The Workers' Advocate

WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! 25¢

Volume 15, Number 1

VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA

January 1, 1985

[Front page:

Down with Apartheid!;

To free Africa from famine and misery, world imperialism and capitalism in Africa must go!;

Concessions imposed on postal workers--The bitter fruits of arbitration]

IN THIS ISSUE

Down with Apartheid!

To free Africa from famine and misery, world imperialism and capitalism in Africa must go!

Concessions imposed on postal workers

The bitter fruits of arbitration

While presenting themselves as fierce opponents of the South African regime

The black reformists dread revolution more than they dread apartheid

Off to South Africa

Jesse Jackson seeks a 'dialogue' with the apartheid racists

San Francisco dockworkers refuse apartheid cargo

Demonstrations Across U.S. Denounce Racist South African Regime

Union Carbide's industrial massacre in Bhopal, India

Make the rich pay for public education

Chicago school employees strike against pay cuts

'High-tech' slavedriving

GE puts workers under computer surveillance

CIA Recruiters Chased Off Campus

A protest against pornography at MIT

Students condemn films that promote oppression of women

Justice Dept. pleads anti-busing case in Norfolk, Virginia

Oppose Reagan's crusade for school segregation!

Demonstration in Chicago

Against the attacks by racist gangs

Continue the struggle for the hegemony of the working class in Nicaragua

From 'Prensa Proletaria'

Why did MAP-ML run in the elections?

3,000 protest in San Juan

Against the use of Puerto Rican troops for U.S. aggression

New Victories of People's Struggle in El Salvador

U.S. combat troops in the secret war on Nicaragua

'Blowtorch' D'Aubuisson visits Washington

Reagan administration flaunts its support for the death squads

The World in Struggle

• Bolivian workers unleash general strikes against austerity
• British miners defy Thatcher's strikebreaking
• Spanish workers battle layoffs in the shipyards
• Workers' strikes in Iran
• Resistance to Khomeini's oppression in Kurdistan
• South Korean students resist U.S.-backed dictatorship
• Japanese people fight nuclear power plants
• The capitalists want to saddle Japanese workers with a two-tier wage system

Thousands march in protest in Mexico City

The PEMEX explosion - A brutal crime of the Mexican bourgeoisie

'The Student'

On the communal violence after the death of Indira Gandhi

Why the terrible famine in Africa?

The politics of famine relief in Ethiopia

Five years of the MLP,USA

Build the Independent Movement of the Working Class!

The Struggle Against Racism

Party-Building

Solidarity with the Workers and Peasants of Central America!

In Defense of Marxism-Leninism

Down with Apartheid!

[Photo: Seattle anti-apartheid demonstration, December 9,1984.]

The black workers and youth of South Africa have been rising up in one courageous battle after another against the racist apartheid regime. The last half year has seen a tremendous extension of the struggles of the blacks and other oppressed peoples against the apartheid regime. Throughout South Africa high school students have organized one strike, demonstration and protest after another. Miners in the coal and gold fields have defied the bullets of the police and army to wage repeated strikes against their brutal treatment and starvation wages. In November one million workers staged a general strike which brought industry to a standstill.

Militant protests and battles with the police and army have broken out in every township in the country. As soon as the government sends its troops to put down the rebellion in one place, it breaks out somewhere else. The government's policy of murder and mass arrests has not been able to stop the growth of the rebellion.

Since August, 130 workers and teenagers have sacrificed their lives in the struggle against the regime. Thousands upon thousands have been arrested. But still the masses keep fighting. Each funeral becomes the occasion for a new wave of protests.

Down With the Genocidal System of Apartheid!

The black people and other oppressed peoples in South Africa are fighting to smash up the system of apartheid racism. Apartheid is one of the most ruthless systems of exploitation, discrimination and racial oppression ever invented by capitalism. With the system of apartheid, the ruling white bourgeoisie in South Africa has reduced the black people, who constitute the vast majority of the population, about three-quarters, to the position of convict prisoners in their own land. Another 12% of the population are coloreds and Asian Indians, who are also oppressed. Only the white 15% of the population enjoys any rights.

The black people are denied social and political rights by law. They are forced to live in strictly segregated ghettos on the outskirts of towns and cities. They must carry special ID passes at all times. They can be evicted from their homes at any time at the whim of the government.

In many areas of the country black workers are not permitted to bring their families to live with them. They are forced to live in barracks. This tears families apart. But the apartheid rulers don't care: one of their main concerns is trying to figure out how to stop the growth of the black population.

The black people live in destitution and poverty. The wages of black workers are generally one-sixth of that of white workers. And hunger is a constant companion in the special segregated bantustan areas, which are harsh, infertile wastelands.

No wonder there is a burning anger among the oppressed peoples of South Africa! No wonder the destruction of the apartheid system is utterly necessary for their survival.

The American Capitalists Profit From the Misery of Apartheid

The South African capitalists are not the only ones who profit from apartheid. The U.S. and Western European imperialists have propped up the apartheid regime for their own interests. Ford, GM and many other monopoly corporations reap huge profits from the super-exploitation of black workers in South Africa. And they eagerly seek the mineral wealth of South Africa.

But, moreover, the South African apartheid regime serves U.S. imperialism by acting as a heavy-handed policeman doing its best to squash the struggles of the African people. The South African military raids various neighboring countries and occupies Namibia (Southwest Africa). It serves as a constant threat to all of the nearby countries.

The U.S. government has maintained close ties with the racist South African regime for decades. This policy has been carried out by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Reagan Rushes to Prop Up the Ailing Apartheid Regime

Today the South African regime is in crisis. It is wildly sending in the army to suppress the oppressed masses. It is also in the grips of major economic problems which have lasted for years. The relatively low price of gold, the effects of the African drought on the badly eroded South African fields, and other factors have pressed the South African apartheid economy hard. The austerity measures of the government have in turn helped bring forth the massive wave of revolt that has swept South Africa.

In this situation the Reagan administration has rushed to the aid of the apartheid system. With his policy of "constructive engagement," Reagan has championed a close working relationship between the two chief racists -- Reagan, who is embarked on a major segregationist drive in the U.S., and South African Premier Botha, who is the chief slavemaster for apartheid. Reagan has made particularly sure to step up the shipment of equipment useful to suppress the masses. And with his policy of "quiet diplomacy," Reagan has championed the shushing up of all denunciation of and struggle against the apartheid system.

But Reagan is not alone in opposing the revolutionary movement of the black people of South Africa. The liberal Democrats and reformists are also doing their part. Unlike Reagan, they talk against apartheid. But they share a common dread of the revolutionary movement. They want the masses to give up revolution and instead seek "dialogue" and accommodation with the racist rulers, and they want the masses to look to U.S. imperialism and world capitalism as their saviors.

All Out in Support of the Oppressed Peoples in South Africa!

The struggle of the black workers and youth in South Africa is an inspiration to the working people all over the world. It shows that even in the most difficult conditions, facing hunger and slavery and troops, the workers and oppressed peoples can rise up in militant struggle. It is a call to all working people to rise up against their own oppressors and fight for a world without oppressors and exploiters.

We must come out in support of the heroic fighters against apartheid. This means supporting their revolutionary movement. And it means not only condemning the South African apartheid regime, but also condemning U.S. imperialism which is the diehard backer of the apartheid racists. Only through separating from the capitalist parties and resolutely opposing U.S. imperialism can the solidarity movement achieve real gains and provide effective support to the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples of South Africa.

Workers, youth and all progressive people! Let us rally in support of our brothers who suffer under the racist lash in South Africa! Let us rise in struggle inspired by their determination to overthrow the oppressor!

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To free Africa from famine and misery, world imperialism and capitalism in Africa must go!

The brutal scourge of famine is once again ravaging the people of Africa. Thousands are dying daily while millions more stare death in the face. The focus of worldwide attention today is Ethiopia but famine has in fact gripped much of Africa south of the Sahara desert, from the west to the east, and into southern Africa.

The food crisis in Africa has been developing for several years now and there have been many warnings that massive famines were in the making. But it is only a few weeks ago that the starvation in Africa finally became a subject worthy of attention by the big business news media in the U.S. It was only recently that the U.S. government began to show off that it is dispatching food relief to Africa, although the actual quantity being sent is not only far less than the fanfare would lead one to believe but it is also pitifully inadequate for the needs of the victims.

There have also been widespread appeals made to the people to contribute to the relief effort. These appeals for. African food relief are being generously responded to by thousands upon thousands of people here in the U.S. and in Europe. This shows that there are widespread feelings of sympathy and solidarity among the working people here for the suffering masses of Africa.

At the same time, the African famine and the relief effort raise some nagging questions.

Why is it that millions starve in Africa, or for that matter go hungry here at home as well, when there are huge stockpiles of "surplus" food being stored in warehouses in the U.S. and Europe? In the U.S. not only are there large stockpiles of such food but also the U.S. government spent $40 billion last year in payments of cash and surplus grain to farmers for not growing crops. And in Western Europe, the Common Market last year had a surplus of 900,000 tons of butter, more than a million tons of powdered milk, and large stockpiles of beef. It pays about $250 per ton to store the 10 million tons of surplus grain that it is holding while for only $30 per ton it could send that food to African famine victims.

* How is it that the U.S. government has suddenly become oh-so concerned about aiding famine victims in Africa while it has for years ignored the reports of famine and appeals for relief? Why is it that while the U.S. government spends billions to arm racist Israel and reactionary governments in such places as El Salvador, Turkey, and Egypt, it is so stingy with relief aid to Africa? And is it just out of pure humanitarian motives that Washington now sends some food aid?

* What are the real causes of the famine in Africa? Is it just a matter of the drought? Or are there political and economic issues involved too? What about the governments in Africa? After bitter struggles against colonial rule, the African countries are in the main now independent. There were great expectations in the governments that followed colonialism. But how is it that these governments left their people prey to famine? And now that the African countries are independent from colonial rule, does it mean that the imperialist powers have their hands clean?

If you read the newspapers and watch TV, then you find that every sort of confusion is being spread about such questions. But confusion need not prevail. Those who are moved by the suffering of the African masses ought to seek the answers to these vital questions. And armed with the truth, the desire to act in sympathy with starving Africa must be channeled towards action in support of fundamental solutions to hunger and poverty.

The Marxist-Leninists say that any examination of the facts surrounding the food crisis in Africa can only lead to one conclusion. It is the capitalist system which has brought disaster to Africa.

Africa may be independent from colonial rule, but in its economic system it is capitalism which prevails. The African countries are run on the basis of profit and exploitation. They are ruled not by the working masses but by the African bourgeoisie. This is why the bright future hoped for by the African masses during their national liberation struggles has not yet been realized.

As well, although the imperialists have given up direct colonial rule, they have maintained huge privileges in Africa. They bolster capitalism on the continent and perpetuate all the conditions that give rise to poverty and suffering in Africa.

The African peoples must rise up once again if they are to be masters of their own destiny. They must fight to finally break free of the chains of all imperialist domination. They must also destroy the system of capitalist exploitation; the African masses have to overthrow their local exploiters. Until victory is won in the coming revolution against imperialism and capitalism, famine and misery will continue to keep Africa in their stranglehold, despite the wealth of material and human resources that the continent has.

It is world capitalism -- both the capitalist relations within Africa and those between Africa and the imperialist powers -- that are responsible for the famine. This insane system has had its day. It is thoroughly bankrupt. It must go if the millions of working people around the world are to eat and live.

Those who are driven to act in solidarity with starving Africa should help to advance the revolutionary cause against capitalism and imperialism. This means work to support the revolutionary struggles of the toilers of Africa. And, since the U.S. is one of the main imperialist exploiters of Africa, work in solidarity with the revolution in Africa also means work to build the revolutionary movement here against U.S. imperialism.

In this issue of The Workers' Advocate we publish two other articles which discuss some of the burning questions raised by the famine in Africa. We examine the roots of the African famine and some features of the politics of famine relief concerning Ethiopia.

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Concessions imposed on postal workers

The bitter fruits of arbitration

At long last the federal arbitration panel has issued its ruling on the postal workers contract. Last July negotiations between the U.S. Postal Service and the unions representing over 500,000 postal employees became deadlocked. The union chiefs bowed to the government's pressure to resolve this impasse through binding arbitration. On December 25 the arbitrators ruled, and to the surprise of no one their ruling stacks up against the postal workers.

Big Cuts in Pay for New Hires

The Postal Service had been demanding a laundry list of takebacks, including wage cuts and the elimination of cost-of-living clauses. Most importantly, Postmaster General Bolger was driving for a two-tier wage system that would cut the wages of new hires by a third, introducing a permanent section of lower-paid workers.

Important details of the new contract are not yet known. But from what is known one thing stands out: the arbitrators imposed on the workers a major concession of a two-tier style pay scale with new hires receiving an average 25% cut in pay. This is being called a "modified" two-tier system because at the end of 33 months the new hires will be phased into the pay scale of current workers.

Also in line with the Postal Service's guiding policy of "divide and rule," the arbitrators' ruling will further widen the range of pay scales. A handful of top-paid workers will get 5% wage increases, while workers on lower scales will get much smaller or no increase. The pay differential will spread to over 100% between highest and lowest annual wage (from $14,186 for some new hires to $29,678).

The Postal Service has been demanding cuts in pay under the hoax that postal workers are allegedly "overpaid" as compared to the private sector. And the Wall Street Journal points out that the small wage increase granted by the arbitrators to current employees is part of "an effort to put postal wage rates closer to those in the private sector.'' (December 26, 1984) It quotes Clark Kerr, the chief arbitrator, as saying that the 2.7% average annual increase reflects "moderate restraint" aimed at gradually bringing down the postal workers' pay.

It appears that the arbitrators gave the workers a sop of a piddling wage increase and allowed them to keep their COLA clause. But they made them pay dearly for it with a whopping 25% cut in pay for new hires and by laying further grounds for weakening the united struggle of the workers.

The Bitter Fruits of Labor Bureaucrats' Treachery

This miserable contract comes as no surprise. What else could have been expected after the leaders of the unions placed everything into the hands of the federal arbitrators.

Last summer when the Postal Service put forward its arrogant demands the workers were hopping mad and were ready for a struggle to defend themselves. But Biller and Sombrotto (heads of the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers) had something else up their sleeves. Despite their militant-sounding rhetoric, when the contract expired they caved in to the government's threats and its laws against postal strikes and they told the workers to put their faith in federal arbitration.

Now Biller and Sombrotto are praising the arbitrators' ruling on the grounds that it is better than what the Postal Service had offered. This is what Biller calls "the art of compromise." What heroic labor leaders! When the employers try to take the shirts off the workers' backs they don't call for a fight. Oh no. They engage in "the art of compromise" by allowing the arbitrators to just take the buttons and the pockets. And next contract maybe they can have the collars and the sleeves.

The Postal Service Is Out for More Blood

Postmaster Bolger is very pleased with the 25% cut in pay for new hires. But he is already pressing for yet steeper concessions. And to mobilize public opinion against the postal workers he is using the old trick of pointing to postal rate increases.

On February 17 a first-class letter will cost 22 cents as postage rates go up 10% across the board. Bolger is holding up the specter that there will soon be another such increase without even more severe steps to cut the pay of the postal workers.

Of course, what Bolger doesn't let on is that the exploitation of the postal workers is growing more acute every day. Speedup, job combination, and man-eating machinery have paved the way for fat profits for the Postal Service in recent years. Rising postage rates have nothing to do with the workers' wages; but they have everything to do with making even greater profits at the expense of the people.

The Postal Service is getting ready for the next round of takeback demands against the postal workers. The workers must also get ready. They should learn from the bitter experience of this contract. To defend their livelihood the workers must rely on the strength of their mass struggle -- not on the fancy rhetoric of the Billers and Sombrottos.

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While presenting themselves as fierce opponents of the South African regime

The black reformists dread revolution more than they dread apartheid

The demonstrations breaking out in the U.S. against the South African racist regime have raised the question of what is the path forward for the movement against apartheid. This issue has assumed added importance because of the reformist influence of the black bourgeois forces including black Democratic Party officials, the NAACP leaders, the church hierarchy and others.

Opposing the Revolution in the Name of Avoiding "Violence"

The reformists are promoting themselves as fierce opponents of the apartheid system. But what is their attitude toward the militant upsurge of the black masses in South Africa against the racist rulers? Are they for the toilers rising up and overthrowing the apartheid slavemasters?

Not at all. Just look at what the reformists have to say.

Congressman George Crockett, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a member of the House

Committee on Foreign Affairs, states: "I believe that if violence and revolution are to be forestalled in South Africa as the Black majority continues to assert its legitimate rights for self-determination and human dignity, a dialogue must be initiated in South Africa between the powerful and the powerless." (Crockett's personal newsletter, April 11,1984, emphasis added)

This view is echoed by Randall Robinson, executive director of the Trans- Africa lobbying group which is the main organizer behind the liberal coalition called the Free South Africa Movement. He says that the oppressed black people of South Africa ''have to be free to negotiate. Anything short of that will mean widespread bloodshed." (Detroit Free Press, December 17)

Instead of supporting revolutionary struggle to smash apartheid, instead of looking forward to a revolution of the black masses and other oppressed peoples, the reformists argue that if the masses can obtain a ''dialogue" with the bloodthirsty racists, then these fiends will grant them ''human dignity" peacefully and calmly. In short, in the name of avoiding violence and bloodshed, the reformists are preaching an accommodation with the South African racists.

The ultimate aim of this dialogue is said to be ''power sharing." The idea behind this is that a few blacks participate in the white racist power structure. But what will this mean in practice? It will simply mean that a thin privileged strata will be able to help the apartheid racists administer the racist system. For without a revolution, all the major instruments of oppression will remain.

Seeking to Put a Reformist Stranglehold on the Movement in South Africa

This treacherous stand of the reformists in the U.S. has, as one of its main aims, the strengthening of reformist influence on the movement inside South Africa. The reformist forces inside South Africa also fear the development of the revolutionary movement.

A typical view of the South African reformists was expressed by Rev. Allan Boesak in the November 7 issue of the Guardian. Boesak described for the Guardian the recent upsurge, and the growth of the movement that it represented. He then went on to describe the anger of the masses at ''the [black] people who have become visible signs of collaboration with the government." Summing up, Boesak states: ''This is a frightening element for me, a new element. There is anger we did not see in 1976 (the year of the Soweto uprising -- ed.). The importance of the [Soweto uprising] ought not be underestimated, but what we are seeing now is something that goes much deeper."

Boesak praises the movement, but he is also scared of the movement and of the deep anger welling up in the masses. He supports nonviolence, but adds that ''Nonviolence... that very philosophy becomes an ally of the oppressor." Boesak's solution to this dilemma is to appeal ''for Western governments, if they mean what they say, to support those forces who still seek peaceful solutions." Thus he appeals to the very Western imperialist governments, to the very capitalist powers that have propped up the South African regime. In other words, Boesak wants U.S. imperialism and other Western imperialists to support the efforts of the South African reformists to curtail the people's struggle and prevent revolution through accommodation and "nonviolence."

This is also the stand of Reverend Desmond Tutu who, if anything, is less militant than Boesak. Tutu denounces the Reagan government for supporting apartheid from the perspective that the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie should play a positive role in South Africa. He does not support the revolutionary struggle of the masses, but instead threatens the world with the specter of the growth of violence -- violence of the regime, revolution of the masses -- if it does not support his plans, for reformist change.

In South Africa, to make even a liberal or reformist criticism of the apartheid system is to stand up to the possibility of drastic penalties, long years of imprisonment or even death. We are opposed to the persecution of any of the opponents of apartheid. But this should not make us forget the danger of reformist views to the struggle. The black bourgeoisie in the U.S. has not forgotten the distinction between reformism and revolution either, and it aims precisely to reinforce the reformist misdirection of the struggle. True support for the black people of South Africa must aim at helping them build up their revolutionary assault on apartheid, not at trying to cool it off into the channels of accommodation and reliance on imperialism.

Seeking Conciliation With the Reaganites

The black reformists in the U.S. are not for developing a powerful anti-apartheid movement in the U.S. either. In order for the movement in the U.S. to be a strong force, there must be an irreconcilable stand against Reagan and U.S. imperialism, which supports the apartheid regime.

But the reformists take a conciliatory stand towards the Reaganites and do not oppose imperialism. True, they condemn Reagan's blatantly pro-apartheid policy of "constructive engagement." But they are anxious to find any excuse to find common ground with Reagan. Thus they heap praise on the Reaganites when these racists simply cover up their support for the South African government with hypocritical shows of concern over the plight of the oppressed black population.

Thus, when Reagan recently uttered a word "against" apartheid, the black liberals hailed it. Congressman Walter Fauntroy (Democrat-Washington, D.C.) lauded Reagan's comments as "making progress inasmuch as he admits that quiet diplomacy does not always work." Meanwhile Randall Robinson stated that: "Ronald Reagan has never denounced apartheid the way he did last week in very strong terms. That is the first step in the dismantlement of an unacceptable American policy." (Michigan Chronicle, December 22)

They evidently did not care that Reagan's comments were intended to justify the administration's "quiet diplomacy."

In a similar vein, Randall Robinson also praised the phoney criticism of apartheid in the letter of the 35 Republican congressmen to South African ambassador Foure. These congressmen are avowed enemies of the liberation movements around the world, ardent supporters of the U.S. neo-colonial empire and supporters of Reagan's racist offensive at home. Indeed, these congressmen included some of the most reactionary Republicans, including Newt Gingrich, leader of the "New Right" faction which stands to the right of the Reaganite Republican congressional leadership. But, according to Robinson, these racists "were as frustrated as the rest of us in seeking change. The action that we took simply galvanized the deep feelings that were already there." (New York Times, December 8)

What a shameless prettification of the Reaganites! Far from opposing U.S. imperialism, the reformists glamorize even the most blatant reactionaries.

This stand of the black reformists is not surprising. The black reformists are almost all supporters of the Democratic Party; a section of them are Democratic politicians themselves, such as those in the Congressional Black Caucus. Ever since Reagan took office the Democrats have been collaborating with him. The Democrats too are for U.S. imperialism, but with a Carterite "human rights" er. Just as with regards to El Salvador, where they support the bloody Duarte regime against the revolution under the guise that the regime is for "reform," so in South Africa they want to halt the revolution with the help of "human rights" talk and slight adjustments in the apartheid regime.

Subverting the Demand for Divestment

One of the forms of struggle against South Africa is the demand that U.S. multinational firms should get out of South Africa, and that various funds, such as pension funds, government funds, etc., should be removed from all firms that invest in South Africa. This demand for divestment is a just demand and is one of the traditional means used in the U.S. to build support for the revolutionary struggle of the oppressed masses in South Africa. The U.S. multinational monopolies reap fantastic profits by taking advantage of the apartheid system. They are a prop of the racist regime.

The reformists are full of militant-sounding talk about forcing the divestment of the operations of the U.S. multinationals in South Africa. But the reformists sever the struggle for divestment from support for the revolutionary movement. Instead they falsely suggest that divestment will itself abolish apartheid. They use this to back up their view that there is no need for revolutionary struggle in South Africa. In this way they want to create the illusion that U.S. imperialism will liberate the oppressed masses in a peaceful way.

The reformists even go so far as to separate^ the struggle for divestment from international solidarity. Instead they often argue for divestment by joining the bourgeois campaign of chauvinist hysteria that blames imports and other countries for the problems of American capitalism. Thus they do not shrink from arguing that U.S. companies should leave South Africa so that -- American workers can have the jobs allegedly lost to foreign competition. If the American working people accepted this argument, they would not support the South African workers but instead regard them as enemies, as competitors for the shrinking number of jobs offered by the corporations.

Furthermore, the reformist strategy on divestment harms the struggle for divestment itself. Any serious struggle for divestment requires taking a resolute stand against the capitalist corporations, but the reformists and liberals praise the corporations and seek to use them as a force for progress. Can it believed that such an ardent booster of GM and Ford, such as the black mayor of Detroit Coleman Young, will bite the hand that feeds him? Hardly.

Any serious struggle for divestment also requires taking a resolute stand against the Reaganites, those diehard political representatives of the rich and the corporations. But, as we have seen, it believed that such an ardent booster of GM and Ford, such as the black mayor of Detroit Coleman Young, will bite the hand that feeds him? Hardly.

Any serious struggle for divestment also requires taking a resolute stand against the Reaganites, those diehard political representatives of the rich and the corporations. But, as we have seen, the reformists and liberals want to conciliate these forces too, even the ''New Right," taking every opportunity to find something good about Reagan and the Reaganites. What sort of divestment bill in Congress would it be that could satisfy and gain approval from the 35 conservatives who wrote the letter to the South African ambassador that found such praise among the reformists? Clearly it would be a fraud.

In regard to the sham nature of the reformist fight for divestment, it should be noted that some of the black reformists say that they are against investing funds in companies operating in South Africa, but they are not for these companies leaving South Africa. Some, like Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, support such a policy with the hoax that the American corporations in South Africa are not supporting apartheid but fighting against it. (One wonders why the U.S. multinationals moved to South Africa if not to take advantage of the brutal oppression of the black workers under the apartheid regime.) Nonetheless, when Randall Robinson, an alleged proponent of getting all U.S. companies out of South Africa, organized a recent protest against apartheid in Detroit, he promoted Young, the apologist for the U.S. auto monopolies. This shows how even the more militant-sounding liberals, such as Randall Robinson, have no qualms about bartering away their "principles."

Using the Mass Actions as a Bargaining Chip With the Reaction

The reformists and the Free South Africa Movement have organized some demonstrations. But a look at the type of actions organized and at their orientation for these actions is revealing.

The reformists do not have faith in the working masses, nor is their object the development of the independent motion of the masses. Instead they aim at coming to accommodation with the Reaganites on the policy towards South Africa. But they need something to bargain with. The masses are to be simply a bargaining chip for their wheelings and dealings with the Reaganites in Congress and the corporations.

Thus, in an interview in Detroit on December 16, Randall Robinson explained that the demonstrations are designed to keep the issue of South Africa in the news. He went on to add: "It's sad, but to get things done in Congress, you have to generate media coverage." (Detroit Free Press, December 17) The need to use the masses is a sad necessity for the reformists, and Randall Robinson has pointed out that "The actions already taken and those planned have be6n arrived at reluctantly." (At the November 23 news conference in Washington, D.C., cited in The Militant, December 7,1984.)

As well, the reformists use the demonstrations to promote themselves as big heroes in front of the masses. This has been one of the purposes of the volunteering of various reformist leaders for prearranged, peaceful arrests on minimal charges. It is notable it was after it became clear that the government was presently reluctant to prosecute, and a number of charges had been dropped altogether, that the real flood of reformist volunteers for arrest began. The arrests are carefully planned so that they do not by accident set off any mass militancy.

Well, it is something that the reformist leaders even engage in some minor activities. But it is ludicrous when they begin to puff themselves up for their great daring. Congressman Conyers has even called this "taking a leaf out of the recent civil rights history" of the 1960's. But back then, the activists laid their life and limb on the line. Even various of the reformist leaders were in jeopardy or even, as in King's case, assassinated. Today it is not the congressmen and reformists who are risking anything with these token arrests. On the contrary, the real heroes are the masses who sincerely struggle against apartheid: such as the San Francisco dock workers who risk their livelihood and struggle against court injunctions and capitalist wrath, and the student activists who have suffered the reprisals of the university administrations.

The black reformists also seek to promote other enemies of the working masses through these demonstrations. The reformists want to build coalitions with these elements, and so they prettify them to the masses. Thus they promote various of the racist and reactionary trade union bureaucrats, such as Lane Kirkland, head of the AFL-CIO. And they even provide platforms for big time zionist supporters of Israel, ignoring the fact that Israel is well-known for its strong friendship for South Africa and for the military aid it gives the apartheid regime.

Forward Onto the Path of Militant Mass Struggle In Solidarity With the Revolutionary Movement In South Africa

The sentiment against apartheid and against U.S. support for it must not be diverted onto the dead-end path of reformism. A real struggle against apartheid requires irreconcilable hostility to the Reaganites, not conciliation. It means using the crimes of "our own" government to develop hatred for the entire U.S. imperialist system and the two parties of the imperialists, the Republicans and the Democrats. The fight for divestment can play a role in this.

Of the utmost importance in the fight against apartheid is supporting the development of the revolutionary liberation struggle in South Africa. It is the revolutionary mass struggle of the South African toilers that will bring freedom from apartheid slavery.

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Off to South Africa

Jesse Jackson seeks a 'dialogue' with the apartheid racists

The apartheid regime of the racist South African rulers is hated around the world. Progressive people have worked years on end to boycott it: the mere visit of a South African athletic team has been sufficient to set off mass protests. And they have established the rule that no one should go to South Africa and give the regime credibility.

But here comes Jesse Jackson to the rescue. Jackson's role in the struggle is always to go ''cool down" the masses and tell them to compromise with their oppressors, to have faith in the reasonableness of their oppressors. In the last election campaign, he preached faith in the Democratic Party and shook hands with arch-racists like the notorious George Wallace of Alabama. He called this seeking ''a higher ground." And now he is planning to take off soon for South Africa to shake hands with whatever apartheid officials he can find and promote ''dialogue" between the oppressors and the oppressed.

Replacing the Revolutionary Upsurge With "Dialogue" With the Apartheid Rulers

Today the revolutionary upsurge of the black people in South Africa is scaring the apartheid rulers and all their supporters. And sure enough, it is Jesse Jackson to the rescue to cool things down. Both liberal Democrat Ted

Kennedy and black bourgeois leader Jackson are going to South Africa to promote that the apartheid regime should make some minor changes to avert the danger of revolution that is step by step creeping up on it.

Jesse Jackson himself describes the purpose of his visit not as encouraging the revolutionary movement, but as inducing some change of heart in the South African rulers. Oh yes, Jackson does not hesitate to say some harsh words against apartheid and talk of the ''brutal, inhuman exploitation" of the blacks. But his solution is for all the different leaders to get together and replace confrontation with dialogue. He states that:

''It is our desire to take a delegation to visit with [South African] church leaders, labor leaders, government officials. We believe it is urgent and compelling that the South African government move away from confrontation and repression to one of dialogue with those who have been denied their God-given human rights." (New York Times, December 3,1984)

Is there anyone left who still believes in the humanity of the South African racists and of the possibility of reforming them? Well, there is always Jesse. Just let the South African rulers create a few positions for black businesses, like in Jesse's Coca-Cola deal, just let them give a few seats on labor-relations board and government commissions, and who knows what marvels are possible. Just as Jesse represents the black bourgeoisie in the U.S. who live off getting cushy positions for themselves by deals with the ruling bourgeoisie at the expense of the black masses, so he dreams that a similar setup can be accomplished in South Africa.

Actually, Jackson has already visited South Africa once, in 1979. It seems that the heroic black masses didn't take his advice, so he will have to go back and try once again.

But watch out, Jesse. The black masses in South Africa have taken to treating most rudely those sellouts from their midst who consent to collaborate with the South African racists. In the latest upsurge a number of such sellouts even lost their lives at the hands of the outraged masses, who regarded the struggle against the sellouts as inseparable from the struggle against the apartheid regime itself.

Jackson's Treachery Is No Different From That of the Other Reformists

When Jesse Jackson first announced his trip, it caused a minor controversy among the black bourgeoisie and reformists leading the Free South Africa Movement. But soon everything was smoothed over, because Jackson's sellout is no different than that of any of the reformists and members of the Black Congressional Caucus.

Thus at first Congressman George Crockett bitterly declared that he was ''very much concerned" about Jackson's planned trip to South Africa. Congressman Conyers had to try to cool things down. Eventually Crockett was reconciled to Jackson. Conyers stated that Jackson had won over the Black Congressional Caucus: ''They didn't know what he [Jackson] was doing versus what they were doing. Once it was explained, they were totally supportive. It was all worked out." (Detroit Free Press, December 6,1984)

But the comedy of all this was that Crockett, as he denounced Jesse Jackson's trip, was himself planning to go to South Africa as part of the junket of the Africa subcommittee of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. Later, at a demonstration against apartheid in Detroit, Crockett announced that the sub-committee's trip to South Africa had been canceled (postponed, most likely) ''in cooperation with the spirit of the protest that you represent here." (Detroit Free Press, December 21,1984)

As time went by, the reformist leaders of the Free South Africa Movement began to regard Jackson's planned trip as one of the positive results of the movement. As Randall Robinson put it, ''the granting of Jesse Jackson's visa, that had been delayed until now, is a result of this campaign." (Michigan Chronicle, December 22) Thus Jackson's treachery, his stabbing in the back of the struggle of the black masses in South Africa, proves to be a powerful indictment of the other reformists and the black Democratic Party officials as well. They all fear the revolution and the valiant mass struggles that lead to it. They are all involved in selling out the struggle of the black people, using this struggle as simply a bargaining counter to ensure them entry into the government offices and corporate boardrooms, even into the anterooms of the infamous apartheid leaders themselves.

Truly, the South African masses showed a fine revolutionary instinct when they joined the fight against the sellouts to the fight against the racists. Here in the U.S., if we wish to truly support the heroic black people of South Africa, if we wish to truly fight against the Reaganites and capitalists who are the common enemy of the American working people and the black people of South Africa, we must fight against the sellouts and build up a powerful movement that fights against the bourgeoisie and all its capitalist parties. Not illusions in the liberals, but faith in the revolutionary capacity of the working masses -- that must be the cornerstone of the struggle.

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San Francisco dockworkers refuse apartheid cargo

Demonstrations Across U.S. Denounce Racist South African Regime

[Photo: A San Francisco rally in support of boycott of apartheid cargo.]

[Photo: New York City anti-apartheid protest in front of South African consulate, December 10,1984.]

[Photo: Students at University of California at Berkeley condemn apartheid, December 7,1984.]

The valiant struggle of the oppressed black toilers of South Africa has touched off a series of protests in the U.S. against the apartheid regime and the Reagan administration's support for it. In the last week of November, several hundred longshoremen in San Francisco waged a militant week-and-a-half long struggle in solidarity with their class brothers in South Africa. The dock workers refused to unload South African cargo from the Dutch freighter Nedlloyd Kimberly.

The longshoremen waged their protest in the face of stiff repressive measures of the capitalist shipowners and the government apparatus. When the workers began their action, an industry arbitrator ruled the work stoppage illegal. Some 180 workers were issued reprimands and the employers threatened firings. Next an arbitrator ruled that the capitalists would withhold the workers' paychecks. But the spirited workers did not back down and continued their action. The capitalist courts then issued a temporary restraining order which provided for fines of $10,000 a day on the longshoremen's union, the ILWU, if they did not end their protest. Finally, under this severe pressure, the capitalists were able to force the workers back on the job. Despite this temporary setback, the sentiment of the workers against the racist regime is still running high and many workers have declared they will never again enter a ship with South African cargo.

The longshoremen's protest gained widespread support from the workers and activists in the area. Rallies and pickets were held each morning and night at the work site to support the dock workers. The largest of these actions took place on December 3 with over 500 people demonstrating at 7 a.m. at the pier. As well, pickets and other protests have taken place at the Oakland premises of the shipowners' association, the Pacific Maritime Association.

38 Berkeley Students Arrested for Opposing Apartheid

Inspired by the dock workers' fight, students at the University of California at Berkeley held a vigorous rally on December 7. Five hundred students participated in this demonstration which not only supported the dock workers' struggle but also targeted the university's investments in companies doing business in South Africa.

The demonstrators marched through the campus and downtown Berkeley shouting slogans denouncing the U.S. government and the University of California administration for their support of apartheid. After the march the students rallied again on campus and staged a sit-in, demanding an end to the university's investments in apartheid. The arrogant university administration responded to this just demand by having 38 students arrested.

Actions All Across the Country

Numerous other protests have also taken place across the country. Actions have occurred in Seattle, Boston, Chicago, New York City, Detroit, Houston, Newark, New Orleans and elsewhere including Mobile, Alabama. At the University of Maryland, students marched on the administration building demanding divestment of university funds in U.S. firms that invest in South Africa. Protests have also taken place against the sale of Krugerrands, the South Africa gold coin.

Vigorous Work Among the Masses by the Marxist-Leninist Party

The Marxist-Leninist Party has been working to strengthen this anti-apartheid movement and provide it with a revolutionary orientation. The revolutionary struggle in South Africa has been highlighted in the pages of The Workers' Advocate. The local branches of the Party have not only done widespread work to support the upsurge in South Africa through the circulation of The Workers' Advocate in factories, communities, schools and among activists, but have also taken a direct, active role in the anti-apartheid actions. For example, in San Francisco, the Party took part in various actions to support the dock workers' struggle and issued a special leaflet supporting the dock workers and the Berkeley students, while in Boston the Party used an issue of the Boston Worker to do wide-scale work to build a demonstration for December 9.

In Seattle, the MLP participated in a demonstration of 500 people at the South African consulate on December 9. In preparation for this action, the MLP distributed a leaflet that emphasized the importance of supporting the liberation struggle in South Africa. It called for combating U.S. imperialism's backing of the racist regime, pointing out that support for the racists is a bipartisan policy of both Republicans and Democrats, a policy which is based on the interests of the profit-hungry imperialist corporations. This leaflet was well received in the black working class neighborhoods, at the University of Washington and at the demonstration itself.

To further popularize the revolutionary politics, the Party brought picket signs to the demonstration with the slogans "Solidarity with the black people of South Africa'' and "For revolution to smash the racist apartheid system.'' These picket signs were popular with the demonstrators, and some 40 were carried in the action.

Carry Forward the Struggle Against Apartheid Racism!

The movement against apartheid is providing valuable assistance to the black toilers and other oppressed people inside South Africa. It is also playing a role in the development of the anti-imperialist movement in the U.S. It is a popular cause among the working masses and all progressive people and helps mobilize wide masses into motion against their class enemies. Carry forward the struggle and spread it widely to all the factories, communities and schools!

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Union Carbide's industrial massacre in Bhopal, India

The worst industrial accident in history occurred on December 3 in Bhopal in the heart of India. A Union Carbide pesticide plant released 3,000 gallons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas in the middle of the night. The gas flowed through the outskirts of Bhopal killing or injuring every living thing in its path. Over an area of 25 square miles, the gas killed more than 3,000 people and injured 200,000. The streets of the city were littered with dead animals and birds and all foliage was burned to a crisp. Food supplies were contaminated and, since the gas leak, people eating fish from a nearby lake have been poisoned.

The main victims of this disaster were the poor residents of the shantytown slum area bordering the Union Carbide plant. The death and destruction wreaked on these people is nothing but corporate massacre by the profit-hungry capitalists of Union Carbide.

Union Carbide Is to Blame: It Created the Monster, It Knew What Was Coming, and It Did Nothing

Since the catastrophe at Bhopal, Union Carbide spokesmen and other capitalist apologists have tried to argue that what happened was inexplicable, a mysterious accident that is an unfortunate but inevitable possibility with modern industrial plants. But this is a lie. The gas leak in Bhopal was not such a mystery. In fact, it is the deliberate result of Union Carbide's ruthless pursuit of profits.

For one thing, Union Carbide deliberately adopted the dangerous process of using the deadly methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) in order to maximize its profits. Union Carbide had been making the pesticides Temik and Sevin for quite some time now. But prior to 1978 the pesticides had been produced by combining phosgene and napthol and then adding methylamine. Now those chemicals are quite dangerous too, but the old process did not need MIC at any point. It was only in 1978 that the company changed its "process formula" to use MIC; and the reason for this was that the new process was cheaper. Never mind the fact that an even more deadly chemical was introduced.

What is more, the accident at the Bhopal plant itself was foreseen. There were a number of danger signals. Although the company knew of these as early as 1982, they did nothing to prevent it.

Since 1978, there had been six reported accidents, as well as frequent leaks of toxic gas. When workers complained about these leaks, Union Carbide supervisors told the trade union not to worry; they explained that the gas would only cause itching of the eyes and the remedy was simply to wash the eyes with cold water.

In 1982 a larger-than-usual gas leak caused thousands in the area to flee. At that time the company carried out an internal investigation on the safety procedures at the plant. This report clearly shows that, two-and-a-half years ago, Union Carbide was fully aware of an impending catastrophe.

The 1982 report states that there was ' 'serious potential for sizable releases of toxic materials in the phosgene/MIC unit and storage area either due to equipment failures, operational problems or maintenance problems." A series of these factors were spelled out. Indeed, it was the problems cited in this report that were involved in the December 3 catastrophe.

Thus, although the company had a series of advance warnings, including its own investigation in 1982, Union Carbide did not bother to correct the safety problems at the Bhopal plant.

A Human Sacrifice at the Altar of the Almighty God of Profit

Why does a company adopt a new process even though it is more dangerous? Why does it do nothing to correct safety problems even when it knows about them?

Every worker who has slaved in the capitalist factories knows why. Simply because the capitalists operate on the profit motive, which dictates that a corporation spend an absolute minimum on safety procedures in order to reap the maximum profits. Union Carbide is just a typical example of a profit-hungry capitalist enterprise.

Union Carbide is a huge multinational corporation, with plants in 30 countries, including 14 in India. The reason Union Carbide invested in India in the first place was because of the huge profits to be made in the capitalist development of Indian agriculture. In the 1960's the Indian bourgeoisie, in association with imperialism, launched an ambitious program to develop capitalism in agriculture. This was the so-called Green Revolution. This involved a major increase in the use of fertilizers and pesticides, new seeds, machinery, and irrigation projects. The Green Revolution did not lift India's rural poor out of misery -- it was never intended to do that. But it did bring agricultural growth in certain sections of India and prosperity did come to a number of capitalist sectors -- including capitalist rich farmers and landlords, bankers, and industrialists supplying the new growth in agriculture. Union Carbide was one such beneficiary. Locating its plants inside India put Union Carbide close to a large new market.

Moreover, by locating plants inside India, Union Carbide made fatter profits by taking advantage of the low wages and the lower safety standards. The safety mechanisms at Bhopal, for example, were clearly substandard when compared to the systems installed in modern plants in Western Europe; the Bhopal plant had manual warning systems instead of computerized ones.

Furthermore, Union Carbide never spent a dime on public safety programs for the surrounding community. Most people living around the plant had no idea of the dangers posed by the plant. When the plant siren went off, signaling the recent gas leak, most people in the area thought that there was a fire, and many residents ran towards the plant to help. After the gas leak, doctors in local hospitals were hamstrung in treating victims because they had no idea what gas the plant released, what its toxicity or effect on humans was.

What all this reflects is that while capitalist multinationals like Union Carbide disregard health and safety concerns everywhere, they are especially murderous in countries like India. This is because countries like India are oppressed countries; although they are no longer under direct colonial rule, they are still enslaved by world imperialism in a myriad of ways. The imperialist monopolies take advantage of the conditions existing in the oppressed countries, of lower wages, lower safety standards, the lack of environmental regulations, the political conditions of repression of the working class movement, and so forth.

The Indian Government -- Collaborator in the Slaughter

Since the gas leak at Bhopal, Indian government officials have made a big show of "concern" for the victims and have done some tough talking against Union Carbide. Indian officials closed the plant and said that it will "never open again." Plant managers were arrested and charged with criminal negligence, and when Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson went to India he was also arrested.

But all of this is just so much bluster to cover over the fact that the Indian government is a partner in crime with Union Carbide. The Indian government has all along welcomed Union Carbide and other multinationals to come and plunder India's labor and resources and it has gone along with the lax safety standards in these plants. In fact, the Indian government has even directly tried to suppress criticism of the Bhopal plant in the past.

Since 1978 a number of press reports and even government commissions have questioned the wisdom of locating a pesticide plant right inside the city of Bhopal, a state capital with a population of nearly a million. One Indian journalist published a series of articles on the dangers of the plant, basing these on the 1982 Union Carbide report. But his articles were dismissed as alarmist. In 1978 a state commission was formed to investigate the plant; this commission warned of a possible catastrophe but there was no follow-up to this report. The issue of relocating the plant was raised in the state legislature in 1982, but the labor minister assured everyone that safety measures there were foolproof. And even before the plant was built, a municipal administrator, an architect, had begun a campaign to stop the construction of the plant because of its potential danger but he was suddenly transferred to the Forestry Department!

The Indian officials' cry of "concern" today is nothing but belated hypocrisy. And their cries of anger at company officials are also nothing but empty grandstanding. The "arrest" of the Union Carbide officials is in fact nothing but confinement to a luxury mansion, the company guest house! And it is primarily for the safety of the officials themselves. When Warren Anderson was "confined" there, there were demonstrations outside, with protesters shouting for Anderson to be hanged. And while Anderson was let go after a few days, the Bhopal plant managers are still officially in custody although the charges they face are nothing more than what people involved in traffic accidents are charged with.

The record of the Indian government exposes the reality that lies behind its declarations about "anti-imperialism" and "socialism," etc. The fact of the matter is that the Indian government is a capitalist government. It is dedicated in the first place to helping the capitalists, both local and foreign, to make profits out of ruthless exploitation of the poor masses. Such a government is not about to stand up to an imperialist monopoly like Union Carbide. After all, the Indian bourgeoisie shares in the loot that is reaped by the imperialist monopolies.

Industrial Murder Is Not a Necessary Consequence of Industrialization

The Bhopal disaster is a terrific exposure of the evils of capitalist industrialization, economic growth which does not give a damn about the working masses but is only directed at increasing profits for the rich. In this situation the bourgeois press in the U.S. has been working overtime to do propaganda to the effect that, yes, what happened in Bhopal was too bad, but after all this is an inevitable product of industrialization.

Time magazine, for instance, called the gas leak in Bhopal "a parable of industrial life" and pontificated that "the world is Bhopal, a place where the occupational hazard is modern life. History teaches that there is no avoiding that hazard, and no point in trying; one only trusts...the gods in the machines."

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal went to the extent of doing a cost-benefit analysis to show that actually the residents of Bhopal have derived much more benefit from the Union Carbide plant than harm; that because the plant produces pesticides which kill bugs, the people of Bhopal should not mind that the pesticide byproducts also kill people.

What arrogance! What brazen apologies for capitalist murder!

The capitalist apologists base their views and declarations not on some allegedly divine law but on the laws of capitalist industrialization, the history of which is indeed replete with industrial disasters. And the theme they hammer away at is that the oppressed countries like India can only develop through capitalist industrialization.

But the world's people are not fated to only such a cruel choice. There is another alternative, which is development along socialist lines. It is only under capitalism's laws that industry is run solely for what makes the fattest profits. Under socialism, the toilers can not only carry out industrial development but also ensure that industrial plants provide full safeguards for the health and safety of the workers and for the surrounding environment.

Such an alternative requires the working masses to carry out the proletarian revolution. Only with the overthrow of the exploiters and the establishment of the rule of the working class can socialism be built.

In order to do away with the scourge of industrial murders, the workers everywhere must organize themselves to build the socialist world. In the meantime, they have to fight with every ounce of energy to demand that the capitalists cut into their profits to ensure safety processes for the security of the workers. They cannot allow Union Carbide and other exploiters to ride roughshod over their daily interests. And they cannot allow the corporate murderers to go scot free without compensating for the death and destruction they cause.

These days, whichever direction you look, you see that the capitalists are slaughtering workers -- in the neighborhoods next to oil installations in Mexico City, in coal mines in Utah and Taiwan, in chemical plants in India. This is not some divine coincidence. It reflects the fact that everywhere, under today's conditions of acute capitalist crisis, the capitalists are seeing how far they can go to make their profits.

Simply for keeping life and limb together, the workers have to fight the capitalist killers. And every concession they can win from the exploiters, and every step of class organization they can build in this daily struggle will stand the workers in good stead for the coming proletarian revolution.

[Photo: Protest in front of tho U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India against Union Carbide's massacre.]

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Make the rich pay for public education

Chicago school employees strike against pay cuts

On December 17, after a two-week strike, the Chicago Teachers Union representing 39,000 public school employees came to a tentative agreement with the Board of Education. As we go to press the results of the voting on the contract have yet to be counted.

With their strike action the school employees have beaten back some of the most outrageous takebacks demanded by the Board. However the nature of the agreement is unclear and there is little available information on it. On the one hand, instead of the pay freeze demanded by the Board, the one- year agreement contains a small raise. At the same time it appears that the tentative agreement, which the CTU bureaucrats are selling as "a small victory," contains a number of concessions, including new restrictions on the use of health insurance.

Below we reprint a December 7 leaflet issued by the Chicago Branch of the MLP in support of the striking school employees.

Again, for the third time since 1980, the Chicago public school teachers and other school employees have been forced to go on strike to defend themselves against pay cuts and other take- back demands of the Chicago Board of Education. The teachers are instead demanding a pay raise which would at least slow down the deterioration of their pay from years of inflation during which they have received only small, when any, pay increases. Each year the capitalist politicians can think of nothing better to solve the public school financial crises than to try to push the burden of it onto the backs of the teachers and other school employees.

In January 1980, the teachers had to strike against attempts to make them work for no pay whatsoever. Last year, in September, the teachers and other school employees struck for a wage increase and against the concession demands of the school board. The militant mass struggles of the teachers and school employees have put a partial brake on the attempts by the capitalists to make the teachers and employees pay for the school financial crises.

More Cutbacks for the School Employees

This year the Board of Education has been demanding a $40 million cut in pay and benefits from the teachers and other school workers. The Board of Education, on its own, without any agreement by the teachers, imposed payroll deductions for medical insurance and cut back on the amount of medical coverage, so that teachers would have to pay more of these expenses themselves. The Board also wants to cut four or more days from the paid school year. Already the teachers' militant stand has forced the Board to back off on the medical insurance deductions, but the Board still wants to cut the school year and is not offering any raise.

For years the public schools in Chicago have suffered one cutback after another; class size has increased, programs have been cut back, supplies cut, and the education of our youth has deteriorated. It is a well-known public scandal in Chicago that many poor and minority youth are forced out of the schools before graduating and that many of those who graduate have not even learned to read. Now, some spokesmen for the school board have the nerve to put out the lie that the teachers' demands for an adequate pay level are the cause of school programs being cut.

In fact, it is the rich capitalists and their political flunkeys who have been cutting educational programs and trying to impose concessions on the teachers and other employees. Just recently, for example, the segregationist Reagan administration has refused to fund even the very small, token "desegregation program'' that the school board agreed to at the end of the Carter administration. So, in November, 528 jobs, of teachers and others, were wiped out. The crises in education is one of the fronts on which the capitalists are attacking the vital interests of the working masses.

Capitalist Profit-Taking Is at the Center of the Financial Crises of the Schools

The financial crises of the Chicago school system moved to the brink of bankruptcy in 1979 mainly due to the fact that the capitalist businesses had for years simply refused to pay the taxes they owed. Instead the schools were financed with massive borrowing from the big banks. When these banks got scared that they might lose some of their money, they demanded that the School Finance Authority, a committee controlled by the big banks, be set up and given control over all school finance matters.

The Finance Authority floated bonds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. To ensure that the banks and the other capitalist financial sharks got their big profits off of these loans, almost ¼ of the property tax money which previously went directly to funding education was diverted to financing the bonds. At the same time, the Finance Authority carried out heavy cuts in the school budget and imposed renegotiated take-back contracts and mass layoffs on the school employees.

Thus, while the working masses paid dearly, the banks were ensured enormous profits. This is the cornerstone of the capitalist offensive against the public schools. This is a bipartisan offensive now headed up by the Reagan administration: cut educational programs, cut the employees' pay, but make sure that every dime of principal and interest is paid to the banks.

Both Liberals and Conservatives Want Cutbacks and Higher Taxes on the Working People

All of the politicians, both Republican and Democrat, both the "liberals" and the open reactionaries, are working together in the attack on the public school teachers and on the education of the youth.

For example, the Vrdolyak 29 in the Chicago City Council are openly reactionary and racist; they consider it a waste of time and money to educate the poor and minority youth in the Chicago public schools, and are eager to cut public education any way they can. At the same time, these racists are ready to increase the funding for the police as much as necessary to turn the schools and indeed the whole city into a jail for the youth.

The "liberals" and supposed anti-racists, such as Washington and his allies, do not even propose to restore funding for 'public education to anywhere near adequate levels. They just want to reduce the depth of some of the cuts by increasing taxes on the working people. Also it is notable that Washington, the "pro-labor" politician, has not spoken in defense of the teachers against the concessions the school board is trying to force on them.

Support the Public School Workers! Make the Rich Pay!

The teachers are right to take up the mass struggle in defense of their livelihood and they deserve the support of all working people. The teachers' struggle is one front of the struggle to resist the Reaganite assault on public education and on the workers' livelihood which is going on across the country.

Further, the workers must struggle to make the rich exploiters and not the working people pay for public education. Almost all funding for Chicago public schools comes from local property taxes, state sales tax and income taxes, all of which place the heaviest burden on those least able to afford it. The capitalist politicians are telling the working people that there are only two alternatives: more education cutbacks or to be squeezed dry with yet another tax increase. But there is a third alternative. The burden of financing public education should be placed on the rich and their corporations by means of a heavy tax, and taken off the backs of the working masses and public school employees.

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'High-tech' slavedriving

GE puts workers under computer surveillance

(The following leaflet was issued by the Boston Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA on December3,1984.)

Workers! GE is using its central computer to monitor workers in the T-700 area of Building 74. In late October, a large computer screen was placed on the foremen's booth. The numbers of 20 Direct Numerical Control (DNC) machines are continually displayed, and the computer checks what each machine is doing every few seconds. If the machine is running, the number is white, surrounded by a green block: [Graphic.]

When the machine stops, the white numbers start flashing red. And when the machine has stopped for 15 minutes, the green block turns bright red and the numbers keep flashing!! Also after 15 minutes, the DNC screen at the machine displays a questionnaire, asking why the machine has stopped. At the foremen's booth, the red block with the flashing numbers is displayed until the worker answers the questionnaire, and some machines have been programmed not to run until it is answered. When the worker answers the computer, the number and block turn different colors, depending on what the answer is. For example, answer number three, methods problem, changes the block to blue and the numbers flash red, or answer number five, other, turns the numbers white with no color block. Without leaving their chairs, foremen can now spy on every worker every minute of the day! But the computer does even more than this. If the worker runs the machine slower than the programmed rate, the block around the number gets smaller. For example, running at 60% feedrate looks like this: [Graphic.]

As well, the central computer which runs the DNC machines has been recording what each machine does for over a year. This computer is running almost 100 machines already and can run 160. The daily printout of what all these machines do every minute of the day has been available in the computer room up until now. With this new surveillance screen, this information is right at the foremen's finger tips. The DNC surveillance system is worse than having television cameras watching over every worker. Cameras can be fooled, but this computer knows what your machine is doing!

Ever since it was introduced, GE has been saying the DNC system will not be used to harass workers. What an incredible lie! This new surveillance screen shows exactly what the DNC system is for: to intimidate, speed up and harass the workers. And it paves the way for getting rid of the workers altogether by having all production automated by computer control like in the "Factory of the Future."

GE and the other capitalist corporations are pouring billions of dollars into this new technology. The Reagan government is handing out billions in tax breaks, loans, military contracts, etc., to help the capitalists automate. This "reindustrialization" drive has already resulted in record profits for the billionaires of GE, GM, IBM, etc., and in massive unemployment, wage cuts and speedup for the working class. The new technology, such as the DNC system the "Factory of the Future" in West Lynn, will mean even more unemployment and overwork, and a shower of gold for the capitalists.

We must organize a serious mass struggle against the Reaganite offensive of the capitalists. Our union leaders are telling us, "Don't fight, automation saves jobs." They are just repeating the same lies of the GE capitalists. As long as capitalism exists, the rich will use new technology to attack the workers and to increase their profits. Only the workers' revolution will take the factories and new technology away from the capitalists and use it to benefit the working class.

Workers! We cannot allow the capitalists to watch over us every minute, to speed us up and automate us right out the door! We must organize serious mass struggle, such as slowdowns, strikes and demonstrations against speedup and layoffs. Leaflets like this one should be passed around to every worker. Organize the fight against computer surveillance and all of GE's attacks!

Down with the computer surveillance in the T-700 area!

Organize mass struggle against the Reaganite offensive of the capitalists!

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CIA Recruiters Chased Off Campus

In recent weeks students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island succeeded in expelling CIA recruiters from their campuses. Bringing the CIA onto campus to enlist the students into this band of professional assassins for U.S. imperialism was an arrogant provocation by the university administrations. The militant action of the students was a fitting response.

At the University of Michigan

The University of Michigan students went into action on November 14 when three CIA recruiters came to the campus. About 100 students confronted the CIA representatives during a scheduled presentation. They spread a banner labeled "Covert, Institutionalized Atrocities" (CIA) over the place for the recruiters. On the spot they conducted a "people's trial" of the CIA.

The students demanded that the recruiters answer for the CIA's crimes against humanity. They charged the CIA with overthrowing the governments of Allende in Chile, Arbenz in Guatemala, and Mossadegh in Iran. They charged the CIA with the illegal mining of the harbors of Nicaragua and with funding the bloodstained contras. And more.

Pressed on these and other accusations, the CIA recruiters left the building. They were followed by the demonstrators who continued to denounce the CIA. The recruiters whined that they had also been denounced at Columbia and Berkeley and had been denied permission to make a presentation at Tufts, and then they fled off in their cars. Scared of further exposure, the CIA canceled their plans to conduct interviews on campus the next day.

At Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island

A similar action had been held at Brown University in late November. The students organized a denunciation of the CIA during a recruiter's speech, and they read off a list of 100 crimes committed by the CIA, including assassinations, overthrows of governments and the infamous CIA murder manual for the counterrevolutionary contras. After the CIA agents slinked out with an escort of campus officials, the students rallied 250 strong, raising the slogan "CIA Out of Nicaragua, CIA Out of Brown!"

This action gained wide support from the students, but it drew the wrath of the reactionary Brown administration. Sixty-eight students were charged with depriving the CIA of their "basic rights" and the students of their right to hear the CIA and be recruited into the career of international spy and murderer. On December 5, the students appealed for a trial before the University Council on Student Affairs.

The students used the occasion to further expose the CIA before a crowd of 600 attending the trial. As well, they pointed out the university's hypocrisy concerning "free speech." Testimony revealed that the Brown administration had rejected student proposals for an open debate with the CIA recruiters and that it planned to censor questions asked of the CIA. But determined to defend the CIA, the administration found all the students guilty and placed them on probation.

The Brown protesters were not cowed by this unjust action and continued to organize among the students. Student support for the protesters remained strong as shown by a rally of 300 students on December 10.

Does the CIA Grant "Freedom of Speech" to Its Victims?

The Brown students were entirely right to show that the charges of violat- the "free speech" of the CIA were a fraud. The CIA has tons of resources to push its reactionary views. Every day the bourgeois mass media spreads the lies of the CIA and promotes the CIA as glorious heroes. Even the few liberal exposures of CIA activity generally advocate that the CIA is basically fine but may have a few bad eggs. Furthermore it is well known that the CIA implants its agents and propagandists in the news media, in the universities and elsewhere. In short, the CIA has a giant propaganda machine and billions of dollars at its disposal.

On the other hand, the progressive activists have none of these advantages. Instead, all sorts of laws and rules and regulations are set up by the bourgeois authorities and the university administrations to hinder their ability to organize. And when, despite all this, the activists organize opposition to the CIA, they are persecuted. Such is the wonder of "free speech," Brown administration style.

Moreover, it is the CIA which works to suppress any freedom for the oppressed masses around the world. As the students noted, the CIA thinks nothing of toppling any government that U.S. imperialism does not like. It is the CIA which has installed in power such "democrats" as Pinochet in Chile and the Shah of Iran. It is the CIA which produced the infamous murder manual for the "contras" who are trying to restore Somoza-style tyranny in Nicaragua. The CIA offers the Nicaraguan people not "free speech," but assassination of revolutionary workers and peasants and even of government ministers. As well, the CIA has backed up the death squads in El Salvador who have murdered tens of thousands of opponents of the Salvadoran oligarchy and U.S. imperialism.

This is what lies behind the hypocrisy of the Brown administration about "free speech."

The Workers' Advocate hails the protests against the CIA and sends its regards to the anti-CIA activists. Their actions are part of the struggle against enslaving U.S. imperialism.

[Photo: CIA recruiter being denounced by students at the University of Michigan. Placard reads "Why not invite the butcher of Lyon?"]

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A protest against pornography at MIT

Students condemn films that promote oppression of women

(The following article is reprinted from the December 12, 1984 issue of The Student, a newspaper published by progressive students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.)

During the past year and a half, there has been a vigorous debate on the MIT campus concerning the showing of pornographic films by the MIT Lecture Series Committee (LSC). The Student believes the central issue of this debate is that certain reactionary cultural expressions, like pornography, are promoted to justify the oppression of women. And as such, the showing of these films which endorse male supremacy, brutality, and any exploitative attitude towards women should be vehemently opposed and denounced by all progressive members of the MIT community.

The bourgeois media, in fact, has also heightened the use of such filth in their advertisements, MTV's, movies, TV shows, etc., from the most subtle to the most blatant forms with the intent of promoting women as mere sexual objects. The effect of such promotion has been to increase the sexual harassment of women in the house, work place, and school. MIT is no exception.

Immediately before and immediately after the showing of pornographic films, for example, women students at MIT have been verbally and physically abused. This fact is well documented by other women students, dormitory housemasters, dormitory tutors, and freshmen faculty advisors. Fresh-women, who were unclear what pornography was, have been coerced by peer pressure and have been forced to sit and to watch these disgusting expressions of savagery and barbarism. Afterwards, women have been thrown into showers, subjected to detailed recounting of scenes from the film, and psychologically brutalized by sexually demeaning comments and "jokes."

The MIT administration has also been forced to admit the abuse of women students following the showing of these films. In the Policy Statement on Sexually Explicit Films, it states, "In the past, several unpleasant incidents following the showings have been reported." However,- these observations are only hollow attempts by MIT to show its concern for women students. Because, even having acknowledged the existence of such harassment, Dean Shirley M. McBay, Dean for Student Affairs, went on to state that the "...showing of pornographic films by the Lecture Series Committee, under circumstances to date, does not constitute sexual harassment under the Institute's policy on harassment." What a farce! Obviously, philistines like McBay can't comprehend the humiliation of women getting thrown into showers, verbally abused, and sexually threatened. If this is not harassment, what is?!

The fact of the matter is MIT is not at all concerned with the real interests of women. Clearly, trying to end sexual harassment can't be one of their priorities. MIT's "commitment" to women was made clear when it abolished the position of the Dean for Women Students a year and a half ago. The MIT administration's "commitment" to women is also a reflection of the Reagan administration's concern for women on the national level. The national trend clearly shows that there is a vicious drive to intensify the oppression of women.

Sweeping cutbacks have been made in social programs such as food stamps and welfare. Women have been particularly hit by these cutbacks since women form a very large section of the poverty-stricken and need these benefits to survive. Cutbacks in meager subsidies for day care have also made things worse for working mothers. In addition, the Reagan administration has also stepped up job discrimination against women under the hoax of opposing "reverse discrimination."

These reactionaries are also leading a crusade against women on a variety of social questions through the Moral Majority and other ultra-rightist groups.

For years now, they have also been grooming a reactionary women's movement under the leadership of such elements as Phyllis Schlafly. The aristocratic ladies of this cult promote the idea that "a woman's place is in the home." This reactionary ideology has a total disregard for the masses of women in the United States. The fact is that 50% of women over the age of sixteen are in the work place. Furthermore, with inflation and cutbacks in wages, more and more families need two incomes to survive. Therefore, large numbers of women have had to work in order to make a living. The average employed woman, however, makes only 60% of a male's income, down from 65% in 1975! Moreover, working class, poor, and minority women are hurt the most from such discrimination.

In order to strengthen this exploitation of women, all.manner of anti-women attitudes are cultivated in capitalist culture. The primary purpose of which is to divide men and women [who are] from the ranks of the working people. In modem society, pornography is one glaring example of a reactionary cultural expression that is used to subjugate women and to give credence to the ideology "a woman's place is in the home." Such ideology is then used to justify paying women lower wages, to justify job discrimination, to argue for the abolition of all rights to abortions, to humiliate them, to split them from male workers, and to oppose women's participation in the strike movement, other mass movements, and any sort of revolutionary activity.

Advances in women's rights, we must remember, were made in the revolutionary mass movements of the 1960's. The vigorous participation of women activists in all progressive mass movements blew centuries-old stereotypes to the wind. History shows that only through mass struggle are such gains made. And only such struggle will serve to oppose the reactionary attempts of Reaganism "to put women in their place." We must also recognize that sexism and racism are the cornerstones of capitalist rule which is working hard, day and night, to divide the working masses up along sexual and racial lines.

The oppression of women is one of the central struggles of the day. In the midst of this struggle, two trends have developed to gain women's fights in society. The trend led by bourgeois feminists seeks to use the anger of the mass of women against their inequality in order to work for strengthening the positions of rich women in the ruling class. When these women speak of women's rights, it means the right to become "one of the boys" and be heads of corporations, factory managers, entrepreneurs, etc. Bourgeois feminism offers nothing to the masses of women. In fact, it plays right into the hands of the capitalists. The other trend is the fight to give women the basic rights to liberate themselves from the constant drudgery and oppression of the household and work place. More social programs such as day care, the integration of women into the work place, and the incorporation of women into political and revolutionary movements are the priorities of this trend. The Student recognizes such a trend as the only real fighting force against capitalist exploitation of women.

Pornography is a reactionary cultural expression which is a growing $7 billion industry used to promote sexism, to degrade women, and to justify this exploitation. The Student, therefore, calls upon all progressive students, staff, and faculty to speak out and to demonstrate against pornography. The sudden banning of the upcoming pornographic film by Dean McBay is not a result of her real concern for stopping the sexual harassment of women but is a conscious move by the Dean's office to forestall the ensuing anti-pornography protest. This tactic will not stop us! The protest will take place as scheduled on Friday, December 14, at 4:30 p.m. in Lobby 7 at MIT.

Down with pornography!

Fight sexism at MIT!!

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Justice Dept. pleads anti-busing case in Norfolk, Virginia

Oppose Reagan's crusade for school segregation!

The Reagan administration is going full steam ahead in its drive to further segregate the public school system.

On December 7, Reagan's Justice Department entered a court case to argue that local school boards must be allowed to abolish school integration programs even where it is shown that this will result in the resegregation of the schools. This case, now in the federal district courts, involves only the elimination of busing in the Norfolk, Va. elementary schools. But the Assistant Attorney General, William Reynolds, has declared that a victory for the Reagan government in this case will be used as a legal precedent to eliminate integration programs in "many, many other school districts around the country." (New York Times, December 7,1984)

Here we have another attempt by the Reagan government to turn back the clock to the days of Jim Crow segregation. Today when the government is cutting back funding and encouraging the deterioration of education for all the children of the working masses, segregation of the schools means the forcing of black and other oppressed nationality youth into the worst, most inferior education. What is more, school segregation is used to spread racist poison and split up the working masses along nationality lines. The workers from every nationality must join in the struggle against the Reagan government's racist crusade.

The Norfolk Case

In Norfolk, Virginia, as well as throughout the South and much of the rest of the country, the capitalist government long maintained a dual public school system. White students attended one set of schools while black students were forced into a separate set of inferior schools. For example, the black grade school students in Norfolk were segregated into ten elementary schools which, even through the 1960's, were still composed of 90-100% black students.

In 1971, after decades of mass struggle against segregation, the Norfolk school board was finally forced to start a busing plan for the elementary schools which resulted in a certain amount of integration.

But even this minimal integration was too much for the capitalist authorities. In February 1983, with Reagan in the White House, and a renewed racist offensive well underway, the Norfolk school board voted to abolish the busing program. This was done despite the overwhelming evidence that the elimination of busing would result in the immediate resegregation of the 10 elementary schools.

Opposition quickly arose to the racist actions of the school board. In May 1983, thousands of workers and other progressive people marched through the streets of Norfolk in protest against the resegregation of the grade schools. As well, the school board's decision was contested in the courts and the case is now being heard before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Reagan Government Defends Resegregation of the Schools

The Reagan government has come to the defense of the Norfolk racists and is using the case as a platform to argue for the abolition of integration programs throughout the country.

Reynolds, the Assistant Attorney General who is putting Reagan's case before the courts, actually argued that the local school boards should have the right to institute, or at least "not avoid," segregationist policies in the schools if only they claim to have carried out some integration in the past. Reynolds proclaimed that it is wrong "that a school board that has eliminated all effects of past discrimination must avoid all policies that increase racial segregation..." (New York Times, December 7, 1984) In short, the rights of black people be damned, eliminate integration programs not only in Norfolk but throughout the country.

In trying to justify this segregation- ism, Reynolds also raised the bogey of "white flight." This has long been a favorite argument against busing programs aimed at integrating the schools. It is first claimed that busing for integration causes "white flight" and then, trying to sound progressive, it is argued that if whites leave the cities it is no longer possible to integrate the schools.

But this argument becomes completely ludicrous in the Norfolk case. In the 13 years since busing was instituted in Norfolk the white enrollment in the elementary schools has stabilized, and since 1981 it has actually slightly increased. Meanwhile, the black enrollment has slightly decreased. It would seem that the "white flight" that Reynolds is worried about is that of white students fleeing Into the integrated elementary school system.

Obviously then, Reynold's cries about "white flight" are not aimed at finding a more reasonable solution for integrating the schools. It is a demagogic attempt to defend school segregation.

Fight the Return to Jim Crow Segregation

The latest action by Reagan's Justice Department is clearly another step on the road back to Jim Crow segregation. But the racist offensive can be stopped. History has shown that the oppressed nationalities, together with the workers from all nationalities, can become a powerful force. The struggle against racism and national oppression is a vital front of the class struggle against the entire reactionary offensive of the capitalists. The workers from every nationality must link arms and organize resistance to Reagan's segregationist crusade.

[Photo: Protest of thousands of working people in May of 1983 against Norfolk School Board's decision to end busing. Placards in this contingent of longshoremen read "All the Way Against Segregated Schools!"]

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Demonstration in Chicago

Against the attacks by racist gangs

[Photo.]

On December 15, two hundred demonstrators protested against the campaign of racist terror that has recently spread through Chicago. Marching through the downtown district of the city, the protesters shouted slogans against racist attacks and against the police for their role in organizing these attacks. People on the streets showed enthusiasm for the anti-racist struggle and several joined the demonstration for brief periods.

The Marxist-Leninist Party has taken an active part in the struggle that is emerging against the racist terror. The Party has participated in various mass actions and has systematically spread leaflets and other literature through factories, working class communities, and on a number of campuses denouncing the racist assaults on blacks and Latinos and exposing the government's role in fostering the spread of terror against the oppressed nationalities.

For the two weeks preceding the December 15 demonstration the Party carried out a broad campaign calling for the workers of all nationalities to support the anti-racist march. At the march itself the Party's singing group led other demonstrators in the singing of a fighting song which denounced Reagan and the Democrats' war on the black people. And shouting slogans like "the police organized racist gangs! Build the unity of the working class!," the Party's contingent assisted in lending the march a militant spirit.

Below we reprint excerpts from the December 1 leaflet of the Chicago Branch of the MLP which called on the working masses to join the demonstration.

Over the last several weeks there has been a step up of racist gang attacks against blacks and Latino immigrants in the Chicago area.

On November 7 a black worker and his family were under siege in their apartment for five to six hours in the westside segregated community called "the island." From eyewitness reports and common sense it is clear that high level collaboration took place between the Cicero and Chicago police forces. For example, although Mr. Goffer, his fiance and small son were taking cover for most of the night, Chicago squad cars carefully avoided patrolling this "turf" claimed by these vigilante cowards.

Right around Thanksgiving a young Chilean worker and his family had crude, home-made bombs hurled at their home in the same area. The police were called and, as you might expect, tried to minimize the attack by claiming that the perpetrators were "probably just kids."

This same lie was also told a few weeks earlier when the Hitler/KKK-worshiping "rebel boys" burned crosses and attacked people in the uptown area ("just a prank"). Firebombings and other sorts of attacks have also been committed in other segregated communities recently (Yrodolyak's 10th ward, Marquette Park and Bridgeport to name a few).

Such attacks are not isolated incidents perpetrated by some "crazies." Nor is the fact that the police have directly organized and supported the attacks or "looked the other way," peculiar to Chicago. These attacks are part of the Reaganite racist drive to intensify the segregation of the neighborhoods, schools and work places.

The racist and segregationist offensive is actually a bipartisan attack on the masses. It actually began under President Carter with the "reverse discrimination" fraud; brutal suppression of the black rebellions in Miami, Chattanooga, etc.; and the FBI-organized Greensboro murders. But finding the Democratic Party at the head of the racist offensive arm-in-arm with the Republicans is really no surprise. After all, the so-called "anti-Reagan" Democrats have little trouble cozying up to ^the most notorious Dixiecrats, showering arch-racists like George Wallace with warm embraces as Jesse Jackson did, etc.

This shows that for a real fight to develop and be sustained against the racist attacks and all the other aspects of the capitalists' racist offensive we must sharply oppose the politics of conciliation pushed by the Democratic Party.

A mass movement even more powerful than the great mass struggles of the civil rights movement period must be built up. Then, the chickens will come home to roost. It was in those mass struggles that the black people won what few rights they now have. It is through the same path of mass struggle that this current offensive will be beaten back. The democratic struggle of the black people, against segregation and for full social and political equality, is in the interests of the entire working class. It must be taken up by the whole class as an integral part of the overall struggle against the capitalist offensive and Reaganite reaction.

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Continue the struggle for the hegemony of the working class in Nicaragua

-- editorial of 'Prensa Proletaria', paper of MAP-ML of Nicaragua

The MAP-ML, as some political observers have pointed out, took part in the electoral campaign with a line and a propaganda that were not traditional for the collecting of votes in a "Western" style campaign.

Nevertheless, as these same political observers also note, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Nicaragua surprised them by gathering acceptance from thousands of voters, who in this way showed the degree of penetration and of comprehension deep among the masses of the proletarian revolution in Nicaragua -- the program of MAP-ML.

We have proven to the skeptics, opportunists, and revisionists that, in our country, in spite of the demagoguery and populism of the petty bourgeoisie, and in spite of the undermining work of the revisionists, there exists an important nucleus of sympathizers and militants of the proletarian revolution in Nicaragua. A nucleus of thousands of Nicaraguans that has pronounced for the cause of revolutionary Marxism- Leninism, and that has the character of a truly national presence.

The participation of MAP-ML, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Nicaragua, in the electoral campaign was a challenge for the proletariat to undertake this new form of struggle.

Presently, new necessities and new battles present themselves, where what is most important for our party will be to maintain aloft the banner of the revolutionary hegemony of the working class, its class independence from the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie, and its organic identity, expressed by the objective existence -- with mass support -- of the party of the working class, its Marxist-Leninist Party.

The aggressions of U.S. imperialism, the blackmail of the European imperialist bourgeoisie and of the Latin American bourgeoisie, the economic crises that fall on the Nicaraguan toilers, the struggle for the democratic and popular participation of the masses in the so-called "National Dialogue," the struggle to attain revolutionary laws from the elected National Assembly, the effort to develop the expressions of power of the masses with the hegemony of the working class -- it is these burning matters which it is necessary to take up with more energy.

The hegemony of the working class and its interests in the diverse fields of the economic, political and military struggles, is the only situation capable of guaranteeing that the defense of the revolution will be effective, and will lead unfailingly to the worker-peasant revolution in Nicaragua.'

Only in this way can we bury forever the attempts at restoration by the bourgeoisie and imperialism, and the vacillations of the petty bourgeoisie.

These tasks must be undertaken with enthusiasm and energy by the comrade sympathizers and militants of the MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF NICARAGUA.

[Photo: The Marxist-Leninist party of the Nicaraguan workers, the Movement of Popular Action/Marxist-Leninist, ran a vigorous campaign in the recent elections in Nicaragua. MAP-ML's banner carries the slogan "NOT ONE BALLOT FOR THE BOURGEOISIE - BULLETS FOR IMPERIALISM!'']

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From 'Prensa Proletaria'

Why did MAP-ML run in the elections?

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Nicaragua, the MAP-ML, participated in the first formal elections held in Nicaragua since [the overthrow of Somoza] July 19, 1979. In spite of the enormous limitations under which the party participated, the results have been judged appropriately satisfactory by the leadership of MAP-ML. And this, taking into account that only one month before the beginning of the electoral campaign, the MAP-ML lacked judicial legality and, therefore, the formal right to space for political activity such as that which had been granted to other parties. Among these parties that had been utilizing the legal room for political activity, one found the Socialist Party and the Liberal Party. Both of these, members of the Patriotic Front of the Revolution, showed even more clearly during the electoral campaign their real anti-socialist positions and their program for the reconstruction of capitalist relations in Nicaragua.

Precisely in order to give battle on the legal terrain of the electoral struggle, the MAP-ML took part, with its own proposals, with the objective of breaking the circle of silence mounted against the Marxist-Leninist forces and to close the room for political activity of the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois forces and to agitate around the revolutionary program of the proletariat in Nicaragua. This program puts forward the struggle for socialism in real and concrete terms and not as a future that will arrive, no one knows when.

This educational and agitational work of the MAP-ML through the electoral campaign, which was strengthened by the presentation of a program of struggle and not an electoral program, delineated for the toiling masses not only the class character of the positions of the party of the proletariat in Nicaragua, but also served to demarcate even more the enormous breach which exists between the revolutionary Marxism-Leninism of MAP-ML and the castrated and revised Marxism of those opportunist groups that swindle the masses in the name of socialism and communism. The presence of MAP-ML was directed, furthermore, at educating the masses in the perception of and the understanding of the petty-bourgeois populism of Sandinismo. Sandinismo, through its policy of the Mixed Economy, National Unity and Political Pluralism, has put forward a line of class conciliation. This can be seen in the social composition of the elected National Assembly and in the political arrangement of the electorate -- reflected in the recent elections. These battles, in which the MAP-ML concentrated its electoral campaign, have been fruitful in the broadening of the political presence of the Marxist-Leninists of Nicaragua and in the legitimization of the most advanced sector of Nicaragua, grouped in the Marxist-Leninist Party, the MAP-ML.

After the elections, the Plan of Struggle of the MAP-ML continues in effect for the tasks of accumulating forces, bettering the penetration deep into the proletariat and the people of the Marxist-Leninist organization and thought, and in the immediate tasks of defending the revolutionary process and the self-determination of the Nicaraguan people.

These battles will also count on the fighting presence of the MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF NICARAGUA.

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3,000 protest in San Juan

Against the use of Puerto Rican troops for U.S. aggression

On December 2 some 3,000 people demonstrated outside the capital in San Juan against the use of Puerto Rican troops in U.S. aggression.

As U.S. imperialism has stepped up its intervention in Central America and the Caribbean, in Puerto Rico a movement against imperialist aggression has emerged. Last April there were large demonstrations against the use of Puerto Rico as the site of U.S. imperialism's "Ocean Venture 84" training maneuvers. And recently struggle against the use of Puerto Rican troops in Central America has appeared, as revelations about plans for the use of these troops have come to light.

Already about 60 Puerto Ricans have been hired as mercenaries to fight with the CIA contras in Nicaragua. And it was revealed recently that the Puerto Rican National Guard, which is under the direct command of the Reagan administration, will participate in military exercises in Panama in 1985. This raises the prospect of National Guard troops' direct involvement in U.S. imperialist aggression.

The U.S. government has stepped up its militarization of Puerto Rico since the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua. There are already 15 U.S. military bases on the island, but recently an old U.S. air force base in Aguadilla was reopened. In 1981 Puerto Rico was used to practice the invasion of Grenada and "Ocean Venture 84" was a trial run for an invasion of Nicaragua.

The actions of the masses in Puerto Rico show that the Puerto Rican people are not reconciled to the use of their country as a colonialist military base for U.S. imperialism.

[Photo.]

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New Victories of People's Struggle in El Salvador

During the last few months, the revolution in El Salvador has won a series of victories over the Duarte government and U.S. imperialism. On December 1, in one of the major battle triumphs of the five-year liberation war, the guerrillas defeated the government troops at El Salto, just 36 miles southeast of the capital of San Salvador. Attacking the U.S.-trained Nanualco Battalion right in its barracks, the guerrillas routed the entire unit, killing 60, wounding 60, and taking 56 prisoners. They withdrew with a stockpile of captured arms and ammunition.

The El Salto battle is but one in a series of ongoing victories of the people. In October, two aircraft were downed: four CIA agents were killed when their spy plane was shot down on October 19, while on October 23 the most highly regarded (by the Pentagon) Salvadoran army commander was killed, along with three other senior officers and 13 other soldiers, Defense Ministry personnel and reactionaries, when their helicopter was downed. In mid-November there was the successful guerrilla offensive at Suchitoto. And following the victory at El Salto, the Salvadoran government had to call off altogether its major "Torola 4" offensive.

The government troops are reeling under the blows of the revolution and dwindling day by day because they have no support among the people. The Duarte government is a reactionary regime of the big capitalists and landlords and a U.S. puppet which daily crushes the working masses in El Salvador. Its army, therefore, is widely hated and suffers more and more from low morale and mass desertions of its troops to the side of the revolution.

The revolutionaries' victories in El Salvador are especially significant because, increasingly, it is the "professional" U.S.-trained and directed counterinsurgency forces which are being defeated there. The government troops have taken such a beating that the Duarte government is being forced to turn even the smallest details of the war over to the direct command of the U.S. "advisors" at an astonishing rate. The Nanualco Battalion defeated at El Salto, for example, was one of the "Hunter" battalions created last year by U.S. advisors -- a mobile unit of 200, especially trained for rapid penetration and control of rebel-held areas.

The training of local troops in counterinsurgency warfare to destroy popular uprisings has long been a favorite tool of U.S. imperialism, from the colonial war in the Philippines to Viet Nam. In El Salvador, the Pentagon is trying out once again the particular bloody techniques it introduced in Viet Nam. And this warfare is financed by the U.S. Congress: the Republicans and the Democrats, through their bipartisan policy of aggression in El Salvador, supplied the oligarchy with about $200 million in military aid in 1984 alone.

But even Duarte's top U.S.-trained battalions are giving way before the revolutionary struggle in El Salvador. On December 2, following its punishment at El Salto, the Duarte government had to abort its major U.S.-directed military operation of the season, "Torola 4." Yet this three-month-old offensive had been deemed highly important to Duarte's military strategy as it was to measure the army's ability to penetrate and remain in Morazan, a province held by the guerrillas since 1982.

"Torola 4" involved nine U.S.- trained battalions, including the elite Atlacatl Battalion known for its massacres of the revolutionary peasants. The operation was personally overseen by high-level U.S. military officers, three of whom, armed with submachine guns, personally accompanied the Salvadoran high command onto the battlefield. As well, "Torola 4" was covered by heavy air support and made use of 10 new Huey helicopters shipped in by the U.S. to transport troops, to say nothing of the two American AC-47 helicopter gunships. "Torola 4" was supplied with reconnaissance information by overflights of El Salvador by U.S. military aircraft. And "Torola 4" was financed by the U.S. "military aid." All in all "Torola 4" showed the high degree of reliance of the Salvadoran military on the U.S.

Since the "Torola 4" fiasco and the army's trail of defeats this fall, the U.S. has assumed still greater control over the Salvadoran armed forces, providing more U.S. officers with higher authority, mandating more forcible recruitment, and bringing the number of Huey helicopters up to 45 to overcome the army's lack of access to the roads, which are now largely controlled by the guerrillas. Clearly, continuing the war against the Salvadoran people means involving more U.S. combat personnel and more U.S. weapons of mass slaughter.

The Reagan government is poised to plunge deeper into the war in El Salvador. But the American people have a deep hatred for U.S. aggression in other lands. Their overwhelming sentiment is "No More Viet Nam-Style Wars!" In the two weeks after Reagan was reelected and threw down the gauntlet, about 100 protests took place all across the country, raising the demand, "U.S. Get Out of Central America!" To oppose "our own" government's intervention in El Salvador, all working and progressive people in the U.S. should extend their solidarity to the Salvadoran workers and peasants who are vigorously fighting against U.S. imperialism and the oligarchy.

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U.S. combat troops in the secret war on Nicaragua

Recently, there was another exposure of one of the methods of secret warfare used by the U.S. imperialist war machine around the world on a daily basis. This involved the secret war of the Reagan administration and the Pentagon against revolutionary Nicaragua. Relatives of soldiers killed in the U.S. Army's 160th Task Force of the 101st Airborne Division have revealed that this 400-800 member clandestine helicopter unit is one of those involved in frequent undercover military operations against the revolutions in Nicaragua and El Salvador. In their murder and sabotage missions, they wear civilian clothes and are thus, according to the so-called rules of war, nothing but spies.

The terrorist activities of the Pentagon's secret war against Nicaragua show up the hypocrisy of the Reagan administration's hysteria about "international terrorism" and "state-sponsored terrorism." It is the Reagan administration itself which heads the biggest international terrorist ring in the world. It is not just the CIA which carries out "covert activities," but the regular armed forces of the Pentagon as well. The U.S. military budget and spy budget constitute the biggest sources of funding for "state-sponsored terrorism" in the world.

Combat Troops in the Secret War on Nicaragua

The Reagan administration denies that American combat troops are fighting in Central America. This is another one of the lies for which Ronald Reagan has become famous.

Recently, relatives of dead members of the 160th Task Force recounted a series of the criminal attacks on Nicaragua which the unit carried out in 1982 and 1983. (See the Detroit Free Press of December 16 and 17.) This, of course, is only the tip of the iceberg of this secret war.

1) The account of William Alvey, father of Warrant Officer Donald Alvey, a Chinook helicopter pilot, clearly shows that, using bases in Honduras, the unit repeatedly ferried contra troops into Nicaraguan territory so they could engage in combat. William Alvey stated that: "Don flew a bunch of trips into Nicaragua." He pointed out that: "He'd go somewhere and pick up a group of people in a clearing in the jungle -- armed troops, speaking Spanish -- and take them to another clearing in the jungle somewhere."

Usually his son's passengers would be picked up in Honduras and dropped off in Nicaragua. "His job was to fly them in, put them down, be gone for six or eight hours, then put in the chopper again and take them back out."

Alvey clarified that these were not training exercises, but combat missions. "Don said one time you could tell damn well they had been in a fight because a lot of them were wounded."

2) The evidence from Alvey and other Task Force relatives also nails down once again that it was the U.S. armed forces which themselves in September 1983 blew up Nicaragua's Pacific coast oil delivery pipelines and coastal oil storage tanks in Corinto and Puerto Sandino. U.S. officials eventually had to admit that this terroristic attack on Nicaragua's oil supply was CIA-directed, but they pretended that the contras had carried it out themselves with American direction and equipment.

That would be crime enough, but the facts show even more. It has since been reported that the CIA had a mother ship stationed off Nicaragua's Pacific coast which housed piranha boats -- small speedboats equipped with machine guns. Alvey said his son had described carrying troops into Nicaragua from such ships stationed offshore, and when Donald Alvey crashed off Norfolk, Virginia in March 1983, his Chinook was carrying a piranha boat in its underbelly sling. Alvey was practicing the maneuver of lowering the boat and its passengers into the water.

Linda Jennings, herself an army veteran and the widow of Warrant Officer Allen Jennings, killed while on duty in the Task Force, explained that this helicopter tactic, called "piggybacking," was often used to advance the piranha boats quickly to their destinations, without using up their fuel.

Thus the mystery of how the contra piranha boats made a trip from their normal haunts around Honduras to the Nicaraguan oil facilities, a trip rather too long for them, is explained. The U.S. Army and Navy cooperated in ferrying the contras right up to the Nicaraguan port themselves.

3) The 160th Task Force had a super-secret role in the October 1983 invasion of Grenada. One of its members died in action. Army officials took film away from reporters who took pictures of the unit or its aircraft. But published remarks by Gen. Donald Keith, head of the U.S. Army materiel Development and Readiness Command, indicate that the Task Force played the role in the Grenada invasion of ferrying in and out commandos or small units behind enemy lines. This is the same as the missions against Nicaragua that the relatives describe.

A Covert Unit of the Armed Forces

The 160th Task Force is a covert unit of the armed forces. Its missions are top secret. Only the high number of casualties, and the questions from widows and parents of the dead soldiers, have resulted in bringing out into the open the sabotage mission of this unit against the Nicaraguan people.

Among the secrecy measures of the 160th Task Force is flying all its missions at night -- hence the unit's nickname, "the Night Stalkers.'' As well, the U.S. government does not acknowledge the unit's helicopters or personnel when they are captured or shot down. William Alvey stated: "Don told me that if he ever failed to return from one of those missions, the army already had a story to make up for his and his crew's disappearance, and nobody would ever know the difference.''

In such cases, the crews are trained to blow up their CH47 Chinook or UH60 Black Hawk helicopters; they are to buy or bribe their way back to the United States. Alvey reports that his son carried a 9 mm. automatic and $8,000 in bribe money on Central American missions. They are also supposed to carry a major credit card with at least a $1,000 line of credit, in order to pay for airfare back to their unit.

A number of relatives said that only civilian clothing was worn on the unit's missions in Central America. Matthew Rielly, brother of Sgt. Mark Rielly who was killed while on duty with the unit, said that even in the U.S. "Every time they got off the helicopter, they had to get off in civilian clothes.''

This was to allow the Pentagon and the Reagan administration to lie about the activities of these terrorist troops. Pentagon spokesmen officially deny that this, or other units of the special warfare units of the armed forces, engage in the secret war on Nicaragua; lying is a stock in trade for the U.S. imperialists. Meanwhile various Pentagon spokesmen simply play dumb. Noel Koch, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and hence especially involved with the oversight of special warfare units, denies that U.S. Special Operations units take part in the war against Nicaragua, but then adds: "It would not be unusual for things to be done that I would not know about.''

This secrecy goes to the extent that the relatives of the 17 soldiers from the 160th Task Force killed in 1983 have had great difficulties in discovering the circumstances of the death of their sons or husbands. Some are forced to spend hundreds of dollars on Freedom of Information Act requests and still get little. The lies come thick. At the same time that Michael Burch, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, states that "To my knowledge the unit has never deployed to Central America,'' another spokesman states that one unit member died in a crash off Panama. And this latter story appears to be a cover story to hide a mission into Nicaragua.

One of Many Similar Units

The 160th Task Force is, however, by no means an unusual or exceptional unit of the U.S. armed forces. It is simply one of the units of the U.S. Special Operations forces, which are counter-insurgency forces, designed specifically for destroying popular liberation struggles. These are the Pentagon's covert forces. Besides the Army's Special Operations forces, there are both the Navy's SEALs (Sea, Air and Land teams) and the special warfare units. There is the 23rd Air Force. And the Marines call them reconnaissance forces.

These units are designed for assassination and sabotage, for spying, for instructing the armies of unpopular U.S. backed regimes, and for underwater demolition. They are under the direct command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Present U.S. imperialist military doctrine is more and more emphasizing the use of secret warfare, dirty tricks and high-tech war. The Reagan administration has more than doubled the number of troops, till now there are more than 20,000 of them. Noel Koch, a deputy secretary of defense whose special assignment is the special forces, told a congressional committee in 1984 that "In fact, special operations forces are, today, the most heavily used of our military forces.'' He said that they are "carrying the burden of the contemporary conflict'' against the Pentagon's enemies. (Detroit Free Press, November 25, 1984) The Commander in Chief of the Army's Southern Command, Gen. Paul Gorman, is said to be "very, very positive'' toward the use of Special Forces in Central America.

Both Republicans and Democrats Support the Covert Forces

The 160th Task Force, and others like it, are organized from the highest levels of U.S. imperialism with bipartisan support and coverup. The 160th was created in 1980 by the Carter administration and has been beefed up by the Reagan administration. This year Congress voted hundreds of millions to expand the Special Operations forces of which the unit is a part.

The revelations on the 160th Task Force expose the fraud behind congressional resolutions such as the Boland Amendment banning certain covert operations. The Boland Amendment was passed with much fanfare in December 1982, precisely during a flurry of activity by the Night Stalkers which continued into 1983. The liberal Democrats tell the working masses that they will stop the covert actions, and then the Democrats fund the biggest expansion of these forces ever. They conveniently close their eyes to the stepping up of savage U.S. intervention around the world, they preach faith in the Pentagon and getting more bang for the buck, and then when a particularly criminal action of the covert forces comes to public attention they mutter that, unfortunately, there was a loophole in the law and that perhaps there should be a new investigation.

The repeated exposure of the lies and covert terrorism of the Pentagon and the CIA, however, will help develop the anti-imperialist struggle. And this movement of the working masses will provide real support to the revolutionary peoples under attack from U.S. imperialism and its Pentagon and CIA.

[Graphic.]

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'Blowtorch' D'Aubuisson visits Washington

Reagan administration flaunts its support for the death squads

In December, the most well-known Salvadoran death squad leader, Roberto D'Aubuisson, was warmly received in Washington, feted, and given a platform to speak from at Georgetown University.

D'Aubuisson is nicknamed "blowtorch" for his methods of interrogating Salvadoran workers and peasants. He is the open standard-bearer of reaction in El Salvador and heads the ARENA party, which leads the majority coalition in the sham "National Assembly." Whereas "moderate" President Duarte spouts reform while carrying out massacres, D'Aubuisson is the champion of the death squads and reaction. Both do the U.S. bidding which is to try to wipe out the revolutionary struggle in El Salvador.

Until now, the U.S. government was hesitant to publicly receive D'Aubuisson because of his reputation as a murderer. But on December 3 the State Department approved his visa, opening the way for his trip to Washington.

With the gracious reception of this notorious assassin, the U.S. government is officially admitting its support for genocide and torture against popular liberation struggles; it is flaunting the fact that U.S. policy in Central America is bloody counterinsurgency.

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The World in Struggle

[Graphic.]

Bolivian workers unleash general strikes against austerity

Workers in Bolivia have gone out on extended general strikes twice in the last six weeks. The strikes were organized by the Bolivian Workers Confederation and were supported by the great bulk of the workers. All factories and tin mines were closed. In the cities, all government offices, schools and banks were shut down. Workers marched in demonstrations while students blocked streets in the capital city of La Paz. Peasants in the countryside also threw their support behind the general strikes.

The Bolivian workers demanded wage increases, an end to food shortages, and price controls to curb the country's annual inflation rate of 1500%. The Bolivian bourgeoisie and the reformist government of Siles Suazo have been trying to saddle the working masses with the burden of an austerity program dictated by the International Monetary Fund. But the workers have been fighting back. In 1984, they launched nine general strikes to press their demands.

At last report, the government was promising some sort of wage increase but the employers organized in the National Chamber of Commerce were threatening lockouts and plant closures against any concessions to the workers.

British miners defy Thatcher's strikebreaking

[Photo: British coal miners battle police.]

After nine months and facing a winter without any income, coal miners in Britain are holding firm in their strike. The British government headed by Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher has adopted extraordinary measures recently to try and break the strike and destroy the miners' union. But these have not succeeded. The miners are determined to win their battle against pit closings and job eliminations.

In November the miners' employer, the government-run National Coal Board, launched a three-week "back-to-work" offensive. The NCB announced that miners who returned to work by November 23 would receive a $1,700 bonus, $175 of which they would receive right away. The NCB later boasted that some 12,000 miners had been taken in by this offer and returned to work. But striking miners scoffed at the NCB's figures, pointing out that in many cases local management has simply lied about the number of miners scabbing on the strike. The miners' union insists that at least 78% of all miners are still on strike, and even according to the NCB's figures at least two-thirds of the 189,000 miners remain out on strike.

The British government has also launched an offensive in the courts to break the miners' union. A number of court orders have declared the strike illegal and have ordered that the National Union of Mineworkers be put into receivership because of its leadership of the strike. The courts have ordered all of the NUM's property seized, including the union's $10 million in funds. Thatcher's government has sent agents scurrying around Europe trying to dig up NUM bank accounts and get them put into receivership. The courts are also threatening to seize NUM headquarters and all of its local halls and local funds.

The miners have responded to the government's offensive with defiance. As well, in November the miners launched a campaign to reach out to the rank and file of the British working class through a series of solidarity rallies held around the country. Strike leaders appealed for support from other sectors of the working class, especially those involved in the transport and use of coal.

Meanwhile the Trades Union Congress leaders and the parliamentary leaders of the Labor Party are continuing their dirty scabbing role. A number of top TUC hacks condemned the defiant stand of the NUM towards the court orders. Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock refused to speak at any of the solidarity rallies organized in Britain. The time will come when the British workers will not want speakers from the bourgeois so-called Labor Party, but in the present situation Kinnock did not speak solely because he is opposed to the strike. And Kinnock recently poured cold water on the strike by saying, "My view is that the labor movement lives to fight and win on other occasions.''

But the miners themselves are not pessimistic. They know why the Thatcher government is so desperate to crush their strike -- it represents the cutting edge of the workers' movement against the capitalist offensive and it is inspiring other workers to take up struggle. For example, there have been some recent strikes in the auto industry.

Despite having suffered 7,000 arrests, and facing the prospects of a long winter without money to pay for heat, the miners are sticking firmly to their strike.

Spanish workers battle layoffs in the shipyards

[Photo.]

The shipbuilding centers of Spain have been shaken by powerful struggles of the working class in recent weeks.

The Spanish social-democratic government of Felipe Gonzalez is orchestrating a major rationalization drive in the important state-owned shipbuilding sector. The government plans to close down yards and throw over 20,000 workers into the streets. Twenty percent of the Spanish work force is presently unemployed, and the number of jobless has been steadily growing under the anti-worker policies of the social-democrats since they took office two years ago.

The workers have boldly confronted the government's rationalization plan with strikes and mass action. The shipyard workers have repeatedly engaged in sharp clashes with the police sent to break their strikes and protests. And general strikes of the shipyard workers and other sections of the working class have gripped the Basque region and other shipbuilding centers.

The chieftains of the CC.OO (the trade union center controlled by the revisionist Communist Party of Spain) have done their best to keep this struggle in check. They want to limit this struggle to a modest appeal to their friends in the social-democratic government for an allegedly more humane rationalization plan. Meanwhile, the social-democratic government is dispatching the police to attack the workers, and the UGT, the social-democratic trade union center, is openly appealing for strikebreaking against the shipyard workers. "What the police have not been able to do with their killer bullets, the [revisionist and social-democratic trade union] leaders, traitors to the working class, are trying to do by preventing the masses from participating in the common struggle,'' points out Vanguardia Obrera. This paper is the central organ of the Communist Party of Spain (ML) which has been active in this struggle.

The struggle against this rationalization plan is one of the first major clashes between the Spanish workers and the new anti-worker pseudo-socialist government.

Workers' strikes in Iran

Workers in Iran have been waging a series of strikes and defying the brutal efforts of the capitalists and the Khomeini regime to suppress them, according to recent reports from Iran.

Bolshevik Message, newspaper of the Organization of Supporters of the Communist Party of Iran Abroad, writes in its November issue of the valiant strike struggle by the workers at Canada Dry's Tehran plant. In July, 63 workers at this factory raised demands for reinstatement of the job classification plan and full payment of the productivity allowance. When the management refused to respond to the demands, these workers struck.

Almost immediately the Public Prosecutor's office sent representatives to try to intimidate the strikers into returning to work, and even threatened them with execution if they remained on strike. The workers stood firm. Then the Pasdaran (the "Revolutionary Guards,'' who are the paramilitary thugs of the Khomeini regime), attacked the strikers with tear gas, fire and bullets. The strikers defended themselves from the factory rooftop, throwing glass bottles at the Pasdaran and attempting to spread the clashes outside the factory and into the streets. Several strikers were killed and some were arrested in the battle.

Nevertheless the strike continued. On July 18, when the strikers gathered at the factory to offer management a new date for meeting their demands, a large number of workers from other sections of the plant joined in, so that the whole factory was on strike. The workers demanded a wage increase and also the freeing of political prisoners.

Bolshevik Message reports that the strike was still continuing at the time it received this news.

The newspaper also carries an account of the strike by workers at the "Iran-Do-Charkh'' factory. The strike was declared June 9 to protest the arrests of 47 workers who were caught carrying leaflets issued by the Supporters of the Communist Party of Iran on workers' demands for a wage increase. The Pasdaran attempted to break the strike through intimidation and violence, but the workers resisted heroically, and the 47 arrested workers were soon released. At the same time, workers at other factories such as "Molan Moket" (a carpet factory) and Pars Electric supported the protest action of the Iran-Do-Charkh workers.

Also, it was reported in October that workers in the state tobacco monopoly were persisting in an eight-month long strike over wages, hours of work, and management attempts to introduce flexible job descriptions. Workers at the Tehran Coca-Cola plant have also been fighting on the same issues, despite savage attacks by the Pasdaran.

At the Sasan bottling plant, the government arrested 200 striking workers who fought the Pasdaran when it attacked the plant. This strike was supported by the workers of the General Estil factory. There have also been strikes at the Sepante factory in which the workers resisted attempts by the regime to draft them for the reactionary war against Iraq.

At the Sarcheshme copper refinery, the workers engaged in a five-week work slowdown. When 100 workers were fired and three arrested, the workers walked out. Their demands included the immediate release of their co-workers, disbanding of the Islamic societies in various plants of the refinery, the holding of elections to choose individuals who would represent the workers, payment of bonuses, and the requirement that all dispatches of men to the war fronts should be done in consultation with the workers.

Resistance to Khomeini's oppression in Kurdistan

Masses in Kurdistan have been resisting the savage program of the Khomeini government to expel them from their villages.

As reported in The Workers' Advocate of October 1, the Iranian regime ordered the 20,000 inhabitants of 100 villages of Sardasht near the Iran-Iraq border to leave their homes. Already some 535 inhabitants of six villages in the Piranshahr area have been deported and three of the villages burned, according to the November 1984 issue of Bolshevik Message, newspaper of the Organization of the Supporters of the Communist Party of Iran Abroad. (The CPI is one of the important revolutionary organizations in Iran.) Other reports indicate that the Iranian army and the Pasdaran (paramilitary thugs of the regime) have also captured and cleared a number of other villages and strategic peaks in the area.

This reactionary plan is another vicious assault by the Khomeini regime against the Kurdish people. It is aimed at suppressing the revolutionary movement among the Kurds and weakening its mass influence.

However, the masses are carrying out protests against these crimes. Bolshevik Message writes that "in Sardasht, on 20th August, in a meeting in which the representatives of the people of these villages, the commanders of the Pasdaran and the city garrison, and some other officials of the government participated, the authorities, under the pressure of mass protest, proposed a new plan to the people, as an 'alternative' to their forced immigration: 'Firstly, people should not allow the Peshmargas [the revolutionary fighters in Kurdistan -- WA] to their villages, and must not have any contacts with them; secondly, people should cooperate with the regime and give it information about the Peshmargas; thirdly, people should give assurance that shots would not be fired at government forces from their villages.'

"The government officials stressed that if these conditions are not observed, they would expel the inhabitants of the villages and destroy their homes. But the militant people of the villages did not accept any of the regime's demands and continued their resistance.

"The people of Sardasht and Baneh areas have organized a united and uniform struggle against this policy and announced that they are not prepared to leave their homes under any circumstances, and the regime can only succeed to implement its policy over their dead bodies."

South Korean students resist U.S.-backed dictatorship

Students at South Korean colleges and universities have once again adopted bolder and more militant tactics in the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of President Chun Doo Hwan. Besides launching larger and more powerful mass actions on the campuses, students have been moving their demonstrations off campus to build a broad movement against the dictatorship and in solidarity with the working class.

To quash the student movement, the government has taken to invading the campuses with riot police. On October 24 over 6,000 police invaded Seoul National University to break up a boycott of classes. Police tear gassed the entire campus, but when they moved in to arrest protesters the students fought back with stones, Molotov cocktails and wooden staves. On November 5, at another campus in Seoul, 2,000 representatives from 20 colleges met to form a national student organization to coordinate protests against the dictatorship and for democratic rights. During the meeting itself riot police tear gassed the large crowd that had gathered in support of the meeting.

The student movement has been fighting on a whole range of campus issues. The students are demanding the right to publish uncensored student newspapers, an end to police spying on campus, and the right to elect independent student organizations -- the only legal student organization at present is the paramilitary Student Defense Corps, whose members are chosen by the authorities.

Students are also moving their demonstrations off campus and addressing broader political issues. In early October, 350 students took over the offices of the Democratic Korea Party, the main legal opposition party in South Korea. There they held members of the National Assembly virtually captive until they agreed to press for political changes. Then on November 14, over 250 students stormed the headquarters of the ruling Democratic Justice Party and occupied it for 13 hours, until they were forced out by riot police. While there, the students issued a long list of demands for democratic rights.

Student organizations have also recently begun an effort to align themselves with the working class. Students have mobilized workers into demonstrations for political rights, and they have also been organizing events in support of the workers' economic struggles. The South Korean authorities work hard to maintain low wages for the workers; to do this the government severely restricts trade unions and infiltrates them with police spies. Students have taken up mass struggle in defense of workers' attempts to organize trade unions and have organized marches in support of higher wages for industrial workers.

Japanese people fight nuclear power plants

[Photo: Demonstrators confront police in December protest of 12,000 against the arrival in Japan of the U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson armed with nuclear weapons.]

The mass movement in Japan against nuclear power continues to mount. The People's Star, international bulletin of the Communist Party of Japan (Left), in its November 15 issue carries reports on two recent events.

On November 18, some 400 people, including workers, farmers, fishermen, students, teachers and others, rallied in Yamaguchi, a city southwest of Hiroshima in southern Japan. They vigorously opposed projects for nuclear power plants in the towns of Hohoku, Hagi and Kaminoseki. Speakers condemned the plants for their links to the nuclear armament of Japan, and also denounced the rationalization offensive and severe working conditions facing the workers at the work sites.

Over 2,600 workers participated in protest actions on November 16 in the town of Oi, near Tokyo, in opposition to a public hearing on a proposed plan to add two reactors. At the rally organized as part of the actions many speakers pointed out that the working class should fight this struggle by exposing the construction of the nuclear power plants as a component part of industrial reorganization and Japan's nuclear armament.

The capitalists want to saddle Japanese workers with a two-tier wage system

The capitalists in Japan are cooking up a scheme to impose a two-tier wage system on the Japanese workers, reports The People's, international bulletin of the Communist Party of Japan (Left), in its November 15 issue. The new system was advocated at the national convention of the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations held in October and attended by 600 capitalists and personnel and labor managers.

This convention of bloodsuckers lavished praise on the systems of so-called lifelong employment and company unions which served them well in a period of economic growth. But now, they said, faced with an "aging society," as well as the need to become more competitive internationally, it is time to find new ways to squeeze the workers. Because the workers live to a "higher retirement age," the convention reasoned, their wages should be lower. Thus the proposed system aims to chop the wages of the older workers, which have become relatively high in comparison with those of young workers, due to the traditional seniority system method. The older workers should now be paid on the basis of their "merit." But for the younger workers the seniority system will still be applied to keep their wages down.

Besides drooling over this overall lowering of wages, the capitalists relished the prospects of the reduced social security-related spending that would result from this plan.

The new policy "may help enhance the 'international competitiveness' of Japanese imperialism," writes The People's Star, but it "will never be able to save Japanese imperialism from being beset with a further aggravating class contradiction. For a 'higher international competitiveness' will inevitably reveal...that the exploitation of the Japanese working class is escalated to an unprecedented degree."

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Thousands march in protest in Mexico City

The PEMEX explosion - A brutal crime of the Mexican bourgeoisie

On November 25 thousands of people marched in Mexico City to denounce PEMEX, the Mexican government-owned petroleum company, for the deaths of the 2,000 people who were killed in the November 19 explosion and fire that swept a suburb of Mexico City. The masses demanded that PEMEX immediately pay for all damages to victims of the fire and that PEMEX facilities -- as well as private gas companies -- still operating in the area should be immediately closed.

The November 19 fire broke out at a PEMEX natural gas facility. It started with the explosion of a tank truck and spread to huge storage tanks holding millions of gallons of liquefied natural gas. The explosion of these tanks sent fireballs hundreds of feet into the air and completely leveled 20 square blocks of residences surrounding the plant. In the ensuing fire hundreds of other homes were razed to the ground. One hundred thousand people had to be evacuated from the area, with 10,000 permanently homeless, their dwellings destroyed. Two thousand people were killed by the explosion and fire, although the government covers this up by claiming that only a few hundred were killed while 1,500 others are listed as "missing."

PEMEX Has Other Crimes to Its Credit

The November 19 fire is just the latest in a series of atrocities against the Mexican people carried out by PEMEX. Since the Mexican government launched its rapid expansion of the petroleum industry in the 1970's, PEMEX has been running roughshod over the Mexican people. In the countryside, PEMEX has expropriated large amounts of peasant agricultural land for use by gas pipelines, storage facilities, and oil fields. PEMEX carries out the common wasteful capitalist practice of burning off of the wellhead the natural gas that comes out along with the oil; this burning of the gas is so extensive that it has polluted large areas of crop and grasslands. To defend their homelands, peasants in southern Mexico have launched a series of occupations of PEMEX plants; but in each case they have been forced out of the plants by the Mexican army.

Since the late 70's PEMEX facilities have been plagued by a series of industrial disasters. In one case an off-shore well exploded, in..another case a refinery burned. Then again there was a huge oil spill in 1980 when an offshore well ruptured, and also in 1980 an oil well on land exploded.

The Result of the Ruthless Pursuit of Capitalist Profits

These industrial disasters are not just a result of bad luck, but are directly caused by the wild development of the Mexican petroleum industry on the basis of the savage rules of capitalism.

The Mexican government launched a rapid development of the petroleum industry in the 1970's to take advantage of the high prices for petroleum products prevailing at that time. Their eyes shining with gold, the capitalist bureaucrats of the Mexican government hoped to cash in on the worldwide demand for oil by selling their products abroad. With production oriented toward export and making a fast buck, the Mexican capitalists have not paid any attention to building up a solid infrastructure of storage and distribution of petroleum and gas products, nor have they bothered to provide the industry with proper safeguards. Everything is oriented instead towards simply getting the oil out of the ground and getting it sold.

The Mexican bourgeoisie based a whole strategy of industrial development on the oil boom. They took out huge debts to the imperialist bankers abroad to finance the expansion of PEMEX and a series of other industrial projects. But this gamble turned sour. With the worldwide glut of oil and the economic depression, oil prices stopped climbing up and demand went down. Meanwhile the bankers were knocking on the door and Mexico faced a huge debt crisis. Under these conditions, the Mexican bourgeoisie became all the more desperate, as they saw their shower of gold turning into pools of red ink. They are pumping the oil out of the ground in order to keep their interest payments flowing to the international financiers.

PEMEX is owned by the Mexican government; indeed it is its pride and joy, one of the major symbols to promote its nationalist demagogy. Since the rapid and wild development of PEMEX is central to its plans, the Mexican government is doing everything it can to mute the criticism of emex stemming from the November 19 explosion and fire. Immediately after the explosion the government sent in a massive force of army troops for "social control" of the area. Then the government announced that it would provide aid for all the victims, including paying for funerals and providing new homes for the homeless. But in fact, weeks after the fire, many residents of the area complain that they still have not received any government aid. A few homes have been built, but residents complain that they are even smaller than the shantytown dwellings they were living in before -- much too small for their families to live in. At the same time, the government has all along tried to minimize the amount of damage that was done by the explosion, including lying about the number of dead victims.

The PEMEX debacle is one more example of the insanity of capitalist economic development. Under the rule of the bourgeoisie, the toiling masses are forced to work for starvation wages when they are lucky enough to get employment, and even then cannot rest assured that they will not be blown apart in some industrial "accident."

The struggle of the Mexican workers for compensation for the November 19 explosion is a welcome development. It shows that the masses will not be taken in by all the sweet words of "concern" from the government of the big capitalists. The crisis of capitalism in Mexico is gathering together the inflammable material for revolutionary explosions in the future. Then it will be the bourgeoisie's turn to be scorched.

[Photo: Government workers painting over slogans on the walls of Mexico City denouncing PEMEX for the murderous gas explosion.]

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'The Student'

On the communal violence after the death of Indira Gandhi

(The following article is reprinted from the November 30, 1984 issue of The Student, a newspaper published by progressive students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.)

Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, communal violence between Hindus and Sikhs erupted throughout India. The bloodshed that resulted left over 1,500 dead, 4,000 injured, and up to 20,000 homeless. In the midst of this violence, the Indian Army was called out, curfew was imposed on over 100 cities, and over 5,000 people were arrested. The media, Indian and foreign, in the meantime, used this opportunity to spread confusion concerning the nature and the source of this communal violence and succeeded in disseminating lies of the "greatness" of Indira Gandhi as leader of the Indian people. In this article, The Student is dedicated towards explaining the source of the recent communal violence in India and telling the truth about the true nature of the largest "democracy" in the world.... The recent bloodshed...cannot be viewed as a religious strife between the two communities. Rather, the source of these riots and the reason for the massacre of over 1,000 Sikhs in Punjab, five months ago, lies in a long history of communal politics among the exploiters within Punjab and also the Indian central governments' organized policy of instigating communal hatred to maintain its own ruling prowess among the Indian bourgeoisie. The greatest tragedy is that the past crisis in Punjab and the recent riots have led to a situation where both the Sikh and Hindu exploiters, and the Indian government, under the auspices of the Congress(I) Party of Indira Gandhi, are systematically inciting the Sikh and Hindu communities against each other. These exploiters, Hindu and Sikh, are attempting to use the toilers as pawns in their sordid rivalries with one another. They are actively promoting distrust between the religious communities in order to enslave the toilers of each community to their ''own" exploiter....

In order to continue their oppression of the working masses of India, the rich in India have learned to use communalism, division of people along regional differences in language, ethnicity, etc., as a tool in continuing their exploitation of the Indian toilers. The ruling class in India with the active assistance of the Indian government, Mrs. Gandhi and her Congress(I) Party have historically organized and effectively spread communal hatred. In the recent riots, for example, evidence of systematic incitement by Congress(I) members is quite evident.

The Christian Science Monitor would have us believe otherwise. It has characterized the riots as "...frenzied mobs of largely illiterate, unemployed Hindu youth..." seeking revenge for the murder of Indira Gandhi. (November 5, 1984) These so-called "mobs," however, were not just "frenzied" but well organized and led by Congress(I) officials. The evidence for this accusation can be found in several sources. The Herald Review gives a very different picture of the "frenzied mobs" than The Christian Science Monitor: "...this was no ordinary mob on a spontaneous frenzied rampage. In a well coordinated move,...in concentric circles, almost as if the 'battle plan' had been drawn." (Vol. 1, No. 11) The article goes on to describe how the gangs "...stopped all passing busses and searched them systematically for Sikh passengers." (Ibid.)Arab News reported that ''...the mobs were egged on by local Congress Party workers dressed in white Khadi (home-spun cloth, the traditional dress of Congress workers). In some areas, the Congress men are said to have prepared lists of resident Sikhs, their house numbers and, the registration numbers of their vehicles." (November 7, 1984) According to another source ''...the local people, including Hindus, pointed the finger at the local Congress(I) leaders." (India Today, November 30, 1984) Furthermore, the article states that, ''In several cases the marauding mobs were led by leaders of the Congress(I) and its youth wing." (Ibid.) Without a doubt, the party...members of the Congress(I) Party actively encouraged communalist attacks of Sikhs by Hindus. These events will undoubtedly serve to strengthen the position of the Sikh nationalists who will ride high on this new occurrence of communal violence to propagandize their lies among the Sikh masses as to the real necessity to separate from the Hindu masses and form a separate nation.... The true liberation of the Sikh toilers and all the Indian masses can only come about through the overthrow of the Indian ruling class and the coming to power of a revolutionary government of the toilers. The proletariat of India, moreover, is the class where the barriers of nationality, caste, and religion have broken down to the greatest extent.

The Indian bourgeoisie is keenly aware of this fact and works day and night to spread communal divisions to ensure its own rule and inhibit the development of a revolution of the toiling masses. The Herald Review, for example, states that Mrs. Gandhi used ''...ethnic slogans and sentiments for political purposes. This, in spite of the fact that she often criticized these forces as anti-national and anti-secular. Her party followed policies which divided the people along ethnic lines and even aligned itself with organizations based on these ideologies and ties for winning mass support and/or to fight political rivals." (Vol. I, No. 11)

The notion that Indira Gandhi gave unity to India and the anxiety in the world media whether Rajiv Gandhi can assume a similar unifying force is a total farce! There is only one way to achieve unity among the toiling masses of India and to smash the tool of communalism [and that] is by overthrowing the rich which actively endorses communal hatred and division.

Down with communalism, tool of the rich of India!!

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Why the terrible famine in Africa?

What are the causes of the food crisis in Africa?

The most widespread view fostered about the African famine is that it has been caused by drought and the resulting crop failures in large parts of Africa. This suggests that the famine is just a terrible natural disaster, an act of god or something like that.

Of course it is quite true that a severe drought has hit much of Africa for several years now. But there is more behind the African famine than this.

Man does not have to live at the total mercy of drought. It is within the capacity of man to determine how much adverse impact a drought will have. It is within the scientific and technical capacity of man to limit the consequences of drought. Irrigation projects can be developed which do not leave farming at the complete mercy of rainfall. The drought in Africa has worsened the erosion of the soil and extended the invasion of desert into formerly farming areas. But soil erosion can be stopped, as can the invasion of the desert.

These things may make it appear as if the question is a technical one. But it is not -- it is politics and economics that determine why these things are not done to prevent or combat the disastrous consequences of drought. If one wants to see why things within the technical capacity of man do not get carried out in the famine-stricken countries of Africa, then one has to examine the economic system prevailing in these countries, the policies of the African governments, and the relationships between these countries and the imperialist metropolises of the U.S., Europe, Russia and Japan.

The development of agriculture to meet the needs of the African people would require the massive mobilization of capital and human resources. But this is not taking place. For this the responsibility lies in the capitalist economies of the African countries and in the relations of imperialist domination which enslave these countries.

What this means is that Africa is run according to the rules of capitalist exploitation, according to the rules of the insane system where profits are supreme -- the needs of the masses be damned. Under these rules, both in the colonial period and today, capital will only be invested where maximum profits are to be found. Indeed, both in the past and today, there has been a certain capitalist economic development but this has happened wherever there were huge profits to be made. It is simply not profitable, for the foreign imperialists or the local capitalists, to invest in agricultural and economic development for the needs of the masses.

Africa Under Colonialism

Yesterday under colonial rule, Africa was an arena for massive plunder of its labor and resources. The colonialists came for slaves to build up the New World. They came for its rich mineral wealth. They came to grow cash crops for the industries in Europe. As a result, economies which once produced food for their domestic needs were put in the service of growing crops for the monopolies of Europe and North America. Africa became synonymous in the West with its mineral wealth and a host of cash crops -- cotton, coffee, cocoa, peanuts, sisal, spices, etc. The entire economies of countries were oriented to the production of one or two cash crops, putting them at the complete mercy of the fortunes of such goods in the world market.

The colonialists drew Africa into the world capitalist market and introduced a certain capitalist development in the continent. But this was subordinate to whatever it needed for its plunder. Thus certain sectors of the economy were developed while others stagnated. In particular, the agriculture sector related to the production of food stagnated.

The colonial yoke was a brutal one. The flip side of the ruthless economic plunder was the political rule of extreme reaction. The African people were ruled with the whip, the prison, and bullets. Bestial racist oppression was the order of the day. The African people waged courageous struggles against this oppression. In some countries, bitter armed struggles were fought for freedom.

In these struggles, different classes among the African people fought with different aims and aspirations. The workers and peasants were the main sections which shed their blood; they fought for food, for work, for land, and for freedom. The bourgeoisie opposed the colonialists in order to secure their own domination and they were inclined to seek this goal through conciliation and accommodation with the colonialists.

Africa Under the Rule of the Local Bourgeoisie

The anti-colonial struggles did force the colonialists to end direct colonial rule in the vast majority of Africa. But it was not the workers and peasants who took power; instead it was the national bourgeoisie, in most cases through arriving at an accommodation with the colonialists. Capitalism remained and the African bourgeoisie somewhat widened its share of the exploitation of the masses. But the African bourgeoisie was generally weak and small; it had to allow the continued maintenance of huge privileges for the imperialist powers. Thus today under the rule of African governments, the toilers are exploited by both the foreign imperialists and the local bourgeoisie.

A number of the African governments have declared themselves to be socialist or semi-socialist. In many cases these governments have close ties with Russian social-imperialism, although they generally also maintain ties with Western imperialism. But the fact of the matter is that this "socialism" is just an empty label meant for deception of the toiling masses among whom ideas of socialism are very popular. There is in fact not a single socialist country in Africa; everywhere capitalism prevails in the economy, with some survivals of pre-capitalist economic relations.

The rule of the African bourgeoisie and the continued dependent relations with imperialism have meant that the African economies are not geared towards meeting the needs of the masses. Thus, for example, on the agricultural front, Africa still remains heavily dependent on cash crop production. Capitalism generally tends towards this state of affairs while colonialism and imperialist domination exacerbate this situation greatly. In contemporary times, imperialist "aid" programs have only reinforced this situation. For instance, World Bank programs encouraged cotton cultivation in the country of Mali. Cotton production did rise, some 400% between 1967 and 1972; but food production suffered and Mali had no protection against famine when drought hit during the early 1970's. Today, Mali is once again the object of famine.

The Strains Due to Depression, the Debt Crisis and Militarism

The present famine has its longstanding roots in the situation described above. However there are a number of contemporary factors which have worsened the situation.

The current worldwide depression from the early 70's has meant that the prices of African raw material exports have been pressed downwards. This has placed great strain on the economies of these countries. Similarly, the increase of prices for oil imports hit Africa hard because, with the exception of some of the northern African countries, Nigeria and Angola, Africa is poor in oil and gas production.

Another notorious problem is the international debt crisis. Imperialism and the African bourgeoisie have imposed a good deal of indebtedness on the African masses. The debts in Africa are not as huge as that in Latin America, for example, but that is only because of the small sizes of the African economies. But the debts that do exist are heavy yokes on the poor African economies. Even a country as poor as Chad -- the poorest country in the continent -- is down for $190 million in debt. Meanwhile, Nigeria, the richest country in black Africa, owes over $12 billion.

These debts have been built up not just to fund the economies of these countries. A big part of the foreign debts in Africa concerns the growth of militarism and the funding of numerous local wars. A whole slew of African countries are notorious for bloated militarism; military dictatorships rule in a number of countries. In a series of countries, the governments are involved in one or another kind of local war. In many cases these involve wars against oppressed peoples within their borders, such as the war of the Ethiopian regime against the Eritrean and Tigray peoples, or the war of the Sudanese government against oppressed people of the south of that country. Imperialism encourages militarism in Africa and supplies these wars in order to keep Africa enchained and because there are profits to be made in selling weapons. Indeed Africa is one of the biggest targets for arms sales from the imperialist powers, especially the U.S., the Soviet Union and France. Take a recent example from Chad. The Reagan government just gave Chad $5.6 million in food aid while it allocated $10 million for military purposes.

The local wars in Africa are paid for through the ruthless exploitation of the toilers. In Ethiopia for example, there has been very little money spent on agricultural development over the last decade; in part this is because the fascist regime there has mainly concentrated its resources on the war against the Eritrean and other peoples within its borders. The debts of the country are huge. The farmers and other toilers have been squeezed dry to pay for the war.

Thus it is not surprising that the effects of the depression, the debt crisis and the cost of pursuing militarism and war mean that the African countries must concentrate still more on exports in order to pay the necessary tribute to the imperialists. In other words, the production of cash crops has to be extended further and the result is only worsening stagnation of the production of food. And such economies which barely limp by in ordinary times can hardly stand up to drought or other natural disasters. Hence the ferocity of the current famine.

There are no solutions to the food crisis in Africa within the framework of the present status quo in these countries or in the imperialist international economic structures. In certain liberal and reformist circles, one finds various prescriptions for reformist solutions. But reformism cannot buck the inherent logic of capitalism and imperialist domination. There are entrenched economic interests -- both in the imperialist countries and within the African countries -- that make a lot of money from the status quo. As long as these interests rule the roost in Africa, there will be no fundamental change.

For a lasting solution to hunger and poverty in Africa, we must look to the oppressed masses -- the workers and peasants -- who daily hope for and fight for a better world, a world where profits do not prevail. In 1973-74, a major famine in Ethiopia was a central factor bringing about the revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed monarchy of Haile Selassie. "Down with the regime of the famine!" the toilers shouted then. That revolution showed the force of the aroused toilers. At the same time, the toilers were not organized strongly enough to take power and instead the military seized power and a bourgeois regime was imposed.

Today once again storm clouds are on the African horizon. Last year in Tunisia and Morocco the masses rose up in powerful revolts against hunger and austerity; the hunger the masses protested against there was not due to famine but capitalist austerity measures of the IMF and the local governments. The current crisis, including the famine, will certainly lead to new outbursts of the masses against "the regimes of famine." The urgent task before the revolutionary-minded African workers and other activists is to press forward the independent organization and consciousness of the toiling masses so that the bourgeoisie cannot steal the fruits of the mass struggles.

Effective solidarity with the African masses therefore means work in favor of the revolution of the toilers against the fundamental causes of famine and misery. It means solidarity with the fight against capitalism and imperialism.

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The politics of famine relief in Ethiopia

The question of famine relief in Ethiopia offers a number of important political lessons about the attitude of the U.S. government and the African regimes towards the suffering masses of Africa. They help to underscore the Marxist-Leninist view that it is the imperialist powers and the African capitalist regimes which have together brought disaster to Africa.

On the issue of famine relief for Ethiopia both the U.S. and Ethiopian governments are trading charges and striking poses. The U.S. government justifies its hesitancy in relief for Ethiopia by denouncing the Ethiopian regime for playing politics with food relief. It uses the occasion for propaganda against Marxism-Leninism, with its false claim that the Ethiopian government is a Marxist-Leninist one. Meanwhile, it parades itself as the paragon of humanitarianism for sending relief to Ethiopia.

On the other hand, the Ethiopian government denounces the U.S. government for also playing politics with famine relief. And it too strikes a posture of acting as if it were guided by the purest motives of concern for the starving masses in its country.

What is going on here?

The fact of the matter is that each is wrong and each is right. Each is right about the other while each is thoroughly hypocritical about promoting oneself as motivated simply by concern for the starving.

U.S. Imperialism Seeks Greater Influence in Ethiopia

There is not an iota of humanitarianism in the U.S. government's attitude towards the Ethiopian famine. In fact, the U.S. seeks to use the current famine as an opportunity to put its claws deeper into Ethiopia. The U.S. government has an unfriendly attitude to the Ethiopian regime. Therefore Washington is using food relief as a means to pressure Ethiopia for political changes in its favor.

Since the end of World War II through the mid-70's Ethiopia was heavily dominated by U.S imperialism. The reactionary monarchy of Haile Selassie allowed the U.S. corporations free rein to plunder Ethiopia and also allowed the U.S. government important military facilities. In 1973-74 a powerful revolutionary upsurge shook Ethiopia and brought down the hated monarchy. In this revolution, the masses demonstrated their hatred for U.S. imperialism as well.

The workers and peasants however were not strong enough to take power and instead power went into the hands of a military clique known as the Dergue (committee). This was in fact a capitalist regime but because of the revolutionary sentiments among the masses this regime postured, and continues to posture, as a revolutionary and even socialist regime. It ruled in the name of the revolution but in fact it did its best to stymie the revolutionary process. It massacred the revolutionary left and continued and expanded the old regime's war on the oppressed peoples within the country's borders, especially the Eritrean people.

In its foreign policy the Dergue did not disturb the close ties with U.S. imperialism although it began to cultivate ties also with the Soviet social-imperialists. In a few years, as the U.S. took a hostile stand towards the regime and the Kremlin imperialists began to shower the Dergue with weapons aid, the regime developed an ever-tighter alliance with Russia. Indeed today it is the Soviet social-imperialists' closest ally in the African continent.

This does not mean that the U.S. has stopped seeking ways to regain its lost influence in Ethiopia. Not at all. It has cajoled, threatened and bullied. It has armed Ethiopia's neighbors. And when the new massive famine began to hit Ethiopia, the U.S. saw this immediately as a golden opportunity to pressure for changes in its direction.

Thus the U.S. adopted a very tightfisted policy towards appeals for international relief for Ethiopia. For example, in December 1982, the Catholic Relief Services, one of the largest U.S.- aided relief agencies working in Ethiopia, requested 838 metric tons of grain for Ethiopian famine relief. It took the U.S. government six months to grant this request, although the amount was pitifully little. And in April 1983, the UN Disaster Relief Committee requested $35 million from the U.S. to cover food aid and transport costs. A month later Washington responded with only $1.5 million in food aid.

Earlier this year, as the situation in Ethiopia worsened, the Reagan administration promised $60 million in food aid for all of Africa. What is even more outrageous is that the Reaganites tied this proposal to a bill for funding the contras in Nicaragua. Thus the aid was held up for two months as Congress debated the aid to the contras.

A major figure involved in African relief in Britain, Rev. Charles Elliot, who was former director of the Christian Aid organization in Britain, recently told the British newspaper The Observor that the U.S. and Britain deliberately blocked food aid to Ethiopia in order to try to use it as a weapon to see if they could bring down the Ethiopian government.

The stand of the U.S. government exposes the hollowness of its new-found humanitarianism towards Ethiopia. And while today the U.S. is giving a little bit more food aid, the amount still remains far short of the actual needs and far short of what the U.S. government could do. After all, it is well known that there are huge stockpiles of "surplus" food lying around in USD A warehouses. But more importantly the change in the amount of food aid does not mean that the aim of the U.S. government towards Ethiopia has changed any. No, what has changed is the methods. Now the U.S. seeks to use the sending of aid as a means of gaining influence over the Ethiopian Dergue.

The Ethiopian Fascist Regime Uses Famine as a Weapon of War

The Ethiopian fascist regime is also not motivated by any feelings of humanitarianism in its attitude towards the famine victims. The government there is using the famine as an occasion to strengthen its stranglehold over the masses.

One of the central questions in Ethiopian politics is the war of the central government against the oppressed peoples within its borders. The yoke of the Addis Ababa regime is extremely brutal. For many years the Eritrean, Tigray and other peoples have been fighting bitter battles against their oppression. The Ethiopian Dergue has put its entire resources behind the continuation of these savage wars.

The Dergue is using the famine and food relief in a number of ways to strengthen its war effort.

The most criminal feature of this is the deliberate deprivation of famine relief to the people living in the regions controlled by the rebels. Eritrea and Tigray province are among the areas hardest hit by the famine. Over half the famine victims live in the rebel-held areas, but only a tiny fraction of food aid goes to these people. Some of the rebel organizations have even offered a temporary cease-fire to carry out famine relief, but the Ethiopian government has adamantly refused. And the Dergue has even gone so far as to bomb crops in the fields within rebel-held territory. In short, the Dergue wants to use starvation as its latest weapon against the liberation fighters.

The Dergue is also using food aid in other ways to strengthen its military efforts. It has embarked on a large-scale "food for arms" campaign in which starving youth and adults are promised relief grain if they agree to military conscription. Those who refuse are deprived of food aid, no mater how desperate they are.

The criminal conduct of the Dergue towards the famine victims in Ethiopia is also an exposure of the Dergue's close friends in the Soviet Union, Cuba, and so forth. The revisionist traitors to Marxism-Leninism promote the Dergue to the skies. Why only a few months ago, the entire international pro-Soviet revisionist current heaped praise on the Dergue for declaring a so-called Workers' Party. The Dergue spent $100 million on these celebrations while millions were starving close by.

The Soviet revisionists have not exactly been forthcoming on aid for the famine victims. What the Soviet Union is notorious for sending to Ethiopia is weapons for the Dergue's cruel war. Over the last decade they have sent $3 billion in military aid. But in the recent famine they sent only a little bit of rice and promised trucks, planes and helicopters. These are promised to help distribution of food relief but of course it is well known that these things will come in useful for the Dergue's war effort.

Clearly, the facts reveal that neither the imperialist powers nor the Ethiopian capitalist regime have the interests of the African masses at heart. They are guided by thoroughly reactionary motives. For their callousness they deserve the condemnation of all progressive people everywhere.

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Five years of the MLP,USA

--New Year's Editorial

[Graphic.]

The new year is opening with a mounting offensive by the capitalists. But it is also opening with a growing class awareness, a deepening feeling that between the capitalist class and the working class there is an unbridgeable gap, two different worlds that are in mortal combat. For years the politicians and the trade union bureaucrats preached to the working class about the "common interests of labor and capital." But now, from among the workers, a new question is everywhere bubbling to the surface: "Which side are you on?"

In this situation it is all the more significant that January 1 is the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party. For it is only through building revolutionary organization that the working masses can translate their militant class instincts into a conscious class struggle to defend themselves from the capitalist offensive of unemployment, hunger, racism and war. And it is only through organization that the working class can forge itself into an independent force capable of raising all of the oppressed in socialist revolution to put an end, once and for all, to this living hell of capitalism.

The last five years of struggle have shown that the Marxist-Leninist Party is such a revolutionary organization of the working class. And it has proved that the further extension of independent class organization among the working masses and the strengthening of an organized and systematic class struggle against the capitalists is completely tied up with the fight to build the revolutionary vanguard party of the working class.

Five Years of Struggle

The last five years have been a bitter pill for the working masses. Initially stunned by the capitalist offensive, disorganized by the enormous layoffs and plant closures, and stymied by their own supposed "leaders," the workers have as yet only been able to mount sporadic and scattered mass actions against the capitalists.

In this situation the organization of the workers as an independent revolutionary force has been particularly difficult. But despite the hardships and the obstacles in its path, the Party has continued to forge ahead with its revolutionary work.

Despite the setbacks in the workers' struggle and organization, the Party has held onto its links among workers in the factories and other work places. It has gained wider prestige for its arduous work to defend the workers' livelihood and has continued to build up a pro-party force among the workers through its all-sided political work.

The Party has also maintained itself in the thick of the various mass movements that have emerged. In the last five years, the Party has found itself again and again in the position of the defender of the mass movements.' In many cases it has been able to prevent the reformists from utterly liquidating demonstrations, it has influenced new activists in a revolutionary direction, gained support for the Party's slogans tics, and where conditions have permitted the Party has worked to build up modest mass organizations that have a real fighting basis.

At the same time, the Party has deepened its theoretical work, clarifying a number of important questions of strategy and tactics in the U.S. and world revolutions. This work has not only helped to consolidate the Party itself, but it has also helped to educate the militant workers and movement activists in a revolutionary class perspective.

Through this and other work the Party has become further consolidated and laid the basis to go forward in solving the thorny problems confronting the revolutionary movement.

Combatting Liquidationism and the Liberal-Labor Marsh

An essential part of the revolutionary struggle in the last five years has been the fierce conflict between revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and revisionist liquidationism.

Revolutionary work in this period has been all the more difficult due to the fact that the capitalist offensive has been reflected inside the revolutionary movement itself in the form of renegacy and vulgar liquidationism.

Renouncing the revolutionary cause of the working class, sneering at the party principle, denigrating every attempt at independent organization of the workers, this is liquidationism. It has spread through all of the main currents of revisionism, from the Maoists, to the Trotskyites, to the pro-Soviet revisionists. And it has degenerated from its appeals for unity with the sold out labor bureaucrats and misleaders of the oppressed nationalities to an open embrace with the liberal capitalist chieftains of the Democratic Party.

As they have slid down their inclined plane, many revisionist groups have simply folded up their tents and disappeared into the liberal-labor swamp. Meanwhile others are elaborating entire theories to try to portray their shameful campaign for Mondale in 1984 as a Marxist virtue. They admit that the Democrats have turned to Reaganism and are not an obstacle to the reactionary offensive. They exclaim that the liberals are in disarray and that the Rooseveltian liberal-labor coalition is dead. And they proclaim that the workers must take the lead. But in what? In building a "broad coalition'' including "moderate and liberal democrats.'' In short, the liquidators are calling for rebuilding the old and discredited liberal-labor coalition of the Democrats which has so long beguiled and suppressed the working class movement. "The king is dead, long live the king!" So goes the logic of the liquidators.

The disgusting betrayal by the revisionist liquidators has meant that the carrying forward of revolutionary work has been doubly difficult. It has required a persistent, day-to-day struggle to preserve revolutionary organization 'against the corrosion of liquidationism. And it has demanded constant efforts to sink roots deeper among the workers to move them step-by-step closer to independent class organization. The Marxist-Leninist Party, and all of its members and sympathizers, has shown remarkable heroism and revolutionary stamina in carrying forward this work.

Forward in the New Year

The 2nd National Conference of the MLP, held last fall, issued the call to "Go Deeper Among the Masses, Build the Marxist-Leninist Party!" The Party has always stressed the great importance of building up the Party on the solid basis of its organization within the working class.

In 1916, faced with the situation where opportunist corrosion had swept through much of the world's socialist parties, comrade Lenin stressed the question of the masses. He declared that "it is therefore our duty, if we wish to remain socialists, to go down lower and deeper, to the real masses; this is the whole meaning and the whole purport of the struggle against opportunism. By exposing the fact that the opportunists and social-chauvinists are in reality betraying and selling the interests of the masses, that they are defending the temporary privileges of a minority of the workers, that they are the vehicles of bourgeois ideas and influences, that they are really allies and agents of the bourgeoisie, we teach the masses to appreciate their true political interests, to fight for socialism and for the revolution through all the long and painful vicissitudes of imperialist wars and imperialist armistices." ("Imperialism and the Split in Socialism," Collected Works, Vol. 23)

The MLP has maintained its revolutionary character precisely because it has stuck by the teachings of Leninism, because it has based itself among the working class, and because it has persisted in the struggle to help free the masses from the corrupting poison of the revisionists and opportunists.

The 2nd National Conference outlined a number of tasks for carrying forward the work to build the Party deep among the working masses.

Strengthen the Mass Struggle Against the Reaganite Offensive

Among the most important tasks in the coming period is the work to strengthen the mass struggles against the Reaganite capitalist offensive.

Although the mass movements continue to be in a period of ebb, the discontent with the capitalist onslaught is spreading ever wider among the working people. Here and there, this discontent breaks through to the surface in small movements and mass actions. At times these skirmishes become quite intense as with the strike of the Phelp-Dodge miners, the strike of the AP Parts workers, and the anti-racist battles that took place in Waynesboro, Ga. and Lawrence, Mass. last year. Through these struggles, large and small, the workers gain rich experience and tend to gravitate towards the building of organization.

Thus, even with the ebb in the mass movements, there is a wide field for the Party's work. We must seize on the struggles that do arise to help the masses fight, to expose the union bureaucrats and other reformist misleaders and to consolidate even the slightest advances by training the workers in organization. In this way the workers gain confidence in their party and it becomes a stronger instrument for the building up of the class-wide struggle against the capitalist offensive.

Support the Workers' Press

Besides these scattered battles, the masses have shown an intense interest in the important political events of the day. Whether it is the terrible famine in Africa or the latest tax schemes of the Reaganites, the workers want to know the truth. The Party must know how to speak to the issues that are agitating the masses, to expose the lies and subterfuges of the capitalists, and to train the workers in a revolutionary perspective.

"...the American revolutionaries must give special support to the Marxist-Leninist forces of the Nicaraguan working class. These are the forces which are striving to carry the revolution forward to the realization of socialism, and which understand that only by the workers and exploited masses deepening the revolution can the immediate fight against the CIA-backed counterrevolution and the U.S. intervention be strengthened." (From 2nd Congress resolution "On the International Situation")

This is why strengthening the workers' press continues to be such an important task in the coming period. The Workers' Advocate has been a powerful revolutionary weapon for the organization of the working masses since it was established in 1969 by the American Communist Workers' Movement (M-L), a predecessor organization of the MLP. Today The Workers Advocate stands at the head of a whole system of proletarian literature -- from leaflets and local newspapers to special literature for nationwide campaigns and theoretical issues. In the coming year the Party is placing attention on gradually transforming The Workers' Advocate in line with the work to bring the Party deeper among the masses and to make it an even more powerful weapon for the organization of the workers.

This work is not a task for the Party members alone. Sympathizers of the Party and other class conscious workers and revolutionary activists should be mobilized to lend a hand. Whether in distribution, or sending in reports, or making financial contributions, or expressing views, all such work is important for the further building up of The Workers' Advocate as the voice of the U.S. working class.

Build Up the Bonds of International Working Class Solidarity

The new year also demands the deepening of the work to build international solidarity among the workers of every land and to strengthen the world Marxist-Leninist movement. Our Party regards the struggle for proletarian internationalism to be both our solemn duty and a source of great strength.

In this regard one of the crucial questions is solidarity with the Nicaraguan toilers. The revolution waged by the workers and peasants of Nicaragua has not only done damage to our common enemy, U.S. imperialism, and it has not only sparked revolutionary struggle in El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America, but it has also brought a breath of fresh air into the movement in the U.S. When we read the Marxist- Leninist analysis of the MAP/ML on the class struggle in Nicaragua, and when we hear of its successes, we feel the common link, the real kinship, between the revolutionary workers in this country and abroad.

Last year the campaign to support the Nicaraguan workers' press not only provided some assistance to the revolutionary work of the MAP/ML but it also assisted us in our efforts, for the political mobilization of the workers here at home. In the coming year we must build on the start that's been made. As Reagan steps up the dirty imperialist war against Nicaragua and prepares for direct invasion, we too must step up our work to supply material aid to MAP/ML and to mobilize the U.S. workers into a solid movement against U.S. imperialist aggression.

As well, in the new year, the Party plans to deepen its theoretical work on the vexed questions confronting the international Marxist-Leninist movement. Proletarian internationalism is not a matter of painting rosy pictures or making empty proclamations on festive occasions, but of uniting the international working class on the solid revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism.

In the past year our Party spoke up boldly against the dangers of petty- bourgeois nationalism and liquidationism and we pointed to some of the roots of these problems. We have found that we are not alone in desiring to deal with these burning issues. In the coming year we will go deeper into the history leading up to the problems of today and address further such matters as the distortions of the Leninist tactics of the united front.

The above points outline some of the pressing tasks for 1985. The new year will call for more determined efforts by our Party to strengthen the work of agitation, organization, and development of the class consciousness and ideological clarity of the proletariat.

Forward into the new year under the red banners of class struggle and revolutionary Marxism-Leninism!

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Build the Independent Movement of the Working Class!

"Today the ruination caused by the economic crisis lends special importance to developing the economic struggle of the working class. The workers are angry. Here and there bitter fights have broken out against the employers. Big clashes on the economic front are in the making. The Marxist-Leninist Party encourages this resistance by the workers and stands for developing the ferment among the workers into a powerful class-wide struggle against the starvation drive of the capitalists....

"In order for the working class to effectively fight for its own class interests, the workers cannot restrict themselves to the economic struggle alone. They must above all build up their own independent political movement, a movement which is independent of and opposed to the politics of the capitalist class...."

"The proletarian vanguard party is essential to defending the interests of the working class on all questions. It is essential to providing leadership to both the economic and political movements of the proletariat and to ensuring that all the struggles of the workers play their proper role in building up the forces for the socialist revolution." (From 2nd Congress resolution "Revolutionary Work in the Mass Movements")

"The Second Congress of the MLP holds that the pressing fight against Reaganite reaction also demands a hard fight against its principal political accomplice -- the Democratic Party. The political and ideological struggle against liberal-labor and social-democratic politics, the instrument of compromise with the capitalist offensive, stands as a burning task of all Marxist-Leninists, class conscious workers and revolutionary activists...

"For the working class to take its rightful place in the struggle, the first requirement is that it be organized as an independent political force, as a class with its own independent class aims. The proletariat must become a class for itself. This is a fundamental Marxist principle of the revolutionary working class movement....

"Today the American working class finds itself chained to bourgeois politics. For decades the liberal-labor politicians, the labor bureaucrats, the social-democrats, and the revisionists have kept the workers tied to the coattails of the capitalist politicians. Presently we can see how this liberal-labor system of class collaboration is like handcuffs on the working people in the face of the Reaganite attacks. Breaking the grip of the capitalist parties is a most pressing task of the fight against the capitalist offensive." (From 2nd Congress resolution "On the Domestic Situation")

[Photo: Confrontation between police and striking AP Parts workers, Toledo, May 21,1984.]

[Photo: In the demonstrations outside the Democratic Party National Convention held last July in San Francisco, the MLP raised the slogans "DENOUNCE THE REAGANITE PROGRAM OF THE REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS!", and "FOR A REAL FIGHT AGAINST REAGANISM, BUILD THE INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT OF THE WORKING CLASS!"]

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The Struggle Against Racism

"The racist offensive of the bourgeoisie has given rise to widespread angry dissatisfaction among the oppressed nationalities. Here and there a number of fierce battles have already broken out. Throughout the country the oppressed peoples are girding themselves for the fight. A new upsurge of struggle against racism and national oppression is inevitable.

"The Marxist-Leninist Party takes its stand shoulder to shoulder with the masses of the oppressed nationalities, and it fights with all its might against racism and all forms of national oppression. The Party is irreconcilably hostile to discrimination, segregation and racist terror. It opposes all prejudice and bigotry. The Party encourages active resistance to racist attacks and works to build up the mass actions of the people into a powerful anti-racist movement." (From 2nd Congress resolution "Revolutionary Work in the Mass Movements")

"The Marxist-Leninist Party opposes all attacks and persecution of the immigrant workers. It stands for full equality and rights for all immigrants, documented or undocumented. The oppression of a sub-caste of immigrant workers is an attack on all the workers. The MLP urges all the workers to come to the aid of their fellow immigrant workers." (From 2nd Congress resolution "Revolutionary Work in the Mass Movements")

[Photo: A demonstrator denounces the Rev. Julian Bell, president of the local NAACP chapter, In front of the county courthouse in Waynesboro, Georgia. Bell was trying to "calm down" protestors who demanded an explanation for the death in police custody of Larry Gardner.]

[Photo: Militant protest against the anti-immigrant and racist Simpson-Mazzoli Bill, Chicago, July 4,1984.]

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Party-Building

"The victory of the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party in 1980 did not mark the end of the struggle for the Party, but a new beginning. It opened up a new period of struggle on yet a broader scale to rally the class conscious workers and other revolutionary activists to the red banner of the Party, to imbue the broad masses of the workers with the party concept, and to build up and strengthen the vanguard party of the working class.

"Party-building is a constant necessity requiring the continual attention of the Marxist-Leninists. All Marxist-Leninists must maintain a permanent stand of upholding the party principle in all spheres of revolutionary work. This is not just an internal task of the party. The party concept must be brought to the workers. They must be led to understand that only by adherence to their own class party can the class struggle be really organized and made conscious, clear, definite and principled.

"The MLP opposes any idea which counterposes party-building to the building of the mass movements. Rather, the party is built and becomes strong in the thick of the mass struggles, taking its stand fighting shoulder to shoulder with the working masses against the capitalist exploiters. By the same token, the essential road for building up the mass movements and welding together all of the separate rivulets of struggle into a single revolutionary torrent with the working class at the center is the work to build the Marxist-Leninist fighting vanguard party.'' (From 2nd Congress resolution "Organize the Proletariat, Build the Marxist-Leninist Party'')

[Graphic.]

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Solidarity with the Workers and Peasants of Central America!

The American proletariat must make every effort to build up a common revolutionary front the peoples of Central America. This means working hard to strengthen the mass struggles against U.S. imperialist intervention. The Central American peoples must have the right to self-determination. And it means working hard for militant solidarity with the revolutionary struggles of the Central American workers and peasants. Every step forward by the revolutionary movement in Central America is a blow to 'our own' imperialist ruling class and a step forward for our revolutionary cause." (From 2nd Congress resolution "On the International Situation")

[Photo: Demonstration against U.S. intervention in Central America, Detroit, July 1984.]

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In Defense of Marxism-Leninism

"Today there are a number of controversial issues and vexed questions facing the international Marxist- Leninist movement. A number of the present difficulties and weaknesses are, in part, the result of trying to apply some of the wrong views and practices that were prevalent in the international movement during the latter 1940's and the early 1950's....

"In our view, the answer to the vexed questions of the present-day world Marxist-Leninist movement must be sought in orthodox Marxism-Leninism and in a careful examination of the concrete situations of today. They must be solved according to the classic teachings of Marxism-Leninism and not according to the new orientations of the post-World War II period. Today the international Marxist-Leninist movement has reached a turning point, it must clear out all the mistaken traditions that have blocked its progress....

"Hence the Second Congress holds that the Marxist-Leninist Party should speak publicly and clearly on the problems in the orientation of the international communist movement in the period from the end of World War II to the death of Stalin in 1953. This must be done from the standpoint of defending the revolutionary orientations given by the Marxist-Leninist classics for communist work." (From 2nd Congress resolution "On Problems in the Orientation of the international Communist Movement in the Period from the End of World War II to the Death of Stalin")

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"These weaknesses in the stands of the PLA concern the orientations it sets forth for the international Marxist- Leninist movement. They can be seen in extreme form in the stands of Albanian foreign policy towards Iran, Turkey and Argentina....

"...The mistakes of the PLA with respect to the vexed questions of today cannot be ignored or regarded simply as a matter of interest only to Albanians, for the PLA is a party with an important role in the world movement. AH parties must learn from the stands of the PLA, both from the positive experience of the bold and revolutionary stands and from the negative experience of the mistakes and weak stands....

"...True friends are not those who stand by and let things slide, but those who, at whatever risk to themselves, speak the truth.

"For these reasons, the Second Congress decided that the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA must speak openly and directly on its views concerning the answers the PLA is giving to the vexed questions of the present-day international Marxist-Leninist movement. This is important both to defend the revolutionary orientation for the American and world Marxist-Leninist movements and to carry out our internationalist responsibility towards the Albanian comrades....

"The Second Congress declares fervently that our Party will stand, as always, arm in arm with the Albanian comrades. It will combine militant solidarity with the principled discussion of the burning issues of the world Marxist-Leninist movement." (From 2nd Congress resolution "On the Role of the PLA in the World Marxist-Leninist Movement")

[Banner: Deeper among the masses--Build the Marxist-Leninist Party!]

Down with the computer surveillance in the T-700 area!

Organize mass struggle against the Reaganite offensive of the capitalists!

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