Published: Palante, Vol. 6, No. 1, Janunary 8-February 8, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The present imperialist crisis has, on the one hand, intensified the pressure exerted by the capitalists on the working class – as shown in the steady worsening of the living and working conditions of the proletariat and oppressed masses. On the other 1 hands the revolutionary movement of the proletariat has ”been growing; the uniting of genuine Marxist-Leninists has been accelerating; and ever-growing numbers of advanced workers are being won to communism. As we said in the article, “Repression on the Working Class and Oppressed Masses,” (Palante, Vol.1, #11):
In periods of crisis, the bourgeoisie will seek the way out of the crisis by shifting the burden onto the working class. In order to do so and crush any resistance, the bourgeoisie will seek a way out through the path of fascism at home. They will muster all the reactionary forces for this purpose. They must also prepare in the sphere of international policy to seek a way out through a new imperialist war. Today, we see the two superpowers, the U.S. and the USSR, preparing for a war to once again re-divide the world.
Every week, we see further evidence of the dangerously rising tide of fascism in the U.S. The bourgeois press itself even reports about how agents infiltrated the anti-war movement and revolutionary groups like the Black Panther Party to set people up for arrest and repression. The bourgeoisie, through its agents, commits terroristic acts, blames them on the revolutionaries and uses this as their justification to unleash a wave of fascistic terror against the masses, most especially against their conscious leadership. There are many examples of this, but here we will cite only two:
1. In 1971, Jeffrey Paul Desmond, a paid FBI agent-provocateur, publicly’ admitted setting bombs at the University of Washington construction site. He also told the press he had built a bomb and had urged 2 other men to set it in a U.S. Post Office near the school.
2. Frank Martinez was a paid agent of the Treasury Department’s Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (AFT) Division. He became Chairman of the Chicano Moratorium Committee.
In an interview he later said:
Question; “In that period, while you were Chairman of the Moratorium Committee, while you were infiltrating the Brown Berets, at that point were you under instructions to create incidents?”
Answer: “Yeah, that’s true.”
Question? “Who gave you those instructions?”
Answer: “Tito Garcia (ATF agent in charge of Martinez).” (Above information from The Glass House Tapes by the Citizen’s Research and Investigation Committee and Louis E. Tackwood. Tackwood was a former agent for the Criminal Conspiracy Section of the Los Angeles Police Department.)
These tactics are not new. The German fascists used them too. The Nazis themselves set the Reichstag fire (the German Parliament) and then used this act, which came after a long series of fascist terror which had been blamed on the “Bolsheviks,” to move to open terroristic dictatorship. And just as the German fascists used these terroristic acts, which they themselves engineered, to attack communists and workers domestically and the Soviet Union internationally (when it was still a socialist country) – today the U.S. bourgeoisie is following the same pattern. The recent bomb explosion at NY’s La Guardia Airport is an example.
On Monday night, December 29, 1975, a powerful bomb exploded at the airport, killing 11 people and mutilating scores of others. Although this bombing had no political value and there was no evidence to link it to any political groups, the bourgeoisie immediately tried to lay the blame on, first, the PLO and, later, an unknown Puerto Rican group. The PLO immediately denied these false charges and condemned the bombing.
The PRRWO also condemns this bombing, no matter who did it. We refer comrades to our position on terrorism in Palante, Vol. 1, #3.
However, we believe the bomb was the work of the bourgeoisie themselves. What could they gain from such an act?
First, by linking such acts of indiscriminate terror with the legitimate national liberation struggles of the Palestinian or Puerto Rican people, they try to turn the American working class against them. This ties directly into the rise of national chauvinism being promoted through the government-sponsored Bi-Centennial activities. Through these activities they hope to win the support of the more backward sectors of the population for the imperialist actions abroad and their increasing repression domestically.
Second, the bombing itself adds to the atmosphere of hysteria and fear the bourgeoisie is whipping up. They have used the threat of default in NYC, for instance, to create a fearful, uncertain situation and to justify the imposing of martial law. The mass media is working at top speed to pump out “disaster” films – about people dying in fires and earthquakes and people being “possessed” by the devil and eaten by sharks. Religious cults are developing around the country and are being given heavy media coverage. Much the same way the bourgeoisie promoted the hippy drug culture in the I960’s to deviate the revolutionary energies of the youth – today they have added mysticism to their arsenal of counter-revolutionary weapons. Many of these cults are openly fascist, such as “Reverend Moon”, the South Korean fascist who says the way to salvation is through a worldwide anti-communist “holy war.”
R. Palme Dutt, in Fascism and Social Revolution, pointed out that as fascism grows it promotes, more and more openly “in favor of religion, idealistic illusions, denial of the validity of science, mysticism, spiritualism, multiplying forms of superstition, cults of the primitive, cults of violence, racial charlatanry, ’blood’ and “Aryan” nonsense) and all forms of obscurantism.” (p.74)
Third, by creating this atmosphere of hysteria and fear, the “bourgeoisie hopes to win the more backward strata of the masses to support their fascist plans – the crushing of the workers’ and communist movements. Indeed, in the bourgeois press you will find countless articles and letters ”blaming the trade unions and the “communists” for the country’s problems. As a result of this airport bombing, for instance, the bourgeoisie will pass regulations for more strict baggage inspection, searching all your bags thoroughly, not only what you carry on with you – another police-state tactic.
Fascism, to be triumphant, needs to develop a mass base. The American fascists try to portray themselves as the defenders of the “American Democracy,” of the interests of the “little man – but this is what the German fascists did also. Under the guise of “protecting the people,” and “law and order”, they are covering and laying the base for fascism.
It is our responsibility to publically expose at each step the maneuvers of the bourgeoisie and rally the working class and oppressed masses to the fight against the rising fascist menace and for proletarian revolution.