Workers Vanguard No 829 - 09 July 2004

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 829 - 09 July 2004

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WORKERS ''III'"'IRD 0C!:No. 829 aij.J1!)C.701 9 July 2004

We Need aFighting. orkers Party!Break with the Democrats! No Vote to Nader!

The oddly demented George WBush administration's brutal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, theAbu Ghraib torture scandal, its "waron terror" at home, combined withscary Christian fundamentalism andcrude war-profiteering, have generated disgust and dismay. It is not surprising that growing numbers ofpeopIe view the upcoming presidentialelection as a referendum on the Iraqwar ,md feel compelled to vote for"Anybody but Bush." The problem isyou can't actually vote against thewar, you have to vote for someone,and neither of the other two main richwhite men running, Democrat JohnKerry (richest man in the Senate millionaires' cluh) nor lawyer/small busin e ~ m a n R a 1 p h Nader. lijleak. formeinterests of the working class andoppressed. While Kerry and the Democrats might have thought Bush's timing and unilateral launching of theIraq invasion unwise, they understandthat an immediate pullout would be amajor defeat for the U.S. ruling class,and thus Kerry has vowed to stay thecourse. Nader's proposal for replacing U.S. troops with United Nationsforces would merely continue theoccupation of Iraq in different garb.The awful machinery of he Pentagon will not stop grinding because anew man is in the White House. TheAmerican prison house for blackpeople won't open, nor will factoryowners, businessmen and bankers

APTwo faces of imperialist war in 2004 elections: George W. Bush carries out bloodycolonial occupation of Iraq; Democrat Kerry calls for more U.S. troops.

halt their relentless drive to maximize profits at the expense of theworking class; nor will the cops, thearmed thugs of capitalism, put downtheir guns. In Boston, where theDemocratic National Convention(DNC) will be taking place, the cops shotin the back and killed a Roxbury blackman, Bert W. Bowen, on June 27, thenless than a week later killed a reportedlymentally ill Hispanic man, Luis Gonzalez, in his own home. Meanwhile, the citizens of Boston are treated like criminalsand terrorists, as Boston transit has instituted a "random" search-and-seizure ofpassengers' bags! This is just a taste ofwhat's in store for New York, where thousands of new cops have been sworn in topolice the protesters against the RepublicanNational Convention (RNC) in August.Rock the Vote? Rock the SystemThe main organizers of rallies duringthe DNC focus on gently pressuring theDemocrats, saving big protest for the

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RNC protests. One of the puppets for theBoston rallies represents a 70-foot backbone, supposedly to stiffen the Democrats' spine. The liberal Nation (7 June)quoted Boston activist Malia Lazu of the"League of Pissed Off Voters": "I f youwant to be an anarchist, that's fine, butthen we'll all still be here. Could youjust not be an anarchist on voting day?"There's a Punkvoter "Rock AgainstBush" tour, while Def Jam founder Russell Simmons is working a "Rock the

Vote" hip-hop angle. Pressure is beingput on young people to vote "wisely" orthey'll blow the whole process.But the path to. ending war, exploitationand oppression lies outside the electoralprocess, since you can't vote capitalismout of existence. An economic systembased on private ownership and extraction of profit from the working peoplewho produce the wealth is defended bythe capitalist state-its courts, cops andprisons. This systematic force and vio-

lence is cloaked in the guise of"democracy," whereby you get tovote every four years for which capitalist party and politician will rule.To sweep away the whole rotten system, we need to build a fightingworkers party which leads militant,integrated class struggle outside theelectoral framework to smash capitalist rule and replace it with a workers government based on an egalitarian, socialist, planned, collectivizedeconomy. The purpose of the Trotskyist Spartacist League and Spartacus Youth Clubs is to participate insocial struggles with the aim of building the revolutionary party necessaryto achieve this future; this alsorequires contesting against reformistsand ostensible sociaiists who in deedswork to reconcile disaffected workers, minorities and youth to their classenemy and its bankrupt social order.The two capitalist parties, or asGore Vidal called them, the two wingsofthe Property Party, are deeply intertwined. Republican Ronald Reaganand a Democratic Congress cut taxesfor the rich in the 1980s, while Democratic president Clinton and aRepublican Congress in the 1990sslashed welfare-both parties unitein serving the needs of capitalism.Today, John Kerry doesn't evenpretend to oppose most of Bush'spoliCies. Kerry is for an additional40,000 troops to Iraq; he was for thePatriot Act, which assaults civil liberties. He was for Clinton's 1996Welfare Reform Act, which deniedhundreds of thousands, mainly chil-dren, food or housing. He supportsIsrael's war against the Palestinianpeople, writing a paper titled "TheCause of Israel Is the Cause of America."Objectively, a vote for Kerry is a vote forthese positions, despite the subjectiveintentions of antiwar voters.All this, and more, the ANSWERcoalition will tell you, since right nowthey are sponsoring two rallies at the

DNC.and RNC against "the twin partiesof the war machine." But talk is cheap. Infact, what the ANSWER coalition didwas run the Iraq antiwar protests straightcontinued on page 8


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Supreme Court Rulings-Partial Setback to Bush Administration, .Thefollowing statement was issued bythe S'partacist League and the PartisanDefense Committee on Ju(v 5. The PDCis a class-struggle, non-sectarian legaland social defense organization whichchampions cases and causes in the interest of the whole of the working people.

This purpose is ill accordance with thepolitical views of he SL.

Fr.,e J o s e p : a d n l ~ ..and All the "Detalnees;!:On !tme 28, the Bush administration'sefforts to institutionalize rule by presidential fiat ran into an obstacle when theU.S. Supreme Court declared that "a stateof war is not a blank check for the president." In a plurality decision written byJustice O'Connor and joined by three others, the court held that Yaser Esam Hamdi,an American citizen taken into custody inAfghanistan in 200 I, could not indefinitely be held as an "enemy combatant"without "notice of the factual basis for hisclassification" and a "fair opportunity to-rebut the Government's factual assertions

before a neutral decisionmaker." Thecourt also ruled that he must be allowedsome f9rm of legal assistance.Four other justices condemned Hamdi 'sincarceration, though reaching differentconclusions as to what action the courtshould take. Justices Souter and Ginsburgfound Hamdi's detention violated the1971 Non-Detention Act, which declaredthat "[n)o citizen shall be imprisoned orotherwise detained by the United Statesexcept pursuant to an Act of Congress."But rather than call for his release, theyconcurred with the court's ruling sending

TROTSKY

Lessons of the Spanish Civil WarWe translate below .excerpts from a 1937leaflet issued by the Spanish Trotskyists onthe eve of the Barcelona May Days workersrevolt. This took place almost a year following the heroic workers uprising known as theJuly Days of he Spanish Civil War. The combative Spanish proletariat had risen upagainst Franco scoup attempt, posing pointblank the necessity of he proletariat to seizestate power. But the treacherous leadershipof he working class subordinated the masses LENINto the popular-front government. pavingthe way for the ultimate triumph ofFranco sreactionary forces.

On July 19 the proletariat lacked the revolutionary leadership that is indispensablefor the conquest of political power, of state power.The far left organizations were not prepared to defeat the bourgeois state. Anarchosyndicalism rejected, completely, the necessity for political power: set against the bitterreality, this theory has led some of its chiefs to demean themselves as servants of thebourgeois state instead of erecting the proletarian state. Nor was there, or is there, anauthentically Marxist vanguard. On the other hand, the reformist movement unmaskeditself as the principal prop of the liberal, that is, capitalist, bourgeoisie ..."Without world revolution, we are lost," said Lenin. This is even truer for Spain;furthermore to lead the world proletariat to insurrection we must get ahead of themwith our own example ...War and revolution are inseparable, or more exactly, the war carmot be won withoutthe revolution, or even more precisely: only the dictatorship of the proletariat can winthe war. .What is the dictatorship of the proletariat?The domination of the immense majority over the exploiting minority, the concentration of the revolutionary forces for military, political and social victory over thereaction, the definitive rupture with the bourgeois past.Who will make up the proletarian dictatorship?The democratic organs of the masses, the workers, peasants and fighters councils,

their assemblies and congresses of local, regional and national delegates, their revolutionary executive committees. The unions must organize the economy, but the wholeclass has to take the fate of society into its hands.The emancipation of the working class can only be carried out by the working classitself.

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DOWN WITH THE BOURGEOIS REPUBLIC!LONG LIVE THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT!-"Against Fascism and Bourgeois Reaction; Dictatorship of the Proletariat!"Bolshevik-Leninist Section of Spain (for a Fourth International),Barcelona, 1 May 1937

! ~ ! ! f . . l ! y o ! ' 1 ! f ! ! ~ f ! . ! . IRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Alison Spencer

EDITOR: Alan WildeEDITOR, YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Michael DavissonCIRCULATION MANAGER: Jeff ThomasEDITORIAL BOARD: Rosemary Palenque (managing editor). Susan Fuller (production manager).Bruce Andre, Jon Brule, Helen Cantor, Paul Cone, George Foster, Walter Jennings, James Robertson,Joseph SeymourThe Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League(Fourth Internationalist) .Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276-0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July andAugust (begi nning with omitting the seco nd issue in June) and with a 3-week interval in December, by the SpartacistPublishing Co 299 Broadway. Suite 318. New York. NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial), (212) 732-7861(Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO. New York, NY 10116. E-niail address: [email protected] subscriptions: $)0.00/22 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Workers Vanguard. Box 1377. GPO, New York, NY 10116.Opinions expressed in signed articles or eiters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint.The closing'tlate for new.s in this issue is 5 July.

No. 829 9 July 2004

Hamdi's case back to the lower courts forfurther proceedings. Arch-conservativeScalia, joined by the liberal Stevens, dissented on the grounds that since Congressnever voted to suspend habeas corpus,Han1di must either be formally chargedwith a crime or released. Scalia declared,"The very core of liberty secured by ourAnglo-Saxon system of separated powershas been freedom from indefinite imprisonn1ent at the will of the Executive."In another setback for Bush & Co., thecourt ruled by a six-to-three majority thatthe 600 detainees held in Guantanamohad a right to file habeas corpus petitionschallenging their imprisonment. JusticeStevens' decision rejected the government's flimsy contention that Americancourts have no jurisdiction because thebase is on Cuban territory. At the sametime, by a five-to-four majority, the courtdismissed the claim of Jose Padillaanother American citizen picked up atChicago's O'Hare airport in 2002-onthe outrageous pretext it was filed in thewrong federal district court.Had the court adopted the government's case in its entirety, it would haveeviscerated 200 years ofAmerican constitutional law giving the courts judicialoversight of executive branch decisions.In amici curiae (friends of the court)briefs submitted on Padilla's behalf in theSecond Circuit Court ofAppeals and laterin the Supreme Court by the MarxistSpartacist teague and Partisan DefenseCommittee, we noted, "What the President asserts is nothing less than the rightto disappear citizens .... This is an unprecedented assertion of imperial powers bythe President. The District Court's deference to the President's determination ofPadilla's status as an enemy combatantrelegates to the President the role of solearbiter of the exercise and applicability ofdemocratic, constitutional rights. This isconsonant with the rationale of a policestate."Any impediment to the government'spolice state designs is welcome, but theCourt's decisions were far from the"emphatic repudiation" ofthe Bush administration the ACLU claimed them to be.Though upholding some limits on presidential power, the Court's decisions recognize a right of due process and habeascorpus so truncated that in any other context, these decisions would be seen asconsistent with the wholesale shreddingof these protections. The dismantling ofthese rights began under Democraticpresident Clinton and has been carriedforward with a vengeance by Bush. InHamdi's case, Hie-lead decision not onlyaffirms the government's claim of authority to declare Hamdi an "enemy combatant," but permits the government to baseits case against him solely on hearsay evidence. Casting aside the presumption ofinnocence that is the underpinning of dueprocess, O'Connor declares, "The Constitution would not be offended by a presumption in favor of the Government'sevidence."The "neutral decisionmaker" envisionedby the Court includes kangaroo courts likethe military tribunals set up by Rumsfeld.In affirming the Guantanamo detainees'right to file habeas corpus petitions, theCourt evaded the question of whethereven the minimal protections accorded toHamdi would apply to them as well. Nordid the justices touch the question of citizenship rights in either the Padilla orHamdi cases. But with an administration

that sees its actions as not merely abovethe law but the law itself, the SupremeCourt has sent a message to the Bushregime that it can't do whatever it wants- a t least not yet.The Court's reluctance to decidePadilla's case can be traced to its endorsement of the government's bogus "waron terror." While the Court held that thegovernment has the authority to prevent"enemy combatants" from returning tothe field of battle while fighting continues, Afghanistan in Hamdi s case, a rulingon Padilla's claim would compel theCourt to confront the administration'sclaims that the "battlefield" in the "waron terror" is everywhere and its durationeternal. As we wrote in the amici brief:"The 'war against terrorism' is a fiction,a political construct, not a military reality.It is a political crusade conducted in thename of ridding society of a perceivedevil. I t is no more a 'war' in a militarysense than 'war against cancer,' 'waragainst obesity' or a 'war against immorality.' Like the 'wa r against communism'and the 'wa r against drugs,' this 'war' is apretext to increase the state's police powers and repressive apparatus, constrictingthe democratic rights of the population."From the outset of the "war on terror,"we have insisted that the government'srepressive measures, directed initially atMuslims and immigrants, and tramplingon political dissent along the way, wouldnecessarily broaden, with its ultimate targets being the multiracial labor movement and black people. This was borneout by the detentions of American citizens Padilla and Hamdi. As our briefstated, "The treatment of Padilla isintended as both the precursor and legaljustification for application of Executiveunilateral prerogatives on a broader scale,denying due process protections i n criminal prosecutions, immigration proceedings and Civil challenges to governmentpolicy. It is a frontal assault on the veryconcepts of due process and citizenshipitself. ... The target of the Executive isany and all perceived opponents of government policy."The democratic rights under attacktoday were won through centuries ofstruggle and revolution-the parliamentary partisans in the English Civil War,the U.S. Revolutionary War, the FrenchRevolution, American Civil War, pitchedlabor battles of the 1930s and the massmovement against Jim Crow segregation.And they must be defended as wellthrough the struggles of black people,immigrants and defenders of civil liberties welded to the power of the multiracial labor movement..

111.... t h uD Defeu8e, ! i j n : ~ D l i ~ " s __ "c, Lui

. . , . . An MOVE Prfto . . . . Fr . Mumls Abu"",'msn25th Annlve ... y ot POWeiton Village S'ege'YtnIr-Ttrror'" 0, . ... Th ......... 13,000 with Exp .... on.Stop the Deportatlon'l

Class-Struggle Defense NotesNo. 31, Summer 200350 (24 pages)

Order from/make checks payable to:Partisan Defense CommitteeP.O. Box 99, Canal Street StationNew York, NY 10013-0099

WORKERS VANGUARD


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Government "Terrorism" Frame-Up Threatens EveryoneDrop the Charges Against Lynne Stewart,Mohammed Yousry, Ahmed Abdel Sattar!On June 22, the government's sinisterframe-up trial of leftist attorney LynneStewart, her translator Mohammed Yousryand paralegal Ahmed Abdel Sattar beganin Manhattan's old federal courthouse.The seven-count indictment is a bombshell of charges wrapped around the liethat the defendants conspired to defraudthe U.S. government and "provide andconceal material support and resourcesto terrorist activity." Lynne Stewart,Mohammed Yousry and Ahmed AbdelSattar are not guilty of any crime. Allthree face decades in flrison if convicted.Lynne Stewart, a leftist lawyer and 64-year-old grandmother, had the courageto provide legal defense as a courtappointed attorney for Egyptian sheikOmar Abdel Rahman, a reactionaryIslamic fundamentalist cleric. The sheik,a blind diabetic with heart trouble, wasimprisoned for life on charges stemmingfrom the 1993 World Trade Centerbombing. Lynne Stewart continued tofight on behalf of her client and againsthis extraordinary and draconian prison. conditions. For this, Stewart, Yousry andSattar are themselves now smeared asaccomplices to "terrorism."This case is a loaded gun the federalgovernment has aimed at everyone inAmerica. At issue is whether attorneyshave the right to provide legal defense

for anyone with unpopular views withoutbeing accused of the .crime themselves.At issue is whether anyone accused of acrime has the right to legal defense, theright to free speech and association, topublicize their views to the world outsidethe jail cell, or even the right to receivenews of the world beyond the prisonwalls. This case is being prosecuted bythe same capitalist rulers who orderedtorture and maintained that their victimsin Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo had noright to legal defense (see related article,page 2).The government is trying to se t adeadly precedent with this case by target-

>-c

Leftist attorneyLynne Stewartwith herhusband,Ralph Poynter.

ing the attorney of a Muslim cleric whoserights they think nobody will care about.Because they have the courage to repre-. sent sheik Adbel Rahman, Lynne Stewartand co-defendants are smeared by thegovernment as guilty by association. Weare atheistic communist s who hailed theentry of the Red Army in Afghanistanagainst the CIA-backed Islamic fundamentalist mujahedin. Thus we are stalwart opponents of he views of an Islamiccleric like sheik Abdel Rahman. But weoppose any enhancement of the capitalist state's machinery of repressionbecause it will be used against the labormovement and the left.

Think of the implications: if LynneStewart is found guilty for defending aright-wing Islamic fundamentalist andconveying his views, what would stopthe government from repressing its opponents on the left side of the political spectrum? Could Mumia Abu-Jamal,a former Black Panther, MOVE supporterand award-winning journalist, framedas a "cop killer" and now writing fromdeath row, be next? The FBI taggedthe Black Panther Party as "terrorist" and38 Panthers were shot dead while hundreds more were railroaded to prisonunder the deadly COINTELPRO counterintelligence program. Could the government rule it a "criminal conspiracy" topublish Mumia's columns, fight for hisfreedom and the abolition of the racistdeath penalty? Could one be accused of"material support to terrorism" for publishing or buying his books or broadcasting his powerful voice? Could a unionleadership be charged as co-conspiratorsin "terrorism" for rightly defending aunion militant arrested for stopping scabswith an effective picket line?Uncle SAM and Big Brother

None of he defendants are charged withknowledge, planning or participation inany of the following crimes: the bombingcontinued on page 5

For a National Unionization Campaign!Port Truckers Strike East, Gulf CoastsComing some two months after the

May West Coast port truckers strike, hundreds of non-union, heavily black andimmigrant independent truck driversstruck last week at ports throughout theEast and Gulf coasts in a fight against rising fuel costs, grinding exploitation andanti-union laws. On June 28, the strikewas 90 percent effective at Port Newark,New Jersey, one ofthe country's principalcontaine r ports. At the Port of Charleston,the country:s fourth-busiest containerport, 80 percent of the truckers participated in the strike. Scores of protestingtruckers demonstrated at the ports ofNewark, Charleston, Savannah, Miamiand New Orleans. By June 30 most picketers had returned to work, but the Port ofMiami remained virtually shut down, andCharleston truckers continued their strikeuntil the end of the week.Charlestori truckers struck two daysearlier on June 26, and the picket lineswere honored by railway workers at theCSX rail yard, shutting the yard down formost of the day. Bill Campbell, electedspokesman for the Charleston port truckers, told WV of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) "giving uswater, food for the cookout, coming tospeak to the drivers, letting them knowhow important this labor movement wasand that we set history down here inSOl:Ith Carolina sticking together." Yet theILA undercut the port truckers strike bycontinuing to work ships behind thetruckers' pickets.The drivers Wl10 transport containerson and off the docks are treated lik e dirt.Paid by the load, they typically work 60-hour weeks for the equivalent ofless than$8 an hour, with no benefits. The driversare forced to uSe chassis (wheeled flattrailers) owned by the terminals and shipping companies, which don't give a danm9 JULY 2004

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APTruckers picketing Port of New Orleans, June 28.about maintaining the brakes, tires andoverall safety. They have to wait long,unpaid hours because the bosses prefer tosave money by stacking containers inhigh piles on the ground instead of loading them directly onto road-worthy chassis. Although there are record levels ofcargo, most port truckers struggle to ekeout an existence.Port truckers are victims of a systemthat gutted unionization, replacing unionized workers with owner-operators afterderegulation of the trucking industry in1980. Many drivers had to buy their ownrigs and absorb the cost of insurance"fuel, maintenance and other operatingexpenses. A trucker in Norfolk, Virginiadeclared: "It's a situation where I'm notsure if I should put tires on the t r u ~ k , . b u y fuel or [put] food on the table. Try and tellthat to your kids."The strike in late June, tho ugh involving only a fraction of he 50,000 port truckers nationally, was an impressive demon-

stration of social power. Unionization iskey to harnessing this power for the directbenefit of the port truckers. A successfulcampaign to organize port truckers nationally would give the union-organized workers control of each link in container shipments, from the docks to the highwaysand rail yards. Because they are owneroperators, the port truckers are deemed bythe shipping bosses and the courts to beindependent businessmen subject to federal price-fixipg laws, thereby prohibitingthem from unionizing. Typical was theJanuary 2000 decision by a Californiasuperior court in L.A. that ruled that porttruckers were "independent contractors."Such union-busting schemes hark back tothe 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, supposedly directed against capitalist monopolies but used for decades to break strikes.Port truckers have real social power.An article in the 17 May issue of theJournal of Commerce noted, "Shipperscould face a long, hot and tense su mmer

if recent protests by container truckers atthe ports of Oakland, Los Angeles-LongBeach and Norfolk are any indication."In fact, following the West Coast strikethis May, many port truckers made somereal gains, including 15 percent or moreincreases in the amount paid per container load by some companies.In December 2001, the Teamsters, theInternational Longshore and WarehouseUnion (IL WU) and the ILA announced analliance (0 organize port truckers. Organizing the port truckers is a basic requirement for working-class unity on thedocks. As a result of their experience inthe 2002 lockout, some West Coast longshoremen are starting to recognize that thefight to organize the port truckers is intheir interest. Indeed, organizing the porttruckers would open the road to uniting alldock workers into one industrial waterfront union coast to coast and beatingback the capitalists' divide-and-conquerstrategy. Such a perspective would requiremobilizing union power on behalf of theport truckers.But the Teamsters, ILA and ILWUhave made no real effort to organize thecountry's port truckers. In fact, Teamsterorganized "SeaLogix" truckers were seenworking during the Oakland strike thisspring (see "Support and Organize thePort Truckers!" WV No. 826, 14 May).And the ILWU bureaucracy has sought totake away a portion of the port truckers'work to give to the ILWU longshoremen.On the other hand, a WV sales. team wastold that on June 28, Teamsters stickerswere distributed by the ILWU at theLocal 10 union hall in the Bay Area calling to "Free the Oakland 3," port truckerswho were facing a lawsuit stemming fromthe May strike. A port trucker told WVthat he thought the suit was droppedcontinued on page 9

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We conclude below a slightly editedpresentation by Spartacist speaker AdrianOrtega at a Spartacist League/SpartacusYouth Club public educational in NewYork City on April 3. Part One o f thistalk appeared in WV No. 828 (11 June).PART TWO

the Spanish anarclio-syndicalists whowitnessed and embraced the 1917 Russian Revolution. The Friends of Durrutilearned from the negative example of theCNT; but they first. had to break with theiranarchist prejudices against the Leninistvanguard party and the dictatorship of theproletariat in order to fully embrace a revolutionary program. That opportunitypresented itsel f in May 1937.The Barcelona May Daysith the armed proletariat in the militias and the workers committees growingat a great rate, the capitalists were afraid

of a new workers radicalization like thatof July. In September 1936, in order toappease the workers, Azafta appointed anew cabinet in his government with thePSOE [Socialist Workers Party] and UGT[General Workers Union-affiliated tothe Socialists], the PCE [the StalinistCommunist Party] and the bourgeoisie. InCatalonia, the anarchists for the first timejoined the government;' and two monthslater, they entered the national government. In Catalonia, the popular-frontgovernment also included the POUM[the centrist Workers Party of MarxistReunification] for four months, That is,the Spanish left groups with significantinfluence in the working class sealed their

Leftist militiamen fight Francoist forces on Aragon front, 1937.

Almost a year had passed after the"July events" in Barcelona when on3 May 1937 the government decided totake the Telefonica building out of thehands of the CNT workers who ran it.Assault Guards commanded by the Stalinist Rodriguez Salas arrived at thebuilding and, on behalf of the popularfront, ordered the workers to abandon it.Workers put up resistance and theexchange of fire began. The word of anattack on the Telefonica spread like wildfire. In four hours a general strike wasdeclared and the city was engulfed instreet fighting with barricades bein$formed, as during the "July events," byworkers ofthe CNT-FAI, the left-POUMand, this time, the Friends of Durruti andthe Trotskyist Bolshevik-Leninists.

EL AMIGDOELPUEBLOPOATAVOZ DE lOS AMIGDS DE DUDDUTI

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torial staff. How about that for "antiauthoritarian organizations"?Now I'l l read another quote:"As soon as they were faced with a serious revolutionary situation, the Bakuninists had to throw the whole of their oldprogramme overboard. First they sacrificed their doctrine of absolute abstentionfrom political, and especially electoral,

Left: First issue of left anarchistFriends of Durruti's newspaper,EI Amigo del Pueblo (Friendof the People), depictingBuenaventura Durruti. Below:Group's 5 May 1937 leaflet callsfor a "revolutionary junta,"concludes with, "Long live thesocial revolutionl Down with thecounterrevolution!"

F.A,I,"los amigos de Durrutl"ITRABAJADORES.J

1D1t .. ....... t . . . . . . ..- Una Junta rl'lOlucionaria. Fusllamianto de 10. culpabl .....- .........-...-.......--,acct,'-.

Delarm, de lodos lei Cuerpo. armadol.Sociallzacion de la economfa.Oilolucl6n de 101 Partidos politicos que h'IIU agradldo a laclaM trabaj_dOte. .

No cldamoe fa cail.. La revoluclon ant. tode.Saludemo. a nu.. roe Camerada. del P.O. U.N. que han;No .. .. o ..... Oft.1 !Sem . . . . . . . ._ ..., ......... confraternizado en la calle con nolOlroLD . . . . . .U .. DU ..... guia! a ll .. .Dd ..... a DU_. VIVA LA REVDLUC10N SOCIAL.. JABAJO LA COIlTRAREVOLllCltJlI1IN.die no s Is srl 'ebatal'aT Ea nu_U'Io .....-.________ ;.-.________ - I

Viva l a F. A. LI Viva la C. N.alliance with the bourgeoisie.What was the'internal functioning ofthe CNT [the anarchist National Confederation of Labor] and the FAI [the political arm of the CNT] at the time? MiguelAmoros explains in his book La revolucion traicionada: La verdadera historiade Balius y Los Amigos de Durruti:"The plenums didn't take into accountthe assemblies of the unions and ignoredthe opinion of the militias. Against everynorm of the confederation, it was thecommittees who called on them andelaborated the agenda, which was not

always communicated to the delegates.The delegates attended without a mandate and without knowing what theywere going to discuss or the relevance ofdecisions to be adopted."The CNT and F A ~ bureaucracies, sharing power with the bourgeoisie, startedgoing after those anarchists who criticizedthe corrupt methods of the leadership.Such anarchists included the writer JaimeBalius, a future leader of the Friends ofDurruti group who was ousted from Solidaridad Obrera ( W o r k e r ~ Solidaritythe CNT's main paper) in December of1936 along with other members of he edi-4

activities. Then anarchy, the abolition ofthe State, shared the same fate .... Theythen dropped the principle that the workers must not take part in any revolutionthat did not have as its aim the immediateand complete emancipation of the proletariat, and they themselves took part in amovement that was notoriously bourgeois. Finally they ..sat quite comfortablyin the juntas of the various towns, andmoreover al)llost everywhere as an impotent minority outvoted and politicallyexploited by the bourgeoisie."Is this Leon Trotsky on 1936? No, it isFriedrich Engels polemicizing against

the Spanish anarchists in 1873'17$IJLII: 1'1 F t fril l d ; JU,, rr .,.: ,But not all the anarchists in Spain in1936-37 shared the class collaborationism of the CNT-FAl bureaucracy. The

~ 2 a r tP'J&f! &ganimci::oini i l l I that tpeI!Jh*y. The CNTin an attempt to better consolidatethe forces against Franco's right-.wingrea.ctionaries, began to acquiesce to, andcarry out, the "militarization" of the proletarian militias in September of 1937.This meant putting the militias under the

orders of a centralized bourgeois army.The Republicans ordered the militarization of the militias, and the Socialist andanarchist ministers in the popular frontvoted for it. The majority of the members of the Friends of Durruti came fromthe thousands of anarchist militants whorefused to submit to the militarization.Pablo Ruiz, who had fought with Buenaventura Durruti himself on the front, represented one wing of the group, and theprominent writer Jaime Balius represented another.The four thousand members of theFriends of Durruti stood against the classcollaborationism of the CNT-FAI andcounterposed to it the call for revolution.They defended this by pointing outthat "all revolutions are totalitarian."They raised the call for a "RevolutionaryJunta!" According to Amoros, this wasa variant of the concept advocated bythe CNT of a "National Committee ofDefense" in the face of the failure exhibited by the decentralization of he militiasagainst Franco. The Friends of Durrutiwere CNT workers and militiamen whofaced the prospect of being di'sarmedunder the orders of their anarchist leadership. Their opposition to class collaboration was the empirical conclusion of theirdirect experience with the forceful "militarization" of the militias. However, thisdidn't contradict their affiliation to theCNT since the anarchist ideal of libertarian qommunism, a stateless society basedon a decentralized economy run by localworkers committees, was something thatstill'looked feasible to them. However,the Friends of Durruti's political positions were in motion, like those of

The CNT-FAI tops and the popularfront government sent Garcia Oliverand other CNT bureaucrats from Valencia to order the workers back to theirhomes. He urged the workers: "Holdyour fire; embrace the Assault Guards!"The POUM defended their headquartersat the Hotel Falcon from the AssaultGuards but refused to take any step forward. The local leaderships of the CNTand POUM met that night, but the anarchist bureaucracy insisted on no morethan the dismissal of Salas and the formation of a new government in order tostop the confrontation. The workers hada different agenda though, pushed bytheir instinct of class self-defenseOn May 4, Barcelona was under thecontrol of the workers, except for thecenter of the city, where the battles continued until dusk. One of the first workers detachments in the early hours of thatnight was 400 Friends of Durruti fighterswho occupied the whole of Las Rambias Avenue and patrolled the surrounding area. The same day, the BolshevikLeninists handed leaflets to the workerson the barricades that called for a "General strike in all the industries that 'don'twork for the war" and for the "arming ofthe working Glass." Workers desperatelyneeded a leadership!

Cambio 16Madrid, 1939: Generallsslmo Franco presides over victory parade. Popularfront paved way for rise of Falangist reaction In Spain.WORKERS VANGUARD


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The Friends of Durruti met with theExecutive Committee of the POUM andapparently acquiesced to the POUM'sposition that the movement was lost giventhe CNT's capitulatory actions. Bothagreed on seeking guarantees againstretaliations before the workers began toabandon the barricades. However, thenext day the Friends of Durruti issued aleaflet which caused a hue and cry amongthe CNT-FAI bureaucracy, calling for arevolutionary junta, the disarming of thearmed bodies (meaning the Assault andCivil Guards) and thesocialization of theeconomy. The leaflet was received withgreat enthusiasm on the barricades. Needless to say, the Friends of Durruti hadused extremely "authoritarian" measuresto get their leaflet printed in the middle ofa general strike! Balius describes thescene as follows: ."We banged on the door until the owner[of the print shop] came out, who didn'twant to know anything and refused categorically to open the print shop. Hepromptly backed up in the face of armedviolence' .... Just before midnight ..wewere able to take with us four to fivethousand leaflets still wet."

Still on May 5, the local bureaucracyof the FAI in Barcelona, in another despicable act of betrayal of the workingclass, refused reinforcement by militiasready to leave the front. But even worsethan that, the CNT workers committeesstarted to abandon the barricades, obeying the call of the top bureaucracy.

On May 6, various anarchist groups,including the Friends of Durruti, met withthe POUM. The POUM held a minorityposition, which was for the creation of a"revolutionary central committee." Thiswas against the local representatives ofthe anarchist committees, who, followingorders from their national leadership,advocated withdrawal from the barricades.What was the response of the POUM?Let's have their leader Gorkin tell thestory:"But we couldn't impose our views. Itwas the representative of the RegionalCommittee [Nacional] who they [theworkers] were listening to .... The Friendsof Durruti advocated a CNT-FAI-POUMgovernment. Due to tactical reasonswe didn't attack the leadership of theCNT."-Quoted in Amoros,La revolucion traicionadaI want to emphasize some points here.During the Ma y Days, the CNT carriedout a contemptible and clear betrayal

Stewart...(continued from page 3)of the World Trade Center in 1993 or itsdestruction in 200 I; the 1997 murders ofsome 60 tourists at an archeological site inLuxor, Egypt; the kidnapping of foreignhostages in the Philippines in 2000; thebombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in2000. Yet outrageously, the prosecutionhas been allowed to enter as "evidence" aSeptember 2000 video tape of Osama binLaden calling for the sheik's release, aswell as testimony and transcripts pertaining to the other events, because it is allegedthat the perpetrators were linked to theEgyptian "Islamic Group," with which thesheik is linked, with whom Lynne Stewartis linked as his attorney!The prosecution is pushing hot buttonswith the jury, smearing Stewart and codefendants as accomplices to bin Ladenin a lower Manhattan courthouse just afew blocks from the huge pit where theWorld Trade Center once stood. Fairness and logic should dictate that thechief executives of the United Statesgovernment should be standing trial:Osama bin Laden and the "Islamic Group"were armed, trained and financed byWashington in its "holy war" against theSoviet Red Army in Afghanistan! Now,after Frankenstein's monster, bin Ladenand other anti-ccmmunist CIA "assets,"turned on their creator, the governmentturns and ~ h r e a t e n s a leftist lawyer withdecades behind bars.The core of the government's case wascaptured by prosecutor Christopher Morvillo, who said, regarding sheik Omar9 JULY 2004

against the working class in Barcelona,as they had already chosen to collaboratewith the bourgeoisie. The centrist POUMknew this, and instead of fighting againstit, they buried their heads in the sand likeostriches and waited for the CNT to givethe order to disband. The Friends of Durruti, in contrast, called for a local juntacentered on the CNT and the POUM.Had there been an authoritative revolutionary leadership then, it would have

the proletariat during the few months oftheir existence and they lacked authol'ityamong the working class. However, thepower of their Trotskyist program isshown by the fact that despite their smallnumbers they were one of the first to betargeted by the Stalinists and the bourgeois reactionaries once the proletariatwas defeated and the. barricades werebrought down. Before the May Days, theFriends of Durruti helped to distribute the'0

'0

Leon Trotskyand SpanishBolshevikLeninistsfought againstpopular-frontbetrayal,for workersrevolutionin Spain.LEON TROTSKY

taken up the Friends of Durruti's callfor a junta and transformed it first intoa military united front against thebourgeois forces and the Stalinists andthen into the core of a workers government to fight the counterrevolutionwith an internationalist program. Itwould have called for independence forMorocco in order to undermine Franco'sarmy and appealed to the workers on theother side of the Pyrenees to follow theirexample.After the May 6 meeting, Balius proposed that CNT workers advance a column to the town of Tarragona and bringreinforcements to Barcelona. Predictably,the CNT bureaucracy boycotted this proposal.-Amor6s explains: "The Friends ofDurruti couldn't understand why theCNT committees had stopped the fight,when victory was so close." The Friendsof Durruti didn't have the understandingthat flows from a revolutionary program-the Understanding to realize thedead end of anarchism and to politicallybreak with the CNT. That had to be therole of a Marxist vanguard party.Unfortunately, the Bolshevik-Leninistsdidn't have the time to generate roots in

Abdel Rahman, "the United States government locked the door to his cell andthrew away the key," but the defendants"pulled off he jail break" by allowing thesheik to communicate. The governmenttried to "lock the door and throwaway thekey" with "special administrative measures" (SAMs) which strip prisoners andthe public of basic rights and privileges.SAMs limit a prisoner's access to mail,telephone, media and visitors. In thiscase, the SAMs barred Stewart from visiting tile sheik unless she submitted to theintrusive and outrageous restrictions insigned "letters of affirmation,"SAMs were introduced in 1996 byDemocratic president Bill Clinton whoalso signed into law the "Anti-Terrorismand Effective Death Penalty Act," whichled to a diminution of democratic rightsand an expansion of death penalty provisions. Democrat Clinton's legislationwas inherited and enhanced by the Republican Bush gang in the wake of September11 with the USA-Patriot Act. The government's case against Lynne Stewart, Yousryand Sattar is based on secretly recorded,supposedly constitutionally protected andprivileged attorney-client communications, including telephone conversationsand prison visits. The case against Sattar isbased on 90,000 government interceptionsof private e-mail, faxes and telephone conversations over a period of seven years.

If the government's own wiretaps andsurveillance revealed that a conspi,rac,Y tosupport "terrorism" was taking place overa protracted period of time, why did theyallow it to continue? The government'sflimsy answer is that they were buggingthe prison meeting room to "gather intel-

Trotskyists' press on the streets and madetheir offices available to the BolshevikLeninists to organize their meetings.However, the Bolshevik-Leninists didn'tachieve much in a meeting with theFriends of Durruti's leadership on May 5:"Every time the word Authority was pronounced ..Balius got mad. The interviewor meeting ended without discussing thereal problems at bottom ... As for Balius,Carlini and others-not everybody-tocontinue the fight only on the barricadeswas the just position, and that is how wesplit." .

Under the orders of the CNT-FAI, andin the face of the POUM's prostration, theworkers were ultimately demobilized anddefeated. Five hundred died and over athousand were wounded during the Mayevents. Following the defeat, the state,with the aid of the Stalinists, launched itspersecution, imprisonment and murder ofthe Trotskyists and POUMists (the latteron charges of "Trotskyism"). The anarchist bureaucracy proceeded to attemptthe expulsion of the Friends of Durrutifrom the CNT ranks; meanwhile, the government censored the CNT's paper Solidaridad Obrera. The POUM's paper, LaBatalla, was banned and its main leader,

ligence for national security purposes."What vital national security intelligencedid they gather? None! And according tothe government, it's the absence of evidence that proves guilt! The prosecutiontold the jury that the recorded evidencethey would hear was admittedly "codedand cryptic" because "the defendantsknew that they had to be sneaky becausethey were concerned about monitoring."The "evidence" against MohammedYousry, a government-approved translator, is his notebooks of discussions withthe imprisoned sheik. Yousry is a doctoralcandidate in Middle Eastern Studies atNew York University. His thesis adviser'suggested he take advantage of his rareaccess to the she ik to develop a theme forhis doctoral dissertation. An opponent ofIslamic fundamentalism who has neverset foot in a mosque in his life, Yousrytook notes for a thesis on the Mubarakdictatorship and "Muslim totalitarianism"in Egypt. Paralegal Ahmed Abdel Sattaris a U.S. citizen and a religious supporterof the sheik whose "crime" in the government's eyes is his faith and "evidence"such as his receipt of phone calls from analleged "international terrorist" -callswhich Stewart's team presumed were thedirty work of an FBI agent.The first targets of the "war on terror"were immigrants, particularly from Muslim countries. Now the government isgoing after their lawyers, just as it didthe attorneys who defended communistsduring the McCarthyite witchhunt. Butthe ultimate targets are the labor movement and all perceived political opponents of the government. As we wrotein an earlier article ("Hands Off Lynne

Andres Nin, as well as anarchist leaderCamilo Berneri, died at the hands of theStalinists.During the Franco dictatorship, 300,000workers and 'peasants were assassinatedand many others were I o c k ~ up in concentration camps. All working-class leaderswere exterminated or expelled, politicaland trade-union groups and associationswere dissol ved. The popular-front government paved the way for Franco's triumphin 1939. One of the greatest revolutionaryopportunities for the international proletariat had been drowned in blood.Anarchists proclaim that the Friends ofDurruti never broke with the principles ofanarchism. Unfortunately, they are right.They continued to believe, as their leaders in the CNT did, that a classless society could be created simply through forceof will; that such a society could be created without first establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, a centralizeddemocratic workers state to suppress theforces of counterrevolution. Anarchisthistorian Vernon Richards, in his book,Lessons of he Spanish Revolution (1936-1939) [second enlarged edition, 1972],expresses the ultimate cqnsequences ofsuch an idealist perspective:"We believe there is something more

real, more positive and more revolutionary in resisting war than in participatingin it; that it is more civilised and morerevolutionary to defend the right of a fascist to live than to support the Tribunalswhich have the legal powers to shoothim; that it is more realistic to talk to thepeople from the gutter than from government benches; that in the long run it ismore rewarding to influence minds bydiscussion than to mould them bycoercion."

Stewart!" WV No. 779, 19 April 2002):"What the government is able to getaway with will be determined by thelevel of social struggle." The l abor movement, fighters for black rights and allopponents of capitalist injustice have adirect interest in joining in defenseof Lynne Stewart, Mohammed Yousryand Ahmed Abdel Sattar, and in callingfor freedom for all those detained in the"war on terror's" anti-immigrant witchhunt. Drop the charges now!.

Spartacist Pamphlet$2 (56 pages)

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

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Young Sparlaeus1Noam Chomsky:

The Liberal's IIAnarchist"Former Fan Shows Up the Esteemed ProfessorMany left-wing youth activists look toMIT professor Noam Chomsky for inspiration, and he is a featured speaker at theBoston Social Forum preceding the protests against the Democratic National Convention later this month. His "anarchism"and voluminous critiques of U.S. foreignpolicy notwithstanding, Chomsky is at bot

tom an anti-communist liberal. This radicalimpostor despises us Spartacists becausewe explode his pretensions as a ':critic" of"the system," exposing him as a wannabeadviser to an "enlightened" imperialism.Illustrative is what he has said over theyears about the U.S. and Iraq. Chomsky oflate has saluted the end of the "regime" ofUN sanctions against Iraq, which had

claimed the lives of over one and a halfmillion Iraqis. But Chomsky himself(2) You have stated tlial i f the left isunderstood to include Bolshevism thenyou would "flatly dissociate" yourselffrom the lefl. If he left is understood toinclude the Democratic Party, will yousimilarly dissociate yourseiffi(3) Are you being hOliest when you saythat you are unable to understand what ismeant by "dialectical materialism "?Yes.>(4) Do you make any distinctionbetween Leninism and Stalinism?

Of course. I assume it's made in thatarticle. If not, elsewhere. But the hasicsteps to destroy the socialist elementsthat developed before the Bolsheviktakeover were taken by Lenin and Trotsky, almost immediately, and for principled reasons (from their point of view),WORKERS VANGUARD


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as was the repressive apparatus that wasturned into a much worse monstrosity byStalin.>(5) Who constituted the "mainstreamof he Marxist movement" that consideredLenin to be "counter-revolutionary"?Pannekoek, Korsch, etc., and withsome ambiguity Luxemburg. You canfind a list of some of the main figures inLenin's "ultra-leftist" monograph.>(6) You continually use the term"we" to describe U. S. imperialism. Doyou agree or disagree with the proposition that capitalist societies are cleavedinto antagonistic classes?That's trivially obvious, isn't it? Theterm "we" is used informally, to indicatethat you and I, for example, share responsibility for these atrocities.>(7) What is your opinion of the term"U.S. imperialism "?I rarely use the term, except in quotesfrom others. Like most terms of politicaldiscourse, it's been debased by the wayit's been used over the years, and wasn'tthat clear to begin with. There's a hugecurrent literature, in the mainstream aswell, over whether US global dominationshould be called "imperialism." I don'tpersonally take part in it.>(8) What do you see as the primarycause of the defeat of the SpanishRevolution?There was no "primary cause." Therewere many causes. One major cause wasthe tacit agreement among Stalin, theWestern democracies, and the fascists(Spanish and abroad) that the SpanishRevolution had to be defeated. The Communists happened to be in the lead in theendeavor, for a variety of reasons. Therewere also plenty of steps by the (widerange) of often conflicting elements that

ities of the state. You can't have it bothways.Chomsky'S insistence on placing theblame for the atrocities of the state onevery citizen of the country implies thatwe all have a say in the policies that arecarried out. Thus, black factory workers,migrant farm workers, and the board ofdirectors of Exxon all have a say in thepolicies that are carried out by the state.It is important to notice that Chomskylays particular stress on the idea that weare all responsible for the atrocities. It isnot just a matter of a duty to oppose whatthe capitalists are doing, "we" are responsible for what they do!I oppose these bastards and their rottensystem with every ounce of my being, yetChomsky will continue to insist that weare all responsible.Chomsky simply identifies himselfwith the capitalists. He views the U.S. asa democracy, where "the people" candetermine policy. It is true enough, then,that he is responsible. But, for those who are not privileged academics or rich capitalists, blame cannot be accepted.

The state is not neutral. The state ismerely an organization of violence forthe maintenance of a social order benefiting a particular class. The police, military, courts, etc., are not n e u t r a l ~ t h e i r purpose is to protect the rich. As JamesMadison put it, the primary function ofgovernment is to "protect the opulent ofthe minority against the majority." Thestate is not "our" state, it is THEIR state,the state of the capitalists.Secondly, Chomsky undercuts the onlyavailable means for fighting the capitalists, namely class struggle. His insistencethat "we" are responsible is merely a cryto tie oneself to one's "own" bourgeoisie.

Ronald HaeberleAmong many crimes of Chomsky's "far less objectionable" Democrats isescalation of U.S. offensive against heroic Vietnamese workers and peasants,including 1968 massacre of some 500 villagers In My Lai.were part of the Spanish revolution, in abroad sense, that were dubious or worse.Comment on Chomsky's Reply

Chomsky continues to march in theanti-communist parade ....The issues of Chomsky's dishonest useof the term "state-capitalism," and thecowardly way he evades dialectical materialism through demagoguery are dealtwith in the essay. In the following I willaddress Chomsky's use of the word "we,"the Democratic Party, the Spanish Revolution, and the "mainstream of the Marxist movement" that considered Lenin tobe counter-revolutionary."Our" State

When asked about the use of the term"we" to refer to the acts of the U.S.,Chomsky replies,

"That's [the fact that capitalist societiesare cleaved into antagonistic classes]trivially obvious, isn't it? The term 'we'is used informally, to indicate that youand I, for example, share responsibilityfor these atrocities."First of all, this is contradictory. Theoppressed do not share responsibility forthe crimes of their oppressors. Chomskygrants that capitalist societies are cleavedinto antagonistic classes, yet insists that"we" share responsibilities for the atroc-

9 JULY 2004

Sure, you can be a dissident and complainabout how bad "we" are, but by no meansare you to struggle independently againstthe ruling class!F[ ---] that.The Evil Bolsheviks and the "Far LessObjectionable" Democratic Party

This '.me is priceless:" .. ,' Democratic Part\' is Lf less 0 ,jectlOnable than Bolshevism, in myjudgment."What can you say to that? The U.S. isunique in the industrialized world, as faras I know, in that it doesn't have a mainstream political party that can even pretend to have some roots in the labormovement. Even the anti-worker BritishLabour Party evolved out of the workersmovement. The Democratic Party in theU.S., the "left" party, can lay no pretensewhatsoever to being a workers party. Itevolved directly from the party of theConfederate slavocracy. As Malcolm Xput it, "A Democrat ain't nothin' but aDixiecrat."The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are simply factions of the pai'ty.of the bourgeoisie. They could join intothe Capitalist Party with no change ofplatforms. They represent the capitalistclass; the only difference between thembeing which interests among the bour-

Bolshevik-led RussianRevolution brought proletariatto power, backward regions offormer tsarist empire outof the Dark Ages. Right:Literacy campaign for womenin Soviet Caucasus in 1920s.Central planning made possiblemassive industrial developmentlike building of TurkestanSiberia railroad line (below).

geoisie they represent. There is, in principIe, little difference between the Republicans and Democrats. The same generalanti -worker, racist policies are carr iedout by Democrats and Republicans alike.Wilson plunged the U.S. into the firstimperialist slaughter, Roosevelt the second; Truman incinerated 140,000 Japanese civilians for the purpose of demonstrating The Bomb to the commies;Kennedy and Johnson initiated the massslaughter of Vietnamese; Carter funneledarms to the genocidal Indonesian military to slaughter Timorese; Clinton murdered over a million Iraqi civilians. Thelist could go on ... and on.A couple of particular slaughtersshould be noted. The U.S. attack on Vietnam was initiated by Democrats. On theother side, the Stalinists sent arms to thecommunists fighting the U.S. killingmachine. (They would have sent more,but the venal Chinese Stalinists prevented them.) As the Democratic Party is"far less objectionable" than the Bolsheviks, then they must be even further lessobjectionable than the Stalinists. Thus,the support for the Vietnamese communists must be ... what? Another bloodbathinitiated by a Democrat was the "Afghantrap" laid by Carter's Secretary of State,which drew in the Red Army to fightCIA-fundamentalist cutthroats. Whichside of that battle was Chomsky on, Iwonder?So, if the Democratic Party is "far lessobjectionable" than the Bolsheviks, andthe Republican Party is pretty much the",i, as the Democra!;A Party, one canonly conclude that the Republicans mustbe at least "less objectionable" than the

M. AlpertBolsheviks. In other words, the capitalists are less objectionable than the communists. This is Chomsky'S true classloyalty.Imperialism: The Highest Stage ofCapitalism, or a Bad Idea inSomebody's Head

When asked about his opinion of theterm "U.S. imperialism," he says,"J rarely use the term, except in quotesfrom others. Like most terms of politicaldiscourse, it's been debased by the wayit's been used over the years, and was n'tthat clear to begin with. There's a hugecurrent literature, in the mainstream aswell, over whether US global dominationshould be called 'imperialism.' I don'tpersonally take part in it."

I should think that Lenin was exceptionally clear about the meaning ofimperialism, as described in his book Imperialism: The Highest Stage ofCapitalism.Lenin explained that imperialism is thatstage of capitalism marked by monopolycapitalism, where monopoly had superseded competition in capitalist economies.In this stage, the drive for capital accumulation forces, the capitalists to expandtheir field of exploitation to the wholeworld through a massive influx of capitalinvestment, through which the entireworld is brought under the domination ofthe large capitalist states. Lenin gives precise figures for the growth of investmentcapital, and the concomitant growth in~ o l o n i a l i z a t i o n , etc. There is nothing atall unclear about it.Should U.S. global domination becalled imperialism? What else would youcall it? Chopped chicken?

continued on page 9" < < "': > ' ( ~ f k , : : I , > < , ) : " >

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August 10: The Bolshevik Revolution: How the Working Class Took PowerLoker Common, Harvard University (Basement of Memorial Hall)Information and readings: (617) 666-9453 or e-mail: [email protected]

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For more information: (312) 563-0441 or e-mail: [email protected] m

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u ... S. jB'ut o l c l r l : ~ 1 I ~ : I I ;;2..... .. . . ........ ..... .. i . : .. i... . . :>:,'Imperialist ButchersTry Their Former HenchmanOn July I, former Iraqi strongmanSaddam Hussein was brought before a

court in Iraq, and his image was broadcast all over the world. As Robert Fiskput it, "Now is the time for bread andcircuses" (London Independent, I July).Forget all the lies about "weapons ofmass destruction" and supposed linksbetween Iraq and Al Qaeda; forget aboutthe sadistic torture and killing of Iraqiprisoners at Abu Ghraib; forget about thetens of thousands of Iraqis slaughteredand maimed by the American war andoccupation-the U.S. has got Saddamand they plan to parade their trophyaround. Perhaps Hussein himself captured it best when he said during h i ~ hearing, "Bush is a villain, all of this istheatre. It is for his re-election."But all this could backfire on the Americans, too, inflaming an already combustible situation. Doubtless there are manyin Iraq who have suffered frolTI Hussein'sbrutality and butchery and would like tosee him get his, as )-Veil as the eleven otherformer regime officials facing trial. Butthere is also a strong sense of utter humiliation that an Arab leader who dared tosnub his former American patrons is nowbeing displayed as a prisoner of the occupying power. An Iraqi pharmacist told theNew York Times (2 July), "He may haveput me in jail for seven years, but still it'snot right for the enemy to sit as hisjudge." A young taxi driver in Damascussaid, "I was about to cry as I was watching Saddam being brought to justice inthis disgraceful way. I want his own honest people to try him, not those supportedby the Americans. What we saw is ahumiliation for all the Arabs."

Workers Party...(continued from pa ge 1)into the dead end of the Democratic Party.They built platforms for DemocraticParty politicians and pandered to the"peace is patriotic" crowd. And when thewar began and the real horror and terrorbegan to rain on the people of Iraq, theDemocrats rallied 'round the flag and theircommander in chief.Now what's ANSWER's answer? Their"Call to Action" for the DNC/RNC ralliessays, "The real hope for change .. willcome about from an enlarged and politically conscious mass movement of thepeople." There is no such thing as anundifferentiated "people" in the U.S.Rather, this. society is split into two mainclasses with counterposed intf'''ests-thecapitalists and the workers they exploitand founded on the bedrock of chattelslavery and the continuing vicious racialoppression of black people. The interestsof labor and capital can never coexist in acommon "people's" program; one classor the other must dominate. ANSWER'sevasion of the class line is not an omission: it is deliberately done to preventseething discontents from exceeding thebounds of pressure politics on the Democrats and taking the form of independentworking-class political action.Ralph Nader: Unsavoryat Any Speed

Why do we say Ralph Nader, who ranon the Green Party ticket in 1996 and2000. and is running independently thistime. is a bourgeois politician. and thattherefore we shoilldn't support him')"Bourgeois" is not a snotty insult meaning someone's boring lifestyle; it is a termMarxists use for the class of propertyowning capitalists who buy labor power8

Reuters photosAbove: Saddam Hussein as presiden t of Iraq,1997. Right: Hussein being taken to court,2004. (Guard's face was altered prior torelease of photo by U.S. military clearance.)Saddam Hussein is a criminal andbutcher with plenty of blood on his hands.But as we wrote when he was captured:"When workers tribunals of a victorioussocialist revolution in the United Statestry America's capitalist exploiters fortheir crimes against the oppressed masses

of the world, black America, labor, immigrants and the poor, and when Iraqi Kurds,leftists and workers rip the oil wealth outof the hands of the military occupiers andjudge them and their former henchmen,then we can start talking about justice"(WVNo. 816,26 December 2003).Most of the charges brought againstHussein, like the gassing of Kurds, referto crimes carried out with the forbearanceof the American imperialists, who lenttheir support, monies and arms to theBa 'athist dictatorial regimes' that hadruled Iraq since the 1960s. Among the

from the working class. American Trotskyist leader James P. Cannon explainedthe class character of parties in 1948:"It is not determined by the class whichsupports the party at the moment. butrather by the class which the party supports: that is to say. by its program. Thatis the basic meaning of a political program. the support of one class rule oranother. The class character of a party isalso determined by its actual practice ....Another factor to be considered is thecomposition of a party. A bourgeoisparty of the classical type is easily recognized because it has all three of thesequalities-it is bourgeois in program. inpractice. and in composition:'

The American working class does nothave its own political party, not even areformist one like the Labour Party inBritain or the social-democratic parties inEurope. Instead. the U.S. tends to produce "third party" populist formations.which can appear somewhat left or right.and are sometimes virulently racist. Thisreflects the enormous weight of theAmerican petty bourgeoisie, that intermediate class between the workers andthe bosses, composed of small "inctepen-

charges not brought against Hussein isthe massacre and imprisonment of thousands of Iraqi Communists and tradeunionists in the early 19605, many of, whom were tortured and killed by Hussein himself-it was the CIA that gavethe Ba' athist torturers the names of thoseto go after. Saddam Hussein was U.S.imperialism's man in Iraq, their very ownThird World tinpot dictator who fell out offavor with his 1990 invasion of Kuwait.Notwithstanding the transparent facadeof an "Iraqi" court trying Hussein, it iscruel and grotesque hypocrisy that thesupposed bearers of "justice" in Iraq arethe U.S. imperialists, the same forces thatare not only imposing this occupation, butthat launched the 1991 Gulf War whichkilled over 100,000 Iraqis and imposedthe UN starvation sanctions which killedover 1.5 million more. The crimes of Sad-

"0:::J'So

Chicago,March 20:SL/SYCcontingentraises call tobreak withDemocratic Partyat rallyprotesting Iraqoccupation.

dent" businessmen, students. profession- als, intellectuals. managers, doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats of all sorts. Lawyer/publisher Ralph Nader. who is againsttrade unions in his own businesses, is aperfect example of this type. as is his running mate, Green Party member PeterCamejo, stockbroker/founder of Progressive Asset Management, promoting"socially responsible investments."Neither the Green Party nor Nader callfor ending capitalism. only for givingbreaks to the "little capitalists." Many ofthe proposals of the Greens and Nadergo against the interests not only of theindustrial working class. but againsthuman progress. In Germany. the SocialDemocratic/Green government attackedthe living standards of the workersto increase Germany's competitiveness.while Green foreign minister JoschkaFischer deployed German jets. tanks andtroops. for the first time since the ThirdReich. to participate in the wars againstSerbia and Afghanistan. And what aboutthe Green Party 's "key value," that people must "Iive within the ecological and

dam Hussein pale in comparison with thefar greater crimes of U.S. imperialismagainst working people and the oppressedaround the world, from the over six million Asian lives cut down in the wars inKorea and Vietnam to the countless others who have been on the receiving end ofU.S. imperialism's wars and machinations from Latin America to the Near Eastand elsewhere. Whether under Democratic or Republican administration, U.S.imperialism is the deadliest enemy ofworking people and the oppressed aroundthe world, including right here in the U.S .. Much has been made in the media overthe supposed "handover of power," done in

secrecy with former administrator Bremertleeing the country like he was fleeing theplague. But it's all a sham. The leader ofthe new Iraqi "government." Allawi. is astraight-out CIA asset. the former head ofEuropean operations for the Ba' ath Partyand its intelligence agency in London,described by CIA veterans as a "thug"with Iraqi "blood on his hands." The occupation continues with all its barbarity andbrutality unabated. The thousands ofIraqiprisoners detained by the U.S. continue tobe held by the U.S. Drinking water andelectricity are still scarce and life is hellfor most people in the country.It takes some chutzpah for the U.S.to charge Hussein for his invasion of

Kuwait-this from the same people whoravaged Iraq. The "liberation" promised tothe Iraqi masses-the modern version ofthe "white man's burden"-is borne on anocean of blood. It seeks its legitimacy on amountain of lies, and then more lies whenthe masses at home realize that they arepaying with their lives and well-being forthe appetites and perfidy of their rulers. Wefight for the immediate and unconditionalwithdrawal of all U.S. and allied forcesfrom Iraq. This is part of the fight for thesocialist revolution necessary to free thepeoples ofIraq from their subjugation. It isin the interests of working people aroundthe world that we struggle to forge theworkers party necessary to lead the multiracial American working class in socialistrevolution to sweep the bloody Americanimperialist system otf the face of the earthforever. Down with the colonial occupa-tion of Iraq! All U.S. troops out now!.resource limits of our communities" and"move to an energy efficient economy"?What does this mean for the already desperately poor in inner-city ghettos? Forthe fight against the horrible worldwide AIDS pandemic, which requiressophisticated medicines, refrigerationi.e., electrification and a modern industrial infrastructure?We need an international expansion ofadvanced technology, science and production to solve these world problems,not a retreat to some utopian sentimentalpre-industrial Hobbiton of happy farmers,honest tradesmen and small craftsmen,which is impossible in any case. Technology and large-scale industry, whichis extremely efficient and saves hugeamounts of human labor. can be used tosolve human problems. But first theseinstruments have to be ripped out of thehands of the capitalists by the workingclass. which actually knows how to runthings. Abolishing private ownership offactories means abolishing the stockmarket, putting brokers for "ecologicallycorrect" capitalism like Camejo out ofbusiness.There is a more sinister side to theNader campaign. While Camejo playsup his immigrant roots. Nader calls theshots for this bum ticket and his message on immigrants is toxic racism. In aninterview with the sinister rightist PatBuchanan in the American Conservative(21 June). Nader (himself the son ofLebanese immigrants) attacks immigrants,saying. "I don't like the idea of legalization because then the quesiion is how doyou prevent the next wave and the nex!')"While Nader is explicit that the wholepurpose of his campaign is to push theDemocratic Party in a more "progressive"direction. he is running on the ReformParty ballot and openly appeals to conservative Republican voters. His foam-

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Chomsky...(continuedfrom page 7)

The thing is that for Chomsky thenefarious actions of the U.S. around theworld are just bad policies carried out byevil men, as a result of some bad ideasthat got into somebody's head somehow.They are not the result of economic pressures in the material world. If only wecan preach to them loud enough to obeyinternational law, this nasty thing called"imperialism" can be ended.

And pigs will fly.The Communist Devils an dthe Anarchist Saints

When asked what the primary cause ofthe defeat of the Spanish Revolution was,he replies,'There was no 'primary cause.' Therewere many causes. One major cause wasthe tacit agreement among Stalin, theWestern democracies. and the fascists(Spanish and abroad) that the SpanishRevolution had to be defeated. The Communists happened to be in the lead in theendeavor. ror a variety of reasons. Therewere also plenty of steps by the (widerange) of often conflicting elements thatwere part of the Spanish revolution, in abroad sense, that were dubious or worse."

Predictably, no mention is made of theanarchists in the Confederacion Nacionaldel Trabajo (CNT). The Stalinists andthe Western democracies (no quotesaround "democracies") certainly haveplenty of blame for the defeat. However,crucial to the defeat of the revolutionwas the betrayal of the CNT.

The CNT was the largest and mostintluential anarchist party ever. It is theonly anarchist party to lead a revolutionwith a chance of success. When a realrevolutionary turning-point came, though,they played right into the hands ofthe bourgeoisie, which led directly tofasc-ism. In 1936 Spain entered a pre-

flecked anti-Communism is expressedin his article 'The China Price" (21June, published by CommonDreams.org),wherein he attacks U.S. corporations forgoing to Chinese "production facilitiesinside a communist dictatorship."Yet what bothers liberals and evenself-proclaimed socialists is not Nader'santi-immigrant bigotry, his anti-workerpositions or his anti-Communism, buttheir fear that a vote for Nader mightsiphon votes from the Democrats! ThusNoam Chomsky and Howard Zinn call tovote for Nader only in "safe" states (i.e .it's OK in Massachusetts where theylive, but not in Florida). The Green Partysplit over the question, deciding not" toendorse Nader but run their own candidate only in "safe" states. Socialist Alternative shamelessly touts Ralph Naderas a real "alternative." The InternationalSocialist Organization, which supportedNader in 2000, is torn. Their SocialistWorker (25 June) is over the moon aboutNader's selection of Camejo, approvingly quoting the Los Angeles Times that"Nader's selection of Camejo gave further shape to a left-leaning, antiwar campaign," while their next issue deplores

revolutionary stage of dual power between the armed workers and the "Republican Left" in the govern ment. At the crucial moment, the CNT leaders entered thegovernment in a popular front, and triedto subordinate the workers movement tothe "Ief!,' government. The crucial battlewas described by Orwell in Homage toCatalonia. On May 3, 1937 the government and the workers in the CNT foughtover the telephone exchange in Barcelona. As the Stalinists moved in, theCNT exhorted the workers to lay downtheir arms. The workers were not willingto comply, but lacking organized leadership and in the face of the demoralizationat the sell-out, the workers' resolve dissipated and the government regained control of the city. The Stalinists and thebureaucrats, with the collaboration of theCNT tops, then executed a ,purge whichbroke the back of the anti-fascist struggle.As Leon Trotsky explained,"In opposing the goal, the conquest ofpower, the Anarchists could not in the endfail to oppose the means, the revolution.The leaders of the CNT and FAI not onlyhelped the bourgeoisie hold on to theshadow of power in July 1936; they also

helped it \0 reestablish bit by bit what ithad lost at one stroke, In May 1937, theysabotaged the uprising of the workers andthereby saved the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Thus anarchism, which wishedmerely to be anti political, proved in realityto be antirevolutionary, and in the morecritical moments-counterrevolutionary."'- "The Lessons of Spain: TheLast Warning" (December 1937)

Chomsky also, as usual, paints "theCommunists" as being in the lead ofcrushing the revolution. Which communists? Perhaps he needs reminding ofthe fact that his hero Orwell fought withthe POUM in Spain, against the fascists.The POUM, the "Party of Marxist Unification" was also communist.. .Orwellwas himself the victim of a Stalinistwitch-hunt, as he describes in Homageto Catalonia. Yet, at the crucial moment

"The Green Party's step backward" mrejecting Nader.Fight for a RevolutionaryWorkers Party

A workers party in this country will notbe a tame electoral party that just makesspeeches and gets "protest votes." A fighting workers party will be based on thestruggle for black liberation and socialistrevolution. No decisive gains for blacks orlabor were ever won in a courtroom or byan act of Congress-or by a presidentialelection. It took the Civil War to open theroad to black freedom in this country. Andthe only reason black people reconqueredthe right to vote and broke formal JimCrow segregation in the South in the 1950sand 1960s was because of militant strugglethat went outside the channels of thecapitalist parties, including armed selfdefense against Klan terror. The limitedlegal and social reforms made by Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty" were aresponse to ghetto upheavals in everymajor city from New York to Los Angeles.The end of the draft and the legalization ofabortion nationwide were a reaction to thesocial turmoil then convulsing the country

Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist Leagueo $10/22 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 New 0 Renewal(includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle)international rates: $25/22 i s s u e s ~ A i r m a i l $10/22 i s s u e s ~ S e a m a i i o $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist)o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (inctudes Spanish-language Spartacist)Name ________________________________________________________Address Apt. # ____City _________ State Zip ____Phone (__ ______ E-mail ___________________ =829Make checks payable/mail to: Spartacist Publishing Co" Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

9 JULY 2004

the Stalinists, the Anarchist mis-leadersand the bourgeoisie acted in concert tostave off the dreaded specter of workers'revolution.It is 'hard to avoid surmising thatChomsky would himself act. similarly tothe anarchist mis-leaders. Being againstthe workers' dictatorship, he cannot helpbut oppose the means. Chomsky hasnothing but praise for the Spanish anarchists, who were never soiled by actuallyhaving to hold onto power.Lenin the Counter-Revolutionary

When asked who were the "mainstream of the Marxist movement"that considered Lenin to be counterrevolutionary, he replies,

"Pannekoek, Korsch, etc., and with someambiguity Luxemburg. You can find alist of some of the main figures inLenin's 'ultra-leftist' monograph."Does "Lenin's 'ultra-leftist' monograph"refer to "Left-Wing" Communism: AnInfantile'Disorder? This is an excellent

' w ~ r k , but it does not. as far as I am aware,contain a list of people who consideredLenin to be counter-revolutionary.Were there sharp differences in theMarxist movement? Of course. Werethere lots of Marxists who criticizedLenin and the Bolsheviks? Of course.Was there a mainstream of the Marxistmovement that considered Lenin to becounter-revolutionary? Of course not.

After October 1917 the Bolshevikswere the f[ ------] mainstream of theMarxist movement! The October Revolution energized and inspired the workersmovement around the world. The best ofthe movement were virtually all won torevolutionary Marxism, i.e. Bolshevism.True, a numbE'r of opportunists like KarlKautsky, criticized the Bolsheviks, andthen led their own parties to disaster, butthe Bolsheviks had enormous prestigearound the world.

in opposition to the V i ~ t n a m War.Liberals always hail Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal 1930s coalition asa model of how Democrats can be"friends of labOr." But in fact the NewDeal only tied down labor and minoritiesto capitalist polit ics-a wretched tradition cravenly continued today by theAFL-CIO labor bureaucracy, which hasresulted in the significant weakening ofthe labor movement. The New Deal soldout the fight for black rights by cementing an alliance with Southern racist Dix-

Port Truckers ...(continued from page 3)because the shipping bosses feared thatWest Coast port truckers angry about thesuit might join in the East Coast strike.Two weeks before the strike, a June 14meeting took place at Teamsters headquarters with port truckers and leadersfrom 18 North American ports to discussworking conditions and low pay. Laterthat week, Teamsters head James P. Hoflareleased a list of "recommendations" tothe steamship lines, while simultaneouslydeclaring that his union was not sponsoring the shutdown. One proposal advocatedby the Teamsters is that regional truckingcompanies hire port truckers as direct employees, which would allow the drivers tobe unionized. But for this gain to be reaLthe existing workforce-i.e., the currentowner-operators-should be the first oneshired by unionized trucking companies.

The Teamsters along with others arealso lobbying for a federal law to makethe terminal and shipping companiesresponsible for maintaining chassis tonational safety standards. As part of theirstruggle for unionization, port truckersmust fight for union safety committeeswith the power to shut down unsafe conditions, to protect not only the drivers butthe public on the highways.

We shall have to consider Chomsky'sclaim that Lenin Was considered to hecounter-revolutionary by the mainstreamof the Marxist movement as absurd.

The idea that Luxemburg, in particular, considered Lenin in any way (ambiguity or no) to be counter-revolutionaryis, frankly, asinine. True, she was harshlycritical of certain aspects of Bolshevikpolicies and actions, hut she left nodoubt as to her immense admiration forthe work of Lenin and Trotsky. Shewrote, for example, in her book The Russian Revolution,

"The Bolsheviks have shown that theyare capable of everything that a genuinerevolutionary party can contribute withinthe limits of the historical possibilities.They are not supposed to perform miracles. For a model and faultless proletarian revolution in an isolated land,exhausted by world war. strangled by imperialism, betrayed by the internationalproletariat. would be a miracle."What is in order i, to distinguish thcessential from the non-es,ential, the k e r ~ nel from the accidental excrescences inthe policies of the Bobheviks. 41 the present pcriod, when we face deciSIve finalstruggles in all the world, the most important problem of s o c i a l i ~ ' ' ' l l was and is thcburning 4uestion of our time. It is Ilot amatter of this or that sccondary questionof tactics, but of the capacity for actioll ofthe proletariat, the strength to act, the willto power of socialism as such. In this,Lenin and Trotsky and their friends werethe first, those who went ahead as anexample to the proletariat of the world;they arc still the only ones up to now whocan cry with Hutten: 'I have dared!''This is the essential and enduring inBolshevik policy. In this sense theirs is theimmortal historical service of havingmarched at the head of the internationalproletariat with the c0l14uest of politicalpower and the practical placing of theproblem of the realization of socialism, andof having advanced mightily the settlementof the score between capital and laborin the entire world. In Russia the problemcould only be posed. It could not be solvedin Russia. And in this sense, the futureeverywhere belongs to 'Bolshevism'.".

iecrats, and the South is still largelynon-union today as a result. The gainsworkers made back then resulted fromhard-fought general strikes and plantoccupations typically led by reds. Thecapitalist class continually seeks to illegalize such militant, successful tactics,and must be continually challenged if theworking class is ever to change this reactionary political system. Those are thekinds of battles a fighting workers partymust take on, because that's how thingsare going to change.

It will take hard class struggle againstthe bosses and the capitalist state to organize the independent port truckers. Such afight must necessarily go beyond thebounds of narrow trade unionism. FromOakland to Port Newark, port truckersconstitute a largely immigrant and minority workforce; for example, they're predominantly Latino in L.A. and majorityblack in Charleston. To organize suchworkers, the union must be in the forefront of the fight for full citizenship rightsfor immigrants, for black equality andagainst all forms of discrimination.

The fact that the strike was strong inthe Southern ports of Miami and Charleston underlines the crucial importanceof organizing the "open shop" South. Adetermined drive for unionization therewill not have a strictly economic character, nor will it likely emanate from the topechelons of the AFL-CIO. It will have toconfront not only the police, companygoons and scabs, but also race-terroristslike the Ku Klux Klan.A sharp political struggle is necessaryto oust the labor lieutenants of capital,the trade-union misleaders who tie theunions to the Democrats-or, in the caseof the Teamsters bureaucracy, at timesthe Republicans. It is necessary to forge aclass-struggle leadership within theunions as part of the tight to build a revolutionary workers party

9


10/12

Fahrenheit...( continued from page 12)is organized to extract profit for theminuscule class of capitalists, who ownthe factories, banks, t r a n s p o r t ~ t i o n ; etc.,from the labor of those who produce thewealth, the working class.

Moore's worldview explains some ofthe glaring omissions in the film. Forexample, his populist outlook leads himto ignore the Bush administration's closeties to the C h r i s t i ~ n right. to take noticeof which would mean acknowledgingthat Bush really has a popular base. Thebox office figures of The Passion of theChrist, remember, are real. The neoconscome in for personal ridicule, but not forbraintrusting the Iraq invasion policy.They are closely aligned with the religious right, particularly in support of Zionist Israel. To mention this fact would ge tin the way of his Democratic bandwagonbuilding, as the Democrats are, if anything, more wedded to support of theZionists than the Republicans. In fact,Moore himself declared in a Los AngelesTillles (22 June) interview that "Israel is a.democracy."

Where Moore (and lots of other pepple) see the need to hold your nose andvote Democrat in November, we argue

ReutersSoldier's mother at NYC pressconference called by military familiesin support of Moore's movie, June 30.that a vote to the Democrats is a vote infavor of chaining the working masses totheir oppressors and that the need is tofight to lay the basis for a consciousclass break from the Democrats in thedirection of political independence forthe workers. The hoopla surrounding

Fahrenheit 91// and its "anybody butBush" popularity is a perfect illustrationof why the Russian revolutionary Leninargued in his work State and Revolutionthat "a democratic republic is the bestpossible political shell for capitalism."As he put it, "To decide once everyfew years which member of the rulingclass is to repress and crush the people through parliament-this is the realessence of bourgeois parliamentarism,not only in parliamentary-constitutionalmonarchies, but also in the most democratic republics."

Think about it. Through the last fewyears a growing number of activists haveparticipated in struggle against the capitalist system's madness. But then bringup the question of elections. All of a sudden, many of those who had becomeincreasingly open to getting rid of thecapitalist system as a whole now get allemotional about how much we need tofire the capitalist oppressor Bush, even ifit means supporting the capitalist oppressor Kerry. Add in a few left-soundingvoices to the chorus (like Moore's) andyou end up with a pretty solid array offorces working to convince everyone thatthere is a real alternative within the capi-talist framework. .

In discussing some of these ideas withaudiences following showings of Fahr-enlwit 9///, we occasionally encountered

.something like the following argument:"There's not a huge difference betweenthe Democrats and Republicans, but thingswould have been better if Gore were president."' From Moore's film you'd thinkthat no American capitalist did anythingabout Iraq until George W. Bush met September II . Not nearly true. While a Goreadministration might not have invadedIraq and established a colonial occupat ion-an optional aggression from thestandpoint of the ruling class-he likelywould have "merely" continued the Democratic Clinton Iraq policy, a regime ofsanctions punctuated regularly by bombings that completely ravaged Iraq andkilled hundreds of housands more Iraqisthan Bush's war. All this was accomplished under a humanitarian guise (alongwith his adventures in Somalia, Haiti andSerbia) and with minimal protest.

So why do the capitalists wage all thesewars? As much as Moore brilliantlyevokes the hypocrisies of the Bush administration's war propaganda, his explanation of the underlying motives is shallow.In line with the latest in anti-gfobalizationideology he otfers as an explanation theincestuous web linking the Saudi royalfamily to the Bush family, who are in turnin bed with Cheney and a handful of similar rich white corporate profiteers. Butit's ridiculous to think that the personalprofit interests of a handful alone motivated either the Afghanistan or Iraq wars.

The government represents the executive committee of the ruling capitalistclass, which means more than obta

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Workers Vanguard No 829 - 09 July 2004

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