WfJftllEftS "''''(J,ft, 25¢No. 436 18 September 1987

. Andy Peri Skerce

Pacifist protester Brian Wi,lIson run over by mUnitions trai9 at Concord Naval Weapons Station, Septemtier 1. "It was attempted murder," said his wife..

CONCORD, California-It was a trainof death. Ollie North was on lookout,Reagan was in the driver's seat. Theysaw the enemy-antiwar protester BrianWillson-and ran him down. LeavingConcord's Naval Weapons Station, thearms train accelerated. Willson, a 45­year-old Vietnam vet who was kneelingon the tracks, tried to get out of the way,but the train hit him and dragged him 25feet. One of Willson's feet flew off, hisother leg was dangling by a thread. Hisskull was fractured, and his brains could

be seen through the hole in his head."They've killed my dad!" screamed histeenage stepson.

As Willson was lying bloody andmutilated on the tracks Navy para­medics rushed over from the base andthen stood around doing nothing. Hiswife had to stop the bleeding in hissevered leg with her skirt. A Navy ambu­lance refused to take him to the basemedical clinic. He had to wait 40minutes for a county ambulance to take

. him to a hospital in Walnut Creek,

several miles from the Concord NavalStation. It was miraculous that he sur­vived at all. "It was attempted murder,"accused Willson's wife, Holley Rauen."They weren't going to stop."

. Reagan's contra war in CentralAmerica is coming home. Last May BenLinder, a young American engineer, waskilled by the CIA-organized contra ter­rorists while helping bring electricity toa Nicaraguan village. In-July Salvado­ran death squads kidnapped and tor­tured antiwar activists in Los Angeles.

Now a pacifist protester is run over by amilitary train in broad daylight and allAmerica can watch it in horror on thenightly TV news.

In their frustrated rage the contras'godfathers in Washington are lashingout at what they set;as the enemy within.Six years of counterrevolutionary warhave not toppled the radical nationalistSandinista regime in Nicaragua. De­spite all of Reagan's high-pressure sales­manship, a majority of the American

, continued on page 10

Philippines on Knife EdueReport from lVIanila

SYDNEY, Australia, September lO­We print below an eyewitness reportfrom two trade-unionist supporters ofthe Spartacist League of Australia andNew Zealand who spent several weeks inthe Philippines just before the August 28attempted coup. Though the made-in­the-USA Aquino regime narrowlysurvived this latest and bloodiest coup,it has been plunged deeper into a messas class polarisation sharpens in thecountry. The coup is the latest demon­stration that stable bourgeois democra-cy is an impossibility in the Philippines.Over 3,000 troops. mainly from eliteunits, led by Colonel "Gringo" Honasancame within an ace of success, brieflyseizing key points in Manila and theprovinces, including the second-largest ~

city, Cebu.Apparently intending to purge army

chief Ramos and "leftists" in the cabinetwhile keeping Cory herself as figure-

head, they planned a bloody crackdownon leftist, working-class and peasantorganisations. While Ramos this timeobeyed Aquino's "shoot to kill" orderand put down the revolt, "Gringo" andanestimateii 2,000 "rebel" troopsremain at large and sympathy for themutineers is' widespread even among"loyal" officers. Most of the thousand orso captured were released after spendinga few leisurely days aboard navy shipsin Manila Bay, and the governmentimmediately genuflected to the militaryby authorising a 60 percent wage rise.

The coup was triggered by an August26 mass strike which paralysed. MetroManila in protest at the government's 20per cent petroleum price rise. Honasanand his "Reform the Armed ForcesMovement" (RAM) of "Rambo" offi­cers had played key roles in the coupwhich installed Aquino in February

continued'on page 8

ygma

Cops and marines attack peasants demonstrating in Manila, January 1987.Sixteen were killed, 100 wounded.

Letters

"Hang In There, Spartacists"19 July 1987Palo Alto. CA

Dear Comrades.

I just read the Spartacist bashingeditorial on pg. 2 of the'7/20 "FRONT­LINE". This publication clearly repre­sents an extreme of reformism. typifiedby their enthusiasm for Jesse Jackson'sRainbow Coalition. and ordinarilywould not be-worth reading. much less.getting excited enough to write a letterabout. This time, however. I was drawnin by a local activist with whom I havean ongoing dialogue, who was relishingthe alleged breakup of.the SL ....

I guess it's safe to assume there issome extraordinary internal strife with­in the SL. The quoted title "TowardRevolutionary Conjuncture" seems'quite on target to me. I can certainlybelieve that some members are losingheart in this extended period of reac­tion. and further, that the complexproblem of gaining the support of theworking masses will produce irresolv­able differences of opinion. but countme amongst those who see the member­ship as the greatest heroes of our time.As an (reluctant) outsider. perhaps I canoffer an encouraging perspective. Be­cause of the party's program andresultant discipline. you have managedto consistently publish the be~t publica­tions on the left for over 20 years. Con­sidering your small size. and the level ofpersonal sacrifice required to carry forthwith this task in the face of unrelenting

, isolation. this is a Herculean accom­plishment. The work of the PDC has

earned the reluctant respect of evenyour enemies. During a period of pro­found reaction. you stand tall with thebanner of revolutionary Marxism. up­holding a rich tradition of the highestachievements of human culture. Drop­ping that flag would be a grave loss tohumanity.

My only criticisms of the party aretactical. and pale compared to my sup­port for the elements of your prowam. Iwrite this letter in the hope that it willinfluence some dissident elements toconsider what a precious organizationthey belong to. and cause them todouble up their efforts. to build andstrengthen it.

Towards RevolutionaryConjuncture!Walter

The folio wing letter was sent in replybv an SL spokesman,

4 September 1987

Dear Walter.

I read with some concern your letterto us of 19 July. because you are self­evidently a long-time friend of the Spar­tacist League.

To get to the point immediately."Frontline" is full of Stalinist shit.Because we are shortly to have aNational Conference. and because wethought we had a particularly good con­ference document. and because therewas no particular question in dispute.we thought we could treat our confer­ence document publicly. Which we did.

I've asked that a copy be sent you.Certainly the Reagan years have been

wearing on us as a revolutionary Marx­ist organization. Our two biggest overtproblems have been that we were goingbroke and weren't getting any new mem­bers. It took us about a year after mak­ing a too-big cut in our sustaining pledge(in compensation for earlier inflation) toget our finances back in control. Butthat's been okay for three or four

. months now. And lately. .around thetime of the Contra murder of BenLinder. or Contragate if you prefer.

To get yourown copy of

"TowardRevolutionaryConjuncture,"

send $5 (includespostage) to:

Spartacist Publishing Co.,Box 1377 GPO

New.York, NY 10116

young people have been coming aroundand joining up at a rate faster than oldercomrades wear out.

The real point behind the "Frontline"article is that virtually as an article offaith Stalinists never tell the truth abouttheir problems. The great exception isKhrushchev's report t9 the 20th Con­gress of the CPSU which lifted a cornerof the veil. and now maybe Gorbachev isgoing to lift another.

Our political program has been strik­ingly verified over and over. We are avery small organization in a very pow­erful capitalist country. If we didn't havea lot of problems. we'd be liars.

Sincerely.Jim Robertson

trial. Yet Vanunu, who courageouslycarried out a service for humanity bywarning the world of Israel's dooms­day machine, is gagged and triedunder draconian secrecy where evento report about the proceedings isconsidered espionage. But the fewlegal rights accorded this heroic indi­vidual means that we have time.though not much, to mobilize inter­national working-class protest tosave his life and begin to repay thedebt we all owe Mordechai Vanunu.

Comradely,Reuben Samuels

Mordechai Vanunu

On the Vanunu Tr'ial:A Correction12 September 1987

In our ongoing campaign todefend the Israeli nuclear technicianMordechai Vanunu, the last issue ofWorkers Vanguard unfortunatelyhad a grossly exaggerared.compari­son of the Zionist state persecutionwith Nazi Germany. saying thatVanunu is "treated like a prisoner inDemjanjuk's Treblinka" (WV No.435. 4 September). Treblinka was aNazi extermination camp in whichpeople were literally sent to theirdeaths in the gas chambers momentsafter their arrival. Although the mas­sacres organized at Shatila and SabraPalestinian refugee camps duringIsrael's rape of Lebanon demon­strated that' the Zionist state iscapable of committing Nazi-like warcrimes. Vanunu at least has a lawyerand a trial. even if most norms ofjuridical protocol are violated.

Even New York Times columnistFlora Lewis felt compelled to protestthe "kidnapping and star-chambertrial" of Vanunu. The hermeticallysealed courtroom in Which Vanunustands trial for his life is so stifling asto make even his three-judge panelcomplain. Now one of the judges.who sits in hath the case of Vanunuas well as that of Nazi death campguard, John Demjanjuk (the infa­mous "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblin­ka), has suffered a heart attack.Therefore. the trials have beendelayed for at least a month:

Israel has bent over backward togive to the sadistic Nazi butchercharged with crimes against human­ity a completely open and public18 September 1987No. 436

!!Iw!l!lll! or.~p'!~'!.~l!.! ~DIRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Liz Gordon

EDITOR: Jan Norden

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Noah Wilner

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Jon Lawrenee p

EDITORIAL BOARD: Bonnie Brodie, Jon Brule. George Foster, liz Gordon,Frank Hunter. Jan Norden, James Robertson, Reuben Samuels. Joseph Seymour,Alison Spencer, Marjorie Stamberg. Noah Wilner (Closing editor)

Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) published biweekly, except 2nd issue August and With 3-week interval December,by the Spartacist Publishing Co" 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: 732-7862 (Editorial). 732-7861(Business), Address all correspondence to: Box 1317, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Domestic subscriptions: 55.00/24issues. Second-class postage paid at New York. NY. POSTMASTER: Send address chanqes to Workers Vanguard,Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116.

Opinions expressed in signed articles or, letters do not necesssritv express the editorial viewpoint.

Revolutionary Road to PeaceThe fight against imperialist militarism

and wars such as the U.S. is waging againstNicaragua must he organically linked tothe class struggle and the revolutionary ,mobilization of the working class/or sta tepower. As Lenin and Zinoviev wroteduring World War I:

The temper of the masses In favourof peace often expresses the beginning

TROTSK Y of protest. anger and a realisation of the LENINreactionary nature of the war. It is the duty of all Social-Democrats to utilise thattemper. They will take a most ardent part in any movement and in any demonstrationmotivated by that sentiment, but they will not deceive the-people with admitting theidea that a peace without annexations. without oppression of nations. withoutplunder. and without the embryo-of new wars among the present governments andruling classes. is possible in the absence of a revolutionary movement. Suchdeception of the people would merely mean playing into the hands of the secretdiplomacy of the belligerent governments and facilitating their counter­revolutionary plans. Whoever wants a lasting and democratic peace must stand forcivil war against the governments and the bourgeoisie ....

Imperialism is the epoch of the constantly increasing oppression of the nations of 'the world 'by a handful of "Great" Powers; it is therefore impossible to fight for thesocialist international revolution againstimperialism unless the right of nations toself-determination is recognised. "No nation can be free if it oppresses other nations"(Marx and Engels). A proletariat that tolerates the slightest coercionof other nationsby its "own" nation cannot be a socialist proletariat. !

-V. I. Lenin and G.Y. Zinoviev, Socialism and War (July-August 1915)

2 WORKERS VANGUARD

Callan/Brooklyn PaperLiotta/NY Post

UPI

From left: Michael Griffith lynched inHoward Beach; Michael Washingtonand Ewan Lawrence beaten in Canar­sie; Bernadette Crowley set afire inProspect Park.

MICHAEL GRIFFITH1963 - 1986

Racist Terror Stalks New York StreetsSince the hideous lynch mob murder

of black construction worker MichaelGriffith in Howard Beach last year, NewYork City has been a tinderbox. Racistmayor Koch and his black police com­missioner Ward threatened a "long hotsummer" against blacks and Hispanics,preparing for massive deployment ofcops in the ghetto, tracking black mil- .itants and monitoring black radio showsfor "subversive" talk. Since the end ofAugust there's been a new wave of rac­ist attacks with mobs of bat-wieldingwhite punks descending on isolatedgroups of blacks, beating up the home­less and torching people sleeping inProspect Park. Fascists are feeding offthis racist rampage and are now openlyorganizing in Queens. The workersmovement must take the lead in mobi­lizing mass labor/black defense againstthis racist terror stalking the streets ofNew York!

It was almost Howard Beach all overagain in Canarsie, Brooklyn on Septem­ber 2. Three black teenagers on theirway to the bus stop from their jobs assupermarket stock clerks were set uponby more than two dozen armed, scream­ing whites. The black youths, who hadbeen waiting outside a bagel shop fortwo female coworkers, one white andone black, told the women to go onahead, then tried to' make their ownescape. They were ctiased for six blocksand finally surrounded by the lynchmob who moved in on them with bats, alead pipe, sticks and a broken fluores­cent light.

The mob was out for blood. "We wantto kill these niggers," the racists shoutedjust before the attack. "I thought it wasall over for us," David Smiley told theblack weekly City Sun (9 September). "Isaid to myself, 'if this is going to be it, Imight-as well go down fighting'." By thetime the cops showed up the cowardlyattackers had fled, ·but not before onegot a sharp crack in the face from a batseized by the victims. A week later, onSeptember 9, five black and Hispanicteenagers were attacked with sticks andbottles by a gang of white youths in thepredominantly white Carroll Gardenssection of Brooklyn. And the next day inOzone Park, Queens, adjacent to How­ard Beach, a black youth deliveringSears & Roebuck flyers had his skullfractured by a pack of racists wieldingbaseball bats.

In the midst of this frenzy, jury selec­tion began in the murder/manslaughtertrial of four of the Howard Beach kill­ers. Michael Griffith and two blackcompanions were savagely beaten by the

racist mob which then chased Griffithonto Shore Parkway and into the pathof an oncoming car. Now it's the vic­tims who are on trial. Even though ring­leader Jon Lester admitted crying out"let's go kill" the "niggers," the defense isclaiming the three black men whowalked into a Howard Beach pizzeriawere "dangerous people coming into apeaceful community." When the "prose­cut ion" announced last month that oneof the victims had pulled out a knife inself-defense, a lawyer for the killerssnarled that this showed "the fangs ofthe true villains."

From the very beginning they've goneafter the black survivors, TimothyGrimes and Cedric Sandiford. When

they refused to cooperate with a white­wash by the racist cops and the QueensD.A., their black lawyers were vilified.No wonder they were reluctant-thecops made them out to be criminals,put a tail on Grimes and Sandiford,hoping to tag them on morals or drugcharges, in.a self-evident attempt tocover for the murderers. Now hopingthat after nine months the vivid mem­ory of the lynching has faded, a full­scale campaign of character assassina­tion against the black victims has beenlaunched. .

A Necktie from KochKoch moved fast after the black

youth were attacked in Canarsie. Hehad the kids brought to City Hall forlunch and a photo op the very next day.The media trumpeted how MichaelWashington told the mayor he'd settle

for a "sincere apology" from the racists;not a peep about Ewan Lawrence want­ing to press charges. Hizzoner gave eachof the victims an official city necktie andtold them the next time they should"show the tie to the attackers and tellthem they are under the protection ofthe Mayor-and then beat the shit outof them." Tell it to the NYPD. Koch'skiller cops are leading the racist on­slaught against the ghettos and barrios.Armies of police seal off whole blocks­dry runs for martial law under the guiseof "drug raids." In 1986 alone, Koch'scops killed 24 people-21 were black orHispanic. The climate of racist terror isorchestrated straight from the top. Andnobody's safe. .

Then there's Koch's vicious cam­paign for involuntary "hospitalization"of the homeless. This, too, is fuelingthe racists. On the night of August 26,four white punks came upon two hud­dled figures in Prospect Park, dousedthem with gasoline and set them afirewhile they were asleep. The victimsawoke screaming, but managed todouse the flames-Bernadette Crowleywas rushed to the.hospital with exten­sive burns. This time the white kids at­tacked white victims, but the would-bekillers had a chemically pure racistmindset . The papers ran a profile:"Good kids," the neighbors said. They"just wanted to create some mayhem,"alibied the chief of Brooklyn detectives,explaining the supposed "lack of mo­tive." If you're poor, homeless, vulner­able-for these sadists you're black!Such . "good kids"-maybe' they'll

growup to be cops.And now the fascists are trying to .

cash in on the racist terror. After theHoward Beach lynching, "mod" KKKerDavid Duke showed up at the pizzeriato proclaim (borrowing a line fromDemocrat Jimmy Carter) that com­munities have 'the right to maintain"ethnic purity." Recently, the liberalNewsday (5 August) gave a full-pagespread complete with a robed-and­hooded pinup of fascist KKK "cyclops"Hank Schmidt to publicize his new"White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan"headquarters in Astoria, Queens. TheseKluxersshould get the treatment thatKKK "imperial wizard" Wilkinson gotin Boston in October 1982when he triedto capitalize on the racist backlashagainst school integration. The hoodedfascists were pelted with eggs by anangry jeering crowd who rode them outof town.

Now a coalition of civil rights, re­ligious and community organizationsheaded by the New York Civil LibertiesUnion has announced a candlelight vigiland march through Canarsie on Sep­tember 20 to "speak out against a con­tinued atmosphere of racial tension inNew York City." (The ACLU hasdefended the "right" of Nazis to stageracist provocations under the pretext of"free speech" for fascist terrorists.) Thisliberal "witness" will put defenselessprotesters at the mercy of the racists in amean lily-white enclave, relying on the"protection" of the NYPD. When a sim­ilar "prayerful observance" was held inHoward Beach a week after the lynch­ing, hundreds of racists itching forblood lined the streets screaming epi­thets; only the 106th Precinct stun guncops stood between them.

The urgent need is for a massive showof power by organized labor at the headof the black and Hispanic population ofthis city determined to make the streetsof New York City safe! Last December,following the Howard Beach lynchings,the Spartacist League issued a state­ment demanding: "Mobilize Labor andMinorities to Stop Racist Attacks!"Such action requires a political fightagainst both parties of racist capital­ism. Militant transit workers called forintegrated union defense squads topatrol the streets, and fought for theirunion to "take the lead in mobilizingNYC labor in staging a powerfuldemonstration of opposition to andhatred of the racist killers throughoutthis city." Today this isvever moreurgent! For labor/black/ Hispanic de­fense against racist terror!.

18 SEPTEMBER 1987 3

Victory to Salinas/Modesto Cannery Strike!

Cannery 'workers march through Salinas, August 22.

SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY

The all-sided assault has been carried outby Reagan and the Democrats, and thebosses couldn't have done it without thecollaboration of their labor lieutenantsin the union bureaucracy-from theTeamster tops who bac ked Reagan to (hehilt, to the "liberal" labor traitors whohave bled the working class with give­backs. We say: Feds hands offthe Team­sters! Labor must break with the Demo­crats and Republicans and build aclass-struggle workers party!

The barons of California agribusinesshave long considered Ronald Reagantheir man in the state house and now theWhite House. Now Reagan's on theropes. The time is ripe for an upsurge ofclass struggle. through independentmobilization of workers and all theoppressed against the companies backedby their courts. cops and capitalist poli­ticians. Victory to the Salinasj Modestocannery strike! •

ChicagoTues.: 5:00-9:00 pm .. Sat 11:00a.m.-2:00 pm.161 W Harrison st., 10th FloorChicago. IlIin.ois Phone: (312) 663-0715

New York CityTues 6:00-900 p.rn., Sat.. 100-5:00 pm41 Warren St. (one block belowChambers St. near Church SI.) •New York. NY Phone: (212) 267-1025

Spartacist LeaguePublic Offices

\.

-MARXIST LlTERATURE­

Bay Area .Thurs: 5:30-8:00 p.rn .. Sat.: 100-5:00 p.rn.1634 Telegraph. 3rd Floor (near 17th Street)Oakland. Caliiornia Phone: (415) 839-0851

Miguel Gonzalez. Carlos Hernandezand J ose Antonio Maciel still face seri­ous frame-up charges. Cannery workersalso face racist company harassment inthe form of "ID checks" for the new"immigration 'control" law. Labor mil­itants must demand: Drop the chargesagainst Watsonville strikers.' Full cit­izenship rightsforforeign-born workersand theirfamilies!

Salinas striker Lupe Alvarado toldWV that the police arrested her and afriend on the picket line on August 19ona scab's say-so; they are accused of

'''vandalism'' for supposedly scratchingthe scab's car. Yet. Alvarado said.shortly thereafter the cops merely citedand did not arrest a scab who attackedthree strikers, including a pregnantwoman; the victims required medicalattention. Salinas strikers are'grievingover the loss of a union sister. On August5. 65-year-old striker Aleja Razo died ofa heart attack on the picket line. Razocame 1'0 Salinas from Durango, Mexico35 years ago. She worked on the line atUnited Foods packing vegetables for 15years. This courageous union sister dieddefendingherunionand her class. Work­ers Vanguard extends working-class-sol­idarity and sympathy to Aleja Raze'sfamily and fellow unionists who honorher memory and continue her fight.

At the August 22 rally. Western Con­ference of Teamsters representativeJohn Blake hailed workers fighting forunion rights from South Africa to SouthKorea. where "yesterday one ofthe strik­ers died, killed on the picket line" by thepolice. Referring to the Reagan/ Meese

. "Justice" Department's attempt to seizecontrol of the Teamsters, he noted:

"Here in America. we face ... the gov­ernment trying to take over our unionmovement .... If we allow the govern­ment to come in and take over our laborunions. you're going to find that you'llnever be allowed to strike .... We've seenwhat this administration has done. fromthe destruction of the air traffic control­.lers to the destruction ofthe unions inthemines of Arizona."

WV Photo

Scab Violence and PoliceStrikebreaking

A contingent of veterans '01' the Wat­sonville cannery strike attended theAugust 22 union rally in Salinas. GloriaBetancourt. who was president of theWatsonville Strikers Committee. toldthe crowd: "In this strike you will learnwhat we learned: that there is no justicefor the worker; that the law is for thebosses: that the police exist to protect thescabs, not us." There were over 600arrests during the Watsonville strike.and union activists Pedro Alvarez.

were foiled-by a hard 18-month strike.which ended in March, but the industry­wide wage-slashing drive continues.

.Workers at Watsonville's Richard Shawcannery are already bracing for a fightwhen their contract-shoved down theirthroats early in the Watsonville strike­expires in February.

Right now the solid Salinas strike hasvirtually shut down the plant. Local890 Secretary-Treasurer Jacinto RoyMendoza told WV that the company'sskeleton crew consists of less than adozen scabs and production has stopped.But the cannery bosses are among themost bitter enemies of labor in Califor­nia. Keytovictorywill be mobilization ofLocal 890's own 25. OOO-st rong member­ship-which includes 11,000 Teamsterfarm workers-as well as other areaunionists. Mass picket lines are theanswer to scab violence. Any attempt bythe compal)Y. to start up productionshould be answered by hot-cargoing(refusing to handle) 'Scab produce byfarm workers, railway workers, truck­ers. warehousemen and retail clerks.

Cesar Chavez' United Farm Workers(UFW) also faces the threat of wageslashing, and warns that a strikemay result. With growers screamingabout a "labor shortage" due to thenew Simpson-Rodino immigration law,UFW and Teamster farm workers are ina strong position for powerful. unitedstrike action. Class-struggle militantsmust fight to overcome the divisions fos­tered by past Teamster raids on the UFWand the betrayals of both unions'bureaucracies. In his latest act of pros­tration, Chavez postponed a September6 UFW rally in Salinas in order to greetthe pope's visit to California. And LJFWtops scandalously ally with the racistmigra-union vice president DoloresHuerta took part in an ImmigrationService seminar with growers in July.Chavez-style on-your-knees pacifismand class collaboration won't . winstrikes; militant class struggle will.

New YorkBox 444, Canal S1. Sta.New York, NY 10013(2'12) 267-1025

NorfolkBox 1972, Main PONorfolk, VA 23501

OaklandBox 32552Oakland, CA 94604(415) 839-0851

San FranciscoBox 5712San Francisco, CA 94101(415) 863~6963

Washington, D.C.Box 75073Washington, D.C. 20013(202) 636-3537

t T-EAMStERS.•...• LOCAL "748

ON tSTRIKEl~......

fJt/1fJ.P 1lJPP;;elf('"

TorontoBox 7198, Station AToronto, Ontario M5W 1X8(416) 593-4138

union. wage-cutting recipe pushed bycannery owners in nearby Watsonville.who whipsawed plant against plant(withthe connivance of local and Interna­tional Teamster bureaucrats). The Wat­sonville bosses' union-busting plans

DetroitBox 441794Detroit, MI 48244

IthacaBox 6767Ithaca, NY 14850

Los AngelesBox 29574, Los Feliz Sta.Los Angeles. CA 90029(213) 380-8239

MadisonBox 2074Madison, WI 53701(608) 251-6431

National Office:Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

(212) 732-7860 .

TROTSKYIST LEAGUEOF CANADA

AtlantaBox 4012Atlanta. GA 30302

Boston .Box 840, Central Sta.Cambridge, MA 02139(617) 492-3928 .

ChicagoBox 6441, Main POChicago, IL 60680(312) 663-0715

ClevelandBox 91037Cleveland, OH 44101(216) 881-3700

SALINAS, California-Four hundredcannery workers here are on strikeagainst the Tennessee-based UnitedFoods Inc. In the words ofa leaflet by theStrikers Committee of Teamsters Local890, the company "seems'bent on bring­ing the Southern plantation, non-union,slavery conditions to the frozen foodindustry here in California." The strik­ers are overwhelmingly women, mainlyHispanic as well as Asian, black andwhite. A flying picket squad started thestrike: 250 United Foods workers inModesto, on strike since July I againstmassive wage and benefit cuts, sent pick­ets to the Salinas plant and the workershere walked out on July 30.

At an August 22 strike march andrally, unionists denounced the companyfor slashing wages at its Modesto plant :from $7.06 to $5.05 an hour. After twoyears of working under an "extended"contract, Salinas workers saw that ifUnited Foods succeeded in doing in theirModesto brothers and sisters, theywould be next. Now the profit-bloatedcompany ($27 million in the first quarterof 1987) has "proposed" to cut Salinasworkers' wages as well, plus slashingbenefits almost 50 percent. The strikers'courageous solidarity points to the needfor unitedstrike action now by all can­nery and farm workers throughout thearea, to sma~'h the employers' 'offensive.

United Foods is following the anti-

WV Photo

·Watsonville strikers and supporters, November 1985. Their 18-month strikefoiled bosses' union-busting plans.

4 WORKERS VANGUARD

·SL National Conference Bulletin Discussion:

On Gorbachev's Russia and Political Revolution***

I think comrade Seymour has mis­read my point, perhaps because it wasinsufficiently precise in its formulation.Certainly an incipient proletarian polit­ical revolution can develop in the SovietUnion as a result of the objective con­tradictions in Soviet society. But forthat revolution to be victorious-i-i.e., toshatter the bureaucracy and consoli­date soviet rule-i-requires a Trotskyistparty that has won the mass of workersfrom their illusions in "socialism in onecountry" and their corollary defeatismregarding the prospect of internationalsocialist revolution. Likewise in Hun­gary 1956 a Trotskyist party vying forleadership of the insurgent workerswould have had to engage in sharp polit­ical combat against widespread nation­alist influences ,within the proletariat.

In the case of the Soviet Union,military/ economic powerhouse of thedeformed /degenerated workers states,the question of how to defend the social

.gains of the October Revolution againstimperialist designs has always beenposed from 1917, not just from the out­set of any new significant social andpolitical upheaval. It will be the task ofthe Fourth International, both throughmobilizing proletarians in other coun­tries around defense of the Soviet Unionand through political combat againstcompeting' tendencies' in the SovietUnion, to win the Soviet' workers toa revolutionary-internationalist pro­gram. This is not a question of settingout schematic preconditions but ofrecognizing our political tasks.

Len Meyers12 September 1987

would have a profound impact not onlyin East Europe but also within the WestEuropean workers movements. Thusthe prospect of socialist, revolution irithe West would be directly, if. notimmediately, posed.

There exists a mutual interdepend­ence between proletarian political revo-

lution in the Soviet bloc and socialistrevolution in West Europe and NorthAmerica. Likewise, there is a mutualinterdependence between national lib­eration and social revolution in the so­called Third World and proletarian rev­olution in the imperialist centers. But it

, is wrong to extend this recognition ofmutual interdependence into some kindof geopolitical revolutionary schema.

Joseph Seymour4 September 1987

,'~

TASS from Sovtoto

~orbache~'sQere~troika(res~ructuring)will mean speedup, layoffs, inflation,Increased inequality for Soviet workers.

disrupt and polarize the bureaucracy,creating the potential for organs of dualpower. This essentially is what hap­pened in Czechoslovakia in 1968 beforedevelopments were cut short by Soviet­bloc military intervention.

Similarly, there can develop in Russiaan incipient proletarian political revo­lution hefore the mass of workers con­sciously challenge the ideology of"socialism in one country." Such anincipient political revolution in Russia

and economic inequality. The effect ofperestroika is bound to produce resis­tance from Soviet workers, not onlyadvanced workers but also th4> morebackward. The prevailing condi't10ns ofpolitical liberalization (glasnost) makeresistance all the more likely. Working­class unrest (e.g., strikes, protests) can

We print belowfurther contributionsto the discussiun of' the SpartacistLeague's draft national conference doc­ument, "Toward Revolutionary Con­juncture." The section of the documenton "The Russian Question and Gor­bachev" was puhlished in WV No. 432(10 July). To obtain a postpaid copy ofthe document, send $5 to: SpartacistPublishing Company, Box 1377 GPO,New York, NY 10116.

I disagree with the third and conclud­ing point in comrade Meyers' "OnProletarian Political Revolution" (re­printed in WV No. 435) and believe itcontradicts the analysis contained inthe document. Despite the qualifyingfinal sentence, the substance of theargument, as I read it, makes massproletarian radicalization in the Westa necessary, precondition for politicalrevolution in the Soviet Union. The per­ceived remoteness of socialist revolu­tion in West Europe and especially theU.S. is certainly an important factorinhibiting political revolution againstthe Kremlin bureaucracy. But it is notan all-powerful and decisive factorimpervious to internal developments.

Comrade Meyers appears to disre­gard the objective contradictions inSoviet society manifested in and aggra­vated by Gorbachev's policies. Thus itisnot simply aquestion of Soviet workers"reasserting their revolutionary tradi­tions," as he puts it. This is too idealistica- way of viewing class struggle in theSoviet Union.

Gorbachev's economic policies,dubbed perestroika (restructuring), goagainst the material interests of mostSoviet workers (speedup, layoffs, infla­tion) and will markedly increase social

the case tothe bosses' Arbitration court,where it passed by two votes. The Com­bined Unions Shop Committee is sit­ting on its hands, trying to divert thestruggle against the destruction of jobsinto campaigning for some paltry sever­ance pay. And in the midst of ironwork­ers' overtime bans to reinstate Florri­mell the shop committee chairman, BillHaggerty, allowed boilermakers towork "back to back" without ironwork­ers. Top management stated that theydon't want to lose this one, and the fore­men have threatened to strike if theunions win Florrimell's reinstatement.

At the following ironworkers' meet­ing on September 9 one-third voted for amotion calling for an island-wide strike.In the preceding days FIA militants andother unionists distributed over 500copies of a leaflet by Florrimell. Half adozen FIA militants who escortedFlorrimell to the September 9 Arbitra­tion court hearing left disgusted at this"kangaroo court," after i~ predictably letthe bosses' sacking stand. The nextmorning the ironworkers by a -two­thirds majority overturned the bureau­crats' defeatist policy and resumed theirstrike. determined to win.. Class strug­gle is the only way to victory. This strug­gle has already forced together the twosections of the FIA on the island, his­torically divided by a Cold War split.Now they have been holding commonmeetings.

Florrimell's leaflet entitled "To Cock­atoo Workers: An Injury to One Is an

continued on page 9

Australasian Spartacist

Ironworkers walked out in defenseof militant Neil florrimell.

Fo.r Class Struggle!Down with Arbitration!

Florrimell was sacked on Septem-:ber I and the island's ironworkersimmediately went out on a two-daystrike. On September 3 FIA organiserCollison orchestrated a four-day returnto work, with overtime bans, sending

island-wide strike. This meeting mustelect a strike committee to run the strikethrough to victory. The island. must be'shut down tight with militant masspicket lines! Occupy Cockatoo Island!No job losses-For a shorter work weekwith no loss in pay! All crafts and tradesout together-For industrial unionism!

Ill, brought ,0 us by the ACTU.Hawke's cops in the union movement.Last year the BLF [Builders LabourersFederation] was smashed. Now the coalminers are facing the biggest attacks ontheir jobs and organisations in 50 years.Hawke is Reagan's man and the bosses'man. He is embarking on a massivenaval build-up as part of his drive to waragainst the Soviet Union."

Florrimell is a symbol of everything thebosses and government want to destroy.Ever since 1985when he led a struggle tosuccessfully defy the scab-ridden craftdivisions rampant at Cockatoo Islandand throughout the labour movement,the bosses have been out to reverse thatvictory.

The Australian capitalists fear like theplague any expression of industrial sol­idarity which cuts across the, deeplyingrained craft union lines.. It wasHawke's mate Murdoch's viciously anti­union Australian (19 April 1985) whichled the bourgeois press in expressingtheir fear that the "Cuckoo Island" dis­ease could spread. Striking ironworkersmust link up with Painters & Dockerswho are out on strike in defence of theirdelegate. John Panuccio, who is alsofacing victimisation.

There is plenty of will to fight. What isnecessary is a strategy to win. Thereshould be an immediate mass meeting ofall unions on the island to vote for an

SYDNEY, Australia, September 13~

Members of the Federated Iron­workers Association" (FIA) have struckone of the key yards for naval repair.here. Last week over 100 ironworkers atCockatoo Island dockyard walked outin defence of militant rigger / iron­worker and Spartacist League (SL) sup­porter Neil Florrimell. His sacking wasan act of blatant anti-communist andanti-union victimisation. It is the cut­ting edge of what every worker atCockatoo expects as Australian LaborParty (ALP) prime minister RobertHawke "revitalises" the war industry byattempting to break the unions atCockatoo and Newcastle dockyards.

The I,600-strong workforce at Cock­atoo Island has been an historicbastion of militant unionism, despitenumerous craft and trade divisions.Brandishing his union-busting electionmandate, Hawke and his ACTU (Aus­tralian Council of Trade Unions) lieu­tenants are moving to implementall-sided givebacks and job losses acrossthe country, as laid out in their union/government no-strike Accord for "la­bour peace."

In an interview with AustralasianSpartacist Florrimell said:

"The bosses and their government have'thrown down the gauntlet to the unionsin this country. This is the Accord Mark

Australia: Shipyard Workers Defy GovernmentStrike at Cockatoo Island

18 SEPTEMBER 1987 5

For Workers Revolution inCentral America!

Argentine adventurer Moreno was aquick-change artist with a penchant forpassing himself off as the left wing ofwhatever was popular at the moment(variously disguised as a Peronist,Guevarist, Maoist, social democrat,black nationalist, Sandinista and even aKhomeiniite),and his U.S. acolytesunder lider minima Leon Perez are cyn­ical gangsterist con men. The Nicara­guan PRT has acted as centrists in thepressure cooker of a besieged countrymired halfway in a revolution. Yet itspolicies of "crystallized confusion"(Trotsky's capsule definition of cen­trism) are all the more dangerous, as the

continued on page 9

Then there are two small parties thathave stood to the left of the Sandinis­tas. These are the pro-Albanian PartidoMarxista-Leninista (PML) and the.ostensibly Trotskyist Partido Revolu­cionario de los Trabajadores (PRT­Revolutionary Workers Party), follow­ers of' the late Argentine adventurerNahuel Moreno. In the 1984 Nicara­guan elections and last year's debateover a new constitution, the PM LandPRT claimed to stand for proletarianrevolution, opposing the capitalist"mixed economy" and denouncing theContadora "peace:' proPQ.!i,als by theregional bourgeois powers. It wasnoteworthy, therefore, when the Mex­ican leftist daily La Jornada (26 August)reported that the PM Land PR Thadsupported a left Christian Democrat,Mauricio Diaz, for membership onthe "National Reconciliation Commis­sion," responsible for implementing thetreacherous Guatemala accords.

The Albanianite PM Land MorenoitePRT were part ofthe"Group of Five," apopular front with the PSN ana twosmall dissident liberal bourgeois partieswho had participated in the '84 elec­tions. (This was counterposed to the"Group of Six," a malodorous "unpop­ular front" joining the PCN and theCIA's rightist puppets who had boy­cotted the '84 elections.) The PRTreportedly issued a statement denounc­ing the Guatemala accords as "counter­revolutionary" and called for a panel ofcandidates who opposed the pact. Butwhen they couldn't find any takers, aPRT spokesman said, "we' had to crit­ically support the candidacy of Luis

. Sanchez" of the pro-Moscow PSN,which supports the treaty and hasrepeatedly attacked the FSLNfrom theright. Sanchez was one of three can­didates put forward by the Group ofFive, from which Ortega selected theSocial Christian Diaz, who says he willfollow the lead of Cardinal Obando yBravo!

So at this. crucial moment when thesurvival of'the Nicaraguan Revolutionand the struggle to extend it through­out the isthmus requires intransigentopposition to the treacherous pact withthe hourgeois Central American rulersand the Yankee imperialist Demo­cratic' Party. these self-styled Trotsky­ists give "critical" support to a class­collaborationist front to implement acounterrevolutionary "peace" fraud.

So . much for the PRTs formalopposition to the Guatemala pact! Andit's hardly fortuitous, We noted beforethat while incorrectly characterizing theFSLN regime as a "bourgeois govern­ment," the PRT has increasingly actedas a pressure group trying to push theSandinistas to the left (see "Cuba, Nica­ragua and the Permanent Revolution,"WV No. 428, 15 May). Internationally,the Morenoites have frequently adopted"left" postures. (Thev belatedly copiedthe Snartacist tendency's call for mili­tary victory to leftist insurgents in EISalvador and our denunciation of the"Contradora" plan for a "negotiatedsolution" to the Central American con­flict.) But when the crunch comes, theseare only empty phrases; the real policy isto be a "left" tail of the popular front.

. ~ i-,"'f£

t,l! "'~~I I\)

ing "detente" with Uncle Sam. On theanniversary of the revolution last July19, Ortega recalled that when they metwith Democrat- Carter he "expressedconcern for the' future of the Revolu­tion and We told him that actually it wasup to his country." Carter came up with$75 million for Nicaragua, but whenReagan took office he launched a waron Managua. Ortega was telling theDemocrats: Reagan wants to bump us

off, Carter wanted to buy us off-whydon't you make an offer? .

Morenoites Join Popular Front. for "Peace"

Despite all the talk from Washingtonabout "Sandino-Cornmunism," thepetty-bourgeois nationalist '~FSLN re­gime has tried to freeze the revolution inmidstream, in a never-never land be­tween capitalism and socialism. Wehave warned that this "peace" fraudcould signal the start of reconsolidatinga bourgeois state in Nicaragua (see"Smash the Contras-Complete theRevolution!" WV No. 435, 4 Septem­ber). Not surprisingly, the pro-MoscowNicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN) andCommunist Party of Nicaragua (PCN)both hailed the sellout Guatemalaaccords. Following the Stalinist schemaof "two-stage revolution," the PSN andPCN have been even more anxious thanthe Sandinistas for a deal with the Nica­raguan bourgeoisie and "peaceful co­existence" with imperialism.

'-. r\,"LJ

T~LI

a Sandinista public meeting in Leon lastweek, several mothers of soldiers killedin action against the contras were seatedin the front row. One of them rose tosay:

"We do not agree that there should be ageneral amnesty. We don't want thepeople who killed our sons walkingfreelv beside us on the street. It wouldmake a mockery of the blood spilled byso many martyrs."

While the accords require cutting off aidto insurgents in EI Salvador, one Salva­doran guerrilla leader vowed: "We willnot put down our arms. now or ever."

.From the moment they marched intoManagua eight years ago, following themass insurrection which drove outSornoza, the Sandinista National Lib­eration Front has proclaimed the holytrinity of a "mixed economy, politicalpluralism and nonalignment." TheFSLN has subsidized Nicaraguan cap­italists with dollars while the workingmasses are starving and allowed CIA­funded politicians and propaganda tocirculate freely-all in hopes of achiev-

WV PhotoManagua protest against Reagan's embargo in 1985. Banner reads: "I won'tsell out. I won't give up. Let your mother cry uncle."

This phony "peace" plan targets thegains of the Nicaraguan Revolution.Calero could demand return of hisconfiscated Coca-Cola factory, now runby a workers commission. Contra land­owners will want their estates back.Releasing the Sornozaist Guardsmenmay spark sharp opposition among theNicaraguan masses who lost more than50,000 of their loved ones to thesebutchers. When Daniel Ortega spoke at

Independent UPI

Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega (far left) and Washington's Salvadoran puppet president Duarte agree tocounterrevolutionary "peace" plan. Accords would give free rein to Internal contras like Archbishop Obando y Bravo.

Nicaraguan Leftand the "Peace" Fraud

,-~-- .

It is barely a month since the five Cen­tral American presidents signed a"peace" pact in Guatemala City. The"Procedure for a Lasting Peace" seeks

. through negotiations to "roll back" rev­olution in the isthmus, something Ron­ald Reagan's contras, death squads andpuppet armies have utterly failed toaccomplish. This accord is a direct con­sequence of the spectacular implosion ofthe Reagan regime over the Iran/Con­tragate scandal: the agreement wasworked out with the Democratic Party.And regional leaders are moving quick­ly to implement the pact before Reagancan undercut it. with his latest plea for$270 million for his terrorist army. Butultimately the fate of the Central Amer­ican revolution will be decided not by apiece of paper but on the battlefield ofthe class struggle.

The radical-nationalist Sandinistagovernment of embattled Nicaragua, inparticular, is multiplying its "gestures ofgood will" to the bourgeois opposition.Archbishop Obando y Bravo wasnamed head of the National Reconcili­ation Commission supervising imple­mentation of the accords. The contracardinal promptly flew off to Miami tomeet with the Polish Pope of counter­revolution and attend a conclave ofCuban and Nicaraguan exiles. BishopsBismark Carballo and Pablo Vega,expelled from the country for lobbyingWashington for "contra aid," have beenallowed to return. Some right-wing pol­iticians have been released from jail.And Sandinista president Daniel Ortegarevoked a law confiscating the propertyof those who have fled the country orparticipated in contra activity.

While it would leave the Sandinistaregime in place, the Guatemala accordrequires government guarantees to thebourgeois opposition, amnesty forpolitical prisoners, and elections to besupervised by that Yankee ministry ofcolonies, the OAS. And it would givethe U.S. free rein to subverrthe Nicara­guan Revolution from within. They areplanning to reopen the voice of 'theinternal contras, La Prensa (at least$100,000 from the CIA conduit NED),and allowing counterrevolutionary "re­ligious" celebrations by Obando yBravo (more than $125,000 from OliverNorth). CIA contra leaders Arturo Cruz($75,000 via Saudi Arabia) and AdolfoCalero ($100,000 from Contragate slushfund IBC) will be on the loose. And thecardinal is demanding release of morethan 2,000 National Guardsmen jailedfor their crimes against the Nicaraguanpeople under the tyrant Somoza.'

6 WORKERS VANGUARD

Defend Nicaragua'­Donate Dollarsr

Sandinista soldier wears badge of Nicabucks campaign. Make yourcontribution and button orders payable to/send to: Student Committee toDefend Nicaragua, c/o Box 3118 Church St. Station, NeY( York, NY 10008.

lapse after Sandinista president ·DanielOrtega went to Moscow in 1985, seek­ing aid in the wake of the imperialistembargo which was an unmistakableU.S. act of war.

Front and center among those lend­ing aid and comfort· to the enemy ofNicaragua's working people by uncriti­cally hailing the murderers' "peace" isthe anti-Trotskyist Socialist WorkersParty and its deadly dull Young Social­ist Alliance. The SWP goes so far as tocall this negotiated sellout for the re­consolidation of capitalist rule a "bigblow" to Washington, and Nicaragua's"biggest diplomatic victory in yearsagainst the drive of the U.S. govern­ment to militarily overthrow the Sandi­nista revolution" (Militant, 28 August).Despite decades of cheerleading forCastro, the last thing the self-styledFidelistas of the SWP want is for Nica­ragua to follow the "Cuban road." Asfar as the SWP is concerned, consoli­dating the Nicaraguan Revolution andexpropriating the inherently counter­revolutionary bourgeoisie would beultraleftist folly.

The Soviet and Cuban leaderships .also have endorsed the "peace" plan,consistent with their mistaken faith thatU.S. imperialism will leave them alone ifthey sell out revolutions around theglobe. This only emboldens the imperi­alists, who fully intend to reconquer,through outright war or diplomaticstrangulation, the markets for exploita­tion they lost in the 1917 Russian Revo­lution. Today Nicaragua is the bull's eyeof the anti-Soviet war drive. We Trot­skyists say, Anti-imperialism abroadmeans class struggle at home! Defenseof Cuba and the USSR begins in Cen­tral America!

We call for the defense, completionand extension of the Nicaraguan Revo­lution as the way forward for the work­ers and peasants of Central America torid themselves from U.S.-backed mer­cenaries and death squad regimes. This.is a class war, which only one side canwin. Our side is that of the workers andpeasants of the world, and the Nica­bucks campaign is one basic expressionof internationalism, part of the respon­sibility of revolutionaries in the "belly ofthe beast" to do everything possible tostay the hand of bloody U.S. imperial­ism. Every dollar you donate goes toNicaragua-the Spartacus Youth Clubsassume all administrative costs. Opposethe U.S. war makers! Send your "anti­contrabution" today! Make checks pay­able/send to: Student Committee to De­fend Nicaragua, c/o Box 3118 ChurchSt. Station, New York, NY 10008.•

beasts run amok to organize counter­revolution inside Nicaragua. The only"peace." to come of this plan, aimed atachieving what the contras have beenunable to win on the battlefield, will bethe peace of the graveyard!

A welter of popular-front "leftist"lash-ups with names like "Days of

. Decision" and "Countdown '87" havelaunched a frenzied effort to pressurethe Democrats to pressure Ronald (''I'ma contra too") Reagan to cut off thecontra creatures they created. These arethe Democrats who just groveled beforeOliver North, saluting his "patriotism"while they wagged their: fingers at hismethods. Now, the charlatans of theU.S. "left" are crawling after the Demsand helping them pretend to be parti­sans of "peace"! Contrast this spurt of"activity" with the reformists' total ('01-

the new run to come off the presses(funds raised by sales of the button-$2each-also go to defend Nicaragua). AnMIT student signed up to help us col­lect funds, saying, "This will drive theliberals wild!"

Indeed, our Nicabucks campaignexposes the liberal fake-left as nothingbut a tail on the Democratic Party's ass.While we hit the campuses and factorygates with a call to "Crush the con­tras-Defend, complete, extend theNicaraguan Revolution!" the Com­munist Party (CP), Socialist WorkersParty (SWP) and faint-hearted "solidar­ity" milieu has thrown its supportbehind the Guatemalan "peace" planwhich is the Democratic Party's pro­gram to roll back the Nicaraguan Rev­olution for Uncle Sam. The plan wouldamnesty the co~tra killers and let these

SWP Scabson the Revolution

As Reagan prepares to ask Congressto fork over another $270 million inblood money for the contra butchers,the Spartacus Youth Clubs have kickedoffa campaign of material aid in defenseof the Nicaraguan' Revolution. "Nica­bucks" is an elementary act of anti­imperialist solidarity with the workersand peasants of Nicaragua. At SYCforums across the country, volunteerbrigadistas recently returned from Nica­ragua have given eyewitness accounts ofthe courage of the Nicaraguan peopleand the severe toll the U.S.-sponsoredcontra war has taken on the country.Some 50 percent of the Nicaraguaneconomy goes for the necessary mili­tary defense of the gains of the revolu­tion. In the cross hairs of the Americanimperialists' "war on Communism,"Nicaragua desperately needs hard cur­rency to buy everything from armsto medicines to spare parts. Take aside! Defend the revolution-donate toNicabu;'ks! .

Over $50 was collected by "Nica­bucketeers" at a protest demonstrationat Concord Naval Base, site of the bru­tal maiming of Brian Willson, a Viet­nam veteran protesting U.S. policy inCentral America, who lost both his legswhen a munitions train deliberately ranover him. At a Boston demonstrationprotesting this hideous crime of U.S.imperialism against protesters on thehome front, a Workers Vanguard sub­scriber broke away from a line ofdemonstrators singing peace hymns,dropped $5 into the bucket and renewedhis subscription on the spot. Literaturetables and an eyewitness "Defend Nica­ragua" forum at Columbia brought in$75 in one day. Nicabucks collectors inall areas report they've had to sell their

. own campaign buttons saying "DefendNicaragua! Crush the Contras!" offtheir shirts to people who can't wait for

Guest Speakers:Kevin Quirkmember, ATU Local 241

Mark KellyPartisan Defense CommitteerepresentativeRoosevelt Hawkins,brother of Larry Hawkins

OAKLANDFriday, Sept. .25, 7:30 p.m.College Ave. Presbyterian Church5951 College Ave.For more information: (415) 839-0851

Speaker: Joseph Seymour, Spartacist League Central Committee

Speaker: Ed ClarksonSpartacist League Central Committee

CHICAGOSaturday, Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m.Michigan Room, Hyde Park Hilton(4900 'South Lakeshore Drive)

For more information: (312) 663-0715

SAN FRANCISCOThursday, Sept. 24, 5:00 p.m.Student Union, Room 8-112·San Francisco State UniversityFor more information: (415) 863-6963

Events. .

MADISONTuesday, Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m.See "Today in the Union"for room location, UW-MadisonFor more information: (608) 251-6431

Speakers:Jan Norden, editor, Workers .VanguardSpartacist League Central CommitteeDan Carew

-member, Spartacus Youth Clubrecently returned from Nicaragua

Speaker: Judith Preston, member, Spartacus Youth Clubrecently returned from Nicaragua

ITHACAThursday, Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m.Noyes Center, 3rd floor loungeCornell UniversityFor more Information: (607) 277-1834

CHICAGOWednesday, Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.Room to be announcedUniversity of ChicagoFor more information: (312) 663-0715

18 SEPTEMBER 1987 7

. Honasan earlier last year, the govern­ment says it is investigating whether theCIA was behind Gringo's coup. As theCIA has taken a greater role in the waragainst the NPA, the Philippines hasbecome another battlefield of the"Reagan doctrine" of global counterrev­olution. They call it "low intensityconflict" now, but it's all been tried inVietnam and EI Salvador-the sinisterdeath squads: strategic hamlets, "disin­formation," special forces and spyplanes-everything short of U.S.ground troops to bolster the local clientarmy. "

Submerged in the middle-class "peo­ple power" of the February 1986overthrow of Marcos, the working classhas emerged in the recent wave'of strikesand protests. The August 26 generalstrike was the most significant labouraction since Aquino came to power.With widespread peasant unrest,national/ethnic revolts and a weak anddivided government, the proletariat is inan effective position to lead all theoppressed layers of society behind thebanner of permanent revolution. TheCPP/NPA, the main benefactor of theincreasing plebeian discontent, is lockedinto a reformist strategy of a "popularfront" with a nonexistent "nationalbourgeoisie." Yet the only alternative toa rightist bloodbath is a proletarianstruggle for power.

chop off their victims' heads and drinktheir blood. But the government army isstill losing.

Both Washington and its juniorpartners in Canberra [Australia] hastilycondemned the coup. But they areincreasingly worried that Aquino can­not stem the growth of the NPA andhence the threat to their strategic warbases. Exploiting the disarray of themilitary, the NPA killed 21 soldiers onSeptember 3-its biggest single successof the insurgency. Amid reports that.sinister "retired" U.S. general JohnSinglaub of Contragate infamy met with

Giannini! AFPArmed Forces headquarters near Manila after assault by government troopssuppressing right-wing coup attempt last month. .

their strategic bases which are aimed atthe Soviet Union and Vietnam. Coupplots by reactionary officers are "pun­ished" with 30 pushups, or being postedto the provinces, as Honasan was afterbeing implicated in his then-chiefEnrile's plot last November. Since theend of the truce with the Commu­nist Party (CPP)-Ied NPA guerrillasin February, Aquino has "unsheathedthe sword of war" against them, inparticular blessing the CIA-backedanti-Communist "vigilantes"-deathsquads-like the Alsa Masa in Davao,or crazed cultists like the Tadtads, who

Philippines...-(continued/rom page 1)

1986. They were lionised not only byManila society but also by Aquino­smitten Australian left groups like theSocialist Workers Party. Honasanhimself is a sadistic macho/psychopath'known. for carving the ears off hisvictims in the war against the Muslimrebels. RAM ousted Marcos to turn thefactionalised, demoralised and corruptarmy into a more effective fighting forceagainst the growing New People's Army(N PA) leftist insurgency. Demanding afree hand to kilI Communists, thesebutchers chafe at what they see as the"weakness" of the Aquino governmentin dealing with the NPA and alIowingleftists to agitate openly in the cities.Aquino's backdown, in reducing thepetroleum price rises as a concessionto the masses, was for them the laststraw.

The personnel of Cory' Aquino'sregime resembles the restored Bourbonmonarchy in France in 1815, with theold landowning oligarchy recapturingtheir power and wealth from thenouveau riche :bourgeois cronies ofMarcos. Aquino's -"democracy" meansthe landowners keep their land, 1MFausterity is' enforced to pay Marcos'debt, and the U.S. imperialists keep

Report from Manil~

cide, with bail set at P3,600 each, some­thing like a year's wages. Neverthelessthe money was raised from unionsupporters.

Amid this working-class restlessnessand growing bourgeois reaction sitsAquino's new Congress, supposedly thenew hope for stability. Even the bour­geois press here have trouble treating itseriously. It is made up in large part ofmillionaires and landowners, reflectingthe clique lines on which Filipino bour­geois politics has always been based.Laurel. ostensibly vice. president, hasbeen relegated to the back seat (the pressrefer to him as the "spare tyre"), whilethe leadership of Congress looks like anAquino family reunion. Cory's brotherPeping. brother-in-law Butz and uncleFrancisco Surnulong all occupy leadingpositions (Sumulong looks set to get thelucrative. Manila ports contract). Thebourgeoisie have such a hard job tryingto 'sell this new facade of democracy thatthe Inquirer (2 August) commented ."the solons [Congressmen] better put a

.stop to the fire-eating sideshows lestsocial forces (among others) wouldagain reduce Congress to a museumpiece." The government is patently inca-

. pable of resolving any of the funda-

Australasian Spartacist

Manila, August 13-Workers protest murder of Purefoods striker, whileStalinist labor leader Beltran (inset) shakes hands with officer commandingtroops at demonstration.

downtown Manila, there was a hugebanner across the building proclaiming"Workers of World Unite," signedYoung Christian Association. At SantoThomas University I, 100 academicswalked out for the first time in its 373­year history, stopping alI classes anddefying a return-to-work order. Work­ers at one of the bourgeoisie's leadingpapers, the Bulletin, walked out over thebosses' attempt to bust their union.Even one of the two casinos and a golfclub were struck while we were there.Clearly the bourgeoisie will not long tol­erate this situation. Aquino has alreadyused troops several times to breakstrikes, and while we were there hun­dreds of riot police were mobilised at theBulletin picket for an attack.

A one-month old strike at PurefoodsCorporation was attacked by '300heavily armed troops on August 5 whoshot three strikers and took some casu­alties themselves when the strikerscourageously fought back. (Signif­icantly this plant is owned by the Phil­ippines' pre-eminent capitalist. Ayala,and Defence Secretary lleto is a direc­tor.) Subsequently five of their mem­bers were arrested on charges rangingfrom direct assault to attempted homi-

even' much of ·the bourgeois pressspeculated this was quite possibly thework of some disgruntled local caudillo,the armed forces predictably pointedthe finger at the NPA. In any casethis was the pretext to set up ongoingroad checks and widespread searchesthroughout Metro Manila. Followingthis Defence Secretary lleto revealedplans to implement "limited" martiallaw "to restore order."

The military continues to be acauldron of intrigue. An infamous"poison letter" attacking the govern­ment had been widely circulating in themilitary recently, and elements in thearmed forces are openly disgruntledwith what they perceive as Aquino'ssoftness in cracking down on the left.While Camp Crame was put on alert foryet another reported coup attempt, onebourgeois paper, referring to the in­creasing repression, observed that Aqui­no has already carried out a "coup inslow motion."

The economy is visibly crumblingunder the combined weight of politicalinstability, corruption and the foreigndebt. The working class and poor bear­ing the brunt of this are being driven tothe wall. Manila. is becoming onegigantic slum as tens of thousandsmigrate into the city looking for non­existent work. Even most of those"lucky" enough to have a job are forcedto subsist on less than the minimumwage of some 57 pesos-about $3-aday (32 pesos for agricultural workers)."Smoking Mountain" in Manila epito­mises the fate of the poor: thousands liv­ing in shanties' on top ora rotting, putridgarbage dump.

Added to all this Aquino had justdecreed a massive 17 per cent rise in theprice of petroleum fuel. This wilI triggera whole series of price hikes and pushthousands already living on th~ margininto the abyss of unbearable poverty.The union movement signa lIed itsintention to fight this. One jeepney[minibus] drivers union threatened toparalyse alI traffic in Manila. and eventhe CIA-funded Trade Union Congressof the Philippines felt compelIed tothreaten a national strike. This is shap­ing up to be a big showdown betweenAquino and the unions.

Everywhere we went in Manila therewere picket lines, and every second daysome plant was walking out. At a picketof Shoe World department store in

The situation in the Philippines isexplosive. The bombing of villagescontinues unabated since the collapse ofthe cease-fire in January, but still fails tostem the growth of the NPA which isnow reported to be over 25,000 strong.Recently they have made a number ofdaring strikes close to Metro Manilaand their urban guerrilla "sparrowunits" now operate in the city. While wewere there the Communist Party pulledoff a brazen demonstration at thefuneral of a "sparrow" killed by cops,where the Internationale was sung andthe hammer and sickle flew in the streetsof Manila. At the same time Cebu Cityhas been hit by major strikes, and in oneday the NPA struck right in the heart ofthe city four times. The truce with theMuslim secessionist guerrillas is aboutto collapse. Even the truce with Catholicpriest Conrado Balweg's CordilleraPeople's Liberation Army guerrillas, aregional split from the NPA, looksshaky.

In the name of "people power"Aquino has sanctioned the unleashingof "vigilante" death squads whose terrorhas claimed scores of lives, especially inthe southern island of Mindanao. Whilewe were in Manila Aquino's LocalGovernment Secretary, Jaime Ferrer, akey figure behind the death squads, wasblown away in a daring attack. While

. ., ,., ';•.'.<'.'" '.1'.,........,.. ..'" '"

'Iii,.." .. ,'1., ".'.

;'#::,'-.1, ,"Iij.

Time

Corazon Aquino, head of made-in­Washington regime.

, 8 WORKERS VANGUARD

Make payable/mail to: Sparlacist Publishing .Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, New York 10116

436

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defeatist line that this struggle can't bewon. While they spend thousands ofdollars of union dues on campaigns forreactionary Polish Solidarnosc, theysabotage union action to defend jobsand conditions.

Ironworkersand Painters & Dockersare prime targets of Hawke's plans toaxe unions at Cockatoo, which mainlydoes naval work, in the service of theU.S.-led' anti-Soviet war drive. Butthere's a problem here: how does Hawkeget his two-ocean navy if he axes this

. skilled work force? In this "defence"industry, the workers confront theimperialist war drive pointblank. Everyvictory over the bosses strikes a blow forproletarian internationalism againstReagan/Hawke's mad drive towardnuclear holocaust.

The fight to defend Florrimell inthis traditionally militant workplace iseverybody's fight. .Already support iscoming in from unions' at otherworkplaces, such as Fairfax metalworkers who have agitated for uniondefence of Florrirnell, and the Metro­politan Mail Centres Committee of theAustralian Postal and Telecommunica­tions Union passed a motion condemn­ing the sacking as an attack on union­ism. From the coal fields to theshipyards hard class struggle is needed.The working class desperately needs arevolutionary workers party, 'forgedthrough splitting the ALP's working­class base from the pro-capitalist tops; aclass-struggle party which fights tosmash the capitalist system and estab­lish in its place a planned socialisteconomy.js .

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Injury to All!" stated clearly why he hadbeen targetted by the bosses:

"The bosses' excuse of 'bad time­keeping' was exposed as the bald-faced'lie it is when they told the FIAorganiser the next day that they didn'twant me back because of my 'bad atti­tude.' What they are talking about is myunion attitude. In March 1985 duringan electricians' strike. I refused to workwith apprentices being used by the bossto break the strike. I was sacked and'reinstated only after the threat of anisland-wide stoppage' and the electri­cians' refusal to return to work withoutme. This victory for union solidaritywas an important blow to the bosses'attempts' to playoff the unions hereagainst each other while using appren­tices to break our strikes."

Since then, Florrimell has been in theforefront of the fight for strike action to

. defend jobs against Hawke's plans toclose the Cockatoo dockyard. He par­ticipated in the successful struggle thatdefeated attempts by the ASIO secretpolice to weed out militants. Florimellwas also prominent in the fight tooppose the despatch of the Jervis Baynaval training ship to Fiji following therecent coup. This must have particu­larly gored the Cold War Hawke gov­ernment's ox!

._-----------------~--------~----~

future of the Nicaraguan Revolutionrequires above all Bolshevik clarity. AsTrotsky wfote of Andres Nin's POUM(Workers Party of Marxist Unifica­tion) during the Spanish Civil War:

"Left centrism, especially under revo­lutionary conditions, is always ready toadopt in words the program of thesocialist revolution and is not niggardlywith sonorous phrases. But the fatalmalady of centrism is not being capableof drawing courageous tactical andorganizational conclusions from itsgeneral conceptions."

-"Centrism and the FourthInternational" (March 1939)

Nin repeatedly proclaimed the per­manent revolution. In February 1936,he wrote that "the Popular Front.doesn't meet the vital interests of. theproletariat" and only allows "the bour­geoisie to consolidate its class rule in therepublican form." Yet the POUM hadjust run in the 1936 elections on the Pop­ular Front platform, and a few monthslater Nin became minister of justice inCatalonia. As the Civil War dragged onand the bourgeois Republican govern­ment blocked revolutionary action bythe Spanish proletariat, in April 1937Nin called for the workers to "createnew organs of power" to establish aworkers and peasants government. Yetbarely a week later, when the IJarcelonaworkers rose up in the heroic May Daysagainst the Stalinist/ Republican on­slaught, the POUM refused to fight forpower.

The Spanish experience should bebefore the eyes of would-be revolution­aries in Nicaragua today. Already in'1983, we posed the question: will theFSLN act as Cuban Fidelistas and pro­ceed to expropriate the bourgeoisie, oras Spanish Republicans, who in respect­ing the limits of capitalism sealed thefate of the Spanish Revolution? InSpain, the Barcelona workers' defeat inMay 1937 led to the assassination ofNinand ultimately the. collapse of theRepublic before Franco. In Nicaragua,too, if the contras take back their landand factories, it will be over the corpsesof the best revolutionary fighters. Andthose who failed to translate militantresolutions into "courageous tacticaland organizational conclusions" willshare the responsibility.

But this need not be the outcome. Thehistory of the Russian Revolution of1917 shows that even a small partyarmed with a Marxist program can leadthe way to victory. Following theFebruary Revolution" the Bolshevikswere distinctly in the minority against ahost of petty-bourgeois parties. Yetseven months later they emerged tri­umphant, because of their refusal tocapitulate to the bourgeoisie, Today inNicaragua, the contras have suffered astrategic defeat at the hands of the San­dinista Army. Hundreds of thousandsof workers and peasants are armed andready to defend their revolution. In EISalvador, Duarte is shaking under theblows of guerrilla attacks and workers'struggles, despite more than $2.5 bii­lion in U.S. aid to the "death squaddemocracy."

To the north, Mexican workers arefighting tenacious union battles against1MF-style capitalist austerity imposedby their "institutional revolutionary"bourgeois rulers. In the U.S., Reagan ison the rocks; there is massive and' con­tinuing opposition to contra aid andwidespread suspicion that the next stepis a U.S. invasion of Central America.But the working class has yet to mobi­lize, as the unions and the "solidarity"movement are tied to the Democrats,Reagan's partners in the global anti­Soviet war d rive, whose sights are aimedtoday at Central America. The key. tovictory, from Managua to Detroit, is the

~ construction of authentically Trotsky­ist parties in a fight to reforge the FourthInternational as the world party ofsocialist revolution.•

Nica~agua...(continuedfrom page 6)

mental social questions confronting t1iePhilippine masses, nor even of coheringstable bourgeois rule.

Nowhere is this more graphic than inthe debate around Aquino's land reformprogram (CARP). Under CARP land-

, less farmers would have to buy the landthey till and landowners would becompensated. Those farmers, led by theCPP-aligned peasant union KMP, whohave seized idle land will be evicted.While Congress was debating it, a groupof landowners (mainly "solons" them­selves) vowed to oppose CARP in aproclamation signed in blood. Thesugar barons of Negros and the Panaylandowners have threatened armedrebellion against Aquino ifshe tries totouch their land. Aquino even had tothreaten her own cabinet members withthe sack if they voted against CARP!

The other big question is the foreigndebt, whose interest payments alonerepresent some 50 per cent of exportearnings. In the face of widespread andgrowing resentment at having to paythis imperialist ransom, much of whichwas run up by Marcos' plunder of theeconomy, a section of the bourgeoisie(tailed by the CPP-aligned trade unionKMU) are talking about "selective re­pudiation." The World Bank sternlycautioned their Filipino lackeys not tolightly bandy about such terms. After alot of bluster about seeing "the true faceof foreign finance" Aquino could onlywhine that the Philippines hasbeen theWorld Bank's best lackey. While thecountry is visibly crumbling under theweight of this debt, the bourgeoisie areunable to even contemplate breakingthis chain that is strangling the Filipinomasses.

The massive U.S. bases at Subic Bayand Clark best exemplify the "specialplace" the Philippines occupies in theeyes of U.S. and Australian imperial­ism. Tour guides told us Australia has apermanent military presence at Clark,and while we were there five Australianwarships were in town for war manoeu­vres with the U.S. Seventh Fleet in theSouth China Sea (i.e., somewhere offVietnam, the main target of imperial­ism's designs to roll back social revolu­tion in Southeast Asia). Del Pilar Streetin Manila Bay bristles with "sexy go-godancer" bars sporting handwritten signswelcoming the Australian navy.

The working class is increasinglyvocal, the CPP continues to grow inauthority, but it's clearly squanderingthe immense social power of the prole­tariat. Nowhere was this clearer to usthan at a demonstration called by theKM U over the death of one of the strik­ers at Purefoods. The politics of theKM U leadership were laid bare ,at theend when. KM U chairman CrispinBeltran went over to the commandingofficer of the troops barring the demon­strators' access to Malacafiang, jokedwith him and shook his hand-the handof the armed forces that was still freshfrom the blood of striking workers. Theprogram of class collaboration this ges­ture represents sits in flat opposition tothe interests and sentiments of the class­conscious proletariat. While the CPPlooks to Aquino to hold the more rabidanti-Communist fanatics at bay.work­ers at Purefoods told us that underAquino "things are worse now" thanunder Marcos. "We strongly believed inAquino" because we wanted changes,said one, "but today's changes are forthe worse." They said Marcos usedwater cannons on strikers but Aquinouses bullets.

The situation is fragile. The bour­geoisie is still divided and threatening totear itself apart but they are agreed onthe need to repress the workers andpeasants. The CP's popular-frontistpolitics are a millstone around the neckof the proletariat. With the danger of areactionary bloodbath mounting, theworking class desperately needs a revo­lutionary leadership, a Trotskyist partywhich fights for a workers and peasantsgovernment that alone offers the Fili­pino masses a future.•

9

where near to toppling the Sandinistas.Former State Department assistant sec­retary Viron Vaky describes the contrawar as "in effect asking Nicaraguans tobleed and die for U.S. strategic intereststhat Americans would rather not die forthemselves" ("Positive Containment inNicaragua," Foreign Policy, Fall 1987).

U.S. imperialism cannot wage waragainst the Nicaraguan people while theAmerican people remain happily unaf­fected. When Eugene Hasenfus was shotdown by Sandinista militiamen overNicaragua last year while ferrying armsto the contras, the American public wasupset not out of sympathy for this CIAmercenary but because they saw Amer­icancasualties as foreboding "anotherVietnam." In a different way, the brutalmurder of Ben Linder heightened fearsthat American blood, too, will be spilledin Nicaragua. The Iran/contra scandalshowed that the Reagan gang is morethan willing to subvert and overthrowAmerican bourgeois democracy inorder to overthrow the Nicaraguan Rev­olution. Now the same forces that havekilled and maimed tens of thousands ofNicaraguans and Salvadorans havemaimed an antiwar protester in North­ern California.

At bottom, "moral witness" pacifismappeals to the humanity of the Ameri­can ruling class. This state. whether ad­ministered by Reagan Republicans orMondale/ Jackson Democrats, is nec­essarily an instrument of capitalistoppression and exploitation. U.S. im­perialism represents only inhumanity.war and mass terror. The atrocityagainst Brian Willson was intended toterrorize the American people. This isReagan's policy on dealing with pro­testers: his bloodhound Edwin Meesehas stated that a man killed by police ata radical student protest in Berkeley'sPeople's Park in the late '60s "deservedto die." At Concord the ruling class hasshown a glimpse of its plans for massdetention of Hispanics and radicals tocrush protest against an invasion ofCentral America. a taste of its OliverNorth-style blueprints for a militarycoup. Only the power of the revolution­ary working class can defeat the stateterrorists in the White House andPentagon.•

arcia/APBen Linder (left), American internacionalista killed last April byReagan's contra terrorists; Linder's funeral in Matagalpa.

NICAT

ce::Jo'"o~o

CIA mercenaryEugene Hasenfus,

shot downover Nicaragualast year whileferrying arms

to contras,led away by

Sandinistamilitiaman.

cargoing) of military goods to CentralAmerica would do more than anynumber of pacifist vigils and Gandhian"pledges of resistance." (The presidentof the American Federation of Govern­ment Employees, the union represent­ing civilian workers at the weapons cen­ter, has condemned "the war of terroragainst the people of Nicaragua"-butwhat's needed is labor action, not paperresolutions.) It is the working classwhich has the social power and classinterest to make a socialist revolution.smashing-the bloody nile of capital: thisis the only way to end imperialist war.And this requires building a revolution­ary workers party, defeating the laborbureaucrats who chain the workingclass to the bosses' Democratic Party of

. racism and war.But the rad-libs and fake-lefts turned

a September 5 Concord protest againstthe maiming of Brian Willson into a peprally for the Democratic Party. Insteadof outrage against the government'sbloody crime, there was a fete for Dem­ocratic hustler Jesse Jackson. Thecrowd screamed "run Jesse run" as theman who embraced arch-segregationistGeorge Wallace called on "true patri­ots" to follow the path of Martin LutherKing and Gandhi-i-and, above all, to"set 'em straight in '88" (by voting forthe Democratic Party, whose well­known contributions to "peace" includeHiroshima, the Bay of Pigs, the waragainst Vietnam). It should be recalledthat during the Vietnam War. Dixie­crat George Wallace declared he wouldrun over any protesters who, got in theway of the military machine. And themain aim of Jackson's campaign todayis to woo the Dixiecrat racists. who arealso rabid supporters of the contra war.

The American ruling class. Dem­ocrats as well as Reaganites, are deter­mined to overthrow the NicaraguanRevolution in the name of "free world"anti-Communism. The main obstacle toa direct U.S. invasion is fear of anotherVietnam. a long. dirty colonial warwhich would rip apart American soci­ety. So Washington has tried to exportcounterrevolution on the cheap-butthe contra terrorists are losers. The warhas brought terrible suffering to theNicaraguan people but has come no-

prescribes the severing of hands andheads. ,

The sight. on prime-time television, ofa man being deliberately run over byatrain produced widespread shock andoutrage. Protesters trashed a ROTCbuilding in Berkeley and later ripped upa section of the tracks near the Con­cord Naval Station. Major newspapersaround the country have publicized theConcord death train. Democratic Partypoliticians have called for Congres­sional investigations.

The government is now treatingwhite, middle-class Vietnam vets theway the bosses treated striking oilworker Gregory Goobic, run down andkilled by a scab in Rodeo, California, ashort distance from Concord. in 1984.The following year in Concord h blackyouth was lynched. If the labor move­ment had mobilized against these acts ofmurderous strikebreaking and racistterror. the government would not nowthink it could run down antiwar pro­testers with impunity.

For Class War AgainstImperialist War!

Despite the evident commitment ofmany of their adherents, the pacifisttactics of "moral witness" practiced inConcord are ineffective. A single solidtransport strike or labor boycott (hot-

USSR. His courage and commitmentare an indication of the depth and .breadth of opposition at home to Rea­gan's mass murder in Central America,and of the explosive opposition a directU.S, invasion would ignite. The atroc­ity committed against Willson is in­tended to intimidate opposition on thehome front to counterrevolutionary warin Central America. '

Up until now, the government hastended to arrest pacifist protesters.These arrests often have the character ofa ritual dance: the protesters go limp,the police "cite them out" (release themwith a citation). But now the govern­ment has coldbloodedly cut off a man'slimbs for this "crime'vs-as in feudalSaudi Arabia, where Koranic "justice"

Concord Death Train

Willson's Nuremberg Actions Com­mittee had been holding vigils sinceJune, protesting the shipment of up to120,000 pounds of munitions from theweapons station, including-accordingto documents the group obtainedthrough the Freedom of Information­Act-bombs, ammunition and whitephosphorus rockets sent to the deathsquad regime in EI Salvador. The Con­cord installation is infamous as the siteof a munitions explosion in July 1944that killed 327 sailors, most of themblack; today it reportedly houses nucle­ar weapons.

The September I protest had beenwidely publicized, and its organizershad informed Navy authorities of theirplans to kneel on the train tracks, Navypersonnel were out in force, commu­nicating through walkie-talkies. Themunitions train, with two "observers"standing on a platform on the front ofthe engine, came out of the weapons sta­tion and sat on the tracks 200 yardsaway from the protesters for 10 to /5minutes. Then it started up: gatheringspeed as it rammed through the demon-

(continued from page 1)

people have consistently opposed aid tothe contras. And now the Reagan pres­idency has been crippled by the Iran/contra scandal. The Ollie North types inthe U.S. military want sornebody'sblood. So they tried to kill BrianWillson by running him over with atrain.

Rick ReinhardBri_Wittson (far right) with fellow veterans during month-long fast in~ast.lington to protest contra aid. .

Arms Train.~'·.-

strators and ran over Willson. The Navylater came out with the absurd lie that itspersonnel "didn't see" the protesters,and claimed the train was going fivemiles per hour. The local NBC-TV affil­iate, using video footage. calculated thetrain's speed at 17 miles per hour, Wit­nesses state one of the Navy's "observ­ers" shook his head "no" at demon­strator~".who pleaded for the train tostop. ':

Willsqn is a lawyer from suburbanSan Rafael. a former intelligence cap­tain in Vietnam who once owned a dairyfarm before becoming a full-timepacifist activist. Last fall he organized a'month-Iong fast at the U.S. Capitolbuilding with four other veterans. Thisspring he and his fellow veterans led a"march for life" through the contra warzone in northern Nicaragua. "I riskedmy life for war," he told BarricadaInternacional (23 April), "Now we riskthem for peace." After being run over bythe arms train, he said, "I've joined thelegion of kids in Nicaragua withoutlegs."

Brian Willson is heroic in his dedica­tion. Rosario Murillo. wife of Nicara­guan president Daniel Ortega,' visitedWillson's hospital bed and praised his ~

courage. Soviet spokesmen have hailedWillson as a "hero of peace" and of­fered him free medical care in the

10 WORKERS VANGUARD

Chicago...(continued from page /2)

"malign neglect" of public education,welcomed Harold Washington's elec­tion in 1983. But within months theschool board cut workers' vital healthinsurance coverage. Their backs to thewall, the teachers and maintenanceworkers walked out ina bitter three­week strike. Washington tried to appearto be above the fray, but members andsupporters of his administration wagedan all-out campaign to break the strikewith. lawsuits and scabherding. Theblack Chicago Defender newspaper andother pro-Washington forces slanderedthe CTU as "racist." The striking unionsheld the line against the Board of Educa­tion cuts, but the attacks on the teach­ers didn't subside.

As in 1983, Washington's "reform"Democratic machine is trying to pit theblack and Hispanic families against thestriking unions. A "Chicago ParentsUnion" has sprung up, organized by the

, Midwest Community Council based onthe West Side, mobilizing hundreds ofparents tq jeer union pickets anddemanding a role in negotiations. Blackattorney Thomas Todd, a Washingtonsupporter and former president of JesseJackson's Operation PUSH, told theChicago Defender in early Septemberthat he planned to sue the CTU onbehalf of the 434,000 students in theevent of a strike. According to theDefender (3 September), Todd empha­sized "that-Chicago now has a Blackpresident on the Board of Education, sixBlack board members, a Black superin­tendent of schools, a Black mayor, aBlack as head of the CTU, 'and yet wehave the same kinds of problems'."

The ghetto masses in Chicago hadenormous hopes and illusions whenHarold Washington was elected. But inracist, capitalist America black faces inhigh places are the overseers on Rea­gan's plantation. Despite the deep rac­ist backlash against Washington's elec­tion in 1983, the national DemocraticParty was solidly in Washington'scorner. Like Jesse Jackson, who wasjust endorsed by Washington, the blackmayors of the rotting cities of the Eastand Midwest serve to cement the blackmasses to the capitalist DemocraticParty and to prevent labor/black strug­gle. And in Chicago, Jackson and Oper­ation PUSH have been the enemy of theintegrated city unions repeatedly since1973, suing the unions and organizingscab schools in' attempts to breakstrikes. The most hideous racist atroc­ity of the Reagan years, the 1985 massa­cre of the MOVE organization in Phila-

delphia, was carried out by blackDemocrat Wilson Goode in league withMeese and the FBI.

The strikebreaking of these blackDemocrats fuels racist cop and fascistterror. The integrated labor movementis where the power lies to crush theKlan/Nazi nightriders who enforce the"color line" in Segregation City. Thou­sands of black, white and Hispanicworkers should, fill the Loop in amassive demonstration in solidaritywith the school unions. The same powermust be mobilized to come to the aid ofthe victims of racist police terror likeCassandra Seay, and to clean out thefascist scum who terrorize black familiesin areas like Marquette Park. To leadand organize this kind of struggle weneed a multiracial class-struggle work­ers party, an anti-capitalist party thatwill fight for a workers government.Victory to the school strike!.

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

WV PhotoSpartacist-initiated Labor/Black Mobilization stopped Klan terrorists frommarchinq through Washington, D.C., November 1982.

Black Liberation ThroughSocialist Revolution!

tary as a weapon against the SovietUnion. He shares both capitalist par­ties' commitment to the anti-Soviet wardrive. "It's important ... not to be so rad­ical that the truck jack-knifes," he saidrecently, explaining his refusal tooppose Reagan's mammoth nuke first­strike "Star Wars" schemes. He's, nofriend of the Nicaraguan Revolutioneither, as he attacks the Sandinistas fordaring to defend themselves against thecounterrevolutionary contras when theyshut down the contra mouthpiece LaPrensa.

Jackson's moribund "Rainbow Coa­lition" now serves only as a sandbox inwhich various reformist outfits canplay. Irwin Silber's Frontline (27 April)argues that since there's no independentworking-class party, "progressive forcesmust prepare to function ... on the ter­rain of the Democratic Party." Predict­ably the Communist Party is cautiouslycheerleading Jackson, though as usualthey'll end up supporting any Dem­ocrat against the Republicans. Most ,ridiculous is the position of the Amer­ican Morenoites (Working Class Oppo­sition, July 1987) who appealed toJackson to "break from the Dem­ocratic Party" and run on "a socialistprogram." This is just shamefaced sup­port for Mr. Coca-Cola capitalism.,

Jackson would like to see the Rain­bow extend from Dixiecrat racists likeGeorge Wallace to black nationalistdemagogues like Louis "Hitler was agreat man" Farrakhan. These are notsuch strange bedfellows perhaps, sincethey're both against "race mixing." Butsince Jackson now seeks to be at onewith the white establishment (includingits Zionist component), he has dis­tanced himself somewhat from Farra­khan. For his part, this repulsive andsinister anti-Semite is keeping a low pro­file so as not to embarrass Jackson. Butthe "black power" soap salesman Far­rakhan and the PUSHer of ghetto cap­italism Jackson have much in common.They share a deep hostility to militant,integrated class struggle, the key to realblack and workers power.

Jackson's campaign is intended tokeep blacks powerless by tying them tothe capitalist Democratic Party while

. strengthening that party by winningback the white racist vote. Real powerand freedom for the black masses, for allthe op.pressed and exploited, can be wononly through a sharp struggle againstthe capitalist hustlers like Jesse Jackson,and for the perspective of independent,integrated working-class power. Thequestion of black liberation is thequestion of revolution in this deeply rac­ist country-and the future black lead­ers of this country will be socialist revo­lutionaries, forged in the political fightagainst the Jesse Jacksons and theirreformist "left" cheer-leaders. Break withthe Democrats! For black liberationthrough socialist revolution!.

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sees people moving in a progressivemanner, he tries to put an obstacle intheir way to get them hung up."

Today Jackson has become the whitepower structure's chief fireman indampening the flames of black anger.When a Klan-led mob attacked KingDay protesters in Forsyth County,Georgia, when racist thugs killed a blackyouth in New York's Howard Beach,Jackson opposed any black protest atall! "Let's not confront each other atHoward Beach or Forsyth County," heimplored (WashingtonPost, 20 March).Last spring Jackson turned up at theUniversity of Michigan in AnI) Arbor todefuse mass protests by blackand whitestudents against a wave of racistviolence. Instead Jackson wants blacksto fight for racist protectionism againstforeign workers: he rails against "for­eign goods that put our workers out of

, jobs."Following a Klan provocation fast

winter at The Citadel, a South Carolinamilitary academy, where a black cadetwas tormented by white cadets in Klanrobes, Jackson steered anger away fromthe fight-against racist violence, going toWest Point to preach the need for a"strong, vibrant and effective military."Jackson wants that strong U:S. mili-

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late," get ahead and someday your childmight even grow up to be president. It'sthe ultimate sign of assimilation into the"mainstream"-thus Kennedy's electionas the first Catholic was significant inreflecting the assimilation of Catholics(Irish, at least) into the top layers of theAmerican ruling elite (being a million­aire didn't hurt of course).

But Jesse Jackson's candidacy surelydoes not reflect for blacks "how wellwe're doing." It's just the opposite, infact. In every single aspect of life-fromjobs to housing to education to healthcare-conditions for blacks are theworst in living memory. Union-busting,slashes in welfare, factory closures,KuKlux Klan terror-that's what this rul­ing class is pushing, And the other sideof that reality is that there's a lot ofanger and a lot of oppressed people.looking for ways to fight to" win.

Jackson Runs AgainstBlack Struggle .

During the I96Os, black establish­ment leaders sought to channel massblack struggle into "war on poverty"reformism and tokenism. Even thenJesse Jackson stood out as a slimy anti­militant. As the Black Panthers wrote:"Whenever Jessie 'jacknape' Jackson

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(continued from page /2)

whom he told, "The key to a Dem­ocratic victory. is expanding white sup­port" (Chicago Sun-Times, 6 June). Hemeans winning back flag-waving rac­ists who bolted for the Reaganites. As hesaid in July, "the party has a progressivewing and a conservative wing, but ittakes two wings to fly."

Part ofJackson's Dixiecrat strategy isto divert black hatred for the race­terror of the Klan into a drug witch­hunt. "We've lost far more by dope thanwe have by the rope" is practically acampaign slogan. A drug witchhuntcan only serve as another pretextfor police to terrorize and victimizeblack people, as repeatedly occurredin Washington, D.C. .

The scourge of drug addiction in theghettos is produced by the terrible pov­erty and utter hopelessness of blacks in

.capitalist America. And the Democratsare just as committed to maintainingthis racist, capitalist system as the Rea­ganites. They're just slicker, more hyp­ocritical. As Malcolm X put it, the lib­eral Democrats' line is: "Let's keep theknee-grows in their place-but tell themwe'll treat them a little better; let's foolthem more, with more promises."

It's a sign of the deep racism of thiscountry that Jackson's sudden front­runner status in a field of Yuppie clones,following the media-induced Gary Hartblowout, has tied bourgeois commen­tators in knots. The New York Timesnoted at one point, "Jackson Tops Poll(Not Counting Cuomo)," who IS anofficial non-candidate. As columnistAlexander Cockburn caustically noted,"If Jackson's fortunes continue to wax,he must expect more of that sort ofthing, with headlines such as, 'JacksonAhead (Not Counting F.D.R. andChrist)''' (Nation, 30 May).

A black man or woman has the abso­lute right to be president of the UnitedStates-that's the classic "AmericanDream," right? Just work hard, "assimi-

18 SEPTEMBER 1987 11

;"'-'.

WfJ/iNE/iS,,11l'Olll'Union Digs Inl May.or's Out for Blood

Victory to ChicagoTeachers' Strike!

011ST811

FOR lUl COIifRACrlOOAl 1-AfT, Aft...­

UIIWV Photo

fourth trip to the picket lines in the fourand a half years since Washington wasfirst elected. CTU members are right­fully angry over the deterioration of

. their real pay and working conditions.New teachers start out at a paltry$17,600 per year, and the average salaryfor Chicago teachers is now several .thousand dollars below most 'of theirsuburban counterparts. Last year theChicago school board, all of whosemembers are now Washington appoint­ees, joined the Reagan/ Meese "moralmajority" witchhunt against teachersand other public employees by orderingfingerprinting and criminal back­ground checks for all new workers.

Many CTU members, fed up withbeing victims of the bourgeoisie's

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STRlll'fI till r.lIn1\lC!tU 1-AFT.AFl-aoMilitant teachers

are fightingfor all Chicago

workers.

What's needed .is a broad working­class offensive which goes beyond nar­row trade-union demands, taking up thefight for decent integrated educationand housing, free mass transit andlabor/black power to crush racist ter­ror. The CTU and the rest of the labormovement must wage a fight for qual­ity, integrated education. Despitc .abogus "voluntary desegregation" planinstalled five years ago, Chicago schoolsare as segregated as ever. There must bebusing to andfrom the lily-white, betterfunded schools in the suburbs, withlabor/ black defense guards to protectchildren from racist attack. The labormovement must.defend bilingual educa­tion programs from the wave of anti­immigrant racist reaction.

The current strike is the teachers'

the unions shackled. \.Velfare is slashed,the schools and public housing go tohell, all to pay for Trident submarinesand aircraft carriers. 11's a bipartisanpr-ogram of unemployment, illiteracy,segregation and war. And it is enforcedby racist terror, from the cold-bloodedcop murder of auto worker LarryHawkins in his own South Side home

. lastJuly and the brutal police assault onblack bus driver Cassandra Seay, to thenightriding terror ofthe Klan and Nazis.

The CTU strike is a chance for allblack and working people to fight thedeep race/class oppression in "Segrega­tion City." With no hope of jobs, almost50 percent of Chicago's children dropout rather than remain in the decayingschools. Now the Illinois state legisla­ture has slashed $60 million from theChicago school budget. And despitetheir public bickering, both IllinoisRepublican governor James Thompsonand Mayor Washington are united on aprogram of austerity and cutbacks.They have every city workers union intheir sights. Chicago Transit Authorityworkers, members of the AmalgamatedTransit Union, are getting shafted withyet another giveback contract. Theunions had better stand together-orthey will be defeated by the "salami"tactics. used by former mayor JaneByrne against the firefighters, teachersand transit workers in 1980.

CH ICAGO-On September 8, 38,000members of the Chicago TeachersUnion and 20 allied unions struck theChicago school system..Faced with apay cut by the Board of Education, partof an assault against municipal unions,the CTU members are prepared for ahard strike. Black Democratic mayorHarold Washington told the unioniststo eat the pay cut and show up for work,and the union-busting Chicago Trib­une (5 September) demanded that theschool board "not back down": "Such astiff-spine showdown between the boardand the teachers' union is long over­due." But the CTU voted more than tento one for a strike. One picketer summedup thestrikers' determination when shetold anNBC Evening News reporter, "If

. all the board can offer me is a pay cut,then I'll be out here forever."

Washington's allies, like the blacknewspaper Chicago Defender, are try­ing to portray the black-led union asbeing against the system's 83 percentblack and Hispanic schoolchildren. Thisis a lie. The heavily black CTU is upagainst the LaSalle Street bankers wholord it over Chicago, with its segregatedschools, decaying public housing, andracist cop and Klan/ Nazi terror. FromChicago to Detroit, where teachers arealso engaged in a bitter strike againstblack Democratic mayor ColemanYoung, the urban poor are bled dry and

Jesse JacksonRuns for

the Dixiecratsvote to win back some of the constituen­cies they lost."

--'::WV No. 367.23 November 1984

So Jackson's been making speeches toDixiecrat caucuses, like the Atlanta­based Democratic Leadership Council.

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after the elections about the near­unanimous black vote for Mondale:

"Anyone who thought that this massive(and lonely) display of loyalty wouldincrease black influence in the Demo­cratic Party is dead wrong. In fact. it ishaving just the opposite effect. Dem­ocratic Partv leaders have concludedthat they must go after the open racist

UPI/BellmannHustling endorsements, Jackson gladhands George ("Segregation Forever")Wallace in Montgomery, -Alabama.

ident of the Louisiana Senate intro­duced Jackson as a "son of the South...·Jackson did his job for the Democratslast time, by pulling in four millionblacks to register and then turning thosevotes over to Walter "Quarantine Nica­ragua" Mondale. As we said then, "JesseDelivers. Blacks Shafted." Now Jessewants his payoff as a power broker atthe Democratic convention.

Jackson's "son of Dixie" courting isright in line with the Democrats'strategy. The party bosses were deter­mined to win back the white vote whichwent to Reagan in '84. As we wrote right

Jesse Jackson has now announced hewill officially announce his candidacyfor president on October 10. This timearound he's not even pretending to be"independent" from the racist powersthat be in the Democratic Party. His"freedom train" chugs into the "new"Old South where he's gone courting the"good ole boys" of the Dixiecrat powerstructure, begging endorsement fromthe likes of George Wallace. In July,Jackson paid a call on Mr. Segregation,saying Wallace's administration ofAlabama was "one of the most (or­ward" of any Southern state. The pres-

12 18 SEPTEMBER 1987