OUTLOOK Rudi aanertth
Vol. 6, No. 15 April 19, 1968
Racist Officials
Aim New Blows
at Black Leaders
The Triple Crisis
Faced by America’s Rulers
Johnson Once Again
Breaks Troop ‘Ceiling’
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THE TRIPLE CRISIS FACED BY AMERICA'S RULERS
By George Novack
Those sedated and shortsighted folk with faith in the impregnable solidity of American capitalism (and there are almost as many such "true believers" in some parts of the "socialist camp" as in the enemy camp nowadays) should ponder on what has been happening to the world's paramount power these past few weeks.
The rulers of the United States have been reeling from the shocks of three convergent crises: the setback in Vietnam, the weakness of the dollar, and, closest to home, the outbreaks in over a hundred cities following the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination.
The toppling of an incumbent wartime president from office is an event without precedent in American political history. It was produced by the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese freedom fighters and the mounting domestic opposition to the war. Johnson decided to withdraw from the presidential race because the majority of Congress and his own party as well as the majority of the American people had withdrawn their confidence in his administration and policies.
This loss of confidence was especially pronounced in view of the overwhelming vote the president received four years ago. Whereas in the cabinet form of parliamentary democracy, a discredited and crippled head of government would have submitted his resignation, in the U.S. political system the president could only refuse renomination.
But the political significance of the action is the same. An unpopular statesmen and his policies have been repudiated. He has been tried, found wanting, and compelled to acknowledge it in the terms of the American two-party system.
Johnson's refusal to run again does more than recognize that the country is no longer in sympathy with his course. It defers to demands from influential sectors of the ruling class that something more be done without delay to get out of the military mess in Vietnam.
By stepping aside he clears the way for a new helmsman, who can keep the ship of state from listing too much or going aground. By initiating discussions with Hanoi he makes possible a shift in Washington's tactics. The results of the parleys will show how much ground, if any, Johnson himself is willing to cede at this juncture.
* * *
As General Giap lifted the siege
of Khesanh in connection with the pend-
ing discussions, Washington came under
direct siege from the Afro-Americans
aroused by King's murder. The president
could see and smell smoke from buildings
burning two blocks from the White House.
Federal troops ringed the Capitol and
took over the city like an occupation
army.
Similar scenes were enacted in
125 U.S. centers of population. Some
65,000 federal troops -- the largest
muster of domestic force since the Civil
War -- were called out, in addition to
state troops and local police, to subdue
the insurgency.
Federal, state and local author-
ities feared that the nation trembled
on the edge of mass insurrection and
that overzealous repressions might pro-
voke an uncontrollable showdown of the
opposing forces. Although they hoped to
cool the situation without large-scale
battles, the amount of force they ap-
plied against the black communities was
not inconsiderable. There were 20,000
arrests and 43 killed in the week follow-
ing the murder of King.
As a rule, the outbursts were
most intense in those areas which had
been quietest last year. Washington was
one of those places. Here is one small
fact to account for the venting of such
vehement anger in the nation's capital
after the assassination of the preacher
of nonviolence.
In Washington, 47 percent of the
1967 graduating class at Eastern High
School is unemployed. "Eastern is pri-
marily a black man's school," observed
Ward Just, reporter of the Washington
Post, "and it seems a reasonable pre-
sumption that some of the youngsters
participating in the current unpleasant-
ness are some of the jobless.
"Of course, through the largesse
of the District school system many East-
ern students know how to use weapons.
Under the cadet program, the students
are handed rifles and taught how to use
them. Johnnie may not know how to read,
but he surely will know how to aim."
What do the possessors of power
and property propose to do to rectify
the wrongs and alleviate the conditions
of the poor that Dr. King was fighting
against in his fashion?
"Until Thursday night (the time
Dr. King was killed)," according to the
; PERO QUE TIPO ESTE JOHNSON !...
"Diny" Dracula Pérez says, "But what a queer person this Johnson is!...He even let's the good news fall like a bomb!"
April 7, 1968, New York Times, “President Johnson had shown not the slightest indication of acting on or really even listening to Dr. King's demands, in his planned spring and summer poor people's campaign in Washington for ‘jobs or income now' for the nation's underclass."
The furor following the assasina-— tion finally forced Congress to pass a civil-rights bill to decrease racial dis-— crimination in housing and other areas. But Congress will not appropriate funds to provide adequate low-cost housing for black people or create jobs to help poor families pay the rent. And the civilrights bill itself contains provisions for punitive measures against militant black leaders.
As highly placed officials marched behind the mule-drawn casket at King's funeral in Atlanta April 9, they voiced doubts that his death would lead to substantial reforms. Listen to this account by the New York Post columnist Jimmy Breslin:
"Once, John Doar put up his life in Southern towns as a Justice Dept. civil rights man. Last year, the Civil Rights Division became a domestic troop deployment agency and John Doar quit. And yesterday he walked behind his old friend Martin Luther King, and he was saying, 'I can't see anything good coning of it. We gained six inches and people thought we gained six miles and they
j HASTA LAS
BUENAS NOTICIAS
HACE
-- Blankito in the Montevideo weekly Marcha
The headline on the paper reads: "Johnson:
‘IT am suspending the bombing and I am go-
ing to negotiate peace.'"
wanted us to stop. I don't think we'll
see any good come out of this man's
death....'
"Burke Marshall was walking next
to Doar. Marshall was in charge of civil
rights for the Justice Dept. Now he is
an attorney in New York. ‘Nothing has
happened before and I can't see anything
happening out of this now,' he said.
‘I'm not the least bit optimistic.'
"Ahead of them, walking with his
wife, was John Lindsay of New York. [He
is both mayor of the largest city and
vice-chairman of the National Advisory
Commission on Civil Disorders.] He was
tired and irritated. ‘If they want to
do something, then take the recommenda-
tions in the report on civil disorders
and turn them into laws,' he said. ‘Let's
do something realistic instead of a one-
day show of conscience. But nothing'1ll
happen. Did it ever?'"
* * *
The third problem besetting the
U.S. capitalist class -- its financial
troubles -- looms as an insurmountable
block to Congress. It promises to prevent
all the sorrowful rhetoric and proposals
for improvements which have gushed from
liberal lips the past week from being
translated into performance.
The prospects for any remedial ac-
tion, let alone reformist solutions, are
, - HASTA LAS ; PERO QUE BUENAS NOTICIAS TIPO ESTE LAS HACE CAER JOHNSON &...
very slim. By capitalist standards it is far more important to provide $30 billion a year for the war in Vietnam and billions more to police the world for inmperialism -- even if that keeps unbalancing the budget -- than to spend money for new social programs which cater to the needs of the poor.
This was bluntly stated on April 9 by Tom Wicker, chief Washington corres-— pondent of the New York Times: "Congress will not tax [the nation] heavily enough to finance both a war and a social revolution without a deterioration of the dollar. Therefore, the President might as well save the words he is being asked to say to Congress, particularly since the need now is so clearly for something that speaks louder than words."
In fact, the tax increase passed by the Senate stipulates a reduction of $6 billion in social-welfare expenditures which are already being cut back in one black community after another.
*x* * *
In the deluge of comments on Dr.
King's martyrdom, the sympathizers with
his methods and goals generally agreed
that "this country is sick." They would
usually hasten to add that it was not
"sick unto death." They kept insisting
that something could, should and would
be done to prevent Dr. King's dream of
equality and emancipation for all from
turning into "a nightmare."
The liberals, moderates and pacif-
ists continue to expect -~ or to hope --
that the sources of protest will be elin-
inated from above by the representatives
of the rich who receive such munificent
privileges from exploiting the millions
of oppressed Afro-Americans. What an il-
lusion!
Those who own and control America
cannot be persuaded -- either for their
own good or the good of others -- to
desist from the disastrous courses they
must follow at home or abroad. In order
to bring about the desired fundamental
changes in our society they will have to
be removed by mass action from below.
WHAT STOKELY CARMICHAEL