WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! SPECIAL ISSUE 100,000 copies
Volume 10, Number 7
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA
October 5, 1980
DON'T VOTE! THE CAPITALIST PARTIES ARE ALL THE SAME!
BUILD THE INDEPENDENT POLITICAL MOVEMENT OF THE WORKING CLASS!
Carter, Reagan, Anderson share a common program of ruthless exploitation and imperialist war
DOWN WITH THE SELLOUT 'LABOR LEADERS'!
The capitalist parties are enemies of the black people
Fight U.S. imperialist war preparations!
The Attitude of the MLP,USA Towards Elections
DON'T VOTE!
THE CAPITALIST PARTIES ARE ALL THE SAME!
Today the capitalist election circus is in full swing. All the political toadies of the rich are singing lullabies: "vote for me and all your problems will be solved." Every four years the promises flow like water down a hill while inflation grows, the unemployment lines lengthen, the weapons of mass destruction roll off the production lines and the two-faced politicians shout of "peace, prosperity and full employment, just around the corner."
Democrat or Republican, Carter or Reagan, they're all the same. All the candidates in the presidential election are candidates of the monopolies and the billionaires. They have a single program: world domination abroad and exploitation at home. All of them are enthusiasts of the capitalist offensive of wage cutting, unemployment, racist attacks and militarization. All of them preach "sacrifice" and "restraint" for the workers and huge "reindustrialization" subsidies for the monopolies. The only choice in this election is which representative of the rich will become the head slave driver and crack the whip over the people for the next four years.
The Republican Party is the self-declared party of big business. It is known to the masses as the party of the rich, of open reaction, of bigotry and chauvinism, of reactionary violence to ensure "law and order." It is the party whose program has been endorsed by the racist thugs, the Klan, as a program that "reads as if it were written by a Klansman." It is the party that finds the answer to every program in cutting the meager welfare and social insurance benefits and prattling on about how starvation builds the character of the poor.
The Democratic Party is also a party of big business. But its special role is to be the main party for the political deception of the workers. It has the same policies as the Republicans, but it calls itself the party of "labor and the minorities." The exact same measures that are condemned as conservative when implemented by the Republicans are paraded as "pro-labor" when implemented by the Democrats. Subsidies voted by the Republicans to the monopolies are handouts to the rich, but when the Democrats turn over billions upon billions of dollars to Chrysler, the auto giants, the steel monopolists, the oil kings and so forth, it is allegedly to "save jobs," to ensure "conservation" and "alternative energy," and to help not the rich, oh no, but the common working man. Wage controls by the Republicans are unfair, but the same Nixonite wage controls and government strikebreaking, when carried out by Carter and the Democrats, are trumpeted as evenhanded and "pro-labor." Strikebreaking by the Republicans is justly condemned as reaction, but when Carter, the man who invoked the fascist Taft-Hartley Act in an attempt to crush the coal miners, advocates legislation further banning wildcat and sympathy strikes and roving pickets, this is called "labor law reform." The role of the Democratic Party is to paint up the profit taking and political repression by the rich as allegedly pro-people and even vaguely "socialist."
The Democrats are campaigning as "the lesser of two evils," although even the capitalist press is saying that there is hardly an ounce of difference between the policies of Carter and Reagan. The truth is that Carter and Reagan are both part of the same evil. It is necessary to organize the popular struggle against this evil, to develop the working class movement, and to press forward with the anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles and all the currents of revolt.
Utilize the Election Circus to Develop the Independent Political Movement of the Working Class
Indeed in this election the masses are burning with indignation against Carter and Reagan. The task for the workers in this election is to use this disgust to assist the independent political motion of the masses and to help emancipate them from illusions about the capitalist parties. It is a time to denounce the capitalist program of starvation, fascism and war, of "reindustrialization" and imperialism, of racial discrimination and reaction.
It is a time to hold the smooth-talking political liars to account for their crimes and to compare their promises with their deeds.
To do this, refuse to vote! Manifest contempt for the capitalist parties. But moreover one should not just simply leave it at not voting, but should go on to take part in organized mass actions against the capitalist parties.
Organize meetings and rallies to denounce the capitalist parties and set forward the path of struggle. Take demonstrations throughout the working class communities and engage in wide-scale leafletting and discussions! Draw the masses of workers and activists into the struggle against the capitalist parties!
The Program of the Proletariat -- Mass Revolutionary Struggle Leading to the Socialist Revolution
Opposed to the program of the rich stands the revolutionary working class movement. It does not promise salvation through tinkering with the present system or through panaceas, but develops the mass struggle. Faced with the bitter exploitation and oppression under capitalism, faced with eight million unemployed, the danger of new wars, the racist attacks, the only solution for the masses is to wage a revolutionary struggle directed at the monopoly capitalist dictators.
Today a ferment is developing inside the workers' movement. The stirrings of the great storms of the 80's are appearing. The struggle of the masses in the U.S. is also a part of a world struggle. The democratic revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua have shaken the world empire of U.S. imperialism. New upsurges are apparent in the growth of the struggle in El Salvador and Central America, in the growth and strengthening of Marxist-Leninist workers' parties in many countries, in the upsurge of the strike movement in the capitalist world, and other manifestations of the growing revolt of the oppressed.
The mass struggle fights against the exploitation, warmongering and other crimes of the rich. Through this struggle the working masses are preparing themselves for the socialist revolution that will overthrow the exploiters altogether. The coming revolution in the U.S. will be a proletarian socialist revolution, where the working class will lead all the exploited and oppressed to expropriate the capitalists, take over the ownership of the means of production, and end the exploitation of man by man. It will be a revolution that bears the banner of anti-imperialist struggle. And it will manifest an anti-fascist character by smashing up the gigantic oppressive apparatus of the overgrown, repressive capitalist state and replacing it by the armed people themselves.
Don't Vote!
Workers! Oppressed nationalities! Youth! Don't vote. Answer the mountains of political lies and empty words in this election circus by refusing to vote for the lovers of the rich. There are no solutions to the impoverishment of the working masses, the mounting war hysteria and the imperialist policies of world domination inside the capitalist system. The orientation of the mass struggle must be to train the working masses in unyielding hostility to all the policies of the rich, in contempt for their whole apparatus of political deception and in defiance of their government power. Use the election campaign to expose the real nature of the capitalist parties. Take up the path of building the independent movement of the working class, independent of the exploiters and against them. Take up the path of active resistance, of demonstrations and mass actions, and of getting organized in the struggle against the exploiters and imperialists.
[Cartoon graphic.]
Today the Carters and Reagans are objects of public scorn. The working masses are looking for an alternative. The bourgeois press is moaning that no one cares to vote. The election circus highlights the need to orient the mass struggle onto the road of political independence, the road of breaking with the bourgeoisie and its parties.
The Capitalist "Alternative" Parties
In this situation, a number of the capitalist parties have painted themselves up as "alternatives." Their goal is to stop the masses from breaking with the bourgeois parties. The "Anderson difference" openly avows that its purpose is to "breathe new life" into the two big capitalist parties. But even more treacherous is the Citizens Party led by Barry Commoner and the sham "socialist" parties, such as the misnamed "Communist" Party, USA of Gus Hall and Angela Davis and a collection of other trotskyite, social-democratic and revisionist groupings. These parties claim to be "against big business," "for peace" and so forth. But they are all frauds. None of them is independent. They are nothing but a Kennedyite "left wing" of the Democratic Party, just so many strands of hair on the tail of the donkey.
The Citizens Party and sham "socialist" parties are all opposed to the class struggle. To replace the mass struggle, to cool it down and liquidate it, they put forward an endless stream of schemes to solve the excesses of capitalism while preserving the profits of the exploiters. They are more enthusiastic about capitalism than the capitalists themselves. They paint glowing pictures of the good life allegedly possible under capitalism if only their pet panaceas are passed in Congress.
Their loyalty to the exploiters is so great that they sing hymns to sacred profit. For example, the Citizens Party declares that "there is nothing wrong with profit" and only asks that "the national interest" must come first. Meanwhile the revisionist "C"PUSA also bows before profit, only humbly begging the capitalists to put "people before profits."
These self-proclaimed "alternatives" all support the "reindustrialization" program, the common program of Carter, Reagan and the entire capitalist class. This "reindustrialization" means subsidies to the rich and a brutal productivity drive, unemployment and oppression against the workers. Nevertheless the entire economic program of the Citizens Party revolves around its plan for "reindustrialization" while presidential standard-bearer Commoner stresses his support for the productivity drive. The Citizens Party renames corporate plunder of the treasury as "social investment." Meanwhile the "C"PUSA revisionists see nothing wrong with "reindustrialization" but simply beg the capitalists to carry it out in such a way that both capital and labor can "benefit" together in blissful class collaboration.
These "alternatives" go so far as to support such repressive legislation against the workers' movement as Carter's "Labor Law Reform Act." They base themselves not on the workers, but on the labor bureaucrats, the soldout labor lieutenants of the capitalist class.
Thus these capitalist "alternative" parties are in fact in favor of the present capitalist program, only they sugarcoat it or rename it. Far from being "independent," they revolve around the Democratic Party and help it deceive the workers. Commoner is seeking out Democrats to run for election as joint Citizens Party-Democratic Party candidates, while he admits that his program is close to that of Ted Kennedy's. Meanwhile the "C"PUSA also supports various Democratic Party candidates for Congress and recently went into utter ecstasy over the Democratic Convention because it passed a platform statement seasoned with Kennedy sauce.
It is Indispensable to Break with the Capitalist Parties
Political independence does not mean simply putting forth a new face to implement the same old capitalist policies nor does it mean hopping back and forth between the two big capitalist parties like Anderson does, nor does it mean trying to outpromise the other capitalist parties with even more fantastic election promises about how Congress can convert capitalism into a utopia as the sham "socialists" do.
No! The genuine independence of the proletariat requires class politics. The independent working class movement stands for the fight against the capitalists and for the development of the mass revolutionary struggle. It strives for the separation of the mass movements from the influence of the capitalist parties and especially from the smooth-talking flunkeys of the Democratic Party. 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 or special interest group tailing along helplessly behind the liberals. It means inspiring in the working masses a noble hatred for the exploiters, whether they be brazen conservatives or hypocritical liberals. The working class must come forward in its own right, rallying all the poor and oppressed around itself.
Without breaking away from the capitalist parties and the framework of what is acceptable to the profits of the bourgeoisie and to the maintenance of a "strong" U.S. imperialism, the working class and the popular movements remain a plaything in the hands of the rich.
As Karl Marx stated:
"Where the working class is not yet far enough advanced its organization to undertake a decisive campaign [a revolution -- ed.] against the collective power, i.e., political power, of the ruling classes, it must at any rate be trained for this by continual agitation against, and a hostile attitude toward, the policies the ruling classes. Otherwise it remains a play thing in their hands...." (Letter to Bolte, Nov. 23, 1871)
The Revolutionary Ferment Is Growing Among the Working Masses
The independent movement of the working class can be seen developing in the revolutionary ferment that is growing among the masses. It can be seen in the strikes that defied Carter's wage controls and in the defiance of the coal miners of Carter's Taft-Hartley order. It can be seen in the development of the networks of the Marxist-Leninist Party in the factories. It can be seen in the uprisings of the Afro-Americans against racial discrimination. And it can be seen in the anti-imperialist demonstrations and slogans popular among the masses.
This ferment must be encouraged and oriented further along the path of political independence, independence of the rich exploiters and the imperialists.
This path requires the further development of the mass revolutionary struggle. The independent politics of the working class is.not the old bourgeois politics. It is instead the path of encouraging the initiative of the masses and of waging mass actions against the exploiters and reactionaries. It is the path of the mass revolutionary struggle against starvation, fascism and war.
This path requires the building of revolutionary groups in the factories, communities, schools and everywhere the class struggle rages. Organization is the indispensable weapon of the proletariat.
This path requires the development of revolutionary class consciousness. Revolutionary literature should be read and distributed widely. And it is Marxism- Leninism that is the only scientific guide to the development of the revolutionary movement.
The Proletarian Party Is at the Center of the Independent Movement of the Working Class
The highest form of class organization of the working class is the Marxist-Leninist political party of the proletariat. A class can only express its will through its party. Through the organization of its class conscious vanguard, the proletarian party, the working class forges the instrument that allows it to release the initiative of the broad masses and guide them in the mass struggle. The spread of party spirit among the proletariat is an essential measure of the development of the working class as a class for itself.
But the proletarian party is not just any party. It is not a party of the bourgeois sort, a mere talking machine designed to garner votes, throw dust in the eyes of the masses at election time and share the spoils of office. No, the proletarian party is the genuine alternative to the capitalist parties. It must be a party of action, a party that thrives in the midst of the mass revolutionary struggle. It must be a party unequivocably opposed to the agents of capitalist influence in the working class and popular movements, to the labor bureaucrats, the "riot stoppers" and opportunist elements. It must be a revolutionary party, based on the science of Marxism-Leninism and fighting to prepare the socialist revolution.
The Marxist-Leninist Party, USA is such a party.
Wage mass revolutionary struggle against starvation, fascism and war!
Forge revolutionary groups in the factories, communities, schools and wherever the class struggle rages!
Rally to the banner of the Marxist-Leninist Party, the party of revolutionary struggle and socialism!
[Photo: Part of the Anti-Imperialist Contingent organized by the MLP participating in the mass demonstration of 3,500 people against the Democratic National Convention on August 10 in New York City.]
Carter, Reagan and Anderson are as alike as three peas in a pod. Even their election platforms are the same. Domestically they are calling for squeezing the workers through capitalist "reindustrialization." And at the same time they are all clamoring for increased militarization to prepare for imperialist aggression and war.
Carter has timidly hinted that Reagan is a nuclear warmonger. Of course it's true that Reagan supports a policy of feverish militarization and savage imperialist aggression. But it is Carter himself who already reinstated draft registration, sent troops to raid Iran, assembled armed forces to defend U.S. imperialist oil interests in the Persian Gulf, raised military spending to unprecedented heights and launched the building of the MX missile system -- the biggest nuclear weapons system ever built.
Only a month ago the Republicans panned Carter's economic policy as "inconsistent, counterproductive, and tragically inept." But of late Reagan is complaining that Carter has unfairly stolen the Republican "reindustrialization" plans in such fields as the "revitalization" of the steel industry and the "depreciation allowance" tax cuts for the big monopolies.
Even the so-called "independent" Anderson can find no difference with Carter's and Reagan's policies. He criticizes them" only for not emphasizing enough that the working people must make "domestic, mandatory sacrifices" to pay for the feverish militarization and the "reindustrialization" schemes.
It is no accident that Carter, Reagan, and Anderson have come out on a common electoral platform. They are just three stooges of the capitalist billionaires who are trying to shore up the tottering capitalist system through increased exploitation of the working masses and preparations for aggression and war to defend the U.S. imperialist's plunder of the people of other countries.
Today the capitalist system is in the grips of a severe economic crisis. And the capitalists are going on the offensive to save their enormous profits by making the workers pay.
Already the wages of the workers are being gobbled up by the soaring 14% inflation. But, under the slogan of "saving" the collapsing auto, steel and other industries, the capitalists demand that the workers give up their cost of living allowances, freeze their wages and take other pay and benefit cuts.
Already eight million workers are unemployed due to the plant closings and layoffs by the lords of industry. But these capitalists are demanding massive subsidies so they can further "modernize" and "automate" their factories and, as a result, bring about even more plant closings and layoffs.
As well, the savage productivity drive is a basic part of capitalist "reindustrialization." For the workers who still have jobs, the factories have become hellholes of prison-like discipline, merciless speedup, job combinations and overwork. And today, the capitalists demand that the workers "cooperate" and join in a "new partnership" to work themselves to an early grave. The program of "revitalizing American industry" is just a fancy name for forcing the workers to make even greater sacrifices to help the capitalist billionaires to exploit the workers more.
Of course Carter, Reagan and Anderson are like peddlers of snake oil. They are trying to sell the "reindustrialization" schemes as a miracle cure for the impoverishment of the masses. For example, Carter and Reagan are promising "tax reform" to relieve the enormous tax burden on the masses. But whether it is Reagan's 36 billion dollar "across the board" tax cuts or Carter's nearly 30 billion dollar "targeted" cuts, the overwhelming bulk of the money will go to the big monopolies as "incentives" for "modernization" and "automation." As for the meager tax "cuts" left for the working masses, these won't even get close to compensating for the 8% increase in the social security tax or for the enormous rise of income tax payments caused by the fact that with the skyrocketing inflation the workers are being pushed into higher tax brackets.
Clearly the "reindustrialization" policies of Carter* Reagan and Anderson are of no benefit to the workers. Instead, they are policies to fatten the profits of the capitalist billionaires through ruining the working masses.
Don't vote!
Down with capitalist "reindustrialization"!
Down with the capitalist parties of starvation, fascism and war!
In a recent resolution the chieftains of the AFL-CIO declared that "the labor movement has no higher priority" than campaigning for Carter's reelection (AFL-CIO News, September 6, 1980). And other "labor leaders" are also throwing their backing behind the candidates of one or the other party of the capitalist billionaires.
So the question must be asked: Just who are these "labor leaders" that are campaigning in the name of the "labor movement" on behalf of these capitalist politicians and enemies of the workers? Do Lane Kirkland, Doug Fraser and Frank Fitzsimmons who head the AFL-CIO, UAW, and Teamsters unions represent the class interests of the tens of millions of downtrodden and exploited men and women of labor? Of course not!! The "labor leaders" are rich parasites and corrupt bureaucrats. They speak in the name of the "labor movement" because they tightly control the trade union bureaucracies. However these chieftains are labor lieutenants of the capitalist class who are today demonstrating their most fervent loyalty to the money-grubbers.
The American "labor leaders" are known throughout the world for their corruption and their reactionary and pro-capitalist stands. They are infamous racists and chauvinists and are often more warmongering than even the Pentagon generals. They are more fervent defenders of capitalist tyranny than the capitalists themselves.
For example, the leaders of the trade unions have taken up the monopolies' program of "rebuilding American industry" as their own. In fact, class collaboration between the union chieftains and the exploiters is a central weapon in the arsenal of the capitalists "industrialization" offensive to exploit the workers to the bone. "A new labor, business and government partnership" is the phrase on the lips of all the capitalist chieftains, from the White House to Wall Street.
The so-called "labor leaders" have fully embraced this "new partnership" and new forms of "labor-management cooperation" are being hatched everywhere. Last year Lane Kirkland, head of the AFL-CIO, signed a "National Accord" with "business and government" to "cooperate in the fight against inflation" by holding down the workers' wages. In August, Kirkland, along with top monopolists, was named to the "President's Economic Revitalization Board" which is to direct national policy for the capitalists' productivity drive. Among other things, it has been set up in order to seek ways of plundering the workers' pension funds by investing them directly into the retooling programs of the capitalist corporations.
What a promising "new partnership" this is -- for suppressing strikes; for dictating wage cuts and other "sacrifices" onto the workers through deals between the chieftains of management and "labor"; and for maximizing the profits of the capitalist money-grubbers!
Under the deafening noise of their chauvinist hysteria campaigns against foreign imports and calls for "productivity growth" to "make America competitive," the trade union hacks have hired themselves out to the capitalists as virtual slave drivers, whip hands in the employers' job-eliminating productivity schemes and wage-cutting offensive.
It was United Auto Workers president Doug Fraser who jammed wage cuts and other "concessions" down the throats of the Chrysler workers in the name of "saving Chrysler." The hundreds of millions in "concessions" to the Chrysler billionaires are now helping to provide the capital for the retooling of the Chrysler plants and the further elimination of tens of thousands of jobs. And Fraser has now earned himself a seat on the Chrysler Board of Directors.
Recently the trade union sellouts have even taken to reopening hard-won contract settlements. On August 1, the Uniroyal rubber workers were hit with a 19.4% wage cut signed by URW chieftain Bommarito. The Wheeling-Pittsburg and other steel workers are also taking wage cuts. Tearing up contracts in order to cut the workers' wages; such is the barefaced treachery of the scabs and strikebreakers at the head of the trade unions.
The fight against the capitalist offensive is on the order of the day. A real struggle is needed against capitalist "reindustrialization" and the ruin of the workers' livelihood. For this it is necessary to blow up the "class peace" and the schemes for class collaboration being dictated by the moneybags.
The workers must take matters Into their own hands. The fate of their struggle cannot be left in the hands of the labor traitors. The power of the mass actions of the workers must be brought to bear against the sabotage of the labor traitors as well as the capitalist employers. Opposition to the official "labor leaders" is essential to the independent movement of the working class.
Don't vote!
Fight the capitalist offensive against the workers' livelihood!
Down with the sellout "labor leaders"!
Take mass action against the productivity drives, unemployment and wage cuts!
Build the independent political movement of the working class!
Carter came to office posing as the "champion of the minorities." It was said that Carter "understands the needs of black people." Sure enough! Just as the slave owner "understands the needs" of his slaves! Today Carter's mask has been torn to shreds. In June Carter was greeted by the black people of Miami with a hailstorm of rocks and bottles and the proper salute: Hail to the Chief Racist!
Ronald Reagan is an infamous racist and bigot. Ugly chauvinism and bestial racial hatred against the oppressed nationalities both at home and abroad ooze from his every pore. It is not for nothing that the fascist and racist barbarians of the "Invisible Empire" of the KKK endorsed Reagan's candidacy and declared that his electoral platform "reads as if it were written by a Klansman."
Carter and Reagan and the other mouthpieces of the millionaires and billionaires are the chieftains of racism and fascism. Systematic racial discrimination and the brutal oppression of the black people and the other oppressed nationalities are permanent built-in features of the man-eating capitalist and imperialist system. Monopoly capitalist rule, which is based on the unbridled exploitation of the working masses, is racist to the core. All the noble declarations from the lying capitalist politicians about "civil rights" and "human rights" are just so many empty phrases. They are pure fraud to hide the real and growing racial oppression and violence of the ruling class against the black masses.
This reality is manifested for example in the onslaught of savage police terror against the black people. The police are directing their fire against the black youth in particular, carrying out wanton murders and beatings. The murder of Arthur McDuffie by the Miami police and the exoneration of these bestial criminals by the courts is not an exceptional "breakdown of justice" but a typical example of the racist "justice" enforced in cities and towns across the country.
The government is also working harder than ever to organize and activate their gangs of racist thugs such as the KKK and other fascist scum. In Greensboro and Chattanooga, throughout the South and the rest of the country, the Klan and other racist gangsters are carrying out terroristic atrocities against the masses with the full blessings and backing of the government authorities. And the capitalist news media is providing the Klan with maximum exposure and promotion.
Moreover, the brutal racial discrimination and double oppression which the black people suffer in every sphere of life is growing more severe. Double unemployment; low wages and grinding poverty; wretched housing and schools -- this is the intolerable condition of the masses of the black people.
The bourgeoisie is fully aware that the Afro-American people are not going to put up with this situation. Against the revolt of the masses the police are being beefed up and more prisons are being built. At the same time the government is grooming a whole batch of "riot stoppers" of the likes of Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and Vernon Jordan to put a damper on the revolt of the masses. These so-called "civil rights leaders" do not represent the millions of heavily oppressed and exploited blacks. They are propped up as "black leaders," whereas in fact they are loyal servants of the monopoly capitalist oppressors of the black masses.
In the 1950's and 60's, the black people carried out a determined struggle for the right to vote. Voting rights, the right to demonstrate and other political rights were an important part of the struggle to break down Jim Crow oppression. Everything that was won in this struggle was the result of the powerful mass actions of the people carried out against the will of all the capitalist authorities no matter how "compassionate" and "understanding" they claimed to be.
But, despite the sermons of the "respectable black leaders," winning the right to vote does not mean that the black people are now duty bound to "get out the vote" for one or the other racist politician of the capitalist slave owners. On the contrary, to vote for the racist chieftains like Carter, Reagan or Anderson is a waste of the political rights achieved through struggle. The black people did not fight and shed their blood in order to cast their ballots for this or that racist oppressor.
Rather the black people should utilize whatever political rights they have achieved in order to advance the struggle against their oppressors. They should engage themselves fully in the political struggle and activity, in demonstrations, meetings and mass actions. This struggle, however, should be directed squarely against the Democratic and Republican Parties and against their "riot stopper" flunkeys who do their bidding. The development of the black people's struggle requires a complete break with these parties of bestial racism and exploitation.
A new powerful storm of the black people's struggle is brewing. This is manifested by the courageous struggle of the black population of Miami and outbursts of struggle from coast to coast. Mass active resistance is mounting against racist police murders and against the KKK and other fascist gangs. The development of the black people's struggle is a powerful force for the independent movement of the entire working class and oppressed masses against capitalist slavery and oppression.
Don't vote!
Down with the chieftains of racism!
Combat racial discrimination!
Active resistance to police terror and racist and fascist gangs!
The foreign policy of the capitalist parties is world domination, the right for the U.S. to be the No. 1 superpower exploiter in the world. Towards this end, they all promise even greater war preparations, and hold out for the workers the prospect of serving as cannon fodder in wars for the rich, to kill their class brothers abroad so that the billionaires can rape and plunder the world.
But the working masses have no interest in fighting wars for the greater glory of Exxon and the other lords of Capital. The savage militarization is being met with widespread indignation and rebellion. Hundreds of demonstrations and mass actions have been organized against the production of the weapons of mass destruction, against the U.S.-China alliance, against the war hysteria against Iran, against the nuclear program and against the draft. As the November election approaches, the question arises: how should all those who are revolted by militarism and imperialism use the 1980 elections?
The Marxist-Leninist Party, the party of the working class, says: Don't Vote! Reject all the capitalist parties for they are parties of imperialism and war! Instead, take up the path of building the independent political movement of the working class. A cornerstone of this movement is resolute struggle against chauvinism, imperialism and war.
On the question of international policy, to take a really independent stand from the rich means to fight the U.S. domination of other nations. The U.S. dominates its large imperialist allies in Western Europe, Japan and Canada, and stands at the head of the largest neo-colonial empire the world has ever known. This imperialist domination provides the U.S. with huge military forces from its allies and puppets secured through enslaving alliances such as NATO and the U.S.-China alliance, and lets the monopoly capitalists rake in super-profits from the robbery of the land and labor of these countries. But today this empire is threatened by the mounting liberation struggles of the world's peoples, as in Iran and El Salvador, which threaten to take these countries out of the orbit of imperialist domination and plunder. To suppress these just struggles, the U.S. organizes criminal coup d'etats as in Turkey, props up fascist butchers such as Pinochet in Chile, and wages aggressive wars as it did in Indochina. The independent movement of the workers supports the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed peoples against U.S. imperialism.
In this spirit it is crucial today to oppose the vile chauvinist war hysteria and the plots, blackmail and aggressive acts of the imperialists against the Iranian revolution. These acts have shown that the U.S. is preparing for war over oil, to defend the profits of the oil kings. The Iranian revolution was a big blow against the oil monopolies, the bankers and the Pentagon. For decades the Shah's regime was used by the U.S. to plunder Iran's oil and police the region against revolution. In February 1979, the Iranian people rose up and overthrew this murderous regime. The U.S. has not reconciled itself to this defeat and therefore it seeks to strangle the Iranian revolution.
The independent movement of the workers not only opposes U.S. imperialism but stands opposed to all the imperialists, be they U.S., Russian, Chinese, or others. It denounces the savage Soviet social-imperialist invasion of Afghanistan and supports the Afghan people's struggle for freedom. It considers that the rivalry between the U.S. and the equally dangerous Soviet Union is a rivalry over which robber will take what share of the loot robbed from the world's peoples. And while supporting the struggles of the world's peoples against all the imperialists and reactionaries, the working class and people of the U.S. must settle accounts with "our own'' imperialist rulers. The independent movement of the American working class can only be built on the watchword that its main enemy is at home. In turn this encourages the workers of all other lands in their struggles.
The independent political movement of the working class stands for the development of the mass struggle against all the war preparations of the rich. It fights each and every step of the war preparations. The working class sees in each new weapon, each new measure to strengthen the aggressive military, a new weapon against itself, a new obstacle to its own emancipation and to the liberation of its class brothers abroad. In this way, a powerful mass revolutionary struggle will be built against imperialist war.
Step up the fight against U.S. imperialism! Use the disgust with the warmongers Carter and Reagan to intensify the mass struggle. Denounce the crimes of U.S. imperialism all over the globe! Oppose the war hysteria and all the aggressive plots against Iran! Down with all the imperialist warmongers! No to the draft, the nuclear program and all the war preparations! Fight every step of the warmongers! Put opposition to imperialism at the center of the mass struggle!
Our Party calls for boycotting the election circus because all the candidates are mouthpieces of the rich. Our Party is not opposed to elections in themselves.
There are elections and elections. Under socialism, as today in Albania, there are elections to express the will of the masses. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the first time the vast majority of the population, the working masses, find real democracy. They are the rulers of the socialist society. They exercise their sovereignty through various means including elections.
Under capitalist slavery, elections are different. They are bought and sold like any other commodity. Thousands of obstacles are placed in the way of the participation of the working masses in political life. The bourgeois politicians have become bywords for their corruption and dishonesty.
Nevertheless, our Party calls for the workers to utilize the capitalist elections as one of the fronts of the class struggle. Whether or not our Party runs candidates in any particular election is determined by the particular situation and possibilities. But even when our Party calls on the masses to boycott the election, it does not call on them to passively sit at home but to play an active role in exposing the capitalist parties and fighting the capitalist program.
In brief, the work around the capitalist elections must always be kept subordinate to the revolutionary mass struggle. Whether or not a proletarian party runs candidates in this or that capitalist election or not, it must always tell the workers the truth: that Congress is nothing but a miserable talkshop and puppet show, while the billionaires and monopolists determine the real business of state behind the scenes. It must explain that neither can the working class seize political power through the capitalist election fraud nor can it obtain the expropriation of the capitalists, but for these things the proletarian revolution is indispensable.
-- Public Meetings and Demonstrations --
BOSTON
Meeting
7 Temple Street Cambridge, MA Friday, October 31, 7:30 pm
BUFFALO
Demonstration
Assemble at Columbus Park (Niagara St. and Porter Ave.) and march to downtown
Saturday, October 25, 11:30 am Meeting
Unitarian Universalist Church Elmwood and Perry Saturday, November 1, 7:30 pm
CHICAGO
Meeting
656 West Barry Street Saturday, October 25, 7:00 pm
Demonstrations
North Pulaski area Saturday, October 11,1:00 pm and C
92nd and Commercial Ave. area Saturday, October 18,1:00 pm and
26th Street area
Saturday, November 1,1:00 pm
DENVER
Meeting
Sunday, October 26 (time and place to be announced)
DETROIT
Demonstration
Assemble at Woodward and Manchester (across from Carter headquarters in Highland Park)
Saturday, November 1,1:30 pm
NEW YORK CITY
Meeting
Milbank Chapel Teachers College 120th and Broadway Saturday, November 1, 7:00 pm
OAKLAND
Meetings
Sunday, October 19, 2:00 pm (place to be announced) and
Sunday, November 2
(time and place to be announced)
SEATTLE
Meeting
YWCA, 2820 E. Cherry Street Saturday, November 1, 7:00 pm
For other cities and details contact your local organization of the MLP,USA.
BUILD THE INDEPENDENT POLITICAL MOVEMENT OF THE WORKING CLASS!