No. 26, July 2007  Table of Contents Selected articles linked Click on image to left for pdf version of complete issue.

 

Struggle to Forge a Vanguard Is Key Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! For Militant Workers Action to Stop ICE Raids and Deportations! Democrats and Republicans, Enemies of Immigrants – Forge a Revolutionary Workers Party! Last year’s immigrant-bashing bill, H.R. 4437 died in Congress. But now its key components are back, in immigration “reform” proposals by Republican president George Bush and the Democratic Party majority in Congress. Meanwhile, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cops of the Homeland Security Department have unleashed nationwide raids. On this May Day 2007, we call on the workers movement to come out in defense of immigrants, not just in words, but in militant labor action. Today, union bureaucrats and liberal Democrats will make pro-immigrant noises from the platforms, but their vague calls for “legalization” won’t obtain legal rights and union conditions for more than 13 million undocumented workers. They say “stop the raids and deportations.” But how? The only way to stop the wave of anti-immigrant repression is to mobilize labor’s power against the ICE Gestapo. Labor must demand full citizenship rights for all immigrants, documented or undocumented . When the migra tries to stage its raids in a union town like New York, thousands of workers should pour into the streets to block the immigrant catchers. ¡La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras – Workers’ struggle has no borders!  For Militant Workers Action to Stop ICE Raids and Deportations!  (1 May 2007)

Oakland Dock Workers Honor Picket, Shut Down War Cargo Shipper For Workers Strikes Against the War!  On May 19 in Oakland, California dock workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 refused to cross picket lines outside a notorious war cargo shipping firm, Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), leaving three ships idle for consecutive shifts. The picket was called by the Port Action Committee, an antiwar coalition including the Oakland Education Association, which declared it was holding an official union picket. The dock workers’ action shows the depth of anger against the war in the U.S. working class and the real possibility of labor action against the war. Since before the war began, the Internationalist Group has uniquely called for workers strikes against the war and for transportation unions to “hot cargo” (refuse to handle) war cargo. A host of opportunist socialist groups dismissed this call as “pie in the sky.” Yet here were West Coast union dock workers respecting antiwar picket lines and shutting down war shippers. This can be an important first step toward the mobilization of workers power to shut down the war machine, but that requires a sharp struggle against the bourgeois politics of the antiwar groups and union officialdom.  Longshore Workers Honor Picket Line, Shut Down War Cargo Shipper in Oakland  (20 May 2007)

After the Presidential Elections, A Reactionary Offensive Against Youth and Workers France Turns Hard to the Right To Defeat Sarkozy, End Class-Collaborationist Alliances Out of the most appalling presidential campaign that France has known in a long time, the candidate emerged victorious who most embodied chauvinist electioneering and the employers’ determination to put an end to the threadbare union gains still remaining after almost a quarter century of dismantling the “welfare state.” Nicolas Sarkozy has been installed in the Elysée (France’s presidential palace) in order to proclaim the death of the “French model.” This policy represents a consensus among the French bourgeoisie, and the “socialist” Royal was in fact the candidate of a bourgeois coalition, backed by small capitalist parties. As always, this popular front of class collaboration had the purpose of chaining the working people to a sector of the bourgeoisie.  “Sarko” vs. “Sego” was a contest between two competitors running on the same basic program, and a majority of the voters preferred the original to the copy. If the presidential campaign demonstrated the bankruptcy of the “social-liberal” parliamentary left, it also laid bare the dead-end of a “far left” sunk in popular-frontism.The lesson of the recent presidential elections and of social struggles over the last decade is the urgent and necessary regrouping of orthodox Marxists in an authentically Trotskyist party. France Turns Hard to the Right  (24 May 2007)

Protest Against “Minuteman” Anti-Immigrant Vigilantes at NYU Upwards of a hundred demonstrators converged on New York University’s Kimmel Center April 9 to protest the appearance of Chris Simcox, co-founder of the fascistic vigilante group, “Minuteman Project.” The racist Simcox was hosted by the College Republicans in a phony “debate” on immigration. The Internationalist Group and CUNY Internationalist Clubs helped publicize the protest and mobilized a contingent of students and workers.  Our speaker emphasized that the Minutemen are part of the attack on immigrants that has brought large-scale raids by the ICE immigration cops all around the country. The war on immigrants is the “home front” of the imperialist war on Iraq. It is necessary to mobilize the power of the working class to defeat these attacks, which are coming from the very top, from both the Republicans and the Democrats.  Protest Against “Minuteman” Anti-Immigrant Vigilantes at NYU  (10 April 2007)

Defeat U.S. Imperialism in the Near East, and "At Home"! War on Iraq, Immigrants Under Attack There has been a dramatic intensification of repression recently against immigrants in the United States. Immigrant workers have been picked up by the hundreds in a series of raids by the Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) police. The fact that the raids by the ICE Gestapo have taken place with barely a peep of protest from the unions and the “antiwar” movement is outrageous. The immigrant workers are being targeted as part of a drive by the U.S. government to regiment the population for war. The next time there is a raid in a union stronghold like New York, workers should massively pour into the streets to block this atrocity. It is necessary to bring out the ranks of labor in struggle to defeat the imperialist war abroad and the bosses’ war on immigrants, racial minorities and working people “at home.” War on Iraq, Immigrants Under Attack  (17 March 2007)

Mobilize Workers’ Power to Free Mumia! Hundreds March for Mumia Abu-Jamal Outside Court Hearing in Philadelphia Ruling shows: No Justice for the Oppressed in the Capitalist Courts Abolish the Racist Death Penalty! Over 500 people turned out to demonstrate on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal outside the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on May 17 [2007]. In the packed courtroom another 200 heard the prosecution demand that the death sentence against Jamal be reinstated while defense lawyer Robert Bryan asked for a new trial. While some had illusions that a new trial could be fair, many protestered declared that the entire “justice” system was racist to the core. Outside, a spokesman for the Internationalist Group addressed the crowd, saying: “Mumia’s case today illustrates the way in which black people are kept down, particularly in the northern ghettos, in the wake of the civil rights laws, which supposedly outlawed legal discrimination, but did nothing for blacks in the north.... A lot of times you hear people say they are “talking truth to power.” There is no point in talking truth to power. The judges in that court over there don’t need us to tell them the truth. They are meting out class justice, capitalist class justice. We need to talk power to power, the power of the working class, which makes this society run, and can also bring it to a halt. We need to mobilize that power to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Hundreds March for Mumia Abu-Jamal Outside Court Hearing in Philadelphia  (21 May 2007)

A Quarter Century on Death Row – No Justice in the Capitalist Courts It Will Take Workers’ Power to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty! Twenty-five years ago last December in the city of Philadelphia, Mumia Abu-Jamal was shot, arrested and beaten to within an inch of his life while in police custody. For a quarter century, the former Black Panther and renowned radical journalist has been kept in isolation on Pennsylvania’s death row. The ruling class is determined to silence this innocent man who has powerfully exposed their crimes and championed their victims, for which he became known as the “voice of the voiceless.” Mumia’s life is in danger. With defense and prosecution appeals before a federal circuit court panel, the death sentence (overturned in 2001) could be restored at any time. Democratic governor Ed Rendell, who was Philadelphia district attorney at the time of Jamal’s arrest and engineered the 1981 frame-up trial, has pledged to sign a third death warrant. Oral arguments have been scheduled for May 17. The Internationalist Group urgently calls to rekindle mass protests and particularly to bring out the power of the working class to abolish the racist death penalty and win freedom now for Mumia!  It Will Take Workers’ Power to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!  (17 March 2007)

More Danish Blowback: Police-State Attack on Squatters in Copenhagen On March 1, a police “anti-terror” squad in the Danish capital of Copenhagen landed by helicopter on the roof of the “Ungdomshuset” (Youth House) which has been occupied by squatters for almost a quarter of a century. The storming of the youth house provoked six days of street-fighting. In all, nearly 700 persons were arrested. The police round-up was the largest in Danish history since the German occupation in World War II. Danish pseudo-socialists criticize the anarchist-autonomist youth for “violence” while calling on them to beg for crumbs from the Social Democrats who are co-responsible for the capitalist state violence. The junior league imperialists of the Danish bourgeoisie yearn to police København like they police Kabul and Kosovo on behalf of NATO. To go up against and defeat the class violence of these helpmates of U.S. imperialism, who acted as deputy sheriffs to the world gendarmes laying waste to Iraq, requires a superior power: that of the working class. And that requires revolutionary leadership.   Police-State Attack on Squatters in Copenhagen  (27 March 2007)

An Injury to One Is An Injury to All! Mobilize NYC Labor to Defend Brooklyn Immigrant Workers! In New York City, workers at several food distribution companies in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn and nearby Ridgewood, Queens have undertaken a struggle to unionize their plants. The struggle is being led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a labor union which seeks to revive the traditions of the anarcho-syndicalist “Wobblies.” In the space of two months, more than 20 immigrant workers have been fired by these companies, who threaten to call in the immigration cops. These are small companies, located in an isolated warehouse district deep in the industrial backwaters of Brooklyn and Queens. To win requires bringing the power of New York’s organized workers movement to bear. And that means building class-struggle oppositions against the bourgeois labor fakers who shackle the unions to the capitalist Democratic Party. Marches in solidarity with the immigrant workers were held on January 15 and February 19. The Internationalist Group calls on all of NYC labor to take up the fight of the embattled immigrant workers.   Mobilize NYC Labor to Defend Brooklyn Immigrant Workers!  (18 February 2007)

Outrage! Teenager Prosecuted for “Procuring a Miscarriage” Defend Amber Abreu – Drop All the Charges! State Wants to Charge Her with Murder for Attempted Abortion Last month, Amber Abreu went to the hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts after trying to terminate a pregnancy by taking a drug, misoprostol, that is a key component of the abortion pill RU-486. Now the state has charged her, using an archaic law dating back to the 1840s, with “procuring a miscarriage.” Amber, a recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic, faces seven years in jail on this outrageous charge. But the state wants to go even further and charge her with homicide, for which she could face a sentence of life behind bars. The whole prosecution is an obscene miscarriage of justice. But where is the national outcry over the hideous persecution of this 18-year-old immigrant who symbolizes the plight of young women, often terribly alone, who face desperate decisions that can ruin their lives? The “mainstream” (bourgeois) feminists haven’t exactly rushed to highlight her case. They are following the example of Democrat Hillary Clinton, who wants to find “common ground” with anti-abortion forces. The persecution of Amber Abreu underscores how the oppression of women is deeply embedded in the structure of capitalist society. Trotskyists call for free abortion on demand, and for women’s liberation through socialist revolution.   Defend Amber Abreu – Drop All the Charges!  (22 February 2007)

For Workers Strikes Against the War Don't Beg Congress! The popular front “peace movement” held mass demonstratons January 27 to pressure the Democratic Party. “The voters want peace. Tell the new Congress: Act Now to End the War.”  End the war? How? They aren’t even calling for immediate withdrawal. The Democratic majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives aren’t about to cut off funds for the war that they have supported from the outset. Voters last November may have thought they were voting for peace by electing Democrats, but what they will get is more war. The Democratic Party is now the main war party in the United States as they maneuver for the 2008 presidential election. No quantity of pacifist speeches will succeed in pressuring the ruling class to get out of the Near East. U.S. troops will stay in Iraq until they are forced out. The Internationalist Group calls to turn massive working-class opposition to the war into militant labor action: for workers strikes against the war, for transport workers to “hot cargo” (refuse to handle) war materiel. Don't Beg Congress!  (23 January 2007)

Against the Tortillazo, Impose Workers Control! Mexico's Tortilla Crisis, Product of Capitalism 2007 began with a spectacular increase in the price of tortillas, a staple of the Mexican diet, as basic as bread in the United States. President Felipe Calderón then announced a  “voluntary” price ceiling which was in fact a 40-percent price hike. The opposition led by  the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is calling for a trust fund to subsidize tortillas, but only for the neediest.  The aim of the AMLO/PRD popular front is to keep protests limited to the capitalist framework. Yet the drastic price increases, which are literally taking food off the tables of Mexican poor and working people, are the product of the capitalist market. To combat the tortillazo (the tortilla attack), the Grupo Internacionalista calls for worker-neighborhood supply committees with the power to shut down businesses which do not respect the specified price, as well as to seize stocks from hoarders; for workers control over the whole chain of production and workers inspection of the accounting books of the agro-industrial giants. In order to smash these monopolies and expropriate them in the interests of the working people, what’s required is a struggle for a workers and peasants government. Mexico's Tortilla Crisis, Product of Capitalism  (21 January 2007)