document of the Fourth International is still

Scan page 8

an indispensable guide for working class today's conditions and from today's consciousness of wide layers of the working class and unalterably leading to one final conclusion: the conquest of power by the proletariat." It would be a fatal oversimplification to reduce the "Transitional Program" to a list of tactical slogans out of which is plucked the appropriate action proposal to meet the needs of the working class and its allies.

It is especially necessary, so long as the class struggle leadership is still a minority, to know when to advance the appropriate slogan, and more important, in which form: whether for educational purposes (propaganda), or to prepare workers to take action (agitation), or as a call for immediate Knowing when and how to advance the appropriate slogans depends on the stage reached in mass consciousness and the level of influence reached by revolutionary socialism.

Objective prerequisites for socialist revolution At this point, however, we must make a necessary detour, to first establish the objective material basis for the major premise of the "Transitional Program": the inevitability of a coming struggle for power between the two fundamental classes in modern society-workers and capitalists. Marx and Engels' earthshaking contribution to socialist theory was to put it on a scientific basis. Scientific socialism, in contrast to the visionary utopian version which preceded Marx and Engels, is based on the perception of human society as being the objective result of an unconscious evolutionary process.

Their analytical method, historical materialism, enabled them to perceive that the forms of social relations between human beings depend on the level of control over the forces of nature achieved by society. As human culture advances, new forms of social organization become a necessity for further cultural development. 1 World capitalism lost its capacity a long time ago to create the material conditions for the development of the productive forces, upon which all human progress and wellbeing depends, without causing ever-greater paroxysms of Nat Weinstein is co-national secretary of Socialist Action. These are the first iwo installments of an on-going series dealing with the "Transitional Program."

ACTION

Need to develop working-class consciousness But whereas from almost the very beginning of its existence the bourgeoisie tended to have a very high level of class consciousness, that of the workers has tended to be much lower.

There is a simple explanation for this: The emerging capitalist class had quickly become wealthier than the lords and kings with whom they coexisted. From quite early in the reign of feudalism, the emerging new exploiting class of capitalists owned and, by the same token, controlled the burgeoning press and publishing industry, not to mention their natural domination of the economic and political life of entire towns and cities.

But the expansion of the new social system brought it into conflict with the feudal social and economic framework based on landed property. When the feudal rulers sought to restrict the power of the threatening, upstart bourgeoisie, the latter, then, very consciously used its vast social, economic, and political power to mobilize a mass struggle to overthrow the old landlord class and consolidate the new social system.

The working class is artificially kept at a far lower level of class consciousness. Capitalism, whether under a democratic or autocratic regime, is essentially the reign of wealth. The major instruments of education and miseducation are in the hands of the rich.

One capitalist, with the money to publish and widely distribute newspapers, books, films, and other means of communication, has as much influence on mass opinion as do a million propertyless workers and farmers. This power is used to block workers from access to the media of communication. For every truthful idea that manages to creep into newspapers and books-or penetrate into the schools, movies, radio, and television-explaining the nature of the existing social system, there are a thousand lies. The effect is to mold "public opinion" in favor of capitalism.

Moreover, capitalism's enormous resources permits it to bribe, corrupt, and co-opt those who rise to the top of workers' organizations--especially those who rise during periods of relative labor passivity. These co-opted labor misleaders and reformists function as the transmission belt for capitalist ideology into the ranks of the working class.

This problem underscores the centrality of the revolutionary proletarian principle of class independence. Any tactic which conflicts with the principle of working-class reliance on its own institutions to advance its class interests serves capitalism.

The role of reformism Reformists-that is, "socialists" who want merely to reform capitalism—come under a variety of labels. The most important of these are the Stalinized Communist parties in every country. The latter include a variety of smaller Stalinist clones which originally came into existence at the time of the Moscow-Peking split.

All varieties of Stalinism serve capitalism indirectlyaccording to the diplomatic requirements of the Stalinist state bureaucracies to which each is loyal.

The other main vehicles of reformism are the Socialist, or Social Democratic parties of the world, which more directly serve as the labor lieutenants of their own capitalist classes. (Labor bureaucracies, such as we see in England, Canada, and the United States, are also of this breed-although they may, or may not, palm themselves off as "socialist.") The Communist parties were decisive in saving world capitalism in the entire period immediately after the Stalinled bureaucracy usurped political power from Soviet workers. Seeming to many revolutionary-minded workers to be the continuators of the inspiring October 1917 Russian Revolution, they used the authority of that great workers' conquest to disorient and reimpose reformism on those who had come to understand the counterrevolutionary nature of the Social Democracy.

Dressing up class collaboration as a "popular front against

Scan page 9

.. Transitional Program Order your Socialist Action pamphlets today!

Note: One of these pamphlets will be yours free with a subscription to Socialist Action. See offer page 14.

Send order and money (include 65 cents for postage) to 3435 Army St. Rm. 308, S.F., 10 SOCIALIST. ACTION. DECEMBER 1988 from page 9)

make them more expensive than the domestic products with which they compete.

This has historically led to vicious cycles of protectionism, which only brought to a head the developing crises of overproduction. In the 1920s, such an international trade war triggered the great Depression, which ultimately led to the bloody imperialist struggle for markets in World War II.

Meaning of "Guaranteed Annual Wage!" slogan The bureaucracy's "demand" for a "Guaranteed Annual Wage!" (GAW) is no less fraudulent. A genuine fight for a guaranteed annual wage would necessarily take the form of a fight for a reduction of the workweek with no reduction in pay. But this is far from the minds of the labor-fakers, who only give lip-service to the workers' aspirations for economic security.

The real history of the GAW is revealing. United Auto Workers (UAW) President Walter Reuther, who became the foremost advocate of the GAW during the economic recession following the Korean War, counterposed it to the shorter workweek.

Because of the deep unemployment that struck auto workers in that period, the demand for a 30-hour week at 40hours pay, which had been repeatedly adopted by UAW conventions, was becoming irrepressible. The AFL and most CIO affiliates, also suffering increasing unemployment, had also come out strongly for a reduced workweek with no reduction in pay.

Reuther cynically sucked the GAW out of his thumb only to block the promising movement for the shorter workweek He did it simply because, as a confirmed class collaborationist, the struggle for real job security—a reduced workweek without a reduction in pay—cannot be won without a major class battle.3 The Guaranteed Annual Wage, of course, never saw life. The best Reuther could produce was a Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB) plan. This plan is financed by diverting a portion of a negotiated wage package (in the form of so-called "employer contributions") into a fund, out of which payments are paid to auto workers during lay-off periods, to supplement state unemployment insurance checks.

First of all, such plans invariably limit those covered. (The UAW version never covered all employees). Thousands of workers who never gain sufficient seniority to be eligible for SUB payments are cheated of their share of deferred wages paid into the SUB fund. And when the fund runs out, as it does during periods of extended mass unemployment, higher seniority workers are also cheated of their benefits.

More recently, the UAW bureaucracy has set its "demands" for "job guarantees" even lower. Not only are these worthless contractual "guarantees," such as in the current Chrysler contract, conditioned by clauses to "boost productivity" (speedup), they are simply inoperative when the sales of cars go below a level consistent with maintaining profits!

Furthermore, schemes like GAW and SUB plans-besides blocking the fight for a shorter workweek-also divert attention from the need for a class-wide political struggle for its natural complement: a federal, employer-financed, unemployment insurance system for all workers for the full period of unemployment at full union-level wages.

The sliding scale of hours The sliding scale of hours points in the opposite direction. It flows from the historic tendency of the working class to shorten the workweek without a reduction in pay. When the ruggle aga Hormal by-Jake Copp ON STRIKE OPTICAL WORKERS UNFAIR •ON• sliding scale of hours slogan is hooked up with the demand for unrestricted unemployment insurance and public works, it serves to unite the class, mobilizing its full power for a political struggle against capitalist unemployment.

Such a struggle might initially take the form of a demand for a law establishing a six-hour day, 30-hour week with no reduction in daily or weekly pay, and double- and triple-time for overtime to discourage the capitalist trend toward extending the average number of hours worked. (It's often cheaper for capitalists to keep fewer workers working longer at the time-and-a-half and even double-time rates than to hire and train additional employees.)

At a higher stage of the struggle, a congress of workers' representatives organized to carry out a class-wide economic and political struggle might simply declare reduced hours at the same pay as a condition for resumption of production. This is the way the soviets (workers' councils), created by Russian workers in 1917, established the eight-hour day. Even if only partially implemented—as it would be if the popular form of this slogan, "30-hours work for 40-hours pay!" was realized—it would contribute effectively toward protecting the working class from the demoralizing effects of unemployment. And as capitalist crises deepen, such partial victories in reducing the workweek inspire further reductions.

The logic of the sliding-scale slogan, furthermore, points directly toward the socialist future, where production is for the good of the vast majority, not for the minority of capitalist profiteers. And although transitional slogans can never be fully realized under capitalism, they make ever sharper and clearer the urgent necessity for socialist revolution.

The sliding scale of wages In periods of rapid price rises, the wages lost to inflation in between contracts can catastrophically reduce living Democracy in America: Fact and Fiction Dynamics of the Nicaraguan Revolution by Alan Benjamin and Jeff Mackler ($1.50)

How Can Labor Fight Back? A Strategy for Today by Nat Weinstein and Carl Finamore ($1.25)

South Africa: The Black Unions Go Forward by Michael Schreiber ($1.25)

Toward a Socialist America:

What Socialist Action Stands For edited by Asher Harer ($.75)

The Meaning of Gorbachev's Reforms by Alan Benjamin ($.75)

Poland: Solidarnose and the Fight for Workers' Democracy By Zbigniew Kowalewski ($1.50)

The Hidden History of Zionism by Ralph Schoenman ($3.00)

Marxism's Lessons for Today by Ann Robertson ($1.00)

standards. Workers are also placed in the more difficult position, when contracts terminate, of needing to strike just to catch up with prices which have raced out of reach. At the end of World War II, the experience of wages having been generally frozen during the war period led to a massive strike wave just to catch up.

The idea of a sliding scale of wages, or "escalator clause"

as it became widely known, was first advanced by the Trotskyists in the union movement through its newspaper at the time, The Militant. The idea was widely embraced by union militants and ultimately adopted by most big industrial unions.

The sliding scale of wages is simply a method to peg hourly wages to the cost of living to protect workers against inflation. The purchasing power of the dollar would be computed and wages adjusted on a weekly or monthly basis by a labor-controlled commission to statistically track prices. Wages could not fall below the agreed-on basic minimum, which would be subject to normal union demands for improvement during regular contract negotiations.

A class-struggle union leadership would also fight to extend the sliding scale to every section of the class and its natural allies—including the unemployed. In such ways the working class is oriented toward becoming the champion of all the victims of capitalist exploitation and oppression and preparing the mass base necessary for the conquest of governmental power.

The best escalator clauses won by unions, however, provided for cost-of-living increases on a less advantageous, quarterly basis. The adopted escalator clauses also accepted the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics-which manipulates the statistics to downplay the extent of inflation—as the authority for determining the movement of prices. Even so, these clauses convincingly proved their value to the workers. Wages were better protected against inflation wherever these escalator clauses were operative.

But in the past period the labor bureaucracy has permitted the prolonged antilabor offensive to water-down or strip many unions of escalator-clause protection without a fight.

(More than 60 percent of unions had such clauses in 1977;

less than 40 percent had them in 1987).

The bureaucracy has steadily given ground, going so far as to accept, again without a fight, employer demands for substituting annual "bonus" payments for regular wage increases.

These misnamed "bonus" payments cheat workers in several ways: They are neither figured into overtime rates, nor in the determination of benefits (which are based on hourly pay rates). Nor are they cumulative, as is the case of regular wage increases, which form a permanent part of base pay.

Such "bonuses," in other words, are misnamed lump-sum wage increases that disappear from your paycheck after the year is up!

These examples illustrate the qualitative difference between a strategy based on class partnership and one based on class struggle. In the case of the former, wages, hours, and working conditions are subordinate to profits. In the latter, the defense of the immediate needs of the working class is the only concern and is organically connected with abolition of the profit system and socialist revolution. (To be continued.

Footnotes:

1. "Culture," in the broadest sense of the term, encompasses everything from advances in tool-making to the development of agriculture, written language, and science.

2. For a full account of the P-9 strike, see the Socialist Action pamphlet "Lessons of the P-9 Strike" by Jake Cooper.

3. For an account of Walter Reuther's role in opposition to "30-for-40,"

see "Labor's Giant Step" by Art Preis (pp. 489-494), Pioneer Publishers. essons of the P.9 Strike by Jake Cooper ($1.50)

Philippines: Reform or Revolution? by Roberto Pumarada ($1.00)

Everyday Life in Capitalist America by Hayden Perry ($1.25)

Student Activism in the 1980s by Adam Wood and Suzanne Forsyth ($1.00)

Lessons of Working Class Defeats: An Analysis of the Popular Fronts in Spain, Chile and Peru by Bill Wilner, Jeff Mackler, Alan Benjamin, David Kirschner, Leon Trotsky reprint ($1.50)

Is the 'Rainbow' a Real Alternative?: A Response by Shirley Pasholk, Joe Ryan, and Kwame M.A. Somburu ($1.00)

Stock Market Crash: Its Meaning for Working People by Ernest Mandel, Nat Weinstein, and Lynn Henderson ($1.50) The Legacy of Malcolm X by Joe Ryan, Nat Weinstein, and Kwame M.A. Somburu ($1.25 bscription to Socialist Action. See offer page 3435 CA 94110.

Scan page 10

By MICHAEL KOOPER BOSTON-By a vote of 2034 to 112, Local 26 of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers union has authorized a strike against 13 major hotels here if their demands for better wages and a housing fund are not met. The current contract expires Nov. 30; the union won their demands at the 11th-hour in both 1982 and 1985.

Balloting took place at an open rally on Nov. 16 attended by close to 2500 Local 26 members and their supporters. Workers were greeted by huge banners that read "S.I.T. I.N.—Support-us Inside, Terminate Injustice Now."

The 4000-member union is one of the most militant in the Northeast. President Domenic Bozzotto has unified one of the most diverse memberships in Boston: 55 percent women; a majority Black and Latino; 87 languages spoken. The names of the 164-strong negotiating committee reads like an international phonebook.

Hotel owners are pushing for job reclassification, meaning more work for less money, and are demanding a two-tiered wage system that would discriminate against newer workers. They've also proposed a bonus system. Bozzotto characterized this as "the Judas demand. It appeals to our greed. There will NEVER be bonuses instead of raises in our contracts."

While hotel owners enjoy the highest occupancy rates and the second-highest room rates in the country, they pay the average member of Local 26 a measly $6.00 per hour.

Local 26's demands

The union has its own demands, including an owner-financed higher-education fund, and a widely publicized demand for affordable housing.

Housing costs in Boston are the highest in the United States. Few hotel workers are able to afford their own homes. Many union members with families pay 40 percent and more of their income for one-bedroom apartments. Some have joined the ranks of the homeless and lost their jobs after being evicted from apartments they could no longer afford.

The housing issue is a militant departure from the typical wages and benefits labor struggle. Prudential and other corporate hotel owners have systematically contributed to the lack of affordable housing in the city, causing working people to lose their homes to condo conversion and high-priced development.

The union is demanding that owners contribute to a housing trust fund that would .. Palestine (continued from page 1: “Elections are over, austerity lies ahead”)

P.L.O. as close as possible to the identified American vision of peace in the Middle East," stated the New York Times on Nov. 16. It would seem that Arafat was successful in his effort to bring the positions of the PNC more in line with State Department policy.

The U.S. reaction to the PNC's declarations, however, was less than enthusiastic. State Department spokesman Charles Redman said: "The reference to U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 is an advance over previous efforts by the PNC. Nevertheless, it is ambiguous. ... Indirect recognition of Israel is not sufficient. Recognition must be clear and unambiguous." (San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 17)

Other imperialist powers, however, have reacted more favorably to the PNC's recognition of Israel. Even Margaret Thatcher told President Reagan, "When people do things that we like we should welcome it."(New York Times, Nov. 18)

Playing hard cop The U.S. government has decided to play hard cop and bully the Palestinians into more concessions. It is not that U.S. officials haven't recognized the historic nature of the PNC's concessions; it is simply that they are trying to push Arafat and the P.L.O. as far as they will go.

leader close to Yasir Arafat, speaking off the record, admitted this much TO OUR READERS:

The January 1989 issue of Socialist Action will be mailed to our subscri bers on Jan. 10 on account of the hol days and the transfer to our new mailing system. Bundles to distributors will be mailed on schedule. provide financial assistance to its members. They may strike on this issue alone if the hotel owners refuse to negotiate it.

Initially the owners claimed that housing isn't a union issue and that it was illegal to include it in the negotiations. Bozzotto rejects this, stating that in demanding housing Local 26 wants to "start something new in this country. We want no less than the rights the owners would expect for themselves."

"No one's gonna cross our lines!"

Long-time union supporter Reverend Graylan Ellis-Hagler addressed the rally, reminding the owners that "we know where you live. You can run but you can't hide! We will go, by whatever means necessary, to their neighborhoods. We'll take this strike to when he told the French daily Libération that "Whatever they may say officially, the Americans know they obtained from us what they wanted." (quoted in Rouge No. 1329, Nov. 17-23)

A foreign-policy aide to George Bush made this revealing statement, "They [the P.L.O.] are still operating on the basis of the lowest common denominator. To meet them and reward them would send the wrong signal." (New York Times, Nov. 17)

But Arafat, aware that he has gone out on a limb in making these concessions, has warned that he, too, can play hard ball. In an appeal to the U.S. government to put pressure on the Israeli government to negotiate with the P.L.O., Arafat said: "If we meet with a rebuff, only God knows the outcome. Let it be clear that I can always come back to our council and declare that moderation does not pay." (New York Times, Nov. 16)

A misguided strategy Over the past several months, Arafat has met with Arab and European heads of state in an attempt to find a formula for a Palestinian state that would be acceptable to the world imperialist powers. He is reported to have even agreed to a proposal for a Palestinian "state in confederation with Jordan"-that is, to a rump state under the direct control of Jordan's King Hussein. [See November 1988 Socialist Action.] Arafat has staked his reputation as a Palestinian leader on finding a "solution to the Palestinian conflict" within the framework of United Nations resolutions that demand acceptance of Israel's right to exist within secure borders. But his strategy and that of the top P.L.O. leadership is entirely misguided.

The U.S. government will never pressure Israel into accepting any proposal that would grant true self-determination to the Palestinian people. Israel is the United States' policeman in the region. A Palestinian state that was both independent and sovereign would their front doors."

Hagler told the rally, "Your ranks extend throughout the community. And if the time comes that you have to go to jail, move over, 'cause I'm coming with you." Hagler was one of those arrested in the Greyhound strike five years ago.

Hotel owners threatened in the past to replace striking workers with scabs, but the union beat that back twice before. At another rally workers passed around a baseball bat and declared, "No one's gonna cross our lines and take our jobs!"

In 1982, when hotel owners ran full-page ads for scabs, the union promised its members that they would not lose their jobs. This time workers were handed a six-language leaflet titled "Local 26 Guarantee" and signed Reinhard What does it all mean? This Palestinian woman just lost her husband to an Israeli poison gas attack in the West Bank.

threaten the stability of Israel as well as that of the capitalist Arab nations, which also oppress their own Palestinian populations.

George Shultz made this clear in September when he said, "The United States cannot accept 'self-determination' when it is a code word for an independent Palestinian state." (New York Times, Nov. 16)

SOCIALIST ACTIO Dave Wateh Socialiet Action by Bozzotto. It stated:

"1) It is against the law you if you strike.

"2) If a strike becomes necessary, Local 26 Will not sign a new contract unless every member is guaranteed their job.

"3) We will win a good new contract, if all Local 26 members join together to fight."

Boston could be severely crippled by a strike during December, when Christmas shopping at downtown stores is in full gear. And the first week of the month brings a conference of the National League of Cities to town, with fully booked hotels.

As Roberto de la Cruz of the United Farm Workers reminded the rally as he led a chant of HUELGA, "the hotel owners have nightmares when they hear that word."

Many Palestinians have recognized the futility of viewing the U.S. government as a potential ally in the fight for self-determination. Dr. Sufian Khatib, a West Bank resident, said: "It's a striptease. We gave them 242 and 338. ... In the future, every country is going to ask us more and more."

Sheik Yassin, an activist in the Palestinian uprising, said, "The strong one isn't the one who gives concessions. It's the weak one that concedes. I differ with them [the PNC] on the concessions they've given." (New York Times, Nov. 22)

The P.L.O. strategy of reliance on diplomatic maneuvers with wings of the international capitalist class will not win Palestinian rights.

The Palestinian movement should rely on the masses who have been mobilized by the year-long Intifada-as well as on their oppressed worker and peasant allies in the adjoining Arab states—to push the struggle forward.

The P.L.O. should also appeal to the working people and students in Israel, who are facing growing austerity, insecurity-and even repression-at the hands of the same government that massacres Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. All these forces can unite against the imperialists and the Zionists for the creation of a secular society in all of Palestine.

This strategy-not concessions to the Zionists and their imperialist sponsor—is what today's situation demands. Brooklyn, NY 11240-4830 IMPACT ¡Post Office Box 404830 ISUALS 2-966-9619 Affordable photos, cartoons, caricatures and illustrations for the moverent and the progressive press I. DECEMBER 1988 1

----- pull-quotes -----

ESSONS OF THE IPO STRIKE A LIL' p-9 PORT FROM 1432 balancer She etrior the mean

STRIKE Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action