Embargo crisis faces imperialists

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The problems facing the American labour movement are amply illustrated by the recent action of the leadership of the International Longshoremen's Association.

These supposed leaders of the workers' movement have outdone Carter in their proimperialism and extreme chauvinism, by ordering East Coast dockers to refuse to service Russian ships OI cargoes destined for the USSR.

This embargo will hit the economy of the USSR, at least in the short-run, much harder than Carter's grain embargo and frenzied diplomatic manoeuvres.

In fact the grain embargo is a dangerous double edged sword for the Carter administration.

The Americans do not, of course, sell grain to the Soviet Union. for humanitarian reasons but because these bulk sales keep up the price paid to the American farmers-a significant force in American politics.

Carter scored a victory in Iowa (a major wheat-growing state) at the time of his election with his pledge never to use food as a political weapon.

Now that the price of wheat has slumped on the futures market to its legal minimum it's easy to see why that was such a popular pledge.

• In the USSR the grain embargo has had no such chaotic effect.

This year's harvest was well below plan, so the extra wheat shipments are important-but it would be wrong to imagine that the embargo will cause widespread bread shortages.

The shortages will affect livestock feed primarily and so will lead to slaughtering this winterwhich may cause long-term planning difficulties.

Bread shortages or price rises will be steadfastly avoided by the bureaucracy, because of the threat they pose to their own stability.

The grain embargo is also, course, not universal.

The EEC have tentatively ágreed, but the Argentinian dietatorship has declared its intention to continue to deal with the Russians.

The imperialists face similar problems when considering other sanctions against . the USSR: trade with the workers' states benefits the capitalists as well as the Stalinist bureaucracy.

This is particularly true of recent investment projects and partnerships, and technological deals between capitalist multinationals and industry in the workers' states.

The 'encouragement of such deals has been a major part of the economic strategy of the bureaucracy, faced with huge productivity and technological problems as well as a decelerating growth rate.

Their cancellation would represent a significant blow against the Stalinists' strategy and exacerbate the crisis in these misplanned economies.

However, it would be diffiCarter-showing his muscles? cult for the imperialist governments to cancel such deals since they have the advantage for the capitalisis, of' undermining the property relations in the Soviet Union.

They also provide a significant source of profit only recently opened up to them, Carter is at present desperately trying to get the cooperation of the EEC on his moves towards sanctions and is now calling for a ban on all food exports.

The opposition, however, is equally fervent.

France and West Germany are particularly hostile, because of their involvement in the kind of deals that are able to flourish only in a climate of detente.

There is no painless way for the imperialists to damage the economy of the Soviet Union.

This is the problem confronting Carter, and one which is particularly acute when the capitalists' economies are already in a state of severe crisis.

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We reprint here the final text of the Declaration of Intent adopted on December 31 at the International Pre-conference hosted by the Workers Socialist League. The resolution, endorsed by all seven organisations with delegate status at the Pre-conference, is a commitment to conduct the necessary discussions and joint work to ensure that within the next two years the organisations concerned would establish the basis for the formation of a democratic centralist international tendency, pledged to fight for the reconstruction of the Fourth International.

*More than 40 years after the founding of the Fourth International, the historical crisis of humanity still remains reduced to the crisis of revolutionary *In its deepening economic and political crisis, imperialism is challenged at every turn by the proletariat and the other oppressed layers of humanity in their struggle for an end to exploitation, oppression and the abolition of universal want.

*Mass struggles against despotism and military dictatorship have rocked the 'allies of imperialism throughout the world.

*Struggles for national liberation have ousted colonial rulers from vast tracts of Asia and Africa, and continue to this day despite all the concerted military power of US imperialism and its fellow oppressors.

*As the bourgeoisie toys with its last card of fascism (most obviously in Turkey) at military dictatoritie workers have surged forward to confront this threat of renewed barbarism.

*Even while they seek in vain to resolve their crisis, the capitalists meet militant resistance from the organised strength of workers acting with strikes and occupations to. detend Jobs, wages, conditions and social services against attacks from the employers, the state and the IMF.

*Even in their metropolitan homelands, the imperialists cannot rest easy.

*New layers are constantly thrown forward into these struggles, and women workers in particular have fought to lift the dual burden they bear as wage-labourers and the object of sexual oppression.

*At the same time, young workers, school and college students have been in the vanguard of struggles against imperialism and oppression (South Africa, Iran, Nicaragua), and across the world the militancy and revolutionary enthusiasm of the youth have played a vital part in igniting action against the attacks of the bourgeoisie.

*Over the last 30 years, the international proletariat has made powerful gains, but also suffered serious defeats and setbacks.

*Yet its enormous objective. strength remains chained by the historic crisis of proletarian leadership.

*The contradiction between the needs of the proletariat and the actions of its leaders is as massive today as it was at the time of the struggles to found the Fourth International.

*Workers have fought in heroic struggles towards political revolution in the degenerated and deformed wörkers' states (above ail, Hungary in 1956), yet these independent movements of the revolutionary proletariat have been crushed by the political tyranny of the Stalinist bureaucracies.

*To fulfil their revolutionary aspirations these workers need a new, conscious leadership from the forces of Trotskyism.

*Workers in struggle against imperialism confront not only the forces of capital and' the repressive apparatus of the bourgeois state but also their own leaders-the reformists, Stalinists and petty bourgeois nationalists.

*The mass forces in struggle against imperialism and against the ruling Stalinist bureaucracies objectively need a new, revolutionary leadership to replace the counter-revolutionary betrayals of the old leaders.

*The best elements in these struggles are actively searching for that leadership.

*Yet most of them can discover only the constantly shifting varieties of centrism and degenerate fragments of the Fourth International.

*For a new element has now compounded the crisis of proletarian leadership:

that is, the crisis of the Fourth International itself.

*Today the Fourth International no longer exists as the world party of socialist revolution : founded by Trotsky and the forces of the International Left Opposition in 1938. Indeed it has been disrupted both politically and organisationally by revisionist tendencies.

*We have come together because its banner has been dragged through the swamps of opportunism and/or sectarianism by the leaders of the the USFI, OCREI and IC, which have abandoned the principles .. and the method of the Transitional Programme. In reacting to these problems, groups such as the IST have plunged into the extremes of sterile sectarianism.

*But the Fourth International will not be reconstructed as the world party of socialist revolution through the formation of another international organisation which puts itself forward with sectarian arrogance as the entire body of world Trotskyism.

*We recognise the urgent need to develop, with both the leadership and the membership of these groupings.

the fullest possible discussion on the continuing postwar crisis of the Fourth International, and on the lessons which this holds for the struggles for revolutionary programme in today's class struggle. *The recent split in the

SWP leader-Barnes

USFI over Nicaragua has led to the formation of a joint Parity Commission by the Bolshevik Faction, Leninist Trotskyist Tendency and OCRFI-with the declared objective of convening an open conference of the world Trotskyist movement on the crisis in the FI. Only if such a conference is genuinely open and devoted to thorough debate on the key questions Trotskyists have faced or are facing can it constitute a step forward on the path towards the political clarification necessary for the reconstruction of the Fourth International.

*Beyond the ranks of these larger groupings there lies a host of organisations which identify themselves. as Trotskyist and declare as their ambition the reconstruction. of the Fourth *Confined for the most part to national isolation until now, some of these groupings will play the key part in the fight to reconstruct the Fourth International.

*But alongside them, the most developed militants from : workers' struggles must be drawn centrally into this battle, together with those forces prepared to break politically from the bankrupt leaderships of the USFI, OCRFI, IST and IC, or ready to develop beyond a history of centrism, petty bourgeois nationalism or feminism.

*On the basis of agreement with the programmatic report "The Transitional Programme in Today's Class Struggle" and with the general lines of the "Programmatic Basis" , we now declare our intention to build a democraticcentralist international tendency, committed to the fight to reconstruct the Fourth International.

*This tendency will work to develop and expand the political fight for the reconstruction of the FI to lead the struggles of the proletariat and its potential allies towards the revolutionary seizure of power and the world dictatorship of the proletariat.

*From this conference our organisations have established an international liaison committee to act as the focus of our political i discussions prior to the founding conference, and to draw up a document stating the conditions of membership of the tendency, as well as to plan and commence coordinated intervention by consistent Trotskyists in the fight to reconstruct the Fourth International.

*This document will bring together the tendency's programmatic positions as the fundamental tasks confronting a Trotskyist leadership in today's class struggle.

*The tendency itself will be formed only after principled agreement has been reached both on these conditions of membership and on national perspectives and tasks for the member organisations, together with a tull commitment to enter into international discipline.

*We issue call to all engaged for socialism:

*The crisis the following those forces of the Fourth has added a new dimension to the historic crisis of proletarian leadership in the epoch of imperialist decay.

*That crisis can be resolved only through the reconstruction of the Fourth International, to raise once again the banner of revolutionary communism and unite the workers of the world behind the leadership of one world revolutionary party.

*Opportunism and sectarianism offer no way forward to the international proletariat, and they can play no part in advancing its struggles.

*We take our stand on the traditions and experiences of the communist movement, as embodied in the decisions of the first four congresses of the Communist International and in the founding documents of the Fourth International, and we declare our resolve to struggle relentlessly against all attempts to dilute or distort these principles.

*Being in no way sectarian, we do not oppose our own interests to the independent class interests of the revolutionary proletarMandel SOCIALIST PRESS, Wedi jat, and our task the set as building independent of Trotskyist parties as national sections of a reconstructed Fourth International.

*Today our forces are smalle " but they will grow through the consistent and determined orientation we give to workers in their struggles against imperialist oppression, against the political dictatorship of the Stalinist bureaucracies and the betrayals of their existing leaders.

*History offers no alternative to humanity but a relapse into barbarism or the reconstruction of the Fourth International to lead the proletariat to achieve its historic tasks.

*The same stark alternative lies before all those forces who are prepared to struggle for socialist revolution and the world dictatorship of the proletariat.

*Unite with us now in the revolutionary unity of programmatic agreement, or stand on the sidelines as the courage, strength and determination of the proletariat are betrayed by today's leaders to a future of poverty, misery, fascism and war. FORWARD TO THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL; WORLD PARTY OF SOCIALIST La Presenting the opening report to the international pre-conference, WSL Executive Committee member John Lister stressed the necessity to develop the 1938 Transitional Programme on which the Fourth International had been founded.

"The Programme was not written as a dead letter, to be preserved in a pot and wheeled out for annual exhibitions. It was designed as a guide to action in the real world. As such it is worthless il not tested, developed, enriched and enlarged in the context of the world struggle of the proletariat for socialist revolution" he said.

Pointing to the objective problems faced by the postwar Trotskyist movement in this fight, comrade Lister stressed in particular the unexpected development of the post-war capitalist "boom' ; and the continued existence and expanded role of Stalinism on a world scale.

Contradictions

Within each phenomeno lie contradictions which it i vital for Marxists to recognise The 'boom' itself, for instance must be understood as contain ing the seeds of today's slump.

"The vast and rapid accumu lation of capital during th boom turned inevitably int over-accumulation- the ove accumulation of capital relativ to the possibilities for th extraction of profit from th exploitation of living labour."

And the contradictory Iol of Stalinism, too, must t grasped if Trotskyists are t offer workers a consister political lead:

"It is not enough simply 1 insist that Stalinism in 1979, :

in 1938, is "counter-revolutio ary through and through". H must understand the increase importance of Stalinism in tl development of the world cla

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SOCLALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16 January 1980 ing a firm basis for We present below a summary of the ull discussion two main reports and discussion at the International Pre-conference. In next week's Socialist Press we will publish extracts from the documents put forward to the conference by the Armed guerrillas fighting Shah's forces in the Iranian February revolution struggle, and we must explain how this thoroughly counterrevolutionary force carried through the historically progressive step of expropriating capitalist property relations in major sections of the globe"

The pre-conference document tabled by the WSL, The Transitional Programme in Today's Class Struggle, attempts to tackle the problem of developing the 1938 programme in the light of such changes, and to look at the current balance of class forces which presents particular forms of the crisis of working class leadership.

Peaceful coexistence Despite the treachery of social democratic leaderships and the commitment of the Stalinists to "peaceful coexistence" and international class compromise, the forward movement of the masses against a crisis-ridden imperialism has inflicted major setbacks, which created the conditions in which the tumultuous struggles of 1978-79 toppled the Shah and somoza, and vividly exposed the political weakness of US imperialism.

Yet through such spontanrous struggles aione the working class remains unable to free itself from oppression and exploitation. The need for Trotskyist leadership is niore obvious than ever.

Yet at this very point the crisis-ridden world Trotskyist novement is once more vracked by confusion and a najor international split.

The split in the United lecretariat, triggered by the vents in Nicaragua, follows on succession of post-war splits ind disputes that have on each accasion followed on an upsurge if class struggle in which earlier programmatic revisions have teen exposed.

And at no point werę the volitical lessons of these splits nd disputes consciously analtsed as the basis for political tevelopment.

The adaptation to Castroism and the petty bourgeois nationalist forces of the FSLN in Nicaragua by the American SWP was a development of its earlier Pabloite capitulation to the Vietnamese Stalinist invasion of Kampuchea.

But on the other hand the Bolshevik Faction, which has emerged defending the orthodox policy of building a Trotskyist party in Nicaragua, was itself not free from vacillations during the summer of 1979.

It was the BF's intervention in Nicaragua, through the Simon Bolivar Brigade which has brought it into conflict with the FSLN forces, and forced a change of line.

"Nicaragua is no single issue, isolated development, stressed comrade Lister. "It is the latest outcome of a historical process of development in the world class struggle over the last 30 years-a process which has time and again left would-be Trotskyists rudderless and confused at crucial points.

"The FI can no more be "reconstructed" today on the basis of agreement on Nicaragua alone than it couki be seriously reunified in 1963 on the basis of agreement on the single issue of Cuba".

"While pressing for the most active campaigns of solidarity with the Nicaraguan proletariat and for a programme to advance their struggle, we must deepen and develop our understanding of the overall importance of the Nicaraguan events for the development of the Trotskyist movement."

In the discussion which followed a Danish delegate from the Trotskyist Workers League (TAF) emphasised the need for further theoretical investigation of the post-war capitalist economic 'boom' which had not been foreseen by Trotsky or the Trotskyist movement.

Doesn't

"It would be wrong to claim that the Transitional Programme fits all the facts of the post-war period when it doesn't" ", she argued. A TAF amendment, adopted by the pre-conference, stressed the importance of further work on these questions, to develop an analysis based on a development of the writings of Lenin and Trotsky on imperialism.

A delegate from the Italian Bolshevik Leninist Group (GBL) also underlined this point, while stressing the GBL's general agreement with the main document.

The Nicaraguan events have produced not a new method among the USFI majority, but a revival of Pabloism, he declared.

This can be seen in the way the USFI has adapted to Castoism, and attributed a leadership function to the petty bourgeois FSLN.

But it is impossible to reduce everything to discussion on the Nicaraguan question-the events there have produced from the Bolshevik Faction and the LTT a series of political positions and shifts of policy which in no way amount to a correct political perspective.

No regeneration We must neither abstain from characterising the forces that have come together in the Parity Commission nor place faith in the possibility that the internal debates now taking place amongst Trotskyist forces offer the possibility of a regeneration spontaneously taking place.

The and of Portugal of Nicaragua refute the argument that revisionism will correct itself in a pre-revolutionary or even a revolutionary situation.

A critical note was struck by an observer from the Austrian IKL, who while stating agreement with the document's sections on the method of the USFI and the IC, declared that there was little point in simply It is wrong to say that the Transitional Programme is still valid and alive today, she argued. And it is wrong to say it simply needs developments and additions.

The Transitional Programme was written for a specific period of time, giving specific perspectives. A revolutionary programme must relate to the problems of the recent past and look forward to the future. We can't do this at the moment.

It is necessary instead to reconstruct the programme. In Pa is cossible mast the working SAW NOW DOsSIbe class has for so long endured a class collaborationist leadership. Revolutionary politics of poo betarian leads questioe must also take account of the attitude of mind of the working class.

An observer from Workers Power agreed with the IKL; the problem was that the main document put forward only general lines of policy.

"We would agree on the criticisms of the politics of the USFI and OCRFI and on the workers' government section. But the programme is so general that it may well hide a series of differences over method and tactics", , he said.

To found an international tendency without practical agreement on strategy and tactics in the class struggle is to risk building on sand.

In contrast to this a delegate from the Bolshevik Workers League of Chile (LOB) strongly declared her general agreement with the document, and the preconference's method approach to the question of building an international tendency.

"We oppose a tendency built on only one point of agreement. But neither do we favour discussing every minutest detail as a precondition.

"This is not only utopian but (given that every national grouping. can hold tactical differences) it would hold back the construction of an international tendency.

"We will not discuss our tactics with just anyone: only with those forces with whom we are in general agreement.

Method An observer for the Fourth Internationist Tendency outlined their historical origins in a split with the OCRFI on programmatic questions and differences on the method of constructing the Fourth International.

He emphasised that the FIT does not regard itself as "the" Fourth International-merely a tendency fighting for its reconstruction.

«We understand the need for discussion with forces that consider themselves Trotskyist. In this sense we think that debate and common work is the fundamental basis for the construction of the FI"

The comrade went on to warn of the possible dangers of the Open Conference to be convened by the Parity Commission. while stressing that the Italian GBL.

FIT does not hold tionist position on it.

: He proposed an organised discussion between the FIT and those forces represented at the preconference, declaring that the programme put forward by the WSL was an adequate basis for such a discussion, though there are points which the FIT wishes to raise.

There seem to be fundamental areas of agreement-particularly on the validity of the Transitional Tactical differences can never prevent work in a common tendency. It is necessary to distinguish tactical from strategic questions in such a discussion.

A detailed series of amendments to the draft document was moved by a GBL delegate, who stressed that they were all in their view consistent with the general line of the document as a whole.

The majority of these were, in fact, accepted by the WSL delegation, while some others pointed to areas where further discussion is necessary-in particular on the post-war economic boom and the question of the social overturn in Cuba following the 1959 revolution.

The next section of the agenda was introduced by a report from the WS Executive which stressed the historic continuity of the Transitional Programme and its method from the Communist Manifesto, through the first four congresses of the Communist International and the struggles of the Trotsky. ist Left Opposition.

The programme and its demands were therefore not specifically related to the year 1938, but the embodiment of a method and principles fought for over a whole period by Marxists.

Experiences

Stressing the need for an international tendency whose national groupings take up the struggle to carry such a method into the practice of the class struggle, he went on to examine some of the experiences, achievements and problems of the WSL in such a fight.

In the ensuing discussion speakers from the Austrian IKL and German Spartacusbund strongly challenged what they regarded as an attempt to generalise experiences from the British class struggle, when things are very different in other parts of the world.

There are periods, they argued, such as the boom' period of the 1950s, in which the Transitional Programme and its demands are not relevant, and it is not possible to mobilise workers in conflict with their reformist leaders. and Germany today, they continued, the class struggle is quiescent, and it 1s impossible to mobilise the working class. Strike figures in Austria are estimated in minutes lost per year. This is partly because inflation is only 4% and there is virtually no unemployment.

The comrades were also highly critical of those speakers who suggested that a strategy for intervention into the German and Austrian proletariat might require a tactical orientation towards those workers at present around the Social Democratic parties there.

A rather different criticism was levelled by the observer from the Irish Workers Group who felt that the general line of the document failed sufficiently to "flesh out" strategic principles with an analysis of problems in fighting for them.

He cited the differences between the three main Trotskyist currents in IrelandPD, LWR and IWG-as a case in point.

An FIT speaker focussed attention on the section of the document on Permanent Revolution, which he thought the least adequate-particularly on the question of the united front' in semi-colonial countries.

"The problem here is that it is not counter-revolutionary workers' parties, but petty bourgeois and bourgeois nationalist leaders who hold back the masses for long periods"

A speaker from the US Socialist League (DC) referred to the growing economic crisis of imperialism, which threatens to disrupt the class equilibrium of even "stable" capitalist regimes such as those of West Germany and Austria.

And an observer from the US Trotskyist Organising Committee underlined the uneven and combined development of the proletariat and its struggle by pointing to the low level of unionisation and lack of even a reformist working class party in the USA.

Trotsky The reply to the discussion specifically warned danger-exemplified in the contributions from the Austrian and German comrades-of basing an assessment on subjective impressions based on a single country, or on the apparent acquiescence of the working class to the positions of reformist and Stalinist leaders.

Nor was there a period in which the demands and method of the Transitional Programme could be said to have been irrelevant to the class struggle. The 1950s, for example, saw the Korean war, Suez, struggles for political revolution and the Cuban revolution. In each case the Programme had a perspective to offer.

Only in the struggle for a programme independent action in conflict with the bureaucracy-even this struggle begins from a situation of isolated propaganda workcan workers be broken from reformism.

It is not a question of rejecting revolutionary propaganda as such: rathér we must beware of seeking to do no more than simply carry out propaganda work, and thus turn our organisations into small circles divorced from the working class.

The struggle = fOI programme is the struggle to mobilise the working class on its demands-demands which when acted upon form the bridge from existing trade union consciousness to the consciousness necessary for the sociali revolution.

With amendments ~ Reconstruct the Foorth International !! - No. 1 Nov. 1979 DISCUSSION BULLETIN 60₽ Price 75p including postage from: WSL, 31 Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

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communists say 'vote Labour' By John Lister