EL SALVADOR — This is the conclusion to the story that appeared in the January 6 CHALLENGE. It tells of a comrade, an ex-commander in the FMLN guerilla army, who met the PLP through an old ex-fellow combatant with whom he shared many wartime experiences. His old friend related PLP’s communist ideas to him, after which he began reading CHALLENGE and attended several PLP club meetings, along with his wife (another ex-combatant). His subordinates in the war in El Salvador approved of his participation in PLP and asked him to write his history for CHALLENGE. Part I related his poverty-stricken childhood, the influence of the church, his joining the Revolutionary People’s Army and his joining the struggle in Nicaragua to gain experience for the eventual liberation of El Salvador. Part I ended when he arrived in Nicaragua’s northern zone of Estelí.

Part II:

In Estelí, German Pomares, known as Danto, was in charge of 80 people, including an administrative structure, a medical team of three to five, a team to maintain weapons, ammunition and explosives and a communications team with a radio to coordinate their political and military plans with the responsible general at the front.

The rest were organized in squads, platoons and columns, prepared for combat. The three of us from El Salvador were integrated into a squad of ten men. After our first battle, we were put second in command of the squad.

In that first battle, one of the three comrades was killed. Three days later, in the final offensive, my other comrade was killed. The squad leader told me, “In these difficult times of our struggle, we can’t retreat. You know that several of our Nicaraguan comrades died and today the other comrade from El Salvador died. Only you are left. You must be very strong and continue to advance because the struggle is ours and we’re going to El Salvador.”

With tears in my eyes, I told him, “I have no alternative but to continue forward, and we have to win.” Three days later we defeated the enemy. A few months afterwards, our ERP organization sent me to bring back the three comrades still in Managua. We returned to El Salvador in 1980.

From 1978, when I had left El Salvador, I had had no communication with my family or with our organization. When I returned, I discovered that my family and all the villagers had been killed, including the old people and the children. The people were ready to confront the enemy but had only a few old pistols and explosives that some friends had prepared.

Returning to El Salvador, I had had two experiences in the military — one in the barracks as a soldier and one in the Sandinista insurrection. In addition, I had the political understanding of how governments maintain their political and military power. All of this helped me; I shared it with the comrades for our struggle here in El Salvador.

Upon my return I was made second in the military and political command, in a zone called el Cacahuatique, the historic zone of war. By 1981 we were armed, having taken weapons from the enemy. The next year we attacked the barracks of the 3rd Infantry Brigade in the department of San Miguel and in other departments of El Salvador. I was seriously injured here by fragments from a grenade of an M79 launched by the enemy.

Our organization decided to take me for medical treatment, first to Nicaragua and then to Cuba. I lost my voice for two years but then I began to talk a little. In 1983 I returned to El Salvador and rejoined our army as second in command of our military force in Morazán. Our forces controlled the territory from 1983 until 1992 when the peace accords were signed. We were told to turn in all our weapons and then go to work in order to survive.

I wasn’t convinced our new life would be very good because, in the countryside, we didn’t do too well, economically or politically, but we still had to do it. They gave us a few things, a small plot of land, a house, a loan of 15,000 colones (US$1,700) to begin work, a bed, a blanket, a stove, a container of gas, a table, a machete, a hoe, and an irrigation pump. With this, and with the war ended, in 1992 we went to the land we were given to start work.

In 1997, I decided to go to the United States because our lives here had no political or economic future. In the U.S. I encountered problems for immigrants. To work, one had to have a work permit and to be able to speak English. Without that, there’s no possibility of finding a good job.

But while in the U.S., I began to understand the repressive government social policy. With the little I had earned in five years, I re-paid my debts of 50,000 colones (US$5,700).

I returned to El Salvador and witnessed the general political situation, of the right-wing and of the fake left inside the FMLN. They had little possibility of winning the 2004 elections. I realized this wasn’t the moment to come to power because our people weren’t willing to vote. I don’t have much to say about electoral politics. I left the FMLN because I don’t agree with their reactionary ideology. It is the same capitalism.

About my life: I didn’t know how to read or write because I couldn’t go to school. I learned a little in the army and a little more during the war, at least to write my name. But I learned to know myself, to respect others and how to survive with our people, our men and women comrades. I learned to understand our society in general.

After the peace accords I learned that those who were responsible for our organization, those in the ERP, had no regard for my contribution to our struggle in El Salvador and in Nicaragua. But I’m not sorry for my actions. I carried them out clearly, conscious of what I did. I ended up with physical problems, also not valued by the organization, but I valued what I did.

Note: I hope what I’ve written is useful and helps my two children. Today my life has many problems, physically and because of my age. These are obstacles, but we always look to survive on the revolutionary road. The FMLN has no hope. I’ve found among the PLP comrades a new spark of life to make the fight for the international working class. Many of the ex-fighters who were under my command are today members of the PLP and I’m headed in this direction. Greetings, Comrades of the World! 

The Daura oil refinery in Baghdad, Iraq.Given the continuing long-range threat posed by China’s and Russia’s bosses to U.S. rulers, now add the menace of these two rising powers to U.S. plans for control of Iraq’s oil wealth. Chinese and Russian companies scored big in mid-December’s second round of bidding for Iraqi oil fields. This opens yet a new front in the imperialists’ energy dogfight.

Already within Iraq, “The dispute among Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and other minority groups over the oil city of Kirkuk and a resource-rich area of northern Iraq remains a stark obstacle to long-term stability.” (NY Times, 12/20). Imported al Qaeda fighters and Iran’s nearby armed forces (which seized an Iraqi oil well on December 17) also stand to frustrate U.S. bosses’ dreams of pumping 12 million barrels a day of Iraqi crude.
Now their Chinese and Russian competitors will seek to protect their new Iraqi claims with military muscle in the face of the U.S. occupation. The ink on China’s and Russia’s oil contracts had barely dried when their ally Iran grabbed the Iraqi well.

The raid underscored the Beijing-Moscow-Tehran bloc’s strategic advantage. To occupy Iraq, the U.S. war machine must continually mount massive 7,000-mile air- and sea-lifts. Iranian troops can literally walk there. In addition to support for Iran’s conventional forces, China’s and Russia’s new pres- ence in Iraq increasingly leads them to back Iran’s blossoming nuclear weapons program, to enhance ally Iran’s position as a regional power.

The Pentagon’s response entails permanent bases both in Iraq and Afghanistan, an outpost against foes China, Russia, Iran and wildcard Pakistan. Baghdad’s deals with China National Petroleum Corp. and Russian Lukoil and Gazprom made even more crucial for U.S. rulers Obama’s Afghan surge of 30,000 more soldiers (and up to 56,000 mercenaries, says the Washington Post, 12/18).

Inconvenient Truth of ‘War for Oil’ Forces Obama to Cut China, Russia in on Iraq Spoils

In order to seize Iraq’s oil, the U.S. invasion slaughtered over a million Iraqis, and maimed and made homeless mil- lions more (including four million refugees). Two think-tanks, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the James Baker institute, both linked closely to Exxon Mobil, cooked up and spread the lie of Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction” to “justify” the 2003 invasion. A pre-war joint CFR-Baker report salivated over a post-war treasure-trove of six million barrels a day (an estimate now doubled).

So why — with over 200,000 U.S. troops (including mer- cenaries) in his country — did Iraq’s U.S. puppet leader Maliki let China and Russia in on the game? Firstly, Obama and his U.S. capitalist handlers dread a worldwide public opinion revolt against their heavy-handed Iraq tactics, especially among workers in Saudi Arabia, Exxon Mobil’s single biggest oil source with an increasingly restive population of 35,000,000. The millions of Saudi workers get nothing from Exxon’s Saudi arrangement, the most lucrative ongoing deal in capitalism’s history.

Lately, the CIA-aided Saudi Air Force has been busy counter-attacking growing anti-U.S. militant groups on both sides of the Saudi-Yemen border. “Obama administration officials say that any hint of rigged awards, in which U.S. companies hauled in the lion’s share of oil contracts, would do far more political damage by undermining U.S. credibility abroad.” (Energy Intelligence report, 11/30) Secondly, Iraq let the Chinese and Russians in also because the U.S. has been unable to ex- ercise full control, not even pacifying, let alone conquering, the country.

Norwegian-U.S. Petro-strategic Love Match — Source of Obama’s 'Peace' Prize — Hits Rough Patch

Several aspects of the Baghdad oil field auction underscore U.S. weakness in Iraq. Petrostate energy ministers and Big Oil CEOs actually had to walk the last mile to the auction because suicide car-bombers had made driving too risky. None would bid on licenses for major fields amid conflicts still raging in Sadr City and Nineveh. And Norway’s rulers — whose government-owned Statoil stands to profit so much from Obama’s surging Afghan war that they awarded him the Nobel Prize (see CHALLENGE, 12/9) — double-crossed him.

In the Iraq auction, Statoil, teamed as junior partner with U.S. enemy Russia’s Lukoil to win a major oil field. Obama retaliated by accepting the “Peace” prize from Norway’s King Harald with a Hitlerite rant extolling profit-ensuring wars: “The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.” Obama pointedly reminded his oil-soaked majesty that Norwegian troops serve under U.S. command in Afghanistan. Simultaneously, U.S. pressure got former Statoil advisor Kai Eide booted as top UN officer in Afghanistan.

Yet, U.S. rulers (and their British allies), as oc- cupying invaders, do enjoy certain advantages in Iraq. In underpublicized first-round bidding in June, Exxon (U.S.), BP (British), and Shell (British-Dutch) won rights to the biggest Iraqi fields. Exxon & Co. also won bigger profit margins, crucial in capitalist competition: “The [Lukoil-Statoil] partnership will earn 56¢ a barrel. ... Exxon, with minority partner Shell, will receive about 93¢ a barrel.” (Energy Intelligence, 12/13) And the Western firms hope Chinese and Russian firms’ lagging oil-technology skills will make them miss contractual production quotas.

Letting China and Russia into Iraq hardly rep- resents a U.S. olive branch. In fact, it brings the “world’s sole superpower” closer into head-on conflict with a strengthening rival alliance. Emergence of a World War III is sped up as ongoing regional oil wars become more deadly.

For the international working class, building an anti-imperialist war movement with a revolutionary outlook becomes more urgent. PLP’s leadership among masses of workers, soldiers and students, in factories, barracks, unions, schools and churches is even more vital now. We need to organize to destroy the billionaires’ profit system and its endless wars.

An Athens youth fghts back this past summer in Greece.The year 2009 started off with newly-inaugurated Barack Obama sending 21,000 troops to the war in Afghanistan, and caps off with him committing 30,000 more, plus 56,000 mercenaries. Obama dealt with this year’s crisis in time-honored capitalist traditions. He bailed out banks and auto-makers while calling on the working class to make sacrifices “for the greater good.” He proclaimed this year a ‘Year of Service’ while announcing these troop increases in Afghanistan, making clear why the ruling class needs our service.

PLP has been saying for several years that the U.S. ruling class is heading deeper and deeper into a crisis it cannot control. This year the rulers could not mask their difficulties anymore. While few would use any label harsher than “recession,” all media — from the stuffiest newspaper to the trashiest talk show — were comparing this year’s financial disasters to the Great Depression of the 1930s, calling this period the “Great Recession.”

The capitalists’ crisis devastated the lives of many workers. Over 30 million are now unemployed in the U.S. Like the increasing foreclosures and homelessness, jobless rates disproportionately affect black and Latino workers, reflecting the racism built into the capitalist system. U.S. prison rates exceed those of any other nation, and figures continue to rise. Young workers are increasingly forced to look to the military to support themselves, being sent to kill and die to rescue U.S. rulers’ imperialist dreams. Attacks on immigrants are rising, including the firing of all “undocumented” workers by the supposedly non-sweatshop garment manufacturer American Apparel.

Obama continued the plans of his predecessors in many areas, including extending plans for anti-student education reforms under the direction of new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He presided over the increasingly racist divisions of the Chicago public schools. Across the country budgets were slashed for schools, hospitals and city services.

No media pundit or politician will ever say that we would be better off under another system, but this year was unique in its revelations about the low point capitalism has entered.

Fighting Back

While the need for revolutionary leadership is clear, in many places around the world workers have stood up and rebelled. The year began with a general strike in Greece. Students protesting the police murder of a teenage boy were joined by millions of workers in a general strike. Tens of thousands of workers, teachers, students and farmworkers defied Mexico’s rulers’ using the swine flu to ban May Day marches and took to the streets in Oaxaca, Puebla and other cities.

There were widespread student strikes throughout Austria and Germany. Workers brought the French department of Guadeloupe to a halt several times throughout the year as the capitalists were unwilling to meet their demands. In France, attempts by workers to copy the rebellions of Guadeloupe were channeled by unions into single-day strikes. A current strike of over 6,000 undocumented workers in France has lasted over two months, inspiring the French labor movement and a march of 10,000 to the Immigration Ministry in Paris.

In the U.S., teachers, students and workers showed their anger at the system which is increasingly unable to meet their needs. Los Angeles teachers went on a one-hour work stoppage against the wishes of their union leadership. Washington, D.C. bus drivers imposed a work slowdown. Recently, University of California students took over administration buildings protesting budget cuts, enduring attacks by police.

Most inspiringly, in the Bronx, this summer marked the end of the 11-month strike of Stella D’Oro cookie factory workers. This prolonged battle has taught thousands much about the strength of workers fighting sexism, racism and oppression in staunch defiance of scabs, police terror and unscrupulous bosses. These workers did not give up the fight, even after they returned to the factory floor. Finally the factory was closed and moved to another state. The collective they built still stands together, contacting the workers in the new factory to let them know about the struggle. Several have joined the Party, committing to fight the whole capitalist system, no matter how the cookie crumbles.

In Memoriam

In 2009 Progressive Labor Party celebrated the lives of several anti-racist, working-class heroes whose lives inspire our work as communist organizers. In the autumn many members and friends traveled to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, to honor the raid by John Brown’s integrated force of principled fighters. John Brown and his comrades, including runaway slave Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds to freedom, get short shrift in the history books, often even derided as mentally ill. But we recognize that they knew that only armed insurrection could fix the problems of slavery and stood up for what was right. Their bold actions changed their world.

This year we lost honored friends and comrades including Joseph Furr, Helen Jones, Sylvia Dick Gomez and Lee Simon. We memorialized former CHALLENGE/DESAFIO editor Luis Castro, who was an example to many of us of how to lead the life of an internationalist fighter against racism and imperialism, a dialectical materialist studying the world from a scientific viewpoint and a comradely participant in collective struggle.

Remembering the lives of these working-class brothers and sisters, both in our own lives and in history, can motivate us all to work hard for the future they dreamed of and carry their legacies forward in the coming year. In 2010 and on, we call on our members and friends to distribute more CHALLENGES and bring more coworkers and friends the ideas of the Progressive Labor Party to win more fighters for communist revolution.
Our New Year’s resolution must be to get involved in, and to lead, class struggle to battle the attacks of the rulers, from budget cuts and unemployment to police terror and the increasing wars abroad, with the goal of winning workers’ power — communism.



A mural of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador.El Salvador — This is the story of a comrade, an ex-commander in the FMLN guerilla army, who met the PLP through an old ex-fellow combatant with whom he shared many wartime experiences. His old friend related PLP’s communist ideas to him, how other workers internationally were organizing in the working class with PLP’s line. This gladdened him, but first he began reading CHALLENGE regularly before participating in discussions.

He was invited to several PLP club meetings but decided to take some time before actually joining due to all the experiences described below. Currently he attends meetings punctually. Initially he listened carefully to the analysis. His level of participation and responsibility in the armed struggle and his analysis of current events make him very prudent.

He has brought his wife (another ex-combatant) to recent meetings. He has been very honest and correct politically, open about his contradictions — the illusion in elections and the stages theory of es- tablishing communism, using Cuba’s example, and has helped the club to better explain PLP’s politics. His subordinates in the war in El Salvador were very approving of his participation in PLP. They asked him to write his history for CHALLENGE and he agreed, saying that he would try to write as honestly as possible about his life and his understanding of PLP’s politics:

Part I
I was born in the Department of Morazán. We lived in extreme poverty. In my village there were 85 houses, of tile with wooden walls, with approxi- mately 5 to 8 people per family in each. The situation was critical since we had no income. We lived by planting corn, beans and sorghum.

My father died when I was 3. I grew up alone with my mother who was accompanied by another man. When I was 8 I didn’t go to school because I had to work so my family could eat. That’s how most people lived in El Salvador. I made half a co- lon a day (20¢US). My mother was, and is, very religious. Luckily she still lives with us today.

In 1974 Miguel Ventura came to our village to take charge of the Catholic Parish. I liked how he discussed the bible’s themes and related them to our lives. He talked a lot about farm workers and the way our people lived in general.

In 1975, he sent two catechists (lay people who help teach the bible) to explain the gospel. I liked to accompany them. They assigned me, as a community leader, to motivate area youth for this religious movement. One day that year, the idea arose about the necessity to organize around other ideas because the bible alone could not help us. The church then was called “subversive,” especially because we exposed the injustice toward the farmworkers and the whole working class in the country.

Through questions about some of the themes in the bible, we understood that we live under a capitalist system that causes tremendous poverty and repression, and that the military only defends the interests of the rich. We then understood that we had to organize ourselves in groups and fight to change the situation. We also understood there were sectors of workers who were already organized.

One sector was Popular Leagues of the 28th of February (LP-28), and another was FAPU. These groups included university students. The right-wing government oppressed the working class, the students and the churches because it saw these groups were organizing to demand their rights. In 1975, through Miguel Ventura, we organized the Revolutionary Peoples’ Army (ERP) to which I belonged.

We organized with youth and older people. Our orientation with people was to form committees. This helped us coordinate the movements with both political and military preparation. One theme included topics like the international and national political situation. We also learned to use weapons — pistols, 22-caliber rifles and shotguns some neighbors owned.

In 1976 the organization asked me and six youth to join the army as infiltrators. Our mission was to learn the army’s policies, its military tactics using its different weapons and then to take some weapons and ammunition.

If needed, we could desert with all the assigned equipment, but it was better to stay in the army and serve our time. I served two years and then left with plenty of experience. When I left, my friends asked about everything I had learned about the military and the army’s political preparations.

Two months later the armed forces had an operation in our department of Morazán. They came to my house and took me and two other comrades away, detaining us for three days. They tortured me but didn’t kill me because they thought that I would give them a lot of information. On the third day they released me but continued to hold my comrades for a year. I went home to tell my mother I was free but that I had to leave because the army would come look for me to kill me. I told my family that when they came for me to say they hadn’t heard from me since the day I was captured.

A month later, the organization decided that six of us should go to Nicaragua because the Sandinista Liberation Front was in a critical phase of the war there. They were concentrated in the mountains and preparing to destroy the Somoza government and his army, that it was necessary to gain this useful experience because after Nicaragua was liberated, El Salvador would follow.

I asked when will I leave here and they replied, “This has to be done quickly.” Shortly we were in Honduras and then passed to the mountains of Nicaragua. Three of us, including me, were sent to the northern zone at Estelí. The other three were sent to the capital, Managua.

(Next issue: Part II; the battles in Nicaragua and El Salvador and moving from the reformist FMLN to the revolutionary PLP)