WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! SPECIAL ISSUE 100,000 copies
Volume 10, Number 5
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA
July 21, 1980
Wage mass struggle against U.S. imperialist war preparations!
FIRMLY OPPOSE THE MILITARIZATION OF WOMEN!
U.S. IMPERIALISM, HANDS OFF IRAN!
U.S. Imperialism, Soviet and Chinese Social-lmperialism - Hangmen and Assassins of the People
U.S. imperialism has not "learned its lesson" since Viet Nam, but remains a bloodstained aggressor
To hell with the political parties of the rich, parties of starvation and war!
Workers, young people, women! Take up the fight against the U.S. imperialist war preparations! Carter has reinstated registration for the draft. This is a sure sign that the government is getting ready to go to war. Once again the youth will be press-ganged into the military. Just as in Viet Nam, the youth will be made cannon fodder for the aggression of the rich. Registration is the first step toward the draft. And this draft has no other purpose than to serve imperialism. It has no other basis than to build up the army to fight for U.S. domination of the world. The working masses have no interest to fight the wars for the rich. But the billionaires cannot be stopped without a fight. Now is the time to take up mass struggle. We must fight every step that the imperialist warmongers take.
Draft for What?
Carter claims that draft registration is for "peace." This is just a rich politician's lies. He is preparing for aggression abroad. The U.S. is a monstrous imperialist superpower. The U.S. monopoly capitalists, who have grown fat off the sweat and blood of the American workers, are also raking in fantastic super-profits from the plunder of the people of other countries. They are not preparing the draft for peace, but to wage wars to protect their billions in profits, to wage aggression to seize still billions more.
The U.S. is arming for war in the Mideast, to protect the profits of the giant oil tycoons and bankers. It is arming to throttle the Iranian revolution, in order to save the monopolies' plunder of Iranian oil. The U.S. has over two million soldiers stationed all across the world. In El Salvador and Korea, in Europe and elsewhere, the U.S. imperialists are working to subjugate the people. And they will commit any crime -- no matter how hideous, and any aggression -- no matter how bloody, in pursuit of political domination and economic plunder for the big multinational corporations.
The U.S. is arming for war against its equally imperialist rival, Soviet social- imperialism. These two fiendish warmongers are striving to divide up the world between themselves and their allies. And among imperialist thieves there is no way to divide and redivide the world except through bloody clashes and inter-imperialist world wars.
The U.S. is arming to suppress the people at home. This is a country where strikes are suppressed by the courts and police, where the oppressed nationalities are gunned down by the police and national guard, where the huge police state apparatus of jails, spies, and bureaucrats stifles every aspect of life. The working masses are rising up in struggle against the exploitation and oppression by the capitalist billionaires. And so the government of the rich is arming to drown these struggles in blood.
Imperialism Means Exploitation and War
Can there be a reasonable amount of arming, enough for "defense" but not aggression? No! Every weapon, every soldier used by the imperialists is for war, aggression and for terror against the people at home. A capitalist doesn't invest except to gain a profit. The imperialists don't arm except to plunder the people. As long as the army is commanded by the rich, it will be an imperialist army of aggression, an army to suppress the people and enforce capitalist exploitation and robbery.
Imperialist aggression is not just an unfortunate or unwise policy of this or that politician. Imperialism is a whole economic and political system, it is monopoly capitalism. In the grip of economic crisis, the capitalist billionaires are pressing the working people to the wall. Over eight million workers have been thrown out of their jobs. The workers' wages are being cut to the bone as inflation soars and gas prices zoom through the ceiling. This is capitalism in its very essence, where the working masses are driven to starvation so that the billionaires can maintain their fabulous profits.
The militarization, the preparation for war, only intensifies this exploitation. To produce their weapons of aggression, to increase their enormous war budget, the rich are bleeding the working people to death with ever increasing taxation. And to free their hands to attack the people of other countries, the U.S. billionaires are intensifying reaction to crush with an iron heel every struggle waged by the American people.
As long as monopoly capitalism exists in the U.S., it will mean imperialist aggression abroad. And it will mean that the American working class and oppressed people will remain enslaved and exploited under the dark rule of the rich, of the racist reactionaries and monopolists. Only by overthrowing the imperialist system itself, only by rising in socialist revolution and replacing the bloodstained capitalist dictators with the rule of the working class, can U.S. aggression be brought to an end. The working masses must begin to organize for just such a struggle.
Wage Mass Struggle Against U.S. Imperialist War Preparations
Today there is widespread rebellion against the savage militarization. Anti-draft demonstrations have spread all across the country. Mass actions against U.S. attacks on Iran have grown. Even in the "volunteer" army dissent is building. The American working class and oppressed masses are opposed to throwing away their lives to fight to defend the U.S. monopolies. They will not forgive those who order them to raise their guns to shoot down their class brothers of other lands. They will rise in their millions and shoot their bullets through the heart of the class enemies. They will fight to put to death the brutal imperialist system.
Now is the time to step up the fight against U.S. imperialism. Go all out to use the great discontent with registration to organize the masses! Spread leaflets everywhere to make the masses conscious of the imperialist crimes! Work hard to push forward the revolutionary movement! Go all out to fight the imperialist war measures of the rich!
[Graphic.]
Now is the time to organize mass actions against imperialism and militarism!
The imperialist warmongers cannot be fought by each individual just taking a decision for himself or washing his own hands of the matter. No matter how self-sacrificing such individual actions are, they do not and cannot shake imperialism. What is needed is the mass actions of the workers, youth, students and all oppressed masses. The working and oppressed people must be organized in the course of the mass struggle against imperialism and put upon the powerful path of mass revolutionary struggle.
Now is the time to organize mass actions against the reintroduction of registration and the draft! Draw the masses of youth into the anti-imperialist struggle! Demonstrate at the post offices, against military recruiters in the schools, against the nuclear program, against every aspect of U.S. imperialist war preparations! Take the demonstrations throughout the working class communities and engage in widescale leafletting and discussions! Put the issue of imperialism at the center of the agitation against militarism and the draft and rally the working masses against the capitalist imperialists!
In the struggle against militarism and imperialism the revolutionary activists should utilize the burning indignation against the draft and the imperialist war preparations in order to organize the masses. Revolutionary groups should be organized everywhere. Anti-imperialist and Marxist-Leninist literature should be studied and distributed. The Democratic and Republican Parties should be denounced, their political hacks treated with the contempt they deserve! The movement should be oriented onto the path of the independent class politics of the proletariat, onto the path of conscious struggle and of building up the party of revolutionary struggle and socialism, the Marxist-Leninist Party.
The working class must take its rightful place at the center of the anti-imperialist struggle. The anti-imperialist struggle is part of the class struggle. It is the working class that is the only consistently revolutionary class. And it is the masses of the youth of the working class and of the oppressed nationalities, the large majority of whom are also workers, who are being press-ganged as cannon fodder to kill their class brothers for the sake of the profits of the big multinational corporations. The workers must stand up against this crime and reply to it with the class war. They are stepping up their organization both factory by factory and in the general anti-imperialist movement as a whole. They combine the struggle against man-eating capitalist exploitation, the speedups, layoffs and wage cuts, with the struggle against imperialism and militarism. They are fighting against both the profit-hungry exploiters and their loyal labor lieutenants, the casehardened, corrupt labor bureaucrats. The workers are fighting the chauvinist import hysteria, the warmongering campaign against Iran, the recruiting drives and so forth. The anti-imperialist struggle is a powerful impetus for the development of the independent class politics of the working class, for the building and strengthening of the proletarian party, the MLP,USA, and for rallying all the poor and downtrodden around the working class.
On Registration, Draft Resistance and Struggle in the Military
Today Carter's registration order sets before the anti-imperialist movement the tasks of organizing the mass actions against the reintroduction of the draft and of directing the anti-militarist sentiment onto the path of conscious struggle. But as part of the struggle, the question also arises of whether to register or not. Those revolted by militarism are taking up several different methods of struggle against the registration.
There are some who will refuse to register, or if they register, refuse to be drafted. Given the present post office registration, which is loose and to a certain extent for propaganda with the stricter registration scheduled for next year, this number may well be quite substantial. And many others will wait till the last minute. By resisting the draft and the registration, this section manifests its revulsion for militarism and imperialism and inspires other acts of resistance.
We firmly support those who resist registration or the draft, but we do not issue the general call or slogan to refuse registration or the draft. That is because the idea must not be created that refusal to register, if only enough take part, can stop imperialist war. This has never happened. Instead the draft resistance is a form of struggle whose value is that it draws certain sections of the masses into more conscious forms of struggle and manifests burning indignation against imperialism. The draft resisters cannot simply leave their struggle at just refusing to register or be drafted, but must go on to take part in the mass actions and the organized movement against imperialism. Their courageous stand has value as part of this movement and not as a panacea in itself.
As well, there are those who will register with the intention of fighting against militarism and imperialism from within the armed forces. This section fights against the recruiting campaigns and the draft, but it goes into the army when this is compulsory in order to fight from the inside. This is a daring and courageous stand. At present, this section is quite small. But these activists deserve the utmost support, for the struggle inside the armed forces is ultimately one of the decisive fronts of struggle against imperialist war. And these activists will find their forces multiplied many times by those who come to greater consciousness or resolve to fight imperialism while already in the armed forces or in the clutches of the draft machinery.
Those who will accept being drafted in order to fight from within the armed forces in the meantime take an active part in the anti-imperialist movement outside the armed forces and in the fight against the draft. And only in this way can these activists acquire valuable revolutionary experience needed for the struggle inside the armed forces, a struggle under harsh conditions of fascist military discipline.
Furthermore, there are large masses of working youth who are revolted by the draft and militarism, but who find no alternative to registering. With the draft, the state machine puts its full weight down upon each person individually, one by one, in forcing them into the army. Thus, especially as the registration system becomes more established, this section inevitably comes to constitute a big majority. Our Party stays close to these masses. This section has not avoided struggle by registering, but instead finds itself involved in a fierce and dangerous situation inside the armed forces. It is necessary to help this section to gain consciousness, to organize and to take part in this struggle. Large masses from this section take part in the numerous actions against the draft and in the anti-imperialist movement. In this way they must both fight militarism now and gain experience for the struggle inside the armed forces.
As well, there are those working youth who have already found themselves ensnared in the present "volunteer" army. The army is not a whole, but is split into parts. There is the fascist, privileged upper ranks, officers and "lifers," and the mass of cannon fodder at the bottom. The majority of the GI's are youth from the working masses and are receptive to the anti-imperialist agitation. The anti-imperialist movement must always pay close attention to any opportunities to influence the mass of downtrodden youth herded into the army to be slaughtered for the profits and glory of the fat billionaires.
The experience of the 1960's and of the anti-imperialist movement against U.S. aggression in Indochina shows that all the different methods of resistance to militarism require courage and determination and all can be utilized to advance the mass struggle. This experience shows that the struggle against the draft is a powerful one that brings out the broad masses of youth against imperialism. And it shows that it is both possible and necessary to organize the soldiers themselves against the imperialists. The anti-militarist struggle is a powerful stimulus to the revolutionary movement and to the development of the independent political activity of the working class.
It is necessary to fight every step of the warmongers. This struggle requires determination and sacrifice, and it will be protracted. This fight must be placed onto the correct road and utilized to organize the working masses. It is only the mass revolutionary struggle that can stay the hands of the warmongers from this or that act, and it is only the socialist revolution that will destroy U.S. imperialism once and for all. Step up the mass struggle against the warmongers, manifest utter contempt for the imperialist system, and use the mass anti-imperialist movement to organize the working masses for the revolution!
[Photo: Students at California State University, Northridge, wage vigorous struggle against U.S. army recruiters and their militarist weaponry display on the campus, spring 1980.]
[Photo: 500 soldiers from Fort Hood march in Kileen, Texas, October 25y 1971 demanding an end to U.S. imperialist aggression in Viet Nam under the banner: "We Want Out Now -- Active Duty GI's Against the War."]
The rich ruling class is militarizing all spheres of society. The military recruiters are flocking like vultures to the high schools and colleges. Carter has ordered the registration of four million young men for the military draft. And the imperialist government is also hell-bent on militarizing women as well. TV specials are being produced to glorify the "tremendous advantages'' enjoyed by the women who join the armed forces and the "brilliant opportunities'' which will allegedly be open to them. In short, the youth, men and women and the entire working class and broad masses of people are being subordinated to the U.S. imperialist war machine as the U.S. imperialist warmongers prepare for aggressive and enslaving war. It is from this perspective that the Carter government's push for registering women for the draft and the ensuing court rulings and counter-rulings must be understood.
Last January, when chief warmonger Carter ordered the reinstitution of draft registration, he included with it a proposal to register women too. As the proposal to register women was voted down in Congress, Carter's militarist crusade was taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is among the staunchest champions of the "civil liberties'' of the fascists and warmongers. The ACLU challenged the order to register men only, on the grounds that it was "discriminatory'' and "unconstitutional" because women were denied their "equal rights" to be signed up and press-ganged into the U.S. imperialist armed forces.
On July 18, three days before registration was to begin, the federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled in favor of the ACLU's claim that the registration was "unconstitutional" because it excluded women. The following day, Supreme Court Justice Brennan set aside the appeals court ruling and ordered the registration of 19 and 20 year old men to proceed as planned. Over the next months this question will be bounced around the high courts where pious sermons about "equality" and "justice" will be issued. And a great fuss will be made in order to prepare for the drafting of women as the only "constitutional" and "fair" thing to do.
The working class and its party, the MLP,USA, is firmly opposed to the government's plans to register and draft women, just as it opposes every other step to militarize the society and all the war preparations of imperialism. It is only the most hypocritical defenders of the imperialist warmongers who can champion as a step towards "equal rights with men" the conscription of young women to be eaten up as human ammunition in U.S. imperialist wars of conquest.
Certain leading lights of bourgeois feminism are just such shameless apologists of the warmongers. Take, for example, the vice-president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Judy Goldsmith, who has declared that: "Omission from the registration and the draft ultimately robs women of the right to first class citizenship and paves the way to underpaying women all the remaining days of our lives." What nonsense! Only through their vigorous participation in the movement of the working class, through mass struggle, strikes and organization can working women wage an effective struggle against the discriminatory low pay imposed on them by the employers. But bourgeois feminists such as madame Goldsmith stand completely opposed to the working class struggle. Moreover, working women will find no end to oppression by fighting and dying in the wars of the rich to enslave the working people of other countries. This doesn't "pave the way" to equality but to becoming a "first class" corpse in the mercenary wars for the profits of Exxon and the other imperialist corporations.
Some of the "feminists" are hiding their stand in support of the militarization of women behind their appeals that they are opposed to the draft altogether, but, they say, since the draft is coming down anyway it is both "fair" and "necessary" for women to be included. As NOW president Elenore Smeal put it: "Whatever happens to the current registration proposal, if there is a real military conflict or emergency or draft, it will include women. They can't get along without us."
Thus, what concerns this president of bourgeois feminism is not the interests of the working and oppressed women. Rather, her concern lies with the human cannon fodder requirements of the Pentagon generals who "can't get along" without drafting women. Such aristocratic ladies of feminism are playing the role of mere conscription officers in the Pentagon's drive to compel the daughters of the working masses to serve in the U.S. imperialist armed forces of plunder and aggression. Indeed, they should aptly be branded as "Pentagon feminists."
While the Marxist-Leninist Party condemns the registration and drafting of women, at the same time it is not afraid of it. If, despite the resistance of the people to this step towards the militarization of women, women are drafted, this will only bring the working women into further struggle against the monopoly capitalist warmongers both inside and outside the military. And it is only the revolutionary struggle, with women fighting shoulder to shoulder with men against the capitalist-imperialist exploiters, that can pave the way for the genuine emancipation of the working women.
Last January, Carter announced his plans for reintroducing draft registration in the same saber-rattling speech in which he proclaimed his new "Carter doctrine." According to this "doctrine" the Carter government will use "every means necessary," including "military force," to guard the "vital interests" of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East region. It is hardly a secret that it is the billions of dollars of oil profits realized by Exxon, Texaco, Mobil and the other giant multinational oil corporations which is the number one "vital interest" that Carter had in mind. And it is the Iranian revolution which has badly shaken the positions and the "vital (oil) interests" of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. In short, the war plans of Washington have everything to do with putting down the Iranian revolution and the seizure and control of Iranian and Middle East oil.
Some 18 months ago, the Iranian working class and people rose up in a powerful revolution and smashed to smithereens the fascist monarchy of the shah. This was an earthshaking event. It was a real people's revolution, carried out by the millions of workers and other toilers and youth and women. The people shed rivers of blood with tens of thousands of heroic young martyrs massacred by the shah's machine guns in the people's struggle for their rights and freedom.
The toppling of the bloodstained shah has struck a heavy blow to imperialism. In particular, the revolution in Iran has rocked U.S. imperialism. It was the American CIA which put the shah in power in the first place through a bloody coup d'etat and which provided him with the necessary means of torture and suppression to turn Iran into a murderous dungeon for the people. It was the Pentagon which armed the shah to the teeth and which made Iran a virtual U.S. military camp. And all this was done on behalf of the Wall Street bankers and U.S. oil corporations, on behalf of the Rockefellers, Chase Manhattan Bank and Exxon which have reaped fabulous super-profits from the super-exploitation of the Iranian people and the plunder of their oil.
The billionaire bankers and oil tycoons have shown that they will never be reconciled to their losses suffered at the hands of the Iranian people's revolution. They have dreams of restoring the shah's fascist monarchy and they are plotting day and night for the counterrevolution in order to seize back their lost positions. The Carter government has been imposing a brutal blockade and along with it every sort of threat and pressure to bring the Iranian people to their knees. A monstrous naval flotilla loaded with the most sophisticated weapons has been stationed off the Iranian coast ready for the "punitive bombing" of Iranian cities. And despite the fact that the invasion ordered by Carter last April was a fiasco, the Pentagon generals continue to draw up their plans for further military adventures against the freedom and independence of the Iranian people.
It is as clear as day that the government's war preparations and the draft registration of the youth for the U.S. imperialist war machine is for just such military adventures on behalf of the billionaires. For the sake of the profits of Exxon and Chase Manhattan the Carter government is threatening to hurl the sons and daughters of the American working masses into a bloody war to put down the revolution of the heroic people of Iran.
The American working class and people want no part of such a mercenary and predatory war of aggression. The interests of the working and oppressed people of this country lie with the courageous and fighting people of Iran who have leveled mighty blows at the common enemy, the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie. In numerous demonstrations, meetings and other actions across the country the broad masses of the people have expressed their stand in support of the Iranian people's revolution and they have declared: U.S. Imperialism, Hands Off Iran!
[Photo.]
At the head of the camp of imperialist slavery and war, along with U.S. imperialism, stands Soviet social-imperial- ism and Chinese social-imperialism. These warmongering powers are the principal hotbeds of war and aggression and the biggest world slavemasters and oppressors. These three powers lead the lesser imperialist powers and world capitalism and reaction. They are the biggest and most savage enemies of the working masses and the oppressed people on the face of the earth.
The present-day Soviet Union is "socialist" only in name. In deeds, however, it is a ferocious capitalist and imperialist state. This fact has once again been brought home with Moscow's barbaric invasion of Afghanistan. Today Soviet troops are waging a war of subjugation against the freedom-loving Afghan people, resorting to the very same fascist methods which only yesterday U.S. imperialism perfected in its genocidal war of aggression against Viet Nam. The glorious Soviet Union of the days of Lenin and Stalin -- the then socialist homeland of the working class and the friend of the oppressed everywhere -- is no longer. Through the revisionist counterrevolution of Khrushchov and Brezhnev, the Russian working masses have been put under the dark fascist rule of the revisionist new tsars. And the Soviet Union has been transformed into a bloodstained imperialist world superpower, no different in essentials from its U.S. imperialist counterpart.
China, too, has emerged on the scene as a major imperialist warmonger. The Chinese revisionist warlords have formed a close alliance with the Pentagon generals and the U.S. multinational corporations and are the most ardent champions of U.S. imperialist aggression and preparations for war. The new Chinese warlords have openly hitched themselves to U.S. imperialism in order to satisfy their appetite for their own place at the banquet table of imperialist conquest. Just last year, following in the footsteps of their U.S. imperialist friends, the new Chinese emperors carried out a brutal invasion of Viet Nam. While China also poses as a "socialist country," under Mao Zedong China was never steered along a genuinely socialist road. Today social-imperialist China is showing its true colors as a saber- rattling fascist state.
Therefore in order to take a truly firm stand against imperialism, aggression and enslaving wars, it is necessary to fight all imperialisms and reactionaries with these three imperialist monsters at the head. Such is the stand of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, the only genuinely socialist country in the world today. Pursuing the Marxist-Leninist line of the Party of Labor of Albania, socialist Albania relentlessly exposes and combats the aggressive warmongering plans of U.S. imperialism, Soviet and Chinese social-imperialism and all aggressors and warmongers. At the same time, socialist Albania stands by the side of the working class and oppressed masses of the world in their revolutionary struggle against imperialist slavery.
The working class and people must never take sides in the dogfights among the imperialist sharks, in the wars among slave masters to divide up the slaves and the loot. Rather, the struggle against imperialism and war must be aimed at destroying through revolution all these international barbarians once and for all.
In its revolutionary struggle, the watchword of the American working class must be that its principal enemy is at home. The fire must be concentrated at "our own" imperialist ruling class, against Carter and Reagan and the rich monopolists they represent, and against the war machine of the Pentagon generals which is being cranked up for new wars of aggression and conquest. It must never be forgotten that it is the American working class and people which must shoulder the responsibility of settling accounts with the U.S. big bourgeoisie.
The other imperialisms too, in particular the Soviet new tsars and the new Chinese warlords, must also be exposed for what they are and resolutely opposed. By putting into practice the stand that the principal enemy is at home the American workers prove to the Russian workers and the workers of other lands that the American workers are really against the imperialist system. Through this revolutionary struggle they demonstrate concretely that they are against Soviet imperialism and other imperialisms not in order to benefit their "own" U.S. imperialism, but that they are fighting to put an end to the entire world system of imperialist slavery. And the development of the revolutionary struggle within the U.S. is the best assistance that the American people can provide to encourage the exploited and oppressed Soviet people to rise up and settle accounts with their "own" new tsars.
Down with U.S. imperialism!
Down with Soviet and Chinese social-imperialism!
Down with all the imperialist warmongers!
It has only been a few short years since American bombs and bullets were shaking the earth of Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. For over 15 years the Pentagon generals had directed their genocidal war against the freedom-loving people of Indochina on behalf of the U.S. imperialist billionaires. This war was one of the most brutal and savage wars of aggression ever in history. Up to a half million U.S. soldiers at a given time, the sons of the working masses, were dispatched to slaughter their Vietnamese class brothers. Nearly the whole of Indochina was laid waste under the "scorched earth" carpet bombings and napalming. During this hitlerite war of aggression, the Indochinese people were subjected to bestial massacres, torture and destruction, such as no other people have ever known.
What was learned about the nature of U.S. imperialism during the days of the Viet Nam war must never be forgotten. All the claims that U.S. imperialism has "learned its lesson" and has become "peaceful," "rational" and "humane" after its defeat in Viet Nam are nothing but lies to cover up bloody tracks. Look at the warmongering policy of the Carter government which is reintroducing draft registration and is producing record increases in military spending. Look at the full-scale preparations for further military intervention in Iran. Look at the U.S. military teams and weapons dispatched in recent months to El Salvador to put down the people's liberation struggle there. Look at the CIA-backed coup d'etat of fascist generals last week in Bolivia. Look at the orders given by the American generals to crush the struggle of the Korean people for their rights and freedoms.
No. Far from having "learned its lesson" in Viet Nam, all over the globe U.S. imperialism is feverishly plotting new interventions and preparing for new enslaving wars of conquest. Viet Nam brought home to the broad masses of people that U.S. imperialism is a bloodstained and ferocious aggressor. And it will remain such until the last tooth is kicked out of its head.
The reintroduction of draft registration has shown once again that the capitalist political parties are all raving enthusiasts of imperialism and war.
The "Democrats" have always been notorious warmongers and cold warriors. And today it is the Democrat Carter and the Democratic Party majorities in both chambers of Congress that have been working frantically to reinstitute the draft. Carter himself has declared the aggressive "Carter doctrine," sent troops to raid Iran, built up a 110,000 man quick strike force for use all over the world, and brought forth record military budgets to produce one new weapon of mass slaughter after the other. Meanwhile he is squeezing the workers for the profits of the rich. He is enforcing savage wage controls, helping the capitalists to impose the brutal productivity drive of speedup, overwork and layoffs, and advocating mass unemployment on the pretext of "fighting" inflation. His "anti-inflation" program has amounted to skyrocketing profits for the U.S. oil kings, the war profiteers and the big banks. Hence Carter's consistent policy: plunder abroad for the super-profits of the American multinational corporations, and increasing exploitation at home for the profits of the same U.S. monopolies.
And these reactionary policies of Carter are not an accident or just his individual whim. No, these are the policies of the capitalist exploiters and billionaires. That is why all the capitalist politicians have the same basic program. Take the "Kennedy alternative" for example. This is nothing but the same program of starvation, fascism and war. Kennedy only temporarily opposes draft registration because he, like Reagan, regards the current registration plan as an ineffective "paper curtain," while he supports more effective methods of militarization. He is also for harsher wage- price controls, and opposes Carter's wage-price controls only because he regards them as too weak and ineffective. And he is the main backer of the fascist criminal code revision, the notorious "grandson of S-l" bill. There is nothing good in the Democratic Party. This self- proclaimed party of "labor and the minorities" is nothing but a party of the rich, of the warmongers, imperialists and exploiters.
Meanwhile the Republican Party is working overtime to out-warmonger Carter. The Republicans are the party of the fascist war criminal Nixon and of the "law and order" felon Agnew. Today the Republican candidate Reagan is the darling of the most ultra-conservative, fascist billionaires. He is stepping into Nixon's shoes.
He is demanding starvation for the masses combined with every sort of "incentive" for the billionaires. And the Republican platform openly and brazenly stands for warmongering aggression and calls for a "more effective strategy" of invading and seizing spheres of influence which are "points of Soviet vulnerability." What an open avowal of the desire for plunder and adventure abroad. Imperialism and war are the bipartisan foreign policy of the capitalist parties.
Today there is a burning indignation everywhere against the two major capitalist parties. Carter and Reagan are despised by the workers. In this situation a number of aspiring capitalist politicians are coming forward as volunteer firemen to cool down the flames of revolt.
First of all, there is the "Anderson difference." This is the "difference" between six of one and half-dozen of the other. Anderson openly says that he is just running a one-shot campaign in order to "breathe new life" into the two big capitalist parties. Like Carter, he is demanding ever greater "sacrifices" from the workers. He has called for cutting the minimum wage for teenagers, imposing a 50ยข tax on gasoline and so forth. He is for stepped-up military spending and for aggressive threats against Iran. His "difference" with Carter on such questions as the MX missile is only over whether it should be built at sea, as Anderson advocates, or in the deserts of the Southwest, as Carter advocates. (The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 1980) Anderson is just another stooge of the capitalist imperialists.
The Citizens Party also presents itself as an "alternative" to the barbaric Democrats and Republicans. But just like all the other capitalist parties, it supports imperialism. The Citizens Party is against the anti-U.S. imperialist liberation struggles around the world, and it is against the strikes, demonstrations and mass movements in the U.S. It opposes the class struggle and stands instead for ever closer collaboration between the government, the labor bureaucrats and various opportunists. The Citizens Party concocts dozens of schemes for allegedly curing the excesses of imperialism without harming the profits of the rich. By removing these excesses the Citizens Party hopes to tone down or liquidate the class struggle. But upon examination, all these schemes amount to are painted-up versions of the actual present-day politics of Carter and the capitalist exploiters. The Citizens Party dresses up Carter's wage-price controls as "price controls" allegedly for the benefit of the workers. It openly endorses the savage capitalist productivity drive. And it opposes the struggle against imperialism by replacing it with the advocacy of some cosmetic cuts in U.S. military spending -- as long as these cuts do not harm the strength of U.S. imperialism. This, of course, is just a stale repetition of Carter's campaign promise of 1976. The Citizens Party does not represent "independent" politics but warmed-over Carter stew.
The working class and oppressed masses cannot put their faith in any of these capitalist parties. They are all parties of the rich, parties of starvation, fascism and war.
The hatred against Carter and Reagan must be directed along the path of genuine independent politics of the working class. This is the path of the class struggle. This is the path charted out by the working class party, the party of revolutionary struggle and socialism, the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA. Down with all the capitalist parties! Forward along the road of mass revolutionary struggle against starvation, fascism and war!
[Cartoon.]