.

No. 15, January-February 2003 
internationalist no. 12
















Click on image above for pdf version of complete issue.
  • Iraq: For Class War Against the Imperialist War
  • British Train Drivers Stop Arms
  • Venezuela: For Revolutionary Opposition to Pro-U.S. Coup Attempt
  • You Can't Run NYC Subways with Bayonets
  • The Fight for a Class-Struggle Leadership in NYC Transit
  • UFT: Mobilize Workers' Power on Iraq!
  • Bilingual Education Under Racist Attack
  • Defend Róger Calero!
  • Drop Charges Against Amer Jubran!
  • Racist Witchhunt and NATO War Moves in Belgium
  • Boycott U.S. and Dutch Warships!
  • Mexico: Fox Government a "Hinge"for War on Iraq
  • ILWU: For Powerful Workers Action Against the Bosses' War
  • Bay Area Labor: Strike Against Taft-Hartley, Hot-Cargo Water Materiel
  • SL: Hard to Starboard
  • Letter to the ICL
  • Letter from South Korea
  • U.S. Tries to Starve North Korea Into Collapse
  • Defend North Korea Against Nuclear Blackmail and War Threats!

 
Defeat U.S. Imperialism! Defend Iraq!
For Class War Against the Imperialist War!

The imperialist rulers of the United States are gearing up to carry out a horrendous slaughter in Iraq. Around the world several million people have marched against war on Iraq. Yet innumerable peace parades haven’t fazed the cold-blooded killers who run this country. Neither have fatuous debates in the UN Security Council. The Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International have called for workers action against the war on Iraq, including labor strikes and boycotting war materiel. In contrast, the bulk of the left is intent on building a bigger, better and “broader” popular-front antiwar coalition – looking to the liberals rather than to the working class. Ultimately, the only way imperialist war can be eliminated is not through endless “antiwar movements” with bourgeois politicians but through international socialist revolution led by a Trotskyist Fourth International.For class war against the imperialist war!  (14 January 2003) 

Equal Language Rights for All! 
Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants!
Bilingual Education Under Racist Attack
The nationwide campaign against bilingual education is escalating. Last November, two states had a reactionary referendum on the ballot outlawing programs with classroom instruction in non-English languages. They even threaten to jail teachers for using any language other than English. The attack on bilingual ed goes together with the detentions of thousands of immigrants following the 11 September 2001 WTC attack and preparations for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It is part of the hysteria against “foreigners” which accompanies imperialist war. It underscores the urgent need for the workers movement to mobilize in defense of immigrants’ rights, including demanding full citizenship rights for all immigrants, no discrimination against any language, and defnese of bilingual education against racist assault.  Bilingual Education Under Racist Attack  (January 2003)

IG at Bay Area Labor Conference:
Strike Against Taft-Hartley! Hot-Cargo War Materiel!
Internationalist Group supporters intervened with a program for sharp class struggle at a labor conference against Taft-Hartley and union-busting in San Francisco, called under the auspices of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union last December. While many came hoping for a real strategy to defeat the “slave labor law” and for labor action against the U.S. war on Iraq, the conference was a talk shop for union bureaucrats who wanted to blow off steam but opposed any real mobilization of the power of labor. The IG called for ripping up the ILWU contract promoted by Bush, striking against Taft-Hartley, backed by a mobilization of all labor, and refusing to handle (“hot cargoing”) war goods. Workers must break from the capitalist parties and build a revolutionary workers party. Strike Against Taft-Hartley! Hot-Cargo War Materiel!  (17 December 2002)

Strike to Smash Taft-Hartley Anti-Labor War Repression!
For Powerful Workers Action Against Bosses’ War!
“The U.S. imperialist war on Iraq is also a capitalist war on the working class, blacks, Latinos and immigrants in the United States. While the Pentagon prepares to nuke civilian bomb shelters in Baghdad, American employers and their government are going after the unions, oppressed minorities and democratic rights with a vengeance. This is class war,” stated an Internationalist Group leaflet distributed to the December 7 SF labor conference. “The bosses’ war must be defeated – in Iraq and on the home front –  by mobilizing the power of the working class, in the streets, on the docks and in the plants.” Read the IG leaflet: For Powerful Workers Action Against the Bosses’ War! (7 December 2002)

SL: Hard to Starboard
The Spartacist League did not intervene in the SF labor conference. Nor did it call for boycotting war materiel during the West Coast maritime bosses lockout, nor for defying the union-busting Taft-Hartley Law. Now SL spokesmen are justifying this capitulation. They talk of “class struggle at home” to justify refusing to call for the defeat of “their own” imperialist bourgeoisie in its war on Iraq. The SL’s line on the longshore conflict shows what their words mean in practice, a telling example of its rapid motion to the right. SL: Hard to Starboard (17 December 2002)

Screw Mayor Mike – For a Solid Transit Strike!
The Fight for a Class-Struggle Leadership in NYC Transit
Break with the Democrats – For a Revolutionary Workers Party!
Facing the possibility of a subway and bus strike in the heart of international finance capital, the ruling class prepared as if for civil war. What was posed was hard class struggle against an implacable foe. The main obstacle to such a struggle is the labor bureaucracy which seeks to conciliate the working class with its capitalist exploiters. The leadership of Local 100, elected in 2000 on the New Directions slate, posed as reformers. Yet ND was in reality a lash-up of out-bureaucrats trying to get in on the action. Its strategy was to appeal to the capitalist courts and the government against the union. A class-struggle opposition would fight for the independence of labor from the capitalist state in every way. Fight for a Class-Struggle Leadership in NYC Transit  (16 December  2002)

NYC Bosses Threaten National Guard Occupation
You Can’t Run the Subways with Bayonets!
For a Solid Transit Strike, Mobilize All New York Labor!
With the December 15 contract deadline for New York City subway and bus workers looming, NYC rulers whipped up a fear campaign against Transport Workers Union Local 100. The governor threatened to put NYC under martial law. The battle of New York city transit hit at the heart of international finance capital. A subway strike would have wreaked havoc with Bush’s war on Iraq. But the Local 100 leadership looked to pressure tactics rather than gearing up the membership for all-out battle.  You Can't Run NYC Subways with Bayonets!  (10 December  2002)

For Revolutionary Opposition to Pro-Imperialist Coup Attempt in Venezuela!
Venezuela has been hit by a work stoppage organized by the employers’ federation and right-wing military officers, aided by the anti-communist leadership of the main union federation (CTV), aimed at toppling the bourgeois populist government of former colonel Hugo Chávez. This is a thinly disguised attempt at a coup d’état, the fourth time in a year that the most reactionary sectors of the bourgeoisie have attempted to bring down the regime in order to protect their corrupt sinecures, prevent an extremely limited land reform and cut off oil supplies to Cuba. The League for the Fourth International put forward watchwords for Trotskyist intervention in the Venezuelan crisis. For Revolutionary Opposition to Venezuela Coup Attempt!  (13 December  2002)
 

To contact the League for the Fourth International or its sections, send an e-mail to: internationalistgroup@msn.com 

  Return to THE INTERNATIONALIST GROUP Home Page