Greetings from revolutionary artists

Scan page 12

According to this minority, the current struggle for a national democratic revolution is being led by the African National Congress. They said that socialists should support the ANC as long as it carries out the demands of its 1955 manifesto, the Freedom Charter, and that socialists should likewise embrace the Freedom Charter as their own minimum program.

A third report on South Africa, given by a delegate from Chicago, took an intermediate position in this dispute. This report agreed with many points made by the majority in regard to the combined nature of the revolution. But it proposed "critical support" to the ANC as long as it adheres to the Freedom Charter.

After a thorough discussion by the delegates, the majority report and resolution Mike Alewitz, from Art/Work, a political group of artists based in New Brunswick, N.J., gave the following greetings to the 5th National Convention of Socialist Action.

When the founders of American Communism decided to build a Bolshevik party in the United States, they didn't repeat, or try to repeat the project of building the [Russian] Bolshevik party in the United States.

They set out to build a uniquely American party. They began with the idea of building a combat party of broad concers that was a tribunal of working people. A party that presented the agenda of the working class in its entirety.

And they had a very broad outlook on this. They viewed the growth of the working class and the entrance of the working class into world politics within the context of the development of modern capitalist society as a whole.

Furthermore, all of the great MarxistsMarx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky-and the founders of Trotskyism in the United States, viewed culture and cultural questions as central concerns of the working class movement.

This led Trotsky, Andre Bréton, and (continued on next page)

Scan page 13

SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1992 13 For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s, state employees in California are receiving IOUs instead of paychecks. Income tax refunds are also being paid with dubious promissory notes. Merchants who have sold goods to the government must be satisfied with a promise to pay when the state has the money.

These IOUs, known as "registered warrants," can be cashed at local banks, but financial institutions are under no legal obligation to accept them. The banks, in effect, are making a loan to the state at five percent interest. In contrast, they make a lot more profit charging credit card borrowers as much as 20 percent interest.

In the first few days of July, the state controller issued warrants valued at $307 million. It is estimated that $2 billion in IOUs could be floated by the end of July. The banks question how many of these less profitable warrants they will absorb.

The most populous state in the country is broke. California shares with other states the ravages of the recession. In the last two years, 700,000 jobs have been lost. The unemployment rate stands officially at 9.5 percent. As business slows, tax revenues fall. Actual revenues are $25 billion less than expected.

For fiscal year 1993, starting July 1, Gov. Pete Wilson proposed a budget of $60 billion. As revenues dropped below estimates, however, an $11 billion gap appeared between income and expenditure.

Like his fellow Republican in the White House, Wilson promises no new taxes. This leaves a situation where expenditures have to be adjusted to a reduced income. Belts have to be tightened all round.

People on welfare are experts at belt tightening, so Wilson proposes a cut of 25 percent in Aid to Families with Dependent .Art/Work greetings (continued from preceding page)

Diego Rivera in 1938 to issue a call for an artists' international, which would be an alliance of all class-struggle artists with the revolutionary movement.

There was a great tradition of collaboration between revolutionary artists and the working-class movement. Throughout American labor history, artists have walked side by side with revolutionaries. And it's in that tradition that we formed our modest little group, which we call Art/Work.

We're a group of artists, trade unionists, and social activists. We did a lot of work in support of the Pittston coal miners' strike. We have done support work for the Palestinian struggle. Our last big project was to organize a busload of artists who had a giant puppet of Rosa Luxemburg for a pro-choice demonstration in Washington.

Art/Work is not and does not aspire to be a political party. It's not a Trotskyist organization, it's not even a Marxist organization. It is a class-struggle group of artists, however, and that puts us in alliance with Marxist and Trotskyist individuals and groups.

Our historic task

Now, that being said about Art/Work, a number of people here have asked me about my impressions of the convention, and I would like to comment on the convention and what I have seen here. Think of it as sort of a "man in the street" appraisal of your convention.

First and foremost, you have established that the historic task facing humanity is the conquest of power by the working class.

And second, that the best method to do that—which so far has been thrown up by history-has been the construction of a revolutionary combat party to lead and organize the workers to take power.

This is not a popular conception in the world today. Children (AFDC). He also wants to eliminate dental care, podiatry, and other treatment from Medi-Cal services. He also strikes at the most frail adults by cutting nutrition programs 14.5 percent, and reducing funds to inspect the notoriously unhealthy nursing homes that proliferate throughout the state.

The Democrats, who control the State Assembly, are also busy slashing the budget, or completely eliminating 21 departments or programs. Among these are the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the California Arts Counci, and the Disaster Assistance Program. "The only thing we can keep are essential services." said Democratic State Senator Dan Boatman, as he slashed programs for the poor. (These are nonessential.")

At this point the Republicans and Democrats appeared to be traveling on parallel tracks. But suddenly they came to a head to head collision that has derailed the whole budget-making process.

Those groups, movement groups, which have been at the center of world attention in terms of political struggle, groups like the FMILN of El Salvador, or the FSLN in Nicaragua, or the ANC of South Africa, or many other groups, have a different conception of what their role in history is at this particular time.

This is not to say that these parties and groups are not composed of heroic individuals, of dedicated revolutionary-minded people.

But they have a different conception of how history will unfold. By and large, they do not believe that at this juncture of history it is possible for the working class to conquer power and build a society in its own name. That is just the plain fact of the matter. And so it makes organizing struggles very difficult sometimes.

In my opinion, their misunderstanding of this comes fundamentally from an illusion in world Stalinism. From a deep-seated belief among the leaders of these groups, that, in fact, if they took power, they could rely on world Stalinism to support and defend their revolution. And that was always an illusion.

While it didn't come as a surprise to us when Stalinism collapsed, to those people who believed they could count on world Stalinism to defend their revolutions and their struggles, the collapse of the Stalinist governments was a moment of despair for them. And basically they gave up the conception, those that had it, of workers taking power in their own name.

Stalinism is reactionary through and through. It exists as a petty bourgeois layer within the working-class movement. It is based on real privileges that exist in the world. It is a world-historic problem.

It does not go away when a goverment collapses, it does not go away when any individual is replaced by another individual.

It is only the working class and its struggles that can create progressive and revolutionary change. It is only the working class, driven by the misery of life under capitalism, who take the road of political Gov. Wilson proposed that over $1.1 billion be slashed from the education budget for 1993, with an additional cut scheduled for the following year.

This would deprive the schools of $2.3 billion at a time when school districts are already laying off teachers and cutting ...YOULL HAVE TO TAKE AN I.O.U. essential services.

To make sure all age-groups share the burden, Wilson told 110,000 four-year-olds they must wait a year before starting kindergarten. Their older brothers and sisters in community colleges will see their fees rise from $6 to $20 a unit. Meanwhile four state colleges will turn away all new applicants this Fall.

The Democrats will accept a more modest cut in the school budget: something on the order of $605 million. But they see political danger in cutting the education budget too far. In 1985, Californians voted to guarantee the schools 40 percent of the state budget. This promise is now being broken.

action, who can create revolutionary change and defend revolutionary gains. That is the source of it. And that is what has been the starting point of all organizations and all individuals who consider themselves revolutionary.

It is that great belief in the working masses themselves, not in Stalinist governments, not in officials of the labor movement, not in Committees of Correspondence, not in anything, only in the direct action of working people. And we have seen this time and again in the history of our own class in the United States.

"A nose for power"

I believe that Socialist Action has a "nose for power." And that's why I'm here. It's embodied in its name: it's for socialism, it's for action. And I'd like to just basically say that I think this convention has accomplished a great deal and has been very inspiring for me. Think of what this convention bas accomplished.

I believe that Socialist Action deciding that the central task of revolutionaries is to continue to fight for the class independence of the working class in South Africa-to go forward with that is an important conquest of this convention.

Socialist Action defends the basic positions of the revolutionary Marxist movement that were decided as far back as the Chinese Revolution of 1927, when Trotsky and the Left Opposition basically put forward the idea in opposition to the Stalinist policy—that you had to fight for class independence in the national struggles.

I think it was an important conquest of this convention to champion the struggles in Eastern Europe, regardless of the current consciousness of the leadership of these struggles. And I think it ties into another important decision of this convention, which is the unconditional defense of the Cuban revolution.

Finally, I think that the decision of Socialist Action to continue its party building activities, to continue to defend By refusing to accept Wilson's cuts, the Democrats brought the budget making process to a grinding halt. Wilson's $2.3 billion cut cannot be pushed through a hostile Assembly, and the Democrats' proposal can be defeated by the govemor's veto.

The state constitution dictates that the annual budget must be adopted by July 1. Without it the state cannot borrow money, and the federal government will not send grant and aid money. Running without a budget costs the state $7.6 million a day.

In spite of this mounting crisis the govemor and Assembly leaders have not even met for three weeks. They are playing a game of "chicken" for sordid political advantage. Who will blink first when angry voters get desperate?

Gov. Wilson told the San Francisco Chronicle he was prepared to continue the stalemate even after the banks reject the IOUs. He thinks the Democrats will blink first and give the governor what he wants.

As usual in fiscal crises, the poor lose and the rich gain. In the IOU debacle California's credit rating has fallen, raising the interest rate the state must pay on its bonds. This gives the wealthy who buy the bonds extra tax-free income.

Both Gov. Wilson and Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown cry "No new taxes," but then impose them indirectly as "user fees." Admission to state parks costs more and license fees are increased. Then more of the burden of taxation is shifted to local communities and the poor.

Wilson proposes cutting $1.7 billion in state aid to counties and cities. Then, he will give supervisors and mayors the power to add a 1/4 cent to the regressive sales tax-if the voters approve it.

This is the sort of maneuver state legislators like. It fakes taking the burden of taxation off property owners. And through special loopholes and exemptions, California's corporations have a lighter tax burden than most states. Even in this fiscal crisis, both Democrats and Republicans agree that they must maintain a "favorable business climate.

The crisis of the IOUs should tell California's working people that there is something terribly wrong when the stooges of the wealthy can plunge the "Golden State" into bankruptcy.

the clinics, to continue to jump into union struggles, and to win people to revolutionary socialism is an important decision.

The question of war and peace Most important was the role that Socialist Action played in fighting against the U.S. intervention during the Gulf War. Socialist Action attempted to build and unify a united, mass, working-class antiwar movement against U.S. intervention in the Gulf, and that is a conquest of this group that can't be taken away.

This question is the most fundamental question that faces revolutionaries today— the question of war and peace and what you do. And those of us who were in independent coalitions attempting to do this, looked at what each group did in that struggle, and there was only one group in my opinion that really had it right, right down the line, and that was Socialist Action.

And there will be more wars and there will be more military interventions, and there will be more Los Angeles-type rebellions, and there will be more strikes, and there will be more struggles. So we will have a chance to do this again.

As long as people continue to struggle, as long as the rising expectations of humanity continue to clash with the restrictions that capitalism imposes, then people will continue to struggle and will come to the right conclusions. We don't have to worry about that.

The revolutionary movement, in my opinion, does not have to worry about being small. But it does have to worry about not being a revolutionary movement! That is the central question.

And so to hear a debate that took place here, to hear the clarity that comrades have, is a very inspiring thing and can give us great contidence for the future...

So I applaud your convention, it's been i very inspiring, I thank you for inviting me and allowing me to say these few words, and I look forward to working with you in the future.