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 -------------------------------------------------------- --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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