About This Issue

DB111 opens with an article that should interest readers who have felt called upon to march with supporters of the anti-war movement. This has always been a problem for revolutionaries. Does the revolutionary march in the "peace and justice" anti-war demonstrations even though by doing so he implies that peace and justice can be realized under capitalism, or does he boycott such demonstrations of confidence in the devotion of our ruling class to the will of the people. I spent the Vietnam War years as a member of the Socialist Labor Party. Not only did the party forbid our participation in protests; we were not allowed to pass out the SLP's leaflet close enough to a demonstration so that observers would think that we were a part of it. The article here from the New Unionist presents a revolutionary message to both our "peace and justice" friends in the demonstration and to onlookers.

Readers may remember the warm fuzzy feelings awakened at the time of the so-called "Battle of Seattle"when we learned that John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO had enlisted in the environmental wing of the labor movement. Apparently Teamsters and Turtles are no longer marching arm-in-arm. The article by Alexis Buss, General Secretary-Treasurer of the IWW, makes it clear that the capitalist labor movement is back on the old track.

There was never any question about the reason for the Gulf War. It was Oil! Oil! Oil! Bin Laden and his gang have put a different face on the effort to make Afghanistan safe for the oil companies. This article from The People explains the haste with which American capital grabbed the opportunity to replace an unfriendly government in Afghanistan and ran with it.

The letter on the G20 meeting was published as an insert in the Canadian journal "Internationalist Notes" and is addressed to its readers. It conveys the left communist perspective of its authors with references to the need for "an International Working Class Party," "instruments of transition." But the ultimate goal differs in no way from that of other libertarian socialists: It sees "no need for social class, states, armies, or money...."

There is no way of knowing even roughly how many revolutionary libertarian socialists there are. One thing we can be sure of, though, the number of groups of people whose thinking fits into this category continues to grow. The Global Communist Group exists in the new terrain of cyberspace, and the number of people participating in its "Communism List" forum indicates a sizable membership if the number of contributors to the forum is any indication.

Along with efforts to form new groups we have an attempt to amalgamate. The main federation in the syndicalist wing of anarchism has been the International Workers Association (IWA) for well over a half century. Its glory days were the 1930s when some of its branches were a significant force in the labor movements of Spain, France, Sweden and parts of Latin America. Repression resulting from Franco's victory in Spain and fascism elsewhere as well as internal divisions and the like have reduced its numbers. This issue of the DB carries the manifesto of a newly organized syndicalist international which we obtained from the Summer 2001 ASR, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review. The introduction by Mike Hargis, an IWW member, is critical of the premise for its organization. He questions the viability of this attempt to unite those elements that organize workers in unions and those that are essentially propaganda groups. My criticism lies in a different direction. It is the reformist orientation I see in the Manifesto's item 6.4, which seems to pledge Libertarian International Solidarity (LIS), the new federation, to participation in reform struggles.

Kephas Mulenga's thinking about the "essence of socialism" is more strongly influenced by the socialist program of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, it seems to me, than by the realities of capitalism as it manifests itself in Zambia, although of course the "essence" capitalism is the same worldwide. Dave Zink has reviewed a book, the contributors to which seem to have no difficulty in recognizing the cause of modern social problem, nor are they reluctant to name the enemy. They see the role of the political state in a capitalist society, the class divisions, the effects of technological improvements even the potential solution-everything except strategy. Does anyone believe that building a mass Labor Party will advance the revolution any further than the British Labor Party has?

As usual we end with some notes, announcements, and short reviews.

Finances

As a general rule, just when the economy is inflicting greater pain on our class and they are most likely to be open to revolutionary ideas, the financial resources begin to dry up as workers have less to contribute to revolutionary groups. For the DB we can add to this truism significant increases in the cost of postage. The annual non-profit bulk mailing fee we pay has gone up $25 to $125. In addition there have been increases in the cost of foreign postage. And just to cap the climax, our new megabank has announced that the fee for each transaction involving non-U.S. currency, whether cash or check, will be $20. My advice to non-U.S. subscribers is to buy dollars and mail cash. So far we have never lost such a remittance.

Contributions: Phillip Colligan $22; Joe Tupper $20 (for the abolition of capitalism); Milt Herder $10; C.P. Otero $3; Pat Eytchison $14; Joshua Freeze $10; Martin Comack $2; Total $81.00 Thank you, comrades.

BALANCE October 26, 2001 (Per bank statement) $ 192.65

RECEIPTS
Contributions $ 81.00
Subs and Sales 73.00
Total $ 154.00

DISBURSEMENTS
Postage $ 127.00
Bank Charges 8.00
Printing 36.29
Postage Due 3.34
Annual b. mailing fee 125.00
Total $ 299.63

BALANCE December 29, 2001
$ 47.02

Fraternally submitted,
Frank Girard