No. 351.

25¢31 March 1984

On March 21,the aircraft

carrier KittyHawk (above)

rammed aVictor I class

Soviet sub.

MARCH 26-The code name for the current series ofwar "games" being played by Ronald Reagan and thePentagon 'ought to be Nuclear Chicken. From oneside of the globe to the other, the U.S. is daring theSoviet Union to respond to escalating provocationsand overt acts of war. On Tuesday a Soviet oil tankerdocking at Puerto Sandino 'in Nicaragua struck anunderwater mine laid by'CIA demolition squads.ripping a hole in the hull and critically injuring fiveSoviet seamen. The same day a Navy reconnaissanceplane repeatedly buzzed a Soviet helicopter carrier.the Leningrad. steaming toward Cuba. passing adozen times within 300 yards of the ship. And onWednesday the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawkdeliberately rammed a nuclear-armed Russiansubmarine in the Sea of Japan and nearly sunk it. Oneof these days a Soviet commander is going to lose hiscool and with full justification blow one of these hit­and-run cowboys clean out of the water. Right now ifthe madmen in Washington keep this stuff up we areliterally a matter of a few seconds or feet away fromWorld War III. .

Moscow does not take such attacks lightly. Inresponse to ' the mine detonation in Nicaraguanwaters. Soviet foreign minister Gromyko fired off anangry protest to the American charge d'affairesholding the U.S. directly responsible for this act of"piracy" committed by "terrorists." The insolentbuzzing of the Leningrad is an incredibly recklessstunt, particularly when you recall that the U.S. Navy

continued on page 10

Defend theSoviet Union!

Sturrock/Network

Martial law inNottingham

coalfields ascops make

mass arrestsof picketing

miners.

struggle with the raw naked power of thecapitalist state. Mass arrests of strikemilitants, cold-blooded murder on thepicket line, martial law in the coalfields.With a bloodlust which makes [formerTory prime minister] Ted Heath lookan upstanding gentlemen, the IronLady is out to redress the Tories'humiliating defeat at the miners' hands

continued on page 4

British labor, designed to render impo­tent for a long time the. trade unions'capacity to struggle. We print below anarticle by our comrades ofthe SpartacistLeague/Britain, which has been playingan active role agitating to spread thestrike.

ADAPTED FROMSPA RTACIST BRITAIN

SUPPLEMENT, 23 MARCH /984

Seeking to defeat the strike launchedby militant Yorkshire coal miners onMarch 6 and since spread throughoutthe industry, Conservative (Tory) primeminister Margaret Thatcher has mobi­lized thousands of police to the coalcounties. This poses a deadly threat to

LONDON-As the miners strike nearsthe end of its second week, the trade­union movement in this country standsat a crossroads. Britain's battling minersare today locked in life-and-death

Hot -Cargo Coal-Shut Down the Power Stations!

Bloody Thatcher's War onBritish Coal Strikers

Cop-s Assault Trotsklist Publisher

Hands Off Lanka Spartacists!

Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartaclst League of the U.S.

Sinhala communalists. We were subjectto filthy disgrace and threats by angeredSinhala communalists.

The challenge by the Tamil national­ist movement in the North and East hascreated a situation where a governmentdedicated to fulfilling interests of thecapitalists cannot smoothly function.The main challenge to the governmentwithin the country today is the TamilQuestion (National Question). J. R.'s

WV replies: We work to see the anti­Tamil slaughter stopped by a RedArmy, product of proletarian revolu­tion on the island which recognizes twonations needing to coexist within a

continued on page 9

patriation the Indian army were to stayin Eelam and were to annex it to India,the Spartacist position would not bevery coherent since it would be callingfor an independent Eelam while at thesame time supporting the interventionof the Indian army which has annexedEelam.

Lastly, I do not believe that theargument that the Indian army is theonly one that can guarantee the patria­tion is valid because I think that the factthat it is an imperialist army has agreater weight. Besides, isn't this slogansimilar to Arafat's call on the Yankeeand French imperialists to protect thePalestinian retreat from Beirut?

My knowledge of Marxism is verylimited and I am confident that you willbe able to give me the correct answer.

Sincerely,Sergi

Barcelona, 6 January 1984

I am a reader of Spartacist (Spanish­language edition), and in the last issue(No. 13, November 1983) there is anarticle about the massacres in Lanka lastsummer. In this article there is a sloganthat I do not understand. It refers to thepatriation of Tamils under "the protec­tion of the Indian army" (and I quoteyou accurately). I do not understandhow you can call on an imperialist armyto protect this patriation. You makeclear that one should not put anyconfidence in Indira Gandhi, but thisdoes not disappear the fact that you arecalling on the military arm of the Indianbourgeoisie to supervise this patriation.In the same manner that you say no tothe UN troops, I assume because theyare imperialist, you should apply thesame criteria to the Indian army. Wecannot say no to an imperialist armyand yes to another, equally imperialist,army. I think it is a question ofprinciples.

Another reason is that if we call on theIndian army to protect the patriation,one must accept the consequences thisfact may produce, and in the case (whichI believe probable) that after the

Letter

tive regulations, thug forces and thestate armed forces were used. Themeaning of this was the suppression ofthe left movement. Just like the crazi­ness of Reagan's attempt to "stop theexpansion of communism"-a thingthat not only he but even his "God" willnever be able to do-J. R.'s intention isto suppress the left movement and stopall its activities.

This anti-labour-left suppression plan

Der SpiegelColombo, July 1983: Tamil homes, shops and factories burned down in theterror orchestrated byJ.R.'s ruling United National Party.

of the UNP [United National Party] plans are to attempt to get out of thisgovernment led byJ.R. was disclosed in problem and launch an attack on the leftadvance through Lanka Spartacist and simultaneously. It is according to thisElangai Spartacist. The voice of Lanka plan that all others-especially theSpartacist and Elangai Spartacist left-were blamed by the governmentagainst the continuous suppression of for the recent anti-Tamil communalthe Tamil people echoed not only within violence, except for the people whobut even outside the island. Whilst; really did it.reporting to the working class and to the After the leftists were blamed for theother oppressed classes in this country anti-Tamil riots in July and the suppres-about the activities of the proletarian sion then expanded to leftist parties,internationalists denouncing the sup- now Lanka Spartacist and Elangaipression of the Tamil people in Lanka, Spartacist are targeted for suppression.we clearly explained the Marxist posi- Comrade Vincent Thomas, publisher oftion on the national problem. This Lanka Spartacist and Elangai Sparta-created a deep hatred in the minds of continued on page 9

Could Indian Troops SaveTamil Refugees?

LENIN

30 March 1984

imperialists. For that, he has up to nowtaken many actions.

These aims of the Lankan capitalistsand imperialists .did not originateautomatically. They are the results ofthe subjective conditions of the greatesteconomic crash since the depression inthe 1930s. J. R. understands these verywell. He took power with the intentionof doing everything possible for thecapitalists. His ambition is to doeverything that other capitalist rulersfailed to do.

From the beginning J.R. took steps toprevent labour action. For this, legisla-

No. 351

TROTSKY

Zionism andCapitalist Reaction

Zionist Israel arose under the impact ofthe Nazi Holocaust and through themachinations of British imperialism. Asthe destructive frenzy of Israeli expan­sionism mounts, the Zionist rulers threat­en to plunge the world into a new andeven greater holocaust. During the 1930sthe young Trotskyist Abram Leon fore­saw the reactionary nature of Zionism asa "solution" to the Jewish question.

Far from beinga product of the development of the productive forces, Zionism isprecisely the consequence of the complete. halt of this development, the result of thepetrifaction of capitalism. Whereas the national movement is the product of theascending period of capitalism, Zionism is the product of the imperialist era. TheJewish tragedy of the Twentieth Century is a direct consequence of the decline ofcapitalism. . . . .

In the sphere of nationality, only socialism can bring the widest democracy. It mustprovide the Jews with the opportunity of living a national existence in every countrythey inhabit; it must also give them the opportunity of concentrating in one or moreterritories, naturally without injuring the interests of the native inhabitants. Only thewidest proletarian democracy will make possible the resolution of the Jewishproblem with a minimum of suffering.

-Abram Leon, The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation(published posthumously in 1946)

In the aftermath of the July 1983 anti-Tamil massacres in Sri Lanka, the bo­napartist UNP government under president J.R. Jayewardene has continued andeven escalated its assaults on leftists and pro-Tamil organizations, We print below astatement from the Spartacist League/Lanka (SL/L) protesting the attemptedsuppression of Lanka Spartacist (in Sinhala) and Elangai Spartacist (in Tamil) andthe murderous threat against their publisher, Vincent Thomas. The murder threattook place when comrade Vincent, summoned by the Criminal InvestigationDepartment (CID) secret police, appeared for interrogation on January 5. As statedin his complaint of January 8:

"During this time the police officer who was seated at the other table nearby came up tome, scolded [me] in filth[y ] [language] and hit me seven or eight times on my face andhead. Thereafter he caught me by my neck, took-me to the window and threatened saying'It is from here Dodampe Mudalali was pushed. Jump you rascal'."

Dodampe Mudalali, a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, was in fact pushedto his death from the fourth floor CID office during the 1965-70 UNP government.The secret police are well known for their tactic of setting up the deaths ofleftists andoppositionists to look like suicide, destroying their homes and then accusing them ofhaving been "terrorist Tamil Tigers" or "spies" for the Tigers. The SL/L has beentargeted by the state powers in Lanka because of their courageous defense of thebrutally oppressed Tamil minority. It is particularly galling to the authorities thatthe SL/L raised its voice against Tamil repression in the Sinhala community. Wedemand: Hands off Sl.j l, and other left parties! Stop repression against Lanka andElangai Spartacist immediately! Stop anti-Tamil terror!

EDITOR: Jan Norden

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Noah Wilner

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Darlene Kamiura

EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule, Charles Burroughs, George Foster, Liz Gordon, James Robertson,Reuben Samuels, Joseph Seymour, Marjorie Stamberg (Closing editor for No. 351: Liz Gordon)

Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) published biweekly, skipping an issue in August and a week in December, bythe Spartacist Publishing Co., 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: 732-7862 (Editorial), 732-7861(Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Domestic SUbscriptions: $5.00/24issues. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workers Vanguard,Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116.

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

WfJliNEliS ',N'tJlli'

State Suppression Towards Lanka ~p-artacist andElangai §p-artacist: Police Assault on Publisher

COLOMBO-Local and foreign capi­talists have laid big hopes on J. R.[Jayewardene, president of Sri Lanka].The only aim of the capitalists is to useJ.R. to fulfill their ambitions. Morethan any others, the American imperial­ists have laid great hopes on J.R. This iswhy J.R. has been known as a pro­American throughout a long period.For Reagan's war drive against theSoviet Union, J. R. was the man he wassearching for in Lanka. From the day hecame into power J. R. began imple­menting one by one the hopes of thelocal capitalists and of the foreign

2 WORKERS VANGUARD

State Dro~s_FelonJ Charges Against RaJ Palmiero

Defend Lauren and Ray-Keep the Heat On!OAKLAND, March 21-It was a stepforward for the Phone Strikers DefenseCommittee (PSDC) and all partisans ofthe rights of labor. Felony assault andbatterycharges were dropped againstRay Palmiero. Palmiero and his com­panion and fellow CommunicationsWorkers of America member LaurenMozee were slapped with felony chargesand fired from their jobs during lastsummer's national phone strike. In acourtroom of the Hayward MunicipalCourt filled with nearly 40 DefenseCommittee supporters, Alameda Coun­ty Assistant District Attorney CharlotteGreen moved to drop the felony chargesfor "insufficient evidence" just prior tothe scheduled preliminary hearing onthe charges against Palmiero andMozee.

The D.A.'s claim of "insufficientevidence"-over eight months after thecharges were brought, after over tencourt appearances-is admission thatPalmiero was framed from the start andthat the D.A.'s office is exacting legalvengeance on phony charges! ButLauren, who has been singled out as aformer ten-year member of the BlackPanther Party, still faces years in jail onfelony charges, and Ray is still up for amisdemeanor. Drop all charges now!

This is the second major setback forthe state in this case as the PSDC hasmobilized wide opposition to this racistanti-labor frame-up. Last October, onthe eve of a widely publicized protestdemonstration in downtown Oaklandthat drew an integrated, militant crowdof 400, the D.A.'s office was forced to

WV Photo

Ray Palmiero and Lauren Mozee incourt.

drop the "great bodily injury" clauseagainst Mozee and Palmiero, shavingthree years off their potential sentences.Just three weeks ago, following an angrydemonstration of 100 defense support­ers in front of the Hayward Courthouse,D.A. Green tried to call a previouslyunannounced witness against Palmiero,in what she then termed a "change ofstrategy." In the ensuing period, that"change of strategy" was transformedinto a decision to drop the felonies.

The prosecution's disarray is thedirect result of the pressure that hasbeen brought to bear on the D.A.'s

office 'against the frame-up. On March12, the San Francisco Central LaborCouncil of the AFL-CIO joined withearlier action by the Alameda CountyCentral Labor Council-together re­presenting over 100,000 unionizedworkers-in demanding that the D.A.'soffice drop the charges against Pal­miero, Mozee and three other phoneworkers facing misdemeanor charges asa result of last year's strike. Hundreds ofrank-and-file unionists, over 200 laborofficials, prominent individuals andnumerous public officials, includingCongressman Ron Dellums, OaklandCity Councilmembers Wilson Riles, Jr.and Carter Gilmore, Alameda CountySupervisor John George and Berkeleymayor Gus Newport have endorsedDefense Committee demands thatMozee and Palmiero be reinstated attheir jobs with full back pay, thatcharges b~ dropped against them and allphone strikers, and that amnesty begranted to all victimized phone strikers.The PSDC has from the beginningunderstood that it would take the widestprotest and mobilization of black andall working people to win freedom andjobs back for Lauren and Ray.

The frame-up of militant strikersLauren and Ray began when theydefended themselves and their unionpicket line during last year's strikeagainst Ma Bell. Lauren was called a"black nigger bitch" and struck in theface by a racist scab manager on a picketline. She defended herself and Ray cameto her assistance. But at today's hearing,the racist manager Michelle Rose

Hansen, who was the D.A.'s onlywitness, predictably stood the facts ontheir head and told a string of lies tomake herself appear the innocent victimof an unprovoked attack. In cross­examination, defense attorney AnneFlower Cumings exposed numerousglaring discrepancies between Hansen'stestimony and previous statements shehad made to the San Leandro PoliceDepartment, Pacific Bell security offi­cers and medical personnel. Hansenrepetitively "couldn't recall" numerousfacts when caught out on her lies.The judge adjourned the hearing untilApril 3.

It's up to all of us to make sure thatthese victims of violent racist insult andgovernment/company union-bustingdon't go to jail. The frame-up of Laurenand Ray must be smashed. The DefenseCommittee has also learned that anApril 4 trial on misdemeanor charges isscheduled against Dan Nedeau, a laid­off Western Electric phone workerbeing framed for self-defense againstscabs during the strike.

Funds are urgently needed tocontinue this defense work and to payoff back debts. Contributions should besent to the PSDC, P.O. Box 24152,Oakland, CA 94623. Protest telegramsshould be sent to Alameda County D.A.John Meehan, 1225 Fallon St., Oak­land, CA 94612 and Pacific Bell Presi­dent T.J. Saenger, 140 New Montgom­ery, Room 1816, San Francisco, CA94105. Keep the heat on the frame-upartists! Smash the racist anti-laborframe-ups!!! •

Defend Anti-Fascist Militants!

Vicious Nazi Provocation in Ann ArborANN ARBOR, Michigan-The hand­ful of degenerate Nazi thugs who callthemselves the "SS Action Group" cameback to the Federal Building hereMarch 17. Brandishing deadly sharp­edged two-by-two poles and stompingaround in jackboots, with swastika­emblazoned shields and helmets, theyhad come to terrorize the heavilyJewish, black, gay, and foreign studentpopulation of this liberal college town.This racist provocation led to analtercation in which we are glad to saythe Nazis wound up sprawled on theground. Three supporters of the Sparta­cist League were arrested-auto work­ers Frank Hicks and Joe Blair, andMark Kelly. Brother Hicks facescharges of misdemeanor assault andbattery, while Blair and Kelly wereslapped with a "disorderly fighting"charge.

This was the latest round of fascistterror here. This city has become ayearly target of the fascist creeps whocame last year vowing to "break: the redhold in Ann Arbor." In recent monthsthey have goose-stepped in Dearborn, inLansing, and attacked the ProgressiveLabor (PL) office in a westside Detroitblack neighborhood: The Nazis' maintarget for intimidation and violence isthe predominantly black population ofDetroit and its integrated unions.

The Nazis are still smarting from theirtotal rout two years ago in Ann Arborwhere a 2,000-strong labor/black mobi­lization organized by the SpartacistLeague chased them out of town. Thismass labor-centered mobilization drewon the powerful heart of Michiganorganized labor-the black auto work-

30 MARCt-l198~. '.

ers from the plants throughout the area.It was precisely the success of thisdemonstration which brought out thewrath of the city fathers, the bourgeoismedia and the motley crew of reformistsled by Peter Sollenberger's cult-sect,the Revolutionary Workers League(R WL), ana the tiny state-capitalistRevolutionary Socialist League (RSL).These most active saboteurs of the

. labor/black strategy became the loudest. noise in the "Big Lie" violence-baiting ofthe Spartacist League.

This strategy of labor/black mobili­zations is the only one which can win.When, encouraged by the new anti­Soviet Cold War, the fascists have triedto stick their heads up in the bignorthern cities in the last several years,the Spartacist League and our programof mass labor/black action has beeninstrumental in running these killersout-from Detroit in November 1979when 500 mainly black workers andyouth mobilized to stop the Nazis andKKK, to similar actions in Boston,Chicago and San Francisco. And on 27November 1982 in Washington, D.C.5,000 came out at the SL's call in apowerful combination of red and blackbacked up with the social power oforganized labor to clean the streets ofthis fascist filth.

But when the Nazis threatened tocome back to Ann Arbor's City Hall thisyear, they faced a few score demonstra­tors who had come out to toothlesslyprotest their presence, but certainly notto stop them. After waiting several

_ hours, the protesters. announced a"victory" and called off the demo just asthe Nazi vermin were showingup at the

other site. Outside the Federal Building,as two-bit FUhrer John "Reich" was­spouting off his filth about "mulattorapists" and "communist.conspirators"to the media, a shout rang out': "You're agoddamn killer!" The next moment"Reich" was on the ground. Thatevening, tens of thousands of Detroitworking people saw on TV how theracist scum were sent sprawling, humili­ated and exposed, their swastikasscattered.

But the cops soon moved in to protecttheir blackshirt pals. While the threeSpartacist supporters were shoved on asheriff's bus, the cops escorted thefrightened, disoriented Nazis to the rearof the Federal Building. En route, somePL militants tried to get their licks in.They were quickly set upon by the cops;one young black, Ricky Lewis, who hadbeen arrested at last year's demonstra­tion, was singled out and tackled whilestanding on the sidewalk. MarcellaSilveri was arrested on "feloniousassault" for allegedly attempting tothrow a flashlight battery, with "intent"to hit a cop. Then, in a deliberate moveto set the five arrested leftists up'Tormurder, the cops loaded the dozen Nazithugs, still armed and helmeted, ontothe same sheriff's bus while the SL andPL supporters were handcuffed!

A Progressive Labor supporter.attorney Doyle O'Connor protested thisdeadly threat and was himself set uponby the cops, roughed up, arrested andcharged with a felony, "interfering witha police officer." Charges against Lewiswere dismissed, and the three other menreleased that night. Marcella Silveri,

Habib/Michigan Daily

Nazi provocation meets pavement inAnn Arbor, March 17.

however, was locked up in the countyjail for 48 hours and only released onbond Monday afternoon. These chargesare an outrage! The state defends theNazi scum and their provocations whilesetting up their black, Jewish andsocialist victims. Drop the chargesagainst all the anti-fascist protesters!. Contributions may be sent to: Anti­

Fascist Committee to Defend Blair,Hicks and Kelly, P.O. Box 19204,Detroit, Michigan 48219.•

3

Spartacist Britain

Striking miners defend union headquarters in Barnsley, Yorkshire, March 19.

Are You Ready to Takethe Power?

David Jones family

copter hovering over an empty oceanwith fuel gauges showing zero), Thatch­er's "Falklands factor" would have beendifferent. Argentina's defeat in theFalklands war exacerbated massivesocial unrest in that country to the pointthat General Galtieri was toppled frompower almost immediately afterwards.At the time, in contrast to the socialpatriotism of the [Trades Union Con­gress head] Len Murrays and the pro­imperialist social pacifism of the Labour"lefts," we said, "The main enemy is athome," and called for revolutionarydefeatism on both sides.

The British ruling class are pastmasters at "divide and rule," from thedays when Welsh archers were usedagainst the Scots, through the Scotsregiments in Ireland and India. TheSouth Wales valleys have been devastat­ed and Scottish miners are a particu­lar immediate target. The bosses aredumping the Scottish, Welsh and othermilitant coalfields while holding outbribes for "moderation" to areas likeNottinghamshire. The proletariat of theCeltic fringe must support every juststruggle of the English working class, nomatter what reciprocation they do or donot receive. The order of the day is classunity and no police Hadrian's Wallshould stop Scottish miners doing theirduty, much as, when the need arose,their forebears stormed down across theborder under Wallace and Douglas.There's nothing more calculated toupset the smug arrogance of HomeCounties stockbrokers than a disci­plined army of Scots and Welsh minersshoulder to shoulder with their English

class brothers extending this strikethroughout the island and meting out asmall measure of retribution for centu­ries of exploitation and oppression.

David JonesUnion Martyr

1960-1984

Bring Down Thatcher!

From the Prior Act to the Tebbit Actto the proposed new King Bill the Toriestry to chain the unions through theirlaws. But for the treachery of theLabour Party/TU'C chiefs, their "laws"would be nothing but scraps of paper.The "new realism" enunciated by LenMurray & Co. at Blackpoollast autumnamidst the Cold War barrage directed at[Miners union leader] Arthur Scargillwas the signal to Thatcher that theywould not stand in her way. Murray'sallies in the NUM executive, who todayscream for ballots, joined the hue andcry againstScargil1. The conduct of theballot-mongers is just the sort ofsplitting and wrecking policies whichthe CIA teaches its labour friends. Andhand-in-hand with that goes corrup­tion-we wonder how many papalfunds Thatcher has got diverted fromPoland to swing this ballot.

In the course of this struggle, theLabour Party leaders have dernonstrat-

The Main Enemy Is At Home

squads. In such formations are to befound the nuclei of workers militias andthe future workers state power.

The miners cannot take on thesuperior might of the bosses' state alone.It takes a multi-front struggle. Welshminers have already begun picketingtwo power stations to stop transport ofsupplies. Now Scotland has followedsuit, picketing a nuclear power stationas well. Central to making this strikebite hard and fast is to shut down thepower stations-every last one ofthem-not just coal-fired, but oil- andnuclear-fuelled generators as well.What's needed is mass pickets outsidethe power stations coupled with a directofficial appeal for immediate strikeaction-in solidarity with the miners, indefence of their own right to strikeagainst the Tories' "essential services"strikebreaking, in defence of the entiretrade-union movement.

[Scottish miners leader and promi­nent Communist] Mick McGahey'spromise that all transport of coal will bebrought to a halt by blacking [boycott]action has been implemented in Scot­land but must be put into practiceeverywhere with a call on all unions toimmediately black every ounce of coalin the country. The sentiment is there.Already NUR and ASLEF [railwayunions] members are being sent homefor refusing to breach miners' pickets.At least one NUR branch, in LondonTransport, has pledged itself to fight for,full blacking throughout the union andfor immediate national strike actionagainst any victimisation. Scuttle therabid anti-union lies,being churned outby Fleet Street through a nationalprinters strike! What weneed now is apro-strike daily paper! An effectivefighting lead by the labour movementnow can mobilise whole sections of thepopulation being crushed under theTory juggernaut. Not only carloads ofminers but mass delegations from everyunion and the army of the unemployedmust be recruited to build the picketlines.

British imperialism is marching inlockstep behind the U.S. imperialist­spearheaded drive to restore the profitsystem to the Soviet bloc-at the priceof international nuclear annihilation ifnecessary. Thatcher's vendetta againstthe miners is part of a deadly assaultdesigned to reduce the population ofBritain to a living standard approachingthat of the Argentine people underGeneral Bignone. What the Iron Lady'srule means is starving babies, freezingold people and the majority of the maleadult population who can't find workput in jail.

From riding tanks during NATOexercises in Germany, to dressing up incamouflage smock to toast SAS [Spe­cial Air Services, "anti-terrorist" com­mandos] hitmen to smashing strikes,Thatcher is no "lie back and think ofEngland" type-she enjoys it. Too badthat Britain as well as Argentina didn'tsuffer defeat in the Falklands, Had theArgentines managed to sink an aircraftcarrier (leaving Prince Andrew's heli-

down this union-hating government.Victory to the miners! Spread the strikenow! Smash the Tory assault!

In the first four days of the strike allbut six of the 80 or so recalcitrantcollieries were shut down by flyingpickets with local reinforcements.That's why the Tory [London] Times(16 March) vented its spleen in aneditorial entitled "Fear under the law":

"We hear a lot about picketing thesedays, lawful and unlawful. The pointabout picketing-any and every form ofpicketing-is that it is a form ofintimidation. Intimidation, accordingto the dictionary, is to overawe withfear."

They want to outlaw effective picketingaltogether. They know, as does everymilitant striker, that without picket linesthere would be no union. As one NUM[National Union of Miners] officialaptly put it on television, the only law heknew was that you didn't cross picketlines. And that simple lesson has to behammered into the mind of everywould-be scab. When striking U.S. coalminers in Stearns, Kentucky were facedwith a gang of company gunmen duringa 1977 strike for unionisation, they putup a sign next to their picket line­"Warning: The Stearns miners havedetermined that scabbing is dangerousto your health"-and responded inkind. In the past week miners here haveseen that Britain is no more immunethan anywhere else to the hardrealities of the class struggle and begunto organise disciplined picket defence

went on. "He said to us: 'Gentlemen,you have fashioned, in the TripleAlliance of the unions represented byyou, a most powerful instrument. Ifeel bound to tell you that in ouropinion we are at your mercy. TheArmy is disaffected' and cannot berelied upon. Trouble has occurredalready in a number of camps. Wehave just emerged from a great warand the people are eager for thereward of their sacrifices, and we are'in no position to satisfy them. Inthese circumstances, if you carry outyour threat and strike, then you willdefeat us.

"'But if you do so,' went on Mr.Lloyd George, 'have you weighed theconsequences? The strike will be indefiance of the Government of thecountry and by its very success willprecipitate a constitutional crisis ofthe first importance. For, if a forcearises in the State which is strongerthan the State itself, then it must beready to take on the functions of theState, or withdraw and accept theauthority of the State. Gentlemen,'asked the Prime Minister quietly,'have you considered, and if youhave, are you ready?' From thatmoment on," said Robert Smillie,"we were beaten and we knew wewere."

We reprint below an excerpt fromIn Place of Fear, the autobiographyof the late Aneurin Bevan, 'who foryears was leader. of the left wing ofthe British Labour Party. .

I remember vividly Robert Smilliedescribing to me an interview theleaders of the Triple Alliance hadwith David Lloyd George in 1919.The strategy of the leaders was clear.The miners under Robert Smillie, thetransport workers under RobertWilliams, and the National Union ofRailwaymen under James HenryThomas, formed the most formida­ble combination of industrial work­ers in the history of Great Britain.They had agreed on the demands thatwere to be made on the employers,knowing well that the governmentwould be bound to be involved at anearly stage. And so it happened. Agreat deal of industry was still undergovernment wartime control and sothe state power was immediatelyimplicated.

Lloyd George sent for the Labourleaders, and they went, so Roberttold me, "truculently determinedthey would not be talked over by theseductive and eloquent Welshman."At this Bob's eyes twinkled in hisgrave, strong face. "He was quitefrank with us from the outset," Bob

BritishMiners...(continued from page 1)

in 1974. Fresh from her victory over theNGA [printers union] and her smash­ingof trade-union rights at GCHQCheltenham, Thatcher has precipitatedthe sharpest and most deep-going con­flict of British labour since the turn ofthe century.

They. want to chain the unions andthey'll kill to do it. That was the messagewritten in the blood of young DavidJones, the strike militant who died onhis 24th birthday from a fatal woundinflicted while picketing allerton col­liery. Whoever the cowardly swine thatstruck him down, it was Thatcher /MacGregor [National Coal Boardpresident] that killed him. Thatcher istoday running preventive civil war:thousands upon thousands of copsdeployed at roadblocks leading into andout of Yorkshire and other centres ofstrike militancy. The "sus" [suspect] lawvictimisation formerly a fact of life onlyfor the inner-city black and Asian ghettopopulations is now the daily experienceof Britain's miners.

But the miners have not been broken.For all its crowing over the "success" ofthis state of siege in the coalfields, for allits cheering over the strikebreakingballots and splitting tactics pushed by itsfavoured "moderates," even Fleet Street[the capitalist monopoly press] cannothide the fact that with every passing daythe miners' determination grows moresolid, the number of pits picketed outmore numerous. With every new Toryprovocation, the miners' tradition ofmilitancy and solidarity, of respect forpicket lines is more intensely rekindled.Having voted against a strike three daysearlier, the North Derbyshire areawalked out in solidarity against Thatch­er's martial law. Then came Lancashire.Of the strikers' militancy and determi­nation there is no question. But with theawesome might of the capitalist stateconfronting the miners at every step, thekey to victory is a class-struggle strate­gy. The burning immediate task is tospread this strike, to galvanise everbroader sectors of the labour movementin a fight to defend the unions and bring

4 WORKERS VANGUARD'.

Washington Orders Union-Bustingat British Spy CenterLONDON-Following the Trades Un­ion Congress (TUC) sellout of the,printers union (NGA), Tory primeminister Margaret Thatcher's ban ontrade-union membership at the Govern­ment Communications Headquarters inCheltenham (GCHQ) has again ignitedwide-scale opposition to the Tories'

. union-bashing offensive. On February28 hundreds of thousands of tradeunionists from civil servants to buildingworkers and miners took various kindsof industrial action in protest. Nearly40,000 marched through London, withsmaller rallies in cities and towns up anddown the country.

The Cheltenham ban is part of theruling class's drive to turn trade unionsinto little more than ineffectual "staffassociations." From the Prior andTebbit Acts to the new King legislation,the Tories continue slashing away at theright to strike and picket, the closed

shop and other historic hard-won gainsof the working class. The latest "thinktank" leak shows that Thatcher wants ano-strike rule in essential servicesincluding gas, electricity, water andhealth, and a ban on strikes which affectthese services (including transport andthe mines). Already a no-strike rule forphone workers has been added to theTelecommunications Bill in Parliament.

The blanket ban on trade unions atGCHQ effective from March I harbin­gers the threat that all governmentemployees and the broader labourmovement face. At the same time basicdemocratic rights and liberties areincreasingly threatened by legislationlike the Police Bill. Now she talks ofMcCarthyite purges of opponents ofgovernment policy (including CND[pacifistic Committee for Nuclear Dis­armament] members and even Liberaland SDP [Social Democratic Party]

supporters) from part of the civilservice, and total bans on politicalactivity in the' army. These sweepingattacks on basic rights, including thevery right of trade unions to function oreven exist, must be stopped throughmobilising the social power of thelabour movement. Defend trade-unionrights at GCHQ! Smash the Tories'reactionary onslaught!

The Cheltenham ban directly servesthe NATO imperialist anti-Soviet wardrive. GCHQ is an integral part of themammoth international spy networkdirected against the USSR and otherWarsaw Pact countries and run by thesinister American National SecurityAgency (NSA). Established through asecret 1946 treaty between the U.S. andBritish (Labour) governments, GCHQmonitors communications and intelli­gence from the Soviet bloc as well ascompiles its files on 75,000 individuals,

including so-called "enemies of therealm" like trade-union militants andleftists. Under Tory and Labour admin­istrations alike, GCHQ provided theAmericans with crucial informationduring the Vietnam War which un­doubtedly helped the U.S. army mur­der thousands of heroic Vietnamesefighters.

Britain is about the only countrywhere you can even imagine workers atsuch an institution being unionised. Itmust have horrified the CIA/NSA asthey geared up for Cold War II,especially when industrial action atCheltenham reportedly disruptedintelligence-gathering at the time of theDecember 1979 Soviet intervention inAfghanistan and the rise of PolishSolidarnosc in 1980-81. Then came theGeoffrey Prime case, when a minorGCHQ operative arrested for childmolesting turned out to have beenpassing information to the Russians foryears previously. And all this afterBurgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt andgod-knows-who-else. Since the CIA/NSA foot most of the bill for GCHQanyway, they must have wished theycould just cut the British off and run theshow themselves. "Jeezus," someone inthe CIA or NSA HQ must have

continued on page 10

ChicagoMay 5-6

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United States of Europe. Then wewouldn't be paying compensation to thecoal bosses, then we could provide jobsand a decent future for all workingpeople, their sons and daughters. Forthat we desperately need to forge arevolutionary leadership, a Leninist/Trotskyist vanguard party of workersand oppressed broken from the deaden­ing grip of Labourism. That is what theSpartacist League fights for.• Victory to the miners].• Spread the strike now!• Shut down the power stations!

Black all coal! •

Bay AreaApril 28-29

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World War I and the Russian RevolutionGermany 1919-1933: Revolution and Counterrevolution

From the Great French Revolution to the Paris Commune

Wars and RevolutionsHISTO CAL MATERI

----SPARTACIST EDUCATIONALS----

increase the presently pathetic qualityof life for British working people is topose point blank-what class rules."

-Spartacist Britain No. 52,September 1983

What is needed is not another Labourgovernment which would act just likethe Mitterrand Socialist government inFrance, imposing Cold War austerityand slashing miners' jobs, but a genuineworkers government based on electedworkers councils which expropriates theentire capitalist class and sets aboutreviving economic life with socialistplanning and as part of a Socialist

e. '';'''"miunt~na'ke- 6£ ,101>smuneconomic industries is just astretched out version of the dole; and allthe present Labourite and Tory schemesto shift the basis of the British economynaturally and necessarily involve bru­tally smashing every gain and right and\>~\,\k~\: \\o.~\l ~\)\\ \)'1 \\\\: \\~\\\"'\\""\.),'i.'i\\\~ '\'\:\)'\'\\:. \:)\\\\\: i\ffil'J\~. \"undertake a renewal of British econom­ic life and to correspondingly vastly

communist witchhunting hysteria byFleet Street and the Cold War rightswith their deliberately timed publicationof Scargill's letter denouncing Solidar­nose. Scargill has shown often enoughin the past that he's no particular friendof the Spartacist League, but at least thisunion leader thought he had some dutyto the British miners to speak outagainst the CIA/Vatican-inspired oper­ation in Poland. And whatever pro­nounced conciliationist politics he has,unlike the WRP he is capable ofrecognising a scab in Poland as well as inNotts. Who'd want to listen to theseWRP political bandits after their role asfingermen for Thatcher at Blackpool?Indeed militant miners, whoquitreadingNewsline after the TUC, warded offappeals from WRP leader Mike Bandaby telling him they had now joined theSpartacist League.

The imperialist anti-Soviet war driveis today the cutting edge of ruling classattacks on the gains of the workingclass. As Leon Trotsky, co-leader withLenin of the Bolshevik Revolutionwhich overthrew capitalism and tsarismin Russia, said over 40 years ago, "Thosewho cannot defend old positions willnever conquer new ones." The Sparta­cist League has sharply demarcateditself from the rest of the left in theperiod since the renewal of the ColdWar by its firm unconditional defence ofthe Soviet Union against imperialism.Just as class-conscious militants mustdefend their unions against capitalistattack despite the treacherous leaderswho today run the unions, so must theUSSR be defended despite the bureauc­racy which wields political power there.

We are fighting to ensure that TonyCliff's years-old thesis that the Britishtrade-union movement has suffered adecisive defeat does not become amatter of fact as the outcome of thisstruggle. If the consequences of defeatnow are dire, so too there is a greatopportunity to stop Thatcher dead inher tracks and open the road towardsworkers rule. As we wrote lastSeptember:

"At bottom. the industrialdecornposi­tion of British industry. direct productof loss of empire. and devastating

. 0'\ ",.._iiJ;.···"'·

ed yet again where their true loyalties lie.Neil Kinnock, fresh from a visit toWashington where he called massmurderer Ronald Reagan "a man withwhom I have a great deal in common,"now spits on the Welsh miners who puthim in Parliament by condemning thestrikers' "violence." And why isn't TonyBerm, out of step with the Cold Warausterity right wing of the party, outrallying forces to join the miners' picketsinstead of restricting himself to parlia­mentary speeches? Throughout the steelstrike Benn said and did virtuallynothing; and now he has paid for his seatin Parliament by bowing shamelessly tothe likes of Denis Healey, the chancellorof the exchequer [treasury minister]under [Labour prime minister] Calla­ghan who gouged the workers' eyes.

Given the outright political disarrayand betrayal of all those claiming torepresent politically the wings of Britishlabour and liberalism, the struggle onthe industrial front is the only evidentimmediate tool for British workers.Strike militants around the countryexpress increasing frustration at the lackof direction and coordination beingprovided by the union leadership. Withthe full weight of the capitalist statebreathing down upon the miners' necks,simple trade-union tactics point directlyto a general strike, and that poses thequestion of power. The - reformistlimitations of simple trade unionism, nomatter how militant, are being put to theseverest test and the abject servility ofthe Labour/TUC tops laid bare.

We of the Spartacist League havethrown our full resources into fightingfor a victory in this strike, as part of ourstruggle to build the revolutionaryleadership and party which alone canlead the British workers to final victoryover the capitalist class. The twosupplements we have distributed, inthousands of copies, at miners' picketlines and welfare clubs and strikeheadquarters in Wales, Yorkshire,Kent, the Midlands and elsewhere havefound a resonance among mine workermilitants looking for a way forward.The militant miners who have read ourleaflets and say, "These people tell the\,,\1\\\:' ....\'\~"N \\\-0.\ "'\\\l\\\W~) I.\~"N\'\ \\\epower stations is. cruc~t~"..~:.~~.;the strike to the rest olthe traM-iJnion ..

movement is key to victory. Many ofthem know too that the SpartacistLeague is the organisation that defend­ed Scargill for his opposition to coun­terrevolutionary Polish Solidarnosc.

\\\~ ~~\\-~\,\\~I\~ ~\\-.~\~ ~~"'~\\J.\\&'I0..­ary Party [WRP. led by Gerry Healy]and its Newsline triggered the anti-

30 MARCH 1984 5

'3.. ' ....""" , .

Racist Pig Ed Ko,ch

-Koch's cossacks bust heads of Harlem protesters fighting against closing of Sydenham Hospital, 1980.

Backlash MayorIf they love him in Queens, Harlem

hates Koch-passionately and justly.When the mayor showed up at theDiana Ross concert in Central Park lastspring he was booed by hundreds ofthousands of black youth. And munici­pal judge "Turn 'Em Loose" BruceWright spoke for black New York whenhe said that trying to talk to Koch waslike starting a "pissing contest with askunk."

From Day One, Koch's record as­mayor has been an unmitigated trail ofracist horrors. He rode into office on awave of racist backlash, peddling thepolitics of death even as the bank­induced "fiscal crisis" was making aneconomic graveyard out of New York."Hi, I'm Ed Koch, I'm for capitalpunishment," he'd say as he shookvoters' hands at the subway stops,scapegoating blacks with his "FearCity" theme. Echoing the "Night of theAnimals" press hysteria which followedthe looting in Con Ed's June 1971blackout, he attacked incumbent AbeBeame for not calling in the NationalGuard to "protect" the city against itsblack population. Once in office Kochdumped his "reformer" anti-TammanyHall image to declare war on the"poverticians"-welfare was slashed,summer job programs scratched, everytoken advance won by blacks through adecade of struggle in the '60s was put onthe chopping block.

Koch has a chapter in Mayor onCharlotte Street, the South Bronxwasteland which has become the symbolof the brutality of life in black and

ghetto uprising. When the British fire­bombed whole German cities, theyalways explained it was an "accident" orthey "had to do it." But when theGermans divebombed Rotterdam, theysaid it was a policyof Schrecklichkeit, ofpure terror. That's Koch all over. At theheight of the 1982 invasion when Israeliwarplanes were leveling West Beirut,killing god-knows-how-many Arabs,Koch went to Israeli-occupied Lebanonto embrace the bloody butcher Sharon.At the same time, Koch is really moreakin to the strutting Mussolini than toHitler atop his awesome Germanmilitary machine. Italian fascism, re­flecting its weaker base, was vicious butless efficient; it took Italy 20 years toconquer Libya's tiny population. Asbefits the weak social base of Jewishfascism in America, Koch will provehistorically to be a sick joke-but it's nojoke while you're living through it.

Koch believes that Jews deservespecial privileges and everyone else istrying, every day in every way, toobliterate Judaism. Thus when Bonnannounced arms sales to the Saudis,Koch declared that "Germany is onceagain embarked on a program todestroy my people." The same kind ofreasoning was shown in a recent ad inthe New York Times (9 March), "ALetter to the World from Jerusalem,"which treats all non-Jews (really all non­Zionists) as Nazis, as in, "Do you reallybelieve that after Dachau and Ausch­witz we are frightened by your threats ofblockades and sanctions?" This is anextremely dangerous mentality, onewhich disarmed Central European Jewsin the face of Hitler. They couldn't tellthe difference between one more bunchof pogromists and genocide. TodayIsraeli leaders think they have the rightto blow up the planet-and they alreadyhave the means. This kind of "Masadacomplex" threatens us all, especially theJews.

ment of Israel, terrorists who enjoy therespectability conferred by power.

It's not simply that he's a virulentlyanti-Soviet Zionist politician. BenGurion, after all, was fluent in Arabicand a master of hypocrisy, the vaselineof bourgeois democracy. But Koch isthe counterpart of the present butchersin power in Jerusalem, like MenachemBegin, whose Irgun massacred Arab vil­lagers at Deir Yassin and blew up theKing David Hotel; or Yitzhak Sharnir,whose Stern Gang assassinated Britishhigh commissioner Lord Moyne andUN observer Count'<Bernadotte. TheStern Gang declared for-the Nazi "NewOrder" and tried to ally with Hitler inWorld War II. Forty years later Sharonproclaimed a "New Order" in Lebanonand his spokesman called for a "finalsolution" to the "Palestinian problem."

These guys are not different in theirmentality from the SS division com­manders who put down the Warsaw

AP

expression of Koch's contempt for blackpeople was seen at the 1980 "I nnerCircle" fundraising ball where hedonned an Afro wig and did a minstreljig mocking black activists who hadbeen protesting hospital cuts.

Koch deeply believes Jews are thechosen people. He celebrates Purim, aJewish holiday of deliverance fromextermination, by parading throughFlushing with General Sharon, theexterminator of Sabra and Shatila. (Thevictims of the Beirut massacre, you see,were Palestinians-"two-Iegged beasts"Begin called them.) Koch is a liar and anegomaniac, too. But then this psychicapparatus is part of the standard fascistprofile. Of course, as the Jewish mayorof New York City in the United States ofAmerica, he has a few restrictions. Hecan't lead an American nativist move­ment in white sheets. He's out of timeand out of place. For Edward Kochreally belongs in 'the ruling establish-

Kochcelebrates

Purim 1984 inQueens with

genocidalIsraeli

butcher ArielSharon (left).

<J)Q)

Ei=>­z:0~coo

Borscht Belt Fascist

Koch's "autobiography should havebeen subtitled, "Diary of a Borscht BeltFascist." He's a stand-up Catskillscomedian, constantly playing forlaughs. He recently came to a costumeball dressed as a gold lame statue ofhimself with a pigeon shitting on hishead. His style is as haughty as MarieAntoinette: just last year he faintedfrom overeating and overdrinking in anUpper East Side restaurant the sameweek he announced the -eviction ofhomeless families from welfare hotels.And behind the gags is one of the mostdepraved and dangerous politicians inthe U.S. today. Perhaps the best

Edward I. Koch is uniquely the worstbig city mayor in America. He's in aclass by himself, even with heavycompetition from garden variety racistslike" ex-Chicago boss "Crazy Jane"Byrne. Koch is a monster who loves tohurt the poor, the minorities. He

,is a virulent nationalist, a right-wingextremist who believes in genocide. Hegets Harlem and the South Bronxconfused with the West Bank. He treatsblacks and Hispanics like Arabs, andturnstile jumpers like PLO "terrorists."The only difference between him and thegang of fascist killers in Israel led byJDL Fuhrer Meir Kahane (the one-timeMichael King of New York) is that Kochmade it up the greasy pole in abourgeois-democratic society. So herounds the edges a little. Otherwise, he'sas chemically pure a fascist as you get.

Koch is the backlash mayor, the voiceof white petty-bourgeois rage againstblacks and labor. "I speak out for themiddle class," he writes in his justpublished book, Mayor: An Autobiog­raphy (New York, Simon and Schuster,1(84). "Because they pay the taxes; theyprovide the jobs for the poor people....I'm gonna recognize the sacrifices thatthey make." It was the "fiscal crisis"engineered by the Wall Street bankers inthe mid-1970s which brought Ed Kochout of his relative obscurity as the EastSide "silk stocking" district Congress­man onto center stage. "The blackcommunity had been ... a protectedarea," he ranted as he took the budget axto hospitals, fire stations and job­training centers. "This City had beenbrought to its knees by pressuregroups," he fulminated as he declaredwar on labor. Koch became a blatantracist and labor-hater as a matter ofdeliberate policy.

6 WORKERS VANGUARD

'-.1

Puerto Rican New York. Arson-for­profit fires have produced an eeriehorror of miles upon miles of aban­doned burnt-out buildings and .bull­dozed wreckage where once there was acity. Every politician comes to CharlotteStreet-Carter, Reagan, even the pope.But nothing ever happens, nothing canhappen: the decaying racist capitalistsystem which created Charlotte Streetas its supreme monument is incapable ofchanging it. Big MAC financial wizardFelix Rohatyn called for tearing downthe SouthBronx and blacktopping it.Koch baptized it "Charlotte Gardens"and put up a couple of ranch houseswith white picket fences in the middle ofthe rubble. Meanwhile he plasters decalson the broken windows of buildingsfacing the major thoroughfares, hopingto hide the destruction. Things got sobad that former city councilman Gilber­to Gerona-Valentin called for Soviet aidto the South Bronx. Koch's responsewas to redistrict him out of a job.

But it was the closing of SydenhamHospital, on 125th Street in the heart ofHarlem, which became the focus ofblack protest-as Koch put it in Mayor,Sydenham "was a kind of litmus test anda rallying point against the Kochadministration." For the poor, theemergency room is the family doctor:24-hour access is a life-and-deathquestion when the old takesick, or thebaby gets burned playing near the stove.Here in the ghetto, where infant mortali­ty rates rival that of Third Worldcountries. where TB rates are ten timesthe national average, Koch's campaignto close down Sydenharn, along withMetropolitan Hospital in East Harlem,was correctly seen as racist murder.Protesters denounced "Koch's KillerKuts."

Beginning in mid-September 1980,60demonstrators began a sit-in inside thehospital; each day the crowds outside

grew. Koch railed against "rabblerousers" and the "black mob" as policedenounced "communists" and "whiteagitators" who "might bring guns intothe community." Labor/black massaction began to materialize as blackHospital Workers Local 420 and transitworkers, neighborhood activists, left­ists, tenants and church organizationsmobilized. The climax came after fivedays when an army of 500 police wasmassed around Sydenham to confront ademonstration of 2,000. There was abloody cop riot as Koch's cossackscharged into the defenseless crowd,clubs swinging and guns drawn, pickingout the most militant protesters for themost vicious treatment.

So when Koch dared to show his facein Harlem last summer at the police

During 1980transit strike Koch

incited whitemiddle-class

commutersagainst heavily

black union.Left: special WV

transit strikesupplement.

brutality hearings, the furious crowdran him out. While the hearings hadbeen set up-by the black Democrats as acontrolled legalistic session, outragedblacks sent the "respectable" BlackElected Officials packing along with themayor, turning the armory into a"people's tribunal" where the masses'testimony was heard. They spoke of theracist terror which stalks the streets ofNYC, from the case of young blackartist (and son of a transit worker),Michael Stewart, choked to death by atransit cop, and the cover-up whichstretched to the highest municipalauthorities; to black transit workerWillie Turks, beaten to death by a whiteracist mob in the Gravesend section ofBrooklyn. One of Turks' killers wasgiven a token sentence and the rest are

walking the streets today, thanks toBrooklyn D.A., liberal Democrat LizHoltzman.

Transit Strike Showdown

In ramming through the massivecutbacks of social services for the blackand Hispanic populations, in going afterthe municipal unions, Edward Kochwas point man for the whole of thecapitalist class. And from Jerry Ford(who told NYC to "Drop Dead") toCarter and Reagan, America's rulersaren't exactly wearing "I Love NewYork" buttons. As we put it four yearsago: "The racist WASP politicians thatrun this country try to paint New Yorkas a city filled with welfare chiselers and

continued on page 8

Zionist Racists Exgloit

Jesse Jackson's DisgustingAnti-Semitic Slur

Anti-Zionism Does Not EqualAnti-Semitism

The "Hymietown" scandal has fo­cused attention on the long-standinghostility of the Jewish establishment toJackson and rekindled the debateaboutblack anti-Semitism. Jewish communityleaders have' been out for Jackson'sblood ever since he embraced PalestineLiberation Organization leader YasirArafat during a trip to the Near East in1979. A group of right-wing Zionistthugs, calling themselves "Jews AgainstJackson" (reportedly an offshoot of thefascistic Jewish Defense League), haveharassed, hounded and disrupted hiscampaign since the very day he an-

~ nounced his candidacy. So-called "re­spectable" Jewish leaders have not

WV Photo

Zionism and the Rightward Shift

Today the most prominent blackpolitical figure in the country indulges inanti-Semitic slurs, while in Ed Koch,New York City has the most flagrantlyracist mayor outside those Mississippihamlets where the city council doubles

continued on page 9

not have a monopoly in suffering."Every American black and PalestinianArab knows that very well.

The Nazis' systematic exterminationof six million Jews-almost all ofEuropean Jewry outside the SovietUnion-is one of the most terriblecrimes in history. No one should forgetthis! To remember the Nazi Holocaustin no way justifies or mitigates thecrimes of the "Jewish state" against thePalestinian Arab people. It is theZionists-the Begins, Sharons andKochs-who maintain that the Holo­caust gives them license to kill anyoneand everyone they deem their enemy.

denounced these racist attacks, nor havethey been the subject of finger-waggingeditorials in the New York Times andWashington Post.

The fact is that those who rant mostabout "black anti-Semitism" are them­selves violent racists who believe theonly good Palestinian Arab is a deadone. New York mayor Ed Koch, NewYork teachers union head AlbertShanker, the Commentary crowd, allsupported Israel's genocidal invasion ofLebanon in the summer of 1982.Jackson's "Hyrnie" baiting is grist forthe Zionist propaganda mills. For thisslimy demagogue reinforces their big lie,that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism.

Jackson's defenders on the left arguethat his condemnation of Israeli policyand support for Palestinian rights donot equal anti-Semitism. That is true.But Jackson has bought the Zionistmyth. He sees no difference betweenJews and Zionists and therefore be­tween anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.Thus, during his famous 1979 Near Easttour when he embraced Arafat, Jacksonexclaimed:

"I'm sick and tired Of hearing about theHolocaust and having Americans beingput in the position of a guilt trip. Wehave to get on with the issues of todayand not talk about the Holocaust."

-New York Times Magazine.4 March 1984

He also correctly stated, "The Jews do

Black Democratic presidential candi- Racist Democrats," WV No. 344, 16date Jesse Jackson has become the December 1983). An unprincipleddarling of rad-lib types and the refor- opportunist and demagogue,' he is anmist left. The would-be builder of the enemy of black struggle. His main"rainbow coalition" is hailed in particu- purpose is to channel the oppressedlar as a champion of minorities. So it black masses' just anger against Reaganwas something of an embarrassment for into traditional Democratic Party eth-his fake-left cheerleaders-who also nic politics. Whether it comes toclaim to be staunch enemies of anti- protectionist attacks on Japanese im-Semitism-when their hero called Jews ports or agitating black GIs in West"Hyrnies" and New York City "Hyrnie- Germany to defend the "free world"town" in a conversation with black /~gainst the Soviet Union, JacksonWashington Post reporter Milton Cole-' serves the interests of U.S. imperialism.man. At first, Jackson tried to deny what And his anti-Semitism onlyurntersCOf'eshe had said, but was finally forced to his ties to America's white racist rulers.apologize: "However innocent andunintended, it was wrong." And theZionist lobby picked up on Jackson'sdisgusting slur with glee.

Such anti-Semitic jibes at New YorkCity have long been a staple of Middle­America bigotry. The great metropolis,with its large and influential Jewishcommunity, has never really beenconsidered part of America by the restof the country. In the I930s-40s the citywas called' "Jew York" by Middle­America racists. And Jackson's "Hy­mietown" remark will do him no harmas he glad-hands Dixiecrats like GeorgeWallace in the Southern Democraticprimaries.

From the start we have told the truthabout the Jesse Jackson campaign (see"Jesse Jackson: Front Man for the

30 MARCH 1984 7

$10 contributing

partnership or government by commit­tee here. Let's make sure we all under­stand that. I was elected. Not you... .'"Then, after a hushed silence, they say,'Okay, we're not partners,' and themeeting goes on. But that was the firsttime I can recall that it was laid out tothem that this Mayor was not going tobe their patsy."

Yet in Koch's million-dollar 1985 re­election fund, donations of severalthousand dollars each are reported fromGotbaum and Feinstein's unions andthe Longshoremen. Sorneone's a patsyhere, and it ain't Koch.

As hatchet man for the capitalist class,Ed Koch presides overthe devastation ofNew York City. All preventive mainte­nance on the subways was canceled forfour years: now motors fall out of sub­way cars, buses fall apart not only be­cause of massive corruption in the T Abut also due to pothole-riddled streets.Every time it rains hard, whole sectionsof the city are blacked out due toexposed wiring and tunnel flooding.Koch laid off thousands of sanitation­men when he "won" the two-man gar­bage truck, made possible by replacingmetal trash cans with plastic bags-tothe glee of the city's burgeoning rat pop­ulation. NYC schools are so bad that ofthe 6,000 teachers hired every Septem­ber, one-third are gone by the end of thesecond week. A few more years of thisdeliberate destruction and the movieEscape from New York may not be ahorror fantasy but the barbaric reality.

So what are we going to do about thisracist pig mayor? Koch got a little tasteof what he deserved last summer whenangry blacks drove him out of the policebrutality hearings in Harlem. But it willtake more than Harlem and Bed-Stuy,where Koch is universally hated, tobring him down. To run the likes ofKoch out for good will take a fightinglabor movement leading the ghettopoor. The heavily black transit union iskey-Bust the Union-Bustersl B

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2294 Seventh Avenue(Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.

Near 135th St.)

SUNDAY; APRIL 296 p.m. to Midnight

Tickets: $5 advance

• Celebrate the victory against the Moonies' Washington Times libel ofthe November 27, 1982 Labor/Black Mobilization that stopped theKKK!

• Defend Lauren Mozee and Ray Palmlero-victims of racist union­busting frame-up! Lauren and Ray must not go to jail!

• Support the Spartacist League lawsuit against the sinister, McCarthy­ite FBI Domestic Security/Terrorism GlJidelines!

For tickets and information: (212) 732-7860

JAZZ BENEFIT

"We're Not Partners"

Koch upset the city union tops' cozyrelationship with the Democratic"friends of labor" in Gracie Mansion."Mayatollah" Koch gleefully describedhow the bureaucrats squealed like stuckpigs when he declared the "partnership"over. Just after he was elected, the newmayor met with the big machers of NYClabor in December 1977. They were allthere-Albert Shanker (teachers), Vic­tor Gotbaum (city workers), BarryFeinstein (Teamsters), also PBA headSam De Milia and the ubiquitous "laborconsultant" Jack Bigel-the very oneswho engineered the dumping of unionpension funds down the Big MACrathole. Koch writes:

"And everything is wonderful and weare all on the same track behind theRohatyn plan and Bigel happens tomention that we-the City and theunions-are partners. '.._."I say, 'Just a moment, fellas, Can I saysomething? There is no government by

HOUSTON PERSON & ETTA JONESSMALLS PARADISE

Sponsor: Partisan Defense Committee

people actually took a whack at themayor. When a frustrated Teamsterwaited at the bridge and tried to wipethat Howdy Doody grin off Koch's face,it was a heartfelt punch from all of us.And we hailed the Progressive Labordoc, Dr. Nayvin Gordon, who threw anegg in Koch's face when that budget-axmurderer had the gall to speak at theAmerican Public Health Associationconvention in the midst of his ghettohospital-slashing spree. But gut hatredand a pow in the kisser won't change athing. What's needed is powerful laboraction mobilizing the ghetto masses tobring the city bosses to their knees. Weneed a transit strike that wins. And forthat you have to dump the currentleadership of the labor movement, boththe "in" and "out" bureaucrats, thelosers who tie the unions' hands bybinding them to Koch's DemocraticParty.

'"Q)

El=>­z<,

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...JQ)

o

Angry blackresidents drive

Koch out ofpollee brutality

hearings InHarlem last

summer.

that you can't run the subways withbayonets and court injunctions!"

~"Bust the Union Busters!"WV strike supplement,II April 1980

Koch was pissed because he was aftermore than concessions which the MTAwrung out of the union bargainingcommittee. He was out to break theTWU. He demanded prosecution ofLocal 100 and individual members tothe hilt under the state's Taylor Law,forbidding government employees tostrike. He demanded immediate elimi­nation of the dues checkoff from transit

workers' paychecks. The checkoff waslater suspended and strikers hit withwhopping fines. And it was fear oflosing their guaranteed income pro­vided via the state that caused the TWUtops to buckle. But the whole system­giving the capitalist state control overthe union pursestrings-is guaranteedto lead to disaster. The union had toprepare for all-out struggle-it's insaneto place the union's strike funds in thehands of the enemy! That is why theCommittee for a Fighting TWU isfighting for elected shop stewards tocollect the dues, toward building a

. powerful union prepared to struggle.In Mayor, Koch writes, "The labor

people ... fight us tooth and nail. Andthat is what we have to do." Unfortu­nately the "labor people" didn't fighttooth and nail, but were terrified tomobilize the union's massive socialpower precisely because it would mean ashowdown with the state. When Kochwas out there building support forunion-busting on the bridge, ourmessage was to hang tough and put theTWUin the vanguard of all cityworkers, poor and minorities. What wasneeded, we said, was "A Transit Striketo Save New York." Support fromtransit riders could be won by resurrect­ing and fighting for the TWU's' tradi­tional demand for "free transit-fare."When the turnstiles are ripped out, nomore black youths will be shot down bytrigger-happy transit cops for "turnstilejumping." As we wrote in the strikesupplement, "The transit strikers mustfight Carter, Koch and Carey political­ly, just as the politicians are fightingagainst the TWU."

During his Brooklyn Bridge antics.Koch railed against the "wackos." by

_ which he meant anyone opposing hi'sstrikebreaking crusade. A couple of

WV PhotoSouth Bronx: Koch's "Charlotte Gardens" ranch houses amid the rubble.

8 a.m. each morning asking people,"How'm I doing?" he wasn't just show­ing off. He roused the white collarworkers hoofing it over the bridge fromtheir gentrified Park Slope brownstonesto their Wall Street jobs in defiance ofthe strike. It recalled the Chileancounterrevolutionaries mobilizing theenraged middle class housewives bang­ing their pots and pans as a prelude toPinochet's bloody coup, which slaugh­tered tens of thousands of Chileanworkers.

Koch claimed, "The City won thestrike in the streets; the MetropolitanTransportation Authority lost it at the.bargaining table." From the point ofview of militant transit workers, how­ever, the story (as we put it) was"Strikers Winning in the Streets ...Union Misleaders Sell Out at theBargaining Table." While it was true the"young urban professionals" were trip­ping happily along at first, a month ofrainy days and Mondays dragging theirasses to work was sure to get the"yuppies" down. Meanwhile, the threatof "dreaded gridlock" hung over the cityas the financial center of U.S. imperial­ism was grinding slowly to a halt. As wesaid in our strike special: "TransitWorkers: They may have you by thethroat, but you've got them by theballs!":

"The TWU solidly shut down the city'sbus and subway system-the trainsaren't running. Koch, however. isrunning around the city denouncing theunions and rallying the middle classpolitically for his all-out war against theunions. Both sides are dug in for a cold.hard economic duel, waiting to seewhose nerve breaks first. But thingscan't go on like this for long. Under­neath all the 'funstrike' atmosphere liesthe threat of bringing in the army orNational Guard. And if thev do. thenCarter. Koch and Carey will find out

Ed KochRacist Pig ...(continued from page 7)kill-crazy ax-murderers. They act as ifthey would like to see this black, Jewish,Puerto Rican, Italian and union townsliced off and floated into the AtlanticOcean. But the capitalists ultimatelyneed New York, as they will quickly findout in a transit strike!"

For Koch the high point of hisadministration so far' was the 1980subway strike, when the grinning union­buster mobilized the white middle classagainst the heavily black transit work­ers.. In Mayor he writes:

"There was something in the atmos­phere of strikebound New York thatmade people, and not just me,ebullient.Women in their Madison Avenuebusinesssuits strode along wearing theirUptown nylons and their joggingsneakers. People pulled rusty bicyclesout of basements. Everyone had anexcuse for being a little late. On therainy days, New Yorkers looked as ifthey'd just stood under a downspout.Somehow, all those things made peoplefeel better about themselves and theircity."

Strikebreaking really turned Koch on.As he stood ol;1t on Brooklyn Bridge at

8 \'V0hKERS VANGUARD

Jackson...(continued from page 7)

as the local KKK chapter. Yet it was notall that long ago that the black andJewish communities were consideredthe staunchest supporters of Democrat­ic Party liberalism.

No section of white American societywas as sympathetic to the Southerncivilrights movement as the Northern Jewishcommunities. In the early 1960s Com­mentary, the organ of the AmericanJewish-Committee, which now criticizesReagan from the right, ran article afterarticle praising Martin Luther King andthe SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordi­nating Committee) militants. AlbertShanker-believe it or not-was anearly civil rights activist. The liberalpolitical alliance between blacks andJews, as the main outsiders in Americansociety, lasted from Roosevelt's NewDeal through the early-mid 1960s.

At the same time, American capital­ism tended to set the Jewish and blackcommunities against one another. In anumber of U.S. cities the black ghettoexists today where the Jewish ghetto ofEast European immigrants existedyesterday. Thus, a black ghetto dwelleroften identifies Jews with his landlord orshopkeeper. But the undercurrent ofanti-Semitism among some blacks is notof the "civilized" ruling-class varietywhich periodically results in anti-Jewishpogroms and extermination in gasovens. Indeed it cannot be. For theoppression of blacks and Jews in theU.S. is fundamentally different. Jews inthe U.S. today are generally well-off andcomfortable, while blacks-are impover­ished, miserable, brutalized by the copsand forced to live in ghetto hellholes. Atthe same time, Jews, even if relativelyprivileged, have a deep sense of historicoppression,

Traditionally, Jews lived for centuriesin "other peoples' countries." They haveoften been targets of nationalists of allstripes who lead the pogroms against"the alien Jew." It is a tragic fact ofhistory that Jews got "their" state(Israel) in the epoch when the capitalistnation-state has become a force of

Sri lanka...(continued from page 2)

cist, was called to the infamous fourthfloor of the Secret Police (CID) to bequestioned on articles explaining ourposition on the Tamil national questionand against the oppression of the Tamilpeople. Here a police officer abused himin filthy language and severely assaultedhim. This cannot be treated as anisolated incident. It is a result of staterepression extended to the leftists.

After completely creating the suitable'economic and legislative environmentfor capitalist exploitation, now J.R.'sgovernment has lined up behind Reaganfor anti-Soviet activities. The discus­sions J.R. had with the chairman of theU.S. Congress defence committee,Joseph Addabbo, and with. the U.S.Congress delegation during the past fewdays reflects the keenness of the govern­ment to move closer and closer to theanti-Soviet camp. It is reported thatJ. R. asked them to "provide a large shipcapable of strengthening the Sri LankaNavy and to provide modern combattraining to the Sri Lanka Navy person­ne\." The delegation had informed J.R.that, "we will recommend to the U.S.government to immediately. releaseUS$350,000 for Lanka's defence activi­ties" and that they will consider the"special request." These are the samethings that American imperialists doelsewhere in the world.

It is clearly seen that the opportunityfor American military activities as inEI Salvador, Nicaragua and Grenadato be repeated in this country is nottoo distant. This pro-imperialist pro­gramme of the UNP led byJ.R. should

30 MARCH 1984

reaction. To the extent that Zionism hasbecome politically dominant in theAmerican Jewish community, a largesection of Jews shifted radically from aposture of enlightened cosmopolitanismof a liberal or left-wing variety to anincreasingly rabid nationalism as Zion­ist Israel moved ever rightward.

From then-Israeli ambassador Yitz­hak Rabin successfully hustling votesfor Nixon in 1972 on the basis that a"strong America" is good for the Jews,to the marshaling of support to the anti­Soviet war drive in the name of SovietJewry, a section of the Jewish communi­ty has placed itself actively on the farright wing of American politics. ThisZionist-nationalist shift forms the polit­ical background of the anti-blackJewish backlash in the U.S. in the lateI960s.

Jews Join the White BacklashIncreasingly, Jews viewed black de­

mands for economic advancement as athreat to their own status. The NewYork City Jewish community, forexample, reacted strongly against theblack demand that admission to thecity's tuition-free colleges be propor­tional to the ethnic make-up of the highschool student population. Admissionshad been based on academic competi­tion, and as a result the student bodies atCity College and Brooklyn College wereoverwhelmingly Jewish. The case ofCity College was especially galling forblacks, since it was located on the fringeof Harlem.

The sharpest confrontation betweenblack radicalism and the Jewish com­munity in this period was the 1968NewYork City teachers strike. In the name of"community control," a black schooldistrict superintendent in Brooklynattempted to turn the teaching staff intohis personal fiefdom and to break theheavily Jewish United Federation ofTeachers (UFT), led by Albert Shanker,in Ocean Hill-Brownsville. This fitneatly into plans by the Ford Founda­tion and New York's liberal mayor,John Lindsay, to bust the power of theUFT and set the minorities against theunions. Significantly, the main blackorganizer of scabbing during the '68

be defeated. Tamil people's rights andtheir security should be guaranteed.Suppression of the left movementshould be defeated. The plans to offereven an inch of land from this country toAmerican imperialists for their wardrive against the Soviet Union should besmashed. Only through workers' actionscan all plans of the capitalist class and oftheir government be defeated.

Spartacist League/Lanka16 January 1984

,

Letter...(continued from page 2)socialist federation. There are also lesservariants-we would have somewhatmore confidence in the impartiality ofthe Soviet Army, but that would entailstarting World War III. We can certain­Iy solidarize with the several thousandTamils who marched to the Sovietembassy in London during the massacrelast year demanding "Russia helpTamils!" Fortunately, unlike manycomparable situations, there was apractical and probably not too deleteri­ous possibility, encapsulated in ourdemand: "Patriation of Tamils inSinhala areas to the North underprotection of the Indian army!"

India has not managed to become animperialist power. Every act of aggres­sion by a stronger state against a weakerone hardly constitutes imperialism as weLeninists understand it, unless imperial­ism is to lose its scientific meaning andbecome an empty moral epithet. Wouldyou call the several decades of India­Pakistan conflict "inter-imperialist," orrather the rotten legacy of the with­drawal of British imperialism leaving a

teachers strike, Albert Vann, is todayJesse Jackson's New York campaignmanager. The Spartacist League stoodagainst the stream, defending the trade­union movement against this majorattack by bourgeois liberals and theirblack front men, while insisting thatorganized labor must champion blackrights and struggle against racism.

Spearheading the racist backlashwithin the Jewish community was theJewish Defense League (JDL), foundedin Brooklyn in 1969. Today the JDL isseen rightly as a dangerous group ofviolent Zionist crazies. Its founder, MeirKahane, soon emigrated to Israel inorder to terrorize West Bank Palestini­ans. But the J DL originated primarily asan anti-black paramilitary organiza­tion. Its first act was to picket a blacknationalist college teacher, John Hatch­ett, who had denounced Jewish "domi­nation" of the NYC Board of Educa­tion. A few months later Kahane's thugsfirst gained public notoriety when theythreatened to break the legs of well­known black radical James Forman ifhe entered Manhattan's prestigioussynagogue, Temple Emanu-El. Thesame political climate in the Jewishcommunity which gave rise to thefascistic JDL a few years later gave NewYork City mayor Ed Koch, the mostracist administration in its modernhistory.

The growing anti-black attitudeamong American Jewry was stronglyreinforced by its unquestioning, indeedfanatical, attachment to Zionist Israel.American Jews act like they have dualcitizenship. And, in fact, they do. Israelis the only country where an Americancan emigrate and still keep his U.S.citizenship rights.

One effect of the black radicalism ofthe 1960s has been to make blackactivists identify with the dark-skinnedpeoples of the world oppressed byWestern imperialism. Many politicallyconscious blacks sympathize with thedispossessed Palestinians under theboot of a state whose racist arroganceequals only that of South Africa. And,in fact, the relations between Israel andSouth Africa are quite close.

At the same time, black leaders have

bitterly divided subcontinent? Ofcourse, short of socialist revolution,with the strong pitted against the weak

. one gets abuse and oppression, conquestand annexation. Indira Gandhi is asmuch an oppressor of India's national/religious minorities as Jayewardene is ofLanka's. But the Indian government isnot in an easy position to annex Lanka(though it is not clear that they shouldn'tbe united in the long run, albeit on a verydifferent social foundation).

Lankan Tamils are directly related to'a numerous and powerful Indian peo­ple, the tens of millions of Tamils inIndia, thereby rendering virtually im­possible that the Indian army wouldbecome the national oppressor of thisIndian people in Lanka. There is areasonable expectation that the Indianswould come in, do their assigned joband leave. Your comparison of theIndian army to French and Americanimperialist "peacekeepers" or UN forcesin Beirut misses the mark. These forceswere hostile to the Palestinians; theydisarmed and removed the protectors ofthe refugee camps; and there was a warin progress in which the PLO could havestayed the threat of massacre bytenaciously fighting the Israelis insideBeirut. A more apt analogy would be thehypothetical use of Libyan troops (ifthey had the military capability) pro­tecting the withdrawal of Palestinianrefugees.

The real force of imperialism in thesituation emanates from Washington: itis U.S. imperialism's appetite for a navalbase at Trincornalee, the finest deepwater harbor in the Indian Ocean, whichfuels the anti-Tamil massacres. (It isreported that Trinco was a subject ofdiscussions between Jayewardene andU.S. "defense" secretary Weinberger

tended to put themselves forward asAmerica's natural ambassadors to theso-called "Third World." Well attunedto the voting patterns in the UN generalassembly, some black establishmentfigures like Jackson and Andrew Youngpublicly criticized Israel and expressedsympathy for the Palestinian cause. Forthe rabid Zionists who pervade theAmerican Jewish community, anyonewho embraces Arafat deserves the sametreatment. So today the most prominentblack political figure in the UnitedStates, Jesse Jackson, probably cannotwalk unguarded through New YorkCity's Jewish neighborhoods.

Everybody knows that a victory for 'fascism in this country would sendblacks to the American version ofAuschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. AndJews would not be spared. But a lot ofJews think they can escape anti­Semitism by becoming part of themainstream in white racist America. Tocover their insecurity they indulge inflag-waving chauvinism and proudlypoint to Israel as America's main "freeworld" ally in the Near East. Jews whothink like this-and many do-areliving in a fool's paradise. Remember,the Holocaust occurred in advanced,modern Germany, where Jews weremore integrated than in any otherEuropean country.

Moral Majority racists may hateJesse Jackson as much as the Zionists,do, but they hate Jews too. A fascistmovement in this country will target notonly blacks but also Jews, who manylower-class white racists believe wieldenormous and sinister power. "We mustget rid of the Jews who run Wall Streetand put in a real white man's govern­ment," is part and parcel of the fake­populist appeal of Klan/Nazi dema­gogues. The future of blacks and Jews inthis country is linked together. Instrengthening the forces of racist reac­tion in white America, the Ed Kochs,Albert Shankers and the Commentarygang are deadly enemies of the Jewishpeople as well as of all humanity. Onlythe victory of proletarian socialism candestroy the danger of fascism once andfor all and save us from another andeven greater holocaust.js

and former deputy CIA director Wal­ters who visited Sri Lanka last October.)What is posed is whether Lanka will be astaging area for U.S. hegemony over theIndian Ocean in its drive for encircle­ment and war against Vietnam and theSoviet Union; or will Lanka, throughthe bridge of the Tamil toilers, be astaging area for proletarian revolutionin the Indian subcontinent? No doubtGandhi dislikes the former but fears thelatter even more. For that reason sheoffers to send the Indian army to Lankanot to defend the Tamils but to"reinforce" J. R.'s army. But the demandfor Indian army protection, like theprogram of which it is a part, isaddressed not to Indira Gandhi but tothe deeply felt needs and social power ofthe Tamil working people of the entireregion.•

Spartacist league ISpartacus Youth league

Public Offices-MARXIST L1TERATURE­

Bay AreaFri.: 5:00-8:00 p.m., Sat.: 3:00-6:00 p.rn,1634 Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street)Oakland, California Phone: (415) 835-1535

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New York CityTues.: 6:00-9:00 p.rn., Sat.:12:00-4:00 p.m.41 Warren St. (one block belowChambers St. near Church St.)New York, N.Y. Phone: (212) 267-1025

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9

u.s. WarPiracy.•.(continued from page 1)

recently threatened to shoot down anyplane coming near one of its ships offLebanon. But the most brazen of all isthe Kitty Hawk incident, part of amammoth joint U.S.-South Koreanexercise. The day before, planes fromthe U.S. carrier provided air cover for a"simulated amphibious landing of50,000 United States and South Koreanmarines" near Pohang (New YorkTimes, 22 March). How would Reaganlike it if the Soviets staged a similarexercise on Cuba's Isle of Pines, andthen tried to sink an American sub toboot?

For the Kitty Hawk was clearly tryingto kill the Russian sub. Initial Navydisinformation accused the Sovietcommander of intentionally collidingwith the mammoth supercarrier 16times its size. But ABC-TV reporterJohn McQuethy dug up the dramaticstory. He reported that the Sovietsubmarine had been having "apparentmechanical problems for more than aday, repeatedly surfacing and submerg­ing." The U.S. commander had "pur­posely broken off tracking the severalsubmarines in the area, and the KittyHawk was making a diversionary run."It sliced into the Soviet sub as the latterwas coming to the surface and, "Bycoincidence the Kitty Hawk approachedthe submarine from the rear. Because ofa submarine's own propeller turbulence,its sonar is blind to the rear and theSoviets probably never knew what hitthem." McQuethy added: "Pentagonsources say if the collision had occurredjust a minute later, the Soviet 'Victor'submarine would have been demolished

by the 80,000-ton aircraft carrier;' (ABCNetwork News, 22 March).

While trying to pass off the string ofU.S. war provocations last week asevidence of "expansion of Soviet navalpower," the "free but responsible"capitalist press has deep-sixed informa­tion about the current mobilization ofAmerican forces against the Russians.Three major U.S. anti-Soviet navalexercises are currently under way. In theSea of Japan there is Operation "TeamSpirit 84" involving more than 200,000U.S. and South Korean troops; last yearit included maneuvers in tactical nuclearwarfare. Simultaneously, "Team Work84" is being held off Norway involvingsome 150 NATO ships. This is describedin the 5 March Navy Times as "amassive allied exercise that includes anamphibious assault on North Norway."And scheduled to begin in the Carib­bean on April 20 is "Ocean Venture84"-involving 30,000 American sail­ors, marines, airmen and soldiers­which will include a "practice reinforce­ment" of the U.S. base in Guantanamo,Cuba. This is all in addition to the SixthFleet positioned off Beirut and almostthree dozen American warships poisedin the Indian Ocean and at the entranceto the Persian Gulf.

Particularly after their fiasco inLebanon, where the U.S. had to pull outwith its tail between its legs, Reagan &Co. are trying to put a global squeeze onthe Soviets. The current focus is CentralAmerica, where the Pentagon is mount­ing a whole series of "exercises" as ameans of introducing American forceswhile circumventing the War PowersAct. Over the weekend, 250 paratroop­ers of the 82nd Airborne were droppedinto Honduras on a "no-notice" opera­tion named "Kilo Punch." Earlier thecarrier America had been dispatched to'the Central American coast as part of

"Ocean Venture," now supplemented bythe nuclear cruiser Virginia and twoother warships. And the planned exer­cise "Granadero I," originally scheduledfor June, was moved up to April I. Inaddition there are reportedly another1,900 U.S. "trainers," support troopsand a military intelligence battalionstationed in Honduras as Washingtonbuilds the infrastructure for a fuIl-scaleinvasion.

The current excuse for the U.S.military buildup in Central America isto support "free elections" in EI Salva­dor. These are "Yankee interventionelections" in more ways than one. As avote they are ajoke-s-even the Salvador­an government's election board nowadmits that more than a quarter of theballots in the '82 vote were fraudulent.This time almost a third of the towns arein the hands of leftist rebels of theFarabundo Marti National LiberationFront and elsewhere total confusionreigned. There may have to be a runoffbetween the Christian Democraticbutcher Napoleon Duarte and the headof the death squads, "Blowtorch Bob"D'Aubuisson. And in either case theremay be an army coup. But when theresults are eventually decided in consul­tation between the U.S. Embassy andthe Salvadoran general staff it will beproclaimed a "freely elected govern­ment," worthy of backing by a "freeworld" expeditionary force as werevarious South Vietnamese puppetdictators.

Smarting from its humiliating defeatby the Vietnamese peasants and workersin the mid-I970s, U.S. imperialism hasbeen straining to reestablish its hegem­ony ever since. Democrat Carterlaunched a new anti-Soviet Cold .Warwhich Republican Reagan has beentrying to heat up from the beginning of

his administration. While the rest of theleft has been· trailing after the Demo­crats in an anti-Reagan popular frontand pretending that Central Americahas nothing to do with the anti-Sovietwar drive, the Spartacist League hasuniquely proclaimed, "Defense of Cuba,USSR Begins in EI Salvador!" In thelast nine months the vital importance ofdefending the Soviet Union has dramat-

<ically escalated as the U.S. goes from. one anti-Soviet war provocation to thenext, beginning with Korean Air LinesFlight 007. After overflying the Soviets'most sensitive Far Eastern militaryinstallations on its spy mission, the KALpassenger jet, presumed by the Russiansto be a military plane, was shot downand plummeted into the Sea of Japan.Now, only a few hundred miles away,the USS Kitty Hawk perpetrates a newcrime against a Soviet sub on the high

.seas.Today the Soviet Union faces the

most ominous danger since Hitlerlaunched Operation Barbarossa in 1941.Nuclear-armed American imperialism isunder the command of an anti­Communist fanatic every bit as crazedas the Nazi Fuhrer. In Reagan's crusadeto "roll back" the Soviet "evil empire,"first-strike plans are closely linked to apolicy of provocation-from CentralAmerica to the Mediterranean to theFar East. The global nuclear confronta­tion looming on the horizon pits thecombined imperialist powers against theSoviet bloc workers states. And in thisconflict the exploited and oppressedmasses of the world have a side: Defendthe homeland of the October Revolu­tion and all the anti-capitalist revolu­tions against imperialist reconquest!The world working class must takepower from the war-crazy capitalistsbefore it is too late-and time is runningout!-

Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League

Make checks payable/malllO: Sparlaclsl Publishing Co., BOlt 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

Thatcher, firm upholder of "free world"(pro-capitalist) trade unions for Poland,says they can't. And behind this attackstands a much broader assault on thebasic rights, the jobs and the workingconditions of broad sectors of thelabour movement and the oppressed..Defence of these rights and libertiesrequires hard class struggle to take onand defeat the capitalist attacks, andthat requires the ousting of the pro­imperialist bureaucrats and the forgingof a new revolutionary leadership of thelabour movement. Stop the unionbashers! Defend democratic rights!Defend the workers unions, defend theworkers states!-

The article "N ot ProtectionismBut Union Organization: ClevelandSteel Referendum," WV No. 348,17 February 1984, incorrectly re­ferred to Frank Valenta as head ofDistrict 310f United Steelworkersof America. In fact Mr. Valentais director of USWA ClevelandLorain"District 28.

CORRECTION

And we certainly do not equate thewhite-collar clerical workers in GCHQwith their war-mad imperialist paymas­ters. Nor do we equate the GCHQ spyclerks with cops and prison guards, theracist armed thugs and professionalstrikebreakers of the ruling class whoseso-called "unions" should be expelledfrom the labour movement. The rela­tionship of the former to their job is therelationship of paper to pencil orkeyboard to computer terminal; for thelatter it is the relationship of a billy cluband a gun to someone's skull and vitalorgans. In general, white-collar workerstend to make pretty low-grade union­ists. Given the nature of the place andcurrent circumstances, a lot of these8,000 may not exactly be the types you'dwant to recruit to a communist organi­sation (from all reports they voted Torylast election). But the fact that, like theAmerican PATCO air controllers,GCHQ's workers are a normally conser­vative and fairly marginal sector.of thelabour movement points only to thedepth of the Tories' attacks andintentions.

The central issue at stake here iswhether these workers can exercisetheirfundamental right to belong to a union.

Iron LadyThatcher and

Nuclear CowboyReagan: Union­

busters andanti.~Soviet

warmongers.

351

0$2/4 issues ofWomen ana Revolution

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for all those union leaders who had beenprepared to try to develop a constructiverelationship with the Government."From the "left," Tony Benn chimed inwith a reported comment about how hehelped set up "positive vetting" (nicepolite English security checks withouthorrible American lie detectors) when inoffice. Throughout the dispute thebureaucrats, Labour and union alike,worked overtime to channel working­class anger into social-chauvinist con­cern for the effective functioning of theimperialist anti-Soviet war machine.

As fighters for the interests of allworkers and oppressed, we oppose thevery existence of counterrevolutionaryspy agencies like GCHQ and its NSAbig brother. But we recognise that theimperialists' bloody state spying andsnooping can only be ended throughmobilising the working class to rippower from the hands of the capitaliststhrough socialist revolution. Even then,rather· than shut down GCHQ thevictorious proletariat might well need toturn it around against the inevitablebourgeois reaction at home and abroad.(We'd have to rename it though:perhaps the Donald Maclean Commu­nications HQ?)

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British SpyCenter...(continued from page 5)

exclaimed, "they've got unions too!Goddamn British unions with strikes forlonger tea breaks, work-to-rules every

. other Thursday and shop stewards whospeak Russian!" So the U.S. demandedimproved security vetting [checks] withpolygraphs and a union ban. And thediehard anti-Communist union-haterThatcher was only too happy to comply.

True to form, the Labour Party /trade-union misleaders have sought toturn the defence of trade-union rights atCheltenham into a question of (bour­geois) "national interest." Their rallyingcry is not "Defendjhe unions" but "Whois endangering national security?"CPSA (civil servants association) headAlistair Graham pleaded that his mem­bers would be distressed if they reallydamaged the spy network at Chelten­ham and vowed he would have givenThatcher a no-strike pledge if she'd onlyasked. In Parliament [right-wing La­bour leader] Denis Healey complainedthat the decision was a "kick in the teeth

10 WORKERS VANGUARD

SPARTACIST LEAGUE/ U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORYNational Office Cleveland New YorkBox 1377, GPO Box 91954 Box 444New York, NY 10116 Cleveland, OH 44101 Canal Street Station(212) 732-7860 (216) 621-5138 New York, NY 10013

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South African police and militaryinstallations. While these raids have avery limited military effect, the politicalimpact is great. When an ANC car­bomb attack demolished the air forceheadquarters in downtown Pretoria lastMay, all of black South Africa rejoicedat this humiliating blow against theirapartheid masters.

So the apartheid rulers are de­termined, as the ANC put it, "tocompel the independent countries ofour region to act as Pretoria's agents inemasculating the ANC." Immediatelyafter the attack on the air forceheadquarters in Pretoria, South Africanjets bombed ANC offices in Maputo,located in the same neighborhood asMachel's presidential palace. At thesame time, South African-organizedterrorists have been carrying out acampaign of economic sabotage, whichalong with drought caused the deaths of40,000 Mozambican villagers fromstarvation. While starving Mozam­bique's people, Botha & Co. are offeringthe Frelimo officialdom a generoussupply of Krugerrands. One of them,perhaps with an eye on opening a Swissbank account, exulted during thenegotiations for the nonaggression pact,"South Africa will give us everything weneed" (Wall Street Journal, 7 March).Don't bet onit.

When asked by a Western journalisthow a "hard line Marxist" like himselfcould make such a deal with the mostdespised imperialist country on earth,Machel replied blandly: "South Africais a racist country with apartheid. Butthey, too, want peace." And, of course,South Africa's white slave masters dowant peace. They want to pacify the tensof millions of black toilers under theirbrutal racist rule. The Machels and dosSantos have become the border guardsof the vast and horrible slave plantationof South Africa/Namibia.

We hail the heroism of the ANCmilitants and we stand with themagainst the apartheid state and its blackborder guards like Machel and dosSantos. But their struggle against theapartheitl system is subverted by theANC's strategy, also promoted by theStalinist Communist Party of SouthAfrica, of seeking to pressure "liberal"elements of the white ruling class such asgold and diamond magnate HarryOppenheimer, and the "democratic"imperialist countries, such as Reagan'sAmerica, into forcing the South Africangovernment to abandon apartheid. Theapartheid system cannot be "reformed."It must be smashed. The black workingclass mobilizing behind it all theoppressed masses of South Africa willbe the gravedigger of apartheid. On thatgrave, and under the leadership of arevolutionary vanguard communistparty, will arise a black-centered work­ers and peasants government, theindustrial core of a Socialist UnitedStates of Africa.•

Defend the AfricanNational Congress!

The past decade has seen a rising lineof black struggle within white-ruledSouth Africa-the 1973 Durban massstrike, the Soweto uprising in 1976, theexplosive growth of black trade unions.The African National Congress (ANC),which had been decimated and reducedto a shell of an organization in the 1960s,has experienced a remarkable resur­gence despite savage repression. For thesurvival of the apartheid rulers, thedestruction of the ANC is even moreimportant than the suppression of theSWAPO guerrillas. Hence the nonag­gression pact with Mozambique.

Even before this. pact the Machelregime did not permit ANC militarybases on its territory.conly politicaloffices. "We have made it clear to SouthAfrica that we do not have ANCmilitary bases and will not allow theANC to use Mozambique as a spring­board for attacks on South Africanterritory," Machel's foreign ministerstated late last year( Washington Post, 2January). However, ANC militantswere able to slip across the long, ill­guarded border and carry out attacks on

words, South Africa will still occupyNamibia, its army will still be poised onthe Angola border after the Cubanforces are withdrawn.

The direct and immediate victims ofthe Angola/South Africa deal are theSW APO guerrillas and the peoples ofNamibia~ But the wily politicians of theM PLA may be too treacherous for theirown good. Once the Cuban forces aregone, what is to prevent South Africa'sracist rulers from tearing up theiragreements, invading Angola onceagain and this time going all the way andinstalling Jonas Savimbi in Luanda'spresidential palace. Honor? In anyevent, the M PLA nationalists are sellingtheir people to apartheid imperialism.

SechabaFree ANCIeader Nelson Mandela,imprisoned for 20 years by racistSouth African police state!

MPLA Nationalists BecomeBorder Guards for Apartheid

When the petty-bourgeois nationalistPopular Movement for the Liberationof Angola (MPLA) finally won inde­pendence from Portugal in 1975 after abloody decades-long struggle, SouthAfrica launched a massive invasion,backed by the U,S., attempting to installits puppets in power. U.S. imperialism,fresh from its humiliating defeat inVietnam, was unable to intervenedirectly, and the apartheid terroristswere driven out of Angola through theintroduction of thousands of dedicatedCuban troops. Now numbering between25,000 and 30,000, the Cuban troops,armed with Soviet tanks and SAMmissiles, have protected Angola's hard­won independence against the Pretoria/Washington axis.

And this protection has been..desper­ately needed. Since 1975 South Africahas invaded Angola 12 times, the latestand biggest attack coming lastDecember-January. South Africa's warmachine has killed several thousandAngolan villagers, uprooted millions ofpeople, economically devastated entireregions and destroyed resources esti­mated at $7 billion. South Africa carvedout a 30-mile-wide zone in southernAngola, from which it supplied air coverand logistics to its puppet forces ofJonas Savimbi's UNITA, wreakingterror and economic sabotage through­out the southern third of the country.

The public pretext for Pretoria'smassive use of state terror in Angola wasthe suppression of the SW APO (South­West Africa People's Organization)military bases. Pretoria and Washing­ton also insisted that independence forNamibia be conditional on the "paral­lel" withdrawal of Cuban troops fromAngola. Until a few months ago theMPLA regime vocally rejected this"linkage" and constantly reaffirmed itssupport to SWAPO. Even as he wasnegotiating to betray them, Angola'sminister of external relations, PauloJorge, declared, "it is the absolute dutyof the Frontline states, just as it is theduty of all African countries to supportthe ANC, to continue to help SWAPO"(AfricAsia,February 1984).Th~ MPLAnationalists are "helping" SW APO allright-helping the South African armykill them.

Shortly after the deal with Pretoria,Angolan president Jose Eduardo dosSantos flew to Havana to discuss thequestion of Cuban troops. According tothe Cuban-Angolan statement, whichwas greeted by U.S. Secretary of StateShultz, Cuban troops are to be with­drawn upon South Africa's' mere prom­ise to carry out various UN resolutionson Namibian independence. In other

the struggle for proletarian socialistrevolution in South Africa. It is theblack industrial proletariat of SouthAfrica-from the gold mines of theRand, to the docks of Durban, to theauto plants of the East Cape-which hasthe social power not only to overthrowwhite racist rule but to liberate all ofblack Africa from the murderousmilitary despots, tribalist chieftains andtreacherous nationalist demagogueswho suck the blood of their people.

At the same time, the struggles fornational liberation on the periphery ofSouth Africa destabilize the apartheidstate and inspire its black masses toresist. Thus, the Soweto uprising in thesummer of 1976 erupted just monthsafter the South African army was drivenout of Angola by Cuban troops. Herewe see the reciprocal dynamic ofpermanent revolution in southern Afri­ca. What is needed to realize theprogram of permanent revolution is aTrotskyist vanguard party linkingSouth Africa's black proletariat to thestruggles for national liberation anddemocratic demands throughout theregion. Such a communist vanguard canbe forged only through political combatwith petty-bourgeois nationalism.

with hair-trigger racism to shoot blackson instinct. Ask the mother of PatrickMason, the five-year-old black childshot down in his own bedroom inCalifornia. Jail Alvarez and the rest ofthe killer cops!

The Johnson case was particularlyexplosive because he was shot by aCuban cop, exacerbating the ongoingconflict- between Miami's black resi­dents and the Cubans, many of themright-wing gusanos and criminalskicked out of Castro's Cuba in 1980.The conflict stems from the desperatecompetition for jobs between the twoethnic groups. But behind that conflictis the racist reality that while the Cubansare welcomed with open arms-so thatthe government can foster anti­Communism and push the anti-Sovietwar drive-native blacks are left to rotin ghetto hellholes and black Haitianswho make it to the mainland aretortured and caged in concentrationcamps like the state's Krome Avenuedetention center. The Reagan adminis­tration has decided to grant citizenshipstatus to about 125,000 Cubans whocame to the U.S. in 1980from the Cubanport of Mariel, but not for the desper­ately poor Haitians.

Black Miami is a thoroughly polar­ized powder keg waiting to explodeagain and again. And black Miami'soutrage, felt acutely by the scores whowitnessed the shooting of Johnson, wasfueled by the fact that this was just oneof four murders of city blacks by thecops in late 1982-early 1983; anotherblack person died in police custody of"natural causes." This cop rampage wasvirtual martial law against black Miami.It was a declaration to the blackpopulation: that the daily anti-blackpolice violence and misery is going tocontinue and if blacks dare to even voiceopposition to it, they are going to get theGrenada treatment. The capitalist sys­tem is a "no exit" scenario for blackAmerica. But there is a way to break theendless cycle of misery, outbursts andrepression, and redirect black anger intoa social fight for power. As we stated in"Cop Terror' in Miami Ghetto" (WVNo. 321, 14 January 1983):

"The black ghettos in Miami areisolated and have been taking it from allsides. The mass, independent labor/black mobilization in Washington onNovember 27 shows the road to victoryagainst racist attacks. To stop copterror, to smash the Klan/Nazis, tobuild militant self-defense requires abreak with the Democrats and buildinga workers party, based on the unionsand fighting for the ghetto poor. That isthe Trotskyist road of black-white classstruggle to overturn the capitalistsystem and win justice against the racistkillers who maintain it.".

(continued from page 12)

ist market, their borders artificiallydrawn across tribal groupings by the oldcolonial powers-cannot achieve genu­ine national independence, much lessliberation from imperialism. Despiteconstant declarations of undying oppo­sition to apartheid, the black "frontline" states are economic colonies ofSouth African capitalism, the industrialpowerhouse of the region. Mozambiqueis little more than a glorified bantustansupplying South Africa with portfacilities and, most important, contractlabor for its gold mines. Angola's richdiamond mines are owned by SouthAfrica's De Beers. (Its other mainexport, oil, is owned by the Americanmultinational Gulf.)

The struggle for genuine national­independence for all the peoples ofsouthern Africa is inseparably linked to

SouthernAfrica ...

(continued from page 12)Miami...

30 MARCH 1984 11

Racist Klier~ Gets Off

Police Rampage in Black Miami

Cops terrorize Miami ghetto. Black residents bound in cable ties and herded into police vans.

When racist killer cop Louis Alvarezgunned down an unarmed 21-year-oldblack youth, Nevell Johnson, Jr. on 27December 1982, black Miami explodedin outrage over this cold-bloodedmurder. But when an all-white juryrenewed Miami's "finest" armed thugs'license for racist murder by acquittingAlvarez on March 16, the city fatherswere ready: 1,000 of these thugs in bluewere mobilized in a pre-emptive strikeagainst Miami's black population,resulting in mass racist dragnets anddetentions. Some 400 black residentswere hauled off and thrown in theslammer, at least 20 hospitalized anduntold numbers injured.

They were the biggest mass arrestssince the 1980 Miami ghett-o upheavalwhen 1,000 people were locked up in thewake of the murder of black business­man Arthur McDuffie by four cops.This latest police riot, which hit Over­town, Liberty City and spread through­out the city's black areas, had little to dowith actual ghetto explosions, however.The Washington Post (19 March) notedthat Miami was "the city that didn'tburn." This cop rampage was a massivedisplay of police terror intended to senda racist message to black Miami: stay inyour place even if the cops murder yourchildren with impunity. Free victims ofracist jailings!

Now one more trigger-happy racistcop is on the street. During his 18

months on the Miami force, eight citizencomplaints had been filed againstAlvarez. He claimed he shot Johnsonbecause he "noticed a bulge in the smallof his [Johnson's] back" and becauseJohnson "moved as if he were reachingfor a gun" (New York Times, 17 March).Being black in racist, capitalist Americameans you can be killed for having a

bulge underneath your shirt. As blackMiamians watched the trial, theylearned that Alvarez had violated policeprocedure.with regard to use of his gun:his revolver was "polished and modified... so it would fire with only a light tugon the trigger. ..." and he "cocked hisgun to reduce the trigger pressureneeded to fire" (Washington Post, 13

March). In other words, Alvarez' gunhad a hair trigger; further, Alvarez,without permission, had ventured elev­en blocks outside his normal patrol areathat night-most likely looking for thekill. In the anti-black, anti-labor climateof Reagan's America, crazed policeterrorists like Alvarez are being trained

continued on page II

For Permanent Revolution in Southern Africa!;

Black Front Line States Bow to South AfricaIn the steamy no man's land along the

crocodile-filled Komati River in south­ern Africa, a solemn diplomatic cere­mony took place in a wood-paneledrailroad car originally built for Britain'sKing George VI. Mozambique's "Marx­ist" president Samora Machel embracedSouth Africa's Pieter Botha and flour­ishing solid gold pens they signed anon­aggression pact pledging not to supportany insurgents seeking to overthrow theother's government. In the backgroundformer Frelimo guerrillas, who hadfought Portuguese colonialism, mingledamiably with white South Africansoldiers. To prove its new friendshipwith the apartheid butchers, Mozambi­can police have since raided the homesof African National Congress militants,seized their weapons and arrested atleast four.

Across the continent a joint militaryforce of 300 Angolan and 300 SouthAfrican troops is now patrolling the

.Namibian border to enforce the recentcease-fire. Reportedly this Angolan/South African force has on. threeoccasions encountered and bloodiedgroups of SW APO guerrillas fighting to ­liberate black Namibia from SouthAfrican rule. The so-called black "front

12

Mozambique'spresident

Samora Machel(left) becomesborder guard

for SouthAfrica's Pieter

Botha.

line" states have become South Africa'sfront line against the forces battlingapartheid imperialism.

American Cold War liberal journalistFlora Lewis observed: "Thenonaggres­sion pact with Mozambique and the

. cease-fire with Angola, though stilltenuous, look like a triumph for SouthAfrica" (New York Times, 22 March).They are no less a triumph for U.S.imperialism. In fact, the State Depart­ment's top African troubleshooterChester Crocker brokered both deals. A

decade ago U.S. imperialism suffered amajor setback in southern Africa whenSoviet-backed nationalist forces inMozambique and Angola won theirindependence from Portuguese coloni­alism. Ever since, and especially afterReagan took the reins, Washington hasencouraged and backed South Africa'smurderous efforts to overthrow theseblack nationalist regimes or force themto submit to the "free world."

Mimicking his big brothers inWashington, Botha describes his cam-

paignof massive state terror against thesurrounding black states as the "promo­tion of stability and the strengthening ofdemocratic forces against communistsubversion" (Johannesburg Star, 27November 1982). Ravaged militarilyand starved into submission, thedesperately impoverished bourgeois­nationalist regimes in Mozambique andAngola have been broken by SouthAfrican imperialism. Once Sovietclients, they are now entering the "free

• world." Their entry fee is to be paid inblood, the blood of the courageousmilitants of the African National Con­gress of South Africa and the guerrillasof SW APO who have been fightingapartheid imperialism for 18 years.

"Machel has betrayed black Africa inits quest for freedom," exclaimed ablack office worker in Johannesburg(New York Times, 20 March). No onecan question that. But what is involvedhere is not simply the treachery of oneman, despicable as that is. The pan­Africanist notion of a classless unityagainst the apartheid system has alwaysbeen a myth. The wretchedly backwardbourgeois states of black Africa-theireconomies arrested by the world capital-

continued on page II

30 MARCH 1984