Maker and breaker of governments, sponsor of private armies, source of the most sophisticated instruments of torture and of the most sensitive electronic surveillance devices, the Central Intelligence Agency pollutes the political life of six continents.
Now, the CIA has been forced to hand over hundreds of documents on its secret operations around the world to the Socialist Workers party (SWP) and Young Socialist Alliance (YSA). The CIA documents were made public as a result of a suit initiated by the SWP and YSA against the U.S. government's illegal surveillance and harassment of dissident individuals and organizations. The SWP and YSA are demanding an injunction against further government abuses and $40 million in damages.
Only a tiny portion of the CIA's massive file on the world Trotskyist movement has been released so far. Adopting the same method employed by Richard Nixon to hide the truth from the masses of people, the CIA insists that release of many of its files would endanger "national security." Even those that have been turned over to the SWP and YSA have been heavily censored. Nevertheless, what emerges from the documents is a vast campaign to disrupt and destroy the Fourth International.
Further information has been obtained through the sworn statements of CIA officials. Acting under court order, a number of CIA officials, including CIA Director George Bush, have been forced to answer questions about some of the activities of the agency in regard to the SWP and YSA. According to this sworn testimony:
• CIA burglars carried out break-ins directed against SWP and YSA members travelling abroad. These operations, delicately labeled "surreptitious entry" by Bush, are illegal by whatever name they are called. With this in mind, the CIA has refused to name the countries where the burglaries took place or say when they occurred. Perhaps the agency hopes to save embarrassment for friendly governments and police forces that may have cooperated with it in breaking their own laws.
• Electronic surveillance used was against SWP and YSA members travelling abroad. Most countries have laws against this type of activity, and again, the CIA has declined to say when and where it used this technique to gather information.
• A mail cover was maintained on some correspondence to and from the American Trotskyists. This included the opening and copying of letters, in clear violation of the law.
• Information on the SWP and YSA was obtained by the CIA through the use of informers.
• Although it refused to supply any information about the countries involved, the type of information sought or obtained, and what was done with this information, the CIA did admit that information on the SWP and YSA was both given to and received from foreign governments.
• Finally, the agency admitted that it "has engaged in the collection of information concerning the Fourth International." It refused to say what type of information on the Fourth International was obtained, how it was obtained, or when it was obtained.
However, the general approach of the CIA was outlined by one official, Paul F. Haefner. Interrogated by lawyers for the SWP and YSA, Haefner at first refused to answer the question: "was the overseas office [of the CIA] limited in any manner in the methods it was to pursue?"
In November-five months after the original interview-the government had second thoughts and decided to submit an answer to the question. A sworn affidavit from Haefner explained that "the senior CIA officer in any country abroad is always obligated to use his best judgment as to whether specific operational actions or methods can be initiated and carried out securely, without adverse problems for either the host country government or the United States Government and consistent with the authority given to the CIA by law."
In other words, it is up to the official in charge of each CIA office to keep his operations secret and to avoid any embarrassing scandals.
As for the injunction that CIA actions must be "consistent with the authority given to the CIA by law," this would be laughable if the reality was not so grim. The CIA, after all, plotted to assassinate the heads of at least five foreign governments, and when the truth about these operations finally came to light the U.S. attorney general ruled that no American laws had been broken.
The French Connection
For a closer look at the CIA's war against democratic rights, it is necessary to turn to the documents obtained by the SWP and YSA through their suit. In CIA jargon, these documents have been "sanitized"-that is, they have been censored in order to remove all traces of the agency's illegal conspiracies against the exercise of democratic rights around the world.
Paragraph after paragraph in the documents released by the CIA is blanked out and marked "classified information pertaining to intelligence sources and methods," "classified matter," "administrative matter," "CIA internal organizational data," or "material not related to subject." But virtually all of the CIA's activities are directed against the democratic rights of the working people around the world. Thus, not even the heavy hand of the CIA censor was able to totally erase the damaging material in these files.
One thing that comes through clearly in the CIA documents is the complicity of other governments in CIA activities. The CIA demands its actions be kept secret from the masses of working people both inside and outside the United States, but its burglaries, wiretaps, and agents are well known to the governments allied with American imperialism around the worldincluding, of course, the imperialist democracies in Europe.
The cordial relations between the CIA and the French secret police, for example, are indicated in a number of documents. A March 1969 document on the Parti Communiste Internationaliste, at that time the French section of the Fourth International, is almost completely censored. In three of the memorandum's seven parts, material is deleted on the basis that it is "Classified information . . . and information provided by a foreign government with the understanding it would be held in confidence."
Material in a March 1975 document dealing with the Trotskyist movement in France is also deleted, since, according to the CIA censor, it was "information provided by a foreign government." A document dated January 1972 advises CIA offices that "Available in the CIA Document and Pictorial Services Division is a seven-page review, in French, of the activities of a Trotskyite organization, the Communist League, in factories and other business enterprises."
In addition to receiving reports from French police agents on the trade-union and political activities of the French Trotskyists, there are indications that the CIA had its own agents at work collecting information. An April 1973 report on the "role of the Trotskyist Communist League in organizing student demonstrations; tactics of French labor with regard to students," is censored under the heading of "source revealing information" instead of the heading "information provided by a foreign government."
It is also clear that the CIA returned the favors of friendly political police organizations elsewhere in the world. One CIA file on the Ad Hoc Committee to Support French Workers and Students said:
"Subject organization is a coalition of several U.S. organizations which demonstrated in June 1968 in support of striking French workers and students in protest of the French government's ban on public demonstrations, radical organizations, and the arrest of political activists."
The demonstrations, the memorandum notes, "were peaceful and orderly" with only one exception. (Police in Berkeley, California, attacked and tried to break up a peaceful demonstration.)
Peaceful protests, however, were apparently considered subversive by the CIA. The memorandum included a breakdown of the U.S. demonstrations by city, along with identified sponsors and demonstrators. Additional censored material appeared with each name and organization. Can there be any doubt that a report was dispatched to the appropriate French police agency?
Another example of the collaboration between the French and the American governments for the purpose of suppressing political dissent is provided by a telegram in the CIA files. Dated November 1972, the telegram is from the American consul in Martinique.
"French authorities," it says, "are expelling two Amcit [American citizen] members of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party for engaging in political activities in Martinique."
Did American authorities protest this infringement of democratic rights? Did they ask for an explanation of why American socialists were being forbidden to meet with advocates of independence for the French colony?
No, the U.S. consul was too busy helping the French police. The telegram explains: "For purposes hearing, local French authorities request info about possible subversive activities in which Thomas and Washington [the two SWP members] may have previously engaged including any involving illegal black power groups. Information may either be unclassified or, if appropriate, handed over to French authorities by consulate in confidence."
Unfortunately for the image of French democracy, Thomas and Washington had not been engaging in any illegal activities, either in the United States or in Martinique. The colonial regime had to expel them simply for attending a political meeting. And in fact, by refusing to grant the two socialists a hearing, the French authorities violated their own laws.
Of course, the CIA did not confine its so-called counterintelligence activities against the Trotskyist movement to France. The documents turned over to the SWP and YSA so far deal with about twenty countries.
It was apparently standard procedure for the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to cooperate in monitoring the travel of all SWP leaders. A number of forms labeled "FBI Liaison" in the CIA files contain travel plans of SWP leadersincluding vacation plans. Sometimes the FBI requested the CIA to spy on socialists travelling abroad. In other cases, the CIA acted on its own.
Antiwar Movement a CIA Target
What was the CIA so interested in? To begin with, the movement against the war in Vietnam was a prime target of the CIA spies. The CIA maintained files on all leaders of the American antiwar movement. For example, a number of SWP leaders are listed in documents headed "National Mobilization Committee Personalities." (This was the name of one of the American antiwar coalitions.)
One such document, dated March 6, 1969, reports that "Barry SHEPPARD, Editor of "The Militant', visited Saigon, Tokyo, and several Western European countries for the announced purpose of reaching GI's in Vietnam and at bases around the world with the anti-war program of the SWP."
Another document shows that a CIA informer attended the World Assembly for Peace, held in France in 1972, and made a detailed report on the events there and the persons involved.
A 1973 CIA report on the Fourth International said:
Although tactics and activities vary from country to country, depending on local conditions, the international organization is capable of coordinating activities of its member sections to provide greater impact on world opinion. Prior to the planned [antiwar] marches on Washington and San Francisco in April 1971 by the Socialist Workers Party (the American section of the United Secretariat), the International Executive Committee sent letters urging groups throughout the world to demonstrate their solidarity with the anti-war movement in the United States.*
Subversive action indeed!
'Operation Chaos'
There are indications that the CIA did not simply stand by and observe the development of the antiwar movement. Under the direction of Lyndon B. Johnson, it began a "counterintelligence" program in 1967 directed against domestic dissenters—a program that later took on the suggestive name of "Operation Chaos."
In this regard, it is worth quoting an April 13, 1971, cable to an overseas CIA station:
1. [censored] 24 April demonstrations are being sponsored by the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC), which is dominated by Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the SWP's youth organization Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), and the YA influenced Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. . . .
2. Only SWP member recently in your area, best HQs knowledge, is Peter Camejo [censored]
3. [three censored lines] action [censored].
What was the local CIA office supposed to do about the "only SWP member recently in your area"? What type of "action"—a word that was apparently left in the document inadvertently—was suggested? These are the type of questions that the SWP and YSA will be bringing up as their suit proceeds.
As part of Operation Chaos, the CIA spied on the activities of American Trotskyists in Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. For instance, Linda Jenness, the SWP's 1972 presidential candidate, came under surveillance when she travelled to Chile during that election campaign.
"Believe it very possible that American Trotskyists may travel to Mexico (classified matter)," a February 1972 document says. It continues: "Would appreciate receiving any info (classified matter) concerning such travels/contacts. Suggest that likely candidates are: Joe HANSEN, Barry SHEPPARD, Jack BARNES, and possibly (information does not pertain to subjects) (classified matter)."
The CIA was also interested in events in Spain, as a September 1975 report titled "Tension Over Basque Death Sentences Mounts in Spain" indicates. An October 1972 document on Spain, labeled "Eyes only (CIA employee) (Sensitivity indicator Operation Chaos)," reports:
"On 13 Oct 72, per Ref A suggestion, (CIA source) was alerted to the arrival of Peter Camejo (classified matter) in Barcelona 'possibly to contact Spanish Trotskyist leaders' there. (CIA source) was asked to keep us informed on subject's activities there."
After recording information obtained from this CIA informer, the memorandum says, "In line with Ref B instructions which received 25 Oct, will not raise subject or press (CIA source) for any follow up action this case. However, will pass on any info which (CIA source) may volunteer on subject to headquarters and (foreign city). (Administrative matter) (Administrative matter)."
What type of "follow up action" was rejected in this case-and not rejected in others? How much "info" was passed on to Franco's fascist police? Were communications with the Franco regime's repressive apparatus considered "administrative matters"?
A Helping Hand in Bolivia
Latin America is another area that the CIA pays particular attention to. SWP leaders Joseph Hansen and George Novack, for example, are both singled out because of their role in aiding the defense of Latin American political prisoners.
A September 1968 CIA memorandum credits Novack and Hansen with initiating the U.S. Committee for Justice to Latin American Political Prisoners (USLA, or USLAJC in CIA parlance). "It was organized in late 1966 in order to seek amnesty for Hugo BLANCO, a Peruvian revolutionary fighter, and to combat the arrests of revolutionaries of Latin America," the CIA memorandum states.
Among the subversive activities carried out by USLA, the CIA report says, was a November 1966 picket line where "demonstrators tried to present petitions requesting clemency for Hugo BLANCO to the Peruvian Mission but were unable to do so." Also listed is an April 1967 news release "calling for amnesty for all political prisoners in Bolivia. It requested that letters and telegrams be sent to the President of Bolivia asking for better treatment of political prisoners."
Especially upsetting to the CIA was the first issue of the USLA Reporter. "The intended purpose of the bulletin was to disseminate information, as complete as possible, relating to all political prisoners in Latin America and to activities of the USLAJC."
The CIA documents turned over to the SWP and YSA deal with at least eleven Latin American countries, but by far the most extensive coverage was devoted to Bolivia during the period of 1965-68. During this period the dictatorship of Gen. Réne Barrientos, which was closely tied to Washington, had to contend with intense social unrest among the Bolivian masses.
Just how close the Barrientos regime was to American imperialism was indicated when Antonio Arguedas Mendieta held a news conference in La Paz in August 1968. "Until one month ago," the New York Times reported August 25, 1968, "Arguedas was Bolivia's Minister of Government, one of the highest Cabinet offices, which combines the functions of Interior Minister, Chief of Police and Chief of Intelligence."
Disillusioned by the role of the CIA in his country, Arguedas chose to spill the beans. "The declarations he made, if true, would indicate that the Bolivian Government for the past three years has been little more than a mouthpiece for the United States, notably the C.I.A.," the Times article noted. (For a full account of Arguedas' charges, see Intercontinental Press, September 23, 1968, p. 770.)
The CIA's solicitude for the Barrientos regime was indicated in an April 1966 document on the "plans of the Bolivian Trotskyist party for May Day." It reported:
The political bureau of the Bolivian Trotskyist party (POR) met with the La Paz regional committee of the POR in La Paz on 18 April 1966 to formulate a program for the 1 May 1966 celebrations.
Those in attendance were [names listed]. At the meeting it was revealed that the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) and the Democratic Council of the People (CDP) planned to arrange a parade and other demonstrations for 1 May. In support of the COB and CDP effort, it was decided that the POR would do the following:
A. Publish a special issue of Masas [the POR newspaper]:
B. Publish a manifesto addressed to the Bolivian workers and people.
C. Mobilize the entire POR for the May Day parade.
D. Publish and distribute 100,000 hand bills commemorating May Day.
E. In collaboration with other political groups belonging to the CDP, undertake demonstrations against the military junta and organize defensive shock forces to counter any governmental offensive against them.
Following this report, an entire page is devoted to unspecified "organizational data," according to the CIA censor. In light of the context, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the CIA was helping the dictatorship to organize the repression of the Bolivian people.
Covering Up the Crimes
According to its charter, the CIA is supposed to operate only outside of the United States. But, as Watergate showed, it is impossible to resort to terrorism and repression abroad without importing the same methods into the internal life of the country responsible for their use.
CIA operations inside the United States came to light as a result of the Watergate investigation. The news was too hot to sit on, and on December 22, 1974, the New York Times reported that "according to well-placed Government sources," the CIA "conducted a massive, illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar move ment and other dissident groups in the United States. ...
In an attempt to prevent the American people from learning the full extent of the CIA's crimes, the Ford administration appointed a "blue-ribbon" commission to investigate and report on the agency's activities. Nelson Rockefeller, the head of the most prominent ruling-class family in the United States, who as governor of New York ordered the Attica Prison massacre, was chosen to preside over the whitewash.
"There are things which have been done which are in contradiction to the statutes," Rockefeller concluded after five months of study, "but in comparison to the total effort they are not major."
Even Senator Frank Church called the Rockefeller Commission report "the tip of the iceberg." In a June 11, 1975, editorial, the New York Times called the CIA operation in the United States that of "an embryonic police state."
The ruling class, however, decided to try to choke off further revelations. President Ford, one White House aide explained, considered investigation of CIA assassination plots "basically an historic exercise." Material on such plots was deleted from the Rockefeller report.
An overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives endorsed Ford's coverup in January 1976, when they voted to keep key sections of a House investigation secret. When CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr obtained a copy of the report and made it available for publication, he was threatened with a citation for contempt of Congress.
A more subtle approach was taken by the Senate, which issued its own heavily censored report in April. Although the Senate report produced little new material on the CIA, it promised an end to the agency's abuses through the establishment of a congressional oversight committee.
But the CIA documents that have come out as a result of the SWP and YSA suit prove that the Senate investigation headed by Frank Church was as much a cover-up as its predecessors. Government committees, for example, insisted that CIA spying in the United States began in 1967. In fact, the CIA files include material on the SWP going back to 1949.
"According to a report dated 7 February 1951," one CIA memorandum says, "Frank LOVELL, member of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), charged that American intervention in Korea was a 'most brazen act of imperialism.'"
CIA surveillance inside the United States picked up during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The CIA files contain reports on the YSA from New York, Berkeley, and Boston in this period. The CIA's Boston field office filed a report in 1961 on a rally held to protest the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
Later CIA reports on the YSA came from Utah, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Another facet of the cover-up is that not one of the official investigations of the CIA ever mentioned the fact that the agency was systematically spying on American citizens travelling abroad. This abuse was also uncovered by the SWP and YSA suit.
Finally, the Rockefeller Commission reported that the CIA stopped keeping files on legal political activities of American citizens in March 1974, when Operation Chaos was ended. But the CIA itself listed one cable to an unnamed overseas station dated November 20, 1974-eight months after the supposed March cutoff date-in its dossier on Peter Camejo. The CIA refused to release the cable on the grounds that it is "based on a request of a foreign intelligence service."
CIA spying inside the United States also continued after March 1974. A document dated May 3, 1974, said: "[Censored] Scheduled attend private filming of documentary on life Trotsky on 28 April in New York. SWP old timers George Novak (sic) [censored] also scheduled be present. Provided [censored] some general topics for discussion with SWers if opportunity presented."
The CIA admits that it is continuing to collect information on the American Trotskyist movement, claiming that this is "incidental" to, or a "by-product" of, its operations against the Fourth International abroad. As former CIA Director William Colby explained in January 1976, the end of Operation Chaos "doesn't mean the end of all counter-intelligence.
Trotskyists 'Targets of Opportunity'
Summing up the activities of the SWP, a 1964 CIA document commented:
The SWP, in order to escape from its restrictive isolation, promotes or penetrates organizations which are likely to arouse some part of the population. Causes taken up by the SWP in this way are the Cuban question (through the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) and the Committee for Travel to Cuba), the integration problem, civil liberties in general, and labor problems. . . .
As the anonymous CIA commentator saw it, "The SWP is calculated to inflame primarily the unbalanced, the dissatisfied, the desperate, and those who do not care. In special circumstances the SWP might well create, or stimulate, serious problems."
The CIA, like the FBI, has gone to extraordinary lengths in searching for actions by the SWP and the YSA that could be interpreted as justifiable reasons for filing criminal charges against the two organizations. The agency's concern was reflected in a 1956 CIA document reporting that the SWP actually ran candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency in the 1956 elections."
But supporting civil liberties, inflaming the dissatisfied, and running candidates in elections are not crimes in the eyes of the American people. The CIA has tried to get around this fact by smearing the Fourth International as a whole as a terrorist organization. The SWP's contacts with the Fourth International, it argues, justifies the continuing surveillance.
Following the reunification of the Fourth International in June 1963, the CIA stated in a memorandum, "We are presently endeavoring to increase our coverage of FI activities throughout the world."
Referring to a person who was in attendance at the Ninth World Congress of the Fourth International, a September 1969 dispatch said, "information indicating that (foreign city) has had an operational relationship with this individual in the not too distant past. Perhaps this relationship is worth reviewing with an eye to possible re-establishment. . . ."
CIA officials refused to answer when asked by lawyers for the SWP and YSA: "Are you aware of any cases in connection with Operation Chaos in which the overseas offices of the CIA attempted to disrupt activities of the Fourth International?"
However, a November 1973 report on "the status of the international Trotskyist movement" noted: "While operations against Trotskyist organizations are not of high priority, we encourage field station attention to targets of opportunity in this field."
'A Threat to the National Interest'
During the course of the court proceedings, the CIA submitted a statement in defense of its attempts to disrupt the Fourth International. According to this statement:
The Fourth International is a revolutionary Trotskyist organization which has supported international terrorist movements and whose constituent sections, such as that in Argentina, have engaged in notorious acts of murder and kidnaping to achieve their ends. Furthermore, the Fourth International has taken part in revolutionary violence to overthrow democratic governments such as its admitted role in the Paris riots of May and June 1968 and has supported guerrilla warfare in Latin America against governments friendly to the United States. Finally, the Fourth International has assisted Communist regimes hostile to the United States in worldwide propaganda campaigns against the United States and its allies. Thus, the Fourth International is a threat to the national interest of the United States in curbing national terrorism and in protecting its allies from revolutionary violence and internal subversion.
Let's examine this tissue of lies more closely. First, the CIA claims that the Fourth International "has supported international terrorist movements" and that its sections "have engaged in notorious acts of murder and kidnaping...
First to be noted in this charge is the hypocrisy of the agency making it. The CIA's assassination plots against heads of state have made headlines around the world. And the CIA was also responsible for the "Phoenix" program in Vietnam, under which some 20,000 persons were murdered because of their political views. Doesn't this qualify as. "notorious acts of murder and kidnaping"?
It is noteworthy that Argentina is the only place named by the cloak-and-dagger agency in its claim that the Fourth International supports terrorism. Apparently, they are referring to the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP- Revolutionary People's Army). But the ERP never claimed to be a Trotskyist organization, despite the fact that the capitalist press chose to identify it that way at various times. Nor was the ERP associated with the Fourth International.
In fact, the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (PRT—Revolutionary Workers party), which sponsored the ERP, broke with the Fourth International and asked the world press to stop calling it "Trotskyist," since it was not Trotskyist. The CIA, of course, was well aware of this fact. One of the documents turned over to the SWP and YSA was a report on the news conference at which PRT leader Roberto Santucho announced his break with the Fourth International.
Mandel's Answer to 'Terrorist' Smear
The CIA's attempt to equate revolutionary socialism with terrorism is hardly an original device. Similar smears-often planted by the CIA-have been appearing in the world press for years. In 1972, for example, Newsweek magazine ran an article labeling the Fourth International as a "terrorist international."
Ernest Mandel, the Belgian Trotskyist leader, answered the smear at the time, although Newsweek declined to print his letter. The Fourth International, Mandel said, "is not a terrorist organization but has always rejected the philosophy and methods of terrorism, opposed to the Marxist principles it stands for."
". . . we do not fight by means of dynamite, bombs, or the like."
Taking up the intent behind the smear, Mandel said: "Nobody should be surprised that terrorists who happen to wield state power and, in that position, pursue their political goals by murdering thousands of innocent people ... call their opponents 'criminal terrorists.' The political function of this linguistic trick is obviously to facilitate and justify in advance mass repression, mass persecution, mass torture and, if necessary, mass killing of political opponents ....
"Police informers and other professionals in the noble art of curtailing freedom of thought, speech, organization, and travel the world over are experts in this type of frame-up. They cannot understand this simple truth: that society can only be changed through the efforts of millions, of broad social forces, and that it is ridiculous to attribute to Marxists the wish to 'conspire' and to build socialism without the conscious resolution of the majority of the toilers."
The CIA, however, cares nothing for the truth. Its job is to give the most sinister and twisted interpretation to every event in hopes of being able to arrange the victimization of any who struggle for progressive social change. Thus, the CIA's statement in court defending its attacks on the Fourth International argues that "the Fourth International has taken part in revolutionary violence to overthrow democratic governments such as its admitted role in the Paris riots of May and June 1968 and has supported guerrilla warfare in Latin America against governments friendly to the United States."
They think, perhaps, that the world has forgotten the CIA-engineered coups responsible for the dictatorial regimes in Tran and Chile. The CIA, which tried to fix elections from Italy to Japan, and which elections from Italy to dapan, and which trains secret police in the arts of repression and torture from Korea to Brazil-what a supporter of democratic governments!
As for the French Trotskyists, they certainly did take part in the demonstrations of May-June 1968. So did 10 million to 12 million other French workers, students, and peasants. The only violence that took place was the result of police attacks on the demonstrators, and the attempts of the government to suppress and evade the clearly expressed will of the people.
What about the CIA's charge, expressed in the same statement quoted above, that the Fourth International "has supported guerrilla warfare in Latin America against governments friendly to the United States"?
Once again, the charge is ironic, coming as it does from an agency that has supported private armies all over the world. As the House Committee on Intelligence reported, "A huge arsenal of weapons and access to ammunition have been developed by CIA, giving it a capability that exceeds most armies of the world."
But what is really at issue is a basic democratic right. When the oppressed and exploited are denied the right to effect peaceful social change, they have the right to take up arms against their oppression.
This is a principle that was affirmed in the American Declaration of Independence, which declared that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed," that they are instituted to secure certain inalienable rights, and that "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
This well-known subversive document on the democratic right of a people to overthrow their government adds that "when a long train of abuses and usurpations ... evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Unfortunately, the United States government today stands on the wrong side of those struggles in which the people of the world are attempting to throw off the yoke of oppression. It is, in fact, the prime supporter of inequality and exploitation around the world.
It is in this context that the CIA's final charge in its statement against the Fourth International should be viewed. The Fourth International, the CIA says, "has assisted Communist regimes hostile to the United States in worldwide propaganda campaigns against the United States and its allies.
According to the McCarthyite logic of the CIA witch-hunters, the movement against the war in Vietnam and for the right of the Vietnamese people to selfdetermination was one of these *worldwide propaganda campaigns against the United States and its allies."
No doubt the CIA considers the worldwide campaigns in defense of political prisoners in Chile, Iran, and South Korea in the same category. After all, these dictatorial regimes are certainly "governments friendly to the United States."
The American Trotskyists, however, have a different view. The SWP and YSA refuse to support butchers like Pinochet or the shah of Iran, even if they are "friendly to the United States" government. And, as Patrick Henry declared during the American Revolution, "If this be treason, make the most of it."
Notes
*Two lies should be noted in this CIA statement. First, the SWP is not a section of the Fourth International; reactionary legislation passed in 1940 forced the American Trotskyists to sever formal ties with their international cothinkers. Second, the April 24, 1971, antiwar demonstrations-which drew 500,000 persons in Washington, D.C., alone-were not SWP operations, although the SWP participated in them and helped to build them. They were sponsored by a broad coalition that included members of Congress.