BROOKLYN, NY, April 9 — Radiology department technologists at a major medical center here turned the tables on the bosses, forcing them to back   down from their speed-up plan.

Three days ago a manager told five technologists that starting immediately our lunch-hour would be cut in half, from 60 to 30 minutes. Our 7-hour work-day incorporates two 15-minute rest periods which would now be eliminated. We have a 60-minute unpaid lunch-hour. So they intended us to work a 7½-hour day with no additional compensation, clearly violating our union contract with S.E.I.U. Local 1199.

Ten workers in radiology are regular CHALLENGE readers and are overwhelmingly black and Latino. They respond favorably to our strong anti-racist stands. Our department union delegate is a PLP member. After several discussions, we deemed the bosses’ plan unacceptable and collectively decided to fight this attack.

This morning the union organizer — who has a long history of corruption — entered the main work area with two managers and met with the technologists. The organizer said we would not lose our two rest periods but would have only 30 minutes for lunch.

The PLP delegate, who had been excluded from the meeting where this deal was cooked up, loudly stated that this was an attempt to add 2½ hours to our work-week without pay and we would never accept that. Worker after worker rose to challenge the bosses and denounce this deal.

The managers were in disarray and four workers pulled the organizer aside to let him know he was on the wrong side and he better get his facts and act straight. We immediately instituted a slowdown which brought the ultrasound and x-ray work to a crawl. An hour later we heard that the bosses had temporarily backed off their plan. Two hours later it was dead in the water.

This attack may have been a trial balloon to gauge whether they could impose longer hours on the other 1199 technologists in the lab, in obstetrics and in cardiology. It’s been 20 years since this kind of unity and militancy has occurred in our department. It resulted from dedicated organizing work by key CHALLENGE readers and other workers who have responded to our calls for action. We’re attempting to use the momentum from this struggle to organize hospital workers to join the April 28th May Day march in Brooklyn.

We realize this victory will be short-lived since the bosses still have the upper hand in this institution and in society. Nonetheless, it can spark the beginnings of a rising communist movement at the hospital.

Much work remains to be done. New PLP members must be recruited and step up to the plate. CHALLENGE sales must be expanded several fold from the current 24. Visiting workers at home will be crucial to further advance.

We must win workers to see the Progressive Labor Party as their party and as the leadership necessary to smash the bosses’ dictatorship over every aspect of our lives. Only egalitarian communism will provide health care and sustenance to all workers, another reason to fight for communist revolution.

May Day has always had two sides to it: one that demands reforms, and the revolutionary side that organizes to destroy capitalism. May Day commemorates a massive strike wave in the U.S., and the particular battle in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in 1886. The movement’s leaders demanded an 8-hour day, but also advocated the “abolition of the wage system.” Six of them were hung by the rulers for their allegiance to the working class and defiance of capitalism. Then and now the capitalists feared this revolutionary side to May Day.

In 1848, Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto, “A specter is haunting Europe, the specter of Communism.” By 1886, the rulers of Chicago saw this specter. “The newspapers and industrialists were increasingly declaring that May 1, 1886 was in reality the date for a Communist working-class insurrection modeled on the Paris Commune. According to Melville E. Stone, Head of the Chicago Daily News...a ‘repetition of the Paris Communal riots was freely predicted’ for May 1, 1886” (Page 90, “Labor’s Untold Story,” Boyer and Morais).

In December 1886, San Francisco transit workers joined this rising strike wave. They demanded a workday reduction from 13-15 hours to 12 hours (then 7 days a week), and for a pay increase from $2.25 to $2.50 a day. “Strike-breakers were hired, and there was a great deal of violence. Cars were damaged, strike-breakers were beaten, and one person was killed.” Newspapers reported eight instances of the use of dynamite by the striking workers. In March 1887, the Governor signed a bill “limiting gripmen, drivers, and conductors to a 12-hour day.” (“Transit In San Francisco” published by SF MUNI RR Communications Department.)

In the 1880’s the early leaders of the American Federation of Labor were somewhat radical — it was actually an AFL delegate’s report to the Marxist-led International Workingmen’s Association that led to the call for the first May Day.

But by the 1920’s the pro-capitalist AFL leadership, fearing the growth of communist ideas in the working class, collaborated with the U.S. government to subvert May Day. At the 1928 AFL Convention, the Executive Council supported a Congressional resolution to make May 1 “Child Health Day.” They said, “May 1 will no longer be known as either strike day or communist labor day.”

The revolutionary side of May Day dominated when the communist movement was strong. During the peak of the communist organizing of the CIO’s industrial unions in the 1930’s and ‘40s, May Day was celebrated in the U.S. As many as 250,000 would march to New York’s Union Square. However, with the advent of the Cold War, and U.S. imperialism’s launching of a worldwide anti-communist offensive, the bosses’ government in Washington helped oust communists from union leadership by making it illegal for them to hold union office. With the triumph of business unionism and anti-communism, organized labor discarded May Day and recognized Labor Day in September.

However, in 1971 PLP resurrected the annual May Day march from its abandonment by the old U.S. Communist Party. PLP has marched in many cities every year since. 

From the Haymarket battle in 1886, revolutionary workers spread May Day around the globe. But history is written by the conquerors, and many workers born here know nothing of the contribution that the U.S. working class, with the support of the international working class and communist movement, made to the development of this revolutionary holiday. Today May Day is the official Labor Day in most countries, but the leadership of these marches demand reforms, and stress the “common goals” of labor and capital.

PLP has learned from the triumphs of the communist movement in the USSR and China, and from their failure to fight directly for communism. We advocate “Abolish the Wage System” as part of changing the relationship of workers and work in a new communist society.

The abolition of money, of production for sale and profit and of the wage system is absolutely necessary to establish communism. When the international working class wins and holds control over all economic, political and cultural institutions of society, it will unleash a creative power that will propel the human race to its highest accomplishments in all fields of endeavor. We call this the dictatorship of the proletariat. We need a mass revolutionary communist party to achieve this. The capitalists will use every means — including mass, fascist terror and war — to prevent it.

For the last several years some groups now want to “Reclaim May Day.” They want to reform the “evils” of capitalism, but disconnect May Day from its communist roots. PLP seeks to keep May Day as a revolutionary international working-class holiday; to advance and popularize communist production for need as the future of the human race; to develop a strong and healthy class hatred that will destroy wage slavery and fascism everywhere.

Long live the 1st of May, the revolutionary, international, working class holiday! Fight for communism!

OAKLAND, April 21 — PL’ers, friends and co-workers gathered for our annual May Day dinner. Reacting to intense attacks and cynicism about the possibility of change, we celebrated the actions and potential of the international working class.  

Presentations, comradeship, great food, art and music helped develop a sense of optimism. A nurse reported on the one-day strike planned for May 1. Later she said,  “My favorite song is Bella Ciao- “Soy comunista toda la vida, y comunista he de morir....” When I’m gone, I want others to remember me  – “She was a communist her whole life.”

A young comrade made the main presentation:  

May Day is the workers’ day. May Day has a 100-year history of workers’ struggles worldwide. May Day is a day for the working-class movement to review its forces…  Only the communist movement unites the masses of the entire world because it encompasses the whole working class.  The “Workers’ Spring” will span the whole globe because the working class is international.  It will light the way toward a future free from exploitation, crisis and war.  The contradictions of capitalism include people who want to work but can’t, or workers evicted from houses which stand empty.  These contradictions will be gone.

On May Day, International Workers Day, we are planting the seeds of working-class consciousness.  These seeds will grow into the Workers’ Spring, unlocking humanity’s true potential for cooperation, equality, peace and sharing on a world-wide scale. 

A mass transit worker and a teacher reviewed the year of struggles against the systematic destruction of these public services. PLP fights the worst and most racist attacks in transit— part-timing of jobs, devastation of community services and destruction of Para-Transit. Para-transit carries the most vulnerable workers: seniors and the disabled.  The capitalists have no use for those whose labor does not create maximum profits. 

The working-class art section of our cultural program was inspired by the German communist, Bertolt Brecht:  “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”   Posters celebrated May Day worldwide, the development of class-consciousness and world revolution.  Two groups performed songs in English, Spanish and Italian and we ended with the Internationale in English and Spanish.  

Afterwards, a friend commented: “Communist socializing is all around us in our communities of families and friends and in helping those less fortunate. Capitalism undermines these relations. Capitalism is not welcome at home but endured at work.  These contradictions impassion our preparation for a better future.”

Groups of workers organizing on the job are planning actions on May 1st. Many will join the May Day Coalition March.   

On May 1st, nurses, dock workers, city and Golden Gate bridge workers and janitors are planning to have one-day strikes and protests  against cuts and substandard contracts.

On hearing about these actions, one friend said”  “Maybe this is the pebble that will start a huge ripple. It needs to be everywhere. “  

May First, March on May Day

PLP is organizing a communist contingent in the larger Coalition March on May 1st. That march, focuses on immigrants’ rights — stopping deportations; amnesty for undocumented workers and fighting the vast inequality and devastation which capitalism creates globally. Occupy Oakland is planning morning actions and then will join the 3 PM March. 

PLP supports these demands and direct actions.  Our communist contingent will broaden this outlook.  We’ll call for unity of the entire working class, whether immigrant or citizen; no matter what heritage, nationality, ethnicity or continent of origin.  Our goal is a world without borders, a communist world. 

Capitalism cannot produce a livable system. Our communist contingent will call for a communist society, around the slogan:  “From each according to ability and commitment, to each according to need.” We invite you to march with us.

Afghans have taken to the streets in recent protests with posters depicting Karzai as a U.S. puppet, showing mutilated women and dead bodies. They burned an effigy of Obama and shouted their anger at the corrupt government, the violence against women and night raids by U.S. troops, and demanded U.S. withdrawal.

In ten years of U.S. occupation, thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed in the fighting between the Taliban insurgents and U.S/NATO troops and in night raids and helicopter attacks by the occupying forces. 

Now the Afghan government and the United States have finalized a strategic partnership extending the U.S. presence until 2024. Under the agreement, to be signed by Karzai and Obama and ratified by the Afghan parliament and the U.S. Congress, the U.S. military will cede final authority on night raids (but not drone attacks) to Afghan security forces, and control of Afghanistan’s prisons to Afghan authorities. It pledges $4 billion a year for the Afghan police and army, with the bulk coming from the U.S. until 2014.

U.S. Forces Will Stay

Many Afghans reacted with skepticism to Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta’s remark that, “ the document provides a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world,” since it allows an unstated number of U.S forces to stay in Afghanistan for 12 years, and ignores the long-term U.S. access to its 30+ military bases. Afghans know this military presence will continue the fighting and killing, with the U.S effectively using Afghanistan to maintain a permanent military presence in the region. 

U. S. Ambassador Crocker said it cements a long-term strategic partnership between “two equal and sovereign states.” Afghans know this means the U.S will continue to prop up a government of thieves, warlords, drug dealers and war profiteers who run the country, continuing the misery and horror of daily life. 

Taliban Jockies for Position

Meanwhile the Taliban — who withdrew from talks with the U.S. and Karzai governments after a U.S. Marine massacre of 27 Afghans last month — is also maneuvering for a position in the country’s affairs. 

Violence moved to a new level when 35-40 suicide bombers launched coordinated attacks in Kabul and other cities on government buildings, Western embassies and NATO headquarters. The Taliban labeled the assault retaliation for U.S. military actions, the recent burning of Korans and the slaughter of 27 Afghan civilians. 

The U.S. ambassador said, “...these attackers [are] part of the Haqqani network; they enjoy safe haven in northern Waziristan” (an area of western Pakistan bordering Afghanistan). Afghans suspected that the U.S. motive in singling out the Haqqanis is a tactic in a political game to advance U.S. demands in its on-again, off-again negotiations with the Taliban and the Karzai government. The Haqqani network is one of eight anti-government, anti-U.S. groups, each with distinct goals, territorial and economic interests that comprise the Taliban movement. 

Richard Haass of the Rockefeller-led Council on Foreign Relations outlined the strategy: make separate deals with different Taliban factions, carving Afghanistan into a “patchwork quilt” of territories overseen by various warlords and Taliban leaders. This would pacify areas protecting the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghan-Pakistan-India) pipeline which U.S. trans-nationals are planning and would safeguard permanent U.S. military bases. The Haqqanis have been included in the two-year talks with Taliban leaders. Hillary Clinton met with them in 2011.

Afghans, however, see no difference between the Taliban factions; they view all as terrorists. Neither do they trust U.S. rulers. They accuse them of using the insurgency to push the Strategic Partnership Agreement and continue the occupation. In addition, the targeting of the Haqqanis justifies more deadly drone attacks on Haqqanis bases in Pakistan, further destabilizing that country. 

Best Friends

Once a White House guest, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a mujahideen commander in the U.S proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s. This previously unknown Afghan, along with other warlords, was on the CIA payroll, receiving millions of dollars and weapons, through Pakistan’s ISI (security service).

When the Taliban seized power in 1996, Haqqani became a government minister. After the 2001 U.S. invasion, he refused a position in the Karzai government, returning to Pakistan to expand his network. Today his son runs the network’s various business interests and funds a militia that rules by fear and violence in the territories it controls.

Contradictions between the Afghan working class and the fundamentalist warlords, drug dealers and war profiteers, both Afghan and foreign, who are now jockeying to maintain their position after 2014, are deepening at an alarming rate. Its present in downtown Kabul, where thousands displaced by the fighting and land-grabbing live in unspeakable squalor in shanties alongside new luxury buildings. 

Political parties are forming to bring radical social change. Afghans once organized a movement that identified capitalism as the problem and communism the solution, to end the vast economic disparity between rich and poor. In 1978, a Marxist party, the PDPA, took power and for 12 years — despite fighting a war, the USSR occupation and its own errors — conditions for the Afghan working class improved tremendously.

(Next issue: the history of the struggle for communism in Afghanistan and how Afghans are fighting for those ideas today.)