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cah [i.e., bourgeois] legality."Who, then, will lead the proletariat to

crush the blue-shirted Falangist thugsand fascist gunmen, by overthrowingthe capitalist state which nurtures andprotects them? The crisis of revolution­ary leadership is posed point-blank inSpain today.

In the last few days the police haveresponded to the campaign of provoca­tion by arresting upwards of 200 leftistsin Madrid alone. The detentions havereportedly fallen heavily on Maoist andsyndicalist groups. The response ofauthentic communists must be tomobl1ize the workers in militantaction~especially in the factories,where their strength as a class iscon¢entrated~to demand the rightistrepression be halted and the lett-wmgers

continued on page 11

FEBRUARY I-The current crisis inSpain, growing out of a wave of rightistprovocation, poses fundamental tests toall those who speak in the name oftheworking class. If the Antocha murdersshowed the mortal danger of fascistterrorists who would drown the left in asea of blood, the angry response byhundreds of thousands of protestersdemonstrates the tremendous comba­tivity of the Spanish proletariat.

The Stalinists and social democratsjoin Francoist prime minister Suarez incalling on the working people to remain"serene"~i.e., to allow fascist butchersand their police protectors to commandthe streets. This is only the continuationof their treacherous popular-frontpolicy during the civil war when thereformists paved the way to Franco'svictory by tying the masses to "republi-

LCft Begs State Crush Fascists

Fake-TrotskyistsEmbrace Francoist"Democracy"

The Antocha attack was universallyunderstood as a provocation by Franco-

continued on page 10

Europa Press

200,000 people marched in funeral procession last Wednesday for three Communist lawyers assassinated by right­Wing terrorists.

These maSSive strikes and angrydemonstrations expressed the seethinghatred of the Spanish proletariat for thefascist scum who had brutally assassi­nated their class brothers. From theremote mining regions to the industrialbelts and the university campuses therewas a clear realization that this had beenan attack upon all the working people.Even backward and relatively apoliticalregions participated in this somberoutpouring of the workers' anguish andgrim determination to avenge theirmartyred dead.

Fascist Provocations

PART 1 OF 2

On the Class Nature of the USSR

Trotskyism Ys. "StateCapitalism": FromKautsky to Mao 6

JANUARY 31~Last Monday nighttwo right-wing gunmen burst in throughthe door of an apartment building officeon Madrid's Antocha Street and openedfire. Those in the apartment were left­wmg labor lawyers known for theirdefense of militants of the illegalWorkers Commissions; only minutesbefore, a deiegation of a hundredtransport workers had left the office.The assassins ordered the occupants tolie on the floor and then blazed awaywith their machine guns. Five werekilled instantly ':rnd four more layseriously wounded on a floor that wasbathed with blood.

As news of this cold-blooded murderspread through Madrid and reverberat­ed throughout Spain it provoked animmediate and massive outpouring ofanger. Every politician and public figurefrom conservative Christian Democratsto the extreme left saw that he could benext; many went into hiding. Fromaround the world telegrams of condo­lence poured in as socialists, Commu­nists and leftists of every persuasiondenounced this vile act. They allund~rstood: it could have been them.

In the capital the working class gaveits response in the streets. Over 200,000people marched in a funeral processionfor three of the slain leftists, members ofthe Communist Party (PCE). Periodi­lcallv there would be bitter cries of"assassins!" and the crowds would strikeup the "Internationale," but PCEmarshals would quickly enforce silence.Barcelona was paralyzed as 200,000worl<\ers went on strike, including a sit­down strike that took over the giantSEAIT' auto plant.

In the Basque country, industry andshipyards at Bilbao were brought to astandstill and barricades were erected inPamplOna to defend the workers quar­ters flrom a police onslaught. Asturianmim:rs struck, universities closed andeven the new Ford Motor Co. plant nearValel1lcia~builtaway from the militantindustrial belts of Madrid and Barcelo­na pltecisely in order to avoid "labortroubaes"-was shut down by its newlyhired -"select" workforce in protest overthe murders.

No. 143

Francoist Clerical-Fascists Gun Down Leftists

Spanish Workers WillAvenge Their Deadl

Boycott "lpiTombi"1

Demonstrators call for a boycott of South African musical "Ipi Tombi."

"Happiness is an African musicalcalled Ipi Tombi" beams the marquee ofNew York's Harkness Theatre. Butthere hasn't been much happiness at thetheater since the South African produc­tion opened on Broadway last month.Instead there has been raging controver­sy surrounding the boycott organized bythe Communist Party-led Patrice Lu­mumba Coalition, the Socialist Work­ers Party (SWP) and sundry cheerlead­ers for "Third Worldist" causes. Thedemonstrations, which began with theshow's previews in late December,crested on opening night, January 12,when a thousand protesters congregatedoutside the theater.

Ticket-holders on their way in arebarraged with pleas to boycott theproduction. On their way out they arehzmdcd a Lumumba Coalition leafletftIled with unalloyed moralistic outragethe likes uf which have not been seensince :\C'\ Leftists threatened to napalmpuppies in order to force people to takea stand against the Vietnam War. Theheadline reads: "CONGRATULA­TiONS. YOU'VE JUST HELPED TOMURDER AFRICAN CHIL­DREN!!'!!!!!" It goes on to assail thetheater-goers for complicity with theracist terror of the apartheid regime:"While you were in the HarknessTheatre, enjoying yourself. ... you neverthought that you'd be an accomplice tothe next group of murders in SouthAfrica did you? Think of that-youparticipating in genocide. Howthrilling."

The show's producers have beenworried by the flagging attendance, atleast partly the result of boycott public­itv, and in the lobby they distribute ah~ndbill proclaiming, "What They'reSaying About 'Ipi Tombi' is a Lie." TheMadison Avenue ad writers who obvi­ously composed it state that the SouthAfrican government "has nothing what­ever to do with this show," and assertthat, while it is "an entertainment," italso deals with "menial work and lack ofopportunity for the Blacks in SouthAfrica." Plaintively, the flyer asks:"How did we become the victims of thisattack when we share the same hopes forliberation."

The furor spread to the entertainmentpages of NYC newspapers as well. TheNew York Post panned the show,likening it to a Yiddish folk troupetouring out of Nazi Germany; the WallSlreet Journal, on the other hand,lauded "a rousing African musical" forits "beautifully conceived, well per­formed, downright invigorating repre­sentation of something that has beenhappening in much of black Africa inthis century-that is, the acceptance ofnew ideas without the surrender of oldones." The New York Times' CliveBarnes found the controversy regardingthe presentation "more interesting thanthe show itself," which he termed "agenial bore."

What is all the uproar about? Is "IpiTombi" an apolitical frolicking musicalor a vehicle for soft-core apartheidpropaganda from the murderous Vors­ter regime? Is the audience merelyengaging in harmless entertainment, orare they really "accomplices in geno­cide"? Should the show be boycotted,protested or ignored? In answering thesequestions, both the content and contextof the production must be considered,and above all the question of a general­ized, permanent boycott of all thingsSouth African as advocated by variousliberals and reformists.

Entertainment or ApartheidPropaganda?

The boycott literature calls "IpiTombi" the "latest propaganda project

2

to hit the U.S. from South Africa." TheSWP's Mililant (14 January) says theboycotters "blasted the show for itsexploitation of Black African artists andculture as well as its false portrayal ofwhat life for Black people is like underapartheid." In response the flyer put outby the producers says that two of thesongs in the production are banned inSouth Africa, and supporters of theshow cite lyrics about "starvation in thecity of gold."

We do not know the political views ofthe musical's white South Africancreator, Bertha Egnos, and what, if any,message she intended to convey in "IpiTombi." The show's "happiness" themecertainly presents a false portrayal ofthemiserable conditions on the dirt-poortribal "bantustans." In the openingscene the narrator recalls life in "myvillage," remarking "It was a busy timebecause we always seemed to be singingand dancing." Even the more somberscenes of life in the mines don't gobeyond vague hints at the unrelievedbrutalization and exploitation in thelabor compounds. The song "Workdayin the Mine" concludes with a lament:"A man can stand strong, but still thingsgo wrong; tell me, who is to blame?"This question-the most political pointin the entire production-never receivesa direct answer, but the Zulu warriorbeckoning from the horizon suggestsone: the miner should never have left hisvillage,

The boycotters say "Ipi Tombi" isracist and distorts African culture. But itshould not be surprising that a show ofthis genre is filled with racist stereo­types; it is hard to think of a popularentertainment about blacks in Americathat is not, from "Superfly" filmsglorifying ghetto drug pushers to TVshows about "happy" middle-class

black families. As for cultural distor­tion, "South Pacific" with its "happytalking" islanders is probably a gooddeal worse than the up-beat renditionsof Zulu and Xhosa folk acts in "IpiTombi," choreographed and arrangedto appeal to popular Western taste.

"Ipi Tombi" is a musical, and likemost musicals it sentimentalizes itssubject matter. It is a collection ofdances and songs around the theme ofthe uprooting of villagers, the corrup­tion of urban life and longing to returnto traditional tribal life. However, thesemotifs are common to folk culture injust about every area of the world that isundergoing industrialization, The sup­posed purity of village life is a favoritetheme of African nationalists in particu­lar, and most of the dances in "IpiTombi" could have been performed byany number of black African dancetroupes. It appears, in fact, that theshow played in Nigeria as well, underthe auspices of the National Theatre, apoint made by the defenders of "IpiTombi" which the boycotters neveranswer.

But South Africa is not Nigeria orGuinea. "Ipi Tombi" can be accused ofsupport for apartheid, but mainly forwhat it omits rather than what itactually says. To portray life in the"tribal homelands" without once men­tioning the word "bantustan" is adistortion of reality; to talk of returningto the village without even hinting at thefact that more than six million blackSouth Africans have been forciblyreturned to the "homelands" by policeround-ups is to prettify the whitesupremacist terror. The implicit politi­cal content of "Ipi Tombi" particularlystands out now after the Sowetomassacre when the heroic struggles ofthe black and "coloured" masses shook

the apartheid state to its foundations.Any work of popular entertainment

that portrays the inhabitants of Vors­ter's bantustans as living in a state ofGarden of Eden innocence is at leasttacit apologetics for the racist statusquo. But even so, "Ipi Tombi" remainsprimarily a cultural event rather thanpro-apartheid propaganda. It is signifi­cant that until the show opened in NewYork, although it had toured extensive­ly outside South Africa it was notattacked for its content. There areplenty of better targets for anti­apartheid protest.

Protest or Boycott?

A work of art or popula! entertain­ment can. of course. have reactionarypolitical content and as such be asuitable focus for mas~ protest. JohnWayne's "Green Berets" movie was asmuch an apology for C.S. imperialism'sVietnam war as a Lyndon Johnson pressconference. A militant demonstrationon the opening night of "Green Berets"would have been legitimate, effectiveand highly desirable. However, toorganile a general boycott of the film, todemand that people not see it. wouldhave been an act of stupid. liberaLtotalitarian moralism. Those who wentto see "Green Berets" were not by thatact any more or less supporters of theVietnam war than those who watchedLBJ speeches on television or read theeditorials in the New York Dail\' Newsor Chicago Tribune. They were notthereby "accomplices in genocide."

It would be wrong and unfair toequate "Ipi Tombi" with "Green Ber­ets." John Wayne's film was produceddeliberately and purely as chauvinistpro-war agitation, while this musical'staeit support for apartheid is primarilyby omission. But even where thereactionary content is quite explicit anddeliberate, the context is crucial indetermining the appropriateness ofprotest action. Thus. for example, theAmerican musical comedy "PajamaGame" is the most disgusting sentimen­talization of labor struggles in thegarment industry. In song, dance anddialogue it presents falling in love withthe boss as the solution to a strike. When"Pajama Game" played on Broadway itwas' of course, not primarily politicalpropaganda for the garment bosses; butin the unlikely event that during a real­life strike it were played as a politicaldemonstration against the strikers, thenit might be a suitable target for protest.

Context is even important whendealing with a work of intentionalpolitical propaganda presented in acultural medium. For example, LeniReifenstahl's classic "Triumph of theWill" is both a piece of Nazi propagandaand an important film for its innova­tions in documentary technique. If itwere shown at a campus film societythere would be no reason to protest it,but if the same movie were shown at ameeting of the American Nazi Party itwould not only be appropriate todemonstrate but even to bust up theevent.

Labor Dispute in LondonThe boycott question has been

clouded by a labor dispute in theLondon production of "I pi Tombi."Last November on-stage demonstra­tions over wages and working cQndi­tions led to the suspension of four castmembers. According to the 4 DecemberNews Line (the British Healyite newspa­per), one of the suspended leaders of theprotest, Trusty Ntuli, returned to SouthAfrica where he was arrested. Thissparked a December 3demonstration inLondon outside South Africa House.And when the rest of the cast was

WORKERS VANGUARD

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EDITOR: Jan Norden

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Karen Allen

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Anne Kelley

EDITORIAL BOARD: Charles Burroughs,George Foster, liz Gordon, Chris Knox, JamesRobertson, Joseph Seymour

Published weekly, except bi-weekly in Augustand December, by the Spartacist PublishingCo., 260 West Broadway, New York, N.Y10013. Telephone: 966-6841 (Editorial).925-5665 (Business). Address all correspond­ence to: Box 1377, G.P.O., New York, N.Y.10001. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00 per year.Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y.

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

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

WfJRIlUlS,,1NtiO,1'D

WV PhotoIn L.A., December 4, WL goonscreams: "Get that camera!"

a provocation designed to facilitateframe-up attempts by you in connivancewith bourgeois police authorities,and/or (b) a tacit announcement,possibly as a result of the currentrelationship of forces between us, thatyour organization is contemplatingsome change in your years-long stand­ard practice against us (as well as othersocialists). Both in the U.S. and abroadthis has consisted of. the eager use ofyour own violence, limitless slander,and where possible. the employment ofthe police to do your dirty work. Theseare facts which can. for example, betestified to first hand by sellers of anyother socialist newspaper at yourmeetings over the years.

We have commented as appropriatein our public press on the motives andpurposes behind your long and unbro­ken record of all-sided attempts tosuppress and destroy the processes ofworkers democracy and we see noreason to pursue these matters here.

As for the particulars which youpresently allege, our Workers Vanguardhas already noted the very differentreality of such incidents (and manyothers).

Especially significant is the fact thatthe last two major assaults by yourpeople that we know of were centrallyagainst cameramen in front of Healyitemeetings. These comrades were at­tempting to deter or failing that docu-

continued on page 10

New York. N.Y.27 January 1977

D. North,Workers League.

Dear Comrade,'We have received your letter of 23

January. It is evidently either (a) itself

WL/SL Exchange on WorkersDemocracy

WV Photo

WL thug (holding club) threatensWV salesman and SL supporters inL.A.

New York. N.Y.January 23. 1977

Dear Cde. Robertson:

I wish to call to your attention that inrecent weeks members of your organiza­tion have sought to disrupt both thepolitical work and public meetings ofthe Workers League and YoungSocialists.

On Saturday. December 4. 1976. yourorganization staged a provocative dem­onstration outside the election head­quarters of the Workers League in LosAngeles. One of our members wasphysically attacked and thrown througha pane-glass window. The actions ofyour organization resulted in bringingthe police to the scene. As you know, thepolice raided these election headquar­ters over the summer, and your demon­stration gave them still another oppor­tunity to harass our members.

Less than a week later, in Toronto,two members of the Canadian WorkersLeague were physically attacked by 12Spartacist members-some of themAmericans-as they attempted to diS­tribute leaflets on the university campusto advertise a public meeting.

On Wednesday, January 19, 1977, 13members of Spartacist physicallythreatened members of the YoungSocialists and prevented them fromholding a meeting at California StateUniversity in Los Angeles.

Such provocations and use ofviolence play into the hands of the policeand the most reactionary class forces.They can only damage the socialistmovement. I urge you to abandon thisprovocative policy and call your mem­bers to order.

Fraternally.David North.National Secretary, Workers League

Look Who's CallingUs Comrade .

distributed by the Chilean embassy andconsulate, and it was reactionaries whocame to express their support forPinochet.

The momios (mummies), as they arecalled in Chile, were jeered by thedemonstrators. We did not care thatsome of these reactionary junta backerscould not get through the line of fist­waving demonstrators to see their"cultural event." This was no culturillevent. It was not the musical content butthe understood political purpose of theperformance that made a one-timeprotest action, not a boycott, effective asa statement of outrage and an exposureof the terror policies of the Pinochetregime.

It is possible that another culturalevent will serve as a demonstration ofsolidarity with the bloody Vorsterregime in South Africa. In that case, wewill again be in the front line ofprotesters against any celebration ofapartheid terror. But "Ipi Tombi" is notthat. and by attending it theater-goersdo not become scabs or supporters ofwhite supremacy. They just waste theirmoney.•

because the Transkei was on theirboycott list.

In an article in defense of Kani andNtshona when they were jailed byVorster's regime we wrote:

"It is not only a good thing that anti­apartheid plays be performed onBroadway.... They must also be per­formed before the victims of apartheidwho are systematically deprived ofcultural (or any other) means ofexpressing their outrage at their condi­tion. For their courageous choice toperform their work under trying anddangerous conditions imposed by theVICIOUS Vorster regime, Kani andNtshona -deserve the applause, not thecriticism. of foes of apartheid."

- WV No. 130. 22 October 1976The advocates of boycotting South

Africa take the same line against theanti-apartheid work "Sizwe Banzi IsDead" as they do against "Ipi Tombi."The difference is that it is easier to rallysupport for boycotting "Ipi Tombi"because of its implicit acceptance of theracist status quo. While it does prettifythe bantustan system. "Ipi Tombi" is nota deliberate and important statement infavor of apartheid. This fact, combinedwith our opposition to a general boycottof South Africa and to political censor­ship of culture, is whv we do not involveourselves in the ca~paign against "IpiTombi."

A contrast to the "I pi Tombi" boycottwas provided by the principled andeffective protest action last March bythe Spartacist League and others (not­ably Communist Party-led Chile com­mittees) against the Chilean singinggroup, Los Huasos Quincheros. Thesescum had gone on Chilean nationaltelevision immediately after the bloody1973 coup to swear allegiance to thereactionary Pinochet junta. They wereofficially sponsored in a propagandaeffort to counteract the popularity ofother Chilean folksinging groups, nota­bly the Inti llimani, that had touredworldwide in benefits and concertsprotesting the junta. Tickets were

4 FEBRUARY 1977

apartheid system. We do not begrudgethe 25 black South African actors andactresses of the "Ipi Tombi" companythe opportunity to get out of the whitesupremacist hellhole, to earn severalhundred dollars' a week to take backwith them or, if they choose, to refuse togo back. It is certainly anomalous forthe left to tell them to go home.

South Africa's black masses needbroad international contact, not cultu­ral isolation. In this regard, it will helpput the "Ipi Tombi" controversy inperspective to recall the Stalinists'response to the South African play"Sizwe Banzi Is Dead." The Stalinist-ledAfrican National Congress attacked theactors of "Sizwe," John Kani andWinston Ntshona, for failing to respectthe ANC's call for a "complete, totaleconomic, athletic, cultural boycott ofSouth Africa."

What had the actors done to deservethis criticism? They performed a movingdramatic statement against apartheidand the bantustan system in the Trans­kei bantustan itself. Although they werearrested for their defiant performance,they earned the wrath of the ANC

Against a Cultural Boycott ofSouth Africa!

WV hoto

Militant pickets jeer junta-supporters outside concert sponsored by theChilean junta in New York last year.

The present action against "IpiTombi" is part of a general policy ofboycotting everything South African,from diamonds to dance-a policyadvocated by the Stalinists and certainleft liberals. This is a completely utopianscheme reflecting, at bottom, liberalmoralism. To the extent that it issuccessful, such an economic boycottwould foster unemployment for theoppressed non-white working peopleand thereby indirectly strengthen the

ordered to return to South Africa to"begin rehearsals" for the New Yorkrun, a number understandably refusedto do so. They were then dropped fromthe cast and new performers were hiredto replace them.

As a result of these anti-labor actions,some cast members wrote to theAmerican black-oriented women's mag­azine Essence, suggesting a protest onthe New York opening night. Thiswould have been supportable, but it isnot what happened. No signs at thedemonstrations appeated demandingthe rehiring of the London actors (whohave since gone on to form their ownseparate company). Nor were any of thevictimized cast members mentioned insigns or chants. The New Left Guardiancoverage and support of the boycottfailed to mention the labor question atall, and most telling, the LumumbaCoalition wrote in its leaflet that thegroup had plans to boycott the show fora month prior to learning about theLondon dispute, adding: "The issue weare raising here is not the wage scale ordifferential of the cast in thisproduction."

This boycott has nothing to do withthe London labor dispute. At most theboycotting groups use it as a cynicalfallback argument to appeal to tradeunionists.

Reforge the Fourth Internationall!I

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WORKE.RS VANGUARD.

Unable to respond to the revolution­ary proletarian program of the iSt, thesecharlatans charged the SL with "racism"because the speaker referred to anti­Semitic prejudices of many ghettoblack's and the prevalent tendency forlumpen blacks to identify Jewish shop­keepers as the class enemy. The League

continued on page 9

• For military support to petty­bourgeois nationalist forces fightingimperialism, but absolutely no politicalsupport to such forces; for Trotskyistparties in every country;

• For unconditional defense of all thedeformed! degenerated workers statesagainst imperialism; for political revolu­tion against the bureaucracies; nopolitical support to competing Stalinistcliques and factions;

• Against violence within theworkers movement;

• For communist fractions in theunions, based on the TransitionalProgram; .

• For the communist tactic of theunited front from above; for the tactic ofregroupment to unite subjective revolu­tionists in the vanguard party; forintransigent exposure of centrism;

• Rejection of the claims ofostensibly Trotskyist Internationals tospeak for the Fourth International,destroyed by Pabloism in 1951-1953;

• For the reforging of a democratic­centralist Fourth International whichwill stop at nothing short of thedictatorship of the proletariat.

Comrade Robertson noted the richopportunities open to the iSt as a resultof the decomposition of the USec and ofthe evident disorientation of much ofthe Maoist movement, but observedthat most of these opportunities presentthemselves where our forces are quali­tatively weaker, outside of NorthAmerica. "In the U.S. we regroupedourselves out of chances to have fusionswith forces that are close to us."

Unlike the SL!U.S.'s opponents,which have undergone considerablefragmentation in the last, relativelyunfruitful period, the Spartacist Leaguehas demonstrated its political andprogrammatic cohesion. "Mercifully,for a number of years we have had nosignificant forces in our organizationthat want to insurrect against either theparty program or the party administra­tion." The speaker cited the recent tradeunion Active Workers Conference asevidence that "It's clear that particularlyover the last five years of intensiveindustrialization, proletarianization,that we have already acquired a signifi­cant, effective and strong "cadre ofcommunist trade-union militants whocan act as a corrective in thisorganization...

In his presentation, Robertson hadnoted the replication within the ostensi­bly Trotskyist movement of all thoserevisions and mutilations of the revolu­tionary program which have plaguedthe workers movement for over acentury. Today especially, "Trotskyismhas become an 'in' word" among thosewho would adopt a radical posture freefrom the taint of Stalinist betrayals, butwhose politics are in fact quite remotefrom those of Trotsky and his heirs. Asif to illustrate this point, the discussionperiod was punctuated by an indignanthue and cry from two such groupings,who-despite diametrically opposeddifferences with the essential core ofTrotskyism-united for the occasion tocondemn the SL from the standpoint ofcheerleaders for petty-bourgeoisnationalism.

past: how he for several years put out anewspaper whose masthead proclaimedit was published "under the revolution­ary discipline of General Peron"; howthe PST pledged its support to the"continuity" and "institutionalization"of the second Peronist regime. It is therecord of an inveterate reformist. Thefact that the PST can sound likeMarxists on Angola or Portugal (justlike Moreno's earlier, very orthodox­sounding polemic against GuillermoLora on the Bolivian Popular Assem­bly) shows not that they are misguidedbut rather the opposite: that they arefully conscious renegades fromTrotskyism.

While excoriating all three wings ofcompeting revisionism, Robertsonpointed out that "the USec is theprincipal ostensible international repos­itory of what claims to be Trotskyism.And therefore we have the not overlyhappy task of pointing out that this isnot Trotskyism." If, he added, under thepressure of revolutionary events such asmight have developed in Portugal, awing of the USec were to polarizearound genuine opposition to popularfrontism and in favor of dual power anda Leninist party, our tendency wouldwelcome the opportunity to join withsuch elements in common opposition tothe reformist and centrist USecleadership.

As a model for the principled pro­grammatic basis necessary for such aregroupment, the speaker outlined thekey points of a draft declaration byTrotskyists expelled and driven out ofthe USec who now adhere to or supportthe iSt:

• No political or electoral support topopular fronts; for conditional opposi­tion to workers parties in open or impli­cit class-collaborationist coalitions;

• Uphold the Trotskyist theory ofpermanent revolution; for proletarianleadership of the national! socialstruggle;

The PST has now gone on to foundthe "Bolshevik Tendency" with much ofthe Spanish-speaking component of thesplintered USec. Because of the bloodyrepression which the Argentine left nowfaces, "the PST cannot swallow the purelegalism, constitutionalism, passivity,pacifism of the would-be social­democratic SWP. How can you believein pure legality when agents of thatlegality are killing you?"

Observing that the Bolshevik Tenden­cy has positions on Angola, Portugaland elsewhere which formally parallelthose of the international Spartacisttendency (iSt), the speaker recountedPST leader Nahuel Moreno's sordid

country such as the Communist Partyand the Socialist Workers Party is thatthey're all geared up to play the role ofrendering it less brittle, more elastic,more flexible." The SWP has used itsYoung Socialist Alliance to prepare"one thousand youth instantly to behired as assistant educational directorsand assistant editors of union newspa­pers" in its ambitions to serve as social­democratic handmaiden to the laborbureaucracy.

Comrade Robertson reported on themost recent developments in thefaction-ridden "United" Secretariat(USec). He noted with particular inter­est the "Self-Criticism on Latin Ameri­ca" by the steering committee of theInternational Majority Tendency led byErnest Mandel et aI., whose vicariousguerrillaism the speaker described as"catering to the impressionism of SouthAmerican and European youth whothought that you go out and pick up thegun and a bit of plastique and preferablysome stereotyped peasants, and awayyou go. Lenin and Trotsky were reallyold hat, if they weren't crypto­opportunist." In their self-critique, theIMT honchos renounce their previoustailing of Guev~rist adventurers andproclaim that the SWP-Ied reformistminority had been right all along onLatin America. In response the minorityhas now proposed to dissolve its ownfaction!

Concerning this latter tendency thespeaker remarked: "The SocialistWorkers Party-write them off. Sim­ply, unconditionally, totally; as anorganization, write them off. They arereformists. They are locked hopelesslyinto bourgeois democracy, constitution­al processes and a touching faith in allcapitalist cops, courts and judges." Hepointed out their actual motive foroffering peace to the IMT: they lost allhope of acquiring a: majority themselveswhen their bloc with the Argentine PSTfell apart.

pitiful, rotten and disgusting fascistmovements of any of the major imperi­alist countries."

Contrasting the American AFL-CIOwith the French Stalinist labor bu­reaucracy-a sophisticated apparatuswith roots going back to the ParisCommune and quite competent atrescuing the bourgeoisie from revolu­tionary crises such as that posed by the1968 general strike-the speaker re­marked on the brittleness and rigidity ofthe U.S. union bureaucracy. "Can youimagine the AFL-CIO dealing withgeneral strikes?"

He added, "The principal grievancewe have with' organizations in this

WV Photo

Discussion period at Spartacist League public forum held January 29.

4

Close to 200 Spartacist supportersand a scattering of opponents attended aNew York City forum last Saturday tohear James Robertson, national chair­man of the Spartacist League! U.S.,speak on the topic, "Toward the Rebirthof the Fourth International."

Evaluating the state of the classstruggle in different regions of theworld, the speaker began by noting areported breaking down of traditionalpaternalistic relations which havebound the Japanese proletariat to itsindustrial masters. While noting thehistoric failure of Trotskyism to rootitself in this nation, the economic pivotof Asia, he predicted the opening of aperiod of intensified classconfrontation.

Comrade Robertson characterizedthe revolutionary turbulence in theMediterranean region of Greece, Italyand Iberia "which are historically im­poverished, undercapitalized ... and un­stable from the standpoint of a revolu­tionary proletarian assault. Thereforethis is right now the region par excel­lence of the popular front. An old­fashioned stable coalition of social­democratic labourites and liberalbourgeoisie isn't good enough," headded. "You've got to have revolution­ary slogans in order to deceive themasses, because the conditions of lifeare qualitatively less tolerable. So youfind popular frontism: into the rest ofthe sellout broth you drop a hammerand sickle."

"In Italy, the great hope is that thePope and the Communist Party willmake a deal. It's called the HistoricCompromise."

The speaker described the safety valvemechanisms which have tended todeflect the impact of the economiccontradictions in Germany, France andthe Scandinavian countries where pow­erful social-democratic and Stalinistparties have kept the organized workersunder control while the problem ofunemployment is solved by deportingimmigrant workers back to the villagesof the Mediterranean basin. Britain,however, hovers on the edge ofeconom­ic collapse, with all the objectivepreconditions for a working-classupheaval.

~ The British left, historically accus­tomed to the political hegemony of thefossilized British Labour Party, cannotconceive of the possibility which weseek-the polarization and destructionof this reformist obstacle. The interna­tional bankers are more far-sighted: thespeaker quoted a New York Timeseditorial page article of 6 December1976 which envisaged just thispossibility.

"The response of foreign lenders has tobe finely calibrated: Massive austeritycould produce a violent reaction thatwould be harmful to both majorparties.... A return of the Tories withmounting unemployment could wellturn the hope of social peace to thecertainty of social conflict. The LaborParty might finally split; a new socialistparty, with a Trotskyist core and itsclass anger, would constitute the mostradical party in Europe."

On the U.S.: the speaker commented:"The very nakedness of this govern­ment's lying and hypocrisy, the greed ofthe bourgeoisie and the inability to doanything about it in any apparent wayhave created an enormous amount ofexplosive social material in Americalooking for an outlet." While this alsoleaves open the possibility for thegrowth of fascism, Robertson observedthat, unlike its European counterparts,the American fascist movement is"happily one of the smallest and most

New York SlH'rtacist forum

Bandaranaike Breaks Island-WideStrikes in Sri Lankaby Edmund Samarakkody

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In this context, there was a realpossibility of the strikes being developedinto a general strike against the govern­ment on economic as well as politicalissues, such as ending of the State ofEmergency and the restoration ofdemocratic rights, and the release of allpolitical prisoners, which were thesubject matter of previous agitationespecially by the LSSP and other leftparties and groups outside the coalitionalliance.

The reaction of the Bandaranaikegovernment to the strikes was notdifficult to guess. Far from being readyto grant any wage concessions to theworkers, the government was categori­cal in its denunciation of the strikes asunreasonable and unjustified, and tbatthey were politically motivated. On theother hand, as the smashing of the tradeunions and the left movement was thegovernment's perspective, these strikescould well be an opportunity to takesome meaningful steps in that rcg<lrd.

For the government thert 'Nere twopossible ways of seeing an end te thestrikes: one through the fiuling out ofthe strikes and the other throughgovernment repression.

Far from showing any signs of fizzlingout, even after 15 days the strikemovement was growing and widening,with newer sections joining it. It soonbecame obvious to the government thatrepression was the only means to end thestrikes. However, the government un­derstood that sometimes repressivemeasures could well escalate strikes.leading to real confrontations with theorganised working-class movement.

But the government had sufficientknowledge in regard to the quality of thetrade-union leaderships in this strike,not to entertain unnecessary fear con­cerning the resort to repression. Thetruth about these strikes was that theywere leaderless. In such a context,government repression would veryprobably lead not to confrontation butto disintegration of the strike move­ment. And that was precisely whathappened.

In regard to the SLFP trade-unionleaderships, they were in the strikes onlybecause their workers were participat­ing in a real way in the strikes, but theseleaderships were out to break thesestrikes both from within and fromoutside the unions. The SLFP trade­union bureaucrats did not hesitate todenounce the strikes and called upontheir members not to remain in thestrike which was "politically motivat­ed." But it was by no means easy to gettheir workers out of the strikes.

The reaction of the SLFP workers tothe directions from their trade-unionbureaucrats to become black legs[scabs] was significant. They not onlyopenly rejected this treacherous call, butthey also brought home to these leadersgraphically what they thought of theirleaders. SLFP strikers put up posters inColombo offering a reward to anyonewho succeeded in arresting their leader,Alavi Moulana, who was the chieforganiser of black legs for thegovernment!

The CP adopted a more shameful butmore treacherous tactic. After observ­ing deliberate silence during the first fewdays of the railway strike, the CP paperAltha began to give screaming headlinesindicating their support for the strikes.What is more, this paper sought toimpress that it was the CP that was inthe leadership in this strike movement!

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a loan of Rs. 500 to meet especially thehigh costs of school books for theirchildren, and also the rising costs offood and other essential consumergoods, soon became a strike .of allworkers in the workshops at this factoryon December 15, involving over 5,000workers.

Within a week, this strike spread tothe other railway workshops in Colom­bo and the out-lying stations; simultane­ously, engine drivers, railway guards,station masters and other sections ofrailway workers-in all, over 26,000workers-brought the railway servicesto a complete standstill on December21.

The strike at this stage was sponsoredby the United Front of the RailwayTrade Unions, and the issue was not thesingle demand of a loan. Eight otherdemands, including wage demands,were raised by the striking unions.

That the issue of increased wages wasa burning question for all governmentworkers soon became manifest by theescalation of the strike movement toinciude workers of numerous govern­ment departments and workplaces: theport of Colombo, two government­owned machine tool factories, telecom­munications and government clericalservices-including such services in thelocal governments, the municipal coun­cils, town councils, etc.-involving over30,000 hands, and also a partial strike of'bus' workers of the Ceylon TransportBoard.

While workers and employees ofother government workplaces werereadying themselves for strike action,both in sympathy with railway workersand also on their own demands, widesections of workers in the private sectorwere pressuring their respective leader­ships to take strike decisions.

The significant feature of the railwaystrike as well as the other strikes thatfollowed was that it was propelled by arank and file movement. The severalunion leaderships which included theLSSP, CP, SLFP, and UNP moved tosponsor the railway strike only after thestrike had taken place.

What was specially noteworthy Wethe high degree of militancy displaye__by the strikers. Striking workers in allstrikebound places defied the govern­ment's "essential service order," in termsof which they Were to lose their jobsthrough participation in strikes declaredillegal by this order. They were alsoexposed by the same order to courtcharges, imprisonment and confiscationof property.

Nor was there any doubt in regard tothe strength of the strike movement andthe impact of the strikes on thegovernment-organised public services.Here is what Prime Minister Bandara­naike had to say in her message to thenation on December 29, even before thestrikes spread to the government clericalservices, etc.:

"The public have already suffered as aresult of the railway strike. The crip­pling of the railway services does notonly mean inconvenience to passengers,especially office workers, but it alsoseriously affects the movement of food,fuel and other vital commodities, suchas fertiliser, which are all so essential tothe life of the community. Already,shortages of rice and serious shortagesof kerosene have been reported fromvarious areas of the country as a resultof the dislocation of the railwayservices.... Added to all this, the strikehas affected refuelling at B.I.A. (Ban­daranaike International Airport) andthe provision of bunkers to shipsresulting in loss of foreign exchange atthis critical time...."

chauvinist hysteria. She and herhusband were permanently sep,Hat­ed as he was banned from enteringthe country and she was bannedfrom leaving; she was deprived ofher U.S. citizenship and handed aten-year prison sentence along witha $10,000 fine (see "In Defense ofTokyo Rose," WV No. 139, 7January).

Her trial was a farce. She wasbehind bars for two years beforeeven coming to trial before an all­white jury; Japanese witnessescould be suhpoenaed only by theprosecution. Among those whohave recently spoken out in defenseof d'Aquino is the jury foreman ather trial. He has admitted that thejury convicted her on the one countof treason out of the eight she wascharged with only because ofpressure from the judge and thepervasive climate of anti-Japanesesentiment, saying he wished he had"had a little more guts to stick withmy vote for acquittal" (Nell' YorkPost,.18 January).

So now everyone from theJapanese American CitizensLeague (which was afraid to defendher in 1948) to the San FranciscoBoard of Supervisors to the LosAngeles city council (which hasrescinded its 1948 resolution oppos­ing her re-entry into the U.S.)thinks Tokyo Rose should bepardoned. This token gesture whichwill restore her citizenship is aninsulting piece of liberal hypocrisy,coming as it does after she hadalready spent six-and-a-half years ofher life behind bars until her releasein 1956. Working as a clerk in animport firm, it took her until 1975to payoff the fine-yet it is onlynow that she is pardoned.

The smug liberals feel they havewashed their hands of an embar­rassing affair and justice has beendone. Iva Toguri d'Aquino says shebears no grudge. But if justice hadreally been done, those who framedher up would now be standing in thedock. Though it seems small com­pared to the imperialist war crimes,the 30-year persecution of thisinnocent victim of circumstances,like the vicious injustice done to theScottsboro Boys (the last one ofwhom was pardoned in November),is one more proof that bourgeois"democracy" is but a mask forinhuman oppression.•

However, what was dramaticallvmanifest in these strikes was that th~ever-rising cost of living in conditions ofvirtual wage freeze had reached thebreaking point for workers and wageearners, both in the government andprivate sectors, and that large sectionsof the workers in the trade unions hadtaken the first steps to bypass theirreformist leaders, to take the road ofstruggle as the means of winning theirpressing demands.

What commenced as agitation by agroup of workers in the major railwayworkshops (Ratmalana) on the issue of

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refused to renounce her U.S.citizenship. Though the AlliedPOW officers who ran the programshe broadcast were not prosecuted,she was convicted of treason in1949.

The racist U.S. imperialist warmachine wasn't satisfied by drop­ping atom bombs on Hiroshi­ma and Nagasaki and herding theentire West Coast citizenry ofJapanese descent into concentra­tion camps; it couldn't resist thepetty and vindictive prosecution ofthe one accessible Tokyo Rose tosymbolize the defeat of Japaneseimperialism. Caught in a trap, IvaToguri d'Aquino found her life tornto shreds in the storm of racist and

Iva Toguri d'Aquino

As Gerald Ford left office hepardoned Iva Toguri d'Aquino.One among at least a dozen radioannouncers broadcasting to L .S.servicemen from Japan duringWorld War II who were knowncollectively as "Tokyo Rose," Ivad'Aquino was singled out forprosecution after the war when she

4.FEBRUARY 1977·

"Tokyo Rose" Pardoned

COLOMBO, January 16--The railwayworkers strike which paralysed therailway services for nearly 30 days, andthe strikes in other government depart­ments and workplaces-invoiving in allover 75,000 employees on the issues ofloans, wage increases, etc.-ended in theface of severe repression by theSLFP / CP [Sri Lanka Freedom Par­ty! Communist Party] coalition regime,facilitated by the treachery of the CPand SLFP trade-union leaders, and thefailure of the LSSP [Lanka SarnaSamaja Party] to sustain and developthe strike movement.

20 Y~~rs A!Jer Serving Sentence

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On the Class Nature of the USSR

Trotskyism vs. "State Capitalis

6 WORKERS VANGUARD

Karl Kautsky's 1919 polemic Terror­ism and Communism lays out all thebasic arguments which social democra­cy subsequently employed to denouncethe USSR as more distant from social­ism than bourgeois democracy. Kautskyidentifies democracy with parliamen­tarianism and condemns the rule ofworkers councils (soviets) as itself aviolation of socialist principle. Hedefines Lenin's Russia as "state capital­ist," a condition which was worse for theworkers than tsarist rule!

"In order to save industry, therefore, anew class of officials had to be formedand put in authority over the workers.This new class gradually appropriatedto itself all actual and virtual control,and transformed the freedom of theworkers into a mere illusorvfreedom.... ."The absolutism of the old bureaucracvhas come again to life in a new but ... byno means improved form; and along­side of this absolutism are being formed

capitalist" were the social democrats.This followed logically from theKautskyan! Menshevik dogma thatRussia was too backward to support aneconomic system more advanced thancapitalism. The assertion that Lenin'sRussia was capitalist was a necessarycomponent of the Second Internation­al's reformist worldview.

The Dnieper hydroelectric station planned under the 1920 "Plan for theElectrification of Russia" and completed in 1932.

Social-Democratic Liberalismand Economism

Predictably, the first exponents of theview that Soviet Russia was "state

Navasti Press

between Stalin and those who con­demned him as the ruler of an exploita­tive class society. For example, in one ofTrotsky's last polemics on the questionhe wrote:

"Shachtman revises not only the presentpolicy of the Fourth International butalso the past. Since we are against Stalinwe must therefore be against the USSRtoo. Stalin has long held this opinion.Shachtman arrived at it only recently.From his rejection of the Kremlin'spolitics flows complete and indivisibledefeatism."

-"From a Scratch-To theDanger of Gangrene," 1940

Stalin and Shachtman shared acommon identification of the politicalcharacter of the ruling party or groupwith the dominant social class repre­sented by the state.

Despite individual variation andoverlapping argumentation, there re­main three distinct ideological ap­proaches to "state capitalism," eachcorresponding to the major politicaltendencies upholding this position:social democracy, anarcho-syndicalismand now Mao-Stalinism.

theories, had attained a more-or-lessstable alignment. Newly formed groupswere inexorably drawn into one of thefundamental historic tendencies. Forexample, those factions which split tothe right from the Trotskyist FourthInternational over the Russian question(e.g., Max Shachtman and Tony Cliff)drifted into the camp of social democra­cy; others who split to the left (e.g., J.R.Johnson and Grandizo Munis) becameanarcho-syndicalists in all but name.

The political! theoretical alignmenton the Russian question which wasestablished in the 1930's has now beendisturbed by new fanatical converts tothe doctrine that the USSR is "statecapitalist"-the Maoists. China's post­1971 de facto alliance with U.S. imperi­alism against Brezhnev's Russia isjustified by the contention that the latterhas become a "social-imperialist super­power," which is "more dangerous"than the older capitalist states. Todaythe most aggressive, shrill campaignersfor the view that the Soviet Union is anexploitative class society are no longerthe social democrats or anarcho­syndicalists; rather, they are the Mao­ists, acting in the name of orthodoxStalinism.

The Maoist diatribes against Soviet"state capitalism" have their ironies.Those tendencies on the left whichconsidered themselves the most impla­cable enemies of Stalinism, whichaccused the Trotskyists of being soft onStalinism, now hear their argumentsfrom the mouths of the most unregener­ate, hard-line Stalin cultists. In turn, theMaoists could have lifted their denun­ciations of Brezhnev's Russia almostword-for-word from Kautskyan andlibertarian polemics' against Stalin'sregIme.

In fact, some of the more eclectic NewLeft Maoist intellectuals are evenwilling to turn to social-democraticrevisionists to beef up their poortheoretical armory. An Italian sympa­thizer of the "Chinese road to social­ism," Antonio Carlo, maintains thatRussia under Stalin was "bureaucraticcollectivist" ("The Socio-EconomicNature of the USSR," Telos, Fall 1974).One supporter of the academic mao-oidMonthly Review agrees with its editorPaul Sweezy that the Soviet bureaucra­cy is a ruling class, but finds the notionthat the USSR is capitalist unconvinc­ing. He suggests that the analyses ofShachtman and Rudolf Hilferding aremore germane:

"The socially stratified, bureaucratical­ly planned societies of the Soviet blocare class systems, and if we could raiseMarx from the grave he would say so.Marxists have defined these plannedsocieties in various ways: bureaucraticcollectivism (Shachtman), totalitarianstates (Hilferding), state socialism(Naville). Whatever the correct namefor these societies, one feature is c1ear­the bureaucracy is a class."

-Ross Gandy, "More on theNature of Soviet Society,"Monthly Review, March 1976

We will not comment on the scientificmerit of an author who claims the SovietUnion is a class society but does notknow what kind of class society it is.

The intellectual convergence betweenthe traditional social-democratic andanarcho-syndicalist attitude toward theUSSR and the Maoist-Stalinists comesas no surprise to Trotskyists. In hismany polemics on the Russian question,Trotsky on numerous occasions pointedout the methodological parallelism

Archiv

Ever since the Bolshevik Revolution,differences over the nature of the SovietUnion have been the single mostimportant question underlying theprincipal divisions within the interna­tional workers movement. Almost

Karl Kautsky

ultra-left tendencies in the Third Inter­national, notably Gorter/ Pannekoek inHolland and the German KAPD,concluded that capitalism had beenrestored in Russia.

During the 1930's Leon Trotskydeveloped the position that the USSRwas a bureaucratically degeneratedworkers state. The maintenance of acollectivized planned economy indicat­ed the proletarian, anti-capitalist natureof the state. Stalin's totalitarian terrorrested on a parasitic bureaucratic caste,which had to be ousted by the workingclass in order to open the road tosocialism. Of all the opponents ofStalinism within the workers move­ment, only the Trotskyists regarded theSoviet Union as a continuing, albeitqualitatively deformed, expression ofthe dictatorship of the proletariat.

By the eve of World War II the basicpolitical divisions over "the Russianquestion," each with its characteristic

PART 1 OF 2immediately after October the socialdemocrats condemned Lenin's sovietgovernment as a historic step backwardsfrom bourgeois democracy. As early as1919, Kautsky declared the USS R to be"state capitalist," ruled by a "new class"of bureaucrats.

A few years later disillusion set inamong the anarchists, particularly overKronstadt. They denounced Lenin'scentralist regime as a "dictatorship ofthe party" and repeated the Bakuninistdictum that the state is the fundamentalsource of all social oppression. Then,after the institution of the New Econom­ic Policy (NEP) in 1921 and with theemerging Stalinist bureaucratization,

The following is the introduction of aforthcoming Spartacus Youth Leaguepamphlet which brings together severalrecent articles from Workers Vanguardand Young Spartacus on Maoist econ­omics. attempts by apologists for theChinese bureaucracy to explain asupposed "restoration of capitalism" inthe post-Stalin USSR and theories of"state capitalism" generally.

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concrete, particular nature of Sovietsociety and its evolution from Lenin toStalin, or from Stalin to Brezhnev. Heand his fellow anarcho-syndicalists havea simple-minded definition of class asany distinct group of political oreconomic administrators. In otherwords, for them the basic division insociety is between the order-givers andthe order-takers:

"We also hold that the means ofproduction may change hands (passingfor instance from private hands intothose of a bureaucracy, which collec­tively owns them) without this revolu­tionising the relations of production.Under such circumstances ... the societyis still a class society, forproduction is still managed by anagency other than the producersthemselves."

For Brinton and his co-thinkers theultimate goal is not liberating mankindfrom economic scarcity and arduoustoil, but the relatively trivial one ofeliminating hierarchical relations at thepoint of production:

"Workers' management of pro­duction implying as it does thetotal domination of the producer overthe prOductive process-is not for us amarginal matter. It is the core of ourpolitics. It is the only means wherebyauthoritarian (order-giving, order­taking) relations in production can betranscended and a free, communist oranarchist, society introduced."

At bottom, this type of simplisticlibertarianism is a utopian desire toreturn to the "free" artisan status ofpre­industrial society. Brinton's polemicagainst Bolshevism was fully answeredover a hundred years ago by Engels inhis classic anti-anarchist tract OnAuthority (1873), where he pointed out:

"Wanting to abolish authority in large­scale industry is tantamount to wantingto abolish industry itself, to destroy thepower loom in order to return to thespinning wheel."

We really have nothing new to add.

The Bolshevik Revolution gave rise toa current of ultra-left communists whoshared many of the premises of thetraditional anarcho-syndicalists. Partlyin response to the capitalist features ofNEP and partly reacting against theemerging Stalinist bureaucratization,these ultra-left tendencies split from theThird International, denouncing Russiaas capitalist. The most important figuresin this tendency were the ItalianAmadeo Bordiga and the German HugoUrbahns.

Bordiga mocked the demagogicworkerist view that Stalin's Russia wascapitalist because factory directorsdrove big cars. But his own theory is noless simplistic:

"It [the bureaucracy] obtains thesecommodities in exchange for rectangu­lar pieces of paper which it folds up intowads that are held close to its heart insmall leather purses called billfolds.These paper rectangles are money,rubles in Russian: therefore, this is abureaucracy of a capitalist mode ofproduction."

-"Le trotskysme," in Pro­gramme Communiste,October-December 1972

Bordiga demonstrates that socialism,the lower stage ofcommunism, does notexist in the USSR: classes continue toexist, as do commodity production,money and wage labor. It is not asocialist mode of production, he con­cludes; therefore it is capitalist.

As the foremost opponent of everparticipating in bourgeois parliaments,

continued on page 8

7

The Reactionary Utopias ofAnarcho-Syndicalism

The theory of "bureaucraticcollectivism," which also arose at thistime, is very close in spirit to Hilfer­ding's "totalitarian state." The seminalexpression was by Bruno Rizzi, anItalian ex-Trotskyist who in 1939 wroteThe Bureaucratization of the World.Like Hilferding, Rizzi identified Stalin'sregime with the rise of fascism and(unlike the social democrat Hilferding)with Roosevelt's New Deal. "Bureau­cratic collectivism" was seen as a world­historic phenomenon, the rationalsolution to the anarchy of capitalistproduction.

The concept of "bureaucratic collec­tivism" was taken over and popularizedby the American renegade from Trot­skyism, Max Shachtman. With thedefeat of the fascist powers in WorldWar II, Shachtman drew the conclu­sions of his growing conviction that"bureaucratic collectivism" (i.e., Stalin­ism) was a greater threat to a socialistfuture than bourgeois democracy, andwas therefore inexorably drawn into thefanatical anti-communism of officialAmerican social democracy.

both knowledgeable enough and honestenough to make this revision of Marxexplicit:

"The Marxist sectarian cannot graspthe idea that present-day state power,having achieved independence, is un­folding its enormous strength accordingto its own laws, subjecting social forcesand compelling them to serve its endsfor a short or long period of time.'Therefore neither the Russian nor thetotalitarian system in general is deter­mined by the character of the economy.On the contrary, it is the economy thatis determined by the policy of the rulingpower and subjected to the aims andpurposes of this power. The totalitarianpower lives by the economy, but not forthe economy or even for the class rulingthe economy-as is the case of thebourgeois state...."

-Ibid.

In discussing the anarcho-syndicalistattitude toward the USSR it is useful todistinguish between those claiming theclassic Bakuninite tradition and theultra-left communists who supportedLenin's Third International and claim tobe Marxists.

The traditional anarcho-syndicalistscondemned the Bolsheviks for carryingout the Marxist policy of state owner­ship of the means of production dndeconomic centralism. A recent effectiverestatement of the classic anarcho­syndicalist case against Lenin's Russia isMaurice Brinton's The Bolsheviks andWorkers Control. 1917 to 1921 (1970).In this well researched and fairly objec­tive historical essay, Brinton correctlyasserts that the Bolsheviks were alwayscommitted to centralized managementand that their guarded acceptance ofworkers' self-management in 1917-18had a conjunctural tactical purpose.

Brinton's essentially pre-Marxianoutlook makes him indifferent to the

The totalitarian state theories whichburgeoned in the late 1930's all stand inthe social-democratic tradition in thatthey imply (even when they don'texplicitly assert) that Stalinist Russia,like Nazi Germany, is a historicalretrogression from the most advancedcapitalist democracy.

accumulation at the expense ofworkers'wages.

The most prominent-but by nomeans earliest-exponent of the "Sta­linist industrialization equals capital­ism" school is Tony Cliff, a renegadefrom Trotskyism who heads the BritishInternational Socialists group. For acomprehensive exposition of the fraud­ulent and economistic Cliffite theoryof state capitalism, see "The Anti­Marxist Theory of 'State Capitalism'­A Trotskyist Critique," in YoungSpartacus Nos. 51 and 52, February andMarch 1977.

At bottom the "accumulation equalscapitalism" argument is a workeristand/ or demagogic identification of thephysical means of production withcapital (the means of production asprivately owned commodities). Marx'sclassic exposition on the nature andorganization of a workers state, the"Critique of the Gotha Program"(1875), contained a polemic against theLasallean notion that "every workermust receive the 'undiminished proceedsof labour'." In it he clearlystated that part of the surplus overconsumption would be devoted toaccumulating additional means ofproduction:

"Let us take first of all the words'proceeds of labour' in the sense of theproduct of labour; then the co-operativeproceeds of labour are the total socialproduct."From this must now be deducted:"First, cover for replacement of themeans of production used up."Secondly, additional portion for ex­pansion ofproduction." [our emphasis]

If accumulation of the means ofproduction is the programmatic normfor a model workers state, how muchmore important and rapid must accu­mulation be in a back ward workers statefacing imperialist encirclement?

Stalin's purges in the late 1930'sprovoked a new class of theories whichfocused on the rise of the "totalitarianstate," an ideological tradition culmi­nating in the unrelieved historic pessi­mism of George Orwell's 1984. Stalin'spurges seemed to represent the existenceof an omnipotent, arbitrary state powerunconcerned with rational economicpurpose; Russia was a giant Gulag.

Rudolf Hilferding, the most talentedtheorist of inter-war social democracy,argued that Stalin's Russia representeda new historical phenomenon, totallyunanticipated by traditional Marxisttheory and categories. In a 1940 essay heput forth a brilliant criticism of theconcept of "state capitalism" as appliedto the USSR. He also rejected thenotion that the bureaucracy was a rulingclass with a sound argument that theindividuals comprising the bureaucracyhad no institutional means for appropri­ating a definite share of the surplusproduct, or even maintaining theirpositions in the social hierarchy. Hecorrectly observed that the Sovietbureaucracy, "is in fact subordinate tothe government to the same extent as arethe rest of the people" ("State Capital­ism or Totalitarian State Economy," inIrving Howe, ed., Essential Works ofSocialism [1970)).

Hilferding reverted to an essentiallyanarchist conception of the state as thedominant and autonomous institutionin society, rejecting the Marxist positionthat the state power defends the pro­perty interests of a distinct group (i.e.,class) central to economic life. He was

From K~utsky to Mao

Socialist Worker

ISR

Max Shachtman

the seeds of a new capitalism ... whichin reality stands on a much lower levelthan the industrial capitalism offormerdays. It is only the ancient feudal landestate which exists no more. For itsabolition conditions in Russia wereripe. But they were not ripe for theabolition of capitalism. This lattersystem is now undergoing resuscitation,nevertheless in forms which, for theproletariat. are more oppressing andmore harmful than those of yore....Industrial capitalism, from being aprivate system, has now become Statecapitalism. Formerly the bureaucrats ofthe State and those of private capitalwere often very critical, if not directlyhostile, towards one another. ... Today,however, both State and capitalistbureaucracy have merged into onesystem. That is the final result of thegreat Socialist upheaval which theBolsheviks have introduced. It repre­sents the must uppressive ofall forms ofdespotism that Russia has ever had."[our emphasis]

All later theories of state capitalism arebuilt on foundations anticipated by "therenegade Kautsky" less than two yearsafter the Bolsheviks had come to power.This fact in itself points to the reformistideological premises inherent in thenotion of "state capitalism."

With the onset of Stalin'sindustrialization drive in 1929, social­democratic ideologues added anotherargument to their basic "parliamentarydemocracy is the road to socialism"position. Stalin's unbalanced concen­tration on producer goods and break­neck industrialization tempo led to adrastic fall in the living standards of theRussian masses. This enabled social­democratic spokesmen to declare Rus­sia "capitalist" because it maximized

Tony Cliff

4 FEBRUARY 1977

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Bordiga fancied himself the mostferocious defender of the dictatorship ofthe proletariat. But he denied anyeconomic content to this class dictator­ship; it was simply and exclusively aquestion of who held state power.Economically there was no transitionperiod between capitalism and socialismin his view; the revolutionary party ofthe proletariat may rule but capitalismremains until money, wage labor andcommodity production are eliminated."In Russia," he wrote, " ... capital wasnever destroyed, because it could not be:it was simply controlled for an instant[during the period of so-called 'warcommunism'] by the dictatorship of theBolshevik party; then it destroyed thisparty" (our emphasis).

This thesis is a frontal assault on theMarxist theory of the state, by denyingthat it has any economic content, thatstate power is based on armed bodies ofmen defending certain property forms.The collectivist economy (abolition ofprivate ownership of the means ofproduction, planned production) countfor nothing. It is not surprising, there­fore, that Bordiga not only rejectedTrotsky's theory of a degeneratedworkers state under Stalin, but ex­pressed his distaste for the term worker.1slate. Although his argumentation wascomplex, the reason was straightfor­ward: he wanted to deny that there wasanything for the workers to defend inthe Soviet Union.

There are no significant anarcho­syndicalist or ultra-left communistgroups in the English-speaking world.In marked contrast to Latin Europe andalso Japan, in the U.S. the notion ofSoviet "state capitalism" is generallyassociated with social-democratic andnow Maoist reformism, and withsupport to American imperialism as thelesser evil as against the USSR.

One articulate exponent of the leftversion of "state capitalism" in the U.S.is Raya Dunayevskaya. Of Russianorigin, Dunayevskaya entered the Trot-

From Kautsky toMao ...

(continuedfrom page 12)

E:\A but has already committcd himselfto enforcing it until it expires three yearsfrom now. He rants against the power ofBig Steel but opposes its nationali;a­tion. He moans about unemploymentbut has not lifted a finger to fight sizablelayoffs in his own district, while callingfor reducing the steel workforce by threequarters. He says that the union must becontrolled by the ranks yet gives thegreen light to the government to directlypolice USW A affairs.

On not olle single issue doesSadlowski hreak from the class col/ah­orationism of the mainstream laborhureaucracy. He is nothing but a 1970'sversion of the Reutherite liberal bureau­crats who have so firmly subordinatedthe once-militant UAW to the autocompanies. Only by forging an inde­pendent opposition within the unionthat consistently defends working-classindependence and fights for militantclass-struggle policies---both on immed­iate trade-union questions and in thefundamental political questions whichaffect all workers~-can steel workerstake the struggle forward to victory.

Remember: in 1965 I. W. Abelcampaigned against McDonald on theslogan of dumping "tuxedo unionism."It was tough talk, but there was noprogram to back it up. This yearSadlowski---another labor faker on themake-blasts Abel for sipping martiniswith the bosses, but his program is nobetter than McBride's. Don't befooled! •

Sadlowski...

Daniel Laine

by Jean-Claude himself). The mostelementary signs of political oppositionare still mercilessly wiped out throughbeatings, imprisonment and murder.

Since 1954 when the Duvaliers cameto power, 40,000 people have beenassassinated. Trade unions are stilloutlawed and immediate death is stillthe penalty for anyone found associatedwith any sort of "communist activity."Today the cycle of life in Haiti remainsone of famine, corruption, theft, rapeand traffic in blood, drugs and corpses.The poorest country in the Westernhemisphere, it has an average per capitaincome of $70 a year. Ninety percent ofthe population is illiterate, life expectan­cy is 35 years and half the children diebefore the age of four. Despite claimsthat industry is picking up under thenew regime, sales of human blood (forwhich Haitians are paid $4/liter asopposed to the going rate of $20/ pint in

continued on page 10

The hated "tontons macoutes," the national police force

1976). Moreover, in the past year AI hasdocumented a wave of arrests ofreturned exiles whom the regime sus­pects of opposition activities. Exilessometimes prefer death to returning toHaiti, as was horribly demonstrated bythe 1974 suicide of Turenne De Ville inhis Miami jail cell only hours before hewas to be deported. Since then two otherprison suicides have been reported.

Haiti under the Duvaliers is one of theworld's most backward, corrupt andbarbaric regimes. It is reported that"Papa Doc" once/had the skull of a rivalbrought to his office where he interro­gated 'it for several hours. Perhaps afterthe token cosmetic facelifting institutedby "Baby Doc" to please his Americanmentors, they no longer behead corpsesin Haiti. But the population still lives interror of the Tontons-now euphemisti­cally called "Volunteers for NationalSecurity"-and the still more elitesquad, the Leopards (formerly headed

100 in U.S. Jails Face Tonton Macoute Torturers

No Deportations of HaitianRefugeesl ~~

A week of protest dramatizing the / " ,plight of Haitian refugees in the US ...""was held in Washington, D.C., last weekunder the auspices of the Haitian(Catholic) Fathers and the NationalCouncil of Churches. Over 1,500 refu­gees from the blood-drenched Caribbe­an dictatorship who arrived in Miamiwithin the last three years have beendenied political asylum by the U.S.Immigration and l\aturalization Serv­ice (INS). The State Department has thegall to claim that Haiti is no longer a"totalitarian state" since the 1971 deathof right-wing despot Fran90is ("PapaDoc") Duvalier and the succession of hisson Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duva­lier. Thus Haitians arriving in the USare refused classification as politicalrefugees. Like the thousands of migrantMexican workers who enter the U.S.each y:?ar, they are considered "illegalahens.

At the Januarv 28 rallv concludingthe week of prote'sts, spokesmen for th~refugees described how thousands havened Haiti for their lives. Manv bear thescars from blows of the' TontonsMacoutes (the Duvaliers' private army)on their backs; others have seen theirfamilies dragged off before their eyes.Far from simple "job seekers," almostall of the Haitian refugees who havebeen denied asylum are either membersof underground opposition groups,innocent victims of the Tontons' whimswho protested too loudly. or friends andrelatives of someone in the first twocategories who are threatened becauseof ,that relationship.

The speakers described the odyssey ofrefugees who sail more than 800 miles toMiami, many in leaky fishing boats soprimitive and poorly stocked that newarrivals often have to be immed iate1yhospitalized. Once in Miami-usuallyunable to read, write or speak English~

they are easy prey for the Immigrationagents and a network of parasites wholive off the plight of the "illegals" byproviding smail but crucial "favors."When interrogated by the INS the realfacts of the refugees' situations arefurther concealed because, accordmg tothe speakers, the INS translator inMiami is notorious for his familv's closeconnections to the Duvalier regi~e!Thelong arm of the Tontons Macoutesreaches into the sizeable Haitian com­munity in the U.S., so that new arrivalswould risk kidnapping and death (not tomention victimization of their friendsand relatives at home) if they reveal toU. S. authorities their oppositionistactivities against the Duvalieristdictatorship.

Over 95 Haitian refugees are present­ly being held in jails in Immokalle,Florida, and EI Paso, Texas. Somespend up to 16 months in prison untilbail is raised by the Council of Churchesand release is arranged. On the outsidewithout working papers, some get jobsas maids or field hands while others liveon handouts from relief organizations.Many have deportation proceedingshanging over their heads.

Contrary to the smug insistance bythe Haitian ambassador to the U.S. thatthose returning to Haiti will not bepenalized, Amnesty International (AI)reports that Haitians who acted onreports in the American press that theDuvalier regime had liberalized aresometimes taken to prison minutes afterthey touch down at the Port-au-Princeairport (Guardian [London], 6 June

4 FEBRUARY 1977

skyist movement in the 1930's. She splitfrom the Fourth International in the late1940's as part of an essentially syndicalistfaction led by the West Indian J.R.Johnson and loosely tied to the Spani­ard Grandizo Munis.

An early, brief and cogent statementof Dunayevskaya's position is "A NewRevision of Marxian Economics" pub­lished in (of all places) the AmericanEconomic Review (September 1944).(She is polemicizing here against aRussian Stalinist economist who main­tains that the law of value prevails under"socialism",-whence the title.) This isthe heart of Dunayevskaya's position:

"There is incontrovertible evidence thatthere exists in Russia at present a sharpclass differentiation based upon adivision of function between the work­ers, on the one hand, and the managersof industry, millionaire kolkhozniki[collective farmers], political leadersand the intelligentsia in general, on theother.... This distinction between theintelligentsia and the mass of theworkers has found its economic expres­sion in the formula: 'From each accord­ing to his abilities, to each according tohis labor.' This formula should becompared with the traditional Marxistformula: 'From each according to hisability, to each according to his need.''Each according to his need' has alwaysbeen considered a repudiation of thelaw of value. The document, however,states that 'distribution according tolabor' is to be effected through theinstrumentality of money. This moneyis not script notes or some bookkeeping

for a Revolutionary Party, Sy Landy'slatest clique spinoff from the Shacht­manite RSL, writhing with what Ro­bertson termed its "vicarious closetblack nationalism," was horrified by theSL's recognition of the need to fightlumpenism as an obstacle to the attain­ment of revolutionary consciousness bythe black masses.

To its glorification of lumpen rage,the speaker responded: "This is a racistcountry. You'vegot to speak the truthabout what it's like in this country. Theblacks and whites don't trust each other.They don't like each other. The van­guard, if it refuses to face this, can neverbuild an interracial Leninist party."Other SL speakers exposed the trueappetites of these Shachtmanites' petty­bourgeois moralism in their refusal todefend busing (the defeat of which canonly embolden forces of racist reaction),their support for "reform" trade-unionbureaucrats like Arnold Miller and theirconsistent refusal to defend the gains ofthe Russian Revolution which, despitequalitative degeneration under Stalinistbureaucratic rule, have survived in thecollectivized property forms.

Derisively a Communist Cadrespokesman remarked, "Your glorifica­tion of the SWP tradition really showswhere you're at. You're the real Can­nonites and the SWP has betrayedCannonism. Well, Trotsky was stuckwith Cannon...." On being accused ofCannonism, Spartacist supporters inthe audience broke into applause.

The forum was concluded with adefense of Cannonism by the speaker.Tracing the development of the post­Leninist Comintern in various coun­tries, where repression, splits, capitula­tions and revisionism destroyed orcrippled those movements, he pointedout: "Only in the United States ... wasthere a continuous Leninist-Trotskyisttradition embodied in an organizationand a cadre. And however critically welook at the history of the Americansection, for 30 years before us we havehad the privilege, if we use it well, of theonly continuous revolutionary Marxistexperience on the face of the planet.That's what Cannonism means.".

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AustralasianSPARTACIST

a monthly organ of revolutionary Marxism forthe rebirth of the Fourth Internationalpublished by Spartacist Publications for theCentral Committee of the Spartacist League ofAustralia and New Zealand, section of theinternational Spartacist tendency

U.S. $5-12 Issues (airmail)U.S. $2-12 Issues (surface mall)Order from/pay to: Spartacist Publications,GPO Box 3473, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia

the strike to meet the governmentrepression that had begun. While the CPwas in the coalition alliance and wasgiving Sirima Baildaranaik.e full supportto launch repression (thus making itpart of the forces of repression), theLSSP which was reputed to be in "theopposition" totally failed to do anythingto counter governmental measures tobreak the strike.

Taking account of the green lightgiven by the trade-union leaders, by theLSSP and all other trade-union leader­ships not in the strike, the governmenttook the necessary follow-up actions.Thus on January 6 the governmentrefused to allow the use of loudspeakersfor the rally ofthe LSSP-Ied federationsin support of the strikes. The LSSPleaders meekly conformed to policeorders, and their workers rally wasvirtually disrupted without the use ofloudspeakers.

Other repressive measures followedswiftly. Following cabinet directions thepolice drove out strikers when theygathered, even in small groups, in thevicinity of strikebound places. Policealso arrested hundreds of strikers evenin private premises if these places wereclose to the workplaces where strikeshad occurred.

In order to expedite the disruption ofthe railway and 'bus' workers strike, thepolice visited the homes of strikers whowere dragged out and compelled atbayonet-point to resume work under thesupervision of the armed forcespersonnel.

When the government said that itsrepression was being carried out accord­ing to plan, and that the trade-unionleaders were not ready for any counter­measures through the mobilisation ofthe workers, it hastened to give the 'coupde grace' to the strike by finallyclamping a press censorship of all newsregarding the strike.

It was obvious to the strikers thatunder these conditions, their strikemovement could not continue. AboutJanuary 15 the strikers, who had showngreat courage and determination inregard to their struggle, understood thatthe wisest course of action was to endthe strike. The leaders of the tradeunions who had played a treacherousrole, including the leaders of the LSSP­led unions, were relieved that thestrikers were ready to have the strikescalled off. These leaders could well saythat the strikers were not ready tocontinue their strikes, and that it wasnot they who called off the strikes, butthe workers themselves!

Thus a powerful government workersstrike movement which could well havebeen developed into a general strikeagainst the capitalist SLFP-CP govern­ment and the capitalist class, wasbroken up without the workers winningany of their demands, by the unprece­dented repression of the SLFP-CPregime, the treachery of the SLFP-CPtrade union leaders and the virtualabandonment of the strikes by theLSSP.

If indeed even a section of theworking class has understood that whatbasically led to the collapse of the strikemovement was the t;eachery and the do­nothing policy of their reformist leaders,then it could well be said that theworking class has made important gainsin this strike. This would mean that theunpostponable task of driving out theirreformist leaders and the forging of thenew revolutionary leadership has al­ready been sharply posed for theworkers of Sri Lanka.•

Price: $1Order from/pay to: Spartacus YouthPUblishing Co., P. O. Box 625, Canal St.Station, New Y011l, N.Y. 10013

China's Alliance withU.S. Imperialism

A Spartacus Youth LeaguePamphlet

(continued from page 5)However, while the CP leader and

Housing Minister Keuneman gave fullsupport to the Bandaranaike cabinet tosmash the strike through severe repres­sive measures, CP leaders in the strikecommittees did everything possible tocontain, weaken the strikes and dis­courage the workers from continuingthe strikes. This treacherous role of theCP could not be concealed from theworkers and several leading CPers in thestrike committees suffered physicalassaults at the hands of the strikers.

While the LSSP had a need tostrengthen its trade-union base, espe­cially since its sacking from the coalitionalliance in September 1975, the leader­ship of this party (like that of the CP andother reformist parties and trade un­ions) was only ready to countenancelimited strikes and not at all any strikemovement that had potentialities ofleading to anything like a confrontationwith the bourgeois state. The realproblem for the LSSP in this strikemovement was to create the impressionthat it was in the leadership while doingnothing to sustain or widen it.

lt was pressure from the ranks of thegovernment clerical services that pushedthe LSSP-Ied Government ClericalServices Union, jointly with otherclerical unions, to launch strike actionon January 6. It was in order to launchthis strike that the LSSP-led trade unionfederations-the Ceylon Federation ofLabour, the Government Clerical Serv­ices Union, and the Government Work­ers Trade Union Federation-held theonly workers rally in support of thestrikes.

Nor was it just sectarianism on its partthat prevented the LSSP from takingsteps to win the participation of otherbig trade unions and federations underdifferent leaderships in this struggle.The truth is that the LSSP did not wantto broaden this strike. It had noperspectives of a general strike althoughits paper Janadina frequently referred tothe need for a general strike in thesituation. The LSSP long ago lost allperspective of mass struggle against thecapitalist class and the capitalist state.That is why the LSSP failed even tomake a pretense of calling together theunions and federations of the JCTUO(Joint Council of Trade Union Organi­sations-the coalition trade-union cen­tre) which was disrupted by SirimaBandaranaike after the 20 February1976 token general strike.

The government also took note thatthe unions and federations under otherleaderships-Bala Tampoe, Thonda­man, Shanmugadasan (CP-Peking) andothers-would not go beyond giving lip­service to this strike movement.

Of course, the "revolutionary leader"of the Ceylon Mercantile Union(Tampoe), Thondaman and the rest didsomething in this regard. Through theircoordinating committee, the TUCC(Trade Union Coordinating Commit­tee) these leaders wrote a letter to theprime minister! In this letter, theseleaders called upon the "government tosettle the strike democratically"!

It was in this context, that thegovernment decided to break the strike.

On January 4, the governmentclamped on the "essential servicesorder" by which the strikes becameillegal. It is true that the workers onstrike defied this order. But the leader­ships of the striking unions did nothingto mobilise the strikers and othersections of the workers not involved in

Sri Lanka ...

SL/SYL PUBLIC OFfiCESRevolutionary Literature

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term but money as the price expressionof value."

What Dunayevskaya neglected tomention is that "to each according to hisneed" is the capsule description of fullcommunism. As Marx clearly stated inthe "Critique of the Gotha Program,"the transitional epoch is characterizedby economic scarcity and therefore bydifferential wage labor. Wage labor in aworkers sfate serves to allocate differenttypes of labor, ration scare consumablesand ensure an external compulsion towork.

If the economy is based on wagelabor, then the money cost of produc­tion must be the key index of economicaccounting and calculation. The moneycost of production is the only commondenominator (though a highly imperfectone) which allows comparison ofdifferent kinds of resources expendedon physically heterogeneous goods andservices. Contrary to Dunayevskaya,economic calculation based on laborcosts in terms of money outlay does notmean the predominance of the law ofvalue in the economy.

What is the positive program impliedby the anarcho-syndicalist and left com­munist contention that the USSR isstate capitalist? For the former, it isproducer cooperatives necessarilylinked through market relations; for thelatter, it is a purely administrativeeconomy, an idealized version of the"war communism" of 1918-21. Boththese programs are reactionary utopias.They cannot exist as stable economicsystems, and attempts to implementsuch programs will lead to economiccollapse.

A system of producer cooperativeswould in short order degenerate intocapitalist exploitation. In the absence ofstate restriction, the more profitablecooperatives would buyout bankruptones and exploit the former cooperativemembers as wage labor. The immanenttendency of workers management undermarket conditions to transform unprof­itable enterprises into spheres ofcapital­ist exploitation is generally recognizedin Yugoslavia. The leading Titoisttheoretician, Eduard Kardelj, explainsthat only strict government controlprevents profitable enterprises fromtaking over financially weak ones andexploiting the latter's labor in a fullycapitalist manner (see his "TowardHigher Forms of Integration," SocialistThought and Practice, April-June1967).

If producer cooperatives are a road tocapitalist restoration, then the idea of amoneyless, marketless, totally adminis­trative economy under conditions ofscarcity is a reactionary utopia pure andsimple. The .5oviet mas~s, who sufferedthe militarization of labor under Stalin,who still wait in line hours every weekfor goods in short supply, will not takekindly to programs for allocating laborby administrative fiat and rationingconsumables in physical units. Whilethe ultra-left communist program willnever be a serious contender for poweragainst the Stalinist regime, such utopi­an fantasies may seduce idealisticradical youth, the potential cadre of arevolutionary Marxist vanguard.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

• • •(continued from page 5)

Reforge theFourthInternational!

From the marshals who silenced chantsand hymns to a "strike" call by the PCE­led labor coordinating committee thatemphasized the need to stay at homeand avoid confrontations with thefascists, these reformists have allowedthe police and Francoist gunmen tocontrol the streets. Communist spokes­man Simon Sanchez Montero spoke ofthe murder of five party comrades onlyin terms of "convert[ing] these vilemurders into a reconciliation of all

Spaniards" and echoed the traditionalFalangist salute. "Viva Espana!" (NewYork Times, 27 January). Another PCEleader. Luis Lucio Lobato, went so faras to advocate that any granting ofamnesty be extended to include thefascist assassins (£1 Pais [Madrid], 27January).

The PCE reformists have seized uponthe fragility of the regime in the hope ofestablishing themselves and theirpopular-front allies as the main bulwarkof "Spanish democracy." This was madeexplicit when on the day after theassassinations a joint communiqueappealing for "serenity and civic respon­sibilities" was signed by Prime MinisterSuarez and six representatives of the"democratic opposition." The statementexpressed "identity of views in con­demning political extremism which.because of its violence, threatens to haltthe ongoing process of democraticnormalization of Spain" (Le Mandl'. 26January). With this treacherous declar­ation of support for the Juan Car­los Suarez government policies, all thePCE's blustering against "Francoistreformism" is revealed as empty talk.They will find out soon enough that thispiece of paper will not protect themagainst the bullets of the police andfascist terrorists.

Memories of the civil war run deep inSpain. Major sections of the Spanishbourgeoisie are not prepared to allowgovernmental participation by the PCEor even its full legalization, because theyfear that concessions would fuel a newworking-class upheaval. From the hard­line Francoist Bunker to the capitalistfinanciers of the myriad fascist gangs,the Spanish bourgeoisie remains deter­mined to defend its class rule throughthe use of naked terror. By fosteringillusions in the capacity of the Francoistdictatorship-a barbarous regime builton the corpses of hundreds of thousandsof workers and peasants-to reformitself, the PCE and its "left" campfollowers disarm the proletariat beforethe fascist death squads. It is byoverthrowing these false leaders that themilitant Spanish workers will prepare toavenge their fallen comrades! •

HaitianRefugees ...(continued from page 8)New York) remains a principal export.In 1974. 6,000 donors were being bledone liter every seven days with six tonsof blood being delivered monthly to theU. S. in Haitian government planes!

While many among the severalhundred thousand Haitian immigrantsliving in the U.S. have left the impover­ished island for essentially economicreasons, the vast majority of those whoundergo tremendous hardships, risk ofdeath and possible deportation to enterthis country clandestinely are clearlypolitical refugees from the Duvalieristtorture regime. Yet while these victimsof rightist terror are denied access to theU. S., political asylum is routinelygranted to thousands upon thousands ofreactionaries fleeing the deformedworkers states of Vietnam and Cuba.

Using Gestapo-like police-state tac­tics, INS agents every year deportmore than one million so-called "illegalaliens" from the U.S. Class-consciousworkers must demand that all thedeportations be stopped immediately!At the same time that we are thestrongest fighters to win legal status forHaitian refugees, we have pointed outthat the demand for "blanket amnesty"made by the Haitian Fathers and theNational Council of Churches is inade­quate. Even with the alien's "greencard," such individuals face the threat ofdeportation at any moment for such actsas joining a trade union or participatingin politics. The workers movement mustfight for the extension of full citilenshirrights to all foreign workers! •

RoyallTimeAdolfo Suarez

regime is the continuation of thebonapartist dictatorship of FranciscoFranco: and like the Generalissimo'sreign, its power rests on the narrowsocial base of the state apparatus. Withsections of the repressive apparatus inmore or less continual insubordination,the Suarez government's program ofFrancoist "reform" is stymied for lack oforganized popular support. Politicallythe most important result of the Anto­cha murders has been that the govern­ment for the first time openly sought thesupport of the so-called "democraticopposition"-and got it, proving thatthis cabal of pusillanimous conserva­tives, liberals and reformists is neitherdemocratic nor a real opposition.

For years the Spanish CommunistParty has been seeking a "reconcilia­tion" with the bourgeoisie and a"healing" of divisions wrought by thebloody civil war. In the early 1970's itgave organizational form to these class­collaborationist aspirations by signing a"Pact for Liberty" with several bour­geois "progressive" notables and form­ing the popular-front Assembly ofCatalonia. In mid-I975 this was repli­cated on the national scale with theformation of the Junta Democratica; ayear later this PCE-dominated coalitionjoined with a Socialist-led counterpartto form the Coordinacion Democratica.

During the past year the PCE's firmcommitment to popular frontism hasbeen expressed in the streets as theCommunist leadership has time aftertime refused to mobilize the key centersof proletarian militancy in a nationalgeneral strike against the dictatorship.Likewise, on every key political ques­tion the PCE has endlessly demonstrat­ed its "reasonableness." In November1975, at the time of the Caudillo's death,Mundo Obrero (the party newspaper)headlines demanded "No to the Franco­ist Monarchy!" Now, in a recent NewYork Times (16 January 1977) inter­view, Carrillo says that if a majority ofthe Spanish people accepts a monarchy,"we will work inside the monarchy." Inby now typical "Eurocommunist" style,the interview goes on to say, "I ... acceptAmerican bases in Spain" and "If theSpanish Parliament votes entry intoNATO, we obviously will accept it."

In the course of the last week's events,the PCE's popular frontism has system­atically held back the popular outrage.

AFP

Spanish CP leader Santiago Carrillo

Europe in the Madrid government" (LRMonde. 8 January 1977). As proof ofthis confidence and to buttress the shakySuarez regime, he invited the Spanishbourgeoisie to join its imperialist breth­ren in ~ATO and the Common Market.

Internally the government has soughtto balance between the FrancoistBunker and the centerI left "democraticopposition." Having pushed through areform of the Cortes (parliament) tobreak the hold of appointed notables ofthe Falangist ~ational Movement.Suarez scheduled legislative electionsfor some time in the spring. There wastalk that even Communi~ts would bepermitted to run "as individuals." Butthen in late December the police tried toforce the regime's hand by arrestingPCE leader Santiago Carrillo (insteadof deporting him in accordance withtheir standing orders).

Suarez responded to this insubordi­nation by abolishing the draconianTribunal of Public Order, placingpolitical cases under the jurisdiction ofcivilian courts and dismissing the headof the Guardia Civil. The armed forcescommand in early January published astatement affirming their allegiance tothe constituted authorities. But thepolice were not cowed, and as 200,000protesters marched in the streets of-­Madrid last Tuesday a one-month"emergency" was proclaimed and therepressive apparatus mobilized againstthe left. Militants of Maoist, "Trotsky­ist" and syndicalist organizations wererounded up, demonstrations werebanned. stringent gun controls wereenacted and the police were authorizedto burst into any home and throwanyone in jail for up to ten days withoutcharges.

As a token gesture of "even­handedness," the government deportedseveral Latin American ultra-rightistsand sought to portray the Antochakillings as the work of crazed Argentinefascists. But at the same time it releasedMariano Sanchez Covisa, head of thefascist Guerrilleros del Cristo Rey(whose ties with the Guardia Civil arenotorious). as well as the assassins oftwo Carlists shot during a publicmeeting of the populist-monarchistgroup last spring. Last summer's muchheralded "Spanish road to democracy"appeared to be at a dead end.

From the Popular Front toFrancoist "Reform"

Despite its transparent "democratic"pretensions, the Juan Carlos Suarez

Since coming to office last July, thegovernment of Prime Minister AdolfoSuarez has sought to give the impressionof gradual democratic reform of theencrusted Francoist state apparatuswhile maintaining political "stability"based on forcible repression of the left.Suarez' phony "constitutional" referen­dum in December was a qualifiedsuccess. and early last month WestGerman chancellor Helmut Schmidt.the first social-democratic head of stateto visit Spain since the civil war.expressed the "confidence of democratic

(continued/rom page 3)ment \our calculated violence againstother 'socialists (see WV:\ o. 130, 22October 1976 and WV :\0. 137. 10December 1976).

To the extent that your organizationdoes not continue to try to deprive us ofthose rights necessary to the socialistand labor movements, you can assurevourselves that the concerns so hypo­critically expressed in your letter willautomatically disappear. And we notethat in any case 'we will continue todefend yo'ur own legitimate rightsshould they be threatened from anyquarter.

Corresponding to your violenceagainst us has been your previousjustification that we are "police agents.""fingermen of the world bourgeoisie,"etc. (] ust try physical assault on genuinepolice agents sometime!) We thereforefind your closing paragraph. with itsappeal to us as fellow socialists to standagainst provocations and violence,particularly obnoxious and hypocriti­cal. Trulv your situation must beprecariou~ {or you to certify our"socialist" legitimacy. In any case. andin honor of our present elevation by\'ou. we too are giving salutations to you~s "comrade" and "fraternally." al­though since you also identify us asaccomplices to the SWP leaders who are"GPL accomplices" according to yourcurrently most active slander campaign.we do so with repugnance.

Fraternally..1. Robertson

(continued fro 111 page 1)ist ultras to force military interventionagainst what they perceive to be thegovernment's drift into the arms of"godless Communism." It came onlyhalf a day after the kidnapping ofGeneral E~ilio Villaescusa. the head ofthe Supreme Council of Military Justiceand a reputed "Bunker" hardlinerwithin the army. Credit for the kidnap­ping was claimed by an obscure terroristgroup. the GRAPO ("First of OctoberAnti-Fascist Resistance Group"). whichclaims to be leftist. However. left groupsdisclaim any knowledge of the G RAPOand many insist that it is merely a coverfor fascist provocateurs bent on carry­ing out a "strategy of tension."

Immediately following the killingsthere were comparisons to 1936 andwidespread talk of an "Argentinization"of Spain. The clerical-fascist gunmenwho carried out the Antocha massacrest\led themselves the Anti-CommunistA'postolic Alliance (AAA-recalling thenotorious Argentine death squads); theythreatened to unleash a "night of thelong knives" to wipe out the left shouldanything happen to Villaescusa or toAntonio Maria Oriol (the president ofthe state council and a close friend ofKing Juan Carlos), also kidnapped bythe "GRAPO."

Meanwhile, the more familiar fascistgroups were also running wild. as werethe police. In addition to the five victimsgunned down by the AAA, two studentswere also murdered last week. A 19­year-old was fatally shot in the back atMadrid University during a demonstra­tion for amnesty of political prisonersand refugees; before pulling the trigger,the assailant cried out "Long live Christthe king." the battle cry of the Guerri­lleros del Cristo Rey. A vicious policeassault against the demonstrators fol­lowed. during which a woman studentwas hit in the face by a tear gascannister: she died the next day.

WL/SLExchange ...

SpanishWorkers ...

10 WORKERS VANGUARD

143

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......-..._~---_.---,----_ ......_------~-------,popular-frontist "Revolutionary UniteoFront" (FUR) statement supporting theArmed Forces Movement, proves onceagain t he urgency of the struggle for thereforging of the Fourth International.Only through constructing sections ofthe international Spartacist tendency inPortugal and Spain can the banner ofrevolutionary Trotskyism be raised andthe Iberian proletariat unite behind aLeninist leadership.•

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The Infamous BarcelonaCommunique

The undersigned parties:First, condemn the attacks which resulted in the deaths of three

policemen [in Madrid on January 28]. .Second, consider that the measures decreed by the CounCil of

Ministers do not contribute to the regulation of the present situation.Third, energetically condemn the arbitrary detentions of numerous

members of democratic parties and the violent raids upon their homes.They reaffirm their democratic will and that they bear no responsibilityfor the Madrid attacks.

Fourth, as a result they demand:a) the immediate freeing of democratic militants who have been

detained and a halt to the utilization of arbitrary measures;b) immediate action against the real culprits in the present situation,

i.e., the fascist and para-police organizations.Fifth, reaffirm that only the reestablishment of all democratic and

national rights, notably that of unrestricted amnesty, would allowadvance in a climate of democratic tolerance. With these goals in view,they demand the firmest unity and responsibility of all people in theframework of this democratic statement and condemnation of all themurders committed.

[Signed]Partido del Trabajo (Comite de Cataluna), Esquerra Repubii9ana deCataluna. Frente Nacional de Cataluna, Asamblea de Cataluna, LigaComunista Revolucionaria, Movimiento Comunista de Cataluna,Organizacion Revolucionaria de los Trabajadores, Partido Carlist,a,Partido Comunista de Espana (Marxista-Leninista). OrganizacionComunista de Espana (BR), Partido Comunista (Unitario)

-Rouge. 30 January 1977

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In our last issue (WV No. 142, 28January) there were several transcrip­tion errors in the telephone transmissionof articles. In the article "British UnionTops Knife Anti-Apartheid Protest,"there is a reference to the role of the"lower lords." This should have read"Law Lords," referring to II membersof the House of Lords who hear appealsof disputed cases from the courts. Thesame article refers to Lord Benning ofthe Appeal Court; Lord Denning is thecorrect spelling. In the article on theframe-up conviction of Wendy Yoshi­mura, a quote from the 21 January SanFrancisco Chronicle refers to the "sullenlook" of Yoshimura at the jurors inste~d

of her "solemn" look.

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• China: Teng Returns• Carter's Amnesty Fraud• Lessons of Lebanon• The Anti-Marxist Theory of

"State Capitalism"• Political Cannibalism in

Weather Underground

February 1to

February 28

breakthrough"~a pact with the govern­ment to achieve a peaceful transitionfrom bonapartist dictatorship to hour­geois democracy!

We find among the signatories to thispopular-frontist declaration not onlythe Republican Esguerra, the Carlistsand the Assembly of Catalonia--allbourgeois formations~butalso most ofthe "extreme left," from the Maoist;syndicalists to the Liga ComunistaRevolucionaria (LCR~a Spanish sym­pathizing section of the USee). This isindeed a "chastening" of the onceferociously guerrillaist LCR. Gone arethe days when it gave "total" support tothe Basque nationalist bomb assassina­tion of Prime Minister Carrero Blanco.Gone, too, are the davs when the LCR'ssingle crowning dem~nd was the mythi­cal "HGR"---the Revolutionary Gener­al Strike which would explode one daywith the sole demand of overthrowingthe Franco regime.

But the Spanish Mandelites did notstop at giving up their terroristspontaneist myths. They went on toadopt the most wretched aspects of thelegalistic reformism of their opponentsinside the LSec. Who among those thathave followed the interminahle squah­bling in the "United" Secretariat doesnut remember the vehemence and scornwit11 which the Mandel-led majoritycondemned the Argentine PST forpledging support to the "institutionali­zation" of the murderous Peronistregime?! :'\low the majority follows suit.

The Barcelona communique provesonce again the complete inability ofthese revisionists and renegades fromTrotskyism to withstand the tests ofturbulent class struggles. The LCR'ssnivelling capitulation at the firstprovocation is a carbon copy of thePST's bowing and scraping beforePeron. This pitiful declaration, like thePortuguese LeTs 1975 signature of the

_ illY

4 FEBRUARY 1977

Fake-TrotskyistsEmbraceFrancoist"Democracy"(continued from page 1)

arrested in the police raids be immedi­ately released.

However, in an act that is simul­taneously a betrayal of the workingclass, lethal idiocy and an example ofreformist cowardice, the Spanish "cx­treme left" has sought the "protection"of bourgeois liberals and of the Franco­ist state itself! While the dominantStalinists and social democrats signcd ajoint appeal for calm with the head ofgovernment, their "left" camp followersvesterdav issued a joint communique(see ho~) in Barcelona that totallyembraces reformist illusions of Franco­ist "democracy" through self-reform ofthe bloody dictatorship.

The press statement which wasreprinted without comment in Ruugc,the organ of the French section of thefake-Trotskyist "U nited Secreta ria t"(USee) led hy Ernest Mandrl­condemned the killing of three police­men in Madrid (claimed by the mysteri­ous "GRAPO") as well as the arrests ofnumerous members of oppositiongroups, and demanded from the gO\Trn­ment "immediate action against ... thefascist and para-police organizations."

What fools! They are calling on theGuardia Civil to repress the clerical­fascist terrorists, many of whom aresimply the same Guardia Civil out ofuniform! And the state has "answered"their call, by declaring an emergency forthe avowed purpose of suppressing theterrorists. Of course, under the cover ofthis decree what has occurred is amassive crackdown against the left.Here is the point where reformistillusions in the "neutrality" of thebourgeois state become positively sui­cidal. Marxists call instead for the

Le Bolchevikpublication de la

Ligue Trotskyste de FranceNo. 3-Novembre 1976 0,50Fpour toute correspondance: Pascal

Alessandri. B.P. 336. 75011 Paris. France

organization of workers militias todefend the workers movement and tocrush the reactionary gunmen.

But there is more: the documentaffirms that the "reestablishment of alldemocratic and national rights, notablythat of unrestricted amnesty, wouldallow advance in a climate ofdemocratic tolerance"; and it ends witha call for "unity and responsibility of allpeople in the framework of this demo­cratic statement." What we have here isthe cornerstone of the Spanish Commu­nist Party's call for a "negotiated

Guardia Civil

WflfillEfiS VIINfitJllfilJSteelworkers: Don't Be Fooled!

Neither Sadlowski Nor McBride!

Mark PoKempner

Tough talking, left-supported Sadlowski has failed to break from capitalismon any key issue facing steelworkers.

As the February 8 voting date for theUnited Steelworkers of America(USW A) presidential elections ap­proaches, the campaign temperaturerises day by day. In mid-January agingAFL-CIO potentate George Meanyentered the fray ranting against the"outside influence" of "limousine liber­als" who back challenger Ed Sadlowski.Sadlowski countered by telling Meanyto "go apply for a job at U.S. Steel" tofind out what conditions are really likein the plants. and jabbed at USWAincumbent president I. W. Abel for"spend[ing] too damn much timedrinking martinis" with steel companyexecutives.

"Personally." said the "rebel" bureau­crat who is director of the USWA'sChicago-Gary District 31. 'Td ratherdrink a beer down here with th~ boys."But with a minimum of effort, thecampaign staff for Abel-loyalist candi­date Lloyd McBride was able to provethat Sadlowski spends plenty of cam­paign time raising funds on the cocktailparty circuit.

A significant spectrum of liberaljournalists, lawyers and academicsalong with ostensible socialists putSadlowski forward as a fresh new breezeto blowout the sclerotic Abel! Meanyschool of conservative business union­ism. But the Abel! McBride gang hasmanaged to turn the question of"outside" financing into the sharpestelection issue and put the challenger onthe defensive. In his opening salvoagainst Sadlowski on Sunday's "Meetthe Press" TV show, McBride waxedindignant: "Our membership are identi­fied with the union and they support theunion and I think that they reject theidea that people outside the unionshould interfere in our election process."

The hypocritical character ofMeany' Abel McBride charges of em­ployer support to Sadlowski is obvious.Never have the AFL-CIO hacks shownany compunction about accepting CIAmoney to "fight communism" throughthe American Institute for Free LaborDevelopment, or about mobilizing theunions' resources for political candi­dates of big business parties. Taking ofemployer kickbacks is notorious inMeanyite construction unions, and even"progressives" like the UAW's Wood­cock join wage control boards and anglefor more respectable payoffs like gov­ernment posts.

02138

Nevertheless, the heavy dependenceof the Sadlowski campaign on supportfrom establishment liberal warhorseshas proved embarrassing to "OilcanEddie" with his populist rhetoric andjust-one-of-the-boys image. At cam­paign rallies before union members hehas claimed that 85 percent of hiscontributions have come from "peoplesuch as yourselves," yet the financialdata supplied under court order suggestthat this accounting is less than accu­rate. According to a breakdown byMcBride supporters, more than half thetotal of $100,000 received by theSadlowski campaign from named con-

12

tributors came from cities like Bostonand Cambridge, Massachusetts; NewYork: Washington, D.C.: Evanston,Illinois: and San Francisco, Berkeleyand Los Angeles, California (WallStreet Journal, 21 January).

These areas are hardly centers ofUSW A membership. The breakdownindicates, rather, that Sadlowski hasbeen able to milk the liberal intellectualfund raising network. The computerizedanalysis of zip codes done by McBride'sstaff showed that Sadlowski received 54contributions totaling $ I,346 from zone02138. which comprises Harvard Uni­versity and its environs. A total of$8,400 was received from Manhattan,with a sizable portion originating in theposh Upper East Side. On the otherhand. upstate New York steel centerslike Buffalo and Lackawanna showedonly 14 individual contributions worth$129.

The Washington, D.C., area with aminuscule amount of industry produced$7,500, the Bay Area yielded $6,000 withLos Angeles accounting for almost$10,000, mostlv from fashionable ad­dresses like Be~erly Hills and Malibu.To the totals of direct contributionscould be added such forms of assistanceas the use of fund raising mailing listsfrom left-liberal periodicals like theNation, Progressive and New YorkReview of Books; from past politicalcampaigns of Democrats like FredHarris and Ramsey Clark, and fromorganizations like the American CivilLiberties Union.

Rauh Defends Buying UnionElections

Sadlowski tries to deflect the "outsideinfluence" charge with beerhall folksi­ness (he recently told one reporter thatunion members are saying, "If thatPolack from the South Side of Chicagois smart enough to get that money fromthe rich on the North Side, that's the guyI'm looking for"). Meanwhile, theliberal backers of this touted "steelrebel" are brazenly asserting theirsupposed right to meddle in the unions.The clearest example to date is an articleentitled "Outsiders' Assistance in UnionElections" by Joseph Rauh, J r. in the 17January New York Times.

Rauh, who serves as Sadlowksi's legalcounsel and was also lawyer for ArnoldMiller when that "reform" bureaucratran for and won the presidency of theUnited Mine Workers, argues: "With­out support from the public-financialcontributors, volunteer workers, public­interest lawyers-the challenger to theunion hierarchy would never have achance." Since challengers are usuallymen "with no personal means," heconcludes: "Building an outside coun­terforce to provide funds and assistanceto the rank-and-file challengers is theonlv course that offers even the possibil­ity of the reform group prevailing."

Rauh's most general premise is that"The trade-union movement is not anisland unto itself, the only major forcebeyond public influence." Of course, it isprecisely "defense of the public interest"that has time and again served bour-

geois politicians as a smokescreen tojustify rabid anti-labor laws like Taft­Hartley and Landrum-Griffin. Theseunion-busting laws, passed with thejustification of "cleaning up the labormovement" from "Mafia influence" and"subversion," are used to smash strikes,purge militants and generally chain theunions to the profit needs of corporatemonopolies by banning powerful striketactics. The "public interest" in themouths of liberals like Rauh is theinterest of the capitalist exploiters.

Rauh doesn't even try to disguise thefact that he is claiming a right ofcapitalists to buy union elections. "Whoor what is an 'employer'?" he asksdisingenuously. Why, this could includeas a forbidden contributor"anyone whoemploys a maid, laundress or babysit­ter." Far from seeing employer contri­butions to union election campaigns as athreat to the labor movement, heespecially advocates such financingsince '''employer,' so defined encom­passes the entire public able to make afinancial contribution"! Rauh's article isan unadorned bid to liberals to buy intothe labor bureaucracy. Behind it standsa desire to undercut the conservativeinfluence of Meany in the DemocraticParty, and to install more "flexible"union leaders who because of theirrhetoric of "social concern" would bebetter able to defuse potential eruptionsof class struggle.

It is one thing to accept and solicitfinancial and other aid from outside thelabor movement to support specificunion struggles such as 'organizingdrives, defense cases or hard-foughtstrikes. Even in this case it is necessaryto vigilantly assure that union policiesare not adapted to suit the tastes ofdonors. However, when liberal benefac­tors bankroll candidates for union officebecause of their political viewpoint, it isa direct attack on working-class inde­pendence. While in the present case,Sadlowski is no more or less an agent ofthe bourgeoisie within the labor move-

ment than McBride, questions ofoutside funding could become decisive.

It is not necessary to assert that aSadlowski or a Miller are simplybought-and-paid-for tools of particularemployers or sectors in the ruling class.Rather, there is a convergence betweenthe personal ambitions and reformistviews of these so-called "progressive"bureaucrats and the perceived interestsof "enlightened" sections of the bour­geoisie. Long-time Socialist Party headNorman Thomas, a man of undoubtedpersonal integrity, was once asked whyit was that so many organizations withwhich he was involved were connectedto the CIA. The questioner's implicationwas that Thomas himself was in the payof the spy agency. Thomas' candid butrevealing response was that the CIAjusthappened to support many of the samecauses he did.

Sadlowski, with his court suitsagainst the union, his pledge to enforcethe no-strike Experimental NegotiatingAgreement (ENA) and support tobourgeois politicians (including JimmyCarter for U.S. president last fall),would represent a brake on the classstruggle even if he did not get a pennyfrom Xerox and Stop and Shop execu­tives, Pillsbury heiresses or bourgeoiseconomists. But the campaign contribu­tions, like his reliance on the govern­ment, signify a further undermining ofthe class independence of the tradeunions.

In the upcoming USWA presidentialcampaign there is no choice for steelworkers who wish to put their union onthe road of class struggle. The McBridegang is the same bunch of pro-companysellouts who gave away the right tostrike, do nothing about dangerousworking conditions and whose "solu­tion" to the workers' needs is divisiveprotectionism· and buttering up capital­ist politicians.

Sadlowski, for his part, criticizes thecontinued on page 8

4 FEBRUARY 1977