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WflRIlERI ""'"'RIJNovember 1999 ~ X . 6 2 3

Thousands Come Out to Stop Klan TerrorLabor/Black on

WV PhotoThe power of labor was evident as. SSEU Local 371 members led march toward Foley Square under labor/black mobilization banner, October 23.

New Yorkers came out In their thousands on October 23 determined to makesure the KKK didn't ride in their city.They were mobilized by the call initiatedby the Partisan Defense Committee, "AllOut to Stop the KKK on October 23!"Hundreds of working people. students andothers joined in distributing 175,000 of thePDC's mobilizing leaflet in workplaces,campuses and neighborhoods throughoutthe city.Thousands came out in defiance of theefforts of the Giuliani administration. itscops and the courts to deny their right tomobilize to stop the Klan. They came outin opposition to appeali by the phony"friends of labor" in the Democratic Partyand self-appointed spokesmen for theblack population who preached a "demonstration for tolerance" for the "rights" ofthe KKK. They knew this wasn'tan issueof "free speech" but of stopping Klan terror and murder. They came out to drivethe Klan lynchers off their streets. Andthat's el\.aCtly what they did.Able to show their faces only underthe protection of an army of cops, 17Klansmen cowered outside the New YorkState Supreme Court, surrounded on allsides by at least 8,000 determined antiKlan protesters. "Unmasked and Overwhelmed, the Klan Is Besieged at Rally,"headlined the New York Times the next

day. As these hooded-and-robed racistsscurried back into the courthouse underpolice escort barely midway throughtheir scheduled rally, the trade unionistsand others assembled under the PDC"Labor/Black Mobilization to Stop theKKK!" banner broke into nonstop chanting: "We stopped the Klan! We stoppedthe Klan!"Headed up by union marshals withtheir arms linked, they marched up Lafayette Street displaying in victory the militancy, determination and defiance thatwas at the core of this mobilization centered on the social power of organizedlabor. "We gave a message to the city:This is not Klan country!" said a m e m ~ e r of the Social Service Employees Uniqn(SSEU) Local 371. Local 371 cametogether with members of TransportWorkers Union (TWU) Local 100, postal,construction, civil service and many,many other t r a d ~ unionists to form thebackbone of the mobilization to stopthe Klan.These unionists, who knew that coming to a mobilization. to stop the Klanwas serious business, were above allwhat gave the mobilization its discipltned and determined character. Theyacted as marshals to protect the mobilization at 100 Centre Street. In the vanguard was SSEU Local 371, led by its

president, Charles Ensley, whose members stationed themselves right in frontof the speaker's platform and then led alarge contingent from 100 Centre Streetto Foley Square a block away, wherethousands of others had drifted in thehope of getting closer to the Klan. Athousand edgy cops, with many more inreserve, were restrained by this show oflabor power.The thousands who turned out sawthis labor/black mobilization as theirown, and many had indeed helped buildit. Workers at transit locations, hospit-alsand UPS depots, on buses and subways,at municipal office buildings took stacksof leaflets to distribute and poster. Manydemonstrators brought their own handmade signs or made them on the spot.People called out suggestions for additional chants to the speaker's platform.Student governments from Borough ofManhattan Community College, Lehman,Bronx Community, Hostos, as well asstudents and student organizations fromColumbia and New York University,Sarah Lawrence, Cornell and many others, endorsed and helped build the mobi-, lization to stop the Klan. Many studentsorganized contingents from their campuses, which marched into the rally ingroups. As the speaker for the SpartacusYouth Club-which helped build campus

support-read off the names of the colleges and college groups, studentscheered loudly.For hundreds of students, this was notonly their first taste of mass politicalaction, but their first sense of the socialpower of labor organized in racially integrated unions. Speakers from the studentcontingents spoke with fire and passion,as exemplified by a young woman fromCity College who declared: "We are hereto tell the KKK that you are cowards andif you would like to come to WashingtonHeights, if you would like to come toHarlem, and if you'd like to come toBrooklyn, we are waiting! Harlem iswaiting, KKK!"A Workers Party in Action

What was seen in the streets of NewYork City on October 23 was exactly whatthe PDC had said was necessary to stopthe Klan: a powerful mobilization of thesocial power of the multiracial workingclass, standing at the head of blacks, Hispanics, Asians, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, gays, youth and all those the Klan haslined up in its sights. Our purpose was togive an organized and militant expressionto the massive outrage against the ~ l a n . It was a united-front mobilization,which allowed for the expression of manycontinued on page 2

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KKK Out...(continued from page 1)diverse political viewpoints by all thosewho shared a commitment to the urgentnecessity to stop the KKK. But it tappedinto far more than that, intersecting theaccumulated anger among the city'sworking people, particularly blacks andHispanics, who are fed up with beingpushed around for years in the one-sidedwar against workers and the poor.It galvanized the an.ger against themarauding, racist cops which explodedearlier this year over the killing of blackAfrican Amadou Diallo by the NYPD. Itgave expression to the hundreds of thousands in this city-from unionized workers to immigrant cab drivers and hot dogvendors, CUNY students, attists, AIDSvictims-who have had it with Giuliani'smini-police state. It demonstrated analternative to the Democratic Party politicians, their black front men and laborflunkies, who worked as feverishly to tryto demobilize any independent outpouringof the working people and all the enemiesof Klan terror as they had done to contain'the protests over the Diallo killing withinthe confines of electoral pressure politics.Many of the thousands who mobilizedbehind the anti-Klan rally were lookingfor the a n ~ w e r not only to stopping Klanterror but to ' fighting back against theentire system of racist capitalist exploitation and oppression. Demonstrators listened raptly to all the speeches from theplatform. Many shouted, "That's right,that's right" when PDC labor coordinator,Gene Herson denounced both the Democratic and Republican parties as enemiesof labor and the oppressed. Calls for theworking people to build their own classparty were met with applause.What was seen on the streets of NewYork City on October 23 was a microcosm of a workers party in action, i.e., theworking class mobilized in its own interests, acting independently of the government and parties of the capitalist class.The PDC-a class-struggle legal andsocial defense organization whose purpose is in accordance with the views ofthe Marxist Spartacist League-initiatedthe call which brought to bear the socialpower of labor and its ,strong, militantcomponent of bJack workers in defense ofall the oppressed. That same power, thosesame forces which stopped the Klan fromriding can organize the unorganized andunemployed, can mobilize in defense ofthe masses in the ghettos and barrios, cancrack the "open shop" South-itself aproduct of KKK anti-union terror.The successfullaborlblack mobilizationbrought to life the connection betweenlabor's fight and the fight for black freedom. Black oppression is the cornerstoneof racist American capitalism. T h e r ~ is noroad to eliminating the special oppressionof black people other than the workingclass conquest of power, and there will b,eno proletarian revolution to end classexploitation unless the working classactively takes up the fight for black rights.The working class has the numbers, theorganization and the power to win allthose things that the ruling class appropriates for itself-health care, education,decent housing, abortion rights. What is'lacking is the kind of leadership necessaryReuters

Trade unionists were the backboneof NYC mobilization to stop the ~ K K . Right: Postal wo.rkers carried signshonoring their b r o t h ~ r Joseph lIeto,gunned down by fascist killer in LosAngeles in July.to fight-a leadership of the unions thatdoesn't bow down to the bosses' laws,parties and state agencies, a workers partythat doesn't respect the property "rights"of the bourgeoisie. We need a workersparty that fights for a workers governmentto rip the means of production from thecapitalist class and institute a plannedsocialist economy that operates not for theprofit of a few greedy exploiters but forthe working people who produce thewealth of society. That is the kind ofworkers party that we communists of theSpartacist League are fighting to build.The Political Battleto Stop the Klan

Just as the mobilization to stop the Klanin New York City on October 23 gave areal taste of the social forces and leadership required for socialist revolution inthis country, it also starkly exposed theenemies and obstacles to organizingstruggles of the working class in its owninterests and in the interests of all those atthe bottom of this society. These includedthe capitalist cops, courts and Giulianicity administration;, the American CivilLiber ties, Union, which continued itsrevolting decades-long defense of "constitutional rights" for the fascist terrorists;the Democratic Party, whose calls for a"demonstration for tolerance" were aimedat trying to demobilize the working people and others who wanted to stop theKlan; Al Sharpton and the black establishment Amsterdam News, who grotesquelyfiled a court brief on behalf of the Klan;the International Socialist Organization(ISO), who leapt into the camp of Giuliani, the Democrats, Sharpton, the ACLUand the Klan against the PDC-initiatedlaborlblack mobilization.From the day that the Klan's rally waspublicly announced in a 13 October articlein the New York Post, there was a contention of two counterposed class forcesthose representing the interests of the capitalist ruling class and those representingthe interests of the working class and itsallies. The moment the PDC heard of theKKK's plans, it applied for a permit to

AP

hold a demonstration at the same time andsame place as the Klan's announced rallysite, 100 Centre Street. The call fora labor/black mobilization was issuedimmediately, and met with overwhelmingsupport when it hit the streets. This mobilization had an impact on city politics notseen in years. The issue captured the frontpages of the tabloids, dominated talkshows and call-ins on black radio stations,reportedly split union executive boardsand drove the Democratic Party establishment to distraction.The Giuliani administration and NYPDresponded by setting to work in anattempt to block this mobilization. Colluding with them was an unholy allianceranging from the New York Civil LibertiesUnion's Norman Siegel, lawyer for theKKK, to Democratic State AssemblymanScott Stringer and black Democrat AlSharpton. The KKK's rally site wassecretly moved a block away to 60 Centre Street, information that was not madepublic for days. As it became clear thatthousands of New Yorkers were rallyingbehind, the PDC 's call, as tens of thousands of leaflets were distributed over theweekend of October 16-17, this cabalmoved into high gear.Stringer, joined by Sharpton and otherDemocratic Party pols, called a press conferenc,e on October 19'10 announce thathe had applied for a permit for a "demonstration for tolerance" at 60 Centre Street,where the Klan would stage its rally. Thatevening it came out, as a PDC pressrelease reported, that Stringer & Co. were"colluding with the Klan and the Giulianiadministration to cut a deal to share asound permit with the KKK at 60 CentreStreet." The following day, Sharpton filedhis amicus brief on behalf of the Klan. Wefought on behalf of the tens of thousandsof 'New York's working people whowanted to stop the KKK, waging anincessant battle in the courts for theirrights to free speech and assembly.On October 21, a federal district courtgave the Klansmen everything they hadasked for and the working people weretold they were to be muzzled. The court

Liberal and fake-socialist enemies of labor/black mobilization provided platform'forKKK racist terrorists: NYCLU's Norman Siegel at Klan rally, Democrats AI Sharptonand Scott Stringer, ISO speaker next to police banner at Democratic Partydiversion.

approved the deal cooked up by Siegel,Stringer and the Klan to share a soundpermit and gave the KKK the right tostage their race-hate provocation in hoodswith masks. The judges denied a soundpermit for the laborlblack mobilization at60 Centre Street. As PDC counsel RachelWolkenstein declared, "This deal is anattempt to guarantee that only the Klanwill be heard and not their intended victims." She added, "The. denial of a soundpermit to the anti-Klan rally is a provocation against the mobilization organizers'ability to hold a militant, orderly massdemonstration. A rally without centrally ,located sound and leadership is like a carwithout a steering wheel."Even the right-wing New York Post (23October) denounced the court's decisionthat the anti-Klan mobilization could notuse loudspeakers at the same time as theKKK on the grounds that that would"snuff out the free speech" of the Klan.Indeed, the court ruling was a graphicillustration of the race and class bias ofthe capitalist "justice" system-a freeride for Klan terror and no rights fortheir intended victims! This was punctuated by the fact that the courthouse wasliterally used as a shelter for the KKKwhen it staged its race-hate rally.When the Klan's permit to rally withmasks was retracted in a federal appealscourt on October 22, a disinformationcampaign was set in motion aimed atconvincing people there was no reason tocome out the next day since the KKKwould not be there. A PDC press releasethat evening declared: "Whatever reportsare circulating that the KKK currentlyhas no permit to stage its race-hate provocation, the working people of this cityhave no reason to trust the word of theseracist terrorists or the Giuliani administration. The only way to guarantee thatthe Klan does not rear its head in NewYork tomorrow is if the streets are filledwith its opponents."And, on October 23, there were manythousands of determined opponents of theKlan filling the area around Centre Street.Here was the answer to Sharpton's defenseof the Klan's right to "free speech." Manyof those who came out had personal experience with the burning cross, the lynchrope, the shotguns through which the Klan"speaks." Despite being separated by helmeted riot cops and police barricades at different locations, they'had come out not toshow "tolerance" for the KKK as preachedby Stringer and the Democrats but inresponse to the PDC call to stop the KKK.The ISO-Traitors Exposed

Except for some of the 'DemocraticParty faithful, like Local 1199 presidentDennis Rivera, and a token endorsementby the leadership of the Central LaborCouncil, Stringer, Sharpton et al.'s callfor "tolerance" fell on deaf ears. The onlyorganization to leap into Stringer's campwith energy and purpose was the International Socialist Organization, which didits level best to give a cover to the Democratic Party-and the Klan--against theorganized working class.The ISO endorsed a meeting called bya variety of lawyers and liberals to organize behind Stringer's "demonstration fortolerance." When representatives of thePDC intervened to call for uniting allthose who wanted to stop the Klan on

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October 23, there were no takers. WhileSharpton was outrageously defending theKlan's "rights" in court, at the meeting theISO enthused over what a good speakerSharpton was and how many people hewould draw to the Democratic Partydiversion! As it turned out, Sharpton nevereven showed up on October 23, doubtlessnot anxious to face the jeers of the thousands who had come out to stop the KKK.But the ISO was there with bells on. 'While shamelessly enlisting with theDemocrats, the ISO tried to cover its despicable role by issuing a little-distributedleaflet under the heading "Stop' theKlan!" Since their main purpose wasopposed to stopping the KKK, this waspure cynicism. On site on October 23, theISO continued to try to deceive peoplewho had mobilized in response to thePDC's call by steering them into the siteof the Democrats' location, which was apolice trap. When people discovered thisdeception, many who tried to leave foundtheir way blocked by the cops.Having been provided a temporary, ifunwitting, audience by the ISO's treachery, Democrats like Senator CharlesSchumer and others tried to turn the eventinto an election rally. They were repeatedly booed by the angry protesters whohad not come out for election speeches ormessages of "tolerance" but to stop Klanterror. While the.anti-Klan demonstratorsunderstood the role of the cops in protecting these nightriding terrorists, the ISOspeaker stood in front of the banner of heLatino Officers Association. This is notunusual for the ISO, which has a long history of viewing the cops as "workers" andupholding their "right" to organize. Willthese social democrats whose, Britishpaper once headlined "Are All CoppersReally Bastards?" now ask, "Are allKlansmen really bastards?"With the ISO acting as the donkeys forthe Democratic Party in trying to demobilize the mass labor-centered protest tostop the Klan, whatever pretenses it hadto the cause of "workers power" havebeen stripped bare. The ISO standsexposed as the servants of capital againstthe interests of the working class, blackpeople and all the oppressed. _While the restof the left did not piay soforward a role as the ISO in serving theinterests of the Democratic Party, mostremained silent in the face of the deadlyKlan threat until Stringer and Sharptonstarted to call for a liberal diversion. TheCommunist Party endorsed the Stringerrally. Workers World Party (WWP) triedto have it both ways. Feigning some mockindependence from the Democrats, theycalled for people to assemble at Stringer'ssite, but somewhat later than the officialstarting time. Then, on October 23, WWPalso had people at the PDC rally site,where they handed out placards thatcalled to "stop the Klan" and for a'''newtrial" for black death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. When SYC comrades pointed out that this sowed illusionsin the very same courts that had sentenced Jamal to death and had upheld the"right" to Klan terror, many of the peoplewho had unwittingly taken WWP's placards traded them in for PDC placardsdemanding freedom for Jamal.In a very unusual move, the Stalinlovers of Progressive Labor Party (PL),who smear "Trotskyites" as fascists,called on people to assemble at the site ofthe PDC mobilization, signing an en-

, SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S.Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116

National Office ""'" (212) 732-7860Boston .. . , . , . , . . . . . . (617) 666-9453Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312) 454-4930Los Angeles. , . . . . . . . . (21 3) 38 0-8239New yo rk , . , . , . " . . . . (212) 267-1025Oakland . . . . . . . . . , .. . (510) 839-0851San Francisco. , . . . . . . (415) 395-9520TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA!LlGUE TROTSKYSTE DU CANADA

Toronto.; . . . . , .. , .. . ,(416) 593-4138Vancouver . . . . . . . . . . . 604) 687-0353

1 NOVEMBER 1999

dorsement form on the spot. Now a PLInternet statement crows how "thousands" were "led by PLP" and asserts, "Ittook the PLP to lead a breakaway marchof hundreds who really wanted to confront the Klan." In fact, what PL did was"lead" itself straight into a line of riotcops a short distance away. PL's wholestrategy of individual confrontations withthe cops and the fasdsts is based on arejection of the working class as a forcefor social struggle. Giuliani's cops didarrest several anti-Klan protesters onOctober 23. We demand: Drop all thecharges now!The self-proclaimed redder-than-redcommunists of PL-who can't tell the

What was reflected here was the fearof the labor bureaucrats and black Democrats that by opposing the PDC's antiKlan mobilization they could potentiallydetonate the anger building at the base ofthe unions, the outrage in the ghettos and. barrios. But that d idn 't stop them fromtrying to head it off.In defending their legal efforts onbehalf of the Klan, the editors of theAmsterdam News grotesquely echoed theracists who compared the Klan withKhallid Muhammad. Condemning thisequation of the victims of Klan terrorwith its perpetrators, PDC labor coordinator Gene Herson responded: "The purpose of this is to conceal the real enemy

that. The thousands who turned out thatday sent a powerful message that the KKKhad better not try it again. This mobilization was also a powerful response to thedemagogy of Muhammad and his formermentor, Louis Farrakhan, who seek tochannel the anger of the ghetto into bigotry against Jewish, Arab apd Asian shopkeepers in order that they can be the soleexploiters of the ghetto masses. Thisresponse was palpable in minority neigh-';borhoods throughout the city.A Korean shopkeeper in Harlem cameout of his store to donate money .andhand out leaflets to build for the antiKlan mobilization. In Chinatown, a merchant took a stack of leaflets and taughtPDC soapboxers how to say "stop theKlan" in Chinese, immediately drawingsympathetic crowds. At the mobilizationitself, many black participants remarkedon the multiracial character of the turnout and echoed denunciations of antiSemitism from the speaker's platform.In contrast to the preaching of liberal"diversity"-like JesseJackson's "rainbow coalition" or David Dinkins' "beautiful mosaic"-which means acceptanceof the racist status quo and DemocraticParty ethnic politics, this was a powerfuldemonstration of class unity and unity ofthe oppressed behind the social power ofthe multiracial working class. One chantin particular resonated at the PDC mobilization: "Asian, Latin, black and whiteWorkers of the world, unite!" Everyonecould see that proletarian power rightbefore their eyes in this labor-centeredanti-Klan mobilization.The Fight for a Workers America

WV PhotoOctober 23: It took revolutionary leadership to mobilize New York labor andminorities in powerful united-front action to drive out the KKK racist terrorists.

The Klan was born out of the bloodyreaction in the South following the defeatof the slavocracy in the American CivilWar. These were the hooded-and-robedagents of the former Confederacy, whocarried out a campaign of terror, intimidation, mutilation and murder aimed at stran-,gling the political rights that were won bythe freed slaves during Reconstruction.The KKK spearheaded the restoration ofwhite supremacy in the form of the systemof Jim Crow segregation that held sway fornearly a century. It heralded a resurgence,reaching several million strong' in the1920s, with the lynching of Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Georgia in 1915.

difference between a trade union andright-wing religious bigots like the Promise Keepers-are guided by absolutely noclass criteria. Thus, they expressed nosolidarity with the powerful Teamstersunion during its strike against the UPSbosses. Instead, they dismissed this struggle as a battle between two wings of theruling class! With its utter contempt forthe organized working class, PL's cries of"Kick the bosses in the ass" and "Deathto the Klan" are littl\'! more t,han the bleatings of grandstanding liberals.Linking the Power of Labor tothe Anger of the Ghettos

The clear intent of the liberal Democrats and their allies was to block anyindependent expression of the power oflabor and its allies to stop the Klan onOctober 23. But they seriously miscalculated the outrage throughout this cityagainst the Klan rally and failed miserablyin their efforts. Throughout the buildingfor this laborlblack mobilization, theDemocrats and their labor lackeys evidently realized they cOl!ldn't even trythe usual violence-baiting and redbaiting of the PDC which has been attempted against previous PDC-initiated antifascist mobilizations. That's not because'they had any less fear of or hostility tolabor being mobilized behind a classstruggle program, but because they recognized they couldn't openly coma outagainst the laborlblack mobilization tostop the Klan in a city where the overwhelming mass of the popUlation isdirectly in the cross hairs of the racistterrorists. ,Many unions told us that they couldn'tendorse the PDC mobilization bec'ausetheir leadership was split over the question.Nonetheless, a number that didn't endorseasked for stacks of the PDC's mobilizingleaflet to put in their union halls. DennisRivera, who runs a well-oiled machine inLocal 1199, made no overt attempt tomobilize his membership behind Stringer's"free speech" diversion. Likewise, thehidebound craft-union bureaucrats at thehead of the Central Labor Council whoendorsed Stringer's "demonstration for tol~ e r a n c e " did not put out the word that tradeunionists should, stay away from thelaborlblack mobilization.

and d ~ n y the true nature of the KKK.Khallid Muhammad is an anti-Semiticdemagogue, but that's all he is. The Klanis a terrorist action group whose purposeis genocide." Speaking at a PDC pressconference on October 19, Jim Webb ofthe Coalition of Black Trade Unionistsadded, "Khallid has never murdered,lynched, burned churches, synagogues. and homes."In its call initiating this mobilization,the PDC noted that the Klan was makinga big mistake by thinking it could ride inNew York City, and October 23 proved

Today the Klan is the lowlife, terroristbunch held in reserve by the Americancontinued on page 4

We stand for mobilizing the masses of minority and working people inmilitant integrated struggle against the brutal system of racist oppressionthat is capitalist America. Initiated by and fraternally allied with theSpartacist League, a multiracial revolutionary Marxist organization, theLabor Black Leagues are part of the revolutionary movement of the workersand o p p r e s s e ~ against the bosses and for socialism.--------- For more information write --------CHICAGOBox 6938Chicago, IL 60680(312) 454-4930

NEW YORKBox 2502Church St. StationNew York, NY 10008(212) 267-1025

OAKLANDBox 29497Oakland, CA 94604(510) 839-0851

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".

Mobilize Labor/Black Power to Free Mumia!OCTOBER 26-As we go to press, ithas just been announced that MumiaAbu-Jamal has won a stay of executionfrom a federal judge pending a decisionon his habeas corpus petition. No oneamong Jamal's millir;ms of defendersmust be lulled by this news into thinking that Mumia is any less endangeredby the police and government forceswhich have long waged a concertedcampaign for his legal lynching.

We print below a speech by PaulCooperstein of the Partisan DefenseCommittee at a victory party immediately following the October 23 antiKlan demonstration.We have another urgent fight on ourhands-the fight to free death row political prisone r Mumia Abu-Jamal. To winhis freedom, we have to mobilize thesame social forces that routed the Klantoday, the multiracial unions whichwere the bedrock of this mobilization.Ten days ago, Pennsylvania governorTom Ridge signed an order for Mumiato be executed on December 2. Anddespite Jamal's filing for habeas corpusin the federal courts, that warrant ofexecution has not been lifted. They aredetermined to kill Mumia. We must bemore determined to win his freedom.The lynch rope of the KKK is just theother side of the legal lynchings of thecapitalist state. In m o b i l i z i n ~ against theKKK we must raise our voices todemand: Freedom now for Mumia AbuJamal! Abolish the racist death penalty!The capitalist state-made up of thecops, courts, prisons, corrections officers-is an instrument for the capitalist rulers to defend their massive profits, their class rule through viciousrepression and terror against workersand minorities. The prisons today areflooded with young black and Hispanicmen and women, mostly as a result ofthe racist "war on drugs." With them

KKK Out. .(continued from page 3)capitalist ruling class. This r u l i r r ~ class, atiny minority which expropriates all thereal wealth of this society, believes thateveryone else has no rights which thisrich, white man's government is boundto respect. This capitalist ruling classneeds the homegrown Nazis of the KKK,to be deployed to crush the organizalionsof the working class when the massescan no longer be lulled by the lie thattheir interests are represented by capitalist "democracy."The political battle required to build thelaborlblack mobilization which stoppedthe Klan from riding in NYC containsimportant lessons for all those who wantto struggle against union-busting, racism,PQverty, homelessness, war and all the

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It Took Money to Drivethe Klan Out of NYCWorking people, blacks, Hispanics,

Asians, gays, Jews, Catholics andother minorities as well as immigrants, students and youth-all opponents of racist terror-won a stunningvictory over the KKK nightriders inNew York City. But that cost a lot ofmoney. I f you or your organizationhave not yet made a contribution,show your support for stopping theKKK by sending a contribution now,payable to the Partisan Defense Committee, earmarked "Stop the KKK."Send to: Box 99, Canal St. Station,New York, NY 10013.

are those who have stood up for therights of labor and blacks against thisoppressive capitalist system-formerPanthers like Mumia, coal miners likeJerry Dale Lowe, MOVE members. Wefight for the freedom of the class-warprisoners-their fight is our fight!At the core of this state terrormachine is the racist death penalty. Inthis country, the death penalty is adirect legacy of slavery. It is part andparcel of the racist cop terror on thestreets and the extralegal terror of theKKK. It is the lynch rope made legal. Itis no accident that joining in the cops'drive for Mumia's death is the fascistNational Association for the Advancement of White People. The crusade tokill Jamal is designed to sanctify thiskilling machine, which has alreadytaken nearly 80 lives since January-the most in 45 years. -The Tom Ridges, the Giulianis, theClintons-and those over there on WallStreet whom they serve-want to killMumia because he is a powerful spokesman for the poor and oppressed. In theireyes, he represents the spectre of blackrevolution. Why such concern? Becausethe cause of black freedom and the fightagainst the grinding exploitation oflabor in this'racist capitalist society arepotential social dynamite if combined.The PDC is a class-struggle legal andsocial defense organization. Guided bythe principles of the early InternationalLabor Defense, we stand unconditionally on the side of the working peopleand their allies in struggle against theirexploiters and oppressors. We place allour faith in the power of the masses andnofaith whatever in the justice of thecourts.

There are some who build deadlyillusions in the courts which have condemned Mumia to die, promoting thecall for a new trial for Jamal. Among

WVPhotoPDe banner on October 23. Mobilizing labor/black power to win Mumia'sfreedom is counterposed to reliance on Democrats, capitalist courts.them are Al Sharpton, who also threwhis weight behind the effort to makesure the Klan could rally for racist terror here today. Justice in the courts?The same courts that protected theKlan's rights while denying those whowanted to stop the KKK killers a soundpermit? What the courts, Stringer, theNew York Civil Liberties Union wantedwas to prevent us-the masses of thiscity who are the Klan's intended victims-from taking the streets.Can Mumia get a fair trial in thecourts of the Dred Scott decision, whichsaid that blacks had no rights which thewhite man was bound to respect, thecourts which declared "separate butequal" segregation the law of the land?Can Mumia get a fair trial in thecourts that said it's irrelevant that thedeath penalty is racist, that said it is notunconstitutional to execute an innocentman?Can Mumia get a fair trial in thecourts that ordered the execution of theHaymarket martyrs, Sacco and Van-

zetti, the Rosenbergs-that let theracist cops who killed Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Stewart, Anthony Baez,Amadou Diallo, Gidone Busch walkthe streets to stalk their prey every day?Can he get a fair trial in the courtsthat enforce the slave-labor TaylorLaw? Hell no!We say:' Free Mumia! That meansmobilizing now, centered on the powerof the multiracial working class, theworkers who run the trains, make thecars, drive the trucks, lay the pipe,move the garbage, create all the wealthin this society. The workers who, bywithholding their labor, can shut thiscity, Philly and other cities down cold,choking off the lifeblood of this racistkilling machine: capitalist profits.To win the freedom of the class-warprisoners, to put an end to this racistkilling machine of lynch ropes, gaschambers and lethal injections, meansgetting rid of the racist capitalist systemonce and for all-through workerssocialist revolution. Free Mumia!

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Sunday, December 51 to 4; p.m.

, been celebra ting the "d eath of communism." But communism isn't dead-it isthe program that expresses the class interests of the workers and oppressed, growing out of their aspirations and strugglesfor a society of genuine'equality andsocial justice. What is needed to realize those aspirations is a workers party,which can bring the consciousness to theworking class of its social power and historic interests in fighting the rule of capital and every manifestation of the barbarity of this system. What is needed is aworkers revolution, which will break thepower of the few and liberate the manythe working people and their allies-whowill employ the wealth created by theirlabor fQr the benefit of the majority bothin America and around the globe. OnOctober 2-3, thousands of New York'sworking people and minorities got asmall taste of that workers power. _

District Council 170775 Varick St.. 14th FI.(north of Canal)(212) 406-4252

UE Hall ILWU Local 34 Hall37 S, Ashland(at Monroe)(312) 454-49314 Berry Street (at 2nd St.)San Francisco(510) 839-0852'

Sponsor: Partisan Defense Committee

other hideous expressions of a systemrooted in exploitation and racial oppression. Central is that the capitalist state isnot neutral. It is the instrument for organized violence to ensure the rule of oneclass-the capitalists-over another class,the proletariat. As Marxists, we know thatthe bourgeois state at its core consists ofspecial armed bodies of men-the cops,the military, the prison system and thewhole "justice system"-whose job is toprotect the profits and rule of the capitalists and to repress the workers. All historical experience has shown that the working class cannot reform the state and useit in its own interests but must create itsown state, a workers state. The revolutionary fight for proletarian state power is theonly road to black freedom and the emancipation of labor and all the oppressed.We didn't invent the perspective onwhich our anti-Klan mobilizations arebased. It is the concrete application ofthe experience of the Bolshevik Partywhich led the first, and only, successfulworking-class revolution in history-theOctober Revolution of 1917. Like thepro-capitalist trade-union bureaucracy inthis country which undermines the gains_ hat were won through hard class struggle, the gains of the Russian Revolution

were betrayed by the Stalinist bureaucracy which hijacked the exercise of political power by the workers. Paralleling thepolicies of the AFL-CIO tops, the Stalinists pursued class collaboration, not internationalist class struggle. Ultimately, thisled to the ~ e s t r u c t i o n of the Soviet Unionby the forces of imperialism and domestic counterrevolution in 1991-92.Since then, the imperialist rulers haveI! li1:lU'liZtrztl.1Z t'Z']Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist Leagueo $10/22 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 New 0 Renewal(includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle)international rates: $25/22 issue s-Air mail $10/22 issua s-Sea mailo $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist)o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish-language Spartacist)Name __________________________ __________________________Address_________ Apt. # Phone (__ _____City State Zip ____ ,,__SupMake checks payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publ ishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116. ,

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