ARGENTINA: Kidnapping of Oberdan Sallustro

[p065] ARGENTINE The kidnapping of Oberdan Sallustro THE International Commit- tee of the Fourth Interna- tional condemns the abduc- tion and execution of Dr Oberdan Sallustro in Argen- tina. We reject the capitalist press allegation that these terrorists were acting in the name of Trot- skyism. This allegation is designed to discredit Trotskyism in Britain and Europe and facili- tate the witch-hunting and perse- cution by the capitalist state of the working class and the revolu- tionary party. The programme and policy of Trotskyism is aimed at the com- plete material and spiritual liber- ation of the working class through the revolutionary struggle of the overwhelming majority of the class led by a Marxist party. The _ tradition, policy and method of Trotskyism is implacably opposed to the conspiratorial-terroist method of ERP, which tries to substitute individual terror and the actions of disoriented middle-class youth for the mass action of the work- ing class and the construction of revolutionary parties on Marxist theory. The execution of Sallustro is doubly indefensible because, first, it is based on the fallacy that the ruling class will concede the demands of the kidnappers and, secondly, because it diverts the working class precisely at a time when the Lanusse regime is being shaken by massive strikes and demonstrations in all the major cities of Argentina. Individual terror, far from raising the consciousness and self-confidence of the working class, can only lead to political passivity and a mystical belief in a liberator with a gun. Marxists do not reject violence ICFI Statement and terror on principle like the pacifists. As the Vietnam war proves, all historical progress is determined by the violent resist- ance of the oppressed majority against the violent oppression of of a reactionary minority. But this is the antithesis of indi- vidual terror. The Lanusse regime is based on the counter-revolutionary vio- lence of the bankers, landlords and capitalists — admirals and generals against the working class. The arbitrary imprison- ment and torture of political opponents of the regime is an indispensable condition for the continuance of the dictatorship— and the winning of the next ‘gen- eral election’ by Lanusse_ sup- porters. The ICFI condemns this das- tardly repression of democratic rights and demands the uncondi- tional release of all political prisoners, but we do not condone the substitution of individual terror for a mass campaign in the working class internationally to secure the release of prisoners and the downfall of the dictator- ship. The ERP’s bankrupt tactics are the logical and ultimate product of the petty-bourgeois revisionism of the Unified Secretariat led by Ernest Mandel. It is no accident that Mandel’s followers reject the method of the proletarian revolution and resort to the method of bourgeois individual- ism. It is also instructive that Mandel’s supporters deplore the kidnapping of a Renault execu- tive in France by the Maoists but applaud a= similar action in Argentina. Thtse_ revisionists long ago abandoned the working class and the construction of independent Trotskyist parties based on Marxist theory and have subordi- nated themselves to the bour- geoisie and the labour bureau- cracy. That is why the co-thinkers of the ERP in Bolivia—led by Mos- coso — have capitulated com- pletely to the patriotic front of General Torres and their ex- supporters in the Ceylon coalition lead the repressive campaign against the rural youth with the direct support of imperialism and Stalinism. As the crisis of imperialism intensifies, these revisionist groups express clearly the abject prostration and disorientation of the petty-bourgeoisie before monopoly capitalism. Thus their terrorism in the colonial and semi-colonial countries is comple- mented in the advanced countries by sectarian abstention in the political struggles of the working class. In Britain the International Marxist Group refused to critically support the Labour Party in the General Election of 1970 and assisted the return of the Tories. In France the Ligue Com- muniste advocates abstention in the referendum on British entry into the Common Market and facilitates the victory of Pompi- dou and the European mono- polies. The ICFI appeals to all those workers in Latin America as well as members of the ‘Unified Secretariat who are critical of this adventure to reject the road of individual terror and join the ICFI in its struggle to build the revolutionary alternative to petty-bourgeois terrorism and bureaucratic reformism. DOWN WITH THE LANUSSE DICTATORSHIP! RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ARGENTINA April 14, 1972

[p066] Statement by the International Committee of the 4th International THE PROCLAMATION of a ceasefire by the IRA Provisionals is the culminat- ing point in the betrayal of the Ulster workers by the middle-class representa- tives of nationalism and republicanism in Ulster. Despite the heroism and self-sacrifice of hundreds and thousands of Catholic work- ers, their struggle in defence of democratic rights and against imperialism has been consciously betrayed. The International Committee warns all sections of the Irish working class to place absolutely no confidence in the secret and public negotiations being con- ducted between Whitelaw, rep- resentative of British imperial- ism, and the Republican and reformist leaderships in Ireland. Ulster workers were among the very first to experience the regime of torture, imprisonment, destruc- tion of democratic rights, and death by shooting, which the capitalist classes of Europe have in store for their subjects as the only solution to their inter- national economic crisis. In 1969 the build-up of 16,000 British troops began, under the Labour government of Haroid Wilson. Foremost in the 1968- 1969 demonstrations of Catholic youth and workers were the radi- cals, Liberals, Stalinists, revision- ists and protesters of all kinds. Together with the Republicans they had channelled the pent-up feelings of hundreds of thousands of oppressed working men and women into the blind alley of tha ‘civil rights’ movement. The ‘People’s Democracy’ group, built around students at Queen's University (Belfast), became the focus for members and sympathizers of the Inter- national Socialism (state capi- talists) and New Left groups. From it emerged Bernadette Devlin. It took only a few months for the British imperialists to act on 210 their understanding that not ‘civil rights’ but civil war was at stake. After the sending of troops came eventually internment with- out trial, torture, martial law, shooting on sight. Now, nearly three years later, every one of these ‘civil rights’ enthusiasts is a supporter of dir- ect rule. They have acquiesced to the imposition of a Bonapartist administration which balances between the army and_ the nationalist opposition. This regime is completely reactionary and is not a whit different in its class aims from the regime of Brian Faulkner. They go further. They are al] involved in plans to help White- law impose a ‘permanent’ settle- ment for the Tory government. Having called up the forces of the working class, thinking to turn the pressure on and off like a tap, in the manner of all radi- cal protesters, they recoil in hor- ror from the real strength of the working class. It is this strength, in Britain as well as in Ireland, which has forced the Tories into an inso- luble crisis. Now these ‘leaders’ revert to the traditional role of the cen- trist. Themselves running in fear from the struggle, they blame their own cowardice on the work- class. They make heartfelt speeches about the desire of the masses for peace, right at the time when the first requirement is a lead which will enable the fighting Strength of the masses to go through to victory! In the South, workers in the trade unions are moving into a big struggle against the National Wage Agreement proposed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and are condemning the way in which the Irish Labour Party betrayed the fight against the Common Market. These ar: important steps for the political independence of the working class. Far from retreating, the work- ing class is pressing forward. Bernadette Devlin, who onée, for a few short weeks, made some very principled statements against British imperialist policy and called for the bringing down of the Tory government, has now added her voice to the pathetic middle-class wailing for ‘peace’ with Whitelaw. She was among those who asked the IRA for a seven-day ceasefire to facilitate talks with Whitelaw. She speaks along the line of the International Socialism revisionists. Together with Miss Devlin goes the ‘Official’ TRA. And the ‘Provisional’ leaders are making their own overtures to Whitelaw, this time througn the intermediary of the well- behaved Social Democratic Labour Party of Fitt and Hume. These same gentlemen, no doubt preening and grooming them- selves for office under Whitelaw, are acting the part of a future government by holding consul- tative talks with the executive of the ruling Fianna Fail party (the ‘green’ Tories) in the South. The IC condemns in particular the thoroughly opportunist and craven role of the _ revisionists of the International Marxist Group and its theoretical inspirer, the Unified Secretariat in Paris. It is not an accident that these revisionists have not issued a declaration on where they stand in relation to direct rule and the capitulation of the IRA to Whitelaw. Fourth International Summer 1972

[p067] It is because for over three years they have actively colla- borated and given theoretical cover to the reactionary and opportunist ideology of the Republican petty-bourgeoisie. Their struggle against Marxist theory and the revolutionary party finds its most malignant and clearest expression in Ulster. Under the slogan of ‘Solidarity with and Victory to the IRA’ these opportunists paved the poli- tical road for confusing court- less numbers of Irish Catholic youth and alienating those Pro- testant workers who were scep- tical of Unionism and hostile to the Orange Order. By bowing to the spontaneous struggle of the Catholic work- ers, by glorifying individual ter- ror and consistently opposing every attempt to criticize the false theories and Utopian bour- geois policies of the nationalists, this group has branded itself as a conscious participant in this betrayal. At the same time its members refused to link the struggle of the Irish workers to the anti- capitalist struggle in Britain. They refused at all times to call for a campaign to force the Tories to resign and for its replacement with a Labour gov- ernment pledged to fight for socialist policies. This policy—or lack of it— led them consciously to play down the danger of direct rule. And when it arrived they ignored its sinister political implications for the Irish workers. The abolition of Stormont was the touchstone of Tory policy in Ulster. Stormont was a poli- tical anachronism and a serious embarrassment to Westminster in its search for an agreement with the Catholic petty-bour- geoisie in the North. The longer it remained the greater was the danger of the democratic struggle for votes and equality being transcended by demands affecting British and native capitalist property. It was in British imperialism’s interest to abolish Stormont and to alternately use and repress the Republicans. The following extract from the Irish ‘Sunday Press’ reveals with absvolute clarity the cynical game of the imperialists and, by implication, the bankruptcy of the Repub- licans and their revisionist sup- porters. ‘Indeed since the involvement of the British army in Northern Ireland since 1969 there have been innumerable contacts between the establishment and the IRA. At first, these were frequent and most informal between army officers and Provo leaders—indeed it was a British army intelligence officer who inspired the original bombing campaign. This was in a conver- sation with perhaps the most successful IRA leader in the North, Mr Billy Kelly. ‘Right up to February 1971, Provisional leaders and army officers were meeting on a regular basis and they discussed ways and means of curbing riot- ‘ing and generally cooling the situation. ‘Even the anti-terrorist cam- paigner, Brigadier Kitson, sought contact with the Provis:uonals, though, in fact, no such contact was aranged as far as is known at this stage. (“Sunday Press’ June 25, 1972. Vincent Browne's article ‘Heath’s part in final move for ceasefire’.) ONLY the Socialist Labour League and the International Committee opposed direct rule from a class standpoint. We based our analysis on the scientific and historically verified theory of Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution whose cen- tral idea is that the petty bourgeoisie is nowhere capable of leading the demo- cratic revolution to victory because a victorious democratic revolution can only be conceived in the form of the dictatorship of the working class. Between the dictatorship of the working class and the dictatorship of the capitalists there can be no intermediate political power. The struggle for this dictatorship is the struggle for the Marxist party. Ulster—and the consequences of direct rule—have once again shown that no other class and no other party can substitute itself for the proletariat and that any attempt to do so must result in defeat and the re-imposition of capitalist rule. Stormont has gone, but imperialism remains. Those who stand with the Re- publican policy must fall with it. It was in no way accidental that in 1969 the revisionists of International Socialism and their democratic friends in Ireland, including the Stalinists under Miss Betty Sinclair, welcomed the British troops as protectors of the Catholic workers. Events like Bloody Sunday made the revisionists shame- facedly wonder if they had made a ‘mistake’. But now they have returned to what was. un- doubtedly their real position—re- formists within the service of British imperialism. Ulster: Statement by the ICFI That they stand together with the Republicans should come as no surprise. These nationalists long ago accepted the Stalinist demand that the British troops be returned . . . to their bar- racks! Only the International Com- mittee and its sections came out unequivocally against the inter- vention of British troops in Ire- land from the very first minute. Against every other tendency we asserted that this was a basic question of principle: the forces of the capitalist state were there to enforce the protection of property and bourgeois order, and on no account could they act in the interests of the work- ing class. And when direct rule was im- posed, and all the revisionists and opportunists were caught in the trap of regarding the re- moval of Stormont as a progres- sive step, the International Com- mittee, in its statement of March 25, came out in sharp condemnation, saying: ‘Support for direct rule has an inexorable and sinister logic. If the Tory government decides to suppress the Protestant workers with the same means that were used in Derry by the Paras, what will the Republicans, Nationalists, revisionists and Stalinists do then?’ And: ‘What the imperialists could not preserve with baton, bullet, CS gas and noise machines they now hope to keep by a negotia- ted political solution, conducted under the mantle of “direct rule’. Under the convenient subterfuge of replacing the hated Stormont regime, the Heath- Wilson gang are preparing an even more sinister attack against Irish workers’ rights, through a coalition of Republican and Orange capitalists, backed by the armed forces of the South and Britain. ‘Partition will stay, sectarian divisions will be exacerbated and the hated system of low wages, unemployment and speed-up will continue—if direct rule is effected.’ The Republicans, Stalinists and revisionists are working might and main to bring into full operation this Tory strategy. Since March, the Ulster Van- guard movement of William Craig, drilling tens of thousands of armed men, has been built 211

[p068] up under the noses of the authorities as a bludgeon to soften up the ‘civil rights’ opposition. . This is a gross betrayal of the workers of Ireland by men who have asked for their allegiance. The Protestant workers, victims of a 50-year confidence trick by the Tory Unionists, now feel themselves exposed to the full force of the effects of the economic crisis. The questions of security which they were always told (lyingly) could be solved by loyalty to Britain through Stor- mont now appear to them in- soluble. They are angry and frustrated, and temporarily they lash out in the reactionary direc- tion opened up for them by Craig. The great crime of the Dev- lins, the official IRA, the Stalin- ists, the IMG, the IS group and others, is that instead of placing before the Catholic and Protest- ant workers the prospect of a united political struggle with the British workers to end the Tory government and implement socialist programmes through the election of a Labour government, they turn over at this critical stage to help the Tories out of their crisis. The unbroken resistance of the British workers, and the definite possibility of forcing the Tory government in Britain to resign, is the greatest asset of the workers of Ireland, both Protest- ant and Catholic once again. ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity!’ - It is absolutely typical of the anti-revolutionary politics of the IS and IMG self-styled friends of the Irish workers that they do not raise the bringing down of the British Tory government as the first task in solidarity with the working class of Ireland. In- stead, they collaborate to the hilt with the Stalinists in their pro- test campaigns. As our March 25 statement insisted: ‘By separating the struggle against internment and democratic rights from the struggle against the Tory govern- ment, these reformists act as a political rearguard for im- perialism.’ It is absolutely criminal for these reformists and Republicans to sell Whitelaw as the repre- sentative of a future democracy in Ireland. He is quite the opposite! British Toryism’s complaint about Stormont was not its lack of democracy but its inability to preserve capitalist law and order. Without the ending of Toryism through mass political struggle of the working class, then the future, in Britain as well as Ire- land, is Bonapartist dictatorship. That the ‘democratic capital- ism’ should be peddled in Northern Ireland of all places, where this Bonapartism is already well on the way, speaks volumes for the extent of the degenera- tion of the revisionists. The trade union leaders in Ire- land, North and South, and the Social Democrats in the Repub- lic, should not go un- mentioned. Not a word comes out of the trade union leaders against the reactionary demagogy of the Vanguard spokesmen such as Hull. These unions should be fight- ing with their English comrades against the National Industrial Relations Court, against unem- ployment and for the resignation of the Tories. A consistent cam- paign on these real problems affecting the life of every Protestant and Catholic worker would soon begin to change the situation. Meanwhile, Corish of the Irish Labour Party (in the South) excels himself by approaching the reactionary Fine Gael party with proposals for a coalition to replace the Lynch government, The Irish section of the Inter- national Committee has rightly called for a massive rejection of this proposal by all _ trade unionists in the Republic. There are conclusions of inter- national significance from the political record of revisionism in Ireland. Centrist politics which congenitally waver be- tween revolutionary Marxism and outright opportunism, be- comes an open support for the policies of imperialism in a period such as this. The retreat of the Republicans and revisionists along the line is no cause for pessimism. Only by rejecting and going beyond these false leaderships and their sup- porters can the working class go forward. The conflict between the objective struggles and re- quirements of the working class, on the one hand, and the bank- ruptcy of nationalism and reformism on the other, provides the necessary conditions for de- velopment of revolutionary consciousness. There is absolutely no substi- tute for the building of Marxist parties of the Fourth Inter- national, waging a constant battle against every variety of revisionism and centrism, ex- posing at every turn their sub- ordination to the Stalinist and reformist bureaucracies, which only prepares. them to directly serve the imperialist enemy. In the. British working-class movement, effective solidarity can be brought to the Irish workers by fighting for the mobilization of the trade unions and all those fighting Tory poli- cies into Councils of Action, with the aim of making the Tories resign and returning a Labour government, and demand- ing this government withdraw all troops. In Ireland, North and South, the revolutionary leadership will only be trained and built in a fight for a programme which unites the working class to strike mighty blows together with those being struck by the workers in Britain. The fall of Heath will enormously facilitate the fall of all those who help him to main- tain imperialism in Ireland, from Lynch and Cosgrave to White- law, Faulkner and Craig. And this same struggle will defeat and foil the opportunist conspiracy of the Republicans, the Stalinists and the revisionists. As nationalism more and more shows its true colours in col- laboration with the imperialists, so the alternative leadership, built through a struggle for Marxism and against nationalism and idealism, can and must be built. The International Committee of the Fourth International calls on all class-conscious militants in Ireland, North and South, to build on the invaluable lessons of the last four years’ struggle, to continue the fight for Marxist principles against revisionism, to reject the bankrupt and treacher- ous reformist and nationalist leaderships, to heed one of the calls to suspend the struggle and give time to the enemy, and to build the revolutionary Marxist leadership in Ireland, the Irish section of the International Committee of the Fourth Inter- national. June 25, 1972 a 212 Fourth International Summer 1972

[p069] On March 6 this year the W German weekly magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ published an interview with Ernest Man- del, a leading figure in the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Here we reproduce that interview,