Vol. 15, No. 4
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA
SPECIAL ISSUE April 1, 1985
MAY 1st International Workers' Day - Organize the struggle against the Reaganite offensive!
Build the movement against the racist South African regime!
To fight the nuclear buildup, fight imperialism!
South Africa is ablaze with struggle
Support Nicaragua against Reagan's dirty war
U.S. imperialism, get out of El Salvador!
[Graphic.]
Workers, youth, activists! May Day comes this year at a time when we must step up the fight against Reaganite reaction.
Reagan's back in office again and we face another round of the capitalist offensive of hunger, racism and war. The Reagan administration is squeezing the workers, the minorities, and the youth to provide the profits for the " recovery' ' and to finance a huge military buildup. He is cutting funds for education, food programs and unemployment benefits in order to ensure tax cuts for the wealthy arid profits for the corporations. He is encouraging racist attacks against the blacks and other oppressed nationalities and supporting apartheid racism in South Africa. And he is stepping up bloody intervention in Central America, waving the big stick all around the rest of the world, and preparing for a nuclear first strike against his equally imperialist rival, the Russian revisionists.
But there is something else in America besides the racist and profit-hungry ravings of Reagan and his capitalist backers. This is the indignation of the working masses. And May Day is their day. It is a time when the working class stands up in its own right and declares that it is part of the world struggle between capital and labor. May Day is a time when the working class declares that it is the class struggle that will defeat the capitalist offensive and bring about a new society, a socialist society without the exploitation of man by man. And May Day is a time when the workers hold up the great banner "Workers of All Countries, Unite!" and rededicate themselves to the struggle against imperialist war, against chauvinism and racism, and against the capitalist backers of war.
Demonstrate on April 20 Against the Reaganite War Drive!
This year the significance of May Day will be enhanced by the many demonstrations preceding it in April against Reagan's war drive, his stepped-up nuclear arms race, his intervention in Central America and his support for apartheid in South Africa. Our Party will not only go all out to mobilize workers from the factories and activists from all the fronts of the anti-Reagan struggle to attend these important mass actions, but we will unite with the class conscious workers and anti-imperialist activists to form militant contingents for these demonstrations, contingents that propagate the line of struggle against imperialism and of organizing independently of the Democrats and the Republicans, the two big parties of the capitalist offensive and war drive.
On April 20 there will be demonstrations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. There will also be smaller actions on April 29 and other times throughout the month. These actions reflect the desire of the masses to fight the Reaganite offensive.
The official leaders of the April 20 demonstrations want to keep the slogans for these demonstrations within the confines of what is acceptable to the smooth talkers of the Democratic Party. They want to replace real struggle with the idea of convincing Congress and the Reagan administration to implement nice-sounding platitudes.
But the masses at these demonstrations will be there to fight Reaganism. We must work to unleash this fighting sentiment. These April actions must be supported and oriented in an anti-imperialist direction. They must be used to strike at the two big imperialist parties of war, both at the Republicans, the party of Reagan, and at the Democrats, the party which specializes in telling the masses to give up demonstrations, give up struggle, and rely on congressional deals with the Reaganites.
Organize the Struggle! Attend the May Day Meetings and Demonstrations!
And after the actions of April, the May Day meetings and demonstrations will be an occasion to rally the class conscious workers, anti-imperialist activists, militant anti-racist fighters and all progressive people. The May Day meetings will put before them the tasks of organizing the class struggle, of ensuring a consistent and sustained fight against the capitalist offensive.
Everyone who has carefully followed recent events knows that in the past few years the reformists and the Democratic Party officials have succeeded in disorganizing the fight against Reagan and even calling off demonstration after demonstration. This is why it is important not only to take part in the demonstrations of April, but to ensure the building up of solid proletarian organization and to rally around the party of revolutionary struggle and socialism, the Marxist-Leninist Party. Class conscious workers and activists must not only carry out their own work inside the demonstrations of April in order to put forward a clear perspective of struggle, but they must go further and get organized. This is the great significance of May Day, which is ever and always an appeal to the masses to organize in their interests, independent of and against the capitalists and their parties and spokesmen.
This Is the Tenth Anniversary of the Defeat of the U.S. Aggression Against Viet Nam
This May Day comes ten years after the U.S. occupation forces were forced to run from Viet Nam, with their tails between their legs. This is an important anniversary, because upholding the true lessons of the struggle against U.S. aggression is one of the fronts of the struggle against Reaganism.
The Reaganites are trying to reverse the verdict on the U.S. aggression against Viet Nam and all Indochina. They are glorifying the mass murder and napalming of Viet Nam by the U.S. military, the carpet-bombing and the assassination teams, as a fight for freedom. In order to prepare for future wars, they are trying to deny the defeat of the huge U.S. military forces in Viet Nam. The Reaganites have joined with the liberals in the claim that the lesson is that the U.S. should never fight a war unless it intends to win it -- as if the Pentagon didn't go all out in killing and maiming and poisoning Viet Nam, throwing everything but nuclear weapons at Indochina.
But the militant working masses draw their own lessons from Viet Nam. Many workers, activists, and GI's learned in the Viet Nam years that the real lesson is that no matter how strong the capitalists and their military look, they can be defeated. And they saw that no matter how much the reactionaries control the schools, the mass media and the government, no matter how much repression is carried out, the working people will rise up in a powerful mass movement, just as they fought against U.S. aggression in Viet Nam.
And today we see that the ongoing attempt of the Reaganites to reverse the verdict on Viet Nam only shows that the American capitalists are diehard imperialists who will never give up war and aggression until they are overthrown. It shows that we cannot rely on the capitalist parties to fight the Reaganite war drive. How can anyone forget the bipartisan character of the aggression against Viet Nam, with the Democratic saint John Kennedy unleashing the murderous Green Berets and special warfare methods and the Democratic "New Dealer" Lyndon Johnson throwing hundreds of thousands of troops into the fray? How can anyone fail to see the Democratic enthusiasm for war today, with the Democrats "me-tooing" Reagan on Grenada and voting hundreds of millions of dollars for military, economic and political warfare in Central America?
Solidarity With the Working and Oppressed Around the World!
The anniversary of the defeat of U.S. intervention in Viet Nam also brings to mind the tremendous importance of solidarity with the working people of other lands for the struggle for our own freedom. Just as the powerful struggle against U.S. aggression in Viet Nam reinforced other struggles, such as the big battles of the black people against racism and repression, so today solidarity with the working people of Central America, of South Africa, of Lebanon and elsewhere can only help the struggle against the Reaganite offensive at home. This again shows the importance of the April anti-war actions for the struggle against Reaganism.
The struggles of the toilers of different countries all strengthen each other. The militant struggles in Central America and in South Africa not only inspire dedication to the struggle here in the U.S., they also strike at our common enemy, U.S. imperialism. We must orient the demonstrations in April in an anti-imperialist direction. This means supporting precisely the revolutionary movement in Central America and South Africa. And it means fighting against the Reaganites and the imperialist parties, not compromising with them, and certainly not advising them on better ways to achieve their aims, but opposing them tooth and nail in order to play our role in the struggle side by side with the toilers of other lands.
Go All Out to Mobilize and Organize the Working Masses!
To fight Reaganism, we must therefore go all out to organize the working masses, to bring them into struggle. This May Day is a time when we must inspire the activists and fighters with the burning conviction of the revolutionary role of the working class, as the core of all working and oppressed people. It is a time to understand the class basis of politics, the struggle between rich and poor, between worker and exploiter, that lies at the basis of all political events in this country. It is a time to discuss the tasks needed to awaken the working class as a powerful force and to rally the class conscious workers and revolutionary activists for the accomplishment of these tasks.
How must the struggle against the Reaganite offensive be conducted if we are to bring the full force of the class struggle into play, if we are to rouse the broad ranks of the working class?
We must support and organize mass actions and give vigorous orientation to the demonstrations, strikes and other mass struggles that constantly take place. It is these actions that provide real support for the peoples of Central America and South Africa and that help the working class survive in the battle against wage cuts, unemployment, racism, immigration raids and all exploitation and oppression. It is these actions that play an enormous role in bringing the masses into struggle.
We must carry out vigorous revolutionary agitation. The working class wants to wage a conscious struggle. It demands enlightenment, knowledge, and news about everything that takes place in the world. We must break the monopoly of the capitalist news media and schools through revolutionary newspapers and leaflets; we must draw the working masses themselves into the work of revolutionary agitation and into discussing and deciding the vital issues of the struggle. And we must popularize widely Marxism- Leninism, which is the true theory of the class struggle and revolution, the true guide to fighting the capitalist offensive.
We must organize, organize and organize. The masses need organization in order to become a solid force. The proletarian party itself, the Marxist-Leninist Party, is the core of this work of organization, and it is no wonder that such a party, linked with the working class, has been able to stand up against the wave of Reaganite chauvinism and reaction and the campaign of the reformists for compromise with the Reaganites. As well, revolutionary organizations of all types should be built to mobilize the different sections of the working masses into struggle.
Trade unions are one of the important forms of working class organization. But it must be stressed that the present trade unions are dominated by a sold-out labor bureaucracy and tied in knots by subservience to dozens of anti-labor laws. The top labor hacks of the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, and the other unions are tried and true servants of the capitalists. They have disorganized the struggle against the capitalist offensive and rammed one concession after another down the throats of the workers. They are also militarist diehards, racists and enemies of the immigrant workers. Breaking away from the capitalist parties is a mere phrase if it doesn't include breaking away from the labor bureaucrats. The carrying out of the economic struggle, as well as its coordination with the political struggle, requires relentless opposition to and exposure of the labor bureaucrats.
It is this program of mass struggle, revolutionary agitation and the building of organization that can guide the anti-Reagan struggle and lead the working class to, break free of the influence of the capitalist parties.
Forward in the Struggle for an End to Exploitation and Oppression!
May Day is also a day when the working class declares to the world the goal of its struggle: the elimination of all exploitation and oppression. The work to raise the working masses in struggle against the Reaganite offensive is also work that contributes to the building of a new society through preparing the overthrow of the old society. The rabid war drive of capitalism, the spectacle of increasing poverty and devastation in the midst of "recovery" and technical progress, the sight of the increasing mysticism and obscurantism, all these are signs that capitalism has lived its day. It is time for it to be replaced by a new and higher system. It is time for the working class to step forward in a socialist revolution to build a new society.
On May Day the class conscious workers and communist activists face the future with optimism. Yes, life in this capitalist hell 'is hard. And struggle during the present period of the capitalist offensive is difficult. But the international working class has long ago given rise to its own scientific theory, Marxism-Leninism, and set upon the long road of getting organized. Now the American workers have before them both the immediate tasks for the struggle and the future goal. The world has seen demonstrated again and again the power of proletarian struggle, and the world working class movement has achieved a number of examples of building a new society: the Soviet Union was the path-breaking example in the days before the revisionists took power and Carried out a capitalist counterrevolution; and another example is people's Albania, the only socialist country at present.
The class conscious workers have seen that it is precisely the proletarian struggle, and the frenzied attempt of the reaction to suppress it, that has dominated life and politics in the twentieth century. And so the revolutionary workers are confident that victory will be won by the advanced class, the working class, that mobilizes around itself all the other oppressed and downtrodden people, all the other progressive and forward-looking activists, who seek to build a new world.
Workers, activists, youth! Take part in the demonstrations of April and join the May Day meetings and celebrations! Break free of the capitalist parties and rally to the independent political movement of the class conscious workers!
[Box: Oppose the U.S. imperialist war drive!
Join the April demonstrations!]
The black people and other oppressed people in South Africa are continuing their struggle against the white minority South African regime and its infamous apartheid system of racism. One strike, march and demonstration follows another. All across South Africa the people are angry and rising to their feet.
The South African racists reply in the same way as always. They shoot down demonstrators, jail thousands upon thousands of militants and each year arrest about 200,000 people simply for passbook violations. At Uitenhage, on the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, they ambushed a peaceful funeral march and opened fire from several armored vehicles. Yet the heroic anti-apartheid fighters continue to advance wave after wave.
The target of the struggle is the white minority apartheid regime. Apartheid is a system of legal segregation. It is a system of genocide, where the racist rulers openly discuss how to cut the population of the black majority. It is a system where millions of black families are intentionally split up by the apartheid rules forbidding black workers from taking their families to live with them in urban areas where they work. It is a system where the government does its best to keep the majority ignorant, spending less than one-tenth the amount per child on the education of blacks as on the education of whites. And Asian Indians and mixed-race "coloreds" also suffer oppression.
Racist Reagan Backs South African Apartheid to the Hilt
Reagan is doing his best to prop up the South African racists and smash the revolutionary movement against them. In his press conference of March 21, Reagan endorsed the coldblooded murder of mourners at Uitenhage as necessary to maintain law and order from the element that wants "violence in the streets."
Reagan calls his policy "constructive engagement." This means that he wants to be "constructive" towards the white minority regime. He promotes the fraud that support for the racists will encourage "reform" from apartheid racist chief Botha.
Working People of the U.S., Stand With the Black People of South Africa!
But while Reagan backs the murderous apartheid regime, there is widespread sympathy among the workers and progressive people in the U.S. for the struggle against the South African racists. This is particularly true of the black people who have fought slavery and Jim Crow racial codes in the past and who today face Reagan's segregationist drive.
Demonstrations against apartheid are taking place all across the U.S. The question on everyone's mind is: How can we strengthen this movement? What should it do next?
To build the struggle against the South African racists, the following tasks are crucial:
* Support the development of the revolutionary movement in South Africa.
The oppressed people in South Africa can only win freedom by thoroughly smashing the apartheid regime. Only a revolution will bring majority rule and sweep away all the oppressive institutions, including the racist army and police and the racist government structures.
Today there is no lack of reformists trying to tell the black masses to cool off and have a "dialogue" with the racist rulers. Not revolution, but reform hand in hand with the bloody oppressor is their constant refrain. Why, even apartheid leader Botha himself is making a fuss over "reforms"; each new massacre of blacks is accompanied by new talk of "reforms." But all this is simply to fool those who walk around with their eyes shut tight.
No tinkering with the white minority regime can make much difference to the oppression of the black masses, and only the naive can think that the racists themselves -- who are stained in blood and saturated with the nazi theory of the master race -- will surrender power. It is no wonder that reformists inside South Africa, including Bishop Tutu, waffle on even such a basic demand as "one man, one vote," setting it aside as something for the far distant future. "Dialogue" with racists means simply sugarcoating the present racist system.
The anti-apartheid activists in the U.S. must support the only force in South Africa that can truly free the masses. They must support the militant movement of the masses that is building up to the revolution and oppose all the attempts of the reactionaries to smash this movement, whether it is the big stick of Botha and Reagan or the liberal talk of "dialogue" with Botha.
* Oppose U.S. imperialism.
U.S. imperialism is one of the main backers of the South African racists. It sends military equipment, lends moral support and props it up with economic aid.
Thus to support the black people of South Africa we must oppose U.S. imperialism.
Reagan and his pro-apartheid policies of "constructive engagement" and "quiet diplomacy" must be exposed and denounced over and over again.
As well, we must expose and denounce the Democratic Party which is also a party of U.S. imperialism. Not just Reagan, but Carter too; not just the Republican presidents, but the Democratic ones as well, have supported South African apartheid. They have all used South Africa as a major bulwark to help the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department oppress Africa. They have all supported the U.S. multinational corporations that suck the blood of Africa in general and that profit in particular from the inhuman exploitation and low wages of the South African blacks.
Underneath all the talk of the Democrats about "human rights" is simply an attempt to supplement the big stick of U.S. imperialism with sweet talk to divert the mass movements of the oppressed. It is an encouraging sign of the growth of maturity and consciousness of the black people of South Africa that they denounced liberal Democrat Kennedy when he came to South Africa to tell them to engage in "dialogue" with Botha and to trust in the goodwill of U.S. imperialism.
* Base the struggle on the working masses.
Today the big name politicians are shouting that they are against apartheid, while in fact they sell out the struggle against apartheid in the congressional committee rooms and in handshakes with the South African leaders. Mayor Bradley of Los Angeles presented the key to the city to the local South African consul, while the congressional Democrats present sham anti-apartheid bills, full of loopholes to ensure that the alliance of U.S. imperialism and the South African regime won't be disturbed in the least.
It is the working people who are the true bastion of the solidarity movement in the U.S. against apartheid. It is they who not only sympathize with the South African masses, but who have no interest in maintaining the capitalist and imperialist system that squeezes the working people here as well as sitting on the black people in South Africa. It is they who are the true heroes who have not restricted themselves to posturing in front of the TV cameras but have risked losing their livelihood or getting jail sentences as the San Francisco dock workers did in order to boycott South African cargo, or as progressive students have in campus protests.
The movement against apartheid must be built by going all out to mobilize the working people, to rouse their fighting spirit against the imperialists and all the capitalist parties, and to draw them into the struggle.
The Reformist and Liberal Leaders Are More Interested in Opposing Revolution Than in Opposing the South African Racists
Today certain reformists in and around the Democratic Party have declared themselves the leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. There are, for example, the leaders of the Free South Africa Movement. But for all their pious declarations against apartheid, what they really are afraid of is that the masses will rise and overthrow the apartheid regime in a revolution. All their congressional bills and their publicity campaigns are designed to avert the revolution.
For example, Randall Robinson and other members of the steering committee of the Free South Africa Movement have declared repeatedly that their aim is to prevent a revolution in South Africa. In one typical statement, they appealed to Republicans that their aims had been misunderstood and that their goals "are, by no stretch of the imagination, radical." They pointed out that "The apartheid regime cannot stand. It will be changed either by bloody revolution or by peaceful political processes." Then, in the name of "change without bloodshed," they denounce the revolution in South Africa, And they stress that their proposals are to ensure that the black people of South Africa do not hate U.S. imperialism. (See The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, February 18,1985)
The reformist leaders denounce apartheid to gain the confidence of the black people of South Africa, but they propose trusting in the good nature of the oppressors. They denounce Reagan in order to gain the confidence of the American working people, and then they end up being Reagan's little helpers in preserving the good name of the Pentagon and State Department. After all, since they are opposed to the revolution, they hold that the only force that can ensure that a "dialogue" with Botha takes place is the assistance of the U.S. government and other imperialist powers.
One of the main aims of the American reformists is to bolster the reformists in South Africa, such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, who also considers revolution a "ghastly alternative" and banks on the benevolent intervention of the Western imperialists. For our part, we vigorously oppose the dead end strategy put forward by Tutu and other reformists, at the same time as we vehemently oppose the arrests and persecution in South Africa of all the critics of apartheid, including the reformists. The vicious repression in South Africa itself shows the emptiness of the reformist plans for dialogue with the racists and for change without revolution.
Forward Against Apartheid!
Workers, students and all anti-racist activists! The black people of South Africa are shedding their blood in the heroic struggle for their freedom. Let us support the revolutionary movement in South Africa and thus strike real blows against all those who want to keep the African peoples downtrodden and oppressed. Let us. work to build up a fighting mass movement in solidarity with the struggle against the white minority racist regime of South Africa. Let us support the courage and daring of the anti-apartheid fighters in South Africa by resolutely standing up against U.S. imperialism, the backer of apartheid. Let us rally all the working people of America around the banner of the anti-apartheid struggle!
Solidarity with the revolutionary struggle of the black people of South Africa against the apartheid regime!
Down with the Reaganite racist offensive in the U.S.!
The Pentagon's trillion dollar nuclear buildup forges ahead at full throttle. Every conceivable device for nuclear slaughter is coming off the drawing boards and production lines: More Pershing and cruise missiles are being strung across Europe and Asia. Army artillery is being refitted to carry neutron (only cooks humans) warheads. Countless billions are being poured into "Star Wars" -- the dream weapon of the planners of a "winnable nuclear exchange." And just now Reagan and the Congress have handed the Pentagon $1.5 billion for another 21 MX missiles.
The fever of war preparations has gripped the ruling classes of all the big capitalist states; and the towering arsenals of the imperialist superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, are casting long shadows of nuclear slaughter.
This has stirred a powerful outcry among the working people the world over. From West Germany to New Zealand, from Tokyo to London, thousands and millions have taken to the streets in defiance of this nuclear madness.
The war buildup has also stirred outrage among the American people. This month a new round of mass protests are underway with the April 20 demonstrations and other actions. Let us, the workers, youth and progressive people, join in to build a powerful mass struggle. Let us fight with all our might against the nuclear buildup and every step of "our" government towards war.
The Arms Race Is the Offspring of Imperialism
To build this struggle we must get to know the nature of the beast and how to fight it. But here it must be said that the leaders of the April 20 Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice are putting forward a dead end; they are urging the movement on a course in opposition to the majority of the demonstrators who are seeking the road to a real struggle against the nuclear buildup. This leadership is made up of a coalition of aspiring liberal politicians, reformists, pacifists and labor bureaucrats. It wants to turn the movement into something tame and harmless to the warmakers, tied safely to the tail of the Democratic Party machine.
These misleaders are preaching that, with the right combination of begging and lobbying, the government can be made to see the error of its ways and lead the world to disarmament and peace. They plead: "We know our government can and must take the initiative to reduce the threat of nuclear holocaust." (Appeal for April 20 march) Amazingly, some mean by this that Reagan and his team of nuclear wolves can be turned into disarmament sheep. Others mean that with a little political tinkering to replace the Reaganites with Democrats the Pentagon can be convinced to convert its missiles into plowshares.
But the war drive and the nuclear danger aren't just mistaken policies or the doings of a few bad eggs; they are rooted deep in the social and economic system under which we live. This is a system where the banks and multinational corporations rule the roost; and where making profits off of the exploitation of the working people at home and off of the enslavement and robbery of the oppressed peoples abroad is the guiding star of domestic and foreign policy. This is the system of monopoly capitalism or imperialism.
At home, Reagan is heading up the monopoly capitalist offensive of layoffs, wage cuts, racism and repression. Record profits are being made by slashing benefits for the unemployed while showering the corporations with handouts, including hundreds of billions in juicy military contracts.
And overseas, U.S. imperialism is driving deeper into the mire of aggression to safeguard its "vital interests" -- the super-profits of Wall Street and the multinationals. It has launched military intervention against the Nicaraguan revolution and the liberation struggle of the workers and peasants of El Salvador. And in the oil rich Middle East it has dispatched its Israeli zionist watchdogs to ravage Lebanon.
Meanwhile, it is locked in a deadly trial of strength with the equally imperialist Soviet Union for world spheres of influence. Both sides are building their nuclear arsenals to the skies. The Pentagon makes no secret of its plans for "winnable nuclear war" -- a war that will incinerate hundreds of millions to make sure that the U.S. moneymen come out on top in this struggle for markets, labor and resources.
In short, imperialism has assembled the most horrible arsenals of violence and destruction to enforce its robbery and exploitation. To preach that the U.S. government can lead the world to "disarmament" is to drag the anti-war struggle backwards. From the lips of the liberal misleaders it is a downright swindle to take the U.S. warmakers off the hook.
The More the Superpowers Talk the More They Arm
The liberal spokesmen of the April 20 march see the goal of such protests as pushing the governments to negotiate "disarmament." They say: "It is possible for the contending powers to agree to take their disputes to the negotiating table rather than the arms factories and battlefields." And they say such negotiations can "freeze and reverse the arms race."
But nearly three decades of arms talks have accomplished nothing. Under SALT I and SALT II nuclear arsenals have soared out of sight; and nothing more can be expected from the melodrama being staged in Geneva.
In fact, Reagan and the Pentagon chiefs are hoping out loud that the Geneva talks will dampen the fires of the anti-war protests in Europe and at home, giving them a free hand to deploy more Euromissiles, build more MX's and forge ahead with "Star Wars." The recent vote for more MX missiles in the name of success in Geneva exposed these talks as a naked fraud.
To change the name of the negotiations, whether to a "freeze" or "reversal" of the arms race, changes nothing. It only plays into the word games and double-speak of the warmakers (Reagan himself rejects the "freeze" in favor of lies about negotiating "meaningful reductions"!). Pleading for "freeze" negotiations only patches up the tattered curtain of "arms talks" behind which the generals are merrily beefing up their arsenals.
The Democrats March in Step With Reagan's War Buildup
The leaders of the April 20 march aren't saying it in so many words because the antiwar activists would find it hard to swallow, but these leaders are banking their whole lobbying strategy on the Democratic politicians. Their idea is to beg the liberal Democrats in Congress to think twice about lining up behind Reagan's weapons requests.
But from the days of Hiroshima, the Democrats, equally with the Republicans, have been a party of the nuclear threat. This didn't change under Reagan, as the Democratic-controlled House has faithfully rubber-stamped his trillion dollar nuclear buildup.
True, in last month's MX debate a number of liberal Democrats argued that the MX was a "sitting duck" and that other systems (Midgetman, Trident) would provide more bang for the buck. But in the end the Democratic chief of the armed services committee, Les Aspin, served up the MX to Reagan on a platter.
Why do the Democrats talk about "peace" while they vote for MX missiles? It isn't ignorance of the demands of the masses. And it isn't lack of support for their spineless backs. The secret lies in the fact that the capitalist politicians, both conservative and liberal, both hawk and dove, are front men for the same imperialist interests. They are tied with a thousand threads to the military contractors and to the corporations which have spun their web of imperialist bloodsucking all over the globe.
Build the Struggle Against the Imperialist War Drive!
You can't beat back the juggernaut of the imperialist war machine with fine words about "peace," "disarmament" and "nonmilitary solutions." But the war drive can and must be met by the revolutionary struggles of the peoples of all countries, including the American working people.
On this 10th anniversary of the defeat of the U.S. war in Viet Nam we should keep in mind a lesson of this criminal war: the liberation struggle of the heroic Indochinese workers and peasants, with the assistance of the massive protests that shook the U.S., proved stronger than all the monstrous weapons the Pentagon could muster.
Let us work to build the mass struggle against Reagan's war drive. Let us meet every step of imperialist aggression and war making with the angry protests and mass actions of the working people.
The struggle must be aimed squarely against those who are responsible for the war buildup: the U.S. and Soviet chieftains and the imperialist system that they represent. Here in the U.S. our first enemy is our "own" Pentagon and our "own" warmongering government.
Make U.S. imperialism the target of the struggle!
Expose the fraud of the Geneva talks and the wheelings and dealings of the superpowers!
Oppose the parties of the nuclear buildup, the Republicans and Democrats!
Support the revolutionary struggles of the workers and peasants of Central America and the other victims of U.S. aggression!
Build the anti-war struggle on the shoulders of the American workers, youth and progressive masses!
Forward with the revolutionary movement for the destruction of U.S. imperialism along with all its arsenals of aggression and nuclear war!
South Africa is ablaze despite the best efforts of the Botha regime to crush the black masses with force. In the last year alone hundreds of protesters have been shot down by the racist police. Indoor and outdoor meetings are repeatedly banned, leaders are arrested, and treason trials abound. But the heroic black people of South Africa have continued to stand up in struggle.
At Uitenhage, the Masses Avenge the Racist Massacre of March 21
The determination of the masses can be seen in the events in the Uitenhage area. A fierce battle has raged in the black townships near Uitenhage in response to the bloody massacre of blacks on March 21 when the police opened fire on a crowd of 4,000 for the "crime" of trying to attend a funeral for three people murdered by the police during protests earlier in March. More than 40 blacks were killed. Thus, on March 21, the anniversary of the infamous Sharpeville massacre of 1960, the South African authorities again displayed their ruthless barbarism for all to see.
But this mass murder failed to intimidate the masses. To avenge the murders, toilers in the townships around Uitenhage have gathered by the hundreds to hurl stones and gas bombs at police patrols. The enraged masses have burned down the stores, homes and vehicles of white racist businessmen.
The black masses have also punished those black politicians who have sided with the racists. There can be no real struggle without vengeance against those who sell out for a few pieces of gold. The residents of one of the black townships near Uitenhage executed a sellout black official, while in the wake of the government's massacre a hand grenade attack was also launched against the house of the mayor of Soweto, the black township near Johannesburg.
Militant Actions Sweep the Country
New revolts have broken out elsewhere as well. In mid-March, a three-day general strike and boycott of white businesses virtually shut down Port Elizabeth in response to bus fare and gasoline price increases. And every day brings news of more struggles at Port Elizabeth.
The workers' strikes continue. The cruelly exploited black gold miners went into motion. Forty-thousand miners began an illegal strike shutting down the Anglo-American Corporation's operations at the Val Reefs mine, 120 miles west of Johannesburg. This strike is the largest ever recorded at a single mine in South Africa.
The students have also played an important role in the struggle. In March, for example, 20,000 students began a boycott of schools in the Johannesburg area.
Support the Revolutionary Movement of the Masses!
It is this revolutionary struggle of the masses that is shaking the white racist regime. Anti-apartheid activists in the U.S. should support the heroic actions of the masses and support their further development. It is the mass revolutionary struggle, and not "dialogue" with Botha or congressional conferences between the Democrats and the Republicans, that will lead to the smashing of apartheid and the liberation of the oppressed people of South Africa.
[Photo: Resistance to the storm troopers of apartheid, Crossroads, South Africa, Feb.'85.]
This spring, Reagan and his aides have again been on a rampage of lies and threats against the Nicaraguan people and revolution. They are trying to whip up support for the contra terrorists. The Reaganites want to keep the war hysteria against Nicaragua at a fever pitch. Meanwhile, yet another round of Pentagon "war games" are due to begin on Nicaragua's borders in a few weeks.
In 1979 the workers and peasants of Nicaragua rose up in a powerful insurrection and brought down the hated U.S.-backed Somoza tyranny. This was a major blow against U.S. imperialism and it inspired the growth of revolutionary struggle across Central America. Washington has found this intolerable. It has therefore put the screws on Nicaragua through a "dirty war" and economic strangulation, and it has been preparing for an outright invasion.
In his latest war cries, Reagan has declared the contras to be his "brothers." This is one of the few truthful statements in the mountains of the most outrageous lies. And a glimpse of what Reagan's brothers are up to helps show what U.S. imperialism really stands for in Nicaragua.
In recent weeks, there have been a series of published reports on the activities of the contras. These show that the contras are involved in torture, rape and murder of villagers in Nicaragua. They carry out the destruction of hospitals and the murder of doctors and nurses. And their crimes are not limited to Nicaragua: they have been involved in the murder of opposition figures in Honduras and El Salvador, including the killing of the reformist Archbishop Romero in 1980.
Butchers and rapists -- these are Reagan's brothers. It is these fascists that Reagan wants to put in power in Nicaragua.
Behind all the lies about "democracy," Reagan and the contras simply want to restore a Somoza-style pro-U.S. Dictatorship.
The contra war and the whole U.S. war policy against Nicaragua create a burning anger among the workers and young people of the U.S. But how are we to fight the U.S. war drive?
Currently there is debate in Congress over direct funding for the contras. The Democrats and their apologists say that we should pin our hopes on the politicians in Congress. But this is a dead-end road. It is futile for us to hold our breath in anticipation of votes in Congress. The record of the liberal Democrats speaks loud and clear. They have long been in cahoots with the basic thrust of Reaganite policy in Nicaragua; in fact they themselves readily admit that they agree with Reagan's aims but only have quibbles with some of his methods. Thus, even if the congressional ban on direct aid to the contras continues, this would have no more effect than the Boland amendment of 1983 which allegedly stopped U.S. aid for the contras.
Instead of reliance on the empty shadow-boxing in Congress, we must build up the movement in the streets against U.S. intervention. Let the example of the 1960's movement against U.S. aggression in Viet Nam be our inspiration as we mount the fight against the war drive in Central America.
Solidarity With the Workers and Peasants of Nicaragua!
In building the struggle against U.S. intervention, we should extend our arm of solidarity with the valiant revolutionary fighters in Nicaragua. And to be able to build up the most effective solidarity movement, it is important to know about the different class forces involved in the Nicaraguan struggle.
In Nicaragua, the big bourgeoisie inside the country is in a single counterrevolutionary front with U.S. imperialism and the contra bands. As for the Sandinista government, it came to power through the revolution and it resists the U.S.-backed war, but unfortunately it is a petty-bourgeois regime which preserves privileges for the bourgeoisie while blunting the revolutionary drive of the toilers. The Sandinista policies weaken the revolution. The Sandinistas seek to appease imperialism and the big bourgeoisie with one concession after another. But this only whets the appetite of U.S. imperialism for more.
There is also another force in Nicaragua -- the workers and poor peasants, who have been the bulwark of the revolution. And there is a party which represents this force. The Movement of Popular Action/Marxist-Leninist (MAP-ML) stands for a resolute struggle against both imperialism and the bourgeoisie. Yesterday, MAP-ML organized the MILPAS militias which played an important role in the uprising against Somoza; today it actively fights against the contra war and organizes to carry forward the class struggle against the entire bourgeois counterrevolutionary front. It works to win the toilers away from petty-bourgeois illusions fostered by Sandinism. And it stands for carrying the revolution forward to socialism and the rule of the workers and poor peasants.
The Marxist-Leninist Party, USA believes that it is important for workers and activists in the U.S. to give concrete support for the workers' party in Nicaragua. Last year on International Workers' Day the MLP launched a campaign for support for the workers' press in Nicaragua, a campaign which has provided some useful material and political aid to the revolutionary workers' movement in Nicaragua. For this year's May First activities, we call for continued support for the workers' press campaign. We here in the U.S. should help as much as we can to strengthen the workers' press in Nicaragua, the only voice in that country which speaks with clarity on how to defend the revolution from U.S. imperialism and the bourgeoisie.
[Photo: Nicaragua's popular militias.]
In El Salvador, the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship rages on. Every so often, Washington declares that the government's latest military campaign or political maneuver has succeeded in breaking the back of the revolution. But just as often, the actions of the liberation fighters succeed in making the imperialists and exploiters quake with fear.
Through various twists and turns, the toilers of El Salvador are continuing their fight. The military offensives of the Salvadoran regime continue to be met with vigorous resistance from the liberation fighters. Numbers of hated figures of the oligarchy and the death squads continue to face the just wrath of the resistance. And the cities of El Salvador are again seeing valiant stirrings of the masses in strikes, demonstrations and other actions.
The U.S. government is scared of the Salvadoran revolutionary struggle, which alongside the Nicaraguan revolution has set Central America ablaze. Reagan continues to hope that military intervention will destroy the fighting spirit of the workers and peasants. Thus, the arms shipments continue their upward climb, the presence and role of U.S. "advisors" continue to grow, and new schemes of butchery are constantly devised. Just this year, the Pentagon has supplied the Salvadoran regime with a number of airplane gunships which are nothing but instruments of mass murder of the insurgent population in the countryside; these are, in effect, nothing but flying death squads.
What is behind U.S. intervention in El Salvador is the system of imperialism. U.S. imperialism wants an El Salvador where the profits of the multinational corporations and local exploiters are sacred, where the working people meekly accept their miserable lot. The Salvadoran military dictatorship and its offspring, the rightist death squads, are guardians of the interests of the exploiters. The Pentagon and CIA have been active in building up these cruel forces for decades.
Of course, the U.S. government covers up its brutal policies with the most fantastic fairy tales. Everything is done in the name of noble goals of defending "democracy" or "freedom." And even elections are periodically stage-managed, as they were again on March 31, to polish up the face of the regime. But these elections are complete farces, which are held under conditions where any opposition from the left is kept out under threat of death, and where the people are forced to vote for one or another variety of reaction. No matter what the outcome of these latest elections, business as usual -- terror, murders, exploitation and poverty -- can only be expected to continue from the Salvadoran ruling class.
The Reagan administration fully backs the ultra-right death squads. Indeed, in the latest elections, the U.S. Embassy not so secretly let it be known that it wanted to see the elections result in the continued domination of the National Assembly by the ultra-right coalition headed by the ARENA party, the party of the death squads themselves. But Washington also wants to have a reformist face for the dictatorship. This is the role of the presidency of Christian Democrat Jose Napoleon Duarte.
Last year the CIA spent millions to elect Duarte. He has been promoted as a "moderate," dedicated to reforms and curbing the death squads. Of course, nothing of the sort has taken place. The bodies of victims of the death squads continue to pile up. And it is under Duarte himself that mass bombings of the villagers have been escalated.
Duarte did make a lot of noise about "reforms." He even declared that he was going to seek a "peaceful solution" to the civil war through a dialogue with the left. However, in recent months, the "peace process" has all but collapsed, with the military continuing its savage offensives and with Duarte calling off the peace talks.
This is no surprise. The talk of "dialogue" has only been meant to sow dangerous illusions among the revolutionary masses that a just solution to the problems of the people can be found through the existing structures. And U.S. imperialism has found it a convenient screen behind which to pour more gunships and weapons into the hands of the butchers.
Not "dialogue" with the dictatorship and its imperialist backers but revolutionary struggle towards victory is the path forward for the Salvadoran people.
We here in the U.S. should support every step forward by the Salvadoran working people in their revolutionary struggle. Solidarity with the revolution is essential for building the movement here in the U.S. to demand that U.S. imperialism get out of Central America.
[Announcement of May Day demonstrations and meetings in Chicago, Oakland, Seattle and New York City.]