COMMENTARY

When McCarthyism was at its height in the USA

| there was no more ardent advocate and practicioner

than the leadership of the AFL-CIO. It was used as a
tool to crush the forces of the left in the labor move-
Ment and establish the fiefdom of the most right-wing
elements in the labor movement who still hold court
today. ;
_ It is somewhat instructive, though not at all amus-
_ ing therefore to read an article by Bayard Rustin in the
latest issue of the AFL-CIO Free Trade Union News,

entitled the Uses and Abuses of Anti-Communism.

The burden of Rustin’s argument, which centres on
the use of anti-Communism in South Africa to

‘sanctify the oppressive racist actions of the genocidal
South African regime, is that the Pretoria regime does

a disservice to ‘‘democratic anti-Communism.”’

Says Rustin, with his less than logical pen in full
flight: ‘‘In the 1950’s, democratic anti-Communists
were dealt a severe blow by Senator Joseph McCarthy
and his fellow witch hunters. Their campaign of
domestic repression discredited the very legitimate
moral basis for anti-communism. McCarthy’s shame-
ful actions and violations of civil liberties did much to
weaken the cause of a democratically based anti-
Communism. .:. Despite their protestations to the
contrary, South Africa’s racist leaders are in fact the
. Democratic

anti-Communists must forcefully condemn the de-
_Mogogic and immoral attempt by South Africa to
abuse anti-Communism and make it a tool for con-

strongest allies of Communism. ..

tinued repression.”

We seem to be giving a lot of space to quotes from
the AFL-CIO Free Trade Union News in this column
recently but it seems worth while to dwell a little on

the antics of this still powerful reserve of U.S.
imperialism in the labor movement.

As we originally recalled there was no stronger

advocate of Senator Joseph McCarthy than the

; “SAFEACIO: Nor do we ever recall them admitting they
“were in-error- in® their: unqualified’ support for the

Senator. If we could take Bayard Rustin’s comments

3 Labor in action
—% | William Stewart

for an apology perhaps it would be useful to examine
his arguments further.

Communism, he indicates, thrives on fascism, ra-
cism and misery. Therefore if we do away with those
abuses we will do away with the basis for Commun-
ism. An interesting observation.

Perhaps Rustin would stretch his analogy to ob-
serve that the trade union movement rests on the
exploitation of working people by capital. It was born
out of the need for such protection. If the rule of
capital is done away with, the need for the trade union
movement, in its present form, would also eventually
disappear.

If one stretched his analogy back a little further
perhaps it could speculate that had slave owners been
more soliticious towards their slaves the system may
still be in place, or had feudal barons thrown a few
more crumbs to the serfs and given the right to vote
every so many years, feudalism could still exist.

The fact that these systems no longer exist however

was precisely because they carried within them the
seeds of their own destruction. By their very nature
they nurtured the forces which overthrew them.

And so it is with the system of capitalism. South
Africa is as much a part of capitalism as was Hitler
fascism, as are the brutal regimes in El Salvador,
Turkey, Chile and elsewhere. To say that they give
succor to Communism is only another way of saying
that Communism arises because this system begets it.
It is Kistor Cally inevitable.

The so-called anti-Communism of Rustin is de-
signed to knock together some kind of “‘halfway-
house’’. for those. people..whose democratic con-
science rebels at the thought of a return to McCarthy-

| Making anti-communism a saleable item

sim in the U.S. and are rejecting those trying to take
the country back into the same stink hole.

Rustin has a new alternative, ‘‘Democratic’’ anti-
Communism. Thus he is trying to fuse two opposites.
Having cavalierly joined together fascism and Com-
munism, although it is precisely and mainly due to the |
Soviet Union that fascism was defeated in the Second
World War, he proceeds to marry anti-Communism
and democracy. ‘

One has only to observe the history of the AFL-
CIO leadership to realize that their association with
democracy, either in the arena of international poli-
tics, or in respect to the democratic rights of the
membership of the unions in the USA, is a nodding
one at the best. :

Clearly Rustin is not prompted to write his views
from positions of concern for the workers of South
Africa, nor for concern for workers of the USA. What
lies behind his specious argument is concern by
monopoly and its ideologists that its anti-Communist
campaign is meeting stiff resistance in the USA, as it
is in Canada. People have not forgotten the lessons of
World War Two, nor of the McCarthy period of the
fifties and sixties. Anti-Communism needs a new
dress. Somehow it must be connected to the growing
aspirations by the people of the USA, no less than the
rest of the world, for full democracy and an end to the
cultural, social and economic oppression of imperial-
ism, especially U.S. imperialism.

Rustin’s new dress won't wear however. It is thin
and threadbare as a result of its previous wearers, all
the dictators and oppressors who have worn it for the
past century.

What a criminal thing it is, that the U.S. working
people, whose history of democratic struggle is a
proud one, should be straddled by such a corrupt and
vicious leadership.

It is clear however that U.S. working people will
not tolerate such leaders for much longer. It is pre--

cisely this fact that is prompting the outlandish, pro-

imperialist rantings in the AFL-CIO Free Trade
Union News. ’
Whom the Gods destroy they first make mad.

| Canada’s future — the socialist alternative (5)

Socialist public ownership, which
harmonizes the social nature of pro-
duction, is the foundation of socialist

economy. In socialist society, public

Ownership abolishes the division of
People into rulers and ruled, excludes
exploitation of man by man and ‘brings
into being production relations based on
fraternal cooperation and mutual assis-

tance among people.

The humanist objective of socialist
production, that of satisfying the steadily
growing material and cultural require-
Ments of the people as fully as possible,

arises from the victory of socialist .

Ownership. Such ownership makes it
Possible to implement the socialist prin-

’ Ciple of distribution: from each according

to his ability, to each according to their
Work.
5 * * * ; :
All members of socialist society have
the equal right and duty to work, and
-€njoy an equal right from society in ac-
cordance with the quantity and quality of
their work. The socialist principle of dis-
tribution of the fruits of labor eliminates

the division (inborn in an exploiting
Society) of people into a minority who do’

Not work and yet enjoy all the good things
of life, and the overwhelming majority

. Who must work for woefully inadequate

Wages, and those who desperately need
Work, but can find no work to do.
Distribution according to work pro-
Vides people with a material incentive
Which is an important ingredient of
Socialist production. Under socialism
those who work more and better receive

more. This system of remuneration for
labor performed gives people the mate-
rial incentive to improve their skills, ac-
tively participate in production, increase
output and improve its quality.

* * *

One of the principal tasks of the transi-
tion period to socialism is to bring about
socialist changes in relations between
nationalities and peoples. This is a press-
ing task in countries embracing more
than one nation, where in addition to the
dominant nation there are subject, op-
pressed nations and peoples. Thus, the
transition has the task of abolishing not
only social, class oppression but also op-
pression based on nation and race. ~

Living socialism draws nations and
peoples together and gives them equal
opportunities based on the time-tested
principles of Marxism-Leninism, name-
ly: comprehensive democratization of
social life, genuine equality for all races,
nations and peoples, the right of all na-
tions to self-determination up to the for-
mation of independent states, and the
internationalist solidarity of the working

class of all nationalities in the country.
Wok &

Marxism-Leninism Today

Alfred Dewhurst

Socialism, imbued with these princi-
ples and respect for all nations big and
small, and with concern for their most
vital needs and aspirations, unites the
working people of the nations and
peoples in an unbreakable alliance
headed by the working class. The ex-
perience of the Soviet Union and the
other socialist countries has shown that
only socialism creates the conditions for
the complete eradication of national op-
pression and racism, for the voluntary
integration of free and equal people in a
single state.

Experience in the socialist countries
also demonstrates that the emancipation
of nations and peoples cannot be con-
fined to the abolition of oppression and
the granting of political equality, impor-
tant as they are. The main thing is to
overcome all the negative aspects of the

- dollar-cultural legacy from capitalist soc-

iety. Overcoming and eradicating all that
is backward and false in the legacy of
capitalism is the task of the socialist
transition.

* * *

Socialist cultural transformation is a

vital component of the transition from
capitalism to socialism. In the course of
the transition, the working class creates
its socialist culture to replace the old
bourgeois culture. In doing so the work-

’ ing class does not reject bourgeois cul-

ture in total. Rather, it accepts the best
achievements of that culture, placing
them in the service of the people. And, in
this way, raising the cultural achieve-
ments of the past to a new, high level.

The implementation of socialist eco-
nomic reforms provides the material
basis of the new, socialist culture. The
socialist state nationalizes and places at
the disposal of the people all cultural in-
stitutions, and all means of cultural in-
fluence including theatres, museums,
cinema, radio and television, press and

so on. It makes all schools, colleges and

universities accessible, free of cost, to
the people.

oe &

The central task of the socialist cul-
tural transformation is to mold a truly
people’s culture. This is made possible,
first and foremost, by making all cultural
wealth, all achievements of science and
art the property of the people, and
systematically raising the level of educa-
tion and culture. In this way socialism
provides the broadest possible scope for
talent and the full development of the
people’s creative powers, thus enabling
them to master the achievements of
human culture.

NB: more next week

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 4, 1982—Page 5

A itn en ce i