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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 16 April 23, 2018
(front page)
Coming class battles pose need to defend political rights today
BY TERRY EVANS
Millions of working people are looking to the example set by labor
battles waged by teachers and other school workers for wages, conditions
and dignity. As the bosses continue to press workers to pay for the
crisis of their capitalist system, many more will be drawn into sharper
class battles in the years ahead. And the capitalist rulers will
increasingly turn to rightist gangs to unleash violent assaults on
workers in an effort to break our strikes and unions. This is the lesson
of the history of capitalist rule.
Political preparation for what is coming has a decisive bearing on how
working people should respond to the stepped-up calls by liberals today
for restrictions on our rights, including the Constitution’s Bill of
Rights.
A steady stream of articles lauding the “children’s crusade for gun
control” has filled the pages of the liberal media and the papers of the
left since March 24, when hundreds of thousands joined demonstrations
across the country. They were demanding a new range of tests and
restrictions on gun ownership, following the brutal killing of students
at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
Many of these commentators praise the young age of those at the actions.
“Students Lead Nationwide Crusade for Gun Control,” wrote the online
People’s World, which reflects the views of the Communist Party. That
young people would want to take to the streets in the midst of teachers’
protests across the country and protests against the cop killings of
Stephon Clark and Saheed Vassell should be of no surprise.
But whether an action advances working-class interests has nothing to do
with the age of the participants. That depends on whether it strengthens
the unity and self-confidence of working people and points a road
forward for independent political action. Protests demanding more
restrictions and regulations on our hard-won rights head in the opposite
direction.
Liberals have made such calls for years and it is the political outlook
of these capitalist politicians that shaped the March 24 protests.
They increasingly see workers as “deplorables,” as Hillary Clinton said
in the 2016 campaign. She doubled-down on this last month in India,
where she said President Donald Trump won support from workers in
smaller towns in the middle of the country who were “looking backwards.”
She claimed working women turned against her under pressure from their
husbands and bosses.
In 2008 former President Barack Obama connected gun ownership with his
broader scorn for working people. He described workers who had lost
their jobs in small towns in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, saying, “It’s
not surprising … they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or
antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment.”
After the killings in Florida, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul
Stevens called for repeal of the Second Amendment to the Constitution,
saying it’s outdated.
He took aim at a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling written by Justice
Antonin Scalia that confirmed that the Second Amendment says people have
the right to bear arms to defend themselves. At the same time, he also
said states have the power to establish some restrictions on weapons in
places like schools.
What’s important for workers today is not that individuals can get guns
to fight the cops and company agents. That would be an adventure and
lead to nothing but defeats for the working class.
Lessons from past working-class battles
In the 1930s the explosive growth of the labor movement led to sizable
and sharp clashes with the employers and their government — in Germany,
elsewhere in Europe and in the U.S. Fearing their rule was threatened,
the capitalist rulers turned to rightist thugs and fascist gangs to try
to attack working-class struggles and bust up the unions. This isn’t
happening today.
“The sharpening of the proletariat’s struggle means the sharpening of
the methods of counterattack on the part of capital,” Leon Trotsky, a
leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, wrote in 1938. “The
bourgeoisie is nowhere satisfied with the official police and army.” As
the capitalist rulers turned to armed thugs to attack the workers,
Trotsky said, “only armed workers’ detachments, who feel the support of
tens of millions of toilers behind them, can successfully prevail
against the fascist bands.”
The course outlined by Trotsky is contained in the “Transitional Program
for Socialist Revolution,” which was adopted by the Socialist Workers
Party.
The leadership of the Teamsters union in Minneapolis responded
decisively in 1938 to an organizing drive in the city by the fascist
outfit called the Silver Shirts. The goons’ leader, Roy Zachary, called
for an armed raid on the union’s headquarters. The union organized a
workers defense guard.
“Members of the guard were not armed by the union, since in the given
circumstances that would have made them vulnerable to police frame-ups,”
explained Farrell Dobbs, a leader of the union and the Socialist Workers
Party, in his book Teamster Politics. “But many of them had guns of
their own at home, which were used to hunt game; and those could quickly
have been picked up if needed to fight off an armed attack by Silver
Shirt thugs.”
The emergency mobilization of several hundred determined and disciplined
members of the guard convinced the Silver Shirts to back off and leave
town.
The workers defense guard grew out of intensified union and social
struggles. Union leaders sought to draw into its ranks the widest layer
of workers. It relied on battle-tested, disciplined cadre and leaders
capable of avoiding provocation.
Today the rulers prepare for bigger struggles to come by seeking to
restrict our rights to organize and defend ourselves, including limiting
workers access to guns. That’s why workers today need to oppose
government measures that restrict workers’ rights, like their right to
bear arms.
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