Class Struggle #128 Autumn 2019
Class Struggle #128
Briefs
Venezuela faces Civil War
Chris Trotter, well-known in NZ as a ‘left’ commentator,
rubbishes those calling for revolution to solve the crisis in
Venezuela. He describes the power of the armed forces
of modern states and then asks revolutionaries “how big
is your army?” compared to that of Maduro. Clearly, he
wants workers to put their trust in Maduro to defend
Venezuela against any imperialist intervention rather
than arm themselves to resist imperialism, win over the
ranks of the army, and replace Maduro’s ‘Bolivarian’
bourgeois regime with a workers and poor farmers’
government.
Trotter has always had a distaste for the revolutionary
masses, from the time when he wrote off the Red Fed and
backed the social democratic road to socialism in
Aotearoa in his book No Right Turn. The role of social
democracy (those self-proclaimed labourite leaders in
the unions and in government) is to disarm the masses
and capitulate to the capitalist state. To speak only about
how 'socialist' Maduro has a big loyal army ignores the
urgency of splitting the ranks from the officer command
to supply arms to the workers loyal to Maduro to form
militias capable of defeating a determined US-sponsored
coup.
Chile 1973 is evidence of what happens when reformists
rely on a self-professed 'socialist' leader who actively
opposes arming the masses. Germany 1919 is an example
of armed mutineers capable of taking power being
disarmed by a deal between the reformist 2nd
International Social Democracy and the German ruling
class. The positive example is Russia 1917 when the
armed workers, soldiers and peasants’ soviets took power
and defended and defeated an imperialist invasion in a
four-year civil war.
The history lesson is, never rely on social democratic
politicians or popular fronts if you want to make a
revolution. The masses have the ability to arm and defeat
the forces of both social democracy and fascism. A
current example is the Anti-Fa mobilization in the US
recounted in this issue. Social democracy will always slag
off the revolutionary left as 'unrealistic', ‘ultraleft’ and
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March/May 2019
‘sectarian’, as a way of blaming workers for not being
ready for revolution. A cheap and nasty disarming and
diverting of workers onto the parliamentary road and into
the arms of fascism.
The most significant test case of armed workers
organising today is what is happening in the USA. The
dominant but declining world power with a Bonapartist
leader (who claims to stand for the nation ‘above classes’
but is covertly serving reactionary classes) capable of
moving right to an open fascist regime using petty
bourgeois armed gangs to openly attack working class
organisations. That is the cue for the outbreak of an
armed US civil war, actually a 'class war', between armed
workers and armed capitalists that is the inevitable result
of the decline and decay of US imperialism.
Of course, such regimes attempt to suppress the armed
masses at home by embarking on more imperialist
adventures and invasions of neo-colonies like Venezuela
in the name of the ‘war on terror’. US military adventures
will come up against its major rivals, Russia and China,
causing more genocides and bigger wars.
The outcome, socialism or barbarism, will depend on
organized armed worker self defence against a right
Bonapartist or Fascist regime, and refusal to fight foreign
wars against oppressed countries or imperialist rivals.
Just as the German and Russian workers and soldiers did
100 years ago.
Algeria & Arab revolution
Algeria largely missed out on the Arab Spring in 2010 when
Tunisia exploded, followed rapidly by Libya, Egypt and
Syria. It’s president, Bouteflika was able to stifle the 2011
uprising with concessions to the masses. Today, after 6
weeks of growing mass protests the Algerian masses are
making up for it forcing Bouteflika to stand down and
delay the elections. But this grudging concession is not
satisfying the masses, they are aiming higher at ‘regime
change’ and the ‘ruling class’ and are threatening to
rekindle the Arab Revolution.
Algeria has all the features of a semi-colony like the rest
of MENA oppressed by imperialism. Algeria never escaped
the rule of imperialism as its ruling class became its
agents in the exploitation and oppression of the people.
The crisis of capitalism today demands that the workers’
pay with mass austerity and poverty. Bouteflika claims
Class Struggle #128
the legacy of the revolutionary independence war, but
like other ‘left’ nationalists, Gaddafi, Saddam, Assad etc,
their loyalty is to imperialism not the working people.
This means that the Arab Revolution must be reactivated
by the insurgent masses to break from both imperialism
and its local political lackeys. This is what we mean by
permanent revolution – the fight for national
independence becomes the task of the revolutionary
party leading the workers and poor peasants to the
socialist revolution and a united socialist federation of
Arab workers’ states.
The failure of the Libyan and Egyptian masses in 2011 to
arm themselves independently of the bourgeoisie
accounts for their failure to break from imperialism. In
Syria the armed revolution could have defeated Assad had
it not been for the armed invasion of Russia and Iran. Can
the uprising in Algeria learn these lessons and raise a
program that will see workers and poor farmers come to
power showing the way forward for the other Arab states?
There are good signs. The massive demonstrations made
up of rural poor, industrial workers and radical youth. The
workers can’t live in the old way and are searching for a
new way. Workers and poor peasants must organise their
own councils and militias now against state repression.
The planned general strike must be coordinated and
defended to bring down the regime and create a Workers’
Government. However, unless they rapidly build a
revolutionary Marxist party and program to guide them on
the struggle, they are in danger of being betrayed and
defeated by the class enemy posing as reformists,
nationalists and fake Marxists.
There will be many diversions ahead. Bouteflika’s party
must be thrown out. The opposition are no better. They
cannot make concessions to the masses. Nor is there a
national solution since the Algerian masses cannot
succeed without the victory of the Egyptian and Syrian
masses and the rest of MENA states. The Arab Revolution
stands or falls as a totality. Calls for any compromise
with the national bourgeoisie or imperialism, such as a
Constituent Assembly (CA), fall well short of victory and
must lead to defeat.
The RCIT makes the mistake of calling for a workers’ and
poor peasants government based on workers and poor
peasants’ councils to ‘convene’ a “revolutionary
constituent assembly”. This is putting the revolution into
reverse. Workers and Peasants councils are the political
base for armed workers power in government. A CA is a
bourgeois parliament. In other words, a popular front.
Such a CA would become the focus for counter-
revolutionary attempts to destroy a new Workers and
Poor Peasants Government. Attaching the word
“revolutionary” does not change the class composition of
the popular front.
For a revolutionary Marxist party!
Forward to the Algerian socialist revolution!
For a socialist federation of Arab Republics of
MENA!
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March/May 2019
Fascists attack NZ Mosques
Did NZ lose its innocence on 15th March 2019? No, it lost
it in 1991 when it followed the UN and US into the First
Gulf War. About the same time Samuel Huntington
published The Clash of Civilisations warning of the threat
of Islam to Western Civilisation. 30 years of Islamophobia
and the never-ending war on terror what do you get?
Fascism defending Western capitalist "civilisation" from
peaceful Muslims.
The bourgeois blinkered media commentary focuses on
the ‘lone wolf’ theory to avoid confronting the reality of
the rise of fascism reaching ‘downunder’. The spies
weren’t doing their job, our friendly gun laws need a
rebore, and give the cops guns. Let’s all hold hands and
pray to our diverse gods to keep the evil at bay. But white
supremacists are fascists and there is no way the NZ state
is going to stop them when global capitalism is destroying
the world to defend its barbaric 'civilisation' from 'radical
Islam'.
Don't expect the state, even if 'warned', to act against
white supremacists. The US surveillance state with its
domestic war on terror screams Islamic terror yet 70% of
mass killings are done by white supremacists. The cops
enforce the white 'civilisation' that was imposed on the
rest of the world for centuries, namely capitalism
imperialist exploitation and oppression. Now that that
system is on its last legs the defenders of that 'civilisation'
are the fascists who blame the loss of white rule heritage
on its historic victims and target those who advance the
cause of the victims.
The Muslims they target are the victims of centuries of
Western 'white' 'civilisation'. From the Crusades to the
genocide of Syrian people in an 8-year war, it is the
victims who are standing up and bringing their 'justice'
back to the home countries. The NZ neo-colonial state is
part of that story of conquest and oppression 'downunder'.
Its racist oppression is still rampant in Australia and NZ.
So, what is new? How is the Christchurch attack different
from Parihaka?
Since the fascists are defending their mythology of white
civilisation they will never be stopped by the modern
version of the colonial bosses' state. We have to stop
them by smashing them before they seize power. What
this means is no-platform for fascists, and smash them in
the streets before they can organise a reactionary social
movement to wipe out humanity. It is a warning siren to
us all that the fascists struck in Christchurch on the same
day as the global Students 'fight for life'.
Class Struggle #128
Health workers betrayed by “labour” Party
Another year of wage stagnation and dangerous
conditions of continued deliberate underfunding of
state provided health services. Residents Doctors
Association and Midwifes continue to fight while the
district health board bosses (DHB) deliberately drag
out negotiations (longer than a year of
negotiations).
Members of the Resident Doctors' Association have
held four 48-hour strikes so far this year. They are
fighting against DHB bosses who want to dictate
rosters and extreme shifts. The RDA wants to be
able to reject unsafe rosters: Rosters like 10 days
on and up to 4 nights in a row. Who would want to
be assessed by a doctor in their past day 6 let alone
the last hours of that sort of roster?
This government delivers tired doctors to the
working people of NZ who need medical services.
That is state deliberately funding second class
health services to ordinary working class. While the
‘rich enough’ can dip into both public health
services and when concerned or dissatisfied access
the private specialists. Labour willingly stands by
and runs down the public health service which as a
by-product is fostering private health providers.
Nurses (NZNO) took repeated strike action and the
rank and file repeatedly rejected offers of cost of
living increases. However, their leadership sold
them only barely repackaged deal, and promises of
progress on gender pay equity that could be a
decent pay rise. The PSA (Health) also gave in for
an equivalent pay deal, below cost of living
increases at < 3% per year. Health workforce has
been sold pathetic deals by union bureaucracies
that are too close to the Labour Party and so
demobilise the workforce to stop pressure on a
Labour Government.
The labour bureaucracy of the Council of Trade
Unions (CTU) was exposed when it failed to support
the RDA. Teachers (NZEI & PPTA) and state sector
public service association (PSA) voted against basic
solidarity. The PSA was even caught out helping the
formation of a scab doctor union “SToNZs”, who
negotiated a side deal which gave away safe
rostering. PSA and NZNO also refuse any deviation
from the leaders/bureaucrats who are anti-MERAS.
Yes, they compete for members in the health
sector, but to also refuse solidarity with workers in
struggle such as the Midwives union, is against the
wider class interests. That pays into the
government and employers’ hands, continuing to
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March/May 2019
underfund health while health sector unions lack
solidarity and can be picked off one at a time.
The Labour led government idly sits by and keeps
the DHB Budget under screws sticking to a “fiscal
cap” – Labour’s self-imposed budget parameters for
its efficient running of the capitalist regime. This
means all the DHBs have to ration health services
and screw down wage bills. There are not enough
resources and waitlists are referred back to their
GPs to avoid being a real waitlist. Patients in pain
or seriously mentally unwell, are more likely to
assault health workers. But protection of our health
workforce would come with effective treatment
and good prevention.
The Labour Party has in effect, abandoned working
people and sticks to the capitalists’ limits, now
obviously within their own budget responsibility
rules, in other words putting profits before working
people. It treats the DHBs as private corporations.
The government is effectively encouraging DHBs in
their anti-worker rostering. We hear DHBs are not
employing experienced nurses who are on top RN
pay grades if they can get nurses on lower pay
grades and save some money. That means less
experience on the floor – fewer specialised nurses.
Forever training up relatively new nurses is not the
rational way to provide good health services.
Health workers also need to treat DHBs as private
corporations and demand a living wage by taking
strike action building support in the unions and
wider working class until they get their demands.
Labour will either respond to the pressure by
conceding apparent reforms (increasing funding for
DHBs) or it will come out as an openly capitalist
party doing the bidding of finance capital and
sending the army in to replace health workers. (As
it did do in the last nurses strikes). And continue
subsidising private health providers (many public
dollars go to private health operators and profits.
Either way, it is a united organised working class
that is needed to defeat the parties who defend this
capitalist regime and to socialise health under
workers’ control.
For Fighting Democratic unions under rank and
file control!
Socialise Health under Workers Control!
For a Workers Government based on Workers
Councils!
Class Struggle #128 March/May 2019

Centenary of the 3rd International

Are Yellow Vests+ XR the New Reds?

The 3rd Communist ‘Red’ International was founded in March 1919 as an attempt
to make the Russian Revolution the spark for the world revolution. The masses
everywhere were ripe for revolution but needed to build Bolshevik-type parties
under the leadership of the new Communist International. Without that
leadership revolutions were isolated and defeated and a period of fascist
counter-revolution followed. We need to learn the lessons of 1919 to ensure
that the rebellious masses today such as Yellow Vests and Extinction Rebellion
go on to build a new Red International to defeat fascism and make the world
socialist revolution.

movements to end capitalism and form new Paris

Yellow Vests’ (YV) demands are not obviously
Communes everywhere. As the struggle develops
revolutionary, calling for the end of the Macron
the revolutionary elements of working class,
government is the stuff of rebellion but not quite
women, migrant workers and youth will fuse into
revolution which implies the overturn of a ruling
one single movement. The new Reds.
class by an exploited class. Yet the emergence of a
counter-movement in France, ‘red scarves’ arises Why are we confident in this outcome? It is not an
only because it is opposed to a YV revolution. article of faith but one based on rational, scientific
analysis of both nature and society. As individuals
Similarly, the largely millennial-led Extinction
we are not the product of our ‘free choice’ in the
Rebellion (XR) is more clearly political at the
global market where,
outset. It calls out the
as the postmodernists
world’s political
have it, we can each
leaders for not
chose to be anybody
seriously combatting
or anything, since no
the climate
truth is greater than
emergency. Its
our personal truth.
demands are much
closer to the bone. Experience today
Avoiding extinction refutes this myth even
means replacing for the super-rich.
defunct leaders with
Such a delusory
leaders who will act
‘freedom’ is the
to decarbonise the
product of structural
global economy.
superstition
While both begin with manufactured by
appeals to, or demands on, the existing leadership, capitalism as it transforms nature into
these are demands that cannot be met by capitalism commodities. We cannot blame anyone for such
in its current state of economic decline and climate system-induced ignorance unless they are ‘useful
emergency by any conventional political leadership idiots’ who get paid to suppress our collective truth
committed to reforming capitalism. This includes at our expense. Some are more culpable than
parties of left, right and centre. Jacinda Ardern’s others. But we are all the sum of the social forces
‘kindness’ doesn’t wash with capital’s brutality. All that determine our fate, and we can only break free
are hostages to the bourgeois state dedicated to the of that fatalism by rebelling and then revolting
defence of profit and private property. against it.
To achieve their stated objectives, both social Fortunately, we don’t have to start from scratch
movements must be transformed by experience, since we have a science, Marxism, that explains how
struggle, debates and splits to create revolutionary we are reproduced as subjects in capitalist society

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Class Struggle #128
and how we can overcome ignorance and
superstition with class consciousness. While we may
be the product of large external physical and social
forces, they are not unknown to science and science
can help us rebel and revolt against them.
Both YV and ER movements are caught up in those
forces that can be understood as a class struggle
between Nature and Society. Nature is the sum of
those forces that can be harnessed in order for
society to produce what it needs. Society is the sum
of social relations which organise production and
consumption etc. But instead of nature/society
being a harmonious, cooperative and communal
relationship, the capitalist organisation of society
into opposed classes turns it into a contradiction
between labour and capital over who benefits from
social production, and ultimately which class
controls our collective fate.
YV and ER are both
spontaneous mass
actions against system-
induced ignorance that
begin by asking
questions of the
existing capitalist
states as to why
inequality exists and
why climate
emergency should
impose a tax on the
poor and not the rich.
These are existential
questions about who
should pay for the
global economic crisis and who should pay for de-
carbonising the climate.
Already this spontaneity is producing new
knowledge. Polite protests are met with state
violence, efforts to sidetrack and submit to phoney
democracy, union bureaucracy, political insults and
media propaganda. But none of that will stop the
next set of questions being asked by the most
radical of rebels. It only spurs the movement on to
more actions that go deeper into the subject. If you
won’t act in our interests what is stopping us?
At this point the rebels are looking for solutions to
this nature/society contradiction for which there
are no apparent meaningful answers. Fascism is no
answer given its nature and history. Rumours that
YV are infiltrated by fascists belies the number of
times they have been thrown out. Socialism is
tainted by anti-communist propaganda as a melange
of social democracy and Stalinism. Social
Democracy cannot hide its historic betrayals of past
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March/May 2019
social movements from the assassination of
Luxemburg to Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq. So, in
one sense, today we are back to the period a
century ago when workers rebelled against World
War and set in motion the first socialist revolutions
in Europe.
These rebellions against war led to a number of
‘almost’ revolutions – armed mutinies and seizures
of power. But they were (all but one) isolated and
suppressed by class enemies who posed as friends
promising reforms to make capitalism more worker
friendly.
So where to look for the answer? The February 1917
‘rebellion’ of the 20,000 women textile workers in
St Petersburg would have ended in betrayal had it
not been for the existence of a Marxist, Bolshevik
Party. Even that party was caught unawares in
February, but it managed to catch-up by October
because it understood
the big forces that
were in play.
In the period between
February and October
1917 it was the
leadership of a Marxist
party that enabled the
masses to unite behind
a program for “all
power to the soviets”
and to transform a
mass rebellion into a
revolution. This was
possible only because
the party had a program based on Marxism. It
understood the explosive contradiction between
nature and society that had burst out as imperialist
war as the ruling class destroyed nature, industry
and workers to ensure the survival of the profit
system.
To overcome this contradiction, it was necessary to
avoid all the traps that suppressed the class struggle
leading to defeats in the interests of the capitalist
class. Only by means of a social rebellion turned
into social revolution could workers and poor
peasants organised as armed militias remove and
replace the capitalist ruling class.
For YV and ER to fuse into a new Red, it will be
necessary to remove the systemic barriers to
Marxism as the science of social change and to
use it to guide the present struggles to turn
global rebellions into a world revolution. For
humanity to survive, capitalism must die and
make way for socialism.
Class Struggle #128
Zimbabwe:
A General Strike to Defeat the Dictatorship!
From Monday the 14th of January 2019 the post-Mugabe pro austerity
Mnangagwa-Chiwenga junta government has been violently killing, arresting,
maiming, injuring, victimising and torturing the ordinary poor masses, workers,
activists and trade union leaders. It is estimated that as of now over a dozen
people have been killed, nearly 400 injured and way above 600 arrested and
waiting fast track hearings.
This was in response to a Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions’ (ZCTU) call to stay away as well as
the spontaneous towns and townships protests by
the suffering and angry youths and urban poor
protesting the effects of the austerity measures by
the government
keen to forcibly
place the burden
of paying for the
crisis on the
shoulders of the
poor.
Since Tuesday the
government has
been issuing
directives for the
closure of internet
services in order
to conceal its brutality and curtail further
organising and mobilising. As we write a bit of
“normalcy” has returned though it is bound to be
short lived.
Even though Zimbabwe has been engulfed in a crisis
characterised by de-industrialisation,
informalisation and rising inflation, the fiscal and
monetary policy announcements in October last
year made the situation worse as prices of basics
doubled, production dropped and the liquidity crisis
deepened. However, it is last weekend’s
announcement by the president to raise by over
150% the prices of petrol and diesel that triggered
the outburst of anger and frustration.
This was on the back of a 40-day strike by doctors
and radiographers, a march by teachers and notices
of intention to strike by civil servants and the
private sector workers. Most people cannot afford
to put food at their tables let alone send children
to school. Those who have been thrown out of
employment and those failing to secure jobs are
being harassed by the central and municipal
authorities for trying to make a living.
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March/May 2019
Immediately after announcing the fuel hike
Mnangagwa quickly left for Russia. This shows that
the attack was designed to prove his fitness to
control the masses as an incentive for more FDI. The
trip will end in Davos where he will be offering
Zimbabwean
cheap labour and
resources to other
imperialist
powers.
Unions and civic
groups are under
pressure from the
suffering masses to
take a lead or risk
irrelevancy. The
ZCTU was spurred
by the boiling
anger to call for action despite a notice it had given
to the government. The civil service unions,
including conservative ones, have been forced to
make radical proclamations to maintain control of
their base.
But the interests of ordinary workers and poor
masses are different from those of most of the union
leaders, mainstream opposition and even business
which have encouraged its workers to take part in
the action. For most of the trade unions this was an
opportunity to simply maintain control of members
and ultimately prepare for retreats. For the main
opposition, alongside its civic society surrogates,
this is seen as a perfect opportunity to pressure the
government to invite them for dialogue that has to
lead to a second Government of National Unity
(GNU).
Business wants the government to solve the
monetary fundamentals that are creating
uncertainty for them.
The interests of the poor masses and workers are
clear and at variance to the above because of class
backgrounds. Workers and poor masses want a
Class Struggle #128
meaningful life, a living wage, good working
conditions, employment and a chance to earn a •
decent living. In the maze of the stay away and
protests the voices of the poor and working masses
were drowned in the call for national dialogue and •
return to constitutionality.
The regime will certainly abandon any fiction of
democracy to repress resistance to its austerity as
it has no option in order to please imperialism.
Liberal democracy, social democracy, dictatorship
and fascism are thus only different forms of
bourgeoisie rule. The state is repressing and
attacking not because it likes that but simply
because it cannot solve the crisis of capitalism in
Zimbabwe without resorting to force.
Therefore, the material objective basis of the state
brutality is the deep capitalist crisis in a semi •
colony under sanctions in the context of a global
economic slowdown.
Workers and the poor masses must realise that a
dialogue of elites will not solve their fundamental •
problems. Elites want to be able to share the little
crumbs from the imperialists’ table in return for
managing the exploitation of the masses. The
interests of the liberal civic groups and deceptive •
labour bureaucrats must be exposed and defeated.
Workers must defend their unions at all costs. There
is need for workers to form cross union strike and •
action committees to coordinate and organise a
general strike beyond the limitations of the trade
union leaders interested in limited useless actions. •
These committees must also organise in
communities and educational institutions.
The brutality of the state can only be defeated by •
workers’ militias working in alliance with poor
masses, peasants and the youths.
We call for an international campaign to free the
union leaders who have been grabbed by the army
to intimidate the ranks. All organisations of the poor •
masses and socialists must support the struggle of
workers and the poor.
Rank-and-file workers should demand that unions •
call for a coordinated indefinite general strike, on
the basis of working people’s demands and
methods, which alone can force the government to
backtrack on austerity and repression and
ultimately lay the ground for dismantling Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe
capitalism which is the source of the crisis.
Stop all the persecution and repression of the poor
masses and their leaders! Release all those
imprisoned!
March/May 2019
A living Wage! Workers fight for a living wage
and better working conditions through mass
action controlled by ordinary workers!
Against unemployment and destitution, we
demand a sliding scale of working hours to
provide decent jobs for all through massive
public works programs to provide housing,
education and medical care for all!
• Against the ever-rising prices and inflation, we
demand a sliding scale of wages!
• For free, comprehensive and secular education
for all!
• For free quality health for all!
• Workers take back your unions!
• Organise the unorganised! Form unions of the
unemployed as fully affiliated unions!
The government and city municipalities must
stop the attack on the vendors!
• Militant workers to form class struggle caucuses
in the unions to fight for this program!
Workers to form strike committees to lead the
resistance to the growing attacks on the wages
and working conditions of the poor and the
livelihood of the majority poor!
Workers to form workers defence guards for
defence against state violence!
• A national strike committee to organise and
plan for a general strike!
For a workers’ government on the basis of the
armed people to implement decisions that
benefit the workers and the poor!
Nationalization of all companies without
indemnification to the big shareholders under
workers control!
Land to be distributed to all poor peasants
together with a state bank to provide inputs to
all small farmers!
• A workers’ state that defends workers,
peasants and the poor masses against the local
and foreign capitalists!
An African socialist revolution as part of the
international revolution that alone can
guarantee a better life for all!
A new WORLD PARTY of socialist revolution
based on the TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM of 1938
to lead the revolution to end capitalism and
open the road to socialism!
(Zimbabwe section of the Liaison Committee of
Communists)
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Class Struggle #128 March/May 2019

U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!

Maduro and United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are not capable of resolving the crisis
of capitalism and defeating right populist and imperialist coups d’états in the long run.
Rightist reaction makes headway exactly and only where the crisis of working-class
leadership is not resolved in the workers’ favor. Maduro’s regime is a “left-Populist” model
of bourgeois power, of the dictatorship of Capital, that seeks to maneuvre between the
imperialist blocs and ultimately fails, leaving the masses where they were before,
subjugated to the dictates of global capital and as objects to be exploited in inter-
imperialist geopolitics.

We have often said, and it has proven to be true,

that the PSUV, the Chavez “United Socialist Party of
Venezuela,” has always been a popular front, all by
itself, in its class membership composition and its
program. When state power is held by such a party,
the result is no different than the more classical
popular front version of a coalition of reformist
workers parties with one or more parties of the
bourgeoisie. When such regimes fail it is the masses
who pay the price. That is, of course, unless the
social vanguard is prepared to solve the crisis of
proletarian leadership. This is the ideological
struggle between Menshevism and Bolshevism in the bloc of four classes ideology has led to the
modern context. The “socialists” take power and resurgence of the capitalist mode of production
administer capitalism. Or the workers seize power! with the “communist” party in power.
We can already see how the struggle within the U.S. Because of their faith in the “progressive” sectors
ruling class between Trumpsters and the neo-con of the bourgeoisie and in Chinese and Cuban
layers of historical rightism has resulted in the socialism, the Chavistas prevented the popular
appointment of Elliot Abrams as Special Envoy for assemblies from growing into revolutionary workers
Venezuela. This is the same Abrams, who under councils which armed the masses to establish direct
threat of felony prosecution took a plea deal and democratic workers control of the economy and
was convicted of withholding information from make the socialist revolution. Instead the
Congress in the Iran/Contra affair. He was an Chavistas used their party to bloc with the
apologist for the Mozote massacre of over 500 in El “progressive” bourgeoisie–the “boli-bourgeoisie”
Salvador and facilitator of any number of other such and this bloc tied the workers trapped in the
“fabulous achievements” for which he was charged Chavista party to their own capitalist state and
but never tried. He is the capitalists’ equivalent of blocked their road to power.
a mob enforcer, i.e., a persuader of enforcers. And
The Venezuelan Constituent National Assembly [ed.
he is now in charge of crushing the Venezuelan
corrected from National Assembly] is not an
revolution.
institution that serves the working masses of
Chavismo, an ideology based on a failed putchist’s
Venezuela, but the capitalist government of Maduro
rise to power as a “left-populist” was always
AND property rights that defy the official land
incapable itself of freeing the country from the
reform, which in any event actually guarantees the
shackles of imperialism and establishing
ownership rights of the latifundistas who can prove
socialism. Relying on administration of the
title dating to 1848, i.e., the biggest landowners!
capitalist state, it never desired to or tried to build
a revolutionary workers party capable of making the In total contrast we say the democratic
socialist revolution. Rather, it recreated the often organizations of the working class are the trade
tried and often failed ‘bloc of classes’ model in the unions, the factory and workplace committees,
name of an “anti-imperialist” 21st century worker and union self-defense guards, worker
Socialism. This “socialism” sought Win Win deals assemblies, workers councils and a revolutionary
with like-minded “socialists” in China, where the workers party and revolutionary workers’

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Class Struggle #128
International. We say expropriate the latifundistas
and land to those who till it! For a Planned economy
to employ and feed everyone!
Today in Latin America after decades of
experiments in bourgeois “democracy,”
sloganeering for another constituent assembly
builds illusions in the failed forms of cross-class
democracy. Our fight is for the formation of
workers’ councils and a government of workers’
councils that takes all political power into the hands
of the workers’ self-organized bodies. A constituent
assembly, “revolutionary” or otherwise, is only a
detour and an obstacle to the path to workers
power. A cross-class assembly will only serve the
reaction. We call for workers’ councils and an All-
Venezuela Council of Workers’ deputies. These
should be immediately recallable by the local
bodies.
The history of Popular Fronts has in all cases and
varieties been an interregnum permitting rightism
to prepare its revenge upon the masses. Likewise,
where all petty-bourgeois tendencies in the
workers’ movement embrace a nationalist and
minimalist program, worker revolutionists propel an
internationalist perspective, an international party,
an explicit transitional program and the permanent
revolution, where all the democratic tasks are
carried through to consummation and exceeded and
outgrown by concretizing the socialism of “from
each according to their ability, to each according to
their needs!”
To defeat the designs of imperialism, whether USA
sanctions and intervention, Chinese debt servitude
or Russian projects and influence, the task before
the working class is not to defend the Maduro
government against the right power grab but to
defend Venezuela against all expropriators of the
national wealth and the imperialist and proxy
militaries assembled in the wings. Maduro will not
and cannot defend you! Russian mercenaries are
assembled to defend Maduro while Elliot Abrams
and war hawks in Washington dust off contingency
plans.
The URGENT task for revolutionary workers is to
break from Maduro and build a revolutionary
workers party that fights for the power of workers
councils and workers militias. A party which breaks
the ranks of the armed forces from defense of the
capitalist order and arms the workers and peasants
to oppose imperialist intervention, proxy army
invaders and rightist coup leaders. Socialism cannot
be built in one country. A workers’ government in
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March/May 2019
Venezuela would need to extend the socialist
revolution to Latin America and all of South America
and beyond.
The revolutionary cancellation of the debt to all
imperialists will put a workers’ government in direct
conflict with Chinese imperialism. China is owed
$23 billion, a debt which takes half of Venezuelan
oil revenue proceeds to sustain. For a rentier state
with a one crop economy this debt to China is
strangling the nation in the name of 21st century
socialism. Chavez cut deals to provide under-priced
oil to China in return for loans, which were lauded
by the left as the foreign aid of a “workers’ State”
(International Communist League-ICL and other
Robertsonites) or as anti-imperialist solidarity by
the World Social Forum (WSF), Party for Socialism
and Liberation (PSL), Workers World Party (WWP),
etc. Only revolutionary cancellation of debts to
imperialists will permit long-term solving of the
food crisis when linked to an internationalist
perspective of socialist federation of Latin
America, a planned workers economy that unites
the cities and the countryside.
• US HANDS OFF VENEZUELA! NO IMPERIALIST
INTERVENTION!
• PROSECUTE ELLIOT ABRAMS FOR WAR CRIMES!
DOWN WITH TRUMP!
• FOR MASS ACTIONS AND STRIKES AGAINST US
MILITARY ADVENTURES!
• ABOLISH SOUTH COM, BRING ALL US TROOPS HOME
NOW!
• RUSSIAN MERCENARIES OUT NOW!
• ONLY WORKERS POWER CAN GUARANTEE
DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS TO FREE SPEECH, ASSEMBLY
AND PRESS!
• FREE ALL CLASS WAR POLITICAL PRISONERS!
• NEITHER MADURO NOR GUIADO BUT A WORKERS’ &
CAMPESINOS’ GOVERNMENT BASED ON WORKERS
COUNCILS AND WORKERS MILITIAS!
• FOR WORKERS DEFENSE OF VENEZUELA FROM
IMPERIALISM!
• FOR WORKERS ACTION AND SELF-DEFENSE
COMMITTEES TO DEFEAT RIGHT-WING AND
IMPERIALIST REACTION!
• VENEZUELAN MILITARY RANK-AND-FILE SOLDIERS:
ARREST YOUR OFFICERS AND ARM THE MASSES!
LAND TO THOSE WHO WORK IT!
• CANCEL THE FOREIGN DEBT AND NATIONALIZE THE
COMMANDING HEIGHTS OF THE ECONOMY UNDER
WORKERS CONTROL WITH NO COMPENSATION! FOR
A RATIONAL, SOCIALIST PLANNED ECONOMY!
• FOR A VENEZUELAN REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS
PARTY AND A NEW REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS
INTERNATIONAL BASED ON THE METHOD OF THE
1938 TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM!
• FOR A SOCIALIST FEDERATION OF LATIN AMERICA!
Communist Workers Group - USA
Class Struggle #128 March/May 2019

USA: Armed Anti-Fascists Mobilize

After white supremacists cancelled their pro-
Confederate rally in Stone Mountain, Georgia,
anti-racists and anti-fascists mobilized for a
“victory lap”. The group consisted of
“communists, socialists, unions, left-wing
militias, and other left-wing activists” and they
formed armed self-defense guards to keep
security around the perimeter in case any fascists
were to show and threaten the demonstration.
It is the natural response of anyone who understands the
history of the Klan, the Confederacy and fascism from its
origins in Italy through its various incarnations to prepare
an armed response. The slaughter of nine Black
worshipers in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, and the slaughter at the Pittsburgh
synagogue, killing 11 others shows beyond any doubt that response to the capitalist crisis. This means defense of
the milieu of the Unite the Right groups have unleashed tomorrow’s strikes begins with crushing fascism in the
both mass violence, as in Charlottesville and Berkeley, as egg today.
well as lone wolf terrorist attacks against Jews, Blacks, To stop the fascists, it will take more than a handful of
Central Americans and Muslims. dedicated youth and leftists taking up arms. It will take
Those who downplay the terrorist violence of the fascists a mass response from the ranks of organized labor
offering “prayers and thoughts” for the victims in lieu of mobilizing their own disciplined, armed and trained
self defense guards.
mobilization feed the ostrich like mentality which
allowed a Hitler to slaughter millions. Likewise, the Democrats do not want you to fight fascism!
cynical apologists for “boyhood hijinks” who portray
fascist violence as mere fraternity stunts gone overboard The intersectionalists and nonviolent-on-principle
AFTER PROVOCATION BY LEFTISTS may as well be classed currents are joined at the hip and are hopping over to
as police provocateurs, since their preferred result is the Democratic Party, which in turn monopolizes the
fascist parades and bloodletting of the oppressed and leadership of the AFL-CIO. Together they are today
working people. identified with Taft-Hartley type suppression of
militant workers’ struggle, for which they substitute
The ultimate intention of the neo-fascists amalgam is to “Fight For Fifteen,” lobbying and petitions. Invoking
smash all organizations and mobilizations of the working Gandhi, they roll out Reverends to hustle you with a
class. As the crisis of capitalism forces workers into the doctored picture of Martin Luther King, who not
streets, the fascists are signaling to the ruling class that incidentally was murdered by agents of white
they are prepared to follow whichever Fuehrer the supremacy while organizing Sanitation workers. For
capitalists provide. Today Trump, tomorrow David Duke this crowd, their sway among the intelligentsia is
(who?)! sufficient fortification against the bad taste of fascists,
Furthermore, liberals who insist that guns are for and they are ready for nothing coming their way,
police and detectives should be forced to look at the insisting the “Mississippi Burning” scenario is real in
Sacramento BAMN case. Reality is NOT a “Mississippi the observance, if not in the breach. This is
burning” movie but its opposite, the successful fantasyland and enables Trump and his backers.
political infiltration and co-option of the repressive
Reject this Maginot Line mentality! Workers and
forces by the Klan and white supremacist groups! Look
on any urban police detail and you will find fascist
oppressed peoples! To survive requires defeating
sympathizers. Police dedication to civil order is limited fascism! Organize! Break with all bourgeois
to defense of the superior rights of property, just as parties! Organize a fighting workers’ labor party!
during other class war battles, such as strikes! For A Workers Government! For a new,
revolutionary workers international!
Ultimately every street battle today against the fascists
is an attempt on the part of the most conscious elements
of the working class to defend the rights of oppressed Communist Workers Group (CWG-USA)
people and workers to organize their class struggle

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Class Struggle #128 March/May 2019

For the World Party of Socialist Revolution!

Liaison Committee of Communists

Class Warrior: Theoretical Journal of LCC http://www.cwgusa.org/?page_id=594

Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-ZIM)

Email: rwg.zimbabwe@gmail.com
Website: www.rwgzimbabwe.wordpress.com
Revolutionary Worker (Paper of RWG-Zimbabwe)

Communist Workers Group- New Zealand/Aotearoa (CWG-NZ)

Email: cwg006@yahoo.com Class Struggle (paper of CWGANZ)
Websites: http://redrave.blogspot.com http://livingmarxism.wordpress.com

Revolutionary Workers Group of Brazil (RWG-BR)

Email: gtrevolucionarios1@gmail.com
Site: https://grupodetrabalhadoresrevolucionrios.wordpress.com
Guerreiro da classe Trabalhadora (Paper of the RWG-BR)

Communist Workers Group – USA (CWG-US):

Email: cwgclasswar@gmail.com Website: Class War http://www.cwgusa.org/?page_id=16

Class Struggle is online at https://www.redrave.blogspot.com

Archive of publications before 2006 http://communistworker.blogspot.com/
Phone +64272800080 cwg2007anz@hotmail.com

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