*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And The Struggle To Defend Its Class-War Prisoners- In Honor Of The 140th Anniversary Of The Paris Commune

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponent, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!
***********
Paris Commune

International Working mens Association 1872

Resolutions of the Meeting held to celebrate the Anniversary of the Paris Commune

Source: MECW, Volume 23, p. 128;
Written: by Marx between March 13 and 18, 1872;
First published: in La Liberté, March 24, 1872 and in The International Herald, March 30, 1872;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.

I
“That this meeting assembled to celebrate the anniversary of the 18th March last, declares, that it looks upon the glorious movement inaugurated upon the 18th March, 1871, as the dawn of the great social revolution which will for ever free the human race from class rule.”

II
“That the incapacity and the crimes of the middle classes, extended all over Europe by their hatred against the working classes, have doomed old society no matter under what form of government-Monarchical or Republican.”

III
“That the crusade of all governments against the International, and the terror of the murderers of Versailles as well as of their Prussian conquerors, attest the hollowness of their successes, and the presence of. the threatening army of the proletariat of the whole world gathering in the rear of its heroic vanguard crushed by the combined forces of Thiers and William of Prussia.”

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-On Hostages

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Its Class-War Prisoners- Second Address

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-Passports

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-1872 Address

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-The Blanquists

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-Engels' 1891 Address

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-The Paris Commune

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

karl marx, Friedrich Engels, paris commune, an injury to one is an injury to all, CLASS-WAR PRISONERS, class struggle defense,

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Defense Of Its Class-War Prisoners-Third Address

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work more ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponents, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

*From The Karl Marx- Friedrich Internet Archives- In Defense Of The Paris Commune And Its Class-War Prisoners- First Address

Click on the headline to link to the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Archive online copy of the material mentioned in the title on the defense of the Paris Commune and its class-war prisoners.

Markin comment:

Readers of this space are, by now, familiar with my interest in the defense of class-war prisoners and, perhaps, know that I express that interest through support to the efforts of the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC). One of the reasons for that support of the PDC is its commitment to the non-sectarian defense of all class-war prisoners, a tradition in which it follows the old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) principle expressed in the slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That principle also animated the early James P. Cannon-led work of the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the American Communist Party and of the early legal defense work of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party.

Perhaps not as well known, although it would seem axiomatic to their theories, is the even earlier class-war prisoner defense work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an expression of their concept expressed in the slogan “workers of the world unite.” In no place was this work ardently pursued that in their defense against all-comers of the Paris Commune during its short, historic existence and later, after it was crushed of its refugees, exiles, prisoners and their families. Much of this work was done early on through the Marx-created and led First International, and after its demise in the wake of that defeat through other Marx-influenced national organizations. I am posting some material here to provide some examples of their efforts.

The important point here is that, to my knowledge, there was, at most, only one proclaimed Marxist in the leadership of the Commune, and not much more adherence among the plebeians and artisans who heroically defended the Commune. So, mostly, those being defended by Marx and Engels were leftist political opponent, in some cases, severe political opponents. That approach is what has animated my own legal defense work and, hopefully, yours. Here, by the way, is another slogan to end this comment, fittingly I think-All Honor To The Paris Communards! Long Live The Memory Of The Paris Commune!

On The Anniversary Of Their Execution In 1927-"SACCO AND VANZETTI"- A Documentary Look At The Case That Will Not Die

SACCO AND VANZETTI- THE CASE THAT WILL NOT DIE NOR SHOULD IT

DVD REVIEW

SACCO AND VANZETTI, PETER MILLER, 2006

This is a re-post of an earlier blog entry.

I have used some of the points mentioned here in previous reviews of books about the Sacco and Vanzetti case.

Those familiar with the radical movement know that at least once in every generation a political criminal case comes up that defines that era. One thinks of the Haymarket Martyrs in the 19th century, the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930's, the Rosenbergs in the post-World War II Cold War period and today Mumia Abu-Jamal. In America after World War I when the Attorney General Palmer-driven ‘red scare’ brought the federal government’s vendetta against foreigners, immigrants and militant labor fighters to a white heat that generation's case was probably the most famous of them all, Sacco and Vanzetti. The exposure of the raw tensions within American society that came to the surface as a result of that case is the subject of the film under review.

Using documentary footage, reenactment and ‘talking head’ commentary by interested historians, including the well-known author of popular America histories Howard Zinn, the director Peter Miller and his associates bring this case alive for a new generation to examine. In the year 2007 one of the important lessons for leftists to be taken from the case is the question of the most effective way to defend such working class cases. I will address that question further below but here I wish to point out that the one major shortcoming of this film is a lack of discussion on that issue. I might add that this is no mere academic issue as the current case of the death-row prisoner, militant journalist Mumia-Abu-Jamal, graphically illustrates. Notwithstanding that objection this documentary is a very satisfactory visual presentation of the case for those not familiar with it.

A case like that of Sacco and Vanzetti, accused, convicted and then executed in 1927 for a robbery and double murder committed in a holdup of a payroll delivery to a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1920, does not easily conform to any specific notion that the average citizen today has of either the state or federal legal system. Nevertheless, one does not need to buy into the director’s overall thesis that the two foreign-born Italian anarchists in 1920 were railroaded to know that the case against them 'stunk' to high heaven. And that is the rub. Even a cursory look at the evidence presented (taking the state of jurisprudence at that time into consideration) and the facts surrounding the case would force the most mildly liberal political type to know the “frame” was on.

Everyone agrees, or should agree, that in such political criminal cases as Sacco and Vanzetti every legal avenue including appeals, petitions and seeking grants of clemency should be used in order to secure the goal, the freedom of those imprisoned. This film does an adequate job of detailing the various appeals and other legal wrangling that only intensified as the execution neared. Nevertheless it does not adequately address a question that is implicit in its description of the fight to save the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti. How does one organize and who does one appeal to in a radical working class political defense case?

The film spends some time on the liberal local Boston defense organizations and the 'grandees' and other celebrities who became involved in the case, and who were committed almost exclusively to a legal defense strategy. It does not, however, pay much attention to the other more radical elements of the campaign that fought for the pair’s freedom. It gives short shrift to the work of the Communists and their International Red Aid (the American affiliate was named the International Labor Defense and headed by Communist leader James P. Cannon, a man well-known in anarchist circles and a friend of Carlos Tresca, a central figure in the defense case) that organized meetings, conferences and yes, political labor strikes on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti, especially in Europe. The tension between those two conceptions of political defense work still confronts us to day as we fight the seemingly never-ending legal battles thrown up since 9/11 for today’s Sacco and Vanzetti’s- immigrants, foreigners and radicals (some things do not change with time). If you want plenty of information on the Sacco and Vanzetti case and an interesting thesis about its place in radical history, the legal history of Massachusetts and the social history of the United States this is not a bad place to stop. Hopefully it will draw the viewer to read one or more of the many books on the case. Honor the Memory of Sacco and Vanzetti.

*SACCO AND VANZETTI- A Documentary Look At The Case That Will Not Die

SACCO AND VANZETTI- THE CASE THAT WILL NOT DIE NOR SHOULD IT

DVD REVIEW

SACCO AND VANZETTI, PETER MILLER, 2006

This is a re-post of an earlier blog entry.

I have used some of the points mentioned here in previous reviews of books about the Sacco and Vanzetti case.

Those familiar with the radical movement know that at least once in every generation a political criminal case comes up that defines that era. One thinks of the Haymarket Martyrs in the 19th century, the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930's, the Rosenbergs in the post-World War II Cold War period and today Mumia Abu-Jamal. In America after World War I when the Attorney General Palmer-driven ‘red scare’ brought the federal government’s vendetta against foreigners, immigrants and militant labor fighters to a white heat that generation's case was probably the most famous of them all, Sacco and Vanzetti. The exposure of the raw tensions within American society that came to the surface as a result of that case is the subject of the film under review.

Using documentary footage, reenactment and ‘talking head’ commentary by interested historians, including the well-known author of popular America histories Howard Zinn, the director Peter Miller and his associates bring this case alive for a new generation to examine. In the year 2007 one of the important lessons for leftists to be taken from the case is the question of the most effective way to defend such working class cases. I will address that question further below but here I wish to point out that the one major shortcoming of this film is a lack of discussion on that issue. I might add that this is no mere academic issue as the current case of the death-row prisoner, militant journalist Mumia-Abu-Jamal, graphically illustrates. Notwithstanding that objection this documentary is a very satisfactory visual presentation of the case for those not familiar with it.

A case like that of Sacco and Vanzetti, accused, convicted and then executed in 1927 for a robbery and double murder committed in a holdup of a payroll delivery to a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1920, does not easily conform to any specific notion that the average citizen today has of either the state or federal legal system. Nevertheless, one does not need to buy into the director’s overall thesis that the two foreign-born Italian anarchists in 1920 were railroaded to know that the case against them 'stunk' to high heaven. And that is the rub. Even a cursory look at the evidence presented (taking the state of jurisprudence at that time into consideration) and the facts surrounding the case would force the most mildly liberal political type to know the “frame” was on.

Everyone agrees, or should agree, that in such political criminal cases as Sacco and Vanzetti every legal avenue including appeals, petitions and seeking grants of clemency should be used in order to secure the goal, the freedom of those imprisoned. This film does an adequate job of detailing the various appeals and other legal wrangling that only intensified as the execution neared. Nevertheless it does not adequately address a question that is implicit in its description of the fight to save the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti. How does one organize and who does one appeal to in a radical working class political defense case?

The film spends some time on the liberal local Boston defense organizations and the 'grandees' and other celebrities who became involved in the case, and who were committed almost exclusively to a legal defense strategy. It does not, however, pay much attention to the other more radical elements of the campaign that fought for the pair’s freedom. It gives short shrift to the work of the Communists and their International Red Aid (the American affiliate was named the International Labor Defense and headed by Communist leader James P. Cannon, a man well-known in anarchist circles and a friend of Carlos Tresca, a central figure in the defense case) that organized meetings, conferences and yes, political labor strikes on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti, especially in Europe. The tension between those two conceptions of political defense work still confronts us to day as we fight the seemingly never-ending legal battles thrown up since 9/11 for today’s Sacco and Vanzetti’s- immigrants, foreigners and radicals (some things do not change with time). If you want plenty of information on the Sacco and Vanzetti case and an interesting thesis about its place in radical history, the legal history of Massachusetts and the social history of the United States this is not a bad place to stop. Hopefully it will draw the viewer to read one or more of the many books on the case. Honor the Memory of Sacco and Vanzetti.

*FREE ALL THE CLASS-WAR PRISONERS-SUPPORT THE PARTISAN DEFENSE COMMITTEE'S 21ST ANNUAL HOLIDAY APPEAL

Click on the title to link to the Partisan Defense Committee Web site.

I pass along the information below received from the Partisan Defense Committee. I urge everyone to dig deeply on behalf of these prisoners. As noted below, this is not charity but an act of solidarity with those class struggle fighters inside the prisons from the class struggle fighters outside the walls. Do your militant duty here. Thank you.

Free the Class-War Prisoners!
(Class-Struggle Defense Notes)

This year's Holiday Appeal marks the 21st year of the Partisan Defense Committee's program of sending monthly stipends as an expression of solidarity to those imprisoned for standing up to racist capitalist repression. This program revived a tradition initiated by the International Labor Defense (ILD) under James P. Cannon, a founding leader of the Communist Party and the ILD's first secretary (1925-28). The PDC sends stipends to 16 class-war prisoners.

At this critical time, the Holiday Appeal will focus on the urgent fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, seeking to build on the successful PDC rallies recently held in Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland and New York. The state has repeatedly demonstrated its unswerving commitment to make Jamal the first political prisoner executed in this country since the Rosenbergs were put to death over 50 years ago.
Writing in August 1927, as the capitalist rulers geared up for the legal lynching of anarchist workers Sacco and Vanzetti, Cannon warned:

"The case is again before the black-gowned judges on another appeal by the defense against flagrant errors in the trial. It is, of course, absolutely right to exhaust every legal possibility and technicality in the fight, provided—that the workers have no illusions. We must remember that the case has been before these same judges many times before, and they have again and again put their seal of approval on the criminally false verdict."

He emphasized, "We must appeal at the same time to the laboring masses of America and the whole world who are the highest court of all." This is the pressing task before us today in the fight to free Mumia. Build the Holiday Appeal! Free all class-war prisoners!

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther Party spokesman, a well-known supporter of the MOVE organization and an award-winning journalist known as "the voice of the voiceless." The fight to free America's foremost class-war prisoner has reached a crucial juncture. Mumia's case is on a "fast track" before the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision could come soon.

December 9, 2006 marks the 25th anniversary of the day Mumia was arrested for a killing that the cops know he did not commit. Mumia was framed up for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death explicitly for his political views. More than five years ago, Mumia's attorneys submitted to the courts the sworn confession of Arnold Beverly that he, not Mumia, shot and killed Faulkner, but to the racists in black robes a court of law is no place for evidence of the innocence of this fighter for the oppressed.

This past July, Mumia filed his legal brief in the federal appeals court—the last stage before the U.S. Supreme Court. The execution of Tookie Williams last December in the face of a massive public outcry was a real signal that the state intends to see Mumia dead. It was because he has always spoken for the oppressed, such as those left to die in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that Mumia faces the ultimate in capitalist repression: the racist death penalty. Workers, immigrants, minorities and all opponents of racist oppression must redouble their efforts to free Mumia now!

Leonard Peltier is an internationally revered class-war prisoner. His incarceration for more than three decades because of his activism in the American Indian Movement has come to symbolize this country's racist repression of its native peoples, the survivors of centuries of genocidal oppression. Peltier's frame-up trial for the deaths of two marauding FBI agents in what had become a war zone at the South Dakota Pine Ridge Reservation over 30 years ago shows what capitalist "justice" is all about. Although the lead government attorney has admitted: "We can't prove who shot those agents," and the courts have repeatedly acknowledged blatant prosecutorial misconduct, the 62-year-old Peltier is still locked away.

Jamal Hart, Mumia's son, was sentenced in 1998 to 15 1/2 years on bogus firearms possession charges. Hart was targeted for his prominent activism in the campaign to free his father. Although Hart was initially charged under Pennsylvania laws, which would have meant a probationary sentence, Clinton's Justice Department intervened to have him thrown into prison under federal laws. He is not eligible for parole. Hart was recently transferred to Minersville, PA. He had been confined in Ray Brook, New York, hundreds of miles from family and supporters, where he was subjected to numerous provocations by abusive prison guards and thrown into solitary.

Eight MOVE members, Chuck Africa, Michael Africa, Debbie Africa, Janet Africa, Janine Africa, Delbert Africa, Eddie Africa and Phil Africa, are in their 29th year of prison. They were sentenced to 30-100 years after the 8 August 1978 siege of their Philadelphia home by over 600 heavily armed cops. They were falsely convicted of killing a police officer who died in the cops' own crossfire. In 1985 they watched in horror from their Pennsylvania prison cells as eleven of their MOVE family members, including five children, were massacred by Philly cops, many of them "veterans" of the 1978 assault.

Jaan Laaman and Thomas Manning are the remaining anti-imperialist activists known as the Ohio 7 still in prison. They were convicted for their roles in a radical group that took credit for bank "expropriations" and bombings in the late 1970s and '80s against symbols of U.S. imperialism such as military and corporate offices. Before their arrests in 1984 and 1985, the Ohio 7 were targets of massive manhunts. Their children were kidnapped at gunpoint by the Feds and interrogated.

The politics of the Ohio 7 were once shared by thousands of radicals during the heyday of the Vietnam antiwar movement and by New Leftists who wrote off the possibility of winning the working class to a revolutionary program and saw themselves as an auxiliary of "Third World" liberation movements. But, like the Weathermen before them, the Ohio 7 were spurned by the "respectable" left. From a proletarian standpoint, the actions of these leftist activists against imperialism and racist injustice are not a crime. These courageous fighters should not have served even a day in prison.

Ed Poindexter and Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa are former Black Panther supporters and leaders of the Omaha, Nebraska, National Committee to Combat Fascism. They were victims of the FBI COINTELPRO operation launched against the Communist Party and then deployed to "neutralize" radical organizations in the 1960s, particularly the Black Panther Party, whose members were framed up and imprisoned by the hundreds while 38 were killed. Poindexter and Mondo, railroaded to prison for a 1970 explosion which killed a cop, were sentenced to life and have now served more than 30 years in jail. They are currently attempting to exhume a crucial piece of evidence in their trial: a 911 audio tape which would prove testimony of the state's key witness to be perjured.

Hugo Pinell is the last of the San Quentin 6 still in prison. He was a militant anti-racist leader of prison rights organizing along with his comrade and mentor, George Jackson, who was gunned down by prison guards in 1971. Despite hundreds of letters of support, many job offers and no disciplinary write-ups for over 25 years, Pinell has repeatedly been denied parole, most recently in November. Now in his 60s, Pinell continues to serve a life sentence at the notorious Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit in California.

Contribute now! All proceeds from the Holiday Appeals will go to the Class-War Prisoners Stipend Fund. This is not charity but an elementary act of solidarity with those imprisoned for their opposition to racist capitalism and imperialist depredations. Send your contributions to: PDC, P.O. Box 99, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013; (212) 406-4252.

From The Archives-From The Partisan Defense Committee-Free The Heroic Class-War Prisoner Vanunu! Let Him Leave Israel!

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the heroic class-war prisoner Mordechai Vanunu.

Markin comment:

Every person in the world, and I mean literally every person, owes a great debt of gratitude for Brother Vanunu's courageous acts in exposing the Israeli nuclear arsenal. Such men are dangerous to the imperial order-and we know why. Thanks, Brother. All Honor To Vanunu.

********

This is passed on from the Partisan Defesne Committee.

Workers Vanguard No. 960
4 June 2010

Thrown Back in Prison

Free Vanunu! Let Him Leave Israel!

On May 23, Mordechai Vanunu, the whistle-blower who spent 18 years in prison for exposing the extent of Israel’s nuclear arsenal, began serving a three-month prison sentence that stems from his December 29 arrest for meeting with a Norwegian woman in Jerusalem. Despite serving his entire prior sentence, Vanunu remains barred from talking to non-Israelis and going near airports, ports and embassies, subject to 24-hour surveillance and prevented from leaving the country.

Following his December arrest, Vanunu was sentenced to six months of “community service” in overwhelmingly Jewish West Jerusalem. Fearing his life would be threatened by right-wing Israelis who consider him a “traitor,” Vanunu requested that his sentence be served in predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem. When the court rejected his request, Vanunu declined to carry out his community service. On May 11, he was sentenced to prison once again.

The vindictive, blood-soaked rulers of the Zionist state will not rest until Vanunu, a former technician at the Israeli nuclear weapons facility in Dimona, is forever silenced for having revealed that Israel had upwards of 200 nuclear warheads. This arsenal, built up with the active support of the French and then the U.S. imperialist powers, was enough not only to incinerate every Arab capital but to bomb major cities in the Soviet Union as well.

Vanunu was born to a Sephardic Jewish family that emigrated from Morocco to Israel, where he experienced discrimination at the hands of the European-derived Ashkenazi establishment. As a student at Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University, he joined protests against Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and actively fought for the rights of Palestinian and Bedouin students. Fed up with the Israeli garrison state, Vanunu left the country in 1986 and later converted to Christianity while in Australia.

In 1986, he was kidnapped in Italy by the Israeli Mossad secret police, thrown into a desert prison in Ashkelon and sentenced by a secret military court. In prison, Vanunu was given the kind of treatment Israel’s rulers reserve for those they deem “subhuman”—the Palestinians imprisoned within the electric fences that surround Gaza, those confined behind the concrete walls and checkpoints of the West Bank, the thousands who languish in Israel’s prison torture chambers. He spent more than eleven years in solitary confinement, entombed in a six-by-nine cell in a high-security complex built for Palestinians.

When Vanunu walked out of prison in April 2004, he said that he was “proud and happy to do what I did.” He was arrested later that year and, in 2007, he was sentenced to another six months’ imprisonment. He remains defiant, declaring before he was dragged away to his cell last month, “You didn’t get anything from me in 18 years; you won’t get anything in 3 months. Shame on you, Israel.” Defenders of the Palestinian people and opponents of capitalist repression everywhere must take up the call to free this courageous opponent of Zionist terror and demand that he be allowed to leave Israel.

For Hugo- On The Anniversary Of The Death Of Black Panther George Jackson-From San Quentin To Attica To Pelican Bay- Never Forget!

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the black liberation fighter and Black Panther Party leader, George Jackson.

Click below to listen to Stanley Nelson speak about his latest documentary –The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution on the Terry Gross show Fresh Air on NPR (Sept 24, 2015)  

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/23/442801731/director-chronicles-the-black-panthers-rise-new-tactics-were-needed

Reposted from the American Left History blog, dated August 23, 2011, for February Is Black History Month.

Bob Dylan- George Jackson Lyrics

I woke up this morning
There were tears in my bed
They killed a man I really loved
Shot him through the head

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Sent him off to prison
For a seventy dollar robbery
Closed the door behind him
And they threw away the key

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+dylan/george+jackson_20207841.html ]
He wouldn't take shit from no one
He wouldn't bow down or kneel
Authorities, they hated him
Because he was just too real

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Prison guards, they cursed him
As they watched him from above
But they were frightened of his power
They were scared of his love

Lord, Lord, so they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
The rest of us are guards

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

On The 41st Anniversary Of Attica- From San Quentin To Attica To Pelican Bay Never Forget!-With George Jackson, Hugo Pinell And The Soledad Brothers In Mind -A Repost For Class-War Prisoner Month

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the Attica (New York) prisoner uprising of September 1971.

June is Class-War Prisoner Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!

Markin comment:

Attica-Never forget! Honor the memory of George Jackson- Free his comrade, Hugo Pinell, now.

*From The Archives-The Struggle To Win The Youth To The Fight For Our Communist Future-No More Greenboros! Labor Must Smash The Fascists: Communist Workers Party Zigzags Between The Communist International-Derived "Third Period" And Popular Front Strategies (1980)-A Remembrance

Markin comment:

One of the declared purposes of this space is to draw the lessons of our left-wing past here in America and internationally, especially from the pro-communist wing. To that end I have made commentaries and provided archival works in order to help draw those lessons for today’s left-wing activists to learn, or at least ponder over. More importantly, for the long haul, to help educate today’s youth in the struggle for our common communist future. That is no small task or easy task given the differences of generations; differences of political milieus worked in; differences of social structure to work around; and, increasingly more important, the differences in appreciation of technological advances, and their uses.

There is no question that back in my youth I could have used, desperately used, many of the archival materials available today. When I developed political consciousness very early on, albeit liberal political consciousness, I could have used this material as I knew, I knew deep inside my heart and mind, that a junior Cold War liberal of the American For Democratic Action (ADA) stripe was not the end of my leftward political trajectory. More importantly, I could have used a socialist or communist youth organization to help me articulate the doubts I had about the virtues of liberal capitalism and be recruited to a more left-wing world view. As it was I spent far too long in the throes of the left-liberal/soft social-democratic milieu where I was dying politically. A group like the Young Communist League (W.E.B. Dubois Clubs in those days), the Young People’s Socialist League, or the Young Socialist Alliance representing the youth organizations of the American Communist Party, American Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.) respectively would have saved much wasted time and energy. I knew they were around but not in my area.

The archival material to be used in this series is weighted heavily toward the youth movements of the early American Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S). For more recent material I have relied on material from the Spartacus Youth Clubs, the youth group of the Spartacist League (U.S.), both because they are more readily available to me and because, and this should give cause for pause, there are not many other non-CP, non-SWP youth groups around. As I gather more material from other youth sources I will place them in this series.

Finally I would like to finish up with the preamble to the Spartacist Youth Club’s What We Fight For statement of purpose:

"The Spartacus Youth Clubs intervene into social struggles armed with the revolutionary internationalist program of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. We work to mobilize youth in struggle as partisans of the working class, championing the liberation of black people, women and all the oppressed. The SYCs fight to win youth to the perspective of building the Leninist vanguard party that will lead the working class in socialist revolution, laying the basis for a world free of capitalist exploitation and imperialist slaughter."

This seems to me be somewhere in the right direction for what a Bolshevik youth group should be doing these days; a proving ground to become professional revolutionaries with enough wiggle room to learn from their mistakes, and successes. More later.
************
Markin comment on this article :

Every year, and rightfully so, we leftist militants, especially those of us who count ourselves among the communist militants, remember the 1979 Greensboro, North Carolina massacre of fellow communists by murderous and police-protected Nazis, fascists and Klansmen. That remembrance, as the article below details, also includes trying to draw the lessons of the experience and an explanation of political differences. For what purpose? Greensboro 1979-never again, never forget-or forgive.

Although right this minute, this 2011 minute, the Nazis/fascists are not publicly raising their hellish ideas, apparently “hiding” just now on the fringes of the tea party movement, this is an eternal question for leftists. The question, in short, of when and how to deal with this crowd of locust. Trotsky, and others, had it right back in the late 1920s and early 1930s-smash this menace in the shell. 1933, when they come to power, as Hitler did in Germany (or earlier, if you like, with Mussolini in Italy) is way too late, as immediately the German working class, including its Social-Democratic and Communist sympathizers found out, and later many parts of the rest of the world. That is the when.

For the how, the substance of this article points the way forward, and the way not forward, as represented by the American Communist Party’s (and at later times other so-called “progressives” as well, including here the Communist Workers Party) attempts to de-rail the street protests and rely, as always, on the good offices of the bourgeois state, and usually, on this issue the Democrats. Sure, grab all the allies you can, from whatever source, to confront the fascists when they raise their heads. But rely on the mobilization of the labor movement on the streets to say what’s what, not rely on the hoary halls of bourgeois government and its hangers-on, ideologues, and lackeys.
*************
From Young Spartacus, May 1980, No More Greenboros! Labor Must Smash The Fascists: Communist Workers Party Zigzags Between The Communist International-Derived "Third Period" And Popular Front Strategies (title edited for educational purposes-Markin)

November 3: Five members and supporters of the Communist Workers Party are massacred in broad daylight by KKK/Nazi scum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The fascist guns are aimed at every black, leftist and trade unionist. A Nazi draws 43 percent of the vote in the Republican primary for North Carolina attorney general, almost winning the election. His program: the Greensboro massacre.

Response to the Greensboro Klan killings is swift. Emboldened, the KKK threatens to march in the black and union town of Detroit. In a demonstration initiated by UAW militants and the Spartacist League, five hundred protesters, mostly black auto workers, rally November 10 in Kennedy Square chanting "The Klan Won't Ride in the Motor City!" The Klan does not march.

The Nazis announce that they will "celebrate" Hitler's birthday in downtown San Francisco. Trade unionists and the Spartacist League/Spartacus Youth League initiate the April 19 Committee Against the Nazis (ANCAN) and call for a mass demonstration at Civic Center to crush the fascist threat. The broad support for ANCAN, especially from the labor movement, forces the city government to cancel the Nazis' rally permit and the Nazis announce they will not march. Over 1,200—including a powerful trade union component representing over 22 unions—rally. The Nazis do not show their faces.

The labor-centered anti-fascist mobilizations in Detroit and San Francisco were a far cry from the liberal, preacher-dominated mobilizations supported by much of the left since Greensboro. The five slain members of the CWP are indeed martyrs of the entire working class. The entire labor movement must defend the six CWP friends and supporters who, after surviving the Greensboro massacre, face charges of felony rioting. Nevertheless, the CWP chose to split away from the main anti-fascist mobilization in San Francisco and to appeal to the city mayor rather than the power of the organized labor movement to stop the Nazis. The CWP later wrote about the April 19 demonstration:

"San Francisco's Civic Center and UN Plaza were filled with fiery masses. So strong was the spirit in the march and rally, the cowardly fascists dared not show their faces. They knew if they had, the masses would surely have smashed them."

— Workers Viewpoint, 12 May

The article goes on to cite "the leadership of the CWP in the San Francisco Coalition to Stop the Klan/Nazis" (SFC). But what Workers Viewpoint failed to mention was:

• That the April 19 Committee AgainstNazis, initiated by trade unionists and
the Spartacist League, organized and led the rally in Civic Center—site of
the Nazis' planned "birthday party" for Adolf Hitler

• That the ANCAN rally was endorsedby a broad array of unions and union
leaders, left and minority organizations and prominent individuals

• That if the Nazis had shown up, the CWP wouldn't have been among the
outraged masses who would have smashed them, because their sectarian
rally of at most 400 was at UN Plaza, several blocks awayl

"A Heavy Lesson..."


In Greensboro, the CWP found out what role the cops, courts and capitalist state apparatus play in defense of the fascists against leftists, union organizers and blacks. As reported to Blanche McCrary Boyd in the Village Voice (26 May) by CWP spokesman Nelson Johnson, the Greensboro cops insisted that the marchers be unarmed when the CWF applied for its parade permit. The deep illusions that the CWP has in the bourgeois state are revealed as Johnson is quoted as saying:

"It was a heavy lesson. We made a complete and total mistake. They kept insisting how they would protect us, so we thought the cops were planning on violence, that if there was going to be trouble it would be because they would plant a provocateur or something— And it was eerie, you know, when we got here. After all this discussion, where were the pigs?"

According to the Voice article, the cops turned over a copy of the parade permit to a known Klan member. The cops knew where the KKK/Nazis were assembling, that the Klansmen were armed and intended to follow the CWP march route. There is overwhelming evidence indicating that the cops were complicit in the massacre. Meanwhile, a North Carolina grand jury has indicted the Greensboro Six on charges of felony rioting, while the KKK assassins are walking the streets. The CWP itself charges the state with conscious complicity in the murders.

But did the CWP learn this "heavy lesson," paid for so expensively with the blood of its comrades? Amazingly, confronted with the need to mobilize
against the Nazi Hitlerfest in San Francisco, the CWP runs to... the state! Defending the CWP "strategy" of calling on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to revoke the Nazis' permit and endorse their SFC demonstration, a CWP supporter speaking at an SL forum in San Francisco April 25 argued that contradictions within the ruling class could be exploited by demanding that "anti-fascist" politicians take a stand. As stated in their paper:

"At times, this means uniting with certain low-level politicians such as those in the City Council. It also means utilizing the differences and contradic¬tions among the enemy, such as pressuring the government to take a stand against their fascist tools. That's why the Communist Workers Party is asking the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to endorse the upcoming April 19 anti-Nazi demonstration."

— Workers Viewpoint, 19 April

"People's Front" or Independent Working Class Action?

Adventurist actions of a handful of militants and abject reformist appeals to the "liberal" bourgeoisie and its state are but two sides of the same coin. Both are based on fundamental pessimism that the enormous social power of the working class can be brought to bear in the struggle against the fascist threat. When the CWP-led SFC foreswore any confrontation with the Nazis on April 19, it claimed that the working people of San Francisco were unprepared. The ANCAN rally showed that it was the reformist policy of the CWP which was found lacking—not the determination of the labor movement and oppressed in the Bay Area.

The refusal of the social democratic and Communist parties of Germany to mobilize the working class in a united struggle against fascism independently of the capitalists paved the way for the Nazi victory in 1933. The CWP mirrors the policy of the Stalinized Communist International after 1935 when, following the spectacular failure of the "Third Period" sectarian adventurism, Dimitrov's class-collaborationist"United Front Against Fascism" was adopted. Having abandoned the struggle for proletarian revolution, the European CPs sought a political bloc with the "anti-fascist" capitalists. In his report to the Seventh Congress of the Communist International, Dimitrov put it thus: "Now the toiling masses in a number of capitalist countries -are faced with the necessity of making a definite choice, and of making it today, not between proletarian dictatorship and bourgeois democracy, but between bourgeois democracy and fascism."

The bloody consequence of this policy in Spain in 1937—where the Stalinists disarmed the proletariat and crushed its revolution in order to maintain their "anti-fascist" bloc with what Trotsky called the "shadow" of the bourgeoisie—was the Francoist victory. Spain in 1937, Indonesia in 1965, Chile in 1973—in each case reaction triumphed and the proletariat was led to bloody defeat under the banner of the popular front. The Stalinists promulgate the absolutely false conception that a basic social conflict exists between bourgeois democracy and fascism. But fascism appeared in Europe following World War I as a necessary development of the epoch of capitalist decline and decay—a last resort of the bourgeoisie when it is no longer possible to rule through normal parliamentary measures. The popular front is simply another bourgeois solution to the conditions which lead to fascism, a period when the bourgeoisie is unable to crush a combative working class with the "legal" mechanisms of bourgeois terror. At the same time, the working class movement lacks the revolutionary leadership to resolve the ensuing social crisis on its own terms through the establishment of its own state power. The popular front—by inviting the workers' misleaders into the capitalist government—is the mechanism by which the bourgeoisie disciplines the workers through the reformist and Stalinist parties. The demoralization engendered in both the working class and petty-bourgeoisie by the popular front experience opens the road for fascist reaction.

The Trotskyist strategy to smash fascism is counterposed to the opportunist/adventurist- zigzags of the Stalinists; the April 19 anti-Nazi mobilization was a historic reconfirmation of the Trotskyist program by uniting workers, minorities and socialists to stop the Nazi threat. No faith can be placed in the bourgeois state which covers for the KKK/Nazi butchers, indicts the leftists, and uses every "anti-extremist" law to persecute the left and working class movement. There is no substitute for the independent action of the organized proletariat.

CWP: Revolutionary Verbiage, Liberal Practice

As Stalinists, the CWP has never rejected class-collaborationist blocs in principle. The CWP and its predecessor, Workers Viewpoint Organization
(WVO), eclectically adopted "Third Period" Stalinist verbiage including the dogma of "social fascism." In 1974 Workers Viewpoint polemicized against the Dimitrov/Stalin "united front against fascism":

"...we disagree with comrades who uphold the united front against fascism as the strategy for the present— We, however, feel that even though the menace of fascism is increasing due to the changing material conditions, the ruling class at this point still holds the same strategy."

— Workers Viewpoint,
September 1974 (emphasis in original)

In 1975, in a tawdry defense of its opposition to busing in Boston as a minimal means to achieve school integration, the WVO labeled the "'liberal' bourgeoisie" as "even more dangerous." The May 1975 issue of Workers Viewpoint dribbled on that "In the busing issue, the split of the working class signals a greater menace of fascism than the K.KK, the Hicks and Kerrigans." According to the infantile and reactionary raging of Workers Viewpoint, everything from busing to "decadent" movies like Polanski's Chinatown to democratic rights for homosexuals is considered a liberal plot for "fascisation." Most recently the CWP joined the social-democratic Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and right-wing bourgeois feminists (!) to demonstrate against Deep Throat at Harvard

That the defeat of busing in Boston and Louisville by racist reaction, the reactionary anti-homosexual campaign of Anita Bryant and, most importantly, Carter's anti-Soviet war drive have fueled the growth of the fascist organizations should be obvious. The workers movement can have nothing but contempt for so-called "communists" who align themselves with the most reactionary forces in U.S. society as the CWP has. Now, it wants to turn toward the "liberal" bourgeoisie it accused of being responsible for the "fascisation" of America. But liberal politicians don't provide much aid to the CWP's popular front illusions. Even the New York Times, organ of the "enlightened" bourgeoisie, tried to pass off the broad daylight assassinations of the CWP 5 by the fascist filth as a "shoot out" among "extremists" of the right and left. On the one hand, the CWP blocs with reactionary bigots like Hicks and Anita Bryant and on the other with the "progressive" union-busters on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. No matter which wing of the bourgeoisie they capitulate to, the CWP's Stalinism renders it a roadblock to effective mobilization of the labor movement to crush the fascist threat.

American fascism is not simply fueled by racism but represents the extreme right-wing, militant fringe of Carter/ Brzezinski's anti-Soviet war lust. The restoration of the draft coupled with the imperialist war drive opens up those possibilities further.
*************
Defend the Greensboro Six!

On November 3, 1979 Klan and Nazi thugs poured gunfire into an anti-Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina. When this murderous cold¬blooded assault was over, five members and supporters of the Communist Workers Party were dead and many other demonstrators were wounded.
Films of the massacre shown on nationwide TV demonstrated beyond doubt that the fascist gunmen systematically went for prominent CWP supporters. This was no "shootout," as it was labeled by the capitalist press. It was cold-blooded murder in broad daylight!

Now "felony rioting" charges have been leveled against six survivors of the Greensboro massacre! The Greensboro Six—Nelson Johnson, Rand Mandella, Lacie Russell, Alan Blitz, Dorothy Blitz and Percy Simms—are supporters or friends of the CWP.

Mass mobilizations of black people and the labor movement are urgently needed to demand, "Drop the charges against the Greensboro Six! Jail the Klan Greensboro Murderers!"

The Partisan Defense Committee (PDC) is" a working-class defense organization in accordance with the political views of the Spartacist League.

The PDC has contributed to the Greensboro Justice Fund. Young Spartacus readers are urged to send donations to: Greensboro Justice Fund, P.O. Box 2861, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10017.

Young Spartacus reprints below a telegram sent by the Partisan Defense Committee in defense of the Greensboro Six

Western Union Telegram


Michael Schlosser
Guilford County District Attorney 1 Governmental Plaza Greensboro, N.C. 27401

WE DEMAND THAT FELONY.CHARGES RECENTLY RAMMED THROOGH A GRAND JURY AGAINST SIX GREENSBORO ANTI-KLAN/NAZI PROTESTERS BE IMMEDIATELY DROPPED. FROM THE 1958 MONROE "KISSING CASE" TO THE RACIST FRAME-UPS OF ROBERT F. WILLIAMS, THE WILMINGTON TEN AND CHARLOTTE THREE, TO THE BLOCKING OF UNIONIZATION AT J.P. STEVENS JUSTICE "NORTH CAROLINA STYLE" IS NOTORIOUS. THOSE WHO SURVIVED THE NOVEMBER AMBUSH BY COLD-BLOODED KLAN/NAZI MURDERERS ARE BLAMED FOR THE DEATHS OF THEIR OWN COMRADES. YOUR POLICY OF THREATENING OPPONENTS OF THE KLAN/NAZIS WITH ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT TRIES TO GAG ANTI-FASCISTS AMD PUTS THE POWER OF THE STATE BEHIND EMBOLDENED FASCIST THUGS. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE TO ALL THOSF OPPOSED TO THE HITLER-LOVER RACK-HATE KILLER KLAN AND NAZIS. JAIL THE KILLERS OF THE GREENSBORO FIVE. HANDS OFF THE ANTI-KLAN/NAZI PROTESTERS.

Toni Randell
Partisan Defense Committee P.O. Box 99, Canal St. Sta. Mew York, NY 10013

On The 40th Anniversary Of Attica- From San Quentin To Attica To Pelican Bay Never Forget!-With George Jackson, Hugo Pinell, And The Soledad Brothers In Mind

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the Attica (New York) prisoner uprising of September 1971.

Markin comment:

Attica-Never forget! Honor the memory of George Jackson- Free his comrade, Hugo Pinell, now.

On The 40th Anniversary Of The Death Of Black Panther George Jackson-From San Quentin To Attica To Pelican Bay- Never Forget!

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the black liberation fighter and Black Panther Party leader, George Jackson.

Bob Dylan- George Jackson Lyrics

I woke up this morning
There were tears in my bed
They killed a man I really loved
Shot him through the head

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Sent him off to prison
For a seventy dollar robbery
Closed the door behind him
And they threw away the key

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground
He wouldn't take shit from no one
He wouldn't bow down or kneel
Authorities, they hated him
Because he was just too real

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Prison guards, they cursed him
As they watched him from above
But they were frightened of his power
They were scared of his love

Lord, Lord, so they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
The rest of us are guards

Lord, Lord, they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord, they laid him in the ground

From The Partisan Defense Committee-New Move to Reinstate Death Sentence for Mumia-Free Mumia Now! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!

Workers Vanguard No. 984
5 August 2011

Free Mumia Now! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!

New Move to Reinstate Death Sentence for Mumia

The Philadelphia district attorney’s office recently petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence for black political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The D.A. is seeking to reverse an April 26 ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which for the second time upheld a 2001 decision by District Court judge William Yohn overturning the sentence on the grounds of faulty jury instructions (see “Federal Appeals Court Orders New Sentencing Hearing,” WV No. 980, 13 May). Yohn simultaneously upheld every aspect of the frame-up conviction that sent Mumia—a former Black Panther Party spokesman and later a MOVE supporter and award-winning journalist—to death row on false charges of killing Philly police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. From top to bottom, the courts have repeatedly refused to hear the overwhelming evidence of Mumia’s innocence, including Arnold Beverly’s confession that he was Faulkner’s killer.

The D.A.’s petition reviles the Third Circuit for obstructing the legal lynching not just of Mumia but also of many others, largely black and poor, railroaded to death row “up South” in Philadelphia. The brief rants that the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, signed by Bill Clinton to speed up the pace of executions, “will remain ineffective in the Third Circuit until the circuit court enforces it.” The prosecution calls on the Supreme Court to order the Third Circuit to apply the 1996 law to foreclose virtually any federal habeas corpus challenge to Pennsylvania death sentences. Where the Supreme Court stands on ruthless application of the death penalty was seen on March 28, when it turned down the appeal of Troy Davis, a black inmate in Georgia, despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence.

In its own way, the D.A.’s brief highlights that Mumia’s case is crucial in the struggle to abolish the death penalty. The ultimate sanction wielded by the capitalist rulers in their repression of workers and minorities, the death penalty is a barbaric legacy of medieval torture. In the U.S., capital punishment can be traced directly back to chattel slavery, when black people could be put to death for any act deemed “insolent” or a challenge to slaveholders. Since then, the death penalty has gone hand in hand with KKK lynchings and summary executions carried out by cops on the street. Over 3,200 sit on death rows across the U.S., 54 percent of them black or Latino.

The cops, prosecutors, lawmakers and their mouthpieces in the bourgeois press will not rest until Mumia is strapped onto an execution gurney. Mumia’s fight for life and freedom is not for him alone. By executing this eloquent spokesman for the oppressed, the forces of the state want to send a message to all who would fight against the exploitation, oppression and imperialist war inherent in the decaying capitalist system that they, too, are in the state’s gun sights. The only “alternative” to execution held out by the courts is that Mumia rot in prison for the rest of his life, without the possibility of parole. As the Spartacist League and Partisan Defense Committee have always insisted, fighters for Mumia’s freedom must place no reliance on the racist capitalist courts but must look instead to link Mumia’s cause to the class struggles of the multiracial proletariat. To put a final halt to the grisly workings of the capitalist rulers’ machinery of death will take nothing less than proletarian socialist revolution.