The Workers' Advocate

WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! 25¢

Volume 10, Number 11

VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA

December 10, 1980

[Front page:

Reagan replaces Carter as the chieftain of capitalist reaction;

A vigorous "Don't Vote!" campaign against the capitalist elections farce;

20 Years Since the Historic Moscow Meeting: Carry the Struggle Against Revisionism Through to the End!;

COMBAT GROWING FASCISM WITH ACTIVE RESISTANCE! The Greensboro verdict is an outrage!]

IN THIS ISSUE

Reagan replaces Carter as the chieftain of capitalist reaction

A vigorous "Don't Vote!" campaign against the capitalist elections farce

Carry the Struggle Against Revisionism Through to the End!

COMBAT GROWING FASCISM WITH ACTIVE RESISTANCE!

The Greensboro verdict is an outrage!

On the Honeymoon of the Democrats and the Labor Traitors with Reagan:

Birds of a feather flock together

On the racist police murders of Ricky Lewis and Kenneth Gamble in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mass struggle is the answer to racist police terror!

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY:

THOUSANDS DENOUNCE REAGAN

Demonstrations against the savage racist murders in Buffalo

63rd Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution:

The teachings of October are always relevant

The resolute struggle against revisionism -- the sole correct and life-giving stand

Letter of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA to the Party of Labor of Albania on the 39th anniversary of the PLA's founding

On the Work of the Northeastern Anti-Imperialist Forum in Chicago

IN DEFENSE OF THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION

Northeastern students militantly defend the Iranian revolution

FROM THE: Chicago ANTI-IMPERIALIST Newsletter

Political lessons from the Soviet aggression against Afghanistan

CELEBRATE THE 36TH ANNIVERSARY OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA:

THE WORKING PEOPLE CAN BUILD A NEW AND BETTER LIFE WITHOUT THE RICH EXPLOITERS

Reagan replaces Carter as the chieftain of capitalist reaction

The capitalist ruling class is once again changing horses. They are going to replace their smiling lackey Carter with their fascist mouthpiece Reagan. The bourgeoisie has picked up Reagan, this decrepit fossil of open reaction, racism and star-spangled warmongering, as their new standard-bearer to implement the policies of his predecessors in the White House. Reagan is taking over the reins of the capitalist offensive against the masses from Carter, who, after four years in office, has failed completely in his efforts to get U.S. imperialism out of its great, all-sided crisis.

Four years ago, the smiling "human rights" preacher Carter, groomed for the job by the Rockefellers' Trilateral Commission, was put in office with the task of "restoring confidence in government." This was in the wake of the hated U.S. war of aggression in Indochina and after eight years of the administration of the fascist war criminal Richard Nixon and his successor Ford, an administration which was passionately despised by the broad masses of the working people. In this way Carter and the Democrats, as the so-called "party of labor and the minorities" and under a liberal-labor banner, took up the job of implementing Nixonite fascism without Nixon. However, with every anti-working class, oppressive and warmongering step he took, Carter too earned the broad hatred of the working people. The economic and all-sided crisis shaking the U.S. capitalist society only intensified day by day. Thus the capitalist ruling class has tossed Carter out like an old sock.

Now Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood-groomed fascist, a media voicebox of the GE Corporation for propaganda for unbridled reaction, is being given a turn. Along with Reagan, the notorious henchmen of the Nixon-Ford administration are coming back after their four-year leave of absence. At the top of the list is former CIA director and Trilateral Commission man, George Bush. Other former Nixon men, such as George Shultz, General Alexander Haig, Caspar Weinberger, William Simon, Alan Greenspan, and possibly the infamous butcher of the Indochinese people, Henry Kissinger, are also returning to power as part of Reagan's inner circle of advisors. Reagan is taking up where the fascist Nixon left off.

It Is Not the "Common Man" But Big Capital Which Is "Moving to the Right," to Ever More Open Reaction

The capitalist media has been producing an endless stream of lies to the effect that the results of the elections and Reagan's victory prove that the "common man" is "increasingly conservative" or is "moving to the right." What a hoax! In reality, among the ranks of the workers, among the black people and the poor and downtrodden, Reagan is already widely recognized and hated as a bitter enemy of the working people, as an undisguised racist, and as a rabid jingoist and advocate of aggressive war. Thus, in regard to the election returns, far from receiving an "overwhelming mandate" as the media claims, fully 47% of the electorate did not vote for any of the candidates, which meant that the 1980 presidential elections had the lowest voter turnout in 32 years. Moreover, Reagan received no more than 51% of the ballots of those who did vote. If anything, the election returns reflect the deep distrust and contempt which the working people hold for both Carter and Reagan, the twin mouthpieces of monopoly capital.

It is not the "common man" but the rich, the capitalist ruling class which is "moving to the right" and stepping up reaction against the working class and the oppressed masses.

V.I Lenin stressed the point that the very system of monopoly capitalism means "reaction all along the line." And under the conditions of the deepening crisis of monopoly capitalism, each passing year has witnessed the big bourgeoisie, "moving to the right," resorting to ever more unbridled reaction guided by the sole objective of maintaining their wealth and power, of realizing the maximum profits and defending a system which is rotting alive. Under Carter and the Democrats monopoly capital carried forward the process of fascization in all fields. Behind the Carterite mask of "human rights," "concern for the poor," and "pro-labor reforms," the bourgeoisie has taken a whole series of ruthless measures to throttle the workers' movement, to intensify racial discrimination and to further destroy the livelihood of the poor. Inevitably Carter's mask became threadbare and tattered, and Carter became widely exposed as the reactionary that he is. At the same time, over the course of his term, Carter himself increasingly "moved to the right." This was such that during his reelection campaign Carter often times attempted to portray himself as an even bigger reactionary and militarist than Reagan.

Putting Reagan in office means an undisguised policy. Instead of having in the White House a demagogical voice of alleged "moderation" and alleged "compassion" behind which the most brutal attacks are launched against the people, with Reagan the White House itself will be a frank voice of ultra-reaction.

Among other things, a Reagan White House will provide open assistance to the efforts of the bourgeoisie to float racist and fascist mass movements. It will also serve as a direct sounding board for the propaganda of the most bestial reactionaries and racist cutthroats. Reagan, for instance, has recently reaffirmed that his administration will remain closely linked to such elements as the Christian fascists of the likes of Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority." As well, KKK "imperial wizard" Bill Wilkerson has expressed to Reagan his desire to have a contingent of his fascist hangmen participate in Reagan's inauguration march in order to demonstrate their ardent solidarity with the new administration.

The capitalist ruling class is coming out with the mailed fist. The dropping of the Carterite mask for the open reaction of the Reaganites is one more zigzag in this process of fascization which takes place at times openly and at other times under a liberal-labor disguise. In either case monopoly capital is invariably striving to overcome its great crisis through increasing reaction. It is resorting to the big stick against the working masses at home and against the struggles for freedom and liberation of the peoples abroad. In this way, U.S. imperialism is preparing for a trial of strength with its most feared adversaries, the working class and the oppressed masses of the U.S. and the world.

A Ruthless Capitalist Offensive Against the Masses

To escape the all-sided crisis, the capitalist class has been unfolding a broad offensive against the masses. In their drive to make the workers pay for the economic crisis, the monopolies are imposing on the workers drastic cuts in their real take-home pay, massive layoffs, man-eating productivity drives, austerity programs and every sort of measure to ruin the livelihood of the working people. Finance capital is also striving to step up the process of fascization, to reinforce the already monstrous machine of police oppression, to strengthen racial discrimination, and thus attempt to crush the resistance of the working and oppressed masses. As well, the capitalists are feverishly working to militarize the economy and to prepare for imperialist war. U.S. imperialism is stepping up its aggressive drive for subjugating the peoples all over the globe.

Carter has faithfully unfolded this offensive of his monopoly capitalist masters. Now, with such a "brilliant leader" and ultra-reactionary Neanderthal as Ronald Reagan, the bourgeoisie hopes to carry out this offensive against the people even more ruthlessly.

Reagan has declared that "controlling inflation" is his "top domestic priority." But each of his various "solutions" to inflation are only so many means to starve the masses. Reagan and his men have proposed numerous means of "eliminating waste in government" such as: eliminating food stamps; raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits from 65 to 68; cutting off federal housing assistance to those cities which have rent control; and so forth and so on. At the same time, Reagan's proposed increases in the military budget and massive handouts to the corporations and billionaires will ensure that federal spending, federal deficits and inflation will continue to soar out of sight. Reagan has also dedicated himself to "fighting inflation" by enforcing a proposed sub-minimum wage for teenagers. This measure is also widely advertised by the Reaganites as a cure for youth unemployment!

One of the typically fascist proposals of Reagan's advisors is to set up a "bounty system" which would reward state governments for each person they can convict of welfare fraud. Then to help the states hunt down this "bounty," Reagan's men suggested that the FBI set up special FBI "task forces" to survey and investigate welfare recipients. And the Reaganites describe such measures as means to "get government off our backs"! Indeed, beefing up the manpower and criminal activity of the FBI and the CIA and the other police and intelligence forces to oppress the masses and clamp down against the revolutionary movement is a major part of Reagan's "law and order" fascist program.

Nothing could be a greater farce than Reagan's demagogy about "reducing the burden of big government." Reagan's "tax relief" proposals mean hundreds of billions of "tax relief" for the corporations and the rich and more taxes for the workers and the poor. Among other things Reagan is proposing a major overhaul of the depreciation tax credit which corporations receive on their outlays for new plant and equipment. What this measure amounts to is massive subsidies to the monopolies in order to help finance their productivity drives against the workers, to rationalize and retool production in order to exploit the workers to the bone and eliminate jobs. This measure alone is projected to provide the corporations and cost the working masses $470 billion by the end of Reagan's term. Reagan's other so-called "tax relief" measures are also aimed at placing an even greater share of the tax burden onto the working people.

Reagan also promises a feverish pace of militarization, even outdoing the record military budgets of Carter. Reagan wants to spend an astronomical $1,100 billion during his first term on new means of nuclear extermination and for the general expansion of the armed forces. This will mean boosting military spending from $157 billion in 1981 to over $300 billion by 1985. Reagan describes these record billions for warships and missiles as the "backbone" of his foreign policy of unbridled imperialism.

As Reagan himself correctly points out, his foreign policy of international aggression and of striving for world domination is a bipartisan policy shared by Democrats and Republicans alike. Hence Reagan's top advisors have fully endorsed the "Carter doctrine" for the subjugation of the oil-rich Middle East and the Persian Gulf region. Reagan fully backs the brutal blackmail against Iran; the beefing up of the "rapid deployment forces" capable of striking anywhere in the world that the "vital interests" of U.S. imperialism may be threatened; the building up of a new permanent naval fleet in the Indian Ocean; the establishment of several new military bases in and around the Persian Gulf region; etc.

Reagan, however, has demanded that the aggressive and warmongering policy of U.S. imperialism should be even more naked and undisguised; that it should not be clouded with so many of Carter's hypocritical and lying sermons about "peace" and "human rights." Imperialist tycoon and newly converted Reagan booster, David Rockefeller, spelled out Reagan's stand in regard to backing up the pro-U.S. imperialist fascist dictatorships in numerous countries all over the globe. On a recent tour of Latin America, Rockefeller dropped in on several of the U.S.-backed military dictators on the continent in order to assure them that Reagan will openly back them to the hilt, no matter how many of their people they torture and massacre, as long as they remain loyal to the interests of U.S. imperialism. As Rockefeller put it, Reagan "will base his foreign policy on U.S. national interest." In other words, Reagan and U.S. imperialism will strive to keep in power the most bloodstained fascist tyrants and will commit any kind of aggression or intervention, no matter how criminal, to defend the super-profits of the U.S. multinational corporations.

The Bourgeoisie Has Not Dropped the Weapon of Deception from Its Arsenal

The election of Reagan and the demise of a number of "liberal" Democratic senators does not mean that the bourgeoisie has dropped the weapon of deception from its arsenal. Not hardly. Liberal-labor methods will retain a major role in the strategy of the capitalist offensive against the working masses.

For example, Reagan has already pledged that his "strategy of economic growth includes...the cooperation of business and labor." Likewise, the top labor bureaucrats, Lane Kirkland, Doug Fraser, etc., have already bestowed their blessings on Reagan and have promised their "cooperation" with him. In other words, to supplement open strikebreaking, Reagan is far from opposed to forming a close alliance with the so-called "labor leaders" at the head of the trade unions for the suppression of the workers' movement. Under Reagan, the various new forms of tripartite (government, capitalist and "labor") cooperation will be brought further into force with the objective of establishing "labor peace" and mercilessly exploiting the workers. In this regard Reagan will follow the example of Nixon. When Nixon imposed his fascist wage-price controls which brought down the full force of the law against workers' strikes for higher wages, he did so with the close cooperation of the trade union sellouts. In fact, Nixon's wage controls were the brainchild and proposal of George Meany and co. and his Democratic Party cohorts.

The traitors among the black people and the other oppressed nationalities have also bestowed their blessings on the new administration. And to be sure, the Jesse Jacksons and the others, those who only yesterday branded Abernathy as a traitor for joining Reagan's campaign, will themselves be taking their pilgrimages to the White House in order to be dispatched as the fire fighters of the struggle against racial discrimination.

As for the Democratic Party itself, their congressional leader Tip O'Neill held a meeting with Reagan at which he assured Reagan of a "six month honeymoon." And O'Neill has promised Reagan that the Democrats "will cooperate as much as we can." The "liberal" Democratic Party chieftains have already made it quite clear that they want a close "working relationship" with the ultra-reactionary Reagan just as they had with the criminal Nixon before him.

Reagan Following in Carter's Footsteps and the Utter Falseness of the Democratic Party "Opposition"

Despite losing the White House and their majority in the Senate, the Democratic Party will remain an essential part of the big bourgeoisie's arsenal of deception. While walking arm in arm with Reagan down the path of extreme reaction, it is nevertheless inevitable that the Democratic Party "liberals" will attempt to strike a pose as the "opposition" to the Reaganite conservatives. The oh, so noble Democrats will puff themselves up as the "defenders of the poor and the rights of the oppressed" and as the "peaceful doves" against Reagan's warmaking.

This is how the Democratic Party hacks and their social-democratic "left" wing boosters will try to hoodwink the masses. But this so-called opposition of the Democratic Party will be based solely on their drive to retake the spoils of office and to once again put a J liberal'^ coat of paint on all the arch-reactionary steps taken by the Reaganite administration. It must not be forgotten that the Democratic Party is also a party of the monopolies, of brutal capitalist exploitation and oppression. Therefore it is not now and never will be a genuine oppositional force of any kind against the reactionary onslaught of monopoly capital.

It must not be overlooked that over the last four years it was Carter and the Democrats who have been at the head of the capitalist offensive. Moreover, it was "Mr. Human Rights" who has spelled out and gotten under way the basic policies which will comprise the main fronts of the Reaganite reactionary offensive.

It was Carter who strove to develop a repressive system of wage-price controls, rigged up new forms of tripartite cooperation between the trade union chieftains, the employers and the government, and who drew up the "reindustrialization" schemes to serve the monopolists' productivity drive -- all with the single purpose of crushing the workers' movement. Reagan has adopted as his own Carter's tripartite "reindustrialization" schemes to the extent that Reagan's proposed $470 billion of additional tax depreciation credits for the corporations over the next four years is identical to Carter's plan.

It was Carter who sanctioned the lifting of price controls on domestic crude oil, who set up a $80 billion syn- fuels corporation to provide ensured capital for the oil monopolies' synthetic fuel operations, and whose energy policy has brought about a doubling and tripling of gasoline and heating oil prices while providing untold record billions of profits for the U.S. multinational oil corporations. Reagan proposes no major change in Carter's energy policy but promises to enforce it "with a steady hand."

It was the Carter administration that initiated the various austerity measures and cutbacks in social services which Reagan is now boasting about so loudly. On this, it is interesting to note that a Carter administration commission, after a year-long study, arrived at the very same proposal to push back the Social Security retirement age from 65 to 68 years of age that Reagan's "task force" also came up with.

It was under Carter that the bourgeoisie came out with its vile racist propaganda about "reverse discrimination, unleashed an onslaught of racist police murders and set in motion the racist and fascist terrorist gangs. It was the heir of a big slave owner, Carter, who gave election speeches across the South which sang praises to the "traditions of the Confederacy." And it was Carter who was chased out of Miami to the sound of the black people's greeting: "Hail to the chief racist!" Reagan, too, is a racist chieftain who will strive to further strengthen the racial oppression which has been stepped up on all fronts under Carter.

In the Senate it has been Kennedy, the darling hero of the Democratic Party "left" wing, who has been in the forefront of drafting repressive legislation against the mass movements in general and the revolutionaries in particular. Over the last several years, Kennedy has been working intimately with the Republican Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond on the perfecting of a new federal criminal code. This major piece of fascist legislation, what is now the so-called "grandson of Bill S-l," is yet further evidence of the common reactionary platform of the pro-Reagan ultra-conservatives and the Democratic "liberals."

And finally it was Carter who promised "major reductions" in military spending if elected and who had his Democratic controlled Congress pass record military budgets every year that he was in office. It was Carter who reintroduced the draft registration and who carried out the aggressive blockade and attempted invasion of Iran. It was Carter who stumped for the construction of more Trident submarines, cruise missiles, the MX missile system and all the other major weapons systems that Reagan is promising the Pentagon generals. Warmonger Reagan only plans to carry through the colossal military buildup which "peacenik" Carter had already gotten well on its way.

In fact, the reactionary crimes of Carter and the Democrats against the people are far too many to list. This is because it has been (barter and the Democrats who have been carrying out the savage attacks of monopoly capital. And the Carterite policies are now being taken over wholesale by Reagan and his clique of Nixon's fascist henchmen.

Reaganite Reaction Can Only Be Countered by the Revolutionary Action of the Masses

The development of the reactionary offensive of the bourgeoisie poses a great danger and is a matter of much concern among the masses. This situation requires the organization and mobilization in revolutionary action of the masses. With this objective, it must be made clear that in their struggle against the capitalist offensive the working masses must not fall into the dead-end trap of relying on one group of capitalist and imperialist politicians against another. Vigilance is needed in this regard because the Democrats will inevitably strive harder than ever to penetrate the mass oppositional movements in the role of the "official opposition" to Reagan.

As the last four years of Carter's government strongly underscores, Reaganite reaction can only be countered by the revolutionary action of the working class and the broad masses of the people. For this struggle the masses must be organized against all the capitalist exploiters and all their political parties. The organized masses with their Marxist-Leninist party of the working class is the colossal force emerging in opposition to the monopoly capitalists' program of starvation, fascism and war.

A Desperate Effort to Overcome the Crisis and Stem the Growing Revolt of the Masses

In this regard, it should be pointed out that the bourgeoisie is not putting Reagan in office and unleashing a reactionary offensive from positions of strength and stability. Far from it. The capitalist system is still in the throes of a devastating economic crisis, a crisis more severe than any crisis since the Great Depression. As well, the resistance of the working masses is gaining strength. The revolt of the black people of Miami and other cities and the demonstrations and actions against the draft are only signs of the storm which is brewing. Internationally, in the years after the great blows it suffered in Indochina, U.S. imperialism has continued to be pounded by the liberation struggles of the peoples of Iran? Central America and elsewhere throughout Its vast 'neo-colonial empire. Furthermore, the inter-imperialist rivalry for world hegemony between U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism is being further intensified as events in the Middle East and elsewhere demonstrate. U.S. imperialism is being rocked by insurmountable and all-sided crisis and is therefore unleashing reaction, developing fascism and heading for war in its desperate efforts to overcome its bleak situation.

With Reagan's election victory the capitalists are trying to strike up the theme that if nothing else, at least better economic times are around the corner. The media even made a fuss about the celebrations on Wall Street with the "Reagan boomlet" and the new "bull market" for stocks in defense industries and oil corporations. But any euphoria will be very short-lived.

None of Reagan's proposed measures to starve the working people, to beef up the police forces and develop fascist reaction, or to militarize the economy and prepare for war can overcome the economic crisis which has the monopoly capitalist system firmly in its clutches. To the contrary. Even Reagan's banker friends admit that there is no real relief in sight from the 13% inflation, 8% unemployment and the all-round economic stagnation. In fact, the measures which Reagan will strive to implement with the aim of shifting the burden of the crisis entirely onto the backs of the people and to militarize the economy will only pave the way for even more powerful and profound crisis.

Moreover there is a growing revolt building up among the masses. The working people are very concerned about the reactionary offensive of monopoly capital and the great dangers.that it represents. The masses are looking for a way out of the situation and are more and more seeing the necessity for struggle. The workers, the black people and the other oppressed nationalities, and the youth and students are increasingly going into action. The mass struggles are gaining strength against growing poverty and oppression/ against the merciless wage cutting, layoffs and productivity drives; against the racist terror of the police and the fascist gangs; against the draft and the feverish preparations for war; and against all the crimes of the bourgeoisie.

All the conditions for powerful class battles of the working class and the broad masses of people against the capitalist ruling class are being prepared.

[Back to Top]

A vigorous "Don't Vote!" campaign against the capitalist elections farce

[Photo.]

The presidential election this year was another big charade of the capitalist billionaires. Reagan, Carter, Anderson and the others were paraded about in an elaborate cross-country media spectacular. Each one outdid the rest in making lying promises of "peace, prosperity and full employment, if you just vote for me." But all of the candidates were toadies of the monopolies. They all stood on the common capitalist platform of increased exploitation, growing fascism and stepped-up preparations for imperialist war. This was the fraudulent "choice" given to the working people. It was only to vote for one or the other representative of the rich, only to decide which would become the head slave driver to crack the whip over the people for the next four years.

The Marxist-Leninist Party waged a broad campaign against the capitalist parties. Since all the candidates in the election were just mouthpieces of the rich, the Party called on the workers to boycott the capitalist election circus. This was not a call for the workers to sit passively at home, but for the workers to play an active role in opposing the capitalist program. All across the country the MLP raised the banner, Don't Vote! The capitalist parties are all the same! Through widescale leafletting, rallies and demonstrations, the MLP called the workers into action to oppose the capitalist parties, denounce their program and step up the mass struggle against starvation, fascism and war.

The MLP pointed out that the workers must make full use of the capitalist elections as one of the fronts of the class struggle. It explained that the workers can never seize power or establish socialism through the capitalist elections. To achieve these things the workers must carry out the proletarian revolution. But the class conscious workers should make use of the capitalist election circus to expose the capitalist politicians and to set forth the program of the class struggle before the widest masses. In this election it wasn't possible to run revolutionary candidates. Therefore the work in the election was carried out around an active boycott. In all its work and struggle around the election, the MLP showed the working masses that to defend their interests, they must break with the capitalist parties and build their own independent political movement, a movement of revolutionary struggle against the monopoly capitalist dictators.

Wide-Ranging Actions of the MLP Against the Capitalist Political Parties

Throughout the year the MLP conducted wide-ranging work against the capitalist parties. Detailed exposures of their programs were distributed in pamphlets, leaflets and The Workers' Advocate. Militant contingents organized by the MLP denounced Reagan and Carter in demonstrations against the Republican and Democratic Conventions. A spirited fight was waged against the flunkeys of these parties who tried to infiltrate the mass movements.

As the election approached, the MLP stepped up its Don't Vote! campaign. Throughout October and early November the MLP organized a wide variety of activities to inspire in the workers unyielding hostility to the parties and program of the capitalists and to draw the masses into struggle.

Nearly 100,000 copies of a special issue of The Workers' Advocate were distributed in factories, schools and neighborhoods; at mass demonstrations and strikes; and at the capitalist election rallies. As well, tens and tens of thousands of copies of special leaflets and pamphlets were distributed.

The masses showed a serious interest in the MLP literature. Discussions spread through the factories and schools. In some cases, students and professors asked comrades of the MLP to speak to their classrooms. Activists, inspired by the Marxist-Leninist analysis, invited MLP representatives to speak at meetings of their organizations. The MLP itself organized dozens and dozens of meetings, from public rallies to small group discussions in workers' homes, where the MLP comrades answered all the questions about the current struggle and the socialist goal of the working class.

The MLP also organized fiery actions to draw the workers into struggle against the capitalist parties. The MLP picketed over 20 of the rallies of the capitalist parties. In some cases workers and young people who came to the rallies joined the MLP pickets, taking up the placards against the capitalist parties and shouting, "Don't vote! They're all the same!" and other slogans against the capitalist election circus. As well, more than 18 demonstrations were held in working class neighborhoods around the country. At these events the workers came out of their homes to greet the demonstrators, raising clenched fists in solidarity and joining in to shout the revolutionary slogans. These demonstrations and actions were important vehicles to encourage the working masses to join in an active fight against the capitalist parties.

The work to denounce the capitalist election circus was carried out in an organized fashion. It served to increase the party spirit and sense of organization among the class conscious proletarians and progressive masses. The class conscious workers rallied around the party organizations. Literature distribution networks in the factories were further enlivened and extended. As well, in a number of areas Don't Vote! Committees were formed. These committees drew in forces around the Party, multiplied their enthusiasm and activity, and provided training in organization. In addition, several organizations of anti-imperialist activists took a vigorous part in the campaign.

Don't Vote! Campaign Linked to the Struggles of the Working Masses

The MLP paid close attention to linking the work against the capitalist parties with the ongoing struggles of the masses of workers and oppressed people. It carefully combined the campaign on the election with the ongoing work of the MLP in the struggles against the racist terror of the police and fascist gangs; in the fight against the draft and the imperialist nuclear program; and in the strikes, slowdowns and other actions against speedup, layoffs and the whole wage- cutting offensive of the capitalists. Utilizing examples taken from the course of the mass struggles, the MLP helped the masses to sum up their experience about the treachery of the capitalist parties and their attacks on the working people. This method of work was popular among the masses and won wide support for the revolutionary agitation of the MLP.

The linking of the election agitation to the ongoing struggles in particular provided live exposures of the role of the soldout trade union hacks, poverty pimps and "riot stoppers," and the various "left-wing" flunkeys of the Democratic Party. These opportunists lectured the workers to give up the mass struggle and instead seek salvation in voting for the lying capitalist politicians. They served as firemen to stamp out the ferment among the masses.

The trade union bureaucrats were especially active in trying to break up the struggles of the workers and "get out the vote" for their favorite capitalist politician. While claiming to be officially "neutral" and "independent" of the rich, they tie the workers hand and foot to the political parties and policies of the capitalists. They are praising to the skies the capitalist "reindustrialization" schemes and acting as whip hands for the capitalists in their productivity drives and wage-cutting offensive against the workers. The MLP fought these labor traitors tooth and nail. Marxist-Leninist and other progressive workers went right into their union meetings, denounced the union bureaucrats' endorsements of Carter and Reagan, and in fierce debates exposed their collaboration with the capitalists and their sabotage of the workers' struggles.

The bought and paid for traitors of the oppressed nationalities also went all out to quell the revolt seething among the masses and to tie them to the coattails of the racists Carter and Reagan. Why, Jesse Jackson was sent into the middle of the mass movement that was growing in Buffalo and preached against the black people for "getting diverted" into fighting against six racist murders, when they should be supposedly concentrating all their efforts on getting Jimmy Carter elected. The MLP exposed these bootlickers of the capitalists among the masses. Showing how the government, headed up by the Carter administration, had inspired and organized racist attacks all across the country, the MLP pointed out that the working people must take matters into their own hands to fight the racist terror of the police and fascist gangs.

In these and other struggles the MLP waged a fierce struggle against the agents of capitalist influence in the working class and popular movements. This work is essential to break the mass movements from the influence of the smooth-talking Democratic Party flunkeys. It trains the working masses to have undying hostility to all the policies of the rich and complete contempt for their whole apparatus of political deception.

Build the Independent Political Movement of the Working Class

The special issue of The Workers' Advocate of October 5 was a short popular paper that summed up the issues in the election and set forth the tasks of the proletariat.

The paper showed how Reagan and Carter have identical programs of capitalist "reindustrialization" and imperialist war preparations, of racial discrimination and reaction. It denounced the Republican Party as the party of open reaction, the party that flaunts itself as the party of big business and its "law and order" program. It exposed how the Democratic Party carries out the exact same measures as the Republicans but tries to deceive the workers by parading these measures as "pro-labor" and "in the interest of the minorities."

The paper also ripped the mask off the various "alternative" parties that were trotted out by the capitalists for this year's election. The proliferation of the "third" parties was a sign that the capitalists themselves recognized the vast anger of the masses at the two big parties of the monopolies, the Democrats and the Republicans. Therefore the capitalists dressed up their program in a number of phoney "alternatives" and "differences" in order to divert the masses and keep them from striking at the real sources of their exploitation. The Workers' Advocate stripped the disguises from these fake "alternatives." It showed how the "Anderson difference" not only advocated the exact same program as Carter and Reagan, but even proclaimed its aim to be to "breathe new life" into the two big capitalist parties. It proved with convincing arguments that Barry Commoner's Citizens Party and the sham socialist parties like the misnamed "Communist" Party, USA are nothing but a Kennedyite "left wing" of the Democrats. These parties claim to be "against big business," "for peace," and so forth, but in fact they simply prettify and support the common program of the capitalist monopolies. They are enemies of the struggle of the masses. They are nothing but another set of capitalist parties.

The Workers' Advocate demonstrated that these capitalist parties are all the same. It called for the building of the independent political movement of the working class. True independence means independence from the capitalists and their parties and resolute struggle against them. The working masses can't defend their interests through collaboration with the rich, but must base themselves on the class struggle, the politics of the working class struggle against the capitalists. The independent movement of the working class means the development of the mass revolutionary struggle. It means the separation of the mass movements from the influence of the capitalist parties and from the lies of the smooth-talking "left" flunkeys of the Democratic Party. It means fighting the soldout labor bureaucrats, the government functionaries and "riot stoppers" and all the "respectable" misleaders who act as fire fighters against the flames of the mass struggle. It means organizing the working class as a class for itself, a class with its own revolutionary mission and goals, and not as a pressure group tailing along helplessly behind the imperialist liberals.

The Workers' Advocate called for utilizing this year's election campaign to assist the building of the independent political movement of the working class. It set forth the steps that should be taken to guide and orient the growing ferment of the working masses and to give it conscious direction and organization. It called for the vigorous development of the mass struggle. It set forth the task of building revolutionary groups in the factories, communities and schools and pointed out the role of the party organizations as the highest form of proletarian organization. It called for the widespread circulation of revolutionary literature among the working masses and the study of Marxist-Leninist science.

The Workers' Advocate explained that the goal of the proletarian class struggle is the socialist revolution. It showed how, in the mass struggles against exploitation, warmongering, national oppression, and the other crimes of the rich, the working masses are preparing themselves for the socialist revolution that will overthrow the capitalist exploiters altogether. The coming revolution in the U.S. is a socialist revolution, where the working class will lead all the exploited and oppressed to true emancipation by expropriating the capitalists, taking over the ownership of the means of production and ending the exploitation of man by man. It will be a revolution with a lofty internationalist spirit that hoists high the banner of the struggle against imperialism and imperialist war, against U.S. imperialist plunder of and aggression against other countries, and against the U.S. exploiters' savage national oppression at home. And it will manifest an anti-fascist character by smashing the gigantic apparatus of the overgrown, repressive capitalist state, replacing it with the armed people themselves, and thus thoroughly eliminating the growing fascism of the capitalist dictators.

Growing Revolutionary Ferment Among the Masses

In the factories, communities and schools, in the strikes and mass demonstrations, wherever the MLP went it found support and encouragement from the working masses. They are disgusted with the unemployment and inflation lander the Carter government and outraged at Reagan's plans to slash their living standards further. They are fed up with Carter's draft registration and feverish militarization, and horrified at the imperialist war plans of Reagan. They are sick and tired of the racist attacks that grew during Carter's presidency, and boiling with anger against the even more open reaction that Reagan promises. The deep concern of the working masses in this year's election, their interest in what the MLP had to say and their support for the actions it organized, shows the ferment that is spreading widely among the people. The fact that 47% of the people did not vote at all in this year's election is not a sign of apathy, as the capitalist news media claims. It shows, instead, the widespread hatred for both Reagan and Carter. It is one indication that the future holds in store not a "swing of the people to the right" but increasing mass struggle against the Reagan government and against the entire crisis- ridden capitalist system that he represents.

[Photos:

1, 2. Don't Vote! meetings were held in Berkeley on October 18 and in Oakland on November 1. Speeches denounced the capitalist program of starvation, fascism and war and were followed by militant cultural performances.

3. The Party comrades organized three marches on November 1 in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. They were accompanied by a van displaying banners and equipped with loudspeakers. They stopped on several street corners and held rallies.

DETROIT:

4, 5, 6. A rally and march were organized in the working class community of Highland Park on November 1. It called on the workers to fight the capitalist policies, such as the plant closings and the racist terror of the police and fascist gangs.

7. Literature was widely distributed at the factory gates. The workers, such as at this Chrysler plant, eagerly took the literature and participated in many discussions.

8. Wherever the capitalist parties held their rallies, the MLP was there to denounce them. Picture shows the Party comrades at a Democratic Party rally for Carter at Cobo Hall on November 2. Three thousand Workers' Advocates were distributed.

9. Citizens Party candidate Barry Commoner was vigorously denounced when he appeared in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in mid-October. The MLP put out a pamphlet, "The Citizens Party Is Nothing But Warmed-Over Carter Stew," exposing that the "left-wing" alternative parties are nothing but tails of the Democrats.

NEW YORK:

10,11,12. Scenes of the spirited demonstration held in Brooklyn, N.Y., on October 18 by the MLP and the Caribbean Progressive Study Group. The march was enthusiastically greeted by the masses and many joined in.

13. Party activists were joined by a group of black youth when they denounced Carter during his appearance in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on October 20.

14. Picture shows the vigorous public meeting in New York City on November 1. This meeting also heard speeches from the CPSG, the Federation of Iranian Students in the U.S., and the Turkish Students Association denouncing the crimes of the capitalist parties against the world's peoples and against the immigrants.

CHICAGO:

15. On October 25, a militant meeting denounced the capitalist elections circus and spoke about building the independent political movement of the working class.

16,17. The MLP took the Don't Vote! campaign widely among the masses by organizing several demonstrations through the working class and oppressed nationality communities.

BOSTON:

18. Photo shows the Party contingent at an anti-draft demonstration on October 4. The Party took the Don't Vote! campaign to the mass protests in order to orient the mass movement in a path independent of the capitalists.

19. A cultural performance by Party comrades and supporters was warmly received by the anti-draft activists at the October 4 demonstration.

BUFFALO:

20, 21. Braving heavy rain, marches were organized downtown and through a working class neighborhood. In Buffalo, the masses were in the midst of a vigorous tight against a brutal campaign of racist terror. The Party actions boldly raised the slogan: Down with the chieftains of racism! and denounced the capitalist parties for their crimes against the black people.

DENVER:

22. Meeting organized by the MLP says: Don't Vote! The meeting heard a speaker denounce the capitalist parties and point to the need to build the independent movement of the working class. It concluded with lively discussion among the participants, and revolutionary songs.

SEATTLE:

23. Here, too, a number of marches took the Don't Vote! campaign widely among the masses. Photo shows a march through the downtown section on October 25.

24. November 1 march through the university district.

25. March through the waterfront section on October 25.

26. Vigorous denunciation of John Anderson at an Anderson rally on October 15.

27. When Gerald Ford came to Seattle to speak for Reagan on October 14, the MLP was there to denounce this party of monopoly capital as well.

28. Meeting on November 1 against the capitalist elections circus.

In a number of cities, the Party branches organized Don't Vote! Committees among the workers and revolutionary activists. Photo shows a meeting of the Seattle Don't Vote! Committee.]

[Photos: NEW YORK; CHICAGO; BOSTON; BUFFALO; DENVER; SEATTLE.]

20 Years Since the Historic Moscow Meeting:

[Back to Top]

Carry the Struggle Against Revisionism Through to the End!

[Photo: Painting depicts Comrade Enver Hoxha of the Party of Labor of Albania condemning the Khrushchovite revisionists at the Moscow Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties in 1960.]

*On the 20th Anniversary of the 1960 Moscow Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties:

Carry the Struggle Against Modern Revisionism Through to the End!

*From Comrade Enver Hoxha's Speech at the 1960 Moscow Meeting:

A Courageous Stand in Defense of Marxism-Leninism

*The Struggle Against Modern Revisionism Underscores the Vitality of the Leninist Norms of Relations Among the Marxist-Leninist Parties

*From Enver Hoxha's New Book 'The Khrushevites--Memoirs'

*Scientific Session Held in Albania on 'Soviet Revisionism and the Struggle of the Party of Labor of Albania to Expose It'

*Against Mao Zedong Thought!

Part 4: On the Question of 'Two-Line Struggle'

*Against Social-Democratic Infiltration of the Marxist- Leninist Movement -- Parts 4 and 5:

The New Browderite Strategy of the MLOC/'CPUSA(M-L)'

The 'United Labor Front' of the MLOC/'CPUSA(M-L)' Means Unity with the Khrushchovite 'C'PUSA and All the Social-Democrats.

(See Special Supplement Inside)

[Back to Top]

COMBAT GROWING FASCISM WITH ACTIVE RESISTANCE!

The Greensboro verdict is an outrage!

On November 17, verdicts of not guilty on all counts were returned on six Klan and nazi gangsters who were tried for the murder of five anti-Klan demonstrators in Greensboro, North Carolina, last year. This came at the conclusion of a five-month long trial in which videotapes and photographs, numerous eyewitness accounts, and the blatantly lying and inconsistent 11 statements of the fascist hoodlums had clearly established their guilt for the Greensboro murders. The verdicts have been greeted by protests and demonstrations in North Carolina and elsewhere in the country.

This verdict freeing these low-life racist and fascist assassins is an outrage against the people. It is one more fact supplementing a mountain of evidence which shows that the Greensboro massacre was directly organized by the government authorities. It illustrates once again that it is the capitalist government which is activating the fascist gangs, such as the Klan, to attack and murder demonstrators and black people in cold blood. Finally, the verdict also shows that the masses cannot expect to get justice from the government but must stand up and fight the fascists themselves, relying on their own strength and organization.

The Greensboro Massacre Was Organized from Beginning to End by the Government

On November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, a demonstration against the violence of the KKK was attacked by a heavily armed gang of several dozen Klan and nazi gangsters. Five demonstrators were killed and ten others wounded. Right from the time of the incident itself, countless facts have shown that this was not the isolated act of some madmen, but a premeditated act, put together and defended from beginning to end by the government authorities. The verdicts from the farcical trial have only confirmed this further.

Right after the massacre, immediately a myriad of facts came to light exposing the involvement of the police. It showed that the authorities had taken great care to assist the armed fascist hoodlums in every way possible, while passing a special ordinance that specifically prohibited any participant in the rally from carrying guns. Two days prior to the rally, the police showed to a known klansman the demonstration permit with the time and place where it would assemble, facts which had not been made public by the organizers. On the day of the rally itself, even though the police had been told by an informant that armed klansmen were coming to the rally, the police were conveniently absent from the scene of the demonstration at the time that the fascists were scheduled to appear. In fact, the police even escorted the Klan caravan into the city, but did not follow them to the rally where the fascists took out their weapons and shot down the demonstrators in cold blood. The police finally arrived on the scene just after giving enough time for most of the fascists to escape. And once they arrived, they began to arrest not just the fascists but also the demonstrators as well, charging them with "inciting to riot" and "obstructing police."

Over the last year, and especially during the trial, the government-organized character of the Greensboro massacre has only been further confirmed.

In the first place, it has been shown that two police agents played a direct role in organizing the Greensboro murders. These were Bernard Butkovich, an agent of the federal government's Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Control Agency, who had infiltrated the nazis, and Ed Dawson, an "ex"-FBI informer and long-time informant of the local police department, who worked inside the KKK. Both these agents were instrumental in organizing the "united racist front" that welded the nazis and KKK together. Butkovich supplied and trained the nazis in the use of automatic weapons and urged them to bring weapons to the demonstration. And Dawson himself rode in the lead vehicle of the car caravan. He had also informed the police that armed klansmen were coming to the rally.

The trial itself was a complete mockery of justice. Right from the start it was clear that the authorities were working overtime to make sure that the barbarous criminals would not be brought to justice. In fact, the prosecutor from the state, the judge and the defense lawyers for the fascists all worked hand in hand to make sure of this. At the same time, they worked hard to turn truth on its head to show that it was really the "extremist" demonstrators who were responsible!

The prosecution from the State of North Carolina showed that it wasn't serious in even bringing the fascist criminals to trial. Thus, only a mere 14 out of the 40 hoodlums who had carried out the massacre were indicted. Even so, only six of these were charged as being "principals," while the other eight were considered to have "less culpability." Although murder, riot and conspiracy to riot charges had been laid initially, the conspiracy to riot charges were dropped on the six main defendants. At the same time, it was noteworthy that the prosecution did not bring to trial the leader of the Winston-Salem nazis, a man who participated in the caravan, owned two of the murder weapons and also owned the car that contained the fascists' arsenal. He had been originally indicted, but a few months afterwards the charges against him were mysteriously dropped. Finally, no indictments were brought against, and neither the prosecution nor the defense, would even subpoena, either of the two police agents who had played such a key role in the Greensboro massacre. Clearly, both the prosecution and the defense were interested in preventing the exposure of the facts about police involvement.

The jury was selected in such a way that any person who expressed any kind of democratic social views was rejected. All black people were excluded. Both the prosecution and defense worked together to ensure such a composition of the jury. Thus the defense lawyers asked such questions as, "Would the fact that the KKK defendants are against blacks prejudice you against them?" Even though one black man answered no to this question he was rejected. On the other hand, the prosecutors worked hard to whip up hysteria against the murder victims when they asked each prospective juror if "the fact that the alleged victims were communists who held views which are anti-American and repugnant to all of us would make it difficult for you to find the defendants guilty." The prosecution even selected one person who stated during jury selection that the defendants were not guilty of murder and that the fact that the victims are communists would make it hard for him to be open- minded. The final jury included as its foreman a man who is a member of an anti-communist Cuban exile group.

During the trial itself, testimony was heard from numerous eyewitnesses, especially various newspaper reporters and photographers who unambiguously pointed out how the fascists had carried out the murders in the most coldblooded fashion. This was supplemented by photographs and video-tapes. On the other hand, the testimony of the fascist thugs was completely riddled with the most outrageous lies and blatantly contradictory statements. For instance, before the trial, certain of the fascists had claimed to have been entrapped by the police agent Butkovich. But this was never raised in trial testimony itself. Instead, all the fascists took up the plea of "self-defense"! At the same time, they tried to cover over their racist and bestial mentality by wrapping themselves in the cloak of respectability. Thus, one nazi Hitler worshipper claimed that since he had been born after Hitler was in power, he never knew about nazi hatred for Jews and blacks. No matter that this contradicted his statement to the police at the time of his arrest when he had told them that he had thought the demonstrators were "Jews." Another assassin claimed that he could not remember anything since the rally because he had contracted amnesia just before he fired his gun!

The FBI came forward to bolster the case for the fascist criminals. It brought in its "experts" to refute the open-and-shut videotape evidence and the testimony of eyewitnesses with the ruse that the sound track of the tapes suggested that there was "reasonable doubt" about who fired first. This turned out to be the main excuse that the jury used to accept the "self-defense" claim of the fascists. Never mind the fact that this contradicted overwhelming testimony by eyewitnesses and the videotape evidence. Never mind that the attacks by the klansmen had been organized for weeks before the rally itself, and other facts of this nature.

Finally, the judge himself also worked strenuously to bolster the case for freeing the fascist criminals. Thus, to cover up for the blatant inconsistency of the various statements made by the fascists to the police and in the court, he instructed the jury to weigh statements made in court only and ignore all previous statements. He excused the jury when evidence was brought in showing how one of the klansmen kept a scrapbook with pictures of the dead bodies of the victims, under the hoax that it was too "inflammatory." Under North Carolina law, the judge is allowed to summarize the evidence and give the jurors copies of this summary. Of course this gives the judge great leeway in swaying the verdict the way he wants it. Thus, in this trial, the judge reiterated the racist murderers' claim that it was customary and traditional for them to bring weapons and thus tried to bolster their threadbare pretext of "self-defense." Finally, the judge did not even sequester the jury during its deliberation but allowed them to go home each night where they were susceptible to all kinds of pressure from the racists.

Thus, this trial was a complete farce from top to bottom. It was a complete whitewash of the bestial crime of the fascist assassins. At the same time, by releasing the klansmen and nazis on the plea of "self-defense" it bolsters the campaign that the capitalists have been carrying on for some time that the source of the Greensboro massacre is not fascism at, all, but the "extremists." That is, the rich and the authorities want to shift the blame onto all the progressive and democratic people who resolutely stand up to fight against the racist and fascist attacks on the American people. Thus, on the one hand, the government directly organizes police terror and organizes fascist gangs to attack and gun down demonstrators. While, on the other hand, under the guise of opposing "extremism," the government whitewashes the fascist criminals and suppresses the anti-fascist struggles of the people.

Only Through Mass Struggle Can the Fascists Be Fought

The government also tried to quell the anti-fascist struggle by using its well-worn "human rights" demagogy. Thus, right after the Greensboro verdicts were announced, the head of the U.S. Justice Department's "civil rights department" announced that his agency was studying the verdict "to see if there is anything we can do." But this is an old trick of the Carter administration to show fake concern so that the masses can think that justice will still be done. In the same way, last year right after the Greensboro massacre, when there was widespread indignation among the masses, the Carter government announced a similar "investigation." But within a few weeks, the investigation was quietly called off and the federal government concluded that it could not find any conspiracy to deprive anybody of their civil rights!

No matter whether a Carter or a Reagan occupies the White House, fascism remains the common policy of the monopoly capitalists; it is the bipartisan policy of the billionaires. The Greensboro incidents have shown that the fascist gangs, such as the Klan and the Hitler-worshipping nazis, are not some crazy "ultra-right" fringe groups, but are being directly activated by the government of the capitalist class.

The increased activation of the fascist gangs is part and parcel of the growing fascism of the big capitalist exploiters. As part of this all-round fascization, they are also using their police forces to shoot down blacks, Mexicans and people of other nationalities. They are building more and more jails and drawing up even more draconian laws to suppress the just struggles of the people.

The Greensboro massacre and these verdicts testify to the all-round fascization of the state and society being carried out by the monopoly capitalist dictators. This growing fascism can only be dealt with by taking up mass revolutionary struggle. It calls for waging active resistance to the police terror and the attacks of the racist and fascist gangs. Today a great ferment of antifascist struggle is brewing among the working class and oppressed nationalities. The Greensboro verdicts, like the massacre itself, will only serve to further arouse the burning indignation against fascism in the hearts of all democratic and progressive people.

[Back to Top]

On the Honeymoon of the Democrats and the Labor Traitors with Reagan:

Birds of a feather flock together

The Democratic and Republican Parties have the same program of starvation, fascism and war. They are competing with one another to see who can militarize the country faster, build more prisons, propose more reactionary laws and commit more crimes against the workers' movement and the oppressed nationalities.

Nevertheless, every election the flunkeys of the Democratic Party and the majority of the labor bureaucrats tell the masses that they must vote the Democratic Party ticket to fight the Republicans. This year they called for support for chief strikebreaker Carter. They portrayed Reagan as a warmonger, enemy of the poor and a racist, epithets which he richly deserved, but which also fit Carter to a tee.

But now that the election is over, what do we find? All those who urged the masses to vote "Democratic" against Reagan are now pledging their cooperation to that very same diehard racist, militarist and fascist, Ronald Reagan. This proves that their "opposition" to Reagan was just a family squabble, just a dispute over who would have the strongest hand in suppressing the people and who would get the spoils of office. This proves that the only way to oppose the reactionary policies of Reagan is to build the independent political movement of the working class, independent of both the capitalist parties of reaction and of all their little helpers.

The Democratic Party Pledges Its Loyal Cooperation to Reagan

The election was no sooner over than all the Democratic Party politicians began pledging their loyalty to Reagan. Indeed, they didn't solely pledge loyalty to Reagan as a man, but all started to discuss how much of Reagan's program they would implement. Just imagine! To deceive the masses, they ran and got elected on a platform of opposing the "ultra-right." Once in office, they announced that they too would be just as big racists and militarists as Reagan.

Thus "liberal Democrat" Tip O'Neill, leader of the Democratic Party majority in the House of Representatives, immediately pledged to help Reagan implement his vicious program of fascist attacks on the people. Speaking like an eager bridegroom, he promised a "six month honeymoon" with Reagan. He described how he would sleep in the same bed as Reagan as follows: "I told him (Reagan) I would not criticize him for over six months and we will work to turn America around and to make the economy work." So the Democratic majority in the House will work with Reagan to "turn America around," that is, to pass more reactionary laws, and to "make the economy work," that is, to carry out the Reagan economic policies.

Alan Cranston, a major liberal senator from California, stressed that "We Democrats plan to be as cooperative as we can, giving the new administration an opportunity to test its plans for the economy and defense." He went on to pledge that he would reconsider exchanging his previous stands for those of Reagan and the "ultra-right" on a wide variety of issues. Indeed the whole Democratic Party is talking of its own "move to the right."

Outside Congress, Mayor Jane Byrne of Chicago, a typical liberal Democrat who is a notorious strikebreaker and the successor to the infamous Mayor Daley, spoke for all the mayors by stressing: "We are prepared to cooperate with the Reagan transition team and look forward to presenting our views to President-elect Reagan when he assumes office in January."

So when the election circus is over and the work of governing begins, the Democrats drop their talk of a "clear choice" and confess that the reactionary policies of Reagan are bipartisan policies, which they are "looking forward" to cooperate on with him.

Of course, while they pledge loyalty to the capitalists heart and soul, they wink at the masses that they allegedly don't really believe this. This is the same thing as they always do to justify every crime. They were "really" against the war in Viet Nam, but their party ordered hundreds of thousands of troops to Indochina and voted funds for the napalming of villages. They were "really" for civil rights, while they cavorted with the Dixiecrats and supervised the suppression of the black rebellions. What liars!

Four years ago, Carter himself expressed the policy of the Democrats very well. In his first TV debate with Ford, he stated: "It's a matter of leadership or no leadership.... Even President Nixon, because he was a strong leader at least, worked with a Democratic Congress very well." And today the Democrats in Congress have found another "strong leader" in Reagan.

The Labor Bureaucrats Demand that Reagan Let Them Take Part in Suppressing the Workers' Movement

During the election, the labor bureaucrats were among the most active in urging the workers to vote for their biggest enemy, the monopoly capitalist dictators. They tried to dress this up as voting for the Democrats against the "ultra-right fringe." But once the election was over, they too were pledging loyalty to Reagan. The labor traitors are enemies of the workers and will sell themselves to any capitalist dog in power.

Thus Kirkland, chief of the AFL-CIC Executive Board, was among the most active supporting Carter. But immediately upon Reagan's election he sent him a message of congratulations: "The AFL-CIO stands ready to cooperate in constructive efforts...." Apparently Kirkland had a lapse of memory, for while he assured the workers during the election that Reagan's proposals were anti-working class, as they were in fact, now he has decided to reconsider them. He stressed: "We shall carefully weigh such proposals as President-elect Reagan may advance to rebuild the nation's industrial base...."

The social-democratic and "left" labor traitors also joined in the Reaganite chorus. They pledged loyalty and that any criticism of Reagan would be "positive and constructive." These bureaucrats, who assume the most crude and brutal language when they address militant workers, wildcat strikers, and others, all spoke in sweet and obedient tones to Reagan. Thus sellout Fraser, head of the UAW and now a member of Chrysler's board of directors, stressed:

"While we opposed Mr. Reagan during the campaign, we pledge him a good faith effort to work with his administration on the pressing problems facing America. [On the contrary, one would have thought that Mr. Reagan himself and the whole cutthroat crew of capitalist politicians was one of the "pressing problems" facing America -- ed.]

"As President, Mr. Reagan deserves our support when we believe he is right.... When we disagree, we will seek to criticize his actions and positions in a positive and constructive manner."

Even the parlor "socialist" bureaucrat Winpisinger, president of the I AM, couldn't restrain himself from good wishes for Reagan. He stated, "We wish the President-elect Reagan well. We in the Machinists Union will cooperate with him when we can and fight him when we can't."

The alleged "fight" of the labor bureaucrats is merely to ensure that they themselves have positions on the various government boards that suppress the workers. Thus during fascist war criminal Nixon's term of office, George Meany and the labor bureaucrats demanded and received posts on the pay boards that implemented the wage controls. They deliberated together with the capitalists on how much to cut the contracts won by the workers. They pledged to give up the use of strikes. Only when faced with the rise of the strike movement and when they had finished cutting as much wages as they could, did they demonstratively walk out from the very pay boards that they had demanded admission to. And of course today the AFL-CIO chieftains, loyal to the memory of Nixon's wage controls, demand mandatory wage controls.

Thus Kirkland today stresses that labor and government cooperation should go right ahead under Reagan. He stressed that "In rebuilding the economy, we continue to believe there is a need for cooperation between business, labor and government, and we stand ready to play a constructive role in such an effort."

What a militant stand of the labor bureaucrats -- from Kirkland to Winpisinger. They lick the boots of the capitalist bosses, pledging their "positive and constructive" efforts to cooperate to the utmost with whatever mouthpiece of the monopolies takes the oath of office. At most, they simply want reaction with a Democratic Party face instead of with the Republican face. But then again, so long as it is reaction, it is really all the same to them. As Mr. Kirkland stated recently to justify more bootlicking of the Republicans: "We are not the property and do not intend to be the captive of any political party." That is, Mr. Kirkland is not married to the Democrats but is a common prostitute for the whole capitalist class.

The Independent Political Movement of the Working Class -- the Real Opposition to Reaganite Reaction

The "constructive and positive" approach of the Democratic Party and the labor traitors to the Reagan administration is yet another proof that there is no essential difference between them. The Democratic Party liberals are not selling out their principles with their obsequious bows to Reagan. On the contrary, the Democratic Party's "move to the right" simply shows what the real essence of this Party has always been. It is nothing but a party of meaningless tinsel in words and rabid reaction and exploitation in deeds.

It is the same with the labor bureaucrats. Whether they are in bed with a Democratic Party administration or a Republican administration, with Tweedledum or Tweedledee, they are always working hand in hand with the capitalist monopolies to suppress the workers' movement. Indeed, for years their main complaint against the Republicans and main badge of their "liberalism" has been their demand for more strikebreaking mandatory wage controls. Why, the height of liberalism, the holy of holy of the Kennedyite "left," is to go further and impose a total wage freeze.

Thus the only way to fight the dangerous reaction of the Reagan administration is by taking the path of the independent movement of the working class, independent from all the capitalists and their parties. This is the path of the development of the mass struggle, of the building of organization among the masses, and of the spread of revolutionary literature, class consciousness and Marxist-Leninist science. It is the path of the class struggle.

[Back to Top]

On the racist police murders of Ricky Lewis and Kenneth Gamble in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mass struggle is the answer to racist police terror!

On October18, two black youth were brutally murdered by the racist New York City police in Brooklyn. In response to this, the residents of the community have launched a wave of protest and struggle. The New York Metro Branch of the MLP and the Caribbean Progressive Study Group are vigorously participating in this struggle. The following is taken from a leaflet issued by the CPSG at one of the recent demonstrations in the community.

On October 18, three unarmed black youth were brutally shot down by the racist New York City police on the corner of Bushwick Avenue and McKibbin Street in Brooklyn. Ricky Lewis, a 24 year old construction worker, and Kenneth Gamble, 18, are dead -- murdered in cold blood. Lemuel Thompson, 19, was critically wounded and is presently in Greenpoint Hospital. This is but the latest in a long list of racist murders and crimes committed by the police. It has sparked a wave of protests and struggle from the masses in the community where the three youth lived. The very day of the murders, 250 people marched on the 83rd precinct to denounce the police for their crimes. Over 500 people have attended a series of mass meetings and rallies to protest the racist murders. Mass struggle is the answer to the racist police terror.

The facts concerning these murders are perfectly clear. Countless eyewitnesses have testified to them before two mass community meetings of 300 and 500 people. On Friday night a youth was injured in an incident at the Bushwick Garage social club and was being taken in a car by five friends to Greenpoint Hospital. An unmarked police car gave chase, firing guns all the way. Cut off by another police car, the car crashed into a fire hydrant. The cops approached, aimed their guns and shot Ricky Lewis countless times. Kenneth Gamble got out of the car with his hands up. He was shot four times in the chest! The four other youth were dragged from the car, thrown on the ground, kicked and beaten, and Lemuel Thompson was critically wounded with four more bullets.

From the start, the police and the news media launched a campaign of lies to justify this brutal racist murder. Immediately, the police claimed that they "came under heavy fire from the car, and when the smoke cleared, two were dead." Too bad for the cops, but not a single gun was found anywhere! The press claimed that a "shootout with hardened criminals had occurred" and claimed the survivors were charged with attempted murder of police. The next day the story changed and became even more outrageous. Police and press claimed that the "missing" guns were tossed from the car by the youths and that community residents dashed into the gunfire to whisk them away! But at the same time it was admitted that no charges were filed against the surviving "criminals." As the true facts of this wanton murder emerged from community residents, the police, in a desperate effort to prop up their story, arrested Thompson in his hospital bed, charging him with murder! A murder which occurred last August! Finally, as the community exposed this typical technique of the police of labeling their innocent victims "criminals" or "psychos" (as they did with Luis Baez), the police now claim they "still do not know the exact details of what happened" (like they swore they did immediately after). Instead, they have launched, along with the DA's office, a phoney "full investigation" in order to continue the cover-up and stop the masses from organizing their mass struggle.

The members of the Bushwick community, like the black masses across the U.S., are answering these racist attacks by getting organized to wage mass struggle against them. So far, two mass meetings have been held at a community center, and a demonstration of 250 marched to confront the police at the 83rd precinct.

Today's demonstration has been called with the same aim. The conscious and systematic campaign of racist police terror against the black people organized by the government of the rich must be fought through vigorous mass action. No hope can be placed in the phoney "investigations" and "inquiries" staged by the capitalist government or their hit men, the police, because racist attacks are the policy of the government itself.

The recent rebellions of the black people in Miami, Orlando, Chattanooga and elsewhere mark a new upsurge in the struggle of the black people in the U.S. The further development of mass struggle is the correct way to respond to the racist attacks of the government. Any protection of the black masses from racist murders and terror can only come from their consciously and systematically organized mass struggle against racist atrocities and the government organizers of them. Take up the path of mass action to fight racist police terror. Mass struggle is the answer to racist attacks.

[Photos: Photos show the vigorous participation of the contingents of the New York Metro Branch of the MLP and the CPSG at a demonstration held in Brooklyn on November 22 to protest the racist police murders of Kenneth Gamble and Ricky Lewis.]

[Back to Top]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY:

THOUSANDS DENOUNCE REAGAN

On election night, November 4, three thousand students in Berkeley, California held a demonstration to protest the capitalist election circus. They resolved to carry forward the struggle against the war preparations of U.S. imperialism no matter which warmongering politician wound up occupying the White House.

Then as soon as the news of Reagan's election was out, the demonstration immediately took up slogans against Reagan. This reflected the fact that Reagan is widely despised as a raving warmonger and representative of rabid reaction.

The march began in downtown Berkeley and proceeded to the campus where the demonstrators called on and inspired many other students from the residence halls to join them. Three thousand strong, they marched past the historic sites of youth and students' demonstrations in the I960's. Holding aloft the fighting traditions of the mass struggle against the barbaric U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Indochina, the marchers declared that they would not fight in imperialist wars for the sake of the glory of the profits of Exxon, Texaco and the other oil billionaires.

The next cay, hundreds of students held a rally and marched to the ROTC building and denounced this militarist institution on the campus. From there they proceeded to the Chancellor's Office which they occupied, raising demands against the ROTC program and the University of California nuclear weapons lab. Later that night, the police attacked the occupiers and arrested over 50 students, charging ten with resisting arrest. But the protests continued into the next day, with hundreds demonstrating.

These militant mass actions targeted both U.S. imperialism's war preparations as well as Wall Street's new front man, Ronald Reagan. Reagan is widely despised as a fascist and warmonger. During the period he was governor of California, Reagan was especially notorious for his rabid attacks on the mass struggles of the students, workers and oppressed nationalities, and on the anti-war movement in general. For instance, in February 1969, Reagan declared a state of emergency and called out the National Guard to attack the students' struggle at the University of California at Berkeley. It was also under the Reagan administration that the police fired on demonstrators in May 1969, with buckshot and birdshot, killing one and wounding many others. Over a thousand demonstrators were arrested.

Reagan stands for the capitalist program of starvation, fascism and war. His administration means continued attacks on the people. But the election of Reagan also indicates that the struggles of the masses against exploitation, fascism and militarism will also intensify. The demonstration of the Berkeley students is a sign of things to come.

[Photo: On election night, November 4th, 3,000 students in Berkeley, Calif., protested the war preparations of U.S. imperialism and denounced the election of Reagan.]

[Back to Top]

Demonstrations against the savage racist murders in Buffalo

[Photos: In the photo on the left, 3,000 people protest on October 19 against the bestial murder of six black people. In the picture on the right, another anti-racist demonstration marches from City Hall to the Buffalo police headquarters on October 29. The working masses have come out in big demonstrations and waged other struggles to fight the vicious campaign of racist murder and terror against the black people in Buffalo. The Buffalo Branch of the MLP has taken an active part in this anti-racist struggle, participating in the demonstrations and passing out leaflets widely at the factories and in the working class communities. These leaflets have made a scathing exposure of the links between the KKK and the local police and Mayor Jimmy Griffin. They have forcefully demonstrated that the KKK and other racist hoodlums are organized and protected by the capitalist government. The leaflets show that mass struggle is the path for the fight against the racist atrocities, the racist gangs and their organizer, the government.]

[Back to Top]

63rd Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution:

The teachings of October are always relevant

[Zeri i Popullit masthead.]

(The following is from a commentary of the newspaper Zeri i Popullit, the Central Organ of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, as carried on November 7, by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency News Bulletin.)

Under the above title, the newspaper Zeri i Popullit carries an editorial, which reads: In the historic calendar of the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples everywhere in the world, November 7, the day of the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution, is, undoubtedly, the most remarkable event. November 7, 1917 embodied for the first time in practice the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, proved that the proletarian revolution and the overthrow of capitalism are realized fully even in a single country, that socialism is the future of mankind. Comrade Enver Hoxha has stressed: "The triumph of the October Revolution in Russia marked the beginning of the great epoch in the history of mankind, that of transition from capitalism to socialism. Since that time, socialism from a scientific theory, was transformed into a vivid reality, which despite the revisionist betrayal, has fully shown its indisputable superiority over the capitalist order in all the fields.''

The October Revolution, with the example of the Russian proletariat, showed to the proletarians of all the world the sole road of their liberation from oppression and exploitation, their transformation into a dominant class. Under the direct influence of the October Revolution, the workers' movement was extended and strengthened a great deal everywhere in the world. The proletariat created the new communist parties which kicked off the opportunism of the Second International and created the Third Communist International. The triumphant ideas of Marxism-Leninism were spread in width and depth. The liberation movement of the oppressed peoples assumed a powerful drive which led to the destruction of the colonial system of imperialism.

Under the direct influence of the October Revolution, the democratic movement assumed a new impetus and the first communist groups were formed also in Albania. The teachings of Marxism-Leninism and of the October Revolution became the ideological basis of the founding of the Communist Party of Albania and its correct line which led to the triumph of our people's revolution. The Leninist ideas of the October Revolution are always relevant in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. They are implemented, enriched and carried forward with loyalty by the Party of Labor of Albania with its entire internal and external political line, accomplishing always with honor its revolutionary duty, nationally and internationally, in the triumphant march on the road of socialism and communism.

The preparation, organization and the triumph of the October Revolution are closely linked with the name of the great leader of the world proletariat, the genius of the revolution, V.I. Lenin, and the faithful continuator of his work, the great proletarian Marxist-Leninist and revolutionary, J.V. Stalin, who, in irreconcilable struggle with various enemies and renegades, defended Leninism and the ideas of the October Revolution. Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, the socialist transformation of the society was carried out with success; the liquidation of the exploitation of man by man and the equality among the nations became a reality in the Soviet Union. Within a short period of time, colossal victories were achieved in all the fields of the country's life, which astonished the world. The centuries- long dreams of millions of people the world over came true.

The Khrushchovite revisionists, who, as Comrade Enver Hoxha clearly shows in the book The Khruschevites too, came to power in the Soviet Union through a putsch and tricks following Stalin's death, abandoned and trampled the ideas and teachings of October underfoot. Gradually they destroyed all the great victories achieved by the Soviet people under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin. The dictatorship of the proletariat at home was replaced with the savage dictatorship of the new Soviet bourgeoisie. The Soviet working class not only is no longer the owner of the means of production, but it is subjected to a greater exploitation than under the tsarist domination. The Bolshevik Party was turned into a "party of the entire people,'' that is, into a party of the new Soviet bourgeoisie, where the caste of bureaucrats and technocrats make the law. The very powerful Soviet economy of the time of Stalin is seriously in the grip of the general crisis of the capitalist system. The Kremlin revisionist clique, too, is compelled to admit the great difficulties of the Soviet capitalist economy.

With regard to their foreign policy, the Kremlin leaders have turned the Soviet Union into an imperialist superpower, which collaborates and contends with the other superpower, U.S. imperialism for hegemony and domination in the world. For their own expansionist and enslaving aims, the Soviet social-imperialists do not stop short of even the ugliest crimes against the freedom and independence of the peoples. Their fascist aggression against Czechoslovakia was followed by the military interference against Afghanistan last year. Almost a year is being completed since the time that the Soviet occupation troops are killing the innocent and freedom-loving Afghan people.

Under these conditions, the duty of the genuine Marxist-Leninists and proletarian revolutionaries is to tear off the demagogical masks of the Moscow revisionist clique, to expose and combat it with might and main, to enhance the vigilance of the peoples against it and to assist the enslaved Soviet working class and people to again take the field of battle, to again hoist the red banner of the revolution in their country, to reestablish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

At present, when the cause of the revolution and national liberation of the peoples is not just an aspiration and a future prospect, but also a problem taken up for solution, the teachings of October, which embody the universal laws of the transition from capitalism to socialism are today more relevant than ever. Such teachings of Marxism-Leninism, which passed the test of fire in the experience of the Great October Socialist Revolution under the leadership of Lenin, such as those on the leading role of the working class in alliance with the peasantry and the other working strata, and the inseparable leadership of its revolutionary vanguard -- the communist party, the overthrow of the bourgeoisie through the violent revolution, the destruction of the bourgeois state machine and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, etc., retain their validity and illuminate the road to the revolutionary and liberation movement in the world even nowadays. It is precisely against these vital teachings, which constitute the essence of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of scientific socialism, that all the modern revisionists, Soviet and Yugoslav, Chinese and "Eurocommunist,'' have risen today.

The Soviet revisionists, who pose as followers of the October Revolution, at their 20th Congress came out with the opportunist thesis on the "peaceful transition to socialism.'' Comrade Enver Hoxha exposed this revisionist thesis at the Moscow meeting, stressing that "no people, no proletariat and no communist and workers' party has assumed power without bloodshed and without violence.'' The Yugoslav revisionists too, the "Eurocommunist" ones, etc., dish out various reformist ways to pass onto their "specific socialism" or "socialism with a human face," which derives from the voting card, the "historic compromises," "pluralist democracy" and bourgeois constitutions, etc., but in no way from the revolution. The latter is, for the "revisionists without gloves" -- the "Eurocommunists," even an anachronism, a merely Russian phenomenon, without relevant value, which has its place only in a museum.

The Chinese revisionists, too, who have denied the teachings of October, replaced it with the so-called Cultural Revolution, the experience of which they tried to impose also on the Marxist-Leninist parties. With their theory of the "three worlds," which calls on the working class and peoples not to rise in the revolution, but to join the bourgeoisie of their countries, with U.S. and world imperialism, with the reactionary and fascist regimes to fight only one enemy, Soviet social-imperialism, they have erased the revolution.

The betrayal of modern revisionism and the spread of the anti-Marxist and counter-revolutionary "theories" of the revisionists, who are saboteurs of the revolution and watchdogs of capitalism, laid down to the genuine Marxist-Leninists the indispensability of a resolute and uninterrupted struggle to expose and smash them, to liberate the masses from every poisonous revisionist influence and to prepare the subjective factor of the revolution. Our Party of Labor has considered and considers this struggle as a great revolutionary duty. Particularly, it has made it clear, that in the future too, without forgetting at any moment the struggle against the other revisionist trends, it will consistently wage the ideological and political struggle to expose Soviet revisionism and social-imperialism to the end. As Comrade Enver Hoxha stresses, Khrushchovite revisionism always remains the most dangerous, the most diabolic, the most threatening revisionism, because it is a revisionism with a mask, which preserves its outside socialist appearances, and dominant ideology in a state such as the Soviet Union, which represents a big imperialist power with numerous means and possibilities. Therefore, it is indispensable to intensify still more the struggle against Khrushchovite revisionism and raise it onto a higher scale.

The counter-revolutionary turn which occurred in the Soviet Union and in some other countries brought about great damage to the revolution and socialism in the world. But this is only a zigzag, a temporary turn on the incessant road of the revolution, which in no way can hinder the course of history to forge ahead. Comrade Enver Hoxha writes: "Although socialism has been overthrown in the Soviet Union and other countries where the counterrevolution triumphed, this does not prove that Marxism-Leninism has been defeated and invalidated, as the bourgeoisie and revisionists claim.... The counter-revolutions which have been carried out and the obstacles which emerge can prolong the existence of the old exploiting system to some extent, but they are powerless to halt the march of human society towards its socialist future." The immortal ideas of the October Revolution can be subdued neither by bourgeois violence, nor the undermining activity of the renegades from Marxism-Leninism. The October teachings and its ideas are fostered with every passing day in the minds of all the genuine Marxist-Leninists, who hold aloft the banner of the revolution and communism which has been thrown away by the revisionist parties.

The ideas of the October Revolution are and will always remain the triumphant banner, which has led and leads our Party of Labor, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, in the struggle to uninterruptedly forge ahead the cause of the revolution and socialism, to strengthen and safeguard the dictatorship of the proletariat in socialist Albania, for the defense and triumph of Marxism-Leninism, in an irreconcilable principled struggle against the imperialist-revisionist enemies of all hues.

[Photo: Lenin speaking at the Second All-Russian Congress of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. This Congress, convened on November 7, 1917, the evening of the Petrograd uprising, proclaimed that all power had passed into the hands of the Soviets and formed the first Soviet government headed by Lenin.]

[Back to Top]

The resolute struggle against revisionism -- the sole correct and life-giving stand

(The following is from a commentary of the newspaper Zeri i Popullit, the Central Organ of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, as carried on November 16, 1980 by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency News Bulletin.)

Twenty years are completed today from November 16, 1960 when Comrade Enver Hoxha, in the name of the Party of Labor of Albania, delivered his historic speech at the Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties in Moscow.

On this occasion the newspapers publish editorials pointing out the importance of this speech and the correctness of the stands and forecasts of the Party of Labor of Albania.

The unyielding struggle waged by the PLA and Comrade Enver Hoxha at the Moscow meeting, writes the newspaper Zeri i Popullit in its editorial, will always remain a lofty example of Marxist-Leninist spirit of principle, revolutionary courage and proletarian internationalism. With convincing arguments, Comrade Enver Hoxha defended the teachings of Marxism-Leninism for a number of fundamental questions of the revolution, the development of socialism and the struggle against imperialism.

The historic importance of Comrade Enver Hoxha's speech at the 1960 Moscow meeting, continues the newspaper, lies in the fact that he drew a clear-cut line of demarcation between Marxism-Leninism and Khrushchovite revisionism. He dealt an irreparable blow to the dangerous and cunning tactics of N. Khrushchov and his group to speak in the name of Marxism-Leninism and dish out their opportunist and counter-revolutionary theses as the "last word of creative Marxism."

During these 20 years that have gone by since the time when Comrade Enver Hoxha delivered his speech at the Moscow meeting, life and the experience gained have incontestably proved the correctness of the stands and forecasts of our Party. The experience of our free and independent country, which builds socialism self-reliantly, successfully overcoming the imperialist-revisionist encirclement and blockade, shows that the only correct and life-giving stand is the principled struggle both against imperialism and revisionism. On the contrary, the adoption and the pursuit of the revisionist course inevitably leads to complete capitalist and social-democratic degeneration.

Those communist and workers' parties which joined Khrushchovite revisionism have lost every feature of a genuine revolutionary party of the proletariat and have been transformed into typical social-democratic parties, into "watchdogs" of the domination of the bourgeoisie, whereas the former socialist countries, which followed the chariot of the Khrushchovites, have been, transformed into vassals of the Soviet social-imperialists. A clear reflection of the catastrophic consequences revisionism brings about is provided also by China, where Mao Zedong Thought caused the revolution to stop half-way, the country to take the road of capitalist development and reach the point of the overt counterrevolutionary alliance with American and world imperialism, with the monopoly bourgeoisie and the most reactionary and fascist regimes.

The newspaper stresses further on that at the present time the struggle against revisionism assumes a special importance and is a decisive condition for the preparation of the subjective factor of the revolution. Without waging a determined and consistent struggle against revisionism, the newspaper continues, the struggle against imperialism cannot be waged with success either.

It is indispensable to wage this struggle consistently against all the trends of modern revisionism, without underrating, forgetting and cherishing illusions for any of them. In this context, the deepening and the further intensification of the struggle for the exposure through to the end of Khrushchovite-Brezhnev revisionism, which as Comrade Enver Hoxha stresses, remains the most dangerous, the most perfidious and threatening and which serves to cover the hegemonic, enslaving, aggressive and counter-revolutionary policy of the Soviet social-imperialists, require special attention.

Rigorously standing loyal to Marxism-Leninism and implementing the teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha, Zeri i Popullit writes in conclusion, the Party of Labor of Albania will unyieldingly wage the struggle against revisionism also in the future, considering it as a lofty internationalist duty and vital necessity to uninterruptedly carry forward the cause of the revolution and socialism in our homeland and on a worldwide scale.

[Back to Top]

Letter of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA to the Party of Labor of Albania on the 39th anniversary of the PLA's founding

November 6, 1980

Central Committee Party of Labor of Albania

Dear Comrades,

Warmest revolutionary greetings on the 39th anniversary of the founding of the Party of Labor of Albania!

The Party of Labor of Albania is a party built in the flames of revolutionary struggle, a party of Marxism-Leninism, a party of the proletariat of the new type, the type of Lenin and Stalin. The entire history of the PL A is marked by its devotion to the cause of revolution, by its consistent adherence to Marxist-Leninist principle, its unbreakable ties with the masses, and consequently, its continual and uninterrupted forward march. The PLA provides a brilliant inspiration and an example for the Marxist-Leninists everywhere.

This anniversary of the founding of the PLA coincides closely with the 20th anniversary of the Moscow Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties. Comrade Enver Hoxha's fiery defense of Marxism-Leninism and Comrade Stalin at Moscow was a great historic moment for Marxism-Leninism and a debacle for modern revisionism. From this followed the great polemic against modern Khrushchovite revisionism. This brilliant contribution of the PLA will never be forgotten.

The PLA has resolutely continued and deepened the ideological struggle against revisionism. During the four years from the time of its Seventh Congress, the PLA unmasked and hit devastating blows against Chinese revisionism and Mao Zedong Thought. In close connection with this it has carried forward the struggle against all other trends of modern revisionism as well.

The publication during the past year of Comrade Enver Hoxha's works With Stalin, Eurocommunism Is Anti-Communism and The Khrushchevites marks still further achievements in the defense of Marxism-Leninism.

Twenty years after the Moscow Meeting finds the Soviet Union degenerated completely into social-imperialism and the camp of reaction, while socialist Albania stands at the very heart of the camp of labor, an example, an inspiration, but also a reliable base and powerful aid for the triumph of socialism in all countries. Today, socialist construction in Albania proceeds on the basis of complete self-reliance, without a single lek in foreign credits. This is an achievement never before witnessed. It is eloquent testimony to the vitality of Marxism-Leninism and socialism.

The example of the PLA is a source of strength for the work and struggle of our Party. Here in the heartland of U.S. imperialism, we are building our Marxist-Leninist Party in the thick of the mass revolutionary struggle against the capitalist offensive of the Carters and Reagans. Among the working class and broad masses our Party has raised the banner of active mass struggle against imperialism, capitalist exploitation and reaction; against the shifting of the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the workers; against racial discrimination and increasing fascization; against U.S. imperialist preparations for war and U.S. aggression against Iran and the other peoples. We are working to orient these struggles onto the road of the socialist revolution. Our Party is also being tempered in the heat of the struggle against modern revisionism, Browderite liberal-labor politics and social-democracy.

We consider of utmost importance that the ongoing ideological and political struggle against Soviet, Chinese and the other currents of revisionism must not be slackened in the least. Rather this struggle must be carried forward, both internationally and within each country, to the complete destruction of modern revisionism. This historic task is part and parcel of the struggle for the triumph of our great cause of revolution, socialism and communism.

We rejoice at the victories of the Party of Labor and the Albanian people in their triumphant forward march. Socialist Albania, the Party of Labor of Albania and Comrade Enver Hoxha will always carry with them the heartfelt best wishes of the American Marxist-Leninists.

With warmest revolutionary greetings,

Central Committee

Marxist-Leninist Party, USA

[Back to Top]

On the Work of the Northeastern Anti-Imperialist Forum in Chicago

IN DEFENSE OF THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION

The Northeastern Anti-Imperialist Forum has been organized as a center for the discussion of anti-imperialist politics among the students at Northeastern Illinois University, in Chicago. With each forum, the AIF has been focusing on various aspects of the war preparations of world imperialism in general and of U.S. imperialism in particular. The first forum, held on October 16, dealt with "The Draft, the Militarization of Women, and the All- Round War Preparations of Imperialism.'' It began an intensive discussion of the Carter doctrine and the nature of the demagogy designed to mobilize the American people behind this warmongering and nakedly imperialist doctrine. The second forum, held under the title of ''Carter's and Reagan s Foreign Policy and the Threat of War" on October 29, went more deeply into the imperialist demagogy of preparing war under the slogans of "peace'' and ''disarmament.'' On November 12, a third forum was held "In Defense of the Iranian Revolution." The development of the AIF and the fact that the discussions in these forums have reached out among hundreds of other students at the university shows that the anti-imperialist trend is becoming established at Northeastern. The Chicago Branch of the MLP has paid a great deal of attention to encouraging and organizing this trend.

Below The Workers' Advocate reprints excerpts from a leaflet calling for the November 12 forum and from another leaflet reporting on that meeting, "In Defense of the Iranian Revolution."

Ever since the Iranian revolution in January 1979, U.S. imperialism has been using every means at its disposal, including economic pressure and blockade, the CIA, military raids and nuclear blackmail in its all-out drive to strangle the revolutionary struggle of the Iranian people.

Most recently, U.S. imperialism has inspired and assisted the Iraqi invasion of Iran which is causing widescale murder of the Iranian and Iraqi peoples and economic devastation of Iran in the hopes of delivering up a broken and defeated Iran back into the arms of world imperialism. While Carter is trying to sit back like a peace-loving angel and claim "neutrality" in the Iran-Iraq war, the facts show that U.S. imperialism is sending unlimited quantities of military hardware, including the ultra-sophisticated AWAC radar and control planes, as well as military personnel, to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other pro-U.S. imperialist Persian Gulf states who are openly assisting Iraq.

With the development of Carter's new Rapid Mobilization Force, there are now over 12,000 combat-ready marines in the Persian Gulf area to threaten Iran and prepare for an invasion. Along with this Carter has established five new military bases in the area and sent over 33 warships and 160 warplanes there. As well, the U.S. imperialists have called on their imperialist allies in Britain, France and Australia to send an additional 30-odd warships into the Persian Gulf.

Last April, U.S. imperialism carried out its abortive military raid against Iran, and both before and since the Pentagon and the CIA have openly boasted of their plans for further military invasions and counter-revolutionary plots. The CIA and the State Department have been actively recruiting the former high command of the Shah's army, such as the notorious "butcher of Teheran" General Oveissi, into counter-revolutionary shock forces in Egypt and Iraq to be used against the Iranian revolution.

Not only U.S. imperialism and its Western European imperialist allies, but also Soviet social-imperialism is aligned against the Iranian people and their revolution. A key element of the brutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to tighten the imperialist vise around Iran. Already Soviet planes have bombed Iranian villages from bases in Afghanistan, and Soviet troops stand poised at the border to participate in the strangulation of the Iranian revolution. The Soviets continue to resupply the Iraqi invaders. The Soviet Union as well is attempting to match U.S. imperialism in its deployment of warships in the Persian Gulf and all along has joined the propaganda chorus of U.S. imperialism against the Iranian revolution. All the world's imperialists are hovering over Iran like vultures in order to stamp out the revolutionary struggle of the Iranian people.

The root cause of these frenzied and brutal measures of world imperialism, and U.S. imperialism in particular, is the imperialists' ravenous hunger for oil, for the plunder of the vast oil wealth and the exploitation of the people of Iran and the Persian Gulf area. The powerful popular revolution of the Iranian masses which overthrew the bestial regime of the Shah in January 1979 was a hammer blow against U.S. imperialism. The Shah, installed by a CIA-backed coup and armed to the teeth by the Pentagon, was "the enforcer" for Exxon, Texaco, etc. Under the Shah's regime countless billions in super-profits poured into the banks of Wall Street, while the Iranian people lived in destitution with their country turned into a virtual armed camp. In January-February 1979 the Iranian people overthrew the fascist Shah. Since that time they have waged an intense struggle against imperialism and the remnants of the old regime and for the political and economic rights of the toiling masses.

The U.S. billionaires have never reconciled themselves to the "loss" of the "paradise" they had when the Shah slaughtered the Iranian people for the sake of the profits of the oil billionaires. Carter and all the spokesmen for U.S. imperialism have declared over and over again their "right" to launch military aggression to recapture and extend their "vital interests" in Iran and the entire Persian Gulf area. These imperialists are hellbent on strangling the Iranian revolution. They are preparing a war, a war for oil, a war to regain possession of the wealth of the Iranian people, a war to subjugate the Iranian people to the profits of the imperialist billionaires.

But the Iranian revolution continues to advance and defeat the plots and aggression of imperialism. What the Iranian people have shed their blood for in their hundreds of thousands can never be easily taken from them. The revolutionary struggle of the Iranian people enjoys the wholehearted support of the masses of people all over the world. Just as in the war of aggression of the U.S. imperialists against the peoples of Indochina, the American working class and people will not join up with the Rockefellers, Mellons, etc., with Carter or Reagan in their imperialist aggression, but instead are launching mass struggles against the imperialist warmakers and in defense of the Iranian revolution.

[Photo: The powerful struggle of the Iranian people overthrew the Shah, smashing this "impregnable" bastion of U.S. imperialism. Photo shows armed Iranian masses at the barricades during the revolutionary storms that toppled the Shah's regime.]

[Back to Top]

Northeastern students militantly defend the Iranian revolution

On Wednesday, November 12, twenty people participated in an extremely vigorous meeting organized by the Northeastern Anti-Imperialist Forum to defend the Iranian revolution. The meeting was characterized by a high degree of unity, militancy, participation and political clarity among the students. In the course of developing the exposure of the actual economic and political basis of U.S. imperialist aggression and intrigues in Iran and the Persian Gulf region a sharp struggle broke out against a Reaganite apologist for imperialism (of the Libertarian variety). This struggle served to further the exposure of the lies presented by U.S. imperialism itself to cover up its warmongering motives and activities in that region and assisted the strengthening of the anti-imperialist politics of the forum.

The meeting began with two presentations. The first speech told the history of the imperialist domination and intervention (first primarily British and later U.S.) in the Middle East and Iran. Quoting extensively from State Department and army sources, the speaker showed how American monopoly capital, particularly the billionaire oil monopolies, had plundered the wealth of the Iranian people. He showed how the American government, the tool of monopoly capital, used every means, including direct military intervention, CIA coup d'etat, the propping up and arming of reactionary regimes, etc., to protect and extend American capital's control of Iranian oil. A Joint Chiefs of Staff report quite aptly characterized the basis of U.S. military involvement in Iran: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff consider that as a source of oil Iran is an arena of major strategic interest to the U.S. As to counteroffensive options, the proximity to important Soviet industries makes the importance of holding the Middle Eastern area obvious. This is one of the few favorable areas for counteroffensive action. Quite aside from this, the oil resources of Iran and the Near and Middle East are very important."

The second speaker discussed the tremendous significance of the revolutionary struggle of the Iranian working class and people which overthrew the bestial regime of Pahlavi in January 1979 and which is continuing to date. By rising to their feet in this titanic struggle the Iranian people are not only striking hammer blows at world imperialism, but are also providing a tremendous inspiration and example to the working class and oppressed masses all over the world. The Iranian revolution proves once again that the way to freedom and independence, the way to a better life for the toiling masses, is through uncompromising struggle against imperialism and its lackeys. The speaker also detailed the intensified and frenzied aggressive activities being carried out by world imperialism and particularly U.S. imperialism since January 1979 in an attempt to quench the flames of the Iranian revolution in blood and re-secure control over the entire Persian Gulf and its vast oil wealth.

Discussion immediately followed the presentations, and militant support for the Iranian revolution was expressed by several of the participants. During the discussion a Reaganite tried to justify U.S. imperialism's aggression against Iran as being "only because the Iranians took hostages," claiming that the U.S. had committed no aggression prior to this event. One after another, students spoke up to reiterate and elaborate further the detailed facts presented by the speakers and also from their own investigation and experience which show thoroughly and concretely that before, during and after the downfall of the "king of kings" Pahlavi, U.S. imperialism worked with might and main to 1) suppress the Iranian revolution with fire, steel and naked terror, and 2) reverse the victories of the revolution, halt its momentum which continues to develop, and subvert the new government there through infiltration by the CIA and other agents of imperialism. Reference was made to a recently published article by William Sullivan, the last U.S. ambassador to Iran, in which he brazenly admits that envoys were sent by the Carter government during the days of upsurge to order the Shah to be "firmer" and even more ruthless in suppressing the heroic people's struggle -- this at the time when literally thousands of unarmed demonstrators had been butchered in the streets already. Sullivan further admits that the government was maneuvering to strengthen its influence over the Iranian armed forces and preparing a coup during the days when the Khomeini government was coming to power. The very act of bringing the Shah to the U.S. was denounced as a further indication of U.S. imperialism's hopes of restoring this barbarian to power. One participant summed up many of the points made in stating: "We have just heard a history of 80 years of imperialist aggression and domination with the always prime motive of securing control of oil. For the sake of foreign domination of their oil, one million Iranians were slaughtered in World War I; for the sake of control of the oil, over 100,000 and more Iranians were murdered by the U.S. armed 'policeman' Pahlavi, and the list goes on and on. Today the 'Carter doctrine' has openly stated U.S. imperialism's program of counter-revolution and military aggression to secure control of the Persian Gulf and Iranian oil. In the face of all this it is completely ludicrous to suggest that the activity and motivation of U.S. imperialism in Iran is some alleged concern for hostages or to cover it over in any way instead of branding it as the naked, counter-revolutionary imperialist aggression that it is."

Thoroughly exposed by the cold, hard facts, the Reaganite next claimed that his "ideals" were "against U.S. interference anywhere in the world," but such "practical realities" as the "existence of monarchies and age-old rivalries between peoples in the Middle East" were the real problem. In this way he sought to justify U.S. "involvement" to protect its "interests" and to deny the role of the U.S. in instigating and stirring up regional conflicts such as the invasion of Iran by Iraq. It was pointed out that imperialism itself, whenever it is caught red-handed massacring the people, loves to prattle about its high ideals for "peace" and "democracy" while seeking to divert attention from its actual bloody deeds. It is precisely world imperialism and especially U.S. and Soviet imperialism which prop up the fascist monarchies and groom them as their watchdogs and agents for their "divide and rule" strategy.

Caught again the Reaganite reverted to their stock line that "well, if mistakes made it's because of big government, not big business. They're separate things." Everyone got quite a laugh out of that one. One student pointed out that "in analyzing problems we must be scientific and look into the actual basis of things. The American government follows a conscious and systematic foreign policy of aggression and domination, and this is because of the imperialist social- economic system which exists in the U.S. American society is 100% controlled economically and politically by the giant monopolies, and these same monopolies seek the domination and exploitation of other countries. The government is the creature of these monopolies. The problem lies in the imperialist system." An excellent proof of the complete subservience of the government to the monopolies is seen in the CIA coup which reinstalled Pahlavi in 1953. The architect of the coup was Secretary of State Dulles, a former lawyer and consultant for the Rockefeller oil interests; while Kermit Roosevelt, the direct CIA organizer of the coup, was subsequently rewarded with the post of vice-chairman of Gulf Oil.

Each and every attempt to apologize for U.S. {imperialist aggression in Iran or to divert attention from the imperialist system itself, the root cause of the problems, was exposed by the participants in the forum. The Reaganite finally was reduced to pleading that his views were being "misunderstood" and wanted to, in the middle of the discussion in defense of the Iranian revolution, read an abstract paper on philosophy. The forum firmly opposed this and exposed the disruptive and double-dealing character of this maneuver to halt the exposure and denunciation of U.S. imperialism. It was pointed out that extensive investigation and preparation have been carried out on the serious issues facing the people which have been taken up by the forum. This is the attitude of all the progressive people who take responsibility for their views and seriously and honestly look into the facts and analysis presented and discussed by the participants. This is the principled position of all the progressive people who genuinely support the struggles of the people against imperialism. Meanwhile the participation of the Reaganite in the forum was opposed to this principled position of opposition to imperialism and the spirit of serious investigation, preferring hypocrisy and platitudes in one breath in order to apologize for imperialism in the next.

The meeting ended with a hearty round of applause in support of the Iranian revolution and with the participants even more resolved to carry the discussion in defense of the Iranian revolution and against U.S. imperialism to wider sections of the students.

[Back to Top]

FROM THE: Chicago ANTI-IMPERIALIST Newsletter

Political lessons from the Soviet aggression against Afghanistan

(The following article is reprinted from the Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter, Issue #7, December 4, 1980.)

In December 1979 the Soviet Union launched a wanton aggression against the people of Afghanistan. They have utilized over 90,000 occupation troops and such weapons of mass slaughter as napalm and other anti-personnel weapons similar to those used by U.S. imperialism against the Indochinese peoples.

This brutal invasion is the logical result of the degeneration of the once staunchly anti-imperialist foreign policy of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin. Under Khrushchov the Soviet Union was converted from a genuine socialist country and the chief supporter of the national liberation movements of the oppressed peoples into a dangerous imperialist superpower and chief rival of U.S. imperialism for the neo-colonial enslavement of the world's people. Like the U.S., the Soviet Union has imposed its own neo-colonial economic system on the Soviet republics, Eastern Europe, Cuba, Viet Nam, etc. As well, it has transformed the Warsaw Pact into an aggressive imperialist military alliance which is the counterpart of NATO. And through its lackeys it sponsors and carries out aggression in Asia and Africa. Rebellions of the people of these Soviet "satellite countries" have been brutally suppressed by military invasion such as in Czechoslovakia in 1968. In the same way, the Soviet social-imperialists have today invaded Afghanistan to suppress the rebellion of the people against a Soviet neo-colonial regime.

The Soviet Union is using the excuse of the "intervention of U.S. imperialism" to justify its invasion. This is merely taking advantage of the inter-imperialist rivalry in order to secure Afghanistan within its "orbit" along with the assistance of its tools in the puppet regime. There can be no justification for imperialist intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.

Likewise, the U.S. government has used the "threat" of Soviet imperialism as one of the justifications of its "Carter doctrine" of military buildup and naked aggression in the Middle East, further militarization in the U.S. and military support of reactionary regimes such as Zia's in Pakistan, which along with Chinese social-imperialism is infiltrating imperialist agents into Afghanistan in order to sabotage the struggle of the genuine freedom fighters there. The people in this entire area are being greatly menaced by this stepped-up imperialist rivalry.

These moves by U.S. and Soviet imperialism demonstrate a number of political lessons about the strategy of these two superpowers. First, these powers are utilizing the chauvinist doctrine of "spheres of influence" to justify their "right" to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and dominate them politically and economically. It is precisely through this justification that these two superpowers have built up their neo-colonial empires and divided up the world among themselves. Secondly, the invasion by the Soviet imperialists and the responses by U.S. imperialism are joint concerted efforts to suppress the spread of the Iranian revolution. This revolution was the revolt of the people against imperialist domination. The Soviet Union feared that this example had been inspiring the Afghan people and was leading to the same results. Both the U.S. and the Soviets fear the spread of this example to the oppressed people in the entire region. The U.S., Secretary of State and the Soviet Foreign Minister recently met and concluded that the two superpowers were working along "parallel lines" to strangle the Iranian revolution. That is, they are militarily encircling Iran and pressuring it to capitulate to imperialism and possibly to force a division into northern and southern "spheres of influence" dominated by Soviet and U.S. imperialism respectively. Thirdly, this situation reveals a great contradiction between these superpowers. On the one hand, they have the common goals of suppressing the Iranian revolution and maintaining their respective spheres of influence. But, on the other hand, they both are driving to expand their empires and dominate the area wholly. This situation is a dangerous one for the peoples of the area and the world as these two powers become increasingly enmeshed in the area, leading to further intervention or a major inter-imperialist war between them, unless they are stopped.

An analysis of the Afghanistan invasion and the surrounding events helps guide the struggle against imperialism. We must expose and denounce all imperialism. People must be educated not to be deceived by the propaganda of U.S. imperialism to go to war for it against the Soviet "threat" or against the developing revolutionary movements in the Middle East. We must resist every step of the war preparations and support the genuine anti-imperialist struggles in the world such as the Iranian revolution and the struggle of the true freedom fighters in Afghanistan.

[Back to Top]

CELEBRATE THE 36TH ANNIVERSARY OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA:

THE WORKING PEOPLE CAN BUILD A NEW AND BETTER LIFE WITHOUT THE RICH EXPLOITERS

November 29, 1980 marked the 36th anniversary of the complete liberation of Albania. On this occasion, the Marxist-Leninist Party organized a nationwide campaign to spread the word among the working masses in the U.S. about the socialist reality that the Albanian people have created. About 50,000 copies of a special issue of The Workers' Advocate have been distributed. Meetings and celebrations have been held in many cities across the country including Chicago, New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Boston, Detroit and Buffalo. As well, the Party branches have put out supplementary literature announcing their local activities. The following article is taken from a leaflet issued by the San Francisco Bay Area Branch of the MLP on November22, 1980.

The intolerable conditions existing in the U.S. are well known to workers and oppressed nationalities. Unemployment, inflation, poverty, prison-like factories, lack of adequate health care, housing and schools -- these are problems which scream out for solution. But the capitalist system of exploitation and oppression holds in store only a bleak and dangerous future. This is becoming clearer and clearer to the working people. All the toilers are stirring in struggle against their miserable situation. A radical change is the order of the day. But what is the alternative? Another president? Another mayor? More laws? It is only socialism which can bring about a real change and ensure a future for the working masses that is bright and hopeful. In searching to find who has thrown off the yoke of capitalism and moved successfully to build socialism we see Albania, a small European country that 36 years ago drove the German and Italian fascists out of their country and overthrew their "own" oppressors. Albania sets an example for all workers and oppressed people, and the anniversary of her liberation is a happy occasion for all those who are fighting to end the rotting capitalist system because it proves that it can be done.

For their part the capitalists want to hide that socialism is being built right now in Albania. In fact, they say that socialism will never be a reality. They do propaganda that "it may look good on paper, but it will never work." Did you know, for example, that after an earthquake in April 1979 the socialist system in Albania, with no outside help, built homes for 100,000 people within the space of five months and then gave those homes to the people for free to be used as their personal property? No! The capitalist press will never report a story like that. Instead it works overtime to hide the powerful successes of socialism and to distort just what socialism is. The rich portray the dark and fascist rule of the Soviet Union, China and even Castro's Cuba as socialist. The governments of these countries long ago betrayed socialism, and today these countries are ruled by new czars, revamped warlords or, as in the case of Cuba, puppets of the new czars.

In spite of all their noise to confuse things, the rich can't drown out the news coming from Albania. The Marxist-Leninist Party and its newspaper The Workers' Advocate work tirelessly to promote the success attained in socialist Albania and to clearly point out that we can all have a new and better life without exploiters if we also overthrow the capitalist order.

The significance of Albania is tremendously important for the entire working class. It has a special meaning, too, for the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities who suffer double oppression under the shackles of capitalism and who have fought for centuries to end their oppression. The Albanian people also fought for centuries against occupiers and enslavers. In fact, Albania was the most backward country in Europe at the time of liberation. When we hear of Albania, we cannot help but think: if the Albanian working class can overthrow the capitalist exploiters and live that much better without them, then so can we! If the working masses in Albania can take power and become the masters of society, then so can we! If the Albanian people can build socialism, then so can we!

Getting a view of the differences between the crisis-ridden capitalist system and the reality of socialism in Albania confirms the superiority of the socialist system.

The U.S. is one of the richest and most powerful imperialist states, yet the workers' lives are becoming an ever more unbearable hell. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In this regard, the Afro-American people are still the lowest paid, the last hired and the first to be laid off when the crisis hits. Nationwide unemployment is running at 8% and more, and among Afro-American youth in Oakland, for example, unemployment levels reach 65%. The only "alternative" offered to the youth who suffer this joblessness is the draft which is being prepared so that the U.S. can crush the revolutionary struggles in Asia, Africa and Latin America and remain the top imperialist dog.

In contrast, Albania has no unemployment, no inflation and no taxes whatsoever. Factory production there is geared to the sole objective of raising the well-being of the working people instead of raising profit margins of a handful of money grubbers. As a result Albania has known no economic crisis since liberation and instead has the highest rate of industrial growth in all of Europe -- a rate of growth twice that of the U.S.

Faced with increasing poverty in the U.S. the masses are bound to rise up against their conditions. Against that inevitable motion the capitalist state machine is being beefed up. Everywhere the rich are building new prisons, increasing the size and firepower of the police forces and stepping up the infiltration of police into the communities through "police-community relations" schemes. In just nine months of 1979 in Oakland alone, there were nine Afro-American men murdered by the police including Melvin Black, a 15 year old, and Charles Briscoe, a machinist at Alameda Naval Air Station. The fascist police murders throughout the country are part of the stepped-up attacks being organized against the masses. The threads of these police crimes lead all the way back to the White House and to the thoroughly racist government of the capitalist class -- a government which organizes and protects the Klan and nazis and never fails to acquit them of every hideous crime they commit.

In Albania the "incitement of national and racial hatred" is absolutely prohibited by law. The Albanian people suffered greatly at the hands of the German fascists and today will not tolerate the formation or existence of an- ti-democratic nazi-type organizations. The government is a government of the armed people, and there is no force to stand "above" society and terrorize the citizens.

In Oakland at least half of all renters pay 35% or more of their income for rent while in Albania the average rent is 2% or 3% of a family's income. Even this low percentage goes for upkeep and not to a bloodsucking landlord.

In Oakland the rate of infant deaths among blacks and other oppressed nationalities is higher than anywhere else in the U.S. except Harlem. In Albania modern hospitals, clinics and maternity homes now exist throughout the country. Every type of care, from a bandage to an extended stay in a hospital, is free of charge. In Albania great attention is paid to the health and well-being of both mother and child, resulting in a dramatic reduction in infant mortality. These and other measures such as the eradication of many previously prevalent diseases and the near doubling of the life expectancy have led to the population of Albania more than doubling since liberation.

Finally, in the U.S. money for education is being cut to the bone. For the vast majority of Afro-Americans education remains separate and unequal. All attempts to integrate the schools are opposed either by the government whipping up its "anti-busing" hysteria or by the fraud of "reverse discrimination." "Reverse discrimination" is a reactionary theory which says that Afro-Americans already have too many benefits and whites are being discriminated against. This nazi logic then leads to the conclusion that all gains won by the blacks by their active resistance in the 60's should be wiped out and Jim Crow should be restored.

In Albania 36 years ago 85% of the people could neither read nor write. Back then there were only 1,500 teachers in the whole country. Today there are 40,000 teachers. One in every three persons in Albania is presently attending school, and illiteracy has been wiped out.

It should be evident from this brief comparison that the Albanian working class and people have built a far superior society. This is the power of socialism. When we look at Albania and realize the depth of poverty and backwardness that existed there just 36 years ago, we are quite inspired with the possibilities that exist for all of us when we overthrow the rotting capitalist system and march steadily forward to socialism.

Throughout the U.S. today the workers and oppressed masses are struggling against the capitalists and imperialists, against the fascists and warmongers. In strikes, in the revolts of the black people, in the protests against the draft and war preparations, in the Don't Vote! campaign against the capitalist election circus, the masses are seeking out a path that is totally independent of the rich and their lackeys. The goal of the independent political movement of the working class can only be socialism, the only system which can actually eliminate poverty, racism, unemployment, inflation and debt. Becoming conscious that this is our goal will increase our determination to fight because we will know just what it is we are fighting for. By taking the path of revolutionary struggle, by sacrificing not to help the capitalist moneybags but to overthrow them, by replacing the man-eating capitalist system with socialism, the working class and oppressed people all over the world will achieve the same brilliant successes and happy life as the Albanian working people.

[Photos: On April 15, 1979, a strong earthquake rocked sections of northern Albania. More than 10,700 houses, schools and hospitals were destroyed or badly damaged. Within a period of six months, all damaged or destroyed buildings were completely rebuilt. The two above photos show the working masses beginning the rebuilding process and new homes almost completed.]

[Photos: Photos from the public meeting held in Chicago on December 6 by the Marxist-Leninist Party to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Albania. Above: Participants at the meeting viewing the literature and picture display depicting various aspects of the life of the Albanian people, including the National Liberation War and the construction of socialism. Above right: A scene of the over 90 people who attended the meeting shouting militant slogans hailing the victories of socialism in Albania! Below right: A view of the comrades and supporters of the MLP performing Revolutionary songs from the U.S. and Albania. The cultural program at the meeting also included an excel lent, performance of a series of scenes from The Fisherman's Family, an Albanian play on the National Liberation War.]

[Back to Top]