Toward a Socialist America: What Socialist Action stands for What Socialist Action stands for

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Order this par pamphlets, Send $1.30 Socialist Action pamphlet, edited by Asher Harer, with speeches by SWP founder James P. Cannon To Actic nphlet, and for a list of the 16 other Socialis write to 3435 Army St., Rm. 308, San Frar • Make check payable to Walnut Publishing cisI Co.

"Conquering proletarian norms"

While the SWP leadership has been singularly unable to produce a political resolution for years and years, it has been very active in writing long documents on organizational matters, usually involving discipline against SWP members.

Some of these are ludicrous. Great energy has been expended by the leadership in working through intricate reasoning on exactly what the true proletarian norms are in matters such as members holding baby showers, proper times and places for breast feeding, when children can be present at political events, and other such "critical questions" of the world revolution.

But make no mistake—these are presented

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Newly formed workers' organizations came out to support students against bureaucracy. These groups are now banned.

When Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown last December, signs went up at Beijing universities: "Learn from Romania. " Taking inspiration from the mass uprising of the Romanian workers, Chinese students defied the intense surveillance of campuses with small rallies and celebrations.

In response, the Chinese government ordered martial-law troops, armed police, and security forces on "first degree combat readiness." Now, a year after its brutal crackdown on the student and worker movements at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, the Stalinist regime still cannot exorcise their spirits.

The 1989 wave of the student movement began as a protest around the funeral of Hu Yaobang, a reform leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Hu was widely favored among intellectuals because of his campaign to clear many of those persecuted in the Cultural Revolution and other repressive campaigns.

While many students looked to the reform wing of the CCP as more intelligent and open, they also organized independently. Their key demands were for free press and for dialogue with the regime, which implied recognition of their autonomous groups.

Deng Xiaoping and the CCP leadership took the students' independence as a mortal threat. But it was not only the defiance of the students that threatened them. The "desertion of the intellectuals" opened the door to a deeper crisis, with the workers moving to center stage.

As CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin told reporters from US World and News Report, "We do not regret, or criticize ourselves for the way we handled the Tiananmen event, because if we had not sent in the troops, I would not be able to sit here today."

Market reforms erode gains This crisis was brought about not only by the regime's political repression, but also by its program of economic reforms. After the disastrous years of Maoist austerity, Deng Xiaoping launched a program of market reforms, promoting family farms, small entrepreneurial activity, and market mechanisms throughout industry. Special economic zones (SEZs) were developed where foreign capitalists invested.

While these reforms produced high growth rates, they also led to serious inflation, greater income inequity, unemployment, and widespread corruption-particularly in the CCP, whose hierarchy controls key economic levers. For the workers, the reforms have meant the erosion of crucial gains of the revolution: subsidized prices, guaranteed employment, income, and benefits.

Workers responded massively to the calls of the students for basic rights and against corruption. Thousands organized in Beijing to support the students and protect them from the possibility of military attack.

Most important, the workers began to form their own mass organizations, raising the specter of a Chinese Solidarnosc. According to Larry Jagan in the journal New Politics, "[Within days of being set up on May 19, the Autonomous Federation of Beijing Workers boasted a membership of over 3000.... Before the cruel crushing of the democracy movement, the Federation Peter Tw claimed to represent over 100,000 workers in more than 40 industries and sectors in the country's capital."

A sharp stick In revulsion at the June 4 massacre the movement exploded into the streets of major cities across China. Major protests occurred in Shanghai, Chengdu, and elsewhere, involving hundreds of thousands. An underTroi groun most I Feal they b to sav cracks only n "Th accore Zemin plied t direct 1 Ove on Ju Thous: China. "many soldier tained Inde Auton: were b