Footnotes and subheadings are in the original. Copyright © 1982 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission.  
 
1. Our Approach That of Class Struggle
Our approach to the Jewish question can be none other than that of the international class struggle. In its death agony the capitalist class maintains itself in power by resorting to unmitigated brutality and violence aimed at the working class, particularly at its vanguard. It utilizes every element of hatred and prejudice which it can fan into flame to bring about division among the masses and to establish a social basis for its fascist, gangster rule.

The Jews, by virtue of the fact that everywhere they form only a small minority of the population, and because anti-Semitism has always been fostered, sometimes openly, sometimes in masked form, constitute an easy scapegoat upon whom the big bourgeoisie can divert the pent-up, dangerous wrath of the backward elements among the masses, and particularly of the desperate middle classes.

The fascist hirelings of the big bourgeoisie use the most vicious, lying propaganda to inflame to pogrom temperature the dormant antagonism to the Jews. Precisely because the fomenting of anti-Semitism has become an inseparable part of the technique of fascist reaction, the revolutionary party has a double duty to perform in combating it. It has the duty of exposing the real aims of the capitalists, hidden behind the smokescreen of anti-Semitism and thereby inoculating the masses against the poison; it has also the special task of mobilizing the real defense of the persecuted Jews, a defense of necessity based on the might of the organized working class. If these tasks are properly carried out, then we can at the same time hope to attract to our firm support the Jewish masses.  
 
2. Democracy, Assimilation, and the Jews
The speed of political and social democracy during the progressive period of capitalism in the advanced countries, seemed to hold out the hope that the Jews would in time become indistinguishable from the rest of the population--that, in short, they would be assimilated. This process went furthest in Germany and in the United States.

The present decay of capitalism on a world scale and in each and every country, has, on the contrary, not merely arrested the movement towards assimilation but has brought its speedy reversal. To defend its hold on property and its exploitation of the toiling masses, national capitalism makes use of the ideology of national chauvinism. This is made the foundation of the totalitarian state. In the name of national chauvinism democratic rights are completely stripped from the working class. In exchange for these rights the masses are permitted the unrestricted play of anti-Semitism.

The reactionary measures taken against the Jews in Germany and Austria, driving so many to suicide, are a yardstick by which to measure the strides taken by rotting capitalism back to the Middle Ages. At one stroke the Jews are deprived not only of their democratic rights, as citizens, but of the elementary possibility of earning a livelihood. In this hideous fashion does capitalist democracy reach its end, not having lasted long enough to permit assimilation.

Many Jews--and not only Jews--delude themselves with the soothing thought that America is different, that these same phenomena cannot happen here. They continue to picture the United States as a great melting pot with a democracy far more securely founded than was European democracy. But the Jews and the entire working class must be forewarned--the same causes leading to decay are visibly at work here, and the same results are not merely possible but absolutely inevitable unless the working class learns, and learns quickly, to defend its hard-earned rights and to take the road to power.

The second crisis piled on top of the first one leaves the capitalist ruling class in a serious predicament and in a quandary concerning the way out. That it is fearful of its continued domination and considers the advisability of strong measures--fascist measures--cannot be doubted. The symptoms of increased discrimination against the Jews, of anti-Semitism, are already present. We must immediately sound the alarm to put the working class on guard against all the reactionary conspiracies of the big bourgeoisie; more particularly we must awaken the Jewish masses to a sense of realization of the danger and above all we must propose the proper measures to be taken against the growing danger.  
 
3. Bridge from Jewish Nationalism to the Class Struggle
The blows dealt to the Jews in one country after the other have tended to give new vitality to the Zionist movement¹ the national solution proposed for the Jews by many. What is our attitude on Palestine as a homeland for the Jews? The Fourth International has inscribed on its banner the giving of aid by the proletariat to the struggle for the self-determination of oppressed nationalities. But the international dispersion of the Jews creates a special problem not present in this form for any other nationality. Palestine is a land already occupied by a hostile people, the Arabs. Palestine, considered as part of the capitalist world, can be nothing but the catspaw of imperialism, particularly of British imperialism at the present time. The history of Palestine in the generation since the war has been the self-same history of class exploitation as for all capitalist countries. The workers in Palestine have suffered all the ills of capitalism.

We do not yield at all to Jewish nationalism and hence we point out all these facts. But it must be our attempt to create a bridge between the oppressed Jewish masses who are inclined to Jewish nationalism and the proletariat, particularly the vanguard in the Fourth International. We must make clear to the Jewish nationalists that even to carry out their ideal, their solution, it is necessary first of all to rid the world of capitalism.

The solution of the Jewish question and that of the working class is a common one: the overthrow of capitalism. The Jews have reached an utter impasse because capitalism has reached an impasse. Only through the class struggle will the Jews find a road to the future. By building such a bridge we can achieve the goal of Lenin, whose acceptance of the formula of self-determination meant, among other things, one more means for mobilizing all the oppressed side by side with the workers against the capitalist system. National oppression is not the least of the forms of capitalist oppression.  
 
4. The Fight for Unrestricted Immigration
In view of the awful plight of the Jews, it must be made a special point in the program of the various sections of the Fourth International to fight against restrictions on immigration, particularly Jewish immigration. In the U.S. we must fight against the imposing of barriers such as the necessity to prove by showing money or through affidavits that the immigrant will not become a public charge. Part of our combating of anti-Semitism must take the form of a fight for unrestricted immigration for refugees, especially Jews.  
 
5. The Jewish Bourgeoisie
It is an elementary principle of Marxism that the class lines cut across the national lines. The Jewish bourgeoisie, fearful as they may be of the advent of fascism, remain first of all capitalist exploiters. It is their aim--as their assignment by their class for the preservation of the capitalist system--to seize hold of the Jewish movement so as to subordinate the Jewish masses to the capitalist class, so as to keep the Jews separate from the general masses and thus apart from the class struggle....  
 
7. The Jews, Other National Minorities, and the Workers
The Jews form a small minority of the American population--some 4.5 million out of 130 million. If the defense of the Jews depended on themselves alone, then their case would indeed be hopeless. But here again the Jewish masses must be shown the bridge to our movement, that of the Fourth International. For it is primarily upon the American workers that the Jews must lean for support in their struggle to maintain their joint rights.

Our propaganda against anti-Semitism is directed not to Jews but first of all to the American working class. It draws at every point the lesson that the attack against the Jews is merely the spearhead of the attack against the American working class for the purpose of lowering their standards of living and rendering them powerless to resist this economic blow by depriving them of their democratic rights.

The workers and the Jewish masses are natural allies in the antifascist struggle. Our propaganda among both is to convince them to defeat fascism the workers must establish socialism. Not only the general working class is the natural ally of the Jews, but all the other national minorities--Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Poles, Russians--who are assigned a lower status by the American ruling class, can be enlisted in the struggle for the rights of national minorities including the Jews. Above all the Negroes must be linked up with the struggle against reaction, for the Negroes are the worst victims of capitalist exploitation. Their struggle for equal rights is of the utmost importance for the workers' cause.

National chauvinism is the cover for social patriotism. The struggle of the workers aided by the oppressed nationalities against chauvinism must inevitably take account of social patriotism and the propaganda for support of the capitalist class and its government in imperialist war. The fostering of social patriotism in the ranks of the working class means the weakening of the struggle against fascism. The Stalinists pursue precisely this course of betrayal, which plays into the hands of reaction and weakens the workers' movement.  
 
8. Transition Program and the Jews
The transition program includes the necessity for building workers' defense groups. This idea can find especially fertile soil for implanting and for growth into reality among the Jewish masses. It goes without saying that such defense groups constituted under our influence must not consist of Jews alone. Nevertheless, we must take full advantage of the great concentration of the Jews in New York City to enlist as many as possible in such defense organizations. In this respect the situation in Jersey City² and its implications for the Jews need hardly be emphasized. Jewish organizations must be encouraged to set up defense groups, of which groups should be offered for aid to the workers' organizations. Similarly we must exert our influence wherever possible to have workers' defense groups come to the aid of the Jews when necessary.  
 
9. Jewish Youth
The Jewish youth are the first to bear the brunt of anti-Semitic discrimination. They feel this immediately in seeking jobs, and in the schools and colleges. Thus an especially intensive campaign must be carried on among the youth, who can be rapidly won to our cause. The intellectual Jewish youth in particular are placed in a position which makes them receptive to revolutionary propaganda. Among the youth it is particularly necessary to combat the Stalinist poison of fatalism--that fascism is inevitable. Only the Fourth International can dispel this discouragement and can inspire the youth to fight for victory....  
 

2. The Jersey City government's assaults on the CIO at this time represented an incipient fascist danger, according to the SWP, which tried to enlist not only unions but also the unemployed and oppressed minorities in campaigns against the Frank Hague regime and its extralegal bands.  
 
 
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