Defeat U.S.
Imperialism! Defend Iraq!
For Class War
Against the Imperialist War!
The imperialist rulers of
the United States are gearing up to carry
out a horrendous slaughter in Iraq. Around
the world several million people have
marched against war on Iraq. Yet
innumerable peace parades haven’t fazed
the cold-blooded killers who run this
country. Neither have fatuous debates in
the UN Security Council. The
Internationalist Group and League for the
Fourth International have called for
workers action against the war on Iraq,
including labor strikes and boycotting war
materiel. In contrast, the bulk of the
left is intent on building a bigger,
better and “broader” popular-front antiwar
coalition – looking to the liberals rather
than to the working class. Ultimately, the
only way imperialist war can be eliminated
is not through endless “antiwar movements”
with bourgeois politicians but through
international socialist revolution led by
a Trotskyist Fourth International.For
class
war against the imperialist war!
(14 January 2003)
Equal
Language Rights for All!
Full Citizenship
Rights for All Immigrants!
Bilingual
Education Under Racist Attack
The nationwide campaign
against bilingual education is
escalating. Last November, two states
had a reactionary referendum on the
ballot outlawing programs with classroom
instruction in non-English languages.
They even threaten to jail teachers for
using any language other than English.
The attack on bilingual ed goes together
with the detentions of thousands of
immigrants following the 11 September
2001 WTC attack and preparations for the
U.S. invasion of Iraq. It is part of the
hysteria against “foreigners” which
accompanies imperialist war. It
underscores the urgent need for the
workers movement to mobilize in defense
of immigrants’ rights, including
demanding full citizenship rights for
all immigrants, no discrimination
against any language, and defnese of
bilingual education against racist
assault. Bilingual
Education
Under Racist Attack (January
2003)
IG at Bay
Area Labor Conference:
Strike
Against Taft-Hartley! Hot-Cargo
War Materiel!
Internationalist Group
supporters intervened with a program for
sharp class struggle at a labor
conference against Taft-Hartley and
union-busting in San Francisco, called
under the auspices of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union last
December. While many came hoping for a
real strategy to defeat the “slave
labor law” and for
labor action against the U.S. war on
Iraq, the conference was a talk shop for
union bureaucrats who wanted to blow off
steam but opposed any real mobilization
of the power of labor. The IG called for
ripping up the ILWU contract promoted by
Bush, striking against Taft-Hartley,
backed by a mobilization of all labor,
and refusing to handle (“hot cargoing”) war
goods. Workers must break from the
capitalist parties and build a
revolutionary workers party. Strike
Against
Taft-Hartley! Hot-Cargo War Materiel!
(17 December 2002)
Strike to Smash
Taft-Hartley Anti-Labor War
Repression!
For Powerful
Workers Action Against
Bosses’ War!
“The
U.S. imperialist war on Iraq is also a
capitalist war on the working class,
blacks, Latinos and immigrants in the
United States. While the Pentagon
prepares to nuke civilian bomb
shelters in Baghdad, American
employers and their government are
going after the unions, oppressed
minorities and democratic rights with
a vengeance. This is class war,”
stated an Internationalist Group
leaflet distributed to the December 7
SF labor conference. “The bosses’ war
must be defeated – in Iraq and on the
home front – by mobilizing the
power of the working class, in the
streets, on the docks and in the
plants.” Read the IG leaflet:
For
Powerful
Workers Action Against the Bosses’
War! (7 December 2002)
SL: Hard to
Starboard
The Spartacist League did
not intervene in the SF labor
conference. Nor did it call for
boycotting war materiel during the West
Coast maritime bosses’
lockout, nor for defying the
union-busting Taft-Hartley Law. Now SL
spokesmen are justifying this
capitulation. They talk of “class
struggle at home” to justify refusing to
call for the defeat of “their own”
imperialist bourgeoisie in its war on
Iraq. The SL’s
line on the longshore
conflict shows what their words mean in
practice, a telling example of its rapid
motion to the right. SL:
Hard
to Starboard (17 December 2002)
Screw
Mayor Mike – For a Solid Transit
Strike!
The Fight for a
Class-Struggle Leadership in NYC
Transit
Break with the
Democrats – For a Revolutionary
Workers Party!
Facing the possibility of
a subway and bus strike in the heart of
international finance capital, the
ruling class prepared as if for civil
war. What was posed was hard class
struggle against an implacable foe. The
main obstacle to such a struggle is the
labor bureaucracy which seeks to
conciliate the working class with its
capitalist exploiters. The leadership of
Local 100, elected in 2000 on the New
Directions slate, posed as reformers.
Yet ND was in reality a lash-up of
out-bureaucrats trying to get in on the
action. Its strategy was to appeal to
the capitalist courts and the government
against the union. A class-struggle
opposition would fight for the
independence of labor from the
capitalist state in every way. Fight
for
a Class-Struggle Leadership in NYC
Transit (16 December
2002)
NYC
Bosses Threaten National Guard
Occupation
You
Can’t Run the Subways with
Bayonets!
For a Solid Transit
Strike, Mobilize All New York Labor!
With the December 15
contract deadline for New York City
subway and bus workers looming, NYC
rulers whipped up a fear campaign
against Transport Workers Union Local
100. The governor threatened to put NYC
under martial law. The battle of New
York city transit hit at the heart of
international finance capital. A subway
strike would have wreaked havoc with
Bush’s war on Iraq. But the Local 100
leadership looked to pressure tactics
rather than gearing up the membership
for all-out battle. You
Can't
Run NYC Subways with Bayonets!
(10 December 2002)
For Revolutionary
Opposition to Pro-Imperialist
Coup Attempt in Venezuela!
Venezuela has been hit by
a work stoppage organized by the
employers’ federation and right-wing
military officers, aided by the
anti-communist leadership of the main
union federation (CTV), aimed at
toppling the bourgeois populist
government of former colonel Hugo
Chávez. This is a thinly disguised
attempt at a coup d’état, the fourth
time in a year that the most reactionary
sectors of the bourgeoisie have
attempted to bring down the regime in
order to protect their corrupt
sinecures, prevent an extremely limited
land reform and cut off oil supplies to
Cuba. The League for the Fourth
International put forward watchwords for
Trotskyist intervention in the
Venezuelan crisis. For
Revolutionary
Opposition to Venezuela Coup Attempt!
(13 December 2002)
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