No. 67-68, May-October 2022  Table of Contents Selected articles linked Click on image to left for pdf version of complete issue.

Not Bourgeois Nationalism But International Proletarian Revolution Defeat the Imperialist War Drive and U.S./NATO Proxy Regime in Ukraine Defend Russia, China Against War-Crazed U.S. Rulers  The war between Russia and Ukraine has been waged with white-hot intensity for eight months, dominating world politics and economics, with no end in sight. U.S. and European imperialist leaders vow to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. For Moscow this poses an existential threat. From the beginning of the military operations, the League f or the Fourth International opposed the nationalist Russia-Ukraine war, as part of our overall struggle to defeat the imperialist war drive against Russia and China. But we foresaw that the the character of the war could change. This has now happened. As U.S. and NATO officials now determine battlefield strategy, supply the armament, control the use of advanced weapons and de facto have integrated Ukraine into NATO, the conflict has been turned into an imperialist “proxy war” against Russia. In this situation, proletarian revolutionaries’ call to defeat the imperialists’ war drive against Russia (a regional capitalist power) and China (a bureaucratically deformed workers state) means standing for the defeat of the U.S./NATO proxy regime in Ukraine, and for military defense of Russia, while giving no political support to the reactionary bourgeois nationalist Putin government. As mass discontent spreads over the consequences of the war and the imperialist anti-Russia sanctions, what is urgently needed is workers action leading to a struggle for international socialist revolution. Defeat the Imperialist War Drive and U.S./NATO Proxy Regime in Ukraine, Defend Russia, China Against War-Crazed U.S. Rulers (22 October 2022)

Mobilize Workers Power Leading the Masses Against the Police/Military Regime! Brazil: “Broad Front” Blocks Workers Mobilization Against Militarist Threat For Socialist Revolution Against Deadly Capitalist Rule In the first round of the Brazilian elections on October 2,  the “broad front” slate of ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won 48% of valid votes, while ultra-rightist president Jair Bolsonaro got 42%. In the second-round runoff election, to be held on October 30, the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil, section of the League for the Fourth International, is again calling for a “no” vote against both of these bourgeois alternatives, and for working-class mobilization in the streets against the rightist militarist threat. As Bolsonaro threatens to refuse to recognize the election results, most of the left is supporting the candidacy of Lula, the historic leader of the Workers Party (PT) together with Geraldo Alckmin of the PSDB, the traditional party of the conservative right wing, as his vice president. But this bourgeois lash-up will not repeal the vicious anti-worker “reforms” rammed through by Bolsonaro’s bonapartist (police/military) regime and the preceding right-wing government. Some pseudo-Trotskyists called for voting for an independent candidate on the first round, but are now advocating a vote for Lula, and thus for the class-collaborationist coalition. The authentic Trotskyists of the LQB, in contrast, have consistently refused to vote for the PT when it runs (as it always does) in a popular-front coalition with bourgeois forces, seeking to administer the capitalist state. Our comrades call instead for a revolutionary workers party to fight for socialist revolution. Brazil: “Broad Front” Blocks Workers Mobilization Against Militarist Threat (October 2022)

Taiwan and Hong Kong Are Part of China – Imperialist Hands Off! U.S. Anti-China War Provocations Over Taiwan Defend China Against Imperialist Drive for Counterrevolution! For Revolutionary Reunification of China – Expropriate the Capitalists Late in the night of August 2, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and her Congressional entourage flew on U.S. military aircraft into the Chinese territory of Taiwan, explicitly flouting numerous warnings by the Chinese government against this provocative stunt. During her stay, Pelosi all but advocated Taiwanese independence, referring to the island as a “country.” Such talk points to war with China, which has insisted for 70 years that reunification with Taiwan is imperative. The fact that the island is a separate entity from the mainland is the result of the dismemberment of China by imperialism going back to the mid-19th century, and the imperialists’ continued use of Taiwan as a spearhead to restore capitalist rule in China. Pelosi's visit is only one part of an escalating U.S. imperialist war drive whose ultimate aim is to restore capitalist rule in the largest remaining bureaucratically deformed workers state. Trotskyists call to defeat the imperialist war drive against Russia and China, and to defend the remaining gains of the Chinese Revolution through proletarian political revolution to oust the bureaucracy, expropriate the capitalists and extend those gains to Hong Kong and Taiwan through revolutionary reunification. U.S. Anti-China War Provocations Over Taiwan (September 2022) Not “One Country, Two Systems” For Revolutionary Reunification of China Reunification of Taiwan with the People’s Republic of China is the culmination of the drive to undo the imperialist dismembering of China going back to the mid-1800s. To win the masses of working people in Taiwan to reunification, it is necessary to combat the anti-communist Taiwanese nationalist/separatist ideology promoted by the imperialists and their flunkeys in the U.S. neocolonial government of Taiwan. But rather than nationalism or patriotism, what'x needed is to raise revolutionary class consciousness. Workers in Taiwan together with their comrades in mainland China have the power to expropriate the Taiwanese bourgeoisie and institute the soviet democracy of workers councils under authentic communist leadership, while extending the revolution internationally. For Revolutionary Reunification of China (September 2022)

Unpayable Debt, Food Shortages, Runaway Fuel Prices Hit Dozens of Countries Sri Lanka Economy Collapses, Masses Rise Up, President Flees, But Capitalist Crisis Remains Forge a Trotskyist Party on a Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution For the Right of Tamil Self-Determination! For a Socialist Federation of South Asia! Since early this year, Sri Lanka has been rocked by the most severe economic, social and political crisis it has experienced since independence from Britain in 1948. After several years of rising income from a flourishing tourism industry, the bottom dropped out. By March, the island nation off the southern tip of India had run out of foreign exchange and by May it had formally defaulted. Daily life has become unbearable for the masses, unable to purchase basic goods. For the past five months, the country has been in almost constant upheaval, with massive protests, leading to the resignation and flight of the Rajapaksa family. Yet this has done nothing to alter the deep capitalist economic crisis, and now their successor is preparing to impose brutal austerity measures in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund. Sri Lanka was the first country to blow, but there are dozens of others saddled with unpayable debt, increasingly unable to pay for food and fuel. Revolutionaries call to intervene in the mass protests with transitional demands pointing to socialist revolution, the only answer to the present capitalist immiseration. Sri Lanka Economy Collapses, Masses Rise Up, President Flees, But Capitalist Crisis Remains (29 August 2022)

Democrats Push Gun Control, Tool of Racist Capitalist Repression Gun Bans Won’t Stop Racist Mass Shootings For Worker/Black/Latino Mobilization Against Cop Terror and Racist Attacks Another year, another spate of grisly mass shootings in the not-so United States of America. May 14, Buffalo, New York – 10 people shot to death. May 24, Uvalde, Texas – 21 people killed. July 4, Highland Park, Illinois – 7 people gunned down. The now-routine spectacle of mass murder followed by calls for far-reaching gun control legislation has become a fixture of American culture. While professing concern for the deaths of black people in inner-city neighborhoods, liberals and reformist leftists are actually pandering to racist fears of white suburbanites and demagogic appeals to militarize the ghettos and barrios. This leaves the population defenseless, while trigger-happy cops, criminals and fascists are all heavily armed. The Second Amendment, upholding the “right of the people to keep and bear arms,” is a fundamental democratic right which we strongly defend. It is doubly important to working people and the oppressed, who are beset by a well-armed ruling class and its professional enforcers. The mass shootings were neither random nor inexplicable. In all three recent instances – Buffalo, Uvalde, Highland Park – racism fueled the homicides. Gun Bans Won’t Stop Racist Mass Shootings (15 August 2022)

Whatever Happened to “No Contract, No Work”? ILWU: Prepare to Strike for Shorter Workweek, Union Control of Tech Fight for 6-Hour Shifts x 5 = 30 Hours, No Loss in Pay As the contract between the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) was set to expire on July 1, the stage was set for a major showdown and the possibility of a big labor victory. Instead, the ILWU tops and marine bosses, under pressure from President Biden, announced that work would continue without a contract. Longshore workers are facing a major attack by capital, which are thirsting to automate the port unions out of existence. The ILWU should join with rail and port truckers, with solidarity action from East Coast dock workers, and backed by allies including teachers and students, to launch a strike for a shorter workweek with no loss in pay, and for union control of technology to ensure no job losses. ILWU: Prepare to Strike for Shorter Workweek, Union Control of Tech (8 August 2022) Against PMA’s “Robo-Dock” Fantasy, Fight for Union Control of Technology (8 August 2022)

Free Abortion on Demand – Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution Supreme Court Cancels Right to Abortion: Trigger for Ultra-Rightist Mobilization On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision which for almost 50 years was the basis for women’s constitutional right to abortion. In response there was an outpouring of anger as tens of thousands went into the streets to protest around the country. Establishment abortion rights groups seek to channel the outrage into support for the Democratic Party. But voting for the Democrats will not restore the right to abortion, and any law they might pass would be struck down by the reactionary Court. While opportunist leftists sought to pressure the Democrats, Internationalist contingents participated in the protests denouncing the Democratic Party and calling for a revolutionary workers party. We emphasized that the anti-abortion crusade is rooted in racism. The fight over abortion rights and gay and trans rights is already a flashpoint for emboldened ultra-rightists and fascists, who now feel that the capitalist state has their back. In the post-Roe U.S., abortion clinics are threatened by vigilantes, bounty hunters, racists and fascists. We call to mobilize union power to defend the clinics and disperse anti-abortion bigots.The Bolshevik Revolution first legalized abortion on demand, and it will take a socialist revolution to achieve it today. Supreme Court Cancels Right to Abortion: Trigger for Ulltra-Rightist Mobilization (7 August 2022) Racism and the Deadly Anti-Abortion Crusade (7 August 2022)

May 14 Is About Pressuring the Democrats, Who Will Do Nothing for Abortion Rights, Again To Win Abortion Rights Fight, Pro-Democrat Marches Are a Dead End Free Abortion on Demand – Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution Following the leaked Supreme Court majority draft opinion that would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision granting women a right to abortion, there have been large protests around the country. Democratic elected officials quickly grabbed the spotlight. For them, the leak means that they have six months to pound away at the theme that a Republican victory in the mid-term elections is a threat to every woman’s rights. A nationwide series of marches was held on Saturday, May 14 on the slogan “Bans Off Our Bodies” calling for “elected officials [to] take action before the Court gets the chance to overturn abortion.” Yet since the U.S. Senate just blocked the Women’s Health Protection Act, the actual aim of the May 14 protests was to get out the vote for Democrats. These capitalist politicians are faux “friends” of women. The Democrats are a party of war and mass incarceration that seeks women’s votes, but buries legislation to defend their rights. As Internationalist youth emphasized at recent speak-outs in New York and Los Angeles, what’s needed is mass mobilization bringing out the power of the multiracial working class, fighting for the full and unrestricted right to abortion. To Win Abortion Rights Fight, Pro-Democrat Marches Are a Dead End (13 May 2022)

¡Todos parejos! Equal for All! Cabricanecos: Indigenous Immigrant Workers Fight Deadly Conditions in NYC By Trabajadores Internacionales Clasistas Facing flagrant management abuse and a wave of retaliatory firings, a courageous campaign by 40 demolition/construction workers – mainly indigenous immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico – shines a spotlight on deadly dangerous conditions on the job faced by many thousands in the New York area and beyond.  “We are human beings, but they use us up and then just throw us away,” a worker who suffered multiple injuries unloading heavy materials for Best Super Clean/ISK Group said, echoed by fellow campaign activists. Organized by the Laundry Workers Center (LWC), the campaign, presently focused on winning key improvements in job conditions and wages, is called “Cabricanecos,” because many of the workers are originally from the town of Cabricán in Guatemala. The Cabricanecos campaign is a link in a chain of struggles underlining both the need and the great potential for militant organizing among sectors of immigrant workers who are key to making the city run, at the same time as they are denied basic rights and treated as “undocumented” pariahs while often risking their lives due to intolerable working conditions. Cabricanecos: Indigenous Immigrant Workers Fight Deadly Conditions in NYC (10 July 2022)

Ohio Cops Fired 90 Bullets at Unarmed Black Man Jayland Walker, Executed by Akron Police The Racist Killer Cops Never Stop Under Democrats or Republicans the Police Murder Machine Grinds On Only Revolution Can Bring Justice! On June 27, police in Akron, Ohio were in hot pursuit of a car driven by Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old black man, supposedly for unspecified equipment and traffic violations. When Walker bolted, running for his life, eight police officers discharged a fusillade of 90+ shots mere seconds after exiting their vehicles. When a crowd gathered outside city hall and police headquarters to protest after bodycam video footage was released on July 3, cops and state troopers arrested scores. An execution for a supposed traffic violation – such is the “justice” meted out by the racist police in capitalist America. In the summer of 2020, millions took to the streets to protest the racist police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and countless others. The killer cops keep on killing, but with Democrat Joe (shoot ’em in the leg) Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling Congress, protests this year and last against the unending police murder have been few in number and small in size. The Internationalist Group calls for worker action against racist police terror, emphasizing that only revolution can bring justice. Jayland Walker, Executed by Akron Police – The Racist Killer Cops Never Stop (7 July 2022)

U.S. Opening the Road to World War III We Meet Dr. Strangelove Again in Washington By Charles Brover The U.S. is hurtling and stumbling irrationally toward world war, possibly nuclear war. Together with its NATO imperialist allies, Washington is sending increasingly heavy offensive weaponry to the fascist-infested Ukrainian military. The U.S. has set its broader sights on Russian downfall as a dramatic example of U.S./NATO military prowess and an implied threat to China. The U.S. vows to defeat Russia and degrade its military so it will be “weakened” for years to come as Pentagon chief General Lloyd Austin has said. The compliant and war-addled liberal press functions as a 24-hour-a-day martial band for Ukrainian fascist “freedom fighters.” Can the war in Ukraine lead to a nuclear world war? Will the right-wing nuts and crazed liberal warmongers who run this country really do it? It is as if our current political reality meets again the Cold War parody prophesies of the 1964 movie, Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Fiction? The U.S. was prepared to annihilate millions in the anti-soviet Cold War, while today, Pentagon think tank “theorists” are again “thinking the unthinkable,” this time toying with threatening a first strike against China. We Meet Dr. Strangelove Again in Washington (May 2022)