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Mao, Stalin & Marx Library

J. V. Stalin

TROTSKYISM OR LENINISM?

Speech Delivered at the Plenum of
the Communist Group in the A.U.C.C.T.U.,
November 19, 1924

Pravda, No. 269,
November 26, 1924

From J. V. Stalin, On the Opposition,
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1974

pp. 105-38.

Based on J. V. Stalin, Works,
Foreign Languages Publishing House,
Moscow, 1953

Vol. 6, pp. 338-73.

Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@cruzio.com (June 1997)

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The articles and speeches by J. V. Stalin contained in English edition of On the Opposition follow the order of the Russian edition put out by the State Publishing House of the Soviet Union in 1928. The English translation, including the notes at the end of the book, is taken from Stalin's Works, Vols. 5-10, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953-54, with some technical changes.

References in Roman numerals to Lenin's Works mentioned in the text are to the third Russian edition. The English references are indicated by the publisher in footnotes.

TROTSKYISM OR LENINISM?			105
	I. II. III.	The Facts About the October Uprising The Party and the Preparation for October Trotskyism or Leninism?	105 112 128
*NOTES*

page 105

TROTSKYISM OR LENINISM?

Speech Delivered at the Plenum
of the Communist Group in the A.U.C.C.T.U.

November 19, 1924

Comrades, after Kamenev's comprehensive report there is little left for me to say. I shall therefore confine myself to exposing certain legends that are being spread by Trotsky and his supporters about the October uprising, about Trotsky's role in the uprising, about the Party and the preparation for October, and so forth. I shall also touch upon Trotskyism as a peculiar ideology that is incompatible with Leninism, and upon the Party's tasks in connection with Trotsky's latest literary pronouncements.

THE FACTS ABOUT THE OCTOBER UPRISING

First of all about the October uprising. Rumours are being vigorously spread among members of the Party that the Cen-

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tral Committee as a whole was opposed to an uprising in October 1917. The usual story is that on October 10, when the Central Committee adopted the decision to organise the uprising, the majority of the Central Committee at first spoke against an uprising, but, so the story runs, at that moment a worker burst in on the meeting of the Central Committee and said: "You are deciding against an uprising, but I tell you that there will be an uprising all the same, in spite of everything." And so, after that threat, the story runs, the Central Committee, which is alleged to have become frightened, raised the question of an uprising afresh and adopted a decision to organise it.

This is not merely a rumour, comrades. It is related by the well-known John Reed in his book Ten Days. Reed was remote from our Party and, of course, could not know the history of our secret meeting on October 10, and, consequently, he was taken in by the gossip spread by people like Sukhanov. This story was later passed round and repeated in a number of pamphlets written by Trotskyites, including one of the latest pamphlets on October written by Syrkin. These rumours have been strongly supported in Trotsky's latest literary pronouncements.

It scarcely needs proof that all these and similar "Arabian Nights" fairy tales are not in accordance with the truth, that in fact nothing of the kind happened, nor could have happened, at the meeting of the Central Committee. Consequently, we could ignore these absurd rumours; after all, lots of rumours are fabricated in the office rooms of the oppositionists or those who are remote from the Party. Indeed, we have ignored them till now; for example, we paid no attention to John Reed's mistakes and did not take the trouble to rectify them. After Trotsky's latest pronouncements, however, it is no longer pos-

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sible to ignore such legends, for attempts are being made now to bring up our young people on them and, unfortunately, some results have already been achieved in this respect. In view of this, I must counter these absurd rumours with the actual facts.

I take the minutes of the meeting of the Central Committee of our Party on October 10 (23), 1917. Present: Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin, Trotsky, Sverdlov, Uritsky, Dzerzhinsky, Kollontai, Bubnov, Sokolnikov, Lomov. The question of the current situation and the uprising was discussed. After the discussion, Comrade Lenin's resolution on the uprising was put to the vote. The resolution was adopted by a majority of 10 against 2. Clear, one would think: by a majority of 10 against 2, the Central Committee decided to proceed with the immediate, practical work of organising the uprising. At this very same meeting the Central Committee elected a political centre to direct the uprising; this centre, called the Political Bureau, consisted of Lenin, Zinoviev, Stalin, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov and Bubnov.

Such are the facts.

These minutes at one stroke destroy several legends. They destroy the legend that the majority on the Central Committee was opposed to an uprising. They also destroy the legend that on the question of the uprising the Central Committee was on the verge of a split. It is clear from the minutes that the opponents of an immediate uprising -- Kamenev and Zinoviev -- were elected to the body that was to exercise political direction of the uprising on a par with those who were in favour of an uprising. There was no question of a split, nor could there be.

Trotsky asserts that in October our Party had a Right wing in the persons of Kamenev and Zinoviev, who, he says, were almost Social-Democrats. What one cannot understand then

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is how, under those circumstances, it could happen that the Party avoided a split; how it could happen that the disagreements with Kamenev and Zinoviev lasted only a few days; how it could happen that, in spite of those disagreements, the Party appointed these comrades to highly important posts, elected them to the political centre of the uprising, and so forth. Lenin's implacable attitude towards Social-Democrats is sufficiently well known in the Party; the Party knows that Lenin would not for a single moment have agreed to have Social-Democratically-minded comrades in the Party, let alone in highly important posts. How, then, are we to explain the fact that the Party avoided a split? The explanation is that in spite of the disagreements, these comrades were old Bolsheviks who stood on the common ground of Bolshevism. What was that common ground? Unity of views on the fundamental questions: the character of the Russian revolution, the driving forces of the revolution, the role of the peasantry, the principles of Party leadership, and so forth. Had there not been this common ground, a split would have been inevitable. There was no split, and the disagreements lasted only a few days, because, and only because, Kamenev and Zinoviev were Leninists, Bolsheviks.

Let us now pass to the legend about Trotsky's special role in the October uprising. The Trotskyites are vigorously spreading rumours that Trotsky inspired and was the sole leader of the October uprising. These rumours are being spread with exceptional zeal by the so-called editor of Trotsky's works, Lentsner. Trotsky himself, by consistently avoiding mention of the Party, the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Party, by saying nothing about the leading role of these organisations in the uprising and vigorously pushing himself forward as the central figure in the October uprising,

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voluntarily or involuntarily helps to spread the rumours about the special role he is supposed to have played in the uprising. I am far from denying Trotsky's undoubtedly important role in the uprising. I must say, however, that Trotsky did not play any special role in the October uprising, nor could he do so; being chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, he merely carried out the will of the appropriate Party bodies, which directed every step that Trotsky took. To philistines like Sukhanov, all this may seem strange, but the facts, the true facts, wholly and fully confirm what I say.

Let us take the minutes of the next meeting of the Central Committee, the one held on October 16 (29),1917. Present: the members of the Central Committee, plus representatives of the Petrograd Committee, plus representatives of the military organisation, factory committees, trade unions and the railwaymen. Among those present, besides the members of the Central Committee, were: Krylenko, Shotman, Kalinin, Volodarsky, Shlyapnikov, Lacis, and others, twenty-five in all. The question of the uprising was discussed from the purely practical-organisational aspect. Lenin's resolution on the uprising was adopted by a majority of 20 against 2, three abstaining. A practical centre was elected for the organisational leadership of the uprising. Who was elected to this centre? The following five: Sverdlov, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, Bubnov, Uritsky. The functions of the practical centre: to direct all the practical organs of the uprising in conformity with the directives of the Central Committee. Thus, as you see, something "terrible" happened at this meeting of the Central Committee, i.e., "strange to relate," the "inspirer," the "chief figure," the "sole leader" of the uprising, Trotsky, was not elected to the practical centre, which was called upon to direct the uprising. How is this to be reconciled with the

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current opinion about Trotsky's special role? Is not all this somewhat "strange," as Sukhanov, or the Trotskyites, would say? And yet, strictly speaking, there is nothing strange about it, for neither in the Party, nor in the October uprising, did Trotsky play any special role, nor could he do so, for he was a relatively new man in our Party in the period of October. He, like all the responsible workers, merely carried out the will of the Central Committee and of its organs. Whoever is familiar with the mechanics of Bolshevik Party leadership will have no difficulty in understanding that it could not be otherwise: it would have been enough for Trotsky to have gone against the will of the Central Committee to have been deprived of influence on the course of events. This talk about Trotsky's special role is a legend that is being spread by obliging "Party" gossips.

This, of course, does not mean that the October uprising did not have its inspirer. It did have its inspirer and leader, but this was Lenin, and none other than Lenin, that same Lenin whose resolutions the Central Committee adopted when deciding the question of the uprising, that same Lenin who, in spite of what Trotsky says, was not prevented by being in hiding from being the actual inspirer of the uprising. It is foolish and ridiculous to attempt now, by gossip about Lenin having been in hiding, to obscure the indubitable fact that the inspirer of the uprising was the leader of the Party, V. I. Lenin.

Such are the facts.

Granted, we are told, but it cannot be denied that Trotsky fought well in the period of October. Yes, that is true, Trotsky did, indeed, fight well in October; but Trotsky was not the only one who fought well in the period of October. Even people like the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who then stood

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side by side with the Bolsheviks, also fought well. In general, I must say that in the period of a victorious uprising, when the enemy is isolated and the uprising is growing, it is not difficult to fight well. At such moments even backward people become heroes.

The proletarian struggle is not, however, an uninterrupted advance, an unbroken chain of victories. The proletarian struggle also has its trials, its defeats. The genuine revolutionary is not one who displays courage in the period of a victorious uprising, but one who, while fighting well during the victorious advance of the revolution, also displays courage when the revolution is in retreat, when the proletariat suffers defeat; who does not lose his head and does not funk when the revolution suffers reverses, when the enemy achieves success; who does not become panic-stricken or give way to despair when the revolution is in a period of retreat. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries did not fight badly in the period of October, and they supported the Bolsheviks. But who does not know that those "brave" fighters became panic-stricken in the period of Brest, when the advance of German imperialism drove them to despair and hysteria? It is a very sad but indubitable fact that Trotsky, who fought well in the period of October, did not, in the period of Brest, in the period when the revolution suffered temporary reverses, possess the courage to display sufficient staunchness at that difficult moment and to refrain from following in the footsteps of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Beyond question, that moment was a difficult one; one had to display exceptional courage and imperturbable coolness not to be dismayed, to retreat in good time, to accept peace in good time, to withdraw the proletarian army out of range of the blows of German imperialism, to preserve the

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peasant reserves and, after obtaining a respite in this way, to strike at the enemy with renewed force. Unfortunately, Trotsky was found to lack this courage and revolutionary staunchness at that difficult moment.

In Trotsky's opinion, the principal lesson of the proletarian revolution is "not to funk" during October. That is wrong, for Trotsky's assertion contains only a particle of the truth about the lessons of the revolution. The whole truth about the lessons of the proletarian revolution is "not to funk" not only when the revolution is advancing, but also when it is in retreat, when the enemy is gaining the upper hand and the revolution is suffering reverses. The revolution did not end with October. October was only the beginning of the proletarian revolution. It is bad to funk when the tide of insurrection is rising; but it is worse to funk when the revolution is passing through severe trials after power has been captured. To retain power on the morrow of the revolution is no less important than to capture power. If Trotsky funked during the period of Brest, when our revolution was passing through severe trials, when it was almost a matter of "surrendering" power, he ought to know that the mistakes committed by Kamenev and Kinoviev in October are quite irrelevant here.

That is how matters stand with the legends about the October uprising.

THE PARTY AND THE PREPARATION
FOR OCTOBER

Let us now pass to the question of the preparation for October.

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Listening to Trotsky, one might think that during the whole of the period of preparation, from March to October, the Bolshevik Party did nothing but mark time; that it was being corroded by internal contradictions and hindered Lenin in every way; that had it not been for Trotsky, nobody knows how the October Revolution would have ended. It is rather amusing to hear this strange talk about the Party from Trotsky, who declares in this same "preface" to Volume III that "the chief instrument of the proletarian revolution is the Party," that "without the Party, apart from the Party, by-passing the Party, with a substitute for the Party, the proletarian revolution cannot be victorious." Allah himself would not understand how our revolution could have succeeded if "its chief instrument" proved to be useless, while success was impossible, as it appears, "by-passing the Party." But this is not the first time that Trotsky treats us to oddities. It must be supposed that this amusing talk about our Party is one of Trotsky's usual oddities.

Let us briefly review the history of the preparation for October according to periods.

1) The period of the Party's new orientation (March-April ). The major facts of this period:

a) the overthrow of tsarism;

b) the formation of the Provisional Government (dictatorship of the bourgeoisie);

c) the appearance of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry);

d) dual power;

e) the April demonstration;

f) the first crisis of power.

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The characteristic feature of this period is the fact that there existed together, side by side and simultaneously, both the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry; the latter trusts the former, believes that it is striving for peace, voluntarily surrenders power to the bourgeoisie and thereby becomes an appendage of the bourgeoisie. There are as yet no serious conflicts between the two dictatorships. On the other hand, there is the "Contact Committee."[20]

This was the greatest turning point in the history of Russia and an unprecedented turning point in the history of our Party. The old, pre-revolutionary platform of direct overthrow of the government was clear and definite, but it was no longer suitable for the new conditions of the struggle. It was now no longer possible to go straight out for the overthrow of the government, for the latter was connected with the Soviets, then under the influence of the defencists, and the Party would have had to wage war against both the government and the Soviets, a war that would have been beyond its strength. Nor was it possible to pursue a policy of supporting the Provisional Government, for it was the government of imperialism. Under the new conditions of the struggle the Party had to adopt a new orientation. The Party (its majority) groped its way towards this new orientation. It adopted the policy of pressure on the Provisional Government through the Soviets on the question of peace and did not venture to step forward at once from the old slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry to the new slogan of power to the Soviets. The aim of this halfway policy was to enable the Soviets to discern the actual imperialist nature of the Provisional Government on the basis of the concrete questions of peace, and in this way to wrest the Soviets from the Provisional Government. But

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this was a profoundly mistaken position, for it gave rise to pacifist illusions, brought grist to the mill of defencism and hindered the revolutionary education of the masses. At that time I shared this mistaken position with other Party comrades and fully abandoned it only in the middle of April, when I associated myself with Lenin's theses. A new orientation was needed. This new orientation was given to the Party by Lenin, in his celebrated April Theses.[21] I shall not deal with these theses, for they are known to everybody. Were there any disagreements between the Party and Lenin at that time? Yes, there were. How long did these disagreements last? Not more than two weeks. The City Conference of the Petrograd organisation[22] (in the latter half of April), which adopted Lenin's theses, marked a turning point in our Party's development. The All-Russian April Conference [23] (at the end of April) merely completed on an all-Russian scale the work of the Petrograd Conference, rallying nine-tenths of the Party around this united Party position.

Now, seven years later, Trotsky gloats maliciously over the past disagreements among the Bolsheviks and depicts them as a struggle waged as if there were almost two parties within Bolshevism. But, firstly, Trotsky disgracefully exaggerates and inflates the matter, for the Bolshevik Party lived through these disagreements without the slightest shock. Secondly, our Party would be a caste and not a revolutionary party if it did not permit different shades of opinion in its ranks. Moreover, it is well known that there were disagreements among us even before that, for example, in the period of the Third Duma, but they did not shake the unity of our Party. Thirdly, it will not be out of place to ask what was then the position of Trotsky himself, who is now gloating so eagerly over the past disagree-

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ments among the Bolsheviks. Lentsner, the so-called editor of Trotsky's works, assures us that Trotsky's letters from America (March) "wholly anticipated" Lenin's Letters from Afar [24] (March), which served as the basis of Lenin's April Theses. That is what he says: "wholly anticipated." Trotsky does not object to this analogy; apparently, he accepts it with thanks. But, firstly, Trotsky's letters "do not in the least resemble" Lenin's letters either in spirit or in conclusions, for they wholly and entirely reflect Trotsky's anti-Bolshevik slogan of "no tsar, but a workers' government," a slogan which implies a revolution without the peasantry. It is enough to glance through these two series of letters to be convinced of this. Secondly, if what Lentsner says is true, how are we to explain the fact that Lenin on the very next day after his arrival from abroad considered it necessary to dissociate himself from Trotsky? Who does not know of Lenin's repeated statements that Trotsky's slogan of "no tsar, but a workers' government " was an attempt "to skip the still unexhausted peasant movement," that this slogan meant "playing at the seizure of power by a workers' government"?*

What can there be in common between Lenin's Bolshevik theses and Trotsky's anti-Bolshevik scheme with its "playing at the seizure of power"? And what prompts this passion that some people display for comparing a wretched hovel with Mont Blanc? For what purpose did Lentsner find it necessary to make this risky addition to the heap of old legends about our revolution of still another legend, about Trotsky's letters

* See Lenin's Letters on Tactics, First Letter, Assessment of the Present Situation (1917). See also the reports made at the Petrograd City Conference and at the All-Russian Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.) (middle and end of April 1917).

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from America "anticipating" Lenin's well-known Letters from Afar?[*]

No wonder it is said that an obliging fool is more dangerous than an enemy.

2) The period of the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses (May-August ). The major facts of this period:

a) the April demonstration in Petrograd and the formation of the coalition government with the participation of "Socialists";

b) the May Day demonstrations in the principal centres of Russia with the slogan of "a democratic peace";

c) the June demonstration in Petrograd with the principal slogan: "Down with the capitalist ministers!";

d) the June offensive at the front and the reverses of the Russian army;

e) the July armed demonstration in Petrograd; the Cadet ministers resign from the government;

f) counter-revolutionary troops are called in from the front; the editorial offices of Pravda are wrecked; the counter-revolution launches a struggle against the Soviets and a new coalition government is formed, headed by Kerensky;

* Among these legends must be included also the very widespread story that Trotsky was the "sole" or "chief organiser" of the victories on the fronts of the Civil War. I must declare, comrades, in the interest of truth, that this version is quite out of accord with the facts. I am far from denying that Trotsky played an important role in the Civil War. But I must emphatically declare that the high honour of being the organiser of our victories belongs not to individuals, but to the great collective body of advanced workers in our country, the Russian Communist Party. Perhaps it will not be out of place to quote a few examples. You know that Kolchak and Denikin were regarded as the principal enemies of the Soviet Republic. You know that our country breathed freely only after those enemies were defeated. Well, history shows that [cont. onto p. 118. -- DJR] both those enemies, i.e., Kolchak and Denikin, were routed by our troops in spite of Trotsky's plans.
Judge for yourselves.
1) Kolchak. This is in the summer of 1919. Our troops are advancing against Kolchak and are operating near Ufa. A meeting of the Central Committee is held. Trotsky proposes that the advance be halted along the line of the River Belaya (near Ufa), leaving the Urals in the hands of Kolchak, and that part of the troops be withdrawn from the Eastern Front and transferred to the Southern Front. A heated debate takes place. The Central Committee disagrees with Trotsky, being of the opinion that the Urals, with its factories and railway network, must not be left in the hands of Kolchak, for the latter could easily recuperate there, organise a strong force and reach the Volga again; Kolchak must first be driven beyond the Ural range into the Siberian steppes, and only after that has been done should forces be transferred to the South. The Central Committee rejects Trotsky's plan. Trotsky hands in his [cont. onto p. 119. -- DJR] resignation. The Central Committee refuses to accept it. Commander-in-Chief Vatsetis, who supported Trotsky's plan, resigns. His place is taken by a new Commander-in-Chief, Kamenev. From that moment Trotsky ceases to take a direct part in the affairs of the Eastern Front.
2) Denikin. This is in the autumn of 1919. The offensive against Denikin is not proceeding successfully. The "steel ring" around Mamontov (Mamontov's raid) is obviously collapsing. Denikin captures Kursk. Denikin is approaching Orel. Trotsky is summoned from the Southern Front to attend a meeting of the Central Committee. The Central Committee regards the situation as alarming and decides to send new military leaders to the Southern Front and to withdraw Trotsky. The new military leaders demand "no intervention" by Trotsky in the affairs of the Southern Front. Trotsky ceases to take a direct part in the affairs of the Southern Front. Operations on the Southern Front, right up to the capture of Rostov-on-Don and Odessa by our troops, proceed without Trotsky.
Let anybody try to refute these facts.

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g) the Sixth Congress of our Party, which issues the slogan to prepare for an armed uprising;

h) the counter-revolutionary Conference of State and the general strike in Moscow;

i) Kornilov's unsuccessful march on Petrograd, the revitalising of the Soviets; the Cadets resign and a "Directory" is formed.

The characteristic feature of this period is the intensification of the crisis and the upsetting of the unstable equilibrium between the Soviets and the Provisional Government which, for good or evil, had existed in the preceding period. Dual power has become intolerable for both sides. The fragile ediface of the "Contact Committee" is tottering. "Crisis of power" and "ministerial re-shuffle" are the most fashionable catch-words of the day. The crisis at the front and the disruption in the rear are doing their work, strengthening the extreme flanks and squeezing the defencist compromisers from both sides. The revolution is mobilising, causing the mobilisation of the

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counter-revolution. The counter-revolution, in its turn, is spurring on the revolution, stirring up new waves of the revolutionary tide. The question of transferring power to the new class becomes the immediate question of the day.

Were there disagreements in our Party then? Yes, there were. They were, however, of a purely practical character, despite the assertions of Trotsky, who is trying to discover a "Right" and a "Left" wing in the Party. That is to say, they were such disagreements as are inevitable where there is vigorous Party life and real Party activity.

Trotsky is wrong in asserting that the April demonstration in Petrograd gave rise to disagreements in the Central Committee. The Central Committee was absolutely united on this question and condemned the attempt of a group of comrades to arrest the Provisional Government at a time when the Bolsheviks were in a minority both in the Soviets and in the army. Had Trotsky written the "history" of October not according to Sukhanov, but according to authentic documents,

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he would easily have convinced himself of the error of his assertion.

Trotsky is absolutely wrong in asserting that the attempt, "on Lenin's initiative," to arrange a demonstration on June 10 was described as "adventurism" by the "Right-wing" members of the Central Committee. Had Trotsky not written according to Sukhanov he would surely have known that the June 10 demonstration was postponed with the full agreement of Lenin, and that he urged the necessity of postponing it in a big speech he delivered at the well-known meeting of the Petrograd Committee (see minutes of the Petrograd Committee[25]).

Trotsky is absolutely wrong in speaking about "tragic" disagreements in the Central Committee in connection with the July armed demonstration. Trotsky is simply inventing in asserting that some members of the leading group in the Central Committee "could not but regard the July episode as a harmful adventure." Trotsky, who was then not yet a member of our Central Committee and was merely our Soviet parliamentary, might, of course, not have known that the Central Committee regarded the July demonstration only as a means of sounding the enemy, that the Central Committee (and Lenin) did not want to convert, did not even think of converting, the demonstration into an uprising at a time when the Soviets in the capitals still supported the defencists. It is quite possible that some Bolsheviks did whimper over the July defeat. I know, for example, that some of the Bolsheviks who were arrested at the time were even prepared to desert our ranks. But to draw inferences from this against certain supposed "Rights," supposed to be members of the Central Committee, is a shameful distortion of history.

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Trotsky is wrong in declaring that during the Kornilov days a section of the Party leaders inclined towards the formation of a bloc with the defencists, towards supporting the Provisional Government. He, of course, is referring to those same alleged "Rights" who keep him awake at night. Trotsky is wrong, for there exist documents, such as the Central Organ of the Party of that time, which refute his statements. Trotsky refers to Lenin's letter to the Central Committee warning against supporting Kerensky; but Trotsky fails to understand Lenin's letters, their significance, their purpose. In his letters Lenin sometimes deliberately ran ahead, pushing into the forefront mistakes that might possibly be committed, and criticising them in advance with the object of warning the Party and of safeguarding it against mistakes. Sometimes he would even magnify a "trifle" and "make a mountain out of a molehill" for the same pedagogical purpose. The leader of the Party, especially if he is in hiding, cannot act otherwise, for he must see further than his comrades-in-arms, he must sound the alarm over every possible mistake, even over "trifles." But to infer from such letters of Lenin's (and he wrote quite a number of such letters) the existence of "tragic" disagreements and to trumpet them forth means not to understand Lenin's letters, means not to know Lenin. This, probably, explains why Trotsky sometimes is wide of the mark. In short: there were no disagreements in the Central Committee during the Kornilov revolt, absolutely none.

After the July defeat disagreement did indeed arise between the Central Committee and Lenin on the question of the future of the Soviets. It is known that Lenin, wishing to concentrate the Party's attention on the task of preparing the uprising outside the Soviets, warned against any infatuation with the latter, for he was of the opinion that, having been

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defiled by the defencists, they had become useless. The Central Committee and the Sixth Party Congress took a more cautious line and decided that there were no grounds for excluding the possibility that the Soviets would revive. The Kornilov revolt showed that this decision was correct. This disagreement, however, was of no great consequence for the Party. Later, Lenin admitted that the line taken by the Sixth Congress had been correct. It is interesting that Trotsky has not clutched at this disagreement and has not magnified it to "monstrous" proportions.

A united and solid party, the hub of the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses -- such was the picture presented by our Party in that period.

3) The period of organisation of the assault (September-October ). The major facts of this period:

a) the convocation of the Democratic Conference and the collapse of the idea of a bloc with the Cadets;

b) the Moscow and Petrograd Soviets go over to the side of the Bolsheviks;

c) the Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region;[26] the Petrograd Soviet decides against the withdrawal of the troops;

d) the decision of the Central Committee on the uprising and the formation of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Soviet;

e) the Petrograd garrison decides to render the Petrograd Soviet armed support; a network of commissars of the Revolutionary Military Committee is organised;

f) the Bolshevik armed forces go into action; the members of the Provisional Government are arrested;

g) the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Soviet takes power; the Second Congress of Soviets sets up the Council of People's Commissars.

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The characteristic feature of this period is the rapid growth of the crisis, the utter consternation reigning among the ruling circles, the isolation of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, and the mass flight of the vacillating elements to the side of the Bolsheviks. A peculiar feature of the tactics of the revolution in this period must be noted, namely, that the revolution strove to take every, or nearly every, step in its attack in the guise of defence. Undoubtedly, the refusal to allow the troops to be withdrawn from Petrograd was an important step in the revolution's attack; nevertheless, this attack was carried out under the slogan of protecting Petrograd from possible attack by the external enemy. Undoubtedly, the formation of the Revolutionary Military Committee was a still more important step in the attack upon the Provisional Government; nevertheless, it was carried out under the slogan of organising Soviet control over the actions of the Headquarters of the Military Area. Undoubtedly, the open transition of the garrison to the side of the Revolutionary Military Committee and the organisation of a network of Soviet Commissars marked the beginning of the uprising; nevertheless, the revolution took these steps under the slogan of protecting the Petrograd Soviet from possible action by the counter-revolution. The revolution, as it were, masked its actions in attack under the cloak of defence in order the more easily to draw the irresolute, vacillating elements into its orbit. This, no doubt, explains the outwardly defensive character of the speeches, articles and slogans of that period, the inner content of which, none the less, was of a profoundly attacking nature.

Were there disagreements in the Central Committee in that period? Yes, there were, and fairly important ones at that. I have already spoken about the disagreements over the uprising. They are fully reflected in the minutes of the meetings

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of the Central Committee of October 10 and 16. I shall, therefore, not repeat what I have already said. Three questions must now be dealt with: participation in the Pre-parliament, the role of the Soviets in the uprising, and the date of the uprising. This is all the more necessary because Trotsky, in his zeal to push himself into a prominent place, has "inadvertently" misrepresented the stand Lenin took on the last two questions.

Undoubtedly, the disagreements on the question of the Pre-parliament were of a serious nature. What was, so to speak, the aim of the Pre-parliament? It was: to help the bourgeoisie to push the Soviets into the background and to lay the foundations of bourgeois parliamentarism. Whether the Pre-parliament could have accomplished this task in the revolutionary situation that had arisen is another matter. Events showed that this aim could not be realised, and the Pre-parliament itself was a Kornilovite abortion. There can be no doubt, however, that it was precisely this aim that the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries pursued in setting up the Pre-parliament. What could the Bolsheviks' participation in the Pre-parliament mean under those circumstances? Nothing but deceiving the proletarian masses about the true nature of the Pre-parliament. This is the chief explanation for the passion with which Lenin, in his letters, scourged those who were in favour of taking part in the Pre-parliament. There can be no doubt that it was a grave mistake to have taken part in the Pre-parliament.

It would be a mistake, however, to think, as Trotsky does, that those who were in favour of taking part in the Pre-parliament went into it for the purpose of constructive work, for the purpose of "directing the working-class movement" "into the channel of Social-Democracy." That is not at all the case.

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It is not true. Had that been the case, the Party would not have been able to rectify this mistake "in two ticks" by demonstratively walking out of the Pre-parliament. Incidentally, the swift rectification of this mistake was an expression of our Party's vitality and revolutionary might.

And now, permit me to correct a slight inaccuracy that has crept into the report of Lentsner, the "editor" of Trotsky's works, about the meeting of the Bolshevik group at which a decision on the question of the Pre-parliament was taken. Lentsner says that there were two reporters at this meeting, Kamenev and Trotsky. That is not true. Actually, there were four reporters: two in favour of boycotting the Pre-parliament (Trotsky and Stalin), and two in favour of participation (Kamenev and Nogin).

Trotsky is in a still worse position when dealing with the stand Lenin took on the question of the form of the uprising. According to Trotsky, it appears that Lenin's view was that the Party should take power in October "independently of and behind the back of the Soviet." Later on, criticising this nonsense, which he ascribes to Lenin, Trotsky "cuts capers" and finally delivers the following condescending utterance: "That would have been a mistake." Trotsky is here uttering a falsehood about Lenin, he is misrepresenting Lenin's views on the role of the Soviets in the uprising. A pile of documents can be cited, showing that Lenin proposed that power be taken through the Soviets, either the Petrograd or the Moscow Soviet, and not behind the back of the Soviets. Why did Trotsky have to invent this more than strange legend about Lenin?

Nor is Trotsky in a better position when he "analyses" the stand taken by the Central Committee and Lenin on the question of the date of the uprising. Reporting the famous meeting of the Central Committee of October 10, Trotsky asserts that

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at that meeting "a resolution was carried to the effect that the uprising should take place not later than October 15." From this it appears that the Central Committee fixed October 15 as the date of the uprising and then itself violated that decision by postponing the date of the uprising to October 25. Is that true? No, it is not. During that period the Central Committee passed only two resolutions on the uprising -- one on October 10 and the other on October 16. Let us read these resolutions.

The Central Committee's resolution of October 10:

"The Central Committee recognises that the international position of the Russian revolution (the mutiny in the German navy, which is an extreme manifestation of the growth throughout Europe of the world socialist revolution, and the threat of peace[*] between the imperialists with the object of strangling the revolution in Russia) as well as the military situation (the indubitable decision of the Russian bourgeoisie and Kerensky and Co. to surrender Petrograd to the Germans), and the fact that the proletarian party has gained a majority in the Soviets -- all this, taken in conjunction with the peasant revolt and the swing of popular confidence towards our Party (the elections in Moscow), and, finally, the obvious preparations being made for a second Kornilov affair (the withdrawal of troops from Petrograd, the dispatch of Cossacks to Petrograd, the surrounding of Minsk by Cossacks. etc.) -- all this places an armed uprising on the order of the day.
"Considering, therefore, that an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe, the Central Committee instructs all Party organisations to be guided accordingly, and to discuss and decide all practical questions (the Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region, the withdrawal of troops from Petrograd, the actions of the people in Moscow and Minsk, etc.) from this point of view."[27]

The resolution adopted by the conference of the Central Committee with responsible workers on October 16:

* Obviously, this should be "a separate peace." -- J. St.

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"This meetjng fully welcomes and wholly supports the Central Committee's resolution, calls upon all organisations and all workers and soldiers to make thorough and most intense preparations for an armed uprising and for support of the centre set up by the Central Committee for this purpose, and expresses complete confidence that the Central Committee and the Soviet will in good time indicate the favourable moment and the suitable means for launching the attack."[28]

You see that Trotsky's memory betrayed him about the date of the uprising and the Central Committee's resolution on the uprising.

Trotsky is absolutely wrong in asserting that Lenin underrated Soviet legality, that Lenin failed to appreciate the great importance of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets taking power on October 25, and that this was the reason why he insisted that power be taken before October 25. That is not true. Lenin proposed that power be taken before October 25 for two reasons. Firstly, because the counter-revolutionaries might have surrendered Petrograd at any moment, which would have drained the blood of the developing uprising, and so every day was precious. Secondly, because the mistake made by the Petrograd Soviet in openly fixing and announcing the day of the uprising (October 25) could not be rectified in any other way than by actually launching the uprising before the legal date set for it. The fact of the matter is that Lenin regarded insurrection as an art, and he could not help knowing that the enemy, informed about the date of the uprising (owing to the carelessness of the Petrograd Soviet) would certainly try to prepare for that day. Consequently, it was necessary to forestall the enemy, i.e., without fail to launch the uprising before the legal date. This is the chief explanation for the passion with which Lenin in his letters scourged those who made a fetish of the date -- October 25. Events showed that Lenin was absolutely right. It is well known that the uprising

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was launched prior to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. It is well known that power was actually taken before the opening of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and it was taken not by the Congress of Soviets, but by the Petrograd Soviet, by the Revolutionary Military Committee. The Congress of Soviets merely took over power from the Petrograd Soviet. That is why Trotsky's lengthy arguments about the importance of Soviet legality are quite beside the point.

A virile and mighty party standing at the head of the revolutionary masses who were storming and overthrowing bourgeois rule -- such was the state of our Party in that period.

That is how matters stand with the legends about the preparation for October.

III

TROTSKYISM OR LENINISM?

We have dealt above with the legends directed against the Party and those about Lenin spread by Trotsky and his supporters in connection with October and the preparation for it. We have exposed and refuted these legends. But the question arises: For what purpose did Trotsky need all these legends about October and the preparation for October, about Lenin and the Party of Lenin? What is the purpose of Trotsky's new literary pronouncements against the Party? What is the sense, the purpose, the aim of these pronouncements now, when the Party does not want a discussion, when the Party is busy with a host of urgent tasks, when the Party needs united efforts to restore our economy and not a new struggle around old ques tions? For what purpose does Trotsky need to drag the Party back, to new discussions?

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Trotsky asserts that all this is needed for the purpose of "studying" October. But is it not possible to study October without giving another kick at the Party and its leader Lenin? What sort of a "history" of October is it that begins and ends with attempts to discredit the chief leader of the October uprising, to discredit the Party, which organised and carried through the uprising? No, it is not a matter here of studying October. That is not the way to study October. That is not the way to write the history of October. Obviously, there is a different "design" here, and everything goes to show that this "design" is that Trotsky by his literary pronouncements is making another (yet another!) attempt to create the conditions for substituting Trotskyism for Leninism. Trotsky needs "desperately" to discredit the Party, and its cadres who carried through the uprising, in order, after discrediting the Party, to proceed to discredit Leninism. And it is necessary for him to discredit Leninism in order to drag in Trotskyism as the "sole" "proletarian" (don't laugh!) ideology. All this, of course (oh of course!) under the flag of Leninism, so that the dragging operation may be performed "as painlessly as possible."

That is the essence of Trotsky's latest literary pronouncements.

That is why those literary pronouncements of Trotsky's sharply raise the question of Trotskyism.

And so, what is Trotskyism?

Trotskyism possesses three specific features which bring it into irreconcilable contradiction with Leninism.

What are these features?

Firstly. Trotskyism is the theory of "permanent" (uninterrupted) revolution. But what is permanent revolution in its Trotskyist interpretation? It is revolution that fails to take the poor peasantry into account as a revolutionary force.

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Trotsky's "permanent" revolution is, as Lenin said, "skipping" the peasant movement, "playing at the seizure of power." Why is it dangerous? Because such a revolution, if an attempt had been made to bring it about, would inevitably have ended in failure, for it would have divorced from the Russian proletariat its ally, the poor peasantry. This explains the struggle that Leninism has been waging against Trotskyism ever since 1905.

How does Trotsky appraise Leninism from the standpoint of this struggle? He regards it as a theory that possesses "anti-revolutionary features." What is this indignant opinion about Leninism based on? On the fact that at the proper time Leninism advocated and upheld the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry.

But Trotsky does not confine himself to this indignant opinion. He goes further and asserts: "The entire edifice of Leninism at the present time is built on lies and falsification and bears within itself the poisonous elements of its own decay" (see Trotsky's letter to Chkheidze, 1913). As you see, we have before us two opposite lines.

Secondly. Trotskyism is distrust of the Bolshevik Party principle, of the monolithic character of the Party, of its hostility towards opportunist elements. In the sphere of organisation, Trotskyism is the theory that revolutionaries and opportunists can co-exist and form groups and coteries within a single party. You are, no doubt, familiar with the history of Trotsky's August bloc, in which the Martovites and Otzovists, the Liquidators and Trotskyites, happily co-operated, pretending that they were a "real" party. It is well known that this patchwork "party" pursued the aim of destroying the Bolshevik Party. What was the nature of "our disagreements" at that time? It was that Leninism regarded the destruction of the

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August bloc as a guarantee of the development of the proletarian party, whereas Trotskyism regarded that bloc as the basis for building a "real" party.

Again, as you see, we have two opposite lines.

Thirdly. Trotskyism is distrust of the leaders of Bolshevism, an attempt to discredit, to defame them. I do not know of a single trend in the Party that could compare with Trotskyism in the matter of discrediting the leaders of Leninism or the central institutions of the Party. For example, what should be said of Trotsky's "polite" opinion of Lenin, whom he described as "a professional exploiter of every kind of backwardness in the Russian working-class movement" (ibid.)? And this is far from being the most "polite" of the "polite" opinions Trotsky has expressed.

How could it happen that Trotsky, who carried such a nasty stock-in-trade on his back, found himself, after all, in the ranks of the Bolsheviks during the October movement? It happened because at that time Trotsky abandoned (actually did abandon) that stock-in-trade; he hid it in the cupboard. Had he not performed that "operation," real co-operation with him would have been impossible. The theory of the August bloc, i.e., the theory of unity with the Mensheviks, had already been shattered and thrown overboard by the revolution, for how could there be any talk about unity when an armed struggle was raging between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks? Trotsky had no alternative but to admit that this theory was useless.

The same misadventure "happened" to the theory of permanent revolution, for not a single Bolshevik contemplated the immediate seizure of power on the morrow of the February Revolution, and Trotsky could not help knowing that the Bolsheviks would not allow him, in the words of Lenin, "to play

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at the seizure of power." Trotsky had no alternative but recognise the Bolsheviks' policy of fighting for influence in the Soviets, of fighting to win over the peasantry. As regards the third specific feature of Trotskyism (distrust of the Bolshevik leaders), it naturally had to retire into the background owing to the obvious failure of the first two features.

Under those circumstances, could Trotsky do anything else but hide his stock-in-trade in the cupboard and follow the Bolsheviks, considering that he had no group of his own of any significance, and that he came to the Bolsheviks as a political individual, without an army? Of course, he could not!

What is the lesson to be learnt from this? Only one: that prolonged collaboration between the Leninists and Trotsky is possible only if the latter completely abandons his old stock in-trade, only if he completely accepts Leninism. Trotsky writes about the lessons of October, but he forgets that, in addition to all the other lessons, there is one more lesson of October, the one I have just mentioned, which is of prime importance for Trotskyism. Trotskyism ought to learn that lesson of October too.

It is evident, however, that Trotskyism has not learnt that lesson. The fact of the matter is that the old stock-in-trade of Trotskyism that was hidden in the cupboard in the period of the October movement is now being dragged into the light again in the hope that a market will be found for it, seeing that the market in our country is expanding. Undoubtedly, Trotsky's new literary pronouncements are an attempt to revert to Trotskyism, to "overcome" Leninism, to drag in, implant, all the specific features of Trotskyism. The new Trotskyism is not a mere repetition of the old Trotskyism; its feathers have been plucked and it is rather bedraggled; it is incomparably milder in spirit and more moderate in form than the old Trots-

page 133

kyism; but, in essence, it undoubtedly retains all the specific features of the old Trotskyism. The new Trotskyism does not dare to come out as a militant force against Leninism; it prefers to operate under the common flag of Leninism, under the slogan of interpreting, improving Leninism. That is because it is weak. It cannot be regarded as an accident that the appearance of the new Trotskyism coincided with Lenin's departure. In Lenin's lifetime it would not have dared to take this risky step.

What are the characteristic features of the new Trotskyism?

1) On the question of "permanent" revolution. The new Trotskyism does not deem it necessary openly to uphold the theory of "permanent" revolution. It "simply" asserts that the October Revolution fully confirmed the idea of "permanent" revolution. From this it draws the following conclusion: the important and acceptable part of Leninism is the part that came after the war, in the period of the October Revolution; on the other hand, the part of Leninism that existed before the war, before the October Revolution, is wrong and unacceptable. Hence, the Trotskyites' theory of the division of Leninism into two parts: pre-war Leninism, the "old," "useless" Leninism with its idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, and the new, post-war, October Leninism, which they count on adapting to the requirements of Trotskyism. Trotskyism needs this theory of the division of Leninism as a first, more or less "acceptable" step that is necessary to facilitate further steps in its struggle against Leninism.

But Leninism is not an eclectic theory stuck together out of diverse elements and capable of being cut into parts. Leninism is an integral theory, which arose in 1903, has passed the test of

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three revolutions, and is now being carried forward as the battle-flag of the world proletariat.

"Bolshevism," Lenin said, "as a trend of political thought and as a political party, has existed since 1903. Only the history of Bolshevism during the whole period of its existence can satisfactorily explain why it was able to build up and to maintain under most difficult conditions the iron discipline needed for the victory of the proletariat" (see Vol. XXV, p. 174).[1]

Bolshevism and Leninism are one. They are two names for one and the same thing. Hence, the theory of the division of Leninism into two parts is a theory intended to destroy Leninism, to substitute Trotskyism for Leninism.

Needless to say, the Party cannot reconcile itself to this grotesque theory.

2) On the question of the Party principle. The old Trotskyism tried to undermine the Bolshevik Party principle by means of the theory (and practice) of unity with the Mensheviks. But that theory has suffered such disgrace that nobody now even wants to mention it. To undermine the Party principle, present-day Trotskyism has invented the new, less odious and almost "democratic" theory of contrasting the old cadres to the younger Party members. According to Trotskyism, our Party has not a single and integral history. Trotskyism divides the history of our Party into two parts of unequal importance: pre-October and post-October. The pre-October part of the history of our Party is, properly speaking, not history, but "pre-history," the unimportant or, at all events, not very important preparatory period of our Party. The post-October part of the history of our Party, however, is real, genuine history. In the former, there are the "old," "pre-

^[1] Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder. II. One of the Fundamental Conditions for the Bolsheviks' Success. (1920)

page 135

historic," unimportant cadres of our Party. In the latter there is the new, real, "historic" Party. It scarcely needs proof that this singular scheme of the history of the Party is a scheme to disrupt the unity between the old and the new cadres of our Party, a scheme to destroy the Bolshevik Party principle.

Needless to say, the Party cannot reconcile itself to this grotesque scheme.

3) On the question of the leaders of Bolshevism. The old Trotskyism tried to discredit Lenin more or less openly, with out fearing the consequences. The new Trotskyism is more cautious. It tries to achieve the purpose of the old Trotskyism by pretending to praise, to exalt Lenin. I think it is worth while quoting a few examples.

The Party knows that Lenin was a relentless revolutionary; but it knows also that he was cautious, that he disliked reckless people and often, with a firm hand, restrained those who were infatuated with terrorism, including Trotsky himself. Trotsky touches on this subject in his book On Lenin, but from his portrayal of Lenin one might think that all Lenin did was "at every opportunity to din into people's minds the idea that terrorism was inevitable." The impression is created that Lenin was the most bloodthirsty of all the bloodthirsty Bolsheviks.

For what purpose did Trotsky need this uncalled-for and totally unjustified exaggeration?

The Party knows that Lenin was an exemplary Party man, who did not like to settle questions alone, without the leading collective body, on the spur of the moment, without careful investigation and verification. Trotsky touches upon this aspect, too, in his book. But the portrait he paints is not that of Lenin, but of a sort of Chinese mandarin, who settles important questions in the quiet of his study, by intuition.

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Do you want to know how our Party settled the question of dispersing the Constituent Assembly? Listen to Trotsky:

"'Of course, the Constituent Assembly will have to be dispersed,' said Lenin, 'but what about the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries?'

"But our apprehensions were greatly allayed by old Natanson. He came in to 'take counsel' with us, and after the first few words he said:

"'We shall probably have to disperse the Constituent Assembly by force.'

"'Bravo!' exclaimed Lenin. 'What is true is true! But will your people agree to it?'

"'Some of our people are wavering, but I think that in the end they will agree,' answered Natanson."

That is how history is written.

Do you want to know how the Party settled the question about the Supreme Military Council? Listen to Trotsky:

" 'Unless we have serious and experienced military experts we shall never extricate ourselves from this chaos,' I said to Vladimir Ilyich after every visit to the Staff.

"'That is evidently true, but they might betray us. . . .'

"'Let us attach a commissar to each of them.'

"'Two would be better,' exclaimed Lenin, 'and strong handed ones. There surely must be strong-handed Communists in our ranks.'

"That is how the structure of the Supreme Military Council arose."

That is how Trotsky writes history.

Why did Trotsky need these "Arabian Nights" stories derogatory to Lenin? Was it to exalt V. I. Lenin, the leader of the Party? It doesn't look like it.

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The Party knows that Lenin was the greatest Marxist of our times, a profound theoretician and a most experienced revolutionary, to whom any trace of Blanquism was alien. Trotsky touches upon this aspect, too, in his book. But the portrait he paints is not that of the giant Lenin, but of a dwarf like Blanquist who, in the October days, advises the Party "to take power by its own hand, independently of and behind the back of the Soviet." I have already said, however, that there is not a scrap of truth in this description. Why did Trotsky need this flagrant . . . inaccuracy? Is this not an attempt to discredit Lenin "just a little"?

Such are the characteristic features of the new Trotskyism.

What is the danger of this new Trotskyism? It is that Trots kyism, owing to its entire inner content, stands every chance of becoming the centre and rallying point of the non-proletarian elements who are striving to weaken, to disintegrate the proletarian dictatorship.

You will ask: what is to be done now? What are the Party's immediate tasks in connection with Trotsky's new literary pronouncements?

Trotskyism is taking action now in order to discredit Bolshevism and to undermine its foundations. It is the duty of the Party to bury Trotskyism as an ideological trend.

There is talk about repressive measures against the opposition and about the possibility of a split. That is nonsense, comrades. Our Party is strong and mighty. It will not allow any splits. As regards repressive measures, I am emphatically opposed to them. What we need now is not repressive meas ures, but an extensive ideological struggle against renascent Trotskyism.

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We did not want and did not strive for this literary discussion. Trotskyism is forcing it upon us by its anti-Leninist pronouncements. Well, we are ready, comrades.

Pravda, No. 269,
November 26, 1924

Mao, Stalin & Marx Library

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page 900

NOTES

^[20] The "Contact Committee," consisting of Chkheidze, Steklov, Sukhanov, Filippovsky and Skobelev (and later Chernov and Tsereteli), was set up by the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies on March 7, 1917, for the purpose of establishing contact with the Provisional Government, of "influencing" it and "controlling" its activities. Actually, the "Contact Committee" helped to carry out the bourgeois policy of the Provisional Government and restrained the masses of the workers from waging an active revolutionary struggle to transfer all power to the Soviets. The "Contact Committee" existed until May 1917, when representatives of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries entered the Provisional Government. [p.114]

^[21] See V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, F.L.P.H., Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 1, pp. 13-19. [p.115]

^[22] The Petrograd City Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.) took place from April 14-22 (April 27-May 5), 1917, with 57 delegates present. V. I. Lenin and J. V. Stalin took part in the proceedings. V. I. Lenin delivered a report on the current situation based on his April Theses.

page 901

J. V. Stalin was elected to the commission for drafting the resolution on V. I. Lenin's report. [p.115]

^[23] Concerning the Seventh (April) All-Russian Conference of the Bolshevik Party see the History of the C.P.S.U.(B.), Short Course, Moscow, 1952, pp. 291-96. [p.115]

^[24] See V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, International Publishers, New York, 1929, Vol. XX, Bk. I, pp. 27-63. [p.116]

^[25] See "Speech by V. I. Lenin at the Meeting of the Petrograd Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.), June 24 (11), 1917, Concerning the Cancelling of the Demonstration." [p.120]

^[26] The Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of the Northern Region took place in Petrograd on October 24-26 (11-13), 1917, under the direction of the Bolsheviks. Representatives were present from Petrograd, Moscow, Kronstadt, Novgorod, Reval, Helsingfors, Vyborg and other cities. In all there were 94 delegates, of whom 51 were Bolsheviks. The congress adopted a resolution on the need for immediate transference of all power to the Soviets, central and local. It called upon the peasants to support the struggle for the transference of power to the Soviets and urged the Soviets themselves to commence active operations and to set up Revolutionary Military Committees for organising the military defence of the revolution. The congress set up a Northern Regional Committee and instructed it to prepare for the convocation of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets and to co-ordinate the activities of all the Regional Soviets. [p.122]

^[27] See Meeting of tbe Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P., October 10 (23), 1917. [p.126]

^[28] See Meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P., October 16 (29), 1917. [p.127]

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SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY

"The laborer is the owner of his
labor power until he has done bar-
gaining for its sale with the capital-
ist, and he can sell no more than
what he has--i.e., his individual,
isolated labor power."
			-Karl Marx.

BROTHER JONATHAN

by Danel De Leon

Excerpts

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 1
WHAT CONSTITUTES CAPITAL TODAY?

UNCLE SAM--So long as the capitalist class rules, you need not look for 
	improvement; it won't come.
BROTHER JONATHAN--Bother "capitalist class"! there is no such thing as 
	"capitalist class." We are all capitalists.
U.S.--You among them?
B.J.--Yes, I among them.
U.S.--And what does your "capital" consist in?
B.J.--In what? (stretching out his arms) In these.
U.S.--Do you imagine that the spanish Admiral Montojo at Manila and his
      men had no arms?
B.J.--They certainly had arms.
U.S.--And are you aware that he had more men under him than Dewey had?
B.J.--Yes.
U.S.--And yet Dewey and the fewer men under him mopped up Manila Bay with
      Montojo?
B.J.--Guess they did.
U.S.--How did they manage that?
B.J.--They had infinitely superior guns, and all that.
U.S.--Superior war material?
B.J.--Yes.
U.S.--But I thought you said Montojo had more men with him, and, 
      accordingly, more arms and hands.
B.J.--But arms and hands are not war material.
U.S.--Accordingly, what would you think of me, if I said to you, "Bother
      war materials; there is no such thing as a man equipped with war
      materials; we are all so equipped; look at my arms and hands; these
      are my war materials"--what would you say to that?
B.J. looks at U.S. in blank amazement.
U.S.--Have you been struck with dumbness?
B.J.--How can you call arms and hands war materials?
U.S.--That is absurd, isn't it?
B.J.--I should think so!
U.S.--Just so absurd it is to call your arms and hands "capital."
B.J.--What then is "capital"?
U.S.--To be entitled to the term capital a thing must combine two
      qualities:

1. It must be a tool, or implement of labor; that quality alone excludes
   your arms and hands; your arms and hands are not the product of human 
   labor, implements of labor are;
2. It must powerful enough to disable those who do not own it from 
   competing with him who does.

From this last it follows that a thing may be capital at one time and not
capital at another; capital at one place and not capital at another place.

B.J.--Why, that becomes very mixed up.
U.S.--Only if you don't hold firmly to the definition. The loom that
      preceded the Northrop loom was capital in New England so long as
      the Northrop loom did not exist, because that predecessor was powerful
      enough exclude competition; but just as soon as the Northrop loom 
      shall be thoroughly introduced, the old loom ceases to be capital 
      because the Northrop loom is much more powerful.
      Likewise, If the old loom that ceased to be capital in New England 
      is shipped to some distant corner where the Northrop loom has not 
      been set up, it will there be capital, while in New England it would
      not be.
B.J.--I can see that.
U.S.--Then take this illustration, which reduces the matter to dollars and
      cents. thirty odd years ago $500 sufficed to set up a brewery in this
      city. Ehret, the brewer, did so. That $500 represented the value of 
      the implements of a brewery and was capital then; today $500,000 would
      be needed to set up a brewery with any chance as a competitor.
B.J.--I heard of that.
U.S.--But you did not digest its significance. Capital, especially today,
      is such large aggregate of wealth as can defy competition in 
      production. the class that holds that is the capitalist class;
      You had better not say "bother" about it, or you will get left as
      Montojo did in Manila.
				Transcribed by redflag 8/17/96

http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 2
DEFINITION OF CAPITAL

 	BROTHER JONATHAN steps up jauntily.
 	UNCLE SAM--Hey! Ho!
 	B.J.--Somebody gave me a nut for you to crack that will make
all your Socialist science look like thirty cents.
 	U.S.--Good!
 	B.J.--It shows that your Socialist science is nothing but a tissue
of contradictions.
 	U.S.--Better still!
 	B.J.--It shows that you Socialists do not know what you are
talking about--
 	U.S.--But you're mighty long about trotting out your wonderful
uncrackable nut.
 	B.J.--All in due time. The nut will prove by logic that, if that
which Socialists call "science" is really science, then labor, that is,
the workingman, must be the capitalist; that the "exploiter" of whom we
hear so much in Socialist harangues, must be some person outside of the
two classes, whom labor is silly enough to permit itself to be exploited
by. Sabe? That's what the nut will prove.
 	U.S.--Out with your "nut," man! Out with it!
 	B.J.--(Placing his arms akimbo)--Don't Socialists say that labor
produces all wealth?
 	U.S.--Yep!
 	B.J.--Don't socialists say that, seeing that labor produces all
wealth, labor is, therefore,  entitled to the whole wealth?
 	U.S.--Yep!
 	B.J.--Don't Socialists say that exploitation is the cause of the
struggle between capital and labor?
 	U.S.--Yep--provided that by "capital" you mean in that sentence
the capitalist class. The struggle is between the capitalist class and
the working class.
 	B.J.--That's what I mean.
 	U.S.--Then, yep, again.
 	B.J.--Now then, if labor produces all wealth and wealth is 
capital--
 	U.S.--Who said "wealth  is capital"?
 	B.J.--Let me finish my sentence.--If labor produces all wealth and
wealth is capital, then it follows logically that labor must be the
capitalist, and the exploiter some person outside the two classes. There
now. Crack that!
 	U.S.--Is your sentence now finished?
 	B.J.(Radiant with pride)--It is--crack that nut!
 	U.S. puts his hands to his hips, doubles up like a jack-knife and
burst out laughing.
 	B.J.(petulantly)--You can't bluff me with your roars!
 	U.S.--Now I'll ask again: Who said wealth is capital?
 	B.J.--Who?
 	U.S.--Yes.
 	B.J.--Don't Socialists say so?
 	U.S.--Indeed not! See here--your name is Jonathan and are you a man?
 	B.J.--Yes.
 	U.S.--All Jonathans are men, but are all men Jonathans?
 	B.J.--Guess not!
 	U.S.--So with "wealth" and "capital." All "capital" is "wealth,"
 but all "wealth" is not "capital."
 	B.J.--Oh!
 	U.S.--All things that are useful to man, and are the product of
labor, are wealth, and that takes in the plants of production. Only that
portion of wealth that is used for the production of more wealth, that is,
the plants of production, becomes "capital" in capitalist society, so that
all wealth is not "capital," although all capital is wealth.
 	B.J.--Oh!
 	U.S.--Your major premise being knocked out, what becomes of your
conclusion?
 	B.J.--Oh!
 	U.S.--Labor produces all wealth. A portion of that wealth becomes,
under capitalism, "capital". Capital is that portion of wealth which,
being privately owned in a society where proletarians abound, is used to
produce more wealth by a system that exploits the capital-less proletarians.
Hence, although labor is the producer, it is not a person outside of the
two classes. The exploiter is a person--
 	B.J.--Inside of the two classes!
 	U.S.--And who is that inside person?
 	B.J.--Why, the capitalist!
 	U.S.--Now, Jonathan, you go straight to the fellow who put that
nut into your head, and hold his head under the town pump.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 8/23/96.
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 3

THE BEST TOOL OF PRODUCTION.

	BROTHER JONATHAN--I listened the other day to a 
Socialist speaker and I chuckled
	UNCLE SAM--Weren't you convinced?
	B.J.--Nay, nay! I chuckled at the way the man con-
tradicted himself, and he did not even seem to know it.
	U.S.--How? What? In what way?
	B.J.--It was worth listening to him: he confirmed me
in the belief that Socialists talk through their hats.
	U.S.--Oh, ho!
	B.J.--(With a cocksure wink)--Yes, siree. Here is
what he said: "The solution of the social, or labor, pro-
em, is the ownership by labor of the land on and the tools
with which to work. Once master of the two, labor will be
master of all the wealth it produces."
	U.S.--That's, pretty sound doctrine, and it will take
more than any pot-bellied wiseacre like you to refute it,
	B.J.--(With increased cocksurcness)--Pot-belIied or
not, I'll refute it with his own words.
	U.S.--Let 'er rip!
	B.J.--In the course of his address, before and after
making that statement I just quoted, he referred to the
farmers.
	U.S.--The small farmers?
	B.J.--Small or big matters not.
	U.S.--Eh!
	B.J.--And he showed very accurately that the farmer
was being driven to the wall, and was growing poorer and
poorer despite his industry.
	U.S.--And that is perfectly true of the small farmer.
	U.J.--You drive me out of all patience by talking
"small fanner," "small farmer." What's the odds?
	U.S.--All the odds in the world-
	B.J.--Then you, too, contradict yourself.
	U.S.--You will have to be more explicit
	B.J.--I shall. The farmer, small or big, owns his
land and his tools of production  Now, then, if the owner-
ship of these assures to a man the property in the products
of his labor, then must the farmer, whether small or large,
he well off. We know he is not, That is the contradiction
in your theory, and there it goes.  (B.J. sinks his hands
deep into his trouser pockets, and puts on a now-ou-get-
out-of-that-if-you-can look.)
	U.S.--Was that it?
	B.J.--That was it.
	U S.--Now, Jonathan, the trouble lay with you, and
not with the Socialist speaker. You went to that meeting as
you go to your prayer-meeting, to take a snooze, and you
heard only one part of what he said.
	B.J.--Which part did I not hear?
	U.S.-You did not hear his explanation of the word
"capital"--the modern tool of prodution.
	B.J.--Are not all tools capital? Is not an old style
plow capital, as well as a steam plow?
	U.S.--No, sir. The value of Corn depends upon the
labor necessary to produce it, the same as all other goods.
	B.J.--Very well.
	U.S.--If you and I produce corn with an old style
plow, we must both put the same amount of labor into every
bushel of corn that we produce.
	B.J.---Very well.
	U.S.--Then you can't undersell me, and 'can't under-
sell you
	B.J.--That's so.
	U.S.--But now suppose that some farmer starts to
work with a steam plow and such other large means of
production  How are we affected?
	B.J.--How?
	U.S.--With the steam plow and steam harvester work
can be done quickly; larger tracts of land are necessary to
employ the machine on.  Without the machine you and I
can't cover large acres. With the machine, thousands of
acres can be covered with less labor than without it. The
production of corn becomes more plentiful, the amount of
labor that is then put into each bushel is less. You admit
that the value of the bushel depends upon the labor re-
quired in its production. Consequently, the farmer with the
steam appliances can undersell us.  If before we got $1
per bushel, we can now get only fifty cents. Am I right?
	B.J.--Hem!
	U.S.--Where are we then?
	B.J.'s brow puckers
	U.	S.~Now, gct back a moment. When you and I
plowed our land with old style plows upon the little patches
which we would cover with the old style tool, didn't we
have the bulge on somebody?
	B.J.--Not that I know 0f
	U.S.--You don't? What about our farm hands! the
fellows who had neither land nor plow?
	B.J.--Why, we hired them.
	U.S.--Yes, we "hired" them. Was their hire equal
to what they produced?
	B.J.--'Course not. The idea of giving a hired man as
much as he produces! Of what benefit would he be to us?
	U.S.--Right you are. No employer hires a man un-
less that man will produce more than he receives. Do you
imagine a man likes to produce two dollars' worth of corn,
and only receive in payment one dollar?
	B.J.--(Shaking his bead from  right to left)--Rekon
not.
	U.S.--Now, what is it that induced such a man to
take a position under which he was skinned? What gave
us the bulge on him?
	B.J. Contemplates a man on the other end of the
street who is whipping his horse.
	U.S.--What drove him to that?
	B.J.--Hunger, I guess.
	U.S.--The long and short of it is that the farm hand,
then as now, had not and has not the necessities of produc-
tion.
	B.J.--But land was cheap, he could get that.
	U.S.--Yes, but land alone, without the tools of pro-
duction, is valueless.
	B.J. (With a nod expressive of esperience)--True
enough.
	U, S-There is where we had the bulge on him. Now
just consider this: Our old style plows were much simpler
than the steam plow. A man might, if he could keep him-
self alive in the meantime, make an old style plow himself
In a few months Even in those olden days, when the tool
in general use was so much simpler, the man who didn't
have it had to hire himself to be plucked for the sake of
a living. That being the case, what chance have small fry
farmers, such as you and I, today, when we hare to com-
pete with the steam plow?
	B.J. Looks decidedly despondent.
	U.S.--The steam plow and other such appliances re-
duce the amount of labor that there is in each bushel, and
thereby reduce the amount of wealth we can get. Former-
ly even when the plow and harvester, etc., were so much
simpler, the man without them could not make them for
himself, and had to become a wage slave and put up with
wages less than what he produced. Today when the tool
is the stean plow, etc., which none of us can think of pro'
ducing in a lifetirne, where are we?
	B.J.--Busted!
	U.S.--Yes, there is where the large farmer got the
bulge on us. Do you now understand what 'capital" means?
That steam plow, that modern machinery of production, is
"capital" The simpler plow was "capital" in years gone
by only to the man who had no plow; now "capital"
has grown, and the modern plow, harvester, etc., is "capi-
tal" not only to the man who has none, but to us who
have the former "capital"--the old style plow.  "Capi-
tal" is originally that machinery of production which dis-
able those who have none at all from working for them-
selves; presently, "capital" the tool, becomes more power-
ful, and it not only disables more completely those who
have none from working for themselves--
	B.J.--(Taking sudden alarm)~By Jericho. It also
disables those who have smaller tools from competing with
it!
	U.S.--It breaks them--
	B.J.--Rips them wide open--
	U.S.--Throws them into bankruptcy-
	B.J.--Makes wage slaves out of them.
	U.S.--Yes, yes.  Of what use to us are such tools as
we farmers have?
	B.J.--They are not worth a tinker's dam!
	U.S.--Do you see he difrerence between the small
farmer and the big one?
	B.J.--Why, of course!
	U S-And don't you see that to talk of us as having
"capital" is empty mockery or stupidity?
	B.J.--So it is!
	U.S.--And that to say, as you said before, that "we
have tools" is folly?
	B.J.--Well, I must have been asleep
	U.S.--Indeed, you must have been, Our tools are no
longer "capital" they are not even "property" worth the
name. They are a delusion of "property" We are sink-
ing, together with the small industrialists! because we do
not possess *the* tool of production that is now capital.
Hence, the little wealth we produce shrivels in our hands.
If that little wealth shrivels in our hands, how much more
must not the wealth shrivel in the hands of the unfortunate
man who hires himself out because he has no tools what-
ever--the workingman?
	B.J.--The first time I meet that Socialist lecturer
again, I am gong to tender him my apologies. I see it all.
He was right. Without the tool of production man is not
master of the wealth he creates.
	U.S.--And the tool of production needed to secure
such masterhood--
	B.J.-Is *capital*--that is, the best tool in operation;
none other deserves consideration.
	U.S.-You've got it now. Don't let it go, and impart
the knowledge to others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 3/14/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 4

EXCHANGE VALUE DEFINED.

	BROTHER JONATHAN--I have frequently heard you use
the term "exchange value." Now, I wish you would remem-
ber that I am no college professor, but a plain workingman.
What does that term mean In English?
	UNCLE SAM--And before going further I wish you to
remember that one need not be a "college professor" to
buckle down to the common sense proposition that, if he
wants to talk intelligently on a scientific question, he must
use and understand technical terms.
	B.J.--But can't you use some other and plainer word?
	U.S.--Could you not use some other word than
"shuttle" or "woof," when you speak of weaving?
	B.J.-Yes, I could, but it would be clumsy to do so,
and then one might be misunderstood. If you say "shuttle"
or "woof" you are understood without the peradventure of
a mistake.
	U.S.--And that is just why, when talking economics,
every sensible man, from the most poetic, like Lassalle, down
to the plainest, must use the term "exchange value" instead
of some roundabout phrase.
	B.J.--Well, let it be so. What does the thing mean?
	U.S.--If you took thirty yards of your cloth to market
and wished to have wheat, you would be willing to exchange
the cloth for wheat, would you not?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--Would you be willing to give all the thirty yards
for one bushel of wheat?
	B.J.--Are you crazy?
	U.S.--Not yet. Would you?
	B.J.--Not much, I wouldn't.
	U.S.--Why not?
	B.J.--Because my thirty yards of cloth are worth $21,
while a bushel of wheat is worth only 70 cents.
	U.S.--Now, then, the "exchange value" of one yard
of your cloth is one bushel of wheat; and the exchange value
of one bushel of wheat is one yard of your cloth.  "Ex-
change value" means that quantity of value that goods have,
and for which they may be exchanged.
	B.J. (Looking astonished)--Now, that beats all I ever
saw The thing is simple. I imagined it was some very pro-
found thing, that "exchange value."  I see, however, that
there is nothing particular about it. I wonder why you and
all Socialists talk so much about it.
	U.S.--Because thereby hang all the prophets and the
law, so to speak.
	B.J.--I can't imagine that.
	U.S.--I'll show you. Why are you willing to exchange
one yard of your cloth for one bushel of wheat, and thirty
yards of your cloth for thirty bushels of wheat?
	B.J.--Because they are worth the same thing.
	U.S.--And why are they worth the same thing?
	B.J.--Because...why...yes...because...why, don't you
know?
	U.S.--I do; but do you?
	B.J.--Well...yes...because...why, of course...
	U.S.--Don't flounder. Just because the quantity of la-
bor present society needs to produce a bushel of wheat is the
same as the quantity of labor present society needs to pro-
duce a yard of your cloth.
	B.J.--Very well. What of it?
	U.S.--A good deal. This is the pivot upon which the
whole social question revolves.
	B.J. (Astonished)--You don't mean to say so!
	U.S.--I do. Suppose someone starts a large farm and
applies improved machinery, and is able to turn out two
bushels of wheat in the time and with the labor with which
the farmer now turns out one bushel, would you be willing
to continue to exchange one yard of your cloth for one
bushel of wheat?
	B.J. (With indignation)--Indeed I would not!
	U.S.--You would want--
	B.J.--Every bit of two bushels.
	U.S.--Do you realize why?
	B.J.--Well, I guess on the principle you just mentioned
--the amount of labor society requires to produce one yard
of my cloth is equal to the quantity of labor required to pro-
duce two bushels of wheat.
	U.S.--Correct I The exchange value of one yard has
become equal to two bushels. And suppose the method of
producing wheat were further perfected, and ten bushels
were turned out in the same time that it formerly took to
turn out one?
	B.J. (Beating his hands with glee)--That would be
bully! I would then get ten bushels per yard of cloth. The
exchange value of my cloth would be equal to ten bushels.
	U.S.--And if one hundred bushels were turned out in
the time it now takes to turn out one?
	B.J.--Bullier yet! I would get one hundred bushels
per yard; that would be the exchange value of one yard of
my cloth.
	U.S.--You are joyful before season. Don't you see
whither that tends?
	B.J.--No.
	U.S.--Let us turn the tables around. Suppose someone
starts weaving with a better machine than yours and. turns
out two yards in the same time it takes you to turn out one,
do you imagine the farmer would let you have a whole
bushel of wheat for one yard of your cloth?
	B.J.'s face begins to fall.
	U.S.--Would he?
	B.J.--No.
	U.S.--How much will he let you have?
	B.J.--Guess only half a bushel.
	U.S.--Why?
	B.J.--Because that has become the exchange value of
his bushel of wheat.
	U.S.--And suppose the competing weaver turns out ten
yards with his machine while you are turning out only one,
what would then be the exchange value of the goods of you
and the farmer?
	B.J.--One yard of my cloth would be worth one-tenth
of a busheL
	U.S.--And if your competitor turned out one hundred
yards to your one?
	B.J. (With a decidedly sad look on him)--I would
starve.
	U.S.--Why?
	B.J.--Because one yard of my goods would be worth
only one-hundredth bushel, and I could not then produce
fast enough to keep me in food.
	U.S.--Do you now see whither all that tends?
	B.J.--I have an idea I do.
	U.S.--Whither ddes it tend?
	B.J.--It tends to my ruin.
	U.S.--Let us state the case more pointedly: The law of
exchange value demonstrates that the more perfect machinery
becomes--
	B.J.--The less labor is spent in the production of a
single thing--
	U.S.--And, consequently, that he who has not the
requisite capital or machinery to produce with--
	B.J.--Can't compete with him who has.
	U.S.--And the result is that he must be ruined. The
new Northrop loom, for instance, will throw you on your
back the same as perfected machinery has thrown every
small competitor on his back. Now, do you see all there is in
that simple law of "exchange value"?
	B.J. (Heaves a deep sigh)--Guess I do now.
	U.S.--The law of exchange value is a cardinal law of
economics. It should be carried before the eyes as the Jews
carry their phylacteries. It must never be lost sight of. If
you lose sight of it for a moment, your whole reasoning cap-
sizes.
	Labor, the quantity of labor society needs to produce
goods with, establishes the exchange value of these goods.
From that fact follows inevitably:
	1. That the less labor society needs for the production
of anything, all the less is its exchange value;
	2. That machinery, because it increases production and
the productive power of labor, causes the exchange value of
goods to decline;
	3. That, as a result of this, those who cannot produce
with machinery as perfect as the most perfect, are unable
long to compete with him who can, because the exchange
value of the goods produced by him is so much less that he
can undersell the others and drive them out of the market;
	4. That the small man is hopelessly lost, whether on
farm or in factory;
	5. That the price the 'vorker can get for his labor power
steadily declines-all the advantages of increased production
of wealth falling to the capitalists, i.e., to those who hold
possession of the perfected machine;
	6. That the masses, unable to earn their living, because
deprived of the instruments socially necessary to produce
wealth, are bound to become more and more dependent upon
the capitalists; and
	7. That nothing short of placing in the hands of the
workers the machinery and the land they need for produc-
tion wilt in the remotest way do them any good. Otherwise
they will decline steadily and inevitably.
	B.J. (Giving Uncle Sam his hand)--You were right.
Technical language is a necessity in dealing with such ques-
tions. I now see it all as on a map. The law of exchange
value settles the question.  We may flounder about as we
like for an escape from the increasingly tighter fix into which
we are getting, but no scheme will bring help. The law of
exchange value settles it. We must move on toward Social-
ism. That or death.
	U.S.--And now you realize the wisdom of the Social-
ists to hammer upon that point.
	B.J.--Fully.  Only by constant hammering will that
truth finally stick in our noodles. With it we will move on
and conquer; without it we shall flounder about as I did at
first.  Hammer, Uncle Sam, hammer away!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 3/18/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The laborer is the owner of hislabor power until he has done bar-
gaining for its sale with the capitalist, and he can sell no more 
than what he has--i.e., his individual, isolated labor power."
			                           --Karl Marx.

DIALOGUE 5

THE LABOR MARKET.

    BROTHER JONATHAN--You can't imagine what I heard
	a Socialist Labor Party organizer say the other night.
    UNCLE SAM--Something worth white listening to, I'll
	warrant.
    B.J.--Quite the contrary! He was trying to make
	his audience believe that under the present system we were
	all slaves--wage slaves I think he called us; that we were
	sold in the market like pork, beef and shoes, and a lot more
	such rot. Now, you don't believe all that stuff and non-
	sense, do you?
    U.S.--Why, certainly, I do. Every fact in economics
	bears it out.
    B.J.--Wbat, *you* believe that you are a slave; that
	you are bought and sold?
    U.S.--Yes, my man, let's be sensible and not allow
	our vanities to blind us to our own undoing. We are mer-
	chandise just as are pork and beef; we are sold in the mar-
	ket just as are shoes and stockings; we are enslaved. Look
	as you may into the works of our Revolutionary Fathers,
	never once will you come across the term "labor market."
	The workingrnan was not then merchandise. Opportunities
	--natural and social--were then open to all; each man
	could be, and was, the architect of his own fortune, or mis-
	fortune. In those days, had anyone used the term "labor
	market," he would have been understood as little as if he
	had used the word "monoplane"; neither of the two was
	yet in existence. Like the latter, so is the term "labor mar-
	ket" a subsequent development, and that development is
	indicated by the pregnant expression "labor market"--we
	are enslaved.
    B.J.--Then all that was gained by the Revolutionary
	and Civil Wars is lost again?
    U.S.--But not beyond recall. Our slavery a hundred
	and odd years ago arose from our political dependence
	upon a foreign power; accordingly, our freedom at that
	time had to be gained by our asserting our independence.
	Now, then, today our slavery arises from the circumstance
	of our being merchandise lying on the shelves of the mar-
	ket--along with beef and pork and potatoes; accordingly,
	our freedom from this new bondage must be gained by our
	stripping ourselves away from the economic companionship
	of pork and beef, and shoes and leather, and all other mer-
	chandise; we must dare to claim our rights and perform
	our duties as men, as human being's. To do that now, we
	must overthrow the present tyrant class--the capitalist
	class--and the present tyrant system--the capitalist or
	wage slavery system--and set up the Socialist Republic
	where the instruments of production shall be owned by all;
	and thus all who work may be free. Fall to, Jonathan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 3/19/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 6

LABOR A MERCHANDISE.

	BROTHER JONATHAN-To me it is clear that the Social-
	      ists have no logic in them. How they do contradict them-
              selves! Any man of average intelligence could see that.
	UNCLE SAM--I wish you would aid me with your intelligence,
 	      because I don't see the contradictions you speak of.
	B.J.--Don't Socialists claim that the wages of the
	      workers represent the market price of labor?
	U.S.--Yes.
	B.J.--And don't they say that this cheapening of the
	      price of labor comes from the cheaper price of the things
              needed to produce labor power?
	U.S.--Yes. I see no contradiction in this.
	B.J.--Neither do I. That's all right. But I claim that
              it is illogical, after one has said all this, to claim that, 
              therefore, the workingman shall have all the wealth. I call
	      it illogical to say first that the price of labor is going
	      down and then claim that the reward of labor should go up.
	U.S.--The logic of that is all right, the trouble with
              you is that you don't understand all you say.
	B.J.--I don't?
	U.S.--No. The price of labor declines where labor is
              a merchandise. Under the capitalist system labor is not clad
              with the attributes of humanity; it is simply a merchandise.
              If your finger is in the fire What happens?
	B.J.--It burns.
	U.S.--And if you leave it there it will burn to nothing, eh?
	B.J.--Guess so.
	U.S.--Because your finger will burn to nothing in a flame, 
	      therefore is it illogical for you to want to keep your
              whole finger?
	B.J.--No; that would not be illogical.
	U.S.--No more is it illogical for the working class,
              who in the flame of capitalism will be consumed, to want to
              pull out and keep whole.
	B.J.--How?
	U.S.--When the Socialists say that just because the price of 
	      labor is bound to decline, therefore the worker must
              keep all he produces, it is just like saying that just
	      because under the capitalist system labor is a merchandise,
	      labor must pull out or destroy the capitalist system, cease
              to be a merchandise, and become human and enjoy all that man
 	      is entitled to.  Is that gun spiked?
	B.J.  remains silent.
	U.S.--Having ripped you on that side, I'll rip you up
              on another side.
	B.J.--But one side will do.
	U.S.--No; when a fellow knows he knows as little as
              you do on these things and yet he will impertinently shoot
              off his mouth, he must be thoroughly thrashed. So here goes.
              The worker does some kind of work-in fact, he does it all;
              so or not so?
	B.J.--'Tis so.
	U.S.--The capitalist class does no manner of work; so
              or not so?
	B.J.--'Tis so.
	U.S.--It follows that, even though actually the ser-
              vices of the working class were becoming less valuable, the
              working class is entitled to the whole of the wealth because
              it does the work, while the capitalist class now renders no
              services whatever, and consequently it is wholly a valueless
              class. Now, go to bed, Jonathan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 3/31/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 7

THE COMMODITY LABOR POWER.

	UNCLE SAM--I hope, Jonathan, that this election you
	      will strike a blow for freedom and vote the Socialist Labor
	      Party ticket straight down.
	BROTHER JONATHAN--No, I won't.
	U.S.--You prefer to remain in wage slavery?
	B.J.--I can t remain in what I am not. I am not a
	      slave, "wage" or otherwise.
	U.S.--Oh, you innocent abroad!
	B.J.--See here, you Socialists would do a good deal
	      better if you did not exaggerate. This calling of people
	      "slaves" does you no good. No man here is a slave. No
	      one will believe you. Stick to reforms, and don't try to be
	      radical, especially where there is nothing to be radical 
	      about. We are free, not slaves.
	U.S.--Are you through with your assertions?
	B.J.--Quite through.
	U.S.--Now answer me a few questions.
	B.J.  (With a cocksure toss of the head)--As many
	      as you like.
	U.S.--What does that baker over there live by?
	B.J.--He lives by selling bread.
	U.S.--And that hatter across the way?
	B.J.--By selling hats.
	U.S.--And yonder woman at the fruit-stand?
	B.J.--By selling fruit.
	U.S.--And that motorman on the car that just went
	      by?
	B.J.  (Looking puzzled for a while)--He? Hem!
	      Why, he lives on his wages.
	U.S.--Do wages grow on him like apples on apple
	      trees?
	B.J.--How you talk! Wages don't "grow" on him, he
	      receives wages from his employer.
	U.S.--The same as the baker receives pay for his bread
	      from his customers?
	B.J.--Just the same.
	U.S.--And the same as the hatter receives pay for his
	      hat from his customers?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--And the same as that woman at the fruit-stand
	      receives pay for her fruit from her customers?
	B.J.--Just the same.
	U.S.--Accordingly that motorman has a customer, and
	      has a merchandise that he sells to the customer.
	B.J.--Yes, his customer is his employer.
	U.S.--And what is the merchandise he sells?
	B.J.--His labor.
	U.S.--Just so. The motorman's merchandise is labor power.
	      By selling the merchandise of their trade people
	      live. Not so?
	B.J.--Why, yes. Everybody knows that.
	U.S.--Now, let us look at these owners of merchandise
	      and their stock in trade a little closer. You see
	      that baker?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--If he were to die, would his merchandise bread
	      die with him?
	B.J. (Derisively)--No.
	U.S.--And if his merchandise bread were to be de-
	      stroyed, would that kill him?
	B.J.--Nonsense! It wouldn't.
	U.S.--And that hatter, say he died, would that kill his
	      hats?
	B.J.--Not a bit!
	U.S.--And if his hats were to burn up, would that burn
	      him up?
	B.J.--No, sir!
	U.S.--And what about that fruit woman. Would she
	      rot, if her fruit rotted?
	B.J.--Not necessarily.
	U.S.--Nor would her fruit turn into angels in heaven
	      if she cashed in her checks.
	B.J.--No, it wouldn't.
	U.S.--And now take up that motorman once more.
	      Say that he died, would that affect his merchandise
	      labor power?
	B.J.  (Begins to realize that something is up)--Affect
	      his labor power?  Why, of course it would affect it. His
	      labor power would be gone.
	U.S.--And say his merchandise labor power were de-
	      stroyed, what of him?
	B.J.  (Meditatively)--That would cook his goose!
	U.S.--Now, I guess, we have facts enough in court.
	      People live by selling their merchandise. The only mer-
	      chandise of the workingman is labor power. That merchan-
	      dise differs from all others. All other merchandise is out-
	      side of its seller. This merchandise is inside of the seller;
	      it is interwoven in all his tissues; it is part and parcel
	      of him. You have admitted all this. Now, sir, when the 
	      workingman sells his merchandise labor power, does he or
	      does he not SELL HIMSELF?
	B.J.  (With bulging eyes)--Right you are! He sells himself.
	U.S.--Is he slave or not?
	B.J.--I can't deny it.
	U.S.--Is there then a condition of slavery out of which
	      he should try to get?
	B.J.--There is!
	U.S.--From now on, till election day and down to the
	      moment that you cast your vote, just think of this proposi-
	      tion:
	      "Shall I vote for the Republicans or Democrats, when
	      both uphold the social system that condemns me to wage
	      slavery?  Or shall I vote the Socialist Labor Party ticket
	      and strike a blow for freedom?"
	      Think it out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 4/7/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 8

WHEN THINGS ARE CHEAP,
LABOR IS CHEAP.

	BROTHER JONATHAN--As things look to me, rather
              than running down we are on the highway to unthinkable
              happiness. Just think of it, how cheap things are getting!
	UNCLE SAM--You are right or wrong, according as you
              mean the right or wrong thing by what you say. You are
              right that this general cheapness will urge on the crash that
              must precede the leap forward to happiness; but you are
              wrong if you mean that cheapness is in itself a good thing.
	B.J.  (Taking four twenty-five cent pieces out of his
	      pocket)--How impractical you Socialists are! Here I have
	      four quarters. When things were dear I needed all four to
              buy me a hat; now I can get a hat for only two of them; I
              am two quarters richer. If hats become still cheaper, I get
              me a hat for only one quarter, and then I am in three quar-
              ters. This goes right straight along; prices go down and I
              keep more and more money for myself. Isn't that prancing
              at the double-quick toward prosperity?
	U.S.--Your mathematics of political economy are all
   	      in a "pi." (Taking the four quarters out of B. J.'s hands
	      and spreading them in his left hand.) I have here four quar-
	      ters; hats are dear; they cost $1; I buy me one (throws the
	      four quarters into his right hand) have I any left?
	B.J.--No; I said so.
	U.S.  (Puts three out of the four quarters into his left
              hand)--I have three quarters; hats are cheaper; they cost
              only seventy-five cents; I buy me one (throws the three quar-
              ters back into his right hand) ; have I any left?
	B.J.--No.
	U.S.--I'm no better off than when hats cost $1.
	B.J.--Yes; but--
	U.S.--Shut up. (Puts one out of the four quarters into
              his left hand.) I have one quarter; hats are cheaper yet,
	      cost only twenty-five cents; I buy me one (throws the quarter
	      back into his right hand) ; have I any left?
	B.J.--No.
	U.S.--I'm no better off than when hats cost $1 or
              seventy-five cents.
	B.J.--Yes, but--
	U.S.--Shut up, I say. (Spreads all the four quarters
              again in his left hand.) I have four quarters, hats are dear,
              they cost $1; I buy me one (throws the quarters into his
              right hand) ; have I any left?
	B.J.--Why, no.
	U.S.  (Puts two quarters in his left hand)--I have two
	      quarters, hats are cheaper; they cost only seventy-five cents;
 	      I would like to buy one; can I buy with fifty cents a cheaper
              hat that costs seventy-five cents.
	B.J.--No, but--
	U.S.--No "buts." The moral of the story is here for
              Whig and Tory. For the wage earner, and you are a wage
              earner, to judge of his chances of prosperity it is not enough
              for him to consider the decline in the price of things he
              needs, he must also consider step by step the wages he re-
              ceives to buy things with. Cheap goods and cheap wages
              leave you with your nose to the grindstone; cheap goods
              and cheaper wages grind your nose worse.  And thereby
              hangs the important law of wages.
	B.J.--The "law of wages"! I have heard that mentioned. What is it?
	U.S.--In the capitalist system labor is a merchandise,
              just as hats. The price of hats depends upon the supply
              thereof and the demand therefor. If the supply of hats is
              larger than the demand, the price will go down. So with
              labor. The larger the supply and the lower the demand, the
              lower also is the price of labor, or the wages of the worker.
              Under the capitalist system, the relative demand for labor
              steadily goes down. Machinery displaces the workers, and
	      the concentration of capitalist concerns throws wage earners
	      out of work. Nor is this all. Middle class men, unable to
	      compete with larger capitalists, drop into the class of the
	      proletariat and by so much increase the supply of those who
	      seek work above the demand.  Consequently, the wages of
	      the working class steadily go down. That's the same as say-
	      ing that the money they receive, and with which they must
	      make their purchases, is steadily less. In view of this, it
	      matters not how cheap goods become. The workers cannot
	      profit thereby, because their wages keep pace and even out-
	      run other goods in cheapness. Goods are becoming cheaper
	      and cheaper because machinery produces them more plen-
	      tifully; but hand in hand with that, labor becomes still
	      cheaper and cheaper.
	B.J.  looks petrified.
	U.S.--The great cheapening of goods, so far from denoting 
	      that the workers "are prancing at the double-quick
              toward prosperity," denotes that we are galloping at the
              double-quick toward the social crash. Get from under!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 4/7/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 9

WAGES MUST FALL WITH PRICES
OF OTHER COMMODITIES.

	UNCLE SAM--Where are you going in such a hurry?
	BROTHER JONATHAN--I'm a picket; our shop is on
	     strike; I have to do picket duty.
	U.S.--And what is all the trouble about?
	B.J.--Our wages have been lowered.
	U.S.--Any ground given for that?
	B.J.--It is just the "ground given" that makes us hot
	      in the collar. What do you imagine that blasted employer
  	      has the cheek to give as the "ground" for the cut-down?
	U.S.--Well, what is that ground?
	B.J.--That there is now a larger supply of labor than
	      before, and he can get labor cheaper than what he pays us.
	U.S.--You don't suppose I love employers, do you?
	B.J.--I know you don't.
	U.S.--You don't suppose I am anxious to take their
 	      part, do you?
	B.J.--I know you are not; you have fought them too
	      long for that.
	U.S.--As you know me well enough for that, I shall be
	      all the freer to tell you that it is not your employer who
	      has "cheek," but YOU.
	B.J.--Do you mean to say that we should have our
	      wages reduced?
	U.S.--Indeed not!
	B.J.--Did you not always claim that the capitalist
	      robs us workers of three-quarters of what we produce?
	U.S.--That's just what I have always claimed and
	      proved.
	B.J.  (Very angry)--Then, how on earth can you say
	      we are "cheeky" for striking against a reduction?
	U.S.--I'll tell you. What was the price of wheat some
	      fourteen months ago?
	B.J.--Thirty cents a bushel, I think.
	U.S.--Yes. And what is it now?
	B.J.--Something like a dollar.
	U.S.--Correct.  When it was thirty cents a bushel,
	      could the farmer get a dollar for it?
	B.J.--No.
	U.S.--But he can now?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--Why now, and not then?
	B.J.--Why, you know.  A year ago the supply of
	      wheat was plentiful, it was 'way above the demand; since
	      then, owing to the failure of the crops on large foreign
	      fields, the supply has gone down and it is now 'way below
	      the demand.  That's the "why."
	U.S.--Now, suppose a bushel of wheat, at the time it
	      was thirty cents, to have "struck" against being sold so low.
              Suppose, when a purchaser offered thirty cents for it, it had
	      said: "You have a cheek to think you could get me so
	      cheap!"
	B.J.--The bushel would have been supremely ridiculous.
	U.S.--Why?
	B.J. (Sententiously)--It is a merchandise; and the
	     price of merchandise is governed by the relation there is 
	     between the supply of and the demand for it. The lower the
	     supply and the higher the demand, the higher the price; the
  	     higher the supply and the lower the demand, the lower the
	     price. That's the "why."
	U.S.--Jonathan, you are almost fit to be a professor
	      of political economy.
	B.J.--But we workingmen are not merchandise, see?
	U.S.--You now confirm my belief that you are fit for
              a professorship.  You have got hold of just enough truth,
	      and have not let go of such vast areas of nonsense, as to
	      qualify you for a seat in any of our capitalist universities.
	      The workingman IS a merchandise under this capitalist sys-
	      tem.  That is just one of the leading features of the sys-
	      tem. Our wages range like the price of any other merchan-
	      dise.  Machinery, owned as private property by the capital-
	      ist, who steals it from us, displaces labor; that renders the
	      supply of labor ever larger than the demand; and that low-
	      ers, must steadily lower, our wages.
	B.J.--Then we might as well commit suicide and be
	      done with.
	U.S.--That, certainly, would be much more sensible
	      than to go on as you do now. Now you vote with the Dem-
	      ocrats one year, with the Republicans another, which means
	      that you vote regularly every year for the capitalist system,
	      for the system that lowers you to the level of merchandise.
	      By upholding that system, you fetter yourself down to the
	      laws that govern the price of merchandise and that are
	      bound steadily to lower your price. When in one breath you
	      uphold capitalism, and in another you try to resist it, you
	      act like a simpleton.  Now, stop fooling; turn Socialist; 
	      vote the Socialist Labor Party ticket straight.[*] 
	      It demands the overthrow of the system that makes you a 
	      merchandise. Then, indeed, you would strike to a purpose.

[*],This was written in 1898, six years before the speech on the 
"Burning Question of Trades Unionism," and seven years before the 
Organization of the original I.W.W., with the organization of which 
De Leon completed his theory of Industrial Government, demonstrating 
that the real revolutionary power of the working class lay in the 
integral Industrial Union of the useful workers of the land.  Up to 
this time the only revolutionary method conceivable was to vote 
capitalism out of existence and then take a chance on whatever phys-
ical force would present itself at the revolutionary moment to enforce
the new law of the land--the law that would make private property in the
means of life illegal--and keep the quondam capitalists on their good 
behavior till they could be redeemed by being put to useful work.  
Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that the idea of the revolu-
tionary industrial power of the workers was not a notion that came to 
De Leon out of a clear sky, nor as the direct result of the organization
of the I.W.W. Rather the organiaation of the I.W.W. was the fulfilment
of theories that had for some time been growing in tbe Socialist Labor
Party and were persistently propagated by It.  As early as 1896, in the
"Reform or Revolution" speech, De Leon laid down the principle that
economic and political organizations of the workers were equally impor-
tant and that to ignone either was to leave "a duck flying with one
wing."  In 1898, in "What Means This Strike?", De Leon emphasized
strongly the necessity of economic action by the workers. With the
organization of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance in 1895, and its
endorsement by the Socialist Labor Party, the Party had committed itself
definitely to this policy.  From then on "pure and simple political
Socialism" appeared and became active, blossoming finally into the Social
Democracy, later the Socialist party, a definitely bourgeois reform
organization, like its sister organization, the Social Democracy of
Europe, developing in time into a "huge machine for lying about Socialism."
In the meantime the S.L.P. became more and more soundly revolutionary,
laying its revolutionary basis in the economic interest and power of the
working class--the eventual ownership, control and operation of the
means of production.  Long before the I.W.W., the S.L.P. agitator
used and popularized the phrases, "Organize the shop from top to bottom,"
"The worker alone runs industry," "Economic power, which lies in the means
of production, is the foundation of all power."

This, however, does not alter the soundness of the principle laid down in
this dialogue. The political party of Socialism, the Socialist Labor Party,
is still the instrument through which the revolutionary working class
must make its attack on the legal and social entrenchment of the capitalist
robber class. The economic power, the Industrial Union organization, is the
organized Might with which the Right, the fiat of the ballot box, must be
backed up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 4/15/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 10

GRADUAL DECLINE OF THE VALUE
OF LABOR POWER.

	UNCLE SAM--Jonathan, what have you been up to?
	      What mean those black rings around your eyes? What
	      means that sad, dejected face you have on?
	BROTHER JONATHAN-It means a lot. Ever since the
              talk I had with you about wages and workingmen, I have
              felt unspeakably distressed. The more I have thought upon
              what you said, the deeper have I sunk into the dumps.
	U.S.--What I said!?
	B.J.--Yes. Don't you remember you explained to me
	      the law of wages?
	U.S.--I do. Does that throw you into the dumps? It
             should, on the contrary, give you hope and inspiration.
	B.J.--Hope and inspiration be hanged! I conclude
	      from that law of wages that there is no salvation for all the
              workingmen. That the best that can be done is to save some.
              And that the only way of saving these is to drown the others,
              as you do superfluous puppies.
	U.S.--Why, no, man. You're off. Cheer up!
	B.J.--Did you not say that labor is a merchandise like
              any other?
	U.S.--Yes; 'tis that under the capitalist system.
	B.J.--Did you not say that the price of merchandise
	      is determined by the supply of and the demand for it; the
	      larger the supply and the lower the demand, the lower 
	      being the price?
	U.S.--So I did.
	B.J.--And that the supply of the merchandise labor
              was outstripping the demand for it by reason of labor-
              displacing machines and the concentration of capital?
	U.S.--Exactly.
	B.J.--And that the price of the merchandise labor, to
              wit, the wages of the workingman, was getting and of 
	      necessity had to get lower and lower?
	U.S.--Just so.
	B.J.--"Just so"? And yet you snickersnack about
  	      "hope and inspiration"! If, as I cannot deny, the supply
              of labor is growing more and more in excess of the demand,
              those for whom there is still a demand won't be able to keep
              up their wages unless the superfluous ones are killed off,
              killed off as fast as they become superfluous.
	U.S.--I see, I see.
	B.J.--Am I right?
	U.S.--No, my boy. My presentation of the law of
              wages last week was correct as far as it went, though it was
              not complete.
	B.J.--Complete it quickly, if there is "hope and 
	      inspiration" in it!
	U.S.--The expression "supply and demand determines
              prices" is correct enough, but it is a superficial statement.
              Look here. If ten years ago you could turn out twenty pairs
              of shoes in one week, and today you can turn out with the
 	      machine forty pairs, has not the supply increased?
	B.J.--It has.
	U.S.--And is there not in these forty pairs as much
	      labor as in the twenty pairs of ten years ago?
	B.J.--Yes; they are both produced in equal time.
	U.S.--Does it not then follow that the value of forty
	      pairs is now equal to that of twenty pairs before?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--And, consequently, one pair today is equal to
	      half the value of one pair before?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--To condense all this in short sentences, we have
	      this law:
	      The value of merchandise depends upon the amount of
	      labor that, at a given time, society needs to produce it;
	      The larger the quantity of an article, the less is the labor
              needed to produce it;
	      Consequently, when the supply is large it is an evidence
              that the labor needed to produce the article is comparatively
              small;
	      Improved machinery renders work more fruitful; the
              more machinery is improved, the larger is production, and
              the smaller is the quantity of labor in each article;
	      Consequently, machinery lowers the value of merchandise;
	      The price of an article is the cash it fetches in the 
	      market; a number of causes may affect the price, sending 
	      it up above, or down below, its value; but in the long run 
	      "price"and "value" will equalize, and both tend downward 
	      by reason of the decreased quantity of labor that improved 
	      methods of production require in each article--
	B.J.--I'll be hanged if I can see what you are driving at.
	U.S.--Postpone the hanging; there is always time for
	      that. In the meantime, if you want to learn the important
	      law of wages, you will have to pay close attention. It 
	      requires closer attention than the reading of how Jim Sykes
	      just landed a "roaster" on Mike Dolan's "smeller"; and,
	      withal, it is of infinitely greater value that you do learn 
	      it; it may save your neck. Did you understand me as far as I
	      went?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--What did I say?
	B.J.--The substance and gist of it was that the value
	      and price of goods go down because their value depends
              upon the amount of labor required to produce them, and
              improved machinery steadily lowered that amount of labor,
              because such machinery increased the quantity of goods that
              can be produced in a given time.
	U.S. (Slapping B. J. heartily on the shoulder)--You
              are an apt pupil; I don't think that you will need to hang or
              drown.  Now, listen further:
	      Under capitalism, labor is a merchandise;
	      The fate of all merchandise is the fate of the merchandise 
	      labor;
	      Machinery lowers the value of all other goods;
	      The reason that it does so is that it requires less labor to
              produce the goods;
	      Labor, that is to say, the power to work, needs goods to
              keep it up; it needs food, clothing, etc.; to use a broad 
	      expression, goods, wares and merchandise are needed to 
	      produce labor power;
	      The cheaper the value of these goods, wares and merchandise 
              becomes, the cheaper must also become the value
              of the labor power which they produce;
	      Consequently, the merchandise labor power is bound to
              decline in value step by step with the decline of the value
	      of all other goods--
	B.J.--You are getting me mixed up; first you talked
              of "labor," and now you have switched off to "labor power."
	U.S. (Chucking B. j. under the chin) )--Keep up the
              character I gave you for an apt pupil, and don't shoot off
              your mouth.  I was coming to your question.  Listen 
	      carefully:
	      The capitalist is the holder and seller of all merchandise
              but one;
	      The exception is the merchandise "labor power"; he
              does not sell that, he only buys it;
	      The holder of the merchandise labor power, the power
              to work and produce, is the workingman;
	      But this merchandise differs from all other merchandise
              in many particulars;
	      One particular is this: All other merchandise is outside
              of the body of the holder, the capitalist; the merchandise
              labor power, on the contrary, is inside of the body of its
              holder, the workingman;
	      Accordingly, the merchandise labor power is part and
              parcel of its holder and seller, the workingman, while no
              other merchandise is part and parcel of its holder, the 
	      capitalist--
	B.J.'s eyes begin to swim.
	U.S.--The merchandise held by a capitalist may burn
              down and the capitalist need not burn with it; but if the
              merchandise held by the workingman, his labor power, is
              consumed, he perishes along with it;
	      And, conversely, a capitalist may die of overfeeding and
              yet his goods, wares and merchandise remain free from the
              affliction, they may fetch big prices and fulfil their mission
              undisturbed; but if a workingman dies of starvation, or is
              prostrated by overwork or otherwise, his merchandise labor
              power becomes useless, unavailable, unable to fulfil its 
	      functions;
	      For all practical and sociologic purposes labor and labor
              power are one, the workingman and his special merchandise
              are inseparable.
	B.J. (His eyes glistening)--I see that!
	U.S.--The fate of the owner of the merchandise labor
	      power is the fate of the merchandise itself; as the 
	      merchandise labor power is bound to decline in value step 
	      by step with the decline of the value of all other goods, 
	      so is the price, or wage, for which the workingman has to
              sell himself to the capitalist along with his labor power,
              bound to go down.
	      And now get ready for the final summing up:
	      _It follows from all this that even if there are no 
	      superfluous workingmen in the market, the price of labor 
	      power, that is to say, the wages of the employed workers, 
              will go down_. The presence of an excess of labor in the 
	      market over and above the demand simply aggravates the evil;
	      an over-supply of labor will and does push wages below even 
	      their declining value. But the oversupply is not the original 
	      cause of the decline of wages; the original cause is the 
	      merchandise quality of labor. If you drown all the 
	      superfluous workers, as fast as they are displaced by 
	      machinery, you simply would be removing an aggravating 
	      incident; the original cause would continue and with it, the 
	      steady decline of the earnings of the worker, which is 
	      equivalent to the steady increase of his misery and 
	      dependence.
	B.J. (Shaking his fist at U. S.)--The devil take you!
              You call that giving "hope and inspiration"?  As I understood
              this hellish law of wages, there was some hope for
	      some of us, for the happy ones who got work; but as the case
              now stands there is no hope for any of us; we might as well
              all go down to the rivers and seashores and drown ourselves.
              There is no hope, none for the working class. (He glares
              furiously at U.S.) Speak! Speak! Do you hold this maxim?
	U.S.--Yes; I'll accept the maxim provided you accept
              an amendment by adding the words "under the capitalist sys-
              tem," so the maxim shall read: "There is no hope for the
              working class under the capitalist system."
	B.J.--What's the difference?
	U S.--This is the difference: The workers won't drown
	      themselves to please the capitalists. So long as they imagine
	      they can patch up some sort of living arrangement with the
	      capitalist class, they will uphold the capitalist system and 
	      continue slaves; but just as soon as the truth shall have 
	      broken its way through their skulls that there is no choice 
	      but between themselves dying or killing off the capitalist 
	      system, you will see them stand up as men; they will refuse 
	      to continue to be merchandise; they will overthrow the system 
	      that makes them such; they will socialize the instruments of
	      production and the land, and they will establish the Socialist
	      or Cooperative Commonwealth. That is the "hope and 
	      inspiration" which we Socialist workingmen gather from the 
	      law of wages coupled with the law of historic development.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 6/21/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 11
PROSPERITY--"EMPLOYMENT SEEKING LABOR."

	BROTHER JONATHAN (Angry)--I don't know what
              is the matter with you Socialists. You seem never satisfied
        UNCLE SAM-What is the mat--
	B.J. (Angrier)--The better off our people are, the
              more you Socialists howl; the happier we feel, the more you
              Socialists talk calamity; the--
	U.S.--Wait a--
	B.J. (Still angrier)--You are a set of impossibles;
              you are good for nothing (getting angrier and angrier);
              you ought to be hanged to keep the country in such a 
              turmoil--
	U.S.--But--
	B.J. (Beside himself with rage)--But-but-but. I
              suppose you all want palaces and silks and--
	U.S.--Yes--
	B.J.--And will never be satisfied--
	U.S.--Not until we have all that we produce--
	B.J.--We are getting that!
	U.S.--Oho!
	B.J.--Yes, and we are getting better off every day.
	U.S.--Now, Jonathan, something must have bitten
              you. What is it?
	B.J.--Nothing bit me; but I have just been reading a
              beautiful speech by McKinley delivered in the West.
	U.S.--And that has satisfied you?
	B.J.--Why shouldn't it? Here is what he said-
	U.S.--It must be wonderful, indeed. Let's have it.
	B.J. (Taking out of his pocket a metropolitan capitalist 
              paper and reading)--"McKinley in the West-Enthusiastic 
              Crowds of Workingmen Flock to Hear Him"; (running 
              his finger down the column through the speech) here is
              the speech; but the principal part I want to call your 
              attention to is this: Just look at this. (Reading) : 
	      "We have gone from labor seeking employment to employment
              seeking labor." Just think of that! Is not that prosperity?
              And yet you Socialists howl--[*]
	U.S.--Just let me take a squint at that paper, will you?
	B.J. (Passing the paper over to U. S.)--Gladly, convince yourself.
	U.S. (Turns to the columns of "Help Wanted")--Do you see this?
	B.J.--Yes; "Help Wanted." There you have it-
	      "employment seeking labor."
	U.S.--How many columns?
	B.J.--Not quite one.
	U.S. (Turns to the columns of "Situations Wanted")--Do you 
	      see this?
	B.J.--Yes; "Situations Wanted."
	U.S.--How many columns?
	B.J. (Counting)-One, two, three, four--
	U.S.--Say eight, and be done with it; don't you see
             they cover the whole page?
	B.J.--Yes, eight.
	U.S.--Is that all, do you think?
	B.J.--Are there any more?
	U.S. (Turning the page over)--Count on.
	B.J.--One, two--
	U.S.--Eight more?
	B.J.--Yes.
	U.S.--That makes sixteen (turning over to the next
	      page). How many more?
	B.J.--One, two-eight more.
	U.S.--That makes?
	B.J.--Twenty-four.
	U.S. turns to the fourth page.
	B.J. (Amazed)--Are there still more?
	U.S.--See for yourself.
	B.J.--One, two-why, eight more!
	U.S.--And that makes?
	B.J.--Thirty-two columns!
	U.S. turns to the fifth page.
	B.J.--Lord! Is it not yet done?
	U.S.--Stop your gab and count.
	B.J.--Why, that's eight more!
	U.S.--Making?
	B.J.--Forty columns of applicants!
	U.S. (Turns to the sixth page)--And how many more here?
	B.J.--One, two, three, four, five and almost six. Almost
              forty-six columns of applicants for work!
	U.S.--As against how many of "employment seeking labor"?
	B.J.--Not quite one!
	U.S.--Now look at this item.
	B.J. (Reading)--"Jeremiah Ingals, aged thirty-four,
              was found dead in his room last night. An empty bottle of
              laudanum and a letter, found on a chair near the bed, told
              the story. 'Out of work and can find none.'
	U.S.--"Employment seeking labor" must have missed
              this one, eh?
	B.J. remains silent.
	U.S.--Now read this item.
	B.J. (Reading)--"Susan Elger, followed by two children 
              and carrying one on her arm, applied yesterday at the
              8th precinct police station for shelter.  She stated that her
              husband, after having looked for work the whole summer,
              and finding none, left for Philadelphia two weeks ago, 
              thinking he could get work there, and has not been heard 
              from since. She had pawned most of her and his clothes, and 
              she and her children were starving."
	U.S.--It seems that "employment seeking labor" has
              a knack of missing this man, eh?
	B.J. remains silent.
	U.S. (Folding up the newspaper in the shape of a
             fool's cap and clapping it on B.J.'s head)--That much for
             us Socialists "howling without cause," and "never being 
	     satisfied." I tell you, we shall howl until there will be 
             precious few such fools as you left among the workingmen, who
	     can be stuffed with a capitalist-Republican or a 
             capitalist-Democratic lie like that; until our class 
	     will stand solid by the Socialist Labor Party, be part 
	     and parcel of it-and smash this Dem-Rep system of capitalist
	     iniquity.

[*]This was written during the 1898, William McKinley, Prosperity 
 and "Full Dinner Pail" campaign.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 6/22/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 12

WAGES AND BREAD AND BUTTER.

	UNCLE SAM--How is business with you?
	BROTHER JONATHAN  (With a corner-grocer, self-
	satisfied swagger)--I can't complain. Tell you the truth, to
	me it looks as if people are never satisfied.  They love to
	grumble.  Let a man attend to his business and he'll get
	along well enough.
	U.S.--Have you become a Socialist?
	B.J. (Startled)--Me! Not much! What makes you
	      ask the question?
	U.S.--Somehow, a thing you just said sounded like a
	      thing I heard a Socialist say on the soap-box.
	B.J.--What did I say?
	U.S.--You said: "Let the workingmen attend to their
              business."
	B.J. (Indignant)--That's not Socialism!
	U.S.--The Socialist I heard speak said: Let a man at-
	      tend to his business.  If he does he will see and feel soon
              enough that capitalism is taking the skin off him. The work-
              ingman who attends to his business, and does not fall asleep
              over it, will soon enough catch on to the "market price" of
              his labor power--
	B.J.--Bah!
	U.S.--He will find his market price is going down-
	B.J.--That's a lie!
	U.S.--He will not be humbugged with an "increase of
              wages" because he will know that wages are no higher than
              they will fetch bread and butter, and the wages, even when
              higher, are in fact lower because they fetch less and less--
	B.J.--Those Socialists are crazy.
	U.S.--And that's the proof that the market price of
	      their labor power is declining, and the lower the market
              price of labor power, all the higher is the heap of plunder
              that the capitalist carries off--
	B.J.--That fellow is a muckraker.
	U.S.--I was wondering for what party he spoke. Just
              as I was going to ask the question, he said the Socialist 
	      Labor Party showed the way out of the pickle. The capitalist
              system had to be overthrown, and that could be done only
              if the workers stop being fooled by the vote-catching par-
              ties, and organized themselves into the men-making S.L.P.
              and the classconscious Socialist Industrial Union.
	B.J.--Bosh! I say.
	U.S.--And so he went on and wound up with the admonition 
	      that the workingman should attend to his business,
	      which he rebuked him for not attending to.
	B.J. (With a cocksure merchant's satisfied mien)--
              I'll tell you; those Socialists make me tired. They talk as
	      though they knew it all, whereas they don't know anything.
	      They talk as though people care a tinker's dam for prin-
	      ciples, whereas people care only for what they can make.
 	      Now, I'll tell ye--
	U.S.--Yes, do.
	B.J.--I have a pretty good knowledge of human nature.
	      (With great positiveness.) I come in touch with all
	      sorts of men in my store.  Now, I'll tell ye--
	U.S.--Do, by all means.
	B.J.--I have a mighty good chance to size up people,
	      especially workingmen. They and their wives buy a good
	      deal from me.  Now, I'll tell ye--
	U.S.--It is about time--do tell me.
	B.J.--Now, I'll tell ye, if the wages of the workers
              were to be raised only $10 a week (looking very serious and
	      positive), if the wages of these Socialists went up only $10
              they would all cease to be Socialists. Take that from me.
              I know what I'm talking about.
	U.S.--You may think you have dropped a heavy chunk
	      of spick-and-span new wisdom.  Fact is I know that the So-
	      cialists say as much, and they add something else to that.
	B.J. (Surprised)--What do they add?
	U.S.--They add that fortunately for freedom not even
              that raise of wages can be given to the whole working class.
	      They add, quoting Shakespeare, that men would sooner put
	      up with evils that they know of, than fly to others that they
	      know not of. They add that the increasing number of pro-
	      letarians makes it impossible for the capitalist class to buy
	      them off with better conditions. And they add that, were it
	      not for that economic fact, the sociologic phenomenon of
              Socialism would not be seen today; but that, owing to this
              economic fact, lasting content in wage slavery is impossible,
              and Socialist triumph is assured.
	B.J. (Who has recovered from the stupor into which
	      U. S.'s words threw him)--And do you believe that--a sen-
              sible man like you?
	U.S.--I certainly do. And there is something else I
	      believe, or rather know; and that is that you merchants are
	      the shallowest of pans.  In your business you know no more
	      than your narrow horizon allows you.  If you succeed, you
	      think you are a hell of a clever lot. That's why, when eco-
	      nomic facts that you are too shallow to fathom break upon
	      you and you go into bankruptcy, you act like ducks in thun-
	      der.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 7/1/98
http://www.slp.org

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS IN DIALOGUE
BY
DANIEL DE LEON
From the 1935 hardback edition published by New York Labor News
Originally published in the Weekly People in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DIALOGUE 13
"MINIMUM WAGE."

	BROTHER JONATHAN--I heard last night one of those
	blankety-blank Socialist Labor Party men deliver the most
	blankety-blank talk it was ever my misfortune to hear.
	UNCLE SAM--I shrewdly suspect it was rather the case
	of a blankety-blank Brother Jonathan. What did the S.L.P.
	man say?
	B.J.--As near as I could make out he had no use for
	      the minimum wage.
	U.S.--Was that the offense?
	B.J.--It was.
	U.S.--What do you understand by the minimum wage?
	B.J.--By minimum wage I understand that a certain amount--
	U.S.--Of money?
	B.J.--Exactly. That a certain amount of money shall
	      be fixed below which wages shall not be allowed to go. Say
	      that the amount be fixed at $1 a day--
	U.S.--I would then go on strike against your minimum
	      wage, and remain on strike till hell froze over.
	B.J.--The amount does not matter. It is simply an
	      illustration. Make it $10 a day.
	U.S.--That suits me a deal better.
	B.J.--That would mean, the minimum of $10 a day
	      being established by law, that the workers may, if they can
	      in the course of the class struggle, raise their wage to $10 a
	      day, but the employers shall not be allowed to depress the
	      wage below $10. Do you catch on?
	U.S.--Let me see if I do. Suppose $10 is established
	      at a certain time. What does that mean?
	B.J.--Mean?
	U.S.--Yes; what does it mean as to the purchasing
	      power of that $10 minimum?
	B.J.--Oh, now I see what you mean. It means that
	      the amount of food, clothing, shelter, footwear--
	U.S.--Et cetera--
	B.J.--Which the worker needs will take $10 a day to
	      purchase. And it means that the wage shall not be reduced.
	U.S.--And why not?
	B.J.--Because if the wage is reduced to, say $5, then
	      the worker could purchase only one-half the food, clothing--
	U.S.--Et cetera--
	B.J.--He could purchase only one-half of what he needs.
	U.S.--And would starve?
	B.J.--Yes; would starve.
	U.S.--Does the purchasing power of the dollar always
	      remain the same?
	B.J.--No, indeed!
	U.S.--Does it decline, or does it increase?
	B.J.--The purchasing power of the dollar declines.
	U.S.--If prices rise, does the dollar fetch as much as before?
	B.J.--Of course not.
	U.S.--If the purchasing power of $10 fetches, at one
	      time, the minimum of what the worker needs and prices
	      jump up, say, to make the point clear, 100 per cent, can that
	      $10 fetch the same minimum amount of necessaries?
	B.J.--Of course it cannot!
	U.S.--The worker would have to rest satisfied with
	      one-half of his minimum needs?
	B.J.--Just about.
	U.S.--Accordingly, is a minimum wage, that is ex-
	      pressed in dollars and cents, a guarantee against a standard
	      of living that is below the standard that existed when the
	      minimum wage was established by law?
	B.J.--Hem! Hem! H-h-hem!
	U.S.--What, my illustrious Jonathan, becomes of your
	      blankety-blank minimum wage?
	B.J.--H-h-hem! Hem!
	U.S.--Would not such a law rather legalize the de-
	      pressing of the workers' standard of living, and deprive
	      them of the civic status to strike for conditions above the
	      statutorily established dollars-and-cents minimum?
	B.J. (Suddenly finding his voice)--Well, the principle
	      of the thing is not altered.  I admit that the fixing of the
	      minimum with dollars and cents won't work--
	U.S.--And there goes your blankety-blank minimum
              wage, flat on its nose.
	B.J.--Not at all! The minimum wage need not be
	      specified in dollars and cents--
	U.S.--In what then?
	B.J.--In food and clothing and shelter--
	U.S.--And shoes? And hats? And transportation?
	      And communication? And soap? And brushes? And to-
	      bacco? And pipes? And needles? And thread? And fuel?
	      And light? And--
	B.J.--Et cetera, man, et cetera!
	U.S.--AlI right, thank you-et cetera. You would
	      have the minimum wage defined in the quantities of this list
	      of necessaries--a list so long that you have no patience to
	      hear it to the end?
	B.J. remains silent.
	U.S. (Poking B. J. in the ribs)--Hello, there!
	B.J.--Well--the goods will have to be mentioned--
	      the list is very long, even though there be not much of any
	      one item on the list--it is a clumsy thing to do--but it will
	      have to be done.
	U.S.--And that never will be done. And I'll tell you why: 
	      Paid in the terms of money, the employer conceals or
	      blurs under wages the fact that the working class pays itself;
	      that what it receives is but a portion of the goods that it
	      produces; finally, that the capitalist class keeps the lion's
	      share of the fruit of labor's toil. A goodly portion of "the
	      cat would be uncovered to the workers' eyes if the mini-
	      mum wage were to specify the minimum amount of goods
	      that the worker shall receive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
				--Transcribed by redflag on 7/1/98
http://www.slp.org

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

KAPITALIST BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

Subject: Aids/Ebola BIOwar 1/4 Resent-Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:28:20 -0700 Resent-From: iww-news@iww.org Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 20:26:22 -0400 From: "Dave" Reply-To: To: "davehart@POP. NET" part one/4 Dave Hartley Still-Point Healing Services Web Page: http://www.ioa.com/home/davehart ------------------------------------------------------

Chapter by Chapter Summary of Dr. Horowitz's new book:

"EMERGING VIRUSES: AIDS & EBOLA--NATURE, ACCIDENT OR INTENTIONAL?"

(Tetrahedron Press, 1996; 592 pp.; hardcover) ______________________________________________________________________ http://www.tetrahedron.org

Chapter 1. "The World Health Organization Theory" of AIDS--

During the past decade, at least six internationally known authorities advanced theories that the AIDS virus (HIV) was developed by biological weapons researchers and either accidentally or intentionally transmitted with the help of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). A document like that obtained by one investigator, through the Freedom of Information Act, is shown here--a DOD appropriations request for $10 million for the development of AIDS-like viruses. "Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease." Chapter 2. WHO Plays in the Big Leagues-- Begins Dr. Horowitz's search for the origin of AIDS. Archival WHO documents are explored along with links to American health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). These institutions played leading roles in the WHO's early viral research network. During the 1960s and early 1970s the WHO served as the omnipotent supplier of the world's pharmaceutical, bacteriological, and viral test reagents. Investigations revealed the NCI, a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), functioned as the WHO's chief distributor of viruses and viral testing reagents during the late 1960s. By 1968, the WHO had provided technical advisors and supplies of "prototype virus strains" for more than "120 laboratories in 35 different countries." By 1969, this number increased to "592 virus laboratories." In this one year, four of the most active centers, including the NCI and CDC, distributed 2,514 strains of viruses, 1888 ampoules of experimental vaccines, and about 100 samples of cell cultures throughout the network. 70,000 virus isolations were reported by 1970. Chapter 3. Cold War, Biological Weapons and World Health-- The international scientific community's efforts to stop biological warfare and biological weapons (BW) research and development are reviewed here. The chapter reveals how, why, and to what extent U. S. biological weapons research continued despite staunch foreign and domestic opposition. President Nixon's false claims that BW research and development ceased after signing the Geneva Accord in 1969 are documented, as are the WHO's objections to safeguarding genetic engineering of mutant viruses for biological warfare and cancer research. In March of 1970, WHO consultants noted that it was "possible that biological agents may be used . . . to achieve the simultaneous infection of key groups of people, and the military consequences might well be of major importance. . . ." They noted the "calculated risk that a virulent mutant might appear and spread rapidly to produce an uncontrollable epidemic on a large scale. In addition, if mutants are deliberately produced in the laboratory," they wrote, "there is the ever-present risk of an accidental escape." The consultants also predicted that as a consequence of a biological attack, "mass illnesses, deaths, and epidemics" would require the WHO to furnish supplies and personnel to deal with the medical emergencies. These contingencies and more are documented and discussed. Chapter 4. The Road to Fort Detrick Runs Through Bethesda-- The first viruses and retroviruses used for biological weapons research passed through the NCI. This chapter reviews the massive chemical and biological war research campaign centered in Frederick (Fort Detrick), Maryland, and chronicles the viral research that was ongoing here and in surrounding labs. A premier lab, specifically researching, developing, and testing immune system destroying viruses, was the Cell Tumor Biology Laboratory at the NCI. This was headed by Dr. Robert Gallo--the co-discoverer of the AIDS virus. The chapter ends by asking, "When did Gallo discover HIV? In 1984, as reported, or in 1970?" Chapter 5. The Emperor's New Virus-- Provides an expose on the suspicious behavior of Dr. Robert Gallo as chronicled by bestselling author Randy Shilts and others. The chapter also begins a critical evaluation of the information, discrepancies, and apparent disinformation in Shilts's book And the Band Played On. The French/American AIDS fracas is reconsidered. Discussions also focus on how and why Gallo and his NCI colleagues attempted to block others from discovering the AIDS virus. The stage is set for the next chapter which reviews Gallo's research from 1967-1974. Readers learn that every step needed to create and test the AIDS virus was conducted in Gallo's lab by 1971. Chapter 6. Gallo's Research Anthology: The AIDS Buck and Virus Stops Here-- Gallo's early publications document his intimate association with Litton Bionetics--a subsidiary of the leading military contracting firm, Litton Industries. Through Litton Bionetics, a major biological weapons contractor, Gallo engineered simian (monkey) viruses to cause a variety of cancers; especially leukemias, sarcomas, and wasting diseases in humans. This chapter documents the incredible fact that Gallo's team extracted the nucleic acids from humanly benign simian viruses, and then infused the empty monkey virus shells with cat leukemia RNA and chicken leukemia-sarcoma RNA to produce mutants that could produce the laundry list of diseases seen in AIDS patients. Then, to enable the virus to infect humans, Gallo and company cultured these germs in human white blood cells so they could "jump species." Most astonishing, this chapter documents that Gallo presented this research, and the protocol for developing AIDS-like viruses, to NATO's military scientists in Mol, Belgium in 1970. Chapter 7. An Interview with Dr. Robert Strecker--One of the half dozen physician/researchers throughout the world who alleged the military's involvement in the creation of AIDS, Strecker explains his theory on: * How and why the AIDS virus was synthetically manufactured; * Why the "green monkey theory" and the "patient zero theory" is nonsensical; and * What AIDS experts have said about his thesis that AIDS was a military development designed for use as a biological weapon for population control. Chapter 8. HIV-1, HIV-2, and the "Big Bang"-- The scientific literature is reviewed here in an effort to critically evaluate the man-made theory of HIV-1, HIV-2, and allegations that HIV had been found in tissues of people who had died during the 1950s and 1960s. The analysis identifies both inconsistencies in these conclusions, along with little known evidence that HIV emerged during the early 1970s. The association of early cancer virus network associates of Dr. Gallo, including Drs. Luc Montagnier (Institute Pasteur), Donald Francis (CDC), Peter Duesberg (U. of C.), and Max Essex (Harvard), and their activities, is examined in contrast to circulating disinformation. HIV-2, discovered by Max Essex, is examined as both the purported "missing link" to HIV-1, and the monkey virus laboratory contaminant it was ultimately determined to be. Clearly, molecular genetics shows that something major happened in the early 1970s to convert HIV-2 or similar simian immunodeficiency viruses into HIV-1. The discussion focuses on how HIV-2, a known monkey virus laboratory contaminant, not found in monkeys in the wild, could be circulating, in the wild, primarily in African women? Vaccines, tainted by monkey virus mutants produced accidentally or intentially, appear to be the only plausible explanation. Most astonishing, chimpanzees--carriers of SIVcpz, the closest primate relative to HIV-1--were used to develop the earliest hepatitis B vaccines tested in New York City and Central Africa in 1973-1974. The chapter then advances a new, more rational, and scientific, theory on the iatrogenic (man-made) origin of AIDS. Clearly, viruses such as these emerged from the laboratory, but the question of accidental versus genocidal transmission remained to be explored. continued ........ "Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional?" (Tetrahedron Press, 1996; $29.95) May be ordered through bookstores throughout North America, and by calling toll-free 800-336-9266. The book may also be ordered through the internet at http://www.tetrahedron.org in the catalog section of the web site. ***** "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to iww-news-request@iww.org with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message.

Subject: Aids/Ebola BIOwar 2/4 Resent-Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:33:29 -0700 Resent-From: iww-news@iww.org Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 20:31:17 -0400 From: "Dave" Reply-To: To: "davehart@POP. NET" part 2/4 Dave Hartley Still-Point Healing Services Web Page: http://www.ioa.com/home/davehart

Chapter 9. Early Targeting of Minority America

--The targeting of gay rights leaders and groups at home and abroad by the FBI and CIA during and after the McCarthy era is documented and discussed. The gay rights movement was seen by most conservative lawmakers and public officials as communist inspired. The chapter also reviews the targeting of civil rights groups by the CIA from the late 1960s through the 1980s in their efforts to: 1) Prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups and the beginning of a "true black revolution;" and 2) Prevent the rise of a black "messiah." The chapter also discusses the development of 360 disruptive American intelligence operations under the COINTELPRO Black Nationalist Hate Group's umbrella, including "Operation Chaos" which ran from 1966 until 1974. The pivotal role of National Security Advisor, Dr. Henry Kissinger, who during the Nixon era personally oversaw major CIA and FBI intelligence operations and directed the military chiefs of staff, is considered. Chapter 10. African Foreign Policy and Population Control-- Only days after the DOD requisitioned $10 million from Congress to fund the development of AIDS-like viruses, on July 29, 1969, the House Republican committee, chaired by the Honorable GEORGE BUSH of Texas, cited the urgent need for POPULATION CONTROL activities to fend off "a growing Third World crisis." This chapter documents and discusses "American displeasure with Black African culture," and "the roots of Third World foreign policy." Intriguing revelations here include: * Nixon's special presentation before the Population Conference in which he appealed for urgent action; * Economic, military, and "humanitarian" policies and projects implemented under Nixon and Carter; * Subsequent World Bank, NASA, and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) activities in Africa; * Henry Kissinger's leading role in establishing and directing African foreign policy and "diplomatic" affairs; * USAID and WHO sponsored immunization programs in central Africa; and * American intelligence connections to USAID and African health care initiatives. Chapter 11. Henry Kissinger's "New World Order"-- This fascinating chapter tracks Henry Kissinger's rise to prominence in America's intelligence community. Details about Kissinger's relationships with the Rockefellers, Richard Nixon, Alexander Haig, and other Nixon White House officials are examined, along with Kissinger's leading role in the development of nuclear and biological weapons. The philosophy and purpose of the "New World Order," as articulated by President Bush, and advanced in Kissinger's 1955 Harvard Ph.D. thesis "The Meaning of History," is reviewed. Kissinger argued that there will never be peace on earth. Instead, he called for a stable economic order of nations which could be maintained by creating ongoing "small wars," with financial advantages for weapons developers. This chapter also documents: * Kissinger's appointment by Nelson Rockefeller to head the nuclear weapons study group of the nongovernmental Council on Foreign Relations. * Kissinger's appointment as National Security Advisor--the most influential position in the Nixon White House--instead of Roy Ash, the President of Litton Industries. * Litton military contracts, during the first Nixon administration, exceeding $5 billion; $10 million of which went to Litton Bionetics, the BW contractor with whom Robert Gallo worked to develop AIDS-like viruses at that time. * Kissinger's "Great Power Grab" as director of national security, and his ordering of Alexander Haig and J. Edgar Hoover to wiretap Nixon and others to produce the infamous "White House tapes." * Kissinger's control over The Defense Program Review Committee, which considered the funding requests for biological weapons; and The 40 Committee which authorized covert actions by the CIA in Central Africa in the vicinity where AIDS and Ebola first broke out. continued.... "Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional?" (Tetrahedron Press, 1996; $29.95) May be ordered through bookstores throughout North America, and by calling toll-free 800-336-9266. The book may also be ordered through the internet at http://www.tetrahedron.org in the catalog section of the web site. ***** "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to iww-news-request@iww.org with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message.

Subject: Aids/Ebola BIOwar 3/4 MKNAOMI Nazi/CIA Resent-Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:59:01 -0700 Resent-From: iww-news@iww.org Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 20:56:09 -0400 From: "Dave" Reply-To: To: "davehart@POP. NET" part three/4 Dave Hartley Still-Point Healing Services Web Page: http://www.ioa.com/home/davehart

Chapter 12. Silent Coup in American Intelligence

--Reviews increasing evidence that the CIA not only co-opted the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government while being directed by Dr. Henry Kissinger during the Nixon era, but apparently carried out efforts to replace J. Edgar Hoover. This, at the time Kissinger directed the CIA to continue escalating foreign and domestic espionage operations under COINTELPRO against black Africans and American homosexuals. Chapter 13. USAID and New York Blood-- Under Kissinger's national security council directives, USAID began focusing vast resources on controlling Third World populations. A computer search of "USAID," "Population Control," "Vaccines," and "World Health Organization" literature between 1970 and 1975 revealed 733 "USAID-Population Control" studies. The same search after 1975 found none. The entire field of "Population Control" had vanished from medlar! The subject heading had been terminated and replaced with the more comforting "maternal and child health." A review of Department of State Bulletins revealed that by 1976 Joseph Califano, who had advised Kissinger to appoint Alexander Haig as his White House assistant, took the lead in attacking "rapid population growth" in the Third World. His subsequent policies are discussed as are Califano's links to Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD)--the world's largest supplier of AIDS-related drugs. Had Califano authorized USAID funds for Merck related hepatitis B vaccine studies in central Africa during his stint as secretary of DHEW? Apparently so. Moreover, Chapter 13 examines a paper trail in the scientific literature linking MSD investigators with viral researchers who conducted hepatitis B vaccine studies on retarded children and gay volunteers in NYC. Through the New York City Blood Bank (NYCBB) and the biological weapons contractors at the New York University Medical Center (NYUMC), as early as 1969, that is, shortly after Kissinger became NSC director, the first humans were inoculated with experimental vaccines composed of live or attenuated viruses that had only been tested on monkeys. Moreover, the viruses had been grown in chimpanzees likely infected with a varity of other viruses with similarities to HIV. Most astonishing, the text documents that MSD researchers worked in cooperation Gallo's group at the NCI and Litton Bionetics, and that combined, they conducted similar studies in Central Africa under U. S. Army and USAID contracts. Moreover, the "Drug Development Branch" of the NCI served as a conduit of experimental viruses, vaccines, and drugs between Gallo and company and MSD. Thus, the alleged channel through which HIV tainted hepatitis B vaccines passed between the NCI and MSD was operating by 1970. Chapter 14. Central African Vaccine Trials--Documents the specific African vaccine studies and immunization campaigns waged by the suspected scientific network in an effort to investigate the accidental and intentional theories of AIDS. The text details the: * 20 country immunization program supported by USAID, the CDC, the WHO and MSD; * The NCI's method of turning taxpayer funded research dollars into private enterprise profits; * Obvious conflicts of interest and scientific misconduct demonstrated when CDC and MSD authorities attempted to rebut widespread allegations that the spread of AIDS followed Merck hepatitis vaccine study routes; * The support Gallo received from at least a third of the Army's top eighteen biological weapons contractors including Bionetics, Hazleton, and Dow Chemical; * Plans to prompt Congressional legislation freeing MSD and other vaccine producers from liability and costly litigation from personal injury claims; * Protocol for administering African "jet gun" immunization programs and documented propaganda campaigns; * The view of leading government scientists that race, class, and "national security" is the principle motive behind Third World immunization practices. Chapter 15. The CIA/Detrick Operation-- In 1975, following the storm of public outrage over the CIA's involvement in Watergate, the agency was investigated and chastised by the Rockefeller Commission and two Congressional committees. That year, word had leaked from the Army's Special (that is, secret) Operations Division at Fort Detrick, that the CIA was illegally stockpiling deadly bacteria, viruses, and other toxins. As a result, a Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities met to investigate. Senator Frank Church presided. The Church hearings exposed much about the illegal storage of BW by the CIA, and their intended use in covert operations. Unfortunately, the American news media failed to report the most incriminating testimonies. The testimonies implicated congressional investigators as Dr. Kissinger was shielded from indictments along with other chief decision makers. Chapter 16. The CIA's Top Secret PROJECT: MKNAOMI--Discusses the CIA's BW operation. CIA Director William Colby's admission that the agency's interest in BW was for offensive uses during covert operations at the time the CIA was operating at full force in Zaire, Angola, and Sudan--ground zero for the AIDS and Ebola outbreaks--is documented. Nathan Gordon, Chief of the chemistry branch of the Technical Services Division of the CIA gave additional testimony of the agency's possible use of extensive virus stockpiles to assistant intelligence agency scientists in their work on mass immunization projects, vaccine development, and cancer research--exactly the work conducted by scientists at the NCI, including Robert Gallo, in association with Litton Bionetics in Bethesda and their affiliates in Uganda, and in cooperation with MSD, CDC, and New York collaborators. Moreover, discussions focus on congressional testimony which documented that the CIA had, in fact, been receiving "deadly poison[s]" manufactured by the USPHS and delivered to Fort Detrick for use in human experiments and covert operations. Chapter 17. The CIA's Human Experiments--Reviews an extensive array of illegal, unethical, immoral, and racist CIA BW experiments conducted on unsuspecting human populations. Chapter 18. Nazi Roots of American Central Intelligence: The Biological Warfare Industry--This chapter delivers an eye-opening expose on the Nazi medical officers who escaped prosecution through their service to American intelligence under a top secret "Project Paperclip." The "excessive zeal" with which U. S. Army intelligence and later CIA personnel protected war criminals, including the infamous "Angel of Death" Joseph Mengele; his assistant, "the butcher of Lyon," Klaus Barbie; Walter Rauff, the SS mobile gas chambers supervisor; Friederich Schwend, another mass murderer, and others including Erich Traub, in charge of biological warfare for the Reich Research Institute, where his research specialty was viral diseases. Of the approximately 2,000 Nazis drafted into American military service by intelligence officers including Henry Kissinger under General Bolling--the "Godfather" of "Project Paperclip"--many went on to become the leaders of America's military-medical industrial complex (MMIC). This chapter discloses the ties between the CIA and the two powerful organizations which gave rise to Nazi intelligence and Hitler's SS--The Gehlen Organization and Merk Network. These links are discussed with regard to the initial development of the CIA under Truman, and the post-WWII boom of the MMIC. The CIA, initially established as a cover and oversight agency for the Gehlen Organization, was thus rooted in racism and white supremacist ideology. Further investigation revealed how the Gehlen Organization and CIA were able to launder approximately $300 million from the Third Reich's war chest through the Paris branch of Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank. This money was ultimately used to fuel the Kissinger-Rockefeller directed MMIC and possibly MSD's pharmaceutical empire. Chapter 19. The CIA in Africa-- Between 1970 and 1975, American cold war efforts focused on Zaire and Angola. Following the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, Henry Kissinger ordered the CIA to begin a major covert military operation against MPLA (communist bloc backed) "rebels" in Angola. Indebted by over $4.5 billion to the International Monetary Fund, Zaire, headed by President Mobutu--paradoxically regarded as one of the world's richest men with "a personal fortune put at $2,939,200,000 [1984 estimate] banked in Switzerland,"--was wooed by NATO allies during the 1970s, to be a staging area for CIA backed, Portuguese, French, and South African mercenaries. American corporate investment, notably in copper and aluminum, doubled following a 1970 visit by Mobutu to the United States. Major investors included Rockefeller's Chase-Manhattan Bank. This chapter details how, in 1975, Mobutu turned against NATO allies, proclaimed his intention to nationalize foreign owned enterprises, expelled the American ambassador, and arrested most of the CIA's Zairian agents, placing some of them under death sentences. The following year, in October 1976, the Ebola virus broke-out in fifty five Zairian villages, first killing people who had received injections. Mobutu then ordered his army to seal off the Bumba Zone with roadblocks and shoot anyone trying to leave. By the end of 1976, the Zairian leader had reconciled his differences with American intelligence and, thereafter, continued to reap his western alliesO economic and "humanitarian" aid. This chapter details these events along with the CIA's covert operations in the region. continued ........ "Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional?" (Tetrahedron Press, 1996; $29.95) May be ordered through bookstores throughout North America, and by calling toll-free 800-336-9266. The book may also be ordered through the internet at http://www.tetrahedron.org in the catalog section of the web site. ***** "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to iww-news-request@iww.org with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message.

Subject: Aids/Ebola BIOwar 4/4 (OTRAG, Nazi/CIA) Resent-Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:58:15 -0700 Resent-From: iww-news@iww.org Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 20:56:02 -0400 From: "Dave" Reply-To: To: "davehart@POP. NET" part 4/4 Dave Hartley Still-Point Healing Services Web Page: http://www.ioa.com/home/davehart

Chapter 20. OTRAG: Links to Nazis, NATO, NASA, the NCI and AIDS

This chapter provides astonishing information regarding a "secret agreement" between NATO and a Nazi-linked West German company--OTRAG (Orbital Transport-und Raketen-Aktiengesellschaft)--and Zaire's president Mobutu. This company leased 260,000 square kilometers of eastern Zaire for military/industrial purposes in 1975. The contract gave OTRAG sovereign rights to territories inhabited by 760,000 people, not far from what is now called "The AIDS Highway," and the region in which Ebola erupted. Said to be of military and intelligence gathering significance to NATO, OTRAG's principals included several Nazi scientists including Dr. Kurt H. Debus, who worked as director of the Cape Canaveral space program until 1975 before transferring to Zaire. Richard Gompertz, OTRAG's technical director, presided over NASA's Chrysler space division. Lutz Thilo Kayser, OTRAG's founder and manager, when young was quite close to the Nazi rocket industry, often called "Dadieu's young man," a reference to Armin Dadieu, his mentor, who served as prominent SS officer and as Goring's special representative for a research program on storing uranium. According to United States Army reports, the "outlandish claim" that the AIDS virus was developed as a biological weapon for the Pentagon was communist propaganda. Recently, however, a high ranking Soviet press official, Boris Belitskiy, offered an alternative account regarding the origin of the AIDS virus--Both OTRAG and the Pentagon were implicated by his revelations. In 1977, at the height of OTRAG's activity in Zaire, Litton Industries received $5 million for medical electronic equipment from its Hellige division, in Freiburg, West Germany. Much of Litton's NATO and West German sales during this period appear to have been earmarked for OTRAG. Concurrently, the chapter discusses cooperative ventures between NATO and the World Health Organization with regard to the international control of pharmaceuticals, and preparations for facing possible outbreaks from biological warfare. More revelations point to the fact that the recent outbreaks of the world's most feared and deadly viruses--Marburg, Ebola, Reston, and AIDS--share the dubious distinction of breaking out in or around areas of CIA/NATO operations. Chapter 21. Marburg, Ebola, and Chilling Propaganda in The Hot Zone--Discloses the scientific facts about the dreaded Ebola and Marburg viruses, in contrast to the New York Times bestselling "nonfiction" book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Critical examination in this chapter reveals Preston's book is undoubtedly counterintelligence propaganda seemingly intended to prepare the world for future epidemics and additional virus outbreaks. Chapter 22. The Special Virus Cancer Program-- Highly incriminating documents published in 1971 and 1972 by the NIH were serendipitously discovered by Dr. Horowitz. These NCI "Summary Reports," unavailable at most medical libraries including the NCI's library at Fort Detrick, describe the network's earliest efforts to find a cure for cancer by first creating thousands of mutant viruses capable of jumping from animals into humans. These "cancer models" were used by researchers who believed that viruses were responsible for most cancers. Thus, viruses were tracked, isolated, and genetically modifed to produce a variety of cancers in the hope of discovering a vaccine. This rationale was used by BW developers to defend their work, and the entire NCI program was administered by Litton Bionetics. This chapter reviews what was done to produce AIDS, Ebola, Marburg and Reston-like viruses, where and when the experiments took place, who was involved, and even how much they were paid. This chapter uncloaks the NCI's "special virus" research network and the horrifying experiments they conducted in the name of medical science. Chapter 23. The Man-Made Origin of Marburg and Ebola--Presents startling evidence that the Hazleton monkey house, site of the Reston virus outbreak, was intimately involved in creating cancer viruses similar to those produced by Robert Gallo and coworkers at Litton Bionetics. Moreover, scientific documents revealed the unreported source of Hazleton's Reston virus contaminated monkeys was apparently Litton Bionetics. Additional documents reveal a specific experiment conducted by Litton Bionetics chief Dr. John Landon as the most plausible source of the original Marburg virus outbreak in Europe. Most astonishing, in an obscure scientific report, Dr. Seymour Kalter, the NCI's chief simian virus expert in charged of classifying newly developed viruses that emerged during laboratory experiments, stated for the record that the Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus was man-made. Chapter 24. Ebola Kikwit and the Sloan/Hot Zone/Plague Connection--This concluding chapter critically examines the 1995 Ebola virus outbreak in Kikwit, Zaire. Apparently, contrary to popular belief and news coverage, the virus was too similar to the 1976 strain to have emerged naturally. A final serendipitous discovery identified The Hot Zone's Richard Preston, as the recipient of a $20,000 literary grant from the Sloan Foundation. Further investigation revealed the foundation: (1) supported black educational initiatives consistent with the COINTELPRO Black Nationalist Hate Group campaign; (2) administered "public management" research and mass-media-public-persuasion experiments completely consistent with the CIA's Project MKULTRA; (3) funded many of the earliest cancer research experiments involving the genetic engineering of mutant viruses; (4) funded population control studies by Planned Parenthood-World Population, New York, N.Y.; (5) funded the Community Blood Council of Greater New York, Inc., the "council of doctors" who established the infamous New York City Blood Bank; (6) maintained Laurance S. Rockefeller, the director of the Community Blood Council of Greater New York and the president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, as chairman of the board of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and a trustee for the Foundation; (7) gave in excess of $20,000 annually to the Council on Foreign Relations; and (8) maintained among its "marketable securities," 16,505 shares of Chase Manhattan Bank stock (in 1967) along with 24,400-53,000 shares issued by Merck & Co., Inc. (at least until 1973). In the end, Litton Bionetics and Hazleton Research Labs were sold to a subsidiary of Dow-Corning, whose president, Richard Hazleton, is currently seeking congressional approval for legislation aimed at freeing corporations from product liability claims, such as those caused by immune-system-ravaging silicon breast implants and Norplant_ for population control. In addition, it was also learned that Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague, also received major financial support from The Sloan Foundation. Chapter 25. Smoking Guns and Conclusions--The book closes by questioning the covert operations of the military-medical-industrial complex and its effect on America's health and democracy, but not before revealing "a smoking gun." Maurice Hilleman, in charge of MSD's hepatitis B vaccine experiments in New York and Central Africa, admits to having been intimately involved importing AIDS infected monkeys into his labs at Merck, and thus beginning the North American AIDS epidemic, just as Dr. Horowitz concluded from the scientific evidence presented in chapter 13. Most troubling, hard evidence is presented that NCI and NIH insiders knew, as early as 1961, that MSD's polio (and later, hepatitis B) vaccines were laced with live simian lentiviruses that would likely produce human cancer epidemics for decades to come. Even more incredible, many monkey viruses are still being spread to humans by currently administered vaccines, while the FDA, by law, cannot do anything about it! For political and financial reasons, those who knew about such risks simply remained silent, or actively blocked efforts to alert the public. The result is--just about everyone is at greater risk today of developing cancer, and a host of other illnesses, or passing these cancer genes, or active viruses, on to their children for generations to come. Readers are encouraged to help make a difference by contacting their congressional representatives to urge an independent investigation of current live viral vaccine contaminants along with the FDA regarding their role in developing the hepatitis B vaccine and keeping the public misinformed. In addition, the tainted vaccine lots allegedly in safe keeping at the FDA should be evaluated and may hold the keys to discovering the whole true story of the origin of AIDS.

"Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional?"

(Tetrahedron Press, 1996; $29.95)

May be ordered through bookstores throughout North America, and by calling toll-free 800-336-9266.

The book may also be ordered through the internet at http://www.tetrahedron.org in the catalog section of the web site. ***** "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to iww-news-request@iww.org with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Australian Vaccination Protest March Resent-Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:28:10 -0700 Resent-From: iww-news@iww.org Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 20:26:19 -0400 From: "Dave" Reply-To: To: PROTEST MARCH AND VACCINATION FORUM

On Sunday April 6th, the Australian Vaccination Network and it's affiliated groups organised a march and rally in Sydney to publicise the fact that children are dying and being injured by vaccines and nobody in the government, either state or federal, is doing anything about it. There has still been no response from Dr. Wooldridge to the 200 reaction reports we delivered to him back in January and since that time, we have been contacted by more than 100 additional families who have reported a vaccine injury or death to us. Despite sending numerous press releases to publicise the march, the only publicity we received was from the Natural Health Society/Vegetarian Society magazine which ran an A5 sheet for us at no cost. The Australian Chiropractic Journal also ran a page, to advertise for us again at no cost. The homoeopaths wrote to their members to let them know about the march. There were also Sydney members putting up posters and fliers - we received numerous inquiries from the Nature Care College for example after a member put up signs there. For this help which proved to be invaluable, I would like to thank those involved. We had many successes that day. For one thing, there were 500 people marching down the streets of Sydney making their feelings known and informing all who watched us both in person and on TV (one station ran an excellent story about the march and Radio National also covered it). For another, the groups have all worked wonderfully together. There is now a great feeling of connection between all of our far-flung organisations and we are all very clear on where we are, where we want to go and how best to get there. We had some wonderful speakers at the rally in First Fleet Park which is where the march concluded. There was Dr. Viera Scheibner, Ian Sinclair, Susan Lindberg from VAIS and yours truly. We were also very lucky to have an unexpected guest speaker in Burnum Burnum. He discussed the devastating effects of vaccines on the Aboriginal population - an issue which is skirted often by the medical community but never really gone into. Why would the Aboriginal population have such a shockingly high rate of infant mortality when they also have such a high rate of vaccination? Is there a connection and what is being done by the government to find out? We will be repeating the march some time in 1998 and hope to make it an annual event as long as there are children dying and being injured by vaccines and as long as their parents are not being given a chance to make an informed choice. We have approached vaccination groups overseas and there is a strong interest in making next year's march international with parents and children from all over the world protesting the damage done by vaccines. Best is - this is an Australian initiative and all of you who are members of our group can be very proud that you have helped to bring it about! The day after the march, there was a forum called In the Best Interests of the Child: What Parents Want to Know about Vaccination which was held at Parliament House in Sydney. It was the brain child of the Hon. Alan Corbett, MLC, A Better Future For Out Children party. There were three pro-choice speakers representing your views - Maureen Hickman, President of the Australian Council For Immunisation Information; Dr. Mark Donohoe, Environmental Medicine and Nutrition; and Meryl Dorey, President the Australian Vaccination Network (that's me!). There were also three pro-vaccination speakers - Dr. Mark Ferson, Director, South Eastern Sydney Public Health Unit; Mark Harris, Professor of General Practice, University of NSW; and Dr. Alyson Kakakios, Senior Staff Specialist, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, New Children's Hospital. She was filling in for Associate Professor Margaret Burgess was supposed to have participated in the forum but cancelled without explanation. This forum was supposed to consist of a panel with the 6 speakers all sitting together and answering questions which had been sent in by parents. Unfortunately (though not unexpectedly), the pro-vaccination speakers refused to speak on the same platform with us. They wanted us to speak in the morning while they spoke in the afternoon - that way, we could not respond to anything that they said. Not only that, but they changed the date at the last minute and would not enter into any discussion of how the day would be run. It never fails to amaze me that the medical community, which insists that vaccinations are safe and effective, is so reluctant to come out for a fair debate to try and prove their assertions. They seem quite willing to shove these things down our throats (or into our babies bodies), but won't try to defend what they are doing. The only explanation we ever seem to get is that there is no debate so be quiet and roll up your sleeve! Anyway, as I said before, the questions had been sent in by parents and others with an interest in vaccination and were presented to both morning (pro-choice) and afternoon (pro-vaccination) speakers. It's unfortunate that there wasn't time to address all of the questions, but there was quite a good cross-section asked. Maureen Hickman, as a law clerk, mostly handled legal questions while Mark Donohoe and myself answered the vaccine-related queries. It will probably not surprise any of you to hear that while the pro-choice side backed up everything that was said with published, medical references, the doctors showed a marked lack of citations and seemed to simply expect us to believe what they said because they were doctors. Many times, a member of the audience would ask the doctors to produce a reference for a certain point that they made. Almost without exception, the person involved would shuffle through the papers on their desk and say that they could give hundreds of citations - all the while never producing one. Their idea of health was also quite different to that of many members of the audience. For instance, one of the questioners asked about the report in the New Zealand Medical Journal in May 1996 which said that a 60% increase in diabetes was due to a hepatitis B vaccination program. Dr. Harris, responded by saying that a vaccine against diabetes was now being trialed! I think that he might have missed the point there? Jim Townley from the ACII asked why there were no studies being done to compare the overall health of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children and Dr. Kakakios responded in disbelief, saying that of course the vaccinated would be healthier because they didn't get diseases like measles and mumps. They just don't get it! Even though they are doctors, what really came across quite clearly to me was the fact that the medical professionals have no idea of what health really is. There is so much more to being healthy than not getting a childhood disease and when your definition is so far off base, of course you won't be able to perceive where you are going wrong. I really want to commend Dr. Mark Donohoe for (a) his courage in bucking the medical fraternity and the whole pharmaceutical machine and in daring to come public and say that vaccines may or may not be safe and effective but there are a lot of questions yet to answer; and (b) for the information he provided and the clear and concise way in which it was presented. I would like to refer to something that Dr. Donohoe said in reference to a question about polio because it is such an important point and really causes us to question whether the polio vaccine has, in fact, been responsible for the decline in paralytic disease or if it is just another coincidence. `How many people here had their tonsils out back in the 50s and 60s? (the majority of the audience held up their hands) How many have children now who have had their tonsils out? A couple. Do you ever wonder why the medical profession drops a procedure? Certainly not because they have paid their cars off. `There was a problem in that we were removing tonsils from people throughout the 40s and 50s. They were taken to be extra tissue not needed by humans, but only a source of trouble. Then, during the polio epidemics, it was found that people who had had their tonsils removed were three to five times more likely to develop paralysis. That does not mean that they got the polio virus more frequently, simply that without the protection of the lymphatic tissue in the throat, there appeared to be a quite strong association between getting the polio virus and developing an illness. There were many at that time who suggested that paralytic polio was an iatrogenic ( ed note -medically-caused) disease. The medical profession dropped tonsillectomy as if it were a hot potato, but I don't know that it told many about that. Certainly, it did not tell me, in my medical school, why tonsillectomies were becoming so much less popular. I had mine removed; virtually everybody in my community did. It is one of those forgotten truths in Australian medicine, and world-wide medicine, that we removed tonsils at our own risk. We thought there was no problem. The iatrogenic part of it was that we caused thousands of cases of paralysis. We did not cause the polio, but we converted people who would have recovered from a viral illness into people with a paralytic illness. To this day, I don't think the medical profession has owned up to that problem that it caused in the Australian health community. For anyone who would like to know what went on at the forum, Alan Corbett will provide you with a 73-page transcript of the day for $5.00 plus $2.00 shipping and handling. You may write to: The Hon. Alan Corbett MLC Legislative Council Parliament House Macquarie Street Sydney 2000 Or fax to (02) 9230-2612 I hope that many of you will also write him a letter of appreciation because what he has done takes courage and commitment. It is never easy to swim against the tide of popular opinion - and it must be especially difficult if you are a politician - even an independent. Mr. Corbett has started a process which will not be finished for quite some time - who knows where it will lead us? Let's try and support those who are supporting us.

Article URL: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~shotinfo/page34.htm Australian Vaccination Network: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~shotinfo/ Dave Hartley Still-Point Healing Services Web Page: http://www.ioa.com/home/davehart

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Additional Material Available on U.$ Biological Warfare used against its own population, Iran, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, N. Korea, China, USSR, Chiapas, Etc. is on the web.

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NSA mind control and psyops

The following was sent to me by Will Filer <Esur4@aol.com> on July 27, 1999. It offers a new explanation for government mind control. Will has stated to me that he is a former consultant to the U.S. National Security Agency and asked me to post this information immediately. He also believes he is in immediate danger because of this information.

If you have comments on this document, feel free to post them to the MINDCONTROL-L list.

- Wes Thomas, moderator, MINDCONTROL-L list

Subliminal Implanted Posthypnotic Suggestions and Scripts Using Acoustically Delivered and Phonetically Accelerated Posthypnotic Commands without Somnambulistic Preparation in the Subject for Intelligence and Counterintelligence Applications by the United States National Security Agency.

INTRODUCTION:

The following information is an overview of one area of NSA Intelligence Technology and Applications. A Technology Title, Applications, Technology Description, case history summaries and the NSA’s Behavioral Modification Procedure Outline documented for the non-technical person.

TECHNOLOGY TITLE:

Subliminal Implanted Posthypnotic Suggestions and Scripts Using Acoustically Delivered and Phonetically Accelerated Posthypnotic Commands without Somnambulistic Preparation in the Subject for Intelligence and Counterintelligence Applications by the United States National Security Agency. "Computer Simulated Subconscious Speech Language".

APPLICATIONS:

Intelligence:

Used on foreign and domestic diplomats, spies, and citizens to gather intelligence, steal advanced technology for US Defense applications. Surveys of citizen's opinions to government events and propaganda. Heavy survey use during times of war, economic strife and political elections. War against drugs. Used to identify investments that have high yield to support clandestine operations. Used to direct field agents without the agents having to carry communications hardware and encryption devices.

Counterintelligence:

Used on foreign and domestic diplomats, spies, and citizens to identify intelligence operations; scope, participants, communication methods, and weaknesses in individuals, systems, equipment, or signals that can be exploited. Additional applications include misinformation dissemination, confusing and confounding leaders during critical decision moments, distorting significance of various facts to sway decisions and actions in US favor, behavioral modification of foreign spies to betray their loyalties, self initiated executions (suicides).

Behavior Modification and Accelerated Resocialization:

This technology is used to develop and control spies, political candidates, and other public figures through psychological intimidation, fear and extortion.
The NSA uses this technology to resocialize (brainwash) the US civilian voting population into "Giving their lives to Christ" (giving up their personal will and civil rights to the NSA). Each subject is required to maintain a "Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ" (following the precepts of the Bible and doing what is ordered by the NSA). The technology is also used to monitor and optimize NSA employee performance and loyalty.

DEFINITIONS AND ACRONYMS:

Age Regression: The act of bringing back past memories in a subject though the use of hypnosis. The memories can be very vivid and real in the mind of the subject.
Hypnoamnesia: Temporary loss of memory due to a posthypnotic suggestion.
NSA: United States National Security Agency, Fort Mead, Maryland.
ODO: On-Duty Officer, or officer-on-duty.
Posthypnotic Command: Same as Posthypnotic Suggestion. This term "Command" is more commonly used when the hypnosis is forcibly given to the subject and when the subject’s will has been broken down though the use of REM Sleep Deprivation and Suggestibility Index increasing drugs like CNS and Cardiovascular Stimulants. The exposure to extreme REM deprivation and select chemical stimulants cause the subject to have no ability to resist the "Suggestion" any longer thereby making it a "Command".
Posthypnotic Suggestion: A subconscious suggestion or command resident and potentially active in the subject following a hypnotic trance or period of direct access to the subconscious mind.
Posthypnotic Suggestibility Index: An index or rating of a subject’s susceptibility and sensitivity to hypnosis.
REM DEP: Abbreviation for REM Sleep Deprivation or REM Deprivation. A subject deprived from REM Sleep has multiple symptoms i.e. reduced protein synthesis, black circles around eyes, loss of short term memory, confusion, impulsiveness, anger, frustration, diminished self-esteem, increased suggestibility, reduced productivity, apathy, and depression. Long term REM Deprivation results in death.
Script: A carefully constructed series of words arranged in the form of a posthypnotic suggestion. The script will generally consist of four separate parts; (1) an identifier (subject’s name, description, or other identifying factor), (2) trigger activation condition or conditions (when, what or how the suggestion will trigger), (3) the content (what the trigger will precipitate in the perception of the subject), (4) and a duration (when or under what conditions will it stop or finish). Additional reinforcing scripts are usually added to "strengthen" or reinforce the central posthypnotic command.
Somnambulatory State: An abnormal condition of sleep in which motor acts (like walking, running) are performed. This state is typically achieved and a prerequisite to traditional hypnosis.
Subliminal Implant: A posthypnotic suggestion successfully delivered to the subject’s subconscious mind.
Transceivers (NSA): Nearly microscopic electronic surveillance devices that collect and transmit encrypted audio, color video, and location coordinates collected at the subject site to NSA Satellites that in turn forward it to NSA central intelligence operations. The devices also receive encrypted audio scripts from NSA central intelligence operations through the satellites and deliver it to the subject’s site in the form of a subliminal posthypnotic suggestion. These devices are approximately the size of the head of a straight pin and can be concealed in houses, offices, automobiles, planes, and street corners.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:

In addition to the ability to see and hear what is going on inside people's homes, vehicles, and businesses through the use of nearly microscopic digital surveillance technology, the NSA is able to interrogate and influence a person subconsciously without the knowledge or consent of the subject.
Thought Labels (Response Labels):

Have you ever watched a baseball game? Did you see the catcher and pitcher communicate using a series of itches, baseball cap rearrangement, and clothing tugs? An elaboration of this communication technique is used by the NSA to detect a fleeting thought in a subject or "read minds" so to speak.
Lets discuss how an itch, clothing tug or even an innocent sneeze can be used to label a thought. For simplicity, we will call itches, clothing tugs, sneezes, coughs, or involuntary muscle spasms that are performed during subconscious interrogation "thought labels".

Post-Hypnotic Delivery Method:

The NSA combines hypnosis and thought labels to interrogate people without the subject being aware of it. "How can hypnosis be used?" you might ask. The subconscious mind operates at a speed of about 1200 to 1400 words per minute. This is many times faster than the conscious mind that operates at 250 to 450 WPM (words per minute). The posthypnotic script can be spoken at fast conversational speed approximately 250 WPM and a recorder or a computer speeds up the message up to approximately 1200 to 1400 WPM. Remember what happens when you play a 33 rpm record at 78 rpm? The resulting voice sound like the old American cartoon characters the Chipmunks. This is only slightly past doubling (2X) the delivery speed. At speeds as high as 1400 WPM, the voices would sound like a high pitched chattering whine. Remember when the words "Drink Coca Cola" were written on one frame of a movie in a theatre back in the 1960s? The frame rate in movies is played at 30 frames/second. At 1/30^th of a second the conscious mind could not recognize the message but the subconscious mind could read it clearly. The audience increased their Coca-Cola consumption by 65% that night resulting in the Federal Government prohibiting subliminal advertising. The following probable reasons for not achieving a higher percentage of subliminal delivery effectiveness (> 65%) are described as follows. In that 1/30^th of a second some people were blinking, some people were looking around the theatre, looking at spouses, children, candy, popcorn, etc. or they had sufficiently poor eyesight that they could watch the movie but could not distinguish the small writing clearly.
In the early years of this technology, the NSA originally recorded a spoken posthypnotic suggestion message into a tape deck and sped it up by speeding up the tape. This process was labor intensive, required each officer to have excellent diction and mastery of the language and dialect required, and was of poor quality due to background noise and the delay in timing during recording and processing. It also required extensive training to assure that each officer spoke at the same rate of speed so that the resulting "sped-up" script was delivered at the correct speed. Now computers are used to append digitized samples of optimized, ideal phonemes together to form words and the words are sped-up to the correct delivery speed. Where dialects are present, a different set of base phonemes is used.
Currently, to optimize efficiency and accommodate the variety of languages on the planet, phonetic elements from each language and distinct dialect are sampled, digitally edited to optimize them, and appended during delivery to form words and words arranged to make sentences in the from of scripts that resemble hypnotic suggestions. The empty space between words is minimized and pitch rise is compressed and filtered. Repetitive sine waves are also removed from the phonetic element’s acoustic wave train thus reducing the actual number of sine waves making up a word by 50% or more. This reduces the actual length of the time it takes the phoneme to be delivered prior to accelerating (speeding-up) the delivery (like fast forward). This helps the message to be played at higher speeds and reduces the subject’s ability to recognize it as accelerated speech. The technique of using optimized digitally sampled and edited phonemes appended together to for words and then sentences structured as hypnotic suggestions can be termed "computer simulated subconscious speech language".
The subconscious mind is also very sensitive. It can hear things that the conscious mind ignores. If you have watched television, you have probably noticed that there are many "subliminal tapes" on the market to program your subconscious mind. These tapes have their "messages" recorded/hidden in the sounds of ocean waves, music, or other sounds but they are not sped-up to subconscious delivery speeds and are therefore not very effective. The subconscious mind can hear and discern the message even when there is background noise like waves, cars, planes, or even when someone else is speaking to you in normal conversation. Your conscious mind won't hear anything unless it is very quite in the house. If you are very attentive you may hear what sounds like a low-pitched tape on fast forward, and played at low volume. This is the sound of the NSA's high-speed audio subliminal message.
This modification of the phonetic elements, played at low volume, combined with the environmental background noise makes it very difficult for a subject to record the NSA message. Even if the subject were to effectively record the message, it is very difficult to filter (separate) the NSA's message from background noise. Then, reconstructing the missing sine waves from the acoustic wave train and slowing the message down to discern the actual content of the "posthypnotic" script with the conscious mind would be nearly impossible for the average citizen. To briefly summarize, the subject would have no chance in analyzing a NSA message without the following items:

Professional state-of-the-art technology recording equipment.
Digital acoustic wave editing equipment.
Advanced engineering knowledge of acoustic wave science.
Phonetics and linguistics expertise.
Hypnosis theory and scripting.
Ideal environmental conditions for recording.
NSA ignorance of the subject's intent and ability to capture a message.

This technology is the perfect intelligence tool. It is nearly impossible to detect or measure, difficult to trace back to the NSA. The symptoms that the NSA can "program" or inflict into the subject can cause fear that they might be thought to be insane if they were to report the NSA activities. The subject does not know the source of the technology or the technology itself, the subject has no proof or evidence, only their perception, suffering, and isolation. Additionally, potential recourses that are available to the subject can be interrogated out and preventative actions taken by the NSA to further isolate or disable the subject.

Using the Post-Hypnotic Delivery Method with Thought Labels:

The NSA technique is simple; they transmit their human programming message through the audio-visual electronic surveillance equipment installed in your home, car, or office to you. The subliminal message delivered to you could be "Mr. Jones, imagine that the IRS were auditing your taxes. Think back to a time you have cheated on your taxes and that you are worried that the IRS might find out in an audit. If you have never cheated on your taxes and have nothing to fear you will feel an itch on your right-hand ear lobe that will go away when you scratch it. If you can be caught by an IRS audit, you will feel an itch in the left nostril of your nose that will disappear after you itch it twice." From your perspective, you have just had a fleeting thought about your past tax returns and had an innocent itch (thought label). To the NSA Officer On Duty (ODO), you have just communicated to him whether you have ever: 1) cheated on your taxes, and: 2) If the IRS could catch you in an audit.
This is a very oversimplified example of a typical NSA interrogation. Actual interrogation messages may consist of several hundred words and be very complex and sophisticated. Most messages consist of several dozen words. Yes indeed, the NSA has exceeded the wildest expectations of the book "1984". As you can imagine, the spy world has reached a new plateau that directly affects every person in the USA and abroad. This electronic surveillance system extends down through Mexico, Central America, and deep into populated regions of South America. It also has been installed in Australia, Africa, and the free-world countries in Europe.
The NSA's goal is to have the whole world under its electronic eye by the year 2000. They are almost there now, but are having difficulties with high-tech countries that have the counterintelligence resources to identify the high frequency bursts of microwave transmission from the transceivers. The system also has the ability to take a "voice print" from any person and place it on file. This file can be used to locate the subject later by comparing it to real-time surveillance audio samples received from the field as long as the subject is speaking in close proximity to a transceiver. If the person is aware that the NSA has this capability and remains silent, the NSA can transmit a periodic worldwide subliminal message that addresses the person by name and causes them to dream and talk in their sleep. After the person talks, the voiceprint would be eventually identified and the person's location can be identified nearly anywhere in the world. Yes, it is a small world, and getting smaller all the time.
This technology was originally conceived under CIA studies and fascination with the power of hypnosis in the late 1950’s and perfected by very early 1960s and implemented with unlimited resources to all areas of vital national security interest first. Originally, after noting the behavioral effects in visual subliminal effects like the highly publicized event where stating "Drink Coca Cola" on a single movie frame "delivered a higher rates of speed than normal movie viewing raised the obvious question, "Does the human hearing work as good as eyesight accepting subliminal messages?" Preliminary theory work was transferred to Fort Mead NSA who had expertise in characterizing language in analog domains where a sampled phoneme could be edited (shortened by removing excess sine waveforms from the "acoustic wavetrain") and electronically reconstructed back into shortened words of language. Some of the early experiments included "Remote Viewing at NSA where the Viewer would relax, open their mind and explain the clarity of images that were described by the NSA using this technology. These early experiments allowed the NSA to refine the specifications of the "Computer Simulated Subconscious Speech Language" and the scripting formats to maximize the ability to deliver an accurate "vision or picture" into the subject. Pictures already seen by the subject could simply be recalled using "Age regression" script variations.

OTHER REFERENCE MATERIAL:

Please refer to the book "Inside America's Most Secret Agency, The Puzzle Palace" by James Bamford, Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982. This book contains extensive information and references on the NSA's history and the NSA's first surveillance system that originally only eavesdropped on telephones and is now expanded to audio-visual.

NSA CASE HISTORY EXAMPLE SUMMARIES:

NSA Self-Initiated Execution (Suicide):

Bamford's "The Puzzle Palace" references one of the NSA's first self-initiated execution (suicide) with this "Thought Control" technology they developed. The NSA employee reportedly ran off NSA property saying demons were in his mind and he killed himself.

NSA Initiated Execution to Cover-up in the News:

A University of California at Berkley student that went into a bar on or around November 27, 1990 took hostages and insisted to the police that the CIA Director talk with him so that he could get relief from the suffering. The young man had sent letters to the president and the CIA but the requests had fallen on deaf ears. After the young man panicked and shot a customer in the bar, a SWAT team fatally shot him, the San Jose police found copies of the letters written to the President referring to people that could "read minds" and that he had learned how they do it. The NSA had been unsuccessfully brainwashing him and had no alternative but to terminate him to assure their security. It is interesting that what was originally broadcast on the news "The gunman was demanding to talk with the Director of the CIA" etc. disappeared quickly (suppressed?) from later news accounts.

NSA Initiated Execution to Cover-up in Music:

Curt Cobain of the musical group "Nirvana" was another victim of NSA brainwashing and was terminated by NSA. Cobain had started writing clues to the NSA activities into his music to communicate it to his music followers. He referred in music to the NSA as the "Friends inside his head". Once the NSA puts on the highest level of brainwashing pain, the subject expires quickly. Cobain used heroin to numb and otherwise slow the effect of the brainwashing.

NSA Initiated Executions in Overseas Defense Project:

Some years back several employees of the United Kingdom's Government working on a top secret Radar Project committed suicide with no apparent penetration by a hostile government, drug abuse or any other commonality other than working in a secured government project. They were not "Staged" suicides (murders) because some of them happened behind doors that could not be opened from the outside. These men were subjected to the same technology and processes that the U.C. Berkley student, the NSA officer, Curt Cobain, and thousands of others have experienced.

Musical references of NSA Technology:

Talking Heads; a music group popular in the eighties, wrote a song explaining the scientific process of the NSA's brainwashing technology in a song called "Wild Wild Life". The song gave an example of what the audible transmission sounded like at the end of the song (like a tape on fast forward). They mentioned in the song that "They (NSA) talk so fast…" and that the musical group had spent "All their time and money…" unsuccessfully trying to find a place that the NSA would not be able to harass them. The Talking Heads exposed the technology, gave an example of what it sounds like, scenarios of how the NSA might select you for the brainwashing, and the scope of the electronic surveillance system.

NSA Counterintelligence Experiments:

Many experiments were performed by the NSA to determine the conditions and procedures that would be required to turn spies that were trusted by US enemies into assassins that we could invisibly manage. In early experiments, the resulting NSA experimental subjects would get extensive attention in the news because of the horror and unusual nature of the atrocity.
One example that comes to mind happened several years ago and created much news. A man became obsessed with his son, poured gasoline on him and ignited it. He had planned to do the same to himself but his desire for survival overpowered the NSA's behavioral conditioning. After he was imprisoned, he spoke about how all of a sudden his mind became clear and he couldn't figure out how he could do this crime. The hypnosis was simply removed and the subject was allowed to sleep so that experts studying the file would not find out anything if the subject would have been subjected to traditional hypnotherapy or other psychoanalytical techniques. Another successful counterintelligence experiment completed with no liability or traceability to the NSA.

Perhaps ten years ago I read of several elderly people died of sleep deprivation in Florida. The doctors tried everything they could do but could not stop the sleep deprivation that resulted in a 100% effective termination yield. The NSA had developed the right combination of delivered anxiety scripts combined with muscular tension and delivery schedules optimized according to decreasing post hypnotic durability over time as the subject's health degraded.
David Koresh of the Branch Davidians spent many hours talking with FBI negotiators about God and the Bible and finally waited for "God" to tell him what to do in the final hours of the siege. The compound probably had numbers of Personal Journals (required for subjects by the NSA during brainwashing) that could lead to questions about how this cult came to this level. Additionally, just like other loose ends the NSA had to secure, "God spoke to them and said to commit suicide" and they did securing another one of the NSA’s great experiments in mind control and social pathology.
A friend of mine, David Sautter and I worked at Singer, Kearfott Division, producing government weapons where we worked under a multi-tier security system; Company Security, FBI, DIA, and at the top of the ladder watching the watchers; the NSA. I discussed the NSA's technology with Dave and a few months later, I heard he had committed suicide inside of a locked room. This theme should familiar by now and the details of the case will be destroyed or rewritten by NSA influences to preserve national security.

The cases of NSA activities go on and on. With access to the FBI's Crime Information Center (CIC), we could find several thousand files having the characteristic patterns where the NSA had experimented on the individuals with their "Thought Control" technology.
Currently, the NSA has many subjects in the field (our society) that need only a series of "triggers" (carefully constructed posthypnotic scripts) to send them over the edge and on a mission to kill. The NSA calls them "Shooters on a Shelf". A recent example was Russell Eugene Weston, Jr. that went on a shooting spree at the Capitol around July 26, 1998. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, had delusions that he had an affiliation with the CIA or FBI and thought a radio-tracking device was planted in his tooth. He was a product of NSA brainwashing. He did not have the ability to recognize the advanced technology even though he knew that "someone" (CIA, FBI, etc.) was communicating with him and that this communication ability spanned across the USA leading him to believe that he had a tracking device planted on him. Because of the real effects of the NSA hypnosis treatments, he therefore reasoned that the schizophrenia medication would not help and so he quit taking it. This was a man desperately trying to alleviate the suffering the NSA inflicted on him.
Through the years, I have met thousands of people that have been brainwashed into Christianity to a level where God tells them what to do in their minds (described as a gentle voice by victims) and they mindlessly obey. Yes, they have "Friends inside their heads" also. It appears the Biblical Anti-Christ in the Book of Revelations has arrived and is convincing many subjects that Jesus is back on earth and directing them.

NSA BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION PROCEDURE:

The following procedural outline documents typical techniques, processes, explanations, and definitions of the National Security Agency’s Behavioral Modification Procedure using Subliminal Implanted Posthypnotic Suggestions through acoustically delivered phonetically edited language elements combined into scripts without somnambulistic preparation in the subject.
In simpler terms, the subject is unknowingly given hypnosis while the subject is completely awake and is tortured and punished with this hypnosis into a predetermined behavior by the National Security Agency. The behavior is usually extremely religious, is called "reborn" by the church, with the subject’s life-long goal of "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ".

ABSTRACT, Behavioral Modification:

The NSA’s behavioral modification process starts with identification and qualification of the subject. The NSA used to choose subjects based on the subject’s net present value to the agency in public visibility, financial resources, political clout, or other intelligence and counter-intelligence reasons. Additional considerations are given to minimizing security risks of exposure, the subject’s posthypnotic suggestibility index, the subject’s intelligence and reasoning ability, moral and superstitious beliefs, and the subject’s social status and the weakness of the subject’s primary support groups (family). Now a recent report referenced in the March 26^th Business section of the Orange County Register from the National Sleep Foundation reports that 40% of Americans are experiencing sleeping problems. This news could indicate that the NSA is broadening its influence to the greater public. As explained below in this document, the NSA always starts its behavioral modification process with REM Deprivation.
After selection, the subject is subjected to long periods of REM Sleep Deprivation and reinforced torturing posthypnotic suggestions that will breakdown the subject’s will, confidence, self-reliance, and moral values. Meanwhile, the subject is increasingly isolated from their familiar and trusted peer groups causing the subject to experience depression, apathy, and ultimately social and financial failure.
Typical post-hypnotic induced delusions reported by subjects are tingling in various areas of the body, which are thought to be resulting from microwave beams. Hearing ticks thumps or cracks from walls, ceilings, clocks, lights, etc. Beliefs that the subject's neighbors are conspiring against them, or that the subject is being followed. Sometimes subjects believe that the various perceptions, feelings and experiences are the result of "Implants" in their body. It is important for the subjects to understand that the NSA controls this technology from nuclear hardened underground shelters and the neighbors next door have nothing to do with the subject's experiences. Nobody has the time or inclination to follow a subject around with a microwave gun to tickle various parts of the body. We are saturated with microwaves all the time from television stations, communication satellites, etc and yet we do not have any symptoms because microwaves do not have the ability to trigger localized synaptic responses in our brains. Furthermore, when the subject is in a room surrounded by several people, and the subject is the only one experiencing the "thoughts", tingling feelings, etc., then obviously a delivery method is being employed that affects only the subject; high-speed acoustic delivered hypnosis.
After a while, the subject has an emotional breakdown and a new support group is built around the subject. The new support group is typically a church with doctrines centered in the Bible but the NSA also uses cults and other social groups. The NSA prefers Christian churches because the doctrines allow "God or Jesus to speak directly to the subject" and the negative reinforcement can be attributed with Satan and the positive rewards can be considered to be blessings from God thereby masking the NSA's technology and processes. When the NSA uses other relationships without in which the subject experiences a religious awakening and "Gives their Life to Christ" and the NSA achieves total control of the subject.
The subject is slowly released from the damaging uncomfortable hypnosis and it is replaced with positive rewarding hypnosis as "God and Jesus works in their life". Soon, the subject has complete loyalty to Jesus (AKA: NSA) and will do anything on command from Jesus (NSA).
The subject is required to give daily status reports in the form of prayers in the privacy of their home, office, or car where the NSA’s electronic surveillance system captures and sorts the prayers by "Keywords". The NSA then delivers additional hypnosis in the form of punishments or rewards or directs the subject accordingly to "God’s will". If the subject resist’s the NSA’s instructions, additional punishments are inflicted on the subject.
The subject is institutionalized in this system where any nonconformances committed by the subject are watched, critiqued, and reported on through prayer by other "Christians" to the NSA. Thus, the new church peer group acts as a behavioral reinforcing mechanism that will bring any of the subject’s problems to the NSA as they have been trained themselves (this is similar to the Nazi Gestapo of World War 2 and other communist approaches).
A subject that has successfully completed the NSA’s behavioral modification program lives out the rest of their mediocre life in service to Jesus (NSA) and never causes any waves in the church or news media for fear of reprisal from the NSA. The subject’s lives are relatively unproductive because their focus is on their "Life after death" and not what they accomplish while they are alive. They avoid "worldly activities", and usually are confused and disjointed in rational thoughts and concepts. For instance, they don’t believe in anything that is not in the Bible, i.e. dinosaurs, evolution, space travel, even though they ride on airplanes and watch television both of which are not referenced in the Bible.

BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION PROCESS:

Triggering Techniques:

The NSA minimizes security risks by using multiple posthypnotic delivery techniques for applying negative reinforcement into the subject. The patterns fall into three major categories; real-time deliveries, prescheduled deliveries via a preprogrammed computer, and posthypnotic or "conditional" deliveries. The NSA does not use real-time transmitted posthypnotic commands exclusively because the subject might recognize when the NSA was not actively watching causing a security concern and it would be cost prohibitive to baby-sit the subject 24 hours a day.
Behavioral modification generally occurs fastest when using negative reinforcement continuously. It is not practical or economical to watch a subject continuously to apply real time deliveries. Additionally, using all three script delivery patterns confuses the subject, causes the subject to believe they are always being watched, and maximizes behavioral change over time though continuous pressure.

Real-Time Subconscious Implant Delivery:

Real-time means that the NSA ODO is transmitting the posthypnotic command script to the subject and observing the subject’s response. This technique is required for subliminal interrogations. All NSA standard posthypnotic command scripts can be delivered real-time. This form of delivery can precipitate the perception of a "voice" heard in the mind of a subject to give them information (true or false) or orders depending on the purpose of the NSA's activities.

Prescheduled Subconscious Implant Delivery:

The NSA central switching computer can transmit a script to a specified subject at a pre-specified time. The transmitted script’s transmission range can be limited to a single building, a city, or a large geographical area (i.e. North America or Europe). By having prescheduled scripts, the subject has seemingly randomly occurring thoughts and feelings that can't be associated with a commonly recurring situation like event-triggered scripts precipitate.

Event-Triggered (conditional) Implant Delivery:

Posthypnotic subconscious implants that are triggered (activated) with an event, thought, or code word (event-triggered or conditional) are strongly experienced by the subject and are powerful tools for reinforcing a predetermined desired behavior and inflicting delusions.
This type of posthypnotic commands are the ones most commonly used by hypnotherapists to help people quit smoking, study better, or in general, change behavior (behavioral modification). There is extensive information on the Internet and college libraries about this form of posthypnotic command delivery and how to "script" and use them.
The NSA can reinforce a predetermined desired behavior by associating a subconscious implant (negative or positive reinforcement) with an event. An example is that when the NSA want's to isolate the subject from the company of a specific person place or thing, the subject will be implanted with a feeling of increased anxiety, hostility, tension, simple discomfort, or a feeling of a lack of peace. When the subject leaves the person, place, or thing, another posthypnotic implant is triggered that rewards the subject's behavior with a feeling of relief from the anxiety, hostility, tension, discomfort, and peace is restored in the subject's mind. Example: This script will always cause a girl or boy not to sleep with the opposite sex: "You will feel very tense and not be able to relax if you kiss, sleep with, or stay long at your (boy or girl) friend’s house and you will feel a deep peace when you leave their house to go back home". These types of scripts left unmanaged and not removed can cause great harm as the subject develops and social conditions and behaviors change over time.
It should be noted that the NSA precisely tailors the type of negative and/or positive reinforcement, the degree of the reinforcement, the duration of the reinforcing effect and the conditions of the trigger. This posthypnotic event-triggered reinforcement can be initiated gradually and can remain so subtle that the subject believes that the discomfort is naturally occurring and that it is the subject's decision uninfluenced by anyone else that the subject should avoid the person, place or thing.
This subconscious implant can be combined with other implants like a posthypnotic-triggered thought to enhance the subject's decision toward the situation. For example the subject can be subconsciously implanted with a command to be very sensitive to the changes in their feelings and to feel great about making strong decisions to take charge of their lives. This can be reinforced with another posthypnotic suggestion to avoid all the situations that cause the subject discomfort and that each time the subject commits himself/herself to removing a situation of this kind in their lives, they will feel an increasing control over their lives. Note that as the subject perceives an increasing control over their lives they are actually losing control to the NSA proportionately. Numerous other examples exist and it is beyond the scope of this document to document every possibility.

Stage 1 (Prescreen Evaluation):

The subject’s Posthypnotic Suggestibility Index is determined by a series of simple tests. Hypnoamnesia is applied to the subject for the name of an object or individual and the subject’s speed is timed to determine how quickly they can overcome or not overcome the posthypnotic suggestion "You will not be able to remember the name of "____" no matter how hard you try. Other posthypnotic suggestions can be used to create fear or discomfort in the subject that can be remedied by flight or movement. The subject must overcome a posthypnotic suggestion that they cannot move no matter how hard they try. In summary, a posthypnotic suggestion is given to the subject and the subject’s ability to overcome it is evaluated.
A full study of the subject’s religious, superstitions, fears, and insecurities is made through standard subliminal interrogation techniques and behavioral observation.
Interrogation scenarios are presented to the subject using standard subliminal interrogation techniques and somnambulistic interrogation techniques. The standard two types of scenarios are "Open-ended Questions" (similar to multiple choice with response labels pre-assigned to each choice) or "Reject if Disagreeable" (negative response label if the subject disagrees). More advanced techniques of interrogation scenarios are used as required or as determined by the experience of the ODO.
Real-time observation, standard subliminal interrogation techniques and somnambulistic interrogation techniques are used to determine the subject’s overall social status, abilities, attitudes, and communication skills with primary support groups and friends.
Scientific understanding and practical applications experience in the fields of psychology, hypnosis, pharmacology, and problem analysis are considered risks in the subject that may complicate or inhibit subsequent behavioral modification processes. Once the subject identifies the technology used it is nearly impossible to contain the potential security breach without terminating the subject. Most NSA initiated executions (suicides) are the result of the subject identifying the technology used or carelessness on the part of the ODO managing the file.
The NSA technology affords powerful control over the subject, the subject’s environment, and the subject’s ability to plan and implement a disclosure to appropriate Government Agencies. When the subject finally does achieve a disclosure, the subject’s physical and mental condition is depleted. The subject’s ability to communicate concisely has been arrested, and the subject has already been set up and dishonored in the sight of local and federal law enforcement agencies to assure the subject’s testimony is questionable and unsubstantiated. Where the NSA feels that these steps cannot be achieved in medium risk subjects, the NSA will not recruit the subject into the behavioral modification process.

Stage 2 (Standard Process):

This stage is where most subjects are behaviorally modified to serve and follow "God" (AKA NSA management of the subject’s civil rights). If the subject accepts religion and direction at this stage the NSA reinforces the subject’s relationship with Jesus and closes the file. This shortened program receives the maximum return for the NSA for the least investment and minimizes the security risk. It also causes the least amount of damage and institutionalization in the subject.
Coincidence:

Coincidence is used to create the perception in the subject that supernatural events are beginning in the subject's life. A combination of posthypnotic commands and pre-information awarded to the subject prior to an upcoming experience that the NSA intelligence system has discovered gives the subject a feeling that "God" or some other supernatural being is taken interest in their life.
The following is one typical technique used by the NSA. NSA Intelligence gathers information regarding the topic of the sermon in the subject's church. This information is gathered through electronic surveillance equipment installed in the church. The NSA then implants a posthypnotic command that triggers the subject’s mind into concern and contemplation about the sermon’s topic prior to going to church. When the subject hears the sermon, the sermon seems to be speaking directly to the subject that adds to God's mysterious and unexplainable ability to address the innermost concerns of the subject, especially when the subject has not shared those concerns with any other human being.
Another typical method used by NSA concerns tragic events occurring to loved ones. NSA Intelligence receives a local broadcast or preliminary information through electronic surveillance that a subject’s relative has been injured or killed. The subject is given a posthypnotic suggestion that a feeling of dread or loss is welling up inside them and they are directed to think of that particular loved one. When they are finally notified through official channels, the subject believes that they have special powers, insights, or communications from God, aliens, or other entities.

REM Sleep Deprivation:

The Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep is controlled and usually limited to one to two cycles per night resulting in micro-sleeps during the day. REM deprivation inhibits short-term memory, concentration, tactile abilities, verbal articulation, reasoning, and self will. Protein synthesis is inhibited and thereby reduces the subject’s ability to heal after physical damage or after periods of extensive exercise. The result is that the subject’s general health degrades as does social bonds and work/school performance.
The NSA performs control of REM Sleep through various methods. Posthypnotic implants can be implanted that place a subject in a light sleep (posthypnotic trance) with various combinations of muscular tension and computer cycling implant deliveries (to be discussed later).
Subjects typically complain of no sleep, restless sleep, waking up every hour on the hour, staying awake until the hour they have to get up, waking up an hour after they retire and not returning to sleep, and typically cannot recall any dreams. Additionally, they will complain of repeating torturing thoughts, racing thoughts, and facial itching and numbness. Daily fatigue, poor recall of names, and caffeine consumption is typical.
Dark rings’ surrounding the eyes is evident and the darkened area around the eyes can be reported as sore or tender by the subject. The subtle perceptual impairing effects of REM deprivation make it more difficult for the subject to identify the REM Deprivation problem. When the REM depravation onslaught is gradual and accompanied by a posthypnotic command that the subject "will feel energetic and rested", the subject will not recognize the REM Deprivation. Additional posthypnotic commands can be implanted that will make it difficult for the subject to "see or perceive" the rings surrounding their eyes. I have seen many subjects with very dark eye rings and the subjects could not recognize them at all.

Shame Factor Enhancement:

Various posthypnotic suggestions are implanted in the subject after a week or so long period of REM deprivation. The content of the posthypnotic scripts is constructed to cause the subject to perform embarrassing and otherwise shameful acts (usually sexual but always anti-social). These shameful behaviors are used by the NSA later to shame the person into a lower self esteem, reduced confidence in their own self discipline, a need for forgiveness from God. These embarrassments provide a means to Blackmail or discredit the subject if the NSA is detected and otherwise threatened by the subject.
The NSA will always use another law enforcement agency to document the behavioral discrepancy to retain anonymity. The NSA has been known to help subjects avoid prosecution to gain loyalty or create an adversarial relationship between the acting agency and the subject (another intimidation factor) even though the NSA was responsible for creating the behavioral problem in the subject’s life.

Religious Relevance and Convictions:

The NSA typically implants posthypnotic suggestions that are clearly referenced in the Bible. The subject may be punished (through negative reinforcement) by anything that is referenced in the Bible to substantiate the validity of the "Word of God". When the NSA does not follow the standard Biblical references, most subjects fail to recognize the contradictions out of ignorance or an inability to rationalize, or, they find other ways to justify the events to receive peace from God (NSA). This component of the NSA process is to provide the subject with an increased sense of fear and intimidation resulting from God’s presence and force. "Thou shall not disobey God".

Paranoia:

Paranoia is a powerful tool used by the NSA. It provides a means to develop the subject’s distrust of other people including the subject’s primary group that could provide positive support during this time of distress in the subject's life. Paranoia is often recognized and discounted as a character fault by most peoples in American society and therefore discredits the subject’s testimony even further. Uninformed, but well wishing people including friends, may recommend to the subject to pursue counseling. This negative feedback can make the subject fear that people will believe the subject is crazy.
When the subject seeks professional counseling, the result will be a misdiagnosis with an expensive, inappropriate and ineffective treatment. The observed symptoms result from simply hypnosis, not biological, chemical, or environmental stresses. A misdiagnosis strongly motivates the subject not to communicate their experiences to others to avoid social disgrace of a "schizophrenia" label and additional financial burden. This isolation of the subject and their reluctance to communicate their experience to others reduces NSA security risk. The NSA cannot allow the subject to share information with other subjects that have already experienced the program and thereby starting a pool of information that could be compiled and used to expose the NSA system.
The subject is led to believe that the subject's neighbors, work associates and/or family are conspiring against the subject through a number of scripts delivered to the subject by the NSA. The NSA can further complicate the conspiracy delusion by using the same technology to have a work associate ask the subject a question or to make a comment that can be used by the NSA to confirm the subjects fears. This technique further isolates the subject from trusting their peer groups, causes additional emotional distress and hostility toward these people. The subject sometimes resorts to violent behavior, which is viewed by observers as irrational, unprovoked behavior that may be treated as criminal behavior by law enforcement personnel.

Stage 3 (Extreme Process):

This method is very severe and usually results in a two to five year program. Because of the severity of the suffering, the subject is usually permanently impaired for integration into normal mainstream life and is essentially institutionalized. The result is that the subject must reside in a less competitive environment like a church group. Subjects that receive this program tend to be highly superstitious, are agitated easily when objective evidence that contradicts their belief system is presented. They tend to believe in the spiritual world (demons, ghosts, god, spiritual entities, etc) and consider the spiritual world to be more powerful and important than the material or real world. This program basically follows the following steps; REM deprivation, breakdown of self esteem and confidence, intense suffering, exaggerated conscience, spiritual contact, reborn in Jesus Christ, Spiritual battle, release (saved by the Savior), and recovering (blessed by Jesus Christ). Whenever possible the NSA will skip or reduce these steps to minimize security risk and financial cost.
Increasing Dependence on Drugs and Alcohol:

As the REM Deprivation increases the subject must depend on Central Nervous System (CNS) Stimulants to compensate for degradation of productivity at work, school, and in interpersonal relationships. This serves the NSA in several ways. Use of drugs (especially CNS stimulants) increases the subject's index of suggestibility. Or in other words, the post hypnotic commands are more effective and the subject has greater difficulty resisting the impulses generated by the commands. In addition, the increased stress of coping with the drugs in conjunction with the resisting the newly introduced posthypnotic commands serves to push the subject closer to an emotional breakdown. If the subject uses illegal drugs, the NSA tries to set the subject up for a conviction to get assure that the subject looses credibility. Who would believe a drug user that claimed that he/she was being harassed by a government agency that was tormenting them with hypnosis? It also serves the NSA in the program by documenting something that the subject will be ashamed of when the program reaches the exaggerated conscience stage.
Alcohol, sleeping pills and other medications also inhibit REM Stage sleep and increase irritability over time thereby further degrading and isolating the subject.
In summary, the NSA benefits from the subject responding to the REM Deprivation assault with self-medication. This response discredits the subject by labeling them in society as a drug user, it enhances the effect of the implanted posthypnotic commands and it gives the subject a reason for shame that will be used against the subject later to justify the punishment from "God". It should be noted that the subject is not really guilty of anything, except being a victim that was manipulated in a carefully controlled scientific behavior modification process.

Poor Nutrition:

The poor nutrition reduces the energy the subject has and serves later as another justification of God's punishment. The subject will be taught later that "the body is the temple" and that to abuse it is to violate God's will.

Apathy:

After the subject's self-esteem is broken down and continuing failure and persistent suffering start to dominate every day, the individual becomes apathetic as a defense mechanism. At this stage the subject has committed another sin of "not persevering through faith" which is later used on the subject later to increase a feeling of guilt.

Depression:

Depression precipitates as a result of chronic REM Sleep Deprivation, social isolation and a feeling of helplessness in the subject. Commonly, when the subject seeks professional counseling, they are misdiagnosed and treated for depression with medications but the root cause of the problem (negative reinforcing posthypnotic suggestions inflicted over long periods of time) is not treated or corrected.

Insecurity:

The subject starts to experience severe insecurity in this stage. The NSA uses this insecurity against the subject in several ways. Because of the impaired reasoning ability and emotional isolation, the subject is susceptible to the approaches of insincere people, which are used by the NSA to emotionally hurt the subject more. This allows the NSA to convince the subject that people can't be trusted and that only the NSA (Jesus) can be trusted. This serves to isolate the subject from supportive peer groups and makes the subject emotionally dependent on the NSA resulting in the NSA gaining more power in the subject's life.

Journals and Diaries:

Most of the subjects are directed to keep a "Journal" or diary by the NSA so that the subject can record and review feelings, events, observations, and "God’s directions" that normally would be unavailable due to short term memory loss during extended periods of REM Deprivation. The NSA uses the Subject’s Journals in a variety of ways.

Degrading Spelling and Grammatical Performance:

Subjects in these prolonged stages of REM deprivation, confusion, and emotional distress, have very poor grammar, spelling, and short attention spans.

Slowed Speech:

Subjects experience slower speech and have a greater time articulating concise points as a result of the REM Deprivation and other performance degrading posthypnotic commands. Very slight alcohol consumption can exasperate the damage of REM Deprivation and precipitate slurred speech.

Confusion:

Confusion results from three primary sources; REM Deprivation, specific posthypnotic commands to reinforce the confusion, and the emotional damage and stress that is being inflicted. The confusion allows the NSA to continuously inflict damage to the subject's life without real-time observation. A confused person generally is not as productive as an organized clear thinker is and has a greater potential to offend people by what they say or do and is less likely to recognize when they have made mistakes. All of these symptoms assist the NSA’s objectives in this stage and subsequent stages. In addition, the confusion restricts the individual from analyzing the source of their suffering and taking corrective actions, and therefore reduces the NSA's security risk.

Poor Concentration:

Difficulty concentrating impairs the subject's productivity and restrains the subject from making self-improvements and corrections in behavior. It makes it very difficult for the subject to do any research or reading to evaluate his/her condition. This paves the way for the NSA to demonstrate that the subject cannot do anything on their own without "God", thereby increasing the frustration and anxiety of the subject (inducing emotional breakdown) and ultimately making the subject totally dependant on the will of God.

Loose Association and Personality Disorders:

The subject experiences disjointed thought at this stage (Loose Association) that appears to observers as a strange sense of humor or inappropriate responses when engaging in conversations. Ongoing sarcasm and other negative attitudes and undesirable personality traits can be present.

Anger:

The way that the subject experiences anger is of profound importance. If the subject allows the NSA to redirect the increasing anger and hostilities toward the NSA to another person in the form of violence (misplaced aggression), the NSA will reinforce the violent behavior with posthypnotic commands. The result is a person that can achieve national acclaim as a murderer that heard voices of Satan directing him/her. Typically, the Subject is encouraged to commit acts of violence with spouses, friends, or employers resulting in further social isolation and increased shame. Some examples of NSA directed victims of misplaced aggression include recent US Postal Workers whom work within the Postal Service. This is one of the vial "communication intercept" channels the NSA is directed to monitor. The routes of suspect mail and the postal worker processing it are continuously monitored by NSA. Sometimes the NSA ODO takes issue with a Postal Worker and harasses them or subjects the postal worker to behavioral modification.

Delusions:

Delusions are used to discredit the witness and also provide an additional source for fear, intimidation and confusion. Delusions can be but are not limited to the Subject developing conspiracy theories of fellow employees and friends, beliefs that Angels or Demons are communicating or visiting them, tingling sensations from microwave guns or implants, beliefs in supernatural events, etc.

Audio Hallucinations:

Subjects often report hearing walls clicking, footsteps in the house, the sound of someone trying to open the door, drilling at the door, etc.
These audio hallucinations are also used to discredit the witness and also provide an additional source for paranoia, fear, and negative reinforcement.

Voices in the Subject's Mind:

The voices in the subject's mind are achieved in a variety of ways using real-time and prescheduled posthypnotic suggestion deliveries, and Noun Substitution implant techniques.

Noun Substitution Posthypnotic Implant:

The subject can have a posthypnotic suggestion implanted that changes the form of pronouns in the subject's internal thinking. The result is the subject perceives that someone is telling him/her to do something with nearly every thought. An example is; the subject thinks, "I should go to church today". With the noun substitution posthypnotic suggestion the subject experiences the following internal thought, "You should go to church today!" Notice that by implanting the posthypnotic command into the subject's subconscious mind to think the pronoun "You" instead of "I" the subject will perceive that they are being directed by a voice even though the majority of the internal thought content is their own naturally occurring thought. This subconscious implant can be used in combination with other implants to increase the subject's perception of threat, fear, and therefore paranoia. It can be used with other posthypnotic suggestion implants that will give the subject the perception of either a "good" or "evil" voice or spirit is directing him/her. This implant is powerful because it gives the subject the perception that the spirit, angel, God or Holy Spirit knows and directs the subject's every thought. It provides a convincing proof that "God knows every thought of his children". Subjects that don't have a superstitious frame of reference and seek professional help are usually misdiagnosed as schizophrenic.

Tinnitus (Ear Ringing):

Tinnitus is commonly reported by subjects harassed by the NSA and typically has no pharmacological or biochemical basis and is produced by a posthypnotic suggestion. It is often misdiagnosed as ringing caused by excessive aspirin use and is actually an audio hallucination triggered by hypnosis.

Complete Quiet Silence:

Used by the NSA as a positive reinforcement for two general reasons; the subject has the tinnitus removed to indicate that the subject has "The Lord’s Peace Restored", and secondly, the subject has achieved a milestone toward being released by God (the NSA).

Quiet Wind:

The audio hallucination of a quiet wind is used to convince the subject that the Holy Spirit is visiting him/her. An excellent example of this hallucination combined with the fear that accompanies it is contained in Phil Collin’s lyrics of a song that has the chorus "I can get so scared, Listen to the wind".

Visual Hallucinations:

Visual hallucinations are usually implanted in the waking moments when a subject is coming out of sleep or is in a somnambulatory state (light sleep) preferably in a darkened room. The hallucinations are fleeting, usually lasting less than one minute and are not durable. Typical hallucinations reported by subjects are Angels, large spiders, and movement of various shadowy objects across the ceiling, bright spot of light ahead of the subject, etc.
The television show "Sightings" has had numerous reports of people seeing "Aliens" at waking moments. These types of news accounts create confusion in US society and serve to keep people searching for the wrong phenomenon thus keeping the NSA's technology secure (disinformation).

Tactile, Olfactory hallucinations and Muscle Spasms:

Tactile hallucinations can be more durable and are used to communicate a desired direction to the subject typically after a real-time interrogation. Typical behavioral cues issued by the NSA are manifested in the form of:

Temporary sensation of pressure to the tip of the right index finger (symbolizing Faith or have Faith).
Temporary sensation of pressure to the tip of the left index finger (symbolizing no Faith or "deception of Satan").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the center of the right palm (symbolizing Jesus "Sitting at the right-hand of God").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the ball of the right foot (symbolizing "Get on the Ball" or "hurry-up").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the tip of the right foot big toe (symbolizing "Right Direction").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the tip of the right foot center toe (symbolizing "Fucking-up Direction").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the tip of the left foot big toe (symbolizing "Wrong Direction").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the buttocks (symbolizing "Bad Attitude" or "subject is acting like an ass").
Temporary sensation of pressure on tip of penis or clitoris (symbolizes immoral thoughts like subject is thinking/acting with his penis or her clitoris).
Temporary sensation of pressure to the left ear drum (symbolizing "do not listen").
Temporary sensation of pressure to the right ear drum (symbolizing "listen").
An involuntary blink of the right or left eye (symbolizing: right eye = God’s agreement or left eye = Satan’s agreement).
Temporary tingling sensation on the Testicles (symbolizing insufficient male confidence or "Having no balls or strength").
Temporary tingling on other areas of the body to imply that something invisible and/or supernatural is touching the subject. May be perceived as threatening or reassuring to the subject. Can be used to intimidate and confuse the subject often times combined with additional posthypnotic implants to inflict delusions like "being attacked with microwaves" or being caressed by Angels.
Muscular spasm or perceived pressures near the jugular vein on right side of neck (symbolizing Satan having subject by Jugular or throat). This is used to inflict fear and doubt.
Muscular spasms are sometimes used to inflict severe pain on the subject by causing extreme involuntary contraction of the sphincter in the anal region or other lower back or leg muscles.
Perceived odor sensation of a thick, sweet smell (symbolizing Satan’s sweet victory over the subject’s soul).

This section is written in an attempt to provide interested individuals with some of the considerations and precautions when seeking to demonstrate the NSA’s civil rights abuses by demonstrating the effectiveness and concepts of subliminal access using Subliminal Implanted Posthypnotic Suggestions and Scripts Using Acoustically Delivered and Phonetically Accelerated Posthypnotic Commands without Somnambulistic Preparation in the Subject.

Reverse engineering of the NSA’s technology to prove it’s abuses against the American people is quite difficult. Consider the following.
If the scientists and technicians perform their research in a facility that the NSA has the standard transceivers installed, and therefore the NSA can influence the direction of research or the data by effecting perceptual effects in the researchers. These perceptual effects can be confusion, lack of attention to important details, oversights, bad assumptions, incorrect interpretation of the test data. These same misperceptions will also be incorporated into the research test subjects. The technology cannot be developed and optimized if the NSA has any access to the test subjects. The test scripts given to the test subject delivered from the researcher can be neutralized by the NSA delivering a canceling script immediately after the researcher’s script. The NSA’s test script can also include a hypnoamnesia script at the end to cancel any residual perception in the subject so that the test subject would report no effects and the researcher would conclude the test script had no effect.
The research must be carried out in a facility secured from all NSA electronic intrusion. All equipment in the facility must be TEMPEST protected and electrically isolated from the outside world. The research personnel and their subjects must never leave the secured area of the facility so that they cannot be subliminally interrogated by the NSA. The NSA would take this opportunity to deliver disinformation scripts to the subject or researcher. Foodstuffs and supplies would be the logical choice of NSA intrusion if all other security measures were effective against the NSA.
The NSA will exploit all opportunities to introduce microscopic transceivers into the facility of it’s surrounding grounds. The minimal requirements for the NSA to take control of the research are:

NSA audio delivery (a micro receiver with a micro speaker)
Visibility of the targets (researcher or test subject) to capture response labels during subliminal interrogations. This can be through normal illumination or infrared to see through window, or millimeter wave or other technologies that can see through barriers like walls and ceilings.
Audible response labels can be used if the NSA has a micro receiver with a micro speaker inside but cannot get a transmitter in and operating without detection. Sneezes, coughs, clearing of throat that can be picked up by laser microphones, audible amplification microphones, etc. can also be used as response labels.

The NSA currently has satellites with millimeter wave technology that will allow visible intrusion into most facilities. The test facilities should be deep underground, AKA 1000 feet with no adjacent access from other facilities, sewer lines, water lines or power conduits etc.

Any facilities existing will have to be debugged before habitation and research begins.
Subjects must be able to be subjected to traditional hypnosis after facility habitation as a test prior to research to assure that the NSA has minimal scripts already implanted.

This technology is the highest level of intelligence gathering for the USA. The abuses resulting from mismanagement of this area of the NSA’s intelligence system must force Congress to legislate additional laws to protect the citizens. The NSA must regulate this system better. The NSA will take all necessary steps without limit to assure that this technology is preserved and autonomously under their control.

Conclusion: America’s greatest and highest level intelligence asset is being mismanaged and the mismanagement must be corrected before all the Enemies of our great country acquire it. Imagine if China had this technology to use on their defenseless population?

May God help us all in protecting the American public and preserving and managing this vital technology’s vital potential to serve America’s NationalSecurity.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'Who Killed John Lennon?'
by Fenton Bresler
1989 St. Martin's Press, NYC
ISBN 0-312-03452-0

WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON? 44

found a technique to control people, despite my definite bias in favour of the idea that the human spirit defeated the manipulators.’

Yet there is evidence to indicate that this is merely a forlorn hope. Marks himself quotes Milton Kline, a New York psychologist and former president of the American Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis who has served as unpaid consultant on CIA hypnosis research, as saying that the idea of creating a real-life Manchurian Candidate is not impossible. ‘It cannot be done by everyone,’ says Kline. ‘It cannot be done consistently, but it can be done.’ (Kline, incidentally, later served for a while as an expert witness for the defence in the case of Mark David Chapman.)

There seems little doubt that sophisticated techniques have now reached the stage where, if murder is desired, a killer, once programmed and ‘on hold’, can be triggered into action by a phone call or by use of a particular book (such as perhaps happened to Mark Chapman with The Catcher in the Rye) or by a hypnotic session (as did happen to Candy Jones for twelve years whenever she was needed as a courier) - if necessary, with built-in memory loss for after the event. If this seems far-fetched, I can only counter that way back in the early days Of MKULTRA, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, hypnotically induced amnesia had already been brought to such a point that one senior CIA official is alleged to have wanted to advance it to the stage of seeing whether it would stand up to torture. Fellow CIA official John Gittinger told John Marks that, so far as he knew, this devilish experiment - torturing your own human guinea pig - was not carried out. ‘I still like to think we were human beings enough that this was not something we played with,’ he said.

But Marks comments that such an experiment could have been performed, as was apparently suggested, by friendly and none too fastidious police in a ‘sympathetic’ Third World country like Taiwan or Paraguay. Marks states positively: ‘CIA men did at least discuss joint work in hypnosis with a foreign secret service in 1962,’ but his efforts to follow this up with a request under the Freedom of Information Act were stymied by a specific CIA denial of access to any document concerning the testing of hypnosis and psychedelic drugs in cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies. They said that releasing such documents would reveal intelligence sources and methods, which were exempted by law.

MIND CONTROL II 45

Daniel Sheehan, whose Christic Institute has carried on into the late 1980s the investigative work in this field pioneered by Bowart and Marks, does not rule out this possibility. Speaking in his office in Washington DC in June 1988, his measured words bring a new dimension of authority to the subject:

'We have discovered in doing the kind of investigations that we?ve done, with regard to the Karen Silkwood killing, the killing of the people in Greensboro and other places, that we've come to the point of not speculating on things like that. We know we can find out but you cannot find out really responsibly without looking very specifically at each particular case and analysing it.

'Now we have made no enquiries into the John Lennon killing - but I would definitely assume, as a generality, from what we know about the MKULTRA programme and other things that the CIA was definitely into trying to create a hypno-programmed Manchurian Candidate.

'As for the specifics, I don't know one way or the other about Mark Chapman whom you say may have been programmed to kill and then kept "on hold" with built-in memory loss, but we have uncovered a sort of halfway spot to that situation. We have talked to half-a-dozen individuals who have told a startlingly similar story about how, at a very young age, usually between twenty and twenty-five, they were contacted, usually within the context of military training, and told: "Look, we’ve got a special deal for you. You’re going to come into the service under the normal designation of being an infantryman but you’re going to leave the service after a while and you’re going to have special training, and you’re going to be brought into a special programme."

‘They’re sent to special places where they are trained by mercenaries and then they’re told: "You’re going to be called upon from time to time to do some things for us." The Christic Institute’s researches brought up one such young man who was approached at an army recruiting centre and, in due course, handed over to an official of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division of the US Treasury. He was,given a special mission to infiltrate the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gangs. He had to dress up as a member of an opposing gang and then assassinate the leader of a rival gang - so that the two gangs would fight and partly destroy each other. ‘A bizarre law-enforcement kind of thing,’ Sheehan calls it.

WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON? 46

This same individual was also sent to 'a place where they were training people to carry out an assassination in Central America?. That place: Hawaii - the group of islands with a strong US naval and military presence where Mark Chapman lived for three years before killing Lennon. He also was sent into Thailand to try and find 'MIAs', US soldiers 'missing in action' in neighbouring Vietnam during the 1965-1973 Vietnam War.

Sheehan says that, in this 'halfway spot' of programmed undercover operators, his institute had also come across 'a very weird group of people who it's very hard to get a handle on how they got into this kind of thing, but it also happened when they were very young - like, between twenty and twenty-five - and they ran into someone who was like this mentor type of guy in the context of some sort of authoritative structure.' (The YMCA, linked to the CIA, comes immediately to mind as a possibility.) 'And again they get some kind of special training' (as Mark Chapman may have done in war-tom Beirut topped up by seemingly innocent instruction as an armed security guard), 'and then they go and do this sort of stuff- kill someone on orders.

'But the only thing is they don't just allow these guys to walk up and shoot somebody and get caught - like Mark did. It would be too dangerous. They would start talking and tell people about their exploits. These guys have a great tendency to do that - that is how we've gotten them to talk to us!'

But what about if Mark had been programmed not to do that with drugs such as sodium pentathol or desoxyn (or more advanced variations thereof) used as well as basic hypnosis to ensure built-in memory loss? After all, we know that the New York police did not test him for drugs upon his arrest: it was 'not normal procedure', according to ex-lieutenant of detectives Arthur O'Connor. Everyone can make their own assessment of Sheehan's answer: 'We haven't run into that yet. There is no direct evidence of it having actually happened - but it is a plausible kind of situation. It is clear that the MKULTRA programme was where they were experimenting to see if they could get people to behave in that way - and I cannot say it has not happened.'

Allegations have persisted over the years that the three great political assassinations of the 1960s, President John Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. were all

MIND CONTROL II 47

the work of programmed real life ‘Manchurian Candidates’ - or that, at the very least, all were the result of conspiracies. The men who pulled the trigger in each case - Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray - may all have been somewhat unstable characters but that only made it easier to label them ‘lone nuts’. In fact, so run the theories, none of them acted alone.

Seeing conspiracies where none may exist is a boom industry in the United States. There is even an ‘Assassination Archives and Research Center’ in a five-room suite in the heart of downtown Washington DC established in 1984 as ‘a long needed, centrally located and permanent centre for the study of assassinations’. Investigative journalists and commentators like the late Mae Brussell in Carmel, California, thrive on stories of ‘conspiracy’ in which they passionately believe. Whole shelves of books exist which seek to establish - or state as a positive fact - that the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King did not die at the hands of lone killers.

Walter Bowart has succinctly stated the case for a possible conspiracy angle behind these three major assassinations: ‘Those who support the "lone nut" theory point to the fact that no. clear political motive could be attributed to any of the three assassins. Yet even to a casual student of history each of the three murders was of obvious political benefit to the extreme right: John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were all independent thinkers who could not be bought off. They worked for expanded civil rights in a manner the right wing interpreted as Communist. . . .

‘The Kennedys were not only on the wrong side of Hoover’s FBI, they were on the wrong side of the CIA as well. JFK fired several top intelligence officers (he asked for Allen Dulles’ resignation) and at the time of his death he was privately talking about reorganizing the entire US Intelligence Service. Robert Kennedy, as Attorney General, was waging a tireless campaign against organized crime. His campaign cut across the alliance the CIA had formed with gangsters who had lost their gambling and drug concessions in Cuba.

‘Robert Kennedy was a close friend of Dr King, and one rumour persists that the assassins had issued a dire warning that RFK not run for president, and that King was sacrificed to show that the group meant business.’

WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON? 48

Yet, despite all the talk and all the print, no one has yet conclusively proved anything either way and it is difficult to see how they ever will. As Daniel Sheehan puts it, 'The problem is that you get one strike, one hit, out of ten guesses in that kind of stuff - and then you?re probably doing well.'

Yet these three murders all have a striking parallel with the killing of John Lennon: none of them was followed by a trial bringing all the facts into the glare of courtroom examination. Lee Harvey Oswald who - in a 1976 Harris Poll, 80 per cent of Americans said they believed did not act alone - was conveniently gunned down in the basement ófDallas police headquarters by Jack Ruby who, with almost equal convenience, already had within him the seeds of the cancer that was also to kill him. James Earl Ray saved himself from an almost certain death sentence by pleading guilty and getting ninety-nine years in prison - only for the House Assassinations Committee to conclude nine years later: 'There is a likelihood that he assassinated Dr Martin Luther King as a result of a conspiracy.' Sirhan Sirhan in the end pleaded not guilty to Robert Kennedy's murder - but the only real courtroom battle was, as with Mark Chapman, over his state of mind and not the facts of the murder. I can reveal that, in fact, he wanted to plead guilty - so that in his case as well, there would have been no kind of trial at all.

Interviewed in Los Angeles in May 1988, Sirhan's junior trial lawyer, Luke McKissack, told me twenty years after the event that both senior prosecution and defence attorneys had agreed upon a plea bargain. Sirhan would plead guilty to murder in return for the prosecution not asking for the death penalty (as was their right under Californian state law) - and, surprisingly, the Kennedy family would have gone along with this. The only problem was that Judge Herbert Walker would not accept it, and insisted on a trial. As McKissack commented bitterly, 'This seventy-seven-year-old jurist wanted his judicial swan song to be a warble and not a mere chirp. And so we had to go ahead although nobody had really adequately investigated the many, many issues of the case.' It was assumed throughout Sirhan Sirhan's trial by both prosecution and defence counsel that the defendant had shot Robert Kennedy and that he had done so alone. The only question was: 'Was he insane'?

The jury said 'No,' and he was sentenced to death - only to

MIND CONTROL II 49

be saved from the gas chamber by a US Supreme Court decision that the death penalty was unconstitutional. The court later took a different view, but not with retrospective effect. This does not alter the fact that, if Sirhan Sirhan had had his way, be would have saved himself from execution by pleading guilty - and, as with Mark Chapman, there would have been no trial.

But there is an even stronger individual link between the Kennedy and Lennon assassinations. There is evidence to suggest that both could have been the work of programmed killers. When the public defender asked Sirhan about Kennedy’s shooting, he replied: ‘I don’t remember much about the shooting, sir, did I do it? Well, yes, I am told I did it. I remember being at the Ambassador (the hotel where Kennedy was shot). I am drinking Tom Collinses. I got dizzy. I went back to my car so I could go home. But I was too drunk to drive. I thought I’d better find some coffee. The next thing I remember I was being choked and a guy was twisting my knee.’

An eye-witness to the murder described Sirhan as being ‘enormously composed’. ‘Right in the midst of this hurricane of sound and feeling, he seemed to be almost the eye of the hurricane. He seemed purged. . .'

When a local attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed him in prison, Sirhan looked at him through tear-filled eyes and said: ‘I’m a failure. I believe in love and instead of showing love. . .‘ Then the attorney remembered him muttering ‘something about having betrayed his own primary beliefs’. When you come to read in detail about how Mark Chapman behaved after Lennon’s murder, you will find a striking parallel between the ‘dazed’, as if in a trance-like, condition of the two men. Mark remembered more of the actual killing but otherwise their reactions were almost identical. And remember what exlieutenant of detectives Arthur O’Connor has said: ‘I saw him the night of the murder. I studied him intensely. He looked as if he could have been programmed - and I know what use you are going to make of that word!’

When, seven years after Sirhan’s crime, abortive efforts were made on his behalf to re-open the case, recorded interviews with his psychiatrists in prison were analysed by a newly developed ‘truth detector’ called Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE).

WHO KILLED JOHN LENN0N? 50

Unlike the old-fashioned ‘lie detector’ or polygraph, it does not have to be connected to the body to measure stress. Instead it measures micro-tremors in the human voice inaudible to the human ear but which form a distinct pattern when transferred to a chart. Charles McQuiston, described by author Walter Bowart as a ‘former high-ranking US Intelligence Officer’, one of the originators of the PSE, reported: ‘I’m convinced that Sirhan wasn’t aware of what he was doing. He was in a hypnotic trance when he pulled the trigger and killed Senator Kennedy. . . . Everything in the PSE charts tells me that someone else was involved in the assassination - and that Sirhan was programmed through hypnosis to kill RFK. What we have here is a real live "Manchurian Candidate".’

When Dr John W. Heisse, Jr, president of the International Society of Stress Analysis, examined Sirhan’s PSE charts, he agreed with McQuiston. ‘Sirhan kept repeating certain phrases,’ he said. ‘This clearly revealed he had been programmed to put himself into a trance. This is something he couldn’t have learned by himself. Someone had to show him and teach him how. ‘I believe Sirhan was brainwashed under hypnosis by the constant repetition of words like "You are nobody. You’re nothing. The American dream is gone" until he actually believed them. At that stage someone implanted an idea, "Kill RFK," and under hypnosis the brainwashed Sirhan accepted it.’

Another expert, Dr Herbert Spiegel, a leading medical hypnotist, said of Sirhan: ‘It’s very possible to distort and change somebody’s mind through a number of hypnotic sessions. It can be described as brainwashing because the mind is cleared of its old emotions and values which are replaced by implanting other suggestions. . . . This technique was probably used with Sirhan. From my own research, I think Sirhan was subjected to hypnotic treatment.’

This is all very impressive stuff- or pure nonsense according to your individual reaction; but I cannot quote what any psychiatrist or psychologist has said about the possibility of Mark Chapman having been narco-hypnotically programmed to commit his crime because no psychiatrist or psychologist, whether for the prosecution or the defence, ever appears to have been asked to consider that situation - either in the run-up to his trial or at any time since. Furthermore, there has been no PSE evaluation of his many hours

MIND CONTROL II 51

of taped interviews with prosecution and defence psychiatrists and psychologists.

There is an odd footnote to all this: the principal medical defence witness for Sirhan was Dr Bernard Diamond of the University of California, one of America’s leading psychiatrists who used hypnosis in his work. Thirteen years later he was to be one of ,the defence psychiatrists in Mark’s case. His diagnosis for the two men was the same: paranoid schizophrenia. Yet he seems not to have used hypnosis in either of his two interviews with Mark, although he hypnotized Sirhan on six of his eight visits to great effect. For instance, when Dr Diamond asked Sirhan where he had concealed his gun while waiting for Kennedy, Sirhan, in his trance, went for the inside of his belt on the left side - and the police at last knew where he had carried the weapon.

Early in his sessions, Dr Diamond found that Sirhan was happier answering questions in writing, when interviewed under hypnosis, than in speaking. ‘It is called automatic writing,’ Diamond later explained, ‘and the term aptly describes the way Sirhan would write like a robot and keep on repeating a word or phrase until I stopped him.’

A crucial piece of evidence against Sirhan, to prove premeditation, was a page from various notebooks found in his bedroom in which he had written these jumbled words:

May 18, 9:45 a.m. - 68. My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more the more of an unshakable obsession. . . RFK must die - RFK must be killed Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated RFK must be assassinated RFK must be assassinated Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated before 5 June 68 Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated I have never heard please pay to the order of of of of of of of of of this or that please pay to the order of. . .

In fact, his notebooks were full of strange writings, often with words repeated three times or more. Sirhan said that he did not remember writing in the notebooks but he agreed that he must have done. So at one point Dr Diamond showed him a photocopy of one of the bizarre entries and questioned him about it, while he was still in a hypnotic trance. ‘Is this crazy writing?’ Diamond asked.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://ftp.oit.unc.edu/prism/jan98/chron.html

Greensboro, NC Massacre of The Communist Workers Party

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Chronology of the November 3, 1979 Greensboro Massacre and its Aftermath


        Prior History


      Members of what would become the Communist Workers Party (CWP) worked in 
      textile mills and organized coworkers; helped in neighborhood community 
      organizing in Greensboro; and joined with other groups in fighting 
      injustice with such acts as the China Grove confrontation with the Ku Klux 
      Klan (KKK). 
      Meanwhile, in spite of the efforts of anti-racism groups and individuals, 
      the Klan (and the American Nazi Party) are gaining membership and 
      influence. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms of the US Treasury 
      Department recruited Edward Dawson as an agent to infiltrate the Ku Klux 
      Klan, ostensibly as an informant. 
      Prelude to November 3 
      One of the activities that was chosen to assist in both community 
      organizing and anti-racism was a "Death to the Klan" parade and rally in 
      Greensboro. 
      The march and rally were planned and duly permitted with the Greensboro 
      Police. The rally was scheduled for the Morningside Heights housing 
      project, one of the neighborhoods in Greensboro with an active community 
      organization. 
      Two days prior to the march, which had been publicized as much as 
      possible, of course, one of the Klan members went to the police station to 
      obtain the map of the march and the rally. 
      November 3 
      While the march was in progress, the Klan/Nazis, with the leadership of 
      Edward Dawson, loaded several car trunks with firearms and headed for the 
      rally site in a caravan of nine cars. As they neared the rally site, a 
      Greensboro Police cruiser became the tenth car in the motorcade. 
      Meanwhile, Greensboro Police dispatcher(s) ordered the other police 
      assigned to the rally to go on a break. 
      When the Klan/Nazis arrived, they pulled up to the curb in a group, 
      alighted from the cars, calmly went to the trunks, removed their weapons, 
      and began firing into the crowd of demonstrators. No police intervention 
      was forthcoming. Contrary to the popular view of the incident, this was 
      not a shootout: only one demonstrator had a firearm (a pistol), and only 
      one round was fired from it, hitting no one. Four demonstrators died at 
      the scene, including one who was shot between the eyes as she looked out 
      from cover; several were wounded, including one who died three days later, 
      and one who is paraplegic to this day. Since all of this was recorded on 
      video tape by a local news camera operator, there"s not much doubt about 
      who did what to whom, when. 
      Following the massacre (which seems an appropriate description) the 
      Klan/Nazis got back in their cars and sped away. There was no police 
      intervention. 
      The Aftermath 
      Following the massacre, the survivors of the group of organizers declared 
      themselves as members of the Communist Workers Party (CWP). The fifth 
      victim to die, Michael Nathan, joined the CWP from his hospital bed. 
      Some of the responsible members of the assassination team were soon 
      apprehended but, since the demonstrators were now "communists", their 
      trial for murder resulted in acquittals. The survivors then brought 
      wrongful death suits against the Klan/Nazis and the city of Greensboro, 
      resulting in a judgment for over $300,000. This judgment was the origin of 
      the Greensboro Justice Fund.

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http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/g/Greensboro_Civil_Rights_Fund

                     Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                              #4630
              GREENSBORO CIVIL RIGHTS FUND RECORDS
                        Initial Inventory

Abstract:      On 3 November 1979, members of the Ku Klux Klan
           and Nazi Party attacked Communist Workers Party (CWP)
           demonstrators as they gathered for a public march in
           Greensboro, N.C.  Five CWP members were killed and
           eleven others were injured.  The Greensboro Civil
           Rights Fund (GCRF) was organized by the families and
           friends of the deceased CWP members and raised about
           $700,000 to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi
           Party, the Greensboro Police Department, the FBI, and
           the BATF.
               Material of the Greensboro Civil Rights
           Fund/Greensboro Justice Fund relating to three court
           cases stemming from the casualties of the 3 November
           1979 riot in Greensboro.  The collection contains
           subject files, beginning in 1979, including records of
           trial defendants, plaintiffs, and witnesses, as well
           as publications, propaganda, memoranda, reports, and
           notes from organizations related to the GCRF and the
           GJF; copies of investigative files, including
           correspondence, witness interviews, autopsy reports,
           and lab test reports; copies of official court
           records, including deposition transcripts, pleading
           books, transcripts of trial testimony, and "discovery"
           material; court exhibit files contain "scene evidence"
           collected by the police at the murder scene and copies
           of investigation reports from the FBI, the BATF, and
           the Greensboro Police Department; office and
           organizational files, including correspondence,
           address lists, memoranda, newsletters, position
           papers, press releases, research materials, financial
           records, and newspaper clippings; copies of videotapes
           of the actual Klan-Nazi attack, three documentary
           television shows, and audio cassette tapes of
           interviews with surviving CWP demonstrators.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Communist Workers Party (U.S.).
   Communists--North Carolina.
   Courts--North Carolina--History--20th century.
   Greensboro (N.C.)--Demonstration (1979).
   Greensboro Civil Rights Fund.
   Greensboro Justice Fund.
   Ku Klux Klan (1915- ).
   National Socialist Party of America.
   Riots--North Carolina--Greensboro.
   United States.  Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
   United States. District Court (North Carolina : Middle
     District).
   United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Size:      About 100,000 items (210.0 linear feet).

Provenance:    Received from the Greensboro Justice Fund in
               February 1992.

Access:        This collection is processed only to the box level
               and is available only with special staff
               assistance.

Processing Note:   As per the gift agreement for this collection,
                   some materials were removed by a
                   representative of Dr. Martha Nathan after this
                   inventory was prepared.  Some materials listed
                   here thus may no longer actually be present. 
                   A copy of this inventory marked by Dr,
                   Nathan's representative to show what was
                   removed is available on request.

Copyright:     Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
               or their descendants, as stipulated by United
               States copyright law.

Table of Contents:
   Historical Note
   Series Descriptions
       Series 1. Subject files
       Series 2. Investigative files
       Series 3. Court Records
       Series 4. Other GJF/GCRF files
       Series 5. Audio-Visual Material
       Restricted Material
   Additions after 1993
   Shelf List

                         HISTORICAL NOTE

1979   Spring/Summer:  Workers Viewpoint Organization (WVO)
members in North Carolina became concerned about the re-emergence
of the Ku Klux Klan and began anti-Klan activities.

       Fall:  WVO members organized an anti-Klan march and
conference for November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, N.C.

       October:  The WVO became the Communist Workers Party (CWP)
for reasons unrelated to the march.

       November 3:  Members of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Party
from around the state came to Greensboro and attacked CWP members
as they gathered for the march.  Five CWP members were killed and
eleven others were injured.  Police were not present despite an
official parade permit for the march.  Police arrested 3 CWP
demonstrators on misdemeanor charges and, over the ensuing weeks,
arrested 16 Klansmen and Nazis on murder and riot charges.

1980   Spring:  The Greensboro Justice Fund (GJF) was organized
by the families and friends of the deceased CWP members.  The GJF
began fundraising for a civil suit on behalf of the victims.

       May 5:  State prosecutors brought felony charges against
six anti-Klan demonstrators, including CWP leader Nelson Johnson.

       Summer:  Newspaper accounts revealed that Klansman Ed
Dawson, who had organized and led the Klan on November 3, 1979,
was a paid Greensboro police informant and past FBI informant. 
In another investigation, a Greensboro newspaper discovered that
Bernard Butkovich, an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF), had infiltrated the Nazi
unit involved in the attack.  Butkovich participated in a pre-
attack planning meeting and encouraged at least one Nazi to bring
guns to Greensboro.

       August 4 - November 17:  Six Klansmen and Nazis were tried
on state murder and rioting charges  (State vs. Fowler, et al.,
Superior Court, Guilford County).  No police officials were tried
and neither Dawson nor Butkovich testified.  All six Klansmen and
Nazis were acquitted.  Following the acquittals, felony charges
against the CWP demonstrators were dropped.

       November 3:  The GJF filed a $37 million Federal Civil
Rights Lawsuit (Waller vs. Butkovich) against the KKK, the Nazi
Party, the Greensboro Police Department, the FBI, and the BATF. 
The case was filed by the GJF on behalf of the families of the
five deceased CWP members and the others who had been injured or
wrongfully arrested on November 3, 1979.

1981   Spring:  The GJF mounted a campaign to convince the U.S.
Department of Justice to prosecute the Klansmen and Nazis for
federal civil rights violations.

       May:  Outgoing U.S. Attorney General H.M. Michaux released
to press a letter to Assistant Attorney General W.B. Reynolds
suggesting that the Klansmen and Nazis should be indicted on
federal civil rights conspiracy charges.

       Fall:  The GJF and the Christic Institute organized and
recruited board members for the Greensboro Civil Rights Fund
(GCRF), which subsequently carried on fundraising to finance the
Waller vs. Butkovich case.

1982   January:  Plaintiffs attempted to begin discovery in the
civil rights suit.  Federal and city defendants in Waller
obtained a stay of all discovery pending determination of the
motions to dismiss.  All discovery was stayed until April 1984.

       March:  The Federal Justice Department convened a 21-
person Grand Jury in Winston-Salem, N.C. to hear evidence about
the November 3rd events.  That grand jury sat for 14 months,
until April 1983.

       September:  In an attempt to force the U.S. Justice
Department to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the
possibility of federal involvement in the murders, the GCRF filed
a suit against the U.S. Attorney General (Nathan vs. Attorney
General).  Over 20 groups, including the National Council of
Churches and the Congressional Black Caucus, signed onto amicus
briefs in support of the request for a special prosecutor.  Judge
Gerhard Gessell ruled for the plaintiffs, but was later
overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of
Columbia.

1983   April 22:  The federal grand jury returned indictments
against nine Klansmen and Nazis, including Ed Dawson, the Klan
member who had been the informant for the Greensboro Police
Department and FBI, on federal charges of conspiracy to violate
civil rights and violation of civil rights.  It was also revealed
that Klansman Mark Sherer had already secretly pleaded guilty to
conspiracy charges in U.S. vs Mark Sherer.  Sherer eventually
served a few months in a minimum security facility -- the only
Klansmen or Nazi to be convicted or serve time for the November
3rd murders.

       December 6:  Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr. conducted the
first hearing in Waller vs. Butkovich, declaring that he would
uphold the stay on discovery pending conclusion of the federal
criminal trial.

1984   January 9 - April 15:  Federal criminal trial of the nine
Klansmen and Nazis in U.S. vs Griffin, et al.  The trial began
with secret jury selection, which was unsuccessfully contested by
four North Carolina newspapers, and ended with the acquittal of
all 9 Klansmen and Nazis.

       April 22:  Judge Merhige finally lifted the stay on
discovery material and allowed the opening of the investigation
in the Waller vs. Butkovich civil rights suit.

       Spring 1984 - March 1985:  Trial preparation, which
included submission of discovery material, legal battles over the
scope of discovery material, jury issues, etc.

1985   March 11:  Opening day of the Waller vs. Butkovich civil
rights suit in Winston-Salem, N.C.

       June 7:  Jury found 2 police officers and 6 Klansmen and
Nazis (including Ed Dawson, the Klan informant for the police and
FBI) liable for the wrongful death of one of the deceased, and
for assault and battery on two survivors.  The jury awarded
damages totaling close to $400,000.

       June 8:  The police, Klan, Nazis, and plaintiffs filed
notices of appeal.

       November 6:  By consent order, the police, Klan, Nazis,
and plaintiffs agreed to drop their motions for a new trial and
any potential appeals.  The city of Greensboro paid the entire
wrongful death verdict against the two police officers and six
Klansmen and Nazis.

                       SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series 1.  Subject files
   1980-1986.  About 18,500 items.
   Arrangement:  Alphabetical by file title.

   A wide array of records relating to Waller vs. Butkovich, the
GCRF's civil rights suit against the KKK, the Nazi Party, the
Greensboro Police Dept., the FBI, and the BATF.  Included are
files regarding trial defendants, plaintiffs, and witnesses as
well as letters written to the plaintiffs by their GCRF attorneys
explaining the legal situation and trial developments.  Series 1
also contains publications, propaganda, memoranda, reports, notes
and other material from the Communist Worker's Party, the Ku Klux
Klan, the Nazi Party, and other organizations related to the
GCRF.
   Note:  15 oversize posters have been removed from this
material and have been filed as OP-4630/6-20.

Box 1  Advertisements
       Advisory Board
       African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC)
       Alexander, John 
       Allison, Dolan 
       Allison, Linda Paulette 
       Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union 
       American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
       Amicus Curiae for Special Prosecutor
       Amnesty International
       Anderson, Gladys 
       Anti-Defamation League
       Anti-Semitism
       Anvil Article
       Arbitration
       Armel, John
       Armfield, James 
       Arrests: 7/31 & 8/1 of Sampson, Waller, Johnson, Nathan
       Asheville Bombing Case
       Assassinations 
       Assault 8/6
       Atkins, Reverend Henry 
       Audio Ballistics Technology
       Babbitt, William 
       Bagley, Smith
       Ballistics
       Barco, Dan 
       Barnes, James E. 
       Battle, Brendon 
       Beaver, Geraldine 
       Bennet, Jim  
       Benson, Chris
       Benson, Walter
       Bergman v. US
       Bermanzohn, Paul (Plaintiff; CWP demonstrator who was  
         paralyzed by a gunshot on Nov 3.)
       Berrigan, Daniel & Philip
       Bethel, Larry 
       Bierlair, Cindy Hall Jenkins
       Black Caucus, Congressional
       Black Land Loss
       Black Workers for Justice
       Blind Workers Strike
       Blitz, Allen (Plaintiff; arrested for CWP activities)

Box 2  Blitz, Dorothy  (Plaintiff; arrested for CWP activities)
       Blitz:  CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act)
       Blumenthal, Laura 
       Board meetings and memos
       Bogaty, Leonard
       Bost, Joe  
       Boston Police Community Disorder Unit
       Bouras, Johnny
       Bowden, John L.
       Boyd, Allen
       Boyd, Ed
       Bradshaw, Bobby 
       Brande, Charles  
       Braswell, Frank
       Brooks, Sharon
       Brooks, Warren
       Browning, William
       Brownlee, family
       Buck, Hatcher
       Buck, James George 
       Burke, T.L.  (Defendant; Greensboro Police Sergeant)
       Burlington Mills Demonstration
       Burn
       Bursey, Brett
       Butkovich, Bernard  (Defendant; undercover BATF agent)
       Byrd, Henry

Box 3  Cable Splicer
       Cahoon, Robert  (Defense lawyer)
       Call for Justice
       Campaign for Political Rights
       Cannon, Willena  (Plaintiff; arrested for CWP activities)
       Carpenter, Stephen
       Carrington, Curtis Moses
       Carthan, James
       Cauce, Floris
       Caudle, Jean 
       Caudle, Raeford Milano  (Defendant; Nazi)
       Cavin, Winston 
       Caviness, M.L.
       Cawn, M.A.  (Defendant; Greensboro Police Officer)
       Cemetary Monument - "vandalism"
       Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) 
       Center for Investigative Journalism
       Center on Government Repression
       Chambers, Charles
       Character Witnesses
       Charlotte Picketing Ordinance
       Chattanooga
       Chee, Manlin
       China Grove
       Christic Institute
       CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)
       Citizens Commission

Box 4  Citizens for Justice & Unity
       Citizens Review Commission
       City of Chester v. Naomi Addison [S.C.]
       Civil Rights Suit, Greensboro 
       Clark, Elizabeth Wilma
       Clark, Shirley  vs. Cone Mills Corp.
       Clark, Thomas  (Plaintiff; CWP demonstrator, injured on
         Nov. 3)
       Clinton, Michael  (Defendant; Klansman)
       Clippinger, Frank 
       Cloninger, Kenneth 
       Cointelpro
       Colcor
       Collateral estopped efforts of acquittals
       Colvert, Major Phil
       Commemoration - Nov 3 1981 & 1982
       Committee for Justice
       Communist Worker's Party (CWP)

Box 5  Communist Worker's Party (CWP)

Box 6  Communist Worker's Party (CWP)

Box 7  Community Relations Service
       Concerned Citizens
       Cone Mills Corp.
       Conferences:  LAGJ & NOW, 4/81
       Congress:  Endorsers & Hearings
       Conroy, Edward
       Consolidation - Greensboro Civil Rights Legislation Fund
       Contracts
       Conyers, John 
       Cooley, Earl  
       Corporate Tax Study 1974
       Correspondence, misc.

Box 8  Correspondence, misc.
       Council, Barbara 
       Covington, Harold  (Defendant; Nazi)
       Crawford, Daisy Robinson
       Creasman, B.W.
       Criminal Procedure
       Criswell, H  (BATF spokesman)
       Crossburning at Atkins residence
       Crosswell, Jack
       Cuirdeff, Larry
       Culture
       Cuthbertson, D.P.
       Dail, Herman Graham
       Dalton, David (Media)
       Daughtry, Sylvester  (Defendant; Greensboro Police
         Lieutenant)
       Davis, Donald E.
       Davis, James Lloyd

Box 9  Dawson, Edward  (Defendant; Klansman and Police informant)
       Deaton, Philip  
       Decatur, Alabama incident - May 26, 1979
       Delaney, Bo
       Democratic Party
       Dickerson, Glenn R.
       di Grazia, Robert (Plaintiff's Police Expert)
       Dillard, Veronica
       Dinkins Letter
       Direct Mail
       Disarm
       Disclosure of Agents
       District Attorney's Bail Revocation, 8/1
       Dobbins, Patricia
       Dominica - attempted Klan and Nazi coup
       Domingo & Viernes
       Dorsett, George  (Chaplain in the Klan)
       Drummond, Frankie Lee Drummond 
       Duke, David  (Grand Wizard of KKK)
       Duke Workers Grievance Committee and N.C. Guild
       Dukes, R.F. 
       Durham Police Dept.

Box 10 Eavesdropping devices
       Edmisten, Rufus
       Edmonson, Root
       Elections
       Electronic Surveillance
       El Salvador
       Emergency Mgt. Assistance, Greensboro
       Endorsers of Suit:  Literature & Statements
       Episcopal Church
       Estate files, misc. (Sampson, Smith, & Waller)
       Evans, William A.
       Evidence, summary of
       Fact-Finders
       Fact Sheets & Memos
       Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), misc.
       Federal Court Forms
       Federal Packets, incomplete
       Federal Prosecution
       Federation for Progress (FFP)
       Feds. - No Duty
       Film

Box 11 Finch, Charles
       Findley, Charles Lee
       Fink, Robert
       First Amendment 
       Flanagan, N.
       Fleming, Glenn 
       Fletcher, Brent
       Flippen, Barry
       Fort Bragg
       Foster, Ron 
       Franklin, Billy Joe (Defendant; Klansman)
       Franklin, Linda Faye Queen 
       Fratkin, Elliot M. 
       Frazier, Peggy J.
       Freedom of Information & Privacy Act (FOIPA)
       Freeman, J.G. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Officer)
       Friedman, Robert Daniel
       Fulks, Charles
       Fuller, Glenn 
       Fundraising:  Advisory Board & Proposals

Box 12 Gag Order
       Garrow article/ FBI
       Gay Rights
       Gell, Libby 
       Geneva Trip  Aug, 1983
       Gentry, J.J.
       Gibson, Paul
       Gibson, Tammy
       Gibson, Walter
       Giles, Leonard
       Glass, Murv - FOIPA Suit
       Global Ministries Presentation
       Goforth, Tommy 
       Goldberg, Richard  (Special Agent, FBI)
       Goldston, Henry
       Government Misconduct
       Grady, Joe
       Grants
       Great Movement
       Greenlea, Kathleen 
       Greensboro Coal
       Greensboro "6"
       Greensboro 8
       Greensboro Elections
       Greensboro Justice Committee
       Greeson, Rick 
       Grenada
       Griffith, Gary 
       Griffin, Virgil (Defendant; KKK Grand Dragon)
       Gruyson, Keith 
       Guatemala
       Gun Control
       Hairston, Joe 
       Hamilton, Marie 
       Hampton, Iberia
       Harmon, Sam 
       Harris, Charles 
       Harris, Steve
       Hartsoe, Rene 
       Hartsoe, Terry Wayne (Defendant; Klansman)
       Hatcher, James Jerry 
       Havekost, Don 
       Hayes, Harry McLean 
       Health Care Alliance
       Helms, Jesse 
       Henderson, Capt. W.L.
       Heritage Foundation
       Higgins, Rev. Arthur Lee
       Hill, Pamela

Box 13 Hobby
       Holden, James 
       Hollywood
       Holt, Howard W. 
       Honorarium
       Hoppes, Grady
       Horwitz, Geri
       Hubert, Eugene  (media)
       Huckabee, R.D.
       Hudson, Dr. Page
       Human Relations Commission
       Human Rights Festival
       Hunger
       Hunt, James (N.C. Governor) 
       Hypnosis
       Illustrations
       Immigration
       Independent Political Action Conference
       Indictments - NJ/Lewis
       Indigents - Counsel, etc.
       Inge, Alice 
       International Support
       International Tribunal
       Jackson, Jesse
       Jarrett, Coy (Deputy Sheriff)
       Jenkins, Leila
       Jericho
       Johnson, Curtis
       Johnson, Dale (Sheriff) 
       Johnson, Denielle 
       Johnson, Doris Heath 
       Johnson, Joyce 
       Johnson, Michael

Box 14 Johnson, Nelson (Plaintiff; leader of CWP)
       Johnson, T.R.
       Jordan, Henry
       Justice Department
       Keathley, Miles (Assistant Dir. of BATF)
       Kelly, Richard
       Kennedy Assassination - Acoustics Analysis
       King, Coretta
       King, Martin Luther
       Kinoy, Arthur
       Klanwatch
       Kleindeinst, Richard
       Kluttz, Eddie Monroe 
       Koenig, Bruce
       Korotkin, Gayle 
       Krumperman, Kurt

Box 15 Ku Klux Klan: Material, History, Newsletters, etc.
       Labor
       Laitin, Joseph
       Larouche, Lyndon
       Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, Inc. (LSCRRC)
       Lawyers:  Articles & Defense
       Leads, Misc.
       League, A.A. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Officer)
       Lebanon
       Ledford, Barbara
       Lee, Rev. Wilson

Box 16 Legal Issues in Case
       Legal Services
       Lemons, Larry
       Leonard, William O.
       Levy, Mordechai 
       Lincoln County Sheriff
       Lipscomb, Lois 
       Lisenby, Robert
       Literature
       Little River
       Liuzzo, Anthony
       Llewellyn, Ted
       Lojko, M.
       Los Angeles
       Lovelace, Hewitt (Defendant; Greensboro Police Officer)
       Lowman, Bernice 
       Loy, D.B. (Greensboro PD)
       Luckey, Paul Leonard 
       Luther, Steve
       Lynch, James  (BATF agent)
       McBride, Claude M. (Defendant; Nazi)
       McCarthyism
       McClain, Lee Joseph
       McGuire, Phil  (BATF agent)
       McHargue, Curtis 
       McIver, Ethel 
       MacKay, Patricia 
       McManis Associates
       Manduley, O.
       Maness, R.
       Manzella, Rand (Plaintiff; injured on Nov. 3) 
       Mapp, James 
       Maps
       March, Civil Rights
       Marshall, Bernard 
       Marshall Service Forms
       Mason, James Allen 
       Massick, David

Box 17 Matthews, David W. (Defendant; Klansman)
       Matthews, Horace 
       Maultsby, James 
       Media
       Medical Info & Records
       Melton, F.M. (Police Officer)
       Melvin, Edwin (Jim)
       Memos, misc.
       Mercenaries
       Merhige, Judge
       Mesimer, Gilbert (Mayor)
       Methodists
       Miami Violence
       Michaux
       Miller, Fanny 
       Miller, Glenn 
       Miller, Ronald 
       Miller, Ruby Leigh 
       Ministerial Alliance
       Minor, Grover
       Mitchell, Burley

Box 18 Moff, David
       Montgomery, June Montgomery  (retired GPD Detective)
       Moore, Wayne 
       Morgan, Lawrence Gene (Defendant; Klansman)
       Morgan, Thomas
       Morris, R.G.
       Moses, Cecil (Defendant; FBI agent)
       Mosny, Paul
       Motion for a Protective Order
       Mouvement Contre Le Racisme
       Myers, Edgar 
       Nappier, Lisford Carl (Defendant; Klansman)
       Nathan, Martha (Plaintiff; husband (Michael) killed on
         Nov. 3)
       Nathan, Michael  (CWP member, killed on Nov. 3)
       National Anti-Klan Network (NAKN) 
       National Assoc. for the Advancement of Colored People
         (NAACP) 
       National Black Independent Political Party
       National Black Organizers Conference (NBOC)
       National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
       National Committee to Combat Women's Oppression (NCCWO)
       National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL)
       National Council of the Churches of Christ (NCCC)
       National Foundation for Study of Religion & Economics
       National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
       National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
       National Security Agency (NSA)
       National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO)

Box 19 Nazi Party: Bombing Plot, Conspiracy Charges, Indictments,
         etc.
       Norris, Bobby Joe
       NC Association of Women Attorneys
       NC Civil Liberties Union (NC-CLU)
       NC Delegation
       NC National Organization for Women (NC-NOW)
       NC Prison & Jail Project
       NC State Agencies
       North Carolina, misc.
       North Carolinians Against Klan/Nazi (NCAKN)
       North Carolinians Against Racist & Religious Violence (NC
         ARRV)
       Northeastern Law School, Co-op program
       Northern Ireland
       Oglesky, Karen 
       Osborne, Thomas
       Osteen, William
       Outreach Correspondence
       Overcash, Richard A.
       Ozment, W.D. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Lieutenant)
       Pakistan
       Palmer, Charlie
       Pamphlet
       Paramilitary Camps - Laws & Bans
       Parenti/Kazdin
       Parker, Annie Pearl
       Parks, Bill
       Patrick, Jack 
       Payne, G.D.
       Peck, James
       Pelczar, Andrew (Defendant; head of FBI's Greensboro
         office)
       Pelles, Donald (Plaintiff; injured on Nov. 3)
       Pelles, Rosaly
       Pence, Robert
       Pennica, Sam 
       People United for Jobs or Income (PUJI)
       Petition Campaign 
       Pettier, Leonard
       Philippines
       Pierce, Gorrell (Defendant; Klansman)
       Pittman, Jerry 
       Plaintiffs
       Plante, Greg

Box 20 Police Brutality
       Police Misconduct Seminar
       Police Spies
       Pompa, Gilbert R.
       Posse Comitatus
       Post office issue
       Powell, Frankie (Plaintiff; injured on Nov. 3)
       Presbyterian Church Resolution
       Press, Church
       Press, Old
       Private Prosecutor
       Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO)
       Project Censored
       Protective Orders
       Pruett, Barry 
       Public Broadcasting Network (PBS) - 88 Seconds Documentary
       Race Relations
       Rachel, Bobby Joe 
       Racial Justice Working Group
       "Radical Law in 80's - Tockman paper
       Radio Transmissions
       Rally - May 3, 1980 - Free Greensboro 3
       Ray, Charles
       Reams, Chester
       Redbaiting
       "Red November, Black November"
       Reese, Marshall (BATF Pilot)
       Refugee Case - Texas
       Regional Organized Crime Info Center (ROCIC)
       Relation Back - Rule 15(c)
       Religious Orders
       Report, Brereton (FBI)
       Report, Greensboro Citizens Review Committee
       Report, Greensboro Human Rights Commission
       Report, Greensboro Police 
       Report, Institute for Southern Studies (ISS)
       Report, MacKay
       Report, McManus
       Report, NY
       Report, "Race Relations in Greensboro"
       Reporters, National

Box 21 Repressive Legislation
       Response, City
       Resurgence of Klan
       Reviews:  Books and Movies
       Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP)
       Right Wing
       Ritter, Gary
       Roberson, Eugene Rodaz 
       Robertson, Mike
       Robinson, Dr. Steven
       Roche, James
       Rockett, Timothy Luke
       Rollins, Dr. Robert 
       Rosenberg Case
       Ross, Linda 
       Rules of District Court, MDNC
       Russell, Lacie (Plaintiff; arrested for CWP activities)
       Sain, Vicki
       Sampson, Dale (Plaintiff; husband killed on Nov. 3)
       Save Our Democracy (SOD)
       Scales, Junius 
       Schlosser
       Scholarships
       Second World Conf. to Combat Racism
       Seeger
       Self Defense
       Shannon, Roger
       Sheehan, Dan
       Shelton, Robert

Box 22 Sherer, Mark (Defendant; Klansman who fired first at CWP)
       Shockley, Philip
       Siegel, Dan  
       Silkwood
       Simms, Derek Scott
       Simms, Percy Timothy
       Sims, Francina
       Sinclair, Matthew 
       Slade, Elizabeth
       Smith, Jerry Paul  (Defendant; Klansman)  
       Smith, Mark (Plaintiff; wife killed on Nov. 3) 
       Smith, Sandi 
       Smith, W. L.
       Socialist Workers Party (SWP)
       Song Sheets
       South Africa
       Southern Poverty Law Center
       Southerners for Economic Justice
       Spartacist League
       Speakers Bureau
       Special Prosecutor - articles & Position Papers

Box 23 Special Prosecutor - articles & Position Papers
       Speeches
       Spellman, Bobbie (FBI Detective)
       Splawn, Roy Dargan 
       Spoon, P.W. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Lieutenant)
       Spraypainting 
       Starling, Haywood  (NC-SBI Officer)
       Statesville
       Statute of Limitations
       Stevenson, Rexford
       Stockard
       Stone, Charles 
       Stuart, Carmen
       Students, Volunteer Law 
       Superstructure Outreach
       Sweat, Michael
       Sweet, Ruby Lee
       Swing, William (Greensboro Police Chief)

Box 24 Talbott, Robert L. 
       Talley, Ronald
       Tampering
       Tape Reporting Services, Inc.
       Tarleton, William
       Tax Exempt Status
       Taylor, Beulah
       Tchula, Mississippi
       Tel-Amco, Inc.
       Television Shows
       Textile Workers
       Thomas, B.L. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Captain)
       Thompson, Harry
       Three Mile Island
       Tockman, Earle
       Tombstone Desecration
       Toney, Roy Clinton (Defendant; Klansman)
       Trade Union Education League (TUEL) 
       Transou, Robert
       Travis, Allen 
       Travis, Charles 
       Treatment
       Triad United Nations Association 1984
       Trial - Mobilization Plan & Preparations
       Tung, Jerry 
       Turner, Alonzo 
       Turner, Larry 
       Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
       Unitarians
       United Nations 
       United Racist Front
       U.S. Department of Justice
       U.S. Labor Party
       Valentine, Patricia
       Vaughn, George Gregory
       Vehicle Registration Materials
       Victims Network
       Videotapes
       Vines, Joseph
       Voir Dire
       Voting Rights Act

Box 25 Waddell, Gilbert
       Wade, Major Conrad
       Walker, Mrs. Glenn 
       Walker, William Ernie
       Waller, Signe (Plaintiff; husband killed on Nov. 3)
       War
       Ward, Eddie
       Warren, Jesse
       Waters, James 
       Waters, Rachel
       Watson, Catherine
       Weathers, Mabel
       Webster, William
       Wells, Lyn 
       Weston, Floris Cauce 
       Westra, J. (Defendant; BATF agent)
       Wheaton, Liz

Box 26 White, Barney Lang 
       White, Jane Ellen
       White, Mary Katherine
       White, Michael
       White Oak Organizing Committee (WOOC)
       White, Roger 
       Wilderness Society
       Wilkerson, Willie Carl
       Wilkes, Gerald
       Wilkinson, Frank
       Williams, David C. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Captain)
       Williams, Joseph T. (Defendant; Greensboro Police Officer)
       Williamson, Everett E.
       Williamson, Nelson
       Wilsonk, Frederick H.
       Wise, April
       Witherspoon, Maynard
       Witlow, Steve  
       Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF)
       Women's Movement
       Wood, Roland Wayne  (Defendant; Nazi leader)
       World Anti-Communist League (WACL)
       World Council Grant
       Wrenn, James (Plaintiff; injured on Nov. 3) 
       Wynn, Major E.R.
       Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)

Series 2.  Investigation files
   1979-1984.  About 16,000 items.
   Arrangement:  Alphabetical.

   Copies of files from the five law enforcement agencies that
investigated the murders of November 3, 1979.  Included are
correspondence, interviews of witnesses, transcripts of witness
interviews, autopsy reports, lab test reports, reports of the
physical evidence, reports of an internal investigation within
the BATF, and FBI commentary on the activities of the GJF and
GCRF.

Box    27-29       Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
       29-46       Federal Bureau of Investigation 
       46-49       Greensboro Police Department
       49-50       North Carolina State Board of Investigation
          50       Winston-Salem Police Department

Series 3.  Court Records and Exhibits
   1980-1985.  About 45,000 items.
   Arrangement:  Alphabetical.

   Copies of official court documents and records from the GCRF's
civil rights trial (Waller vs. Butkovich), the N.C. state
criminal trial (State vs. Fowler, et. al.), and the federal
criminal trial (U.S. vs. Griffin, et. al.).  Included are
deposition transcripts of plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses
from all three trial proceedings; 45 volumes of pleadings from
the Waller vs. Butkovich case and a few pleadings from U.S. vs.
Griffin; most of the transcripts from State vs. Fowler, less than
half of the testimony from U.S. vs. Griffin, and only the closing
argument from Waller; "discovery" material contains miscellaneous
claims, counterclaims, motions, notices, orders, petitions, and
responses filed by the plaintiffs and defendants of Waller.

   Court exhibit files contain copies of reports, maps,
photographs, and investigation notes from the FBI, the BATF, and
the Greensboro Police Department.  Physical evidence includes
"scene evidence" picked up by the police at the murder scene on
Nov. 3rd, including CWP banners, blood-stained clothing removed
from the bodies of victims, shotgun pellets removed from victims,
and a klan effigy utilized by the demonstrators.  Some additional
physical evidence (e.g., a guitar shattered by shotgun pellets)
was returned to the plaintiffs.

   Note:  5 oversize maps have been separated from the "Exhibits"
and have been filed as OP-4630/1-5.

Box       51       Affidavits
          51       Court Instructions (to Jury)
                   Depositions
          51           List of depositions
       51-60           Deposition files
       61-63           Audio tapes
       64-70       "Discovery" Material, misc.:  Claims,
                       Counterclaims, Motions, Notices, Orders,
                       Petitions, Responses, etc.
                   Exhibits
          71           List of exhibits
       71-80           Exhibit files
          80           Photographs
       81-84           Physical evidence
       85-89       Grand Jury Material
          89       Jury Selection files
                   Pleading Books
          90           Index to Pleading Books
          90           Books #1 - 8
          91           Books #9 - 17
          92           Books #18 - 25
          93           Books #26 - 33
          94           Books #34 - 42
       94-95           "Pleadings to be filed in Pleading Books"
          95       Subpoenas
                   Trial Transcripts
          95           List of testimony
      95-111           Testimony
         111           Closing argument

Series 4.  Other GJF/GCRF files
   1980-1986.  About 20,500 items.
   Arrangement:  Alphabetical.

   Office and organizational files from the GJF and GCRF,
including correspondence, contact and contribution lists,
memoranda, newsletters, position papers, press releases, research
materials, a survey of August 1984 examining public opinion of
the Waller case, and financial records such as annual financial
reports, expense receipts, and bank statements.  Other files
contain newspaper clippings, copies of newspaper clippings, and
copies of magazine articles; this material is more complete for
Greensboro-area newspapers than outside the Greensboro area.

Box  112-114       Financial 
     114-115       Mailing Lists
         115       Newsletters
     115-124       Newspaper Clippings
         124       Press Releases
         125       Survey, August 1984
     126-138       Miscellaneous Articles, Books, Notes, and
                   Research Materials

Series 5.  Audio-Visual Material
   1979-1985.  About 50 items.
   Arrangement:  Alphabetical.

    Copies of videotapes of the actual klan-nazi attack (some of
these have time-codes which were added by the FBI lab to
facilitate analysis of the sequence of gunfire) and three
documentary television shows:  "Red November, Black November," an
80-minute documentary/political tract about the people who were
killed and the events; "88 Seconds in Greensboro," a 55-minute
documentary produced for the PBS "Frontline" series, by WGBH-
Boston; and "Resurgence:  The Movement for Equality vs. the Ku
Klux Klan," a 55-minute documentary focusing on the anti-union
and racist views of the KKK and Nazis in Greensboro.

   There are also audio cassette tapes of the interviews of the
surviving demonstrators by the FBI and Justice Department
attorneys in 1982.  See Series 3 for copies of cassette tapes
from the civil trial depositions.

Box      139       List of Tapes
                   Audio Tapes 
                   Video Tapes

               Addition of April 1995 (Acc. 95051)

Size:      About 4000 items (7.5 linear feet).
Dates:     1979-1980s
Provenance:    Transfer from Southern Justice Institute.
Access:    Closed pending processing.
Description:   Court documents and case files related to lawsuits
               stemming from the 1979 incident.

                           SHELF LIST

   Boxes 1-26          Series 1

   Boxes 27-50         Series 2

   Boxes 51-111        Series 3

   Boxes 112-138       Series 4

   Box 139             Series 5

   Boxes 140-144       Addition of April 1995

Items separated:
   OP-4630/1-20

__________________________________________________________________________

http://www.michaelparenti.org/KozyWithKlan.html

Kozy with the Klan

Home | Books | Articles | Tapes | Speaking Engagements 
Audio Commentaries | Radio Stations | Biography

Kozy with the Klan 
By Michael Parenti

The mainstream media downplay or ignore the many demonstrations that progressive 
forces have launched against war and social injustice. But not all demonstrators 
are slighted. Since the early 1970s, when the press first started announcing 
that the country was in a "conservative mood," the Ku Klux Klan has been 
accorded generous coverage. Lengthy and not altogether unsympathetic articles 
have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, Time, 
Newsweek and other publications. Klan leaders, skinheads, and other hatemongers 
have appeared on just about every local and national TV talk show. Indeed, the 
Klan and the media have often seemed entwined in a cozy embrace. The press also 
displays a partiality toward ultra-right political candidates. Nazi-Klansman 
David Duke received more national media running for a seat in the Louisiania 
state legislature than did socialist Bernard Sanders running for the U.S. 
Congress in Vermont and winning. Likewise, right-wing presidential candidates 
Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot received immediate and lavish media attention upon 
announcing their intentions, while the progressive Senator Tom Harkin remained 
unseen and largely unmentioned from day one of his campaign. The corporate media 
have a soft spot for right-wingers and for hatemongers like the KKK. 
Do we want the press to cover or ignore the Klan? The question is poorly put. We 
certainly want people to be informed about the menace posed by hate groups like 
the KKK and the American Nazi Party, but we also do not want the media to become 
promotional weapons for fascists and racists. So the question is not how much 
coverage but the kind of coverage. Here are some specific criticisms: 
1. The press regularly fails to report the Klan's worst features, saying almost 
nothing in depth about its racism, fascism, anticommunism and anti-Semitism, and 
almost nothing about its history of violence, arson, terrorism, murder and 
lynching. Some of that history is not far past: in the last fifteen years at 
least nine persons have died at the hands of Klan members, while scores have 
been harassed, intimidated, or injured. 
2. The press has lavished attention on the Klan and Nazis, thereby magnifying 
their visibility and exaggerating their strength and importance. Ten 
demonstrators marching for some progressive cause would not win national media 
attention, but Klan and Nazi gatherings of that size have been treated as big 
news. When the Klan held a much-publicized rally just outside Washington, D.C. 
in Montgomery County, Maryland, numbering all of twenty-four individuals in 
robes, 140 media people were there to transmit the event to national audiences. 
The Nashville Tennessean once ran a nine-part series on the Klan. The series 
mentioned that the KKK had "a dangerous potential for violence and terror," but 
it never elucidated the nature of that potential nor mentioned any specific 
acts. However, it did offer a generous sampling of the Klan's racist opinions. 
Gannett news service quickly shot the story over the wires and all three major 
networks reported it. As a result, the Klan's "Imperial Wizard," who liked the 
articles, started receiving letters from people asking how they could join. (The 
Tennessean had conveniently published his address.) 
3. The press downplays the anti-Klan demonstrators whose numbers are many times 
larger than KKK participants. The political statement that anti-Klan 
demonstrators make on behalf of social justice and against racism is usually 
ignored by the press. The public is left to conclude that they are just hecklers 
spoiling for a fight. Andy Stapp, an activist with the Workers World Party, 
offers some instances of double-standard reporting: 
  Anti-Klan demonstrators outnumbered the fascists ten to one at a KKK rally in 
  Connecticut, but CBS, ABC and NBC all focused their cameras on the Klan. 
  Fifty Klansmen parading from Selma to Montgomery drew national attention while 
  500 [civil rights advocates] marching against racism (67 of whom were 
  arrested) from Savannah to Reidsville prison the same week were virtually 
  censored out of the news. 
  Ten armed KKK terrorists rate a six-column article and a large picture in the 
  New York Times, the same newspaper which printed not one word about the 
  350,000 Black and White people who demonstrated together [for affirmative 
  action and civil rights] in Washington, DC, the capital of the U.S. 
4. The press has no unkind words about how police and government agents 
collaborate with the Klan and the Nazis, as when police attack anti-Klan 
protesters, and undercover agents--who supposedly infiltrate the KKK to keep an 
eye on it--end up playing key organizing roles. One investigation revealed that 
most of the Klan chapters in certain parts of the South were organized and 
financed by the FBI. Back in November 1979, a group of Klansmen and Nazis 
murdered five Communist Workers Party leaders and wounded nine others at an 
anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, N.C. The role played by undercover agents in 
organizing and arming the Greensboro terrorists remained a story much neglected 
by the major news media. 
The media usually label communists and socialists as the "extreme left" and 
equate them with the extreme right of Nazis and Klansmen-- which is tantamount 
to equating those who oppose racism, anti-Semitism and union-busting with those 
who support such things. The left "extremists," however, do not get the kind of 
lavish media exposure accorded the Klan. Thus, for years Charlene Mitchell and 
Angela Davis headed a very active multi-racial organization known as the 
National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. But most people, 
including many on the left, never heard of the organization even though one of 
its leaders was a nationally known figure. Like other anti-racist groups the 
NAARPR suffered from a severe case of media blackout. Fighting racism simply is 
not news. Advocating and practicing racism is news. 
Nazis and Klanspeople may be racist and violent but they are not 
anti-capitalist--which might explain why the corporate press treats them so 
well. Indeed, throughout much of its history the Klan functioned as a 
union-busting organization--as did the Nazis in Germany in the early 1930s. Both 
the Nazi party and the Klan are explicitly anticommunist and anti-socialist. At 
a demonstration in Springfield, Massachusetts the Klan distributed a leaflet 
denouncing the "Black Socialist Democratic People's Government" which it claimed 
was plotting to overthrow "White America." The Klan conjures up imaginary 
threats to explain away real social problems, attempting to divide people along 
racial lines by transforming their legitimate economic grievances into a hatred 
of Blacks, Jews, trade unionists, communists, welfare recipients, and advocates 
of affirmative action. David Duke is correct: his political agenda is really not 
that different from George Bush's. 
The media's coverage of the Klan and the far Right in general over the last 
twenty years has done its part to keep conservative forces in an ascendant mode. 
The press gives maximum exposure to the Klanspeople, Nazis, skinheads, 
hatemongers, David Dukes, Pat Buchanans--all of which widens the rightward range 
of visible discourse for the George Bushes. Of course, the media do not see it 
that way. They believe they just go out and get the story. Were they to join in 
the battle against racism, they would, by their view, be guilty of "advocacy 
journalism." So instead of exposing hate groups the press gives exposure to 
hate groups. It's called "objectivity."

Copyright © 1996 Vida Communications and Michael Parenti. All rights reserved.

__________________________________________________________________________

http://www.connix.com/~harry/90s-fbi.htm

ARMIES OF REPRESSION

The FBI, COINTELPRO and Far-Right Vigilante Networks
By Tom Burghardt, BACORR-North

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Over the years, our approach to investigative problems in the intelligence field has given rise to a number of new programs, some of which have been most revolutionary, and it can be assumed that with a continued aggressive approach to these problems, new and productive ideas will be forthcoming. These ideas will not be increased in number or improved upon from the standpoint of accomplishments merely through the institution of a program such as COINTELPRO which is given another name, and which in fact, only encompasses everything that has been done or will be done in the future." J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, Memorandum, July 15, 1964 [1] 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. COINTELPRO AND THE FAR-RIGHT: THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF ANTI-CHOICE VIOLENCE
Now that the Christian Right's anti-abortion, "national cultural and holy war"2 has evolved into a campaign of arson, murder and terror, mainstream "feminist" groups tied to the capitalist Democratic Party -- NOW, NARRAL, and The Feminist Majority Foundation -- are demanding that the FBI investigate anti-choice violence. 
In the wake of Rev. Paul Hill's assassination of Dr. John Bayard Britton; clinic escort, James Barrett; and the wounding of clinic escort, June Barrett, July 29 in Pensacola, FL, the drumbeat for federal intervention has reached deafening proportions.

Armed U.S. Marshals, FBI agents using "special investigative techniques," and police SWAT teams, however, will neither defend women seeking reproductive health care nor abortion providers; rather, such intervention will transform women's clinics into armed camps. The net result of such a massive show of firepower by the State will not guarantee women's safety at clinics. Neither will such intervention increase women's access to reproductive health care.

Rather, police intervention on such a grand scale, plays into the hands of anti-choice terrorists. They believe that such displays of State power only assist their own propaganda efforts and tend to buttress their assertion that "abortion is murder," and that women who control their bodies are doing something "wrong."

Despite U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno's statement that clinic violence, "is a problem throughout the nation" and that "it is appropriate to address an issue of deep concern,"3 two more women's clinics have been fire-bombed since Rev. Paul Hill's murderous rampage.

A clinic in Falls Church, VA sustained more than $10,000 in damage, July 30, while a Planned Parenthood facility in Brainerd, Minnesota, was burned to the ground on August 10; the Minnesota facility did not perform abortions. During the same period these two clinics were attacked, a right-wing vigilante was arrested in Philadelphia outside a women's clinic; six molotov cocktails were seized from the trunk of his car. Reports of death threats against patients, doctors and health care workers since the Pensacola murders have skyrocketed.

While the State is poised through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (the FACE law), to legitimize anti-abortion thugs who "sidewalk counsel" and engage in other forms of harassment against women, gangsters such as convicted clinic bomber, Rev. Michael Bray, an endorser of Hill's Defensive Action "Declaration" insist:

"Anyone who truly believes that the slaughter of innocent children is what we have with abortion could go out and shoot an abortionist."4

Similarly, other supporters of the "justifiable homicide" position, go further. According to the Rev. David Trosch, even pharmacists might eventually become targets. "I would see no problem with shooting a pharmacist," who provided a "morning after pill" to women who seek to terminate their pregnancies.5 Trosch, in a July 16 letter that predicted the "massive killing of abortionists and their staffs," pointedly warned that clinic defenders and reproductive rights activists "will be sought out and terminated as vermin are terminated."6

Rev. Trosch and C. Roy McMillan, Executive Director of the Christian Action Group in Jackson, Mississippi, believe that clinic escorts and clinic defenders act as "accomplices," and therefore, are fair game for right-wing, anti-abortion vigilantes.

McMillan, a weapons specialist who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, believes that, "Twenty five years later I have not changed my opinion as to the justification of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam...I assume the enemy I killed were not Christian like me."7

Today, McMillan believes that the killing of unarmed escort, James Barrett, was no more than so-called "collateral damage."8 Apparently, McMillan's ideological fervor will come in handy as he, and other zealots wage "cultural civil war" on the home front.

Recent protests in Jackson/Gulfport, Mississippi targeted Black physician, Dr. Joseph Booker, the sole abortion provider for the entire state. American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA), a violent front group founded by Andrew Burnett, publisher of "Life Advocate" magazine and Joseph Foreman, a founder of Operation Rescue and current Director of Missionaries to the Preborn (MTP) have vowed to drive Dr. Booker from his practice. Both Burnett and Foreman were signers of Rev. Hill's Defensive Action "Declaration."

Daniel Ware, a Rescue America member, and friend of Paul Hill's, was arrested in Pensacola last March for having a cache of weapons and more than 400 rounds of high velocity ammunition in his car. Ware had vowed to "terminate" abortion providers who had gathered in Pensacola for a memorial service for Dr. David Gunn, assassinated last year by another Rescue America member, Michael Griffin. Although prosecuted for having made statements that he intended "to take out as many child-killers in a Beirut- style massacre," Ware was released after a Florida jury found him not guilty.9

During the Mississippi protests, Ware declared, "If you sow death and destruction, you shall reap death and destruction. If you kill by the sword, then you must be killed by the sword."10

According to a recent Planned Parenthood news conference, anti-abortion leaders, Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, and Matthew Trewhella, a top leader of Missionaries to the Preborn and a Defensive Action supporter, have joined forces with the far-right U.S Taxpayers Party (USTP).

Planned Parenthood released videotaped excerpts of Terry and Trewhella's speeches to a USTP meeting held in Appleton, Wisconsin last May. The footage had been obtained by clandestine anti-fascist researchers. "We're living in terror," said Pamela Maraldo, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

While one speaker urged conference participants to "arm their children," another asserted that "abortionists should be put to death." The USTP distributed a 100 page manual, "Principles Justifying the Arming and Organization of a Militia." The USTP was founded in 1992 by "New Right" guru, Howard Phillips.11 Early supporters of the organization have included Larry Pratt, President of Gun Owners of America and Julie Makkima, Director of the anti-abortion group, Fortress International.

Meanwhile, night-riding fascists from five separate Ku Klux Klan groups plan to demonstrate outside the Aware Woman Center for Choice, August 20, in Melbourne, Florida. The clinic, targeted by Operation Rescue National's (ORN) 12 week long IMPACT team, paramilitary "boot camp" for "Christian warriors" in 1993, has been under siege for years.

According to J.D. Alder, imperial advisor to a Florida unit of the Klan, said that the group listed Rev. Paul Hill as "the hero of the month." Alder added, "I put an abortionist in the same category as John Wayne Gacy."

Ostensibly, the Klan groups are gathering to protest the presence of U.S. Marshals outside women's clinics. "It's big brother. It's a government who tries to control people through fear and intimidation," said "former" Klansman, John Baumgardner.

However, the real agenda of these racist hyenas was revealed when Alder stated, "We consider abortion to be tantamount to racial suicide because it's primarily white people killing their babies. I am selectively opposed to abortion. I don't care if blacks and Jews have abortions. It is white babies that are our primary concern."12

The convergence of Christian Right Reconstructionist anti- abortion theocrats, far-right vigilante outfits such as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, an organization with extensive ties to the quasi-fascist "posse comitatus" movement of the 1970's, and racist night-riding Klan thugs should not surprise us in the least. Such a fascist united front of terror, has been spawned by a system of class exploitation, racism, sexism, and deadly homophobia -- capitalism.

The bourgeois State, unsurprisingly, will utilize fascist and clerical-fascist gangs such as Operation Rescue, Defensive Action and the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize and crush opposition to the State and their "post-modern" corporate employers.

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State intervention by the FBI, BATF, and the U.S. Marshals at women's clinics however, will only serve to marginalize -- and potentially criminalize -- one force that has kept the Christian Right terrorists at bay: community-based, direct action clinic defense groups. 
Those, such as Feminist Majority Foundation president, Eleanor Smeal, who call on the FBI "to form a special task force," to investigate anti-abortion terror, consciously delete from history the role played by this repressive agency throughout its existence.13

Far from being a "neutral" investigative agency concerned with uncovering the depredations of organized crime or "domestic terrorism," the FBI has been the vanguard federal force that has targeted labor, minority groups struggling against racism, the women's movement, queer activists and the Left.

The sordid history of the FBI is littered with the bodies of activists murdered to maintain the status quo. During the 1960's, the FBI's role was not to "protect" civil right's workers, but rather, through its utilization of informers and other far-right "assets" inside the Ku Klux Klan, the Bureau actively assisted the K.K.K. in their campaign of racist murder and terror.

Unlike slick Hollywood popularizations of the period, such as Alan Parker's film, "Mississippi Burning," the FBI was instrumental in re-building the Ku Klux Klan in the south,

"...setting up dozens of Klaverns, sometimes being leaders and public spokespersons. Gary Rowe, an FBI informant, was involved in the Klan killing of Viola Liuzzo, a civil rights worker. He claimed that he had to fire shots at her rather than 'blow his cover.' One FBI agent speaking at a rally organized by the Klavern he led, proclaimed to his followers, 'We will restore white rights if we have to kill every negro to do it.'"14

The Bureau's not-so-secret war against the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Communist Party (CP), the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the Black Panther Party (BPP), the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), and most recently, the attempted frame-up of Judi Bari and Earth First! span the decades. Will the clinic defense movement be the FBI's next target, the recipient of an "active measures" campaign? The women's liberation movement has been targeted more than once by the Bureau.

During the 1980's as the FBI waged an "active measures" campaign against CISPES, a former FBI informant, Frank Varelli, became disillusioned with the Bureau's attempt to destroy CISPES. Acting on disinformation supplied by the murderous Salvadoran National Guard, false information was forwarded by the FBI to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The National Guard claimed that one FMLN coalition member, the Armed Revolutionary Group (GAR), "were to promote in North America a strong and violent campaign of agitation and propaganda on behalf of FMLN-FDR, having obtained immediate support from different sectors of North American society. Among the groups providing support were labor unions, Gay Power groups, Pro- Abortion groups, groups involved in the women's liberation movement, and organizations that are opposed to the strengthening of the military forces of the US."15

Although not a shred of evidence existed linking these North American organizations to the GAR, the groups were included in the National Guard communique -- at the direct request of the FBI.

According to Varelli, "Can you imagine if gay rights groups, abortion rights groups, the Equal Rights Amendment groups were known to support a group that had killed more than 20 police and soldiers in a year?" The informant added, "Once the FBI had this data in their files, they could proceed to investigate all these other groups. What is even worse, the FBI knew that this material from the National Guard was strictly disinformation. But they passed the same material along to the Secret Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other agencies in the intelligence community without alerting them to the fact that it was completely fabricated."16

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My purpose here is to review the Bureau's history of employing far-right, racist and neo-Nazi operatives in their on-going war against the American Left, including the women's movement. While the "Cold War" may be over, the search for "enemies" continue. Where "threats to national security" cannot be found, they are created; this is the legacy bequeathed by J. Edgar Hoover to the FBI and its current Director, Louis J. Freeh. 
One can only speculate that the Bureau's "reluctance" to investigate far-right advocates of anti-choice violence, may stem from their utilization of Christian Right "assets" during the 1980's as the Reagan administration and the Bureau prosecuted their own "dirty war" at home to buttress the terrorist Central American death-squad states propped-up by the U.S. Government.

In this writer's view, it is inconceivable that the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and other federal investigatory agencies, have no knowledge of the interconnections among far and Christian Right terrorists waging their "holy war" against women's rights; a campaign that now spans three decades.

Since 1977, according to the National Abortion Federation (NAF), there have been 128 bombing/arson attacks; 573 incidents of clinic vandalism; 66 attempted bombing/arson attacks; 199 incidents where doctors or health care workers have been stalked; and 197 death threats leveled against patients, physicians or health care workers.17

In the majority of cases, these serious incidents of domestic terror are treated like unconnected acts of mayhem by local, state and federal authorities -- with much complicity by "mainstream" media. Rather, such heinous acts of violence against women are evidence of a broad campaign waged by the direct action anti-abortion movement; a program designed to destroy abortion access through low-intensity war.

As I have written elsewhere, the direct action anti-abortion movement and the broader Christian Right have temporarily ceded the legislative and judicial domain to their opponents. Having lost in the courts and in the legislatures, they have turned to a broad campaign of arson, bombing, selective violence, and once again, murder, against abortion provider's: Randall Terry's "weak link."

I will repeat; as a strategic orientation, low-intensity warfare rests on a simple premise: in order to achieve political objectives by "extraordinary" means, a comprehensive, coordinated set of tactics are required. Such tactics are intended to guarantee that prolonged economic sabotage and the cumulative effects of propaganda, espionage, psychological terror and violence will eventually wear the "enemy" down and achieve the desired goal: destruction of access and the loss of reproductive health care for women.18

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The cases I have chosen to explore present only a partial index of the Bureau's role as agents of repression. The massive infiltration and disruption by the FBI of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the American Indian Movement (AIM) is beyond the scope of the present survey. Suffice it say, the Bureau conspired, with the active assistance and collaboration of local and state police agencies, to destroy these organizations. 
Between 1968-1971, FBI-initiated terror and disruption resulted in the murder of more than 38 BPP activists. When the smoke cleared in the mid 1970's the Black Panther Party was destroyed, hundreds of activists were in prison, and thousands of lives lay in ruins.19

The same can be said for the FBI's reign of terror in South Dakota during the 1970's, against the Oglala Sioux Nation and the American Indian Movement. A similar pattern of lies, disinformation, selective targeting of activists for harassment, as well as outright political assassination, murder and mayhem initiated by the Bureau, resulted in the weakening of AIM.20

Similar to the lesser-known cases I do survey, the FBI utilized right-wing vigilantes in order to disrupt AIM and selectively terrorize and murder the Oglala Sioux people and AIM activists.21

While we turn our sights and survey the FBI's utilization of far-right "assets," we must remember those who continue to rot in America's dungeons as political prisoners: Geronimo (Ji Jaga) Pratt, Leonard Peltier, and Mumia Abdul-Jamal, as well as countless other class war prisoners of the American nightmare.22

Clinic defense and reproductive rights activists are urged to study the Bureau's history of political violence, the better to be able to recognize the unmistakable signs of political repression.

2. THE FBI, BATF, AND "PRIVATE" INTELLIGENCE NETWORKS
Subversion hunters do not require evidence in order to bolster their paranoid world-view. The contemporary Christian Right, like earlier McCarthyite "red hunters," inhabit a conspiratorial netherworld which permits the discovery -- or fabrication -- of "evidence" for the malignant plot they believe will destroy "God's nation, set upon on a hill," the United States. 
Sharing much in common with earlier nativist or anti- communist organizations such as the 19th century "Know Nothing Party" or Father Charles E. Coughlin's proto-fascist, National Union for Social Justice, there is an unmistakable thread of racism, sexism and nostalgia for a non-existent middle class "paradise" where "men were men and women knew their place," that link such groups together.

The contemporary hunt for the "Red Menace" has been transmuted by theocratic, clerical-fascist alchemists such as Gary North, Rousas John (R.J.) Rushdoony, and Randall Terry into an insidious plot to destroy the family. Similar to earlier manifestations of nativist paranoia, the search for Christian rightist "fool's gold," relies on an international plot by communists, Jews, Satanists, feminists, environmentalists and homosexuals in order to weave their repressive webs. Thus Christian Coalition President, Pat Roberstson, can write:

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."23

The search for endless enemies has a darker side; many of the paranoid declarations of the Christian Right are shared by the FBI and the "private" intelligence agencies who serve them.

The Bureau and affiliated federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are riddled with agents who have much in common with earlier witch hunters. Today however, "The Witch's Hammer" of the 16th century, used by the notorious Spanish Inquisition to burn women alive, has been replaced by the "Information Digest," of John and Louise Rees, or similar publications of the far-right, such as the John Birch Society's "The New American," or Lyndon LaRouche's "Executive Intelligence Review."

Countless "private" sources for intelligence gathering are used by the Bureau to justify massive COINTELPRO-style operations. Included here, are the publications of the Council for Inter-American Security (CIS); the American Security Council (ASC); Western Goals, founded by the late Rep. Larry McDonald, a top leader of the John Birch Society; the organization of neo- fascist, Lyndon LaRouche; and the massive intelligence network of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.24 I will profile three of these entities.

INFORMATION DIGEST: John Rees is a journalist who emigrated to the United States from Britain in 1963. He was fired from the "London Daily Mirror," when officials at the paper discovered Rees' had used his professional standing to obtain unethical gratuities from London hotels and restaurants.25

Rees moved to Newark, New Jersey and launched "New Careers," a program designed to provide jobs for black residents. City officials however, discovered that Rees had overcharged the city $7,500 for services. They also blocked payment for another $12,000 to a job training firm for which Rees was a consultant.26

Moving to Chicago in 1968, Rees next worked as an undercover informant for the Chicago Police Department, infiltrating and targeting groups opposed to the Vietnam war. At the time, the FBI dismissed Rees as "an opportunist who operates with self- serving interest." However, Rees continued to trade spurious information to state police agencies across the country.27

During the early 1980's, trading on his relationship with Rep. McDonald and Western Goals, Rees began writing a column for the Moon-owned "Washington Times." It was during this period that he began to sell political disinformation to the FBI.28

Rees was the author of the slander-filled, "The War Called Peace," which targeted the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), charging that the group was "thoroughly- penetrated by the Moscow-line Communist party." Rees' brand of political yellow-journalism, was widely-reported by the "New York Times," and other media outlets. His false allegations, innuendos, and slander were used by the Reagan administration to discredit the nuclear freeze movement.29

Rees' booklet was incorporated in FBI files and passed to the State Department. In 1982, the State Department included WILPF on its index of "communist-fronts," on the basis of Rees' disinformation.30

Apparently, the collaboration between the Bureau and John Rees was of long-standing duration. The nature of the relationship with the former "self-serving opportunist" and the Bureau surfaced during a lawsuit initiated by the National Lawyers Guild. Rees' wife, S. Louise Rees, had infiltrated the NLG, working as a secretary. An assistant United States Attorney in New York testified that: "Some federal agencies received information...from John Rees or S. Louise Rees or both, sometimes in the form of "Information Digest," and from time to time they were compensated by the FBI for furnishing information."31

WESTERN GOALS: Founded in 1982, by Rep. Larry McDonald, a top leader of the John Birch Society and a board member of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). Before his death in 1983, aboard KAL flight 007, shot down over the Soviet Union, McDonald described the purpose of the Foundation as defending the United States against Marxist subversion and terrorism. McDonald wrote,

"In the field of Marxists, terrorism and subversion, Western Goals has the most experienced advisors and staff in the United States... The Foundation has begun the computerization of thousands of documents relating to the internal security of our country and the protection of government and institutions from Communist-controlled penetration and subversion."32

One of the key figures of Western Goals was John Rees. Using falsified documents passed by the Salvadoran National Guard, Rees penned an article for the Birchite publication, "The Review of the News." Rees' article found its way into the FBI's files and served as their pretext to target CISPES.33

Other key Western Goals figures included former U.S. Army Major General John "Blackjack" Singlaub, the North American Director of the World Anti-Communist League. Founded in 1967, WACL has been described as the "Fascist International." The League's members have included arch-conservatives, reactionaries, a number of former Nazis and Nazi collaborators.

Among its regional affiliates in Central America were, Mario Sandoval Alarcon, a former Guatemalan vice president known as the "Godfather of the death squads," and cashiered Salvadoran Army Major, Roberto D'Aubisson, described by former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, as a "pathological killer."34

League members were invited to Taiwan's Political Warfare Cadres Academy for training in counter-insurgency and police techniques. Many members also traveled to Argentina for training in police torture techniques by members of the Argentine military during the "dirty war" which annihilated the Argentine Left, "disappearing" more than 25,000 people during the 1970's.35

After McDonald's death in 1983, Singlaub, Rees and others continued Western Goals' primary mission: destroy the North American Left through a campaign of slander and political disinformation. Their publications were routinely routed to the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and other U.S. intelligence agencies.36

In 1983, a portion of the public-private intelligence interchange surfaced when Los Angeles Police Department intelligence division detective, Jay Paul, was found to have removed more than 180 boxes of files from division headquarters. The files contained extensive dossiers on West Coast political activists. Environmentalists, opponents of nuclear power, legal Left groups and political parties found their way into Paul's house as well as his wife's law office in Long Beach.37

Internal LAPD investigators learned that the information removed by Paul had been transmitted via computer directly into the database of the Western Goals Foundation, controlled by John Rees. It was subsequently learned by investigators that Paul's activities had been approved by a former Intelligence Division captain.38

Among the material that Paul supplied to Rees were lists of demonstrators arrested in Florida and California and a confidential LAPD domestic security report.39 It was learned that Rees had published some of this material in a Western Goals publication as well as his own "Information Digest." The information was also passed to federal, state and local police agencies around the country.40

Additionally, selected materials were passed to board members of Western Goals, some of whom were involved with Lt. Col. North's criminal "enterprise" to aid the Nicaraguan contra terrorists.41

Key players of the U.S. Christian Right, including Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were instrumental allies of the Reagan State Department's illegal "Public Diplomacy" operation which targeted the American people with propaganda and disinformation; all in the name of "stamping out Marxist subversion."42

THE UNIFICATION CHURCH: Perhaps the most prominent American off-shoot of WACL was Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. A destructive religious cult that purports that "Our Master," Rev. Moon is a reincarnation of Jesus Christ sent to rid the world of communism, Moon's empire was a key element of the FBI's "active measures" campaign against CISPES.43

Operating through a front-group, the campus-based Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), Moon activists began plying the Bureau with information that it obtained through its infiltration of CISPES chapters throughout the country.44

CARP supplied the FBI with information on CISPES leaders and activists. Bureau files contained hundreds of entries and names provided by Moon's theocratic network. The 48 pages of CARP materials released by the FBI, contain only a small portion of the Bureau's CARP index. Pointedly, the FBI refused to release any of the entries held in the Bureau's main file on the Moon organization.45

Bureau informant, Frank Varelli, stated that "The Moonies were a major support group." Varelli reported that in 1982, agents in the FBI's Washington Field Office trained a Moon contingent to hold a demonstration in support of Salvadoran President, Jose Napoleon Duarte.46

Other FBI-initiated "active measures" campaigns, recalling earlier COINTELPRO operations, utilized "private" Moon "assets" for a national campaign of political harassment and disruption. Varelli's FBI handler, Special Agent Daniel Flanagan, would regularly go to the SMU campus in Dallas once a month to pay the Moonies for their support services to the FBI. Moon cadres would start fights on the SMU campus whenever CISPES held a rally or demonstration. After a series of violent incidents, CISPES moved off campus. Such scenarios were duplicated across the country.47

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Inside the FBI there is a core of agents with authoritarian, if not quasi-fascist tendencies, who are integral to the far- right network of spies and political operatives that continue to operate with impunity. Across the decades, such agents freely pass back and forth between government service and employment as security consultants and union-busters. 
As we will see below, in the two case studies I present as evidence of the Bureau's employment of far-right and neo-Nazi "assets," J. Edgar's Hoover's legacy lives on. Knowledge of this deadly partnership between the FBI, BATF, state and local police agencies and the violent fringe of the far-right, is of vital importance to the women's movement today.

3. RIGHT-WING VIGILANTES AND THE STATE: THE SECRET ARMY ORGANIZATION (SAO) 
Despite tens of thousands of pages of documentary evidence of on-going State repression by the FBI, the idea that the Bureau would utilize "private" right-wing operatives and terrorists is a chilling, alien concept to most Americans. 
During the Red Scare period, 1918-22, and during the 1920's and 1930's, the FBI made considerable use of Pinkertons and "off- the-shelf" vigilante groups, in order to destroy labor and radical organizations.

The FBI has systematically utilized "private" right-wing operatives in order to carry out their fundamental mission: to maintain the power and profits of their corporate employers. One notorious case is the Secret Army Organization (SAO).

The Secret Army Organization was a surrogate of the FBI. An ex-Bureau informant, Nanda Zocchino, writing in the "Los Angeles Times," recounted how,

"...the Bureau had created and financed this 'crypto- fascist' group in San Diego during 1969-70. During the early- 1970's the SAO engaged in a range of activities including burglary, mail thefts, bombings, assassination plots and attempted murder."48

According to Zocchino, the SAO's criminal activities were supervised directly by the FBI. A second informant attached to the San Diego Bureau office, Howard Berry Godfrey, has substantially corroborated Zocchino's story of State-directed terror against the Left.49

The Citizens Research and Investigation Committee (CRIC), documented that the SAO was established specifically, "...to use violence against radicals and, at its peak had cadres in eleven western states."50

According to CRIC's chilling report, a primary target of the SAO was San Diego State University economics professor, Peter G. Bohmer. The professor had received more than forty death threats before SAO operative, George M. Hoover, fired a 9mm pistol into his home on the night of January 9, 1972.51

Although Bohmer was not at home that evening, the SAO assassin, wounded a house-guest, Paula Tharp, in the right elbow, permanently disabling her. Despite the fact that the attempted murderer was accompanied by FBI-infiltrator Godfrey, who informed his handler, Special Agent Steve Christianson, Hoover was not arrested for more than six months.52

The FBI's primary motivation in "chilling out" their terrorist "assets" was not the serious injury to Ms. Tharp, but the sense that they were "losing control" of the SAO. They became alarmed by the bombing of San Diego's Guild Theater on June 19, 1972. Hoover and eight other SAO members carried out the raid, allegedly "without the Bureau's knowledge."53

In the wake of this escalating series of right-wing terrorist incidents, and the ensuing public outcry, San Diego police raided the homes of SAO members. The police netted a huge cache of "illegal explosives, handguns and rifles, including an unpacked case of M-16 rifles. The market value of these weapons was estimated at more than $60,000."54

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Frederick Hetter discovered during a subsequent investigation "that [FBI infiltrator] Godfrey supplied 75% of the money for the SAO" in order for the terrorist army to acquire the weapons.55

Further evidence of the leading role played by the Bureau for launching the SAO was revealed by "San Diego Door" reporters, Doug Porter and Ric Reynolds. Their investigation revealed that Godfrey had also infiltrated the radical Message Information Center under an assumed name, as well as the Movement for a Democratic Military. The FBI's point man, Godfrey, was also assembling a list of "priority people" in the Peace and Freedom Party; a legal, socialist party with ballot status in California.56

Drawing on their extensive experience and expertise as a repressive arm of the U.S. Government, the FBI's paid informant was well-placed to assign targets to the fascist SAO for "neutralization."57

In the wake of Watergate, the Church Committee in the U.S. Senate and the Pike Commission in the House, uncovered a systematic campaign by the FBI to neutralize and disrupt movement building and organizing by a broad array of socialist, left, anti-war, black, native American, queer and women's groups.

While witness after witness testified to the chilling effects of murderous programs such as COINTELPRO, the FBI had accomplished their primary mission.

By 1976, the broad movements created by the radical upsurge of the 1960's had been destroyed. COINTELPRO, "given another name," continued to operate; standard practice in the advanced capitalist "democracies."

4. THE FBI, KU KLUX KLAN, AND AMERICAN NAZI PARTY: THE GREENSBORO MASSACRE
Another case which, after all, "only encompasses everything that has been done or will be done in the future," occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1979. 
On November 3, 1979, a terrorist posse organized by Klansmen and neo-Nazis murdered five members of the Communist Workers Party (CWP) in broad daylight. Their "crime" had been to organize a "Smash the Klan" demonstration in Greensboro among the city's heavily black and working class mill workers. CWP members were also union organizers and activists who had upset "the fundamental order of things."58

An essential component for the operation organized by night- riding Klan killers was U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) agent, Bernard Butkovich. The BATF agent, a Vietnam veteran and demolitions expert undercover in the local branch of the American Nazi Party, helped the fascists obtain automatic weapons. After the smoke cleared and five people lay dead, the BATF "asset" assisted the Klansmen and Nazis in making their escape.59

This anti-communist death squad, had been recruited, organized and led on its mission of murder by an FBI infiltrator, Edward Dawson. Dawson was also a paid informant for the Greensboro Police Department.60

Dawson reported to his handlers that eighty-five Klansmen meeting in near-by Lincolnton had expressed their intent to counter-demonstrate on November 3.61

The night-riders had stated they intended to arm themselves for their counter-demonstration and that Klan leader, Virgil Griffin, was actively calling out Klansmen from other states to participate. It was also rumored that fascists and neo-Nazis from the Winston-Salem area had obtained a machine gun and other weapons. They planned to come to Greensboro on November 3, "in order to shoot up the place."62

Dawson reported to Greensboro detective Jerry Cooper, that Klansmen and neo-Nazis were assembling at the home of a local Klan member and that they were armed. Grand Dragon, Virgil Griffin was present.63

The police/FBI informant had received a copy of the parade route the day before the CWP-initiated march; a map had been supplied by Detective Cooper. Dawson had driven over the parade route three hours earlier with a contingent of out-of-town Klansmen. Dawson also alerted Cooper that the Klansmen and neo- Nazis possessed three handguns and nine long-barrelled rifles, including automatic weapons supplied by BATF agent, Bernard Butkovich.64

Prior to the beginning of the CWP's march and demonstration, Cooper and other police officials drove by the house where the Klansmen and neo-Nazis were assembling. They jotted down some license plate numbers and then declared a lunch break -- at approximately 10 a.m.!65

Less than an hour later, Cooper, trailing behind the fascist caravan reported, "shots fired" and then "heavy gunfire;" however the tactical squad assigned to monitor the march were still out to lunch.66

Two other officers responding to a domestic disturbance call, noted the absence of patrol cars usually assigned to the area. They arrived at the Morningside projects, the site of the CWP march. Officer Wise later reported having received a most unusual call from the police communications center. The officers were asked how long they anticipated being at their call; they were subsequently advised to "clear the area as soon as possible."67

Moments later, five demonstrators lay dead, murdered in broad daylight by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.68 According to anti-racist researcher, Michael Novick, the Greensboro massacre "set the tone for neo-Nazi organizing by the KKK and other white supremacists in the ensuing decade."69

A subsequent civil suit brought against the neo-Nazis, the Klan and the Greensboro police resulted in a partial award to the surviving family members murdered by the fascists. However, the FBI and BATF agents walked away scott-free.

FBI Director William Webster, labelled the charge of federal complicity "utterly absurd," even though the killers had been recruited, organized and led on their murderous rampage by Bureau informant, Edward Dawson and that automatic weapons supplied by BATF agent, Bernard Butkovich, were used in the deadly attack.70

As we have seen, however, this is simply standard operating procedure; what Noam Chomsky has termed, the "demonstration effect" for those who dare to challenge the hegemony of U.S. corporate elites and their fascist and clerical-fascist allies.

5. CLINIC DEFENSE AFTER PENSACOLA 
The search for "endless enemies" by the FBI and other government agencies will continue; of this we can be certain. It is critical that grass roots organizations continue to defend women's clinics and health care providers from the deadly attacks of the Christian Right. 
The clinic defense movement, if it is to remain a vital source of strength and empowerment for women -- and by its heroic example of militant mass struggle, to all who fight against every vestige of capitalist oppression -- must begin an active campaign that directly challenges and defeats the Christian Right.

Any "partnership" with repressive government agencies, however provisional, would be a grave political error with consequences impossible to foresee.

Even before the smoke cleared in Pensacola, however, the drum-beat of violence-baiting and specious comparisons between "extremists on both sides of the abortion issue," have begun to reverberate in the bourgeois press.71

As with other cases of institutional state repression cited in this report, the media played a pivotal role in legitimizing attacks by the FBI and other federal agencies on radical and progressive movements.72 By uncritically presenting Bureau disinformation as unadulterated facts, despite evidence to the contrary, the media are witting and unwitting accomplices for the FBI's on-going COINTELPRO operations against the Left.

Progressive researcher, Chip Berlet, has described this as a process he terms "paradigm shift."73 Through "paradigm shift," progressive organizations are transformed into shadowy terrorist networks by the media. Oftentimes, political disinformation on groups targeted for repression is passed to the media by reactionary right-wing opponents or state agencies themselves; the ubiquitous "unnamed government sources."

According to Berlet's definition, "The perceptual shift from dissent to criminality first goes public with unsubstantiated allegations and conclusions in the media of the reactionary and paranoid political Right. Eventually, the right-wing media attempt to re-frame the public's perception of the dissident group as subversive or criminal spills over into more mainstream media...The dissidents are seen as non-rational, unstable, alien, and capable of odious crimes because of their zealous mindset. Lists of potential crimes are discussed, and finally actual crimes are blamed on the political movement. Ideas that were once merely marginalized are thus criminalized...In some cases, the re-framing is so successful that there is widespread sentiment supporting the attacks. When this process of re- framing is successful, paradigm shift has occurred."74

BACORR and Refuse & Resist! representatives who recently traveled to Florida were continually quoted out of context while the primary source material they distributed, linking national leaders and Pensacola anti-abortion activists, went unreported.75

They were followed and harassed by local and federal law enforcement officials, while the anti-abortionists were given unlimited access to patients outside the Pensacola Women's Medical Services clinic.76

According to an article appearing in the "New York Times," their correspondent, Sam Howe Verhovek, portrayed BACORR and Refuse & Resist! activists as "fanatics" and "zealots;" that is as "non-rational, unstable, alien," according to Berlet's definition.77

Though Mr. Howe Verhovek and other Times' correspondents had interviewed BACORR members and were well-aware of evidence in their possession linking "former Klansman" John Burt, Paul Hill and other anti-abortion activists to a plot to stalk and harass Dr. Britton prior to his assassination, this material was ignored. Mr. Howe Verhovek offered instead, a piece of unvarnished slander as a substitute for an investigation of the complex interconnections among anti-abortion cadres.

According to Howe Verhovek's hit-piece, "At a rally sponsored by a coalition of abortion-rights groups...one speaker pointedly refused to disavow violence against anti-abortion demonstrators."78

The speaker, a member of Refuse & Resist! had actually drawn the comparison between a battered woman defending herself against her batterer, and women who defend themselves from physical attacks directed at them by anti-abortion zealots. Thus, self- defense, is transformed, in typical "Times'" fashion, into offensive violence!79

While we cannot control the political disinformation of the bourgeois media, we must continue to be clear as to our goals -- unrestricted access to reproductive health care for women. The tactics we select in order to achieve this goal must reflect the actual contours of the struggle as it is waged today.

Self-defense is a right of all oppressed people. Just as we would urge a woman about to raped to use whatever force is necessary to deter a rapist, we would also counsel clinic defenders, patient escorts or health care providers to defend themselves from attacks launched by anti-abortion thugs. To countenance anything less is political suicide -- and morally indefensible.

In this regard, we would be well-advised to look to other historical parallels -- to the history of fighting fascism, for example -- with such knowledge in hand, clinic defense activists will draw the necessary conclusions.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES... REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTES
1. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, "Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement," South End Press, Boston, MA, 1990, pp. 61-62

2. Betsy Powell, President, California Pro-Life Council, fund-raising letter, August 1993; cited in: Tracey Jeffreys- Renault and Jerry Sloan, "WITHOUT JUSTICE FOR ALL: A Report on the Christian Right in California and Beyond," Planned Parenthood of Sacramento Valley, Public Affairs Dept., 2415 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95816-5001, 1993, pp. 29-30

3. David Johnston, "Federal Agents Sent to Protect Abortion Clinics," NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, August 2, 1994, p. A-1

4. Mimi Hall, "Abortion foes deny there's a conspiracy," USA TODAY, Friday, August 5, 1994, p. 3A

5. Gene Owens, "Abortion: call to arms," THE MOBILE PRESS, Tuesday, August 2, 1994, p. 1A

6. Kathy Kemp, "Priest calls for deadly force against abortion," BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD, reprinted, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER, Tuesday, August 2, 1994, p. A-1

7. C. Roy McMillan, "Two former killers in this house...and we sleep fine. Thank you," LIFE ADVOCATE, Portland, OR, February 1994, p. 34

8. David Tortorano and Renee Busby, "25 on list support killing," THE MOBILE PRESS, Tuesday, August 2, 1994, p. 4A

9. "Abortion activist may have planned killing," ASSOCIATED PRESS, reprinted, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER, Thursday, March 17, 1994, p. C-24

10. "Abortion Protesters Target Mississippi Doctor," REUTER, August 8, 1994

11. United States Taxpayers Party (USTP); brochure in author's possession

12. "Klan Broadens Anti-Abortion Plans, REUTER, Saturday, August 20, 1994

13. Connie Cass, "Terror plot probe in clinic slayings," ASSOCIATED PRESS, reprinted, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER, Saturday, July 30, 1994, p. A-1

14. Michael Novick, "BLUE BY DAY, WHITE BY NIGHT: Organized White Supremacist Groups in Law Enforcement Agencies," People Against Racist Terror (PART), PO BOX 1990, Burbank, CA 91507, Revised and Updated, February 1993, p. 3

15. Ross Gelbspan, "Break-ins, Death Threats and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central American Movement," South End Press, Boston, MA, 1991, pp. 71-72

16. ibid.

17. "Incidents of Violence & Disruption Against Abortion Providers," National Abortion Federation, Washington, DC, August 10, 1994

18. Tom Burghardt, "LOW-INTENSITY WARFARE: An Anti-Abortion Strategy of Terror," Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights, San Francisco, CA January 1994, p. 1

19. Churchill and Vander Wall, op. cit.

20. ibid.

21. ibid.

22. For Further Information on Political Prisoners in the United States, contact: Partisan Defense Committee (PDC), PO BOX 99, Canal Street Station, New York, New York 10013, (212) 406- 4252

23. Pat Robertson, undated fund-raising letter, summer 1992; cited in Kate Cornell, "The Covert Tactics and Overt Agenda of the New Christian Right," COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY, Washington, DC, Winter 1992-1993 (Number 43), p. 51

24. For further background on: Council for Inter-American Security (CIS) and American Security Council (ASC), see Russ Bellant, "THE COORS CONNECTION: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism," Political Research Associates, Cambridge, MA 1990; for further background on Lyndon LaRouche, see Dennis King, "Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism," Doubleday, New York, 1989; for further background on Rev. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church's relationship to the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), see Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, "Inside the League," Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1986

     25. Gelbspan, op. cit., p. 79
     26. ibid.
     27. ibid., p. 80
     28. ibid., p. 82
     29. ibid., p. 83
     30. ibid.
     31. ibid., p. 82
     32. ibid., p. 77
     33. ibid., p. 45
     34. Anderson and Anderson, op. cit., multiple references
     35. ibid. pp. 56-57
     36. Gelbspan, op. cit., p. 78
     37. ibid., p. 169
     38. ibid., p. 170
     39. ibid.
     40. ibid.
     41. ibid., p. 171

42. Sara Diamond, "SPIRITUAL WARFARE: The Politics of the Christian Right," South End Press, Boston, MA, 1989, pp. 165, 168-169

     43. Gelbspan, op. cit., p. 75
     44. ibid.
     45. ibid., p. 76
     46. ibid.
     47. ibid.
     48. Churchill and Vander Wall, op. cit., p. 182
     49. ibid.
     50. ibid.
     51. ibid.
     52. ibid.
     53. ibid.
     54. ibid.
     55. ibid.
     56. ibid.
     57. ibid.
     58. Novick, op. cit., p. 4
     59. Churchill And Vander Wall, op. cit., p. 182

60. Frank Donner, "PROTECTORS OF PRIVILEGE: Red Squads and Police Repression in America," University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990, p. 360

     61. ibid.
     62. ibid.
     63. ibid.
     64. Novick, op. cit. p. 4
     65. Donner, op. cit., p. 361
     66. ibid.
     67. ibid.
     68. ibid.
     69. Novick, op. cit., p. 4
     70. Churchill and Vander Wall, op. cit., p. 181

71. Staff reports, "Denouncing violence, Burt called 'murderer,'" PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL, Tuesday, August 2, 1994, p. 3A 
72. Churchill and Vander Wall, op. cit.

73. Chip Berlet, "Re-Framing Dissent as Criminal Subversion," COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN, Washington, DC, Summer 1992, (Number 41)

74. ibid., p. 36

75. Laura Weide, Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights, San Francisco, CA, personal communication

76. ibid.

77. Sam Howe Verhovek, "10 Years of Anger and Strife Over Abortion in Pensacola, NEW YORK TIMES,Saturday, August 6, 1994, p. 1

78. ibid., p. 5

79. Weide, op. cit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information on how you can get involved in the battle to win full reproductive rights, contact THE FIGHT BACK NETWORK:

Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR)
750 La Playa # 730
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 252-0750

Refuse & Resist!
305 Madison Avenue #1166
New York, New York 10165
(212) 713-5657

+ 212-675-9690      NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE     212-675-9663 +
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http://193.189.251.50/uforum/black_history/violence_against_african_americans/ku_klux_klan.html

KLASSEN\LK12ENGL\TAUSCH\project_black_history\glossary\ku_klux_klanKu Klux Klan

KLASSEN\LK12ENGL\TAUSCH\project_black_history\glossary\ku_klux_klanKu Klux Klan 
 Since 1978 their activities have risen even though there were a lot of ups and 
downs. 
The official statistics for 1980 till 1990 shows 4236 incidents, a simple 
threatening, many encroachments, devastations, explosive attacks and a 
pinpointed murder. 
A specially alarming result of an opinion research: 
11 Percent of all Americans identify themselves with the "Ideals of the Klan"!

  
  Slavery  
      Abolition  
      Civil Rights Movement 
      Black Muslim Organisations 
      African American Culture 
      Violence against African Americans 
      Teacher´s File 
      Government Legislation against Discrimination 
      Homepage The masscre of Greensboro, 3.November 1979 
      History of the Klan 
      Why they light the Cross 
      Annotations

History of the Ku-Klux-Klan: The first Klan

The Civil War ended in 1865. 
That's why slavery was abandonned. 
But did the situation of the Blacks change? 
Without education, without work and faced with the policy of segregation, 
freedom was only a word. 
Segregation brought them back into a new form of slavery. 
Many organisations which tried to support the policy of segregation were founded. 
One of them was the Ku-Klux-Klan.

It was founded in 1866. 
Its expansion was prevented by the existence of the policy of segregation, because this made sure that the Blacks  were still surpressed. The Ku-Klux-Klan couldn't support the law by many actions. 
Years later the policy of segregation was abolished.

While the people in the North demanded reconciliation, the assassination of President Lincoln by fanatic Southerners in 1865 lead to the ideas which were against slavery in the South. 
In this situation the victory of the Radicals in the election was possible. 
Against Johnson's , Lincoln's successor's, intention they succeeded in finishing the policy of segregation. The policy segregation allowed everybody who was born in America or everybody who came to America in order to live there the American citizenship. 
During the following years the blacks were given more and more civil rights. 
Because of these rights the Ku-Klux-Klan had "reasons" to fight against African Americans. 
Although the Klan was despised by most Americans, members founded many hidden organisations, e.g. the " Liga Of The Whites", " Shooting-Clubs" etc. 
Schools were burned down, voters were threatened. 
Thus why African Americans' rights were frequently violated. 
The year 1877 was the end of the hopes that blacks and whites could live together in harmony. 
The "Grand-Law" was passed saying that only people whose father and grandfather had voted in the 1861 election were allowed to vote. 
This prevented Slaves from voting.

By and by the policy of segregation was getting stricter. 
Blacks and whites lived in different districts, they went to different churches and used different means of public transport. 
This situation lasted until their death and even after, because their graves were also on different graveyards. 
The Klan was no longer present, but the terror and the murder didn't end.

Temoprarily the Klan as an organisation didn't exist anymore. But if the circumstances allowed for it the Ku-Klux-Klan was back again.

 
The massacre of Greensboro, 3rd of November 1979 
This incident in Greensboro is a typical example of Ku-Klux-Klan violence in many respects. 
It is an example because it demonstrates the affinity of the American Klans to fascist movements and because it shows that such an organisation can be quite certain that there will be no legal prosecution. 
Moreover, this incident also proves that these neofascist threatenings can't be prevented with violence or without the general public:

Greensboro, North  Carolina, 3.11.1979, a black district. 
About 50 demonstrators, members of the communist Workers Party, blacks and whites, scream anti-racist slogans, streamers announce "DEATH OF THE KLAN!". 
Suddenly seven cars approach carrying members of the Klan Nazi Party in it approach. 
Some demonstrators hit the first car with sticks. But the cars keep on driving. Then they stop in safe distance. The Klan members equip themselves with arms. Then they start shooting. It just takes 88 seconds. 
A few minutes later the police arrive. There are 3 dead and 10 injured people. Nevertheless two of the injured die later on. All of the victims are members of the communist Workers Party, except one member of the Klan, who was shot in the legs accidentally by his own friends. 
One year later on November 17th, 1980, Greensboro Jury releases six members of the Ku-Klux-Klan from prison.

Why they light the cross

From the sacred pages of the Holy Bible comes  the sad sweet story of the Holy Cross of Calvary. 
The Holy Cross is their  symbol of sacrifice and service, and a sign of the Christian religion. It was sanctified almost 2000 years ago by the suffering and the blood of over 50 million martyrs who died in the most Holy Faith. The cross stands in every Klan Den as a constant reminder that Jesus Christ is their criterion of character and His teachings their life blood, bought Holy, sanctified and sublime.

This old cross was bathed in the blood of their Lord Jesus Christ and became transformed into the symbol of faith, hope and love. Today it is used to rally the forces of Christianity against the ever increasing hordes of the anti-Christ and the enemies of America and the White Race.

They light the Cross with fire to signify to the world that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Where the Holy Light shall shine, there will be dispelled evil, darkness, gloom and despair. The Light of Truth dispels ignorance and superstitions , fire purifies gold and silver, but destroys wood and stubble. So through the fire of the Cross of Calvary, they cleanse and purify their virtues by burning out their viceswith the fire of His Word.

Who can look upon this sublime symbol, or sits in its sacred Holy Light without being inspired with a Holy desire and determination to be a better person? By this Holy Light of the Cross, they  will persevere.

 (http://www.k-k-k.comp/app.html)

Annotations

reconciliation   :   bring about a  reconciliation between friends who have quarrelled 
successor        :   person or thing that succeeds another 
despise          :   consider worthless 
violated         :   act without proper respect 
streamers        :   long narrow flag 
rally            :   cause to come together, esp. after defeat or confusion 
dispel           :   drive away 
superstition     :   unreasoning belief in magic 
cleanse          :   make thoroughly clean 
vices            :   evil conduct or indulgence in depraving practices 
persevere        :   keep on steadily, continue

_____________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NSC Supplement

Northstar COMPASS

Published by the Organizing Committee for International Council of Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People

280 Queen St. W., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2A1 Tel: (416) 977-5819, Fax: (416) 593-0781, WWW.NORTHSTARCOMPASS.ORG

LIES CONCERNING THE HISTORY OF THE SOVIET UNION

By Mario Sousa

Member of the Communist Party Marxist-Leninists Revolutionaries Sweden KPML(r)

Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union

From Hitler to Hearst,from Conquest to Solzhenitsyn.

The history of the millions of people who were allegedly incarcerated and died in the labour camps of the Soviet Union and as a result of starvation during Stalin’s time. In this world we live in, who can avoid hearing the terrible stories of suspected death and murders in the gulag labour camps of the Soviet Union? Who can avoid the stories of the millions who starved to death and the millions of oppositionists executed in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s time? In the capitalist world these stories are repeated over and over again in books, newspapers, on the radio and television, and in films, and the mythical numbers of millions of victims of socialism have increased by leaps and bounds in the last 50 years.

But where in fact do these stories, and these figures, come from? Who is behind all this?

And another question: what truth is there in these stories? And what information is lying in the archives of the Soviet Union, formerly secret but opened up to historical research by Gorbachev in 1989? The authors of the myths always said that all their tales of millions having died in Stalin’s Soviet Union would be confirmed the day the archives were opened up. Is that what happened? Were they confirmed in fact?

The following article shows us where these stories of millions of deaths through hunger and in labour camps in Stalin’s Soviet Union originated and who is behind them.

The present author, after studying the reports of the research which has been done in the archives of the Soviet Union, is able to provide information in the form of concrete data about the real number of prisoners, the years they spent in prison and the real number of those who died and of those who were condemned to death in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The truth is quite different from the myth.

There is a direct historical link running from: Hitler to Hearst, to Conquest, to Solzhenitsyn. In 1933 political change took place in Germany that were to leave their mark on world history for decades to come. On 30 January Hitler became prime minister and a new form of government, involving violence and disregard of the law, began to take shape. In order to consolidate their grip on power the Nazis called fresh elections for the 5th of March, using all propaganda means within their grasp to secure victory. A week before the elections, on 27 February, the Nazis set fire to parliament and accused the communists of being responsible. In the elections that followed, the Nazis secured 17.3 million votes and 288 deputies, about 48% of the electorate (in November they had secured 11.7 million votes and 196 deputies). Once the Communist Party was banned, the Nazis began to persecute the Social Democrats and the trade-union movement, and the first concentration camps began to fill up with all those left-wing men and women. In the meantime, Hitler’s power in parliament continued to grow, with the help of the right wing. On 24 March, Hitler caused a law to be passed by parliament which conferred on him absolute power to rule the country for 4 years without consulting parliament. From then on began the open persecution of the Jews, the first of whom began to enter the concentration camps where communists and left socialdemocrats were already being held. Hitler pressed ahead with his bid for absolute power, renouncing the 1918 international accords that had imposed restrictions on the arming and militarisation of Germany. Germany’s re-armament took place at great speed. This was the situation in the international political arena when the myths concerning those dying in the Soviet Union began to be put together.

The Ukraine as a German territory

At Hitler’s side in the German leadership was Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, the man in charge of inculcating the Nazi dream into the German people. This was a dream of a racially pure people living in a Greater Germany, a country with broad lebensraum, a wide space in which to live. One part of this lebensraum, an area to the east of Germany which was, indeed, far larger than Germany itself, had yet to be conquered and incorporated into the German nation. In 1925, in Mein Kampf Hitler had already pointed to the Ukraine as an essential part of this German living space. The Ukraine and other regions of Eastern Europe needed to belong to the German nation so that they could be utilised in a ‘proper’ manner. According to Nazi propaganda, the Nazi sword would liberate this territory in order to make space for the German race. With German technology and German enterprise, the Ukraine would be transformed into an area producing cereals for Germany. But first the Germans had to liberate the Ukraine of its population of ‘inferior beings’ who, according to Nazi propaganda, would be put to work as a slave labour force in German homes, factories and fields - anywhere they were needed by the German economy.

The conquest of the Ukraine and other areas of the Soviet Union would necessitate war against the Soviet Union, and this war had to be prepared well in advance. To this end the Nazi propaganda ministry, headed by Goebbels, began a campaign around a supposed genocide committed by the Bolsheviks in the Ukraine, a dreadful period of catastrophic famine deliberately provoked by Stalin in order to force the peasantry to accept socialist policy. The purpose of the Nazi campaign was to prepare world public opinion for the ‘liberation’ of the Ukraine by German troops. Despite huge efforts and in spite of the fact that some of the German propaganda texts were published in the English press, the Nazi campaign around the supposed ‘genocide’ in the Ukraine was not very successful at the world level. It was clear that Hitler and Goebbels needed help in spreading their libellous rumours about the Soviet Union. That help they found in the USA.

William Hearst — Friend of Hitler

William Randolph Hearst is the name of a multi-millionaire who sought to help the Nazis in their psychological warfare against the Soviet Union. Hearst was a well-known US newspaper proprietor known as the ‘father’ of the so-called ‘yellow press’, i.e., the sensationalist press. William Hearst began his career as a newspaper editor in 1885 when his father, George Hearst, a millionaire mining industrialist, Senator and newspaper proprietor himself, put him in charge of the San Francisco Daily Examiner.

This was also the start of the Hearst newspaper empire, an empire which strongly influenced the lives and thinking of North Americans. After his father died, William Hearst sold all the mining industry shares he inherited and began to invest capital in the world of journalism. His first purchase was the New York Morning Journal, a traditional newspaper which Hearst completely transformed into a sensationalist rag. He bought his stories at any price, and when there were no atrocities or crimes to report, it behoved his journalists and photographers to ‘arrange’ matters. It is this which in fact characterises the ‘yellow press’: lies and ‘arranged’ atrocities served up as truth.

These lies of Hearst’s made him a millionaire and a very important personage in the newspaper world. In 1935 he was one of the richest men in the world, with a fortune estimated at $200 million. After his purchase of the Morning Journal, Hearst went on to buy and establish daily and weekly newspapers throughout the US. In the 1940s, William Hearst owned 25 daily newspapers, 24 weekly newspapers, 12 radio stations, 2 world news services, one business providing news items for films, the Cosmopolitan film company, and a lot of others. In 1948 he bought one of the US’s

first TV stations, BWAL — TV in Baltimore. Hearst’s newspapers sold 13 million copies a day and had close to 40 million readers. Almost a third of the adult population of the US were reading Hearst newspapers every day. Furthermore, many millions of people throughout the world received information from the Hearst press via his news services, films and a series of newspapers that were translated and published in large quantities all over the world. The figures quoted above demonstrate how the Hearst empire was able to influence American politics, and indeed world politics, over very many years — on issues which included opposition to the US entering the Second World War on the side of the Soviet Union and support for the McCarthyite anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s.

William Hearst’s outlook was ultra-conservative, nationalist and anti-communist. His politics were the politics of the extreme right. In 1934 he travelled to Germany, where he was received by Hitler as a guest and friend. After this trip, Hearst’s newspapers became even more reactionary, always carrying articles against socialism, against the Soviet Union and especially against Stalin. Hearst also tried to use his newspapers for overt Nazi propaganda purposes, publishing a series of articles by Goering, Hitler’s right-hand man. The protests of many readers, however, forced him to stop publishing such items and to withdraw them from circulation.

After his visit to Hitler, Hearst’s sensationalist newspapers were filled with ‘revelations’ about the terrible happenings in the Soviet Union — murders, genocide, slavery, luxury for the rulers and starvation for the people, all these were the big news items almost every day. The material was provided to Hearst by the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s political police. On the front pages of the newspapers there often appeared caricatures and falsified pictures of the Soviet Union, with Stalin portrayed as a murderer holding a dagger in his hand. We should not forget that these articles were read each day by 40 million people in the US and millions of others worldwide!

The myth concerning the famine in the Ukraine

One of the first campaigns of the Hearst press against the Soviet Union revolved round the question of the millions alleged to have died as a result of the Ukraine famine. This campaign began on 18 February 1935 with a front-page headline in the Chicago American ‘6 million people die of hunger in the Soviet Union’. Using material supplied by Nazi Germany, William Hearst, the press baron and Nazi sympathiser, began to publish fabricated stories about a genocide which was supposed to have been deliberately perpetrated by the Bolsheviks and had caused several million to die of starvation in the Ukraine. The truth of the matter was altogether different. In fact what took place in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1930s was a major class struggle in which poor landless peasants had risen up against the rich landowners, the kulaks, and had begun a struggle for collectivisation, a struggle to form kolkhozes.

This great class struggle, involving directly or indirectly some 120 million peasants, certainly gave rise to instability in agricultural production and food shortages in some regions. Lack of food did weaken people, which in turn led to an increase in the number falling victim to epidemic diseases. These diseases were at that time regrettably common throughout the world. Between 1918 and 1920 an epidemic of Spanish flu caused the death of 20 million people in the US and Europe, but nobody accused the governments of these countries of killing their own citizens. The fact is that there was nothing these government could do in the face of epidemics of this kind. It was only with the development of penicillin during the second world war, that it became possible for such epidemics to be effectively contained. This did not become generally available until towards the end of the 1940s.

The Hearst press articles asserting that millions were dying of famine in the Ukraine — a famine supposedly deliberately provoked by the communists — went into graphic and lurid detail. The Hearst press used every means possible to make their lies seem like the truth, and succeeded in causing public opinion in the capitalist countries to turn sharply against the Soviet Union. This was the origin of the first giant myth manufactured alleging millions were dying in the Soviet Union. In the wave of protests against the supposedly communist-provoked famine which the Western press unleashed, nobody was interested in list~ning to the Soviet Union’s denials and complete exposure of the Hearst press lies, a situation which prevailed from 1934 until 1987! For more than 50 years several generations of people the world over were brought up on a diet of these slanders to harbour a negative view of socialism in the Soviet Union.

The Hearst mass media empire in 1998

William Hearst died in 1951 at his house in Beverley Hills, California. Hearst left behind him a mass-media empire which to this day continues to spread his reactionary message throughout the world. The Hearst Corporation is one of the largest enterprises in the world, incorporating more than 100 companies and employing 15,000 people. The Hearst empire today comprises newspapers, magazines, books, radio, TV, cable TV, news agencies and multimedia.

52 years before the truth emerges

The Nazi disinformation campaign about the Ukraine did not die with the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. The Nazi lies were taken over by the CIA and MIS, and were always guaranteed a prominent place in the propaganda war against the Soviet Union. The McCarthyite anti-communist witch hunts after the Second World War also thrived on the tales of the millions who died of starvation in the Ukraine. In 1953 a book on this subject was published in the US. This book was entitled ‘Black Deeds of the Kremlin’. Its publication was financed by Ukrainian refugees in the US, people who had collaborated with the Nazis in the Second world War and to whom the American government gave political asylum, presenting them to the world as ‘democrats’.

When Reagan was elected to the US Presidency and began his 1980s anti-communist crusade, propaganda about the millions who died in the Ukraine was again revived. In 1984 a Harvard professor published a book called ‘Human Life in Russia’ which repeated all the false information produced by the Hearst press in 1934. In 1984, then, we were finding Nazi lies and falsifications dating from the 1930s being revived, but this time under the ‘respectable’ cloak of an American university. But this was not the end of it. In 1986 yet another book appeared on the subject, entitled ‘Harvest of Sorrow’, written by a former member of the British secret service, Robert Conquest, now a professor at Stamford University in California. For his ‘work’ on the book, Conquest received $80,000 from the Ukraine National Organisation. This same organisation also paid for a film made in 1986 called ‘Harvest of Despair’, in which, inter alia, material from Conquest’s book was used. By this time the number of people it was being alleged in the US had lost their lives in the Ukraine through starvation had been upped to 15 million!

Nevertheless the millions said to have died of starvation in the Ukraine according to the Hearst press in America, parroted in books and films, was completely false information. The Canadian journalist, Douglas Tottle, meticulously exposed the falsifications in his book ‘Fraud, famine and fascism — the Ukrainian genocide myth from Hitler to Harvard’, published in Toronto in 1987. Among other things, Tottle proved that the photographic material used, horrifying photographs of starving children, had been taken from 1922 publications at a time when millions of people did die

from hunger and war conditions because eight foreign armies had invaded the Soviet Union during the Civil War of 1918-1921. Douglas Tottle gives the facts surrounding the reporting of the famine of 1934 and exposes the assorted lies published in the Hearst press. One journalist who had over a long period of time sent reports and photographs from supposed famine areas was Thomas Walter, a man who never set foot in the Ukraine and even in Moscow had spent but a bare five days. This fact was revealed by the journalist Louis Fisher, Moscow Correspondent of The Nation, an American newspaper. Fisher also revealed that the journalist M Parrott, the real Hearst press correspondent in Moscow, had sent Hearst reports that were never published concerning the excellent harvest achieved by the Soviet Union in 1933 and on the Ukraine’s advancement. Tottle proves as well that the journalist who wrote the reports on the alleged Ukrainian famine, ‘Thomas Walker’, was really called Robert Green and was a convict who had escaped from a state prison in Colorado! This Walker, or Green, was arrested when he returned to the US and when he appeared in court, he admitted that he had never been to the Ukraine. All the lies concerning millions dead of starvation in the Ukraine in the 1930s, in a famine supposedly engineered by Stalin only came to be unmasked in 1987! Hearst, the Nazi, the police agent Conquest and others had conned millions of people with their lies and fake reports. Even today the Nazi Hearst’s stories are still being repeated in newly-published books written by authors in the pay of right-wing interests.

The Hearst press, having a monopolist position in many States of the US, and having news agencies all over the world, was the great megaphone of the Gestapo. In a world dominated by monopoly capital, it was possible for the Hearst press to transform Gestapo lies into ‘truths’ emitted from dozens of newspapers, radio stations and, later on, TV channels, the world over. When the Gestapo disappeared, this dirty propaganda war against socialism in the Soviet Union carried on regardless, albeit with the CIA as its new patron. The anti-communist campaigns of the American press were not scaled down in the slightest. Business continued as usual, first at the bidding of the Gestapo and then at the bidding of the CIA.

Robert ConQuest at the heart of the myths

This man, who is so widely quoted in the bourgeois press, this veritable oracle of the bourgeoisie, deserves some specific attention at this point. Robert Conquest is one of the two authors who has most written on the millions dying in the Soviet Union. He is in truth the creator of all the myths and lies concerning the Soviet Union that have been spread since the Second World War. Conquest is primarily known for his books The Great Terror (1969) and Harvest of Sorrow (1986). Conquest writes of millions dying of starvation in the Ukraine, in the gulag labour camps and during the Trials of 1936-38, using as his sources of information exiled Ukrainians living in the US and belonging to rightist parties, people who had collaborated with the Nazis in the Second World War. Many of Conquest’s heroes were known to have been war criminals who led and participated in the genocide of the Ukraine’s Jewish population in 1942. One of these people was Mykola Lebed, convicted as a war criminal after the Second World War. Lebed had been security chief in Lvov during the Nazi occupation and presided over the terrible persecutions of the Jews which took place in 1942. In 1949 the CIA took Lebed off to the United States where he worked as a source of disinformation.

The style of Conquest’s books is one of violent and fanatical anti-communism. In his 1969 book, Conquest tells us that those who died of starvation in the Soviet Union between 1932-1933 amounted to between 5 million and 6 million people, half of them in the Ukraine. But in 1983, during Reagan’s anti-communist crusade, Conquest had extended the famine into 1937 and increased the number of victims to 14 million! Such assertions turned out to be well rewarded: in 1986 he was signed up by Reagan to write material for his presidential campaign aimed at preparing

the American people for a Soviet invasion, The text in question was called ‘What to do when the Russians come — a survivaists’ handbook’! Strange words coming from a Professor of History!

The fact is that there is nothing strange in it at all, coming as it does from a man who has spent his entire life living off lies and fabrications about the Soviet Union and Stalin — first as a secret service agent and then as a writer and professor at Stamford University in California. Conquest’s past was exposed by the Guardian of 27 January 1978 in an article which identified him as a former agent in the disinformation department of the British Secret Service, i.e., the Information Research Department (IRD). The IRD was a section set up in 1947 (originally called the Communist Information Bureau) whose main task it was to combat communist influence throughout the world by planting stories among politicians, journalists and others in a position to influence public opinion. The activities of the IRD were very wide-ranging, as much in Britain as abroad. When the IRD had to be formally disbanded in 1977, as a result of the exposure of its involvement with the far right, it was discovered that in Britain alone more than 100 of the best-known journalists had an IRD contact who regularly supplied them with material for articles. This was routine in several major British newspapers, such as the Financial Times, The Times, Economist, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Express, The Guardian and others. The facts exposed by the Guardian therefore give us an indication as to how the secret services were able to manipulate the news reaching the public at large.

Robert Conquest worked for the IRD from when it was set up until 1956. Conquest’s ‘work’ there was to contribute to the so-called ‘black history’ of the Soviet Union fake stories put out as fact and distributed among journalists and others able to influence public opinion. After he had formally left the IRD, Conquest continued to write books suggested by the IRD, with secret service support. His book ‘The Great Terror’, a basic right-wing text on the subject of the power struggle that took place in the Soviet Union in 1937, was in fact a recompilation of text he had written when working for the secret services. The book was finished and published with the help of the IRD. A third of the publication run was bought by the Praeger press, normally associated with the publication of literature originating from CIA sources. Conquest’s book was intended for presentation to ‘useful fools’, such as university professors and people working in the press, radio and TV, to ensure that the lies of Conquest and the extreme right continued to be spread throughout large swathes of the population. Conquest to this day remains for right-wing historians one of the most important sources of material on the Soviet Union.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Another person who is always associated with books and articles on the supposed millions who lost their lives or liberty in the Soviet Union is the Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn became famous throughout the capitalist world towards the end of 1960 with his book, The Gulag Archipelago. He himself had been sentenced in 1946 to 8 years in a labour camp for counter-revolutionary activity in the form of distribution of anti-Soviet propaganda. According to Solzhenitsyn, the fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War could have been avoided if the Soviet government had reached a compromise with Hitler. Solzhenitsyn also accused the Soviet government and Stalin of being even worse than Hitler from the point of view, according to him, of the dreadful effects of the war on the people of the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn did not hide his Nazi sympathies. He was condemned as a traitor.

Solzhenitsyn began in 1962 to publish books in the Soviet Union with the consent and help of Nikita Khrushchev. The first book he published was A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, concerning the life of a prisoner. Khrushchev used Solzhenitsyn’s texts to combat Stalin’s socialist

heritage. In 1970 Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature with his book The Gulag Archipelago. His books then began to be published in large quantities in capitalist countries, their author having become one of the most valuable instruments of imperialism in combating the socialism of the Soviet Union. His texts on the labour camps were added to the propaganda on the millions who were supposed to have died in the Soviet Union and were presented by the capitalist mass media as though they were true. In 1974, Solzhenitsyn renounced his Soviet citizenship and emigrated to Switzerland and then the US. At that time he was considered by the capitalist press to be the greatest fighter for freedom and democracy. His Nazi sympathies were buried so as not to interfere with the propaganda war against socialism.

In the US, Solzhenitsyn was frequently invited to speak at important meetings. He was, for example, the main speaker at the AFL-CIO union congress in 1975, and on 15 July 1975 he was invited to give a lecture on the world situation to the US Senate! His lectures amount to violent and provocative agitation, arguing and propagandising for the most reactionary positions. Among other things he agitated for Vietnam to be attacked again after its victory over the US. And more: after 40 years of fascism in Portugal, when left-wing army officers took power in the people’s revolution of 1974, Solzhenitsyn began to propagandise in favour of US military intervention in Portugal which, according to him, would join the Warsaw Pact if the US did not intervene! In his lectures, Solzhenitsyn always bemoaned the liberation of Portugal’s African colonies.

But it is clear that the main thrust of Solzhenitsyn’s speeches was always the dirty war against socialism - from the alleged execution of several million people in the Soviet Union to the tens of thousands of Americans supposedly imprisoned and enslaved, according to Solzhenitsyn, in North Vietnam! This idea of Solzhenitsyn’s of Americans being used as slave labour in North Vietnam gave rise to the Rambo films on the Vietnam war. American journalists who dared write in favour of peace between the US and the Soviet Union were accused by Solzhenitsyn in his speeches of being potential traitors. Solzhenitsyn also propagandised in favour of increasing US military capacity against the Soviet Union, which he claimed was more powerful in ‘tanks and aeroplanes, by five to seven times, than the US’ as well as in atomic weapons which ‘in short’ he alleged were ‘two, three or even five times’ more powerful in the Soviet Union than those held by the US. Solzhenitsyn’s lectures on the Soviet Union represented the voice of the extreme right. But he himself went even further to the right in his public support of fascism.

Support for Franco’s fascism

After Franco died in 1975, the Spanish fascist regime began to lose control of the political situation and at the beginning of 1976, events in Spain captured world public opinion. There were strikes and demonstrations to demand democracy and freedom, and Franco’s heir, King Juan Carlos, was obliged very cautiously to introduce some liberalisation in order to calm down the social agitation.

At this most important moment in Spanish political history, Alexander Solzhenitsyn appears in Madrid and gives an interview to the programme DirectIsimo one Saturday night, the 20th of March, at peak viewing time (see the Spanish newspapers, ABC and Ya of 21 March 1976). Solzhenitsyn, who had been provided with the questions in advance, used the occasion to make all kinds of reactionary statements. His intention was not to support the King’s so-called liberalisation measures. On the contrary, Solzhenitsyn warned against democratic reform. In his television interview he declared that 110 million Russians had died the victims of socialism, and he compared ‘the slavery to which Soviet people were subjected to the freedom enjoyed in Spain’. Solzhenitsyn also accused ‘progressive circles’ of ‘Utopians’ of considering Spain to be a dictatorship. By ‘progressive’, he meant anyone in the democratic opposition — were they liberals, social-democrats

or communists. ‘Last autumn,’ said Solzhenitsyn, ‘world public opinion was worried about the fate of Spanish terrorists [i.e., Spanish anti-fascists sentenced to death by the Franco regime]. All the time progressive public opinion demands democratic political reform while supporting acts of terrorism’. ‘Those who seek rapid democratic reform, do they realise what will happen tomorrow or the day after? In Spain there may be democracy tomorrow, but after tomorrow will it be able to avoid falling from democracy into totalitarianism?’ To cautious inquiries by the journalists as to whether such statements could not be seen as support for regimes in countries where there was no liberty, Solzhenitsyn replied: ‘I only know one place where there is no liberty and that is Russia.’ Solzhenitsyn’s statements on Spanish television were a direct support to Spanish fascism, an ideology he supports to this day. This is one of the reasons why Solzhenitsyn began to disappear from public view in his 18 years of exile in the US, and one of the reasons he began to get less than total support from capitalist governments. For the capitalists it was a gift from Heaven to be able to use a man like Solzhenitsyn in their dirty war against socialism, but everything has its limits. In the new capitalist Russia, what determines the support of the west for political groups is purely and simply the ability of doing good business with high profits under the wing of such groups. Fascism as an alternative political regime for Russia is not considered to be good for business. For this reason Solzhenitsyn’s political plans for Russia are a dead letter as far as Western support is concerned. What Solzhenitsyn wants for Russia’s political future is a return to the authoritarian regime of the Tsars, hand-in-hand with the traditional Russian Orthodox Church! Even the most arrogant imperialists are not interested in supporting political stupidity of this magnitude. To find anyone who supports Solzhenitsyn in the West one has to search among the dumbheads of the extreme right.

Nazis, the police and the fascists

So these are the most worthy purveyors of the bourgeois myths concerning the millions who are supposed to have died and been imprisoned in the Soviet Union: the Nazi William Hearst, the secret agent Robert Conquest and the fascist Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Conquest played the leading role, since it was his information that was used by the capitalist mass media the worl&over, and was even the basis for setting up whole schools in certain universities. Conquest’s work is without a doubt a first-class piece of police disinformation. In the 1970s, Conquest received a great deal of help from Solzhenitsyn and a series of secondary characters like Andrei Sakharov and Roy Medvedev. In addition there appeared here and there all over the world a number of people who dedicated themselves to speculating about the number of deed and incarcerated and were always paid in gold by the bourgeois press. But the truth of the matter was finally exposed and has revealed the true face of these falsifiers of history. Gorbachev’s orders to open the party’s secret archives to historical investigation had consequences nobody could have foreseen.

The archives demonstrate the propaganda lies

The speculation about the millions who died in the Soviet Union is part of the dirty propaganda war against the Soviet Union and for this very reason the denials and explanations given by the Society were never taken seriously and never found any space in the capitalist press. They were, on the contrary, ignored, while the ‘specialists’ bought by capital were given as much space as they wanted in order to spread their fictions. And what fictions they were! What the millions of dead and imprisoned claimed by Conquest and other ‘critics’ had in common was that they were the result of false statistical approximations and evaluation methods lacking any scientific basis.

Fraudulent methods give rise to millions of dead

Conquest, Solzhenitsyn, Medvedev and others used statistics published by the Soviet Union, for instance, national population censuses, to which they added a supposed population increase without taking account of the situation in the country. In this way they reached their conclusions as to how many people there ought to have been in the country at the end of given years. The people who were missing were claimed to have died or been incarcerated because of socialism. The method is simple but also completely fraudulent. This type of ‘revelation’ of such important political events would never have been accepted if the ‘revelation’ in question concerned the western world. In such a case it is certain that professors and historians would have protested against such fabrications. But since it was the Soviet Union that was the object of the fabrications, they were acceptable. One of the reasons is certainly that professors and historians place their professional advancement well ahead of their professional integrity.

In numbers, what were the final conclusions of the ‘critics’? According to Robert Conquest (in an estimate he made in 1961) 6 million people died of starvation in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. This number Conquest increased to 14 million in 1986. As regards what he says about the gulag labour camps, there were detained there, according to Conquest, 5 million prisoners in 1937 before the purges of the party, the army and the state apparatus began. After the start of the purges then, according to Conquest, during 1937-38, there would have been an additional 7 million prisoners, making the total 12 million prisoners in the labour camps in 1939! And these 12 million of Conquest’s would only have been the political prisoners! In the labour camps there were also common criminals, who, according to Conquest, would have far outnumbered the political prisoners. This means, according to Conquest, that there would have been 25-30 million prisoners in the labour camps of the Soviet Union.

Again according to Conquest, a million political prisoners were executed between 1937 and 1939, and another 2 million died of hunger. The final tally resulting from the purges of 1937-39, then, according to Conquest, was 9 million, of whom 3 million would have died in prison. These figures were immediately subjected to ‘statistical adjustment’ by Conquest to enable him to reach the conclusion that the Bolsheviks had killed no fewer than 12 million political prisoners between 1930 and 1953. Adding these figures to the numbers said to have died in the famine of the 1930s, Conquest arrived at the conclusion that the Bolsheviks killed 26 million people. In one of his last statistical manipulations, Conquest claimed that in 1950 there had been 12 million political prisoners in the Soviet Union.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn used more or less the same statistical methods as Conquest. But by using these pseudo-scientific methods on the basis of different premises, he arrived at even more extreme conclusions. Solzhenitsyn accepted Conquest’s estimate of 6 million deaths arising from the famine of 1932-33. Nevertheless, as far as the purges of 1936-39 were concerned, he believed that at least I million people died each year. Solzhenitsyn sums up by telling us that from the collectivisation of agriculture to the death of Stalin in 1953, the communists killed 66 million people in the Soviet Union. On top of that he holds the Soviet government responsible for the death of the 44 million Russians he claims were killed in the Second World War. Solzhenitsyn’s conclusion is that ‘110 million Russians fell, victims of socialism’. As far as prisoners were concerned, Solzhenitsyn tells us that the number of people in labour camps in 1953 was 25 million.

Gorbachev opens the archives

The collection of fantasy figures set out above, the product of extremely well paid fabrication, appeared in the bourgeois press in the 1960s, always presented as true facts ascertained through the application of scientific method. Behind these fabrications lurked the western secret services, mainly the CIA and MIS. The impact of the mass media on public opinion is SQ great that the figures are even today believ.ed to be true by large sections of the population of Western countries.

This shameful situation has worsened. In the Soviet Union itself, where Solzhenitsyn and other well-known ‘critics’ such as Andrei Sakharov and Roy Medvedev could find nobody to support their many fantasies, a significant change took place in 1990. In the new ‘free press’ opened up under Gorbachev, everything opposed to socialism was hailed as positive, with disastrous results. Unprecedented speculative inflation began to take place in the numbers of those who were alleged to have died or been imprisoned under socialism, now all mixed up into a single group of tens of millions of ‘victims’ of the communists.

The hysteria of Gorbachev’s new free press brought to the fore the lies of Conquest and Solzhenitsyn. At the same time Gorbachev opened up the archives of the Central Committee to historical research, a demand of the free press. The opening up of the archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party is really the central issue in this tangled tale, this for two reasons: partly because in the archives can be found the facts that can shed light on the truth. But even more important is the fact that those speculating wildly on the number of people killed and imprisoned in the Soviet Union had all been claiming for years that the day the archives were opened up the figures they were citing would be confirmed. Every one of these speculators in the dead and incarcerated claimed that this would be the case: Conquest, Sakharov, Medvedev, and all the rest. But when the archives were opened up and research reports based on the actual documents began to be published a very strange thing happened. Suddenly both Gorbachev’s free press nor the speculators in dead and incarcerated completely lost interest in the archives.

The results of the research carried out on the archives of the Central Committee by Russian historians Zemskov, Dougin and Xlevnjuk, which began to appear in scientific journals as from 1990, went entirely unremarked. The reports containing the results of this historical research went completely against the inflationary current as regards the numbers who were being claimed by the ‘free press’ to have died or been incarcerated. Therefore their contents remained unpublicised. The reports were published in low-circulation scientific journals practically unknown to the public at large. Reports of the results of scientific research could hardly compete with the press hysteria, so the lies of Conquest and Solzhenitsyn continued to gain the support of many sectors of the former Soviet Union’s population. In the West also, the reports of the Russian researchers on the penal system under Stalin were totally ignored on the front pages of newspapers, and by TV news broadcasts. Why?

What the Russian research shows

The research on the Soviet penal system is set out in a report nearly 9,000 pages long. The authors of this report are many, but the best-known of them are the Russian historians V N Zemskov, A N Dougin and 0 V Xlevjnik. Their work began to be published in 1990 and by 1993 had nearly been finished and published almost in its entirety. The reports came to the knowledge of the West as a result of collaboration between researchers of different Western countries. The two works with which the present author is familiar are: the one which appeared in the French journal l’Histoire in

September 1993, written by Nicholas Werth, the chief researcher of the French scientific research centre, CNRS (Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique), and the work published in the US journal American Historical Review by J Arch Getty, a professor of history at the University of California, Riverside, in collaboration with 0 T Rettersporn, a CRNS researcher, and the Russian researcher, V AN Zemskov, from the Institute of Russian History (part of the Russian Academy of Science). Today books have appeared on the matter written by the above-named researchers or by others from the same research team. Before going any further, I want to make clear, so that no confusion arises in the future, that none of the scientists involved in this research has a socialist world outlook. On the contrary their outlook is bourgeois and anti-socialist. Indeed many of them are quite reactionary. This is said so that the reader should not imagine that what is to be set out below is the product of some ‘communist conspiracy’. What has happened is that the above-named researchers have thoroughly exposed the lies of Conquest, Solzhenitsyn, Medvedev and others, which they have done purely by reason of the fact that they place their professional integrity in first place and will not allow themselves to be bought for propaganda purposes.

The results of the Russian research answer a very large number of questions about the Soviet penal system. For us it is the Stalin era that is of greatest interest, and it is there we find cause for debate. We will pose a number of very specific questions and we will seek out our replies in the journals l’Histoire and the American Historical Review. This will be the best way of brining into the debate some of the most important aspects of the Soviet penal system. The questions are the following:

I. What did the Soviet penal system consist of? 2. How many prisoners were there — both political and non-political? 3. How many people died in the labour camps? 4. How many people were condemned to death in the years before 1953, especially in the purges of 1937-38? 5. How long, on average, were the prison sentences? After answering these five questions, we will discuss the punishments imposed on the two groups which are most frequently mentioned in connection with prisoners and deaths in the Soviet Union, namely the kulaks convicted in 1930 and the counter-revolutionaries convicted in 1936-38.

Labour camps in the penal system

Let us start with the question of the nature of the Soviet penal system. After 1930 the Soviet penal system included prisons, labour camps, the labour colonies of the gulag, special open zones and obligation to pay fines. Whoever was remanded into custody was generally sent to a normal prison while investigations took place to establish whether he might be innocent, and could thus be set free, or whether he should go on trial. An accused person on trial could either be found innocent (and set free) or guilty. If found guilty he could be sentenced to pay a fine, to a term of imprisonment or, more unusually, to face execution. A fine could be a given percentage of his wages for a given period of time. Those sentenced to prison terms could be put in different kinds of prison depending on the type of offence involved.

To the gulag labour camps were sent those who had committed serious offences (homicide, robbery, rape, economic crimes, etc.) as well as a large proportion of those convicted of counterrevolutionary activities. Other criminals sentenced to terms longer than 3 years could also be sent to labour camps. After spending some time in a labour camp, a prisoner might be moved to a labour colony or to a special open zone. The labour camps were very large areas where the prisoners lived and worked under close supervision. For them to work and not to be a burden on society was obviously necessary. No

healthy person got by without working. It is possible that these days people may think this was a terrible thing, but this is the way it was. The number of labour camps in existence in 1940 was 53.

There were 425 gulag labour colonies. These were much smaller units than the labour camps, with a freer regime and less supervision. To these were sent prisoners with shorter prison terms — people who had committed less serious criminal or political offences. They worked in freedom in factories or on the land and formed part of civil society. In most cases the whole of the wages he earned from his labour belonged to the prisoner, who in this respect was treated the same as any other worker.

The special open zones were generally agricultural areas for those who had been exiled, such as the kulaks who had been expropriated during collectivisation. Other people found guilty of minor criminal or political offences might also serve their terms in these areas.

454,000 is not 9 million

The second question concerned how many political prisoners there were, and how many common criminals. This question includes those imprisoned in labour camps, gulag colonies and the prisons (though it should be remembered that in the labour colonies there was, in the majority of cases, only partial loss of liberty). The Table below shows the data which appeared in the American Historical Review, data which encompass a period of 20 years beginning in 1934, when the penal system was unified under a central administration, until 1953, the year Stalin died.

Table - The American Historical Review USSR Custodial Population 1934-1953

Note: Camps & Colonies were Communes that worked as Socialist Construction Soviets.

CostodialPopulationJanuari1/GulagWorkingCamps/Contrarevolution./Contrarev.%/ Died/Died%/Freed/Escaped/GulagLaborColonies/Prisons/Total

1934 510307 135190 26.5 26295 5.2 147272 83490 0 0 510307

1935 725438 118256 16.3 28328 3.9 211035 67493 240259 0 965697

1936 839406 105849 12.6 20595 2.5 369544 58313 457088 0 1296494

1937 820881 104826 12.8 25376 3.1 364437 58264 375488 0 1196369

1938 996367 185324 18.6 90546 9.1 279966 32033 885203 0 1881570

1939 1317195 454432 34.5 50502 3.8 223622 12333 355243 350538 2022976

1940 1344408 444999 33.1 46665 3.5 316825 11813 315584 190266 1850258

1941 1500524 420293 28.7 100997 6.7 624276 10592 429205 487739 2417468

1942 1415596 407988 29.6 248877 18.0 509538 11822 360447 277992 2054035

1943 983974 345397 35.6 166967 17.0 336135 6242 500208 235313 1719495

1944 663594 268861 40.7 60948 9.2 152113 3586 516225 155213 1335032

1945 715506 283351 41.2 43848 6.1 336750 2196 745171 279969 1740646

1946 600897 333833 59.2 18154 3.0 115700 2642 956224 261500 1818621

1947 808839 427653 54.3 35668 4.4 194886 3779 912794 306163 2027796

1948 1108057 416156 38.0 27605 2.5 261148 4261 1091478 275850 2475385

1949 1216361 420696 34.9 15739 1.3 178449 2583 1140324 0 2356685

1950 1416300 578912 22.7 14703 1.0 216210 2577 1145051 0 2561351

1951 1533767 475976 31.0 15587 1.0 254269 2318 994379 0 2528146

1952 1711202 480766 28.1 10604 0.6 329446 1253 793312 0 2504514

1953 1727970 465256 26.9 5825 0.3 937352 785 740554 0 2468524

From the above Table, there are a series of conclusions which need to be drawn. To start with we can compare its data to those given by Robert Conquest. The latter claims that in 1939 there were 9

million political prisoners in the labour camps and that 3 mllion others died in the period 1937-1939. Let the reader not forget that Conquest is here talking only political prisoners! Apart from these, says Conquest, there were also common criminals who, were much greater in number than the political prisoners! In 1950 there were, according to Conquest, 12 million political prisoners! Armed with the true facts, we can readily see what a fraudster Conquest really is. Not one of his figures corresponds even remotely to the truth. In 1939 there was a total in all the camps, colonies and prisons of close to 2 million prisoners. Of these 454,000 had committed political crimes, not 9 million as Conquest asserts. Those who died in labour camps between 1937 and 1939 numbered about, 160,000, not 3 million as Conquest asserts. In 1950 there were 578,000 political prisoners in labour camps, not 12 million. Let the reader not forget that Robert Conquest to this day remains one of the major sources for right-wing propaganda against communism. Among right-wing pseudo-intellectuals, Robert Conquest is a, godlike figure. As for the figures cited by Alexander Solzhenitsyn — 60 million alleged to have died in labour camps — there is no need for comment. The absurdity of such an allegation is manifest. Only a sick mind could promote such delusions.

Let us now leave these fraudsters in order that we may ourselves concretely analyse the statistics relating to the gulag. The first question to be asked is what view we should take about the sheer quantity of people caught up in the penal system? What is the meaning of the figure of 2.5 million? Every person that is put in prison is living proof that society was still insufficiently developed to give every citizen everything he needed for a full life. From this point of view, the 2.5 million do represent a criticism of the society.

The internal and external threat

The number of people caught up in the penal system requires to be properly explained. The Soviet Union was a country which had only recently overthrown feudalism, and its social heritage in matters of human rights was often a burden on society. In an antiquated. system like the tsardom, workers were condemned to live in deep poverty, and human life had little valuer Robbery and violent crime was punished by unrestrained violence. Revolts against the monarch~y usually ended in massacres, death sentences and extremely long prison sentences. These social relations, and the habits of mind associated with them, take a long time to change, a fact which influenced the developed of society in the Soviet Union as well as attitudes towards criminals.

Another factor to be taken into account is that the Soviet Union, a country which in the 1930s had close to 160-170 million inhabitants, was seriously threatened by foreign powers. As a result of the great political changes which took place in Europe in the 1930s, there was a major threat of war from the direction of Nazi Gerniiin, a threat to the survival of the Slav people, and the western bloc also harbouring interventionist ambitions. This situation was summed up by Stalin in 1931 in the following words: “We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We have to close that gap in 10 years. Either we do it or we will be wiped out.” Ten years later, on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies. Soviet society was forced to make great efforts in the decade from 1930-1940, when the major part of its resources was dedicated to its defence preparations for the forthcoming war against the Nazis. Because of this, people worked hard while producing little by way of personal benefits. The introduction of the 7-hour day was withdrawn in 1937, and in 1939 practically every Sunday was a work day. In a difficult period such as this, with a great war hanging over the development of society for two decades (the 1930s and 1940s), a war which was to cost the Soviet Union 25 million deaths with half the country burnt to a cinder, crime did tend to increase as people tried to help themselves to what life could not otherwise offer them.

During this very difficult time, the Soviet Union held a maximum number of 2.5 million people in its prison system, i.e., 2.4% of the adult population. How can we evaluate this figure? Is it a lot or a little? Let us compare.

More prisoners in the US

In the United States of America, for example, a country of 252 million inhabitants (in 1996), the richest country in the world, which consumes 60% of the world resources, how many people are in prison? What is the situation in the US, a country not threatened by any war and where there are no deep social changes affecting economic stability?

In a rather small news item appearing in the newspapers of August 1997, the FLT-AP news agency reported that in the US there had never previously been so many people in the prison system as the 5.5 million held in 1996. This represents an increase of 200,0000 people since 1995 and means that the number of criminals in the US equals 2.8% of the adult population. These data are available to all those who are part of the North American department of justice. The number of convicts in the US today is 3 million higher than the maximum number ever held in the Soviet Union! In the Soviet Union there was a maximum of 2.4% of the adult population in prison for their crimes — in the US the figure is 2.8%, and rising! According to a press release put out by the US department of justice on 18 January 1998, the number of convicts in the US in 1997 rose by 96,100.

As far as the Soviet labour camps were concerned, it is true that the regime was harsh and difficult for the prisoners, but what is the situation today in the prisons of the US, which are rife with violence, drugs, prostitution, sexual slavery (290,000 rapes a year in US prisons). Nobody fees safe in US prisons! And this today, and in a society richer than ever before!

An important factor — the lack of medicines

Let us now respond to the third question posed. How many people died in the Iaboi.ir camps? The number varied from year to year, from 5.2% in 1934 to 0.3% in 1953. Deaths in the labour camps were caused by the general shortage of resources in society as a whole, in particular the medicines necessary to fight epidemics. This problem was not confined to labour camps but was present throughout society, as well as in the great majority of countries of the world. Once antibiotics had been discovered and put into general use after the Second World War, the situation changed radically. In fact, the worst years were the war years when the Nazi barbarians imposed very harsh living conditions on all Soviet citizens. During those 4 years, more than half a million people died in the labour camps — half the total number dying throughout the 20-year period in question. Let us not forget that in the same period, the war years, 25 million people died among those who were free. In 1950, when conditions in the Soviet Union had improved and antibiotics had been introduced, the number of people dying while in prison fell to 0.3%.

Let us turn now to the fourth question posed. How many people were sentenced to death prior to 1953, especially during the purges of 1937-38? We have already noted Robert Conquest’s claim that the Bolsheviks killed 12 million political prisoners in the labour camps between 1930 and 1953. Of these 1 million are supposed to have been killed between 1937 and 1938. Solzhenitsyn’s figures run to tens of millions supposed to have died in the labour camps — 3 million in 1937-38 alone. Even higher figures have been quoted in the course of the dirty propaganda war against the Soviet Union. The Russian, Olga Shatunovskaya, for example, cites a figure of 7 million dead in the purges of 1937-38.

The documents now emerging from the Soviet archives, however, tell a different story. It is necessary to mention here at the start that the number of those sentenced to death has to be gleaned from different archives and that the researchers, in order to arrive at an approximate figure, have had to gather data from these various archives in a way which gives rise to a risk of double counting and thus of producing estimates higher than the reality. According to Dimitri Volkogonov, the person appointed by Yeltsin to take charge of the old Soviet archives, there were 30,514 persons condemned to death by military tribunals between 1 October 1936 and 30 September 1938. Another piece of information comes froM the KGB: according to information released to the press in February 1990, there were 786,098 people condemned to death for crimes against the revolution during the 23 years from 1930-1953. Of those condemned, according to the KGB, 681,692 were condemned between 1937 and 1938. It is not possible to double check the KGB’s figures but this last piece of information is open to doubt. It would be very odd for so many people to have been sentenced to death in only two years. Is it possible that the present-day pro-capitalist KGB would give us correct information from the pro-socialist KGB? Be that as it may, it remains to be verified whether the statistics which underlie the KGB information include among those said to have been condemned to death during the 23 years in question common criminals as well as counterrevolutionaries, rather than counter-revolutionaries alone as the pro-capitalist KGB has alleged in a press release of February 1990. The archives also tend to the conclusion that the number of common criminals and the number of counter revolutionaries condemned to death was approximately equal. The conclusion we can draw from this is that the number of those condemned to death in 1937-38 was close to 100,000, and not several million as has been claimed by Western propaganda.

It is also necessary to bear in mind that not all those sentenced to death in the Soviet Union were actually executed. A large proportion of death penalties were commuted to terms in labour camps. It is also important to distinguish between common criminals and counter revolutionaries. Many of those sentenced to death had committed violent crimes such as murder or rape. 60 years ago this type of crime was punishable by death in a large number of countries.

Question 5: How long was the average prison sentence? The length of prison sentences has been the subject of the most scurrilous rumour-mongering in Western propaganda. The usual insinuation is that to be a convict in the Soviet Union involved endless years in prison — whoever went in never came out. This is completely untrue. The vast majority of those who went to prison in Stalin’s time were in fact convicted to a term of 5 years at most.

The statistics reproduced in the American Historical Review show the actual facts. Common criminals in the Russian Federation in 1936 received the following sentences: up to 5 years: 82.4%; between 5-10 years: 17.6%. 10 years was the maximum possible prison term before 1937. Political prisoners convicted in the Soviet Union’s civilian courts in 1936 received sentences as follows: up to 5 years: 44.2%; between 5-10 years 50.7%. As for those sentenced to terms in the gulag labour camps, where the longer sentences were served, the 1940 statistics show that those serving up to 5 years were 56.8% and those between 5-10 years 42.2%. Only 1% were sentenced to over 10 years.

For 1939 we have the statistics produced by Soviet courts. The distribution of prison terms is as follows: up to 5 years: 95.9%; from 5-10 years: 4%; over 10 years: 0.1%. As we can see, the supposed eternity of prison sentences in the Soviet Union is another myth spread in the West to combat socialism.

The lies about the Soviet Union A brief discussion as to the research reports.

The research conducted by the Russian historians shows a reality totally different to that taught in the schools and universities of the capitalist world over the last 50 years. During these 50 years of the cold war, several generations have learnt only lies about the Soviet Union, which have left a deep impression on many people. This fact is also substantiated in the reports made of the French and American research. In these report~ are reproduced data, figures and tables enumerating those convicted and those who died, these figures being the subject of intense discussion. But the most important thing to note is that the crimes committed by the people who had been convicted is never a matter of any interest. Capitalist political propaganda has always presented Soviet prisoners as innocent victims and the researchers have taken up this assumption without questioning it. When the researchers go over from their columns of statistics to their commentaries on the events, their bourgeois ideology comes to fore — with sometimes macabre results. Those who were convicted under the Soviet penal system are treated as innocent victims, but the fact of the matter is that most of them were thieves, murderers, rapists, etc. Criminals of this kind would never be considered to be innocent victims by the press if their crimes were committed in Europe or the US. But since the crimes were committed in the Soviet Union, it is different. To call a murderer, or a person who has raped more than once, an innocent victim is a very dirty game. Some common sense at least needs to be shown when commenting on Soviet justice, at least in relation to criminals convicted of violent crimes, even if it cannot be managed in relation to the nature of the punishment, then at least as regards the propriety of convicting people who have committed crimes of this kind.

The kulaks and the counter-revolution

In the case of the counter-revolutionaries, it is also necessary to consider the crimes of which they were accused. Let us give two examples to show the importance of this question: the first is the kulaks sentenced at the beginning of the 1930s and the second the conspirators and counterrevolutionaries convicted in 1936-38.

According to the research reports insofar as they deal with the kulaks, the rich peasants, there were 381,000 families, i.e., about 1.8 million people sent into exile. A small number of these people were sentenced to serve terms in labour camps or colonies. But what gave rise to these punishments?

The rich Russian peasant, the kulak, had subjected poor peasants for hundreds of years to boundless oppression and unbridled exploitation. Of the 120 million peasants in 1927, the 10 million kulaks lived in luxury while the remaining 110 million lived in poverty. Before the revolution they had lived in the most abject poverty. The wealth of the kulaks was based on the badly-paid labour of the poor peasants. When the poor peasants began to join together in collective farms, the main source of kulak wealth disappeared. But the kulaks did not give up. They tried to restore exploitation by use of famine. Groups of armed kulaks attacked collective farms, killed poor peasants and party workers, set fire to the fields and killed working animals. By provoking starvation among poor peasants, the kulaks were trying to secure the perpetuation of poverty and their own positions of power. The events which ensued were not those expected by these murderers. This time the poor peasants had the support of the revolution and proved to be stronger than the kulaks, who were defeated, imprisoned and sent into exile or sentenced to terms in labour camps.

Of the 10 million kulaks, 1.8 million were exiled or convicted. There may have been injustices perpetrated in the course of this massive class struggle in the Soviet countryside, a struggle involving 120 million people. But can we blame the poor and the oppressed, in their struggle for a life worth living, in their struggle to ensure their children would not be starving illiterates, for not being sufficiently ‘civilised’ or showing enough ‘mercy’ in their courts? Can one point the finger at people who for hundreds of years had no access to the advances made by civilisation for not being civilised? And tell us, when was the kulak exploiter civilised or merciful in his dealings with poor peasants during the years and years of endless exploitation.

The purges of 1937

Our second example, that of the counter-revolutionaries convicted in the 1936-38 Trials which followed the purges of party, army and state apparatus, has its roots in the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia. Millions of people participated in the victorious struggle against the Tsar and the Russian bourgeoisie, and many of these joined the Russian Communist Party. Among all these people there were, unfortunately, some who entered the party for reasons other than fighting for the proletariat and for socialism. But the class struggle was such that often there was neither the time nor the opportunity to put new party militants to the test. Even militants from other parties who called themselves socialists and who had fought the Bolshevik party were admitted to the Communist Party. A number of these new activists were given important positions in the Bolshevik Party, the state and the armed forces, depending on their individual ability to conduct class struggle. These were very difficult times for the young Soviet state, and the great shortage of cadres — or even of people who could read — forced the party to make few demands as regards the quality of new activists and cadres. Because of these problems, there arose in time a contradiction which split the party into two camps — on the one hand those who wanted to press forward in the struggle to build a socialist society, and on the other hand those who thought that the conditions were not yet ripe for building socialism and who promoted social-democracy. The origin of these ideas lay in Trotsky, who had joined the party in July 1917. Trotsky was able over time to secure the support of some of the best known Bolsheviks. This opposition united against the original Bolshevik plan provided one of the policy options which were the subject of a vote on 27 December 1927. Before this vote was taken, there had been a great party debate going on over many years and the result left nobody in any doubt. Of the 725,000 votes cast, the opposition secured 6,000 — i.e., less than 1% of party activists supported the united opposition.

As a consequence of the vote, and once the opposition started working for a policy opposed to that of the party, the Central Committee of the Communist Party decided to expel from the party the principal leaders of the united opposition. The central opposition figure, Trotsky, was expelled from the Soviet Union. But the story of this opposition did not end there. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Zvdokine afterwards made self-criticisms, as did several leading Trotskyists, such as Pyatakov, Radek, Preobrazhinsky and Smirnov. All of them were once again accepted into the party as activists and took up once more their party and state posts. In time it became clear that the selfcriticisms made by the opposition had not been genuine, since the oppositionist leaders were united on the side of the counter revolution every time that class struggle sharpened in the Soviet Union. The majority of the oppositionists were expelled and re-admitted another couple of times before the situation clarified itself completely in 1937-38.

Industrial sabotage

The murder in December 1934 of Kirov, the chairman of the Leningrad party and one of the most important people in the Central Committee, sparked off the investigation that was to lead to the

discovery of a secret organisation engaged in preparing a conspiracy to take over the leadership of the party and the government of the country by means of violence. The political struggle that they had lost in 1927 they now hoped to win by means of organised violence against the state. Their main weapons were industrial sabotage, terrorism and corruption. Trotsky, the main inspiration for the opposition, directed their activities from abroad. Industrial sabotage caused terrible losses to the Soviet state, at enormous cost, for example, important machines were damaged beyond possibility of repair, and there was an enormous fall, in production in mines and factories.

One of the people who in 1934 described the problem was the American engineer John Littlepage, one of the foreign specialists contracted to work in the Soviet Union. Littlepage spent 10 years working in the Soviet mining industry — from 1927-37, mainly in gold mines. In his book In search of Soviet gold, he writes: “I never took any interest in the subtleties of political manoeuvring in Russia so long as I could avoid them; but I had to study what was happening in Soviet industry in order to do my work And I am firmly convinced that Stalin and his collaborators took a long time to discover that discontented revolutionary communists were his worst enemies.”

Littlepage also wrote that his personal experience confirmed the official statement to the effect that a great conspiracy directed from abroad was using major industrial sabotage as part of its plans to force the government to fall. In 1931 Littlepage had already felt obliged to take note of this, while working in the copper and bronze mines of the Urals and Kazakhstan. The mines were part of a large copper/bronze complex under the overall direction of Pyatakov, the people’s Vice Commissar for heavy industry. The mines were in a catastrophic state as far as production and the well-being of their workers was concerned. Littlepage reached the conclusion that there was organised sabotage going on which came from the top management of the copper/bronze complex.

Littlepage’s book also tells us from where the Trotskyite opposition obtained the money that was necessary to pay for this counter-revolutionary activity. Many members of the secret opposition used their positions to approve the purchase of machines from certain factories abroad. The products approved were of much lower quality than those the Soviet government aQtually paid for. The foreign producers gave Trotsky’s organisation the surplus from such transactions, as a result of which Trotsky and his co-conspirators in the Soviet Union continued to order from these manufacturers.

Theft and corruption

This procedure was observed by Littlepage in Berlin in the spring of 1931 when buying industrial lifts for mines. The Soviet delegation was headed by Pyatakov, with Littlepage as the specialist in charge of verifying the quality of the lifts and of approving the purchase. Littlepage discovered a fraud involving low quality lifts, useless for Soviet purposes, but when he informed Pyatakov and the other members of the Soviet delegation of this fact, he met with a cold reception, as if they wanted to overlook these facts and insist he should approve the purchase of the lifts. Littlepage would not do so. At the time he thought that what was happening involved personal corruption and that the members of the delegation had been bribed by the lift manufacturers. But after Pyatakov, in the 1937 Trial, confessed his links with the Trotskyist opposition, Littlepage was driven to the conclusion that what he had witnessed in Berlin was much more than corruption at a personal level. The money involved was intended to pay for the activities of the secret opposition in the Soviet Union, activities which included sabotage, terrorism, bribery and propaganda.

Zinoviev, Kamenev, Pyatakov, Radek, Tomsky, Bukharin and others much loved by the Western bourgeois press used the positions entrusted to them by the Soviet people and party to steal money

from the state, in order to enable enemies of socialism to use that money for the purposes of sabotage and in their fight against socialist society in the Soviet Union.

Plans for a coup

Theft, sabotage and corruption are serious crimes in themselves, but the opposition’s activities went much further. A counter-revolutionary conspiracy was being prepared aimed at taking over state power by means of a coup in which the whole Soviet leadership would be eliminated, starting with the assassination of the most important members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The military side of the coup would be carried out by a group of generals headed by Marshal Tukhachevsky.

According to Isaac Deutscher, himself a Trotskyite, who wrote several books against Stalin and the Soviet Union, the coup was to have been initiated by a military operation against the Kremlin and the most important troops in the big cities, such as Moscow and Leningrad. The conspiracy was, according to Deutscher, headed by Tukhachevsky together with Gamarnik, the head of the army political commissariat, General Yakir, the Commander of Leningrad, General Uborevich, the commander of the Moscow military academy, and General Primakov, a cavalry commander.

Marshal Tukhachevsky had been an officer in the former Tsarist army who, after the revolution, went over to the Red Army. In 1930 nearly 10% of officers (close to 4,500) were former Tsarist officers. Many of them never abandoned their bourgeois outlook and were just waiting for an opportunity to fight for it. This opportunity arose when the opposition was preparing its coup.

The Bolsheviks were strong, but the civilian and military conspirators endeavoured to muster strong friends. According to Bukharin’s confession in his public trial in 1938, an agreement was reached between the Trotskyite opposition and Nazi Germany, in which large territories, including the Ukraine, would be ceded to Nazi Germany following the counter-revolutionary coup in the Soviet Union. This was the price demanded by Nazi Germany for its promise of support for the counterrevolutionaries. Bukharin had been informed about this agreement by Radek, who~had received an order from Trotsky about the matter. All these conspirators who had been chosen for high positions to lead, administer and defend socialist society were in reality working to destroy socialism. Above all it is necessary to remember that all this was happening in the l930s, when the Nazi danger was growing all the time and the Nazi armies were set Europe alight and were preparing to invade the Soviet Union.

The conspirators were sentenced to death as traitors after a public trial. Those found guilty of sabotage, terrorism, corruption, attempted murder and who had wanted to hand over part of the country to the Nazis could expect nothing else. To call them innocent victims is completely mistaken.

More numerous liars

It is interesting to see how Western propaganda, via Robert Conquest, has lied about the purges of the Red Army. Conquest says in his book The Great Terror that in 1937 there were 70,000 officers and political commissars in the Red Army and that 50% of them (i.e., 15,000 officers and 20,000 commissars) were arrested by the political police and were either executed or imprisoned for life in labour camps. In this allegation of Conquest’s, as in his whole book, there is not one word of truth. The historian Roger Reese, in his work The Red Army and the Great Purges, gives the facts which show the real significance of the 1937-38 purges for the army. The number of people in the

leadership of the Red Army and air force, i.e., officers and political commissars, was 144,300 in 1937, increasing to 282,300 by 1939. During the 1937-38 purges, 34,300 officers and political commissars were expelled for political reasons. By May 1940, however, 11,596 had already been rehabilitated and restored to their posts. This meant that during the 1937-38 purges, 22,705 officers and political commissars were dismissed (close to 13,000 army officers, 4,700 air force officers and 5,000 political commissars), which amounts to 7.7% of all officers and commissars — not 50% as Conquest alleges. Of this 7.7%, some were convicted as traitors, but the great majority of them, it would appear from historical material available, simply returned to civilian life.

One last question. Were the 1937-38 Trials fair to the accused? Let us examine, for example, the trial of Bukharin, the highest party functionary to work for the secret opposition. According to the American ambassador in Moscow at the time, a well-known lawyer called Joseph Davies, who attended the whole trial, Bukharin was permitted to speak freely throughout the trial and put forward his case without impediment of any kind. Joseph Davies wrote to Washington that during the Trial it was proved that the accused were guilty of the crimes of which they were charged and that the general opinion among diplomats attending the trial was that the existence of a very serious conspiracy had been proved.

Let us learn from history

The discussion of the Soviet penal system during Stalin’s time, on which thousands of lying articles and books have been written, and hundreds of films have been made conveying false impressions, leads to important lessons. The facts prove yet again that the stories published about socialism in the bourgeois press are mostly false. The right wing can, through the press, radio and TV that it dominates, cause confusion, distort the truth and cause very many people to believe lies to be the truth. This is especially true when it comes to historical questions. Any new stories from the right should be assumed to be false unless the contrary can be proved. This cautious approach is justified. The fact is that even knowing about the Russian research reports, the right is continuing to reproduce the lies taught for the last 50 years, even though they have now been completely exposed. The right continues its historical heritage: a lie repeated over and over again ends up being accepted as true. After the Russian research reports were published in the west, a number of books began to appear in different countries aimed solely at calling into question the Russian research and enabling the old lies to be brought to public attention as new truths. These are wellpresented books, stuffed from cover to cover with lies about communism and socialism.

The right-wing lies are repeated in order to fight today’s communists. They are repeated so that workers will find no alternative to capitalism and neo-liberalism. They are part of the dirty war against communists who alone have an alternative to offer for the future, i.e., socialist society. This is the reason for the appearance of all these new books containing old lies.

All this places an obligation on everybody with a socialist world outlook on history. We must take on the responsibility of working to turn communist newspapers into authentic newspapers of the working classes to combat bourgeois lies! This is without doubt an important mission in today’s class struggle, which in the near future will arise again with renewed force.

Mario Sousa 15 June 1998

mario.sousa@telia.com

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NorthStar Compass

280 Queen St. W., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V2A1 Tel: (416)977-5819 Fax: (416)593-0781 www.northstarcompass.org

CHECHINYA

What’s the position of Communists to this tragedy?

Below we publish excerpts from the newspaper "Sickle and Hammer", organ of the Northern Osetia All Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

In August of 1999 the war in Chechniya broke out, when groups of trained Chechen fighters, armed to the teeth stormed Dagestan from inside the Checheri territory. Dagestan as part of Russian Republic and an autonomous Republic in the Soviet Union, suffered untold tragedy and over 20,000 of its citizens fled from the attack of the Chechens. The Caucasus is a rich region, it is also the bridge which ties central Russia to Ukraine and West and Eastern Asia, Black and Caspian Seas. It is a region of many languages and many races, amongst whom live the so called "repressed minorities". Nearly all newspapers in former Soviet Union classified these attacks as terrorist. But this label was proven to be wrong. These are not only terrorists, but well trained, armed and highly motivated by foreign observers and trainers. It is NOT a local struggle with a bunch of terrorists whose aim is robbery or whatever., there are many thousands of foreign trained fighters, well versed in the latest technological warfare.

The war is with a regular army of Chechens with foreign advisors and foreign led over 10,000 regular soldiers.

There is very much proof that they are all well financed from Arabia by billionaire Ben Laden. According to the British sources there was raised billions to finance this war, on behalf of Muslin Fundamentalists and Western oil interests.

Its the USA who is the main organizer, supporter and also financial backer of this war. Because of the intercontinental rockets are still in the hands of the present regime of Russia, USA is now biding its time by instigating local internal conflicts in this region which is a vital part of the defense strategy of the Soviet Union...besides the riches that still are hidden underground gas and oil, much coveted by USA Imperialism.

Chechens, during World War Two were all deported to new territory since they were in their majority helping Hitler and killing the Red Army soldiers/airmen who tried to liberate them. This was a necessary move by the Soviet State and was meant to resettle these people whom otherwise would have suffered annihilation if they were left in the war zone and -with their help to the German Nazis would have resulted in heavy casualties by the Red Army, who had to defend themselves daily, not only against all the Germans, but against the nationalistic - led leaders of the Chechen population. In these resettlements there were only 13 deaths from mainly illnesses.. .not the thousands as all the German SS propaganda and also now US propaganda claims. The basic idea behind these conflicts (as in other locations) is the full surge of trying to make this region an Islamic Fundamentalist Republic, stretching right across the southern borders and reaching into Asia minor...religious fanatism dogma as it is now being practiced in Afghanistan. Back to the middle ages and even worse.. .back to the dark ages. Also, the terrorist bombings in Moscow, Leningrad, Volgodonets and other cities is an organized campaign to destabilize, to get the Soviet people into a nationalistic mood, to have this local conflict spread all over Russia . . .then to have some local nation like Chechens, appeal to NATO for help and here you have the format of Yugoslavia! The present Russian bourgeois leadership wants to defeat this Chechen aggression, thinking stupidly that this will be all.. .not even realizing that Western Imperialism will start other local conflicts in order to break up Russia as they managed to temporarily to do so in Yugoslavia. Looking back at all the internal ethnic conflicts such as in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and others...this is the policy of divide and rule, and in these ethnic wars the Yeltsin regime is to blame also. During the Soviet times there were no conflicts in this region, and if some started they certainly were dealt with according to the Soviet Constitution. In the Caucuses, according to the AUCPB figures, there are only 200 rich families now, due to the market economy, who control over 80% of all the wealth. It is absolutely certain, that USA and NATO, at the first opportunity, shall send their forces into any part of former USSR where they feel they can accomplish what they did in Yugoslavia.

That is why the need for UNITY amongst the Communist and peoples organizations is desperately needed, before it is too late!

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Diana

Royal family snubs Al Fayed’s Harrods

THE NEW YORK TIMES

LONDON - Buckingham Palace announced Thursday that it was withdrawing the royal warrant awarded by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, to Harrods, the London department store that is owned by Mohamed Al Fayed. A palace spokesman said the decision was based on a falloff in business from the duke, who originally granted his endorsement in 1956. "The warrant will not be renewed because of the significant decline in the trading relationship between the household and Harrods over several years," he said. He made no reference to the fact that six weeks ago Al Fayed called the prince a Nazi sympathizer and accused him of masterminding a plot with the British security services that resulted in the 1997 Paris car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, and her companion, Al Fayed’s son. The Harrods owner had made those allegations in responding to an unsuccessful libel suit brought against him by a disgraced Conservative former member of Parliament and in court Al Fayed challenged Prince Philip to sue him if the allegations were untrue. It appeared Thursday that the prince had come up with a less litigious response. It was the second royal snub of Harrods in the last month. In December, the queen switched her annual order of 1,500 Christmas puddings for the palace staff from the famous department store. to Tesco, a leading supermarket chain. Al Fayed, 66, is an Egyptian-born businessman who has lived here for more than three decades and who has conducted a noisy public campaign since 1994 to persuade Britaintogrant him citizenship. Over the last two years, he has become a particular irritant to the royal family by persistently theorizing that the Paris crash was a conspiracy planned by British secret security forces to satisfy royal objections to a possible marriage between Diana and Al Fayed’s son, Dodi Fayed. Al Fayed had no public reaction Thursday, but his spokesman, Laurie Mayer, said: "We feel the commercial impact on Harrods would be negligible. The cachet of royals shopping at Harrods no longer has the same impact" Harrods now has a year to remove the royal arms from its stationery, goods, offices and delivery vehicles. Governed by strict regulations, the warrant enables holders to use the legend "By appointment" and to display the royal symbols on its products. Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s Peerage, said the loss of the warrant would hurt Harrods because of what it signified for the foreign tourists who have a particular reverence for things royal. Harrods gives its warrant high visibility, with blown-up full color replicas installed outside its illuminated Knightsbridge building that can be seen from many blocks away.

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From: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/caira.html

Ca Ira! (We Will Win!)

Play/Download Ca Ira!

Ça Ira!

We Will Win!

Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Le peuple en ce jour sans cesse repète:
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Malgré les mutins tout réussira!

Nos ennemis confus en restent là,
et nous allons chanter Alleluya!
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Quand Boileau jadis du clergé parla
Comme un prophète, il a prédit cela,
En chantant ma chansonnette,
Avec plaisir on dira:
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Malgré les mutins tout réussira.
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Pierrot et Margot chantent à la guinguette,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Réjouissons-nous, le bon temps viendra.
Le peuple français jadis "a quia"
L'aristocratie dit: "Mea culpa."
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

e clergé regrette le bien qu'il a.
Par justice la nation l'aura,
Par le prudent LaFayette
Tout trouble s'apaisera,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Malgré les mutins tout réussira.
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Petits comme grands sont soldats
dans l'âme,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Pendant la guerre aucun ne trahira.
Avec coeur tout bon Français combattra,
S'il voit du louche, hardiment
il parlera.
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Lafayette dit: "Vienne qui voudra."
Le patriotisme leur répondra
Sans craindre ni feu ni flamme,
Les Français toujours vaincront,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Malgré les mutins tout réussira.
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Les aristocrates à la lanterne!
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Les aristocrates, on les pendra!
Le despotisme expirera,
La liberté triomphera,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Nous n'avions plus ni nobles, ni prêtres,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
L'égalité partout régnera.
L'esclave autrichien le suivra,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,

Et leur infernale clique
Au diable s'envolera.

"We will win, we will win, we will win",
The people of this day neverendingly sing
"We will win, we will win, we will win,
In spite of the traitors, all will succeed"

Our confused enemies are staying low
But we are going to sing "Alleluia!"
"We will win, we will win, we will win",

When Boileau once spoke about the clergy
"Like a prophet he predicted as much.,
By singing my ditty,
With pleasure I will say:
"We will win, we will win, we will win,

In spite of the traitors, all will succeed"
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

Punch and Judy sing at the show
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

Let us rejoices, for the good times are coming
The French people were once nobodies
But now the aristocrats say "we are guilty"
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

The clergy now regrets all its wealth .
Through justice the nation will have it all,
Through the wise LaFayette
All trouble will be quieted,
"We will win, we will win, we will win,

In spite of the traitors, all will succeed"
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

The weak as well as the strong are soldiers
in their souls
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

During the war, not one will be a traitor.
With their hearts, all good Frenchmen will fight,
And when he sees a slacker,
he will boldly speak up
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

Lafayette says, "Let he who will follow me!"
And patriotism will respond,
Without fear of fire or flame.
The French will always conquer
"We will win, we will win, we will win,

In spite of the traitors, all will succeed"
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

Let's string up the aristocrats on the lampposts!
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

We'll string up the aristocrats!
Despotism will die,
Liberty will triumph
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

And we will no longer have nobles or priests
"We will win, we will win, we will win,""
Equality will reign throughout the land/world
And the Austrian slave will follow it.
"We will win, we will win, we will win,"

And their hellish clique
will be sent to the devil.

Translation: Paul Halsall, 1998, with suggested corrections from William W. Kibler,
Superior Oil - Linward Shivers Professor of French University of Texas at Austin (who also corrected the accents in the French!.)

Additional Words:

Prof. Kibler informed me that, on an audiotape called Songs of the French Revolution, the text has the following variants:

These lines are slightly different:

        15. Pierrette et Margot chantent...
        22. Et c'est justice, la nation l'aura
        24. C'est fini, tout trouble s'apaisera

After line 27, here the CD version goes:

        Suivant la maxime de l'Evangile,
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira
        Du législateur tout s'accomplira.
        Celui qui s'élève on l'abaissera;
        Celui qui s'abaisse on l'élévera.
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!

        Le vrai catéchisme nous instruira
        Et le faux fanatisme s'éteindra
        Pour être à la loi docile
        Et chaque Français s'exercera
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira.

        Malgré les mutins, tout réussira.
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira.

        Le peuple en ce jour sans cesse répète
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira
        Et dans 2000 ans on s'en souviendra,
        Le despotisme expirera;
        La liberté triomphera.
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira.

        Nous n'avons plus ni nobles, ni prêtres,
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira.
        L'égalité partout règnera.
        L'esclave autrichien le suivra,
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira.
        Et leur infernale clique
        Au diable s'envolera.

        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira
        Les aristocrates à la lanterne,
        Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira
        Les aristocrates, on les pendra.

Bibliography/Discography Suggestions

I cannot locate a CD or tape currently available called Songs of the French Revolution, but there is a CD called Prise De La Bastille/Music of the French Revolution, by the Concerto Köln, Capriccio - #10280, 1992, which may be useful to those searching for more music related to this subject, although it feature classical rather than popular music of the period.]

On the Maillsit Exlibris@library.berkeley.edu on December 17 1996, Louis Godbout [LouisG@pulpaper.mcgill.ca ] posted the following useful information about further research:

You could spend a lifetime - as some have - researching this subject. Both the Bibliotheque Nationale and the British Library have vast collections of documents on the French Revolution that include an astronomical number of songs (as well as satirical pamphlets that include songs). Catalogs of these materials exist, if you are interested.

If, however, you just want to take a cursory look at the most popular
of these songs, you can still purchase the Chansonnier revolutionnaire, an anthology published by Gallimard in 1989 (for the bicentennial).

Any respectable college library should hold a few books on this subject. Here are a few that I have consulted and found useful (Raunie is an especially good anthology, but stops at 1789; you can purchase an academic press reprint if you have a few thousand dollars to spare.):

Histoire de France par les chansons : s'ensuivent 306 belles chansons satiriques et historiques, Paris : M. Fourny, 1982.
DESCRIPTION: 300 p. of music : ill. (some col.), facsims., ports.; 32 cm. + 4 sound discs (33 1/3 rpm, stereo ; 12 in.)

Les Hymnes et chansons de la revolution : apercu general et catalogue avec notices historiques, analytiques et bibliographiques, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1904.

Music and the French Revolution, Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Raunie, Emile, 1854-1911.Chansonnier historique du XVIIIe siecle, Paris, A Quantin, 1879-84.

Rogers, Cornwell Burnham, 1898-, The spirit of revolution in 1789 : a study of public opinion as revealed in political songs and other popular literature at the beginning of the French revolution. Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1949.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

CPUSA ON CHECHNYA

People’s Weekly World Saturday, January 29, 2000 Page 3

What's behind the war in Chechnya?

News Analysis

(Picture) Local residents cry during a memorial ceremony as they came to pay last respects to Maj. Gen. Mikhail Malofeyev, killed during fighting in Grozny, 55 miles west of the Chechen border, Jan. 25. AP

By Gus Hall

Ever since Mikhail Gorbachev started dismantling socialism, the Soviet Union has been confronted with secessionist movements in one republic after another. These secessions eventually led to the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The separatist movements in the Soviet Union are part of the process of privatization that led to the collapse of socialism within the republics and unleashed the secessionist forces throughout the USSR.

Besides a setback for socialism, this crisis is taking a terrible human toll on all the peoples of the former Soviet Union. In Chechnya, the 1994-96 guerrilla war of secession and the present conflict is causing continuing death and destruction.

From the very beginning, the USSR, as a fledgling socialist nation, had its hands full holding back the scourge of extreme nationalism and religious fanaticism inherited from the past. One of the great feats of the socialist revolution was the molding of 500 nationalities into one great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

However, these backward movements never completely died out. They were kept alive by reactionary forces inside and outside the country.

Because the ideological and educational work was weak, these movements were never really challenged during the building of socialism. With the advent of the crisis, these secessionist movements were stirred up and supported by reactionary forces within the republics and by U.S. imperialism from the outside.

World imperialism, especially U.S. imperialism, has momentarily won a major victory by supporting and encouraging all the "free market" capitalists and criminal elements that have fully emerged in control of Russia.

The Russian Federation, which is the largest country left of the USSR, finds itself fighting another secessionist war caused by the same factors extreme nationalism and religious fanaticism.

Understanding the current disaster, the loss of life on both sides, the destruction of whole villages, cities and regions is not easy. The propaganda, disinformation and misinformation makes it hard to sort out.

In this very complicated situation there are many factors to consider in understanding what is happening and what is at stake. We have a responsibility to challenge the anti-Communist media fog that is keeping people so confused.

There has yet to be an explanation of this situation from the Russian Communists. And, of course, no one has explained anything in terms of the oil, the pipelines, privatization and corruption. A complete breakaway of Chechnya would be a bonanza for U.S. oil imperialism.

Whatever the political and military mistakes made by the Russian government and its military command, the direct cause of the conflict was and is secession. This movement is largely made up of extreme nationalist and reactionary religious armed forces drawn from inside and outside Chechnya itself. It is aided by U.S. political and financial support, especially U.S. oil.

Just as Gorbachev’s capitulation to Estonian secession started the dismemberment of the USSR, capitulation to Chechen secessionists would signal the disintegration of the Russian Federation.

The disintegration of the USSR structure, devastation of its economy, privatization and capitalist economic penetration, severe weakening of state and socialist enterprises and the outlawing of the Communist Party are all part of the crisis of socialism.

However, U.S. imperialism’s main objective is to direct and oversee the complete transition to capitalism in Russia, with a massive penetration of U.S. multinational capital, while further reducing the wages and living conditions, with the ultimate aim of making Russia into a semi-colony of the United States.

Some facts

First, Chechnya is not a republic. It never was. It has none of the features that would define it as a republic.

Further, no one called it a republic until the Chechens announced they were seceding from the Russian Federation and accelerated their guerrilla war with a force of Chechen mercenaries and Muslim extremists.

All of a sudden Chechnya became a "rebel republic" fighting for its independence from "centuries of Russian oppression." Right-wing New York Times columnist William Safire has called Chechnya the "breakaway republic, fighting for its homeland." But he also admits that "if Russia lets Chechnya go, other Caucasian dominoes will fall and Moscow will be denied its Caspian oil."

There are no winners in the Chechen conflict

(Picture) An Interior Ministry officer, right, checks the documents of a refugee who wants to return to Chechnya, at a border checkpoint between war-torn Chechnya and the neighboring Russian region of Ingishetla, near Sleptsovskaya, Jan. 25. AP

Oil- the bottom line

Thus, Chechnya is not a republic, a separate country or a nation. It is also not a single, united ethnic group or nationality. The armed struggle is being waged as a Holy War, a Jihad, that calls for all Muslims to come to the aid of their "Chechen brethren."

However, the struggle is not really over religious differences. Calling it a Muslim Holy War is a smokescreen to cover up the real, underlying cause of the conflict. The bottom line in Chechnya is oil. It is one of the richest oil-producting regions in the former USSR. Chechnya also has vast natural gas deposits. It is a major chemical processing center.

Perhaps most importantly, Chechnya not only has vast reserves of oil, but also a vital pipeline running through its territory to the Caspian Sea. The issue is not only oil, but control of these pipelines.

When we say oil, we have to ask what roles Exxon, Standard Oil and Shell are playing in this situation. Wherever there is the combination of oil, privatization and corruption, the oil cartels are deeply involved. They are actively making moves that will put them in position to pounce and penetrate. Once they gain a foothold, it is very difficult to get rid of them.

One of the main factors in destroying socialism was, and is, political corruption. Because of the oil and potential private profits, corruption has become an even bigger factor in the Chechnya region. In fact, the temptation to make huge profits from selling oil to U.S. and world imperialism corrupted even some very top Communist leaders.

This corruption is directly related to the privatization of Russia. Privatization and corruption go hand-in-hand. Privatizing socialist public property opens wide the doors to corruption and criminal elements of all kinds.

Historical backdrop

It is interesting to note that this region was one of the earliest supporters of Boris Yeltsin and privatization. Its leaders quickly became corrupt opportunists. They were interested only in enriching themselves by selling out socialism to the "free marketplace of capitalism," where they could wheel and deal away socially-owned resources by privatizing them.

One of the main leaders was Djovkhar Dudayev, the self-proclaimed president of Chechnya who is a Yeltsin-created gangster. Like Gorbachev, he declared the region independent and recruited former mercenaries from Afghanistan and other regions.

How is it possible for the Chechen guerrillas, poorly trained and equipped, to hold off thousands of Russian troops with far superior weapons? Dudayev kept them fighting against insurmountable odds by resurrecting and preaching a backward ideology. He convinced many that they were "soldiers in a liberating Holy War," based on national hatreds and religious fanaticism.

Yes, it is nationalist Muslim fanaticism, but it is also the indecision, the political splits in the Russian government and military, the bumbling and confusion, which is resulting in many more deaths and much more destruction than was necessary to subdue the secessionist movement.

Betrayers of socialism

Yeltsin’s war policies were a reflection of his political and economic policies. The conflicts between nationalities and ethnic groups, the throwbacks to bitter clan warfare, nationalist extremism, separatism, racism and discrimination have all been inflamed and fostered by Yeltsin and his gang.

Before him, it was the crimes of Gorbachev against socialism and the Soviet people that started the ball of separatism and privatization rolling. Once started, separatism and nationalism snowballed from one republic to another, from one country to another.

The developments in Russia, Chechnya and other areas are an outgrowth of first Gorbachev’s and then Yeltsin’s policies. This led to the corruption that makes the people vulnerable to nationalism and secession. Centuries-old backwardness, nationalism, extremist and fanatical religious beliefs were stirred up. Such backwardness cannot be fought without a socialist ideology to take its place.

Yeltsin is out mainly because he managed to alienate and infuriate not only his own people, but also his handlers and the right-wing majority in the U.S. Congress. They want a Russia that can at least pass for bourgeois democracy, moving steadily to privatize, to reform itself into a free market economy, controlled and dominated mainly by U.S. multinationals.

Global monopoly capital actually has two distinct approaches to Chechnya. The multinationals and entrepreneurs, like McDonald’s or Pepsi, actually prefer operating in conditions of disorder, instability and overall chaos.

On the other hand, finance capital, banking and international finance, like the International Monetary Fund, are looking for ripe conditions for long-term capital investments. They demand stability and order. They demand more guarantees that investment will be safe and profitable for long-term deals like oil and pipelines. They demand a reliable, cooperative government in control, and under their control. They want assurances that the transition to capitalism is irreversible.

What’s at stake

Let me pose this question to Americans: how would we react if confronted with the threat of oilrich Oklahoma seceding from the United States, declaring independence and demanding recognition as a new sovereign country? You can believe that as soon as statemonopoly capital got wind of any such move, armed forces would immediately be sent in to squash it.

Thus, the future of the Russian Federation is directly involved in the outcome of the Chechnya conflict. If Chechnya is allowed to secede, there are hundreds of other such areas that would move in the same direction.

It would not take long for the Russian Federation to disintegrate. The cohesion, unity and very existence of Russia as a sovereign country is at stake. Also at stake are all the socialist structures and features remaining in the former republics. Secession would mean another big step backward toward capitalism.

Chechnya is only one more example why ideological education is so important in the building and defense of a socialist society. This is especially true while there are still powerful, insatiable predators, with corporate claws ready to pounce wherever socialism is weak, crippled and vulnerable.

Inadequate attention to the ideological struggle and the false concept that the ideological and class struggle are no longer valid, were big factors in the crises in the east European socialist countries and in the USSR.

What has been missing in the former republics, in areas and regions like Chechnya, is class consciousness and class unity. What is missing is an ideology that would build a sense of unity, an ideology that would transform nationalism and even religious fanaticism into a positive, progressive, internationalist consciousnesS. What is missing is the ideology of socialism.

(Picture) AP Russian conscripts ferrying ammunition to troops in Chechnya, rest at the side of a road in Ingushetia, just kilometers away from the Chechen border, at Sleptsovskaya, January 25. The soldiers said they make the resupply trip every two to three days.

Gus Hall is national chairman of the Communist Party USA.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

From:

Anderson Valley Advertiser PO Box 459 12451 Anderson Valley Way Boonville, CA 95415

(707)895-3016 ava@pacific.net

Anderson Valley Advertiser November 27, 1996 Page1

Squanto & the First Thanksgiving

by Jim Loewen

Throughout the nation every fall, elementary school children reenact a little morality play, The First Thanksgiving, as our national origin myth, complete with Pilgrim hats made out of construction paper and Indian braves with feathers in their hair. Thanksgiving is the occasion on which we give thanks to God as a nation for the blessings that He hath bestowed upon us. More than any other celebration, more even than such overtly patriotic holidays as Independence Day and Memorial Day, Thanksgiving celebrates our ethnocentrism.

But how many citizens know, for example, that King James and the early Pilgrim leaders gave thanks for the plague, which killed millions of native Americans, making room for European occupation of the American land and proving to them that God was on their side?

In colonial times, everyone knew about the plague that decimated the New England Indians. Even before the Mayflower sailed, King James of England gave thanks to "Almighty God in his great goodness and bounty towards us" for sending "this wonderful plague among the savages." 200 years later the oldest American history book in my collection - J.W. Barber’s "Interesting Events in the History of the United States," published in 1829 - still recalled the plague: "A few years before the arrival of the Plymouth settlers, a very mortal sickness raged with great violence among the Indians inhabiting the eastern parts of New England. 'Whole towns were depopulated. The living were not able to bury the dead; and their bodies were found lying above the ground, many years after. The Massachusetts Indians are said to have been reduced from 30,000 to 300 fighting men. In 1633, the small pox swept off great numbers'." The plague is assumed to have been brought to the New World by early explorers and spread not only by the afflicted explorers but even more so by afflicted Indians (with no immunity) as they contacted and unknowingly infected one another in their normal trade and social relations of the time.

The archetypes associated with Thanksgiving - God on our side, civilization wrested from wilderness, order from disorder through hard work and good Pilgrim character traits - continue to radiate from our history textbooks. More than 60 years ago, in an analysis of how American history was taught in the 1920s, Bessie Pierce pointed out the political uses to which Thanksgiving is put: "For these unexcelled blessings, the pupil is urged to follow in the footsteps of his forbears, to offer unquestioning obedience to the law of the land, and to carry on the work begun."

The American Thanksgiving Myth however, is not in accord with the historical record. Not only is the Myth sanitized for popular consumption and to buttress American patriotism, but some important aspects are conveniently overlooked.

First, our culture and our textbooks underplay or omit Jamestown and the 16th century Spanish settlements in favor of Plymouth Rock as the archetypal birthplace of the United States, even though the settlement of Jamestown was contemporaneous with Plymouth Rock. Virginia, according to historian T.H. Breen, "ill-served later historians in search of the mythic origins of American culture." Historians could hardly tout Virginia as moral in intent; in the words of the first history of Virginia written by a Virginian: "The chief Design of all Parties concern’d was to fetch away the Treasure from thence, aiming more at sudden Gain, than to form any regular Colony." The Virginians’ relations with the Indians were particularly unsavory: in contrast to Squanto, a volunteer, the British in Virginia took Indian prisoners and forced them to teach colonists how to farm. In 1623 the British indulged in the first use of chemical warfare in the colonies when negotiating a treaty with the tribes near the Potomac River, headed by Chiskiack. The British offered a toast "symbolizing eternal friendship," whereupon the chief, his family, advisors, and 200 followers dropped dead of poison. Besides, the early Virginians engaged in bickering, sloth, even cannibalism. They spent their early days digging random holes in the ground, haplessly looking for gold instead of planting crops. Soon they were starving and digging up putrid Indian corpses to eat or renting themselves out to Indian families as servants - hardly the heroic founders that a Great Nation requires.

Despite having ended up many miles from other European enclaves, the Pilgrims hardly "started from scratch" in a wilderness Throughout southern New England Native Americans had repeatedly burned the underbrush, creating a parklike environment. After landing at Provincetown, the Pilgrims assembled a boat for exploring and began looking around for their new borne. They chose Plymouth because of its beautiful cleared fields, recently planted corn, and its useful harbor and "brook of fresh water." It was a lovely site for a town. Indeed, until the plague, it had been a town, for "New Plymouth" was none other than Squanto’s village of Patuxet!

Squanto & Thanksgiving

Page4

The invaders followed a pattern: throughout New England, and the hemisphere: Europeans pitched camp right in the middle of Native populations - Cuzco, Mexico City, Natchez, Chicago... Throughout New England, colonists appropriated Indian cornfields for their initial settlements, avoiding the backbreaking labor of clearing the land of forest and rock. (This explains why, to this day, the names of so many towns throughout the region - Marshfield, Springfield, Deerfield - end in 'field'.) "Errand into the wilderness" may have made a lively sermon title in 1650, a popular book title in 1950, and an archetypal textbook phrase in 1990, but it was never accurate. The new settlers encountered no wilderness: "In this bay wherein we live," one colonist noted in 1622, "in former time hath lived about two thousand Indians."

Moreover, not all the Native inhabitants had perished, and the survivors now facilitated British settlement. The Pilgrims began receiving Indian assistance on their second full day in Massachusetts. A colonist’s journal tells of sailors discovering two Indian houses:

"Having their guns and hearing nobody, they entered the houses and found the people were gone. The sailors took some things but didn’t dare stay... We had meant to have left some beads and other things in the houses as a sign of peace and to show we meant to trade with them. But we didn’t do it because we left in such haste. But as soon as we can meet with the Indians, we will pay them well for what we took."

It wasn’t only houses that the Pilgrims robbed. Our eyewitness resumes his story:

"We marched to the place we called Cornhill, where we had found the corn before. At another place we had seen before, we dug and found some more corn, two or three baskets full, and a bag of beans... In all we had about ten bushels, which will be enough for seed. It was with God’s help that we found this corn, for how else could we have done it, without meeting some Indians who might trouble us?"

From the start, the Pilgrims thanked God, not the Indians, for assistance that the latter had (inadvertently) provided - setting a pattern for later thanksgivings.

Our journalist continues:

"The next morning, we found a place like a grave. We decided to dig it up. We found first a mat, and under that a fine bow... We also found bowls, trays, dishes, and things like that. We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us, and covered the body up again."

A place "like a grave"!

Although historian Karen Kupperman says the Pilgrims continued to rob graves for years, more help came from a live Indian, Squanto. Here most history students return to familiar turf, for they have all learned the Squanto legend. Land of Promise provides a typical account:

"Squanto had learned their language, he explained, from English fishermen who ventured into the New England waters each summer. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, squash, and pumpkins. Would the small band of settlers have survived without Squanto’s help? We cannot say. But by the fall of 1621, colonists and Indians could sit down to several days of feast and thanksgiving to God (later celebrated as the first Thanksgiving)."

What do the books leave out about Squanto? First, how he learned English. According to Ferdinando Gorges, around 1605 a British captain stole Squanto, who was then still a boy, along with four Penobscots, and took them to England. There Squanto spent nine years, three in the employ of Gorges. At length, Gorges helped Squanto arrange passage back to Massachusetts. Some historians doubt that Squanto was among the five Indians stolen in 1605. All sources agree, however, that in 1614 a British slave raider seized Squanto and two dozen fellow Indians and sold them into slavery in Malaga, Spain. What happened next makes Ulysses look like a homebody. Squanto escaped from slavery, escaped from Spain, and made his way back to England. After trying unsuccessfully to get home via Newfoundland, in 1619 he talked Thomas Dermer into taking him along on his next trip to Cape Cod.

It happens that Squanto’s fabulous odyssey provides a "hook" into the plague story, a hook that our high school history textbooks choose not to use. For now Squanto set foot again on Massachusetts soil and walked to his home village of Patuxet, only to make the horrifying discovery that "he was the sole member of his village still alive. All the others had perished in the epidemic two years before." No wonder Squanto threw in his lot with the Pilgrims.

The Thanksgiving Myth makes Americans ethnocentric. After all, if our culture has God on its side, why should we consider other cultures seriously? This ethnocentrism intensified in the middle of the last century. In "Race and Mayflower Destiny," Reginald Horsman has shown how the idea of "God on our side" was used to legitimate the open expression of Anglo-Saxon superiority vis-a-vis Mexicans, Native Americans, peoples of the Pacific, Jews, and even Catholics. Today, when textbooks promote this ethnocentrism with their Pilgrim stories, they leave students less able to learn from and deal with people from other cultures.

On occasion, we pay a more direct cost: censorship. In 1970, for example, the Massachusetts Department of Commerce asked the Wampanoags to select a speaker to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing. Frank James "was selected, but first he had to show a copy of his speech to the white people in charge of the ceremony. When they saw what he had written, they would not allow him to read it." James had written:

"Today is a time of celebrating for you. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors, and stolen their corn, wheat, and beans. Massasoit, the great leader of the Wampanoags, knew these facts; yet he and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers, little knowing that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoags and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them. Although our way of life is almost gone and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed, but today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America, where people and nature once again are important."

What the Massachusetts Department Of Commerce censored was not some incendiary falsehood but historical truth. Nothing James would have said had he been allowed to speak was false. Our textbooks also omit the facts about grave-robbing, Indian enslavement, the plague, and so on, even though they were common knowledge in colonial New England. For at least a century Puritan ministers thundered their interpretation of the meaning of the plague from New England pulpits. Thus our popular history of the Pilgrims has not been a process of gaining perspective but of deliberate forgetting. Instead of these important facts, textbooks supply the feel-good minutiae of Squanto’s helpfulness, his name, the fish in the cornhills, sometimes even the menu and the number of Indians who attended the prototypical first Thanksgiving. The stuff of patriotic Myth. As with many historical myths, the real story is muchbetter, but a little too unflattering to our carefully constructed image of ourselves to be accurately dealt with in popular history books.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

THE REVOLUTIONARY ALMANAC 1914

EDITED BY

HIPPOLYTE HAVEL

Private Library of Roger R. Taylor

Here enter not attorneys. barraters, Nor bridle-champion-law practioners: Clerks, commissaries. scribes, nor pharisees, Wilful disturbers of the people’s ease, Judges, destroyers, with an unjust breath, That, like dogs, worry honest men to death.

FRANCOIS RABELAIS

(Picture of a Cock Crowing a Black Bat Away.)

PRICE FIFTY CENTS

THE RABELAIS PRESS 27-29 NEW BOWERY, NEW YORK

(Picture of Poor Lining up to a Bakery in Bad Weather at Night.)

JANUARY

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 THURSDAY 1863-Lincoln proclaims the final abolition of slavery.

2 FRIDAY 1894-Hunger revolt in Sicily.

3 SATURDAY 1907-Prefect of St. Petersburg executed by revolutionists.

4 SUNDAY 1907-Trial of George Pettibone.

5 MONDAY 1849-Hungarian Revolution defeated.

6 TUESDAY 1894-Bloody riots in Rome.

7 WEDNESDAY 1800-Revolution in Switzerland.

8 THURSDAY 1883-Trial of the Internationale in Lyons.

9 FRIDAY 1905-Death of Louise Michel.

10 SATURDAY 1894-Auguste Vaillant sentenced to death.

11 SUNDAY 1908-General Strike in Buenos Ayres.

12 MONDAY 1862-Lokatellj murdered by the government of the Pope.

13 TUESDAY 1905-Attentat against General Trepoff at Moskow.

14 WEDNESDAY 1858-Orsini throws a bomb at Napoleon III.

15 THURSDAY 1865-Death of Pierre Joseph Proudhon.

16 FRIDAY 1886-Peter Kropotkin released from the penitentiary.

17 SATURDAY 1706-Benjamin Franklin born.

18 SUNDAY 1912-Yuan Shi Kai murders his opponents.

19 MONDAY 1893-Trial of the revolutionary organization Omladina.

20 TUESDAY 1830-Uprising in Neapel.

21 WEDNESDAY 1793-Louis XVI beheaded.

22 THURSDAY 1905-Bloody Sunday at St. Petersburg.

23 FRIDAY 1832-Edward Manet born.

24 SATURDAY 1911-Denjiro Kotoku and comrades martyred in Tokio.

25 SUNDAY 1871-Death of Wilhelm Weitling.

26 MONDAY 1905-Wholesale arrests of Russian Intellectuals.

27 TUESDAY 1911-End of the strike in Lawrence.

28 WEDNESDAY 1810-Andreas Hofer betrayed by a priest.

29 THURSDAY 1905-International protest in favor of Maxim Gorki.

30 FRIDAY 1649-Charles I. beheaded.

31 SATURDAY 1905-Chief of Police in Warsaw executed

(Picture of a Poor, Sick & Dirty Little Girl Watching a Fat Rich Lady being Escorted into a Car.)

FEBRUARY

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

I SUNDAY 1908-King and CroWn Prince of Portugal executed.

2 MONDAY 1851-Attentat against the Queen of Spain.

3 TUESDAY 1324-Birth of John Wycliff.

4 WEDNESDAY 1794-Slavery in French Colonies abolished.

5 THURSDAY 1846-John Most born.

6 FRIDAY 1849-Republic proclaimed in Rome.

7 SATURDAY 1885-Anarchists Reinsdorf and Küchler hanged.

8 SUNDAY 1886-Riots of the Unemployed at Trafalgar Square.

9 MONDAY 1904-Death of Elie Reclus.

10 TUESDAY 1837-Death of Alexander Pushkin.

11 WEDNESDAY 1894-Wiadirnir Bourtzeff sentenced in London.

12 THURSDAY 1809-Abraham Lincoln born.

13 FRIDAY 1853-Attentat against Francis Joseph.

14 SATURDAY 1835-Death of Rouget de Lisle.

15 SUNDAY 1905-Trial of Gustave Herve and comrades.

16 MONDAY 1863-Republic proclaimed in Spain.

17 TUESDAY 1600-The church kills Giordano Bruno.

18 WEDNESDAY 1546-Death of Martin Luther.

19 THURSDAY 1473-Copernicus born.

20 FRIDAY 1693-Birth of Voltaire.

21 SATURDAY 1848-Flight of Louis-Philippe.

22 SUNDAY 1877-First number of "Le Révolte" published.

23 MONDAY 19O2-Emile Zola condemned for his letter "J’accuse!"

24 TUESDAY 1895-Beginning of the Cuban Revolution.

25 WEDNESDAY 1820-Jesuits expelled from Russia.

26 THURSDAY 1863-Miroslavski leads the Polish Revolution.

27 FRIDAY 1823-Ernest Renan born.

28 SATURDAY 1876-Don Carlos driven from Spain.

(Picture of a Working Family Carrying their Belongings from one Factory to Another, in Blowing Snow, Etc., Looking for Work.)

MARCH

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 SUNDAY 1912-Suffragette Riots in London.

2 MONDAY 1908-Anarchist Averbuch killed by chief Shippy.

3 TUESDAY 1861-Serfdom in Russia abolished.

4 WEDNESDAY 1903-Victims of the Mano Negra persecution freed.

5 THURSDAY 1912-Great Strike of Transport Workers in England.

6 FRIDAY 1896-Felice Cavallotti killed.

7 SATURDAY 1905-Russian peasants burn the castles of their oppressors.

8 SUNDAY 1907-Electrical Strikers put Paris in darkness.

9 MONDAY 1910-Babushka (Katharina Breshkovskaja) exiled.

10 TUESDAY 1872-Death of Joseph Mazzini.

11 WEDNESDAY 1872-Bebel and comrades tried for high treason.

12 THURSDAY 1902-Death of John Altgeld.

13 FRIDAY 1881-Alexander II. executed by Nihilists.

14 SATURDAY 1883-Death of Karl Marx.

15 SUNDAY 44 BC-Julius Caesar assassinated by Brutus.

16 MONDAY 1905-Attentat upon Pobjedonoszeff.

17 TUESDAY 1906-Death of John Most.

18 WEDNESDAY 1871-Commune proclaimed in Paris.

19 THURSDAY 1906-Schmidt, leader of the Black Sea mutiny shot.

20 FRIDAY 1912-Tom Mann arrested for anti-militaristic propaganda.

21 SATURDAY 1907-Peasant uprising in Roumania.

22 SUNDAY 1871-Commune proclaimed in Marseilles.

23 MONDAY 1810-Kotzebue, russian spy, killed.

24 TUESDAY 1794-Death of Anarchaisis Clootz.

25 WEDNESDAY 1892-Death of Walt Whitman.

26 THURSDAY 1827-Death of Ludwig van Beethoven.

27 FRIDAY 1886-Attentat against King Humbert.

28 SATURDAY 1911-Auguste Bonnot, leader of the Tragic Band, killed.

29 SUNDAY 1826-Wilhelm Liebknecht born.

30 MONDAY 1903-Turkish atrocities in Macedonia.

31 TUESDAY 1898-Death of Robert Reitzel.

(Picture of a Working Woman turning to Prostitution to keep fed.)

APRIL

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 WEDNESDAY 1791-Death of Mirabeau.

2 THURSDAY 1871-The army of Versailles bombards Paris.

3 FRIDAY 1860-Uprising in Palermo.

4 SATURDAY 1821-Beginning of the war for Independence in Greece.

5 SUNDAY 1877-Anarchist uprising at Benevento.

6 MONDAY 1901-Wholesale arrests of revolutionists in St. Petersburg.

7 TUESDAY 1772-Birth of Charles Fourier.

8 WEDNESDAY 1865-End of the Civil War.

9 THURSDAY 1834-Hunger revolt in Lyons.

10 FRIDAY 1909-Death of Algemon C. Swinburne.

11 SATURDAY 1825-Ferdinand Lasalle born.

12 SUNDAY 1912-Minister Sypjanin executed by revolutionists.

13 MONDAY 1695-Death of Lafontaine.

14 TUESDAY 1865-Abraham Lincoln shot by Booth.

15 WEDNESDAY 1881-Sophia Perovskaja and comrades hanged.

16 THURSDAY 1866-Karakasoff’s attentat against Alexander II.

17 FRIDAY 1790-Death of Benjamin Franklin.

18 SATURDAY 1906-Earthquake in San Francisco.

19 SUNDAY 1775-Battle of Lexington.

20 MONDAY 1652-Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Parliament.

21 TUESDAY 1910-Death of Mark Twain.

22 WEDNESDAY 1912-General Strike in Cadix.

23 THURSDAY 1616-William Shakespeare born.

24 FRIDAY 1731-Death of Daniel Defoe.

25 SATURDAY 1871-Delescluse falls on the barricade.

26 SUNDAY 1892-Trial of Ravachol.

27 MONDAY 1882-Death of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

28 TUESDAY 1894-Emile Henry sentenced to death.

29 WEDNESDAY 1891-Coxey’s army arrives in Washington.

30 THURSDAY 1894-Anarchists tortured in Montjuich.

(Picture of two Cops standing over a Fallen Worker Twirling Billy Clubs Dripping Blood.)

MAY

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 FRIDAY 1890-First International Labor Day.

2 SATURDAY 1818-Karl Marx born.

3 SUNDAY 1606-Guy Fawkes and fellow conspirators executed.

4 MONDAY 1886-Historic bomb thrown at Haymarket.

5 TUESDAY 1898-Hunger revolt in Italy.

6 WEDNESDAY 1882-Fenians execute British officials in Phoenix Park.

7 THURSDAY 1849-Fighting on barricades in Leipzig.

8 FRIDAY 1873-Death of John Stuart Mill.

9 SATURDAY 1905-Confederation du Travail breaks with S. P.

10 SUNDAY 1849-Bakunin arrested in Saxony.

11 MONDAY 1878-Attentat against William I. of Germany.

12 TUESDAY 1901-Wholesale arrests of anarchists in Barcelona.

13 WEDNESDAY 1911-Two members of the Tragic Band killed by police.

14 THURSDAY 1771-Robert Owen born.

15 FRIDAY 1525-Thomas Miintzer taken prisoner.

16 SATURDAY 1802-Victor Hugo born.

17 SUNDAY 1903-Anti-clerical demonstrations in France.

18 MONDAY 1892-General massacre of strikers in Lodz.

19 TUESDAY 1825-Death of Saint Simon.

20 WEDNESDAY 1814-Michael Bakunin born.

21 THURSDAY 1894-Emile Henry dies on the guillotine.

22 FRIDAY 1875-Lassaleans and Marxians bury the hatchet in Gotha.

23 SATURDAY 1906-Death of Hen rick Ibsen.

24 SUNDAY 1871-Martyrdom of the Communards.

25 MONDAY 1895-Oscar Wilde sentenced.

26 TUESDAY 1831-Defeat of the Polish revolutionists near Ostrolenko.

27 WEDNESDAY 1797-Babeuf dies on the guillotine.

28 THURSDAY 1907-Revolt of the wine growers in France.

29 FRIDAY 1871-Death of Varlin.

30 SATURDAY 1434-Great battle of the Hussites at Lipan.

31 SUNDAY 1905-Attentat against the Spanish king in Paris.

(Picture of a Boy and a Dog rummaging through a Garbage Can together.)

JUNE

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 MONDAY 1882-Death of Garibaldi.

2 TUESDAY 1886-John Most sentenced in New York.

3 WEDNESDAY 1912-General strike of miners in Spain.

4 THURSDAY 1903-King Alexander and Queen Draga assassinated.

5 FRIDAY 1908-Five anarchists hanged in Warsaw.

6 SATURDAY 1912-Death of Voltairine de Cleyre.

7 SUNDAY 1904-Battle between miners and Pinkertons in Colorado.

8 MONDAY 1809-Death of Thomas Paine.

9 TUESDAY 1902-Anti-Anarchist law passed in Washington.

10 WEDNESDAY 1809-Napoleon makes peace with the pope.

11 THURSDAY 1864-Renan driven from the University.

12 FRIDAY 1848-Revolution in Prague.

13 SATURDAY 1907-Ferrer acquited in Madrid.

14 SUNDAY 1903-Anti-clerical riots in Paris.

15 MONDAY 1381-Wat Tyler murdered.

16 TUESDAY 1894-General Bobrikoff executed by Revolutionists.

17 WEDNESDAY 1848-Revolution in Prague defeated.

18 THURSDAY 1155-Arnold of Brescia dies at the stake.

19 FRiDAY 1902-Strike in Paterson.

20 SATURDAY 1790-Flight of the royal family from Paris.

21 SUNDAY 1905-State of siege declared at Warsaw.

22 MONDAY 1870-Trial of The Internationale in Paris.

23 TUESDAY 1883-Louise Michel sentenced to six years imprisonment.

24 WEDNESDAY 1894-President Carnot executed in Lyons.

25 THURSDAY 1826-Decabrists assassinated.

26 FRIDAY 1893-Schwab, Fielden and Nebe pardoned.

27 SATURDAY 1856-Death of Max Stirner.

28 SUNDAY 1905-Odessa in the hands of revolutionists.

29 MONDAY 1881-Most sentenced to eighteen months in England.

30 TUESDAY 1876-Death of Michael Bakunin.

(Picture of a Fat Capitalist Pig with tears in his eyes and a Dollar Sign on his Stomach Waving Flags of Nations whose Dead Surround Him.)

JULY

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 WEDNESDAY 1885-Anarchist Lieske sentenced to death.

2 THURSDAY 1826-Revolution in Naples.

3 FRIDAY 1778-Death of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

4 SATURDAY 1776-Declaration of Independence.

5 SUNDAY 1892-Battle of Homestead.

6 MONDAY 1893-Death of Guy de Maupassant.

7 TUESDAY 1865-Mrs. Suratt and fellow conspirators hanged.

8 WEDNESDAY 1790-Death of Adam Smith.

9 THURSDAY 1912-Prosecution of “L’Anarchie” in Paris.

10 FRIDAY 1892-Ravachol dies on the guillotine.

11 SATURDAY 1450-Death of Jack Cade. .

12 SUNDAY 1817-Henry D. Thoreau born.

13 MONDAY 1793-Marat killed by Charlotte Corday.

14 TUESDAY 1789-Fall of the Bastille.

15 WEDNESDAY 1809-Birth of Pierre Joseph Proudhon.

16 THURSDAY 1899-Congress of Anarchists in Bohemia dispersed.

17 FRIDAY 1861-Bakunin’s flight from Siberia.

18 SATURDAY 1870-Doctrine of the Infallibility of Popery proclaimed.

19 SUNDAY 1870-Franco-Prussian war declared.

20 MONDAY 1912-Gustave Hervé leaves the prison.

21 TUESDAY 1796-Death of Robert Burns.

22 WEDNESDAY 1906-Dissolution of the first Duma.

23 THURSDAY 1892-Alexander Berkman’s attentat against Frick.

24 FRIDAY 1568-Don Carlos assassinated.

25 SATURDAY 1867-Marx’s Capital published.

26 SUNDAY 1909-Revolution in Barcelona.

27 MONDAY 1912-Anti-militaristic agitation in Australia.

28 TUESDAY 1588-First English newspaper appears.

29 WEDNESDAY 1900-King Humbert executed by Gaetano Bresci.

30 THURSDAY 1912-Belgian socialists converted to the General Strike.

31 FRIDAY 1911-Egyptian Terrorists arrested in Alexandria.

(Picture of Alcohol Being Offered to a Nursing Mother as a Pain Killer.)

AUGUST

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 SATURDAY 1831-Wm. Lloyd Garrison’s "Liberator" appears.

2 SUNDAY 1903-Manifestation in memory of Etienne Dolet.

3 MONDAY 1492—Columbus embarks on his voyage of discovery.

4 TUESDAY 1906-General Strike in St. Petersburg.

5 WEDNESDAY 1777-First partition of Poland.

6 THURSDAY 1899-Trial of prominent anarchists in Paris.

7 FRIDAY 1893-International Socialist Congress at Zurich.

8 SATURDAY 1897-Canovas executed by Angiolillo.

9 SUNDAY 1912-Anarchist plot among soldiers discovered in Verona.

10 MONDAY 1792-Populace of Paris marches to the Tuilleries.

11 TUESDAY 1815-Napoleon exiled to St. Helena.

12 WEDNESDAY 1905-Death of James Russell Lowell.

13 THURSDAY 1889-Great dock strike in London.

14 FRIDAY 1537-Jesuit order founded.

15 SATURDAY 1906-Revolutionists kill forty six policemen at Warsaw.

16 SUNDAY 1894-Caserio dies on the guillotine.

17 MONDAY 1912-French school teachers affiliate with the Syndicalists.

18 TUESDAY 1906-Bomb thrown at the governor of Warsaw.

19 WEDNESDAY 1856-Death of Honoré de Balzac.

20 THURSDAY 1886-Chicago anarchists sentenced.

21 FRIDAY 1905-General Strike in Warsaw.

22 SATURDAY 1896-Great riots in St. Paolo, Brazil.

23 SUNDAY 1873-Liebknecht speaks against Parliamentarism.

24 MONDAY 1572-Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

25 TUESDAY 1900-Death of Frederick Nietzsche.

26 WEDNESDAY 1907-OpenilTg of the Anarchist Congress at Amsterdam.

27 THURSDAY 1906-Another General killed in Warsaw.

28 FRIDAY 1864-Lasalle wounded in duel.

29 SATURDAY 1900-Gaetano Bresci sentenced.

30 SUNDAY 1901-Bresci murdered in his cell.

31 MONDAY 71BC-Death of Spartacus.

(Picture of Tired Workers Trudging to Work Before Dawn in Snow Storms, Etc.)

SEPTEMBER

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 TUESDAY 1903-Death of Bernaid Lazare.

2 WEDNESDAY 1872-Bakunin expelled from the Internationale.

3 THURSDAY 1912-Paul Robin commits suicide.

4 FRIDAY 1870-Proclamation of the third Republic in France.

5 SATURDAY 1857-Death of Auguste Comte.

6 SUNDAY 1901-McKinley shot by Czolgoscz.

7 MONDAY 1848-Serfdom abolished in Austria.

8 TUESDAY 1912-International Free Thought Congress.

9 WEDNESDAY 1905-Baku in hands of Revolutionists.

10 THURSDAY 1898-Elizabeth of Austria stabbed by Luccheni.

11 FRIDAY 1768-Death of J. Delisle.

12 SATURDAY 1746-Kosciuszko born.

13 SUNDAY 1893-Death of Benoit Malon.

14 MONDAY 1870-First Congress of the Internationale.

15 TUESDAY 1812-The burning of Moscow.

16 WEDNESDAY 1904-General Strike in Italy.

17 THURSDAY 1666-Foundation of the Academy of Sciences in Paris.

18 FRIDAY 1900-Millerand prohibits the Anarchist CongreSs.

19 SATURDAY 1892-Berkrnan railroaded to penitentiary.

20 SUNDAY 1803-Death of Robert Emmet.

21 MONDAY 1860-Death of Arthur Schopenhauer.

22 TUESDAY 1862-Lincoln issues the Proclamation of Emancipation.

23 WEDNESDAY 1904-Death of Lafcadio Hearn.

24 THURSDAY 1893-Pallas's attentat against Martinez Campos.

25 FRIDAY 1793-Second partition of Poland.

26 SATURDAY 1833-Charles Bradlaugh born.

27 SUNDAY 1912-Protest in behalf of Haywood and comrades.

28 MONDAY 1864-The Internationale organized in London.

29 TUESDAY 1879-Kropotkin and Malatesta expelled from Switzerland.

30 WEDNESDAY 1883-Attentat of Reinsdorf.

(Picture of Child Having to Beg to Shine Shoes.)

OCTOBER

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 THURSDAY 1867-Fernand Pelloutier born.

2 FRIDAY 1905-Congo atrocities made public.

3 SATURDAY 1896-Death of William Morris.

4 SUNDAY 1879-First issue of the "Freiheit".

5 MONDAY 1789-Ca ira! heard in Paris.

6 TUESDAY 1848-Minister Latour executed in Vienna.

7 WEDNESDAY 1849-Death of Edgar Allan Poe.

8 THURSDAY 1905-Anti-military demonstration in France.

9 FRIDAY 1893-Paolino Pallas dies for the cause.

10 SATURDAY 1794-Koscziusko taken prisoner.

11 SUNDAY 1531-Death of Zwingli.

12 MONDAY 1911-Times Building in Los Angeles destroyed.

13 TUESDAY 1909-Francisco Ferrer murdered.

14 WEDNESDAY 1901-John Most sentenced.

15 THURSDAY 1819-Carlile tried for printing "Age of Reason".

16 FRIDAY 1859-John Brown attacks Harper’s Ferry.

17 SATURDAY 1700-Saint Simon born.

18 SUNDAY 1893-Emma Goldman sentenced.

19 MONDAY 1781-Capitulation of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

20 TUESDAY 1870-Popery looses Rome.

21 WEDNESDAY 1780-Lamartine born.

22 THURSDAY 1878-Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist law passed in Germany.

23 FRIDAY 1641-Bloody day in Ireland.

24 SATURDAY 1793-Third partition of Polland.

25 SUNDAY 1878-Attent~t against Alfonso VII.

26 MONDAY 1774-First Continental Congress dissolved.

27 TUESDAY 1903-Great Strike at Bilbao.

28 WEDNESDAY 1601-Death of Tycho de Brahe.

29 THURSDAY 1901-Czolgoscz dies in the electric chair.

30 FRIDAY 1867-Fenian trials in Manchester.

31 SATURDAY 1903-The Czar promises a constitution.

(Picture of Two Rich Men Teasing a Worker with a Fish on a String.)

NOVEMBER

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 SUNDAY 1907-Financial Panic in United States.

2 MONDAY 1904-Reservists revolt in Russia.

3 TUESDAY 1912-Republic proclaimed in Shanghai.

4 WEDNESDAY 1839-The chartists attack Newport.

5 THURSDAY 1688-Revolution in England.

6 FRIDAY 1912-Ferrer’s monument dedicated in Brussels.

7 SATURDAY 1793-The French Convention abolishes Christianity.

8 SUNDAY 1905-Sailors revolt in Kronstadt.

9 MONDAY 1856-Death of Etienne Cabet.

10 TUESDAY 1483-Martin Luther born.

11 WEDNESDAY 1887-Chicago martyrs hanged.

12 THURSDAY 1912-Tientsin captured by Revolutionists.

13 FRIDAY 1882-Death of Gottfried Kinkel.

14 SATURDAY 1831-Death of Friedrich Hegel.

15 SUNDAY 1893-Persecution of Anarchists in Barcelona.

16 MONDAY 1885-Louis Riele, Canadian rebel, executed.

17 TUESDAY 1878-Attentat of Passanante against King Humbert.

18 WEDNESDAY 1912-Sun Yat Sen leaves London for China.

19 THURSDAY I890-General Seliverstoff executed in Paris.

20 FRIDAY 1910-Death of Lyof Tolstoy.

21 SATURDAY 1831-Hunger revolt at Lyons.

22 SUNDAY 1894-Ten Anarchists murdered in a French colony.

23 MONDAY 1867-Fenians sentenced in Salford.

24 TUESDAY 1894-International Anti-Anarchist Congress.

25 WEDNESDAY 1878-Trial of Whistler vs. Ruskin.

26 THURSDAY 1873-Bombardment of Cartagena.

27 FRIDAY 1906-Bertoni and comrades sentenced in Switzerland.

28 SATURDAY I794-Death of Cesare Beccaria.

29 SUNDAY 1831-Revolution in Poland.

30 MONDAY 1835-Mark Twain born.

(Picture of Many People in One Room Doing Things With No Privacy.)

DECEMBER

REVOLUTIONARY DATA

1 TUESDAY 1876-First railroad in China.

2 WEDNESDAY 1859-John Brown hanged.

3 THURSDAY 1911-Confession of the McNamaras.

4 FRIDAY 1798-Death of Galvani.

5 SATURDAY 1911-The McNamaras sentenced.

6 SUNDAY 1882-Death of Louis Blanc.

7 MONDAY 1889-Great trial of anarchists in Milan.

8 TUESDAY 1842-Peter Kropotkin born.

9 WEDNESDAY 1893-Vaillant throws a bomb in Palais Bourbon.

10 THURSDAY 1848-Napoleon III betrays the Republic.

11 FRIDAY 1906-Concordat abolished in France.

12 SATURDAY 1834-Wm. Lloyd Garrison born.

13 SUNDAY 1799-Henrich Heine born.

14 MONDAY 1844-Burgermaster Tschech shot.

15 TUESDAY 1897-Georges Etievant sentenced.

16 WEDNESDAY 1869-Most condemned in Vienna.

17 THURSDAY 1854-Felix Orsini sentenced to death.

18 FRIDAY 1792-Thomas Paine condemned for libel.

19 SATURDAY 1890-Death of Cesar. de Paepe.

20 SUNDAY 1892-Panama scandal in France.

21 MONDAY 1882-Kropotkin arrested in Lyons.

22 TUESDAY 1906-General Ignatieff executed by revolutionists.

23 WEDNESDAY 1895-Stepniak killed accidentally in London.

24 THURSDAY 1892-Dynamite attentat in Dublin.

25 FRIDAY 1793-Alexander Ypsilanti born.

26 SATURDAY 1825-Decabrists conspiracy.

27 SUNDAY 1836-Attentat against Louis Philippe.

28 MONDAY 1883-Nihilists execute Chief of Police Sudejkin.

29 TUESDAY 1890-Death of M. Rittinghausen.

30 WEDNESDAY 1905-Ex. Governor Steunenberg killed.

31 THURSDAY 1384-Death of John Wycliff.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

From:

www.workers.org

Workers World 12-2-99 Page8

New 'freedom'-to exploit

The link between Chechnya war and Caspian oil

By Brian Becker

This coming March will mark nine years since the peoples of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union went to the polls to vote for the last time. The issue could not have been more vital. A simple question was put before them: Should the Soviet Union dissolve itself, so Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Khazakhstan, Tadjikistan and the other republics would become independent countries?

Boris Yeltsin was the champion of the breakup of the USSR. The Bush administration fully supported his position on the referendum.

For over a year prior to the vote, U.S. government officials traveled frequently to Russia to meet with Yeltsin and other dissident leaders. These diplomatic maneuvers were meant to show the Soviet peoples that if they voted to break up the socialist federation, they would receive the friendship of the United States, the end of economic sanctions by the West, and relief from the danger of a new war.

How did they vote? On March 17, 1991, some 75 percent of the Soviet people went to the polls. To the shock of Yeltsin and his backers in Washington, the people of the Soviet Union voted overwhelmingly to retain the USSR.

Within nine months, however, the Soviet Union was dissolved anyway, as Yeltsin and the pro-capitalist elements took power.

Great historic developments are never decided at the ballot box. That’s a fantasy promoted by the capitalist ruling class only when it serves their interests. If an election goes against them, they ignore the outcome and use other means to accomplish their predatory objectives.

Independent in form but dependent on imperialism

Eight years after they became formally independent, the former republics of the USSR are economically and militarily dependent on the United States and the major capitalist countries in Western Europe.

Concretely, governments that function as puppets of Washington and Wall Street now rule the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. A tiny stratum of the population have become super-rich proxies for Western corporations while the workers and peasants have become very poor, suffering from high unemployment and the loss of rights once guaranteed under the Soviet system.

These three republics all border the Caspian Sea. The Caspian is a landlocked body of water with no access to any, ocean. It contains huge oil and natural gas deposits.

Before 1991, the Caspian was bordered by the Soviet Union on the east, west and north. On the south was Iran. Because it was landlocked, the key to Caspian oil was its transport through an underground pipeline that traveled through Chechnya and other areas of Russia to the Black Sea.

A new U.S. sphere of influence

Washington has now engineered an agreement to build a new oil pipeline that will carry the Caspian oil directly through Turkey to U.S. oil tankers in the Mediterranean Sea. It is designed to bypass Russia.

The U.S. hopes to make the Caspian Sea another Persian Gulf-that is, under total U.S. domination. A consortium of 11 Western oil monopolies, including BP-Amoco and Exxon, now controls more than 50 percent of all oil investments in the Caspian. It has agreed to finance the pipeline, which is likely to cost more than $2 billion by the time it is completed in 2004.

The U.S. government insisted that the new conduit be built so as to bypass existing oil pipelines that travel through Chechnya, an autonomous region of Russia, and other Russian territory. A New York Times headline of Nov. 20 made the objectives explicit: "U.S. Seeks to End Russian Domination of the Caspian."

The headline would have been even more accurate if it had read: "U.S. Seeks to Dominate Caspian Oil."

While it existed, the Soviet Union was the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world. Much of its oil and natural gas fields were located in and around the Caspian Sea. The production from these fields was even greater than that of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United States.

Soviet oil flowing from the Caspian Sea area became a major factor in the stupendous climb of the USSR, including Russia and the other 14 republics, from impoverished semi-vassal states in 1917 to the world’s second-largest economy in 60 years.

Oil and gas production in the USSR was primarily used to meet the needs of Soviet society and industry. It was a state-owned industry. It differed from Exxon-Mobil, Texaco and BP-Amoco in that it was not used for the enrichment of a class of billionaire investors and owners. Nor was it used only for domestic consumption. Soviet oil and natural gas were sold on the world market and became a major source of hard currency earnings to buy foodstuffs and technology.

Politics is concentrated economics

While the U.S. government championed the cause of "self-determination and indëpendence" for the various republics and nationalities inside the USSR, it did so with the political goal of destroying the largest socialist government. Politics is not an ideological or philosophical abstraction; it’s an expression of concentrated economics. The "economics" of imperialism meant turning overthe land, labor and natural resources of the former USSR to profit-making Wall Street corporations.

The U.S. capitalist establishment was a vigorous supporter of Boris Yeltsin and his faction in their struggle to destroy the old socialist planned economy and the Soviet state.

U.S. billionaires did not do this as a favor to the nascent capitalist class in Russia, but for their own reasons. They didn’t want a strong and prosperous capitalist Russia. Theywantedto exploit Russia the way they do Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. This is the ABCs of a Marxist understanding of U.S. foreign policy.

A new partition of global markets

Did Yeltsin and his anti-communist followers really think that the assistance they got from the U.S. government and Wall Street was motivated by a yearning for "individual freedom"? Or was the new Russian bourgeoisie too busy lining its pockets with the sale of privatized socialist property to care about the larger U.S. geopolitical designs to permanently weaken Russia after the Soviet Union was dissolved? If so, they can’t help but notice now.

Yeltsin’s Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev complained at a Nov. 12 press conference that "The U.S. strategy toward Russia is aimed at weakening its international position and ousting it from strategically important regions of the world, above all the Caspian region, the Trans Caucasus and Central Asia."

He was defending Russia’s use of military force in its fight against pro-Western separatist forces in Chechnya and Dagestan. Both are strategic regions in Russia located close to the Caspian Sea.

Yeltsin and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin justify their massive military attacks against the separatist forces in Chechnya on the grounds that those fighting foran independent Chechnya are "bandits and terrorists."

In early August 1999, a force of more than 1,000 fighters from Chechnya under the leadership of Shamil Basayev entered the neighboring region of Dagestan. The timing of the invasion is noteworthy. The Russian crude-oil pipeline monopoly Transneft had lost control of the main crude-oil pipeline running across Chechnya from Baku, in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea, to the Russian Black Seaport of Novorossiysk. The Russians closed that pipeline and were attempting to move the oil by rail through Dagestan at the time of the Chechen invasion in early August.

Was the Chechnyan invasion of Dagestan part of a larger conspiracy by the United States to detach the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea from Russia? This is certainly what the Russian government now fears is happening. The U.S. government would like a "permanent smoldering of a manageable armed conflict [resulting] in a weakened Russia that will help the U.S. obtain full control over the Northern Caucasus," stated Russian Defense Minister Sergeyev at his press conference.

The U.S. is attempting to do to Russia now precisely what they have done in the past decade to Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, the U.S. used the loan and credit practices of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to foster the break-up of a multinational socialist state. Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia could receive credit and investment only to the extent that they broke away from federal Yugoslavia.

At the same time the CIA and other covert operations stimulated national and ethnic rivalries by arming nationalist and separatist groupings in each ethnic community.

Yeltsin and his advisers saw the U.S. seize Kosovo in Yugoslavia, making that province into a virtual protectorate. They certainly feared that the U.S. and NATO could do the same in the Caucasus. In fact, Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev recently invited NATO to intervene in its dispute with Armenia. Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku is the center of oil production in the Caspian Sea.

Socialist construction was the answer

The U.S. media portrays the ethnic struggles raging in Yugoslavia and the former USSR as the incurable condition of human nature.

But the former territories of the USSR are not simply a collection of nationalities. Classes exist in these areas, just as in the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan. In the Caucasus, the most multinational part of Russia, millions of workers and peasants enjoyed unity under the USSR. They sought internationalism and working-class unity against the parasitic elite groupings who promoted a reactionary nationalism so that they could help imperialism exploit the home market.

It was precisely in the Caucasus in 1996 that the Communist vote in the last parliamentary election was greater than in any other part of Russia: 66 percent in Dagestan, 63 percent in North Ossetia, and 57 percent in Karachoy Cherkessia.

The workers and peasants of the Caucasus and the south Asian republics of the USSR voted in the 1991 referendum to maintain the Soviet Union as a unitary state because they had along and bitter experience of what imperialist-sponsored "independence" meant. The last time they were "independent," in 1918-1920, British, Turkish and German troops moved in their armies and put communist workers before the firing squad.

Yeltsin wants to prevent the U.S. takeover of the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, but he is unable to reach these workers with a message of genuine anti-imperialist solidarity. Yeltsin represents the Russian bourgeoisie that wants to exploit the Caucasus. He represents a throwback to the days of czarist oppression when Russia served as an instrument of national oppression.

Yeltsin can offer only bombs and tanks. But this will fail. National oppression and division cannot be overcome through force. Only the reforging of socialist solidarity, including the militant defense of the right of self-determination, can overcome imperialist manipulation.

Lenin and the early Bolshevik Party offered proletarian internationalism in place of bourgeois nationalism and the divideand-conquer imperialist manipulation of ethnic rivalries. In their famous appeal at the Baku Conference of 1918, the Bolsheviks electrified the poor and attracted a mass following from all nationalities in the region with this unique message:

"Muslims in Russia, Tartars of the Volga and the Crimea, Kirgiz, Kazakhs, and Sarts of Siberia and Turkestan, Turks and Tartars of Transcaucasia, Chechens and Mountaineers of the Caucasus, and all you whose mosques and oratories have been destroyed, whose beliefs and customs have been trampled under foot by the Czars and the oppressors of Russia: Your beliefs and customs, your national and cultural institutions are henceforth free and inviolable. Organize your life in complete freedom. You have the right. Know that your rights, like all the peoples of Russia, are under the powerful safeguard of the revolution and of its organs, the Soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasants. Lend your support to this revolution and to its government."

The revolutionary struggle to revive socialism in the lands of the former Soviet Union, while directed first and foremost at imperialism and its lackeys, must make Lenin’s pledge a reality by rejecting Russian chauvinism and respecting the national rights of all peoples.

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