Having spread death and destruction across much of the Middle East, U.S. imperialists now seek to expand their horror show to the Far East. Barack Obama is methodically preparing for eventual war on China. In December he initiated the deployment of 2,500 U.S. Marines in Australia. In January he issued a Pentagon decree entitled, “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense.” It states: “While the U.S. military will continue to contribute to security globally, we will of necessity rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region [emphasis added].”

Host of Problems = Hard Time for Rulers to Re-elect Obama

But U.S. rulers face two major problems in gearing up for a clash with China. First, they have a growing need to wage wider Middle East oil wars, especially as tensions with Iran heighten. It’s a task made more difficult by a shortage of combat troops, which could necessitate a wildly unpopular military draft.

Second, while the ruling class sorely needs a war president, it may have a hard time retaining their invader-in-chief Obama’s services after November’s election. Millions of voters could be turned off by mass racist unemployment, continuing economic depression, millions of home foreclosures, deportation of nearly two million immigrants, a wage freeze on federal workers, and an administration run by bailed-out bankers who have reaped profit bonanzas during a Depression they helped create.

War Clouds Darken over Iran

Iran threatens more each day to become the next U.S. front for open warfare. Covert action, like CIA-Mossad [Israeli secret police] rubouts of Iranian nuclear scientists, has been raging for years. On January 13, two days after the latest assassination, Iran sentenced an ex-U.S. Marine to death for spying. And while Washington ramps up oil sanctions to discourage the building of nuclear bombs, Iran threatens to attack U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf.

The only question is whether the first air strikes on Iran will come from the U.S. or Israel. Obama is deceitfully trying to deflect blame onto the supposedly more belligerent Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Inside the Israeli security establishment, a sort of good cop, bad cop routine, in which Israeli officials rattle sabers amid a U.S. scramble to restrain them, has assumed its own name: ‘Hold Me Back’” (Wall Street Journal, 1/14/12). The lie is that Israeli bosses, armed to the teeth with U.S. weapons, always act without influence from the White House. Sometimes they do, but there appears to be strategic unity regarding Iran. Says the Journal’s article:

The U.S. military is preparing for a number of possible responses to an Israeli strike, including assaults by pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to U.S. officials. In large measure to deter Iran, the U.S. has 15,000 troops in Kuwait, and has moved a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf area. It has also been pre-positioning aircraft and other military equipment, officials say. Arms transfers to key allies in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have been fast-tracked.

This context lends added significance to Obama’s recent announcement to send 9,000 troops to Israel in a joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise, a move alleged to be “temporarily withdrawn.”

As for Iraq, al Qaeda bombs killed 73 people there in the second week in January. The country still lacks the stability required to boost oil production to the original U.S. target of six million barrels a day (mbd), much less the Maliki regime’s pie-in-the-sky promise of 12 mbd.  In reality, Exxon Mobil and other oil giants — hoping to cash in on the U.S.-led genocide — are now pumping at a rate below three mbd. This shortfall is enough to prompt U.S. rulers to consider a re-invasion.

Nor will U.S. imperialists be able to stop the shooting in Afghanistan any time soon, not after pictures surfaced of U.S. snipers urinating on their Taliban “kills.” For a time, U.S. bosses had hinted at pointing toward some sort of negotiated settlement with the Taliban. In addition to Afghan mineral wealth and the proposed TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) natural gas pipeline, the U.S. needs Afghanistan for permanent bases in a land that borders Iran, China and a resurgent Russian-dominated bloc.

Taliban cooperation with the U.S. would get them a cut of the mine and pipeline profits. Bill Clinton had worked on a similar pipeline deal between the Taliban and the Unocal oil company in the 1990s, but it fell through when the Taliban switched to a rival Argentine energy firm, Bridas. From that point on, the Taliban became the enemy in U.S. rulers’ eyes. Today, it is the suddenly “viral” release of the year-old corpse desecration video that derails talks.

War Agenda to be Forced on Opportunist Romney and Fragmented Republicans

Obama has succeeded in broadening the U.S war machine’s active theaters of operation from Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Bahrain. Looking ahead, Iran, Syria and China are now stated U.S. adversaries. And who better to lead these racist attacks on Asian workers, the rulers figure, than the first black president of the U.S.? But Obama might not be around to lead the charge. Barring unlikely economic improvement or an “October Surprise” (a ruling-class-concocted provocation to whip up popular support for Obama), Republican Mitt Romney has a strong chance to enter the White House next year. An avowed supporter of U.S. imperialism, Romney vows to reverse Obama’s Pentagon cuts and increase Navy shipbuilding by 50 percent.

But as leader of a Republican party deeply divided in both its capitalist donor base and its working-class voter base, Romney caters to a host of contradictory interests. Gary Hart, a major imperialist strategist, laments the GOP’s grab bag of “conservative Protestant evangelicals, neoconservative foreign policy and national security hawks, the Tea Party, much but not all of Wall Street, many of Main Street’s small business owners, libertarians and cultural conservatives, among others” (NY Times, 12/16/11). Some of these factions oppose the war plans of the dominant Rockefeller wing of the ruling class.

Anti-tax, Anti-regulation Forces Hamper Rulers’ War Drive

The liberal imperialists’ New York Times, in its Boston Globe subsidiary, accused Romney of “trying to appease enough constituencies to get himself the nomination” (1/6/12). The Globe was referring to the anti-tax, anti-regulation forces that could hamper the money-raising and centralization needed for the global war foreseen by Obama’s backers. The Globe endorsed the more consistent imperialist Jon Huntsman, who had been Obama’s ambassador to China. The newspaper warned that “the religious right, represented by Rick Santorum, and Tea Party activists represented by Ron Paul, have pushed Romney in unwanted directions.”

Huntsman, the Globe said, would have been “a better president.” But now that he’s out of the race, the Globe believes that Huntsman “could still make Romney a better candidate” by pushing the main Rockefeller’s force’s imperialist aims.

Political events are driven not by candidates’ pandering, but by the sharpening imperialist competition to carve up the world’s resources, labor and markets through war. Elections hold significance for our class and Party only in revealing the tactical fights within the ruling class. This enables us to more accurately expose and attack the various capitalist forces that shape the politicians’ programs and disputes. At the same time, we point out that elections represent only the interests of various sections of the ruling class. Under capitalism, every vote diverts workers away from class war against the bosses.

As revealed in reports on class struggle in CHALLENGE, our task is to win workers and youth in the various ruling-class-led organizations that PLP’ers are active in: unions and shops, schools and colleges, churches and community groups. Our aim is to help them see that the problems faced by our class stem directly from the profit system: racism, sexism, mass unemployment, poverty and war. As long as this system exists, its miseries will continue to enrich the rulers through the labor of the workers, the class that produces all value but gets back only the part of that value necessary to survive.

Capitalism cannot be reformed. It has always been based on exploitation, depressions and wars. We strive to create a society — communism — run by and for our class, without bosses and profits and the nightmares for workers to which they inevitably lead. Only by building a revolutionary communist party, the Progressive Labor Party, composed of tens of millions of workers, can we achieve the ultimate goal of destroying the murderous profit system in communist revolution.

BROOKLYN, January 11 — More than three hundred students at Clara Barton High School, along with about twenty-five staff members, attended an inspiring commemoration of the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti.  It was organized and led by students who belong to an after-school club that has been fighting attacks by the school administration against teachers and students for many years. Important ideas were raised about imperialism and the roots of Haiti’s poverty, and why students in the U.S. need to build solidarity with the working class in Haiti. Students and teachers grasped the communist ideas of solidarity with workers around the world, of multiracial unity, and of fighting for a better future than the bosses’ plan for wars, drastic cuts in social services, and increased racism.

There were speeches and performances, ranging from spoken word and debate to singing and step dancing. The program stressed unity, solidarity and the struggle for a better world.

One song was sung in both Creole and English, with many in the audience learning the Creole words for the first time. This was symbolically important because students from Haiti have endured a lack of adequate programs and services at the school. There was also delicious food donated by area restaurants, as well as by staff and parents. As many students and teachers commented afterwards, the whole program was “amazing.”

The preparation for the event was as significant as the commemoration itself. The multi-racial student organizers were from Africa, South Asia, China, the Caribbean and the U.S. They were clear from the start in their goal to send a strong message of unity and solidarity with the workers and students who struggle for a better life in Haiti, where 600,000 still live in tents. Their collective effort inspired more and more students and teachers to come forward and offer to help. Each day, more students joined committees and got involved in the planning. The enthusiasm spread.

The fighting spirit at Clara Barton comes out of a long and vibrant history of activism. Students went to New Orleans to help after Hurricane Katrina, organized anti-racist mass assemblies, and marched in New York and in Washington against imperialist war and budget cuts.  More than 300 CHALLENGEs are distributed outside the school. Members of Progressive Labor Party have defended the rights of both students and teachers against attacks by the school administration, which regularly harasses teachers with accusations and investigations. PL members and friends have withstood these attacks and continue to fight for what is in the best interests of students and staff.

Although the Bloomberg administration has built fear and passivity in many schools in New York, the fighting spirit at Clara Barton has not wavered. To sustain and spread the resistance to more friends and other schools, many more people need to be recruited to commit to a lifelong struggle to build a communist world. Join the Progressive Labor Party!

NEW YORK CITY, December 10 — More than forty people came together at a church here to discuss the devastating impact of unemployment on all workers, as well as the racist attacks on education and healthcare in immigrant communities.

A pediatrician reported that job losses in poor neighborhoods cause increases in homelessness, domestic violence, poor nutrition and obesity, along with higher rates of asthma and other chronic diseases. Children suffer from higher stress, anxiety and low self-esteem, which contribute to behavior problems and low grades in school.

Unemployment Cuts Workers’ Health

As unemployment worsens, more workers lose health coverage and are unable to pay for the high cost of private insurance. Due to the bosses’ financial crisis and an ever-growing war budget, massive cuts in public services and the safety net are forcing the closing of hospitals, layoffs of healthcare providers, and reduced access to wellness or prevention programs in working-class communities.

An immigrant worker pointed out that these problems are even more severe in immigrant communities because of racist laws and the scapegoating of undocumented workers. Some documented immigrants are blaming the undocumented for the loss of jobs, causing division when there needs to be unity to fight the bosses. More arrests and higher deportation rates are dividing families and making them more impoverished. The fear of deportation makes the undocumented easier targets for super-exploitation. They are working harder for even less pay, and are less likely to seek healthcare when ill.

With the U.S. economy’s loss of millions of “living-wage” jobs in the manufacturing sector, many working-class students are forced to defer entry into the job market. As college tuition costs rise and cuts are made in traditional scholarship grants and lower-cost government loans, these students are at the mercy of the private-sector student loan racket, which exploits them with high interest rates. With few good-paying jobs available after they graduate, they may never get out of debt.

Bosses Say: ‘No Job? Join the Army’

The major reason for all of these cutbacks is the huge outlay the bosses need to defend the U.S. oil empire. As rising military spending destroys the ability of all workers to make a decent living, the capitalist war-makers recruit working-class children into the army with promises of teaching them useful skills, getting them into college and paying off their student loans. They will say anything to get young workers to fight and kill other working-class youth around the world for the imperialist needs of the ruling class.

After the panel presentation, we broke into groups to come up with actions and fight-back opportunities to take to our communities. We all agreed that we can’t rely on the government to help us. Our working-class communities must come together to resolve these issues.

In a joint action with Occupy Wall Street, we are planning to co-sponsor a press conference and rally outside a hotel that is hosting a power breakfast of financiers, politicians and other capitalists. Their topic: how to “solve” the hospital crisis in Brooklyn (see page 4). At $75 a plate, you can be sure the interests of the working class will not be on the menu.

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, January 7 — Recently, a group of CHALLENGE readers met here for a discussion about our Party and its ideas. First the group examined Obama’s war in Libya. When he was elected, many people in East Africa had mistakenly believed that his policies would help Africa rather than initiate invasions and assassinations of African leaders. However, this U.S.-backed invasion exposed the “First U.S. African President” as pursuing the same oil-driven imperialist foreign policy as George Bush. In the discussion, Party members debunked the lie of “humanitarian intervention” (i.e., protecting civilian lives) as nothing but a cover for U.S. imperialism. 

Next the group confronted the challenges of building the communist movement in Tanzania where widespread anger at the government’s corrupt collusion with foreign and local big business exists side-by-side with a culture of passivity and resignation. The Tanzanian public sector trade unions, for example, are big on talk but short on action, leaving government workers defenseless against layoffs and oppressive working conditions.

Spirit of Rebellion Growing

The opposition party, Chadema, is as corrupt as the ruling party, CCM (Party of the Revolution). Chadema is opportunistically trying to take advantage of widespread discontent — especially among unemployed youth — to gain power for itself. The Tanzanian comrades agreed that despite Chadema’s motives, its militant condemnation of CCM is inspiring workers to have the courage to speak out and fight back. PL’ers pointed out that this spirit of rebellion will be squandered unless it is organized and led by communists.

A comrade from U.S. explained how the liberalism trap works in the U.S. where the Democrats are trying to co-opt the Occupy movement in order to help Obama’s election campaign and keep its supporters focused on reform rather than revolution. In Tanzania, as everywhere else in the world, the electoral system is used to control the working class rather than serve its needs. History has shown that only communists will lead an uncompromising fight on behalf of the working class.

Plenty of Graduates — But No Jobs

Destroying capitalism and replacing it with communism seemed like a far-away dream to some of our comrades in Tanzania until the discussion moved to the deep crisis facing global capitalism, which is opening up opportunities for our movement internationally. For example, In Tanzania, secondary schools and universities are cranking out tens of thousands of graduates with credentials and high expectations for a better life but with almost no chance of employment. These youth are a natural base for the international communist movement we’re building.

Another example is the 40 people in Dar es Salaam who died needlessly from flooding just before Christmas. Last fall, CCM used helicopters to win people to vote for them in the elections, but they couldn’t produce one helicopter to save the lives of stranded people.

PL’s line of “one international working class, one party” is a winner because it helps us learn and gain strength from struggles in other countries, like Pakistan, where the class struggle is more advanced. CHALLENGE readers in Tanzania need to take heart. Things don’t stay the same, and the subterranean fire produced by capitalism’s wars, poverty and inequality is burning in cities and villages worldwide.