Vol. 3 #1
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY, USA 50ยข
January 20, 1987
[Front page: Down with the Howard Beach lynching! For mass struggle against the racists and their government protectors!]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
| Noah Roisten Goes on Trial for Fighting Back Against Racist Attack.................................................................... | 3 |
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| Brazil: Sarney Sends Troops Against Strike..................... | 4 |
| Uruguay: Masses Oppose Amnesty for Military.............. | 4 |
| Protests in West Germany................................................. | 5 |
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| From the Solidarity Tour to Nicaragua: On the Economic Situation.......................................................... | 5 |
| The Plot to Blow up the U.S. Embassy and Blame It on Nicaragua......................................................................... | 5 |
| Correction on Roybal....................................................... | 6 |
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| Who Helps the University Administrations Fight the Anti-Apartheid Activists? At the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley............................................................................ | 6 |
| At the Mass. Institute of Technology................................ | 7 |
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| Support Campus Food Service Workers........................... | 9 |
| Mr. "Freedom" Bodine Curses Communism.................... | 9 |
| Lessons of the Kaiser Strike............................................. | 12 |
| Chrysler's Word is Worthless............................................ | 14 |
| Boston School Board Seeks Revenge............................... | 14 |
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| From the Third National Conference of the MLP: |
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| Opening Speech.............................................................. | 16 |
| Building an In-Plant Distribution Network................. | 21 |
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| Correspondence................................................................ | 28 |
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| Two Poems by Roque Dalton........................................... | 30 |
Down with the Howard Beach lynching!
For mass struggle against the racists and their government protectors!
NOAH ROISTEN PREPARES FOR JANUARY TRIAL
SARNEY SENDS TROOPS AGAINST GENERAL STRIKE IN BRAZIL
MASS OPPOSITION TO AMNESTY FOR URUGUAYAN TORTURERS
THE WORKING CLASS MUST COME TO THE HEAD OF THE REVOLUTION TO SOLVE NICARAGUA'S ECONOMIC CRISIS
ON THE PLOT TO BOMB THE U.S. EMBASSY AND BLAME IT ON NICARAGUA
CORRECTION: ROYBAL AND THE SIMPSON-RODINO BILL
At the University of California at Berkeley
DAILY CAL -- LOYAL ALLY OF THE ADMINISTRATION AGAINST THE ANTI-APARTHEID MILITANTS
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
THE TECH APOLOGIZES FOR APARTHEID
SUPPORT MIT FOOD SERVICE WORKERS' FIGHT AGAINST CONCESSIONS
MR. "FREEDOM" BODINE CURSES COMMUNISM
WHY DOES BODINE WANT TO SUPPRESS THE COMMUNISTS AND MILITANT WORKERS? TO MAKE MORE MONEY!
FIGHTING CONCESSIONS AT BODINE ELECTRIC COMPANY
BEWARE! BODINE PLANS NEW ATTACKS ON THE WORKERS
Important Lessons of the Northern California Kaiser Strike
THE STRIKE HAS ENDED BUT THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
NO TO BOSTON SCHOOL BOARD PLAN TO CUT BUS DRIVERS AND RESEGREGATE THE SCHOOLS
CAPITALIST PROMISES -- NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T
UNDERNEATH THE STAGNATION, THE STAGE IS BEING SET FOR RENEWED STRUGGLE
BUILDING AN IN-PLANT DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
PARABLE BEGINNING WITH REVISIONIST VULCANOLOGY
The following leaflet of the New York Branch of the MLP called for participation in the Dec. 27 demonstration against the lynching at Howard Beach. Subheads, added.
--"But listen... But wait... We didn't do anything... My friends... We were just... It's them...!"
-- "No, you listen! What are you doing here?" demanded the cops.
Cedric Sandiford, still dazed and bleeding, was thoroughly frisked, held in the back of a police car for two hours as the cops pumped questions about some mysterious shooting invented on the spot. A few paces away lay 23-year-old Michael Griffiths shattered body.
A black person is up to no good, period. Deserves what he gets. Such is the racist logic of the cops who treated the black victim like a criminal.
A Lynching Party
The style may have been different, but it was the same logic at work where three black men emerged from a pizzeria to be confronted by a gang of racists who chased and repeatedly beat them. As Michael Griffith, delirious, staggered onto the Belt Parkway to be finished off by a speeding car, his attackers laughed and joked: "Come here, nigger. Come here, nigger."
A lynching party -- of northern variety. Trading in their hoods and robes for shiny Cadillacs outfitted with bats, clubs, tire irons, etc. Were they misguided? Beer drinking, noisemaking, but otherwise decent punks? Or freelance racists? Not really.
They are sanctioned and have quasi-official status. Even more so than other "whites only" enclaves around the city, Howard Beach is highly organized as such. The real estate sharks, speculators, merchants and other moneymen who oversee this neighborhood of $300,000 and up homes and exclusive shopping malls have the police and a small army of armed Pinkerton guards to patrol its tree-lined streets and enforce its most sacred of laws -- No Blacks! No Minorities! The Rockwood Park Civic Association run by these moneymen who hire these guards may claim "crime prevention" as the excuse, but they welcome the Brooklyn mob [referring to organized crime] into their respectable presence.
Meanwhile, the guards are instructed to challenge all minorities who dare to pass through the area. Racist curses, harassment, attacks and -- as in the case of Michael Griffith -- murder are acceptable enforcement measures. The lynch party that attacked last Friday night just carried out the routine normally performed by the private guards and police in Howard Beach.
Mayor Koch-- Hypocrite
All too familiar. At the very moment of this cowardly attack, baseball bats again were at work on two Latino youths a short distance away in Ozone Park. This past summer several Puerto Rican youths and black school girls were victims of racist clubs and fists in the Bronx. Similar attacks have occurred in Staten Island. And everyone recalls the black transit worker Willie Turks who was beaten to death by a racist gang in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn in 1982.
Yet, as if Michael Griffith represented a new awakening, Mayor Koch and Police Commissioner Ward are on the news, in deep shock and outrage -- the most terrible thing to happen in my two terms in office, said Koch. Hypocrite!
Yes, the Howard Beach murder is an atrocity. It is shocking. But it did not fall from the sky. Like night follows day, this racist murder follows the many other murders and thousands of unreported insults and humiliating beatings meted out by New York's "finest" in every borough, every precinct, every day without fail.
This is why, from the word go, the media took off with their nasty speculations: Why were the black victims walking in this direction and not the other? Why use this phone and not that one? Why aren't the victims telling all they know to the cops? This is why Cedric Sandiford was handled like a criminal suspect. This is why a toy gun pops up near Michael Griffith's dead body.
Don't Expect Justice From City Hall, the Courts and Prosecutors
The truth is that the activity of the lynch mob that killed Michael Griffith has a sanction higher than the Rockwood Park Civic Association and other money men who oversee Howard Beach. City Hall has its own racist gangs. And the courts that will eventually try the racists are the same courts that allow the killers of Willie Turks to walk free today after the brief sentence served by only a few of them.
Moreover, handling this investigation is the 106th Precinct, better known as the "stun gun" precinct, and Queens DA Santucci who wines and dines the Queens political bosses and the mob. Clearly, justice will not come automatically. Fighting the racist attacks is up to us. Let the downtrodden black masses and ordinary working person enter the fight. Not the mayors, commissioners, courts or investigation panels that look kindly on these heinous acts.
For Mass Actions Against Racist Attacks!
The dramatic "moral" proclamations of Koch and Ward should not be complimented, as has been done by NAACP leaders and others, but should be branded as hypocrisy and posturing. Similarly, Jesse Jackson's recent appeal for thoughts of compassion towards the racist scum who killed Michael Griffith is not so much high-minded as it is an attempt to pour water on the fires of rage burning among the black people. The fight against racist attacks has suffered badly in recent years due in part to the work of the Jacksons, the NAACP and other sellouts to keep the lid on. They refuse to organize the masses for struggle. Instead, they prefer a dialog with the Reaganites and other racists, whom they want to convince of their misdeeds.
We must not let our righteous anger over Michael Griffiths murder be calmed by impotent gestures from Koch and Ward, or by the setting up of yet another commission to investigate or hear our complaints. We need actions which target the government, police and racist gangs -- from Reagan on down, the real organizers of racist attacks in New York and elsewhere. Demonstrations and other mass actions are of utmost importance in order for the black people, other minorities and the working masses to have their say. We must build such actions against racist attacks to give weight to our demand for justice for Michael Griffith.
All out to Howard Beach on Saturday, December 27!
Justice for Michael Griffith!
Fight racist attacks with mass struggle! <>
The following article is from the Dec. 15 issue of the Boston Worker, paper of the MLP-Boston.
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After eighteen months in jail on a quarter million dollars bail, Noah Roisten is finally going to trial. During those eighteen months a lot of support has been building up for this brave and decent young man whose only crime was to defend himself from an extremely violent armed attack by a gang of racists who attacked him at park Street Station.
On November 12 a second fund raising benefit was attended by 130 people including many of Noah's neighbors, scores of MBTA workers who have rallied to Noah's defense and by a number of college students. Eleven hundred dollars was raised at the event for Noah's legal defense.
On November 15, a militant demonstration of workers and youth organized a march from Noah's neighborhood to Roxbury Courthouse to show support for Noah.
The government's persecution of Noah is just another example of how it is the rich and their government who encourage, organize, and protect racism. In the last decade thousands of blacks have been attacked and beaten by racist gangs in Boston. A dozen black men have been murdered by racist thugs. Even a number of white workers who have gone to the defense of black people have been severely beaten or killed.
And yet the most the government has done to the racists is slap them on the wrists for show. The thugs who murdered William Atkinson did less time in prison than Noah has done waiting for trial. We all know that if Noah had been white and his attackers black he would have been made a hero by the police and the newspapers just like Goetz in New York. But Noah is a black man who successfully defended himself and so the government has come down on him like a ton of bricks.
The persecution of Noah Roisten is an attack on the dignity of all black people and it is an attack on the unity of all workers. It is another example of governmental blessing for the poison of racism and for those who disrespect the rights of the black people.
It is up to the working people to rally to Noah's defense. Much has been done so far but more is needed. Noah's trial is set to begin on January 2. A lot of money is still needed to pay for Noah's legal defense. But more importantly Noah needs a show of mass support in the courtroom and on the streets to show the government that the working people of all races stand behind Noah. <>
The industrial proletariat of Brazil carried out a general strike on December 12 to protest President Jose Sarney's economic policies. Workers shut down most of the large factories around Sao Paulo, the industrial center of the country, including the Ford and VW auto plants. The strike also shut down public transport in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador.
The strike was called after Sarney's announcement in November that he would lift the price freeze he had ordered earlier in the year. Sarney also announced plans to shut down 15 state enterprises which employ 30,000 workers. These measures were praised by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and foreign creditors, who reopened credit lines to Sarney's government and agreed to restructure debts for him. But for the Brazilian toilers Sarney's austerity measures were a bitter pill, since the government has rescinded wage increases and is trying to enforce a wage freeze.
On the day of the strike Sarney showed his reactionary colors, fully in the mold of his old role as the head of the former military regime's political party. Sarney flooded the streets of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro with troops to prevent picketing or demonstrations of workers. Tens of thousands of soldiers, backed up by machine guns and tanks, patrolled the intersections and main buildings and arrested any activists who tried to carry out organizing activities. Over 100 people were arrested simply for handing out leaf lets and similar "crimes".
After the strike Sarney announced plans to try and bring the Brazilian trade unions into a "social pact" with the government. Sarney seeks to make a deal over the heads of the workers with any trade union bureaucrats who are willing to sell out. The Brazilian workers will have to be on guard as they continue their struggle. <>
Mass opposition continues to unfold in Uruguay as the liberal regime of President Julio Sanguinetti continues to expose itself as another bourgeois regime against the workers.
One-day General Strike
In mid-December Uruguay was paralyzed by a one-day general strike called in solidarity with the striking workers of the state-owned petroleum enterprise. Sanguinetti's administration has fired hundreds of the petroleum workers for refusing to obey a back-to-work order. The general strike shut down industry, schools, banks and government offices.
The general strike was also called to oppose Sanguinetti's proposal for a general amnesty for the military. During its 12 years in power (1973-85), the military carried out severe repression against leftists, jailing and torturing thousands. A number of leftists were "disappeared", as in Argentina. In their general strike the Uruguayan workers demanded justice against the military torturers.
Both Bourgeois Parties Support the Amnesty
Despite this, Sanguinetti pushed forward with his plan, and on December 22 the parliament passed his amnesty bill. The vast majority of both major bourgeois parties -- the Colorados and the National Party -- voted for the bill despite the fact that they came into power as the "alternative" to military rule.
Outside the Parliament Building
The vote in parliament did not take place without opposition from the masses, however. Outside the parliament building thousands of people demonstrated against the amnesty. When riot police attacked, the demonstrators fought back with stones. The protesters destroyed several police vans and smashed the cars of bourgeois legislators with rocks and crowbars.
Thus, even though Sanguinetti was able to get his amnesty signed into law, it was at the price of further exposing himself as a front man for the exploiters and generals.
Ditto in Argentina
A similar process is occurring in neighboring Argentina, where during the last week of December President Raul Alfonsin signed a cut-off law allowing only 60 more days for the military to be charged with its atrocities. After that there will be an amnesty preventing new prosecutions. Alfonsin came into power promising to prosecute the murderers in uniform who ruled Argentina before him, but after the trials of a handful of the generals he scrapped the project. In fact Alfonsin would never have followed through even with these few trials had it not been for the pressure of the mass demonstrations demanding justice for the 30,000 "disappeared". <>
The last days of 1986 saw a couple of militant demonstrations by young activists in West Germany.
Against Evictions in Hamburg
On December 20, ten thousand youths marched through the streets of Hamburg to protest the eviction of tenants from public housing. The government plans to tear down the tenants' homes for a road building project.
Frightened of the demonstration, the government surrounded the protest with 2,900 riot policemen armed with truncheons. This did not however intimidate the protesters. When confrontations broke out between the demonstrators and the police, militant activists fought pitched battles with the police. 93 policemen were reportedly injured.
Struggle at Nuclear Waste Recycling Plant
On Christmas day, four days of demonstrations began at Wackersdorf near the Czech border where the German imperialists are building a nuclear waste recycling plant. This has been a site of repeated protests in recent years.
On the first day, there was a demonstration by 5,000 people. The next day, hundreds of militant activists marched onto the forested construction site. Clashes broke out with the police. The militants reportedly threw rocks, and fired slingshots at the police. There were a number of injuries and 51 arrests took place. <>
In July, at the invitation of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Nicaragua (MLPN), a delegation of workers and students, organized by the MLP,USA, travelled to Nicaragua on a tour of solidarity with the Nicaraguan workers and peasants. The following is a continuation of our series of reports from comrades who took part in the tour.
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Talking to the workers in the factories, fields and streets, and in their homes, we could see that seven years after the overthrow of U.S. puppet Somoza the Nicaraguan working people still have a high revolutionary spirit. A lively political discussion can be struck up on any street corner. The walls are covered with graffiti against the bourgeois counterrevolution and U.S. imperialism.
The people will tell you that they made this revolution themselves and they will not let Reagan or anyone else take away the gains they have made. They are proudly bearing arms against the contras, putting up a stiff resistance to these CIA-organized invaders. As well, the workers and peasants are exerting themselves to cope with the terrible economic situation that grows worse under the blows of the U.S. blockade and Reagan's dirty war.
The Nicaraguan people are refusing to give in, showing their desire for victory against U.S. imperialism and for deepening the revolution. They are determined to stand up to their hardships and overcome them.
However, in the midst of the revolutionary atmosphere in the country, our delegation also saw the glaring incongruity of the position of the workers in the work place. We visited several of the major work centers in Nicaragua, both private and state-owned, and had the chance to talk to the workers about their situation. While the workers sweat and scrounge from paycheck to paycheck, the wealth they produce is still being skimmed off to line the pockets of the rich. This takes place directly, in the form of profits to the private capitalists, who still control 60-70% of the Nicaraguan economy. And it takes place indirectly, through the generous subsidies and incentives paid to big business out of the national treasury, which is in turn fed by the earnings of the state-run enterprises.
Moreover, instead of masters over production, the workers are still treated like so many hands. Management is still frequently under the old capitalists. Elsewhere, the FSLN has provided the private owners the service of a new set of bureaucratic managers. And even in the state enterprises the workers are subject to bureaucratic treatment.
The Nicaraguan workers of town and countryside were the backbone of the anti-Somoza insurrection. Today they are on the front lines of battle against the CIA-contra war and they are the heart of the economy. Nonetheless, their situation at work provides a striking example of the fact that they have yet to become the masters of their own house. The petty-bourgeois FSLN regime, with its policy of coalition with the bourgeoisie, has given the working class the back seat in the political and economic life of the country.
The Productivity Campaign
During our stay, we witnessed the intense efforts of the FSLN and its CST, trade union center to encourage the workers to greater production. Overcoming lagging rates of production is a pressing task to meet the needs of the people and the burdens of defense from the CIA-backed invaders. At the same time, the FSLN's production campaign shows some of the glaring contradictions gripping Nicaraguan society.
The production campaign was a top item on the evening television news. Typical footage showed women workers straining at the arduous task of sorting tobacco. The commentator announced that these women had just volunteered to extend their work day from 9 to 12 hours (6-day weeks are the norm). The example of the tobacco workers was promoted as a model for all workers.
Stretching the work day, however, is hardly a solution to Nicaragua's economic problems. The workers may be exhorted to put in longer hours, but that doesn't say how much more they will accomplish. First, the workers repeatedly told us that they simply lacked the food needed to work properly. And, second, productivity continues to fall as the machinery slides into terrible disrepair. Put these two things together and 12 hour days will accomplish little more than drive the workers to exhaustion.
That doesn't mean that there is no way out of this impasse. The only way out, however, would require abandoning the Sandinista system of "mixed economy", and taking revolutionary steps against the rich capitalists and other parasites, for example:
--Instead of granting the exploiters (dubbed "patriotic producers" by the FSLN) fat subsidies, make them pay for the economic crisis and the burdens of military defense;
--confiscate the hoards of foodstuffs from the big landlords, ranchers and black marketeers so the people can eat;
-- and put the industries under the control of the workers so as to put an end to the capitalists' sabotage of production, including their practice of pulling machinery and other capital out of enterprises, to sell it off abroad.
Growing sections of the working class are looking towards this path of struggle. This is what we saw, for example, at the Metasa metal fabricating plant in Tipitapa. We attended an assembly of the workers there, which was addressed by a GST official from Managua, who called on the workers to put in voluntary days of unpaid labor and extend their work day to nine and a half hours. Meanwhile, the workers told us about the work getting slower, harder and more dangerous with the machinery wearing out and with a lack of suitable raw materials. The Metasa workers replied to the official production campaign in their local union bulletin, where they posed that the problems of production and military defense are inseparable from the questions of workers' control and taking steps to ensure food for the workers.
A Meeting with a CST Official
Our delegation had the opportunity to discuss the FLN's policy for the workers' movement directly with a representative of the Sandinista-led unions. On July 31, our whole delegation went to one of the CST offices in Managua where we met with a responsible official in the international department of the CST.
The CST representative began by stressing to us that, in face of Reagan's war and blockade, the main tasks facing the Nicaraguan workers' movement are now military defense and raising production. The latter, she said, was to be accomplished through a moratorium on labor demands, and working harder, faster, and for longer hours at equal or less pay. She outlined the CST's plan to shift the workers onto a "war economy" schedule with 10 to 15 hour work days.
For our part, our delegation expressed our solidarity with the struggle against the U.S. imperialist aggression. At the same time, we expressed our concerns about the FSLN's approach to this struggle, and we asked her about a number of the things we had learned about the workers' situation. We asked why are the workers being forced to sacrifice beyond their endurance while the wealthy exploiters are getting off scot-free? And we related to her the example of the workers we had met at the Chichigalpa rum factory. The workers there make $2.80 a week. We had met a revolutionary worker fired from the plant for taking part in a struggle to gain equal pay for the women workers. Meanwhile, the Sandinista management of the giant firm still wires the profits sweated out of the workers to the Miami bank account of the millionaire capitalist owner Pellas.
The women from the CST replied to our concerns with three points.
Who Must Sacrifice for the Revolution?
First, she put forward that: "It is the responsibility of the revolutionary workers to defend the revolution, not the bourgeoisie." This sounds militant and pro-worker, but she gave a meaning to this statement which turns reality on its head. What she meant is that the workers can be squeezed to the bone in the name of defending the revolution; but the bourgeoisie, which hates the revolution, must not have its interests infringed upon. This, unfortunately, is just what the FLN's policy has amounted to.
True, it is up to the workers to shoulder the tasks of defending the revolution; and with their blood and sacrifice the Nicaraguan toilers have shown their commitment to guard their revolution at all cost. But they do not go hungry and send their youth to the war against the CIA-mercenaries in order to fatten the Miami bank accounts of the capitalist owners. When the workers feel such things on their back, this only serves to demobilize and-demoralize their ranks. No, they made the revolution to be free of the bloodsucking exploiters and to build a new society in the workers' own interest. It is precisely this ideal which inspires the masses to struggle and sacrifice.
Who Can Best Develop the Economy?
The second line of argument of the CST official was that, yes, the situation for the workers' is very difficult and, yes, there are still painful examples of exploitation, but little can be done about it because Nicaragua's historically dependent economy is very backward. After all, she pointed out, "Nicaragua cannot even produce toilet paper."
In other words, the workers have little choice except to tighten, their belts, work extra hard, and patiently wait for further industrialization. Then, and only then, can they seek to fundamentally improve their conditions and finally settle accounts with the exploiters.
This is in line with the basic premise of the Sandinista's "mixed economy" which gives private capital a critical role to play in economic development. A premise that condemns the workers to the status quo of toiling for capital. And a premise that has shown its futility over the last seven years of capitalist economic sabotage. At the same time, the perspective that the working class and toilers can themselves become the masters of the economy and develop it in their own interest simply doesn't cross the FSLN's horizon.
Removing "Bad Apples" or Heading for Socialism?
Third, the CST official told us that she too was concerned about the abuses of a number of notorious capitalists (such as Pellas or the car importer Julio Martinez), and that the CST was addressing these problems. She went further and asserted that "Of course the CST is working for socialism and for putting an end to the exploitation of the workers." But, she warned, this requires that the workers are very cautious.
For example, workers must not take matters into their own hands and take action against the likes of Pellas. Rather they should follow the CST and restrict themselves to applauding the CST's efforts to appeal through bureaucratic channels to put an end to the abuses there. Eventually this may even lead to the expropriation of Pellas.
But what kind of "socialism" does the CST advocate if it opposes the revolutionary mobilization of the workers against the notoriously abusive big capitalists? Indeed, after seven years of revolution, the "cautious" (that is to say, reformist) CST policy has been amazingly ineffective even at routing out these "bad apples" like Pellas or Julio Martinez. Moreover, socialism and putting an end to exploitation is not only a problem of "bad apples", but of the wealthy exploiting classes. And under the FSLN system of "mixed economy", a favored place is reserved for the "patriotic" and "honest" capitalist and landlord bloodsuckers.
The Workers Are Questioning the Sandinista Program
The CST representative also discussed with us the problem of reactionary elements inside the Nicaraguan workers' movement -- "the scorpions in our shirts". Among these she named the CUS and CTN, trade unions linked to the right wing parties (and, we noted, also to the AFL-CIO and the CIA). At the same time, the CST official admitted that the workers have accused the Sandinista government of being too lenient on such enemies.
Indeed, more and more, the workers are questioning the vacillating and conciliatory policies of the FSLN. This can be seen also in the FSLN's present production campaign. This campaign is pushing to the fore the gaping contradictions in an economic policy which is driving the workers to the limit without adequate food or equipment, while giving free reign to the capitalists who are abusing the country's resources, both human and material.
And in the midst of the growing discontent among the masses, the revolutionary workers, under the banner of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Nicaragua (MAP-ML) and its Workers' Front (FO) trade union center, are organizing in the factories and fields for a proletarian alternative. They are organizing to defend the interests of the workers and poor against the exploiters and reactionaries and against bureaucratic oppression. And they are organizing the masses to defend and carry forward the revolution with the aim that the working class and poor peasants take the economic and political reins into their own hands. This is the path leading to socialism, the path leading to a proletarian state power which defends the interests of all the toilers -- the path that can best defend the gains of the revolution and resolve the economic crisis in favor of the masses. <>
Correction to the Dec. 86 Supplement
In the article The shooting down of the CIA plane over Nicaragua -- A victory for the people (the December 1986 Supplement), the following passage occurred on p. 4, col. 1:
And then there is the contra crew in Costa Rica. This group of drug dealers hatched a plot in March 1985 to assassinate the would-be U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, Lewis Tambs. They hoped to collect the $1 million price on Tambs' head from his opponent, Colombian cocaine dealer Ochoa. The money was to be spent on contra arms, and the killing was to be blamed on the Sandinista government. Presumably CIA higher-ups caught wind of this operation and gently guided their charges back to approved targets for murder. (See the New Republic, Nov. 24)
The phrase "would-be U.S. ambassador" was a typo for "soon-to-be U.S. ambassador". More importantly, the New Republic, being a right-wing social-democratic rag and usually an enthusiastic imperialist, covered up various important features of this plot that showed the involvement of higher-ups in the U.S. government. Information from other sources allows one to add the following:
The plot was not only to collect $1 million from Colombian drug dealer Ochoa. As well, the plot was to create a pretext for stepping up U.S. aggression on Nicaragua. (It also was to extend to targets in Honduras.)
The following incidents are quite suggestive both of U.S. government direct involvement and of the use that the Reagan administration would have made of this incident. In June 1985 two journalists, Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey, informed the U.S. embassy and Costa Rican security officials about it, but this resulted in nothing but their activity leaking out to contra supporters. Then on July 18, 1985, close to the planned time for the bombing, the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Harry Bergo Id, delivered a fierce letter to the Nicaraguan government, threatening retaliation for any attack "supported by Nicaragua" against U.S. personnel. The letter claimed that preparations were being made for such "terrorist attacks" and that "we have knowledge that the government of Nicaragua supports the persons who are participating in those preparations" and talked of an "appropriate reaction from the United States." At the time, this letter received a certain notice in the American press.
The New Republic gave no reason for the bombing not to have taken place. In fact, on July 28, 1985, 10 days after Bergo Id's letter, the London Times had carried a story from Honey and Avirgan on the bombing plot. This publicity compromised the ability of the contras and the U.S. government to blame such a bombing on the Sandinistas. This appears to have been what stopped the bombing, as is stated directly by various contra-lovers who have now provided information on the plot.
The Workers' Advocate will deal more with this bombing plot in the future. It is highly instructive of the operations of the U.S. international terror network.
By the way, Lewis Tambs himself is a hard-line Reaganite and contra-lover whose deeds as ambassador include pressuring the Costa Rican government to allow the contras to build a secret airstrip. Apparently the Reaganite fanatics were willing to sacrifice one of their own. (Perhaps the higher-ups only wanted the embassy to be bombed, not one of their own killed, but so far not a single account of the plot shows the plotters who would be carrying out the attack making such a distinction. After all, they would lose their million dollar reward from drug-dealer Ochoa.) Such plots also presumably show one of the reasons why the supporters of U.S. aggression are arguing among themselves in the present contragate scandal. <>
The December 1, 1986 issue of the Workers' Advocate stated that about half the Congressional Hispanic caucus, including Rep. Roybal, had voted in favor of the racist Simpson-Rodino Bill (see the article "Down with the Immigration Bill!/Defend the Immigrant Workers!"). But Rep. Roybal was not one of the liberal Democrats who voted for the bill; he formed part of the small liberal opposition to the bill.
However, this does not mean that Rep. Roybal took a progressive stand on the matter. The article "Democrat or Republican -- Both Parties of the Rich/Who Backed Simpson-Rodino?" in the Dec. 10 issue of the Supplement points out, among other things, that "Mr. Roybal actually introduced his own immigration bill last year which was basically the same if not worse than the current Simpson-Rodino bill." <>
The following article is from a leaflet issued on December 1, 1986 by the MLP--San Francisco Bay Area. The front of the leaflet denounced the attacks of the campus police on the anti-apartheid movement, the arrest and persecution of John Winters, and the savage beating of Rhodney Ward. It was carried in the Jan. 1 issue of the Workers' Advocate. The back of the leaflet, reprinted below, shows how the reformist-run official student newspaper, the Daily Cal, organ of the Associated Students of the University of California, is helping the administration and the police attack the militant anti-apartheid students.
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Today campus activists in the anti-apartheid movement are advancing under a heavy barrage of attacks from the pro-apartheid UC [University of California] administration, the most recent of these being the brutal beatings, clubbings and arrest of activists at the shantytown 10 disciplinary hearing. In these attacks to hold back the movement the administration is not without allies. The Daily Cal is always there to provide the administration's maneuvers with some credibility. Of course, this is not surprising since the paper's very existence, and thus the lucrative positions within it, are entirely dependent on the university.
Just look at how the Daily Cal covers up the vicious attacks on the activists. They simply present the police version as fact! With regard to the arrested activist they simply assert as fact that "John T. Winters, a university employee, was arrested after he and several other protesters tried to force their way into the hearings." Who is saying this? The police, but the Daily Cal doesn't even bother to put quotes around it and attribute it.
Then they describe the arrest: "Police pushed Winters into a glass display case near the auditorium entrance and, after a brief struggle, handcuffed him." There is no mention of the cop's repeated punching and head bashing that anyone there could see. Instead, there is a description to give credence to the bogus police charges of resisting arrest and assault on an officer.
With regard to the cowardly attack on Rhodney Ward, the Daily Cal tries to hide it at the tail-end of their article. Here again they give the police version. "According to Colvig, police say Ward was clubbed while he was in the act of throwing something at them." But this time, because of the number of witnesses to the contrary, they have to add: "However, according to Ward and numerous witnesses at the scene, Ward was 15 to 20 feet away from the police, facing in the opposite direction, when an officer broke rank, ran down the hill and attacked him." Nonetheless, the Daily Cal ignores the obvious. It refrains from asking its administration sources why, if police knew Ward threw something at them, they didn't arrest him or even charge him. The Daily Cal is careful not to expose the administration's forces any more than necessary.
The aim of the Daily Cal "coverage" is to prove that "there is no way that this [the police attack--ed.] can be blamed on the police." Like the administration, the Daily Cal's lies are directed against the section of activists who persist in building militant mass actions. Besides blaming the activists for the police violence, the Daily Cal implies that there had been some underhanded attempts to associate the "Take Back the Night" march with the militant stand taken by a number of the anti-apartheid activists. They write how "organizers and participants in [the]...march...said they felt they had been manipulated into a violent confrontation."
The Daily Cal tries to hide the fact that there were two distinct actions called: a "Take Back the Night" march at 6 pm and a protest against the closing of the shantytown hearing at Wheeler at 7 pm. The leaflet announcing the hearings protest supported the anti-rape march and rightfully called on activists to participate in both events. Likewise, many on the march knew about the hearings protest and planned to go there. The actions of the militant activists outside the hearing manipulated no one. What they did was express a sharp stand against the attacks of the administration.
Now, it is true that some of the organizers of the march didn't want to clarify their stand on participating in the hearings protest. This did lead to certain confusion among those marchers not informed about the issues involved in the hearings. But this weakness can hardly be blamed on the militant activists. So when the Daily Cal tries to paint up the confusion that arose as a result of a few militants manipulating people into a violent confrontation, it is simply lying. It is hiding the facts and lying to do the UC administration's dirty work. <>
The bourgeois, official student paper at MIT, The Tech, opposes the anti-apartheid struggle. It combines treacherous reformism with outright promotion of the racist stands of the MIT administration. The following article is from the December 8, 1986 issue of The Student, voice of the revolutionary students at MIT.
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The black people have waited long enough for freedom
SUPPORT THEOVERTHROW OF APARTHEID
On Friday, Nov. 21, The Tech published an opinion column by Kenneth D. Leiter apologizing for the racist Botha regime and claiming that South African blacks are not treated "badly". He goes so far as to tell us that blacks are not educated enough to rule South Africa, and that blacks under apartheid are better off than blacks in other African countries. Leiter attempts to justify the racist institutions of South Africa to convince the reader to oppose the economic and political isolation of the racist regime. His defense of the Botha regime is not only a racist stand which we must oppose, but it also seeks to undercut the black people's revolutionary struggle.
Leiter's position is nothing new. We have heard it all before from Reagan. [MIT President] Paul Gray, [South African President] Botha, and The Tech. (Note that Leiter sits on the staff of The Tech, and The Tech even published Leiter's column without an editorial reply because they agree with Leiter, Reagan and Botha.) They all claim to voice concern for the black people in South Africa, but all oppose the black people's revolutionary struggle. Similarly at MIT, the Gray administration claims concern for the black people in the U.S., but at the same time claims that there aren't enough "educated" (i.e. qualified) blacks to increase minority enrollment at MIT.
Leiter begins his racist statement by quoting some white South Africans' disdain for "economic sanctions, divestment and boycotts". He further quoted that racism was "too complicated to be changed by simple solutions". So what of the opinion of the black masses? Leiter tells us that "even a few educated blacks", such as Zulu Chief Buthelezi, agree with him. But Buthelezi is a sell-out and collaborator who is well-hated by the black masses. Leiter doesn't bother to quote the opinion of the black masses, who are already fighting in the streets to overthrow apartheid. In fact Leiter doesn't give a damn about the aspirations, desires or opinions of, the black masses.
Leiter quotes yet another racist South African who warns that although change will come it must come slowly. "Otherwise there will be chaos, destruction and death." Herein lies the racists' opposition to the black people's revolutionary struggle. Why? Because everyone knows that for decades under apartheid the black people have been dealt "chaos, destruction and death" by the racist regime.
But has Leiter or any other racist voiced any concern for the black people's subjugation? Not a word. What about last October's dead of nearly 200 black miners? Or what about the detention, torture and death of blacks by the racist regime? Instead, Leiter tells us change must not come "at the expense of stability".
So if revolutionary struggles continues to advance, exactly who will be dealt "chaos, destruction and death"? ANSWER: the racist ruling class, the capitalist exploiters, the economic and political allies of the U.S., etc. Leiter is worried that the exploiters' stability is threatened by the revolutionary struggle of the black people.
Leiter goes on to claim that black Americans and black South Africans have nothing in common with regard to their political struggles. Black Americans, according to Leiter, "often simply seek to be treated as whites.... The South African blacks' goals are to be colorless and equal." Both of these statements are racist lies. The same corporations which discriminate and exploit black Americans, first under slavery, then under Jim Crow segregation and now under Reaganism, are the same blood-sucking corporations in South Africa.
Today the black people of South Africa are being told what is good for them by Reagan, Botha, Leiter, and the big-shot liberals. The black people are told to wait and wait and wait for "peaceful reform". These are the exact same political maneuvers which were fed to the black Americans for years until they decided to rise up in militant struggle during the 1960's.
Leiter ends his racist column with the claim that blacks should be denied fundamental political rights. He insults the blacks' intelligence by stating that although the racists could hand over power immediately to the black people, there are not enough "educated" blacks to run the government "properly". ("Properly" for whose interests? Perhaps for the racists, Leiter, the U.S. corporations?)
He defends the racist Botha regime by pointing out that Botha has recently instituted "limited reforms", such as creating a third segregated, powerless chamber of parliament for non-black and non-white nationalities. But whatever "limited reforms" which the Racists have implemented, they have done so only as a result of the rising revolutionary struggle in the streets. Botha's aim is not to liberate the black masses, but to attempt to create an illusion of an alternative to revolution, to ultimately undercut the liberation struggle and thereby preserve the racist regime.
Throughout his article Leiter expresses pseudo-concern for the black people's well-being. (Reagan and Botha claim the same.) But his racist position is uncovered by his denial of the blacks' right to vote. He claims that no one, including the black people, should expect the Botha regime to offer the reform of "one-man, one-vote", considering the "history." of South Africa.
But readers of The Student must remember that so long as the black people continue to battle in the streets, to rise in revolution, they are seizing control of their destiny from the racists, including from Leiter! At MIT the administration supports U.S. corporate operations in South Africa, through the Sullivan Principles, and is also presiding over the resegregation of the campus. We must step up the fight against the MIT Corp. on both of these fronts. For the past two years militant solidarity actions have swept the U.S., and this is what we must continue. <>
The following article is from the December 8, 1986 issue (vol. III, #14) of The Student.
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MIT is ending the food service workers' pensions after getting itself off the hook by leasing its dining halls to ARA. With this legal sleight of hand MIT is supposedly no longer responsible for the wages and working conditions of its workers, just as MIT is supposedly no longer responsible for work done at Draper Labs, of which they "divested" in the early '70s following militant anti-war protests. Perhaps MIT's next step will be to lease out its classrooms and labs -- then if there are reports of racism the administration will say: "Don't come to us with your complaints, we're only the landlords."
The food service workers prepare food in MIT's dining halls and are hired by a company chosen by MIT. The demand that the leasing of the dining halls should not be used to worsen the workers' wages and wording conditions, made to the administration during the anti-apartheid Shanty Town protests in Spring '86, is still correct. Forcing the workers to provide their own pensions is a method of forcing a wage cut on the workers and is part of the Reaganite concessions drive devastating the working class. As was pointed out last Spring, MIT is attacking the food service workers at the same time it is attacking the anti-apartheid movement because MIT is directed by the same corporations that viciously exploit the workers of South Africa and the U.S.
The proposal by Bozzotto, president of the local Hotel, Restaurant, Institutional Employees, and Bartenders Union, essentially agrees with the concessions demanded by MIT and (its tenant) ARA. Bozzotto proposed a "two-tier" pension system with the older service employees themselves paying for the pension plan previously paid by MIT and the younger service employees having no pension plan. The two-tier system is a device designed to institute wage cuts, but instead of making the cut in one whack it is done in a series of cuts -- first on some workers, later on the others. This is done in hopes of splitting the workers' resistance into older vs. younger employees. In the name of calling on MIT to "show some social responsibility" Bozzotto is offering to MIT a way to carry out wage cuts while blunting the opposition to them. Bozzotto even went so far as to stress that his union is not asking MIT to continue contributing funds to the pension plan.
In opposition to this sell-out plan, The Student stresses that MIT should continue the pension plan for all food service workers. The workers are correct in saying that MIT has given them "a big slap in the face and sold (them) down the river." The food service workers' struggle against the pension cuts should be supported by workers and students. Every attempt to undercut their fight should be exposed and denounced. MIT is responsible for the wage and working conditions of workers at MIT and should be held accountable. <>
The following articles are taken from the Nov. 12 and Dec. 17 issues of Chicago Workers' Voice, paper of the MLP-Chicago. Subheads are added.
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Last week Mr. Paul Bodine sent a letter to all employees that ranted against communism and prattled about "democracy" and "freedom". He enclosed this letter with the paychecks. He has every "right" to do this because this is America and "Freedom is the American Way". In other words, he's the owner, he signs the checks, and no one has the right to refuse the boss.
It is nothing but the most sickening hypocrisy for this man to pound his chest about "democracy" after Bodine has just finished trying to cram brutal concessions down the workers' throats. The company used every underhanded method that they could in order to force these concessions including all manner of lies, intimidation, secrecy and even blacklisting.
So Mr. Bodine is for democracy while the Marxist-Leninist Party is for totalitarianism? Does that mean he is for giving all the workers a vote on the contract? Does that mean Bodine is willing to allow the workers here to be fully informed of the contents of a contract which now hangs like a club over their heads for the next three years?
But there is more to this little letter of Mr. Bodine. Why is he suddenly so concerned that workers will read our literature? Left-wing groups have distributed at Bodine for over a year now, but only since the contract has Bodine shown concern.
It was the Communist Leaflets That Exposed Concessions
First, as everyone knows, the MLP leaflets played a major role in opposing the recent concessions contract. Our leaflets were the only source of information exposing the concessions and the conspiracy between the company and the union. We encouraged the struggle against this sellout. Without this, the workers would have been at the mercy of the lies, rumors and intimidation tactics of the company and the union bureaucrats.
Mr. "Freedom" Keeps Political Files on the Workers
The fact that workers made their opposition felt -- both collectively through the petition, and individually-- took the company and the union by surprise and forced them to withdraw some of their concessions demands. Now Bodine wants to make sure that there is no interference with their wage-cutting plans. The day after the contract was approved, the company compiled a blacklist naming 4 workers as allegedly being left-wing political activists. Bodine Electric Company, the champion of freedom, wants to keep files on its employees to be able to finger the most militant workers and target them for harassment and firing. In Mr. Bodine's letter he says "you have the right to reject" socialism and class struggle. But what he means is that you have no right to accept them!
Redbaiting and blacklisting are standard tactics of the rich to try to intimidate workers from reading the truth and from organizing themselves to defend their class interests. Mr. Bodine is trying to use "McCarthyism" to split the workers away from the forces that are fighting concessions. He wants to isolate the Marxist-Leninists and incite people to attack them.
Mr. "Freedom" Opposes Literature Distribution
Workers should note that from this letter it seems that the company checked into the possibility of preventing leftist groups from distributing on public property. But since they can't do it "legally", Mr. Bodine rants and raves about "Marxist groups" that "are trespassing on your freedom by distributing information distorted by their point of view..."
To tell the truth is "trespassing on freedom", to stand up for the interests of the workers is "distorted". Marvelous isn't it. One should tell lies and plead for the company to make more and for the workers to make less. That's the "American Way". And that's what Bodine does.
He needs to do this because he is planning more wage cuts and layoffs (see article below) and Bodine doesn't want anyone to fight back. But the workers know that the truth is not included with their paychecks. The reality of what's going on is described only in the leaflets that are passed out on the sidewalk.
Capitalist "Democracy" -- and Capitalist Reality
According to Bodine, the proof of American democracy is the supposed "right to choose your own employer". Thus the 29,000 GM workers who were laid off last Friday (the same day Bodine issued the letter) can rejoice in their democratic right to pound the pavement scrambling for a chance to earn a decent living. This is the reality of capitalist democracy. The rich have the right to hire and fire, we only have the right to beg for work and go hungry. The democracy in capitalism is only for the rich. The democracy in socialism is for the working people. Imagine what terrible oppression it would be if workers forced GM to guarantee them jobs or livelihood! Why such an attack on the capitalists' rights would make profits fall! If they can't cut wages and throw people out on the street, how will they ever pay for their Avantis? In a real democracy, where the majority truly rules, in a proletarian democracy, the interests of the working people would be defended, not the "right" of the rich to exploit them.
Note that Mr. Bodine compared American democracy to the Soviet Union. The implication is that to be for socialism means to support the Soviet Union or at least to emulate the Russian system.
The Soviet Union is No Longer Socialist
The Soviet Union is a country that was once socialist but is now capitalist. There was a counter-revolution, and today the Soviet Union is an imperialist monster, just as is its main rival, the United States. We call it soviet social-imperialism (socialism in words, imperialism in deeds). Since Mr. Bodine has raised the issue of socialism (he states that it is a proven failure), we will take the opportunity in future issues of Chicago Workers' Voice to go into our views on what socialism is and is not.
The Rich Don't Want the Working Class Coming onto the Political Stage
Bodine hates the communist literature, not just because it exposes what goes on in their own factory, but because it hits the capitalists on a series of issues such as racism and discrimination, imperialist war and aggression, and others. The rich are scared to death of the thought of the American working class coming out onto the political stage as a force for itself. This will happen inevitably and this, is what we are working for.
All the workers have to stand strongly against the suppression of militant workers who fight concessions. And all the workers must oppose the suppression of communist literature which is telling the truth and playing an important role in building the movement against concessions. <>
Workers at Bodine Electric Co. jumped the gun on their management and their flunkey union negotiators this fall. The workers exposed outrageous back-room concessions deals before the concessions could be imposed on them. The Company first sent a letter to the union demanding huge concessions, a letter the union officials tried to keep secret. But workers got a hold of it and circulated it and the the MLP publicized and denounced the planned concessions. Note that Bodine is an open shop and that only 10% of the workers are members of the two unions, the IAM and the IBEW. So only a handful get to vote on the contract that everyone must work under. Furthermore, the IAM and the IBEW have never made any attempt to recruit members!
The workers at Bodine responded to this situation by circulating a petition which denounced the concessions and demanded that the unions reject them and that they hold a meeting with all the workers, whether union members or not, and explain the situation with negotiations.
At this point the company backed down on some of its demands and a toned-down version of the concessions contract was put to a vote. It was rejected by 87%. The union misleaders then used their "vote till you get it right" tactic, allowing only members of one of the two locals to vote again on a "new" offer. The sellout contract was finally passed, but some of the worst concessions demands were defeated and the workers at Bodine gained valuable experience in organizing themselves independently of their "company" unions and exposing the treachery of these labor hacks.
The struggle at Bodine will continue against the program of speedup, rate and wage cutting, job combinations, harassment, etc. Management is already "re-evaluating" job incentive rates (piecework rates) in assembly, in preparation for cutting rates, and in the machine shop rates have already been cut on a number of jobs. <>
Bodine Electric Company has already started a major new program of wage-cutting, job combination and elimination, and speed up. The "Quality In Motion" has only been the ideological preparation for what is now underway with the Xerox order.
The Bodine capitalists are hopping with excitement over their 3-year contract with Xerox Corporation for 20,000 motors/year. This contract is worth around $30 million, but Bodine tells all its employee's that it "offers very little profit"! The reason for this outrageous lie is Bodine doesn't want the workers to get any idea that just because the company is rolling in money, don't think about a raise. In fact, Bodine wants to squeeze more and more out of the workers. This is why Bodice was demanding a concessions contract.
Specifically, Bodine is planning:
--an assembly line in Assembly
--group incentive bonus (this was even put into the contract, it is a vicious method of pressuring workers to police each other in Bodine's speed up campaign)
--"machining cells", grouping operations so that one worker performs several jobs at one work station, resulting in huge job elimination and speed up
--computers in the Tool Crib to keep track of tooling, inventories and ordering, probably eliminating several clerks.
Clearly, this program of the Bodine Capitalists has nothing to offer workers at Bodine but wage-cuts, harassment and the unemployment line. These attacks are part of the overall Reaganite offensive of the rich against the workers. The productivity drives and concessions offensive have been weighing down the workers for several years now but the tide is turning. Increasingly workers are gathering their strength again, organizing themselves and launching strikes and other struggles against these attacks.
Bodine workers, you must prepare yourselves, organize to fight the new round of attacks by the Bodine capitalists. <>
Below is the Dec. 22 leaflet of the MLP-San Francisco Bay Area.
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The Kaiser workers have returned to work after waging a hard fought seven week battle against Kaiser's demand for two-tier wages and other concessions. Even though they had a two-tier contract rammed down their throats by their own union "leaders", nothing can diminish the inspiring example set by their struggle, or tarnish the victories it achieved. Six weeks into the strike, the workers were able to overcome the disorganization of the strike by the SEIU bureaucrats and take matters into their own hands. They organized rank-and-file actions at every facility. These actions invigorated the strike so much that the hospital administration was on the run and victory against the two-tier was on the horizon. The rank-and-file motion was the most significant achievement of the entire strike.
The workers are very proud of their just struggle. They are summing up the power of the rank-and-file actions and concluding that they could have defeated the two-tier if only they had stayed out longer and continued the militant mass picketing. Workers are very bitter about Kaiser and the sellout contract and there is vigorous discussion throughout the hospital about events in the strike. This leaflet from the Marxist-Leninist Party is written to contribute to this discussion and to sum up the many lessons and experiences of the strike.
Militant Rank-and-File Action
Up until the last day, and especially in the seventh week, the strike was gaining momentum. The workers were not weakening, 80% were still on strike at the end. The spirit to fight was not getting dampened, it was intensifying. The militant rank-and-file actions in the last week of the struggle had an electrifying effect on the strike. The strike was growing and more workers were going into motion every day. Workers from other work places--hospitals and factories--were joining the lines in solidarity! The key to winning the strike had been found -- it lay in militant rank-and-file action.
This is still the hottest topic of discussion among the workers. They say that they did not have to eat the two-tier and that victory over the two-tier was stolen from their hands in a filthy sellout. The struggle against the two-tier may have been lost but the lessons of the strike remain on everyone's lips: THERE IS NO WINNING WITHOUT MASS STRUGGLE AND THERE IS NO MASS STRUGGLE WITHOUT THE RANK AND FILE TAKING IT UPON THEMSELVES TO ORGANIZE IT!
No Business as Usual at Kaiser Today
The Kaiser workers have gone back to work, but Kaiser's Christmas party and "ice cream social" welcoming will never make them forgive and forget. Workers are denouncing Kaiser up and down for carrying out a filthy seven-week fight against their livelihood. When Kaiser talks about being one big happy family again, the workers can only think of their OWN families, existing 7 weeks without wages, having to wait till February to celebrate the holidays because of Kaiser's greed. Workers vividly recall Kaiser's brutal attempts to break the strike and force rotten concessions on them. They don't forget that Kaiser imposed an injunction on the strike, used scabs from Southern California, called out the police to arrest picketers and ordered Rambo George Stevenson to go wild and hit picketers on the line.
Union Bureaucrats Sell Out
The strike also unmasked the sold-out character of the SEIU bureaucrats. As the strike continued week after week, it became clear that the union heads weren't about to organize anything that would force Kaiser's hand in this struggle. Right from the start these misleaders worked to keep the strike weak, and the rank and file under strict control. To accomplish this they used their "Corporate Campaign" a strategy to replace militant picket lines with a public relations scheme that asked people to drop their Kaiser membership. The workers at Kaiser were forced to return to work with this despised contract because neither Kaiser nor the hacks could tolerate the growing militancy. The militancy threatened Kaiser's two-tier and it threatened to expose the do-nothing union misleaders who refused to organize a fight.
The truth is that the bureaucrats at the head of the American trade unions are not representatives of the workers. They live high on the hog, enjoying privileged positions and bloated salaries which separate them from the interests of the rank and file. As a result, they act as agents of the capitalists inside the workers' movement. They use the union machinery for pressuring the rank and file to give in to the capitalists' demands at every turn.
Rank-and-File: Backbone of the Strike
Luckily, in the Kaiser strike, it wasn't just the union hacks who played a part in the drama. Throughout the strike, the spark plug of activity was the rank and file. Right from the start there was a section of workers who organized themselves to strengthen the picket lines with militant mass actions aimed at stopping scabs and delivery trucks. This rank-and-file activity had the effect of sustaining the workers' spirit of struggle during the first six weeks of enforced inactivity so that by the time the Dec. 4th vote meeting rolled around, the boiling point had been reached. The workers rejected the two-tier for a second time, denounced the hacks for the role they played in weakening the strike, and pushed forward in the next couple of days to plan rank-and-file activities from Martinez to Fremont, It was this 7th week of the strike, a week full of mass actions, that brought a new strength to the workers and where their most valuable lessons were gained.
This strike was a powerful force for teaching people how to struggle. Workers saw with their own eyes the strength of mass actions. They saw that the power of the strike grew as their own actions grew more militant. They saw their militant actions inspire solidarity in the community. The workers also had a lesson or two in the treachery of the trade union misleaders who never want the workers to fight. And they had a very important lesson in breaking loose from the stranglehold of the bureaucrats. It is this break that laid the ground work for the rank-and-file activity of the 7th week.
The Role of the Marxist-Leninist Party
A final feature of importance to the strike was the activity of the Marxist-Leninist Party. The strike demonstrated to the workers the stand of the Party. The Party united with the workers' desire to shut Kaiser down and win the strike. This was clear from everything the MLP did. From the outset, the MLP and its supporters took a very active role in support of the struggle. Through its militant presence on the lines every day and vigorous participation in the workers' mass actions, the Party helped to strengthen the workers' fight. When the Party walked the lines there was always intense political discussion with workers on topics of interest from Iran-gate to South Africa.
The MLP distributed its newspaper, The Workers' Advocate, and five leaflets written especially for the Kaiser strike. Central to the message of the leaflets was support for the rank-and-file actions during the strike. This literature brought a revolutionary analysis to the workers and did a lot to expose the trade union bureaucracy's use of the "Corporate Campaign" to weaken the strike. All of the MLP leaflets about the strike were taken to factories and communities by the Party and thousands were distributed. Every place the Party went it pointed out that Kaiser's attack would pave the way for further attacks on the workers everywhere. In its work in the community, the Party saw firsthand that there was tremendous support for the Kaiser strikers throughout the working class, and it did a lot to encourage workers to participate on the picket lines.
In all, the work and stand of the Party was warmly welcomed by the strikers. A couple of strikers volunteered to distribute Party leaflets at the Dec. 13th vote meeting. Others defended the Party against the harassment by the bureaucrats who tried to stop the-party's distribution because they were fearful that the Party's revolutionary analysis and activity would fuel the rank-and-file opposition to their sabotage.
Lessons to Build for the Future
Kaiser is not nearly done attacking the workers. There are a couple of Kaiser workers who have not received strike amnesty as well as workers and activists from the community that still face charges, and their cause must be fought. There are contract struggles coming up in 1987 for the office workers of Local 29 and for the RN's. And Kaiser has just begun to consider how it will implement its two-tier. The two-tier is going to mean speed-up and harassment for older workers so that Kaiser can replace them with new, lower paid workers. It will mean layoffs as Kaiser moves work to the lower paid, out-lying areas.
The experience of the Kaiser workers shows that in order to fight the concessions drive of the rich, workers have to rely on themselves and their fellow workers, on their numbers, their rank-and-file activities, and the forms of organization they build independent of the trade union hacks. Experience in building their own militant actions puts them in a stronger position for all future struggles. This is true whether or not they win their demands in the immediate fight. When Kaiser's further attacks come down full force, they will find the workers prepared. The workers at Kaiser have valuable experience under their belts as a result of this strike and they are rightfully facing the future with confidence. <>
The following article is from the Dec. 15 issue of the Boston Worker, paper of the MLP-Boston.
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Last week Boston school officials announced that they are going ahead with their plan to stop busing 2,650 high school students and to issue them Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority passes and put them on special MBTA buses. Token public hearings will be held on this plan on Saturday, December 20, and then the plan will begin being implemented on January 5, with only two weeks notice to parents. Clearly this plan is disruptive to many families and will make getting to school more difficult for many students. Not only that but it will cost the jobs of about 35 to 50 school bus drivers. What is the purpose of the School Committee's new plan of busing without buses?
The Fraud of Saving Taxpayers' Money
Superintendent Wilson says this plan will save the taxpayers a lot of money and he wants eventually to force all high school and junior high school students to take the MBTA to school. But this has to be a joke because it will cost the MBTA at least as much to provide the service now provided by the public school bus system. What is more, if the School Committee was really interested in saving money it might start by cutting its own administrative budget. Since 1983 administrative costs have increased more than thirteen million dollars. The increase, in administrative expenses alone is more than twice the cost of running all the buses and paying all the school bus drivers. Clearly saving money is not the real objective of Wilson and the School Committee.
Revenge Against School Bus Drivers
The most immediate objective of the School Committee in eliminating its school bus service is t9 break up the most militant section of its Work force -- the school bus drivers. Last January, Wilson and the School Committee did everything possible to try and break the school bus drivers' strike and force concessions on them. They even tried to get the governor to call out the National Guard to run scab buses. But the school bus drivers stuck to their militant strike and forced the School Committee to back down. Ever since, Wilson has been out to get revenge.
The School Committee doesn't care if it costs more to provide MBTA service, or if it is more inconvenient. They figure the school bus drivers must be taught a lesson and their ranks broken up by massive layoffs. Such is the thinking of these politician's who serve the rich.
Discouraging Integration of the Schools
But there is also another motive of the School Committee is going over to busing without buses. And that is to discourage students from attending integrated schools and drive more working class youth out of school by making it more difficult to get to school. This action of the School Committee fits into a general pattern.
Just last year Wilson tried to close down many of the most integrated schools in the system, the magnet high schools that serve poor working class students. He was only prevented from doing so by the protests of the students. And now the Boston School Committee has filed a suit in federal court with the backing of the Reagan administration for permission to completely resegregate the school system.
To defend their jobs from the plans of the School Committee the school bus drivers will have to get organized for a militant struggle. And this struggle should be supported by all workers in Boston and by the students. <>
The following articles are from the Jan. 8 issue of Detroit Workers' Voice, paper of the MLP-Detroit.
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Last week a whole series of facts has come to light showing that Chrysler is gambling with the lives of the workers of the Jefferson Ave. plant.
Top Chrysler executives including Lee Iacocca are now admitting that the Jefferson Assembly rebuilding project hinges on the big gamble that Chrysler will somehow manage to capture an additional 3% of the light truck market. These revelations were made public in Wards Auto World, the Free Press and the Detroit News.
The Dirty Laundry is Now Hung Out After the Big Snow Job
From the beginning the workers at Jefferson have shown their distrust in Chrysler and the UAW hacks and their big promises of job security with the plans to rebuild Jefferson. And rightly so!
So it isn't surprising at all that Chrysler is now hedging about the fate of the Jefferson plant, and that the whole project could go down the drain if Chrysler isn't able to capture a bigger share of the light truck market.
After all, everyone remembers when Chrysler, Marc Stepp, and Coleman Young were working night and day to sell the plan to the Jefferson workers. They said everything was sewed up and that all that was needed was a "progressive labor agreement" at Jefferson and the plan would move ahead like clockwork.
We have already seen the rotten fruits of the new local concessions contract which has already begun the elimination of more than 1,000 jobs in preparation for the new plant. And now Chrysler is saying that they aren't even sure if the plant rebuilding will take place. What a knife in the back!
Fight for Job Security, Whether There is a New Plant or Not!
A few thousand jobs eliminated here, a plant closing there, it means nothing to Lee Iacocca and the UAW sellouts down at Solidarity House. To them the workers are nothing but pawns in a rich man's game.
But in reality it's the workers' livelihood that these guys are playing with. As workers we have no choice but to fight to defend our jobs. It is clear no one else will. We must get organized and build up a real fight for job guarantees. We must rely upon each other to build that fight. The Jefferson workers will not sit back and quietly accept this ruination! <>
In a recent press interview in the Detroit News, Lee Iacocca pointed out that Chrysler will probably rake in about $1.4 billion in after-tax profits for 1986. Iacocca also said that Chrysler is expected in pull in more than $1 billion in profits in each of the next five years, even if car sales drop.
The point here is that Iacocca is speculating that there is still a lot of money to be made from Chrysler's "cost cutting" program of job cuts and speed-up.
In the interview Iacocca (who is worth $50 million himself) also bragged that Chrysler's massive profits were the fruit of its "cost cutting" program. He even went on to give free advice to General Motors on how to make super-profits by saying that Chrysler's profits soared after it closed 21 plants and eliminated tens of thousands of jobs. Go ahead, Lee, tell it like it is -- the rich get billions while the workers get soup lines. <>
Opening Speech Third National Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Party Fall 1986
In this issue of the Supplement we continue our coverage of the Third National Conference. We print two speeches, which have both been edited for publication.
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Comrades, welcome to the Third National Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Party.
This conference is being held under two slogans.
One of these slogans is quite a particular one. We give various forms of it in one after another of the mass struggles. This is a slogan that will be particularly useful in presenting the nature of the conference to the workers. It is Rank-and-file action against the Reaganite offensive!
The other slogan expresses the more general tasks of the workers' movement. These tasks include those pointed to by the rank-and-file action slogan but they also include more. It is Build the workers' movement as a revolutionary movement!
This conference will concentrate on the line for the working class movement. It does not aim to present changes in the line, nor answers to further, related, theoretical questions (unlike the Second National Conference which, in discussing the struggle against racism and national oppression, took up the issue of whether to recognize the right to secession of a territory in the black belt South). But instead the purpose of this conference is to give comrades the chance to examine the work of the Party in the light of the overall line and to see how this line has been applied throughout the organization in the current circumstances. In the period since the Second National Conference we have a number of successes. These examples which will we will be discussing show a number of things such as lessons concerning the type of organizations which we are building to draw the workers around the party. We cannot simply invent these forms from our head, but we have to be conscious of the actual state of the workers, of what sort of organization they will accept at this point and that they will actually take part in.
To this end, there will be speeches on various of these developments. As well, there will be some more general speeches on the question of the workers' movement. One will be on trends in the strike movement. [It appeared in the Supplement of Dec. 10.] The other will be on drawing the workers into the political movement.
Besides these speeches concerning the workers' movement, this conference, as our conferences and congresses generally, will review overall party developments. There is for example the international work of our Party; the last period has seen exciting developments on this front. And there is the review of the state of the Party itself, including the work in consolidating the Party organizations, and so forth.
The contradictory features of revolutionary work in the present period
In all these things a certain feature stands out. One of the concrete features of revolutionary work in the last few years has been its contradictory nature. We have achieved successes on various fronts, but we also know that this is a difficult period for revolutionary organizing. By recognizing this, we have adopted our policies to deal with it.
Take our basic work among the working masses in the U.S.
Deeper among the masses -- Build the Marxist-Leninist Party!
At the last conference we put forward the tasks of "Deeper among the masses -- Build the Marxist-Leninist Party!" We adjusted various features of our work to ensure that our links with the masses were maintained in the present period. We pointed out that we are opposed to the reformist liquidators whose method of adapting themselves to the current period is to give in to the Reaganite atmosphere propagated by the bourgeoisie. And we are also opposed to the semi-anarchist liquidators, such as the RCP ["Revolutionary 'Communist Party'"], whose method of dealing with the situation consists of cursing the working class and looking elsewhere. We believe that our stand for Marxism-Leninism is directly connected with our basing ourselves on the working class. And we formulated policies to maintain and to strengthen our links with the' working class.
Since then we have carried out these tasks. We have strengthened our local work in order to deal with those currents of struggle that arise even in periods of stagnation of the movement, such as the present. And the reports in this conference will give various examples of this, and by propagating these examples and discussing them this will help us to improve our work further on this front.
We have also changed the Workers' Advocate so that it would help our work of moving closer to the masses. It is been basically regularized; it has more articles that are shorter and more pointed and that are easier to read; and yet we have also maintained the theoretical and polemical work through longer articles and the supplement to the paper. This is not a matter of perfection, and there are various suggestions that are coming forward for further improving the work of the paper, but it is a question of building on our.successes on this front.
It is the Marxist-Leninists who have held up the red flag Among the masses
In this past period it has been our Party that fights for the revolutionary stand in the mass movements. Whether it is upholding anti-imperialism in the fight against new Vietnam-style intervention in Central America, indeed upholding that there should be mass actions and militant struggle at all; or whether it is upholding revolution as the path for overthrowing apartheid in South Africa; or whether it is upholding the interest of the black and Mexican masses against racism and oppression and not kowtowing to the bourgeois, soldout, upper strata of these nationalities; it is our Party that holds up the red flag.
These are important accomplishments.
Look the difficulties straight in the eye
At the same time, we don't hide that this is a period where communist work faces difficulties, but we look this fact straight in the eye. [For one thing, while the anger of the masses continues to percolate, this is a period when there is much inertness among the masses and when renegacy and liquidationism are fashionable in the left. In particular organizational work is slow and painful. It is hard to build and maintain organization, hard to draw the masses into organization. It is a common experience that the masses welcome the idea of struggle, want to see it, but will not themselves set up the organization or give rise to the revolutionary core needed to sustain such struggle. The speech went on to discuss the effects of this on the Party and Party circles, on the size of the Party, etc.]...
The speech on the state of the Party will, among other things, go into these questions in more detail. It will point out the tasks that follow from this question. The issue is not that comrades should become more active to compensate for the organizational inertness that shows up in this period among the masses and for the pressures on Party organization -- we are already working flat out. This issue is that we must be conscious of maintaining party methods, such as the internal ideological life of the party.
For example, we are getting closer to the masses and we spend a great deal of time putting our finger on the mood of the masses when we consider what to write in leaflets and articles, when we plan actions that we are going to call the masses to perform, and so forth. Among other things, this results in that we are highly conscious of the backward moods as well as the activist moods of the masses. This is natural, but if we don't maintain an active internal and external ideological life of the party, these backward moods can have corrosive effects on us as well.
Marxism-Leninism is a world movement
So now let us move on to other issues that shall be taken up an the conference. This same contradictory nature of the current period -- where there are successes but also difficult conditions -- can also be seen on the international front or our work with regard to the international Marxist-Leninist movement. [This is the movement that arose in struggle against revisionism and that opposes Soviet and Chinese revisionism. But it faces grave challenges, including the spread of liquidationist and petty-bourgeois nationalist views among parties and forces that once took a spirited stand for revolution. The rightist influences and practices have already caused a number of fiascos, and they must be corrected. This is closely connected with carrying the struggle against revisionism through to the end and going beyond standpoints which have proved inadequate. And it requires an open discussion among the world's revolutionary Marxist-Leninists and class-conscious workers of the vital questions of the world movement.]
Since the Second National Conference there have been advances in our work on the international front. This advance has taken place despite the fact that various parties that a while back hinted at or expressed, at least to some extent, opposition to certain rightist stands, now are turning to the right in their practices and views. Those advocating the rightist views are fighting hard to prevent any open discussion of the path for the world movement and to undermine and wreck the forces that stand for the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist stand. Despite this hard situation, in the last year or two, we have accomplished more than ever in our work with the revolutionary communists of other lands.
One of the most noticeable things was the solidarity tour to Nicaragua. This was the biggest international trip, in terms of the numbers of comrades involved, that our Party has taken for a long time. And it is certainly one of the most successful.
It had a good impact in Nicaragua in rendering support to the Marxist-Leninists there so that their sympathizers and mass base could see their international support.
It had a good impact on our own Party circles in the U.S.
Furthermore, it will continue for some time invigorating our work in support of the Nicaraguan revolution as presentations, slide shows, speeches, and articles on the tour continue to have impact. This is important as the issue of Nicaragua continues to heat up. Recently, for example, it was announced in the press that the Reagan administration is considering breaking relations with Nicaragua; it is debating whether to wait for a pretext to use against Nicaragua, or to forget about such niceties altogether as everyone knows what the Reaganites are up to anyway. The only part of the administration that argues that it would be a mistake to break relations doesn't argue that it is wrong to commit aggression, but simply that the U.S. embassy in Managua is so useful for counter-revolution that it would be a mistake to close it down.
So continuing work in support of Nicaraguan revolution maintains great importance at such a time.
Another sphere of our international work is our Party's connection with various other organizations who are taking a revolutionary stand, a left stand, a Marxist-Leninist stand, either against or despite the current rightist influences that are doing damage to the world Marxist-Leninist movement. This of course includes our ties with the Marxist- Leninist Party of Nicaragua, but it includes contact with other organizations as well.... This work is important both for strengthening the general ties binding together the Marxist-Leninist militants of the world, and because it is a part of the process of building a strong struggle against the rightism that has caused disasters to the world movement, part of the process of clarification of ideas among the forces that refuse to give in to this rightism. And for our Party, proletarian internationalism, proletarian solidarity, has always been exciting, always been one of the fundamental sources of our enthusiasm and verve.
The polemic on the Spanish Civil War
In connection with this, I would also mention our polemic on the Spanish Civil War and on the Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist). Earlier our Party dealt with the mistaken stands and general orientation that appeared at the 7th Congress of the Communist International. This was important. But it turned out that much of the debate on the 7th congress is being done indirectly through promotion of wrong orientations that did damage to the heroic work of the communists and other fighting workers during the Spanish Civil War. So instead of complaining about this, we ourselves began to carry out work to deal with the history of the Spanish Civil war.
As well, our discussion of the views and actions of the Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) is also important for the controversies in the world movement. [The CPS(ML) leadership has been an influential spokesman for the idea that the controversies over questions of principle in the international Marxist-Leninist movement should not be discussed openly; at the same time, it claimed to have the answer to how to oppose rightism. But the CPS(ML) has taken a rather dramatic turn to the right in the past year or two. This is a problem in itself, and it also sheds a light on the weaknesses in the previous standpoint of the CPS(ML) leadership. We hope that our comradely analysis and criticism may be helpful to the Spanish comrades in defending themselves from further damage, and we believe that examination of the Spanish experience will be useful more widely in the world movement.]
At the same time, there is no question that the overall situation internationally remains difficult. Many once-revolutionary forces have degenerated, and the forces loyal to revolutionary Marxism-Leninism are, on a world scale, small in size. We don't close our eyes to this. We see how illusions in this doesn't help one's work in the international movement. But we are not abandoning this field of struggle either, for we are but one contingent of an international party, and we fight to maintain this international movement as well as our domestic movement.
The revolution faces difficulties today, not the least of which is confused orientations. But despite everything, the revolutionary movement continues to flare up around the world, and one of our tasks is to spread enthusiasm for the revolution and faith in the revolutionary goal.
The historic role of the present difficulties -- tearing down all that is false
Today the conditions are harsh. But the work of the revolutionaries is all the more important. By maintaining their struggle and organization throughout this period, they ensure that this period will also have a historic role. The harsh conditions, as well as our criticism and that of other revolutionary Marxist-Leninists, are helping tear down all that is false, all that has proved inadequate or corrupt. And throughout this period, conditions are being prepared for a bigger revolutionary wave in the future.
Revolution depends on objective conditions
Revolution depends on objective conditions. No party, no matter how heroic, no matter how dedicated, can call up at its will a revolution or the spread of revolutionary ferment. Marxism has dealt with this right from the beginning. Take one of the earliest periods of Karl Marx's activity. In the period of decline after the European wave of revolutions of 1848 to 1849, Marxism dealt with this question. The Marxists don't pretend that revolution exists when it doesn't. But they don't stop their activity either, and they don't passively wait for the great days.
This is important when evaluating our work. We cannot by our work call into existence a new revolutionary wave at our will. We can maintain and build our ties with the masses; we can maintain the party; and we can thus maintain for the masses the lessons that have been won by over two decades of revolutionary struggle starting in the upsurge of the 1960's. It would be the utmost setback for the working class if these lessons were lost and had to be won all over again from scratch.
Very well, if revolution depends on objective conditions, what is happening to the working class, today?
The situation of the working class today
The bourgeoisie is on a Reaganite rampage. It is gloating every time it tears down the conditions of the masses. For example, in commenting on "Labor Day"' this year, a major bourgeois newspaper set forth the desire of the bourgeoisie of slashing $15,000 a year or so in wages and benefits from the pay of steel workers, rubber workers, auto workers, etc., and of reducing the pay of all workers who have managed to achieve a higher wage level than average, to a so-called "market wage". And of course, the intention is to push down the average and below-average wages as well. We see, for example, that the real value, adjusted for inflation, of the minimum wage has fallen over one-quarter in the last few years alone.
And the bourgeoisie has gone far in carrying out this program, has gone far to reducing the wages of the workers. In the statistics sometimes it likes to try to hide this by figure-juggling. One method is to report average family income, where the decline in the wages of the workers is compensated somewhat by the increase in families where two or more family members work (and where the income of workers and of the bourgeoisie is averaged together). By reducing job security, by reducing the wages and benefits, by slashing one protection after another that the workers had -- or thought they had -- the bourgeoisie is producing conditions for a wider spread of discontent.
Unlike the RCP, we do not gloat alongside the bourgeoisie over the fall in the workers' standard of living. We would have preferred that the workers rise up in struggle earlier, for their conditions have never been good even in better times. But when, despite our efforts, this increasing impoverishment occurs, we see that the bourgeoisie is preparing material conditions to destroy the very things it tries to use as safeguards against the class struggle. It is methodically tearing down the illusions in the bourgeoisie, in the life that it can offer the masses.
Besides the direct destruction of the workers' wages, there are other factors.
The last few years has seen a huge increase in the number of working women. Large numbers of proletarian women always worked, but the numbers are increasing. And meanwhile the bourgeoisie is using technical progress to undermine the conditions of various spheres of work where women are concentrated. For example, large amounts of clerical work are being eliminated or exported to low-- wage areas abroad.
There is also the huge crisis building up among the black and other oppressed nationality people. Sooner or later the upper strata of the oppressed nationalities is not going to be able to barter away the upsurge of the masses for their own benefit.
Underneath the stagnation, the stage is being set
So underneath the present period of stagnation in the movement, conditions are building up for a new upsurge. When this will begin to break out is hard to say. But as sure as the sun rises in the east, it will come. And this time the working class movement will be far more central to the upsurge than it was in the 1960's.
And what will happen then to the revolutionary party? In 1917, prior to the October revolution, Lenin wrote his "Lecture on the 1905 Revolution" in which he states, among other things:
"Prior to January 22, 1905..., the revolutionary party of Russia consisted of a small group of people, and the reformists of those days (exactly like the reformists of today [that's Lenin's parenthetical comment]) derisively called us a 'sect'. Several hundred revolutionary organizers, several thousand members of local organizations, half a dozen revolutionary papers appearing not more frequently than once a month, published mainly abroad and smuggled into Russia with incredible difficulty and at the cost of many sacrifices--such were the revolutionary parties in Russia, and the revolutionary Social-Democracy in particular, prior to January 22, 1905. This circumstance gave the narrow-minded and overbearing reformists formal justification for their claim that there was not yet a revolutionary people in Russia.
"Within a few months, however, the picture changed completely. The hundreds of revolutionary Social-Democrats suddenly grew into thousands; the thousands became the leaders of between two and three million proletarians. The proletarian struggle produced widespread ferment, often revolutionary movements among the peasant masses, fifty to a hundred million strong; the peasant movement had its reverberations in the army and led to soldiers' revolts, to armed clashes of one section of the army and another. In this manner a colossal country, with a population of 130,000,000 went into the revolution; in this way, dormant Russia was transformed into a Russia of a revolutionary proletariat and a revolutionary people."
This is what Lenin said. And at such times as Lenin was talking about, the existence of the revolutionary party is decisive for the orientation of the revolution. And at such times the revolutionary party grows, and has to grow, so that it can embrace the rapidly-swelling revolutionary masses and imbue them with the revolutionary ideology.
Yes, Lenin was referring to a party that was many times greater in size than ours, even before January 22, 1905. But then again, the revolutionary ferment in Russia broke out years before Jan. 22, 1905. The revolutionary ferment had begun with the mass strike wave of the 1890's, which converted communism in Russia from a group with adherents which you could count on one hand to a mass trend. And even though that strike wave declined, it left a mass ferment among the working class that never ceased in all the years up till 1905. In 1902 Lenin already wrote that "The revolutionary movement continues to grow with amazing rapidity..." (Collected Works, vol. 6, p. 184)
And 1903 and 1904 were years of major development of the revolutionary movement. January 22, 1905, "Bloody Sunday", was not the moment when the revolutionary ferment broke out, but when the ferment began to break out in revolution.
So when the revolutionary ferment hits, the Party and the ranks of the revolutionaries will not grow to millions at a bound. We will still be faced with a tremendous growth of the revolutionary movement needed to rise to the conditions described by Lenin as existing prior to 1905, and the revolutionary movement will still be called a "sect" by the bourgeoisie. They will call the revolutionary proletariat that -- right up until the onset of the proletarian revolution.
The upsurge will underline the need for the proletarian party
But our task will be to prevent the Marxist-Leninist trend from being swamped in the huge growth of the movement. We will seek to have the lessons of Marxism-Leninism recreated in the experience of the masses in the upsurge, and it is the work of the proletarian party that infinitely facilitates this process. The workers come to the lessons of revolution through their own experience. But without the aid of the revolutionary party, revolutionary consciousness and organization may come too late, and the revolutionary upsurge could be frittered away.
We do not intend to let this happen. The Party shall live and carry on the tasks that history has laid on it. And then years later, when the American workers have their own outbreak of the revolution, their own Jan. 22 and following months, we will be able to say of today's proletariat, as Lenin said of the, proletariat back then:
"...It does show how great the dormant energy of the proletariat can be. It shows that in a revolutionary epoch... the proletariat can generate fighting energy a hundred times greater than in ordinary, peaceful, times. It shows that up to 1905 mankind did not yet know what a great, what a tremendous exertion of effort the proletariat is, and will be, capable of in a fight for really great aims, and one waged in a really revolutionary manner!"
[The opening remarks then concluded with the presentation of the proposed agenda.] <>
Speech at the Third National Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA Fall 1986
I'm going to make some points about building up a network to distribute Party literature at my plant.
At the 2nd National Conference of our Party it was emphasized that "In the present situation we cannot expect rapid advances. Every step we take will be difficult, slow, and will come only from the most painstaking and creative work.... Nevertheless, we can use the small, sporadic, and scattered skirmishes that break out...to build up the Party's prestige, its ties and organization among the masses."
That is very much our unit's experience at my plant. In the last two years there has been no strike nor even job actions inside the plant. But a certain amount of ferment did develop against job combinations and against concessions in the contract which was negotiated this year. We were able to use that ferment to reactivate the pro-party workers in the plant and, around that core, to draw the bulk of the most active workers into a network to distribute Party leaflets on the industrial struggle.
What the distribution network looks like
First, let me describe what this distribution network looks like.
There are several thousand workers at my plant. We have only limited access to the workers at the plant gates. What is more, this plant is but a secondary place of concentration for our unit and so we have been able to put only limited forces into the work there. Only one of the comrades who works at the plant does almost all of the contacting work. And we have another comrade from the unit do almost all of the gate distribution. Our recently established system of gate distribution allows us to pass out, each month, around 100 leaflets at the main plant and 100 more at another facility of the company. We also distribute the Workers' Advocate once a month at both places. Because of these limitations for distribution at the gates we have emphasized building up the distribution from inside.
Inside the plant there are a couple of dozen workers who distribute Party leaflets on the industrial struggle. Some of the leaflets are passed hand to hand and others are left in small stacks at various locations around the plant, such as in the locker rooms. When all the distributors are mobilized they get out, on the average, a total of about 250 leaflets. However, because of our unit's limited forces, we are not always able to mobilize all of them on every leaflet.
At the core of this network are the comrades who work in the plant, the pro-party workers (who started working with us in the late 1970s), and several other workers who will distribute almost all Party literature, including, at times, the Workers' Advocate. It is this core which we are trying to consolidate into a stable trend which consistently carries out Party work and which can assist in mobilizing the rest of the network.
The other workers in the network distribute mainly only the literature on the plant or industrial struggle. They all do read the Workers' Advocate. And most say they agree with much of our agitation. But it cannot be said that they are convinced supporters of the Party. In fact, this network is composed of almost all of the most active workers in the plant; and a number of them have been influenced by different revisionist political trends.
Some used to be in a rank-and-file caucus of the Communist League (CL) at my plant. But that caucus collapsed with the big layoffs that took place a number of years back. One of the two CL leaders in the plant went fully into union bureaucracy while the other went into the company's labor relations section. And the best workers from the caucus were drawn into our network. Two other distributors have been influenced by the Bulletin trotskyites. And even a close friend of the supporter of the CPUSA (the official pro-Soviet revisionist "Communist" Party) in the plant distributes our literature from time to time, although we do not consider her to be part of our network. I give these examples to illustrate the fact that this is by no means a consolidated network of the Party. Rather, these are the workers who most wanted to be active in the fight against the capitalist's concessions offensive, who hate the national and local union officials, but who are only beginning to move to the left and still have many illusions in the reformists. Our unit, through its timely and painstaking work, was able to provide a low level form of organization that drew these workers into activity independent of the union bureaucracy and towards the Party.
Built in the ferment against concessions
Let me describe some of the history of building this network.
As early as 1977 we had established an initial distribution network of a few workers. A few more workers joined the network in the next years. By 1979 some of the distributers were consolidated as pro-party workers.
But from 1980 to about 1983 half the plant's workers were laid off. This included our comrades and most of the militants at the plant. Through much of this period we were still able to carry out some periodic distribution inside the plant through two or three militants who had not been laid off. But the workers' movement at the plant collapsed. The work became increasingly difficult.
At the end of 1983, the company began to call back some workers (although today there are still only about half as many workers as there were in 1979). Our comrades and the pro-party workers were eventually recalled. And gradually sentiment to fight the capitalists began to develop.
The anger over unsafe conditions
The first sign of renewed ferment among the workers showed up at the end of 1984 when a wide debate broke out over the unsafe conditions that caused a worker to be seriously injured in a fall from a roof. Our unit -- which not only had a long tradition of agitating against the unsafe conditions in the plant, but also had long-time connections in the department of the injured worker -- saw the excitement among the workers and quickly put out a leaflet. We were able to reactivate the pro-party workers and a few other long-time distributors to help spread the leaflet through the plant.
At that time no motion developed to actually fight the unsafe conditions. But we were able to use the agitation to make contact with a whole slew of workers. And we decided to go back to those circles (who were most outraged on this issue) to develop discussion on fighting the concessions drive and on a series of other political questions. For the next number of months systematic contacting work was done with these workers.
Against job combinations and job elimination
During the. first-half of 1985 sentiment began to rise against the job combinations and job elimination in the plant. As well, a general discussion developed on the capitalists' drive for more concessions in our industry. This discussion became more intense in the summer when a strike broke out at a major company in our industry.
We decided to seize on this ferment to try to draw into action the militants who we were talking with. We got them to give us reports on the job combinations taking place in their own departments. A leaflet was drafted based on these reports and we took the draft back to the militants for further consultation. Eventually the Party published the leaflet, which contained a statement of support for the strike at another company, an exposure of the capitalists' plans for more concessions at my plant, and reports on job combinations from most departments in the plant.
This whole process took three weeks, but it had dramatic results. The leaflet acted as a report from the militant workers. Over a dozen militants saw it as their own leaflet. Despite hesitations about the hammer and sickle on the masthead, they took up distributing it widely through the plant. It was very popular among the masses workers and caused such a stir that it had the reactionaries whining "they have people everywhere...!" This gave the distributors a sense of the power of this form of work. They became excited to do more. Thus the broad distribution network was launched.
Over the next year we systematically built up the network by issuing a number of leaflets encouraging the fight against concessions and exposing the treachery of the national and and local union officials. In each case we discussed our plans and showed preliminary drafts of the leaflets to as many of the workers as possible. This was often cumbersome and delayed the publishing of the leaflets. But it meant that we corrected any errors that the militants caught in the drafts, and it ensured that they knew they were a real part of the work the Party was organizing.
In the midst of this activity we suggested a sticker campaign to workers' in the network. The idea was to have two stickers. One was to be a larger sticker with a number of anti-concessions, slogans and the Party's name on it. A second smaller sticker was designed so that the workers could wear it and had only one slogan against concessions. The idea was to make it clear that this was a Party campaign but, at the same time, to have a non-Party sticker so that the widest possible number of workers would wear them and we would not expose to the company and union hacks those workers who were closest to the Party.
The militants loved the idea. They contributed money to produce the stickers; they wore them and put them up on the plant walls; and they distributed them widely to other workers. The stickers went like wildfire -- in all, 1700 were passed out -- and they helped create a militant mood among the broad masses of workers. This further encouraged the militants and brought new recruits into the distribution network.
The difficulty facing organizational consolidation
In addition to these forms, we also tried to organize a meeting of the militants to discuss plans to fight the concessions contract that was then being negotiated. However, most of the militants did not come to the meeting. This showed us that, even when the excitement to fight was at its highest, the workers were not yet ready to go a step further in building up organization.
When the concessions contract was negotiated we quickly put out a leaflet denouncing it. The network spread it quickly through the plant. This was crucial in helping to prepare the masses of workers to oppose the labor hacks at the union meetings they held to try to sell the concessions to the workers.
At the union meetings
I have to tell you that these union meetings were one of those rare opportunities, in this difficult period, where our comrades got to see how widely and how warmly the Party is respected and looked to by the masses. We mobilized a force of Party supporters from other work places to distribute leaflets outside the meeting hall. They had heard about the work at my plant, and many had contributed to it for years, but without ever seeing the workers massed together. But now nearly half of the workers from my plant showed up for these meetings and they literally lined up to get the leaflets. Many told us they had already gotten the leaflet inside the plant and that we were right. Others started up discussions on fighting the hacks. A pro-party worker stopped to proudly point out his contribution to the leaflet. Meanwhile, other members of the in-plant network beamed at the strong support the Party's leaflet was getting.
Inside the meeting hall it seemed that everyone was reading our leaflet. When our comrades from my plant spoke, denouncing the contract and the union bureaucrats who signed it, the in-plant distributors led cheers. And the masses of workers joined the jeering of the hacks. If a vote had been taken at this meeting, the contract would have been overwhelmingly turned down.
The rigged vote
But the hacks, over the protest of the workers, forced the vote to be taken later, and then rigged it. The outcome led to a certain demoralization among the masses of workers and some distributors in the network became less active. But recently the activity of the distributors has stepped up and we are beginning to see signs that the temporary ebb is ending.
Now comrades, what were the factors that allowed us to build up this broad network.
The fruit of persistent work and opposition to liquidationism
First, of course, is the fact that our long time work at the plant meant that the Party already had definite respect among the masses. As well, our small pro-party trend and earlier distribution group were fairly easily reactivated and provided the base to expand the network. Also essential was the fact that the anti-concessions ferment among the masses of workers provided us a situation we could capitalize on. And there are other factors too.
But the one that I'd like to go into more here is the fact that we were better organized and better able to respond to the renewed ferment than the flabby opportunists in the plant. This had a lot to do with the persistent fight our Party has waged against liquidationism. That fight not only armed our unit against illusions in the union bureaucrats, but also allowed us to maintain a sober assessment of the situation -- to neither romanticize the flurries of excitement nor become demoralized at temporary ebbs. That fight, taken up by the unit, kept us oriented to steadfast revolutionary work, work in which comrades were trained in painstaking contacting work that allowed us to seize on the motion that came up to draw the workers into action.
Better organized than the opportunists
The opportunists in the plant, on the other hand, were quite flabby. Beside the CL men I already mentioned, there is also an ex-member of the OL (the neo-revisionist October League which became the CPML and degenerated into flag-waving social-chauvinism) who is a grievanceman. And there is also a CPUSA supporter who has a circle of a handful of other workers around him. Because the opportunists are all oriented to tailing after the union bureaucracy they have not been very active; and their activity has tended to be confined to putting up resolutions at union meetings.
During the big layoffs these reformists did virtually nothing among the masses. When the mass ferment started the CP man did get out a leaflet in support of the strike at another company in our industry. But he limited it to a call for the workers to give financial help and to travel to support rallies. We too supported the strike and had a comrade travel to the one support rally that a few workers from my plant could get to. But we also connected that strike to the fight at our own plant; with this agitation we were able to bring the militants into action.
It was only after our sticker campaign had electrified the plant that the opportunists really got going. They tried to put together a coalition of all of them -- CL, CP, and the ex-member of the OL to form a kind of union hack opposition in the plant. Their most successful campaign was a petition drive to pass a resolution at a union meeting against the joint company-union committee that was working out the plans for job combination and job elimination at the plant. This campaign captured the anger of many workers and about 100 signed the petition.
But, after the union meeting, the opportunists didn't know what to do. We, :on the other hand, continued broad agitation against the company-union committee, including publishing a secret report (which a militant supplied us) that revealed the committee's job elimination plans. In the end, even the motion around the opportunists' most successful campaign tended to gravitate towards us.
In summary, we got organized more quickly, have remained more active, and -- by building up motion independent of the union hacks -- have been able, at least for the time being, to out organize the opportunists. This is one of the reasons the network includes almost all of the most active workers in the plant, even those somewhat influenced by revisionists and trotskyites.
Narrow trade unionist pressures on the militants
This is not to say, however, that we have already been victorious in the battle to win the militants to Marxism-Leninism. The union bureaucracy -- with its reformism, anti-import chauvinism, and anti-communism-- exerts heavy pressure on the militants. In one way or another the opportunists in the plant give into and foster this pressure, and they search for a niche with the bureaucracy. As well, this pressure is reinforced by the ideology of narrow trade unionism, which the opportunists as well as the bureaucrats foster. All this makes the consolidation of class-consciousness and the pro-party trend a protracted and difficult process.
Narrow trade unionism detaches the economic struggle from the overall class struggle. It converts the economic struggle into an attempt to gain some economic relief for some workers at the price of accepting the overall framework of the present-day capitalist system. The trade union bureaucrats themselves foster it as a cover for their pro-capitalist stand. But narrow trade unionism is also promoted among those becoming disgusted with the sellout of the trade union bureaucrats. It is behind the idea that the difficulties of the struggle could be overcome if one gave up worrying about (or doing anything about) revolutionary or oppositional ideas.
It should be pointed out that there is a relatively large backward section of workers at the plant. This is the social base manipulated by the reactionary union bureaucrats who have controlled the local for decades. And the union hacks attempt to mobilize these workers against any progressive motion in the plant. One of their principle weapons to beat down the workers is anti-communism.
For example, following the big contract meetings where the hacks got such a drubbing from the militants, the hacks put out an unsigned leaflet and spread thousands of copies through the plant. It defended the local officials and their collaboration with the company's concession demands and branded the entire opposition in the plant as being communist. Now this rather clumsy propaganda assisted to push those who opposed the contract in the direction of communism, in our direction. But, at the same time, it brought pressure on the militants, so that even a pro-party worker became a bit nervous about distributing our next leaflet.
This kind of pressure has meant that a few of the distributors have repeatedly come up with the idea that if we'd just take the hammer and sickle off our leaflets they would be more popular, would gain more support, and would get less heat from the hacks. We have had to carry out painstaking work to combat such pressures.
In this work we have counted on the fact that the militants' desire to fight on the hot issues in the plant helps them overcome their hesitancy to distribute communist leaflets. Once they've distributed literature, we discuss their own experience with them to help them overcome their hesitations.
As well, the constant attention to consulting the distributors about the leaflets -- what we should put out and on its content -- helps strengthen their sense of being part of the Party work and their confidence that the leaflets they are distributing are their own.
Along with this work, we carry out careful, simple ideological work to combat the union bureaucracy and the ideology of narrow trade unionism and to strengthen the Party consciousness of the distributors.
For one thing we have used every opportunity to expose the disgusting treachery of the union bureaucrats themselves, to build up the hatred for them, and to educate the workers in opposition, to the politics the union hacks represent. This exposure is not restricted to a handful of workers, but is done among the masses. The more the masses of workers are mobilized against the union hacks, the more the distributors and the other militants are able to stand up to the pressures against them from the union bureaucracy.
We also do a lot of work to explain to the distributors such things as the importance of being honest with the masses of workers as to who is actually conducting the struggle, of the role of the Party, and the importance of winning the masses to communism. As well, we show the militants various other methods of breaking down anti-communism when it does come up among other workers, such as arguing over whether the content of the leaflet is right and undermining the anti-communist views that way.
So far, because of militants desire to fight and because of our careful work, we have been able to combat the pressure from narrow trade unionism and from the bureaucrats. But it has to be said that the network is still quite fragile.
The necessity to build up the pro-party trend
So this is the situation. We have built a broad network to distribute party literature on the industrial struggle. But the workers are not yet ready to go farther to build up more stable organization. And even the network itself is quite fragile and requires constant work to organize it and keep it active.
This situation brings home why it's so important to build up the pro-party trend which is at the core of the broader distribution network. The pro-party workers are the clearest and most stable in their support for the Party. And the somewhat wider group that reads and distributes almost all of the Party literature also tends to see more clearly the importance of the Party in the plant. We are very concerned to consolidate this trend and organize it better for the work. To do this, we are carrying out various measures which include the following:
First, we are trying to draw them into more of the political agitation and to develop their political education. We use the time of ebb in the economic movement to do a lot of political work at the plant, including sticker campaigns, to draw them into the agitation in support of revolution in South Africa and Nicaragua. This has included encouraging them to go to anti-apartheid demonstrations and also things like having more-or-less social gatherings in workers' homes to show slides of the Party's solidarity tour to meet workers and peasants in Nicaragua. So we are using various means to draw the militants into the political movement, and whenever possible, into the movement that goes on outside of the plant.
We are also working to develop closer consultation with the pro-party workers on planning and writing leaflets.
As well, we are trying to do closer work with them on building the distribution network itself. This includes trying to mobilize the pro-party workers into the work of taking leaflets to other distributors. This, we hope, will not only strengthen them but it will also help to overcome the problem where it is mainly one comrade who has to try to see all the distributors on every leaflet.
So, comrades, this is our unit's experience in building up the broad distribution network and in work to consolidate the pro-party core of the network. Although the network is still fragile, it has shown us that even when the mass movements are still weak, we can seize on opportunities to organize the workers and draw them closer to the Party. <>
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE THIRD NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY, USA
FALL 1986
Rank-and-file action against the Reaganite offensive
The Democratic Party is the other face of Reaganism
Draw the workers into the political movement
Build the party in the work places
Build the workers' press
The historic mission of the working class -- putting and end to capitalist society
Against the union bureaucracy
Against reformist liquidationism
Solidarity with the revolutionary struggles in Central America
Greetings to the Marxist-Leninist communists of the world
On differences in the international Marxist-Leninist movement
Message to the Marxist-Leninist Party of Nicaragua (MAP-ML)
Message to the Communist Party of Iran
Message to the Communist Organization-Workers' Policy of Portugal
in The Workers' Advocate of November 15, 1986, vol. 16, #11
SPEECHES FROM THE CONFERENCE
*Trends in the strike movement
*Speech on work in the 1985 Chrysler strike
in The Supplement of December 10, 1986
*Introduction to the Third National Conference
*Building an in-plant distribution network in this issue of The Workers' Advocate Supplement
And see coming issues.
The following letter was received by the Workers' Advocate in December.
RECONCILIATION? NO: REVOLUTION!
It took me sometime to figure out the whys and hows of last election's results, with the neanderthals taking the Senate away from the troglodytes, but losing many governorships previously in the hands of the neanderthals. What does it all mean? Has the fascist momentum in AmeriKKKa come to a halt? Is the ruling elite scared that its New Right tactics may have gone too far? Or that its pressure cooking pot of oppression may be about to explode? The answer, in my opinion, is none of the above.
Sure, I feel confident that the neanderthals may even capture the White House in 1988:s besides being their turn to put some third-rate actor in that office, it's not a bad idea to dilute the current revolutionary buildup among the working classes before the screws are tightened some more a few years from now. To smooth over the dissatisfaction of the millions of workers who have lost their jobs and their homes, many of them irredeemably so, or the millions yet who still retain their jobs but are forced by traitorous labor "leaders"--be they troglodytic or neanderthaloid in persuasion-- to take concession after concession, lest their workplaces be lost to the Sun Belt "right to work" states. Or the hundreds of thousands of small farmers who have lost their farms--ostensibly the stronghold of free enterprise--to bloodsucking usurers and big corporations. The Black and Hispanic citizens who each day see themselves farther apart from the affluent society of the "AmeriKKKan dream." The poor of all races, national origins, sex, creed or geographic location, who daily see more poverty while the rich get richer. Who see the Dow Jones soar while the bourgeois state can't even feed them or their children, or even teach either to reach and write properly. The working class couples, both blue and white collars--which includes the young, upwardly-mobile petty-bourgeois--who see their homes and families deteriorate and split up as consequence of the pressures on family life due to overworking, overtime, an occasional layoff, the impossibility of making ends meet regardless of how both enslave themselves, and who, after the breakup, fall prey of the legal leaches and their courts. Or the many who, regardless of how intensely they may have enslaved themselves in their prime years, today must live fearful of what the bourgeois gods may have in stock form them in their golden years; three million of whom today don't have even a roof over their heads. In summary, dissatisfaction by the whole mass of the exploited who have taken as much exploitation as anyone can or should, in the unending whirls and ebbs of capitalism. To these, the bourgeois politicians pretend to fool, once more, with possible reconciliation.
On the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution, while still living underground, Lenin, confronting the "reconciliation" overtures by the Russian bourgeois politicians of the Provisional Government, spoke of the innate irreconcilability of the oppressed with their oppressors:
"...According to Marx, the (bourgeois [as well as all other types of state]) state is an organ of class rule, an organ for the oppression of one class by another; it is the creation of 'order', which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the conflict between the classes. In the opinion of the petty-bourgeois politicians, order means precisely the reconciliation of classes, and not the oppression of one class by another; to moderate the conflict means reconciling classes and not depriving the oppressed classes of definite means and methods of struggle to overthrow the oppressors." "...That the state is an organ of the rule of a definite class which cannot be reconciled with its antipode (the class opposite to it), is something the petty-bourgeois democrats will never be able to understand." (The State and Revolution, V.I. Lenin's emphasis)
It's not that the working classes should play "hard to get" to the "liberal" neanderthal overtures, or that whatever they may do won't be good enough; but that, both dialectically and from sad experience, we know that whatever the neanderthals may propose or do, won't, by definition, be good enough. And so our answer must be: NO! No to reformism or reconciliation! Not an inch back! No to the neanderthals, no to the troglodytes, and yes to revolution! Throw both groups of cavespeople into the dark caves of oblivion, and let the workers go on to revolution!
That the bloodsuckers are cautious? If not, let's give them reasons to be concerned, to be cautions! That the exploiters are afraid? If not, let's give them reasons enough, not to be afraid, but to panic! How? By showing them but a fraction of our power on next May the First! On next May Day!
I propose that a mass demonstration be held on the Sunday following May 1st, 1987; which in 1987, falls on May 3rd, and in 1988 on May 1st proper. On Sunday, when many people who can't participate on a weekday for fear of losing their jobs, can participate; and it's nothing new: the tactic was used by Marx and Engels. In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Boston, everywhere. To protest against hunger in AmeriKKKa; against imperialistic wars, in Central America and elsewhere; for women's rights; against the arms race and corresponding social program cutbacks; for Black and Chicago rights; for protecting the small farmers from eviction; against onerous building of nuclear power plants; for the independence of Puerto Rico; to end concessions by the sold-out labor union hacks; homes for the homeless; jobs for the jobless; for gay and lesbian rights and against the AIDS hysteria; to end the growing illiteracy in AmeriKKKa; against police brutality; against bourgeois henchmen who plant drugs in our neighborhoods and schools to "neutralize" our youth. To demonstrate against each and everything that is wrong in the capitalist society. All the progressive groups and workers' organizations together. Which will be carried under the banner of the working class. To celebrate May, Day, on Sunday, May 3, 1987. Let the exploiters count our feet, and see by themselves but a fraction of the oppressed who no longer tolerate their oppression, let them see the Power of the People, and let them tremble!
Meanwhile, let all, together, as one, put our brains and hands, our blood, sweat, tears and entire souls, to build the workers' movement. In all the plants, factories and work places, schools and universities, farms and fields, in cities, neighborhoods and ghettos, in the prisons, everywhere. To build the workers' press, be it on regular newspapers or "domestic" sheets. To denounce union hacks' bureaucracy, to unite and educate our fellow oppressed, to denounce each and every capitalist maneuver and exploitation, to fight the bourgeoisie in every front and round-the-clock. To build both the Party of the workers, and as many loose-knit mass support organizations as we possibly can: all the revolutionary and progressive forces united as one, because all will be needed in the struggle, in the battle for true social, economic and political democracy: what in the words of
XIX century American socialist Lewis H. Morgan, quoted by Engels, will be "democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality of rights and privileges.... a revival, in a higher form, of the (revolutionary slogans of) liberty, equality and fraternity." [At the end of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State]
ON TO REVOLUTION!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
[from a prisoner in the Mt. View chapter of Prisoners United for Revolutionary Education (PURE) Gatesville, Texas] <>
The Fall 1986 issue of Struggle printed several poems from Roque Dalton. It pointed out that "Roque Dalton was a Salvadoran revolution poet, Dalton fought as a guerrilla against the fascist regime in El Salvador. And... Dalton fought against some aspects of the revisionism of the Salvadoran Communist Party. It must be pointed out, however, that Dalton never made a complete break with the revisionist milieu. The trend he represented was more of a populist than a Marxist trend. Nonetheless his poetry exhibits some of the revolutionary spirit of the Salvadoran toilers."
Below are two more of Dalton's poems. These two are directed against the screeches of the soldout revisionists that the revolution was ultra-left. Today, anyone who continues the struggle against the Reaganite offensive, and the liquidationist atmosphere that reflects the influence of this bourgeois offensive, is invariable called "ultra-left" or other choice names by those who have abandoned the struggle (or have never been part of it). <>
The volcano of Izalco
as a volcano
was ultra-left.
It flung lava and rocks out of its mouth
and made noise and shuddering,
committing crimes against peace and tranquility.
Today it's a fine civilized volcano
that will co-exist peacefully
with the Hotel de Montana de Cerro Verde,
and into whose snout we'll be able to put
fireworks like those
that popular deputies set off.
A volcano for executives
and even for revolutionaries and syndicalists
who know how to keep their place and aren't hot heads
now it will no longer be the symbol for the crazy thundering guerrillas
who are the only ones who long for Its explosive geologies.
Gentle and respectable proletarians of the world,
the Central Committee [1] invites you
to learn the. lesson the volcano of Izalco gives:
If the fire has gone out of fashion,
why then should we want to carry it
in our heart?
(Tr. Jack Hirschman)
[1] "Central Committee": the Central Committee of the corrupt, revisionist Salvadoran "Communist" Party. -- the Supplement.
The pipiles,
who didn't understand the cross and more advanced culture
and didn't want to bow down before the Crown of Spain
and rose up in the mountains
with weapons in their hands
against the conquistador.
Those who nourished the flame
of native rebellion for 300 colonial years
and died hunted in the mountains or by the vile garrote or on the gallows
and refused to peaceably co-exist with the feudal lord
In the bosom of estates and land allotments.
Pedro Pablo Castillo and the communards of 1814 who expropriated guns from the San Salvador military authorities and aimed them at the oppressors of the people.
On the other hand
Matias Delgado and the illustrious landowners of 1821
were not ultraleftists
(because they won independence by peaceful means although the Independence was most of all for themselves
and the poor Central Americans remained down below
exploited, humiliated, starved, deceived and dependent
Anastasio Aquino was
because with huiscoyol lances and cannons of wood he incited the Nonualcos against the central government
(he didn't seize power because he didn't know he'd won the war
after having invented the ambush
and legislated like a Marxist on this side of the Lempa River
and expropriated everything from the San Vicente rich
who'd hidden their gold under the petticoats of Saint Joseph).
Don Chico Morazan also was
and at the Central American level at that.
Gerardo Barrios
almost didn't make it
had it not occurred to him to lead the troops into Nicaragua
and fire lead at Walker's gringo filibusterers
From that point there was a long period when Salvadorean revolutionaries
quit being ultraleftists
and became as decent as the bourgeoisie
ultraleftism vanished
before bourgeois conservatism's pressures along with bourgeois liberalism and the bourgeois constitution
the bourgeois expropriation of the common land the enthronement of the bourgeois God Coffee
more omnipotent with respect to the Republic than its symbol of wood and curls
called nothing less than Savior of the World.
Everything went along very well
until that ultraleftist Farabundo Marti appeared
leading an ultraleftist Salvadorean Communist Party
which had a bunch of militant ultraleftists,
including Feliciano Ama Timoteo Lue Chico Sanchez
Vicente Tadeo Alfonso Zapata and Mario Luna, among others.
They weren't able to be ultraleftists to the end
because they didn't have the wherewithal
and 30,000 of them were assassinated.
In 1944 there was another epidemic of ultraleftism
when even the military was infected and rose up on April 2nd
against the tyrant Martinez
with the ultraleftist assent of all the people.
A national ultraleftist strike
ended with the assassin regime
dedicated to gunning down
the April 2nd ultraleftists.
One of them was so ultraleftist and uncompromising
that even with one eye gone and crushed bones and testicles
he told the priest who came to hear his confession
that his spirit hadn't failed him, merely his body,
Victor Manuel Marin was his name.
There were two more notable cases of Salvadorean
ultraleftism that year
one was when 200 armed young men
entered through Ahuachapan coming from Guatemala
attempting to overthrow Osmin Aguirre
and the other was when the ultraleftist Paco Chavez Galeano
traded shots with police in San Miguelito Park.
As the situation was getting black as ants
the rich dusted off the best of weapons
against ultraleftism that is, elections,
elections so as to co-exist in the ballot boxes
where all Salvadoreans would be equal
that is, where all would be equally deceived
with background music of democracy and peace.
With elections and an occasional coup
ultraleftism was reduced to a minimum expression
in spite of which Castaneda Castro had to use machine-guns
each time it seemed prudent to him
and Osorio, persecutions death prisons
(though it's important to understand that were ultraleftists
who understood the advantages of co-existing
by means of persuasive arguments written on checks,
Embassy posts, Ministry posts, lottery prizes,
fellowships,
houses in the Colonia Centroamerica women booze).
But now under Lemus it was here again
ultraleftism more stubborn than a mule
stirring up trouble
and ultraleftistly showing
the hunger and desperation inundating the country
(each time coffee prices fall
it's as if all the world's going ultraleftist)
there were ultraleftist demonstrations and ultraleftist shots
and ultraleftist bombs and ultraleftist deaths
and what's more the ultraleftist example of Cuba and Fidel [1]
pervaded everything.
Finally Lemus was toppled
and a government Junta arose
that talked of ultraleftism but that's about all
having nothing in its hand
with which to even imagine they were really ultraleftist
While the Junta blabbed on
(and the people once more ultraleftists begged for arms)
the Alliance for Progress took power.
Once more there'd been a big scare
and it was necessary to reinforce the co-existent electoral system
the opposition to His Majesty
the reformist and democratizing phrases
and the era of exploitation of man by man was declared ended.
But from one day to the next
the whole workers movement organized in El Salvador
woke up ultraleftist
and organized a strike that brought the
government of Rivera to its knees
To make matters worse the teachers became ultraleftists
as well as some priests
and even some of the opposition
the property up till then of the government.
In view of which the new government
(presided over by a robber dwarf with the
surnames Sanchez and Hernandez)
took two serious steps
that are exemplary for the struggle against ultraleftism.
In the first place he launched the people
into letting off steam fighting Honduras.
In the second place he appealed to the organization
supposed to be the heart of the ultraleft
to subordinate itself to the government in
this great national crusade.
The CP split in two in the face of the situation
he majority who accepted ceased to be
ultraleftists while keeping the name,
the minority who decided to continue being
ultraleftists left the tent led by a baker
named Salvador Cayetano Carpio.
Afterward two ultraleftist organizations rose up
the Popular Force of Liberation-"Farabundo Marti"
and the Revolutionary Army of the People-"ERP"
with the intention that in the future
the authentic Salvadorean ultraleftists
would have what they damn well need, to be
ultraleftists to the end
that is, until the seizure of power
as ultraleftistly as necessary in this country
dominated by the ultraright.
That is, it's a question of being effective ultraleftists
and not just exemplary defeated ultraleftists
like the Pipiles and Pedro Castillo and Anastasio Aquino
and Gerardo Barrios who ended up executed by the Duenas
and the dead of '32 and the invaders of Ahuachapan
and Paco Chavez and the heaps of people fallen
under Castaneda Qsbrio Lemus Director Julion Rivera,
Sanchez Hernlandez and the current bandit.
In a land like ours
where everything's at hand and concentrated
where the historical accumulation is so dense,
ultraleftism that doesn't stop at words
and has the wherewithal to be ultraleftist in deeds
will always go deeper
penetrating the popular heart
that still beats on in the ultraleft of the chest.
(Tr. Jack Hirschman)
[1] Castro has since taken to cursing ultraleftism up and down like the rest of the revisionist pack he runs in. -- the Supplement. <>