The Workers' Advocate

WORKERS, OPPRESSED NATIONS AND PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

NEWSPAPER OF THE CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF U.S. MARXIST-LENINISTS

Volume 8, Number 9

September 28, 1978 25¢

P.O. BOX 11942 CHICAGO, IL. 60611

[Front page:

Election Program of the Capitalist Parties: Starvation, Fascism and War;

Carter Stumps for Wage Controls at the USWA Convention;

330,000 Railroad Workers Strike in Solidarity with Norfolk and Western Clerks!;

POSTAL WORKERS STRUGGLE AGAMST THE FEDERAL ARBITRATOR'S SELL-OUT CONTRACT]

In this issue

Zeri i Popullit: Chinese Warmongering Policy and Hua Kuo-feng's Visit to the Balkans (See page 8)

Election Program of the Capitalist Parties: Starvation, Fascism and War

Carter Stumps for Wage Controls at the USWA Convention

330,000 Railroad Workers Strike in Solidarity with Norfolk and Western Clerks!

POSTAL WORKERS STRUGGLE AGAMST THE FEDERAL ARBITRATOR'S SELL-OUT CONTRACT

NIXON'S WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS WERE A FASCIST, ANTI-WORKING CLASS MEASURE PREPARED FOR AND APPLAUDED BY THE DEMOCRATS AND LABOR TRAITORS

The Carter Administration Savagely Attacks the Federal Employees in Preparation for Mandatory Wage Controls on All Workers

Fraudulent CETA "Jobs" Programs: Hand-Outs to the Rich and Impoverishment of the Workers

IRISH WORKERS OPPOSE NATIONAL WAGE AGREEMENT

The "Tax Revolt'' of the Capitalists Is To Tax the Poor; The "Tax Revolt" of the Proletariat Will Be To Expropriate the Rich

For Your Reference:

Some Features of the Capitalist "Tax Revolt" in California and Michigan

TEACHERS THROUGHOUT THE U.S. WAGE VIGOROUS STRIKES AGAINST GROWING IMPOVERISHMENT

CLEVELAND SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ARE RIGHT TO STRIKE!

Hospital Workers Fight Carter's "Cost Containment" Fraud

PACIFIC COAST PULP AND PAPER WORKERS STRIKE AGAINST PAPER MONOPOLISTS IN DEFIANCE OF CARTER'S WAGE-PRICE GUIDELINES

American Standard Workers Defy Plant Closing Threats and Persist in Strike Struggle

Racist Police Murder of John Rodney in Seattle Exposes Growing Fascism

ONGOING STRUGGLE AGAINST POLICE-ORGANIZED RACIST GANGS IN BOSTON

Chinese Warmongering Policy and Hua Kuo-feng's Visit to the Balkans

The Hostile Act of the Chinese Government Against Socialist Albania Has Aroused the Indignation of the World

• MEETINGS IN DEFENSE OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA
• MESSAGES FROM AROUND THE WORLD IN SUPPORT OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA

Communist Party of New Zealand's United Stand on Major World Questions

Bankruptcy of "Three Worlds Theory:

Where Does Revisionism Find Its Source of Strength? A Comment on the "CP(M-L)" "Three Worlders", "C"PUSA Revisionists and the "New Militancy" of the Labor Traitors

Once Again-on the Warmongering of the Social-Chauvinist "Three Worlders" and the Neutron Bomb

THE COLOSSAL FRAUD AT CAMP DAVID

Irrepressible Revolt of the Iranian People Against the Fascist Shah Pahlavi

Resolution from the Founding Congress of the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran:

ON THE PRESENT SITUATION IN IRAN AND "CARTER'S POLICY"

POWERFUL NATIONAL UPRISING OF THE NICARAGUAN PEOPLE AGAINST FASCIST SOMOZA REGIME, LACKEY OF U.S. IMPERIALISM

Support the Heroic Anti-Fascist Resistance of the Chilean People!

What Is Hidden Behind the Coup D'Etat in Bolivia

Election Program of the Capitalist Parties: Starvation, Fascism and War

The Fall 1978 elections are being held as the capitalist class continues its offensive to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the working masses. All the capitalist parties -- the "Democrats", Republicans and sham "socialist" parties -- are parties of the capitalist offensive, parties of the capitalist reaction. They are parties of starvation, fascism and war.

The capitalist parties are parties of starvation. The capitalists are increasing the exploitation of the workers in order to have the workers pay for the crisis. The workers are faced with unemployment, wage-cutting, run-away inflation and wage-price controls. Speed-up and unsafe working conditions are taking an increasing toll from the workers. Under the guise of "tax revolt" and "tax justice", the taxes and levies on the workers are being raised to the skies, while "tax relief" is being given to the large corporations and the millionaires.

The capitalist parties are parties of fascism. The capitalist politicians are all competing with each other in proposing measures to build more jails, hire more uniformed thugs, and increase jail sentences. They are promoting "anti-crime", anti-youth and anti-immigrant hysteria. They are rabid segregationists and racists who are attacking the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities under the hoax of ending the mythical "reverse discrimination". The labor lieutenants of the capitalists are being increasingly used to betray the workers' struggles. The aim of this increasing fascism is to smash the revolutionary proletariat, which is stirring in struggle.

The capitalist parties are parties of war. Under Carter's "human rights" fraud, the U.S. imperialists have been intervening everywhere around the world, propping up the numerous dictators and feudal-military oligarchies that make up the U.S. imperialist world empire, the so-called "free (for imperialist exploitation) world". The U.S. is frantically arming, building more and more neutron bombs, tanks, cruise missiles, bacteriological and chemical agents in order to use them against the oppressed nations, against the world proletariat and the socialist homeland Albania, and against the U.S.'s chief imperialist rival, the Soviet social-imperialists. Through the never-ending debate on "SALT" and the tempest-in-a-teacup over "appeasement", the politicians are stirring up war hysteria.

This is the common program of all the capitalist politicians. For the sake of political deception, each party emphasizes one aspect a little more or less. Congress is a big talk-shop where the bourgeois hack orators give "eloquent" speeches to fool the naive, while the real business of government is performed behind closed doors by a handful of rich finance capitalists.

REPUBLICANS -- OPEN TOOL OF THE RICH

The Republican Party is the open tool of monopoly capital. It is known to the masses as "the party of big business" and open reaction, of bigotry and rabid chauvinism. The basic call of the Republican Party in this election is that it is necessary to give "incentives" to the big capitalists to induce them to undertake the presumably most unpleasant task of making money.

The Republicans are campaigning very hard on "tax revolt". The capitalist "tax revolt" spouts empty words about reducing taxes for everyone, allegedly without class distinction, in order to:

1. increase the taxes for the working class and the poor generally;

2. implement attacks on the public sector workers; and

3. redistribute government expenditures to the areas of maximum capitalist profit at the expense of cutbacks harming the well-being of the masses.

In Congress the Republicans are proposing major cuts in the capital-gains tax in order to enrich the capitalists and as well they are chattering about a big income tax cut for everyone, across the board. As the Republican Party paper First Monday puts it, quoting Senator Kemp: the Republican Party is "the party of lower taxes, hope, opportunity and the American dream. " And indeed the Republican sweet-talk is all a dream. Either the rich or the poor must pay for the bloated government bureaucracy, the huge army for aggression, and the numerous "incentives" and subsidies for the corporations. The Republican Party has always made it clear that it is the poor who must pay, in order to provide "incentives" for the rich.

The present Republican propaganda about tax-cutting also shows that behind all their idle chatter about "small government" and "fiscal responsibility", the Republican Party has always stood for the maximum expansion of the government and the largest military establishment. It was the "responsible" Nixon-Ford administration which, just like the Democratic administrations, produced record-breaking federal budget deficits. These deficits fuel inflation, which is a method by which the capitalists as a class cut the real value of the workers' wages and thus increase their profits.

THE DEMOCRATS --MONOPOLY CAPITAL'S MAIN PARTY FOR DECEIVING THE WORKERS

The Democratic Party is the main tool of the monopoly capitalists for political deception of the working masses. The program of the Democratic Party is the exact same as that of the Republican Party; it too is a "party of big business", but it parades itself as the "party of the workers and the minorities". For years this party has flaunted that it was the answer to all life's ills. Now there is both a Democratic President and huge Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate -- and what is the result? The capitalist offensive against the masses, the program openly advocated by the Republicans, is being intensified by the Democrats themselves under cover of the illusions about the alleged "pro-Labor" nature of the the Democrats. Carter is implementing a most sinister program of attack on the masses, with each new attack being presented as a "victory for Labor and the minorities".

The main program of the Democrats is Carter's "anti-inflation" program. This program is a shallow pretext behind which Carter acts to cut the workers' wages. It has nothing to do with fighting inflation, as the rise or fall of wages is inverse to the level of profits but has nothing to do with inflation. Inflation is caused by the depreciation of the currency through government deficits and rampant financial speculation, and the Carter administration does not even claim that it can stop inflation, but only pretends to want to "control" it. Behind the "anti-inflation" program lies Carter's wage-price controls. Carter has brutally imposed the Taft-Hartley Act against the coal miners, imposed a 5.5 per cent wage limit on the federal employees, threatened the postal workers with the Army, and is now preparing for compulsory wage-price controls. And while Carter attacks the workers' movement and cuts wages, he is eagerly competing with the Republicans in giving "incentives" to the monopolists through such means as his hated "energy program" which extorts billions from the masses to pay the oil kings.

The Carter administration is also attacking the masses and fascizing the country on a number of other fronts. His proposed'"welfare reform" and "immigration reform" are bills to further turn the unemployed and the immigrant workers into slave- labor pools deprived of all rights and forced to work at whatever wages and under whatever conditions the capitalists dictate. Through such means as the Civil Service Reform Act, the Labor Law Reform Act (which is being revived), labor-management boards, etc., the Democratic Party is increasing the state apparatus that spies on and dominates the union apparatus and is going further down the road of corporate state fascism. Through his administration's brief to the Supreme Court in the Bakke case endorsing "guidelines" but no "quotas", Carter endorsed the nazi lie of "reverse discrimination". The Democrats are also pushing through a draconic revision of the criminal code, with Senator Edward Kennedy spearheading the effort to pass a revised form of the much- condemned, fascist Senate Bill S-l.

THE LABOR BUREAUCRATS -- BETTER DEFENDERS OF CAPITALISM THAN THE CAPITALISTS THEMSELVES

The labor bureaucrats are a reserve of the monopoly capitalist class. They strive to betray all the struggles of the workers, to moderate the workers' militancy and divert it into channels completely harmless to the bourgeoisie. They even boast to the whole world about how few strikes the capitalist trade unions engage in and about how the capitalists recognize the value of their services. The American trade union big-wigs have long been notorious as among the most corrupt and sold-out, the most fascistic and chauvinistic labor bureaucrats the world has ever seen.

The American labor traitors do not have a political party of their own, and they do not even pretend to be independent of the capitalist parties. They try to attach the workers as a tail to the official capitalist parties. In the main, they are connected to the Democratic Party, and they play a big role in giving the Democratic Party its "pro-labor" facade and in helping the Democrats to attack the workers' movement. For years on end, the labor traitors have been preaching to the workers that all their troubles would be solved by electing Democrats, that the workers should not go on strike and certainly not engage in revolutionary struggle, but should patiently wait for Congress to solve all the problems of unemployment, inflation, unsafe working conditions, etc. And now there is not only a Democratic Congress, not only a "veto-proof" Congress, but an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress and a Democratic President, and the labor traitors are going into contortions trying to explain why things are worse than ever.

According to the labor bureaucrats, the problem does not lie in the Democratic Party or in the capitalist class as a whole, but solely in an unreasonable ultra-right fringe, the "New Right". For example, a UAW pamphlet "A Citizen's Guide to the Right Wing" (with a title like that you would think it would be a who's who in Congress and the trade union bureaucracy) states: "These New Right organizations have begun to win. In Congress their associates, a small group of extreme conservatives, have frightened and harassed what was expected to be the most progressive Congress in our recent history into a state of political shock. " What nonsense! Neither Carter's energy policy, nor his wage-price controls, nor the revised form of Senate Bill S-1, nor any of the whole sinister program of the Democrats has been forced upon it by the "New Right". The truth is that there are powerful fascist forces in the U.S., but this true "ultra-right" includes Carter, Meany, and the liberal- labor politicians as well as the open fascists of the "New Right". Imperialism is reaction all along the line. Fascism is not the policy of some individual, but the inherent character of the monopoly capitalist class. The record of Congress is an exposure in big letters of the total bankruptcy of the AFL-CIO's electoral strategy.

The difference between the open reactionaries and the labor bureaucracy does not revolve around the fascist program of the monopoly capitalist class. It is simply a difference over whether the labor bureaucrats will be allowed a hand in administrating this fascist program. George Meany at a meeting this "Labor Day" stated: "Why, for example, would American business want to weaken the strongest anti-communist workers' movement in the world?" The answer is, of course, that the liberal-labor politicians of the Democratic Party, the concealed fascists, fully appreciate the valuable services the labor bureaucrats are rendering the capitalists. Far from wanting to discard the labor bureaucrats, the capitalists are presently promoting the labor traitors as the way to fight the workers' movement and to stifle the strike movement. The Civil Service Reform Act, the Labor Law Reform Act, and other plans all give more prominence to bringing in the labor bureaucrats to the fascist apparatus of suppression. The Civil Service Reform Act, as passed in the House, openly recognizes that "experience" has shown the value of the trade union bureaucracy in suppressing the workers. Just as in the time of Nixon's wage-price controls, which were called for both by the Democrats and by the labor bureaucrats, the contradiction between the labor traitors and "big business" is only over to what extent the labor traitors will be allowed to participate in the suppression of the workers and to take part in joining labor-management collaboration.

The labor traitors are also the most chauvinistic party of war. They boast in the AFL-CIO NEWS that "So, long before President Carter launched the human rights campaign, the AFL-CIO urged that the promotion of human rights throughout the world be undertaken,..." They are more enthusiastic about expanding the military, more enthusiastic about the glories of the "free world" and the benefits of capitalism than most capitalists are. The workers' movement cannot advance a step without coming into contradiction with them.

THE PROGRAM OF THE PROLETARIAT -- MASS REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE LEADING TO THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

The program of the proletariat is the exact opposite of the program of the capitalist parties. The proletariat stands for revolutionary struggle against the capitalist offensive, for opposition to both the liberal or concealed fascists and to the open reactionaries, for struggle in defense of the basic interests of the working masses. Faced with the bitter oppression of capitalist exploitation, the only real solution is for the masses to wage a revolutionary struggle directed at the monopoly capitalist dictators, to make the rich bear the burden of all the evils of the capitalist system and to overthrow the rich altogether.

Today a strike movement is developing against the capitalists and the workers are defying the "voluntary" wage-price controls. The coal miners have defied the Taft-Hartley Act, the public sector workers are aflame, and one section after another of the working masses is being brought into new life and struggle. The oppressed nationalities are fighting against the racist attacks. A great resistance movement is developing throughout the U.S. It is the program of the proletariat to develop this movement, as what is alive and healthy in the U.S. today, in order to combat the capitalists tooth and nail on every front.

But in order for the proletariat to act as a class, in a truly conscious and systematic fashion, it cannot rely on spontaneity but must take up the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism and build its own political party, a Marxist-Leninist communist party. Led by its vanguard, the Marxist-Leninist Party, the proletariat can lead the mass movements and combine them into one great revolutionary storm leading to the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution. This revolution will be a proletarian socialist revolution because it will replace capitalism by socialism, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by the dictatorship of the proletariat, where the working class will become the ruling class and will lead all of society forward and where the large-scale means of production will be owned by the people. It will be an anti-fascist revolution, because it will destroy the growing fascism of the present government, abolish the over-grown, oppressive system of a huge standing army, police and arrogant bureaucracy, and replace them by the 'armed' people themselves. For the first time in American history, there will be freedom and democracy for the overwhelming majority of the people, the formerly oppressed masses, and dictatorship will be exercised over the small handful of exploiters. At that time there will be genuine elections to government positions, in which the American people will choose which of their representatives is best able to serve them and to suppress the remnants of the exploiting classes.

THE TASKS IN THE PRESENT ELECTIONS

The present elections are a big propaganda stunt by the capitalists. Comrade Lenin exposed the essence of the capitalist "election democracy" when he stated "To decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament -- such is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism..."

All the parties contesting the bourgeois Congressional and local elections of 1978 are capitalist parties. The party of the proletariat, the Marxist-Leninist party, might or might not contest any particular election, depending on a number of circumstances. But it must always tell the masses that the elections cannot solve the problems of the people, that the Congress is a miserable puppet-show and talk-shop while the capitalists conduct their real business elsewhere. Only the mass revolutionary struggle of the people can lead to real change. Under capitalism, elections can at most, provide a measure of the maturity of the working class and oppressed masses, showing to what extent they are still under bourgeois illusions and to what extent they have become contemptuous of the capitalists.

The working class should use the present elections to clarify the nature of the capitalist parties. It must oppose all the capitalist parties and the whole capitalist offensive. The working class stands opposed to the open reactionaries, and it must smash all the fascist movements the bourgeoisie is trying to float. But at the same time, in order to maintain its independent stand, the working class must take care to also oppose the concealed fascists who are attempting to mobilize the masses behind Carterite fascism by use of the bogey of the "New Right". In this way, the working class will be able to use the elections to clarify the political situation and clarify the orientation for the on-going mass revolutionary struggles. End.

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Carter Stumps for Wage Controls at the USWA Convention

On September 20, 1978, Carter announced at the Steelworkers' Union (USWA) national convention that "in the near future, I will announce a strengthening of our limited arsenal of weapons against inflation", it "will be tough", and "will ask for restraint and some sacrifice from all". Carter will soon reveal a new "phase two" of his "voluntary" wage-price controls. These "phase two" controls are part of the monopoly capitalists' fascist wage-cutting offensive against the working class, which Carter ridiculously refers to as a "fight against inflation".

It is a big exposure of the trade union bureaucrats that Carter chose to make his preliminary announcement at the USWA convention. It is simply gross betrayal of the working class for the labor traitors to welcome the chieftain of the bloodsucking monopoly capitalist class to spout his anti-working class venom at a union convention, supposedly a workers' gathering. Today, presidents fear for their lives if they should try to walk down an ordinary street, but in this case Carter was received with hugs and kisses. This shows that the labor hacks fully support Carter's wage-cutting program. This exposes the alliance between the top union officials and the Democratic Party against the workers' basic interests.

The Carter administration is preparing to impose outright compulsory wage controls. Carter has admitted that his "voluntary" wage controls have not been successful, and has created a big discussion on how to improve his, "voluntary" program. In late August, numerous presidential economic advisors started to present proposals for a "phase two" of the "voluntary" program. (The use of the term "phase two" has now been dropped by the bourgeois experts as the terminology too closely resembles that of Nixon's "phases one, two, and three" when he imposed the hated wage freeze and controls on the working class in 1971-3. In addition, this terminology also correctly indicates that after both phases one and two of Carter's voluntary program are discarded, a "phase three" of outright controls will begin.)

The monopoly capitalists want a "phase two" plan both because the workers defied and broke through Carter's earlier "voluntary" guidelines of 5.1 to 5.6% raises, and because trying to hold.workers to these paltry increases in the face of the current 11% annual inflation rate (which would mean a 5% plus cut in real wages) is too big an exposure of the real nature of the Democratic Party "friends of labor". What are the proposed features of "phase two"?

The first point is that "phase two" will be a transition program to mandatory controls despite Carter's repeated assertions to the contrary. In an interview on August 18 with the International Labor Press Association Carter said: "I would guess that a majority of the American people would prefer to have mandatory wage and price controls. I am philosophically opposed to it and would not impose such controls unless our nation faces a very serious emergency or crisis". Here we see that, even in denying the intention to do so, Carter cannot help but to lie even more, saying that the American people desire to see this Nixonite program adopted. And no one would expect Carter's "philosophical" opposition to hold up in the face of an alleged popular demand, especially if a crisis of some kind should be declared.

The second point is that "phase two" will be called "voluntary wage-price guidelines, with limited sanctions". The wage guidelines Carter is considering are that they "would be expected" to rise no more than the per cent rate of increase of prices measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) during the previous year. (The CPI underestimates the burden placed on working people who suffer the most from the largest price increases on necessities like heating oil and coal, a 113 per cent rise from 1973 to 1978. It also totally ignores the burden of ever-increasing taxation.) The CPI rose at an 8 per cent rate in 1977. Thus in 1978, wage increases would be limited to this same 8 per cent, if the capitalists could have their way. Obviously, this would guarantee perpetual pay cuts, as today prices are rising at an 11 per cent annual rate. Also it opposes workers trying to make up for the over 5 per cent loss in real wages that the proletariat has suffered since 1973 alone, much less improving their income and living standards (or getting out of debt!). With this wage guideline, Carter is trying to appear fair and reasonable, while doggedly attacking the workers' wages and thus increasing profits. A different version of the above, would be "numerical wage guidelines" where Carter would simply dictate a figure to which the workers "would be expected" to submit. Current proposals center around 7 to 7.5 per cent for wages. Carter is quite aware that virtually all workers are defying his 5.1 to 5.6 per cent figure previously announced.

The third point is that despite the rhetoric about the guidelines being "voluntary", Carter's advisors are proposing "limited sanctions" or penalties. We have seen how "voluntary" Carter's controls have been so far! The Taft-Hartley injunction was used, and federal troops threatened, against the coal miners. Carter did not hesitate to push binding arbitration on the postal workers. And Carter simply dictated a 5.5 per cent "raise" to 1.5 million federal government workers recently. There was nothing voluntary about it. The White House has yet to speculate on what penalties it is considering to use against the workers who defy the government's guidelines. Perhaps the workers are expected to either voluntarily penalize themselves with a wage cut, or voluntarily penalize themselves for not submitting to a wage cut, by say, sweating more on the job?! (Carter's economic advisors have talked of "tax incentives", while denying their feasibility in the next breath.)

The fourth point is that, while the main intention of wage-price controls is to cut wages, the monopoly capitalist dictators also have to put on a show of "controlling prices". Carter's proposed guidelines on this are just as much a fraud as were Nixon's price freeze and controls. Prices "would be expected" to rise 1 to 1.5 per cent less than the previous year's rise on a company by company basis, (or approximately 6 per cent according to another proposed scheme). But even if some companies were to hold down their price increases temporarily, this would only be for the purpose of trying to use public opinion to force the workers to accept wage-cuts. Then, once three-year contracts were signed, the capitalists would raise their prices out of sight. This is the trick Nixon pulled in 1973 when compulsory controls were lifted, prices soared at a 6 to 11 per cent rate while the workers were stuck with yearly 5.5 per cent government-dictated raises for 3 years!

In the case of the price guidelines, Carter's advisors have been more specific about the "limited sanctions" the government could use against violating companies. These include, withholding or deferring the issuing of government contracts; admitting foreign goods to cause price competition; and pressure from federal regulatory agencies to strictly apply air, water and noise pollution standards and health and safety regulations, etc. (Incidentally, this is a back-handed way of admitting that the government intends to enforce these regulations only by way of isolated exceptions.) All of this is a lot of propaganda. The capitalists do not penalize themselves, unless tactically it is to the administration's advantage to create a big hullabaloo, slapping one or two corporate offenders on the wrist in order to create the illusion that wage-slaves and bourgeois slavemasters are both being forced to sacrifice, so as to pressure the workers into accepting wage cuts.

The fifth point is that the "guidelines with sanctions" plan will be the main aspect of Carter's new "phase two" anti-inflation program, but other aspects are also being considered. These include: tax breaks for the capitalists for capital investments; delaying Social Security tax increases and cutting benefit payments for certain categories of recipients; delaying indefinitely the scheduled January 1979 15% increase of the minimum wage, etc. It does not require too much insight to see who would benefit from all of these falsely-termed "anti-inflation" measures.

To compel the workers to accept the new "phase two" wage controls program, the capitalist exploiters are counting on the alliance of the Democratic Party headed by Carter with the bourgeois labor bureaucrats like George Meany of the AFL-CIO and Douglas Fraser of the UAW. These agents of,the capitalists within the workers' movement have already agreed to reduce wage demands, as long as the capitalists make a show of restraining prices.

On September 17th, George Meany spoke at the same convention. He stated: "In the past, workers have been called upon to sacrifice to fight inflation, and they have. But the corporations and the bankers never did their share and there's no evidence they are ready to do so now". This is the same bankrupt "equality of sacrifice" viewpoint as the Carter administration, but with a slightly militant twist. Meany is agreeing to wage cuts, as long as Carter pretends to limit prices as well.

This set the stage for Carter to declare at the convention three days later that his plan "will be tough" and "will require sacrifices from all". On September 19, Carter's Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall stated at the convention: "There is no way to enunciate an effective program that does not require all sections of the economy to make sacrifices".

The capitalist spokesmen are shouting for "equality of sacrifice" so as to pretend to be impartial and to blame government, business and labor equally as the causes of inflation. Thus all are to sacrifice to end it. But what in practice is the sacrifice asked of each? Government is to clean up its backyard by -- cutting government employees' wages. Business is to make a show of restraining price increases, and of limiting the salaries of millionaire executives a little -- and by cutting the workers' wages. And of course labor is to voluntarily accept -- a cut in wages. This is the "anti-inflation" program that the labor lieutenants of the bourgeoisie are approving: suppression of the working class movement and further impoverishment of the workers for the sake of increasing the capitalists' profits.

The monopoly capitalist class is the most corrupt, lying and degenerate class ever known in history. To feign impartiality they blame everyone and call for "equality of sacrifice". But constantly, on a daily basis, the bourgeoisie blames the workers alone for inflation with the notorious Nixonite theory of the "wage-price spiral", whereby wage increases supposedly cause price increases. Therefore, the workers' wages should be forcibly decreased and the proletariat reduced to paupers and outright slaves. First Nixon and now Carter spout this theory constantly to justify wage controls.

What is the real cause of galloping inflation? It is the drive of the monopoly bourgeoisie to maximize their profits, which today assumes the form of frenziedly trying to get out of their grave economic crisis by shifting it's burden onto the working class and preparing for war. To maximize their profits the state machine of the U.S. imperialist ruling class suppresses the workers' movement at home and brutally attacks the people abroad, particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America, to defend its investments and massive profits. It builds up a huge war machine to contend with its imperialist rivals, headed by the Soviet Union. The state consumes a tremendous amount of money to do so. Similarly it finances a bloated bureaucracy as well as subsidizing the large monopolies with billion dollar handouts, and in general redistributes the national income in favor of the big bourgeoisie, yielding tremendous profits. To do all of this, the government runs up huge budget deficits. To pay for these deficits (and subsequent profits), the bourgeoisie inflates the currency. It creates more and more paper currency (or its equivalent) which exceeds the growth of production and circulation of commodities, resulting in inflation (or depreciation) of the currency. Depreciation of the currency is also caused by the monopoly finance capitalists' wild speculation in stocks and bonds, it too yielding huge profits independent of production. With the currency inflated, the monopolies jack up their prices and the cost-of-living, thus cutting the workers' real wages. The "wage-price spiral" theory is an attempt of the monopoly capitalists to blame the working class for its own crimes.

The labor hacks will also give this theory, but to cover themselves, they prefer to spout a slight variation, This is the "price-wage spiral" theory. According to this fraud, prices rise first (for some unknown reason), then the workers struggle to raise their real wages to catch up, which further causes a rise in prices, an upward spiral. Labor Secretary Marshal stated on September 18 to the Steelworkers: "Unions have not caused our current inflation" but collective bargaining negotiations sometimes transmit inflationary pressures already in the economy. With this pseudo-theory, the bourgeoisie cunningly calls on workers to accept wage-cuts all the same, supposedly to avoid transmitting inflationary pressures in the economy and causing prices to rise.

Monopoly capital seeks maximum profits. Inflation of the currency through the monopoly financiers' wild speculation and through financing their budget deficits are inherent features of monopoly capitalism in all-round crisis and decay. The proletariat can end inflation, and every other major social problem, only through smashing the capitalist state, overthrowing the bourgeoisie and establishing a planned socialist economy administered by the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

To limit their exploitation by the capitalists and to advance the working class movement toward the antifascist proletarian socialist revolution, the working class must wage a vigorous resistance struggle to Carter's wage-cutting "voluntary wage-price controls with limited sanctions".

Carter's "voluntary" wage controls program is in big trouble. Several sections of the working class have defied the dictates of the rich capitalists and waged determined struggles to limit the decrease in their real wages, including the coal miners, the postal workers, the pulp and paper workers, and most recently the school teachers. This is why Carter is preparing to impose outright compulsory wage controls like those instituted by Nixon in 1971. Compulsory wage controls are a fascist attack on the proletariat. The state comes out into the open as the capitalists' tool, bans strikes directly or indirectly, and dictates a single standard wage-cut.

On September 19, the National Chairman of the Democratic Party, John C. White came out in favor of mandatory wage controls. On September 18, an official of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. stated that "The administration is apparently edging closer to formal wage-price controls". The September 18 Washington Post quoted an unidentified White House official who, referring to "phase two", said that it will "require a lot of cunning to make clear that these standards are not simply the back door to mandatory controls".

Behind the banner of a "phase two" of wage controls, the Carter administration is getting ready for a renewed offensive against the working class. On March 31, 1979 contracts covering 450,000 teamster trucking company workers expire, and the capitalist view these negotiations as a big test of Carter's program. Barry Bosworth, chairman of Carter's Council on Wage-Price Stability stated in August that "the economic implications of your settlement will extend far beyond your own industry" and it is "naive to expect the government to avoid involvement in such crucial talks".

Thus the battle lines are clear: on one side the monopoly capitalists, their state machine and their labor lieutenants --and on the other side facing them: the large and powerful American proletariat. Workers: the only choice is to resist this fascist offensive through developing active mass struggle. Workers: reject all of the lies of the capitalists and labor hacks such as "equality of sacrifice" and "wage-price spiral" and unite to smash the wage-cutting "voluntary" controls and to defend your basic interests. End.

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330,000 Railroad Workers Strike in Solidarity with Norfolk and Western Clerks!

On September 26, approximately 330,000 railroad workers in 44 states simultaneously struck 43 U.S. railroads, stopping fully two-thirds of all rail transportation in the country! The railroad workers have struck nationally in solidarity with Norfolk and Western R. R, clerks who set up picket lines on various railroads across the country. This is a great victory for the N&W clerks who've been on strike against the N&W since July 10 and have been fighting hard to spread their strike to other railroads. This is the largest railroad strike in recent U.S. history. The strike immediately began to cripple industrial production nation-wide. Auto, steel and coal production began to drop right away. The capitalist class is furious and immediately began to resort to the traditional fascist measures it uses against the railroad workers, having the federal courts either limit picketing or prohibit the strike altogether in different areas of the country. This great class battle is another powerful demonstration that the militant strike movement of the American proletariat is irresistibly surging forward!

Over 4,600 N&W railway clerks, backed by a solidarity strike of 16,000 other N&W workers, began their strike against the Norfolk & Western Railroad on July 10. The workers have been striking to stop the attempts of the N&W railroad barons to eliminate large numbers of clerical jobs through automation. This strike is a separate matter from the national rail contracts which expired this year, and therefore wages are not at issue. The N&W clerks are absolutely determined to defeat this attack. With the militant support of the other striking N&W workers, and now with the support of the mighty nationwide strike of 330,000 railway workers, they have persisted in their struggle for over 2-1/2 months. This has been the longest strike in history against the huge N&W monopoly which extends through 14 states. The N&W strike had already forced the coal monopolies to curtail production and led to the lay-off of 25,000 coal miners for over two months before the national strike began.

What has been the issue in the N&W railway strike? The monopoly capitalist class is waging a vicious offensive on every front to shift the full burden of the economic crisis onto the workers' shoulders. The specific form this offensive takes against the railroad workers is capitalist rationalization of railway transportation. In the main, this rationalization means: 1) the consolidation and modernization of bankrupt, inefficient or worn-out railroad facilities -- all financed by huge government handouts to the monopolists from tax monies (for example, $2.03 billion initially to Conrail alone); 2) vicious "productivity" drives against the railroad workers -- either associated with the introduction of modern equipment, or with brutal speed-up. This productivity offensive takes different forms against different railroad crafts. Against the clerical workers now striking the N&W, it takes the form of introducing more computers and other automation of clerical functions. The N&W capitalists want to eliminate clerks' jobs through attrition after the new machinery is introduced. Against the operating unions (trainmen, brakemen, engineers, etc.) the productivity drive takes the form of the capitalists demanding drastic changes in traditional work rules. This includes: a) cutting freight train crews in half, from the present four men on most railroads to only two men per train, allowing the elimination of thousands of jobs; and b) no longer considering a 100-mile run as the measurement of a working day (eight hours pay) on the basis of which overtime is determined for an over-the-road crew, thus permitting lengthier runs without overtime pay. Against the workers in the railroad shops, one form this productivity drive takes is an attempt to eliminate all job classifications (machinist, pipefitter, electrician, laborer, etc.) by combining them into one general classification in which the workers would be forced to do any sort of work and be severely speeded up. This, too, would allow the capitalists to eliminate thousands of jobs. (There is also wide-scale "farming-out" of diesel and car shop jobs to independent contractors to eliminate large numbers of shop-craft workers.)

Under the capitalist system, the introduction of new machinery and more productive methods is nothing but a means for the capitalists to enrich themselves, to maximize their profits at the workers' expense. It means speed-up and unemployment for the working class. The N&W workers know this through bitter experience. However, under socialism -- where every new machine and every new and more productive method is introduced solely to lighten the labor of the working people, to increase their leisure time and raise the living standard of the masses -- it is altogether another matter. Until the working class seizes political power and takes all the factories, mines, railroads, etc., into its possession and runs the economy for the benefit of the masses until then the working class must fight against the capitalists' "productivity" drives tooth and nail.

The N&W workers' strike has been a protracted strike against many obstacles. All the capitalists of 73 other railroads, having a common interest in smashing the N&W clerks' strike and enforcing increased productivity, have united in a "strike insurance mutual-aid pact". This pact pays the N&W capitalists $16 million per month to hold out against the workers. Also, the N&W is employing 4,000 scabs (supervisory personnel who will receive bonus pay) to keep a significant percentage of freight moving. In response to this, the workers have militantly fought to spread their strike to other railroads which service N&W equipment or whose interchanges and yards handle N&W trains.

In late August, N&W clerks in Chicago set up picket lines at Chicago and North Western R. R. facilities used by the N&W. Chicago and North Western clerks militantly honored the picket lines and struck in solidarity. When the Chicago and North Western capitalists arrogantly tried to discipline 100 of these clerks for their solidarity with the N&W clerks, over 3,000 Chicago and North Western clerks and freight handlers in Chicago struck the Chicago and North Western Railroad on September 6. They were joined by 10,000 other Chicago and North Western workers who honored their picket lines. The rich railroad barons -- faced with this militant show of solidarity by the workers and with 50,000 commuters stranded in Chicago -- immediately capitulated and and agreed not to discipline the 100 clerks.

In Buffalo, New York, on September 7 the N&W clerks again fought to spread their strike to other railroads. They set up pickets at the huge Conrail yards in Buffalo. 3,000 Conrail workers struck in solidarity with them. This caused such havoc for capitalist industry that the bourgeoisie resorted to the fascist measure of having the federal courts issue an injunction prohibiting the N&W clerks from picketing the Conrail yards.

The huge national strike beginning September 26 is the latest development in the N&W clerks fight to spread their strike to the railroads helping the N&W. And again the bourgeoisie is furiously retaliating with fascist court orders against the strike.

The railroad industry is a crucial sector of capitalist production and the capitalists have never tolerated the railroad workers' just struggles, even on a small scale. In the 1930's the capitalist government enacted the fascist Railway Labor Act to smash the railroad workers' militant movement at that time. Since then every single step of any economic struggle between the capitalists and the workers is tangled in weeks and months of delays and legal restriction by the provisions of this Act. In the case of the N&W clerks strike, the labor bureaucrats who head the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks union (BRAC) have been completely subservient to the capitalists' legal restrictions, groveling before the capitalists' fascist labor laws. For example, the issue of the automation in the present strike has been going through the provisions of the Act literally for years! When finally, in October 1976, it came to the stage where the bureaucrats could "legally" file a strike notice under the Act, they then patiently waited another full 22 months until all the time restrictions of the capitalist law ran out and they could "legally" call the strike.

This servility before the capitalist government and its fascist labor laws by the bureaucrats totally enrages the railroad workers. More and more the railroad workers are insisting that the inevitable struggle for their vital interests must break out in the open against capital.

The railroad workers' class hatred for the union bureaucrats is also deeply aroused as the bureaucrats time and again sign contracts and agreements with the railroad monopolies which are completely in service of the companies' productivity drive. Recently the leadership of the United Transportation Union (UTU) signed such a sell-out contract with Conrail. They agreed to the elimination of one man from each four-man crew presently carried on Conrail freight trains beginning November 1, a measure which will lead to the elimination of fully 4,500 workers through attrition!

The militant struggle of the N&W workers -- which has led to the country-wide strike of 330,000 railroad workers -- is a sure sign that the railroad workers are smashing through the attempts of the capitalists, their government and the labor bureaucrats to impose class peace on the railroad industry. The national railroad strike which began September 26th is a great development in the strike movement of the whole working class. Historically the capitalist class has gone through the most comprehensive, fascist measures to maintain class peace in the railroad industry. This nationwide strike, in the industry at the heart of the whole of capitalist industry, is a devastating blow to the capitalist class and government and a great inspiration to the entire working class.

RED SALUTE TO THE FIGHTING RAILROAD WORKERS! End.

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POSTAL WORKERS STRUGGLE AGAMST THE FEDERAL ARBITRATOR'S SELL-OUT CONTRACT

The struggle of the 570,000 postal workers against the Carter administration's "voluntary" wage-price controls and the increasing exploitation the postal workers suffer at the hands of their employer, the government, has reached a critical stage. The postal workers waged wildcat strikes against and rejected the July 21 tentative agreement as a gross betrayal of their vital interests. Now they face a new sell-out pact, even worse in terms of job security than the previous one. This contract is dictated by the government's "neutral" arbitrator as "binding" and is backed up, as before, by the full force of the bourgeois state machine, which threatens firings, arrests of striking workers and is prepared (insofar as this is possible) to move the mail with federal troops. This sell-out agreement, like the last, has the full support of the treacherous bureaucrats heading the postal unions.

The only way for the postal workers to defeat the attacks of the government and its labor flunkeys and improve their terms of labor is by militant mass struggle. In the coal miners' strike last winter it was only through mass action that the miners defeated all the attacks of the repressive state apparatus, from the local and state police, to the National Guard, right up to the Taft-Hartley federal court injunction obtained by the Carterite "friends of Labor" in the White House. The postal workers, too, want to take mass strike action to fight for their just demands. Just prior to the arbitrator's decision a national wildcat strike was planned and had the support of the locals of the American Postal Workers Union in at least four key major cities. But the treacherous labor bureaucrats are forestalling a strike and smothering the protest of the workers. Their local henchmen called off the September 13 wildcat. Today the bureaucrats of the two biggest postal unions, the APWU and the National Association of Letter Carriers, are putting the arbitrator's decision up for a vote of ratification, while at the same time concealing its real, sell-out nature from the workers. The labor traitors hope that this delaying tactic will head off a strike and produce a vote against it. It is up to the postal workers to expose the new pact and take mass action in defense of their vital interests.

The struggle of the postal workers is a big test of the "voluntary" wage-price controls of the Carter administration. These controls call for such meager wage "raises" -- 5.1 to 5. 6 per cent in the face of 11 per cent inflation --that they amount to a program to cut the real wages of the working class. The controls are a big part of the anti-working class offensive of the bourgeoisie and its state machine at all levels, headed by the Carter administration, which is aimed at shifting the burden of the prolonged and deep economic crisis onto the backs of the workers. If "voluntary" controls fail to suppress the workers, the Carterite "friends of Labor" plan to impose outright compulsory controls like those of the fascist Nixon in 1971-3.

But the Carter administration has been unable to enforce this wage-cutting policy on the militant workers. The wage settlements of the miners as well as the railroad workers nearly doubled Carter's guidelines. Due to the postal workers' resistance, the new sell-out pact the administration is trying to impose will exceed Carter's guidelines by as much as 3.5 per cent (if inflation continues at 11 per cent), although it still falls far short of catching up with inflation. Carter's guidelines are so low that even the new sell-out postal contract has broken them! While the Carter administration is enforcing a mandatory 5.5 per cent limit on the wage increases of the other federal employees as part of its vicious attacks on the public sector workers, the militant postal workers have resisted this attack and forced their wage increases above the limit imposed on the other federal employees. The legacy of the powerful national postal wildcat in 1970, which broke the law banning strikes of federal workers, and this year the wildcat strikes, the threat of a national strike, the rejection of the July 21 agreement and generally the militant mood of the postal workers are the only reasons why the postal workers have been able to break Carter's wage guidelines while the other federal employees have been saddled with a 5.5 per cent wage limit and attacked with the civil service "reform". The fact that the government has had to turn to direct force and open dictate in the case of the two major tests of its wage-cutting program to date --the coal miners' and postal workers' struggles -- reveals that the "voluntary"-ness of Carter's controls is merely a mask behind which stands the full force of the state. But the use of open force (which failed utterly against the miners) also shows the weakness of the government in the face of the rising, militant workers' movement. Militant mass action is the only way to defeat the attacks of the government and the employers.

THE NEW "BINDING" POSTAL CONTRACT: A WAGE-CUT AND A SLASH IN PROTECTION AGAINST LAY-OFFS

The new "binding" postal contract has been widely ballyhooed by the capitalist news media and top labor bureaucrats of the postal unions as providing a "bigger" "pay raise" than the July 21 agreement, as "reversing the economic impact of the rejected National Agreement" and as "guaranteeing Economic Security" for the postal workers until 1981. Further, they are boasting to the skies that it provides "lifetime job security" for postal workers.

This boasting is a pack of lies aimed at getting the postal workers to give up their struggle and accept a fleecing by the capitalists, at hiding the criminality of the government's "anti-inflation" program and the treachery of the union bosses who are licking the boots of the Carterite slave-drivers. Look at the provisions of the new pact:

Wages: The postal unions went into negotiations this year demanding a raise of about 14 per cent per year, COLA included, a figure absolutely necessary to even begin to deal with galloping inflation in the future and the loss in real wages the workers have experienced due to inflation in the past. The rejected tentative agreement of July 21 offered the workers only a 6.5 per cent per year raise, COLA again included with a cap at a 6.5 per cent inflation rate. This pact treacherously agreed to by the labor traitors amounted to a big wage-cut for the workers.

The new "binding" decision of the federal arbitrator is virtually the same as the July 21 betrayal in the matter of wages. The only changes are that some of the money due the workers in their basic rate in the third year of the contract is moved to the first year and the COLA is uncapped. What this means is the following: in the July 21 tentative agreement the formula for the base rate increase was 2 per cent in the first year, 3 in the second and 5 in the third. On this basis the base rate pay of $13,916 would bring the worker a total wage of $44,113 over three years. The "binding" decision of the arbitrator altered this formula so that the workers would get a flat cash increase of $500 the first year, a 3 per cent increase figured on the new total in the second year and another $500 flat increase in the third year, resulting in a total wage of $44,613 over three years. The difference between the two is a mere $500 over three years. This breaks down to 8 cents an hour or a 1 per cent increase over the life of the contract, a miserable 0.3 per cent more per year! Hence, in terms of base rate, the new decision would actually leave the workers just as far behind the present annual rate of inflation as before.

The labor traitors, however, are advertising the uncapping of COLA as a big victory and the solution to inflation-caused wage-cuts. The COLA provided in the rejected contract would have raised the workers' pay until the time the rate of inflation exceeded 6.5 per cent, after which it would increase no more. But the uncapping of COLA in the arbitrator's decision has far less significance than the labor traitors claim. COLA for the postal workers is awarded by adding one cent per hour to the workers' pay every time the Consumer Price Index, which gives the government's minimized version of the rate of price increases, goes up 0.4 per cent. This COLA does not keep the workers up with inflation, as the following example shows. Presently the postal workers' base rate gives them about a $7 hourly wage. If the CPI rose by 2 per cent, the wage of the workers would rise by 5 cents, which is merely a 0.7 per cent raise in pay. An item which formerly cost $7.00 would cost $7.14 but the workers' pay would only rise to $7.05. Thus the COLA, even uncapped, still allows inflation to rise at three times the rate of pay increase!

Taken together, the shifting of some of the base rate raise to the first year and the uncapping of COLA, therefore, do not begin to deal with the problem the postal workers face of combatting the increased exploitation they suffer due to the galloping inflation which is a way of life under U.S. monopoly capitalism.

Job security: To rationalize the postal system and increase the productivity of the postal workers by stepping up their exploitation, the Postal Service has been attacking the no lay-off clause in the contract since it was introduced in 1970. The labor traitors made big claims that the defense of the no lay-off clause was the "bottom line" in the negotiations. But the arbitrator's decision slashes the existing no layoff protection, which since 1970 has covered all regular employees. It now would exclude newly hired employees, who would have to wait six years before they have any job security! This is a major sabotage of the no lay-off clause. The labor traitors are concealing this treachery of theirs by claiming that the new decision gives the present regular workforce "lifetime job security". Yet there is nothing to prevent the government from simply attacking other portions of the no lay-off clause in future negotiations, now that they have already eliminated part of it. Thus on the issue of job security,, the arbitrator's decision is a major setback for the workers.

Thus, the decision of the "neutral" federal arbitrator, the so-called "voluntary" solution of the Carterite "friends of Labor" to the postal workers' problems, is just as much a gross betrayal of the workers' interests as the rejected July 21 agreement.

POSTAL LABOR TRAITORS CAPITULATE TO THE GOVERNMENT AND BETRAY THE POSTAL WORKERS ONCE AGAIN

In the cooking up of this dirty deal, the top labor traitors of the postal unions once again revealed their treacherous role as defenders of the bourgeoisie in the working-class movement. Having headed off a national strike with their maneuverings at the time of the first negotiations, these traitors then capitulated to the pressure of the bourgeois government and agreed to a 15-day "negotiating" period followed by binding arbitration of the postal dispute. Using stalling tactics to abandon the weapon of a strike, the labor traitors allowed the government to delay for 15 days and then imposed its decision via its hand-picked Harvard professor arbitrator. This was a most cowardly surrender before the bourgeois class enemy on the part of the labor bureaucrats. The workers, who had every desire to fight and wage a national strike against the government, as shown by their wildcat strikes and rejection vote against the first agreement, were told that collaboration with their bitterest enemies would bring them salvation. Then, once the arbitrator's decision was in, the top labor traitors concealed its real meaning from the workers, praising it to the skies and urging ratification of it in voting. (One of the bureaucrats who complained against it, however, let the cat out of the bag when he said that he wished that they had gotten a little more money in exchange for giving away part of the no lay-off clause.)

While the labor traitors were carrying on their 15-day sham "negotiations", the workers were seething and were planning a country-wide wildcat strike. The labor traitors used their local henchmen to suppress this struggle, as they had done at the time of the expiration of the old contract. When the time came to carry out this action and the major locals of the American Postal Workers Union in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit were ready to go out, the local labor bureaucrats of these areas, who had pretended to prepare for a strike, called off the action, claiming "lack of support" from the workers. (Proof that this was a gross capitulation lies in the fact that it was well-known at the time of the expiration of the old contract that if the New York local alone had gone out, the rest of the country would have followed.)

Today the labor bureaucrats are dealing with the pressure from the workers for mass action by holding a ratification vote on the arbitrator's decision. The labor traitors want to cushion and conceal the fact that the arbitrator's decision is an outright dictate to the workers to accept the new sell-out contract. The motive of the labor traitors is to use this vote to prevent a strike. However, if the vote goes against the arbitrator's decision despite the frenzied propaganda and deception of the labor bureaucrats, then it may prove to be a fiasco for the labor traitors and a step towards an outburst of struggle by the workers.

POSTAL SERVICE BRAZENLY ANNOUNCES NEW PLANS TO ELIMINATE JOBS AND SPEED UP THE WORKERS

While the present contract struggle is still underway, the U.S. Postal Service is already brazenly announcing new plans to eliminate jobs of postal workers and speed up their labor through automation. Having already eliminated 59,000 jobs in the past two and one-half years, the capitalists are not satisfied and desire to drive the workers still further into the dirt. Postmaster General Bolger announced plans for the Postal Service to introduce four more digits to the present five-digit ZIP code. This would, he claimed, allow the sorting of mail down to the individual city block or even building. It would allow machines to do the sorting right down to the mail sacks, eliminating the need for handling by clerks. Using these machines 8 workers would do the work presently done by 20. Thus the Postal Service is planning to use the slash it may obtain in the no lay-off clause and other means to eliminate still more postal jobs, resulting in not only the firing of these workers but an increase in the workload for the remaining workers.

IN THE CRITICAL HOUR OF THEIR STRUGGLE, THE POSTAL WORKERS HAVE THE FULL SUPPORT OF THE ENTIRE WORKING CLASS

The Carterite "friends of Labor" have singled out the postal workers for attack under their program of "voluntary" wage-price controls. The struggle of the postal workers against this attack is at a critical hour. The bourgeoisie desperately needs to suppress the worker^. Presently the labor traitors are trying to ram the "binding" decision of the federal arbitrator down the throats of the workers. Only mass action, militant strike struggle by the masses of the postal workers, will successfully defend their vital interests against this attack. The lessons of the present, rising working-class movement, as taught by the coal miners' strike as well as by the whole course of the postal workers' struggle, illustrate this fact. The struggle of the postal workers has the support of the whole proletariat and all other working people, who are also seething with anger against the arrogant attacks of the capitalists and are likewise fighting the monopoly capitalist dictators. The struggle of the postal workers has already dealt a setback to Carter's wage-price controls; only with militant mass action can the postal workers defeat the arbitrator's sell-out contract, carry their struggle through to the end and win victory. End.

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NIXON'S WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS WERE A FASCIST, ANTI-WORKING CLASS MEASURE PREPARED FOR AND APPLAUDED BY THE DEMOCRATS AND LABOR TRAITORS

The "Democratic" "friend of Labor", the Carter .administration, is rapidly advancing towards compulsory wage-price controls like those imposed by the Republicans under the arch-fascist and war criminal Richard Nixon in 1971-3. The experience of the workers under Nixon's wage-price controls shows just what the Carter administration has in store for the proletariat: Nixonite fascism without Nixon.

This experience shows:

1. that wage-price controls are a fascist attack by the capitalist state machine on the worker's struggles in order to impose a cut in the workers' real wages;

2. that both major political parties, Republicans and Democrats alike, participated as they always do in wielding the repressive bourgeois state against the working class;

3. that the Democrats, those alleged "friends of Labor", were even more active than the Republicans in preparing this fascist attack on the working class and actually created the legal basis for the Republican Nixon administration to impose controls by passing Congressional legislation;

4. that the top labor bureaucrats such as George Meany and Leonard Woodcock (the president of the UAW), the allegedly genuine "representatives of the working class", worked harder than anyone else in preparing the workers to accept controls on their wages, actually administered this fascist attack on the working class and criminally sabotaged the workers' resistance movement against it; and

5. that the wage-price controls of the Nixon administration dealt the workers' movement a setback but could not suppress the contradiction between labor and capital. The workers' struggle continued; what was suppressed broke out into an upsurge of struggle when controls were lifted.

NIXON'S WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS: A FASCIST ATTACK BY THE STATE ON THE WORKERS' MOVEMENT TO ENFORCE WAGE-CUTS

The Nixon administration imposed compulsory wage-price controls from August 15, 1971, to January 11, 1973. From August 15 to October 8, 1971, Nixon imposed a freeze on wages, prices and rents as part of Phase I of his New Economic Policy. From October 8, 1971 until January 11, 1973, as part of Phase II, through a Pay Board and a Price Commission the administration imposed a wage limit of 5.5 per cent average annual wage increases and (allegedly) a ceiling of 2.5 per cent on prices. After Phase II, in Phase III the administration turned to "voluntary" wage-price controls until June 18, 1974, when they were abandoned. Phases I, II, and III were part of Nixon's "New Economic Policy". It contained various other emergency measures such as suspension of the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold, imposition of a 10 per cent surcharge on imports, a big investment tax credit, repeal of the 7 per cent auto excise tax -- all aimed at propping up the U. S, monopoly capitalists in the face of the 1970-71 economic crisis, shifting the burden of this crisis onto the working people at home and elbowing out foreign capitalist competition.

Nixon's wage-price controls were not a measure to defend the whole of society against inflation, as the bourgeoisie claimed. Instead, they were a method of imposing inflationary price increases on the masses while holding down the workers' dollar wages by suppressing their strike struggles, resulting in a sharp cut in the real wages or purchasing power of the working class. They served to increase the effect of inflation on the workers, to further impoverish them while swelling the coffers of the capitalists. They faced the workers with a single, standard wage restriction openly dictated by the government which commands the full force of the capitalist state machine with its police, courts, prisons, and military forces.

Nixon's controls led to: a) a sharp decline in the workers' strike movement; b) a sharp decline in the size of the dollar wages in union contracts signed under controls; c) an extremely sharp increase in the rate of inflationary price increases once the workers were locked into three-year, low-wage contracts, resulting in; d) a sharp cut in the real wages of the workers and a sharp increase in the capitalists' profits.

The table below illustrates how Nixon's wage-price controls caused a sharp decline in the workers' strike movement, limiting the workers' use of this vital weapon in the struggle against capitalist exploitation. The table shows the number of strikes, the number of workers involved and the number of working man-days lost by the capitalists as a result, during the period of 1969-74.

The number of days lost was more than cut in half from 1970 to 1972 and '73. The number of workers involved in strikes was also severely slashed. The wage-price controls of Nixon, it can be seen, were a vicious attack on the workers' strike movement.

Due to the suppression of their strike struggle by Nixon's wage-price controls, the workers were forced to accept much restricted wage settlements. The following table depicts the average rise in dollar wages in new union contracts in all industries before, during and after the Nixon controls, showing both the median average raise for the whole period of the contracts and the median average raise for the first year of the contracts.

The size of the wage settlements was rising right up through the year 1970 due to the rise of the workers' movement and to the increase of inflation, which caused the workers to increase their wage demands. But the imposition of Nixon's wage-price controls in 1971-3 caused a sharp reduction in the wage settlements, nearly cutting in half the figure for the first year of contracts between 1971 and '72. Between its formation in October 1971 and its demise on March 2, 1973, Nixon's Pay Board heard 3,716 cases of wage settlements of units of workers larger than 1,000 affecting an estimated 19 million workers. It limited their pay increases to an average of 5.4 per cent annually. Thus the wage-price controls of Nixon amounted to a massive attack on the wages of the workers.

Once the workers were locked into low-wage, three-year contracts, the capitalists stepped up the rate of inflationary price increases to an unheard of rate. While the rate of price increases slowed somewhat during Nixon's controls, dropping from a 5.9 per cent CPI in 1970 to 4.3 in 1971 and 3.3 in 1972, this rate remained a great hardship for the working people, and once the workers were locked into measly contracts, the inflation rate rapidly speeded up and reached a gallop, more than compensating for its temporary slowing down. In 1974 the annual rate of price increases reached 11 per cent, as measured by the government's admittedly minimized Consumer Price Index. The prices of the cheapest foodstuffs such as rice, beans, etc., rose far in excess of the CPI, throwing an intolerable burden onto the poorest workers, hitting the national minority workers especially hard. The effect of this galloping inflation on the workers locked into low-wage, three-year contracts can be approximated as follows: a three-year contract signed in 1972 averaged a 6 per cent yearly wage increase, resulting in an 18 per cent increase for the total of 1972, '73 and '74. For a contract signed in 1973, the total for '73, '74 and '75 would have averaged 15.6 per cent. But the total rise in the CPI for 1973, '74 and '75 amounted to 26.3 per cent! And many of the workers' basic necessities of life rose much more rapidly than this. One can easily see that Nixon's wage-price controls resulted in a sharp cut in the real wages or purchasing power of the workers.

But while the wages of the workers were being cut by Nixon's controls, as a result, the profits of the capitalists were increasing. The following table illustrates this fact with the figures for total U.S. corporate profits year by year between 1970 and 1975.

In 1972 and '73, while the workers were being forced to sacrifice under the hoax that this would combat inflation, the capitalists were lining their pockets at an escalating rate.

Thus the wage-price controls of the Nixon administration served to impoverish the workers and enrich the capitalists. Far from a neutral act benefiting all society, they were a fascist decree by the bourgeois state to cut wages. There was no "equality of sacrifice" in this program set up and administered by Republicans, Democrats and labor traitors alike; under capitalism, the "equality of sacrifice" called for by the labor traitors and their masters always and invariably means that the workers tighten their belts to fill the coffers of the money-bags. When the capitalist politicians talk of "fighting inflation" they actually mean cutting the workers' wages. There can be no "equality" between capitalist and worker; as long as the capitalists hold political power they will brutally exploit the workers and deny them any equality (all the while singing hymns to "freedom", "democracy" and the "equality of all citizens"). Only when the workers seize political power through revolution, suppress the capitalists and eliminate capitalism will they end this exploitation and carry on production for the benefit of the masses.

In fact, it is not the workers and their fight for wage increases which cause inflationary price increases; it is the monopoly capitalists who do so, directly and through their state apparatus. By rapidly expanding finance capital independently of any increase of actual production and by creating huge federal budget deficits to pay for the repressive activities of the state, deficits which are financed by expanding the money supply independently of production (in effect, as if by printing paper money), the monopoly capitalists inflate the currency. This inflation results in price increases of all the commodities the working masses buy, while the workers, whose only commodity is their labor-power, are unable to raise the price of their labor-power (their wages) as rapidly, and they fall further and further behind inflation. Inflation, thus, imposes a cut in real wages onto the workers. Nixon's wage-price controls greatly intensified this effect of inflation by suppressing the struggle of the workers to raise their wages in defense against rising prices. They were a method of shifting the burden of the economic crisis of 1970-71 onto the backs of the workers.

This criminal attack by the Nixon administration was part and parcel of the program of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie: fascist suppression of the working class and laboring masses at home so as to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto their backs and continue to wage the war of aggression abroad against the peoples of Indo-China. Richard Nixon's hands were dripping with the blood of the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian peoples. The very same repressive U.S. state, with its police and military machine, which shed that blood is the instrument of repression of the American working class. It enforced Nixon's wage-price controls. In this fascist program, the Republicans had the cooperation and collaboration of the other main party of capital, the Democrats with their legions of sold-out labor hacks, as well as of the other opportunists of every breed.

HOW THE "DEMOCRATS" AND LABOR BUREAUCRATS PREPARED CONDITIONS FOR NIXON'S WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS

In the late 1960's inflationary price increases grew from a rate of 3 per cent in 1967 to 6.1 per cent in 1969. As the capitalists intensified their exploitation of the workers, the workers responded by developing their struggle against the capitalists. In 1965, '66, '67 and '68 the workers broke through the wage "guideposts" by which the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had sought to hold down wages and fatten the profits of monopoly capital. Although factory workers lost ground-in terms of real weekly wages in the 1965-9 period, the workers' struggle nevertheless limited the increase in capitalist exploitation. As a result, certain Democratic politicians such,as Speaker of the House Carl Albert and Representative Wayne Hartke, together with a few leading Republicans such as Senator Jacob Javits, Senator Margaret Chase Smith and Michigan Governor George Romney, began openly calling for wage-price controls in 1968 and '69. In 1969 the monopoly capitalists themselves began to openly raise a hue and cry for controls. The official line of the Democratic Party was then to call for a wage-price review board to mobilize public opinion behind the demand that the workers hold their wage increases within limited wage guideposts. Nixon, whose Republican administration replaced Johnson in 1968, declared that he was "against" wage-price controls and also wage guideposts and in favor of "restraint" by both labor and capital.

In this situation, George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO and the foremost labor bureaucrat, as well as a leading "Democrat", stepped forward to lead the preparation of public opinion for wage-price controls. In February 1969 he openly declared that the AFL-CIO would accept wage-price controls. Meany, the arch-labor traitor, made this declaration not only in advance of the Republican Party, well-known as a party of big capital, but also in advance of the rest of the "Democratic" Party, which was then calling for new wage "guideposts". It was left to the "representative of the workers" to pave the way for wage- price controls, taking a stand which neither the Republicans nor the Democrats yet dared to do. In August 1969 Meany declared that "the only way you are going to stop it (inflation -- ed.) is by controls? In February 1970, at a time when the workers' movement was surging forward, Meany again suggested wage-price controls. Thus the labor bureaucrats took the lead in preparing the workers for a fleecing under wage-price controls, a job they could perform better than any open capitalist politician.

At that time, Meany added a "qualification" to his support for wage-price controls: that he would only support them if profits were controlled as well. This reservation reminds one of the declaration of Meany and Fraser today that they would limit wage demands only if prides were also controlled. In fact, the whole hullabaloo raised by the labor bureaucrats in the late 60's and early 70 's (and which is being repeated today as Carter prepares to institute Nixonite controls) that the capitalist state should "equally" penalize the capitalists and the workers by "controlling" profits, prices and what-not was all a big deception. It was aimed at convincing the workers that the state of the rich stands above classes and serves all, rich and poor alike. The conclusion of this perverted logic is that the workers should give up their struggle and rely on the "militant" "labor leaders" and "friends of Labor" in Congress to "control" the capitalists. But the whole history of Nixon's wage and price controls shows that they were instituted solely to suppress and rob the workers to fill the capitalists' coffers. And, in fact, while Meany attempted to convince them that the capitalist state would "control" the capitalists' profits, the workers administered a more realistic sort of "profit control" -- their own struggle, every success of which limited the capitalists' acquisition of their ill-gotten wealth.

In 1970 the workers' loss of purchasing power in terms of weekly earnings mounted despite the larger raises in dollar wages they had squeezed out of the capitalists since the mid-60's. The workers escalated their strike movement. 3.7 workers out of 100 went on strike in 1970, the highest figure since 1959. The workers waged a tremendous number of wildcat strikes. The truck drivers and postal workers carried out militant national wildcat strikes. The auto workers waged a 67-day national contract strike. The mood of the workers to break through the restrictions placed on their struggle by the servants of capital, the labor bureaucrats, showed itself in the fact that one out of every eight contracts negotiated by the bureaucrats in 1970 was rejected by the workers.

Employing political deception, Nixon declared on June 17, 1969, "I will not take the nation down the road of wage and price controls". Meanwhile, the Nixon administration was actively planning doing so, as revealed by the statements of Cabinet members, which Nixon disavowed. At the same time, Nixon prepared to initiate controls piece-meal, beginning with the construction industry, for which he developed the Construction Stabilization Plan to attack the workers' wages and working conditions. In June 1970 Nixon established the National Productivity Commission to study ways to limit workers' wages, and later that year called two "inflation alerts" to promote hysteria about inflation.

Meanwhile, with Meany as their advance man, the "Democratic" Party stepped up its preparations for the wage price-controls which the Republicans were later to impose. John Galbraith, Kennedyite economist, called for a six-month wage freeze (as Robert Roosa, financial advisor to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had called for the year before) and permanent wage-price controls. Arthur Goldberg, prominent Democrat, called for wartime wage-price controls. Senator Kennedy, today the darling of the labor traitors, called on the capitalists to resist those wage demands of the workers that exceeded the rise in productivity. Kennedy's capitalist demagogy hides the fact that the workers are not paid for the amount they produce but are exploited. If anyone were to follow Kennedy's logic consistently, they would have to conclude that in order for the workers to be compensated for increased productivity and keep up with rising prices at the same time they should be paid the increase in productivity plus the increase in prices, that is, 6 percent plus 2-3 percent at the time, resulting in an 8-9 percent wage increase, not the paltry 2-3 percent advocated by labor's "friend", Senator Kennedy.

On August 1, 1970, to put their propaganda for wage-price controls into practice, the House of Representatives, dominated by the "Democrats", voted 257-19 to give the Nixon administration stand-by authority to impose controls. This authority provided the full legal basis for Nixon to impose the wage freeze in 1971 followed by the mandatory wage-price controls. Thus the "Democratic" "friends of Labor" were equally with the Republicans, the creators of the wage-price controls of the Nixon administration. In fact, it was easier for the capitalists to get controls by using the deceptive method of letting the supposedly pro-labor Democrats in Congress legitimize them first than it would have been to have the Republicans simply institute them, since the Republicans are well known as a party of big capital and this would have aroused a great furor.

NIXON IMPOSES PHASE I OF WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS, TO THE GREAT DELIGHT OF THE "DEMOCRATS" AND LABOR TRAITORS

In 1970-71, as the U.S. economy plunged deep into a crisis, the monopoly capitalists moved still more rapidly towards wage-price controls, in order to force the workers to bear the burden of the crisis. In late 1970 and early 1971 the bourgeoisie stepped up its propaganda for controls. Arthur Burns, Nixon's Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, declared that inflation was caused by "high" wages and called for "voluntary" wage controls. The New York Times, on January 3, 1971, called for mandatory wage-price controls. In February, Nixon took harsh wage-control measures against the construction workers, suspending the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that workers on federal construction projects be paid the same as workers on private construction projects. The Davis- Bacon Act was suspended for two months and only reinstated when the construction union bureaucrats agreed to sit on a tri-partite Construction Industry Stabilization Committee, together with the capitalists and capitalist politicians, to jointly curb the wages of the construction workers. (Nixon's attack on the construction workers was direct evidence that the monopoly capitalists had failed in their attempt in 1970 to mobilize the construction workers into a fascist mass movement as the so-called "hard-hats".

Again the labor bureaucrats declared their full allegiance to the wage-cutting program of the bourgeoisie. Echoing Arthur Burns, Leonard Woodcock, then president of the UAW and the leading social-democratic labor traitor, called for a wage-price review board, which would cut wages by mobilizing public opinion against the workers rather than by direct decree. He said that the wage raises of the construction workers were excessive. Meany, for his part, declared in early April that he was ready to cooperate with wage- price controls, provided they were "even-handed". That is, provided they pretended to control the capitalists' prices and profits while they actually did cut the workers' wages.

Meany criticized the Nixon administration for singling out the construction workers for attack (that is, it should attack all the workers at once, not just one section). (Similarly, today Meany's side-kick, Lane Kirkland, is complaining that Carter's "voluntary" controls are not mandatory.) On July 10, 1971, Meany said that mandatory controls were the only answer to inflation. On August 10, just five days before Nixon instituted his wage-controls program, the AFL-CIO Executive Council declared that it would cooperate with wage-price controls (provided they were "even-handed", of course).

On August 15, 1971, Nixon declared his "New Economic Policy", imposing a 90-day wage freeze and providing that mandatory wage-price controls would replace the freeze when it was over. 150,000 workers on strike were ordered back to work. The "Democratic" "friends of Labor", those heroes of the "struggle" against the Republican defenders of the rich (such as Nixon himself), simply jumped for joy. Senator Mansfield was "delighted". One Democratic Party leader declared that this was the Democratic Party's program. Senator McGovern, the "anti-war liberal", saw fit to attack Nixon on the grounds that wage controls were "four years overdue"! Senator Humphrey, long the darling of the AFL-CIO bigwigs and not one to let Nixon get the credit for such a fascist act of wage suppression, insisted that Nixon had "hesitated two years (before instituting wage controls -- ed.) and acted only under pressure from Congress."

Thus, not only did the Democrats and labor bureaucrats pave the way for wage-price controls with propaganda, assurances of cooperation and by passing enabling legislation, but their joy at the imposition of controls was only marred by their complaint that they, not the Republicans, were the real authors of wage controls.

MEANY AND THE DEMOCRATS "CRITICIZE" NIXON'S PHASE I WAGE FREEZE IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THEY GET TO ADMINISTER PHASE II

Having acted as the advance men for wage-price controls, Meany and the other labor bureaucrats desired to dissociate themselves (ever-so-slightly) from controls once they were enacted lest they prove too unpopular among the workers and an embarrassment for the labor traitors. But at the same time the labor traitors demanded that they be allowed to participate in administering the second phase of controls. They also hastened to assure their bourgeois' masters that they would continue to oppose any genuine struggle of the workers against the government's program and continue to deceive the workers as to the nature of wage-price controls. The workers Were, indeed, infuriated by the wage freeze. The coal miners, West Coast longshoremen and other sections waged militant strikes in defiance of the controls. The coal miners struck on September 30th, in the middle of the freeze, and continued to strike until the last day of the freeze, November 13, causing power shortages in many parts of the country. The Pay Board was forced to approve the miners' 9.2 per cent per year wage settlement, won under conditions of total wage freeze and far exceeding the 5.5 per cent "mandatory" standard established by the capitalists in Phase II. Defying Phase I and Phase n, the West Coast longshoremen struck for a total of 134 days between July 1, 1971, and February 20, 1972, in a strike interrupted by a federal Taft-Hartley court injunction. The meatcutters went out on a one-day strike to protest the wage freeze. To protect their capitalist masters, the labor traitors tried to channel the workers' struggle into forms and methods which would not injure the interests of the bourgeoisie. Instead of mass strike struggle against controls, the labor bureaucrats dictated that the workers must follow the dead-end path of reliance on the bourgeois courts and on fighting for a Democratic legislative program in Congress which avoided the question of controls. The tactic of the labor traitors was to talk "militantly" against controls in order to hide the fact that they were enthusiastically carrying them out.

Having called for controls five days before Nixon enacted them, as soon as they were enacted Meany let out a plaintive whine that the controls lacked the machinery to hold down prices. He demanded "equality of sacrifice1'. Backing up this "bold" stand that the workers should surrender to the exploiters if the exploiters would only make a show of "sacrificing" too, Woodcock declared with false militancy, "If they want war, they can have war!" He then filed a law suit against controls. On August 20, Meany and the AFL- CIO declared that they had "no faith in the President's ability to manage the economy" and consequently would not "cooperate" with wage controls. They declared they would only cooperate if controls were also placed on prices and profits. They hastened to add, however, that they were not going to defy controls, that is, struggle against them, but simply "not cooperate" (whine a few times to deceive the workers). Meany declared that "labor" would reply to controls by fighting for a legislative program in Congress, whose main features were so-called "tax reform" and measures which would supposedly solve unemployment. Thus the labor bureaucrats worked overtime to prevent the workers from taking mass strike action against this outrageous attack by the capitalists. The "Democratic" Party quickly issued the same "criticism": That controls were late, placed the burden unequally on the workers and should be made "equitable" by adding profit controls. They waved their tattered flag proclaiming themselves representatives of labor against the evil Republicans who, unlike themselves, of course, were "favoring the corporate interests", those of capital. Meanwhile, the Democrats officially welcomed the wage freeze and criticized Nixon for even saying it would end when he had not yet created the mechanism for continuing wage controls.

Most nefarious of all in their treachery towards the working class were the revisionists of the "Communist" Party USA, who hold certain positions in the labor aristocracy. They hailed the fighting spirit of the workers and said that it was great that the "rank and file" movement was developing and was criticizing the "sold-out" "labor leaders". The revisionists were willing to phrase-monger about a general strike. But then they cautioned the workers that in the first place they should not criticize the so-called "militant" labor leaders, and further that in order to fight,the workers had to build a broad "united front of the labor leaders at all levels". So, therefore, the issue for the revisionists was to tail after the trade union bureaucrats who were the actual champions of wage-price controls. The revisionists went further and claimed that "every economic struggle is a political struggle" and that, therefore, the workers had to "fight" on the "political front" by sending petitions to Congress and electing "labor candidates" -- all in support of Meany's legislative program. Thus the revisionist, so-called "Communists" advocated the exact same program as the top labor traitors headed by Meany and Woodcock.

It was left to Meany to clarify just what the labor bureaucrats and Democratic Party actually disliked about Nixon's Phase I wage-controls. The bare fact is that, hidden behind calls for profit controls, "even-handedness", etc., these worthies simply wanted to be the ones administering this fascist program together with Nixon. This was soon evident. Meany, as had Woodcock, called for a wage-price review board. (The deception that such a board would act merely through public opinion became clear later when Woodcock, Meany and Abel all joined Nixon's Phase H Pay Board and directly administered wage controls using the full authority of the state.) On Labor Day 1971 Meany again "attacked" Nixon's wage freeze as putting the burden on the workers. He went on to declare that the labor bureaucrats would give the capitalists a no-strike pledge if the bureaucrats were involved directly in a board appointed by the government to administer Phase II of controls. Meany added that a purely governmental wage-control board would be a step towards fascism. Thus the labor traitors, openly admitting that wage-price controls are a fascist measure, declared that these very same controls would no no longer be fascist if the labor traitors themselves administered them! This is a glaring example of the bourgeois state using the labor traitors to introduce and administer fascism behind a mask of political deception. The workers, they believed, would allow themselves to be tied down and fleeced as long as it was done by Meany, Woodcock and the other genuine "representatives of the working class".

NIXON'S PHASE II AND THE FRAUDULENT "STRUGGLE" THE LABOR BUREAUCRATS WAGED AGAINST IT WHILE ADMINISTERING IT AND COLLABORATING WITH IT

On October 8, 1971, Nixon declared Phase II of his New Economic Policy. He ended the outright wage freeze and instituted compulsory wage-price controls. He established a Price Commission allegedly to control prices and a tripartite Pay Board composed of labor bureaucrats, government-appointed "representatives of the public" and capitalists themselves. The labor bureaucrats all joined the Pay Board after obtaining a promise that the administration's Cost of Living Council would not veto its decisions. To show his grovelling before the capitalists, Meany even whined that "labor" had not given a no-strike pledge because none was asked for!

The Pay Board soon shewed what its real role was, voting to limit wage increases to 5.5 per cent annually. To demonstrate their "opposition" to this policy which they were participating in enforcing, the labor traitors voted against this standard but lost 10-5. The Pay Board began its work of cutting the wage settlements of millions of workers. It cut the wage increase of the aerospace workers from 12 per cent down to 8.3 per cent. It set up a special court to decide wage disputes. It cut the wage settlement of the East Coast longshoremen from 20.6 per cent to 14.9 per cent. It held pay increases to an average of 5.2 per cent.

Citing the longshoremen's pay cut as the "last straw", late in March the labor traitors, except for Fitzsimmons of the Teamsters, quit the Pay Board in a huff. Woodcock declared vehemently that wages were being checked while profits rose. But this, too, was a sham "struggle". Within in matter of days, on March 25, the AFL-CIO hastened to assure the bourgeoisie that it meant no harm and would not arouse the workers to fight the government's wage controls. It accused Nixon of misrepresenting the role of the labor misleaders in walking out of the Pay Board. There was no possibility of strike action to disrupt the Pay Board's work, the AFL-CIO declared. It added, letting the cat out of the bag, that by the time the labor traitors had quit it, the Pay Board had already made all the important decisions (to cut the workers' wages). Months later, on December 21, Meany met with the government officials and again assured them of his cooperation with controls. Thus the "struggle" of the labor bureaucrats against Nixon's Phase II wage-price controls, with the well-publicized walkout of the labor traitors from the Pay Board, was a sham. The labor traitors participated in the Pay Board just long enough to make and enforce its major decisions (while voting against them for appearance's sake) and only then walked out, after which they again assured the capitalists of their cooperation. This further exposes the fact that every "protest" made by the labor traitors against the government's wage controls was made merely for the purpose of throwing sand in the eyes of the workers and diverting their protest into channels which were harmless to the bourgeoisie, while at the same time the labor traitors played a leading role and participated fully at every step in imposing this fascist program onto the workers.

WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS ARE LIFTED OUT OF FEAR OF THE PROLETARIAN STRUGGLE: THE LABOR TRAITORS HASTEN TO WASH THEIR HANDS OF THE CONTROLS THEY HAD CALLED FOR AND ADMINISTERED

Nixon's wage-price controls dealt a serious but temporary setback to the workers' movement. During Phase I of Nixon's controls, one-third of the strikes underway were ended. During Phase II the number of strikers was cut in half. In 1972, under Phase II, the median average wage raise for workers in all industries for the first year of new contracts was cut to 6 per cent from 12.5 per cent the previous year and the average yearly raise for the life of new contracts was cut to 6 per cent from 8 per cent the previous year.

But the Nixon controls could not suppress the contradiction between labor and capital. The above figures show that the workers continued their strike movement despite the dictates of the bourgeois state and the sabotage of the labor bureaucrats. The activity of the workers increased as time went by under Phase II. The capitalist press began to speak nervously of a revolt of the workers against controls. On January 11, 1973, Nixon terminated compulsory wage controls, replacing them with a "voluntary" 5.5 per cent guideline backed up by the threat of force for Phase III of his controls, which lasted until June 18, 1974. Inflationary price increases reached a galloping rate. In response, the workers mounted a massive strike wave. In 1974, 2.7 million workers engaged in 6,074 strikes, the largest number of strikes since World War II, costing the capitalists 48 million working days. This strike movement to combat the effects of inflation resulted in first-year wage increases for contracts negotiated in 1974 rising to 9 per cent in 1974 and to 10 per cent in 1975.

Under Phase III, Meany agreed to join the Labor-Management Committee which replaced the Pay Board he had walked out of. But when the workers' struggles intensified, the labor bureaucrats attempted once again to dissociate themselves from the controls they had called for and administered. On February 22, 1974, Meany branded Nixon's controls "a fraud" and said labor needs 10 per cent wage increases to "catch up" (with the loss in wages administered by the labor traitors themselves!).

CONCLUSION: THE WORKERS MUST RELY ON THEMSELVES AND ACTIVELY STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS BEING PREPARED BY THE "DEMOCRATIC" CARTER ADMINISTRATION

The experience of the working class under Nixon wage-price controls shows that the parties of capital, both Republicans and "Democrats", are vicious enemies of the workers. They wield the repressive state apparatus of the capitalists against the workers' struggles. In the name of "fighting inflation", they fight the working class. The labor traitors and other opportunists are their paid agents to do their dirty work from inside the workers' movement. Therefore, the workers should have no illusions that the smiling "human rights" preacher Carter and the labor bigwigs who are calling on the workers to sacrifice to "fight inflation", offer the proletariat and oppressed masses anything but a fleecing. The only answer for the workers to Carter's wage-price control program is militant active struggle against it, against the entire state machine of the capitalist robbers and against its servants, the traitorous labor bureaucrats. This struggle can only be led, not by the parties of capital, but by the party of labor, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, which is being built in the heat of the struggle. In this mass struggle, and in it alone, the workers will find great strength. End.

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The Carter Administration Savagely Attacks the Federal Employees in Preparation for Mandatory Wage Controls on All Workers

On August 31, 1978, President Carter announced his decision to restrict the October 1st annual salary increase of 1.5 million federal government workers to 5.5%. Considering the fact that prices are rising at' an annual rate of nearly 11%, this decision will result in a big wage cut of over 5% for these workers, greatly intensifying their impoverishment.

Carter's attack on the federal government workers is part of the monopoly capitalist's general offensive against the entire proletariat, which he tries to dis'- guise as a "fight against inflation". A big part of this offensive against the proletariat is Carter's campaign of "voluntary" wage-price controls which is leading toward mandatory controls. These wage controls are used to cut the workers' real wages and to increase the profits and wealth of the capitalists. By enforcing a wage cut of over 5% on the government workers Carter is trying to set a precedent so as to jam similar wage cuts down the throats of all workers, particularly the teamsters, auto workers, and rubber workers whose contracts will be renegotiated in 1979.

In announcing this outrage, Carter stated that the government must set an example in the war against inflation. Previously, the monopoly capitalists had attempted to make the coal miners "set an example" for the workers to follow, of passively accepting a cut in their real wages. But this was not to be, as the coal miners fought the coal barons and government to a stalemate in a determined 3-1/2 month strike. As a result, the miners achieved a 32% wage increase over 3 years, which will not keep up with inflation, but nevertheless is much higher than the bourgeoisie wanted to relinquish. Carter next tried to "set an example" of bludgeoning the postal workers into submission, but this also has not succeeded.

The "fight against inflation" waged by the rich and their government is nothing but a fight against the working class. The rise in prices is not caused by increases in workers' wages. Sky-rocketing prices are caused by inflation of the currency which results from the enormous federal government budget deficits and the massive speculation in stocks and bonds of the finance capitalists. By increasing the money supply to finance the budget deficit and through speculation of various types, the finance capitalists reap enormous profits. These profits accrue simply from increasing the money supply over and above any increase in the production of goods.

Carter had been threatening since last April to employ this attack on the 1.5 million government workers. Besides the 1.5 million office workers, those to be affected include 2.1 million military personnel. The 5% plus pay reduction for military personnel demonstrates the warmongering ambitions of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class, who wish to use the hundreds of millions of dollars thus saved from the payroll of the Pentagon budget, to produce more weapons and intensify their preparations for war. Both U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism are squandering billions of dollars for armaments as their rivalry for world domination intensifies in the midst of the world economic crisis. This crisis is a revolutionary crisis, and these preparations for war are a frantic attempt of the world imperialist system to save itself from destruction at the hands of the world socialist revolution.

In forcing the 5% plus wage cut on the government workers, Carter is even running roughshod over. bourgeois law (the Federal Pay Comparability Act of 1970), which states that government workers' salaries should be comparable to that of workers in private industry. A government panel established to administer this law recommended an 8.4% increase. Carter arbitrarily kicked this aside (which would also have been a wage cut in relation to inflation) in order to press his attack, demonstrating the brazen arrogance of the bourgeoisie as well as their desperation to attack the workers and increase their profits in the midst of the prolonged economic crisis.

During the presidential election campaign, Carter had pledged that controls on federal workers' pay would occur only as part of a broad program limiting salaries in the private sector as well. And in truth, this pay cut can be correctly understood only as a prelude to mandatory wage controls to be imposed on all workers, a major part of the monopoly bourgeoisie's fascist offensive against the American proletariat.

The 5% plus pay cut is only one of a series of attacks on public sector workers. In addition, Carter is also attacking the federal government workers through the Civil Service "Reform" Act. The workers for the Department of "Defense" are being accused of being "overpaid" in preparation for attacks on them. And Carter is attempting to deny workers on federal contract jobs wage-parity to comparable non-federal jobs.

CIVIL SERVICE "REFORM" ACT: WITH FRIENDS LIKE CARTER, DO GOVERNMENT WORKERS NEED ENEMIES?

The Civil Service "Reform" Act (CS"R"A) was passed in the House of Representatives on September 13, 1978. A similar bill passed the Senate in August. The bourgeois media is billing this event as a triumph for President Carter. This may be so, but more accurately, the "Reform" Act is another attack on federal government workers, one more example of the monopoly capitalist's fascist offensive against the working class.

There are three main provisions in the so-called reform act. First, supervisors will be given increased authority to hire and fire workers and to grant them job transfers, advancement and pay increases based on "performance" rather than seniority, which has been the practice in the past. Thus, employees will now be forced to work much harder under the threat of being fired for the most trivial of reasons. Secondly, managers will be given similar

increased authority over supervisors, as supervisors are to receive over the workers. So now, supervisory personnel can be attacked more easily for not properly wielding the whip against the workers subordinate to them. This is the "performance" by which the supervisors will be judged. In other words, these two provisions of the CS"R"A are measures to speed up the intensity of work, and thus to increase the exploitation of the federal government workers.

The third major provision of the CS"R"A creates a Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) which will have similar functions as that of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in "collective bargaining" involving non-federal government workers. The FLRA is a bureaucracy designed to divert the just grievances and struggles of the government workers into innumerable' "inquiries" and "commissions", leave the masses of workers no role to play in resolving their problems, and suffocate and liquidate these struggles in mountains of red tape. (It will also provide soft jobs for a few burned-out union hacks.) The attempt to pass this act into law and create the FLRA shows that the bourgeoisie is worried about the growing revolt of the federal government workers (such as the postal workers). Strikes by federal government workers have been and remain outlawed. Nevertheless, the postal workers have violated this dictate of the capitalists on several occasions. Workers across the U.S. have time and again demonstrated their contempt for such laws and court injunctions. Federal government workers too are being forced to bear the burden of the prolonged economic crisis and are also preparing to contemptuously violate the laws of the rich in order to resist the increased exploitation forced upon them by their monopoly capitalist employers.

Fear of government workers taking strike action in violation of the law was one reason the CS"R"A recently passed the House. This act contains a provision defining a labor organization which states that it "does not include -- (D) an organization which participates in the conduct of a strike against the Government of the United States or any agency thereof or imposes a duty or obligation to conduct, assist, or participate in such a strike". What this means is that should a union break the law and strike against the government, it would no longer be recognized by the government as a bargaining agent and the workers would essentially have no legal union representation.

Another provision defines as an unfair labor practice: "to call, or participate in, a strike, work stoppage, or slowdown, or picketing of an agency in a labor-management dispute if such picketing interferes with an agency's operations". These anti-worker provisions buttress the legal basis for preventing strikes by federal government employees. No wonder then that the scabs of the AFL-CIO expressed glee over the act's passage. David L. Perlman stated in the September 9 issue of AFL-CIO NEWS that the act will "strengthen collective bargaining rights of federal workers and their unions". What a farce. These unions do not even possess the "collective bargaining rights" to negotiate wages, which are dictated by the president and Congress. In addition, the bourgeois state is not "reasonable" and the limited "collective bargaining rights" that do exist are virtually useless without the workers possessing the strike weapon to compel the state to meet the workers' just demands.

The act does "strengthen" sanctions against strikes and increases the number of soft, high-paying jobs for union hacks, and it is here where one will discover the reasons for the AFL-CIO's joy.

WORKERS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF "DEFENSE" ARE "OVERPAID" ACCORDING TO BOURGEOIS "THINK-TANK"

In order to carry out various attacks on federal government workers, the monopoly capitalists must first create public opinion to justify doing so. An effort in this direction was the release in early September of a Brookings Institution report. The Brookings Institution is a non-governmental agency staffed by ex-high ranking government officials, including various war criminals of the Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations. The report of this "think- tank" called for saving $900 million by reducing the "steady enrichment" and ending the "overpayment" of clerical and manual-labor workers of the Department of "Defense". It stated that they are "being compensated at unjustifiably high levels". The U.S. monopoly capitalist class thinks nothing of spending billions of dollars for such fascist weapons of mass genocide such as the neutron bomb and cruise missile, but are oh-so-concerned about "waste" when it comes to reducing the wages and salaries of their slaves. The Brookings Institution report is one battle cry amid many at this time calling for stepped-up attacks on all federal government workers.

CARTER FOLLOWING NIXON'S PATH

Carter's White House agency, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) created in 1974, is claiming that it has the authority to administer the Service Contract Act. This act guarantees workers on federal service contract jobs the same wages as workers doing comparable work on private sector jobs in the same area. The OFPP claims it has the authority to determine under what circumstances the act applies, and is now actively attempting to cut the wages of numerous airplane engine mechanics.

The Labor Department has administered the act in the past, according to the stipulations in the law. For the Carter regime to stage this "fight" between the White House agency and the Labor Department over who administers the act is a ploy to introduce wage-cutting in federal service contracts and also in federal construction projects which are covered by a similar law, the Davis-Bacon Act.

The monopoly capitalist class headed by Nixon arbitrarily suspended the Davis-Bacon Act in 1971 prior to imposing the wage freeze. Carter's current propaganda stunt around the Service Contract Act shows that his administration is following Nixon's path toward compulsory wage-price controls, even when it comes to various particular tactics.

All of the attacks on the wages and working conditions of the federal government employees, vicious measures to deprive the workers of their livelihood, are carried out by the rich capitalists under the banner of "reducing wasteful government". This is also, true of the "tax revolt" fraud of the monopoly capitalist's Proposition 13 campaign in California. There is definitely an issue of wasteful government. This is the billions of dollars, the labor and natural wealth of the American people, squandered by the capitalist dictators on military weapons of mass destruction to be used against the people of the world and against the imperialist rivals of the American billionaires; the huge and innumerable subsidies handed over outright to monopoly corporations; the massive tax dollars given to thousands of wealthy, over stuffed top officials in the bloated government bureaucracy. The monopoly capitalists have no intention of dealing with the actual "wasteful government". What Carter and his gang of cutthroats are attacking is the millions upon millions of wage-slaves for the government of the rich. Today, the intensified attacks on the government workers are but a prelude to Carter launching his major fascist offensive against the entire working class -- mandatory wage-price controls. End.

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Fraudulent CETA "Jobs" Programs: Hand-Outs to the Rich and Impoverishment of the Workers

On August 26th, the Senate passed a bill to extend the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) for four more years. The bill was amended to include, among other things, $400 million for federal subsidies to private employers to pay the wages of workers receiving "on-the -job-training". This amendment, described as a "major new initiative" sought by the Carter administration and the "friends of labor" Democrats, is a big exposure of the fraudulent "jobs" programs of the bourgeoisie.

This "major new initiative" has nothing to do with solving unemployment and has everything to do with handing over more millions of dollars to tax money to the rich capitalists, attacking the unemployed and further impoverishing the workers. Under this program, private capitalist employers will receive direct handouts of $400 million for setting up "on-the-job-training". That is, the government will pay the wages of the capitalists' wage-slaves and the capitalists in turn will provide the workers with "on-the-job-training", in other words, will exploit them to the hilt. Such "training" programs are notorious frauds, whereby the new hires are worked into the ground as they are "trained", often in such jobs as pushing a broom, mopping floors, etc.

Far from providing a single job, this program of the Carterite "friends of labor" will only mean the replacement of employed workers who receive wages from their employer with "hard core unemployed" workers, whose wages will be subsidized by the government. In pursuit of maximum profits, the capitalist money-bags have cruelly thrown millions of workers into the street, no longer needing their services. Massive unemployment is a result of a surplus of labor-power, not any lack of handouts to the millionaire employers. Thus, for the government to subsidize the workers' wages is simply to subsidize the capitalists' profits. Like Carter's slave-labor welfare "reform" bill and other "job creating" schemes, this program is aimed at partially relieving the capitalist employers of even the burden of paying their wage-slaves sufficient wages to live, shifting part of this burden back onto the workers themselves who pay the taxes which go towards the wage subsidies.

The recent Senate action amended the slave-labor CETA bill on other fronts as well. CETA is a large-scale public service jobs program which presently runs on an $11 billion annual budget. Under CETA, in the name of "jobs" and "training", unemployed workers are hired at starvation wages (the Senate bill set the average annual CETA wage at $7,800, barely over the minimum wage) and put to work in various public service jobs. Under CETA, there are examples of unionized sanitation workers earning $8-9 an hour simply being replaced with CETA "trainees" earning $3-4 an hour. In this way, the unemployed are utilized as a slave-labor force to undercut the wages and conditions of the employed workers.

The amended CETA bill will cut the average CETA wages still further. As well it severely tightens eligibility requirements, limiting the program to the unemployed in the most dire poverty and destitution, and the longest out of work; in other words, those least able to resist the government's slave-labor schemes.

An important feature of the Senate bill is the establishment of "Private Industry Councils" which will administer the $400 million funding for the "on-the- job-training" programs in the private sector. This measure is a big exposure of the treacherous role of the leaders of the capitalist trade unions, the faithful allies of the Carterite "friends of labor". The chieftains of the AFL-CIO lobbied for passage of this bill with glowing praise of CETA, stating that CETA is the only program providing "training, upgrading and job opportunities for the nation's more than six million unemployed". These "Private Industry Councils" would be set up by the local CETA apparatus and be composed of, in the words of the bill itself, "representatives from industry and the business community (including small businesses) and organized labor". The role of the councils would be to procure pledges from private businesses to hire "economically disadvantaged", that is, unemployed workers. The establishment of "Private Industry Councils" will certainly provide extensive "training, upgrading and job opportunities" for all the class traitors of "organized labor" who will sit on these councils and procure slave labor for the capitalists. What the labor traitors are really interested in is not solving unemployment but getting nice fat positions in the state machinery administering funds in programs which are part of the government suppression of the masses. First the labor traitors organize to beg the monopoly capitalists' government for a few crumbs, spending millions of the workers' dollars lobbying for slave-labor "jobs" programs, then they are rewarded by the government with gainful employment as pimps and procurers to further aid the capitalists in their exploitation of the working class and in their suppression of the workers' movement.

The bourgeoisie and its government has no solution to the problem of unemployment. The CETA extension and amendment is an attack on the entire working class by the "friends of labor" who in the name of solving unemployment are planning to pay handsome subsidies to the capitalists, attack the unemployed, increase the exploitation of the employed workers and further integrate the reactionary trade union apparatus into the capitalist state machine to more readily suppress the rising workers' movement. End.

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IRISH WORKERS OPPOSE NATIONAL WAGE AGREEMENT

(The following article, under the title "Reject All Attempts to Bring About Another National Wage Agreement!", appeared in the Red Patriot, newspaper of the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist), September 10, 1978.)

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions plans to hold a Special Delegate Conference on November 14th to consider whether to enter negotiations for another National Wage Agreement next year. These Wage Agreements, since they were first introduced in 1970, have been used by the big bourgeoisie in collaboration with the reactionary trade union leaders, to hold down the real wages of the working class and to enforce all sorts of conditions preventing the workers from fighting back against the exploitation and oppression of monopoly capital. Eight years of these "Agreements" have been enough to show that the rank-and-file have gained nothing and must reject any attempts to impose another National Wage Agreement.

The events of the last two years have shown why the reactionary bourgeoisie in the south have been making every effort to force National Wage Agreements onto the workers. In this period the foreign and native money bags have lined their pockets with more and more of the wealth produced by Irish labor. They have done so because of all-sided attacks on the workers' living standards and the National Wage Agreements have been in the forefront of these. For the majority of workers, those who earned an average industrial wage of 25 pounds or more in 1970, there has been a cut in their real incomes under the successive National Wage Agreements as is shown in the table below.

This table also shows that the lowest paid workers did benefit to a small degree under the terms of the Agreements, but this is no compensation for the fact that it is precisely these lowest paid workers who have felt the brunt of redundancies and layoffs during the last few years. Since 1970, the number of unemployed workers has increased by almost 80%. Consequently, for the working class as a whole the successive Wage Agreements side by side with inflation 'and increasing unemployment has resulted in a general lowering of living standards. The capitalists have also used the anti-strike measures in the Agreements to lengthen the working day in Ireland. Over the last few years Irish workers have had the longest working week in the E.E.C. and the capitalists have also used the Agreements to enforce higher and higher productivity from labor.

Basic Pay Increases (Clause 3) Under National Pay Agreements 1970 to 1977

These attacks on the workers has resulted in a reduction of unit wage costs in Ireland and it is now the lowest in the E.E.C. This means that the proportion of the national wealth produced by Irish labor which goes to make up the wages of the workers has steadily decreased while the proportion going to the foreign and native money-bags has risen.

It is this process which has resulted in the massive profit increases announced by the companies. For instance, the average increase of profits in the twelve public companies which announced their half-yearly returns in the first quarter of this year, was 62%. Some of these companies are in the top fifty public companies in the south and their pre-tax profits were as follows:

The direct subsidiaries of the foreign monopolies have also been recording increases in profits. For instance, the pre-tax profits of the U.S. subsidiaries in 1976 meant that they were getting an average return of 24% on their capital invested. This year it is 30%, by far the highest rate of profit for U.S. companies in the E.E.C. The rate of profit for the capitalists is the surplus value of the labor of the workers, over and above what they pay out in wages. By reducing the relative cost of wages the system of National Wage Agreements have contributed to constant rises in the profits of the monopoly capitalists.

Under the conditions of increasing exploitation the working class has been fighting back and the upsurge in the strike movement over the last year and more shows this. Even the reactionary bourgeoisie are forced to admit that the last National Wage Agreement has failed and that the workers are ignoring it and fighting for higher wages and better conditions. The large number of big and lengthy strikes that have occurred shows the increasing class conflict. One of the weapons which the reactionary bourgeoisie will try to use in suppressing the workers will be another National Wage Agreement with meagre wage rises and anti-strike clauses. To develop their struggles the working class must reject any such proposed "Agreement".

Many of the reactionary trade union leaders saw the writing on the wall during the negotiations for the last Wage Agreement and since, and many of them are now saying that another National Wage Agreement is not possible. For years they have collaborated with the money-bags in imposing cutbacks on wages through the National Wage Agreements and in trying to undermine the workers' struggles by agreeing to anti-strike clauses. To save face however, they are now posing as anti-Agreement figureheads. Should they vote against another National Wage Agreement they will do so from the same position that they voted for them in yester-years, i.e., in order to hold back the class struggles of the proletariat against its exploiters. They are for class compromise and conciliation and never lead the workers in fighting their class enemies. It is through this struggle -- against the British imperialists and the Irish monopoly capitalist class -- that the strength and solidarity of the working class grows and develops threatening the very foundation of national and social oppression in Ireland. The reactionary trade union leaders have long ago thrown, their hats into the camp of the reactionary bourgeoisie, and will do everything to oppose and undermine the movement of the working class for emancipation.

For all militant workers and rank-and-file trade unionists, there can be only one course of action on the National Wage Agreement, that is to oppose it and to organize the entire body of the working class around this struggle. End.

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The "Tax Revolt'' of the Capitalists Is To Tax the Poor; The "Tax Revolt" of the Proletariat Will Be To Expropriate the Rich

The "tax revolt" movement has been heralded by the bourgeois politicians and the sold-out scribblers of the news media as a "grassroots" movement of the "middle class" or even the "working class" against the "bureaucrats", "politicians" and "big business". But this movement is really part of the capitalist program to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the working class and toiling masses; it is a movement organized by these very same bureaucrats, politicians and big businessmen. The "tax revolt" movement makes big play with the discontent of the masses against the exorbitant and ever-increasing tax burden, but this is just political deception, empty words, the usual cynical double-talk of the politicians who always scream about high taxes precisely in order to hike these taxes to the skies. The "tax revolt" movement always talks of "taxpayers" and "homeowners" in order to hide the cleavage of society into rich and poor, rich "taxpayers" (at least if they have incompetent accountants and tax lawyers) and poor taxpayers, capitalists and workers, millionaire owners of mansions ("homeowners") and working homeowners and renters. The "tax revolt" movement hides the question: who will pay, the rich or the poor? In this way, it is no accident that the"tax revolt" movement always ends up -- as the example of California shows -- increasing the tax burden and the cost of living for the overwhelming majority of workers and giving big "tax relief" to the rich and especially to the big monopoly corporations.

The capitalist "tax revolt" program is being developed around the country in the form of already implemented or proposed "tax-limits" or government "spending limits". These schemes are designed to increase the tax burden on the toiling masses and redistribute the tax revenues in a manner best suited to the needs and profits of the monopoly capitalist class. These schemes are especially designed to attack the public sector workers, who constitute one of every six workers today, and to speed them up and lower their wages as part of the present capitalist program of wage-cutting. In order to cover up these criminal attacks on the working class, the capitalists try to portray their plans as "the will of the people" by floating them through so-called "tax revolt" organizations and fraudulent ballot initiative campaigns such as Proposition 13 in California. In this way, the capitalist government "authorities" try to present themselves as mere "servants of the people", helpless do-gooders forced by the allegedly reactionary masses to ensure the profits of the capitalists and launch attacks on the people.

The basic program of the "tax revolt" movement is three-fold:

a) to increase the taxes on the poor and the workers;

b) to attack the public sector workers;

c) to redistribute the tax revenues in the interests of the highest profits of the capitalists.

WHILE BLABBERING ABOUT "REDUCED TAXES", THE "TAX REVOLT" MOVEMENT AIMS TO INCREASE THE TAXES ON THE WORKING MASSES

The main way in which the monopoly capitalists and their government have tried to promote the "tax revolt" is by promising that it will provide tax relief for the masses of people. But in fact the "tax revolt" plans are engineered to raise the tax burden on the working class and toiling masses, and reduce the burden on the monopoly capitalists. The most common method of accomplishing this is by reducing property taxes and then raising income taxes and other taxes that must be shouldered by the working masses. The reduction in property taxes results in a huge reduction in the taxes paid by the monopoly capitalist enterprises, and a relatively small reduction in the taxes of individual homeowners. Then the state income taxes are raised to compensate for the loss of revenue from property taxes, shifting the burden of taxation increasingly onto the people. For the overwhelming majority of the workers, the net result is an increase in taxes, and it should also be noted that owners of mansions and expensive homes receive of course much bigger relief in absolute terms than owners of small homes, while apartment house owners and landlords are also a main beneficiary of the properly tax reduction. (In California, the apartment house owners, encouraged by their tax windfall from the passage of Proposition 13, proceeded to raise rents to their tenants.) The shift from property taxes to income taxes is accomplished in different states by using "surplus" state income and sales taxes for property tax relief or for "rainy day" funds that are at the disposal of the monopoly capitalists when needed. One way this is done is by "bailout" programs, such as in California, where roughly $5 million "surplus" extorted from sales and income taxes on the masses by previous extravagant tax hikes by the state government went to finance the local governments who lost property tax revenue. It is also done through simple increases in the rate of income tax while cutting property taxes. Besides these manipulations, the working masses are also hit with increases in federal income taxes due to the loss of the property tax deductions, as well as numerous other levies and fees -- restricted only by the imagination of the bureaucrats. Thus the city government of of Oakland, California, recently enacted a city tax on wages to compensate for the loss of revenue due to the loss of property tax revenues. As well, there is the indirect but very real tax of paying for various social services that used to be supplied by the government. The "tax revolt" program of the monopoly capitalist class, when all is said and done, is meant to force the working masses to pay an increasing share of the maintenance of the state machine of the capitalist exploiters.

The capitalist "tax revolt" movement completely obscures the real cause of high taxes in order to be able to hike the taxes on the poor. The present extortionate and ever-increasing taxes on the masses spring from the very nature and development of American capitalism. U.S. capitalism long ago became not just monopoly capitalism, but state monopoly capitalism. Between 1/4 and 1/3 of the gross national product is state expenditures. Under state monopoly capitalism, the oppression by the state machine grows to a monstrous extreme, and the entire economic life of the monopolies is closely bound with and interconnected with the state machine. For this reason, high taxes are inevitable under capitalism, to pay for the bloated government. The only question is: who will pay? Will the working people and the poor, led by the revolutionary proletariat, force the rich to bear the burden, or will the banks and the billionaires force the poor to pay? The only way to fight high taxes is to make the rich bear the burden of their crisis and their government as part of a movement leading to the overthrow of capitalism itself and the establishment of socialism. But this is not What the capitalist "tax revolt" movement is. The capitalist "tax revolt" pretends that the poor and downtrodden are in the driver's seat of modern society and blames the alleged "welfare cheats", the immigrants, and especially the oppressed nationalities for high taxes. The capitalist "tax revolt" is after tax relief only for the rich. The "tax revolt" of the rich is to make the poor bear more and more of the burden of the taxes -- the "tax revolt" of the proletariat will be to expropriate the rich on the road to socialist society. It is only the proletarian revolution which can abolish the over-grown, oppressive system of a huge standing army, police and arrogant bureaucracy, and replace them by the armed people themselves. It is the socialist revolution which not only abolishes exploitation but also the bloated government apparatus and thus eliminates the oppressive burden of paying for a huge apparatus of parasites, bureaucrats and uniformed terrorists.

THE CAPITALIST "TAX REVOLT" IS DESIGNED TO ATTACK THE PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS

The "tax revolt" is part and parcel of the series of attacks launched by the capitalist government against the public sector workers. For several years, reaching a highpoint in 1976 and continuing to the present, many city and state governments went through a " "fiscal crisis" brought about when the taxes extorted from the increasingly impoverished masses could no longer pay for the growing debt-service payments to the banks, the rapidly increasing armed police forces of suppression and the rapidly escalating tax breaks and subsidies to the corporations. At that time a large part of the "solution" of the capitalists was to brutally attack the public sector workers through reductions in the workforce and enforcing wage-cuts (as well as increasing the tax burden on the masses).

The attacks on the public sector workers are also part of the general capitalist attempt to cut the real wages of all workers during the crisis, so as to maintain profits and have the masses bear the burden of the crisis. At the federal level, the Garter administration has instituted its "voluntary" wage-price controls and has implemented a mandatory 5.5% limit for pay increases (thus at least a 5% cut in real wages) of all federal workers as part of these wage-price controls. In addition, Carter's new Civil Service Reform Bill enables the government to more easily fire its employees and sets up a huge new bureaucracy -- run jointly with the labor traitors -- to suppress the resistance of the federal workers. The "tax revolt" scheme is also designed to attack the public sector workers, as has been amply demonstrated in the case of California, which the bourgeoisie has used as a national center for the promotion of the "tax revolt" movement. Faithfully implementing the capitalist "tax revolt", Governor Brown has ordered a hiring freeze for state employees and has frozen salaries by eliminating an $80 million pay increase from the state budget. State officials predict that a bare minimum of 75,000 local government employees will lose their jobs even after the so-called "bailout" programs of the state government. It is clear that the capitalist "tax revolt" movement does not have as its target the hated government officials, as the bourgeoisie claims, but rather the increasingly exploited wage-slaves employed by the government.

REDISTRIBUTION OF THE TAX REVENUES IN THE INTERESTS OF THE CAPITALISTS

Another feature of the capitalist "tax revolt" is the redistribution of the expenditures of the government budgets. The capitalists ensure that this redistribution does not affect the continual growth of the terrorist police forces in the slightest: in California, Governor Brown's "bailout" bill has clauses in it that guarantee that the police departments should not reduce their level of "services". As well, the California legislature has also created special assessment districts to ensure that the debt-service payments to the finance capitalists who hold government bonds will be unscathed by budget cuts. At the same time, in such fields as education, health and welfare, various "cutbacks" are being implemented that reduce the amount of money that is spent on the wages of the public sector workers, that reduce the minimal services given to the masses, and ensure that a higher and higher proportion of the state budget will be available for the direct use of finance capital and the maintenance of the bloated upper levels of the bureaucracy. The capitalist "tax revolt" thus demands that the working people pay more and more for the police forces and instruments of capitalist terrorist rule, that the poor pay increasing tribute to the financial parasites who reap fabulous profits from the government investments, but that the masses get along without such "extravagances" as hospitals, public schools and paltry welfare payments.

MORE ON THE POLITICAL DECEPTION OF THE CAPITALIST "TAX REVOLT"

Accompanying the "tax revolt" is a mountain of propaganda by the bourgeoisie that the "tax revolt" represents a mandate from the "people" to the "government". Through this lie, the monopoly capitalists and their government attempt to cover up the fact that the "tax revolt" is implementing the program of the capitalists and to cover up the fact that the "people" are divided into a handful of millionaires and exploiters and a huge mass of exploited and oppressed people, hi California, which is the bourgeoisie's model "tax revolt", the big capitalists and the government tried to swear innocence of the "tax revolt" movement by floating a reactionary demagog and fast-buck artist with a shady background named Howard Jarvis as the leader of a "grassroots" movement of the "people" known as the "tax revolt". Jarvis authorized the ballot initiative, Proposition 13, and began a demagogic tirade against "government bureaucrats". The bourgeois media portrayed Jarvis as being against the "establishment" of "big business" and "the government". The chief of the California state government, Governor Brown, "denounced" the "people's" proposal, Proposition 13, and promoted his own proposal for "tax reform", Proposition 8, which was openly supported by the big corporations. However, Jarvis' Proposition 13 and Governor Brown's Proposition 8 were nearly identical plans that both served the goals of the capitalist "tax revolt" to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the working masses. At that point the situation was that there was: 1) a fake fight between the "people" and the "government- business establishment", and 2) two proposals that both served equally well the "tax revolt" scheme of the rich. The June 6th election fraud was held, and "the people's" Proposition 13 defeated the "government-business" Proposition 8. The capitalist government of Governor Brown graciously accepted its "defeat", declared Proposition 13 as the "word of the people", and pledged to faithfully implement it. And thus the government is magically transformed into, to use Jarvis' words, a "government of the people".

POLITICAL DECEPTION OF THE "LIBERALS"

In implementing its plans to make the working masses bear ever more of the burden of taxes, the capitalist class not only utilizes the open advocates of the "tax revolt", but it also utilizes the liberal "opponents" of the "tax revolt". These worthies oppose the "tax revolt" because they are open apologists for the overblown bureaucratic capitalist state. They glorify the state and promote its huge monstrous oppression as a source of well-being for the people. Just like the proponents of the "tax revolt", these "opponents" seek to hide the fact that the "tax revolt" is the program of the capitalist class, and they try to paint the government as the people's savior under attack from a handful from the ultra-right fringe. Spokesmen for these worthy lackeys of the rich, like Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit, call the "tax revolt" a plot by the "racist? "right-wing movements" who are backed up by "real estate tycoons" and "business". Of course, the "tax revolt" movement is indeed organized by racists and business interests who rave against the Afro-Americans, Mexican-Americans, immigrants and others. But the racism is not that of some chance individual, but that of the whole capitalist class. And the "right-wing movement" involved is the motion of the whole capitalist class. By his type of "opposition" to the "tax revolt", Mayor Young and other government bureaucrats are trying to pawn off the government as "anti-business" and "anti-racist", while it is well-known that such liberals as Mayor Young have the closest connection with racist "big business" themselves, including all the top auto magnates. For that matter, Mayor Young's own ravings against the Afro-American youth and his creation of a "youth crime" hysteria in 1976 would well have made the most rightist forces green with envy.

The fact is that while the "tax revolt" makes false claims that it wants to cut taxes and "big government" in order to do the exact opposite and raise taxes and increase the oppression by the government, the liberals falsely claim that only by expanding the government, by developing the public sector as a source of maximum profits for the capitalists and giving all sorts of tax breaks to the capitalists for investing in the particular locality, can the workers and minorities be served. The "liberals" demand millions of dollars from the oppressed masses in order to "help" the people. And when they bankrupt the city and state governments with their huge police forces, hordes of government officials, giant debt-service payments to the banks, etc., the "liberals", under the guise of "saving our cities" or of "efficient" government, launch big attacks on the public sector workers and levy higher taxes. When all their "liberal" blustering is finished, they have accomplished the same task as the "tax revolt" "right-wingers", that is, shifting the burden of the capitalist economic crisis onto the working class and oppressed masses through higher taxes and through attacks on the public sector workers.

As the "liberal" government bureaucrats and the "tax revolt" movement haggle over the details of how best to attack and deceive the working class and people, the labor aristocrats, such as Jerry Wurf of AFSCME, are actually calling for a "national coalition of government, labor, and business to reform the tax system" and provide "tax justice". Wurf has even offered us a hint as to how this miracle will be performed. First, "alleviate the onerous burden of property taxes", and second, "develop more extensive" "income tax systems". Such is the true nature of the "differences" among the bourgeois politicians.

There is no such thing as "tax justice" under capitalism. Either one class pays or the other. That is the law of capitalism and it has nothing to do with a "justice" that is equal for all, government, labor and business. Excessive taxation is not an accident, or the result of inefficiency, but inherent in the development of capitalism. It is the monopoly capitalists who developed massive government spending programs in a futile attempt to stave off the inherent economic crisis of the capitalist system. It is the monopoly capitalist class which needs to constantly beef up its huge armed forces in order to suppress the growing class struggles both at home and in the vast neo-colonial empire of U.S. imperialism. It is the capitalists who have created the vast bureaucracy to serve their interests. The only way to eliminate the huge government with its monstrous oppression is through revolution against the monopoly capitalist system, and the only way to alleviate the taxes is to make the capitalists and the rich exploiters bear the burden of the crisis of their system as part of the revolutionary struggle. The entire charade of the government providing "tax justice" is used to create confusion among the people, paralyze the struggle against the bourgeoisie, and promote the fascist scheme of tri-partite bodies of business, labor and government.

But the working class and the oppressed masses are sorting out their friends and their enemies in the course of struggle against their class enemies. The working class, including the public sector workers, is actively resisting the attacks of the monopoly capitalists and their government with staunch strike struggle. The proletariat regards with contempt both the open reactionaries and racists in the "tax revolt" movement and the concealed reactionaries and racists who are accomplishing the same purpose as the "tax revolters" but through direct glorification of the state machine.

It is the experience gained in struggle, that, when summed up in the light of Marxism-Leninism, is preparing the working class for the socialist revolution that will solve the problem of high taxes once and for all by smashing up the parasitic capitalist state machine, the instrument of the monopoly capitalists for exploitation and oppression of the working class and toiling masses. End.

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For Your Reference:

Some Features of the Capitalist "Tax Revolt" in California and Michigan

In California, the capitalist "tax revolt" was highlighted by the adoption of Proposition 13, also known as the Jarvis-Gann Initiative. Promoted as a great victory for tax relief for the people, the Jarvis-Gann Initiative, and accompanying actions of the California state legislature, actually constitute a vicious attack against the working class and people. That the "tax revolt" is merely a plot by the monopoly capitalists to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the working class and people can be seen from the results of the California "tax revolt". These results include:

ATTACKS ON PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS

1) Stepped-up attacks on the public sector workers, for example:

--Governor Brown's hiring freeze for state employees;

--Governor Brown's pay freeze for some 224,000 state employees (state employees' wages before the "tax revolt" averaged 10 per cent lower than comparable private sector jobs and have increased less than inflation over the last three years);

--Los Angeles County estimates some 10-20,000 layoffs;

--City of Los Angeles estimates 8,000 layoffs plus 5,000 CETA employee layoffs;

--San Francisco announced hundreds of layoffs and a pay freeze for city workers;

--Marin County instituted a 30 per cent layoff of county workers and a 10 per cent salary cut for many workers;

--California government officials state that even with the "bailout" bills to relieve the effects of Proposition 13, some 75,000 local government employees will lose their jobs.

HIGHER TAXES

2) Increasing the tax burden on the working class and people and reducing the burden on the rich;

With the implementation of Proposition 13, property taxes were cut by 57 per cent, or seven billion dollars. Property taxes finance local governments including cities, counties and school districts. Of the $7 billion, some $2.3 billion went to "homeowners" while $4.7 billion went to the monopoly capitalist enterprises. The government figures refuse to break down how much goes to working "homeowners" and how much to rich and capitalist "homeowners". Due to reduced deductions on federal and state income taxes, about 900 million of the 2.3 billion to homeowners and 1.8 billion of the 4.7 billion to the capitalists is to be returned to the state and federal government by higher income taxes, due to the loss of the property tax deduction on income tax. In order to replace the lost property tax revenue, some five billion dollars was shifted from the state's "surplus income" to the local government budgets. The remaining two billion dollars took the form of budget cuts at the local level. None of these cuts effect the "sacred" interest payments to banks and financiers.

Source of funds for property tax relief (all figures are rough estimates)

"Surplus" state taxes -- $5 billion

10 per cent budget cuts -- $2 billion

Distribution of property tax relief

"Homeowners" -- $1.4 billion

Capitalist corporations -- $2.9 billion

Income taxes (money that goes to federal and state government via income tax) -- $2.7 billion

The source of "surplus taxes" is the state income and sales taxes. Thus, $5 billion extorted from the masses was added to California's government budgets, while $7 billion in property taxes was removed. Of this $7 billion, only 20 per cent ($1.4 billion) went to individual "homeowners", (including both millionaire "homeowners" and working "homeowners") while 41 per cent went directly to the corporations and 39 per cent to the capitalists' government. Thus, even making the totally unwarranted assumption that all "homeowners" are working people, there was a $3.6 billion increase in the taxes on the masses to finance the capitalist government, and a $2.9 billion reduction for the capitalist corporations. It also results in a huge tax break for apartment owners, while renters are faced with increased taxes to make up for the tax relief to landlords.

In California's case, there was no need to raise the income tax rates at the same time as the reduction in property taxes because it was the "far-sighted" ex-Govemor, and supporter of Proposition 13, arch-reactionary and warmonger Ronald Reagan, who had already done this a few years ago. In California, first the robbery was committed, and then the criminals divided up the loot, while in other states, the process is reversed. This is "tax relief" for the people according to the capitalist "tax revolt".

In addition, under Proposition 13 the property tax relief to homeowners is negated upon sale of the home because after the sale the new assessed value for property tax purposes for the new owner would not be at the 1975-76 rates prescribed by Proposition 13, but rather at the current market value. California officials admit that this will eventually shift an increasing burden of property taxes onto the individual homeowner and off of capitalist enterprises. It will also create a very irrational system of very uneven tax assessments.

As for the millions of California workers who rent, there is not even a pretense of tax relief. Even a fraudulent bill that would have merely delayed rent increases to January because of the landlords' tax savings under Proposition 13 was defeated in the legislature. And after Proposition 13 passed, the landlords immediately began to raise rents. However the local governments have not forgotten the tax problems of the working class. In Oakland, for example, a tax on wages was implemented to make up for the lost property tax revenue.

CUTBACKS ON BASIC SERVICES

3) Cutbacks in sectors that affect the well-being of the masses, for example:

--Cancellation of summer school for 340,000 students in Los Angeles;

--School budget cuts averaging 9 to 10 per cent;

--Hospital closings and health service reductions;

--Reduced public transportation services in San Francisco;

--A freeze on COLA payments for 1.5 million welfare mothers;

However, in the "bailout bill", there are provisions guaranteeing, the payment of debt service to the monopoly capitalist financiers and to prevent reductions in the fascist police forces.

The cutbacks in various sectors -- including education, medicine and welfare -- seriously harm the well-being of the masses. But it should be well understood that also the original fantastic growth of expenditures in these fields had nothing to do with serving the interests of the masses. What has happened to one field after another of "social services" is that the finance capitalists and the capitalist class as a whole seize upon one of these "services" after another. They then milk this field to the maximum, discover the necessity for all sorts of fancy construction work and extravagant procedures, invent positions for a host of well-paid supervisors, administrators and higher-paid professionals. The people are taxed to the hilt to pay for this, while the basic services to the masses actually decline and the ordinary public sector workers in the field face increased exploitation. Thus the cancerous growth of the "social service" bureaucracy is done for the benefit of the capitalists and it harms the interests of the masses. All the contradictions inherent in the old capitalist "social services" do not vanish, but become aggravated to the maximum. Then the capitalists either shift to another field or simply readjust their expenditures in the original field and a period of "cutbacks" ensues. These cutbacks never effect the payments to the banks, which are "sacred". The cutbacks do not affect the bureaucracy, and in fact the cutbacks may be used to create additional bureaucracy such as commissions to study how to cutback, how to speed-up the public sector workers, etc. So the cutbacks are taken out of the hide of the public sector workers and by reducing what remains of the "services". Except, of course, that the police, political spies and other forces of terrorist suppression of the people are never cut back and constitute the ultimate capitalist "social service".

This is what happened in medicine. Starting very slowly in the late 30's and really zooming after World War II, the capitalist medical profession was converted into a modern monopoly industry, complete with finance capitalists controlling billions of dollars of insurance funds. This fueled the fantastic rise in medical costs and was a rain of gold for the capitalists and the stratum of higher-paid doctors (but not for the nurses, aides, dietary workers, etc.). The present cutbacks in public medical expenditures do not, and cannot, reverse this process, but simply reduce even further the medical "services" available to the poorer section of the population.

In education, a very similar process occurred. Hand in hand with the bonanza of construction contracts, textbook contracts, wild ideas about new reading methods, "new math", "new science", etc., went the increasing decadence of the bourgeois educational system. During a certain period, the California college and university system had been tremendously expanded in order to train professionals for industry, bureaucrats for the rapidly-growing government apparatus and provide soft positions for a host of imperialist ideologues, opportunists and police-socialists. There was a big strengthening of the ideological aggression against the people, an all-round fascization of the content of education. The cutbacks in education, however, do not restore the old system of bourgeois indoctrination (called schooling) nor do they stop the growing decadence and fascization of the content of bourgeois education, but they simply further reduce the number of classroom hours, lower pay to the teachers, and throw students out of school.

In welfare too, the government does not have "humanitarian" concerns on its mind, but has developed a system that keeps the masses on the verge of starvation and degradation while turning over large sums of money to landlords, agribusiness, etc. The working masses pay for welfare themselves, and much of it is actually insurance funds confiscated by the capitalists for government use: for example, social security, unemployment insurance, disability, etc. A great part of welfare expenses pays for a whole apparatus of administrators, well-paid welfare and disability "judges", and spies to snoop on the people, down to trying to find out whom the people sleep with. Naturally, it is not this apparatus that will be dismantled, but solely the pitiful payments to the poor. The capitalists also intend to use the welfare cutbacks to institute a series of regulations to force the impoverished into a pool of strike-breakers, on pain of starvation.

POLITICAL DECEPTION

In order to present these attacks as the will of the people, a fraudulent ballot initiative campaign was launched. The monopoly capitalists presented two proposals, Proposition 13 and Proposition 8. Each proposal served equally well the "tax revolt" scheme. Both Proposition 13 and Proposition 8 required attacks on the public sector workers and reductions in the property tax. The differences between them were merely for appearances' sake, and it was understood by both camps that the differences could easily be obliterated by actions of the capitalist courts and legislature. Proposition 13 spokesman, Joe Micciche, for instance, admitted that all of Proposition 13's claims that no new taxes could be raised to replace the 57 per cent property tax cut were not true because the Supreme Court would require the state government to fund the schools anyway. Micciche and the Proposition 13 advocates knew very well that the state income tax would be raised to replace property taxes. Proposition 8, which called for a 30 per cent reduction in property taxes, provided for using the state income taxes as replacement revenue within the proposal.

Proposition 8 claimed that all its property tax relief was for homeowners, but in reality all Proposition 8 did was activate a bill in the California legislature that was not yet in final form and where the question of who would get the property tax relief was not decided. In the event of all relief going to homeowners, a court case was expected to claim that this was unequal treatment against the monopoly capitalists. Thus, when Proposition 8 appeared on the ballot, it could only claim that it may provide tax relief to homeowners. In this aspect, Proposition 13 was more efficient since it did not distinguish between homeowners and capitalist enterprises, thus assuring the overwhelming proportion of property tax relief would go to the rich. After all the maneuvering that would follow, it didn't matter which proposal was railroaded through since the actual form of the "tax revolt" in California was a hybrid of the two proposals featuring the large across-the-board property tax cut of "13" and the income tax provisions of Proposition 8.

In Michigan, where the various "tax revolt" proposals will be voted upon in November, it is also quite clear that the entire "tax revolt" is directly organized by the monopoly capitalists and their government. Just as in California, where the "grassroots" revolt" was led by the capitalists Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, so too in Michigan the origins of the "revolt" can be traced back to the president of an insurance company and ex-aide to former Governor Romney, Richard Headlee, and a low level career bureaucrat, Robert Tisch. Headlee was asked to lead this "people's" movement by the staff economist of the Dow Chemical Company and by State representative Louis Crampton. The early planning for Headlee's movement was done by the chief economist of the Ford Motor Company, a bourgeois economics professor from the University of Michigan and representatives of several other "grassroots people". Headlee boasts that the leaders of his organization, Taxpayers United for Tax Limitation, are divided up between Democratic and Republican party hacks. Presumably to "balance" the representative of Ford Motors, the chief economist of the UAW labor aristocrats voiced agreement with Headlee's proposal, although later this open support was withdrawn for purposes of deception. The financial backers of Headlee include: Amway Corp., Panax, Clark Equipment, Whirlpool, Michigan National Bank, Gerber Products, J. L. Hudson Co., Dow Chemical Co., the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and the Michigan Association of Realtors. Robert Tisch, who heads up his own "taxpayer" group, also owes his existence as a "tax revolt" leader to the monopoly capitalists because Tisch's group is merely a splinter group from Headlee's. These facts puncture the myth of the so-called "grassroots movement" in Michigan.

In looking at the proposals of the "tax revolt" in Michigan, the main feature appears to be confusion. But this confusion is the planned confusion of the rich and their state which allows them to more easily implement the capitalist "tax revolt". Currently there are three proposals directly effecting taxes and another general proposal supported by the UAW to call a constitutional convention to "solve" all the tax problems. To this point, the monopoly capitalist dictators have not even released the information on what would happen should more than one of the proposals, which have many overlapping provisions, be approved in the sham November elections. In this way, it is very simple for the capitalist state to interpret the results of the election any way they please. The Tisch and Headlee proposals have nothing to do with their promised benefits for the people. The Tisch proposal, the propaganda for which emphasizes that it is a radical measure to cut taxes does not actually cut taxes, and the Headlee proposal, the propagandists for which boast that it will stop tax increases does not actually do so. Studies by a major bourgeois-reactionary newspaper opposed to these two measures, the Detroit News claim that these tax limitation measures both raise taxes for most everybody.

The Headlee proposal is the mast vague of the proposals, but it lays down the general principles that the other two contain. It calls for a limit on the total taxes collected by the state -- unless there is a "declared emergency". With this "cap", the government has laid the basis for attacking the public sector workers since it can always claim that it is the wages of the workers that have pushed the budget over the tax limits of the "cap". Also, the government can raise taxes at will simply by declaring an "emergency". Other provisions of the Headlee amendment state that any new or expanded programs required of the local governments by the state must be financed by the state, and that voter approval is required to increase any local taxes. The proposal is left vague so that the state legislature can fill in all the details of the anti-people amendment, while at the same time it provides a framework of "voter-approved" "tax revolt" principles such as attacking the public sector workers, increasing the state's taxes which fall on the masses, and decreasing the burden on local, that is, property taxes, on the rich.

The Tisch amendment has the personal approval of California's Jarvis. The essential features of the Tisch amendment are a 50 per cent across-the-board property tax reduction, and a provision allowing, but not requiring, an increase of two per cent in the state income tax. While shifting the burden of taxation increasingly onto the masses, this amendment also allows the government to substitute attacks on the public sector workers since there are no requirements to replace lost property tax revenues. Just to show that there are no hard feelings between capitalists when it comes to attacking the masses, Headlee has lavished praise on Tisch's supporter Jarvis, and even ex-imperialist chieftain and open reactionary Gerald Ford went out of his way to mention what a great thing Proposition 13, Jarvis' amendment, was for California, although, of course, Ford denied that he supported the Tisch proposal.

The other proposal in Michigan directly effecting taxes is the racist school "voucher" proposal. Under this amendment, the government no longer directly finances the school system, but instead gives parents a sum of money in the form of a voucher which can be used to finance a student's education at a public or non-public school. The "voucher proposal" ends local property taxes as a source of funds for school financing and shifts the entire burden onto the state, that is to say, onto the masses who must pay state taxes. It is especially designed to help racially segregate the schools by financing private schools used to escape public school integration. It also is a big financial relief for those using private schools, while it will help undermine the public schools used by working class students and it will be especially used to undermine public school systems which are predominantly black, such as Detroit's.

The "tax revolt" in Michigan once again shows that the capitalists and their government have not the slightest intention of ceasing their attacks on the public sector workers or providing tax relief for the working class and people. This is also clear to the trade union bureaucrats of the UAW and AFL-CIO as well, but as loyal agents of the capitalists and their state machine, these scoundrels are engaged in creating illusions about bringing about "genuine tax reform" through a "constitutional convention". The reasoning behind this plan is that the workers should not actively resist all the efforts of the capitalists to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto them, but should instead have faith that the capitalist government, which is currently attacking the workers to the utmost, will change its nature and hand "genuine tax reform" over to the workers on a silver platter. Then when the "constitutional convention" passes reactionary measures, the labor bureaucrats will shed a few crocodile tears and urge the workers to give more to the UAW's CAP and the AFL-CIO's COPE and to get out and vote all the more staunchly for "Democratic" and liberal-labor politicians, who allegedly only vote anti-labor because of the influence of the "ultra-right". In truth, behind the fine words of the labor aristocrats there is nothing but a plan to liquidate the struggles of the workers by having them remain passive onlookers as the capitalists and their government mount assault after assault. End.

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TEACHERS THROUGHOUT THE U.S. WAGE VIGOROUS STRIKES AGAINST GROWING IMPOVERISHMENT

Tens of thousands of teachers and other school employees have recently launched strikes from coast to coast, affecting over 500,000 students in public schools and colleges in 17 states. Large strikes continue in Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio, and Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, and in smaller school districts and colleges in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The teachers are fighting for higher pay in the face of skyrocketing prices which are reducing them to impoverishment, hi many areas, teachers are resisting attempts by the capitalist school board authorities to increase their workload through longer hours and increased classroom sizes.

As the monopoly capitalist authorities attempt to shift the burden of the prolonged economic crisis onto the teachers, this year's school openings have become a real battleground. The teachers have been striking against the state machine and have faced the school boards' firings and disciplinary actions, courts and court orders, scabs, police bullying, arrests add jailings, not to mention the slanders of the hostile monopoly capitalist press. And the teachers, far from being passive and docile slaves, have staunchly resisted all of these attacks in many areas. While many schools were formally closed, the school of class struggle has been open, conducting vigorous and spirited sessions!

Teachers' strikes are outright illegal in some states, like in Michigan, where in Warren the teachers defied the law in a three week strike. In other states the teachers have been immediately confronted with back-to-work court orders upon striking, such as in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Everett, Washington, as well as in Warren, and the teachers in these and many other public school districts have defied these court orders.

Restraining orders on pickets have been routinely thrown at teachers, where in Dayton, Ohio, 34 were arrested for disregarding the court order. Teachers have been confronted with numerous police on their picket lines who have attacked strikers and protected scabs entering to try to keep classes in session (Warren, New Orleans, etc.). Large numbers of teachers have been arrested and jailed. Over 260 were arrested in Bridgeport and a large number of them spent six days locked up in a National Guard barracks. 16 were arrested in Dayton on September 26 in addition to the 34 arrested previously. Also arrested were 12 teachers in Everett, 8 in Richmond, Indiana, 8 union negotiators in Marion, Indiana, where hundreds were also cited for contempt of court. In Warren, 36 teachers were fired, until the Michigan Educational Association threatened a sympathy strike of all teachers in Detroit and 14 surrounding school districts, whereupon the school board capitulated, re-instated the teachers, and met many of their other demands. The capitalist authorities have been obstinately resisting the minimal salary demands of the teachers, but have not hesitated to give substitutes double-pay to scab (New Orleans).

Teachers in over 80 school districts have gone on strike or been locked out through September of this year, which is over double the number of teachers' strikes in a comparable period of 1977. And this strike wave is not yet over, as thousands of teachers in Washington, D. C. empowered their negotiators on September 26 to call a strike, with no further negotiations scheduled.

Besides the public schools, teachers and professors in several colleges and universities have also struck this September, such as in nine city colleges in Chicago, Wayne State University in Detroit, Eastern Michigan University, and several other Michigan colleges.

The main fight in the teachers' strikes has been over pay increases. Inflation has been decreasing the value of the dollar at an 11% rate for most of this year. The teachers have been fighting to retard the rate of decrease in their real earnings which has resulted from the skyrocketing rise in prices during this year and for several years previous.

Capitalist chieftain Carter has been trying to impose on the workers his wage-cutting "anti-inflation" program of 5.1 to 5.6% "voluntary" wage increase limits. The teachers, through their strike struggles have been breaking through these barriers. In Bridgeport, the teachers will receive a 6% raise in the first year of their new contract, and 7.5% in the second. In Warren, the school board finally agreed to a 17.9% increase over two years with a minimum COLA raise of 4% and a maximum of 6%, in the second year. The Bridgeport teachers' salary settlement, while higher than Carter's dictated figure, will not come close to keeping up with inflation and the teachers will suffer a further decline in their purchasing power. And to receive even this meager amount, they struck for 19 days and suffered over 260 arrests. The Warren teachers' settlement will at best keep their pay increasing at a rate close to price increases, which is a major victory, but will not make up for past losses in their real spendable earnings. And to achieve this minimal demand, they waged an illegal strike to begin with, disobeyed a court back- to-work order, suffered 5 arrests and injured two policemen in defending their picket line, had 36 of their ranks fired (temporarily), and 67 were threatened with contempt of court citations. It was not until the teachers threatened a massive sympathy strike that they were offered terms agreeable to themselves.

All of this shows the obstinacy of the monopoly capitalist class, their determination to make the people pay for the economic crisis. The teachers have had their standards of living come under more and more attack as the prolonged economic crisis of 1973-4 continues. The current attacks on the teachers are part and parcel of the general offensive of the bourgeois state against public sector workers, which was recently manifested in Carter's dictating of a 5.5% "raise" to federal government workers, a big cut in real earnings.

Justice is on the side of the teachers, who have been resisting this vicious exploitation. The vigorous strikes of the teachers are part and parcel of the growing strike movement of the entire working class to resist Carter's "voluntary" wage controls and the effects of the economic crisis in general. The teachers' spirited and defiant actions have inspired the American proletariat and other progressive and revolutionary people. End.

[Photos: (left) Striking teachers of Sterling Heights.Michigan confront the police of the capitalist state, (right) One of the 270 striking Bridgeport, Connecticut teachers jailed for defying a judge's back-to-work order.]

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CLEVELAND SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ARE RIGHT TO STRIKE!

(The following leaflet was issued by the Cleveland Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, September 19, 1978)

The teachers and other employees of the Cleveland Public School System have started a just and long overdue strike. They have not had a raise in over two years, and as a result of inflation they have suffered a large cut in real wages. In the past year, for weeks at a time, the School Board has forced them to work without any pay whatsoever.

In response to the just demands of the teachers and other school employees, the state, the Board of Education, and certain opportunist union officials have cried, "But there is no money." This plea of poverty is intended to demoralize the school employees, to make them feel that there is no alternative but to give up their struggle and accept the dictates of the School Board and state. It is also intended to create public opinion in favor of repressive court orders against the strike.

But the cry "there is no money" by the Board and the state is a fraud. The situation of "there is no money" is consciously created by the government of the rich. Schools in Ohio and most states are mainly funded from local property taxes. From 1964 to 1971, the Ohio Supreme Court made a series of rulings which had the effect of a) drastically cutting property taxes on the big capitalist industries, b) increasing property taxes on the working masses, and c) reducing funding available for public education. This created the basis for the financial crises of the schools. In 1972 the State of Ohio passed the state income tax to further shift the burden of taxation on to the backs of the working masses. The income tax was supposed to go to the public schools, but every year since 1972 the percent of the state budget spent for elementary and secondary education has been steadily going down.

In 1977 the Governor's Commission on Cost Control announced plans to "deal" with the financial crisis of the schools. These plans call for vicious attacks on the teachers and other school employees, on the youth, and the working masses in general. They include:

1) Reduction of education programs to the minimum.

2) Closing of schools and consolidation of school districts.

3) Layoffs of school employees.

4) Tax cuts for the businesses of the big capitalists.

5) Increased sales, property and income taxes for the working masses.

(See the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 12, 1977) Already part of this program has been implemented with Bill 920, which has cut business and industry taxes enough to reduce the funds available to the Cleveland Schools next year by $11 million! At the same time, the Cleveland Board is pushing for a new levy to raise the taxes on the working masses by $11 million. The School Board's latest levy is not intended for teacher raises as it claims but as a subsidy for the rich. The state and School Board have no intention of meeting the school employees' just demands but only intend to lay off hundreds of employees and drastically reduce and deteriorate the education of the youth.

The government in the U.S. at federal, state and local levels is a dictatorship of the big capitalists. It extorts huge sums of tax monies from the working masses (36¢ out of every dollar of wages for the average worker), but these huge sums of taxes in no way assure that the basic needs of the people are met, as the financial collapse of the schools proves. Instead these tax monies are spent so as to maximize the profits of the rich and to maintain a huge military- bureaucratic machine. Presently such things as subsidies to the oil monopolies, war preparations, "tax abatement" for the big monopolies, ore docks for Republic Steel, etc., serve the profits of the rich while education of the working class youth does not. Consequently education is being put to the minimum and school boards all across the country "have no money" as state funds are diverted to other more profitable areas for the monopoly capitalists. This is all part of the program of the rich to make the people pay for the economic crisis of the capitalist system. The school employees are absolutely right to resist this "Make the people pay" program!

The capitalist news media and school administration have slandered the school employees, saying that they are selfish and hurting the education of the youth. But the shoe is on the other foot. It is the capitalists and government officials who a are attacking the education of the youth and even have a worked-out program to do so. The capitalists want to suppress the resistance of the school employees so that they can carry out their attacks on the school employees and the youth unhindered. In this situation, how could the teachers and other school employees call themselves dedicated if they did not fight? What kind of example would they give the youth if they did not fight? The teachers and other school employees are absolutely right to strike and to defy any court orders against their strike. Only by such a militant struggle can they defend their basic interests and help defend the interests of the youth. The workers in all sectors should vigorously support and encourage the teachers and other school employees in their struggle.

The struggle of the school employees is part of the resistance movement of the American working class and people against the attempts of the rich to make the people pay for the capitalist economic crisis. The only way out of the increasingly grave crises wracking our country is to develop the resistance struggles of the people into a great revolutionary movement to make the rich pay for the crises they have created and to overthrow the monopoly capitalists and their state and establish the rule of the working class. End.

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Hospital Workers Fight Carter's "Cost Containment" Fraud

(The following leaflet was issued by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, September 6, 1978.)

The ugly cost containment fraud devised by the rich and their state to step up the exploitation of the hospital workers continues to intensify at the hospital. Since our last leaflet the administration has mobilized its various levels of bureaucrats and overseers as well as its anti-personnel department (also known as "human resources") to try to head off the rising resistance of the workers. They are resorting to the insidious dual tactics of deception and repression. They pretend friendliness and concern for the workers on one hand while on the other they single out individuals for attack in order to terrorize all the workers and to enforce their speedup.

They launched programs like "Operation Contact" and new "benefits" to try to lull the workers to sleep while at the same time they install TV cameras everywhere to spy on the workers. Supervisors watch the consoles in the gestapo office and threaten to suspend workers if they see that they are "not working hard enough". In patient transportation department, the petty tyrant, a Mr. S., and his boss, a Mr. B., took up the dual tactics of deception and repression to try to weather the storm of resistance reported in our last leaflet. They pretended to ignore the leaflet itself while they connived to overcome their growing: isolation by false friendliness. Mr. S., who never before had a good word for any worker, suddenly became Mr. Nice Guy, so concerned about the workers' health, their families, their vacation plans, etc. This hypocritical pose lasted about one month, fooling no one. Hoping things had cooled off a bit, these lackeys of the rich renewed their attacks.

They tried to increase the number of patients transported by each orderly from 20 to 32. When the workers did not speed up at his command, Mr. S. dropped his mask of friendliness and exposed his true fascist features. He stepped up his surveillance and intimidation of the workers and recently suspended an orderly for three days for the "crime" of being 5 feet away from his patient while waiting for an elevator. This is an outrage!

Throughout the hospital similar attacks are being made on the workers by lackeys like S. and B. But these individuals are not just some bad elements acting on their own. They are carrying out the cost containment campaign of the hospital administration. In fact such attacks are being launched in hospitals all over the country as part of Carter's cost containment offensive. The rich are frantically trying to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the workers. For this reason, the government's and the hospital's cost containment attacks are bound to intensify.

The only way out for the workers is to rely on their own strength and to develop mass struggles to punish the rich for their crimes. Slowdowns, sickouts, denunciations of supervisors, and other forms of defiance are weapons which the workers are beginning to bring into play. Circulation of resistance leaflets into every nook and cranny of the, hospital is itself a blow at the rich and helps to awaken wider sections of workers to the need for mass struggle to defend our basic interests.

Fellow workers, the rich are sharpening their swords to use against us, we have no choice but to sharpen ours!

NO PEACE FOR MR.B., MR. S. AND OTHER LACKEYS OF THE RICH!

RESIST THE ALL-ROUND SPEEDUP AND FASCISTIZATION OF THE PLACE OF WORK!

PUNISH THE HOSPITAL FOR ITS EVER MORE VICIOUS ATTACKS ON ALL THE WORKERS! End.

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PACIFIC COAST PULP AND PAPER WORKERS STRIKE AGAINST PAPER MONOPOLISTS IN DEFIANCE OF CARTER'S WAGE-PRICE GUIDELINES

Throughout the months of July, August and September more than 27,000 Pacific Coast pulp and paper workers have been waging contract strike struggles against the U.S. pulp and paper monopoly capitalists. These strikes have shut down more than 48 paper mills in the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.

In the face of sky-rocketing inflation (presently at 11%), seeing their real wages cut month after month, the pulp and paper workers have defied Carter's "voluntary" wage-price controls and demanded a 30% wage increase over two years. Other contract demands by the pulp and paper workers in their struggle against inflation are two-year contracts to replace the existing three-year contracts and an increase of pension benefits by 35%. They have backed up their demands with militant strikes.

The Carter administration, using the big lie technique, has been shouting itself hoarse that the cause of inflation is the increasing of workers' wages or, as they call it, "the wage-price spiral", and that inflation will be curbed only if workers' wage increases are curbed. In May, the Carter administration issued a vicious attack against the wage demands of the pulp and paper workers, Barry Bosworth, director of the government's Council on Wage and Price Stability, publicly denounced the wage demands of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers as "outsized and alarming". These loyal servants of monopoly capital have called upon the workers to sacrifice and limit their wage increases to 5.1% to 5.6%. Using simple arithmetic, it is plain to see that in the face of an 11% inflation rate, Carter is telling the American working class to take a 5% cut in pay. Carter's "voluntary" wage-price controls are nothing but an attempt to shift the burden of the current economic crisis onto the workers and to fill the already overflowing pockets of the capitalist money-bags with increased profits.

Using scab labor, the pulp and paper monopolists recently attempted to break the strike and re-open the shut mills. The Georgia Pacific and Crown-Zellerbach paper companies have tried to re-open a total of eight mills along the west coast. Determined to continue their strike, many pulp and paper workers have militantly defended their picket lines so as to keep production of paper goods stopped. At the Georgia Pacific mill in Toledo, Oregon, more than 100 pulp and paper workers formed a mass picket line to resist attempts of the capitalists and their loyal police to bring scabs into the mill to re-start production. Forming a human wall, the striking workers surrounded a bus loaded with scabs and then proceeded to smash out every window in the bus, teaching the scabs an important lesson -- not to cross the picket line of striking workers. In organizing their strike struggles, the use of the militant picket line is an important weapon in the hands of the workers to defend themselves against attacks by the capitalists. Since the capitalists give themselves the right to undermine the workers' struggles and actually threaten the workers' livelihood through the use of scabs, the workers, for their part must escalate their strike struggles so as to win their just demands and to protect their jobs.

Neither the planned hysteria and wild screams of the Carter administration about wage restraint nor the attempted strike-breaking by the pulp and paper monopolists have been able to suppress the determined struggle of the pulp and paper workers. By mid-August, the workers of the AWPPW Local #672 of Fullerton, California, settled their strike and signed a contract with the Kimberly-Clark paper capitalists with wage increases of 10.75% for the first year and 10.5% for the second year of a two-year contract. Two other union locals have also signed contracts with similar wage increases. These settlements at the three paper mills, while not sufficient to catch up and keep up with inflation, nevertheless exceed by far the Carter administration's 5.1 to 5.6 per cent "voluntary" guidelines. They show that the Carterite "friends of Labor" and their capitalist masters have been unable to defeat the pulp and paper workers and smash their struggle. The pulp and paper workers are continuing to oppose the attacks of the Carter administration and are carrying on their fight for higher wages against ongoing inflation. End.

[Photo: Over 100 striking pulp and paper workers militantly resist the attempts of the paper monopolists to break their strike with a bus full of scabs protected by sheriff's deputies and police. The workers smashed every window in the bus.]

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American Standard Workers Defy Plant Closing Threats and Persist in Strike Struggle

(The following leaflet was issued by the Buffalo Workers Revolutionary Committee, Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, on September 9, 1978.)

"WE ARE NOT SLAVES AND WE WILL NOT BE DRIVEN TO OUR KNEES!" This was the bold stand which the workers at American Standard plant in Buffalo took in the face of the capitalists' ultimatum: "End your strike or we will close our plant". The workers refused to be cowed into giving up their just struggle for higher wages because of the threats and blackmail of the American Standard capitalists. This stand of the workers at American Standard has, once again, shown that the proletariat will never bend its knee before the vicious attacks of the capitalists and it has won these workers the support of all workers, revolutionary and progressive people.

On Sunday, September 3, the American Standard capitalists made public the threat that they would close their Buffalo plant, if the workers did not abandon their struggle for higher wages. The local press, a propaganda tool for the capitalists, displayed the threat on the front page -- the first front page coverage of the long and bitter strike. The intent, as most workers realized was to make the workers tremble in their shoes, fall to their knees, and kiss the feet of the American Standard capitalists. The workers were supposed to give up their struggle for higher wages, forsake their just demands, lower their heads, and go back to work beaten and demoralized-- or else: no more jobs.

The American Standard capitalists have been trying to shove a low-wage settlement down the workers' throats since the strike of 225 workers began June 3. With double-digit inflation driving their real wages down and Carter's campaign for wage controls being implemented, the workers are fighting to win the highest wages they can get, as well as a Cost of Living Allowance as one step toward protecting their dwindling incomes. The American Standard capitalists are just as determined to keep the wage increase low, striving to protect and maximize their already enormous profits. Their intent to break the fighting spirit of the workers and undermine their unity was made clear from the beginning. Thousands of dollars were dished out for extra security police and equipment. Scabs do not come cheap either, but strike-breaking would not be complete without bribing the office workers to work in the plant and scab truckers to cross the picket lines. All of this money was spent to attempt to break the strike, yet the capitalists cry that they can not spare one extra cent for the workers!

Concurrent with these attacks on the workers' struggle, the American Standard capitalists launched a letter-writing campaign to promote deception on the issues involved in the strike, mystifying everything, and blubbering about how the strike is causing them to lose customers; then, warning "lost customers mean lost jobs". Throughout this barrage of blackmail, the spying, harassment, and intimidation by the capitalists and the police, the workers have been resolute in their stand and firm in their demands. They organized mass pickets and wielded a militant picket line when necessary, striking fear into the hearts of the capitalists, who quickly summon the Cheektowaga police to their aid to protect the scabs and arrest the striking workers. The workers and their families have sacrificed and endured many hardships to defend their just struggle -- many survived with no income at all for the first eleven weeks of the strike. They are determined not to give in now.

On August 16, the capitalists proposed what they threatened was their "final" offer and warned the workers they had better accept it or "other alternatives" would be sought to salvage their business. Still not satisfied, however, the workers rejected the offer by an overwhelming majority. Two weeks later, the American Standard capitalists dealt what they hoped would be the final blow to the striking workers. In a last ditch effort to break the strike and get back on the road to super-profits, the American Standard capitalists threatened to close down their plant. After weeks of moaning and groaning, now, like a wounded beast, the American Standard capitalists let out a loud cry. They geared up their whole propaganda machine--the press, radio, and TV -- to create hysteria among the workers about the plant closing. They called into service their state apparatus sending their "neutral" federal mediator to present to the workers their "final" offer. But the workers stood firm in their demands and sent the cur packing to his capitalist masters. The workers succeeded in calling the capitalists' bluff, forcing them to cancel their widely-promoted press conference scheduled for Monday, September 11, at which they had threatened to "officially" announce the plant closing.

The vicious threat of plant closing is nothing new to the workers of Buffalo. The capitalists have been using this threat to attack their struggles for a long time, and the American Standard workers are joined by the entire class of proletarians in their contempt for this activity. Sometimes the capitalists use this threat just to break strikes, as their practice has shown in past struggles at Freezer Queen, J.H. Williams, Buffalo Forge, and Spaulding Fibre, for example. And, sometimes the capitalists actually do allow plants to deteriorate and close them down or move them to other locations, if it is profitable for them to do so. Thousands of workers are thrown into the streets, but this is of no concern to the big money bags, who are driven by greed and the need to maintain a competitive edge over their rivals. Their only concern is protecting their own profits.

These hostile actions and vile threats are part and parcel of the evil system of monopoly capitalism -- a system whereby the wealthy ruling class uses the ownership of "its" factories and political dictatorship to exploit and enslave the vast majority of people. The violence and anarchy of capitalist production can only be eliminated by overthrowing this dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and establishing the Dictatorship of the working class and building Socialism. "PEOPLE WHO ENDURE SO MUCH TO BEND ONE SINGLE BOURGEOIS WILL BE ABLE TO BREAK THE POWER OF THE WHOLE BOURGEOISIE" (Engels) by organizing and leading the social revolution to eliminate the exploitation of man by man once and for all. End.

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Racist Police Murder of John Rodney in Seattle Exposes Growing Fascism

(The following is from a leaflet produced by the Seattle Anti-Fascist Association(SA-FA), August 24, 1978)

The Seattle Anti-Fascist Association (SA-FA) firmly condemns the brutal murder of the young Afro- American, John Rodney, in the Rainier Valley district last Saturday, August 19th. In broad daylight, at around 7 p.m., Seattle patrolman Dennis Falk, a notorious racist and fascist thug of the state of the rich, who is hated by the masses, cornered an unarmed black man in the backyard of the Mr. Milton Wellons residence, near 52nd Avenue South and South Kenyon Street. Only Falk and the young man were present in and around the backyard. At that time, Falk cowardly opened fire on John Rodney from behind. He fired twice in rapid succession and executed John Rodney near a short fence. Then, fearing the vengeance of the masses, Falk nervously threatened the people gathering in the front yard not to go near the back, while he waited to be rescued by his partners in crime. These are the facts.

Everywhere in Seattle, people are denouncing this cowardly assassination of John Rodney and are seething with indignation.

The Seattle Anti-Fascist Association (SA-FA) and the anti-fascist masses place the blame for this latest police murder squarely where it belongs -- on the growing fascism of the government of the rich at all levels. The blame lies directly on the government's armed wing and unfailing support -- the police. But it also lies on those bodies which enforce violent repression -- the courts, prison system, mayor's office, city council, "community service organizations", and the entire state apparatus.

Recent police shootings, including this cold-blooded assassination are not "freak" incidents. Nor are they simply the actions of a few "bad cops". Rather, the stepped-up shootings are part and parcel of the state's systematic strengthening of the police apparatus and its terror against the people, especially against the black and poor people in central and south Seattle. They are part of the enforcement of racial discrimination and violent repression against the Afro-American people. These murderous attacks are also aimed at putting down the growing revolt of the working class against increasing impoverishment and against the plans of the rich to hurl the people into another aggressive war abroad. Growing fascism is a means for the rich to escape their all-sided crisis, with the economic crisis at the base.

This recent flurry of shootings in central and south Seattle is aimed in particular at spreading fear and crippling the resistance of the people in the face of the attacks of the state-organized "anti-busing" movement. This fascist movement has already been exposed for all to see as police-protected, racist, and rotten to the core. Last January 26th in the Rainier Valley, at a CIVIC meeting, over 50 policemen launched a savage attack on anti-fascist workers, led by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists (COUSML). Seven anti-fascists were arrested because they actively resisted the attack and punished a number of the fascist thugs. In the April "trial" they exposed the alliance which makes up the real anti-busing movement: 1) the police -- among them, Falk, Estes, McCloud, Jankauskas, all of whom are actively pushing this movement and have been involved in murderous assaults in the last year or so; 2) state agent Moberly, -- fellow traveler of the CIA and author of the "Seattle Plan", the actual plan for organizing racist attacks and stirring up conflicts among the people; 3) the anti-busing leaders -- the long-time advocates of "Jim Crow" segregation of the schools and real advocates of the "Seattle Plan"; and 4) the courts, mayor's office, and other municipal agencies geared up for suppressing anti-fascist struggle when the schools open. The police and other racists and fascists (congressman Jack Cunningham, John Birchers, traitor Al Winston, etc.) are the obedient tools of the state-organized fascist movement.

But the masses do not and will not roll over and play dead and turn the other cheek in the face of violent repression. The workers and youth are constantly resisting police repression, and this is why the police are terrified of the masses and always arrive in large numbers to cowardly deal with the smallest incidents. This is why Mayor Royer and other state agents have stepped onto the stage to "oppose" the murder of John Rodney. Royer and the City Council are pretending to be "taking action" against the "abuses of the police". They are pushing a new police shooting policy that will supposedly restrict use of firearms by the police. At the same time the Seattle Police Guild is campaigning for Initiative 15 to give the police and police, spies greater "authority" to terrorize the people, under the hoax of "fighting crime". The sham nature of this "controversy", this absurd bugaboo, is exposed by Royer's admission that under both versions of the shooting policy, the murder of John Rodney is a "borderline" case as to whether it was a "proper shooting". Behind their "liberal" masks, Royer and the Council are in reality preparing to: 1) build three new police stations; 2) recruit more police; and 3) brand anyone who resists police attacks as "troublemakers".

Since the murder of John Rodney, the police have cooked up a mountain of lies to justify it. The Times and P-I have branded Rodney as an "ex-convict" and "criminal" and have carried every distorted version of the shooting that the police, medical examiner, etc., have given them. Actually, John Rodney was a man of humble origins, who lived in poverty at the time of his death, who mowed lawns to scrape together a living. Like millions of poor youth in this country, John had an arrest record, spent time jail, and was frequently harassed and tormented by "authorities", including the bloodthirsty police, particularly Falk.

SA-FA maintains that the hands of the fascist must be stayed. Even to this day, the police are harassing the Rodney family in Holly Park. The news media of the rich is also carrying the most vile racist slanders against the person of John Rodney. A powerful anti-fascist movement of protest against the outrages of the fascists is the order of the day. While it is sometimes useful to pursue legal channels (court inquests, lawsuits, etc.) to expose these outrages, it would be a grave error to harbor the slightest illusion that justice can be had from the state of the rich. Nor can this protest merely be directed against individuals, even though Falk for example is a raving fascist (who tells store owners to "kill robbers -- dead men don't talk"). The organizer of racist and fascist attacks is the entire state of the rich. SA-FA calls on the workers, youth, oppressed nationalities, all who are willing to fight growing fascism, to follow the call of SAFA: ACTIVE RESISTANCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO DEFEAT GROWING FASCISM! End.

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ONGOING STRUGGLE AGAINST POLICE-ORGANIZED RACIST GANGS IN BOSTON

(The following article, "Support the Just Struggle of the Archdale and Fawndale Project Residents Against Racist Attacks and the Segregation of Healy Field in Roslindale!", is reprinted from Boston Worker, newspaper of the Boston Branch -- Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, September 11, 1978.)

The new school year has just started with a lot of noise from the government that the "busing crisis" has been overcome, and "peace" reigns in Boston. But this is a barefaced lie. For schools are opening against a background of increased racist attacks and hysteria against the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities over the summer. On June 30th, the apartment of two blacks at the Maverick project in East Boston was looted and burned. In July a Guatemalan family was stoned by a nazi-inspired gang, and their apartment firebombed at the Orient Heights project in East Boston. Massive hysteria about violent "racial warfare" has been created in Hyde Park/Mattapan, while horror stories are being told about the Ku Klux Klan getting organized among the youth. And very recently, there have been violent attacks by the police and racist gangs against black and other oppressed nationality residents at the Archdale and Fawndale projects in Roslindale.

The government is clearly lying. But there is more to it than that. For once again, the rich and their government, the news media and various sold-out flunkeys have all thrown up a stinking cloud of confusion about the racist attacks. The cause of the attacks is made a mystery, and it is claimed that the people are to blame. In one instance it is black youth who supposedly "spark off" racist attacks; in others, it is white people who are to blame. As for the government itself? Why, it is the greatest friend of the people, especially of the Afro-American people! So in this way, false solutions are offered about how to put an end to the racist attacks: whether it is calling the police, or getting so-called restraining orders from the courts on the racists, these solutions all boil down to seeking help from the government. Never mind the fact that any honest person has already been taught by life experience that the police and the racist gangs work together against the black people.

This was fully confirmed yet again by the recent struggle of the Archdale and Fawndale project residents in Roslindale against the segregation of Healy Field and the racist attacks on them. These are two integrated projects with 25 per cent white, and 75 per cent black and Spanish-speaking residents. Fawndale is right on the edge of Healy Field, and Archdale is only four blocks away. The youth at the projects have used the basketball, swimming and baseball facilities at Healy Field over the years, and these are the only recreational facilities nearby available to them ever since racist thugs burned out the interior of the gym at Archdale project two years ago. The Boston Housing Authority has made promises that the gym will be repaired, but not a single thing has been done yet.

Recently, however, there have been attempts by racist thugs and gangs to segregate Healy Field and prevent the black and Hispanic residents from using it. The projects themselves have been violently attacked in order to terrorize the people into submission. The cowardly gangs single out individuals, including the elderly and very young, as targets of attack. The news media has quoted the racists that they would fight to segregate Healy Field. So the goal of the racists is clear: to segregate Healy Field, and terrorize the project residents into submission.

And what has been the role of the police? There was no sign of them when the project had been attacked. There have not even been pious words from them as there was last summer at Carson Beach that they would ensure "equal access" to public facilities. They have instead come out quite openly to carry out the same aim as the fascist gangs, especially to step in to save their skins. For as soon as it became clear that the project residents were resisting the racist attacks and refused to be cowed down, the police appeared. Commissioner Jordan himself appeared at the head of a very large force. On Tuesday, August 22nd, a large racist gang gathered at Healy Field and proceeded towards Archdale project. A black attendant at a gas station was attacked by the gang. The gang actually arrived on the street leading up to the project after the police appeared and set up large forces right in front of the project. The project residents who were on the alert for such an attack had armed themselves with sticks, stones and other weapons. And who did the police move against? When it was clear that the angered people were ready to give the racists a sound thrashing, to send them to their graves if needed, the police attacked the residents of Archdale! While the racists spewed foul racist abuse, the police attacked and arrested residents of the project. One youth was attacked, arrested and harassed at the police station for hours and charged with the possession of a deadly weapon because he walked past a tire iron stuck in a fence. But the fighting people of Archdale did not budge an inch, defying both the police and the racist gang, and the fascists, in and out of uniform, had to retreat shortly after.

After this attack, the city and Amtrak police staged a raid for weapons on the basis of "an informant's tip". They went straight to the roof, and found a "stash of firebombs", which they displayed in the newspapers and TV. The fighting militants at Archdale all point out that no one would be so stupid to leave firebombs on the roofs because: 1) they could be used by racists who have in the past slipped through the railway fence; 2) children could come upon them and hurt themselves; and 3) they would never leave such weapons lying around for the police to find. Clearly this is part and parcel of the attempts by the police to terrorize the Archdale residents and create reactionary hysteria.

At the same time, the police and press all put forward the theory that the issue in Roslindale was a question of "turf". "Kids" were only protecting their "natural territory". This theory has been put forward before; last year during the struggle of the Columbia Point residents against the segregation of Carson Beach, Mayor White and others such as the arch-fascist Avi Nelson (recently endorsed for Senate by the Boston Police) claimed that the issue was one of "turf". This theory of "turf" is a fascist theory which claims that segregation and racism is something "natural"! This is simply another version of the fascist theory of "ethnic purity" that President Carter put forward during his campaign.

So whether it is the course of actual events in Roslindale or the theories that have been formulated, the police and the government as a whole have simply proven again that they, not the people, are the real organizers of the racist attacks against the blacks and other oppressed nationalities. The racist gangs themselves, whether they are called Nazi, Klan, Marshalls or otherwise, are also government-organized, and here in Boston, they were spawned by the government organized fascist anti-busing movement during 1974-76.

Today the racist and fascist attacks are the cutting edge of a growing fascist offensive by the rich monopoly capitalist class and their government to make the working class bear the burden of the economic crisis. It seeks revenge on the Afro-American people for their heroic struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression and wants to return them to semi-slave Jim Crow conditions. Thus it is a question of a government-launched offensive against the black people, and not some mysterious "black- white tension" that has mysteriously sprouted out of thin air.

But the big capitalists and their government will not succeed. For this fascist offensive is being resisted by the masses. Millions of people are rising to new life, into the strike movement, into the anti-fascist movement, and into the movement to defend the vital interests of the working masses. There is only one answer to the fascist offensive: active resistance is the only way to fight the growing fascism. Although there are various flunkeys of the rich advising the people to take the road of begging the government to change, the heroic residents of Archdale and Fawndale show that the line of the masses, is the line of actively resisting the racist and fascist attacks, whether they come from the government directly, or through the police-organized racist gangs. Once again, they have set a heroic example for everyone to learn from. The dead-end road of relying on the police, the courts, so-called community leaders and sell-out politicians is again denounced, and will be thrown onto the garbage pile by the mass revolutionary struggles of the working class and oppressed nationalities.

BLAME THE RICH AND THEIR GOVERNMENT, NOT THE PEOPLE, FOR THE RACIST ATTACKS!

ACTIVE RESISTANCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO FIGHT GROWING FASCISM!

HAIL THE FIGHTING STAND OF THE HEROIC RESIDENTS OF ARCHDALE AND FAWNDALE! End.

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Chinese Warmongering Policy and Hua Kuo-feng's Visit to the Balkans

[Zeri i Popullit masthead.]

EDITORIAL OF THE NEWSPAPER ZERI I POPULLIT ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE P PARTY OF LABOR OF ALBANIA, SEPTEMBER 3, 1978.

The Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Premier of the State Council of China, Hua Kuo-feng has just ended his long trip which took him to Rumania and Yugoslavia. Formally, this trip was publicized as one of a general character in return for the official visits of the Rumanian and Yugoslav leaders to China last year. But judging from what Hua Kuo-feng proclaimed from public tribunes in Bucharest and Belgrade and from the stress the Chinese press has been laying recently on some aspects of the Chinese foreign policy, it follows that this clamorous tour was undertaken in pursuit of sinister aims.

Hua Kuo-feng came to Rumania and Yugoslavia neither to see the high mountains and beautiful plains of the Balkans, nor urged by any special interest in the ancient history of the peoples of this peninsula, nor to acquaint himself with the aspirations and hopes they cherish for the future. He came to the Balkans in pursuit of the same aims as Khrushchov, Brezhnev, Nixon and others before him. They were profuse in high-sounding pledges about their "friendship" with, and "love" for, the peoples of the Balkans, and abounded in "assurances" for the freedom, independence, prosperity of the countries of this region. But life has shown and continues to show that U.S. imperialism, as well as Soviet imperialism, has sought and is seeking by all manner of means to subjugate the Balkan countries and put them under its hegemony, to turn them into springboards of aggression against other countries, enslave the peoples of this peninsula and hitch them to its war chariot.

The Chinese leadership now pursues the same aims. Hua Kuo-feng, too, came to the Balkans not to bring the "spirit of sincere friendship", as he proclaimed at meetings, but to use someone's professions of "friendship" against other peoples of the Balkans and Europe.

Certainly, exchanges of delegations are a common practice in the relations between various countries and we have no objection to it. But we are against the sinister aims behind this exchange of delegations which are to the detriment of world peace and the peoples who want to live free, independent and sovereign, and are fighting for it.

The "Balkan" talks of the Chinese leaders took place at a time when China has been unfurling the banner of rapprochement and cooperation with U.S. imperialism, the big international bourgeoisie, fascist cliques and the most reactionary groupings in the world, far and wide. They were held at a time when the Chinese leadership is supporting NATO and the Common Market in Europe, the multinationals and United Europe, in order to preserve capitalist oppression and the U.S. hegemony there. They were conducted at a time when in Africa, Asia and Latin America it stands by fascist military juntas, by all those who oppress and exploit the peoples. The political and ideological affinity of the Chinese leaders to such regimes is revealed also by Hua Kuo-feng's visit to Iran. He meets the Shah of Persia and has cordial talks with him at a time when the revolutionaries and working people have risen against the Shah, and bloody clashes are taking place in the streets of Iranian cities. In this situation, by going to Teheran Hua Kuo-feng wants to give proof of his support for the medieval regime of the Shah. His visit is a grave offense not only to the Iranian people, but also to the entire democratic and progressive public opinion, which has vehemently been condemning the brutal acts of the regime of the Shah against the population which has risen in revolt.

The Chinese leadership dispatched a top level delegation to Bucharest and Belgrade after having cut off all aid and credits to socialist Albania in a perfidious, brutal, arrogant and unilateral manner for the sole reason that Albania rejected and opposed China's anti-Marxist, counter-revolutionary and pro-imperialist line. Thus, this visit to the Balkans is an act of provocation against Albania and its friendship with the peoples of Yugoslavia and Rumania.

Hua Kuo-feng came to the Balkans at a time when the Chinese leadership, proceeding from its expansionist and hegemonic aims, has instigated the bloody conflict between Cambodia and Viet Nam, two neighboring fraternal countries.

Therefore, no matter how much the Chinese propaganda will publicize Hua Kuo-feng's visit to the Balkans, the peoples cannot fail to see that there are no two different Chinese policies -- one imperialist towards Viet Nam and one socialist towards Rumania, one hostile and chauvinistic towards Albania, and one friendly and sincere towards Yugoslavia, one a policy of interference in Asia and Africa and one a policy of peace in Europe.

The present-day Chinese leadership pursues one and the same policy, a policy clearly defined and consistently put into practice. It is the typically imperialist policy of a superpower, a policy intended to instigate war and achieve world domination.

The foremost aim of the Chinese policy and strategy as a whole is to achieve political unity with U.S. imperialism and other imperialists who are China's allies, for the domination of the world by the United States of America, China and other big capitalist countries. With its present course, China is striving by all manner of means to create its spheres of influence, which it has been lacking in so far. This is also the reason why it has favorably opened itself to the capitalist countries and has united with the U.S. and other imperialists.

But China's claim for spheres of influence, particularly in the developing countries, in Africa or on the other continents, cannot be realized without clashes with other imperialists who have their own interests there, or without further sharpening its contradictions with them. The Chinese leadership is well aware of this, therefore, in joint efforts with the U.S.A., now it is trying to set up a barrier against the expansionist ambitions of Soviet imperialism and to check the consolidation of the latter's positions. With the help of the United States of America, it aims to oppose the imperialist expansion of the Soviet Union so that China can step into its place. The anti-Soviet policy of the Chinese revisionists proceeds from this aim, and by no means from their "concern" or "desire" to defend other countries from the expansion and hegemony of the Soviet social-imperialists, or from their "struggle" for the purity of Marxism-Leninism.

The treaty China signed with Japan recently serves this end, too. It is a treaty which is meant as a barrier against the Soviets in the east of Asia and, at the same time, as a means for an eventual Chinese march on the Soviet Union. U.S. imperialism stands behind the Sino-Japanese treaty. Decked out in an anti-social-imperialist garb by the Chinese leadership and its partners, this treaty instigates world war.

The expansionist policy of China's leadership is now most evident in Africa where it is engaging in very feverish activities. On this continent it is coming out in support of U.S. imperialism and other capitalist powers, trying to preserve their neo-colonialist positions. Under the guise of protecting the peoples of Africa, little by little and in step with the strengthening of its economy, thanks to the aid it is receiving from the U.S.A. and other capitalist countries, China is striving to create its zones of influence and markets. On its part, China, too, has begun to "assist" some African states but, its "assistance", not unlike that of old imperialists, is not intended for the economic, political, cultural progress of these countries, it is aimed at plundering their riches and subjugating them politically to Chinese hegemony.

Of course, these aims cannot be realized as easily as the Chinese may want, without fierce political, economic and diplomatic clashes, probably even armed clashes, with the other imperialists, who have already entrenched themselves in Africa, or with the Soviet Union, which certainly has not been sitting by with folded arms but, on the contrary, has made all efforts to create its own spheres of influence on that continent. China will meet with great resistance and opposition particularly from the peoples and the progressive leaderships of the African countries.

The other aim of China's foreign policy is to penetrate the Balkans. Ideologically, Albania has long since been engaged in the struggle against the revisionist theses and political line of the Chinese leadership. Its efforts to bring the Chinese leadership on to the correct road of Marxism-Leninism clearly testify to this. When the Chinese leadership realized that they could not handle socialist Albania according to their wishes and dictate from great state positions, when their game of encouraging hostile activities within our country was up, they broke off economic relations with Albania. China has had and continues to have the aim of transforming the Balkans into a springboard for creating in this part of Europe a political, economic and ideological field, where- from it can act in the direction of the revisionist countries such as Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland as well as in the direction of such independent and sovereign states as Greece and Turkey. In this way it wanted to build up Chinese influence in Europe and counter Soviet influence.

But China's opening to Europe is not confined only to the Balkans. China has declared itself an ardent champion of the European Common Market and United Europe, that is, of European enslaving capital. Since then it has established relations with the European Common Market, and, what is more, appointed its own representative to this organization, though it does not figure among its members. All-round relations between the capitalist countries of Europe and China are developing in a big way, especially, between China and the European Common Market member countries, and, in particular, the German Federal Republic. Therefore, Europe has become a target both for Soviet and Chinese expansion.

China's opening to Europe, and the creation of a favorable political and ideological area for its activity in the Balkans, are part of the Chinese strategy of instigation of war. The Chinese have been crying themselves hoarse for many years now with warnings about an impending danger of war in Europe, that it is precisely here and nowhere else that social-imperialism will first launch the war. Therefore, they are calling on NATO to increase its military budgets to the extreme, and on the U.S.A. to dispatch more troops and neutron bombs to Europe, to lay nuclear mines from the North Pole to the Mediterranean, on the West European countries to dispatch troops and naval fleets to the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and around Africa, in order to protect the oil and raw materials routes, in order to avoid being caught in difficulties as a result of an impending war.

As the aggressor it is, the Soviet Union may launch the war not only in Europe, but also in the Far East, against its number one enemy, as China declares itself to be. But this cannot happen, the Chinese leaders allege. China will have to work for its "modernization" till the year 2,000. Meanwhile, the superpowers may clash among themselves in Europe, the European peoples may be burnt and killed by nuclear bombs, people may be wiped out by neutron radiation By the time this catastrophe descends on the world, within 20 years, until the end of the century, China will have been through with its "modernization" programs and become a superpower; then, it will be able to establish its domination over the world without firing a shot!

The open statements of the Chinese leadership to the effect that war between U.S. imperialism and Europe, on the one hand, and the Soviet Union, on the other, will be declared by the latter in a very near future, express the Chinese strategy whose aim is to drive the Soviet Union into attacking Europe and avoid Chinese involvement in a war in the Far East. In this context, it is quite clear that the aim of Hua Kuo-feng's coming to the Balkans is to upset the present situation in this area, to set the Balkan peoples at loggerheads and lash up the third world war hysteria. Regarding the Balkans as "a powder keg", just as the European and U.S. imperialists have always done, the Chinese leadership thinks that some "crown prince" can easily be killed here and then war will break out in Europe. The world must not forget Sarayevo.

But the Chinese leadership makes a miscalculation, not because the revisionist Soviet Union is hot an aggressive imperialism and does not dream of occupying, oppressing and exploiting the peoples, but because the imperialist Soviet Union will surely attack first that part of the world where its interests are greatest and the link in the chain of the countries it plans to attack is weakest. This is what the Soviet Union is practically doing with its various acts of interference in Africa. In the present-day situation, it is more probable that it will launch its offensive against China rather than against Europe. The war of the Soviet Union against NATO would be a large-scale world war, a nuclear war. Besides, the U.S.A. wishes and strives to see the two imperialist powers, the Soviet Union and China, clash with and destroy each other first. U.S. imperialism, just as Soviet social-imperialism and China, is well aware of its own interests and knows where it can draw profit from.

Therefore, the calculations of Chinese imperialism to set Europe ablaze, its attempts to instigate war between the Soviet Union, on the one hand, and the United States of America and its allies, on the other, for the sake of its own hegemonic interests, cannot be realized.

But the war-mongering plans of the Chinese leaders are unrealizable, also due to another very important reason, namely, that they meet with resistance and opposition on the part of the anti-imperialist and peace-loving forces, progressive public opinion, the revolutionaries and the patriots everywhere in the world. The peoples of the Balkans and Europe have have seen the horrors of the two world wars in their own countries and got wise to it that they must not let themselves fall a prey to the warmongering aims of the Chinese leaders. They know how to defend themselves and how to beat the aggressors.

History teaches the peoples of the Balkans and Europe that reconciliation with the policy of instigation of imperialist war, in the name of whatever aim it is done, spell disaster both for freedom and national independence, and for general security and peace. They can never mistake the fire-brand Hua Kuo-feng brings from Peking to set the war cauldrons boiling in the Balkans and Europe for an olive branch.

They are aware that war on a European and world scale can be avoided not by listening to the ominous Chinese sermons instigating imperialist war, which Lenin considered a crime, but by opposing the aggressive policy and plans of war preparations by U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, and all other imperialisms, including also that of Hua Kuo-feng's China.

Therefore, anyone who joins in, or plays, the Chinese game today, not only stands in opposition to the lofty interests of his own people, but also poses new threats to other peoples, joins those who want and instigate war.

In their press reports from Belgrade and Peking the two sides throw flowers to each other and in hackneyed general formulas refer to various problems the two presidents discussed during their lengthy meetings. We do not know in concrete what they spoke about Albania, but we are convinced that they must have spoken also against it. This does not intimidate the Albanian people. They have made and are making it clear that nothing will catch them unawares, nor will they ever be lacking in vigilance. They will foil all anti-Albanian plans, whoever may concoct them, convinced at the same time that they will enjoy the support of the Yugoslav people, the Chinese people and certainly, the support of the other peoples of the Balkans.

The aim of Hua Kuo-feng's visit to Yugoslavia, as the official agreements concluded there indicate among other things, was to publicly proclaim the complete and final "reconciliation" between the Communist Party of China and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.

In the past, Hua Kuo-feng and his coterie that lead China now, had adopted an allegedly pronounced "critical" position towards Yugoslavia and its home and foreign policy. Whereas now it is precisely the Chinese leaders who are lavishing greatest praise on the Yugoslav revisionist trend and those who lead it. By going to Belgrade like a repentant son asking his father for forgiveness, Hua Kuo-feng seems to have been impatiently waiting for an occasion to redress the old "wrongs" the leadership of the CP of China had allegedly done to this anti-Marxist trend, and to call it a "genuine Marxist-Leninist" trend in the same way as the new leadership of the CP of China regards itself as being "genuinely Marxist-Leninist", though in reality it is a revisionist leadership. Things were exactly the same as when Khrushchov went on a visit to Belgrade in 1955 and knelt before Tito, putting the "blame" for the criticism of Yugoslav revisionism on Stalin. Now the Chinese leaders too declare that their "erroneous" stand towards Yugoslavia had allegedly been imposed on them by Stalin and the meetings of communist parties. As is seen, when it comes to denigrating Stalin and Marxism-Leninism, the Chinese leaders do not feel ashamed to adopt and repeat by rote Khrushchov's theses and resort to his despicable methods.

By making self-criticism of their "mistakes" and bowing down before the Yugoslavs, the Chinese leaders showed their readiness to accord economic, political, ideological and other aid to Yugoslavia where capitalist "self-administration" has been established.

Hua Kuo-feng labored to present his visit to Yugoslavia as evidence to the existence of complete ideological unity between the two countries and parties, "which rely on Marxism-Leninism", have "similar experience", wage a "common struggle", etc. In reality, he is seeking unity and union with the traitors to Marxism-Leninism in order to fight socialism and the revolution. Choosing Belgrade, this long-standing center of modern revisionism, to swear his "loyalty" to Marxism-Leninism, Hua Kuo-feng proves by his own words in what quagmire of opportunism and demagogy the Chinese leadership is wriggling.

He did not fail to bring forth the policy of "national equality" the League of Communists of Yugoslavia has been pursuing as evidence of the "implementation of the scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism in the specific conditions of Yugoslavia", either. The Chinese give their support for the policy of the Yugoslav revisionists in the alleged fair solution to the problems of national minorities because the, latter need it badly. Chinese logic is strange enough. Mao Tsetung considered the adjustments made after the Second World War in Europe unfair and proposed to have them rectified, while Hua Kuo-feng considers the unjust decisions of the 1913 Conference of Ambassadors of the Great Powers on the Balkans fair. But it should be said that Hua Kuo-feng is not in a position to judge whether of not the questions of national minorities in Yugoslavia have been correctly solved. The national minorities living in Yugoslavia today are in a better position to judge this.

The Peking press, with Renmin Ribao in the van, has exhausted the arsenal of Chinese compliments in its description of Hua Kuo-feng's visit to Yugoslavia. The organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China writes, "Hua Kuo-feng's visit to Yugoslavia complies with the aspirations of the peoples of the whole world". This may be the desire of the Chinese leadership, but world public opinion does not share this view. "The collaboration between the two parties has deep roots", "the League of Communists of Yugoslavia is a glorious Party", writes the Chinese newspaper. It is a wonder how these roots grew so deep so soon. But the Chinese propagandists do not feel ashamed to use such hollow-sounding catch-words. They do not feel ashamed, either, to say that the "League of Communists of Yugoslavia applies Marxism-Leninism to, and builds socialism in, Yugoslavia". No revolutionary, no progressive man in the world can accept Yugoslav revisionism which Hua Kuo-feng praises and advertizes as a variant of the theory of the construction of socialism. Far from having anything in common with the scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism, this "socialism" has been refuted by Yugoslavia's everyday practice, which reveals that socialism is not being built there.

Just as the efforts of other opportunists who have engaged in such advertizing so far, Chinese efforts, too, to deck out Yugoslav revisionism in a "socialist" and "Marxist-Leninist" garb, cannot be successful, either.

The tight-rope policy of the Yugoslav leadership has never brought nor will it ever bring any good to the peoples of Yugoslavia. "The great diplomacy" of President Tito, which has transformed Yugoslavia into a dependent, not independent, country, hangs this country on China's hook, on another imperialist power, into which China has been transformed now. The new friendship with China, so "deeply rooted" as Renmin Ribao claims, increases the dangers to the peoples of Yugoslavia and the Balkans.

Although the bosom friends of the Yugoslav revisionists see into the dangers arising from this juggling policy of Yugoslavia, they still allow and instigate it. In the present juncture, it seems to them that they are weakening Soviet social-imperialism; and they think that they are all-powerful and capable of avoiding the catastrophe when the time comes and contradictions sharpen. They find it natural for the Soviet naval fleet to ride at anchor at Yugoslav ports, and smile at the Chinese formula of "struggle against hegemonism", which they know who it is addressed to. But the peoples of the world, of Europe and, especially, the Balkan peoples of Greece, Turkey, and Albania do not accept this.

By uniting ideologically and politically with Yugoslavia and Rumania, the Chinese leadership intends to further consolidate and deepen the political and economic positions it has gained in these two countries. In this context, China will play a great role by opening its market to Yugoslavia and Rumania, which in the grave conditions of the existing crisis and with the great competitive power of the better goods of the capitalist countries, hardly find markets in other countries of the world.

The Chinese delegation concluded a large number of agreements on economic, trade and technical- scientific cooperation with, and made various offers to, both Rumania and Yugoslavia. The Chinese promises seem very "generous" on paper, but practice will show how they will be kept. But even now one thing is clear, namely that the development of this "broad cooperation", as the Chinese propaganda calls it, will be conditioned to a great extent by the influence China will succeed in exercising on these two countries and, especially, by their readiness to do China's bidding. At the same time, the all-round ties of Rumania and Yugoslavia with the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union do not meet China's ambitions in this field.

In his speeches Hua Kuo-feng used such terms as "friendly relations", "friendship and equality", "mutual aid without strings attached", "non-interference in internal affairs", "no privileges sought", "opposition to dictate", etc. Similar hypocritical and demagogic statements followed all chauvinistic, arbitrary and perfidious acts the Chinese leaders committed against out country. Those who believe them will soon be disillusioned.

During his visit to Rumania and Yugoslavia, Hua Kuo-feng did not speak about the "third world", or the Chinese theory of "three worlds", as he did during Tito's visit to Peking, but he made extensive and eloquent statements about the "non-aligned world". On these questions, Chinese pragmatism seems to prevail over their ideological "principled stand". But the praises lavished on Yugoslavia as "one of the founding countries" of the "non-aligned movement" are a clumsy attempt on the part of the Chinese to cover up their claims for succession to the leadership of this movement.

The idea of "non-alignment" serves the counterrevolution and the preservation of neo-colonialism. It is an attempt to deceive the peoples while inviting neo-colonialism to cede in regard to some worthless economic reforms, but which are important to those who give such hand-outs. By giving such alms they want they want the peoples to place themselves completely under neo-colonialist hegemony and submit to it.

By praising "non-alignment", Hua Kuo-feng, who poses as the champion of the "third world", tries to show that his "third world" and the "non-aligned" world are one and the same thing, that the strategy of this world must suit the Chinese policy, that China, Peking, must be its center. When he criticizes the Soviet social-imperialists of having tried to subject the movement of the non-aligned to their expansionist aims, he actually proves that he is contending with them to achieve the same objectives and the same aims.

But the peoples of the world need neither the theories of the "non-aligned", nor those of "three worlds". These theories, advertized by the bourgeoisie and reaction with so much zeal and care do not favor the revolution and liberation struggles, but harm them. They do not assist the working masses and peoples in their revolutionary struggle to get rid of oppression and exploitation, to do away with the oppression and enslavement of their nations, to secure their freedom and national sovereignty, but, on the contrary, assist imperialism to preserve the existing status quo, to strengthen and perpetuate the odious capitalist and colonialist system.

The truth -- and we say it openly and frankly, just as we think and judge it -- will never destroy the friendship of our people with the Yugoslav and Chinese peoples, or with any other people. The Party of Labor and the PSR of Albania have never been afraid of airing their views openly, without hiding them behind formulas. The friendly peoples know and appraise our views.

But while we are defending our correct and principled policy, rumors are being spread from Peking and Belgrade that allegedly Albania's stand assists Soviet social-imperialism. But no one believes these insinuations. With its policy and stand, socialist Albania has proved, and will prove at any time, to be an irreconcilable enemy of Soviet social-imperialism and U.S. imperialism, or any other imperialism. The Albanian people who know very well where the dangers come from, will fight to defend their freedom, independence and sovereignty, and make their contribution also to the defense of their well wishing and peace-loving neighbors who understand our unflinching stand, and the dangers posed by the imperialist powers, properly.

But rumors from Peking and from its friends about socialist Albania having allegedly taken the side of the Soviet Union, are spread in order to raise suspicions about the policy of the Albanian proletarian state. The whole world must know and rest assured that Albania does not stretch out a begging hand to any imperialist power, and that Albania's territorial and coastal borders and space are inviolable.

Under its Constitution, socialist Albania does not accept no will it ever accept credits from any foreign power. But in the capitalist and revisionist world there exists the mentality, which stems from the concrete reality, that no state, whether big or small, can survive without foreign credits. With its example, socialist Albania will put an end to this mentality.

Just as until now, our country will continue to maintain normal trade relations with other states on the basis of mutual benefit. This does not violate in the slightest the principles sanctioned in our Constitution, but the imperialists, in pursuit of their evil aims, confound trade based on mutual interest with the granting of credits and aid, which are two entirely different things. Hence, their deduction that Albania is isolated and cannot walk on its own. But the opposite is and will be true. Sure of their own forces, unflinchingly confident in their future, and powerfully relying on the support and solidarity of international progressive opinion, the Albanian people, led by their Party of Labor, will boldly surmount all obstacles in their way, and carry the cause of socialism in Albania always forward.

The Party of Labor of Albania and the People's Socialist Republic of Albania have long since warned against the intrigues of the superpowers and their attempts to stir up quarrels and conflicts in the Balkans. Comrade Enver Hoxha stated at the 6th Congress of the PLA, in November 1971: "They did not make the Balkans a 'powder keg' of themselves. It was the foreigners, the imperialists, who did this in the past, and it was they who held all the detonators in their hands. And they would like to bring about the same situation today. It is the duty of the Balkan peoples to cut all the fuses with the sword, so that peace and security may really be established in the Balkans.

"It is only natural that our peoples need friends. But they should never become tools in the hands of foreigners to the detriment of the interest of any people or of all our peoples jointly".

These words of Comrade Enver Hoxha express the resolute and consistent stand of the Party, Government and people of Albania, which proceed from their desire and determination to live always in peace and friendship with the peoples of the Balkans and the whole world. End.

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The Hostile Act of the Chinese Government Against Socialist Albania Has Aroused the Indignation of the World

MEETINGS IN DEFENSE OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA

Boston

On August 26, over one hundred revolutionary, progressive and democratic people participated in a militant mass meeting organized by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists in Boston to denounce the hostile acts of the Chinese government against Socialist Albania.

The highly militant character of the meeting was a testimony to the fact that the betrayal of the Chinese revisionists ha$ indeed revolted the conscience of all of progressive mankind, and to the fact that the stand of Socialist Albania is receiving the full support of the revolutionary proletariat and people of the United States. The entire atmosphere and course of the meeting demonstrated this. The meeting hall was decorated with bright red banners: The Defense of Socialism is the Sacred Internationalist Duty of the International Proletariat! Oppose China's Hostile Acts Against Socialist Albania! Down With the Great-Power Chauvinism of the Chinese Revisionists! Long Live Comrade Enver Hoxha! Long Live the Party of Labor of Albania! Hail Socialist Albania, Fatherland of the World Proletariat! Repeatedly, the meeting was punctuated by the shouting of these slogans.

The meeting was opened with a new cultural presentation by comrades of the COUSML written to denounce the betrayal of the Chinese revisionists: Albania, Our Beacon! Following that solidarity messages were received from the Caribbean Progressive Study Group (NY), the Federation of Iranian Students in the U.S., the New Albania Study Group in Boston, and from a representative of the patriotic Albanian community. All of the messages roundly denounced China's hostile acts against Socialist Albania, their betrayal of the peoples of the world, and pledged to carry forward the sacred task of defense of Socialist Albania.

An important speech was delivered by a representative of the COUSML, following which the mass meeting passed a resolution denouncing the hostile acts of the Chinese government. A revolutionary cultural program was then presented by comrades oi the Caribbean Progressive Study Group, the Indian Progressive Study Group, Federation of Iranian Students in the U.S., and by a group of comrades and friends of the COUSML. This cultural program also had numerous contributions upholding Marxism-Leninism, the revolutionary struggles of the peoples and denouncing revisionism and opportunism, especially the theory of "three worlds". A new song was presented, written by members of the New Albania Study Group: Stand, Brave Albania! We Are With You Till the End! Following the meeting, informal discussion continued on till late in the evening.

STAND, BRAVE ALBANIA!

The greed of the Chinese revisionists knows no limit,

No deed's too foul if it serves their wicked ends.

Now, they try to silence brave Albania,

And snuff the beacon of the socialist homeland.

The revisionists try to hide their acts of treason,

With slanders and a cloud of phoney "facts",

But, their clumsy fraud will not deceive the people,

The peoples will denounce these hostile acts!

Chorus:

Shame on the heads of the Chinese revisionist ruling clique!

For attacking Albania, the peoples' staunchest friend.

World public opinion will condemn you for these crimes,

The heroic Chinese people will hang you in the end!

The imperialists rejoice at the acts of the Chinese traitors,

They think Albania is finished and socialism doomed,

But, as in the time of Khrushchov, Albanian people

Will show them that they have rejoiced too soon.

Traitors come and go, they're soon forgotten.

The people live forever and a day!

Their champions are immortal, and among them,

Two million staunch Albanians point the way.

Chorus:

Stand, brave Albania! We're with you to the end,

No matter what the dangers that you face.

Betrayal by revisionists does not cow us down,

The victory of socialism is the victory of the human race.

Imperialists say Albania's small and friendless,

Surrounded on all sides by enemies,

Without a big nation to protect her,

Surely now she'll crawl and beg upon her knees.

We say we are true friends of Albania,

We are millions, we're the new world in birth!

We're the mighty camp of labor and with Albania,

We'll sweep imperialism from the face of earth!

Repeat second chorus

RESOLUTION OF BOSTON MEETING

Whereas:

1. The Government of the People's Republic of China has publicly announced its unilateral decision to "sever all aid and payment of civil and military credits 'to Albania, to leave a number of very important projects uncompleted and to withdraw all Chinese specialists working in Albania", at the same time as the Chinese Government receives military and economic aid from various imperialist states and showers similar aid on the worst fascists like Mobutu, Pinochet and the Shah; whereas

2. The Albanian people, led by the Party of Labor of Albania with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, are continuing the revolution and are engaged in the complete construction of socialism by following the principle of self-reliance and under conditions of hostile encirclement; and whereas

3. The Albanian people, their Party and Government have never interfered in the internal affairs of any country, but have worked to establish sincere and genuine friendship with various peoples and countries of the world and have consistently supported in every way the just revolutionary struggles of the peoples of the entire world for freedom, genuine independence and social progress;

We, the revolutionary, progressive and democratic people participating in this meeting called by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists in Boston, August 26, 1978, hereby declare the following:

1. With great anger and contempt, we condemn the chauvinist actions of the Government and leadership of the People's Republic of China as a deliberate, hostile attempt to silence the voice of Socialist Albania, to destroy her economy and defense potential, to undermine her economic and political independence, to ruin the internationalist friendship of the Albanian and Chinese peoples, and as an attack on the international proletariat and the revolutionary forces of the entire world.

2. We stand firmly and completely on the side of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian people who, over the centuries, have never bowed down to blackmail or succumbed to hypocritical smiles.

3. We pledge to redouble our support for and defense of Socialist Albania, the only genuine socialist country and the beacon of the international proletariat, the oppressed nations and peoples of the entire world, the true friend of hundreds of millions of honest people fighting for freedom, independence and social progress. WE WILL NOT LET THE VOICE OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA BE SILENCED! WE WILL NEVER ALLOW ANY IMPERIALIST, REVISIONIST OR REACTIONARY TO LAY HIS BLOODY HANDS ON PRECIOUS ALBANIA! We are certain that the heroic Albanian people, under the leadership of the PLA and Comrade Enver Hoxha and following in the traditions of their legendary hero Scanderbeg, will emerge victorious from this struggle as they have from all others, resolutely adhering to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism and the self-reliant construction of socialism. SOCIALIST ALBANIA WILL SURELY TRIUMPH! End.

Chicago

On August 26th in Chicago a militant meeting of 100 people was organized by the Chicago Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists to denounce the hostile act of the Chinese government in ceasing aid and withdrawing specialists from the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. The meeting vigorously condemned the anti-Marxist, great-nation chauvinist act of the Chinese revisionists and declared firm support for Albania, where socialism is being built correctly under the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania headed by Comrade Enver Hoxha. A speech was presented by a representative of the COUSML. The meeting adopted, a resolution condemning the Chinese revisionists and pledging full support for Socialist Albania. Revolutionary songs were sung. At the end of the meeting, the Chicago Branch of the COUSML announced that it is holding a series of discussions to assist in summing ups the struggle against modern revisionism, in learning from the experience of the PLA in struggle against revisionism, to deepen the repudiation of social-chauvinism and revisionism, clarify the burning issues of the revolutionary movement and clear the ground for the Party of the proletariat and the development of the anti-fascist proletarian socialist revolution. The program of these discussions is printed below:

Part I -- THE GREAT HISTORIC MOVEMENT AGAINST MODERN REVISIONISM

1. Down with Titoism -- ready-made concepts and "tested ways" for all those who embark on the road of revisionist betrayal and capitalist degeneration.

2. The life and work of Stalin is immortal.

3. Learn from the experience of the PLA in struggle against Khrushchovite revisionism.

4. Learn from the struggle of the PLA against the new opportunist trend of "three worlds".

5. The "three worlds" theory is a counter-revolutionary theory working to undermine proletarian revolution, national liberation and socialism.

6. The steel-like ideological and organizational unity of the party of the proletariat on the basis of Marxism- Leninism and proletarian internationalism.

Part II -- IN DEFENSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS

1. In Defense of the Workers' Movement.

2. In Defense of the Afro-American people's movement.

3. In Defense of the Resistance Movement to combat this growing fascism.

4. Hold High the Bright Red Banner of Marxism-Leninism by Repudiating social-chauvinism and revisionism of all hues. Build the party in the working class.

The first four forums to be held on consecutive Saturday nights -- September 2,9,16, and 23. Time: 7 p.m. Place: 301 N. Mayfield (Near Lake and Austin)

Place of the remaining discussions in the series to be announced.

Organized by the Chicago Branch, Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists P.O. Box 11942, Chicago, Illinois, 60611. End.

MESSAGES FROM AROUND THE WORLD IN SUPPORT OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA

Below The Workers' Advocate continues to print some of the flood of messages which have been sent to Albania by Marxist-Leninist parties and revolutionary and progressive organizations and individuals from all five continents and all corners of the world condemning the hostile acts of the Chinese revisionists and supporting socialist Albania. Numerous messages were also reprinted in The Workers' Advocate, Vol. 8, No. 8, August 21, 1978.

GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC-ALBANIA FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION

In its telegram, the German Federal Republic-Albania Friendship Association expresses its indignation at the anti-Albanian act of the Chinese government.

"The fact that the Albanian people, under the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, consistently adhere to the construction of socialism, will arouse a great sympathy in our country, as everywhere in the world. For us, this is an incitement to put all our energies to strengthening still more the friendship with the Albanian people, despite the attempts to isolate them."

(Albanian Telegraphic Agency, August 4, 1978)

"SCANDERBEU" PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION IN IN ARGENTINA

Comrade Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, has received the following message from the vice-president of the "Scanderbeu" Patriotic Association of the Albanians residing in Argentina, Haxhi Dervishi:

The "Scanderbeu" Albanian Patriotic Association in Argentina expresses its support for the Albanian people and their leader and guide Comrade Enver Hoxha, in the struggle in defense of the independence and sovereignty of our beloved homeland, against imperialism, against the U.S. and Soviet aggressors and against the hostile act of the Chinese leadership.

(Albanian Telegraphic Agency, August 5, 1978)

COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRELAND (MARXIST-LENINIST)

The telegram sent by the National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist- Leninist) to the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, said, among other things:

"We received the news about the unilateral withdrawal by China of their aid to Albania. On behalf of the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) we present our most resolute support for your stand. We condemn the reactionary and hostile action of the Chinese government against the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Such an act constitutes a real counter-revolutionary act. With this act, the Chinese leadership has made another step in its attempts to put itself \n the center of an all-sided reactionary alliance. The principled and correct stand of the Party of Labor of Albania concerning the basic questions of Marxism-Leninism and in particular concerning the counter-revolutionary theory of "three worlds" has aroused the admiration of the revolutionary and honest peoples of the world and has exposed the Chinese leadership. The refusal by the Party of Labor and the Albanian people to submit themselves to the attempts of the Chinese leadership to impose on the Party of Labor of Albania and on socialist Albania its anti-Marxist policy constitutes a correct and heroic stand. To once again defend principles, the Albanian people will have to make great sacrifices in order to surmount the economic difficulties caused by the cessation of aid And in order to further strengthen the defense capacity of the country. This stand of the Albanian people is not a new one, because in the past, too, they have not accepted to submit to the threats and blackmail of the Yugoslav and Soviet revisionists. We are sure that under the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, you will be able to overcome, very quickly, the present difficulty. The entire working people of the world fully support the Albanian people and will render all moral and practical aid." (People's Canada Daily News, August 21, 1978)

COMMUNIST PARTY OF CEYLON

The telegram of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ceylon, signed by Sanmugathansa, sent to the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania says among other things:

"The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ceylon condemns the act of the Chinese government for the cessation of all economic aid to Albania.

This act smells of big power chauvinism and complies with the hostile road undertaken by Khrushchov towards socialist Albania in the 60's, which China then condemned. We are convinced that socialist Albania will march forward on the socialist road, relying on its own forces."

(Radio Tirana broadcast, August 18, 1978, transcribed by PCDN)

FRANCE ALBANIA FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION (WOMEN'S SECTION)

The friends of Albania responsible for the women's section of the France-Albania Friendship Association, in a message, say among other things:

"For a long time now, the French women, friends of Albania, have been preparing to intensify their support towards the People's Socialist Republic of Albania which is encircled by the imperialist-revisionist enemies, but never isolated. Learning about the base decision of the Chinese leadership to cut all aid and economic and military agreements to Albania, thus violating the most elementary commitments between the two countries, we have multiplied our efforts. The Albanian women, relying on their own forces more than ever, under the leadership of the Party, will march forward on the road to their complete emancipation. Let all Albanian women. know that they are not alone. On the contrary, they enjoy the sympathy and powerful support of the working women, of all the progressive women of France. Allow me to tell them how much we admire the courage of the Albanian people, their firm confidence in the correct, principled Marxist-Leninist line of the Party of Labor of Albania."

(People's Canada Daily News, August 28, 1978)

RESOLUTION OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S FESTIVAL OF THE YOUTH

The Central Committee of the Labor Youth Union of Albania recently received a resolution from the Second International People's Festival of the Youth, held in Portugal, which reads in part:

"We the youth of various countries of the world, gathered at the Second International People's Festival of the Youth, express our solidarity with socialist Albania. With great hatred and indignation we condemn the attack the Chinese leadership has undertaken against the construction and the defense of socialism in Albania. The Albanian youth and the whole Albanian people possess brilliant experience in the struggle for freedom and independence. In steel-like unity around the Party of Labor, the Albanian youth have fought and are fighting in the front ranks of socialist construction and the defense of the homeland. Neither the imperialists, the social-imperialists nor the various opportunists will be able to hinder the Albanian people, who under the Party of Labor of Albania will continue to win success in the struggle for the construction of a happy socialist life. We anti-fascist and anti-imperialist youth, gathered at the Second International People's Festival of the Youth, declare firmly that the youth of socialist Albania are not alone in this fight. We shall fight side by side with the Albanian youth and the entire Albanian people against imperialism, social-imperialism and reaction, until we completely defeat the sworn enemies of the peoples of the world."

(Radio Tirana broadcast, September 2, 1978, transcribed by PCDN)

MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST PARTY OF ECUADOR

The Twelfth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, in its letter sent to the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania emphasizes, among other things:

"The People's Republic of China ceased economic, technical and military aid to the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and withdrew its specialists in a unilateral and aggressive manner, like a great power. This great power and chauvinist act which extends the ideological and theoretical contradictions between the parties to the relations between the states is entirely in opposition to the principles of proletarian internationalism and resembles the counter-revolutionary and anti-socialist act undertaken, some time ago, by Khrushchov, who, as is known, attempted to hinder the construction of socialism in Albania... In undertaking this base attack against the socialist country which is resolutely coping with imperialist- revisionist encirclement in Europe, the Chinese leadership is trying to undermine the dictatorship of the proletariat and the construction of socialism in Albania. The Twelfth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, expressing its militant feelings and the feelings of the progressive strata of the people of Ecuador, expresses its support and revolutionary solidarity with the Party of Labor of Albania, the government of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the Albanian people in opposing this counterrevolutionary act of the revisionist leaders in the Party and government in the People's Republic of China. This act against Albania is seen by the Marxist-Leninists of Ecuador as an act against us, and for this reason we energetically condemn it. Socialist Albania is not alone. It enjoys the militant support of the proletarian revolutionaries, of people who cherish democracy, social progress and peace. " (People's Canada Daily News, September 9, 1978) End.

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Communist Party of New Zealand's United Stand on Major World Questions

(The following article appeared under the above title in the New Zealand newspaper People's Voice, Vol. 35, No. 34, Monday, September 11th, 1978.)

WILCOX AND HILL NOW STOOGES OF REVISIONISM

On the weekend of September 2nd and 3rd, an Extended Plenum of the National Committee of the Communist Party of New Zealand, consisting of over 40 delegates from branches and districts around the country, met in an atmosphere of great unity around the Party's basic line and in militant solidarity with the Party leadership.

At each session of the Plenum the delegates were clearly adamant that their stand on the basic questions concerning the international Marxist-Leninist movement was based on their own experience and Marxist- Leninist understanding.

The meeting, with great enthusiasm and absolute unanimity, adapted a Report from the Party's Political Committee which clearly and bluntly declared that: --

ONE

The so-called theory of the three worlds being propagated by the Communist Party of China and its New Zealand followers such as V.G. Wilcox, is a counterrevolutionary theory and a weapon of imperialism which is being used to split the world Marxist-Leninist movement and turn the workers and oppressed peoples internationally into puppets of China's great-power ambitions.

TWO

A revisionist clique headed by Hua Kuo-feng and Teng Hsiao-ping has usurped power in China. They have revised the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism on proletarian internationalism, socialist revolution and war and peace.

They have reversed all the verdicts of the Cultural Revolution and have placed China on the capitalist road in both its internal and external policies, betraying all the teachings of Mao Tsetung.

Direct experience plus a study of this clique has convinced the CPNZ that the leaders of the Communist Party of China are practicing revisionism, and not Marxism; are splitting the Marxist-Leninist movement, and not uniting it; and are intriguing and conspiring against fraternal parties, and not being open aid above board.

THREE

The action of the Central Committee of the Chinese Party and the Government of China in cutting off aid to the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and breaking all economic agreements, which includes the withdrawal of Chinese technicians and even of blueprints, is an attempt to coerce the Albanian Party of Labor into acceptance of the new revisionism of the Hua-Teng clique.

This attempt is bound to fail because of the heroic, self-reliant stand of the Party and people of Socialist Albania, just as the 1960 attempt by the Soviet revisionists under Nikita Khrushchov to coerce China and Albania by exactly the same means failed.

FOUR

The Communist Party of New Zealand has also experienced the chauvinist, big-stick methods of the new Chinese revisionists, who stood behind the recent attempts by their Australian puppet-provocateur E. F. Hill and a small group of petty bourgeois splitters in New Zealand, to smash the Communist Party of New Zealand and replace it with the revisionist Wilcox-Ross-Ewen clique.

Various forms of big-Party pressure were used to achieve this aim. (Irrefutable evidence of this conspiracy by a big party against a small one -- contained in the full Plenum Report to be published shortly in pamphlet form -- roused deep anger among the delegates.)

FIVE

The CPNZ's refusal to rush in and acclaim the three worlds theory was evidently taken as a hostile act by China's new revisionists, although the Party at that time didn't make any public statements against the theory but decided to take time to consider it. Just like Khrushchov, Brezhnev and Co., the Chinese leaders have become imperialists, and are now treating friends as enemies and enemies as friends.

SIX

China's practice of giving heroes' welcomes to reactionary politicians such as Muldoon, Fraser, Nixon, Mobutu, the Shall of Iran and the King and Queen of monarcho-fascist Spain, have all indicated, with many other pointers, that China has allied herself with U.S. imperialism and all its reactionary puppets.

It now praises reactionary U.S. alliances like NATO and ANZUS and thereby in deeds condemns the revolutionary struggle of the peoples against U.S. imperialism which these pacts are designed to suppress.

SEVEN

The Chinese leaders have covered themselves with disgrace by reversing their Party's former correct stand towards Tito and Yugoslav revisionism. Whereas they formerly condemned Khrushchov for prettifying Tito, and published the trenchant exposure "Is Yugoslavia A Socialist Country now they fawn on Tito, call him a Marxist-Leninist and declare Yugoslavia a socialist country. This clearly shows that they are no longer themselves socialists, but are renegades and traitors to socialism, just as much as the Soviet social-imperialists.

EIGHT

Hua Kuo-feng's visit to Yugoslavia immediately after spurning People's Albania is an open incitement to Tito's long-standing expansionist aims towards Albania.

NINE

The Albanian Party of Labor is today the foremost standard-bearer of the world Marxist-Leninist movement, and the People's Socialist Republic of Albania is the socialist fatherland.

The defense of People's Albania is the task of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples.

TEN

We are still living in the era of rapacious monopoly capitalism, of imperialism, characterized by Lenin as the highest stage of capitalism and the eve of social revolution.

The CPNZ's line of a one stage socialist revolution in developed capitalist countries is fully in accord with revolutionary Marxism, whereas the advocates of two-stage revolution are advocates of collaboration with their own capitalist class.

ELEVEN

The new Chinese revisionist clique has completely revised the basic Marxist-Leninist theory on war and peace. Their spokesmen, while talking about opposing both superpowers, actually support the U.S. imperialist bloc against the Soviet bloc. In absolute contradiction to Lenin, they are calling on workers everywhere to defend their "capitalist fatherlands" in an imperialist war for the redivision of the world.

TWELVE

The Communist Party of New Zealand still stands for friendship between the people of New Zealand and the people of China.

The New Zealand Party has the greatest respect and admiration for the heroic efforts of the people of China in overthrowing imperialism and striving to build a new socialist order. But just as real friendship for the Soviet people has meant opposing the Soviet leadership and their capitalist restoration, so today real friendship for the great Chinese people means opposing the revisionism of the CPC leadership and their restoration of capitalism in China with similar consequences for the people as in the case of the USSR.

THIRTEEN

The world crisis of capitalism is sharpening, and the imperialist ruling classes are turning to both revisionism and fascist repression to aid them in suppressing the rising tide of international class and revolutionary struggle. In this, China's revisionist policies and their supporters in all countries are giving valuable service to imperialism.

In New Zealand, the crisis is deepening and the class struggle is growing in scope and intensity. The Wilcox group of renegades are playing the role of servile bootlickers of imperialism. They have opted for collaboration with the boss class and betrayal of the basic interests of the working class and the masses.

The unity of the whole Party, from leadership to rank and file, manifested at the Extended Plenum, was in itself a clear, decisive answer to Wilcox's assertions of bureaucracy. Such unity comes from conscious acceptance, it can never be forced from above. End.

[Back to Top]

Bankruptcy of "Three Worlds Theory:

Where Does Revisionism Find Its Source of Strength? A Comment on the "CP(M-L)" "Three Worlders", "C"PUSA Revisionists and the "New Militancy" of the Labor Traitors

"The economic basis of 'social-chauvinism'... and of opportunism is the same, namely, an alliance between an insignificant section at the 'top' of the labor movement, and its 'own' national bourgeoisie, directed against the masses of the proletariat; an alliance between the servants of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie, directed against the class that is exploited by the bourgeoisie."

"Social-chauvinism draws its strength from nowhere else but this alliance with the bourgeoisie and the General Staffs." (V. I. Lenin, "Opportunism, and the Collapse of the Second International", Collected Works, Vol. 21, pp. 442-443.)

Revisionism, social-chauvinism and opportunism of all hues within the U.S. working-class movement are alien trends to the revolutionary proletariat. The revisionist and opportunist groups are nothing but flimsy rightists with flabby organization. Thus, the question arises: where does revisionism find its source of strength? Of course, the Khrushchovite revisionist "C"PUSA and the social-chauvinist "C"P("ML") "three worlders" (formerly the October League) are backed up by the big revisionist states, by Moscow and Peking respectively. But this is only a partial answer. Revisionism and social-chauvinism represents an alliance with the imperialist bourgeoisie and it is the direct and indirect ties with the U.S. monopoly capitalist state which provide its main source of strength. This alliance is effected through the strivings of the revisionists and social-chauvinists to go into the trade union bureaucracies. The social base of revisionism and social-chauvinism is the petty bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy.

The labor aristocracy, the bribed upper strata of the workers, trade union officials, etc., are the most ardent defenders of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie and zealous firefighters of the revolution. The present day capitalist trade unions have been fully integrated into the capitalist state machine and the trade union bosses have a thousand and one connections with the state; high positions in the various government commissions and agencies, labor-management councils and so on. Presently in the grips of all-round crisis with economic crisis at its base, the bourgeoisie is systematically activating and expanding the role of the labor aristocracy and its left wing in particular. For their part, the revisionists and opportunists of all hues are busily engaged in carving themselves cozy positions within the trade union bureaucracies. They are attempting to consolidate their positions as part of the left-wing of the reactionary labor aristocracy, taking advantage of the situation.

The U.S. proletariat is in growing revolt against the attempts of the bourgeoisie to make the people bear the burden of the economic crisis. The strike movement of the workers against the high cost of living, against the savage exploitation and tyranny of the monopoly capitalist class is rapidly developing. In response, the bourgeoisie is attempting to suppress the workers' movement not only with police violence, court injunctions and jailings, but is more and more relying on its agency within the working-class movement, the labor aristocracy.

The sold-out trade union misleaders, the labor lieutenants of the capitalist class are being mobilized to the maximum to ensure that the struggles of the workers are kept within certain bounds and do not break out of the restrictions imposed on them by the state. The labor aristocracy is systematically working to disarm and disorient the working-class movement in the face of the fascist anti-working class offensive of the monopoly capitalists. It is attempting to create the maximum illusions in the workers' ranks, to convince the workers to give up their struggle against the capitalist exploiters and their state power and instead to rely on the collaboration between the labor traitors, the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois, state apparatus for salvation. The AFL-CIO, the UAW and the other trade unions are presently spending millions of dollars trying to convince the workers that the "real struggle will be in November" when the workers will be able to vote to replace a monopoly capitalist Republican politician with a so-called "pro-labor" monopoly capitalist Democrat to exploit and suppress the masses. In alliance with the Carter administration and the Democrats, the labor traitors have been introducing one savage measure after another to block the advance of the workers' movement.

In short, the program of the labor aristocracy is the suppression of the rising working-class movement by way of deception as well as outright repressive social- fascist measures.

The much advertised "new militancy" of the trade union chieftains is but a continuation of this same anti-working class program. UAW president Doug Fraser's resignation from the government's Labor-Management Committee in July, and his much-publicized phrase-mongering about the "one-sided class war" waged by the "business community", were in themselves a big dose of deception. The capitalists are fully aware that with the intensification of the class Struggle and the growing militancy of the workers, the openly corrupt and reactionary trade unionism of the Meany type will no longer do. In order to keep the workers under control, to maintain the influence of the bourgeoisie over the workers' movement, social- democratic "fighting" labor traitors such as Fraser are being widely promoted. Fraser's declarations of "class war" are nothing but sand being thrown in the eyes of the workers. Fraser himself admits that his only real complaint is the failure of his Democratic friends in the White House and the Congress to have enacted the Labor Law Reform Act and other deceptive, anti-working class legislation.

Furthermore, the "fighting" trade union hacks are the worst scabs and strikebreakers. Several years ago, in an election called and supervised by the federal government, the social-democratic "reform" candidate Arnold Miller was installed as president of the United Mine Workers Union in an attempt to suppress the upsurge of the coal miners' strike movement. Since that time Miller has worked feverishly to bring "industrial peace" to the coal fields, attempting to smash the wildcat strike movement by every conceivable means and openly collaborating with the state and the coal operators to break the coal miners' heroic strike last winter.

Presently, the "militant" bureaucrats within the postal workers' unions have been calling for militant strike actions in words, while in deeds collaborating with the government's delaying tactics to paralyze the postal workers' struggle. Another example of the "militant" strikebreaking of the labor traitors is their collaboration with the Carter administration's preparations to impose mandatory wage-price controls. The trade union chieftains have announced in advance they will go along with Carter's fascist plans. While declaring that they are in favor of wage-cuts for " workers, the labor traitors are "militantly" demanding that these wage-cuts be "fair", that the capitalists must make a show of holding down prices as well.

Thus, the "new militancy" of Fraser and the other top bureaucrats shows that they are indeed waging a "class war", but it is on the side of the capitalist exploiters against the developing workers' movement.

Nevertheless, true to their class nature, the revisionists and opportunists of all hues are responding to the "new militancy" of the labor traitors with the greatest enthusiasm. They are unfolding a new campaign of diversion, claiming that the hated top union bureaucrats have changed their anti-working class nature as a result of "new conditions". Their aim is to chain the proletarian movement to the political line of the labor aristocracy-- to strengthen the domination of the capitalist trade unions, the bourgeoisie and its state power over the workers' movement. The revisionists' and opportunists' enthusiasm for the "new militancy" of the labor traitors is a graphic illustration of their ambitions, utilizing the "new conditions" to propel themselves into the trade union apparatus.

The revisionist jackals of the "C"PUSA and the social-chauvinist "three worlders" of the OL, are propagating the most outrageous fraud: that the "objective situation" -- the "anti-labor offensive of the bosses" on the one hand and "the growing rank-and-file militancy" on the other -- has "forced" the top leaders of the capitalist trade unions to take up the struggle against the bourgeoisie. On the basis of this fraud, the revisionists and opportunists are calling on the workers to "support" this "positive new trend", to "pressure" the labor traitors to wage the "battle" on the workers' behalf against the "bosses' offensive". This demagogy contains a definite message in terms of program for the workers' movement: the revisionists and opportunists are attempting to mobilize the proletariat into a "militant" army of labor lieutenants of the bourgeoisie, an army to "fight" for the program of the labor aristocracy for the suppression of the working- class movement.

Gus Hall, the general secretary of the revisionist party, outlined this strategy of class betrayal in a clear-cut fashion in his report to the National Council of the "C"PUSA last June. This strategy is crystalized in the revisionists' concept of a "Left-Center coalition", the present "centerpiece" of their "trade union work". Gus Hall elaborates this concept as follows:

First, "things have changed". "Left-Center unity" "reflects the new reality and the new relationship of forces in the trade union movement", (Left-Center unity) "would have been a wrong emphasis in the recent past" but conforms to "a new objective framework" and "the objective processes". And what are these "objective processes" he is referring to? With "the deepening of the crisis of capitalism", "important trade union forces are moving from Right Field to Center Field. This is the broadest and most significant political motion that is taking place. " And further:

"The Right has been losing its influence on the Carter forces...the Center forces have become more active...Important sections of the trade union movement have separated themselves from the status quo of class collaboration and will not return to the old position." And to eliminate any confusion about the meaning of this revisionist balderdash, Gus Hall explains: "Who are the Center forces ? They are honest, militant working- class trade union forces. This is true also of those on leadership levels. They are honest trade union forces. They are the largest sector in the trade unions. They are in transition from Right to Center, moving toward the Left... The Center forces are in the process of being radicalized."

Thus, according to this general secretary of modern revisionism, "those on leadership levels" in "the largest sector in the trade unions" are "moving toward the Left" or have already "separated themselves from the status quo of class collaboration"! The "new militancy" of the capitalist labor lieutenants --far from being vicious demagogy, a big dose of deception to drown the workers' movement in a sea of class collaborationist, liberal-labor and social-democratic politics -- "reflects the new^reality"!

And what are the practical conclusions of these revisionist fallacies?

First, there is an issue of economics. The revisionists are striving to eliminate any obstacles, which prevent themselves from receiving their rightful place, their share of the soft jobs in the trade union bureaucracies. And this is only possible if the"Left", the revisionists, come to terms and form an alliance, or more precisely enter into a marriage, with the "Center", the "largest sector" of the labor aristocracy. As Gus Hall unashamedly puts it: "The weakness showed up as reluctance and hesitation to establish relationships with Center forces, both on a leadership and grassroots level"; "it was necessary for the Party and the Left forces to say to the Center forces 'You're welcome. We want to work with you.'"

And secondly, besides trying to mobilize the workers to elect the revisionist scoundrels themselves to trade union office, the revisionists are trying to mobilize the workers behind the "Center". The revisionists are attempting to divert the working-class movement into a cheering squad for the "new militancy" of the capitalist labor lieutenants, to "help them (the labor traitors -- ed.) move from the passive Center to working with the Left", "They must be encouraged to move further from one position to another. " In this way, the revisionists are attempting to condemn the class-conscious workers to the position of the tail of the sold-out labor traitors, and thus divert the workers' movement into a "left" "encouragement" for the labor aristocracy's program of deception and social-fascist suppression of the working class.

The bastard offspring of modern revisionism, the social-chauvinist "three worlders" led by the "C"P ("ML"), have responded to the "new militancy" of the labor traitors with even a greater enthusiasm than that of the revisionists. It was not long ago that the "C"P("ML") and the OL before it carried out the most extravagant "self-criticism" for advocating the revisionist concept of "moving the trade unions to the left". As a means of "rectification" the Klonskyite leaders resolved to move their bourgeois trade unionism to the left, rendered the revisionist concept more profound, and are now engaged in the business of "revolutionizing" the capitalist trade unions. Recently The Call has carried major articles ("Unions Balk in Face of Bosses' Attacks", 8/21/78, and "State of the Labor Movement", parts one and two, 9/4/78 and 9/11/78) which helped to clarify this "revolutionizing" process.

In fact, the line is clear from the headline, "Unions Balk in Face of Bosses' Attacks", and the first sentences of the article beneath it:

"Caught between a 'rock and a hard place', the top labor bureaucrats are raving mad at big business and the Carter administration.

"The 'hard place' is the current anti-labor offensive. This offensive has so far brought about the defeat of the Labor Law Reform Bill, promoted 'wage restraint' contracts nationwide, and launched a revival of union busting on a big scale.

"The 'rock' is the millions of rank-and-file workers whose anger and militancy at these big-business attacks is growing by the day. "The leaders of organized labor are now under tremendous pressure from the workers to fight against the bosses' attacks. So the bureaucrats are now threatening an open revolt against big business …"

Thus, the sold-out labor aristocrats, yesterday's target of the Klonskyites' worst abuse and nastiest curses, "sell-outs", "traitors" and the like, are today "threatening an open revolt against business"! In the present situation, with "a new anti-labor offensive" and "rank and file anger", the "C"P("ML") scribblers pontificate: "Many of the biggest capitalists are now afraid of where some of the new developments in labor officialdom will lead". Imagine that! When you consider that the "labor officialdom" being referred to are the chieftains of the AFL-CIO, the UAW, etc., it is truly mind boggling what strong effects "new developments" can have when they are reflected in the eyes of the revolutionary wing of the sold-out labor aristocracy!

Exposing their true social-democratic souls, the Klonskyites are particularly thrilled with the demagogy of the social-democratic "fighting" hacks, "labor leaders like Doug Fraser", exclaiming that "what worries the monopolists in the U.S." is the "warning implied" in Doug Fraser's comments about the benefits of "socialist oriented" unions, etc. Nevertheless, even George Meany is included in the ranks of their labor heroes resisting the capitalists: "Pressed to the wall by an increasingly rebellious rank and file, Meany has joined the section of labor leaders who are balking at the bosses' attacks" (The Call, 9/11/78, "State of the Labor Movement", part two.)

So what are the fighting tasks of the working-class movement "in the course of the battle between these union leaders and big business"? To "pressure" the labor traitors to make good the fight, to make them "back up their words with action" is the strategy which the neo-revisionist gentlemen of the "C"P("ML") are presenting to the workers.

The Call elaborates:

"This growing rift (between the labor traitors and the capitalists -- ed.) can be a very favorable development for the workers if they can turn it to good use... Neither new calls for 'class peace' nor militant talk will do …

"The most effective weapon in the struggle to beat back the anti-labor offensive is the mass mobilization of the rank and file. "

Clear enough. But towards what end is this "mass mobilization of the rank and file" to take place?

The Call explains this as follows:

"The top bureaucrats running the labor movement have so far refused to mount a fight back movement against the bosses and their wage-cutting anti-worker policies.

"Today the bureaucrats are under tremendous pressure from the workers to fight back against the capitalists, and some have even spoken out against the bosses' attacks. But if the misleaders keep refusing to back up-their words with action the workers will surely sweep them aside".

Thus, the strategy of the "C"P("ML") is the "mass mobilization of the rank and file" for the purpose of "mounting a fight back movement" on the basis of the politics of the labor aristocracy, to "pressure" the capitalist labor lieutenants to "back up their words" -- their program of deception and social-fascist suppression of the workers' movement -- with "action".

The "C"P("ML")'s demagogy about "revolutionizing" the capitalist trade unions or "building class struggle unions", has the same content and is of the same character as the "class war" unionism of the Frasers and the entire left-wing of the labor aristocracy. It is pure deception to mobilize support in the competitive struggle with the Meanys and the right for trade union positions, to champion the "new militancy" of the labor aristocracy and re-enforce the positions of social-democracy and social-fascism in the working-class movement.

The similarity in the political line of the revisionist so-called "Communist" Party and the social-chauvinist "genuine Marxist-Leninists" of the "C"P("ML") to that of the left-wing of the sold-out chieftains of the capitalist trade unions is uncanny in its completeness. In fact, the entire political existence of these revisionists and opportunists is based on the politics of the labor aristocracy. In their breast-beating "self-criticism" of one and a half years ago, the Klonskyites made the revealing confession that: "the line of 'moving the trade unions to the left', instead of revolutionizing them... led to many rightist errors, in particular tailing after some of the more militant-sounding reformists while abandoning or down-playing communist independence and initiative." (from the OL pamphlet "A Communist View -- Building Class Struggle Trade Unions", May 1977) However, it is clear that what the opportunists consider "independence and initiative" from the "militant-sounding reformists" is something of the order of the "independence and initiative" of the tail in relation to the dog.

According to the trade unionism of the revisionists of all hues, it is the capitalist trade unions which are the revolutionary organizations of the proletariat. They do not consider it necessary for a Marxist- Leninist party, which is the highest form of organization of the proletariat, to lead the working-class movement on all fronts including the economic front. For the revisionists and opportunists, the working-class movement is equivalent to the trade union movement and is restricted to the capitalist trade unions. Hence, their "industrial concentration" is directed at becoming part of the trade union bureaucracies and their politics are restricted to the politics of the capitalist trade unions, the politics of the labor aristocracy.

Marxism-Leninism teaches that the aristocracy of labor, the upper strata of the working class including the sold-out trade union misleaders, and the corrupt revisionist scribblers, are the agents of the bourgeoisie within the working-class movement. They are part of a bribed strata, maintained on the basis of the super-profits extracted by imperialism from the exploitation and plunder of the proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world, a strata which has been created by the monopoly capitalist class for the explicit purpose of diverting the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat. Lenin described the labor aristocracy as the main social prop of imperialism. U.S. imperialism, as one of the two superpowers which sucks the blood of thousands of millions of toiling masses, has created an enormous and most degenerate labor aristocracy. The present day trade unions in the U.S. have become fully integrated into the bourgeois state machine. The trade union apparatus is systematically wielded by the capitalist exploiters to stifle every revolt of the workers no matter how limited with a countless number of restrictions. The chieftains of the AFL-CIO, the UAW and the other unions, are conscious agents of the class enemy within the workers' ranks who work hand in hand with the bourgeoisie to suppress the workers' movement with both deception and violence.

As political representatives of the labor aristocracy themselves, the revisionists and opportunists find it necessary to deny these facts which are well known and create the maximum fog on the questions of the class nature and role of this strata. According to Gus Hall, the leaders of the capitalist trade unions are nothing but "honest, militant working-class trade union forces" who just happen to be suffering from a touch of "class collaborationist tendencies" and other "ideological.limitations". The Klonskyite social-chauvinists, on the other hand, are more sophisticated, portraying the capitalist labor lieutenants as having a dual nature, as some sort of intermediate phenomenon "caught between a rock and a hard place", as vacillating" labor warriors who "refuse to mobilize the rank and file" into their "battle against the bosses".

Such assessments of the nature of the labor aristocracy are completely erroneous and are a big exposure of what kind of opposition to "class capitulationism" and what kind of "class struggle strategy" the revisionists and opportunists have in store. They show that the line of "moving the trade unions to the left" by way of a "Left-Center coalition" or by way of "revolutionizing them" as the "centerpiece" of their work, has nothing to do with opposing class collaboration nor with waging the proletarian class struggle.

The revisionists and opportunists of all hues do not have on the agenda the glorious and difficult task of building the Marxist-Leninist party as the decisive instrument of the proletarian class struggle against the capitalist exploiters. They deny that it is the Marxist -Leninist party which must lead and organize the proletarian movement to resist the efforts of the bourgeoisie to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the working masses and to overthrow the monopoly capitalist system. Instead, the revisionists and opportunists are safely engaged in "revolutionizing" the capitalist trade unions as a precondition to the class struggle, leaving it to the "labor leaders" who "must be encouraged from one position to another" to "mount a fight back movement".

Furthermore, the revisionists of all hues do not have on the agenda organizing the Marxist-Leninist party in the working class to smash the influence of the labor aristocracy there. They are saboteurs of the proletarian struggle on all fronts. Instead of directing their fire on the political line of the aristocracy of labor -- social democracy, social-chauvinism and social-fascism -- the revisionists and opportunists are fanatical proponents of these politics under the hoax of the labor aristocracy being an "honest trade union force" "battling the bosses", etc. Every deception of the trade union chieftains is turned into a "rank and file demand" and every defeat of the anti-working class legislation of the labor traitors and the "pro-labor" Democrats is turned into a "setback for the labor movement" by the revisionists and opportunists of all hues. For instance, look at the agitation of the revisionists and social-chauvinists on the question of the labor traitors Labor Law Reform Act and on their present electoral strategy.

The Labor Law Reform Act of 1978 has been the labor traitors' central piece of legislation this year, pushed in the Congress by the Carter administration and the "friends of labor" Democrats. Advertised as a bill to make the present labor law (the fascist Taft-Hartley Act to be exact) mare "fair and effective", this "reform" is in fact a savage, anti-working class measure. The trade union chieftains are particularly eager for this bill as it further integrates the trade unions into the state and expands the role of the trade union bureaucracies in collaboration with the courts in keeping the workers' movement within certain bounds. Among other things, the act contains provisions against wildcat strikes and roving pickets, a measure to ensure that the workers' struggles do not break out of the repressive confines of the trade union apparatus, written explicitly for the suppression of the powerful strike movement of the coal miners. (It should be noted that the leaders of the United Mine Workers eventually broke ranks with the other labor traitors regarding this bill, afraid to openly attempt to foist it on the coal miners.)

However, the revisionists and opportunists of every hue have made a big show of support for the anti-working class Labor Law Reform. (On this question, the revisionist and social-chauvinist sects have proven themselves to be more right-wing than even the social-democratic UMW bosses.) Chiming in behind the trade union chieftains, the opportunists have been trying to sell this bill as "a reform measure to help organize the unorganized" without being able to show any evidence of this whatsoever. They even go so far as to glorify it as a "step towards the repeal of the Taft-Hartley right-to-work laws", covering up the fact that it has nothing to do with repealing "right-to- work" laws and everything to do with strengthening the fascist Taft-Hartley Act. Nevertheless, the entire revisionist and opportunist press has been moaning over the "vicious attacks on the Labor Reform Act" by the heartless "big business interests". One commando squad of "three worlders", when confronted by one of their own supporters with the fact that the Act contains harsh provisions for the suppression of "unauthorized work stoppages" answered in their newspaper that this was irrelevant, that the miners would strike "anyway", to oppose the bill on this basis would be a legalist deviation, and thus the bill should be/fully supported as an important reform! According to their absurd argument, the laws of the bourgeoisie directed at suppressing the workers are of little concern, that laws cannot prevent the workers' strikes while a change in the bourgeois laws to allegedly prevent the capitalists themselves from blocking organizing drives, will be an important reform. Hence, they argue that the laws of the bourgeois state can not restrain the workers but will effectively restrain the capitalist exploiters. And all this hocus pocus to mystify and, create illusions about the class nature of the monopoly capitalist state is done in the name of criticizing bourgeois legalism!

The revisionists and opportunists have absolutely no shame; no sophistry is too outrageous when it comes to supporting the politics of deception and suppression of the labor aristocracy.

The same is true with the support of the revisionists and social-chauvinists for the labor traitors' electoral strategy. The bold declaration of the trade union chieftains in recent months about the "one-sided class war" and the struggle against "corporate interests" have everything to do with November's elections. The labor traitors, after spending eight years trying to persuade the workers that their problems would be solved with the installation of a Democrat in the White House, are now frantically trying to convince the workers why they should continue to support the "pro-labor" Democrats despite the fact that it is their "friend", President Carter, who is organizing the fascist offensive of capital against the workers. The trade union chieftains are trying to explain why it is that with "friends of labor" Democrats in the White House and holding solid majorities in both houses of Congress, the situation facing the workers continues to drastically worsen. Their answer is that it is the result of an "ultra-right" conspiracy: "These New Right organizations have begun to win. In Congress their associates, a small group of conservatives, have frightened and harassed what was expected to be the most progressive Congress in our recent history into a state of political shock." (from the UAW pamphlet " A Citizen's Guide to the Right Wing".) The great battle which the labor traitors are preparing, is to be waged first in the polling booths and then in the legislatures and halls of Congress where the "friends of labor" will be able to "beat back the encroachments of big business". The AFL-CIO and the UAW are preparing for this great struggle by throwing tens of millions of dollars of the workers' dues money behind the Democratic candidates and with a massive propaganda barrage against the "anti-labor offensive of the ultra-Right".

The Revisionist "C"PUSA and the social-chauvinist "C"P("ML") have thrown themselves into the struggle. In July, out of nowhere, The Call launched a big hysteria campaign against the "fascist menace" posed by a new coalition of big business interests" which is "on the offensive" against both the Carter administration and "labor" alike. Gus Hall called for an alliance with the "moderates" of the Carter administration against the "new ultra-Right", plagiarizing directly from the election literature of the AFL-CIO and the UAW. Thus, like clockwork the"agitation of the revisionists and opportunists was synchronized with the electoral strategy of the trade union chieftains. This further display of "initiative and independence" from the "militant sounding reformists" on the part of the revisionists and opportunists is enough to create confusion whether it is a case of the dog wagging its tail or the tail wagging the dog.

The answer to the question: where does revisionism find its source of strength, is being further exposed with every passing day. The senile hacks of the revisionist party as well as the miscarriage of modern revisionism, the puny social-chauvinist "three worlders'', are able to carry out their criminal activities within the working-class movement only because they have powerful allies, the hated reactionary labor traitors and the bourgeois state. They also have a definite social base, the labor aristocracy. Despite their flabbiness, revisionism, social-chauvinism and opportunism of all hues will not collapse under their own putrid weight. Therefore, in the course of the struggle for the overthrow of the monopoly capitalist system., with the Marxist-Leninist party as the commander, the revolutionary proletariat must direct its main fire against the influence of the labor aristocracy, against revisionism and opportunism of all hues. Only in this way can the proletariat rid itself of alien trends, unite its ranks and emerge victorious. End.

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Once Again-on the Warmongering of the Social-Chauvinist "Three Worlders" and the Neutron Bomb

The pro-imperialist and war-mongering nature of the theoreticians of the "three worlds" is graphically illustrated by their hue and cry about the neutron bomb.

Recent press reports have exposed the fact that the Carter administration's "postponement" of the production of neutron bombs was a patent fraud and that the Pentagon will most likely begin production of neutron bombs for deployment by this October. Neutron weapons are one of the U.S. imperialist war-criminal's latest developments in means of mass slaughter. Neutron weapons release greater quantities of poisonous radiation than other types of nuclear weapons, while causing less damage to property. This feature of neutron weapons makes them particularly useful for occupation armies and the annihilation of local populations. The development of neutron weapons has, of course, aroused the wrath and opposition of the people, particularly in Europe where the Pentagon plans to deploy them.

Last April, the Carter administration launched a "debate" allegedly on whether or not to develop neutron weapons, while at the same time the Pentagon continued full speed with their development. The purpose of this demagogic "debate" was firstly to generate maximum war hysteria and propaganda for war preparations; hysteria about "who will win?', "is the U.S.'s. nuclear arsenal sufficient to fend off an imminent Soviet surprise attack?", "can NATO hold a firm line of defense at the border ?", etc. And secondly, it was directed at covering up these war preparations, that the "human rights" preacher Carter has a "moral" abhorrence to neutron weapons and therefore they were being shelved as a move towards reducing the arms race between U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.

The revisionist theoreticians of "three worlds" were forces in the Carter administration who allegedly "under pressure from the Soviet Union...want to make concessions" and thus "renounce a weapon which would vastly strengthen its (U.S. imperialism's) security". They whimpered that "In the clash over the neutron bomb, the Kremlin has seen through the weakness of the White House". Through this farce, the "three worlders" tried to create public opinion for their lying "theories" about U.S. imperialism no longer being a savage aggressive superpower which is, to the same extent and same degree as Soviet social-imperialism, the main enemy of the peoples and hotbed of aggressive war.

However, the recent revelations, which have only confirmed what everyone knew, that the Pentagon has been continuing the development of its neutron weapons system, that it has been fitting the artillery and missiles of the NATO forces in Western Europe to be able to deliver neutron weapons and is now about to start production of neutron bombs without requiring congressional approval or further "debate", is a big exposure of the war-mongering demagogy of the theoreticians of "three worlds". Where is the "clash" between the "appeasement" and "anti-appeasement forces"? Where is the "weakness in the White House"? Nothing they can say can cover up the fact that the U.S. imperialist war-mongers are feverishly developing one system for mass murder after the other in its preparations for aggressive war against the proletariat and people.

The example of the neutron bomb shows the hue and cry of "appeasement" of the Russian devils by the allegedly "declining" U.S. imperialists for exactly what it is: war incitement and war hysteria. The theoreticians of "three worlds" have become accomplices in the war plans of the plans of the Pentagon and the U.S. slavemasters in particular, for the slaughter and devastation of the in the forefront of this warmongering and demagogy on the question of the neutron bomb. The Chinese revisionists demanded the production of neutron weapons as a necessary tool of U.S. imperialism's rivalry with the "main enemy", Soviet social-imperialism. The Peking Review, in the most war-mongering fashion, hailed the production of neutron weapons as "an effective means of defense against Soviet military superiority" and declared that "the neutron bomb is a useful weapon which will upgrade and greatly reinforce the existing U.S. nuclear weapons and help offset the military imbalance in Europe" (Peking Review, May 12, 1978). Their followers in the U.S., the social-chauvinist "C"P ("ML") chimed in, quoting favorably U.S. generals and Pentagon officials to the effect that the neutron bomb is "the answer" to the U.S. imperialist war-mongers' question "how can a possible Soviet land invasion of Europe be stopped?"

Furthermore, besides the open war-mongering and public relations work for the Pentagon, the "three worlders" created a big hullabaloo about Carter's publicity stunt to "postpone" the neutron bomb. They tried to create the impression that this device of this imperialist demagogue was actually further evidence that U.S. imperialism is allegedly unilaterally disarming in the face of the Soviet social-imperialists. The Chinese revisionists decried the "appeasement people. Guided by the rotten, anti-Leninist theory of "three worlds" these new revisionists have merged completely with the forces of imperialism against the proletariat and revolutionary forces on the world scale. End.

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THE COLOSSAL FRAUD AT CAMP DAVID

Carter's much-publicized Camp David meeting with President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Begin of Israel and the two accords signed there was a colossal fraud. Engineered by U.S. imperialism, its aim was to make Sadat's unprincipled compromises and capitulation to Israel and U.S. imperialism appear as compromises on Israel's part and a big step forward for peace in the Middle East. From September 5th to the 17th Sadat and Begin, directed by their U.S. imperialist master, Carter, acted out a staged melodrama of fierce antagonism followed by a triumphant outcome of compromise, goodwill and optimism for "peace". This was nothing more than a publicity stunt to prop up Carter and U.S. imperialism as the "great peacemaker" and conceal the fact that nothing was decided upon at this meeting that had not already been sealed in schemes previously cooked up by Carter with Sadat and Begin. The fact is that beneath the demagogy, political trickery, and fanfare the Camp David accords did not bring about an Israeli compromise or a "Framework of Peace in the Middle East", but legitimized and perpetuated U.S.-backed Israeli Zionist occupation of Arab territory, denied the Palestinian people their right to self-determination, to the restoration of their homeland, and guaranteed Israel's "right" to perpetrate genocide against the Arab people under the codeword of maintaining "security". The Camp David talks were aimed at deceiving the Arab peoples into giving up their liberation struggle and relying on the U.S. imperialists and the Israeli Zionists to solve their problems, while the agreements reached at the talks made new inroads for further penetration of U.S. imperialism and Zionism into Arab territory.

At the very moment that the Camp David talks were taking place, while Begin and Carter were declaring to the world their love of "peace", the Israeli Zionist gangsters were continuing their savage aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese people, with the all-round support of U.S. imperialism. This further illustrates the monumental fraud of the Camp David talks.

According to the Camp David accords, the Israeli Zionists have the "right" to continue their military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas indefinitely. The so-called "withdrawal" of Israeli troops from this territory, stolen from the Arab people in 1967 in the U.S. imperialist-zionist war of aggression, is actually merely a reorganization of Zionist military occupation. The Camp David agreement calls for "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces" and a "redeployment of the remaining Israeli forces to specified security locations". Begin has stated that Israel would continue to assert its claim of sovereignty over the West Bank and that the Camp David agreement gives Israel the right to keep troops on the West Bank and Gaza Strip indefinitely. Furthermore, Israeli forces and forces of the reactionary U.S.-backed Jordanian monarchy that slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians in 1970 will participate in joint patrols of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A "local" police force to be established under the joint domination of Israel, Egypt, and Jordan will participate in assuring Israel's "security" "during the transitional period and beyond". The Zionist settlements on the West Bank, which are actually armed camps and forward posts of the aggressive Israeli fascists, are to remain and be expanded. Begin's "commitment" on the West Bank settlements is to "freeze" them for a period no longer than three months. Thus the accord calls for military occupation and encirclement of the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas by Zionist and other U.S. -backed reactionary forces in order to continue the subjugation of the Palestinian people, wipe out the Palestinian liberation movement for liberation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the entire Palestinian homeland and to protect the artificial state of Israel, carved out of Arab land by U.S. imperialist and Zionist fascist terror and genocide of the Arab people.

Sadat, who last year gave unofficial diplomatic recognition to the criminal state of Israel with his visit to Israel, has promised that Egypt will take steps to full recognition of Israel. He is pleading through the Camp David accords to other Arab countries to take the same path of capitulation to Zionism and U.S. imperialism. But no amount of treachery by the lackeys of U.S. imperialism can hide the fact that the artificial state of Israel, situated of stolen Palestinian territory, is the base of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East from which continuous Zionist aggression is staged against the Arab peoples. As long as the state of Israel exists there can be no peace in the Middle East.

While assuring that actual political power based on military control remains in Zionist hands, the Camp David accords bandy about demagogic phrases such as "full autonomy", "self-governing authority" and "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people". But the Carter-Begin-Sadat accords have nothing whatsoever to do with restoration of their homeland to the Palestinian people. It is Egypt, Jordan and Israel, with U.S. imperialism behind them, who are given the right to decide the future of the Palestinian people. "Participation" of particular Palestinian representatives in "the determination of their own future" can be vetoed by Israel, Egypt or Jordan. The Camp David plan will set up a "self-governing authority" whose "powers and responsibilities" are to be decided by Israel, Egypt and Jordan with the "participation" of the hand-picked Palestinian "representatives". This lackey "authority" will design fraudulent elections for a "self-governing authority administrative council"; it will provide Israel with a transitional 5-year period during which to groom its lackeys and consolidate its political rule before the "final status" of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is determined; and it will control the return of Palestinians forced from their homeland by the Zionists, enabling the banning of members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the leader of the Palestinian liberation movement and sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Camp David accords are truly the height of demagogy: "granting" the Palestinian people their right to self-determination -- to be administered by U.S. imperialist-backed forces, allegedly with the "participation" of the Palestinian people but excluding their representative, the PLO! This shows that the only path forward for the Palestinian people to true liberation and freedom is to seize their rights by their own efforts, through armed struggle to smash Zionist Israel and U.S. imperialism in the Middle East.

The Camp David scheme also provides for direct U.S. military presence in the Middle East through the replacement of the Zionist military bases and possibly the Sinai settlements with U.S. military bases in the Sinai. The agreement calls for UN occupation troops on the Sinai to protect Israel's "security" and use of strategic areas as well as calling for a limitation of Egyptian troops on Egypt's own territory. Sadat has also agreed not to use Egypt's military power against Israel, thus freeing Israel's hand to commit future aggression against Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian people and the entire Arab world.

The Camp David agreements are outright treachery by Sadat, who has been groomed by U.S. imperialism to lead the Egyptian and other Arab peoples down the disastrous path of capitulation. They are an attempt by U.S. imperialism and the Zionists to further develop U.S. imperialism's hegemony in the Middle East in its rivalry with Soviet social-imperialism.

But these agreements will not satiate the appetite of the Israeli aggressors and expansionists and U.S. imperialism; they will only whet their appetite for further genocide and aggression. Even as the ink was drying on the Camp David agreements, 60,000 Israeli fascist troops, armed and instigated by U.S. imperialism, were massing on the borders of Lebanon and Syria, threatening to launch another onslaught against the Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon and against the other Arab peoples. During the Camp David meetings, the Israeli Zionists sent their jets over Beirut and southern Lebanon, cracking sonic booms to terrorize the people, while the reactionary Lebanese Phalangist forces, groomed and supplied and deployed at posts in southern Lebanon by the Israeli Zionists, carried out the Zionist's dirty work of patrolling southern Lebanon to suppress the Palestinian liberation movement based there. The U.S. imperialists' and Israeli Zionists' "commitment" to peace in the Middle East means in reality sealing agreements to further U.S. imperialist and Zionist penetration into Arab territory and ceaselessly waging outright aggression against the Arab peoples.

But the Camp David plot of Carter, Begin and Sadat has run into obstacles already. U.S. Secretary of State Vance failed in his mission to secure public approval from the Jordanian and Saudi Arabian governments for the Camp David accords. Another of Sadat's cabinet ministers resigned. Syria, Algeria, Libya, South Yemen and the PLO held a summit conference in Damascus to oppose the agreements.

The Arab peoples are not being sucked in by the spectacular demagogy of Camp David but are continuing to wage their struggle for liberation and freedom. The Palestinian people have continued their armed struggle in the face of this gigantic fraud. The Palestinian people are vigorously escalating their armed actions and massive demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and in the heart of Israel itself. On September 15 and 17, guerrilla actions in and near Jerusalem were aimed at Israeli Soldiers. In Lebanon, the Palestinian and Lebanese people continue to fight against the occupation forces and the Lebanese fascists backed by Israel. The Palestinian and other Arab peoples have shown their determination never to be fooled by the schemes cooked up by U.S. imperialism to liquidate their just cause, and to continue their struggle until victory --r the defeat of imperialist-backed Zionism in the Middle East. End.

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Irrepressible Revolt of the Iranian People Against the Fascist Shah Pahlavi

During the last weeks of August and the first weeks of September, the Iranian people have continued their mass uprisings and demonstrations against the regime of the arch-fascist Shah Pahlavi and his U.S. imperialist masters. Mass demonstrations have taken place in the cities of Abadan, Shiraz and Teheran. In Abadan more than 2,000 people marched in the streets shouting anti-Shah, anti-U.S. imperialist slogans and called upon the working class to stand firm and resist the anti-people violence of the armed forces loyal to the Shah. These events are part of the wave of uprisings and demonstrations against the Shah which began in the winter of 1977 and are continuing to date. Uprisings have occurred in almost all major cities and towns -- from Tabriz in the north to Shiraz in the south. Using rocks, firebombs, explosive charges and gunfire, tens of thousands of Iranian patriots have heroically fought the Shah's army and police.

Thrown into deep crisis due to the continuing uprisings, hoping to smash the Iranian people's resistance, the fascist Shah Pahlavi has declared six months of martial law for the capital Teheran and eleven other cities --Karaj, Ghazuin, Qum, Mashad, Tabriz, Ahwaz, Abadan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Karroon and Jahrun. But the idealist dreams of the fascist Pahlavi for a docile, totally suppressed Iran are quickly being smashed. As soon as the martial law decree was issued, massive uprisings and demonstrations spread across the country. More than 100,000 people in Teheran and 300,000 in Mashad defied the martial law decree by holding demonstrations and by attacking the fascist police and army. At the demonstration in Teheran, the fascist armed forces turned their machine guns on the 100,000 demonstrators, murdering more than 1,500 and wounding thousands more. Responding to this vicious massacre, Iranian patriots staged armed assaults against police and military outposts, wiping out several of the fascist police.

The issuance of the six-month martial law decree only further shows the inability of arch-fascist Pahlavi and his U.S. masters to suppress the determined struggle of the Iranian people. So far, every scheme cooked up by the Shah and U.S. imperialist chieftain Carter has met bitter defeat at the hands of the Iranian masses. Several months ago, the Shah's secret police (SAVAK) agents set a fire in a movie theater whose doors had been chained shut, thus trapping inside more than 300 people who were burned to death. This cowardly, murderous attack against the Iranian people was staged to whip up reactionary public opinion in support of the Shah's campaign of fascist suppression and against the "backward, anti-people, terrorist, fanatic anti-Shah demonstrators" who SAVAK claimed set the fire. Refusing to be, taken in by this provocation by the Shah, tens of thousands of Iranians at home and abroad poured into the streets to denounce this fascist atrocity for what it was -- an attack staged by the government and blamed upon the masses of people, for the purpose of justifying further fascist repression -- in the nazi tradition of the Reichstag fire.

Using fascist demagogy, the Shah also claims that all anti-Shah forces are nothing but backward elements opposed to his programs of "democratization", "freedom" and "reforms". The masses of Iranian people have seen through this lying propaganda and have denounced the Shah's "democracy" for what it is. The "democracy" of the Shah is the same kind of "democracy" that exists in the "free world" countries like Zaire (Congo(K)), Chile and South Africa -- naked fascist terrorism against the masses of people. It is the "freedom" for the fascists and imperialists to slaughter and exploit the people. It is "freedom" for the Shah to give the natural resources of Iran away to the imperialists and Israeli Zionists. It is under this so-called "democracy" that the Shah's regime has set up jails throughout the country to incarcerate the progressive and democratic people who dare to stand up to his fascist rule or even utter a word of protest against it. Thus, unable to suppress the masses resistance through tricks, schemes, or police violence, the Shah and his imperialist masters decided to declare outright martial law in Iran for the next six months.

During this latest wave of uprisings, which have continued for more than nine months, the Iranian people have shown that they are determined to continue the struggle against the fascist Shah Pahlavi regime through to the end. They have shown their determination to resist the intrigues and suppression campaigns launched by the Shah and his imperialist master Carter. Under the leadership of their Marxist-Leninist vanguard, the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran, the people of Iran are sure to win liberation, freedom and national independence. End.

[Photo.]

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Resolution from the Founding Congress of the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran:

ON THE PRESENT SITUATION IN IRAN AND "CARTER'S POLICY"

In view of the deep dissatisfaction of the Iranian masses, and in line with the orders of his imperialist masters, the regime of the shah has introduced some "reforms" in the Iranian society, of which the "land reform" is the main element.

Since the "royal reforms" have only been introduced in order to secure the imperialists' interests and to facilitate increased exploitation of our national resources, these reforms could have resulted in nothing but the creation of miserable conditions for millions of toiling masses in the cities and rural areas.

Prior to the "royal revolutions" our country was not only self-sufficient with respect to agriculture, but was also an exporter of agricultural products. The policies of the Shah's puppet regime, which are dictated by imperialism for maximum exploitation of our country, have ruined the economic situation of the peasants, by importing foreign agricultural products to the Iranian markets and by creating financial and technical difficulties in the production and sale of our agricultural products, and they are aimed at generating all-round dependency on imperialism, thereby completely ruining the national agricultural production and increasing the poverty of the Iranian peasantry.

The grave economic situation of the country's peasantry and the all-round economic dependency have led to periodic and continuous famines for our starving masses. Our toiling masses are faced with severe shortages of the most basic food items. We are experiencing large-scale migration from the countryside to the cities, which swells the ranks of the urban proletariat. The Iranian puppet regime is itself encouraging this migration in order to serve the imperialists' interests.

The imperialists never cease for a moment in their exploitation of the Iranian proletariat, this creator of immense wealth. Everywhere in Iran, there are many exploitative enterprises of the imperialists. Imperialist assembly plants for industrial production are engaged in savage exploitation of the Iranian proletariat, in plundering the Iranian markets, and accumulating imperialist capital.

The doors of the large industrial institutions are closed to the capital of the Iranian national bourgeoisie. The Iranian capitalists have to either invest their capital jointly with that of the imperialists and become a dependent bourgeoisie, or invest in small institutions and steadily witness their own bankruptcy due to competition from international monopolies.

Due to the cruel imperialist plunder our masses are daily impoverished. The same people who have opened our borders to the aggressive and exploiting imperialist forces are preparing the grounds for further imperialist plunder by means of imposing junk commodities of imperialist culture, by misleading public opinion, promoting degeneracy, slavish spirit, superstitious beliefs, indifference, passivity, depression, hopelessness, tranquility, etc. Peoples' culture, freedom of thought, the belief in the unlimited energy of the masses and the fighting spirit for a better future are suppressed with censorship and torture to create a complete darkness in which our national wealth can be plundered by the shipload. Imperialism doesn't hesitate to use direct intervention to expand its cultural domination.

The "cultural institutions" of the imperialist embassies play a very important role in this respect; for example, the "Iranian-Russian" association has become a place for soothing patriotic feelings, for dissatisfied intellectuals, or even revolutionary people.

The Iranian puppet government not only safeguards the imperialist interests in Iran, but this obedient slave also considers it to be its duty to use the Iranian army for securing imperialist interest in the Middle East by suppressing the liberation movements of the people of the area, by spending our national resources for the protection of imperialist profits and for the expansion of imperialist hegemony in every part of the world.

Imperialism, with the collaboration of the criminal Iranian ruling class and the traitorous Shah at its head, has turned our fatherland into an appendage of the world imperialist system.

The arbitrary rule of the regime, the severe political and cultural oppression and the economic chaos are all enacted by a rotten bureaucratic administrative body whose responsible officials have as their only objective to take their share of the wealth created by the exploitation of the Iranian masses and to enrich themselves.

But the Iranian masses, who are witnessing with open eyes their country's plunder and exploitation at the hands of the imperialists and their local henchmen, cannot take these things calmly. The wave of the people's opposition and resistance is growing daily. Work slowdowns, industrial sabotage, strikes, formation of armed groups of patriotic youth, and sabotage of institutions directly dependent on the imperialists, all prove the daily rising resistance of the Iranian masses to imperialism and its running dog, the Shah. The Iranian masses are neither afraid of torture and execution, nor of the army and SAVAK; none of these can prevent strikes and protests of our masses.

The people will not tolerate the Shah's shameful regime any more. The growth of the peoples' resistance to this regime and the beginning of the struggle for liberation from the yoke of the black rule of Mohammed Reza Shah have instilled deathly fear in the hearts of the imperialists and their local servants. With its open and direct "policy" of massacre and plunder, with its boundless support for such disgusting characters as the Shah and Co. all around the world, imperialism is the direct cause of the mass resistance and the explosive situations in all countries under its domination around the world. Imperialism is particularly aware that the beginning of the people's struggle is the beginning of its own downfall. It received a harsh lesson from the heroic masses of Indochina. Soviet social-imperialism, moreover, with its socialist mask, is always ready to abuse the national liberation movements so that it can replace American imperialism.

American imperialism, having repeatedly suffered defeats all over the world, has gone into a frenzy. It is forced either to use a democratic mask and resort to deception of the people in order to regain its lost reputation or to leave the arena to the rise of the peoples' struggles in the countries under its domination and to face the likelihood of the expansionist plans of its rival, Soviet social-imperialism. These are the only two roads open to American imperialism.

The new American government with Carter at the head raised the "human rights" issue in order to save its crumbling worldwide system of exploitation. In the countries under its rule, like Iran, it has established "committees to defend human rights". In some countries, it has tied its military "aid" to the condition of the "exercise of human rights" by the neo-colonial state machine of these countries. Everywhere, it has engaged its supporters, in the form of politicians and intellectuals or those who are in the "opposition", in the "human rights" debate in some form. American imperialism carries out propaganda, spreads rumors, promises political and democratic liberties, and even goes as far as releasing some political prisoners. However, neither the face-lifting of existing regimes with human rights debate, raised by a handful of notorious people, can fool the Iranian people, nor can even a substitution of such regimes by other forms of puppet regimes mislead the struggle of our masses against imperialism.

The Iranian masses, at the cost of numerous sacrifices, have learned that imperialism is never going to give them real democracy and peace. Our masses know perfectly well that dictatorship and "democracy" are two methods which imperialism replaces one with the other according to the situation. If today, imperialism overthrows a dictator and replaces him with a so-called democrat through a coup d'etat, then the next day, if it is in its interest, it will not refrain from a coup d'etat against this same so-called democratic government.

The oppressed peoples of the world, including the Iranian people, will never be fooled by imperialism's crocodile tears or fall into the trap of this mockery of "human rights". The world's peoples have learned through experience that as long as imperialism is dominating a country it will never give up the plunder of the natural resources of that country. The imperialist-dependent governments, of whatever kind they may be, be it the Shah's black dictatorship of the "people-loving democracy" of Greece, they are all carrying out the orders of the imperialists, and are the agents for establishing the domination of their people by imperialism. The people have no security from such governments.

Freedom and "human rights" are not gifts which American imperialism and its servants will hand down with their bloodstained hands. The liberation of the masses can only be achieved through violent and persistent struggle against imperialism and its lackeys, and against every system of exploitation and plunder.

Only when the people, under the leadership of the proletariat, rise and wipe out the imperialists and their running dogs, rid themselves of any kind of exploitation and oppression, and step onto the road of socialist construction, only then can we talk about real freedom, equality, brotherhood of mankind and human rights. End

(Reprinted from Toufan, Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1977-March 1978, journal of the Workers' and Peasants' Communist Party of Iran.)

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POWERFUL NATIONAL UPRISING OF THE NICARAGUAN PEOPLE AGAINST FASCIST SOMOZA REGIME, LACKEY OF U.S. IMPERIALISM

The struggle of the Nicaraguan people to overthrow the fascist Somoza regime, rid their country of U.S. imperialist domination and achieve independence and freedom has undergone a great upsurge. Throughout September the Nicaraguan working masses staged a forceful national uprising against the dictatorship. Together with the masses the armed Nicaraguan partisans seized and held many towns and cities for periods of time. The reactionary troops of the dictatorship were brought under withering attack by the patriotic fighters. Filled with a noble spirit of rebellion, the entire Nicaraguan people rose up for their just cause. The workers, peasants, youth and other progressive people plunged into the struggle. The revolutionary fighters dyed the earth red with their blood in heroic battle. A general strike swept across the country. Demonstrations erupted in the cities and towns under the slogan: Down with the Somoza regime!

Armed and instigated by its masters in Washington and New York, the fascist Somoza dictatorship has stopped at nothing in its attempts to suppress the mass uprising. It has bombed and strafed cities and villages. It has turned against the Nicaraguan people all the most sophisticated weapons of mass slaughter that the U.S. imperialists could supply it. In battle against the hated regime, hundreds of Nicaraguan patriots have sacrificed their lives for their lofty ideals of liberation and democracy for the people.

The national uprising in Nicaragua is part of a powerful upsurge of the Nicaraguan people's struggle that has been underway for the past nine months. The uprising began shortly after armed partisans kidnapped and held hostage the entire Nicaraguan National Assembly, filled with big landlords and capitalists. With the full backing and participation of the masses of people, especially the youth, the revolutionary fighters launched wide-scale assaults against the armed forces of the hated dictatorship. Using hunting rifles and weapons captured from the National Guard, the Nicaraguan masses have waged a death-defying struggle under the most difficult conditions. With the youth at the forefront, the masses rose up and seized control of the city of Masaya, holding it for nearly a week. This triggered the uprising on a national scale. In the north of the country, the revolutionary masses for a period of time controlled the citles of Leon, Esteli and Chinandega. In the south fierce clashes raged in Masaya and Diriamba. In Matagalpa the fighting forces of the people besieged the barracks of the government's National Guard and dealt them their just punishment. In Monimbo, an Indian district on the outskirts of Masaya, the partisans overran the local National Guard outpost. In Managua, the capital city, the revolutionaries took over a radio station and broadcast to the general populace a communique calling on them to rise in struggle. A general strike was called against the dictatorship. Presently, in the face of the massive repression from the dictatorship, the revolutionary people are summing up their experience, regrouping their forces and preparing for another assault on the regime.

Nicaragua is a neo-colony of U.S. imperialism and the Somoza regime is the slavish puppet of its Yankee masters. The U.S. imperialists see Nicaragua, like the rest of Central and South America, as their private treasure trove. Proclaiming the Monroe Doctrine inviolable, the U.S. imperialists continue to use all manner and means to keep Nicaragua and this region in their bloody claws.

The history of Nicaragua is a history of countless armed interventions, maneuvers and swindles perpetrated by the U.S. imperialists against the Nicaraguan people and of the Nicaraguan people's ceaseless struggle against the imperialist aggressors and their internal allies. As early as the 1850's the U.S. dispatched its warships and mercenary troops to oppress the Nicaraguan people. In 1909 the U.S. overthrew the Nicaraguan government and installed the first of its many puppet regimes to rule Nicaragua. The money-bags of Wall Street then connived to gain controlling interest over the state-owned central bank and railway. They also assumed the entire debt of Nicaragua and for the next 20 years bled the people white. Again in 1912 the U.S. dispatched 2,000 Marines to maintain the U.S. lackeys in power. From the period of 1912 to 1932, except for a mere two-year period, the U.S. imperialists stationed their Marines in Nicaragua to ensure their super-profits from the exploitation of the labor and plunder of the natural resources of the Nicaraguan people. From 1926 to 1933 Nicaragua became a direct colony of the U.S., after which the U.S. installed the allegedly independent Somoza regime to guarantee U.S. imperialist control over the nation. Against foreign domination and the local exploiters the Nicaraguan people have waged heroic and unending struggles. In the 1920's their armed partisan struggle reached a high level under the leadership of the patriotic fighter Augusto Cesar Sandino. In recent years the struggle of the Nicaraguan people has again begun to mount and has turned into a revolutionary torrent.

With the present uprising engulfing the whole country and the difficulty of the fascist regime in suppressing it, the U.S. imperialists are carrying on vicious aggression and complicated maneuvering in order to preserve their neo-colonial hold over Nicaragua intact. On the one hand, U.S. imperialism has not at all given up its support for its puppet, the Somoza dictatorship. While playing the role of a "concerned outside party" and even claiming to have ceased aid to Somoza, the crafty Carterites are supplying Somoza with weapons, hundreds of mercenary killers, and "advisors" to the troops, similar to the U.S. "advisors" which aided the U.S. lackey regimes in Saigon. modern weapons in bountiful supply are funneled to the Somoza regime through the U.S. lackey regimes in nearby Honduras and Guatemala. To intimidate the Nicaraguan people, U.S. imperialism has resorted to its traditional "gun-boat diplomacy" and sent a guided missile cruiser to patrol the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.

While supplying and backing the Somoza regime, U.S. imperialism is also playing other cards as well. The Carter administration is calling for "mediation", either through the Organization of American States (OAS -- U.S. imperialism's regional organization of lackey regimes) or through the U.S. State Department, on the premise that "prompt mediation is essential if further bloodshed is to be avoided". The mediation plot of U.S. imperialism involves the armed intervention by the forces of the OAS under the banner of alleged "democracy" and "human rights". This invasion would be aimed at assuring that whatever regime was in power in Nicaragua, it would be a client regime of the North American Yankee imperialists. If U.S. imperialism's efforts to prop up Somoza fail, it has no qualms about dumping one flunkey for another, this time a hand-picked "democratic" leader. As the Somoza regime is widely discredited throughout the world as a fascist dictatorship, the U.S. imperialists are collaborating with "business groups, the Catholic Church and a number of political parties" to bring about a "moderate" government which would preserve U.S. neo-colonial sway in Nicaragua.

But whatever cards the U.S. imperialists play, whether it is straightforward support for Somoza or the backing of a new, prettified lackey regime, there is one factor that U.S. imperialism has no control over -- that is the Nicaraguan people themselves. Nothing the imperialists and their lackeys can do or say will stop the Nicaraguan people from eventually tearing down the tattered flag of U.S. imperialism and Somoza fascism from their homeland and completing their mission of liberating their country once and for all. End.

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Support the Heroic Anti-Fascist Resistance of the Chilean People!

Five years ago on September 11, the armed forces of Chile and the CIA organized a coup d'etat and established a fascist dictatorship headed by the tyrant Pinochet. Backed up by U.S. imperialism and in in service to it, the Pinochet regime launched the most vicious crimes against the Chilean people. Thousands of Chileans were murdered or arrested and tortured, and one million people were driven into exile. Democratic organizations, trade unions, etc., were outlawed and free assembly denied. Spies were sent into the factories, universities, and villages. Revolutionary literature was confiscated and burned.

But right from the day of the coup the heroic Chilean people threw themselves into struggle to overthrow the Pinochet regime and U.S. imperialist domination. The masses rose up in active resistance to the fascists. They have persisted in organizing massive protests, strikes, work slowdowns and demonstrations. Just in the last few weeks 11,000 copper miners have been waging a fierce strike struggle, and the desperate junta has declared a "state of siege". The Resistance of the Chilean people has grown into a powerful movement and armed struggle has broken out in some places.

The Resistance is not only spontaneous but it is organized as well. In April 1974, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile called for the formation of the People's Front to unite all the anti-fascist forces into one powerful force to smash the dictatorship and its instruments of rule and repression -- the police, military, courts, prisons, etc., -- and to replace them with a genuine democratic government based on the armed people. Step-by-step the People's Front has been building and consolidating underground organization. In the factories the People's Front has established small, secret committees of workers to organize and lead resistance in the workplaces. Resistance committees are being built among the peasants, students, and professors, women, and small businessmen. Each committee prints its own secret newsletter or bulletin. This underground press of the People's Front plays the role of educator and organizer to the Chilean people and gives voice to the width and breadth of the Resistance. It has broken through the silence that the dictatorship, U.S. imperialism, and the opportunists have imposed on the Chilean people about the Resistance.

The powerful Resistance has thrown the Pinochet regime into a big crisis. Unable to suppress the masses by brute force, the fascists have tried a few feeble acts of deception, such as pretending to abolish the secret police, and holding a "referendum" to "prove" that the people "support" the hitlerite government. The Chilean people have not been fooled by these maneuvers and have escalated their struggle. Worried that their puppet Pinochet might be overthrown, the Carter administration is suddenly shedding crocodile tears about nasty Pinochet and the absence of "human rights" in Chile. But this is only more deception to prepare for replacing Pinochet with a more "democratic" looking fascist -- Eduardo Frei -- to run the dictatorship in service to U.S. imperialism. The Chilean people will never accept this fraud.

The heroic struggle of the Chilean masses is a great inspiration and education for workers and oppressed people everywhere, for it shows that fascism is not all-powerful but can be defeated by the people through active resistance.

The American working class and people have a common interest and a close bond with the Chilean people. We face the same enemy -- the U.S. monopoly capitalist class and its state. Therefore we must support the revolutionary struggle of the Chilean people. We must also learn from their experience. Fascist dictatorship was not imposed on the Chilean people overnight. The U.S. imperialist CIA and the fascists in Chile prepared for it for three years. But the most dastardly role in imposing this misery on the Chilean people was played by the opportunists, the trade union bureaucrats and degenerate opportunist and revisionist politicians who disarmed the Chilean workers. They promised the Chilean people the "peaceful road" to socialism and sabotaged their struggle against fascism. Were it not for the disarming role of the opportunists, the fascist dictatorship could never have been imposed on the Chilean people. It has only been by repudiating the opportunist traitors and their path that the Chilean people have been able to develop their glorious resistance movement which has shaken the dictatorship to its foundations.

In the U.S. today the monopoly capitalist class is in the grips of a big economic crisis and they are trying to make the workers and people pay for it. The rich and their state are consolidating fascism to try to crush the growing resistance of the workers and oppressed nationalities. All kinds of opportunists, including high-ranking trade union officials and others, are telling the American people to lie down, to wait till things get "better", to capitulate to the capitalists, to be polite to racists and fascists. This criminal activity helps the capitalists in their fascist offensive by preventing the people from lighting against them.

We must learn from the experience of Chile. We must split with the opportunists and organize active resistance to the fascist offensive of the big capitalists and launch revolutionary struggles to overthrow the monopoly capitalist dictators. This is the biggest support we can render to the Chilean people.

SUPPORT THE HEROIC ANTI-FASCIST RESISTANCE OF THE CHILEAN PEOPLE!

DOWN WITH THE U.S. -BACKED PINOCHET DICTATORSHIP!

OPPOSE CARTER'S "HUMAN RIGHTS " FRAUD -- TO REPLACE PINOCHET FASCISM WITH FREI'S "DEMOCRATIC" FASCISM!

SUPPORT THE PEOPLE'S FRONT! GIVE AN HOUR'S PAY FOR THE UNDERGROUND PRESS!

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What Is Hidden Behind the Coup D'Etat in Bolivia

(The following article is reprinted from the Albanian Telegraphic Agency, August 17, 1978.)

The circumstances under which the recent coup d'etat took place in Bolivia once more expose and reveal the falsify of the so-called "process of democratization and return to the civil power" which is now clamorously being advertised by the oligarchies in Latin America and U.S. imperialism, writes the newspaper Zeri i Popullit in an article commenting on the coup d'etat in Bolivia.

After speaking of the savage military dictatorship which reigned in Bolivia for 7 years on end, and the opposition of the Bolivian working masses and the struggle of Bolivian patriots against the fascist regime which has taken its highest form, that of the armed resistance and which keeps increasing, the newspaper Zeri i Popullit continues:

Under these conditions, the native oligarchy and U.S. imperialism, which lies behind it, were compelled to maneuver, to declare as completed the mission of the military dictatorship of Banzer himself and play the card of the democratization and "return to the civil power" to deceive and lower the dissatisfaction and the revolt of the Bolivian working masses.

The present clique of Peredas in Bolivia, stresses Zeri i Popullit, represents and defends the same interests of the oligarchy and of imperialism represented and defended by the Banzer clique too. This is also shown by the new repressive measures this clique has taken against the Bolivian working people. Behind the recent events and tricks in Bolivia lies the hand of U.S. imperialism, which resorts to all means to ensure its neo-colonialist interests in the countries of Latin America, to have this region as its own sphere of influence in the rivalry with the Soviet social-imperialists for world hegemony.

Concerning the Bolivian working masses, underlines the newspaper in conclusion, they cherish no illusion that through the change of the chieftains of the dictatorship or through the organization of the election farce, the situation too will be improved, The genuine Bolivian freedom loving and revolutionary forces are conscious that their interests are diametrically different from those of the oligarchy and that only through the determined revolutionary class struggle they will attain the complete victory against the military dictatorship and imperialism and they will ensure their true national and social liberation. End.

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