No. 41, September-October 2015  Table of Contents Selected articles linked Click on image to left for pdf version of complete issue.

Trump, Sanders, Clinton – Immigrant-Bashing, Populism and Warmongering Capitalism’s Racist Electoral Circus Is Back Once again the politicians of the partner parties of American capitalism are polluting the airwaves with their election pitches. The Republican debates are an orgy of racist reaction, a competition to see who is the most hateful boss of all. The Democrats engage in a non-debate posing as “progressives” even as they gear up for the next escalation by the U.S. war machine in  response to the Syrian refugee crisis. Meanwhile, despite months of massive protests coast to coast, racist murder by police continues unabated. Hillary Clinton staked out her terrain as a “tough-guy” militarist hawk during her term as Secretary of State. As a candidate she is pro-war, pro-cop and pro-death penalty. Bernie Sanders is campaigning as a standard-issue economic populist. Neither said anything about police murder of African Americans until brought up short by Black Lives Matter protesters. Now the machinery of Democratic Party control and cooptation is going into overdrive over the next period. Myriad NGOs, non-profits and foundations are there to grease the wheels. But to win the struggle against racist oppression requires a decisive break from, and head-on political struggle against, the capitalist Democratic Party,which has always coined gold from the blood and sweat of African American people going back to slavery days. Capitalism’s Racist Electoral Circus Is Back (29 September 2015)

Against the Eurobanker/SYRIZA Assault – Occupy the Banks and Ports, For Workers Control of Production and Distribution, Form Workers Councils Greek Elections: For a Europe-Wide Workers Revolt Against Capitalist Austerity After ramming crippling new austerity measures through parliament in August, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras called a snap election. The outcome of the September 20 ballot was to return Tsipras’ SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) to office, with only slightly fewer seats in parliament than before. Having discarded its earlier anti-austerity platform for the exact opposite, rather than the euphoria of its earlier election victory, now there was only resignation. But his election gambit was successful in getting rid of leftists in his government, whose new coalition, Popular Unity (LEA), failed to get enough votes to make it into parliament, a potentially devastating blow. LEA is simply a return to an earlier version of SYRIZA, with one difference: it favors leaving the euro (“if necessary”). Yet the hard truth is that inside the EU or outside, with the euro or a new drachma, only socialist revolution will end capitalist austerity. The struggle in Greece is far from over. The Eurobankers’ program of extreme austerity will inevitably fail once again. The key is revolutionary leadership, and the task of the hour is to cohere the nucleus of an authentic Trotskyist party in Greece.  Greek Elections: For a Europe-Wide Workers Revolt Against Capitalist Austerity (23 September 2015)

Wages, Hours, Jobs Cut – Union Health Plans Terminated Obamacare Screws Workers, Windfall for Insurance Companies By Class Struggle Workers – Portland The Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as “Obamacare,” survived a key legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court last June. If reactionary troglodytes oppose the ACA, it does not follow that class-conscious workers should support it. This law gives billions to the insurance industry out of the pockets working and poor people in the U.S. Obamacare is a far cry from universal health coverage. The “insurance” it does provide for millions of working and poor people is often illusory, it excludes undocumented immigrants, many of whom work in dangerous conditions, and many plans do not cover elective abortions. And while it is a bonanza for insurers, it has had its intended effect of eliminating hard-won union health insurance coverage. This is literally “insurance” for the insurance companies. Militant workers oppose the ACA and fight for a universal, socialized health care system while implacably defending every health care benefit that workers have won as a concession from the employers. As union tops throw their support to the Democrats in the upcoming elections, the health care fiasco shows the need for a class-struggle workers party.  Obamacare Screws Workers, Windfall for Insurance Companies (September 2015)

“Radical Left” In Shock After SYRIZA Flip-Flop What Road for Greece: Perpetual Debt Peonage or Workers Revolution? Following Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ abject surrender to the austerity demands of the Eurobankers’ Troika, there has reportedly been a general mood of resignation in the Greek population. Among leftists in and around the governing Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) there has been mounting anger. And internationally there is disappointment and confusion among the opportunist left which not so long ago was singing hosannas for Tsipras and SYRIZA. But what’s lacking is a clear program for militant class struggle against this unmitigated disaster for Greek working people. Now leaders of the Left Platform of SYRIZA (which includes co-thinkers of the International Socialist Organization in the U.S.) are calling for a “Grexit” (Greek exit from the euro) under capitalism. Yet the SYRIZA debacle is not just due to the government’s commitment to the euro but to the fact that there will be no end to anti-worker austerity under capitalism, which a “left government” will enforce with the repressive apparatus of the bourgeoisie. What is required is to mobilize for a program of transitional demands preparing the way to Europe-wide socialist revolution, and building a Leninist-Trotskyist party to lead it. What Road for Greece: Perpetual Debt Peonage or Workers Revolution? (12 August 2015) ISO/Greek DEA: Theoretical Flim-Flam Greased Skids to Sellout Capitalist “Left Government” vs. Revolutionary Workers Government In order to prepare ostensible socialists in and around SYRIZA for participating in a “left government,” supporters of the social-democratic ISO in Greece and the U.S. have cited the call for a “workers government” by the Fourth Congress (1922) of the Communist International as justification. While they distort the Comintern's call for united-front action by the workers movement into an appeal for political alliances with reformist and bourgeois forces, there were important weaknesses in the Fourth Congress resolutions. Trotskyists insist that “workers government” must be based on bodies of working-class power in struggle against the institutions of the bourgeois parliamentary regime. Capitalist “Left Government” vs. Revolutionary Workers Government (12 August 2015) The ICL on Greece: Goodbye Trotsky, Hello Minimum Program The latest installment in the step-by-step renunciation of key programmatic positions of Trotskyism by the International Communist League is dropping Lenin and Trotsky’s call for a revolutionary workers government precisely when and where it is most urgently posed today. An agitational leaflet by the ICL's Trotskyist Group of Greece is aimed at attracting left-of-SYRIZA reformists with a program that makes no mention of revolution, the overthrow of capitalism or a revolutionary party, and whose ultra-vague governmental slogan is hardly distinguishable from those of other opportunist socialists. The ICL on Greece: Goodbye Trotsky, Hello Minimum Program (12 August 2015) Trotsky on Workers and Peasants Government

The SYRIZA Debacle: “Leftists” Enforce the Bosses’ Austerity Greece: The Naked Rule of Finance Capital Workers: Sink the Bankers’ Memorandum, Occupy the Banks and Ports! Build a Trotskyist Party to Fight for International Socialist Revolution! In mid-July, the Greek parliament cast the fateful vote to accept the draconian austerity measures dictated by Europe’s central bankers. The “Agreement” by Prime Minister Tsipras and his Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) was a groveling surrender by these purported radicals who won office in January on a program to reverse the cutbacks and layoffs that have devastated Greek working people over the last five years. Worse yet, the populist left is now enforcing anti-working-class measures even more brutal than what its conservative predecessors tried and failed to carry out. The Eurobankers used SYRIZA to get what the right couldn’t deliver. This spectacle is the most dramatic illustration that imperialist democracy masks the dictatorship of finance capital. Despite the regime’s capitulation the battle is not over. Greek workers have the power to defeat the vicious European Union chiefs, but to use it they require not another SYRIZA but a leadership with the revolutionary program and determination to sweep away all the imperialist exploiters. Greece: The Naked Rule of Finance Capital (18 July)

Syriza Government Caves In to Eurobankers’ Assault Only Socialist Revolution Will End Capitalist “Austerity” Greek Workers: Defeat the Bankers’ Diktat, Occupy the Banks and Ports! Ever since the January 25 elections brought the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) into office in Greece, there has been a bitter struggle between the new regime and the “troika” of the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund. The Eurobankers insist that Athens comply with their program of brutal, anti-working class austerity which has devastated the Greek economy for the last five years. SYRIZA has sought to bargain for less onerous terms and for debt relief. Now this has come to a head in a July 5 referendum called by Greek premier Alexis Tsipras to say “yes” or “no” to the troika’s latest extortionate demands. A “yes” vote would mean abject surrender to the ECB-EC-IMF diktat. But a “no” vote cannot strike a blow against anti-worker austerity because the Greek government has already agreed to carry out almost all the demands of the imperialist financiers. While the bulk of the Greek left has joined in the campaign for a “no” vote, the Communist Party (KKE) has opposed both the “troika” and the government’s austerity programs. But the KKE’s opposition is purely parliamentary and nationalist. A revolutionary Marxist opposition to the bourgeois populist SYRIZA regime would call for militant workers action challenging capitalist rule and pointing to socialist revolution in Greece and throughout Europe. Greek Workers: Defeat the Bankers’ Diktat, Occupy the Banks and Ports! (4 July 2015)

Down with the Racist Dominican Nationality Law – For Haitian-Dominican Workers Solidarity Stop Expulsion of Haitians from the Dominican Republic In the U.S. and D.R.: Full Citizenship Rights for All! For Workers Mobilization Against Deportations and Racist Attacks Beginning this week, the government of the Dominican Republic intends to start mass expulsion of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Based on a racist nationality law, hundreds of thousands of Dominicans have been deprived of their citizenship and are at risk of being seized on the street, at their workplace or in their homes in desperately poor bateyes (shantytowns), and dumped across the border in Haiti. An emergency protest was held on June 15 outside the Dominican Consulate in New York City where Internationalists called for workers action against the deportations, and for full citizenship rights for all living in the Dominican Republic ... and the United States. Dominican-Haitian tensions are fueled by U.S. imperialism, which set up the system of importing Haitian workers to toil on sugar plantations with no rights. Washington also set up the Dominican border police as part of militarization of U.S. borders. The struggle for Haitian-Dominican workers unity can begin in New York City where hundreds of thousands of Dominicans and Haitians are also subject to racist immigration laws. Stop Expulsion of Haitians from the Dominican Republic (16 June 2015) Bronx Protests Against the Deportations of Dominicans with Haitian ancestry and Haitian migrants (30 June 2015)

¡Abajo la racista ley dominicana de nacionalidad! ¡Solidaridad obrera haitiano-dominicana! ¡Alto a la expulsión de haitianos de la República Dominicana! En EE.UU. y en RD: Plenos derechos de ciudadanía para todos Movilización obrera contra las deportaciones y los ataques racistas A partir de esta semana, el gobierno de la República Dominicana pretende iniciar la expulsión en masa de haitianos y dominicanos de ascendencia haitiana. Sobre la base de una racista ley de nacionalidad, cientos de miles de dominicanos han sido despojados de su ciudadanía y corren el riesgo de ser detenidos en la calle, en sus centros de trabajo o en sus casas en los terriblemente pobres bateyes en que habitan, para ser arrojados al otro lado de la frontera con Haití. Una protesta de emergencia fue realizada el 15 de junio frente al consulado dominicano en Nueva York donde los internacionalistas llamamos a favor de acción obrera contra las deportaciones y exigimos plenos derechos de ciudadanía para todos los que residen en la República Dominicana ... y en Estados Unidos. Las tensiones entre dominicanos y haitianos son azuzadas por el imperialismo norteamericano, que erigió el sistema de importación de trabajadores haitianos para realizar las labores más duras en la República Dominicana, careciendo de derecho alguno. Asimismo, Washington estableció la policía fronteriza dominicana como parte de su empeño para militarizar las fronteras norteamericanas. La lucha por la solidaridad obrera haitiano-dominicana puede originarse es precisamente la ciudad de Nueva York, donde cientos de miles de inmigrantes dominicanos y haitianos carecen por igual de derechos en virtud de las racistas leyes migratorias. ¡Alto a la expulsión de haitianos de la República Dominicana! (16 de junio 2015)