11934 and was elected ar secretary-treasurer of Local 534 in 1934 in recognition of his key contriAs well as going on to become a eading member of the American So. lasting contribution to labour history not only through his role in the batties themselves but in his graphic descriptions of them in his four Teamster Politics, Teamster Power and Teamster Bureaucracy Dobbs tells us that the purpose of these books was "to place the tionists who guided the union ranks - retrospectively looking over their snoulders, so as to speak - as tney assessed each successive problem and decided how to deal with it.
"my purpose was to neip tind clues to ways and means of transforming labor's potential diass power into a dynamically active force in the continuing struggle against the capiAT talist exploiters.
In this ambitious and valuable purpose, Dobbs succeeds with his simple but graphic prose.
During the course of the three 1934, martial law was declared and the National Guard sent in.
Two strikers were killed by the local police on July 20 1934, Bloody Froay, Massive orotest rallies num bering up to 40,000 were regularly The strikers set up their own newspaper and dispatched flying pickets throughout the city.
Dobbs chronices the violence of the state and the creativity of the workers. He points out that even a Longshore strikes, the Teamsters inspired workers throughout the Dobbs argues that key to what make the strike possible and led to its victory was the presence of a layer of revolutionary socialist cadres who were able to lead the dispute and play a key role in the broader local labour movement. The advantageous position of communists in Minneapolis was however these successes elsewhere.
After the 1934 strikes Dobbs went on to lead a major organising campaign - the eleven state over. formed the Teamsters into the largest and most powerful union in the country, bringing in tens of thou sands of new workers.
The Teamsters had to combat powerful enemies. fantine to defend their democratic nights against frame-ups by the FBI and defeating support for the war and a no-strike pledge. Revolutionary socialists in preserve their traditions of militancy and democracy against both the I coin bureaucracy of the interns tional Brotherhood of Teamsters and the state apparatus lead by the The culmination of the confrontasedition trial of 28 socialists and trade union leaders which opened on October 2/ 194l and is recounted in detail in Teomster At the core of that trial lay the question of the war with the union bureaucracy and the state deter mined to gag Local 544's opposition to the US's entry to the imperialist While the trial was to result in guilty verdicts and prison sentences for the socialists, Dobbs argues that this was only the loss of the immeditreacherous role of union bureaucrats in general since he was James R Hoffa, father of today's gangster, served as an on to become the Teamsters general president. Hoffa said of "I wouldn't agree with Farrell Dobbs political philosophy or his economic ideology, but that man had a vision that was enormously beneticia to the moour movement. Beyond any doubt, he was Teamsters over-the-road operations.". action and democracy in the Teamsters and across the union sons and take much inspiration from the stories told by Farrell Dobbs.
On July Ist, the Chinese Army (PLA) will march into Hong Kong, formally ending 156 years of British Imperial rule. MARK THOMPSON reports. WHILE European and North American tourists are blockbooking hotels to watch the spectacle, the vast majority of residents of the territory, when asked said they would not be treating the day as anything speWhile there is no love lost for the brush, ano a general recognaon that Hong Kong is a part of China, te lack of democracy, douscs or numan rights and corrupt business practices worry many people.
The Chinese government points out that the British only started experimenting with democracy in the 80's, political parties were banned before that, and Triad gangs are a serious problem in Hong Kong, not China.
Chinese official representatives and "red princes" (ofispring of senior CP officials) are already omnibusinessmen know how important China and are busy ingratiating themselves with key burcaucrats.
For the rich in Hong Kong (with the greatest number of Rolls. Royces per head of population of any country in the world), the transition to "communism" is certainly not a problem. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, the Chinese have promised not to interfere in Hong Kongs economy for 50 ycars.
Actually they would like the Hong Kong success story to be rep#calco tarough tac rost of caind, but there are some serious obstacies to this, not least that Hong Kong achieved its success by a) being a safe haven for Chinese capitalists, and several million desperarate workers, after the Communist victory in 1949, 0) ocing tae main point of contact between China and the outside world, particulariy Taiwan, after 1978.
Until recently one third of China's foreign trade went through Hong Kong.
Instead the ruling elite sce China's strong state apparatus and lack of concern for human rights as useful for removing awkward trade etc. Just in case things don't go well, they all have foreien passports lined up, mostly for the US or Canada but also Panama or the Bahamas While theoretically autonomous, the "Special Administrative Region" will have less power than Shanghai or Chengdu, where powerful party cliques are entrenched. Worryingly, Tibet is also a Special Administrative Region, and is treated quite brutally.
The Chinese have already named their replacement for governor: CH. Tung, a previously insignificant millionaire. He was "elected" by the 400 strong Preperatory Committee- all hand-picked by China. This then elected the new legistative council which will make laws, run the economy and appoint judges. It is also packed with timeservers and yes-men - much as the One off its first decisions has been to reinstate the draconian co lonial laws repressing the right of assembly and association that were dropped after the Tiananmen Many socialists will be wonder. viously colonial rule cannot be defended, but can rule by the regime responsible for the massacre in Tiananmen Square be considcred an improvement?
China's 1949 revolution removed a parasitic landlord class and subsequently expropriated the capitalists they were selling China to, allowing for an enormous improvement in the living standards of ordinary people.
But Mao's Communist Parts never allowed the working class or their hands. The regime followed a Stalinist model, establishing a deformed workers' state, not socialPower, both political and economic, was transferred from the men with money and land to those who worked their way up the Communist Party hierarchy. This is still pretty much the situation today, but it is changing rapidly.
In 1978, small-scale capitalist opcrationsawere allowed. In 1988. s law was passed ending the limits on ist could have. This sector has crown raptaly maily composco o. foreign companies and party bosses The same murderous regime which mounted the 1989 Beijing massacre will soon take over Hong Kong selves into business.
Some villages and cooperative enterprises have struck rich by building factories and paying poor in them. For this and other reasons, the size of the capitalist sector is difficult to determine.
One thing is sure, though: it is the capitalist sector, however it is defined, which is booming, not the with the money.
It may be some time before China is able to meet the entry criteria for the WTO because of its state support for industry and protecdonist acasores (altouga japan joined its predesessor, GATT in the 1950's in a similar situation), and any attempt to rush things would result in massive social destabilisation.
But this does not mean it won't happen - the situation is like Russia, where, despite the desire for capitalism by the "ulers, it won't happen because there is no capital. Investment capital is pouring into China, mainly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and japan The domestic stock market is rapidly expanding, and in the Shanghai and Canton areas w milton acopic, ine old state industries are marginal. It is the old industries in the North which are the obstacle, like Beijing Steel, which employs 100,000 people in a company town, providing schools and health care.
The booming "new" industrial regions of the southern and central coastal arcas are holdins back their taxes, preventing restructuring or lavestmcal in new technology in the north. The government knows it nas to stop subsidising loss-making industries, Many workers are officially "on extended holday", but spend all day WORLD trying to sell a few shabby consumer goods in the market. Others move to where the work is - it is estimated there are 150 million migrant workers in China There was a wave of trade union militancy in the late 1980's, but this was crushed in Tienanmen Square. Now even individual activists who have been silent for years are repeatcdly imprisoned. Most are in exile.
While the Stalinist faction in the CP, which opposes the marketisation and privatisation of the ecopomy, could make trouble, they are unlikely to make a bid for power un• less the economy stagnates and massive social unrest anises The level of investment in China by Hong Kong capitalists has been estimated at US$80 billion (of sidiaries of foreign multinationals) and it is thought they employ 4 mil:
lion Chinese workers and represent 20% of China's GDP.
In the other direction, Chinese enterprises and state holdings have invested US$42.5 billion in Hong Kong In 1999 Macau, a Portuguese enclave across the Pearl River delta, returns to China after 400 years. The Chinese government has made it clear they think the reunification of the Chinese family should be made complete with the return of Tai.
wan, and they are prepared to invauc 11 necesssary:
Leaders of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong (which won over hall the directly clected seats) have new laws. While this party includes pointed legislators under the old system, it also includes some radical activists who have already come into conflict with the ruling elite.
To their Ieft, and cooperating on many issues, are small groups of feminists, enviromentalists and supporters of the Fourth International. These people will need our support in the coming years.
To the bureaucrats and new rich in China, everything must appear rosy. But all the contradictions and tensions which produced Tianandistinctions become more apparent in the big cities, a new militancy is forming, and it will eventually break out in the form of strikes.
Many pundits will say the people of Hong Kong aren't interested in politics, just business, but in and a 1989 one million people demonstrated in support of the students in Tiananmen Square, in a country of sust over s million The workers of Hong Kong have lent strikes, and a well educated, politically aware generation has grown up and expects to keep all its current freedoms. The coming period is likely to be an interesting one.
ret the facts, from International Viewpoint, monthly publication of the Fourth International, carries all the background formation you cannot find the bourgeois press. P's normal selling price s E2 per month, but British readers can subscribe jointly to /VP and Socialist Outlook for just £25 per year.
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WOII Geoff Ryan