WfJRltERS ",16(;(/,1" 25¢No. 153 15 April 1977

Israeli armor burning after Sinai battle in October 1973.Del/Gamma

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Rabin Out, Inflation Soars, Strikes Rage in Israel iI

Crisis in the Zionist Bunker

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Palestinian-Arab West Bank. Troopswould also be stationed along theJordan River, and the old cit'Yof EastJerusalem is considered annexed by theZionists. Samaria, Judea and thedensely Palestinian-populated GazaStrip would be placed under Jordaniancontrol to be policed by the hated"Black September" butcher of thePalestinian people, the Hashemitemonarch King Hussein.

It is clear that the Israeli governmentwould not proffer even this tokenrestitution if it were not for tremendousinternational pressure. But, speakingfor "labor-Zionists" Allon gives arationale for the thief returning afraction of the spoils: the desire to retainthe exclusive "Jewish character" ofIsrael and not to adrl to its alreadyexisting Arab minority ot 400,000. IheNRP opposes the return of any occu­pied territory, especially In the WestBank, while supporting the Jewish

continued on page l:J

The bourgeois press explainedRabin's expulsion of the NationalReligious Party as a result of incompati­ble positions on the territories Israeloccupied in the 1967 war (GolanHeights, West Bank and the Sinaipeninsula). Rabin's formal position, the"Allon Plan" (named after the Israelideputy prime minister and foreignminister Yigal Allon), is based onmaintenance of "defensible borders,"that is, continued Israeli military occu­pation of that land and of those borderswhich the Zionist chauvinists considernecessary to their military security.

Under this plan israeli military forceswould continue to occupy most of theGolan Heights, a substantial strip oftheeastern Sinai peninsula and an armedring around Samaria and Judea, thedensely populated portions of the

majority in the Knesset, he then re­signed, forcing the present elections.

Schezen/Gamma

Israeli troops patrol Nablus during November 1974 demonstrations by WestBank Palestinian Arabs.

"Allon Plan" and the NRP

As has been previously reported inWV, the present parliamentary crisiswas precipitated when the NRP Knessetmembers abstained on a no-confidencemotion tendered by the even morefanatically orthodox "United TorahFront." The Torah Front accused theRabin government of desecrating thesabbath when a ceremony for the newestand most advanced U.S. fighter planesto be added to the Israeli arsenal ran lateinto a Friday afternoon. Rabin expelledthe NRP from the cabinet, and lacking a

American rates, provoking the greateststrike wave in the history of the Zioniststate. Arab protest demonstrationscontinue on the West Bank. While a newcandidate for the governing coalitionwas soon selected, he is in no betterposition than Rabin to deal with thesevere sucial crisis.

Rabin was the candidate of theleading party of the Zionist establish­ment, the so-called "Labor Party." Thisis a clique-ridden bourgeois formationbased on petty political barons and theirpersonal fiefdoms in the highly statifiedand corporatist Israeli capitalist econo­my. The "Labor Party" was formed in1969 through the re-unification of twosplit-offs, Ben Gurion's Rafi Party andAchdut Ha'Avoda (Unity of Labor)with the traditional party of "Iabor­Zionism," the Mapai (Palestine Work­ers Party).

Even the fused "Labor Party" hasnever been able to garnish enough votesin the Knesset (Israeli parliament) toform a government. A Knesset majorityrelied on a coalition with the right-wingNational Religious Party (NRP), basedon the orthodox rabbis who imparttalmudic clericalist sanctimony to thechauvinism and racialism of the Zioniststate, and the "left-wing" Mapam(U nited Workers Party), who drape thisreactionary client of U. S. imperialismwith a threadbare red flag and May Day"socialist" rhetoric.

. After returning to Israel, Rabin leftsome $20,000 stashed in Washington,D.C., bank accounts in his wife's name,an illegal act under Israel's stringentcurrency laws. When confronted withthis malfeasance Rabin lied, claimingthat the amount involved was only$2,000. (The practice of Israeli courts isthat a sum that small would subject themalefactor only to a small fine, whereasfor $20,000 he may well have to go tojail.) However, the lid blew off Rabin'scover-up, and this was the straw thatbroke the back of his campaign for re­election as prime minister.

The Rabin resignation and generalgovernment crisis was only a culmina­tion of the mounting social crisis inIsrael. Inflation continues at near-South

Imperialists Scream"Red Menace"

Cuba inAfrica ... 6

APRIL IO~While israeli prime min­ister Yitzhak Rabin w~s ambassador tothe Zionist state's chief imperialistbenefactor, he was not above lookingafter his own. During his sojourn inWashington Rabin lined his pocketsthrough the time-worn tactic used byAmerican politicians of soliciting legalbribes through speaker's fees. It isreported that he made some $90,000 inthis fashion, a drop in the bucketcompared to the millions the CIAlavished on King Hussein of Jordan, butenough to cause a minor scandal inIsrael where Zionist leaders raised onthe kibbutzim are supposed to live morespartan lives.

For Arab/HebrewWorkers Revolution!

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

WORKERS VANGUARD

WfJRNERI",1NGU,1RD

Published weekiy. tA ~.--:'.'eek!i in f\Ugustand December, t..,: : ac:st Pl.JtJ,;dW1DCo" 260 West BrCJij(Jvd! New York, NY10013 TelepMne 066-6241 (Edliorial),925-5665 (BUSiness). AU"r""" all correspond­ence to: Box 1377 GPO New York, NY10001 Domestic subScriptions: $500 per year.Second-class postage paid at New York. N.Y.

Opinions expressed In signed articles orletters do not necessarily express the editorialViewpoint.

EDITOR Jan Norden

PRODUCTION MANi\GER: Karen Allen

CIRCULATION Mi·','·,\,~[r" ,-Ine Kelley

EDITORIAL BOI\"D JOI, :lrule. CharlesBurroughs, George rc,tr. L,' G::ndon. J"mesRobertson. Joseph C:c-

Dealey Plaza, to filing Freedom ofInformation Act lawsuits.

To the extent that the assassinationbuffs have explicit politics, they are wellwithin mainstream liberalism. Shockedby Watergate and the events of the1960's which it culminated, bourgeoisliberals pointed as one to "BlackFriday" in Dallas as the date on which"America lost its innocence" and fromwhich an ensuing torrent of violence,vituperation and despair could be dated.The supposedly cultured and cosmopol­itan court (now revealed as sex-crazed)of Jack and Jackie's "Camelot" wasreplaced by the "vulgarity" of LBJ. Theclean-cut "idealism" of the Peace Corpswas superseded by the ever-more­radical Students for a DemocraticSociety, and the docile Martin LutherKing by the Black Panthers and ghettouprisings.

Of course, this myth has been under­mined, in its turn, by the same recentscandals which gave impetus to theassassination probe in the first place.Between Kennedy's presiding overCOINTELPRO repression and con­stant attempts to overthrow Castro andrestore capitalism in Cuba, and histumbles with the various "Fiddles,""Faddles" and Mafia gun molls, theimage of Camelot has faded fast. FromCamelot to Carter stretches an unbro­ken chain of imperialist dictatorship,oppression, terror, spying andslaughter.

But in the absence of a perceivedrevolutionary alternative to bourgeoispolitics, the conspiracy industry and themuckraking fad have succeeded only infeeding the widespread cynicism. The

continued on page 9

Newsweek

11 Ie D<lYf"IlIl("(f\"'J~IS ­Silo.Jilll Bishop.~,

So for the assassination buffs, it'sback to the campus and talkshowcircuits, to pouring over the 27 volumesof Warren Commission testimony, toscreening the graphic Zapruder film ofJFK's grey matter being sprayed around

plot if such could be demonstrated, andit seems inconceivable that the WarrenCommission and J. Edgar Hooverwould have passed up such an exquisiteopportunity for witchhunting andpropaganda if there were a shred ofevidence to support this theory ofCastro acting in his own self-defense.

Regarding the King assassination, theHouse committee, in the short time ithas been in existence, has listed some600 "unresolved questions." One of themost interesting of these is where andhow James Earl Ray obtained themoney he lived on between his escapefrom prison in April 1967 and his arrestin London in June 1968. During thisperiod Ray is known to have visitedAcapulco, Montreal, Chicago, NewOrleans, Toronto, London, Lisbon andBrussels. He also bought a new car,expensive camera equipment and otheritems. The FBI estimates his totalincome for the period as $664.34, whichhe earned as a dishwasher. There hasbeen some speculation that Ray'smoney came from bank robberies, butthe FBI has never succeeded in linkinghim with a single robbery or burglary ofany sort during this time.

Other unanswered questions involvehow Ray was able to engineer a prisonescape, why Tennessee authorities didnot insist on a full investigation of himand whether the FBI, which had Kingunder close surveillance, knew of theassassination scheme before it wascarried out. Even the Carter administra­tion evidently doesn't buy the story thatRay acted alone, for Attorney GeneralBell has said he wanted to personallyinterview the prisoner. Sprague, mean­while, reports that Ray has said that amysterious "Raoul" aided him with"certain weapons and certain money"(New York Times, 12 April).

Finding the answers to these ques­tions after so many years would bedifficult even if there were a realdetermination to leave no stone un­turned. Whatever FBI and! or CIA linksthere may have been to the slayings werelikely never explicitly committed topaper and any circumstantial evidencehas long since seen the inside ofgovernment shredders. Many potentialwitnesses died years ago-"mysteri­ously," as assassination freaks add re­tlexively--and the living witnesses areaware of the fate of Sam Giancana andJohn Roselli, who were murdered andhad guilty knowledge of CIA-Mafiaefforts to assassinate Castro.

Plethora of magazines and books produced about Kennedy's assassination.

and that de Morenschildt had been themiddleman. Of particular significance isthat Oswald, who is usually painted as ahopelessly embittered loser, should havehad such intimate relations with aninternational wheeler-dealer like deMorenschildt.

How credible is this testimony?Oltmans also quotes de Morenschildt,who had made several suicide attemptsin recent months, as telling him: "Let'sface it. I only made up the story [aboutLee Harvey Oswald] because everybodymakes a million dollars off the Kennedyassassination, and I haven't madeanything. So now it's my time."

Least plausible of all are the rumorssuggesting that Castro "hit" Kennedy inretaliation for the infamous CIA at­tempts on his life or for CIA involve­ment in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. There isno bourgeois agency which would notbe delighted to reveal such a Castroite

Connally were brought that manr bulletfragments were removed from Connally(undercutting the government's single­bullet story). By and large the new"evidence" is no more substantial thanprevious stories that conflict with theWarren Commission report: they merelyrehash the familiar speculations of MarkLane (Rush to Judgment) and a host ofother assassination-conspiracy buffswhose books. lecture tours and Holly­wood movies have become a lucrativegenre of American popular culture.

Another recent and evidently moresinister revelation deals with the connec­tion between Oswald and George deMorenschildt, a wealthy oil financierand former French intelligence agent.De Morenschildt, who had testified tothe Warren Commission that Oswaldkilled Kennedy, committed suicide onMarch 29, before he was due to testify tothe House committee. Dutch journalistWillem Oltmans has now come forwardwith his story that de Morenschildt hadtold him that there was a conspiracyincluding the FBI, the CIA, Texas oilmillionaire H.L. Hunt, Jack Ruby andseveral Cuban exiles to kill Kennedy,

man Henry Gonzalez. Their hostilitywas directed at chief counsel RichardSprague, accused of everything fromhighhandedness to overeagerness toexpand the investigation. Only when hewas dumped on March 30 was theHouse Select Committee grudginglygranted a new lease on life in the wake ofa spate of highly publicized "leaks" ofnew "evidence."

The new "evidence" includes thetestimony of a Dallas cocktail waitresswho claims that Jack Ruby introducedher a few weeks before the JFKassassination to one "Lee HarveyOswald of the CIA," and that she alsojust happened to be taking photographsof the famous "grassy knoll" whenKennedy was shot (photographs whichwere confiscated by two men claiming tobe federal agents); and the testimony ofa nurse at the Dallas hospital to whichKennedy and Texas governor John

2

Kennedy' Assassination FairY. Tales

Who Killed Cock Robin?

Wide World SNCC

Martin Luther King (left) and Ralph Abernathy just before fatal shooting.Malcolm X (right).

(her the past 14 years Congress hasresisted demands that it conduct real in­4uiries in the assassination of John F.Kennedy, Malcolm X and MartinLuther King despite the fact that.according to recent public opinion polls,69 percent of the population rejects theofficial version of the King assassinationand 60 percent doubt the suspect findingsof the Warren Commission on theKennedy assassination.

Last September a reluctant Congressestablished the Select Committee onAssassinations. Apparently the Com­mittee never intended to probe toodeeply. Malcolm X's assassination wasnot even included in the investigation,and none of Congress's big-name "stars"took part. In fact, the more "presti­gious" Senate left the inquiry entirely upto the House of Representatives, somejunior members of which no doubthoped to be provided with the same sortof springboard to stardom whichWatergate had been for Howard Bakerof Tennessee and others.

There was heavy resistance from theHous~ leadership and even the assassi­nations committee chairman, Congress-

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RENMIN HUA BAONovember 1976After

Joseph Stalin died in 1953 but the "Stalin School ofFalsification" lives on, and not just in the Kremlin. The Maoistbureaucrats in Peking recently made blatant use of one of the well­worn Stalinist specialties for rewriting history: doctoredphotographs.

The November 1976 issue (distributed in February 1977) ofRenmin Bua BaD (the Chinese edition of "China Pictorial") wasdevoted to pictures depicting the life and death of Mao Tse-tung.Naturally, nowhere do the likenesses of such "unpersons" as LiuShao-chi and Lin Piao appear. But in some of the photos there areobvious gaping holes where party leaders used to be. We have

selected two of the clearest examplesof this disgusting distortion ofhistory and supplied the originalphotos for comparison.

In the first, showing Mao and hisentourage in Shensi province in1947; his wife Chiang Ching (now ind,isgrac~) has}~e~,!e in~is~ble,as ifvaporized in a SCJ-fi movie. In thesecond, taken at a mass memorialmeeting for Mao in September 1976,the solid line of assembled Maoistdignitaries has become a brokenline, with the "Gang of Four"miraculously transformed intoshrubbery. But the new gang inpower doesn't even shrink fromadmitting their falsification: in theaccompanying Chinese caption thepurge victims are shamelessly denot­ed by "X's."

This sinist,er practice was by nomeans invented by Mao's heirs.From Stalin's practice of orderingoffending pages ofthe "Great SovietEncyclopedia" cut out and returm:dto the publisher every time the"general line" changed 'or anotherold party leader was executed, to theMaoist reprinting of pages from the"Little Red Book" to remove refer­ences to Liu Shao-chi, the methodsof the Stalinist bureaucrats are thesame.

In its Orwellian manipulation ofreality, as in its bureaucratic t]'av­esty of proletarian democraq,Stalinism renders invaluable seniceto the bourgeois redbaiters' hypoc­ritical outcry against "Communisttotalitarianism." The Stalinists' cultof the personality requires systemat­ic forgery and fraud, ;'newspeak"and "doublethink." Even the mostloyal adherents of "socialism in onecountry" may overnight be trans­formed into shrubbery and "X's"­in photograph and in fact.

The authentic communist van­guard, however, is bound by Trots­ky's admonition to "say what is." AsLenin put it,' "the truth isrevolutionary."

HSINHUA WEEKLY20 September 1976

HSINHUA WEEKLY20 September 1976

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How Maoists WereTurned intoShrubbery

15 APRIL 1977

-reprinted from .§~artacist Canada No. 15, April 1977

GMR's "Workers Republicof Quebec":

IIII

Helen CantorSat., 16 April 19777:30 p.m.Barnard CollegeRoom 304(Broadway above 116thStreet)

Speaker:Date:Time:Place:

Donation: $1Sponsored by Columbia Spartacus YouthLeagueFor more information call 925-5665

WORKERS VANGUARD

NEW YORK

Lessons of the Commune andthe Catalan Federation

FORUM

The CIA's "HumanRights" CrusadeImperialist ButchersExploit Stalinist CrimesDefend the Gains of theOctober Revolution!

which fails to achieve state power in theUnited States is ultimately doomed. Aseparate "Canadian socialist revolu­tion," much less a "Quebec socialistrevolution," is a utopian impossibility.

Two historical lessons on this subjectare provided by the fate of the ParisCommune in 1871 and Trotsky's polem­ics against the Catalan Federation inSpain during the early 1930's. In 1871,the workers of Paris were provoked intoa premature uprising, and establishedthe Commune under militarily unfavor­able circumstances, with insufficientprior revolutionary work among theworkers and peasants outside Paris.Marx and Engels called for support tothe Communards and for standing withthem on the barricades. However theypointed out that power could not beconsolidated in Paris alone, but had tobe extended through the support of thetoiling masses in the rest of France. Infact, the defeat of the Commune afteronly seventy-two days led to thedecimation and demoralization of theflower of the French proletariat. It tookan entire generation after the Communefor the Parisian workers to begin toreach a similar level of combativity andclass-consciousness.

Writing on Spain in 1931, LeonTrotsky warned against the illusion,fostered by Joaquin Maurin's CatalanFederation, that the militant Catalanproletariat could come to power in theabsence of a similar class uprising in the

. rest of Spain. Agreeing that "Cataloniais the vanguard," Trotsky admonishedMaurin:

"... But if this vanguard will not marchin step with the proletariat and later onwith the peasantry of all of Spain, theCatalan movement will at best beconcluded as a magnificent episode in

continued on page 10

"True enough, But his 'unity argument'reveals his lack of understanding thatthe connection goes both ways."

~Old Mole, 18 MarchOf course real unity cannot be forged

while great-nation, anti-Quebecoischauvinism holds sway among English­speaking workers. Nevertheless theRMG is only too willing to follow theillusion-mongering of the GMR byposing a separatist road to power for theQuebec proletariat. Hence theargument:

", , . the assertion that Quebec workers,the most militant and politically ad­vanced in North America, should holdback their struggles against the nationaloppression of capital and wait foranglophone workers to catch up--thisassertion reeks of national chauvinismand is thus a service to reactionaries."

-·ibid.

But this demagogy only avoids thecentral question. While Cy Goniek andthe Communist Party may yearn for theQuebec working class simply to forgetabout its national oppression and"unite" against "American domina­tion," revolutionary internationalistscertainly do not tell Quebec workers to"hold back their struggles." Rather,revolutionary workers parties must beforged to lead the struggles of all NorthAmerican workers to state power. Thequestion is how the North Americansocialist revolution can be achieved.

A separate "workers republic ofQuebec" is conceivable under only twohistorical circumstances. One, the possi­ble secession of Quebec from a NorthAmerican soviet state to form anindependent workers republic, is clearlynot applicable today. The second, anisolated seizure of state power in onecorner of North America, is only anepisodic possibility. Unless the rest ofthe North American proletariat is ableto follow rapidly and consolidate powerthroughout the continent, such anuprising is doomed to failure and themilitant Quebecois workers will becrushed.

Of course Quebec could secede fromCanada to form an independent capital­ist state, and a Quebecois capitalist'ruling class could consolidate its ruleand develop its own relations with theimperialist world market. Under suchcircumstances, the proletarian revolu­tion could theoretically begin within theframework of the Quebec nation-state.But even in this case the conquest ofpower i.o Quebec would either be theprelude to the struggle for proletarianpower throughout North America, or itwould be defeilted.

The high degree of integration of theNorth American political economy andthe overwhelming economic, politicaland military dominance of the UnitedStates mean that proletarian power willonly be consolidated on a continent­wide basis. Thus any attempt at prole­tarian revolution in North America

Montreal unionists march in 1973 May Day demonstration.

In a recent polemic against Canadiannationalist Cy Gonick's pleas for "Ca­nadian unity," even the RMG is forcedto recognize. the iron necessity of aunified struggle by French- and English­speaking workers in North America:

"Gonick correctly says, 'Clearly thisliberation of the dominated classes inQuebec is linked to that of the NorthAmerican proletariat as a whole.'

in Quebec-can only divide thestruggles of the North American prole­tariat along national lines, thus actingagainst the interests of both French- andEnglish-speaking workers in the fightfor socialism.

Struggles for democratic national andlanguage rights have helped fuel thecombativity of the Quebecois proletari­at. to the point where it is the mostadvanced on the continent. Revolution­aries uphold Quebec's, right to self­determination in order, above all, topromote class unity by opposing allunjust national oppression. This isparticularly important since Quebecworkers can playa leading role in theNorth American revolution.

But the G M R's response to theenhanced militancy of the working classin Quebec is to reject any perspective ofjoint class struggle in favor of theutopian strategy of establishing aproletarian enclave on the banks of theSt. Lawrence. Effacing the leading roleof Quebecois workers in several recentcross-Canada labor struggles-the fightagainst wage controls, as well as postaland rail strikes-the GMR calls fornationalist breakaways by Quebecunions fI om the American-dominatedInternationals. Last year in its pamphlet"Pour la Republique des Travailleurs duQuebec," the GMR announced:

"The liquidation of the more or lesscorrupt bureaucracies of the interna­tional unions cannot be achieved exceptbv a break with the American centersand the taking in hand of these unionsby the Quebec unions themselves. Thatis to say, the reorganization of tradeunionism on an industrial basis inside aUnited Labor Federation of Quebec."

Thus the GM R abandons the need tofight against the ossified, pro-capitalistlabor tops of the Internationals, andfosters illusions in the Quebec tradeunion bureaucrats by posing a relativeimmunity to bureaucratization for thenationalist unions. And by overestimat­ing the strength of the internationalbureaucraB (who "cannot" be defeated"except" by breakaways), it denies thepossibility of building a class-struggleopposition among the "backward"English-speaking workers. According­ly, says the GMR's nationalist logic, theimportant ties between the combativeworking class of Quebec and its classbrothers and sisters in the rest of NorthAmerica must be broken.

For United Class Struggle!

The recent joint national tour byspokesmen for the Groupe MarxisteRevolutionnaire (G MR) and League forSocialist Action; Ligue Socialiste Ouv­riere (LSA/ LSO) demonstrated thedifficulties faced by the Canadiansupporters of the revisionist "U nited"Secretariat (USec) as they seek to pavethe road to fusion. Meetings in severalcities featured sharp debates betweenthe putative fusion partners: on the onehand, the centrist G M R and its English­Canadian cousin the RevolutionaryMarxist Group (RMG), and on theother, the craven reformists of theLSA! LSO. Particularly sharp 'Weredebates on the LSAj LSO's bootlickingsupport for the New Democratic Party.

All three Canadian USec adherentsare, however, proclaiming substantialagreement on the question of Quebec.The GMR, RMG and LSAj LSO allcapitulate to Quebec nationalism, sup­porting independence and posing aseparatist strategy for socialist revolu­tion in Quebec. All cite this "agreement"as justification for a rotten-bloc fusion.

But in fact-as the speaking tourserved to underline-the "agreement" isat best skin-deep, and the groups'differences on this question, as on manyothers, remain profound. Just as theLSA bows before social democracy inEnglish Canada (a social democracywhich is notoriously English­chauvinist!), so the LSO scrapes at thefeet of reactionary clerical nationalismin Quebec. Thus LSO spokesmanSuzanne Chabot spent almost all herspeaking time justifying her group'sposition on the language question,arguing for the "consistently" national­chauvinist demand of a "unilingualFrench Quebec."

On the other hand, the GMR's thrustis to pose a "proletarian nationalist"alternative to the bourgeois nationalistParti Quebecois, by seeking to channeltrade union militancy into an "anti­imperialist," "national liberation"struggle. Thus its spokesman Jean-PaulPelletier discussed the massive Com­mon Front strike struggles of 1972,analyzed the state of the Quebecworkers movement today, and elaborat­ed his organization's line for an inde­pendent "workers republic of Quebec."

It is this demand for a "workersrepublic of Quebec" which, more thananything else, summarizes the G M R'spolitical· perspective. While it hasobviously shifted to the right in order toconsider a fusion with the LSO, theGMR remains fraught with contradic­tions. It has many subjectively revolu­tionary impulses (certainly far morethan the cretinous LSA/ LSO), yet itremains a parochial nationalist organi­zation whose political line is unable toshow the way forward for the militantQuebec working class. The GMR'sstrategic perspective-"national libera­tion" ala Cuba as the road to revolution

4

Solidarity House Victimizes Op~ositionists

UAW Convention Must DefendJordan Sims, Steve Smith

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Alex Markley, left, speaking atSpringfield rally in early March.

Worthington Compression Corpora­tion in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Sen­tencing is scheduled for April 14.

The perpetrator of this outrageousframe-up is the Alcohol, Tobacco andFirearms Bureau (ATF), which viewsitself a sort of minor-league FBI. TheATF, which in an era of budgetcutbacks has doubled its budget since1972, ensures continued funding foritself by entrapping "potential viola­tors," particularly in the labor move­ment, and using them to set up others.

Of his 12-hour interrogation in theATF office on the day of his arrestMarkley says:

"They spoke with me about cooperatingwith them, how they wanted to hit mewith $100,000 bail and how I was facing60 years in jail. Every time I asked to calla lawyer they said no, there's no need ofit, we can work something out."

-quoted in Real Paper, 19February 1977

But Markley and Suares refused to"work something out," i.e., to becomelabor spies for the government. Theirprincipled refusal to cooperate ("I toldthem to have someone else d9their dirtywork for them," says M;rrkley) leavesthem facing long jail sejllences.

In a related case, Sandi Polaski, thevictimized leader of another UE local inMassachusetts (Cambion-CambridgeThermionic Corporation), recentlypleaded guilty to reduced charges ofassault with a dangerous weaponreceiving a six months' suspendedsentence and one year's probation. Butwhile she was able to escape a long jailterm, the UE at Cambion was defeatedin a recent NLRB representationelection.

The labor movement must demandthat all charges against these trade­union militants be dropped at once! In aperiod when government provocationsagainst the labor movement are in­creasing, the need for a strong working­class defense of victimized activists ismore urgent than ever. •

Markley,SuaresConvicted inLabor-SpyFrame-Up

On March 26 Alex Markley andAntonio Suares, organizers for theUnited Electrical Workers Union (UE),were convicted of illegal possession ofdestructive devices that the prosecutionclaimed were used to blow up scabtrucks during a strike against the

Sims sees his next step as a lawsuitagainst Local 961 and the International.He is also heartened by rumors that theLabor Department may audit Local961's books. Sims told WV, "I wouldrather have someone come in here who'sgoing to be truly objective and protectthe rights of my members with nopolitical motivation." Sims' warm invi­tation to the capitalist courts and LaborDepartment will not only most likelyprove fruitless, but is also deeplyunprincipled. By asking the bourgeoisstate to peruse the Local's financialrecords and decide, in place of themembership, what constitutes properunion procedure, Sims helps underminethe independence of the unions fromgovernment control.

When the WV reporter challengedSims' dragging the union into the bossescourts, counterposing mobilization ofthe ranks, Sims scornfully dismissed themembership: "Today, the average guy inthe plant ... concerns himself with onething: how big a paycheck he can get inanyone week and getting his ass out ofthere and balling with it, or putting it inthe bank. I got guys out there who'd selltheir mothers for two hours ofovertime."

This cynicism speaks volumes as towhy Sims' support has eroded and whyhe does not look to organizing the Local961 members in his defense. It is alsotelling evidence for what the SpartacistLeague has always said-that, at bot­tom, those who turn to the capitalistcourts and government agencies have aprofound contempt for the ability andcapacity of the working class.

It is true that the beleaguered auto

continued on page 9

tive board meetings in 1974 and 1975,none of his pro-International adversar­ies ever brought charges against him inthe Local. Any accusation against Simsshould be turned over to the Localmembership, who can determine if aLocal trial is required.

Solidarity House intervened againstSims not for any financial irregularitiesbut because he is an irritant to the VAWbureaucracy. Were it not for its ruthlesssuppression of dissent, the Woodcock/Fraser gang might be accused ofexcessive paranoia-Sims' politics donot in fact represent much more than anuisance to Solidarity House. In 1973Sims voted for the sellout contract withChrysler, much to the embarrassment ofhis allies in the United National Caucus(UNC). Today, he supports DougFraser-the man who co-administeredhis Local during receivership and votedfor his ouster-as the "lesser of threeevils" to succeed Woodcock as Interna­tional president!

Sims' role as co-chairman of thereformist UNC is likewise no danger toWoodcock/ Fraser. The UNC barelyexists today, despite years ofattemptingto patch together a lowest-eommon­denominator "unity." It has largelydecomposed into its constituent ele­ments: disgruntled skilled tradesmen, afew aspiring bureaucrats and scattered"radicals" supported by the Internation­al Socialists (I.S.). Neither the UNC northe I.S. has even bothered to publiclydefend Sims, the only relatively well­known black leader of the UNe.

Down on the Ranks-Relying onthe Courtsthat the membership in Local 961-on

two different occasions-approvedgranting the Local president the samebenefits enjoyed by the Local's officeworkers, members of the Office andProfessional Employees InternationalUnion (OPEIU). Furthermore, thefinancial secretary, Vernal Johnson,cleared this policy with SolidarityHouse and testified to that effect. ButInternational spokesmen denied John­son's statement. Sims told WV that hehimself received approval for the Localfinancial arrangement from Interna­tional vice-president Marc Stepp andRegion I-A director Buddy Battle, but"those same people got amnesia now."

Sims states his willingness to answerall charges before the Local 961 mem­bership and in fact called a specialmembership meeting in August 1975 toair the charges. According to Sims, thismeeting reaffirmed the 1973 member­ship decision to peg the president'sbenefits to those of the Local officeworkers. Solidarity House discountedthat meeting also. Clearly the Interna­tional is rather selective about theevidence it accepts!

Financial misconduct by a unionofficer is a serious charge and there issome unclarity in this case over whetherSims was entitled to all the vacation andsick pay claimed, even if the OPEIUcontract is used as a yardstick. But sinceSims apparently made a number ofattempts to clarify the situation, eventhe Public Review Board was forced toacknowledge that "it is not charged thathe intentionally defrauded the LocalUnion."

What is clear is that Sims' bureaucrat­ic opponents wanted to keep the Local961 membership from deciding on theseissues. Though Sims' finances werediscussed at a number of Local execu-

Watergate in Local 961?

Sims denies the charges and refuses toreturn the money. He explained to WV

Sims was initially suspended fromoffice by Leonard Woodcock but wasallowed to appeal. An Internationalexecutive board appeals committeepredictably upheld the original decision.When on March 14 of this year theVA W's "Public Review Board," with­out allowing Sims a hearing, upheld theSolidarity House edict and demandedthat he repay the total of$4, 196 to Local961, Sims was finally removed aspresident and barred from seekingfurther office in the VA W.

15 APRIL 1977

cases. Both held elected local unionoffice and have been fired by Chryslerfor alleged involvement in unauthorizedwork stoppages. Both are critics ofWoodcock & Co., and this attitude isthe reason that the union tops were asanxious as the corporation to be rid ofthem. And in both cases, the victims'reformist politics led them to pursueanti-union lawsuits to fight their bu­reaucratic ~ersecutors.

Sims was fired from the Eldon plantfor alleged participation in a local jobaction in 1970. He was later electedLocal president by a narrow margin in a1973 Labor Department-supervisedelection. Almost immediately, however,he ran afoul of hostile Local executiveboard members who were based prima­rily on white skilled tradesmen. WhenSims, who is black, suspended two localofficers after months of internecinewarfare, the International clampedreceivership on Local 961 in late 1975(see WV No. 83, 31 October 1975).

An audit of the Local's books wasconducted for the period December1973 to September 1975 and Interna­tional secretary-treasurer Emil Mazeysubsequently charged Sims with finan­cial misconduct. However, Sims toldWV that several previous audits hadbeen conducted which revealed noirregularities. Mazey asserted that Simsaccepted several thousand dollars inwage increases, vacation pay, sick payand sick leave pay to which he was notentitled. The Local set the president'ssalary in February 1974 at $300 perweek with no mention of benefits: theInternational claims that therefore Simsis entitled to no benefits whatever, whilehe maintains that this wage increase didnot cancel the benefits he was eligible forunder past Local practice and accordingto later votes by the membership.

WV Photo

Flanked by cops, company supervisors and union officials, black-robedjudge orders arrest of Dodge Truck strikers, June, 1974.

Chrysler Corporation and the UnitedAuto Workers (UAW) bureaucracyrecently struck blows against the unionranks by ridding themselves of"trouble­makers" in Local 961 (Eldon AvenueGear and Axle) and Local 140 (DodgeTruck) in Detroit. Militants in theplants must sharply protest this com­pany/ union purge of dissidents andoppose their victimization at the VA Wconvention in Los Angeles next month.

Although the immediate history ofJordan Sims, just removed by SolidarityHouse from the Local 961 presidency,and Steve Smith, former steward atDodge Truck, are different, there arestriking similarities between the two

-

hm~erialists Scream "Red Menace"

Cuba in Africa

Soviet Diplomatic Maneuvers

In our article "Smash the ImperialistPower Play" (WVNo. 85,14 November1975). written soon after the SouthAfrican invasion, we stated that, "Thecorrect policy for proletarian revolu­tionists at this time ... is military supportto the MPLA against the Washington­financed. South African-organized of­fensive." It was absolutely necessary tooppose this attempt to establish apuppet black regime, bound hand andfoot to Pretoria, and to stand with theembattled MPLA, Cuban and Sovietforces against the imperialists. At thesame time we warned: "The M PLAwhile presently aligned with Moscowcould tomorrow become the favorite ofWashington, and it is in any case no lesshostile to the slightest expression ofworking-class independence."

The U.S. remains hopeful that it canyet persuade Agostinho Neto and hiscohorts to pull a Sadat-style switch onthe USSR and Cuba. Even whileMoscow and Luanda proclaim theireternal friendship, Gulf Oil pumps outmillions of dollars in profits from itsCabinda refinery. Such prominent U.S.black Democrats as Carter's UN am­bassador Andrew Young and Congress­man Charles Diggs, moreover, have

Economist

WORKERS VANGUARD

it has experienced in the West during itsentire history." Having assigned anindependent role to Cuba in interna­tional politics, he ascribes world­historical importance to the temporarysetback suffered by the U.S. and SouthAfrica in Angola. In reality, for U.S.imperialism southern Africa representsan area of distinctly secondary strategicimportance compared to Europe andthe Near East, or even Latin Americaand East Asia.

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Fidel Castro at rally in Tanzania.

"heroic little Cuba" from the lumberingRussian bear:

"Cuba was sure it could count onsolidarity and material aid from theSoviet Union and other Socialistcountries, although it was also aware ofthe implications its action might holdfor the policy of peaceful coexistenceand international detente...."Far from what has so often been said, itwas an independent and sovereign act ofCuba. Only after the decision was made,not before, was the Soviet Unioninformed."

Whatever the exact timing and detailsof the decision, it is ludicrous to assumethat Cuba and the Soviet Union w.erenot working in tightly interlockedcoordination. Nor does Cuba's Africanpolicy run counter to the Soviet strategyof "peaceful coexistence" (which hasnever precluded economic and diplo­matic competition or even militaryconfrontations in secondary arenas).

Moscow's political ties with andmilitary assistance to the nationalistM PLA were also of long standing, andthe Soviet Union feared that if Luandafell to the South African-led pincerattack, its efforts to carve out adiplomatic sphere of influence south ofthe Sahara would bejeopardized. Whilesome 15.000 Cuban soldiers weretransported to Angola, the SovietUnion opened vital aid spigots. pouringin the sophisticated tanks, rocketlaunchers and other heavy weaponswithout which Castro's forces could nothave turned the tide.

Clearly Marquez' pro-Cuban fervoroutruns his grasp of political realities.Last summer, in a series of glowingPrensa Latina articles on a trip to Cuba,reprinted in his Colombian radicalweekly Alternativa (16-23 August),Marquez was quoted as saying bombas­tically, "The defeat of imperialism inAngola is the most powerful blow which'

While much of the bourgeois pressbrands Castro's soldiers in Africa"Russian mercenaries," "helots" and"the new Gurkhas" (Daniel Moynihan'sphrase), radical enthusiasts of theCuban deformed workers state see avindication of Havana's claims as"Third World" vanguard of "interna­tional proletarian solidarity." Notedleft-wing Colombian author GabrielGarcia Marquez wrote a lengthy ac­count of Cuba's military involvement inAngola for the Mexican magazineProceso, from which extracts werepublished by the Cuban news agencyPrensa Latina in January. This semi­official version highlights the hazardousundertaking of transporting the initialforces to Angola in aging turbopropsand hastily drafted steamers; U.S.threats and attempts to scuttle the air­and sea-lift; and the militarily decisivecharacter of the Cuban intervention.

Marquez cites "Che" Guevara's rolein training and leading nationalist rebelsin the ex-Belgian Congo (now Zai"re) in1965, early Cuban military aid toguerrillas in Angola, Mozambique andGuinea-Bissau, as well as to the govern­ments of Cameroun, Sierra Leone andSekou Toure's Guinea. He concludesthat: "Cuba's act of solidarity withAngola was far from a casual orimpulsive act, but rather the end resultof a continuous policy toward Africa bythe Cuban revolution" (WashingtonPost, 12 January).

Besides the romantic description ofthe daring airlift of 650 soldiers in earlyNovember 1975 as a kind of CubanOperation Entebbe, Marquez' accountis notable for its efforts to separate

"New Gurkhas"?

does not require deep political insight torecognize that Podgorny and Castro'sleap-frogging missions (climaxed by atop-level meeting in Moscow) were partof a joint effort to use the politicalcapital gained in the Angolan war togain increased leverage in the region.The Soviet Union hopes to offset itsdiplomatic reversals in North Africaand the Near East by acing out U.S. andChinese influence in southern, centraland east Africa. While Castro drewbigger and more enthusiastic crowds,Podgorny returned with the trophies:Ethiopian endorsement of a "commonanti-imperialist front" of temporarilypro-Soviet states in the Red Sea area(Somalia, Ethiopia and Southern Ye­men), a friendship treaty with Mozam­bique (Moscow promulgated a similartreaty with Angola in mid-March) and ajoint communique with Zambia.

The Stalinist Dailr World(30 March)noted of the latter: "Podgorny's visit toZambia, even more so than his visits toTanzania and Mozambique, symbo­lized a real breakthrough, in the opinionof most African observers. Zambia'spolicy earlier had been considered pro­imperialism...." Only a year ago Zam­bia backed the South African-led forcesin Angola, labeling the USSR and Cubaas "a marauding tiger with its deadlycubs." But following the breakdown ofthe Geneva talks on Rhodesia,chameleon-like Zambian president Ken­neth Kaunda embraces Podgorny inorder to force the Carter administrationto take a harder line against Ian Smith'sintransigent white-supremacist regime.It only takes this single calculated andself-serving gesture for Zambia to enterthe Stalinists' blue-ribbon list of "non­capitalist" and "anti-imperialist" states!

6

headed by Cuban and Russian soldiers.On April 4 Mobutu broke diplomaticrelations with Havana. While the Carteradministration guardedly says that "nohard evidence" of a Cuban role has beenpresented, it nevertheless rushed $2million in military aid to the CIA'snumber-one man on the continent.

One particularly strident piece wascarried in the London Sunday Tele­graph (20 February) and reproduced asa full-page ad-paid for by a shadowygroup of right-wing South African andinternational investors, known as the"Club ofTen"-in the New York Times,the Wall Street Journal and otherinfluential imperialist mouthpieces. Thearticle, entitled "Moscow's Next Targetin Africa," begins:

"Can the West learn from Angola'stragedy, or are we condemned to relivethe experience? What the Russianslearned from Angola is that war byproxy pays off. They will be stronglytempted to use the same technique inother places-and almost certainly inthe assault un Rhodesia and South­West Africa."The Cubans are Moscow's all-purposemercenaries...."

The author, Robert Moss, poses as achampion of democracy. However, lastyear he was exposed for authoring abook financed by the CIA (and distrib­uted by the Chilean junta's embassies)which justifies Pinochet's bloody coup.

Such hallucinations of a revolution­ary Soviet offensive in Africa aside, it

No u.s. Aid toMobutu's Zai're!

APRIL II The Western press coveredthe recent African junkets of FidelCastro and Soviet president 1\ikolaiPodgorny with a renewal of the shrill"red menance" drumbeating that hadaccompanied Cuba's military interven­tion a year ago against South Africa inthe Angolan war. U.S. and Britishnewspapers and magazines have fea­tured ominous stories of proliferatingso-called "Marxist" regimes, Sovietnaval and air facilities, and Soviet; Cu­ban military forces in sub-SaharanAfrica. Time (4 April) graphicallydepicted a tightening "Soviet belt"running from the Atlantic to the IndianOcean through Angola, Zambia, Tanza­nia, Mozambique and Madagascar.

The shaky government of Zai"reanpresident Mobutu Sese Seko eagerlyjoined the hue and cry, charging thatinsurgent forces in Shaba province(formerly Katanga) had invaded fromneighboring Angola and were spear-

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between "neo-colonialist" and "anti­imperialist" regimes in Africa. Thisimpressionistic method has nothing todo with the class struggle, but simplyrepresents a form of window-shoppingamong the different styles of rhetoricand diplomatic alliances preferred bythe various nationalist movements. Nobasis exists for Marxists or the workingclass to take sides in the Zai"re conflict.

Mobutu has attempted to interna­tionalize the situation by his solicitationof U.S. and Chinese aid and, this week,by a French airlift of 1,500 Moroccantroops to back the Zai"rean soldiers whoseem to have no taste for the fighting.Revolutionaries do have a stake inopposing all imperialist efforts to dig indeeper in Africa by propping updisintegrating regimes like Mobutu's.Therefore, we denounce the imperialistwar scare and demand, "No aid toZaire!"

ChauvellSygma

The balance sheet of Cuba's policy inAfrica is a rhetorical1y more militantversion of Soviet efforts to win diplo­matic al1ies and port-of-cal1 rights for itsships. The blood shed in defense ofAngola against imperialist aggressionhas become just another asset in theKremlin's great power account ledger.Moscow and Havana can (at least forthe moment) chalk up some new friel dsto replace those they have lost in theNear East. The Ethiopianjunta has beenjettisoned by the U.S. and desperatelyneeds a deal with Somalia (which claimsone of its provinces and could controlEthiopian access to the sea via theTerritory of the Afars and Issas, due tobecome independent in June).

But just as Addis Ababa embraces theUSSR and Cuba, Somalia is beginningto turn cold, harkening to the cal1 ojIslamic "unity"-spel1ed "o-i-I $S$."Podgorny and Ca!.tro have Idi Mtin'sthrone of blood by default, sinceUganda is something ofan internationalpariah at present. And Zambia's friend­ly relations with the USSR are likely tolast about as long as it takes the U.S. orBritain to land an envoy in Lusaka witha better offer.

Genuine international proletariansolidarity does not consist in formingmutual admiration societies with left­talking nationalist demagogues. In fact,it demands the opposite: effective aid tothe working masses oppressed andexploited by these petty tyrants, thebuilding of revolutionary Trotskyistparties to smash the two-bit bonapartes(and their Stalinist al1ies), wrenching theex-colonial countries free of imperial­ism's bloody talons through socialistrevolution, not diplomatic deals.•

For Real ProletarianInternationalism!

Zairian troops

absence of cheering or other signs ofspontaneous enthusiasm."

A counter-barrage of press releaseshas come from a Paris-based groupcalling itself the Congolese NationalLiberation Front (FLNC), which claimsto be leading the insurgents in thisamorphous conflict. An FLNC commu~

nique in early March maintained that itwas not "an invasion by mercenaries inthe pay of Angola," but "a nationaluprising by the Congolese peoplesustained and supported by fighters ofthe FLNC" (Times [London], 12March).

This group is led by a GeneralNathanael Mbumba, formerly a Katan­gan police chief. An account of theShaba conflict carried in the 4 Aprilissue of Afrique-Asie reports that theFLNC was founded in Angola as earlyas June 1968 by Mbumba at the head offormer Katangan gendarmes who fledfrom imprisonment in Zai·re. The articlemakes much of the FLNC's self­description as "a revolutionary andprogressive movement," while simul­taneously admitting that the Katangansserved for seven years as a mercenaryforce (cal1ed the "Black Arrows") for thePortuguese colonial army!

Having fought mainly against HoldenRoberto's FNLA in northeasternAngola, this force (reportedly severalthousand soldiers) simply transferredtheir allegiance to the MPLA asindependence approached. (The mar­riage of convenience was also indicatedby the FNLA's close ties to Mobutu, thenemesis of the Katangan gendarmes.)The FLNC is also al1ied with a groupbased in Brussels cal1ed the Movementfor Action to Resurrect the Congo(MARC), which is backed by Belgianliberals and reportedly "disposed tocooperation with the West."

Several journalists have suggested aseemingly plausible explanation for theShaba affair. Mobutu has unleashed thedefeated FNLA forces to make harass­ing raids into northern Angola andal10wed the puppet Cabinda secession­ists to strike against that oil-rich enclaveand even into the neighboring Soviet­aided Congo Republic. (Natural1y,there is little mention of these provoca­tions in the Western press.) Luanda maywel1 have given the green light to its ex­Katangan allies to move into Shabaprovince in order to harass Mobutu inretaliation for his continued covertsupport to anti-MPLA forces.

Eager to discover some new "pro­gressive" cause to cheer on, the radicalNew York Guardian has been building acase for tailing the FLNC, quoting itsbombastic self-praise and arguing that ithas assimilated revolutionary politicsfrom the MPLA. Like the Stalinists,New Leftists seek to sharply distinguish

Turmoil in Za'ire

Prensa Latina

. In Mozal11bique Castro also repeateddenials of any Cuban role in the fightingin Zai"re's Shaba province: "there is not asingle Cuban soldier involved. We havenothing to do with it at all and we havenot equipped or trained the forces thatare fighting the ruling clique in Zai"re"(Daily World, 24 March).

The conflict remains a murky affairgiven a comic opera quality by conflict­ing press accounts and the antics ofMobutu. When Zai"re is appealing forU.S. aid, the "invaders" are reportedadvancing; shortly after aid is delivered,they are reported to be in ful1 retreat; afew days later the rebels are again"advancing," and then comes anotherurgent plea for aid. Towns near theAngolan border are reported lost andrecaptured without any evidence offighting. Mobutu has personally ferriednewsmen to the area in his private planeto demonstrate that the government stillholds key towns, but none have wit­nessed any battles and they are quicklyshuttled back to the capital, Kinshasa,where their reports are subjected togovernment censorship.

Initial1y diplomats in Brusselsreported that 500 former secessionistKatangan gendarmes were peaceful1yresettling in the area (New York Times,16 March), while Mobutu was claimingthat "5,000 invaders" were battling hissoliders along a "62-mile front." Zai"reangeneral Bumba revised the estimates upto 10,000 rebels and announced that"my soldiers have seen Russians, Cu­bans and Portuguese at the side of theformer militiamen, and these merce­naries are fighting shirtless, withoutuniforms" (UPI dispatch, 2 April). Twodays later Bumba was replaced as chiefof staff.

Press reports universally agree thatthe "invaders" are remnants of Moi"seTshombe's secessionist Katangan forceswho were driven into Angola around1967; that they are received with openarms by their fel10w Lunda tribesmen,who straddle the border; and that littleconcern or support for the war exists inthe Zai'rean capital. One hapless Asso­ciated Press newsman was expel1ed forsending off a dispatch which reported agovernment-sponsored ral1y in Kinsha­sa "marked by an almost complete

minister Carlos Rafael Rodriguez as-sured the press:

"Cuba has no intention of launching amilitary intervention against othercountries. It can be said. therefore. thatCuba may send its troops to othercountries in case the same conditionsexist as those in the case of the Cuba­Angola relations. But it is just incon­ceivable that the same conditions willexist again."

- New York Times, 21 May 1975

Castro, right, being greeted in Addis Ababa by Ethiopian strongmanMengistu last month,

15 APRIL 1977

cautiously lauded Cuba for bringing"stability and order" to Angola.

Ironically, Marquez' views comple­ment those of the imperialist scare­mongers in one important aspect.Although Castro apologists bridle atany suggestion that Cuban foreignpolicy is subordinated to the SovietUnion's, they join Moss and the right­wing propagandists who believe thatCuba is playing a revolutionary anti­capitalist role in Africa and that theAngolan pattern is likely to be repeatedin Rhodesia and Southwest Africa(Namibia).

But Castro's criterion for distinguish­ing "revolutionary" regimes is manifest­ly the same as Podgorny's-diplomatical1iance with the Soviet bloc. In Soma­lia, the Cuban prime minister hailedtinpot military dictator Siad Barre as"one of the firmest and most brilliantrevolutionaries in Africa." In AddisAbaba, Castro toasted Derg strongmanMengistu Haile Meriam (whose troopsbutcher leftist students carrying por­traits of "Che" and continue HaileSelassie's dirty colonial war in Eritrea)and invited him to visit Cuba. While IdiAmin's reign of indiscriminate tribalist,religious and ethnic terror was a bit tooembarrassing to include in either Pod­gorny's or Castro's itinerary, Ugandaradio reported that Amin met with bothSoviet and Cuban envoys on March 4to thank them for "supporting hiscountry." .

As for a repetition of Cuba's directand massive combat role during theAngolan war, Cuban spokesmen havepersistently and repeatedly stressed theexceptional character of the Angolanconflict. The blatant intervention ofapartheid South Africa into what hadbeen a civil war among competing blacknationalist forces provided sufficientinternational "legitimacy" for the So­viets and Cubans to set aside theirnormal conciliatory stance and wage abrief-and successful-military strug­gle against a minor Jmperialist powerbacked by the U.S. During a trip toJapan last spring Cuban deputy prime

DRNathaniel Mbumba, leader of theinsurgent FLNC,

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right wing of the "Labor Party."For example Neir Zorca who headed

the Land Development Authority underRabin and was responsible for thepolicy of the .Iudeasation in Galilee ofexpropriating Arab land, has defectedto the DMC. Likewise the former headof the Israeli secret service Mossad,Assa Harel. has joined the DMC. TheDMC under Zorea influence has taken ahard line on defending Zionist settle­ments in the occupied territories and hascalled for the denationalization of theIsraeli state sector, more incentives toprivate enterprise and support to avicious compulsory arbitration law thatwould effectively ban strikes.

Shimon Peres, Rabin's Defense Mini­ster and arch rival within the "LaborParty," replaces Rabin as the "Labor"candidate for prime minister. Within theframework of the "Labor Party," Peresis considered a hawk and there is somespeculation that Mapam may bolt its"Alignment" with "Labor." To salveMapam's pseudo-socialistic consciencePeres appointed Allon, who is consid­ered a dove, to the important position ofcandidate for defense minister.

However, Mapam has littleconscience left to salve as it hasremained in the Zionist governmentdespite its grossly chauvinist and racial­ist policies. Mapam claims to recognizethe right of Palestinian self­determination but claims that this rightcan only be exercised within Hussein'sJordan, a position not fundamentallydifferent from the "Allon Plan." Like­wise the pro-Moscow Israeli Commu­nist Party, which has grown substantial­ly in the most recent period, calls for amini-state solution to the Palestinianquestion and co-existence with a ZionistIsrael. The DMC, Mapam and Rakahrepresent a continuum of "democratic"Zionism: all believe in the myth that thefundamental democratic questionswhich directly challenge the Zioniststate can somehow be resolved withouta social revolution.

The present political crisis withinIsrael takes place within the context ofaprofound social and economic crisis.Inflation is at an all time high. Pricesincreased 40 percent in 1974,39 percentin 1975 and 37 percent in 1976. Theaverage income tax rate, the highest inthe world, is 46 percent. Disposablewages dropped 8 percent from April1974 to the summer of 1975. Israel'sexternal debt is $1,859 per capita, againthe highest in the world.

In the context of a sharp economiccrisis and as a militarily besiegedsociety, Israel's "ingathering" of worldJewry into the "promised land" isbecoming a failure. Immigration fell byhalf in 1975 and emigration, whichaveraged 7,500 per year from 1968 to1973, jumped to 12,000 in 1973 and21,000 in 1974. In 1976 emigrationexceeded immigration and fully 60percent of the Jews permitted to I~ave theSoviet Union for Israel went instead toWest Europe and North America.

The greatest strike wave in Israel'shistory is taking place now. In Marchalone there were strikes or slowdownsby Bank Leumi workers, customsofficials, government hospital physi­cians, telephone operators, petroleumworkers and drivers, and universitylecturers. A dock slowdown paralyzedIsrael's three main ports and protests onthe West Bank, centering on oppositionto new taxes and demanding freedom ofArab political prisoners, have continuedunabated.

An Arabi Hebrew proletarian partymust be forged which links the militantstruggles of the West Bank Palestiniansand Israeli workers against their com­mon enemy, the racialist, chauvinistZionist state. Such a party must call forthe total withdrawal of Israel from theoccupied territories; for smashing thereactionary Zionist and Hashemitestates; for the right to self-determinationfor the Palestinian Arab and Hebrew­speaking people, which can only berealized through proletarian revolutionand a Near East socialist federation.•

The main benefactor of the rev­elations of rampant corruption withinthe "Labor Party" has been the "Demo­cratic Movement for Change" (DMC)led by the archeologist Yigael Yadin, theJimmy Carter of Israel. While claimingto fight "big" government and "big"business (which in corporatist Israel areoften the same), and to fight corruptpoliticians, Yadin's "Movement forChange" is merely cheap populist dema­gogy which masks positions and candi­dates who have often defected from the

Popperfoto

Rabin with Carter during his recenttrip to Washington.

"Labor Party" leaders including Fi­nance Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz.

"Democratic"-Zionism,"Socialistic"-Zionism,Stalinist-Zionism

were made fully manifest. The Yadlintrial ~,Cvealed what the Hebrew massesalways suspected. namely that in thepromised land of Mosaic law and the"socialist" paradise of the social­democratic lepers. the Zionist govern­ment is saturated with the stench of graftand corruption.

Yadlin was the head of the HistadruCssick fund. the Kupat Holim. TheHistadrut is not only Israel's majortrade-union federation, it also controls25 percent of Israeli ind ustry and mostof its social services. including hospitalsand clinics. Thus Yadlin controlledmost of the country's health and medicalservices.

In August 1976, Rabin appointedYadlin to be governor of the Bank ofIsraeL a position at least as powerful asthe chairmanship of the Federal ReserveBoard is in the United States. After hisappointment was announced, Yadlin

Carol Gootter/Newsweek

Zionist demonstrators seize land from Arabs in occupied West Bank.

"Rogers Plan," calling the difference was accused of accepting $9,000 inbetween "defensible" and "secure" bribes. The entire "Labor Party" rulingborders "just semantics." Stating that establishment was implicated."defense lines mayor may not conform In particular the minister of housing,in the foreseeable future to these legal Avraham Ofer, was accused of accept-borders," and suggesting possible "ex- ing bribes when he headed the Hista-tensions of Israeli defense capacity drut's construction company. On 3beyond the permanent and recognized January, Ofer committed suicide; andborders," in the same press conference when Yadlin heard of Ofer's suicide, heCarter also called for "substantial suffered a heart attack. After severalwithdrawal" and only "minor adjust- weeks in the hospital, Yadlin decided toments in the 1967 borders." sing. A little plea-bargaining brought a

Immediately afterwards, in the midst little honesty and Yadlin's testimony atof and playing to the Palestine National his February 14 trial further implicatedCouncil meeting in Cairo, Carterventured out in a demogogic fashion tobe one with the people and madeanother contradictory statement beforea Clinton, Massachusetts, town meet­ing. He stated that "There has to be ahomeland provided for the Palestinianrefugees who have suffered for so manymany years." This sent spirits soaringamong gullible PLO supporters, but thefollowing day he made yet another"clarification," placing the "homeland"securely "in the framework of the nationof Jordan."

Retired secretary of state Kissingerchided Carter for not preserving thenorms of hypocrisy, deception andobfuscation inherent in bourgeois di­plomacy, and for being too blunt.However, Carter's "bluntness" consist­ed in crudeness, deception and deliber­ate ambiguity, not in any frank state­ment. For Carter everything is reducedto semantics, and even the Gush Emu­nim will support a "homeland" forPalestinians-as long as it is east of theJordan and is inhabited by all thePalestinians currently living west of theJordan! Carter's contradictory state­ments managed to simultaneouslyconfuse his own State Departmentspokesman as well as underminingRabin.

Graft and Corruption in EretzYisrael

While there are real and ultimatelyincompatible policy differences betweenthe Israeli "Labor Party" and the NRP,especially regarding the occupied terri­tories, a more important reason behindthe expulsion ofthe NRP probably wasto hold elections before the scandalsemerging from the trial of Asher Yadlin

Carter is not committed to a new.different Israel-Arab policy. His erraticand totally contradictory recent state­ments on the subject reflect his double­talk electioneering style and the fact thatLester Maddox couldn't teach him theforms of international diplomacy.

Carter recently gave free rein to hispenchant for talking out of both sides ofhis mouth. Zionist candidates for Israelielections know that the real campaign­ing takes place in the U.S .. not in Israel.So. of course. Rabin had to make thepilgrimage and carry his campaign to hisold hunting grounds in the capital of

. U.S. imperialism. Carter greeted him bysupporting the demand of the "AllonPlan" for "defensible borders ...·

This heartened Rabin and dispiritedthe Arab rulers. But two days later, asRabin was departing, Carter held apress conference where he paid lipservice to both the "Allon Plan" and the

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U.S. policy has always hewed close tothe "Rogers Plan" named after Nixon'sfirst secretary of state and embodied inUN resolutions 242 and 338. Under thisplan Israel would relinquish most of theoccupied territories for a peace treatythrough which the surrounding Arabregimes would recognize Israel asdefined essentially by the pre-June 1967borders. The "Rogers Plan" like UNresolutions 242 and 338 is purposelyambiguous. calling for "secure" bordersand not defining how much of theoccupied territories Israel actually hasto relinquish.

George W. Ball, who as U.S. under­secretary of state from 1961 to 1966 wasa major architect of the imperialist rapeof Vietnam (and who is presently apartner in the bond brokerage ofLehman Brothers charting the financialrape of New York City), argues in anarticle in the current issue of ForeignAffairs (April 1977) that Israel shouldbe forced to relinquish all of theoccupied territories and recognize aPalestinian statelet in the West Bankand Gaza. The quid pro quo would be apeace treaty and diplomatic recognitionby the Arab states. However, he arguesthat to induce the Israeli leadership toaccept this plan nothing less than a U.S.diktat will do. He writes:

Considered as an abstract possibility,an American bourgeois governmentmight force Israel to withdraw from theoccupied territories, imposing the "Rog­ers Plan" by unilateral fiat. But noexisting American bourgeois tendencywhich is a serious contender for govern­mental power favors such harshly anti­Zionist policy. An American diktat towithdraw from the occupied territorieswould produce such a profound crisis inIsrael that it would risk destabilizing theentire Near East. In addition, the pro­Zionist lobby remains quite powerful,backed by popular sympathy towardIsrael, in part reflecting racist attitudestoward the Arabs.

Imperialist Peace ys. ZionistAnnexation

"America's indispensable role is toprovide the means of relieving thepolitical leaders on both Sides of theneed to make politically unpalatabledecisions by furnishing them the escaperoute of yielding reluctantly underrelentless pressure of outside forces."

Zionist Bunker(continued from page 1)clerical-fascist Gush Emunim (Bloc ofthe Faithful) settlement movement inSamaria and Judea. To retain the"Jewish character" of Erell YisraeL theNR P calls for forced population trans­fer of the Palestinian Arabs from theWest Bank to Jordan.

Whatever their programmatic dif­ferences, there has been enough effectiveunity in action up to now between"Labor" and the NRP to preserve thecoalition government. The minister ofhousing who is responsible for thegovernment's settlement policy gavefinancial support to the "illegal" settle­ments and expropriated additional landto provide for their expansion.

8 WORKERS VANGUARD

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Oglesby's From Dallas to Watergate:The Yankee and Cowboy War is anexplicitly sub-reformist "civics class"call for virtue to triumph over the evilelites who have so recently subvertedAmerican democracy. While his con­cluding slogan is "neither yankee norcowboy," for Oglesby the bourgeoisfactions are the only game in town (thisis not only false, it is unfashionable; the"cowboy /yankee" conflict is a late1960's concoction, the current version ofwhich is the "trilateral commission"conspiracy). Moreover, this is simply acontinuation of hackneyed liber­al/ populist/ reformist attempts to singleout a few bad capitalists (the "robberbarons," "200 families," "military­industrial complex," etc.) in order tojustify alliances with the "progressive,""peace-loving," "democratic"bourgeoisie.

This liberalism finds its reflectionamong the ostensibly Marxist organiza­tions, despite its clear counterpositionto a class analysis and the independenceof the working class. Sam Marcy ofWorkers World Party/Youth AgainstWar and Fascism and the psychoticLyndon LaRouche (aka Lynn Marcus)

9

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of the Labor Committees are the equalsof the John Birch Society when it comesto hysteria over ruling-class cliques andconspiracies, with Gerry Healy's Ameri­can satellite (the Workers League) andits warnings of imminent fascism not farbehind.

Certainly there are tactical differencesand divisions of varying depths andduration within the capitalist class, andrevolutionists must understand andexploit them. But the central axis ofsocial struggle is between the bourgeoi;sie and the proletariat.

The objective conditions are rottenripe for socialism. Not conspiracytheory muckraking, not "tactical alli­ances" with the "progressive" bourgeoi­sie, but the building of the international

. revolutionary Trotskyist leadership ofthe workers is required in order to sweepthe exploiters and intriguers of capital­ism away.

There remain plenty of skeletons inthe closets' of the bourgeoisie. and itshired guns: the FBI/CIA, municipal"red squads," gusano terrorists, theMafia and various native pro-fascistorganizations. Who knows what wouldsJi.ther out from under the overturnedrocks in a serious and thorough investi­gation? Ultimately, it is th'ifriumph ofthe proletariat which will make such aninvestigation possible and uncover themany unsolved mysteries in the bloodyrecord of international capitalism. Asthe Bolsheviks were able to finallyunravel the countless plots and murdersof the Okhrana only after taking statepower, so will the working class of theU.S. uncover the real history of Ameri­can imperialist terror following theirestablishment of a workers' state.•

Class-struggle militants recognize theimportance of exposing capitalist atroc­ities through propaganda. For example,a central component of the defense workof the Spartacist League and thePartisan Defense Committee is expo­sure of the frame-up character ofbourgeois justice. We would certainlylike to know the real story of the murderof Kennedy. While we sent no condo­lences for the passing of this enemy of theworking class, we are vitally interested inknowing who was behind his assassina­tion, as well as forcing disclosure of the';murderers of Malcolm X, Fred Hamp­ton and other black militants, andexposing what is already known aboutthe killers ofOrlando Letelier and 30,000

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Chilean workers and peasants, over amillion Vietnamese, the Attica andWounded Knee militants and numerousblack youth gunned down by killer copsin the northern ghettos.

The full-blown rationalizations forthe liberalism of the conspiracy mongershave appeared in recent books by agedNew Leftists Carl Oglesby and Kirk­patrick Sale, who seek to locate thecentral axis of social and politicalstruggle in ruling-class clique fightsbetween "eastern establishmentarians"and "sunbelt" nouveaux riches. Theconceptual fallacies of these liberal'theories are countless. That the bour­geois base of the Democratic Party hasfor decades been an alliance of southernoligarchy and eastern financiers is well­established; the aerospace industry, thebulwark of the "sunbelt" economy, isdominated by northern capital; themelange of forces allegedly implicatedin the Kennedy assassination-from IvyLeague CIA spooks to Cuban exiles­obviously defies facile geographicalclassification; and "old country lawyer"Sam Ervin and the southern Congress­men on the House impeachment inquirydelivered key blows against Nixon.

Oglesby regards the JFK assassina­tion as a "cowboy coup" (withWatergate a "yankee countercoup").While this is trivially consistent withKennedy's and Johnson's geographicalorigins, it hardly accounts for the factthat the liberal "Great Society" programwas enacted under Johnson, whileKennedy's major "contribution" to civilrights was the appointment of racistfederal judges in the south.

~AP UPI

From left: James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald and George de Mohren­schildt with wife.

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Cock Robin ...(continued from paRe 2)various conspiracy theories all share thesame technocratic, idealist and moralistillusion in the centrality of control overinformation. This is not to deny thatthere are capitalist conspiracies, but thecapitalist state, like all others, is basedon an armed body of men, not onsecurity classifications.

office three days later. Adding insult toinjury, Chrysler also held Smith respon­sible for a five-day walkout protestinghis firing, which began after he and threeothers were already dismissed on 10June 1974.

The suit against Chrysler asked theNLRB to restore Smith's job and allback wages. Despite complete agree­ment by the NLRB counsel with Smith'scharges, including that he could not becharged with actions that occurred afterhe was fired, the judge ruled in Chrys­ler's favor on virtually all counts.

Initially, Smith's suit also includedcharges against the UAW, claimingfailure to process the grievance over hisdismissal. (The grievance was droppedby the union in October 1974.) But theunion bureaucracy was an eager co­defendant. Crassly fingering their ownmembers, union bureaucrats providednames of past grievers and a list ofmilitants which noted whether they were"leaders" or "followers," their work anddiscipline records, their participation indemonstratipns, when they had picket­ed, etc. So zealous were union officialsthat Smith's lawyers nervously backedoff and dropped the UAW from the suit.

The entire trial reeked of Chrysler'santi-communist campaign to get rid ofSmith, who is a leading spokesman for aLocal 140 opposition group, "WorkersUnity," and of the related "AutoworkersUnited to Fight" (AWUF), both sup­ported by the Maoist RevolutionaryCommunist Party.

Early in the trial the judge refused toadmit as evidence a House Committeeon Internal Security report on Ameri­can Maoist groups which the companymaintains was relevant to their case. Thecorporation appealed this decision,shamelessly citing the frame-up, hang­man's case of u.s. vs. Rosenbergs (!)where the court held: "An American'sdevotion to another country's welfarecannot, of course, constitute proof thathe has spied for that other country. Butthe jurors may reasonably infer that heis more likely to spy for it than otherAmericans not similarly devoted."Presumably Smith is supposed to begrateful that Chrysler did not demandthe death penalty for the "crime" ofleading a wildcat!

This case has all the markings of aMcCarthyite witchhunt: the victimiza­tion of? working-class militant, enthu­siastic cooperation of bootlicking unionsellouts, and unbridled anti­communism. It also demonstrates whatkind of "justice" can be expected fromthe capitalist courts and governmentagencies. Only a working-class mobili­zation can reverse this compa­ny / union/ government victimization ofa union militant.

It is not because of any sympathy forthe politics of Jordan Sims or SteveSmith that the Spartacist League de­fends them. Sims, as his track recorddemonstrates, is not even a consistentreformist opponent to SolidarityHouse, much less a class-struggle leader.Steve Smith and his cohorts hold nofuture for the UAW ranks either: AWUFopposes the demand for a shorter work­week to make more jobs and opposesthe minimal integration of Americansociety through busing, while frequentlyusing gangster thug attacks against realcla.ss-struggle oppositionists in theunions.

For Marxists the class line separatingthe working class and its organizationsfrom the employers and their state isdecisive. When workers defend theirbrothers and sisters from compa­ny / government victimization and bu­reaucratic back-stabbing, they will havetaken a big step necessary to transformthe unions into class-struggle institu­tions fighting for the entire proletariat.It is for this reason that UAW membersmust demand that the upcoming UAWconvention reinstate Jordan Sims andtake all necessary steps, including strikeaction, to force Chrysler to reinstateSteve Smith. An injury to one is aninjury to all!.

I

Chrysler's June 1974 firing of SteveSmith was upheld March 22 by NationalLabor Relations Board (NLRB) judgeWalter Maloney. Smith is alleged tohave played a leading role in a 31 May1974 work action at the Dodge Truckassembly plant in Warren, Michigan.He was also held responsible for a groupprotest against expected companydiscipline at 1J,.."te plant's labor relations

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encouragement from their local leaders.UAW militants should demand that

Solidarity House keep hands off JordanSims. Despite his running to involve thecourts in internal union affairs and hisbureaucratic view of the ranks ashopelessly indifferent, Sims is beingattacked by high-echelon piecards forbeing an oppositionist, however pusil­lanimous and impotent. It remains thejob of the ranks of the UAW to put theirhouse in order and forge a real class­struggle leadership.

UAWConvention ...

15 APRIL 1977

(continued from page 5)workers, hit by massive layoffs andbetrayed at every turn by their "leaders,"have been generally quiet for severalyears. But Sims, like every sellout 'unionhack in the U.S., blames the member­ship for lack of interest when his own

. treachery and incompetence are at issue.The recent massive strikes at FremontG M in California and IndianapolisChrysler plants indicate the willingnessof the rank and file to fight with the least

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Spartacist League contingent at February pro-busing march in Los Angeles.

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of multinational working-class unity.The G M R's capitulation to nationali~tillusions leads it to advance the defeatiststrategy of a "workers republic ofQuebec." and to call for Quebec workersto break away from the mainstreamof the North American workersmovement.

Like the Bolsheviks, we recognizethat proletarian unity can only be forgedthrough all-sided struggle against allforms of social oppression, and for fulland equal democratic rights. includingnational rights. Thus Trotskyists raise'the call for Quebec's unconditional rightto self-determination. up to and includ­ing secession, and have nothing butcontempt for chauvinist cretins like theCommunist Party, who strive to rein­force "Canadian unity." Furthermore.while not advocating independencetoday. the Trotskyist League recognizesthat national antagonisms among work­ing people in Canada have risen dramat­ically in recent years, particularly sincethe election of the Parti Quebecoisgovernment last fall. This poses thepossibility that in the near future a callfor the independence of Quebec may bethe only way to forge the necessaryfighting class unity.

But the "workers republic of Quebec"is an entirely different question. Unlikethe GMR and RMG, we are not out totail whatever is popular, or to assuageliberal guilt-pangs stemming from twocenturies of national oppression of theQuebecois. Rather we seek to build aparty which can lead a proletarianrevolution on this continent.

The calls for separate organizationsfor Quebec workers and a "workersrepublic of Quebec" are nationalistdemands which, if logically implement­ed, could only lead to the defeat of themilitant Quebecois proletariat. If, likethe Communards, the Quebecois prole­tariat takes to the barricades againstoverwhelming odds, authentic revolu­tionary internationalists will be therewith them. But without a revolution inthe heart of the North Americancontinent, the Quebec working classcannot consolidate an independent statepower. The defeat of an isolated Quebecworkers commune would be a setbackfor the entire North American socialistrevolution. a defeat for which left­nationalists like the G M R would bepolitically culpable.•

WORKERS VANGUARD

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MARXIST WORKING~CLASSWEEKLY OFTHE SPARTACIST LEAGUE

WorkersVanguard

In 1913 Stalin, then still a Bolshevikwriting under Lenin's tutelage, wrote:

"We know whither the division ofworkers along national lines leads. Thedisintegration of a united workers'party. the division of trade unions alongnational lines, aggravation of nationalfriction. national strike-breaking, com­plete demoralization within the ranks ofSoeial-Democracy--such are the fruitsof organizational federalism ...."The only cure for this IS organizationon international lines."

-"Marxism and the '\ationalQuestion"

The G MR's utopian-reactionary pro­gram for the Quebec working classstems from its profound adaptation tonationalist ideology (its very existenceas a separate organization from theRMG is an example of this national­ism). Marx never called for a ParisCommune. Nor did the Bolsheviks raisethe slogan "workers republic of Po­land," or support national divisions inworking class organizations. In fact theyfought actively against both. Advocat­ing the right to self-determination wasseen by the Bolsheviks as serving the end

Toward North AmericanSocialist Revolution!

(continuedfrom page 4)the style of the Paris Commune. rhepeculiar position of Catalonia is drivingin this direction. The national conflictmay heat up the steam to such an extentthat the Catalan explosion will occurlong before the situation in Spain as awhole has matured for a secondrevolution."It would be the greatest historicalmisfortune if the Catalan proletariat.under the influence of the nationalferment. permitted itself to be drawninto a decisive struggle before it has hadthe chance to consolidate itself with theproletariat of all of Spain."

The Spanish Revolution.pg. 107

Quebec's strategic weight in NorthAmerica today is much less than theweight of Paris in France in 1871 or ofCatalonia in Spain in the 1930's. Only ablissfully ignorant nationalist dreamercould conceive of a successful proletari­an revolution somewhere on the conti­nent which did not smash capitalist rulein the United States.

The GMR's call for a "workersrepublic of Quebec" is not simpletheoretical musing on the possibility ofan episodic seizure of power in Quebec,followed immediately by an insurrec­tion on the rest of the continent. It is acall for a nationally-delimited proletari­an struggle. That is how it is seen byQuebecois workers, and that is how it ismeant by the GMR. Don't "wait" forthose backward English, the GM R issaying, we're the most advanced, we canseize power on our own. And just toensure that Quebecois workers are not"held back" by the chauvinists in theinternational unions, the GMR calls fornationalist trade union breakaways.

QuebecWorkers ...

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when its "allies" play out their bourgeoisrole. Manuel got only 917 votes.Typically, the Communist Party (CP)had nothing to say in public on themayoral race, giving backhanded sup­port to the Democrat Bradley.

In the school board elections, theSWP, CP and the Stalinistj reformistCommunist Labor Party (CLP) eachran a candidate on similarly wretchedprograms of watered-down "practical"reforms; none warranted the votes oftheworking class. For example, the ex­Trotskyist SWP called for simply taxingthe corporations, not expropriatingthem. So liberal were the three groups'campaigns that the 15,000 to 20,000votes each gained went to Bradley in themayoral race, leaving the only ostensi­ble "socialist," Manuel. with less than1.000 votes.

So Mayor Bradley will continue torun L.A. for the capitalists. He threatensstriking bus drivers with NationalGuard scabs and boasts that he hasmaintained the largest police force inL.A. history, replete with aerial helicop­er surveillance, SWAT squads like thosethat wiped out the SLA in a fiery pyreand an extensive political "intelligence"red squad. And the black liberal mayorwill try to keep L.A. one of the nation'smost strictly segregated cities.

Though Bradley won the electionwith the backing of the local AFL-CIOhacks (as well as L.A.'s leading oil andfinancial interests and the conservativeLos Angeles Times), neither he nor theDemocratic Party are "friends of labor"or of oppressed minorities. Workersmust mobilize the unions to break theDemocrats' stranglehold and build theirown party. based on a c1ass-strlolggleprogram to fight for a workersgovernment. •

Julian Wasser

10

with a demagogic right-wing populistcampaign peppered with racial appealsto middle-class whites. Robbins op­posed busing, distributed "rape whis­tles" and called for a referendum on thesecession of the largely white SanFernando valley!

Only one of the 12 candidates formayor, Sam Manuel of the reformistSocialist Workers Party (SWP), evennominally supported busing. But Man­uel's angle was mainly a whiningcomplaint to liberals and black commu­nity leaders who swallowed their pro­busing position to back Bradley. It isthese forces which the SWP habituallycuddles up to, only to be left in the lurch

Thomas Bradley

LOS ANGELES-Against a backdropof racial polarization and an on­going controversy over school inte­gration and busing, municipal electionswere held here on AprilS. As was widelyexpected, Democrat Tom Bradley­who became L.A.'s first black mayor in1973 with a law-and-order pitch backedby a 20-year career with the L.A. PoliceDepartment-easily won re-election,garnering almost 60 percent of the vote.

There were few real disputes amongthe major contenders for mayor: they allsolidarized with anti-busing forces.Bradley was against "massive, cross­town busing." His main opponent, AlanRobbins, received 28 percent of the vote

Leftists Tail Uberals, Black MayorOpposes School Integration

Busing Under Attackin L.A. Elections

-----I

WV Photo

15 APRIL 1977

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6 and of the "Longshore Militant" inLocal 10 raised motions for the union toimmediately organize a militant re­sponse to smash Handyman's blood­thirsty strikehreaking and win thestrike. They proposed a massive laborrally in Tracy and the hot-cargoing of allHandyman products to force the com­pany to its knees. make the governmentcharge Laeger with murder and win alife pension for Lewis' widow and fivechildren at the company's expense.These militants pointed out that if theILWU did not lead the labor movementin such a militant response the life ofevery picket in the Bay Area andnorthern California would become fairgame.

Rather than mobilize the real strengthof the labor movement to defend its ownmembership, the ILWU bureaucracyhas continued to opt for an impotentconsumer boycott and established theNorman Ray Lewis Memorial Fund forthe slain brother's widow and childrenthrough a special dues assessment.

Despite coverage in the pages of theunion newspaper, union members re­port that "informational" pickets sche­duled for weekends in front of Bay AreaHandyman retail stores are usuallysmall and more often fail to materialize.The labor skates cannot even implementtheir own no-win tactics. It is alsocommonly known that several Local 6warehouses continue to handle scabHandyman merchandise, on explicitorders from the Local bureaucrats!

After over nine months of a bitterstruggle, the Handyman strikers contin­ue to hold out. On April II, they onceagain voted down the company's insult­ing terms, which include an open shop.But it has been rumored inside the unionthat the bureaucrats are close toabandoning the strike. They may welluse Laeger's acquittal as a new trumpcard to further demoralize the wearystrikers and force them back to work.Shut down Handyman-Hot cargo allHandyman goods! •

STOCKTON, California--Ray Laeger.a scab truck driver and supervisoremployed hy the Handyman Corpora­tion was found "not guilty" April I ofthe charge of vehicular manslaughter inthe picket-line killing of striker NormanRay Lewis last August 6.

Several witnesses on the InternationalLongshoremen's and Warehousemen'sUnion (ILWU) Local 6 picket line sawLaeger hit Lewis with the truck. AsLewis moved away, Laeger hit himagain. knocked him down and ran himover. That the murderer was onlycharged with vehicular manslaughter isin itself a stunning indictment of the"justice" afforded the working class inthe bourgeois courts. But that he wasacquitted and now goes scot-free is anoutrageous affront to all labor!

The careful screening of the jury forthis trial greatly aided the cold-bloodedkiller-scab. Every prospective juror wasasked if he would cross a picket line.Only one who said "no," he would notcross on principle, was seated on thejury.

The atmosphere surrounding the trialwas heavily conditioned by the ongoingemployerI government offensive againstnorthern California labor. The none­too-aggressive prosecutor called onlyone eyewitness to the killing and thedefense attorney got away with baiting aunion witness as an "agitator" and"communist."

This courtroom defeat was faciliatedby the weak-kneed passivity of theILWU leadership. Lewis was murderedon the ILWU picket line in front of theHandyman warehouse in Tracy, wherehe and 22 fellow workers had begun astrike on August 4 for union recognitionand their first contract. The cowardlyreaction of the union tops to the killingwas simply to advise their membership"not to purchase any Handyman pro­ducts until further notice" (Dispatcher,6 August 1976)!

Supporters of the class-struggle op­position group Militant Caucus in Local

More than 150 demonstrators picketed the Dominican Republic consulatein Rockefeller Center March 25 to protest the occupation ofthe AutonomousUniversity ofSanto Domingo (UASD) by the police and army ofthe Balaguerdictatorship. The demonstration, called by the Committee in Solidarity withthe UASD, drew participants from many organizations including the Com~tepara la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos en la Republica Dominicana, theMovimiento Popular Dominicano, Linea Roja, Youth Against War andFascism, the October League and a contingent from the Spartacist League(SL) and Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). .

Slogans shouted by the spirited demonstrators included demands, in bothEnglish and Spanish, for the immediate withdrawal of military an" policeforces from the UASD, freedom for students arrested during the SantoDomingo demonstrations and an end to government repression in theDominican Republic. The SL contingent carried signs demanding an end tothe Balaguerist terror and for a workers and peasants government; supportersof the PDC raised signs calling for freedom for all class-war prisoners in theDominican Republic.

The army occupation of the UASD on March 11 followed weeks ofstudentprotests and clashes with the police in Santo Domingo. Thousands ofuniversity and secondary school students had taken to the streets in Februaryto demand a "larger and just budget" for the UASD. Then, on Much 7 thepolice took over the Duarte secondary school in Santo Domingo because ifhad become, in the words of the police chief, "a focus for disturbance of tllepublic order" during protests against the firing ofteachers and the suspensionof examinations. The following day Duarte students who had joined withUASD students to demand the withdrawal of police from the high schoolwere viciously attacked by riot cops assisted by an air force helicopter whichlobbed tear gas grenades onto the campus for nearly an hour. Twenty-sevenstudents were injured in the fighting and many more arrested (Hacional tkAhara, 7 March, and EI Sol, 9 March).

The weeks of demonstrations culminated in the invasion of the UASDcampus by troops armed with heavy caliber machine guns and backed up byarmored cars at 3 a.m. on March 11. This is the fifth time that the military hasoccupied the campus since 1970 to suppress the student struggles against theBalaguer regime.

The SL joins with Dominican students and workers organizations indemanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of police andsoldiers from the UASD, the reinstatement of all fired professors and teachersand the release of all the victims ofthe right-wing repression in the DominicanRepublic!

Court Frees Killer ofILWU Striker

Unless a fight against EN A isorganized, the bureaucracy will contin­ue to extend it. Abel, McBride and theirno-strike deal are not popular amongbasic steel workers, as the recent unionelections and the ratification meeting inWashington proved. The key task formilitants in the next period must be tomobilize steel workers to dump ENAand Abel's contract now throughUSWA-wide strike action. Only in sucha fashion can the genuine interests ofsteel workers be consistently foughtfor. •

Steel chief negotiator start steel

where strikes are permitted. The CPcaves in to Abel and accepts his selloutdeal as a fait accompli.

While local issues are not unimport­ant. key issues of hours, wages andhenefits are determined at the industry­wide level. The real power of thememhenhip lies in uniting the USWAlocals throughout the U.S. and Canadain solid, joifll strike actions against thecompanies. It was precisely out of fearof this possibility that Abel institutedEN A. at the same time yielding the localright to strike as a concession. In fact,the renewal of the no-strike agreementthrough 1980' demonstrates the futilityof waiting until ENA "expires" beforecalling for industry-wide strike action.

NYC Demo Protests BalaguerTerror at santo DomingoUniversity

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USWA chief Abel (right) and U.S.negotiations in February.

backwards. Fear of arbitration undoub­tedly influenced many officials to votefor Abel's contract.

But Sadlowski is not the only one tocapitulate to the ENA. The Stalinistsand other reformists, who supportedSadlowski in the election, do likewise.An article in the 7 April Daily World,organ of the Communist Party (CP),hailed a decision by USWA Local lOllopposing extension of the ENA tobargaining in 1980. As for this year, theDaily World pointed to the possibilityof "forcing concessions" on a local level,

SteelSettlement...(continued from page 12)"opposition" to the contract was funda­mentally meaningless. Both in thecampaign and in the ratification meet­ing in Washington, the Sadlowskiforces consistent with their legalisticcretinism refused to call for the dump­ing of ENA now. Within the frameworkof ENA. if the union and companiescan not come to agreement, the contractis submitted to binding arbitration. Butturning the fate of steel workers over toarbitrators. who are inevitably biasedtowards the corporations, is a step

..

"

WfJliNEli1 'ANfiIJAIiIJPut Sellout Steel Settlement to Q Votel

Break Abel's ENA ThroughStrike Actionl

15 APRIL 1977

among those adopted by the union'sWage Policy Committee and the BasicSteel Industry Conference; it wasincluded in the campaign propaganda ofMcBride as well as Sadlowski.

However, a real struggle around thisdemand would pose the need to exprop­riate the steel trusts and replace thecapitalist system with a planned econo­my run by a workers government. Thepro-capitalist USWA bureaucrats haveno heart for such a battle. Hence, it isnot surprising that the paper demandsof the bargaining conference are no­where to be found in the settlement.Gone too are other paper demands forstronger guarantees on health andsafety, elimination of racially andsexually discriminatory practices, sub­stantial improvement in cost-of-living,pension and insurance benefits, etc.

The strong opposition among eventhe top local bureaucrats indicates thatthe contract would be flatly rejected ifsubmitted to the rank and file for a vote.The bureaucratically run USWA hasnever permitted membership ratifica­tion of contracts. Militants must de­mand that Abell McBride's sellout dealbe put to a vote!

Reportedly claiming credit for organ­izing opposition to the contract amonglocal presidents is Ed Sadlowski. Sad­lowski supporters were gloating that theinitial vote to reject was a "symbolicvictory" for the rank and file. Needlessto say, however, this "symbolic victory"will do nothing for steel workers grounddown by speed-up, inflation, unemploy­ment and lung disease. Sadlowski's

continued on page 11

U.S. Steel Fairless works.

interests of the parties and theemployees."

·~leaf1et distributed by USWALocal 1014 (Gary)

This section lays bare the classcollaborationism which is the essence ofAbel's strategy: make the Americansteel industry more competitive bykeeping out foreign imports and increa­sing productivity (i.e., accepting speed­up!). Abel and U.S. Steel hold hands inasserting that what's profitable for thesteel companies is good for the steelworker.

A real program for jobs would focuson the demand for a sliding scale ofhours, in which the existing work wouldbe divided up among the workforce,with no cut in pay. The demand for a 32­hour workweek was, in fact, included

AFL-CIO News

From left, Lloyd McBride, U.S. Steel vice president J. Bruce Johnson andI. W. Abel at recent contract negotiations.

legislation against foreign imports.Ironically, when the ENA was firstintroduced. Abel claimed that theelimination of strikes would discouragestockpiling of foreign-made steel andtherefore preserve jobs for Americansteel workers.

In fact. however, the EN A has little todo with increased foreign steel imports,which basically stem from the relativelydeclining efficiency of the Americansteel industry and the reintensificationof capitalist competition on a worldwidescale. This year steelmakers are project­ing an increase of steel imports to 17.5million tons, near the record high of1971.

Both the chauvinist USWA bureauc­racy and the steel magnates are stronglyprotectionist. For the steelmakers thismakes sense: increased quotas againstimports would enable them to maintainartifically high prices and reap monopo­ly profits. However, for steel workers,this is a deadend. While raising prices,this program of economic nationalismwould not eliminate unemployment,whose roots lie in the archaic andunplanned system of production undercapitalism. It would only tie the workingmasses more firmly to their respectiveruling c1a~ses, in the latter's drive toachieve imperialist domination at theexpense of their rivals.

The real thrust of Abel's program forjobs is shown by an orientation programnewly instituted under the 1977 con­tract:

"The parties will establish a USWA/Steel Industry Employees OrientationProgram to acquaint new employeeswith their roles in the USWA and thesteel industry and their larger roles inthe world economy. The union willcontribute $500,000 annually and thecompanies will match this annualcontribution. New employees will beinstructed in the development andgrowth of the union, the industries, thehistory of collective bargaining betweenthe parties, the adverse impact offoreign steel imports and the role ofproductivity in advancing the best

APRIL 11- Retiring United Steelwork­ers (USWA) president I. W. Abel lastweek browbeat local union presidentsinto approving a new contract for thebasic steel industry. The settlement wasvoted April 9 in Washington by amargin of 193 to 99. but only after anearlier vote of 148-143 to reject was"reconsidered."

The sellout pact not only fails to makeany substantive gains for steel workers;it fails to fulfill even the insultingcampaign promises of the conservativeAbeli McBride machine. Most outra­geous. it extends the no-strike Experi­mental Negotiating Agreement (ENA)to cover the next round of contractnegotiations in 1980! Extension of EN Ademonstrates the utter contempt of thebureaucracy for the USWA member­ship, who do not have the right to ratifytheir contracts and are sold out years inadvance! Reportedly, the "guaranteed"annual wage increases of 3 percent peryear were "modified," so that in 1980 theparties have the option of diverting themiserly funds earmarked for wages to"other benefits."

The settlement is not substantiallydifferent from the 1974 package, alsonegotiated under the no-strike ENA.Wage increases amount to 80 cents overthree years, to be implemented in sixsteps. This compares unfavorably withmany wage settlements in last year'sbargaining, in which the Teamsters got$1.65 over three years, rubber workers$1.35, electrical workers $1.10. With theexception of some alterations in supple­mentary unemployment benefits (S UB),most other economic benefits remainedunchanged.

The biggest farce is the absence ofanything in the contract resembling"lifetime job security," which Abel andMcBride have been ballyhooing the pastfew months. With capital spending stilldown and jobs eliminated throughspeed-up, substantial sections of thebasic steel workforce remain on layoff.Unemployment is clearly a key issue.But Abel's "solution" to the lack of jobswas to extend the duration of SUB payfrom one year to two years ... for thoseworkers with at least 20 years seniority!Only a minority of steel workers havethis much seniority, and these are thelast to be laid off, anyway. Furthermore,these higher seniority workers will notreceive a second year of SUB benefits ifthey turn down other job assignments attheir plant or at other locations of thecompany. Abel's "lifetime job security"is as phony as UAW president Wood­c0ck's "voluntary overtime" ... after 54hours.

Attempting to cover his flank on thejobs issue, Abel reportedly launchedinto a harangue before the assembledunion officials in which he denouncedCarter and Congress for their failure toenact sufficiently stiff protectionist

12