WORKERS, OPPRESSED NATIONS AND PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
NEWSPAPER OF THE CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF U.S. MARXIST-LENINISTS
P. O. BOX 11942, CHICAGO, ILL. 60611
Vol. 8, No. 4, April 28, 1978 25 cents
[Front page:
The Struggle Against Imperialism Requires Unyielding Struggle Against the New International Opportunist Trend Based on "Three Worlds";
SOUTH BOSTON MARSHALS, STORM-TROOPERS OF THE FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT, RUN FOR THEIR LIVES AFTER FAILING TO DISRUPT MEETING FOR THE INTERNATIONALIST RALLY;
Seattle: COUSML Militants Fight the Kangaroo Courts of the Rich and Further Expose the Fascist Anti-Busing Movement;
DOWN WITH CARTER'S CAMPAIGN FOR "WAGE-PRICE" CONTROLS!;
Go All Out for the Internationalist Rally! Montreal, Canada, April 30, 1978 Workers of the World, Unite! See Pages 9, 20]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| 1968 Black Rebellions: Part 2........................................ | 3 |
| Big Lie of "Reverse Discrimination".............................. | 3 |
| Song: Red Salute to the Fighting Miners........................ | 20 |
| GD Lay-Offs Expose Hoax of Jobs Program…............. | 5 |
| Hospital Workers: |
|
| Stand Up to Cost Controls.............................................. | 4 |
| Against "Efficiency" Study…......................................... | 4 |
| Fraud of "Declining Standards" in Schools.................... | 5 |
| Cleveland School Levy…............................................... | 4 |
| Lebanon…...................................................................... | 2 |
| Eritrea…......................................................................... | 7 |
| Brazil.............................................................................. | 6 |
| India................................................................................ | 7 |
| Carter's Neo-Colonialism in Africa................................ | 6 |
| Comrade Enver Hoxha on the Foreign Policy of |
|
| Albania........................................................................... | 12 |
| Comrade Hardial Bains on the 8th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Canada (M-L)................................ | 8 |
| OL SUPPORTS NEUTRON BOMB.............................. | 2 |
| OL's SOCIALIST-SEGREGATIONISM: Part 2............ | 14 |
| WHY DID THE "RCP,USA" SPLIT? Part 2.................. | 17 |
| "RCP, USA"--"LEFT"-WING OF FASCIST |
|
| ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT....................................... | 15 |
| AGAINST CHINESE OPPORTUNISTS....................... | 10-11 |
DOWN WITH CARTER'S CAMPAIGN FOR "WAGE-PRICE" CONTROLS!
Bankruptcy of "Three Worlds" Theory
The OL Social-Chauvinists Scowl, Do Somersaults... and Support the Neutron Bomb
THE BIG LIE OF "REVERSE DISCRIMINATION" PREPARES FOR RACIST ATTACKS
Hospital Efficiency Study to Intensify Exploitation of the Workers
Cleveland School Levy Campaign: A Scheme to Make the People Pay and Scapegoat the Afro-Americans
RACIST ANTI-STUDENT HYSTERIA PROMOTES THE FRAUD OF "DECLINING STANDARDS"
General Dynamics Layoffs Expose the Hoax of Monopoly Capitalist Jobs Programs
WHO WILL BRING DEMOCRACY TO BRAZIL?
Carter's Tricky Tactics Cannot Conceal the U.S. Neo-Colonialist Policy in Africa
Current Situation in India and Our Tasks
EPLF Will Smash All Counter-Revolutionary Machinations Against the Eritrean Revolution
Go All Out for the Internationalist Rally!
[Box:
PROGRAM OF THE INTERNATIONALIST RALLY
Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist):
Communist Party of Spain (M-L):
"New" Opportunists and Proletarian Internationalism
Communist Party of Germany (Marxist-Leninist):
The Theory of "Three Worlds" Is a Revisionist Counter-Revolutionary Theory
In Defense of the Afro-American People's Movement
HOW THE OL SOCIALIST-SEGREGATIONISTS FALSIFY HISTORY
"RCP,USA" - "Left Wing" of the State-Organized Fascist Anti-Busing Movement
[Poster: portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Hoxha; artwork;
HOLD HIGH THE BRIGHT RED BANNER OF MARXISM-LENINISM AND PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM!
Red Salute to the Fighting Miners!
"Comrade Mao Tsetung has often said to comrades from fraternal Parties that if China's leadership is usurped by revisionists in the future, the Marxist-Leninists of all countries should likewise resolutely expose and fight them, and help the working class and the masses of China to combat such revisionism." (from the pamphlet "Refutation of the New Leaders of the CPSU on 'United Action"', Peking, 1965)
Today a great struggle of momentous importance is going on in the international communist movement. The revolutionary Marxist-Leninists are upholding the purity of Marxism-Leninism and holding high the bright red banner of revolutionary struggle against imperialism, capitalism and all reaction. Meanwhile a new brand of opportunists, based on the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds", are reviling Marxism- Leninism as "outdated" and are shamelessly flaunting the most cowardly capitulation to world imperialism, especially to U.S.-led Western imperialism. This theory of "three worlds" is not really new or original, being only the most recent form of Khrushchovite modern revisionism and a warmed-over rehash of Titoism. But the work of Comrades Mao Tsetung and Enver Hoxha in leading the struggle against modern Khrushchovite revisionism has not gone in vain. Today, opposed to the "three worlders" and all revisionism and opportunism, the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists are rallying around the banner of the Seventh Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania and upholding the revolutionary authority of Comrade Enver Hoxha, leader of the international communist movement in the difficult period following the death of the great Marxist-Leninist, Chairman Mao Tsetung.
The Chinese capitalist-roaders and right opportunists are the center of the new international opportunist trend based on the theory of "three worlds". These revisionists are corroding China from within, restoring capitalism, and selling China to imperialism. It was Teng Hsiao-ping who put forth the theory of "three worlds". Teng Hsiao-ping was the chief henchman of China's Khrushchov, Liu Shao-chi, whose bourgeois reactionary headquarters was denounced and overthrown in Chairman Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao said of Teng Hsiao-ping that he "mak(es) no distinction between imperialism and Marxism." Today socialism in China is in grave danger. The right opportunists and capitalist-roaders seized power by a coup d'etat shortly after the death of Chairman Mao and are dancing on Chairman Mao's grave. They have restored Teng Hsiao-ping to high position, they are reversing the verdicts of the earth-shaking Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and they are dismantling the dictatorship of the proletariat. Furthermore, opportunism is an international bourgeois counter-revolutionary trend. It is the "three worlders" who have trampled on and split from the international Marxist-Leninist communist movement and brought their disagreements with the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists out before the eyes and ears of the imperialists. The Chinese revisionists have pulled together a motley assortment of degenerate elements and capitulators around the world to follow the yellow banner of "three worlds". In the U.S., this includes the Klonskyite OL (now treacherously calling itself the "Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)") and an assortment of intellectualist sects and commando squads of social-chauvinism. Countless facts prove that the Chinese revisionists are intriguing in the U.S. to wreck the unity of the American proletariat and sabotage the reconstitution of the genuine Marxist-Leninist Party of the proletariat.
The fight against imperialism is impossible without at the same time waging a most determined fight against opportunism and revisionism of all hues, including against the new international opportunist trend based on "three worlds". Today when one denounces U.S. imperialist chieftain and segregationist slaver Carter, the opportunists jump up to prettify Carter as merely a weak "appeaser" who should be egged on to apply the iron fist in war hysteria against the Soviet Union. Today when one denounces bloodthirsty U.S. imperialism, the opportunists jump up to advocate allying with U.S. imperialism and helping U.S. imperialism fight harder against its equally imperialist rival, the Soviet New Tsars. When one denounces U.S. war preparations, the opportunists jump up to advocate building more B-l bombers, Trident submarines and neutron bombs to massacre the world's people. When one denounces the growing fascism of the U.S. monopoly capitalist state, the opportunists sing psalms to "bourgeois democracy". When one supports the national liberation struggles, the opportunists jump up to glorify the infamous butchers and hangmen, U.S. puppets like Mobutu of "Zaire" (Congo-K), the Shah of Iran and even the Chilean fascists like Pinochet as alleged fighters against superpower hegemonism. The domestic "three worlders", the Klonskyite Pentagon-socialists who advocate "directing the main blow at the Soviet Union" with the help of neutron bombs, and the Chinese revisionists, with their connections with the international imperialist press and their vicious international intrigues and gossips, have joined in a holy alliance against communism, against revolution and in favor of strengthening U.S. imperialism.
Therefore a most resolute struggle against revisionism and opportunism is on the agenda! The proletariat will never consent tq be slaves for the U.S. imperialists and meekly go to war to slaughter their class brothers abroad for the sake of the greater glory of the U.S. imperialist empire. The COUSML has been leading the great struggle against the social-chauvinism (socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds) of the domestic Klonskyite Pentagon socialists. But this struggle is only one part of an international struggle. On a world-wide scale, the forces of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism are rallying and uniting against the constant interference and intrigues of the new international opportunist trend based on the theory of "three worlds". It is impossible to fight imperialism, even in the slightest, without coming up against international opportunism. We must follow Chairman Mao's behest, uphold his revolutionary teachings against those who are dancing on his grave, and openly condemn the Chinese revisionists as renegades and traitors. Shame on Teng Hsiao-ping and the Chinese revisionists! All glory to the revolutionary teachings of Comrades Mao Tsetung and Enver Hoxha! All glory to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism!
INSIDE: Starting on pages 8-9, we reprint documents from the international Marxist-Leninist movement condemning the new international opportunist trend based on the "three worlds" theory and centered in the Chinese revisionists.
Active resistance is the only way to defeat growing fascism in the United States! This was proven once again on April 21, when Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries in Boston waged a heroic resistance fight against a savage attack by the government- organized fascist gang, the South Boston Marshals, giving them a decisive and humiliating defeat. The fascist gang had come to the Bradford Hotel to break up a public meeting organized by the Boston Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists to popularize the historic Internationalist Rally of Marxist-Leninist Parties being held in Montreal on April 30th. When they came swaggering up, they were told flatly that fascists were not allowed in. In desperation they launched a cowardly violent attack, which was met with revolutionary violence, the courageous tit-for- tat stand of the communist revolutionaries of COUSML, who dealt with the fascists swiftly and surely. Within a few minutes it was over; the dust had settled, and the battle had clearly ended in a decisive and severe defeat for the fascists--the Marshals not only had failed to get one inch inside the meeting room, but they literally had to run for their lives, dragging off their injured, and leaving some of their jackets, shoes, clumps of hair and blood behind.
The government-organized nature of the attack was fully exposed from beginning to end. The fascist gang openly bragged about their police connections while, true enough, their uniformed partners were stationed in squad cars outside the hotel. When the fascist Marshals were smashed up in their attempt to stop the meeting, the police then came to try out their methods where their gang had failed. This was met with the utter contempt it deserved and the meeting was carried out to successful conclusion because of the full support of the revolutionary and progressive people who had come. The Marxist-Leninists and the revolutionary masses completely defeated the attempts of the government to stop this important meeting. This great victory was won because the communists, with full confidence in Marxism-Leninism and the revolutionary masses, put into practice the line of active resistance to fascism.
This was not simply a victory for the work of the communist revolutionaries in North America who are working tirelessly to popularize the historic Internationalist Rally, but it marks also a turning point in the struggle of the proletariat and oppressed people against the growing fascism in Boston, in particular against the fascist gangs spawned by the government- organized fascist anti-busing movement. For years the masses in Boston have longed to smash the fascists. This battle teaches rich lessons for the way to fight fascism.
ACTUAL EVENTS OF THE STRUGGLE
The public meeting on April 21 was called by the Boston Branch of the COUSML as part of a national campaign to go all out to actively participate in the historic Internationalist Rally called by our fraternal party, the party of the Canadian proletariat, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). The meeting was called to further popularize and hold discussions among revolutionary people on the significance of the Internationalist Rally for the American working class.
At 7:30 p. m. a gang of 15 fascist thugs from the South Boston Marshals, came swaggering up to the meeting room and demanded to be allowed in. They were firmly told that this meeting was open only to friends of the communist and workers' movement, and not to the fascists. The fascists stood around, spewing their racist and fascist filth, which simply revealed them to be nothing but out-and-out nazis.
While they stood around the door, the fascists displayed their trademarks. First, their openly nazi nature. They did not make any pretense of being "community service" people, or pro-working class, as they often demagogically do in the city. Here they openly declared their love for the Hitlerite nazis, the same nazis against whom the American working class sent its sons and daughters to fight in the anti-fascist war; they also referred to their two-bit leader as "Adolph Kelly". Second, and this is especially significant to note, they confessed to the police-organized character of their gang. Drunk with the thought of intimidating the communists, they declared, "You communists think that we're organized by the state. You think everything bad is because of the government. Well, five of us are cops, and the police are downstairs and they know what we're doing and approve of it. " Third, their openly racist nature was also displayed as they spewed racist filth and muttered about "white power" several times. Finally, and demonstrating their mission that evening, they showed their anti-communism. They first bragged of the supposed victories they have won against the "communists" over the last few years, and how they had come to the meeting to carry out a pledge they made to attack the communists wherever they try to do work in Boston. All this fully verified the correctness of the COUSML's analysis that the anti-busing movement, which the Marshals represent, is nothing but a bunch of racists and fascists who are directly organized by the government of the rich to attack the Black people and other oppressed people, the communists and the whole working class.
When their bluster and threats failed to intimidate anyone and was met with richly deserved contempt, these fascists launched a cowardly attack, first by throwing a brick into the room from outside the hotel, and then when the meeting was about to begin, by launching a violent assault on the comrades at the door in a desperate attempt to get in and break up the meeting. But this was simply in vain! Not only did they not get one inch inside the room, but the communists actively defended the meeting by putting into practice the line of active, tit-for-tat resistance. Although fewer in number, the handful of comrades guarding the door heroically resisted the fascist attack and most of the fascists immediately took to their heels. The others had to follow them within a few short minutes, retreating under the swift and sure blows of the comrades. The fascist thug, John Ciccone, had to run, leaving his "Marshals" jacket and a shoe behind. Another fascist dog lost a whole clump of his hair. Yet another had to be picked up from a shambles on the floor and dragged away. And the leader, Mr. Adolph Kelly, got smashed on the head with a potted plant, a richly deserved blow from one of the comrades. As they ran for their lives, sheer terror was their only expression as the revolutionary masses shouted: "Death to Fascism!", "Death to the Government Organized fascist scum! The Internationalist Rally will not be stopped! Long live the American working class! Long live the COUSML!" This was a glorious act of resistance by the comrades of theCOUSML, who upheld the fearless spirit of self-sacrifice and did not hesitate to shed their blood for the cause of the international communist movement and the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution of the American working class!
Immediately after their flight, the police arrived, showing that they were simply waiting nearly. In fact people coming into the meeting reported the police waiting outside. When they came in they first carried out deception, trying to look "concerned", and to carry out a so-called investigation. But the comrades refused to have any dealings with them and denounced them on the spot as the collaborators and real organizers of the attack on the meeting. Marxism-Leninism teaches and life itself confirms that the government wears two faces, one of the hangman, the other of the priest. So they first sent in their fascist goons out of uniform to attack the revolutionaries, and then they came in uniform to feign "concern" and to get the communists to rely on the police. This was also another maneuver to tie down the meeting in a so-called investigation, to prevent the successful holding of the meeting. But this attempt was repulsed.
With resolute determination to carry through the victory won against the fascists, the meeting was finally begun amid the vigorous singing of the International, the song of the international proletariat, and the shouting of slogans, hailing the Rally and the active resistance to fascism. Within the hour, however, the police returned to carry through the work of the fascists and demanded that the meeting be ended. With the support of the hotel manager, and turning truth on its head blaming the communists for the "violence and damage to property", they demanded that the meeting be ended or else everyone would be arrested. At this point the comrades carried out the shifting of the meeting to a different location, refusing to allow the government any victory. Within the hour, the meeting assembled elsewhere and continued successfully to an enthusiastic conclusion amidst the singing of revolutionary songs and shouting of slogans. This was a great contribution by the revolutionary masses who had come to attend the meeting and showed their determination to carry through the meeting and actively participate in it.
LATEST ESCALATION OF STATE-ORGANIZED ATTACKS ON THE INTERNATIONALIST RALLY
Why was this attack carried out? The fascists gloated about the "small" numbers at the meeting and said this showed lack of support. If there is so little support why was this attack launched ? It is the approach of the historic Internationalist Rally that is throwing the reactionary government into a frenzy. This Rally will be a great demonstration, first, of proletarian internationalism, of the unity of the workers of the world, a unity forged in revolutionary struggle against imperialism and revisionism. From the platform of this rally the proletariat of all continents will declare its resolute intention of overthrowing the entire world of Capital and reaction. It will declare this not as a dream and aspiration but as a practical problem each of the Marxist-Leninist Parties has taken up for solution. This Rally is particularly significant for the North American proletariat, because from this rally the North American proletariat will declare to the entire world that it is not reconciled to being slaves, split by revisionism, but is uniting under the banner or Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. It shows the strengthening of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and shows a significant advance to the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party in the U.S. It is this which has led the state apparatus in Canada and the U.S. to launch a systematic campaign against the rally. Reports come in daily of the attempts by the Canadian state to prevent the popularization of the rally through police attacks and of the staunch resistance of CPC(M-L) to these attacks. Here in Boston, the government initiated a campaign of harassment right from the time of the first announcement of the rally. Two attacks were launched on the William Z. Foster Bookstore, a center of propaganda and discussion for the rally, and threats were made to shut it down by the Cambridge police. This latest attack by the Boston police and the Marshals is simply an escalation of this campaign.
THE THRASHING OF THE MARSHALS IS A HEROIC EXAMPLE FOR THE ENTIRE WORKING CLASS OF THE WAY TO FIGHT FASCISM
Over the last several years, the monopoly capitalist moneybags have launched a campaign to get out of their deep, all-round crisis by trying to make the people pay, by preparing for reactionary war, and by imposing growing state-organized fascism. Attacks on the Afro-American and other oppressed nationalities are the cutting edge of this growing fascism. Here in Boston, the government created the fascist anti-busing movement to attack the Black people and to split the entire working class. The police, and police- organized fascist gangs such as the Marshals, have launched attacks on Blacks on the streets, in the schools and have attempted to further segregate the neighborhoods by attacking Black families. Just last summer, they attacked the Black people by attempting to maintain the segregation of Carson Beach. Police-protected fascist gangs have also attempted to attack progressive people in meetings and demonstrations.
These attacks have led to many heroic resistance struggles among the masses. In 1974, in the first few months of the launching of the fascist; anti-busing movement, the residents of Columbia Point organized for armed self-defense against the attacks of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1975 and 1977 the masses waged struggles to oppose the segregation of Carson Beach. Black youth have never stopped fighting the attacks in the schools. Black families attacked in the neighborhoods have refused to move and have even used guns to scare off the racist gangs. Heroic and active resistance is the line of the masses.
The thrashing of the Marshals by the communist revolutionaries and the exposure of the police-organized nature of the racist and fascist attacks signal a decisive defeat for any other line than the line of the masses, the line of active resistance. All the cowering opportunist cliques and the revisionist spokesmen, who for years have been giving the line of capitulation and of relying on the state for "protection", are at the end of their rope. They have attempted repeatedly to block the line of active resistance by saying that there is no growing fascism in the U.S., that the fascist movement and the gangs are not organized by the government, and that the government should be depended on for protection. What did these opportunists and revisionists do when the anger of the masses rose against the early lynch-mob attacks in Boston in 1974? They called for the National Guard and the police to "protect" the people. When the masses, as at Columbia Point, said clearly that self-defense was the only way, these opportunists said "Yes, but not now; now we must rely on the police." What did these opportunists do when in April 1976 the anger of the masses was boiling over following the vicious attack on Landsmark outside of City Hall -- an attack that came directly out of the City Hall chambers and was watched by Mayor White from his window? They called off a planned anti-racist demonstration! At the suggestion of the police, they called it off! This line of capitulation and depending on the very government of the rich which organizes the' fascist attacks is a treacherous and a bankrupt line which the opportunists and the revisionists have used to attempt to block out the line of the masses, the line of active resistance. It is a bankrupt line which actually strengthens the hand of the fascists.
Active resistance means to fight reactionary violence with revolutionary violence; and also it means to isolate those betrayers of the struggle who say that the government of the rich will protect the people from racist and fascist attacks. The line of active resistance was put into practice by the Marxist-Leninists on Friday, April 21 and it led to a clear and decisive victory over the fascists. This is the basis for struggle and this is the basis for unity. End.
[Photo:Fascists Fled in Panic, Leaving Behind Jackets of Their Leaders.]
STATEMENT OF THE SEATTLE BRANCH, CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF U.S. MARXIST-LENINISTS (COUSML)
From April 3-7, seven militants of the COUSML held high the banner of anti-fascist struggle against the monopoly capitalist dictators in the kangaroo court of the rich. The seven Afro-American, Filipino, Chinese, and white comrades, all of whom came forward from the very bosom of the American working class, stubbornly defied the treachery of the capitalist courts, which tried to prop up and whitewash the police-protected fascist anti-busing movement in Seattle. They once again exposed for all to see the police-CIVIC (an "anti-busing" organization led by a gang of racist businessmen) alliance, which launched a violent, savage attack on COUSML militants and anti-fascist workers at a racist, anti-working class meeting held in Rainier Valley on January 26th.
Just as the anti-fascists heroically resisted this police attack and punished a number of the fascists on January 26th, in the court too the comrades continued the tit-for-tat struggle and reduced the prosecutor's case to shreds.
The court of the rich thought that the COUSML militants would be a juicy piece of meat to be swallowed in one bite, but a bone got stuck in the throats of the capitalist flunkeys (the judge, and the two prosecutors). The unyielding revolutionary stand of the COUSML militants and anti-fascists forced the truth about the real nature of the anti-busing movement out into the open, and in turn the prosecutor was reduced to a hysterical appeal to Nixonite "law and order" on the last day of the trial. The COUSML comrades did not flinch in the face of the reactionary alliance of the judge, the prosecutors, police, FBI, CIVIC chieftains, news media, the mayor, and a bourgeois scum lawyer (who sabotaged the defense for two days, and was sent packing on the third day), -- all of whom worked together to suppress and persecute the leadership of the resistance movement.
The jury, hand-picked by the state and hardly a "jury of peers", was brow-beaten into convicting the comrades on nearly all twenty-eight charges. But the fact remains: the anti-busing movement was exposed as government-organized, a tool of racial discrimination and violent repression against the Afro-American people and a device to split the working class on a racial basis. The resistance movement, led by the COUSML, against state-organized racist attacks moved another important step forward in preparation for completely smashing up the fascist anti-busing movement in Seattle.
ACTIVE RESISTANCE IN THE COURTROOM
On the first day of the trial, comrade Miguel Castillo made the point very clear in his opening statement: "Facts will show that this is a political trial aimed at persecuting the COUSML and progressive people, in an attempt to stop the active resistance led by the COUSML against the fascist anti-busing movement... The CIVIC meeting organized in the Rainier Valley area, the home of workers of many nationalities, was an open provocation to the progressive and democratic people, particularly the Afro-Americans, because the aim of such a racist and segregationist meeting is to attack the Afro- American people and split the working class in general. Imagine, organizing a meeting in the midst of the very people who are the target of this type of movement. The state is very aware of this. That's why CIVIC conspired with different levels of the police to physically suppress any opposition, particularly the staunch Marxist-Leninists of the COUSML."
Also on the first day, the state brought their star witness to the stand, officer Jankauskas. The state contended that their thugs were "mercilessly attacked", that the anti-fascists "flew through the air", "jumped the police", etc., etc. Interestingly enough, the judge would not allow the police reports to be submitted as evidence because they were packed full of lies and glaring contradictions.
Looking like a beaten puppy dog, Jankauskas lied through his teeth every time he opened his mouth. This 6'2", 220 pound undercover agent whined about being brutalized, that his wife had to spoon-feed him oatmeal the following day, etc. Other police told similar stories, though the judge would not allow the defendants to ask questions pertaining to "before the fact" or "after the fact". However, this bourgeois legal gibberish did not contain the comrades, who hammered away at the fascists amid shouts of "objection! -- sustained!".
On the second day of the trial, we exposed the police link with CIVIC, and CIVIC leaders were forced to admit that the police actually organized the meeting and told them what to do. This exposure shook the capitalists.
On the third day of the trial, the judge refused to let the defendants question Hitlerite nazi patrolman Olsen, even though she had agreed to call him the day before. Olsen is the champion of hollow point bullets and is presently floating nazi theories of genetics to attack national minorities and women. Olsen led the pre-arranged police charge from outside the meeting hall on January 26th and beat handcuffed comrades like a mad dog. He also chaired the CIVIC meeting after the arrests were made. He told his armed police thugs to arrest "disrupters".
Also on the third day, the comrades took the witness stand and completely smashed the "Communist conspiracy" attack of the prosecution. When asked about his Marxist views, comrade Samuel Johnson (who led the denunciation of the anti-busing movement on January 26th) willingly clarified this: Marxism is the ideology of the working class, which guides the struggle for complete emancipation, for the end of exploitation of mm by man; it guides the fight against state-organized racist and fascist attacks; it is hostile to exploitation and oppression; and true Marxist-Leninists are fighters of the oppressed people, who give birth to them. Prosecutor DiJulio was visibly shaken and withdrew his other questions. Also at this time, the police stooges in the courtroom would not even look the comrades straight in the eyes.
In one last desperate attempt to see if the COUSML militants would capitulate to the state for any reason, the prosecutor tried to force one of the Afro-American militants to tell the state who he came with to the meeting! The judge threatened him with contempt and jail, but the comrade replied: "Absolutely not, under no circumstances, will I be a traitor to my people or my class. I'll never tell you." The judge backed down. The comrade then went on to clarify what COUSML means by smashing the fascist anti-busing movement: mobilizing the masses to wage a tit-for-tat struggle; clarity and truth in opposition to lies and confusion: revolutionary violence in opposition to the reactionary, violence of the state; fist for fist, stick for stick, etc. -- until the fascist movement is smashed.
On the final day of the trial, the COUSML continued to put the state on the defensive. In the closing statements, the militants repeated their determination to combat and defeat growing fascism in the U.S. Comrade. Loren Mackey, after explaining the legal basis for acquittal, stated: "The rich and their government are extremely organized. The working class is also getting organized in the fires of the class struggle. The Marxist-Leninists have taken up this task in every country. For the working class not to get organized and wage tit-for-tat struggle against the rich and their state is suicide. The prosecutor has and will infer that for the working class to be organized is criminal, but of course it's just fine for the bourgeoisie to be organized. " He closed his fiery statement with the slogans: "Death to Fascism, Victory to the People".
The anti-fascist Black youth Mark Eddins exposed his bourgeois lawyer who tried to make him cop a plea to the prosecutor, and who kept yapping about non-existent "freedom of speech". The comrades denounced him and sent him packing.
Following the sentencing and railroading of the defendants, the head prosecutor whimpered, "I think I'll be seeing you again. " And the other prosecutor, an offspring of Japanese-American parents who were herded into a fascist concentration camp during World War Two, scampered out of the courtroom.
PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE ! THE FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT IN SEATTLE IS ROTTEN AND DANGEROUS!
CIVIC is nothing but a police organization. It is openly protected by them. The police organized the meeting for them in Rainier Valley. The police coached them in their testimony at the trial. The entire bloodthirsty state apparatus gives them assistance. Dorse is embarrassed by this fact because it blows the cover off his "anti-government" rhetoric ("against forced busing", "freedom of choice"). Officer Jankauskas brags about it.
The leader of the other anti-busing group, Stop Busing Now, is quietly organizing for violent attacks against the Black people and progressives when school begins in September. CIVIC is preparing public opinion for these attacks in a deceptive way, even under the absurd hoax of presenting an alternative integration plan. CIVIC even says it will try again to infiltrate the Black community in an attempt to neutralize the Afro-Americans in preparation for racist attacks. During the trial, the bourgeois press promoted the anti-busing movement to the skies in order to hide the fact that the anti-fascist resistance movement is developing at a rapid pace.
The government is trying to hide the fact that the sole reason for high-handedly pushing the Seattle Plan is to incite and organize the fascist anti-busing movement. In order to do this, they have to cover up the real role of the "liberal" state agents, such as Moberly, who collaborate with the open organizers of the fascist movement.
The political persecution of the COUSML once again reveals that the state is dead serious in its efforts to organize attacks against the Black people and further segregate them. The line being pushed in certain circles in the Black community and elsewhere that "CIVIC is no threat" and they are "unconstitutional", etc., are dangerous notions, which can lead the masses to slaughter.
Militants of the COUSML are more determined than ever to fight the fascist anti-busing movement in Seattle. We call on all democratic minded, progressiveand revolutionary people to prepare for struggle against the fascist anti-busing movement. This antifascist struggle has become the center of the resistance movement in Seattle. Revolutionary struggle against racial discrimination and the racist attacks of the state is the only path to defeat growing fascism.
We call on all progressive people to attend the meeting called by the COUSML in Seattle to denounce the fascist anti-busing movement and prepare for struggle!
SMASH THE GOVERNMENT-ORGANIZED FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT!
DEFEND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STRUGGLE AGAINST R ACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENT REPRESSION!
PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE!
End.
The monopoly capitalist state, the government of the rich money-bags, is intensifying its attacks on the workers' struggle for higher wages under the hoax of "fighting inflation". The Carter administration, which has already imposed so-called "voluntary" wage controls on the workers, is making stepped-up preparations to impose outright mandatory controls to hold down wages.
On April 11, Carter made a major speech on inflation. In it he declared his intention to hold the pay increases of federal workers to 5. 5 percent for next year. In the face of an official inflation rate of nearly ten percent, this means a big wage cut. Carter hypocritically declared that the government was going to take steps to reduce its own contribution to inflation (without, of course, cutting the inflationary huge budget deficit or curbing the wild speculation in stocks and bonds of the monopoly financiers which also fuel inflation). Carter said that the "success" of the government's "anti-inflation" measures will be "largely determined" by the efforts of private industry, that is, by reducing wages in the private sector. Carter reiterated the call he made in his State of the Union Message in January that the workers "voluntarily" hold wage increases to less than the average of the past two years (6.1 percent). Secretary of the Treasury Blumenthal the next day revealed that the Carter administration actually plans to hold wage increases in private industry to a rate of one-half to one percent below the average of the past two years, that is, to a rate of 5.1 to 5. 6 percent! This "guideline" means a big wage cut for the workers. How piously the Carterite robbers condemn the workers' "high" wages as the "cause" of inflation while the capitalists massively inflate the currency with their government budget deficits and wild speculation! In fact, all Carter's talk about "balancing the budget" has amounted, in practice, to cutting wages.
Since Carter's speech, the bourgeois press has struck up a big chorus that now the government is "cleaning up its own backyard" of inflation, but if this fails, "new", "stronger" methods will have to be adapted to hold down wages. In fact, this "government effort" is itself a fraud, "symbolic", as one newspaper put it, merely a ploy to prepare for outright controls. This howl of propaganda for wage, controls is getting very loud. The New York Timeswrote April 7: "A growing number of people believe that eventually the Government will be forced to go beyond what many have labeled the President's 'tinkering' with limited policies". The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has called openly for wage controls. So has the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, composed of both the liberal "Democrats", those "friends of labor", and the Republicans. The big stock brokers like Merrill, Lynch, etc., are even advising their customers "to raise prices before controls are clamped on".
In his April 11 speech Carter "ruled out" the use of controls. But even the bourgeois press has been forced to admit that this is a "ruling out" of controls of the kind which Nixon performed right up to the day before he imposed wage controls in 1971. The fact that a "Democratic" president, an alleged "friend of labor", is preparing to impose outright wage controls is a big exposure of the fact that both political parties and the entire state machine are the servants of the big monopoly capitalist vultures, incurable enemies of the workers.
Wage controls, which were last imposed by the government during Richard Nixon's presidency, are an open fascist decree by the repressive bourgeois state apparatus to hold down wages, thereby stepping up the exploitation of the workers and fattening the capitalists' profits. Wage controls bring all the forces of the exploiters' state -- the laws and courts, jails, police and ultimately the army itself--openly to bear against the workers' struggle for higher wages. The example of Nixon's "wage-price controls" shows that under such programs wages are cut while prices continue to spiral. "Price controls", like those imposed by Nixon, are a fraud. They are merely a pretense made by the capitalists to "control" their prices in order to "justify" actually controlling the workers' wages. Under "wage-price controls", the rich get richer and the poor get poorer at an accelerated rate. But these attacks on the workers only result in a still more massive and intense revolt by the proletariat.
The gallop towards wage controls is "justified" by the capitalists on the grounds of the well-known fraud, the theory of the "wage-price spiral". According to this economic fairytale, the workers, who own nothing but their hands and are forced to sell their labor-power to the capitalists in order to eat, are in the drivers' seat of modern industry! Every miniscule wage raise, for which they may sacrifice three and one half months of wages in a strike as did the coal miners, causes prices to spiral out of the hands of the poor, helpless captains of industry and finance, the "innocent" victims of inflation. In reality, wage raises by themselves can merely cause the profits of the capitalists to fall. It is the value of the product and the ability of the monopoly capitalists to control the supply of the commodities to the market and charge monopoly prices which determine individual prices, entirely unconnected to the level of wages. The cruel hoax of "wage-price spiral" is merely a propaganda banner to prevent the workers from raising their wages in response to the sparing prices of the monopoly capitalists, and instead to allow the capitalists to protect and increase their profits by "passing on" any increase they must pay in wages to the consumer, or simply to maximize their profits in the absence of a wage increase.
The rising wave of propaganda and anti-worker actions by the bourgeoisie and its government on the question of inflation reflects the deepening of the economic crisis and the desire of the monopoly capitalist vultures to suppress the growing workers1 movement. While the rich shift the burden of this crisis onto the working people by jacking up prices and by other means, the workers are being called on to "sacrifice", to "tighten their belts" and hold down their wages. Inflation is approaching the double-digit figures of 1974. The cost of living is unbearable and getting worse. The workers are being forced to pay for the bourgeoisie's crisis. Against this blatant robbery, the workers are rising in struggle, waging powerful strikes like that of the coal miners and fighting heroically.
In fact, it is monopoly capital and its government which are the cause of inflation, not the workers. It is they who create massive budget deficits and speculate wildly in stocks and bonds, independently of actual production, thus inflating the currency and sending prices sky-high. The only answer for the workers can be to intensify their mass struggles against the capitalist exploiters in defense of their well-being and to fight to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the rich. End.
Since March 15, the U.S. imperialist-backed Israeli Zionist butchers have been continuing to carry out a major offensive against Lebanon aiming to wipe out the Palestinian liberation movement based there and occupy Lebanon. The massive invasion into Lebanon nears the magnitude of the four aggressive wars waged since 1948 by Israel and the U.S. imperialists to annex Arab land to the artificial state of Israel. Presently, UN "peacekeeping" forces are being rushed into Lebanon to fight shoulder-to- shoulder with the Israeli Zionists to stop the Palestinian and Lebanese people's retaliation to the Israeli aggression and to occupy southern Lebanon in service of U.S. imperialism. The Palestinian liberation fighters, led by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and their Lebanese allies are fiercely resisting the invasion and occupation of Lebanon, causing the imperialist forces great losses. At the same time the Palestinian fighters continue to pound Israel from inside and out with rockets and guerrilla operations, demonstrating their unwavering determination to liberate all of Palestine.
The bloody hand of U.S. imperialism is behind the Zionist invasion of Lebanon and the deployment of other imperialist armies into Lebanon to reinforce the fascist Zionist forces. The Carter administration, representatives of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie, conspired with the Israeli Zionists to organize this brutal attack on the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Just prior to the Zionist invasion, Israeli Defense Minister Weizman was in Washington to confer with the White House and U.S. military officials. On March 15, the U.S. Department of State officially expressed its approval of the Israeli aggression, Announcing that the White House had advance knowledge of the attack. After giving the Israeli Zionists sufficient time to massacre and uproot thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian people and to occupy 10% of Lebanon, the Carter administration made a big show of calling for a "ceasefire" and for the intervention of UN "peacekeeping" forces to restore "peace" for "both sides". This is a big hoax to legitimize the foreign imperialist domination of Lebanon in the interests of the U.S. imperialists. The resolution that the Carter administration ushered through the UN Security Council is sending thousands of imperialist troops from all over the world into Lebanon to defend the Israeli Zionists and occupy indefinitely the territory grabbed up by the Zionist fascists.
The UN "peacekeeping" forces, side by side with the Israeli Zionists, are continuing, despite the phoney ceasefire declared by Israel, to slaughter the Palestinian forces, attack the Palestinian and Lebanese fighters' positions and patrol southern Lebanon. Among other examples, hundreds of soldiers of the French imperialists, a former colonial power in Lebanon, were flown into Tyre, a Palestinian stronghold in Zionist occupied Lebanon, demanding that the Palestinians yield their positions. The first contingent of UN troops to enter Lebanon was made up mostly of soldiers of the fascist lackey of U.S. imperialism, the Shah of Iran. The Zionists have only withdrawn their troops when they are satisfied that the UN imperialist army is taking up where they left off. Further, the Israeli Zionists have announced that they have no intention of withdrawing their troops from a six-mile wide zone along the inside of the Lebanese border.
Following all the wars of aggression of the Israeli Zionists against the Arab people in 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973 -- and on other occasions, international imperialist intervention forces have been used to keep the Arab forces from launching a counter-offensive against the attacks of the Israeli gangsters. First the U.S. imperialists instigate Israel, its outpost in the Middle East to its aggressive activities, to slaughter the Arab people and overrun their land; then they organize the invasion of the seized territory by UN "peacekeeping" forces to secure a "buffer" zone which becomes the new expanded border of Israel (and of U.S. imperialist domination in the Middle East). The UN intervention forces have never been aimed at the Zionists, nor have they ever prevented the Zionist forces from launching further aggression and genocide. On the contrary, they always open the way for future aggression against the Arab people.
The revisionist capitalist-roaders in power in China have joined the Khrushchovite revisionists of the Soviet Union in forsaking their internationalist duty to oppose the criminal violation of Lebanese sovereignty. While in words denouncing the Zionists, in deeds both these gangs of renegades to communism refused to veto the "peacekeeping" force in the Security Council. Thus they supported the foreign imperialist invasion and domination of Lebanon, thereby allying themselves with U.S. imperialism. The justification the Chinese capitalist-roaders give for their criminal activity is that the U.S. imperialists' resolution is in the main quite a good thing, but they have some "reservations" about sending the UN force because "such a practice may pave the way for superpowers' interference." In other words, they support the U.S. imperialists scheme to occupy Lebanon, but to protect their "communist" facade they cannot come right out and support and vote with the imperialist bloc. Their cowardly position is a big help to U.S. imperialism, assisting it to unimpededly carry out its aggressive plans for the Middle East and prop up the myth of U.S. imperialism as a "peacemaker".
The advocates of the anti-Leninist "three worlds" theory throughout the world are eager to present U.S. imperialism as an imperialism that has lost its teeth". They cry out that all over the world the main blow must be directed at the "more aggressive" Soviet social-imperialists. The events in Lebanon show the complete bankruptcy of the "three worlds" theory of the "main blow at the Soviet Union". The U.S. imperialists' vicious activities in the Middle East are a clear proof that U.S. imperialism has not changed its hideous nature. Using Israel as its pistol, the U.S. imperialists are continuing the same program of genocide of the Arab people that they have always followed. The "main blow" theory is the weak-kneed attempt of the "three worlds" theorists to conceal their alliance with U.S. imperialism.
The advocates of the "three worlds" theory have also come out in open support of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's capitulationist line for the Arab people. This is a very grave crime. It is Sadat's fawning before U.S. imperialism that actually paved the way for the Zionist onslaught into Lebanon. On the one hand, Sadat freed the hand of Israel on the Egyptian front by promising not to attack Israel; and on the other hand, he justifies the Israeli aggression by recognizing Israel's right to "secure borders" while denouncing the operations of the Palestine Libera tion Organization as "terrorism". Sadat is the chief promoter of U.S. imperialism as the "friend" of the Arab people and of the capitulationist line that the Arab people should lay down their arms in the face of ever-increasing attacks by U.S. imperialism and Zionism and rely on their "friend", Carter. The theorists of "three worlds" justify their support of Sadat by the following reactionary logic: despite Sadat's open alliance with U.S. imperialism and the heinous crimes he has committed against the Arab people, Sadat must be progressive because he belongs to the "third world"!
The Soviet social-imperialists are fierce rivals of the U.S. imperialists in the Middle East to gain spheres of influence. At the same time they ally themselves with U.S. imperialism to suppress the Palestinian liberation movement and perpetuate the state of no war, no peace, favorable to the hegemony-seeking activities of both superpowers. For this reason the Soviet social-imperialists continue to give material aid to the Zionists in the form of manpower through stepped-up Jewish emigration. This is the reason for their refusal to exercise their veto power to strike down the U.S. imperialists' resolution to send the UN troops into Lebanon to defend the Zionists.
But the Palestinian and Lebanese forces have brought disaster to the Israeli Zionists' mission to wipe out the PLO, whose military strength remains virtually intact. The liberation fighters have struck heavy blows at the fascist forces. The forces of liberation continue to put up stiff resistance to the Zionist and UN imperialist forces. At least 450 Israeli soldiers have been wiped out, more than double the losses of the Palestinian guerrilla forces, and large numbers of Israeli battle tanks have been destroyed. Throughout Lebanon, the Palestinian and Lebanese fighters are continuing to hold their ground, taking part in fierce clashes with the imperialist forces. At the Palestinian stronghold, Beaufort Castle, UN forces were forced to make a retreat. Despite being particularly hard-hit by Israeli land, air and naval forces, the Palestinians continue to hold Tyre, refusing to give up their position to the French imperialist troops, while Lebanese fighters could not be forced to surrender their position along the supply road leading to Tyre. In Nabatiye, a major Palestinian refugee camp, the Palestinians could not be dislodged despite Zionist threats to continue the main offensive beyond the Litani River, their forward position. The Israeli Zionists are being caused great alarm by guerrilla units that are ambushing and shelling Israeli positions behind Israeli lines.
Demonstrating its unimpaired strength, the Palestinian liberation movement continues to launch rockets and carry out guerrilla operations into Israel. The Israeli Zionists are being hit from another direction as well. On the West Bank of the Jordan, inside occupied Palestine, a powerful armed action was staged by Palestinian liberation fighters on April 6. A unit of Palestinian fighters attacked an Israeli military post, wiping out several soldiers and military vehicles. Meanwhile the Palestinian patriots in West Bank towns and cities are carrying out mass actions that are resulting in bloody battles against the Israeli occupation forces.
No matter how many troops, tanks and bombers the imperialists thrust into Israeli hands, it can be no match for the indomitable Palestinian and Arab peoples. The Israeli aggression has only further tempered their resolve to smash up the state of Israel and imperialist domination of the Middle East. The Palestinian and Arab liberation movement will win!
End.
There is no crime too revolting, no betrayal too gross, no gutter too dirty, that the OL social- chauvinists and Pentagon-socialists won't revel in for the greater glory of U.S. imperialist war preparations. Recently, in its April 17th issue, The Call had a shameful editorial supporting the neutron bomb against Carter's decision to "postpone" production of it. Carter's "postponement" is only a ruse, and the government itself admits that alterations of artillery in Europe is proceeding, an alteration to allow neutron bombs to be fitted to them. Nevertheless, the OL social-chauvinists are happy to use anything to create war hysteria and to take any pretext to join in the feverish chorus of the bourgeois war-mongers. Still, stung by past criticism of their stand in support of the B-l bomber and other instruments of mass destruction, the OL "three worlders" twist and turn in order to give a "Marxist" cover to their attempt to fuel war hysteria. This is just comical posturing: certain international opportunists are not so shy. A well- known weekly journal of the "three worlders", distributed widely in the U.S., came out openly for the neutron bomb in its usual fashion. Pretending to be giving "objective" news coverage, like any other hack bourgeois yellow journalist, it reports Carter's publicity stunt of "postponing" the neutron bomb and then quotes every fascist war-monger it can think of against this decision. The crowning touch, as usual, is the news that the Soviet New Tsars are against U.S. deployment of the neutron bomb. The fact that the Soviet social-imperialists are contending for world hegemony with the U.S. imperialists is supposed to justify every fascist massacre by U.S. imperialism.
For tactical reasons, the OL feels the need to hide its support of the neutron bomb a little, but not too much. So The Call's editorial, entitled "The Neutron Bomb and the Arms Race", starts out with the OL's usual way to avoid criticism -- lying. Who needs truth, when the B-l, the Trident and the neutron bomb are all on your side? The editorial states: "For our part, we stand militantly opposed, as we always have, to the frantic superpower arms race." What disgusting hypocrisy. The OL's statement is only half-true. Like all the other U.S. imperialist war-mongers the OL is only opposed to the weapons of the Soviet New Tsars, while fully supporting U.S. imperialist war preparations and militarization. Consider for example The Call's editorial of July 11, 1977, in support of the B-l bomber and its more recent article of March 27, 1978, in support of the Trident nuclear submarine. The Call goes on to state that "they ("the neutron bomb and the rest of the superpower arsenal of bombs and missiles" -- ed.) are no 'deterrent' to war as the ruling class would like us to believe." Here again is another lie expressed via a half-truth. The fact is that the OL believes that NOTHING WHATSOEVER is a "deterrent" to war, and that "a new world war is inevitable" (Klonsky, Political Report, p. 44). This is part of the OL's attempt to instill fatalism in the masses and to make them cower in fear under the U.S. imperialist nuclear umbrella. For the OL, it is not revolution that is inevitable, but imperialist world hegemony. But, while advocating that World War III is "inevitable", if not that U.S. imperialist victory is downright desirable, the OL holds that U.S. imperialist arms production helps maintain the balance of power and therefore postpones the war.
After going through a mountain of hypocrisy and lies, the OL finally gets down to business. Business, for the OL, is supporting the Pentagon. They state: "From the present point of view of military strategy, however (with this "however", the OL now negates everything that came before about opposition to the arms race and gets down to the business of opposing revolution and supporting the neutron bomb in the name of "military strategy" -- ed.), the neutron bomb issue, like that of the B-l bomber before it, focuses on the questions of superpower war. " (underlining added) Now The Call thus explicitly links its support for the neutron bomb to its support for the B-l bomber, just in case anyone got lost in the editorial's rhetoric and failed to grasp the underlying chauvinism. As well, The Call is joining the Reaganites in trying to give the reader the impression that the U.S. is unilaterally disarming -- first the B-l and now the neutron bomb! And this at a time of record military expenditures, with one new horror weapon after another rolling off the drawing board -- from the Cruise missile and the neutron bomb to the bacteriological warfare experiments involving genetic tinkering with germs. Apparently any lie will do, as long as the chauvinists repeat it enough. The OL continues: "For the U.S. imperialists, (and for the OL -- ed.) the question, put simply, is how can a probable Soviet land invasion of Europe be stopped?" This is straight-forward war hysteria and public relations work for the Pentagon. For the U.S. imperialists (and their opportunist, "three worlds" bootlickers) the "question" is world hegemony, bloodthirsty defense of the U.S. imperialist world empire, invasion of their rival's empire, and destruction of the socialist countries and anyone else who dares resist the Robber Barons and Global Policemen of the U.S. or the New Tsars of the Soviet Union. But according to the OL, all the U.S. is after is stopping a "probable Soviet land invasion of Europe". So the U.S. is allegedly only interested in "defense", in helping defend the poor threatened West European imperialists against the New Tsars. The U.S. is alleged to be simply a pacifist Big Brother, and not a huge colossus occupying Western Europe by force of arms and in collusion with the local reactionary imperialist bourgeoisie. The OL asks in fear, "How can NATO halt the march of Soviet tanks, which number more than 7,000 and of 2,150 infantry fighting vehicles now stationed with the five Soviet armies in Europe? Tremble, tremble! The OL does not ask, how can the West European people get rid of the NATO forces, backed up by nuclear submarines, B-52 bombers, a U.S. 100,000 man striking force prepared for immediate action anywhere around the world, a fifth column of "three worlders" disrupting the people's ranks by justifying U.S. imperialist hegemony, etc., etc. The OL does not ask how can the European peoples rise up in revolution and drive out the superpowers and all reaction. The OL does not ask this, because it is concerned with helping the U.S. imperialists stamp out the world revolution.
Naturally, opposing the irresistible torrent of world revolution while simultaneously contending with other imperialist rivals is a big problem. What is the answer? The OL plainly says, "The answer, according to many of the top U.S. generals and Pentagon officials (precisely the ones the OL always calls "more realistic" -- ed.) is the neutron bomb. " So all the "left" rhetoric aside, the OL's "answer" to the arms race is -- the neutron bomb! Not revolution, but better, faster and more economical slaughter of the masses -- that is how the OL "military strategists" think. The OL finally sums it up: "In summary, let no one think that the neutron bomb question is a question of 'peace', 'detente' or 'lessening tensions'...." Of course not. For the OL, the question is not revolution, but instead is that "as long as the two superpowers continue to contend for world domination, one must either defeat the other or be defeated by the other." (Klonsky, Political Report, p. 44) Thus, for the OL, the question is not overthrowing imperialism, but which superpower's world hegemony is more desirable. The OL believes that "they (the superpowers -- ed.) cannot be seen as dangerous to the same degree or same extent." (Klonsky, Political Report, p. 38) Naturally enough, the U.S. great-power chauvinists find that U.S. imperialism is not dangerous or sinister at all, so they go all out to help the U.S. imperialists create the political conditions necessary to have the U.S. workers and oppressed masses duped into slaughtering the workers and oppressed masses of the rest of the world in an inter-imperialist bloodbath. But everything isn't all bad in the eyes of the OL. They end by telling us to "rest assured...that the (U.S. --ed.) imperialist war drive is going full steam ahead."
Workers, oppressed nationalities and all progressive people! Let us throw these social-chauvinist jingoes and Pentagon-socialists out of our midst! We need international unity of all the exploited and oppressed the world over against all the exploiters and oppressors, the international unity of the poor against the rich reactionaries. Living in an imperialist superpower and world gendarme, we have a heavy international responsibility to push forward revolution against the U.S. monopoly capitalists as our contribution to world revolution and our way of showing our solidarity with the millions and millions of people groaning under U.S. imperialist domination all over the world. Class-conscious workers! How can we even think of building a Marxist-Leninist Party except in the course of a most fierce struggle against the supporters of neutron bombs, B-l bombers and Trident submarines? It is not neutron bombs, but Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism with which we will destroy the old world and build the new one. Let us throw out the "three worlders" and public relations men for the Pentagon from our midst and get on with the task of preparing for the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution! End.
[Five photos: 1) Black youths militantly denounce National Guardsmen in Pittsburg during the April, 1968 Rebellion. 2) Panic-stricken, the capitalist state sent 75,000 troops to occupy the cities. 3) Afro-Americans took up rifles and fire bombs to avenge the assassination of Martin Luther King. 4) Federal troops were dispatched to guard the White House and the Capitol; U.S. imperialist rule was shaken to its foundations. 5) Masses of Afro-Americans openly defy fascist police in Youngstown, Ohio.]
The month of April saw the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King by the capitalist government and of the great country-wide rebellion of the Afro-American people against the government to avenge his death.
The assassination of King, a vicious fascist attack by the reactionary monopoly capitalist state machine against the freedom struggle of the Afro-Americans, touched off a massive violent uprising of the Black people sweeping at least 125 cities. This rebellion marked the high tide of the glorious Afro-American struggle of the 1960's against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation, a struggle which is still raging today.
The example of the great Black rebellions of the 1960's, from Harlem to Watts, to Detroit and Newark, to the events of April 1968, will shine forever in the history of the Afro-American people and of the entire proletariat and oppressed people of the United States. They provide rich lessons to guide the revolutionary struggle of the masses today and in the future.
THE AFRO-AMERICAN STRUGGLE IS A REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
The country-wide rebellion of April 1968 proved, as did the other Black rebellions of the 60's, that the Afro-American struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation is a revolutionary struggle. The liberation struggle of the Black people has gone through different stages in the over 300 years since the first Blacks were brought here in chains, but it has always remained a revolutionary struggle. The great Slave Revolts, which struck terror into the hearts of the white "masters", were aimed at the overthrow of the slaveowners. The Civil War, which convulsed the country, was a revolution which violently overthrew the Slave Power; in it the Black people fought with unstoppable fury. The struggle of the 60's followed in this great revolutionary tradition. Its history demonstrates the very same truth.
The Afro-American mass movement of the 1960's had its origin in the peaceful demonstrations of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56. From the student sit-ins in 1960 and onward, the struggle continually escalated -- to mass marches and finally to the great rebellions of the later 60's. The Afro-Americans continually came up against the state power of the ruling monopoly capitalists and fought mounting battles with its armed forces. The country-wide rebellion following King's assassination, which marked the high tide of the great rebellions, was, as Chairman Mao pointed out in his famous statement hailing it, "A storm such as has never been seen before in the history of that country" (the U.S. -- ed.). It showed "that an extremely powerful revolutionary force is latent in the more than twenty million Afro-Americans."
The Afro-American struggle is still a revolutionary struggle; it rages on today. At present the monopoly capitalists, through their state, are waging a fascist offensive against the working class and people, in order to shift the entire burden of the deepening economic crisis onto them and prepare for war. They are seeking revenge on the Black people for the blows dealt them by this revolutionary people in the 60's. Open state attacks on the Afro-Americans are increasing while the state organizes fascist mass movements such as the anti-busing movement to attack the Afro-Americans and other oppressed nationalities.
But vicious oppression results in vigorous resistance. The escalated attacks of the reactionary bourgeoisie on the Black people will only touch off new storms in their revolutionary struggle, giving further impetus to the over-all revolutionary movement. The Afro-American people's struggle is sure to play a still more glorious role in the struggles of the future than it has in the past.
The Afro-American struggle is an essential component part of the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution of the U.S. working class and oppressed people. The basic interests of the Black people to live free of all forms of exploitation and oppression are the same as those of the entire proletariat and oppressed people. Chairman Mao pointed out: "The black masses and the masses of white working people in the United States share common interests and have common objectives to strugglefor....The struggle of the black people in the United States is bound to merge with the American workers' movement, and this will eventually end the criminal rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class."
Monopoly capitalism can never liberate the Afro- Americans. The evils of racial discrimination and violent repression cannot be eliminated, and complete emancipation be achieved, under the reactionary monopoly capitalist system. The fact that the Afro-Americans were forced to wage monumental struggles in order to win such minimal demands as the right to drink at public drinking fountains and sit in the front of city buses is proof of this fact. The leader of the so-called "free world", the promoter of "human rights", United States imperialism., is so bloodthirsty and savage that it will not permit even these most elementary rights without being confronted by the mass struggle of millions and the sacrifice of of blood. The very fact that the U.S. imperialist state could assassinate even one of the most compromising, most accommodating "leaders" of the Black people, an advocate of harmless non-violence, Martin Luther King, shows that nothing will liberate the Afro-Americans except the revolution.
The goals of the Afro-American struggle can only be achieved with the complete overthrow of the dictatorship of the monopoly capitalist class and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the Black workers and laboring people, who comprise nearly the entire Black population, would play a prominent part. This alone can provide complete emancipation to the Afro-Americans. The flames of rebellion which scourged hundreds of cities, blazing guns of the Afro-Americans which pinned down tens of thousands of police, National Guardsmen and federal troops, were just a forewarning to the racist exploiters that the Afro-American struggle is revolutionary to the core.
WHAT WERE THE GAINS OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN STRUGGLE OF THE 1960's?
The Afro-American struggle of the 1960's gave the Black masses tremendous experience in revolutionary struggle and rejuvenated the entire class struggle in the United States. The Black and other oppressed masses gained rich experience in many forms of struggle, from sit-ins and demonstrations to mass marches and armed revolts. These struggles cultivated among the masses the daring spirit that "IT'S RIGHT TO REBEL AGAINST REACTIONARIES!", a spirit of bold defiance and rebellion against the most powerful reactionary state the world has ever known. When the Afro-Americans rushed into the streets of Watts, Newark, Detroit and elsewhere with rifles and fire-bombs in hand to confront the armed forces of the state, U.S. imperialism was proven to be a paper tiger, just as Chairman Mao taught, a giant with feet of clay. Without such a spirit it will be impossible for the Black people, together with the white working masses, to overthrow the criminal rule of the monopoly capitalist class and win complete emancipation.
The great rebellions and other struggles of the 1960's also taught the Black masses the necessity of revolutionary leadership and organization. The fact the mass struggles were not able to push forward to tlie overthrow of the class enemy and that many of the genuine Black leaders were assassinated by the government taught the masses of Black activists and fighters that a revolutionary organization must be built which can lead the Struggle to victory. This prepared the way for the acceptance of the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism by the most advanced section of the activists.
The Black liberation struggle of the 1960's inspired the entire proletariat and oppressed people with the spirit of a resolute fight against the common enemy. The 1960's was a decade when the masses arose and fought on many different fronts against the reactionary rule of monopoly capitalism. The Afro-American freedom struggle made a tremendous contribution to each of these currents of the mass movement. It inspired the youth and student movement with the spirit of serving the people, rebelling against reactionaries, actively resisting violent state attacks, opposing racism and chauvinism, etc. It lent great force to the movement against the U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Indochina, demonstrating the concrete link between the barbarous aggression of U.S. imperialism overseas and its fascist atrocities against the Black people at home. The Afro-American struggle re-invigorated the workers' movement as well, as the Black workers waged many struggles against the employers and the state. A great trend of unity between all the oppressed sections of the population, forged in struggle against the common enemy, the reactionary monopoly capitalists and their state power, emerged.
But today certain reformists deny the revolutionary character of the Afro-American struggle and the importance of the masses' revolutionary experience. According to them, the gains of the revolutionary struggle of the 1960's was not the development of the revolutionary movement but merely a few minor reforms and especially the further development of the government bureaucracy designated to suppress the Afro-American people. These people's whole aim in life is to calm down the Black masses, to prevent them from playing their revolutionary role. Their main theme is that rather than develop their revolutionary struggle the masses should concern themselves with minor adjustments and piddling reforms of the state, while leaving the racist state power of the bourgeoisie intact. These reformists include the "three-worlders" and the entire opportunist press who deny the revolutionary struggle. These characters don't want to fight the state machine, but to perfect it. They create illusions about the various government programs and agencies in order to keep the Black masses enslaved forever.
But the efforts of the reformists are in vain. The revolutionary spirit of the Black people cannot be extinguished.
THE BANKRUPTCY OF KING'S PATH OF NON-VIOLENT PASSIVE RESISTANCE
The Afro-American masses were completely justified in rebelling massively in April 1968 to avenge the death of King. No people can maintain their self- respect if they allow their leaders to be massacred at will by the reactionaries. The Afro-American people showed their powerful revolutionary instinct in striking at the state which murdered King. In fact, the rebellion itself was a crushing refutation of King's path of non-violent passive resistance. In order to avenge King's death the Black masses had to trample on his principles.
Two paths, in irreconcilable conflict with each other, faced the Black people in the I960's. One was the path of reformism, of compromise with the government, and of non-violent passive resistance, advocated by King. The other was the path of revolutionary struggle against the government, of active resistance to racial discrimination and violent repression, including armed self-defense and armed revolts, advocated by the great Black liberation fighters, including Malcolm X and others.
Martin Luther King was a misleader of the Black people and the oppressed masses generally. He made every effort to pour cold water on the revolutionary anger of the Black masses and to smother their revolutionary struggle in a soft blanket of nonviolence, to tie their hands in the face of the savage attacks of the racist state. It was he and the other established "official leaders" who had all the ties with the capitalist state and its top officials, especially the Kennedys. Malcolm denounced with contempt the attempts of King and the others to control and contain the Black freedom struggle in the interests of the bourgeoisie. Malcolm said: "When these 'leaders' create programs, you get no action. The only time you see them is when the people are exploding. Then the leaders are shot into the situation and told to control things. You can't show me a leader that has set off an explosion. No, they come and contain the explosion. They say, 'Don't get rough, you know, do the smart thing'. This is their role -- they're there just to restrain you and me, to restrain the struggle, to keep it in a certain groove, and not let it get out of control. Whereas you and I don't want anybody to keep us from getting out of control. We want to get out of control. We want to smash anything that gets in our way that doesn't belong there." (Malcolm X Speaks, p. 118)
This was King's role from the first. King himself describes in his book Stride Toward Freedom how he constantly worked to pour cold water on the desire of the Black masses to answer centuries of bondage with violent struggle. When the Afro-American masses were brutally attacked by police dogs and fire hoses during the Birmingham struggle in 1963, King counseled non-violence. When the three little Black girls were blown up by a bomb placed in a church by the racists in Birmingham that year, King counseled "restraint". When the Afro-Americans of Los Angeles arose with rifles in hand and launched the powerful Watts Rebellion in 1965, King openly supported the savage police repression of the Blacks, saying: "It was necessary that as powerful a police force as possible be brought in to check them" (the rebelling Black masses -- ed.) (New York Times, August 16, 1965) When King went to Watts personally to advocate non-violence and compromise, he was jeered and hooted by the Black masses and chased out of the area.
A leader can only be judged by the path he followed and advocated. King's path was that of betrayal of the Afro-American struggle, while the path of active resistance advocated by Malcolm and the revolutionary fighters is absolutely correct and necessary to advance the Afro-American struggle towards victory.
The Black masses have a glorious history of following the path of active resistance, of combating the counter-revolutionary violence of the exploiters and racists with revolutionary violence. The Afro- American rebellions of the 1960's, and especially the country-wide uprising following King's assassination, were great revolutionary storms. By their concrete actions the Black masses have themselves repudiated the bankrupt line of King.
MARCH AHEAD ON THE REVOLUTIONARY PATH!
The real heroes of the Afro-American freedom struggle are the masses. In their millions they have fought with the greatest heroism and wisdom against the most powerful enemy a revolutionary people has ever had to face. Never once has their revolutionary spirit been quenched, their militant attitude suppressed. And from their bosom have come the real leaders of the Black people, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, George Jackson, the Afro-American workers and other revolutionaries striving to adopt revolutionary Marxism-Leninism as their guide to action and participate in building the genuine Marxist-Leninist Communist Party to lead the entire proletariat and oppressed people on the revolutionary path to liberation, and countless others. One revolutionary fighter has stepped forward as another fell. They have constantly summed up their experience. The struggle to build the Party, which alone can lead the Black people to complete emancipation, has overcome one obstacle after another put before it by the bourgeoisie and their opportunist servants and has steadily advanced.
Nothing the bourgeoisie can do can stop the freedom struggle of the Afro-Americans. End.
The following is reprinted from CCNY STUDENT, Newspaper of the CCNY (City College of New York) Student Movement under the leadership of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists (Vol. 3, #3, March 15, 1978).
The Bakke "reverse discrimination'' case has been trumpeted far and wide by the bourgeoisie. A big fuss about "reverse discrimination against whites" has been created. This alleged "reverse discrimination" is a big nazi lie. The Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities still have shorter lifespans, lower incomes, worse jobs, higher unemployment rates and worse treatment by the police and the capitalist authorities than Hie whites. The only improvement in the condition of the Afro-American people has been as a result of heroic revolutionary struggle such as the two decades of glorious struggle since the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. They rose up in their millions defying the government and its fascist laws, the racist and fascist gangs, tossing aside the stranglehold of non-violence with arms being taken up on a large scale. Despite their massive efforts the situation is rapidly worsening, approaching what it was before the upsurge. A major offensive has been launched by the rich and their government to throw the Afro-American people back into the worst conditions of Jim Crow segregation. And today the racial discrimination is especially painful because it comes on top of the suffering caused by the current severe economic crisis of the capitalist system. This is the reality!
It is a big lie to claim as the "reverse discrimination" fraud does, that "society" has eliminated racial discrimination making it a thing of the "past". According to this fraud racial discrimination is supposed to have ended in 1964 with Lyndon Johnson's "Civil Rights Bill" and today alleged "special privileges" for the Afro-Americans and oppressed nationalities are responsible for "reverse discrimination against whites". But racial discrimination is not a thing of the "past", rather it continues to date and is in fact increasing. The liberals who talk pie in the sky about how the government runs special programs to "make up" for "past" discrimination are hiding the present increasing segregation enforced by the government. They do this in order to trick the masses into believing that their mortal enemy, the capitalist, is their "friend" and to create favorable ideological conditions for the open racist "anti-reverse discrimination" movement. The "special privileges" received by the masses of the Afro-American people consist of being segregated into the worst housing and ghettos, going to the worst schools, getting the worst jobs, being slandered as criminals in the capitalist news media and persecuted by the racist authorities, the police and the courts.
In fact the whole issue of "reverse discrimination" is designed to scapegoat the Afro-American people and the oppressed nationalities for the crimes of the rich who are the real criminals responsible for all the ills of society.
A few facts of the Bakke case show that it has nothing to do with "justice" or equality and from the start has been used to promote the "reverse discrimination" fraud in order to prepare public opinion for stepped up racist and fascist attacks. Allan Bakke, a white, middle-aged engineer, alleges that because he is white he was discriminated against when he applied to a California medical school. He claims he was the victim of "reverse discrimination" because 16 students of the oppressed nationalities were admitted with lower grades than his. But he has no objection to the fact that 36 whites were also admitted with lower grades than his. These 36 whites are not mentioned in his lawsuit which is only directed against the "non-whites" The real reason he was rejected was because of his age which was eleven years older than the average medical student. With typical chauvinist logic Bakke blames the oppressed nationalities and not the blood-sucking capitalist medical system for preventing his admission.
The Bakke case is now being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Why should the Bakke case, based on such racist logic, get such a sympathetic hearing from the highest levels of government? It is because the monopoly capitalist government is itself totally racist. This government is trying to organize a fascist mass movement against the Afro-Americans and oppressed nationalities under the hoax of opposing "reverse discrimination". The attacks being stepped up against them today are part of a big offensive against the entire working class and people in the U.S. Today the whole capitalist world is sunk in an all-round economic, political and social crisis. The monopoly capitalists of the U.S. are trying to get out of the crisis by shifting its full burden onto the backs of the workers, oppressed nationalities, the youth and students and onto the oppressed nations abroad. To avoid revolution the U.S. capitalists are consolidating fascism at home and preparing for a new world war.
In its fascist offensive against the working people, the government singles out the Afro-Americans and other oppressed nationalities and blames them for the crimes of the rich. The government does this in order to cause maximum splits in the working class and to mobilize a section of the people behind its reactionary banners to attack the oppressed nationalities. Today attacks on the Afro-Americans and oppressed nationalities are the cutting edge of growing fascism in the U.S.
This is the main reason why the Carter administration is so interested in the Bakke case. On September 7, 1977 the Carter administration leaked the news that it was planning to support Bakke at the Supreme Court hearings. This was followed by a position paper on September 12 "opposing quotas" but "supporting guidelines".
President Marshak of CCNY also announced his puzzling position on the Bakke case, just three weeks after the Carter announcement.
What is the significance of these ridiculous and contradictory positions ? First and foremost this stand of the Carter administration and of Marshak straight-forwardly assists the "anti-reverse discrimination" movement and the entire offensive against the Afro-American people and the oppressed nationalities. It is actually a stand for increased segregation, but also reveals the Carter administration trying to save its flimsy mask of being a "friend of the workers and minorities" and trying to hide that it is carrying out the program of the monopoly capitalist class. For years President Marshak has been called the "darling of the third world" and the genius behind the "special programs" for the oppressed nationalities at CCNY, a carefully developed image to have the Afro-Americans and oppressed nationalities look to the administration as their "friend". Throughout this period he has faithfully shifted the economic crisis onto the students, faculty and staff of CUNY at the demand of his capitalist masters. The stand of the "Carterite liberals" is one of vicious but slightly concealed reaction. "Guidelines" in place of "quotas" is designed to create maximum squabbling and confusion while granting the minimum concessions. By throwing a few crumbs to a handful of traitors to the oppressed nationalities, maintaining the image of the "darling" or of "Mr. Human Rights", the "Carterite liberals' have a more sinister way to achieve the exact aims of the open reactionaries. The government hopes by promoting the "reverse discrimination" fraud to whip up fascist and racist mass movements, like the fascist anti-busing movement which it organizes to oppose the just demand for integration and to attack the entire working class and people. With the Carter position claiming to uphold "guidelines" while opposing "quotas", the open racists and fascists can organize among the people pretending to be "anti-government", although the fascist movement is completely state organized.
At CCNY, in May 1975, the rich and their government attempted to launch a racist and fascist mass movement against the oppressed nationalities. They floated basic lies of the "reverse discrimination" fraud over the issue of hiring practices at the North Academic Complex (NAC) construction site, whipping up a frenzy that "minorities are taking jobs from white workers". Construction at the NAC site is scheduled to begin shortly and the bourgeoisie is preparing opinion to launch such a movement again; this time under the "anti-reverse discrimination" banner as part of a racist and fascist national offensive. The big lie pushed in 1975 is designed to let the monopoly capitalist class off the hook for its crimes, particularly for shifting the economic crisis onto the people through massive unemployment and to blame the oppressed nationalities for this and all of society's ills. Unemployed construction workers of the oppressed nationalities were waging a bitter struggle against the capitalist State Dormitory Authority, the fascist courts and the entire state machine of the rich to integrate the worksite and to secure a livelihood. Their demand, that 50% of all jobs on the NAC go to workers of the oppressed nationalities, had been beaten out of the government eight months before, and in May 1975 the workers were forced to renew their struggle to have them implemented. To do this the workers closed down the NAC site with the support of the workers from the site and several hundred CCNY students. After weeks of whipping up a racist atmosphere the capitalists actually launched a physical attack against the workers as a spearhead to forming a fascist mass movement. One of the principal figures in the capitalists' present plans also served them faithfully in 1975. The labor traitor Peter Van Arsdale led 50 thugs armed with lead pipes to attack the oppressed nationality construction workers and several hundred of their student supporters. In this they had the full support of the fascist police and courts. Many students remember the scene of these fascist thugs attacking along Convent Ave. and retreating behind the police for protection from the workers and the students. The oppressed nationality workers and student supporters fought back heroically against these racist and fascist thugs and their police guards and did not capitulate to the state-organized attack. In 1978 when the monopoly capitalists are launching such movements again on a far wider scale under the "reverse discrimination" fraud what will it mean to be flying the "Carterite liberal" flag or that of the "darling" Marshak of being "against quotas" but "for guidelines", "unable to oppose Bakke" but for "affirmative action"? It will mean to assist the racist and fascist mass movement to organize and to paralyze the struggle of the Afro-American people and the oppressed nationalities with phrases meant to cause the most confusion and do the least damage to the racist monopoly capitalist class.
To see where the stand of the "Carterite liberals" leads in practice one need only look at the CCNY Bio- Medical Program. The bourgeoisie have floated the "reverse discrimination" fraud at CCNY already. This program enrolled 48% oppressed nationality students in 1974 when the "reverse discrimination" case against it was first introduced. The court ruled that white applicants in 1974 had been "reversely discriminated against". Since then enrollment of oppressed nationalities has dropped by 50% in the pro gram. Marshak's position of being "for affirmative action" was useless for fighting racial discrimination in this case while his position "against quotas" and "in support of Bakke" directly supports the "anti- reverse discrimination" movement. This amounts to vicious but slightly concealed reaction from the "darling of the Third World"!
In the 1960's the Afro-American people rose up in a great revolutionary movement and rebellion against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation. This movement was a great call to all the working and oppressed people in the U.S. to rise up in struggle against the monopoly capitalist dictators. It shook the U.S. imperialist system to its foundations. It forced the abolition of some of the most humiliating features of Jim Crow segregation and broke down some of the barriers used to exclude the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities from certain spheres of life, education and employment. The Afro-American people's movement has shown itself to be a powerful motive force for the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution.
The monopoly capitalists have never reconciled themselves to their defeats at the hands of the Afro- Americans, but instead have sought revenge ever since. Now it has come out with the issue of "reverse discrimination" in order to launch a drive to force the Afro-Americans and other oppressed nationalities out of all the spheres of life they have entered since the 1960's, right back to the most degrading conditions of Jim Crow segregation.
The attacks on the oppressed nationalities are part of a big fascist offensive against the entire working class. Fellow students, denounce the "reverse discrimination" fraud of the rich and their government. Defend the unity of the revolutionary movement by organizing revolutionary struggle against racial discrimination and the violent racist attacks of the government. Blame the rich for all the problems of the rotten capitalist system. Support the integration of the oppressed nationalities into all spheres of economic and social life as a positive good that aids the development of the revolutionary movement and that is only the most elementary justice. Prepare for the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution which alone can smash the dictatorship of the capitalists, make the working class the ruling class and fully emancipate the Afro-American people and the other oppressed nationalities. End.
[Graphic: STAND UP TO COST CONTROLS! COUSML]
The following leaflet was issued by the Rhode Island Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists.
TO HELL WITH B.A.D. !
Fellow workers: In recent months, the hospital has begun various programs and schemes, such as the Buck-a-Day (B.A.D.) farce, aimed at establishing cost controls at Rhode Island Hospital. These programs of the health care capitalists have nothing to do with lowering the skyrocketing price paid for health care by the workers and the ordinary people, and everything to do with insuring maximum profit for the capitalists off of our sweat and blood. To insure that the growing resistance of the workers does not upset their plans for fattening themselves at our expense, the administration and its agents have launched a new campaign of daily harassment and threats aimed at keeping the workers "in line" and slaves to the desires of the capitalists.
Fellow workers: In many departments, the daily workload facing us has reached unbearable proportions. Meanwhile the workforce in most departments is stable or actually declining. Over-all, the workforce increased less than 5%, most of the increase being in administration and in supervisory positions. The following chart illustrates the increase in workload for the years 1973 to 1977:
|
|
1973 | 1977 | Increase | % Increase |
| Laboratory tests | 1,736,435 | 2,389,951 | 653,516 | 37.60% |
| Respir. treatments | 108,047 | 125,835 | 17,788 | 16.5 |
| Operations | 14,993 | 15,950 | 957 | 6.4 |
| Clinic visits | 61,568 | 71,699 | 10,131 | 16.5 |
| Cafe, customers | 868,306 | 1,152,615 | 284,309 | 32.7 |
| Special function refreshments | 30,736 | 56,729 | 25,993 | 84.6 |
While these figures show substantial increases for certain sections of the workers, they represent only the tip of the iceberg concerning increasing overwork at Rhode Island Hospital. This is because lab tests, respiratory treatments, operations performed, etc., represent only the end point or result of a whole process of work which must take place to insure that health care is provided. For example, lab testing includes not only the test run by the technicians, but also the whole process of production involved including receiving and delivering supplies, nursing care of the patient, drawing of the blood and its delivery, maintenance of the labs and their equipment; charging of the patient, recording of the results in patient records which must be cataloged and stored, and so on. This is true for all work done at Rhode Island Hospital. These figures for overwork, therefore, represent only a small portion of the intense speed-up and increase of work shifted onto our backs in the last five years.
In other sections, such as X-ray, Emergency, Nursing, and Laundry, though figures published by the administration show no substantial increase in work done, this is because these departments have reached a maximum in terms of the amount of work that the capitalists can drain out of them. For example, the hospital prides itself on being able to say that the Emergency Department can handle 142 cases a day or one case every 10 minutes. These figures for 1977 are a decline from 1976 when emergency cases numbered 153 cases a day or one every 9.5 minutes. Are we then to say that less work is being done in this section? No. First, because accidents or sudden illness don't come in the door at a predetermined rate of one every 10 minutes; and, second, because emergency, nursing, and any hospital work which involves direct patient care can't be judged simply in terms of raw numbers.
In Laundry, where the administration's figures show no large increase in work, workers are pushed to the maximum and forced to work six and seven day weeks just to get by on their meager wages. Often, these workers must work holidays and stretches of two or three weeks in a row with only one day off.
These facts concerning increasing overwork could go on and on. They are a fact of our daily life at the hospital. Along with these increases in workload, the hospital has increased its daily harassment and threats against us in order to force us to shoulder mare and more of the burden of the deepening economic crisis of the health care industry. This the capitalists find necessary to insure that we don't get "out of line" or have a "bad attitude" about the fact that this overwork and harassment is an attempt by the capitalists to turn us into slaves who live only to serve them. At Rhode Island Hospital, you stand up, it is "You have a bad attitude". You protest, it is "Why are you causing a problem?" You object, and it is a warning or a trip to Personnel and a suspension, More and more, everything you do or everywhere you go there is someone on your back, or some new rule or regulationabout, lunch,coffee break, absenteeism, or being late aimed at making us obedient slaves to our rich masters. These rules and regulations are to prepare us for further assaults as the economic crisis deepens.
It is the capitalists and their government of the rich who are responsible for the economic crisis. They have engineered and carried out the tremendous expansion of the health care industry solely on the basis of making maximum profit. Every step of the way, behind words such as "concern" and "human interest", they have done only that which reaps them greater profit off of the patients and ourselves. Now, with the ordinary masses bled white through skyrocketing prices for health care, the rich have trotted out their
COST CONTROLS -- A PLAN OF THE RICH AND THEIR GOVERNMENT FOR MAKING THE WORKERS PAY FOR THE HEALTH CARE CRISIS
Fellow workers: When the rich talk about control ling costs, they are talking about controlling us and nothing else. This is our living experience. In the early 1970's, these very same parasites and their government instituted the notorious "wage-price freeze" on the pretext of "controlling inflation and rising prices". In fact, the only thing frozen was our wages, while prices continued to rise, and the capitalists continued to bloat themselves at the patient's expense.
There are other examples of cost controls at RIH. In 1970, the APG (Ambulatory Patient Center) was built to expand the market for profit into out-patient care. This was done with the blessing of the government which financed construction to the tune of $23,000, 000, and Blue Cross which promised to cover payments for the services it provided. The APC was necessary in order to attract Blue Cross covered patients who in the past had refused to go to clinics in the outdated Taft Building. By expanding into outpatient care, the capitalists sought to "control" the higher costs to them of staff, equipment, and utilities incurred in in-patient care. It did not matter to them that this assembly line medicine meant a decline in patient care. All that mattered was that this must be done for the sake of insuring maximum profit. To see that this is so, one need only to go into the APC on a clinic day, where the pressure of overwork on the nurses, doctors, receptionists, etc., is pushed to the maximum and patients are rushed through at such a rate to insure only one thing -- that their pockets are empty on the way out.
Another example of cost controls is the recently run B.A.D. program. According to the logic of this program, it is waste and inefficiency which are the cause of rising prices for health care, and what Donald Davis calls, "the economic problems" at RIH. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under capitalism, medicine is by its very nature wasteful, and efficient only in those ways which serve making maximum profit. This is because capitalist medicine does not start from the needs of the people for health care, but from the opposite -- the need of the capitalists to fatten themselves off of the sickness of the patients. This is why many of the suggestions of the workers for improving patient care, such as hiring more nurses and workers, or suggestions such as those for wiping out Nite-Lite and Heartbeat, or eliminating the bureaucracy, will never be taken up by the capitalists. Instead, they will use the opportunity to give their pitch for lowering thermostats, shutting off lights, doing more work, and anything which serves them making more profit. Our so-called participation consists of being allowed to "suggest" only that which they will allow, while anything that hits at their profits is cast aside independent of its value to patient care.
Fellow workers: We have no interest in cost controls and any programs such as B.A.D. Our basic need at RIH is to organize active resistance to the cost controls of the rich. This we can do only if we dare to stand up to cost controls, dare to fight against reactionary rules and regulations, and dare to take our destiny firmly in our own hands. For this we need to build the leadership of. our movement, the Marxist-Leninist communist party, to lead us and defend the invincibility of our cause.
TO HELL WITH B.A.D. AND ALL SCHEMES TO MAKE US PAY FOR THE ECONOMIC CRISIS! STAND UP TO COST CONTROLS!
BUILD THE PARTY TO LEAD OUR STRUGGLE FORWARD! End.
The following leaflet was issued at a large, organized hospital.
On February 13 the hospital administration began a vicious attack on the employees of the nursing and other departments in the form of the "Earnst and Eamst Study". This study which will continue until March 3 has the stated purpose of "re-evaluating staffing needs" and focuses on documenting the amount of time which each employee spends on direct or indirect patient care and the amount of time he or she is temporarily idle -- i. e. breaks, going to the bathroom, phone calls, sitting down, etc. As well, the study documents how much care each patient requires each day with a check-off list of nursing procedures. This study is also checking on workers in other departments by inquiring into how quickly transportation comes for patients etc. What the hospital intends to accomplish through this study is to cut staff as much as possible in one way or another and to speed-up the remaining employees to the maximum in order to make maximum profits.
The hospital is spreading maximum deception about the study in order to 1) enlist the cooperation and support of the workers and 2) disarm the workers and prevent any resistance to the attack. They are trying to create the. illusion that this study will. result in either hiring more staff or at worst, continuing with the same amount of staff. They use the method of the Hitlerite Big Lie in order to do this. They tell a lie and tell it often enough that they hope people will believe it. Current examples of these falsehoods are: "The nursing administration wants to hire more staff but the hospital administration doesn't believe its necessary, so nursing is conducting the study to prove that it is" and "everybody knows we're understaffed, so the study will have to come out that more staff is needed." This deception is meant to convince workers that the hospital really has their best interests and the interests of the patients at heart, that they should cooperate with this attack on their livelihoods and working conditions and not look into the realities of the situation and resist.
The hospital like every other capitalist institution is interested solely in its profits. In order to make maximum profit they must exploit the workers to the maximum. They are conducting this study to see where and how they can exploit the workers more. They have never been concerned with decreasing the workload of the employees as can be seen by the increase in workload in every department over the last few years and they have not now suddenly changed their nature. Studies such as this one, which the hospital tries to present as "impartial" and "objective" have a definite history of serving the interests of the bourgeoisie against the workers by cutting staff and increasing workloads. A few examples are: --Boston City Hospital -- efficiency studies were carried out in all departments. Result -- mass firings in all departments, a hiring freeze on RNs for several years, elimination of Nurses Aides as permanent employees replaced by "on-call" aides ( a pool of student nurses was formed who had to call the hospital each day to find out if there was work for them.)
-- Massachusetts General Hospital -- a study there resulted in primary care being instituted.
-- A complex of seven or eight hospitals in San Francisco -- efficiency studies in the nursing department resulted in recommendations for cutting large numbers of nurses and increasing the workload for those remaining. However, nurses there went on strike against the attacks.
-- United Hospital in Port Chester, N. Y. -- staffing studies were made in several departments resulting in the elimination of 61 full-time employees and "labor utilization" going from 72 percent to 90 percent.
The bourgeoisie maintains its rule over the working class and other oppressed people by two means - deception and fascist suppression. The naked face of monopoly capital, when all its deceptive masks of "democracy" have been torn away, is fascism. The monopoly capitalist class is very much afraid of the powerful struggle of the masses against them (witness the hysteria they are in over the coal miners strike) so they seek to deceive the people as to the true nature of the attacks they launch against the workers, national minorities, immigrants and other oppressed people. The monopoly capitalists, their state machine, flunkeys of capital, the revisionists, opportunists, social democrats, bourgeois intellectuals and labor aristocrats churn out a great deal of lying propaganda meant to convince the masses that if only they have faith in bourgeois rule everything will come out rosy in the end, therefore the masses should passively sacrifice and not try to find the causes of their problems nor rise in revolt.
In fact, because the monopoly capitalist government was becoming increasingly exposed during the reign of fascist Nixon, the ruling class installed Carter and other "friends of workers and minorities" to implement the same fascist programs under a more "humanitarian" guise to "restore confidence" in the rule of monopoly capital.
The Carter administration uses massive deception to camouflage its fascist deeds underneath its pious slogans of "human rights" , "democracy" and "morality" while waging a fascist offensive against the working class and people on behalf of the monopoly capitalist dictators. Thus, Nixon's "workfare" program is renamed Carter's "welfare reform" and promoted under the slogans of "jobs" and an "end to unemployment" and has the full support of the labor aristocracy. But the content has remained the same -- using the unemployed workers presently on welfare as a slave labor force against the employed workers, driving down the condition of the working class as a whole. In the name of "compassion", " humanitarianism" etc, the Carter administration and the monopoly capitalist government as a whole is unleashing a Hitlerite fascist campaign against immigrants. Carter's "aliens" bill is a program for mass round-ups and deportations, harassment and persecution of immigrants, particularly those from Latin America and Asia, the official legal creation of a large caste of immigrant laborers denied any rights whatsoever except to slave for the profits of the rich and forcing South African style ID cards on everyone. And thirdly Carter is striving to pass the Labor Reform Act, a most vicious piece of anti-worker, anti-strike legislation, which would outlaw wildcat strikes and roving pickets, force unions to pay double back pay to any scab for every day he is unable to cross a picket line, it would force unions to allow labor spies of the capitalists to attend union meetings and prohibit even talking about striking to a worker covered by a no-strike clause, either written or implied! This fascist piece of legislation is being promoted as a "major victory" for the workers, a "political comeback for labor forces". It is even being claimed that this bill will make it easier for the workers to use the government bureaucracy to help it carry out organizing the unorganized. The monopoly capitalist class is presently using the facade of Carterite "liberalism" to conceal and aid the development of fascism and to cover up its increasing exploitation of the working masses.
The hospital capitalists are also pushing the burden of economic crisis onto the workers as part of the over-all offensive by monopoly capital against the working class. The struggles at our hospital against the shifting of the burden are part of the awakening of the entire working class movement in the U.S. As a result of the 75-day strike a few years ago, the hospital has beefed up its ammunition of massive deception to carry out their attacks on the workers. The deception used by the hospital to carry out this offensive must be exposed and denounced for what it is -- preparations for further attacks on the workers' livelihoods.
The workers' movement is rising all across the country, shattering the capitalists' fond dreams of "labor peace". Each new outrage by the reactionaries awakens new sections of the masses to indignation, to life and struggle. Now is the time to cast away all illusions and prepare for struggle. End.
The following leaflet was issued on March 27, 1978,by the Cleveland Branch of the COUSML.
The Cleveland Board of Education in collaboration with federal courts is putting a new school levy on the ballot and at the same time announcing school closings and a program of cutbacks. It is doing this for two reasons: 1) to help the rich make the working people bear the burden of the capitalist economic crisis, and 2) to launch another attempt to whip up a racist hysteria and scapegoat busing and integration for the financial crisis of the schools.
The financial crisis of the schools is not specific to Cleveland alone. The financial crisis of the schools is the result of the economic crisis gripping the entire capitalist and revisionist world and the attempts of the rich to shift the burden of this crisis onto the backs of the laboring masses. In the state of Ohio there are 171 school districts in the same situation as the Cleveland school district. In November, the Governor's Council for Cost Control announced plans to deal with the financial crisis of the schools in the state of Ohio, These plans call for:
1) increased sales, property and income taxes on the working masses,
2) decreased taxes on the monopoly capitalist businesses,
3) reduction of educational programs to the minimum,
4) consolidation of school districts (i.e. closing of schools), and
5) laying off of school employees
(See Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 12, 1977)
Throughout the country thousands of teachers and other school employees have been laid off and education programs have been cut back. On a nationwide basis the average high school student gets 100 hours less instruction per year today than in 1967. This is how the capitalist government shifts the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the working class and people on the front of education. The attacks on the school employees and the school children in Cleveland are bound to intensify.
The government in the U.S., from the Board of Education to the White House, is not an institution to represent the will of the people but a dictatorship of the rich. This government extorts huge sums of tax money from the working masses (36cents out of every dollar of wages for the average worker) but this in no way insures the basic needs of the people, as the crisis in education proves. Instead these huge sums of tax monies are expended in such a way as to maximize the profits of the finance capitalists and maintain a huge military-bureaucratic machine. Presently such things as subsidies for the oil monopolists, war preparations and other parasitic activities of the rich serve that purpose, while education of the working class youth does not. Consequently, the rich are raising a hue and cry that the government "can't afford" to educate the youth, and the portion of budgets spent on education is being reduped: But before the money-bags will allow even the most minimal education to take place they are also demanding increased tribute in the form of increased interest payments, lucrative contracts, etc. For instance, from 1971to 1976the Cleveland Board of Education's expenditures to operate the schools did not even keep up with inflation. But at the same time its principal and interest payments to the banks increased by 97%.And now the rich are in effect saying "You must submit to even more taxation or we will close the schools altogether".
The rich have become extremely isolated and hated by the masses and they very much fear that the workers will take the path of revolutionary struggle and overthrow them. For this reason the rich and their government are working to split the workers and consolidate a fascist terror over them. One of the methods they have used for this purpose in the past few years has been to launch a government-organized fascist "anti-busing" movement which singles out the Black people and tries to get a section of the white workers and youth to attack them. The U.S. government is using the methods of Hitler who first attacked the Jews and other minorities as the leading edge of consolidating fascist rule over the German people.
The way the government organizes this movement is quite sophisticated. First of all, the "liberals" in the government, such as certain federal judges, take the demand for school integration put forward by the Afro-American people in the glorious mass movements of the '60's, a demand which opposed the government's policy of segregating Blacks away from white masses and discriminating against them. The liberals take this demand, distort it, and present it as an arbitrary decision from on high, and put together a deliberately inconvenient busing plan. They hold up implementation of school integration for years, constantly change their minds, and create maximum confusion. They refuse to explain the democratic nature of integration but just tell people: "It's the law and you must obey!" Then the fascist demagogues in the government and the whole capitalist news media set about creating a hysteria about "forced" busing, "judicial tyranny", etc. With the help of the "liberals" they are able to give their racism an "anti-government" cover.
Both the "pro-busing" liberals and the "anti- busing" fascist demagogues are opposed to school integration. They are actually two faces of the government working together to organize a movement and public opinion against the right of Black people to attend integrated schools. The government has been trying to organize this movement in Cleveland for the past 2 1/2 years. Its latest trick in organizing this anti-Black, anti-worker movement is to scapegoat busing and school integration and through this, the Black people, for the financial collapse of the schools and higher taxes.
Look how it is done: Federal Judge Frank Battisti, who pretends to be a great "friend" of the Afro- American people has for several months now been helping the Cleveland Board of Education draw up and implement plans to close schools, lay off teachers and other employees, and raise taxes. He has repeatedly said this has to be done to "afford" school integration next fall. But the real reason is to insure the rich their tribute. Battisti is protecting the rich and scapegoating the Afro-American people by making "busing" the issue. Just to make sure the big lie gets planted in the public mind, the capitalist news media every day carries the news on the school financial crisis and the school levy under the section on the school desegregation case. Thus the "liberals" are directly helping the open fascist demagogues scapegoat the Afro-American people for the financial collapse of the school system and launch a racist "anti-busing" hysteria.
The rich and their government are responsible for the collapse of the educational system; they are the organizers of the "anti-busing" movement and of racial discrimination and violent repression against the Black people.
Workers, Afro-Americans, all progressive people! Denounce the rich for their crimes! Actively oppose the government's attempts to launch a fascist anti-busing movement and all other attacks on the Afro- American people! Actively resist all the schemes of the rich to make the people pay! The path of revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of the monopoly capitalist dictators is the only way forward. End.
The following article is reprinted from the CCNYStudent, Organ of the City College of New York (CCNY) Student Movement under the leadership of the COUSML, Vol. 3,No. 3, March 15, 1978)
In recent weeks a rash of racist, anti-student articles have been released by the N.Y. Post, CCNY Dean of Humanities Theodore Gross and others designed to create an hysteria about "declining standards" at CCNY and pave the way for the " Two-Year Skills" test to be implemented next fall. This has met with universal opposition from the students and is being discussed throughout the campus.
The N.Y. Post on February 28, March 1 and March 2 carried a series of vicious, racist anti-student articles about CCNY. The reactionary lies of these articles are summed up in the first sentence: "Thousands of functionally illiterate students -- many with only a third grade(!) understanding of English -- are being pushed through City College under an open admissions policy that has proven a cruel hoax on the minorities it was intended to help". But the only "cruel hoax" is in these articles themselves which give the racist and anti-student "declining standards" fraud.
The issue here is not the N.Y. Post per se because the Post is only echoing the hysteria over "standards" and "basic skills" being promoted nation-wide on a wider and wider scale. For over a year the bourgeoisie and the government have used the full force of their newspapers, television and radio to give the lie that the biggest problem in education today is "competency in basic skills" "lazy and illiterate" students, "declining standards and quality", etc. The same week the Post articles appeared, the Carter administration held a three-day National Conference on Achievement Testing and Basic Skills and Carter introduced his Basic Skills and Educational Quality Act. Carter and Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Califano supported testing in basic skills and provided funds for testing and research. Thus this reactionary campaign is a big shot in the arm. This position of the Carter administration of promoting the fraud of "declining standards" exposes how in fact they are assisting the racist and fascist attacks on the masses to be organized under the guise of being the "friends of the workers and minorities". Not a single item appears about the nation-wide fraud without loud proclamations that the capitalists, the government and the educational authorities are only interested in "improving the quality of education" and "helping the students".
This wave of propaganda that "declining standards" is the problem in education is part of a well-laid plan of the monopoly capitalists and their government to cover up their attacks on the basic interests of the students and to create public opinion for further attacks. It is a desperate attempt to detach the. crisis in education from the overall economic crisis gripping the capitalist system and to blame the students themselves for the rotten and decaying educational system. But if the rich and their state are so concerned with "improving quality" why have they slashed education budgets in recent years, fired teachers, increased class size and cut remedial programs? If they are so concerned with "educating the people", why have 67,000 students been thrown out of CUNY in the last 3 years? The only concern of the rich and their state is shifting the burden of the economic crisis onto our backs while letting themselves completely off the hook with this "declining standards" fraud.
At CUNY (City University of New York) and CCNY the "declining standards" banner was raised at the height of the New York City fiscal crisis, in 1975-76. It was concocted to cover up the Skills Test attack now being implemented which is designed only to drive even more students out of CUNY. In particular it was created to prepare public opinion for increased racist attacks, to drive out the Afro- American and foreign and immigrant students and to blame them for the rotten educational system.
In the 1960's the Afro-American people rose up in a great revolutionary movement and rebellion against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation. This movement was not a movement for a few "reforms". It shook the U.S. monopoly capitalist system to its foundation. It broke down some of the barriers used to exclude the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities from certain spheres of life, employment and education. At CCNY as a result of fierce struggle the racist administration was forced to allow an increase in the number of Black students entering the college.
But the administration has been seeking to drive minority students out ever since. Today, taking advantage of the economic crisis, they have dished out their "declining standards" fraud which is fundamentally racist, and are seeking to create public opinion in favor of driving minority students back out of higher education.
The rich are trying to shift not only the burden of the economic crisis but also the blame for the ills of the capitalist system onto the students. They hope to get the students fighting each other instead of uniting to fight the rich and their attacks.
The reactionary essence of the racist and anti-student "declining standards" fraud was clearly revealed by the N.Y. Post articles. This article is based totally on outright lies and slanders. It claims that 80% of the entering students "are capable only of low-level high school work" with 50% capable only below 6th grade level! This is an outright lie and slander as any student at CCNY knows. CCNY Student Movement and hundreds of CCNY students have been opposing this fraud for over a year. Yet the Post claims to have "found broad agreement that the illiteracy rate was... staggering" among students and faculty. The article states: "Many of these (CCNY) students actually graduate only to discover their diplomas are worthless." If college diplomas are worthless it is only because of the soaring unemployment rate in the U.S., including among college graduates. In fact this is one reason why the government wants to drive thousands out of college since there is no need for their skills. This article directly promotes the racist lie that Open Admissions and the resulting increase in Black and national minority students at CCNY is at the root of all the problems facing the students. In reality it is the monopoly capitalist class and its state which have viciously attacked all the students' interests.
The other "cruel hoax" in these Post articles is that they try to paint President Marshak of CCNY and Chancellor Kibbee as the great defenders of Open Admissions Policy and of the students' interests in general and of minority students in particular. Chancellor Kibbee issued a statement calling the Post articles "dishonest and disgusting". Marshak called them "vicious slander, outrageous distortion". He called a press conference on March 1 and gave a "rebuttal" in the Post on March 4 promoting himself as the biggest friend of CCNY students. They are saying the "declining standards" fraud is the product of a few "faculty malcontents and closet racists". But Marshak and Kibbee have fooled no one. A crowd of angry students went to Marshak's press conference and denounced not only the Post, but also Marshak and the whole CUNY administration for cooking up these racist lies in the first place. Marshak fell flat on his face with his so-called "rebuttal" in the Post. The Post reporter had only to cite "the college's own statistics" on the "declining standards" released last term by Marshak himself. These were released by Marshak to prepare public opinion for the " Skills Test". There have been numerous reports from CCNY and CUNY administration over the past year (the latest came out the same week as the Post articles) which gave all the same vicious lies and slanders as the Post. These flunkeys of the rich are doing somersaults, one day saying " declining standards is the issue" the next day calling it "slander" in order to cover their continuing attacks on the students' interests. This is seen in Marshak's so-called "opposition" to the "Skills Test" because it does not have high enough standards, i. e. will not throw out enough students.
Theodore Gross, CCNY Dean of Humanities, recently released a racist and anti-student article promoting the fraud of declining standards which was printed as the cover story of the November 4 issue of the national bourgeois magazine Saturday Review (and reprinted in the Observation Post newspaper at CCNY) under the title "how to Kill a College... " This article is written in the racist and fascist tradition established last year by CCNY English professor Geoffry Wagner with his book, "The End of Education". These men hate the great uprisings of the Afro-American people against racial discrimination and violent repression and of the national minorities and the youth and students more than anything in the world. It was as a result of these mass revolutionary struggles that the number of minority and poor students greatly increased at CCNY beginning in 1969. According to Gross this killed the college because it did away with the "Anglo-Saxon" atmosphere, the atmosphere of "academic excellence". These men lament and moan about the "bringing down" of standards by letting the national minorities into the college. But do they ever oppose the actions of the rich and their state in tremendously attacking and eroding the conditions students and faculty work under in recent years by the firing of faculty, the closing of colleges, reducing course offerings, increased class size, etc.? No! In fact these racists welcome these attacks because they see in them a way to get rid of the unpleasant sight of Black people in an "Anglo- Saxon" institution of "excellence". But unfortunately for Gross his article which is greatly contributing to the racist hysteria generated by the bourgeoisie today, is being denounced from one end of the campus to the other by the militant CCNY students.
HISTORY OF THE "DECLINING STANDARDS" FRAUD AND ORIGIN OF THE SKILLS TEST AT CUNY
The history of the "declining standards" fraud at CUNY clearly shows the real aims behind it. The CUNY administration has never had any moral principles on the question of academic standards. They have always been used to determine the size of the enrollment at CUNY. Starting in the early 1960's CUNY embarked on a period of massive expansion in size. From 1962 to 1974 enrollment increased 272%, with the CUNY budget increasing 930%. In the 1962 Master Plan for CUNY the BHE (Board of Higher Education) made definite plans to set admission standards at whatever level necessary to achieve enrollment expansion, anticipating that by 1975 high school graduation would be the only requirement for admission to CUNY. As late as the 1972 Master Plan these policies continued and it is stated that CUNY "will make major strides in this direction over the next several years... Reducing the use of traditional grading systemsfor a significant portion of a student's course work, de-emphasizing working for grades", (page 37) These policies to increase enrollment were not implemented in the students' interests but served definite need of the capitalists in this period. Skilled labor was provided at no expense to the capitalists. Education construction and spending served as an area of lucrative investment for the making of maximum profits. Finally the N.Y. City and State governments borrowed millions of dollars from the finance capitalists to finance the expanding CUNY budget and handed over millions of tax dollars in the form of tax-free interest to the big banks on Wall Street.
But by 1974 the situation had changed. The severe economic crisis gripping the entire capitalist system had spread into the public sector. The result was the infamous N.Y. City fiscal crisis of 1975. The finance capitalists, through the government and the EFCB, demanded greater tribute from the people of New York in order to guarantee and increase their profits during the economic crisis. Social service and education budgets were slashed and the funds shifted to go more directly in the pockets of the rich in the form of skyrocketing debt and interest payments. As part of this process in the 1975-76 school year under direct orders of the EFCB (Emergency Finance Control Board) the BHE drew up the 3 year Kibbee plan to drastically reduce the size of CUNY. One month later they imposed tuition. As a direct result 67,000 students have been thrown out of CUNY, the CUNY budget has been cut by 120 million dollars and over 6,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time staff have been fired. In 1974 only 8.6% of the CUNY budget came from tuition and fees while this year the figure is 32%. These funds cut from CUNY were shifted to more profitable areas for the monopoly capitalists. For example the N.Y. City debt continues to skyrocket. It now totals $20 billion altogether, $7 billion being interest. Thus the profits of the rich have been guaranteed and preserved intact while the students and staff have been the consequence of the NYC,fiscal crisis.
These massive cuts continued in the BHE's April 5, 1976 "Kibbee Plan" were achieved in part by ending Open Admissions, raising the admissions standards to CUNY and throwing students into the street. In a report to the BHE on Dec. 1, 1976 Kibbee explained his logic: "We must return to some basic understandings which are embedded in all efforts to reduce institutional expenditures. 1. Savings are only achieved by reducing the staff... 2. Any significant reduction in staff must be accompanied by a decrease in the number of students to be served". Thus the new standards set were based on the number of students needed to be thrown out to cut a definite dollar amount from the budget.
The Kibbee plan not only raised admission standards but also included proposals for a "Skills Test" to further reduce enrollment. On Oct. 15, 1975, Kibbee released his first draft of the 3-year plan later adopted by the BHE on April 5, 1976. Here he states: "it is proposed that the University move immediately to reduce the number of full-time equivalent students by approximately 20% over the next three years... It is proposed that this be achieved through the following measures: (Measures 1 and 2 tighten freshmen and transfer admission standards)... 3. Each College should undertake a rigorous review of student progress and move to drop those whose performance to date does not represent reasonable progress toward a degree". (A Proposal for Restructuring the City University to Meet a Financial Crisis, pg. 3) Thus the "Skills Test" adds the deceptive explanation, "There is evidence that some significant number of those leaving the community colleges have not developed the level of proficiency on the basic skills which will permit them to cope with upper division studies". He then proposes the "Skills Test" and estimated how many students will be "dropped" stating: "It is estimated that on the basis of current conditions approximately one-third of those seeking transfer to a senior college would not perform up to a reasonable and acceptable standard". (A Proposal For Restructuring the CUNY Feb. 19, 1976, pg. 9 and 11) On April 5, 1976 the BHE passed the Kibbee Plan including the resolution requiring that all students entering upper divisions "provide evidence in accordance with a standard to be determined by the Chancellor, that they have achieved a level of proficiency in basic learning skills". All mention of throwing students out, all mention of fiscal crisis, is dropped and only the fraudulent explanation remains: "With the inception of the Open Admissions Program, the University and its faculty have liberalized the grading process... The grading process has been abused to the extent that very little incentive has been provided to the students".
Ever since, the BHE has been promoting that the problem at CUNY is "declining academic standards" and not shifting the fiscal crisis onto the students and staff. Claiming that they only wanted to "improve the quality" of the students education and "help the students" with the "Skills Test".
But clearly the BHE and CCNY administration have only viciously attacked the basic interests of the students while serving the class interests of the rich. This "declining standards" fraud was concocted in order to hide that it is the economic crisis and not declining standards that is the origin of the "Skills Test" and all the attacks on our basic interests. It was designed to shift not only the crisis but to blame the crisis on the students themselves and in particular the national minorities who have supposedly caused "decline in standards".
Marshak and Kibbee's opposition to the Post's declining standards lie is a complete sham.
As part of the CUNY, as an appendage of the government which has been the main instrument of the rich in shifting the crisis, these lackeys have only contempt for the militant and fighting CCNY students who have resisted every attack on their interests.
Fellow Students! Denounce the racist propaganda and the "declining standards" fraud as a necessary part of opposing the "Two Year Skills Test"! End
The following article appeared in the March 10, 1978 issue of the Rhode Island Worker, newspaper of the Providence Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists.
On October 25, 1977, the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Quonset Point and Groton, Conn., announced without warning that it was permanently laying off more than 3,000 workers. Hundreds of trainees who were promised jobs after completion of state financed training programs were also turned out on the street.
These layoffs at Quonset and Groton were accompanied by a great deal of moaning and groaning from the capitalist politicians who had hailed Electric Boat as a "godsend" and a model for solving the problem of rising unemployment, and by weeping and sobbing from their flunkeys, the labor bureaucrats, who had helped bring the notorious Electric Boat into Rhode Island as a non-union shop to do assembly work for the unionized Groton shipyard. This attack by the General Dynamics capitalists, bringing great hardship on workers with years of seniority, explodes the myth spread by the monopoly capitalists and their government that state financed ventures like E. B. at Quonset are the path to "economic prosperity" and "permanent jobs" for the workers of R.I.
Look at the facts about Electric Boat's coming to R.I. and about the layoffs. In 1972, the blueprints for monopoly capital to invest in R. I. 's sagging economy were drawn up by Project Rhode Island, a group of bankers, capitalists and labor bureaucrats. This group set up the machinery to finance, equip and supply manpower for this investment through the state Department of Economic Development. The heart of this program is state financing of ventures like Electric Boat or ITT Grinnel (alias the Fairmount Foundry of Cranston) with money picked from the pockets of the workers. For Electric Boat this meant financing the Ocean State Training School which trained 90 percent of the welders, steam- fitters, etc., hired by E.B.; the granting of land and buildings at minimum expense to the capitalists; tax breaks as "incentives" to investment (for example, consider the fact that General Dynamics paid no effective federal income tax in 1976); and recruiting of workers from the ranks of the unemployed by D.E.S. and welfare with CETA grants. The opening of the Quonset Point plant in 1974 gave E.B. a high profit investment at a cost of $28 million-less than half a year's wages for each worker employed -- because the bulk of their facility is subsidized by the state. As well, it gave them the opportunity to shift production away from the Groton plant where the workers have a militant history of resistance to the capitalists, and thus divide the workers and weaken them.
No attempt was made by then-Governor Noel to conceal the plan to keep E.B. at Quonset a non-union shop, yet it was hailed by the high-ranking labor bureaucrats of the R.I. AFL-CIO. For example, Representative John Skiffington, also a member of the Executive Council, R.I. AFL-CIO and the Rubber Workers Union, called it "an amazing turnaround" bringing "good jobs" to Rhode Island. The current state AFL-CIO President, Edward McElroy, said that a main task would be to work with the Business-Labor Alliance formed by Governor Garrahy to promote "economic development" in spite of the fact that plants set up by this goup will be mainly non-union shops where the workers are at the mercy of the capitalists. McElroy, Tom Policastro the previous R.I. AFL-CIO President, and Secretary-Treasurer Edwin Brown had all worked with Noel's Project Rhode Island. They are currently promoting industrial development and the building of nuclear power plants by the monopoly capitalists in spite of widespread objections by the masses.
Thus the labor bigwigs supported the state plans for monopoly capitalist development, such as the nonunion Electric Boat. As well, they gave the state a way to deceive the masses of unemployed and impoverished workers, who were seething with revolutionary discontent at the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1974, telling them that the capitalist government would provide them with "good jobs at high wages".
THE LAYOFFS -- AN ATTACK BY ELECTRIC BOAT AND THE GOVERNMENT ON THE WORKERS TO PRODUCE MAXIMUM CAPITALIST PROFITS
Electric Boat, the original operating company of General Dynamics, has grown fat on government contracts and schemes such as Project Rhode Island. It is currently producing five Trident submarines of a total of 14 planned, at a steadily rising cost of over $25 billion, paid for with taxes collected by the government from the workers' incomes. In order to increase their profits, which exceed $100 million annually, the capitalists of General Dynamics rely on subsidies, federal loan guarantees such as the recent one of $730 million for shipbuilding, and tax deferrals, as well as on launching direct attacks against the workers. At present they are claiming $544 million in payment from the Navy for "cost overruns" on the 688-class attack submarines, and in concert with the Litton-owned Ingalls shipyard and the Tenneco-owned Newport News shipbuilding company, are pressing for quick settlement of their claims. These companies claim that their rate of profit on ships is lower than the rate of profit on aeronautical operations. This is in spite of the fact that the rate of return on their investment is 13. 5 percent which is higher than that of non-defense producers, as they can rely on government-owned plants and equipment rather than making investments themselves. Their claims of "cost overruns" have nothing to do with actual costs and have everything to do with increasing their "low" rate of profit at the expense of the working masses. The Defense Department has given these monopoly capitalists a "new profit policy" whereby they have a free hand to negotiate higher profits in return for "increased productivity", i.e. speeding up the workers and laying others off.
Just what are the "good jobs at high pay" that E.B. has "provided" the workers of R.I.? The first point is that E. B. has "provided" nothing. The state has provided the capitalists with optimum conditions for investment to exploit the labor of R. I. workers. The second point is that these jobs are neither "good" nor permanent as demonstrated by the massive layoffs. Nor are these jobs high paying -- the jobs are low paying relative to the degree of skill needed -- welders start at little more than $4. 00 an hour-- which is below the state average for all manufacturing workers. The workers at E.B. are forced to endure devastating conditions of work, with a high rate of accidents and deaths. Workers are forced to weld in unventilated areas in the presence of toxic fumes and breathe asbestos and fiberglass particles which cause cancer and lung disease. In the last few years E.B. has been cited for numerous health and safety violations including the murder of 23 workers from asbestosis, but has turned a deaf ear to the demands of the E.B. workers for even minor health and safety improvements because it goes against their drive for making maximum profit. The third point is that the workers who have been trained in skills such as welding, pipe fitting, etc., are subject to complete wage slavery to the capitalists at E. B. Many workers find when they are laid off that there is no place in R. I. besides Electric Boat to use their work skill. In other words, the workers trained with the use of CETA and state funds derived from the taxation of the masses must work at E.B. and nowhere else.
The final point about these "good jobs at high pay" is that the Trident Submarine program itself is an attack on the workers. It is part of the preparations of the U.S. imperialists for launching a war with Soviet social-imperialism for the re-division of the world markets and sources of raw materials, a war to perpetuate the enslavement of the working and oppressed people of the entire world. The Trident carries 24 long-range ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads. These weapons have only one purpose, terror and mass destruction. Under the dictatorship of the monopoly capitalists, the workers are forced to build such weapons, but they have no interest in producing them, and much of the work has to be redone. The morale of the workers is extremely low. Furthermore, these war preparations of the imperialists are entirely parasitic, draining the economy on a huge scale and characterized by rising overall cost but declining numbers of workers employed, with large-scale layoffs a frequent occurrence. Imperialist war preparations by their very nature cannot provide any permanent means of livelihood for the masses, only the means of destruction.
So these are the "good jobs at high pay" which E.B. has "provided" -- Jobs, financed through the taxes of the masses, which ensure that the monopoly capitalists are provided labor at the lowest cost to themselves, to use or to layoff as they see fit. Although the capitalist politicians, especially the so-called "friends of labor" of the Democratic Party, are moaning and groaning about the Electric Boat layoffs, they are continuing to offer slave labor jobs programs to the masses of unemployed, such as the training program at E.B., even though many of the workers trained for E.B. have yet to be hired. The layoffs expose their deception that the capitalists and their government, working hand-in-hand with the labor bureaucrats, in such groups as Garrahy's Business-Labor Alliance, will provide any solution to the extreme levels of unemployment. The capitalists have no interest whatsoever in solving unemployment. The capitalists use the pressure of the large numbers of unemployed workers to create job insecurity among the employed workers, to enforce stepped-up exploitation under the threat of replacement with a worker trained under a government jobs program. As an example, the laid-off workers at E.B. were offered production jobs (if they qualified) at rates of pay received by workers trained through CETA programs -- many thousands of dollars a year less than their previous pay. Thus they have used the unemployed to force the workers to bear the burden of the present economic crisis and fatten the profits of General Dynamics.
The layoffs at E.B. and the present economic crisis in the U.S. are part of the world crisis of the capitalist system, which is taking place under the conditions of the general crisis of capitalism. Unemployment has long been a permanent feature of life in the U.S., particularly R.I., and no schemes of the government will change this. The jobs program at E.B. is a sinister means of protecting the profits of the rich at the expense of the workers and preparing for imperialist war. But the class struggle of the working class against such attacks are surging forward. The layoffs at Electric Boat have exposed the programs of monopoly capital such as Project R.I. and the Business-Labor Alliance as programs to make the workers pay for the economic crisis. The workers are waging mass revolutionary struggle against unemployment and for higher wages. This latest attack by the E.B. capitalists will only increase the resistance of the proletariat to the shifting of the burden of the economic crisis onto their backs and strengthen their resolve to overthrow the monopoly capitalists and their state. End.
The following article is from a summary of a discussion meeting held by the Latin American Progressive Study Group.
The present military-fascist system in Brazil was set up in 1964. In 1964 the armed forces of Brazil carried out a coup d'etat and established a regime totally subservient to U.S.imperialism. Following the coup of 1964 the U.S. imperialists took over all the key positions in Brazil. A government totally subservient to them seized power there, because, though the government in power up till then was one of the big bourgeoisie and the landowners, it defended some national interests. Seeing that the politicians of the nationalist bourgeoisie were no longer useful to them, the U.S. imperialists threw them out and brought to power instead those whom they had trained as officers for many years in the U.S. Thus a military-fascist system was imposed in this way on the Brazilian people so as to serve the interests of the U.S. big bourgeoisie and of the Brazilian big bourgeoisie and the landowners by carrying out systematic fascism and terror against the Brazilian people. Nowafter thirteen years of arbitrary rule the country is in a very grave situation. The "development" plans implemented by the military in Brazil and based on foreign capital, especially U.S. capital, have created serious and deep economic crisis, have seriously worsened the standard of living of the people and brought about untold misery to them, and have made Brazil more dependent than ever on the imperialist trusts and monopolies. The dissatisfaction with the present regime has reached vast sectors of the population. The factors contrary to the dictatorship continue to develop at a fast rate. The working class shows signs of great dissatisfaction. In the countryside, the resistance and the struggle of the peasants in defense of their land is on the rise. Many times they have resisted the government troops with guns in hand. In the cities the students and other sectors of the people are taking to the streets to express their hatred against the dictatorship. What all this means is that the replacement of the system imposed by the military is on the agenda. This being the case, there are two alternatives regarding this replacement. One corresponds to the people's opposition; the other one to the opposition of the ruling classes. The people's alternative is that of uncompromising struggle so as to overthrow the dictatorship, win freedom and open the road to a democratic and progressive society. The other alternative, that of some sectors of the ruling classes, is to achieve certain liberalization of the present regime, suppressing some of its more openly despoticaspects while preserving the repressive apparatus so as to keep the working masses and people subjugated and protect the interests of the reactionaries and imperialism.
In order to better understand these two alternatives, let us look more closely at the situation in Brazil. With the coup in 1964 the doors were flung wide open for imperialist capital, especially U.S. capital, to come and plunder at will. The Geisel regime, in power at present, is stubbornly keeping its open door policy and the foreign monopoly capitalists are exploiting the toil of the local workers and the great natural assets of the country. The U.S. monopolies have stretched their clutches over all branches of the Brazilian economy, and approximately half of the 120 foreign capitalists' companies operating in Brazil now are American. According to data of the Brazilian press, the foreign monopolies have under their control almost the entire car industry, 98% of the tobacco processing industry, 80% of the pharmaceutical industry, 75% of the glass industry, 64% of rubber production, 67% of milk production, 50%, of the textile industry, etc. Moreover, last year the foreign debt of Brazil was 27 billion dollars, or 10 billion dollars more than two years earlier. Most of the loans are used for the strengthening and maintaining of the repressive apparatus in face of the growing struggle of the Brazilian people.
All of these data point to the magnitude of the control of foreign capital, especially U.S. capital in the Brazilian economy. They testify to the fact that the armed forces of Brazil have been trained to become the guardians of the interests of U.S. imperialism; at the same time they show how ridiculous are those reports in the press about alleged "contradictions" between the U.S. and Brazil because of violations of "human rights". The Brazilian armed forces are there to protect the interests of imperialism and of the Brazilian big bourgeoisie and the landowners. They are anti-people forces through and through.
At present Brazil finds itself in a grave economic crisis. The so-called "economic miracle" was a fiasco. Last year inflation and rising prices became more pronounced. Similarly, the recession in all branches of the economy, the unemployment, trade deficit and foreign debt, all these things became more pronounced. In the face of this difficult situation, the officials of the reactionary regime are taking a series of measures aimed at shifting the heavy burden of this crisis onto the working masses. The cost of living has become intolerable. The price of everything is going up. Wages are below the 1964 level and can only be adjusted once a year and they never keep up with the increase in the cost of living. All these things point to the nature of the regime in power. It is anti-national and anti-people. It serves the big bourgeoisie and imperialism. As a matter of fact in the thirteen years that this regime has been in power the bourgeoisie has enriched enormously, especially the big Brazilian bourgeoisie as well as the foreign bourgeoisie operating in Brazil, as well as the big landowners, whereas the masses have become more and more impoverished.
This being the situation the dissatisfaction of the popular masses increases and the rejection of the anti-national and anti-people regime becomes generalized. In April of this year the government closed Congress and decreed a series of "reforms" to ensure that the hegemony of the armed forces does not become threatened. It was very likely that the government party would lose many of the elections for state governors to the MDB which is the allowed opposition. These actions of the government were like a spark that set off a wave of protests throughout the country, exposing the breadth and depth of the dissatisfaction with the military. The people showed their rejection of the dictatorship through vigorous demonstrations. Not a few called for its overthrow. The mass movement took to the streets raising the banners of a freely elected constitutional assembly, of amnesty for political prisoners and for those being persecuted for political reasons, of abolition of the exceptional legislation passed by the government. Vigorous strikes and demonstrations by the students exploded in several cities. Nearly a hundred thousand university students took part in these demonstrations in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Parana, Bahia and other states. The students were not intimidated by the threats of the government and the university administrations. They courageously faced the attacks of the army and the police.
How did the generals react to this situation? For a while they were put on the defensive. They threatened. But their threats did not have the desired effects. The protests became more widespread. Then they planned their counter-attack. They schemed against the people. And they went into action. What kind of action? Exactly the same type of action as in the past when they had faced other political crises, in other words, the use of more violence, the application of arbitrary and punitive measures. They banned all demonstrations in public places. They arrested many students. All books, journals and other foreign publications will be subject to previous censorship. They tortured young workers arrested on the first of May. And they increased the pressures against the MDB, persecuting many of their deputies and senators. In this way they want to eliminate even the allowed opposition, by re-structuring those parties which act as a cover for the regime.
In spite of all this they cannot intimidate the Brazilians who love freedom, progress and social-justice. The more the fascists turn to repression and despotism, the more they become isolated, the greater the hatred they arouse among the people. The dynamics of the anti-fascist struggle are always the same, namely, higher level democratic actions force the reactionary army to step up their violence against the people. This violence, in turn, teaches the masses of the people how to carry out more effective and resolute forms of action against the dictatorship. In this process those who defend democracy become stronger and more resolute, whereas the fascists become more isolated and weak. These are the dynamics of the anti-fascist struggle, and they will inevitably lead to the overthrow of the dictatorship.
But this is not the way some people think. Certain gentlemen, because of the stand they take in the class struggle, because their interests are in opposition to the interests of the broad masses of the people, these gentlemen corns up with theories of gloom and doom. This is the case, for example, of the revisionists, the false "communists", who because they serve the imperialist interests of the Soviet Union they are looking for an outcome contrary to the interests of the people. Similarly with other sections of the bourgeois opposition to the dictatorship. With the new repressive measures, for example, certain sectors of the bourgeois opposition become discouraged. They become impressed by the despotic acts of the government and by the threats of harsher measures. They lose their last hopes in the promised "liberalization" by Geisel and Golberi and start dreaming about the remote possibility that Geisel's successor will bring about the hoped for democratization of the country. But these are mere dreams. If ever a new dictator succeeds Geisel he will proceed along the same anti-people and anti-national road as his predecessors. On their part the reformists and revisionists have invented a geometric process which consists in "widening the spaces already conquered". In political terms this means a process of adding up, little by little, small concessions from the dictators which would end up by depriving the dictatorship of a place under the sun. But nothing could be more mistaken than these ideas, because the struggle against the dictatorship is a contradictory process where the working masses and the people hit at their oppressors, on the one hand, and the fascists intensify the repression, on the other. Basically the victories of the masses are verified by the intensification of the struggle, by the raising of the level of the struggle, by the sharpening of the political conflicts, of the contradiction between the aspirations of freedom and social justice of the majority of the nation, on the one hand, and the anti-popular and anti-national system of the fascist military on the other. The mass struggles of the working masses and people enhance their unity, militancy and consciousness. They also discipline the working class and serve as schools of communism.
The inevitable perspective is that these clashes between the dictatorship and the masses will become more widespread and will end up destroying the tyrannical and sell-out regime. The so-called "widening of the spaces already conquered" is a new version of the demoralized theory of "accumulation of reforms", very much in fashion before the coup of 1964. At present it corresponds to the behavior of certain sectors of the MDB who, without any faith or confidence in the people, fight for small concessions from the fascists in order to attain the so-called liberalization of the regime. The truth is, however, that only the working masses and people of Brazil will bring about the overthrow of the dictatorship and clear the path for people's democracy and socialism. This will come about neither from the armed forces nor from imperialism.
Now I would like to turn our attention to the countryside. Any assessment of the situation in Brazil and the perspectives for liberation would be o incomplete if we didn't talk about the vast Brazilian countryside. The Communist Party of Brazil, the vanguard of the Brazilian people, says that "when the factories and the countryside will rise up widely in a determined struggle for the rights of the workers and against the dictatorship, then the rule of the generals will come to an end." And this is completely correct. I would now like to quote somewhat extensively from a document from the Communist Party of Brazil written in 1969 in which they talk about some of the features of the people's war in Brazil; they say: "The big cities, where the most powerful and the largest number of enemy troops are concentrated, cannot become the principal theater of the liberation war of the Brazilian people. These troops can encircle and defeat the insurrecting masses who do not have sufficient weapons for resistance. But this does not mean that the cities are not important. Three million workers and a broad stratum of the petty bourgeoisie, who, together with the peasants and the agricultural workers, constitute the motive force of the revolution, are in the cities. The mass political movement in the cities will help prepare and unfold armed actions in the rural areas, while armed actions in the rural areas will in turn push forward the mass struggle in the big cities.
The interior is the favorable battlefield for people's war. The peasant masses are a great force which should be mobilized. They represent an immense potential revolutionary force and are the principal masses providing fighters for people's war. The interior is the weakest link in the domination of the reactionary forces, who do not have enough troops to occupy the vast rural areas. The reactionary troops in these areas can only operate under unfavorable conditions. They will be compelled to disperse their forces and be vulnerable to blows from the- revolutionaries. On the contrary, the people's armed forces will have at their disposal ample ground for manoeuver, enabling them to avoid encirclement and attrition and build up strength. Hence, it will be fundamentally in the interior that people's war will be unfolded. The liberation war of the Brazilian people will be a protracted one and no rapid victory should be expected. To win the victory of the revolution in the whole country, it is necessary to destroy the armed forces of the reactionaries, and the U.S. troops who are bound to be sent to Brazil. With the development of the struggle, the revolutionary forces will be able to occupy extensive areas and establish the people's political power there; however, only through arduous and protracted struggle can they defeat the powerful enemies, and win complete victory.
"The people will rely mainly on their own strength to carry on the war. No illusions about external logistics support should be encouraged. But the Brazilian people are not alone. They have the solidarity of the Latin American people. This will help them greatly in the struggle to be carried out through their own strength."
At this point I will end the quote. I want to emphasize, since we are in the U.S., that the Brazilian people also have the support of the American working class and people. The revolution in the U.S. will be of tremendous help for the Latin American people. However, once again, the Latin American people have to rely mainly on their own strength.
The above document was written in 1969. In 1972 the people's war started in the north of Brazil. On April 12 of 1972 in a large scale repressive operation, and under the pretext of fighting subversion the armed forces attacked the inhabitants of the south of the State of Para, attempting to arrest or liquidate the more resolute and conscious elements and at the same time attempting to terrorize and subjugate, the population. Why does the dictatorship attack the peasants ? This can only be understood by pointing out that the agrarian policy of the generals is to maintain and strengthen the latifundia, the big landholdings. But this is not all. They want to attract and give enormous stretches of land to foreign investors for the production of cash crops for export. Among the big imperialist enterprises owning land in Brazil we have Coca Cola, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Volkswagen and others. For the peasants this means that they are kicked off of their land and losing their means of livelihood they become proletarians of the countryside. But the peasants resist and fight back, in fact the other aspect of the sellout policy of the government is that the peasant movement becomes directly anti-imperialist and not only anti-latifundist, raising in this way its revolutionary potential.
When the armed forces attacked the inhabitants in the south of Para, in Araguaia, the more courageousinhabitants decided to answer the reactionary violence with revolutionary violence. They took up the few weapons at their disposal, organized guerrilla groups and resisted the aggressors. They took refuge in the bushes, so as to better defend themselves from the troops of the dictatorship, which were better armed and much more numerous.
The war lasted more than two years. The army carried out three large scale campaigns against the fighters of Araguaia, together with the air force, navy and military police, using vast numbers of modern weapons. The first campaign took place from April to June of 1972, with 5,000 fascist troops. The second, from September to November of 1972, with 15,000 troops, and the third campaign from October 1973 to May 1974 with 5,000 to 6,000 troops. The first two campaigns of the government were repelled by the guerrillas, while after the third campaign the guerrillas decided to disband. This first attempt of people's war, the heroic resistance in Araguaia, could not consolidate itself and become a wide-scale people's armed movement. I will not go into the details of the war, but I just want to point out that the resistance in Araguaia was a very valuable experience for the revolutionary forces in Brazil and a source of great many lessons both in the political and military fields. The Communist Party of Brazil participated and led this war and many of its cadres were martyred for the cause of the people.
The resistance in Araguaia has profound political significance. It shows the possibility of people's war. A small number of fighters, ill-equipped, and ill-armed, with little military experience, could nevertheless, face a huge number of federal troops. Integrated with the masses and supported by them, the fighters of Araguaia showed the great revolutionary potential that exists in the rural areas of Brazil.
At this point I will conclude this presentation. I just want to reiterate that there are two alternatives to the present situation in Brazil. One is the people's alternative, the road of uncompromising struggle so as to overthrow the dictatorship, win freedom and open the road to a democratic and progressive society, to people's democracy and socialism. The other alternative, that of some sectors of the ruling classes, is to achieve some liberalization of the present regime, suppressing some of its more openly despotic aspects while preserving the repressive apparatus so as to keep the working masses and people subjugated and protect the interests of the reactionaries and imperialism. This last alternative is fine with individuals like Carter. End.
(Radio Tirana recently broadcast a commentary under the above title. The text of the commentary is reproduced below as transcribed by the staff of People's Canada Daily News, as is reprinted from PCDN, April 8, 1978, Volume 8, Number 84.)
The United States propaganda is exploiting the recent visits which the chief of United States imperialism Carter made to Nigeria and Liberia to build up a great myth about the so-called "new White House policy for Africa". The American officials gave this event extraordinary importance, since Carter was the first American president to put his feet on African soil. Carter himself, with his characteristic demagogy boasted to the African public, such as in Lagos on April 2, that the U.S. is committed to. ensuring peace in Africa, and that it will be free from colonialism, racism and military intervention. It is this commitment which the chief of U.S. imperialism claims is the essence of the new American policy for Africa.
First of all it must be said that nobody has asked the American president to become a tutor of the African people and the guardian of peace in Africa. The African peoples have no need of the U.S. imperialists, the Soviet social-imperialists or any other imperialists, because they are entirely capable of ensuring their own freedom, peace and independent development. It is precisely the interference of the imperialist powers, and first of all the two superpowers, which has seriously violated the interests of peace, freedom and independence of the African continent, which has fanned up the flames of war in the Horn of Africa, which is inciting divisions and fratricidal wars among the Africans. The United States imperialists and the Soviet social-imperialists perpetrate one thousand and one evils against the African peoples, and then, with utter shamelessness declare that they cannot sleep for worrying about peace in Africa, as Carter and Brezhnev declare. The new maneuvers which American imperialist diplomacy is concocting in Africa and which Carter tried to promote with his tour are quite incapable of concealing the colonialist and neo-colonialist essence of the policy of U.S. imperialism in Africa.
As soon as he took over in the White House, Carter boastfully proclaimed a new policy in Africa which, according to him, consisted in opening a new dialogue between the oppressive racist regimes and the African people, who have quite rightly taken up arms to win their freedom. Washington has done everything in its power to put its plots of talks into action, and helping the British imperialists as well, and trying by means of pressure, promises and threats to force the people of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Azania to accept deals with the racists. This the United States president describes, as he did during his recent tour, as leadership by the black majority in all the regimes of the continent led by whites. What United States imperialism is after with its plots of peace negotiations is to extinguish the armed struggles of the African peoples in the south of the continent.
In recent times, this struggle has assumed raging proportions and is striking heavy blows at the racist regimes of Salibury and Pretoria, and these blows are causing considerable pain to the United States monopolies of which the Smith and Vorster cliques are tools. In such a situation, United States diplomacy rushed in to offer the Anglo-American plan of negotiated settlement which means preservation of the regime of the racists, the mandarins of United States imperialism and the other imperialist powers, along with the change in the composition of the government to include a few blacks. Jimmy Carter tried to peddle this so-called new policy and to impose it on the African peoples. He wanted to secure an African accomplice for this plot and after he gets power to set Africans against Africans while creating most favorable conditions for the racists. This is one of the main objectives of his tour of Africa. It is clear that despite all of this great demagogy the chief of U.S. imperialism could not deceive the African people. Carter's tricky tactics, his notorious promises of dollars are powerless to cover the truth.
On the African continent, United States imperialism is following the neo-colonialist policy of plundering the wealth and toil of the African peoples. United States imperialism, like Soviet social-imperialism, and other imperialist powers which have descended on Africa are concerned only with the securing of the strongest leading positions on this continent. Carter's tour is an expression of the sharpening of the savage rivalry for hegemony between the two superpowers, each of which is trying to elbow out the influence of the other and consolidate its own hegemony in the African continent. Carter went to Africa to open new paths for the penetration of the American policy of ensuring new spheres of influence on this continent. Jimmy Carter tried to play on the emotions of the African audience with his preachings of a Baptist priest, pretending that he was deeply concerned about African freedom and independence, but it is those billions of dollars which are being invested in the African countries, the big markets for American goods, and the cheap labor power, the oil, the uranium, diamonds and other wealth of the Africans which is the real concern of this envoy of the Wall Street monopolies. United States investments in the countries south of the Sahara Desert exceed $4 billion, about half of which is in South Africa. 300 big American monopolies have subsidiaries in South Africa, and each year the U.S. imports goods worth $1.1 billion from that country. In 1977 the Ford Motor Company alone invested more than $100 million in South Africa. Credits advanced by American banks to the racist regime of South Africa are in excess cf $2.2 billion a year. It is precisely this balance of dollars in investments and profits which the the so-called new African policy of United States imperialism is intended to protect on the African continent. No person of sound logic could believe that United States imperialism will voluntarily give up its oppression and exploitation of other peoples, either in Africa or anywhere else. Carter and other representatives of United States imperialism and all those who engage in American propaganda try to spread illusions, but they are not succeeding and neither can the neo-colonialist policy of U.S. imperialism be concealed under labels of peace.
The peoples of Africa and all the other regions are not deceived by the demagogy of U.S. imperialism and are not giving up their struggle against this savage and barbarous imperialism, which together with Soviet social-imperialism constitute the biggest and most dangerous enemies of the independence and freedom of the peoples of the world. End.
From a leaflet announcing a meeting for a representative of the Hindustani Ghadar Party-Organization of Indian Marxist-Leninists Abroad
Comrades and Friends:
A ripe revolutionary situation exists in India today. The reactionary ruling classes are unable to rule in the old way. They are engaged in bitter dogfights among themselves. The tattered mask of Janata Party "democracy" is getting further exposed day by day. The total bankruptcy and permanent crisis of the economy, the unbearable living condition of the masses of the people, is leading the broadest sections of our people into rebellion. As the ruling classes are continuing the fascistic repression of our people, the resistance of the working class, peasantry and petty-bourgeoisie is growing day by day.
While the objective conditions are ripe for revolution, the subjective conditions need to be built. If there is to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party; a party that is based on the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism and organized in a revolutionary style. Only such a Party can combine and concentrate the historic energies of our people, direct it against our enemies, and sustain a consistent revolutionary oppositional trend that will smash the reactionary state to its foundations and usher in a bright red Peoples' Democratic India.
The heroic Indian people gave birth to such a Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), which was forged in the flames of Naxalbari under the leadership of Comrade Charu Mazumdar. Since his arrest and brutal assassination in July 1972, the genuine Marxist-Leninists in the Party have been waging a heroic struggle to keep the Party alive. Despite the coordinated efforts of the reactionary state from the outside and its revisionist and opportunist agents from the inside, led by Satya Narayan Singh, CPI (M-L) could not be crushed. But due to the treachery of these revisionists and opportunists, today CPI (M-L) exists not in the form of one centrally organized Party, but in the form of various groups which are loyal to Marxism-Leninism and Proletarian Internationalism and to the proletarian revolutionary line of Comrade Charu Mazumdar.
The ripe revolutionary situation cries out and calls upon the Indian Marxist-Leninists to reconstruct the CPI (M-L) as one centrally organized Party. This is the crucial and most urgent task facing the Indian revolution.
On what basis must the Party be reconstructed? On what basis must the unity of Marxist-Leninists be forged? This question is of paramount importance. Today it is essential to pay attention to the words of Great Lenin, that before we can unite, and in order that we may unite, it is necessary to draw clear lines of demarcation. This meeting is being organized with the aim of clearly establishing the correct principles for reconstructing the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
The Party must be reconstructed on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and Proletarian Internationalism, on the basis of uncompromising struggle against revisionism and opportunism of all hues. It must be reconstructed on the basis of a correct assessment of the positive historical experience of Naxalbari, on the basis of staunchly defending and developing the Naxalbari path. It must be reconstructed on the organizational principle of democratic centralism, by resolutely adhering to the Party spirit and fighting tooth and nail against all forms of factionalism and splittism.
Internationally, the inevitable struggle has broken out between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism and opportunism of all hues. Right opportunists have taken over the leadership of party and state in China, and are leading the international opportunist trend based on the theory of "three worlds". This "theory" is a cover for capitulation to imperialism and social-imperialism. It negates the leading role of the proletariat and advocates handing over the leadership to the reactionary bourgeoisie. It stands for the liquidation of revolution in all parts of the world. To uphold Marxism-Leninism means to wage uncompromising struggle against the theory of "three worlds".
In Indian conditions, to follow this "theory" means to reduce the role of the proletariat to giving "critical support" to the Janata party government, just as CPI, CPM and SNS are doing, under the hoax that this "third world" government is objectively "anti-hegemonist". We cannot have any unity whatsoever with the followers of this theory of "three worlds", nor can we tolerate any tendency to reconcile this "theory" with the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
Literally millions of our heroic workers and peasants have shed their blood to show that the Naxalbari path is the only path for the liberation of our motherland. It was Naxalbari which exposed the bankruptcy of CPI's and CPM's "parliamentary path to socialism", and showed the way to unite the revolutionary forces, to establish the worker-peasant alliance, and terrorize the reactionary ruling classes and their imperialist masters, throwing them into a frenzy. To negate this experience means to betray the interests of our people. To uphold Marxism-Leninism and the positive experience of Naxalbari means to characterize the Indian state as semi-feudal and semi-colonial, the stage of Indian revolution as New Democratic Revolution, and follow the line that the Armed Agrarian Revolution is the key to open the lock of the Indian revolution.
Various opportunists have been spreading the treacherous propaganda that CPI(M-L) is split up into many factions, and they blame'the Marxist-Leninists for this. These are the factionalists whose aim is to liquidate CPI(M-L). The Marxist-Leninists who have been vigorously struggling against revisionism and opportunism are united in their thinking and action, and it is they who constitute CPI(M-L) today. The factionalists and splitters are the enemies of CPI (M-L). We cannot have any unity with those who refuse to carry out struggle against revisionism, but are over-eager to find out the "mistakes" of the Marxist-Leninists.
After the assassination of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, various opportunists came up claiming that they were the "followers" of Charu Mazumdar, but they did not carry out the struggle against SNS revisionism. They were in reality followers of SNS. They used their "position" as the "followers" of Charu Mazumdar, to suppress the struggle against SNS revisionism, thus assisting in the undermining of the authority of the Party and the creation of many splits. It is this that forced the Marxist-Leninists in the Party to organize in the form of various groups. Today, when the task of reconstructing CPI(M-L) is being taken up, we cannot admit into the Party any hardened factionalists, anyone who has participated in this splitting activity and who refuses to submit to the uniform discipline of the Party.
This whole attack launched on CPI(M-L) was part of the international opportunism led by arch-unrepentant capitalist roader Teng Hsiao-ping, which raised its ugly head in 1971. The tactics used by these opportunists in India are the same tactics of political blackmail that their mentors in China use today, who claim to be the "successors" of Chairman Mao, threatening that they will not recognize anyone who disagrees with them. But it is these characters who have betrayed Marxism-Leninism and the interests of the masses and we do not recognize them.
Some weak elements wail that the Party is split, while at the same time complaining that we are spending too much time fighting against revisionism. This is extreme philistinism and foolishness. Unity can be built only in the course of fighting revisionism on a daily basis. As Comrade Enver Hoxha, leader of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement, has pointed out, "Revisionism is synonymous with splits, lack of unity, chauvinism and anarchy".
Comrades and Friends,
The struggle of the Indian people needs the leadership of one centrally organized party of the Indian proletariat, the CPI(M-L), which upholds the proletarian revolutionary line of Comrade Charu Mazumdar and uncompromisingly fights against revisionism and opportunism of all hues, including the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds". Only such a Party can unswervingly lead the masses of our people towards their liberation, for which they have been making heroic sacrifices for a very long time.
Let all Indian Marxist-Leninists come forward to accomplish the historic task of reconstructing the glorious CPI(M-L) and defend the purity of Marxism- Leninism in the soil of India!
Let all Indian patriots come forward to wholeheartedly support and assist in the task of reconstructing CPI (M-L)!
NAXALBARI ZINDABAD!
The following article is reprinted from Eritrea InStruggle, newsletter of the Association of Eritrean Students in North America (AESNA). It appeared in Vol. II, No. 7, April 1978 issue.
An assessment of the present developments in Eritrea vividly reveals that as the Eritrean revolution led by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front continues to win great victories and irresistibly marches forward, its enemies are on the other hand tremendously stepping up their counter-revolutionary activities to check its advance and crush it. Various forces are at work intensifying their machinations to liquidate the Eritrean people's revolutionary armed national liberation struggle either through brute force or through subversion.
The Ethiopian fascist junta, desperately trying to hold on to its colonial grip of Eritrea, is making full preparations to launch "an all out offensive" against the Eritrean struggle. Armed to the teeth by both the Soviet Union and the U.S. and with the support of thousands of Cuban troops and Soviet and Zionist advisors, the fascist junta is undertaking an insane genocidal campaign to drown the Eritrean people in blood. The junta's Soviet and Cuban supported large scale war of genocide is already underway. For three months now the junta's air force has been carrying out massive daily raids of the liberated areas. Its Mig and F-5 fighter planes have already dropped large quantities of napalm and cluster bombs in population centers -- in particular, the cities such as Massawa, Keren, Dekemhare, Tessenei, Argordat and Nacfa. The besieged Ethiopian aggressor troops in Asmara reinforced by over. 3,500 Cuban combat troops are making periodic attempts to break the EPLA's encirclement of the city and to carry out wholesale massacres of the civilian population around Asmara. In the port city of Massawa, the savage shelling by Soviet warships has destroyed most of the city's factories, public institutions and residential houses causing thousands of people to seek refuge with the EPLF in the rear bases.
The Soviet Union and Cuba, bent on extinguishing the flames of the Eritrean revolution, have escalated their direct military intervention to an unprecedented scale. The number of Cuban combat troops fighting on the side of the Ethiopian occupation forces,has hj-, creased to over 3,500. Piles of sophisticated Soviet weapons -- BM 21 Katyusha rocket launchers. T-54 and T-64 tanks and heavy artillery, etc., -- are being flown into Asmara daily by Soviet Antonov planes. The Soviet Union has also escalated its vicious propaganda attack on the Eritrean struggle. The Soviet Union is slandering the Eritrean struggle in the most monstrous manner. In a Pravda editorial on March 15, 1978, the Eritrean struggle was slandered as "objectively helping the realization of imperialist designs. " The Soviet Union has made it absolutely clear that it is its "ideological and political" choice to support all the way a fascist regime -- the Ethiopian junta -- against a genuine liberation movement -- the just, popular and revolutionary armed national liberation struggle of the Eritrean people.
The Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany are doing all they can to facilitate, prolong and consolidate the fascist junta's colonial occupation of Eritrea. Towards this end, on top of the escalated military intervention, East Germany has begun enlarging the port facilities of the occupied Eritrean port city of Assab for the Ethiopian fascist regime.
In a double-handed move, the Soviet Union and Cuba, in order to conceal their real intentions -- their large scale military intervention against the Eritrean people, are trying to present themselves as if pursuing a peaceful solution to the Eritrean question. Their so-called "peaceful solution" proposal is only to trap the Eritrean struggle into capitulation. Under the guise of a "political solution" they want the Eritrean people to drop their guns, capitulate to the Ethiopian aggressors and sell out their aspirations for national independence and liberation.
The U.S. imperialists are likewise maneuvering to realize their neo-colonialist designs in Eritrea. Under the pretext of "seeking a peaceful settlement," a "federal solution" for the Eritrean problem, the U.S. imperialists are working feverishly to preserve Ethiopian colonial occupation in Eritrea. Expressing "concern" over the situation in the Horn of Africa, U.S. imperialist chieftain, President Carter, has been raising the matter in his meetings with foreign leaders. The U.S. imperialists are busy mobilizing broad support for the imposition of their, neo-colonialist solution on the Eritrean people. Also in this connection, the traitorous Sabbe's numerous statements on dialogue with the fascist Dergue without preconditions cannot be seen in isolation. It is part of the U.S. imperialists' counter-revolutionary design. Moreover, the U.S. imperialists, in order to weaken the Eritrean revolution and liquidate the revolutionary forces, are also bolstering the Sabbe clique.
The Eritrean revolution, encircled from all sides, is in its most trying period. An assortment of various reactionaries have their arrows pointed at the Eritrean revolution. Every attempt is being made to bring the Eritrean revolution to its knees. However large scale and varied the counter-revolutionary machinations against the Eritrean revolution may be, it will not reverse the tide in Eritrea. It is a law of history for counter-revolution to make a last ditch effort to encircle and crush a revolution. All genuine revolutions of the past passed through such an experience. The experience the Eritrean revolution is undergoing is not different. It only proves that the Eritrean struggle is truly revolutionary. It only vividly shows how the Eritrean revolution has terribly terrified its enemies.
The Eritrean revolution is a mighty revolutionary torrent which no counter-revolutionary force can crush. It will triumphantly smash all hurdles placed in front of it by its enemies. The conscious, organized and armed Eritrean masses led by the EPLF are well prepared to engage their enemies in bloody battles and smash the counter-revolutionary machinations directed against their noble cause of national independence and liberation. The EPLF has fully mobilized the entire people of Eritrea -- men, women and children -- to carry the self-reliant people's war to victory. The entire people of Eritrea have firmly stood behind the demand "nothing short of total independence" and are prepared to pay whatever price for their freedom, independence and liberation. Neither the junta's savage aerial bombardment, nor the shelling of Soviet warships, nor the intervention of thousands of Cuban troops, nor the enormous sophisticated Soviet weapons will frighten the Eritrean people. The Eritrean people will never be intimidated. They will defiantly continue their struggle until final victory.
The Eritrean people are not alone. The oppressed peoples of the world are on the side of the Eritrean struggle. Sympathy and support for the Eritrean revolution are mounting throughout the world. The revolutionary forces all over the world, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America, etc, are coming out in support of the Eritrean revolution.
The Eritrean revolution is confronted by many powerful enemies. But Eritrea has dared to take up arms to decide its own destiny. Viet Nam's and Kampuchea's experiences have inspired Eritrea. The Vietnamese people waged a heroic protracted fight against a powerful reactionary force -- U.S. imperialism -- and defeated it. The Eritrean people are likewise putting up a heroic struggle against powerful enemies and will definitely defeat them. "A weak nation can defeat a strong, a small nation can defeat a big. The people of a small nation can certainly defeat aggression by a big country, if only they dare to rise in struggle, dare to take up arms and grasp in their own hands the destiny of their own country. This is a law of history". Small Eritrea has dared to rise in struggle. The Eritrean people are waging a just, popular and revolutionary national liberation war to liberate their country from Ethiopian colonial occupation and establish people's democracy. The Eritrean war is a people's war, a war being fought by the entire people for a just cause. In their 17 years of heroic armed struggle, the Eritrean people have surmounted many obstacles, have won truly spectacular victories and have brought their revolutionary struggle closer to its complete victory. Indeed, the Eritrean people have their destiny in their hands.
It is the revolutionary will and determination of the people fighting for their freedom and liberation rather than the size of troops and quantity of arms of reactionaries that is the decisive factor. "All reactionaries are paper tigers". Now no matter how big the junta's "all out offensive" may be, no matter how huge the Soviet-Cuban intervention may be, and no matter to what extent the U.S. imperialists step up their subversive activities, the Eritrean masses led by EPLF will resolutely resist and emerge victorious.
The fascist junta and its Soviet and Cuban allies will not be able to push the Eritrean revolution even slightly from its position. The EPLF and the Eritrean masses are resolved to continue their struggle and defend the revolutionary gains they have won. Once again, the chain of victories the EPLA is winning against the Ethiopian aggressor troops demonstrates the strategic superiority of the Eritrean revolution over Ethiopian colonial aggression. The Eritrean revolution is invincible.
The Soviet Union, Cuba and the U.S. must keep their hands off Eritrea. The fascist junta, the Soviet Union, Cuba and the U.S. will pay dearly for the crimes they are committing against the Eritrean people. We call on all progressive, revolutionary and democratic forces to closely follow the situation unfolding in Eritrea and firmly stand on the side of the Eritrean revolution. End.
[Graphic]
The Association of Eritrean Students in North America (AESNA) and the Association of Eritrean Women in North America (AEWNA) have launched a joint fund-raising campaign to assist the establishment of a radio station in the liberated areas of Eritrea. The Workers' Advocate enthusiastically supports this campaign. The revolution in Eritrea is advancing from one important victory to the next, dealing heavy blows to U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism and all reaction. The Eritrean liberation forces led by the EPLF have driven the occupation troops of the fascist Ethiopian junta into a corner. The establishment of a radio station in the liberated areas of Eritrea will certainly hasten the inevitable victory of the Eritrean national liberation movement. Below is reprinted the call we recently received from our fraternal comrades of the AESNA.
TO ALL PROGRESSIVE AND DEMOCRATIC FORCES
The Association of Eritrean Students in North America (AESNA) and the Association of Eritrean Women in North America (AEWNA) together have launched a fund-raising campaign towards the establishment of a radio station in the liberated areas of Eritrea.
In Eritrea, the war of national liberation led by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) is surging forward. Ninety-five percent of the country, including major towns and cities have been liberated. The EPLF is scoring victory after victory -- decimating the fascist Ethiopian occupation troops and encircling them in the few remaining cities.
These new victories are bringing forth new and greater tasks for the EPLF vanguard. In its self- reliant protracted struggle to transform and consolidate the vast liberated areas, the EPLF takes as its central task that of organizing, politicizing and arming the masses. Today, with the number of people in the liberated areas, in villages, towns and cities, in the millions, the EPLF is faced with the most urgent task of disseminating mass education on a large scale. To facilitate the acceleration of mass education, the EPLF considers it of prime importance to set up a radio station in the liberated areas. Attempts to isolate the Eritrean struggle and the EPLF, through news blackout, lies, slanders and distortions by the imperialist press has to be com- batted. One of the fundamental ways is to establish a radio station in the liberated areas of Eritrea from where the EPLF can present the true voice of the Eritrean people and expose the distortions by imperialist and reactionary news media.
It is in light of these central tasks of our revolution, that we have decided to launch a fund-raising campaign to assist in the establishment of a radio station. Towards the establishment of the radio station in the liberated areas of Eritrea, we have projected to raise $50,000 within a period of 9 months (December 1977 - August 1978). Therefore we call upon all progressive, anti-imperialist and democratic organizations and individuals to support and assist us in any way they can (contributions, donations, etc.).
For more information and donations contact AESNA, [Address and phone number.] End.
SPEECH BY COMRADE HARDIAL BAINS ON THE EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA DELIVERED IN TORONTO, CANADA, ON MARCH 31, 1978
Dear comrades:
Today, we are celebrating the eighth anniversary of the founding of this Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). It is a very happy and joyful occasion. The Party has inspired our life for the past eight years, and before the Party was founded we aspired to build Such a Party. Our Party guarantees the future for the proletariat and it inspires us in our struggle against imperialism headed by the two superpowers, against revisionism and opportunism of all hues and against all reactionaries. It provides us with strength, determination and revolutionary orientation to march on gloriously on the path of overthrowing the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by force, overthrowing capitalism and building socialism under the dictatorship df the proletariat. It inspires us to fight for a new life without imperialism, without aggressive ware and without exploitation of man by man. There has never been a movement during the period of class society which has taken up such an historic task as the communist movement, started by Comrades Marx and Engels, of ending exploitation of man by man. Our Party embodies the spirit of the bright future that awaits mankind. Our Party presents in concrete form the true aspirations of the proletariat and people.
Before our Party was founded in March 1970, the proletariat had no direction and no mission of its own except the mission of establishing its own political party, its own political vanguard, the most advanced section of the proletariat organized into a Party based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, and organized in a revolutionary style. The Internationalists took up the mission of the proletariat to build this Party in an organized form and created the conditions for building such a Party. Before the Internationalists, there was no organized contingent of the proletariat. The revisionists and trotskyists had bound the proletariat in a hundred and one ways to the aspirations of the bourgeoisie. The revisionists and trotskyists wished for a capitalist system without its inherent disintegrating and revolutionary aspects, without the contradictions inherent in it. They created a hundred and one reformist illusions in the proletariat and ideologically, politically and organizationally made it incapable of fighting the social democrats and the influence of the bourgeoisie. Nay more, the revisionists and trotskyists actually merged with the social democrats in opposition to the historic mission of the proletariat as the gravedigger of the capitalist system.
The founding of the Party was an historic event. It put an end to the period when the vanguard of the class did not exist and when the imperialists and revisionists and opportunists of all hues held sway in the proletariat and other laboring masses. Revisionists and opportunists of all hues are various social props of imperialism. They assist imperialism in a hundred and one ways, but the greatest service they do for imperialism is revising and distorting the theory of Marxism-Leninism. The re-establishment of the vanguard of the proletariat is actually the re-establishment of the theory and ideology of Marxism- Leninism as the theory and ideology of the proletariat. It is no wonder then that the imperialists and revisionists and opportunists of all hues launch such unbridled and frenzied attacks against the theory and ideology of Marxism-Leninism. Some attack this theory directly. They suggest that the theory of Marxism-Leninism was never a valid ideological system and that especially now it has been proven that it is not Valid. Others present themselves as the "followers" and "defenders" of Marxism-Leninism. For example, the Brezhnev-Kosygin modern revisionist clique in Moscow passes off their social-imperialism and fascism as "Marxism". Their followers all across the world, who directly capitulate to and collaborate with the reactionary ruling classes, also present themselves as "Marxists" and "Leninists". "Eurocommunists", those who have publicly declared that the dictatorship of the proletariat is no longer the historical/necessity and necessary transit point of the class struggle of the proletariat, also present themselves as "Marxists" and "Leninists". Then there are the Titoites, the champions of the "middle road", the architects of the line of "non-alignment" either with Marxism or with imperialism. In fact, they actively collaborate with imperialism and their non-alignment is merely non-alignment with Marxism in support of imperialism. They also call themselves "Marxists", 'then there are those who are part of the new international opportunist trend organized on the basis of the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds". They call them;selves not only followers of "Mao Tsetung" but also champions of "Marxism" and "Leninism". Thus the building of the Party means ideological repudiation of all these revisionist and opportunist trends and currents and the defense of the purity of the theory of Marxism-Leninism and of the principles of proletarian internationalism. The ideological building of the Party is a constant and continuous activity of the genuine Marxist-Leninists, at the center of which is the defense of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and of the principles of proletarian internationalism. Eight years of Party building have been eight years of the ideological building of the Party and eight years of resolute struggle in defense of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism and resolute opposition to all hues of revisionism and opportunism.
Today, as in the past, the main danger to the working class movement and to the communist movement is from revisionism, right opportunism. Revisionism is the ideological disarming of the proletariat and making the proletariat the victim of bourgeois corruption and degeneration. Revisionism is the ideological death of the proletariat and the sapping of its revolutionary will and determination and is the creation of maximum confusion and disruption in its midst. Opposition to revisionism is the only guarantee that the proletariat will make practical advance and the working class movement and the communist movement will make steady progress. Capitulation to or collaboration with revisionism is the sure liquidation of the working class movement and the communist movement. Genuine Marxist-Leninists must remain vigilant against revisionism and right opportunism and wage determined struggles against it. The struggle against revisionism is the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. Liquidation of this struggle means liquidation of the struggle against the bourgeoisie.
While opposing revisionism and right opportunism, we must also guard ourselves against dogmatism and left-phrase-mongering. The founding of the Party was also a blow to dogmatism and left-phrase-mongering. Today, as in the past, we are also faced with the confusion-mongering and the disruptive activities of the dogmatists. Building of the Party is also the ideological repudiation of dogmatism, the revisionism from the "left". While William Kashtan and company have represented revisionism from the right, Jack Scott and company have represented revisionism from the "left". The building of the Party is the ideological repudiation of both these forms of revisionism.
The ideological building of the Party and the defense of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism are part and parcel of the creation of the subjective conditions for proletarian revolution. Without ideological building of the Party, there will be no building of the Party whatsoever. Marxism-Leninism is the theory guiding our thinking, and all our practical work must be guided by that thinking. For the revisionists and opportunists, the theory of Marxism-Leninism merely exists as a dogma. While their thinking remains bourgeois, they pretend that they are following Marxism-Leninism. To deprive the proletarian movement of its theoretical base is the mission of revisionists and opportunists of all hues. But without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement. Thus, the defense of the theory of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism and the ideological building of the Party are the surest guarantee of victory of the proletarian movement for emancipation.
Our Party is the party of the class, the party of the proletariat. Not only is our Party the party of the proletariat but it is the party of the international proletariat. In its outlook, even though its first struggle is against its own bourgeoisie, it carries out this struggle by always keeping in mind the fact that it is part of the international proletariat, that in fighting for the overthrow of its own bourgeoisie, it fights for the interests of the international proletariat. The outlook of the proletariat is international and so is the outlook of the bourgeoisie. Marx and Engels gave the call to the international proletariat: Workers of All Countries, Unite! They saw the unity of the interests of the proletarians of all countries against the interests of the bourgeoisie of all countries, that is labor facing capital, globally. The unity of the interests of the proletarians of all countries is first and foremost the unity of class brothers, the unity of those who make their subsistence by selling their labor power and secondly, their main exploiter is the same capital which is international and nestles everywhere. This forms the objective basis of the unity of the proletarians of all lands and is concretized by the unity of all advanced sections of the proletariat of all lands in the form of their revolutionary political parties. These revolutionary political parties base themselves on an entirely new ideological system, a system which is a radical rupture with all existing traditional systems. It is this new ideological system which forms the basis of the eternal unity of proletarians of all lands. This ideological system provides the subjective conditions for the unity of proletarians of all lands. Marxism-Leninism is such an ideological system. The unity of the international proletariat is concretely reflected in the unity of the Marxist-Leninist parties. All the revisionist and opportunist trends are ideological systems of splitting the international proletariat and of liquidating the working class and communist movement. The unity of the proletariat can only be established on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. There can be no other lasting unity. Our Party is acutely aware that the proletariat is split, basically between the revolutionary proletariat and the reformist proletariat. The bourgeoisie, the revisionists and opportunists of all hues have floated all sorts of anti-Leninist trends in the proletariat in order to totally split it and liquidate the proletarian movement for emancipation. The unity of the proletariat which is so much needed can only be established on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
The unity of the proletariat can only be established on the basis of the party, which is based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, and is organized in revolutionary style. Our Party is such a party. Marxism-Leninism is one indivisible theory and ideological system. It does not permit any splits and it leaves no grounds for speculation or the formation of factions holding this or that peculiar idea. Marxism-Leninism is monolithic and the party based on Marxism-Leninism must necessarily be a monolithic party. It cannot permit any kind of two lines within it. The struggle within the party is the lifeblood of the party, but this struggle is directed against this or that distortion of Marxist-Leninist principle and for this or that Marxist-Leninist principle. It is a struggle to preserve the Marxist-Leninist proletarian character of the party and to preserve its Marxist-Leninist ideological, political and organizational lines on all questions. But the fact that there is struggle in defense of Marxism-Leninism does not mean that either the party is "independent" of Marxism-Leninism or of some other party or that the party permits the existence of the revisionist and opportunist line within it. Two-line struggle is taking place between the Marxist-Leninists and the revisionists and opportunists of all hues. But this struggle is taking place in the general framework of defending the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism against all the distortions and revisions, but organizationally, the revisionists and opportunists of all hues are not in the party. They are outside the party and are against it. They are enemies of the party. The party cannot tolerate those who are fighting for either their own peculiar brand of "Marxism-Leninism" or who are fighting to permit the existence of factions within it.
Our Party is organized on the organizational principle of democratic centralism. It practices criticism and self-criticism at all levels of organization of the Party. Both the organizational principle of democratic centralism and the revolutionary style of criticism and self-criticism preserve the monolithic unity of the Party and are opposed to the factional struggle within the Party. When we organize the Party on the basis of democratic centralism, the first issue which is taken up is the question of line. Democratic centralism cannot be established by ignoring the Marxist-Leninist ideological and political line. On the contrary, the revolutionary organizational principle of democratic centralism preserves and defends the Marxist-Leninist ideological and political line of the Party. Any kind of distortion of this organizational principle is fraught with serious danger to the life of the Party. Both bureaucratism and liberalism are enemies of democratic centralism and the revolutionary style of criticism and self-criticism. Liberalism and bureaucratism are the penetration of the proletarian party organization by the bourgeoisie. The sooner the two are opposed, the better it is for the life of the party. Liberalism is the main enemy of the organizational principle of democratic centralism even though bureaucratism also poses a serious danger. The revolutionary style of the party is its resolute adherence to the line of putting theory into practice. In order to preserve the monolithic unity of the party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, neither can factions be permitted to exist in the party nor can liberalism be permitted to prevail in the party. The only discipline the revolutionary party of the proletariat acknowledges is the iron discipline of the class against the class enemies. There can be and there is no other revolutionary discipline.
The Party must have the closest links with the proletariat and it must be composed of the most advanced elements of the proletariat. The improvement in the class composition of the party and the establishment of the closest possible links with the proletariat is a constant and continuous struggle. It is a matter of defending the interests of the class. The class composition of the Party is improved by the establishment of Party basic organizations in all production centers under the slogan: Let All Production Centers Be Fortresses of Communism! While it is true that the Party is the political party of the class and wages political struggle against the class enemy by taking its politics to all sections of the the society, it is also true that the entire class has the leading role in proletarian revolution. Neither does the Party bind the revolutionary politics of the proletariat to the "parliamentary and peaceful road" and organize itself in the form of local community groups for the purpose of elections and pressuring parliament nor does it give up the leading role of the proletariat by confining the Party to the production centers and binding the proletariat to the narrow aims of trade union politics. It must be clearly understood that the Party is the vanguard of the proletariat, its most advanced and revolutionary organization. But the leading role of the proletarian revolution is not an exclusive preserve of the Party. It is the proletariat which leads and the Party is the most organized section of the proletariat, its vanguard and the general staff. The proletariat leads by taking its politics to all sections of the society and it fights for the leadership of the nation against the leadership and the rule of the bourgeoisie while it also organizes itself as a class with a mission to overthrow the rule of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system. Thus, it fulfills its role of leadership by taking its politics to all sections of the society and through its Party it politically fights the bourgeoisie on every front while by organizing the basic organizations of the Party in the production centers, the Party improves its own composition, imbues the proletariat with proletarian class consciousness and organizes the proletariat as the revolutionary class. The Party opposes both the revisionist and opportunist line of confining the proletarian struggle to bourgeois politics and it opposes the confining of proletarian struggle to bourgeois trade union politics. A genuine Marxist-Leninist Party develops the leading role of the proletariat in its political battle with the bourgeoisie and leads it to victory over its class enemy.
The proletariat learns the revolutionary struggle through its own life-experience. While the Marxist-Leninist political consciousness is brought to the proletariat from without, it learns about its mission and the necessity of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat through its own life-experience. In order to establish the closest links between the Party and the proletariat, the steel-like unity of the proletariat around its Party, the Party participates in and leads the practical movement of the class. The Party does not provide ready-made panaceas to the class and does not tell the class that the Party can emancipate the class, that is, that a section of the proletariat will emancipate the entire proletariat. On the contrary, the Party participates in the day-to-day struggles and leads the proletarian movement for emancipation. The Party strives with determination to lead the proletarian movement to break out from the confines of struggle imposed by the bourgeoisie and by the revisionists and opportunists of all hues. The actual practical task of leading the class to break out from the confines imposed on the proletarian struggle by the bourgeoisie requires a determined and long-term participation in the economic struggle of the class in order to imbue it with Marxist-Leninist class consciousness. Without participation in this struggle, the Party will remain isolated from its own class and will fail to lead the proletariat to victory over the bourgeoisie. The revisionists and opportunists of all hues look at economic struggle as inherently reformist and without any revolutionary oppositional trend in it. Economic struggle is one of the three forms of proletarian struggle and it remains at this level because of the fetters imposed on it by the bourgeoisie and the revisionists and opportunists of all hues. Economic struggle must break out from the bourgeois limits imposed on it and it will as the Party actively participates in it and provides it with Marxist-Leninist political consciousness.
A genuinely revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist Party of the proletariat is always organized in secrecy during the period of transition from capitalism to communism. The revisionists and opportunists of all hues create maximum confusion on the question of secrecy and create extremely harmful illusions about bourgeois "democracy" and "democratic" liberties. Whether the struggle is legal or illegal, the Marxist-Leninist Party must always be organized in secrecy. Organizing in secrecy does not mean abandonment of class struggle as some left phrase-mongerers believe. The Party is organized in secrecy for the purpose of waging class struggle and to win victory over the bourgeoisie. Our Party is opposed to creating harmful illusions about bourgeois democracy and "democratic" liberties and is also opposed to establishing secret societies in isolation from class struggle.
The Party takes a revolutionary attitude towards the reactionary state and openly declares that the proletariat can accomplish its aims only by the forcible overthrow of the reactionary state of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system. Our proletariat about its class mission and imbues it with revolutionary class consciousness. It educates the proletariat to look at the question of revolutionary violence and the question of legal or illegal struggle from the standpoint of class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Our Party is firmly opposed to the utopian and anarchist ideas about these questions and firmly opposes all adventurist actions which are geared to disrupt and dismember the working class and the communist movement. Our Party is firmly opposed to parliamentary cretinism and the pathetic defense of the bourgeois law and order of the revisionists and opportunists of all hues and the Party educates the proletariat to gather strength and its forces in vigorous class struggle against the bourgeoisie. The Party educates the proletariat about the absolute necessity of class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Party is the instrument of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat where it does not exist and the Party is the instrument of consolidating and expanding the dictatorship of the proletariat where it does exist.
Party building is the most important historic task in creating the subjective conditions for revolution. Objective conditions are ripe for revolution but the subjective conditions are lagging behind. The eight years of work of the Party have been eight years of vigorous struggle to develop the subjective conditions for the proletarian revolution. The Party has made tremendous progress in its work. Our Party is the only organized political force which has as its theoretical basis Marxism-Leninism and, because it defends the purity of Marxism-Leninism with firm determination and iron will, it has a bright future and long life. Ten years ago, there was no organized Marxist-Leninist political force in Montreal. Today, not only does the Party exist but its levers and instruments of propaganda in the broadest sections of the masses also exist. There is the glorious Communist Youth Union of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), the mass organization of the youth to win the youth over to communism. There is the Canadian Workers' Association, the mass organization of the workers to win the workers over to communism. There has been the founding of the Ad-Hoc Committee of the Progressive Women's Association to win the women over to communism. And there is the Canadian Cultural Workers' Committee, an instrument of revolutionary propaganda. Eight years of the Party have given the proletariat eight years of conscious revolutionary proletarian struggle. Class struggle is necessarily going to lead to the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
LONG LIVE OUR PARTY!
ALL GLORY TO MARXISM-LENINISM!
UPHOLD PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM! End.
(The above speech has been reprinted from People's Canada Daily News , Vol. 8, No. 78, April 1, 1978.)
In response to the Call of the National Executive Committee of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists "Go All Out for the Internationalist Rally!", vigorous activities have been organized by the COUSML and its sympathizers to mobilize the proletariat and all friends of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement for this historic rally. Preparatory Committees have been organized, wide-scale propaganda has been done, meetings have been held, study sessions have been organized and discussions have taken place on the burning questions facing the Marxist-Leninist movement. Below is reprinted a summary of the discussion at a meeting held in the industrial proletariat in preparation for the Internationalist Rally.
Comrade Workers!
This Preparatory Meeting is a meeting for COUSML to consult with the revolutionary workers on various questions and problems to advance the revolutionary movement, to unite the working class in its mission to overthrow the rich and international reaction and to build the leadership of this whole process, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement.
The first point is that the working class is an international class, in terms of its exploitation, its conditions, the working class is the same in every country in that it is the wage-slaves to the capitalists. In terms of its enemy, this too is the same in every country in that capitalism is international and exists in the world imperialist system, headed by the two superpowers -- U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. In the struggle of the working class in any country the workers from other countries see themselves and their cause for emancipation. For example, when the coal miners waged their heroic strike against the coal capitalists, defying the capitalists' state power and defying Carter's Taft-Hartley injunction against the strike, this struggle was heralded all over the world. The Party of Labor of Albania carried article after article supporting the coal miners because the Albanians could see that in this struggle the American miners were weakening U.S. imperialism and that this struggle was preparing the American workers for even greater class battles in the future, class battles for the overthrow of the reactionary bourgeois state power. This strengthens Albania in her struggle against the imperialist encirclement. And the American workers, too, see their cause and inspiration in the bright red bastion of Socialist Albania, with Comrade Enver Hoxha and the glorious Party of Labor of Albania at the head. Thus, in terms of its common interests and enemy the working class is an international class and this internationalism works through the working class fighting the rule of the international bourgeoisie in every country.
The second point is that on this basis the working class has given rise to its own ideology, its own world outlook, its own revolutionary theory, which is the doctrine of Marxism-Leninism. In 1848, summing up the class struggle for thousands of years, Karl Marx created this theory for the education of the working class and gave the call: Workers Of All Countries, Unite! Marx put forward the scientific view that the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. Lenin defended the purity of Marxism and developed the strategy and tactics of proletarian revolution in general and the strategy and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular. Marxism-Leninism, the only truly scientific doctrine of the history and future of mankind, educates the proletariat, makes it conscious of its history and future and gives it guidelines for the emancipation of the working class. The basic tenant of Marxism-Leninism is that to emancipate itself the proletariat must proceed through a violent revolution, overthrow the state power of the capitalists, establish the rule of the working class (dictatorship of the proletariat), wield this state power to smash all the remnants of capitalism and build socialism as the decisive step to proceed to end all classes and exploitation of man by man in the building of communism.
The third point is that today the proletariat is split. It is this split that serves to continue the exploitation by the monopoly capitalists, to continue the rule of imperialism on a world scale. The source of this split in the working class is that the bourgeoisie floats bourgeois trends of thought and action in the ranks of the workers to split them and disrupt their struggles. The bourgeoisie sends its agents into the revolutionary movement to promote bourgeois ideology and political line, to create confusion and splits and to oppose Marxism-Leninism. For example, there is this group called the October League (OL) that claims that it is Marxist-Leninist. They present the thesis that the American workers should direct their main blow at Soviet social-imperialism. They claim to be such internationalists that the U.S. working class can skip over the revolution against its own bourgeoisie, can in fact unite with the bloody, U.S. imperialists to fight the Russians -- and this is to the extent that they keep calling for the American workers to pressure the fascist U.S. government to build more B-l bombers and more Trident submarines for the inter-imperialist war. These social- chauvinists (socialists in words, defenders of "our own" monopoly capitalist dictators, in deeds), are just promoting bourgeois ideology, bourgeois political line, but they are claiming that it's Marxist-Leninist and proletarian internationalism. The point here that is very important to grasp is that the bourgeoisie trains its agents to revise Marxism- Leninism, to cut out its revolutionary heart, with the aim of sowing confusion and splitting the working class struggle for emancipation.
The final point is that to end the split and confusion in the working class we must build the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. The work for the Internationalist Rally has advanced this and already for some time many revolutionary workers have been assisting the COUSML in this work. We are of the opinion that this work, which is the building of the links of the Marxist-Leninists with the masses has reached the stage where it must become more conscious and organized. The strength of the revolutionary movement lies in the organization of the workers. This organization must be based on the Marxist-Leninist political line and ideology. Therefore, the education of the masses in Marxist-Leninist politics is crucial to organizing the workers and building the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. We want the Marxist-Leninist political line of COUSML to go very deep in the working class; everywhere, on every floor, and every shift of every plant. This will deepen the Marxist-Leninist influence and bring revolutionary political consciousness to the workers as they daily resist capitalist exploitation; this will arm them to wipe but confusion and splits of revisionism.
The Preparatory Meeting summed up the points discussed above. The proletariat is an international class and has the mission of proletarian revolution, dictatorship of the proletariat and ending exploitation pf man by man. The proletariat has its own ideology, Marxist-Leninist theory, which makes the proletariat conscious of its mission and guides it in its struggle for emancipation. But today the proletariat is split and the source of this split is the bourgeois trends of thought floated in the ranks of the working class by the agents of the bourgeoisie. All of these forms of bourgeois ideology serve to split the proletariat and disrupt its revolutionary movement. To end this split and confusion in the working class and to unite it in struggle against monopoly capital and international reaction; there must be a resolute struggle against revisionism (revising of Marxism-Leninism), and all bourgeois trends of thought (e.g. social-chauvinism); defense of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism and the education of the revolutionary workers in Marxist-Leninist ideology and political line. This can only be carried out through the building of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party.
LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST MOVEMENT!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM AND PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM! End.
Montreal, Canada April 30,1978
11:00 AM Revolutionary songs of the international proletariat
11:15 AM Welcoming address to the fraternal Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties
by Comrade Hardial Bains, Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
12:30 PM Showing of film depicting scenes from the Seventh Congress of the Party of
Labour of Albania
12:50 PM Presentation of telegramme hailing the great Marxist-Leninist, Comrade Enver Hoxha
1:05 PM Presentation of telegramme hailing the great Marxist-Leninist Party of the international proletariat -- the Party of Labour of Albania
1:20 PM Singing of the Song of the Seventh Congress of the PLA in Albanian
1:30 PM Singing of the Song of the Third Congress of CPC(M-L)
1:40 PM Introduction of Representatives of the fraternal Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties
3:00 PM Internationalist Feast in honour of the fraternal Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties
4:00 PM Speeches by representatives of the fraternal Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties
9:00 PM Revolutionary CulturalProgramme
11:00 PM Closing Speech by Comrade Hardial Bains, Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
All interested in participating in the First Internationalist Rally of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties and in assisting in organizing should visit or write to: PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE FIRST INTERNATIONALIST RALLY OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST PARTIES 814A Ontario Street East, Montreal, Quebec; Telephone: [Number.]
ADMISSION: By donation -- all who cannot afford are also welcome to attend
ALL FRIENDS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST MOVEMENT ARE WARMLY INVITED TO ATTEND
Workers of the World Unite!]
Chorus:
We're coming from the whole wide world
'Cross mountains, oceans and valleys,
A great blow to revisionism --
The Internationalist Rally!
A triumph for communism --
The Internationalist Rally!
In 1848 was born the Manifesto of the Party,
And CPC(M-L) upholds its glorious legacy.
Facing every storm the Party grows to a mighty monolith,
And the bright red outcome of her work is April the thirtieth!
It's April the thirtieth!
(Chorus)
The news is travellin' round the world, it's
known to one and all
That the Marxist-Leninist parties are coming to Montreal.
Like a thunderbolt in spring, echoes Marxism's victory.
And right before our eyes we see the Internationalist Rally.
The Internationalist Rally!
(Chorus)
There's a fresh new breeze of unity, a trend that's here to stay
In the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement today!
To defend the purity of Marxism is our vital task
Against the agents of imperialism. It's our duty to our class.
All revisionism we'll unmask.
(Chorus)
Let's Bolshevize the Party, improve our fighting skill
To scale the heights of revolution, we most surely will.
With our glorious parties guiding us, Marxism in command,
We'll overthrow the bourgeoisie, end the slavery of man.
We'll smash the chains of man!
(Chorus)
(This song is reprinted fromPeople's Canada Daily News, April 8, 1978, Vol. 8, No. 84.)
DE TODOS LOS OPORTUNISMOS INMUNDOS EL PEOR ES LA "TEORIA DE LOSTRES MUNDOS"
(Of All the Base Opportunism in the World, The Lowest by Far is the "Theory of Three Worlds")
[ Cartoon strip:
LOS OPORTUNISTAS DE HOY EN DIA AL FIN TIENEN TEORIA.
The opportunists have at last today found the theory to guide their way.
LOS REVISIONISTAS CHINOS LA LANZAEON, LOS OPORTUNISTAS TODOS LA ADOPTARON.
The Chinese revisionists launched the thing; The opportunists, one and all, are following.
LANZANDO NUEVAS CONSIGNAS FALSAS, TRAIDORAS E INDIGNAS.
With new slogans filling their banners full- Traitorous, false and despicable.
EN ESP ANA LOS 08 R. T. EROS LA DEFIENDEN LOS PRIMEROS
In Spain the O.R.T. was first to take up defense of this theory cursed.
"LA LUCHA DE CLASES-iQUE HORROR!- YA NO ES DE LA HISTORIA EL MOTOR".
"Class struggle-- Oh! What could be worse?!- It is not history's motive force".
"PACTEMOS, COLABOREMOS PERO DE REVOLUTION NI HABLEMOS",
"We make pacts, we collaborate. But we never, never talk about overthrowing the state".
Y LOS YANQUIS CRIMINALES SON AHORA ALIADOS LEALES
Now those Yankee criminals are suddenly our loyal pals.
COMO TITO, PINOCHET Y EL SHA Y OTROS CABRONES "MADE IN USA".
Like Tito, the Shah and Pinochet And other pimps "Made in U.S.A."
UNIRSE AL ENEMIGO DE CLASE DE TAL, TEORIA ESLA BASE.
The basis of this theory grand: unite with the class enemy, hand in hand.
ACUDE, EN EL FONDO, LA TEORIA.
Aiding and protecting the bourgeoisie which hides behind this theory.
EL P.C.E. (M-L), ANTE TANTA TRAICION, LEVANTA LA BANDERA DE LA REVOLUTION.
The P.C.E. (M-L), in face of such treachery, holds up the banner of revolution, for the whole world to see.
LUCHANDO LA CLASE OBRERA TAL TEORIA ECHA POR TIERRA.
The struggle of the workers will pound This rotten theory into the ground.
Y UNA COSA ES BIEN SECURA: SU FURURO ES LA BASURA.
One thing we know is: without fail, its future is the garbage pail.
DE LOS TRES MUNDOS EL BULO, SE PUEDE IR A TOMAR POR... ESO.
The lies this theory has spread so thick-- what you can give them is... a kick.]
(The above poster by the Spanish revolutionaries has been translated and adapted by The Workers'Advocate. It illustrates the struggle being waged by the Spanish proletariat under the leadership of The Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) against opportunism and the reactionary classes.)
The Commemoration of the the First Anniversary of Passing Away of Chairman Mao Tsetung
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is holding a very important political rally on September 10, 1977 in Montreal to commemorate the first anniversary of the passing away of Chairman Mao Tsetung. This political rally will be followed by rallies all across Canada from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. These rallies will culminate with the convening of the Fifth Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), with the following program: On the Unity of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement. The Fifth Consultative Conference will be held in Montreal on October 22 and 23, 1977.
The passing away of Chairman Mao Tsetung is a great loss not only to the proletariat and people of China and to the Communist Party of China, but also to the international proletariat and the people of the world. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is based on the theory of Marx, Engles, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tsetung and Comrade Enver Hoxha. The writings of Chairman Mao Tsetung assist us to guide our work in Canada and the life and work of Chairman Mao Tsetung is a source of great inspiration to us.
Chairman Mao Tsetung has a special place in the history of the revolutionary struggles in this era. He was not only the organizer and leader of the Communist Party of China under whose leadership the Chinese proletariat and people overthrew the three mountains of comprador-bureaucrat capitalism, feudalism and imperialism and embarked on the socialist road with the establishment of the People's Republic of China but he he was also a great fighter against modern revisionism and opportunism of all hues. He led the proletariat and people of China to smash the bourgeois rightists, the revisionists and opportunists of. all hues during the period of socialist revolution and construction. He cleared out of the Party the bourgeois rightists and revisionists like Kao Kang, Peng Teh-huai, Lui Shao-chi and Lin Piao and Teng Hsiao- Ping. Internationally, he led the Communist Party of China to firmly oppose Khrushchovite revisionism and Titoite revisionism and the revisionists of other countries and vigorously upheld proletarian internationalism. The revolutionary prestige of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China under his leadership was extremely high and th,e proletariat and people of the world looked towards him as the leader, teacher and inspirer of the international proletariat. He inherited, defended and developed Marxism-Leninism in the course of the practice of the Chinese people's democratic revolution and during the period of socialist revolution and socialist construction. He organized and led the unprecedented Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China which was a great blow to imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction, and a tremendous support to the international proletariat and people of the world.
Chairman Mao Tsetung always put the international proletariat at the center of the world proletarian socialist revolution, and fought for, established, preserved and extended the leadership of the proletariat of China and its Communist Party as the leader and the only leader of the people's democratic revolution in China. After the historic victory of the people's- democratic revolution he continued the glorious work of preserving and extending the' leadership of the proletariat and its Party as the leader and organizer of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. He defended the purity of Marxism-Leninism and vigorously fought against modern revisionism with the Khrushchovite revisionists at the center and against opportunists of all hues.
During the later years of Chairman Mao Tsetung's life and work, the rightists in China under the leadership of Teng Hsiao-ping systematically took up the nefarious task of reversing the correct verdicts and unleashed the right-deviationist wind. Internationally, Teng Hsiao-ping incited and nurtured revisionists and opportunist cliques in various countries in order to dismantle and disorganize the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement. Teng Hsiao-ping resorted to double-dealing tactics and blackmail and pushed the theory of "three worlds" under the guise that it is the theory of Mao Tsetung. Right opportunists led by Teng Hsiao-ping caused trouble everywhere and created a massive amount of ideological confusion in order to push their right-opportunist revisionist line in the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement. Right opportunists headed by Teng Hsiao-ping hated Chairman Mao Tsetung. They organized the counter-revolutionary riot in Peking on April 5, 1976, and strove to make a comeback. They intensely hated the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and schemed to reverse the correct verdicts of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and to organize the capitalist restoration. They hated the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement and created maximum ideological confusion by interfering in the internal affairs of the fraternal parties. They carried out brutal and barbaric attacks on the Marxist-Leninist forces everywhere.
With the passing away of Chairman Mao Tsetung on September 9, 1976, they organized the reactionary coup and took over the leadership of the Party and state. They have been carrying out attacks on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, reversing correct verdicts, restoring the arch-revisionist and right opportunist elements overthrown by. the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and they have taken up the road of capitalist restoration. Internationally, they have interfered everywhere especially against the Marxist-Leninist parties and have created maximum ideological confusion. They have incited and nurtured revisionists and opportunists everywhere. They invited the arch-revisionist and counter-revolutionary and imperialist agent Tito to China and want to reverse the correct verdict of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement on him. They are pushing their international counter-revolution under the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds".
Before Chairman Mao Tsetung passed away, he led the struggle against the right-deviationist wind of Teng Hsiao-ping. But after his death, the right opportunists took over and unleashed the most pernicious ideological confusion reminiscent of the time of Khrushchov. Just, as Khrushchov preached anti-Leninism under the pretext of being a "creative follower" of Lenin, in the same way the right opportunists in China are using the prestige of Chairman Mao Tsetung, the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China in order to push their counter-revolutionary revisionist line so as to restore capitalism in China and to dismantle and disorganize the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement.
The seizure of the leadership of the Party of Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao's China, is an international plot against, the proletarian revolution in the capitalist-revisionist world and against the national liberation struggles in the semi-feudal and semi-colonial countries. It is an international plot to replace the Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Communist Party of China with a revisionist and opportunist leadership, to replace the dictatorship of the proletariat with the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and to restore capitalism. It is an international plot against the Party of Labor of Albania and the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and against all genuine Marxist-Leninist parties on a world scale. It is an international plot in favor of imperialism and social-imperialism, in favor of the reactionary bourgeoisie of all countries and is a blow to the revolutionary struggle and revolutionary aspirations of the proletariat and people everywhere.
For several years now, from the beginning of 1974 to date, the right opportunists in China have used the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Canada to interfere in the internal affairs of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement of Canada and have incited and nurtured the revisionists and opportunists here. For several years now, our Party has been observing, studying and investigating this and hoping that this brutal interference in the internal affairs of the fraternal parties was an exception. For several years, while we were hoping for a change, the revisionists and opportunists of the type of Jack Scott and James Endicott and various opportunist sects have let it be known everywhere that certain Chinese officials do not "approve" of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). Jack Scott has openly admitted his allegiance to the right-opportunist and revisionist leadership of Teng Hsiao-ping and he has openly stated that his anti-Leninist pamphlet Two Roads was commissioned by the right opportunists in China via their. Embassy. Since the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and especially since the victory of the Marxist-Leninists over revisionism in Canada in the later part of the 1960's and early 1970's, and since the founding of CPC(M-L), Jack Scott had no place in the Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement in Canada and the Chinese Marxist-Leninists despised him as they despised the revisionists of all countries. But in 1974, after Jack Scott wrote his anti-Leninist pamphlet Two Roads, he received an invitation to visit China and he arrogantly declared that he had a "passport to China". In other words, he had a say with the revisionists and right opportunists in China. The crimes of the revisionists and right opportunists of China against the Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement in Canada and against the Canadian people are many, and the proletariat and its Marxist-Leninist Party will never forgive them and reconcile with them. On the contrary, we will continue our firm and continuous work against revisionism and opportunism of all hues.
Today, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania is the only genuinely socialist country. The Party of Labor of Albania headed by the great Marxist-Leninist Comrade Enver Hoxha is the leader of the struggle against revisionism and opportunism of all hues in the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement. The Party of Labor of Albania and Comrade Enver Hoxha are building the. unity of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement with their thoroughgoing and scientific attacks on revisionism and opportunism of all hues. Whosoever does not defend the People's Socialist Republic of Albania is not a proletarian internationalist but a national and social chauvinist. Today, the defence of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania is the touchstone of proletarian internationalism in exactly the same manner that the defence of the Soviet Union at the time of Lenin and Stalin, the defence of the socialist camp that emerged after the Second World War and the defence of the socialist countries of the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of Albania after the rise of Khrushchovite revisionism, was the true indicator of proletarian internationalism. The defence of the Party of Labor of Albania and the People's Socialist Republic of Albania is the defence of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
An ideological struggle against the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds" has broken out in the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement. Whosoever keeps quiet about this matter and does net take his responsibility of attacking the opportunist and revisionist theory of "three worlds" cannot be called a genuine Marxist-Leninist and a revolutionary. The right opportunists in China led by Teng Hsiao- ping have invited Tito to visit China. Our Party vigorously opposes this restoration of arch-traitor Tito to the International Communist Movement and to international prestige. Our Party holds that far from restoring Tito to the International Communist Movement and providing him with revolutionary prestige, he should be branded as a traitor of the International Communist Movement and a stooge of imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction. Our Party, alongside with the other genuine Marxist-Leninist parties, considers Tito as a traitor to the International Communist Movement and the agent of imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction. We firmly uphold the historic verdict on him by the Cominform when they kicked him out of the International Communist Movement, and we will continue to uphold this correct verdict.
Today, the task of defending the purity of Marxism- Leninism and the genuine Marxist-Leninist line of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement is of the same calibre and of the same nature as during the period when Khrushchov seized control of the Party and state in the Soviet Union and embarked on the capitalist road. Our opposition to the right-opportunist takeover in China of the Party and state leadership is principled and based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Not to firmly oppose the revisionist and opportunist takeover in China and the ideological confusion the revisionists and opportunists are creating on the world scale would be a renunciation of the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls upon all the genuinely progressive forces to participate in the political rally on September 10, 1977, in order to defend the Marxist-Leninist line of Chairman Mao Tsetung and oppose revisionism and opportunism of all hues. Chairman Mao Tsetung upheld the Marxist-Leninist political line for China and for the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement throughout his entire life. Can this be said of those who proclaim from the rooftops that they are "successors" of Chairman Mao Tsetung? No, this cannot be said of them. Today, to defend Chairman Mao Tsetung, the Communist Party of China and socialism in China is to oppose revisionism and opportunism of all hues. Not to do so is to actively support capitalist restoration in China and liquidation of proletarian revolution, national liberation struggles and socialism on the world scale, and to serve imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction. End.
(Reprinted from People's Canada Daily News, Vol. 7 No. 212, September 5,1977)
Approved by the Revolutionary Mass Rally Organized by CPC(M-L) on September 10, 1977 in Montreal, in Commemoration of the First Anniversary of the Passing Away of Chairman Mao Tsetung
Frederick Engels, in his letter to Bebel on October 28, 1882, pointed out: "The development of the proletariat proceeds everywhere amidst internal struggles." "And when, like Marx and myself,one has fought harder all one's life long against the alleged socialists than against anyone else (for we only regarded the bourgeoisie as a class and hardly ever involved ourselves in conflicts with individual bourgeois), one cannot greatly grieve that inevitable struggle has broken out."
This "inevitable struggle" to which Engels is referring has now broken out for the third time in this century. The first was the collapse of the Second International and Lenin's firm opposition to the revisionism and opportunism and the capitulation of the leaders of the Second International. Lenin wrote about the collapse of the Second International and pointed out: "To the class-conscious workers, socialism is a serious conviction, not a convenient screen to conceal petty-bourgeois conciliatory and nationalist-oppositional strivings. By the collapse of the International they understand the disgraceful treachery to their convictions which was displayed by most of the official Social-Democratic parties, treachery to the most solemn declarations in their speeches...Only those who do not wish to do so or do not find it to their advantage to see it." Further he explained that individuals like Kautsky do not "oppose the principles of Marxism openly" but they "pretend to accept and at the same time to emasculate it by sophistry, to transform. Marxism into a holy 'icon' that is harmless for the bourgeoisie." Further, Lenin pointed out: "Kautsky has degraded Marxism to unparallelled prostitution and has turned into a real churchman. The latter tries to persuade the capitalists to adopt peaceful democracy -- and calls this dialectics..." "All oppressing classes stand in need of two social functions to safeguard their rule: the function of the hangman and the function of the priest. The hangman is required to quell the protests and the indignation of the oppressed; the priest is required to console the oppressed, to depict to them the prospects of their sufferings and sacrifices being mitigated (this is particularly easy to do without guaranteeing that these prospects will be 'achieved'), while preserving class rule, and thereby to reconcile them to class rule, win them away from revolutionary action, undermine their revolutionary spirit and destroy their revolutionary determination. Kautsky has turned Marxism into a most hideousand stupid counter-revolutionary theory, into the lowest kind of clericalism."
The second "inevitable struggle" broke out when the Khrushchovite revisionists seized control of the Party and state in the Soviet Union and embarked on the road of treachery and betrayal. They began capitalist restoration at home and capitulation to and collaboration with imperialism in international affairs. The Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania, along with other genuine Marxist-Leninist parties, vigorously opposed Khrushchovite revisionism and defended Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The Chinese comrades pointed out: "In our view, when a revisionist clique emerges and a capitalist comeback occurs in a socialist country, all the Marxist-Leninists in the world are duty-bound1 to expose and struggle against these things: this is the only correct and principled stand. The only way to serve the fundamental interests of the great Soviet people and to give them genuine support is resolutely to expose the fact that the revisionist leadership of the CPSU is restoring capitalism in the USSR.
"If we should cease exposing and combatting the domestic and external revisionist policies of the newleaders of the CPSU, if we should abandon our principled stand and take so-called 'united action' with them, that would suit them very well. It would help them to hoodwink the Soviet people. It would hinder rather than support the Soviet people's struggle to defend the fruits of their socialist revolution; it would hinder rather than support the Soviet people's struggle against Khrushchov revisionism without Khrushchov.The Chinese comrades further stated: "Comrade Mao Tsetung has often said to comrades from fraternal parties that if China's leadership is usurped by revisionists in the future, the Marxist-Leninists of all countries should likewise resolutely expose and fight them, and help the working class and the masses of China to combat such revisionism. Taking the same stand, we consider it our bounden proletarian internationalist duty firmly to expose the revisionist leadership of the CPSU, to draw a clear line between ourselves and them, and to persist in the struggle against Khrushchov revisionism."
The Chinese comrades further stated: "Comrade Mao Tsetung has often said to comrades from fraternal parties that if China's leadership is usurped by revisionists in the future, the Marxist-Leninists of all countries should likewise resolutely expose and fight them, and help the working class and the masses of China to combat such revisionism. Taking the same stand, we consider it our bounden proletarian internationalist duty firmly to expose the revisionist leadership of the CPSU, to draw a clear line between ourselves and them, and to persist in the struggle against Khrushchov revisionism."
Lenin once said: "It has always been the case in history that after the death of revolutionary leaders who were popular among the oppressed classes, their enemies have attempted to appropriate their names so as to deceive the oppressed classes." Khrushchov, in order to deceive the oppressed classes, tried to appropriate the name of Lenin while launching brutal and slanderous attacks against Stalin and revising the theory of Marxism-Leninism. The Albanian comrades vigorously repulsed the attacks of Khrushchov on Stalin and defended him. The Albanian comrades point out: "In defending Stalin, our Party defended Leninism, defended the socialist victories the Soviet Union had achieved, defended the revolutionary line of the communist movement, in which the historic role and great contribution of Stalin remain immortal. 'The Party of Labor of Albania', declared Comrade Enver Hoxha, 'thinks that it is not right, normal, or Marxist, for the great name and work of Stalin to be erased from this whole epoch as is being done. All of us should defend the splendid and immortal work of Stalin. He who does not defend it is an opportunist and a coward.'"
This is the third time the "inevitable struggle" has broken out. The revisionists have taken control of the Party and state of China. They are trying to appropriate the name of Mao Tsetung in order to revise Marxism-Leninism. They also use every opportunity to malign the name of Comrade Stalin. It is absolutely intolerable that one of these "leaders" recently announced to the joy of the imperialist and social-imperialist press that "Stalin liked killing people", the same revisionist and anti-communist trash the imperialists and social-imperialists and reactionaries of the whole world have been circulating against Comrade Stalin for a long time. While working out plans to bring about capitalist restoration in China, the revisionists and opportunists in China have concocted the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds" which allegedly coincides with "new data" etc. The Chinese comrades pointed out in the sixties that: "The old-line revisionists of the Second International often used what they called 'new data on economic development' to confuse the masses and cut the revolutionary soul out of Marxism, while falsely displaying the colors of 'Marxism'. History is repeating itself under different conditions and in different forms. The modern revisionists, while falsely displaying the colors of 'Leninism' and talking glibly about being 'faithful to Lenin', are actually repeating the same process of using certain 'new data' on historical development to confuse people, undermine the revolutionary teachings of Leninism and assail the essential teachings on imperialism and his theory and tactics on proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship."
History is repeating itself the third time under different circumstances and different forms. While opposing the basic Marxist-Leninist teachings of Chairman Mao Tsetung, the revisionists and opportunists of all hues are appropriating the name of Chairman Mao Tsetung and are also using the same method of the "old-line revisionists". According to some, "faithful to Lenin's teachings and in line with them, Chairman Mao studied an immense amount of factual material of the contemporary world. He deduced his great theory of three worlds." According to another,"... Chairman Mao advanced the concept of the three worlds after studying a considerable amount of documents and data concerning various countries, political forces and classes, with the lively method of dialectical materialism". While blaming Chairman Mao Tsetung for this anti-Leninist thesis of "three worlds", the revisionists and opportunists of all hues are simply telling lies and repeating these endlessly in order to cause maximum ideological confusion.
Besides pushing the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds", the right opportunists in China have restored Teng Hsiao-ping and have internationally reversed the correct verdict of the International Communist Movement about the arch-renegade, imperialist agent and traitor Tito. This is what the Chinese comrades wrote about Teng Hsiao-ping when Chairman Mao was alive:
"Teng Hsiao-ping, the arch unrepentent capitalist-roader in the Party, played the commander's role in vehemently stirring up the right deviationist wind which culminated in the counter-revolutionary political incident at Tien An Men Square. Before the Great Cultural Revolution he was No. 1 chieftain of Liu Shao-chi's bourgeois headquarters. The two bourgeois headquarters of Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao were smashed during the Great Cultural Revolution, and when Teng Hsiao-ping was criticised by the masses, his words flowed in a spate of vows, such as 'I'll mend my ways' and 'I'll never reverse the verdict'. But, once he resumed work and was in power, he threw off his disguise and, with hatred grown tenfold and frenzy increased a hundredfold, brought all his experience in counter-revolutionary political struggle into play, cooking up a program, preparing public opinion and mounting an organized and planned attack on the Party with the spearhead directed at our great leader Chairman Mao."
The "inevitable struggle" has broken out. It is struggle against the old-line revisionism of the Second International and against modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist renegade clique at the center and with revisionists and right opportunists in China and revisionists and opportunists of all hues in various countries as their willing servants and hangmen. The particular brand of revisionism and opportunism as nurtured by the revisionist and right opportunist clique in China is most hideous as it proclaims from the roof-tops and pretends that it is against "Soviet social-imperialism" while it actively promotes revisionism everywhere. We must vigorously oppose the modern revisionist renegade cliques in Moscow and Belgrade as well as in Peking and their followers all over the globe.
Our struggle is against modern revisionism and opportunism of all hues. It must be fought courageously as part and parcel of the struggle against imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction.
Recognizing this, the revolutionary mass rally organized by CPC(M-L) in commemoration of the First Anniversary of the Passing Away of Chairman Mao Tsetung resolutely declares that:
1. The right opportunists in China have taken over the Party and state leadership.
2. Their spearhead of attack is against the proletarian revolutionary line of Chairman Mao Tsetung.
3. Their aim is to restore capitalism in China and replace the dictatorship of the proletariat with the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
4. Their restoration of Teng Hsiao-ping, their anti-communist attacks on Comrade Stalin and their reversal of the correct verdicts of the International Communist Movement on Tito are an affront and a provocation against the International Marxist-Lenin- ist Communist Movement and revolutionary people of the world and are part of the international plot to paralyze and liquidate the international Marxist - Leninist Communist Movement.
5. The theory of "three worlds" is the theory of capitulation to imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction and is an attack on the international proletariat, the socialist system and the proletarian revolution and is designed to cause maximum ideological confusion in the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement.
6. The Canadian opportunists are divided into
a. outright supporters of the rightists in China and
b. conciliators with the rightists in China. We have resolutely opposed both kinds of opportunists in the past and continue to draw clear lines of demarcation with them.
7. Our duty is to vigorously hold high the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism and firmly oppose the revisionists and opportunists of all hues and carry on struggle against imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction.
DOWN WITH THE RESTORATION OF TENG HSIAO-PING!
DOWN WITH REVISIONISM AND OPPORTUNISM OF ALL HUES!
DOWN WITH THE ANTI-LENINIST THEORY OF "THREE WORLDS"!
DOWN WITH THE "VISIT" OF ARCH-RENEGADE, AND IMPERIALIST AGENT TITO TO CHINA!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM AND PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM!
WE WILL WIN!
MARXISM-LENINISM WILL BE VICTORIOUS ALL OVER THE GLOBE! End.
(Reprinted from People's Canada Daily News, Vol. 7, No. 220, September 14, 1977)
BY COMRADE RAUL MARCO, SECRETARY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SPAIN (MARXIST-LENINIST)
"There is one, and only one, kind of real internationalism, and that is working wholeheartedly for the development of the revolutionary movement and the revolutionary struggle in one's own country, and supporting (by propaganda, sympathy, and material aid) this struggle, this, and only this line, in every country without exception."(Lenin)
There are some matters which can in no way be a matter of discussion, and one of these is the attitude that the genuine communist parties must have towards proletarian internationalism, which is one of the inalienable principles of Marxism-Leninism.
At this time in the present ideological struggle which is developing between the Marxist-Leninists and the "new" opportunists whose flag is the rotten theory of "three worlds", we see how these opportunist gentlemen convert proletarian internationalism into a mere phrase, void of content, while in practice they boycott it, sabotage it and attempt through all possible means to stop the Marxist-Leninist parties from establishing solid links on the basis of principles. For example, why do they oppose multilateral meetings between the parties? The explanation which they give, and let us be frank, the explanation which the revisionist clique of Teng Hsiao- ping and his cohorts give is as "ingenious" as it is hypocritical: "the conditions are not ready". Well, principles. Such, for instance, was the case when we took advantage of the occasions of the 6th and 7th Congresses of the PLA and the internationalist rallies held in Italy, Germany, Portugal and Greece, in which various parties of Europe, Latin America and Asia participated. Important documents and resolutions have come out of these meetings, such as the Joint Declaration of the Latin American Parties (against which the Chinese revisionists launched themselves like wolves), and the recent Joint Declaration between our Party and the parties of Germany, Greece, Italy and Portugal.
We can explain why the new opportunists viciously oppose the multilateral meetings: in this type of meeting, as a matter of course, questions of principle are raised, questions of the tactics and strategy of revolution -- in a word, questions of Marxism-Leninism. And this, precisely this, is what these new opportunists cannot tolerate because they would love to settle all issues by themselves, and although they are very hypocritical, they would end up exposing themselves as revisionist curs. They prefer bilateral meetings (which we of course have nothing against) because in these meetings, (always in their own places) they can prop up their discredited theories trappings of their power. And if one of the parties contradicts them, refuses to accept their deals and refuses to be bought, then they break relations with that party and try to isolate it from the other parties. We know this well, from our own experience, as a result of having had to suffer this treatment with our own flesh for many years now. Furthermore, just as these revisionist gentlemen have clashed with us, they are clashing against the ideological staunchness of the majority of the Marxist-Leninist parties. This is why, because their revisionist politics are going from defeat to defeat, the Chinese revisionists have to rely on small groupings which are greatly discredited and of very doubtful character such as that of Jurquet in France, Vilar in Portugal and their like.
At the same time, they artificially float a whole series of groups in different countries to pit them against the genuine Marxist-Leninists, without any modesty or shame. It is enough to glance through Peking Review to see how the "new" opportunists maintain "close and comradely" relations with four or five groups in Italy (while they boycott the fraternal party which they have attempted to split), just as they do in Germany, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, France, Latin America, Japan, Iran, etc., etc.
And in Spain, "Operation Carrillo" having fallen apart on them - on which they had placed all their hopes (i.e. recall that Mr. Santiago was received in Peking in 1971 against the views formally put forward by our Party in Peking a year prior to the visit) -- they support the Jesuito-Maoists of the ORT and the trotskyo-revisionists of the PTE which, of course, unreservedly support the rotten theory of "three worlds" although they don't quite dare to explain it in clear terms.
Thus we see how the "new" opportunists conceive proletarian internationalism, not as Lenin puts forward in the quotation which precedes this article, but as a means of splitting the peoples and the parties, of sowing confusion and, definitely, of favoring the international bourgeoisie and Yankee imperialism. It is clear that, having embraced and raised to the level of "comrade" the renegade, imperialist agent and reactionary Tito, nothing can surprise us: "Tell us v/ho are your friends, and I will tell you who you are". On our part, we affirm the position of the 2nd Congress of our Party: "Revisionism is not only to betray the principles of Marxism-Leninism, give up the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the violent revolution; revisionism is also to promote unity with barefaced revisionists; revisionism is also to fail to have a practice which is consistently revolutionary, no matter how many Marxist-Leninist phrases are used or how many revolutionary stances are assumed."
(This article is reprinted from People's Canada DailyNews, Volume 8, Number 42; February 18, 1978, which was translated from issue no. 216, January 1-7, 1978, ofVanguardia Obrera. Organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist)
In its issue of January 6, 1978, the newspaper Roter Morgen, organ of the Communist Party of Germany (Marxist-Leninist) published an excerpt from the "Greeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany (Marxist-Leninist)" entitled " 'The Theory of Three Worlds' Is a Revisionist, Counter-Revolutionary Theory". The Workers'Advocate is reprinting this article below.
Of great significance for our Party and for the entire International Communist Movement in the past year was the struggle against the new, international opportunist trend and its so-called "theory of three worlds". The struggle against this new variation of modern revisionism is particularly complex and difficult because the leadership of the Communist Party of China is at the center of this counter-revolutionary trend.
For some years now the foreign policy of the government of the People's Republic of China has been the subject of intense discussion within the International Communist Movement and amongst revolutionary workers: the Chinese government's support of NATO and of the American presence in Western Europe and support of the Common Market; the granting of credits to the fascist regime in Chile. In West Germany particularly, Strauss's visit to China and the honors paid to this fascist in Peking as well as the invitation of fascist generals and war criminals such as Trettner and Kielmansegg have aroused the indignation of revolutionary workers. This foreign policy of the Chinese government is in contradiction with the interests of the world proletariat, the oppressed peoples, socialism and the International Communist Movement. It completely contravenes proletarian internationalism. Apparently, the Chinese government wants to ally itself with the most reactionary regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America and with the Western imperialists, including the U.S. imperialists, against Soviet social-imperialism. For a time our Party supported and justified some points of this counter-revolutionary policy, or kept silent about it, although it was and is directed against the interests of the German working class and the German people. As self-criticism we state that this was a serious, opportunist error.
The leadership of the Communist Party of China has developed the revisionist "theory of three worlds". Our Party, which itself made the mistake in the beginning of propagating this view (even if not as a strategic general line), has subsequently proved repeatedly that the so-called "theory of three worlds" is in complete contradiction with the theories and principles of Marxism-Leninism and we have waged uncompromising struggle against this "theory". It is a revisionist, counter-revolutionary theory. It is directed against the proletariat's struggle for socialism in the capitalist countries. It sabotages the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples against imperialism and internal reaction. In the socialist countries it is directed against the struggle of the proletariat and the people for the defense and consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
For some time the leadership of the CP of China has used every means to impose this revisionist "theory" as a strategic general line on fraternal parties. The leadership of the CP of China has tried to exert pressure on various fraternal parties or to split them by forming splinter groups, because these fraternal parties refused to accept the revisionist views of the leadership of the CP of China. In a number of countries, amongst them West Germany, the leadership of the CP of China supports thoroughly opportunist and provocateur groups against the existing Communist Party. This completely unprincipled policy of the leadership of the CP of China means sabotaging the struggle of the communists for a principled unity of the International Communist Movement. It is obvious that the goal of such a policy can only be to split the International Communist Movement.
For some time our Party waged a vigorous struggle against this counter-revolutionary policy. As a result we have been frequently attacked -- also by the Chinese -- as "anti-Chinese". This reproach is totally unfounded. Our Party tried some time ago to discuss the serious differences existing between us and the leadership of the Communist Party of China with representatives of the CP of China. In fact, the CP of China rejected any serious discussion about these questions. An official representative of the CP of China has even stated that our Party has no right to criticize the CP of China. Finally, we summed up our criticism of various points of the policy of the leadership of the CP of China in a letter which we sent to the Central Committee of the CP of China. The CP of China refused to even accept this letter and sent it back openly through the bourgeois mail. This is an unfriendly, chauvinist attitude towards a fraternal party.
The reproach of being "anti-Chinese" is pure demagogy and is intended to divert from the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is that the CP of China is following a counter-revolutionary line, that it has caused great damage to the world proletariat, the oppressed peoples and the International Communist Movement. The leadership of the CP of China rejects any serious discussion of these questions. Our Party and other fraternal parties have no further possibility to convince it of the revisionist character of its views and to persuade it to return to Marxism-Leninism. The leadership of the CP of China must therefore be combated by Marxist-Leninists as counter-revolutionary.
In the past year our Party, in conjunction with fraternal parties which follow a consistent Marxist-Leninist line, has strengthened the struggle against modern revisionism, including this new, international opportunist trend, for the defense of the principles of Marxism-Leninism and for the unity of the International Communist Movement which is anchored on these principles. The powerful international meetings in Rome, Ludwigshafen, Athens and Lisbon have shown that proletarian internationalism, in spite of all the attacks of the social-chauvinists and revisionists, is a living principle of the International Communist Movement. The Joint Declaration of our Party with the Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish fraternal parties represents an important victory in the struggle for the defense of Marxism- Leninism and proletarian internationalism, for the unity of the International Communist Movement. However, this struggle is by no means over. It must be stepped up in the coming year. Without consistent struggle against modern revisionism, including this, its most recent variation, the unity of the International Communist Movement cannot be achieved. End.
In continuation of his visits to the district of Saranda, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, Comrade Enver Hoxha visited the sector of Ksamil of the agricultural enterprise of Vrina.
A meeting was organized there. After speaking of the problems of the development of fruit-growing and the great transformations made in that area, Comrade Enver Hoxha dwelt on some questions of the proletarian and principled foreign policy of our Party and state and of their Marxist-Leninist relations with and attitudes towards the other countries.
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PLA said that we, Albanians, have worked and have fought, will fight and work by shedding our sweat and honestly. We have been and are right. We tell the truth openly, whether you like it or not, whoever you are. It is this that has made Albania strong, it is this that has raised aloft the name of the Albanians and of the Party of Labor of Albania. These are the lofty virtues of our people. Capitalism and revisionism trample these virtues under foot. But there are not only capitalists and revisionists in the world. They are the minority. There are millions and hundreds of millions of honest people, fighters for the truth, in the world. We, the Albanians, have friends, these fighters for freedom. We love them and they love us. They are enough for us and we together with them are strong, whereas the capitalists are weak. Nobody likes the trickster, nobody likes the deceiver, nobody likes the robber, nobody likes the oppressor.
It seems to me that about 19 years are being completed, Comrade Enver Hoxha continued, that we have come to these places with the arch Soviet renegade, Nikita Khrushchov. He came here to see neither the orange trees, nor fruit trees, nor the olive, which is a tree symbolizing peace, but to see the lake of Butrint. While talking, he said:
"What are these excavations here in Butrint for, those are dead things"!
"But they are necessary, said I, because these are a part of the great culture of mankind."
"What culture are you talking about? Another thing is needed here", said he. "What do you say", Khrushchov asked the Soviet Minister of Defense, the Marshal of the Soviet Union, Rodion Malinovski: "What if we build up here a center of submarines?"
"Oh", said the Marshal,"ochejn harasho". (very well).
But the hosts thought otherwise and they did not allow that the foreigners take the decision, the hosts did not allow that our ports become centers for their warships against our neighbors and friendly peoples.
As you know, after one year, the affairs got from bad to worse. But what was the reason of their getting worse? They got worse because they were revisionists, imperialists.
We knew them long ago. Stalin, stressed Comrade Enver Hoxha, had known them even before and had explicitly told them: you will sell the Soviet Union to imperialism. And it resulted what Stalin had said. We got to know Khrushchov and company since the time they linked themselves with the Yugoslav revisionists.
Our people, pointed out Comrade Enver Hoxha, are a patient people. There are some "reptiles" today in Europe, which call themselves Communist parties, which claim that others have long ago uncovered the Khrushchovites as traitors to Marxism-Leninism. No, no. This is nonsense. The Party of Labor of Albania was the first who got to know and exposed the Khrushchovite renegades.
The Soviet revisionists aimed at enslaving Albania and the Albanian people. But, they did not succeed. Then, they commenced the political blackmail and economic pressure, but the Party of Labor of Albania maintained its prudence and replied with determination. Neither the hypocritical smiles could deceive our Party of Labor, nor the threats and blackmail could intimidate it. Our Party said to Mikoyan and Khrushchov:
We have ideological and political disagreements with you. If you continue in this way, on this road and through these anti-Marxist methods, then we will fight against you.
However, they were such arrogant people and such megalomanians with the feelings of the big state, so that they thought of us: "What are these nasty flies which pretend they can prick us".
The Party of Labor of Albania told them: "Look here, don't mix up the economic and state questions with the ideological and political questions, because if you mix them up, the worst for you".
"Oh, " Mikoyan opened his eyes saying: "the worst for us"'
"Yes, yes, the worst for you", we retorted.
"But, you, " he said, "will die of hunger".
"No, we will not die of hunger", we replied.
"You will sell yourselves to the imperialists for 30 aspra", Khrushchov said.
"Neither Albania nor the Albanians have ever sold themselves to the imperialists, but it is you who will sell yourselves to the imperialists", we said to them: "the Party of Labor of Albania has its own right, it has its own opinion, regardless that you think otherwise".
The Soviet revisionist renegades continued on this road of treachery and thought that we, Albanians, would yield. We not only did not yield, Comrade Enver Hoxha stressed, but we were determined to defend not only ourselves but also those parties and those states which would be tinder the attacks and blows of the Khrushchovite revisionists. And the Party of Labor of Albania did this with determination and courage taking into consideration no sacrifices at all and, it found itself under the fire of all the modern revisionists, with the Soviet revisionists at the head. And, from this struggle, the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian people emerged victorious, stronger and more tempered than ever.
In continuation of our talks in Moscow, where I was with Comrades Mehmet Shehu, Hysni Kapo and Ramiz Alia, they threatened us that we would bear the responsibility for the breaking of relations with the Soviet Union if we were to speak against them at the meeting of the 81 Parties, but we told them that nobody could deprive us of our right tb freely express our views and that it is you who are breaking the relations and, for this, you bear the full responsibility. We also told them that they had to observe the contracts and agreements signed by the two sides "otherwise you will be covered with shame".
"Will we be covered with shame?"asked Mikoyan.
"You will, for certain, be covered with shame", we told them.
"You cannot cheat us saying that 'we do not break off the contracts, protocols and agreements'".
"You may not break off the contracts, protocols and agreements, but you may not respect and fulfill them".
And in fact, they acted in this way and went so far as to break off the diplomatic relations.
Now, you already know what happened to the revisionist Soviet Union. It is on its feet, but it has been discredited, it is no longer a Marxist-Leninist state, but a revisionist, capitalist, social-imperialist state. And now all the world knows this. The Party of Labor of Albania made its contribution to the exposure of this plague. Therefore, no one can play and trifle with the; Albanian people and the Party of Labor of Albania.
The Albanian people are a just people, a people who do not like to cause harm to anybody, except to the enemies of mankind and Marxism-Leninism. The Albanian people and their Party of Labor want to live in friendship with all those who fight for freedom and independence, for democracy and socialism, in an honest and sincere friendship. We will live in steel-like fraternity and friendship with the Marxist-Leninists. The Albanian state desires to have normal, friendly, cultural and trade relations also with other states which are not socialist states, but which do not nurture hostile aims towards the People's Socialist Republic of Albania.
The speculations on our correct Marxist-Leninist stand in the political, economic and other issues are groundless. We cannot close our mouth concerning the political and ideological questions. Others can think in the way they like, but out Party stands firmly on its Marxist-Leninist ideology. Whether this stand of ours is or is not to the liking of someone, this does not worry us. Our course is correct. Whoeverthinks that Albania, as a small country, can be easily trampled under foot, makes a grave mistake. This would be a fatal error for him.
In this turbulent, but revolutionary world, Comrade Enver Hoxha said in conclusion, our Party is a steel-like fortress. The peoples of the world, the proletariat, the Marxist-Leninists, where ever they are, approve and support the correct, heroic, honest and courageous line and stand of the Party of Labor of Albania.
.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, with great confidence in our forces, with great confidence in the correct Marxist-Leninist road on which our Party leads us, let us march forward, let us work, create and shed our sweat, let us make sacrifices and be on guard and ready, always on guard and ready. The victories we have scored and socialism which we are building and which is forging ahead in our country must be defended. If you rest, you rust. But we, Albanians never rest. The fools rest, we keep our eyes wide open, the sword in our hand, we maintain the finger on the trigger, we hold the pick in the hand, and have filled the country with factories, hydropower stations, with tractors and will continue to build more in the future, we will produce more and better, this is the glorious line of our Party of Labor, which has been built on the basis of the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.
Long Live the Party!
Long Live our People!
Glory to Marxism-Leninism!
After the speech, which was welcomed with ardent applause and acclamations for the Party, Comrade Enver Hoxha, accompanied by Nexhmije Hoxha, a member of the Central Committee of the Party, paid a visit to the ancient city of Butrint.
Comrade Enver Hoxha inquired after the archaeological studies, the excavations and discoveries made recently, the scientific work and gave some very valuable instructions for the future.
Then Comrade Enver Hoxha returned to Saranda seen off with love by those present.
(The above speech has been reprinted from Albanian " Telegraphic Agency, March 28, 1978) End.
PART II OF THE SERIES: "THE OL SOCIAL-CHAUVINISTS ARE OUT-AND-OUT SOCIALIST-SEGREGATIONISTS!"
Each class portrays the events of history according to its own class interests. According to the outlook of the monopoly capitalist class and that of the revisionists and opportunists there is everything good to be found in the bourgeoisie and reaction and everything bad and evil resides within the proletariat, the oppressed people and the revolutionaries. This can be clearly seen in a sinister article entitled "Chicago's bloody red summer': Lessons of the 1919 race riot" which appeared in the yellow social-chauvinist newspaper The Call. (1) In presenting what appears as an innocent account, a so-called "page from history", the Klonskyite opportunists have an ulterior motive. They vilify the proletariat, the Black people and Marxism-Leninism viciously on the one hand and prettify monopoly capitalist reaction on the other. In this way they do ideological work for their socialist- segregationist schemes for the liquidation of the Afro-American movement and for opposing the reconstitution of the party of the proletariat on the basis of Marxism-Leninism.
This reactionary article is a good example of how the opportunists attempt to overthrow the authority of Marxism-Leninism by raising the "National Question" above it; how they place the issue of "white chauvinism" ahead of the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism in order to liquidate this decisive struggle to uphold the purity of Marxism. The opportunists try to fool the naive into believing that they simply place exceptional importance on the struggle against national oppression, when in reality this demagogy is also used to disrupt the movements of the oppressed nationalities as well as disrupt the struggle against revisionism. The Afro-American struggle for liberation has immense importance for the prospects of the proletarian revolution in the U.S. It is only if the purity of Marxism-Leninism is defended that the Afro-American movement for emancipation and the revolutionary workers' movement can be merged and the criminal rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class overthrown. However, to adopt revisionism and opportunism, no matter how much loud shouting you make about "white chauvinism" and the "National Question", means necessarily siding with the monopoly bourgeoisie against the working and oppressed people. Such is the case with the OL social-chauvinists who in fact give every segregationist and racist line against the Black people.
According to The Call, "the working class, especially the white workers, has a lot to learn from the 1919 riot". While the Marxist-Leninists are commemorating the great Afro-American rebellions of the 60's, the OL is celebrating the "race riot" of 1919. The opportunists have grabbed on this event in history in a desperate attempt to confirm their anti-Black, anti-working class, anti-communist theories: that the Black people are anti-proletarian elements and "strikebreakers"; that the proletarians, more specifically the white workers, are "chauvinists"; and thus, since the proletarian revolutionaries and the Marxist-Leninists are also "chauvinists", there is "disunity" of the class and "race riots". However, real life goes against all this, and the Klonskyites have resorted to the most outrageous lies and distortions of the events of the so-called "race riot" of 1919.
The basic; theme of The Call's account of the 1919 "race riot" was the "disunity between whites and Blacks", and "racial tension between Black and white workers". This is the same drivel which the exploiting classes promote every time and in every country where the reactionaries organize attacks on the oppressed nationalities -- blame it on the "backwardness" of the ordinary masses and cover up the criminal responsibility of the ruling classes. In fact, the 1919 "race riot" was not a question of "disunity" whatsoever, of the ordinary proletarians having some "antagonism" and fighting each other as the OL tries to portray it. It was a question of a straight-forward government-organized racist pogrom. The bourgeoisie and its state power organized racist goons to violently attack the Black people in an attempt to disrupt the working-class movement, disorganize the successful organizing drive of the stockyards and shift the burden of the post-war economic crisis onto the backs of the workers.
Even according to The Call's account, they give not one shred of evidence that the ordinary white workers attacked the Blacks. They write that "the ghetto became a battleground as racist gangs of white youth, 'athletic clubs' organized by local politicians, invaded the Black community". They fail to mention, however, that these "white youth" were no ordinary youth but hired thugs of the reactionary bourgeoisie. The arch-fascist Richard Daley himself started his notorious career in one of these "athletic clubs" and doing his part in the 1919 "race riot". The ordinary proletarians not only had nothing to do with organizing this "race riot" but, in fact, two weeks before the racist pogrom, a big demonstration of proletarians marched through the communities against the racist attacks. With the outbreak of the "riot", 30,000 white workers demonstrated their solidarity with their class brothers, calling on the withdrawal of the troops from the Black community. (2) This self-sacrificing activity of the proletariat, The Call, of course, does not bother to mention, as it does not fit into their anti-working-class dogma.
Thus, the Klonskyites let the monopoly capitalist authorities off the hook and blame the "disunity" of the proletariat for the barbarous crimes of the big bourgeoisie. Then, where do the opportunists find the source of this alleged "disunity"?
According to The Call, "the major cause of racial tension" was a result of the Blacks being anti-proletarian elements and "strikebreakers": supposedly "when Blacks did get hired on in the mills and packing houses, they were mainly brought in by the bosses as strikebreakers. For most, it was the only way they could get into these kinds of jobs. This maneuver by the ruling class was probably the major cause of racial tension between Black and white workers." What a racist concoction! This is nothing but a vicious slander against the Black masses and a gross distortion of concrete events. In reality, far from being packing-house "strikebreakers", the Black workers were a basic and militant force in the organizing of the stockyards in 1917-1919. The organizing of the stockyards was the first successful union organizing of a mass production, trustified industry in the U.S. The Black union membership in the stockyards of Chicago at that time was the largest Black union membership of any city in the country, some 12,000 of the 60,000 stockyard workers. It was exactly to oppose this organizing drive, successful in part due to the self-sacrificing role of the Black workers, that the bourgeoisie organized the 1919 "race riot".
Only the racist cynics of the OL type would cook up the outrageous lie that the 1919 "race riot" resulted from the "strikebreaking" of the Black workers. It is true that the capitalists tried to use Black migrants from the South as strikebreakers in the industries of the North and West and the bourgeoisie and their agents whipped up a good deal of hysteria to this effect. However, if one wants to draw a "lesson" from this history, it is that, despite all the efforts of the capitalists, the Jim Crow trade union bosses and the sold-out elements within the Black community, the Black workers, at the cost of extreme hardships, on countless occasions refused to be scabs against their class brothers. They did not accept the OL's justification for strikebreaking -- that strikebreaking "was the only way they could get into these lands of jobs". From the very time the Afro-American workers joined the industrial proletariat, they have played an extremely important and militant role. The actual events of 1917-1919 in Chicago are a testament to this truth.
While, according to The Call, the Blacks were anti-working class, the real devils, they hold, were the white workers. The Call does not so much as mention the actual history of the white proletarians fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Black workers against the big monopolies and marching against the racist pogromists. Oh, no. The white workers failed to "reject(ing) the chauvinism of the bosses and bureaucrats" and thus went in for "race riots" like a bunch of gorillas. They concoct an entire scenario: "the working class, especially the white workers, has a lot to learn from the 1919 riot. Then disunity between whites and Blacks seriously undermined the stockyard organizing drive and held back the struggle for jobs and decent working conditions in Chicago". This whole scheme is a product of the opportunist minds of the OL scribblers. No such split in the proletariat took place. The organizing drive was in fact a big success and was only undermined after these events by way of the capitalists' agents within the trade union apparatus. The added touch about "held back the struggle for jobs..." is simply a sop for added effect.
Thus, the social-chauvinists rewrite history to prove that the Black people are not a great revolutionary force, both as proletarians and as an oppressed nationality; that the proletariat is not a thorough-going revolutionary class whose historic mission is the emancipation of not only the proletariat itself but also all the oppressed masses, a class which fought heroically in Chicago in 1919 against the attempts of the big bourgeoisie to organize a race war and drown in blood the proletarian movement. The opportunists rewrite history to hide the fact that it is the bourgeoisie and its state power which is the enemy of the working and oppressed people. They deny that the unity of the people is built in struggle against this main enemy. Instead, the question of unity is diverted into a moral question of "cleansing" the minds of the workers of the "chauvinism of the bosses and bureaucrats".
However, the OL's main target of attack is Marxism-Leninism and they reserve the worst venomous lies to slander the proletarian leaders and the revolutionary party of the U.S. proletariat. The opportunists always aim their main blow at Marxism- Leninism and have for years used anti-communist demagogy against the alleged "chauvinism" of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists. Michael Klonsky built his social-chauvinist, pro-U.S. imperialist clique on the basis of splitting with the Marxist-Leninists and their so-called "chauvinist line". So, too, in its history of the 1919 "race riot" The Call denounces the "chauvinist line" of the Communist Party when it was a Leninist party. They attribute the "race riot" itself to the "chauvinism" of the genuine proletarian leaders. They write:
"At that time, there were some beginning steps in the direction of multinational unity. Most notably, William Z. Foster (who later became chairman of the CPUSA) and communist leader Jack Johnstone helped organize Black and white workers into the Stockyards Labor Council.
"But the revolutionaries themselves were hamstrung by the chauvinist line which prevailed in the left movement at that time. This line saw Black people as a reserve of the capitalists, which would inevitably be used to defeat the workers' movement.
"It wasn't until the 1928 resolution of the Communist International, which correctly pointed out that the Black liberation movement is a revolutionary ally of the workers' movement, that communists were able to build effective Black-white labor unity.
"Under such circumstances, race riots occurred in 27 cities that bloody 'red summer' of 1919. But the Chicago riot was by far the worst."
This is really something. Foster and his comrades led the organizing of the workers into the Stockyards Labor Council with Black workers as a basic force, resulting in the largest Black union membership anywhere in the U.S. and then led the workers in massive protests against the "race riot" against the Black community -- all the while allegedly convinced that the Blacks were a reserve of the capitalists and not an ally of the workers' movement! The 1928 resolution of the Communist International hadn't yet been written, supposedly making "effective Black-white labor unity" out of the question and thus "race riots occurred in 27 cities that bloody 'red summer' of 1919" ! Such is the way the opportunists present history.
The OL chieftains are well acquainted with the history of the CPUSA and are well aware that neither Foster nor the Marxist-Leninist Party founded in 1919-1921 held the view that the Black people were "a reserve of the capitalists". They also know full well that it was the arch-renegade, American exceptionalist Lovestone, who was purged from the Party, who advanced the theory that the Blacks of the rural South constituted a "reserve of capitalist reaction". The Klonskyites are straight-forward lying to push their anti-communist demagogy.
The vanguard of the U.S. proletariat was first organized on the theoretical basis of Marxism-Leninism and against the revisionist betrayal of the Socialist Party in the form of the two communist parties in 1919 and in the form of the united party of the proletariat, the Communist Party of America in 1921. This was a Leninist and proletarian internationalist party. Such a party cannot be racist. In fact, from the outset this party vigorously participated in the struggle for the liberation of the Black people. Prior to 1921, the communists maintained certain social-democratic formulations, in particular that the oppression of the Black people was only a working-class question and not a question of particular national oppression. However, in 1921, under the leadership of the Communist International and great Lenin personally, the Party adopted the basic Leninist position that: "The Workers Party will support the Negroes in their struggle for liberation". The basically Leninist line of the Party was further strengthened in the struggle against social-democracy and to Bolshevize the Party and was further elaborated under the brilliant leadership of the Comintern in later years.
So why do the OL hacks go to such lengths to fabricate this history and brand the Communist Party with having a "chauvinist line"? While the ruling circles denounced the Party at that time as a "Negro Party", an epithet which the Party proudly emblazoned on its banner declaring that "the Communist Party is the Party of the liberation of the Negro race from all oppression", the Klonskyites attack from the other side and denounce it as a racist party. They attack the Marxist-Leninist Party from the "left" in order to sneak in revisionism. The opportunists are striking at Leninism itself by denying the fact that, on the one hand, if the party is loyal to Leninism sooner or later it will be correct on everything, and that on the other hand, without Leninism the party can only be a tail of the bourgeoisie.
The opportunists have made it a matter for debate whether or not the question of the Black people is one of particular national oppression and thus attempt to blur the struggle between Leninism and revisionism on this front. In 1921, when the Party adopted the position that the Blacks were an oppressed people and that "The Workers Party will support the Negroes in their struggle for liberation", this was a definite victory over social-democracy. The Klonskyites do not accept this because they oppose the Leninist line that the Party must support the struggle of the Black people. Instead of paying attention to the actual movement of the Afro-American people against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation, the OL chieftains, under the guise of "higher principles", zealously push every government ruse to divert this movement into dead ends -- "community control" "alternate power" schemes, segregated "political power" and the bankrupt road of peaceful non-violence and reliance on the reactionary state.
Under the bogey of opposing "white chauvinism", the neo-revisionists have done a great deal of ideological work to oppose the building of the party of the proletariat on the theoretical foundations of Marxism- Leninism. Their mission is to conciliate to revisionism and for this purpose they have inscribed on their yellow banner the anti-communist line that it is the "National Question" and not Marxism-Leninism and opposition to modern revisionism and all opportunism which is the central issue.
In his "Political Report" to the founding congress of his pro-U.S. imperialist "party", Mike Klonsky presented a "History of the Party". (3) In this "history", Klonsky speaks of "the special role that the national question has played and continues to play in the history of our Party". With this concocted thesis, according to Klonky, the pivotal issued facing the American Marxists over the last 120 years has been "rejecting white chauvinism". In his entire history of the "two-line struggle" in the Marxist movement in the U.S. Klonsky does not, in fact, recognize the struggle between Marxism and revisionism. If one examines this history, it is clear enough that the thesis of the "special role" of the "national question" is a prescription for fighting against Marxism-Leninism and for conciliating to revisionism and can serve no other purpose.
What was the issue facing the U.S. proletariat in 1919? After the revisionist betrayal of the right wing of the Socialist Party and their justification of the inter-imperialist slaughter of the First World War, and with the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 and the dissemination of the ideas of great Lenin, of Leninism, in the U.S., the U.S. proletariat faced one central task of immense historical significance. This task was the founding of the Party of the proletariat, a party of the new type, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Such a party was established, in opposition to the social-democratic betrayal, in 1919-1921. However Klonsky does not even mention this process, let alone the historic formation of the Party at this time, in his sixteen pages of "History of the Party". But then, of course, what significance could there be in the formation of their vanguard of the proletariat and in this big defeat for revisionism when the Marxist-Leninist party allegedly was "hamstrung by a chauvinist line"? Remember, in the sick imagination of the Klonskyites, it was in 1919 that the "chauvinist line" of the communists resulted in the "disunity" of the workers and "race riots in 27 cities".
With the great betrayal of the Khrushchovite revisionists, which was openly declared at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, the historic and central task facing the international communist movement was the resolute defense of the principles of Marxism-Leninism and the thorough repudiation of modern revisionism. In the CPUSA, the revisionism of Browder, the forerunner of Khrushchov's revisionism, had yet to be thoroughly repudiated and the onslaught of modern revisionism was rapidly liquidating the party of the U.S. proletariat.
Nevertheless, according to Klonsky's history of this period, the issue was not whether the Party would be rebuilt on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, whether the Party would follow Khrushchov's revisionist baton and adopt the path of "peaceful transition", etc., or uphold the glorious path of the October Revolution, the path of the violent overthrow of the monopoly capitalist order and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Whether the Party adopted revisionism or not is of little consequence to Klonsky. With his peculiar thesis of "the special role that the national question has played", Klonsky systematically and consciously belittles the significance of the Khrushchovite revisionist assault on Marxism-Leninism and claims that the issue was the "liquidation of the Black national question" and that "once again the assault was directed at the national question".
It is quite significant that the device of using demagogy on the "National Question" to blur the distinction between Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism came onto the scene at the very start of the great struggle against the revisionist betrayal. It was the notorious, anti-communist, anti-working class sect, the Provisional Organizing Committee who first conciliated modern revisionism from the "left", who attempted to divert the struggle against revisionism into a denunciation of the "white chauvinism" of the Marxist-Leninists and the revisionists alike. It was this police socialist outfit led by an admitted police agent, which first raised the "National Question" with a capital N and capital Q and turned it into an abstraction. 'While these degenerate elements hurled every curse at the best elements of the old Party and the masses, they wanted nothing to do with the concrete struggle against modern revisionism. Hence the Provisional Organizing Committee rapidly degenerated into open anti-communists, denouncing the great Marxist-Leninist leaders, J.V. Stalin and Mao Tsetung as the worst revisionists and condemned the U.S. proletariat itself as "the main pillar of fascism and imperialism". (4)
Harry Haywood, a founding member of the Provisional Organizing Committee and now of Klonsky's Social-chauvinist "party", is considered by the opportunist knights of the "National Question" as their leading authority. This man, or what is left of a man after idealist anti-revisionism has eaten away at him for a number of decades, has spent the last twenty years establishing a career for himself recounting gossipy tales of the debates he held at various party meeting with the revisionist leaders over various formulations of the "National Question". Haywood's own account of the period from 1956 to 1963 is instructive in that it shows just what land of "anti-revisionism" these champions of the "National Question" were engaged in. These people did not consider the defense of the purity of Marxism-Leninism as their central task. As a result, Haywood and the Provisional Organizing Committee could not and did not oppose the Khrushchovite betrayal and its entire anti-Stalin, anti-communist treachery. (5) Without putting Marxism-Leninism in the center, no advance was possible against modern revisionsim and no advance was made.
Today, the self-proclaimed heir of the Provisional Organizing Committee, Nelson Peery's "CLP", after spending the first part of the '70's disrupting the Marxist-Leninist movement by pushing neo-revisionism from the "left", has now fully merged with the revisionist party and its electoral strategy. This fall the "CLP" plans to run candidates on the Democratic Party ticket.
The Klonskyites also have ties to the Provisional Organizing Committee and are of the same ideological mold. Like the "CLP", the OL also recognizes the "contributions" of the Provisional Organizing Committee and their outlook; for instance, it is no accident that the OL and the "CLP" give the same anti-working class, anti-communist account of the 1919 "race riot". Both of these sects write the history of the CPUSA as a history of the struggle between "white chauvinism" and the "National Question". The total bankruptcy of Klonsky's thesis of "the special role" of the "national question" has been completely confirmed over the last twenty years of the reactionary activity of the Provisional Organizing Committee and its latter-day admirers.
The achievement of the revolutionary upsurge of the 1960's is the fact that out of this great upsurge the most advanced section of activists came to recognize the need for, and actually took up, the burning task of the repudiation of revisionism and the re-building of the Marxist-Leninist party. At the same time, certain misleaders of the youth and student movement, Klonsky and others, adopted as their first principle the disruption of this task of historic necessity.
In 1969, the Marxist-Leninists organized the American Communist Workers' Movement (Marxist-Leninist) in order to unite the Marxist-Leninists into one national center for the dissemination of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the re-building of the party. The Marxist-Leninists went to Mike Klonsky and asked him to unite, but Klonsky refused to have anything to do with the Marxist-Leninists when they would not "unite" on the spot with his peculiar formulations on the "National Question". For the right-wing dogmatist sectarians, to unite on the basis of Marxism-Leninism into one party of the proletariat as the first principle of the Marxist-Leninists isn't good enough. Their business is the factionalizing of the movement and for this reason they carry the banner of a dozen or more "preconditions for unity", i.e., "preconditions" for creating a permanent split in the Marxist-Leninists.
Klonsky did not unite because he wanted nothing to do with the struggle against modern revisionism. For years the OL held that "within the newly-emerging communist movement here, the main danger is 'leftism'." And it is precisely their disruption of the movement against revisionism under the hoax of opposing "white chauvinism" and upholding their transcendental principles on the "national question" that the OL leaders give as the very excuse for the existence of their pro-U.S. imperialist clique. According to Klonsky's own self-confession, "It is on the national question" (in other words not on the basis of Marxism-Leninism) "that our Party has clearly stood out from every other trend." (6)
The Klonskyites viciously fight the Marxist-Leninists with the police-socialist line that it is "white chauvinism" and not modern revisionism that poses the main danger to the communist and workers' movement. In order to build the party, Klonsky claims, "the same main enemy must be combatted within the communist movement as must be done in the general movement of the working class -- white chauvinism", (7) The Klonskyites have gone to the extent of declaring as eternal principle that "white chauvinism" has been the main danger to the Marxist-Leninist movement throughout history, at least in the imperialist countries: "that it is great nation or white chauvinism which has always been the main weak point of the communist movement within the imperialist countries. (8) What better prescription can there be for conciliating revisionism? The "CLP" also denounces the "nationalism" of the genuine Marxist-Leninists and the revisionists alike as the "main weak point" in the international communist movement and on this basis has become a public relations outfit for Soviet social-imperialism while the OL's demagogy on the national question fits in with their support for "formally independent "neo-colonies and their support for U.S. world hegemony. In practice these formulas have meant uniting with every type of right-wing element, pushing the most right-wing politics of trade unionism and legalist reformism and adopting every opportunist thesis under high-faluting "anti-revisionist" rhetoric. In practice this formula has meant waging war against Marxism-Leninism. As Mr. Klonsky points out, the so-called "National Question" has indeed played a "special role". Sophistry on this front by the idealist anti-revisionists, those who maintain that the repudiation of revisionism hangs on a formula, has been a special weapon for conciliating revisionism and opportunism of all hues.
The criminal device of raising the "National Question" as an abstraction against Marxism-Leninism and the party principle is showing its ugliest features at the present time. The inevitable struggle in the international communist movement has once again broken out. International opportunism has declared an open fight against Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism under the banner of the anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds". The Klonskyite opportunists have declared an open alliance with U.S. imperialism and against the proletariat and oppresssed peoples of the whole world with their social- chauvinist slogan of "directing the main blow at Soviet social-imperialism". A historic task faces the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists in the U.S. -- smashing up the social-chauvinism of the OL and thoroughly repudiating the Browderite revisionism and opportunism which has given rise to the stinking neo-revisionist treachery and the party must be built in the course of this struggle.
The Klonskyite champs of the "National Question" are creating a disgusting spectacle. They advocate the beefing up of the U.S. imperialist war machine, the building of more B-l bombers and Trident submarines for the slaughter of the world's people. They openly support the U.S. imperialist domination of the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America and, under the pro-imperialist banner of the "three worlds" theory, they have become outspoken opponents of the national liberation struggles of the oppressed peoples against imperialism and its running dogs in each country. All the while they denounce the revolutionary proletarian internationalists for "white chauvinism". Others, who criticize some of the most outrageous treachery of the Klonskyites on certain international questions, laud the so-called "contributions" of the OL socialist-segregationists on the "National Question" in an attempt to conciliate opportunism with revolutionary Marxism-Leninism. However, the opportunists cannot rescue themselves with the flimsy gimmick of the "special role of the national question". The Marxist-Leninists are onto them and the anti-communist demagogy against the "white chauvinism" of the proletarian revolutionaries cannot prevent the rout of the social-chauvinists. End.
FOOTNOTES
1) The Call, Febuary 13, 1978, p. 7
2) Boyar, Morais, Labor's Untold Story, p. 242
3) "Documents From the Founding Congress", pp. 6-22.
5) "Dialectics of the Development of the Communist League", 1972, p. 12.
6) See Class Struggle, 1976 #4-5, "The Degeneration of the CPUSA in the 1950's, by Harry Haywood.
7) "Documents From the Founding Congress", p. 21.
8) The Call, September, 1974, p. 5.
9) The Call, November, 1974, p. 11.
[Box: Below we reprint the statement of the Seattle Branch of the COUSML denouncing the straight-forward police-socialism of the leaders of the RCP, USA" in Seattle in supporting the police in their arrest and persecution of the anti-fascist masses led by the COUSML.]
In Seattle, a vigorous struggle is developing against the fascist anti-busing movement. This anti-working class, racist movement, organized at every level of the state and financed by the big capitalists, is being exposed for what it is.
Already in Seattle, the anti-busing movement has been dealt a serious setback through active resistance led by the COUSML. On January 26th, the militants of COUSML led a heroic resistance battle against a savage attack by the fascist police. The police violently attacked the anti-fascists as one of them denounced a meeting of the racist and fascist anti-busing movement in the Rainier Valley community. Never capitulating to the police thugs of the government, seven Afro-American, Filipino, Chinese and white workers severely punished several police before they were finally arrested after a lengthy battle.
The anti-busing movement was exposed as organized by the state and protected by swarms of plainclothes and uniformed police. The "non-racist" cover of the anti-busing organization CIVIC ("Citizens for Voluntary Integration Committee") was torn to shreds by the rabidly racist and fascist physical assault and verbal abuse directed at the anti-fascist militants. The Seattle Branch of the COUSML won extremely warm and wide-scale support from the working class, Afro-American community and other progressive people in Seattle who have been continually praising the resistance battle since it occurred. The revolutionary politics of active resistance to fascism are winning their way into the hearts and minds of the revolutionary masses.
The reactionary government was thrown into a panic after the incident of January 26th. The police brutally attacked the revolutionary workers of COUSML in jail. And from April 3-7, the kangaroo courts of the rich railroaded the arrested leaders of the anti-fascist masses and convicted them of nearly all twenty-eight charges laid by the state. However, in court, the COUSML militants took an unyielding revolutionary stand against the reactionary alliance of the judge, the prosecutors, the fascist police, CIVIC chieftains, news media, the mayor, and a bourgeois scum lawyer (who tried to sabotage the defense for two days, and who was sent packing on the third day). They completely exposed CIVIC as nothing but a police organization, and showed how the entire bloodthirsty state apparatus is organizing the fascist anti-busing movement and how it is a tool of racial discrimination and violent repression against the Black people and a device to split the working class on a racial basis.
In addition to persecuting the leaders of the resistance, the government has also escalated its efforts to create favorable conditions for the anti-busing movement through hysteria-mongering over "forced busing" and the Seattle Plan. Superintendent of Schools Moberly ("former" agent of the U.S. State Department -- A.I.D.) has openly jumped out as a supporter of CIVIC's "respectable methods" in an open attempt to prop them up and to lend the anti-busing movement legitimacy and credibility.
Recent events have served to create clarity on what has been a major political issue in Seattle for the last year and a half. There is also polarization. In one camp stands the working class, the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities, and the masses of anti-fascist fighters. This camp is led by COUSML, and opposes the racist and fascist anti-busing movement. In the other camp stands the monopoly capitalist class, its press, its top government officials (such as Moberly), the fascist police and the racist businessmen leaders of CIVIC. It is led by the highest levels of the federal government. This camp is frantically trying to organize the fascist anti-busing movement.
The camp of the fascist anti-busing movement also includes the opportunists and revisionists of all hues. The "RCP, USA" is one such opportunist organization. Just as the monopoly capitalists, its press, its top government officials, and the fascist and racist CIVIC leaders were thrown into a panic by the antifascist struggle of the COUSML, so was "RCP" also thrown into a panic in Seattle. It found the atmosphere of active resistance to fascism, of revolutionary self-sacrifice and staunch opposition to the state to be completely intolerable. It jumped out in open defense of the fascist police and anti-busing movement, and attacked COUSML in coordination with the police attack of the reactionaries.
The "RCP" in Seattle issued a leaflet (reprinted this page) shortly after the January 26 events containing innumerable lying, slanderous statements against COUSML. This "leaflet", more accurately described as a police report, echoes the accusations of the police and CIVIC. The "RCP' has jumped out once again as open and "left-wing" boosters of the fascist anti-busing movement and its aims: to organize racist attacks on the Afro-American people and to split and disrupt the working class in the face of the murderous offensive of monopoly capital.
In fact, the "RCP" was in such a panic that one leaflet was not enough for them to fully vent their support for the police attack on the anti-fascist masses, so they issued another statement in the February issue of their paper, "The 'Worker' for theNorthwest". In this way, the "RCP" is kissing the backsides of the Seattle Police Department and the fascist anti-busing movement. The anti-fascist struggle met with opposition from the left-wing of the anti-busing movement, whose stinking yellow banner is held by the "RCP", who are vying for leadership of the state-organized fascist anti-busing movement.
What are the main features of "RCP"'s belly-crawling before the capitalist state machine concerning the recent events?
THE TWO LINES: ACTIVE RESISTANCE TO STATE-ORGANIZED RACIST AND FASCIST ATTACKS, OR HELP THE U.S. STATE ORGANIZE THE FASCIST MOVEMENT AND SUPPRESS THE ANTI-FASCIST FIGHTERS
On January 26th, the question facing the revolutionary masses was simple and straightforward: Will the government be able to float a meeting of the fascist anti-busing movement in a predominantly Black community, right amongst the Afro-American people who are the main target of attack? If so, the anti-busing movement would acquire much more momentum. COUSML decided that they would not be allowed to do so. We went deep into the community distributing thousands of leaflets and were warmly supported by the masses. The COUSML took up active resistance to fascism, tit-for-tat struggle. In our propaganda work, we used scientific analysis against confusion and emotionalism. In the CIVIC meeting itself, we used truth against fascist lies, and self-defense and revolutionary violence against reactionary violence. We started our agitation against the attempt to incite a fascist anti-busing movement in February 1977 in Seattle, and we will not stop until it is smashed. This is our Marxist-Leninist, proletarian class stand.
Several breeds of opportunism attended the January 26th CIVIC meeting. "PLP" cowardly ran out of the hall when the police attacked the anti-fascists. "CLP, USNA" and "CPUSA" denounced our active resistance as "ultra-left". They all supported the state and opposed the Marxist-Leninists and antifascists and attempted to isolate and discredit them. At the sight of anti-fascists fighting the attacks of the fascist state machine, they all sided with the U.S. state and found one reason or another to denounce the revolutionary masses.
The "RCP", however, was the most frenzied in support of the police attack and against the COUSML's active resistance. First they ran around in circles inside, horrified that their anti-busing meeting was not going too smoothly. One of them cowardly ran outside. A large number of Afro-American youth, seeing the 20-25 SPD patrol cars, had rushed to the building and asked what was going on. The "RCP"er then immediately took the revisionist position of wrecking the mass struggle and denouncing the revolutionary fighters and stated: "A group has started a fight with the police in order to get publicity". A COUSML comrade denounced this fascist logic. Whereupon the "RCP"er fingered our comrade out to a bourgeois press agent, and told the bourgeois press not to believe our comrade because she belonged to the COUSML.
This is quite an interesting class stand: "Long live the police! Down with the Marxist-Leninists and anti-fascists! Those disrupters only want publicity!" This is the voice of Spiro Agnew against the youth and students of the i960's. When the police and the rest of the state attacks the people, the "RCP" sides with the police against the "publicity seekers". In articles and leaflets the "RCP" continued this stand of giving a "left" cover to the police attacks and trying to make it easier for the courts to convict and jail the progressive fighters.
Most fundamentally, the "RCP"'s line is revealed as: "Down with the Afro-American people's struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression! Long live the fascist anti-busing movement!" The "RCP" is not making a "mistake in formulation" or a "theoretical error". In times of crisis and turmoil, the opportunist tricksters cannot maintain their deceptions and disguises to fool people into thinking they are progressive. Having to react instantaneously to a new situation, their entire world view comes out in the open. Beneath all their worker chauvinist bluster, "RCP" 's actual ideology is that of collaboration with the state of the big bourgeoisie. The "RCP" feels compelled to unite with the police against the COUSML and against our resolute defense of the Afro-American people and our staunch opposition to the fascist anti-busing movement.
"RCP" RUSHES TO THE DEFENSE OF THE FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT
The COUSML militants and anti-fascists had just dealt the state-organized fascist anti-busing movement a serious setback. And the "RCP" hurriedly issues a leaflet denouncing... COUSML! According to this leaflet, the COUSML is "doing the dirty work of the capitalists"! Backing up this Hitlerite big lie with innumerable other slanders the "RCP" exposes itself thoroughly as shameless defenders of the fascist anti-busing movement and vicious opponents of the Afro-American people's struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression.
The COUSML has clarified in depth, and exposed in the course of revolutionary struggle that the anti-busing movement is a fascist movement organized by the state. Abundant historical experience has confirmed this. It is a movement to further segregate the Schools in particular and to drive the Afro- American people back into a semi-slave existence under Jim Crow segregation of society in general. It is a fascist provocation against the working class with the intention to split the proletariat on a racial basis and thus smash the workers' movement against the shifting of the burden of the economic crisis onto their backs.
The "RCP" supports the anti-busing movement. Their leaflet is entitled "Black and White Parents Must Unite to Oppose the Busing Plan". What a blatant attempt to prop up the racist and fascist anti-busing movement in its darkest hour in Seattle so far. The anti-fascist struggle at the CIVIC meeting stripped the anti-busing movement of its last shred of a "non-racist" image, so the RCP strides in to be the fig-leaf for the fascists. The monopoly capitalists are seeking revenge against the Afro-American movement which has shaken the imperialist system to its very core with the powerful development of the struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation. The attacks on the Afro-American people are the cutting edge of the state's attempt to organize fascist mass movements. The fascist anti-busing movement is not "spontaneous" but is directly organized by the state. The capitalists use political deception to do so. For instance, the Seattle School Board headed by Supt. Moberly, has taken the democratic demand of integrated education and presented it in a distorted and mutilated fashion in order to be able to organize backward sections of the people against it. In this way, they are trying to organize a fascist mass movement against integration and against the Afro-American people.
The "RCP" cannot understand the counter-revolutionary dual tactics of political deception and outright terroristic violence of the monopoly capitalist state. The "RCP" has a suspicion that Supt. Moberly is really a racist and is up to no good with the Seattle Plan. But it has absurdly concluded from this that it should unite with Moberly and his real intentions to organize a fascist anti-busing movement of attack on the Afro-American people. The "RCP" falls head over heels for Moberly's political deception that he wants "desegregation" and therefore the "RCP" attacks busing and desegregation and unites with Moberly's cohorts in the fascist anti-busing movement. The result is that Moberly and the "RCP" unite to attack the anti-fascist fighters and praise the fascist anti-busing movement. Moberly doesn't care if "RCP" attacks the Seattle Plan -- after all, Moberly praises CIVIC which also claims to attack the Seattle Plan. Moberly created the Seattle Plan in order to mobilize the fascist movement against it.
The "RCP" 's open alliance with the state to organize the fascist anti-busing movement reveals the essence of opportunism. The "RCP", the "CPUSA", the "CLP, USNA" and the opportunists in general do not want to oppose the state. This requires revolutionary courage, which they call "Ultra-left". This requires revolutionary methods of struggle, which they call "disruption". Revisionism means to use "Marxist" phrasemongering to fool the masses and gain their confidence, while in practice aiding the capitalist state. The "RCP" prides itself on hollow phrases like: "Communists fight for the elimination of all inequality and work to overthrow this system of exploitation and oppression that breeds it." But in practice the Seattle Branch of the "RCP" uses these high-sounding words as a cover for joining CIVIC and praising the police.
THE COUSML'S ACTIVE RESISTANCE TO FASCISM AND "RCP'S" POLICE SOCIALISM
The "RCP" was infuriated by the COUSML's active resistance to fascism. Their leaflet was issued only a day or two after the CIVIC meeting. It states: "COUSML at best is doing the dirty work of the capitalists". It begins: "January 26, 50 or more cops from the Georgetown precinct broke up a brawl at a meeting of CIVIC (Citizens for Voluntary Integration Committee)... " So in short, the COUSML is doing the dirty work of the capitalists ("at best"? What is worse?) by vigorously denouncing the fascist anti-busing movement and staunchly defending themselves from a savage police attack. However, the police simply "broke up a brawl" and established "law and order" in a meeting to organize a racist and fascist movement to attack the Afro-American people.
Here is a graphic example of how the Seattle Branch of the "RCP" has degenerated into the left-wing of the Seattle Police Department, praising the fascist police while providing a "left" criticism of the Marxist-Leninists as "agents of the capitalists". The "RCP" was even more shameless in their praise of the police than the capitalist government "authorities" themselves, who had to feign "embarrassment" over the exposure of the fascist activities of the undercover police and over the police's brutal attacks at the meeting.
The "RCP" continues: "A Black member of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists (COUSML), who call themselves communist, demanded to speak." "Six others in his organization joined the fight. " Thus the COUSML only calls itself communist, while the "RCP" and the fascist anti-busing movement is presumably the real thing. After all, the "RCP" fingers anti-fascists to the police and the press, what could be more "revolutionary"? And the police didn't arbitrarily attack anyone who protested the fascist attack on the Afro-American comrade -- oh no, they simply "joined the fight". What a polite euphemism for being the victim of a racist and fascist attack.
In addition, the COUSML neither demands nor begs the fascists for the right to speak. Here the "RCP" is confusing its own practice of competing with the fascists for the leadership of the anti-busing movement with the practice of the COUSML to actively resist racist attacks. The Afro-American comrade stood up, denounced CIVIC, and was attacked by two undercover cops, who were masquerading as a couple of "citizens".
The leaflet contains a large amount of fanciful dialogue. The COUSML is supposed to be denouncing the masses for being "racist and fascist". This occurs only in the sick imagination of the "RCP" leaflet writers. Here again, the "RCP" is confusing its own practice of denouncing the anti-fascist masses, calling them "disrupters", supporting their arrest, with the practice of the COUSML of mobilizing the maximum majority of the revolutionary masses against the fascists. It is the "RCP" who regards the masses as racist and states in the leaflet that "...there is racism, that many white people don't understand... and believe some of the lies the ruling class pushes...minorities mistrust whites and aren't willing to join whites... " (!!)
The leaflet ends with the sentence: "White and minority parents cannot allow media sensationalism, planned provocation and the capitalist system to divide us. " The interesting phrase here is "planned provocation". This is virtually identical wording as that of the police reports on the incident. The "RCP" is raising the Nixonite fascist charge of "conspiracy" against the Marxist-Leninists, while closing its eyes to the real "planned provocation" by the police, who had stationed large forces in advance in and around the CIVIC meeting in preparation for their attack on the anti-fascist masses.
The COUSML is supposedly "planning provocations" while the capitalist state, which is concretely inciting and organizing the most criminal fascist provocations such as the fascist anti-busing movement against the Afro-American people, is not mentioned once in the leaflet, much less criticized., The "RCP" has only praise for the state and its agents. The leaflet regards it as completely ordinary that plainclothes police should infiltrate meetings and attack the progressive masses.
Twisting and turning, the "RCP" tried to cover up their open police work against the COUSML when they published the February issue of their paper "The 'Worker' ". The ^RCP" went through the following gyrations to explain themselves: "The cops acted like they always do, especially in minority neighborhoods. They come in, beat up, and find out what's going on later. The people they beat up are really no threat to the police masters, but they didn't know who they were -- (so the "RCP" took it upon itself to notify them -- ed.) all they saw was minority faces, all they heard was 'protest and disruption' so they came in swinging. The police serve the interests of the capitalists whether they're protecting their property at Fred Meyers or whether they're trying to keep the CIVIC meeting in order, which is no threat to the ruling class' busing plan."
This drivel gives one a glimpse into the methods used by the opportunists to cover their tracks. "RCP" 's "thought" process is fully revealed: "Whoops, our leaflet came out openly for the police. We'd better say something about them being bullies and even that they serve the interests of the capitalists. We had better hide our hatred for COUSML and love for the police and CIVIC and point out that the police protected CIVIC because they're no threat to the busing plan." (Of course, the fascist anti-busing movement is not a "threat" to the state, but is organized by the state.)
According to the "RCP" the cops attacked COUSML not because the COUSML and the progressive masses were exposing and smashing up the fascist anti-busing movement which is organized by the police and the rest of the state. Oh no, but because the cops "didn't know what was going on. " And the cops defended CIVIC and actually chaired and conducted the CIVIC meeting after the arrests not because the police are directly organizing the fascist anti-busing movement. Oh no, but because CIVIC is no "threat" to the "system".
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE "RCP" CRITICIZES CIVIC FOR BEING TOO SHY ABOUT ORGANIZING LYNCH MOB ATTACKS ON THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE
But here the "RCP" is in a bind. They claim that it is "progressive" to build the anti-busing movement. But they have just stated that CIVIC, which is an anti-busing organization, is "no threat" to the "system". They are even forced to admit that "... Moberly and the CIVIC leadership (are) in harmony... " So why is this ? Isn't it clear that Moberly and CIVIC are "in harmony" because they both want to organize the fascist anti-busing movement? Oh no, not at all. It is just that "CIVIC's strategy has to be seen as a no fight, no win strategy. All they're doing is filing a lawsuit -- which is no guaranteed threat to the system at all". ("The 'Worker' ") So CIVIC is relying too much on the bourgeois courts and isn't militant enough for the "RCP". Thus "RCP" criticizes CIVIC for lacking the militancy to organize lynch-mob attacks on Afro-Americans, as the anti-busing movement has done elsewhere.
Thus the "RCP" 's "criticisms" of CIVIC coincide with those of the monopoly capitalist Larry Penberthy, who also thought that CIVIC was too mild. Penberthy floated his group "Stop Busing Now" (SBN) after the CIVIC meeting where the COUSML and anti-fascist masses exposed CIVIC as police-organized and protected. CIVIC was forced to pledge publicly that they would not participate in racist attacks. Thus SBN was pulled out of Moberly's bag of tricks with the stated aim to be more "rigorous" than CIVIC. In a letter to the editor of the Seattle Times Penberthy stated:
"Feelings are already running high; resentment against the school board will surge when the fixed assignments are mailed out in April, and the full storm will be felt the first week in September...We pleaded with the board to pursue a peaceable approach another year, but they reached for the club."
Penberthy and his little band of fanatics, under even more "anti-government" and more "militant" rhetoric than CIVIC, are doing propaganda for violent attacks on the Afro-American people and progressive whites when school starts in September.
But not only is "RCP" more rabid than CIVIC, their screams even make nazi Penberthy look timid. Where Penberthy states: "Feelings are running high", the "RCP" states: "There is anger about busing kids all over... There's anger that brothers and sisters will be separated and many fears of what could happen to kids. There is anger about destroying the integrated schools in the South End. And there's anger about the School Board... This anger is just." Watch out "RCP"! You have disgraced yourself to the point where you are grovelling in the puke of open fascists.
It is not a matter of debate or speculation as to the nature of the anti-busing movement. The most criminal and violent fascist attacks on the Black people have been launched by the anti-busing movement in Boston, Louisville, and other cities. The state-organized anti-busing movement has included KKK marches, filthy American Nazi Party propaganda, and physical assaults on Afro-Americans, shootings, and the burning of Black people's homes. It was fascist Nixon's regime which initiated the monopoly capitalists' efforts to build the anti-busing movement and which organized the racist attacks against Black people in Pontiac, Michigan in 1972. Since then, the monopoly capitalist class has been developing their tactics to a high level of sophistication. The COUSML has exposed these tactics of the bourgeoisie numerous times in its periodicals. Yet the "RCP" stubbornly refuses to listen to the truth placed right in front of their noses and substantiated by numerous examples from history. They are dead-set on contributing to the building of the fascist anti-busing movement. This shows how far "RCP" 's capitulation to the state has gone.
"RCP" 's police socialism is a manifestation of their politics, which is exactly the same as CIVIC's. "RCP" 's leaflet is entitled: "Black and White Parents Must Unite to Oppose the Busing Plan". The racist organization CIVIC had just been defeated in their attempt to organize a successful meeting in a predominantly Black neighborhood. CIVIC has no intentions of appealing to the Black people. They have no supporters in the Black community, except for a few state agents o But their strategy for organizing the anti-busing movement desperately required a meeting in the Black community so as to be able to masquerade as "not racist". The fascist leaders of CIVIC need to have a "non-racist" cover in Seattle because the working class (including the white workers) will never support open racists. So, they pretend to be "not racist" in order to build up steam in the initial stages of their movement, with the aim of gradually developing the openly racist and fascist politics over a longer period of time. This was similarly true in the Boston (1974-75) and Louisville (1975-76) anti-busing agitations, where swastika-bearing nazis and klansmen eventually came out to perform their filthy propaganda and criminal deeds in the open. COUSML correctly analyzed that it was crucial to expose CIVIC and to do so in the Rainier Valley meeting. Not only was the analysis correct, but it was successfully implemented.
This horrified the "RCP" to no end. That is why they made their futile attempt to prop up CIVIC's "non-racist" cover by issuing the call: "Black and White Parents Must Unite to Oppose the Busing Plan". The "RCP" 's message is: see, the fascist anti-busing movement doesn't discriminate; anyone can join the racist movement.
The "RCP" states: "The majority of the organized opposition to the plan is white -- even at this meeting in integrated Rainier Valley. This is partly due to the fact that anti-busing groups, like in Boston, were racist." We thank the "RCP" for this unsolicited confession. The "RCP" is one such anti-busing group, both here and in Boston. Who can forget the "RCP" 's front page headline: "Smash the Boston Busing Plan", the same slogan that served as a rallying cry for the KKK. The "RCP" is so addicted to mindless "action", so mesmerized by any display of "militancy", that they jumped into bed with the fascists, while complaining that the Klan was "bogarting (hogging -- ed.) the leadership" of the anti-busing movement.
IT IS THE "RCP" WHICH DOES MOBERLY'S "DIRTY WORK" FOR THE SEATTLE PLAN TO ORGANIZE THE FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT
The "RCP" in Seattle has thus jumped out into the open as socialist-segregationists. They cannot defend this with the truth, so they resort to lies. The Seattle Branch of the "RCP" cannot open its mouth to defend the fascist anti-busing movement without lying. For example, they make the following lying accusations against the COUSML: "they say anyone who opposes the busing plan is a racist and fascist"; "This group's opinion is that all opposition to the plan is racist and fascist" ("The 'Worker'"); "they defend Dr. Moberly and his plan"; "they back the system's very own busing plan" ("The 'Worker' ").
Thus not only does the "RCP" lie, but in practice it is using the Hitlerite big lie technique, which relies on concocting the most outrageous nonsense and then repeating it over and over again. The "RCP" 's leadership apparently hopes that no one will read the COUSML's literature to find out the truth for themselves. The "RCP" is hoping to discredit the COUSML with these slanders. Their paper "The 'Worker' " even goes to the ridiculous extent of lying about our name ("Congress of U.S. Marxist-Leninists").
Let us examine a few of these big lies. First, when the "RCP" accuses the COUSML of supporting the Seattle Plan, they are confusing the "RCP" itself with the COUSML. It is the "RCP" that supports Moberly's real "Seattle Plan". It is out-and-out political deception by Moberly when he presents the Seattle Plan as simply a program of desegregation. Actually Moberly has no intention of doing anything but presenting as mutilated, distorted and inconvenient plan as possible in order to help organize the fascist anti-busing movement (which operates under the banner of opposition to "forced busing" and the "Seattle Plan") and to further segregate the schools. It is the "RCP" which enthusiastically supports this, the actual Moberly Plan, even to the extent of supporting police attacks on the anti-fascist fighters who oppose Moberly and the fascists right at CIVIC meetings. It is the COUSML that is in the forefront of the fight against Moberly and his fascist cohorts. The COUSML supports any integration that should occur, debunks the hysteria over "forced busing", while fully exposing Moberly's segregationist intentions and organizing to smash the fascist anti-busing movement. It is the COUSML that constantly points out that it is not "busing", but the fight against racial discrimination and violent repression that is the issue.
The "RCP" proclaims in bold type: "COUSML does Moberly's Dirty Work". Once again the thief cries "Stop thief!" In fact, the "RCP" in Seattle has become the full-time unpaid assistant to Supt. Moberly, a man who faithfully served U.S. imperialist penetration into Africa as a State Department educational advisor and who today openly boasts of being a fellow traveler with CIA agents. The "RCP" has raised the important question of who is doing "Moberly's dirty work". Fine. This can only be answered by seeing what Moberly's role is. TheWorkers' Advocateexplained this in its April 1, 1978 issue in the following words:
"School superintendent Moberly is a polished government agent and is the chief inspiration of the fascist anti-busing movement in Seattle. Acclaimed as an 'educator', he has a dark past, having worked for 8 years as a State Department agent of U.S. imperialist cultural aggression in Africa. After that, he served from 1965 to 1976 as superintendent of six school districts in the Midwest and played the role of troubleshooter, or as he puts it, 'hatchet man'. When he left his last job, the teachers were threatening to strike over the cuts he made in the school budget and programs. Moberly was sent to Seattle to organize the fascist anti-busing movement, as a fighter against 'forced busing'. While paying lip-service to desegregation, he established the voluntary Magnet Programs in order to 'avoid court-ordered busing'. Then, under the hoax of holding community discussions on how to avoid 'forced busing', Moberly out of the blue presents a busing program with 'fixed assignments and limited options'. In this way Moberly organized maximum opposition to his own plan for the sole purpose of inciting the anti-busing movement. Meanwhile, Moberly cuts the school budget, threatens to close down schools, denies handicapped children usable facilities, and then blames all this on 'desegregation'. He goes on a rampage against any opposition to the reactionary violent attacks of the police-protected anti-busing movement and glorifies the fascist movement, all the while calling on the people to rely on the state in the face of state-organized attacks. This has been the role of the monopoly capitalist state's number one flunkey in organizing the fascist anti-busing movement in Seattle."
Thus in general Moberly's "dirty work" is to incite and organize the fascist anti-busing movement, of which he is the chief engineer. The "RCP" wholeheartedly supports this dirty work.
The "RCP" accuses the COUSML of supporting the "system's very own busing plan". In so far as this accusation is not just segregationist demagogy against busing for integration, in so far as the question is prettification of the "system", the "RCP" is again confusing itself with the COUSML. The Seattle Branch of the "RCP" supports the "system's very own busing plan" in Chicago, and puts in its headlines the call "Plan Should Be Upheld". (Revolution, Oct. 1977, p. 2) So the "RCP" would have us believe that you should support the "system" in Chicago and oppose it in Seattle and Boston. There is method to this madness. The "RCP" is creating illusions about the U.S. state and giving the line of the alleged two aspects of the state. The "RCP" supports the allegedly good side of the state, such as the plan in Chicago, while opposing the bad side, such as the plans in Boston and Seattle. This is what lies behind the "RCP's" great wisdom that one should examine each plan.
In this way they state that individual busing plans are the issue. "RCP" denies that the main task of the progressive people is to smash the fascist anti-busing movement and the issue is not "busing", nor is it to devise better "concrete, positive demands" (as "RCP" states), but the issue is the racial discrimination and violent repression that is organized by the state apparatus against the Black people. As a matter of fact, the "RCP" in Seattle constantly begs the "democratic" U.S. imperialists to bestow "quality education" on the masses.
The "RCP" takes on the task of creating the maximum illusions about the "system". In this regard it should be noted that the "RCP" are such incurable reformists, such prettifiers of imperialism, that whenever they refer to the "gains of the 60's" they are always referring to various reforms and government programs, and never to the development of the massive revolutionary movements. The revolutionary movements of the '60's they regard as in the end illusory. Because the fighters might not have given clear formulations, the "RCP" denies the revolutionary character of these movements and describes the world around them as "non-revolutionary". To them, only the "concrete, palpable results" remain from the 1960's.
Thus all the "RCP's" demagogy about the "system's very own busing plan" hides the fact that the "RCP"actually thinks that there are some rather good points to this "system". This New Left rhetoric against the "system" -- everyone is against the "system", even Carter ran against the "system" -- is simply the left-wing version of the fascist anti-busing movement's "anti-government" posturing.
The "RCP" is fully aware that the COUSML's line is to "Smash the Government-Organized Fascist Anti-Busing Movement". The COUSML has put this position forward over and over again consistently in the last few years, in numerous issues of The Workers' Advocate, the Seattle Worker, local leaflets, etc. The "RCP" knows the COUSML's line, but to do its dirty work for the fascist anti-busing movement and the police it hides the line of the COUSML. The COUSML puts at the foundation of its position: resolute opposition to the ultra-reactionary U.S. state, and (2) resolute support for and leadership of the revolutionary mass movement against racial discrimination and violent repression. In short, active resistance to fascism. The revolutionary masses of oppressed people in the U.S. replied to the fascist anti-busing movement with a revolutionary movement of active resistance to the state-organized fascist movement. The COUSML pays great attention to the actual revolutionary mass movement and the present stage in real life of the movement against racial discrimination and violent repression. Instead of concocting fashionable "concrete, palpable" demands to impose on the masses and instead of creating illusions about the state, the COUSML puts at the centerleading the revolutionary mass movement against fascism.
WHILE DENYING THAT THE FASCIST MOVEMENT IS STATE-ORGANIZED, THE "RCP" BLAMES THE WORKERS FOR RACISM AND ANTI-COMMUNISM
These facts show that the "RCP" has not made a mere "mistake", but is following a consistent line of capitulation to the state. When a cause is just, determined efforts to provide Marxist, scientific analysis and persuasive argument wall win the masses to one's side. But an unjust cause can only attempt to win support through emotionalism, demagogy, lies and hysteria-mongering. The "RCP" has picked up these methods and is trying to out-shout the open fascists of the anti-busing movement.
While the "RCP" prettifies the state and the anti-busing movement, it blames the workers and oppressed masses for racism and anti-communism. Just as the "RCP" blames the COUSML and the antifascist masses for the police attack at the CIVIC meeting, so now the oppressed masses are to be blamed for all the crimes of the state. The "RCP" leaflet states: "COUSML at best is doing the dirty work of the capitalists who find it important and necessary to heighten racial antagonisms." The capitalist state is not, according to the "RCP", the organizer of the racist attacks. Oh no, the state is simply presenting busing plans to "heighten racial antagonisms". Meanwhile all the anti-busing groups are racist because "there is racism, that many white people don't understand the real oppression that minorities have always suffered in this country and believe some of the lies the ruling class pushes."
The "RCP" is saying that white workers are racist, that the monopoly capitalist state discovers this and says "Gee! Look at these racial antagonisms. Let's heighten them with a busing plan." The "RCP" is openly attacking the white workers and their lack of "understanding" as the cause of racial discrimination and violent repression. Thus the "RCP" is blaming the working class for the crimes of the monopoly capitalist class.
Not only does the "RCP" blame the workers and not the state, not only do they attack the workers as racist and as believers in ruling class lies, but they also blame the working class for anti-communism. "The 'Worker' " states as part of its headline: "CAPITALISTS FAN FLAMES OF RACISM, ANTI-COMMUNISM". The "RCP" was scared out of their minds over the fascists' attempts to use anti-communism to discredit the anti-fascist resistance to the anti-busing movement at the CIVIC meeting. For one solid week the bourgeoisie tried to whip up support for CIVIC by doing extensive reporting on the incident and telling lurid tales about COUSML and their "hammer and sickle emblem" that they flashed on the TV news for several nights. All of this backfired. The COUSML comrades have been actually cheered on the streets in the Afro-American community and elsewhere while distributing leaflets on the incident. For this reason, the bourgeois media went abruptly silent. But the COUSML doesn't give a damn for the bourgeois media. We organize on the basis of our own efforts.
But for the "RCP", "Capitalists fan flames of...anti-communism". We have the same scenario as before. The monopoly capitalists, looking out the windows of the Rainier Club, notice flames of anti-communism among the masses. "By golly, let's go get our fans, boys. We can't pass up a good chance". Some "Revolutionary Communist" Party the "RCP" is, that believes that the workers are literally engulfed in flames of anti-communism and believe in ruling class lies. Heretofore, it was generally conceded that "Revolution is the main trend in the world today" and that society is engulfed in flames of revolt, which must be "fanned" and merged into one great torrent of anti-fascist, proletarian socialist revolution. But then again, we may have failed to grasp the "RCP" 's theoretical masterpiece that this is a "non-revolutionary situation". (Revolution, June 1977)
IN DEFENSE OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT
The glorious Black rebellions of the 1960's showed the great revolutionary force of the Afro-American people, who gave up the road of non-violent passive resistance and took up revolutionary violence to fight the reactionary violence of the government. The Black working masses plunged into these rebellions with a vengeance against the monopoly capitalist dictators. They put into practice the revolutionary line that "The Enemy Is At Home". The Afro-American struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression and for complete emancipation has proven to be a great motive force and lever for the overthrow of U.S. monopoly capitalism.
Consequently, every revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist is put to the test in the defense of the Afro-American people's movement. The struggle against the fascist anti-busing movement provides such a test in practice. The COUSML has taken up revolutionary methods of struggle in combatting this racist movement and is mobilizing the masses to wage active resistance to state-organized racist attacks. However, the "RCP" has become the "left-wing" of the fascist anti-busing movement.
The mere thought that "The Enemy Is At Home" horrifies the opportunists. The October League, now absurdly posing as the "CPML", has announced its complete capitulation to the U.S. monopoly capitalist class and its state with its doctrine of "directing the main blow at the Soviet social-imperialists". This open declaration of class treason is a Klonskyite loyalty oath, a pledge to the U.S. imperialists to work toward splitting the proletariat, diverting it from revolution and directing its energy into a common front with the U.S. imperialists in the threatened third world war with the Soviet Union. This is also complete betrayal of the Afro- American people. The anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds" is the theoretical basis of the OL's national and social-chauvinism.
It is important to grasp that open social-chauvinist politics of "directing the main blow at Soviet social- imperialism" is the inevitable culmination of years of opportunism inside the U.S. Marxist-Leninist movement. The OL belongs in this category and was one of the neo-revisionist organizations, while the Revolutionary Union (now "RCP") was the original "theoretician" of neo-revisionism.
Neo-revisionism is the adaptation of New Leftism to the changed conditions when Marxism-Leninism was winning ideological victory among the core of the youth and student movement. It consists of hiding the reformist'and class collaborationist politics of the hardened misleaders of the New Left behind Marxist-Leninist phrases and pretensions. One of the most prominent features of neo-revisionism was its non-revolutionary attitude toward the state and conciliatory approach to growing fascism. RU for instance went so far as to deny that there was fascism in the U.S. and slandered the Marxist-Leninist militants who actually fought the state and its police as "ultra-lefts" and "trotskyites".
The neo-revisionists' non-revolutionary and actual collaborationist attitude toward the increasingly fascist U.S. government has now ripened and emerged as open, blatant capitulation to the state. This is the significance of OL's social-chauvinist thesis of "main blow at the Soviet Union". This was the beginning of the bankruptcy of neo-revisionism.
The "RCP-USA" has recently split and begun its open disintegration because it compromised with OL's social-chauvinism and adopted its own "independent", "militant" version of the three worlds theory and social-chauvinism. Despite the attempt of the "RCP" to suppress democratic discussion on the struggle raging between Marxism-Leninism and the theory of "three worlds" (as well as on other questions), the sand castle is now melting into the sea. A truly united, truly strong organization can only be built through resolute opposition to revisionism of all hues. The split in "RCP" is a symptom of the continuing bankruptcy of neo-revisionism.
In Seattle, "RCP"'s long history of conciliation and compromise with the state, its mindless "actions" and vulgar demagogy against "the system" combined with the most philistine reformism, has now ripened and born fruit. "RCP" in Seattle has itself announced that it is the left wing of the fascist anti-busing movement, of the Seattle Police Department, that it is a cheering squad for the growing fascism of the U.S. government . The "RCP" and the "OL" simply represent different shades of socialist-segregationism.
By continuing to advance the struggle against monopoly capital and against the revisionists and opportunists of all hues, the Marxist-Leninists will further throw the opportunist rabble into disarray. By vigorously pushing forward the decisive tasks of the American revolution, we will definitely unite the Marxist-Leninists in opposition to social-chauvinism, social-fascism and revisionism of all hues, build the Marxist-Leninist Party of the proletariat and push forward the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution.
SMASH THE GOVERNMENT-ORGANIZED FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT!
LONG LIVE THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT AGAINST RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENT REPRESSION AND FOR COMPLETE EMANCIPATION!
ACTIVE RESISTANCE IS THE ONLY PATH TO DEFEAT GROWING FASCISM!
UNITE THE WORKING CLASS FOR THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION!
Part II
(Reprinted below is the table of contents and the second installment of the COUSML pamphlet "Why Did the 'RCP-USA' Split?" The pamphlet is available from the COUSML, P.O. Box 11942, Chicago,
Illinois 60611, for 50¢)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: WHY DID THE "RCP,USA" SPLIT? (Reprinted in the April 1, 1977 issue of The Workers' Advocate.)
SPEECH ON THE "RCP, USA"
I. In Practice the "RCP" Ends Up Giving the Same Political Line As the OL Social-Chauvinists: Iran, "Zaire", Ethiopia, Fascist Anti-Busing Movement
II. How the "RCP" Lays the Ideological Basis for OL
Social-Chauvinism
"The first point which should be taken very seriously is that the RCP is against the struggle against opportunism, even in theory as well as in practice."
"The second point is that the RCP's line essentially is that you should count missiles to see if the superpowers are equal."
"The third point is that RCP denies the basic Marxist-Leninist teachings on war, namely, that war is the continuation of politics by other, i.e. violent, means."
"The fourth point is that the RCP is doing a tremendous amount of ideological work on the theme that we are not presently in a revolutionary situation."
"The fifth point is that the RCP claims that we are living in a classical bourgeois democracy and denies the question of fascization."
"The sixth point is the RCP's support of the 'theory of three worlds'."
"The seventh point is the RCP has actually come out to directly cover for OL's lines and to deny that OL gives various social-chauvinist positions.
"The eighth point is RCP's method in giving ideological grounds for social-chauvinism. Their method is to use the line that 'everything is so complex, wow' and anyone who clarifies something must be a 'dogmatist'."
"The ninth point is that the RCP is opposed to revolutionary authority."
APPENDIX: ACTION GROUPS AND SIDE-LINE PAMPHLETEERS (Excerpts from a speech on organizational questions)
SPEECH ON THE "RCP, USA"
Comrades, I would like to make a few remarks concerning the RCP,...
The comrades speaking before pointed out that social-chauvinism has come from the swamp of neo-revisionism. It should be pointed out that the RCP, or its predecessor the Revolutionary Union, was actually the formulator or theoretician of neo-revisionism. It was the RU that actually formulated and elaborated the line of "pre-party collectives" or "pre-Marxist-Leninist collectives".
I would like to restrict myself to only one major theme, that is: what stand does the RCP take on the growing polarization between Marxism-Leninism and open social-chauvinism.
The issue of social-chauvinism has become the pivotal issue in the Marxist-Leninist movement today. The opportunists are coming out into the open as chauvinist defenders of the bourgeoisie, thus openly revealing what has always been their essence. The opportunists have always been social-chauvinists, but now they are revealing it. And these opportunists direct their main blow at the Marxist-Leninists. The role of the RCP in this is to prevent the Marxist-Leninists from splitting with social-chauvinism, to try to stop this polarization by allegedly "opposing" the most blatant social-chauvinist slogans while in fact supporting all the main social-chauvinist theses and preparing conditions to totally capitulate to the social-chauvinists in the future. Thus the RCP claims to oppose the theory of "directing the main blow at the Soviet Union", this slogan which is open social-chauvinism and which is fully equivalent to defending the U.S. imperialist fatherland in an imperialist war. By this means the RCP claims to be leading the struggle against social-chauvinism. But at the same time the RCP does the most extensive ideological work in favor of all the main social-chauvinist theories. The RCP not only supports the social-chauvinist theories, but in any concrete situation, in a number of concrete political situations, it gives the same or similar line as the open social-chauvinists. We will deal with the question of the theories later on. Let us start by showing how in actual practice the RCP, despite their whole false front, end up giving the same line as the social-chauvinists.
IN PRACTICE THE "RCP" ENDS UP GIVING THE SAME POLITICAL LINE AS THE OL SOCIAL- CHAUVINISTS: IRAN, "ZAIRE", ETHIOPIA, FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT
One example of this is the issue of the Shah of Iran. The Shah of Iran is a bloodstained puppet of U.S. imperialism. He not only oppresses and butchers the people of his own country in the most barbaric fashion, but he also, on behalf of U.S. imperialism, sends troops into other countries to oppress them also, such as into Oman to suppress the revolutionary movement there. The RCP gave the facade of a big, militant criticism of OL on the issue of OL's support for the Shah of Iran, how the OL was capitulating, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of all this, it turns out that at the present time the RCP asserts that the Shah of Iran does in fact fight U.S. imperialism, and actually asks for the American proletariat to support the Shah of Iran to the extent that he allegedly fights U.S. imperialism. The RCP says: "But for the U.S. proletariat to support, for instance, the Shah of Iran to the extent that, as a member of OPEC, Iran struggles against imperialist plunder, does not mean putting such support above support for the revolutionary struggles of the Iranian people to defeat imperialism and overthrow the Shah." (Revolution, July 1977, "On the Three Worlds and the International Situation", p. 18, column 2) So at the same time that the RCP puts up its big propaganda front about how it supports the Iranian people's struggle and how it opposes OL's social-chauvinist stand in support of the Shah of Iran, it turns out that the RCP creates illusions about the role of the Shah of Iran and ends up giving the same social-chauvinist line that the Shah of Iran does fight U.S. imperialism to a certain "extent".
A similar example concerns the issue of the traitor Mobutu in the Congo-Kinshasa ("Zaire"). When a band of former Katanganese mercenaries, egged on by the Cuban-MPLA-Soviet neo-colonial regime in Angola, invaded the U.S. imperialist neo-colony of the Congo-K, the social-chauvinists jumped up and down, saying that the main question was to oppose the Soviet Union and to support Mobutu. In this way the social-chauvinists support the vast U.S. colonial empire against both "theft" by the Soviet social-imperialists and against true liberation by, for example, the revolutionary forces in the Congo-K led by the Marxist Revolutionary Party of the Congo-K. This is undoubtedly an example of what the comrade referred to earlier when he pointed out that the social-chauvinists say the main threat to the "independence" of such countries is the Soviet Union, negating the fact that these countries aren't independent to start with, but are simply neo-colonies. And the RCP came directly out in chorus with the social-chauvinists in supporting Mobutu. The May issue of Revolution carried a front page article entitled "Soviet Backed Mercenaries Invade Zaire". This article "militantly" declares that Mobutu is not only "pro-U.S." but even "the main pro-U.S. black government in Africa", that "Mobutu has been a servant of U.S. imperialism and the people of Zaire will undoubtedly overthrow their oppressors" and that "The U.S. is also trying to shore up the Zaire government against the invaders, not out of any concern for Zaire's independence but rather for the $1 billion in U.S. investments and U.S. imperialism's more general interests in Zaire." Thus RCP holds that both the Mobutu government and the invaders are servants of imperialism. But according to this article you should decide which servant of imperialism gives the best situation for the country! Naturally the RCP thinks that when all is said and done the situation would really deteriorate if the Soviet servants win, so from this point of view they support Mobutu and "their own" U.S. imperialists against the invader. Of course, this is only because they are very concerned for revolution in the Congo-K, and they even say so: "If such an armed invasion succeeds in imposing a new regime, the conditions for revolution will not be advanced, but set back." The RCP even uses the exact same sophistry of the OL of trying to turn Comrade Stalin into a social- chauvinist. The RCP concludes its article with the following passage, which could have been copied from OL's "dialectician" Eileen Klehr: "The lesson of all this reaffirms the Marxist position summed up by Stalin in appraising the maneuvers of the imperialists in the oppressed countries half a century ago. These situations, he said, have to be seen 'from the point of view of the actual results, as shown by the general balance sheet of the struggle against imperialism, that is to say, 'not in isolation, but on a world scale'."
"The Soviets are on the move in Africa, trying to use the armed liberation struggles as an opening for their own intervention, and as Angola proved, the meddling of the USSR, like the meddling of the U.S. (suddenly the U.S. is no longer "meddling" in the Congo-K, just the Soviet Union -- ed.) brings only setbacks for the revolutionary struggle, in the content of the situation in Africa as a whole and the imperialists' aims there, the invasion of Zaire is a dangerous threat to the overall struggle and a dangerous precedent for more of the same. The trampling on the independence of countries which have long been victimized by imperialism (the "independence" of the Congo-K is only being trampled on by the Soviet Union, according to RCP -- ed.) is a foul crime no matter what banner it is cloaked in.
"From the point of view of the situation within Zaire itself, if the current reactionary regime is replaced by another pro-imperialist regime whose power is established through force of invasion, this too would be a setback in the conditions for the revolutionary struggle in Zaire, a struggle which is sure to end in the overthrow of all of imperialism's servants, including the present regime.
"From this point of view -- from the question of whether it actually advances or goes against the struggle of the people of Zaire, Africa and the whole world against the imperialist system and the two superpowers who head it up, this invasion of Zaire is completely reactionary and must be opposed." This stand by the RCP really flustered the OL, which had to try very hard to concoct some difference with RCP on the question of Mobutu. All the OL could say is that the RCP doesn't explain clearly enough why it takes the social-chauvinist position! The Call wrote: "Trying to cover themselves, they (the RCP, expressing itself by way of an article in The Veteran -- ed.) tack on a remark that 'this little war must end with one side or the other as the victor', and that therefore it would be better if the mercenaries were defeated. But with their distorted logic, portraying the struggle simply as a fight between the superpowers, they cannot explain why it would be better." (The Call, "RCP Tells People of Zaire 'Don't Fight"' June 20, 1977, p. 12, column 4). Thus there is no actual difference of political line between the RCP and the OL on this question. Both support U.S. imperialist aggression on the plea of opposing an allegedly even worse Soviet social-imperialist aggression.
Another example concerns Ethiopia. All sorts of groups have suddenly become excited about the Ethiopian question... just as soon as they could use this to emphasize the question of Soviet domination. Until recently the social-chauvinists had little interest in the Ethiopian revolution. After all, the fascist Derg is a "third world government" and thus part of the "main force" moving forward world history -- and the Derg itself was more than happy to go along with such a farce and made all sorts of demagogical "anti-imperialist" pronouncements. But as soon as the Derg expelled some U.S. imperialist personnel and Cuban troops started to come in, the social-chauvinists certainly became interested in Ethiopian revolution because they could say that this was part of directing the "main blow" at the Soviet social-imperialists. The RCP had been interested in subverting the Ethiopian revolution for some time. But the RCP too began to use the Soviet aggression in Ethiopia to whitewash U.S. imperialist aggression in Ethiopia. The RCP says that U.S. imperialism was thrown out by the Derg when it expelled some U.S. imperialist personnel and U.S. bases. Therefore they say that U.S. imperialism is still contending for Ethiopia but only through such forces as the Ethiopian Democratic Union. They completely negate the fact that the U.S. imperialists have strong positions in the Ethiopian state-machine as well as in the economy, and the Derg simply expelled a few personnel and did not dismantle the state-machine or transform the economy. So U.S. imperialism still has its grasp on Ethiopia, and not just through the Ethiopian Democratic Union. Thus the RCP puts all the crimes of the Derg on the back of the Soviet New Tsars. While the Soviet Union does indeed deserve denunciation for backing the Derg, the RCP whitewashes U.S. imperialism's crimes in Ethiopia and its support of the Derg's crimes against the people.
Another example is the RCP's stand on the fascist anti-busing movement. The OL and RCP have different forms of the same line of opposition to the movement against racial discrimination and violent repression. At the end of a long period of debate, both settled down to the view that the question was that of each individual busing plan had to be examined on its own merits. What incredible wisdom! The RCP wrote in a reply to a letter that: "We also agree that one has to look at the particularities of each busing plan to see whether it is good or bad..." (Revolution, April, 1977, p. 6, col. 2) Thus the RCP made the issue into "whether or not we support busing in a particular case" (same article, p. 6, col. 3) while shamefacedly denying that it is doing so. The RCP way of not making busing itself into the issue is to promote slogans like "Smash the Boston Busing Plan!" and more recently "Plan Should Be Upheld Reaction Erupts Over Chicago Busing" (Revolution, October, 1977, p. 2) Revolution explains this as follows: "But we have also said that the issue is not busing in itself and stressed that the particularities of each busing plan have to be analyzed, because in some cases busing can and should be supported". (Revolution, October, 1977, p. 1-7, col. 1) In brief, "busing in itself" isn't the issue -- the individual busing plans are. The OL was hard pressed to explain how this differed from their own position. In the April 11, 1977 issue of The Call they whine that "...they (the RCP -- ed.) now call for an 'examination' of each plan to see if it is real or not. But while it is important to expose fraudulent busing schemes as The Call has done around 'one-way' busing in Milwaukee and rural Alabama, this 'examination' is the totality of RCP's program for integration.
(Remember that OL believes that integration is revisionist, which is why they use what they consider the "ironical" expression of "program for integration" -- ed.) The slogan 'examine each plan' (TheCall has just pointed out one sentence earlier that it follows this same slogan in practice -- ed.) is hardly a rallying point for the fight against school segregation".
What does this position of examining each plan on its own merits hide?
1. Both the RCP and the OL oppose active resistance to fascism and deny that the main task of the progressive people is to smash the fascist anti-busing movement and the issue is not "busing", nor is it to devise better "concrete, positive demands" (Revolution, April, 1977, p. 6, col. 3), but the issue is the racial discrimination and violent repression that is organized by the state apparatus against the Afro-American people. Both the RCP and OL are so mired in the neo-revisionist reformism and parliamentary cretinism that they make the question of whether the plans are good or bad the main issue. The OL has such faith in the allegedly "democratic" U.S. imperialists that it even makes the issue whether the plans are "real" or "fraudulent", while the RCP is dreaming of better "concrete, positive demands" and of "quality education".
2. In this way both the RCP and the OL present the U.S. state apparatus, including courts, government and police, as having two aspects, a pro-people aspect and an anti-people aspect. Each busing plan is to be examined to see whether it is pro-people or anti-people or, in OL's classic words, "real" or "fraudulent". This is the most vulgar form of bourgeois democratic illusion and revisionist reformism. In fact the U.S. government is seeking to organize fascist mass movements against the oppressed nationalities as the cutting edge of growing fascism. In order for the U.S. state apparatus to organize a fascist anti-busing movement, the open fascists have to collaborate with the concealed fascists, called liberals, and present some busing plans. These plans are presented in a mutilated and distorted fashion in order to mobilize sentiment against integration. Naturally any democrat, to say nothing of communist, is in support of any integration that may occur because of the busing plans. But any such integration that does occur is against the will of the state apparatus, which is systematically increasing segregation and the oppression of the nationalities. It is the masses, not the criminal fascist U.S. "authorities", who are enthusiastic for integration. It is downright political deception on behalf of the state to present the matter as if the government had any other aim but increased racist and fascist attacks on the people.
3. Both the OL and the RCP deny that the fascist anti-busing movement is state-organized. The RCP is so blind and has such love for action without analysis that it missed the fascist nature of the anti-busing movement and actually helped the government to organize it in Boston and some other places. The RCP jumped into bed with the fascists and complained that the Klan was "bogarting (hogging -- ed.) the leadership". Meanwhile the OL, not to be outdone, took fright at the sight of the fascist mass movement in Boston and called on its mentor, the U.S. federal government, to disperse the fascists -- thus helping to give a democratic facade to the U.S. government's repressive armed apparatus and propagating the suicidal tactics of telling the Afro-American people to look to "federal protection" (The Call, Nov. 1974, p. 12, col. 1) as a savior against the racist attacks organized by that very same state. The Call admitted that "The role of the cops has been mainly (only mainly??? -- ed.) to suppress the efforts of the Black community to defend itself and to occupy the community while nothing is done to protect it." Thus the debate between the RCP and the OL boiled down to: who could best suppress the movement against racial discrimination and violent repression -- the unofficial, irregular thugs of the fascist anti-busing movement or the armed, 'uniformed, "liberal" thugs of the state's official apparatus of terror and repression.
4. It should be pointed out that the self-righteous OL vacillates on whether or not busing violates OL's version of the "right to self-determination" of the Afro-American people. Both in theory and shamefacedly in practice, the OL holds the line that "integration is revisionist". In OL's articles on the Boston busing plan, they echoed the Wallaceite and segregationist cries of the open fascists with talk of "forced busing", "integrationist schemes" and racist dribble like "They (the liberals -- ed.) have continually added fuel to the racist fire by saying that only by rubbing elbows with white kids can Black and other minority kids learn". (The Call, same reference as above) To give this racist rot about "rubbing elbows" a "democratic" tinge, the OL reverses the verdict against "separate but equal" and adds the most amazing lawyer's double-talk about "Their whole integrationist scheme is based upon white supremacist assumptions about education". Thus, OL denounced the liberals in order to hide OL's endorsement of the "liberal" Ford Foundation schemes of "community control". OL is against "integrationist schemes" in order to promote segregationist schemes under the guise of the "right to self-determination". So, all OL's demagogy aside, the OL differed with the fascist anti-busing movement only on the question of method, not on the ultimate goal. In fact both OL and the RCP deny or are embarrassed by the strong democratic sentiment of the masses, which includes enthusiasm for integration.
5. The RCP sets the question of school integration up against the question of "quality education" and cut-backs in education. This is the view of a case- hardened capitalist bookkeeper, blinded by routine, who balances the expenditures needed for "busing", against the expenditures needed for interest payments to the blood-sucking banks, etc.,... mindful that he must keep within the limits imposed by the capitalist authorities in order to maximize profits for the capitalists and shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the oppressed masses. This is the exact same imperialist economism as the OL exhibits, only the OL also sets "integration" against "community control". The OL denounced the Chicago busing plan in a front page headline "Chicago: Fighting Racist Schemes to Divide and Rule" (The Call, September 12, 1977). The OL sets the struggle against cut-backs against the struggle against racial discrimination as follows: "The crisis in education goes hand-in-hand with school segregation, (here OL is referring to the busing plan -- ed.) which leads to whites fighting Blacks and parents fighting parents, rather than a joint and unified struggle for quality housing and education". This is the exact same argument, in even about the same words, as the RU used to support the fascist anti-busing movement in Boston.
Just as the U.S. state needs both 'liberals" and open reactionaries to float the fascist anti-busing movement, so the positions of the RCP and the OL on this issue are simply two sides of the same coin, minted by the state. On this issue, the OL tends to hide its segregationism by inclining to the imperialist liberals and concealed fascists, while the RCP is mesmerized by the "militancy" of the open fascists. This difference, however, is itself often reversed both on this and on other questions where the OL inclines to the open fascists and chauvinists and the RCP prefers the liberals. The basic political line of the two organizations is the same -- opposition to active resistance to fascism, opposition to the mass revolutionary struggle against the state-organized fascist and racist movement and opposition to the struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression, an opposition hidden behind the concoction of sectarian or even reactionary demands which are to be imposed on and counterposed to the mass movement.
These shameful social-chauvinist positions of the RCP show the sham nature of the RCP's struggle against social-chauvinism. Nevertheless it should be bom in mind that some people may not see clearly through RCP's facade, through the RCP's pages and pages of intellectualism, and they may have the impression that the RCP does oppose social-chauvinism. This false impression that the RCP does oppose social-chauvinism has to be taken very seriously tactically, … (To be continued)
HISTORICINTERNATIONALIST RALLYOF MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST PARTIES
MONTREAL, APRIL 30th
11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Gymnasium of Cegep de Maisonneuve, 3800 Sherbrooke Street East (West of Pie IX St.)
ALL FRIENDS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST MOVEMENT ARE WARMLY INVITED TO ATTEND
For further information, contact: The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) [Address and phone number.]
WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!]
[Graphic]
This song was written by the Syracuse Committee Against Social-Chauvinism and was first sung at a militant rally held in Buffalo to hail the fighting coal miners and denounce government repression against the coal miners.
RED SALUTE TO THE FIGHTING MINERS (to the tune of What Do We Do With A Drunken Sailor -- or A Mangy Cur)
On December 6, 1978
The miners struck, they didn't hesitate
The right to strike is their demand
On this they take a resolute stand
CHORUS:
What do we learn from the fighting miners ?
What do we learn from the fighting miners ?
What do we learn from the fighting miners ?
Active Resistance is the Only Way!
Invoke Taft-Hartley said fascist Carter
Yes, that's right said traitor Miller
Seize the mines said murderer Meany
United they stand against our class.
Taft-Hartley just a piece of paper
Said the miners to the labor traitors
Smashing illusions that have bound them
Uniting in class struggle.
What do you think of the miners' struggle?
Isn't it glorious and inspiring?
Showing the way for the working class
To fight their exploitation.
Miners have shown the workers' strength
Against the capitalists and their state.
If in one strike they take such a stand
The workers can surely rule the land.
CHORUS
Workers Awake! Our historic mission --
Overthrow capitalism, build socialism
All our struggles we can win
With Marxism in command.
What shall we do for the militant miners?
Build the Party and unite our class
Build the Party to lead their struggle
Advance the revolution.
Red Salute to the fighting miners!
Red Salute to the fighting miners!
Red Salute to the fighting miners!
Active Resistance is the only way!
(Repeat)