COCKROACH!#7 A EZINE FOR POOR AND WORKING CLASS PEOPLE. WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS. It is time that the poor and working class people have a voice on the Internet. Contributions can be sent to Subscribtions are free at How often this zine will appear depends on you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Read the book! Ha Ha Ha McNamara,Vietnam-My Bellybutton is my Cristalball. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Banned from the "Unity" list at Jefferson Village For being a "Trotskyist" and a "philthy lumpen" background, who today lives with his "pigs and donkeys" in exile-where he ran away during the Vietnam War. According to the ex-vice viseur of the "Unity" list at Jefferson village! Boycott the "Unity" List at Jefferson Village! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Holbrooke in Sweden,Russian reaction! 2. Sweden:Government Declares War on Trade Unions! 3.Boycott the "Unity" List at Jefferson Village! 4. Women at Jefferson Village! 5."Unity" List expells Communist! -------------------------------------------------------- Holbrooke in Sweden,Russian reaction! Holbrooke, the super star, USA imperalist diplomat arrived in Sweden two days ago On the agenda was his taking over the role of leadership of the Baltic Sea Council which is and organisation which after the disintegration of the Soviet Union has become a center for organising support to the pro-capitalist and imperialist Jeltsin regime. But also an organ for support of the ex-Baltic state provinces of the Soviet Union who are desperately trying to become members of NATO and thus moving the ring of imperialist circlement of the former Soviet Union a little closer and a little tighter. Despite the pro-imperialist Jeltsin gang, the Americans realise that the policy of tightening the ring is still visable because of the rather unstable house that their pro capitalist and imperialist agent in Russia,Jeltsin, stands on. So naturally they are preparing for all inventualities. But the reason for this new development has some other more interesting aspects that communists should be aware of. Sweden which has historically been a so called "neutral country" both in the first and second world wars, in fact not neutral but a country that sold to both sides in both wars always leaning towards the winning side. Thus in the second world war they supported Germany at the beginning of the war and the allies at the end of the war. This neutral imperialist policy led to the building of Sweden as an industrial and welfare state pretty much controlled by the reformist Social democracy. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union the Swedes have elected to drop its "neutral" stance have joined the common market and today have its soldiers marching under NATO generals in the former Yugoslavia. They are now stepping into the role of being the key to the Baltic State region. So in the last year and a half there have been frequent visits by Helmut Kolh and the Germans to Sweden. This above all is what is worrying the British and Americans. Along side of the unstable situation in the former Soviet Union itself. The Americans understand that Germany is once more playing a very active role on European development. Not only have they got back the other half of Germany. But have had a far reaching effect on the events in the former Yugoslavia. And they also have their eyes on the Baltic states that have emerged from the former Soviet Union. This is why Holbrooke in a sudden turn by the White House has recieved a special appointment to take part and lead the Baltic Sea Council. For years the relations between the Swedes and the Americans were at and all time low because of the Swedish support to the Vietnamese during the war. However that period is all over. Now with the new developments to the East and with the Germans becoming a very active imperialist country with its own interests, the Americans, probably pushed by the British, have jumped into this council where the Germans had already been heavily involved if not leading it already up until this point. So once again the major imperialist powers are doing all kinds of tricks and turns in jockeying for position before the next confrontation of these diverse interests. Also in the pot is Sweden which certainly no longer can play its fake "neutrality". Thus if one were to look at a map the whole Scandinavia area including the Baltic States and Poland are up for grabs. THE RUSSIANS REACT.. The Russians have reacted in a very funny way. But also sending a very clear message to Sweden on the new turn of events! The same day that Holbrooke arrived the Russians dropped a bomb on the whole meeting by releasing and article and film on the Russian Networks of a Swede caught red handed being given secret military documents in a doll in exchange for money! This took place last February (!) and was kept quiet. In fact the spy was just deported. For the Swedes in was a political bomb that the media jumped on. The whole coverage of the meeting with the Baltic Sea Council disappeared to be replaced with pictures of spokesman from Russia saying things like. "We have always had peaceful relations with Sweden" and " Naturally we would like to continue to have peaceful relations". This was a clear message to the Swedes, connected with the Holbrooke visit. The Swedes were shaken and the waves have not died out yet. In fact the whole issue is being turned into a circus. Non of the opposition except the right wing had known about the affair. A lid was laid on and the right wing leaked it all out that the guy was really a spy and doing his job. The Social democrats are asking for heads to role in the circles responsible for the stupid way the whole thing was handled. But what is interesting is that the Russians are saying quite clearly to the Swedes. Your activities are no longer to be considered "neutral" if you walk down the path you appear to be taking. However the Social Democrats appear to have decided that a pro-NATO and open pro-imperialist alliance is the way they want to go. Thus opening the way for the occupation of Sweden in the next war. All of this jockeying and imperialist rivilry must be seen in the light of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Once again the Germans are sharpening their appetites, the British, leaning on the americans, the Japanese and unknown card in relation to the other two major imperialist powers. Then Russia although weakened militarily through years of Stalinist mismanagement and now a bougeois pro imperialist goverment with lots of nuclear weapons and an appetite of its own to defend the motherland. All these cards are in a new phase of growing imperialist rivilry over redeviding the world market once again. Unless a Communist International with the cadre and the historical program and experience comes forward to mobilise the only class that can put a stop to these new preperations, the International Working class, then we are headed for another round of imperialist and facist barbary! For the Rebirth of the Fourth International! -------------------------------------------------------- Sweden:Government Declares War on Trade Unions! The Social democratic Government in Sweden has declared war on the trade unions. In an unprecedented move and in alliance with the bourgeios center party they have purposed a "reform" which if it becomes law will be a step in breaking the backs of the Trade Union movement here. The purposal means that the bosses on a local level will be able to hop over the traditional "last in,first out" basic rule of the trade union movement. A dubbling of the length of time for so called "employment on trial" from 6 months to a year. This will give the bosses an open road to short term employment and firing and making permanent the whole idea of "temporary labor" instead of employing workers on a regular basis. The above and a number of other points means that the bosses have gotten the best present they could expect from the Social democratic government. A law which throws out all of the trade union agreements around these questions which were won in some very hard earned battles over the years into the garbage! With the disintegration of the former Soviet Union the reformist Social Democracy has been moving very far and fast into the camp of the Swedish bourgeoisie! Both in foreign policy, the dropping of their fake neutrality and joining the Common Market and putting Swedish soldiers under the orders of the NATO generals in the former Yugoslavia too the domestic scene. On the domestic scene they have made enormous cuts in the Social sector in order to pump money into the banking sector (which was on the verge of bankruptcy) and the private sector for investments which threw thousands upon thousands of workers out on unemployment and Social Wefare. The Social Democrats have made cuts in all of the Social welfare programs including unemployment benefits and have also played a key role in giving backhanded support to the rising racist and anti-foreign nationals fever that has rocked the country which now has unemployment of 15%! And now finally the icing on the cake. A full out attack on the trade union movement, thus ending a long history of cooperation with the Social Democratic trade union bureaucrats. The trade union bureaucracy willl be holding a conference the whole of next week. Thus we shall see if this new treacherous turn will lead to and open struggle and split of the party. Or the trade union bureaucracy's complete capitulation to this new attack by the Social Democratic government against the working class and the trade union movement. One thing becomes explicitly clear that no Communist can any longer think of giving any kind of critical support to these Social Democratic traitors. They have crossed the class line and allied with the bourgeois party "Center" and are heading down the road into the camp of the bougeoisie. So either a split of the party and formation of a new left wing party based on the trade union bureaucrats or a new workers party become the only viable alternative. The Euro-Communists are opposing this new line by the Social democracy and will tend to gain by the present situation. However these ex-Stalinists have no program or strategy for leading a workers struggle towards power. in fact they have moved far to the right since the fall of the Soviet Union and dropped the name "Communist" and are calling themselves a socialist-feminist party these days. The program is anti-internationalist and based on opposition to the common market and back to the good old days, they are competing with the greens with the vote of the petty-bougeois envionment movement and a line of Nationalist isolationism. So what is needed here as else where are Trotskyist parties based on the history and tactics of the left opposition and based on the transitional program to organise a mass vanguard party along the Bolshevik model with the goal of seizing power and building a workers government. Unfortunately the two "Trotskyist" trends that have had any sizeable group here are the Mandelists and the Militant group. The first chasing everything that moves and at best trying to build a "Workers" platform on mini demands of back to the good old times of reformism or the Militant group who for years was inside of the Social Democracy trying to pressure it to the left and only after being thrown out a few years back built and independent party who,s main tactic has been tricking voters into voting for them by putting a couple of Social Democratic names on the top of their lists and theirs under thus getting elected on at best false advertising. There program is also a reformist program based on the backwardness and long time domination of the workers movement by the Social Democracy. Finally the only solution to the present crisis in Sweden as elsewhere is a revolutionary regroupment of authodox trotskyist forces based on the history of the left opposition and the Transitional Program in a reforged Communist International that can show the way forward both here in Sweden as elsewhere. Forward to the rebirth of a Trotskyist Fourth International! Bob Malecki ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- >From: "Per I. Mathisen" >To: left-unity@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU >Please don't send more of this to the list. I tried to talk >to him, reasonably. To no use. Absolutely no use. Now the >debate is over. Malecki will only enter this list over my >dead body. > >Yours, >Per I call om all Socialists, Anarchists and Communists to Boycott the "Unity" List at Jefferson Village! Stop the exclusions! Defend the right to discuss politics! The above demands apply to those people and organisations of the entire left. Especially those who are represented on the "unity" list. Those who do not motivate their reasons and continue to take part will be listed publically on Usenet for all to see. At present their are 29 people representing a number of organisations on the list. Per Mathisen, moderater for the newly formed "unity" list, is a liar and a little dictator with inquisitional methods. Per's and the spoon at Jefferson Village creation of this list has been a skandal to elementry bougeois democracy and workers democracy from the very beginning and in fact is and attempt by certain "leftists" to resurrect the Menshevik policies of the party and unity of the "whole" class (with the exception of the Stalinists and certain Trotskyists) instead of the revolutionary tactic of the Proletarian United Front on a new list called the "Unity" List. The very conception of this "unity" list is a fundemental break with everything that Communism and Trotskyism stands for! Just its opening call which bans "Stalinists" from participating is anti-communist and exclusionist to the core. It is the same tactic that Stalin used to silence the Left Opposition in the former Soviet Union. Now these "leftists" take to the same methods as the Stalinists once did in order to exclude the Stalinists, but allso militant Trotskyists who oppose there ideas of "unity". After being loudly critised for their exclusionist policies, the list is preparing a new invitation where the most bizarr formulas of exclusion have disappeared to be replaced with a paragraf buried far down in the letter giving Per M. the power to ban anyone he likes to. So the creator of this policy might have changed the words about banning certain elements from the list, but he has kept the power to do so and will! The whole discussion about the "Unity" list is and insult to Communists and Trotskyists and any thinking person. Communist are not against unity in fact we have a tactics that relate to this that have been worked out for a fairly long time. In the party there is Democratic centralism in the discussion and full unity in action. For the working class we have the Proletarian United Front. Full freedom of agitatation for ideas and unity in struggle around some specific goals. What these people are doing is trying to make a home for the Menshevik idea of the party of the whole class where they can discuss how much they agree on while forbidding the discussions that they disagree on! A family of revolutionary "unity" where everyone is allowed to agree to disagree as long as they don,t start talking about it. A positive Menshevik list to discuss the lowest common denominator for "unity" of fundemental political trends that in the final analisis perhaps will find themselves on the opposite side of the barricades shooting at each other. The poor and working class people of the world do not need this kind of fake left "unity". It is a deskboard creation to sooth the egos of those who are afraid of discussing politics! This kind of "Unity" is not what the working class needs. The working class needs political clarity and a revolutionary program to unite around in fighting for political power. This process means hard polemics and political fights between the various trends. Not trying to cover up these differences under a false banner of unity. No to the fake "Unity" list! For and open Communist Internationalist list where all trends in the workers movement are welcome to discuss and struggle for political clarity. The only ones that at present can gain by this list are those who shy away from the neccessary difficult ideological road that those who want to make a revolution must take. The new "unity" list is a list that wants to gag discussion. It wants "Unity" on the lowest common denominator which in fact is no unity at all. Finally I said that Per M. is a liar and inquisitionist! Because he claims that he tried to "talk" to me and Failed. Now claiming that i will only get into the list "over his dead body". Below is the letter and my answer where Per M. tried to "Talk" to me. Judge for yourselves. Note that Per M. belongs to and organisation of the Mandelite USec organisation. And organisation claiming to be "Trotskyist".. Bob Malecki Per Mathisen writes; >> >I don't think we need any more trouble on the list before >> >we have sorted some things out there among the people who >> >started it. Currently there is a hell of a discussion >> >raging threatening to pull the list apart. (People are so >> >impatient.) >> Let me first say this. Since the list came to my knowledge i have stated that I would naturally follow all rules that the list made in relation to table manners. However that i i would oppose any exclusion of any political trend in the workers movement. This goes for all the lists at Jefferson Village. The other point is that this is the second letter today that i recieved which places certain conditions on my perticipation on the Unity list. The other is from the moderater Bill which i am going to reply too also. I will send you a copy of his letter and my reply. Naturallly my question is why is it that i am being grilled about my approach to the list and only me!? Where as others can say things like the following >> > >Louis: You fucking piece of shit lying bastard. I just got off the >> > >unity list because I didn't want to be around morons like you. By the way, >> > >did those "blacks" who talked to you about Cuba also profess a preference >> > >for watermelon and fried chicken, you racist dog. >> and be allowed to not only join the list, but write such filth while i am banned from taking part and can not defend myself. I think this behavior shows that the list has one set of demands for Malecki including what i think about this or that or putting my participation on the list to the vote and another democracy for all others who join the list! Including people that have attacked with viscious personal slanders or more subtle methods like Doug from the new left economic rag.. Is this correct? I think it is a correct evaluation of the present situation. I think it is both wrong and clearly stinks of class byist and racist incinuations directed at poor and working class people. A sort of "unity" list at Jefferson Village aparthied. I am getting extremely angry about this obvious disgusting behavior by those responsible for the list! >> >> > >> >I have put your request for subscription "on hold" for the >> >moment. When (if) we manage to pull together on the >> >left-unity list, I will propose that you are added to the >> >list, to be given a chance, since you promise to be capable >> >of serious discussion and think you can manage in the >> >milieu. >> Firstly I think you putting these special conditions on Malecki should be seen in the light of the above apartheid system that seems to being formed in regards to certain poor and working class people. Do you have a list of conditions for blacks also? Has anyone else on the list be forced to follow these conditions? When i recieve and answer from you to the affirmative then naturally i also will adher to these conditions. Until then i take it has and insult and system of apathied directed at me personally and perhaps blacks, other minority groups, or poor and working class people in general! >> >> >However, if too many voices are raised in protest, I will >> >consider that a democratic veto from the list against your >> >subscription, and heed it. >> So you are in fact prepared to enforce a undemocratic and apathied system based on list democracy! I find this amazing coming from anyone claiming to be Communist or Socialist. >> > >> >I hope you accept this way of dealing with it. >> Finally because of the unbelieveable charcter of the present trend of apathied and inquistional questions directed at poor and working class people in order to even get on the "unity" mailing list at Jefferson Village. I am posting this and my reply to the "unity list moderater, to M1, numerous orgainisations and friends and to Usenet. Please do not take this as a personal attack. The issue of Apathied and atomsphere of the Spanish inquisition developing on the "unity" list at Jefferson Village is a very dangerous turn. It is and insult to poor and working class people and if continued will be fought and defeated by communists in the future I hope. I will do my best to be in the lead of the struggle against this trend in defeating it and sweeping it onto the trash pile of history! Warm Regards Bob Malecki -------------------------------------------------------- Women at Jefferson Village! One of the few areas where it would be justifiable for a moderated list other then a list based on a certain number of messages a day would be a list for women ONLY! Because of the male dominance on Internet, but also the left, a list for women to discuss communist and working class politics would be politically correct. However in the iver of the present trend of Stalinist exclusionism on spoon they have not even mentioned special forms of organisation for women! For a communist women,s list for women ONLY! Robert Malecki ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- "Unity" list expells Communist! Below is a message from the Mandelist, United Secretariat moderater of the "Unity" List Per M. As the pressure grows on the "Unity" List against their policy of bans and Political exclusion they are beginning to expell Communists from the list. Not only expell Communists the moderater Per M. of the Mandelist, United Secretariat are making up new rules to gag people who defend the right to free speech. Join the Boycott of the "Unity" List at Jefferson Villllage. Stop the Bans and Political Exclusion. Condemn the Sectarian Expulsion of Ben Burges. Bob Malecki >---------------Original Message--------------- >Why is that I get the feeling that back every corner I pass >there stand somebody ready with shotgun to shoot me in my >back? At least on the internet, regarding this list. > >For some really really really inexplicable reason, Ben >Burgis has been sending all messages on this list to Robert >Malecki. Then he proceeded to spew the latter's ramblings >back to this list. This has been *extremely* damaging, >several people have already unsubscribed, stating this as >the reason. > >Hence I have to exercise my power as a moderator to expell >Ben Burgis from this list. Anyone else who raises the >topic of Malecki also face the danger of immediate expulsion. > >Let us proceed to have some *real* discussion, in other >words let us proceed to *politics*. > >Yours, >Per ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- <http://www.ios.com/~dizzyman/haha/> Read the book! Ha Ha Ha McNamara,Vietnam-My Bellybutton is my Cristalball. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Banned from the "Unity" list at Jefferson Village For being a "Trotskyist" and a "philthy lumpen" background, who today lives with his "pigs and donkeys" in exile-where he ran away during the Vietnam War. According to the ex-vice viseur of the "Unity" list at Jefferson village! Boycott the "Unity" List at Jefferson Village! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------