DETROIT, MI, June 17 — If there is a crisis in the U.S. auto industry and within the United Auto Workers Union (UAW), you wouldn’t know it by looking at the 35th Constitutional Convention that just ended. The Hospitality Suites, Officers Receptions and Directors’ Dinners were in full swing as 1,200 delegates were wined and dined in a city where more than half the population, mostly black, former-UAW members and their families, live in poverty. We also were served a 10-course “meal” of politicians and government officials.

Since the last convention four years ago, UAW membership dropped another 35 percent to about 355,000 members, with the largest segment, 155,000, belonging to the Technical, Office, and Professional (TOP) division. The UAW helped GM, Ford and Chrysler impose a two-tier wage system that cut starting wages in half as well as cutting retiree health care.

After the UAW helped defeat their 2008 strike, the American Axel strikers had their wages slashed and then lost their jobs. As part of Obama’s bailout of the industry, the UAW agreed to a no-strike clause until 2015. Outgoing president Gettlefinger and incoming president Bob King (who tried and failed to force more concessions on Ford workers, while the company made a $2 billion profit) both referred to this as “saving the auto industry and the UAW,” to the cheers of the vast majority of delegates. 

If there was anything worse than the well-
orchestrated convention, it was the very loyal opposition of reformers and Trotskyites. The day before the convention opened they held a rally of less than 50 people. This in a city that is 90 percent black, facing poverty and police terror, and made up of tens of thousands of current, retired and former UAW members. On opening day they had less than 10 people picketing Cobo Hall. These “reformers” are current and retired UAW stewards, local officers and delegates, totally isolated from the workers.

In 2009, Solidarity House (UAW international headquarters) paid out almost $100 million in salaries to just over 550 vice-presidents, regional directors, international reps, organizers, attorneys, and more. This is only part of the union apparatus. This week, in the name of “sacrifice,” they gave up their Cost of Living Allowance while voting themselves a healthy raise to make up the difference. In contrast, new-hires at GM, Ford and Chrysler will earn a paltry $28,000 (if they work a full year).

The convention ended with a march from Cobo Hall to the Comerica Bank building, where the UAW, NAACP, Teamsters and state AFL-CIO all endorsed a mass march on Washington, October 2, for Jobs and Justice. What they really want is to rally the troops for the November elections.

It is clear that for the foreseeable future, PLP and other revolutionary-minded and anti-racist workers will have to function within the enemy’s camp, mixing patience and urgency in winning workers to our revolutionary communist outlook. The coming march on Washington is an opportunity to organize a growing number of workers to march and fight for communist revolution. Coming efforts to organize Toyota and the other trans-nationals can provide more openings for our Party. (We will have more to say in coming issues.) 

QUEENS, NY, June 15 — Twenty students and faculty at Queens College held a protest today against the longest war in U.S. history. The war in Afghanistan, which began with a U.S. invasion in late 2001, continues today with a deadly occupation that has killed tens of thousands of Afghans, has spilled over to Pakistan, and shows no sign of ending.

The demonstrators held up anti-war signs and chanted “Occupation Is A Crime, From Iraq to Palestine!” and “Exxon-Mobil, BP, Shell, Take Your War and Go to Hell!” as they marched across campus, giving out flyers and talking to students. The rally was the idea of one student, who thought the occasion of Afghanistan becoming the longest war had to be marked by protest, not silence. He gave a speech decrying the many U.S. war crimes — the repeated killing of innocent civilians by U.S. drone and helicopter attacks along with nighttime raids by U.S. Special Forces.

Although it is now summer session, this demonstration drew almost as many students as an anti-war protest during the regular school year, and we got a good response from other students. Our multi-racial group of protestors was spirited and determined. Party comrades who participated and distributed CHALLENGE were proud to take part.

Our chants and speeches connected various aspects of capitalist oppression — unemployment, budget cuts and a racist prison system at home, along with brutal wars of occupation for economic gain. Working people and the poor pay for these wars, either with their lives or through cuts in services. It is the big-business owners who profit handsomely from the control of raw materials, markets, cheap labor, investment opportunities and fat military contracts — that’s imperialist profits.

One speaker pointed out that there are now another trillion reasons why Obama will not withdraw U.S. troops next summer, as he promised. The Obama administration has just announced what has been known for decades: Afghanistan possesses a trillion dollars worth of valuable mineral deposits, “including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium.” In fact, the deposits are so large that “Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.” (NY Times, 6/14/10)

Nearly 100,000 U.S. soldiers will remain to guarantee that U.S. companies, rather than China or another rival, get the lion’s share of these mineral concessions. These troops will be stationed on permanent bases that the U.S. had built for a possible war against Iran, which possesses the world’s second largest reserves of oil and gas. Iran is a rival to the U.S. for dominance in the energy-rich Persian Gulf.

In addition, these troops will guard the building of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India (the TAPI pipeline), part of an overall U.S. plan to control world oil and gas spigots in the likely event of a future military conflict with China.

U.S. wars of occupation have been going on for more than two centuries — against the indigenous people of North America, against dozens of Latin American countries, in Vietnam, in Iraq and throughout Africa and Asia. Millions have demonstrated against these wars. But they won’t end for good until the profit system that causes them — capitalism — is terminated, and the working class has smashed all borders and won a communist world.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 21 — Even though D.C. Metro recently raised bus fares to $1.45, many riders, with drivers looking the other way in solidarity, have decided to “just pay a buck.” They are not only attacking the bosses where it hurts them the most — the pocketbook — they are also displaying a level of class consciousness that should be an inspiration. Any and every instance of workers looking out for other workers is a reason for optimism. This consciousness, and a revolutionary party to organize our class, are crucial ingredients in the recipe for communist revolution.

Now, despite angry protests and testimony against fare increases by workers and students, the transit board here is hiking fares again, to $1.70. These represent the biggest increases in Metro’s history and is part of the bosses’ response to the crisis of capitalism — put the burden on the backs of workers –  a burden borne disproportionately by the mostly black and Latino Metro employees and riders.

As we have seen worldwide, the racism inherent in capitalism has intensified during the economic crisis. Furthermore, disabled workers, victims of capitalism’s disregard for the health and well-being of workers, will face big increases in the cost of their transportation services.  In response, workers are mobilizing to broaden the “Just Pay a Dollar” campaign, with Metro drivers being asked to continue supporting it by accepting the lower fares.

This resistance is a positive sign. Solidarity can be built among workers through such a campaign. But we should have no illusions that such a movement will significantly alter the bosses’ exploitation of workers and riders. Only with a communist revolution could we actually solve the problem: workers would run Metro in the interests of workers so they could get to work easily and make their contribution to society.

Under communism, transit would be free and available, since we would all be working collectively with one another, to create a better world, not help some exploiting boss make profit from our labor. As the “Just Pay a Dollar” campaign grows, we will work to bring this idea to more workers at Metro and in the community! 

PARIS, June 18 — The eight-month strike by over 6,000 undocumented workers appeared to be ending today — resulting in their winning some of their goals — but the workers are maintaining their occupation of various work-sites and government buildings all strikers have received their temporary residence and work permits. They are remaining vigilant regarding the application of the new measures.

We congratulate the workers on carrying on such a long, militant, anti-racist struggle against the racist French government.

The very fact that they struck as undocumented workers is in itself a huge victory. It shows the international working class that immigrant workers worldwide can make such a fight and should be supported by all workers. A crucial factor essential to conducting the strike was the forging of multi-racial unity, notably between workers of African and Chinese origin, which gave the workers the fighting spirit needed for the “illegal” occupations of work sites, and more recently of Bastille Square.

PLP has consistently pointed out that as long as the bosses can divide workers by defining some as “illegal” because they have crossed capitalist-created borders — and enables the bosses to super-exploit them and use them against native-born workers — it will weaken the entire working class. That’s why PLP says workers should “Smash All Borders!” — which can only be accomplished through a communist revolution that eliminates all bosses and all borders.

While the strikers did force the government to adopt uniform conditions for their “legalization,” the continued existence of “conditions” still differentiates these immigrants from France’s native-born workers. Like the outcome of many workers’ reform struggles under capitalism, this one is a compromise. However, with communist leadership it can become a springboard for a continued fight towards the goal of smashing capitalist borders.

The strikers — mainly immigrants from Africa but also from China — have forced the government to admit that France’s 250 prefects abuse their arbitrary powers. The “prefects” are direct agents of the national government at the local level and have lots of police powers which they use to favor bosses who kowtowed to them. Undocumented workers could only be “legalized” if they were on “good terms” with their boss and if their boss was on good terms with the prefect. That’s why the strikers fought for uniform conditions for “legalization.” The agreement provides for uniform application of the following:

• “Legalization” of all undocumented workers who can show they’ve worked 12 of the preceding 18 months, and six of the preceding 12 months; work for different employers counts;

 • “Legalization” of all undocumented temporary workers who can show they’ve worked 310 hours for the same temporary agency, plus a promise from the agency to employ them during 12 of the coming 18 months;

• “Legalization” of all personal care providers, most of whom are women, under a temporary residence permit while they seek a “promise-to-employ” from an employer;

• Recognition of all strike days as days of employment;

• Recognition that all 30 crafts and trades in which the strikers are employed are trades where there are not enough native-born workers; and,

 • Issuance of three-month temporary work permits to all strikers.

It is obvious that within each of these changes, the bosses retain the ability to limit such reforms and the power to reverse them with their hold on the state apparatus. The workers are still subject to having to “prove” certain past work records, dependent on agencies’ “promises” to employ them, and provide proof of five years residence in France, among other conditions.

The strikers opposed the combination of proof of work and proof of residence. Conditions for the “legalization” of Algerian and Tunisian workers, who are subject to special laws, and of undocumented workers in the underground economy, also remain unclear.

While some of the provisions give the workers a leg up on becoming “legal,” they still are far from being on an equal plane with native-born workers. And enforcement of the agreement will be “monitored” in quarterly meetings of representatives of the trade unions and of the Ministries of Immigration and Labor.

Struggle on these issues continues. The strikers were scheduled to hold a June 20 meeting to decide on how to continue their movement.

Once the agreement ended the strike, 1,000 strikers concluded their three-week occupation of Bastille Square chanting, “We work here, we live here, we’re staying here!” Xiaoqiu Zheng, a 52-year-old seamstress, explained that, “In China, I had seen very few Africans. Here [in Bastille Square], we spend a lot of time together. We have become like brothers and sisters.”

Of course, the very idea that workers can be “illegal” is a bosses’ ploy. The “illegal” label makes possible the super-exploitation of immigrants. The bosses want their racism and nationalism to divide the working class into antagonistic groups. It’s only when the workers’ internationalism destroys the bosses’ state power through communist revolution that categories such as “legal” and “illegal” will be abolished.