WfJ/tNE/t1 ",1N'U,1" 25¢No. 236 .:~~ )(·523 20 July 1979

•Carter's Secret Service

Drags CWA DelegateOff Convention Floor!

business. And we demand that this.I immy Carter apologize in his speech.hoth to .lane and to the entire C\VAmembership. for his unprecedentedattack on the union. Jane Margolisnever shut down any gas pumps!".

Jon P. FishbaCK

A CWA delegate snapped this photo as Margolis was illegally seized,

was in that meeting by right-JimmyCarter \-vas an invited guest."

"We demand that Jane Margolis bereleased immediately." said Robertson."so that she can resume her pla£e withher delegation carrying out union

for suspicion of threatening the life ofthe president. While she was beingsubjected to interrogation and refusedaccess to a lawyer. Detroit police toldMargolis she was under arrest onunspecified charges. Thirty-five minuteslater she was released. without explana­tion. but subjected to continued inten­sive surveillance by the Secret Serviceeven after returning to the conventionfloor.

Jane Margolis is a spokesman for theMilitani Action Caucus. an oppositiongroup in the union which has repeatedlyprotested government interfereJlcein-.-,the iahor mO\CIYlCnt. particularly by theCI A, In La tin A merica. Earlier in the dayshe was prevented hy the chair j rompresenting a motion that the unionconvention not allow itself to be used asa platform for the anti-labor strike­breaking policies of the Democrats.Clearly, a key purpose of the hamfisted.blatantly illegal action by the SecretService was to keep union delegatesfrom registering any dissent againstCarter and his energy speech.

In New York, James Robertson,National Chairman of the SpartacistLeague IU.s.. immediately issued avehement protest upon learning of theseizure of Margolis. an SL supporterand long-time personal friend. "Whatthe Secret Service did to Jane is anoutrage against organized labor," hesaid. "We don't have kings here.According to the laws. every citizen issupposed to have equal rights. ButJimmy Carter's personal goons simplymarch into a union convention and muga woman who is an elected unionofficial! Furthermore. Jane Margolis

DETROIT. July la-In front of hun­dreds of stunned delegates. U.S. SecretService agents this afternoon grabbedunion official Jane Margolis. hand­cuffed her and dragged her protestingoff the floor of the 41 st AnnualCon\cntion of the CommunicationsWorker, of America (CWA). Shortl\helore President Jimmy Carter wa'sscheduled to speak before the body,agents surrot/ndedMargolis. 32. ane1ectt:d delegate and member of thee.\ccuti\e hoard oj C\VA Local 9410(San Francisco). as she was standingwith her delegation. \Vithout warningthey rushed her from the hall and lockedher in an adjoining room. Whenoutraged delegates rushed to the speak­crs' microphones to protest this criminalassault. the mikes were abruptly turnedoft.

White House officials at first deniedthat anyone had been detained. butchanged the story after a CBS newsmanreported accidentally finding JaneMargolis in a back room to which shehad heen abducted by the agents. This isthe first known time that the SecretService has invaded a union conventionandseilcd a union officer. Margolis hasannounced that she intends to seekmaximum legal redress for this outrage.

Out of sight of the conventiondelegates federal agents manhandledJane. threatening to hold her incommu­nicado for days-on the basis of"reports" from unidentified "sources"-

Spartacist League Press Release

Jane Margolis:"One Critic Carter

Didn't Hear"'Tm going to reach out," said

Jimmy Carter in his Sunday nightsermon. and reach out he did.Ihrough the long arm of his SecretService goons. he "reached out" andmugged class-struggle militant JaneMargolis right on the floor of theCommunications Workers of Am­erica (CWA) Convention (see ac­companYIng Spartacist I.eaguePress Release). The fact that Mar-

golis was an elected delegate to theconvention with the right andresponsibility to present her viewswas obviously a matter of noconcern to Carter. For the capitalistclass which this peanut baronrepresents. the rights of workingpeople and the integrity of theirlahor organizations can be violatedat their whim. Carter himself, onthe other hand. is protected by a

host of lese maje,I!t; laws which givehis armed thugs the right. amongother things. to grab all "suspi­CIOUS" persons for preventivedetention.

.lane Margolis was suspected ofplanning to do something whichwas absolutely intolerable toCarter-exercise her democraticright to speak out on the floor of theconvention of her trade union andexpose his little energy confidencegame for the cheap hustle that it is.So. she was subjected to "prevent­ive" gagging. But the only "wea­pon" that this trade-union militanthad pointed at the heart of thepresident was the simple truth thatthe energy crisis is not a crisis ofconfidence or faith or prayer or therest of Carter's empty "born again"

hokum. but a crisis of capitalism.And it is real: not in our hearts andminds but in the streets!

Carter had said. "I'm listening tothe voices of Americans," but. in thewords of the San Francisco Exam­iner (.Iuly I~) headline. Jane Mar­golis was "One critic Carter didn'thl'ar." Carter is so mal1lfestlyunpopular. his support so shallowand his program such an obviouscan game that he can't risk· theslightest encounter with the truth.What if this trade unionist hadpunctured Carter's hot air balloon'!

Jane Margolis has the right to saywhat she went to the convention tosay. and the working people havethe right to hear it. WV asked herfor the statement she would havemade. and we publish it on page 4.

LettersProletarian PolandDear Comrades:

As "Pilgrimage for Anti-Communism" (WI' No.234. 22 .lune 1(79) pointed out. the Western presspresented the Pope's recent tour as if the entire Polishnation had been on its knees to the Holy See. Asagainst this bourgeois vision of"Catholic Poland," it isimportant that Marxists uphold and restore the historyof proletarial/ Poland-the Poland of Rosa Luxem­burg and leo .Iogiches. Julian Marchlewski and FelixD/er/hinsky and so many others. of the SDKPiL(Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Polandand Lithuania). and of their revolutionary antecedentsin the Proletariat Party led by Ludwick Warsinski inthe IXXOs. The long and often stormy history of PolishMarxism. its international importance and contribu­tion of so many leaders to the Communist Internation­al and the Russian and German parties. its deep rootsand mass influence among the Polish working class.represent a proud tradition of communist proletarianstruggle.

:\lot the least of the Stalinists' crinles is theirdeformation and breaking of this tradition-includingthe bloody annihilation of many Polish communistsduring Stalin's purges-as Isaac Deutscher's "Thetragedy of the Polish Communist Party" makes clear.(iierek's shamefaced attempt to pass oil the Pope's

Leo Jogiches and Rosa Luxemburg

anti-communist tour as a "victory" only reveals what avast gulf separates his regime from this revolutionaryMarxist tradition. The great revolutionary RosaI.uxemburg forthrightly denounced the Polish clergy'sreactionary appetites to the workers of Krakow.understanding that this was a vital educational task inconsolidating them under the banner of Ma(xismduring the great proletarian uprisings of 1905:

"The clergy. no less than the capitalist class. lives on thebacks of the people. profits from the degradation: theignorance and the oppression of the people. The clergy

and the parasitic capitalists hate the organized workingclass. conscious of its rights. which fights for theconquest of its liberties,"

She \\arned that the Church would not cease itsattempts to mislead it with "honeyed words," conclud­ing that "hc who defends the exploiters and who helpsprolnng this present regime of misery is the mortalenemy of the proletariat. whether he be in a cassock orthe uniform of the police" ("Sncialism and theChurchcs," Kraknw. 19(5). The Vatican and PolishC'athnlic hierarchy have nnt altered their reactionaryappctites one i,)ta since these words were written.

As the Wf article pninted out. the Polish workingclass has fought 10;- its economic and political rightsagainst the Stalinist regime. in the context ofupholding the sociali/ed property forms of thc Polishdclormed workcrs statc. To carry through the workers'struggles to the end-for political revolution againstthe Stalinist regimes. and international socialistrevolution against capitalism~reljuires the politicalrearming of the working class, The history of PolishMarxism will be a powerful weapon in the hands of thePolish proletariat. which will once again play its part inthc battle lor world communism.

Comradelv.II.C.

Brownshirts in the Green SwampKohlenlWest Germany17Mayl979

To the Editor:

Conccrning your two articles on nuclear power, Iwant to add the following in order to point out thereactionary conclusions of the international ecologymovement and its "left" auxiliaries.

A logical culmination of this movement took placencar the town of Kohlenz. West Germany. in the lastweeks of April. On April 2\ memhers of the GermanMaoist KPI) jointly marched with t~lscists of the youthorganization of the N PD (National-Democratic Partyof Germany) against a nuclear reactor underconstrue­tion ncar Kohlenz.

What happened"Since the heginning of the ·70s. many committees

have existed in opposition to the reactor. Iheiropposition strengthened after the Harrishurg accidcnt.hecause the reactor in dispute is of the Harrishurg typehuilt hy Hahcock & Wilcox. Thus. two demonstrationstook place (on April 21 and April 21'1) in the suhurbMlilheim-Kiirlich and Kohlcnz. with 1'100 and 3000participants respectively. Ont of the main organizersof the latter demonstration was a group around thelifc-stylism paper. "Kohlcnzer Blatt" (KOH. organizedhy memhers of the Kohlenz KPD branch together withsome ecofreaks).

At the same time. the fascists learned to usc theunexpected opportunities of a broad petty-bourgeoismO\ement. The ".lunge Nationaldemokraten" (YoungNational-Democrats). youth group of the [nco-Nazi]N PI). called into existence the "Grune Zelle Koblenz"((j RL. (ireen Cell of Koblenz). publishing the paper."(ir(ine Fahne" ("Green Banner"). They took over allthe anti-nuclear demands. leading an ecology-orientedelectoral campaign and fighting for "a new ecologyconsciousness"-in a nutshell. joining the greens\\amp.

On April 21 they all got along very well: burgherslioerals. ecofreaks. Maoists and .. , the fascists. with thesun shining on their T-shirts. To be sure. there were noattempts to crowd out the brown goons at all.

Ihc half-hearted attempts by the KOH to distancethemsel\es are contradicton·. In KOB NO.4 we read:"Ihe people present (at an" electoral meeting of the(ireen Cell) evidently stated that there's no commonintercst between them and nco-fascist organiza­tions." .. (p 12). On page 13. however. we hear fromthe KOH that at a meeting of some "green groups fromthe North Rheinland" in February. they both acceptedthe Al!D. which the Maoists used to call fascist. as"in spitc of the name. not a right-wing group." and onApril 21'1 debated with ... the Green Ccll.

On April2X the fascists were not allowed to take partin the second demonstration. hut they leafleted their

paper without resistance. Only after being asked aboutthe fascists by a sympathizer of the TLD (Trotzki­stische Liga Deutschlands-German section of the iSt)did the Maoists have a reason to make a small protestagainst the presence of the GZK through theirbullhorn. But for nukes sake. it wasn't an honest one.In the last issue of KOB we can wonder about an"analysis" of the Green Cell: "I don't want to say aboutthc (iLK that it's a Nazi set-up. but I think we mustkeep a\\':ltchful eye ..... Shame on you! The membersof the fascist Cell have been openly acting as fascists inthis town for six years at least. and their connectionwith the .lunge Nationaldemokraten and other rightistgroups is well-known by every political person here­lasJ not least by the KPD editor of the KOH. But whyfight against the fascists at all? We get instead. the"solidarity of all living against the Green Death"(KOH). which. according to the speaker at thedcmonstration. includes "everybody. whatever hispolitical perspective may be."

the counterrevolutionary conseljuences of thefetishistic "green" unity-and the hardened de factocollaboration of the Maoist charlatans-cannot bedemonstrated better than bv this actuallv consummat­ed common bloc of self-pr~c1aimedco~munistswith"la/is.

<. 'omradely.Karl K,

Editorial NoteAustralian SWP Cheers The Deer Hunter

When Michael Cimino's 111e J)eer Ifllllier brought I

audiences to cheer lor U.S. imperialism's murderouswar in Vietnam. communists who sat through it grittedthcir tecth in repressed outrage. But the press of theAustralian Socialist Workers Party (SWP) cheeredright'along: "A subtle and immensely revealing work,"raved Renfrey Clarke in the SWP's Direct Action (26April) about a film even many bourgeois liberalcommentators recognized as a sensationalist piece ofreactionary propaganda.

Clarke's incredible thesis'! Cimino's film is reallydirected aKains I the war. if perhaps unconsciously:"Cimino's statements on the Vietnam war arcambiguous. Hut we arc able to hate the conflict for thetragedy it inflicts on the film's heroes." the three steelworker buddies who go to Vietnam, The film'snotorious Russian roulette scene depicting the N LFguerrillas as sadistic torturers turns reality inside out tomake heroes and victims of the real torturers and massmurderers~the U.S. imperialist forces (sec ." J)eer11111/11'1'1 ies." 11'/' No. 230. 27 April 1\}7\}). 10 Clarke.

2

however. such matters as who tortured whom inVictnam arc beside the point in a film in which the"dramatic purpose is to develop themes hostile to U.S.intervention. In particular ... the theme of arbitraryviolence...... And he finds in the "impassionedcamaraderie" of the patriotic protagonists "a powerful.if politicallv undeveloped. working-class solidarity."

tragedy'! "What about the tragedy U.S.imperialism's 'heroes' inflicted on the Vietnamese inthe course of that filthy. counterrevolutionary war""asks AlIslralasial/ SparlaCisl. the newspaper of theSpartacist League of Australia and New Zealand. in anarticle condemning 711e /Jeer HUn/er and exposing theS W P revie\\ ("I >eer IllIlIler Lies ... and S W P LovcsIt." .,ll1slra!a\i(/1/ .\jWrl(/ci.\1 No. h4. June 1\}79). Classsolidarity'! "Clarke mightjust as well label a pack rapeby working-class youth as 'impassioned camaraderie.''Kill a few for me: is the parting farewell of one of [ thetrio's] co-workers; and Michael [the hero] kills more

conlinued on [JaKe 9

WORKERS VANGUARD

IMG Drags Its Feet

British Spartacists Lead Defenseof Iranian HKS

mullahs!" were "counterrevolutionary"and supported calling on the cops toexclude Spartacist contingents fromanti-shah demonstrations.

It ought to be obvious to everyonethat kneeling to fanatical anti­communist Khomeini is no way to freethe endangered militants in Iran. Yet the1M G continues to grovel before thereactionary theocrat. Its Ad-Hoc Com­mittee to Defend Iranian Socialistssuggests that a "model telegram" be sentto the ayatollah's Islamic RevolutionaryCouncil pleading, "We friends of theIranian Revolution [!J call for therelease of the 15 HKS membersjailed inAhwaz." And the IMG's defence Jeaflet~or the) u,ly? demonstration ,foes out ofIts wa'y"'fO de'iW ~"!l fife I upi iSbilEdH KS supporters are in any way"subversives."

A strong, united defence of the H KS,Fedayeen and all other Iranian leftistsunder thegun is a burning necessity. Yetlike its USee brethren, the IMG isdetermined to cover for the Islamictheocracy, even if that means watchingits comrades go to the wall. Stop thesectarianism and passivity-For united­front defence of the Iranian left!.

IISpartacist Britain

Who defends the HKS? The IMG contingent on the left or the Spartacistcontingent on the right?

Workers Action. Again, SL placardsand chants dominated the picket.

The IMG's Iranian supporters, whomust feel acutely the repressive reality ofKhomeini's regime that the IMG wilful­ly obscures, took up such SL slogans as"Down with the mullahs, down with thegenerals-Workers must rule Iran!"rhe demonstration concluded with aunited chant of "Stop persecution ofIranian left-Free the Fedayeen andH KS!" and the protestors then sang"The Internationale" in English andPersian.

The IMG's refusal to work for amass working-elass-centred united­front defence of the HKS-or evenbring out a small fraction of its ownmembership for the demonstrafitm.:....c'reveals more than its notorious inepti­tude and dilettantism. How, for exam­ple, can 1M G national secretary BrianGrogan mobilise his membership tooppose Khomeini's repression? Afterall, ,a few short months ago he was'touring Britain to recount his joy inchanting "Allah Akbar" ("god is great")on the streets of Teheran! Last year theIMG claimed that SL/B slogans like"Down with the shah! Down with the

protest. When an S L/ B contingent ofsome 20 comrades arrived at thedesignated time, not a single otherindividual was present. Ten minuteslater IMG leader Steve Potter and onesupporter finally ambled up with someplacards and watched grimly while theSL chanted such slogans as "Free theFedayeen and H KS-Stop the persecu­tion of the Iranian left!", "Down with allthe ayatollahs-For a workers revolu­tion in Iran!" and "No asylum for theshah-The workers must rule Iran!"

After 20 minutes another handful of1M Gers arrived, swelling their ranks toseven or eight (out of a membership onpaper of about 300 in London alone!).Five supporters of the Workers SocialistLeague also turned up in the end,seeming as unhappy as the 1M G aboutthe determined Spartacist presencewhich rescued what would otherwisehave been a pathetic shambks. At theconclusion of the picket, the handful of1M Gers joined with the S L to chantslogans demanding the freeing of theFedayeen and HKS militants.

A tiny back-page report on the picketin the next issue of Socialist Challengecomplained that the turnout had been"disappointing" and urged "all SocialistChallenge supporters" to appear thenext Saturday. The SL/B immediatelycontacted the 1M G and other left-wingorganisations to urge a coordinatedunited-front defence around the slo­gans: "Stop repression of the Iranianleft!", "Free the imprisoned H KS "andFedayeen supporters!" and "Stop Kho­meini's government attacks on thenational minorities of Iran!"

The IMG flatly refused. Thus, July 14saw a repeat performance of the weekbefore. The 30 SL supporters who beganthe picket were eventually joined by adozen or so IMG members and sympa­thisers, including a group of Iranians,along with another four from theWorkers Power grouping and two from

LON DON, July 14-Fifteen supportersof the Hezb-e Kargaran-e Sosialist(Socialist Workers Party-HKS) re­main in prison in Iran, but theircomrades of the United Secretariat(USee) continue to sabotage theirdefence. The fake-Trotskyist USee,having preached political confidence inKhomeini's "Islamic Revolution," mustnow oppose the urgently needed united­front defence of the H KS. Instead, ithumbly petitions the reactionary regimewhich threatens to kill supporters of theHKS and the Fedayeen guerrillas,begging Khomeini to desist from thecampaign against "satanic Marxists"which has always been a key part of themullahs' programme.

Apparently blinded by theopportunist illusions which are itsstock-in-trade, the USec acts as if thefanatical Islamic clergy ruling Iran arejust democrats in turbans. Thus theyprefer to split the defence of the H KSrather than risk the slightest taint ofassociation with opposition to themullahs' reactionary regime. In the U.S.the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)physically excluded the SpartacistLeague from H KS defence actionsunder the cover of shameless 'Stalin­style lies. And the Australian SWPabandoned its own demonstrationrather than be seen with the advocates ofproletarian opposition to the mullahs.

Now in Britain supporters of theUSec's International Marxist Group(l MG) are squirming as the internation­al Spartacist tendency is militantlydefending the H KS comrades while theIMG drags its feet.

It took more than a month for the1M G to get around to calling its firstdefence activity, a picket of the Iran Airoffices in London on July 7. The IMG'spublicity consisted of one small box onthe back page of Socialist Challenge,which appeared two days before the

Anwar Defense Committee Formedmeeting adopted a motion co-sponsoredby two steel workers who were disci­plined for honoring Brotherhood oft{ailway. Airline and Steamship Clerks(BRAC) picket lines, Tom Knight and

continued on page JI

WORKERSVANII/ARIJMarxist Working-Class Biweeklyof the Spartacist League of the U.S,EDITOR: Jan Norden

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Charles Burroughs

PRODUCTION: Darlene Kamiura (Manager)Noah Wilner

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Wyatt

EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule, GeorgeFoster, Liz Gordon, James Robertson, JosephSeymour, Marjorie Stamberg

Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) publishedbiweekly, skipping an issue in August and aweek in December, by the SpartacistPublishing Co" 260 West Broadway, NewYork, NY 10013, Telephone: 966--6841(Editorial), 925-5665 (Business), Address allcorrespondence to: Box 1377, G,P,O" NewYork, NY 10001, Domestic subscriptions:$3.QO/24 issues. Seconc}.~lass postage paid atNew York, NY,

Opinions expressed in signed articles orletters do not necessarily express theeditorial Viewpoint,

The fight to reinstate Keith Anwar.militant steel worker fired by InlandSteel Company for refusing to cross apicket lIne, has moved ahead with theformation of the Keith Anwar DefenseCommittee. The Committee is dedicat­ed not only to winning Anwar's jobback, but to defending all those USWAmembers who have recently come underattack for hon'oring picket lines.

Organized around the demands: "thatInland Steel immediately reinstateKeith Anwar with full seniority andback pay" and "defend all unionmembers victimized for honoring picketlines," the Committee is urgently seek­ing support in the form of endorse­ments, donations and help with thework of publicizing the case.

Anwar, an apprentice millwright atInland's 24-lnch Bar Mill and a memberof USWA Local 1010, was fired on May18 because he refused to cross the picketline of striking USWA Local 8180, asmall local employed inside the Inlandfacility by Apex Steel and SupplyCompany. Other militants at the U.S.Steel Southworks plant in Chicago andat Gary Works in Gary, Indiana have'also been disciplined for honoringrailroad workers' and iron workers'picket lines.

20 JULY 1979

These militants are on the front linesof the fight for the labor principle that"picket lines mean: don't cross!" It iscrucial that all trade unionists supportthe Anwar case. A vigorous labormobilization to turn this firing aroundcould put a stop to company efforts tobreak down the traditions of laborsolidarity and could reverse an attackwhich ultimately strikes at the founda­tions of theunion itself. "Inland is trying

-to deny me the right to advocate labormilitancy and to engage in unionactivity," as Anwar wrote in the Juneissue of the US WA Local 1010 SteelWorker. "'An injury to one is an injuryto all' is an old labor tradition and agood one."

The Keith Anwar Defense Committeehas been endorsed by a number ofUSWA officials, including the vicepresident of Local 1010, Anwar's ownlocal. and the president of Local 8180,the local whose lines Anwar honored.Over $600 has already peen collected bythe pre-existing Keith Anwar DefenseFund, for Anwar's legal expenses inpursuing his case before the NationalLabor Relations Board. These fundscame primarily from steel workers, butthere have been donations from thePartisan Defense Committee, WV

readers and supporters as far away asMassachusetts, California and Mon­treal. One unionist wrote: "By stickingto principles you can perhaps make asuccessful stand for proletarian tradi­tion and necessity. It would be a greatvictory if you could return to work ....Enclosed find a day's pay."

The Committee has begun to generatepublicity in the press of the Chicago andnorthern Indiana area. Articles haveappeared in the Hammond Times, theGary Post Tribune, the Chicago De­(ender, Chicago's black-oriented daily,newspaper, and the Dai(l" Calumet ofSouth Chicago. WJOB Radio in Ham­mond aired an interview with Anwarand broadcast a statement of support byUSW A District 31 director Jim Balan­off regarding the case.

But the defense of Anwar and othermilitants took its biggest step forwardon June 30 when the USW A District 31Conference passed a resolution pledging"all available resources to reverse theseattacks" and demanding "that InlandSteel reinstate Keith Anwar with fullseniority and back pay" (see ~VV No.235,6 July 1979). Local 1010 has votedto endorse this stand. And on June 27,Anwar was invited to address a meetingof USW A Local 65 at Southworks. The

NO.. 236 20 July 1979

3

~~Whose union is this anyway,

4

WV Photo

Jane Margolis at CWA convention. "I had every right to be on that conventionfloor. Jimmy Carter was a guest."

What the Secret ServiceWouldn't Let Jane Margolis Say

came back ... was that it was about 20minutes before Jimmy Carter was goingto be coming to the Convention. Theprocedure that they used for thequestion-and-answer period was thatthe first 20 people in line at the differentmicrophones would be the people thatwould be able to ask questions.... Whenit was announced to get in line at themicrophone, I got in line ... and I wasnumber 15 to get there. I was then readoff as one of the 20 people that would beasking questions of the president. Theyhad us sitting in a separate section. I wasbeing watched by Secret Service men....[A]t delegate number 12 they cut off thediscussion and Jimmy Carter said thathe had been there for 55 minutes and hewas departing from the Convention.WV: So it sounds pretty clear that thereason that they did this was in order toprevent there being any dissent..JANE: Exactly. And it was clear toother delegates. A delegate who did getto speak came up to me afterwards andsaid. "If I had known that all 20 of usc'ouldn't speak I would have given myseat to you." Other delegates came up tome and said. "Look it. I may not agreewith everything you've said. but youhave every right to be at this Conventionand say what you want." Delegates werepretty outraged. appalled ...WV: Do you plan to lodge any protestabout this tomorrow at the unionmeeting?.JAI'iE: Yes. We're going to issue aleaflet. The point that we want to maketo the delegates is that I am an electedExecutive Board member, I am anelected delegate to this Convention andI was sent here by my membership. Thisis a union Convention. I had every rightto be on that Convention floor. JimmyCarter was a guest. \ hild more right tobe on that Convention floor than he did.And his Secret Service escorted me off.Every trick in the book was put up inorder to avoid criticism of Jimmy Carteron national press coverage and on TV.And that it's a real outrage that thePresident is invited to the Conventionand the Secret Service and the samegovernment agencies that are going tobe used against workers in a nation­al strike in 1990-against phoneworkers-these same government agen­cies were used to get me off myConvention floor. arrest me, handcuffme. slander my character. all to keepany public criticism of Jimmy Carterfrom getting on the floor.W\: \"0\\. you are a spokesman for theMilitant Action Caucus. Could you justmention briefly what the MAC standstor'!JAI'iE: The Militant Action Caucus.we are a caucus inside the CWA. We areall CWA members. We want to fight toform a militant class-struggle leadershipinside the CWA. We want to stopcompany collaboration on the part ofour union leadership. We are fightingfor a national phone strike in 1980 tostop the loss of jobs that is resultingfrom extreme automation. We want tofight for a shorter workweek with noloss in pay.... We believe in no supportto the Democratic and RepublicanParties. Not a dime, not a vote to thestrikebreaking capitalist parties. Andwe stand for a workers party that willfight for a workers government that willexpropriate industry and form aplanned rational economy. Also thisveal' at the Convention we are planning~ .. to try and change the constitution forthe local right to .strike so that locals willbe able to use the power of strikingwithout the sanction of the Internation­al (who never gives it).... And we planon contacting as many delegates aspossible and trying to form a nationalopposition to fight for a militantleadership in the CWA. •

WORKERS VANGUARD

of the president. I said, what is yoursource'! They said they do not know thesource, out they have from a source thatI was threatening the life of thepresident. I said. no way was I threaten­ing the life of the president. What I waswas an elected delegate ... and I wasgoing to practice my democratic right ofspeaking on the Convention floor.WV: So they never said where they gotthis supposed report?JANE: No....WV: When they were dragging youoil the floor. did it cause anycom mot ion?JANE: yes, ... there was a bit of aruckus. It was in the back of the Hall.Glenn Watts said ...WV: Now he's the president of theunion, right?JANE: Yes, he's the InternationalPresident of the union. What he did washe told delegates to ignore the disrup-

tion in the back of the hall. There were anumber of delegates from the WestCoast and from my own delegation thatwere planning on having a walkout fromthe Convention in protest. First severalof them tried to get the microphone onthe Convention floor and protest to theInternational officers that I had beendragged off the Convention floor. Themicrophone was turned off. they werenot recognized. They were not allowedto speak to the Convention. Watts hadtold people to ignore the disruption inthe back of the hall. I was detained forabout 30 to 35 minutes and then I cameback in to the Convention. When I cameback in to the Convention...WV: Now wait a minute. They draggedyou off the Convention floor, hand­cuffed you. said you were under arrestbut with no charges-and they say thatthey have information that you'rethreatening the life of the president­and then they let you go'!.JANE: Right. And then they let me go.WV: Did they have any explanation forthis'!.JANE: ... [T]here was some kind ofnegotiations going on in an adjoiningroom which I do not know about. Butthere were several Secret Service men inthere having a discussion and then theycame back in and they released me.WV: Some union delegates went to theSecret Service and protested?JANE: Apparently my president JimImerzel went to the Secret Service andto the International and protested....WV: I understand that after you werereleased you came back onto theConvention floor. Were you allowed tospeak then'!JANE: Okay, what happened when I

rhey said that they had every right, theSecret Service, to ask me questions and Ihad to answer them. When I was in theoack room they kept me handcuffed fora while...W\': Did they let you talk to anybodywhen they had you in that back room?.JAI'iI':: No.W\': People couldn't get in? .

.JAI'iI':: NO.1 asked for a lawyer andthey said ... [w]e have every right todetain you for 72 hours.W\': For 72 hours?JANE: 72 hours while the president isin the vicinity. And I said. why am Ihere'! And they said, we have from asource that you were threatening the life

protection Carter invoked the slave­laoor Taft-Hartley injunction to breaktheir strike. Let's rememoer how in theface of soaring olack unemploymentand desperate ghetto poverty. Carter'scallous response was simply that "life is~lI1fair." Nor have we forgotten how hethreatened to oreak our own proposedCWA strike in 1977 and how he willundouotedly try to again if we preparefor the solid coa.st-to-coast phone strikewe need next year!

I came to this convention on theplatform-"Not a dime. not a vote forthe strikebreaking Democrats andRepublicans!" This is the program I ranon. This is the program on which I waselected to my local Executive Board andon which I have twice in a row beenelected a delegate to this convention. InCa I l: I s speech last night he told 1 to"stop cursing and start praying." We sayil\ lillie 10 .\/artfighling.' And our fightmust be to brea k labor's ties to thebosses' parties and to form a powerfulworkers party to lead us a" we strugglefor a workers govcrnment. •

(cuntinuedFvlI1 page 1)Brothers and Sisters.

Jimmy Carter came here today to getapproval from the working people forhis energy program-the program thatolames us for the energy crisis becauseof our "greed." our "gas gU711ing" andour "self-indulgence." While they hoparound the country in their Learjets andlimousines. the capitalists would like toconvince us that it is our duty to makesacrifices for the good of the country, tosettle for the 7 percent guideline whilethe cost of living soars at 14 percent.

The present oil shortage is a well­known ripofffor Big Oil. The problem isthat this rotten system delivers theprofits to the peanut bosses. the oilmagnates and the Ma Bells while wecannot even get enough r.·', :"I' our cars.

The CWA convention must not beturned into a platform for the racistanti-labor Democratic Party of JimmyCarter. I want to remind the delegateshow in 1979 when the heroic miners shutdown the coalfields for the right to strikeand for adequate health and safety

JANE: I'm an elected delegate to theCWA Convention and I'm an ExecutiveBoard member in San Francisco Local9410 of the CWA. Today Jimmy Carterwas invited by our International officerst9 address the Convention. Early thismorning, as soon as the Conventionconvened, I attempted to get the floor tomake a motion that the CWA not allowitself to be used as a platform for theanti-labor strikebreaking policies ofJimmy Carter. I was not recognized bythe Chairman of the Convention. I wasnot allowed to make the motion. Lateron in the afternoon, about 3 o'clock, anhour before Jimmy Carter was to cometo speak to the Convention, I wasstanding on the floor of the Convention.I was approached by a Secret Serviceagent who told me that they wanted toask me questions in a back room. I toldthem that I did not want to talk to themuntil I got legal advice.... They thengrabbed me and physically dragged meout of the Convention hall. I wassurrounded by several Secret Servicemen and the Detroit police. Theyhandcuffed me...WV: Right there on the Conventionfloor, in front of all the delegates'!JAN E: It was right outside theConvention floor they handcuffed me.They handcuffed me behind my back,and took me around to a back room inthe back of the auditorium. I wasprotesting the who.1e way. When I got inthe back they were saying that theywanted to ask me questions. I insistedthat I was not going to speak to themwithout a lawyer. They told me that theyhad every right to detain me. When theyhad handcuffed me the Detroit policetold me that I was under arrest and that Iwas going to be taken to the Detroit jail.WV: For what? Under arrest for what?JAI'iE: Just that I was under arrest.

WV Interview with Jane Margolis

"Because I DenounceCarter's Anti-LaborParty"

Carter's or the members'?"CBS-TV Newsman Exgose

Secret ServiceStonewall

Wc puhlish hc/oll' cxccrpl.1 FO/ll aIra/l.lcripf or a "Sj}(!cia/ Repol'f Of) fhePrcsidCfl{ in f)efroif" \\'hich was airedon Channe/2 TV (WJBK) J)efroif, Juh!f>, !!:30 lUll.

FELDMAN: Hut apparently PresidentCarter has done much in solving hiscred ibility problem, at least with theCommunications Workers of Americameeting in Detroit. Most of them arcpleased and happy with the day's events.Hut there is one person who may be alittle bit bitter. Tom Greene was an eye­witness to part of an incident earlier

•

at the fact though that this of course wasa political gathering for the presidenttoo. It was all set up. There was a largefriendly group there, the Communica­tions Workers generally patted him onthe back. So I don't think we could saythat he just came into a group that hedidn't know and for which there was noorganization at all.

GREENE: Oh no. No, that's normal.

FELDMAN: It was a group that theWhite House was darn sure would befriendly to the...

GREENE: Exactly. You see he neededthis coming off of last night, and comingdown from the mountain. He needs allthis. ·'ou know, they want to give himthe runway.•

WV Photo

said whv; I asked them. They wouldn'teven acknowledge that they had her. Isaid. "Hut she's in the other room." Theysaid. "Don't know nothing about it."FELDMAN: So some people, some ofthe delegates had told me, described heras a socialist, or at least a socialist inbelief. whatever that means. But yousec, they were disappointed that thepeople were apparently hand-picked. Atleast it appeared that way.GREENE: There wasn't a real cross­section.FELDMAN: Hand-picked to talk to thepresident.GREENE: Yeah, no matter what theytell vou, it was not a cross-section of the4,000 people in that ro9m.GALLAGHEN: Well, we all got to look:

Carter's Big Sermon comes to Cobo Hall, July 16.

today when you were walking into CoboHall, Tom, and it appeared to us, to thereporters, as if somebody was trying tobe silenced.

GREENE: Well, that was the feeling Igot. This is purely accidental. I wasstumbling around trying to find theroom that the President was in becausewe get lost going in, but, there was thisyoung lady in a room with a policeman,Ron Suskin, who used to be thepresident of D. P.O.A. [Detroit PoliceOfficers Association], and she says, "Arcyou my lawyer'?" I said no. She said,"Well, I'm being held here. I'm underarrest." I said, "For what')" She said,"Ikcause I have a speech here that Iwanted to deliver against M r. Carter." Itwas her contention that she was beingsilenced by the Secret Service as a way toavoid any kind of an eml?arrassing:situation for the president. She felt thatthe questions were going to be stackedby favorable people who are friends ofM r. Carter who would ask him only thekinds of questions that he could answervery well and handle easily. And shenever did, as you know. She dideventually get back into Cobo. Theyreleased her" but she got in at a pointwhere she could not be up front and geta chance to ask a question.HARRY GALLAGHEN: She had beenwhat, detained by the Secret Service,Secret Service bodyguard or whatever. ..GREENE: I asked them, you know,Harry, we talked about this earlier, you

*****

* * * * *TOM GREENE: His [Carter's] speech[at the CWA convention] was brief. Hetook only 12 questions from the audi­ence. Most of the questions werefriendly. One person that wanted to askthe president some hard questions wasearlier taken from Cobo Hall in hand­cuffs by the Secret Service men whowere reportedly told that she was athreat to Mr. Carter. She was laterreleased. too late, that is. to ask thequestions that she claimed the presidentcouldn't really handle very well abouthis labor record.MlRRA Y FELDMAN: You know ifhe had let it work down the li ne. therewould be a lot of people asking hardquestions.GREENE: There sure would be.FELDMAN: Thank you, Tom.

a motion in the morning session 111 ...... uur Of rn,. J,-.:;'- em.. . :-_, ,~~~osing Mr Carter's apDean.L\l'p. .

longer than his schedule originallyhad alloted

"I had every intention to speak outagainst him, but they (the unionleaders and Secret Service) obvious.ly didn't want that to get out onnational television," Ms. Margolissaid.

"Our union convention should not,be used as a forum for JimmyCarter's anti·labor views."

Ms. Margolis was i~dignant abouther removal from the floor of theconvention.

"I'm an elected delegate and hewas only a guest," she said later. "Ihad every right to be on that floor forevery rnompnt n' th~ ........ _ ..A_~:.

MS. MARGOLIS was one of 20persons scheduled to ask questions ofthe President in his nationally.televisioned appearance yesterdaybefore the convention of the Com.munications Workers of America(CWA) in Cobo Hall.

She was released and returned tothe hall in time to present herquestion but she was 15th on thelist, and the President cut offquestioning after receiving the 14thquestion.

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*=:i woman delegate at Coboearl1er in the By ROBERT E. ROACH threat to the life of the PreSident, and

. ls to bar, New. 5.,,, Writ,. that they could detain me for up to 72~~~<>use of hiS A left,wlng woman delegate was h?urs w~i1e the President was in thed~ ~ f 'led dragged. from the floor of a union VICinity, Ms. MargoliS said.14 She ~1 n com entlOn In Detroit's Cobo Hall bytl convent10n Secret Service agents shortly before

service after Presldem Carter spoke yesterday

·th them for The woman, Jane S. lIIargolis, aWi. ed briefly self'proclaimed San FranciscotaUl rt mllaant, saId afterw~rd that hercuffed in pa forcible remo\'al from the hall

once allow prevented her from challenging thehe di President for his "austerity, anti.

floor" S the labor, strike· breaking policies."questiOn Ms. Margolis said she was hand.

t1 ear the eQd cuffed in a corridor and questionedn back in for about 40 minutes before beingwas bef released.

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One critic Carter didn't hear~ial to The EXIID1iner Jet me go if 1bad threatened the president.

Dt"I'RoIT - A militant San Francisco member of the "I didn't' Want the convention to be a cover forCommunications Workers of America was detained for Carter's antHabor JlO/icies and an oPPOrtunity for him to40 minutes by Secret Service agents yesterday, shortly blame 115 for inflation," sbe said.

before President Carter was scheduled to address the She spoke against Carter at las! year's convention andunion convention. said her antJ.Carter /lOOitions are weij-known in the

Jane Margolis, 32, an executive board member Of union, Where sbe speaks for the Illiiitant action caucus.CWALocal 9410, said she was slllTounded by about a half· Margolis said she was also prevented from making adozen Secret ServJce agents, dragged off the floor of motion to /ll'Ohibit Carter from addressing the COnven-Cobo Hall and handCuffed in a back room. lion. In addition, sbe said, the ntunher of deJegatesto be

There, she said, she was told she Was being held for Jlermitted to question Carter was !'eduCed from ~ to 12.threatening Carter's life. She was 15th in tine, sbe said.

'" "" - ""' W~ """''''''''' ""'''''''' '" "'-~ ... -'""" .. I'a telephone inteT\'Jew. "You know they'""lE'"'" _ t ....- ~. - - -. ,.., . ,. XaUl1tt ". .-- . preslU"'u ed "".,...--<' ~ ~nnl(raUngtll~l"" fore . Stopp.~ ~'"' ~J

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20 JULY 1979 5

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hut instead, after much and sometimeshitter high-level international haggling,the oil majors accepted the price hike. Inthe final negotiating session, Qaddafi'soil man. Abdul Jalloud, said he wouldbe executed if he settled for less than$3.30 a harrel increase. Fortunately forhim, he walked away with his price. Sobegan the OPEC price explosion.

The U.S. State Department. throughits leading Arabist, James Akins, wasactively involved in the critical Libyannegotiations. It advised the oil compa­nies to accept the price hike, knowingfull well that all the OPEC countrieswould follow suit. Why? First. in 1970the U.S. imported relatively little NcarEastern oil. Washington/Wall Streettherefore calculated that Americanindustry would gain competitive advan­tage over the West Europeans and.lapanese if OPEC prices rose. Second­1\ '\ixonl Kissinger hoped to gain(avor with the Arah rulers-at theexpense of German and Japaneseconsumers. It is hardly a diplomaticsecret that the U.S. government en­couraged Qaddafi and the OPEC pricehawks in the early 1970s, and its role is

o'58 '61 ·64 ·67 70 73 76 '79

Data Petroleum Industry ResearchFoundation, BUSiness WorldestImate

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The Real Price of Oil

OPEC price explosionbenefits Rockefellers,sheiks, but not theworkers who produceoil.

the Ncar East. U.S. crude oil pricesremained higher than world marketprices for the next 15 years. (WestEuropeans paid and still pay much morefor gasoline than Americans, but that isdue to much higher sales taxes.) Withthe American market suddenly cut off. aflood of oil was red irected towardEurope and so drove down the worldprice.

The "Seven Sisters" (the five Ameri­can and two British firms which domi­nate world oil) then demanded of the oilproducing countries a cut in the postedprice on which these countries base theirroyalties and taxes. The Organilationof Petroleum Exporting Countrieswas formed in 1%0 to resist this pricecut. In this it was successful. hut withinflation the real price of oil fellthroughout the I%Os. and the oilcompanies were ahle to dominate theweak OPEC group.

1970 marked a turnmg point forOPEC and the world oil market. Col.Qaddafi's newly-fledged "revolutionaryIslamic" regime in Libya took advan­tage of its good bargaining position (thec!oslllg of the Suel Canal and thecutting off of the Syrian pipeline to thePersian Gulf) to demand a large increasein hoth the posted price and stateroyalty. The oil companies could havewalked out at that point, leavingQaddafi\ oil rigs to rot in the desert sun.

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working class "the main enemy is athome."

So Carter says OPEC is the villainand the reformist left portrays italternatively as victim and hero. Cartersays OPEC is totally responsible for thesad shape of the U.S. economy, thereformist left says OPEC has nothingwhatever to do with the present agoniesof U.S. capitalism. What is the truthabout OPEC and the oil crisis') Whyhave oil prices increased ten times since1970.50 perccnt in the past six months'!Arc thc OPEC and the imperialists part­ners or rivals'!

In facl. the oil sheiks and the oilcompanies are acting in cahoots in amutually profitable partnership. Andthe economics of the oil crisis begins afew decades ag.o.

1970-72: U.S. Encourages OPEC

Seeking to make the U.S. militarilyself-sufficient, the Eisenhower adminis­tration in 1959 limited oil imports toabout 10 percent of total consumption.This had a hig impact on the world oilmarket. Since it costs much more toextract oil from American fields than in

lawyers for the oil sheiks and boostingchauvinist isolationism. "The chargesagainst OPEC are all lies." says theSocialist Workers Party's Dick Roherts(.\lilifWIl. 13 July). Roberts makesmuch of the argument that the U.S.('(Iuld he self-sufficient if only the oilcompanies wouldn't hold hack produc­tion (something Carter and HenryJackson will be happy to hear). For theSWP. it is all a question 0f thereallocation of resources under capital­ism. the old social-democratic illusionof less guns. more hutter. Their denialthat OPEC has any real effect on theAmerican economy can only mean thatU.S. military intervention would be aninsane adventure, an irrafional act ofchauvinist militarism. Thus Robertsimplicitly accepts the imperialist pre­mise that i( OPEC did inflict seriousdamage to the U.S. economy. then theU.S. would he justified in taking overthe Arah oil states.

As revolutionary internationalists.our principled objection to U.S. occupa­tion of the Near East oil fields is nothased on conjunctural economic calcu­lations, on whether the current OPECoil price hike is really responsible for thehigh price of gas. The proletariat muststand opposed to all imperialist looting.first and foremost that of its "own"rulers. Whatever the role of OPEC inthe world capitalist economy. for the

unemployment that we now face," athreat to "our economic independenceand the very security of our nation," "aclear and present danger to our system."This is the language of war.

The announcement by the oil cartel inJune of a new rise in crude oil prices.made OPEC easy to scapegoat. Carter'schief advisor on domestic policy, StuartEi,enstal. practically jumped on it. In amemorandum leaked to the press, hehad urged his boss:

"We havea better opportunity than everbefore to assert leadership over anapparently insoluble problem, to shiftthe cause of inflation and energyproblems to OPEC. ..."Use the OPEC price increase as theoccasion to mark the beginning of ournew approach to energy. It must be saidby you-and by us-time and againpublicly to be a watershed event. Wemust turn the increase to our advantageby clearly pointing out its devastatingeconomic impact and as justifIcation ofour efforts against the OPEC cartel. ..."

-New York Times, 8 July

Blaming the Arab oil sheiks is nothingnew. In June the leaders of the majorimperialist powers arrived at Tokyo'sAkasaka Palace in 124 limousines for atvvo-day "energy summit." Theyemerged to tell the working masses oftheir countries to conserve oil and to

". ".deplore the decisions taken by therecent OPEC conference....The unwar­ranted rises in oil prices agreed to arebound to have very serious economicand social consequences. They meanmore worldwide inflation and lessgrowth. That will lead to more unem­ployment, more balance of paymentsdifficulty and will endanger stability indeveloping and developed countries ofthe world alike."

-Nel" York Times, 30 June

And when Carter retreated to CampDavid to prepare his alibis, he had notforgotten how well this gambit seemedto work in the 1973-74 oil crisis.

fhe OPEC chiefs point out in theirdefense that they are only catching upwith four years of global inflation andthe depreciation of the dollar. The tun­up in the open-market oil price earlierthis year henefited mainly the largelyAmerican middlemen and speculators.Most OPEC oil was sold under long­term contracts at less than half the goingfree-market price. Moreover, the reces­sion they arc supposed to have causedhad already begun he/ore the latestOPEC price action and he.fore thegasoline "shortage."

But the anti-OPEC propagandaspewed out by American ruling circles ismore than an alibi intended for domes­tic consumption. American capitalistsdon't want to pay $20 for a barrel ofimported oil which costs 10 cents toproduce. When Carter's man writes of"our efforts against the OPEC cartel."he doesn't mean just diplomacy ordeveloping synthetic fuel. Not farbehind Carter's martial rhetoric is theimperialist arsenal.

Last year the Pentagon got the go­ahead for a special mobile force of100.000 for use in the Middle East orPersian Gulf. Now Washington isupgrading contingency plans to "usemilitary force to preserve the oil flow,"according to Nell' York Times militarywriter Drew Midd~ton(4 July). TheU.S. is putting together a large strikeforce capable of offering the sheiks adeal they can't refuse.

Even the suave. diplomatic Saudi oilminister. Sheik Yamani. is forced totake account of the military threats. Onegets a sense of his nervousness as heprotests perhaps too much:

"If some people are thinking of apossible physical occupation of the oilfields. they can forget it. It cannot bedone. The people would never stand forit. Sabotage of a few parts could haltproduction for years. And then wherewould we all be? No, we must thinkpositively."

-NeH·sweek. 9 July

The reformist left has responded tothe oil crisis by simultaneously acting as

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Jimmy Carter's .I uly 15 sermon aboutthe need for "faith in America" broughtno amazing grace for working peopkangry over the gas lines, the highestinflation rate in decades and a recessionbringing mounting layoffs. To justify hisdemands for increased sacrifice, Carterneeded some villains in the temporalworld to blame for the condition of theeconomy. He came up with the oldstandhy: the Organilation of Petro­leum Exporting Countries (OPEC).Carter quoted one of the "voices of thepeople" he said he listens to: "Our neckis stretched over the fence and OPEChas the knife." And he added: OPEC"isthe direct cause of the long lines thathave made millions of you spendaggravating hours waiting for gasoline,a cause of the increased inflation and

Imperialistsand OPEC:Rivals or

Partners?

6 WORKERS VANGUARD

20 JULY 1979

U.S. troops train for desert action in 1973 war/oil crisis.

7

1979: What Happened?

In brief, the American oil companiescreated an entirely artificial shortage ofgasoline in order to force through pricedecontrol. They did this by (a) notimporting crude oil amply available onthe world market and (b) not refiningand marketing the crude oil they didhave.

The Saudis did cut back productionearly in the year, presumably to showdispleasure over the Camp David"separate peace" between Egypt andIsrael. That action probably pushed upthe open ("spot") market price but in noway caused the U.S. gasoline crunch.That particular rip-off was manufac­tured wholly in the U.S.A.

What about the supposed world oilshortage caused by the Iranian crisis? InJanuary-April of this year crude oilproduction in the Persian Gulf stateswas only 500 million barrels/day (mb/d)

continued on page Y

of OPEC oil. Additionally, the sharpdepreciation of the dollar, in which theOPEC price is fixed, further shrank theexchange value of a barrel of oil on theworld market. Despite a few moneyprice hikes, the real (relative) price ofcrude oil fell almost 20 percent between1974 and the end of 1978.

Throughout this period there was arelative glut of oil, and by 1978 theOPEC cartel began to look ragged.Some countries, like Iraq and Kuwait,opened up bargain basements in "lowerquality" crude.

But the expectation that the fourfoldincrease in oil prices in 1973 wouldstimulate a vast expansion in productivecapacity simply did not materialize­and not because the world is running outof oil.

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Energy secretary Schlesingerf1im-f1ams on oil crisis (above);in midst of gas "shortage,"companies hoard crude oil(right); new pumps for $1-plus agallon gas (bottom).

companies. Obviously, when the pricesrise, their profits increase."

-New York Times Magazine, 14September 1975

Obviously!In fact. the OPEC countries do not

control the oil prices themselves butwith and through the Seven Sisters.When in 1975 the deep world slumpsharply curtailed demand for oil and sotended to drive down the price. Aramco(consortium of Exxon. Mobil, Socaland Texaco) cut its Arabian productionby a whopping 2.5 million barrels a day(mb/d) to restore a tight market.

So far from being an attack onimperialism, the 1973 OPEC quadru­pling of the oil price transferred a largeshare of economic surplus from thebackward as well as the advancedcountries to some of the most reaction­ary, parasitic elements ofworld capita/­ism (the Rockefeller empire, the Arabi­an monarchy, the shah of Iran).

In January 1974 Nixon's warminister, James Schlesinger (now thehapless energy secretary) told the Arabsthat there would be increasing publicclamor to use force if they continued theboycott. One of the reasons that theU.S. ruling class did not resort to amilitary solution in 1974 was that itbelieved that the OPEC price leapwould soon reverse itself. The assump­tion was that continuing global inflationwould erode the real price of oil imports:that once market demand fell, theOPEC cartel would come apart throughcompetitive price-cutting and that $11oil would spur an enormous expansionof production and opening of new fields,especially outside the 0 PEC area. Theseexpectations were in part-but only inpart-fulfilled.

Inflation did reduce the relative costNewsweek

But the oil crisis is hardly a concertedattack on international imperialism byits colonial victims. To begin with. theoil consumers are nut limited to theimperialist countries. As is well known,the 1973 OPEC price hike hit hardestthe hack ward, not the advanced, capi­talist countries. It is obvious that India,Kenya or Peru could less afford $11 oilthan the U.S., which, moreover, printsthe currency With which it pays OPEC(no small advantage). From 1973 to1975 the outstanding debt of the non­oil exporting backward countries wentup over 50 percent! This financialcatastrophe was not caused solely by theOPEC price explosion. but that certain­ly was a very big factor.

Partners with the OPEC cartelarc such well-known "anti-imperialists"as the Rockefellers and Mellons, whosetake on a barrel of oil reportedlyclimbed from $6,150 to $15.20 between1973 and 1975. As Saudi oil ministerSheik Yamani said in 1975. when hewasmaking a big show of being a pricemoderate:

"The ones who want that [much higherprices] are, first and foremost. the oil

"Furthermore. oil prices had remainedfrozen for nearly two years in countrieslike Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while theprices of industrial goods to the OPECcountries have risen steadilv. Thesituation is not verv different fr~m thatof workers seeking wage increases tooffset the effects of inflation and gettingblamed by the government for causinginflation,"

The oil majors were pleased enough atthe big price jump. although they wouldhave preferred it to have been moregrad ua I and not associated with theanti-Israel boycott. But while the SevenSisters and a few New York banks whichhandle Arab money gained from $11 oil,the American capitalist class in generalwas hurt by it. The cries of anguish andoutrage within American (and WestEuropean) ruling circles were genuine, ifexaggerated.

The Arab nationalists and their fake­left hangers-on portrayed the 1973 oilembargo as an "anti-imperialist" re­sponse by "TlTird World" countries. InOctober 1973 The Call. newspaper ofthe Communist Party (Marxist­Leninist) (then the October League)spoke for many of these mindless"ThirdWorld" cheerleaders when it said: "Thequestion facing Libya. Saudi Arabiaand other countries in that part of theworld is. fight-or be ruined." In itslatest issue (9 July) The Call has carriedits slavish capitUlation to the OPECcountries to the extreme of comparingthem to the ll'OrkiflK class:

insufficient to persuade the U.S. to forceIsrael out of the West Bank. By lateDecember the Saudis, probably recog­nizing that Washington would notbudge and might even retaliate, decidedto aba ndon the boycott. But as compen­sation for laying down the "oil weapon"OPEC quadrupled the price of oil toS 11.60 a barrel.

1973-1978: War and Oil Crisis,Glut and Stagnation

When the October 1973 war betweenEgypt/Syria and Israel broke out, theSaudis launched their long-talked­about "oil weapon"-an oil boycott ofthe U.S. and a progressive cutback intotal Arab oil production. This was apolitical-not an economic-move.designed to push Washington intopressuring Israel out of the occupiedterritories. This tactic. if successful,would have guaranteed not the nationalliberation of the Palestinian people butrather their new subjugation by theEgyptian. Jordanian or Syrian bour­geois states. The political nature of theboycott was clearly demonstrated by thefact that the shan of Iran, always anOPEC price hawk. expanded produc­tion during tnis period. Of course,Pahlavi expected to be well rewardedfor his services to American and Israeliinterests.

The "oil weapon" turned out to have arather low megatonnage, certainly

routinely denounced to this day by pro­Zionist oil experts like M.A. Adelman.

Between 1970 and the beginning of1973 the posted price of Saudi lightcrude rose from $I.!W to $2.59. But inthe same period the actual world marketprice more than doubled! In otherwords. the Seven Sisters raised theirprices more than did OPEC, as theya/ll'al'.1 do when the market is tight.

In giving OPEC the green light in theearly 1970s. the Nixon administrationassumed that the U.S. was still largelyself-sufficient in oil. But this assumptionproved false. and the policy soonbackfired. In 1970' American domesticoil production peaked. With the feverisheconomic boom of 1971-73, the oilimport controls were first relaxed andfinally ended in April 1973-just aboutthe time the world price rose above theAmerican.

This changed situation led to thepassage in the U.S. of the EmergencyPetroleum Allocation Act in November1973. which attempted to prevent oilprices in the U.S. from rising as fast asthe now skyrocketing world prices."Old" oil. from wells in operation before1973, was fixed substantially below theworld price, while newly developedfields were to receive the world price.(Of course. this initiated the "old" oilinto "new" multi-billion-dollar scams.)In addition, gasoline, heating oil andother petroleum products were subjectto price controls.

Ihis price cant rol system has, notsurprisingly. been a key target for big oilever since. Because the oil industry, likeother capit.alist industry, is run alongprofit-maximizing lines, the post-1973price controls simply cause the l.:ompa­nil'S to periodically sabotage and dis­rupt the economy. When right-wingCalifornia senator S.l. Hayakawa saidthat the gasoline "shortage" woulddisappear if the price rose to 53 a gallon.he was expressing a certain capitalistrationalitv.

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Revisionists in GlassHouses...U' .' IJ ' 1,iJI ­~~ ~.~+tJ.i

Who. furthermore. taught the RCGttl IiLju!dall' Into a "lett \Iing" l'alcst!l1i­an commando group') Ihe RCCi knO\\s.Bitterl\, the\ ask hO\I the l'See canent!CI/L' a strategy 01 \\hich it is thearehitl'Ct:

"It can be described by a spot formula: aIXO degree turn. H0\\ can it be de­scribed-otherwise when the leadershipof our International after having advo­cated a 'guerrillaist orientation' for ourI.atin American embr\os. an orienta­tion scarcely 'implanted among thetoiling masses: comes around to re-

conlinued on page II

Where Did RCG GuerrillaismCome From?

American Trotskyists did more: theyorganized a campaign demanding theintervention of federal troops! If memo­ry serves us right. the USee Bureauapproved of this campaign."

Correct: the USec's Mandelite majoritydid endorse the despicable SWP cam­paign to hring civil rights to Boston onthe hayonets of the armed forces of U.S.imperialism. The USec can't have itboth ways. If they are willing to betrayin Boston. then why not in Beirut'!

The RCG goes pretty far in the courseof defending its position as fullyconsistent with the USec's revisionistmethodology. The RCG has discoveredthat "The relationship of forces insidethe UN (and outside the UN!) haveevolved. and evolved considerably sincethe Korean War!" According to them."today the USSR and China participateas permanent and full members withveto rights ... the relationship of forceswithin the General Assemhly is nolonger favorahle to the imperialists."Ihus. "UN troops arc no longer animperialist intervention force: theyrather constitute an armr charged \\'ilh/lre.lcl'I'ing Ihe slalllS quo joilll/1' agrcedhI' ,·Imcricall illl/ieria/i.llll alld IhcSlil/illi.l/ hureauCI'acr" (emphasis inoriginal). But that "status 4uo" happensto he a world market dominated hyimperialism in which those countrieswhere capitalism has heen overthrownarc encircled and threatened with socialcounterrevolution. The RCG portraysthe lI" as a kind ofglohal popular front\\ ith the "relation of forces" hecomingincreasingly unfavorahle to imperial­ism. Ihus the RCG applies to the United"at ions. that modern-day imperialist"den of thieves" as Lenin aptly called itspredecessor. the Pahloist objectivismlearned in the USee.

nUlu.ut' 21,1'71 25 CEHTS yOl.UfIIE ..........".

,THE MILITANTA SOCIAUST NfWSWfUl'1/PUIUSHIO IN ~

lebanese USecgroup learnedwell from SWPbetrayal in Boston,welcomed UNtroops in Near East(above).

,

Ihe RCCi did not have so short amemory as the USec leaders might havehoped. So now they hear that U" troopsmust he opposed because they arc animperialist force'? The RCG thought it\\as reminded of "a little analogy": .

"Take a citv in the United States.Boston. for example.... You know thatduring the racial violence in Boston the

Federal Troops to Boston? WhyNot UN Troops to Lebanon?

alist "armed struggle"? Too late for theBolivian USec militants massacred atTeoponte. attempting to carry out theguerrillaist prescriptions of the USec's1969 Ninth World Congress. And it wasthe same USec whose leading Frenchsection declared, following the senselesskidnapping hy Palestinian comman­dos and resulting slaughter of innocentIsraeli athletes at Munich in 1972. that"the action of Black September must beunconditionally supported" (Rouge. 30Septemher 1972).

But now these one-time armchairGuevarists arc pursuing more respect­ahle appetites toward the reformisthureaucracies of the mass Europeanworkers parties. They now find itexpedient to distance themselves withtactical objections from indiscriminateterrorist acts committed in the name ofthe oppressed. without acknowledgingthat such acts are indefensible inprinciple.

heen a puhlic emharrassment. Opposi­tion to the liN intervention in southernLehanon should have heen an elemen­tary position for any Marxist. It was thell" pa':tition dismemhering thePalestinian nation which gave hirth tothe Zionist state of Israel. UN "eease­fires" and the UN troops to monitorthem have provided imperialist sanctionand horder guards for each act of Israeliexpansionism from the 194X war to theIsraeli imasion of Lehanon last year.Ihat consignment to southern Lehanonhecame the fourth such "peacekeeping"force stationed In the Ncar East afterCyprus. the Ciolan Heights and theSinai.

Accentuating the lISec's emharrass­ment. the first soldiers to arrive insouthern Lehanon under the U" flag\lelT sent hy Israel's historic ally, theshah of Iran! While the USec's Lehanesegroup was welcoming the shah's soldiersin "hlue helmets" as liherators ofsouthern I.ehanon from Zionist aggres­sion. the liSee's Iranian group. theSattar League. \Ias denouncing the U"lorees and Iran's participation as a"reactionary plot against the right 01sell-determination of the Arah people"("Get the Shah's Troops Out of Leha­non Now!", statement issued h\ thePolitical Committee of the SattaI'League on 7 April.' reprinted in IIIIC,.­co1lIiI1l'1I1t" Press, 24 April 197X).

Ihe puhlic counterposition generatedan exchange of corre~pondencehet weenthe lISec and its Lehanese section (sincereprinted in the American SocialistWorkers Party's IlIlcrllaliolla/ IlIIer1la/l>i.I('U.I.I;OIl Bullelil1, May 1979). In aletter dated 17 April. the USec took theRCCi to task for hacking a UN forcewhich the USec laheled an "army thatsenTS imperialism." Furthermore the,RCG had also uncritically defended thePalestinian raid sci/cd on hy theZionists as a pretext for the invasion.saying that "it is not our husiness tomake moral or pseudo-political judg­ments on this operation." The USeeletter objects that an operation targetingall Israelis indiscriminately "docs nothelp assure th~ long-term mohili/ationof the Palestinian masses in struggle"and "harms the goal 01 dividing the/Ionist camp and wi-nning the Israeliworkers to support the rights of Pales­tinians." (We should say so.) And theUSec critici/ed the RCG's li4uidationisthloc with a nationalistjguerrillaistsplinter group. the l'alestll1ian Lihera­tion Front. during the invasion.

Why so late with sage advice againstli4uidating into petty-hourgeois nation-

No side was "proqressive" in lebanon civil war, 1976. Christian militias slaughtered Muslims in Karantina(left); Palestinian militias (right) joined in Muslim reprisals.

Ernest Mandel & Co. of the fake­Trotskyist "United Secretariat" arc usedto ahandoning one pt)litical line for anew one (more in line with their currentopportunist appetite) without giving itanother thought. But sometimes thecynical crew at the head of the USec arcunpleasantly surprised to find theirprevious hetrayals thrown hack at themhy indignant followers who had takenthem seriously and assimilated the lastrevisionist turn all too well. So it wasrecently when a heated dispute hrokeout hetween the USec and its Lehanesesupporters involving a range of whatshould he. for Marxists. principleddifferences.

Ihe dispute arose in the aftermath ofa criminal Palestinian commando oper­ation on the Tel A\'iv-Haifa road inMarch 197X in which :'7 Israelis werekilled and 76 wounded. Using thisprele,1. Israel La rried out a massiveinvasion of southern Lehanon. turning200.000 Lehanese and Palestinians intorefugees and massacring nearly 1.000(sec "Zionists Grah Southern Leha­non." 11·or/.;cr.l 1'a1lguard No. 19X. 24March 197X). The lI.S .. karfullcst thisfull-scale operation hy its Zionist allyupset the fragile halance of power andstatus 4UO in the Ncar East. insisted onan immediate session of the UN SecurityCouncil to demand Israel's withdrawaland replacement hy UN troops. Whenthe troops were sent. the USec issued astatement on 22 March (reprinted inIlIIer('o/lfi1lc1IIa/ Prcss. 10 April 1979)denouncing this "dispatch of 'hluehelmets'" whose "job can only he toprotect the new status 4UO from thePalestinian movement once the Zionistarmy has carried out its mopping upoperations" and concluding with thedemand: "No to UN intervention."

However. at the same time the USec'ssection in Lehanon, the Revolutionar)'Communist Group (RCG), was \I'c/­milling the UN intervention. The I May197X I/lfCr('01lIillellla/ Press reprinted aninterview with a memher of the group'sExecutive Committee who claimed thatthe intervention had a "dual character."directed "hoth against the Israeli occu­pation and against the armed Palestin­ians." The RCG spokesman stated that."insofar as [the UN forces] arc ahle toforce the Israeli army out of southernLehanon and tt) protect the Lehanesehorder against Zionist intervention. wesupport the UN forces: to do anythingelse would he to allow the occupation tocontinue."

Ev~n for the shameless opportunistsof the USec. its Lehanese section's"critical support" to the UN must have

8 WORKERS VANGUARD

Carter's "Slnthetic Solution":

Higher Prices, Higher Profits

World OilBlowout...(continued from page 7)

or all of 2.5 percent less than In the sameperiod last year. But in this periodNigeria upped its output by gOO mbjd,more than offsetting the small drop inthe Persian Gulf. In short, during thisfamous "world oil shortage" the OPECeotHltries as Cl: whole were pumping//lore oil than last year!

Yet between December and Aprilcrude oil imports into the U.S. fell aboutten percent. Obviously, the companieswere dil'ertinx crude from the U.S. toother markets. It is a known fact thatthey did not buy crude available on theopen market, arguing that it was notsufficiently profitable to sell it in theU.S.

Hut in any case the companies hadplenty of crude; they simply didn't refineit into gasoline. According to officialindustry statistics, crude oil stockpilesincreased II percent between lateFebruary and the end of June (Oil and(Jas Journal. 2 February and 2 July).Through this April refineries wererunning at only g5 percent compared to90 percent in 1977.

Even energy secretaTy Schlesinger. noanti-big-oil radical. tried to save his jobby chiding the companies for theirrefining policies, which he termed"unduly conservative" and "not in thenational interest." But while Schlesingerwas trying to panic everybody over lackof Iranian oil, his department wasimporting large amounts of crude forthe so-called Strategic Petroleum Re­serve and burying it in caverns in theground!

Few American working people followstatistics on world oil production,refinery runs. stockpiling, etc., but therewas, nevertheless, a widespread certain­ty that it was the blackmailing oilcompanies. not the Arab sheiks, whowere the principal villains. The timing ofthe gas "shortage" with big oil's andCarter's decontrol campaign was justtoo damned neat to be a coincidence.

The Solution to the Oil Crisis

While the immediate U.S. gasoline"shortage" was artificially created, thereare long-term factors making for recur­rent oil crises in the capitalist world. Oil

Deer Hunter...(continued/rom page 2)

than a few NLF in expressing his 'classsolidarity' for l\ick and Steve [hishuddies]."

Clarke's review has scandalized eventhe usually shameless SWP. In Sydney,SWP ranks are reportedly squirming.trying to get off the hook by blaming theauthor personally (a frequent SWP

After all the sermonizing, moraliz­ing and breast-baring, what is Car­ter's great all-American answer to"the energy crisis'''! A crash syntheticfuel program. From a strictly techni­cal standpoint it's possible. If cost isno object. as is the case in total war,an advanced industrial country canreplace its crude oil imports withsynthetics.

Nazi Germany did it in World WarII. Hetween 193X and 1943 Germa­ny's crude oil imports fell from 5.0 to2.7 billion tons, but synthetics morethan made up the difference, increas­ing from 1.6 to 5.7 billion tons (U.S.Strategic Bombing Survey, TheI:/I"ects or Stratexic BOlllhinx un the(Jerman War /:""(.'onom.\' [1945]). Butwar-time Germany's synthetic fuelprogram required no small share ofits total' industrial resources. forexample, about 10 percent offinishedsteel products.

as a source of energy is an importantoverhead capital cost. An increase in therelative price of oil reduces industrialprofits and transfers this surplus-valueto the owners of the fields and thepetroleum industry.

Over a century ago Marx analyzedhow an increase in the exchange-valueof raw material can lead to a crisis:

"More must be expended on rawmaterial. less remains for labor. and it isnot possible to absorb the same quanti­ty of labor as before .... [It] is impossi­ble because a greater portion of theproduct has to be converted into rawmaterial, thus leaving less for conver­sion into variable capital [money­capital expended directly on labor).Reproduction cannot be repeated onthe same scale. A part of fixed capitalstands idle and a part of the workers isthrown out on the streets [emphasi;; inoriginal).

-K, Marx, Theories of Surplus­Value, Chapter XVII

It is not surprising therefore thatindustrial capitalists in general favorcheap energy and this sometimes bringsthem into conflict with coal, oil, electricpower, etc. interests. That is why most

writer and public spokesman). But thiswon't do, because the question remains:How could an ostensibly socialistorganization print such a bizarre anddisgusting defense of lying, reactionarypropaganda'! The answer is that it isentirely consistent with the SWP'shistoric refusal to draw the class line inthe Vietnam War.

[he side of the working class was theother side In Vietnam. It was thisfundamental fact of the class struggle

Synthetic fuel is expensive, morecxpensive than OPEC oil. The lowestcost estimate for producing oilthrough coal liquification is about$25 a barrel or 25 percent higher thanthe world. market price of crudepetroleum. So the result of thesynthetic "solution" will be highergas and fuel prices, greater profits forthe oil companies and probably alsofor OPEC.

Hut working people In this countryare fed up with the typical capitalistsolution of ever higher prices. WhileAmerican workers do not have ageneralized anti-capitalist conscious­ness, they know the oil companies areripping them off and they want to XetBiX Oil. The demand for thosesweating on the gas lines and shopfloors is for the government toexpropriate the oil industry, toproduce gas and heating fuel for usenot profit.

advanced capitalist countries havewholly or partially nationalized oilcompanies, Even before World War I,for example, the British imperialistgovernment set up Anglo-Persian Oil(now British Petroleum), keeping 50percent ownership.

The American (and West Europeanand Japanese) capitalists have a seriousinterest in securing Near Eastern oil andnot at exorbitant prices, and they havereminded the Persian Gulf satraps thatthey could get hurt if they pushed thingstoo far.

There is at present plenty of oil in theground. Proven reserves are 30-35 timescurrent production and can be extractedfor a fraction of the present worldmarket price. Saudi Arabia can main­tain its existing prod uctioi1 for at leastthe next 60 years at a cost of 10-15 centsa barrel. and new areas like Alaska'sNorth Slope and the southern Gulf ofMexico are potentially very importantsources of oil. Furthermore, oilfieldswhich would have been grossly uneco­nomical to exploit at pre-1970 priceswould now be highly profitable. Yet,

which the SWP deliberately ignoredwhen they refused to call for militaryvictory to the Vietnamese workers andpeasants against U.S. imperialism andSaigon. Furthermore, today the SWPwrites ahout "working-class solidarity"in philistine glorification of the mostbackward. chauvinist "camaraderie."Hut in the antiwar movement the SWPactively opposed Spartacist calls forlabor strikes against the war. Instead,spreading social-patriotic and pacifist

against the basic rule of textbookcapitalist economics, an enormousincrease in price has led to a falling off inthe expansion of productive capacity.The reason why: the Seven SistersjOPEC cartel does not want to break thepnce.

The big companies have not usedtheir "obscene profits" to find more oilbut rather to buy coal mines, uraniumdeposits and nuclear reactors andgenerally to transform themselves intoconglomerates. In one of the largestsuch deals on record, Mobil paid $1.2billion for Montgomery Ward, the mailorder house. Exxon is now offering over$1 billion for ,Reliance Electrical, anelectrical manufacturer.

Like the Seven Sisters, the oil­producing countries have chosen nut toexpand their capacity. New, potentiallybig exporters, notably Mexico, havebeen careful not to flood the market andbreak the OPEC price. The Saudis havedone little to expand their pumpingcapacity, in part as a bargaining weaponagainst Israel. In 1972, for example,Yamani offered to produce 20 mbjd(twice its present 1979 capacity) ifWashington would drop its support toZionism.

That the world market price of animportant raw material like oil is now200 times the cost of production is aparticularly glaring instance of howcapitalism strangles economic life andimpoverishes the masses. A globalsocialist, system would be able toproduce more than enough oil until theworld economy could be shifted mainlyto the Iike~ of nuclear fusion and solarenergy, but capitalism is incapable ofrational eC,onolnic planning.

Just as the world oil crises are causedby the collaboration of the imperialistmultinationals and feudal rulers of thePersian Gulf. so a revolutionary inter­nationalist solution requires the unity ofthe working classes in the advancedcapitalist countries and the Near East.In Arabia's great Ghawar oilfield.Palestinian workers slave for a fewdollars a day so that Sheik Yamani canjet-set with Exxon chairman Clifton'Garvin. In California and New Yorkworkers swelter waiting to buy gas sothat Clifton Garvin can jet-set withSheik Yamani. The solution to the oilcrisis is to overthrow the parasitic scumatop Houston's Exxon building as wellas in the oil ministry in Riyadh in orderto build a workers world .•

illusions, the SWP built an alliance withthe McGoverns and Hartkes, the impe­rialist "doves" who opposed the war ascontrary to the best interests of U.S.imperialism.

Is it really so surprising that thosewho yesterday marched to "bring ourhoys horne" today applaud Cimino's"Hig Lie" in the service of imperialistrearmament as an indictment of the"tragedy" and "violence" inflicted on"our hoys'''!.

../

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9

omozalan

puppet dictatorship in Latin America.But the main concern of thc Somo/ashas always been enriching themsehes inoffice. By the time Somo/a I wasassassinated in 1956 he had amassed atremendous fortune and left his sons anempire known to Latin Americans as"Somo/ala nd ia."

Ihe Somma family fortune has heenestimated hy the Spanish maga/ineClI/llhio In (22 Octo her 197X) at morethan 51.5 hill ion. This is quite a tidy sumin a country of only 2.5 mjllion peopleand with a per capita gross nationalproduct in 1977 of only $~UO perperson. Somo/a holdings include thenational airline. the national shippingline. Mercedes Benl and other autodistributorships, a newspaper. TV andradio stations, tohacco. oil and con­struction companies. an estimated 20-30percent of the arable land in Nicaragua,fishing companies. meat packers and thecountry's major Pacific port (named­what else,?-Puerto Somo/a). Thebloodthirsty SomOla even bankrolled avampire industry known as "Plasma­l'crisis" which exported blood plasmaextracted from Nicaraguans to the U.S.

Somo/a's properties. amounting toan estimated 40 percent of the Nicara­guan economy. arc not e\en disguisedthrough phony holding companies orfront men. A government agency calledthe "Office of Supervision and Controlof the Properties of General AnastasioSomOla Dehayle" openly administeredthe tyrant's empire. But the full extent ofSonlO/a's interests in Nicaraguan cpn­cerns and his foreign holdings can onlyhe guessed. l.ong ago Nicaraguanentrepreneurs learned that the only way

'The revolution taking placc inNicaragua is no ordinary politicalmovement pitting left against right. orcivilians against the military. Rather, itis a national mutiny in which almostevery sector of the country-left andright, rich and poor-is united against adynastic dictatorship that is now sus­tained exclusively by the 7.500-manNational Guard, and that enjoys politi­cal support only from Somoza's ownLiberal Party:' So wrote the perceptiveAmerican reporter Alan Riding a yearago in the Nell' York Times Afaga::i//e(30 July 197X). And last month, whcnthe State Department tried to gainsupport for a "moderate" interimgovernment to "peacefully" replaceSomo/a while leaving his mercenaryNational Guard intact, it found notakers even among conservative busi­ncssmen. In fact. at the end onlythose capitalists whose family fortunesarc intimately linked to Somo/a's ownfate had not passed into the camp of theSandinista-Ied rebellion.

In order to understand thebackground to this state of affairs, it isnecessary to take a look at howNicaragua became a sort of "Somo/a,Inc." Since the 19th century the historyof Nicaragua has been dominated by theintervention of American imperialism,with the willing acceptance of the docilenative (eriol/o) bourgeoisie. In IX55 theAmerican William Walker, the original"filibusterer" (adventurer), was invitedby the Nicaraguan Liberal Party to leadtheir civil war against the Conservatives.Walker, who had previously staged anunsuccessful attempt to found an"independent republic" in the Mexicanterritories of Baja California and Sono­~a. defeated the Conservative ar­my ... and thereupon set up his owngovernment. For the remainder of thecentury American and British imperial­ists disputed ovcr whose "sphere ofinfluence" included Nicaragua and itspossible Pacific-Caribbean canal route.

But the modern history of Nicaraguabegan with the U.S.-sponsored over­throw of the Liberal regime of JoscSantos Zelaya in 1909 and the imposi­tion, through "dollar diplomacy" and"big stick" interventions. of a series ofpuppet governments. The hapless Nic­araguan president had made the fatalmistake of negotiating loans and canalplans with Japan and Great Britain. Aspunishment. Tcddy Roosevelt's succes­sor. William Howard Taft, had Zelayaremoved and from 1912 to 1925 aMarine expeditionary force occupiedthe country. In order to guaranteerepayment of a $2 million debt the U.S.government took over the CustomsHouse while U.S. bankers took overtheBanco de Nicaragua and the nationalrailroad. The 1916 Bryan-Chamorrotreaty gavc the U.S. rights to a Nicara-

Augusto Cesar Sandino

10

,

~~~f-

"'~E -.... ..-~UPI

Top, Anastasio Sr" Luis and "Tachito" in 1954: dynastic dictatorship madein USA, Bottom, 1972 earthquake killed 10,000; "Tachito" lined pocketsfrom devastation.

guan canal and a 19X-year lease forna\al hases.

From 1916 to 1923 members of thepowerful Consenative Chamorro fami­ly ran the Nicaraguan government forthe l!.S. When a maverick Consenative\\on the 1924elections, dissatisfied loserEmiliano Chamorro led a coup d'ctatand called on the U.S. to hack him. Twothousand Marines intenened to defeatthe Liherals and the U.S., reshufflingthe political deck, imposed the presiden­cy of Adolfo Dial. The Liheral generals.with the exception of Augusto CcsarSandino. surrendered and agreed toaccept a U.S:-supervised election inI92X. providing it would be won by thcLiheral Party (it was). For six years theMarines unsuccessfully attempted toput down Sandino's revolt. which endedonly after the U.S. troops withdrew in1933. In thai time the U.S. built the'lJational Guard and placed AnastasioSomo/a Garcia at its head. A "peace"with Sandino was arranged through thegood offices of. Somo/a's patron. theU.S. ambassador Arthur Bliss-Lane.\\ho il1\ited Sandino to a dinner party atthe presidential palace on February 21.1934 where Somo/a's Guardsmen as­sassinated the nationalist leader.

Like the rich aiol/o families hesucceeded in power. Somo/a and hissons Luis and Anastasio ("Tacho:' thecurrent dictator) proved loyal senantsof U.S. imperialism. At one point theportrait of U.S. ambassador TurnerShelton e\en appeared on a Nicaraguan53 hill' With its bloody repressions andshameless senice to Wall Street inter­ests. the Somo/a dynasty achievedinfamy as the quintessential American

to a\ oid ruinous taxes and hrihes was togi\L' "Iacho" a piece of the action. InadditIon the dictator owns Miami realestate. a foreign puhlishing house andthe coal mines of Colomhia.

Ik also "owns" at least two U.S.<. ·ongressmen. Charles Wilson of Texasand .lohn Murphy of New York. co­kaders ofthe"Somo/a lohhy" ofCuhanexpatriates and other reactionaries whol'ontinue to trumpet that the alternati\eto Somo/a is "Castro Communism" inNIcaragua. When Jimmy Carter's newamhassador showed up in Somo/a'soffice some weeks ago to "request" thedictator's resignation he found to hissurprise that Somola had invited theStaten Island Democrat Murphy to sitin on the negotiations. SomOla did notsunive in power for so long withoutcUlti\ating intimate tics with rich andpowerful American sponsors. FormerAmhassador Turner Shelton (he of the$3 hill) had run the Hahamas financialoperatil.2..!.1s of '\iixon friend Behe Rebo­10. and Somo/a's "hospitality"' onceC'\ten{kd also to Howard Hughes. whospent a coupk of years ensconced in aManagua penthouse.

"The Rebellion of theBourgeoisie"

For years the traditional aristocraticfamilies and small businessmen werewilling to tic their fortunes to theSomOias' profiteering. Disaffectionwith Somo/a among businessmen datesfrom the shameless legal looting andruinous speculation that followed thecatastrophic earthqua_ke of 1972. Asdescribed by Francisco Laine/. found­ing president of the Banco Central deNicaragua. in his book Terrell/olo 72:Diles y Puehlo. Somoza used thedisaster (which claimed 10.000 lives andleft a 4uarter of a million homeless) togarner immense profits. DowntownManagua was demplished and recon­struction prohihited-in order to forcethe relocation of the business communi­ty on "safer" suburhan real estateowned hv SomOla and his cronies. whodemand~d extortionate rents for thconce-worthless land. Millions of dollarsin international aid was appropriated hySomma and distrihuted through thenetwork of local Liheral Party patron­age hosses to el Jete's friends. Earth­quake damages were vastly inflated inorder to secure huge loans from foreigngO\ ernments and hanks. rhe money\\as distrihuted to Somo/a-ownedconstruction firms through the Somo/a­o\\ned Banco dc Centroamcrica withthe excess cash disappearing into thedictator's pocket.

hen hy the standards of a hananarepuhlic the corruption and profiteeringwere outrageous. Moreover. the capital­ist families not cut in on Somoza's rip­oils began to feel the pinch. It was this,rather than any "democratic" principles,which motivated the bourgeois opposi­tion to the regimc. At first the dissidenthusinessmen tried various negotiationsand pressure tactics in Managua andWashington. but to no avail. Mean­while, however. in 1975 the Sandinistaguerrillas split into two rival "Marxist"factions and a third (lercerisla) factionarosc which explicitly renounccd anytalk of socialist revolution and lookedlor hourgeois allies. In a well-publici/edincident in May 1977, .lml4uin CuadraChamorro. the richest lawyer in Nicara­gua. paid a clandestine visit to his onlyson .loa4uin Cuadra Lacayo. a leaderof the l('/'ceri.\((Js and heir to the familywealth. Ihe elder Cuadra came hackcnd()rsing the Sandinista front. In anIntenlc\\ with the Nell' rork lillles'Alan Riding he explained why:

"He said the guerrillas wanted to allythemselves with other groups and that Ieould playa role. So we reached an

WORKERS VANGUARD

Spartacist League/ Spartacus Youth League Public Offices

-MARXIST LITERATURE-

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agreement with the clear understandingthat socialism was not possible forNicaragua. I saw my role as trying torescue our youth from radicalism."

-Nell" York Times MUKu:.ine. )0July 197H.

Shortly thereafter the Group of Twelve(los I)oee). composed of academics.priests and husinessmen (includingt'ual! ra). was formed as spokesma n lorthe terceri.l/ll.1 111 the hourgeoisopposition.

Ihe Nicaraguan working masses haverisen against decades of murderous rulehy SomOla. Inc.. vowing to avenge theunarmed youths rounded up and mur­dered in Esteli. Le()l1 and Masaya afterlast fall's failed insurrection. With thecry "Death to Somma." workers andpoor peasants answer the massacre ofhundreds of peasants in the northernmountains in 1977 and the callousprofiteering of the avaricious dynastyafter the tragic earthquake. At the sametime. Nicaraguan cap.italists and the"moderate" Sandinista leaders aretrying to "rescue" the country from thepossihility of a social revolution in"Somo/alandia." While calling formilitary victory to the Sandinista-Iedinsurrection. Trotskyists do not look tothe Chamorros and Cuadras as the"democratic" saviors of Nicaragua.Instead we demand: No moreSomolas-Workers to power!.

Nicaragua...(continued/i'om page 12)

that it was the destruction of FulgencioHatista's Cuban army by Castro's July26 Movement that opened up thepossibility of a revolutionary transfor­mation of Cuhan society. So in order towin Washington's blessing for theprovisional government the FSLNsoftened its original hard-line insistencethat Somma's praetorian guard bedemolished. In mid-June a juntaspokesman announced that "deserters"from the ;\ational Guard would beweleome in a new "nationalist army."Linder U.S. pressure the junta an­nou nced on .I uly 12 that with theexception of Guard soldiers guilty of"grave crimes against the people:' thepost-Somo/a armed forces could incor­porate the entire Guard. Finally. thejunta caved in completely and indicatedthat the mass murderers and torturerswho wanted to escape would be allowedto do so.

Will the agreement with Somoza'sU.S. patrons put a halt to the revolu­tionary ferment in Nicaragua? For thelast two years, the armed clashes havebeen led by the dominant tercerista("Third") faction of the FSLN, which isclosely tied to leading business circlesand firmly committed to maintaining acapitalist framework. A tercerista col­umn proceeding from Costa Ricalaunched the current offensive. Butmeanwhile, the more leftist ProlongedPeople's War (GPP) Sandinista factionhas taken power in the northern towns.And in the capital of Managua therehave reportedly arisen numerous de­fense committees, led by the FSLN'sProletarian Faction and its pro­Moscow Stalinist allies, which havedrawn considerable numbers of workersand poor into the fighting. As the civilwar d ragged on, the social/ politicalsituation began to open up in thedIrection of a mass insurrection. Thedeal with Washington was aimed 'atcutting short this possibility.

Revolutionary Trotskyists emphati­cally denounce the FSLN's decision toallow Somo/a's mercenary officers,drenched in the blood of Nicaragua'sworking people, to retain their postsafter the dictator's downfall. Ratherthan "deploring" so-called "excesses" ofthe working masses who have conduc­ted summary triaL and executions ofNational Guard criminals, we call forthe systematic creation of popular

20 JULY 1979

tribunals to mete out revolutionaryjustice to Somo/a's butchers. Commu­nists in Nicaragua must demand theformation of workers militias, not thereconstitution of the bourgeois army.Such militias, based on the organs ofworking-class self-defense which havesprung up in Managua and other cities,could serve as the 'basis for a new statepower, one which could expropriate notonly SomOla's ill-gotten holdings butthose of all the Nicaraguan and foreigncapitalists.

The rebel junta, which has now beentold by U.S. envoy BowdleI' that "youarc the government of Nicaragua," wasset up by the petty-bourgeois FSLNbiders precisely in order to head off thepossibility of anti-capitalist social revo­lution. While in the months of bitterfighting proletarian revolutionariesstood on the side of the insurgency ledby the FSLN against Somoza and theNational Guard, we give no political

_ confidence whatsoever to the "govern­ment of national reconstruction" and itsplans for a capitalist Nicaragua withoutSomo/a.

The Sandinista-sponsored junta is astraitjacket imposed on the masses inorder to strike a deal with Washington,which exerted tremendous pressure viathe Latin American bourgeois regimes(Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela) whichwere a principal support of the FSLN.rhe State Departmefll signaled ap­proval by finally okaying the departureof Somola. Whether or not the Nicara­guan working people will submit to theyoke is another question. Hatred mustrun deep against the bloody butcherswho murdered thousands of courageousyouth, leaving their bodies to rot in thestreets until the Red Cross buried themin ubiquitous mass graves. And after thes.laughter of the last year and a half. itwill not be easy to voluntarily disarm losl17uchachos ("the kids") who bore thebrunt of the fighting.

As the erstwhile "business opposi­tion" to Somoza scrambles to secureinfluence in the new regime, working­class revolutionaries must seek to turnpolitical into social revolution. Raisingdemands to defend the masses (workersmilitia) and root out the dictatorship(smash the National Guard, set uppeople's tribunals to try the Somozaistcriminals), we seek to build massopposition to the deal imposed byWashington. Calling for political inde­pendence from the FSLN-backedjunta,lor thorough-going agrarian revolutionand expropriation of all the exploiters,we seek to block the imposition of a newcapitalist regime (whether dominated bytraditional Conservative Party familiesor a more left-leaning "popular front").Hut what is tragically missing in Nicara­gua today is the key element, a revolu­tionary Trotskyist party, to carry theanti-Somo/a struggle forward to lastingvictory-to a workers and peasantsgovernment, a Central American work­ers republic and a Socialist UnitedStates of Latin America.•

Revisionists ..·(continued from page 8)

proaching our Lebanese embryo forhaving participated in an anti­imperialist resistance war waged by theentirety of the political mass movementof its country?" .

.lust as the USee squandered a layer ofsubjectively revolutionary LatinAmerican youth, it bears responsibilityfor miseducating this important groupof Arab militants. They could havehecome more than another group of "farleft" Arah nationalists, had not Mandelet al. criminally misled them. The RCGadapted to petty-bourgeois nationalismunder enormous pressures for disorien­tation in a small, beleaguered andhackward country. They have them­selves been the targets of the Palestiniannationalists they tail, as they were inI>Ccemher 1l}73 when their militants in

Ikirut were set upon by armed national­ist thugs for the "crime" of handing out aleaflet co-signed by the Israeli USecgroup.

When the savage. inter-communalhloodletting between Muslims andChristians broke out in 1976, the RCGplaced itself in the camp of the "progres­sive" Muslim "left." But they were nothlind to the fighting "which never wentbeyond a religious framework," the"revenge by the Muslim. progressive andPalestinian forces ... no less brutal" thanthe Christian militias, the "increasingdepolitici/ation 'of the majority of thecombatants" as described by two RCGleaders in the book, COli/prendre IeI.ihan (U nderstanding Lebanon).

Ihe most consistent Pabloists haveoften ended up by becoming identicalpolitically with the non-proletarianforces they started out tailing opportun­istically. The RCG has gone a long waydown the road toward outright bour­geois nationalism, the reactionary con­sequences of which they have at timesbeen forced to confront concretely. Inthe framework of the USec. there was noalternative to propose. Yet in Lebanonand the Ncar East as a whole. theIrotskyist program of internationalworking-class solidarity andproletarian-led socialist revolutioncould have a powerful impact in cuttingacross the cycle of national/communalconflict intractahle within the frame­work of c.apitalism. It is a crime that theUSee. in the guise of Trotskyism.slipped the Arab militants who lookedto it for leadership the crassesto pport 1I nism.•

Demo...(continuedfrom paRe 12)

capitalist provisional government, butof a Trotskyist party...."

The S L speaker ended with a call fora Central American workers republicin a Socialist United States of LatinArnerica.

Comrade Silva's remarks were fol­lowed by those of a spokesman forSandinistas for Socialism, who calledfor a "workers and peasants govern­ment. a government based on theexpropriation of the landlords, a gov­ernment based on the expropriation ofthe manufacturing means of productionof the bourgeoisie..... (our translation).But the speaker's presentation, as well asthe group's publications, reveal that theSSN hesitates between the program ofrevolutionary Marxism and nationalistreformism.

The SSN's contradictions are cap­tured in its very choice of name: theyhave a desire to be "socialist" but do notbreak from the popular-nationalisttradition which bears the name ofAugusto Sand ino, the Liberal Partygeneral who led a guerrilla struggleagainst the U.S. Marine occupation ofNicaragua from 1927-1933. Hence theyarc "Sandinistas for Socialism" and,moreover, for socialism "in Nicaragua."With this myopic nationalist world viewthe SSN has flinched from the hardimperatives of revolutionary strategyand program. Moreover, struggle torprogrammatic clarity would threatenthe SSN's notion of a "family of theNicaraguan left." Their journal. Roro y!Yexro. simply reprints without com­ment articles from a wide variety ofsources: Amnesty International, the"Proletarian Tendency" of the FSLN .

Bay AreaFriday: 3:00-6:00 p.m.Saturday: 3:00-6:00 p.m.1634 Telegraph3rd floor(near 17th Street)Oakland, CaliforniaPhone: (415) 835-1535

Sandino's memoirs, the "Ul1Ited ~ecre­

tariat of the Fourth International"(U Sec) and its Nicaraguan affiliate.Members of Sandinistas for Socialismhave recently described themselves aslrotskyists. But they barely mention thekey task-construction of a Trotskyistparty-and do not say that it must behuilt through politically combating thepetty-bourgeois nationalist Sandinistamovement and tradition. Nor has it crit­ici/ed the pseudo-Trotskyist USee.

Significantly. Sandinistas for Social­ism has failed to take an unambiguousposition on the key question facingrevolutionists in Nicaragua: class oppo­sition to the bourgeois provisional juntasponsored by the FSLN. At the rally theSSN speaker said that "We do notbelieve that the five-member juntarepresents the historic interests of thepeasants and workers of Nicaragua. Butwe are firmly convinced that only amilitary victory of the anti-Somozaistrebels will open up in Nicaragua aprocess of mobilization in which we whoarc for socialist and revolutionaryobjectives are going to continue on untilthe end." This leaves the door open tosupporting the junta as a necessary stagein the revolutionary "process." Incontrast, SL placards demanded: "No topopular fronts-Workers to power!"

Thus, the Sandinistas for Socialism isnot a revolutionary organization but aneclectic, centrist grouping. The choicefacing the SSN is clear: to continuealong the road of Nicaraguan-centered"movement ism" and become loyal left­critics of the junta or to look beyond thenarrow confines of Nicaraguan nation­alism, assimilating the lessons of themore than half century oflife-and-deathstruggle between Stalinism and Trot­skyism. Most recently the terribleeo'nsequences of Stalinist/social­democratic class collaborationism wereseen in Chile, where tens of thousands ofworkers and leftists died because thepopular front led them to the bloodydebacle of the Pinochet coup. Thosewho seek to be genuine proletarianrevolutionists in Nicaragua must breaksharply with the Sandinista tradition inorder to take up the struggle forreforging the Fourth International onfirm revolutionary principles. Thealternative is to follow the path of left­wing sandinislI70 to eventual betrayal..

Anwar...(continued from page 3)

Damon Lewis. Their resolution con­demned the recent dropping of Knight'sand Lewis' grievances by the Interna­tional and declared "that USW A Local65 pledges its defense of all unionmilitants victimized for honoring picketlines."

The local US WA tops have voted forthese resolutions and declared to thepress that they support Anwar's rein­statement. But a vigorous rank-and-filemobililation will be necessary to makesure these promises and pledges ofsupport are carried out by the no-strikeUSWA bureaucracy. The trade-unionleaders who have been herding workersacross picket lines for years cannot berelied upon to delend militant work­ers whose actions of solidarity exposethe leadership's class-collaborationistpolicies.

A victory for Anwar will be a victorytor the principles of union solidarity andthe program of class struggle.•

New YorkMonday through Friday:6:30-9:00 p.m.Saturday: 1:00-4:00 p.m.260 West BroadwayRoom 522New York, New YorkPhone: (212) 925-5665

11

WfJliNEIiS VIN(JIJIIi'- - - -.

Smash the National Guard!No Asylum for Butcher Somoza!

Sandinista VictorsMake DealWith Carter

Sandinista guerrillas in Managua gun battle, Lochon/Gamma-Liaison

.lust ten days after pledging that 'Tmready to fight to the death:' AnastasioSomo/a Ikhayle. the hloodthirstydictator whose family ran Nicaragua inthe interesh of U.S. imperialism formore than four decades. packed his hagsand c1imhed into his private Learjet thatwould take him into exile in the U.S. Ashis regime crumhled around him lastmonth SomOla hlustered that ''I'm notgoing to ahandon my military men likethe shah of Iran." But whcn thc wordcamc from Washington that an "orderlytransition" had heen arranged to thelJ. S.' sat isract ion, thc shah of Nicaraguarou ndeJ up 100 of t he top comma nderso! his mercenary National Guard and litout lor Miami. where the thousands ofcounttTITvolutionary Cuhan gusal10s

and assorted deposed Latin Americandictators should make the S0ll10ci.llas

feel right at home."History will say I'm right:' the tyrant

deelared just hefore he fled his Hitlcr­style concrell: hunker in Managua. Butthe Nicaraguan masses who heroicallyshed their blood to rid the country of theSomOla dynasty will regret the depar­ture of "Tacho" and his gang only

hecause it has eheall:d them of their justre\enge for 40 years of torture ~ndmurder at the ha nd s of Somo/a's:"ational (iuard. Six hundred thousand'\icaraguans are homeless and 20.000.most 01 them civilians, hale died in thelighting according to the Red Cross. Yetthe U.S. imperialists deliberately pro­longed the agony of the Nicaraguan\\orkers and peasants hy insisting oniron-elad gua ra ntees aga inst left istdomination 01 the post-Somo/agon:rnment.

As we go to press, the deal at the topseems to he taking hold. U.S. emoyWilliam BmHller. who handled negotia­tions in San .los0. Costa Rica. reported­1\ told the Sandinista-backed junta thatt"hey now had the crucial vote: JimmyCarter's. Appropriately the first token01 recognition was a,iump rope. present­ed to junta memher Violetta Chamorro.Meanwhile. SomOla and his com­manders arc getting home free: afterlooting and raping the country for 40years. they receive safe passage throughthe good offices of the Catholic Churchto retirement in Miami or Honolulu.Ihe FSL'\ tops guaranteed that there

would he no reprisals in order to avoid"another Iran:' and Latin Americanloreign ministers wiil he imited to"supenise" the transition.

After a steady series ot victories by thearmed rchels of the Frente Sand inista deLiheraci6n Nacional (FSL!\:) had con­\inced Washington that Somoza couldno longer effectively serve as the U.S:'\icaraguan straw boss. attention shift­ed to the negotiating table in San Josewhere representatives of the !-SU\­sponsored "government of nationalreconstruction" bargained with Bow­dleI' mer the transition to a new regime.After deciding that dIrt.:ct militaryintenention was diplomatically unwise.the U.S: trump cards were its controlovcr the date 01 Somoza's departure,le\erage mer the Latin states whichsupply the FSLN with arms and controlo\er the hillions of dollars in reconstruc­tion aid that the new government willneed. Washington's carrot-and-stick di­plomacy was designed to prevent thedestruction of the National Guard.which the U.S. views as a bulwarkagainst the possibility of a "secondCuha:' and to force the inclusion of

more right-wing clements in the FSLN­supported junta.

Ihe FSLN leaders have proven to benothing if not willing to compromise.The five-member junta includes onlyone Sandinista and of the twelvemembers named so far in an 1!'i-personcahinet. eleven are husinessmen ortechnocrats and only one a guerrillaleader. fhe planning and economvminister named hy the junta. Robert~Mayorga. is fonner Secretary Generalof the Central American CommonMarket and has !latly declared that .. the---..............-·state should not be administering Lmnsand industries" (-'"ell' York Times, 10June). The U.S. eventualh agreed toaccept the makeup of the rebel junta.which already includes three representa-tives of the anti-Somoza bourgeoisie. inexchange for the capitulation to theU.S. by the junta and the FSL"l on thekey ljuestion of the !\:ational Guard.

However eager the Sandinistas andtheir hourgeois allies have been to provetheir loyalty to "free enterprise" imperi­alism. the U.S. remembered all too well

continued on page 1J

100 March at Anti-Somoza Demo in L.A.this abstention on thesupported the FrenteI.iheracion Nacional

LOS A:\GELES. July Il-"U.S.jOAS:Hands Off '\icaragua! Military Victoryto the Anti-Somoza Rebels!" Thesechants echoed through the streets ofdowntown Los Angeles July 6 as more"than 100 demonstrators marched to theNicaraguan consulate, calling for 'theoverthrow of the bloody Somozadictatorship and protesting the U.S.'"Big Stick" proposal to send a "peace­keeping" force to the aid of their puppetruler. The Lo:; Angeles united-frontdemonstration was jointly sponsored bythe Spartacist League (SL) and theSandinistas pOI' el Socialismo en Nica­ragua (5SN). While the SL and SSNacted in opposition to the U.S.­sponsored Somoza dynasty and for themilitary victory of the insurgencyagainst it, the Socialist Workers Party(SWP) refused to endorse or participatein the demonstration. So did theRevolutionary Socialist League. whichsent a single token supporter. Both

12

groups justifiedhasis that the~

Sandinista de( !-SI.:").

As the spirited demonstration passedthrough the crowded and predominant­ly Hispanic downtown shopping districton its way to the Somola consulate theprotesters took up chants in English andSpanish. SL sl6gans included "Carter'shuman rights means SomozajPinochet!" "jNi olvido, ni perdon.Somoza al pa redo n!" (N either forgetnor forgive, Somoz<.. to the wall!). and"Down with hutcher Somoza, for aworkers and peasants government!"The SSN militants carried two bannersreading: "E.lI. fuera de Nicaragua"(LJ .S. out of Nicaragua). and "POl' ungohierno obrero-carnpesino" (For aworker-peasant government). SS\) sup­porters chanted slogans such as "Lu­char. vet:Jcer. obreros al poder"(Struggle. win. workers to power). and

"Que muera el somocismo. que viva elsocialismo" (Death to Somozaism, longlive socialism),

At a hrief rally in front of theconsulate SL spokesman Jose Silvaaddressed the crowd in English andSpanish. calling for military victory tothe insurgency led by the FSLN butwarning that.

"The blood of the toiling masses mustnot have been spilled in vain .... Only theTrotskyists are committed to take theanti-Somoza struggle through to theend. smashing capitalism. not only inNicaragua but throughout the Ameri­cas. The Trotskyist program of perma­nent revolution demands the end of thelatifundia [big landlords' holdings]through radical agrarian revolution andthe expropriation of industry andcommerce under a workers and peas­ants government. Such revolutionarytasks require the leadership not of thepetty-bourgeois FSLN. who have al­ready named a junta of five to head a

continued on page 11

~wv Photo

Spartacist League marches in L.A,protest.

20 JULY 1979