workers vanguard no 845 - 01 april 2005

7/29/2019 Workers Vanguard No 845 - 01 April 2005

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WfJRltERS 'AMIIIAR' oNo. 845 E ! ~ Q Q i J : ~ C ' 7 0 ' 1 April 2005

"Right to Lile" Ghouls and the:vlARCH 28-The spectacle of political vultures hovering over the body of Terri Schiavohas rightly disgusted millions. A CBS News Schiavo Case oppose the death penalty on principle. Thestate has no business interfering into any private. personal decisions. Terri Schiavo is in apoll last week revealed that an overwhelming persistent vegetative state from V\ hich she can

never recover. She had told her husband Michael shedidn't V'iant to be kept alive artificially, tied to tubes.That should have been the end of it.

82 percent of the public wants the government out ofthis tragedy. This woman. irremediably brain-damaged15 years ago. has been exploited by a despicablemedia fren/Y and by ghoulish "right to life" reactionaries - inc uding the Christian right and the Catholicchurch-who would impose their theocratic dictateson society. Terri Schiavo's husband Michael. who hasspent almost all of a $700,000 settlement on her care,has been dragged through the mud by self-righteouspoliticians and sinister anti-abortion bigots.

Congressional posse of all-purpose reactionaries havetrampled human decency and their own laws in theservice of a bizarre Christian fundamentalist agenda.Michael Schiavo spoke for the many thousands whoface similar decisions every year in the U.S. when hesaid: "What kind of government is this') This is ahuman being. This is not right, and I' m telling everybody you better call your congressman, because they'regoing to run your life."

We ~ a y this capitalist state has no right to decidewho shall live and who shall die. That is why we also

But not for the monsters currently running the American empire. In the name of a mythical god. in the nameof patriarchy. and in the name of the capitalist state.t h e ~ e politicians are using Terri Schiavo's tragedy asanother wedge to crush a v\oman's fundamentaj right toabortion. In a last-ditch effort to circumvent the courtrulings. Florida governor Jeb Bush unsuccessfully tried

With arrogant imperial power. President Bush and a continued Oil page 7

Free Jose Padilla and All the Detainees! ?O That destruction. vicious racist repression and even torture is what U.S. imperialism metes out in the name of "freedom"-f rom the colonial occupation ofthe Philippines in the first half of the

20th century to the 1985 bombing of thePhiladelphia MOVE commune. fromKorea to Vietnam. and Central Americato South Central L.A.- is nothing new.But torture is n o ~ , blatantly. U.S. policy .The zealots in the Bush administrationthink their cynical "war on terror" is alicense to shred every civi 1 liberty. everyright working people have fought forand every rational value emanating fromthe Enlightenment. New attorney generalAlberto Gonzales baldly stated in January that the ban on cruel. unusual andinhumane treatment"' does not apply to"aliens overseas'" EYen by the FS . government's own admission, at least 28prisoners h,l\e died as a result of confirmEd or ,uspected homicide in Afghanistan and Iraq. BB C News reports thatchildren as young as eleven years oldwere held at Abu Ghraib. "I don't care if\ve're holding 15.000 innocent civilians.\Ve're winning the \var:' said .\lajor General \VodjakU\vsk.i. who in 2003 was the,e(,lIld-most senior army general in Iraq.

To paraphrase the infamous pre-CivilWar Drl'd SC(JII decision. eYen C.S. citizens have no rights the gO\ernment feelsbound to respect. Jose Padilla. a U.S. citizen. was seized at Chicago's O'Hareairport on 8 i\ta) 2002. First the Bushadministration held Padilla for a month asa "material witness" in the September II;!rand jury investigation: then they declared him an "enemy combatant" on thebasis of outlandish allegations that he hadbeen thinking of trying to build and setoff a radioactive "dirty bomb'" He has

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APConcentration camp at Guantimamo Bay, part of global network of U,S.torture centers,been locked up in a military brig in SouthCarolina for almost three years withoutcharges or recourse to a hearing or trial.In a series of rulings last June 28 onthe cases of Padilla. Yasser Esam Hamdiand the Guantanamo detainees. the U.S.Supreme Court dismissed Padilla's caseon the outrageous pretext that it was filedin the wrong federal court. But on February 28. a federal judge in South Carolinagave the government 45 days to eithercharge Padilla with a crime or releasehim. The government announced it wouldappeal. dismissing the court order withthe same contempt with which it shreds

the Bill of Rights.Hamdi. another U.S. citizen. waspicked up in Afghanistan in 200 I and held

in a military brig in Norfolk. Virginia.Asserting that "a state of war is not ablank check for the president:' the June 28Supreme Court decision ruled that Hamdicould not be held as an "enemy combatant' indefinitely. but should have a "fairopportunity to rebut the Government'sfactual assertions before a neutral decisionmaker'" The U.S. government respondedby deporting Hamdi to his home in SaudiArabia, upon Hamdi's agreement torenounce his U.S. citizenship.

What's posed here is the government'sattempt to inscribe permanently into theAmerican system of criminal justice theright to disappear political opponcntsthe hallmark of the police state dictatorships the U.S. has propped up aroundthe world. In this pursuit, Bush & Co.ooze contempt for any court ruling thateven modestly stands in the way ofuntrammeled executive power. EV'en anumber of consenati\'e Republicans havenow joined with the ACLU in seekingto rescind certain provisions of theUSA-Patriot Act. But the liberals of theACLU do not unambiguously oppose thenew arsenal of "anti-terror" repressivemeasures. The new coalition, Patriots toRestore Checks and Balances. declares:"We agree that much of the Patriot Actis necessary to provide law enforcementwith the resources they need to defeatterrorism'" The Democrats ha\ e supported Bush in his ",\ar on terror" atevery step. from passing the USA-PatriotAct and the recent Intelligence ReformAct to endorsing the invasions of Afghanistan and IfaLj.

Padilla and Harndi. because the) v\ereAmerican citizens. at least had a chanceto challenge in the courts their seizureand detention \vithout charge by the U.S.government. In so doing. the Padilla andHamdi cases opened a crack in the fort r e s ~ wall. enabling other challengesto the plights of countless individuahrounded up and Jisappearcd in the "waron terror" and incarcerated in hellholes\vorldwide.

The Spartacist League and PartisanDefense Committee. a legal and socialdefense organization associated with theSL. filed amici curiae (friends of thecourt) briefs for Padilla in the SecondCircuit Court of Appeals and the U.S.Supreme Court. Our brief declared:

"The Executive ha, imposed martial lawon Jose Padilla. a citizen. on the pretextof an alleged 'war on terrorism' which isin fact not a military conflict but a political agenda .... The treatment of Padilla iscontinued on page 6


2/12

LetterIG: Norden's Regression of Consciousness

25 March 2005Dear Workers Vanguard. A 1994 Spartacist League/U.S. conference document wrongly asserted:

'The Chinese Stalinists, with the supportof Japanese and significant sectionsof American imperialism, are moving toattempt a cold restoration of capitalism from above" (Spartacist [Englishlanguage edition] NO.5 I, Autumn 1994).This formulation was corrected in ou r2003 international conference document.which noted: "The Stalinist bureaucracyis incapable of a cold, gradual restorationof capitalism from above. A capitalistcounterrevolution in China would be accompanied by the collapse of Stalinistbonapartism and the political fracturingof the ruling Communist Party. Whatwould emerge from the collapse of a Stalinist bonapartist regime, i.e., capitalistrestoration or proletarian political revolution. would depend on the outcomeof the struggle of counterposed forces"(quoted in 'The Fight for RevolutionaryContinuity in the Post-Soviet World."Spartacist [English-language edition]No. 58, Spring 2004).

As Lenin said, ''A political party's attitude towards its own mistakes is one ofthe most important and surest ways ofjudging how earnest the party is andhow it fulfills in practice its obligationstowards its class and the working peo-ple." This Bolshevik practice guided usin publishing our candid. self-criticalaccounts of external challenges andinternal pr.oblems we have faced sincethe destruction of the Soviet Union in1991-1992, most recently in "A HardLook at Recent Party Work and CurrentTasks-Spartacist League 12th NationalConference" (WV No. 841. 4 February).

Our earlier article in Spartacist(I English-language edition] No. 58, Spring2004) on our last International Communist League conference drew a predictably windy and dishonest response fromJan Norden and his Internationalist Group(lG). Norden's specialty is "squid tactics": squirting large quantities of ink toconceal his own tlight from Trotskyism.The article. "Post-Soviet SLlICL: NewZigzags on the Centrist Road" (Interna-tionalist, Summer 2004), is a textbookexample of the IG's method.

In response, the IG blustered that theyhad always taken "the ICL to task for theiranti-Trotskyist line." The IG screams thatthe 1994 China formulation, among oth-

TROTSKY

Medicine and Religious SuperstitionII! capitulist society. there is a monstrouscontradiction between the ability of medicalscience to qualitatively ease suffering andthe social conditions that keep these benefitsfrom most of humanity. Bolshevik leaderLeon Trotskv, speaking on Soviet radio, out-lined the Marxist understanding that science

and technology. including the relaril'e ad-nlllces ()j'modern medicine, exist not in avacuum but in class society with all its socialdeformations, including backward religioussuperstitions. LENIN

Just as inside the hull of a steamship impenetrable partitions are placed so that in theevent of an accident the ship will not sink all at once. so also in man's consciousnessthere are numberless impenetrable partitions: in one sector. or even in a dozen sectors.you can find the most revolutionary scientific thinking; but beyond the partition liesphilistinism of the highest degree. This is the great significance of Marxism. as thoughtthat generalizes all human experience: that it helps to break down these internal partitions of c o n s c i o u s n e ~ s through the integrity of its world outlook.. .

Technology and science have their own logic-the logic of the cognition of natureand the mastering of it in the interests of man. But technology and science develop notin a vacuum but in human society, which consists of classes. The ruling class, the possessing class, controls technology and through it controls nature. Technology in itselfcannot be called either militaristic or pacifistic. In a society in which the ruling class ismilitaristic, technology is in the service of militarism.It is considered unquestionable that technology and science undermine superstition,But the class character of society sets substantial limits here too. Take America. There,church sermons are broadcast by radio, which means that the radio is serving as ameans of spreading prejudices. Such things don't happen here, I think-the Society ofFriends of Radio watches over this, I hope? [Laughter and applause] Under the socialist system science and technology as a whole will undoubtedly be directed against religious prejudices, against superstition, which retlect the weakness of man before man or before nature.-.What, indeed, does a "voice from heaven" amount to when there is beingbroadcast all over the country a voice from the Poly echnical Museum') [Laughter]

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-Leon Trotsky. "Radio, Science, Technology, and Society" (1 March 1926),printed in Problems of EI'erwJay Lile (Monad Press. 1973)

! ~ ~ l t f . . ! ! Y o ~ l f . ! l ! l ! . ~ I ! . ' l IRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Alison Spencer

EDITOR: Alan WildeEDITOR. YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Rosemary PalenqueCIRCULATION MANAGER: Jeff ThomasEDITORIAL BOARD: Kathleen Harris (managing editor), Helene Brosius (letters editor),Linda Jarreau (production manager), Bruce Andre, Jon Brule, Helen Cantor, Paul Cone,George Foster, Walter Jennings, James Robertson, Joseph SeymourThe Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League(Fourth Internationalist).Workers Vanguard (ISSN 02760746) published biweekly. except skipping three alternate issues in June, July andAugust (beginning with omitting the second Issue in June) and skipping the last Issue in December. by the SpartacistPublishing Co . 299 Broadway, Suite 318, New York. NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 7327862 (Editorial), (212) 732-7861(BUSiness). Address all correspondence to' Box 1377 GPO, New York. NY 10116. Email address: [email protected] subscriptions: $10.00/21 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377 GPO. New York, NY 10116.Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editortal Viewpoint.The closing date for news in this issue is 29 March.No. 845 1 April 2005

ers, is proof of our "creeping Shachtmanism"-i.e . repudiation of the unconditional military defense of the deformedworkers states, including China. Of course,the IG knows this to be a lie, as the SL(unlike the IG) regularly publishes articles and holds public meetings callingfor defense of China. Moreover, Norden,who was then a full member of the SLCentral Committee and ICL InternationalExecutive Committee. voted/or the 1994formulation-a fact conveniently airbrushed out of the Internationalist diatribe! But honesty matters no more to theIG than political clarification, becausethey regard political consciousness asirrelevant to revolutionary struggle.

The mass of workers involved in militant class struggles today in defense oftheir livelihoods, as well as radical youth.no longer identify their struggles withMarxism or the ideals of socialism. The IGis willfully blind to this historic retrogres-sion in political consciousness and shrugs:"Moreover. the impact on working-classconsciousness is quite uneven. In WestEurope, workers in the large Communistparties and CP-Ied unions had reformistconsciousness before the demise of theSoviet Union. and by and large they stilldo today. American workers generallysupport the capitalist Democratic Party-what would a qualitative step backwards in their consciousness mean. Inmuch of the semi-colonial world. on theother hand. many workers still 'haven'tgot the news' of the supposed 'death ofcommunism' "Presumably the IG was napping with

Rip van Winkle while, e.g., the FrenchCommunist Party lost unquestioned allegiance of the massive CG T unions andslid from winning roughly 25 percent ofelectoral votes to less than 5 percent,including losing ground and supportersto Le Pen's fascistic National Front. InItaly, Rifondazione Comunista and thehistorically Communist tradecunion federation (CGIL) have hemorrhaged members tQ anarchists and syndicalists, As formuch of the semicolonial world. it is notthe radical nationalists or reformist Communist parties but reactionary Islamicfundamentalism and other murderousreligious nationalisms that have absorbedsocial discontent among the poor and oppressed and emerged as dangerous political forces.

The bourgeoisies of the world havelearned something from the workingclass defeats of recent years, but theworld proletariat has not even fullygrasped the enormity of the defeat embodied in the destruction of the SovietUnion. The IG denies this reality the better to capitulate to it and ingratiate itselfin truly alien milieus. Thus they sneer atthe ICL's proud assertion to be among theforemost opponents of Islamic fundamentalism. In a demonstration initiated by theIG at New York's Hunter College at thetime of the U.S, war in Afghanistan in2001, they dared not even mention therole of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan incombatting an Islamic fundamentalistinsurgency in the 1980s, much less that

the ICL (which Norden & Co. were members of at the time) hailed the RedArmy against the CIA's mujahedill cutthroats (see "IG Disappears Red ArmyFight Against Islamic Reaction in Afghanistan," WV No. 772, I J January 2002).

Rejecting the ABCs of Marxism. theIG 'equates class struggle with communistclass consciousness. Asserting not muchhas changed since capitalist counterrevolution in the former Soviet Union, theystate: "A dozen years later. history has notended. the U.S. empire is bogged down inthe aftermath of its second war on Iraq,and the class struggle continues unabated," Class struggle predates capitalistsociety and will be around for as long asclass society continues to exist. If classstruggle were simply synonymous withcommunist consciousness. then everystrike and protest would augur a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist order.Marx himself pointed out that even somebourgeois ideologues accept the classstruggle. What Marxists stand for is thedictatorship of the proletariat to open theroad to an international socialist society.

Ignoring the distinction between aclass in itself and a class for itself thatfights consciously for its own rule. theIG rejects the statement from our "Declaration of Principles and Some Elements of Program" (Spartacist [Englishlanguage edition] No. 54, Spring 1998):

"Trotskv's assertion in the 1938 Tran,itional Program that 'The world politicalsituation as a whole is chidlv characterized by a historical cri,is ()f the leadership of the proletariat' predates thepresent deep regression of proletarianconsciousness. The reality of this postSoviet period adds a new dimension toTrotsky'S observation. The only way inwhich this regression can be overcomeand the working class can become aclass fo r itself, i.e., fighting for socialistrevolution, is to reforge an internationalLeninist-Trotskyist party as the leadership of the working class. Marxism mustonce again win the allegiance of theproletariat."

I f the undoing of the Russian Revolution had no significant impact, then conversely the IG must also believe that theworking-class seizure of power in 1917was no big deal. But Marxism gainedhegemony within the left wing of theworkers movement internationally particularly under the impact of the victory ofthe J917 Bolshevik Revolution. The ICLis dedicated to the purpose of leading newOctober Revolutions and to that endstrives to build parties that Lenin andTrotsky would recognize as their own.We try to be honest in self-examinationand public correction of errors, as we arein polemics against political opponents.because that quality is essential to a partythat intends to lead a cadre of criticallythinking workers to reorganize society ona socialist basis: we know if we fall shortin our attempts. the likelihood of failureof proletarian revolution increases. TheIG's dishonesty fools only these legendsin their own minds. A.P.

Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist Leagueo $10/21 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 New 0 Renewal(includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle)international rates: $25/21 issues-Airmail $10/21 issues-Seamailo $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist)o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish-language Spartacist)Name ____________________________________________________________Address __________________________________________________ ___

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845Make checks payable/mail to: Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

WORKERS VANGUARD


3/12

IIIl Down With Racist Frame-Up ofRNC Protester Jamal Holiday!We reprint belml' (/ leaflet in support

oj" Ja/lwl Holiday issued by the Partisun De/ense Committee on March /8 anddistributed (It the Nell' York demonstrution aguinst the occup(l{ion ( ~ f Iraq on,IV/arch /9. Jalllal Holiday, the last protester against the Repuhlican N(l{ion([1CO/n'entioil (RNC) still in jail, has spentse\'en months locked away in RikersIsland. Facing lip to sel'en years ill prisonon .lelollY u,\s(/l/lt ch urges, on March 21Holiday agreed to a plea hargain, pleading guil tv to a less er fe/OilY charge oj"attempted assault. Whell he is released.limn jail on April 7, Holiday will faceone year of "intensive supervision" probmioll, atter which the felony will bereduced to a misdemeanor. Police Com,missioner Raymond Kel!.v railed thatthe plea bargain was "outrageous" be('wise it "docs not include any jail time."Holiday should nc\'er have spent ([lIIomelll in jail to begin 'l'ith. In the e\'esoj" the working class Jamal Holidoy COll/-mitted no crime.'

Of he 1,806 protesters arrested duringthe RNC, sOllie 10 percent of the casesare still pending. Another protestCl; JoshBanno, also faces up to seven years ont/'llmped-up felony chargcs of assaulting apolice ofJicCl: Banno faces additionalcharges of loitering, riot and recklessendangerment. We demand that allc h ( / / ~ ! ? e s be dropped 11011'" Hands of{ JoshBWl l lO ' Banno's trial is scheduled tobegin on April 5 in New York SupremeCourt. Fill the courtroom to show yoursupport.' The PDC has donated $100 toJosh BWlIlo's defense fund. Send yourdOl/atiolls. check or III Oile)' order madeOl/t to Josh Banno. to: Law Office ofShroff. 350 Broadway, Ste. 700, Ne,.". York.NY 10013.Jamal Holiday is a political prisonerand victim of the brutal police repressionduring the protests against the Republican National Convention this pastsummer. Holiday, a young black manarrested during these protests, spent his20th birthday behind bars. On August 30,Holiday was part of the Poor People's

March when a plainclothes cop drove anunmarked motor scooter into the crowdof demonstrators. striking at least onewoman. The protesters reacted indefense against this apparently crazedindividual. As the video of the incidentshows, Jamal told the police who cameon the scene. '"He just ran over people."'The cops then ordered Holiday and other

innocence and that his actions were anelementary act of self-defense of himselfand other protesters. Recently. CBS 2News aired footage showing several copsbeating and arresting three black menhanding out leaflets in Times Square onMarch 9. The newscaster then named oneof the cops in the video as William Sampleand pointed out that this is the same cop

Demonstrators arrested during RNC in New York City were held at Pier 57,abandoned bus barn with no windows or ventilation.protesters to leave the vicinity. Holidaywas arrested the following day at anotherprotest by police who claimed surveillance cameras showed him to be wearingthe same clothing (a baseball cap andT-shirt) as an individual filmed kickingthe undercover provocateur at the August30 march. He now faces up to sevenyears in prison on felony assault charges.Free Jamal Holiday!Despite attempts to get Holiday toplead guilty. he has bravely asserted his

who was filmed driving his scooter intothe crowd at the Poor People's March during the RNC. CBS 2 News also stated thatSample has received a promotion andshowed Mayor Michael Bloomberg commending Sample for ajob well done at theRNC protest!Jamal Holiday's trial will begin soon.The evidentiary hearings currently beingheld in New York Supreme Court showthat Holiday's case is a political and racistframe-up and provocation from start to

finish. It was no accident that the copspicked the heavily minority Poor People'sMarch for their potentially deadly provocation. In video footage shown in a courthearing on March 17. the district attorneyand two detectives interrogated Holiday(with no defense attorney present I) aboutwhat political groups he he longs to. whatother marches he attended during theRNC and what kind of political literaturehe has at home. This proves that the D,A.was primarily concerned with Holiday'spolitical heliefs and associations. TheD.A. told Holiday that his case relatesindirectly to terrorism because of a tlyerfor a Palestinian rights event taken fromhim when he was arrested. The leafletwas issued by AI-Awda. the PalestinianRight to Return Coalition which the D.A.maliciously equated with Al Qaeda! Holiday's court hearing also revealed that theFBI was among his many interrogatorsthe night of his arrest. Holiday's casemakes obvious that the government's new"red scare" equates dissent with .. terrorism" and treats protesters like the "enemywithin." H o l i d a y " ~ bail was raised from550.000 to $250.0()() based in part on thefact that political literature was found inhis home.The bourgeois state. with its cops andcourts is not some "neutral"' agency whichserves society as a whole. but rather existsto defend the class rule and profIts of thecapitalists against those they exploit andoppress. The cops' role is to break workers strikes, and beat. kill and frame upblack people and other minorities. Thecourts. which routinely whitewash theseracist t e r r o r i s t s ~ a s seen in the acquittalof the cops who. in February 19':19,gunned down Amadou D i a l l o ~ a n d carryout the frame-ups of black militantsand other leftists, cannot be relied uponto mete out justice, The case of JamalHoliday is a racist political witchhunt!While the stakes are not as high, it recalls the political vendetta against MumiaAbu-Jamal, the courageous innocent deathrow prisoner, journalist. former Blackcontinued on page 7

Drop the Charges Against Antiwar Protesters!We reprint below a protest letter sentby the Partisan Defense Committee tothe Cook County State's Attorney onMarch 22 in response to arrests' andpolice intimidation at the March 19Chicago rally against the occupationof Iraq. A PDC protest letter wasalso sent to the Su,f{olk County D.A.following arrests and police assaultsagainst alltiwar protesters in Boston onMarch 20. Three of those arrested inBoston, Michael Long, Jamie Phillipsan d all unnamed minot', face a slew ofcharges including felony assault, resisting arrest and malicious destructionof property. In Nell' York, some 30 people \I'ere arrested ill protest actiollsolltside military recruitment stations inManhattan and Brooklyn on March /9.On the same dav in San Francisco, nineprotesters were arrested in the downto\\'n area. We demand that all chargesagainst the antill'ar protesters bedropped now!The Partisan Defense Committeestrongly protests the arrests of AndyThayer' and at least four other demonstrators at the March 19 antiwar rally

1 APRIL 2005

commemorating the second anniversaryof the invasion of Iraq. Thayer, prominent Chicago activist and one of theorganizers of the demonstration, wasspecifically targeted. As a result of simply voicing their opposition to the occupation of Iraq, these protesters nowface bogus disorderly conduct charges.These arrests were nothing more thana vindictive move against those whodared assemble in an area deemed offlimits to free speech by the Daleyadministration.As we stated in our letter of March 5demanding that the protesters begranted a permit to march down Michigan Avenue, "In the name of the 'war onterror,' the government wants to squashany expression of dissent as the U.S.continues its brutal imperialist occupation of Iraq while at home the government wages war on immigrants, laborand black people."The massive mobilization of policeat this demonstration, which includedIllinois State Police in riot gear, wasintended to intimidate all those whowished to protest the death and destruc-


4/12

Brazil: Lula's Popular Frontand the LeftThe following article is translatedfromLe Bo1chevik No. 170 (March 2005), pub-lished by the Ligue Trotskyste de France,

section of the international CommunistLeague.

LlBOLCIIEVlKS12PARIS, February 8-0ver 100,000 antiglobalization protesters gathered for thefifth World Social Forum (WSF) heldin Porto Alegre, Brazil, in opposition to"neoliberalism" and against the occupation of Iraq, among other things. TheWSF was directly financed by capitalistinstitutions and by the bourgeois politicians who are their water boys. (This was .also the case for the European Social Forums in France and Britain.) Over 1.7 million euros (about $2.3 million) weredonated by NGOs like the Ford Foundation. Brazil's federal government run bythe Partido dos Trabalhadores (PTWorkers Party) of Luiz Imicio Lula daSilva contributed 2 .million euros. Bourgeois politicians of all kinds also participated in the WSF. A message from[French] president Chirac was read andthe two big stars were the president ofBrazil, Lula, and the president of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez. As Marxists we areopposed to these social forums becausethey are class-collaborationist formationsincluding the direct involvement of bourgeois organizations and bourgeois stateagencies.The capitalists and their bourgeois politicians finance and appear in the socialforums to polish up their anti-American,anti-Bush credentials, raising their credibility to better implement attacks against\vorkcrs in their own countries. So. atPorto Alegre. Lula launched a "campaignagainst poverty." But let's talk about pO\erty in Brazil: fa\'ela.1 (slums) surroundevery major city: there is racism againstblacks, murder of l71eninos de rua (streetkids): there are millions of landless peasants: and there is irr,perialist pillage anddomination. Empty. cynical words fromcapitalist rulers won't change that. Brazilhas one of the biggest economies in LatinAmerica. The powerful workers of thecountry produce all the wealth, from carsto petroleum to electricity. The workersare also the only force with the capacityto stop production and to lead struggles atthe head of all the oppressed-fromthe landless peasants to the poor in thefave!as-for a socialist revolution thatwould tear the factories out of the handsof the capitalists and establish a workersstate. To serve the needs of the majorityof the population it's necessary to have acentralized and collectivized economybased on workers councils.There is no solution to economicbac1


5/12

Down With the Victimizations!Democrats Turn the-Screwson Chicago Transit WorkersCHICAGO-Bus drivers in AmalgamatedTransit Union (ATU) Local 241 have beenworking without a contract for most ofthe last six years. The ATU Internationalbureaucrats further undermined the ability of the local to struggle by placingit in receivership almost two years ago.Emboldened by the union tops' refusalto fight, the Chicago Transit Authority(CTA) has carried out increasing attacksagainst the workers and the riding pUblic.

the city. especially among the impoverished masses of the ghettos and barrioswho are faced with all-sided attacks ontheir living conditions. For free, qualitymass transit!But far from mobilizing the union's

by Midwest Unrest. a small, local groupof anarchists. A manager claimed to haveoverheard Hampton tell co-workers that.in the event of mass layoffs, bus driversshould consider responding by not collecting fares. This firing was a blatant

LOCALUNlO"241' ' ' ' ~ < ' T ' ' ~ . " .., , - : : " ' : . I ~ ~ ~ ~

I\,.'t . "lil("',_WV Photo

With their latest threats of "doomsday"budget cuts. the CTA bosses have shownonce again why they are hated not only bythe CTA's multiraciaL largely black workforce. but also by the broader mass ofChicago's working class and poor. Thecurrent cuts. as outlined in various scenarios. promise anything from 3,500 layoffs of transit employees. to nearlydoubling the fare price, to drastic service reductions. to a combination of allthree. And. in "Segregation City:' it isblack Chicago that is hit first and hit hardest. Under one of the CTA's "doomsday"plans, some residents of the predominantly black South Side would need towalk four miles to get to the nearestbus line! ATU Local 241 contract rally in Chicago, January 2003.The "transit crisis" is the product of acynical feud between Democratic mayorRichard Daley and his fellow Democrat,Governor Rod Blagojevich, over how tobalance the state budget. CTA presidentFrank Kruesi is himself a former roommate of and longtime gofer for Daley,and epitomizes the CTA bosses as awhole: incompetent, arrogant and corrupt. All these Democrats are committedto balancing their budgets on the backsof the working class. particularly the twoATU locals, 241 (bus) and 308 (rail).Now Chicago's capitalist rulers are carping that none of the "doomsday" proposals goes far enough in demandingunion givebacks. A 25 March ChicagoTribune editorial clamors that it is timefor the CTA to turn over bus routes toprivate firms and take an ax to the ATUpension fund.

Those who labor produce the wealthand those who produce this wealth havethe power to shut down the economy.That is a fundamental truth of capitalist society. I f the power of the unionwere brought to bear, these layoffs andcuts could be stopped colder than aChicago winter. A strike against theCTA would win wide support throughout

power, year after year the union misleaders have rolled over in the face ofcompany attacks. After placing Local241 in receiver ship in 2003, the ATUInternational forced a "binding arbitration" contract down the membership'sthroat (see "Chicago Transit WorkersUnder the Gun," W V N o . ~ 8 1 5 , 5 December 2003). Since then, the local has noteven had official union meetings (onlyinfrequent "informational" sessions) because of the receivership. A typicalrefrain Workers Vanguard salesmen hearfrom transit workers is "what union?"This widespread cynicism derives fromthe union leadership's sellouts. Butinstead of writing off the union and thepotential for organized struggle againstthe CTA, what is posed is a politicalfight against the union tops' policy ofclass collaboration.Several workers have told WV salesmen about increased company harassment and outright firings, including aboutthe case of Eric Hampton, a 26-year veteran bus operator and Local 241 unionofficial. Hampton was fired in December in the midst of company hysteriaabout a rider "fare strike" being pushed

Finish the Civil War!Harriet Jacobs: ABlack Woman'sFight to Smash SlaverySpeaker: Carla Wilson, Spartacist League Central Committee

Saturday, April 16, 5 p.m. For more information: (312) 563-0441University of Chicago or e-mail [email protected] Club, South Lounge, 2n d Floor

5706 South University Avenue CHICAGOFor a Class-Struggle Fight for All Our Rights!"War on Terror" TargetsLabor, Blacks and Immigrants

Thursday, April 28, 7:30 p.m.Columbia University For more information: (212) 267-1025or e-mail [email protected]

act of intimidation, meant to silenceany union member who even thoughtabout protesting the threatened layoffs.service cuts and fare hikes. Adding insultto injury, later that month a letterby ATU trustee Rodney Richmond wasposted at bus garages, solidarizing withthe company against the fare strike proposal, which would have drivers refusingto collect fares. .Driving a bus is a physically demanding, stressful and dangerous job. AsDaley trashes public housing through the"Transformation" plan and takes aim atthe city's unions, operators find themselves literally face to face with theincreased misery and desperation. In thewake of this deterioration it is not surprising that physical assaults by passengers against drivers have escalated. TheChicago Tribune reported three attacksin little more than one month: one driverwas stabbed, another pepper-sprayed anda third threatened with a box cutter. Inanother incident that was not reported inthe main bourgeois newspapers, a driverwho effectively defended himself againstphysical attack was fired for "conductunbecoming" a CTA worker. Evidently

This pamphlet assesses recentchanges in the world economy ina historical perspective, from the origins of modern imperialism inthe late 19th century through thecapitalist counterrevolution in EastEurope and the former USSR andits aftermath. Reformist ideologuesof "globalization" seek to obscurethe role of the capitalist nation-stateand the danger of interimperialistwar which is inherent in capitalism,while amnestying the refusal of thelabor bureaucracies to wage classstruggle against their respectivebourgeoisies.

Exploitation, poverty and socialdegradation can be eliminatedonly through proletarian revolutionsin the imperialist centers as wellas the neocolonial countries,laying the basis for an internationalplanned socialist economy.$2 (32 pages)

Make checks payable/mail to:

the CTA aspires to turn the clock back100 years to the time when the PullmanCompany required that all its blacksleeping car porters submit to beingcalled "George" by their clientele as anexpression of abject servility.Local 241 members have told WVsalesmen that the International trusteehas announced that the receivership willend sometime this summer. The workersmust regain control of their union localand build a new leadership that will fightthe attacks of the CTA bosses on thebasis of a class-struggle program. Critical elements of such a program are:Break with the Democrats! FromChicago's City Hall to the State House inSpringfield, it is Democratic administrations that are waging war on the transitunions and the ghetto and barrio masses.The Democratic Party nationally. no lessthan the Republican Party. is a party ofthe class enemy. The interests of capitaland labor are irreconcilable-yet theATU, like most unions in this country.pumps hundreds of thousands of dollarsinto the Democratic Party.

No "binding arbitration"! The currentproposed contract has again been sentto "binding arbitration" and the resultpromises to be a rotten deal just like thelast one. Putting the contract in the handsof a "neutral" labor arbitrator. insteadof mobilizing the union to fight fora worthwhile contract. means the company's demands will be rammed downthe workers' throats.

No Contract, No Work! This basicunion tradition has been buried bydecades of sellouts. As an excuse notto strike, the labor bureaucrats point tothe Illinois Public Labor Relations Act,which bans strikes if there is a "binding arbitration" clause in the union contract. Yet it is these same bureaucratswho agree to "binding arbitration" incontract after contract. The only strikethat is "illegal" is a strike that loses. Therelationship of forces between capital and labor-not words on .paper-iswhat determines the outcome of classstruggle, and the question of workingclass leadership weighs heavily in thatbalance.Everything of value that the workersmovement has won has been achievedby mobilizing the ranks in hard-foughtstruggle. To unleash the enormous potential power of organized labor requiresreplacing the bureaucrats who pledgeloyalty to the capitalist system at theexpense of the membership. The politicalfight necessary to forge a class-struggleunion leadership is part of the larger taskbefore us-the urgent need to build arevolutionary workers party committedto the struggle to sweep away capitalism as a system. A workers governmentwould seize control of production andindustry, including transportation, andput it at the service of all working people and the oppressed. Those who labormust rule!.

Imperialism,the "Global Economy"and Labor Reformism

116th St. an d Broadway, Room TBA(Take # 1 trai n to 116th St. station) NEW YORK Spartacist Publishing Company, Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 101161 APRIL 2005 5


6/12

Sinister "War on Terror" ProsecutionDefend Steven Kurtz 'and Robert Ferrell!On II May 2004. University of Buf

falo professor and artist Steven Kurtzawoke to find his wife of 25 years, Hope.had stopped breathing. Kurtz called 911.After an unsuccessful attempt to revivehis wife. one of the paramedics noticedtest tubes and petri dishes Kurtz wasusing for his artwork. Hours later. agentsof the Joint Terrorism Task Force arrived..-;eizing his wife's body. his house. ca tand car while detaining Kurtz for questioning for 22 hours! Cordoning of f theentire block around Kurtz's house, federal agents dressed in biohazard suitssearched his home, impounding books,personal papers, computer and artwork.

The macabre persecution of StevenKurtz began with the invocation of Sl1989 "bio-terrorism" law expandedunder the 2001 USA-Patriot Act. Even

Torture ...(conti l l l led/i 'om paRe 1)

intended as both the precur,or and legalju,tification for application of Executive unilateral prerogatives on a broaderscale. denying due process protections incriminal prosecutions. immigration proceedings and civil challenges to gowrnment policy. It is a frontal assault on thevery concepts of due process and citizenship itself. Padilla is being forcibly expatriated. confined to a civil death. Theimperial Presidency's objective is nullification of First Amendment rights and aqualitative diminution of all democraticrights. The target of the Executive is anyand all perceived opponents of government policy."U.S. Imperialism's WorldwideWeb of Torture

One of the Supreme Court decisionslast June 28 also afforded some legalrights to the hundreds of detainees(including teenagers) incarcerated andsubject to torture at the U.S. naval baseat Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. With a six-tothree majority, the Court ruled that thedetainees have the right to file habeascorpus petitions challenging their imprisonment. When some of the detainees thenattempted to avail themselves of the right.the Justice Department responded byclaiming the Supreme Court ruling mayhave allowed them to file any legal papersthey wanted, but since the detaineesaren't citizens. they have no rights andtherefore the courts are powerless to rule!On January 31, a federal court in Washington. D.C. rejected the government'sKafkaesque contentions, declaring thatthe detainees must be allowed to challenge their imprisonment in federal court.

after it was determined that Kurtz'swife had died of heart failure and thatthe "biological laboratory" in his homeconsisted only of three types of harmless bacteria and equipment to extractDNA from cells, the state convened afederal grand jury. And although thegrand jury concluded that Kurtz couldnot be accused of terrorism. it arguedthat he and Robert Ferrell, the formerchairman of the university of Pittsburgh's Department of Human Genetics. should be charged with fraudulentuse of the U.S. mail and wire services.The supposed "fraud" is that Ferrellused his account with a biological supply company to obtain the bacteria forKurtz. They were charged in FederalDistrict Court on 8 July 2004 and awaittriaL facing 20 years in prison under

Five days after the federal court ruling. the Pentagon announced that itwould ship half the detainees to prisonsin Afghanistan and elsewhere. The clearpurpose is to get them to places wherethey can be tortured and disappearedwithout interference by the U.S. courts.An informative and chilling article headlined ' ' 'One Huge U.S. Jail'" (LondonGuardian, 19 March) states:"Since September II 200 I, one of theUS's chief strategies in its 'war on terror' has been to imprison anyone considered a suspect on whatever grounds. Tothat end it commandeered foreign jails.built cellblocks at US military bases andestablished covert CIA facilities that canbe located almost anywhere, from anapartment block to a shipping container.

The network has no visible infrastructure-no prison rolls. visitor rosters.staff lists or complaints procedures. Terror suspects are being processed inAfghanistan and in dozens of facilities inPakistan, Uzbekistan, Jordan. Egypt.Thailand. Malaysia. Indonesia and theBritish island of Diego Garcia in the. . . . . . ' j f' - - t ~ ! !

... Anti- T e r m l S t t a w s l a r ~ H m m l g r a n t s ; ~ n J ' i a ~ No to theUsA-PatriofAchnd the Maritime StcurityActl

- ~ ! ~ n " " w i t h t h e A n t i - l m m i g r a n t WrtcnnuW I-.' ,,;.. "'. ' ~ . ' ! ' ~ R ! I _ T ' A M ~ . . . . "'WWIGIIANT WIT!"IHH1NT.'. ~ , n,, '( !- i i i "-- W ~ \ j 1 ' ,i;wt ?,.;,' -...::.. '\ ' '"'" V"!'!'" ._ IIOBlliZE UN1{JN POWEll'",,' J1RrIt ./. ' ...... ;, _ ,_.,. II ." . 0...." , ~ " ~ ' , iii'

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WV PhotoPartisan Defense Committee and Labor Black League initiated labor-centeredmobilization in Oakland, California, February 2002, in defense of immigrantrights and against "war on terror."6

these outrageous charges!So why are the Feds proceeding

with this patently ludicrous prosecutionagainst a respected artist and universityprofessor? Steven Kurtz is a member ofthe internationally acclaimed Critical ArtEnsemble (CAE). which is "dedicated toexploring the intersections between art.technology. radical politics and criticaltheory," obviously all anathema to thereactionary, bible-thumping, anti -sciencebigots running this country. The CAE hassought to educate the public about thepolitics of biotechnology. Kurtz himselfnoted: "I have been vocal about the waythe state is using research in germ warfare. That is why they want to get me."

Artists from around the world haverallied to Kurtz's defense, noting thechilling effect of this prosecution on

C:J


7/12

Schiavo ...(continued from page J)to take state custody of Terri Schiavo. In2003, Bush similarly tried to circumventthe right to abortion by appointing a stateguardian for the fetus of an indigent.mentally disabled woman who was pregnant a result of rape. Operation Rescuefounder Randall Terry today organizes forTerri's parents, while the current president of Operation Rescue and other antiahortion groups parade hefore TV cameras. The Reverend Lou Sheldon of theTraditional Values Coalition, which runsvicious anti-gay campaigns. happilynoted the increased contributions to hisgroup as "the hlessing that dear Terri'slife is offering to the conservative C h r i ~ -tian movement in America" (New YorkTimes, 25 March).

We wrote some years ago in an articletitled "In Defense of Dr. Kevorkian"(WV No. 593. 4 February 1994):"The same religious fanatics who terrorize abortion clinics in the name of 'life'are a moving force to ensure that you diein agony in the name of god.'

"Any veterinarian will put a fatally sickdog or cat out of its misery. The opposition to applying the same elementaryhumanitarianism to human beings isderived from the Christian concept of thehuman soul.' which only god can take.Unless. of course. the 'soul' is one of a'criminal'-in which case often the samebible-thumping 'pw-lifer< will campaign for your death:"

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted in 1999of ,hsisting a terminally ill patient to die.He is still in prison. though he shouldhave never spent a day in jail.

Meanwhile, the Christian fundamentalists have taken the White House. Ofcourse they don't care about the lifeof one woman. They have massacredmany thousands of men, women andchildren in Iraq. and preside over a vastglobal torture network, exemplified byAbu Ghraib. They have condemned millions upon millions more-poor people.women and children-to disease, malnutrition and death in the U.S. and abroadunder their cruel "ownership society,"

Holiday...(cantin ued from page 3)Panther and MOVE supporter, who wastargeted by the cops and sentenced to deathbecause he was and is an outspoken fighterfor the oppressed. The capitalist rulers seekto execute Mumia in order to send a chilling message to all those who challengevicious cop repression in the ghettos, whostand up for labor rights on the picket linesas well as those who protest imperialistmass murder from Afghanistan to Iraq.There is no justice in the capitalist courts!Free Mumia Abu-Jamal now! Abolish theracist death penalty!

The Partisan Defense Committee, the

which means, if you don't own anything,you're not part of their society. With 40million already uninsured, this "right tolife" administration is further slashingMedicare and Medicaid: "medicine forprofit" means the lives of the poor are ofno account.

This March a black six-month-old. infant died in Texas after his breathing tube was removed under the "TexasFutile Care Law:' which allows hospitals to terminate life support if there'sno hope of improvement-even if thefamily objects. Then-governor of TexasGeorge W. Bush had no trouble signingthat law. And today, when President Bushintones "it is wisest to always err on theside of life." he's certainly not talkingabout the death penalty. Notorious for hisscrupulous disregard of any facts or legalhistories involved. he presided over l52Texas executions.Critic Frank Rich commented. 'TheHarvard Law School constitutional scholarLaurence Tribe pointed out this week thateven Joe McCarthy did not go so far asthis Congress and president did in conspiring to 'try to undo the processes of astate court.' But faced with McCarthyismin God's name. most Democratic leaderswent into hiding and stayed silent.Prayers are no more likely to revive theirspines than poor Terri Schiavo's brain"

legal and social defense organizationaffiliated with the Spartacist League, champions cases and causes in the interests ofthe whole of the working people. Youth,workers and all opponents of racist capitalism must defend the courageous youngclass-war prisoner Jamal Holiday. Fillthe courtroom to show your support!Organizers of last summer's RNC protests have a special responsibility to makethemselves heard and come forward indefense of Jamal Holiday! An injuryto one is an injury to all! What the government wants to get away with is the abilityto label any and all political opponents as"violent" or "terrorists"-categories thatwill provide the state wi th a license to suspend democratic rights, criminalize polit-

A Spartacist Pamphlet~ ~ ~ ~ = __ ~ . m , ; , ~ , ~ " , , , , , , , , , , ~ , ~ ~ ~ First published in 1978, thispamphlet provides a detailedhistorical and theoreticalaccount of Lel1i., 's strugglefor a vanguard party.Includes: "In Defense ofDemocratic Centralism"This edition also includes:"The Fight for a LeninistVanguard Party"

$2 (56 pages)Order from/make checkspayable to:Spartacist Publishing Co.Box 1377 GPONew York, NY 10116

1 APRIL 2005

II

:IJ'"CDen

"Right to life"bigots convergeoutside TerriSchiavo'shospice inFlorida.

(New York Times, 27 March). Of course.the Democrats, as under "born-again"Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, play thereligion card when it suits them. Theyhave been just as faithful to their capitalist masters in enforcing the death penalty,slashing welfare, waging war and all theother necessities of maintaining capitalistclass rule as their partners in the Republican Party.

The humane solution in the case ofTerri Schiavo would be a swift. mercifuland painless injection. a measure whichis currently unavailable because of reac-

Michael andTerri Schiavoon theirwedding day.

ical activity and engage in legalized murder. Whatever rights we have under thisoppressive capitalist order administeredby both the Democratic and Republicanparties, were won through tumultuousclass and social struggle. Our rights mustbe defended through the struggles ofblack people, immigrants and defendersof civil liberties welded to the power ofthe multiracial labor movement.

'" * * * *In October 2004, the PDC beKan sending monthlY stipends to Jamal Holidayfrom our class-H'ar prisoner defellsefllnd

tionary laws based on religion. A doctorwriting in the San Francisco Chronicle(25 March) described his outrage at TerriSchiavo's treatment. pointing out: "Tothe casual observer. when Terri Schiavo'seyes are closed. she appears to be asleep.But unlike Sleeping Beauty. Schiavocannot be aroused. She is unable to recognize and respond to her surroundingsexcept in one way-she can respond tonoxious stimuli ... So there Terri Schiavolies-unable to move, poked and prodded. turned and repositioned ... ' N o x i o u ~ stimuli' are applied regularly to makesure she is still 'there'."

Marxist historian Isaac Deutscher commented in his speech. "On Socialist Man"(1966), that "Trotsky. for instance. speaksof three basic tragedies-hunger. sexand death-besetting man. Hunger is theenemy that Marxism and the modernlabor movement have taken 0I1. .. . But isit not true that hunger or, more broadly, social inequality and oppression, havehugely complicated and intensified forinnumerable human beings the tormentsof sex and death as well?" When thewealth, tremendous resources and medi~ a l technology of this society are put tothe service of the many. not the profits ofthe few, we will be able to build a society.freed of cruel and crippling religioussuperstitions, where human life, humanworth and human dignity count. .

and will continue to do sofor the durationof his probation. The PDC's class-warprisoner stipend program continues a tradition of the early Communist mO\'ementwhen the International Labor Defensesupported labor militants and otherclass-war prisoners in an act of elementarY solidarity with victims of capitalistinjustice. Currently we send a modestmonthly stipend to 16 class-war prisoners, including to innocent death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Become a PDCsustainer.' Contributions can be sent to:PDC, PO. Box 99, Canal Street Station,New York. NY JOOJ3 --- SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S"--Local Directory and Public Offices

Web site: www.icl-fi.org E-mail address:[email protected] Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 (212) 732-7860Boston Los Angeles OaklandBox 390840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. Box 29497Cambridge, MA 02139 Los Angeles, CA 90029 Oakland. CA 94604(617) 666-9453 (213) 380-8239 (510) 839-0851Chicago Public Office: Sat. 2-5 p.m.3806 Beverly Blvd., Room 215 Public Office:Sat. 1-5 p.m.

1634 Telegraph3rd Floorew YorkBox 6441, Main POChicago, IL 60680(312) 563-0441Public Office: Box 3381, Church St. Sta.New York, NY 10008 San FranciscoBox 77494at. 2-5 p.m.222 S. Morgan(Buzzer 23)

(212) 267-1025Public Office:Sat. 1-4 p.m.

San FranciscoCA 94107299 Broadway, Suite 318

TROTSKYIST LEAGUE Of CANADA/LiGUE TROTSKYSTE DU CANADATorontoBox 7198, Station AToronto, ON M5W 1X8(416) 593-4138

VancouverBox 2717, Main P.O.Vancouver, BC V6B 3X2(604) 687-03537


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Rwanda ...(colltinuedfrom page 12)

Since September II , the Bush gang hasextended the "war on terror" to Africa,opening a military base in Djibouti and"anti-terrorist command centers" in Ethiopia. Kenya and Uganda. U.S. forcesha\e assisted military operations in theSahel. the buffer zone between the oilfields in North Africa and the Gulf ofGuinea. Over the next ten years. Africa isprojected to become the U.S: secondlargest supplier of oil after the Near East.France h a ~ responded by strengtheningties with oil rich countries in North andWest Africa, undercutting American policies in the yN . and aggressively intervening in its "spheres of influence:' forexample the Ivory Coast.Imperialist Lies, Colonial Guilt:Causes of theRwandan Genocide

The cause of the Rwandan genocidehas been the subject of enormous. deliberate obfuscation. The most vulgar example is the mantra of "age;lld tribal rivalries." The Hutu and Tutsi are not tribes-a word applied to Africa with carelessindiscretion-but share a common language, territory and. in parts of Rwanda.culture. Journalists vften refer to the"Hutu genocide of the Tutsi," in a tropical rendition of the Goldhagen thesis thatGermans bear collective guilt" fur theHolocaust. This dist0ftion has provided acOver for mass reprisals against the Hutu.The driving force behind the genocidewas fundamentally political. This was asystematic plan of eradication targetingHutu opponents of the regime and theentire Tutsi civilian population-thepotential base of support for an invadingTutsi-led army from Uganda. But it wouldnot have occurred without the legacy ofGerman and Belgian colonialism, withoutthe role of the UN and without the directmilitary support of French imperialism.Two myths circulate about the Hutuand Teit',i. The first is that the divisionhas it origins in an invasion of Rwandaby ircl-working, pastoral peoples fromNorth East Africa who conquered andthen subjugated the indigenous inhabitants. No archeological or linguistic evidence exists to support such claims: metallurgy first appeared in the region aroundthe sixth century B.C.; pastoral peopleshave existed in this part of Central Africafor at least 2,000 years. This myth wasfirst used by the colonial powers to justify fortifying the rule of a "CaucasoidHamatic" Tutsi over the "Bantu" Hutu.Africans were supposedly so primitiveand savage that the complex civilizationof pre-colonial Rwanda must have beenimported.

The second myth is that the Hutu-Tutsidivision was completely fabricated bycolonialism. The main promoter of thisAfrican nation alist fairy tale is the currentTutsi-dominated government in Kigali,the Rwandan capital, and its foreigndefenders. Bf asserting that these socialdivisions were imposed entirely from outside. the current Kigali regime can pose asan opponent of ethnic chauvinism whilecontinuing to viciously persecute its Hutuadversaries.Following the German conquest ofRwanda in the late 19th century, a complex set of social relationships involving clientage, kinship and clan ties thathad developed over several centuries wasreduced to bipolar Tutsi-Hutu terms ofracial dominance, German and then Belgian colonialism grea!ly strengthened thepower of the Tutsi chiefs. eliminated allHutu office holders and assisted the Tutsimonarchy in conquering the north of thecountry. Redefining the pre-existing divisions in racial terms, the Belgian colonialists and Catholic church limited accessto education. administrative positions andmost johs to the Tutsi "master race." Collective labour for the state became a Hutuobligation.

The resulting system of "dual colonialism" was a hybrid of direct and indirectrule, where the colonial state employed8

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'";c:Q)9'QiQ;CTheonesteBagosora, keyfigure in theakazu faction,widely viewedas havingmastermindedthe April-June1994 genocide inRwanda.

the Tutsi aristocracy to extract taxes andlabour from the Hutu peasantry FolJowing independence from B c l ~ j u m in 1962,a Hutu-chauvinist political party came topower that had fully assimilated the racialoutlook of their colonial m a s t e r ~ . Thisavowedly "Hutu Power" state instituted. systematic discrimination against theTutsi and launched repeated pogroms,Like everywhere else in the colonial world. the various p l o y ~ of the imperialist rulers served to twist and distort social relations. The imperialistpartition of Africa undermined the formation of indigenous property-owningclasses while integrating tribal structuresand chieftainships into the state apparatus. Following independence. the newAfrican states inherited societies composed of numerous linguistic and cultural groups, often pitted against eachother by the divide-and-rule strategy ofcolonialism. Maintaining and strengthening tribal institutions, these Africannationalist regimes were locked into thepolitics of ethnic dominance and its murderous consequences.The Rwandan Civil War:Setting the Stage

Political r e p r e ~ s i o n in Rwanda andneighbouring Burundi during the 1960sand' 70s produced several waves of exilesinto Tanzania, the Congo and Uganda. Bythe late 1980s. there was a large Rwandandiaspora throughout central Africa. Manysurvived for decades by scraping out anexistence in permanent "resettlement"camps. Often denied citizenship andaccess to farmland, Rwandan refugeeswere the target of xenophobic attacks. InUganda, Rwandan Tutsi exiles played acentral role in the guerrilla army thatbrought Yoweri Museveni, a key American ally. to power in the mid 1980s.In 1990, the Tutsi-led Rwanda PatrioticFront (RPF) invaded Rwanda fromUganda in order to overthrow the existingregime and forcibly repatriate tens ofthousands of refugees. While the RPF'sfirst advances ended disastrously. by1993 Rwandan government forces were

",

facing defeat. As the RPF moved into thecountry. they killed civilians. looted andimpressed youth into forced labour. Bythe beginning of 1993. some 950.000people had fled its ad\ance-roughly onein seven Rwandans-creating massivesocial dislocation. On both sides of thecivil war. access to and control of landwas a driving issue.Internally. the Rwandan governmentfaced mounting pressure for democraticreform. Rwanda had been in a protractedeconomic crisis since the late 1980s,largely due to the plummeting of coffeeprices on the world market. One of the tenpoorest countries in the world. 90 percentof its population engaged in agriculiure.In August of 1993. the government. theRPF and the opposition signed a "powersharing" agreement. the Arusha Accord.which temporar ily put an end to the fighting. Elements around Rwandan presidentJuvenal Habyarimana then stalled on theimplementation of a coalition government with the RPF, insisting on the inclusion ofrabidly anti-Tutsi politicians fromthe fascistic CDR (Coalition for theDefense of the Republic). Hutu-extremistradio was urging a "final solution" tocrush all of the Tutsi "cockroaches." Thesituation further deteriorated in October1993, when Melchior Ndadaye, the firstHutu president of Burundi, was assassinated. Following a wave of ethnic violence in Burundi. 200.000 desperate Huturefugees fled across the Rwandan border.The stage was set.The Rwandan Genocide Begins

On April 6. 1994. the plane of theRwandan president was shot down, mostlikely by Hutu-extremist forces in themilitary. This signaled the start of thekilling. The central force behind the genocide was the aka'al, which means "littlehouse" in Kinyarwandan. A military andgovernment faction centered on the family of the president's wife, this groupinghad long enjoyed substantial Frenchbacking. Like many African ruling groups,its privilege derived almost entirely fromcontrol of state power, which allowed it

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could address the unequal distribution ofwealth internationally and draw the billions of poor and desperately impoverished around the world into the economic,scientific, cultural and artistic work ofcreating a fundamentally new society.However, this potential is crippled by thecapitalist system. where the applicationof technology is enslaved to the pursuit ofprofits, and where competition betweencapitalists produces economic anarchy.The industrial working class. whoselabour creates almost all wealth, has boththe power and historic responsibility torip the means of production out of thebourgeoisie's hands. This is why Marxistssee the working class as the fundamentalforce for progressive social change.

The genocide in Rwanda had nothingto do with the costs of historic progress.but was ultimately the consequence of adecaying system turning in on itself.Rwanda had no working class to speakof and modern industry scarcely existed.The social power Marxists look to, theproletariat, whose material interests tran-scend racial and ethnic divisions, wassimply absent.In the age of the great mercantileempires, European capitalism tore over12 million people ou t of the Africancontinent in the hellish "Middle Passage"to the American slave plantations. During the late 19th century, it conqueredthe continent with the assistance of theGatling gun, plundering Africa's resources and impressing millions of Africans into forced labour. Reinforcing themost reactionary and oppressive aspectsof pre-colonial societies. colonialismopened the continent to imperialist capitalism, while failing to extend the benefitsof the industrial revolution-paid for insignificant measure with African bloodbeyond a few enclaves. The fate of AfricaAP

was chained to the \vorld market and foreign capital.

The modest economic growth andsocial development that occurred inmany countries following independencewas devastated during the global economic crisis of the 1970s and the catastrophic economic collapse throughoutAfrica in the 1980s. To the imperialists,Africa is a "failed" continent, its population a write-off in the blue books ofworld finance. The explosive alloy ofmass desperation and racial chauvinismis not unique to Rwanda. It can and willhappen again. The end of Engels' letterwhich I quoted above reads: "And wemen and women are unfortunately sostupid that we never can pluck up courage to a real progress unless urged to itby sufferings that seem almost out ofproportion." Without socialism, we facethe continuing descent into barbarism. .Imperialist Complicityat Every Step

The g r c ' ~ l ; iie: surrounding the R \ andangenocide is tlu: (,IIC;gil intcl"\ entiol l \\ oule!have prC\cillc,,_i ,hi, cClla,trophc. In fact.fl)reign intcj"\Cniinll Jid occur-again.aild agail:. and agilin. Vie\\ lng thc TursiRPf a, t{l()b of the "Anglo-Americans:'the French ruling class backed the Habyarimana regime to the hilt. Shortly afterthe beginning of the war, the governmentof F r a n ~ o i s Mitterrand sent in 600 troopswho assisted in interrogating prisoners,1 APRIL 2005

~ ' ' f f

Mary Evans Picture Librarytransported massive military aid andmanaged roadblocks. demanding "Vousetes Tutsi au Hutll?" The French underwrote the financial risk of weapons deliveries from Egypt and broke red an armsdeal with South Africa. At one point.French officers took complete control of


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Rwanda ...(colllinued from page 9)civilizations," the south's struggle hasbeen driven by resistance to economic,cultural and political oppression.The second civil war began in 1983when the Khartoum government. seekingto maintain control over newly discovered oil r e s e r v e ~ in the Upper Nile province. unilaterally abrogated the south'sregional qatus and illqJosed Islamicsharia law ow r the entire country. Thenorthern government has frequently pursued this war by arming local Arabicspeaking groups displaced by economicprivations and encouraging them to preyon their neigh hours. The Sudanese conflict provoked an international outcry inthe mid 1990s. after it had come to lightthat government-backed militias had kidnapped and enslaved more than 15.000women and children from the south. Wehave denounced the flagrant role that foreign oil corporations, such as Canada'sTalisman (which withdre\\i in 2003),played in perpetuating this contlict andcollaborating with the militias in massacres and forced displacements ( s e ~ "'Why Marxists Oppose UN/Canadian'Peacekeepers':' SC No. 134. Fall 2002).France's repeated military interventionsinto neighbouring Chad are part of thebroader struggle among the imperialistsfor control of this region.No Imperialist/African UnionIntervention into Darfl.lr!

Darfur is not part of the south. but consists of three separate pro\'inces in thewest of the country. Populated hy bothagricultural and Bedouin peoples devotedto herding cattle. Darfur's entire population is Muslim. The most marginalized province of Sudan. Darfur has"eceived less in social services. economic.id and government posts than any otheregion of the country. Alex de Waalaplains that in the wake of famine in thenid 1980s. which killed over 100.000)eople, contlict over diminishing land:\1ld resources exploded into battles1etween agricultural and nomadic peolies. Resentment against the Khartoum~ o v e r n m e n t deepened after the Islamic

lundamentalist regime of Hassan alTurabi took power in 1989. A wave ofrepression swept the country. includingthe banning of workers' unions and thetotal cloistering of women in the cities. InDarfur, the bankrupt local administrationattempted to rule through public executions and terror, while the laws regardingaccess to land were revised. ReturningIslamic militants from Libya. exiled underthe previous regime. further polarizedDarfur along racial lines.But Turabi also extended his hand toIslamic groupings long despised by thenorthern Arab elite. like the Sufi and WestAfrican Fellata. When Turabi was sidelined by the officer corps in the late1990s, many of his supporters went into

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opposition against the government. producing a "Black Book" documentingthe ongoing marginalization of Darfur.In April 2003. a coalition of secularand Muslim organizations launched anaudacious assault against a governmentmilitary installation. taking an Air Forcegeneral hostage. The government responded by supplying arms to Arab militias. called the jallja\\'eed. The militiashave murdered. raped and physicallybranded speakers of Fur. Tunjur. Masalitand Zaghawa. while uprooting their fruittrees and destroying irrigation systems.

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Trotskyist Leagueparticipates in1993 Torontoprotest againstU.S./UN attackon Mogadishu,Somalia.

> ; ~ IRolsK '.D - ~ > - ' Lt Y/Sf. , , > ~ M ~ ~ ~ ";/ A(lue,_.Marxists denounce these crimes in thestrongest possible terms. But the UN'splan to send over 10.000 "peacekeeping"troops to Sudan. based overwhelminglyin the south, has absolutely nothing to dowith "humanitarian" concerns over thiscarnage. The imperialist powers want toshore up the unstable peace agreementbetween the north and the south. although

they would prefer to subcontract out asmuch of the work as possible to the statesof the African Union. particularly SouthAfrica and Nigeria.

Dominated by the U.S.' South African

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Disease, Bigotry and Imperialist HypocrisySouth Africa Torn byAIDS CriSisSee page 11

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re,fuge for Islamic fundamentalist groupslike Al Qaeda. This is UN "peacekeeping" as a cove r for the "'war on terror," Wedemand: No U.S'/UN/African Unionintervention! All occupying troops out!No to UN sanctions!Africa and the Collapseof the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union. the first workersstate in history. provided a crucial military counterweight to U.S. imperialism.Despite its political degeneration underthe Stalin bureaucracy, we fought todefend the Soviet Union. We recognizedthat its destruction would deliver a staggering blow to working and oppressedpeoples across the globe. At the sametime, we sought to build Trotskyist parties in the Soviet Union and EasternEurope to remove the Stalinist bureaucrats and return these countries to thepath of socialism.

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For millions of working people aroundthe world, the Soviet Union representedthe possibility for a radically differentkind of society. one with no unemployment or homelessness. with universalhealth care and free education for all.That the USSR went from an overwhelmingly peasant country, suffocatedby the archaic institutions of tsarist absolutism, to the second most powerful military and industrial state in the world hadenormous significance in Africa. Evenpro-capitalist African nationalists lookedto countries like Yugoslavia. whosemultiethnic population lived togetherin peace under Tito's bureaucraticallydeformed workers state. The USSR gavemilitary assistance to the South AfricanANC in the struggle against apartheid,

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while Cuba sent troops to Angola, routing the U.S.-backed South African armyand its puppets. The Soviet Union tookdock workers from Senegal. like theworld famous novelist and director Ousmane Semhene. and trained them in hO\vto make films.As Soviet leader Gorbachev moved toconciliate C.S. imperialism in the mid1980s. Soviet aid to Africa began to dryup. The U.S. made clear that \vith the endof the Cold War. it would no longerbother to prop up its former African puppets. Since the Soviet Union's destructionin 1991-92. a quarter of Africa's countriesha w been plunged into \\ar and socialdisintegration. while the rest of the continent is in the grip of an intractable economic and political crisis. The aftermathhas been apocalyptic: a rise in witchcraftaccusations and the murder of youngwomen: the spread of fundamentalistIslam and Christianity. often intermixed\vith reactionary practices such as thebride price and female genital mutilation:the complete devastation of the smallurban labour forces: forced labour; landshortages and rural contliet. Starting inthe late 1970s-early . 80s. IMF structuraladjustment p r o g r a m ~ have devastated themeager social services. Famine and theAIDS pandemic threaten the eradicationof tens of millions of people across thecontinent.Especially since the collapse of theSoviet Union. it has becGme common forleftists to call on the imperialist powers toplaya "humanitarian role." Feminists likethe recently deceased Susan Sontagcheered the NATO bombing of Serbia.The self-professed anarchist professorNoam Chomsky called for sanctionsagainst Iraq and he regularly appeals tothe supposed principles of "internationallaw." In a recent article. the CanadianInternational Socialists lamely recite theliberal line that "'the Great Powers stoodby and did nothing" during the Rwandangenocide (Sucialist ~ \ ' i ! l ' k ( ' l ' . 5 January). InFrance. the fake-Trotskyist Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire and the supposedly anti-state anarchists of the CN T haveprovided a cover for imperialist machinations in Africa. signing a statement thatcalls on the African Union to supplantFrench troops now occupying the IvoryCoast. Their excuse for lobbying onbehalf of these imperialist-backed thugsand dictators? Foreign troops are necessary to avoid another Rwanda. All ofthese people have fed into the lie thatimperialism can come to the aid of thedowntrodden.Imperialism andPermanent Revolution

For revolutionary Marxists. "imperialism" is not simply an evocatiw characterization of Western foreign pol icy or theac h of individual corporations-grotesque as they may be. In Toronto. wehave gone on protests to denounce theparticipation of Canadian security firmsin the Iraq occupation in order to drawattention to the role of our "own" bourgeoisie. But we do not believe that altering individual company or governmentpolicies is a strategy for defendingoppressed and subjugated peoples. Imperialism isin Lenin's words-the highest stage of capitalism. In the late 19thcentury, monopolies, banks and financecapital came to playa predominant rolein the functioning of the internationaleconomy. Since then. the world has beendivided into spheres of intluence manipulated and controlled by the main capitalist powers and their junior allies. likeCanada. There is no hope of reformingimperialism. It must be overthrown.As Russian Marxist Leon Trotskyargued in his theory of permanent revolution. the venal despots who run the colonial and neocolonial world are incapableof raising the economic development oftheir countries to the level of the advanced industrial world. Contrary to theNGOs and "development" agencies. lackof democracy in underdeveloped countries does not derive from the absence of"civil society." Caught b etween the seething masses and the dictates of their impe-

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Lula...(continued from page 4)P-SOL is based essentially on the ideathat the PT's program was correct but thatit went wrong once in power; thus the"struggles" and "dreams" of the foundersof the P-SOL were "betrayed." The PTdidn't betray its program at all becausefrom the beginning it had a program ofclass collaboration. The PT has participated in coalitions with bourgeois partiessince the 1989 presidential elections. In2002. Lula came to power with theapproval of the Brazilian bourgeoisie. Butthat is not in contradiction to its programbecause it always had the goal of runningthe bourgeoisstate.

The P-SOL says that its programmaticbasis can be founded only on one principle: "The defense of the political independence of the workers and the excluded. The party that we are buildingwill not have class collaboration as agoal." In fact, members of the USec areactive in the leadership of the P-SOL. butmost of their members remain in the DStendency inside the PT. and a resolution ofa DS national conference condemned the"sectarian party perspective" of whatbecame the P-SOL (lnprecor. September2004). Nonetheless. for Helofsa Helena.class independence is such an "important" principle that she remains :n thesame international with her comradeswho have a minister in Lula's government. In the municipal elections ofNovember 2004, the national P-SOL supported the PTIDS candidate. LuizianneLins. on the second round in Fortaleza.Lins managed to win the city with support from several small bourgeois partiesin the second round (which receivedexecutive posts in the municipal government in exchange for their support). suchas the populist Partido Democraticodos Trabalhadores (Democratic WorkersParty) and the Greens. The P-SOL alsorefused to oppose the PT in Porto Alegre.where the outgoing candidate. Raul Pont(also in the PT's DS tendency), was in acoalition with several bourgeois parties.The national leadership of the P-SOL sup-

rialist paymasters, democracy is a luxurythe rulers of Africa can hardly afford.Drawing on the experience of the 1917October Revolution. Trotsky argued thatthe fight for national emancipation fromimperialism and the struggle for democracy falls to the industrial working classin countries of belated capitalist development. And once the working class hasseized power, it cannot stop at these tasks,but must move to destroy private propertyand establish a workers stare. To surviveand flourish. a socialist revolution in sucha country must be extended to the imperialist heartlands.But what about countries like Rwandaor Sudan where the working class is weak

LfBOLClIEVIKS1, ~ . H O - o e c ~ " , _ . ~ _ _ . :::A'!!

Carnage it Abidjan: made in FranceTroupes fraor;aises et de I'OHU,hors de Cote d'ivoire !

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ported a declaration "against the candidate Foga


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WIJIIIlEIiS ""''' 'IIIJImperialist Crimesin Rwanda and SudanThe j(il!o\\'ing article is reprinted

froll/ S p a r t a c i ~ t Canada No. 144 (Spring2005!. fJuhlication of the TrotskYistLewillciLiglie Trotskyste, section of thellllernmional Comlllunist League. Thearticle is based on 0 \\'ell-atteniled Februar\' J2 talk in Toronto by Jon Sel'ille,editor ot the Young Spartacus pages ofSpartacist Canada. 111 this COlliltn, calls,.tor U.S. intE'lTention ill Sudan are pUlJzedparticlllor!\' by all alliance of black liheralso Christiml fillldamentalists an d proZionist neocollserl'atil'i'S. On March 24,the US Security COllnei! mled to send ([IO.O()()-mell1!Jer "{ Jeac ekee ping " f(Jrce toSudall. We say: US . UN, all imperialisttroops get out and ,11m' Ollt'i-------------- - - - - ~ J : SPARTACISTCANADAI ___ .__ _ ___ _______ _______ _____

Ovcr the course of three month,in I99...J.. some 800,()OO Rwandan TUhisand tens of thousands of moderate Hutu\\ere ,tematicall: murdered in a meticulously prepared genocide organized byforces \\ i hin the R v"andan governmentand military. The details overwhelm theimagination. intemliwlI\\'e dcath squadshacked village after village to death withmachetes. Neighbours executed neighbours, husbands butchered wives, or werethcmsehcs shot by government troops.Sometimes the torture continued overdays. Fetmes were cut from the stomachsof their mothers and then hacked apart asthe women watched and bled to death.

As the violence began, the UnitedNations Security Council ordered thebulk of the multinational "peacekeeping"force stationed in the country to withdraw. Imperialist politicians like U.S.president Bill Clinton and French president Fran

workers vanguard no 845 - 01 april 2005

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