Obama’s Ground Zero remembrance left out two names tied intimately to the 9/11 atrocity and its deadlier aftermath: Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. Just two years before the attack on the World Trade Center, the two ex-senators had co-chaired a top-echelon ruling-class panel that envisioned terrorist attacks “galvanizing” the U.S. for imperialist war abroad and fascist measures at home. Launched by President Bill Clinton in 1998, the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (better known as the Hart-Rudman Commission) studied ways to ensure U.S. global dominance through the following 25 years.

Democrat Hart and Republican Rudman, along with other high-ranking politicians, generals and admirals, proposed a sweeping militarization of government and of society at large. At the time, the rulers’ media kept Hart-Rudman largely under wraps. CHALLENGE, however, repeatedly exposed its deadly schemes well before 9/11. Ten years on, Hart-Rudman’s shortcomings and successes for the bosses are worth assessing. They help us gauge our class enemies’ need and their ability to conduct mass slaughter.

In 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor turned mass U.S. opposition to “foreign wars” into mass support for U.S. entry into World War II. On September 11, 2001, terrorists struck New York and the Pentagon after the FBI and CIA apparently failed to connect the dots from existing intelligence. Ten years later, there is no shortage of theories to challenge the official narrative: Did U.S. rulers deliberately ignore warnings of the 9/11 strikes? Were they actively complicit in planning the attacks? We may never know the true story, but it’s clear that the bosses saw the usefulness of a 9/11-type incident to rally U.S. workers behind a drive for war and fascism:

[T]he United States should assume that it will be a target of terrorist attacks against its homeland....Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers....If the stakes rise in such a fashion, one thing is likely to become vividly clear: The American people will be ready to sacrifice blood and treasure, and come together to do so, if they believe that fundamental interests are imperiled (Hart-Rudman report, 1999).

The hijackers, who cloaked al Qaeda’s oil-profit motive in religion, represented only a few thousand sworn U.S. enemies. They hardly matched the 1941 menace of Nazi Germany and fascist Japan and Italy, an Axis of millions that waged world war across Europe and Asia. Within the U.S., this global assault spurred huge voluntary enlistments and acceptance of a military draft, resulting in an armed force of 14 million in a U.S. population just one-third of today’s total. By comparison, the flurry of post-9/11 flag-waving accomplished relatively little: the fascist Patriot Act, plus a series of racist attacks against Arab and South Asian immigrants. U.S. rulers continue to rely on an economic draft for their war machine, with unemployment impelling youth to enlist for the lack of jobs.

Recalling the fleeting wave of 9/11 patriotism, the rulers’ New York Times mouthpiece echoed Hart-Rudman in lamenting, “People wanted to be enlarged, to be called on to do more for country and community than ordinary life usually requires....to be absorbed in some greater good....But America has not been enlarged in the years that have passed” (9/10/11). In sum, the attack failed to generate the popular response that Hart-Rudman had anticipated.

Anti-Government Bosses’ Tea Partiers Hinder Obama’s Fascist Effort….

Opposition to new or restored taxes, hardened by the New Depression, has dashed the Hart-Rudman vision of capitalists gladly parting with their “treasure.” This reflects the battle between two factions within the U.S. ruling class: the Rockefeller-led wing that maps long-range strategy to keep U.S. imperialism on top through wars for the oil interests it represents; and its current adversary, domestic capitalists like the Koch brothers, who organized and funded the Tea Party and are driving the Republican Party away from any bipartisan strategy.

In opposition to Obama, the bosses who don’t profit directly from U.S. military action overseas are thwarting Hart-Rudman’s prescription for more centralized control over members of the ruling class. They are blocking government regulations to discipline capitalists and bankers who intensified the current economic crisis in their drive for short-term profits. They’re also resisting Obama’s bid to increase taxes on the wealthy to help pay for the enormous cost of imperialist wars.

….But As H-R Detailed, Potential Grows for U.S. Military Action in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China

On the other hand, Hart-Rudman has proved effective in helping to fabricate pretexts for invading Iraq in 2003, and possibly Iran in the near future:

U.S. policies could fail to prevent more serious threats from arising, and the United States might then increase its military presence either to support a beleaguered Israel, to contain the rise of a regional hegemon [Iran], or prevent certain countries [like Iraq] from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. From such a failure the United States would risk, or go to, war.

Ex-Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal was a major backer of Osama bin Laden during the latter’s U.S.-led anti-Soviet Afghan campaign in the 1980s. He now issues alarms against U.S. rejection of the Palestinians’ bid for statehood in the United Nations: “American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region. Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has” (New York Times, 9/12/11).

Hart-Rudman foresaw loss of leverage over Saudi Arabia as an intolerable catastrophe:

An anti-American regime in Saudi Arabia, one so antagonistic that it would refuse to sell its oil abroad, is not very likely. But were it to come to pass and be allowed to stand, it would represent a major blow to the liberal economic order brought into being after World War II.

From Afghanistan to Libya, subsequent U.S. invasions, backed by a shifting array of allies, reflect Hart-Rudman’s insistence on locking up hydrocarbon sources:

[U]ninterrupted supply of oil from the Persian Gulf, and the location of all key fossil fuels deposits will retain geopolitical significance....The United States will be called upon frequently to intervene militarily in a time of uncertain alliances.

Hart-Rudman’s prediction of likely World War III scenarios completes its picture of U.S. rulers’ looming concerns:

Interstate wars will not disappear over the next 25 years. Developed nations will be loath to fight each other, but as proven in 1914, neither the bonds of interdependence nor a taste for affluence can guarantee peace and stability indefinitely. Major powers—Russia and China are two obvious examples—may wish to extend their regional influence by force or the threat of force.

What Hart-Rudman Did Not Foresee

But Hart-Rudman neglected to consider the working-class backlash to the U.S. rulers’ wars. Workers at first seemed to support Bush’s “shock-and-awe” attack on Iraq, based on the fraudulent allegation that Saddam Hussein’s regime had developed “weapons of mass destruction,” including nuclear weapons. But as this became exposed as a lie, and U.S. and Iraqi civilian casualties mounted, a majority in the U.S. turned against the war. Initial support for the attack on Afghanistan also has fizzled after 10 years of grinding conflict with no end in sight.

Resistance to these wars has been heightened by the “Great Recession,” another factor Hart-Rudman didn’t account for. Workers now see trillions spent for imperialist wars while tens of millions of unemployed walk the streets and social programs are cut or scrapped altogether.

For the working class, meanwhile, all is not lost—not by a long shot. The main U.S. capitalists have yet to ensnare most workers in their ideology of militaristic imperialism. Restoring the draft remains extremely unpopular. Enlistments of young black workers have declined despite that group’s 46 percent unemployment rate. Meanwhile, racist police attacks continue to rage against black and Latino youth. This is the “democracy” they’re being asked to defend?

Communist Leadership Crucial

The most critical obstacle to Hart-Rudman’s fascist vision will be the fight-back of the working class, both in the U.S. and internationally. While workers have remained relatively passive in countering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the fascist attacks on their jobs and living conditions, there are encouraging signs of renewed resistance. We can see this domestically in the Philadelphia hospital workers’ fight against racist firings (see page 1), or in the leadership given by Progressive Labor Party to the Stella d’Oro strikers last year in the Bronx, or in the militant defense of their jobs by West Coast longshoremen against the shipping bosses (see page 1).

Internationally, PL is spreading communist politics in a score of capitalist countries on five continents. The Party has been active in the mass strikes and demonstrations of workers in Pakistan (see page 4). In Haiti, PLPers are building the Party there to combat rulers’ ideas that divide the working class (see page 8). PL is also playing a role in workers’ struggles in Mexico and Israel/Palestine.

In the scheme of things, these are small glimmers of resistance in a dark night of mass racist unemployment, unchecked attacks on wages and healthcare, and genocidal imperialist wars. PL has a long way to go in building communist-led class struggle, but the potential exists for a true international communist party. Our job is to win workers worldwide to the opposite of Hart-Rudman: to the communist outlook that rulers fear most. Profit-driven terrorism, racism, unemployment and war will end only after our class—the working class—seizes power for itself and hoists the red flag of revolution

NEW YORK CITY, August 23 — Chanting “Jobs center is a phony, all their talk is baloney,” comrades and friends joined once again with community forces to picket Columbia University’s (CU) bogus Employment Information Center.  The struggle against Columbia’s racist takeover of the surrounding Harlem community sharpened both in militancy and political understanding with demands that the University immediately hire 2,000 Harlem residents to replace the jobs destroyed by expansion.

Other demands include not building the planned Level 3 biohazard lab right under 125th St. and maintaining affordable neighborhood housing. PLP’s base has grown enough to start new chants that expand the politics of this struggle: “ExxonMobil, Columbia U, took Iraq and Harlem too,” and “Racist Bollinger you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” (Bollinger is Columbia’s president.)

In conversations and at meetings since May Day, we have been struggling against liberal ideas within the community coalition that has fought CU for years.  After betrayals by the local politicians and the courts, many now see that building a movement from the bottom up is what is needed. Party members are also emphasizing that CU is run by a board composed of 75% ruling-class bankers whose wars for oil and gas are murdering thousands worldwide and lead to the racist cuts and unemployment here that hasten sickness and death for our sisters and brothers in Harlem.

We are planning to step up the attack on CU on September 24 by marching from the Employment Center, through the neighboring housing project, to the campus and to Bollinger’s mansion, which cost $23 million to renovate. We will end with a picnic in Morningside Park to commemorate the victory of students, workers and community residents against Columbia’s plan to build a gym there in 1968.

Making CHALLENGE sales a central part of expanding this struggle will help us win workers and students to the vital strategic goal of communist revolution.

At 11:30 PM on Friday, September 9, I received a call from a fellow transit worker informing me that, after more than two years without a contract, United Transportation Union (UTU) drivers at LA Metro were to vote on a new contract Sunday at 1 P.M. None of the drivers had any idea if it was a “good” or “bad” contract. The UTU leadership told them absolutely nothing except, “Show up Sunday and vote!”

By Sunday morning we’d been able to rally a small crew of friends and comrades to meet at the hotel where the vote was to take place. We brought leaflets (calling for a NO vote on the mystery contract) and the latest copy of CHALLENGE. We met drivers in the multi-level parking lot and by the time they entered the meeting room every driver had a flier, a CHALLENGE, or both.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be turned away when I tried to enter the voting “Ballroom” (I’m not a driver) but my fears were foolish. As soon as I entered, I realized that the union leadership had a lot more to worry about than me. They were faced with nearly a thousand angry, shouting, hooting drivers demanding facts about the new contract, which the drivers all assumed was going to be a sell-out. It went on and on. Security couldn’t do much. Even though the drivers were physically threatened, they refused to sit down, to shut up, or even to vote for the new contract.

At a coffee shop afterward, two bus operators said the union General Committee never got control of their meeting. A few hours after we got home, a driver called to say it was thumbs down on the contract: 365 to 206.

This experience reminded me that it is always a good idea to be ready to act — even on very short notice. The worker who called was glad to see that we had shown up to oppose the contract vote. The connection of the bus drivers’ no vote, the recent Verizon workers’ walkout, and the possible Southern California supermarket strike made it easy to approach drivers, sell CHALLENGE and urge a NO vote on the contract. On a minor note, all of us agreed it was a good way to spend 9/11.

Now comes the hard part — following up on the contacts we collected and working to be a communist presence in the ongoing transit struggle in L.A.

Hundreds of thousands of workers in Pakistan have been engaging in mass strikes and protests, taking to the streets, shutting down factories and offices, blocking roads and burning vehicles. Their anger is directed against a government riddled with corruption and against Pakistan’s ruling class, who, like capitalists worldwide, are trying to make the working class pay the price of its economic crisis, slashing wages, laying off workers and attacking living standards. The working class is fighting back, undeterred by the brutal retaliation of the police, arrests and even killing of leaders:

• Earlier this month, over 100,000 textile workers in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-largest city, shut down 20,000 power looms and took over the city. Men, women and youths armed with stones fought police equipped with rifles and guns; these workers comprise 38% of the country’s industrial workers and produce half its exports.

• Ten thousand workers at the Karachi Electric Supply Co. occupied its headquarters a few weeks ago, forcing the bosses to reinstate 4,500 fired workers.

• Striking Pakistan International Airlines workers brought air traffic to a standstill, sitting in at airports in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar, disabling ground service vehicles, blocking flights and stopping passengers from checking in. They were protesting layoffs and proposed selloffs of routes to Turkish Airlines.

• Railway workers organized a demonstration in Lahore against the proposed downsizing of 20,000 jobs, defying thugs employed by Pakistan’s governing People’s Party to intimidate them.

• Public sector workers in the Post Office, the Telecommunications Company, the Water and Power Development Authority, steel mills and the Federal Revenue Office are fighting privatization and firings.

• Ship breakers in Baluchistan and young hospital doctors from Baluchistan to Punjab are mobilizing for better pay and conditions.

Following the Lead of 50,000 Militant Textile Workers

These struggles follow the actions of 50,000 textile power loom operators who struck in 2008, shutting down factories for four days. Four leaders were arrested, framed under anti-terrorist laws and jailed. The judiciary, serving the rulers’ dictates, declares workers’ strikes illegal, rejects bail for arrested workers and ignores violations of labor laws, while failing to enforce minimum-wage laws and legal remedies for those losing jobs.

The workers — many who make $61 a month (less than the minimum wage) — have no pension rights, work in inhuman conditions and suffer grinding poverty. Thousands of other workers who marched in solidarity with them were fired on, with nine injured seriously. However, the strength of the protest forced the owners — among the richest people in Pakistan — to agree to the strikers’ demand to be paid previously negotiated wage increases.

This year Pakistan’s growth rate is only 2%, with an enormous trade deficit and a growing budget debt. Following International Monetary Fund dictates, the government has cut all subsidies, increased prices of food, (up 200% to 300% in the last two years), electricity, gas and most household items. In 2010 inflation rose higher than any year in Pakistan’s history, affecting all working-class families and pushing the lowest-paid into intolerable living conditions.

Struggle Between Classes Heating Up

Class lines are sharply drawn in Pakistan. Since factories, businesses and land are often owned by politicians and army officials (who also run public utilities for their own profit), the confrontation between workers and bosses pits the working class directly against the full power of the state. But as workers’ resistance increases, divisions are deepening in the ruling class.

The main opposition party (whose leaders are also big landowners and factory bosses) is maneuvering to lead the mass dissatisfaction by distancing itself from the despised Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government of President Asif Ali Zardari and the military. This struggle for power is behind the recent political and ethnic violence in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, main seaport and financial center; 300 people were killed in July alone, in riots instigated by armed thugs hired by the warring political parties to spread hatred and fear.

Clearly, workers and peasants are not fooled by either party. Victories like that of the 10,000 Karachi Electric Supply Company workers has strengthened the working class and emboldened more workers to take militant actions.

Reforms Won’t Cut It; Workers Need Communism to Destroy Racist Super-Exploitation

But workers need to look beyond reforms. Hard-won gains are easily reversed when bosses control the means of production and the state apparatus. Already Pakistani textile bosses are planning to move their factories to Bangladesh where workers — despite militant actions last year that doubled the minimum wage — are still paid half the wage of Pakistani workers. Lower labor costs mean lucrative contracts with international giants like JC Penney, Wal-Mart, H&M, Kohl’s, Marks & Spencer and Carrefour, which already manufacture in Bangladesh.

These outfits employ blatant racism in exploiting these non-white South Asian workers, much as they do in the U.S., Britain, France and Germany. There they make super-profits off the backs of black, Latino and immigrant workers, based on lower wages, worse medical care, mass imprisonment and deportation threats. Meanwhile, Obama serves his U.S. bosses, bombing Pakistan and killing hundreds of civilians while sending billions of workers’ tax dollars to arm the Pakistani military that enforces the poverty of workers there.

Workers need to unite internationally, across all borders, to support these embattled workers in Pakistan and expose the multi-national exploiters from the imperialist countries. Building PLP in Pakistan to destroy the capitalist profit system and erecting a worker-run communist society, and to eliminate bosses and profits along with the racism and wars they create, is the revolutionary road to follow.