed toAlderman Smith and David Pickens thatI would help restore order in the meeting if they would take community questions and comments." But most of theparents and studenrs were less inclined tocompromise.Sharkey started chairing an open mike.Many of the students and parents spoke

lndymedia photosHundreds of outraged students and activists pack Senn High Schoolauditorium; protesting planned takeover of part of school by Navy.began chanting "Tum it offl", which wastaken 'up by people around us. Soon theauditorium was filled with the chant: "Wesay no!" They were forced to stop thevideo temporarily. Somehow the principal managed to quiet everyone down.They turned the video back on, and westarted chanting again. Soon the entireaudience was iuan uproar; we all joinedin chanting "We say no!" Some people inthe front stood up and turned their backsto the video and signaled for everyone todo the same. Within minutes, still chanting, everyone's back was turned.The alderman was fuming, the videowas stopped and the official meetingbroke down. The colonel and his mili-

passionately against the plan. The comments were largely focused on savingSenn, but many speakers also tied inbroader remarks against the occupationand the military. When we got our tum,SYC member Tim Valentine began bysaying that we are opposed to the militarization of Senn, and that the audienceshould commend themselves for drivingoff the military. He argued that you can'trely on the Democrats to stop the militarization of Senn, and that it is Democraticmayor Richard Daley pushing the attackpublic education. He called for freequality educationfor all and spoke aboutthe need for the working class in Chicagoto take up the 'fight to defend public edu-

'UNITE HERE Strike Support Rally Endorsers26 October 2004

To the editors of Young Spartacus:In the otherwise very fine article in WV No. 834 about ourwork building the united-front rally on October 7 a t City College of San Francisco (CCSF) for victory to the UNITE HEREhotel workers strike, there was one regrettable omission.While the article described the types of groups that endorsedthe rally, it did not list them all by name. This is the list ofendorsers in full:Adam Fetterman, Vice President of Finance, AssociatedStudents CouncH of CCSF*Alan Fisher, Executive Board Member, American Federationof Teachers, Local 2121 *Chr,is Kendrick, Treasurer, Anarchis t Library, CCSF*La Raza Unida, CCSF '

29 OCTOBER 2004

LaborBlack League for Social Defense, OaklandL. Paz, Department Chair, Philippine Studies Department,CCSF*PEACE, Philipinos for Education Arts Culture andEmpowerment, CCSF -Maxwell Raynard, President, Anarchist College, CCSF*Revolution YouthArjuna Sayyed, Vice President of Cultural Affairs,Associated Students Council of CCSF*Spartacus Youth ClubDarren Villegas, Treasurer, La Raza Unida, CCSF 'Women United, CCSF*Organizationai affiliation for identification purposes only.Comradely, .Spartacus Youth Club at CCSF

cation. He concluded by saying that it isnecessary to build a revolutionary workersparty that can lead the socialist revolution.We in the Spartacist League and SYCfight for the working class to break fromall parties of capital. NION and the ISO,both of whom had members in attendance, proved during the antiwar movement that they do just the opposite. Allthe antiwar protest organizers (International ANSWER, NION, United forPeace and Justice-a coalition whichincludes both the'ISO and NION) workedto tum the demonstrations into platforms

for the liberal wing of the DemocraticParty-the party of Hiroshirfia, Nagasakiand the escalatiqn of the Vietnam War.Democratic "doves," the Green Party andindependent capitalist PQliticians likeRalph Nader-the ISO's candidate ofchoice in 2000 and 2004-talk peaceonly fo get antiwar youth off the streetsand into the voting booth.After the auditorium was pretty muchcleared out, a comrade peeked into theauditorium and saw a small crowd ofangry, primarily minority, youth and, 10and behold, the colonel in the middlehe had crept back in and was now in aheated discussion. One young womanangrily denounced the colonel and toldhim to f--- himself; the other youth burstinto cheers. Outside, we continued to sellour paper and distribute the SYC TenPoint Program, talking with youth andparents about how these attacks takeplace in the context of the American r u l ~ ing class'!; increasing imperialist aggression internationally and the "war on terror" at home. As was shown by t h ~ s e hundreds of angry parents, teachers andstudents who sent the colonelimd company packing, many people have lessthan no desire to kill or be killed forU.S. imperialist interests. U.S. military:hands of f Senn High School! The Spartacus Youth Clubs fight for free,quality,integrated public education for all!Defeat the racist assaults on affirmativeaction-no to cutbacks! Kick militaryrecruiters off high school and collegecampuses! Down with the U.S. colonialoccupation of Iraq!

5

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The Struggle Against Parliamentarism, Sectarianism

Communist Policyin Bourgeois ElectionsWe print below a slightly editededucational presentation given by comrade Mary Ann Clemens to the Bay AreaSpartacus Youth Club on 21 October2003. Though delivered at the time ofthe California gubernatorial recall e l e c ~ tion last autumn, the material comradeClemens presented is quite relevant tothe upcoming general elections and

beyond. The presentation fleshes out ourown use of the tactic of critical supportin California last fall. At the time, wewrote in WV No. 810 (26 September2003):"We originally decided to abstain on therecall because we want neither to support a capitalist politician, -in this casethe Democratic governor, nor to implicitly support a capitalist (likely Republican) replacement. The SWP's electionplatform, which presents, in howevercrude a way, aworking-class line, allowsus to make concrete and clear-cut our. opposition to Davis while at the sametime expressing our opposition to theRepublicans' attempted electoral coup."* * *

In preparing this class, in view of theparty's attitude and our change in positionon the California recall election, itoccurred to me that we are dealing withmuch more than the lessons of Lenin's"Left-Wing" Communism: An InfantileDisorder. This book, and our recent experience, raise the question of the ABCs:What is communist work? What is ourjob about? These questions were foughtout in the newly formed CommunistInternational (Comintern) and its developing 'member parties. So I thQught itwould be helpful to start by giving a briefidea of where the American party camefrom.1919

1919 was a busy year in the international workers movement. It was theheight of the wave of post-World War Iinternational labor radicalism, inspiredby the Russian October Revolution.The "Spartacus" uprising of revolutionary workers took place in Germany; theshort-lived Hungarian Soviet Republicwas founded and crushed. The Communist International was founded. Amid thewave of strikes that swept through theU.S. was the Seattle general strike. The

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P.A.OtsupLenin wrote "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder for SecondComintern Congress (1920) to guide interventions into mass reformistworkers parties-including use of electoral tactics-to split them, winworkers to communism.bourgeoisie paid back these struggles inkind, wjth massive repression. As a resultof the "Palmer raids," a centerpiece of theAmerican ruling class' "red scare," thegovernment imprisoned large numbers ofmilitant leftists and labor activists and jdeported numerous foreign-born leftistsunder the infamous "criminal syndicalism" laws. The bosses played the racecard for all it was worth, too. The year1919 saw the Chicago anti-black pogrom,as well as many others across the country. In Chicago, the backdrop was a bitterly fought organizing drive in the meatpacking industry, during which the bossesused racism as a wedge between blackand white workers.There was tumult in the socialistmovement in 1919. A major realignmentof the left was taking place around thistime all over Europe. In the U.S., the leftwing split precipitously from the American Socialist Party (SP). In this country,LOUIS Fraina was one of the two mainfigures in the American left-wing socialist milieu. He founded the CommunistParty of America (CPA). Seven foreignlanguage federations from the SP dominated his organization. The workers inthis organization didn'tspeak much Eng-

lish-the membership were Lithuanians,Ukrainians, Letts (Latvians); E s t o n i a n ~ . - .Poles, Russians, etc., who had grown upin the clandestine conditions of heavyhanded repression in the tsarist empire.The other leading figure was the radicaljournalist John Reed, and James P. Cannon, the future American Trotskyistleader, soon joined him. Reed's organization was the Communist Labor Party(CLP). The problem was that they hadsplit from the SP too soon, cutting thefnselves off from a layer of socialists,many of whom could have been wonover to communism by a resolute political struggle within the Socialist Party.Sterile Ultraleftism

They were for class struggle, all right,but the politics of both of these youngcommunist groups can be characteriedas sterile ultraleftism. They had beenmuch influenced by two Dutch socialdemocratic "left-wingers," Anton Pannekoek and Hermann Gorter, and by Dantel De Leon of the American SocialistLabor Party.So what did the CPA and CLP do? Inresponse to the vicious assaults of thePalmer raids, they ~ e n t underground and

1919 strike wave in U.S., inspired by Russian Revolution, was answered by severe state repression, racist reaction. Left:IWW militants deported following Palmer Raids. Race riots in Chicago helped break union organizing drive (right).6

denied any possibility of ever working asa legal party. Second, the CPA and CLPrefused on principle to work inside thereactionary trade unions and insteadcalled for forming ideologically untainted"red" unions (a policy known as "dualunionism"). Their line on trade unionswas pretty much "Destroy the AFL!" TheAmerican Federation of Labor's programwas "partnership" between the capitalistsand the workers. Now, the AFL's basewas among the skilled crafts. As a rule, itdid not try to organize the unskilled inmass industrial unions, and many of theAFL's unions discriminated against blackworkers.Third, the CPA and CLP refused tofight for partial demands in the course ofthe struggle for s ~ c i a l i s m and regardedthat as trimming their program. And lastbut not least, they were bitterly antiparIiamentarist-they wouldn't be caughtdead in the same room with a member ofCongress, much less think of running forlegislative office. These politics werequite similar to those of Amadeo Bordiga,a left-winger in the Italian SP whobecame an early leader of the ItalianCornmunistPal'ty: a n d . w h o ~ ~ ~ important role at the Second World Con-gress of the Communist International.The stilI separate organizations selectedFraina and Reed as delegates to the Second Congress. FirstReed and then Frainatook off on the months-long, dangeroustrip to Moscow. In the meantime, thestruggle for the fusion of these two American groups and against their ultraleft politics raged at the urging of Lenin and theCommunist International. The Cominternhad to win this fight if a Communist Partywas to be built id the U.S. James P. Cannon was the first of the American leaderswho began to get it. He gave a powerfulspeech against dual unionism at a U.S.convention in May 1920. And at that convention, the CLP and a split from the CPAfused to form the United CommunistParty. This is a month before the SecondCongress and a month before Lenin published "Left-Wing" Communism.The Second Congress ofthe Communist International

News of the fights going ~ n j p tl;le lJ.S.didn't reach Moscow until the Congresswas in full swing. So Reed and Frainaboth hit town in a fighting mood, eachoperating with an agenda to "get the franchise" from the ~ o m i n t e r n as the officialU.S. section. Reed was hot to wage battleagainst the Comintern's position in favorof working in the reactionary tradeunions. He argued with the Cominternleadership and proposed from the floor ofthe Congress a change in the agenda, sothe discussion on pariiamentarism wouldcome before that on the trade unions andshop committees. He also wanted Englishadded as an official language for thispoint. His motion was defeated on thefloor, but, in fact, the agenda was reorganized pretty much as de proposed. Asfor the reports, the Comintern leadershiprequested that Reed prepare a report onthe Negro question in the U.S. Fraina gotthe assignment to make the report on thetrade-union question.

WORKERS VANGUARD


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Bourgeois historians like TheodoreDraper like to portray the whole debatewith Reed as an emotional power struggle. But the discussion on the Americanblack question that the Comintern leadership insistently organized with Reed asreporter was also a historic moment in thedevelopnient of American Communism.The Bolsheviks struggled with the American C o m m u n i s t ~ to make a completebreak from the indifference to blackoppression and eVen outright racism ofsignificant e:ements of the Socialist Party.They taught the Americans that thestruggle to address the black question wasthe key to the American revolution. TheComintern leadership exhibited greatskill in using the American delegates asr e s o u r c e ~ in the struggles over the greatquestions before them. They changed theagenda of the American delegates, guidedthe trade-union discussion carefully andgave Reed quite a different and uniqueresponsibility. The international leadership saw to it that he gave the Congressand the American Communist movementthe best he had to offer.Bolshevik leader Nikolai Bukharin'sreport at the Second Congress of theComintern, the "Theses on the Communist Parties and Parliamentarism" and theintervention of the Bulgarian delegate,Shablin, are well worth reading. Bukharin, in explaining the theses: counterposes the previous epoch, the rise ofindustrial capitalism'in Europe in the lastdecades of the 19th century, to the newepoch of imperialism. Bukharin explainsthe process of bureaucratization of theSocialist parties toward the end of thelast epoch. The parties focused increasingly on getting more and more votesand putting more socialist delegates inparliament, to force through more andmore reforms to improve the living standard of the working class.In the epoch of the rise of capitalism,"parliament to a certain extent accomplished a historically progressive task asa tool of developing capitalism," as thetheses on parliamentarism state. It wasindeed in the capitalists' interests that theworking class should at least be able toreproduce itself, which in the epoch ofearly capitalism was not always the case.Take the Polish-speaking linen weavers inSilesia just before the 1848 Revolution.They were squeezed dry by the rapaciousGerman Junkers, their feudal overlords;their cottage industry was ruined by thecompetition of mechanized weaving, particularly in England. So they came outof their hovels and dank cellars, starving,freezing, in rags, barefoot, filthy, rackedby epidemics, rose up, smashed everything in sight, including the looms, andransacked the Junkers' great houses. Afterthe bloody suppression, the Prussiangovernment inspectors not iced that: themajority of adult males in the region were

.. .

physically incapable of...serving in thearmy. So in this epoch it was possible tofight for major, lasting reforms. Thisis where, for example, fights originated, later waged by the German socialists, against child labor, for protectivelegislation for women, for disability insur-. ance, for a shorter workday, universal suffrage, etc.But gradually, the Socialist Party apparatuses, with a large fraction of theirleading cadre respectably sitting in parliaments and with intimate ties to the procapitalist trade-union tops, grew togetherwith state agencies. Daniel De Leon, forall his sectarian politics, was a greatpolitical leader of his time, and hecommanded considerable respect fromLenin-De Leon coined the term we usetoday, "labor lieutenants of the capitalistclass," to characterize the trade-unionbureaucrats. Bukharin puts it like this:"What the reformists refer to as a growing over into socialism was the workingclass and the workers' organizationsgrowing over into the bourgeois stateapparatus" (The Communist Internationalin Lenin's Time-Proceedings and Documents of the Second Congress [1920],lPathfinder, 1991 D. More precisely, thepolitics of the bureaucratized leadershipsbecame a component of capitalist rule,clothed in the criminal myth that socialism was attainable by gradually takingover capitalist society through sheernumbers-by socialist delegates "takingover" parliament.From the Russian 1905Revolution to World War I

With the 20th century, Europe enteredthe epoch of wars and revolutions-theimperialis t epoch marked by the decay ofcapitalism. The Bolsheviks under Leninhad forged a programmatically hard partythrough struggles over more than adecade, and they definitively broke fromthe mainstream and right-wing SocialDemocrats in 1912. In contrast, according to the model of a socialist party putforward by German Social DemocratKarl Kautsky, the "party of the whole

Spartacus Youth Club Class SeriesBOSTON

Monday, Nov. 8, 6:30 p.m.Lenin's State and RevolutionHarvard University, Room TBAInformation and readings: (617) 666-9453or e-mail: [email protected]

TORONTOWednesday, Nov. 10,6:30 p.m.The Russian Revolution: How theWorking Class Took PowerFor New October Revolutions!York University Stud ent CentreRoom 315CInformation and readings: (416) 593-4138or e-mail: [email protected]

LOS ANGELESSaturday, Nov. 6, 2 p.m.

The State and Revolution3806 Beverly Blvd., Room 215Information and readings:' (213) 380-8239or e-mail: [email protected]

29 OCTOBER 2004

CHICAGOAlternate Tuesdays, 7 p.m.Nov. 2: Marxist Materialism vs.Liberal Idealism

University of ChicagoCobb Hall, Room 1075811 S. Ellis Ave.Information and readings: (312) 563-0441or e-mail: [email protected] YORK

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.Black Oppression-Bedrock ofAmerican Capitalism:For Black LiberationThrough Soc ialist Revolution!

Columbia UniversityPupin Hall, Room 325 (116th and Broadway)Information and readings: (212) 267-1025or e-mail: [email protected]" f"e .01.. w." .".:.wMfW.lel-fl.org

CDa::;:'"DS:;y([)u;

John Reed,1917, shortlybefore going toRussia to reporton unfoldingworkersrevolution.

class" was supposed to encompass allpolitical tendencies of the proletariat,including reformism. Between 1905 and1914, the European workers organizations fractured and regrouped within theirparties into three main camps. In theright-wing camp were those who hadbecome servants of the capitalist system,and on the left, there were those, lookingto the 1905 Revolution in Russia, whohad become instruments of the classstruggle. And in the middle was the "center;' led by people like Karl Kautsky, whoacted as a barrier between the base andrevolutionary Marxism. The Social Democratic parliamentary fractions reflectedthat polarization.Splitting the Socialist parties wasn't so

Dtr J;aupdtlnd "tbl 1m tl9tlltn [and!f iaI.!ntIOIl l_ ... W_ ... It;otno1.. .s." .. ooel "'...-._.iIl ........... N r ~ . ' I ~ " h . 1 r " l I o R h o o t f o , . l I t T t t ~ " " ' 1 ! c a t " " l I o b o I o ....q.""m."" .... _""'" ... .. ""'"_1)f ; f , " " " " ' n . " U " . n ~ n . a - . c .... 5oIcrriotI."""...... I(>!lIll'"".IInI.,.a.. ........... n.". " .. . olo"d tiinb< ., ... .. ,.:.... I h, l I i Ikg . . . . . 4a U ef.Ir\IIII iin.... "",, ... .....1>n . . . . _ ..--_-!.!mIt . __, , , , , " , , , . ~ I . l t l m u f , " .. odtI._ 'ttl ... OI~ ~ ' j " " , , I I t I 4 1 * I . . . . . e . ~ l Q l n t w f < t ......-.......3 . , , , I I 9 < _ ~ " ~ _ " " " " i W l!"3


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Parliamentarism...(continued from page 7)that must be used as a multiplier to makethe revolutionary program known andrespected. Parliament is for us a forumto be used as Karl Liebknecht did, to poseevery question from the standpoint ofthe interests of the working class andoppressed, so that our program reachesmillions. When you read "Left-Wing"Communism and documents such asthe "Organizational Resolution" ("Guidelines on the Organizational Structure ofCommunist Parties, on the Methods andContent of Their Work," adopted by theThird Congress of the Comintern, 1921,Prometheus Research Series No. ] [1988]),there is a big emphasis on the combination of iJ1egal and legal work. You have toremember that for the Bolsheviks, working under conditions of illegality, theirparticipation in the Duma (the Russianparliament) was the main arena of legalwork where members of the Bolshevikscould be publicly identified with theparty.The Bolsheviks recognized that thetsarist Duma was an impotent talk shop.As the Comintern theses put it, "Underpresent-day conditions of unbridled imperialism ... parliament has been transformedinto a tool of lies, deceit, violence, andenervating drivel" whose reforms havelost all significance for the workingmasses. Nevertheless, Lenin explains thatthe Bolsheviks almost always participatedin some way in the Duma electionsthroughout the years before the proletarian revolution. In September-November1917, they took part in the elections tothe capitalist government's ConstituentAssembly-on the eve of the OctoberRevolution. Rarely during these yearssuch as in the events that culminated inthe outbreak of the unsuccessful 1905Revolution-was the tactic of boycottcorrect. In 1906, the Bolsheviks abstained, and Lenin fought for the party torecognize this as an error. A formativestruggle took place in 1907-09 against theultraleft Bolsheviks, known as the Boycotters, over participating in the electionsat a time when it was crucial to use theDuma as an agitational platform while theparty retrenched in a reactionary period.The Bolsheviks always worked out a position on the Dum a elections, developed thetactics for participating, ran candidates,called conferences, demonstrations andon and on.The objective situation before theparty in every election is obviously different. The point is, there was no recipefor t he Bolsheviks then, and there are norecipes for us now. We have to figure itout, each time. This is of course true ingeneral, not only in working out how tointervene in a bourgeois election campaign. And this raises the ABCs ofcommunist work. Making the commitment to join.,the movement and becomea Bolshevik means that in addition tolearning the history of the workers movement, you must learn to struggle withtoday's reality constantly and form anopinion as a communist. To do that youmust inform yourself. Read the papersthe bourgeois papers. Listen ,to the newsfrom NPR and BBC, from the point ofview of a communist.

Party leaders at Second Comintern Congress, 1920. From left: Serrati,Trotsky, Paul Levi of Germany, Comintern president Zinoviev.The "Organizational Resolution" fromthe Third Congress of the Comintern states:"For a communist party there is no timewhen the party organization cannot bepolitically active. The organizationalexploitation of every political and economic situation, and of every change inthese situations, must be developed into

organizational strategy and tactics."- "Guidelines on theOrganizational Structure ofCommunist Parties, on theMethods and Content ofTheir Work," PrometheusResearch Series No. ICommunists have a compass, the revolutionary program, and the leadership inwhatever task, be it in the trade unions,be it in running candidates for parliament, must be guided by that program:"The art of communist organization con-sists in making use of everything andeveryone in the proletarian class struggle,distributing party work suitably amongall party members and using the member-ship to continually draw ever widermasses of the proletariat into the revolu-tionary movement, while at the sametime keeping the leadership of the entiremovement firmly in hand, not by virtueof power but by virtue of authority, i.e.,by virtue of energy, greater experience,greater versatility, greater ability."

The resolution closes with an admonitionfor every cadre to keep sight of our historic goals:"The communist organizer regards everysingle party member and every revolu-tionary worker from the outset as he willbe in his future historic role as soldier inour combat organization at the time ofthe revolution. Accordingly, he guideshim in advance into that nucleus andthat work which best corresponds tohis future position and type of weapon.His work today must also be useful initself, necessary for today's struggle, notmerely a drill which the practical workertoday does not understand. This samework, however, is also in part trainingfor the important demands of tomorrow'sfinal struggle."The Italian Party at theSecond World Congress, The Italian party badly needed sortingout. The leadership under Giacinto Serrati, who had led the party into the Comintern, was refusing to break with thereformist right' wing. (In fact, Serratiremained adamant and when the CP splitthe next year, he went with the reformists.)In additipn, they had an ultraleft opposition led by Bordiga that he had nallled the"Communist-Abstentionist" faction, also

known as the "Left Abstentionist Opposition." Bordiga performed a very usefulfunction at the Congress, giving a minority report on parliamentarism. His arguments served as a good foil for the discussion on ultraleftism.Bordiga's reaction to the Bolsheviks'position on parliamentarism, understandable since the reformists were stilt in theparty, was, "What? More of the same?No way!" This was just a knee-jerk reaction to the shameful betrayal of the prewar right Social Democrats, and to bourgeois ideology that paints "politicalactivity" as existing in parliament andnowhere else. He did not have the Bolsheviks' conception of the party, whichhe regarded more or less as a product ofRussian exceptionalism. He did notunderstand how consciousness is formedand changes in class society. For him,the revolution must first destroy parliament. Then, so to speak, the Communistrevolutionaries, kind of courageous adventurers, march through the factories withthe red flag, calling for the proletarianrevolution t o , . g a l v a n i z ~ . t p . e , I I ! ' ! . . ~ . ~ ! o . F , the final struggle. But real events,realclass and social struggles and real participat ion in such fights change consciousness among the working class.So at the Congress Bordiga wa:> subjected to h(!.rd political criticism when heobjected that it was impossible to sayanything in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, that' work there was impossible andtraitorous by definition. Bordiga maintained that parliamentary democracy isobsolete, etc., etc. Bukharin said:"Comrade Bordiga says it is technicallyimpossible to make use of parliament,but he must prove that. No one will saythat under tsarism we had better conditions in our Duma than exist today in theItalian Chamber of Deputies. No one has

tried to speak in the Italian chamber inthe necessary way. Why then do youassert, a priori, that it is impossible? Tryit first-create some scandals; let themarrest you; have a political trial in thegrand style. You have done none of that.This tactic must be developed to an everhigher degree. And I maintain that this ispossible."- The Communist Internationalin Lenin's Time-Proceedingsand Documents of he Second. CongressThe Dutch left had also long maintained that parliamentarism was "politically obsolete." Lenin made a simple,realistic distinction: bourgeois parliamentary democracy is in fact "historicallyobsolete." Bu t in te rms -of social andpolitical reality, it is far from obsolete as

long as millions of workers are.voting forbourgeois candidates. As long as that istrue,

Defend, Extend the Gains of the 1949 Revolution!

.....participation in' parliamentary elections and in the struggle on the parliamentary rostrum is obligatory on theparty of the revolutionary proletariat specifically for the purpose of educating thebackward strata of its own class, and forthe purpose of awakening and enlightening the undeveloped, downtrodden andignorant rural masses. Whilst you lackthe strength to do away with bourgeoisparliaments and every other type of reac"tionary institution, you must work withinthem because itis there that you willstill find workers who are duped by thepriests and stultified by the conditions of8

For a China of Workers and Peasants Councils in a Socialist Asia!Thursday, Nov. 4, 6:30 p.m.Boston.University College of Artsand Sciences, Room 222725 Commonwealth Ave.(BUEast/Central on Green Line B)

For more information:call (617) 666-9453or e-mail: [email protected]

rural life; otherwise you risk turning intonothing but windbags."- v . I . Lenin, "Leji-Wing"Communism: An InfantileDisorder, 1920, CollectedWorks Vol. 31 (1966)

The Task of CommunistsOn the question of "dual unions" andthe refusal of many ultralefts to work inthe reactionary trade unions, Leninpointed to the source of their error. Theyequated the pro-capitalist tops of the

unions with their base-which consistedthen as now various strata of workerswhom the communists are obligated toreach.The central task of the communists,from which the need for a vanguard parlyarises, is to bring communist consciousness into the class from the outside. Ofitself, without this intervention of theparty, the subjective . f a c , t Q ~ , . i ) l history,the working class cannot attain socialistconsciousness spontaneously, but at mostdevelops trade-union consciousnesswhich is still bourgeois consciousness.That means that their c o n s c i o u s n e ~ s is limite


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organization on the left turns (in its publicly stated program) toward the workers,and to combat those that are on theirknees before the bourgeoisie.In the recall election, with the exception of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP),the ISO and all the other "left" groupsoriented to the ruling class. They supported candidates committed to thereform of capitalism, to pressure the capitalists and their state to be nice to theworkers and oppressed-the capitalistGreen Party's Peter Camejo (an ex-fakeTrotskyist), c.T. Weber (Peace and Freedom Party), etc., etc. We pointed out thattheir fanning illusions in such forces in noway represents the independent interestsof the working class, raising the classconsciousness of the youth and workingclass and their ability to fight, but insteadlowers it. By giving critical support to theSWP's candidate, Joel Britton, we soughtto draw toward us youth and workerswhose heart was with the proletariat.Of course we know the SWP will turnaround and plead with the bourgeoisie tomake nicey-nice tomorrow, but what theywrote in their program for the recall elections, what they claimed to stand on, drewa crude class line, so that we could say,that's good, we can support that-not thatwe expect them to put their money wheretheir mouth is. And in so doing, we couldgo into action. intervene, counterpose ourown consistently working-class revolutionary program.

Cannon noted in The First Ten Years ofAmericlln Communism that antiparliamentarism along the lines of the European ultralefts was present in a weakerform in the first program of the Communist Party in the U.S. But "that hodgepodge of ultra-radicalism was practicallywiped out of the American movement in1920-21 by Lenin." The American leaders were broken from the influence of DeLeon and the Dutch uItralefts primarilyby Lelli.u'.&-"Left-Wing" Communism and-bytlle Comintern theses and resolutionsof the Second World Congress.The American SWP in 1940

One of the readings for this class wasthe discussion printed in the Writings ofLeon Trotsky (/939-40) between theSWP leadership and Trotsky. The fight,though on one level about electoral tactics, revealed adaptations to the antiCommunist Rooseveltian trade unionists,whom the SWP encountered in thecourse of their trade-union work.Trotsky pounded the SWP's inexcusable abstention from the presidentialelections dominated by Roosevelt:"I sec there is no campaign in the Socialist Appeal for a workers' candidate. Whyhaven't you proposed a congress of tradeunions, a convention to nominate a candidate for the presidency? If he were independent we would support him. We cannot remain completely indifferent. Wecan very well insist in unions where wehave influence that Roosevelt is not ourcandidate and the workers must havetheir own candidate. We should demand anationwide congress connected with theindependent labor party."

Trotsky pointed out that it was principled and could be tactically smart to sup-

Spartacist Pamphlet, $2 (56 pages)Order from/make checks payable to:Spartacist Publishing Co.Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

29 OCTOBER 2004

port the American Communist Party'scandidate, Earl Browder. After the HitlerStalin pact was signed, the AmericanCommunist Party (CP), like the Stalinistsinternationally, had dropped the socialpatriotic line of their Popular Frontperiod. Instead of looking for allianceswith a wing of the bourgeoisie againstfascists or "reactionaries" in general,they adopted an antiwar, anti-imperialiststance. That offered the Trotskyists anopening to drive a wedge into the contradictions of the Stalinist tops' politics.Trotsky patiently explained how theInternational Left Opposition [precursorof the Trotskyist Fourth International]was not politically closer to the Socialistparties in 1933 than to the CPs in 1940,but that the Trotskyists had then enteredthe reformist SPs in a. maneuver calledthe "French Turn," designed to win awaytheir left-wing elements. (That maneuverwas so successful in the U.S. that it gutted the SP for good.) Trotsky asked:Since the CP won't let the SWP enter it,.why not condu ct a similar maneuver fromthe outside?

Trotsky hammered the SWP for notexploiting the CP's contradictions, askingthe delegation what kind of policy theywanted-negative or dynamic politics:"If you are an independent party youmust have politics, a line in relation tothis campaign. If you had an independentcandidate I would be for him, but where

let making the same political points. Butthe SWP delegation showed no positivereaction to any of these suggestions.Trotsky asked a rhetorical questionand answered it: "Why this lack of initiative? .. It is a photograph of our adaptation to the Rooseveltians." He went overto a direct attack against the SWP'sorientation to the "progressives":"We are in a bloc with so-called progressives-not only fakers, but honest rankand file. Yes, they are honest and pro-gressive but from time to time they votefor Roosevelt-Dnce in four years. Thisis decisive. You propose a trade unionpolicy, not a Bolshevik policy. Bolshevikpolicies begin outside the trade unions.You are afraid to become compromisedin the eyes of the Rooseveltian tradeqnionists ... The danger . .is adaptation tothe pro-Rooseveltian trade unionists. Youdon't give any answer to the elections,not even the beginning of an answer. Butwe must have a policy."

Cannon asked at the conclusion ofthe discussion: "There has not been anapproach to the Stalinists in years. Couldit be possible?" The light was beginningto dawn, but we know that they didn'tmake the approach.There was a lot at stake. Trotsky wastrying to get the SWP leadership to seethat their orientation to the Rooseveltian"progressives" in the trade unions wasdetermining the politics of the party, andthat the pro-progressive policy was paralyzing the party.

--by Ellis

194D elections: CP dropped supportfor Roosevelt and ran Earl Browderon antiwar ticket, as shown in cartoon from its paper. '.to the right particularly after the HitlerStalin pact, when defense of the SovietUnion wasn't so popular with pettybourgeois intellectuals anymore. WhatTrotsky is fighting about with the majority was that they had some of the samepolitical problems as the minority-theycouldn't deal with the Communist Party.Their policy of adapting to the "progressives" in the unions disarmed them in thestruggle against the Shachtmanites. If theyhad pulled off a maneuver like Trotskywas suggesting, it would have had anenormous impact not only on the Stalinist workers, but would have dealt a serious blow to Shachtman's credibility withthe more serious youth as well.

WV PhotoSpartacist-initiated S,DDD-strong labor/black mobilization stopped Klanprovocation in Washington, D.C., November 1982. Leading exemplary actionsshows that our program can win victories for workers, oppressed.

If we are doing our job, we alwayshave to look for the contradictions: wherewe can drive in a wedge to put forth ourprogram positively. We are obligated todevelop tactics tha t are a lever to move asmuch weight as possible in terms of consciousness, first of the most advanced,then of more backward layers of theworking class and oppressed. The Comintern Organizational Resolution talksabout layers of workers taking up Communist slogans and carrying them on toothers. There are significant examples inour history of just that happening: at ouranti-Klan mobilizations when the busdrivers or longshoremen take bundles ofour leaflets to hand out, and certainly during the incipient proletarian political revolution in East Germany in 1989-90.

is he? It is either complete abstentionfrom the campaign because of technicalreasons, or you must choose betweenBrowder and Norman Thomas [the SP'scandidate]. We can accept abstention ...We can proclaim that everyone is a faker.That is one thing, but events confirmingour proclamation is another. Shall wefollow negative or dynamic politics? ..We must have our own politics. Imaginethe effect on the Stalinist rank andfile ...."

But no matter what Trotsky suggested,the SWP leaders, shocked at the thoughtof politically going after the Stalinists,reacted with "but...but": The "peculiar"Stalinist movement was hated by labormilitants. Giving them critical supportwould "discredit the Trotskyists in thelabor movement." The Stalinists wouldonly "betray again." "The CP is not a genuine workers' party." Cannon argued that"the progressives will hate us if we support the Stalinists," showing where theSWP's trade-union policy was oriented.Trotsky presented one tactical possibility after another, to try to get the SWPleaders to see the great flexibility available to them: They could publish a manifesto directed at the Stalinist workers, butthere was so far not "even one ~ i n g l e word from you on policy in regard to thepresidential election." The members ofthe party could write letters to the editor.of the SWP supporters' trade-union newspaper in Minneapolis, the NorthwestOrganizer. Trying one last time, Trotskysaid, OK, abandon voting for Browder;abandon a manifesto and produce a leaf-

So what was going on here? You haveto keep in mind that in 1939, the yearbefore, the fight against then-SWP leaders Max Shachtman and Martin Abernhad erupted. The resulting split, in whichthey took out a viable chunk of theyouth, was in May, a month before thesediscussions with Trotsky took place. TheShachtman-Abern minority had lunged

Even if the scale is smaller today andwe are at the stage of party buildingwhere we are accumulating the cadre toman the necessary party posts for muchlarger struggles in the future, the programis the same. The injunction to work outeffective Leninist tactics, to intervene inevery politically charged situation, everysocial or class struggle, no matter howpartial, is the same.

.'t.;s .......... ii.SPA,.:rICIST L I A I I U E / U . ~ . ~ .... '-')'" . ~ . al:UlreCI,ry8I1d.NIt'leDtff",s

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Elections ...(continued from page 1 )of a capitalist system based on exploitation and profit. On the question of religion, for example, we fight for the strictseparation of church and state; religionshould be a private matter and we opposeany -intrusion by the government into people's personal lives; we call for free abortion on demand; we defend the right ofgay people to marry. But under capitalismreligion serves a purpose for the rulers; itis a means to enforce social conservatismand defend the existing status quo.It is said that whom the gods woulddestroy, they first make mad; and hereBush has a considerable head start. Bushand his cohorts have simply proposed that"America the Good" will dominate planetEarth. This is quite mad and dangerouseven as a fantasy. But to be sure, themotor force that drives such aspirations isnot insanity but the raison d' etre of theimperialist system, which is based on thedrive to control the world's markets al}dsources of raw materials and cheap labor.This drive has intensified exponentiallywith the capitalist counterrevolution inthe Soviet degenerated workers statein 1991-92-a historic defeat for theworld's proletariat. The Messianic andoddly demented policies of the Bushregime represent the logic of a capitalistclass drunk on one success after anothersince the end of the Cold War. The U.S. isnot only an imperialist power; it is theworld's most powerful imperialist power.There is an irreconcilable antagonismbetween the interests of the property-

Spartacists raise fight for women'srights at San Francisco antiwar pro-test, March 2004.owning b ~ s s e s who exploit workers toobtain profits, and the workers themselves, who own nothing but their laborpower and who create the wealth of society. Workers need their own party, whichwill fight not only for the interests oflabor but for the rights of black people,women, gays and all the exploited andoppressed; a workers party that will fightto overturn capitalism, creating a workers government and a society based onproduction for human needs.What's the Matterwith Kansas?

In our review of Fahrenheit 9/ l I (WVNo. 829, 9 July), we noted that MichaelMoore's "populist outlook leads him toignore the Bush administration's closeties to the Christian right, to take notice ofwhich would mean acknowledging thatBush really has a popular base. The boxoffice figures of The Passion oj theChrist, remember, are real." It is a measure of the deep religiosity of this country10

Lethal weapons: MelGibson's hit movie ThePassion of the Christ andtwo-ton Ten Command-ments monument inAlabama state judicialbuilding reflect ominousrise of religious reaction.that the biggest "cultural" phenomenonin the U.S. in 2004 was Mel Gibson'sfilm-with all its anti-Semitic overtones-which earned over $370 million in thebox office and sold over four million copies in its first day out on DVD.In a recent book titled, What's the Mat-ter with Kansas? How ConservativesWon the Heart ojAmerica (MetropolitanBooks, 2004), liberal Thomas Frankattempts to grapple with the resurgence offar-right religious fundamentalism as amajor political force and with the apparently baffling lack of even elementaryclass consciousness among many bluecollar workers. While he reverses causeand effect, tending to see ideology asdetermining the lack of class struggle,and thinks the Democrats can be a solution, his "heartland" scream of outragestill captures something of the reactionary mess we're in today:"The country seems more like a panorama of madness and delusion worthyof Hieronymous Bosch: of sturdy bluecollar patriots reciting the Pledge whilethey strangle their own life chances;of small farmers proudly voting themselves off the land; of devoted familymen carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford collegeor proper health care; of working-classguys in Midwestern cities cheering asthey deliver up a landslide for a candidate whose policies will end their way oflife, will transform their region into a'rust belt,' will strike people like themblows from which they will neverrecover."Earlier on, Frank complained:

"The trick never ages; the illusion neverwears off. Vote to stop abortion; receive arollback in capital gains taxes. Vote tomake our country strong again; receivedeindustrialization. Vote to screw thosepolitically correct college professors;receive electricity deregulation. Vote toget government off our backs; receiveconglomeration and monopoly everywhere from media to meatpacking. Voteto stand tall against terrorists; receiveSocial Security privatization. Vote tostrike a blow against elitism; receive asocial order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes, in which workers have been 'stripped of power and CEOs are rewardedin a manner beyond imagining."

What Frank describes may be moreintense today, but this is how the capitalist politicians always work-they lie,cheat and steal.Frank cites a pamphlet, Is It a SinJor aChristian to Be a Registered DemocratVoter in America Today? by a Wichita,Kansas, Christian and Republican ideologue. In fact, the growth of religion inmainstream politics in recent decades didnot begin with the Republicans. It beganwith the Democratic Carter administration. And, like every rightward shift inthis country, it was tied to a rise in racistreaction against black people.The nomination of "born-again" Baptist Carter to head the Democratic Partyticket in the 1976 elections was not accidental. Carter openly proclaimed the virtues of "ethnic purity." Busing for schoolintegration, having been defeated on thestreets of Boston in 1974-75, was killedin city after city. Five leftist anti-racist

militants in Greensboro, North Carolina,were gunned down in broad daylight in1979 by a group of Klansmen and Nazisled by an "informer" for the Feds.Coming to power just after the defeatof U.S. imperialism by the heroic Vietnamese workers and peasants, the Carter administration kicked off a "moral"rearmament campaign-an onslaught ofdomestic social reaction and antiCommunist "human rights" campaignagainst the Soviet degenerated workersstate. These policies reflected a consensus within the American ruling class,which sought to overcome widespreadpublic mistrust of the government following the Watergate events that forced theresignation of Republican president Richard Nixon in 1974, and to refurbish thetarnished credentials and military mightof U.S. imperialism after Vietnam.The religious right provided the shocktroops for the right-wing backlash againstthe limited gains made by women andblack people in the 1960s and early'70s-what the likes of the clerical Catholic reactionary Patrick Buchanan call the"Culture War." The religious ngnf "mobilized not only against the gains butagainst the defiance of the racist statusquo shown by those who struggled.With the election of Reagan, boththe assaults on black rights and the ColdWar against the Soviet Union intensified.Reagan expanded the clandestine CIAoperation launched by Carter to fundIslamic reactionaries in Afghanistan,turning it into the biggest covert operation by the CIA in American history. Athome, Reagan's assaults on labor wereexemplified by the 1981 smashing of thePATCO air traffic controllers unionusing plans drawn up by the Carteradministration. The fostering of religious reaction during the 1980s was sogreat that by the 1988 elections, BushSr., who was not an evangelical Christia