The Workers' Advocate

WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! 25¢

Volume 11, Number 2

VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA

February 25, 1981

[Front page:

Fight the Capitalist Offensive!--A War Budget to Serve the Rich;

U.S. Imperialism, Get Out of El Salvador!;

AS CONTRACT APPROACHES: STRIKES IN THE COAL FIELDS!;

A Declaration of Unbridled Imperialism]

IN THIS ISSUE

Fight the Capitalist Offensive!

A War Budget to Serve the Rich

U.S. Imperialism, Get Out of El Salvador!

AS CONTRACT APPROACHES:

STRIKES IN THE COAL FIELDS!

A Declaration of Unbridled Imperialism

Reagan's 'Noble Cause': U.S. Imperialist Aggression and War

Hail the Second Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution!

Down with the government's chauvinist hysteria against Iran

Thousands Demonstrate Against Reagan's Inauguration!

GM and Ford Billionaires Seek Chrysler-Style Concessions

On the Struggle of the Chrysler Workers Against Concessions

• CHRYSLER WORKERS:
  FIGHT AGAINST THE NEW CONCESSIONS!

GE workers use strikes and slowdowns against productivity drive and layoffs

JOBS RALLY" IN LACKAWANNA, N.Y.:

Unemployed Workers Denounce Government's 'Reindustrialization' Program

Cranemen and riggers take up fight against rationalization program

AT STEWART-WARNER, CHICAGO:

2,200 Electrical Workers on Strike

At the Northern Indiana Public Service Co.:

Vigorous Eight Month Strike Defeats "Take Away" Demands

From the: Chicago ANTI-IMPERIALIST Newsletter

• Drafted or volunteer army?
  It remains an imperialist army
• FOR YOUR REFERENCE:
  The U.S. War Machine Against the World's People
• "Private Benjamin": Pentagon-feminist propaganda for the militarization of women
• Anti-Imperialist News and Correspondence

NO TO THE DRAFT!

BOSTON:

Police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement!

REPORT ON THE TRIAL OF ANTI-DRAFT ACTIVISTS IN BOSTON

Forward With the Revolutionary Work of the Caribbean Progressive Study Group

Anti-Racist Demonstrations in Buffalo, N.Y.

SONG ON THE HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS

Workers' Communist Party of France Denounces the Nuclear Program of Imperialism

Communist Party of Colombia (M-L) Reports:

The armed partisan fighters pledge to carry the struggle through to final victory!

The Growth of the Private Sector Is Another Sign of the Capitalist Character of the Soviet Economy

Restoration of a Capitalist Economy in the Soviet Union

NO TO THE DRAFT!

Song:

DOWN WITH REAGAN, NEW CHIEFTAIN OF REACTION!

Solidarity with the heroic people of El Salvador

Fight the Capitalist Offensive!

A War Budget to Serve the Rich

On February 18, President Reagan delivered a State of the Union message to Congress in which he spelled out his proposal: "America's New Beginning: A Program for Economic Recovery." Reagan's plans for coping with the deep crisis gripping the monopoly capitalist system are threefold:

First: pushing forward a feverish pace of militarization with astronomical increases in the already gargantuan Pentagon budget.

Second: savage cuts in unemployment and disability insurance, food stamps, health care, education and other social services, with ruinous consequences on the livelihood of the working masses.

Third: revamping the tax structure in order to place a heavier tax burden on the poor, to place a heavier burden of the military buildup and capitalist "reindustrialization" onto the backs of the working people.

These are the basic components of Ronald Reagan's program for "national renewal." Thus the new administration has indeed "hit the ground running." It has grabbed the relay baton from Carter with its "forthright" plans to carry forward the monopoly capitalists' ruthless drive to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the working class and oppressed masses and prepare for imperialist war.

"Tax Relief" Only for the Rich

Reagan's so-called "tax relief" is a monstrous hoax. As this capitalist huckster himself admits: "We are only reducing the rate of increase in taxing and spending." In fact, because of the monstrous military budgets, etc., by 1984 federal tax revenues will swell by some 30%, which means the working masses will be taxed as never before. The only change that Reagan's revamping of the tax system will bring is that it will shift the weight of taxation further onto the backs of the workers while providing "relief" for the millionaires.

This will be realized in two ways:

First.Reagan is proposing an a- cross-the-board 10% cut in income taxes each year over three years. This is advertised with the fraudulent claim that it is "the biggest tax cut in history." But under conditions of 14% inflation it is no tax cut at all. In fact, as the workers' wages rise in an attempt to keep pace with inflation it pushes them into higher tax brackets which means the workers will not only be paying more taxes but also a bigger part of each paycheck will go to Uncle Sam. It should also be noted that Reagan's tax cut will come on the heels of a huge Social Security tax increase, on the average raising the workers' total federal tax bill 8%, which went into effect in January.

For the workers, Reagan's income tax cut is no cut at all. But for the wealthy, it is a very different story. For example, it is estimated by the New York Timesthat by 1984 this tax plan would increase the after-tax wages of a worker earning $15,000 a year by 3.9% (As we remarked above, this increase is actually completely wiped out by other rises in the workers' total tax bill.) For, say, a low-level executive earning $50,000, it would boost his after-tax income by 6.9%. But a simple calculation on what Reagan's proposal will do for some bloated parasite earning half a million dollars and in the top tax bracket shows it could raise his after-tax income by as much as 70% -- that is by $105,000 a year!

Second.Reagan is proposing a major restructuring of the depreciation write-off schedules for the corporations. Factory owners, landlords, etc., presently write off against their taxes the annual depreciation in value of their machinery, buildings, trucks and so forth. Reagan, adopting the same scheme that was drawn up by Carter, is planning to speed up these write-offs. This will mean that in 1984 the corporations will pay $30 billion less taxes. This amounts to a $30 billion subsidy to help finance the man-eating productivity drives of the employers. It is part of the capitalists' "reindustrialization" program to retool and automate production lines, to speed up the workers and eliminate jobs.

Reagan's two-sided tax plan is an example of "supply side" economics in practice. According to the Reaganite "supply-siders," the more money in the pockets of the millionaires and billionaires the better it is because, after all, it is the rich capitalists bloodsuckers who will "invest in the productive ventures" that will bring about "economic revival." Thus, they argue, tax relief for the rich and handouts to the corporations are essential for "national renewal." On the other hand, such things as real tax cuts for the workers (or unemployment insurance) are only so much "inflationary waste" that is quickly "frittered away" on the necessities of life for the worker and his family.

Besides these tax measures to further shift the burden of taxation onto the working people, hidden along with Reagan's budget come numerous other means to rob the masses.

For example, cutbacks in federal revenues for various state and local programs will mean that more of the burden of financing these programs will fall on the local governments. This will bring about a new round of fiscal crises in the cities and a new round of state and local tax increases. Hence the masses will be fleeced twice over through more federal taxes to pay for new weapons systems and through more local taxes to pay for a greater share of the costs of the police, roads, schools, etc.

Reagan's budgets will also perpetuate massive inflationary deficits. The 1981 federal deficit is projected at $55 billion and the monstrous Pentagon budgets eliminate prospects for anything but even greater deficits and more double-digit inflation. This combination of high taxes and high inflation is providing immense profits for monopoly capital and is ruining the livelihood of the workers.

"Rearming America" for Imperialist War

The only portion of the federal budget which Reagan is proposing major increases for is the military. But this alone is enough to show that his promises of ending big government are a sick fraud. Militarization and increased repression are at the heart of the growth of the government apparatus.

In fact, Reagan is planning for a military buildup without precedent in U.S. history except in times of major wars.This feverish pace of arming was begun under Carter who drafted budgets to include the record increases of military spending from $130 billion in 1980, $156.9 billion in '81, to a proposed $180 billion in '82. Reagan has now proposed a $185.5 billion military budget for 1982 as the first year of a five-year plan which will more than double the 1981 military budget. Reagan's budget office is estimating that $169.5 will be added to military spending by 1986, which will mean over $326 billion a year for the Pentagon generals!

According to a White House "fact sheet," after inflation, Reagan's budget plans will bring about a 10% real annual growth of military expenditures. Reagan has set this feverish pace of arming as the minimum.necessary for his plans for "rearming America." This will mean a drastic shift towards war preparations in the total weight of government expenditures. Between 1981 and 1984, the Pentagon budget will grow from 24.1% to 32.4% of federal expenditures. These hundreds upon hundreds of billions being poured into more aircraft carriers, new bombers, MX missiles and nuclear weapons systems, etc., are being added to a monstrous military force which is already armed to the teeth. The U.S. imperialist war-makers are building up a military machine of death and destruction never before assembled.

This feverish pace of militarization is enormously profitable for the big capitalist investors in the weapons and related industries, such as aerospace, high technology industries, machine tools, etc. The monopoly capitalists are taking the road of placing the entire economy on a war footing in order to escape the effects of the economic crisis. They are arming to the teeth not to "safeguard peace," but to safeguard their sacred profits through imperialist war.

An Assault on the Livelihood of the Working Masses

Besides providing untold billions for new weapons, Reagan plans to bring about "economic recovery" through the further destruction of the livelihood of the working masses. His budget plan includes major and ruthless cuts in various social services which will have a ruinous effect on the livelihood of the workers and the poor. 'Carter had been putting into effect similar cuts, but Reagan is proposing to carry them out further and deeper. On top of Reagan's 'budget cutting priorities is the reduction of unemployment insurance and other relief for the jobless. According to the cynical logic of the Reaganite slave drivers, the elimination of such evils as unemployment compensation will "revive the incentives to work." Thus in 1982, Reagan plans to cut $1.2 billion from unemployment compensation including eliminating federal extensions altogether. Along with that, Reagan is proposing that after 13 weeks, unemployment insurance is cut off to unemployed workers who refuse to accept any new job that may be available, even if it only pays a fraction of his normal wage. Reagan is also planning to restrict TRA (Trade Readjustment Act) benefits to those workers receiving no other compensation and to cut TRA to the level of regular unemployment compensation. This will be a big blow to the long-term unemployed concentrated in the crisis-ridden steel, auto, electrical and textile industries.

Furthermore, Reagan is planning major cuts in disability and retirement compensation connected with a number of different programs. These cuts include over $1.6 billion over the next two years in social security disability insurance as well as cutting $378 million or over three quarters of federal payments towards the Black Lung Trust Find for disabled coal miners. Reagan also wants to cut $1 billion from Social Security payments by eliminating the $122 a month minimum retirement pension.

For those jobless or disabled or retired workers who either lose their compensation or can't possibly survive on their measly benefits, Reagan is taking care to also cut back or eliminate any other forms of relief which may keep them from total destitution. These cuts include: tightening eligibility for food stamps and school lunches which will mean cuts of $1.8 billion and $1.6 billion respectively; $1 billion from Medicaid for the poor; cutting rent subsidies for the poor; and cutting $2.5 billion from various other health and social service programs.

In short, Reagan is planning an assault on the livelihood of all the working masses. Presently over eight million workers are officially unemployed. Moreover, there are several million who have either given up looking for work, are disabled, etc. These measures, which the Reaganites like to call "reviving the incentive to work," are measures to push the multi-million vast army of jobless and semi-jobless workers, those who already have a most precarious existence, over the brink towards utter ruin. This "incentive" of starvation intensifies the competition among the workers for jobs and, in turn, drags down the wages and conditions of the working class as a whole.

Cutbacks in various forms of relief to the unemployed, the disabled, the sick, the retired, etc., make up the largest part of the over $40 billion of Reagan's budget cuts. On top of this, Reagan is proposing cuts in mass transit, farm loans and other programs. He is also planning major cuts in assistance to the public schools and education. Among other things, Reagan wants to cut back student assistance, eliminate social security benefits for students and eliminate guaranteed student loans which combined would mean a cut of $6.2 billion in the 1983 budget. This would be another big step in putting higher education out of the reach of all but the sons and daughters of the wealthy.

Reagan advertises his budget cuts as "evenhanded" and "balanced." Sure enough! With an "even hand" Reagan has "balanced" all of his budget cuts to have the most ruinous effect on the workers and the poor and to boost the profits of the capitalist money-grubbers. In fact, Reagan succeeded in maintaining all of the numerous multi-billion dollar subsidies to business -- that is, except for one. He is proposing to eliminate milk subsidies in order to more rapidly drive under the small producers, after which the monopolies will drive milk prices sky-high.

For the sake of demagogy Reagan points to the fact that he is cutting the $3.2 billion of the Department of Energy's synthetic fuel subsidies for the energy monopolies. But by his own account, he has only transferred these subsidies to the semi-governmental Synthetic Fuels Corporation. And this Synfuels Corp. will fork over as much as $88 billion of federal funds to the giant energy monopolies during the next three years! Furthermore, besides the untold billions for the war industry monopolies, Reagan of course would never touch a single penny of the $90 billion of federal outlays a year to pay the interest payments to the big banks.

In a word, Reagan's budget means throwing millions of workers off of unemployment and eliminating the $122 a month minimum Social Security pension for retirees. At the same time it means pouring record hundreds of billions into the profits of the capitalist lords of McDonnell Douglas, General Electric, Exxon and the Chase Manhattan Bank. This is the meaning of "evenhandedness" Reagan-style!

A Ruthless Program of the Monopoly Capitalist Offensive

Reagan's "Program for Economic Recovery" is a ruthless program of the monopoly capitalist offensive against the working masses. It's a plan to step up the feverish war preparations which carries with them the very grave danger of new U.S. imperialist wars of aggression. It's a plan to cut back the already too meager relief for the millions of jobless and the poor. It's a plan of capitalist "reindustrialization," of brutal productivity drives and man- eating exploitation. It's a plan of more unbearable taxes and inflation for the working people and of "tax relief" and handouts for the idle parasites. In short, it's a plan to shift the entire burden of the economic crisis onto the shoulders of the working class and the impoverished masses and to prepare for imperialist war.

This ruthless capitalist offensive is a "bipartisan" affair, a program of both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats alike. It was Carter and the Democratic controlled Congress which put in place the astronomical boosts in military spending. It was Carter who drafted the "revitalization" tax cuts for the corporations and who first proposed such measures as eliminating the $122 minimum Social Security pensions for retirees. Furthermore, it was the leading lights of the liberal Democrats such as Tip O'Neill who rushed to declare a "honeymoon" with Reagan and who pledged their "full cooperation" with Reagan's plans for "national renewal."

Presently some of these Democratic Party politicians are proclaiming their "concern" about Reagan's budget out of one side of their mouths while promising to "give the new president a chance" out of the other. These two- faced heroes want to play the role of the loyal opposition. But any quarrels between the Republicans and the Democrats are quarrels among thieves; quarrels among twin parties of the monopoly capitalist offensive against the working masses.

It remains to be seen how quickly, how many and in what form Reagan's particular plans pass Congress. But one thing is certain. The ruling class has put the open reactionary Reagan in office in order to carry forward the savage measures begun by Carter and the Democrats. And Reagan's "Program for Economic Recovery" is a plan for just such an intensification of the capitalist offensive.

***

The diabolical plans of the Reaganite reactionaries can never get the bourgeoisie out of the deep bog of the economic crisis. The monopoly capitalist system is a sick and dying system which is lashing out savagely in a desperate attempt to rescue itself from crisis and inevitable doom. The measures being plotted by Reagan can only aggravate to the utmost all the contradictions gripping the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie.

Reagan's savage measures are an assault on the vital interests of the widest sections of the working class and downtrodden masses. They are bound to bring these masses in their millions into sharp struggle. They are bound to bring forward further struggles of the workers whose livelihood is being ruined by job-eliminating productivity drives, unemployment, and the ravages of inflation and heavy taxes. They are bound to arouse the revolt of the black people and other oppressed nationalities who face particularly cruel impoverishment and oppression. They are bound to bring into further struggle the youth and students who have no future but to be press-ganged as cannon fodder for the Pentagon.

The capitalist class, with Reagan at the helm is steering a collision course with the masses. All the conditions for powerful class battles are being prepared. Forward in the struggle against starvation, fascism and war!

Down with Reagan, chieftain of capitalist reaction!

No to the war preparations of U.S. imperialism!

Tax the exploiters, not the working masses!

Defend the livelihood of the working masses!

Down with the Democrats and Republicans, parties of starvation, fascism and war!

Fight the capitalist offensive with mass revolutionary struggle!

[Photo: A section of the mass demonstration held in Boston on January 24 against Reagan's inauguration. Reagan is already widely hated as a raving warmonger and a representative of rabid reaction. His reactionary offensive against the masses is sure to be met with stepped-up struggle.]

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U.S. Imperialism, Get Out of El Salvador!

Throughout the month of January, the working masses and revolutionary fighters of El Salvador launched a number of bold actions aimed against the ruling regime of fascist generals supported by U.S. imperialism. A broad military offensive was unfolded throughout the country by the revolutionary, anti-fascist forces. Fierce attacks were launched on the fascist government forces stationed on the outskirts of San Salvador, and fighting also broke out in the working class districts inside the city. In the provinces, the armed popular fighters inflicted a number of defeats upon the regime's troops, seizing military garrisons in the province of Chalatenango and in Santa Ana, the second largest city in the country. The provincial capital of San Francisco Gotera was also taken by the revolutionary forces. In coordination with the military assaults, a strike of some 20,000 was organized by the transportation and government workers in San Salvador.

The fascist Salvadorian ruling clique has responded to the revolutionary upsurge against their tyrannical regime with the most desperate and ruthless measures. In the past few months the government and the government-organized fascist gangs have murdered thousands of workers, peasants and other progressive sections of the people. In recent weeks the government has stepped up its campaign to intimidate the oppressed masses and exterminate the anti-fascist militants. In Chalatenango province, for example, the government has been burning the homes and fields of the peasants during "search and destroy" missions. Through this terrorist measure the Salvadorian rulers hope to force the peasants to give up their support of the revolutionary movement. In addition, a new dawn to dusk curfew has been imposed throughout the country. Meanwhile, in the cities the roundup and execution of progressive and antifascist militants continues without letup.

The efforts of the Salvadorian military dictators to drown the revolutionary upsurge in blood have met with the enthusiastic approval and support of U.S. imperialism, which is undertaking the most frenzied activities in order to bolster its lackey regime. This bloodstained policy was initiated and set up by the "human rights" liars of the Carter administration, and it is now being carried out by the open warmongers of the Reagan administration.

In mid-January the Carter administration announced a program to massively increase its military aid to the Salvadorian generals. Five million dollars of armaments aid was resumed. This had briefly been suspended after tire murder of four Americans -- three nuns and one lay woman -- in El Salvador. The Carter government carried out a fraudulent "investigation" and whitewashed the atrocities of the Salvadorian government. As a result, the go-ahead signal was given for the resumption of military aid. As well, a few days after the resumption of this aid, it was revealed that an additional $5 million of military aid would be sent to the butchers of the Salvadorian people, including M-16's, grenade launchers and helicopters. Besides this, the Carter government also decided to send three teams of military advisors to train the Salvadorian government's troops and to join other U.S. military personnel in El Salvador who have been organizing the counterinsurgency operations there. Thus, when the open and crude imperialist Reagan was initiated as the chieftain of capitalist reaction on January 20, he inherited the policy of bolstering the wholesale fascism developed under the signboard of "moderation" and "reform" by the smooth-talking Democratic administration.

Moreover, in its last few weeks in office, the Carter administration orchestrated a hysteria campaign over alleged arms shipments to the Salvadorian revolutionaries by the Soviet social-imperialists and their Cuban puppets. While the U.S.-armed and trained troops were slaughtering the people, Carter's officials railed against "arms coming in from the outside"! This hypocritical propaganda was then used to declare that "the nature of the struggle" had changed and that henceforth the massive U.S. aid to the criminal Salvadorian government would be justified using the pretext of "foreign support for a small group of dedicated revolutionaries." In this way the Democratic administration even provided the Reaganites with a ready-made propaganda platform perfectly in tune to the Reaganite theme that every struggle against U.S. imperialism is "Soviet terrorism."

The Reagan government is further intensifying Carter's fascist program. Reagan's advisors visited the big capitalists of El Salvador and assured them that they are for "strengthening the security forces" and "emergency financial aid" to the Salvadorian regime. Since coming to power, Reagan has been carrying out these promises. Already the Reagan administration has announced plans to increase its economic aid package to the Salvadorian generals by $12.5 million.

Furthermore, in mid-February the Reagan administration stepped up the tempo of the warmongering hysteria against the so-called "textbook case of indirect armed aggression" in El Salvador by the Soviet Union and Cuba. Using the most incredible lie of opposing those "seeking to impose a military solution in a small, third world nation," the Reagan administration issued all sorts of fascist proclamations and threats. Recently Edwin Meese, Reagan's chief policy advisor, boasted that the administration was even considering a naval blockade of Cuba. Meese further raved that "I don't think we would rule out any thing... any place in the world, and that includes El Salvador." Thus under the smokescreen of opposing "Soviet terrorism" the Reagan administration openly declared that U.S. imperialism will stop at nothing to keep El Salvador under its domination and to protect its world empire.

The words and deeds of the Carter and Reagan governments show that savage imperialist aggression is the bipartisan policy of both the Democrats and the Republicans.

Prior to coming to office, Reagan's advisors had charged that Carter's program of systematic murder in El Salvador was allegedly too concerned with "social reform." This was only intended to discard the "human rights" fig leaf and set up a policy that openly flaunts propping up the most bestial lackey regimes of U.S. imperialism. At the same time, the Reagan administration has nevertheless found it useful to promote the Carterite hoax that the fascist generals in San Salvador are a "moderate regime."

This hoax that the Salvadorian military regime is "moderate" and for "reform" is used to portray U.S. support for the Salvadorian fascists as allegedly of great benefit to the working masses of El Salvador. But the true nature of these reforms, like the "land reform," only shows that U.S. imperialism is supporting the military dictatorship because they are viciously suppressing the people in order to protect the plunder and domination of El Salvador by U.S. imperialism and the big domestic capitalists and landlords in its service.

The "land reform" is an integral part of the terrorist campaign of the Salvadorian government against the people. The program of "land reform" has been directed by the U.S. government with the active cooperation of the AFL-CIO through its CIA front agency in Latin America, the American Institute for "Free Labor" Development.

The principal architect of this "land reform" is Professor Roy L. Prosterman. It was Prosterman who directed the infamous "land reform" in Viet Nam during the U.S. imperialist war of aggression. As is well known, the "land reform" program in Viet Nam simply meant the military occupation of the countryside and was designed to help hunt down the liberation fighters and terrorize the peasantry.

In the "land reform" in El Salvador, under the guise of "giving land to the peasants," some of the property of the big landowners was placed under the control of the fascist regime in the form of "co-ops." In instances where the peasants themselves actually tried to seize the land, they were gunned down by government troops. In addition, only a small percentage of the land was affected by the reform. The coffee farms, which are a major source of the wealth of the landlords, have hardly been touched. Furthermore, where the reform was implemented, the peasants must make payments to the government for 30 years until they equal the amount of compensation given by the government to the former owners. Thus the land reform has been designed to bring a terrorist, Viet Nam-style "pacification" program to the countryside, preserve the wealth of the landlords and ensure the continued impoverishment of the peasantry.

The fascist measures by U.S. imperialism reflect its desperation in the face of the rising revolutionary movement in El Salvador and throughout Latin America. In Nicaragua, the U.S.- backed Somoza dictatorship has been overthrown. Revolutionary struggles against U.S.-backed fascist regimes have broken out in Guatemala, Bolivia, Colombia and elsewhere. For many decades U.S. imperialism has considered Latin America as its own private domain of plunder and exploitation. It has never hesitated to spill the blood of the Latin American peoples to protect its super-profits. Today the revolutionary struggle in El Salvador is part of the struggle of the people of Latin America to free themselves from the jackboot of U.S. imperialism.

U.S. imperialism, get out of El Salvador! Victory to the revolutionary struggle of the Salvadorian people!

[Photo: Photo shows a section of the MLP contingent in a mass demonstration of 5,000 in Berkeley, California on January 17. It was one of many demonstrations across the country against U.S. imperialist intervention in El Salvador.]

[Photo: Revolutionary masses overturn a car for use as a barricade in street fighting against fascist troops in Zacatecalua, El Salvador.]

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AS CONTRACT APPROACHES:

STRIKES IN THE COAL FIELDS!

Mass strikes and protests have erupted in the coal fields over the past twelve months. Once again the coal miners have been waging wildcat strikes and sending out roving pickets. On two occasions they have closed down considerable sections of the coal fields. These struggles reflect the growing ferment which exists in the coal fields today.

On March 27 the national contract expires for 160,000 underground miners in the eastern and midwestern states. Up until a few months ago the coal monopolies and the United Mine Workers bureaucrats were boasting about the "peaceful" settlement they intended to impose on the miners. But with the increasing activity of the coal miners' movement, they have begun to worry aloud about the possibility of a national coal strike.

Further adding to the possibility of sharp struggle in the coal fields is Reagan's recent announcement of a plan to cut the miners' black lung compensation. This is a fund which the miners fought long and hard for, and they won't give it up easily.

Strikes Spread Through the Coal Fields

In the southern part of West Virginia, over 4,000 miners have been out in strikes which recently closed down all the mines in both Boone and Logan Counties.

In the Logan County incident, miners at the Powellton Coal Co. mine near Mallory walked out during the last week of January. The miners' jobs have been threatened by Powellton subcontracting one of its mines to an independent operator. The miners have been out over four weeks now, fighting to protect their jobs. Roving pickets from the Powellton mine spread the strike throughout all of Logan County.

In Boone County, workers from Hobart Mining Co.'s Julian Mine walked out during the first week of February after several miners were arbitrarily suspended. Roving pickets from this particular mine closed down mines throughout the county, including the Westmoreland Coal Co.'s infamous Ferrell No. 17 mine near Robinson, West Virginia where five miners were slaughtered last November in an explosion caused by the coal barons' greed for profit. On Wednesday, February 11, a federal judge ordered the miners back to work in Boone County, but the miners defied the bourgeois court and remained out.

In a third incident, West Virginia miners at a Youngstown Coal Co. mine walked of the job February 2 after they discovered an extremely dangerous condition. A ventilation system in one section of the mine was broken down, but the alarm system wasn't working. These workers were still out at the end of the third week of February.

In the last year too, various mass struggles broke out. For example, last year in northern West Virginia, 3,500 miners went out on strike. This struggle broke out on February 18, 1980, when Consol Mining Co. fired one worker and suspended two others in a dispute provoked by the company over seniority rights. The company launched this attack as a retaliation for the miners' ongoing struggles against murderous safety conditions at the mine, the Four States Mine in Marion County. When these initial three firings were upheld in the kangeroo-type arbitration hearings, the workers sent out roving pickets. They spread the strike throughout the northern part of the state, closing down twelve of Consol's operations, including nine of the ten largest mines in the state. In all, 12 workers were fired during this struggle. The Arbitration Review Board has upheld ten of these firings on the usual charge of picketing in an illegal work stoppage. This strike subsided in May 1980.

Another mass struggle of coal miners, this one in Kentucky, ended in victory this past December. The government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) operates a power station in Drakesboro, Ky. It decided early in 1980 to stop buying coal from union companies nearby and instead to buy it from non-union mines. This move threatened to wipe out some 375 organized miners' jobs. Some of the layoffs began as soon as the decision was announced.

Mass rallies throughout 1980 forced the TVA to announce twice that it had abandoned this plan. However, on December 1, the company tried to sneak the non-union coal in at night. The trucks were met by a strong picket line. Two miners were arrested, but only a very small amount of the coal got in. The next night a mass picket by over 500 active, retired and unemployed miners fought off the scab trucks and the state police. By the end of the night 34 miners had been arrested, several police cruisers had been damaged and several scab trucks' windshields were shattered by rifle fire.

The government and the coal barons were scared stiff by the fierce mass struggle of the miners and quickly backed down. The TVA hurriedly released a statement promising no further attempts to bring in non-union coal. Immediately laid-off miners began to be called back to work in the area.

Miners' Strikes and Mass Actions Foreshadow Contract Struggle

All these strikes and mass actions by the miners foreshadow the upcoming contract struggle. The capitalists are attempting to shove all sorts of vicious concessions down the miners' throats.

When the last contract expired in December 1977, the miners waged a historic 111-day strike to resist the capitalists' attacks. This was the longest national strike ever in the U.S. coal industry. In that strike the coal miners militantly fought the coal operators and the Carter government to a standstill. Time and again the miners broke through the sabotage of the UMWA bureaucrats. The Carter government invoked the Taft-Hartley strikebreaking act, but the coal miners defied it. By their tenacious struggle, which inspired the entire proletariat, the coal miners managed to beat back many of the savage measures which the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) was attempting to impose on them.

The strike ended in a temporary truce, a standoff. After that, the coal miners' movement subsided considerably relative to the high level it had reached at its apex in 1977 and early 1978. (There were fully 2.3 million man-days lost in unauthorized strikes alone during 1977 in the coal fields!) The movement temporarily subsided for a combination of reasons including massive layoffs right after the 1978 contract was signed, the brutal step-up in suppression by the companies and the government which together launched intensive programs to eliminate strikes, the utter betrayal of the UMWA leadership, etc. But the miners' strike movement and their fighting spirit were never crushed by the bourgeoisie. Strikes and other forms of resistance have continued, and now some relatively large-scale struggles have begun to break out. This indicates a possibility of a strong fight breaking out over the 1981 contract.

This year the coal barons have come out with a number of extremely arrogant concession demands in the negotiations, demands which the miners have sternly opposed in the past. Since the 1977-78 struggle ended in a stand-off, many of the basic issues unresolved in that battle remain sharp issues in the 1981 contract. For example:

--Cost of living allowance and wages:

The contract signed in 1978 terminated miners' COLA payments. The miners are now fighting for this to be reinstated, along with a substantial wage increase.

-- Work rules: In the push for maximum speedup and productivity increases, the coal operators have reportedly put their greatest emphasis this year on demanding that the miners concede sweeping changes in their traditional work rules. In particular the operators want the right to institute 24-hour, round-the-clock operation of the mines every day of the week, including Sunday. To achieve this, the capitalists want to institute compulsory overtime, rotating shifts, work in undermanned mines, and other outrages.

-- Safety, compulsory grievance arbitration and the right to strike: The constant, ruthless measures by the coal operators to increase production have led to a slaughter of the miners. In 1980 alone, fully 123 miners were killed in the mines, and over 16,602 were injured.

The companies are notorious for flouting what safety provisions are in the contract. When the miners file grievances on these issues, the grievances are consistently settled pro-company in the compulsory arbitration process which has been imposed on the miners at the local level. This compulsory arbitration process effectively outlaws the miners from striking over safety, the most effective means the miners have to resist the murderous working conditions which the operators impose. The elimination of compulsory grievance arbitration and the Arbitration Review Board, and legalizing strikes over grievances, safety, etc., between contracts (the right to strike) remain burning issues in the miners' struggle, as they were in the 1977-78 strike.

-- Health benefits: Over the past several years the bourgeoisie has made great efforts to crush the coal miners' strike movement. In 1975, 50,000 miners waged an industry-wide wildcat strike lasting five weeks. And then in 1976, 50,000 miners again went out for five weeks. After this the coal operators withdrew the miners' health benefits as a form of punishment and to discourage future wildcats. But the miners were not intimidated. They answered with another big strike in the summer of 1977, this time involving some 60,000 miners throughout the industry! Soon after this, in the 1977- 78 contract struggle, the miners forced the capitalists to retain health benefits. However, under this same contract the miners now have to pay a $200-per-year deductible and have suffered other setbacks. This year the struggle to reverse these setbacks is on the agenda for the miners.

--Pensions: The retired miners currently suffer under an unequal pension system with a number of different funds and qualifications. Equalization and improvement of pensions is a big issue for the miners.

Union Bureaucrats -- Strikebreakers and Sellouts

Every gain the coal miners have ever won from the capitalists has been as a product of bitter struggle. Their long and bitter experience in the class struggle has firmly convinced them that strikes are absolutely necessary in order to defend their livelihoods and resist the murderous working conditions in the mines. They have a longstanding tradition that when their contract expires they go out on strike. The idea of continuing to work without a contract, and not going on strike to both press their demands and to resist the demands of the capitalists, is abhorrent to them. They realize that to continue to work under these conditions would be to surrender to the owners. These contract strikes have always been a very important means for the miners to defend their livelihoods. The traditional slogan of the miners which expresses this conviction is: "No contract, no work."

This is a fine, proletarian tradition. To oppose such a tradition of striking to fight for a better contract, is to take the side of the capitalists against the workers. This would be a stand in favor of the workers meekly submitting to the coal barons, a stand of strikebreakers and scabs.

But this is precisely what the UMWA leadership is fighting for -- for the abandonment of the "No contract, no work" slogan, for an end to contract strikes by the miners.

Last summer, Sam Church, president of the UMWA, held a news conference to discuss the leadership's attitude towards the upcoming contract negotiations. During the course of this press conference, he shamelessly declared that the slogan "No contract, no work" should no longer be considered the motto of the UMWA. He explained that, "If we are nearing an agreement," by March 27, "then we would ask the international executive board to extend the contract...." And he says this at a time when it is crystal clear that there will be nothing but a sellout if there is no sharp struggle.

This statement is outrageous! It brands Church and his fellow bureaucrats as nothing but self-admitted strikebreakers and scabs.

It would be arrogant in the extreme for Church and the UMWA leadership to take it upon themselves to extend the old contract as they are proposing. Their "rationale" is that negotiations would continue, and when the contract is finally settled all nice and "peaceful"-like, then the workers would "enjoy" the "benefits" of a "retroactive" pay raise, and meanwhile suffer none of the "adverse" effects of a "long and costly" strike. What a fairy tale! How dumb do these gentlemen think the coal miners are? Just exactly what incentive do they think the coal operators, those murderous capitalist vultures, would have to grant the workers any substantial-wage increase, or a COLA, or to drop their demands for work rule changes, etc., etc.?! Any worker with just a little experience in the class struggle will tell you, Mr. Church, that the only incentive the capitalists ever have to give in to the workers' just contract demands is that the workers are waging a mass struggle and are denying the capitalists their almighty profits.

In the past several years alone, the miners have innumerable times resorted to strikes to resist the attacks of the BCOA vultures. Time and again they have heroically persisted in their strikes in the face of Taft-Hartley injunctions, jailings, fines, beatings and hunger. Many miners have given their lives, dying as working class martyrs in the struggle to defend their strikes against the reactionary violence of the police and the hired thugs of the capitalists. Why have the miners endured such well-known hardships to persist in their strike struggles? Was this all just some foolishness as Mr. Church and co. are now suggesting? Of course not. Any miner can tell you that without these many sacrifices, without this history of mass struggle, they would be nothing but broken wretches beyond salvation, mere submissive slaves of the owners.

The fact of the matter is that Church and the other labor bureaucrats of the UMWA, by renouncing the motto "No contract, no work," are nothing but cowards and traitors to the fighting traditions of the miners.

Various people, however, are now coming to his rescue, claiming that Mr. Church is not really against strikes. They say he's changed his mind and has now decided to call a strike after all. But these people are distorting the facts.

The facts of the matter are that Sam Church blurted out, for all to hear, that he is a strikebreaker and sellout. If someone doesn't believe that this is what the labor bureaucrats of the UMWA are all about, then just look at the pages of the UMW Journal lately. In the back, Church and co. have begun printing yellow "letters to the editor" proclaiming the supposed "benefits" of "extending the contract," how much "strikes hurt," etc. This is just more strikebreaking propaganda, pure and simple.

Coal Miners, Prepare for Struggle!

The recent miners' strikes foreshadow the upcoming contract struggle in more ways than one. On the one hand, the increasing ferment indicates a growing possibility of a national strike breaking out against the arrogant concession demands of the BCOA. On the other hand, the open anti-strike talk by Sam Church and the UMWA bureaucrats is an indication of the treachery and strikebreaking which they are now plotting around the negotiating table with both the BCOA and the Reagan government. Church's no-strike promises to the rich are a clear signal to the miners of the necessity to get prepared for a fierce struggle against both the operators and the labor traitors in order to defend their livelihoods.

The growing struggles of the militant coal miners are playing and will continue to play an important part in developing the movement of the entire working class against the wage-cutting and increased productivity offensive of the rich.

[Graphic.]

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A Declaration of Unbridled Imperialism

"International terrorism." This is the catchword on the lips of Reagan and his inner circle of Nixonite advisors who are spelling out the foreign policy of the new administration. In his inaugural address Reagan made a demagogical appeal against "those who practice terrorism." Soon afterwards, in a January 28 news conference, Secretary of State Haig declared that: "International terrorism will take the place of human rights in our concern."

These cries from the new chieftains of U.S. imperialism about "international terrorism" are the cries of the thief yelling "Stop thief!"

It is the U.S. imperialist state itself which is the most barbaric force of organized and systematic terrorism. Agents of the CIA and the dozens of other U.S. intelligence agencies operate all over the world. Every year billions of dollars are spent to finance this vast "intelligence community" of professional assassins and spies in their murderous work of eliminating political opponents and other similarly terroristic methods of "safeguarding American interests." These barbarous acts are not isolated atrocities, but are part of a coldblooded, organized system. The assassinations and kidnappings organized by the CIA, etc., are geared towards toppling governments, towards destroying the freedom of the peoples, and towards U.S. imperialist domination; and therefore affect the lives of hundreds of millions. Furthermore, U.S. imperialism has committed the most extreme, the most barbaric form of international terrorism known to history: imperialist wars of conquest, wars which have laid waste entire countries for the sake of the profits of the U.S. billionaires. The latest such war, the genocidal U.S. war of aggression in Viet Nam, was nothing but the most brutal terrorism on the most massive scale.

Today U.S. imperialism continues to encircle the globe with its military forces, trampling on the sovereignty of the peoples. And with its nuclear arsenals U.S. imperialism practices terroristic blackmail against the peoples everywhere, holding over their head the threat of thermonuclear extermination. Thus, along with the other nuclear superpower, Soviet social-imperialism, bloodstained U.S. imperialism stands as the most ruthless international barbarian and deadly enemy of the world's people.

So what then is the meaning of all this "concern" about "international terrorism" being expressed by the new militarist chieftains in the White House? In a word it is propaganda for feverish war preparations and for stepped-up U.S. aggression on a world scale.

U.S. Imperialism's "Concern" for Crushing the Iranian Revolution

Let's look at the question of Iran. With the recent release of the hostages the imperialist ruling class cranked up to a fever pitch its chauvinist and rabid propaganda against the Iranian revolution. Untold billions have been poured into this media blitz to whip up hysteria against the so-called "terrorism" and "lawlessness" of the heroic Iranian people. Carter and now Reagan have orchestrated this campaign with one objective: to serve U.S. imperialism's plans to crush the Iranian revolution.

The U.S. imperialists have amassed off the coast of Iran one of the biggest naval flotillas ever assembled. They have dispatched countless agents to assist the counter-revolution inside Iran. Last April they launched a commando raid into Iran. And they have incited the Iraqi reactionaries to launch a large-scale invasion of Iranian territory. All these barbaric activities are aimed at counter-revolution. They are aimed at restoring the type of "civilization" as in the days of the fascist Shah, the "civilization" of the SAVAK executioners with their torture chambers and concentration camps which took the lives of tens upon tens of thousands of the finest sons and daughters of the Iranian people. They are aimed at restoring the "international law" whereby the CIA makes the law in Iran and whereby the U.S. multinational oil corporations and other "American interests" are given the "freedom" to plunder at will the labor and resources of the Iranian people. The Iranian people have risen in revolution, smashing to bits the barbaric "civilization" created by the bloodstained Shah and striking heavy blows to the "international law" of the U.S. imperialist sharks. Hence the sole "concern" about "terrorism" of the Reaganites in regard to Iran is the "concern" of U.S. imperialism to crush this liberating revolution with fire and sword.

Bolstering the U.S.-Backed Fascists and Dictators Against the Liberation Struggles of the People

Reagan's "concern" about "terrorism" also means putting down the people's revolution in El Salvador. It means arming to the teeth the fascist junta whose soldiers, in conjunction with the civilian fascist death squads, have murdered 12,000 Salvadorians in the last 14 months alone. The junta in San Salvador was installed by the U.S. State Department and it stays in power through U.S. dollars, U.S. ammunition and U.S. military advisors, with which it has unleashed unbridled terror against the entire population. Nevertheless Reagan describes this fascist puppet regime as a "moderate government" and calls for backing it to the hilt in its bloody work of slaughtering the revolutionary workers and peasants of El Salvador.

Reagan's "concern" about "terrorism" also means kisses and hugs for the U.S. puppet government in South Korea. As one of his first foreign visitors, Reagan invited to the White House the fascist dictator Chun Doo Hwan. Reagan reassured his guest that no matter how many opponents Mr. Chun murders, tortures and throws into dungeons, the Reagan administration will stand with him arm in arm.

Reagan's "concern" about "terrorism" has also meant great joy for the racist minority regime of South Africa. Reagan's advisors have been lobbying for a policy of more open alliance with the apartheid fascists in Pretoria on such matters as further support for the South African racists in their colonial war against the people of Namibia. Hence the Reaganites embrace the apartheid regime of barbaric racial oppression as a force for "stability" in southern Africa.

In short, Reagan's crusade against "terrorism" is an undisguised crusade to beef up with political, military and economic support the most brutal fascists, bloodstained dictators and savage racists -- the hangmen and assassins of the people -- whom Reagan so fondly refers to as the "loyal allies" of U.S. imperialism. This crusade is aimed towards further U.S. intervention on behalf of these henchmen and towards putting down the liberation struggles of the oppressed peoples.

With this same objective, the Reaganites portray the anti-U.S. imperialist liberation struggles as nothing but a plot of the Soviet social-imperialists. As Haig put it in his January 28 news conference: The Soviet Union is "involved in conscious policy, in programs, if you will, which foster, support and expand this activity [that is "rampant international terrorism"] which is hemorrhaging in many respects throughout the world today." Thus according to Haig, the mounting revolutionary struggles of the people -- the overthrow of the Shah, the toppling of the fascist tyrant Somoza in Nicaragua, the struggle against the murderous junta in El Salvador, and so forth -- are all merely part of a fiendish plot orchestrated by Moscow. In this way, under the hoax of countering "Soviet-fostered terrorism," U.S. imperialism seeks to justify its own murderous intervention and aggressive schemes.

Arming to the Teeth for Aggressive War

Military strength "second to none." That is the Reaganites' answer to the liberation struggles of the people and the other "adversaries" of U.S. imperialism. The ultra-militarist doctrine of "peace through strength" is the bottom line of Reagan's foreign policy. And accordingly Reagan is charting out an unparalleled buildup of the Pentagon war machine.

Reagan's "budget cutters" are planning to nearly double the already astronomical military budget over the next four years, from an originally proposed $157 billion in 1981, to over $300 billion in 1985. Among other things these funds are for: strengthening the Rapid Deployment Forces for the possible seizure of the Mideast oil fields or wherever else "American interests" are threatened; building up a permanent land and naval presence in the Persian Gulf region; developing the MX missile and other new systems for the Pentagon's strategic and tactical nuclear arsenals. Already Defense Secretary Weinberger is dusting off the temporarily shelved plans to deploy neutron bombs in Western Europe.

In short, Reagan's "concern" about "international terrorism" means arming and rearming to the teeth with the most effective weapons of mass murder and destruction. It means more U.S. troops, warships and missiles all over the globe. It means feverish preparations for an aggressive war to slaughter the working masses of other lands for the sake of the profits of the U.S. imperialist money-grubbers. It means preparations for a terrible war between U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, a war to determine which of these two international thugs will get how much of the loot plundered from the world's people.

The Two Warmongering Superpowers Swap Charges of "International Terrorism"

With Reagan's inauguration a sharp war of words has broken out between the imperialist chieftains of the White House and the Kremlin. Reagan has charged that his Soviet counterparts "lie and cheat" and "practice terrorism" to achieve their aims of "world domination." The Soviet social-imperialists (that is, imperialists who falsely portray themselves as "socialists") have replied with counter-charges that U.S. imperialism is the one which "spreads international terrorism" and which pursues "imperialist aggression" to realize its global objectives.

Of course Reagan's super-patriotic demagogy about "American freedom" versus "tyranny" and "Soviet-fostered terrorism" is a monstrous and hypocritical fraud. And Bhrezhnev's demagogy about "Soviet socialism" versus "imperialism" and "U.S. aggression" is an equally monstrous lie. This is because both superpowers are in fact bloodstained assassins. The vast world networks of both the CIA and the KGB practice the same terroristic methods for the same criminal aims. The Russians' genocidal war in Afghanistan is no different than the U.S. genocidal war of aggression in Viet Nam. And together the two superpowers practice nuclear blackmail against the world's people with the aim of dividing up the globe between themselves.

Both superpowers stand equally as the most murderous enemies of the working class and oppressed peoples who are fighting for their freedom and socialism. Therefore the ongoing war of words between Washington and Moscow is only so much warmongering propaganda to line the people up behind one terroristic superpower or the other.

From "Human Rights" to "International Terrorism" -- A Declaration of an Undisguised Policy of Imperialism and War

The militarist architect Haig explains that "international terrorism... tak(ing) the place of human rights in our concern" represents a "change in priorities." This "change in priorities" has in fact been taking place over the last period of time as the chieftains of U.S. imperialism have been shedding their "human rights" mask and have been coming out with an undisguised policy of naked imperialism and rabid warmongering.

In the mid-I970's, U.S. imperialism was compelled to resort to an imperialist pacifist disguise. At home and abroad U.S. imperialism stood exposed for the monster that it is and subject everywhere to the wrath of the people. This was brought about by, among other things: the genocidal U.S. war of aggression in Viet Nam; the struggle of the American people against this aggression; the powerful revolt of the black people and the other mass struggles in the U.S.; the exposure of the blatant criminality of the fascist Nixon; and the storm of liberation struggles of the peoples on all continents. In this situation Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission trotted out their "human rights" preacher Carter. Carter ran for president as a man of "peace" and "compassion," promising to cut the military budget and to pursue a foreign policy based on "human rights."

With their smiling lackey Carter in the White House, U.S. imperialism took on a "human rights" mask. Carterite "human rights" meant putting a "human rights" coat of paint on the fascist puppets of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, Asia, etc. It meant subverting the independence struggles of the southern African and other peoples and hitching these struggles to the chariot of.U.S. neo-colonialism with the aid of such slick hucksters as Andrew Young. It meant chatter about "respecting sovereignty" and "interdependence" as the U.S. multinationals shifted the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the oppressed toilers within the vast U.S. neo-colonial empire. It meant record military budgets and other war preparations carried out behind lies about "peace" and fraudulent "arms limitation" agreements. Carterite "human rights" meant the same imperialist, aggressive, and warmongering policy as carried out by war criminal Nixon and Carter's other predecessors. Under Carter, however, this man-eating policy was pursued behind hypocritical pacifist rhetoric to deceive the masses at home and abroad.

Nevertheless, Carterite "human rights" did not and could not overcome the powerful contradictions pounding U.S. imperialism. The revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua struck U.S. imperialism heavy blows. The revolt of the people continued to rage from El Salvador to Turkey, Bolivia, South Korea, the Philippines, South Africa, and elsewhere across the globe. At the same time the inter-imperialist contradictions deepened, particularly between the two superpowers with the fascist Russian invasion of Afghanistan and with events in Indochina, Africa, the Persian Gulf and Poland. Carter's smile and Sunday prayers about "human rights" could not bail U.S. imperialism out of the great crisis shaking the entire imperialist and social-imperialist world.

Thus in the latter part of his term Carter let slip his "human rights" mask and came out with the big stick. The imperialist pacifist mouthpieces such as Andrew Young and then Cyrus Vance were replaced and mad war dogs like Zbigniew Brzezinski came to the fore. In this process Carter's war hysteria about the Soviet military brigade in Cuba in the summer of 1979 marked a turning point. In January 1980 Carter spelled out the "Carter doctrine," declaring that U.S. imperialism would not hesitate to use military force if "American (oil) interests" were threatened in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region. Following the declaration of this nakedly imperialist "doctrine" Carter ordered an enormous military buildup in the region, launched a military raid into Iran, and enacted the re- introduction of draft registration to prepare to conscript the youth to be slaughtered in a war for the greater glory of the super-profits of the U.S. oil corporations.

Now the ultra-warmonger Reagan has taken over where Carter left off. The Reagan administration's declared "change of priorities" to "concern" about "international terrorism" is the declaration of the abandonment of hypocritical imperialist pacifism based on idle chatter about "human rights" in favor of an undisguised policy of rabid imperialism.

U.S. Imperialism Is a Ferocious and Deadly Enemy of the Working and Oppressed People of the World

The advent to power of Reagan brings home the fact that U.S. imperialism is today, was yesterday, and will remain tomorrow a ferocious and deadly enemy of the working and oppressed people of the world. Reagan revels in superpower chauvinism and patriotic appeals for "national renewal" through "greater strength throughout the world." Reagan frequently declares his enthusiasm for what he describes as the "noble cause" of the barbaric U.S. war of aggression in Viet Nam. In fact, Reagan's Secretary of State, General Alexander Haig, was one of the architects of this war and the genocidal bombings in Indochina which massacred untold hundreds of thousands. In a word, Reagan and co. are criminal militarists and warmongers.

However, contrary to the lies of the Democratic Party politicians and their "left" wing boosters, militarism and aggression do not stem simply from the "hawkish" policy of fiends like Reagan or Alexander Haig. Rather they stem from the very social system in power in this country, from monopoly capitalism, from imperialism.

In this regard, it is important to understand correctly the lies of the capitalist news media and other mouthpieces of the ruling class about the significance of the election of Reagan. According to the fairy tales spun by the media, Carter was a naive and timid mouse who lacked the necessary nerve to stand up to U.S. imperialism's adversaries. Allegedly Carter was afflicted by the so-called "Viet Nam syndrome" which supposedly turned the chieftains of U.S. imperialism into meek little lambs, plagued as they were by the guilt of the "lessons of Viet Nam." Hence, according to this fairy tale, only now, with the coming to power of Reagan, has U.S. imperialism "regained its nerve."

What a hoax! In reality, far from a naive patsy, Carter proved himself as a wily and vicious imperialist. As Reagan himself points out, his is a "bipartisan" foreign policy, a policy shared by Republican hawks and hypocritical liberal Democrats alike. This reflects the fact that whether shrouded in the imperialist pacifism of a Carter or carried out without disguise under the baton of a Reagan, the guiding star of U.S. imperialist foreign policy remains intensified aggression and feverish preparations for war.

Imperialism is an economic system based on the brutal exploitation of the workers and oppressed masses at home and on the plunder of super-profits from the land and labor of the oppressed peoples abroad. Such a bloodsucking system cannot possibly exist without arming itself to the teeth; without savage wars of aggression against the working and oppressed peoples fighting for freedom and social liberation; and without wars between the rival imperialist sharks.

Therefore, despite the heavy blows which it has suffered in Viet Nam, Iran and elsewhere, U.S. imperialism, along with Soviet social-imperialism, remains one of the most savage and aggressive warmongering powers on earth. And it will remain such until the last tooth is knocked out of its head.

The American Working Class and People Are Raising Aloft the Banner of Struggle Against U.S. Imperialist Aggression and Preparations for War

The imperialist news media is churning out an endless stream of lies to the effect that a "strong defense" and feverish militarism is "the mandate of the people," that there is a "new sense of national will" behind the super-patriot warmongering of the Reaganites, and so on and so forth. Such is the big lie which has been created by the lords of the mass media on the demand of the imperialist billionaires.

The will of the masses cannot be heard on the TV or in Time magazine but it can be heard in the factories and schools across the country. The people have not forgotten the brutal war in Viet Nam which brought tens of millions into the streets to fight this criminal war of aggression. The working people are cursing the plans of the Pentagon generals to once again send the youth off to be chewed up in a war for the profits of the imperialist corporations. And the workers feel on their backs the heavy burden of the war preparations as they are being taxed to death in order to build MX missiles and neutron bombs to slaughter their class brothers abroad.

What represents the aspirations of the working masses, what is gaining strength among the people is the mass struggle against the war preparations of U.S. imperialism. Since the day Carter announced the reintroduction of draft registration, in cities and campuses across the country demonstrations and mass actions have unfolded against the draft. In these protests anti-imperialist slogans are being taken up by the masses. Besides the round of anti-draft protests in January, mass actions were held in several cities to condemn the inauguration of warmonger Reagan. As well, in recent weeks demonstrations have been held across the country, including a march 5,000 strong in Berkeley, California, in solidarity with the revolutionary struggle of the people of El Salvador.

The Reagan administration with its crusade against "international terrorism" is spelling out the nakedly aggressive and warmongering policy of U.S. imperialism, a policy which poses great danger. The powerful force which can combat the fiendish plans of U.S. imperialism is the revolutionary mass struggles of the American working class and people in solidarity with the revolutionary and liberation struggles of the people throughout the world. Herein lies the tremendous importance of the fact that in growing numbers and with growing determination the masses are raising aloft the banner of struggle against U.S. imperialist aggression and preparations for war.

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Reagan's 'Noble Cause': U.S. Imperialist Aggression and War

Ronald Reagan is a star-spangled warmonger, an ultra-militarist demagog of the worst order. Reagan sings songs of praise to the "noble cause" of the barbaric U.S. war against the heroic people of Viet Nam. In his inaugural address Reagan paid special tribute to the "heroes" of the numerous U.S. imperialist wars of aggression including the "heroes" of the genocidal bombings and notorious "search and destroy" missions of the U.S. war of aggression in Indochina. Thus Reagan openly wraps himself in the mantle of the most barbaric traditions of bloodstained U.S. imperialism, the traditions of naked aggression against the peoples all over the globe.

At the turn of the century, with its colonial wars of conquest in the Philippines and the Caribbean, U.S. capitalism emerged as an imperialist power. U.S. imperialism joined in the carnage of the First World War to determine which group of imperialist slaveowners would get the greatest share of colonial slaves. Soon afterwards U.S. troops participated, along with 13 other capitalist armies, in the invasion of the then socialist Soviet Union in an effort to strangle the first workers' republic. In the 1920's and 1930's, U.S. marines were used repeatedly to put down the liberation struggles of the Nicaraguan, Haitian and other Latin American peoples.

Following the Second World War, U.S. imperialism set out to place the entire world under its jackboot and thus accomplish what Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini had failed to do. Proclaiming itself the "policeman of the free world," U.S. imperialism launched an uninterrupted string of barbaric and enslaving wars, murderous coups d'etat and other terroristic acts of aggression, shedding rivers of blood on all continents. The hideous crimes of U.S. imperialism over this short period of time are too many to list. They include:

--Intervention on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese civil war in order to suppress the Chinese people's liberation struggle (1946-49)

--American military intervention in the civil war in Greece on the side of the fascist monarchists against the Greek democrats (1947-49)

--Suppression of the rebellion led by the Huks against the U.S.-backed fascist regime in the Philippines (1950-54)

--The barbaric U.S. war of aggression in Korea against the Korean and Chinese people (1950-53)

--The CIA-organized coup in Iran which overthrew the nationalist government of Mossadegh and which installed the fascist Shah (1953)

--The CIA coup and U.S. military intervention in Guatemala which toppled the Arbenz government (1954)

--The invasion of Lebanon by U.S. marines against the anti-imperialist democratic revolution of the Arab people (1958)

--U.S. intervention against the liberation struggle of the Congolese people including the murder of the nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba (1961-64)

--The invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (1961)

--U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic to suppress the revolt of the people that was on the verge of toppling the fascist dictator Trujillo (1965)

--The U.S.-backed fascist coup in Indonesia which toppled Sukarno and resulted in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants (1965)

--The CIA coup in Chile which overthrew the Allende government and installed the fascist dictator Pinochet (1973)

--The decades-long U.S. intervention and genocidal war of aggression against the heroic peoples of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia (beginning with assistance to the French colonial war in the early 1950's until the complete rout of the U.S. aggressors and their lackeys by the liberation wars of the Indochinese peoples in 1975)

--The U.S. military raid against Iran (1980)

--U.S. military advisors and military aid and other means of intervention on behalf of the fascist junta in El Salvador to suppress the revolutionary struggles of the workers and peasants (1980-81)

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Hail the Second Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution!

February 1981 marks the second anniversary of the powerful revolution of the Iranian people which overthrew the U.S.-backed fascist dictatorship of the Shah. This revolution overthrew the Shah's regime which was one of the most barbaric and bloody governments of recent times. The overthrow of the Shah inspired the oppressed masses the world over, giving them confidence that if the Shah could go then any other fascist could be overthrown as well.

The Iranian revolution shook the positions of world imperialism and in particular was a big defeat for U.S. imperialism and its multinational oil corporations. For 25 years U.S. imperialism had propped up this despotic regime which it had brought into power in 1953 through a criminal CIA-organized coup d'etat. The Shah's fascist rule had given free rein to the imperialist monopolies to plunder the land, resources and labor of the Iranian people. It had served as the "policeman" for U.S. imperialism's oil interests throughout the Persian Gulf region.

Two years ago, this "island of stability" in the Middle East was toppled by the mighty upsurge of the Iranian masses. For more than a year the heroic Iranian people rose up in powerful storms of mass revolutionary struggle against the fascist dictatorship, shaking the country from one corner to the other. Then in January-February 1979, after driving the Shah out of the country with their revolt, the Iranian workers, peasants, youth and broad masses in their tens of thousands took up arms against the fascist armed forces of the Shah's government. The troops were unable to stand up to the insurrectionary force of the people. The Shah's military machine crumbled like a giant with feet of clay. In the forefront of this powerful upsurge stood the proletariat which, especially through the protracted strikes of the oil workers, paralyzed the fascist regime and greatly contributed to its surrender.

The Iranian revolution was a genuine people's revolution. The struggle was not some mere palace coup or the activity of a handful but a fight that brought into motion the working masses in their millions. Amidst the storms of popular struggle, the working masses were schooled, tempered and steeled. Through this struggle, the masses seized many rights and positions which they had been denied under the Shah. The Iranian revolution overthrew the monarchy and forced the Shah and his lackey Bakhtiar to flee the country. It meted out revolutionary justice to many of the SAVAK and other murdering hoodlums of the Shah's regime. It powerfully shook imperialism's positions in Iran. At the same time, it is true that while the workers, peasants and broad masses did the fighting, with immense courage and sacrifice, they have still not brought the anti-imperialist democratic revolution to completion.

Defend the Iranian Revolution!

World imperialism itself recognizes the serious setback it suffered in Iran and has not reconciled itself to it. It is trying with all its power to reverse the revolutionary process and restore its lost paradise. This is providing further impetus to the continuation of the revolutionary struggle in Iran. Today the Iranian revolution continues in the face of the fierce attempts by imperialism and internal reaction to strangle it. Hence it is the responsibility of all progressive, anti-imperialist and revolutionary forces to remain steadfast in defense of the Iranian revolution.

U.S. imperialism has unleashed a series of brutal measures to force the Iranian people into submission. It has mounted an economic blockade and imposed severe political pressure against Iran. It has surrounded Iran with a huge military encirclement in the Persian Gulf, poised for carrying out open military aggression. In April 1980, the Carter government ordered its infamous armed raid into Iran, which ended in a fiasco. Since the early days of September 1980, world imperialism has instigated a full-scale armed invasion of Iran through the reactionary Iraqi government in order to force the Iranian people to their knees. Today, after the release of the U.S. embassy personnel from Iran, the U.S. imperialists are screaming for "revenge" and hatching up new plots against the Iranian people.

In its plots to strangle the Iranian revolution, imperialism is assisted by the forces of domestic reaction in Iran. It uses the fact that the structures of the Shah's regime were not thoroughly smashed in order to use the loyalists of the old regime to plot to restore the monarchy. Hence it keeps the elements of the SAVAK network active inside Iran. It is also assisted in this by the nests of pro-Shah elements in Iraq, Egypt, Europe, the USA, and elsewhere.

Furthermore, in Iran the Khomeini government rode in on the crest of the people's revolution. This is a government which is committed to stopping the revolution halfway. This government is neither the same as that of the Shah nor is it a government of the toiling masses. It is not a regime like the Shah, because the monarchy was indeed overthrown in Iran, and the present regime has not been able to consolidate a reactionary state power and do away with the revolutionary situation which persists in the Iranian society. The revolution continues in Iran. On the other hand, this regime is not a government of the working masses because it takes measures against the masses. It seeks to prevent the fulfillment of the aspirations for which the people have fought and died. It attacks the democratic rights of the masses, carries out repression of the revolutionary forces, opposes the achievement of the economic rights of the toilers, and ruthlessly attacks the oppressed nationalities. This regime is frightened of the upsurge of the people. It is based on the bourgeoisie of town and country and has antagonistic contradictions with the masses.

At the same time, this regime has a complex relationship with imperialism. On the one hand, imperialism seeks to overthrow it altogether and restore an utterly reactionary regime in order to crush the revolution. On the other hand, imperialism has also shown its interest in coming to an accommodation with the Khomeini regime against the revolution.

Since such a government rules in the main by presenting itself as a government of the revolution, it faces the party of the proletariat with the complexities of dealing with such issues as the people's faith in the government and the twists and turns of the actual policies of the government. In the face of the complicated situation, the revolution continues in Iran. This is manifested in the struggles of the workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities and so forth. The masses are holding aloft the banner of struggle against imperialism and the reactionary Iraqi aggression. As well, the fight for the defense and extension of the various democratic rights, and for the improvement of their economic conditions goes on.

Only the aroused workers, peasants and broad toiling masses can carry the revolution forward. History has placed the task of leading the revolution to victory on the shoulders of the working masses led by the party of the proletariat, the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran. This Party holds high the struggle against imperialism's plots to strangle the Iranian revolution. It closely links this struggle to the struggle of the working class and other toilers for their democratic and economic rights. The Party works for the independent revolutionary organization of the working masses who are the real motive force of the revolution.

Hence, on the second anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah, the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA calls upon the American proletariat and all progressive people to staunchly defend the Iranian revolution! Denounce the hysteria campaign against Iran and the imperialist plots to strangle the Iranian people! As well, consistent support for the Iranian revolution means support for the motive force of the revolution, the working masses. The MLP, US A reaffirms its support for the voice and leadership of the toiling masses of Iran, the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran.

*****

The importance of the task of remaining steadfast in defense of the Iranian revolution is underscored by the activities of opportunism which stand opposed to the mobilization of the people against the attempts of imperialism to strangle the Iranian revolution. Friends of our Party in the solidarity movement with the Iranian revolution in the U.S. have asked us to comment on the stand of one such opportunist trend which is represented by the supporters and conciliators of PEYKAR (Organization of Struggle in the Path to Emancipate the Working Class).

This is an important question because PEYKAR has betrayed the struggle against imperialism in Iran. Today they are openly opposing the struggle against the attempts to strangle the Iranian revolution such as the Iraqi aggression. This stand of PEYKAR and its conciliators is based on the fact that they deny the role of imperialism in oppressing the people of Iran and Iraq, and they deny the revolution in Iran altogether. This of course is not a new stand on the part of PEYKAR: today it denounces the whole Iranian revolution with the excuse that the Iranian regime is reactionary, while only yesterday PEYKAR denounced the struggle of the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party against the attacks of the regime by characterizing the shock troops of the Islamic Republican Party as "revolutionary" elements of the "petit bourgeoisie," etc. All along, PEYKAR has had nothing but the worst abuse for the revolutionary party of the Iranian proletariat, the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran.

PEYKAR's Reactionary Stand on the Iran-Iraq War

With the Iraqi invasion of Iran, PEYKAR has come out openly with its treacherous stand. Today it shamelessly stands in a position of open betrayal of the Iranian revolution.

PEYKAR and its conciliators take the position that both sides in the Iran-Iraq war are equally reactionary. Thus they oppose the struggle of the Iranian revolution against the imperialist efforts to strangle it. But the fact remains that in this war which has pit fraternal peoples against one another, the counter-revolutionary objectives of the Iraqi government are very well known. For instance, it is no secret that Bakhtiar and General Oveissi, the notorious "Butcher of Tehran," enjoy the support of the Iraqi regime, and that the Iraqi government itself is organizing several thousands of the ex-Shah's monarchist officers. Indeed the Iraqi regime's objectives are no less than the restoration of reaction and to serve up a broken and weakened Iran to the imperialist vultures. In this nefarious task, the Iraqi regime has been instigated by both Western imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. As well, it has the full backing of the medieval and reactionary forces in the region, such as that of the Saudi Arabian feudal monarchy and the Jordanian regime of fascist cutthroats.

By refusing to take a stand against this invasion which is yet another of imperialism's plots against the revolution, PEYKAR has adopted the position of standing aside and allowing the Iranian revolution to be crushed with fire and sword. PEYKAR of course dresses this up in all kinds of "revolutionary" phrases and pretends that this is opposition to domestic reaction in Iran. What hogwash! It is clear that domestic reaction wishes to eliminate the situation of a halfway government and crush the revolution altogether. In fact, domestic reaction wishes to utilize the Iraqi aggression and seeks to use it to crush the people and teach them a lesson. It is well known in this respect that the reactionary generals in the Iranian army have, to a certain extent, kept the Iranian army from fighting the aggression so that the brunt of the fighting has fallen on the shoulders of the irregular forces and the people.

At the same time, the Khomeini government is trying to use the Iran- Iraq war to strengthen itself against the masses. Right from the outset, our Party pointed to the attempts of the Khomeini government to utilize the war in its own favor. But our Party also pointed out that this should not stand in the way of fighting imperialism's attempts to strangle the Iranian revolution. As well, the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran has shown through its struggle that it fights the Iraqi aggression and also defends the masses from the attempts by the Iranian government to use the war to step up its attacks on the people. In contrast, PEYKAR's posture of "opposing the reactionary regime" is just that, a mere posture, a ruse, while its actual position is to surrender in the face of the counter-revolutionary attacks of imperialism and the Iraqi fascist regime. Nay, more -- it is to stab the revolution in the back.

PEYKAR and Its Conciliators Deny the Imperialist-Inspired Nature of the Iraqi Invasion

In order to justify its traitorous position, PEYKAR makes mincemeat out of all the facts concerning the situation facing the Iranian people. As apologists for imperialism, PEYKAR spends its time denying that imperialism instigated the Iraqi aggression against Iran. This is nothing but to give a "left" cover to Carter's claims to "neutrality" in the Iran-Iraq war.

In its "Manifesto" "on the War between Iran and Iraq," PEYKAR thinks that the imperialist-inspired nature of the Iraqi aggression is so slight that it writes: "...the American imperialism at present is subject to many contradictions which cannot be discussed here, including those between it and the ruling elite in Iran." (pp. 10-11, PEYKAR pamphlet No. 10, issued in English by the UISUS, emphasis ours) Thus, according to PEYKAR, the Iranian revolution has disappeared, replaced by the "ruling elite" in Iran. Furthermore, just imagine, in a manifesto on the war between Iran and Iraq, the role of U.S. imperialism "cannot be discussed"! The shamelessness of PEYKAR is simply astonishing!

But they cannot completely hide the facts, so they are forced to briefly mention that "the policies of American imperialism and those of the Iraqi regime (have drawn) together for the present war." (Ibid., p. 11) But not only this, PEYKAR even admits that "American imperialism (is) using Iraqi military invasion to encourage counter-revolution and destroy revolution." (Ibid., p. 11) But PEYKAR is so determined to take a reactionary position that even facts like these do "not change even slightly the unjust character of the war waged by the two regimes." (Ibid., p. 11) What incredible bootlickers of imperialism!

Further whitewashing imperialism, PEYKAR writes that "Iranian and Iraqi regimes cannot be regarded as the complete puppets of any imperialist." (Ibid., p. 9) Why, for PEYKAR, imperialism has simply vanished from the Persian Gulf. The reactionary regime in Iraq is not propped up by world imperialism. Oh no, it only "has very close links with Russian social-imperialism," and "during recent years...has also moved towards the European and U.S. imperialists, making different treaties with them." (Ibid., pp. 9-10) But despite all these self-acknowledged facts, and even while calling it "the fascist Ba'ath regime" (Ibid., p. 5) PEYKAR paints the fairy tale that the situation in Iraq, ruled by a fascist regime dependent on imperialism, is the same as the situation in Iran where a revolution exists that is fighting imperialism. In other words, PEYKAR will go to any length to cover up the hand of imperialism that stands behind the Iraqi aggression against Iran.

PEYKAR and Its Conciliators Deny the Iranian Revolution

In its statement on the Iran-Iraq war, PEYKAR makes it abundantly clear what its fundamental premise is concerning the situation in Iran. Behind PEYKAR's condemnation of the struggle against the attempts to strangle the Iranian revolution stands its assessment that the Iranian revolution is over. According to them, there is nothing but the ruling regime. Thus the only contradiction with American imperialism which PEYKAR recognizes in Iran is that with the "ruling elite."

PEYKAR shows that it is simply unable to deal with the particularity of the present situation in Iran since the February 1979 revolution, which is that a government committed to stopping the revolution halfway has come to power in Iran. Instead, PEYKAR presents the situation today as if the Shah's regime had been restored.

To defend the Iranian revolution or define it out of existence. To fight for the defense and continuation of the revolution against imperialism and reaction or to capitulate to imperialism and domestic reaction while throwing one's hands up in despair and incomprehension at the difficulty caused by the Khomeini government dedicated to stopping the revolution halfway. This is the key question raised by PEYKAR's denial of the revolution.

Actually, PEYKAR has not yet taken a consistent stand on any question of the Iranian revolution. Today it renounces the Iranian revolution in the face of the attempts to strangle it, under the pretext that the revolution has already been stamped out by Khomeini. But only yesterday, this same PEYKAR flirted with the shock troops of reaction in the Islamic Republican Party and promoted this reaction as "anti-imperialist." PEYKAR used the thin excuse that this was necessary in order to oppose the machinations of the "liberal" Bani-Sadr faction of the regime. At the same time, they opposed the struggle led by the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party for the democratic rights of the people against the repression of the regime, labeling it as "premature," "trotskyite," "economist" and a negation of the anti-imperialist movement! Today, PEYKAR appears to have taken a 180 degree turn and denounces the whole regime. But this is nothing but a ruse. None of PEYKAR's stands follow from a consistent attitude towards the revolution and the regime. PEYKAR's only consistency lies in the fact that whatever the attacks on the people, PEYKAR has been able to come up with a reason to support these attacks, whether they come from the imperialists or the ruling regime.

PEYKAR Stands for Unity With Revisionism and Opportunism

PEYKAR's stand shows the sorry effects of opportunism. Opportunism dresses up its rotten positions in revolutionary or even "Marxist-Leninist" phraseology, but it ends up capitulating to imperialism just the same. However, PEYKAR's treachery is not limited to such matters as the Iran-Iraq war. It also stands for unity of the revisionist and opportunist forces while it seeks to liquidate the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party.

PEYKAR expresses this with its opposition to the Party and by calling for "unity of all Marxist-Leninists." But how can an organization like PEYKAR, which takes the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party as its worst enemy, call for unity of the Marxist-Leninists?

In fact, PEYKAR is simply using the old neo-revisionist trick of denouncing the Party as premature and instead calling for unity of all kinds of revisionist forces. Its appeals are addressed to those forces which are conciliators of Soviet and Chinese revisionism. These forces PEYKAR dresses up as allegedly Marxist-Leninist forces. Thus PEYKAR seeks to replace the Party with an unprincipled bloc of opportunist forces.

PEYKAR has the same unprincipled attitude towards the international Marxist-Leninist communist movement. It seeks to find middle ground between Chinese revisionism and Marxism-Leninism. PEYKAR defended Maoism from the criticism of the Marxist-Leninists. But when the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party punctured PEYKAR's support for Maoism, PEYKAR then "criticized" Maoism a little. But still, it continues to praise "Comrade Mao." At the same time, PEYKAR seeks to balance its ever so timid criticism of Maoism with attacks on the Party of Labor of Albania. According to this group, which flails around in the marsh of opportunism, Mao is still great but maybe deserved a little "criticism." But then PEYKAR rushes to compensate it with attacks on the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist forces such as the PLA.

The Workers' And Peasants' Communist Party of Iran has boldly defended the party principle and refuted PEYKAR s call for a united bloc of opportunist forces. The Party of the Iranian proletariat was reestablished after decades of torturous struggle against revisionism. Costly sacrifices have been made in the course of this struggle and in the fight against reaction. These victories and sacrifices cannot be abandoned in the face of the opportunist maneuvers of PEYKAR and those who seek to conciliate with it.

Defend the Iranian revolution from imperialism's efforts to strangle it!

Support the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran!

Away with opportunism!

Victory to the struggle of the toiling masses of Iran!

[Photo: Picture shows the heroic Iranian masses in struggle against U.S. imperialism. The Iranian revolution which overthrew the Shah hit powerful blows against world imperialism which had propped up the hated monarchy.]

[Photo: Photo: Anti-draft demonstration organized by the MLP in New York City on January 10, 1981. The Party vigorously defends the Iranian revolution against the attacks of U.S. imperialism.]

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Down with the government's chauvinist hysteria against Iran

(The following article is taken from a leaflet issued by the Boston Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA on February 3, 1981.)

Since it was first announced that the U.S. embassy personnel would be released, the government and the media have renewed their attempts to whip up a chauvinist hatred against the Iranian people. Under the guise of "concern for the hostages" the media have subjected the American people to hours and hours of the most disgusting shows of flag-waving chauvinism. They have told tales of torture that have become so ridiculous that a few days ago the government complained that one hostage was tortured because he found hair in his food!

To see how deliberately the media campaign is created, let us ask: where were the blaring headlines and stories of torture during the reign of the Shah, whose CIA-trained police tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Iranian workers, peasants and youth? There were none. Instead the Shah was referred to as an enlightened monarch, as Jimmy Carter's "best friend" and so on.

Or where are the war cries against the government in El Salvador which has murdered 13,000 of its own citizens in the past year. Again, there are none. Instead, the U.S. government is increasing aid to this military dictatorship. And the media paints it as a "moderate" government seeking to restore order to the country, etc.

The imperialists hush up the crimes of their friends like the Shah and the military junta in El Salvador while they scream to high heavens that the Iranian people are barbarians. Why? Because the Shah and the junta have kept their peoples enslaved to the American banks and multinational corporations and defend their profits, whereas it is the revolution of the Iranian people which has upset this system.

Behind the media blitz lies the selfish interests and war preparations of the imperialist billionaires, especially the oil companies and bankers, who want to mobilize the American people for war against Iran. Ever since the Shah was overthrown, the U.S. imperialists have been doing everything possible to strangle the Iranian revolution and restore a dictator of their choice. They have been organizing for direct and indirect invasions of Iran to drown the people's struggle in blood. They have surrounded Iran with one of the most massive naval forces ever assembled in history. They have tried to build up a war climate in the U.S. and have taken steps to reintroduce the draft, etc.

While the imperialists of Wall Street and Washington are proclaiming what civilized people they are and what barbarians the Iranians are, they have financed and organized, with the help of the Russian social-imperialists, the Iraqi invasion of Iran. For the profits of the oil companies and bankers they are slaughtering thousands of Iranian and Iraqi people -- how civilized!

For over a year the government tried to justify its war preparations on the pretext that it was concerned about the hostages. But now the embassy personnel have returned home and the banks have got their pound of flesh from the billions stolen from Iran. And what has happened? The war preparations of the U.S. imperialists have increased. This shows again that the hostage hysteria was a hoax to cover the selfish interests of the imperialist warmakers.

The American working class and people refuse to go along with the hysteria and war plans of the rich. People have become disgusted by this imperialist propaganda and the hypocrisy of the government. Already mass struggle is growing. For example, in the big January 24 demonstration in downtown Boston against Reagan, the marchers raised the slogan "We remember Viet Nam, U.S. imperialism, hands off Iran!"

Our enemy is not the Iranian people, but the U.S. imperialist billionaires and their government. No matter how many yellow ribbons the rich hand out, we will refuse to slaughter our class brothers in Iran. We will fight the war plans of the imperialists every step of the way.

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Thousands Demonstrate Against Reagan's Inauguration!

[Photos: Above: A scene from the demonstration of over 1,000 in Boston on January 24 which denounced Reagan's inauguration. Right: Picture shows the Party's contingent at the anti-Reagan demonstration in downtown Chicago on January 20.]

Ronald Reagan is already hated as a rabid warmonger, racist and transparent front man for the capitalist monopolies. He was just taking the oath of office when in a number of cities across the country mass protests took place against him. In Washington, D.C., Chicago, Seattle and other cities thousands of people joined the marches and rallies against Reagan on the January 20 inauguration day. As well, in Boston on January 24 over 1,000 people came out in a militant demonstration to denounce this new chieftain of capitalist reaction. These demonstrations reflect the outrage against him that is boiling up among the broad masses of working and oppressed people.

The Marxist-Leninist Party vigorously took part in many of the anti- Reagan demonstrations. In Boston the contingent of the MLP carried out a variety of activities.

As the demonstration in Boston was assembling, a cultural group of the MLP began singing songs against Reaganite reaction and performed a skit which denounced the draft and war preparations of the U.S. imperialists. About 300 people gathered around to watch the performance and many joined in the singing of the songs.

The MLP leaflet was well received. It denounced Reagan's program of starvation, fascism and war. This leaflet emphasized that the Democratic Party is no opposition to Reagan, but in fact has the same capitalist program. The leaflet explained that the real force against Reagan is the working and downtrodden masses. It called for the building of the independent movement of the working class, a movement of revolutionary mass struggle against the capitalist offensive of the Reagan government.

As the 1,000 people strong demonstration got under way, about 100 people joined the contingent of the MLP. All along the parade route hundreds of additional demonstrators took up shouting the militant slogans of the MLP contingent against the draft and imperialist war preparations, against U.S. aggression in Iran and El Salvador, against the growing racism and fascism and against Reagan's program of attack on the working masses.

The march culminated inside Faneuil Hall where various Democratic Party hacks were scheduled to speak. The MLP contingent marched into the hall militantly singing a song denouncing Reagan and his fraudulent "opponents," the Democratic Party. Greatly upset by the size and militant character of the demonstration, the police locked the doors to the hall, preventing over 125 of the marchers from entering.

This outrage was opposed by the masses of demonstrators. But the flunkeys of the Democratic Party, instead of fighting the police, denounced the marchers for raising the "diversion" of opposing the police attack. The mass of demonstrators were disgusted with these hacks and eventually forced the meeting to move outdoors where all of the people could participate. Here the meeting continued for some time. The cultural group of the MLP performed once again and a short speech was given by a representative of the MLP (Boston Branch).

The Boston demonstration proved again that the fight against Reaganite reaction must be organized independently of and against both of the big capitalist parties, the Republicans and Democrats. Today the "liberal" Democratic Party hacks and their "left"-wing social-democratic boosters are trying to hide the crimes of Carter and pose as great opponents of Reagan. But their actions continually expose their posturing. It is not Reaganite reaction that the Democratic Party fights. It is fighting against the mass movement which is developing against the capitalist reaction. The forces against Reagan are not to be found in the ranks of the trade union bureaucrats, the sellout misleaders of the oppressed nationalities or the social- democratic bigwigs who are together trying to convince the masses to come under the wing of the Democratic Party.

The true forces against Reaganite reaction are to be found among the working and oppressed masses. The recent demonstrations show that the broad working masses are opposed to Reagan. They must be organized and directed onto the path of mass revolutionary struggle. That is the path forward for the fight against the reactionary offensive of the Reagan administration.

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GM and Ford Billionaires Seek Chrysler-Style Concessions

In January, the Chrysler capitalists succeeded in saddling the Chrysler workers with a new Series of wage cuts and other major contract concessions. But before the contract was even reopened at Chrysler, the top executives of GM and Ford were declaring that they too wanted to get in on the action. The chieftains of these two giant multinationals began talking about reopening contracts and asking concessions from the workers including: a freeze on wages and benefits; elimination of COLA payments; elimination of personal paid holidays (PPH days); and cuts in pension.

Ford President Donald Petersen and GM Chairman Roger Smith, the bosses of two of the richest monopoly corporations in the entire world, have put on their beggar clothes and begun to cry and moan about "hard times"! They whimper that "Chrysler is being given an unfair advantage" and that the auto industry needs a "new pattern agreement." Of course, this is to be established by the GM and Ford workers giving up the same concessions as were imposed on the Chrysler workers.

The whining about "hard times" by these two monopoly giants is a sick joke. They have one bad business year and call on the workers to offer "sacrifices" to restore company profits to their usual multi-billion dollar levels. Together GM and Ford are now spending untold billions to modernize their plants. They are still paying big dividends to their stockholders. And their top executives earn $1 million a year and live like lords. "Hard times" indeed! GM is so far gone that it recently slipped on the Fortune 500 charts from the number one industrial monopoly in the world to number three, behind their fellow paupers Exxon and American Telephone and Telegraph!

Concessions Will Not Save a Single Job But Will Only Further Ruin the Auto Workers

The arrogant demands of GM and Ford for the reopening of the contract are being justified with the big lie that concessions will "save jobs." This is just what the capitalists, the government and the UAW sellouts led by Doug Fraser tried to pass off on the Chrysler workers!

In the past 16 months, the Chrysler capitalists have gone to the workers three times demanding concessions "to save jobs." Each time the workers have suffered severe cuts which together amount to $1.1 billion robbed from the Chrysler workers. These cuts will mean that each worker will have had $17,000 stolen from his wages and benefits by the end of the three-year contract.

But did this save jobs? Of course not! Tens of thousands of Chrysler workers haven't worked a day in two years. More than 40,000 are still on permanent layoff. Six big plants have shut down for good and five others are running with skeleton crews and are "guaranteed" to stay open until the end of the '82 model year.

These are the bitter fruits of the sacrifices imposed on the Chrysler workers. They have not saved a single job but one -- Fraser's on the Chrysler Board of Directors! Concessions to "save jobs" at Ford or GM will be no different.

What is costing the auto workers their jobs is not the lack of profits for the auto billionaires. Rather it is the capitalist crisis and the massive job-cutting productivity drive.

Over the next five years the auto monopolies will spend more than $70 billion to modernize and retool their production facilities. They are shutting down old plants and replacing them with new high technology plants. These new plants have many fewer workers but are filled with mechanical robots and computers. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers recently reported that 20% of all the auto workers engaged in direct assembly will be replaced by robots by 1985 and a total of 50% by 1995. It is this process of automation combined with man-eating speedup which has brought about the massive loss of jobs in the auto plants.

But making concessions means pouring gasoline on the fire. The auto capitalists are trying to wring sacrifices out of the workers for the very purpose of gathering capital to help finance their massive retooling schemes. As the Chrysler workers know only too well, concessions to the auto billionaires will never "save jobs" or provide any job security whatsoever apart from guaranteeing the workers a place in the unemployment lines.

Fraser Is More Than Eager to Sell Out the Ford and GM Workers

In the face of the outrageous de- tens of thousands in wage and benefit cuts from each worker in exchange for the promise of a few hundred dollars sometime in the future. What a transparent scam!

In exchange for concessions at Chrysler, Fraser accepted a seat on the Chrysler Board of Directors. And he proclaims this too as another wonderful victory "won at Chrysler." Of course, GM Chairman Smith wasted no time in saying that he would be more than happy to put a UAW hack like Fraser on their board. The GM chairman has seen the "good work" Fraser has done on behalf of Chrysler Corporation and sees no reason why such a loyal errand boy couldn't do just fine for the profits of GM too. Putting one of the UAW chieftains on the board of directors of the auto monopolies is painted as a "victory," as the "workers' voice in management," etc. But in fact it is only a means for the trade union sellouts to more closely coordinate their strike-breaking, sellout activities with their capitalist masters.

The fact of the matter is that all "the things won at Chrysler" of which Fraser boasts are not victories at all. They are sugarcoated bullets aimed at imposing concessions on the workers.

No Concessions to the Ford or GM Billionaires!

Workers throughout the Ford and GM plants are discussing the experience of the Chrysler workers and the arrogant concessions talk of the Ford and GM bosses. Increasingly the workers are seeing the need to take matters into their own hands. Ford or GM may demand the reopening of contracts any time in the next few months. It is also possible that they will wait until the expiration of the contract in 1982. In either case the workers should be prepared. It is only the mass struggle of the workers which can defend their jobs and livelihood!

The struggle of the auto workers against the arrogant concession demands of the auto monopolies is of importance to the whole working class. The capitalist class is on a nationwide wage-cutting offensive. The workers in steel, rubber, auto parts and supply as well as Teamsters, and a large number of public sector workers, are facing the demands by GM and Ford for their workers to make "sacrifices," what has been the response of UAW chieftain, Doug Fraser? He has "militantly demanded that the Ford and GM workers get the very same shafting received by the Chrysler workers!! In a recent interview, Fraser declared that if Ford and GM want wage and benefit concessions that "they've got some goddamned bullets to bite. That includes profit sharing, financial disclosures and all the other things we won at Chrysler." So, Mr. Fraser, you are openly admitting that you are willing to strike a deal with Ford and GM to impose the very same type of concessions you and your cronies on the Chrysler Board of Directors saddled the Chrysler workers with. Mr. Fraser talks about "bullets." But he obviously has only lover's kisses in mind for the capitalist lords of GM and Ford!

Let's just look at some of the wondrous things Fraser "won at Chrysler" in exchange for severe wage and benefit cuts. First of all, there is the "major victory" of profit sharing. Profit sharing is an anti-worker hoax which has as its aim converting the workers into slaves by giving them the illusion that they too have some stake in being exploited to the bone. Not surprisingly, Ford and GM are jumping for joy over the idea of profit sharing. They have already offered to give the workers profit sharing in exchange for wage and benefit cuts. Yes, wage and benefit cuts now for a share of the profits sometime in the future. Ford and GM have proposed that the same profit-sharing formula be used as was used at American Motors in the 1960's (and that's now being used at Chrysler). So let's look at just how the profits would be shared. In 1978, GM had its most profitable year ever, when it earned $3.5 billion after taxes. Using the AMC formula, $241 million would have been divided between the 466,000 GM workers. That year, GM's best year ever, each worker would have received "profit sharing" equal to 26¢ per hour, $10.30 per week, or $516 for the whole year!!!!! This is the joint program of the Big Three auto billionaires and the UAW hacks -- employers' ruthless demands for "sacrifices." Besides Chrysler a number of corporations are licking their chops at the prospect of elimination of COLA. For the Ford and GM workers to take a firm stand will be a blow in favor of the workers everywhere who are facing similar attacks.

Fight overtime and speedup, plant closings and layoffs!

No concessions to Ford or GM!

[Graphic.]

[Photo.]

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On the Struggle of the Chrysler Workers Against Concessions

Brutal wage and benefit cuts have again been imposed on the Chrysler workers. Every force was arrayed against them. Not only the government, Chrysler and the big banks, that back them, but the top UAW bureaucrats too worked to cram the capitalist concessions down the workers' throats. The workers were boiling mad at these further attacks. The MLP carried out a big campaign to organize this anger into a fight against the savage wage-cutting concessions.

A red banner emblazoned with the call NO MORE CONCESSIONS!" was put up by the MLP at a number of factories. The workers enthusiastically greeted it, raising clenched fists in support and denouncing Chrysler and the UAW bureaucrats. Thousands and thousands of copies of a special bulletin of The Workers' Advocate were passed out at the factory gates. As well, stickers denouncing the concessions and calling for mass struggle were distributed by the MLP. Thousands of these stickers were put up in the Chrysler plants and were spread also to plants of GM and Ford.

The call to fight the concessions ran head on against the betrayal and sellout of the workers by Douglas Fraser and the other top UAW bureaucrats. They wrote threatening letters to the workers' families. They refused to hold union meetings and tried to prevent the workers from even meeting together. They refused to notify the laid off workers about where and when the voting would take place. They very obviously stuffed the ballot boxes to create a fraudulent vote in support of their sellout to Chrysler. No trick was too dirty for them as they spit on the fighting spirit of the workers and forced the wage and benefit-cutting Chrysler deal down the workers' throats.

The workers faced very difficult conditions with the despicable sellout by the UAW leadership and with massive layoffs and disorganization. Still there were manifestations of struggle. At the Chrysler tank plant in Warren, Michigan 400 workers demonstrated against the concessions. A few union meetings were held and the leaflets of the MLP were greeted by the workers who came to them. As well, at a number of the largest Chrysler plants across the country, overwhelming votes against the concessions were reported. In fact, in the obviously falsified vote count of the UAW leadership they had to admit that 19,000 workers, 40% of those reported voting, turned down the concessions to Chrysler.

Despite the massive outrage against the wage cuts, the Chrysler workers were unable to break through the betrayal of Fraser and co. and wage mass struggle against Chrysler. Yet, if the Chrysler workers, who find themselves in a most difficult situation, were able to do as much as they did then the GM and Ford capitalists will have no easy time forcing wage cuts on the better situated Ford and GM workers.

Below The Workers' Advocate reprints a leaflet put out by the Detroit Branch of the MLP on January 25, 1981. This leaflet addressed the questions of the Chrysler workers on how to get organized to fight against Chrysler.

CHRYSLER WORKERS:

FIGHT AGAINST THE NEW CONCESSIONS!

Chrysler workers, you have already taken enough. For the second time in the last 14 months you are facing the vicious attacks of the Chrysler corporation, the federal government and the UAW traitors. The big lie that "concessions will save Chrysler and save jobs" has already done more than enough damage. More concessions will only bring greater hardship. In the plants everywhere, workers are burning mad against the new concessions. Workers are coming to the conclusion that they have been backed against the wall and there is no way out but to fight. This is absolutely right.

What Should Be Done?

Chrysler workers, take a firm stand! Take matters into your own hands! Rise up in mass struggle to defend your jobs and livelihood! Make the Wall Street bankers and the other money-grubbers pay for Chrysler's problems. Organize the deep hatred, anger and frustration of all the workers into mass struggle against the concessions. Hold discussions on the line, in the locker rooms, in the break areas, in the unemployment lines and in your homes on how to fight against these brutal attacks. Pass around the leaflets which expose the schemes of Iacocca, Fraser and the government. Put up the "No More Concessions" stickers all over the plants as an act of defiance against Iacocca's wage freeze. Work closely with the Marxist-Leninist Party and together plan to organize mass resistance against the concessions and wage cuts.

In some locals, contract explanation meetings, union meetings and voting will be held in the next week or so. Wherever they are taking place, workers should go to these meetings and vote against the new concessions. Use these opportunities to denounce the new concessions and to call for mass struggle and direct action against Chrysler. Fraser and the UAW bureaucrats are famous for stuffing ballot boxes in their favor so they can demoralize the workers and oppose as "illegal" any mass struggles that the workers organize. This is why the workers cannot and do not have any faith in voting on contracts and why taking up mass action directly against the rich is the only sure way to defend the workers' own vital interests. Nevertheless, Fraser should not be given a free hand to run the voting as he pleases. By voting against the new concessions, it makes it harder for Fraser to make his lying claim that he has the support of the workers for his betrayal. Furthermore, by voting against the contract, by going to the union meetings, and by using every opportunity in the plants, in the union meetings or in the unemployment lines to further arouse the mass of workers, they will be more rallied together and determined to wage mass struggle against Chrysler and its backers.

The Attack on the Chrysler Workers Is an Attack on the Whole Working Class

The wage and COLA freeze cooked up by Chrysler, the government and the UAW traitors are a vicious attack against the Chrysler workers. These attacks are the forerunner of future attacks to be launched against the workers at GM and Ford. Moreover, all the capitalist bloodsuckers would like to make the Chrysler workers an example for the whole working class: that it should knuckle under and "sacrifice" to pay for the economic crisis of the monopoly capitalist exploiters.

It's time to make the rich pay for Chrysler's problems. NO MORE CONCESSIONS! Not another penny to these rich parasites. Such a determined and heroic stand will be a great victory for the Chrysler workers. It will also be a powerful blow struck in support of all the workers now facing savage attacks of the monopoly capitalists. A determined struggle by the Chrysler workers is sure to receive the warm support of all the workers!

No more concessions!

Concessions haven't saved a single job but have only further ruined the Chrysler workers!

To hell with Iacocca's wage freeze!

Fight the layoffs, plant closings, speedup and overtime!

Wage mass struggle to make Chrysler and its Wall Street backers pay!

The attack on the Chrysler workers is an attack on the whole working class!

NEW CONCESSIONS MEAN FURTHER RUIN AND POVERTY FOR THE CHRYSLER WORKERS

1. A Total of $1.1 Billion in Wage and Benefit Cuts. The new concessions are a brutal attack upon the economic livelihood of the Chrysler workers. The proposed contract calls for a 21-month wage freeze and the elimination of all COLA after the March, 1981 payment. All PPH days (Paid Personal Holidays) scheduled for 1981 and 1982 are also eliminated. When added to the concessions made last year, it means that each and every Chrysler worker will lose $17,000 in wages and benefits over the life of the contract.

2. More Plant Closings and Layoffs.It was only one day after the Chrysler Bargaining Council voted to take the new concessions to the membership, that arch-sellout Marc Stepp announced that the Lynch Road assembly plant was closing for good on April 30 with 2,600 workers losing their jobs. This is on top of the five plants that have been closed in the last year. Fraser and Stepp promise the workers that Eldon Gear and Axle, McGraw Glass, Mack Avenue Stamping, Detroit Forge and Windsor Spring plants will stay open until September 1982. But this promise is like spitting in the workers' face, because everyone knows that those plants are like ghost towns with only a fraction of the previous work force in each. Fraser's "sacrifice to save Chrysler" has brought about permanent layoffs for more than 40,000 Chrysler workers.

3. More Pension Cuts for Retirees. Fraser, the newspapers, and the TV are claiming that the retired workers will be protected. But this, too, is nothing but a lie. The new concessions call for the elimination of two pension increases before the end of the contract. By 1982, Chrysler retirees will be getting $1,100 per year less than retirees with the same seniority at GM and Ford. This, too, is on top of the concessions made last year by Fraser, which allowed Chrysler to withhold $200 million in payments from the pension fund, a fund which is already seriously underfunded.

[Cartoon.]

[Photos:

Above:Militants from the Detroit Branch of the MLP vigorously distributing leaflets, stickers and cartoons to the Chrysler workers as they line up to enter the Dodge Truck local union hall in Warren, Michigan. Local UAW officials were thrown into a frenzy when they saw opposition developing against the new concessions. The photo also shows the UAW hacks plotting with the city police in their attempts to suppress the discussion and distribution of literature. Upon seeing the widespread opposition to the new concessions, the hacks and the police were unable to launch an attack on the Party.

Below:More than 400 Chrysler workers from the Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan marched against concessions. Under the slogans "No More Concessions!" and "Vote No!" the workers vigorously denounced Fraser's disgusting sellout and betrayal.]

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GE workers use strikes and slowdowns against productivity drive and layoffs

[The Louisville Worker masthead.]

(The following is taken from an article in The Louisville Worker, newspaper of the Louisville Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA, January 21, 1981.)

Since the July 14 layoffs at GE, the workers have continually been under attack. Firstly, GE laid off 3,700 workers, putting them out on the street while selling the appliances already produced and stored. Secondly, GE rebalanced a number of the assembly lines, adding work onto the workers not laid off. Thirdly, GE further trimmed the crews on the assembly lines by laying off "extra" workers on the lines. Fourthly, GE attempted to get maximum production out of the smaller work force by using their "labor gang" clause in the current contract (which the company believes gives it the right to take a worker off his own job and put him wherever the company wishes). Fifthly, GE attempted to harass the workers bumped onto different jobs to fall into line and right away do their new jobs at the line schedule speed without mistakes or repairs. This harassment was done in the name of "quality."

The workers actively resisted these attacks by the company. The workers opposed having to do more work for the same wages they had received a month before. They refused to jump right in and do the jobs the planners had written on paper, telling the planners and foremen: "If it's such a good job, why don't you do it?" The workers disputed the company's view that they could be "press-ganged" onto whatever job the company wanted, telling the company that if they don't have enough workers for the line why not call back some of the laid off workers? The workers refused to be bullied by the "do quality work or be disqualified" rule the company had tried to impose. They pointed out that GE has always put quantity first, otherwise why does the company order cheaper and cheaper parts from outside suppliers and why do the company supervisors tear off the inspectors' reject tags on parts baskets and tell the workers to run them, rather than let the line stay down for even a few minutes?

This resistance of the GE workers spread to all of the plants in the Appliance Park complex. It's well known that most of the lines ran nowhere close to scheduled production during July and August. In every building repair stands were filling up and the lines were stopping. The resistance developed from a low level to a higher level, finally breaking out in a number of strikes over the past few months.

The workers' resistance to GE's attacks forced the company to begin almost immediately to call back workers on layoff. By the middle of September, almost half the workers laid off were back to work. In July, workers with up to eight years seniority were laid off. By the end of November, workers with two years seniority were being called back. GE found (again) that the lines won't run without extra workers. The company found (again) that the "balances" the planners write on paper can't produce a single appliance. The lines can't run without workers and the workers refuse to be treated like slaves.

Across the country, the capitalist assault on the workers' livelihood is provoking a seething anger in the plants, mines and unemployment lines. In 1980 the employers forced on the workers major wage cuts and other "concessions" to "save" and help "reindustrialize" the capitalist corporations. The two-year wage freeze with which the billionaires are trying to saddle the Chrysler workers provides a model which all the employers would like to follow. With the combined pressure of the massive layoffs and plant closings and the most disgusting betrayal of the trade union bosses such as Fraser of the UAW, the workers' strike movement against these attacks has suffered setbacks. Nevertheless, despite the dirty sellout on the part of the trade union chieftains, the rank and file are stirring in struggle. Mass actions like that of the Wisconsin Steel workers are breaking out against the plant closings and layoffs. Some 1,900 auto workers walked out at GM's Norwood, Ohio plant in November, and other walkouts and slowdowns are being organized against the merciless productivity drives. These stirrings show that the workers have had more than enough and that fierce clashes are brewing.

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JOBS RALLY" IN LACKAWANNA, N.Y.:

Unemployed Workers Denounce Government's 'Reindustrialization' Program

(The following article is reprinted from Buffalo Workers' Voice, organ of the Buffalo Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA, Vol. 2 No. 2, February 16, 1981.)

On February 3, over 100 unemployed workers attended a "Jobs Rally" held in Lackawanna, N.Y. Like millions of their fellow workers across the country -- and throughout the capitalist world -- these unemployed workers are being devastated by the economic crisis. They are seeking a way out of the increasingly intolerable situation they face.

In the Buffalo area, there are tens of thousands of workers who have been thrown out of their jobs during the present, long economic "slowdown." Many of the workers who attended this meeting had been out of work for several years. With no end to the economic crisis in sight -- in fact, with only the prospect of its steadily worsening and deepening -- these workers face still greater impoverishment ahead. This grave situation is made still darker by the Reagan administration's cutting back on the meagre unemployment benefits and relief which do exist. The ever-increasing destitution of the unemployed is propelling them into political motion and struggle to find a way out of this disastrous situation. This meeting clearly showed the growing ferment and arousal of the unemployed, and indicated that a powerful movement against unemployment is definitely brewing among the ten million jobless workers in the U.S.

At this "Jobs Rally," a platform was given to aides of three Buffalo area Congressmen -- the Democrats, LaFalce and Nowak, and the Republican Kemp. These lackeys paraded before the workers to "assure them" that their congressmen are "seriously concerned" about the plight of the unemployed. But this expression of touching concern failed to warm the hearts of the workers who were not in the slightest bit soothed or pacified by these smooth-talking liars. The workers were greatly incensed and outraged against the government and the capitalist political parties, who they held responsible, in large measure, for their devastation.

Neither were the workers at this meeting fooled that the plans of the government and the capitalist parties to so-called "solve unemployment" have anything to do with improving their lot. The aide to Congressman Kemp -- who is a close crony of Reagan and a main "economic policy maker" of the Republican Party -- brazenly promoted increased tax breaks and government handouts to the rich industrialists and bankers as the "decisive action" needed to "create jobs" and "put America back to work." The workers hooted at this open stooge of the rich.

Speaking from the floor of the meeting, numbers of workers scathingly denounced this program, pointing out that:

1. The government is handing out tax money expropriated from the workers to the rich at the same time that it is cutting back on unemployment and other social programs. This shows that the government does not aim at "assisting the unemployed," rather, the government aims to "assist" the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer.

2. Further, workers insisted repeatedly, the money handed over to the capitalists and invested in new plants, in retooling old plants, in buying new machinery, etc., does not create a single job. Just the opposite! It creates greater unemployment. Many of the workers at the meeting were laid off from Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna over the past several years where the introduction of new technology has directly led to thousands of job losses. Furthermore, the example of Chrysler was raised to show what government handouts and bailouts to corporations mean for the workers: devastation through massive job eliminations, wage cuts, and productivity drives.

All the unemployed workers at this meeting enthusiastically applauded this vehement denunciation of government handouts to the capitalists.

Although at this meeting only the aide to Kemp openly advocated government handouts to the corporations to "spur investment and create jobs" -- this program is in fact the common program of both Republican and Democratic Parties. It was the Democratic administration which worked out and initiated the "reindustrialization" scheme which is a fancy name for handouts to the monopolies, speedup and wage cuts and unemployment for the workers. And it was the Democratic Carter administration which worked out the plan to "save Chrysler" through the devastation of those workers. This program, initiated by the "pro-labor" Democrats is the same program which today the openly pro-business Republican administration is implementing.

However, at this meeting of unemployed workers, the aides to the Democratic congressmen, La Falce and Nowak, found it convenient to remain silent about "reindustrialization" and hide the fact that they and their party are big proponents of it. Instead, they attempted to posture before the workers as the "pro-labor" alternative to Reagan and the Republicans by making some feeble promises that the Democrats would fight for "improved unemployment benefits and other measures to assist the unemployed."

But the workers were having none of this either. No one was satisfied with the pledges of the Democrats to assist the unemployed. Several workers expressed their contempt for all the capitalist parties, including the "pro-labor" posturing Democrats, and rejected any notion of "relying" upon these parties to solve the problems of the unemployed. Four years of Democratic administration, experience with its "reindustrialization" program and other vicious anti-working class measures carried out under a thin "pro-labor" disguise -- this experience has not been lost on the workers.

Instead, this meeting showed that the unemployed workers are beginning to seek an alternative to the capitalist parties and their program. The workers at this meeting showed contempt and disgust for both political parties of the rich, and a growing awareness that their program only serves the rich by further devastating the workers. It has nothing to do with "solving unemployment." Moreover, the mood of opposition to the government, and the growing determination to actively resist its program for attacking the workers was unmistakable. The workers were especially aroused to fight against the "reindustrialization" program and cutbacks in unemployment benefits. There was great enthusiasm for a proposal to organize a mass demonstration against unemployment in Washington, D.C.

In addition to other signs of growing struggle against unemployment -- such as marches in several cities demanding jobs and the increasing struggle of workers against the job-cutting schemes of the capitalist employers -- this meeting of unemployed workers clearly showed that bigger mass struggle against unemployment is on the horizon. What path this struggle against unemployment takes is a decisive issue facing the working class.

The Democratic Party hacks are trying to "lead" this struggle into a dead end. They want to organize the unemployed as a "pressure group" supporting the Democratic Party program and policies. But the Democratic Party program is the same as the Republican program -- "reindustrialization"; that is, massive handouts to the capitalists, job elimination and wage cuts and productivity drives for the workers. No matter how the Democrats try to prettify themselves with cheap talk about "increasing unemployment benefits," this party remains a party of capital, of the rich exploiters; a party of unemployment and starvation of the workers. The workers cannot fight unemployment by supporting the program of the Democratic Party. Moreover, the Democratic Party's so-called "opposition" to Reagan amounts to so much hot air. They are not for organizing a real struggle against Reagan, but for channeling the workers' struggle into the tamest, most feeble avenues. They want to prevent it from clashing head on with the rich and the government, to prevent it from damaging the interests of capital and militantly resisting the government's anti-working class program. The workers cannot develop a real fight against unemployment by following such a path.

Rather, the workers must fight unemployment based on the independent politics of their own class. The working class has its own aims and objectives to fight for, which are completely opposed to the aims and objectives of the capitalists, their government and their political parties. The struggle to achieve the demands and aims of the working class requires that the working class build its own independent political movement, without and against the capitalist political parties and their programs. Such a movement must follow the path of resolute class struggle against the rich and their government. Only this path will lead the workers out of the crisis and the devastation and ruin which capitalism has in store for them. The instincts and sentiments of the workers are clearly leading them to seek out this path.

The Marxist-Leninist Party is the essential weapon of the working class for consciously organizing this independent political movement.

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Cranemen and riggers take up fight against rationalization program

(The following article is taken from a leaflet distributed at a large machine tool plant in Chicago. It was written by the Chicago Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA on January 28, 1981.)

In recent months the capitalists of a machine tool factory in Chicago have been attacking workers wholesale with large numbers of arbitrary firings, layoffs, job combinations, with forcing workers to work out of their classifications and with an intensification of the most reactionary discipline. The capitalists are reorganizing production and cutting the labor force to extract maximum productivity from the workers and maximum profits for themselves. A rationalization program is underway.

In particular, the forcing of workers with no training to operate pig-tail cranes and to do rigging has aroused the outrage of all the workers. The crane operators and riggers have taken up struggle against this practice, pointing out several ways in which it is an attack on the workers' livelihoods:

To begin with, such a practice creates extremely dangerous conditions for workers throughout the plant, as workers with no training are expected to guide tons of steel over the heads of workers on the ground.

Secondly, it is an attempt to further cut the work force in this department and combine this work with the jobs of machinists, welders, assemblers, etc. Already the company has cut the crane and rigging department from 93 workers several years ago to just 72 workers presently, all through attrition. Currently there are two members of this department on layoff, yet the company persists in forcing workers in other classifications to do this work.

Thirdly, the capitalists are trying to increase the workload on the remaining riggers and cranemen -- a workload which is already brutal and a workload which the workers must escape from by taking days off, just to get rest.

And fourthly, the capitalists hope that by bringing workers in from other departments they will be able to undermine the resistance that the crane operators and riggers have been known to wage in defense of their livelihoods and against their savage working conditions.

However, the riggers and cranemen have not submitted but have taken up struggle against these vicious schemes of the moneybags. Day-to-day battles have been waged on the plant floor against the various methods the company has used to attack them. In December, in only a two-week period, these workers filed over 80 grievances against the layoffs, the job combinations, the speedup and the dangerous practice of forcing untrained workers to work around the cranes. Nevertheless, the company continued to bring in workers from outside the department. (The company claimed that these men were trained by simply handing them manuals on crane rigging!) The crane operators and riggers then organized themselves and drew up a petition declaring that they would not give an inch on their position and that under no circumstances would they accept a contract which would allow the company to continue their practice of bringing workers from outside the department to work on the cranes. Ninety-seven percent of the workers in their department signed the petition, showing their unity and determination. They then presented this petition to the workers at the union meeting, informing them of the struggle they were waging and winning their support.

The stand of the crane operators and riggers is absolutely just. This stand is inspiring other workers who are also faced with similar attacks by the company. For example, welders and machine operators are told to operate cranes in order to get themselves work. They are also being told to drive jeeps while many jeep drivers are on layoff and the remaining ones are tremendously overworked. Machine operators and helper/laborers also have been laid off. The remaining ones are forced to do more work with no helpers -- thus suffering wage cuts through speedups and loss of bonus. In assembly the production process is being reorganized to extract the highest possible productivity in the most efficient manner from the workers. Tool crib attendants have been cut way back, drastically increasing their workload. These are only a few examples.

On top of these attacks the capitalists are stepping up the most prison-like discipline in an attempt to prevent the workers from discussing with each other and organizing against this vicious rationalization program.

Nevertheless, workers in many departments have organized slowdowns, they are defying the reactionary rules and regulations and they are discussing with each other how to develop their struggle against these attacks.

In an attempt to disarm the workers and prevent them from developing their fight the idea is being floated that the machine tool industry has a "rosy future" due to all the retooling scheduled in auto and steel, and the workers in this industry have "nothing to worry about," their jobs are safe.

This is nothing but deception. While the machine tool capitalists do stand to make enormous profits from this retooling, they will do this through the further devastation of the workers' livelihoods -- through rationalizing this industry as well, with layoffs, job combinations, wage cutting and speedups. For example, while machine tool plants are building highly advanced, labor-saving machinery for auto and steel, they are also bringing such machinery into their own line of production to reduce their own work force. And while Chrysler is freezing the wages and forcing ruthless concessions on the auto workers, the supplier industries are promising price freezes by cutting the wages of their own workers. Machine tool workers do not stand to benefit from the reindustrialization program underway in auto and steel. But like their class brothers and sisters in these industries, they are being devastated by the capitalist offensive.

In fact this line of a "rosy future" comes directly from the top bureaucrats of the USWA. These bureaucrats have fallen all over themselves praising the capitalists' reindustrialization and rationalization programs, claiming that these programs will "save jobs." They would like the workers to believe that they have "common interests" with the monopolies in these times of crisis and thus should "cooperate." But any worker from Chrysler, Wisconsin Steel, US Steel, or many other auto or steel plants, can testify that these programs of the rich mean only handouts to the monopolies and devastation of the workers. The modernization programs with labor-saving machinery, robots and the closing down of inefficient plants are leading to massive layoffs and an expanding army of permanently unemployed workers who are being driven into idleness and starvation on the welfare rolls. Those who are still working are faced with brutal productivity drives and murderous working conditions. The workers' interests do not lie with the capitalist reindustrialization program but in stepping up their mass struggle against it.

The stand that the cranemen and riggers have taken against the rationalization program must be spread throughout the plant. It is only by organizing themselves and relying on their own strength that the workers can put a brake on the attacks of the capitalists and defend their livelihood. It is this struggle which strengthens and unifies the workers firmly in defense of their interests and against the politics of "cooperation" and "common interests" with the capitalists.

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AT STEWART-WARNER, CHICAGO:

2,200 Electrical Workers on Strike

In Chicago 2,200 workers have gone on strike against the outrageous wage-cutting demands of the Stewart-Warner capitalists. For the first time in Stewart-Warner's history the workers have shut down all five of its Chicago facilities. Through their militant rallies, pickets and other actions the workers have shown that they are determined to carry their strike through to victory.

When the workers learned that Stewart-Warner was demanding that they do without a cost-of-living allowance and receive only an 8% wage increase they were boiling mad. At the current inflation rate of 14% in Chicago, this so-called wage increase actually amounts to a whopping wage cut. The workers categorically rejected the company's proposals and set out their own demands for a 90 cents across-the-board wage increase, COLA, the elimination of the lowest wage grade, as well as demands for other benefits.

At a meeting of 1,400 of the workers, they authorized a strike against Stewart-Warner by an overwhelming five-to-one margin. However on January 22, before they were called on to strike, the company locked out the workers at one of their facilities. The workers immediately answered this lockout by setting up pickets and calling their fellow workers out on strike at other of the Stewart-Warner plants. The next day the strike was officially called, all five facilities were shut down, and several hundred workers organized a militant rally to kick off the strike. Since these first days, several hundred workers have gathered on Monday mornings for mass picketing against the company. As well, there have been a number of bitter fights to enforce the workers' picket lines. In these struggles at least two workers have been arrested and a third was injured when he was struck by a supervisor's car. This militancy of the workers demonstrates their firm resolve to defeat the wage-cutting demands of Steward-Warner.

The workers have been able to carry out this strike only by overcoming serious obstacles put in their way by the UE (United Electrical Workers) union bureaucrats. For example, after the workers' overwhelming strike vote forcefully indicated their will to stand up and fight, the UE leadership did not proceed to immediately organize the struggle, but hesitated and stalled, causing maximum disruption. It was because of this stalling that the company was able to lock out the workers at one of the facilities. Only because the workers took matters into their own hands and answered the lockout with a mass picket of several hundred workers were they able to save their struggle from becoming completely disorganized.

The UE trade union hacks have also been disrupting the picket lines. With their legalistic, respectful and cringing conception of what sort of struggle the workers should wage, they have insisted that the workers should not attempt to enforce their picket line. Instead they order the workers to let anyone and everyone cross it. The workers, however, have been strongly opposed to this nonsense. As a result, a number of sharp fights have broken out on the picket lines.

The UE bureaucrats like to create an aura that they are particularly "militant" trade union leaders. But they are hesitating, dragging their feet and sabotaging the strike every step of the way. If the workers are going to win their demands they have to fight not only Stewart-Warner but also their own trade union misleaders.

Today the Stewart-Warner workers are persisting in struggle. Their militant strike is another sign that the working class is awakening to renewed struggle against the wage-cutting offensive of the capitalist class.

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At the Northern Indiana Public Service Co.:

Vigorous Eight Month Strike Defeats "Take Away" Demands

The 4,300 workers of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) have successfully beaten back the company's demands for sweeping contract concessions after the longest strike in the history of a U.S. public utility.

When the contract between the workers and the utility expired early last summer, NIPSCO demanded the elimination of the workers' cost of living allowance, cutbacks in sick leaves, pensions and insurance, and major changes in work rules in order to increase productivity. The workers found these capitalist demands outrageous and intolerable.

Here was a highly profitable utility company demanding wage-cutting concessions from the workers! This is characteristic of the most recent stage of the capitalists' wage-cutting offensive. Now even such obviously lucrative companies as GM and Ford, emboldened by the concessions squeezed out of the Chrysler workers, the rubber workers, etc., are fighting for a spot at the banquet table. Now the richest monopolies are demanding capitalist "equal rights" in gouging the workers. However, unfortunately for the NIPSCO bloodsuckers, the workers were in no mood to "sacrifice" their already meagre livelihoods so that their multi-millionaire employers could feast on ever higher and higher profits. The NIPSCO workers were in a fighting mood.

On June 1, 1980 they went out on strike. In the course of the strike the workers launched numerous mass actions including big strike rallies in Hammond/Crown Point, South Bend, Hobart, Valparaiso, and Goshen; a mile-long caravan by 1,000 workers from Merritville to Fort Wayne; and determined mass actions at the NIPSCO Bailly generating station. In July the workers staged a militant mass picket at the Bailly station preventing any vehicles from passing through, in spite of the fact that the state troopers were called out against the workers. Then again, in September, the workers blocked Route 12 in front of the Bailly station for six hours. In this action seventeen workers were arrested.

As a result of their stubborn, eight-month long strike struggle, the NIPSCO workers beat back essentially all the company's concession demands. In the new contract, the workers retained their uncapped COLA benefits and won wage increases as well, thus keeping close to inflation. The workers defeated the main productivity-increasing work rule changes NIPSCO had wanted concerning meter readers. They won improved health benefits including a new dental and eye plan. As well, the workers won reinstatement for 12 of the 17 workers fired during the strike (the remaining five cases will still have to go to arbitration) and all accusations of picket line infractions will be stricken from workers' records.

All in all, this is a big victory for the NIPSCO workers, as well as an important lesson for the entire proletariat. Only mass struggle promises victory against the arrogant concession demands of the capitalist class.

[Photo: NIPSCO workers and their supporters staged numerous mass actions during their strike. Shown here is a mass picket at the company office in Fort Wayne, Indiana.]

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From the: Chicago ANTI-IMPERIALIST Newsletter

A new paper of anti-imperialist struggle has come out in Chicago. As is pointed out in its statement of purpose, "The Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter, under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party, Chicago Branch, puts opposition to imperialism at the center of the struggle against war preparations. It advocates the mass struggle, appealing to the masses of people and organizing them, as the only path forward. It seeks to unite with other anti-imperialist activists who support these aims. It will work for these goals to strengthen the consciousness and organization of the movement against the war preparations and militarization which is developing."

Following the first issue of the paper, dated December 4,1980, a special issue of the Anti-Imperialist Newsletter (AIN) appeared on January 1, 1981 calling for mass actions against draft registration. On January 5, 1981 Issue # 2 of the AIN was brought out. These papers were distributed widely in the anti-draft demonstrations in January and to the broad masses of workers and youth in the high schools and colleges, work places and neighborhoods of Chicago. With many topical exposures of the aggressive adventures of imperialism and its reports on the developments in the mass movement, the AIN is pointing out to the people the way to fight and is helping to galvanize the anti-militarist sentiment of the masses into a powerful political movement against imperialism.

Below we reprint a series of articles from the January 5 issue of the AIN, edited for republication. Other articles from that issue of the AIN that are not reprinted below are:

-- No to the Draft! No to U.S. Imperialist War Preparations!

-- Experience of the Anti-Draft Struggle: Mass Struggle Against Imperialism Points the Way Forward

-- People Pay for War Machine

-- Anti-Imperialist News and Correspondence

-- In Europe, Japan, New Zealand, etc. -- Mass Struggle Against Imperialist War Preparations

-- Behind U.S. "Concern" Over Poland

Drafted or volunteer army?

It remains an imperialist army

The U.S. imperialists and their news media have been carrying out a big political campaign to strengthen the All-Volunteer Force (AVF). While Carter and the Democratic Party reintroduced the forced registration of 18, 19 and 20 year olds for the draft, a combination of Kennedyite Democrats and Reaganite Republicans have been in the forefront of the campaign for the AVF, as a supposed alternative to the draft. The AVF is supported by the most open reactionaries and warmongers such as Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater and Philip Crane. Various of the Kennedyite liberals and other "left wing" flunkeys of the Democratic Party have joined with "sugar-coated" Reaganites, like the Libertarian Party, to bring this reactionary campaign for the AVF into the anti-draft movement. Under the guise of uniting all who can be united against the draft, the "left wing" flunkeys of the Democratic Party claim "we have a national convergence of liberals and conservatives on this one issue." They have attempted to prettify this campaign for the strengthening of the U.S. war preparations, claiming that this "alternative will make the draft unnecessary," that the all-volunteer army is preferable because it is "defensive" while a drafted army is aggressive, and that a strengthened all-volunteer army will provide training and employment for many who choose it. All these justifications are designed to prettify the nature of the U.S. war machine and divert the anti-draft movement from opposing the U.S. war preparations to being a movement to debate over how best the U.S. can prepare for war.

Under the present all-volunteer force the U.S. has two million troops under arms stationed in over 100 countries all over the world. Under the AVF, the U.S. imperialists have organized a 110,000-man quick-strike force for use to suppress the struggles of the people for freedom and independence. It is presently carrying out aggressive maneuvers in Egypt poised to strike at the Iranian revolution. It is the AVF which has its advisors in El Salvador to crush the popular revolution there. And it was under the auspices of the AVF that the entire Persian Gulf is being militarized and that the U.S. imperialists attempted their invasion of Iran, to restore the Pahlavi dynasty. The AVF has, in addition, been used against the American people, for example, to suppress the rebellion in Miami. Far from a "defensive force," the AVF has remained all along an aggressive tool of the U.S. imperialists to protect its "vital interests" of profit and plunder and subjugation of the people. It is not the size of an army which determines its character nor whether it is a volunteer force or a drafted army. It is the class interests which this army serves which determines its character, and the AVF serves the interests of monopoly capital as its military arm.

The actual proposals being put forward to strengthen the AVF is to spend from $3-5 billion to increase the pay for the lifers in the military. This measure, however, is being presented as a question of assisting the ordinary soldiers, but its sole purpose is to strengthen the mercenary core of the army. For the ordinary soldiers life in the military is one of constant overwork, low pay, and brutalization and abuse along with racial discrimination at the hands of these lifers. The AVF has never provided any training or a decent living for the rank and file soldiers. Just like the society as a whole the army is divided into classes. And the strengthening of the volunteer army is designed to strengthen this class character in service to monopoly capital. The role of the ordinary soldiers is to be nothing more than docile cannon fodder for the imperialists. Numerous incidents of struggles and revolts by the rank and file soldiers testify to this fact.

Far from an alternative to the draft, the strengthening of the all-volunteer army has the purpose of strengthening a mercenary core to whip the drafted youth at a later date into docile cannon fodder. One of the most telling points about the fraud which is being pushed is that the warmonger Reagan plans to pursue both the strengthening of the AVF simultaneously with the continued registration of the youth for the draft.

The anti-draft movement can never accept this reactionary political campaign for strengthening the AVF as an "alternative to the draft" in its ranks. Nor can the anti-draft movement accept any unity with the Reaganites or any other pro-war and pro-imperialist force, including the "left wing" flunkeys of the Democratic Party, into its ranks. This reactionary campaign is designed to have the anti-draft movement debate how the U.S. imperialists should best prepare for war, and to attack the rank and file soldiers and those youth who are press-ganged through the draft into the military by supporting the very forces which are brutalizing them into being cannon fodder.

It is only by inspiring hatred for imperialism and its war preparations among the people that the anti-draft movement can advance. And it is only in this way that the anti-draft movement can play a role in assisting the rank and file soldiers caught in the snares of the military to develop their revolt and rebellion against the imperialist army and its aggression against the people.

(Reprinted from Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter, Issue # 2, January 5, 1981)

FOR YOUR REFERENCE:

The U.S. War Machine Against the World's People

Presently, the U.S. government is strengthening its aggressive military machine all over the world. It is positioning it where its neo-colonial empire is most vulnerable. And it is using it to attack the revolutionary struggles of the people.

The Middle East and Africa

The revolutionary struggle of the Iranian working class and people has toppled the U.S. puppet regime of the Shah and is inspiring the oppressed people in the region and throughout the world to do likewise. In response U.S. imperialism has declared its "right" to military intervention in the Persian Gulf and to exercise its military domination over the region. Carter initiated the Rapid Mobilization Force (RMF), a 110,000 man quick- strike force, which already has thousands of combat-ready troops on over 30 warships and 160 fighter planes in the Persian Gulf. Other units of the RMF are carrying out military exercises and desert warfare training in Egypt. Carter has as well initiated five new supply and forward attack bases in Egypt, Kenya, Somalia, Oman, and Diego Garcia. Reagan has already announced his plans to convert these or initiate other bases for the permanent stationing of U.S. occupation troops.

The U.S. is continuing to arm and support Israeli zionism to attack, murder and terrorize the Palestinian people who are waging a just war of liberation for the return of their homeland from the clutches of the Israeli Zionists.

Central and South America

Recent times have seen the development of the popular revolution in Nicaragua which overthrew the U.S.- backed Somoza regime of exploitation and terror and the continued mass revolutionary struggles of the valiant people of El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, and elsewhere, right in the area that U.S. imperialism considers its "backyard." Immediately after the popular uprising in Nicaragua, the U.S. government declared its intention to use direct military intervention to prevent the spread of such revolutions. The Carter administration launched a hysteria campaign over a Soviet brigade in Cuba as a smokescreen to cover America's own aggressive military buildup. Under this pretext, the Joint Caribbean Task Force was formed as a quick-strike force to intervene anywhere in the region. To the same end, the U.S. strengthened the number of its troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to 2,200 men. These troops are continually practicing sea to land invasion maneuvers. Also, an Eastern Caribbean Coast Guard is being organized by the U.S. The U.S. is extending $10 million in military aid to Barbados and millions more to St. Lucia and St. Vincent for this purpose.

The U.S. is presently sending counterinsurgency teams into El Salvador to direct the logistics, communications and intelligence activities of the fascist military junta in suppressing the popular revolution. In addition, $50 million in economic and military aid is being sent to the junta and hundreds of thousands of dollars of riot control equipment.

Most recently, David Rockefeller toured South America assuring every fascist dictator the all-out support of the Reagan administration for their suppression of the people as long as U.S. corporate interests are looked after. All of this increased aggressive activity of U.S. imperialism in Central and South America is on top of its longstanding military presence in the area, including over 9,000 troops in Panama alone.

Europe

U.S. imperialism is very actively strengthening its aggressive NATO military alliance. Last year it began reequipping NATO with the most up-to- date conventional and nuclear weapons. It has introduced over 500 medium range nuclear missiles onto West European soil. U.S. troop strength is 220,000 in West Germany alone. It has brought the reactionary Greek government back into NATO and is preparing to bring in the monarcho-fascist regime in Spain, as well. Last November, in conjunction with NATO troop exercises in Turkey, U.S. imperialism engineered the fascist military coup d'etat in Turkey to suppress the revolutionary struggle of the Turkish people and to further strengthen its hand against the Iranian revolution. The U.S. is also planning a new Rapid Mobilization Force which it wants to station in Portugal. The U.S. imperialists utilize their NATO alliance to subjugate the people of Western Europe and to contend for world domination with Soviet social-imperialism. NATO is also used as a base of aggression for attacking the people in the Middle East and Africa, especially.

Asia

Last April, a tremendous mass struggle broke out among the people of South Korea against the martial law regime of General Chun and the devastating economic conditions imposed on the people as a result of U.S. neo-colonial domination. These included a 50% inflation rate, brutal working conditions, a 20% devaluation of the currency, and a 59% hike in oil prices (oil "supplied" by Standard of California, Texaco and Gulf). When General Chun found his forces insufficient to suppress and crush the popular revolt, he appealed to U.S. Defense Secretary Brown for assistance. The request was, of course, granted. U.S. General Wickham oversaw the deployment of U.S. equipment and 70,000 Korean troops (which are permanently commissioned under U.S. command) to crush the rebellions. The U.S. military forces in South Korea covered their positions and a U.S. aircraft carrier was dispatched to Korea as a backup force.

The reactionary U.S.-China warmongering alliance has been developed to suppress the peoples' revolutions in Asia and to contend more fiercely with Soviet social-imperialism. The aggressive nature of this alliance was once more illustrated when, right after the establishment of diplomatic relations and Deng Xiaoping's visit to the Carter White House, the Chinese social-imperialists, with the support of the U.S. imperialists, invaded Viet Nam with over 200,000 troops.

All of this increased aggressive activity is taking place on top of the permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Japan, along with rearming of Japan. As well, the U.S. occupation bases in the Philippines, which back up the fascist Marcos regime, have historically been used as bases of aggression against the people of Asia.

At Home

Just as the U.S. military machine, a tool of the monopoly billionaires, is dripping with the blood of the people all over the world, so too it is dripping with the blood of the American working class and people. The U.S. domestic military machine, composed of the regular armed forces, the National Guard and the domestic police along with fascist gangs such as the Klan and the Nazis, has time and again been unleashed against the struggles of the American working class and people. Just this past summer, Carter called out the National Guard to suppress the rebellion of the black people in Miami in their struggle against racial discrimination and police terror. In the past year the police forces and fascist gangs have been unleashed against the oppressed nationalities in the U.S. and have been the perpetrators of tens of thousands of cases of murder and beatings, with over 3,000 currently under "investigation" by the Justice Department. The police, as well, in the past year or so have been sent out to attack anti-nuclear and anti-draft demonstrations and the strike struggles of the workers. In 1976, Carter called out the National Guard to attack the glorious strike struggle of the coal miners. Reagan when he was governor of California called out the troops against the demonstrations and protests of the people many times. During the 1960's the regular army troops were called out time and again to attack the struggles of the people.

(Reprinted from Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter, Issue # 2, January 5, 1981)

"Private Benjamin": Pentagon-feminist propaganda for the militarization of women

As part of the all-round militarization of society, all kinds of ideological and propaganda tools are being used by the ruling class, including the popular media, to involve women in this process. A chief example of this propaganda for the militarization of women is the movie Private Benjamin which is currently touring the country. Private Benjamin has been widely promoted by the regular bourgeois advertising services and by various bourgeois feminists and their organizations, like the National Organization for Women whose newspaper carried a full page advertisement for it. The army has applauded the movie and awarded actress Goldie Hawn honorary sergeant's stripes for her service in pushing the militarization of women.

The movie portrays Goldie Hawn as a frustrated, underconfident, naive young widow who casually joins the army with illusions that it will easily solve her problems. Initially in comic fashion the focus is on her incompatibility with military life and she almost resigns. However, a confrontation with overbearing parents causes her to resolve to stay and endure. She eventually becomes zealous and succeeds. While in the military she is involved in various pranks and adventures and ends up in Europe, the place of her choice. There she meets and becomes engaged to a Frenchman and is forced to leave the army for him. This relationship starts a degenerative process where she reverts back to her pre-military behavior. Soon she realizes this, leaves him, and the movie ends with the implication of her returning to the army as the solution once again to all her problems.

The movie has no other purpose than to be a recruiting film to entice women into the military and to prettify the drafting of women. The movie glorifies militarism and covers up the real purpose of the U.S. military machine. Numerous scenes show marches, training exercises and ceremonies. Other scenes show elite soldiers standing at attention wearing berets while the outfit's theme song is played in the background. The process of the assimilation of the women into the army is treated comically. It is not, however, the military's organization and discipline that is ridiculed but the individual women are ridiculed. The reality of military training is glorified. The brutalization, the constant political indoctrination, the harsh discipline, sexual harassment, lack of choice, and other bad conditions which are imposed upon the youth to turn them into docile cannon fodder for the military machine are in fact presented in liberation colors. In the past the militarist propaganda was that the army builds men. Now we are being fed the lie that it also allows women to achieve liberation. The military is presented as the vehicle by which Judy Benjamin allegedly achieves liberation, especially through the basic training process. Her defiance of her overbearing parents is "achieved" by resolving to succeed in the military which is presented as an excellent place to achieve self-confidence and liberation. Later as the prodigal daughter of the army she realizes that she is degenerating back to her old ways and she goes back to the army to which she owes her liberation and fulfillment. Many bourgeois feminists are arguing precisely this point, that the equality of women is best demonstrated by her full acceptance and equality in the military. They are urging the women to accept their being drafted on this basis. The movie achieves that unique blend called Pentagon feminism. The reality of what Judy Benjamin has achieved in the military is being a cog in the military machine which is used to suppress the people at home and abroad.

(Reprinted from Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter Issue # 2, January 5, 1981)

Anti-Imperialist News and Correspondence

To Enforce the Draft Registration Government Suppresses Working Class Youth

Since the summer, I met a number of young workers who directly recounted to me the extent of the U.S. government's campaign to force the youth to register for the draft. A number of young workers told me that they had been sent by their employers directly out of the factory to register. Others recounted that they had been stopped by the police who threatened them if they did not register. As well, numerous high school students reported being continually harassed at their schools by military recruiters. These incidents are a graphic example that the U.S. imperialists are deadly serious about reinstituting the draft and that they are using, and will continue to use, the full force of their state machine and its reactionary institutions to enforce the press-ganging of the youth.

In addition, a co-worker of mine, who was a welding student at a trade school in Joliet, Illinois during the two weeks of draft registration last summer, told me a similar incident. He said there were about two hundred 19 and 20 year olds attending the school at the time. He said that there was widespread opposition to the draft and the government's war preparations among the students. My friend is himself an Asian national minority worker and knows well the history of U.S. imperialism's bloodthirsty aggression in Indochina. He said that many of the students were aware that the war being prepared by the U.S. was a reactionary aggressive war on behalf of the oil billionaires. The trade school administration forced all the students to register for the draft with the threat of expulsion if they didn't. Nevertheless, dozens of students refused to register and were either expelled or quit the school. This incident shows how the government and the reactionary authorities threaten the very livelihood of the workers if they refuse to docilely accept becoming cannon fodder for the wars of the rich. This incident, as well, illustrates the widespread and deep contempt of the working class youth for the draft and the U.S. military machine. When this progressive sentiment is further led onto the path of conscious mass struggle against imperialism, it will increasingly become a powerful current of the revolutionary movement.

(Reprinted from the "Anti-Imperialist News and Correspondence " section of Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter, Issue # 2, January 5, 1981)

Workers Defend Iranian Revolution Against Chauvinism of Labor Traitors

I am writing to you to share certain experience I've had in organizing opposition to the government's attempts to develop its warmongering anti-Iranian hysteria campaign in the working class.

I work in heavy industry. At my plant there is a literature distribution network organized under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party. Right from the beginning we took up the struggle in defense of the Iranian revolution. We found a section of workers had deep sentiment for the Iranian revolution. This was reflected in comments like: "It's very inspiring to see the unity of the Iranian people." "They're fighting for freedom and independence." "We need to do like Iran and have a civil war here against the rich."

Other workers were confused on various issues but by and large it was only the labor aristocrats of the US WA who consciously worked to develop the government's campaign of chauvinism against Iran. The local union (like District 31 as a whole) distributed literature and carried out discussion based on racist filth against Iranian people, and in one meeting rammed through a resolution beating the drum for Carter's war preparations against Russian "communist aggression" in Afghanistan.

Our literature distribution network did protracted ideological work, distributed The Workers' Advocate and other Marxist-Leninist literature. We also organized mass discussions and denunciations to channel the workers' anti-imperialist sentiments into conscious political struggle in support of the Iranian revolution.

This led to numerous struggles on the part of the workers against U.S. imperialism's attempts to strangle the Iranian revolution. For example, the day after Carter's April military adventure against the Iranian revolution the whole atmosphere at work was charged with electricity. The workers were denouncing Carter up and down for his shamelessly hypocritical "desire for a peaceful solution" to the so- called "hostage issue." Workers denounced Carter as gambling with and instigating possible war. The sham pretext of the "hostage issue" was again exposed as an old trick of the imperialists, used also in the Tonkin Gulf incident, the Mayaguez affair, the Pueblo, etc., as a cover for U.S. imperialism's brutal aggression against the revolutionary struggles of the peoples. It was only a couple of local union functionaries who were actively going to workers moaning that "Carter screwed the whole thing up" but that "at least he tried." One of these guys, brimming over with sympathy for Carter in his hour of failure, sauntered up to a discussion where six or seven workers were denouncing the U.S. military raid. When this character gave his sham "criticism" of Carter it was immediately pointed out that his only "criticism" was that Carter wasn't an efficient enough strategist for U.S. imperialist aggression. The reactionary stammered out the old refrain, "Well, what about the hostages?" Several workers brought out the fact that it is not the hostages but the oil and the super-profits of the oil monopolies which Carter is concerned about. One worker stated that "If Carter is so concerned about the hostages why didn't he just give the Shah up?" Somewhat taken aback at the staunch character and clarity of the workers' opposition to his demagogy,the little aristocrat claimed that, of course, he too was against the Shah. But, he went on to say, "the U.S. is forced to do something to get the situation under control or the Russians will take over the whole region." One worker said that the U.S. and Russia are the same. Russia is slaughtering the people in Afghanistan just like the U.S. slaughtered the people in Viet Nam and is planning to do to the people of Iran. With these words and more, U.S. imperialism's demagogy about Russian aggression was torn to shreds.

After the reactionary walked away murmuring to himself, several workers stayed around to discuss other questions such as: What are the goals of the Iranian revolution? Can a small country exist and stand on its own two feet against the two superpowers?, etc.

By relating this incident of mass political discussion among the workers, I wanted to point out that it is the labor aristocracy which is the vehicle for chauvinist and pro-imperialist ideas being promoted in the working class. It is necessary to stand up and oppose this chauvinism in very concrete terms. The clarification of these issues through the struggle helps to both arm and arouse the workers to launch further struggles against U.S. imperialism and its war preparations.

I am sure that the Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter will prove to be a valuable tool in our efforts to strengthen the anti-imperialist trend in the working class.

(Reprinted from the "News and Correspondence" section of Chicago Anti-Imperialist Newsletter, Issue # 2, January 5, 1981)

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NO TO THE DRAFT!

Forward in the fight against imperialist war preparations!

January demonstrations oppose the reintroduction of the draft

Throughout the week of January 5- 10, thousands and thousands of workers and young people joined in militant demonstrations against draft registration. The protest marches and rallies extended from the post offices, where the government was forcing 18 year olds to register for the draft, to army recruiting stations, military bases, college and high school campuses and into working class neighborhoods. Centered on opposition to the reintroduction of the military draft, the mass actions also protested the all-round militarization in the U.S. and in many cases denounced the aggressive adventures of U.S. imperialism with slogans like No draft! No war! U.S. out of El Salvador! and U.S. imperialism, hands off Iran!

The Marxist-Leninist Party took an active part in organizing this week of struggle. It called demonstrations and rallies all across the country, organized contingents for other actions that had a mass character, and spread leaflets against the draft and all imperialist war preparations in the factories, schools and communities. Everywhere the MLP raised the banner of anti-imperialist struggle and showed the masses that opposition to imperialism must be put in the center of the fight against the draft.

The January demonstrations took place against the attempts to prevent them by the Democratic Party and its flunkies in the anti-draft movement. They fought to stop the mass struggle so as not to embarrass Carter and the Democrats while they still stood at the head of draft registration. Their dirty role shows that the movement must break with the Democratic Party and fight against it as part of the struggle against the draft and the other preparations for imperialist war.

The Anti-Draft Movement and the Work of the MLP

It is notable that along with the working youth and college students, more and more high school students took part in the January anti-draft actions. Anti-militarist sentiment is spreading through the high schools. Students are wearing stickers and buttons against the draft and imperialism. Opposition to military recruiters has begun. There is excited discussion on the current warmongering policies of Reagan and of Carter before him. A burning interest has developed to learn everything about the mass movement of the 1960's against U.S. imperialist aggression in Viet Nam. The MLP paid attention to encouraging this ferment. Special leaflets and stickers were put out, which the students distributed widely through the schools. Students were mobilized to take part in the mass actions against the draft. As well, the MLP assisted them to get organized, to build political discussion groups and to join anti-imperialist organizations. The increasing activity of the high school students shows that the anti-draft movement continues to grow, drawing wide sections of the population into struggle.

The MLP carried out extensive work to organize the working class to take its proper place in the center of the anti-imperialist struggle. The workers are deeply concerned about the saber- rattling calls of Reagan and the government's frenzied military buildup. Their blood boils when they think that again, just as in Viet Nam, their youth will be made cannon fodder for the aggressive adventures of the billionaires against the working class and people of other countries. The MLP worked hard to use this anger of the workers to bring them into action against the imperialists. Extensive leafletting was carried out at the factory gates, as well as on the unemployment lines, in the neighborhoods, at social gatherings and elsewhere. Party distribution networks spread the leaflets widely inside the factories. Discussion groups and meetings in workers' homes were used to generate wide ranging discussion on the current policies of the government and the imperialist basis of the war preparations. The MLP also organized demonstrations in the working class neighborhoods. These fiery actions played an important role in inspiring in the workers a desire to take up the struggle against the imperialist war preparations. The outpouring of support for these anti-imperialist demonstrations and for the work of the MLP reveals the deep revolutionary sentiment that is gripping the workers today.

The U.S. ruling circles are becoming increasingly concerned over the determined development of the anti-draft movement and are stepping up their repression against it. Over 140 anti-draft activists were arrested during the week of mass actions in January. Many were arrested for sit-ins and other attempts to shut down the post offices and military recruiting stations. As well, a number of times the police sent one or two fascists to attack demonstrators and to disrupt the marches. When these fascists were justly repulsed by the anti-draft fighters the police waded in to rescue the fascists, assaulted the demonstrators and tried to disperse their marches. The MLP organized to defend the demonstrations against these attacks. It encouraged active resistance to the assaults. MLP supporters were in the front ranks of the activists who fought back against the police and fascist elements. The MLP worked to rally all the anti-draft fighters against any disruption and to carry through the mass actions. In these struggles and other anti-draft work six supporters of the MLP were arrested.

Everywhere, in all of its work, the MLP hoisted the banner of anti-imperialist struggle. It showed that the draft, which is being prepared through the current registration, has no other purpose than to serve the imperialist ambitions of the profit hungry monopoly capitalists. The MLP denounced U.S. imperialism's attacks on the Iranian revolution, on the liberation struggle in El Salvador, and on the people of other countries. While putting the fight against U.S. imperialism to the fore, the MLP also opposed the other imperialist powers and especially the Soviet social-imperialists. The MLP exposed that Reagan's ravings against the aggression of the new tsars of the Soviet Union does not aim at a fight for the freedom and independence of the people, but at a fight over which of these two big imperialist superpowers gets how much of the loot that is plundered from the world's people.

The wide-ranging work of the MLP and the further progress of the mass movement has meant that there is an increasing outrage against imperialism. For example, in the January actions the fight against the draft was frequently linked to militant opposition to the aggressive activities of U.S. imperialism in El Salvador. In fact, major demonstrations have continued in February under the slogan of No Draft! No War! U.S. Out of El Salvador! As well, the growing support for the anti-imperialist work of the MLP and for the building of anti-imperialist organizations such as the Union of Anti-Imperialist Students (Buffalo) and the Union of Anti-Imperialist Activists (Syracuse) shows that more and more activists are making opposition to imperialism the cornerstone of the anti-draft struggle.

Fight the Sabotage of the Flunkies of the Democratic Party

The anti-imperialist work of the MLP and its organizing in the January actions were important in building the anti-draft movement and defending it against the sabotage by flunkies of the Democratic Party. With Reagan coming into the White House, the Democratic Party is seizing the opportunity to step up their infiltration into the movement and to play the role of "opposition." But their aim is not to fight imperialism and war. Instead, they are entering the movement to subvert the anti-imperialist struggle and to bring it under the wing of the Democratic Party and its warmongering policies.

Last fall, the flunkies of the Democratic Party canceled many actions against draft registration and virtually liquidated "anti-draft week" so as not to embarrass Carter and the Democrats while they were running for office. Again in January they sabotaged the struggle, canceling numbers of actions or failing to call them at all. As long as Carter was still in the White House and as long as draft registration was still headed up by the Democrats, they did not want the masses out in struggle. They want to dull the consciousness that it was the Democrats who restarted draft registration in the first place. They want to conceal the fact that the Democrats are a party of monopoly capitalism, just like the Republicans, and that Reagan is simply carrying forward the warmongering programs that were begun by Carter and the Democratic Party. They are not trying to build a serious mass movement to fight the imperialist war preparations, which are now headed up by Reagan and the Republicans. Instead, they want to subvert the mass struggle and make the anti-draft movement a vehicle to propel the Democrats back into office.

Reagan's warmongering can never be fought with the equally warmongering policies of the Democratic Party. Just look! Instead of calling for mass struggle, the Democratic Party flunkies busied themselves writing letters to Reagan making impotent appeals that he carry out his "campaign promises" and call off draft registration. These whining liberals forget so soon that Reagan's campaign promise was to arm to the teeth to make the U.S. the number one imperialist superpower, the chief oppressor and hangman of the world's people. When Reagan did mention a word against the "peacetime draft" it was perfectly clear that his opposition was not against the draft, but against "peacetime." The flunkies of the Democratic Party are not fighting the draft, but cringing before the Republicans.

In fact, these same flunkies who parade Democratic Party hacks as the featured speakers at their rallies and conferences are bringing Reaganite reactionaries into the movement. They are fawning on the Libertarian Party, for instance, and are trying to pass it off as an anti-draft fighter. But the Libertarians are just sugarcoated Reaganites. They support Reagan's program to cut the minimum wage under the lying claims that this will alleviate unemployment and therefore release the economic pressure that forces some poor and oppressed into the military. For the Libertarians the solution to militarism is not to fight imperialism, but to intensify the exploitation of the working masses. Like Reagan, the Libertarians ardently believe in foreign intervention and the propping up of fascist dictators and other puppets of U.S. imperialism. They demagogically denounce Reagan for foreign intervention by the "government," but they turn right around to avidly support the same intervention when carried out directly by monopoly capitalism through "private foreign aid, both military and economic." (1980 Libertarian Party Program, section on the Middle East) Despite the fact that the Reaganite nature of the Libertarians is well known and despite the great hatred for them by the masses of anti-draft activists, the Democratic Party flunkies are bringing them into the movement and even giving them high positions in their coalitions. This is not building a "broad coalition to stop the draft," but sabotaging the struggle and tying the movement to its own worst enemies.

The issue here is: the draft for what? The U.S. army is an aggressor army, a army of imperialist conquest and enslavement. The reintroduction of the draft is for the sole purpose of further strengthening these aggressive forces. In the fight against the draft, opposition to imperialism must be put in the center.

What is needed today is not "broad unity" with the Reaganite reactionaries. Nor will unity with the sweet-talking liberal warmongers of the Democratic Party help. No! The Republicans and Democrats are the main parties of capitalist reaction, of imperialism and war. They must be denounced and their political hacks treated with the contempt they deserve. The anti-draft movement must take a path independent of these warmongers.

What is needed today is agitation and organization among the workers, youth, women and all the oppressed masses. They must be called out in mass actions directed squarely against U.S. imperialism. Anti-imperialist and revolutionary literature should be distributed widely. The anger that is boiling up against the draft and against all the imperialist war preparations must be used to organize the masses, to forge revolutionary groups everywhere in the course of the mass struggle. U.S. imperialism is a world slavemaster and it is preparing terrible new crimes in order to preserve and extend its world plunder. Every step it takes must become the cause for drawing ever increasing numbers into struggle.

Forward in the struggle against imperialism!

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BOSTON:

Police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement!

Below The Workers' Advocate reprints a leaflet issued by the Boston Branch of the MLP on February 9. This leaflet tells the story of the anti-draft struggle in Boston during the January registration of 18year olds. In it the Branch calls for the working masses to support the anti-draft struggle and to come to a picket line organized to protest the arrest and trial of a number of anti-draft activists.

Along with this leaflet an account of the trial itself is carried below. These articles show how the government is stepping up its repression against the anti-draft struggle. More significantly, they show the militant spirit which is emerging in the anti-draft movement. The anti-draft fighters are defying the government, resisting the attacks of the police and are continuing their determined struggle against the war preparations of the bloodstained U.S. imperialists. The Workers' Advocate supports the fighting spirit of the Boston anti-draft activists. The police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement! Go all out to fight U.S. imperialism!

On Thursday, February 12, nearly 20 anti-draft activists will be on trial for participating in a militant demonstration on January 10 at the Harvard Square Post Office against registration for the draft.

During the week of January 5-10, the U.S. government was compelling 18 year old youths, under penalty of the full force of the law, to register for the military draft. However, the week was also a time of militant struggle and mass actions by people across the country who defiantly marched into the streets in opposition to the reintroduction of the draft and U.S. imperialist war preparations. In the Boston area, such actions as rallies, demonstrations, marches through working class neighborhoods, pickets and mass leafletting took place all week.

In the face of this strong and just opposition to the reintroduction of the draft, the government organized numerous attacks on the demonstrations. On Monday, January 5, a fascist provocateur attacked a rally at the downtown post office. When the rally turned to chase him away, the police quickly jumped in to protect him. That day, federal police arrested some 20 demonstrators including one 16 year old whom they brutally beat with fists and billy clubs. The court later convicted these demonstrators. On Tuesday, January 6, another lone fascist frenziedly attacked a picket line of Viet Nam veterans at the Central Square Cambridge Post Office. When the picketers meted out the appropriate punishment, the police rescued the fascist and drove him away in a police car.

At the Harvard Square Post Office demonstration on January 10, the federal and Cambridge police organized the most large-scale, premeditated attack of the week. Even before the demonstration had started, the police had already cordoned off the area, had assembled a large force of police who talked openly of beating up demonstrators and had parked a paddy wagon nearby with its doors wide open.

The police utilized a notorious fascist provocateur who tried to disrupt the demonstration repeatedly. The police attacked the demonstration three times. In all, 21 activists were arrested, including two supporters of the Marxist-Leninist Party who were singled out for their militant role in the demonstration and the fight they waged to defend it from attacks. All those arrested were charged with the trumped-up charge of disorderly person, which carries a maximum sentence of six months and a $200 fine.

Despite the violence of the police and the threat of jail, the demonstration militantly continued. The shouts of "No to the draft!, We remember Viet Nam! U.S. imperialism, hands off Iran!,'' "No draft! No war! U.S. out of El Salvador!," and "Police cannot stop the anti-draft movement!" rang out, welding the demonstrators into one united force. When the post office closed at noon, the demonstration marched right to the Central Square police station where it continued until the last activist was released.

The attacks on the anti-draft movement expose the nature of the war the government is preparing. The U.S. government is not a democratic government as it pretends but an imperialist government, a government of the big monopolies and banks. It is preparing for war to fight with Soviet social- imperialism over who gets the lion's share of the loot plundered from the world's people -- the financial sharks of Wall Street or the Kremlin. It is preparing for war to drown in blood the people's struggles for liberation. Daily, the unfolding events in Iran and El Salvador demonstrate this fact even more clearly.

The government knows full well that the American people have not forgotten Viet Nam, that their blood boils when they think of the government forcing the youth to be cannon fodder for another war of aggression for the billionaires. The government knows full well it is the American working class and people who pay for such wars with their blood. It is for these reasons the government is deathly afraid of the growth of the movement in opposition to its war preparations. These are the reasons the government so viciously attacks the anti-draft movement!

As the government escalates its war preparations, the attacks on the movement will also escalate. This will only serve to further isolate the government from the masses of the people. For this reason, it is extremely important for the anti-draft activists to actively resist these attacks and further mobilize the masses into struggle against U.S. imperialism.

The activists arrested at the Harvard Square Post Office on January 10 have taken up this path. Instead of being cowed down by the police, courts and jails, they are denouncing the government's attacks on the movement and utilizing their trial as an opportunity to further arouse the masses against U.S. imperialist war preparations. They have issued and widely distributed a leaflet condemning and exposing the government's attacks on themselves and stating their determination to continue their struggle. They have also organized a picket right at the courthouse on the morning of their trial under the slogans, "No to the draft!" and "Police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement!"

In the face of the government's attempts to intimidate and silence the anti-draft movement, the Marxist- Leninist Party calls on all class conscious workers and progressive people to support the stand of the anti-draft activists. Condemn the government's war preparations and its attacks on the anti-draft movement! Participate in the mass actions against the war preparations! Join the picket line of February 12 at the Cambridge Courthouse and attend the trial itself. It is the vigorous development of the mass movement which is the fitting reply to the government's attacks.

No to the draft!

Police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement!

Join the picket line, Middlesex County Courthouse!

[Photos: During the week of registration of 18 year olds for the draft, the MLP organized pickets and demonstrations in many cities, and also organized contingents for other actions of a mass character.

1. Detroit: After a militant picket at the Highland Park Post Office, the Party organized a spirited march through the area's shopping district on January 10.

2. New York City: On January 10, a vigorous anti-draft march was held through the working class/immigrant neighborhoods of Manhattan's upper west side.

3. Chicago: A scene from a march through a working class neighborhood organized by the Party on January 10. The Party also held demonstrations at the Main Post Office on January 5 and at Northeastern Illinois University during the week.

4. Boston: On January 9, the MLP organized a march during the evening rush hour through the South End neighborhood. The march concluded with a rally at the Boston Common where the draft and the imperialist war preparations were vigorously denounced.

5. Seattle: A scene from an anti-draft demonstration organized by the Party on January 10.

6. Berkeley, Cal.: The Party organized a contingent for the demonstration of 150 people at the post office on January 5. Eight demonstrators were arrested by the police after 75 activists tried to disrupt the registration process.]

[Photos: Left: A scene from the anti-draft demonstration at the Harvard Square Post Office, Cambridge on January 10. A large police force was set up there to intimidate the masses, and a fascist element was sent in to disrupt the demonstration. After the demonstrators justly dealt with the attacks of the fascist, the police came to his aid and arrested 21 activists. Right: The militant picket held afterward at the Cambridge police station denounced the draft, war preparations, and the police attacks on the anti-draft movement.]

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REPORT ON THE TRIAL OF ANTI-DRAFT ACTIVISTS IN BOSTON

On February 12th, 21 anti-draft activists, including two supporters of the MLP, were brought to trial in Boston on charges of "disorderly person." They had all been arrested on January 10 when the police and a fascist element attacked their militant demonstration against draft registration.

The morning of the trial 50 people formed a march to protest the police repression and the trial of the anti-draft fighters. The government tried to prevent this mass action by ordering all picketing near the courthouse illegal. But the demonstrators would not be stopped. Shouting slogans of "Police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement!," "No draft! No war! U.S. out of El Salvador!" and "We remember Viet Nam! U.S. imperialism,hands off Iran!" the protesters marched into the adjoining community. For a period of time they paraded at a subway (MBTA) stop, shouting slogans and passing out many leaflets against the draft and the police repression of the movement. They then marched back through the community and right into the courthouse, where the trial was getting ready to start.

The trial itself proved to be a complete kangaroo setup aimed at rubber stamping the police attack on the January 10 demonstration. The prosecutor admitted that he could not identify people with the acts they supposedly committed. Instead of presenting facts, he argued that since the people were arrested at the demonstration then they must have been disorderly and in violation of the law.

The police witnesses also were unable to identify anyone other than the fascist element who had been sent into the demonstration to assault the activists and disrupt their march. Only after a recess in the trial, during which the policemen were coached as to what to say, were they able to identify any of the demonstrators. Even then their identification was ridiculous as was shown when one of the cops pointed the finger of blame at a juvenile who was not even standing trial. When this policeman was cross-examined by a supporter of the MLP he blurted out the truth as to what lay behind this entire trial. He admitted that what he considered unlawful was the shouting of slogans against the imperialist war preparations.

In the middle of the trial the judge, giving no explanation, dismissed charges against everyone except the two supporters of the MLP and one other activist. The fascist element was also released even though he was the only person clearly identified by all the policemen and even though he was the one who attacked the demonstrators in the first place.

As well, the judge ordered the 18 activists whom he had dismissed charges against to leave the courtroom. They, however, snuck back in. A court bailiff provoked a shouting match with two of them while trying to drive them back out. When the judge realized they were determined to stay, he backed down and continued the trial with them present.

In the final part of the trial the two supporters of the MLP proved conclusively that even by the bourgeoisie's own laws the prosecution could not show that the demonstrators were "disorderly persons." They exposed that the fascist element had physically assaulted the demonstrators but he was let go while the anti-draft fighters were still on trial. They showed, as well, that it was the police who had viciously attacked the anti-draft marchers. Through a clear presentation of the facts they proved without a doubt that the arrests and trial had no other purpose than to try and stop the people from organizing against the government's program of draft registration and all-round preparations for imperialist war.

The judge was not interested in the facts or even in his own laws. Bent on teaching the anti-draft movement a lesson he found the three activists guilty and fined them a total of five hundred dollars.

All the people in the packed courtroom were outraged at this verdict and they expressed their determination to continue the fight against the draft and U.S. war preparations. As the judge left the courtroom the supporters of the MLP defiantly shouted out, "Police and jails cannot stop the anti-draft movement!," "No to the draft!"

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Forward With the Revolutionary Work of the Caribbean Progressive Study Group

(The following is excerpted from an article in The West Indian Voice, newspaper published by the Caribbean Progressive Study Group, Issue No. 12, February-March, 1981.)

During 1980 the reputation and work of the Caribbean Progressive Study Group as a fighting revolutionary organization spread its influence in the New York area. CPSG -- for active resistance to racist and fascist attacks; CPSG -- for the complete national liberation of the countries and peoples in the West Indies from all imperialism and reaction; CPSG -- for active participation in the revolutionary mass movements of the American working class and people -- that is how the masses have come to know the Caribbean Progressive Study Group.

CPSG in the Fight Against Racist and Fascist Attacks

During 1980 the racist terror of the police against the black masses was stepped up, and the government brought out into the open the racist gangs and murderers. In Miami, Chattanooga and numerous other towns and cities across the U.S., important rebellions broke out against the racist violence unleashed by the monopoly capitalist dictators. In New York, police bullets mercilessly mowed down many black youths. CPSG established itself right in the very midst of all the important stirrings of the masses against racist attacks in the New York area, widely and boldly called for the active resistance of the masses to answer the barbarous assaults of the rich. In the leaflets it issued -- such as the one defending the Miami rebellion; in its work in the mass demonstrations and meetings against police murders in Bushwick; in the picket at the 83rd precinct and the march it organized to commemorate the first anniversary since the mass outburst against the police slaughter of Luis Baez in Brooklyn -- CPSG called on the masses to prepare and become organized for struggle against racist attacks and pointed out that nothing but police truncheons and night riders could be expected from the capitalist rulers and that therefore it is for the masses themselves to give a fitting response to racist atrocities of the government and carry their struggle forward. …

In the course of this work for the development of the struggle of the black people against racist attacks, CPSG waged a relentless struggle against the traitors to the black people, the politicians and cultural nationalists who act as professional "riot stoppers" and fire fighters. CPSG fought their attempts to prevent the movement from developing and their attempts to tie down the masses to the parties of the rich, particularly to the Democrats. Indeed, for the whole year these gentlemen refused to call a single demonstration, fearful that if the mass movement had broken out, it would have embarrassed and exposed the Democrats, the party then in power, as a racist tool of the capitalist dictators. …

CPSG -- On the Front of Solidarity with the Struggles for National Liberation in the West Indies

During 1980, U.S.-led Western imperialism, in order to overcome the "instability" of its neo-colonial empire in the West Indies, moved to consolidate its grip over the economies of these countries and buttress the vassal states loyal to the Wall Street bankers. Carter greased his 110,000-man quick-strike Caribbean Task Force and stepped up naval "exercises" in the Caribbean waters. U.S. imperialism bared its rotten-to-the-core reactionary nature. In the face of the mass indignation against the U.S. money kings, the Soviet social-imperialists made a desperate gamble to step into the shoes of the Pentagon generals. They too, showed themselves more than willing to embrace any wayward tyrant and fascist. The intense rivalry between these two superpower gangsters bore grave consequences for the peoples in the West Indies....

Despite the terrible atrocities carried out against the peoples, they remained undaunted in their unbending determination to win true freedom and emancipation from capitalist exploitation and injustice. Neither could Burnham's troops [Guyana government -- ed.], Manley's "home guards" [former government of Jamaica -- ed.] or Williams' "flying squad" [government of Trinidad and Tobago -- ed.] prevent the working peoples from engaging in strikes, demonstrations and other protests. 1980 showed that forceful upsurges are in the making in the West Indies.

In the West Indian community and throughout Brooklyn during 1980 the CPSG rallied in support of the peoples' struggles in the West Indies. Blazoned on its banners were "U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, out of the Caribbean! Down with the growing fascism of the reactionary puppet regimes in the West Indies!" In the communities CPSG distributed its leaflets, and organized several meetings on the situation in Jamaica in particular. It became even more widely known that in our community CPSG was the only force organized as the implacable foe of the Manleys and Burnhams, just as it always opposed the Seagas [present head of government of Jamaica -- ed.], the Williams, and Adams [present head of government of Barbados -- ed.] In September 1980, CPSG organized the 2nd Annual Calypso and Cultural Tent of the West Indian Community which was attended by over 100 people. On this occasion, CPSG celebrated the tenth anniversary of the powerful 1970 mass rebellion in Trinidad and Tobago. Defending the powerful spirit of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, CPSG vehemently denounced the traitors who sabotaged the 1970 struggle. Especially through the newspaper The West Indian Voice, and using cultural work, CPSG stood shoulder to shoulder with the fighting peoples in the West Indies....

The CPSG fought without letup again against all the apologists for the crimes of the regimes which administer the affairs of the imperialist and social-imperialist enemies of the West Indian peoples. CPSG called on the people not to trust, for one moment, the promises and postures of the imperialists; not to waver in the face of passing events and changes in the governments in the West Indies -- but to remain unyielding in struggle for the complete national liberation of the peoples of the West Indies. Only in this way could the peoples achieve real and lasting success in their struggles.

CPSG -- Active Participation in All the Revolutionary Mass Movements in the United States

... During the past year, CPSG stood shoulder to shoulder with the American working class and people: we participated vigorously in all the mass movements; we fought alongside the party of the proletariat, the Marxist- Leninist Party.

In the face of the tirade of capitalist lies and deception by the political parties of the rich during the last elections, CPSG actively took up the Don't Vote! campaign waged by the MLP to denounce the capitalist elections circus. This campaign was carried to the factories, schools and communities, calling on the people to get organized for struggle independently of and resolutely against all the capitalist parties. In New York, CPSG actively took part in the demonstration of 3,500 people against the Democratic Party Convention, marching under the Party's banner -- "Don't vote! The capitalist parties are all the same! Build the independent political movement of the working class!" CPSG issued its own leaflet, too, denouncing all the capitalist parties engaged in the elections as enemies of the immigrants.

The Caribbean Progressive Study Group paid particular attention to disseminating the politics for the various mass movements to the West Indian community, so that the masses of West Indians could take their stand with the working class of which they are an integral part. The immigrants must defy the attacks of the government and all attempts to silence their voice and participate fully in the class struggle in the United States, alongside their class brothers.

Forward with the Revolutionary Work of the CPSG

... The past year has shown that the CPSG is a genuine revolutionary organization which reflects the actual ferment among the masses in our community. All progressive and revolutionary persons should support its work and collaborate closely with it. CPSG has fought consistently throughout the over two years of its existence, on the side of the proletariat and broad masses. It has never abandoned the interests of the community to sing psalms for a hopeful "good life" under the racist police murderers, their monopoly capitalist bosses and the government of the rich, nor pleaded with these criminals "to mend their bad ways." Nor has the CPSG ever capitulated to the lies and deceptions of the Williams, the Manleys, the Burnhams and so on.

The work of the CPSG has advanced on a conscious, determined and principled revolutionary path.

On all fronts of the work of the Caribbean Progressive Study Group, the revolutionary orientation provided by the Marxist-Leninist Party has played a decisive role. The work conducted by the Party in the various mass movements to guide them onto a revolutionary path and to weld them together into one powerful torrent of revolutionary struggle against the monopoly capitalist rulers, and the relentless struggle of the Party to defend and strengthen these struggles against the sabotage of the opportunists and traitors of every description -- has been a tremendous inspiration and life-giving force for the CPSG. Without such a party of revolutionary struggle and socialism, one that dares to organize the working class for the overthrow of the rich -- the struggles of the people cannot achieve real and lasting success.

The revolutionary work of the CPSG has forged ahead because right from its founding the revolutionaries of the West Indian community took up the Marxist-Leninist politics and associated themselves with the Party of the proletariat which was emerging. The West Indian Voice calls on all revolutionaries of our community to rally to the red banner of the Party of the proletariat, the Marxist-Leninist Party. …

Carry forward the revolutionary work of the CPSG! Read and distribute The West Indian Voice and other literature distributed by the CPSG!

Organize the struggle against racist attacks! Actively participate in all the revolutionary mass movements!

Support the struggle for national liberation in the West Indies!

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Anti-Racist Demonstrations in Buffalo, N.Y.

[Photos: On Thursday, January 15, two demonstrations were held in downtown Buffalo in which a large number of people showed up to denounce the nazis and the racist terror campaign against the black people. Top: The demonstration of over 800 people held in Niagara Square. Bottom: The demonstration of 5,000 held later in Lafayette Square.

The first demonstration was organized to oppose a nazi rally called for that day. It took place despite Mayor Griffin's fascist decree banning it, his threats to arrest all the demonstrators, and the big police force concentrated in Niagara Square. Over 100 reporters and cameramen from the capitalist media and over 300 police came out to promote, fawn over and defend the one lone fascist who showed up. A large section of the masses joined with the contingent of the MLP to militantly denounce the fascist in spite of calls from the organizers of the demonstration to ignore the appearance of the nazi gangster.

The later demonstration was organized by the notoriously racist Mayor Griffin, and various liberal councilmen. They had been working hard to liquidate the anti-racist struggle which has been growing in Buffalo since the bestial racist murders of several black men. Mayor Griffin issued threats against the anti-racist movement, while the liberal politicians went all out to convince the masses that struggle "is not necessary," is "counter-productive" and "negative," while "unity" and "peace" are what is called for. Many people went to this rally to express their anti-racist sentiments. The MLP contingent went right among them with the politics of revolutionary struggle against growing fascism. Here, too, the activists of the Party joined with the masses to denounce the racist Mayor when he appeared on the platform. The Mayor was saved from complete disgrace only by the efforts of his liberal allies who started up a demagogic chant of "unity, unity."

The work of the MLP at these demonstrations helped to concentrate the anti-racist and anti -fascist sentiments of the masses. The Party directly targeted the government as the organizer of the growing fascism and of the nazi gangs; it exposed the treacherous role of the liberals. The Party's work at both these rallies was carried out under the call to: Organize mass struggle against the government's racist terror campaign!]

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SONG ON THE HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS

(From the Caribbean Progressive Study Group)

[Sheet music.]

Daughter of beauty, my beloved Haiti

Land of high mountains and deep running seas

Land of famine and cruel tyranny

So much beauty, so much misery

Man cannot feed a family on hunger

A man can not breathe with the ton ton macoutes

We pit our lives against open waters

To seek freedom, to start life anew

Au revoir Marie, Au revoir Haiti

Au revoir, my beloved ones

For I'm going away, far away

In search of freedom

In small fishing boats we braved wave and wind

To flee the clutches of Papa Doc's son

But 600 miles was not distance enough

To escape the hand of imperialism

In a prison camp in a Florida swamp

Ten thousand women, children and men

Look out from behind a fence of barbed wire

And wait to be sent back to Haiti again

A u revoir Marie, Au revoir Haiti

Au revoir my beloved ones

For I went away to seek freedom

But barbed wire was all that I found

On every side barbed wire surrounds us

Every day brings threats of deportation

As night falls over the Florida swamp

I think over this journey's lesson

The sea cannot drown an entire people's woes

Ships cannot sail from imperialism

Struggle alone will end tyranny

Struggle alone will win freedom

Au revoir Marie, Au revoir Haiti

Au revoir kem ap kase

Ma va goumin kote moin passe

Kont imperialiss pou libete

Au revoir Marie, Au revoir Haiti

Au revoir, my beloved ones

I will fight wherever I am

Against imperialism, for freedom

The sea cannot drown an entire people's woes

Ships cannot sail from imperialism

Struggle alone will end tyranny

Struggle alone will bring freedom

Au revoir Marie, Au revoir Haiti

Au revoir, my beloved ones

I will fight wherever I am

Against imperialism, for freedom

(This song was first performed at the 2nd Annual Calypso and Cultural Tent of the West Indian Community, organized by the Caribbean Progressive Study Group. Reprinted from The West Indian Voice, newspaper published by the CPSG, Issue No. 12, Feb.-March, 1981.)

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Workers' Communist Party of France Denounces the Nuclear Program of Imperialism

The newspaper La Forge is the central organ of the Workers' Communist Party of France. Its issue of January 15-31, 1981 denounces the imperialist nuclear program in a major centerfold display. The main article is divided into two parts.

The first part of the article is entitled: "Working humanity aspires to progress; Imperialism -- moribund and parasitic capitalism -- is reaction all along the line, a system which stands in the way of social progress." This section points out that communists are materialists who believe in "the possibility for man to know matter, its laws and how to master it so as to put it in the service of his aspirations, well-being, culture." It points out that atomic science is a further step by man "in the field of knowing the universe and its laws and thus a step towards the possibility of dominating nature, of making it into a friendly environment for man and in service to his needs." Therefore under socialism, the proletariat will completely master the science of nuclear energy and make use of it.

But, the article stresses, capitalist society "is divided into classes with antagonistic interests. In a class society, science and technology, like scientific discoveries, are not above classes and the class struggle." The article discusses the relationship between the development of the productive forces and capitalism. It denounces imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, as "reaction all along the line." With regard to imperialism and nuclear energy, it states that: "Today, in the hands of the monopolies, this scientific discovery of nuclear energy is an instrument of extensive exploitation and enslavement, a means of ruining the broad masses and an important element in militarization."

The second part of the article elaborates this conclusion and denounces in detail the present-day imperialist nuclear program. It follows below:

II. The Nuclear Program of the Bourgeoisie Is an Anti-People Program of War Preparations

The nuclear program of the bourgeoisie is an ambitious program, commensurate with the monopolies' appetite for profits. Indeed, about 40 sites are proposed for setting up nuclear power plants (and the figures regularly reveal a modification upwards!) at a construction rate of six to seven new plants per year!

The starting point of this program, what acts as its objective, its end point, are very clear: to allow the biggest monopolies in our country -- Empain-Schneider, DeWendel, PUK, CGE -- to realize maximum profit.

The construction of power plants, or reprocessing and enrichment plants, etc., costs fabulous amounts. Official estimates speak of ten billion francs for a reactor (like the Super-Phoenix at Creys-Malville), of five billion for a reprocessing plant (like the one at La Hague). The nuclear program would require, still according to the official figures, 250 billion in investments. The sale of a nuclear plant to a foreign country would bring in five to six billion in currency, etc.

Now, who pays for these enormous investments? And into whose pockets do all these billions go?

The one and only customer in France who orders and buys the nuclear plants is the EDF, that is, a state enterprise!

It is also the state and the monopolists at its head who are the traveling salesmen to obtain orders for the monopolies in other countries: South Africa, South Korea, Iraq...and maybe China!

It is the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) -- once again a state organ -- that carries out all the research related to nuclear power, which is then utilized by the monopolies.

It is understandable why the monopolies which have the state at their service are keen about this program which wholly serves their interests: there are well-filled order books high invoices (monopoly prices), a sure and faithful customer, no unproductive expense, but on the contrary assured returns, "every benefit," as the saying goes!

The state and its enterprises pay, which means us, the broad masses!

The nuclear program is a program to make us pay for the crisis while stuffing the pockets of the monopolies.

The Nuclear Program Is Part of the Bourgeoisie's War Preparations

There is no Great Wall of China between using nuclear energy for civilian ends and its use for military ends! On the contrary, it is the same energy, thus the same techniques. The discoveries and progress in one field serve the other and vice-versa. The primary material, uranium, is the same in both cases, etc.

The bourgeois press itself recognizes that the plutonium option for reactors is directly linked to military objectives, for it's the easiest process to gain access to the atomic bomb.

What difference is there between the Pierrelatte uranium enrichment factory, a unit with a military "vocation," and the Tricastin plant, in civilian use? The one served to build the other, and the latter may very well find a "military vocation" for itself tomorrow!

In any case, what can be noted is that men like Pierre Guillaumat, Olivier Guichard, Robert Galley, Andre Giraud, all big engineers or bosses of the CEA, have all be selected to hold high positions in the state apparatus, Minister of the Armed Forces in particular, and for the last one, Minister of Industry. This confirms very well that today there is hardly a difference any more between civilian and military production.

The Nuclear Program Has Still Other Harmful Consequences for Our People

A relatively recent discover, involving many unmastered phenomena and calling upon very complex technology, nuclear energy in the hands of the capitalist monopolies greedy for immediate profits entails dangers that are not negligible for the health of the population.

Moreover, the choice of sites for the plants almost always leads to expropriating peasants. The existence of an active plant creates in the area a micro-climate and changes the water temperature in the rivers or sea which it uses. This is not without repercussions on agriculture and fishing in these zones and thus on the work and harvests of the peasants. Of course, the capitalists pay no attention to all this, and one can even be sure that the choice of sites has not been made by chance. On the contrary, in addition to economic considerations strictly in keeping with the nuclear program itself, financial speculation is involved (at the level of purchases and sales of land) as well as the desire to speed up the liquidation of the small peasantry and the pursuit of monopolistic concentration in the countryside.

Finally, a last aspect, and not the least, the stepping up of police encirclement, the militarization of work and of the whole life around the plants, the increase of repressive forces, of control, etc.,...which necessarily accompany the setting up of such a program.

Since the program is a direct assault on the interests of the working class and broad masses, and since consequently they are opposed to it, the bourgeoisie, so as to execute its program at any cost, must reinforce its repressive apparatus. Moreover, in view of the great dangers found in this very complex industry so linked to the military, an industry imposed by clubbings and grenades on populations held purposely and necessarily in ignorance, a whole army of watchmen and the creation of a veritable militarized zone are required.

As for the workers themselves in the nuclear plants, those who build them as well as those who are brought there to work, they are and will be more and more subjected to discipline and control comparable to the supervision in prisons or in a military camp. At La Hague there are magnetic cards, cameras, a second enclosure at the interior of the site a- round some nuclear buildings, CRS for each parcel of combustible material, etc. At Bugey, a building under construction will in a short time house two monitors which will be able to record minute by minute all the movements of personnel carrying magnetic cards.

The indictment is heavy!

The nuclear program of the bourgeoisie in NO WAY serves the interests of the people. It is AGAINST the people, who have absolutely nothing to gain in this business except new suffering and new chains.

And the beautiful speeches of Giscard and his confederates about the independence of France will not suffice to hide this reality. The argument that the nuclear program would be a necessity to guarantee our energy independence, and thus quite simply our independence -- this argument is a lie, one tool in the arsenal of Giscardian demagogy to try to mislead the working class and people and rally them to his plans.

But what independence are they telling us about when it is known that already in the 70's U.S. imperialism imposed its technology against the less "competitive" French technology and that all the nuclear plants built since have been on the basis of the American license Westinghouse, which, furthermore, holds 15% of the capital of Framatome (the company which has the monopoly on construction of nuclear plants)!

What independence can it be a question of when the USA can bar (as it has already done), by various means based on its superpower status, the sale of plants in such and such country?

What independence are they talking about when it is known that the USA is at the same time the number one producer of uranium and the country which possesses the greatest reserves and which can thus make it rain or shine on the supplying of raw material? And it does this effectively, since today the current price of uranium has undergone a dizzying fall due in large part to the sale by the big American electricity companies of their stocks of uranium, which puts COGEMA, a 100% branch of the CEA and principal French producer of uranium, in a bad position.

France has only limited resources of uranium in its subsoil, and the principal sources of its supply are the mines of Nigeria and Gabon, which the different trusts and consortiums (including COGEMA) draw on blithely. When Giscard speaks of the independence of France he is thus including in our borders, without any compunction, Nigeria and Gabon!

When the monopolist bourgeoisie begins to talk about independence, we, the working people, know from experience that that means nothing other than efforts to try to drag us into defending their profits. For the monopolist bourgeoisie has nothing to do with the independence of our country. It knows only the law of maximum profit. It sells out and will continue to sell out our independence to the extent that the defense of its profits demands. Its spirit of independence has nothing to do with the just aspiration of the people to live free, rid of all foreign tutelage. Independence means nothing more to the bourgeoisie than its rivalry of interests with the other imperialist powers and monopoly groups, and is limited to its capabilities to resist their competition. Now, it is known that from this angle, for the French bourgeoisie, things are not going very well!

But the monopolies and their state must not count on us to serve as crutches! We have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to gain by it except -- as the administering of the nuclear program has given us a taste -- new suffering and greater bondage.

Consequently, fight the nuclear program of the monopolies, put a stop to it. …

(Translation by The Workers' Advocate staff.)

[Map: NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN FRANCE *In use **Under construction

***Projected or under study 1981-1987: Dates for beginning operation]

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Communist Party of Colombia (M-L) Reports:

The armed partisan fighters pledge to carry the struggle through to final victory!

In its October issue, Revolucion, organ of the Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist), publishes the "Statement of the General Assembly of the Fighters of the Partisan Front of Francisco Garnica Region of the People's Army" entitled "No to Amnesty." The statement turns down the proposal of the reactionary government which was received with enthusiasm by imperialism, social-imperialism, the soldout oligarchy and its lackeys.

The statement backs up the stands of the Executive Central Committee of the CP of Colombia (M-L) and of the National Command of the EPL (the People's Liberation Army), which stresses: The Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist) and People's Liberation Army turn down the proposal to give up arms and define it as reactionary. Only by fighting arms in hand will our national and social liberation be attained, and neither treachery nor the barbarisms on a national scale will manage to divert us from this road.

The statement condemns the local reaction and U.S. imperialism which supports it because they kill, torture and imprison the participants in the people's struggle, oppress through counter-revolutionary violence and strangle with iron and blood every protest of the laboring masses, because they violate their rights, oppress the working class and turn down the demands of the people, increase the cost of living and leave the peasants landless and jobless. The Mafia, the statement says further on, in cooperation with imperialism and the oligarchy, have transformed Colombia into an international center of cocaine and marijuana, have intensified violence through the calling of the state of emergency. U.S. imperialism and the government in its service propose to us an "amnesty" which requires us to give up arms and be transformed into a "democratic opposition," hoping in this way to attain without a shot what they have not managed to attain through their macabre anti-insurgent campaigns.

The People's Liberation Army, which is part of the guerilla front, has been devoted to the people's democratic revolution, to the road of socialism, to the noble duty "to contribute to the destruction of the pro-imperialist bourgeois state." It states that it "will not stop for a single moment fighting with all the forces for the construction of a new society free from exploitation, without exploiters and exploited." To give up arms and to accept the proposals of our enemy means to commit a monstrous betrayal to the Colombian revolution, to our Party and people, it means our political death. The statement resolutely condemns the "amnesty" and the bargainings of the opportunists and sham revolutionaries.

We, the revolutionaries, stresses the statement in conclusion, have taken up arms and will continue the armed struggle to complete national and social liberation. Our ranks are united and we will pursue all the orientations the Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist) and the National Command of the People's Liberation Army give us. Let imperialism, the oligarchy and its lackeys tremble from the fire of the people's struggle. Holding always aloft our arms, we will march forward on the road of sure victory.

(Reprinted from Albanian Telegraphic Agency News Bulletin, January 5, 1981.)

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The Growth of the Private Sector Is Another Sign of the Capitalist Character of the Soviet Economy

(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 February 6, 1981 by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency News Bulletin.)

The newspaper Zeri i Popullit published an article on the measures recently taken in the Soviet Union for the flourishing of the private sector in the Soviet capitalist economy.

The newspaper Zeri i Popullit writes that the Central Committee of the Soviet revisionist party and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union recently adopted a decision and proclaimed "supplementary measures" to encourage and extend the development of the private sector in agriculture.

With the new "reorganizing" measures, the Brezhnevian revisionists took another step on the road of further deepening of the process of the capitalist development in the Soviet economy. They are more openly supporting the capitalist private property and giving a more powerful push for its development, despite their demagogical statements that present this as personal property and allegedly part of the collective property.

As the Soviet reality is proving, stresses Zeri i Popullit, the flourishing of the capitalist private sector in such huge proportions and in such open forms is a continuation and component part of the revisionist program of "perfecting the economic mechanism." The fact is that the Soviet economy is undergoing its most serious and profound crisis in which all of the phenomena of the crisis have come to the fore with extraordinary force. During the last two years, the relative and absolute fall in production, the sharp deficits, economic disequilibrium, inflation and price increases, and the great deficits and shortages in the market have together irresistibly corroded the economy. The Brezhnevian revisionists hope to bridge the gaps of state monopoly capitalism, which is the predominant form in the Soviet economy, with the greater revival of capitalist private property. "The time has elapsed," says a recent article of the Soviet revisionist newspaper Pravda, "when the peasant who worked well on his personal property was not seen in a good light. Today, great attention is attached to the peasant plot both by the grassroot and supreme organs of the party and state power."

The Soviet revisionists, continues Zeri i Popullit, seek to find an "outlet" from the deep crisis that has gripped their economy and from its destructive consequences, which they themselves have been forced to admit to in a low voice. When Brezhnev came to power, he clamorously promised that he "would fill the market with mass consumer goods." But at the last plenum he was forced to say that "often some of the items of the mass consumer goods cannot be found in the market." For its part, the newspaper Pravda stresses that the supply of food articles for the population has become "the most difficult problem" in the Soviet economy. And this has happened after the clamorous programs that the Soviet revisionists have endlessly dished out "on the happiness and well-being." The Soviet revisionists try to find a certain solution to this difficult problem through the large-scale development of private production. But life itself shows that as a result of the development of the private sector, the economic crisis in the Soviet Union has not been solved, but is becoming more and more grave.

Whatever new measures are taken which aim at the further deepening of the process of capitalist integration on the internal or external plane, Zeri i Popullit concludes, they promise only greater failures and deeper shakings to the Soviet revisionist society.

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Restoration of a Capitalist Economy in the Soviet Union

(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 January 18, 1981 by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency News Bulletin.)

The newspaper Zeri i Popullit carries an article which describes the road of the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union and exposes the attempts made to cover this reality with a socialist veil.

Zeri i Popullit writes that after usurping the power of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union, the Khrushchovite revisionists gradually made reorganizations and economic reforms which finally led to the complete restoration of the capitalist mode of production. This retrogressive process has been carried out in a rapid and very camouflaged way. Its beginnings go as far back as the Khrushchovite betrayal itself. It was only a few months after Stalin's death, at the September 1953 plenary session of the Central Committee, when Khrushchov treated material stimuli as the decisive factors for the maintenance of agriculture. At that time, another idea also was launched: the means of consumption should develop with priority as compared to the means of production.

After speaking about the reorganizational measures which undermined the basis of the Soviet socialist economy, Zeri i Popullit points out that despite the fog of demagogy and Leninist phraseology wrapped around these measures, they served as a preparatory stage to finally realize the counter-revolutionary transition from socialism to capitalism later on.

The newspaper stresses further on that a frontal attack against the theoretical heritage of the political economy of socialism and, in particular, against Stalin's work The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, preceded the process of degeneration of the economic base and the broader application of the methods of capitalist management in that stage. This was an indispensable premise to level out the roads of capitalist development.

The Khrushchovite revisionists attacked and unscrupulously distorted the fundamental theses of Marxist- Leninist theory on the production of commodities and the operation of the law of value in socialism. The 21st and 22nd Congresses of the revisionist party, continuing its 20th Congress, further crystallized the revisionist economic policy.

The newspaper stresses that the capitalism reestablished in the Soviet economy today is the same in essence as Western capitalism, but disguised with a socialist veil.

The Soviet revisionist leadership has sought to promote the whole counterrevolutionary process of the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union as something "objectively indispensable" and as something which aims at increasing the economic effectiveness of production. What we have here is unrestrained demagogy. The Soviet revisionists have deliberately distorted the Marxist-Leninist concept on economic effectiveness; they have replaced it with the concept which has profit as its motto.

The former state enterprises, the newspaper continues, were replaced by the monopolies and Soviet state corporations, organized on a "completely self-supporting basis," or more accurately, on the capitalist basis. These state monopoly enterprises freely maneuver with their resources and funds, enjoy complete independence to operate according to their own interests, suiting themselves to the "changeable passing circumstances" of the market in order to increase the rate of profit.

Zeri i Popullit exposes the attempts of the new Soviet bourgeoisie to try to paint capitalism in the Soviet Union with socialist colors through the so- called "plans." The newspaper writes that, in essence, the plan drafted and approved in the USSR is identical with the economic program which is practiced in the other capitalist countries, but it operates on a larger scale in the Soviet Union due to the fact that state monopoly capitalism is the predominant form there.

The economic reform carried out during the 60's in the Soviet Union marks the epilogue of the counter-revolutionary process of the restoration of capitalism. It has been accompanied and reinforced by some programs of reorganization which the Soviet revisionists call "the program for the improvement of economic mechanisms." This program has further deepened the processes of capitalist integration on a national and international scale. These programs are nothing but desperate efforts to breathe in the atmosphere of chronic asphyxia, which has been created in the Soviet economy as a result of the profound and all-sided crisis that has gripped it, particularly in the recent years, when the failures have assumed unprecedented proportions.

READ: "The Capitalist Character of the Relations of Production in the Soviet Union" in issue # 5, 1978 of Albania Today, a bimonthly political and informative review from the People's Socialist Republic of Albania.

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NO TO THE DRAFT!

(From the Boston Branch of the MLP,USA)

[Sheet music.]

What is this anti-draft protest that's busted on the scene,

Like a mighty locomotive buildin' a head of steam?

Some say it s just a bunch of kids raisin' a little hell,

But we've got a deeper story and that story we will tell.

The capitalists were defeated by the people of Viet Nam

And they re try in' to start another war 'gainst the people of Iran.

They say they re fighting for world peace, but we know it's for oil

They want to rob the world's people of the fruits of their toil.

CHORUS:

So wage a mighty struggle against imperialist war,

Fight each and every step toward war, NO TO THE DRAFT! (sing twice)

Nixon decided to end the draft temporarily

When the sidewalks of the cities became a battle scene;

The rich were shaken by the masses fighting 'cross the land,

But they could not wash the blood from their dirty murdering hands.

Carter was a peacenik in 1976

He thought he had us fooled with his human rights tricks

But though his words were slick, he spoke with a silvery tongue

His hand was gloved with iron and his teeth were made of bombs.

CHORUS

Carter brought the draft back when he thought we were asleep,

To complement the war plans he'd been makin' week by week.

His MX missile and nuclear subs and stockpiling of oil

Were just so many road signs as he headed straight for war.

Now Reagan s taken office in the name of the capitalist class

His attacks against the people are known throughout the land;

But he does not have to look hard for his war program,

He grabbed it like a relay runner out of Carter's hand.

CHORUS

Some say the American people are moving to the right

And we should clean our act up, give up this glorious fight;

But no-shows at the polls and protests raging 'cross the land

Encourage us to fight on, to take a firmer stand.

Hear the shout of angry voices, and the sound of marching feet.

As the people fight against the draft by taking to the streets;

We are not pawns of Carter, Reagan, Ford or Kennedy,

Remembering the 60 's, we'll rise up and smash their schemes.

CHORUS

Well the banks are like an octopus strangling the world,

The oil outfits are digging in other peoples' soil,

To save their sacred profits they'll wage war in every land

Unless the peoples' struggles stay their bloody hand.

Well the draft protests are just one verse in our marching song,

So come on workers, youth and students, sing out loud and strong,

Fight against all war schemes, rise up against the rich,

Aim at the heart of the system, of the imperialists!

CHORUS

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Song:

DOWN WITH REAGAN, NEW CHIEFTAIN OF REACTION!

Down with Ronald Reagan

New chieftain of reaction

Spokesman for the imperialists

Oppressing the people for the rich

He'll cut wages while profits soar

Repress the people and prepare for war

Starvation, war and fascism

Are the programs of Reagan

We are not moving to the right

The rich are stepping up their fight

They've put in Reagan to crack the whip

To defend and build their huge profits

Reagan promised no peacetime draft

But now he tells us with a laugh

What they really had in mind

Was to quickly end peacetime

Reagan's programs are not new

Carter tried to do it too

So when Democratic Party hacks

Say stop the fight and vote 'em back

We'll remember Carter well

And tell 'em all to go to hell

The only thing that must be done

Is launch militant mass action

To strengthen the movement, to make it grow

We must get organized on our own

We'll fight the programs of Reagan

Fight starvation, war and fascism

Down with Ronald Reagan

New chieftain of reaction (3 times)

(From the Boston Branch of the MLP,USA.)

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Solidarity with the heroic people of El Salvador

The progressive masses in the United States are firmly condemning U.S. imperialism's attempts to strangle the revolutionary struggle of the Salvadorian people. On January 17 several thousand people participated in a demonstration in Berkeley, California against the U.S.-backed fascist junta and in support of the revolution in El Salvador. As well, demonstrations were organized in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

The demonstration in Berkeley included a contingent from the Marxist- Leninist Party. Through widescale leafletting and the shouting of revolutionary and anti-imperialist slogans, the anti-imperialist politics of the Party were taken throughout the demonstration. The militant activities of the Party were enthusiastically received by the broad masses and many joined in shouting the anti-imperialist slogans: Support the revolution in El Salvador against the U.S.-backed fascist junta! Down with the draft and all U.S. imperialist war preparations! U.S. imperialism, out of El Salvador! Soviet social-imperialism, out of Afghanistan! U.S. imperialism, hands off Iran! and Down with U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism and Chinese social-imperialism!

Mass actions in support of the revolution in El Salvador occurred not only in the U.S. but also in various places around the world. In January some 20,000 people took part in a demonstration held in Mexico City while in Frankfurt, West Germany 15,000 militantly protested against U.S. imperialism and its support for the fascist Salvadorian generals. These demonstrations show the great hatred of the world's people for U.S. imperialism which is trampling on the freedom of the people not only in El Salvador but also throughout Latin America, Europe and elsewhere. Similarly, the mass actions in the U.S. in support of the Salvadorian people's struggle show the seething hatred of the American people for U.S. imperialism. Already tens of thousands are vigorously participating in demonstrations, marches and protests against the draft, the nuclear program and the other war preparations of Reagan and his predecessor, Carter. Demonstrations and rallies have also been held across the country in defense of the Iranian revolution against U.S. imperialism. These latest actions soundly repudiate the hysteria promoted by the capitalists that the election of Reagan meant that the masses are "moving to the right." They show instead that the masses are even more determined to step up the fight against U.S. imperialism.

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