2nd national convention
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Subscribe now to Socialist Action A monthly newspaper with working-class perspectiv 10 SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1987 (continued from page 9: “2nd national convention”) serious blows to weaken anti-imperialist struggles all over the world.
The success of the April 20, 1985, demonstrations around Peace, Jobs, and Justice showed the potential for mobilizing sentiment against the foreign and domestic policies of the U.S. rulers. Today, the potential to involve and mobilize the labor movement in these protest movements is unprecedented.
Unlike the period of the 1950s and '60s, when the working class was quiescent, the labor movement today is under increasing pressure to participate in and lead these movements. Accordingly, Socialist Action seeks to build broad united-front-type action coalitions weighted toward the decisive social sector of society-the labor Major labor, church, and solidarity organizations have called for demon . strations in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., on April 25, 1987. Wherever possible, Socialist Action members will seek to involve the unions as central components in the local coalitions.
The entrance of the unions into the antiwar and peace movements will stamp these protests with a class character that was missing in the 1960s.
Anti-apartheid movement
These same new opportunities apply to the anti-apartheid movement. The Reagan administration has stated openly that it is not afraid to go against the majority anti-apartheid sentiment of the American people.
The struggle in South Africa has revolutionary implications, and this presents a problem for all the imperialist nations. They want to guarantee the continuation of their super-profits within the framework of maintaining capitalism in South Africa.
To guarantee the preservation of capitalism, the U.S. government is prepared to negotiate a solution with all forces in South Africa. This includes the outlawed African National Congress (ANC), which has giyen assurances that it will respect the capitalist character of the future state.
But the South African masses may well intervene with their own ideas and leaders-making demands that go beyond the bounds of capitalist property relations. In this event, the lip-service for reform which has been dispensed by everyone from Reagan to the Democrats will change.
Stopping the "communists" and "extremists" will be the war cry when the need to intervene on behalf of the South African capitalists becomes immediate.
Although the anti-apartheid movement has shown great potential following the labor-supported June 14, 1986, demonstration of 100,000 in New York City, this movement has failed to launch a nationally coordinated mass-action campaign. Unfortunately, no authoritative national coalition exists which is capable of initiating such a call at this time.
Nonetheless, apartheid is an issue that will continue to mobilize large numbers of people-especially on the campuses. Like Central America, the anti-apartheid strug -gle in South Africa will remain in the MOTIONS MERICA PUSM Socialist Action/Joe Ryan headlines because Black and women's liberation The Black movement, like the working class as a whole, has so far been unable to overcome the middle-class leadership that blocks the road to struggle.
The potential of the Black community to mobilize was demonstrated by the out -Socialist Action/Joe Ryan [ ] 12 months for $6 6 months for Enclosed is a I want to join Actir information.
Name Address City State Zip. .Tel.. Send Army St., Rm. 308, San zArTAmI pouring of support for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday celebration in January 1986 But, otherwise, the Black and Latino communities remain demobilized by their pro-Democratic Party leadership.
The strong attraction of Blacks and Latinos for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition is a reflection of widespread discontent and anger. But the Rainbow Coalition is just a disguised cover for channeling the dissatisfaction of the Black masses into the Democratic Party.
The Rainbow Coalition is neither independent nor based on the social protest movements. Jesse Jackson has more than once indicated that he sees himself as a "loyal opposition" within the Democratic Party. As was predicted, Jackson gave his support to Walter Mondale after the primaries in 1984 and then put the Rainbow on ice. It was reactivated in 1986 to again muster votes for the Democrats.
True to its goal, the Rainbow Coalition never once mobilized the working class or any section of the oppressed against the policies of the government. During the Hormel strike, Jackson posed as a friend of the embattled P-9 fighters. In a wellpublicized visit to Austin, however, he refused to support the strike.
Instead, he offered himself as a mediator.
The Rainbow Coalition seeks to play the role of steering mass discontent into the Democratic Party as opposed to the streets-where the masses can see and feel their own power.
The women's liberation movement has provided some opportunities for mass work. Socialist Action participated in the National Organization for Womensponsored marches in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. These actions attracted 130,000 people, showing that massive numbers respond to mass-action campaigns There is no national mass-action wing of the women's movement which is challenging the right-wing attacks on abortion rights or the Supreme Court decision upholding Georgia's sodomy laws.
In the last analysis, the absence of a labor party has put tremendous pressure on social protest movements to rely on the Democratic Party. The only way to break out of this impasse is to consistently advocate independent mass actions like demonstrations, rallies, and picketlines. These actions can be a springboard to develop an independent labor party.
Our confidence in the American working class and its ability to make the socialist revolution leads to our conviction that the warmakers and strikebreakers will be defeated and replaced, once and for all, by a workers' government—a government representing the genuine interests of the majority. contribution.
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Fourth International section organized Polish workers are fighting for genuine principles of socialism in Poland In May 1985, the Workers Opposition Alliance (POR) was formed in Poland. Prompted by a desire to offer Polish workers a clear political perspective of a democratic workers' revolution against the ruling Stalinist bureaucracy, the POR set up groups in many cities and factories across Poland.
The POR's adherents were mainly activists who had previously worked in the framework of Solidarnosc but had become increasingly disillusioned with the strategy of "self-limiting revolution" offered by top Solidarnosc leaders.
In May 1986, on the first anniversary of its founding, the POR changed its name, becoming the Workers Opposition Alliance - Solidarnosc (POR-S). In this way it sought to indicate its historic roots in the struggle of Solidarnosc during the uprising of 1980-81.
The following are major excerpts of the draft political-ideological statement of the Workers Party of the Self-Managed Republic (RPRS—Polish section of the Fourth International).
Our objective is to fight for an independent Poland.
Our struggle, as well as the objectives we have laid out, aim at transforming Poland into a sovereign country, econo -mically and politically independent of any other state or political system.
A people's right to chart its own path of development and decide on a political system in accord with its historic con -ditions and its needs is a people's right to independence.
Our objective is the fight for a socialist Poland.
We recognize the historically established bases and principles of the socialist system, and oppose social exploitation by the systems of bureaucratic dictatorship that exist in the East, as well as by private capital. We declare our support for the full realization of the principles of socialism, which have been deformed and degraded by the rule of the Kremlin bureaucracy.
These principles include, for example, the right of the society to sovereignty, the right of the workers to the means of production, the right of the peasants to their land, the right of the people to independent thought and creativity.
Our objective is to fight for democratic Poland. .
We reject both the anti-social system of working class. That is the content of our revolutionary internationalism.
We see the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie as the common enemies of the working people. History shows that the workers are adversaries of both systems and that when the workers rise up to claim their rights, both systems are united by a common interest in seeing their struggle drowned in blood.
Internationally, our struggle will be waged on two fronts-against the bureaucracy in the East and the bourgeoisie *RPRS ROBOTNICZA PAKTIA RZECZPOSPOLITEJ SAMORZADNEJ SDICSA PULSRA LY MILNi(MAN.IN.KI INÇAN P LA wra. KUM TETU LAWNICIEISKI&GU komunikat TKZ iminsonto cad гово 104Partie | Завоты ORJ gado jo1 preso preegodnietsed remoluojl sdobyd pol RA' ai Las новово, soN S"Pi !X aratariad The statement of the POR-S declared that the existence of Solidarnosc was indispensable for the liberation of the Polish working class but that it was not an adequate instrument to achieve that goal. "It is necessary to build a workers' organization able to take on much more advanced political tasks than a union can," the group stated. "This is the role the POR-S wants to play in close collaboration with Solidarnosc." (Przelom, No. 3, 1986)
The POR-S also took issue with many of the leaders of Solidarnosc who see the Polish Catholic Church as an institution independent of the bureaucratic power and who have come under the ideological influence of the Church.
While the POR-S welcomes religious activists without any discrimination and is open to collaborate in the West. In our struggle we will not seek support or aid from the imperialist bourgeoisie.
There is no socialism without democracy.
Democracy means people's power and workers' power over their workplaces, cities, and communities. It means that the society must be free of any dictatorship and that the state power must derive from the social power. The absence of democracy has Resistance Movement (ZRP-PRO) in Upper Silesia. The interview was first published in Wolny Robotnik, No. 38, June 1986.
Question: It is clear from your articles and statements that you are a socialist, convinced that a political party is necessary in order to carry through to its conclusion the social struggle against the pseudowith priests who take the side of the workers, it considers that the Church hierarchy is a tacit but powerful ally of the Stalinist regime and that this "red and black alliance," as it is called, is a major obstacle on the road to the liberation of the working class.
A new element in the process of recomposition of the Polish workers' movement initiated by the POR is the public appearance in May 1986 of the Workers Party of the Self-Managed Republic (RPRS) and of the newspaper Zryw ("Take Off"'), published by the Provisional Organizing Committee of the RPRS.
The RPRS points out that "the Polish people, oppressed, humiliated and deprived of dignity by a totalitarian bureaucratic regime, are obliged to achieve their aspirations by means of a revolution."
To attain that goal, the RPRS has announced its desire to become the Polish section of the Fourth International, which Zryw describes as an organization that fights "for socialism, meaning a self-managed society that can only be fully achieved on the international scale. This sort of socialism has nothing to do with the so-called "actually existing socialism."
We are reprinting below excerpts of the draft politicalideological statement of the Workers Party of the Self-Managed Republic (RPRS—Polish section of the Fourth International). This statement first appeared in the premiere issue of Zryw in May 1986. The full statement was published in the Oct. 27, 1986, issue of International Viewpoint.
led the present system to degenerate into an anti-social "actually existing socialism. There is no socialism where there is no democracy. Nor is there real democracy without socialism.
There is no socialism without self-management.
Only a self-managed society can guaran -tee a socialist system, democracy, and independence. The right to socialism means the right to independent organs of workers' self-management to make the decisions in the factories; the right of society to decide about the environment in which it lives and works; the right of independent thinkers to propagate their independent opinions; the right of parties, organizations, groupings, associations or interest groups to function.
There is no revolution without organization.
As an opposition force to the regime, Solidarnose has proved inadequate to carry through such a revolution. The spontaneous social upsurges have been channeled by the partisans of self-limiting revolution, or a revolution within the framework of the system.
Therefore what is needed is a vanguard revolutionary organization, conscious of its objectives and its tasks, one that has a clearly defined program and ideology and which is based on the aspirations and support of society.
We have to be democratic-revolutionary socialists, organized internationally to fight for the genuine principles of socialism.
preparation for a coup d'etat, and so on.