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25¢1 April 1977No. 151

Starvation" ReP.fession Will Continue in India

FBI Targets the Spartacist League

LaffontlSygma

Who Are the Conspirators?

The documents subsequentlyobtained show that the FBI hadmanufactured for ADEX and relatedactivities a standard definition for the"SPL." The FBI wants to portray theSpartacist League as some sort of

"SPL" is indeed the FBI's computer criminals, the category of individualscodefor the SL; we are on their "hit list." the FBI has a legal license to hunt. But

It is anybody's guess why the FBI in everyone knows that the SL is not1971 selected the SL as a target of its criminal and does not engage in"special" attention. The 16 groups in the felonious acts. So the FBI's definition ofADEX code (which includes a few ultra- the "SPL" includes a "fallback": therightist groups) encompass among "SPL," says the FBI. "does not openlyothers the Communist Party, the Social- advocate the violent overthrow of theist Workers Party (SWP), the Panthers, U.S. government at this time." This ofProgressive Labor and SDS (under course is explicitly true, but thewhich category some Maoists were implication is false and nefarious: thatprobably subsumed). But why the SL, the SL is conspiring to insurrect. Withwhich at that time had not yet begun the one word "openly," the FBI seeks towidespread involvement in the labor justify its spying and disruptionmovement, nor made the major break- activities directed at our organization.throughs that were to create significant The SL is not conspiratorial. It is well:nternational ties? We do not know. Nor known for its straightforwardcan any firm answer be provided for the presentation of its political ideas andinteresting omis~on of groups like the program. This is recognized not onlyInternational Socialists and Workers' throughout the left, but has beenLeague which were at the time bigger acknowledged even in some bourgeoisand louder than the SL. circles. In a 1972 address at Harvard,

Daniel Patrick Moynihan favorablycompared the SL youth group to otherleftists in attendance because "they sailunder their own colors." Moynihanquoted from a statement proclaimingour aims:

"... to develop young radicals intolifetime communist militants, and to

continued on paKe 2

Prime minister Indira Gandhi campaigning early in the election.

behind the shadowy routine ofFBI/ CIA snooping, harassment anddisruption.

No group or. individual wants theattention of these legal outlaws andofficial hitmen. Left-wing politicalorganizations which become objects oftheir "surveillance" have also becomeobjects of the now notorious "disrup­tion" which is a logical outgrowth ofFBI! CIA "counterintelligence." So weof the Spartacist League (SL) lookedcarefully at a short article titled "FBIHit List"" (see illustration) in a recentissue of the muckraking journal Coun­terSpy (December 1976).

CounterSpy reproduced an FBIstandard file form known as "ADEX,"the "abolished" index that boiled downthe detention lists to 7,500 Americans(see accompanying article). The ADEXform included a category designated bythe letters "SPL" as one of the 16organizations given top priority for FBI"special" treatment. CounterSpy specu­lated that "SPL could mean SpartacistLeague." Documents subsequently ob­tained by an individual through theprovisions of the Freedom of Informa­tion Act confirmed CounterSpy's guess.

Black Panthers Fred Hampton andMark Clark got the full blast of"humanrights" American style in Chicago in1969. The secret police infiltrated theirorganization, set them up, and then inthe dead of night the cops kicked theirdoor down and machine-gunned themin their beds.

The rest of us have been luckier. Formost of us in the left, labor and blackmovements, relations with the Ameri­can political police have been moreroutine. We have had our phonestapped, our mail opened, OlIr officesburgled, our garbage "covered," ourorganizations "penetrated," our leaderstailed and jailed. We have been thevictims of systematic attempts to de­prive us of our livelihood. We have beenpersonally and collectively slandered by"anonvmous" letter-writing campaignsand by planted lies disingenuouslycalled "disinformation." We have beenwitchhunted by the grand jury and"selectively audited" by the IRS. TheFBI has talked to our friends, neigh­bors, landlords and especially employ­ers. Some of us have been framed up andjailed. But what the Panthers met wasthe full-blown terror which stands

MARCH 21' For the first time in 30years. the Congress Party of India hasbeen decisively repudiated at the polls.winning only 153 out of 542 parliamen­tary seats. Prime Minister Indira Gan­dhi suffered the additional personalhumiliation of a crushing defeat in herown constituency. as did her controver­sial playboy son. Sanjay.

Riding the crest of massive discontentover Gand hi's 21-month suspension ofcivil liberties and particularly over theforced sterili/ation campaign, an un­stable coalition of the major oppositionparties formed the Janata ("Peoples")Party and took 271 seats. With theparliamentary cushion added by the 28seats of its ally, the Congress forDemocracy (CD). Janata holds a clearmajority. and on Thursday its chair­man. Moraji Desai, was sworn in as thenew prime minister.

The election capped two interrelatedprocesses. long evident but greatlyaccelerated by the state of emergency:the steadv reeling off of key compo­nents of the Congress, and the emer­gence of various opposition coalitions(hitherto only at the state level) asserious contenders for power. The three­decade hegemony of the Congress Partywas shattered as Indira Gandhi's cliquewas increasingly reduced to two peo-

continued on page 10

Sample page from Justice Department "ADEX" file of "subversives" as itappeared in CounterSpy magazine article.

CounterSpy 7

TheIndex

of 7500Americans

FBI'sHit List

ADEX:

FBI' pr<ll:tke of keepmg

WORKERS VANGUARD

iorce and violence can have an inverserelationship. This is true not only in theeveryday sense in which an overwhel­ming balance of forces loan prevent aneruption of violence, but also in thehistorical sense: force in the service ofhuman liheration aids in the creation ofless violent societies. We stand withThomas Paine against Edmund Burkeon the legitimacy of force in the Frenchrevolution.

That force and its use is not anabstract principle is amply demonstrat­ed by the Marxist tradition. whoseover~helming judgment is summed upin Capital: "Force is the midwife ofevery old society pregnant with a newone. It is itself an economic power."Here Marx recognizes not only thesocial violence endemic to a decayingsociety but also the inherent force of thestate. The bourgeoisie's hypocriticalfinger-wagging at the "violent" Marxistshas as its purpose the legitimization ofthe terror tactics of its consummatelyviolent state: executions. frame-ups,concentration camps.

Marx made it clear that he under­stood the question of violent revolutionas an assessment of concrete conditionsrather than an abstract principle whenhe spoke of the possibility of revolutioncoming "peacefully" to Britain andAmerica. This speech, made at theHague in 1872, was directed at theBlanquists who made violence into a"revolutionary principle." Marx stated:

"The worker must one day seilepolitical supremacy in order to establishthe new organization of labour. Hemust overthrow the old politics sustain­ing the old institutions...."But we have never said that the meansto arrive at these ends were identical.We know the allowance that must bemade for the institutions. manners andtraditions of different countries. We donot denv that there exist countries likeAmeric~. England. and. if I knew yourinstitutions better, I would add Hol­land. where the workers may be able toattain their ends by peaceful means. Ifthat is true we must also recognize thatin most of the countries of the Conti­nent force must be the lever to which itwill be necessary to resort for a time inorder to attain the dominion of labour."

quoted in Nicolaievsky andMaenchcn-Hclfen. Karl .'Wan:M'an and FiKhter

The statement has been used by thosewho would falsely attempt to use Marx

MAY 1 ~ 1972" ..,.,:. 'I'I

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concentration camps which wait in thewings. for the FBI assassination squadsthat are the ultimate "disruption." It isan irony that this secret arm of the rulingclass that has perpetrated the mostmassive organized worldwide violenceshould mount this attack on the "dan­gerous" thought of the Marxist tradi­tion. Not mere irony; it is historicalperversity.

In line with this need to turn thevictim into a "criminal," part of theFBI's standardized definition of the SLattempts to invoke the "speech crimes"provisions of the Smith Act; the FBIclaims the "SPL does believe thateventual violent revolution to over­throw the present capitalist system ofgovernment in the U.S. in inevitable."

Marxists have no position on violenceas an abstract principle. For us it is not aquestion of "belief." but of recognizingreality. As Trotsky said. "A disbelief inviolence is equivalent to a disbelief ingravitation ... renunciation of the use offorce for purposes of liberation isequivalent to giving support used foroppression which now rules the world"( Where Is Britain Going?). Marxism hasnever refrained irom speaking the plaintruth about violence. But Marxism hasdone more than that. Marxists analyzedclass society as the source of violenceand developed a program to root it outat the source once and for all.

Pacifists have made an escapistreligion of the notion of "non-violence,"but for Marxists the truth is alwaysconcrete. In 1931 Gandhi discussedsacrificing the lives of the Indian peoplefor national independence. In whatmust be one of history's most repulsivelyillogical statements, he said. "whether itis one life or a million that we have topay. I am praying it will be possible forthe future historian to say that Indiafought and won her liberty withoutshedding human blood" (quoted inSidney Hook, Towards the Understand­ing (}f Karl Marx). For Marxists. itmakes a great deal ofdifference whetherit is one or one million. Force must beunderstood in terms of its actualconsequences. We do not equate theviolence of the oppressor with thepossibility of resistance by the op­pressed seeking their liberation.

In fact it has always been clear that

SPARTACIST

Make payable/mail to: Spartaclsl CanadaPublishing Association. Box 6867. Station A.

Toronto. Ontario. Canada

"I find it inconceivable thata covert agency isexpected to obey all the_overt orders of thegovernment."

-James Angleton, formerCIA chief of staff

which the ruling class unleashes againstthose who seek to challenge itsdominion. We know full well the storyof the heroic Spartacist Eugen Levine.After the unsuccessful 1919 uprising inBavaria, Levine proclaimed to thebourgeois court which sentenced him todeath. and to the workers movementwhich honors him as a martyr."Communists are dead men on leave."

Unable to feed the hungry or providejobs for the unemployed, periodicallyplunging the population intodevastating inter-imperialist war,sacrificing every vestige of rationality ordecencv to its insatiable hunger forprofit .. the bourgeoisie cooks up aspectre of the revolutionary movementas a criminal conspiracy. With this biglie oft repeated. they attempt to discreditthe Marxists in the eyes of the massesand create a climate of opinionfavorable to their witchhunting. Thusthey hope to evade the verdict of historyfor their crimes against humanity.

Another way that the bourgeoisieattempts to discredit revolutionaries isby portraying socialism as an endlesstotalitarian horror of state repression.In this distortion it gets invaluable aidfrom the Stalinists. Stalin's usurpation ofthe mantle of the Russian Revolutionprovided the truly horrifying spectacleof the Moscow trials in which so many

CanadaSubscription: 52/year

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working-class revolutionists werehumiliated and destroyed as part of abureaucratic cbunterrevolution. Theprison camps for "thought criminals" inRussia and China facilitate the CIAcrusade for "human rights." Thebourgeoisie is delighted to point to thesedegenerated and deformed workersstates as examples of the "Communistfuture." Imitating the capitalist stateapparatus, the Stalinists have created astate apparatus of general state terror, inthe process gutting the Marxistconception of the withering away of thestate. Both the Stalinists and thewitchhunters have an interest inidentifying Stalinism with socialism.Trotskyists unconditionally defend thedeformed workers states againstimperialism and capitalistrestorationism, but we have nothing incommon with the apologists fortotalitarianism.

Marxism and the Role of Force inHistory

It is the FBI itself which is the outlawand terrorist organization. As a covertarm of a government that claims theconfidence of the vast majority of thepopulation, the FBI is one sign of theinherent weakness and decay of that'system. It is the FBI which is guilty ofproven criminal conduct by thebourgeoisie's own laws. It is the FBIwhich should be prosecuted!

Unwilling to admit the simple truththat a crucial purpose of its secret policeis to control thoughts. not acts. th'eruling class falsely portrays the Marxistsas "dangerous to society." Revolution­ary Marxists are dangerous only to thissystem of institutionalized mass miseryand those who profit from it.

The attempt to slander Marxism assome kind of violence cult is far morethan an abstract anti-communist propa­ganda campaign. It is the cynicalrationale for the ADEX file and the

"Hitherto acceptablenorms of human conductdo not apply."

-CIA document

Marxist Working-Class Weeklyofthe Spartacist League ofthe U.S.

2

(con t inued /1'0111 paKe f)build a socialist youth organizationwhich can inten:ene in all socialstruggles with a revolutionary programbased on the politics of Marx. Leninand Trotsky."

Moynihan concluded, "It is doubtlessperverse to do so. but I happen to findthat an honorable statement ofpurpose" (Commentary, December1972). No one misunderstood. No onethought Moynihan was in favor ofbuilding the communist vanguard. Butthe SL's forthright presentation of itsviews had to be recognized even by thisimperialist politician.

The SL deserves its reputation forhonesty. We have nothing to hide. Howoutrageous that the FBI. which does itsdirty work in secret. should label us asnot "openly" planning the "violentoverthrow of the government." In fact.

EDITOR Jan Norden

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Karen Allen

CIRCULATION MANAGER Anne Kelley

EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule. CharlesBurroughs, George Foster, Liz Gordon. JamesRobertson. Joseph Seymour

Published weekly. except bi-weekly in Augustand December, by the Spartaclst PublishingCo, 260 West Broadway, New York, NY.10013 Telephone: 966-6841 (Editonal).925-5665 (Business). Address all correspond­ence to: Box 1377, GPO. New York. NY10001. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00 per yearSecond-class postag~ paid at New York, NY.

Opinions expressed in signed articles orlellers do not necessarily express the editorialviewpoint.

WfJR/(ERIVANGIJARD

"The nation must to adegree take it on faith thatwe too are honorable mendevoted to her service."

-Richard Helms

the capitalist government is not"overthrown" violently or non­violently. In fact. the historicalprobability is that in a revolutionarysituation there may well be littlegovernment to "overthrow," and likelynot this government in its present form.A revolutionary conjuncture in the U.S.will be defined by the fact of dual power.Most probably it will pose the choicebetween the democratic soviets of theworking class and a totteringbonapartist dictatorship headed by amilitarist perhaps in the mold of aGeneral George Brown. unencumberedby t,e trappings of a Congress.

On the basis of historical probabilityin the future, the FBI wants us to pleadguilty to "advocacy" to "overthrow thegovernment" today. We are not able to.It is simply self-serving nonsense for theFBI to imply that the SL is planning asecret putsch against the U. S. govern­ment. Any organization that fits theFBI's conspiratorial definition wouldhave to be a group of suicidalpsychopaths.

According to the CommunistManifesto, the proletarian revolution ismade by the "immense majority." It isnot until a majority of the workingpeople are prepared for a revolutionagainst a capitalist government isolatedand unable to rule that a proletarianrevolution can occur. But in any case theissue is hardlv that of our democraticgood will. Th~ criminal terror of the FBIis only part of the vindictive savagery

FBI...

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"disruptions" against the SWP. Theseex-Trotskyists' cringing pro~tration

before the bourgeoisie was, however, asimportant as the Watergate climate ofopinion in securing the "landmark"ruling. It was not merely that the SWPwallowed in the legalistic illusion thatcourt decisions would seriously impedethe FBI's extralegal machinations. TheSWP evasively but unmistakablyrenounced the party's Trotskyisttraditions 10 its testimony. Thedeposition by S WP organizationsecretary Barry Sheppard disclaimedviolence in terms which preclude theright to self-defense:

"The SWP does not engage in oradvocate violence or any other illegalactivity...."The policies and facts outlined aboveare in no way altered or contravened byanything that may appear in thewritings of such revolutionary figures asMarx, Lenin, Trotsky, Samuel Adams,Patrick Henry, Frederick Douglass,Eugene V. Debs and others."

The SWP introduced into evidence itssocial-patriotic telegram of condolenceson the occasion of the assassination ofJ.F. Kennedy:

"The Socialist Workers Partvcondemns the brutal assassination ()fPresident Kennedy as an inhuman. anti­social and criminal act. We extend ourdeepest sympathy to Mrs. Kennedyandthe children in their personal grief. .....

It also provided the government withevidence of the expulsion of its left-wingminority faction. Both the telegram andthe ouster of the minority were cited in,the judge's decision as proof of theS W P's "current non-violent beliefs."

"Speech crimes" laws such as theSmith Act are the bourgeoisie's attemptto criminalize what revolutionists saywhen they exercise their "free speech."Of course. as we explained, we do not"advocate" the "violent overthrow" ofthe government. But neither did theSWP, and they were clapped into jailanyway. The current climate ofbourgeois opinion militates for thepresent against the application of thekind of "Catch 22" for which the FBIlusts: legislating the "criminality" of thecommunist program in order to forcethe left into the defensive semi­clandestine status which would thenserve as a definitive self-justification forthe illegal conspiracies and murderousmachinations of the secret police.

For Proletarian Revolution!The overwhelming perpetrators of

violence are the bourgeoisie, withuntold millions of dead, maimed andstarved proletarians sacrificed on thealtar of profit. It is the bourgeoisiewhich left ten million dead in thenationalist irrationality of World War Iand then cried bloody murder when theBolshevik-led ""'Russian Revolutionclaimed a handful of victims on thestreets of Petrograd. The real violencecame later when thecounterrevolutionaries mounted aconcerted war against the proletarianstate.

In Russia in February 1917, the tsarcould no longer rule; by November,Kerensky could no longer rule. War­ravaged Russia needed the Bolsheviks­they were Russia's best chance. Then asnow it is the bourgeoisie whichrepresents criminality and <;haos and therevolution which represents law andorder: real international law and theorder of workers democracy. It is therevolutionists who struggle for a statewhich will wither away; it is thebourgeoisie which concocts an evermore grotesque terror apparatus for itsoppressive state.

The FBI's vicious campaign againstthe SL is criminal. That the FBI hastargeted the SL, lined it up in the cross­hairs of its "disruptive" artillery,marked it for the concentration camps iscriminal not just in terms of thebourgeoisie's own self-serving laws. It.iscriminal in the largest historic sense. Forthe SL is a very precious commodity inits infancy; like the Bolshevik Party forRussia, the SL may be America's lastbest hope.•

considerable degree, without abureaucracy." He argued that with theimperialist war and its "filthy, bloodymorass of bureaucratic-militaryinstitutions" Marx's projection was nolonger "valid." Again, it was not thequestion of violence that was at issue,but a prognosis about reality.

One can very easily argue that on thespecific case Marx was wrong. InEngland in 1872 there was a standingarmy trained in the oppression of theIrish, Indian and Egyptian peoples, anotably cohesive ruling class with asizeable state bureaucracy, and thegreatest navy in the world. Even forAmerica, it may be persuasively arguedt~at Marx underestimated the solidityof the bourgeoisie's consolidation of thestate. But whether or not one judges thatproletarian revolution could have comepeacefully to Britain or America in1871, the point is that violent revolutionis not a principle.

In the introduction to the secondEnglish edition of Terrorism andCommunism Trotsky was quite clearthat Marxists have no sympathy withthe fetishization of "revolutionaryviolence." Discussing the Fabiansocialists' position that the Englishproletariat could come to powerpeacefully through parliament, he said:

".,. The Fabian hope must, I fear. beheld from the very beginning to be outof the question. I say 'I fear: since apeaceful. parliamentary change over toa new social structure wouldundoubtedly offer highly importantadvantages from the standpoint of theinterests of culture, and therefore thosei>f socialism. But in politics nothing ismore dangerous than to mistake whatwe wish for what is possible."

It should be evident that Marx, Lenin,Trotsky and the SL share a commonapproach to the question of violence:that it is not a matter of principle but ofspecific concrete historical estimations.

This approach was shared by theSocialist Workers Party when it was stilla revolutionary organization. When theSWP was prosecuted in the first SmithAct trials, party l,eader James Cannonput forward the Marxist position:

"Q: Now, what is the opinion ofMarxists with reference to the changein the social order, as far as its beingaccompanied by violence?"A: It is the opinion of all Marxists thatit will be accompanied by violence."Q: Why?"A: That is based, like all Marxistdoctrine, on a study of history...."Q: What would you say is the opinionof Marxists as far as the desirability of apeaceful transition is concerned?"A: The position of the Marxists is thatthe most economical and preferable, themost desirable method of socialtranstormation, by all means, is to haveit done peacefully."Q: And in the opinion of the Marxists,is that absolutely excluden'J"A: Well, I wouldn't say absolutelyexcluded. We say that the lessons ofhistory don't show any importantexamples in favor of the idea so that youcan count upon it. ..."Q: Then the theory of Marxists and thetheory of the Socialist Workers Party.as far as violence is concerned, is aprediction based upon a study ofhistory. is that right""A: Well. that is part of it. It is aprediction that the outlived class, whichis put in a minority by the revolutionarygrowth in the country, will try by violentmeans to hold on to its privilegesagainst the will of the majority. That iswhat we predict."Of course, we don't limit ourselvessimply to that prediction. We gofurther, and advise the workers to bearthis in mind and prepare themselves notto permit the reactionary outlivedminority to frustrate the will of themajority."

-- Socialism on Trial

In this stacked "debate" in abourgeois courtroom, Cannondefended the basic principles of~arxism, These principles have nowbeen renounced by the SWP, which hascome to believe along with classicalsocial-democracy that the proletariat in"democratic" countries can simplyelectioneer its way to power.

Beginning in December 1974 theSWP won a series of important legalvictories compelling the government todisclose some of COINTELPRO's

Marx's prognosIs was a specifichistorical judgment based on a set ofhistorically empirical assessments thatmay be accurate or inaccurate.

Lenin in his State and Revolution(1917) defended not only Marx'sapproach but also his particularjudgment as "understandable in 1871."Lenin argued that in that period Britainand the U.S. had not yet developed a"militarist clique" and were "to a

that it began what came to be known asthe "Do Not File" file, which was eitherdestroyed on a yearly basis or shuffled ina way that made it inaccessible to theuninitiated.

The McCarran Act of 1950 officiallylegitimized secret FBI record-keepingon "subversive" individuals. It called forthe registration of organizations andindividual members who "advocatedviolent overthrow" of the government,thereby providing by their own self­incrimination a basis for prosecutionunder the Smith Act as well. It author­ized the preparation of "detentioncamps" in case of"national emergency:'and the keeping of lists of those to beinterned. It also provided for deporta­tion of aliens found to be Communistsat any time in their lives.

The Smith Act of 1940 had providedfor the prosecution of political dissi­dents for "advocating" or "teaching"revolu1ion in the U.S. and for member­ship in organizations deemed guilty ofsuch "advocacy." Its first victims werethe Trotskyist leaders of the SWP, whowere jailed in 1943. Later the Commun­ist Party, which had applauded thevictimization of the "counterrevolution­ary Trotskyites," became the law's maintarget.

In the heyday of the Smith Act,defendants were convicted on the basisof their libraries, as the prosecutionpulled quotes from Marx or Lenin anddemanded, "Do you believe in that?"This procedure was a lot simpler thanframing up radicals by relying onplanted "evidence" and the perjuredtestimony of notoriously unreliableinformers and provocateurs.

The Smith Act and McCarran Act,together with the Voorhis Act whichmade international political associationa crime, were the three-pronged weaponof legislative anti-Communism.

During the cold-war period, the FBImaintained a "Security Index" of 11,982people, supposedly Communist leaders.Then came the "Communist Index" of17,783 additional "members." Theselists were kept at FBI national head­quarters, while field offices held listscontaining another 200,000 names ofthose considered bv the FBI to consti­tute a danger in' time of "nationalemergency" (Government Select Com­mittee on Intelligence Agencies, FinalReport, 1976, quoted in Halperin et aI.,The Lawless State, 1976).

After the cold-war period the deten­tion lists were kept up to date withinformation swept up in the FBI'svacuum cleaner apparatus of agents,

continued on paf:e I I

FBI ON "SPL"

The Spnrt.:lcist L~i\rl~e (S1'L). foundt::d in 1'.J6 c} by

fOriller t~('",b",r5 of ;mother Tro::s';y~st-cor.J:llmi!'torr,::mizntion,Lldvocates tne destruction of thc capitalist syster:l and tile~rcation of 8 ~orkers class sy~tem and a workers classsccict~,. The .3;'L lution:d he;id'lu;,rters is loc"tcd in i;c\VYorl~ Citv, "'-0.ile the S1'1 does not o:)(>nly arivoc;>.te thevjolent cvcrth~'o\: of the U, S. Gove~-nment ilt this time orviol2tions ~f other Federal or state laws, the SPL docsbelieve th~t eventual violent revolution to overthrow thepresent c2r:-itG.list SystCl~ of );oVcrn'-:lCn~ il'l the U,. S. isinevitable. The 00 iccti',re or the ~rl, J.s to orr.2n~ze <:I

mer;lLership to ta~e ncticn to preci?it;:otc such ... rcvoluti.o~l'~:'Cll ,:ollcl; tiop.~ arc rine and to direct 'and seize controlof the revolution \v!lC;) it occurs.

1 APRIL 1977

The Spartacist League has the unhap­py distinction of being one of 16organizations singled out for speicalscrutiny by the FBI's so-called ADEX"hit list." In its lawless terror rampageagainst the American people, the gov­ernment's secru political police haveadded a special insult to the injury: theADEX file was proclaimed abolished in1974!

During the 1'<ixon administration, thepractice of keeping secret records of"subversives"--against whom no crimi­nal activity need be proved, or ofteneven alleged-came under fire. In 1971Attorney General Mitchell promisedthat he would reduce the list to under10,000 names. This shortened listbecame known as the "administrativeindex" (ADEX). In 1974, at the heightof the Watergate revelations, FBI headL. Patrick Gray announced that theADEX file would be dismantledentirely.

But in 1976 a politically active left­wing lawyer filed for his dossier underthe Freedom of Information Act.Among other materials, he obtained hissupposedly "abolished" ADEX filecard, no doubt through some unusualbureaucratic error. This informationwas reprinted by CounterSpy (seeillustration), a liberal! New Left maga­zine animated partly by former CIAagents whose aim is to impede theconspiratorial machinations of the CIAand FBI. CounterSpy estimates that theFBI now maintains files on 6,500,000people!

In the post-Watergate era, exposes ofthe FBI's illegal and sinister conspira­cies have become commonplace. Mostoften, the stage-managed exposures donot outrun the carefully contrivedcover-ups. BUl sometimes "clean-ups"are proclaimeci. The liberals, sunk in theblissful ignorance of complicity, aresmug in their conviction that thepromised "reforms" show that the"democratic process" has triumphedagain. But what really happens? Thegovernment's covert operations may bereshuffled and reorganized, streamlinedand prettified, renamed and sweptfurther underground. But the FBIcontinues to carry out its dirty'work ofspying, intimidation and harassment,slander and disruption of the politicaland personal lives of people whose only"crime" is their political convictions.

The ADEX file is a recent atrocity inthe long and ugly history of FBI tist­making. In 1948 the FBI began aprogram of burglary of the homes andoffices of left-wingers, initiating "lockstudies" for its agents. It was at this time

himself to excise Marxism of itsrevolutionary content. Thus Kautsky, inthe Dictatorship ofthe Proletariat, usedthe Hague speech to assert his ownposition that the proletariat can winpolitical power simply at the polls,"using the liberties that exist." But thesocial-democratic chimera of a"peaceful transition" to socialism was asalien to Marx as is Blanquist putschism.For Marxists, force is not a principle;

What Is the ADEX File?

"Socialist" Colonel Unleashes Bloodbath in Ethiop.m

Shootout at the Derg

O,e Internatlonale

assembly. central committee and stand­ing committee. But his rule is far fromsecure: "He is said to have lost thesupport of much of the army, garrisonedin distant towns to fight wars that aregoing badly. Potential assassins areeverywhere.... For security reasons hehas moved into the palace once occu­pied by Emperor Haile Selassie,"reports the Times.

Diplomatic Battle Over the Horn

Immeuiately following the February.3 showdown.' Mengistu reportedlyreceived telegrams of congratulationsfrom Moscow, Havana and Peking.However. there are signs that the newregime is leaning toward the Kremlinrather than the Heavenly Palace. On 25February. the Soviet news agency Tasspublished a dispatch quoting Atnafu assaying in Yugoslavia that Ethiopiawould henceforth obtain its arms fromthe "socialist camp."

Moscow has long sought a footholdin the straits of Bab el-Mandab whichdivide the Red Sea from the IndianOcean. To date its main successes havebeen diplomatic alliances with thedemagogic military dictatorship inSomalia (which describes itself as a"scientific socialist" regime) and thenationalist "Peoples Democratic Re­public of [South) Yemen" (whichpostures as "Marxist-Leninist").

Repeated attempts to woo HaileSelassie came to naught. The "Lion ofJudah" was received with great pomp inMoscow in 1959 and again in 1967 and1970. The USSR granted a 40 millionruble credit to Ethiopia and signedaccords for construction of a technicalschool and refinery. However, the U.S.effectively countered by pouring inmillions to build up the Ethiopian army.

Then in 1971, following Mao'sreconciliation with U.S. imperialism.China granted the feudalist monarchy a$90 million loan. On that occasIOn thePeking bureaucracy praised Haile Se­lassie's contributions "to the promotionof the cause ;)f anti-imperialist unity"( Pek ing Information, 20 October 1971).And this to ,he despot who suppliedEthiopian troops to the imperialist UNinterventions in Korea and the Congo!

Having struck out with the "king ofkings," the Kremlin consequently sup­ported Somalia's irredentist claims toOgaden province in eastern Ethiopia

continued on paKe 8

Keystone

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May Day march of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party.

WORKERS VANGUARD

command by elevating him to "chair­man of the council of ministers," whilegiving increased powers to Tafari, whountil then had been largely a figureheadchief of state. Almayehu and Moguswere behind this maneuver. Then, in amass rally of 200.000 held four daysbefore his murder. Tafari read off a longlist of enemies of the revolution whichnotably did not include the EPRP.

According to the Times account, atthe February 3 Derg meeting Mengistuberated Tafari and his supporters forbeing soft on the EPRP. He then left theroom and within minutes seven Dergmembers were summarily executed,including Alemayehu and Mogus.Colonel Daniel Asfaw, head of securityand a close associate of Mengistu. wassomehow also killed in the shooting.Outside. the Nebelbal division wasposted at the perimeter of the palace andremained stationary when the shootingbegan.

Within 24 hours the hot-temperedcolonel was addressing another hugerally in Revolution Square, waving a redhandkerchief in each hand. And a weeklater he had himself proclaimed chief ofstate, head of national defense,commander-in-chief of the armed forcesand chairman of the Derg's general

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Ethiopian Derg before Brig. Gen. Tafari (center) was killed. Left, strongmanMengistu, right, Lt. Col. Atnafu.

"Reorganization"

The Derg's "Politburo," a group ofcivilian braintrusters for Mengistu.sabotaged that scheme and tried to grabthe EPRP's labor base by declaring theexisting Ethiopian Confederation ofLabor Unions illegal and setting up'anew government-controlled federationin its place. Mengistu also controlled aspecial Israeli-trained terror squad.called the Nebelbal ("flame"), whichbeginning last July savagely persecutedand assassinated EPRP members. Sifaywas executed at the same time. Evident­ly in respomc. an attempt was made toambush Mengistu on September 22.After this failed. scores of leftist stu­dents. and trade unionists were mur­dered (see "Anti-Communist Terror inEthiopia." 1fT ;\io. 136. .3 Decemher1976).

The Nell' York Tim Col. obviouslysupplied with detailed intelligence by"Western diplomats." reports that in1\;ovember and December the Derg metalmost continuously and a "reorganiza­tion" plan was worked out to removeMengistu from the operational levers of

report points to sharp differencesbetween Mengistu and the "moderates"over how hard a line to take towardcivilian leftists. in particular the Ethio­pian People's Revolutionary Party(EPRP).

Faced with growing unrest in thestrategically placed trade unions (wherethe EPR P had taken over after oustingthe corrupt American-trained leaderswho held sway under Haile Selassie) andamong land-hungry peasants, the Derglast spring replaced its original "Ethio­pia first" program with one calling forthe "total eradication of feudalism,bureaucratic capitalism and imperial­ism." Simultaneously a proposal waslaunched-reportedly by Tafari andMajor Sifay Haote, the third-rankingmember of the junta-for a "socialist"political party in order to reconcileEPRP supporters with the Derg. Ac­cording to the Times account: "ColonelMengistu is described as a hardliner,who would slap his revolver on the tablein anger when any such settlement wasproposed."

4

Ever since coming to power the Derghas been wracked by personal/ politicalrivalry. as recurring shootouts havereduced the original membership of 120to around 60-80 today. (The names ofthe junta members ar~ such a closelyguarded secret that often their identities.are revealed only when they are re­moved feet first from the ruling circle.)The first chairman, U.S.-trained Gener­al Aman Andom. was shot in an earlier(November 1974) power struggle, ac­cused of complicity with the CIA.

In the triumvirate which replacedAndom at the head of the Derg, ColonelMengistu was the strongest singlefigure. However. his road to untram­meled personal dictatorship wasblocked. first by General Tafari Banti,the chief of state. and then by a group of"moderates" around Captains Almaye­hu and Mogus. (In the Ethiopian army.which for years received U.S. aid andtraining. the label "moderate" in theimperialist press can usually be taken asindicating close ties to the Pentagon.)

An account in Le MonJe (27-28February) cites as chief among the issuesin this c1i4ue warfare traditional rival­ries between graduates of the Holettamilitary academy (including Mengistuand his second-in-command. AtnafuAbate) and. the more aristocratic Hararacademy group around Tafari. Alengthy Nell York Times (I March)

Palace Intrigue

On February .3 Ethiopia's ProvisionalMilitary Administrative Council (Derg)met in Addis Ababa to discuss policydifferences among the top leaders.When the meeting was over, eight Dergmembers lay dead on the floor andLieutenant Colonel Mengistu HaileMariam stepped away from the pile ofcorpses as the (currently) unchallengedleader of Ethiopia's "socialist" army.

Since then the imperialist press hasbeen increasingly hostile to the militaryrulers in Addis Ababa, and in mid­February U.S. secretary of state CyrusVance announced that American armsaid had been cancelled due to "humanrights violations." The Soviet bloc,meanwhile. has hailed the "revolution­ary" Mengistu regime, this supportculminating in Fidel Castro's visit to theEthiopian capital in mid-March.

But as the smoke clears. it is evidentthat the latest power shuffle in theDerg simply consolidated the grip ofone treacherous nationalist militarystrongman at the expense of his person­al rivals. Those pro-Moscow "Com­munists" who see this as a "progressive"shift are only preparing their own doomwhen the baton passes to yet anotherpower-hungry officer. or when ColonelMengistu finds it to his advantage toswitch alliances in order to get Arabpetro dollars to bolster a saggingeconomy and to obtain Americansupport against the territorial claims ofSoviet-backed Somalia.

Though the palace intrigues withinthe military cabal that overthrew thedecrepit feudalistic regime of EmperorHaile Selassie in 1974 remain murky.recent press accounts make it possible tosketch the rough outlines of Mengistu'scoup d'etat and the issues behind it.Perhaps even more important is todiscern the complicated "great power"maneuvering between the U.S. andUSSR over the strategically importantHorn of Africa.

For Intemotional Lobor Solidarityl ,,,!;~

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wielded with increasing confidence inthe wave of strikes since 1973. DoesNSCAR really believe massive layoffsand forcible return to the "bantustan"wastelands (Vorster's "solution" toblack unemployment in the cities) willaid South African blacks? In reality, thisis a program for the consolidation ofa desperate, nuclear-armed white­supremacist laager.

5

One victim of Vorster regime.

International Labor Solidarity,Not Liberal Moralizing!

The methods of the proletariat arebased on a strategy of independentlymobilizing the working masses to takepower. It is necessary to militantly fightfor democratic rights in South Africa­smashing apartheid through struggles towin full trade-union and political rightsfor non-whites, to destroy the industrialcolor bar, contract labor, pass laws andthe whole serpent's nest of apartheidpractices. as well as for a constituentassembly based on universal suffrage.But these demands cannot be realizedoutside the struggle for a black-centeredworkers and. peasants government.NSCAR, on the other hand. refuses totouch these questions because theythreaten its political bloc with the ANCand bourgeois liberals in the U.S.

Nor can the SWpiNSCAR, who n.owpose as consistent opponents of thePretoria regime, hide the fact that theywere guilty of criminal abstention dur­ing the U.S.-backed. South Africaninvasion of Angola last year. At thattime they raised the slogan of "U .S.Hands Off Angola." but categoricallyrefused to take sides in the militaryconfrontation between the Soviet;Cuban-backed MPLA forces and theSouth AfricajFNLAj UNITA alliance.

The SWPjNSCAR formula of totalconsumer / imperialist boycott of SouthAfrica is an attempt to gain instantpopularity by taking a position just tothe left of mainstream bourgeois liberal­ism, rather than providing a program tolead the working people forward torevolutionary struggle that alone canbring down the white-supremacistregimes of southern Africa. To theirutopian/ reactionary moralism, theSpartacist League; Sp~rtacus YouthLeague (SL/ SYL) counterposes a pro­gram of international labor solidarity.We call for a strategy based on mobiliz­ing the organized power of the workingclass: a labor boycott of all militarycargo to South Africa, and for unions ofimperialist corporations with invest­ments in South Africa to demand thatthe employers recognize black unions atthose enterprises.

Class-struggle demands such as theseare not mere "pie-in-the-sky," as theSWP / NSCAR reformists will contend.In San Francisco, ILWU Local 10 hasrepeatedly called on the union toimplement a labor boycott of SouthAfrican cargo; in Chicago, UAW Local6 has gone on record demanding thatFord, GM and Chrysler recognize non­white unions at their South Africanplants. In both cases, a key role in

continued on page 8

is to refrain from eating sardines,attending Broadway musicals fromSouth Africa and buying Kruggerrandgold coins.

NSCAR's main slogans for thisweekend's actions-"U .S. Interests Outof South Africa" and "Black MajorityRule Now"-amount to a call for theutopian and ultimately reactionarygimmick of an open-ended. total boy­cott on principle of South Africa ... bythe imperialists who invest there! Thesedemands might appear to some well­int'entioned militants, unfamiliar withthe SWP's policy of deliberately select­ing demands in order to appeal forliberal support, as posing the questionof black liberation in South Africa.After all, why shouldn't all supporters ofmajority rule unite?

They cannot all unite because theirperspectives are mutually contradicto­ry. Only revolutionary struggle by theworking people can liberate the op­pressed from imperialist domination.The SWP/NSCAR "single-issue" strat­egy is a program directly counter to theinterests of the non-white proletariat(African, "coloured" [mixed race] andIndian) of South Africa. The essence ofthis strategy is to pressure the Americanimperialists to use the levers of theireconomic and political powet to forcethe white South African ruling classto create a non-racialist bourgeois­democratic state.

In the first place, this program cannotaccomplish its stated goal. The super­exploitation of black labor in SouthAfrica nets a tidy 17 percent profit forimperialist concerns, perhaps the high­est return on investments world-wide. Itis obviously utopian to expect that the"multinational" corporations, whosebusiness is to jack Jp their profits byexploiting labor on the best-possibleterms (for them), will turn their noses upat a 17 percent take because racism ismorally repugnant.

Moreover, the South African bour­geoisie rules an industrially advancedeconomy, backed by massive goldreserves and nuclear capacity, and withclose ties to British, French and WestGerman capital as well as the U.S. It hasa wide margin lor economic self­sufficiency in the unlikely event of aneffective international boycott; and, inany case, the imposition of such aboycott would reflect not new-foundmoral sensitivity among the imperialistsbut rather sharpening trade rivalriesbuilding toward a new world war. Butsince the SWP calls on the U.S. army to"protect" black people in Boston, itwould not be illogical for it to demandan American invasion of South Africa!

Even supposing for a moment that theimpotent consumer boycott tactic wereto work, it would not advance thestruggle; it could in fact createenor­mous obstacles to the revolutionarystruggles necessary to liberate the blackmasses. The central issue on SouthAfrica is how the oppressed non-whiteworking people can wrest power fromthe white ruling class. Certainly, it is notthrough the withdrawal of foreigncorporations and a contraction ofinternational trade. That would onlyspell increased unemployment of blackand "coloured" workers and a weaken­ing of their social power, which has been

ANC

Mashinini and Seatlholo to order in aFebruary 26 NSCAR meeting in NewYork. SWPer Vince Eagan remarkedperemptorily: "While they have differ­ences over some questions with theANC and PAC, these have nothing todo with the U.S. tours" (Militant, IIMarch). Things had apparently gdnetoo far, however, and at a meeting thisweek at Harvard to build support for theSaturday demonstration a spokesmanfor the CP youth group, the YoungWorkers Liberation League, announcedthat all supporters of the ANC werepulling out of the March 26 Coalition.

Appealing to the Imperialist"Conscience"

Parroting the liberals, Stalinists andnationalists, with whom they hoped to"unite" before their March 26 Coalitionblew apart, NSCAR puts forward themoralistic position of boycotting every­thing South African. This boils down tothe assertion that the most effectiveaction that U.S. workers and studentscan take to aid anti-apartheid struggles

Coalition Against Apartheid," theNSCAR-initiated vehicle for this week­end's actions). In order not to offend thelikes of Dellums,. the official marchslogans call only for "black majorityrule" in South Africa, a demand whichhas even received lip service froinJimmy Carter's UN ambassador, An­drew Young.

In addition, NSCAR/ SWP must rideherd on the occasional nationalistelements they have attracted from timeto time, lest they get out of hand andannoy NAACP liberals. In building forits March 26 demonstrations, NSCARhas sponsored a national tour bySoweto student leaders Tsietsi Mashini­ni and Khotso SeatlQolo. In his speechesand interviews, Mashinini engaged invirulent anti-white demagogy and out­right race-baiting, which the SWPdutifully covered up in its press ac­counts. But then the South Africanmilitants hit the SWP where it lives: theyattacked the traditional petty-bourgeoisnationalist movements, the liberal­oriented, Stalinist-backed African Na­tional Congress (ANC) and the violentlyanti-communist Pan Africanist Con­gress (PAC).

This caused an uproar amongNSCAR's periphery, as the CommunistParty (CP) objected to the criticisms ofthe ANC. Ever sensitive to the whims ofits liberal milieu, the SWP called

Students in the streets of Soweto last summer.

The following Spartaeist League/Spartaeus Youth League leaflet wasdistributed at several marches aroundthe country last weekend in commemo­ration of the 1960 Sharpeville massacrein South Africa.

Following the bloody police massacreof hundreds of young black protesters inthe turbulent upheavals which began inSouth Africa last summer, labor mili­tants and leftists in the U.S. andthroughout the world expressed theirrevulsion for apartheid rule in numer­ous rallies, marches, petitions, boycottsand labor actions. This weekend, theNational Student Coalition AgainstRacism (NSCAR) is organizing demon­strations in New York, Chicago, SanFrancisco and a number of other citiesto mark the anniversary of anotherapartheid bloodbath-Sharpeville, 21March 1960, when 72 black men,women and children were slaughteredfor peacefully protesting the notoriouspass laws which sUbject the non-whitemajority in South Africa to police-statecontrols.

Regrettably, this campaign, based asit is on a liberal program of moralisticprotest, will not advance revolutionarystruggle against racial oppression in theU.S. or South Africa. Rather, it is an actof consummate cynicism by the refor­mist Socialist Workers Party (SWP)which created NSCAR. The "coalition"

Liberal Fallout

was built as a vehicle for the SWP tocozy up to pro-busing liberals at theheight of the struggle over schoolintegration in Boston; but as the black"establishment" began to take a dive onbusing, NSCAR found its "mass move­ment" dwindling. Now it hopes to staveoff organizational disintegration bytapping mass sentiment against white­supremacist rule in southern Africa. Byshelving almost all activities in favor- ofbusing and orienting to an apparently"safe" issue far from home, SWP /NSCAR hope to win back the supportof fickle liberals who want to duck thecrucial fight for school integration.

Avenge Sharpeville and,

SowetoI

But in chasing the will 0' the wisp ofliberal popularity. the reformists mustcarefully tailor their propaganda toexclude a proletarian revolutionaryperspective for the struggle againstapartheid. Their aim is to attractendorsements from black Democratssuch as Congressman Ron Dellums (oneof the sponsors of the "March 26

1 APRIL 1977

"Trotskyism" Added to Sins of "Gang of Four"

WORKERS VANGUARD

Spartacus Youth League Pamphlet

China's Alliance withU.S. Imperialism

Price: 51Order from/pay to: Spartacus YouthPublishing Co., P.O. Box 825, Canal SI.Station. New York, N.Y. 10013

return to power is imminent, than heever was to Chiang Ching.

Rehabilitating Teng

The New Left, "critical Maoist"Guardian. true to its political spineless­ness, has come out both for supportingHua's purge of the "gang" and foroffering an olive branch to those whoare still soft on Chiang Ching. It viewsthe purge as a "legitimate struggleagainst left dogmatism" but denies thatthe Chiang Ching group were"capitalist-roaders," much less "bour­geois counterrevolutionaries."

To show its fair-mindedness towardthe present rulers of the Heave~ly

Palace, the Guardian has opened ItSpages to a series of articles by Pat andRoger Howard. two Canadia~s nowworking at the Guangdon Institute ofForeign Languages in Canton, whounsurprisingly present the views of thenew Hua regime. The Howards' articlesare more effective than official Pekingpropaganda because they avoid thescholastic nonsense of Mao Thought.

Rather they focus on the real crimesof the Chiang Ching clique. particularlyinhuman brutality toward heroic veter­an party cadre like the guerrilla chief HoLung. Thus the Howards evoke sympa­thy for the victims of the "gang." Havingdemonstrated that the Chiang Chingclique committed violence againstinnocent persons and disrupted theeconomy, the Howards evidently be­lieve they have proved their case. Asorthodox Mao-Stalinists they ~annot

Hua Kuo-feng

seized by Lin Piao's People's LiberationArmy officer corps. who in 1968dispersed the credulous Red Guards byforce and violence. The Cultural Revo­lution shifted power, for a time. fromone grouping within the Chinese bu­reaucracy to another.

Even more important for Hsin thanrevising the Cultural Revolution isproying that Mao opposed the "gang offour." although everyone in the world(including all Maoists) believed other­wise. Hsin claims that the "gang" trickedMao and only fully revealed theircounterrevolutionary nature after hedied. However, so as not to make theGreat Helmsman seem too gullible,Hsin asserts:

"Since the beginning of the year [1976],as Mao's health was deteriorating, ~e

had decided to deal with them. But hISadvanced age made it impossible forhim to do it directly: he had to rely onHua Kuo-feng and others to deal withthe problem:'

This supposedly authoritative pam­phlet provides not a single documentedquote that Mao oppo~ed the ~~i.ang

Ching clique or even senously cntlCl.zedit. Rather Hsin cites the ever-convementwall posters for Mao's anti-"gang"remarks. And these statements have thecharacter of palace gossip, such as o~e

might pick up from a chauffeur or matdin the Forbidden City.

However, even if a veritable docu­ment by Mao seriously criticizingChiang Ching were available, this wouldbe irrelevant. Mao played a honaparttstrole within the Chinese bureaucracy,maneuvering between its various cliquesand power blocs. He simultaneouslyencouraged and supported the ChiangChing clique and criticized and oppose?it as the occasion warranted. But there ISone thing which no pro-Peking propa­gandist can deny. M~o w~s far morehostile to Teng HSIao-pmg, whose

Revolution as'seventy percent successand thirty percent failure...... WereMao's severe criticisms of the CulturalRevolution made known to the Chinesepeople before now'? No, because (youguessed it):

"China's newspapers have never men­tioned the faults of the CulturalRevolution. I think that this is becausethe 'gang of four' controlled the massmedia. and that the maJor mistakes ofthe Cultural Revolution were linked insome wavs to their damaginginterference."

And the 30 percent of the Cultur­al Revolution that Mao didn't like'?"Armed conflicts and the attacks onand mistreatment of a large number ofcadres, which violated the Party'slongstanding policy." Not only doesHsin condemn violence against theveteran party cadres, but he opposes theremoval of most of them fromauthority:

"Th~ Sixteen-Point Decision concern­ing the Cultural Revolution also statedthat it is necessarv to achieve the UnItyof more than 95 percent of the cadres.The majoritv of the cadres who carnedout Liu' Sha(l-chi's revisionist line did itunconsciouslv. Thev were merely fol­lowing orders from'their superiors."

Hsin would have limited the CUltur.alRevolution to the ouster of Liu followedby "sincere self-criticism" by the partyand state apparachiks,

Hsin's revisionist views should greatlyupset the many Western Maoists whowere won to the cause precisely becauseof the Cultural Revolution. It was notthe palace coup against Liu in July­August 1966. but the subsequent mobili­zation of student youth (the RedGuards) against the party/governmentestablishment that was seen by Westernradicals as the very essence of theCultural Revolution. as proof that itwas an "anti-bureaucratic, revolution­ary" campaign. It was the appearance ofthe overthrow of the governing appara­tus from below that distinguished theCultural Revolution from a typicalStalinist bureaucratic purge or previousMaoist "rectification" campaigns. Itwas the sight of Red Guards draggingthe foreign minister through Peking in adunce cap which caused New Leftradicals in the West to view the ChineseMaoists as their political kith and kin.

In arguing that the Chiang Chinggroup violated Mao's policy by attack­ing more than five percent of th~ ~adre,

Hsin cites the 8 August 1966 DeCISIOn ofthe CPC Central Committee whichofficially launched the "Great Proletari­an Cultural Revolution." As everyone inChina knows, this document was not thelast word in Cultural Revolution policy.An authoritative editorial in the 22January 1967 issue of People's Dailyputs forth a rather different line:

"Right from the beginnin~, the greatproletarian cultural revolutIOn has beena struggle for the seizure of power. ThiSgreat cultural revolution means precise­ly the arousing of millions ofpeople toliberate themselves and to seize powerfrom the handful of people within thePartv who arc in authority and arctaking the capitalist road...."Power of every sort controlled by therepresentatives 'of the bourgeoisie mustbe seized!"

. - Peking Review,27 January 1967

In reality. power was not seized by therevolutionary masses nor even byChiang Ching's Red Guards. It was

The most significant delense of theHua regime published in the U.S. is apamphlet. "The Rise and Fall of the'Gang of Four·... put out by Book~ NewChina. This pamphlet is a translatIOn ofan article by one Hsin ~hi in theDecember 1976 issue of The Seventies, aChinese-language Hong Kong maga­zine which serves as an unofficial organfor the Peking regime.

Since the Chiang Ching group cameto power through the Cultural ~evolu­

tion and since many of theIr nowvictorious enemies were the victims ofthat period, Hsin is impelled to in effectrepudiate the Cultural Revolution-or,at least. its "revolutionary" aspects.Hsin informs us that "Mao Tse-tungviewed the results of the Cultural

6

Wall poster denouncing the "Gangof Four."

moving toward an open break withPeking and is probably waiting only. forthe official restoration of Teng HSlao­ping to make it formal.

While the attitudes of "fraternalMarxist-Leninist" parties have abso­lutely no influence in Peking poli~ics.

the Chinese Stalinist bureaucracy fIndsit useful (if sometimes embarrassing) tohave loyal. active supporters in thecapitalist world. Therefore Peking isexpending a certain propag~~da effortto convince doubters and cntlcs amongits erstwhile supporters that the ChiangChing group got what it deserved.

Repudiating the CulturalRevolution

The Chiangfhinggroup was general­ly regarded, with good reason, as themost fervent and loyal supporters ofMao Tse-tung within the Chineseleadership. Thus the violent purge of the"gang of, four" as "bourgeois counter­revolutionaries" immediately after theGreat Helmsman's death was receivedbv the world Maoist movement withshock, dismay, dissent and outrightopposition. I~ West Europe "criticalMaoist" groups such as the WestGerman Kommunistischer Bund, theSwedish Fbrbundet Kommunist and theFrench Organisation Communiste desTravailleurs have declared that thepurge of Chiang Ching signaled thevictory of "capitalist road ism." In thelJ .S. the philistine-workerist Revolu­tionary Communist Party has been

Pro-Peking Spokesman Repudiates'Cultural Revolution

1 APRIL 1977

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After a six-week trial in which avendetta-minded prosecution accusedher of "executing" a state trooper,former Black Panther Assata Shakur(Joanne Chesimard) was found guiltyMarch 26 by an all-white jury in NewBrunswick, New Jersey, on two chargesof murder and six counts of assault. Shewas immediately sentenced to lifeimprisonment and joins her comradeSundiata Acoli (Clark Squires), one ofthe Panther 21 who was convictedearlier in this same 1973 turnpikeshootout case and is now doing life plus24-30 years in a Trenton maximumsecurity prison.

The state of New Jersey has heldShakur prisoner for the past four years,while trying time and again to pin aframe-up conviction. Now it has finallysucceeded in pushing through a racistrailroad job on the woman it labeled the"soul of the Black Liberation Army."

The jury's "guilty" verdict confirmedthe sharp rightward shift in the U. S.social climate, graphically demonstrat­ed in the recent acquittals by all-whitejuries of two New York City cops who,in separate cases, shot down point­blank and killed unarmed black youths.The Shakur conviction also falls on theheels of the second murder frame-up ofRubin Carter and John Artis, in the faceof sworn admissions by the state's"witnesses" that othey had lied on thestand; and the outrageous conviction ofWendy Yoshimura, despite the lack ofeven a shred ofevidence, on trumped-upcharges of possession of explosives.

In Shakur's case, this black militantwas manifestly denied even a semblanceof a "jury of her peers," and the hangingjudge denied a defense motion for achange of trial site. Yet a National JuryProject survey showed that due to theatmosphere of racist hysteria drummedup by sensationalist news accounts atthe time of her arrest, 70 to 80 percent ofthe Middlesex County, New Jersey,population was convinced of Shakur'sguilt.

As to the "execution" charge, thedefense pointed out that the statetroopers had flagged down the car inwhich former Panthers Shakur, Acoliand Zayd Malik Shakur (James Costan)were riding, then started blaziJ'lg awaywith thelr guns. Zayd Shakur wasmurdered by the cops and a trooperkilled in the crossfire, with a bulletfroma police revolver. In a classic example ofAmerican-style capitalist justice, thetwo black militants who survived theattack were then charged with andconvicted of the murder of the cop andof their own comrade!

Assata Shakur was so badly woundedherself that she nearly died, yet the copswere, of course, charged with nothing.And the defense presented medicalevidence showing that Shakur's woundswere received while she was sitting theback seat of the car with her hands overher head.

At the beginning of the trial, LenoxHinds, national director ofthe NationalConference of Black Lawyers, said he

continued on page II

7

Sentenced to UfeImprisonment

All-WhiteJuryConvictsAssataShakur

The Spectre of TrotskyismAmong the endles:.; attacks on the

"gang of four" coming out of China is afront-page article in the Peking dailyJenmin Ji Pao (28 January) by oneChung Lien likening the Chiang Chinggroup to the Trotskyists. The Peking­loyal October League, ever desirous tosmear its rivals, like the RevolutionaryCommunist Party, with accusations ofapostasy, reprinted excerpts in the 21February issue of the Call.

The Jenmin Ji Paa article is expected­lyon the intellectual level of the 1930'sMoscow show trials. It contains nothingbut gross, obvious falsifications andimbecilic self-contradictions. No seriousMaoist group in the West would darewrite such a stupid and brazenlydishonest anti-Trotskyist polemic. Ifthey did, it could only discredit themamong any questioning members andcontacts who had access to Trotsky'swritings. This atrocious article couldonly be written in a country whereTrotskyist literature is inaccessible.

The article tries to equate the "gang's"economic policies with those of the LeftOpposition during the late 1920's, whichit totally distorts:

"The Soviet Union, then in a period ofeconomic rehahilitation, achievedmarked successes in developing indus­try and agriculture and improving thelivelihood of the workers and peasantseven though there were still someproblems. The Trotskyites, however,issued an anti-party declaration inwhich they prophesied an inevitable,grave economic crisis and the fall ofSoviet power. They did not make asingle definite proposal for the improve­ment of industry and agriculture or forthe betterment of the conditions of theworking people."

The article tries to associate Trotskyismwith the Chiang Ching clique's advoca­cy of austerity and supposed disinterestin improving the economy.

However, the 1927 "Platform of theJoint Opposition" is replete with defi­nite proposals to improve agricultureand industry and raise the livingstandards of the workers and peasants.For example, it called for the removal oCall taxes from the poorest 40-50 percentof peasant families, no tax increase formiddle peasants, and higher taxes onand forced loans from the wealthiestfarmers (kulaks). In industry, the"Platform" called for a higher rate ofinvestment, the extension of workerscontrol and increased wages in line withhigher productivity. These economicpolicies were set in the framework of thefundamental demand for the restorationof soviet democracy.

The economic crisis which theTrotskyist opposition predicted did, infact, occur. Between 1927 and 1929 thestate procurement of agricultural pro­duce fell from 10.6 to 9.5 million tons. Inresponse Stalin's forced collectivizationof agriculture led to the murder andstarvation of millions of peasants. Theforced-draft industrialization led to asevere fall in the workers' living stand­ard, which did not return to the 1929level until the early 1950's!

Ch\jng's attempts to liken Trotskyismto the Chiang Ching clique are so self­contradictory that a five-year-old childcould see through them. It is well­known, admitted even by Stalinists, thatTrotsky denied the possibility of social­ism (the first stage of communistsociety) in one country; the ChiangChing clique, however, allegedly "want­ed to realize communism overnight."

continued on page 8

rehahilitated" Certainly not, if andonly if he makes sincere and thoroughgoing self-criticism of his mistakes .... IfTeng Hsiao-ping is ahle to analyze forus the nat ure and source of his errors, hewill he ahle to make a considerablecontrihution to the revolutionary pro­cess in China."

It is typical of Stalinist sycophants likethe liowards that they are alwaysprepared to vilify those they praisedyesterday and praise those they vilifiedyesterday. For that reason, as revolu­tionary human material the Howardsand those like them are worthless.

'~:'-:;-'f-'4

Chiang Ching

"capitalist-roader":"... we began to collect and translatequoted statements of his that appearedin the press. We planned to use thismaterial to write an article explainingthe movement to criticize Teng Hsiao­ping However, after several weeks, wegave up the project. Why? Because wefound the evidence -hundreds ofquotes taken out of context-too flimsyand unconvincing."

- Guardian, 9 March

The Howards, needless to say, citewall posters indicating that Mao sharedtheir views on Teng:

"Since the arrests of the four it has beenrevealed in the wall posters that Chair­man Mao had stated clearly that in hisestimation the contradiction with TengHsiao-ping was one among the people."

And here is the kicker:"Will it be an indication that Teng'sdeviationist line has become predomi­nant in the central committee if he is

Mao and Chiang Ching in Yenan Province in 1947.

Red Guard demonstration in 1967 during Cultural Revolution.

comprehend the difference betweenbureaucratic criminals in a deformedworkers state and bourgeois counter­revolutionaries.

However, the Howards' purpose isnot so much to attack the Chiang Chinggroup as to justify the rehabilitation ofTeng Hsiao-ping. In this purpose, theyshow real understanding of their audi­ence. The return to power of Teng, farmore so than even the purge of ChiangChing, will be viewed by Westernradicals as the overthrow of Maoism inChina. Many Maoists who could acceptthe Cultural Revolution activist HuaKuo-feng cannot stomach Teng Hsiao­ping--twice purged as a "capitalist­roader" ---as the most powerful politicalfigure in People's China.

The Howards begin by arguing thatTeng was a right deviationist but not a

Derg ...(continuedfrom page 4)and kept its options open with thesecessionist Eritrean forces.

Eritrean Nationalists Used asDiplomatic Football

The ups and downs in Russian andChinese aid to the Eritrean indepen­dence fighters are a damning indictmentof the opportunist foreign policies ofthese bureaucratic, anti-working-classregimes--and an expose of the impo­tence of petty-bourgeois nationalistswho can only exist on handouts fromone or another reactionary patron.

The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF)began its struggle in 1961. the moreleftist Eritrean People's Liberat'ionForces (EPLF) emerging in 1970. In thelate 1960's the rebels received aid fromChina. This, however, was discontinuedafter December 1970 when Pekingestablished friendly relations with AddisAbaba. Thereupon the USSR took up'the slack by furnishing arms via SouthYemen just across the straits. An articlein the French Communist Party news­paper L'Humanite, (translated in theCPUSA's Daily World, 22 March1975) boasted that "the Eritrean libera­tion struggle received important aid inthe past 13 years from some progressive[i.e.. temporarily pro-Soviet) Arab andAfrican countries...."

"After Emperor Haile Selassie wasdeposed," the article went on, "it mighthave been thought that the situation wasripe for change." The Kremlin was, asalways, eager to curry favor with a left­talking nationalist regime, so "this aid[to the Eritrean independence fighters)was abruptly cut off the moment theEthiopian military ... proclaimed them­selves in favor of a socialist path ofdevelopment."

But for the ELF I EPLF the battlecontinued, now directed against the"socialist" army of Andoml Tafa­ri/ Mengistu that continued to assert theimperial claims of the Amharic dynasty.Consequently the Eritreans were forcedto turn to Libya and Saudi Arabia foraid; and, not surprisingly, while the"Marxist-Leninist" EPLF had been inthe ascendancy during the period ofMoscow aid, now it was eclipsed by theMuslim traditionalist ELF.

L'Humanite concluded: "While thesecontradictory elements cannot castdoubt on the right of the Eritreans toindependence, at the same time they doraise the question: in regard to Eritrea,are we confronted with a 'Bangladesh'which is turning into a 'Biafra'?" Behindthe elliptical analogies the Stalinist logicis clear. The Bangladesh secession fromPakistan was "progressive" because thePakistani government was pro-Chineseand the Indian government (the newoverlords of "independent" Bangladesh)was pro-Soviet. However, the 1967struggle of the Ibo people of Biafra

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8

against a genocidal war of extermina­tion by Nigeria was "reactionary"because the federal Nigerian regime wason good terms with Moscow.

The forlorn Eritrean nationalistsmade a last appeal to Moscow's hollowinternationalist pretensions at the Feb­ruary 1976 Soviet party congress, wherethe ELF delegation's memorandumpraised the Communist Party of theSoviet Union and the "socialist "bloc" forhaving "always stood beside the right ofall peoples to self-determination." Thenit begged plaintively, "We hope that thiSprincipled stand will be extended toinclude our Eritrean people" (EritreanRevolution. January-April 1976). Butthe Kremlin resolved its "principledstand" in favor of the Derg.

This is to be expected from nationalistbureaucracies which are guided not bythe Leninist principle of support to theright of self-determination but solely bypassing diplomatic c.onsiderations.Moscow decides whether to turn on oroff the aid spigot according to theforeign policy options of the oppressorstate. This is hardly surprising comingfrom the USSR, which in pursuit ofcabinet posts for the Italian CommunistParty (PCI) in the post-World War IIRome government, supported Italiancontrol over Eritrea~ only changing itsposition when the PCI was excludedfrom the cabinet after the 1948elections!

As for the "anti-imperialist" Eritreannationalists, they too are singing adifferent tune these days. A year ago theELF attacked "the immorality andfalsehood of the American campaignagainst Cuba's 'intervention' in Angolaand the defamation of Cuban interna­tionalist assistance to the AngolanRevolution." But now the same groupclaims that Cuba has agreed to supplytroops to put down the Eritrean rebel­lion, and appealed to Jimmy Carter, "atrue man of principles, to help head offan external intervention" (New YorkTimes, 8 March).

Red Sea an "Arab Lake"?The current Soviet stand on Ethiopia

was faithfully interpreted in an article byTom Foley in the 8 January 1977 DailyWorld. Without once mentioning Eri­trea's right of self-determination, hecomments: "Ethiopia's one outlet to thesea is Eritrea province, which has a longRed Sea coastline. Without Eritrea.Ethiopia would be a landlocked stateand its revolutionary developmentswould be much less influential in Africaand the Middle East."

Foley trumpets the USSR's recentdiplomatic success in the region. noting:"So the imperialists are faced with apotential Ethiopia-Somalia-South Ye­men bloc of revolutionary states which,acting together, could have a decisiveinfluence on East Africa, North Africaand the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula."The imperialists are also concerned withthis possibility, however, and thus the1] .S. has recently strengthened its ties tothe Numeiry regime in the neighboringSudan. The Khartoum government issimultaneously aiding the ELF I EPLFin Eritrea and providing a refuge foranother anti-Derg guerrilla force, theEthiopian Democratic Union, made upof dispossessed feudalists of the oldregime.

Last month the Sudanese regimesigned a joint treaty with Egypt andSyria affirming their determination tomaintain Arab dominance over the RedSea. While partly directed againstIsraeli demands for "international"(imperialist) control of the straits of Babel-Mandab, this is also a threat to(predominantly Christian, non-Arab)Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, at least, tookthe treaty seriously enough to issue awarning that it would resist all efforts to"make the Red Sea an Arab lake."

The U.S. is evidently hoping to breakthe Muslim states of Somalia and SouthYemen (formerly Aden) away from theUSSR through offers of extensive aidand credits. The New York Times (15March) reports that appeals to Somalia

by Arab states "include. urging thatSoviet technicians and military advisersbe expelled as they were by Egypt." Itsees some hope for success, since "the oilproducing Arabs led bv the.Saudis andKuwaitis have recentlv made heavyinvestments in Souther~ Yemen. whichwhile still the only pro-Soviet countrvon the Arab peninsula has suddenly andsharply softened its antagonism to itsanti-Soviet neighbors."

The issue will come to a head whenEthiopia's only other outlet to the sea.the French-controlled port of Djiboutiand its surrounding hinterland (a vest­pocket colony called the Territorv of theAfars and Issas) become independent inJune. The territory has a sizable Somalipopulation and an active nationalistmovement advocating unification withSomalia. Should this happen, an Ethi­opia cut off from the sea by a pro-SovietSomalia could quickly flipflop back intoWashington's lap. Or, should Somaliaprove attentive to the siren song of theSaudi; Kuwaiti oil sheiks, a pro-SovietEthiopia could suddenly find itselfsurrounded by pro-American Somalia,South Yemen and Yemen and withArab-financed Eritrean rebels increas­ingly effective against a demoralizedEthiopian army.

Clearly, Mengistu hoped thatCastro's visit to both Ethiopian andSomali capitals could help to avert thisdangerous predicament and restrainelements in the Somali regime who wantto exploit the (for them) presentlyfavorable situation' to "unify all theSomalis." But whatever the outcome, itis clear that the "revolutionary alliance"hailed by Foley is anything but stableand could easily go the way of Egypt,where a decade of painstaking Sovietdiplomacy and several billion rubles ofaid and sophisticated weaponry wereunceremoniously dumped by Sadat in1971.

The blind followers of Moscow andPeking have shown their true reaction­ary colors in the cyn~cal maneuveringover the Horn of Africa. The EthiopianEPRP, however, is now left without anyhope of an international mentor. Previ­ously seeking to remain available toeither Moscow or Peking, its terminolo­gy was Guevaristl Castroist. But nowCastro himself is playing a key role inthe Kremlin's intricate wheeling anddealing between the strutting bona­partes in Ethiopia (where they areshooting down anyone who claims to bea communist) and Somalia (where localleftists have been kept in jail for years).

Pro-M oscow papers are nowextolling the "revolutionary" measuresof the "new" Derg, such as "arming theworkers." What this really amounts to isto prepare a massive bloodletting ofleftist students and workers. Already atthe beginning of March the pressreported that more than 200 presumedEPRP supporters had disappeared orbeen shot in the wake of Mengistu'scoup. The Stalinists who hail everySoviet- or Chinese-backed "progress­ive" dictator, the New Lefters who cheerCuba's "revolutionary foreign policy" ofbacking "anti-imperialist" despots inAfrica are apologists for this bloodbath.

As we have already written in thepast, a Trotskyist party in Ethiopiawould doubtless recruit many dedicatedmilitants from the EPRP. "But to comeover to the position of permanentrevolution they would have to breaksharply with all forms of Stalinism;rather than seeing their struggle withinnarrow national limits of one of themost economically backward countriesof the world, they would have to fight tobuild a world party of socialist rev­olution, a reforged FourthInternational." •

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AvengeSharpeville andSoweto...(continued/rom page 5)

fighting for these policies and for theirimplementation has been played byclass-struggle oppositionists within theunIOns.

The mass struggles against apartheidand imperialism in southern Africademand the solidarity of all revolutiona­ries. Militant protests must demand theimmediate release of all anti-apartheidprisoners in Vorster's jails. But thepresent protest movement underlinesthe grievous need for revolutionaryleadership. The liberal-Stalinist ANCjoins gold magnate Harry Oppenheimerand the white opposition United Partyin calling for a white coalition govern­ment which would convene a nationalconvention to draw up a new "multi­racial" constitution (i.e., not universalsuffrage). Militant youth of the "blackconsciousness movement" have rejectedthis plan for "reforming" white suprem­acy, but could counterpose nothing butthe idealization of spontaneous revolts,blithely ignoring the fact that the anti­apartheid fighters are qualitativelyweaker militarily than Vorster's policeand army.

Tailoring its program to match that ofthe liberals (troops to Boston, blackmajority rule and moralistic boycotts),SWP/ NSCAR has nothing to offer butprotest marches, rotten-bloc coalitions(which occasionally even fall apartbefore their joint actions) and duckingissues (such as busing) which haveevoked a hard-line "backlash" andwould therefore be unpopular with itssought-for wishy-washy liberal allies.These reformists are a roadblock in thestruggle a!;dinst racial oppreSSIOn, fromBoston to South Africa. Join theSLSYU •

CulturalRevolution ...(continued from page 7)

And this is why the Chiang Ching groupare like the Trotskyists!

Why do Peking propagandists botherto drag Trotskyism into their attacks onthe "gang of four" at all? The threat ofTrotskyism would appear to be veryremote from the present concerns of theChinese bureaucracy. In Russia, Stalindefeated and suppressed the Left Oppo­sition 50 years ago. Trotsky himself wasassassinated on Stalin's orders in 1940.No group espousing Trotskyism existsin China. What the Chinese peopleknow about Trotskyism comes entirelyfrom the regime's own lying andslanderous propaganda.

The core of the Trotskyist program isproletarian political revolution againstthe privileged, oppressive and national­ist bureaucracies ruling in the Sovietbloc and China. The Stalinist regimes,however much they lie and distort,comprehend that Trotskyism stands forinternal communist revolution againstthem. The Chinese bureaucracy underMao and Chou, and under Hua andTeng, knows full well it is removed fromthe Chinese masses whom it governs, inthe last analysis, through militaryterror. The bureaucrats sense the pro­found discontent within the toilingmasses who strive for a social orderwhich is just. egalitarian and democraticand op~ns the path toward worldsocialism. The rulers in the HeavenlyPalace fear revolution from below, andknow that their bureaucratic opponentsdo also; that is why they raise the spectreof Trotskyism.•

WORKERS VANGUARD

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An Exchanl!.

Vengeance and Proletarian Justice

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A.G. rhetorically asks if the workingclass "can never be motivated byrevenge" and cites the case of the policespy and provocateur Malinovsky whowas executed after a trial by a Bolshevikrevolutionary tribunal. Certainly thatdeath sentence against a man responsi­ble for the murder of hundreds ofBolshevik party members was ajust andnecessary act. There are quite a fewsadistic torturers, war criminals and thelike who richly deserve to die at thehands of the surviving victims, and thedictatorship of the proletariat will notestablish an ex-post facto limitation onculpability for these crimes.

Moreover, it is crucial to understandthat a revolution is an act of tremendouspassion. The U.S. bourgeois press raiseda hue and cry over Castro's "drumheadtrials" of Batista hangmen in May 1959,but had summary justice not been metedout to these butchers, the masses wouldhave erupted in an orgy of bloodletting.

It is vital that such exceptionalmeasures taken in the course of consoli­dating a proletarian regime be as muchas possible carried out in an orderly wayand limited in scope so that thelegitimate desire for revenge docs notdegenerate into an orgy of bloodletting.The Marxists must constantly struggleto make clear that the task is smashingthe economic system of capitalis,texploitation, not the physical liquida­tion of individuals.

Marx repeatedly stressed that thequestion of law and punishment werebut reflections of the question of thestate:

"... it would be very difficult. if notaltogether impossible. to establish anyprinciple upon which the justice orexpediency of capital punishment couldbe founded in a society glorying in itscivilization. Punishment in general hasbeen defended as a means either ofameliorating or of intimidating. Nowwhat right have you to punish me for theamelioration or intimidation of others?And besides. there is history~there issuch a thing as statistics--which provewith the most complete evidence thatsince Cain the world has been neitherintimidated nor ameliorated bypunishment.""Plainly speaking. and dispensing withall paraphrases. punishment is nothingbut a means of society to defend itselfagainst the infraction of its vitalconditions. whatever may be theircharacter. Now what a state of society isthat which knows of no better instru­ment for its own defense than thehangman, and which proclaims ... itsown brutalitv as eternal law')"

. "On' Capital Punishment."February 1853

When the Russians reintroduced thedeath penalty in 1922 as part of its civilcode. it was a sign of the new state'sweakness and not its development. It isthrough the internationalization of theproletarian revolution and the elimina­tion of scarcity that mankind willproceed toward socialism, not throughever more thorough elimination of classenemies. A penal code based on venge­ance and death is not the instrument.of arevolutionary workers state in theprocess of withering away on the path tocommunist society.•

pets from Saigon, we demanded:"Justice would demand that thedefoliators would be brought before thehungry, that the napalmers be confront­ed by the burned and maimed, that theterror bombers be judged by thesurvivors of their mass savagery, andthat the architects of 'tiger cages' nowcome face to face with the 'tigers'."

WV No. 68. 9 May 1975

We hope it is clear even to the mostliteral-minded that this is neither a callfor the reintroduction of the Romanarena, nor an advocacy of cannibalism.

A.G. believes he has caught us In acontradictory position when he de­mands to know how we can simultane­ously oppose the death penalty and callfor the extradition; prosecution of Naziwar criminals. In these cases, ourpurpose is to expose the bourgeoisie'shypocrisy and make concrete the de­mand for justice. This point is broughtout vividly when conSidering the de­mand to extradite Nixon to Hanoi.Unlike the liberals who thought that theinterests of justice would be amplyfulfilled if Nixon "got his" for hisWatergate crimes against bourgeoislaw, the Marxists demanded the imperi­alist chieftain be called to account forhis monumental crime against theworking masses. Unfortunately, al­though in disgrace. ~ixon is a formerchief of the world's strongest imperialistpower. who is not about to be turnedover to the Vietnamese by Jimmy Carterin order to prove his commitment to"human rights." Clearly our task ascommunists is to build the movementwhich can smash imperialism and thusbring war criminals such as Nixon tojustice. not to dream up some kind ofutopian international nroletarian pris­oner transport systf'm.

Our readers will recall that at the endof the Vietnam war, when the U.S.imperialists were evacuating their pup-

Hearst II. During the uproar over thekill-crazy "Symbionese LiberationArmy" there were many petty-bourgeoisleftists who justified the kidnapping ofPatty Hearst on the basis of genealogi­cal culpability: "The Hearst kid is aruling-class pig." (Ironically, when shewas miraculously transformed into"Tania the urban guerrilla," this strangelogic went on to justify her terror againststore clerks and the like.)

The Spartacist League, in contrast,pointed out that "Patty/Tania" bore noinherited individual guilt for the crimesof capitalism. (The case of a feudalistmonarchy is different, as Trotskypointed out with regard to the Roman­ovs; if the tsar's children survived theycould serve as rallying points forsupport to the dynasty.) We insisted thatthe S LA was a lumpen violence cult benton seeking personal revenge againstindividuals on their "hit list" who wereneither representatives nor symbols ofcapitalism. The SLA was a weirdmixture of Mansonite sex and murderplus leftist rhetoric, and its wantonviolence was wholly indefensible byMarxists.

Just as we do not advocate the killingoff of the bourgeoisie and their off­spring. proletarian communists mustfight to the end against the nationalistlogic of genocide. even when it isdirected against an oppressor people.To call for the annihilation of theHebrew people of Israel or whiteAfrikaners of South Africa is at best asimple-minded. obstructive substitutefor the struggle to emancipate Palestini­an refugees or South African blackworkers from exploitation and nationaloppression; if it proved feasible toaccomplish, it would be a proposal toreplace one racist crime by another,ultimately an irremediable one. By such"logic," the genocide of European Jewsby Nazi generals, if only it had beencomplete enough, would have been the"progressive" defense of PalestinianArabs! Meanwhile. such rhetoric givesthe present-day Zionist oppressors andwillful destroyers of a people theirsmokescreen to continue their real rolein the here and now.

aI., because in their cases extraditionmeans death.

Comradely,AG.

WV replies: Comrade AG. raisesdecent and valid concerns, but he seemsto fear that Marxist opposition tocapital punishment renders us helplessto defend ourselves against murderousreaction after the victorious proletarianrevolution. Saying we oppose the deathpenalty "in principle," he ascribes to usthe views of pacifists: "thou shalt notkilL" In contrast to religious hypocrites,this is not a commandment forrevolutionaries.

On the contrary, self defense is acardinal commandment of the workersmovement. It is the first responsibility ofthe dictatorship of the proletariat totake those measures necessary to con­solidate workers rule against counterre­volutionaries. But AG. confuses theseextraordinary measures with the func­tions of a judicial code. The executionsordered by revolutionary tribunals arenot capital punishment. Our first articleon the death penalty ("Abolish theDeath Penalty!" WV No. 117. 9 July1976) explained this relationship:

"The Bolsheviks carried outrevolutionary terror in defense of theirnew state. For this task not only the RedArmy but the Cheka (ExtraordinaryCommission to Combat Counterrevo­lution and Sabotage) was required. Thewar against counterrevolution wasunderstood as a temporary episodewhich would need temporary anddrastic measures. But the penal codewas a more permanent feature of theproletarian state. The Cheka was set upas a temporary instrument reflecting thenecessity to consolidate and defendsoviet power against bourbeois restora­tion and imperialist invasion. The penalcode embodied the Bolsheviks' expecta­tions that the securing of soviet powerand the extension of the revolutioninternationally would open up a periodof social reconstruction on the path tothe gradual 'withering away of thestate'."

At bottom the confusion is over theMarxist understanding of the state. ButA.G. is also off base in his view that thedeath penalty would be the "ultimatejustice" of a "victorious socialist revolu­tion in the U.S." In his laudablerevolutionary fervor. the writer wants toextend capital punishment to includenot only Nazi war criminals but alsopresidents, cops. the planners ofnapalming, those who ordered the atombombing of Nagasaki and so forth. Butwhat about the entire personnel of theCIA, bank presidents and reactionarybourgeois politicians? Are they to avoidAG.'s "ultimate justice"?

The socialist revolution is not an actof blood vengeance; our purpose is notto physically annihilate the capitalistclass but to economically expropriate it.and our "ultimate justice" is to create aclassless society. One of the key tasks ofMarxists is to take the workers' entirelylegitimate desire to avenge their oppres­sion and lead it to embrace a socialsolution rather than mere vengeanceagainst individuals. To focus on theindividuals is to embrace atomisticresponses ranging' from settling ofpersonal scores (such as Detroit autoworkers who vent their rage overworking conditions by killing foremen)to the anarchists who mistake theindividuals who are the instruments ofclass rule for that rule itself.

To take the cry for individualvengeance against exploiters and op­pressors to an extreme conclusion. wecan consider the case of notorious anti­union press baron William Randolph

Rahway, N.J.January 18, 1977

Dear comrades:

This letter is in response to your replyto David Herreshoffs meandering andinchoate criticism of your stand onprison and capital punishment. First ofall let me unequivocally state that Iagree with the Marxist aim of a classlesssociety-which will necessarily bestateless and prison-free.

The sense I get from your reply toHerreshoff is that the Spartacist Leagueis against capital punishment inprinciple. In the first paragraph of yourresponse you write "Neither Herreshoffnor Marx nor the Bolsheviks nor theSpartacist League advocates forcedlabor prisons or punishment."

The SL has in the past called for theextradition of Nixon to Vietnam tostand trial for war crimes against theVietnamese. I enthusiastically supportthis demand. But it must be more thanobvious that if Nixon were tried in acourt of law by his Vietnamese victimshe would be folind guilty and givencapital punishment. The SL has alsocalled for the extradition of "ex"-NazisArtukovic, Trifa. and Menten to Yugo­slavia. Rumania, and Polandrespectively to stand trial for their warcrimes. Surely it must be just as obviousthat if this were done they too would begiven the death penalty in payment oftheir crimes. I also support theirextradition and subsequent fates.

How then can you say that theworking-class can never be motivatedby re,\enge against its most despicableenemies? What would the trials of theabove four be if not revenge. which inmy opinion is most justified?

Another case you might consider isthat of Roman Malinovsky. Malinov­sky was a Tsarist police spy and agent­provocateur. He was also a member ofthe Central Committee of the Bolshevikparty, as well as the Bolshevik floor­leader in the Tsar's Duma (to furtherpile irony upon irony!). In his capacityas police spy he was responsible for theexecution and exile of dozens ofBolsheviks. Around World War I he grewtired of his role and retired to Paris, Ibelieve. to live high off the hog on his ill­gotten money. After the BolshevikRevolution he evidently had somechange of heart. broughtonnodoubtbythe Bolsheviks' opening of the Tsaristsecret police files which exposed hisrole. He wrote to Lenin asking forpermission to return to Rl)ssia to makeamends. He was told he could return.Upon arrival he was arrested, tried andrightfully executed! If this wasn'tBolshevik revenge upon this spy­murderer I don't know what is!

Would not a victorious socialistrevolution in the U.S. mete out ultimatejustice to (among many many others)cops who cold-bloodedly kill ten yearold black kids under the pretext that thelatter were toting pistols. rifles. grenadesor whatever occurs to the Vyshinsky­like minds of police dept. heads') Whatabout those who ordered the atom­bombing of :\agasaki or Hiroshima. orthe napalming of Vietnam? Would theseescape justice') I find this a bit hard toaccept.

In short all these examples (and WVreaders could easily add to the list)\;ixon. :\a;is. kIller-cops, police-spies.etc .. etc. ad nauseum are cases whereproletarian justice is but organizedre\enge UustIlied). If you oppose thedeath penalty on principle you mustoppose on principle the extradition of\;ixon. Artukovic. Trifa. Menten. et.

1 APRIL 1977 9

Far Eastern EconomiC ReView

WORKERS VANGUARD

expenditures for building up the policeforce doubled in five years and stateafter state saw its elected administrationdissolved and replaced by "presidentialrule," few bourgeois "champions ofdemocracy" called Gandhi a "dictator"or "empress."

But jubilation over the election willprove .short-lived on all sides. Thebourgeoisie will not get social peace andefficient. honest government. Themasses will not get bread and freedom.Already fissures have appeared in post­election maneuvering for the primeminister's post: as a figure of equalprominence with Desai, Ram reacted toDesai's selection with a fit of pique.After the new prime minister publiclyannounced that Ram would have a seatin the cabinet. ttie CD leader sulked fortwo days before accepting the ministryof defense.

Ram Dahn, a general secretary of theJanata Party, resigned his post, protest­ing that the behind-the-scenes deal wasconducted "in the dictatorial style of theCongress." George Fernandes, therailway workers' leader who had takenthe reformist Socialist Party (SP) intoJanata, also initially refused a profferedcabinet pos~, complaining that "aneffort to create what is termed aconsensus .. "amounts to foisting thepoint of view of a group." But havingsold out the workers' struggles byallying with the communalist! reaction­ary Jan Sangh and the conservative oldCongress bosses. he was not going toturn up his nose at the spoils of victory.Fernandes soon changed his mind andentered the cabinet on the same day asRam.

The squabbling over political bootyand sharp political divergences willlikely surface at every turn. On onepoint. however. there will be broadunity. This will unmistakably be aregime of "law and order," although itwill no doubt be far more cautious thanGandhi in directly interfering with thebourgeoisie's exercise of its rights.While lifting the state of emergency, thegovernment is retaining the Mainte­nance of Internal Security Act whichcodifies the latent police-state powersavailable to any prime minister. Nor willthe new cabinet be unwilling to use thosepowers against the masses. As Bombaychief minister in 1956, Desai suppressedriots over the state language issue byissuing shoot-on-sight orders anddrowning the conflict in blood. Signifi­cantly, the New York Times (28 March)describes the new federal home ministeras "known for high integrity andinsatiable quest for power."

Especially ominous is the presence ofat least two Jan Sangh members in the

cabinet. Besides Its agitation for stateprotection and nurture of sacred cowsand for faster development of nuclearweapons, the Jan Sangh has made itselfnotorious by the participation of itsorganized gangs in attacks on "un­touchables" and in murderous pogromsagainst Muslim areas. Pervasive socialdiscrimination against these two groupshas made them extremely volatile andhence likely targets for governmentrepression. Ram and his associates, ofcourse, stayed with Gandhi through 19months of the "emergency," sharingresponsibility for every egregious

Der Spiegel

Jaya Prakash Narayan, left, with Jagjivan Ram.

Illusory "Democracy"

The American bourgeoisie jubilantlyhailed the outcome because Desai'sannounced foreign policy of "piOper

never before attempted by even the mostdespotic regimes. stood out in thecatalog of grievances.

Moreover, Congress was faced for thefirst time w"ith a united opposition bloc.This fact alone drastically reshaped theelections. Over 400 constituency raceswere essentially straight contests be­tween Congress and Janata or one of itsallied parties. preventing Congress fromgaining plurality victories against itsnormally divided opponents.

sion not to some idyllic "democracy,"but to a less assertive central power.

The Indian and Western bourgeoiscommentators now fulsomely celebrat­ing the "return of democracy" did notraise a peep over the bonapartist powersinvoked by Gandhi in her early attackson leftists, militant workers and peas­ants: not a word of criticism at theround-up of thousands of "Naxalite"Maoists, imprisoned and tortured inWest Bengal during 1969-71 and stillimprisoned today; nor at the massdetention of 50,000 railway workersduring their 1974 national strike. When

together as threats to social stability.But the broad scope of the political

repression and particularly the bloodyexcesses of the sterilization program(see "Murderous Sterilization Cam­paign in India." Women and RevolutionNo. 14. Spring 1977) drove evenbulwarks of Congress support such asthe Muslim and "untouchable" commu­nities into the arms of the opposition.These specially oppressed groups (to­gether composing about a quarter of thepopulation) saw the government's pop­ulation control policies as particularlydirected at them.

The regime's fate was essentiallysealed last month when Jagjivan Ram,leader of the "untouchables" and a

'.

r.

· ·'?.i.·\ .

.....

(continuedfrom page I)

pIe-herself and the despised Sanjay.The myriad of regional, state and localbosses, caste, language, religious andethnic satraps which once made up thekaleidoscopic Congress has now beenreshuffled in Janata.

While the old Congress warhorsesparade before the grave of the "Mahat­ma," pledging to rededicate themselvesto Gandhian ideals of asceticism. theimperialist press is wildly praising thereturn of Indian "democracy." Yetunder Janata as under Congress, India

Gandhi ...

10

Congress HemorrhagesIndira Gandhi rode out the 1969 split

with Desai and such Congress notablesas Asoka Mehta, Chandra Bhan Guptaand P. C. Sen. A few cosmetic reformsand much populist demagogy weresufficient to retain the financial backingof the bourgeoisie and the votes of themasses. In the 1971 general election.Gandhi successfully portrayed theleadt'rs of the splinter Congress Party(Organization) as tools of the monopo­lists and foisted responsibility for all thegovernment's failures on them. Her"New" Congress Party swept the elec­tions with its "Abolish Poverty" slogan­eering and captured two-thirds of theseats. But blatant corruption, steepinflation, mass famine and economicstagnation soon caused the so-called"Indira wave" to recede, provokingmassive struggles in Gujarat and Bihar.

In our last article on India ("IndiraGandhi Nods to Right Wing," WV No.141, 21 January), we noted that Gan­dhi's "steps toward unfettered police­state rule" represented "an attempt tofind a stable footing for her increasinglybonapartist regime." The state ofemergency was an attempt to gain abreathing space by suppressing bothleft- and right-wing opponents. Thetrade unionists, leftists, bourgeois poli­ticians and journalists, black market­eers, Hindu communalists, regionalsecessionists, etc., who swelled theprisons (150,000 jailed during the"emergency," and 30,000 still in prison atthe time of the election) were lumped

AFP

Left, Indira's son, Sanjay Gandhi; right, the new prime minister Morarji Desai.

will not be the "world's most populous member of every post-independence non-alignment" means a shift awaydemocracy:' but a dictatorship of a tiny cabinet, resigned as minister of agricul- from alliance with the Soviet Union.stratum of zamindari (landlords), cor- ture, taking a number of Congress Typically, it draped great power diplo-rupt Oxford-educated bureaucrats and kingpins into his newly formed CD. matic considerations in the language ofMewari capitalists over a mass of 600 Ram's defection signaled the Indian liberal moralism. Thus the New Yorkmillion impoverished peasants, workers bourgeoisie's unwillingness to further Times (22 March) crowed: "An im-and unemployed. For these downtrod- tolerate Gandhi's attempt to elevate poverished people rejected the sirenden masses, Gandhian "democracy" is a herself and her brash upstart son above song of authoritarians everywhere thatcruel hoax. the old-boy network of regional, caste bread must be bought at the price of

and class alliances on which Congress freedom." But the real point is thattraditionally rested. The prime minis- Gandhi never delivered on her promiseter's hopes to gain post-facto legitima- of "bread," by which her suppression oftion for the draconian measures of the bourgeois-democratic rights had beenpast period backfired, and the electoral justified to the masses. The transfer oftallies dramatically revealed the re- governmental power represents a rever-gime's isolation.

Desai, Ram, power broker. mysticJaya Prakash Narayan and otherveterans of the independence struggletook pains to portray themselves as thelegitimate heirs of Indian bourgeoisnationalism, especially the reactionaryutopian elements associated with Mo­handas Gandhi. Desai, in particular. isdevoutly religious; abstains from alco­hol. meat and (since 1928) sexualintercourse; espouses rural self­sufficiency. and spends time each dayspinning "khadi" cloth in imitation ofthe "Mahatma." But such moral postur­ing hardly explains the spectacularsuccess of the opposition.

Its victory was essentially negative.Votes for Janata (aptly described byIndira Gandhi as "a desperate, strangemixture of ideas and ideologies") werevotes against the incumbent regime.That landless peasants and workerscould vote for the local capitalists,landlords and usurers associated withDesai and despised former CongressParty bigwigs; that Muslims and "un­touchables" could vote for the ultra­reactionary Hindu communalist JanSangh politicians running under theJanata umbrella, indicates the intensehatred engendered by Gandhi's regime.Virtual gunpoint sterilization of mil­lions of urban and rural poor, a policy

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(continued from page 7)was convinced that "unless cItIzensinterested in maintaining [!] a fair andimpartial judicial system intervene, thiswoman will not leave the New Jerseyprisons alive." And following theconviction, defense lawyer WilliamKunstler remarked: "The reality is, thisbeautiful young black woman never hada chance, but we, like liberal fools, stillhad hopes" (New York Times, 26March).

The naivete of Mssrs. Hinds andKunstler in relying on bourgeois "jus­tice" will no doubt appear touching tomany other "liberal fools," but it isAssata Shakur and other militants whopay for such liberal illusions with theirlives. The key to saving the ex-Panthersfrom the prison hellholes was a massivemobilization of the left, labor and blackmovements, which regrettably nevertook place.

Mass murderer Charles Manson willbe eligible for parole next year, whileJimmy Carter self-righteously excori­ates the Soviet bureaucracy for viola­tions of human rights. But AssataShakur is a bonafide political prisonerof American capitalist "democracy,"who may well sit in jail until she isreleased by a victorious workersrevolution-that is, unless she fallsvictim to death penalty laws or cold­blooded prisor. murder, as in the case ofGeorge Jackson. The left must not letthis case be forgotten. We continue todemand the immediate, unconditionalrelease and dropping of all chargesagainst Assata Shakur!.

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had proved episodically useful in pro­viding a left face for the regime andcementing the alliance with the SovietUnion, it became distinctly expendableshortly before Gandhi called the elec­tions, when she was making gestures ofaccommodation to the bourgeoisopposition.

Despite this shabby treatment, theCPI did its best to cling to its chosen"progressive" bourgeois-nationalistleader. But when Ram's defectionindicated which way the wind wasblowing, the pro-Moscow Stalinistsundertook an incredibly brazen fence­straddling maneuver. In Orissa, Bihar

'and Uttar Pradesh, where Congress wasclearly going under, the CPI supportedRam's CD to get a foot in the oppositionbloc. But in states like Kerala and TamilNadu where Gandhi could still count onsignificant support, CPI loyalities neverflagged. This wily maneuver exploded inits face on election day. Unwelcome byboth sides, the Stalinists tallied a mereseven seats.

The independent Stalinist CPl­Marxist (CPI-M) tied its working-classsupporters to the coattails of thebourgeois opposition. Unlike Fer­nandes' Socialists, however, the CPI-Msaved some room to maneuver by notactually entering the Janata Party, butinstead entering into no-contest blocswith it. Faring better than the CPr. itnetted 22 seats. However, its post­election behavior--promising to sup­port the Janata government in parlia­ment-indicates it will follow the servileroad it trod when participating in statecoalition governments over the lastdecade in Bengal and Kerala,

The CPI-M along with the SP and theCPl will one day pay dearly for theirtreason to the workers' cause. Whethertailing Desai's coalition of venal oldCongress bosses with dangerous Hinducommunalists or apologizing for Gan­dhi's blood-stained tyranny, the refor­mist workers parties are cri mi nallyguilty of binding the working masses toan unbroken cycle of poverty and policerepressIOn.

Opportunities to wrench the workersand peasants from their misleaders willsoon arise as the trade unions decide totest their new-found "freedom" bydemandillg the pay raises which theywere denied throughout the "emergen­cy." As the motley governmental coali­tion joins hands with the oppositionCongress Party to crush any working­class upsurge, the masses will taste thebitter fruits of the class-collaborationistpolicies foisted on them by the refor­mists. An Indian Trotskyist party,armed with the program of permanentrevolution, consistently defending thepolitical and organizational indepen­dence of the proletariat, is required toturn such opportunities to the advan­tage of the struggle for a revolutionaryworkers and peasants government. •

Stalinists Tail Congress, Janata

After the Congress Party, the bigloser in the election was the pro­Moscow ·Communist Party of IndiafCPI). Despite the CPl's slavish supportfor Gandhi's police-state measures, thegovernment began to lash out at theStalinists late last year, censoring theirpress, arresting CPI members anddredging 'up the CPl's wretched pro­imperialist policies of the World War IIpopular-front period. Although the CPI

The liberals' campaign against "intel­ligence abuses" has not stopped theFBI's criminal activities. On the con­trary. it has offered a sophisticatedcover-up in the form of the idea 'thatexposure itself is reform. Meanwhile,the FBI compiles new "dirt" for ADEXand tl:e like. The "reforms" simplystreamline and prettify the Americanimperialists' reign of terror at home andabroad.

The Congressional investigations,carried out after the exposures havebeen leaked to the public through thepress, have not curtailed the illegalactions of the CIA/ FBI (except perhapsto discourage sloppy and promiscuous"bag jobs" against bourgeois parties).Their main result has been to try to plugup the leaks by creating stiffer penaltiesfor the "Ieakers." Congress has provedto be the best cover-up and "plumbing"operation.

Muckrakers and "reformers" willnever outgrow their illusions that theU.S. government's secret political policecan be cajoled into acting like "gentle­men." As new "abuses" of the FBI's so­called "legitimate authority" are an­nounced and piously decried, theliberals can only shake their heads andwonder why the FBI and CIA show sucha persistent penchant for violating theconventions of bourgeois "law andorder." It is their class allegiance whichblinds the liberals to the simple fact thatthese agencies' central purpose is to dothe dirty work considered inappropriateto the "normal" administrative mechan­isms of bourgeois democracy.

Revolutionists welcome any measurethat actually makes more difficult themurderous business of the official andunofficial terror organizations of U.S.imperialism. But 'the liberal streamlin­ing attempts have no- such intent.Nothing less than the victorious prolet­arian revolution can abolish capital­ism', secret political police and theirdeath-dealing "dirty tricks.".

Congress, who were repeatedly under­cut or kicked out by Gandhi's fiat, canbe expected to be particularly assertive.

Abolish the CIA/FBI!

The American government is morecomfortable without the category of"political prisoner." Lewis is particular­Iv concerned that in the midst of Carter's~nti-communist "human rights" cru­sade, the Smith Act

"casts a shadow on American claims offreedom. Indeed. a Soviet apologist hasrecently pointed to the Smith Act as anindication of American hypocrisy indefending Soviet dissenters."

New York Times. 10 March

FBI witchhunting has never beenfundamentally affected by the conve­niently oscillating niceties of bourgeoislaw. It is surely more than coincidencethat at the very time the courts weremaking "speech crimes" prosecutionsmore difficult, the FBI in 1956 began itsnow infamous COINTELPRO("co u n ter-i n te II igence program")against the Communist Party and"related organizations." In 1961COINTELPRO was expanded to in­clude the Socialist Workers Party,against which the FBI conducted anadmitted 92 burglaries between 1960and 1966.

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MARXIST WORKING-CLASS WEEKLY OFTHE SPARTACIST LEAGUE

(continuedlrum page 3)

informers, "listening posts," mail sur­veys, warrantless wiretaps and the restof its domestic spy machinery. The FBIreportedly deployed about one-third ofits "total investigative force"~nearly

16,000 agents controlling 5,000 inform­ers-- in this "security" operation. Coun­terSpy, relying on Sanford Ungar'sbook, FBI, estimates that today one­fourth of the FBI reSQurces are devotedto "internal security and counter­intelligence matters." This may be aconservative estimate.

With the end of Joseph McCarthy'sparticular style of anti-Communistwitchhunting and the inability to sustainpublic support for this level of anti­Communism, the witchhunt of the leftwent on more or less as u~ual, i.e., both"legally" and extralegally. Court rulingsafter 1956 tended to restrict the applica­bility of the "speech crimes" laws asviolating provisions of the First andFifth Amendments (the Voorhis Act hasnever been used as the basis for anyprOSell1tjon).

In the courts the definition of SmithAct "advocacy" became narrowed to acall for immediate action. This renderedthe law largely useless judicially, but it isstill the rationale for things like ADEX.As Anthony Lewis, guardian of old­time liberalism, recently pointed out:

"The Supreme Court has found suchconstitutional difficulty in that act [theSmith Act] that it is almost a dead letteras far as prosecutions go; but it hasprovided a justification for many F.B.I.investigations of supposedly subverSivegroups. with wiretaps and other doubt­ful actions."

--New York Times, 14 March

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breach of democratic rights.With Indira and Sanjay Gandhi

temporarily out of the way, the remain­ing elder leaders of the Congress Partywill certainly seek to carve out a role inthe jockeying for position which hasalready begun. Broad agreement on apro-U .S. foreign policy, repudiation ofthe "emergency" measures, curtailmentof the troublesome Congress YouthLeague and more decentralized govern­ment may well open the possibility forsome form of reconciliation among theold-time Congress politicians, especiallyto the extent that Desai needs leverageagainst his partners in Janata. The statepoliticians, both Congress and non-

/

Shop- Committee rnd

WV Photo

1 APRIL 1977

particular-stopped taking it in theneck.

It is clear that the basis of the strikeshould be broadened to obtain a Localcontract with real protection. Key tothis, as the present strike so clearlyshows. is the right to strike without priorInternational authorization over work­ing conditions, including line speed andhours. Paragraph 117 must be junked!

Mass picketing should shut down theG M Fremont plant tight with nothingand no one being allowed in or out!

The union should call a mass meetingof all its members at the plant todemocratically elect a strike committeewith representatives from each workgroup in the plant to organize thepicketing and conduct of the strike.

The experience of the San Franciscocity workers' strike last year shows thatit is not good enough to rely just on thepromises of the leaderships of thevarious central labor councils to buildsolidarity with the strike. Mass delega­tions from Local 1364 should be sent tothe other G M plants in California toshut them down. and militants in otherunions must push for delegations to theLocal 1364 picket lines to demonstratetheir solidarity.

Mass delegations should also be sentto the transportation unions, Team­sters, rail and longshore, to demand thatall G M goods be "hot-cargoed" tor theduration of the strike. Transport work­ers must refuse to handle any G M goodsin California for the duration of thestrike!

But a solid strike that can force G M toback down will not come about auto­matically. Not only will Local 1364members face the full fury of GM and itscops. courts and judges. but also veryreal opposition from the UA W tops. Agenuine but limited victory can be wonin the present strike, but only in spite 0.1the present UA W leadership. Such avictory could help lay part of the basisfor the formation of a movement to oustthese treacherous misleaders from theirpositions in the union in favor of a class­struggle leadership willing to wage agenuine struggle in the interest of theworkers and against the companies.•

workers were engaged in an unauthor­ized work action.

The 1364 brass. while doing nothingfor the II workers. brought chargesagainst one of the Call supporters-anact of utter hypocrisy and cynicism. Aleaflet issued by the class-struggleopposition group. the Committee for aMilitant UAW (CMUAW). entitled"Hands Off the Idiots," pointed out thatwhile the Call leaflet was indeed stupidand irresponsible. it provided no basisfor the company discipline. TheCM UA W demanded that the bureau­crats drop the charges against the Callsupported because the local union tops,with their policy of appeasement andcollaboration with the comapny, werethe real criminals intent on trying topurge anyone associated with an "unau­thorized" work action.

Nevertheless. such bureaucraticpurge attempts are indicative of a rise ina red-baiting purge mentality among theLocal leadership. The irony is that justone month after the attempt to purge theCall for having had a hand in an"unauthorized work action," the self­same bureaucrats are now in hot waterwith the Solidarity House gang forleading such an action. The red-baitingatmosphere whipped up by theMays/Malone/Nano leadership mayvery well backfire as the Internationaldumps them for their inability to"handle" the Local 1364 workers.

Why has the Mays bureaucracy feltcompelled to call a strike? There havebeen allegations that Mays & Co.wanted to refurbish their badly tar­nished reputations as militants. Elec­tions for delegate posts for the UnitedAuto Workers convention this springare coming ulY, and many militants werepredicting that Mays would lose. In anycase. the cause is just and however badlyprepared the union. the battle lines havebeen drawn! The strike must be won andGM soundly defeated!

The only alternative to the UA Wtops' call for a capitulation. with all itsdire consequences. is to wage a solidstrike. GMAD's attack must be stoppedin its tracks! It is high time the labormovement --and auto workers in

UAW picketers outside Fremont GMAD plant March 28.

If the company can force the union inthis strike. many militants. including theLocal leadership. may face the axe.Company harassment of workers andthe union representatives will becomeeven more intense than the alreadyharsh treatment dished out dailv.

UnfortunatelY. the leadership ofLocal 1364, having stumbled into anunexpected strike. is attempting to keepthe strike confined to the narrow issue ofthe removal of a foreman. Such a policyis. of course. of a piece with theiragreement with Woodcock and Com­pany that the strike constitutes a"wildcat."

According to the strikers interviewedby WVreporters. the policy of the Local1364 leadership and its shop chairmanEarlie Mays has been to keep a lid on themilitancy. Only token picketing hasbeen organized (to avoid injunctio'ns noteven issued!). Recently hired workershave been encouraged to report to work(i.e .. to scab). And Teamster trucks havebeen permitted to go and come from theplant grounds freely.

"This is a gentlemen's strike,"complained one picket to Wv. He wenton to explain how the union should havestruck when the skilled tradesmen in theplant rejected the proposed Local

. contract for a second time.To ensure that only their version of

the strike gelS out. the 1364 bureaucratshave from the beginning tried to enforcea policy of censorship on the members,ordering them not to talk to anyreporters. At the same time they havetold the membership to wait until theInternational representatives arrive tonegotiate an end to the strike.

This is a suicidal policy. Right nowWoodcock. fresh home from his journeyto Vietnam as an emissary for imperial­ist chief Carter. is busy breaking asimilar strike in a Chrysler plant inIndianapolis. There, 3,100 workers"wildcatted"-i.e., were left to hang andturn in the wind by the International.Four officers, five committeemen and14 shop stewards have been fired, and 44of the most active picketers suspended.In addition Chrysler has filed a multi­million dollar damages suit. Today,Woodcock's hand-picked successorDoug Fraser harangued a mass meetingof the Indianapolis Chrysler strikers,ordering them back to work with vague"promises" that he would "attempt" toget "some" of the suspensions lifted. Asimilar fate awaits the Fremont G Mworkers if things are left to continue asthey have been.

The company, for its part, is clearlytaking a tough stand. Mounds ofgrievances over speed-up, harassment,medical and health and safety issueshave piled up. Discipline has beenintense. A short while bacK anothercommitteeman was fired when he triedto defend himself against an assault by aforeman. More recently, II workersfrom the truck line received disciplines.The company alleges that a leaflet issuedby supporters of the October League'sCall proved that the II disciplined

12

FREMONT. California. March 29-­Workers at the huge General MotorsAssembly Division (G MAD) plant here.members of United Auto Workers(lJA W) Local 1364. walked off the jobat noon yesterday. .

The strike involving some 5.000workers was called by the shop commit­tee when management refused to meetunion demands to rcmil\( a foremanfrom his supervisory position. Theforeman in ljuestion had racially insult­ed an alternate committeeman andassaulted another committeeman at­tempting to file a grievance againstdeliberate company harassment of aninjured worker.

Management arrogantly announcedits refusal to consider the union'sdemand and denounced the strike as"illegal" citing Paragraph 117 of theG M UAW national contract. In retalia­tion for the strike action G M promptlyfired the entire shop committee!

The company's hand wasimmediately strengthened by the UAWInternational which informed the 1364leadership that it too considered thestrike a wildcat!

This is just one more in an unbrokenchain of atrocities by the Woodcockleadership. While the company attacksthe union head-on. the sell-out Solidari­ty House gang stabs its striking brothersand sisters in the back!

Local 1364 must demand the UAWInternational reverse its treacherousposition and give full sanction to thestrike. Let Woodcock come to Fremontand explain why it is that he feels it is"illegal" for the union to strike to defendits representatives from being assaulted,abused and insulted!

Local 1364 members should alsodemand that the Local's leadership stopcalling the strike a "wildcat" or "unau­thorized." The strike was called by theelected Local leadership over a justdemand. The membership shows enthu­siasm and support of the strike and hasplenty to strike over. No union can existwithout the right to strike over workingconditions. To call this strike a "wild­cat" or "unauthorized" is to fall into thehands of those who want to crush thestrike-GM and pro-company UAWbureaucrats.

It is clear from GM's hard-lineposture and its firing of the entire shopcommittee that the company has delib­erately provoked this strike. GMAD isintent upon getting in on the year-longanti-labor offensive in the Bay Area. Itwants to break the back of one of themost militant UAW locals in thecountry.

At stake is not simply the issue of theassaulted and insulted committeemenbut of the very ability of the union tofight to protect its members. Theincident which provoked the strike isjust the tip of a very large iceberg. Local1364 has been working without a localcontract since the UAW nationalcontract expired last September whilethe company has carried on a brutalrampage of forced overtime, speed-up,and harassment.

WfJliltEliS 'ANfifJAlilJ

Fremont GM Provokes Walkout