John Foster

Gus Hall

POTENTIAL

By Gus Hall

sera! Secretary
™Mmunist Party USA
eee,

tral collowing is a section of Gus Hall’s report to the Cen-
oOmmittee of the Communist Party, on June 2, 1973.

Trese are most unusual and tumultuous times. These
S. are critical days of the most unusual crises for
eMphaae sm I don’t think there’s a danger of over-
: izing the critical nature of the moment.
deeg 4 Ome have already noted, the lame duck is 1n-
Weather turbulent waters! We forecasted turbulent
0 in the ‘Lame Duck’’ report some five months
hail _ even we did not expect’a tornado, a blizzard, a
What ha thunderstorm, all at once — but that’s literally
logy or sppened. The politics, economics and the ide-
8 Storm b .S. capitalism are caught in the convulsions of
ltis y rought on by its own erosion and retrogression.
Wh a “freak’’ storm.
force at adds to this crisis is that at this moment the
here eS Capitalism are in confusion, in disarray.
Wall S$ chaos in Washington. There is uncertainty on
Street.
Now me Storm blows away some of the cover, So we can
Beneral «. clearly see the essence of the new stage of the
tive seg of capitalism. There is a further qualita-
C2bitaligt in world relationships. The post-world war
S house is collapsing. The economic and political
levey pene Sam built are all crumbling. There is a new

f capitalist instability in the capitalist world

PROGRESS

generally. The dollar has the stability of a falling leaf,
and the muggers of the financial world are running for
cover, the cover of gold instead of the dollar. In the U.S.
we have ‘the year of crisis” instead of the “year of
Europe,” as was announced — and there is no light at
the end of the crisis tunnel. We have a crisis of inflation,
and there’s no end in sight. The inflationary spiral keeps
rising and rising at an unbelievable rate. Everything
goes up except the standard of living. We have a Con-
stitutional crisis and the end is not in sight. Four years
of Nixon and his crew of winners of the Chamber of Com-
merce’s “outstanding man of the year” awards has
made a shambles of the democratic institutions.

On top of all this it now looks like we are headed for
an economic crisis as well. The boom is getting ready to
blow its top. The ideologists of the “free enterprise
system” are either strangely silent or they keep mumb-

ling, ‘‘Everyone in politics is corrupt.”’ That’s an odd.

admission from the defenders of capitalism.

Then there is a kind of new crisis — the energy
crisis is Showing up. There’s no question the big corpora-
tions are using the fact that the USS. is running out of,
not only fuel, but nature’s resources generally — to raise
prices and destroy their smaller competitors — that’s all
involved — but the fact is that there is a long-range run-
ning out of natural resources. The corporate monster
has gorged itself on the resources that belong to the peo-

ple.
i)
Because of the tipping of the balance scales —the
countries which are rich in resources are in a position to
charge more now. They are in a position to put an end to

‘the out-and-out thievery that has been going on for gen-

erations. That’s one of the reasons for the so-called
energy crisis. There’s a new world problem developing
on this question. What imperialism is going to do about
it is not yet clear but there’s a new critical question
emerging. The big industrial capitalist countries are
running out of resources. And the countries that have
been dominated under colonialism, plus the socialist
countries and especially the Soviet Union, have the re-
sources. This has given rise to a new contradiction, to a
new.crisis for imperialism. To be forced to deal on the

basis of equality and what is just, is-a crisis for imper- ~

ialism.
And the vote in Congress to cut off funds for the war
in Indochina adds a new wrinkle to the Constitutional

crisis — to the crisis of capitalism in general. This is one’

of the first solid signs that the Watergate explosion is
cutting deep — in the Senate and Congress. It is the first
sign that the Watergaters are getting politically isolated.

That they have lost much of their punch is an important --

factor and adds to the critical nature of this present
moment. That’s the nature of this moment!

Amongst the people there’s anger; there’s disillu-
sionment, there’s cynicism, there’s confusion, and there
is radicalization because of this crisis, and there is a
great potential for progress. We would make a first
class error if we did not see the great potential this mo-

ment presents.

The Los Angeles elections show that in politics the
Yorty types are in trouble and racism and anti-commu-
nism does not have the same effect. There’s great poten-
tial for progress but as is always the case in critical mo-
ments there are new dangers for a reactionary upsurge
as well.

The objective processes create the mood for action.
But leadership will determine in what direction the ac-
tion will move. There are historic experiences where
there have been crises — critical points — and they have
moved in a Rightist direction. Hitler used demagogy and
the crisis of German capitalism to move Germany to
fascism.

A measure of the political crisis can be seen in the
serious talk about whether Nixon can continue as the
President. A measure of the crisis is the serious talk of
impeachment or of forcing Nixon to resign. The depth of
the crisis is reflected in the fact that we have a president
who has to keep saying, ‘‘I’m not going to resign,” and a
vice president who has to keep saying, ‘‘I still have con-

fidence in the President.”

In a real sense the Watergate affair is but an off-
shoot, an accident, related: to what is the source, the
prime mover of the policies and practices that gave rise
to what is now called ‘‘Watergate.’’ That is. where we
have to focus our attention. Outside of Nixon, Agnew,
Haldeman, Ehrlichman and the Buckleys, just about
everyone is ready to expose the bugging at Watergate.
That there’s such broad support to exposing the immed-
iate questions around Watergate is of great importance.
Many are even willing to expose the cover-up that fol-
lowed. That’s also important — that there’s a big broad
section that wants to expose the cover-up that followed
the bugging and the burglary.

But only a much narrower sector in Congress or in
the mass media are ready to discuss or to expose the
class roots, the class policies that released the termites
at Watergate. That’s where we come in. So far most
forces are not only unwilling, they are in fact working to
cover up the real causes of Watergate. All you have to
watch is Mr. Cox, the appointed prosecutor, maneuver-
ing — and it becomes obvious that he’s maneuvering to
take the Watergate investigation from the public eye
and return it to the private chambers of the grand jury.
It is clear the Senate Committee investigating Water-
gate has agreed on ground rules that include staying
away from anything that’s not in that narrow gate of
Watergate and cover-up. The grand jury stays within the
narrow legal limits of the bugging and the cover-up.

We should not underestimate what is going on, be-
cause it’s.a very important development. But we should
see what the problems are and what our tasks are and we
can only see that if we see what groups are ready to do
what, in this situation. We welcome all exposures. They
are making an important contribution. They are histor-
ic. We will join all forces who have been propelled into
action because of the Watergate on all of its levels.
There should be no hesitation about our participation
with movements on all these levels. But we must not

Continued on page 4

March from Watergate to t

he Justice Department, Washington, D.C., June 16.

ae

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1973—PAGE 3

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