WfJ/tNE/tS ,,1N'tll1,, 25¢No. 277 :~.~ X-~23 ·27 March 1981

EL SALVADOR:

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Imperialist "Doves"Enemies

of Revolution

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modus vivendi with Yankee imperialismseem to spring eternal. After theWashington diktat denouncing theSandinistas for supplying arms toSalvadoran leftists, the response fromManagua has been to slash the alreadymeagerflow ofguns. Though Americanleftists are silent on this betrayal, thenumerous reports cannot be doubted:not only calls by FSLN "hard" Borge fora "political solution" in EI Salvador, butinformation from American intelligenceindicating a sharp cutback in armscoming through Nicaragua. As forleftists in EI Salvador, following theirfailed January "final offensive" a leaderof the Farabundo Marti NatIOnalLiberation front (FMLN), Ana Guada­lupe Martinez, announced: "Our maintask is rather to organize a bloc ofstatesthat will oppose an intervention in EISalvador."

In the United States, meanwhile, EISalvador protests have mushroomed:teach-ins coast to coast, 5,000 marchingin the Bay Area in mid-January, 7,000 inBoston March 21 and major demonstra­tions against U.S. intervention sched­uled for Washington, D.C. in earlyMay. Their political axis is unambigu­ously that of the imperialist "doves."

continued on page 10

Spartacist contingent fights illusions in

howls," as Cuban defense minister RaulCastro called them. Green Berets havebeen dispatched to EI Salvador, and theNew York Times now admits what hasbeen known for some time: formerNational Guardsmen of the Somozadictatorship are training with Cubangusanos inside the U.S. preparing tooverthrow the left-wing Sandinistaregime in Nicaragua. Shades of the Bayof Pigs! As for large-scale intervention,Pentagon officials trying to jack up theirwar budget say they can't make a showof force without withdrawing an aircraftcarrier from the Indian Ocean or theMediterranean (New York Times, 15March). Yet at the moment the U.S. isconducting a large-scale naval warmaneuver (Readex 1-81) involving 41ships in the Caribbean, and the nuclearcarrier Nimitz has been stationed offCuba (UPI dispatch, 3 March)! No oneshould doubt, then, that Reagan isprepared to stage some sort of militaryprovocation if he figures the Sovietswon't react.

In his Con~ressional testimony Haigclaimed that "Phase One [of a Soviet'four-phase operation' in Central Amer­ica] has been completed-the seizure ofNicaragua." But even though Reaganwrites them off, for the FSLN hopes ofa

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7,000 protest U.S. support to EI Salvador junta in Boston, March 21.liberal imperialism.

America." Accusing Cuba of supplyingarms to Salvadoran rebels, Haig threat­ened that "a military option should notbe excluded." And National SecurityCouncil official Richard Pipes blurtedout Reagan's real policy when he toldReuters the Soviets face a choice of"changing their Communist system inthe direction of the West or going towar. There is no alternative." As theSpartacist .League has underlined,"Defense of Cuba and the Soviet UnionBegins in EI Salvador!"

And it's not just a question of "wolf

Nicaraguaon theRazor'sEdge.....6

El Salvador, a Centra! AmericanVietnam? The Reagan administration,throwing down the gauntlet to theSoviet Union, is bent on making ademonstration of American power in away that hasn't been possible since itshumiliating defeat by the workers andpeasants of Southeast Asia half a decadeago. With rhetoric harking back to theEisenhower/ Dulles era of Americannuclear blackmaiL it vows to "draw theline" against "Communist subversion"well south of the Rio Grande. Liberals,to whom "Vietnam" meant above all alosing war for U.S. imperialism, worryabout the "light at the end of the tunnel"and introduce legislation in Congress tocut off military aid to the murderousSalvadoran junta. And around thecountry in recent weeks a protestmovement has sprung up recalling,though on a far smaller scale, theVietnam antiwar movement.

Once again it is the coalition betweenDemocratic Party "doves" and reform­ist leftists which dominated the Vietnamantiwar movement with their liberalpolitics of pressuring Washington rath­er than defeating imperialism. Mean­while, Nicaraguan Sandinistas andSalvadoran left-wing leaders lock theinsurgent masses, intended victims ofthe U.S.' Cold War onslaught, in thesame popular-front trap. They are nowseeking not a battlefield victory, muchless workers r~volution, but a "politicalsolution" with a section of the ChristianDemocratic/military junta, arrangedthrough international pressure. ButReagan has no intention of negotiatingany such deals. Intent on sending abloody message to the Kremlin, as wehave pointed out before, the onlysolution he has in mind for CentralAmerican leftists is a "final solution."

Because they seek to avoidchallenging the vital interests of imperi­alism, liberal/radical misleaders mustignore the real target of Reagan and his·four-star secretary of state Haig: theUSSR and the other bureaucraticallydeformed workers states of the Sovietbloc, particularly Cuba. But administra­tion spokesmen have repeatedly stressedthat the uproar over El Salvador is anintegral part of their anti-Soviet wardrive. Testifying in Congress, thegeneral accused Russia of having a "hitlist for the ultimate takeover of Central

SL/ANZ Conference·Marks Rapid GrowthADAPTED FROM

AUSTRALASIAN SPARTA ClST.MARCH 1981

WORKERSVANGIJARD

through the SL's interventions into theSocialist Workers Party-sponsoredAustralian tour by "chador socialist"Fatima Fallahi of the Iranian HKE lastJuly. In Melbourne a militant picket of50 people denounced Fallahi's kowtow­ing to Khomeini's anti-communist, anti­Kurd, anti-woman regime. At LaTrobeand Sydney University campuses, ourcomrades intervened to expose Fallahi'sapologias for the enforced veiling ofwomen, stoning of homosexuals and"adulterers," genocidal campaignsagainst national minorities, etc. in Iran.

More recently, the Polish events haveprovided new opportunities to regroupsubjectively revolutionary militants tothe Trotskyist program. When thePolish crisis broke last August, most ofthe left rushed to uncritically acclaimthe nationalist Solidarity union leader­ship, cynically ignoring its ties to theCatholic church whose capitalist­restorationist appetites make it therallying point for potential social

continued on page 4

said, "All three!" This is the same TonyThomas who at a meeting last Decem­ber 13 of the Contra Costa Coalition(formed on an explicit basis of relianceon the cops against KKK terror andopposed to labor/black defense of theblack homes under attack) opined thatphysical defense of the black familiesunder siege was "not the issue"!

WVPhoto

NYC interns and residents defyTaylor Law, March 13.

What is it that the SWP doesn'twant people to hear at their forums?Trotskyist politics. They would like toavoid a repeat of the embarrassingmoment at a Laney College forum onEl Salvador two weeks earlier wherehissing anCl booing YSAers wereforced to shut up when the mainlyLatin and minority audience of over100 students cheered the SL's call for"military victory to the left-winginsurgents." While the SWP refuses totake sides in the civil war in ElSalvador, supports the capitalist pro­gram of the popular-front FOR andwon't defend the USSR, the Sparta­cists got an enthusiastic response toour call for workers revolution in ElSalvador.

revolutionary Trotskyists, the SL/SYL kept up an aggressive politicalpresence thr.oughout the two-dayconference. Our comrades passed outa leaflet titled, "Does the SWP HaveAnything in Common with Marxism?Nope! Not For a Long Time!" whichexplained in part, "The SWP like theACLU wants 'free speech forfascists.'But the fascists don't talk-they shoot!Like in Greensboro, North Carolina.The SWP actually boasts about its'debate' on television with CaliforniaKKK leader Tom Metzger."

In San Francisco the night before,15 SWPers blocked four SL support­ers at the entrance to their forum onCentral America trying to justify theircowardly action by slandering theSpartacist League as "disrupters."Black supporters of the SL confrontedSWP leader Tony Thomas for exclud­ing them and opposing a program tofight the Klan. One comrade toldThomas that with politics like these,"you're either dumb, or you don't care,or you're .cowards." Tony Thomasgrinned, held up three fingers, and

the CIR strike against racist Koch'scutbacks. But Koch tried to break theCIR with a barrage of threats: CIR headDr. Jonathan House was fired after heannounced strike plans. 2,000 CIRmembers were threatened with firings.A judge ordered $100,000 a day finesagainst the CIR and threatened furtherpenalties under New York's notoriousanti-strike Taylor Law.

Faced with the threat of losing theirmedical celtification, CIR doctorsreturned to work at city hospitals March23. The walkout was broken because thecity labor movement did not activelysupport it (hospital workers in District1199 and AFSCME Local 420 wereeven told to cross picket lines). It willtake a powerful working-class offensiveto win the battle against Koch's killercuts and Reagan's reactionary budgetax-murders.•

Australasian Spartacist

May Day 1980 in Sydney.

White in Melbourne exposed the bloc'scontradictions over Afghanistan, layingthe basis for a struggle within theMelbourne group over the SL's angular"Hail Red Army" slogan. Four newcomrades were won to the SL throughthis aggressive polemical work.

New supporters were also won

BERKELEY-"We'd let the Klan in,but we're not going to let you in,"blustered Young Socialist Alliance(YSA) spokesman Bill Baker tosupporters ofthe Spartacist League, ashe barred their way to a workshop ofthe SWP/YSA's "Socialist EducationConference" here March 14. If the all­too-real Ku Klux Klan from nearbyContra Costa County ever took up thisoffer, the SWP could get its ownsupporters wasted with "socialisteducation" like this!

This obscene statement, repeatedand defended by Baker, is the logicalapplication of the SWP's position for"free speech" for fascists while exclud­ing the revolutionary communists ofthe SL. Spartacists were again ex­cluded from a forum that same eveningby SWP national chairman BarrySheppard on their "socialist Water­suit," showing that in order to sealtheir own supporters off from politicalcriticism, they are even willing to riskalienating the liberal/ACLU milieuthey are courting.

In spite of this cowardly exclusion,and lest anyone mistake the SWP for

NEW YORK CITY-Two thousandfive hundred doctors in the Committeeof Interns and Residents (CIR) walkedpicket lines for a week at seven NYCpublic and two private hospitals in aprotest strike against' the atrociousconditions in the city's hospital system.Demanding that patient care standardsbe written into their contract, the CIRdenounced NYC mayor Koch's closingof Harlem's Sydenham Hospital andReagan's slated drastic cuts in Medicaidbenefits. The doctors charged that citycutbacks, causing drastic shortages ofpersonnel, vital life-saving equipmentand even sheets and blankets, havemade public hospitals houses of horrorfor their largely poor and minoritypatients.

From Harlem to the South Bronx toBrooklyn's Crown Heights, NYC'shard-pressed ghetto residents backed

SWP Welcomes KKK, Excludes Trotskyists

lar our Trotskyist defense of the USSRagainst imperialism, which sets us offsharply from the social-patriotic left.One comrade joining the SL at theconference noted:

"I first came into contact with the SLbecause of the 'Victory to the RedArmy' headline in the February/March[l980J issue [of Australasian Sparta­ciSl). Due to my uninformed, Stalinist,anti-Trotskyist upbringing, I was underthe impression that Trotskyism meantanti-Soviet Union. I had some doubtsabout the USSR.... The SL's line on theUSSR made me quite excited. At last Icould criticize the Soviet Union fromthe left. The SL calls for the defense ofthe gains of the October Revolution, i.e.collectivized property and plannedeconomy, but calls for political revolu­tion to oust the paraSitic bureaucratswho are hindenng the advance ofBolshevism both in the USSR andthroughout the world ......

The SL's intervention into a "Stop theCarter/Fraser War Drive" campaignbriefly waged by a lash-up between theso-called Trotskyist Study Group inSydney and the clique around Paul

NYC Doc Strike

Koch's Cuts Kill Patients

27 March 1981No. 277

Marxist Working-Class Biweeklyof the Spartacist League of the U.S.

EDITOR Jan Norden

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Charles Burroughs

PRODUCTION Darlene Kamlura (Manager).Noah Wilner

CIRCULATION MANAGER Karen Wyatt

EDITORIAL BOARD George Foster, lizGordon, Mark Kellermann, James Robertson,Joseph Seymour. Maqorle Stamberg

Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) publishedbiweekly. Skippl'19 an Issue in August and aweek in December. by the Spartaclst PublishingCo, 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007Telephone 732-7862 (Editorial), 732- 7861(BUSiness) Address all correspondence to. Box1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116 DomesticsubSCriptions: $300124 issues Second-classpostage paid at New York. NY

OpinIOns expressed In Signed articles or leitersdo not necessarily express the edltonalviewpoint.

The Spartacist League of Australiaand New Zealand (SL), Australiansection of the international Spartacisttendency, held its 12th National Confer­ence in January. The central task posedwas the consolidation of the gains of thepreceding year of rapid growth (one­third of the comrades attending theconference were new recruits sinceJanuary 1980): the integration of thenew comrades as cadres through Marx­ist education and involvement instruggle and the deepening of theorganization's roots through the forgingof new industrial and campus fractions.

The conference stressed the oppor­tunities for continued growth. Thenational report noted that while allsections of the international tendencyconfront "Cold War II" and the height­ened danger of nuclear world war, onthe domestic front "it's not the Reaganyears in Australia," as indicated by thegrowing unpopularity of MalcolmFraser's arrogantly anti:working-dassTory government and the general publicdisdain for his backing of JimmyCarter's anti-Soviet Olympic boycott (ahit record in Australia was the "anthem"of the Moscow Olympics, sung inGerman and English by a West Germandisco group).

The new comrades were won from "avariety of political backgrounds. Themost sizable success story was a wave ofrecruits out of a non-party extended­family collective in Melbourne aroundJoan Bray and her husband, tradeunionists and ex-members of the Com­munist Party of Australia (CPA). Overthe course of years, Joan Bray hadmoved left from the CPA orbit in agenerally feminist/New Leftist direc­tion. Although not a Trotskyist, sheencouraged her entourage to "checkout" the Spartacist League, and theymarched with our contingent on MayDay 1980 under our slogan of"Hail RedArmy in Afghanistan-Extend SocialGains of October Revolution to AfghanPeoples!" Joan Bray died of cancer lastyear, but several young workers fron:this heterogeneous, fuzzily pro­communist milieu were won to ourprogram on women's liberation, thepicket line, the "Russian question."Their recruitment shows the power ofour Trotskyist program as a class­struggle break from the craft-unionist,social-chauvinist backwardness of theAustralian Laborite leadership.

Other new recruits this year camefrom the Socialist Workers Party, thestillborn centrist "Trotskyist StudyGroup" and elsewhere. They were wonto Trotskyism on key questions of theinternational class struggle, in particu-

"

2 WORKERS VANGUARD

~p-s Are Racist Killers, Not Protectors

Black Anger from Atlanta to Harlem

Atlanta? Well, who can be for themurder of Atlanta schoolchildren? Noteven the KKK wants to take "credit" forthese acts. Ronald Reagan can "showconcern" for the dead children ofAtlanta even as he closes the schoolcafeterias for the living. Even FrankSinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. tried toclean up their acts with an Atlantafundraiser.

To the extent that the Atlantaprotests raise any demands at all, theyare for more police protection, for afederal investigation ... and ultimately acall for federal troops or marshals. Butthe balance sheet of the black struggle­from the murder of Black Pantherleader Fred Hampton, to the murder ofcivil rights worker Viola Liuzza-hasshown that the cops, G-men, FBI andfederal troops are no protectors of blackpeople, but their racist killers! Andwhen Atlanta blacks took steps toorganize black patrols in the housingprojects they were arrested.

Meanwhile the reformist left stepsforward once more to preach reliance onthe bourgeois state as the "protectors"of the black masses. Socialist WorkersParty (SWP) Atlanta mayoral candi­date Andre Khalmorgan calls for blacks

Some 20,000 people marched throughthe streets of Harlem Friday eveningMarch 13 to protest the succession ofgrisly murders and unexplained disap­pearances of black children in Atlanta.In a candlelight vigil the processionmoved up Adam Clayton Powell Boule­vard, then listened to speeches from twomothers of the murdered children andjoined local religious leaders in prayer."Wear a ribbon, light a candle andmarch for the lives of our children" wasthe evening's ceremonial theme. InAtlanta that same weekend 3,000marched in a "Moratorium onMurder-Save the Youth"demonstra­tion which culminated in a rally atMorehouse College.

The number of murdered blackghetto children-their bodies foundmutilated in overgrown fields outside oftown-now numbers 20 since July of1979. And given the climate of racistAmerica, no wonder they are perceivedas racially motivated killings of blacksby whites. Speculations about themurderers range from racist crazies toKu Klux Klan plots to theories that thekillers are within the police force itself.Across the country the wearing of greenribbons has been called for as a "show ofconcern" for the terrorized Atlantablack population. It began with Phila­delphia grandmother Georgia Dean,who said, "Everybody was putting outyellow ribbons in honor of the hostages[but] the missing children in Atlanta ...can't come home." The protests over theAtlanta children have become a focusfor the anger and suffering of blackpeople all over Reagan's America.

Nationwide, blacks are the targets ofmounting race terror and governmentpolicy which says that ghetto popula­tions are expendable. Social programskilled by Reagan's budget ax, across­the-board attacks on every limited gainof the civil rights movement. Who canestimate the rise in infant mortality ratesdue to slashing of such programs asprenatal care, food stamps, schoollunches? The black masses in Reagan'sAmerica feel themselves under the gunin the most literal sense. And these

Bill Greene20,000 hold candlelight march in Harlem, March 13, to protest Atlanta childkillings.vicious attacks will not be stopped withliberal concern and green ribbons, buthard class struggle.

The large protests that have sprungup around the Atlanta murders, how­ever, do not confront the threat ofgrowing racism in the U.S. politically.That is precisely why Atlanta is such apopular cause with the liberals, theblack misleaders and the reformists whotail them. They channel deeply feltoutrage and fear into harmless apoliticalactivity that challenges not one brick orpillar of the racist status quo. Ironically,the Atlanta killings have become afocusof mass protest because ther have theI~ast political content. A "movementorganized to integrate schools, forinstance, immediately engages the racistforces of segregation. A fight against thekiller cops-who have murdered andterrorized far, far more blacks than havebeen victimized in Atlanta-must con­front the armed thugs of the capitaliststate. A struggle to stop the KKK/Nazirace terrorists-a real threat to blacksnow and in the future-must posenecessary political and military ques­tions for the defense of blacks fromfascist attack. But who can be against a"show of concern" for the tragedy of

to "force the government at all levelsto fulfill its stated pu;poses of protect­ing all citizens." The SWP newspaperthe Militant devotes endless pages tothe calls of Atlanta moms for morepolice activity. Yet the Militant (6March) banner headline asks, "Atlanta:Are Cops Covering For Child Killers?"These hustlers do everything to suggestthat the cops are the killers, thendemand ... more cops! The CommunistParty has a front-page editorial box inthe 19 March Daily World proclaiming"The federal government must playamore aggressive role in halting thesemurders." So now they must be cele­brating as Reagan has fulfilled theirprogram-announcing he will send $ 1.5million to Atlanta for the investigation.But blacks from Atlanta to Harlem havenothing to celebrate.

Ronald Reagan has declared war onblack America. There are even seriousmoves now afoot to repeal the 1965Voting Rights Act. On March I I theCalifornia courts upheld Proposition Iand ordered the dismantling of the LosAngeles busing program. Thus theyhammered in the last nails in the coffinof school integration, already killed halfa decade ago when the Democratsbuckled under racist pressure in thestreets of Boston. And while the Reaganadministration can't do anything muchabout the economy, it will make blackpeople the scapegoats for the failures ofthis racist capitalist system. But there isa basis for struggle, and not just byblacks alone. Miners facing cuts of"Black Lung" benefits are threatened;hundreds of thousands of laid':6fT'liU'toworkers have been cut off unemploy­ment insurance. But a vague '''sense ofconcern" won't do it. Appealing tobourgeois congressmen on either sideof the aisle won't do it-far fromopposing Reagan's $30 million inbudget cuts, the Democrats have actual­ly been speeding them through Con­gress. What is needed is a workers party,to unite all the victims of Reagan's killercuts into a struggle for socialist revolu­tion, which for the first time will makeAmerica safe for black people.•

Klan Gets Bloody NoseOn March 21 a pack of KKK fascists who

tried to hold a race-hate provocation inMeriden, Connecticut were driven off thestreets by approximately 200 outrageddemonstrators. The Klan had come to cityhall to support the killer cops who lastmonth shot two blacks, murdering one.After hiding in the city hall for over an hour,the white-sheeted scum tried to escape outthe back door with the help of local cops inriot gear. But they were met by a barrage ofrocks and sticks. According to press reports,eight Klansmen and 19 cops were bloodied.The cops charged the crowd with nightsticksand arrested two protesters. Now the leadingrace terrorist in the U.S., "Imperial Wizard"Bill Wilkinson, is calling for the help of thefederal Justice Department, claiming his"civil rights have been violated." Chargesagainst these anti-Klan demonstrators mustbe dropped at once!

We are glad to see these KKK thugs get ataste of justice for their murderous terrorattacks on blacks, leftists, Jews and otherminorities. But the tactics of the Internation­al Committee Against Racism (lnCAR)which organized the anti-Klan confronta­tion can be no model for fighting the fascistssuccessfully. InCAR is a creature of the

27 MARCH 1981

Progressive Labor Party (PL). known for itswild gyrations between liberal reformismand adventurism. Their strategy depends onthe cops' failing to crush their protests. Buteven as PL chanted "Cops and Klan workhand-in-hand," I00 state police were waitinga few blocks away, according to the BostonGlobe. Later the president of the state policeunion apologized for not sending in his copsto bash the demonstrators.

This time PL was lucky. But a strategy tostop the fascists which banks on thesupposed incompetence of the state-orworse. the illusion that it would protect anti­fascist protests-is suicidal. Last time PL/InCAR rallied in Scotland, Connecticut toprotest a cross-burning they nearly got shotand the totally unprepared demonstratorstook to the fields in confusion. What isneeded to drive the fascists back into theirholes is neither liberal/reformist reliance onthe government to "ban the Klan" nor thesubstitutionist adventures of PLjl nCAR.What's needed is the social power of theunion movement, backed by black and otherminority organizations. The SL says: Forlabor/ black mobilization to stop fascistterror attacks!

AP

KKK runs for cop protection in Meriden, Connecticut.

3

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MARY JO McALLISTER, a spokes­manf!H the S YL,participatedin apaneldiscussion on"Feminism and Marxism"at the Old Westbury campus ofSUNY.

For us the Russian Revolution was amodel. It opened up the greatestpossibilities for human liberation at anytime in history, promising freedom forwomen, an end to women's subjugationto the family and real integration interms of work .... What's needed now isa political revolution, to put power backin the hands of the Soviet workingpeople. But as part of that, one has todefend the gains of that revolutionagainst the drive of the U.S. capitaliststo roll that back.

Women must be organized as part ofa revolutionary party that is rooted inthe working class, and not an "autono­mous" women's movement or a separategay liberation movement. The libera­tion of women is going to be a historicalact, not a mental act. You're not goingto get it through alternative lifestyles;you're not going to get it throughconsciousness-raising; you're not goingto get it through single-issue reformmovements. You've got to take it all on.And that's why ultimately the liberationof women has to come through socialistrevolution.•

was really needed-an indefinite state­wide [work] stoppage to smash thebosses' union-busting plans." And atFairfax printing plant in Sydney, SLsupporters fought to uphold the basicprinciple that "picket lines mean don'tcross." PKIU member Ron Rees refusedto go to work during a three-monthstrike by metal workers, who laterhelped him beat back management'sattempts to sack him for his principledsolidarity with their struggle.

Our membership growth, theexpansion of our press and the re­establishment of effective presence inMelbourne are elements in our continu­ing struggle to transform the SL into thenucleus of a bolshevist vanguard partyof the working class, section of areforged Fourth International. Ourcommunist class-struggle line, the Len­inist alternative to social-chauvinistLaborite reformism and cringing cen­trist opportunism, must become rootedin the consciousness of the working classin order for our class to take state powerand transform society. If you agree withus, join us: we have a world to win.•

whole lives suffocating under blackchadors, veils.

NEW YORK

fOO .~

Mary Jo McAllister

D,L~ Reissner

CHICAGOD.L. REISSNER, a member of the edi­IOrial board ofWomen and Revolution,thejournalofthe Women's Commissionof the SL, spoke at the radical clubCross Currents.

At the height of Khomeini's populari­ty in Iran, the Spartacist League stoodalone on the left in calling for hisdownfall, explaining that his programmeant the enforced brutalization andslavery of women. In the fighting overAfghanistan, fighting which broke outspecifically over the question of wom­en's liberation, the Spartacist Leagueagain stood alone, and stands alone,hailing the victory of the Red Army overthe reactionary rule of the mullahs. Thefeminists were so worried that womenmight be photographed in black garterbelts, but they had nothing to say aboutwomen who are forced to spend their

SL/ANZ••.(continued from page 2)

counterrevolution in Poland. (The pro­Moscow Socialist Party, of course,remained apologists for the PolishStalinist bureaucracy, which has disor­ganized the economy, demoralized theworkers and alienated every section ofPolish society from "Communism.")Only the SL stood for the Trotskyistprogram of internationalist solidaritywith the Russian proletariat and defenseof Poland's socialized means of pro­duction through workers' politicalrevolution.

Side by side with our polemical workfor revolutionary regroupments hasbeen our activism in the Australian classstruggle. Rejecting the fake-"mass"work cynicism of our opponents, the SLhas aggressively pursued opportunitiesfor exemplary trade-union work. Forexample, at the Redfern Mail Ex­change, SL supporters stood out, in thewords of one militant won to ourpolitics, as "the only people to say what

they had lost during the dispute.I learned from this that the man next

to me on the assembly line is not mynatural enemy; he is my natural ally,and together we, the working class,have the power to fight against women'soppression and racial discrimina­tion.... I don't know of any feministconsciousness-raising group that couldclose down a plant of 7,000 workers andproduce the gains that have been won byorganized class struggle.

Los AngelesBox 26282Edendale StationLos Angeles. CA 90026(213) 662-1564

Madisonclo SYLBox 2074Madison. oNl 53701(608) 257-2950

New YorkBox 444Canal Street StationNew York. NY 10013(212) 267-1025

San FranciscoBox 5712San FranCISco. CA 94101(415) 863-6963

SL vs. Feminism onInternational Women's Day

BERKELEYDIANE GIL PEN, laid-offauto worker,spoke at an SYL noon rally at theUniversity of Cal(fornia's Sproul Plaza.

I'd like to share with you a lesson Ilearned from a strike at the GeneralMotors plant in Fremont four yearsago.... A woman was injured on thejoband was being harassed by a foreman,who was trying to force her to do a jobshe physically could not do any more.The woman called the union for help,and in the process of defending her, theunion steward was brutally abused andphysically thrown out of the office bythis racist foreman. The union leader­ship supported a walkout which stoppedproduction and shut down the plant of7,000 workers for a whole week, costingGMover $5,000 a minute. The womanwas awarded an easier job and the unionmembers were given back the jobs that

WV Photo

pessimism. At best they want to ward offthe things which they see coming downon them. At worst they are in a bloc withthe right wing. Someone from theFreedom Socialist Party [a "feminist­socialist" group] said, "We don't wantthe government to censor pornography.We want a mass movement to do it."And we said, well, there is a massmovement doing it. It's called the MoralMajority. So they can join right up.

DetroitBox 32717DetrOIt. MI 48232(313) 868-9095

HoustonBox 26474Houston. TX 77207

ChicagoBox 6441. Main POChicago. IL 60680(312) 427-0003

ClevelandBox 6765Cleveland. OH 44101(216\ 621-5138

Young Spartacus

Diane Gilpen

Ann Arborclo SYLPO Box 8364Ann Arbor. MI 48107(313) 994-9313

BostonBox 188, M.I.T StationCambridge. MA 02139(617) 492-3928

National OfficeBox 1377. GPONew York. NY 10116(212) 732-7860

Berkeley/OaklandP.O Box 935Oakland. CA 94604(415) 835-1535

TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADAToronto Vancouver WinnipegBox 7198. Station A Box 26. Station A Box 3952. Station BToronto. Ontario Vancouver. B.C. oNinnipeg, Manitoba(416) 593-4138 (604) 254-8875 (204) 589-7214 j

\.. ,/

SAN FRANCISCO

SPARTACIST LEAGUE LOCAL DIRECTORY

DIANA COLEMAN, Spartacist Party­endorsed candidate for SF Board ofSupervisors last fall, spoke at UCExtension and UC Berkeley.

Feminists view the future with

"Women'sLiberation

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The Spartacist LeaguejSpartacusYouth League celebrated InternationalWomen's Day, March 8, this year with aseries of forums around the country.Topics ranged from feminism andreaction in the U.S. to women inKhomeini's Islamic dictatorship to howthe Bolshevik Revolution liberatedwomen. The clash between the SLjSYL's proletarian defense of democraticrights and petty-bourgeois feminists'turn toward "pro-family" reactionwas most heated over the anti-porncrusade. D.L. Reissner's talk, "FromBra-Burning to Book-Burning: Femi­nists Join 'Moral Majority' Anti­Pornography Campaign," drew largeaudiences and heated polemics onseveral campuses. (Young SpartacusNo. 89, March 1981, reprints extensiveparts of her forum.) Against the reac­tionary feminist campaign and thedespairing reformism of most of the left,the Spartacist League counterposed ourfight for women's liberation throughsocialist revolution. We print belowbrief excerpts from several of the talks:

Diana Coleman

II!Jl

4 WORKERS VANGUARD

~p~ort for Sitdown at Ford's River Rong!

"Not aNickel, Not aLayoff!"DETROIT, March 21-Big Three autoworkers are locked in a battle for theirjobs where defeat means disaster. Theink was barely dry on the Chrysler"bail­out" contract when Ford Motor Com­pany opened up its drive for wageconcessions from the United AutoWorkers (U AW): 5,000 workers atFord's steel plant at the giant Rougeauto complex were told to accept a 20percent cut (averaging 84 cents perhour) in their incentive payor lose 3,200jobs by mid-year. With the unionleadership parroting company threats,the steel workers reluctantly votcd toaccept the cuts, although some 2,000didn't cast a ballot and a quarter voted"no." Meanwhile G M is dropping hintsthat it too will demand concessions toremain "competitive." UAW presidentDoug Fraser has opened a breach in theindustrywide union contract, a historicunion gain, and now the breach isturning into a fJood of takeaways. Autoworkers must prepare for the kind ofmilitant action that built this union intoa labor powerhouse. Their livelihoodsand the whole future of the UAWare atstake!

The opening shot in Ford's attackactually was at the Dearborn AssemblyPlant (DAP) in February with the layoffof 551 workers. This came on the heelsof the announced future closing of theMichigan Casting Center, another unitcovered by the giant UAW Local 600.The class-struggle Rouge MilitantCaucus (RMC) put forward the onlyrealistic workers' defense-sit-downstrikes against the layoffs and pay cuts,and for jobs for all. As the steel workersvoted, the conservative Detroit News(12 March) quoted an RMC leaflet asthe main opposition to Ford:

'''Not one nickel, not one layoff,' saidone leaflet. 'The VAW's surrender atChrysler (where workers have ratifiedmore than $1 billion in ~ontract

concessions to keep the company alive)shows that 'pay cuts or layoffs' alwaysmeans pay cuts and layoffs'."

Of course, the newspaper carefully cutout the leaflet headline which read,"FOR SlTDOWN STRIKES TOFIGHT FOR OUR JOBS!" At DAP,the RMC had circulated a petitionsigned by over 600 workers 'demandingthat the union leaders hold an in-plantmeeting before the layoffs so that Local600 could act. RMC spokesman FrankHicks explained the sit-down perSpec­tive in an interview with WV:

"We know that with parking lots full ofcars all over Detroit, a regular strikeisn't going to work-that's obvious.What we have fought for and what wehave gotten a good reception for in theplant is the conception that when Fordsays we are going to throw another five,ten thousand workers out on thestreet-from steel, assemblY, fromstamping. any of these buildings outhere at Rouge-that what has to bedone is that people say no, our sweatand blood built the plants, people diedfor the gains we have in our contractand we're not going. And the idea of asitdown would be enormously powerfulin the auto industry."

Another RMCer reported that "all overthe plant people were arguing andtalking about the question of a sit-downstrike. People were coming up andasking caucus members about whatreally did happen in Flint ... What is aplant occupation? .. What do you doabout the cops?" The sitdown wasbecoming the issue of the day.

Treachery at the Top

Just three weeks before the steeldivision concessions were announced,Local 600 president Mike Rinaldi ran ahalf-page headline in the local's news­paper, Ford Facts, proclaiming "NO

27 MARCH 1981

Militant Frank Hicks at UAW Local600 hall calls for sit-down strikeagainst pay cut for workers at RiverRouge steel plant (above).

CONTRACT REOPENING CON­CESSIONS!" Yet it was Rinaldi himselfwho proposed the 20 percent cut inincentive pay after negotiating the issuebehind workers' backs for over a year!Typically, the local bureaucracy closedranks to sell it to the membership, givingthem only a week's notice before thevote. On March II, steel workerspacked Local 600 meeting roomsthroughout the day for "informational"meetings where they were told that eachone who voted against the concessionswould be personally responsible for thelayoffs. Nick Nestico, chairman of theRolling Mills tInit, personally vowed toensure the layoff of one unionist if hevoted against the pay cuts!

The chairman of the Coke Ovens/Blast Furnace (COBF) unit, RickMartin, specifically attacked the RMC'ssit-down proposal in his own leaflet,trying to exacerbate the divisions in theunion by baiting one RMCer as anoutsider from "another unit" of theRouge complex! Other Rouge workers,he claimed, would not fight for thehigher paid steel workers. But the RMCleaflet noted that, although "piece workand incentive are designed to divide andweaken the union" and are raciallydiscriminatory, to move forward work­ers must defend what has already beenwon while fighting to "roll the incentiveinto the base rate, with a pay boost andmore equal wages for all workers."Martin was not really looking for afighting strategy, of course, so he calledfor giving up by voting "yes." Neverthe­less, in the COBF meeting a fewindependent militants did try to call for·a sitdown from the floor, indicating thatthere was a will to fight.

At DAP unit president "Big:' JohnnyVawters refused' even to receive thepetition demanding a union meetingbefore the layoff and instead called an"informational" meeting on the dayafter the layoff. In an arrogant leaflet,Vawters claimed the sale right to callmeetings and baited the militants:

"Membership meetings are held toinform the membership about what hashappened and to collect complaints ...and not just because some outsideorganization wants to use our unionhalls to complain about nothing on amonthly basis."

Vawters outrageously claimed to have"saved" jobs because the original layoffplan was for much more than the 551actually laid off! And at the unionmeeting, he told the membership what"has happened" to fight layoffs­nothing.

The UAW Ford and GM councils,meeting this week in Washington, took

WV Photos

a vote against reopening the nationalcontracts, but this vote was as worthlessas Mike Rinaldi's "No Concessions"headline in Ford Facts. As Doug Frasercynically noted to a reporter, this is thetime for local union officer elections andhave you "ever heard of a Congressmanrunning for reelection on a platformthat said, 'If you vote for me, I'll loweryour standard of living'" (Detroit FreePress, 20 March). Even lower-levelexecutive board "oppositionists" likeWilliam Brown and Larry Bronson inLocal 600 are already preparing tocapitUlate-Bronson only stated that hewas against concessions until theyreceived "assurances" from Ford thatthere would be no layoffs.

Fake Oppositionists Only SitDown at Home

Even more adamant than the bu­reaucracy ir opposition to a sit-downstrike were the fake oppositionists in theplants. Liz Ziers, who is running on theSocialist Workers Party (SWP) ticketfor Congress against the fascist GeraldCarlson, smugly told the RMC that "Ionly do my sitting down at home." Evenafter her home was firebombed byKlan/Nazis, Ziers went to Coldwater todebate her pro-Nazi opponent! Seekingto be the "left" advisers for the unionbureaucracy, the SWP opposes anyclass-struggle action. In contrast, theRMC has been in the forefront inpushing for union/black defense guardsto defeat fascist terror.

The cringing Committee for aMilitant and Democratic UAW(CMDUAW), supported by a cultgroup that currently calls itself theRevolutionary Workers League, arehorrified by militant action, whether itbe a sit-down strike or a simple picketline-so they joined the bureaucrats'chorus labeling the sitdown as a"gimmick ... just a wildcat in out of theblue" ("Local 600 Fighter," 5 March).Instead, CMDUAW defended Vawter'sbureaucratic move for a union meetingafter the layoffs had taken place, andthen they submitted a motion for anelected strike committee! In reactionto the steel division concessions,CMDUAW made a lash-up with theworkerist Jim Rothe, publisher of the"Organizer" newsletter, to call for asitdown ... authorized by the Interna­tional. So they oppose any actionwithout the approval of Doug Fraser­which means never! The real pOliticsbehind the dv. DU AW were clearlyrevealed when they repeated to workersin the assembly plant that- an in-plantunion meeting and a sit-down strike

would only finger militants to manage­ment. (They even complained that 1,000unionists occupying the plant would stillbe an "unauthorized strike"!) Thisargument is not new: their guru PeterSollenberger used the same argument tojustify scabbing on an AFSCME work­ers strike in Ann Arbor in 1977! Thesecowards who still defend that scabbingdeserve nothing but contempt from autoworkers.

Not Protectionism But ClassStruggle!

U.S. auto makers lost more than $4billion last year. As a leading spokes­man for the American companies noted,"It's World War III in the auto in­dustry." This was not merely a turnof phrase-Fraser and his social­democratic friends are beating thedrums for anti-Japanese protectionismwith a virulence reminiscent of WorldWar II. But Fraser's appeal to thecapitalist government for "help" hasonly backfired against the workers­U.S. Transportation Secretary DrewLewis wants the Reagan government tomove to cut Japanese imports, butemphasizes "there has got to be certainconcessions" by the UAW-meaningpay cuts and layoffs. The only realsolution for American and Japaneseauto workers is international classstruggle against all the auto barons­not chauvinist protectionism!

Mass sit-down strikes were the key toorganizing the auto industry at theheight of the Great Depression. Asrecently as 1973, workers at Chrysler'sJefferson A.venue plant got rid of ahated, racist foreman through a sit­down. With a class-struggle leadership,a sit-down strike could be a powerfultactic to break through Fraser'sstranglehold and launch a real counter­offensive against the bosses. The onlyalternative to class struggle is theagonizing decay of the working class.Eight thousand have already been laidoff in the Rouge complex, there are200,000 jobless auto workers in Detroitalone, and according to the MichiganManufacturing Association 600,000 areout of work in the industry whensuppliers are included. Meanwhile, theSUB funds at Chrysler and Ford arejustabout on empty, and Reagan's cutbacks

. to unemployment insurance and TRAbenefits will force many thousands ontothe welfare rolls, or worse. Last weeksuburban police shot a former Rougeworker in the back of the head forallegedly attempting to steal a -steakfrom a supermarket!

It's time to face facts: there are noclever compromises here. Sharp classstruggle is the only answer, culminatingin a workers government to junk thewhole damn capitalist system. Replacethe murderous boom-bust cycle ofproduction for Henry Ford's profitswith socialist planning for human use!.

Spartacist Class Series.

Trotskyism:Revolutionary Marxism

TodayWeekly, Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.1634 Telegraph Ave., 3rd floorOAKLANDFor more information: (415) 835-1535

Alternate Saturdays, 4:00 p.m.Next class April 441 Warren Street (One blocksouth of Chambers)NEW YORKFor more information: (212) 267-1025

5

Sandinistas)cCMiddle way))aDead End

Nicaragua, then, is set in a contextwhere it's similar to the Cuban situationbeginning in 1959, but it's not clear

WORKERS VANGUARD

Sandi'nista/Bourgeois"Government"

'know where to go or are quickly drivenout. As an intermediate class without aclear class interest. the highly contradic­tory and disorganized petty bourgeoisieis usually prevented from being aleading force in political struggles. Itusually comes down to the working classor bourgeois forces.

However. in certain exceptionalcircumstances, the petty bourgeoisie cancome to power at the head of radical­democratic movements. In this casethere was the weakness of the localbourgeoisie. the absence of the proletar­iat as an independent factor, and thecombination of hostility and abstentionon the part of imperialism. But whathappens then is not predetermined; itcan go in one of two directions. Forexample, we have the Algerian casewhere a petty-bourgeois-Ied nationalindependence movement took power.Here the former colonial metropolesought to buy them off. De Gaulleoffered to payoff all of the former colonlandlords, to buy up all of Algeria'swine, setting long-term contracts forAlgerian gas and oil. And at the end of itall, Algeria was a French neo-colony. Atfirst they had a left-talking governmentunder Ben Bella, but after a few years hewas replaced by the more pliant Boume­diene. So that's one route it can go.

There's also the Cuban road. where itwent forward to the expropriation of thebourgeoisie, laying the basis for adeformed workers state. That is to say,since late 1960 Cuba has the propertyforms of a workers state. but atop thissits a ruling stratum, a ruling "{;aste,"analogous to the Stalinist bureaucracyin the Soviet Union which politicallyexpropnated the Russian workers whileresting on the social-economic con­quests of the October Revolution. Andin this case. U. S. imperialism took adifferent, less accommodating tack. Itforced Castro to the wall, made himchoose between self-destruction. on theone hand, or the revolutionary oblitera­tion of the Cuban capitalist class andnot just of those people who were mostcompromised by the Batista dictator­ship. So that is a second road. It iscertainly not the road Castro is counsel­ing to the Sandinistas: remember hisstatement right after the FSLN tookpower that Nicaragua would not be a"second Cuba." It isn't the only alterna­tive, either. There is a very real possibili­ty of imperialist-sponsored counterrev­olution to put back a pliant puppetregime. And there is our road, not of abureaucratic overturn of capitalistproperty relations but a genuine work­ers revolution led by a Trotskyist party.

Reagan has said that Nicaragua isalready "lost to Marxism." If hetries to pull an Eisenhower, it couldforce the petty-bourgeois Sandinistaleadership to go further thanthey intended and expropriate thebourgeoisie. It could also lead to a splitin the FSLN. The dominant faction atthe time of their victory, the so-calledterceristas [Third Roaders] were for astrategic alliance with the "anti-Somozabourgeoisie." But why would the Rea­gan administration do this, why don't'they conciliate? Well, clearly they don'tintend to give up any territory toproletarian revolution. They evidentlyintend to deal with the Sandinistasmilitarily, in the aftermath of smashingthe more radical left-wing and worker­peasant forces in El Salvador. And if inthe case of Cuba there was a certainelement of bourgeois miscalculationinvolved, in this case Washington hasembarked on a large-scale and globallyconceived campaign aimed at its maintarget-Russia. So don't think it can'thappen herc. It's not impossible by anymeans that a CIA-backed invasion forcecould comc barreling through there.And thc only real preparation to meet itis revolutionary mobilization.

ChauvellSygma

So he started mass exports of blood tothe United States. Then there wasHoward Hughes, who spent his lastyears on the top floor of the ManaguaIntercontinental Hotel, his fingernailsgrowing ever longer. The U.S. ambas­sador would have been more accuratelydescribed as a proconsul. Nixon'sappointee, a friend of Bebe Rebozo, wasShelton Turner. He got to be such goodbuddies with Somoza that the tyrant putTurner's picture on their $3 bill. So ifyou want a place that's a classic U.S.puppet, bloodsucking dictatorship,phony as a three-dollar bill, Somoza'sNicaragua was it.

The Sandinistas got in power bymobilizing a genuine national uprising,including virtually the entire bourgeoi­sie outside of the Somoza family and itsown private army, the Nqtional Guard.But the real power in this insurrectionwas in the hands of the petty-bourgeoisFSLN, the Sandinista National Libera­tion Front, a movement which in itsbroad outlines is similar to FidelCastro's July 26th Movement, That is tosay. it is a bonapartist force. a guerrillaarmy in power. but it is not firmly wed toany particular property forms. AsMarxism teaches, capitalism is based onthe private ownership of the means ofprOduction. and the working class canonly rule on the basis of collectivizedproperty. But the petty bourgeoisie doesnot have a characteristic mode ofproduction. As a result, when they getinto power they frequently either don't

Somoza No. 3 was gone. It took only afew months and he was out. So he was agenuine puppet and the puppeteer isWashington. And it wasn't just theSomozas. The Salvadoran bourgeoisieis proud of the fact that they've nevercalled on the Marines to aid them. Butsince 1855 Nicaragua has been invadedfour times by U.S. forces. Somoza IIIwas just the last in a long line.

He was also a bloodsucking dictator,in an almost literal sense. After the 1972earthquake in Managua, Somoza de­cided that this was his big opportunityto get onc up on the traditional Nic­araguan bourgeoisie. So he expropri­ated all the U.S, humanitarian aid andinstead forced them to buy up Somoza­owned properties aroun.d the cities, forthc purpose of reconstruction. And byevery other means he sought to enrichhis clan at the expense not only of theworking class but of the landowners.factory owners and the like. One of hisenterprises was a company called Plas­maferisis. which was going to solveNicaragua's foreign exchange problemby adding an agditional export to theircoffee and cotton, and that was blood.

6

In Nicaragua, the Frente Sandinistade Liberaci6n Nacional, the FSLN,took power in July 1979 by overthrow­ing the dictator Anastasio Somoza. Andif EI Salvador is the classic oligarchy­run country, Nicaragua was a classicpuppet regime. It sounds like left-wingrhetoric, perhaps, but Somoza No. Iwas put in by Franklin Roosevelt-itwas the product of his so-called "GoodNeighbor" policy, by the way. Yourecall that FOR's secretary of stateCordell Hull made the famom commentthat Somoza may be a son of a bitch,"but he's our son of a bitch." And whenJimmy Carter began talking about"human rights" and let it be known thatthe U.S. was not gomg to intervene,

We print below an expanded andedited version of the second half of aspeech by Jan Norden, editor ofWorkers Vanguard and member of theSpartacist League Central Committee.recently delivered in Boston and NewYork under the title, "For WorkersRevolution in Central America." Thefirst half was printed in our last issue(WV No. 276. f 3 March).

Social Revolution orBloody Counterrevolution

-

~

July 19, 1979: Celebrating the overthrow of butcher Somoza in Managua.

necessarily where it's going to end up.So I'd like to go over the history of thelast year and a half, since July 19, 1979,to see what the Sandinista LiberationFront has attempted to do. First of all,in the period just before the overthrowof Somoza, in early July 1979, there wasan agreement that was worked out inSan Jose, Costa Rica with the anti­Somoza bourgeoisie. It was essentially aprogram to preserve capitalism withoutSomoza, so that it included a Council ofState with a bourgeois majority on itand it included an agreement that thearmy would be maintained in someform. Specifically, that "honest" officersand soldiers of the National Guard whohad not engaged in any kind ofmassacres would be integrated into thenew army. And finally it includedprovisions for a "mixed" economy, thatis, guarantees for the preservation ofprivate ownership of the means ofproduction. Only the properties of thedictator and his henchmen were to benationalized.

That was the agreement that they hadas they were on the verge of takingpower. However, in the aftermath therewas one important and immediatemodification. The National Guarddisintegrated as soon as Somoza left thecountry. They did a very simple calcula­tion: 50,000 people died in this war, andthere were only 5,000 in the army. Thatmeans for every National Guardsmanthere were ten widows or mothers whowanted to see him dead. So they high­tailed it across the border into Hondu­ras. That was the first, and fundamental,thing that happened: from that point onthe effective power was in the hands ofthe Sandinista army, and the agreementwith the bourgeoisie was not kept at thatlevel.

However. there was from the verybeginning a coalition at the level of thejunta and the Government of NationalReconstruction. So that the junta hasfive members. of whom two are bour­geois and not members of the SandinistaLiberation Front. Originally, one ofthese two was Alfonso Robelo, who isthe cooking oil king of Nicaragua, andthe other was Violeta Chamorro, thewidow of the publisher of an anti­Somoza bourgeois newspaper. La Pren­sa. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro wasassassinated in early 1978, by gusanokillers trained by the CIA and in the payof Somoza. In addition there are anumber of bourgeois forces in thegovernment itself. There are no less thannine priests who are members of thegovernment. Ernesto Cardenal, forexample, is minister of culture, andMiguel D'Escoto, a Maryknoll priest, isthe foreign minister. In addition thereare a number of bourgeois techniciansof one sort or another, particularly inthe economic ministries. So that at thelevel of the government, in the im­plementation of policy, we have referredto this as a Sandinista/ bourgeoisgovernment.

However, there is no real bourgeoisstate in Nicaragua at this moment, in the

Marxist sense-that is, a class forma­tion committed to the protection ofprivate property. There is a petty­bourgeois regime, which is essentiallythe Sandinista army, and you almosthave to use the term "government" inquotes because it doesn't have the realpower. But it does represent a commit­ment by the Sandinistas to attempt tofollow what they see as a "middle road."So this was the situation as it stood inAugust 1979, and it continued in thisway essentially up until May oflast year.At that point the bourgeois forcesthreatened a walkout from the Councilof State. As I said, this council was tohave a bourgeois majority, but in themeantime the Sandinistas had redefinedthe rules of the game and now it had amajority of FSLN-Ied or -dominatedorganizations plus most of the inde­pendent unions and so on. As a resultthe two bourgeois members of theJunta, Chamorro and Robelo, resignedand the capitalist representatives threat­ened to walk out of the first meeting ofthe Council of State.

There was a fairly tense period at thattime in which the regime was essentiallyreduced to its core, a Sandinistagovernment. But the response of theFSLN was to choose two more bour­geois figures, Arturo Cruz and RafaelCordova. Cruz was director of theCentral Bank and a former official ofthe U.S.' Inter-American DevelopmentBank; Cordova was a member of theSupreme Court. And both are membersof the Democratic Conservative Party. aspokesman for landowner interestswhose symbol is a triangle with theinscription "God-Order-Fatherland."So at the political level the FSLN hastried to maintain the same situation thatthey had before. Then last Novemberthe bourgeois forces actually walked outfrom the Council of State (but not Cruzand Cordova). Their ostensible reasonfor the boycott was that the governmenthad announced (in August) that elec­tions would be postponed until 1985.Meanwhile. the capitalist parties werecalling for immediate elections to aconstituent assembly. as a way ofdislodging the Sandinistas from power.

There were more ominous aspects, aswell. The boycott was linked with a largeanti-government meeting planned bythe r\icaraguan Democratic Movement.or M D1\. of Robelo. who always checksfirst with the State Department beforemaking a move. And it came inconjunction with conspiracit's inside thecountry, focusing on the Sandinistaarmy. and armed attacks from acrossthe Honduran border. Two days beforethe M ON rally, the vice president of theemployers association, COSEP, JorgeSalazar, was killed while resisting arrestby government forces on charges ofcounterrevolutionary plotting. At thesame time, ex-Somoza Guardsmenstaged a raid on a Nicaraguan borderpost. About a month before, in earlyOctober. there had been reactionary-ledmass protests of more than a thousandpeople that for several days para-

WVPhotoSandinista minister, JaimeWheelock.

lyzed Bluefields, the largest town ofthe English-speaking, overwhelminglyblack and Indian Caribbean coastalregion of Nicaragua. The demonstratorswere led by a local separatist movementand protested the presence of severalscore Cuban teachers and doctors.

No Middle Way!

So politically the FSLN is still tryingto strike a balance, but at the same timethe bourgeoisie has been pulling awayfrom it. leading to a precarious situationwhere the Sandinistas' hand may beforced. Meanwhile Nicaragua's econo­my is overwhelmingly in private hands.The figures that are given are that 60 to70 percent of the economy is in theprivate capitalist domain. while in keysectors it is even higher: 75 percent inmanufacturing and 80 percent in agri­culture. That wasin 1980, the "Year ofEconomic Reactivation," when theargument was you had to get theeconomy moving again even by rein­forcing the capitalists. This is supposedto be the "Year of Production andDefense," as :'\icaragua gears up toresist a possible counterrevolutionaryinvasion. And yet, in a recent report onthe economy. agriculture minister Co­mandante Jaime Wheelock says straightout that the basic ownership of themeans of production will stay the samein '81.

Wheelock called this in his speech"national unity of a new type." This isthe axis of the FS LN's policies. There's asense of "we're all patriotic Nicara­guans, we all fought against Somoza,"right? One example which I thinkcatches the quality of the "new Nicara­gua" at present is that of the newspa­pers. There are three dailies in thecountry. La Prensa is the organ of thebourgeois opposition; its director isanother Pedro Chamorro. Then there is£1 Nuevo Diario, which gives criticalsupport to the Sandinista regime; itsdirector is Xavier Chamorro. Andfinally we have the FSLN paper,Barricada, whose director is ... CarlosChamorro. It's sort of "all in thefamily." But not for long.

Now, economically in the past year1\icaragua did extremely well. Unem­ployment dropped from one-third of theentire working population to 17 percent.Output grew by 19 percent. The planwas 99 percent fulfilled-pretty goodfor a country just climbing back fromthe devastation of a civil war. Inagriculture. both coffee and cottonexports were in the neighborhood of theplanned goals, and as for the productionof basic foodstuffs it was the biggestharvest in the country's history. That'squite remarkable. How come? Well. thereason that the Nicaraguan governmenthas been able to maintain itself, eco­nomically. over the last period is thatthey have gotten a tremendous amountof foreign aid. While Washington was

turning on and off its $75 million, Cuba,the Soviet Union and European coun­tries like Germany and Sweden broughtthe total up to almost $500 million lastyear. And they had "friendly" bankers.Last September a 13-bank cartel rene­gotiated more than half a billion dollarsof Nicaragua's foreign debt, grantinglow interest rates and a five-yearmoratorium as long as Managua agreedto repay on a commercial basis the loanscontracted by the corrupt Somozadictatorship.

Conclusion: while Reagan has takena hard line toward the San­dinistas, not only the Carter admin­istration, the Soviets and pro-"detente"social democrats but also the multina­tionals and big imperialist banks havebeen pointing down the Algerian road.This is, of course, what the FSLNleaders were counting on, the basis fortheir hoped-for "middle road." But ifanything it only shows what a thinthread their hopes are hanging on. Suchan unambiguously capitalist economyis, of course, a tremendous weapon inthe hands of the imperialists, despite allthe Sandinistas' talk about "nationalunity." For in a showdown, the domes­tic bourgeoisie cannot resist the pres­sures from its Yankee masters, and itwill obey a common capitalist classinterest. You see, that's what's wrongwith the Stalinist myth of revolution bystages-in this epoch there's no suchthing as an "anti-imperialist nationalbourgeoisie," as the FSLN will soondiscover. so there can't be an "anti­imperialist stage." And by leaving theeconomic power of the bourgeoisieintact. the Sandinistas have been help­ing the prospects of eventually restabi­lizing capitalist rule.

Furthermore. they're not onlymaintaining the capitalist "mixed econ­omy." they're defending it against anychallenge from the left. Here's whatJaime Wheelock, the FSLN leader, saidspeaking to a mass rally of 100,000 at theSandino Plaza in Managua at the time

, of the attempted right-Wing pressureattack last November:

"If we wanted to demonstrate. to themhow popular the idea of Sandinismoand of the revolution is. it would be verysimple to say to the workers andpeasants. 'From this day on, thehaciendas and the factories of thiscountry are yours, Put them to work.'And you will know how to put them towork with your hands. with yourexperience and your patriotic fervor."

Good idea. huh? That's what theaudience thought, because a Chileanjournalist writing in the ManchesterGuardian Weekly [I February] report­ed, "At that point he was interrupted bya tremendous ovation, and he had toadd hastily":

"But that is not the position of arevolutionary leader who has to under­stand things from the national point ofview. above and beyond party bannersand maneuvers."

-£Ifuturu es del pueblu,La burguesia reaccionariajarmis retumara al puder,19 November 1980

So in the interests of "national unity"and the patria, they are not going to takeover all of the factories and thehaciendas and put them in the hands ofthe workers. They're very consciousabout this policy.

Workers Against Sandinistas

So this has led to a number ofincidents over the last couple of years.One occurred immediately after theSandinistas took over. and this was theclash with the so-called Simon BolivarBrigade. which was led by a pseudo­Trotskyist named Nahuel Moreno.We've named him the CantinOas of theTrotskyist movement because he'salways changing his disguises. Youknow. sometimes he appears as aPeronist. and sometimes he's a Maoistand so on, and in this particular case hetried to pass himself off as a Sandinista.Actually. it was a sort of combinationadventurist maneuver and reformistpressure tactic, but they organized

continued on page 9

27 MARCH 1981 7

The Spectre of Trotskyismin Nicaragua

WVPhoto

Los Angeles, July 1979: SL-initiated demonstration called for "U.S. HandsOff Nicaragua."

Trotskyism stands for permanentrevolution, for workers and peasantsgovernments, instead of popular-frontclass collaboration, for independentBolshevik-Leninist parties as the indis­pensable vanguard of proletarian revo­lution. But that is not the program ofmany people who are passing them­selves off as Trotskyists over Nicaragua.The biggest outfit, the so-called UnitedSecretariat (USee), swears on a stack ofSecond Declarations of Havana thatthey are nothing but true-blue, red-and­black Sandinistas. According to themajority resolution of their II th WorldCongress, USee supporters "will defendtheir program by working loyally tobuild this party," that is, the FSLN. Ayear later it repeated: "The recognizedvanguard of the Nicaraguan revolutionhas been forged in the Sandinista Front"(Intercontinental Press, 24 November1980). So if that's true, who needsTrotskyists?

It's hardly an abstract question.When the FSLN arrested the SimonBolivar Brigade, whose ostensibly Trot­skyist leaders were then part of theUnited Secretariat, a delegation of USeespokesmen formally told the Sandinistagovernment that they approved of thisexpulsion of their own "comrades"!And recall the letter from USee dissi­dents in Nicaragua who accused Ameri­can SWP honcho Peter Camejo ofinstructing the United Secretariat'sdelegate there to turn in the Bolivarbrigadistas to the FSLN police. Wepublished this letter (WV No. 242, 26November 1979), and neither Camejonor the SWP has ever denied it, so wehave to assume their charge is true. Sothat's where opportunist tailism leadsto. The Trotskyist movement has had tofight against capitulators who bow tothe pressure of the bourgeoisie orthe Stalinist bureaucracies. But thesepeople aren't capitulators, they'restoolpigeons!

As usual with thedis-Uniteri Secretar­iat, there were differences between themajority around Ernest Mandel-weused to call him Comandante Ernestobecause he was such a gung-ho Guevar­ist in the ear'ly '70s-and a minority ledby the SWP. Thus the SWP resolutionat the USee world congress called theSandinista/bourgeois "government" ofNicaragua a workers and peasantsgovernment, a term first used by theCommunist International as a populardesignation for the dictatorship of theproletariat. Some proletarian dictator­ship, where bankers and landownerrepresentatives sit in the ruling juntaand key government ministries! But theMande1ites also wanted to tail after the

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Sandinistas-they just weren't asshameless as the Peter Camejos andJack Barnes. And in their latest resolu­tion the USee majority says that sinceMay 1980 Nicaragua has been run by aworkers and peasants government.They were just looking for an excuse.

There's also the Nahuel Morenogrouping and its Bolivar Brigade.Hardly a revolutionary opposition, theytried to wrap themselves in the Sandinis­ta colors just like the USec. But theyclaimed to be pushing things to the left.Internationally they're part of a lash-upwith 'he French OCI of Pierre Lambert,and ,they just changed their name from

the Parity Committee to the "FourthInternational (International Commit­tee)." Their quotation marks, by theway. They have a tiny nucleus inNicaragua called the LMR, whichthe little clot called Sandinistas forSocialism in Los Angeles linked upwithwhen their international battalion flewinto Managua the day after the FSLNvictory. (We call them "day-late Sandi­nistas.") Up until recently the ParityCommittee had another group inNicaragua as well, the GRS, whosementor was one Fausto Amador, adeserter from the FSLN who went onSomoza's TV urging the guerrillas togive up. But after first exiting from theUSec, Amador now decided to partcompany with Lambert and Moreno.

The Parity Committee put out adeclaration last spring saying it hadalways fought for "an FSLN govern­ment without representatives of thebourgeoisie" (Informations Ouvrieres, 3May 1980). What would such aSandinista-only government mean? It'slike calling for a government of the July26th Movement in the early days of theCuban Revolution. And there was one,beginning in August 1959 after theresignation of President Urrutia and theflight of air force commander DiazLanz,. Castro's erstwhile bourgeoisallies. But it didn't mean the overthrowof capitalism, which didn't come untilthe summer and fall of 1960 when thebulk of the capitalist properties weretaken over. Moreover, such a regimecould still lead back to direct capitalistrule. Remember that Castro is tellingthe Sandinistas to avoid his "mistakes,"not to be in a hurry to break with theYankees or the "business sector."

Even if under Reagan's pressure, theFSLN proceeds along the "Cubanpath," what would result is not aBolshevik internati'onalist regime butanother nationalist bureaucracy pat-

terned on the Russian degeneratedworkers state of Stalin and his heirs. Butwhat can one expect from a pseudo­Fourth International which took until1979 to discover that Cuba is what theycall a "bureaucratized workers state."Now, to excuse their tardiness, theMorenoites and Lambertists claim thatno one knew what to make of the Cubanquestion when it first arose. Yet theSpartacist tendency, from our inceptionas the Revolutionary Tendency of theSWP, has held since 1961 that Castro'sCuba had become a deformed workersstate. So the impostors are also liars.And today they raise a demand which

amounts to political confidence in theSandinistas.

But even this isn't the worst. The heartof the Moreno/Lambert program forNicaragua is their call for a "democraticand sovereign constituent assembly."Now immediately following Somoza'souster the call for a constituent assem­bly was in order, as a means ofmobilizing the revolutionary aspira­tions of the masses for freedom from thereactionary tyranny which had op­pressed them for decades, But thecapitalist elements of the anti-Somozacoalition were just as opposed to thisdemand as theSandinista guerrilla armywas. They feared that in the midst of arevolutionary upheaval any kind ofdemocratically elected body might "getout of hand" and start demandingimmediate trial and execution of Somo­za's torturers, or expropriation ofall thelarge estates, and so on. But as theFSLN consolidated its power, bour­geois forces began calling for electionsto a constituent assembly.' Under thesecircumstances this can only be a callfora capitalist parliamentary power tocarry out a "democratic" counterrevolu­tion. So due to their visceral Stalino­phobia, Moreno/Lambert's programamounts to classical social democracy.Genuine Trotskyists call instead fororgans of workers democracy, namelysoviets.

Sandinistas Against Trotskyism

So what goes under the name of theFourth International in Nicaragua ispretty pathetic: a "Parody" Committeethat crawls after the bourgeois opposi­tion, and a not-very-United Secretariatwhich wants to be the caboose on theSandinista Express. In fact, they go,against everything Trotsky ever stoodfor. Yet there's a highly revealing fact:that despite this perversion of Trotsky­ism, the FSLN leaders have a pretty

good idea of what it is and start foamingat the mouth whenever they see theslightest hint of it.

According to an SWP internalbulletin: "There have been occasionalreports of attacks on Trotskyism byFSLN leaders. Recently, right here inNew York, Commander Victor Tiradoof the FSLN National Directorate­when egged on by a questioner from oneof the sectarian outfits-referred toTrotskyism in derogatory terms at anews conference" ([SWP] InternationalInternal Information Bulletin, Septem­ber 1980). What they don't say is thatTirado's tirade was directed against theSpartacist League. And what set thecomandante off was our question."How do you justify jailing militantsand leftists who are trying to extend therevolution in Nicaragua?"

Back in Managua, on March 6 of lastyear a demonstration of several thou­sands led by the Sandinista LaborFederation (CST) was called to protestCIA "destabilization." But instead ofmarching on the U.S. embassy asoriginally planned, the demonstrationheaded to the offices of CAUS, the laborgroup of the dissident pro-KremlinPCN. The union offices were sacked,documents burned and the occupantsdriven out. The SWP's IntercontinentalPress reported that the demonstratorschanted "Death to the CIA!" It didn'treport the CST's other major slogan,however, ,which was "Death toTrotskyism!"

Now the heterodox Brezhnevites ofthe PCN are not Trotskyists any morethan is the pro-Albanian Frente Obrero.But in the strikes during January andFebruary 1980 at Managua construc­tion sites, textile factories and sugarmills it was not just a fight over higherwages. A slogan that was frequentlyreported was "Workers and Peasants toPower! Down with the Bourgeoisie!"And regardless of who raised them,Sandinista leaders know full well thatsuch slogans aren't part of the "national­democratic" or "anti-imperialist revolu­tion." Only the Trotskyists have acoherent program which would givemeaning to demands for a break withthe bourgeoisie and a workers andpeasants government. Only the Trotsky­ists, and not the SWP impostors whodenounce such demands as "deliberatelyprovok[ing] a premature confrontationwith the bourgeoisie" (SWP resolutionon Nicaragua at the USec 1979 worldcongress).

And the FSLN's Stalinist fellow­traveler cheerleaders also see the threatclearly. Last summer the rad-lib Guardi­an (18 June 1980) published an articleentitled "Nicaragua's Delicate AllianceHolds," justifying the refusal to takeover the three-quarters of the economyin private capitalist hands: "Bourgeoisparticipation has given rise to criticismfrom left and ultra-'Ieft' forces bothinside and outside Nicaragua. TheNicaraguan Workers' Front [the FO] .and small sects such as the SpartacusYouth League in the U.S. have con­demned what they call the 'bourgeoisSandinista government.' They chargethe Sandinistas are helping to revitalizeNicaraguan capitalism. Such criticism,Sandinista sources reply, fails to com­prehend that national liberation andsocial liberation are not the same thing,although they are clearly intimatelyrelated." What such criticism compre­hends is that there will be no nationalliberation without proletarian revolu­tion. That is what all the brands of

> Stalinism and nationalism ignore, andthe result can be fatal. •

WORKERS VANGUARD

NACLASandinista leaders march down utopian and suicidal path of "the middleway."

Nicaragua ...(continued from page 7)

several thousand workers in the Mana­gua area to come down to the FSLNheadquarters with big signs saying"Power to the Proletariat." And the factthat something like that could happen issignificant. The response by the Sandi­nistas was to arrest the people, tointerrogate them and ship them off toPanama where they were beat up by thebourgeois police of General T orrijos. Sothis was the first response by theSandinistas to left-wing opposition tothem.

At about the same time they brieflyshut down a paper run by an ex-Maoistgroup called Frente Obrero [WorkersFront (FO)]. The newspaper was calledEI Pueblo, and it was shut down forcalling for land occupations. Then theyallowed it to reopen, but that fall [of1979] the editor of EI Pueblo wasarrested, as well as members of a smallNicaraguan group which claimed to beTrotskyist. The Spartacist League inthis country protested these arrests.After a few weeks in jail they werereleased. and then again in January theleadership of Frente Obrero and theeditor of EI Pueblo were again arrested,the newspaper shut down, this timeseemingly for good. The charges were"unauthorized possession of arms" and"sabotaging production." Now whatdoes that really mean? Frente Obreroparticipated in the fighting againstSomoza. Besides. if they had no gunsthey would be about the only people inthe country who didn't. "Disruptingproduction"-weIL you know what thatis. strikes. So four leaders of FrenteObrero were sentenced to some years athard labor by the FSLN's so-called"revolutionary" justice.

In February 1980 the FO led a strikeat the San Antonio sugar mill, which isthe main sugar mill in all Nicaragua-itproduces 70 percent of all the sugar inthe country. The government's responsewas to break the strike and arrest severalof the FO leaders, although they wereeventually let go. The apologists for theFSLN then went around tooting abouthow the conflict had been "peacefullyresolved." However, this same SanAntonio sugar mill went on strike againin November, over the same issues, onlythis time it was led by the ChristianDemocratic trade union. And again thestrike was broken by the so-called revo­lutionaries of the FSLN.

Then there's another group, theCommunist Party of Nicaragua, orPCN, and their trade-union group,which is call CAUS [Center for TradeUnion Action and Unity]. They are asplit-off from the Socialist Party ofNicaragua, the PSN, which is the mainpro-Moscow group. The PCN for awhile was leaning toward Mao, butbasically they have been sort of adissident pro-Moscow group. They hadthe leadership of several textile unionsin the capital. Meanwhile the PSN, theMoscow mainliners, controlled theconstruction workers through its trade­union group, the CGT-i, the GeneralConfederation of Labor-Independent.And in January 1980 both the construc­tion workers in Managua and 18 textilemills went on strike against thegOY ernment.

1 he FSLN's response was to arrestthe leaders of the PCN and CAUS andto break the strike. They were held forseveral months, and eventually most ofthem were let go although some of themreceived one-year sentences. The PS Nfared better, perhaps because it joined acoalition to support the government,called the National Patriotic Front.

The point I want to make is there'sbeen a considerable amount of unrest inthe working class in Nicaragua. Theydon't have that much of a working classbut, such as it is, many of its most activeelements don't seem to be under thecontrol of the Sandinista movement.This is not accidental, moreover. While

27 MARCH 1981

in Cuba the fighting against Batista'smercenary army was (,mfined largely tothe hills and eastern provinces, and theone attempt at a general strike failed, inNicaragua there were repeated generalwork stoppages and insurrections, notentirely under Sandinista control. Theplebeian masses played a key role in thefinal offensive by launching streetbattles in Managua and other townswhile the FSLN regulars were bottledup in the south. It's not so easy to keepthem down when they played an activerole in overthrowing the dictator.

But while workers and urban poorwere present in the fighting, it was asauxiliaries to the petty-bourgeois Sandi­nista guerrillas and their alliance withthe "anti-Somoza bourgeoisie," not asan independent working-class force. Asit becomes ever more obvious that theFSLN's program of"national unity" is adead-end, the key element for a workersrevolution is still missing. What youneed is above all a proletarian, Leninist­Trotskyist party, like in October 1917.It's not inconceivable that elements ofthe Sandinista movement could breakaway and come over to the workers sideof the barricades in a sharp classpolarization. But they are not going tolead that polarization and, as we justsaw, these bonapartists have shownthemselves hostile to any form ofworking-class organization outsidetheir control.

Moreover. by maintaining thiscapitalist economy they provide atrcmendous lever for bourgeois andimperialist reaction to use. So last yearthey were successful at the economiclevel. The problem is, that increases thepower of the bourgeoisie, because to theextent that they regain an economichold they will have that much morepolitical power over the masses. If youwant to see an example of where thiskind of economic pressure has beenused. just look at Chile. What Nixonsaid to his ambassador there was "makethe economy scream." That was whatthey called "Track I." You may recallthose terms. And they were successful.There was. for instance, in late 1972 andagain in 1973 the mobilization by thepetty truck owners to stop all deliveries,so that essentially you starve out thepopulation. And as soon as they startedcutting off the mass transport. as soonas you couldn't buy rice in the stores. assoon as inflation hit 300 percent, thenthe petty bourgeois got very desperate.

So then comes "Track II." As weknow from Germany and Italy, desper­ate petty bourgeois are sitting ducks forreaction. And you better believe Reaganalready has a "Track II" under way for!\ icaragua. The country is living fromhand to mouth, and if the United Statesdecides to they can make that economyscream bloody murder. For example,the main thing Reagan did in the lastcouple weeks was not to cut off the aid­which the Sandinistas weren't figuringthey would get anyway-they simply cutoff all shipments of wheat to Nicaragua.Period. That means starting in Marchno one in Nicaragua is going to eatbread. You can imagine what kind of animpact that will have on "nationalunity."

For Permanent Revolution!

So by trying to carve out a middleroad in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas justleave the way open for imperialistsubversion to cut the throats of theworkers and peasants with bloody whiteterror. Just as in EI Salvador, theprogram in :\icaragua must be to break\\ ith the bourgeoisie, to mobilize theworkers on a class program. to expro­priate all the exploiters. That is to say, totake on not only the "democratic" tasksof ousting the tyrant Somoza and so on,but break the tics of imperialism andsweep away all the latifundistas andfactory owners, who condemn themasses to a life of poverty, whetherthrough wage slavery or land hunger.That requires a proletarian communistleadership, a Trotskyist party which

fights for permanent revolution, forworkers and peasants governmentsthroughout the region and a socialistfederation of Mexico and CentralAmerica.

Can we be more specific about someof the concrete transitional demandswhich Trotskyists would raise at thistime in Nicaragua pointing in thisdirection? Well, one element wouldcertainly be support of the workingmasses' struggles against their exploit­ers, instead of trying to repress them orconciliate \vith the anti-Somoza bour­geoisie as the Sandinistas have beendoing. A communist opposition to thepresent petty-bourgeois regime wouldsimultaneously attempt to broadenthese struggles into a full-scale offensiveagainst capitalist power, demandingworkers control everywhere leading tothe expropriation of the capitalists asa class by a workers and peasantsgovernment.

Okay. what else? Well, keep in mindthat we are dealing with the unfoldingNicaraguan situation at a distance. Onething is clear, however, namely thatthere has been a big development ofmass organizations of the workingpeople. At first it was the SandinistaDefense Committees. These are neigh­borhood groups modeled on the CubanCommittees to Defend the Revolution.And in the last month or so the FSLNleaders have been expanding the militiasbased on these mass organizations.There's also. of course, the variousunions. both the Sandinistas' CSTfederation and the others we have beentalking about. So one key demandwould be to unite the mass organiza­tions in a representative council-anational workers assembly or soviet­free from government tutelage andassuring workers democracy for all butdirectly counterrevolutionary forces.Additionally, Trotskyists call for break­ing with the representatives of thebourgeoisie, for a workers and peasantsgovernment based on soviet organs ofproletarian rule.

I'm sure there are many other de­mands a Nicaraguan Trotskyist groupwould raise: against the capitalistausterity program of bogus "nationalunity" of the exploiters and exploited;or for the complete arming of workersand peasants militias, for example. Butthe important thing is the basic frame­work and goal: independent Bolshevik­Leninist party of intransigent opposi­tion. workers and peasants to power,proletarian revolution the only road.

Nicaragua, Cuba, Soviet UnionSo matters are coming to a head in

Central America. particularly withregards to Nicaragua. A little vignettewhich sort of captures it was lastJanuary on the anniversary of the deathof Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, thepublisher of La Prensa who wasassassinated by Somoza's thugs. Therewere t\l'O demonstrations this time. Onewas on the side of the FSLN, which hadas a main sloga'n, "Nicaragua Won, ElSalvador Will Win." And there was acounterdemonstration on the part of thebourgeois opposition which had as its

main slogan, "Jamaica Won, NicaraguaWill Win." Now in Jamaica the left­wing populist government of MichaelManley was defeated in elections lastOctober partly because, as a bourgeoisgovernment, it couldn't provide jobs forthe masses of unemployed. But it wasalso due to destabilization of theeconomy by the International MonetaryFund in Washington which refused torefinance Jamaica's debt and thus cutoff further imports. It was effectively aU.S. economic blockade. So Manleywas thrown out and replaced by EdwardSeaga, who's known in Jamaica asCIAga. In other words, the bourgeoisdemonstrators were raising a directlycounterrevolutionary slogan.

Thus the Sandinista leaders standbefore a fork in the road, and the4uestion of which way forward issharply posed in Nicaragua today. Oneissue over which it is particularly acute isthe question of support to the left-winginsurgents in El Salvador. It's not just astrategic question, moreover, becausethe Salvadorans made a major contribu­tion by financing (with the millions theymade off their kidnappings) a lot of theguns which made the FSLN's overthrowof Somoza possible. So it's also arevolutionary debt. But the Sandinistasare still nationalists at bottom, and theirattitude toward revolution next doorhas been-well, I guess "contradictory"is the best you can say for it. You know,the !\ icaraguan government hailed the"human rights junta" installed byJimmy Carter in EI Salv ador in October1979. And they didn't break with thejunta or allow aid to the guerrillas untilafter the assassination of ArchbishopRomero last March. There are evenreports that they prevented Nicaraguanleftists from joining the Salvadoranguerrillas. Halted them at the borderand sent them home!

Now lately there has been a big blastof Cold War propaganda coming fromWashington warning the Nicaraguangovernment to cut off guns to the EISalvador leftists or else. So what hasbeen the response in Managua? Theother day on CBS-TV one of the

continued on page 10

Spartacist League/spartacus Youth League

Public Offices-MARXIST LlTERATURE-

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9

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Trotskyist League Forum---~-~--.-._----~_.__._-_ .•.~._--_.-

Speaker: Alan GilchristSpartaCist LedqlH.' Billdfr-I

Celltu:l.1 CUlllilllttce

Smash H-Block!

British Troops Outof Ireland Now!

too, it was which side are you on. It wasthe Spartacist League that called for"All Indochina Must Go Communist!"and military victory to the NLF/DRV,while the SWP called for "troops oue"and the CP's slogan was "negotiationsnow"-two policies of liberal bourgeoisdefeatism. And because the liberal/radical antiwar movement did not buildrevolutionary opposition to imperial­ism, it was only a few years until the"Vietnam syndrome" was largely over­come through Carter's anti-Soviet"human rights" crusade which openedthe door to Reagan.

The CISPES, the CP/SWP, theSalvadoran FDR/FMLN, NicaraguanSandinistas, etc. are all desperatelylooking for an alliance with a "progres­sive" wing of the bourgeoisie. But thereis no "progressive" bourgeoisie in theimperialist era. Who do they want? AJohn Kennedy, perhaps, who launchedthe Bay of Pigs invasion and V.S.imperialism's dirty war on Vietnam? AFranklin Roosevelt, whose "GoodNeighbor" policy installed the firstSomoza? A Woodrow Wilson, whotalked of "self-determination" whilesending the Marines into Nicaragua?Nor can Lopez Portillo's Mexico orHelmut Schmidt's West Germany playaprogressive role-if they intervene it isonly to head off a "Communist threat."Thus it is only the Trotskyists who fightto defeat imperialism's anti-Soviet ColdWar drive which menaces not only theCentral American masses but the entireworld. For workers revolution through­out Central America.' Defend Cuba andthe USSR.'-

WVPholo

S.F. march against junta terror,February 18.

BOYCOTTf1lUlA;'; y

~~ (AR(;'O70

fl SAL Vt1DOR !

wing insurgents in El Salvador, forproletarian revolution as the only wayto defeat imperialism.

In mounting his anti-Soviet war driveReagan is consciously fighting the"Vietnam syndrome." The liberals andreformists respond by trying to recreatethe old Vietnam antiwar movement, asif this were any answer. What was wonin Indochina was won on the battlefield.As for the popular front at home, itcollapsed as soon as American troopswere withdrawn in 1973. On Vietnam,

Sunday April 12 at 130 pillInternational Strident Centre33 St George StreetTORONTOFor 1010ll"allOo call (4161 593-4138

EI Salvador...(continued from page 1)

The V.S. Committee in Solidarity withthe People of El Salvador (CIS PES) issupporting a bill, H.R. 1509, to prohibitall military aid to the Salvadoran junta.Thus it leaves untouched the more than$100 million in economic aid which isnow the lifeline for the bankrupt junta!In the Senate, Teddy Kennedy has aneven milder bill essentially to stop"American guns killing Americannuns." While recalling the spectre of"another Vietnam," CIS PES' politicalthrust is to sum up the issue in terms ofthe democratic demand of self­determination-the basis for an alliancewith U.S. liberals. "Let the People of ElSalvador Decide!" was the title of a full­page Ne\1' York Times (3 February) adsponsored by CISPES.

With a civil war raging in EI Salvador,this Wilsonian program has a definitebourgeois class content. Thus Mex­ican president Lopez Portillo in aCBS-TV interview condemned bothU.S. and Soviet intervention in CentralAmerica. Senator Kennedy, anotherfervent partisan of Salvadoran self­determination, was careful to state, "Istrongly oppose" military support"from Communist and other radicalstates to the insurgent forces in EISalvador." To top it off, when Reaganrecently visited Canada he was able topaper over differences with the LiberalTrudeau government by references to"self-determination" for EI Salvador.For revolutionary communists it is theclass line which is the highest principle.Thus the Spartacist League supportsSoviet/Cuban aid to left-wing rebels inEI Salvador. In contrast, CISPES andits friends presumably would havenothing to say or do if the Salvadoranarmy put down the mass insurgencywithout significant V.S. support, as theydid in 1932, killing 30,000.

Appealing to bourgeois liberals, theleaders of the Salvadoran popular frontand organizers of "mainstream" pro­tests against V.S. intervention in Cen­tral America adopt the program of theimperialist "doves." At a CISPES rallyin New York, a spokesman for theFrente Democnltico Revolucionario(FOR), Carlos Paredes, declared: "EISalvador is not goingto a Cuban systemunless Reagan pushes it." In Detroit, anupcoming teach-in co-sponsored byCISPES lists as a featured speakerCarter's ambassador to EI Salvador,Robert White. Although currentlyopposed to military aid to the junta,White labels "Marxism-Leninism" the"ultimate enemy of Western civiliza­tion," merely differing with Reagan overhow to fight it. As for the U.S.-centeredreformists, the Stalinist CommunistParty and the anti-Trotskyist SocialistWorkers Party are so sensitive to thecontradiction between popular frontismand revolutionary class struggle thatthey put themselves forward as thugsagainst the Spartacist League, in a vainattempt to seal off the liberal EISalvador protest milieu.

But they can't escape. Without aMarxist program of unconditionaldefense of the Soviet Union againstimperialism and proletarian oppositionto popular frontism, it is impossible togive revolutionary leadership in thebattle over Central America. The liberalpolicy of simple "self-determination" isa program for bloody defeat of theworker and peasant masses. It is thepresent-day equivalent of the imperialist"non-intervention" pact with the Krem­lin in the late 1930s which spelled doomfor the Republic in the Spanish CivilWar. Seeking to appease the "democrat­ic" capitalist powers, Stalin eagerlypledged not to aid the Republic. Onlyenough Soviet arms were sent, clandes­tinely, to assure Soviet influence overthepopular-front government, not enoughto defeat Franco. It was the Trotskyistswho fought against the Stalinist treach­ery in the '30s, and again today the SLwhich calls for military victory to left-

from the Mexican labor movement,including aid in arming the Salvadoranrebels. Lopez Portillo may call Fidel"micomandante" [my commander], but theworkers and peasants struggling againsta bloodthirsty dictatorship armed byU.S. imperialism need more concretehelp than that. And just as the capitalistsfear, the repercussions from CentralAmerica could set off an explosiveradicalization of the Mexican workingclass, one of the most powerful in allLatin America. What it needs is Trot­skyist leadership which calls not for"detente," but for rip-roaring interna­tionalist class struggle.

And this brings us to Cuba and theSoviet Union. Now in answer to theReagan administration's charges, bothCastro and Brezhnev have denied aidingthe EI Salvador rebels. On February 26a Soviet central committee spokesman,Zamyatin, said that "the Soviet Uniondid not deliver arms and is not deliver­ing any arms to EI Salvador." From allevidence, the State Department's"White Paper" notwithstanding, thisseems to be true. Don't we wish that itweren't so, but this is the counterrevolu­tionary logic of "peaceful coexistence"with imperialism. Meanwhile, of course,the U.S. is pouring dollars and helicop­ters and military "advisers" into EISalvador like crazy, whiie crying "thief"at Moscow. Castro, for his part, isdirectly under the gun, facing threats ofnaval blockade and who-knows-what­else, and has adopted a tougher tonetoward Washington. But in CentralAmerica, all reports agree that Cuba hasjoined with the European social demo­crats and Latin American liberals inurging the Salvadoran leftists to go for a"political settlement" with elements ofthe murder junta. Which just means thatthe cycle of coups would begin all overagain.

Our slogan, "Defense of Cuba and theUSSR Begins in EI Salvador," is meantto underline the fact that Reagan isplaying Cold War dominos here. If hecan mop up EI Salvador it will be on toManagua, and from there to Havana,and so on. It's a battle on a worldwidescale. And as General Haig keepspointing out, the place where Washing­ton would really like to apply thepressure is in Russia's front yard­Poland. Thus ultimately it is theproletarian property forms won by theOctober Revolution of Lenin andTrotsky that are targeted. So we can say,quite concretely, if you're worried aboutthe threat to the collectivized economyin Poland, let Reagan grind CentralAmerica under his boot and it's justgoing to increase the imperialist pres­sure in Central Europe. The U.S.'intention, as influential Reaganitecolumnist William Safire put it, is notmerely to "break the Communist win­ning streak" but to "turn the globaltide."

So we find ourselves in the position ofwarning that "the Americans are com­ing, the Americans are coming!" Andwhat they're bringing ain't "humanrights." The bastards in the Pentagonare looking to get even for the humilia­tion they suffered in Vietnam, so themass murder they're planning to un­leash will indeed make Somoza look likea "moderately repressive autocrat" bycomparison-that's what the new Amer­ican ambassador to the UN calls him,an "M RA." Safire asked himself what"winning" means: "Is it supporting amilitary junta that kills the oppositionbut by its repressive nature producesmore opposition that becomes neces­sary to kill?" His answer: "If need be,yes." Remember what Rosa Luxemburgsaid, that the choice was socialism orbarbarism? Well, meet Mr. Barbarismof 1981. Therefore, if you want to avoidholocaust in Central America, if youwant to avoid the big bang over Berlin,you better stop the Reagan desperadosin El Salvador. For workers revolutionin America's "backyard" will certainlybring the day a lot closer when a socialistfuture for mankind comes knocking onthe front door.-

Nicaragua...(continued from page 9)

bourgeois members of the Nicaraguanjunta, Arturo Cruz, said they did notwant to support any kind of activitywhich aided the Soviet Vnion in CentralAmerica. It sounded like General Haig.So he was stating that for thosebourgeois figures still willing to workwith the Sandinistas, aid to the Salva­doran guerrillas is a split issue-this iswhere they draw the line. But it isn't justthe liberals. There have been persistentreports of tensions within the FSLNover the question, which we have no wayof verifying. However, when the NewYork Times [15 February] asked a"senior" Sandinista official, the re­sponse was: "Washington's message hasbeen received loud and clear. There is arecognition of the very high politicalcost to Nicaragua of involvement in EISalvador." No doubt there is a highpolitical cost. But if they don't helprevolution to spread throughout theregion it could be slitting their ownthroats.

So what will the Sandinistas do?When it comes to military questionsthey tend to be more realistic than whenthey're talking a~out "national unity"and the "mixed economy." Their firstresponse to the new Reagan administra­tion has been to greatly augment themilitias and begin training tens ofthousands in the use of arms. And theyhave said that they expect animperialist-backed attack in the nextfew months. Politically they havesuggested that under pressure they maydrop the bourgeois members of theJunta of National Reconstruction andthen have a Sandinista-only govern­ment. However the basis on which thatgovernment would rest is the samecapitalist economy they have at present,which would be open to the same kind ofimperialist pressure that it has been inthe past. In other words, it would be thesame highly unstable situation asexisted in Cuba from the summer of1959 to the summer of 1960.

Extend the revolution to EI Salva­dor, expropriate the bourgeoisie-thesesteps are indispensable simply to defendwhat has already been won. But eventhat is not enough. An isolated workersstate in one slice of the inter-Americanisthmus will never be viable for n,orethan a historical blink of the eye. All ofCentral America must go up in flames ifrevolution is to succeed anywhere in theregion. And it's far from impossible.Guerrillas in Guatemala have for thefirst time won support from the Indianmajority, and have long-standingworking-class support. Moreover, inrecent months there have been large­scale strikes by banana workers in bothHonduras and Costa Rica. (By the way,in January Nicaragua finally expropri­ated the banana plantations linked tothe Standard Fruit Company, part ofthe Castle & Cooke conglomerate, Iguess making it the first Central Ameri­can state to cease- to be a "bananarepublic." But unless this conquest isextended, they will soon find it a hollowvictory, since the multinationals stillcontrol the marketing.)

Such an offensive would set offrumblings throughout Latin America.Pinochet-style dictatorships would bethreatened; there would be politicalstrikes, huge mass demonstrations, andso on. And in the United States as well,where we have called for a labor boycottof military goods to right-wing dictator­ships of Central America. Interestingly,while nothing of the sort occurred in theU.S. during the Vietnam War, in the lastdays of the Carter administration theWest Coast ILWV dock union decreedsuch a boycott, at least on paper. Class­struggle militants in the unions willcertainly struggle to see that it becomesa reality, and that could pose somesharp clashes with the government andpossibly the union bureaucracy. Anoth­er key element will be militant solidarity

10 WORKERS VANGUARD

Military Victory to Left-Wing Insurgents in EI Salvador!U.S./OAS Hands Off! Defend Cuba and the USSR!

For Workers Revolution in Central America!

SWP Goons For CISPES:Protest Anti-CommunistExclusion!

WV Photo

New School, March 21: SWP goons will not silence revolutionaries.

regimes intervene, it will be to preventthe civil war in EI Salvador fromescalating into proletarian revolution.

The Spartacist League is forworkers revolution throughout Cen­tral America! That is why they wantto silence us. This is what popularfrontism leads to-in Spain thereformists resorted to murder tosilence communists. Today the Spart,:,-­cist League was the first to warn the"Defense of Cuba and the SovietUnion Begins in EI Salvador." Andnow that the Pentagon is threateningmilitary blockades, the SWP andCISPES goons are trying to gag thosewho defend the USSR and Cuba. Butit won't work. The voice of proletarian

" revolution will not be silenced. Protestthis anti-communist exclusion!

NYC Spartacist LeagueMarch 21, 1981

who turn out to be imperialist "hawks"when it comes to the Near East orEurope. These phonies have so little todo with socialism that they admitknown fascists, KKK terrorists, to"debate" while excluding Trotskyists!The CIS PES organizers see them­selves as spokesmen for the popularfront in El Salvador, the FOR, anddon't want communists around be­cause it might scare away the liberalcapitalist politicians they are appeal­ing to. Thus they oppose our call for

. "Military Victory to Left-Wing Insur­gents in EI Salvador" because they'refor a so-called "political solution" witha section of the junta. This just meansthat the army will stay and the killingwill go on and on. They even opposeour demand, "U.S.jOAS Hands Off!"because they think Mexico or Venezue­la will help out the Salvadoran rebels.But if these Latin American bourgeois

The Socialist Workers Party resortsto these Stalinist exclusion tacticsbecause it wants to be the thugs andwaterboys for a new popular front, justlike they did in the antiwar movementfor the Democratic Party "doves"-

were prevented from exercIsing thesame rights as everyone else. As soonas we walked in the door, SLers weretold we could not sell our newspaper,Workers Vanguard. WV salesmenoutside the building were not allowedin after they had finished selling. Yetnumerous groups were selling freely inthe corridors. When an SL supportertried to speak in the "Human Rights"workshop, as soon as he mentioned thewords Spartacist League, SWPers inthe audience started interrupting,yelling "shut up," screaming to drownhim out. He was then bodily thrownout of the room. A WV reporter wasexcluded from the press conference,even though Salvadoran FOR spokes­man Carlos Paredes said he wasopposed to political exclusions. Wom­en and black comrades were draggedacross the lobby, down the stairs andthrown out the door.

This afternoon members and sup­porters of the Spartacist LeaguejU .S.were physically expelled from a con­ference called by the Committee inSolidarity with the People of EISalvador (CISPES) at the NewSchool. This blatantly anti-communistexclusion was engineered by aCISPES goon squad led by membersof the Socialist Workers Party (SWP),which had secretly decided the nightbefore to strongarm SL supporters atthis "public" conference. The SWPthugs even called the cops-the strike­breakers and racist killers of thecapitalist state-to keep out theTrotskyists of the Spartacist League.Why? Because they can't answer ourMarxist politics, our revolutionaryopposition to imperialism and classcollaboration. So they try to silencepolitical debate on the left. All defend­ers of democratic rights must protestthis outrage!

When a crowd gathered at theconference, many of them shocked bythe goon squad's vicious assault, SWPchief thug Mike Maggi tried to claimthe SL was "disrupting." At no timedid we dis~upt anything-instead we

WVPhoto

CWA militant Barry Janus calls for military victory to left-wing insurgents InEI Salvador.

Militant L.A. Demo:"Stop Deportations toEI Salvador I"~

to

I

have also fought to achieve full citizen­ship rights for all foreign-born workersin this country." Silva called on theSalvadoran workers and peasants to"break with the bourgeois politicians,the Guillermo Ungos, the so-calledpatriotic officers who havejoined forceswith the toiling masses not to aid theirstruggle but to act as a brake, to ensurethat the struggle is kept within theconfines of capitalism." He concluded,..No more Chiles! ... The popular frontmeans workers' blood! For workersrevolution in EI Salvador." MACspokesman Barry Janus told the crowd:

"This INS policy is nothing new. This •country has been a haven for theSomoza lovers! This country is a havenfor the Hitler-loving Marshal Ky! Thiscountry provides warm refuge for Naziwar criminals, and CIA-trained gusa­nos who killed Orlando Letelier! Theyare welcome here. We will not forget theleftists and unionists who fled Pino­chefs terror. The door was slammed intheir face when they tried to get in theU.S."We in the Militant Action Caucus callfor a labor boycott of military goods toEI Salvador. And we say ... when thiswar-mad Reagan goes to send in theMarines, the working class better beready to stop it. We fight in our union tobreak our union's ties wi-th the Ameri­can Institute for Free Labor Develop­ment. .. we say no CIA/ AIFLD dirtytricks in El Salvador.... StoppingReagan in El Salvador is a necessarydisplay of international working classsolidarity!"

The demonstration concluded withchants and applause. The SpartacistLeaguejSpartacus Youth League isproud to have initiated this importantunited-front demonstration in defenseof refugees from the U.S.-aided whiteterror. We also salute the Valley StateCIS PES and other militants whorefused to buckle under to the LosAngeles CISPES' filthy attempt towreck the protest. To those "leftists"who refused to endorse the demonstra­tion we can only say-on the behalf ofthousands of victims of junta terror­where were you?

people there" complained the mealy­mouthed FRT (Morenoite). The ValleyCollege chapter of the Committee inSolidarity of the People of EI Salvador(CISPES), however, e"nthusiasticallyendorsed the demonstration. While theClSPES newsletter publicized the ac­tion, at the final hour they resorted tothe vilest sabotage, calling up theirentire mailing list with the phony storythat the demonstration was canceled!While hundreds of Salvadoran refugeesare locked up in El Centro awaitingdeportation, CISPES tries to destroy ademonstration in their behalf becausethe protest was called by the SL/SYL.Every class-conscious militant andindividual concerned with saving thelives of the victims ofjunta terror will bedisgusted with these treacherous liarsand saboteurs!

At the demonstration SL spokesmanJose Silva noted that "The SpartacistLeague has always been in the forefrontof the fight against deportations. We

~t'tlUl1~bf\~ tQ~~tt:UC;1r "~11 JUttlAIt! '

Slap ~t~Qt\l Al\ON:£L ,SALVADQl\'SPARTAC\~'~

staff of the Black Panther Party; theMilitant Action Caucus (MAC) of theCWA; the People's College of Law; andthe Los Angeles Feminist Women'sHealth Center. The latter activelyparticipated in building the demonstra­tion, sending their own contingent, withspeakers and signs reading "StopDeportations of Refugees and Exporta­tions of Green Berets!"

Many so-called left groups respond­ed to the urgent united-front call withmiserable sectarianism. "Our organiza­tion doesn't like your organization'sposition on the FOR," said WorkersPower. It was "too difficult [to] get our

LOS ANGELES, March 23-Chanting"Stop Deportations to EI Salvador!Asylum for Refugees from Junta Ter­ror!" some 70 demonstrators gatheredtoday at the Downtown Federal Build­ing, headquarters of the hated Immigra­tion and Naturalization Service (INS).Protesting the U.S. policy of deliberatemurder through deportation of hun­dreds of Salvadoran refugees a week,the united-front demonstration wasinitiated by the Spartacist LeaguejSpartacus Youth League (SLjSYL) andendorsed by over 23 individuals andorganizations. This was thefirst demon­stration in this country to focus on theU.S.' direct complicity in the slaughterof refugees by the Salvadoran militaryjunta.

According to the New York Times (2March) and by the INS' own admission,nearly 12,000 Salvadorans in the lastfiscal year have been sent back to theclutches of the murderous junta and itsright-wing execution squads. La migra'sairlift to death came to light in Januarywhen 42 Salvadorans awaiting deporta­tion in an INS concentration camp in EICentro, California went on a hungerstrike after learning about a ChristmasDay massacre of a group of deportees atthe San Salvador airport. Demonstra­tors demanded a stop to this bloodytrafficking in butchery.

Endorsers of the protest included theSouthern California District Council ofthe lLWU; the Unitarian UniversalistService Committee; Phil Russo, ILWUWestern states' region director oforganization; attorney Leonard Wein­glass; David Hilliard, former chief of

27 MARCH 1981 11

WfJliNEliS ,,1NfifJl1lilJVote No! Stop Pension Royalties Giveaway]

Miners: trike to Win Hi ,•

WV Photo

10,000 coal miners demonstrate in Washington, D.C. March 9 againstReagan's cutback of Black Lung fund.

MARCH 24-Sam Church claims thecontract he just negotiated with the coalbosses is a good deal for miners. So dothe bosses' papers. Don't buy it. Thepresident of the United Mine Workersof America (UMWA) says, "This is ahappy day," because the companiesdidn't win continuous seven-day opera­tions, that they didn't break up theindustry-wide pension plan, that minersget a "wage increase" that barely keepsup with the present rate of inflation.First they threaten to kick you in thegroin,. then they take it back and you'resupposed to be thankful. Baloney!

On top of that the Internationalbargainers just gave away the royalty onnon-union coal, which goes into theUMWA Health and Retirement Fund.Not only is this a major attack on thealready shaky pension plan, it's an openinvitation to Bituminous Coal Opera­tors Association (BCOA) bosses to buynon-UMWA coal and subcontract theirproperties to non-union companies.This would further reduce the UMWA'sshrinking percentage of U. S. coalproduction-already less than half thetotal. Moreover, for the first timethey're putting in a 45-day probationperiod, to weed out union militants.And the UMWA construction workersare left high and dry without a contract.This deal is an attack on the lifeblood ofthe United Mine Workers, and everygood union man and woman shouldvote it down, rip it up and ;'urn thepaper it's printed on!

Sam Church's deal is worse than whatminers have got now. And what aboutall the vital union gains that havealready been given up-in particular,the cradle-to-grave health care, whichwas the calling card of every UMWAorganizer and a lifesaver for miners andtheir families. Mine safety was thrownto the winds when the '78 contractallowed mine safety committeemen tobe arbitrarily removed from theirelected positions by the companies andpro-management arbitrators. Or theright to strike over grievances, often alife-and-death matter: the companiesgave up the anti-union ArbitrationReview Board, but they'll just appeal tothe pro-eompany courts. An all-outUMWA strike must demand restorationof all these vital union gains!

Of course, a lot of workers are gettinga lot less than this, including members ofthe once-mighty United Auto Workerswho are taking mammoth pay cuts,hundreds of thousands of layoffs andnumerous plant closings. If the BCOAdecided not to put the miners up againstthe wall, it is because of the miners'determination to fight. What gave thecompanies second thoughts was thesight of roving pickets in seven states,with thousands of miners on wildcats,conjuring up memories of the bitter 110­day strike in 1977-78. Although thesettlement then was a defeat, the ranks'will to fight was not broken. Even theviciously anti-labor Reagan govern­ment started backpedaling on its pro­posed Black Lung benefit cuts when10,000 miners demonstrated around the

12

White House two weeks ago.The large oil, steel and utility

companies which own the coal mines arebloated with profits. In the past decadethe selling price of coal has rocketed byover 600 percent! And Conoco, the oilcompany which owns ConsolidationCoal, the largest employer of UMWAminers, made over $1 billion in profits­more than $74,000 per employee! Eventhe company mouthpiece BusinessWeek (30 March) recognizes that if theminers go out, they will fight for bigstakes: "A strike of more than a few dayswill cause rank-and-file miners to expectmore than the industry is now offeringas a price for returning to work." Andthe miners can win more, a lot more! Infact, the UMWA is in a position to leadthe whole American working class in apowerful fight against company take-

aways and Reagan cutbacks.Voting "no" on Sam Church's piss­

poor deal is the first step, but it's notenough. If there's a strike, UMWAminers will face not only the coal com­panies but a solid bosses' front fromthe White House on down. And to winit's necessary to dig in for a real battlefor real gains, not just to keep thepresent rotten contract. Miners need afull cost-of-living escalator to protectagainst runaway inflation. The fact thatMiller and Church (who really ran the1977-78 strike) didn't win COLA threeyears ago cost more than $1,500 forevery worker under BCOA contract.With more than 25,000 UMWA mem­bers on layoff without supplementalunemployment benefits or severancepay, the union must fight for a shorterworkweek with no loss in pay, to

provide jobs for all, and UMWAcontrol of all hiring and upgrading.Strike to win big! Win a fat contractnow, and for the first time there will be abasis ~or successfully organizing West­ern mines.

But to take. the offensive, coal minersmust build a new class-struggle leader­ship to dump Church & Co., who onlywant to play footsie with the BCOA andReagan. A lot of phony "socialists,"however, have done nothing but buildChurch's image. The Socialist WorkersParty (SWP) Militant (20 March), forinstance, reported on the March 9Washington demonstration quoting theUMWA leader's begging "Mr. Presi­dent" speech without criticism, and evencontinues to defend the sellout ArnoldMiller: "And the revolt in the minersunion ten years ago established demo­cratic rights that put the miners in astronger position to fight against suchconditions." No, the UMWA is now inaweakened, defensive position, fightingto hold onto and win back past gains­precisely because the Miller "reform"leadership leo the last strike to disaster.

The reformist Communist Party (CP)Sings the same tune, avoiding ancriticism of Church just as they did withMiller three years ago. According to theCP's Daily World (20 March), therecent wildcats "appeared to have noconnection with the breakdown ofcontract talks"! This was the same lineas the International, which was trying toend the wildcats by labeling them"local" disputes. The Spartacist League,however, warned from the beginningthat the pseudo-reformers of Miners forDemocracy were relying dangerously onthe bosses government-the enemies ofthe labor movement. "Labor Depart­ment Wins Mine Workers Election" wasthe headline of our prophetic 1973article on MFD (see the WorkersVanguard pamphlet "The Great CoalStrike of 1978"). Because we fought fora genuine class-struggle leadershipinstead of tagging along after whoeverwas popular at the moment, it wasWorkers Vanguard that pointed theroad to victory throughout the llO-daybattle when the SWP, CP and otherswere ap'Qlogizing for {he endless selloutsnegotiated by Miller and Church.

The pro-capitalist American laborleadership has been in retreat for somany years that the UMWA leadershipcan try to sell this takeaway contract as avictory! To beat it back requires aprogram for victory, from elected strikecommittees and appeals to the rest of thelabor movement not to handle coal to apolitical fight against the twin parties ofcapitalism. Reagan will hard-line itagainst the miners, but Jimmy ("Taft­Hartley") Carter is no more a friend oflabor than the Republicans. And agenuinely class-struggle leadership ofthe United Mine Workers would recog­nize the key role that this combativeunion can play in leading not onlyorganized labor but all the victims of theruling-class offensive in Reagan's Amer­ica. Remember: miners can't live onjellybeans, and the bosses can't live withoutcoal! •

27 MARCH 1981