Workers Vanguard No. 1017	8 February 2013

Down With the Capitalist EU! For a Workers Europe!

Greek Workers Battle Austerity, State Repression

FEBRUARY 5—In the early morning hours of January 25, Greek riot police stormed the main train depot of the Athens metro system, breaking up an occupation by striking workers who had courageously defied the government and courts by keeping the metro shut down for nine days. Strikers were served with orders to return to work or face imprisonment and firing under a government “civil mobilization” order issued the day before. “Civil mobilization” was invoked again today to break a seamen’s strike, which has for six days paralyzed ferry service between the mainland and Greece’s many islands. A form of martial law for so-called peacetime emergencies, it is an open declaration of war on the working class. Its name harks back to the civil mobilization decrees for forced labor that the Nazi occupiers issued during World War II, which were turned into a dead letter in Greece by mass protests and general strikes in 1943.

As soon as the widely-despised coalition government of the right-wing New Democracy (ND), the bourgeois Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and the Democratic Left announced the “civil mobilization” order against the metro workers last week, bus and trolley workers began a four-day-long solidarity strike, holding out in defiance of court orders deeming their strike illegal. The public power workers also organized a 24-hour strike in solidarity with the metro workers on January 31. The government is now planning to ban such solidarity strikes.

In breaking the metro workers strike and now taking aim at the seamen, the Greek government has made it perfectly clear that it intends to crush all resistance to the increasingly savage rounds of austerity measures. The government crackdown on the unions comes on the heels of the arrest of 100 anarchist activists in Athens in December and January, and a bourgeois propaganda campaign to smear the entire left as “terrorists.” Bonapartist pronouncements are the order of the day, with the Minister of Public Order Nikos Dendias ominously stating that “the country must finally settle its accounts with the post-1974 era.” This is a reference to the period following the fall of the bloody military junta that ruled from 1967-74, that is, the beginning of the current period of bourgeois democracy in Greece.

The wave of strikes sweeping Greece has been sparked by the implementation of a further $17.25 billion in killer cuts to wages, benefits and social services. This is the price that the imperialist masters of the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded the Greek working people pay in exchange for billions more in bailout money for the bloodsucking banks of the EU and the Greek bourgeoisie. With massive unemployment and poverty ravaging the country, the metro workers and other public sector workers now face pay cuts of up to 25 percent, having already lost on average nearly half their income through successive rounds of cuts since the start of the economic crisis. Even as wages are repeatedly slashed, inflation keeps rising, and the government levies more and more taxes on the necessities of life, like heating oil. Athens and Thessaloniki have been blanketed with toxic smog this winter because people have been forced to burn wood to stay warm.

The fascist menace of Golden Dawn continues to grow—its sympathizers claimed yet another victim with the racist murder of 27-year-old Pakistani immigrant worker Shehzad Luqman on January 17 in Athens. The police, many of them supporters of Golden Dawn, also terrorize immigrants and foreigners. On February 1, the Athens police chased a Senegalese immigrant onto metro tracks where he was electrocuted. They later tear-gassed people protesting this crime. Since Greece completed its border fence with Turkey in December, more than 20 desperate immigrants have drowned in the Aegean Sea trying to reach Greek islands off the Turkish coast as an entry point to the EU.

As the worldwide capitalist financial crisis continues and the economic and military ravages of imperialism drive millions more to leave their home countries in search of an escape from abject poverty, it is crucial for the workers movement to take up the fight for full citizenship rights for all immigrants. Furthermore, it is a basic measure of self-defense of the unions and the working class in Greece, with its heavy immigrant component, to mobilize in mass united-front actions to crush the fascist scum of Golden Dawn. As our comrades of the Trotskyist Group of Greece explained in their November 2012 leaflet “Capitalists Bleed Greek Working Class” (reprinted in WV No. 1013, 23 November 2012):

“What is necessary is to fight to remove the political obstacles to mobilizing the power of the trade unions against Golden Dawn. The KKE [Communist Party of Greece] has the social weight in the trade unions to take the lead in doing this, but its promotion of illusions in bourgeois democracy and its nationalist populism are barriers. The reformist organizations that compose groups such as Antarsya also reinforce the political obstacles, in particular by tailing the pro-EU Syriza coalition, which promises to provide immigrants more ‘humane’ conditions of imprisonment and to put more cops on the streets to fight ‘crime’.”

A January 19 demonstration in Athens was organized by KEERFA, an “anti-fascist front” led by the Socialist Workers Party (SEK), which is affiliated with the British SWP and part of the Antarsya coalition. However, the SEK’s pretensions to be fighters against fascism were exposed by a grotesque article called “Patriotism and Internationalism” (Workers Solidarity, 9 January), which argues that nationalism and internationalism are “synonymous and interdependent.” The SEK perpetuates the lie that there is a common national interest between the exploiters and the exploited: “The national (identity) connects him [the worker] with all his fellow countrymen with whom he fights to resolve the different national issues.”

Genuine Marxists are staunch opponents of nationalism, a bourgeois ideology that serves to tie workers to the class enemy. In Greece, nationalism means the oppression of national minorities such as the Macedonians, Vlachs, Pomaks, Turks and Albanians. Our comrades of the TGG fight for full democratic rights for the national minorities, for the right of self-determination for the Macedonian minority in Greece and for a socialist federation of the Balkans as the only way to resolve the myriad national questions in the region.

It is telling that as the forces of the capitalist state were rounding up anarchist activists and smashing the metro strike, Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) leader Alexis Tsipras was on an international tour to meet with representatives of the imperialist rulers in Germany and the U.S. Tsipras, who rose to prominence after Syriza came in second in the last elections, was clearly seeking to reassure the imperialists that Syriza represents absolutely no threat to their interests in Greece. In a speech to the Brookings Institution, a U.S. bourgeois think tank, Tsipras said: “Those who engage in scare-mongering will tell you that our party will come to power, rip up our agreements with the European Union and the IMF, take our country out of the euro zone. My party, Syriza, doesn’t want any of these things” (Dow Jones Business News, 25 January).

In contrast to the fake Trotskyist organizations inside Syriza and in the Antarsya coalition who all salivated at the prospect of a “left government” around the last elections, the TGG has always told the truth about Syriza—that it accepts the capitalist order and the EU, seeking only to (barely) ameliorate the terms of extortion. There is no way forward for the workers and poor of Greece and indeed, the workers of all of Europe, without a sharp struggle against the imperialist EU, the central mechanism by which the combined capitalist powers have imposed austerity on their own working classes, slashed wages and rolled back trade-union rights and work conditions.

While the KKE tops have made a point of opposing the EU and of rejecting the call to join a capitalist government of the left with Syriza, their consistent refusal to defend anarchists against capitalist state repression is a clear example of their fundamental loyalty to bourgeois democracy. Far from standing up to the recent propaganda campaign by the government and bourgeois press branding everyone on the left, and even Syriza, as defenders of “terrorism,” the KKE has echoed the bourgeois denunciations of violence. It has also condemned anarchists for occupying offices of the Democratic Left—one of the ruling parties.

The 100 anarchist activists arrested in raids in December and January were themselves violently evicted and arrested by the cops for the “crime” of occupying abandoned buildings in downtown Athens. The KKE’s refusal to defend anarchists paves the way for attacks against its own supporters. The KKE’s trade-union activists from the PAME formation were victims of a vicious police attack on January 30 when riot cops used tear gas and batons to break up a protest at the office of the Minister of Labor by PAME members, resulting in 35 arrests. The TGG demands: Drop all charges against the anarchist activists and the PAME protesters!

The government may have succeeded in forcing the metro workers back to work, but as the seamen’s and other recent strikes by transport workers, shipyard workers, doctors and nurses have shown, the government has not succeeded in extinguishing class struggle. This wave of strikes and protests demonstrates the deep anger and militancy of the Greek working class, which has the power to fight in the interests of all those thrown on the scrap heap by the capitalist crisis. The government response to the metro and seamen’s strikes underscores just how fearful the bourgeoisie is of such strikes spreading.

In a January 29 statement, the New Left Current (NAR), which emerged from a 1989 split in the KKE and is the biggest force inside Antarsya, correctly noted that the reformist labor bureaucracy of the GSEE and ADEDY union federations failed to organize united struggle by all the unions to defend the striking metro workers. NAR calls for coordinated action by the whole of the working people in a front “for anti-capitalist overthrow” of the policies of the government. Yet its statement says nothing about who or what is to replace the existing government. And when it says that Syriza will be judged on its response to the current struggles, it is obviously leaving the door open for a left capitalist government led by Syriza.

Uniting the power of the trade unions in coordinated action against the capitalist assault—instead of dissipating that power by having rolling strikes at different times in different sectors—is certainly called for. But bringing to bear the full power of the working class would represent a challenge to the whole capitalist order in Greece, and hence is unacceptable to the pro-capitalist GSEE and ADEDY union tops. The working class urgently needs a revolutionary leadership that links the daily struggles against capitalist austerity to the need to overthrow the capitalist order.

Such a leadership would mobilize around transitional demands such as a shorter workweek with no loss of pay and a massive program of public works to provide jobs, the indexing of wages to inflation, and that the capitalists open their (real) books to expose their exploitation and robbery of the workers. Such demands point to the need for the proletariat to organize more broadly to fight for the expropriation of the capitalist means of production and the establishment of a planned economy under workers rule, where production would be based on social need, not profit. In other words, the working class must fight for the overthrow of the capitalist state, not to take control of the existing state in the form of a left capitalist government. Such revolutionary struggle would necessarily need to extend from tiny, dependent Greece to other countries of the region and in particular to the imperialist centers where workers are also being starved. This is the perspective that our comrades of the TGG fight for.

The following article, translated from German and adapted for Workers Vanguard, is taken from Spartakist No. 196 (January 2013), newspaper of the Spartakist-Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, German section of the International Communist League. It is based on a forum by our comrade Sylvia that was held in September 2012.

*   *   *

I visited Greece a few times between November 2011 and July 2012. Although the austerity programs had been in force for quite a while, the effects were not all that evident that November. In contrast, many changes had occurred by May and even more by July-August. I’m not talking about the buildings in central Athens that burned to the ground in the course of protest demos and weren’t rebuilt but rather about seeing real despair on people’s faces, with their increasing poverty evident in their clothing.

I lived in Greece for a couple of years. Homelessness, previously rare, has grown tremendously since then. Youth unemployment now stands at around 50 percent and, while this has been a fact of life in Spain for years, it hadn’t been that way in Greek society. Whenever I’m in Athens, I always revisit the districts where I’ve lived to take a look at the shops and the people. In November 2011, about a quarter of the stores had shut their doors—a bakery or a pet store—but in July-August it was at least a third, on many blocks even half the stores.

The drastic change became more evident when talking with friends or people on the street. This was apparent with health care. There were big protests at every public building, particularly hospitals, and just this week a group of furious pensioners stormed the Ministry of Health because they have to pay for their medicine now. The state isn’t paying and many who were just barely getting by have slid into total poverty. On top of all the job cuts there have been massive pay cuts for those still working—in many fields as much as 25 percent. Pensions have also been slashed.

All this is taking place at the behest of the Troika, a group consisting of the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank (ECB). The Troika’s aim is to make sure the Greek working class pays the German and French banks and insurance companies. When then-prime minister George Papandreou suggested holding a referendum on the Troika’s austerity dictates in November 2011, he was gone in a matter of days, replaced by a technocrat named Lucas Papademos who, interestingly enough, had once been vice president of the ECB.

Since then there have been two elections. It’s obvious that traditional voting patterns have changed. Whereas in the past either PASOK or the conservative New Democracy ruled, since the June elections a coalition of the ND, PASOK and the Democratic Left has been ruling the country. But Syriza—to which former Eurocommunists, Maoists and a number of fake Trotskyist groups belong—emerged as the second most powerful force in both elections. Previously Syriza had been, in terms of votes, a relatively insignificant group, but in May it obtained 16 percent and in June over 26 percent.

Politically, the situation in Greece is extremely polarized. While participation in the elections has steadily fallen over the years—in 2004 it was 76 percent, now it is 62 percent—political discussions take place everywhere in the streets, whether you’re going out for a coffee or buying cigarettes. People are very politicized, very furious and most of those who voted for Syriza in 2012 did so because they regarded it as a lesser evil.

For Workers United-Front Action to Stop the Fascists!

The deepening crisis is fueling the flames of nationalism, chauvinism and racism. People are looking for scapegoats, and hunting down immigrants has reached incredible proportions since the June elections. The fascists of Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) got around 7 percent of the vote in both elections. They have a lot of support in the army and the police. The Greek paper To Vima (11 May 2012) found out that approximately half the police force voted for Golden Dawn in the May elections. Golden Dawn is of the same ilk as the notorious Nazi-loving Security Battalions and the “X” group of General Georgios Grivas—counterrevolutionary terror bands that murdered Communists in the Second World War and the ensuing Greek Civil War.

The fascists are the shock troops of national chauvinist reaction. They are kept in reserve by the bourgeoisie because they serve as a useful weapon against the workers in times of crisis. Today in Greece, we can see very clearly that fascism is a product of collapsing capitalism, fed by joblessness and the pauperization of the petty bourgeoisie. So, for us Marxists it’s obvious that fascism can be eradicated only when the system of wage slavery is eliminated. And the decisive force for this is the working class because, with its hands on the levers of production, it generates profit for the bourgeoisie. Elevating the working class to consciousness of its historic task—overthrowing capitalism—requires a revolutionary party.

It was with horror that I learned from our comrades of the Trotskyist Group of Greece about the explosion of terror against immigrants, “illegals,” non-Greeks. Fascist terror against immigrants goes hand in hand with state repression. The state has set up camps and is carrying out mass arrests in an operation cynically titled “Xenios Zeus” (Zeus as protector of guests and hospitality). In early August, 2,000 immigrants were arrested in Athens and similar actions were carried out in major cities like Patras and Thessaloniki. By the end of August, over 12,000 immigrants had been arrested or imprisoned. The Greek police’s “Special Units for the Restoration of Public Order” went into the cities and arrested people, working hand in glove with the largely fascist citizen militias that exist in some towns.

In August, there was a TV report about a guy who shot two Albanian people. Normally, someone suspected of manslaughter or murder is put into investigative detention. Not here. At the same time, there are commercials on TV showing supposedly happy “illegals” with shopping bags in detention camps, who are then deported. In July, a Golden Dawn fascist physically assaulted a representative of Syriza and a KKE member of parliament on a TV panel discussion. This, of course, provoked widespread furor. Syriza protested immediately and organized some demos. We went to one that was organized by the SEK, the Greek fraternal organization of Marx 21 in Germany, i.e., the Cliffites. The demo was relatively small, attended almost solely by their own members. They demanded a state investigation into the ties between the fascists and the police. That is, they promote the illusion that the capitalist state can do away with the fascists.

But what is urgently necessary are defense actions to smash the fascists. These must be carried out with the broadest participation of the working class, joining together with the victims of the assaults. In areas with a high percentage of immigrants, workers defense groups must put an end to the attacks. Itself a prime target of fascist terror, the KKE possesses, through its trade-union formation PAME, the roots and authority in the working class to stop the Nazis by linking up with all those organized in the unions in united-front actions. But its reformist program of class collaboration prevents the KKE from doing this. The KKE’s reaction to the fascist assault on its own MP was to call upon those who had voted for the Nazis to instead vote for the KKE. This is incredible, but it truly encapsulates the KKE’s nationalism, populism and electoral cretinism. What is required is a revolutionary Leninist-Trotskyist party based on the working class. This party must be a tribune of all the oppressed as opposed to wooing votes on the basis of nationalism.

For a Socialist Federation of the Balkans!

The Greek working class is relatively small but militant. This underlines the need for it to seek allies outside the country, for instance, its class brothers elsewhere in the Balkans as well as in Turkey and Germany. But when you preach nationalism like the KKE, then you’re undermining this international solidarity. This is one of the reasons we regard nationalism as the main ideological obstacle to the struggle for socialism in Greece. One example: the region in the north of the country around Thessaloniki is called Macedonia in Greek. Following the destruction of the Yugoslav deformed workers state at the beginning of the 1990s, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia sought to include “Macedonia” in its name, triggering a gigantic wave of chauvinism in Greece. The KKE wrote at the time: “We don’t let any foreign nationalist lay claim to even a centimeter of Greek soil” (KKE pamphlet “Positions on the Balkans,” February 1992).

We of the ICL are unambiguously for Macedonia’s right to self-determination, including the right of Macedonians in Greece to secede and join Macedonia. The Greek bourgeoisie fears that this part of “their” country called Macedonia could be taken away from them if Macedonians were granted the right to self-determination. In discussions you see just how touchy the Macedonia question is, no matter what the political coloration of your discussion partners might be. Either they become enraged, or they won’t talk about it with you. It is very difficult to find someone who considers socialism and opposition to national oppression more important than the boundaries of a capitalist Greece, which were drawn up through a series of wars and expulsions. This shows that nationalism is one of the core questions.

Down With the Imperialist EU!

Unfortunately, solidarity actions with the Greek populace are few and far between in Germany. This can be attributed partly to the fact that the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Left Party, as well as the trade unions they lead, support the EU—a truly classic example of class collaboration. Thus, former chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the SPD warned of a return to nationalism should the EU come apart, while Sarah Wagenknecht of the Left Party stated that the euro had to be defended. In this manner, any possible protests of the German working class are to be channeled into support for the bourgeoisie. We of the ICL oppose the EU on principle, fighting for its destruction through international class struggle. Our starting point is what is in the interests of the working class on this question. We are for the United Socialist States of Europe. The EU is an instrument of the European capitalists for the exploitation of the working classes of Europe, led mainly by the axis of the German and French imperialist powers.

The euro is a monetary instrument of the EU. Through it, Greece has no control over its currency. It cannot devalue its currency to improve its competitiveness and keep debt under control. Perhaps Greece would be better off without the euro, although a Greek currency wouldn’t protect the working class from capitalist devastation either.

The EU arose in the fifties as an economic alliance of the imperialists against the Soviet Union. The Soviet state, created in the October Revolution of 1917 through the expropriation of the capitalist class and the collectivization of the means of production, remained a workers state despite its subsequent bureaucratic degeneration under Stalin. We Trotskyists offered unconditional military defense against the imperialists and against internal counterrevolution while fighting for proletarian political revolution to overthrow the Stalinists. Our defense of the Soviet Union is one reason why we were against the European Union from the outset.

The present crisis illuminates the age of imperialism. You can see how countries are ever more tightly integrated into the world market, finance capital is exported and industry is concentrated in monopolies. At the same time, capitalism rests upon nation states that come into conflict with one another in the worldwide pursuit of profits and new spheres of exploitation. Thus, the nation state constitutes a fetter on the further development of the productive forces. For the working class and the oppressed there is only one way out—socialist revolution that expropriates the bourgeoisie and establishes an international planned economy under workers rule. Every battle against the austerity measures, whether in Greece or in Spain, is a Europe-wide and an international struggle. Resistance to the EU is only the starting point. Since the cause of the crisis lies in the system of world capitalism, the solution is its overthrow.

The German bourgeoisie is unyielding in its demand that its austerity diktats be realized. If this causes its foreign markets to collapse, the German ruling class will have shot itself in the foot since its economy is so highly export-oriented. Even within the central axis of the EU—France and Germany—there are differences. While France is suffering from a trade deficit of 32 billion euros, Germany has amassed a 73 billion euro export surplus relative to the other euro zone countries.

The SPD and trade unions have contributed to the austerity diktat by promoting the protectionist scheme “Standort Deutschland.” Among its spawn is “Agenda 2010” with its massive cuts in wages, expansion of contract labor and the like. Other European capitalists can see how these increased the rate of profit for the German bourgeoisie and consider them worth copying in their own countries. Conversely, the assaults on the Greek working class provide a model for attacks elsewhere.

Fake Trotskyists Tail Syriza

While supporting the capitalist EU, Syriza campaigned against the Troika’s austerity memorandum and argued for renegotiating the conditions that were set. Syriza chair Alexis Tsipras has promised economic and political stability and is in favor of working with the Troika to provide Greek banks with new capital. Many reformist groups in and outside Greece have signed up as water boys for Syriza, e.g., the Grantites of Marxistiki Foni and the Cliffites of the Democratic Workers Left (DEA), who are linked to the International Socialist Organization in the U.S.

The DEA portrayed its support to Syriza as proletarian internationalism and said, “We are confronting the fact that in a month’s time, Syriza will be the leading party in the country. So we will be called on at that point to form a government that can transform things for the people of Greece” (Socialist Worker [U.S.], 23 May 2012). Then there is the Antarsya coalition, in which the Cliffite SEK as well the OKDE-Spartakos of the Pabloite United Secretariat (USec) participate. Antarsya ran its own candidates in the elections. Their intent was to pressure Syriza and use it to strengthen the “resistance.” Leading British SWPer Alex Callinicos said: “Antarsya has made it clear that it sees itself working alongside and in dialogue with those who support Syriza. The stronger its voice is, the greater the pressure will be on Syriza” (Socialist Worker [Britain], 2 June 2012). Particularly charming was that the USec, the “International” of OKDE-Spartakos, didn’t even support the candidates of its own section in Greece but rather those of Syriza!

All these reformist groups are not about socialism but rather are fighting for a “government of the left” with better policies, which is nothing but a capitalist government. At their core, such politics are pro-EU and pro-capitalist. Illusions in a left capitalist government are an obstacle to leading the working class on the path to revolution, for which the political independence of the working class is indispensable. Racism, poverty, exploitation and imperialist dominance cannot be ended through reformist pressure politics but only through the seizure of power by the working class. And for this what is needed is an authentic Leninist-Trotskyist party.

Greek Trotskyists Said: Vote KKE! No Vote for Syriza!

We gave critical support to the KKE in the June elections. Our starting point as Marxists is that the working class cannot achieve significant victories through bourgeois elections, but we do utilize them as an opportunity to attain a hearing among broader masses of workers. For this, we also employ tactics like critical electoral support.

On the other hand, reformists, whether supporters of the DEA, Antarsya or the anarchists, fundamentally share a bourgeois conception of elections. While the reformists believe that a better system can be attained through elections, the anarchists think that if people didn’t vote the system would break down. I was there and assisted our comrades of the Greek section in their critical support campaign. We had some discussion with people from Antarsya, but it was amusing to talk with the anarchists in their center “Notios.” They’d probably never voted before in their lives, but now they were tying themselves in knots and admitted that they were going to vote for Antarsya or Syriza—but really only as “lesser evils”!

We approach bourgeois elections from a revolutionary standpoint. Of course, we’re willing to employ the talk shop of parliament as a platform, but we make clear to the masses that the core of the state is special bodies of armed men like the police, the army and prisons. This core is not subject to election and is not reformable. Marx concluded that the state had to be smashed and destroyed in the course of a revolution if the capitalist system was to be overthrown. Reformism helps keep capitalism alive. Our campaign offering critical support provided us with the opportunity to talk with members of the KKE, and naturally with other leftists as well, about the KKE’s program and our own.

Generally, it’s difficult to approach KKE members at major demonstrations and forums. It’s a very well-organized reformist, Stalinist mass party. A genuine phenomenon: being face-to-face with a Stalinist party with hundreds of thousands of supporters twenty years after counterrevolution in the USSR and East Europe, a party deeply rooted in society and the historic party of the Greek working class. They have a daily paper, many members of parliament and have the trust of the most politically advanced workers in Greece. Anyone who’s been in Greece and seen a KKE demo—well, it’s very impressive how well organized they are. And we were able to come into much more contact with them as a result of our campaign. In any case, we’re almost the only leftists to approach the KKE and talk with them since other leftists won’t debate the KKE out of anti-Communism.

The basis for our critical support was the KKE’s refusal to join with Syriza in building a coalition of the left. The British SWP and SEK immediately termed the KKE’s position “sectarian”—a very popular term of reproof. Additionally, the KKE was for canceling the Greek debt and had for some time called for withdrawal from the EU and NATO. We put out a flyer “Vote KKE! No Vote for Syriza!” (see WV No. 1005, 6 July 2012). Had the KKE won the elections, it would have been a black eye for the EU and the Greek bourgeoisie.

The Greek section’s campaign was supported by an international team of comrades from the U.S., Britain, France and Germany. Critical electoral support, of course, means that we’re also critical. Central to our criticism is the KKE’s nationalism, expressed for example in their terming themselves patriots and continually talking about the “people.” This is an anti-Marxist concept because “the people” also includes the class enemy of the Greek workers, the Greek bourgeoisie, while excluding their most important allies, such as the Turkish or German proletariat.

In discussions with KKE members they say, “Of course, the Greek bourgeoisie isn’t part of the people.” Nonetheless, it’s a concept that is diametrically opposed to a class understanding. At the same time, the slogan “Workers of the World, Unite!” always appears on the title page of the KKE paper Rizospastis. This is, of course, a contradiction. The KKE argues for making use of Greece’s resources in the interests of the Greek people, an expression of the Stalinist program of building “socialism in one country.” The concept of socialism in Greece alone, with an economy largely based on tourism and ownership of an international merchant fleet, is a bit ridiculous. This is even more so the case when you consider that it didn’t work out in one of the most resource-rich countries on earth, namely the Soviet Union.

The Bolshevik Party under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky was internationalist through and through, and this enabled it to lead the multinational working class of tsarist Russia to power in the October Revolution of 1917. It was clear to the Bolsheviks that the revolution could not be maintained over the long term, nor could socialism be constructed, as long as the Soviet workers state remained isolated. Socialism is based on abundance for all, which will be brought about through the all-sided development of the most modern forces of production, socialist planning and an international division of labor. For the Bolsheviks, the October Revolution was to be the first in a series of revolutions around the world, and they founded the Third (Communist) International as the instrument for the working class to conquer power in other countries.

Due to the sustained isolation, poverty and backwardness of the newly founded Soviet Union, a bureaucratic caste arose that usurped power in a political counterrevolution in early 1924. The theory of building “socialism in one country” promulgated by Stalin in late 1924 codified the conservatism of this bureaucratic layer. This layer feared the proletariat, against whom it defended its privileges, and sought to make peace with the imperialist powers. Simultaneously, its privileges were derived from the collectivized economy of the Soviet Union, where the capitalist class had been expropriated. At every turn, the Left Opposition led by Trotsky battled the degeneration of the Soviet Union and the Communist International. In the Trotskyist analysis, the Soviet Union became a bureaucratically degenerated workers state. The imperialists confronted the Soviet Union with unyielding hostility despite all its attempts at appeasement.

For a Leninist-Trotskyist Party!

Virtually every fake Trotskyist current on the planet is represented in Greece, and their rotten politics have given Trotskyism a bad name—it is often seen as anti-Communist and social-democratic. When we were doing election campaigning at 6 a.m. in Athens’ port of Piraeus, someone turned and asked, “How come Trotskyists are supporting the Stalinists?” and he started a debate. Our Greek group doesn’t share the petty-bourgeois, anti-Communist prejudices of other leftists. And in order to make a revolution in Greece and the rest of the Balkans, you must break the working class from its false leadership and win it to a genuinely Leninist-Trotskyist party.

Other questions played a large role in the founding of our Greek section in 2004. The woman question is a truly central one for Greece. One example is the bride price, which was officially done away with only in 1986. Greece is not a secular country, there are Orthodox priests running around everywhere, all the time—I even observed a woman confessing on the street. Another example: the schools are blessed every year. When the government is sworn in, a priest is present. The questions of the church, capitalism and women’s oppression go hand in hand. One can fight for the liberation of women only if one fights to overthrow capitalism, and one cannot overthrow capitalism if one doesn’t fight for women’s liberation.

The Balkans are a veritable mosaic of national minorities, and if you lack a program to address the national question, then you really can’t be a proletarian revolutionary. Hence, this was an important point in the founding of our Greek section. You really need an internationalist perspective, otherwise all there will be is national oppression and the spilling of blood, only a fight for a Greater Bulgaria or a Greater Greece, which is counterposed to socialism and all-sided liberation, i.e., to the interests of the multinational working class of the Balkans.

The other important question is Cyprus. We struggle against the all-pervasive anti-Turkish chauvinism in Greece. Turkey is, after all, the historic enemy of the Greek bourgeoisie, but the Turkish proletariat is not the enemy of the Greek working class. On the contrary, it is really its most important ally. Thus, we call for the withdrawal of all troops from Cyprus—Greek, Turkish, British and UN. In contrast, the Greek left, including the KKE, tells you only how bad the Turkish troops are.

The KKE’s program contains a whole series of reformist demands right down to nationalist positions in defense of Greece’s boundaries, but it also contains a lot of rhetoric that suggests socialism sometime in the future. However, the Greek CP lacks any program that would link up the necessary struggle for people’s daily needs with the struggle for the conquest of power by the working class. And this is really the main task of a revolutionary Trotskyist party, preparing our class and leading it to power. Our role as a small international propaganda group is to lay the basis for the construction of such a party, a party that will be part of the reforged Fourth International, which we fight for here in Germany as well. 

Out In The Film Noir Night –Jeff (Oops, Lloyd) Bridges Hideout

DVD Review

Hideout, starring Lloyd Bridges, 1949

Hey, what if you were an old Chi town reprobate career criminal (okay, I will stop being nice right off with this crowd, this dangerous deadly crowd, an old reprobate gangster, reprobate hoodlum) who just easy pickings wormed his way into the Hope diamond, or something like that, in any case a big score, and you had to skip town to lay low for a while, set up new dodge complete with your bad company confederates, and work on that simple little problem of cutting up that big old gem and turning it into cash, into your retirement nest egg.

And what if you decided to take that lam turn in a sleepy old town, a college town, where an old geezer, an old geezer with dough (not the diamond dough but make a front dough), would not stick out and where he might be able to bring a certain tone to that scene. And what if that sleepy college town was in Iowa, Podunk Iowa, Hilltop (although I would have preferred Ames if I was lamming it but to each his own)with those endless wheat, or whatever grain, fields and those hearty stand-up prairie dwellers as company who will believe you are who you say you are until proven otherwise.

And what if part of your entourage (okay, I slipped, gang) was a dishy dame who caught the eye of the local city attorney who moreover had ambitions to be mayor of that fair burg. And what if that dishy dame was able to lead that city attorney, Jeff, oops again, Lloyd Bridges, by the nose for a while until he got wise to the scene after that old ne’er- do-well hoodlum got “religion,” and decided he is going to take the whole proceedings for himself and started bumping off his confederates starting, starting wrongly if you ask me, with the guy who cut the diamonds up.

And what if, in cinema’s infinite wisdom, that frail who had that city attorney by the nose got “religion” herself and went rooty-toot-toot on that old reprobate’s ill-winded plans when that old reprobate decided to call her number. Well, why then you would have this film and a very early look at the Lloyd Bridges (there I got it) and progeny Hollywood dynasty…

Published by SocialistAlternative.org Read online at: www.SocialistAlternative.org/news/article16.php?id=2043
March 8 is International Women’s Day — Stop Budget Cuts and Violence Against Women!
Jan 29, 2013 Genevieve Morse Shop Steward, Mass. Teachers’ Assoc. and the Classified Staff Union (personal capacity)
For working-class women worldwide, 2012 marked a year of vicious attacks. Ongoing austerity and budget cuts mean women are paying for the economic crisis more than ever. There have been a number of slanderous and outrageous accusations from right-wing politicians, pundits, and even a Supreme Court judge that, in “legitimate” cases of rape, a woman can control her body into not conceiving. Even though there is increased awareness around the issue of domestic violence, it has not slowed the violence that is forced on women every day. March 8, International Women’s Day, is a holiday of struggle founded over 100 years ago by socialists and activists organizing against the oppression of women in the workplace, household, and wider society. The weeks surrounding International Women’s Day are a good time to highlight the increased attacks on women worldwide during a time of capitalist crisis. We also need to urgently discuss the next steps for movements and radical solutions to the problems we face. Effects of Austerity Austerity policies imposed by the big banks and capitalist governments on a global level have meant increased misery for all working-class and poor people. These global austerity packages of budget cuts, layoffs, and decimation of social programs should not be seen as just a one-time measure. Rooted in a structural crisis of capitalism, they are a deliberate policy of ruling elites globally to make working-class and poor people pay for the deepening crisis. With these cuts to public services and to the service sector, women are now falling further into poverty. Predominately employed in jobs with high levels of part-time work and in sectors of the economy undervalued by big business such as health care, education, and child care, a large proportion of women workers have been suffering badly. A New York Times article about Britain reported in early 2012 that “Women account for two-thirds of employees in the public sector, where the government’s budget monitor says 710,000 jobs are to disappear. They rely more heavily than men on public services and financial assistance and are expected to lose 70 percent of the £18 billion being cut from benefits like housing support and tax credits for the working poor, says the Fawcett Society, a group pushing for greater gender equality” (3/6/2012). 74% of the cuts in Britain will be taken from the income of women, and the politicians agreed to a budget with plans to cut another £10 billion from welfare by 2016-2017. Benefits and service cuts hit women hardest because they rely more on the state to provide for services like rape crisis and domestic violence centers as well as subsidized housing for elderly women and child care. Women are also more heavily employed in public sector jobs that are being slashed. In a town in the northern region of Portugal with 17,000 inhabitants, 6,000 women are now unemployed (Trades Union Congress, “Bearing the brunt, leading the response: Women and the global economic crisis,” March 2011). Cuts in services like health care and education result in an increase in the unpaid labor that women perform in the household – caring for the sick, cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing. Capitalism does not want to pay women for this valuable work, even though it’s necessary to keep society functioning. This increases the burden on women in this time of crisis: Jobs are destroyed, services are decreased, and household responsibilities rise. Socialists call for guaranteed, quality child care and health care to help decrease the roots of women’s oppression. Thankfully, there is an international fight against the devastating policies of austerity. On November 14, a coordinated general strike across Europe marked a sweeping rejection of the austerity measures. Millions protested spending cuts, layoffs, and tax hikes for working people while banks get bailed out. Workers in Spain, Portugal, and Greece shut down society. This shows the potential power of workers and the oppressed to stop these policies and to create a better world. Also, cuts to jobs, education, and social benefits send the economy further into a downward spiral by decreasing the buying power of workers. These policies dismantle the social safety net that so many rely on. This is why a determined fight-back must continue in Europe and around the world. General strikes can broaden the struggles, hit corporate profits, and increase class consciousness in the working class about who creates the wealth in society and who should control it. A Sick, Sexist Culture These sharp cuts in funding for social programs have opened up further attacks on reproductive health and women’s control over their own bodies. Right-wing Republicans attack Planned Parenthood and are trying to wipe it out altogether in the U.S. as access to abortion becomes less available. The assault on reproductive rights is just one aspect of a war on women and an attempt by right-wing forces worldwide to “turn back the clock” on the gains won by women and progressive movements in previous decades. In Canada, the Slutwalk movement emerged after a Toronto police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, suggested women should avoid rapes by “not dressing like sluts.” This is one aspect of a culture that treats women as objects and often justifies acts of violence by blaming female victims. Tens of thousands of women in multiple countries moved out into the streets protesting sexual assault. The spread of these protests internationally showed that women are ready to move into struggle. Unfortunately, in 2012 these movements slowed in pace in the U.S. This was not because these women were satisfied with some sweeping changes. Instead, it was a result of the role of the traditional women’s organizations like NOW (National Organization for Women) and NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League), which diverted struggles into lobbying the Democratic Party and supporting the re-election of Barack Obama. This renewed global fight-back has exposed horrific events in India and Ireland. In early January, protests broke out in India over a gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi. In Ireland, a young woman died in a hospital because doctors refused to abort the unviable fetus. Doctors had told her and her husband at the time that they would not act because they “live in a Catholic country.” Total disregard for a women’s right to be safe from sexual violence and her right to choose what she does with her own body is despicable. Tens of thousands of Irish people gathered to demand immediate action to introduce abortion legislation in Ireland. Capitalism Creates a Crisis for Women Women rely on social services so heavily because the work they do in the family and the household is unpaid. The problems faced by women are rooted in the logic of capitalism’s fall deeper into crisis. Providing child care and care for the elderly falls almost completely on the shoulders of women. But under capitalism, this work is considered “natural” and is expected to be performed by women without pay. This creates serious inequality, as many women must do unpaid labor and work a paying job as well – if they’re lucky enough to find a job. Caring for the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable isn't as profitable to corporations as speculation, sweatshops, and low-wage retail. The only thing capitalism cares for is profits. Therefore, the necessary work done in a household doesn't result in job security, a regular income, or a valued place in society. Under this system, profits are always more important than the needs of working or poor people. Socialists believe that women should be compensated for this work. So many women are unemployed or underemployed. Under capitalism they are cast aside and left isolated and in poverty. Socialists argue that everyone should have living-wage jobs with union rights and benefits or, if unable to work, should have an income allowing them a quality life. Services like child care, quality meals, and socialized laundry could provide for those underemployed or out of work. This would also lessen the burden that is placed on working-class women. We don’t have to accept the budget cuts, the layoffs, the attacks on our rights, and the culture that treats us as objects. It doesn't have to be like this. Socialists argue that, for women to win equality, it is necessary to end capitalist society altogether. Only through united struggle for democratic socialism can we guarantee good jobs and quality services and fully address the roots of unpaid labor and sexist attitudes.

Published by SocialistAlternative.org Read online at: www.SocialistAlternative.org/news/article16.php?id=2043
March 8 is International Women’s Day — Stop Budget Cuts and Violence Against Women!
Jan 29, 2013 Genevieve Morse Shop Steward, Mass. Teachers’ Assoc. and the Classified Staff Union (personal capacity)
For working-class women worldwide, 2012 marked a year of vicious attacks. Ongoing austerity and budget cuts mean women are paying for the economic crisis more than ever. There have been a number of slanderous and outrageous accusations from right-wing politicians, pundits, and even a Supreme Court judge that, in “legitimate” cases of rape, a woman can control her body into not conceiving. Even though there is increased awareness around the issue of domestic violence, it has not slowed the violence that is forced on women every day. March 8, International Women’s Day, is a holiday of struggle founded over 100 years ago by socialists and activists organizing against the oppression of women in the workplace, household, and wider society. The weeks surrounding International Women’s Day are a good time to highlight the increased attacks on women worldwide during a time of capitalist crisis. We also need to urgently discuss the next steps for movements and radical solutions to the problems we face. Effects of Austerity Austerity policies imposed by the big banks and capitalist governments on a global level have meant increased misery for all working-class and poor people. These global austerity packages of budget cuts, layoffs, and decimation of social programs should not be seen as just a one-time measure. Rooted in a structural crisis of capitalism, they are a deliberate policy of ruling elites globally to make working-class and poor people pay for the deepening crisis. With these cuts to public services and to the service sector, women are now falling further into poverty. Predominately employed in jobs with high levels of part-time work and in sectors of the economy undervalued by big business such as health care, education, and child care, a large proportion of women workers have been suffering badly. A New York Times article about Britain reported in early 2012 that “Women account for two-thirds of employees in the public sector, where the government’s budget monitor says 710,000 jobs are to disappear. They rely more heavily than men on public services and financial assistance and are expected to lose 70 percent of the £18 billion being cut from benefits like housing support and tax credits for the working poor, says the Fawcett Society, a group pushing for greater gender equality” (3/6/2012). 74% of the cuts in Britain will be taken from the income of women, and the politicians agreed to a budget with plans to cut another £10 billion from welfare by 2016-2017. Benefits and service cuts hit women hardest because they rely more on the state to provide for services like rape crisis and domestic violence centers as well as subsidized housing for elderly women and child care. Women are also more heavily employed in public sector jobs that are being slashed. In a town in the northern region of Portugal with 17,000 inhabitants, 6,000 women are now unemployed (Trades Union Congress, “Bearing the brunt, leading the response: Women and the global economic crisis,” March 2011). Cuts in services like health care and education result in an increase in the unpaid labor that women perform in the household – caring for the sick, cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing. Capitalism does not want to pay women for this valuable work, even though it’s necessary to keep society functioning. This increases the burden on women in this time of crisis: Jobs are destroyed, services are decreased, and household responsibilities rise. Socialists call for guaranteed, quality child care and health care to help decrease the roots of women’s oppression. Thankfully, there is an international fight against the devastating policies of austerity. On November 14, a coordinated general strike across Europe marked a sweeping rejection of the austerity measures. Millions protested spending cuts, layoffs, and tax hikes for working people while banks get bailed out. Workers in Spain, Portugal, and Greece shut down society. This shows the potential power of workers and the oppressed to stop these policies and to create a better world. Also, cuts to jobs, education, and social benefits send the economy further into a downward spiral by decreasing the buying power of workers. These policies dismantle the social safety net that so many rely on. This is why a determined fight-back must continue in Europe and around the world. General strikes can broaden the struggles, hit corporate profits, and increase class consciousness in the working class about who creates the wealth in society and who should control it. A Sick, Sexist Culture These sharp cuts in funding for social programs have opened up further attacks on reproductive health and women’s control over their own bodies. Right-wing Republicans attack Planned Parenthood and are trying to wipe it out altogether in the U.S. as access to abortion becomes less available. The assault on reproductive rights is just one aspect of a war on women and an attempt by right-wing forces worldwide to “turn back the clock” on the gains won by women and progressive movements in previous decades. In Canada, the Slutwalk movement emerged after a Toronto police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, suggested women should avoid rapes by “not dressing like sluts.” This is one aspect of a culture that treats women as objects and often justifies acts of violence by blaming female victims. Tens of thousands of women in multiple countries moved out into the streets protesting sexual assault. The spread of these protests internationally showed that women are ready to move into struggle. Unfortunately, in 2012 these movements slowed in pace in the U.S. This was not because these women were satisfied with some sweeping changes. Instead, it was a result of the role of the traditional women’s organizations like NOW (National Organization for Women) and NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League), which diverted struggles into lobbying the Democratic Party and supporting the re-election of Barack Obama. This renewed global fight-back has exposed horrific events in India and Ireland. In early January, protests broke out in India over a gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi. In Ireland, a young woman died in a hospital because doctors refused to abort the unviable fetus. Doctors had told her and her husband at the time that they would not act because they “live in a Catholic country.” Total disregard for a women’s right to be safe from sexual violence and her right to choose what she does with her own body is despicable. Tens of thousands of Irish people gathered to demand immediate action to introduce abortion legislation in Ireland. Capitalism Creates a Crisis for Women Women rely on social services so heavily because the work they do in the family and the household is unpaid. The problems faced by women are rooted in the logic of capitalism’s fall deeper into crisis. Providing child care and care for the elderly falls almost completely on the shoulders of women. But under capitalism, this work is considered “natural” and is expected to be performed by women without pay. This creates serious inequality, as many women must do unpaid labor and work a paying job as well – if they’re lucky enough to find a job. Caring for the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable isn't as profitable to corporations as speculation, sweatshops, and low-wage retail. The only thing capitalism cares for is profits. Therefore, the necessary work done in a household doesn't result in job security, a regular income, or a valued place in society. Under this system, profits are always more important than the needs of working or poor people. Socialists believe that women should be compensated for this work. So many women are unemployed or underemployed. Under capitalism they are cast aside and left isolated and in poverty. Socialists argue that everyone should have living-wage jobs with union rights and benefits or, if unable to work, should have an income allowing them a quality life. Services like child care, quality meals, and socialized laundry could provide for those underemployed or out of work. This would also lessen the burden that is placed on working-class women. We don’t have to accept the budget cuts, the layoffs, the attacks on our rights, and the culture that treats us as objects. It doesn't have to be like this. Socialists argue that, for women to win equality, it is necessary to end capitalist society altogether. Only through united struggle for democratic socialism can we guarantee good jobs and quality services and fully address the roots of unpaid labor and sexist attitudes.

***Out In The Be-Bop 1950s Night- Ain’t Got No Time For Corner Boys Down In The Street Making All That Noise- When Billie Ruled The Roost- First Take

He was the first. A certified 1958 A-One prime custom model first. Yes, Billie was the first. Billie, William James Bradley that is if you did not know his full moniker, was the first. No question about it, no controversy, no alternate candidates, no hemming and hawing agonizing about this guy’s attributes or that guy’s style and how they lined up against Billie’s shine in order to pick a winner. No way, get it. Billie, first in what anyway? Billie, first, see, first in line of the then ever sprouting young schoolboy king corner boy wannabes. Wannabes because the weres, the corner boy weres, the already king corner boy weres, the older, mainly not schoolboys or, christ, not for long schoolboys, mainly not working, jesus, mainly not working, mainly just hanging around (laying about was a name for it, a fit name at that) were already playing, really hip-swaying, lazily hip-swaying if you wanted to win games, wizard pinball machines in the sacred corner boy small town mom and pop variety night or cueing up in some smoke-filled big town pool hall.

Or working on hot souped-up cars, a touch of grease pressed, seemingly decaled pressed, into their uniform white tee-shirts (no vee-necks need apply) and always showed, showed an oily speck anyway, on their knuckles. But the cars were to die for, sleek tail-finned, pray to god cherry red if you put the finish on right (no going to some hack paint shop, no way, not for this baby, not for that ’57 Chevy), dual exhaust, big cubic engine numbers that no amateur had a clue to but just knew when sighted that thing would fly (well, almost fly) into the boulevard night, that sea air, sex-charged boulevard night. Tuned-up just right for that cheap gas to make her run, ya, that cheap City Service gas that was even cheaper than the stuff over at the Merit gas station, by two cents.

Or talking some boffo, usually blonde, although not always, maybe a cute rosy red-lipped and haired number or, in a pinch, a soft, sultry, svelte brunette, tight cashmere sweater-wearing, all, Capri pant-wearing, all, honey out of her virtue (or maybe into her virtue) down by the seashore after some carnival-filled night. A night that had been filled with arcade pinball wizardry, cotton candy, salt-water taffy, roller coaster rides, and a few trips in the tunnel of love, maybe win a prize from the wheel of fortune game too. A night capped with a few illicit drinks from some old tom, or johnny, Johnny Walker that is, rotgut to make that talking easier, and that virtue more questionable, into or out of. All while the ocean waves slap innocently against the shore, drowning out the night’s heavy breathed, hard-voiced sighs.

Or, get this, because it tells a lot about the byways and highways of the high-style corner boy steamy black and white 1950s night, preparing, with his boys, his trusted unto death boys, his omerta-sworn boys, no less to do some midnight creep (waylaying some poor bedraggled sap, sidewalk drunk or wrong neighborhooded, with a sap to the head for dough, or going through some back door, and not gently, to grab somebody’s family heirlooms or fungibles, better yet cash on hand) in order to maintain that hot car, cheap gas or not, or hot honey, virtuous or not. Ya, things cost then, as now.

And, ya, in 1958, in hard look 1958, those king hell corner boy weres already sucked up the noteworthy, attention-getting black and white television, black and white newsprint night air. Still the lines were long with candidates and the mom and pop variety store-anchored, soda fountain drugstore-anchored, pizza parlor-anchored, pool hall-anchored corners, such as they were, were plentiful in those pre-dawn mall days. But see that is the point, the point of those long lines of candidates in every burg in the land or, at least became the point, because in 1948, or 1938, or maybe even 1928 nobody gave a rat’s ass, or a damn, about corner boys except to shuffle them out of town on the first Greyhound bus.

Hell, in 1948 they were still in hiding from the war, whatever war it was that they wanted no part of, which might ruin their style, or their dough prospects. They were just getting into those old Nash jalopies, revving them up in the "chicken run" night out in the exotic west coast ocean night. In 1938 you did not need a Greyhound bus coming through your town because these guys were already on the hitchhike road, or were bindled-up in some railroad jungle, or getting cracked over the head by some “bull”, in the great depression whirlwind heading west for adventure, or hard-scrabble work. And in 1928 these hard boys were slugging it out, guns at the ready, in fast, prohibition liquor-load filled cars, and had no time for corners and silly corner pinball wizard games (although maybe they had time for running the rack at Gus’s pool hall, if they lived long enough).

That rarified, formerly subterranean corner boy way of life, was getting inspected, dissected, rejected, everything but neglected once the teen angst, teen alienation wave hit 1950s America. You heard some of the names, or thought you heard some of the names that counted, but they were just showboat celebrities, celebrities inhabiting Cornerboy, Inc. complete with stainless tee-shirt, neatly pressed denim jeans, maybe a smart leather jacket against the weather’s winds, unsmoked, unfiltered cigarettes at the ready, and incurably photogenic faces that every girl mother could love/hate.

Forget that. Down in the trenches, ya, down in the trenches is where the real corner boys lived, and lived without publicity most days, thank you. Guys like Red Hickey, tee-shirted, sure, denim-jeaned, sure, leather-jacketed, sure, chain-smoking (Lucky Strikes, natch), sure, angelic-faced, sure, who waylaid a guy, put him in an ambulance waylaid, just because he was a corner boy king from another cross-town corner who Red thought was trying to move in, or something like that. Or guys like Bruce “The Goose” McNeil, ditto shirted, jeaned, jacketed, smoked (Camels), faced who sneak-thieved his way through half of the old Adamsville houses taking nothing but high-end stuff from the swells. Or No Name McGee, corner boy king of the liquor store clip. Ya, and a hundred other guys, a hundred no name guys, except maybe to the cops, and to their distressed mothers, mainly old-time Irish and Italian novena-praying Catholic mothers, praying against that publicity day, the police blotter publicity day.

But you did not, I say, you did not hear those Hickey, McNeil, No Name stories in the big town newspapers or in some university faculty room when those guys zeroed in on the corner boy game trying to explain, like it was not plain as the naked eye to see, and why, all that angst and alienation. And then tried to tell one and all that corner boy was a phase, a minute thing, that plentiful America had an edge, like every civilized world from time immemorial had, where those who could not adjust, who could not decode the new American night, the odorless American night, the pre-lapsarian American night shifted for themselves in the shadows. Not to worry though it was a phase, just a phase, and these guys too will soon be thinking about that ticky-tack little white house with the picket fence.

Ya, but see, see again, just the talk through the grapevine about such guys as Red, The Goose, No Name, the legendary jewelry store clip artist, Brother Johnson (who set himself apart because he made a point of the fact that he didn’t smoke, smoke cigarettes anyway), and a whole host of guys who made little big names for themselves on the corners was enough to get guys like Billie, and not just primo candidate Billie either, hopped-up on the corner boy game. Ya, the corner boys whose very name uttered, whose very idea of a name uttered, whose very idea of a name thought up in some think-tank academy brain-dust, and whose very existence made a splash later (after it was all over, at least the public, publicity all over, part), excited every project schoolboy, every wrong side of the tracks guy (and it was always guys, babes were just for tangle), every short-cut dreaming boy who could read the day’s newspaper or watch some distended television, or knew someone who did.

And Billie was the first. The star of the Adamsville elementary schoolboy corner boy galaxy. No first among equals, or any such combination like that either, if that is what you are thinking. Alone. Oh sure his right-hand man, Peter Paul Markin, weak-kneed, bookwormy, girl-confused but girl-addled, took a run at Billie but that was seen, except maybe by Peter Paul himself, as a joke. Something to have a warm chuckle over on dreary nights when a laugh could not be squeezed out any other way. See, Peter Paul, as usual, had it all wrong on his figuring stuff. He thought his two thousand facts knowledge about books, and history, and current events, and maybe an off-hand science thing or two entitled, get this, entitled him to the crown. Like merit, or heredity, or whatever drove him to those two thousand facts meant diddly squat against style, and will.

Billie tried to straighten him out, gently at first, with a short comment that a guy who had no denim blue jeans, had no possibility of getting denim blue jeans, and was in any case addicted to black chinos, black cuffed chinos, has no chance of leading anybody, at any time, in anything. Still Peter Paul argued some nonsense about his organizing abilities. Like being able to run a low-rent bake sale for some foolish school trip, or to refurbish the U.S.S. Constitution, counted when real dough, real heist dough, for real adventures was needed. Peter simmered in high-grade pre-teen anguish for a while over that one, more than a while.

Billie and Peter Paul, friends since the first days of first grade, improbably friends on the face of it although Billie’s take on it was that Peter Paul made him laugh with that basketful of facts that he held on to like a king’s ransom, protecting them like they were gold or something, finally had it out one night. No, not a fist fight, see that was not really Billie’s way, not then anyway or at least not in this case, and Peter Paul was useless at fighting, except maybe with feisty paper bags or those blessed facts. Billie, who not only was a king corner contender but a very decent budding singer, rock and roll singer, had just recently lost some local talent show competition to a trio of girls who were doing a doo wop thing. That part was okay, the losing part, such things happen in show biz and even Billie recognized, recognized later, that those girls had be-bopped him with their cover of Eddie, My Lovefair and square. Billie, who for that contest was dressed up in a Bill Haley-style jacket made by his mother for the occasion, did the classic Bill Haley and the Comets Rock- Around-The-Clock as his number. About halfway through though one of the arms of his just made suit came flying off. A few seconds later the other arm came off. And the girls, the coterie of Adamsville girls in the audience especially, went crazy. See they thought it was part of the act.

After that, at school and elsewhere, Billie was besieged daily by girls, and not just stick-shaped girls either, who hung off all his arms, if you want to know. And sensitive soul Peter Paul didn’t like that. He didn’t care about the girl part, because as has already been noted, and can be safely placed on golden tablets Peter Paul was plenty girl-confused and girl-addled but girl-smitten in his funny way. What got him in a snit was that Billie was neglecting his corner boy king duty to be on hand with his boys at all available times. Well, this one night the words flew as Billie tired, easily tired, of Peter Paul’s ravings on the subject. And here is the beauty of the thing, the thing that made Billie the king corner boy contender. No fists, no fumings, no forget friendships. Not necessary. Billie just told Peter Paul this- “You can have my cast-offs.” Meaning, of course, the extra girls that Billie didn’t want, or were sticks, or just didn’t appeal to him. “Deal,” cried Peter Paul in a flash. Ya, that was corner boy magic. And you know what? After that Peter Paul became something like Johnson’s Boswell and really started building up Billie as the exemplar corner boy king. Nice work, Billie.

You know Freddie Jackson too took his shots but was strictly out of his league against the Billie. Here it was a question not of facts, or books, or some other cranky thing bought off, bought off easily, by dangling girls in front of a guy a la Peter Paul but of trying to out dance Billie. See Freddie, whatever else his shortcomings, mainly not being very bright and not being able to keep his hands out of his mother’s pocketbook when he needed dough so that he had to stay in many nights, worst many summer nights, could really dance. What Freddie didn’t know, and nobody was going to tell him, nobody, from Peter Paul on down if they wanted to hang with Billie was that Billie had some great dance moves along with that good and growing singing voice. See, Freddie never got to go to the school or church dances and only knew that Billie was an ace singer. But while Freddie was tied to the house he became addicted to American Bandstand and so through osmosis, maybe, got some pretty good moves too.

So at one after-school dance, at a time when Freddie had kept his hands out of his mother’s pocketbook long enough not to be house-bound, he made his big move challenge. He called Billie out. Not loud, not overbearing but everybody knew the score once they saw Freddie’s Eddie Cochran-style suit. The rest of the guys (except Billie, now wearing jeans and tee-shirt when not on stage in local talent contests where such attire got you no where) were in chinos (Peter Paul in black-cuffed chinos, as usual) and white shirts, or some combination like that, so Freddie definitely meant business. Freddie said, “If I beat you at dancing I’m running the gang, okay?” (See corner boys was what those professors and news hawks called them but every neighborhood guy, young or old, knew, knew without question, who led, and who was in, or not in, every, well, gang). Billie, always at the ready when backed up against the wall, said simply, “Deal.” Freddie came out with about five minutes of jitter buggery, Danny and the Juniors At The Hop kind of moves. He got plenty of applause and some moony-eyedness from the younger girls (the stick girls who were always moony-eyed until they were not stick girls any more).

Billie came sauntering out, tee-shirt rolled up, tight jeans staying tight and just started to do the stroll as the song of the same name, The Stroll, came on. Now the stroll is a line dance kind of thing but Billie is out there all by himself and making moves, sexual-ladened moves, although not everybody watching would have known to call them that. And those moves have all the girls, sticks and shapes, kind of glassy-eyed with that look like maybe Billie needed a partner, or something and why not me look. Even Freddie knew he was doomed and took his lost pretty well, although he still had that hankering for mom’s purse that kept him from being a real regular corner boy when Billie got the thing seriously organized.

Funny thing, Lefty Wright, who actually was on the dance floor the night of the Freddie-Billie dance-off, pushed Billie with the Freddie challenge. And Freddie was twenty times a better dancer than Lefty. Needless to say, join the ranks, Lefty. Canny Danny O’Toole (Cool Donna O’Toole’s, a stick flame of Billie’s, early Billie, brother) was a more serious matter but after a couple of actions (actions best left unspecified) he fell in line. Billie, kind of wiry, kind of quick-fisted as it turned out, and not a guy quick to take offense knew, like a lot of wiry guys, how to handle himself without lots of advertising of that fact. He was going to need that fist-skill when the most serious, more serious than the Canny Danny situation came up. And it did with Badass Bobby Riley, Badass was a known quality, but he was a year older than the others and everybody knew was a certified psychopath who eventually drifted out of sight. Although not before swearing his fealty to Billie. After taking a Billie, a wiry Billie, beating the details of which also need no going into now. And there were probably others who stepped up for a minute, or who didn’t stay long enough to test their metal. Loosey Goosey Hughes, Butternut Walsh, Jimmy Riley (no relation to Badass), Five Fingers Kelly, Kenny Ricco, Billy Bruno, and on and on.

But such was the way of Billie’s existence. He drew a fair share of breaks, for a project kid, got some notice for his singing although not enough to satisfy his huge hunger, his way out, he way out of the projects, projects that had his name written all over them(and the rest of his boys too). And then he didn’t draw some breaks after a while, got known as a hard boy, a hard corner boy when corner boy was going out of style and also his bluesy rockabilly singing style was getting crushed by clean-cut, no hassle, no hell-raising boy boys. And then he started drawing to an outside straight, first a couple frame juvenile clip busts, amid the dreaded publicity, the Roman Catholic mother novena dread publicity, police blottered. Then a couple of house break-ins, taking fall guy lumps for a couple of older, harder corner boys who could make him a fall guy then, as he would others when his turn came. All that was later, a couple of years later. But no question in 1958, especially the summer of 1958 when such things took on a decisive quality, Billie, and for one last time, that’s William James Bradley, in case anyone reading needs the name to look up for the historical record was Billie's time. Ya, 1958, Billie, ah, William James Bradley, and corner boy king.

Funny, as you know, or you should know, corner boys usually gain their fleeting fame from actually hanging around corners, corner mom and pop variety stores, corner pizza parlors, corner pool halls, corner bowling alleys, corner pinball wizard arcades, becoming fixtures at said corners and maybe passing on to old age and social security check collection at said corner. Or maybe not passing to old age but to memory, memory kid’s memory. But feature this, in Billie’s great domain, his great be-bop night kingship, and in his various defenses of his realm against smart guys and stups alike, he never saw so much as a corner corner to rest his laurels on. And not because he did not know that proper etiquette in such matters required some formal corner to hang at but for the sheer, unadulterated fact that no such corner existed in his old-fashioned housing project (now old-fashioned anyway because they make such places differently today), his home base.

See, the guys who made the projects “forgot” that, down and out or not, people need at least a mom and pop variety store to shop at, or nowadays maybe a strip mall, just like everybody else. But none was ever brought into the place and so the closest corner, mom and pop corner anyway, was a couple of miles away up the road. But that place was held by a crowd of older corner boys whose leader, from what was said, would have had Billie for lunch (and did in the end).

But see here is where a guy like Billie got his corner boy franchise anyway. In a place where there are no corners to be king of the corner boy night there needs to be a certain ingenuity and that is where “His Honor” held forth. Why not the back of the old schoolhouse? Well, not so old really because in that mad post-World War II boom night (no pun intended), schools, particularly convenient elementary schools even for projects

kids were outracing the boomers. So the school itself was not old but the height of 1950s high-style, functional public building brick and glass. Boxed, of course, building-boxed, classroom-boxed, gym-boxed, library-ditto boxed. No cafeteria-boxed, none necessary reflecting, oddly, walk to school, walk home for lunch, stay-at-home mom childhood culture even in public assistance housing world. And this for women who could have, if they could have stood the gaff from neighbor wives, family wives, society wives screamed to high heaven for work, money work. That was Billie world too, Billie day world. Billie September to June world.

But come dusk, summer dusk best of all, Billie ruled the back end of the school, the quiet unobserved end of the school, the part near the old sailors’graveyard, placed there to handle the tired old sailors who had finished up residing at the nearby but then no longer used Old Sailors’ Rest Home built for those who roamed the seven seas, the inlet bays, and whatever other water allowed you to hang in the ancient sailors’ world. There Billie held forth, Peter Paul almost always at hand, seeking, always seeking refuge from his hellfire home thrashings. Canny Danny, regularly, same with Lefty and Freddie (when not grounded), and Bobby while he was around. And other guys, other unnamed, maybe unnamable guys who spent a minute in the Billie night. Doing? Ya, just doing some low murmur talking, most nights, mostly some listening to Billie dreams, Billie plans, Billie escape route. All sounding probable, all wistful once you heard about it later. All very easy, all very respectful, in back of that old school unless some old nag of a neighbor, fearful that the low murmur spoke of unknown, unknowable conspiracies against person, against the day, hell, even against the night. Then the cops were summoned. But mainly not.

And then as dusk turned to dark and maybe a moon, an earth moon (who knew then, without telescope, maybe a man-made moon), that soft talk, that soft night talk, turned to a low song throat sound as Billie revved up his voice to some tune his maddened brain caught on his transistor radio (bought fair and square up at the Radio Shack so don’t get all huffy about it). Say maybe Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers Why Do Fools Fall In Love? and then the other ragamuffins would do harmony. Ya, that was twelve, maybe thirteen year old night, most nights, the nights of no rough stuff, the nights of dreams, maybe. But like some ancient siren call that sound penetrated to the depths of the projects and soon a couple of girls, yes, girls, twelve and thirteen year old girls, what do you expect, stick girls and starting shape girls, would hover nearby, maybe fifty yards away but the electricity was in the air, and those hardly made out forms drove Billie and his choir corner boys on. Maybe Elvis’ One Night as a come on. Then a couple more girls, yes, twelve and thirteen year old girls, have you been paying attention, sticks and starting shapes, join those others quietly swaying to the tempo. A few more songs, a few more girls, girls coming closer. Break time. Girl meet boy. Boy meet girl. Hell, even Peter Paul got lucky this night with one of Billie’s stick rejects. And as that moon turned its shades out and the air was fragrance with nature’s marshlands sea air smells and girls’ fresh soap smells and boys’ anxiety smells the Billie corner boy wannabe world seemed not so bad. Ya, 1958 was Billie’s year. Got it.

***Bowling Alone In America?- For Chrissie M., Class Of 1964

Peter Paul Markin, Class Of 1964, comment:

Chrissie, Christine Anne McNamara, bowls. Chrissie McNamara, the “hottest” sweet sixteen quail in 1962 at North Adamsville High School bowls. Oh sure Chrissie does other things, things like cheer-leading for the raider red gridiron goliaths in the brisk, bright, leave-filled fall (and doesn’t cheer-lead the basketball team because winter time is primo bowling time), participates in the school play, writes for the school newspaper, has a sweet what-you-see-is-what-you get personality, and is off-handedly beautiful. Not your drop dead, remote ice queen, who will need plenty of cosmetic help as she frightens away the age lines coming, beautiful but whole package beautiful (looks, personality, intellect) that will have you, hell, has me scratching my head. Scratching and figuring as I watch her reading something just this minute about two rows over from where I sitting in this dead-ass last period study class. Best of all, even if all my scratching and figuring don't work out today, in not too many minutes I will get to go past her house, after I have made sure she is walking in front of me, on the way to my own house, and will probably get a big Chrissie smile as I do so. And maybe a “Joey Bowey” hi from her as well. That’s me, Joseph Bowdoin, and the Joey Bowey thing is from the kid’s stuff back in middle school, and I don’t like it, like it at all. Except from Chrissie it is okay. Yah, it’s like that.



Yes, but here is the problem in a nutshell, Chrissie bowls, and if you want to get anywhere with Chrissie, as everybody knows, and has known since about fourth grade, way before I got here, is that you had better bowl too. You can be James Bond 007 (or Sean Connery) and have done all kinds of adventurous stuff but if you don’t bowl go slump-shouldered to the back of the Chrissie line. You could be the greatest running back in the history of football, breaking every record and every linebacker’s mean-spirited heart but no bowl-no go. Or get, heart-broken, in back of Sean in that just-mentioned line. If you are a nerdy guy (as I am, somewhat) but you bowl, well, theoretically you have a chance, but let’s face it plenty of talented, good-looking guys, who under ordinary circumstances would give bowling the gaff, are, even as I speak, sharpening up their games to get a crack at those ruby-red lips. Damn.



Oh, did I mention that I have been in love, or half in love, or some percentage in love with Chrissie ever since she gave me an innocent kiss at her twelfth birthday back when I first came to North Adamsville in the seventh grade. Really, the kiss was nothing but a good wishes peck on the lips that wouldn’t count for anything for older guys (or girls, either) but for a shy twelve-year old new boy I was in very heaven. Call me crazy, call me a nutcase ready for the funny farm, but every once in a while when Chrissie calls me Joey Bowey from her front door I swear she says it in such a way that maybe that kiss wasn’t so innocent after all. In any case I have been plotting, maybe not every day, but plotting ever since to get a second, real kiss from her ruby-red lips. And to hold that slender hour glass figure, to dance close to those well-formed legs, and to tussle with that flaming mass of red hair that goes with those ruby-red lips. And, and… well you get the idea.



But see Chrissie bowls and I don’t, although I have, lately anyway, spent a fair amount of time at Jake’s Bowl-a-World, the bowling alley located downstairs across from my real hang-out, my corner boy hang-out, Salducci’s Pizza Parlor up the Downs. Now Jake’s is not the kind of bowling alley that Chrissie or any other foxy girl would hang out in because, honestly, it’s a creepy place where young junior high school wannabe hoods, real high school drop-outs, rejected no-go corner boys, and beer-swilling adults hang out and make noise. But, see, it is the perfect place for a not bowling guy to hang out and “learn” bowls, on the quiet.



Oh, did I mention the other problem, the problem beyond my not bowling, my not being (so far) worthy of that second ruby-red lipped Chrissie kiss. I see that I didn’t now that I have read back. Well, here it is if you can believe it. I can’t get to bowl with Chrissie, can’t get to bowl with her that is unless I ask her for a date which is way ahead of where my current plans for her have unfolded, because at school, at foolish North, the boys and girls have separate bowling teams that don’t even bowl at the same places. Yes, I thought you would see my dilemma. See the idea was that I would start bowling with one of the teams, she would notice me and notice that I could use a few pointers, would come over and give me those few pointers, and then when I walked by her house not only would she give me that big warm smile but probably want to talk about this or that, bowling this or that, and that would be my opening to ask her to go bowling, bowling alone with me. Foolproof, right? Except for that stupid school rule thing.



Now here is how I heard the story, although I might be off on a few points, of why there are two separate teams and why they bowl at different places. A few years ago Jake’s used to be the place where everybody, boys and girls, bowled after school for practice a couple of days a week and for the home competitions with other schools. And that made sense because it only took about ten minutes to get there from school. Now, like I explained to you already, this Jake’s is nothing but a run-down place with about ten lanes, an ice cooler filled with tonic (that’s soda for you foreigners), a couple of food vending machines, a few pinball wizard machines, rest room I avoid using, if possible, and that’s about it. Small time stuff. Everything kind of dusty and seedy from the minute you head down the darkened stairs right on through. Good enough, like I also said before for hoods, corner boys, and rookie bowlers.



But then, back in the bowling team days, it was kept up better and was a magnet for kids, boys and girls alike, to come and bowl…and other things. Those other things being listening to the big oversized jukebox filled with a ton of records, rock and roll records to cry for, and three for only a quarter too, dancing, close dancing, on the small dance floor that was set up then (and that you can still see all scuffed up and scummy now), and some off-hand hanky-panky, kid’s stuff really, from what I heard, the usual boys copping a “feel” and the girls letting them like has been going on since they invented teenagers, in a couple of small back rooms that Jake, sweet brother Jake, let the kids use.

You can see where this after school jukebox rock and roll, close dancing, back room thing is going, just like I could when I heard it. Murder and mayhem. No, not from the kids gone wild under the influence of communistic rock and roll, or libertine close dancing, or hell-bent back rooms but when the parent police heard about it. That part is foggy but it, as usual, involved a snitch by someone to his (or her) parents, or something overheard on the telephone by a parent, or something. And from there to the headmaster police, and from there to the real cops. Nothing ever came of it from the real cops, which tells you automatically that the parent and headmaster cops overreacted, as usual. But now you can see what a fix I am in. So Chrissie right this minute is probably chalking up spares over at the North Adamsville Bowl-a-Drome and the guys are over the other side of town at Mr. Bowl’s place and never the twain shall meet. And you wonder why kids, including this kid, are ready to jump off the rails, and none too soon either. But I still hold my dream of bowling alone with those ruby-red lips. I’ll let you know if I work out another fool-proof plan, okay.