The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston/New York, 2006, 

God and His Demons, by Michael Parenti, Prometheus Books, Amherst/New York, 2010.

If you are reading this, you are probably eager to see the world move beyond exploitation of the many by the few, and away from continual inter-imperialist wars for control over the world’s resources.  We are aware that many CHALLENGE readers rely, to some degree, on religion to produce such progress.  But whatever you may think about religion and God, there is an inherent problem in religion that allows our profit-seeking exploiters and war-making executioners to get away with their daily theft and murder of our friends, our families, ourselves.  The problem is that religion — whatever comfort it provides, or whatever unity it encourages among fellow worshippers — is used by our exploiters to bind us to their needs over our own.

Bibles Celebrate Murder and Mayhem 

Religions of all sorts have been used for millennia to justify war and genocide in the name of god.  They have always been used to lead us to regard other members of our exploited class as enemies rather than allies and fellow-sufferers. Over thousands of years of human history, new religions evolve out of older ones whenever a rising class needs a new weapon of mass control. 

The God Delusion and God and His Demons are both worth reading despite their shortcomings.  Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, concentrates on the logical and factual inconsistencies in the Judeo-Christian Bible. He shows the disconnect between religion and morality, describes the murder and mayhem celebrated in the Old and New Testaments, and alludes to the frequent modern-day abuse of children by religionists.  He also writes about the historical use of all religions, by clergy and other backers, to induce workers to kill other workers in endless wars for gain and profit.  Dawkins’ stated goal is to give skeptical readers enough evidence to argue against the belief in a supreme being. 

Manufactured Religious Precepts

Michael Parenti, a Marxist historian in the U.S., places a greater emphasis on the predatory nature of fundamentalist preachers and priests, and how they have enslaved women and children to do their bidding, sexually and otherwise. He offers his own long selection of quotes from the Old and New Testaments to illustrate the bloody roots of the Judeo-Christian tradition. And he exposes the horrendous hypocrisy of contemporary clergy and politicos in their use of made-up religious precepts, such as those espoused by the anti-abortion and anti-gay movements in the service of meaningless “family values.” 

Dawkins’ non-Marxist outlook, not surprisingly, fails to relate religion-fostered blindness to workers’ willing submission to exploitation by the capitalist promoters of religion.  Parenti, a Marxist, points out how leading capitalists use religion to induce the world’s workers to do their  bidding, against the workers’ own interests.

But while he exposes the racism, nationalism, and wars fostered by several major religions (including Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, among others), Parenti treads lightly on Jewish fundamentalism. Describing Jews as the historic “whipping boys” of other religions, he fails to consider how the Israeli ruling class and the Zionist movement inflict the same oppression on the Palestinian working class within Israel-Palestine. Nor does he expose these rulers’ racist support of Apartheid South Africa, shipping arms to suppress black workers. 

Perhaps the greatest failing of both Dawkins and Parenti is that neither relates the historical and present crimes of religionists to the need for the world’s working class to free ourselves from the bonds of faith. Neither advocates the mental liberation of a scientific approach to all things in life. And neither understands that only a communist-led revolution can free ourselves from capitalist exploitation and oppression.

PLP has long argued that science rather than religion offers the world’s working class a deliverance from the bondage of capitalism.  One major article deals with the history of various religions and their uses — “Religion: Tool of Bosses, Enemy of Workers.” Another explores the nature of science and its incompatibility with religion, and how science investigates the real world rather than an imagined or hoped-for one — “Intelligent Design.” These articles can be found on the plp.org website under the “Literature” tab, section “leaftlets and pamphlets.” Both of these articles fill important gaps in these two useful, well-researched books.

LONG BEACH, CA, December 12 — Seven hundred workers shut down business at the Long Beach Port. This march revealed a split between the Occupy movement’s liberal organizers and the rank-and-file occupiers, including Progressive Labor Party comrades who gave key leadership at the protest.  

The liberals’ plan, orchestrated with the Long Beach Police Department, was to funnel the march along a narrow sidewalk, with the ocean on one side and the cops on the other. But with PL leading a communist chant of “Shut it down, shut it tight, workers of the world unite!” the march quickly turned militant. PL’s friends in the movement were evident as we crossed the line of cones and took the streets leading to the port.

The kkkops responded by attempting to use their motorcycles as barricades, splitting the protest into two halves. It was a potentially dangerous situation, with one group facing a wall of cops in riot gear. But we quickly organized ourselves and led the march back and sandwiched the police!  At first, the other half of the march was hesitant to walk through the police barrier, but our comrades again led the way and soon the whole march followed.

An hour later, as the Long Beach police tried to push the protesters back onto the sidewalk, they were met with heavy resistance. The protesters stood their ground in open defiance, linking arms, chanting and singing. The standoff lasted for nearly an hour. It ended only after rank-and-file occupiers discovered that some trucks were getting into the port through a back entrance. After a brief discussion, the protest was moved to a location where we could better block all entrances. Traffic at the port was shut down for five hours before the police could disperse the crowd. Port workers who walked to the gates to watch the protest told us that they didn’t believe any work would get done that day.

While our PL leadership was critical in organizing the Occupiers to defy the liberal leadership, we were weak in organizing our own base from the jobs, schools and campuses to participate.  We also need to distribute more CHALLENGEs.

We do have a small but active base within the Occupy movement, however. After this action, more than 20 young people met with us over breakfast to debrief.  While there is a lot of potential to deepen these relationships and build the Party, we must struggle harder to make the Occupy fight more prominent in our workplaces and classrooms.  The struggle continues.

CHICAGO, December 14 — On an unseasonably warm and rainy day, about twenty PL’ers and friends gathered in front of Stroger hospital, under an overhang, to protest the deadly cuts in the Cook County public hospital system. Stroger Hospital was moving forward with planned layoffs even though the holidays were almost here. We handed out fliers while calmly holding our signs and giant photographs of patients who are losing their healthcare, including one who recently died as a result. CHALLENGEs were distributed.

It wasn’t long before the kkkops told us to move from “private property.”

“What are you talking about? This is a public hospital and I work here!” a protester snapped. Together, we decided to march twenty-five yards away, but still on county property. We marched as a group chanting, “They say cut back, we say fight back!”

After establishing a picket line, we took turns on the bullhorn, denouncing the layoffs and service cuts. A few union hacks tried to talk to the demonstrators to divert our anger, but we kept spreading the word to the hundreds streaming by. We distributed all of our fliers and made a few contacts with patients and their families who were inspired to see workers fighting for their county healthcare system.

Last week the administration laid off eight respiratory therapists. This is a direct result of the closing of Oak Forest Hospital (see CHALLENGE, 11/2/11). Respiratory therapists from Oak Forest with more seniority are being transferred to Stroger Hospital. Rather than increase the staff of respiratory therapists at Stroger to help take care of the flood of new patients, management decided to fire the therapists with less seniority.

New patients are crowding into the ER, setting records for the number seen per day. They are coming from Oak Forest and from dozens of private hospitals, where thousands of patients are no longer welcome since they lost their health insurance.

The day after the layoffs, management asked the remaining respiratory therapists to pick up night shifts and work overtime! The therapists have been actively fighting these layoffs. Most of the night shift went as a unified group to protest to the head of the Intensive Care Unit. A few days later, fifteen workers went to SEIU union headquarters to confront the union president. Workers were invited to a negotiation that morning that resulted in a week’s postponement of the layoffs. Respiratory therapy workers have been at every one of the three pickets held in front of the hospital since October.

The lead organizing force for this demonstration was a community group called Chicago Healthcare Justice, which was founded a year ago. Members have been discussing healthcare, racism and capitalism, and also participating in some rallies and demonstrations with the Occupy movement and others.

These young workers felt they were finally ready to try to lead an action. They decided to demonstrate against the attacks on health workers and patients at Stroger Hospital. Two members researched the history of Cook County healthcare as well as current spending and put it together into a fact-filled flier. The flier demonstrated that Cook County has been cutting back on services and staff since long before the Great Recession, which is used to justify current cuts. Our group then spent time at Occupy Chicago events promoting the rally, making contacts and discussing the movement’s issues. Although this action was relatively small in size, it was a huge step forward for the Chicago Healthcare Justice group.

One member of the group translated the leaflet into Spanish for distribution  by the family of one of the former Oak Forest ventilator patients, who now lives in the Medical ICU at Stroger. Protests at Stroger have maintained attention on this patient, David Moreno, and probably prevented the hospital bosses from sending him to a death-trap nursing home, as they did with some of his fellow Oak Forest patients, now deceased.

Fighting against every attack is essential but is not enough. We know this was a modest step. We also know that the only way workers have ever won anything from the bosses is by fighting back. We plan to take the momentum from this action into the new year and keep learning and fighting back together.

Those of us in Progressive Labor Party will continue pointing out the failures of capitalism and the desperate need for a better, communist world. We will struggle to win these workers to join PLP.

U.S. imperialists’ face-off with Iran’s nuclear-bent bosses is escalating towards war. At stake is control over the Middle East and its increasingly strategic energy resources. According to CNN, Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “is quietly leading the ongoing military planning for an attack against Iran’s nuclear weapons in the event the president gives the order to do so” (12/20/11).

In the latest round meanwhile, Obama tried to slap tighter financial sanctions on Iran unless it gave up its nuke program. In turn, Iran’s naval brass threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz. Virtually all of the oil and gas exports of Iraq and Kuwait and more than half of Saudi Arabia’s pass through that waterway sails. All of these resources are dominated by U.S. and British oil giants.

Then Obama sent an aircraft carrier group through the strait while the Iranian navy practiced maneuvers nearby. Obama also pointedly announced a “$30 billion sale to Saudi Arabia of advanced-model U.S. F-15 fighter jets and associated weapons systems” amid “recent irrational behavior by the Tehran government” (Voice of America, 12/29/11). In direct response, Iran “test-fired a medium-range surface-to-air missile near the strategic Strait” (VOA, 1/1/12). Iran warned it would not accept return of the aircraft carriers.  

China-Russia-Iran Axis Speeds Ayatollahs’ A-Bomb

Iran’s rulers have since eased off shutting Hormuz, since its closure would also deprive themselves of oil export revenue and cut off their main customer, China. But aided by the anti-U.S. coalition, they remain determined to build a bomb. The Washington Post (11/7/11) reported:

Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles....Documents and other records provide new details on the role played by a former Soviet weapons scientist who allegedly tutored Iranians over several years on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction....Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea [both heavily influenced by China — ed.] also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability.

Rockefeller Ruling-Class Wing Chanting ‘Bomb Iran’

Consequently, calls in the U.S. for blasting Iran’s nuke plants have recently expanded from the Israel lobby to the highest capitalist circles. The imperialist, Rockefeller-led Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) speaks for its funders: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and banks like JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup. A CFR headline in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs says it all: “Time to Attack Iran.”

The article’s author, Matthew Kroenig, has Obama’s ear. From July 2010 to July 2011, he was a special adviser in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, “responsible for defense strategy and policy on Iran.” A nuked-up Iran, Kroenig warns, could hamstring future U.S. invasions of energy goldmines Saudi Arabia and Iraq: “With atomic power behind it, Iran could threaten any U.S. political or military initiative in the Middle East with nuclear war, forcing Washington to think twice before acting in the region.”

U.S. ‘Surgical’ Strike Could Go Global

Ruling-class mouthpiece Kroenig absurdly proposes a moderately deadly “hit and run.” He ignores the realities of the sharpening imperialist rivalry and the related and growing importance of oil, the lifeblood of capitalism, especially in its cheap and highly profitable Middle East form:

Iran’s rapid nuclear development will ultimately force the United States to choose between a conventional conflict and a possible nuclear war. Faced with that decision, the United States should conduct a surgical strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, absorb an inevitable round of retaliation, and then seek to quickly de-escalate the crisis. Addressing the threat now will spare the United States from confronting a far more dangerous situation in the future.

U.S. bosses, however, face problems in their attempts to avoid a more widespread armed conflict. First, the U.S. military is already stretched thin. It must defend more than seven hundred bases worldwide, and is especially dependent on an all-volunteer army. Second, Iranian retaliation might be more drastic than Kroenig thinks. “Iran said Monday it had successfully test-fired a long-range missile during its naval exercise in the Gulf, flexing its military muscle to show it could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region if attacked” (MSNBC, 1/2/12).

Then there are the inevitable entangling interests and alliances of capitalism. Another Rockefeller-bankrolled think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), identified these “regions of competition” as inseparable from the oil dogfight now centering on Iran: “Gulf Cooperation Council countries [including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and U.S. Fifth Fleet host Bahrain], Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Europe, Russia, China, Japan and Asia, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil” (Iran and the Threat to ‘Close’ the Gulf, CSIS website, 12/29/11).

Wider wars will likely result from a U.S. attack on Iran. Planning the attack and awaiting Obama’s order, General Dempsey said, “Any [Iranian] miscalculation could mean that we are drawn into conflict, and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world” (CNN, 12/20/11).

U.S. rulers have employed direct military action in the Middle East since 1979, when Iran’s Islamist oil barons booted out Shah Reza Pahlavi, the Exxon/Rockefeller puppet whom the U.S. CIA had installed in power. U.S. influence in this cornerstone of its worldwide empire continues to erode. In response, U.S. rulers must forcibly claw back strategic lost territories, like Iraq and Iran, and militarize for its inevitable confrontation with strengthening imperialist foes China and Russia. Whether they can accomplish these goals in the face of their own internal disunity is another question (and the subject of coming CHALLENGE articles). Their struggle is further complicated by the worldwide economic crisis that threatens both U.S. and European stability.

Working Class Must Rise Up Against Capitalism’s Mass Murder

The global scramble for energy profits has already killed millions of working class Iraqis and thousands of their working class brothers and sisters in the U.S. military. This imperialist competition is killing still more in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With Chinese and Russian involvement and the nuclear wildcard, an Iran oil war could prove far deadlier still for the international working class.

The only way to stop the worsening murder and misery inflicted on our class by oil-soaked billionaires is to destroy the profit system itself and replace it with working-class rule. Tens of millions of workers throughout the world are already resisting the bosses’ attacks. Strikes and demonstrations are on the rise in the Middle East, the European Union, Latin America, China, Pakistan, India, and — with the Occupy movement — in the U.S.

But to smash capitalism, the root cause of this misery, requires communist leadership to point the way. It’s not enough to replace one set of capitalist murderers for another; the entire, horrific profit system must be replaced with workers’ power. A new system must be erected to produce for workers’ needs, not bosses’ profits — the source of racism, sexism, mass unemployment, poverty and unceasing wars.

That new system, our Party’s ultimate aim, can be won only through communist revolution.