What's behind sham debate over new Civil Rights Bill

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Sinclair was proud of his extensive Trotsky archives.

Reba Hansen, a 60-year veteran of revolutionary struggle, died in Salt Lake City on July 3. She was 80 years old.

In 1931, she and her husband, Joseph Hansen, joined the Communist League of America (later to become the Socialist Workers Party) in Salt Lake City. They moved to San Francisco in 1934 and plunged into the great labor struggles of that period.

Broad experience in In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court issued six major rulings that weaken the country's civil rights legislation. These decisions codify steps taken by the government and employers to push back affirmative action gains won over the last 25 years by Blacks and women in particular.

In response to these setbacks, liberals in Congress led by the Congressional Black Caucus and Senator Edward Kennedy drafted a major civil rights bill that would overturn the negative Supreme Court rulings. The bill is backed by the major civil rights and women's rights groups, as well as the AFL-CIO.

On July 19, the Senate adopted such a bill. The House will do the same. And President Bush says he's for it if it is amended to leave out any implication of forcing employers to use quotas to remedy discrimination.

Whatever the outcome, the real issue in dispute has important implications for working peopleespecially those of us who are Black or women. The means by which we end discrimination in government offices, factories, and educational institutions is extremely serious.

A false debate The debate in Congress, however, is a sham. Both liberals and conservatives, including the Bush administration, agree that quotas are bad. They reject any firm proposals to force employers and government to remedy discrimination through use of affirmative action programs with teeth—those with specific number goals to reach in a set time period (that is, quotas). Under the Senate bill, for example, companies could defend themselves against charges of discrimination by showing their practices were necessary to do business. Thus Blacks, other minorities, and women would have to prove conscious intent by the employers to win a discrimination suit. This is exactly the point that Bush agrees with.

What the Senate bill adds is a higher standard of proof than is currently allowed by the Supreme Court for the employer to justify their discriminatory actions.

But "intent"is very hard to prove. All employers allege they don't discriminate on the basis of race or sex. They simply hire "the best person to fit their needs." The "higher standard of proof" line of argument is simply another version of acceptable discrimination. Most employers can get around it. Their opposition to the Senate bill is based on not granting any more concessions to the rights of the most exploited sections of the population.

The employers, at the same time, have no intention of returning to all-white environments. It is not cost-effective. What they want is total control of how they integrate their offices and factories, how they promote, etc.

The liberals retreat The fact that liberals in Congress accept the argument that some discrimination is allowable shows the retreat on civil rights. When Congress adopted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1966, the principal modern federal law against job discrimination, Congress did not spell out what difference, if any, it saw between purposeful and unintentional discrimination.

The result was continuing prestionary movement followed. They joined Leon Trotsky's household in Mexico, where they helped organize the defense of Trotsky against Stalin's assassins. In 1939, Reba moved to New York. She became business manager for The Militant newspaper, managed Pioneer publishers, and served as secretary in the SWP national office-which included working closely with National Secretary James P. Cannon.

Malik Miah sure on the government and employer to disprove real discrimination—not the victim documenting intentional discrimination. This gave Blacks and women a powerful weapon to push for real equality. It was not given to Blacks but taken as a result of the destruction of the Jim Crow segregation system by the massive civil rights movement. It was that historic victory that forever changed race relations in a fundamental way.

All major civil rights legislation of the 1960s and since was a by-product of these victories won on the streets. They codified what was already won. The Supreme Court or Congress were not being more liberal. They simply had to adjust their decisions to that reality. Their decisions on civil rights, including not challenging affirmative-action programs with goals to begin to remedy past and current discrimination, reflected the gains won by the movement. While few actual quotas were ever established, the concept was not rejected as unrealizable by civil rights groups. Without clearly defined number goals or quotas, real affirmative action over a longterm basis cannot In 1963, she and Joe were living in Paris, where they put out a new international labor bulletin, World Outlook (later renamed Intercontinental Press). In 1965, the Hansens returned to New York, and World Outlook was published in their apartment.

Even in her seventies, Reba was still active. She organized the library in the new headquarters of the SWP in New York. Her passing diminishes the ranks of that generation of dedicated revolutionists produced by the Great Depression.

-HAYDEN PERRY be achieved.

Shift in relation of forces The narrowing of the debate over affirmative action today reflects the setbacks working people have suffered the last 15 years in civil rights and other issues. The shift to the right in capitalist politics and the lack of mobilization by Blacks or the labor movement has led to the retreat on affirmative action. The 1989 Supreme Court rulings simply codified the shift in relationship of forces. The court registered what has already been pushed back. The new Supreme Court justice that Bush appoints will not alter these facts. What the court decides can never be too far out of touch from the real situation in the class struggle itself. How much further working people are forced back will be decided by the fightback. The Black and labor movements today must focus on pressing the government and employers to live up to existing civil rights legislation by demanding full equality, including pushing for affirmative action clauses in union contracts. It means pushing for quotas where the fact of discrimination is obvious.

In the pursuit of this project, he accumulated an unrivaled collection of Trotsky's writings and books and articles on Trotsky and Trotskyism. This collection is now in the library of Glasgow University and should surely be named "The Louis Sinclair Collection."

This was no easy task. He must have visited every major library in Europe and America in his search for material, ransacking the archives of any Trotskyist or ex-Trotskyist he could get hold of. There can hardly be a second-hand bookshop which he did not enter or write to.

It was quite a revelation, when accompanying him on some of these excursions to see how readily he was recognized by the shopkeeper. As soon as he entered the premises he was recognized and the bookseller would say: "Mr. Sinclair, I have the book you have been looking for," and produce it from under the counter.

He corresponded with people in all parts of the world and nearly every post would bring him something. I remember with what pride SOCIALIST ACTIO For example, a smaller percentage of Blacks working at a factory or in better paying jobs than their numbers in the community requires affirmative action. Intent of discrimination is obvious by the numbers. "No higher standard of proof" is needed.

It is by pressing for full equality now-which means using quotas to effectively and rapidly end discrimination-that new and stronger laws will be adopted. It is the most effective way to pressure Congress to shift the debate from how much discrimination is "permissible," to one where the government is forced to move against the most racist employers.

Without mass public pressure this cannot take place.

Moreover, the lesson more and more working people will draw about civil rights and equality under the system of capitalism is that they are incompatible. Race and sex discrimination are cornerstones of a society based on profits first, human needs last. A fight against the system as a whole-that is, for socialism—is also required to protect gains won by the civil rights movement of the 1960s. he showed me a copy of Trotsky's "Germany: What Next?" in some obscure Indonesian dialect.

Louis rarely spoke from a public platform. He was most at home speaking to small groups and especially enjoyed talking to young comrades, probing their brains and helping them with their problems. He was always being consulted by students writing theses on Trotskyism and related subjects and by would-be authors, and he was always more than ready with his help and advice.

He took a great interest in recent events in the Soviet Union, always on the alert for new material on Trotsky and the Left Opposition emerging from the archives.

He also compiled an index of prewar internal bulletins of the Fourth International, which should be a valuable source for research for historians and students of the period.

He will be sorely missed as friend and teacher by all who knew him and learned from him. CHARLIE VAN GELDEREN AUGUST 1990 15

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Louis Sinclair 1909-1990