"There were no parades or

Scan page 7

freedom for Eugene Hasenfus...

The lessons of Vietnam and SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1987 7 have been the consistent policy of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Today, the capitalists must push the American working class even harder. They must extract more serious concessions. They must drive the standard of living of the American working class lower and lower to regain the competitive edge they have lost on the world market.

Majority doesn't vote

The capitalist class counts on the twin parties of capitalism—-the Democratic and Republican parties-to preserve and defend their sacred private-profit system. The U.S. working class, however, is becoming increasingly distrustful of the two-party system.

The 1986 national elections, for example, had the lowest voter turnout since 1942. Three out of five eligible voters abstained from voting in 1986. This represents the largest voter abstention of any advanced industrial country-largely due to the absence of a working-class electoral alternative in the United States.

Despite the huge amounts of money lavished by the capitalists on the elections, voter abstention increased in 1986. Most working people saw no crucial differences between the candidates and just simply stayed home. They were not convinced that Watergate have Party-published People's Daily World, "The most important mass action will be Nov. 4 at the polling booths. 11 American working people turned a deaf ear. This passive boycott of the elections has been a growing problem for the U.S. ruling rich. Since 1960, each successive election turnout has declined. Conse -quently, capitalist politicians are elected with an increasingly lower number of votes than their predecessors.

This symptom is a worrisome one for the capitalists because it denotes a rejection by the American people of the two-party shell game and the illusions of a representative democracy. And every new expose of government and corporate duplicity, like the Boesky affair of "inside trading" on Wall St., shows that the capitalist economy is fueled by the same not been erased...

continue to win majorities. Anti-intervention and anti-apartheid actions are receiving wider popular support.

There are no parades or demonstrations to demand freedom for Eugene Hasenfus, the American mercenary shot down by the Nicaraguans while supplying arms to the contras. Significant sections of the population do not believe that this system is worth defending. The lessons of Vietnam and Watergate have not been erased from the popular consciousness.

Contrary to the wishful thinking of the capitalists and their politicians, the American people have not become more conservative.

Admittedly, the need for more profits and the drive toward war in Central America (continued next page)

Scan page 8

retiree medical benefits after LTV declared it