1. May Day: Fight Bosses' Wars and Racist Terror Workers of the World, Unite
2. Pope Heils Anti-U.S. Europe-China Bloc
   1. RULERS AIM SCANDAL AT CHURCH FOES OF U.S. BOSSES
   2. VATICAN COZYING TO CHINESE RULERS
3. THE NEW YORK TIMES: All the News They 'Forgot' to Print
4. Will Cops Go Free for Sean Bell's Murder?
5. Marine Vet: U.S. Imperialists Are War Criminals
6. Fight Racist Destruction of Harlem
7. NYC YOUTH VOW MAY 1ST WALKOUT
8. Ex-Marine Links U.S. Racism, Katrina and Iraq War
9. Building for May Day Young and Old, Across All Borders
   1. New Jersey
   2. New York
   3. Spain: PL'ers Defend Immigrant, Organize for May Day
10. EL SALVADOR: Workers Won't Win Liberation No Matter Which Presidential Candidate Win
11. Axle Strikers Holding Fast Despite UAW Sabotage
12. Calif. Teachers Fight Budget Cuts, Tax Hikes, Union Fakers
13. PLP Growth in Pakistan New Hope for Working Class
14. LETTERS
    1. Fight-Back in Mexico and on Axle Picket Line
    2. When It Comes to Racism, There's No Debate
    3. Rutgers Coalition Walks Out Against the War
    4. How Red-Led Mass Actions Stopped Foreclosures in the Great Depression
    5. 1968: How 10 Million Workers Shut Down France
15. Ira Gollobin: A Communist for All Seasons
16. REDEYEONTHE NEWS
    1. US workers losing wage battle
    2. US ally slaughters unionists
    3. People know who really runs US

May Day: Fight Bosses' Wars and Racist Terror Workers of the World, Unite

On this May Day, International Workers' Day, the international working class is under sharpening fascist attack while the drums of global war beat louder and slaughter millions. World capitalism pushes its economic crisis onto workers' backs with mass racist unemployment, wage-cuts, soaring food prices and resulting starvation. Yet masses of workers are fighting back, with general strikes and food rebellions from Greece to Egypt to Haiti to Russian Ford and Romanian Renault auto workers to Detroit's Axle strikers.

This May Day we must stand as one class, with one interest: to destroy the capitalist murderers with communist revolution and build a communist world based on production to fulfill the needs of our class. On this May Day, international workers' solidarity must meet the bosses' assault head-on, especially as they use the attacks on the world's 200 million immigrants to attack ALL workers.

Capitalism has spawned this migration across all borders. We say smash all boss-created borders. We are one class, internationally.

Capitalism created the working class, a class with nothing but its labor power to sell in order to survive. Early on, the capitalists moved millions of Africans as slaves from that continent to wherever they could produce the most profit. With capitalism's global expansion, immigration is now a worldwide phenomenon.

Capitalism's unrelenting drive for maximum profits uproots hundreds of millions of workers, forcing them into the squalor of sprawling mega slums, from Brazil to Nigeria to China, where 80 million Chinese-born migrant workers are branded as illegal. Many die crossing deserts and oceans from Africa to Latin America trying to reach jobs in the U.S. and Europe, as well as from starvation, malnutrition and curable diseases. Ten thousand died trying to cross into Spain from Africa in the last five years.

Those migrating to the more industrialized countries are not only super-exploited but are used as scapegoats, blamed for capitalism-created problems, and paid slave wages to lower the wages of all workers.

In the past, immigrant workers were on the front lines of class struggle. With global capitalism, the bosses -- by forcing this mass migration -- have internationalized the working class even more, providing the opportunity for a communist-led working class to forge the unity necessary for communist revolution. Immigrant workers are now positioned geographically and socially to help lead this fight worldwide.

Their role will become even more crucial as the imperialists' rivalry for world domination intensifies, particularly in the U.S., a declining power fighting desperately to hold its position as top imperialist while it gears up for wider Middle Eastern wars and eventually world war versus the rising powers in China, Russia and the European Union.

The U.S. rulers' fight over immigration reform concerns the tactics and strategies on how and when to wage these wars. One sector thinks these wars can be waged cheaply with a small, technologically superior military. These bosses opposing immigration reform just want to terrorize immigrant workers with deportations to continue super-exploiting them.

The liberal imperialist sector, however, needs an immigration reform that builds patriotism among immigrants through a 12-year-long path to citizenship. This is in exchange for recruiting millions of soldiers as cannon fodder in their imperialist wars and to maintain a workforce of millions of super-exploited workers for their war industries.

That's why their liberal politicians attack Homeland Security's "scattershot workplace raids" as bad economic policy. And their newspapers like the LA Times and NY Times criticize Congress and the Bush administration for endangering the ability of the bosses to achieve these aims.

These liberal rulers also use their state power to rein in their opponents like California's Orange County Sheriff Carona -- indicted for some of his many crimes in the county where the racist Minutemen were born -- and Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County, Arizona, who terrorizes day laborers.

But the vitriolic anti-immigrant stance of their opponents also serves the liberal bosses, creating the terror and despair that drives immigrant workers into the arms of their liberal politicians -- and their leaders in the pro-immigrant organizations, churches, unions and community groups -- with their pacifism and dead-end electoral politics. The main organizing slogan of the pro-immigrant organizations is, "Today we march, tomorrow we vote!"

Their leaflet announcing the Los Angeles May 1st March praises the bosses' immigration reform and DREAM Act, aimed at forcing undocumented youth into the military under the farce of "helping them go to college," which they can't afford. This "Green Card army" will eventually become the army of all, via the draft or some militaristic "national service" scheme. The slave-like conditions and low wages of indentured immigrant workers will be extended to all workers.

With Democrats Obama and Clinton, and Republican McCain, supporting their comprehensive immigration reform bill and the DREAM Act, the liberal bosses will win no matter who becomes president. But their needs are forcing them to bring together two of the most oppressed, potentially militant and rebellious sectors of the working class: black workers and youth, crucial in industry and the military -- possessing a rich history of fighting the U.S. bosses' racism -- and immigrant workers with a long history of fighting U.S. imperialism.

With PLP building international unity and a base for rebellion and revolutionary communism among industrial workers, soldiers, and students -- black, Latino, white, Asian and Arab, immigrant and citizen, men and women -- we can fight the bosses' racism, nationalism and patriotism, and unite the world's workers to destroy the scourge of capitalism forever.

The fire of May Day burns brightly in a vibrant and growing internationalist PLP! Workers of the World Unite! Fight to end racism and wars for profit. Smash all bosses' borders! Spread CHALLENGE, the internationalist, revolutionary communist newspaper! Fight for communism! Join us!

Pope Heils Anti-U.S. Europe-China Bloc

Obama got it wrong. Embittered workers don't "cling" to religion by choice. The ruling class he serves shoves it down their throats, as the media's non-stop coverage of the pope's visit reveals. The Catholic passivity Benedict preaches is -- like all faiths -- so useful to capitalists in stifling working-class anger that they made his every utterance and gesture front-page, prime-time "historic events." But nevertheless, the pope's visit is a mixed blessing for U.S. rulers. While they benefit from his spreading religious ideology among workers, they must also win mass political support for their widening wars. And, just as he did as a Hitler Youth in pre-World War II Germany, Benedict represents European bosses increasingly at odds with U.S. imperialism.

RULERS AIM SCANDAL AT CHURCH FOES OF U.S. BOSSES

His predecessor John Paul II mildly criticized the 1991 invasion of Iraq by a U.S.-led coalition that included large European contingents. At the time, Catholic bishops in the U.S. cooked up a theological justification for that war. Europe's oil majors, like Total of France and Eni of Italy, scored big deals with "rescued" Kuwait. But by the 2003 invasion, when it became clear the U.S. would not share Iraq's oil spoils with European firms, the prelates defied the Pentagon. Late in 2002, the National Council of Catholic Bishops declared, "We...find it difficult to justify the resort to war against Iraq....[W]e fear that resort to war, under present circumstances...would not meet the strict conditions in Catholic teaching for overriding the strong presumption against the use of military force."

U.S. rulers punished the Catholic leaders severely for their heresy. Starting with the Boston Globe that year, the bosses' media let loose a flood of exposés detailing sexual abuse of children by priests, pointedly blaming bishops for enabling and protecting pedophiles. Hardly breaking news -- sex abuse has been rampant in the church for centuries. But imperialist U.S. rulers played it up to rob pro-European clergy of all credibility. Referring overtly to the abuse scandal but implicitly to geopolitics, a New York Times editorial (4/17/08) reminded pope-struck readers of "stunning failures of the overwhelming majority of U.S. bishops."

VATICAN COZYING TO CHINESE RULERS

Now, as its European backers cement ties with China's rulers, the church is following suit, increasing the likelihood of an armed U.S.-China clash over U.S. protectorate Taiwan. The London Sunday Times (2/17/08) reports, "Tempted by the prize of a historic visit to China by Pope Benedict XVI, the nation's leaders have authorised a renewed effort...to heal their rift and inaugurate diplomatic ties....
[T]he Vatican is prepared as part of an eventual settlement to move its embassy from Taipei to Beijing." The Times quoted a senior Vatican official, "There is no problem with breaking relations with Taiwan....we have a duty to spread the values of the gospel." Those "values," no doubt, embrace China's recent purchase of a $2.8-billion stake in French oil giant Total.

But U.S. rulers tolerated and even welcomed Benedict because religion hinders a rational analysis of the world's two opposing classes and prevents workers from fighting back accordingly. "Pie-in-the-sky" promises of heavenly rewards and meaningless, mystical concepts of "good" and "evil" devoid of class content can help lead workers into militaristic patriotism. Parochial schools preaching "Church and Country" furnished millions of recruits for the U.S. war machine in the last century.

Grossly underpaid teachers in one New York Catholic school union have the right response to papal pandemonium -- strike. Our Party's goal is to organize working-class militancy like this into a mass communist party that will eliminate the warmakers and their religious apologists.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: All the News They 'Forgot' to Print

The New York Times, U.S. rulers' vaunted "newspaper of record," ran an outraged three-page-plus article on April 20 exposing unethical ties between the Pentagon and retired officers working for TV networks as "military analyst" talking heads. The Times complained that, in return for deals with military contractors and other payoffs, these experts have given a favorable spin to the war in Iraq, which the Times now claims to oppose.

What hypocrites! The Times itself was one the loudest proponents of the war, with editorials backing star reporter Judith Miller's tales of immense caches of "weapons of mass destruction." The Times bosses' main gripe with the Pentagon is the latter's failure to secure for Exxon Mobil and Big Oil the six million barrels a day of Iraqi crude (about 2 mbd now trickle out) that U.S. strategists foresaw.

Will Cops Go Free for Sean Bell's Murder?

While the liberal bosses prance around and pat themselves on the back for "making change" and proclaiming the end of racism in the U.S., three cops might very well be set free for the murder of Sean Bell in November 2006. Seems like the cops and the courts never got the memo.

Bell and two friends were shot at by plainclothes kkkops after leaving a bachelor party at a bar in Queens, NY. The cops claim that Bell and his friends first tried to run them over and that one of the men inside the car appeared to be grabbing for a gun in his waist. The cops then wasted no time shooting 50 BULLETS into the car, killing Bell and injuring his friends.

The bosses enlisted the ex-FBI informer and pacifier of black workers' anger, Al Sharpton. Our class should not be led by this bosses' agent who pervasively sells the snake oil of justice under capitalism. He's done it before with Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 times by the fascist police, and Patrick Dorismond in Manhattan and countless others. The cops' main role is to protect and serve the bosses' private property and terrorize workers, especially black and Latino youth, so that they do not turn their anger into rebellion.

With the coming elections the bosses need to win black, and all workers, to U.S. imperialism to stay ahead of their rivals like China, Russia and Europe. Barack Obama and the bosses need to give them hope that the system can work for them in the face of years of slavery, Jim Crow racism, segregation, police terror, poverty like in New Orleans and after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Workers and students should organize their friends and co-workers to expose the cops' role in the racist system of capitalism. No court will guarantee workers justice.

Marine Vet: U.S. Imperialists Are War Criminals

SOUTHWESTERN CAMPUS, April 3 -- "War crimes? Heck, the whole war is a crime!" exclaimed a student and Marine veteran of the Iraq war, summing up his contempt for the U.S. imperialist agenda.

Over 175 students, teachers and campus staff applauded enthusiastically. Foregoing classes, many stayed over three hours to hear testimonials from four members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and one from Military Families Speak Out (MFSO).

One army veteran/student quoted from Nazi butcher Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials, exposing how all the rulers think: "Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in England, nor America, nor in Germany....But...it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along....Tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

He should have said, "any capitalist country" because Soviet workers were won to fight the Nazis in their own class interests. This vet said Göring's statement brought a "chilling familiarity to our experience since 9/11."

This vet quoted Marine General Smedley Butler: "War is just a racket....It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses."

Urging soldiers to abandon blind pride, the vet noted the growth of anti-imperialist war activism, citing "the growing number of active-duty IVAW chapters."

Vets revealed their painful understanding of war crimes and the contradictions that soldiers fighting an imperialist war face daily. One ex-Marine in charge of detainees explained how he attempted to protect them from casual abuse by other soldiers. Another witnessed a whole town storm his platoon's position.

Current reports of corruption and of Iraqi recruits refusing to fight and turning over their weapons to Shiite insurgents mirrored one Marine's description of outright corruption of Sunni commanders who sold weapons to insurgents. This Marine was disgusted with the "dog and pony show" of the Iraqi military, which is clearly not motivated to defend U.S. imperialism. These experiences provoked him to ask, "What the hell am I doing here [in Iraq]."

The MFSO parent noted how his son couldn't make a decent living after high school and thus enlisted. This anti-racist MFSO member expressed dismay that after boot camp his son was trained to "hate people he never met." He said 85% of those killed in Iraq are civilians. His son suffers from PTSD after one tour in Iraq where, on burial detail, he had to collect body parts of deceased soldiers with whom he had trained. This parent stressed the need for everyone to actively oppose the war by reaching out to active-duty soldiers.

The Q and A session revealed the uneven development among these vets. One panelist opposed the war in Iraq but not Afghanistan. Asked about the draft, one vet answered, "Draft all college-age Republicans," which drew a laugh. Several vets supported a draft as a "wake-up call." That position is based more on frustration than a real commitment to national service of any kind that's promoted by the current presidential candidates. A few vets attacked imperialism as a system and opposed any wider wars or military call-up.

The potential for a revolutionary worker/soldier/student alliance was evident during these three brief hours. The panelists are part of the movement against imperialist war, which will ultimately require the fight for a world devoid of profiteers and exploitation. Such forums for political struggle are steps toward that goal.

Fight Racist Destruction of Harlem

NEW YORK CITY, April 12 -- Hundreds of Harlem residents and their supporters formed a human chain across several long cross-town blocks and then marched on the NY State Office Building, battling the gentrification of East, Central, and West Harlem, which will displace thousands of working-class residents and many small businesses. The cops tried to pen the demonstrators into a small area on the street, but they immediately broke through the barricades and took over the sidewalk. Almost all the passing motorists honked in support.

Having recently approved the take-over of West Harlem by Columbia University, the City Council's zoning subcommittee has now voted to rezone Harlem's main thoroughfare, 125th Street, and two surrounding blocks all the way across Manhattan, for luxury housing and businesses. Central Harlem is home to mostly low-income and working-class African-Americans, averaging below $25,000 annually. It's also a cultural center, home to generations of black writers, performers and artists. East Harlem (El Barrio) is a mainly Latino neighborhood, also providing housing for mainly low-income workers. This demonstration marked the first time in recent history that groups from all these areas have marched together.

For two decades, gentrification has been underway, with the renovation of old brownstones and houses, attracting African-American professionals and a growing white population. As local property values rise, Harlem can be totally gentrified within the next decade. Tenant activists estimate that half of all Harlem residents may be forced to move.

Although this show of militancy and unity was heartening, a weakness of the movement has been its looking for "good "politicians to turn things around. Some hope the new black governor, David Patterson (who replaced Eliot Spitzer), will protect their interests. But Patterson is closely tied to the other prominent black NY politicians, ex-mayor David Dinkins and Rep. Charles Rangel, who are deeply embedded with developers. Some hope City Council members will carry their banner, but the Harlem representatives have long supported gentrification. A few involved fighters are nationalist, and see this attack as only against "their own group." Most have welcomed the support of all.

Several comrades have been active in a Harlem church and community groups. We've pointed out how only a movement of rank-and-file workers and students can be relied upon to have our interests at heart, and that all politicians can only survive by doing the bidding of capitalist profiteers.

This attack on all of Harlem is based on racism of the foulest sort, hoping that not only will all NYC workers not back Harlem's struggle, but will even welcome "racial cleansing." We emphasize the role that racism plays and the necessity of multi-racial unity.

Most importantly, we must win our friends to see that gentrification, like the housing and financial crisis, the growing income gap and widening war and fascism are all part of capitalism, and therefore all our efforts should be linked to the fight against this racist system. We will continue to distribute CHALLENGE and bring some new friends to May Day. J

NYC YOUTH VOW MAY 1ST WALKOUT

BROOKLYN, NY April 16 -- More than 70 students from six different high schools in Brooklyn, Harlem and the Lower East Side joined together and held an after-school conference about billionaire Bloom
berg's promised budget cuts and how to oppose them. Six young black and Latino women representing a school's student government led the conference and electrified its closing moments unifying walkout proposals from across the room into a call for a city-wide walkout at noon on May 1st!

Students showed up ready to organize against not only the budget cuts but the increased police presence and criminalization of students that has run rampant in NYC schools. An opening talk set the political tone of the event by reminding us that the capitalist system is based on theft of the value workers produce on the job every single day. Most participants in the conference took CHALLENGE and everyone got a copy of the PL leaflet describing how debt service means that billionaires always get paid whether schools face cuts or not.

"These cuts are racist! Eighty percent of NYC school children are black and Latino, can't nobody tell me these cuts aren't racist!" one student shouted. "Bloomberg has 16 billion dollars; if he wanted to he could fix the schools' budget problems," one student stated in her speech. "The government is trying to put us down before we even get up," another student shouted. One student talked about being arrested and verbally abused by cops just for having her head outside of the window while watching a crime scene. We live in a period of growing fascism.

After breaking up into groups, students made lists of ways they can fight back against the cuts. Writing a petition, having rallies, getting the word out to more schools, letters to Bloomberg and having student walkouts were prominent on most lists. The plan is to link up with the immigrants' rights march in Union Square on May 1st.

Some students made the connection that the money that is being taken out of the schools' budgets is being used to fund the bosses' imperialist wars and burgeoning police state. PLP students spoke of learning about communism in the classroom and thinking it is a good idea. Communist politics helped defeat the all-too-common liberal error of blaming these cuts on the war alone.

Students left the room with the message that capitalism itself is to blame and that communism remains a real alternative worth fighting for. The task now is to mobilize these same young people to be organizers for PLP's May Day events this year on May 3rd and, over time, as another generation of young fighters for a communist future. J

Ex-Marine Links U.S. Racism, Katrina and Iraq War

BOSTON, April 14 -- Students, faculty and staff at Roxbury Community College (RCC), a mainly black and immigrant working-class school here, showed considerable interest in an anti-war event marking the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war. It highlighted the recent Winter Soldier testimony that publicized veterans' criticisms of the war. (See CHALLENGE 3/12)

Thirty-five in attendance heard the stirring remarks of two veterans and a speech explaining that U.S. rulers went to war to control Mid-East oil. One ex-Marine said Hurricane Katrina exposed the true nature of U.S. imperialism, which allowed mostly black workers to die in New Orleans while it was killing working people in Iraq. As a black man of Haitian descent, he declared that the racism of Katrina punctured his belief in U.S. patriotism and his willingness to "serve my country."

We watched some of the recorded testimony of other veterans who described the atrocities the U.S. committed in Iraq. It was inspiring to see how Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is helping to transform soldiers -- damaged by their experiences -- into anti-war organizers. However, although IVAW is introducing veterans to anti-war politics, the organization is also injecting patriotic content into those politics, undermining an understanding of imperialism, the real cause of the Middle-East wars. This builds a movement which the capitalist class can easily manipulate as they plan wider war to protect their strategic interests in the region.

Because PLP understands the crucial role of soldiers and students in the growth of a revolutionary communist movement, we played a pivotal role in this function. Some students who had attended our May Day dinner a week earlier helped to organize the event, distributing leaflets on campus.

The speech that presented a class analysis about the war helped people make more sense of the veterans' testimony by putting their personal tragedies into a political context. Soldiers are being forced to kill and maim Iraqis in a genocidal war so that U.S. capitalism can maintain its control over oil.

This analysis inspired one veteran to expound on his previous talk. "It's RCC students and Bunker Hill Community College students who are fighting this war,' he said, "not students from Harvard and Milton Academy." Then, he called for students and soldiers to "revolutionize" themselves as a necessary step in fighting back.

By understanding the class character of the war, working-class students can see the many ways imperialism is attacking them and their loved ones, and their role in organizing resistance. This event made it clear that PLP needs to sell CHALLENGE more consistently and expose students to a communist analysis about both world events and their own reality at RCC.

Building for May Day Young and Old, Across All Borders

New Jersey

We had a very international May Day dinner in New Jersey to raise funds for the Party's big events to celebrate this working-class holiday. Twenty-six of us came -- some immigrants from 11 different countries: Jamaica, Peru, Italy, Hungary, Ecuador, the Philippines, Macedonia, Guatemala, Israel, Korea, Honduras and from Africa. There was fabulous Ethiopian and Guatemalan cooking, black-eyed pea fritters, with desserts of apple pie and brownies.

We heard stories of immigration, of untold expense and deadly injuries. Many undocumented immigrant pay smugglers (coyotes) $7,000 to $10,000 to come from Central America. There is no guarantee the immigrant will arrive safely to his/her destination and many have died either abandoned by the smugglers, crossing the desert, the river, or even
asphyxiated piled up in cargo train cars, trucks, etc.

The Río Grande is cold and deep. Many don't survive the swim. One man loaded his three children into an inflatable raft and swam with one arm, pushing the raft with the other. Another woman spent one night with two other adults in the trunk of a car, almost dying of dehydration and suffocation. Each had a story of having to leave individuals in the desert who could not walk or be carried. Two people related how Mexican workers often carried other people, children or adults, to the border who would never have survived the journey without their help.

The message was stated throughout that an international Party, the PLP, is essential to get rid of borders forever. With each horrific tale, it became more obvious that borders mean only separation of families, lowering wages, starvation and death for working people. The clear communist solution has to include doing away with wage slavery, profits and the entire capitalist class of parasites who suck the blood from workers trapped by borders. The working-class immigrants have already demonstrated the fortitude and courage necessary to win! J

NJ Red

New York

A collective of young and veteran members of Progressive Labor Party is coordinating efforts for a large gathering to celebrate May Day in New York City. We're developing both the program and our organizing around a central theme of increasing class struggle to build the Party.

Our program features young comrades, helping to develop their leadership abilities, which is already reflected in the struggle they've spearheaded against NYC's Department of Education. (See CHALLENGE, 04/09/08.) The excitement generated around this struggle has increased CHALLENGE distribution and produced potential new recruits to PLP. The energy of students and teachers and their understanding of the class struggle sharpened during this fight, which should help make our celebration an exciting one.

We will also acknowledge the contributions of long-standing members as we build for the future. A veteran of many on-the-job struggles will stress the importance of communist organizing at the workplace, linking his experiences with a call for participation in a Summer Project at some of PLP's industrial concentrations.

Finally, we plan to ask the audience four questions about communism that our friends frequently ask. We hope the May Day celebrators will participate via their answers.

May Day marks a review of the strength of our communist organizing. The efforts of comrades, young and old, will ensure it will be inspiring and successful. 

NYC May Day Collective

Spain: PL'ers Defend Immigrant, Organize for May Day

SPAIN -- We are celebrating May Day, the international working-class holiday, including distributing a leaflet outside Metro (subway) stations in a major city here. This occurs amid growing attacks by the regular and immigration cops.

A friend from Brazil was arrested at his job just for the "crime" of being an undocumented immigrant. From the U.S. to Spain, capitalism, to survive, needs repression and racism against workers by forcing immigrant workers to work for less and produce super-profits for the bosses.

A group of us went to the police station to support our fellow worker. He was lucky not to be beaten by the cops. We celebrated a small victory because he wasn't deported, just given a letter of expulsion.

Communist ideas are being spread among workers in this and other struggles. Our May Day leaflet will bring these ideas to other workers who don't know about PLP. Anarchist ideas are widespread here and there's a fear about communism because anti-communist ideas are rampant. But now PLP'ers are working in many areas of the world with the aim of winning workers to understand what's best for our class: communism. Long live May Day and the workers of the world!

EL SALVADOR: Workers Won't Win Liberation No Matter Which Presidential Candidate Win

On May 1, 1886, May Day was born in the historic struggle of Chicago's workers for the 8-hour day, in a general strike that involved 350,000 workers throughout the U.S. On May Day workers worldwide march for their common demands, projecting the solidarity and unity of the international working class.

This May Day, thousands of workers, students and farmworkers will be marching, seeking a real alternative to the hell of capitalism. The potential power of masses of workers will be there. As they have in past years, many will be fervently looking for CHALLENGE and PLP's leaflets with a communist analysis. Others will come to support the FMLN's presidential candidates. In general, the great majority hates capitalism, but still don't see how to end it and build a new society based on meeting the needs of the working class. This is our challenge.

The situation in El Salvador worsens daily. Inflation is higher than in a decade. The cost of a family's basic needs has skyrocketed, out of reach for the working class. There are more street vendors than ever. All this is caused by the capitalist system of exploitation, which is in deepening crisis. And the international environment is not favorable for the ARENA party. The recession in the U.S. economy, the increase in oil prices and of many agricultural products, and the devaluation of the dollar compared to the euro, are factors that could help the FMLN win the country's presidency for the first time.

Every five years here the people go to vote for one or another of the candidates selected by the leadership bodies of the FMLN or ARENA. These electoral parties develop programs designed to maintain the capitalist system and to try to win workers' loyalty to them and their system. In reality, workers elect the hangman who will attack and starve us.

The electoral campaign has flooded us of promises and proposals to try to sway the electorate about the advantages of voting for Mauricio Funes of the pro-capitalist FMLN or the death-squad member and ex-police chief and FBI agent Rodrigo Avila of ARENA, who owns a private security company with thousands of repressive guards.

Funes and Avila each say they will better administer the capitalist system of exploitation, whether for the local bosses and their U.S. imperialist allies who support the ARENA candidate or the rising European and Chinese imperialists, who, through Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, support the FMLN.

As bad as Avila is, Funes, a willing servant of capitalism, stands to mis-lead more workers into thinking capitalism can serve workers' needs. In reality, these rival imperialists and local bosses are only fighting to gain the upper hand so they can rob the value the workers produce.

We can't take the wrong road; there is no easy way. The working class does not need capitalist and rising pro-imperialist presidents, nor do we need to continue sustaining the fascist police. We need a whole new system, a communist system, where the priority will be the lives of the workers and their families, not the profits of any murderous bosses.

It's urgent that the workers organize for a new alternative. That's why, on this May Day 2008, we should sharpen the struggle for a Party that represents the unity of the international working class. The organization with one flag, one Party, for one class must be our slogan. Join the internationalist communist Progressive Labor Party, vanguard of the working class, that fights to unite the workers of the world.

Axle Strikers Holding Fast Despite UAW Sabotage

DETROIT, MI, April 18 -- Workers and students from Chicago drove here to picket in solidarity with the American Axle (AAM) strikers. Originally we planned to join a giant solidarity rally, but the UAW leadership cancelled it, angering the workers. But when we said we'd come to meet the strikers anyway, the workers made us feel right at home.

On strike for seven weeks, the 3,600 workers are fighting company demands to cut wages from an average $25/hr to $14/hr, convert company pensions into 401(K)s and eliminate 1,000 jobs. The strike has mainly affected production of GM pick-up trucks and SUVs. One worker told us, "AAM has diversified and we supply other car giants like Toyota." But scabbing supervisors have maintained some level of production of Toyota axles. Chrysler is unaffected since their parts come from Saltillo, Mexico, where workers make 70 cents an hour!

The strike has caused layoffs of 25,000 GM workers and thousands more in the parts-supplier plants. One worker told a story about the bosses bringing charts to a meeting to show workers who they were competing against. Of the nine names listed, seven were AAM-owned factories in other countries. He left the meeting saying, "We're in competition with ourselves!" AAM is a global corporation with plants from Mexico to China. This worldwide battle among the bosses for markets, resources and cheap labor (imperialism) is behind the AAM strike.

While talking to the workers, distributing water and CHALLENGE, every car driving by honked their horns in support of the picketing black, Latin and white workers. They're not hopeful of any agreement coming soon. Many said they would vote against any concession contract. "We've already been out here this long, there's no point in caving in now," said one.

Meanwhile, the UAW international leadership has taken the negotiations away from the local, attempting to force the same sell-out contract they've signed with the entire auto industry.

With Detroit facing decades of racist cutbacks and decay caused by the retreating U.S. auto bosses, it's easy to see the source of the anger in the eyes of these workers. They speculate about how big a buy-out will be offered and how management will try to eliminate the most senior, highest-paid workers.

Several years ago AAM tried to implement a 2-tier wage system. Detroit workers rejected it but the contract passed after the company threatened to close the Buffalo, NY plant if they didn't approve it. When they voted "yes" the plant was closed anyway. Some of the laid-off Buffalo workers ended up at the Detroit plant and are now standing among the strikers as living reminders of how AAM lied.

When we asked workers whether they'd take the buy-out, some immediately said, "No." Some were undecided. Younger workers said they'd take it, and either look for work, open a business or go back to school.

Now that GM's supply of unsold cars is dwindling, there may be pressure on AAM to settle, but GM wants this wage-cut as much as AAM. The major assemblers have been pressuring the parts suppliers to slash wages and cut costs so they can buy cheaper parts. That's why they created this system of outsourcing decades ago.

All the workers thanked us for our solidarity. We invited them to May Day and obtained contact information.

The struggle against wage slavery lasts many lifetimes. The system cannot be fixed. As one worker said, "You cannot reform evil!"

Workers, and work itself, should not be a commodity with a price tag. We should contribute what we can and receive what we need. But it will take communist revolution to build that world. Let the AAM strike remind us why we fight for communism, and strengthen our will to fight!

Calif. Teachers Fight Budget Cuts, Tax Hikes, Union Fakers

California's educational system has been under attack from a combination of racism and the drive to maximize profits. Now the capitalist crisis is making it much worse, with a state budget deficit expected to top $8 billion. Republicans want to balance the budget by cutting education, health care, and other services. Democrats want "a combination of tax hikes and budget cuts." This is a no-win situation for California workers, but liberal union leaders want workers to pay.

"If state lawmakers want to go for tax increases, they should focus on education," reported the San Francisco Chronicle, citing James Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, which includes 245 of the region's largest employers (including banks, oil companies, and war contractors). "It's a good way to get the public to acquiesce to paying more." (4/12/08)

That same day, a workshop at the Oakland convention of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) discussed "How to Talk About Taxes." "We must ... increase taxes. This workshop will analyze obstacles to convincing the public this is necessary."

This "public" is overwhelmingly the working class. From 1975 to 1998, the income of the bottom fifth of Californians declined nearly 25% while that of the top fifth increased by 66%.

So why is a labor union doing the dirty work for Wunderman and his fellow bosses?

There's a world of difference between the trade-unionist view of "labor" and "management" as bargaining partners and potential political allies versus the communist understanding that workers and capitalists are locked in a deadly class struggle.

The CFT convention gave lip service to the fight for "progressive taxation" but the truth emerged around a resolution to "support or sponsor legislation that would require the State of California to generate and allocate sufficient funds to education." An amendment was proposed, seconded and supported to add the words, "without raising taxes on working-class families."

Leading CFT'ers jumped up to object, claiming "taxes are the price of civilization" and "it's hard to separate the working class from the middle class so this wouldn't let us raise taxes on enough people." Some delegates asked why workers should pay for a government that serves the bosses and a crisis created by their drive for maximum profits. The amendment was defeated, but the sharp struggle -- which the leaders neither expected nor wanted -- was itself a victory.

At a demonstration against the cuts in L.A. a few days later, when teachers eagerly took PL leaflets, one teacher said, "All of this could be solved by taxing the oil companies." This is unlikely since Exxon-Mobil and the big coporations run the system. A revolution will eliminate the profit-hungry bosses who run these and all companies.

Most CFT delegates sincerely care about students, oppose the Iraq war, and want to promote "labor solidarity." But without a communist leadership, they are being led into the hands of our enemies. For example, a video about the 1946 Oakland General Strike (which was smashed by the AFL Central Labor Council) claimed as a "victory" the formation of a coalition of labor and community organizations that channeled energy into the electoral politics of the emerging "cold war." A presentation on the greatness of Franklin D. Roosevelt concluded with the idea that we should enthusiastically support the Democratic Party.

Delegates were urged to get 1% of their local membership to walk precincts for the November 2008 elections. We should aim to win 100% to become CHALLENGE readers! In contrast to the liberalism of unions like the CFT, the Progressive Labor Party today is working to win workers and students to fight cutbacks with the goal of turning the bosses' attacks and wars for profit into a revolutionary war for communism. We invited teachers and students and parents to celebrate May Day with us and join our Summer Project!J

PLP Growth in Pakistan New Hope for Working Class

PAKISTAN, April 15 -- New elections have changed the face of the ruling class, now a coalition of landowning capitalists (PPP), industrialists and financiers (PMLN), nationalists (ANP and BNP), racists (MQM) and fundamentalists (JUIF). They claim to be forming a government of national consensus. Their one major goal in common: exploit the working class more effectively. The pioneer of this consensus is the husband of slain Benazir Bhutto, famous for his corruption, money laundering and kickbacks.

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani has a landowner, spiritual background and uses God to justify exploiting workers. He spent five years in jail on corruption charges. After taking office, he announced a wage increase for laborers as a ploy to earn their support; restored the right to form unions; and made many other promises which cannot be realized under capitalism. They are attempts to ward off any potential unrest.

Asif ali Zardari (chairperson of the ruling coalition) claims they are "changing the system," but his "change" would substitute a civil regime for the current military regime to better serve imperialism. The alliance of these various parties cannot last long -- their internal rivalries will destabilize Pakistan.

PPP is helping President Musharaf by continuing his policies regarding the "war on terror" and relations with the U.S. Presently U.S. officials are actively seeking support from the new government for the war on terrorism, but workers know the CIA engineered this terrorism against Afghanistan's workers and farmers in the name of the war against "communists."

Back then U.S. imperialism protected the Muslims in a "sacred" war to make Afghanistan an Islamic country. They trained Muslim youth from throughout the world for terrorism, equipped them with the latest weapons, new cars and funds and provided them full protection for an illegitimate war against the Afghan people in order to counteract the Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden was on the CIA payroll in the training sites established in northwest Pakistan.

The capitalists' thirst for profit and resources to run their war machines drives this terrorism. It helps maintain the super-exploitation of the working class. Strategically northwest Pakistan is very important for carrying out imperialist wars, so the U.S. has created, or curries favor with, these fundamentalist factions to establish its influence.

Workers need communist leadership to fight the poverty and exploitation that are vital to capitalism. Poor workers here cannot afford their daily bread. Young children pick small pieces of food from garbage. They have little clothing, no shelter, no medication if they fall ill and no job opportunities. They are living to enrich the capitalists.

Fake leftists are playing imperialism's game, using the word "socialism," but PLP's ideas give hope to the working class that this murderous system can be destroyed. PLP is growing despite our limited resources. We don't advocate socialism, nationalism, "national democracy" or "people's democracy." We are true to the working class, trying to move workers towards communist revolution in exposing inter-capitalist rivalry.

Poverty, racism, inequality, unemployment and homelessness are all inevitable products of this murderous system. We must intensify the class struggle towards the goal of eliminating the cause of these evils. We in PLP have a rich history of fighting capitalism, equipped with revolutionary communist ideas. We must win workers to join us and wage an international struggle for communist revolution.

LETTERS

Fight-Back in Mexico and on Axle Picket Line

Several of us from a NYC organization attended the Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, Michigan on April 11-13, among some 1,000 delegates from the U.S. and overseas. There was one ugly incident: instead of fighting the war-making, racist, budget-cutting bosses, SEIU and California Nurses Association hacks physically fought each other over raiding members. Otherwise we had some very useful experiences.

In a workshop about unions and community groups we emphasized the fight for immigrant rights, particularly undocumented workers who suffer from the bosses' savage exploitation and discrimination.

We also heard from a San Luis Potosí, México union leader representing more than 300 workers fired from a glass plant that makes bottles for Corona and Modelo Extra Beer, very popular now in the U.S. After a long struggle, these workers organized a union independent of the pro-boss national union, and won a 19% wage hike plus other benefits. The boss retaliated, using the excuse of the U.S. recession, closing one plant and firing militant workers, so 250 lost their jobs. The boss hired new workers and forced them to sign blank papers, used later to make them members of the pro-company national union (very common in Mexico).

The fired workers are fighting back. They brought their protest to Anheuser-Busch (A-B) in the U.S., which controls 50% of the Modelo company. A-B's workers are represented by the Teamsters. One big Anheuser-Busch shareholder is married to the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

One great experience was to be one of 200 volunteers who picketed in support of the Axle workers, on strike for two months (see page 5). They're on the line 24-hours-a-day rain, snow or shine, keeping warm by burning wood in tanks. Workers from a nearby union local brought them food. They thanked us and offered to share their food. We chanted along with the pickets for two hours and raised some money for their struggle. Most gratifying, I distributed 40 CHALLENGES with the front-page article on the Axle strike. The workers thanked me for that.

It was great to share our struggles and views with other workers. I talked to a 22-year-old Mexican construction worker who has been working in New Orleans for two months. He showed lots of leadership at the conference, recounting many experiences in his young life in fighting the exploiting, abusive fascist bosses. I spoke to him about PLP and gave him CHALLENGE to share with other workers. We exchanged phone numbers to stay in contact.

Only a unified international working class, led by PLP, can achieve power through a communist revolution. Only then we will make our dreams as workers a reality.

A Red Fighter

When It Comes to Racism, There's No Debate

I recently attended a NYUDL (New York Urban Debate League) tournament in Bronx, NY. At lunchtime, I was happy to see debaters speaking on a bullhorn about the racist incident at a debate tournament in Newark, NJ, and the importance of fighting racism. Debaters circulated petitions amongst hundreds of students, teachers, parents, and other participants of many colors and ages. The petition called to outwardly oppose racism and to fight back united against racist acts, no matter how big or how small they may seem.

I was very excited to be a part of this tournament. Anti-racist actions like these are necessary to fight back against all of the attacks the bosses perpetrate against our class. Small fight-backs help raise class consciousness and will help set the sparks for the future communist revolution; the only way we can truly have a society without racism or borders. Every time I see fellow debaters with CHALLENGE in their hands, I know that there is hope for our long fight ahead. It's what gives me strength to keep struggling, to keep telling myself that what we do counts.

A Red Debater

Rutgers Coalition Walks Out Against the War

On March 27, 2008, a week after Rutgers students had their spring break, 600 students walked out against the war. The effort was the result of months of planning on the part of local Rutgers activists involving PLP organizers.

The walkout itself, while not directly associated with the Party, provided us with an opportunity to build a base for future support. After the walkout a rally was held at the nearby Voorhees Mall. During the rally several speakers spoke about the various ways in which the war has destroyed their lives.

A mother of a fallen American soldier spoke of her pain, anguish, and anger at the folly of Bush's polices. An Iraqi native spoke of the numerous ways in which the war ravages her country every day. She gave an especially emotional story about the way in which American stray bullets from nearby firefights struck a relative of hers while she was sitting in her classroom. All of their words only affirmed the truth that we know: this war must end.

The walkout was followed by an independent movement of 300 students to march through the Rutgers campus, along the way having two sit-ins. The march went defiantly on the nearby highway, Route 18. It was an inspiring display of the disruptive and commanding force of a unified collective. This move by the students shows the power of the working class and the fact that working-class solidarity is unstoppable. The movement to end the war has undoubtedly grown stronger as a result of the walkout. Smashing the capitalist war machine is the only way to end this war and all wars. Working in movements like these are vital to establishing a network of comrades ready for the next step towards communist revolution.

Scarlet Communist

How Red-Led Mass Actions Stopped Foreclosures in the Great Depression

Over two million workers' families could lose their homes because of the subprime crisis. The bosses' media says basically nothing can be done about the foreclosures, caused by the bankers' thirst for profits. Clinton's and Obama's "solutions" merely postpone the "inevitable," proposing "negotiated compromises" between the banks and homeowners who can't afford mortgage payments. The Federal Reserve bails out failing banks and McCain says "the free market will take care of things."

But 75 years ago during the Great Depression, the working class -- led by communists -- had a better idea, and it wasn't voting.

When the marshals were evicting workers from their homes -- throwing their belongings onto the street -- or family farmers were losing their homesteads, hundreds and thousands of workers would show up on the day of the eviction or foreclosure and literally overwhelm the marshals and the cops and simply carry the furniture back into the workers' homes. A NY Times headline (Feb. 27, 1932) read: "1,500 Fight Police to Aid Rent Strike."

When bankers or realtors at auctions were bidding on foreclosed Iowa homesteads, hundreds of neighbors would show up, surrounding them, and while one farmer -- "fingering a rope" -- would menace the rich bidders, another would bid a penny for the farm. "Sold" cried the auctioneer, and then the "buyer" would return the farm to the foreclosed owner.

When a jobless worker was being denied "home relief" (welfare), 5,000 fellow unemployed would show up to make sure it was granted.

How was all this organized? In the early 1930's, when capitalism had laid off 17 million workers (one of every three workers was unemployed), the Communist Party led the organization of the National Unemployment Councils (NUC). On March 6, 1930, the Councils organized 1,250,000 jobless to take on the streets -- 110,000 packed New York City's Union Square, and were attacked by 25,000 cops whose bosses feared the start of a "revolution"; 100,000 unemployed marched in Detroit, 50,000 in Chicago and Pittsburgh, thousands more in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Cleveland.

These mass Councils stopped thousands of evictions and foreclosures cold. In New York City, 185,794 families got eviction notices in the first six months of 1932. The Unemployment Councils moved over 77,000 back into their homes. On February 1, 1932, the NY Times reported that a "crowd numbering...1,000...stormed the police" to fight the eviction of three Bronx families.

Black workers were the hardest hit and became the most active in the Councils, leading many of the anti-eviction struggles, which fought racism as a number one priority.

By 1938, the NUC had a membership of 800,000. They helped stop scabs as workers struck for unionization and the 8-hour day. There was great unity between the employed and unemployed as all saw it in their class interest to fight their struggles together.

Matthew Woll, an AFL union "leader," labeled this movement a "Kremlin conspiracy," but the NUC, with communists playing a leading role, vehemently rejected this red-baiting.

It was out of this mass ferment that the CIO organized industrial unions. It all forced the Roosevelt-led ruling class to enact unemployment insurance, welfare, Social Security, the 40-hour week and collective bargaining laws. It was workers' violent struggle that won these reforms, not voting for Roosevelt.

Unfortunately, the Communist Party got sucked into the "progressive" Roosevelt coalition instead of fighting for workers' power. The communists did not concentrate on using these reform struggles to win workers to understand that the ruling class still held state power and would use it to reverse these victories. Today, the working class is paying for this reformist error.

The anti-communist liberals and their union lieutenants have helped the bosses water down class consciousness and mass militancy. Today, racism against black, Latin and immigrant workers is rampant, while union-busting and fascist wage-cuts make workers pay for the bosses' crisis and endless imperialist wars. Meanwhile, too many workers and youth see voting for Obama or Hillary as the answer, instead of waging a mass fight-back.

Illusions die hard, but we in PLP are confident that workers and youth won't be taking it on the chin forever. We must build a mass base for our communist politics among workers, exposing the racist bosses as the cause of the problem, and their politicians and union servants as part of it. This May Day is an important step in this long road towards fighting for a communist society where workers' interests, instead of the profits of bankers and bosses, are the only priority.

1968: How 10 Million Workers Shut Down France

Forty years ago this May, a revolt by millions of French workers and students led to a general strike that paralyzed the country for three weeks, caused the government to collapse and electrified the entire world. This struggle's anniversary is noteworthy because "May 68" still has much to teach us.

The upheaval began as a student protest, similar to those occurring on a daily basis during that period throughout Europe and the U.S., although general working-class anger and a 67-day white-collar metal workers' strike in Saint Nazaire in 1967 provided the tinder for the spark that was about to come. That strike affected all the metal workers and won broad solidarity from all the workers in the city, especially from women's protest marches of 3,000 and 4,000.

On March 22 in 1968, about 150 students and others invaded an administration building at Nanterre University outside Paris to demand reforms in the university's budget. The administration called the cops and the students left the building. Protests continued, so on May 2 the administration closed Nanterre.

Four days later, 20,000 students and professors marched to the Sorbonne, Paris's main university. The police rioted, launching tear gas grenades and beating and arresting hundreds of protesters. On May 10, another mass demonstration led to a pitched battle, lasting well into the night. Again, the cops ran amok. Police provocateurs launched Molotov cocktails, providing a convenient excuse for more beatings and arrests.

By now, sympathy for the student protesters and revulsion at police brutality was spreading throughout the working class. The French "Communist" Party -- having long become a pro-ruling class puppet -- and other fake-left organizations attempted to co-opt the growing movement with a call for a one-day strike on May 13. More than a million people marched through Paris that day. The government made minor concessions, but the protests mounted.

Most significantly, they spread throughout the working class. On May 13, workers at the Sud Aviation plant in the western city of Nantes began a sit-down strike. A strike by Renault auto parts workers near the northern city of Rouen spread to the Renault manufacturing complexes in the Seine valley and the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. By May 16, workers had occupied 50 factories; by May 17, the number of strikers had swelled to 200,000. A day later, two million were on strike; the following week, 10,000,000 workers, roughly two-thirds of France's work-force, had hit the bricks.

Significantly, these strikes were not led by the organized unions, which did everything in their power to contain and reverse the movement. Police terror having failed, the labor "leadership," including the "Communist" Party, tried bribery, but the workers turned down a significant pay increase and remained on strike.

On May 30, nearly a half-million workers and students marched through Paris chanting "Adieu, De Gaulle" (Farewell De Gaulle), to express their hatred for France's president and his government.

De Gaulle had already flown secretly to Germany to enlist the support of the infamous General Jacques Massu, known for his justification of torture during France's colonial war in Algeria. De Gaulle had appointed Massu commander of French military forces in Germany, and Massu was preparing to send French regiments home to suppress the revolt.

However, the French ruling class didn't need the army. The revolt quickly subsided because of its own internal flaws. Crucial among these was the absence of leadership from a revolutionary communist party with a mass base within the working class. Only such a party could have given strategic and tactical direction to the longing angrily expressed by French workers and students for fundamental change in society. Only such a party could have raised the question of smashing capitalist state power and replacing it with a working-class dictatorship. This is the key lesson for us today, but not the only one.

The revolt occurred at a time when the concept of the working class's role in society and the revolutionary process had come under assault from a gaggle of fake-left "theorists," led by a professor named Herbert Marcuse. The millions who struck France's factories exposed the shallowness of this viewpoint and dramatically showed that the working class alone, which builds and runs everything, has the potential to revolutionize society and bring about meaningful change. This principle is just as valid today.

The events of May 68 also clearly demonstrated the key secondary role of students and intellectuals in the revolutionary process. It's no accident that the struggle began on a college campus before spreading to the factories. Despite several abortive attempts, France's student strikers failed to make a significant alliance with the millions of working-class strikers, but this failure in no way invalidates the strategic necessity for a worker-student alliance. More than anything, it highlights the absence of communist leadership.

A third key lesson is the absolute bankruptcy of reformism. The workers who rejected the salary bribe had an inkling of the right idea here; without a communist party to lead them, they were forced to fight blindfolded, with one hand tied behind their backs.

After the strike ended, De Gaulle quit the presidency, replaced by his henchman, Georges Pompidou. A host of reforms ensued. Forty years later, France remains a capitalist dictatorship. Unemployment for younger workers hovers between 20 and 25 percent and is much higher for immigrant workers. Racism, particularly against black workers from Africa and Arab workers is rampant in the land of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity." France's rulers continue to seek status as junior partners in the bloody scramble among U.S. bosses and others for control of Persian Gulf oil. French capitalism is thus helping grease the skids for the next world war.

Pro-boss cynics say May 68 justifies the lie that class struggle always leads to disappointment. PLP differs. The struggles of workers and students in France two generations ago belong to our class's living history, if we absorb their lessons and interpret them correctly. In the past four decades, capitalism has solved none of the problems that led to this revolt. If anything, the problems have worsened. Therefore, more revolts are only a matter of time. In fact, now there is speculation about workers' reaction to this 40th anniversary and whether current student demonstrations and school occupations could spark another strike wave.

PLP's job remains the same everywhere: to spread our revolutionary ideas and build our revolutionary organization under any and all circumstances, so that when struggle of this magnitude once again erupts, its goal will be working-class dictatorship and its outcome will be a massive spurt in the ranks of communist-minded workers and students.

Ira Gollobin: A Communist for All Seasons

Ira Gollobin, a great friend of PLP who made an enormous contribution in the area of dialectical materialism, died from a staph infection in his blood and lungs on Friday, April 4, in his 97th year. In a lifetime of struggle, Ira was as much at home on the picket line as in the courtroom. He never stopped fighting for nearly an entire century!

In addition to authoring one of the definitive works on Dialectics, Ira had a great influence on PLP. He was present at a December 1961 meeting of a group of about 30 members of the old Communist Party (CP) who had concluded that the CP was dead as a communist organization and that it was necessary to organize a new party. Out of that meeting the Progressive Labor Movement was born six months later, and the Progressive Labor Party three years after that. Ira endorsed that outlook.

For years afterwards, he taught many classes on dialectics to leaders and members of PL and was partly responsible for the crucial emphasis PLP has placed on members studying this subject. This was probably his most important contribution to our Party. In addition, Ira was our lawyer in many government attacks on the Party, as far back as the early 1960s, and then taking the offensive against the witch-hunting House UnAmerican Activities Committee ( HUAC). Ira always agreed with our position to not simply rely on the "legal" front but to organize militant demonstrations and make a political defense (which many other lawyers told us would "hurt" our case).

In his early years as an attorney in New York City, Ira defended many victims of the Great Depression. After he passed the bar in 1935, he left New York to spend a year "seeing the country." He became a migrant worker, picking oranges and walnuts in the fields of the West, "riding the rails" with jobless workers. He said these experiences "sealed my identification with the underdog."

When distributing leaflets during a strike at Presbyterian Hospital in NYC, he met members of the American Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born and eventually this cause dominated his life as he became the country's leading immigration lawyer and a member of the Committee's General Counsel. He saved the jobs of 1,500 NYC foreign-born transit workers and enabled workers fleeing Nazi Germany and Franco's fascist Spain to be admitted to the U.S. He won a landmark decision before the U.S. Supreme Court for 300 Haitian immigrants who had been refused asylum, the government claiming they were "economic" refugees, but Ira won the case to identify them as political refugees fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship.

Over the years we sent him scores of workers with immigration problems and he successfully defended them against government attacks (money for fees was never an obstacle).

Ira was part of a generation that risked their lives to join the fight against fascism, first in the Spanish Civil War, and then against the Nazis and the Japanese fascists, a fight led by the world communist movement. Ira was more than a lawyer. Being a dialectician, he understood the necessity to practice what he preached.

Serving in the Philippines in the army when World War II ended in 1945, he led a struggle to prevent U.S. rulers from using thousands of GI's to repress the communist-led Filipino guerrilla movement (the "Huks") -- that had been crucial in defeating the Japanese -- and even to ship them to Vietnam to assist the French colonial oppressors in that country. But the GI's, having defeated Japanese fascism, were seeking to return home and wanted no part of this, looking on the "Huks" as comrades-in-arms. So Ira helped organize militant actions opposing the brass, putting 35,000 GI's into the streets of Manila on January 7, 1946. He led a 5-member committee that met with the brass to tell them the GI's would refuse to carry out this mission for U.S. imperialism. They succeeded and the GI's were shipped home over the ensuing months (although Ira and the committee were immediately flown back to the States, the brass not wanting to deal with their leadership). The "Bring the Boys Home" movement soon spread around the world. (For CHALLENGE article, see website: <https://betalp01.com/cd02/cd0313.html>

Ira was a stickler for physical fitness. In his 70's and 80's he was still running six miles a day, six days a week and was working out in the gym three times a week in his 90's. (In going through his belongings in the hospital his daughter found his gym card still in his back pocket.) He spent 20 years writing his monumental work, "Dialectical Materialism, Its Laws, Categories and Practice."

Ira was a supporter of PLP right to the end, generous in his financial donations, giving our Party five cartons of Marxist books from his personal library. The revolutionary communist movement will sorely miss Ira, but his contribution to Marxist theory and practice will live on in our members' study of dialectical materialism and the carrying out of that theory in practice, a cause to which Ira devoted his life. The best way we can honor him is to use those tools to organize a communist revolution and the emancipation of the working class.

REDEYEONTHE NEWS

US workers losing wage battle

The $20 hourly wage, introduced on a huge scale in the middle of the last century.... is on its way to extinction....

The shrinkage is sometimes quite open. The Big Three automakers are buying out [over 100,000] employees who earn above $20 an hour, replacing many with new hires tied to a "second tier" wage scale that never quite reaches $20.... and with fewer benefits.

The United Auto Workers agreed to this arrangement, accepting management's argument that it must have labor cost relief to rebound and prosper....

The auto workers weren't first. They ratified a practice that had spread... lowering earning power for new hires.

Two tiers is one tactic. Another is filling middle-income jobs with temporary workers earning less. Add outsourcing to the list.... Then there are the manufacturers who close a union plant and shift production to a nonunion one, often in the South but also in the Midwest....

Tens of thousands of workers have accepted wage cuts pressed on them by embattled employers. (NYT, 4/20)

US ally slaughters unionists

More than 2,500 union members in Colombia have been killed since 1985, with fewer than 100 cases resulting in convictions.... President Uribe's former intelligence chief is under investigation for handing over lists to paramilitaries of union leaders and other left-wing figures who were singled out for assassination. (NYT, 4/14)

People know who really runs US

Asked how much the country should be governed according to the will of the people -- on a scale with 0 meaning not at all and 10 completely -- the mean response is 7.9.... But Americans do not think this is what they are getting. Asked how much influence the people do have, the mean response is far lower: on average 4.0.

This may explain, in part, why just 19 percent say they believe the country is run "for the benefit of all the people," while 80 percent say it is "run by a few big interests looking out for themselves."(LAT, 4/4)

Axle Strikers Put Brake on Auto Bosses

• a href="#Iraqi Desertions Show Bribes Won’t Win U.S. Oil War">"raqi Desertions Show Bribes Won’t Win U.S. Oil War
• As Iran’s Oil Bosses Gain Clout In Iraq, Scope of U.S. Oil War Widens
• Obama, Clinton and McCain All Want You (or Your Children) for War

March on May Day with Millions of Workers Worldwide

Students Mark War Anniversary with Anti-Imperialist Politics

a href="#Striker Vows: ‘We’ll help spread the Progressive Labor Party’">Stri"er Vows: ‘We’ll help spread the Progressive Labor Party’

Black, Caribbean, White Hospital Workers Fight Racism

Dinners Serve Much Food for Red Thought

a href="#‘Reducating’ Chicago Campuses">‘R"ducating’ Chicago Campuses

Cal Pols Impose Racist Cuts, Liberal LA Mayor Wants More Cops

a href="#LA Mayor’s Plan: Sack Workers, Hire Racist Cops">"A Mayor’s Plan: Sack Workers, Hire Racist Cops

a href="#‘If Communism Was Good, Why Was The USSR Destroyed?’">‘I" Communism Was Good, Why Was The USSR Destroyed?’

Rising Food Prices Trigger Haiti Rebellion

a href="#Ethanol Hoax ‘Sustains’ Bosses’ Profits, Oil Wars">Etha"ol Hoax ‘Sustains’ Bosses’ Profits, Oil Wars

• Focus on China and Ethanol Hides Imperialist Plans in Mid-East
• Top Agri-business and Al Gore Behind Anti-working-class Ethanol Sham

Workers Will Be Stewards of Environment

Who really pollutes the environment?

LETTERS

Minister Praises Capitalism, Church Members Disagree

Racist Education and Racist Professors

a href="#ID Cards Become New Report-to-Gov’t Cards">"D Cards Become New Report-to-Gov’t Cards

Veteran of El Salvador War Joins PLP

a href="#‘Winter Soldier’: Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan">‘W"nter Soldier’: Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan

a href="#Candidates Reap Million$, Workers ‘Reap’ Unemployment">Ca"didates Reap Million$, Workers ‘Reap’ Unemployment

REDEYE ON THE NEWS

• U.S. helped in Croatia war crime
• Wall St. Big For Barack And Hilary
• Workplace, killer for prostitutes
• It’s the free market, stupid...
• The Web makes spying easy

Axle Strikers Put Brake on Auto Bosses

DETROIT, MI, April 6 — As the strike of 3,600 UAW members against American Axle (AAM) moves through its second month, this main labor struggle in the U.S. is emerging as more than one about money. The highly-profitable AAM, which won a two-tier wage system in the 2004 contract, wants to chop wages in half, cut medical benefits, freeze pensions and replace them with a 401(k). AAM also aims to move work to non-union operations in Oxford, MI. (less than $10-an-hour) and Saltillo, Mexico (70 cents/hr), close two forges covered by the contract and eliminate 1,000 jobs.

As CHALLENGE has reported during the strike, with mass racist unemployment and poverty wages crashing down on cities like Detroit and Buffalo, more and more mouths depend on each auto industry paycheck. That point was underlined when a black woman striker who is six months pregnant told a PLP cultural event (see page 3), "I’m very worried, but I’m going to be strong!"

Over the last two years, there’s been a major restructuring of the domestic U.S. auto industry, wiping out more than 100,000 jobs at GM, Ford, Chrysler and Delphi, and cutting starting wages to about $14/hr. In addition there was a major shakeout of parts suppliers, with Delphi, Tower, Lear and others going bankrupt. The bosses and the UAW leadership carried out these devastating attacks with little organized resistance.

The bosses here are under siege from European and Asian auto billionaires, while more and more production is shifting to China and India, creating even more downward pressure on wages and living conditions for auto workers worldwide.

The endless struggle among the world’s bosses for markets, resources and cheap labor will ultimately be resolved through world war. The bosses bomb their rivals’ factories and kill the workers. The U.S. industrial unions are already beating the anti-China war drums for the bosses. Iraq is a warm-up. Today the bosses eliminate jobs. In the future, as in Iraq, they will eliminate workers.

The strike has put a chokehold on GM, canceling production of 100,000 vehicles and forcing the closing of 30 plants affecting over 20,000 workers. It has also rippled through many parts suppliers, affecting another 5,000 workers. Standard & Poor’s is considering cutting the credit ratings of AAM, GM, Lear and Tenneco because of the strike.

This is the power of the working class. That’s why a mass revolutionary communist PLP leading millions of workers is needed to ultimately put the final chokehold on the whole racist profit system of wage slavery.

The strike exposes the hoax behind the UAW’s strategy of using its "leverage" with GM, Ford and Chrysler to pressure the parts suppliers. In theory, by "partnering" with the major auto bosses, the union could count on them to pressure the suppliers to agree to contracts and/or card checks for organizing.

But GM, the UAW and AAM all agree wages should be cut in half, as negotiated for the major auto makers this past September. Now they’re discussing only how much money to throw at AAM workers in buy-outs and buy-downs (lump-sum payments in return for permanent pay-cuts) to get them to cut their own pay.

As for GM, they have little interest in pressuring AAM. They started March with a 129-day supply of Silverado pick-ups and expect sales to drop 15% from a year ago. So far, they’ve been able to ride it out, without plans to make up the lost production.

With the recent shut-down of the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, the strike will begin affecting passenger-car production. In addition, AAM strikers have inspired other workers. Ten-day strike notification has been given at five GM plants over local contract issues.

PLP members and friends have joined hundreds, even thousands, of other workers picketing with the strikers. Workers from GM and Chrysler, AAM’s main two customers, as well as Ford, Delphi, Detroit teachers, various churches and many more have brought food and money to the strikers. Cars honk in support as they pass the 12 picket lines around the 7-plant complex in Detroit. Visiting workers often bring BBQ pits and cook for the strikers. The very integrated picket lines are staffed 24 hours a day.

Some strikers are reading CHALLENGE and many more will be introduced to it at the big April 18 Solidarity rally. We’ll make our presence felt that day, and follow it with a group of AAM workers at May Day.

a name="Iraqi Desertions Show Bribes Won’t Win U.S. Oil War">">"raqi Desertions Show Bribes Won’t Win U.S. Oil War

"More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week." (NY Times, 4/4/08) These included dozens of officers and two senior field commanders.

The mass desertion at Basra, Iraq’s oil hub, shows that U.S. rulers can’t depend on hired colonial armies. Even with unemployment near 60%, military paychecks can’t motivate Iraqis to risk their lives for Exxon Mobil. The Pentagon clearly must deploy more and more U.S. troops to secure the Mid-East and its energy supplies for U.S. capitalists in their fight with their imperialist rivals. The next president’s number one job will be vastly expanding U.S. armed forces, with either a draft or some militaristic "national service" scheme.

In addition to exposing the Iraqi army’s fundamental unreliability, Basra widens the Iranian front in the war. In U.S. rulers’ fight for Iraqi oil — one they can’t afford to lose — they now must confront Teheran head on. Washington’s plan for Basra was to have its puppet prime minister Maliki wage an "historic and decisive" battle against the Iran-influenced anti-U.S. Sadr militias controlling the city. But when Maliki’s men deserted, U.S. and British forces began strafing and shelling, slaughtering 300 people, many civilians.

"When the going got tough, top Iraqi Shiite officials rushed to the holy city of Qom in Iran to get help mediating a Basra cease-fire with Sadr." (Philadelphia Inquirer, (4/6/08) They beseeched the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. "Iran now holds the key to stability in Iraq." (Inquirer article) According to retired Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar:

"What has happened is essentially that Iran has frustrated the joint U.S.-British objective of gaining control of Basra, without which the strategy of establishing control over the fabulous oil fields of southern Iraq will not work. Control of Basra is a pre-requisite before American oil majors make their multi-billion dollar investments to kick start large-scale oil production in Iraq. Iraq’s Southern Oil Company is headquartered in Basra. Highly strategic installations are concentrated in the region, such as pipeline networks, pumping stations, refineries and loading terminals." (Global Research, 4/4/08)

Thus, Iran’s oil barons, cloaked in ayatollahs’ robes, join a host of Iraqi factions preventing Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP from realizing the six-million-barrel a day bonanza for which U.S. rulers invaded in the first place. Current production stagnates around 2,000,000 barrels.

As Iran’s Oil Bosses Gain Clout In Iraq, Scope of U.S. Oil War Widens

Retired general William Odom understands both the ineffectiveness of bribes and U.S. rulers’ need for much broader military action in the Persian Gulf. Speaking of shaky pro-U.S. anti-al Qaeda fighters in western Iraq, Odom said:

Let me emphasize that our new Sunni friends insist on being paid for their loyalty. I have heard, for example, a rough estimate that the cost in one area of about 100 square kilometers is $250,000 per day. And periodically they threaten to defect unless their fees are increased....Remember, we do not own these people. We merely rent them. And they can break the lease at any moment. (Harvard University’s Nieman Watchdog, 4/2/08)

As a White House military advisor in 1979, Odom helped formulate the Carter Doctrine, which demanded direct and permanent U.S. military domination of the Mid-East and its oil following the Iranian Revolution. Today he calls for "realignment and reassertion of U.S. forces" in the region (Nieman article).

Obama, Clinton and McCain All Want You (or Your Children) for War

With constantly re-deployed U.S. troops stretched to the breaking point, reasserting U.S. might in the Mid-East requires the bosses to rally masses of young people to their war machine. Worried about mental health, morale, and rebellion (a word they dare not utter) in the armed forces they currently have, U.S. rulers plan to shorten war-zone deployments from 15 to 12 months. (Arch-imperialist liberal senator Jay Rockefeller led this effort.) For the rulers, the current presidential race revolves around who can most effectively win the fresh recruits for their wars. Obama seems the rulers’ favorite, with his lies about "moral obligation" for "humanitarian" action from Darfur to Iraq mobilizing millions of military-age youth to the electoral system and thus to supporting U.S. imperialism. But they could also live with Clinton’s "national service" calls and determination to regulate any maverick Wall Street bankers who challenge the Rockefeller Exxon-Mobil forces or even with McCain’s more traditional flag-waving patriotism. The liberal New York Times ran a front-page story (4/6/08) praising generations of McCain’s selfless, exemplary service to the nation, centered on McCain’s relationship with his son, a Marine veteran of Iraq.

Basra re-teaches the important lesson that material incentives will never inspire a will to fight. As the Mid-East war widens and global conflict looms, we must strive harder to make workers aware of their class interests, to expose the futile electoral system, and prove that revolution for a communist, worker-run society is the only goal worth fighting for.

March on May Day with Millions of Workers Worldwide

May Day (May 1st) is the working class’s international holiday celebrated by tens of millions of workers worldwide. It was born out of — and honors — the Chicago workers’ historic struggle for the 8-hour day on May 1, 1886, a general strike that spread to 350,000 workers across the country. It’s a day when workers around the globe march for their common demands, signifying international working-class solidarity.

In 1884, the AFL passed a resolution to make eight hours "a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886." Workers were forced to labor "from sun-up to sundown," up to 14 hours a day. The Chicago Central Labor Council then called for a general strike on May 1, 1886, to institute the 8-hour day.

On that day, Chicago stood still as "Tens of thousands downed their tools and moved into the streets. No smoke curled from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills," reported one paper.

On May 3, the cops murdered six strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works. The next day thousands marched in protest into Chicago’s Haymarket Square. A police agent threw a bomb, and four workers were killed, seven cops died and 200 workers wounded in what became known as the Haymarket Massacre.

Nine demonstration leaders were framed for "instigating a riot." Four were hung. A mass protest movement forced the Governor to free those still alive when the government admitted the frame-up.

The tens of thousands who won the 8-hour day saw it eroded, so another general strike was called for May 1, 1890. At the July 1889 meeting of the International Workers Association, organized and led by Karl Marx, the U.S. delegate reported on the struggle.

May 1st was adopted as the day when the world’s working class "holds a review of its forces, mobilized for the first time as One army, [under] One flag...[to] make the capitalists and landowners of all lands realize that today the proletarians of all lands are, in very truth, united."

Ever since, with communist leadership, it has symbolized workers’ demands and class interests, united in the fight against capitalism. But by the 1950’s, most "communist" parties had abandoned these principles. Union leaders became lieutenants of the bosses, and either renounced May Day or stripped it of its revolutionary character.

The Progressive Labor Party, formed in the 1960’s, picked up the red banners of May Day in 1971 in the U.S. It has organized May Day marches and activities in many areas of the world for over 35 years, to unite workers around the universal demands of all workers, regardless of capitalist-created borders. These include: against imperialist war, against racism and the special oppression of women, for unity of immigrant and citizen workers, against wage slavery, against fascist police terror and for the only solution to all these attacks facing the international working class — communist revolution.

Everything we do now to win more of our class sisters and brothers to our ideas will bear fruit later, when the working class flexes its muscles once again. Imperialism has blanketed the globe and has nowhere left to go, except constant wars to re-divide markets and control super-exploited workers. This is a period of widening war, increasing police-state fascist repression and mounting economic misery. Despite appearances and regardless of obstacles, our class has only its chains to lose.

The long, difficult period ahead must not deter us. Making a commitment to serve the working class for a lifetime of revolutionary struggle remains the best choice one can make this May Day.

Join and build the Progressive Labor Party and help lay the foundation that is putting millions of workers and youth on the road to revolution. In particular this means deepening our influence and bringing communist ideas to the factories, campuses, the military, and the mass movements; sharpening the class struggle and creating a mass base of readers and distributors for CHALLENGE.

How prophetic were the last words of Haymarket martyr August Spies as the hangman’s noose was tied around his neck and he declared, "There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!" Join us on May Day. Fight for Communism!

Students Mark War Anniversary with Anti-Imperialist Politics

LOS ANGELES, March 15 — "The coalition showed we can do a lot when we unite against racism and imperialism," said one student organizer, describing a multi-racial group of campus organizations that planned a week’s events marking the five-year anniversary of the Iraq War.

Many student participants are long-time CHALLENGE readers, agreeing with recent editorials and articles on the presidential elections, seeing that both Republican and Democratic politicians serve the most powerful U.S. bosses. They strongly support PLP’s anti-racist and anti-imperialist internationalist politics. Some now understand how communist revolution can solve the problems facing the international working class. The well-attended events showed that fighting identity politics, patriotism and reformism with PLP’s politics helps build the Party.

The students championed campus events bringing to more students and workers this analysis of capitalism and the war, fighting to expose their imperialist nature. They linked racist cutbacks to the permanent war budget, the electoral fraud and the exploitative role of sexism, nationalism and racism. They also wanted events expressing grassroots worker-student-soldier solidarity — explaining the importance of politicizing soldiers and supporting rebellions within the military — and that advanced multi-racial unity against anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant racism.

With collective struggle, amid such solidarity, various campus groups organized eight events — forums, teach-ins, documentary screenings, campus speak-outs and an election debate including college Republicans and Democrats. Large crowds turned out, surprisingly capturing the attention of the school newspaper (usually very conservative and tight-lipped about anti-war events). Many students were open to PLP’s analysis and to the events’ more general anti-imperialist politics.

In one panel, Iraq vets related their wartime experiences, noting the growing number of soldiers organizing against the war. Answering a question on how students could help, friends advocated building solidarity between students and soldiers, and supporting soldiers’ rebellions in the military. "Visiting military bases and reaching out to veterans on campus can build this unity," said one panelist.

Agreement about the wars’ imperialist roots was strong overall, but many students still see the Democrats — especially Obama — as a step forward. The debate exposed media lies about Obama and the Democratic Party. The College Democrats’ president agreed with the Republican club on nearly everything but admitted that all politicians have "blood on their hands."

Agreeing, a student warned that politicians only defend ruling-class interests — more wars and racist cutbacks, higher tuition and eventually a "national service" draft. Students were surprised about Obama’s overall pro-war stance, despite his criticisms of Bush and the Iraq War. We must work harder to expose the ruling class’s electoral circus, and to link the communist future the working class will build to the local, concrete anti-imperialist organizing needed to guarantee that future.

Most important, though, was the political leadership taken by PLP’s friends and the confidence they showed in communist ideas. Because of these political struggles, over 15 students joined PL’ers from other campuses at the city-wide anti-war march in Hollywood.

Student groups are now planning campus May Day events, organizing a multi-racial worker-student-alliance contingent to join other workers in the immigrants’ rights march May 1. Liberal groups backing Obama and Clinton, pushing patriotism, loyalty to imperialism and the Dream Act are organizing that demonstration, making it crucial to fight for anti-imperialist and communist politics at the march!

Long-term consistent struggle around these ideas, especially increasing CHALLENGE readers and networks, have created a modest but strong base supporting PLP’s fight for revolution. The battle for such ideas within mass organizations may be slow and difficult, but it’s crucial to developing communist consciousness among students, workers and soldiers.

a name="Striker Vows: ‘We’ll help spread the Progressive Labor Party’"></a>"triker Vows: ‘We’ll help spread the Progressive Labor Party’

CHICAGO, IL, April 5 — "We won’t give up. We can’t. I’m six months pregnant, and I’m worried, very worried about how I‘m going to be able to take care of my baby. Life is very hard in Detroit, you just don’t know," declared one of three striking American Axle workers who attended our evening of international anti-racist culture tonight. "But I’m going to be strong and we’re not going to give up. You all do what you can to support us, and we’ll bring as many people as we can to May Day!"

Her husband followed, inviting the 90 workers and youth to Detroit for an April 18 strike-support rally. "We will help you spread the Progressive Labor Party," he said. We passed the hat for the striking workers and sent them back to the struggle with almost $900!

The crowd was already in the mood, having heard a series of poems and a PLP leader inviting them to march on May Day, take May Day Dinner tickets and join the campaign to increase the circulation of CHALLENGE newspaper. These strikers captured that revolutionary communist, anti-racist mood.

Then came the main event, a performance by Echoes of Southern Africa, a group of singers and dancers from numerous African countries. We met them through a Ford worker who was active in the Jena 6 struggle, sparking his UAW Local 551 to send a delegation and $500 check for that case, while involving hundreds of Ford workers in a plant-gate collection. He told the crowd he was honored to be here with his striking brothers and sisters from Detroit, in a room "full of revolutionary workers."

The singers and dancers performed for over an hour. Their high energy, wonderful voices and graceful movements held the crowd’s attention from beginning to end. Overall it was a successful evening, but should have been much larger. That’s our challenge as we head into May Day. We hope to hold these cultural events every three months. As we become organizers, they will get bigger.

Black, Caribbean, White Hospital Workers Fight Racism

On the surface it looked very ordinary: two hospital custodial workers were cleaning a patient’s room. But the conversation between the two workers was anything but ordinary. "I need to learn more from you about fighting the bosses," said John. "Well," said Bill, "the main guidance I get comes from being a communist." "Tell me again," said John, "what is communism?"

Later, three custodial workers were debating the tactics used in a union fight against a racist boss. Al and Ed believed that some of Bill’s ideas were too incendiary, harsh and confrontational. Al, a union delegate, said that he tries to handle his differences with the bosses in a "professional" manner. Bill, also a union delegate, explained that he was trying to think beyond the fight against the bosses. "We have to energize the union members for the contract fight this summer," argued Bill. "You guys know I’m a communist," Bill continued, "we’re always trying to think about the big picture." But Ed, a newer union member interrupted, "You’re a communist! What exactly does that mean?"

The PLP organizing at this hospital should include more experiences like these. We’ve been active in the union here for quite some time. We’re viewed as part of the union leadership for the entire hospital. We are asked to join, lead, or contribute to a constant flood of reform fights, big and small, as well as assist many workers with personal problems.

At this stage of the game, it’s very easy for us to get into high gear with the union reform activity. But it’s still a constant struggle to shift the communist organizing into high gear at the same time. Too often we still make reform primary over revolution. This error does not mean that communists shouldn’t work in mass organizations like unions. This error does mean that inner Party ideological struggle is crucial.

A number of the workers understand the merry-go-round of reform fights all too well. "It’s corporate America," argued James, a supply worker. "Even if we strike in July and win the fight to protect our pension, in 10 years we’ll be fighting the same fight." PLP’s participation in the union helps introduce us to workers like James. But making communist revolution primary means that we get CHALLENGE to James, follow up with him and invite him to a Party study-action group.

Marie, a worker from the Caribbean, was just suspended. In our union, there are deep divisions between the black workers from the Caribbean and the black workers born in the U.S. Nonetheless, several U.S.-born black workers told Bill, a union delegate, that they wanted to support Marie. "That could be any one of us," they declared. At lunch time a group of black and white workers, including black workers from both the U.S. and the Caribbean, hammered out a petition that blames the bosses for the short-staffing and the dirty patient rooms and demanded that Marie get her money back. A few days later, at a union solidarity event organized by the rank and file to build our contact fight in July, workers from all over the hospital lined up to sign Marie’s petition.

But of all the activity around fighting Marie’s suspension, the most important was the struggle with the workers, and an old Party friend from the Caribbean in particular, to understand that the racism against the Caribbean workers comes from capitalism, not the workers who may express it. We may or may not win the fight against Marie’s suspension, but our main fight is to overthrow capitalism and its racism.

We are struggling with the workers quoted in this article as well as the others in our base to join us on May Day. If we bring more workers, increase our CHALLENGE distribution and recruit to Party study-action groups, then we’ve scored a modest victory to make communist revolution primary over reform.

Dinners Serve Much Food for Red Thought

LOS ANGELES — A number of CHALLENGE dinners, with over 160 people in all took place recently. Industrial workers and youth pledged to raise the readership of the newspaper by taking more to their jobs and schools. At one dinner, with high school and college students we raised over $150 in subscription money. Several people joined the Party from our events.

Each dinner discussed the current state of world capitalism: sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry leading to World War III, increasing attacks on the working class, and the current expensive election campaign to try to win workers, soldiers and youth to loyalty to the ruthless racist U.S. rulers. CHALLENGE shows the source of these attacks is capitalist competition for maximum profit and the solution is fighting to turn the coming imperialist wars into communist revolution.

One dinner was combined with a retirement party for a comrade. A fellow worker and comrade in the same company talked about the good communist leadership the retiring comrade has given. He called on the others to step up to increase the readership of the paper and the revolutionary movement, especially as workers face growing attacks. Then other workers spoke about how much the comrade had helped to build unity among all the workers. One black worker said that our comrade had helped him a lot in confrontations with management. "Then he started bringing me CHALLENGE," he said. "At first I thought it was a little ‘out there’ but CHALLENGE has opened my eyes to how to see the world."

These dinners show there’s great potential to build CHALLENGE networks and PLP. While the collapse of the old communist movement presents our class with serious challenges, PLP squarely faces the errors by calling for fighting directly for communism rather than the "halfway house" of socialism with its concessions to the capitalist system of wage slavery. It’s up to communists today to take those lessons to the heart of the working class. As our class faces crisis, cutbacks, layoffs, foreclosures and war, we’ll increase the circulation of CHALLENGE, reader by reader.

a name="‘Reducating’ Chicago Campuses"></">‘R"ducating’ Chicago Campuses

Campus activity in Chicago is heating up as we build for this year’s May Day activities. In recent weeks, PLP members have organized or participated in four campus forums involving over 150 people. Topics ranged from the elections to Martin Luther King to black-white-Latino relations to the struggle against racist cutbacks in health care. Members and friends put forward communist ideas, pointing out that McCain, Obama and Clinton are supported by many of the same rich corporations. Also we said that budget cutbacks are an inevitable part of capitalist processes and that the working class needs the revolutionary destruction of capitalism to guarantee good health care. Other points included the role of revolutionary violence in the 1960’s, the reality that life for the whole working class, especially black workers, has gotten worse even with the Civil Rights legislation because capitalism, with or without its regular crisis, needs racism to make superprofits. We advocated the need for members of all so-called "racial-ethnic groups" to support our common struggles against all forms of anti-working-class oppression.

Equally important with the comments made at the forums is the fact that these activities were organized by PLP members together with many non-party friends. The discussions, debates and struggles that we have with those who do not agree with us lay the basis for involving many more people in future activities. We are making a strong effort to bring young people to the May 1 immigration march and PLP May Day activities. A few more young people have joined PLP. We live in a very unstable world that is getting more dangerous every day. By working in the class struggle with those who don’t agree with all our ideas and struggling to win them to communist revolution, the possibilities for building a stronger, larger revolutionary communist movement are real and growing.

Chicago comrade

Cal Pols Impose Racist Cuts, Liberal LA Mayor Wants More Cops

LOS ANGELES —The proposed California state budget — with massive education cutbacks — reflects capitalism’s crisis. State revenues have plummeted from the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Rising unemployment and the decline in workers’ real wages reduces state tax revenues. Federal funds to states shrink as war costs soar.

The bosses are making workers pay for this crisis. Our children are being mis-educated under worse conditions than ever. California businesses, including aerospace subcontracting and health care, can’t find enough workers with the skills they need. They want workers’ taxes to pay for "workforce development" so they can compete effectively and meet the imperialists’ need for war production. Right now, students don’t even get the education the bosses need for them.

Of all 50 states, California ranks third from the bottom in spending per student, 22% less than 40 years ago. The proposed budget cuts another $750 per student, forcing school districts to lay off teachers, librarians and counselors while increasing class size and slashing special programs. Meanwhile, 170,000 people are behind bars — disproportionately black and Latino young men — costing nearly $4 billion annually.

Now they want to increase the highly regressive sales tax and vehicle license fees. The latter could suck $6 billion more from California workers who need cars to get to work.

a name="LA Mayor’s Plan: Sack Workers, Hire Racist Cops">">"A Mayor’s Plan: Sack Workers, Hire Racist Cops

In Los Angeles itself, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Democratic Party darling, ordered layoffs and cutbacks beginning July 1, for all city departments, while hiring more cops (LA Times, 3/13). Amid a budget crisis, he needs more racist cops to repress potential rebellions against these cutbacks.

He also wants to lift a restriction on dismissals for the current fiscal year. It’s been over 15 years since LA laid off and demoted workers because of a budget crisis. Waves of hiring freezes followed that.

Local officials, nearly all Democrats, support the Mayor. They even agreed with his absurd rationale for firing workers in order to hire more cops: it’s "absolutely necessary for LA’s economic development"!

Union leaders are backing the Mayor in two ways. The SEIU and AFSCME leadership — hardcore Democrats — are helping the Mayor’s staff achieve cost savings and new revenue sources, such as unpaid furloughs and a garbage-collection fee to help pay for new cops. Meanwhile, other unions tell their members "not to worry" because Civil Service rules are "too complicated" to implement layoffs. Plus, the City will simply offer a buyout program to older workers to save jobs for new hires.

Obviously City workers need the truth, not trained-dog "leadership." We don’t need more racist anti-worker cops to harass those who fight cutbacks. Meanwhile, conditions in schools and for roads, electricity and water supply deteriorate.

These layoffs are a part of similar layoffs and cutbacks itting counties, school districts, state agencies and other cities.

LA’s budget crunch is not merely a by-product of the real estate slump. It results from enormous tax breaks City, state and federal government have given businesses and investors, plus enormous expenses for California prisons and for the Iraq and Afghan Wars.

California rulers may make the capitalists themselves pay higher corporate property taxes to discipline the ruling class to pay for coming wider wars, which would tie in with politicians’ pleas that "we’re all in this together." We must not ally with our class enemies but rather with students and parents and the growth of a revolutionary movement that will break the chains that tie us to them.

Workers must see that LA Democrats charging ahead with cutbacks to hire more cops are no different than their Washington buddies. The real reason for the police hiring spree is "homeland security," not business promotion. Fifteen years ago LA had one of the country’s largest urban rebellions since the Civil War. It could happen again. With U.S. troops — including the National Guard — spread thin worldwide, the burden of repression will fall to the cops. A militarized economy that gouges wages, benefits, public services and overall living conditions, needs cops to quell rebellions.

California’s workers need CHALLENGE and its communist analysis. They need to fight these cuts, the tip of the iceberg in a system set up to make workers pay for the problems caused by the bankers, speculators and imperialist war-makers. Ultimately, the solution to these attacks lies in the growth of CHALLENGE and of the PLP to build a movement to destroy the profit system, which is increasingly incapable of meeting workers’ needs as it organizes a police state and widening wars for profit.

a name="‘If Communism Was Good, Why Was The USSR Destroyed?’"></">‘I" Communism Was Good, Why Was The USSR Destroyed?’

SPAIN — In a meeting with friends, we took up very important topics including communism, and the capitalist crisis of overproduction, but especially the fight against revisionism (capitalist ideas disguised as communist ideas). A comrade mentioned that, "In Peru you hear communist ideas a lot in the communities (for example, in the city of Ayacucho)." She mentioned that "in years past the group Sendero Luminoso organized university students and farm workers against the exploiters." She had been a member of the group.

But the following question arose, "Why, if communism is good, was the USSR destroyed? Is it because people can’t have higher political understanding?" I answered, "At this time, capitalism has many weapons to divide the working class and to push the lie that communism was a disaster, but that’s not true and we communists in the PLP know it. Socialism failed in the USSR, not communism." I explained that when a group fights for reforms (like Sendero Luminoso, the FMLN, FSLN, and other revisionist groups in Latin America that fight for national liberation and socialism) they’ll never achieve communism because they keep capitalist ideas and practices. So she responded, "but then you want to tell me that in order for there to be communism, we need an armed revolution?" "Exactly," I said.

In the study of dialectical materialism we know that the way to solve a contradiction is to intensify it. "So that water can become steam, the temperature has to rise high enough to a certain point, at which water is converted into something else –– steam," I explained to my friends. "It’s the same with the struggle to destroy capitalism in order to build communism."

I explained that we have to understand the law of the unity and struggle of opposites. I showed them that if we have one pencil, we can break it easily, but that if we put 20 pencils together, it’s much harder to break them. In the same way, we have to build the Party to unite the working class with communist ideas. She said I was right and that we needed to continue the discussion.

Another youth who is influenced by capitalist ideas continued to insist that communism is in the past and was simply a failure. I talked about the many good things that happened in the Soviet Union in education, health care, housing , etc. The workers lived better than they ever did under under capitalism! And they united to defeat Hitler’s fascism.

At the end, my Peruvian friend was very emotional because the discussion cleared up many questions and she wanted to keep talking. The other youth said he didn’t understand how any society could exist without money. I limited my remarks to the fact that a capitalist economy and a communist economy were completely different, opposites, and that to be able to understand this he first had to understand dialectical materialism and put it into practice. All of this was very useful, because we were able to show that we can fight for and build a communist system even though we’re contaminated with all these capitalist ideas.

Now I need more Party material to study and to distribute among friends in this part of the world. Now I see that there are many people interested in the communist ideas of the Progressive Labor Party and, in addition to the interesting articles in CHALLENGE, I need to give them material to use to study dialectical materialism. We must massively spread these ideas to establish a real communist system in which workers hold the reins of society.

Rising Food Prices Trigger Haiti Rebellion

HAITI, April 8 — Rising food prices worldwide have triggered rebellions in many countries. Southern Haiti is the latest. Five people have been killed and many injured after several days of protests by thousands, including attacks against local cops, businesses and the MINUSTAH (the U.N. multi-national occupation force here led by the Brazilian army). Over the weekend protesters looted the MINUSTAH office in Cayes, taking weapons and other materials.

Today, UN forces shot rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of workers and university students marching on the national palace in Port-au-Prince, the capital city, backing the rebellion and shouting, "We’re hungry!"

The U.N. occupation, which began after the U.S., France and Canada invaded the country several years ago and sent President Jean Bertrand Aristide into forced exile, has only brought more misery, drug gangs and hunger to the Haitian masses. One of every four children here is malnourished. People have resorted to eating "dirt cookies," made from salt, oil and clay and baked in the sun. A system that has brought billions worldwide to such extremes must be destroyed.

a name="Ethanol Hoax ‘Sustains’ Bosses’ Profits, Oil Wars"></a>"thanol Hoax ‘Sustains’ Bosses’ Profits, Oil Wars

The push for "sustainable energy" and "alternative fuels" is increasing. Politicians and companies appear united in calling for changes in how society is fueled. It appears that the ruling class is concerned about the environment. Communist analysis, however, reveals the essence of this "green" movement. First, the bosses are creating part of the ideology to support a potential future war against their imperialist rivals. Economic and political threats from China, for example, continue to present problems for U.S. rulers. As the rivalry intensifies, they’re caught in a bind. They must seize control of Mid-East energy reserves in order to cut their rivals’ access to it. They must also win the working class to support future wars against these rivals in order to maintain their world position. The promotion of ethanol as an "alternative fuel" is part of this plan.

Secondly, and more importantly, they’re winning workers to think that individuals, not capitalism, causes environmental destruction. They say a better environment can only be achieved by buying "green" products and consuming our way to a healthier world. In reality, only by destroying capitalism and replacing it with communism can the conditions that poison the enviroment be eradicated.

Focus on China and Ethanol Hides Imperialist Plans in Mid-East

Led by liberals like Al Gore, the capitalists are ramping up anti-Chinese rhetoric, namely by pointing to environmental issues such as contaminated products, air pollution and the catastrophe at the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Dam (where 1.4 million workers were displaced, and environmental destruction is occurring upstream from the dam). They need to convince workers that the Chinese are a direct threat to them and to a healthy Earth.

This is blatant hypocrisy, however, because for hundreds of years U.S. bosses have been killing the very workers they’re trying to win by polluting the places in which we live and work, along with the environment. (See box) Suddenly, when imperialism demands it, they’ve become interested in "protecting workers and ‘our’ environment."

The ethanol campaign is also being used to disguise the absolute necessity for the U.S. ruling class to control Mid-East oil through imperialist war. They say ethanol will "achieve energy security, reduce oil imports, and decrease our dependency on Middle-Eastern oil." Actually, of the top 15 countries from which the U.S. imports oil for consumption, only three, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait are from the Mid-East. Canada is by far the largest exporter of oil to the U.S. (Energy Information Administration, 2/15/08) The oil bosses don’t want control of Mid-East oil to power our SUVs but rather to control their rivals’ access to this life-blood of capitalism. The top oil companies like BP, ExxonMobil-Chevron are even putting hundreds of millions of dollars (a tiny amount compared to their profits) into researching "sustainable energy sources" as a way to mask their deadly designs on Mid-East oil.

Top Agri-business and Al Gore Behind Anti-working-class Ethanol Sham

Because it grows well in many climates, corn is used to make ethanol in the U.S. Currently, the federal government shells out $8 to $10 billion annually to Midwest corn growers. These subsidies are often framed as protecting America’s "ma and pa farmers." In reality, large corporate farmers such as Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill receive about 80% of these subsidies. Also, seed suppliers like Pioneer Hi-Bred (DuPont) and Monsanto are making a killing with the inflated corn markets created by the ethanol craze. Pioneer’s profits increased 13% over the past year. Al Gore, the darling of the liberal environmental movement, has recently joined the board of a venture capitalist firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who have more than $76 million invested in "green" technology. He is also a high-ranking official at Generation Asset Management, which invests in "solutions to climate change."

Meanwhile, the increased demand for corn for ethanol has led to even greater suffering for the working class. Agreements like NAFTA allow subsidized U.S. corn to under-cut local production in Mexico, causing corn tortilla prices there to soar 60%, triggering workers’ protests nation-wide. Workers are starving, yet the same amount of corn needed to fill an SUV tank with ethanol once would feed a worker for an entire year.

Making fuel from corn makes no sense for the environment either. If all the inputs are calculated (the cost, in energy terms, of getting and planting the seed, growing the corn, harvesting it, transporting it to the ethanol plant, etc.), there is a net energy loss! The environmental damage from this capitalist charade is also clear if the increased conversion of forest into farmland and the increased use of fertilizers (which, incidentally, are made from fossil fuels) and pesticides are considered. This is the reality of this "green consciousness" they want to win us to — business as usual under capitalism where profits come before scientific common sense and the well-being of our class and our environment.

Workers Will Be Stewards of Environment

Finally, there’s one truth the capitalists ignore. Workers have always been, and will always be, the best caretakers of the land and environment. Organic farming, where workers understand the land, respond to its needs, and replenish it for the future, was the norm during early communal agricultural societies. Capitalism, which makes food into a commodity to be bought and sold, replaced this mode with food production for profit. Modern communism, in turn, will discard the commodity nature of food, while retaining any technological advances.

As workers, we have no interest in profit-making disguised as "green living," nor in preserving the power of the U.S. ruling class (or any ruling class for that matter) through patriotism and war in the name of environmentalism. Our interests lie in maintaining and preserving the environment because we work its land, we breathe its air, and we enjoy its beauty.

Ultimately, only the working class can create a better and healthier world. With scientific reason, dialectical analysis, and revolutionary ideology, the working class must begin the process of building workers’ power. Communism is the embodiment of that power. Together, as a class, we can counteract the damage of capitalism.

LETTERS

Minister Praises Capitalism, Church Members Disagree

A minister’s recent service bemoaned the Iraq war, saying "we" should focus on what’s happening "at home," that it is "more patriotic" to take care of Americans. This is nationalist selfishness, not anti-imperialism!

The minister admitted to knowing little about economics but went on to say that many are sick of the "old economy," focused on maximizing profit and accumulating stuff. They want a "new economy." That sounded good, until she declared that corporations are "not the problem." She said that "corporate executives are good people, just like us" and to achieve a "new economy" we all just have to be less greedy. She didn’t mention the tens of millions in the U.S., and billions around the world, who don’t even have the basic necessities of life.

Afterward I said to a friend that maximizing profits by exploiting workers was a law of capitalism. She agreed: "It’s like saying that a poisonous snake wouldn’t be dangerous if you could just keep it from biting." This new CHALLENGE reader said, "a lot of the ideas we need are in that paper."

I asked her opinion of the articles about Obama. She is enthusiastically for Obama even though he "has to say things that will get him elected." I reminded her that top advisors of all three candidates are meeting with the Brookings Institute to develop a foreign policy to present to the next president. I summarized the unfolding inter-imperialist rivalries that are leading U.S. capitalists to wider war. I said Obama is the candidate best able to win the U.S. working class to sacrifice our standard of living and our youth to that war. Because she has been reading the paper, she was already familiar with this argument.

"When you put it like that," she said, "it’s really very clear. I wish I hadn’t spoken to you today," she added half-seriously, "because this really upsets me." She doesn’t want her daughter and son to be drafted. I pointed out that CHALLENGE also shows the positive side: how we can win workers and soldiers to a revolutionary movement fighting for a truly new communist economy.

As we left church she said again, "You make it all so clear, like a lens that focuses everything." I replied that the "lens" is the collective insight of our Party. Then she asked when she could stop by to get the new CHALLENGE.

While the minister was preaching, I felt like walking out of church for good, but the conversation afterward reminded me why I stay. It’s not mainly to unite with others in the congregation to go on anti-war marches or fight budget cuts, but to build relationships based on sharp struggle on this ideological "front-line."

Church-going Red

Racist Education and Racist Professors

Recently, fellow students and I went to a "practical-experience" school activity in Southern Mexico to "analyze" how low-income people "can make their projects work and compete in the market to improve their lives." Those of us from small towns and of indigenous background experienced blatant racism.

The professors heading the trip always told others along the way to "excuse them because they’re indigenous students." One professor kept telling those in charge in the places we visited that we "couldn’t communicate or express ourselves correctly because of our ethnic origin." In Oaxaca, some women in our group complained about being bitten by ants. Our own teacher, who claimed she wasn’t racist, later told us not to complain about this since we’re from small towns and "girls from well-to-do families never complain so much about some little ants."

The racism became even worse. Our teachers said, "You should all be grateful for this opportunity to do this high-level research in places you won’t be able to ever visit again — they charge 1,000 pesos (about $100) a day). Only students from the ‘best colleges’ can afford them without scholarships."

These attitudes reflect the racism of the rich bosses who run this capitalist society, reminding us poor working-class people: "You’re poor and don’t even aspire to come back to these fancy places."

PLP members and some students concluded how, in a communist society, there won’t be "different kind of opportunities" since there won’t be class differences. We will all share society’s benefits and responsibilities. Since racism is a universal aspect of capitalism, from Oaxaca to Los Angeles to Madrid, PLP organizes an international party to fight for this communist goal.

A Red Militant Student

a name="ID Cards Become New Report-to-Gov’t Cards">">"D Cards Become New Report-to-Gov’t Cards

My school recently instituted a program in the computer science department that researches how to track people using ID cards. These barcode-like tracking devices are already being used in new U.S. passports. The study uses radio frequency ID patches which are worn on clothing and can be tracked by computers within the computer science building. The program is supposed to study how the government can track people while still protecting their privacy, a seemingly oxymoronic goal. The professors in charge of the research claim that they want to protect people’s privacy, but if this were truly the case, why are they actively perfecting such invasive measures as the ID card tracker?

Such programs as these are not only a sign of fascist control of the working class and an attempt to put a friendly face on it, but academia’s willingness to spread it. In Nazi Germany, it was college professors who were the first to acquiesce to fascism and it was college students who created the Hitler Youth. Universities are no bastion of left politics and to see it as such is idealism at its worst. The university can only be a place of communist politics if we make it so.

We must join mass organizations, as I recently did, and we must build CHALLENGE networks amongst our base in these groups. We must expose the fascist agenda of U.S. imperialism and the universities’ role in it. We must build strong friendships with our base, something I am trying to do now. As communists, we must give our base alternatives to the dead-end liberalism of the university by inviting them to May Day and the summer projects. Through discussion and action we can show them that true leftist politics come from only one place, the working class, and that in order to make real change we must put our faith in the working class and fight for communism.

Red College Student

Veteran of El Salvador War Joins PLP

(This is a letter from a new member of Progressive Labor Party written at a communist school in El Salvador, a sign of the political/ideological development of our members and also the deepening of the internal struggle to fight the reformism taught by the revisionist, the phoney leftist, groups, and the fight for Communist Revolution.)

I want to give you a small fragment of the history of the past revolutionary process in which I participated in the organizations that formed the FMLN in the eastern part of the country, that were called the ERP (Revolutionary Peoples’ Army).

I was 12 years old when the El Salvadoran government’s army carried out one of its bloodiest attacks against the civil population. In all these years there were big operations by the armed forces that left many people massacred. This happened in different places like El Mozote, in the mountains of Morazán, where more than a thousand people were killed. It was here that four members of my family were tortured and killed: my mother, my Grandmother, and my two aunts, leaving me alone at a young age.

Days after this vile massacre by the Salvadoran government against my family, friends and neighbors in the community, and in the face of these huge injustices, thinking that we needed to change everything, I joined the armed struggle. I asked a friend to go with me to walk outside of town with the idea of looking for my father who was already in the guerilla army . As I neared the campsite where he was, I told my friend that I would not return to town.

I spent the whole war fighting against our class enemies, thinking that I was doing the right thing, but 16 years after the peace accords were signed and the FMLN has turned into an electoral party, I see that there weren’t any changes for the Salvadoran working class.

One day a comrade gave me CHALLENGE and since then I have been a reader. Later, they invited me to an international communist school in another country where I learned how we can fight for and build a better world for all workers. This can be accomplished through building the Progressive Labor Party and the direct fight for Communism. For the moment, I have four CHALLENGE readers in a Party club and I hope that we continue growing as well as throughout the whole world.

To all the members and sympathizers of the Progressive Labor Party internationally, to the workers organized in different countries, from El Salvador, also known as the little finger of America, I send revolutionary greetings and at the same time invite you to continue to strengthen the Party’s work even more

New Fighter for Communism

a name="‘Winter Soldier’: Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan"></">‘W"nter Soldier’: Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan

The Winter Soldier Hearings in Maryland were amazing! In preparation, our PLP club showed the original Winter Soldier (see CHALLENGE, 4/9). Friends, including an army reservist, said that although the testimony was depressing and a bit vivid, it was a great learning experience. All felt that many comparisons could be made between the war in Vietnam and those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After attending the Winter Soldier this past week, it was obvious that the same pattern of racism and imperialist domination was being used, only in a different part of the world. Many told stories about how the racist term "hadji" was used, but that it came from the top down, not from the bottom up. This goes to show that racism doesn’t begin with the working class, but is fomented by the ruling class. They use this racism to divide workers and soldiers, as well as the workers in the country to be conquered. One soldier had a particularly sharp analysis of the whole situation. Instead of giving a testimony to the acts he was forced to commit, he spoke of imperialism, racism and how the rich never went to war, only the poor working class.

At the Winter Soldier hearings one really got a great sense of what was going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the accounts were heartbreaking, it was refreshing to hear the truth, as opposed to the propaganda we workers are so accustomed to being bombarded with by the ruling-class media. After listening to the testimony I felt even more energized and angry. This energy and anger must be used to work even harder to build the Party and struggle for communism. Hopefully more workers can view and hear the testimony of these brave soldiers.

D.C. Comrade

a name="Candidates Reap Million$, Workers ‘Reap’ Unemployment"></">Ca"didates Reap Million$, Workers ‘Reap’ Unemployment

The two lead stories on the April 5 NY Times front page present a clear picture of capitalism as an exploitative class system. One says, "80,000 JOBS LOST" (in March). Adjoining that is, "Clintons made $109 million In Last 8 Years."

A single Clinton speaking engagement rakes in "upwards of $250,000," (NYT) more than the median family yearly income of five working-class families, in just one "lecture"! Seems talk is not exactly cheap, especially in the top one-hundredth of one percent of U.S. incomes.

Not that Obama or McCain are exactly poor. The Obama family income exceeded one million bucks in just one year (2006). (NYT) And the McCain family assets, including the fact that his wife is "an heiress to a beer distributorship fortune, are worth tens of millions of dollars." (NYT)

These are the millionaire politicians who have never helped workers and who defend and enforce their capitalist system which has launched massive attacks on the working class: wage-cuts, huge layoffs, more racist cops to terrorize workers and youth, big talk about healthcare while the uninsured approach 50 million. And yet the union misleaders and reformers tell us the "solution" is to vote for Obama or Clinton, pouring our dues money into their campaigns. What crap!

PLP has always advocated, "Don’t vote, organize!" to answer these attacks.

Meanwhile, the monthly jobless increase was actually 222,000 since "the government added 142, 000 make-believe jobs to the count" (John Crudele, NYPost, 4-8), the highest in five years, rising for the third consecutive month. It’s across the board, covering both industry and service areas. But, of course — as CHALLENGE has consistently reported — the 5.1% unemployment rate is a fraud. That figure, representing 7.8 million jobless, excludes "discouraged" workers who’ve given up searching for non-existent jobs and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time jobs. That’s another 9.4 million workers, a total unemployment of 17.2 million — a 12.5% jobless rate.

This still doesn’t include people on welfare who can’t find jobs, nor those youth whose joblessness drove them to join the military. Nor the two-thirds of the 2.4 million in prison for non-violent, mostly drug-possession convictions who could ordinarily be at home or in rehab, also seeking non-existent jobs. All told, U.S. unemployment is probably somewhere around 20 million.

Because of racist discrimination, unemployment for black workers is twice that of whites. The "official" figure is black 9%, white 4.5%. But the true figure for black workers is about 25%, double the actual nationwide rate of 12.5%.

The liberal Democrat’s "solution" is to extend unemployment benefits, a goal rarely reached in this one-class-rules-all "two-party" system. And that excludes more than half of U.S. workers who are ineligible for any benefits (including millions of undocumented immigrants), something Obama and Clinton never mention when shedding crocodile tears for jobless workers. McCain’s hair-brained "solution" is more tax cuts for the rich and less regulation of the Wall Street investment houses making out like bandits.

Unemployment is an integral feature of the profit system and always will be as long as capitalism exists, driving for maximum profits by stealing the value that workers create and stuffing it into the pockets of the bankers, oil companies and Big Business. They go to war to protect their fortunes over workers’ dead bodies, much as they war on the working class at home. They will continue to do so until workers destroy their system and enable our class to share all the wealth we create among working people, according to need.

One big step towards that goal is to march on May Day, uniting black, Latino, Asian and white, immigrant and native-born, women and men, building PLP as the party to lead the working class against the ravages of capitalism. J

REDEYE ON THE NEWS

U.S. helped in Croatia war crime

A popular Croatian general who led a brutal operation that drove the Serbs out...went on trial in The Hague on Tuesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[The] crimes included knowingly shelling civilian targets, allowing their forces to go on violent rampages during and after the campaign, terrorizing civilians, and looting and burning Serbian homes.

United States military advisers, among them retired and active personnel, helped plan the operation, and Americans directed drone aircraft over the battle zone to gain real-time intelligence for Croatian forces. (NYT, 3/12)

Wall St. Big For Barack And Hilary

Last week Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary...put it clearly: If Wall Street companies can count on being rescued like banks, then they need to be regulated like banks.

But will that logic prevail politically? So far, neither [campaign] has made a clear commitment...

The securities and investment industry is pouring money into both Mr. Obama’s and Mrs. Clinton’s coffers. And these donors surely believe that they’re buying something in return. (NYT, 3/24)

Workplace, killer for prostitutes

"Women engaged in prostitution face the most dangerous occupational environment in the United States..."

The American Journal of Epidemiology published a meticulous study finding that the "workplace homicide rate for prostitutes" is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women, working in a liquor store. The average age of death of prostitutes in the study was 34. (NYT, 3/16)

Voters said no, but Dems fund it

Since the Democrats took over both houses of Congress, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the budget committee, boasted... "We have the identical amount in our budget for defense and the war as the president had in his budget –– identical, not a dime of difference."

So there you have it... Whether this allocation of scarce resources is actually in the public interest does not enter into it. (Washington Post, 3/13)

It’s the free market, stupid...

To the Editor:

Re "What Created This Monster?" (March 23), which looked at the run-up to the current financial market mess:

Why should we be surprised that a socio-economic system founded on greed, selfishness and competition, and fueled by Pollyannaism and willful blindness, might be less than optimal?

Perhaps when the smoke clears, Americans will no longer worship at the altar of a mythical "free market" that is inherently unfree, skewed and subject to massive abuse. Perhaps Americans will finally choose to stop living in an economic Wild West and at last reject the boom-and-bust cycle of turbocharged hypercapitalism in favor of a more humane, livable society. (NYT, 3/20)

The Web makes spying easy

It’s not paranoia: they really are spying on you.

...Tech companies can keep track of when a particular Internet user looks up Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, visits adult Web sites, buys cancer drugs online or participates in anti-government discussion groups....

There is no need for neighborhood informants and paper dossiers if the government can see citizens’ every Web site visit, e-mail and text message.

1. Bankers' Fight, Bears Down On Working Class
   1. Capitalists Always Seek
      Maximum Profits
   2. Bosses, Bankers Run the Government
2. Obama's `All-Class Unity' Spurs War Draft
   MASKS RULERS' RACISM
   1. `National Service' High Priority
   2. Serve Your Class: Fight for
      Communism
3. 40 Years After King Killing, Racism Still Riding High
4. GIs, Vets Must Fight Imperialism, Cause of Bosses' War Crimes
5. Students Lead Parents to Oppose NYC Budget Cuts
6. Axle Strikers Battling UAW's Blatant Sellout
7. More Racist Profiling:
   `Black While Shopping'
8. Red Flags, PL Youth Draw Acclaim at LA Anti-War March
9. Unionists Defy Funeral Mood at NYC Anti-War `Protest'
10. Tibet's CIA-Backed Feudal Monks Fight China's Bosses
11. Angry Workers' Mass Strikes Pose Problem for Greek Rulers
12. `Socialist' Chavez's Cops Assault Steel Strikers
13. LETTERS LETTER LETTERS
    1. Bosses' Media Covers Up
       Colombia's Death Squads
    2. Students See Through
       Sugar-coated History
    3. What's Deadlier in Paraguay?
       Yellow Fever or Election Fever?
    4. The Real Prostitutes
    5. Rulers `Turn Around' Schools
       by Closing Them
14. REDEYE
    1. Obama rejects anti-imperialism
    2. Better life, if market didn't rule
    3. Army sees more, longer Iraqs
    4. Law leads schools to dump kids
    5. Prison profiteers love long
       lock-ups
15. The Battle That Helped Crush South Africa's Apartheid
16. Russian Rulers' Rebound Rivals U.S. Imperialist Supremacy

Bankers' Fight, Bears Down On Working Class

J.P. Morgan's recent hostile seizure of Bear Stearns marks a big step in the growth of fascism in the U.S. Here, just as in pre-World War II Nazi Germany, dominant financiers with global interest, increasingly use state power to concentrate capital into their own hands and to tighten their regulatory grip on investment. They do so in order to compete better -- economically and militarily -- with rising foreign rivals and to enforce wartime discipline on smaller domestic bosses.

Despite serious and sustained efforts by U.S. rulers to contain it, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis continues to spread to the broader capitalist economy. Every week seems to bring a new debacle for the bankers and Henry Paulson, their government partner in the U.S. Treasury Department, to deal with. The takeover of Bear Stearns ("Bear"), one of the biggest "independent" investment banks, by JP Morgan Chase (JPMC), has much to teach the working class about the nature of the capitalist system, and the direction it is moving in for the foreseeable future. JPMC -- the Rockefeller oil empire's chief bank -- confiscated Bear mainly because its owners hinder the developing police state the ruling class's main wing's war agenda requires. Iraq and Afghanistan already wear a $3-trillion price tag. For far costlier conflicts with Iran and China, U.S. rulers are ramping up compulsory "shared sacrifice" on Wall Street.

Until the takeover, Bear's largest shareholder was Wilmington Trust, an investment arm of the DuPont family, which vehemently opposes state controls on capital. JPMC also torpedoed China's CITIC, which "has decided to terminate its planned strategic cooperation with Bear Stearns, including a $1 billion investment in the U.S. bank" (Reuters, 3/19/08). CITIC is wholly owned by a government gearing up to challenge U.S. military domination of the Mideast and its oil. No wonder JPMC targeted Bear rather than more imperialist-oriented Lehman Brothers or Morgan Stanley. Lehman counts war criminal James R. Schlesinger, defense secretary during the U.S.'s Vietnam genocide, as a "senior advisor." Blue-blooded State Street Bank of Boston and Saudi Arabia's Olayan family own major chunks of Morgan Stanley.

Capitalists Always Seek
Maximum Profits

As CHALLENGE has pointed out before, capitalists and the financiers who back them constantly search for a place to invest their stolen billions. Capitalism dictates that each investment, whether it be in the production of real value or not, must seek a maximum return. At the dawn of capitalism, that meant a massive investment in the brutal enslavement of human beings. With that blood-stained start-up money, the early industrialists bought the power of human labor and made more than they could dream from the wage slavery of workers in that hell of sweatshops and factories. What was fundamental to capitalism then is still today: "there will be blood" on the path to riches for a few.

Sometimes the blood is that of members of their own class. Modern capitalism is ruled by the big banks, which are able to use their gigantic accumulation of funds to control industrial and other capitalists (for more information about this, read "Who Rules the United States" in PLP's The Communist magazine, Spring 2005). One of the biggest banks is JPMC. It represents the merger of three of the major banks in U.S. history -- JP Morgan and the Rockefeller-owned Chase Manhattan and Chemical banks. The other major player in the Bear Stearns takeover, the U.S. Federal Reserve ("the Fed"), is basically a committee that represents the interests of the big banks and the capitalist system.

Bear, on the other hand, was known as "an outsider that defied its mainstream rivals" (NY Times 3/17/08, A1). When the Fed "cajoled all the large Wall Street firms" to bail out an important hedge fund "to avert a global financial meltdown," only one, Bear, "refused to participate" (Washington Post, 3/15/08, A4). But, unfortunately for Bear, the biggest thieves have long memories. True to its "anti-establishment" veneer, Bear specialized in high-risk investments. Unlike its bigger investment bank rival, Goldman Sachs, Bear could not recover from its huge losses in mortgage-backed securities. Its stock price, which as late as last year was $172 per share, plummeted 96% by March 14.

Bosses, Bankers Run the Government

Communists constantly point out how the government serves the needs of the capitalist bosses and bankers. Nowhere is there a more striking example than the "takedown" of Bear. JPMC, with the help of the Fed and Paulson, former Goldman Sachs chairman, acquired Bear at the fire-sale price of $2 per share ("raised" as of March 23 to $10). The Fed loaned JPMC $30 billion to finance this, and although Bear's true value is in question, the Fed insulated JPMC from future asset losses to the tune of $30 billion. This sweet deal for Rockefeller and Morgan interests will be subsidized by U.S. workers' taxes should Bear's real worth prove to be lower.

Even though JPMC made out like a bandit, the fact is that the biggest bankers were forced to act quickly to protect the long-term interests of the capitalist system. "In normal times, they would be inclined to let capitalism do its work . . . But markets are so jittery that . . . [t]he stock market could have experienced a collapse of 1987 proportions and untold damage may have been done to the U.S. economy" (Washington Post, 3/15/08). As far as these top dogs are concerned, the "free market" is expendable when their needs dictate it. Using their government to bring into line or destroy smaller players who don't go along with the program is classic fascism.

We cannot predict if capitalism's financial wizards will be able to arrest the "credit crisis" in time to prevent a deep and prolonged recession. We do understand the lessons of history. The bosses' current fear and mistrust of each other will have no good end for the working class, short of a communist revolution that stops them from once again preserving their system by stepping harder on our necks and shedding our blood.

Russia, China, and other rival imperialists are gaining ground on U.S. rulers. The spirit of "sacrifice" that the Democrats, in particular, call for is just what the doctor ordered. As the capitalists try to convince workers that "we are all in this together" in order to prepare us for bigger wars, they will force their own class into line as well. The New York Times made its lead front-page story on March 23 "In Washington, a Split Over Regulation of Wall Street." "Democratic lawmakers are drafting bills that would create a powerful new regulator...to oversee practices across the entire array of commercial banks, Wall Street firms, hedge funds and non-bank financial companies." On the other side, "President Bush and [treasury secretary] Paulson...remain philosophically opposed to restrictions and requirements that might hamper economic activity." New York's disgraced ex-governor and attorney general Eliot Spitzer fell victim as much to the Bushite foes of regulation, as to his own perverted ego. Liberal crusader Spitzer had subjected Wall Street firms to strict scrutiny and prosecution for the imperialists' benefit. It was a combination of HSBC, a British-owned bank investigated by Spitzer and closely tied to China's rulers, and the Bush-controlled IRS and FBI that exposed his penchant for prostitutes.

The Bush gang puts quarterly bottom lines ahead of the main capitalists' long-term war needs. Liberals Obama and Clinton hope to reverse this trend. In calling for "cleaning up" Wall Street, they seek a militarization of society that includes both state control of finance and the enlistment, by one means or another, of millions of working-class soldiers. Obama and Clinton, in fact, serve the openly imperialist wing of U.S. capitalists, hungrier for global war than even Bush and McCain, and potentially deadlier because of their broader liberal, Democratic appeal, especially to young people.

Capitalism's seemingly endless "booms and busts" will only be a relic of history if millions of workers reject the bosses' fear, racism, and patriotism, and join a mass communist party to turn things around. Communism will abolish a system that gives a few speculators so much money to play with that they inevitably bring hundreds of millions to ruin. Revolutionary actions under the leadership of PLP can put an end to the rule of the financiers and let real history begin for the working class.

Obama's `All-Class Unity' Spurs War Draft
MASKS RULERS' RACISM

As the primary election season in the United States winds down, statistics are showing more and more enthusiasm for the elections than in past years. Young people turned out at nearly triple the rate they did in the 2000 election (thepewtrust.org), with most voting for Democrats. Many are drawn to messages like those of Obama and Clinton, who are attempting to convince young people that they will make life better for them. Obama in particular, in his recent speech on race, pushes the lie that "we", meaning all Americans, need to unify to face "our" problems, like racism, corporate greed and terrorism. This all-class unity is a deadly error for workers, because we have one primary problem: capitalism. This system, built on the exploitation of our labor and the continual degradation of our living conditions, can never meet the needs of the working class.

`National Service' High Priority

The liberal politicians can't fix this main problem. In fact, they are completely dedicated to the long-term plan of the U.S. ruling class: more war and fascism. The U.S. needs to position itself for future inter-imperialist rivalries against rising capitalist countries like Russia and China. This requires ideological unity between the millions of workers and the few bosses.

To achieve this "unity," liberal rulers are relentlessly promoting a program of "national service" which requires service in the military or government-sponsored programs. They are trying to copy many countries around the world like Israel, Mexico, Germany, etc., which have compulsory national or military service. The liberals realize one of their key weaknesses is the apathy and cynicism youth have, as illustrated in declining figures in military recruitment. This apathy, along with the Bush Administration's general failure to generate nationalist feeling, makes it much more difficult for the U.S. bosses to convince young workers to fight for them domestically and internationally. In particular, events that unmask the racist nature of the capitalist system, like Hurricane Katrina, the assassinations of Sean Bell in New York and Aaron Harrison in Chicago, and the Jena 6, make recruitment of black and Latino youth that much more difficult. National service is intended to reverse this trend.

Barack Obama has led the liberal bosses' call, recently heralded by Democrats Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed in their book "The Plan: Big Ideas for America." The book lays the foundations for much of Obama's version of John F. Kennedy's "what you can do for your country" speech. "The Plan" states, "It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us," and then proposes a mandatory period of three months national service for all Americans under 25. This plan includes:

*Expanding AmeriCorps from its current 75,000 positions to 250,000, with new
units to deal with education, clean energy, health care and homeland security.

*Expanding service programs involving retired individuals and those over age 55.

*Doubling the size of the Peace Corps from its current 7,800 volunteers to 16,000 by its 50th anniversary in 2012.

* Setting goals for middle-school and high-school students to serve 50 hours a year of public service, and for college students to serve 100 hours a year. (AP,
12/07)

The authors have to emphatically state that this is "not a draft," but nothing could be further from the truth. The bosses want to use workers' desire to serve their own class and help their fellow workers and transform it into nationalist feeling. Their hope is that these nationalist feelings can then be turned into mass military recruitment to fight their imperialist wars. This is the program that Obama and Clinton are pushing. National service especially could be very attractive to black and Latin working-class youth who will not be able to afford college, who do not want to go directly into the military and who can look forward only to a dead-end minimum-wage job.

Serve Your Class: Fight for
Communism

We can see the desire for workers to serve their class even under capitalism: after 9/11, thousands of volunteers were eager to help; assistance poured into New Orleans from around the country after Hurricane Katrina; and thousands marched in Jena, Louisiana in support of the young men railroaded by the racist justice system. The bosses want to turn these feelings into nationalism and a willingness to kill and be killed for profit. PLP, on the other hand, has a different vision of the future: by exposing the bosses' lies, fighting for the working class in our daily lives, and winning masses of workers to PLP, we can transform the earnest desire of workers to help our brothers and sisters into the only way to truly secure our liberation: communist revolution.

40 Years After King Killing, Racism Still Riding High

Forty years ago, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where 1,600 sanitation workers were striking for union recognition, higher wages and an end to racist practices. King had gone there supposedly to support the strikers but the latter's militancy ran far ahead of King. When he led a march through the heart of the city, the workers and their youthful supporters began a mini-rebellion against the exploitative merchants, battling the cops along the route of the march. King was quickly ushered away in a limousine.

Later, while standing on a motel balcony, a sniper cut him down.

In the context of worldwide mass struggle against the U.S. imperialist war in Vietnam and racist police terror and for revolution (the Red Guards in China), immediately rebellions erupted in black communities across the U.S. The National Guard was called out to quell the uprisings.

Racism had cut deep wounds among black workers. Their unemployment rates were double the national average. Their family incomes were far below white workers'. They were using the King assassination to protest the savagery that the rulers' racism had visited on their families for centuries.

Today, politicians like Barack Obama, while not denying some racism still exists, cite the "progress" black workers have made. He and others are calling for black and white people to "unite." Unite for what? To get behind U.S. capitalism's drive to advance its bosses' interests through imperialist war. (See article above)

But 40 years later black workers' unemployment is still twice that of white workers.
Black family income is still less than 70% that of white family income.
Black workers and youth comprise 50% of the 2.4 million in capitalism's prisons -- nearly ten times what it was 40 years ago -- although only 12% of the population as a whole is black.
Black and Latino workers will be paid $10 an hour in Alabama plants to build the U.S. rulers' oil-war tanker aircraft, while mostly white workers in Boeing's Seattle plants, earning $27 an hour, will be laid off. Thus, the bosses still use racism against black and Latino workers to drag down the conditions of white workers as well.

King had a "Dream." But for millions of black and Latino workers, that "dream" is more a nightmare and it is fast turning into one for tens of millions of white workers also suffering mass layoffs, wage-cuts and home foreclosures.

The only way to turn dreams of a decent life into reality is to fight the bosses' racism used to divide ALL workers and crush class consciousness. Then a red-led united working class can destroy the racist bosses' profit system through communist revolution.

GIs, Vets Must Fight Imperialism, Cause of Bosses' War Crimes

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 18 -- At the Winter Soldier Investigation (see CHALLENGE, 3/26) organized by the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), over 200 Marine, Army and Navy veterans of the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan testified about atrocities and war crimes they had witnessed, and sometimes had committed. Iraqi civilians testified via video and in person about their experience of abuse and terror by U.S. troops. (Testimony can be read and heard at the website <IVAW.org>) The event coincided with the 5th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. PLP'ers at this event pointed out that the root cause of these atrocities is capitalism and imperialism.

The brass employs racism and the "Rules of Engagement" policy of using force to encourage abusing and killing civilians, detaining innocents and torturing prisoners. Vets said these "Rules" had become so loose that officers were telling soldiers virtually anyone could be considered a threat. Holding a cell phone, walking across the street or wearing a green headband were all "capital offenses." A War Department memo denies rape kits for troops in combat zones.

Several vets testified being routinely ordered to carry "throw-down" weapons and shovels to plant on civilians they murdered in order to claim they were "insurgents" -- the same tactic cops use in the U.S. Others described the racism inculcated by the brass and officers who constantly use a racist slur, in referring to all Iraqis, making the entire population the "enemy." This dehumanizes all Iraqis, making it "easier" to kill them like animals, just as the U.S. Army did when using racist terms against the Vietnamese during that war.

Some vets tearfully apologized to the Iraqi people for not having stopped civilian murders, and sometimes for murdering civilians themselves. One vet angrily threw his medals into the audience, declaring "Eat the apple -- F--- the [Marine] Corps."

More troops need to follow the example of these testifiers and resist killing and dying for U.S. imperialism. Troops and vets also must recognize the root of the problem is capitalism. Ending imperialism, racism and sexism requires building a mass communist party to overthrow capitalism, building a revolutionary communist society, not just more anti-war organizing to "pressure" the government to stop the war and "reform" the military.

One veteran declared that U.S. service members and workers had far more in common with the average Iraqi than with the rich capitalists and oil barons who run the U.S., who launched this war for their profits and power. This is the kind of internationalism and anti-racism we need.

Imperial occupations must brutalize civilian populations to stop popular resistance. But how different a revolutionary war is! Given that the capitalists think nothing of slaughtering a million Iraqis and three million Vietnamese, when the working class fights, it must ruthlessly kill these capitalist enemies, any traitors to our class, as well as any military forces that cannot be won to mutiny against the imperialists. The vets' exposure of brutality against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan proves that this is a racist war against the interests of the working class of Iraq, Afghanistan and the world.

What now for IVAW? The PLP "GI Voices" newsletter, circulated widely at the event, raised this question, calling for internationalism, anti-racism and communist revolution as the way forward for the veterans' and GI movement. One vet said that each action IVAW took was moving the group in a more radical direction. But the bosses' foundations and liberal capitalists are funding and supporting IVAW. Its leaders mainly focus on a media strategy rather than organizing active-duty personnel to fight racism and war in their units and on their bases.

During the conference, IVAW "messaging" framed vets' testimony as serving "our" country." Reformists like those who lead IVAW co-opt and mislead honest fighters. Some attendees raised the danger of relying on liberal patriotic politics to fight imperialism. Honest veteran activists were frustrated with the group for dropping a panel on racism within the military, not taking civilian testimony seriously and not adequately addressing Afghanistan.

Expanding the distribution of CHALLENGE, asking friends to help do this and to participate in Party activities like the upcoming May Day must become the order of the day. PLP veterans, GIs and others should intensify their efforts to win IVAW members and friends to the long-range view of revolution.

Students Lead Parents to Oppose NYC Budget Cuts

NEW YORK CITY, March 24 -- Several students new to PLP took leadership in our high school to fight the budget cuts after being inspired by a Brooklyn school's Student Government that organized a protest at City Hall (CHALLENGE, 3/12). Battling these cuts requires parent-student-teacher unity. On a Monday, a PL teacher noted that the school's PTA would be meeting on the coming Wednesday.

When the PL students, the Writing Club and the teacher met on Tuesday, they understood that struggle was necessary to defeat these cuts. Many students in this club read CHALLENGE, some for years. They recognized the bosses need budget cuts, squeezing the working class in order to finance their oil wars. Two students volunteered to speak at the PTA meeting.

After some initial discussion, the PL'ers changed the tone of the PTA meeting. The teacher spoke first, saying the budget cuts affected the school and a fight-back was needed. The PTA agreed, and then asked students in the Writing Club to write a letter attacking the cuts, and that the PTA would sign it and mail it in. Then one PL student spoke, describing how the budget cuts would affect her and her desire to learn. Another PL student said the bosses "are trying to take the books out of my hand, and give me a gun." The parents agreed with PLP's communist analysis of the budget cuts, and told us to make sure the letter was "very political."

The parents decided that if the politicians don't respond to the letter, then they would organize protests and more. The militant parents recognized that the letter was only the first step, and that more struggles lay ahead. However, even these struggles, in and of themselves, won't stop the racist, anti-working-class cuts because they're a necessary part of the capitalist system. A mass campaign can intensify the class struggle but can only produce reforms, which the ruling class can eventually reverse. Only communism can fulfill the needs of the working class, ending the profit-driven budgets that exploit the needs of children.

The school administrator supported the students' and PTA's letter, noting how the budget was cut overnight. She went to work the next day, checked her computer and saw that the money was already taken out. The corporate-style restructuring of the school system enabled this attack on the schools, paving the way for increased ruling-class fascist control over education.

The next day PLP'ers enthusiastically spread the news about students giving leadership to parents. At the Thursday Writing Club meeting, students unable to attend the PTA meeting were excited to help draft the letter. Congratulations to these new comrades and CHALLENGE readers for stepping forward. We want them to meet regularly with the Party. This modest victory itself isn't enough if it doesn't help build PLP, in order to destroy a system that steals books from students in order to give them guns to kill and be killed in endless profit wars.

Axle Strikers Battling UAW's Blatant Sellout

DETROIT, MI, March 24 - Today GM and Chrysler workers, idled by the month-long strike at American Axle (AAM), joined the picket lines in a show of unity. Many auto workers who've suffered a blatant UAW sellout are backing these valiant strikers who are fighting a similar betrayal.

The Solidarity rally occurred ten days after three strikers were arrested for blocking scab trucks moving work out of the plant. Meanwhile, the International UAW sent the local bargainers home and took over contract negotiations to duplicate the auto sellouts.

The 3,600 strikers are battling company demands to cut pay from $28/hr to $11.50-$14.50/hr. The integrated workforce at the Detroit plant shows how racism hurts all workers. These black and white workers are struggling to survive in a city ravaged by racism, with soaring unemployment and the country's highest foreclosure rate. More mouths than ever depend on each and every paycheck.

The company also wants to replace pensions with
401(k)s, end retirees' health care, cut medical coverage drastically, move work to low-wage non-union plants (done during the strike) and eliminate about 1,000 jobs.

This latest restructuring of the U.S. auto industry -- GM, Ford and Chrysler cut starting wages in half while eliminating over 80,000 jobs -- results from sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry that has the world's auto billionaires fighting for markets, resources and cheap labor.

AAM supplies GM's pick-up truck and SUV production. Those vehicles typically use about 400 direct suppliers, with hundreds of others selling to those companies.

The strike has forced GM to shut or cut production at 29 plants, involving over 37,000 workers. This has also affected many supplier plants. Magna, Lear and Delphi have laid off 3,140. The strike is also rippling through the railroads and food service providers. These shutdowns and layoffs have added to a 6% rise in weekly unemployment claims last week, one of the highest this year.

The strike has cost GM 100,000 lost vehicles that won't be produced. But due to a weakening economy, soaring gas prices and a big backlog of unsold SUVs and pick-ups, the bosses can stand the lost production.

As the strike drags on, AAM's CEO Richard Dauch's income rose to $10.2 million in 2007; the company reported $37 million in profits. Dauch is one of the auto industry's highest-paid executives, raking in $68 million from 2003-2007. AAM executives are being rewarded for halving the workforce, closing the Buffalo plant and moving production to low-wage plants. The workers, who produce all wealth, will be "rewarded" with wage-cuts and lost jobs.

From Delphi to GM, and Ford to Chrysler, the handwriting is on the wall. The bosses offer a future of poverty, strike-breaking, racist terror and war. But by taking a stand and striking, AAM strikers are leading the way. We support them and hope to win some workers closer to the Party. Having the strikers represented at May Day would be a big step in rebuilding PLP in Detroit.

More Racist Profiling:
`Black While Shopping'

CHICAGO, March 20 -- "No justice, no peace! No racist police!" chanted over 100 demonstrators, catching the attention of shoppers hurrying into Southlake Mall. A few weeks after the winter holidays, high school students, ministers, moms and PLP members were protesting the racist practices of Southlake Mall security, particularly the charging of a young black woman with "criminal trespass" and "disorderly conduct" during that shopping period.

She is an A student at a charter school. All know her as a bright, caring, energetic and strong young lady, active in her church. But mall security saw her only as someone who fit their racist stereotype -- black while shopping in a "white mall."

When she stopped to talk for a bit, security told her to "keep moving." She did, though not understanding why, and continued shopping, stopping at some more stores before finding her nephew. Then the police surrounded her entire group, herding them like cattle, shouting "YOU WERE ALREADY TOLD YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE! YOU'RE GONNA NEED TO COME WITH US NOW!"

One cop grabbed her, charging her with "criminal trespassing," and tried to shove her down a dark isolated hallway. She refused to go anywhere without her mom, requesting they find her. The cops forced her into the hallway but she continued to resist, fearing what might happen to a young girl behind a closed door with an angry racist cop. She was then handcuffed and charged with "disorderly conduct."

Clearly, there was no charge of shoplifting or any real offense. She was accused of "criminal trespassing" for just being black in a "white" mall, shopping and talking. We must fight the continued harassment of our youth.

At the demonstration, after half an hour, security forced the protesters off mall property. Church representatives thanked security, stating they "understood the rules needed to be enforced." (But the only "rules" enforced were the cops' racism.) They then addressed the protesters, saying not to lose faith -- the next fight will be the "right way," implying with the bosses' permission.

Communists know the workers will never win a fight by following the bosses' rules. A Party member quickly reminded the crowd that the bosses will never allow effective protest; we need to struggle by our own rules.

The young lady is awaiting trial and still looking for the people's support. The community has united to support her, but the Party's ideas are needed during this struggle. We must point out, as in every racist attack, that racial division is the bosses' favorite weapon. Racism is alive and well, despite what presidential politicians may say and will be here as long as its cause -- capitalism -- exists.

We must unite as a class. Together we are stronger than the bosses and TOGETHER WE WILL WIN.

Red Flags, PL Youth Draw Acclaim at LA Anti-War March

LOS ANGELES, March 15 -- "Elections will not end imperialist war. Fight for communism!" said the banner in English and Spanish that was carried by PLP students in the anti-war march to mark the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Many marchers took pictures of the banner. A multi-racial and loud PLP contingent of high school and college students and a few teachers marched down the streets of Hollywood. With the red flag raised high they chanted "Democrats, Republicans are one and the same, war and fascism is the name of their game"; "Oaxaca, Baghdad, New Orleans, smash the racist war machine." We distributed over 400 CHALLENGES and 1,500 PLP leaflets.

Before starting the march we made speeches that not only denounced U.S. imperialism but also attacked Democratic candidates, Clinton and Obama and the Republican McCain, showing that none of them would end the war in Iraq. The world powers are in a new "Cold War" where the battle is over the control of oil. The Chinese, Russian, and European imperialists are not only fighting for this control in Iraq but in Africa and South America. All of this in preparation to sustain bigger and wider wars that will ultimately reach world scale. The only solution to end these imperialist wars is to organize a movement of workers, students and soldiers united in revolution against capitalism and fighting for a communist world.

At this time, L.A. is planning to cut back on all the city departments except one: the LAPD. Mayor Villaraigosa has announced that he will add 3,500 cops by 2009. The addition of cops, while cutting jobs, wages, healthcare and education, shows that capitalism has nothing for us except racist attacks, fascism and war.

Many of those that were listening nodded approval. During the day there seemed to be a lot more youth than previous marches. There was a different atmosphere and many eagerly took our leaflets and CHALLENGE. When approaching a group of youth and telling them "this is about revolution," over and over they would answer "thank you very much. Can we ALL get it." We were surprised that even some people carrying Obama signs wanted CHALLENGE with its front page attacking him. Three different groups of high school students gave their names and contact information to the PLP youth, interested in talking to them about starting clubs at their schools to fight racism and imperialism. One of these groups told us, "I like communism."

The youth in our contingent were very excited and committed themselves to organizing for May Day.

We are building for a May Day Dinner, which will not only commemorate the historic day with speeches, poetry, and good food, but also to prepare ideologically and logistically our contingent that will bring PLP's communist politics to the big May Day March sponsored by the immigration rights groups. A PLP May Day presence will help build for a strong summer project to reach out to workers students and soldiers with communist politics in the lead.

Unionists Defy Funeral Mood at NYC Anti-War `Protest'

The March 22 anti-war "River-to-River" protest organized by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) across New York City's14th Street was rather disappointing, reflecting the weaknesses of the anti-war movement. Not only was it was mostly white, but there was no major participation by college youth.

Spanning the distance between avenues requires about 500 people. So for the demonstration to have stretched from river to river would have required at least 6,000 demonstrators. I thought there were maybe half that, obviously much less than 6,000. Many blocks had big gaps with no protestors.

The demonstration was a new low for UFPJ. Besides the poor turnout the entire event was thoroughly depoliticized -- a weak call for "peace," no emphasis on demanding immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. troops (and therefore no criticism of the Democrats who don't support a complete withdrawal), no speakers (just singing, five minutes of silence and taps). The whole thing had -- and was intended to have -- the somber feeling of a funeral.

The best part was the rally at one corner by a union in which PLP members and friends are active. Over 200 people listened to speakers describe the war and occupation in class terms. They called for defeating imperialism, not just "war," and for organizing solidarity events uniting with West Coast longshoremen who are set to strike against the war on May 1. Ten members of one Party-led readers group participated and led militant left-wing chants in our section of the march, in contrast to liberal "give-peace-a-chance" chants of the UFPJ leadership.

NYC Red Anti-War Marcher

Tibet's CIA-Backed Feudal Monks Fight China's Bosses

Recent events in Tibet are more related to geopolitics than religion. With the Olympics looming, protests in Lhasa and elsewhere were organized to embarrass the Beijing rulers. Tsewang Rigzin, head of the major Tibetan group the Tibetan Youth Congress, told the Chicago Tribune (3/15): "With the spotlight on [the Chinese government] with the Olympics, we want to test them....to show their true colors. That's why we're pushing this."

It was an organized violent protest targeting ethnic Chinese Hans and Muslims in Tibet. "Tourists arriving in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, from the closed city of Lhasa...told how they saw angry mobs of Tibetans attacking ethnic Chinese." (London Telegraph, 3/20)

Tibet's economy has actually "grown at more than 12% for seven years and hit 14% last year -- higher even than the national rate." (London Times, 3/23). But this growth is based on capitalism, creating inequalities, favoring a small group of merchants and entrepreneurs, similar to the rest of capitalist China.

Tibet's anti-Chinese forces want more inequality, resurrecting the rule of the Lamas, led by the CIA-financed Dalai Lama (See "The CIA's Secret War in Tibet," 2002, Kansas University Press; by Kenneth Conboy of the Heritage Foundation and James Morrison, Army veteran trainer for the CIA), now exiled in India, and darling of the mysticism-loving Richard Gere and Hollywood crowd. It's a myth that Buddhism, contrary to other religions, is less about theology and more a path towards "inner harmony," ignoring one's egotistical pursuits "for connections with all things and people." The Dalai Lama claims to be non-violent. Not quite.

Tibet under the Lamas was no Shangri-La. It was a violent feudal society where the Lamas ruled and 95% of the population served them as serfs or even slaves. Most worked 16-18 hours a day, forced to give 70% of their crops to their feudal lords (who did not work). Serfs who dared touch anything belonging to their masters suffered lashings.

Women were considered "talking animals." The term kimen (woman) means born inferior. They had to pray to leave this "woman body" and be reborn male. A woman bearing twins was considered evil and generally killed, as were their twins. In Lhasa, children could be bought and sold. In 1950, the infant mortality rate was 43%, life expectancy only 35 years.

Diseases were rampant. The only "cure" was to pray and pay money to the monks. In 1951, 95% of the population was illiterate. Reading and writing were only useful for religious purpose.

For over 200 years, Tibet was considered part of China or a Chinese vassal state. The ruling Lamas always had good relations with Chinese rulers. But when the communist-led revolution liberated China in 1949, conditions changed. The communist movement being very weak in Tibet, there was no major peasant uprising against the Lamas and feudal lords. But Red China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) acted to prevent Tibet from becoming a base for imperialism against liberated China.

In October 1950, the PLA reached the Tibetan plains and easily defeated the feudal Tibetan rulers' army. However, the PLA didn't completely free Tibet, allowing Tibet's rulers to maintain power, but overseen by the new people's central government in Beijing. On October 26, 1951, the PLA marched into Lhasa.

Historically, the PLA mistakingly permitted the feudal lords to remain partially in power, not immediately smashing them completely. Then, when the communists began giving rights to serfs and to liberate women from the extreme oppression of religion and feudalism, the Lamas started organizing a counter-revolution, with CIA assistance. The "non-violent" Dalai Lama allowed the CIA to train anti-Chinese guerrillas to wage war against Beijing.

Today, as the contradictions between rising imperialist China and the U.S. sharpen, the Dalai Lama and his feudal mysticism again become useful to U.S. bosses. Congressional leader Nancy Pelosi visits the Dalai Lama at his Indian headquarters, and many U.S. liberals and conservatives advocate boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

Workers and youth should not back the feudal Tibetan movement, nor should we support China's new imperialist rulers, whose system has brought a different kind of hell to all of China's working class: capitalism.

Angry Workers' Mass Strikes Pose Problem for Greek Rulers

ATHENS, GREECE, March 20 -- Millions participated in a massive general strike on March 19 which shut down this country, protesting Prime Minister Karamanlis' right-wing government's new social security plan, which would eliminate early retirements, merge pension funds and cap auxiliary pensions.

Despite this action, today Parliament passed the pension reform bill, but tens of thousands of workers continued striking, shutting down the Athens subway, the suburban railway and the tram system. TV and radio journalists, engineers, teachers and lawyers, as well as workers at the main power company, and municipal refuse cleaners struck.

It was the third mass strike in three months, called by the Greek Confederation of Workers and the main union of the Public Sector Workers. Huge rallies spread across the country, including two in Athens with over 100,000 participating. The BBC reported that most people in Greece supported the strikers.

Even given the passage of this "reform," the working class' militancy and anger will continue and may very well intensify. This might impel the Greek bosses to try "plan B," bringing the social-democratic PASOK party into a coalition government with Karamanlis' New Democracy party, to try to pacify the workers. And the union leaders actually gave the government breathing room with over a month's "period of peace" between the Feb. 13 strike and this one. Workers must break with all these reformist schemers.

Worldwide capitalism is in a period of profound economic crisis and sharpening imperialist rivalry leading to more and more wars. Greece is not exempt from this. Eventually, the bosses here must try to force workers to pay for the crisis.

The workers must break with all the reformists trying to use their anger and militancy to get elected. The key lesson to be drawn from this struggle is to develop a revolutionary communist leadership to fight all the bosses.

`Socialist' Chavez's Cops Assault Steel Strikers

CARACAS, VENEZUELA, March 19 -- While Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez was making peace and shaking hands with Uribe, Colombia's death-squad President, Chavez's government and cops were making war on 12,000 steel workers in the United Steel Workers Union (SUTISS), on strike against the Ternium Sidor plant in Ciudad Cuayana, in southwest Venezuela. On March 14, 200 National Guard and police agents viciously attacked protesting workers with tear gas and rubber bullets, wounding two and hospitalizing three others. The attackers also smashed 50 strikers' vehicles blocking the road. Fifty strikers were arrested, handcuffed like criminals, while demonstrators chanted "Where is the government's socialism?" Workers have stopped production five times this year.

Sidor is one of Latin America's largest steel-makers, producing 4.8 million tons of liquid steel annually. The Italian-Argentine Techint group owns a 60% controlling share of Sidor; 20% belongs to the Venezuelan state-owned CVG and 20% belongs to the workers. The company claims the strike action has cost more than $50 million.

The strikers not only blame the Sidor bosses and Rangel Gómez, governor of the state of Bolívar (where the plant is located), for ordering the attack, but also the Ministry of Labor in Caracas. The latter has been trying to force the workers to end their year-long struggle for a new contract by accepting a deal favorable to the company. Sidor's final offer is a $20-a-day hike; the workers are demanding $24. Sidor workers are the country's lowest-paid steelworkers.

A March 16 mass mobilization of Sidor workers, relatives of the arrested and workers from other plants freed the 50 arrested strikers. The workers then held a general assembly at the plant's main gate and decided to end their 3-day walkout, but to continue to fight for their demand, using future work stoppages and other actions.

The National Guard attacks, under national government orders, and the pro-company attitude of the Minister of Labor, again exposes the Chávez government's "Bolivarian socialism" -- defending capitalist exploitation of workers. Last year, the government also repressed workers who had seized the Maracay bathroom-parts plant abandoned by its bosses. Potentially all these workers want to end all forms of capitalism.

Chávez talks a lot about "fighting imperialism" (only the U.S. type, while making deals with Chinese, Russian and India's bosses). Meanwhile, his government shakes hands with the U.S.'s main lackey in the region, war-maker Uribe; lets the right-wing CIA-financed "opposition" do whatever it wants; and then attacks class-conscious militant workers to make sure they don't think "Bolivarian socialism" means revolutionary workers' power.

We in PLP support the Sidor workers and all others fighting back. We demand punishment for the Commander of the National Guard and the governor who ordered the attacks, and also of the Ministry of Labor. But we have no illusions this will happen under "Chávez socialism." Workers need to turn their struggles into a school for communism and build the kind of leadership that will unite them with their working-class brothers and sisters in Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and throughout the continent. That's the only road for real working-class liberation, for communism.

LETTERS LETTER LETTERS

Bosses' Media Covers Up
Colombia's Death Squads

As CHALLENGE (3/26) reported, although an oil war was averted between Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador -- after Colombia's army, with U.S. aid, massacred a FARC guerrilla leader and others in a camp inside Ecuador -- the contradictions behind this crisis remain. Reading the Colombian bosses' media (and lots of U.S media), one would conclude the real culprits are the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador for protecting the FARC group, labeling them narco-guerrillas, kidnappers, common criminals, etc. But all this propaganda is a smokescreen to cover the mass crimes committed by Colombia's rulers, their army and paramilitary death squads. Colombia's President Uribe, lapdog of the U.S. bosses in the region, has increased armed attacks against workers and peasants throughout Colombia. Even the AFL-CIO, which usually supports U.S. foreign policy, declared that just this March death squads have murdered four trade unionists. Forty leaders of mass organizations who led the March 6 mass marches here against the death-squad murders have had their lives threatened, The Uribe government's policies are based on mass terror, rapes of peasant women, turning hundreds of indigenous people into refugees from their lands and giving million-dollar bribes to those perpetrating these murders.

These bosses' media now labeling the FARC terrorists haven't said much about the 30,000 workers and youth killed and the four million displaced from their homes in recent years here. The media has also wondered what four Mexican students and an Ecuadorian worker were doing in the FARC. They just can't understand how many young people and workers worldwide are looking for ways to fight capitalism.

The big criminals are the rulers and their politicians. Some 40 Senators linked to Uribe are under investigation about connections to paramilitary groups, drug gangs and illicit wealth. And of course, Uribe is very good friend with today's number one terrorist, President Bush, as well as with Sarkozy and Zapatero (rulers of France and Spain), whose governments super-exploit and terrorize immigrant workers.

We must fight all the bosses. We in PLP here are uniting workers and youth using DESAFIO, struggling to win them to our communist politics as the only real way to fight capitalism. We aim to destroy the bosses' nationalism and wage slavery, to create a new world without bosses: communism.

A Comrade in Colombia

Students See Through
Sugar-coated History

How should a teacher expose capitalism when openly distributing CHALLENGE in the classroom is not possible? I'm a high school teacher at a large urban school. This year I'm teaching American History, although I am actually a science and math teacher. I decided that one good way to help my students understand what really happened in U.S. history from colonial times to the present would be to: (1) present a class analysis of each aspect of this history, and (2) ask my students to compare my presentation with what they read in their textbook.

Virtually all my students have said many times that the textbook sugar-coats events and that my analyses are much more meaningful than what's in their textbook. This is certainly good, but there are still many contradictions in my students' minds. Their biggest illusion is the incorrect conclusion that voting for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton can lead to meaningful change. To counter this, I asked each student to choose a presidential hopeful and present a summary of that candidate's program to the class. I hoped that after examining what the candidates actually say in print, my students would realize that all of them are making the same empty promises or actually have different programs from what the students thought they had.

It didn't take long for most students to see that both Obama and Clinton are saying/promising the same things with absolutely no specific plan to accomplish their so-called "goals." In one class, a student reporting on Obama said just that: "Gee, that's the same thing Hillary says." This led to a good discussion but it also showed that illusions die hard. A sizeable majority still feel Obama is better than Clinton (and MOST DEFINITELY both better than McCain). Fortunately, most of my students will still be here next year. I'm hopeful they will re-think things as the ruling class prepares for more and larger oil wars.

Pennsylvania Teacher

What's Deadlier in Paraguay?
Yellow Fever or Election Fever?

A yellow fever epidemic has erupted in Paraguay, just before national elections. Both disease and election illusions are deadly products of capitalism. The mosquito may bite workers in Paraguay, but capitalism kills them. It will take a PLP-led workers' revolution to stop the carnage of both!

The government has belatedly declared a "national emergency," but its mass vaccination effort has become chaotic. Hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses have been flown in from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Peru to forestall an epidemic but they're barely reaching the people. Paraguayan capitalists have worried only about their profits, not about people's health. None of the revenue from Yacyreta and Itaipu, two of the region's largest hydroelectric plants, has been allocated for public health and disease prevention. The bosses here are turning this epidemic into an excuse for mobilizing the police and army to do a house-to-house "elimination of mosquito breeding grounds."

Amid this health crisis, Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos reported a supposed assassination attempt on his life, while saying he was "immortal." The opposition parties are trying to oust Nicanor's Colorado Party which has ruled for over 60 years. But the "opposition" Liberal Party and Fatherland Party put workers' needs last as well. The "Rosca Mafia" -- the corrupt capitalists exploiting the workers -- are not just Colorado party members. All these bosses' politicians and their parties are accomplices in the destruction and misery in Paraguay.

Some rank-and-file members of PMAS (followers of Chávez's "Bolivarian socialism" here in Paraguay) say they're for the workers. But the solution to health problems, poverty, high bus fares and oppression of indigenous communities won't come from supporting ex-bishop Fernando Lugo and his Liberal Party vice-presidential candidate. Instead, we must organize workers to attack the entire capitalist political apparatus, and point the way for violent revolution against the bosses and towards the building of communism. Workers from Paraguay, whether in that country, in the U.S. or in Spain, should join this fight for a society that eliminates profits, putting workers first.

Red Guaraní

The Real Prostitutes

Reporters asked Lt. Governor David Paterson, who replaced Eliot Spitzer as NY Governor, if he ever had relations with a prostitute. Paterson quipped, "Only with lobbyists," and got a big laugh from the audience. But it is lobbyists representing big business and the war industries who are paying billions to politicians for their "services." So who are the prostitutes? Like Karl Marx said, capitalism stands reality on its head.

Diogenes

Rulers `Turn Around' Schools
by Closing Them

In January, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Arne Duncan announced that 11 schools would be closed and 8 would be classified as "turnaround schools." The eight schools are all in black neighborhoods with average incomes below $23,000 a year. The 11 are schools with low enrollment and closing them will slash $100 million from the school system next year.

Duncan piously talks about the "moral obligation to do something for these children" but if the children were the system's main concern CPS would lower class sizes in the primary grades instead of closing and reorganizing schools. The truth is working-class black and Latino communities have never been served by the school system, nor can they be. We live under capitalism, inseparable from racism, where the wealthy few feed off the low-paid many. The system cannot allow everyone to become college-educated because who would work in the factories, collect the trash, or deliver the mail?

Capitalism must educate the majority to learn just enough to work the machines or read manuals but not enough to qualify them for higher paid jobs. The bosses purposely miseducate the majority and then blame students, parents, and teachers for the system's failures.

The eight "turnaround" schools will fire all their 200 teachers and all but one principal. Although there is absolutely no evidence that such a drastic measure will make the schools better (one study of such "turnaround" couldn't find any successful examples), CPS insists on carrying out the current "flavor of the month." Just five years ago, one of the turnaround schools, Orr, was divided into three small schools as part of that year's reformation plan. Now they will be recombined back into one school. The eight turnaround schools will be run by the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), founded by venture capitalist Martin J. Koldyke. Bill and Melinda Gates have given AUSL an additional $10.3 million to help with the turnarounds.

Most CPS schools have at least the contractual limit of 29 students per classroom in grades K-3 and many classes are way over even this large number. The Tennessee class size study, which is well known by educators, proved conclusively that class sizes of 13 to 17 students in the lower grades led to increased academic performance, which continued through high school, particularly for black children. CPS is only interested in providing black children with a good education to the extent that doing so coincides with preparing them for the military, industry, or prison.

The Teacher's Union is doing virtually nothing to stop the firing of teachers, the direct takeover of schools by venture capitalists, or the overcrowded classrooms and school closings. As long as the union is led by pro-capitalist ideology, this will be the case. The Progressive Labor Party is taking the fight against the racist closing into the union and schools. Our goal now is to raise class consciousness and build a multi-racial communist movement that unites students, parents, and teachers to fight against the racist bosses and their system. When communist revolution destroys the profit system once and for all, then poverty and racism will be eliminated and education will maximize all children's potential, allowing them to contribute fully to the making of a better world.

Chicago Comrades

REDEYE

Obama rejects anti-imperialism

On Friday, Mr. Obama called a grab bag of statements by his longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., "inflammatory and appalling."

"I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue," he wrote...

One of the statements that have been most replayed this week comes from the sermon Mr. Wright delivered following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards," he said. "America's chickens are coming home to roost."

...Before it got "holier than thou," he said, the nation should have considered how its own policies had led to the events of that day." (NYT, 3/15)

Better life, if market didn't rule

...These days, even Bill Gates says capitalism's work is "unsatisfactory" for one-third of humanity. [This book,] Predictably Irrational...tells us than "life with fewer market norms and more social norms would be more satisfying, creative, fulfilling and fun."

"Predictably Irrational" is a far more revolutionary book than its unthreatening manner lets on. It's a concise summary of why today's social science increasingly treats the markets-know-best model as a fairy tale. (NYT, 3/16)

Army sees more, longer Iraqs

This week, the Army released a new version of FM 3-0, the Army Field Manual on Operations. It offers what the Army...calls "a revolutionary departure from past doctrine." For more than 200 years, the Army has had two "core missions": offense and defense. FM 3-0 adds a third: "stability operations," better (if more controversially), known to the public as nation building.

But here's the rub. Successful stability operations take a lot of time.

Maybe not McCain's 100 years, but if the United States is serious about seeing stability operations as part of the Army's core mission, we'll need a larger Army, and we'll be looking at extended deployments in trouble spots around the globe. You can defeat an enemy army in a month, but truly "stabilizing" a society is something that will happen -- if it happens -- over 10 or 20 years, not 10 or 20 weeks. (LAT, 3/1)

Law leads schools to dump kids

Most troublesome to some experts was the way the No Child law's mandate to bring students to proficiency on tests, coupled with its lack of a requirement that they graduate, created a perverse incentive to push students to drop out. If low-achieving students leave school early, a school's performance can rise.

...Experts say they believe many low-scoring students are prodded to leave school, often by school officials urging them to seek an equivalency certificate known as a General Educational Development diploma.

"They get them out so they don't have them taking those tests..."( NYT, 3/20)

Prison profiteers love long
lock-ups

To the editor: ... Tough sentences but 1% of U.S. adults in jail... [T]he prison population works, for minimum wage or way less, without benefits or capacity to strike, for many prominent corporations. Even maquiladora operations have transferred their operations in order to use prison labour, and we read of state officials lobbying corporations to repatriate manufacturing from third-world nations so as to benefit from the local "competitive labour scene".

The inherent logic of this situation provides for a major profit incentive to lock people up for long periods for trivial offences: they provide a major source of private profit..." (GW)

The Battle That Helped Crush South Africa's Apartheid

Part VII of Africa Series

On March 25, the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, was celebrated in Cuba by Raúl Castro and government representatives from Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Although the battle is mired in propaganda over whether the South African apartheid army really lost or the Cuban Army-led forces won, it marked the beginning of the end of the hated South African apartheid regime and the myth of its army's invincibility in Southern Africa.

It has been called "Africa's largest land battle since World War II," occurring amid the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. A brutal, bloody civil war gripped oil-rich Angola after it won independence from Portugal in 1975. Angola's MPLA government was pro-Soviet. So the CIA, the apartheid South African regime, Congo's corrupt dictator Mobutu and Israel armed, financed and trained UNITA, a guerrilla movement that had also fought Portugal's colonial army. UNITA and its backers outgunned the MPLA, so the latter sought aid from Cuba, which sent thousands of soldiers to fight alongside the MPLA. The South African army also wanted UNITA to control Angola's southern border to stop the liberation movement (SWAPO) fighting for Namibian independence from South African control.

The border war's final battle occurred in the city of Cuito Cuanavale, in early 1988. It involved hundreds of tanks, artillery, planes and 50,000 Cuban-army-led soldiers against the UNITA-South African army attempt to capture the city. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. The apartheid regime claimed it wasn't defeated.

But as von Clausewitz said, "war is the continuation of politics by other means." That battle crushed the myth of invincibility of the racist apartheid regime and its army. Several years later, apartheid was dismantled in South Africa.

Unfortunately, this defeat of the hated apartheid regime didn't include a revolutionary struggle against the root of racism: capitalism. Today, the rulers of South Africa, Angola and Namibia (all former leaders of those liberation movements) are in bed with capitalism and imperialism. Cuba looks to be turning towards the "China" road of free-market capitalism. And a new imperialist battle for Africa's oil and other vital resources is developing, now between the U.S. and Chinese imperialists. A luta continua (the struggle continues).

Russian Rulers' Rebound Rivals U.S. Imperialist Supremacy

After the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the U.S. bosses were euphoric believing their hegemony would last well into the 21st century. But this was wishful thinking. As an article published in The New York Times Magazine (Waving Goodbye to Hegemony, 1/26/08) points out, "At best, America's unipolar moment lasted through the 1990s.... So now, rather than bestriding the globe, we are competing -- and losing -- in a geopolitical marketplace alongside the world's other superpowers: the European Union and China."

U.S. imperialists face three strategic challenges: 1) The rise of China as the factory of the world and the eventual shifting of the world's financial center to the East; (2) the rise of Russia as the world's main energy distributor; and (3) the emergence of the euro as a credible challenger to the dollar's economic dominance. Each of these by itself has the potential to fatally wound the U.S. bosses' dream of projecting their world domination well into this century.

But, the article accepts that, "Despite the `mirage of immortality' that afflicts global empires, the only reliable rule of history is its cycles of imperial rise and decline, and as [British historian] Arnold Toynbee also pithily noted, the only direction to go from the apogee of power is down."

Nevertheless, the article pushes the idea that the fall of U.S. imperialism can be peaceful, stating that the high cost of maintaining U. S. hegemony "...isn't worth it, and history promises the effort will fail. It already has." Furthermore, it and another article by John Ikenberry's in the current Foreign Affairs Magazine adds that 21st century's geopolitics will be mainly defined by the U.S,, China and the European Union working together.

This picture is reinforced by omitting Russia's rise as a major owner-distributor of energy worldwide, playing a pivotal role in Central Asia, the Caucuses and the EU, as well as forging a growing energy and military alliance with China, Iran and Venezuela and extending its influence to Japan, South Korea, the Middle East and Africa.

Although, the Times article claims that Russia is "nothing but Gazprom INC," a nuclear-armed Russia controlling vast energy resources is nothing to sneer at. In fact, it pits Russia against the U.S. bosses' efforts to prolong their world hegemony by perpetuating their control of the oil-rich Middle East.

This collision will eventually explode in global war, which is rapidly unfolding with the intensification of the U.S.-Russian battle over control of energy resources and pipelines in Central Asia, the Caucuses and Eastern Europe. A battle with many ups and downs, but one that Russia has been wining.

Make no mistake; the peace of capitalism is that of the cemetery. Since World War 2, tens of millions have been butchered in imperialist-caused wars (Korea, Vietnam, Central America, the Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, etc.) Our duty and our strength is to win the working class to understand the criminal nature of capitalism's competition for maximum profits that makes imperialist wars inevitable and to prepare it for the long-range struggle to smash the bosses' dictatorship with communist revolution. For this our Party must be steeled to work under any and all conditions, build a mass base for our line and recruit massively among all sectors of the working class -- especially among industrial workers and soldiers. We face this task with revolutionary optimism based on historical facts: workers in Russia and China led by communists took power during the previous two World Wars.