Vol. 15, No. 10
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA
SPECIAL ISSUE October 1, 1985
Join the October demonstrations!
Along with the struggle against apartheid
Fight against racism in the U.S.!
In a panic to head off the revolution
Botha plays the game of empty promises
The revolutionary movement grows in South Africa
He still loves apartheid
Reagan's 'sanctions' are a fraud
The black bourgeoisie - roadblock to the anti-racist struggle
As the U.S. engineers border clashes:
Oppose Reagan's war on Nicaragua!
It is one year since the black people of South Africa set off their latest militant upsurge of struggle against the racist white minority regime. The black masses are bravely holding aloft the banner of freedom. They are fighting to destroy the racist system of segregation known as apartheid.
The apartheid regime has let loose with mad-dog terror. The death toll climbs higher and higher. The people have made great sacrifices. But their fighting spirit holds firm. Every day, reports continue to pour in of heroic confrontations in South Africa.
The example of the fighting black people of South Africa is an inspiration to the whole world. Here in the U.S. their cause and struggle has been received with great respect among the workers, black people and youth. Thousands have rallied in solidarity with the fighting people of South Africa.
This October another round of demonstrations, marches and meetings is being organized across the U.S. to support the struggle of the black people of South Africa.
These come on the heels of marches held in a number of cities in August attended by thousands. And in September the opening of the new school year has seen the renewal of student actions against apartheid, from the campuses of Boston to the steps of Biko (Sproul) Hall in Berkeley.
The Marxist-Leninist Party supports the actions against apartheid and we call on workers, youth, black people and all the oppressed to build up the mass protests across the U.S.
Join the actions against apartheid and make them militant scenes of protest. Show the world, show Botha and his racist buddies in Washington that we won't stand for apartheid racism. Above all, show the fighting people of South Africa that as they enter the second year of their latest upsurge we, the working people of the U.S., are with them!
* Let us come to the aid of the black people of South Africa by giving our full support to the revolutionary movement there!
For justice in South Africa, nothing short of the abolition of racist oppression can suffice. The Botha regime is intransigent in its tyranny. Yet Reagan and all the capitalist politicians still ask us to believe that Botha will in one way or another work for ending apartheid.
Better to wait for the sun to rise in the west. To expect the racists to reform themselves, voluntarily or with slaps on the wrist, is a pipe dream. The only path for the abolition of racist rule in South Africa is through the revolutionary struggle of the oppressed masses. Only revolution can bring freedom in South Africa.
In the protests against apartheid, join with the MLP to declare: Apartheid No! Revolution Yes! Support the struggle of the black people of South Africa!
* For effective solidarity with the black people of South Africa, let us build up a powerful movement here against Reagan and U.S. imperialism!
The racist Reagan has made himself notorious for his open embrace of the racists in Pretoria. Now in order to swindle public opinion, he has come out with a show of sanctions against South Africa. This is an empty fraud.
Yet the politicians and press talk of how Reagan has changed. Can a leopard give up his spots? Can pigs fly?
Reagan's stand not only shows his own rotten bigoted views, but it above all reflects the interests of the capitalist ruling class in the U.S. U.S. imperialism is one of the world's biggest supporters of the racist regime. The U.S. provides political and military support and it has billions of dollars in investment there. Washington's support for apartheid has long been a bipartisan cause, as both Republican and Democratic administrations have aided South Africa.
The U.S. ruling class supports South Africa because they are kindred racists. Because the corporations make fat profits off the super-exploitation of black labor. And because the apartheid regime is an imperialist bulwark against revolution in Africa.
In the protests against apartheid, join with the MLP to shout: To hell with Reagan and Botha, partners in racism! Down with U.S. imperialism, pillar of racism at home and abroad.
* For real solidarity with the black people of South Africa, let us build a movement independent of the Democratic Party liberals!
A serious fight against Botha and Reagan, and real support for the revolutionary struggle in South Africa can only be mounted by organizing the movement independently of both capitalist parties, free of the influence of the Democratic Party liars.
The Democrats speak as critics of apartheid and posture with sanctions against South Africa. But their sanctions are merely symbolic, designed only to fool us about their anti-apartheid credentials while being careful not to actually hurt the apartheid regime.
It is well known what the Democrats and Republicans do when they really want to oppose another country. The U.S. imperialists are against the revolution in Nicaragua, so Washington calls an embargo, the CIA mines the harbors, the White House organizes the contra terrorists, and the Democrats all loyally join in lusty war cries. This shows where the capitalist rulers stand. As for the progressive masses, they believe that it's South Africa that should be embargoed, not Nicaragua.
But despite the thoroughly empty anti-apartheid gestures of the Democrats, the reformist and liberal leaders of the Free South Africa Movement still sell us the bankrupt policy of reliance on the Democratic Party.
This shows their unconcern with real support for the struggle in South Africa. Indeed, they are more afraid of the revolution than they are of the racists. And in the U.S. they are more afraid of a real mass movement than they are of the Reaganite racist drive.
To follow the advice of the reformist and liberal bigshots is suicide for the anti-apartheid cause.
* Let us not hold our breath waiting for empty favors from the capitalist politicians. Let us follow the fighting example of the oppressed masses of South Africa.
We must build up a movement on the shoulders of the working masses. Let us spread the anti-apartheid movement throughout the factories, work places, neighborhoods and campuses.
Only such a movement can provide a serious challenge to U.S. imperialism's support for apartheid and be of assistance to the fighting people of South Africa.
[Photo.]
[Photo: 15,000 demonstrate against apartheid in New York City, August 13.]
Every day the TV and the newspapers carry new scenes of the heroic struggle of the black people of South Africa against the racist apartheid regime. These reports bring back images of Selma, Watts, Detroit, Newark and hundreds of other battles against a similar oppression here in the U.S. -- images of an angry and determined people standing up for freedom and elementary justice in the face of the police repression of the racist overlords.
The high tide of the black people's struggle in the 1960's shattered some of the humiliation of Jim Crow segregation. But racist oppression continues to thrive in capitalist America. Today under the Reagan government the black people are bearing the brunt of a renewed campaign of segregation and brutality. The fight against this racist offensive is a pressing task of the day for all working and progressive people. It is a major battlefront of the struggle against Reaganite reaction.
Reagan's Segregationist Offensive
Reagan makes no secret of his fondness for the good ol' days of "white only'' signs and Jim Crow segregation -- apartheid American-style. (He claims that these were the days ' 'before there was a race problem'' in the U.S., just as he approves of the apartheid racist regime in South Africa today.) And under Reagan's baton the capitalist rulers are strengthening the ugly hand of racial oppression.
Reality for the black working people is the crumbling ghetto, police repression, and lousy segregated schools. The sick capitalist economy is squeezing all the working people, and the blacks are suffering a double load of growing poverty. The racist principle of "last hired and first fired'' has kept the black workers in the worst jobs at the lowest pay and with 15% unemployment or twice the average rate. And the situation is getting worse, not better.
Under the racist hoax of eliminating alleged "reverse discrimination" against whites, the Reagan regime is knocking down even the mildest measures against job discrimination.
Reagan asks for funds for "whites only'' academies, while his Justice Department is busy filing lawsuits to scrap any steps to desegregate the schools.
The KKK and the racist gangs are getting the official wink of encouragement from federal agencies down4o the local police. Meanwhile, the racist killers in uniform perpetrate one atrocity after the next: from the police murders of two grandmothers in New York and Detroit to the police bombing of a Philadelphia neighborhood.
Where Are the Democratic Party "Champions of the Oppressed"?
To console the oppressed the Democratic Party politicians pose as "the friends of the blacks and minorities.'' The black bourgeois misleaders, from politician to preacher, have done their best to convince the masses that salvation from the Reaganite evil lies with the Democratic liberals. Ted Kennedy and co. have tried to keep up this hoax with a few words of pity for the plight of the South African blacks and halfhearted gestures towards token sanctions against the apartheid regime.
But where do these Democratic Party heroes stand in the face of Reagan's racist offensive?
They aren't standing at all -- they're kneeling at Reagan's backside. The White House drafts an executive order to scrap the few remaining affirmative action programs, and the Democrats don't utter a peep. The poverty level hits a twenty year high, and the Democrats have already conceded another round of cuts in social spending and relief for the poor. After all, in these days of the Reaganite offensive, the Democratic chiefs speculate, rights for minorities or relief for the poor aren't "good (capitalist) politics."
Racism for Profit
Racism is good for capitalist politics because it is good for capitalist profit and because it is a bulwark of political reaction. The Democratic and Republican Parties are parties of GM, IBM and the giant banks and corporations. And in the U.S., just as in South Africa, racial oppression creates cheap labor, breaks up the unity of the workers, and is a heavy chain on the working class.
The capitalist predators will never change their racist spots. To hoodwink the people they may speak of "human rights"; and when the struggle grows hot like in the 60's they may even grant some reforms to put out the fires of revolt. But today the capitalist class, Reaganite and liberal together, is out to take back any past gains with a renewed racist offensive.
The Oppressed Rise in Revolt
Racism, born of exploitation of man by man, has been raised to a systematic and cruel monster by modern capitalism and imperialism. And the oppressed have risen in countless powerful revolts against this monster. South Africa is gripped by a year-long upheaval. Anti-racist fires are burning again in Birmingham and London, England. And inevitably they will break out in full force once again in the U.S. too.
The anti-racist fight is part of the class struggle of all the workers and oppressed in the U.S. against capitalist exploitation and injustice. Only the revolutionary movement of the working class can bury this system and its racist offspring once and for all.
Build the Anti-Racist Struggle!
The powerful revolt of the black people of South Africa has gripped the attention of the black people in the U.S. and is encouraging ideas of struggle. Let's work to build the anti-apartheid movement. And let's make good use of the energy of this movement to help build the anti-racist struggle here at home.
Let's fight back against the Reaganite racist offensive. Let's answer discrimination, unemployment, poverty, police terror and the racist gangs with mass action.
Let's build an organized mass movement. Organization in the hands of the workers and oppressed can give the mass actions the strength to confront the racist offensive.
Let's build this struggle against the racist parties of monopoly capital, against both the Republicans and the Democrats. There can be no letup in the exposure of the racist filth and demagogy of the Reaganites. The thin "human rights" disguise must also be torn from the capitalist liberals. The more independence it gains from the capitalist parties, and the more it frees itself from the bourgeois black misleaders -- the stronger and more determined the anti-racist struggle will be.
Let's build this struggle on the shoulders of the workers of all races and nationalities. The workers must take their place as the firmest fighters against the racist offensive. A blow struck for black liberation is a blow struck for the liberation of all the exploited and oppressed.
Down with the Reaganite racist offensive!
Forward with the black liberation struggle!
The racist Botha regime is cracking down on the black people with ever growing savagery. At the same time it is trying to prettify the racist system with promises of reform.
This is not a sign that, underneath his tough exterior, Botha is really a good-natured fellow. The apartheid regime's "reforms" are empty. They are simply the most piddling tinkering aimed at preserving the system of white minority rule. The talk of reforms in South Africa is not a sign of the strength of the regime, but a sign that it is besieged. It is a sign that the regime feels heat from the popular rebellion.
The Fraud of Restoring Citizenship
On September 11, Botha announced that he would restore South African citizenship to over 8.5 million blacks. Their citizenship was lost when, after the government ordered them to live in four of the segregated bantustans, the racist rulers fraudulently declared these bantustans to be "independent" of South Africa.
The stripping of South African citizenship from over a third of the black population is an insult. But the mere restoration of citizenship does nothing to relieve the torturous life under apartheid slavery. Citizenship for black South Africans is a third-class form of "citizenship." The black masses are denied the most basic political, social and economic rights. They do not have such basic rights as the right to vote. The only "rights" of blacks in South Africa, citizen or not, are the right to be gunned down in the street, the right to be jailed and tortured, the right to be slave labor and suffer every sort of racist humiliation.
The Bantustan System Remains
The granting of citizenship does not even mean that the bantustan system, where half the black population has been forced onto barren wastelands, will be changed. In fact the racist regime's commitment to the bantustan system was demonstrated only a few days after the announcement on citizenship. A government commission called for the consolidation of the KwaZulu bantustan by forcibly relocating tens of thousands of blacks into new sections of the bantustan so that the white racists could seize the little fertile land in the area.
A New Name for the Pass Law System
In September, a presidential panel in Pretoria also came out with recommendations against the hated system of influx control and pass laws for blacks. But this too is a hoax.
The pass laws are one of the worst indignities of apartheid. They require blacks to carry passbooks that define where they can live and work in the "white" areas. Through influx control the racists have created a vast pool of cheap migrant laborers who must live separated from their families while slaving for the white bosses. The racists also use the passbook system to track opponents of apartheid. Mere survival in South Africa requires continuous breaking of the pass laws. In order to find work, blacks in South Africa regularly come into the "white" areas illegally. The racists admit to arresting up to 300,000 people a year for these passbook violations.
The black people have fought for decades to abolish the influx control system and for the elementary right to work and live wherever they choose. But the regime's "reform" has no intention of satisfying this just demand. Instead the government commission asserts that influx control can only be gradually phased out "in accordance with the demands of good order" and only if economic and housing conditions permit it. Thus, instead of allowing full freedom of movement, the racists are talking of a controlled loosening of restrictions. In other words, they will still oversee the movement of blacks and can reverse themselves whenever they find it necessary. This racist "reform" is simply a new version of influx control; some of the racists describe it as "orderly urbanization."
Of course, it has to be noted that this is only a commission recommendation so far. It's not even clear whether Botha will support it or whether the white parliament will discuss it, let alone pass it.
It Is Revolution, Not Fake Reforms, Which Will Abolish the Racist System
The "reform" policy of the racists is clearly bankrupt. Indeed it was only in mid-August that Botha openly declared that he would never grant even basic voting rights to blacks and would never "destroy white South Africa," that is, white minority domination. "Reform" by the racists is just a way to avoid meaningful change. It is cheap talk to hide brutal enslavement and fascist tyranny.
As well, a section of the top capitalist businessmen in South Africa are today making noise in favor of a policy of reform. Indeed, the proposed tinkering with the pass law system reflects very much the discussion in business circles. These capitalist exploiters may want a little adjustment here or there to pacify the angry masses, but you will never hear these gentlemen speaking of full equality or majority rule. After all, the capitalists profit handsomely from racist oppression and stand for maintaining the pillars of white minority domination.
The reform posturing of the racists is encouraged by U.S. imperialism. It allows racist Reagan to support the Botha regime under the lie that the regime is dismantling apartheid. Meanwhile the Democrats also promote the myth that the racists will reform themselves, if only their particular blend of wrist-tapping against South Africa is implemented.
The talk of reforms in South Africa is not a sign of the goodwill of the regime, but of the strength of the revolutionary struggle. The regime wants to see if it can pacify the angry masses with its promises of change. If any loosening up of apartheid regulations does take place in fact, it will be a by-product of the revolutionary struggle. It will not be cause for giving up the struggle, but reason for escalating the struggle.
There are no cures from the gods of plague. Apartheid will not be abolished by the racists and their imperialist backers. Only the victory of the liberation struggle can bring the downfall of the racist system.
Everyone who opposes injustice and tyranny hopes for an end to racist apartheid rule in South Africa. But what is the force that can wipe out this brutal system?
To look for the solution to apartheid, we must look towards those who have put South Africa in the headlines for over a year now. Look towards the heroes who are emerging from the depths of the oppression in South Africa. Look towards those who are daily fighting and dying, towards those who are writing epic tales of sacrifice, courage and determination.
Look towards the black workers, youth and women of South Africa, to the advancing struggle of the masses, a struggle that is building up to a revolution against the racist system. Only a revolution can bring majority rule and sweep away the racist army, police, government structures and all other institutions of the oppressors.
To be most effective in supporting the cause of freedom, the anti-apartheid movement here in the U.S. must rally to support the revolutionary movement in South Africa.
The Upsurge in South Africa Enters Its Second Year
For over a year now, the black people of South Africa have been fighting without letup against the white minority regime. The oppressed masses are showing the power of mass struggle. Those who are performing such heroic feats today can surely build a new society tomorrow.
Apartheid rules through terror. The masses have been met with ferocious repression. Hundreds have been killed. Thousands have been arrested. Thousands more have braved the sjambok (whip), the tear gas, the never-ending police raids. But the fight goes on. The masses, despite great suffering, remain undaunted in their resolve.
Apartheid does not allow the black people freedom to move about in their own country. But the people have managed to spread their struggle across South Africa. From the mining belt around Johannesburg to the industrial belt around Port Elizabeth. From Durban to Capetown.
Apartheid splits up the oppressed people of South Africa into numerous racial and tribal categories. But in their struggle the oppressed masses are all rising up -- blacks, the so-called "coloreds" (those of mixed race), and Asian Indians. They are forging the unity of a single people fighting for liberation.
Apartheid deprives the black masses of education. But in their struggle, the masses have learnt more in one year of upsurge than in years of attending the slave masters' "schools." A year of struggle has meant a gigantic leap in political consciousness.
The struggles in South Africa began a year ago with protests against a new "constitutional reform" fraud and against rent hikes in the townships. Battles over the numerous forms of degradation inflicted by apartheid continue. Out of these struggles, the consciousness of the masses is developing in the direction of a confrontation for power, for the overthrow of racist minority rule. Revolutionary slogans are more and more filling the air.
The masses have also unleashed their creative energies into devising a wide variety of methods to fight with. There have been marches and demonstrations, and there have been school boycotts. There have been economic boycotts and strikes, and there have even been limited political strikes. Policemen, spies and sellout collaborators with apartheid have been punished.
The struggles have been intense from the outset, but the militancy of the fighting has continued to grow. In the townships, the protest marches are leading to the setting up of barricades. In the street fighting against the police, the militants are adding firebombs and Molotov cocktails to their rock-throwing. And the clamor rises everywhere for getting guns and bazookas.
And as the masses move towards revolutionary positions, the gulf grows between them and the liberal and reformist leaders like Tutu and Boesak. When the masses punish collaborators and spies, Tutu denounces them and comes to the aid of the traitors. And just two weeks ago, as the "colored" townships of Capetown were in revolt, Boesak, even while in jail, sent a message urging the youth to "restrain themselves." They continue to preach the need for "nonviolence" and "dialogue."
But the rivers of blood shed by police repression show up the emptiness of the reformist appeals. Instead of helping the masses in their struggle, the Tutus and Boesaks are trying to break the momentum of the masses. They are trying to sabotage the only solution to apartheid, the revolutionary struggle.
Despite the government's repression and the reformist appeals for restraint, the fighting continues. In their latest upsurge, the oppressed masses have gained invaluable experience. The anti-apartheid fighters in South Africa are still faced with the task of drawing more sections of the masses into the struggle. And they are faced with the task of forging revolutionary organization, for organization is essential to carry out the complex but vital tasks required if there is to be a revolutionary assault for power.
Apartheid No! Revolution Yes!
Support the struggle of the black people in South Africa!
On September 9, Reagan signed an executive order calling for sanctions against South Africa. Immediately, politicians and the capitalist press hailed Reagan's action. These liars described Reagan's step to be a welcome change in White House policy. Even those politicians who were critical of the actual sanctions in Reagan's plan found it to be "a step in the right direction."
Wait a minute. What's going on here? Isn't Mr. Reagan the well-known friend of the racist regime in South Africa? Wasn't it just in July that he supported Botha's "state of emergency"? And wasn't it only a few weeks ago that he claimed that segregation no longer exists in South Africa?
Has Reagan changed, as various influential people would have us believe? Reagan himself however strongly declared that he hadn't changed at all. He affirmed that he still stands by his policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa, which he now calls "active, constructive engagement." But as is so well known, this is the code word for Reagan's love affair with the South African racists.
And sure enough, he hasn't changed one bit. His basic policy remains that of a warm embrace for the racist Botha regime. His sanctions are purely meant for public relations. They are meant to deceive anti-apartheid public opinion here in the U.S. and the black people of South Africa, while being careful not to hurt the South African racists.
Indeed, Reagan's sanctions will not hurt South Africa, as the capitalist newspapers are themselves pointing out. Each measure is canceled by loopholes. And some of the measures which call for U.S. aid for those South African government institutions that "serve" the black people will in fact only help to prop up segregationist institutions in South Africa.
Liberal and Reformist Leaders Find Something Positive in Reagan's Step
The anti-apartheid movement cannot allow itself to get fooled by Reagan's maneuver. And in fact, most activists aren't buying the Reagan sanctions. But the Reagan maneuver teaches some useful lessons. It exposes the bankruptcy of the campaign which has sought to reduce the anti-apartheid movement to a mere pressure group to lobby the capitalist politicians in Congress for sanctions.
This campaign has been headed up by the Free South Africa Movement, which is made up of liberal and reformist bigwigs connected with the Democratic Party. Today some of the leaders of this coalition are critical of Reagan's sanctions. Nevertheless they still see his act as a positive step.
The Congressional Sanctions Bill Is No Alternative
At the same time, the liberal and reformist leaders are holding up the perspective that the movement should devote its energies to continuing the fight for the congressional sanctions bill, which Reagan bypassed with his maneuver.
This remains a dead end for the anti-apartheid movement. Despite minor variations in detail, there is in fact little difference between the two sanctions plans.
We are in favor of real sanctions against the South African regime. The U.S. is one of the biggest investors in South Africa and one of its chief trading partners. Real steps against U.S. imperialism's economic support for the apartheid regime would add to that regime's difficulties, especially in the conditions of the current crisis in that country. Sanctions cannot substitute for the revolutionary struggle against apartheid, but they can provide a certain international support for that struggle. Such sanctions could only come about if a powerful and active mass movement develops here in the U.S., a movement full of contempt for the capitalists and the capitalist politicians.
But the sanctions proposals drawn up in Washington have all been devised precisely so that they are toothless. The much-ballyhooed congressional sanctions bill was portrayed as a fierce measure. But the bill is so riddled with exceptions and omissions that even the few measures it calls for can easily be nullified. Indeed, its backers themselves will sometimes admit that its main purpose is to be "symbolic."
What is more, the fact that all the congressional wheeling and dealing has merely produced the Reagan executive order is in large part the outcome of the bankrupt strategy of the Free South Africa Movement.
The reformist leaders promoted the idea that the anti-apartheid movement should hitch itself to the Democratic Party politicians. They began with a Democratic bill in Congress that was symbolic to begin with. Moreover, they suggested that not only the Democrats but even the conservative Republicans could be won over to the side of freedom in South Africa. So, to get Republican support they watered down even their original bill and came up with the House-Senate compromise. Then Reagan outmaneuvered them with an even milder version, and a whole section of the Republicans that the reformists had courted so zealously went along with Reagan.
Work for Actions by the Masses, Not Symbolic Gestures by Officialdom
This experience teaches a number of lessons. It demonstrates the complete bankruptcy of promoting maneuvers with capitalist politicians as the path of solidarity with the black people of South Africa. It demonstrates the futility not just of wooing the Republicans, but of lining up behind the Democrats as well.
Even the best of the congressional bills were meant to be merely symbolic. This is an important thing to remember. It shows the unconcern of the Free South Africa Movement for real, effective steps against apartheid. For them, the content never mattered, the only issue was symbolism.
And why was this? Because the reformists are afraid of real measures against apartheid. They are afraid of contributing to the revolutionary crisis in South Africa. This is because they are not interested in the revolutionary overthrow of racist rule, but only some reformist scheme of "power sharing" in South Africa which will merely add some black figureheads to the racist government. For the reformists, the only purpose of sanctions has merely been to save the image of U.S. imperialism, to create the illusion that the U.S. government will pressure Botha to reform.
In the final analysis, the charade over sanctions in Washington shows that we cannot look towards the bigshots in Washington for effective solidarity with the South African people. No, it is up to us ordinary mortals. It is the mass movement among the workers, the black people, and youth that we must build. On the docks of several U.S. ports, longshoremen have made a number of attempts to boycott South African cargo. And on the campuses, the students have been fighting to build up a movement against university, government and corporate support for apartheid. Such actions which help to build up a mass movement are worth a hundred times more than the symbolic sanctions of official Washington.
[Photo: On September 12, the streets of Boston and Cambridge rang out with chants of "Death to apartheid, Burn it to the ground!"]
The Reaganite racist offensive fuels a smoldering anger. Reagan's name is a curse word in the black community, and each new racist outrage builds the desire for struggle. But so far the resistance is still sporadic; the working masses have not yet been able to mount a powerful and sustained resistance before the capitalists' racist offensive.
No small part of the blame lies with the black bourgeois politicians and the reformist chieftains of organizations like the NAACP, the Urban League and Jesse Jackson's PUSH. In the face of the racist offensive these misleaders have hamstrung the struggle. They have preached faith in the oppressors, seeking to tie every protest to the Democratic Party and its congressional game of footsy with the Reaganites in Washington.
These liberal and reformist misleaders have turned their backs on the millions of exploited and oppressed because they stand for the narrow interests of the black bourgeois and wealthy.
In the name of gaining more black "clout" or black "empowerment," they treat the anti-racist struggle as a lobby for a bigger cut for the black executive or better post in the Democratic Party or government machinery for the black bureaucrat or sellout politician.
Unemployment and low wages condemn millions to despair. And what do the self-styled black leaders do about it? Jesse Jackson negotiates Coca-Cola franchises for a handful of entrepreneurs, and the black elected officials get behind Reagan's plan for a sub-minimum (starvation) wage for youth. After all, the black moneygrubber, just like the white one, preaches the Reaganomic dogma that money for the wealthy will "trickle down" to the poverty-stricken multitude.
In Atlanta, Oakland, Chicago, Detroit and other cities, the police and other racists murder and attack the black people; but the black mayors and police chiefs go about business as usual, serving their capitalist masters. And Philadelphia's black mayor Wilson Goode gets top honors (from Edwin Meese and the rest of the capitalists) for making the "tough decision" of murdering eleven blacks with a firebomb and burning a black neighborhood to the ground.
The black people's resistance to the racist offensive is bound to break out into a powerful struggle; but it will break out despite the treachery of the black bourgeois and their mouthpieces. In South Africa the black people are punishing the collaborators with the racist regime and they are losing faith in the Desmond Tutus and the liberal saboteurs of the struggle. The American liberal misleaders are deeply concerned that such dangerous ideas may infect the black people in the U.S. too.
The revolutionary activists must work hard to spread this revolutionary infection.
On September 13, about 800 CIA-backed contras launched a raid into Nicaragua from their base camps in Honduras. When the contras were thrown back to the border by Nicaraguan troops, Honduran war planes came to the contras' defense and attacked Nicaraguan helicopters and positions. The Honduran army -- which is U.S.-armed, U.S.-trained, and under the command of U.S. advisors -- cried for war and rushed troops to the Nicaraguan frontier.
This border clash is another sign that U.S. imperialism is tightening the noose around revolutionary Nicaragua. The CIA has mined Nicaragua's harbors; and it has organized a contra army, providing the mercenaries with manuals in assassination, economic sabotage, and terror. The Pentagon has filled the neighboring countries and seas with troops and ships; and it has groomed its puppet armies for provocations and clashes.
Yet little Nicaragua has stood up for over six years against the CIA and the Pentagon.
So the Reagan government (with the support of the Congress) is showing that it will stop at nothing in its escalating dirty war against the Nicaraguan people. It is dead set on turning back the revolution and regaining Nicaragua as a paradise for the U.S. corporations under a new Somoza-type tyranny. It is out to strangle Nicaragua to teach the other peoples of the region that they will suffer the same fate if they rise up against their U.S.-backed regimes of death-squad tyranny and super-exploitation.
It is up to the American workers and activists to build the struggle against this criminal intervention of "our" government and to defend Nicaragua's right to self-determination. As part of this struggle we should lend our arm of support to the solid revolutionary force inside Nicaragua -- the workers and poor peasants.
The workers and peasants shed the most blood on the barricades of the uprising against the Somoza dictatorship. The triumph over Somoza has given them a taste of freedom and a better life. And for the conscious workers it has lit a burning desire to riot only defend the gains of the revolution, but also to carry the struggle forward against the big capitalists and landholders.
The big Nicaraguan exploiters, on the other hand, have taken the side of Reagan and the contras. The big businessmen and their allies are striving to create the.best political and economic conditions for the arrival of the Yankee troops (or maybe only their Honduran puppets) to help the contra terrorists take power and put an end to the revolution.
And vacillating between the working class and the capitalists stands the Sandinista government. Despite the squeals of the Reaganites, it is not following a Marxist-Leninist or socialist policy. (This is too bad because the revolution would be stronger if it were.) Instead the regime is following a petty-bourgeois policy of compromise with the capitalist reaction. It grants the exploiters and imperialists favors and concessions in the naive hope that this will soften the blows of the counterrevolution. This has proved to be a dangerous policy. It is sapping the revolutionary energy of the masses, spreading discontent, and creating a perilous situation for the revolution.
In this difficult situation, the party of the Nicaraguan workers, the Popular Action Movement/Marxist-Leninist, is struggling for a revolutionary alternative. It is waging a bitter fight against the capitalist right wing -- the Trojan horse of intervention. And it is working to break the illusions in the vacillating policy of the regime. MAP/ML is organizing the workers and poor peasants for the tasks of defense against the imperialists and the exploiters. At the same time it is training the masses that the strongest defense is to deepen the revolutionary struggle against the capitalists and landlords towards the triumph of socialism in Nicaragua.
Down with Reagan's criminal war on Nicaragua!
Support the Nicaraguan workers and peasants!
As an act of solidarity with the Nicaraguan working people in the face of U.S. aggression, the MLP is organizing a Campaign for the Nicaraguan Workers' Press. In defiance of Reagan's blockade, the Campaign is sending much needed printing materials and supplies to assist MAP/ML and its Workers Front trade union center to build the workers' press. Send letters of support and contributions to: [Address.]
[Photo: Celebrating the liberation of Managua, July 1979.]