File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1996/96-11-02.234, message 13


Date: Mon, 28 Oct 96 11:03 GMT
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-G: COCKROACH! #18 ( Talking to Soviet Workers!)


COCKROACH! #18

A EZINE FOR POOR AND WORKING CLASS PEOPLE.

WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS.

It is time that the poor and working class people
have a voice on the Internet.

Contributions can be sent to <malecki-AT-algonet.se>
Subscribtions are free at    <malecki-AT-algonet.se>

How often this zine will appear depends on you!

---------------------------------------------------
1. The "Unity" List at Jefferson village(Declaration)

2. Revolutionary tactics for Scotland.

3. Talking to Soviet Workers!

-----------------------------------------------------
The "Unity" List at Jefferson village(Declaration)

With the reorganising of the lists at Jefferson village I submit the 
following declaration on the "unity" list. It is a document that i take full 
responsibility for alone. Hopefully this will be remembered in history as 
one of the documents, if not the first of the struggle against the new 
Internet trend of reformists, neo-Stalinists and fake Trotskyist liquidaters 
who are programatically trying to build a 9 and 1/2 international under the 
guise of "Unity". A Trotskyist document which opposed and opposes this "new" 
trend from the beginning. This project can only lead to new disasters for 
the International Proletariat because it is based on a combination of 
politics which have been tried out in history and failed! But it is also a 
document which sees a *real* communist International in the future which has 
a program for victory.

Warm Regards
Bob Malecki

"Unity" List,Organising the 9 and 1/2 International.

All of the people who have been watching or taking part in the struggle 
around the creation of the "Unity" list at Jefferson Village and all others 
who are new to this subject deserve and uppdate on the struggle. 

The struggle began because the creators of the "unity" list started off on a 
course of banning and exclusion of groups and individuals from taking part 
in the discussions around the question of unity in the workers movement 
after all of the estounding events that have taken place in the last few 
years (foremost the fall of the former Soviet Union). These bans were 
strictly political and directed at the old hard line Stalinists and the 
people who claim to stand for authodox Trotskyism! 

The struggle against this sectarian approach to discussing issues which are 
extremely important to the workers movement internationally quickly led to 
and open battle between the five man moderater "junta" that controlled this 
new list and a principled opposition to these exclusionists and banning 
policies. The struggle escalulated when people who in principle defended 
these attacks by the "unity" list creators against fundemental bougeois 
democracy and workers democracy in the workers movement. For defending those 
who had been banned or excluded from "Unity" numerous people were expelled 
>from the "Unity" list and a new rule about discussing Malecki or the 
creation of the list was imposed on pain of expulsion.

This bureaucratic attack on the principled opposition to exclusionism, bans 
and expulsions was not stopped but in fact grew where we have now numerous 
contacts who are acting as moles on the "Unity" list and keep those who have 
been banned,excluded or expelled well informed of what is going on at 
"Unity" on a daily basis.

Thus we knew about the creation of a new charter in its 6th (!) version 
which has taken away most of the horrible open attacks on workers democracy 
with a long document which gives unlimited power to the five man moderater 
junta to decide who will be allowed on the list and who will be turned away 
at the door. Above this is a secret docuement with special rules for those 
who led the opposition and some of the people who were expelled. The rule is 
tha Malecki one of the leaders of the opposition and who was never allowed 
in from the first for 
being a "Spartacist" is banned from discussion on pain of expulsion. And all 
those who do not accept list policy on the banning of certian groups and 
individuals will 
also be show the door.

In fact when the new charter came to a vote it received under ten votes 6 of 
the votes were the moderaters and co moderater at "Unity" that imposed the 
bans in the beginning. The opposition recieved more letters of solidarity 
then the new list charter
(6th version) got votes in favor of!

We also know that Louis Proyect who was one of the main instigators of the 
hate Malecki campaign left the list in a rage because the "Trotskyists" had 
invaded the list anyway. Proyect has continued his hate Malecki campaign and 
as turned to yellow journalism and provacative accusations that Malecki is 
lying about his Vietnam war activities and is and agent provacateur in the 
pay of imperialism who is here on and errand of sabotaging all lists that 
discuss the workers movement. Naturally not one shred of evidence has this 
yellow journalist supplied for his grave accusations against Malecki. 
Malecki on the other hand has supplied dates and times, names and places, 
letters fron Phil Berrigan confirming his story and even a woman in 
Cleveland openly said on Usenet which library to go to in order to check 
Malecki's story out. But the slanders without evidence by Proyect the yellow 
journalist continued and appear to be growing in intensity.

At the same time Proyect has reapplied for membership on the "Unity" list! 
Is this the price demanded by the the "Unity" list moderaters or is Proyect 
acting alone after the expulsions of the opposition from "Unity? At this 
point i think that Proyect is acting alone. However if the "Unity" list 
allows this yellow journalist back on "Unity" after the serious personal 
slanders against one of the leaders of the way the "Unity" list was created 
then things change! This means that they support these unfounded accusations 
against Malecki who is banned from their list. And will use people like 
Proyect to smear the opposition to their rotten unity project. So i warn 
them now! Taking on Proyect again at this point will be political suicide 
for the "Unity list!

Getting on to what is the "unity" list project in communist reality? This i 
say is a fake unity project dreamed up by the 9 and 1/2 ers. That is a 
collection 
of reformists from the 2 International, a group of liberal Stalinist left 
overs from 
the 3 International and a collection of fake Trotskyists of the 4 
International of the United Secretariat that was destroyed by Pabloism. The 
sum total of the 3 groups is 9 and 1/2. If you count this present fake 
attempt of false unity on the politics of these leftovers from 
reformist,Stalinist,and liquidator internationals.

There idea of "unity" is trying to patch together 2 International trends in 
the labor movement that have historically betrayed the working class. And 
the fake 4 International liquidators who have never been big enough to 
betray the working class appear to be in the lead in taking this iniative. 
In fact liquidating Trotskyism as they always have for a new opportunist 
creation based on the politics of all three of these International trends. 
It is a creation that 
is doomed from the outset and at the first serious sign of class struggle 
will blow this rotten block apart because it is based on three theorys that 
in history have shown themselves  completely bankrupt. The 2 International 
Lenin wrote off 
after the outbreak of the first world war. The third International built by 
Lenin was declared dead by Trotsky after the Stalinist reponsbility of the 
victory of facism in Germany. The Fourth International build by Trotsky was 
destroyed by Pabloist liquidationism and his plans of entering the Stalinist 
parties after the second world war. Thus liquidating the neccessity of 
building a world party of revolution. The Mandelites under the false banner 
of the 4 International contined along this course in order to chase the 
third world guerilla movements, organisations like Solidarnosc' in Poland 
and the Mullahs in Iran saying that Trotskyists parties would develop of 
themselves through some sort of dynamic pressure. In other words we tail and 
support anything left 
sounding if it moves. Sooner or later they will become "Trotskyist".

After the fall of the Soviet Union the Mandelites, the neo Stalinists, the 
left wing reformists are trying to create a new "Unity" Internationally on a 
program whichis partially taken from any spontaneous movement on the left 
that develops or various cleaned up reformist and neo-Stalinist projects and 
trying to build 
Unity in the framework of a combination of all this. The "Unity" list at 
Jefferson Village is and expression of this new fake left unity project 
going on 
Internationally.There we all can agree to disagree as long as we keep our 
table manners and endlessly discuss the importance of this new found fake 
unity of left reformists, neo-Stalinists, and fake trotskyist liquidators! 
This is the common denominator of this group.

The only thing that they really agree on unanimously is to do everything 
they can to bureacratically exclude,ban and expell any serious left 
opposition and have special rules for the revolutionary Trotskyist 
opposition! This opposition they fear because if the opposition was allowed 
to discuss politics on the "Unity list" the 9 and 1/2ers would
run for cover. They have no answers to the communist revolutionaries that 
defend the left opposition and founding documents of the Fourth 
International which they destroyed! And the liquidators are cheered on by 
the reformists and neo-Stalinists because the new "unity" they are talking 
about is to their advantage and on their rotten political programs that have 
been responsible for so many defeats of the working class in the last decades. 

Now these fakes want to cover their rotten line in a furry of discussion 
around "Unity". Unity on the same god damned stuff that has failed time and 
again!  The Trotskyist opposition to these bankrupt politics and 
bureaucratic methods of bans,exclusions, and expulsion need to be seen in 
the light of the rightward moving liquidaters to make this rotten block The 
struggle has raised important questions and serious people will be watching 
this continuing struggle both from the inside and the outside.

Now the struggle around the unity list will enter a new phase. With the 
reorganisation of the lists at Jefferson village the following will take 
place.Those that are on the outside will be posting to Usnet occasionally in 
order to struggle against the Unity list and its plans of building a 9 and 
1/2 International. As well others will be taking up the struggle being 
fought from the inside of those that oppose this unity project from the 
left. So the struggle will continue and take on a new form and hopefully 
drawing more people into this battle in the struggle to forge a new 
communist International!

Because in the final analisis it is not who is banned or who is allowed in 
which will decide the outcome of the struggle. Because this struggle is not 
only going on at Jefferson Village or Internet but around the real world 
outside of cyberspace Internationally. The struggle is between those who 
want to struggle for Trotskyism based on the history of the Bolshevik party 
and the Left Opposition, but also the Transitional Program written by 
Trotsky. It is the struggle of those who stand and struggle for a Trotskyist 
International based on these documents against allof those who have no 
program or a program that has failed miserably.

Against the reformists, neo-Stalinists and fake Trotskyist liquidators.

Against the 9 and1/2 fake "unity.

Forward to a Trotskyist Communist International.

Based on Trotsky's left opposition and the Transitional Program.

Warm Regards
Bob Malecki


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revolutionary tactics for Scotland

We unequivocally support the formation of a Scottish parliament as a
democratic demand - but warn against parliamentarianism and seeing
this as a substitute for the class struggle. In any referendum we
would advocate a yes vote for autonomy/devolution. It is not logical
to call for a referendum on a proposed Scottish National Assembly if
you take a position of opposing it in principle.  
For example, Workers Power/LRCI  correctly held a position of not advocating 
a Welsh Assembly in 1992 since a majority was not in favour of it and
correctly saw it as a distraction from the issue of the miners and the
pit closure programme at the time. Now they say that devolution in
Scotland is a "distraction" and that Blair is playing into the
nationalists' hands by opportunistically supporting it in order to
curry favour with disillusioned workers. 
Though the description of
Blair's motive is accurate, WP's understanding of the 'dangers of
nationalism' is rather typically Anglo-centric and potentially
Anglo-chauvinist.  It is even Union jack-ishly reminiscent of the
Tories counter-attack on Labour's devolution plans which they (the
Tories) say will open the road to the destruction of the Union. If
WP/LRCI are saying no to a Scottish Assembly when a clear and
overwhelming majority of Scots want it then they ignore the democratic
right of the Scottish working class to decide their national fate.
They also relinquish any possibility of influencing this movement of
the class because of their wooden dogmatic schemes of what workers
should be thinking rather than seeking to find a road to the mass by
the transitional method by relating to their real level of
consciousness. We do not see an orientation supporting such demands
for devolution as a 'gamble with nationalism' or a 'dangerous
diversion' provided revolutionaries pose correct tactics in step with
the ascending class consciousness of workers in struggle. It is a
democratic and class question of the right of the working class to
contest the running of government and parliamentary political rule,
and capitalist economic domination over their lives. The fact they are
willing to contest it opens up opportunities for revolutionaries to
put propaganda for a Scottish Workers Assembly and other popular
organisations of mass rule and scrutiny over the parliamentarians,
particularly Labour MPs who take a stand opposing the Tories now in
office or to a future Blair government. We revolutionaries will use a
Scottish Assembly as a platform to advocate the abolition of the
monarchy and for a Scottish Workers Republic as a step that will truly
take Scottish, English and Welsh workers towards socialism in a
Federal All-British Workers Republic with national autonomy for
Scotland and Wales. 

Graham Cee
LCMRCI

--------------------------------------------------------
Talking to Soviet Workers.

The Soviet workers have suffered a terrible defeat of a
world-historical significance.  First, they had given away political power
to the bureaucracy, had lost the Soviets as the instrument of proletarian
dictatorship and ceased to exit politically as class.  Then they had given
away plants and factories--all the means of production and the riches of
the country created by them.
        You were told: Think only about your work, leave politics to us,
rely on us; we know the road, we see farther.  With us, you'll reach
communism without upheavals, evolutionary, gradually as down the Volga
river.  This is what the ruling caste used to tell workers and 
peasants, while behind their backs it made deals  with the
dealers of shadow economy, with the world bourgeoisie, with the
petty-bourgeois professional class.  It had colluded with them until the
day came when they together struck the working class in the back and
unleashed the open class warfare against it.  Like a werewolf, they have
shown you their true image: the cynical snout of the bourgeois philistine!
How easily, how scornfully they have done with you!  But he laughs best
who laughs last.  Now it is your turn, now you have to make a move.
        Proletarian revolutions ruthlessly criticize themselves, learn
>from their victories, and most of all from their defeats.  What is themain 
lesson of your terrible defeat?  Winning power is not enough.  One
must be able to hold it. Freedom and dignity cannot be preserved simply by
the right of inheritance. They must be defended again and again.  Until
the power of Labor triumphs globally, until the International becomes the
master of the planet and class society disappears into the past forever,
until then--every generation of workers will have to confirm its right for
dictatorship again and again. Neither God, nor Tsar, neither Hero nor the
Party will accomplish for the workers what only they themselves can
accomplish.  Only the working class itself can become its own liberator.
And it can do so only by having recognized its historical mission
and united on its basis. What then prevents the class organization of 
Russian workers at present? There is a number of objective problems.  Yet
the main one is subjective.  It is the widespread illusion that such
organization, such unity can be achieved through the top, i.e. by the
existing upper-level political organizations and institutions: parties,
unions, and parliaments in which you cannot find a single worker.
In other words, it is the illusion that some "good uncles" over there will do
what only the working class itself can.  Yet all these organizations, all
these "good uncles" are creatures of the past and carry over from it the
thinking, psychology, methods, and above all, the
interests of the bureaucracy, the sworn enemy of workers.  That is why the
political vanguard of the Russian working class must be created from
within. The class must concentrate, gather itself together, gain
confidence in its own strength.  Many workers say: We do not have Lenin
this time.  But without the working class of 1917 there would have been no
Lenin.  Once you become the revolutionary class you will have your Lenins
too.  Don't forget that in 1905 and 1917 it was the working class who
led the Bolsheviks forward and not the other way around.  The real
strength of the Bolshevik party were the thousands of anonymous
workers-organizers and leaders.
        A few words about the present arrangement of social forces in the
country.  The Russian reaction has aptly represented itself in the
double-headed eagle.  It is, indeed, of two heads: the parasitic
bureaucracy and the new criminal bourgeoisie nurtured by it.  By
themselves, these classes are pathetic and worthless, they are
incapable of independent historical initiative and creativity.  Their
strength is due entirely to the support of the world bourgeoisie.  Beneath
this double-headed hydra there vacillates the petty-bourgeois mass of the
professional class and the semi-proletarian element. This mass is not able
to advance its own historical program, not capable of sovereign mastery of
society.  In the end, it will swing to the side of that class which
will prove to be strongest.
        The evil forces of the world reaction to our Revolution are
opposed by two brotherly groups of the working people: the industrial and
agrarian proletariat. There are no contradictions between them, their
interests are the same.  It is on this social foundation that we need to
build a militant proletarian organization for the Industrial-Agrarian Alliance.
 We need to build it from within: in factories and 
collective farms.  This organization must be absolutely independent and
represent only the real class interests of the industrial and
agrarian workers.  The organization's hard core will be formed by 
professional workers--the most experienced part of the working class, its
heart and head.  The first task of this organization would have to be the
struggle for the de facto control over industrial and agrarian
enterprises.  The enterprise is a social microcosm.  Its administration
and owners represent the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie in general, its
mid-level management belongs to the petty-bourgeois element of the
professional class, the workers represent the ptariat.  Today, the
enterprise is under the reign of administrative and even
administrative-mafiosi terror.  Today, the workers have become the
hostages of the administration and the owners.  They are afraid to talk
with one another, they look across their shoulders in fear to lose their
jobs.  Their activists are being decimated by layoffs and physical
violence in the hands of hired thugs.  It means that our first task is
to free workers from this terror.

Instead, the administration must become a hostage to workers and learn
to look across its shoulder.  And the mid-level management must become an
instrument of workers' power over the bosses, instead of being their
slave-driver.  This is an absolutely necessary precondition for the class
to consolidate itself and to launch an offensive.  All means that will be
necessary to achieve this goal should be employed.  A ferocious and bloody
class war is being waged against workers in our country, and we better
understand this before it is too late, before the enemy succeeds in
intimidating them for long and beyond any glimpse of hope.  To have the
spell of fear broken will be the first great victory after so many
defeats.  This victory will put an end to demoralization of the workers.
It will make them again to believe in their strength and in the power of
class solidarity.  Only then the class will attain its own ideological and
moral existence, independent from the bourgeois society and opposed to it.
Without such life-world within itself, the class cannot struggle.

This real, de facto power on the shop floor will mean that workers retake
their unions and clean these Aegean stables from the traitors of the
working class. Today, you pay for half a million union functionaries who
enforce the anti -labor politics of the union bosses! Down with this army
of parasites! Workers' money must serve their struggle for emancipation,
not for enslavement!  In the hands of the militant workers organization,
the material infrastructure of the unions will become a foundation for a
higher degree of class organization and a spring-board for broadening the
struggle against the bourgeois society.  Until now the bureaucracy
successfully divided and smashed workers against one  another. It must
be other way around. Workers must turn to their advantage the contradictions
between the different sections of the ruling class: to smash them head on
against each other, by using bold maneuver, their plebeian cunning to hit
bureaucracy against the bourgeoisie and vice versa, always using
the enemy, never allowing him to use yourself!  This way, by striking now
one enemy, now the other, by uniting itself in comradely discipline, the
industrial-agrarian alliance will become the main class force in the
country.

      And do not be afraid of isolation. The working class is
a class that unifies.  By defending your own class
interests you defend the interests of all working people. By
liberating yourself you liberate the vast majority of society.
Remember, there were only three millions of them, the Russian
workers who shook the world and changed it forever! But they
carried along with them the bulk of the toiling masses. This
can happen again. If you rise, if you throw back
the counterrevolution, if you show again what workers are
capable of -- there will rise the workers of other countries
in the East, in the South, and, yes, in the North (though the
last ones will a bit slower with their "Second Front" again).
And they will not let their governments to smother you!

In summary.

Only the class alliance between industrial and agrarian proletariat is
capable of stopping and throwing back the counterrevolution in Russia, of
carrying over the second socialist revolution and establishing a soviet
democracy as the form of the proletarian dictatorship.  In the present
configuration of class forces in Russia, such alliance can be politically
realized only through a strictly class based organization created WITHIN
the class by the class, and independent from the organizations and
ideologies control in the enterprise.  In this struggle, it will gain
strength and authority, bring together and discipline the class
take over the unions, and launch from this base
the offensive against the bourgeois society and the state.

Vladimir B.
-------------------------------------------------------

http://www.kmf.org/malecki/

Read the book! Ha Ha Ha McNamara,
Vietnam-My Bellybutton is my Crystalball!

COCKROACH, a zine for poor and workingclass people
NOW ON LINE
--------------------------------------------------------

    












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