a name="Government ‘Snow’ Job on the Deficit and Social Security"></">Go"ernment ‘Snow’ Job on the Deficit and Social Security

(This is a three-week issue of CHALLENGE. We wish our readers a 2005 full of struggles against capitalism)

1. FIGHT OVER OIL CONTROL: PUTS U.S. AND RUSSIAN BOSSES ON COLLISION COURSE
2. Ukraine: Oil Routes Pit Russia's Rulers vs. U.S. Pro-Nazi `Democrats'
3. One Child Dies Every 3 Seconds: A Capitalist Holocaust: One Billion Children in Extreme Misery
4. Changes in Bush's Cabinet Reveal Tightening Vise in Ruler's Police State
5. HOSPITAL WORKERS MUST MUTINY AGAINST WAR CONTRACT!
6. GI's Stand Up for Each Other Against Brass
   1. Three Years After Mass Rebellion, Strike Wave Spreads; Red Leadership Needed
7. Fight Over Social Affair Produces Political Payoff
8. NJ Events Show Workers Seeking Alternative to Capitalism
9. Action Protesting Falluja Massacre Spreads Anti-War Organizing
10. It's Not Just Iraq Oil: U.S. Agri-Bosses Get Seed Control
11. CIA-Trained Salvadoran Mercenaries `Graduate' to Iraq
12. Militant Campus Anti-war Action Sparking Growing Struggle
13. LETTERS
    1. Force Needed To Oust Bosses
    2. PLP's Ideas Guiding Airport Struggles
    3. Hunters and Racism
    4. More Than Higher Minimum Wage Needed
    5. Union Silence on War Hurts Workers
    6. APHA'ers Reject Pfizer's Plug
    7. Oppose Racist-Nazi Culture
14. Workers Have No Stake In FMLN Election Race
15. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. US trade makes big hit
    2. Ukraine: new-style US coup
    3. Hush up Iraq prison abuse
    4. Sexism = AIDS for women
    5. Liberty and justice for all
    6. Society Causes Student Suicide
    7. Judge OKs apartheid $$
16. RACISM as `American' as NFL
17. Teaching U.S. Racist History Leads Youths On Road to Rebellion
18. Students Support Soldiers Who Refused Suicidal Order

FIGHT OVER OIL CONTROL: PUTS U.S. AND RUSSIAN BOSSES ON COLLISION COURSE

Competition between Russian and U.S. rulers is intensifying in the all-important energy sector. The two sides' meddling in Ukraine's current electoral circus reflects one aspect of a much larger conflict. (See box page 2)

The world's biggest bosses' quest for oil has killed millions of workers. It will continue to do so until the working class, united in a communist party, puts a violent end to the profit system.

The Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom's impending purchase of the Yukos oil company significantly advances Russian president Vladimir Putin's plans to dominate wide swaths of Europe and Asia by wielding the oil and gas weapon. State ownership is crucial. Valery Draganov, a Putin-backer in Russia's parliament said, "There is...agreement in the society about increasing the role of the state in the economy. The state protectionism will increase our effectiveness and competitiveness." (London Financial Times, 11/30/04) Former Soviet-bloc countries like Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary already depend on Russia for every drop of crude they use. Putin is trying to boost Russia's market share in the 15 nations of the "old" European Union, now standing at 15% for oil and 20% for gas.

Putin's energy schemes directly challenge Exxon Mobil and the other U.S. oil giants, who back Bush's genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, the Kremlin's seizure of Yukos began last year, when Putin jailed its CEO Mikhail Khordokovsky just as he was about to sell Exxon Mobil a 50% share in his firm. In 2003, Exxon chief Lee Raymond said he considered Russia a safe place to invest. But the Gazprom deal has him singing a different tune: "The latest data may say my judgment was premature." (Bloomberg, 12/8/04)

The price Putin & Co. paid for the Yukos grab contrasts sharply with the cost of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The prize in each case amounts to 1.7 million barrels a day (Iraq's current flow and Yukos's usual production). To secure Iraq's reserves, U.S. rulers had to spend hundreds of billions of dollars and waste the lives of more than 100,000 Iraqis and over 1,200 GI's -- and counting. Yet they still haven't finished the job. Putin only had to send out a handful of cops and stage some phony court proceedings.

While Russia's military currently lags far behind the U.S war machine, the Kremlin's fascistic economic control goes way beyond what U.S. rulers have managed to pull off. Bush's emerging second-term cabinet, however, is set to tighten the screws. (See article, page 2.)

Like all capitalist rivalries, Putin's energy ambitions have a deadly, military side. Russia has been at war for ten years in Chechnya, the site of a major export pipeline. In June 2004, Russia bought the right to station thousands of troops in Tajikistan by investing in energy projects there. After Lukoil began a $1-billion gas project in Uzbekistan in 2004, Moscow began arming and training its army, to Washington's dismay. (Energy Empire: Oil, Gas and Russia's Revival," Brookings Institution, 2004)

Ultimately, Russian and U.S. imperialism are on a collision course over energy. Any capitalist bent on being the world's dominant oil broker must control the unmatched reserves of the Persian Gulf by armed force. "Right now U.S. rulers have the upper hand there, however precariously. But Russia has been active in the region lately, waving both the carrot and the stick. On December 7, Putin met with Iraqi "President" Allawi and agreed to forgive 90% of Iraq's $10.5 billion debt to Russia so that "the Iraqi government will reconsider agreements reached between Russian oil companies and the Hussein government on development of Iraq's vast oil reserves." (Radio Free Europe, 12/10/04) Meanwhile, Russia is furnishing most of the technical support for Iran's fledgling nuclear arms program. An Iran with nukes would open many more battlefronts in an already war-torn Middle East.

Ukraine: Oil Routes Pit Russia's Rulers vs. U.S. Pro-Nazi `Democrats'

Ukraine's election scandal goes deeper than the poisoning and election fraud perpetrated by the pro-Russia camp. U.S. forces stand just as guilty of interference. Billionaire George Soros, the Democratic National Commitee (DNC) and the White House have given over $65 million in aid to the "opposition." This "pro-democracy" movement includes anti-Semitic pro-Nazi forces like the Bandera group. (They fought alongside the Nazis when the latter invaded the Ukraine, but later the Nazis turned against them). For the imperialists, Ukraine is a strategic energy transport corridor at the crossroads of Russia, Europe and the Caspian region. Nearly 90% of Russia's natural gas exports to Europe are routed through Ukraine.

To break Russia's stranglehold, Chevron Texaco and Dick Cheney held talks in late 2003 with Ukraine's president Kuchma and Prime Minister Yanukovich on pumping Chevron's Caspian crude through the Ukraine to Western Europe. When the Ukrainian leaders showed reluctance, U.S. financier George Soros began donating heavily to the opposition Yushchenko party, particularly to its student wing, Pora. Zbigniew Brzezinski (National Security consultant to four U.S. presidents) flew to Kiev in May 2004, met with Kuchma, and made speeches about NATO support for an "independent" (read "pro-U.S.") Ukraine. The threat was clear: Play ball with the U.S. on the oil route or you'll get the NATO bombing treatment rained on Serbia 1999-2000, when it tried to counter U.S. pipeline schemes. Brzezinski had written in his 1997 book, "The Grand Chessboard," that the Ukraine was one of five crucial "pivots" in the Eurasian region, control of which he considered critical to control of the world. A pro-western Ukraine could undermine the power of Russia: "Without Ukraine," he wrote, "Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire."

But the deadly U.S. war machine is stretched thin, and Russia is feeling its oats. Ukraine's rulers sided squarely with the Russians. "This year, under pressure from Russia, Ukraine has reversed the flow of a new pipeline that was built to carry Caspian oil...up towards Poland. Instead it will now carry Russian exports...to Western Europe." (Economist, 12/11/04)

One Child Dies Every 3 Seconds: A Capitalist Holocaust: One Billion Children in Extreme Misery

Fighting racism, exploitation and imperialist war is fighting for life for billions of workers the world over. That's why Progressive Labor Party is striving to build a new international communist movement, to destroy capitalism which has become the greatest serial killer in world history.

Yes, CHALLENGE has been documenting this repeatedly, but anyone needing further confirmation need only read a UNICEF report released on Dec. 9. It states that among the one billion children suffering extreme deprivation because of poverty, AIDS and wars, one child dies every three seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If a nuclear war killed 100 million people, it would only equal the number of children dying from this extreme deprivation every ten years. This poverty, lack of health care and war-caused death are created by a system whose foundation stone is the drive for maximum profits. Truly, capitalism's attack on the working class, and especially its children, is the most horrendous holocaust the world has ever seen.

The UNICEF statistics are numbing:
* "More than 29,000 children die every day of mostly preventable causes" (NY Times, 12/10/04) -- that's over 10 million per year;
* Nearly half of the 3.6 million people killed in wars since 1990 were children;
* Of the world's 2.2 billion children, 640 million live on dirt floors or in extremely overcrowded housing;
* Almost a half million children died of AIDS last year;
* Over two million children are "employed" in the sex "industry";
* "Global military spending was $956 billion, while the cost of effectively combating poverty would be $40 to $70 billion." (NYT)

But $70 billion might only lift the 1.4 billion workers up to what the International Labor Organization (ILO) defines as the "poverty line": $2 a day. Half of the world's 2.8 billion workers now earn below that figure. (550 million earn less than $1 a day!) And, of course, raising them to slightly above $2.00 a day (or $3 or $4) would hardly lift them out of poverty. Eliminating poverty cannot be accomplished under capitalism, a system that thrives on working-class poverty. As the ILO report states, the 186 million who were unemployed in 2003 "represent the tip of the iceberg...since more than seven times that number...are employed but still live in poverty."

UNICEF reports that child poverty is not restricted to "developing" or poor countries. "It has worsened in...Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Italy." And, surprise, surprise, "the United States sill had a child poverty rate substantially higher than any of those European countries -- at 21.9%." (NYT) Parenthetically it says child malnutrition has risen in Iraq, under the banner of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," no doubt.

The goal, is to reduce by half the 550 million workers below the $1-a-day figure by 2015! That's "achievement" under capitalism: "lifting" 275 million workers over the dollar-a-day line in the next 11 years! Meanwhile, according to previous UN reports, 50 million people die every year from preventable causes.

This holocaust is occurring in a world in which the working class is mounting very little fight-back. Because the international communist movement went under, the working class is left with too little leadership to point the way out of this massacre.

Anti-communists have always claimed that revolution causes widespread death. Yet it is capitalism that is murdering tens of millions. It is capitalism,especially U.S. imperialism, that launches war after war, to grab oil, markets and the "right" to exploit workers. It is capitalists who are privatizing even such a basic necessity of life as water.

Death during revolution would be infinitesimal compared to the profit system's wholesale murder. Communist revolution that would destroy capitalism, its bosses and profits and wage-slave system, would SAVE hundreds of millions of lives. That is the only way out of this dark age that the bosses' system has created.

Changes in Bush's Cabinet Reveal Tightening Vise in Ruler's Police State

Although the major liberal bosses would have preferred Kerry in the White House, they have a plan B. They will now concentrate on forcing Bush's second administration to carry out its tactical agenda for oil war and a police state.

The White House cabinet represents a key component of their scheme. The situation remains in flux. Nonetheless, a trend has emerged:

* It's no secret that as Secretary of State, Colin Powell openly pushed the liberal agenda against some of Bush's more narrowly-focused pals among the bosses. But the new nominee for the position, National Security Adviser Condeleeza Rice, is hardly an enemy of the warmakers. A protégé of imperialist guru Brzezinski, Rice sat on the board of Chevron Texaco, which now profits from the Pentagon's slaughters in Iraq and elsewhere. Count on her to push for a dramatic expansion of the infantry -- more boots on the ground -- to secure Persian Gulf oil for Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, et al.

* Bernard Kerik, Bush's original choice for Homeland Security, is out in quick disgrace. First using racism, blaming a nanny for being an undocumented immigrant; then his extramarital affairs with two women, along with his ill-gotten sudden multi-million dollar fortune and his mob connections, hid the real reason for his demise: the need for someone who's more in tune with the liberal agenda for fascism.

At his 2001 swearing-in as New York City police czar under Giuliani, Kerik had explicitly cited his disagreement with the "community policing" strategy of Giuliani's first top cop and now LAPD chief, Bill Bratton. Community policing turns schools, churches and neighborhood organizations into a network of stoolpigeons for the cops and, therefore, for the big bosses. This program represents a cornerstone of the Hart-Rudman plan to mobilize U.S. society for war. The liberals want to build a mass base for fascism by getting the working class to participate actively in its own repression. The openly racist Kerik-Giuliani style of policing assumes the job can be done simply by giving a small minority of uniformed cops a "shoot-to-kill" blank check. The liberals think a more subtle, devious approach is necessary. They understand that Hitler was on to something when he concocted the Judenrat ("Jewish Councils") to get a section of Jewish traitors to help carry out deportations to the concentration camps.

* To get more people to believe the lie that the bosses' government can represent workers' interest, Bush has nominated two Latino candidates to the cabinet: Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General and Gutiérrez for Commerce. As a member of the White House legal staff Gonzáles concocted the now notorious "torture memorandum," which sanctioned the brutal abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay and gave a legal green light to the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. As CEO of Kellogg, Gutiérrez closed the Battle Creek Corn Flake factory, laying off 500 workers, and then had the gall to tell workers that making the company "leaner and meaner" was in their interest.

The Bush cabinet is still in flux. However, none of it is good news for the working class. We must guard particularly against hoping that the appointment of liberals will improve the situation either in Iraq or on the home front. Our situation will improve only when we rely on our own class and build our own forces, particularly the PLP.

HOSPITAL WORKERS MUST MUTINY AGAINST WAR CONTRACT!

PHILADELHIA, PA., Dec. 1 -- Union Local 1199C contracts for thousands of hospital workers here expire in July 2005. Patient care continues to suffer as the hospitals cut staff and increase workload. For example, the Intensive Care Nursery at one major hospital no longer has a housekeeper for a full day. The attacks on 1199C members include layoffs, reduced work-hours, benefit cutbacks and the looming bankruptcy of the union Health Benefit Fund. The union's prized Pension Plan has seen cuts and will probably see more.

The U.S. bosses' war budget impels these attacks on the working class. These cuts help pay for the U.S. capitalists' war to control Middle East oil. As the rulers commit more troops and expand the war, there'll be further attacks on workers here. Every union contract becomes a war contract.

The soldiers in the Army's 343rd Quartermaster Company show how to really fight back. One whole platoon of 19 refused to obey orders to deliver contaminated fuel without adequate protective escort. The U.S. bosses fear such actions will grow to challenge the imperialists' reasons for the war. In World War I, communist organizers in Russia were able to transform soldier rebellions into a vital force for communist revolution.

Local 1199C members must mutiny against our war contract. The key demand must be to improve patient care with more full-time jobs. Make the bosses pay. We also must fight for better benefits.

At the November city-wide 1199C delegate meeting, a member cited direct action against the war shown by the 343rd Company. He called on the union to "bring the mutiny home" in our coming contract fight. In the past this delegate's comments usually brought silence from the floor and criticism from the union President. This time, however, the delegate received a good measure of applause.

But mutiny alone is not enough. Even more important is for more hospital workers to become communists and join PLP. Our enemy is not just the local hospital bosses or whoever wins the White House. Our enemy is a capitalist system in a period of war and fascism.

Only communists can analyze the whole world picture. Communists understand that even if we win some reforms, the bosses -- with their state power -- will always find ways to take them away. That's why PLP believes we must turn every struggle into one that advances the fight for communist revolution.

In past contract struggles a few more workers became CHALLENGE readers. Some joined PLP. Party members played important roles in these contract fights and had some success in bringing communist ideas into workers' debates about the contract. But that wasn't enough then and it's not enough now.

CHALLENGE readers in the hospitals must be won to join PLP now! There's no other choice. The union leaders preach negativity, telling us we have no alternative but to accept cutbacks. They keep us tied to capitalism. Communist revolution is the only way to break the cycles of capitalist war and suffering. From Iraq to Philadelphia, the workers' enemy is capitalism. Join PLP to abolish the wage system and live a in communist society, free of bosses and profits, and therefore free of racism, unemployment and war.

GI's Stand Up for Each Other Against Brass

There's nothing like going to sleep and waking up with the same people (still alive). That's how strong relationships are built. Now some of these relationships are turning very political. Everyone's becoming friends, except with the brass. Here in training, everyone's tired of being away from home. The tension is growing.

People are generally angry at how hard we have to work, from 4 AM to 6 PM. We must carry heavy equipment, loading it and unloading it constantly.

The day we arrived at a new training location, we were tired and just wanted to relax before going to bed. But when we moved into our tent, my group was given a small section to set up our cots. We were all mad. We'd been told we'd have MORE room, and here we were with our cots closer together than at our previous base.

One soldier who I identified as a "rebel" from the start (and with whom I'd quickly made friends) placed his cot in the "wrong" spot, but only one row away from where he was supposed to be. Nonetheless, the commander-in-charge moved him without letting him know.

The "rebel" was furious. He exclaimed, "F--k this....I'm sleeping outside!" Picking up his duffle bag and cot, he headed towards the exit. No one thought he was serious since it was drizzling outside, and recent rain showers had left mud everywhere, making living outside ridiculous. Well, there's something about a rebel to admire. When one makes up his or her mind to stand up and oppose the system, he/she will act on it.

This was a perfect opportunity for me to talk to him and show him support, so I followed him. After things calmed down, my relationship with him took a qualitative leap. We discussed the structure of the military, about its purpose: to defend the bosses' profits and how the brass are really out to screw us, endanger us and keep us in line. I told him I admired him for what he'd done. I also remarked that we'd find ourselves in worse situations once we were sent to the Middle East.

Without minimizing his bravery, I told him that acting together as a group can produce even better results, especially when facing more difficult conditions. After talking for about two hours, we made a pact to stand up for each other when things get rough. Later, another soldier told me he respected my stand, and told the "rebel," "never let them break your spirit!"

Another time, after watching the movie "Fahrenheit 9/11," we had a good talk about this being a war for oil profits, not for "democracy." Some people got pretty angry about that.

One day I heard three soldiers talking about communism. One had heard some positive but vague things about it from relatives and was explaining this. I joined the conversation, saying I'd heard that too. The others wanted us to define communism, which we did. The soldier who had some knowledge about it thanked me for my help. We agreed to talk more.

These are just a few examples of the opportunities here. I foresee a lot more.

A Red GI

Three Years After Mass Rebellion, Strike Wave Spreads; Red Leadership Needed

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 15 -- This month marks the third anniversary of the "Argentinazo," the mass rebellion by workers, youth and unemployed that forced President de la Rua to flee in a helicopter from the Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace), ending his government. A series of interim rulers followed until the current President Kichner won a new election. However, a combination of the rebellion lacking a mass revolutionary communist leadership and the Peronista union hacks aiding the bosses enabled the ruling class to ease the economic collapse, cutting wages and making the working class pay even more for the crisis.

But workers, employed and unemployed, continue to fight. "Union conflicts and strikes return with a vengeance" says Clarin (12/5), a leading daily here.

Recent strikes by railroad, telephone, subway and government workers, and teachers have expressed their class's anger. The bosses and their media tried mightily to turn the public against the strikers, but they failed.

Many strikes have overcome the sellouts, exceeding the limits set by these union hacks. Subway workers here struck for the second time this year demanding higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions. The House of Delegates who are shop stewards led the strikes and have become the subway workers' real leadership, after many years of organizing, breaking the control of the right-wing union leadership. The subway workers physically blocked the rails to ensure the trains didn't run. Though not winning all their demands, they've learned many new forms of struggle.

The telephone workers seized the main telephone building. The company's armed goons failed to kick them out. The public turned against the bosses so the government was forced to listen to the strikers, intervening without openly siding with the company.

Many workers are young, influenced by the 2001 rebellion. One 20-year-old phone worker told Pagina12 (Dec. 12): "What we did was [to] go back to the old sit-down strike, instead of just a `Sunday' strike...[nothing militant]. This is not new but it's being applied in a different political situation. You can do it if you have enough active workers to support it; otherwise the company can break you..."

For many of these young workers, these strikes are becoming "schools in warfare," as Lenin described them. But much more is needed. Otherwise the bosses -- with the union hacks' help --will eventually take away whatever they gained. They must turn these struggles into "schools for communism." The key missing element is revolutionary communist leadership. These young militants must be won to become fighters for communist revolution.

Fight Over Social Affair Produces Political Payoff

NEW YORK CITY, Dec. 13 -- Sometimes an apparently insignificant political conversation and action may seem to amount to nothing, but recently at Medgar Evers College here the work of a comrade paid off in a big way. A dispute over a social event led to some deeper political understanding.

Students pay an activities fee every semester. The Student Government Association (SGA) oversees the spending. For several years the fees have not been spent but the money is never returned to the activities fund. One reason the fees are unspent is because most SGA-planned activities are denied approval or are curtailed, with a litany of excuses -- no space, public safety, etc. Although students pay for activities semester after semester, they have no control over their money.

This term an end-of-semester party was planned. The day before the scheduled party, the Administration cancelled it. Why? "Not enough public safety officers" and the area was "unsafe" when the party was scheduled to end.

This was the last straw. Immediately ten students met and went to one Vice-President's office demanding to be heard. Rejecting his excuse and "compromise" offer, we sprang into action. After having a political discussion, the group decided to print a flyer. Some wanted to indict Public Safety as the guilty party. Others pushed to condemn the entire administration. They won.

Many flyers were posted throughout the school. A petition was circulated. Next a comprehensive leaflet was written denouncing the administration and calling for action from the student body, saying we would not allow cancellation of the party. The next morning students were greeted with flyers calling for a rally. Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 flyers were readied for distribution in the event our demands weren't met.

Later that day some student leaders met with the head of the security and two Vice-Presidents. Besides agreeing to scaling back the party's closing time from 3 AM to 2 AM, we had vowed beforehand: NO COMPROMISE. Every excuse for canceling the party melted away after students threatened to have the party regardless of what the administration said.

Although fighting for a party seems insignificant, the real struggle was over who controls the money from students' fees. Many good discussions arose about the use of the police force, who would be called if we refused to leave and had a party. Even further, we decided that even if we lost, we were determined to make a statement.

Instead of following a liberal line saying that we were right but should use the "proper channels," our most important lesson was that through collective struggle we can win.

Our biggest victory was that some students were drawn closer to the Party. Hopefully a formal study group will begin at the college, and students will fight together against a decrease in the quality of student life. The bosses and their college administrators believe that students, like those at this mostly black college, deserve only a life of war and fascism (90% of all NYS soldiers who have died in Iraq are non-white). As part of the war budget another tuition hike is planned, forcing many Medgar Evers students to drop out.. We can use the confidence gained in the struggle to mount a collective fightback against all these other attacks.

NJ Events Show Workers Seeking Alternative to Capitalism

NEWARK, NJ, Nov. 20 -- About 60 people, including many black and immigrant workers, attended two PLP-sponsored fund-raising dinners in New Jersey during November, following a militant Election Day demonstration at the military recruiting center here (see CHALLENGE, 12/1/04).

Three dozen friends attended the three events. Despite some of them being upset over the re-election of Bush, there's a small but growing thirst amongst our friends for a real alternative to capitalism. The pre-election debate amongst them was sharpened. CHALLENGE helped clarify various questions with these workers. All this expanded opportunities to raise communist ideas among people with whom we have long-term friendships.

For example, at one dinner, one speaker outlined the material basis for the post-election dismay felt by many honest people, including the low level of class struggle. Another speaker discussed how decisions would be made under communism. These two, and one other presentation, sparked a flurry of questions from workers, ranging from how we deal with the lack of a current model for a fully communist society, to how to deal with religion and "multi-ethnicity" after a communist revolution. Party members posed answers to all these questions. After dinner, discussions continued for another two hours in three smaller groups. Almost every PLP member brought at least one non-Party person to the event.

Several long-time friends said they were impressed with the high political level of this "standing-room only" event. Now we must make a concerted effort to win many of these workers to join PLP -- which we did not do at the event itself -- while trying to answer their questions in more detail. We must also sharpen the class struggle within the mass organizations in which we're active to help do this. We're planning social events and a PLP forum on a communist view of terrorism, and of the "war on terrorism."

Action Protesting Falluja Massacre Spreads Anti-War Organizing

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- Half a dozen students and several friends, angered by the U.S. assault on Falluja, gathered at a busy intersection near their college on Veteran's Day, waving signs reading, "Support the Troops -- Bring Them Home"; "No More Blood for Oil Profits"; and "Stop U.S. War Crimes." Lots of motorists honked horns in support. "We really made a difference today," said one student organizer. This action and subsequent events exposed the difference between "free speech" liberals and anti-fascist activists in fighting fascism.

Four police cars soon arrived, blocking an entire lane of traffic. The cops tried to intimidate the protestors, asking them to move. The students stood their ground, so a cop said, "We can't make you move, but we can ticket the people who are honking." They then issued $100 citations to four cars (mostly black or Latin drivers). Instead of scaring people, it made them angry. Two ticketed drivers left their car and joined the rally.

A community activist called the town council's liberal member, who came immediately and stayed until the rally ended. They complained to the next town council meeting about the police, and got the issue placed on the agenda of the following meeting. Word spread quickly, as local liberal activists organized to defend "free speech."

Considering the fascist assault on Falluja that sparked the rally, this "free speech" campaign was at best naive and at worst a diversion. As one student said later, "They're turning Falluja into a police state, and that's exactly what they'll do here, too." We'd better not repeat the mistake of pre-fascist Germany when communists and other workers relied on elections and "constitutional rights" instead of organizing to destroy fascism at its capitalist roots.

At the town council meeting over 100 people filled the chamber, and for over an hour speaker after speaker (aged 8 to 80) supported the anti-war rally, criticized the cops and demanded the council apologize to the ticketed drivers and get the citations dropped.

A rally participant compared Falluja to Guernica (destroyed by the fascists in Spain in 1936), saying it showed how far U.S. rulers will go for maintain oil profits and global empire. She said the Veterans' Day protest honored U.S. soldiers -- like those of the 343rd QC -- who think for themselves rather than blindly follow orders. A student said it was important to oppose U.S. war crimes. Two ticketed drivers spoke and supported these points.

But most of the speakers -- including the councilman who'd been at the rally -- stuck pretty much to "free speech" and the obvious lies in the police report. The other four council members seized on this, saying they, too, were for "free speech" but the tickets "had nothing to do with the war." They said they "couldn't believe" that their cops could possibly have done anything wrong -- they wouldn't "tie the hands of the police." This in a town where the police have been notoriously racist!

"I was shocked," said one student. "This is a liberal town, voting 80% against George Bush. They're Democrats." Another person responded, "That tells you something about the Democrats! Just because someone voted against Bush doesn't mean they share our views or values. Kerry wasn't against the war, either."

Underlining this point, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) just returned from a junket to Iraq saying: "Bush should tell the American people the truth, that U.S. troops will have to stay in Iraq for three, four or even five more years."

The students plan to hold a monthly rally at the same location, and are enlisting more classmates to help. They'll continue to show videos, host speakers and conduct other educational activities on campus. Conversations have become deeper. Some youth have begun reading CHALLENGE. "I never paid much attention to politics before because it was too depressing," said a mother of two, "but I have my kids to think about so I guess I have to pay attention."

It's Not Just Iraq Oil: U.S. Agri-Bosses Get Seed Control

U.S. bosses are not only after control of Iraq's vast oil wealth (second largest after Saudi Arabia), they also want control over its agriculture, to making Iraq a captive customer for U.S. agribusiness as well as for genetically-altered food.

Before Paul Bremer, former U.S. Proconsul in occupied Iraq, left his post last June, he signed some 100 orders that effectively operate almost as laws. Order 81 forbids Iraqi farmers to keep the seeds from a previous harvest, meaning they can't use the same seeds twice. Each year they must buy new seeds. The world's seed business is dominated by five companies: Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical.

International organizations like GRAIN and Focus on the Global South denounced Order 81, saying Iraq is part of multi-national agribusiness's drive to impose a monopoly over seeds, thereby controlling agriculture and the world food supply.

For millenniums, farmers have kept, reused and freely shared their seeds. But the world's imperialists are using the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to privatize what Mother Nature produces -- seeds, plants, proteins, genes and even human cells.

Imperialist agribusiness wants to use IPR to force anyone planting anything to pay royalties to the corporate "owner" of the seeds. "Guilty" farmers can be prosecuted the same way Microsoft and music giants go after those who copy "pirated" versions of their software, music, etc.

So Iraq, the cradle of world's agriculture -- the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom -- will now become a test for agri-bosses' profiteering. And Order 81, arbitrarily invoked by Bremer without consulting even the Iraqi farmers, is the tool to do that.

Iraq also has become a testing ground for genetically-altered food, rejected by the European Union (EU) and even by Africa's poorest countries. El Grupo de Reflexión Rural (GRR, an Argentinian farmers' defense group) says the struggle between the EU and the U.S. over transgenic foods is part of the world's fight over access to markets, linked to the invasion of Iraq. "Biotechnology is very important to the interests of the empire, and the industrial genetic multinationals help the war effort, playing their part in the world's food market," declared the GRR (Feb. 2003). "After the war, and taking advantage of population starvation, they will surely send aid in the form of transgenic food, not only to subsidize U.S. farmers but also to `prove' that genetic engineering is the solution to world's hunger."

U.S. food expert Peter Rosset says: "With the Iraq war and with new military bases in the countries of the Southern parts of the world, the U.S. is seeking advantage over its competitors in the new war to colonize the Third World."

So the war in Iraq is another battleground in the imperialists' fight to control the world's resources and so-called free trade. Don't expect France, Germany, China or Russia to support the U.S. war efforts in Iraq. And expect many more "trouble" spots worldwide (Ukraine, Sudan, Congo, etc.) as the world's imperialists gear up for endless wars and eventually World War III.

(Information from La Jornada, Mexico, 12/5 and from http://www.bioseguridad.tk/)

CIA-Trained Salvadoran Mercenaries `Graduate' to Iraq

EL SALVADOR - Recently, thirty-three men and six women went to Iraq last month to work as mercenaries for private security agencies like Triple Canopy. Their contract for at least six months involves guarding oil pipelines, diplomatic missions and businessmen.

During the civil war here, the CIA trained these men and women to kill in cold blood under any circumstance. They graduated with "honors" in torture, disappearances and assassinating workers. It's easy to imagine what they will do against Iraqi civilians.

These mercenaries - including retired captains and lieutenants as well as members of the Special Forces - will be paid $1,200 to $2,200 a month. In El Salvador the minimum wage is $144 a month. "If they're dying of hunger at home, at least if they die in Iraq, they'll leave life insurance for their families," a worker commented ironically.

Enemies worldwide are threatening the global hegemony of U.S. imperialism. Capitalism's internal weaknesses are emerging more rapidly. Rank-and-file U.S. soldiers' morale is low. Many are now seeing this is a war to benefit the Haliburtons and Big Oil. The GI's goal is to come out of this war alive. This won't help U.S. imperialism against a politically committed opponent despite having a reactionary leadership. That's why the U.S. needs to contract mercenaries from poorer countries.

In contrast, the Soviet Red Army's discipline in World War 2 grew from the commitment to maintain a society that benefits the working class.

A recent poll revealed that more than 80% of Salvadorans oppose sending soldiers from here and didn't believe this oil war is for liberation of the Iraqi people. On the contrary, they thought it could lead to Salvadorans being targeted by terrorist groups. There are currently 360 Salvadoran soldiers in Iraq making up the 3rd Cuscatlan Batallion.

Only the bosses and their government benefit from this war, while demonstrating their loyalty to U.S. rulers. Meanwhile, the Salvadoran military continues oppressing those who oppose their capitalist system.

The working class here and abroad must keep fighting this oppressive capitalist system. PLP is the only weapon workers can actually use to take on the imperialists. CHALLENGE is our most effective tool in confronting our class enemy. We aim to spread distribution networks for the paper, as well as build study groups in factories, universities and in the bosses' army based on these communist ideas in CHALLENGE.

Militant Campus Anti-war Action Sparking Growing Struggle

CALIFORNIA, Nov. 22 - Chants of "Black, brown, Asian, white! Workers, students, soldiers, unite!"; "Attacks on Falluja mean...Fight back! Imperialism means.... Fight back!" loudly bounced off the walls of our campus buildings. As one group of students listened and headed for class, another group soon took their place. The empty, silent campus quadrangle was quickly transformed by a few determined working-class students into a vibrant anti-war demonstration. Amid growing attacks on workers in Iraq and the U.S., there's an untapped revolutionary potential.

This event was born out of one student in a campus organization raising the importance of backing the soldiers of the 343rd QC who refused orders in Iraq, and later distributing a petition to rally support (which sparked more general political issues). The discussion lasted two weeks and generated formation of a commission to take action. A good third of this organization, rather than depressed by Bush's re-election, was thirsting for political action and responded to this idea. They decided to organize a demonstration against imperialist war and its racist consequences.

Lots of dedicated collective work over long nights among this small group did whatever needed to be done. Some promised to deliver short speeches. They came through, detailing the effect of racist budget cuts on working-class students. One speaker critiqued the anti-Bush movement, exposing capitalism as the source of workers' problems, while calling for support for the 343rd. He encouraged everyone to get involved. Another student advocated communist revolution to end imperialist wars and racist terror.

Over 270 copies of CHALLENGE were distributed and many comrades had exciting conversations with students about communism. One student organizer said a better connection between the budget cuts and the war could have been made, but overall most felt the demonstration was an overwhelming success.

A professor invigorated by the event said it was about time that somebody did something on our campus. The anti-war movement had been dead since early last year. Our rally affected the entire campus. Students from a speech class told a speaker they learned a lot. Some teachers stepped forward to defend the students. Others debated the merits of the rally. Such actions are vitally necessary in the long-term fight to free the world of exploitation, capitalist oppression and racist, imperialist war.

Now an anti-war coalition has been formed. A group of students continues to plan for the upcoming term. These humble beginnings can bear great results, helpful in combating depression and cynicism in the fight to build PLP.

LETTERS

Force Needed To Oust Bosses

One late October night I joined PLP members as they drove into San Francisco to support the locked-out hotel workers. We drew a warm reception from the protesters at the Westin St. Francis. One worker told me, "We're really glad when you guys come. Some people on the night picket lines aren't vocal enough." The PLP members, however, did not share this trait.

As we marched on the picket lines, we witnessed various anti-worker individuals. Scabs leaving work mocked the protesters with, "I've got money, bitches, I got money!" and other profanities, their soulless taunts belying the nature of their selfish materialism.

Hotel patrons also insulted the locked-out workers. Several had the guiltlessness to stand outside the hotel, wine-glasses in hand, with disapproving sneers plastered on their faces. They muttered among themselves and gave us disgusted glares, wondering when the protesters would just leave.

These instances highlighted the economic disparity between the wealthy patrons and the working class. Is it right to belittle workers fighting for their livelihood? Is it conscionable to scorn the poor who are striving against an economic machine that controls them? The rich did not care because their financial security was not at stake. Their concerns were entirely self-centered.

As we left that night, I realized that the San Francisco hotel lock-out was but one instance of exploitation in a world filled with injustice for the poor. Owners would never voluntarily concede power. They would have to be forced.

West Coast friend

PLP's Ideas Guiding Airport Struggles

CHALLENGE is becoming a familiar sight at the airport where I work. Communist ideas don't fall from the sky; only through political struggle waged by communists can the workers learn about the PLP's ideas. There's been some very lively, serious struggle about why the Party does political work at the airport; the real nature of the bosses' sham U.S. elections; and the deadly imperialist Iraq war.

This was reflected in the workers' rejection of the anti-communist smear tactics a union misleader launched against the union shop steward, a PLP member. When communist and non-communist workers develop personal ties based on mutual respect and friendship, it's very difficult for the bosses to break them.

We're engaged in a fight to get full-time hours for part-time workers. Part-timers outnumber full-timers 2 to 1. They're from Ethiopia, Somalia and Laos, and are victims of racist super-exploitation. The racist bosses drive their wages down, threatening the full-timers' wages as well. Many immigrant and non-immigrant workers have united around a petition demanding full-time hours for part-time workers. Obviously, the bosses may reject this since it would cut into their profits. During this struggle many part-timers have become CHALLENGE readers.

Only through a communist revolution can the international working class gain a better life in a society without racist bosses to oppress workers. Once millions of workers worldwide fight for this goal, the bosses are finished. Like Mao Zedong said, "Dare to struggle! Dare to win!"

Airport Red

Hunters and Racism

Many workers in St. Paul, Minnesota, were shocked to learn about the violent confrontation involving Laotian Hmong worker Chai Vang and six white Wisconsin hunters he allegedly shot in a dispute over a hunting spot. While there may be different versions of the story, one thing is for certain: racism played a big part in the confrontation. Vang claims the six hunters surrounded him, threatened him and called him racist names to get him to vacate his spot on private land, and actually fired first as he was leaving.

It's ironic that Vang and many others in the Hmong community have been victimized by racism, since their immigration to the U.S. was a reward for the Hmongs providing fascist death squads for U.S. imperialism during the Vietnam War. Also, some of the Wisconsin hunters were Vietnam vets and were indoctrinated with the bosses' anti-Asian racism that they retain today. This tragedy proves that racism and capitalism are a deadly combination for workers.

The ruling class is the only one who benefits from racism because it reaps billions in super-profits from all workers. The only solution is a communist revolution led by PLP, where workers build an international, integrated communist society.

A St. Paul Reader

More Than Higher Minimum Wage Needed

On Jan. 1, New York State's minimum wage will rise to $6 an hour, and by 2007 to $7.15. For full-time workers, working 52 weeks a year without layoff, it will mean an annual salary increase from $10,700 to $14,900. Slightly more than one million workers will benefit.

It took six years of lots of work by hundreds of volunteers, knocking on 100,000 doors and making thousands of phone calls, holding demonstrations, etc. to achieve this.

"This was a victory for us, the working people," a happy and proud Leonor Torres told NY Daily News columnist Albor Ruiz (12/9). Ms. Torres is a garment worker who hails from Cuenca, Ecuador, and has been a New Yorker since 1982. For three years, she has put much of her time and energy into making the wage hike a reality. "I'm happy thinking about how many families will benefit from this," said the short, personable 48-year-old grandmother. "And I'm proud to have been part of this tremendous effort."

"This is really a historic event," said Alex Navarro, communications director for the Working Families Party. This party was a major force behind the campaign for a higher minimum wage. The WFP is supported by unions like UNITE.

It's obvious that when workers are motivated like Ms. Torres, they can move mountains. But the struggle for a higher minimum wage should be seen from another angle. The WFP has become the third largest political force in New York, after the Republicans and Democrats. But it's mainly an electoral party, and is subservient to the Democrats, like many of the unions behind it. Electoral politics aren't enough.

I'm glad the minimum wage is increasing but prices are rising at an even faster pace; $7 an hour won't make ends meet in NY, and that's in 2007. Workers need at least $15 an hour. But even that won't free us from being wage slaves and subject to the mass racist unemployment constantly operating under capitalism.

The working class needs the energy of workers like Ms. Torres, but the opportunist, pro-capitalist leaders of the WFP and UNITE are just misusing her to maintain illusions in capitalism as "working for the little people."

We need to win the honest workers in groups like WFP to understand that any wage under capitalism is wage slavery. We need to fight for the abolition of wage slavery, for communism!

A Manhattan Comrade

Union Silence on War Hurts Workers

Faced with threats of massive layoffs, fare hikes, token booth closings and service cuts by New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the Transport Workers Union (TWU) held a membership meeting at Javits Center on December 4 to prepare for the 2005 contract negotiations. The leadership stressed the need to win allies among the riding public who would also be hurt by the MTA cuts. However, the rank and file had already exposed this as hypocrisy because of the union's failure to call a single demonstration to unite with the public and show the MTA we mean business. The workers presented a motion to strike if there were any layoffs. Then the leadership said public demonstrations and threats to strike didn't mean much if we can't guarantee worker support. They got that right. Under TWU's "leadership," a militant fight-back has been non-existent.

There was no mention at the meeting or in the latest issue of the TWU "Express" about how the Iraq war was hurting the lives of NYC transit workers and riders who have been overwhelmingly opposed to the war.

When I got the mike during the discussion period, I said the MTA's poverty cries and cutbacks because of the Iraq war were no different from the deficit complaints former TWU leader Mike Quill faced from Transit Authority (now MTA) bondholders and President Johnson's wage freeze to finance the Vietnam War.

Quill told the bondholders they would freeze in hell before he let transit workers be dragged into poverty.

I maintained that elections never won us the right to organize unions, to smash segregation which forced civil rights laws or to stop the Vietnam War. I concluded that it was the fighting spirit of transit workers who took part in all those struggles, along with millions of other workers, that kept us from being reduced to poverty, de facto slavery and war.

There were some cheers and handshakes and a worker who used to be active with PLP told me he missed getting all the real news in CHALLENGE. I gave him our paper and we discussed how the "leadership" talked about needing allies while spending our union dues on politicians who support the anti-strike Taylor Law and Iraq war. As we parted he said he'd subscribe to CHALLENGE. I recalled somebody saying, "What you do counts."

Retired Transit Worker

APHA'ers Reject Pfizer's Plug

When I attended the November convention of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Washington, D.C., I noticed a leadership trend to the right. An obvious sign was a bag given out to members to hold the many papers distributed by the APHA. The bag was paid for by Pfizer, the giant pharmaceutical company, and displayed its logo. Pfizer makes medications like Viagra, Lipitor and Celebrex.

Last year many members turned the bag inside out in protest, so as not to show the logo. Pfizer must have noticed this because this year it distributed a bag that could not be turned inside out. Although there was no organized protest, many members were unhappy and said so.

A friend of mine and I plan to organize a protest next year, which hopefully will provide an opportunity to increase the sale of CHALLENGE.

Red Pharmacist

Oppose Racist-Nazi Culture

On November 6, a committee against racism at my church demonstrated against the Lyric Opera, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary featuring German composer Richard Wagner's anti-Jewish work "Das Rheingold" (Gold of the Rhine River), the first and most racist in Wagner's Ring Cycle series. Wagner was a major developer of modern racism and the grandfather of National Socialism (Nazism). Hitler claimed one couldn't understand National Socialism unless you understood Wagner. We asked the Lyric to inform its patrons about Wagner's racism but they refused.

Our integrated group leafleted, chanted and picketed the box office, wearing yellow stars of David in memory of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass), November 9, 1938, when Nazis smashed the windows of Jewish synagogues, businesses and homes, and beat and killed many.

Our 150 leaflets were gone in 30 minutes. Many people listened. Some said Wagner's art made his anti-Jewish racism irrelevant. One guy said he agreed with Wagner's racist ideas. One of our picketers had lost family in the Holocaust. A Latin telephone worker denounced the Lyric for pushing Nazi art and SBC Communications for being a sponsor and giving away free tickets while planning thousands of layoffs.

A black college professor said Wagner not only hated Jews, but all other "inferior races," stating that racism is used to inflict terror on millions of people, from the Holocaust to Iraq.

"Das Rheingold" is a racist allegory about Jews (the Nibelungen) corrupting the German ruling class (Wotan and the other gods) through their control over money (the Rhine gold). And to ensure his audience would get the racist message, Wagner wrote pamphlets and articles outlining his anti-Semitic ideology.

Mrs. A. Watson Armour, of the Armour meat company, is a major financial supporter of Wagner's operas. The Armour Company incited a race riot in Chicago in 1919 to break a meatpackers' strike.

Wagner's music inspired the SS (Hitler's elite killers) in the concentration camps and was also featured at the premiere of the pro-KKK film "Birth Of A Nation" of racist director D. W. Griffith. His music was used when Vietnamese were being slaughtered in the movie, "Apocalypse Now."

The next day, 15 church members showed solidarity with our action and remembered Kristallnacht by wearing the yellow stars after church service. One day, Wagner's true nature will be fully revealed and his operas will never be played again. Communist revolution will outlaw racist "art," and true working-class culture will throw racism into the trash can of history.

Chicago comrade

Workers Have No Stake In FMLN Election Race

SAN SALVADOR -- "And you, who are you going to vote for?" asked Juan, a co-worker at the factory. "The question isn't who you're voting for, but why are you voting at all?" answered Maria. These kinds of conversations were common among workers during the elections for the leadership of the FMLN.

Medardo Gonzáles, alias "Comandante Milton Méndez," an ex-guerrilla commander of the FPL ("Popular Forces of Liberation," (one of five groups that formed the FMLN during the Salvadorian Civil War), and Oscar Ortiz, also an ex-FPL commander, were contending for the FMLN's top post last month. Both were very clear. "You can't think about governing the country without first negotiating with big capital," said Ortiz. Gonzáles, representing the FMLN's more "radical" wing, agreed, saying: "If we did it before in order to sign the peace accords, why can't we do it now?"

"Comandante Milton" received political help during the election from Shafik Handal, ex-Secretary General of the defunct Salvadorian "Communist" Party and current FMLN president. He also got help from some European Union imperialists. On the other side, Ortiz received financial help from U.S. imperialists, using it to commandeer a big hotel in the center of a rich neighborhood, where he wined and dined quite a few journalists.

While "Comandante Milton" won the election, the result would have been no different for workers had Ortiz won. Both candidates' ambitions were to take power and fill their pockets at the expense of the working class. Both represent the interests of the most bloody and genocidal capitalists in history.

According to the electoral census, the FMLN has approximately 90,720 members. Of these, only 51.6% went to the polls. The fact that more than 43,000 members didn't vote indicates that neither candidate represents the interests of the working class.

History shows us that the FMLN's top leaders have always been allied with the capitalists. The Salvadorian Civil War, which caused so much death and suffering for the working class, was a fight between one section of the ruling class allied with the Russian and European bosses and another section allied with U.S. bosses. This fight continues, temporarily transferred to the electoral process. The FMLN leadership used workers' aspirations -- their desire to break away from the U.S. imperialists -- only to sacrifice them to the Russian-European imperialists. Eventually this fight will lead to World War III.

But the workers have another alternative. We can and should fight for true Communism, not the fake variety that imperialism's faithful servants have tried to pass off as real. Organizing PLP clubs and expanding CHALLENGE readership will make it possible for us to break free of the chains that the servants of this capitalist system have wrapped around us.

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS -- Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

US trade makes big hit

[John] Perkins has just written a book, Confessions of an Economic Hit-man....

When a leader of a country refuses to cooperate with economic hit men like Perkins, the jackals from the CIA are called in.

Perkins said that both Omar Torrijos of Panama and Jaime Boldos of Ecuador -- both men he worked with -- refused to play the game with the U.S. and both were cut down by the CIA -- Torrijos when his airplane blew up, and Roldos when his helicopter exploded, within three months of each other in 1981.

If the CIA jackals don't do the job, then the U.S. Marines are sent in. (Russell Mokhiber, (11/19) http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com

Ukraine: new-style US coup

The crowds in the street include a large contingent from western Ukraine....

Their traditions are not always pleasant. Some protesters have been chanting nationalistic and secessionist songs from the anti-semitic years of the second world war.

Nor are we watching a struggle between freedom and authoritarianism as is romantically alleged. Viktor Yushchenko... and some of his backers are also linked to the brutal industrial clans who manipulated Ukraine's post-Soviet privatization....

In Ukraine Yushchenko got the western nod, and floods of money poured in to groups which support him....

Intervening in foreign elections, under the guise of an impartial interest in helping civil society, has become the run-up to the postmodern coup d'etat....Instruments of democracy are used selectively to topple unpopular dictators, once a successor candidate or regime has been groomed....

Ukraine has been turned into a geostrategic matter not by Moscow but by the US. (GW, 12/9)

Profit system from hunger

Though 800 million people are permanently malnourished, the global increase in crop production is being used to feed animals: the number of livestock on Earth has quintupled since 1950. The reason is that those who buy meat and dairy products have more purchasing power than those who buy only subsistence crops. (GW, 12/9)

Hush up Iraq prison abuse

Two Defense Department intelligence officials reported observing brutal treatment of Iraqi insurgents captured in Baghdad last June, several weeks after disclosures of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison created a worldwide uproar....

They were threatened and told to keep quiet by other military interrogators.

One...had witnessed an interrogator... "punch a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention."....When the D.I.A. official took photos of that detainee, the pictures were confiscated....

Two D.I.A. officials...had been instructed "not to leave the compound without specific permission even to get a haircut," threatened, and told their e-mail messages were being screened. (NYT, 12/8)

Sexism = AIDS for women

The AIDS pandemic rampaging around the globe will not be stopped without radical social change to improve the lot of women and girls, who now appear likely to die in greater numbers than men, United Nations agencies said last week.

Infections among women are soaring....In many countries women's subordinate status and lack of education and economic power have made it impossible for them to negotiate sex with men or to ask for the use of condoms. (GW, 12/9)

Liberty and justice for all

Many companies have started suing their own retired employees in order to cut their pension benefits....

Here's the part I love: the companies' legal argument is that the "lifetime" coverage specified in the contracts does not mean the lifetime of the workers, but the "lifetime" of the labor contract. Cute, eh? (Liberal Opinion Week quoting, Molly Ivins)

Society Causes Student Suicide

You write of depressed and suicidal college students as if their problems were purely psychological....

What if students develop psychological problems because, in our society, jobs are scarce, personal relationships are frequently tenuous, and the future is often frightening?

...Some students do need psychiatric help. But university administrators, as well as journalists, would be well advised to ask whether student depression is a symptom of much larger problems. ( Letter to NYT, 12/8)

Judge OKs apartheid $$

A federal judge in New York dismissed a human rights suit yesterday against 35 major corporations that did business in South Africa under apartheid...

"This court must be extremely cautious in permitting suits here based upon a corporation's doing business in countries with less than stellar human rights records," Judge Sprizzo wrote, warning that such suits could have "significant, if not disastrous, effects on international commerce." (NYT)

RACISM as `American' as NFL

The Terrell Owens/"Desperate Housewives" promo on Monday Night Football illustrates how deeply embedded is racism and, in particular, the racist fear of black men. Modern capitalism was forged in the hell of slavery, and the myths and fears used to justify it have been internalized and passed down for 400 years.

The anger at the commercial has little to do with a woman dropping her towel, except for the fact that it occurred in front of a black man. The National Football League (NFL), and commentators who were "shocked" at the image of the black athlete and the naked white woman, ignored the fact that the NFL has been using sex to sell football for decades.

Once television provided football with the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, sex -- already marginally present in the form of young women in scanty outfits -- was given more prominence to induce people to watch. The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders set the mold of the modern cheerleader, with busty costumes and hot pants. Today virtually every team has its own version.

The NFL gets its millions from TV because stations can charge advertisers enormous sums. Commercials during the Super Bowl cost several million dollars per minute. Sex is integral to the commercials. From the fantasy of sleeping with blond twins while watching football and drinking beer, to overcoming impotency with the latest drug, the League has been profiting from sex. Starting in college, the NFL's "minor league," sex is a standard part of the recruiting process, as young athletes are feted with girls, booze and drugs on "recruitment weekends."

For the NFL, or anyone else, to pretend football and sex haven't been in bed for years, and to cry "foul" over this particular commercial as being "too sexual" is sheer hypocrisy. It exposes the role of "race" and racism in the reaction to the image.

Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy might have had a point when he said the promo perpetuated stereotypes of black athletes as caring more about sex than their team, but he ignored the huge racist reaction to the image of the black man with a white woman. The complaints over the ad weren't generated by a concern over Terrell Owens' dignity. It was about a deep fear of black men, a central myth of U.S. capitalism, pushed as both a justification for slavery and an excuse to viciously attack any sign of black rebellion. It's been used to maintain all sorts of racism, from paying black workers lower wages, to the cutting of welfare, and more.

One of Hollywood's earliest movies, "The Birth of a Nation," was a racist fantasy dedicated to burning the image of the "dangerous black man" into the nation's psyche. It featured the KKK "rescuing white women" from "rampaging black men" freed from slavery. President Woodrow Wilson championed the film, telling all Americans to go see it. And it had an effect.

The Scottsboro Boys who were jailed for many years, falsely accused of raping a white woman, and Emmit Till, a 14-year-old boy beaten to death for whistling at a white woman, are just two of countless brutal attacks against black men justified by this racist myth.

More recently we have witnessed the beating of Rodney King, and the cops' murder of Amadou Diallo, as well as the imprisonment of a million black men.

In the essay "The Road Not Taken," Lerone Bennett, Jr. describes how racism and slavery was forced on the early settlers by the rulers of the colonies to divide and control black and white indentured servants, expressly to make money:

"How was all this done?.... By the creation of a total system of domination, a system that penetrated every corner of colonial life and made use of every colonial institution. Nothing was left to chance. The assemblies, the courts, the churches, and the press were thrown into the breach. A massive propaganda campaign confused and demoralized the public, and private vigilante groups supplemented the official campaign of hate and terror.

....It was all done deliberately....to mold the minds of whites, to teach them the new ideas, and to let them know who was to be loved and who was to be despised."

Bennett shows how laws were the heart of a massive campaign aimed not just at blacks, but also very much at disciplining whites.

Except for white slave-holders raping black women, laws were enacted to prevent intermingling of blacks and whites. And there was always a lot of resistance. White women were "whipped, banished, and enslaved to keep them from marrying black men." "The severed heads of black and white rebels were impaled on poles along the road as a warning....Some rebels were branded, others castrated. This exemplary cruelty, which was carried out as a deliberate process of mass education, was an inherent part of the new system."

Whether we're conscious of it or not, the images and ideas whipped into these early settlers, black and white, and reinforced by hundreds of years of laws and mass culture, still haunt us today.

Teaching U.S. Racist History Leads Youths On Road to Rebellion

To paraphrase the Russian revolutionary Lenin, "There can be no thought of revolution without winning large sections of the bosses' armed force to revolution."

I teach U.S. history to black and Latino working-class high school students. In this period of wars and economic crisis, it's good to expose and confront the military recruiters and their lies. But no matter how many recruiters we kick off our campuses, the ruling class will still send young workers to fight their wars. Many of my students will be in the military. Some will choose it more or less consciously; more of them will be forced by an economic draft to make that choice after a year or two of dead-end jobs or trying simultaneously to support themselves and go to college part-time. A draft would force more of them into the military. But even without a draft, a substantial number of my students have joined and will continue to join.

What's a communist teacher's response to that reality? What should these young people do in the military? How can we prepare them for this experience and the choices they will face?

I try to help them take a critical view of what they will be taught in the military. I start the semester asking them why they think the only thing our state standards for U.S. History includes about Native Americans is the Navajo Code Talkers. We discuss how history indoctrinates them into fighting for "their country." I ask them to think about other reasons to study history; what they expect from their history class. In this initial discussion, students express many ideas, including patriotism and rejection of U.S. patriotism in favor of nationalism.

Then I ask them to look at the photograph of U.S. soldiers surrounding a mass grave of Native Americans massacred at Wounded Knee and imagine they're one of the soldiers. They must write a letter home from a young soldier to his cousin explaining what's happened and how he feels about it. As students read their letters aloud in small groups, they see some soldiers are won to a racist view of the "enemy," while others realize they've committed an atrocity. I ask students what they might have done if they had opposed the massacre.

This early in the semester, not too many students are thinking about organizing mass action, but the seeds are planted. When we discuss the massacre at Jolo in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, and the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, students begin to understand imperialism. In reviewing how soldiers joined with the workers to make the Russian Revolution, they can see the historic role soldiers have played in revolutions.

We discuss strikes, class consciousness and organized struggle. When we study the Vietnam War, we see a wide range of soldiers' responses, from the My Lai Massacre to fragging their officers.

Every student in one of our classes is to some degree under our leadership. It's good if they enter the military and organize under that leadership. We can prepare them to see through the racist and patriotic crap they'll be fed, that the real enemy is the bosses and the brass, the capitalist system, and not other working people. They can learn that soldiers have always had options: to fight for the bosses or to fight for the working class. We can have the confidence that they're not merely victims of the recruiters -- they have the potential to be a force to change the world.

Of course, this is just the beginning. We must develop close ties with these youth and continue to struggle with those who enter the military. This is an indispensable part of our strategy, now and in the future.

Students Support Soldiers Who Refused Suicidal Order

Over 50 students, staff and faculty demonstrated against the military recruitment center near our campus recently. The protest supported the U.S. soldiers of the 343rd Quartermaster Company who refused to carry out their mission; condemned the imperialist war machine that's killed over 100,000 Iraqi civilians and over 1,270 U.S. soldiers; and opposed military recruiters on our campus.

Previous campus meetings produced political discussion championing the idea of "U.S. troops out of Iraq" while opposing the recruiters. The latter implement capitalism's mission: an economic draft of low-income youth to fight wars for oil companies' profits. Recruiters fill their quotas by lying to working-class youth about college tuition, bonuses and other "benefits," following their bosses' in the White House who lie about the whole imperialist invasion.

At the protest, an Iraqi war veteran condemned the murderous war and massive civilian casualties, like the recent slaughter in Fallujah. Others emphasized that U.S. workers and soldiers have more in common with Iraqi workers than with the recruiters and their military superiors and corporate sponsors.

While we struggle against the most blatant symbol of militarism and war on our campus -- the recruiters -- we must expose the recruiters as tools of imperialism, the inevitable product of capitalism in crisis. If we do kick the recruiters off our campus, as good as that might be, it only means they'd continue recruiting elsewhere.

While intensifying our outraged opposition, on campus and in the streets, neither student and civilian demonstrations alone, nor pacifist politics, can end imperialist war. The CHALLENGE article (12/15/04), "Armed Forces Mutinies During the Vietnam Era," reveals that soldiers and sailors who mutinied against their brass and rebelled outright against the imperialist mission were important in helping oust U.S. bosses from Vietnam.

Many students and workers on campus have friends and family in the military. We'll continue to urge them to share their concerns and outrage over an increasingly horrendous occupation that devastates the Iraqi people and puts U.S. youth at ever-increasing risk. To end imperialism, we must build unity between students, workers and soldiers to fight for revolution and workers' rule.

a href="#Genocide in Fallujah Follows Hitler’s Footsteps:">"enocide in Fallujah Follows Hitler’s Footsteps:

Write To Soldiers Who Resisted

All the Mirages that are Fit to Print

a href="#Warm Welcome for China’s Bo$$e$; Chile Reception for Bush">"arm Welcome for China’s Bo$$e$; Chile Reception for Bush

a href="#Mexico’s Bosses Side with Bush">"exico’s Bosses Side with Bush

a href="#Workers’ Contract Demand: No Cuts Due to Iraq Oil War">"orkers’ Contract Demand: No Cuts Due to Iraq Oil War

Debate on How to Fight Fascism

a href="#Navy’s Rules Help Bosses Rule">"avy’s Rules Help Bosses Rule

a href="#PL’ers Fight Giving Amnesty to U.S. Imperialism">"L’ers Fight Giving Amnesty to U.S. Imperialism

Link War to Union-Busting, Budget Cuts at Mass. Colleges

a href="#Garment Workers Get to the Source of Bosses’ Profits">"arment Workers Get to the Source of Bosses’ Profits

a href="#El Salvador: Communist Politics, Best Tool For Teachers’ Struggle">"l Salvador: Communist Politics, Best Tool For Teachers’ Struggle

a href="#Indonesia: ‘Lesser Evils’ Murder Millions">In"onesia:‘Lesser Evils’ Murder Millions

History Lessons Teach Students How to Fight War

Basketball Brawl Blocks Real Class Struggle

History of Military Rebellions, Part II: Armed Forces’ Mutinies during the Vietnam Era

Students Know a Racist System When They See One

LETTERS

Military Moms Oppose War

Colombia; China: Rampaging Capitalism

a href="#‘No Fascist Death Squad Left Behind’">‘N" Fascist Death Squad Left Behind’

Fascism: by Choice or Contradiction?

PLP Sparks Campus Action vs. Iraq War

Communist Recalls Mussolini Execution

a href="#WW2 GI’s Rejected Bosses’ Orders to Fight Soviets">WW" GI’s Rejected Bosses’ Orders to Fight Soviets

Red Eye On The News

• Iraqis see oil as US motive
• 10 more years in Iraq?
• US incinerates Iraqis
• Hammer & sickle for Bush
• Red Cross: US tortures
• Coke grabs people’s water

• ---

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Massacre For Oil Profits

Class-consciousness has temporarily sunk so low that the U.S. military’s continuing atrocities are not provoking the mass outrage they deserve. The media’s sanitized coverage of the war zones explains a minor aspect of this passivity. With pro-war reporters embedded with the troops and pictures of carnage banned, many people don’t comprehend the sheer terror of the U.S.’s genocidal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Millions aren’t demonstrating against U.S. rulers’ war crimes mainly because there’s no mass working-class movement attacking capitalism as the root of imperialist war.

The Progressive Labor Party has this class-based outlook. We led hundreds in demonstrations and forums protesting the Abu Ghraib torture. We can and must lead many times more. The U.S. war machine provides endless opportunities to expose the essential deadliness of the profit system and to organize where we work, live and go to school.

Last month, a U.S. Marine executed a wounded, unarmed prisoner at a mosque in Fallujah. The British newspaper, the Independent 11/24), confirmed that such wanton murder, ordered by the brass and fueled by racism, is standard operating procedure for U.S. troops in Iraq. It’s worth citing at length:

"Allegations of widespread abuse by U.S. forces in Fallujah, including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city. They said that as well as deaths from bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people including children were killed by American snipers. U.S. forces refused repeated calls for medical aid for injured civilians, they said....

"The refugees from Fallujah describe a situation of extreme violence…. Men of military age were particularly vulnerable. But there are accounts of children as young as four, and women and old men being killed....The claims of abuse and killings, from different sources, appear, however, to follow a consistent pattern.

"Dr. Ali Abbas, who arrived in Baghdad from Fallujah four days ago, worked at a clinic in the city which was bombed by the Americans....Dr. Abbas, 28, said: ‘We had five people under treatment and they were killed....We contacted the doctors at the Fallujah hospital and said how bad the situation was. We wanted them to evacuate the more badly injured and send drugs and more doctors. They tried to do that, but they said the Americans stopped them. One of things we noticed the most were the numbers of people killed by American snipers. They were not just men but women and some children as well. The youngest one I saw was a four-year-old boy. Almost all these people had been shot in the head, chest or neck.’

"The family of Aziz Radhi Tellaib were killed before the battle for Fallujah began. He had been driving them to Ramadi to visit relations when the car was hit by fire from an American Humvee....Mr. Tellaib freed himself but could not save the rest of the family. Those who died included Mr. Tellaib’s wife Ahlam, 26; his sons Omar, seven, and Barat, three, and his daughter Zainab. Also killed were his niece Rokyab, 26, her three-year-old son Fadhi, and three-month-old daughter Farah.

"Mr. Tellaib, 33, a merchant, said: ‘We were stopped, in a line of cars, by some Humvees which had overtaken us. One soldier waved us forward, but as I drove up there was firing from another Humvee. I was shot in the side of the head, and my wife and elder son were shot in the chest. I think they must have died then....’

"Rahim Abdullah, 46, a teacher, said that anyone in the street was regarded by the Americans as the enemy. ‘I was trying to get to my uncle’s house, waving a piece of white cloth as we had been advised when they started shooting at me. I saw two men being shot. They were just ordinary people. The only way to stay alive was to stay inside and hope your house did not get hit by a shell.’"

Lancet, the British medical journal, estimated that U.S. forces had killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians before the current massacre in Fallujah. One eyewitness said that U.S. troops typically retaliated for car-bombings by torching civilian homes. And even the ultra-imperialist New York Times reports (11/27) that "400,000 Iraqi children are badly malnourished, and suffering in some cases from irreversible physical and mental stunting."

Organizing against these crimes opens the way for Party-building. We can kick out military recruiters who seek to transform young workers into cold-blooded murderers of their class brothers and sisters. We can expose phony union hacks, who join with bosses in backing U.S. imperialism. We can support striking workers fighting pay cuts that fund the rulers’ war effort. We can attack politicians who shift funds from social services into war, even as they demand more cops and prisons.

We must understand, however, that nothing short of a revolution of millions of workers united in a communist Party — the PLP — will bring the war criminals to justice. We may still be far from that goal, with a long, hard road ahead. But our Party can and will grow until our class achieves it.

Write To Soldiers Who Resisted

For those readers who would like to write to the solders of the 343rd Quartermaster Company who refused orders to deliver contaminated fuel on what they described as a "suicide mission," the following are the names of some and the address to which letters should be sent (no later than the end of January).

Spc. Amber McClenny; Spc. Major Coates; Sgt. Larry O. McCook; Spc. Scott Shealy; Spc. Adam Gordon; Sgt. Justin Rogers; Sgt. Peter Sullivan; Spc. Desmond Jones; Sgt. Michael Butler.

343rd QM

Tallil AB

APO AE 09331

All the Mirages that are Fit to Print

N.Y. Times’ columnist David Brooks wrote (11/26) how "prosperity is booming all over the world." Sure, if he’s talking about Bill Gates, Carlos Slim (Mexican telecommunication boss), Halliburton, Exxon, Toyota or the rising Chinese bourgeoisie. For the rest of the world, misery is booming.(Brooks should look out his window from his posh office onto Times Square and see the homeless.)

Shortly after Brooks’ column, the same paper reported that the AIDS epidemic has driven life expectancy in Africa back to the level of the 1800’s. At the same time, French professor Pierre Crawn of the International Organization of Chemical Scientists teaching in Luanda, reporting on the impact of malnutrition in Asia, Africa and Latin America, said that 14 million children die each year in the poor countries because of preventable diseases, hunger and wars. (Granma, Havana, 12/1)

What’s behind this mass murder of children? Capitalism and imperialism. The world’s imperialists and their local boss-servants in the poorest countries are the only ones enjoying the "prosperity" of well-paid misinformer David Brooks.

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Bush was "welcomed" to Santiago, Chile, by thousands protesting his criminal war in Iraq. "Socialist" President Lagos’ cops responded in fascist Pinochet style, brutally attacking the demonstrators, using live bullets. Many were injured and arrested.

Bush came to APEC (Asian-Pacific Economic Forum) with his unchangeable and failed agenda of unilateral imperialism. As we reported previously, the former chief of the Southern U.S. Military Command had warned Bush and Congress of the danger of "radical populism" in Latin America. But Bush’s only alternative is including Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba in his "axis of evil," while Chile and Mexico are in his "axis of good." But now it appears Bush may have to include most of Latin America in his "axis of evil."

Bush’s visit was overshadowed by China’s growth in U.S. imperialism’s domain. Guy De Jonquist wrote in the London Financial Times (11/19) about the "inexorable economic ascendancy of China." replacing U.S. leadership in APEC. A front-page New York Times (11/20) article reported that "while the U.S. may still regard the region as its backyard, its dominance is no longer unquestioned. Suddenly, the presence of China can be felt everywhere, from the backwaters of the Amazon to mining camps in the Andes."

China has used its growing wealth (based on the super-exploitation of Chinese workers) to buy everything from Chile’s copper (replacing the U.S. as number-one buyer), to Bolivia’s tin, Venezuela’s oil, Brazil’s iron ore and other natural resources, to níckel from Cuba. When the small Caribbean island of Dominica broke with Taiwán, China responded with $116 million in aid. China’s bosses use only 6% of their US$500 billion in reserve to pay for its investments. It might increase this practice, fearing to compensate for the rapid fall of the dollar.

China’s bosses understand the world situation very well. They know they must prepare for an inevitable war against the U.S. and/or other imperialists. Meanwhile, more Latin American bosses, though as anti-working class as the imperialists, are rushing to break from the U.S.’s unilateral squeeze. However, workers must be very careful. Some fake leftists and others are trying to win workers to side with other imperialists and local bosses against U.S. imperialism. Workers can only expect more exploitation and misery from any side in this capitalist dogfight. Our only side is with the international working class, which must fight for a society without any bosses — communism.

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Before the APEC summit, Mexico’s Secretary of Energy, Fernando Elizondo (linked to the Monterrey capitalist group), had given the U.S. Northen Command the right to exploit "Project Mexico’s" oil fields. But most Latin American rulers don’t want to follow President Fox’s pro-U.S. line (similar to previous Mexican Presidents Zedillo and Salinas). There are also powerful sections of Mexico’s bosses who want a bigger share of PEMEX, the world’s seventh largest oil company.

In the energy field, China — Brazil’s second largest trading partner after the European Union — is investing heavily in Latin America. Argentina and China have signed a $20 billion deal to develop oil and gas fields and to build railroads. But these deals won’t make much difference for workers in Argentina, who, like those in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, have seen their wages and standard of living drop in recent years. We’ve already seen many strikes in Brazil for higher wages and against cutbacks. But Lula, the former autoworkers’ union leader elected as President "of the workers," has proven himself to be the "President" of the Sao Paulo bourgeoise, Latin-America’s most powerful capitalist group.

Again, workers have no "friends in high places" in the capitalist world. But we need more than mass militant strikes; we need to turn those struggles into schools for communism and fight to smash all the bosses. That’s PLP’s goal.

a name="Workers’ Contract Demand: No Cuts Due to Iraq Oil War">">"orkers’ Contract Demand: No Cuts Due to Iraq Oil War

I’ve been organizing for PLP on my present job for almost 25 years, and a union delegate for 20 years. Capitalism’s attacks on workers get worse and worse. The decades of Party work have created a momentum and dynamic that continues to provide growing opportunities. Some examples:

I have a new young black co-worker, a nursing student at the school where my wife and I met over 20 years ago. It so happens the Party led a major campaign against the racist, anti-working class restrictions at that school. He’s also a vet who was stationed in Kuwait. His brother (who I know) is in Iraq now. I just got him his first CHALLENGE.

Then there’s the African worker who asked me who I was voting for. "I don’t vote," I told him. "I’m a revolutionary. I like the ideas of communism." His eyes widened and I expected a negative response. But instead he told me excitedly, "I also like the ideas of communism! I wanted to get books on communism, but I didn’t have the time!" He also just got his first CHALLENGE.

Finally, and most strikingly, at a recent union meeting the union leaders and the union delegates were reviewing demands submitted by the membership for our contract negotiations this summer. The delegates were divided by job title into small groups. We were to assemble a unified contract-demand list from the individual sheets turned in by the workers of each job title.

Each group had a secretary who read the demands aloud to the group. At one point our group’s secretary suddenly smiled and looked at me. "No cuts due to the Iraq oil war," she read. "I wonder who this is from?" Everyone laughed and looked at me.

In a friendly way I argued why it was important to include such a political demand. I expected some negative feedback. I’ve known some of these folks for years and most aren’t shy about telling me to stick my head up my ass. My particular group included an ex-Marine Corps Sergeant and a Vietnam War vet.

To my surprise, everyone looked thoughtfully at each other and said, "O.K." This wasn’t an "O.K." just to appease me, but rather more of an expression of actual agreement. "Hmmm," I thought, "Something different’s going on here."

Then it came time for our group’s Secretary to read our demands aloud to the entire meeting. She went through the list then abruptly stopped and shyly looked at me. I knew she was a little afraid to read the demand about the Iraq war. The union leader chairing the meeting can be very intimidating and had already given some of the other delegates a hard time.

"Don’t worry," I said to the secretary, "I’ll read it." Then came a deep voice, "No, I’ll read it!" It was the Vietnam Vet. This black brother took the paper and read the anti-Iraq war cuts demand. He finished by declaring, "I hate this war!"

The room was silent. The union leader stared at me, poker-faced. I spoke briefly, repeating the same argument I had made to our smaller group. Again the union leader stared at me. I waited for the usual brush-off or attack.

"So how would we phrase this?" the union leader asked. "’No cuts due to the Iraq War’?" Some of the union delegates and I quickly figured out the wording and the union leader jotted it down on the official demands list. "Hmmm," I thought, "Something’s different here."

The union leaders have not changed. They’re still loyal to capitalism and their mission is to keep the working class chained to the system. What’s changed are the workers and the Party’s relationships with them. Our next step is to organize the workers into a real campaign against our war contract.

Debate on How to Fight Fascism

NEW YORK CITY — A Veterans Day forum on the Patriot Act and Homeland Security, held in a church here, dealt with the issue of whether or not we are living in an era of developing fascism. A debate exposed the difference between those fighting to destroy the capitalist system — as the root cause of all the racist attacks on the working class — and building a worker-run society free of profits, and the liberals who often call themselves radicals but are really only advocating reforms of a system that can’t be reformed. By not identifying capitalism as the source of the Patriot Act police state and of oil-driven imperialist war, many of these liberal reformers deliver us into the arms of the fascists.

The three panelists, all women, included Lynne Stewart, a civil rights lawyer currently on trial accused of "aiding terrorism"; an anti-racist, anti-fascist community organizer and a lawyer from the New York Civil Liberties Union. The community organizer exposed the current fascist nature of capitalism. Ms. Stewart told the audience to "resist, resist, resist, resist." Only the liberal NYCLU lawyer presented no alternative program to fight the attacks of the ruling class — just trust the system, a nationalist belief in "your country" and "your constitution."

Ms. Stewart outlined her case, how prosecutors are now going after lawyers to stop them from vigorously defending their clients, setting the stage to deny any rights to anyone opposed to the government’s fascist policies. She exposed a double standard, how Martha Stewart’s publicity agent and lawyer were allowed to transmit messages for her, but how her client — accused of terrorism — was barred from having a press release sent to Reuters. She’s threatened with 40 years in prison.

The community organizer detailed the intensifying fascist repression under U.S. imperialism and its increasing racist nature, tracing the cause to capitalist competition over oil. She said we must fight back by spreading ideas within all organizations in the community. She confided later that she feared there might be a strong reaction to her use of the terms "fascism," "capitalism" and "imperialism," but said that where action is necessary we must be prepared to stand up to disagreement to help people understand what’s really happening.

After two speakers from the floor exposed the current growth of fascism, the NYCLU lawyer objected to the classification, saying it was not so, and that to identify it as fascism would alienate many.

The audience listened with an open and eager ear. They were looking for answers, despite fear of terrorist attack and of the homeland security police. PLP’s ideas to put workers in power are the only alternative to the hopelessness and powerlessness generated by the bosses and their media. A real struggle of ideas emerged, between acceptance of the more repressive conditions versus struggling against them. The audience raised questions about the Hart-Rudman bill, how the Patriot Act could get passed so quickly for so large a document, about the GI’s who are refusing to fight, about military recruiters in the schools, and about future expectations.

The liberals’ answer — to fight against abuses to the Constitution and Bill of "Rights," one struggle after another — does virtually nothing to stop the rise of fascist repression, declining living standards, mass racist unemployment and oil wars. The ruling class always suspends constitutional "rights" when threatened, even in so-called "liberal" times. Liberal reforms are then whittled away — welfare, social security, the social safety net — amid the rulers’ drive for maximum profits.

A week later the Church organized a demonstration against the war and the Patriot Act in front of Brooklyn’s State Supreme Court building. Despite the rain, 40 people turned out to protest, carrying banners and signs demanding an end to the war, better housing, more jobs, attacking fascist repression and labeling capitalism as the problem. We must help people understand that the longer we remain inactive, the more repression the ruling class will get away with.

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Recently, the Equal Opportunity (EO) Officer addressed all the new sailors aboard our ship. I was skeptical, but thought I’d give him a chance to present his overview. The Officer is a 21-year Navy veteran and is currently a Chief (Chief/E7 is the rank most enlisted members achieve over their entire military careers).

A native of South Georgia, he experienced racism first hand in boot camp when he entered the military. He related an incident where a white recruit, bunked on the top rack, refused to sleep at night because he believed this black recruit and his comrades would cut his throat. The EO officer used this to stress how the media and society perpetuate stereotypes. As a young sailor, he also encountered racism in Spain. I thought he made some decent points.

Later he talked about "race" and ethnicity. He asked us, "What is "race"?" I said "race" was constructed by the U.S. ruling class to divide and control white and black workers. It turns out this was not the correct answer for the U.S. Navy!

According to the Navy, a person can belong to whatever "race" they want. He said Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and George Bush can all belong to the same "race." The better point is that Bush, bin Laden and Hussein all belong to the same class (the bosses) and are all enemies of the working class.

The EO officer also briefed us on how to file discrimination and sexual harassment complaints. The final word on one’s complaint is the Commanding Officer (the ship’s Captain). What if the Captain ruled a discrimination or sexual harassment complaint was invalid? He said the sailor could file a grievance to a higher level, but stressed that the appeal would more than likely be overruled. An honest man! Truly no hope.

He later asked the sailors what happened to the Indians once they encountered the pilgrims. I am sure the EO officer was not expecting all the sailors to respond that they were KILLED! He "corrected" us, saying they were "moved" to reservations, ignoring the genocidal character of this act. I found the class’s response encouraging — a sign of our potential to expose ruling-class ideology even in the Navy.

Ultimately, the EO officer reinforced the idea that the ruling class has taken the best from the Civil Rights, Feminists and even LGBT movements (the Navy has a policy toward treatment of gays and lesbians), in order to strengthen their drive towards being the number one imperialist.

This presentation showed the danger of reform — the ruling class using honest reform advocacy for its own goals. Only when we build a working-class-movement that smashes the construct of "race" and identity and the bosses’ state will the world’s workers be truly be empowered. All Power to the Workers!

Navy Red

a name="PL’ers Fight Giving Amnesty to U.S. Imperialism">">"L’ers Fight Giving Amnesty to U.S. Imperialism

COLLEGE PARK, MD, Nov. 13 — PLP members and friends lost a resolution demanding immediate removal of U.S. troops from Iraq but won the struggle to expose liberal reformers to dozens of students who listened intently to our communist alternative at the Mid-Atlantic region of Amnesty International (AI). The meeting here at the University of Maryland campus discussed human rights issues and the future of this movement. PLP members at two universities have worked in AI to win human rights activists to a revolutionary communist outlook, generating a small base of students and activists within the organization.

This group attended several workshops — on women’s rights, environmental issues, racial profiling, the death penalty, and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Information gained there laid the basis for sharper discussions.

At day’s end, a resolutions session allowed members to vote and recommend policy to the organization at large. PLP influenced introduction of an emergency resolution calling for immediate removal of U.S troops from Iraq due to the inability of the U.S. to stop committing human rights violations. The flattening of Fallujah, inducing thousands of civilian deaths, was compared to the destruction of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39, by Nazi Luftwaffe pilots flying for dictator Franco.The Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso, chronicled this attack in his historic painting, Guernica (photo left).

We knew this resolution would lead to a big fight. As a matter of policy, AI doesn’t oppose war, nor does it take sides in armed conflict. It advocates only that parties "respect" human rights during wars — an untenable and hypocritical position in an age of imperialist aggression. Moreover, AI is very sensitive to its "donor base" of major foundations and rich liberals. So both liberals and conservatives attacked the resolution.

Conservatives attacked it for being too radical. One AI high school student from Fairfax County (the nation’s richest county) — in a remarkable piece of doublethink — said AI should work with the Bush Administration as the only feasible way to reduce human rights violations! Liberals attacked the resolution, saying it wouldn’t work and would thus damage AI’s credibility, reducing donor contributions. They said the masses lack the power to compel the U.S to withdraw; therefore, we should focus only on individual violations.

However, our base was bold in its fight. Six students spoke vigorously for the resolution. One from Howard University (who previously felt the U.S. should stay in Iraq to "clean up the mess" it had made) clearly saw through the hypocrisy of the liberals and conservatives, saying that staying in Iraq was like telling a woman whose husband had beaten her within an inch of her life to "stick with her man" and maybe he’d change. A Penn State student declared that the entire world sees the U.S. with blood dripping from its hands, that failing to support the resolution would lead the world to think that AI also had blood on its hands — and that they would be right!

We lost the vote (25-44) but won the struggle by exposing to our base the limits of liberal reform, as well as the only real alternative to liberal/conservative reform — communism and the PLP. Immediately afterwards, we had a sit-down meeting with seventeen friends and supporters, distributing CHALLENGE and depicting the communist world we hope to build.

Feedback and questions continued for forty-five minutes. People were pumped and ready to learn and act. The discussion carried over to a late-night dinner. Building this base and struggling led to this modest growth of our revolutionary movement, even as AI’s reputation as a "bold" human rights organization was diminished forever in the minds of dozens of students.

Link War to Union-Busting, Budget Cuts at Mass. Colleges

BELMONT, MA, Nov. 6 — "Romney Says Cut back, We Say Fight Back!" chanted 40 community college faculty and students, as they marched through the quiet streets of this wealthy Belmont neighborhood, boldly taking our message to the Governor’s house. Our union chapter at Roxbury Community College enabled faculty and students to express their anger at this fascist’s union-busting, budget-cutting tactics. It pushed the MCCC (Massachusetts Community College Council) to rely on the members and respond more militantly to anti-union attacks.

Progressive Labor Party helped create a rank-and-file spirit for this militant action and fostered student participation, which generated sparks of life and enthusiasm. In addition, PLP linked the budget cuts to the war in Iraq, attempting to deepen political consciousness.

With Governor Romney at the helm, the State’s ruling class aims to transform public higher education into institutions in better sync with imperialism’s needs. By streamlining courses and programs (while cutting full-time faculty), they hope to produce better-trained workers for Massachusetts industry as cheaply and quickly as possible. Above all, they need the military to have an open door for recruiting.

The main obstacles to this agenda are firstly the faculty/staff unions, which intend to protect our interests, even though it’s within the limit of narrow trade unionism. Secondly are the many faculty, staff and even some administrators who are committed to giving students a real education, not just job training. This stark contradiction between what the ruling class wants and what faculty holds dear has led Romney to try to bust our unions.

The immediate spark for the march was Romney’s veto of a bill that would fund the raises of thousands of higher ed employees. Simultaneously, he raised the salaries of the State’s 3,000 managers by up to 7.5%. Romney strategy is to make our unions seem impotent and unable to deliver even what the contract has negotiated. If he succeeds, he’s one step closer to destroying the unions altogether.

In addition, he’s hell bent on "solving" the state budget crisis on the backs of workers and students, funneling more of the public budget into corporate pockets. Public higher education here has been cut 26% since 2001. This has increased fees 50%, forcing many students out of school completely. Last year, the State spent more on prisons than on higher education, reflecting growing fascism.

For several decades, the MCCC’s collaborationist strategy has fostered the illusion that the college administrations and the Democratic Party can be our "friends" if we play politics skillfully. This has obliterated class-consciousness and weakened the unions. Winning the professors and their allies to march and picket against one of their class enemies has started the ball rolling towards the kind of militancy needed to defend ourselves.

This action laid the basis for developing closer ties with the faculty and students, as the struggle continues.

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LOS ANGELES — "If we need four tomatoes, that’s how many we’ll produce. That’s what Tom thinks," a worker concluded as I walked into the lunchroom.

I quickly got involved in the ongoing discussion, one I think resulted from a PLP leaflet distributed a few days before. The leaflet exposed how the bosses steal the surplus value we produce, explaining that the pants we produce have both use value and exchange value. The exchange value creates the profits for the bosses but leaves millions worldwide without enough clothes. Use value, on the other hand, represents workers’ needs. The leaflet concluded that our goal is a communist society where only use value exists — production to meet the needs of the international working class, not the imperialist capitalist bosses.

On the back of the leaflet were photographs of the pants we made in the factory and their prices in the stores. When the workers saw how much profit the bosses make off the pants, it caused a big commotion.

"Yes," I answered, "it’s about a different system in which everyone will be able to meet their needs. We all wouldn’t get exactly the same because we all don’t have the same exact needs. For example, maybe five tortillas satisfies Juan’s hunger; maybe Jose needs 10; but Jesus needs only one. Each would get different amounts but all three would satisfy their hunger, would have their needs met. That’s what communism will mean."

Another worker explained, "Let’s say we produced only tortillas. Then our factory would have tortillas for everyone."

"That’s right," I said. "But under this capitalist system the rich keep most of the value we produce. We receive only the bare essentials needed to survive. It’s absurd."

"Well," interjected another worker, "we must remember that we haven’t studied. Those who have studied need to earn more."

"Not true," I declared. "In human terms, that’s absurd. A rich person needs the same as a poor person in order to live. Both the intellectual and the worker need a home in which to live. We must understand who’s more important for society."

"Yes," said another worker. "If this were a tortilla factory, we’d be making tortillas from the corn produced by the farm workers. But the lawyers, for example, what do they produce?"

"Yes, we’re the most indispensable because we produce everything of value. We don’t need the bosses. They’re parasites who don’t work and who live by sucking our sweat and blood. We don’t need production for profit, only for use value to meet the needs of the international working class. Intellectuals don’t deserve more than us. There would be no special privileges for anybody. We would all contribute according to our commitment and receive based on our need."

"This sounds good. We should support Tom because we’re all workers," concluded a quality control worker who always participates in our discussions.

The day the leaflet was distributed, one woman worker — citing the huge profits the bosses make on the pants — said, "This makes me so mad. I have to be so humble just to ask for a penny increase in the piece rate for an operation. Next time I won’t be humble!"

Referring to the Party leaflet, another worker said, "I’m saving this to use when we need to fight against piece-rate cuts." Many workers carefully folded the leaflet and put it in their pockets to keep.

a name="El Salvador: Communist Politics, Best Tool For Teachers’ Struggle">">"l Salvador: Communist Politics, Best Tool For Teachers’ Struggle

In a few weeks, the National Convention of the Teachers’ Union ("ANDES June 21") will meet to elect a new Executive Committee (EC). The 2003 convention was attended by only 600 of the 14,000 members. "It does me no good to participate," said one teacher, "because they won’t make any real changes in favor of teachers."

Members view Arnoldo Vaquerano — who’s been running the union for two years — as just an opportunist who will remain in power even if a new EC is chosen. There are 18,000 unemployed teachers in El Salvador, meaning 630,000 children are denied these teachers’ services. Contrary to hacks like Vaquerano and the system he serves. PLP teachers are bringing communist politics to the teachers, uniting with their students and parents to fight both for a decent education and against the rotten conditions which impoverish and alienate our students.

Rather than hire the unemployed, the rulers take advantage of teachers’ low wages by forcing them to work a second shift for one-third the salary. We must launch a militant fight for higher salaries and jobs for unemployed teachers, while showing how education under communism will serve the entire working class, not just a few bosses’ needs for cheap, semi-skilled labor.

Historically the teachers union has played an important role in national politics. Unfortunately, it’s always been used to support leaders and organizations which, at best, want to reform the unreformable — capitalism — and, even worse, fight openly to keep the working class under the yoke of the bosses’ system.

Organizations from countries like Norway and Brazil and those in the European Union give money to "ANDES June 21." This promotes their influence in fighting for control over what has been the backyard of U.S. imperialism. It also helps guarantee a corrupt and pro-capitalist union leadership, blinding teachers to communist ideas. Vaquerano uses teachers’ dues and invitations from these bosses to take trips — with his wife — to Europe and throughout the Americas.

In the recent presidential election, the union leaders backed Handal (former head of the defunct phony leftist "Communist" Party and now head of the FMLN), symbolizing the alliance between the leadership of the FMLN and the union. If Handal had won the election, Vaquerano would have become Minister of Education. Handal represented the wing of the FMLN and of the Salvadoran capitalists that want to diversify their options, seeking closer ties with the European imperialists. Also, they want to win us to the illusion that elections can solve our problems.

In this upcoming convention, PLP teachers plan to make communist ideas a mass issue, showing that purely trade union politics, by their very nature, can never destroy the capitalist system. The building of a mass PLP and the widespread distribution of DESAFIO is the best education teachers can receive.

a name="Indonesia: ‘Lesser Evils’ Murder Millions"></">In"onesia: ‘Lesser Evils’ Murder Millions

In this country’s first direct presidential election, Susilo Bamabang Yodhoyono (SBY), defeated his old boss, the incumbent Megawati Soekarnoputri. SBY, a retired army general and former Minister for Security and Political Affairs, has been accused of war crimes against the people of East Timor. His election is being hailed as a "success for democracy" in the world’s fourth most populous country, with the largest Muslim population. SBY is promising local bosses and imperialist investors he’ll open up Indonesia even more as a source of cheap labor with nearly 40 million unemployed. He plans to "get tough" on domestic terrorism and political corruption to provide a more stable situation in which to exploit this cheap labor. As one of the world’s most culturally diverse countries, with a history of racist violence, Indonesia will be an easy target for bosses seeking to play one group against another to depress wages.

Indonesia has a history of ruthless dictatorships following its independence from the Dutch and Japanese imperialists after World War II. In 1955 the government held the first and only general election. The Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) had a huge base and led most unions and other mass organizations. They held the government’s #2 post under President Sukarno, who was backed by the fascist military.

On Sept. 30, 1965, General Suharto, commander of the Army Strategic Reserves Command, used the killing of seven high-ranking army officers (linking it to the PKI) as an excuse to launch the largest anti-communist massacre in history. They slaughtered nearly one million PKI members and their families, with targets supplied by the CIA.

In 1966, Suharto assumed power. His fascist military regime, supported by U.S. imperialism and Soviet state capitalism (opposed to the pro-Chinese Indonesian communists), outlawed the PKI. In December 1975, U.S. president Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave Suharto the "green light" to invade the small island of East Timor which had recently gained independence from Portugal. Fretilin was the Marxist political party leading the East Timorese independence movement. The Indonesian military killed over 200,000 East Timorese during the invasion and subsequent 25-year occupation.

Suharto remained in power until May 21, 1998 when the Asian financial meltdown, student-led protests and brutal rioting throughout Jakarta and other major cities ousted him. Although recent administrations have promised to prosecute those responsible for the atrocities committed under Suharto, they’ve only widened the war against the people. In August 1999, the Indonesian military again slaughtered civilians and destroyed towns in East Timor, forcing a third of the population to flee. In 2003, Sukarnoputri declared martial law in a province of North Sumatra called Aceh, which contains huge gas and oil deposits and sits astride the Straits of Malacca, through which oil tankers reach China, Japan and the rest of the Far East.

Weeks before the run-off election, the Islamic Defense Front, a fascist pro-government group used by the military to incite ethnic and religious riots, held an anti-U.S. protest in Jakarta to protest a planned meeting between U.S. President Bush and Muslim leaders. They called for ending diplomatic relations with the U.S. and a boycott of Indonesia’s presidential election. Others wanted to elect an Islamic fundamentalist. As Indonesia pursues the prosecution of Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, the 66-year-old Mulsim cleric accused of leading an al Qaeda-linked group, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), it’s clear that many Indonesians support him and the building of a right-wing, anti-Western, pro-Islamic state. JI has been blamed for the Bali bombings, the Marriott Hotel attack and the suicide car bombing outside the Australian embassy this past September.

Challenging this are the pro-democratic student groups such as the PRD (Partia Rakyat Demokratik — The People’s Democratic Party), who led the street demonstrations for Suharto’s removal and bore the brunt of the retaliatory attacks by military and fascist thugs that killed many students in May 1998.

It is ironic that the Muslim fundamentalism built here with CIA help to "fight communism" could come to power through a Presidential ticket led by Abu Kabar Ba’asyir. This could turn the Indonesian archipelago into an anti-U.S., fundamentalist-run region. The chickens come home to roost once again.

All this spells more death and super-exploitation for all workers and youth in Indonesia. The former communist movement made the deadly error of uniting with "lesser evil" bosses like Sukarno. They paid for it in blood. Today, a new communist-led movement must be built, uniting all workers and youth and fighting for a society without any bosses: that’s the goal of the communist PLP; join us!

History Lessons Teach Students How to Fight War

Recently I taught History to special education students in a Queens, NY high school. In this week-long unit, our class studied manifest destiny, the war with Mexico and the acquisition of most of southern and western United States. The textbook I had to use makes blatantly false statements. About Native American genocide and being forced onto reservations, the book states: "Some Native Americans were misplaced from their homes; some were even killed."

When discussing manifest destiny — that the U.S. has the "God-given right" to conquer all of North America — students tied manifest destiny in 1845 to manifest destiny today in the Middle East. They cited the war in Iraq, as well as U.S. corporations reaping profits there.

The textbook uses racism to justify the U.S. invasion of Mexico, saying Mexicans were "uncivilized and inferior." It says Mexicans disagreed with U.S. ideas of "self-government," and attacked the U.S. Actually, the U.S. military attacked on the Rio Grande, part of Mexico at the time.

But the textbook failed to mention several facts, firstly, that the Mexican War was a dispute over slavery. I asked students to write a slaves’ perspective living in Texas, and who they would prefer to control it. One student replied that it didn’t matter; either way she’d still be a slave, no matter who held the chains.

Secondly, the book didn’t state it was a war between the Mexican upper class and the U.S. upper class. The textbook portrayed the war as all workers banding together to fight "the enemy." In reality, it was the poor who fought (an economic draft?). We also discussed military recruiters being offered $2 for every recruit (a large sum in 1845). There were frequent desertions and mutinies among U.S. troops.

Another student noted that recruiters still receive commissions for every recruit. He pointed to a Latin JROTC member in the class and said, "I’m not going to Iraq to kill another poor person." The class erupted in heated discussion.

Afterwards, the cooperating teacher told me these students don’t need to know the truth. "The truth won’t be on the regents. They can’t handle this stuff. So stick to the textbook." I was also told to stop pronouncing the names of towns and people with a "Spanish accent," because "it was inappropriate."

At the end of the week, the class took the exam. Every student passed, even though the average grade is usually in the twenties. The essay question was: "Why did the United States go to war with Mexico?" Significantly, one student wrote, "Capitalism."

Basketball Brawl Blocks Real Class Struggle

The Romans had the spectacle of the Christians vs. the lions, but we’re stuck with the tawdry brawl of drunken fans and pro-basketball player Ron Artest. Capitalist culture has dipped so low that even the "diversions" lack character. Arguments rage over whether Artest’s suspension was fair, while we’re supposed to ignore U.S. military razing an entire Iraqi city of 300,000. The question isn’t who’s more at fault between Artest and fan louts — they’re all no good. What we must reject is the attempt to make us care more about whether "our" team wins than we care about fighting back against the daily exploitation we face.

Millionaire players and billionaire sports owners have their "struggles" plastered all over the media, while workers’ struggles to make ends meet get little coverage except in CHALLENGE. We have no stake in who gets the lion’s share of sports’ profits — there’s no lesser of two evils. Players in phony unions routinely cross picket lines of workers making less than one percent of the players’ salaries.

Ron Artest was provoked by drunken fans who were probably taking out their frustration with the alienation of life under capitalism, but to say (as some have) that his suspension was racist is an insult to the millions of black workers who face the real super-exploitation on the job and police brutality in their communities. Professional athletes, for the most part, are pampered and excused from any responsibility for their actions so that greedy team owners can get the wins that feed their ego and pocketbooks.

Many of us enjoy watching sport contests, but that doesn’t mean we must take them seriously.

Workers have no pro team of our own, any more than we have a country of our own. Our team is our class. Keeping our eye on the ball means reading CHALLENGE and learning how to struggle and win the class war and not allowing ourselves to be distracted by the sports circus.

History of Military Rebellions, Part II:

Armed Forces’ Mutinies during the Vietnam Era

By 1971, the U.S. military high command assessed its ability to fight the Vietnam War in the bleakest of terms. In his famous report, Marine Colonel Robert Heinl claimed, "The morale, discipline and battle-worthiness of the US armed forces are, with few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States." ("Armed Forces Journal," June 1971).

U.S. service personnel resisted, refused and rebelled in a variety of upheavals. By the late 1960’s, soldiers in Vietnam had turned "search and destroy" missions — designed to eliminate the Vietnamese opposition — into "search and avoid" endeavors in which U.S. soldiers resisted their official orders. David Cortright reports that lower-ranking soldiers had organized 250 anti-war committees and underground newspapers. By 1969, Cortright claims, the army had ceased to function as an effective fighting force and was disintegrating rapidly. ("Soldiers in Revolt," 1975)

By 1968, the 82nd Airborne, often viewed as one of the Army’s most effective fighting units, was under strength. Breaking with precedent, the command ordered soldiers who had just completed a year of Vietnam combat to do a second tour of duty. The crack troops, not known for political protest, complained in massive numbers, and the Army backed off, fearing an embarrassing revolt. As a compromise, the command offered the skilled paratroopers a month’s leave if they would accept the Vietnam assignment. Of the 3,650 troops, 2,513 refused the offer, and the 82nd was reduced to a stateside unit. Soldiers were refusing to return and mutinies in Vietnam were rising.

In August 1969, the first reported mass rebellion in Vietnam occurred as 60 army personnel of "A" Company, 3rd Battalion/196th Infantry effectively mutinied. "A" company had incurred heavy casualties in the Songchang Valley south of Da Nang, and the 60 exhausted and angry men refused their captain’s orders. Ranking officers quickly arrived to squelch the mutiny and after much cajoling, most of the 60 begrudgingly moved out to their next combat duty station. Despite the overt mutiny, none received any reprimand.

In November, 1969, 21 men of "B" company, 1st platoon refused to advance toward combat at Cu Chi near the Cambodian border. Battle-hardened and nearing the end of their year of duty, the soldiers clearly believed the political goals of the war weren’t worth risking their lives.

In April 1970, a 7th cavalry company from the 2nd Battalion refused to advance on an NLF (National Liberation Front) position from a route that would have invited heavy casualties. They utilized "working it out," meaning that the rank-and-file soldiers refused their initial orders and then bargained with their superior officers for alternative plans.

From May 1970, mutinies increased as President Nixon escalated the war by ordering the invasion of Cambodia. On May 7, 16 soldiers, from a camp called Fire Base Washington, refused to advance with their units into Cambodia. On May 11, another group from the 3rd Battalion/8th Infantry refused to board helicopters headed to Cambodia. In December, in "C" Company 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 23 enlisted men with their commanding officer, Lieutenant Fred Pitts, refused what they believed was a dangerous mission. Pitts and the ranking Sergeant were removed from their command; Pitts pleaded guilty "to disobeying a direct order" and received a suspended sentence, a very lenient punishment for mutiny in combat.

By 1971, mutinies escalated and the army high command found sharp resistance from soldiers who defended mutineers, intensifying the rebellion against the brass. In October, six soldiers of "B" company, 1st Battalion/12th Infantry refused a patrol mission near the Cambodian border. When the high command threatened them with court martial, several platoons of soldiers rallied to their defense and refused to advance. Sixty-five men signed a petition condemning their mission as unnecessarily dangerous. Journalist Richard Boyle documents these extraordinary events in his book, "Flower of the Dragon."

Of all U.S. troops in Vietnam, black GIs were the most militant and posed the greatest resistance to U.S. commanders. Cortright states by November, 1970, "…black radicalism had already seriously hindered U.S. fighting capabilities, with brothers very seldom trusted in combat, apparently for fear they might turn their guns around." ("Soldiers in Revolt," pp. 39-40).

Black GI combat refusals were often rooted in a combination of racial politics and anti-war ideologies. Racial tensions did exist between white and black enlistees, but black soldiers demonstrated deep-seated hatred for the discriminatory practices of army brass. In court martial discharges, 23.4% receiving punitive discharges were black; only 16.9% were white.

The two largest military prisons in Vietnam for U.S. soldiers, Da Nang Marine Brig and Long Binh Jail (LBJ) bulged with inmates who suffered overcrowding and harsh conditions. As early as 1968, black prisoners had led the largest military prison revolts in history. At Da Nang, Marine prison inmates seized control of the central prison complex and were only overcome when 120 Marine MPs stormed their barricades. At LBJ, hundreds of soldier inmates waged pitch battles with MPs for several hours; one inmate was killed, 58 inmates and five MPs were wounded, and 23 were hospitalized. Immediately following the pitched battle, approximately 200 black inmates staged a no-work strike and held out for nearly a month.

The refusals, mutinies and prison rebellions no doubt reverberated through the ranks of the armed forces. While the primary revolts were in the Army and Marines, the Air Force and Navy experienced critical revolts.

From May 22 to 25, 1971, Travis Air Force base had the largest mass rebellion in the history of the air force. It began when a confrontation occurred between black personnel and MPs, who arrested a small number. Subsequently, 200 black and white airmen protested against the arrests, and ultimately 600 black and white rebels clashed with MPs. The officers’ club was burned. Of 135 GIs arrested, most were black; Travis was in a virtual state of siege for days.

Finally, by 1972, resistance within the Navy intensified, often as sabotage, taking large ships out of commission. On July 10, 1972, a huge fire was ignited on the USS Forrestal, docked in Norfolk, inflicting over $7 million damage and delaying its deployment by two months. Just three weeks later, sabotage on the USS Ranger caused a three-and one-half-month deployment delay; sailors had placed twelve-inch bolts in the ship’s gears.

These two sabotages and delayed deployments set the stage for a violent uprising aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. The ship had just completed its Vietnam mission and was to return home, but because the Forrestal and Ranger were out of commission, the Kitty Hawk was ordered to return to Vietnam. Hundreds of African-American sailors led a rebellion that left dozens injured and seriously undermined the ship’s operations. Just weeks later, a non-violent strike on the USS Constellation occurred as the ship was docked in San Diego. Over 100 black and white sailors protested racism and bad discharges. The Navy, desperately seeking to avoid violent revolt, buckled and reassigned many dissidents to shore duty.

Students Know a Racist System When They See One

NEW YORK CITY -Recently I had the opportunity to introduce some of our communist politics to high school junior English classes, teaching a lesson in intensifying the contradictions between the school curriculum and communist politics. Our school is completely segregated; 80% of the students live in poverty.

Students worked in groups to identify and analyze societal conflicts, picking issues like poverty, racism and war. Searching for sample editorials students could use as models to practice editorial writing, I found one on-line claiming "The Draft Will Not Make a Comeback." I combined that with two others, one criticizing John Kerry as pro-draft and one from CHALLENGE. I then let my students argue it out.

Student groups each analyzed a different editorial and gave presentations to the class. The discussions showed: (1) black and Latin youth don't trust the government and want nothing to do with fighting a bosses' war (only one student in two classes — a JRROTC recruit — voiced any support for the war and he was drowned out so much he changed his mind!); (2) students have many questions about the power the bosses have over them ("Can we go to Canada or the Dominican Republic?" to avoid a draft); (3) youth generally (like the working class as a whole) still feel immobilized when it comes to making a break with the capitalist lifestyle. They want solutions to come to them, that is, through elections as opposed to direct action.

They also have difficulty understanding the deeper political issues raised by PLP and with the reading level of CHALLENGE. These obstacles, however, are simply part of a process of their political development under the leadership of our Party, in this case, my leadership as their teacher. They're learning!

There's a saying that opportunity knocks loudest when one is prepared. The next week a major newspaper did a full-page feature spread on the possibility of the draft, complete with a large picture of a recruitment poster that read: "We Really, Really, Really Want You."

Meanwhile, we found a major international magazine featuring our neighborhood in its latest issue. The topic? Military recruitment. Among a swamp of openly vicious racist stereotypes, the article claimed the military can't meet its goals in the cities because the "target population" can't speak English, and "the majority are illegal immigrants, convicted criminals, or both." There was even a racist/sexist slur against teenage mothers. One recruiter sickly lamented that youth from the city "not only want the army, they need the army."

The students were furious. We discussed how capitalism needs to build racism while simultaneously needing black and Latin youth to support capitalism — a contradiction.

We decided to write letters to the magazine's editor. I was careful to explain how publishers of such magazines are tied to the same ruling class that pushes these wars, and how the working class needs its own ways of "publishing" our ideas. The students' letters were their best work of the semester, and, for some, the best of their lives.

I fought for students to participate in a march and demonstration against the war at the neighborhood recruiting center. Two came. We used the opportunity to denounce to thousands of passers-by the racism of military recruitment, the need to destroy capitalism and the bosses' need for imperialist wars for profit. One student read her letter over the megaphone, despite her mother's fears. A young comrade in our club also wrote, rehearsed, and delivered a powerful speech representing the views of communist youth.

This project has opened the doors to discussing the war in Iraq and issues such as the soldiers who refused orders. We made a school bulletin board that sparked more discussion. We also have a Party study group with four new youth recruits to the Party. The struggle is intensifying!µ

LETTERS

Military Moms Oppose War

I meet with a group of military families opposed to the Iraq War. At first, I mostly exchanged e-mails with one member. Eventually, she invited me to join her at an anti-war march. I helped her carry a banner saying, "Bring Them Home Now!" (Her son was in Iraq then.)

Soon afterwards we attended a peace vigil where I met a few more members of her group. Some wanted to have monthly meetings. At the most recent one there was a struggle about the organization’s future. I proposed we hold a rally outside the local Army base on March 19 or 20, the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. There’s already one planned at Ft. Bragg, N.C. I also proposed we canvas the apartment complexes around the base where many military families live, distributing leaflets about the rally and our organization.

These suggestions were seriously debated at the meeting, and in subsequent e-mails. Some opposed my ideas, saying we’ll be seen as "outsiders" and the brass will tell people to stay away from us. They said we’ll get the military wives and their husbands "in trouble" if we urge them to join us or participate in any way. People liked the same old tactic of bringing our demands to politicians. (One of my ideas was accepted, a demand to drop charges against the members of the 343rd Quartermaster Co. who refused to transport fuel in unarmored trucks through hostile territory.)

I feel the future of this organization is in question. We can remain a smallish group of families who correspond over the internet and rely on politicians to bring our soldiers home and end the war; or we can reach out to the masses of military families who live in poverty around these bases. It’s crucial that we involve these largely black and Latin soldiers and their families.

Neither peace marches nor politicians will end the war. N. Y. Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote (11/21) if the morale of U.S. troops in Iraq falls, it will influence when the war will end. Actually, if the level of the insurgency intensifies and the refusals of GI’s to carry out orders grow into a mass rebellion (as in Vietnam), that will determine when the war will end.

I would like to hear about other folks’ experiences involved in similar struggles around the country. We should encourage people to join such organizations. Young people who have siblings or spouses could join also.

The struggle will sharpen. We need to be there to fight for reliance on rank-and-file soldiers. I’m confident these families will see that PLP offers the only strategy to ultimately end imperialist wars.

A Military Mom

Colombia; China: Rampaging Capitalism

On a recent visit to China to see a friend teaching in an exchange program we saw what capitalism looks like in its most rampant form. Social relations have broken down. Communities are being torn up by developers. While people inside their homes are very hospitable, never let you pay for anything and give whatever they have since a business relationship is not involved, outside the home capitalism’s values trump everything. As in the U.S., there is mostly mindless TV.

Most cities we visited are an unregulated collection of endless buildings, co-ops and condos for a lot of rich people, but overwhelmingly people have crap. We saw people trying to mimic Americans, flaunting a lot of big-time spending, but that’s a small number compared to the entire 1.4 billion population.

Hundreds populate the streets with knapsacks, a "sub-species" who have little or nothing to eat. There’s a certain amount of "make work" to put pennies into the hands of the poor, but thousands line the streets bargaining, begging one to buy what is really cheap junk. They are very poor; they’re lucky to make a sale or two a day. Medical care is greatly reduced, compared to revolutionary China.

Much of the contact with people inescapably involves being sold something. Virtually everything is a rip-off. Although the "law" says nothing pre-1947 can be taken out of the country, we were still being offered "200-year-old antiques." All of it is fake, including clothing.

Basically the capitalist government is sucking the countryside to support the cities. Peasants are not paid what their produce is worth. Men and women are driven to the cities to work erecting the endless buildings, going from site to site to find work. Construction goes on 24 hours a day.

We saw a lot of racism directed against the Ughir people, Muslims, or non-Han. In the city of Xian in the Muslim quarter, we saw cops beating a man unmercifully. He escaped but they caught him and beat him again, while a lot of people were yelling at the cops.

Inside the schools there was a beautiful atmosphere because it didn’t involve a business relationship. Mainly English, science and math are taught — little humanities or history. Education is ostensibly "free," but millions of peasants who have been driven to the cities are not considered "residents," and must pay for their children’s education. But even those for whom schooling is "free" must pay for the final exams. If they can’t afford the fees, they can’t get a diploma.

In a country in which to become rich is glorified, the government blocks out any criticism. All stuff from the outside is jammed. Nationalism has replaced whatever internationalist outlook most people might have had. While there is widespread feeling against the war in Iraq, the government would rather keep criticism of the U.S. low-key at this point. So given the strong nationalism pervading the country, most people appear to take their cue from the government and keep their criticism of the war muted as well.

If ever a people needed a communist revolution, it’s here.

Greying Red Travelers

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On October 12, hundreds of thousands of workers marched throughout Colombia in a one-day general strike against the Uribe government that has been complicit in the many murders of trade unionists by right-wing death squads. Soon afterwards, Bush visited Colombia to support the Uribe government, one of the few loyal allies of the U.S. in South America, where Chinese, European and even Russian imperialists are making inroads. Typically, U.S. bosses choose the worst cutthroats they can find, like the death squads and Uribe, who have turned Colombia into the world’s most dangerous place for trade union activists (along with many other workers and even children). Twenty-three teacher-unionists have been murdered over the past year, mostly women.

On the day of the general strike, the union representing faculty at the City University of New York (PSC) held a spirited picket line at the Colombian embassy in support of the general strike and the Colombian teachers’ union, FECODE. Those of us at the rally were inspired to be demonstrating on behalf of our sisters and brothers in Colombia.

Now the death squads are threatening reprisals. The AUC sent a letter to Colombian university staff union with the names of six teacher/unionists they will execute, warning, "That all other members of this organization must renounce their membership now. The trade union must disappear." This is a chilling example of the fate of unions under fascism.

The university union, SINTRAUNICOL, are asking U.S. workers to write President Alvaro Uribe Velez at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. demanding he protect the targeted unionists (with a copy to the union). Activists are using this letter-writing campaign to build awareness of events in Colombia and to organize a solidarity movement. But it will have little effect on Uribe, who is from a prominent ranching family with close ties to both the paramilitaries and billionaire drug traffickers. Uribe came to power on a platform of using billions of dollars of U.S. military aid — Plan Colombia, begun under Clinton — to crush the guerrilla groups that now operate in 40% of the country and to protect oil pipelines and the international oil companies operating here.

We should alert our students, co-workers and neighbors about how the U.S. "democratic" rhetoric is belied by support of fascist repression in Colombia.

NYC Teacher

Fascism: by Choice or Contradiction?

An important letter entitled "Is This Fascism?" in CHALLENGE (9/8/04) essentially, even if not intentionally, challenged our Party’s line that fascism only grows out of capitalism in crisis. The author seemingly agrees there are no "lesser-evil" bosses and that fascism is instituted by the whole ruling class. But he/she then argues that because of the failure of the old communist movement and the general historical "weakness" of the working class — only 10% of the workers are unionized — the bosses, are not threatened by the workers. Since they also are not endangered by any other imperialist power, they are rather choosing to implement fascism "because they can," to further strengthen their political control and increase their profits. I feel this analysis contains fundamental and dangerous errors.

Inter-imperialist rivalry, intensified by capitalism’s inherent contradictions, has shaken the U.S. economically and politically. World overproduction and the falling rate of profit have decreased the bosses’ industrial base in the U.S. Since January 2001, the U.S. has lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs. From 1995 to 2003, the Steel Industry alone has lost approximately 50,000 jobs, a 30% decrease from only 171,000 jobs (which was down from 400,000 in 1980!). The consequence? Racist unemployment comparable to depression times and a nearly $500 billion trade deficit: the sign of a relatively declining and increasingly unstable economy. Add to this, military failure in Iraq (also devastating economically), an army that fewer working-class youth are rushing to join, the rise of the euro, and a booming China, and the U.S. bosses’ political prestige doesn’t look so hot either. Now, add to the picture these factors:

• From 1998 to 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "Protective Services" sector (Homeland Security) has grown 15%. More specifically, from 1998 to 2003, there’s been a 16% increase in cops on the street (from 513,040 to 609,920 — 96,920 more cops!), a 39% increase in police detectives, a 7% increase in "correctional" officers and jailers (from 387,930 to 417,420) and a nearly 50% increase in bailiffs.

• July 22nd, 2004, "Homeland Security’s Best Kept Secret" (US Newswire 7/23) — the "Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004" — was signed into law by President Bush with bi-partisan support. Backed by the LEAA, a fascist cop organization, it’s estimated that with this bill one million off-duty and retired cops will now not only be armed, but also practically federalized by the ruling class. Any off-duty or retired police officer can now carry concealed weapons and "do their job" — oppress the working class, especially the black and Latin portions of it — anywhere in the U.S.

Thus, it’s evident that "fascism" is not a choice. Rather, it has a material basis of intensifying contradictions propelling its development. Over-emphasizing the bosses’ choice for fascism is dangerous because it is the same error committed by the old communist movement. It implies lesser-evil politics — revisionism — and we should avoid it.

A comrade

PLP Sparks Campus Action vs. Iraq War

"At the same time that the U.S. government is attacking Fallujah, seizing their hospital, and ripping patients out of their beds, the same ruling class is closing hospitals here in Los Angeles to pay for their war. Thousands of poor workers will die here because of lack of medical care....The madness of this war and…of these budget cuts only reflect the madness of the entire capitalist system — a system that will stop at nothing to protect its profits, a system that has no limit to the amount of suffering it will inflict on the workers of the world."

This was part of a speech given by a comrade who helped organize a small but spirited demonstration on a large working-class college campus the day after the invasion of Fallujah began. Most people in the campus anti-war group are still deeply depressed over the election. This event helped lift some of them out of their daze. A group that was bigger than expected, given the speed of the planning, participated and another 400 students took our leaflets. A combination of these direct actions led by PLP and a sober anti-imperialist, communist analysis of the world situation will help to resuscitate the faltering anti-war movement and push it in a more revolutionary direction, as well as lead to PLP’s growth.

Alongside disappointment and disillusionment, an interesting shift is beginning. People who were uninterested in hearing about fascism a year ago are now much more ready to discuss it. People who wouldn’t have made time for a study group on imperialism are now making time. We’re building upon this shift and planning more study groups and forums to help the people we’ve been working with move from the reformist anybody-but-Bush mindset to a revolutionary outlook.

In other schools in the area, leaflets were distributed exposing the murderous invasion of Falluja and supporting the members of the 343rd who refused their orders. This has stimulated lots of interest and discussion.

LA Red Youth

Communist Recalls Mussolini Execution

CHALLENGE brings out the best in people. One day I was selling the paper outside the phone company building where I work when an older lady approached me and asked, "Is this a communist newspaper?" "Yes," I replied. "Well," she said proudly, "I was a communist in Italy during World War II, when they dragged the executed fascist dictator Mussolini and his mistress through the streets of Milan." A proper fate for all fascists.

Oakland comrade

a name="WW2 GI’s Rejected Bosses’ Orders to Fight Soviets"></">WW" GI’s Rejected Bosses’ Orders to Fight Soviets

After hearing about the atrocities in Falluja, I spoke to a veteran comrade who had a bright view of the potential for turning a bad situation into its opposite.

At the end of World War II, U.S. rulers wanted President Truman to send the U.S. troops who had fought the fascists in Italy to Manchuria to fight the Soviet Red Army. The GI’s composed the following words to the tune of Lily Marlene:

Please Mr. Truman, won’t you send us home.

We have conquered Naples,
We have conquered Rome.
We have subdued the Master Race,
So please give us some shipping space
And send us home.

Many thousands of these GI’s then threw their guns into the Mediterranean. They didn’t fight the Russians. They went home.

This was one of many incidents of soldiers rejecting the bosses’ orders en masse and taking the side of the international working class. In the face of the fascist attacks in Fallujah and throughout Iraq, the history of soldiers’ standing up against fascist, racist imperialist orders should be told, retold and studied. (See article on Vietnam, page 8) We must do everything in our power to fight for anti-racist, anti-fascist and communist ideas and action among the youth and the entire working class. We have a lot to learn from the past and those who fought for workers’ internationalism and communism in the face of tremendous obstacles.

A comrade

Red Eye On The News

Below Are Excerpts From Mainstream Newspapers That Contain Important Information:Abbreviations:

NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

• Iraqis see oil as US motive

"It is sad to say this, but after 18 months the United States still hasn’t convinced Iraqis that it means well, said Yitzhak Nakash," the Brandeis University expert on Iraq . "We have never been able to persuade Iraqis that we aren’t there for the oil." (NYT, 11/11)

• Iraq war was long-planned

On Feb. 19, 2002, I visited central command headquarters for a briefing on our mission in Afghanistan… "Senator," he said, "we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan. …Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action In Iraq…"

General Franks was telling me this 13 months before the beginning of the combat operation in Iraq… (NYT, 10/24)

• 10 more years in Iraq?

For months, Iraqi recruits for [police and National Guard] forces have been the victims of assassination and car bombs….

Local American commanders and security officials say…that many are reluctant to show up and do not tell their families where they work; they… present a danger to American troops they fight alongside, and are unreliable because of corruption, desertion or infiltration.

Given the weak performance of Iraqi forces, any major withdrawal of American troops for at least a decade would invite chaos, a senior Interior Ministry official, whose name could not be used, said in an interview last week. (NYT, 11/30)

• US incinerates Iraqis

"Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water," the [Washington] Post explained more than 20 paragraphs into the story. "Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns."

The Post quoted a hospital physician, Kamal Hadeethi, who said: "The corpses of the mujaheddin which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted."

But…Tuesday morning, on NBC’s "Today" show, a network correspondent in Baghdad mentioned phosphorous shells just long enough to say that they are "meant to burn through metal bunkers." Presumably an account of effects on human beings would not have gone well with viewers’ breakfasts. (Norman Solomon, "Creatons Syndicate," 11/14)

• Hammer & sickle for Bush

Using tear gas and water cannons, riot police officers dispersed hundreds of rock-throwing protesters on Friday after thousands of people had gathered peacefully to demonstrate against the presence of President Bush at a weekend summit meeting here [in Chile]….

"We want Bush to know that he is not welcome here" said Monica Ceron, a college student who was wearing a "Bush Stinks" T-shirt and a red headband…with the words "Down with Bush" and a hammer and sickle. "Our government may want to do business with him, but the Chilean people oppose his genocidal war on Iraq and his designs on Latin America." (NYT, 11/20)

• Red Cross: US tortures

The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba….

Some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics."

Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners’ mental health and vulnerability to interrogators, the report said….

The Red Cross said publicly 13 months ago that the system of keeping detainees indefinitely without allowing them to know their fates was unacceptable and would lead to mental health problems. (NYT, 11/30)

• Coke grabs people’s water

Corporations like Coke contribute to water scarcity by gobbling up water supplies for use in bottling operations….

Coke’s niche in the bottled water market is bottling tap water from municipal water systems around the world. It literally takes people’s water, then sells it back to them….

In parts of India, Coke’s water bottling has forced communities into major crises. At least five Indian communities face severe water shortages and health problems because of Coke….

In the village of Mehdiganj, the exorbitant water consumption of Coke’s 24-hour-a-day bottling factory has caused groundwater levels to sink by 40 feet….

This month, thousands of people in India will march 150 miles, from one Coke bottling facility to another, demanding that the plant inMehdiganj be shut down…. (Patti Lynn, MinutemanMedia.org, 11/10)

1. 2004 Election Results Mean:
   WORKERS AND SOLDIERS NEED RED POLITICS
2. Union Hacks Opened Door For Bush Re-Election
3. Workers vs. Bosses: Only One Class Can Rule
4. Students Drive Marine Recruiters Off CCNY Campus
5. Who's Dying in Iraq?
6. U.S. Army Traps Poor Workers in Rich Man's War
7. Challenge Warmakers At California College
8. College PL'ers Unite Anti-war Marchers with Striking Profs
9. SF MUNI Drivers in Solidarity with Hotel Workers
10. VW Workers Victimized by Union-Boss Partnership
11. Home Health Aides Can Be Real Force for Working Class
12. What criminal can get away with that?
13. At APHA Convention:
    Condemn Health Workers' Participation in Torture
14. APHA Members Back Hotel Workers
15. Profits of Globalization, Mass Poverty and World War III
16. From Vietnam to Iraq:
    The Fire Next Time
17. Anti-Imperialist Action Is Cure For Election Blues
18. LETTERS
    1. Airport Workers Fight Anti-Communism
    2. Turn Anti-war Feelings into Anti-Imperialist Action
    3. China-U.S. War Sooner Than Later?
    4. Recruiters Can't Hide Death in Iraq
    5. Want College Info? Beware of Cops
    6. Cheer Anti-war Vets At Nov. 11 Parade
    7. Union `Study' Evades Hiring of Black Workers
    8. Disabled, Home Care Workers Have Same Class Interests
    9. Vote Or Die Is a Death Threat!
19. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. Troops expose lies on Iraq
    2. Sec'y cites US war crime
    3. Public anger hits US allies
    4. Profits outrank death risk
    5. US backed Iran despotism
    6. `Winning friends' in Iraq
    7. 100,000 Iraqi civilians die

2004 Election Results Mean:
WORKERS AND SOLDIERS NEED RED POLITICS

From a working-class point of view, the November 2 election reflected both dangers and opportunities. Bush's victory showed that racism and religion remain powerful weapons in the rulers' ideological arsenal. On the one hand, U.S. rulers led millions of workers down the dead-end road of electoral politics. Sixty percent of eligible voters turned out -- up from 52% in 2000. But this same figure shows that the capitalists' success is far from complete. The 40% who stayed away from the polls -- nearly 80 million people -- far outnumber Bush's 59 million votes or Kerry's 56 million. And an unprecedented push to register young workers and students had no significant effect. "An Associated Press exit poll survey found that fewer than 1 in 10 voters...were 18 to 24, about the same proportion of the electorate as in 2000." (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/3) Although class-consciousness today is woefully low, we in PLP must redouble our efforts to win millions of non-voters (as well as many of those who actually voted) away from "choosing" which ruling-class servant is going to oppress us all.

Bush's victory shows that many people have been won to fascist ideas. But a key reason for Kerry's collapse offers encouragement. Many people in the U.S. don't want their children, or themselves, used as the rulers' cannon fodder. Kerry had a mission. His imperialist backers were counting on him to capitalize on the Sept. 11 attacks and U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to begin a thorough militarization of the nation that would ensure the U.S.'s worldwide dominance into the next generation.

The New York Times' endorsement of Kerry demanded that he usher in an era of "shared sacrifice." A program of mandatory, universal national service starting in high school was the cornerstone of Kerry's early campaign. Young people, said Kerry in a May 2003 speech, could choose between the military and fascist homeland security. But when U.S. troop shortages in Iraq made resuming the draft a real possibility, mass hostility erupted.

On October 8, Time magazine reported 64% opposition to the draft. A week later, ABC News said 77% were against it. Kerry had already dropped national service like a hot potato. In the debates and on the campaign trail, Kerry confined himself to the usual Democratic lies about more jobs and better health care. Both candidates wore out stacks of bibles swearing they would never restore the draft. Nearly 60% of the voting pool cast ballots for Bush and Kerry. More than three-fourths, however, are unwilling to let the U.S. war machine waste their sons' and daughters' lives for Exxon Mobil's profits.

Pundits say that the election reflects growing support for the rulers' so-called war on terrorism. Enlistment statistics belie such claims. "The Army Research Institute projects that only 27% of Guard and Reserve soldiers intend to re-enlist -- an all-time low. The Army National Guard fell nearly 10% short of its 2004 recruiting goal of 56,000 enlistees. In addition, many former soldiers mobilized under a special program have refused to report; they've been to Iraq and don't want to return. The pool of young people who have committed to join the Army next year is only 18% of the total required." (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 10/22)

Tens of millions of people -- mostly working-class -- fear Bush's brand of war and fascism. But millions more, certainly among the tens of millions who voted for Kerry, don't necessarily see through his version of war and fascism. They still have the illusion that somehow the Democrats can make things "right." The millions of non-voters are not, at this point, a threat to the ruling class. Opposing the draft, and telling military recruiters to shove it, are all to the good. But lasting change won't come until masses of workers and rank-and-file soldiers do, in fact, embrace politics -- revolutionary communist politics -- and build a party that will eventually crush capitalism. That's the goal of the Progressive Labor Party.

Union Hacks Opened Door For Bush Re-Election

Much has been said about the backwardness of workers who voted for Bush. They've been called religious nuts, racist idiots and even Nazis. Indeed, many of them are reactionary. But why do workers in Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa and other "red" states vote for "moral values" while seeing their jobs and standard of living go down the drain? Before the elections, a CHALLENGE article on Ohio provided a partial answer: the Democrats and their union hack lieutenants offered no real alternative.

If the AFL-CIO in all its factions (from its president John Sweeney to "dissidents" like SEIU's David Stern) had fought the massive job losses maybe some of these workers wouldn't have been taken in by the Bushites' reactionary ideas. But there was no alternative. Instead the AFL-CIO invested hundreds of millions and used tens of thousands of volunteers to bring out the vote for Kerry and the Democrats, who were basically aping Bush: Kerry wanted 40,000 more troops to "fight terror." Even the "dissident" union leaders' so-called "Million Workers March" was basically an anti-Bush, pro-Democrat rally of a few thousand workers.

Very little energy and resources went to support strikes among San Francisco hotel workers, Southern California grocery workers or home attendant workers in NY, or any other recent working-class struggles. To the contrary, the union leaders have done everything possible to betray and sell out workers in the last 40 years. Where was the labor movement when Reagan busted the striking air controllers' union? Or when Clinton dismantled welfare and imposed slave-labor Workfare, destroying union jobs in NYC and other major "union cities"? Didn't the leaders of the auto, steel, machinists', miners' and other industrial unions make wholesale concessions to the bosses, eliminating hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs since the 1980s? These hacks have been too busy supporting the U.S. bosses "war against communism" -- backing death-squad governments in Latin America, Asia and Africa -- and currently supporting the racist "war on terror."

Communists understand that politics are in command, that class consciousness cannot be built by pro-capitalist union hacks. The level of class consciousness among U.S. workers is lagging. But, things can change. When PLP began in the early 1960s, workers and students here were considered "backward," anti-communist, racist, etc. Similar to today, reactionary groups, many led by liberals, ruled the roost. Suddenly, the anti-war movement grew, along with the civil rights anti-racist movement.

Many people joined PLP because it was in the vanguard of many of those struggles: from the first public anti-Vietnam war march in NYC to playing an important role in the Harlem Rebellion, the first of many anti-racist rebellions that shook the U.S. Workers and students were politicized. In addition to the growth of these movements, mass wildcat strikes erupted like the 1970 national postal walkout. The reactionaries were set back, including racist KKK thugs, whose attempts to spread their racist filth were fought by tens of thousands throughout the U.S., many led by PLP.

Of course, the '60s were different. Although the Soviet Union had already sold out, the Cultural Revolution in China and the fighting Vietnamese workers and peasants inspired millions worldwide. Today, one can hardly be inspired by the Islamic zealots fighting the Christian fascists who rule the White House, but the class struggle will sharpen. In contrast to the '60s, the U.S. now is an imperialist power in decline, and must intensify its attacks on its own workers to pay for its endless wars. It's up to us, not the union hacks and their collaborators, to turn reactionary-minded workers into class conscious fighters for their class interests.

Workers vs. Bosses: Only One Class Can Rule

(The previous articles in this series have explained the state as the key instrument for maintaining the bosses' dictatorship over the working class and the rest of society. Bush's re-election changes nothing in this analysis. Had Kerry won, the U.S. would also have remained a capitalist dictatorship. Since the reversal of workers' power in the former Soviet Union and Peoples' Republic of China, every state in the world represents the tyranny of the profit system. Workers and their allies must never choose between supposed "lesser evil" bosses. All previous class societies have been a dictatorship of a minority over the overwhelming majority. Our goal remains to smash the capitalist state apparatus root and branch and replace it with a revolutionary communist state: the Dictatorship of the Working Class, the rule of the overwhelming majority who produce all value.)

The state as an instrument of class rule came into existence with the rise of social classes. It will continue to exist as long as they do, because classes reflect a society based on antagonism and therefore the need for organized violence to maintain the ruling class in power. The triumph of communism will also require a state. (The abolition of classes altogether is a topic for future discussion.)

The revolutionary dictatorship that will enable workers to rule society will be a state of a thoroughly different type from any other in history. Firstly, it will represent the dictatorship of the vast majority over a small minority. Secondly, it will eliminate exploitation and profit as the basis for social organization. Socialism in the former Soviet Union and China provided a glimpse of this state, but the communist parties that led those societies committed deadly political errors that transformed the burgeoning workers' dictatorship into its opposite.

The Progressive Labor Party's document, "Road to Revolution IV," summarizes them. The key error involved misunderstanding the crucial need to win workers to fight for communism and misleading them to fight instead for socialism, a halfway house in which revolutionary communist form disguised capitalist content. Now, even the pretense of communist form is long gone in Russia and modern China.

The great communist revolutionary Lenin set the tone for this error as it relates to the dictatorship of the proletariat. In his classic work, "State and Revolution," he argued that the state and the communist party should remain two separate entities. Another great revolutionary, Mao Zedong, compounded the error and took it one step further to the right, in his essay "On New Democracy." Where Lenin had argued that the state and the Party were separate, implying therefore that non-communists could participate in a communist state apparatus, Mao openly advocated the concept of the state as an alliance between communists and "progressive" capitalist forces. Antagonistic classes cannot share power. History has exposed the tragic bankruptcy of these positions. Lenin and Mao are titanic figures in the history of our movement, and we say that we stand on their shoulders. But their theory of the state was wrong, and it led to political practices that destroyed the old communist movement and caused our class to suffer the worst defeat in its history. This was not their purpose, but it was the result -- we must face facts.

We need to fight for something different. The Progressive Labor Party believes that the overwhelming majority of the world's workers can eventually be won to fight for a communist dictatorship of the proletariat. This will be a long, very difficult process, but it is the only goal worthy of a communist party. Anything less will merely prolong the horrors of the profit system. We must break thoroughly with the fatal illusion that society should be ruled by any other organization than the Party. The working class must not entrust the building of its own society to non-communists. "Democracy" under the profit system permits parties to exist for two reasons: to represent tactical camps among the bosses and to delude workers into marching behind the banners of one or another.

Today, tomorrow, forever, in good times and bad, weak or strong, we hold only one banner: the red flag; we fight for only one goal: communism; and we envision only one Party as the instrument of the working class's dictatorship, composed of hundreds of millions of workers.

We understand the grueling, long-range character of the course this grand strategy implies. History has shown that the dictatorship of the proletariat is easier to achieve than to maintain and preserve. It has also shown that the world's bosses will stop at nothing to strangle a fledgling communist state in the cradle. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, every participant in World War I, including the bitterest of capitalist enemies, united to send troops to crush the new Soviet Union, which had freed one-sixth of the world from capitalism. This action failed, but it cost the lives of seven million Soviet soldiers and civilians. Barely a generation later, the imperialists then allowed the defeated German bosses to rearm, giving Hitler the special assignment of wiping out Soviet socialism. Hitler also failed, but not until his hordes had murdered tens of millions more.

We should expect no less brutal a response once we or our successors succeed in establishing a communist state anywhere. When conditions eventually ripen for a revolutionary seizure of power in the United States or any part of the world, we can assume that the process will follow the massive destruction of major warfare, including armed struggle in the region where the revolution is occurring. We can also assume that other imperialists -- Chinese, Russian, European, Japanese -- will imitate the capitalists after World War I and the bosses who backed Hitler against the Soviet Union in World War II.

History also shows that the working class can take anything the murderous bosses dish out. The main danger comes from within, in the form of political and ideological concessions to capitalist values that in turn lead to practical betrayals, often despite the best of intentions. The only guarantee against this disaster is a Party that wins many millions of workers to join it and build communism. This is the core of the communist state apparatus.

In other words, our class here and worldwide should expect a very long-range future of sharpening and widening struggle. The transfer of power from the bosses to our class will take many years and much blood and sweat. We must never retreat on the principle of working-class dictatorship of and by communists. This lesson has cost too many working-class lives for us to abandon it now or at any time in the future. It's a hard lesson, but it holds the key to the future of the working class and humanity.

Students Drive Marine Recruiters Off CCNY Campus

NEW YORK CITY, Nov. 15 -- Last week we drove Marine recruiters off the City College campus, located in the middle of Harlem, a black and Latin working-class neighborhood. Military recruiters are on the prowl more than ever to recruit working-class youth to fill the shortage of troops needed by the U.S. ruling class to fight their imperialist wars.

Two weeks before, the recruiters had set up a table in our campus's main lobby, which we discovered only when they were leaving. One comrade cleverly asked them when they would return. "Next week, same time, same place," they replied. We immediately prepared our friends and other students on campus for their next visit.

When the recruiters arrived and put up their table. We set up another table right beside them, circulating a petition for fellow students to sign if they opposed military recruitment on campus and to bar them from the school. Over 100 signed in less than a half hour and took our CHALLENGES as well as a leaflet debunking myths spread by the military. We led people in chanting, "Hey recruiters, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" and "Exxon, Mobil, BP, Shell, take your war and go to hell!"

After only 20 minutes, the two Marines started packing up their table. Then we started chanting, "The students, united, will never be defeated!" Students standing nearby joined the chant.

Afterwards, we had a brief discussion with some fellow students who were interested in forming a campus anti-war/anti-military recruitment group. We also plan to go after the administration for allowing recruiters on campus and will protest at the neighborhood recruiting office.

The following week the recruiters failed to show, so we sold CHALLENGE and made speeches exposing the massacre in Fallujah.

The past several weeks have been filled with modest success but we understand it takes one step to start a journey.  We realize that the students were with us; by intensifying our efforts in developing closer ties with them and working through our student clubs, we can win these students to our revolutionary politics.

Who's Dying in Iraq?

Who are the young men and women dying in the massacre at Fallujah, or in Mosul, Baghdad and the rest of Iraq? American or Iraqi they have a lot in common. Jeffrey Lam, the child of Chinese immigrants, lived in Queens before joining the Marines.

He went to Bronx Science H.S., Pace University. He, like many others, has been described as a nice kid who had friends, did well in school. Then he joined the Marines because he was won to fighting in this imperialist war.

The Iraqi obituaries are similar, but dwarf in number the U.S. deaths. Over 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed, at a greater rate because the U.S. has more firepower.

The New York Times interviewed a low-level insurgent commander, who described their strategy in Fallujah. After deciding how many of their forces to save, they leave those wanting to become martyrs to draw the U.S. into a fight, and use the mounting civilian casualties to build anti-U.S. sentiment.

The Times described a wounded father in Falluja pleading for medical help from the U.S. soldiers as his wife and daughter lay shot in a house. The U.S. had attacked hospitals because they didn't want the doctors reporting the civilian casualties.

It is the sons and daughters of the working class who are being slaughtered in a cynical war to control the flow of oil.

The insurgent strategy is working to some degree. As expected, U.S. rulers are more than willing to kill tens of thousands of civilians. Fighting has now flared up all across Iraq. But there are also some signs in the U.S. military of soldiers becoming disillusioned with war. These flickers of consciousness need to be kindled. Soldiers who reject the bosses' orders need all the support we can organize, and need our politics to see there is an alternative to capitalism's butchery.

U.S. Army Traps Poor Workers in Rich Man's War

It is hot here in Iraq during the day. Today, my duty involves waiting for some TCNs (Third Country Nationals) hired to move some drums used by GIs to empty their guns. Two soldiers can do it in half an hour, but the war machine gives a million-dollar contract to a private contractor. The latter farms out the work to a subcontractor who in turn hires workers mainly from Pakistan, India and Nepal to do the job for very low pay.

Another story (of thousands here): Alam is a 22-year-old Nepalese man who came to Iraq because he was offered a job -- the only job he could find -- as an office worker in a Kuwait cafeteria. His dream ended there. He didn't know he was headed for Baghdad, not Kuwait, being part of the first group of TNCs to enter Iraq with the U.S. Army when the invasion began in 2003. He was to work in camps set up by the invading army.

Alam had only two options: either work in these camps or return to Nepal paying his own way. During the first weeks in Baghdad all he heard every second was missiles, shootings and explosions. After a month working in one of Saddam's palaces seized by the U.S. Army, a young man knocked on the front door in the building where he was living to ask for something to eat. When Alam came down from the second floor, he heard an explosion -- the young man had blown himself up. Alam was shocked and started running and yelling: "The Americans have weapons, helmets and gas masks to protect them, I have nothing!"

Gathering his belongings and, without knowing where he was going, he asked someone to take him to Kuwait. But he ended up working at a base south of Baghdad, a relatively safer place. But he can never forget what he had seen. He couldn't leave Iraq; they had taken his passport. He's now forced to remain in the middle of a war of rich against poor, where each day a few get rich and the many get poorer.

A GI somewhere in Iraq

Challenge Warmakers At California College

California--This term on campus has been filled with surprises and struggles, including an exposé of the mass murder and misery that U.S. imperialism has wrought in Iraq; its relation to worsening conditions for workers and students here; and a direct challenge to military recruiting on campus. PL'ers related all this to capitalism and the need for revolution

It began with a forum on labor, education and the military, organized by a group we're involved in. To dramatize the event, we handed out 400 pages, each filled with 63 ribbons, each ribbon representing the death of an Iraqi, and posted them on a tall picket fence. They completely covered the fence. We also posted photographs of dead GI's, including personal stats and how they died. These displays had a powerful effect on people viewing them, trying to grasp the amount of destruction and misery imperialism brings to the working class.

The forum's speakers linked the current imperialist war to conditions here. Hotel and other workers talked about cutbacks they're facing and a possible strike. One worker was fired for union activity, exposing the bosses' drive to maintain profits against rebellious workers. Military speakers outlined the miserable V.A. benefits and educational grants, which they're still waiting for. The speakers had a lot in common -- we're all working class!

We passed around an address, urging people to write their support to the families of the 18 soldiers in the 343rd company who refused to carry out orders -- more working class solidarity. We discussed the sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry and the vital role soldiers play in resisting imperialism; these workers in uniform have the power to stop the war machine in its tracks through rebellions. They need worker/student support. A person in the audience declared that a system based on greed for a few, exploitation and war can only be ended with revolution for workers' power.

Weeks later we challenged the presence of military recruiters on our campus. They gradually were increasing the amount on duty, with no reaction from students. Eventually, the recruiters stepped up their presence, putting on a show with drag race cars and motorcycles. We decided to organize an immediate flash protest. We marched into the campus's main courtyard carrying banners with pictures of dead GI's while chanting, "Military recruiters off our campus!" and [the massacre in] "Fallujah means Fight Back!" Many people cheered and joined the chanting, bringing out a surprising number of students.

Then cops set up police tape around the military's luring traps. One comrade yelled, "Why are the police protecting the military so much!" In fact, students asked the same question. We explained that the cops and recruiters work for the same government and the same ruling class and that class needs more working-class people in the military because there aren't enough soldiers to keep fighting this war.

We realized we needed to specifically emphasize the need for military rebellions. Without rebellions, the war machine still runs.

The event demonstrated the power PLP has -- when we organize these kinds of struggles, changes happen. If we don't do it, as we learned, nobody will. So, let's do it!

College PL'ers Unite Anti-war Marchers with Striking Profs

CHICAGO, IL, Nov. 3 -- Tonight, the night after Bush's re-election, hundreds of people participated in an anti-war demonstration in Federal Plaza. A group of City College students under PLP's leadership, who've been active in the three-week-long teachers' strike there, linked the war and fascist Homeland Security to racist cutbacks in health and education, and offered communist revolution as the only solution. We planned to drive the point home by leading the rally to march to a "candlelight vigil" in Millennium Park, to support the strikers.

The night be-fore some of us made communist banners for the events. One read, "No Racist Cuts for War and Fascism!" The other, symbolic of the candlelight vigil, depicted a lit candle igniting a fuse to sticks of dynamite representing imperialism, education cuts and oil wars. Two arms broke their chains, one holding a copy of CHALLENGE and the other with a clenched fist. It was a long evening, but it showed the power of working collectively.

We proudly displayed both banners at the anti-war rally. While the organizers were calling for peace, we connected the war to the bosses' oil profits and homeland fascism, and attacked capitalism, not just Bush. We distributed hundreds of PLP leaflets and about 40 CHALLENGES to workers eager for a real solution to capitalism's unending wars for profit.

Then we led a break-away march to the vigil, organized by the Strike Solidarity Committee, a group of city college students and some faculty. Our banners led the march as we chanted, "Racist Cuts Mean, We Got to Fight Back! Oil Wars Mean, We Got to Fight Back!" We ignited the crowd already there to join our chants. We distributed more CHALLENGES and PLP literature to the students and striking professors, explaining that racist cuts in education, health care, pensions, and social security are financing the hundreds of billions of dollars the ruling class needs for the war in Iraq and fascist Homeland Security. As long as the bosses hold power, the needs of the working classes will never be met.

A young comrade from Malcolm X College made a speech about the necessity of fighting the system and called for communist revolution. We chanted, "The Only Solution is a Communist Revolution!" Many agreed, saying, "Yeah, it's revolution time." Out of this struggle, we made a few more contacts with students and more teachers, who are potential revolutionaries with valuable leadership experience.

We're learning how to work in mass organizations and build the Party, developing deeper, stronger relationships with old and new friends, and learning how to become better Party leaders. We're also gaining experience in collectively writing politically sharper leaflets, and in distributing and writing for CHALLENGE. We're now forming a PLP City College Club with some students close to joining the Party and with more who are interested in our ideas.

SF MUNI Drivers in Solidarity with Hotel Workers

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Nov. 16 -- Hotel workers in Local 2 of the UNITE-HERE union have been locked out for almost two months. Many transit workers at SF MUNI have demonstrated real class solidarity. "It's an important strike for all of us...if they lose, we all lose...I'm glad to be out here on the picket line but I wish we could do more..." At least for a day, a hotel picket sign with the MUNI solidarity poster ended up at a MUNI garage taped over a management poster.

The lockout presents many opportunities to bring a communist analysis of workers' struggles in this capitalist war economy. One driver spoke for many who recognize, "As long as scabs are in there and guests are checking in, the hotel owners won't give in." This sparked speculation about our own situation. Another said, "If we ever go out...there won't be anyone driving at MUNI...Not scabs, not supervisors...no one!" A group of us then discussed how to organize a job action, how to get enough drivers involved and how to respond to any attacks.

Some argue that Mayor Newsom is helping the workers when he threatens the owners with economic sanctions to end the lockout. Others agreed with the solidarity poster we took to the picket line: "Same Enemy, Same Fight -- Muni and Hotel Workers Unite -- Muni Supports Hotel Workers Fight."

The hotel owners and Newsom are basically on the same side. "Newsom's campaign got big money from the Hotel and Restaurant Associations because he ran on a platform of cutting city government. Cutting health care and layoffs is their common theme to fix the city budget and the hotels' shrinking profits."

A PLP member explained that in today's world of wars, strikes are illegal. The bosses control the politicians, laws, police and union leadership. This is the state apparatus, which sometimes appears neutral, but is there to control the workers. This produced more debates about voting and whether "ordinary people" like us could run society.

The union leaders picked the night of the monthly membership meeting to urge drivers to picket in solidarity with the hotel workers. This was just an excuse to call off the meeting while many issues regarding our schedules and take-home pay remain unresolved. They also instructed us not to wear our uniforms, making it impossible for many drivers to participate, since most of us are in uniform 12-14 hours a day with split shifts and long commutes home. In contrast, the union and management gave us time off to vote for Kerry or Bush, in or out of uniform.

Fascism and the Patriot Act were discussed after a supervisor complained about the solidarity poster in a driver's window. One driver said, "The bosses have the technology for total control and a police state. Many people seem to be just giving up their rights out of fear."

Many workers have bits and pieces of the big picture. A communist outlook is needed to bring it all together. Consistent engagement with our co-workers on and off the job with CHALLENGE, conversations and actions, with individuals and groups, and with organized study, helps to develop this outlook. You can put the pieces of a puzzle together, but you need the picture on the box to guide you. In this lockout, our picture includes the state apparatus, profits, political economy, war and fascism. CHALLENGE often says that strikes can be "schools for communism." School is in session at MUNI.

VW Workers Victimized by Union-Boss Partnership

FRANKFURT, Nov. 3 -- Volkswagen averted the first strike in its history, "promising" a seven-year job guarantee in return for a 28-month wage freeze. The 103,000 VW workers will get a one-time lump-sum payment of 1,000 euros, while the company will reduce labor costs by nearly one-third by 2011, its main objective in these talks.

Michael Fichter, a labor relations expert at the Free University of Berlin said the new contract "shows a remarkable ability to work together," and "is an example of the social partnership culture." This is university double-speak for nationalist class collaboration and the rise of fascism. It resembles what the U.S. auto industry has experienced since the 1980's.

VW pledged to invest in six plants in western Germany now that they're more competitive with low-wage factories in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other Central European countries. But they also said they would continue to shift production outside of Germany if "the economic equation was right."

Volkswagen's union, IG Metall, gave up the demand for a 4% pay increase under the cover of "warning strikes" at several factories. The union's chief negotiator said, "We achieved our goal of securing jobs."

The new contract also cuts wages for new workers. "From now on, new employees will work on the same level as our competitors," said a company spokesman. "We never asked as much from workers as in this round of negotiations."

Volkswagen's assault on the workers follows DaimlerChrysler and GM's Opel division winning concessions on wages and work-rules, reducing labor costs. VW and Opel in particular have excess capacity in their German factories. G.M. will slash 12,000 jobs from its European work force, mostly in Germany. VW plans to eliminate its excess capacity in the next two years. That doesn't square with "job security."

The week-long wildcat strike of Opel workers in Bochum last month reflected the anger of the workers who wanted to fight for their jobs. IG Metall, like the UAW in the U.S., cynically used the wildcat to get a say in how the cutbacks would take place. The only thing the Opel wildcat "achieved" is that G.M. is now negotiating the details of the cutbacks with the union.

As the inter-imperialist rivalry sharpens between the U.S., Europe and Asia, all the liberal and "social-democratic" labor leaders will, as Lenin said before World War I, "run to the tents of their masters." Ultimately, this nationalism will lead to more fascism in the workplace and eventually, another world war. Meanwhile, PLP has an opportunity to build a revolutionary communist movement among these basic industrial workers who are tied together across all borders. That international solidarity will lay the basis for turning the next world war into the last one.

Home Health Aides Can Be Real Force for Working Class

NEW YORK CITY, Nov. 2 -- The big fight for overtime pay for home care workers is part of a bigger picture, of a half-trillion dollar war budget attacking the working class through job loss, declining wages and cutbacks in services, as well as the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis and nearly 1,200 GI's. Both presidential candidates took aim at Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

Home care in NY State is a big program, with about 900 home care agencies, employing 250,000 workers. (See N.Y. State Association of Healthcare Providers, Inc. 2003 report on homecare.) Medicaid serves 186,000 sick and elderly patients and Medicare serves over 176,000. Thousands more have home care through private insurance and managed-care plans. In January, Medicare recipients will suffer a 17% increase in payments deducted from their Social Security checks, and it's possible patients will be slapped with $30 co-pays for home care services. "Many patients will have to choose food or homecare," said one worker. "And these are our loved ones!"

The government, insurance companies and health care agencies favor homecare because it's cheaper than nursing home or in-patient hospital care, due mainly to the racist exploitation of home care workers. The majority are immigrant, non-white women, many ex-factory workers. They work long hours for low pay and no overtime.

Most NY State non-union home care workers earn $5.15/hr.; union rates are $6.50 to $9/hr. Many routinely work 50 to 70 hours a week with no overtime pay, or a few pennies extra, just to make ends meet. Some work 24 hours at per diem pay -- which calculates to 12 hours at straight time and a night differential of $17.

Local 1199-SEIU is the biggest homecare union. The home attendant contract says there's no guaranteed work-day, -week or -year or hours of work; 24-hour-a-day workers are labeled "sleep-in" cases. They receive a per diem, not hourly, wage. Some 1199-SEIU home health aides will receive a so-called "living wage" of $10 an hour by 2007-2008 -- a bandaide covering a gaping wound. Actually the union "living wage" campaign was more about electing Democrats than fighting for workers.

A home attendant working 60 hours a week, 42 weeks a year for 15 years at $8/hr. straight base pay, has been robbed of $3,360 a year in overtime pay, or $50,400 over 15 years! If working 24 hours a day, 4 days a week at $113 a day with no overtime, 42 weeks a year for 15 years, the overtime robbery is $28,000 yearly or $420,000 for 15 years!

What criminal can get away with that?

The criminal is the whole capitalist system that robs and exploits workers while treating the sick and elderly like commodities and killing our children in wars for imperialist gains. It is a system that doesn't deserve to exist. "We need a revolution; I'm for that," said a Party member. "Let's fight for overtime and learn about capitalism and communism and how to prepare for revolution. The struggle is big and difficult, but the future is in our hands, if we will take it."

NY State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is prosecuting one Brooklyn agency for "legal" overtime pay. Now some agencies are counter-attacking against the growing fight for overtime. They're telling workers that by January weekly hours will be limited to 40. A worker needing more hours can work 40 at one agency and 20 at another. A few agencies say federal money for homecare is being held up because workers are not meeting "federal standards."

Agencies may take more slave-labor Workfare workers and part-timers, who are ineligible for union membership and benefits if working less than 80 hours a month. If home care workers don't unite and fight back, conditions will worsen and all workers will be dragged down to our level. That's how racist division and exploitation work. Many home care workers are scared and have been intimidated.

So what to do? "Let's strike," said one worker. "O.K.," said another, "But let's get ready first." A rank-and-file committee is continuing to collect names on our petition -- directed to NY State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and 1199-SEIU chief Dennis Rivera -- calling for overtime pay and a $17 hourly wage, and for equality with workers in hospitals and nursing homes. We've distributed thousand of flyers entitled, "Stop Robbing Us" at union meetings and rallies, at the home health aides' strike last summer and at the Central Labor Council union rally at the Republican National Convention. We're organizing a rank-and-file committee to reach out to co-workers. We're making ties with union delegates committed to our cause. We've held several meetings and are planning a larger one. We want to protest in NYC and Albany.

As the campaign broadens, we must be prepared for government and union efforts to co-opt, buy off and counter-attack. The best preparation involves workers becoming conscious of how the capitalist system works and who are our friends and enemies. More workers are reading CHALLENGE. A few are interested in PLP. These are the workers who are the potential core leaders. Let the fight continue!

At APHA Convention:
Condemn Health Workers' Participation in Torture

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 15 -- The recent convention of the American Public Health Association (APHA) passed two resolutions introduced by PLP members and friends. One condemned participation of health workers in torture, as happened at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The other denounced the denial of public services to undocumented immigrants and the criminalization of those providing such services.

For 15 years PLP members and friends in the health field have been participating in the American Public Health Association (APHA), a group with over 50,000 members, including community and public health workers, nurses, doctors and students. We've been at every national convention, usually attended by about 12,000 people, and involved in some local chapters. PL'ers and friends are deeply integrated into several working sections and have been elected to APHA's Governing Council. We've introduced, and won passage of, resolutions opposing wars for oil and against the militarization of public health.

The resolution on torture drew the historical lesson that doctors under past fascist regimes have been won to cooperate with the State. It called for education opposing fascist ideology in health professional training. Some of the most prominent "progressive" forces in APHA opposed using the word "fascist," and even any reference to Nazi Germany. This stimulated vigorous discussion lasting several days. Ultimately, it passed easily, replacing the term "fascist" with its definition as an ideology of racism, nationalism, militarism and suppression of civil liberties.

The second resolution -- condemning the denial of public services to undocumented immigrants -- (which passed as a Proposition in Arizona) was rejected by the APHA leadership as "repetitious" of old resolutions. But the Governing Council demanded its reintroduction and passed it, recognizing the new heights of anti-immigrant hysteria.

Party members and friends distributed thousands of leaflets exposing fascist trends in health care, including the above issues as well as the lack of treatment for AIDS worldwide and drug company control over prices and research. We were accompanied by hotel workers, who face drastic cuts in health coverage, but whose hotels APHA patronized.

About 20 people, including new and old friends, attended our breakfast for those who wanted to fight fascism in health care. There we planned resolutions and session proposals for next year. We're hoping to sponsor a group of talks focusing on government control of health care, including the alteration of science for political ends (global warming), and the need for health workers to choose loyalty to their patients over loyalty to the State or employers. This opposes the Administration's plan for universal mental health screening, massive psychiatric drugging and anti-immigrant policies. In one city where we're active in the local chapter, a grass roots campaign against racial disparities in health care will continue.

The APHA claims it represents the progressive, activist voice in health care, and is officially in favor of a single-payer national health plan. However, even though the convention was in Washington, and many members were calling for a mass march on the capitol -- which easily could have been organized after the opening session -- the leadership planned only a poorly publicized demonstration on Tuesday morning, in the middle of regular business. Thus, with no publicity, only a few hundred people showed up.

The leadership emphasized lobbying Congress, not on organizing a mass movement. Although the members have passed many progressive resolutions over the years, the organization takes little or no action to implement them.

Through our long-time consistent work, we've influenced many and are highly influential with a smaller number. We struggle with them to recognize that capitalism causes the problems in health care and society and cannot be reformed away. These struggles in the APHA expose the phoniness of the liberals, who are so blinded by the rulers' "democracy" blather that they avoid struggle or uttering words like "fascism" more than they care about fighting for what the members want.

APHA Members Back Hotel Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Hotel workers and APHA members jointly leafleted the APHA annual meeting in support of health benefits for hotel workers who are working without a new contract at the Holiday Inn and the Marriot and Hilton hotels. This activity grew out of local efforts by PLP members and friends to merge the forces of labor and public health in fighting for health care access and improved conditions of life for all workers. Soon many of the 12,000 APHA members were wearing stickers backing the hotel workers. Distribution continued at the booths of the medical care section and the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association throughout the convention.

The leafleting represented a move forward for the MWPHA in its effort to seriously fight racism and health disparities. Workers and professionals must unite in many such struggles to lay the basis for revolutionary change in the society and in health care.

Following the presidential election, many public health advocates were ready to renew the struggle for workers' health. Some joined the APHA rally for public health funding and lobbied Congress. Others protested the mayor's willingness to close D.C. General Hospital some years ago and open a baseball stadium instead, with profits flowing to the baseball owners.

Profits of Globalization, Mass Poverty and World War III

Between 1948 and 1995 world trade expanded from $124 billion to $10.7 trillion. During this period, no "third world" country prospered. World Bank and International Monetary Fund regulators made sure the biggest finance capitalists gained the biggest profits. "Free trade" apologists claim this is how the market operates. But there's little "free" about world trade. The current intensifying competition among the major imperialists resembles Europe in the years before World War I. In his recent book, "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic," Chalmers Johnson documents the growth of world trade and U.S. military expansion. By September, 2001, "the Department of Defense acknowledged at least 725 American military bases outside the United States."

In his 1916 classic, "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism," Lenin described how industries combine to control production and the market. Industrialists depend on the biggest banks to finance their expansion and devour their competitors. "The development of capitalism has arrived at a stage when, although commodity production still `reigns' and continues to be regarded as the basis of economic life, it has in reality been undermined and the big profits go to the `genius' of financial manipulation."

The largest monopolists use the government, especially the military, to press their economic advantage internationally. In "The Lexus and the Olive Tree," New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist....And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army." In the 83 years between Lenin and Friedman, imperialism has not changed how it functions.

The capitalists monopolize even the most fundamental necessities of life, food and water. The level of overall government agricultural subsidies in Western countries rose from $182 billion in 1995 to $362 billion in 1998. In 2002, these subsidies were six times greater than the total foreign aid from rich countries to poor. This led to dumping cereals, beef, pork, milk, butter, tomatoes and sugar on the international market. Poor countries can't compete, and stop producing many food products. Then, when milk prices rise, they have little choice but to import.

U.S.-based multinational agri-businesses also use "intellectual property rights" to extract profits from weak international competitors. For example, RiceTec, Inc., of Alvin Texas, attempted to patent a hybrid of India's basmati rice, which has been farmed for centuries. By owning patents, capitalists can charge royalties and licensing fees and even control who farms when and where. Similar behavior by pharmaceutical corporations severely restricts anti-AIDS medicines, leading to millions of preventable deaths, especially in the poorest areas of Africa, Latin America and Asia.

The continual drive for maximum profits pits the big capitalists -- who dominate manufacturing, oil, finance and agriculture -- into direct competition with upstart rivals or with each other, ultimately boiling over into armed conflict, as izn the Mid-East oil wars. Anticipating increasing challenges to its control of the area, the U.S. expanded its military bases in the Gulf region from one permanent base in 1990 to its current 15. Johnson concludes in his "Iraq Wars" chapter, "...the United States has been inexorably acquiring permanent military enclaves whose sole purpose appears to be the domination of one of the most strategically important areas of the world. Of course the United States has an interest in the oil in the region..."

Friedman claims U.S. imperialism and military power will bring peace and "democracy" to the Mid-East and beyond. Lenin had a different take on modern imperialism when he described it on the eve of World War I. His assessment has been borne out in the past 90 years of wars, and provides the most realistic predictions for 21st-century imperialism.

Lenin and his fellow communists did not fear the gathering war clouds in 1914. They viewed history as a science. They understood that imperialist war is inevitable under capitalism, and opens the door to communist revolution.

There's no use being sad about the weather. Just prepare for it. Capitalism has existed for only a few centuries. We can make sure that the 21st Century is its last. By building a mass international PLP among workers, soldiers and youth, we can turn the next world war into communist revolution. Then workers will produce what we need, and share it.

From Vietnam to Iraq:
The Fire Next Time

After suffering through too many pundits' post-mortems of the presidential election, it was refreshing to see CHALLENGE point the way forward with a history of GI rebellions. A good number of students, industrial workers and military families here were encouraged to read of "Red GI Off to Iraq with Red Ideas." Organizing in the bosses' armed forces is a crucial tactic to answer imperialism and, what looks like, an inevitable draft.

Unfortunately, the first paragraph on the front page "muddied the waters," in what was otherwise an extremely useful and timely series of articles. It concluded that "the army's mission will be seriously undermined" when hundreds of soldiers refused to report to duty. In my opinion, that's overblown. A nuisance, maybe even a big one, but hardly anything that would really challenge imperialism.

During the Vietnam War, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, fled to Canada. This passive response to the war never really threatened the bosses' imperialist plans. It couldn't!

However, when hundreds of thousands of soldiers "turned the guns on imperialism," General Westmoreland, supreme U.S. commander in Vietnam, began screaming in White House meetings to withdraw before the bosses lost the whole army. The jig was up!

The third paragraph points to a much more promising course of action. It tells of the Army's 343rd Quartermaster Company's refusal to obey orders. The army has sequestered the five leaders and will probably throw the book at them in hopes of intimidating others who want to do the same -- or more! At least two of these working-class leaders are black, making this a racist attack to boot.

During the Vietnam War, the Army employed similar intimidation tactics, most notability in the case of Private Billy Dean Smith. The brass wanted to convict Smith of fragging, blowing up an officers' barracks with a fragmentation grenade, the first case of its kind. They hoped white GIs would not rush to the aid of this African-American. In answer, our Party launched a campaign against this racist attempt to intimidate soldiers. So did others. I personally helped organize a demonstration of a few hundred supporters in a city near where I was stationed. In the end, Smith was freed and the GI movement grew.

It's a shame our Party did not have more members in the bosses' military at that time. The rebellion in the armed forces was a mass movement, but it lacked sufficient revolutionary communist leadership. The sharper we are on this question, the more prepared we will be for "the fire next time."

Red Veteran

Anti-Imperialist Action Is Cure For Election Blues

Despite all the disillusionment after the election, when students and workers are offered a real alternative to the crass opportunism and reformism of "anybody-but-Bush" liberals in the form of anti-imperialist and communist ideas, they respond -- with their fists in the air! My campus has traditionally had a reputation for its apathy and conservatism when it comes to politics and political practice. Yet, two recent events organized by the student-led anti-war group within which I've been base building have revealed a very different campus. A recent forum on the possibility of a military draft in the near future for US youths and an emergency demonstration against the offensive in Fallujah have shown me not only how receptive students and workers are to leftist and communist ideas and criticisms, but also how willing they are to participate in political actions that take a strong anti-imperialist stance against the racist and fascist abuses of the US ruling classes.

Over 130 students attended our forum on the potential reinstatement of a military draft in the U.S. Students sat on the floor and crowded at the doors after the 100 available seats were all taken, eager to listen to the presentation and engage in discussion over a future draft. Many important points were made, including that we already have a back-door draft in the form of an "economic draft" and the Bush administration's stop-loss policy. The U.S. need to wage endless imperialist wars to maintain its global domination means that the ruling class will need more "boots on the ground" to fight their profit wars. With enlistment down and resistance in the military beginning to become apparent, the US rulers will have no option but to draft working-class men and women to carry out their warmongering imperialist murderous plans. Many students were open to our ideas, agreeing that electoral politics will never end the atrocities of capitalism and its perpetual wars for profits. The need to build an anti-imperialist social movement, made up of workers, students and soldiers, was accepted as the only real solution to the evils and injustices of monopoly capital.

A large number of students were very excited and motivated by the ideas and arguments put forward at our forum, and began to come to our weekly meetings. The recent offensive in Fallujah, begun less than a week after the election, allowed us to channel this motivation into an emergency demonstration on our campus against the military escalation in Iraq with its mass slaughter. Surprisingly, we were able to plan a rally and march within twenty-four hours. At the rally, we distributed over 400 leaflets linking the imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the cutbacks in education and health care, to attacks on workers' wages and pensions, and to the growing problems faced by students and workers here in the US. The rally brought out students, campus workers and even some professors. Speeches were made that outlined the real reasons for the US ruling class' war in the Middle East: the need to control Middle Eastern oil reserves and commercial markets to ward off potential imperialist rivals and maintain global hegemony. More importantly, the rally demonstrated that even on a supposedly conservative campus like mine, students and workers are willing to voice dissent and build resistance when presented with the truth.

The forum and especially the demonstration have brought my friends closer to PLP and attracted a number of new student activists who I can get to know. We are planning another demonstration next week. Despite all the talk of disaffection and disillusionment after the election, the opposite is becoming clear also. When offered something other than the crass opportunism and reformism of "anybody but Bush" liberals, when offered real change in the form of anti-imperialist and communist ideas, students and workers respond---and do so with their fists in the air!

LETTERS

Airport Workers Fight Anti-Communism

At the airport where I work, we recently published the first issue of a monthly newsletter called Airport CHALLENGE, and we're taking on the anti-communist attacks from a union misleader.

Airport CHALLENGE appears in English and Spanish with a communist view of the news and political struggles. The first edition was well received, especially among regular CHALLENGE readers. Because the post-9/11 U.S. looks more like a fascist police state, we should all develop many ways to get the Party's ideas to workers.

This issue reported a political struggle within the union, exposing a right-wing shop steward who turned traitor to become a company supervisor. He is so politically bankrupt that he tries to hide his own treachery by spreading anti-communist rumors and lies on the second shop steward, a PLP member.

Anti-communism is the bosses' tool to keep workers from gaining a revolutionary perspective on who their real enemy is, the fascist bosses and their capitalist system. Anti-communism, like its evil twin racism, is used to divide communist and non-communist workers from fighting back against the bosses' racism, sexism, etc. This way capitalism is saved and the bosses continue to oppress us all. Once millions of workers embrace PLP's communist politics, nothing will save the bosses from communist revolution, not even nuclear weapons! As a wise old comrade once said, "The worst prison is the mental one workers don't know they're in." Smash anti-communism and capitalism and join PLP!

Airport Red

Turn Anti-war Feelings into Anti-Imperialist Action

Recently a temporary anti-war exhibit opened in Monterey, California a few blocks from the Naval Post-Graduate School and the U.S. Army's Defense Language Institute where interpreters and interrogators are trained. Some wind up working in the torture chambers at military prisons like Abu Ghraib, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The memorial, located in a small one acre park, consists of 1,033 individual markers mounted on four-foot stakes with biographical details on each U.S. serviceperson who died in Iraq. To truly reflect the carnage that U.S. imperialism has brought down on 100,000 Iraqis killed since the invasion in March 2003 would require an immensely larger plot of land.

Hundreds of pacifist anti-war protests like this memorial and the more militant actions like last month's 343rd Quartermaster Company GI refusal of orders are the latest welling up of something the bosses hoped was dead but is now coming back to haunt them - the Vietnam Syndrome. We must apply our communist ideas to the anti-war sentiment and pacifism while struggling against their political weaknesses as we tried to do among the millions who marched against the start of the Iraq war and the millions before who protested the ten years of the Vietnam War.

Both Bush and Kerry support U.S. imperialism's war to maintain control of Mid-East oil. While we note the rise of anti-war feeling, we continue to organize for communist revolution, not just to end a war but to eliminate the cause of war. To this end our transit club is studying the latest prescription of the bosses' Council on Foreign Relations' Peter G. Peterson to put the U.S. on a permanent war footing, and we're circulating a petition to support the rebellious GI's.

Our goal is to turn the ghost of the Vietnam Syndrome into the breathing reality of the working class, led by its communist party, PLP, driving a stake through the hearts of the capitalist rulers once and for all.

Some of us know from our own experience over the last several decades that anti-war movements and even G.I. rebellions alone cannot end imperialist war. Only organizing a movement to overthrow the cause of imperialist war - capitalism's need for greater profits, markets, and resources - will root it out.

Canary Row Comrade

China-U.S. War Sooner Than Later?

This spring, I spent two weeks traveling around China, both in big cities and in the countryside. I thanked my city hosts for their hospitality, saying I would like to return the favor if they ever came to the U.S. They politely said they'd like to visit the U.S., but it's becoming impossible for Chinese citizens to obtain a visa to the U.S.

When the discussion turned to politics, I said I thought our countries would soon be at war. To my surprise, my friends sadly but wholeheartedly agreed.

In the countryside, restaurant owners, high school students and taxi drivers constantly asked me to compare China to the U.S. I asked them what they thought of the possibility of China going to war. Gravely they all said that one way or another that would happen soon.

I tried to figure out how this diverse group of people had formed this same idea. When I returned to the U.S., I read different Chinese newspapers almost daily. While most articles had the approach that the Chinese government was encouraging friendly business and cultural relations with the U.S., in July an incident occurred that answered my question.

Nearly all non-American trade with China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Indonesia travels through a mile-wide channel called the Straights of Malacca. Piracy is common there. The U.S. government claimed that if pirates could board cargo ships, so could "terrorists." They announced they would send warships to the Straights to guard against "terrorism."

Within hours of that announcement, China, Indonesia and Singapore made a joint public denouncement of this "obvious plot to control 60% of China's oil imports." The three governments said in so many words that the U.S. was making a direct imperialist challenge to their countries' trade and resources and that such a direct threat was intolerable. Within two days, Singapore sent their own warships to the Straights, pre-empting any U.S. deployment.

This incident was thoroughly reported in the Chinese media as a conflict between imperialists. I was surprised to see how directly the Chinese government challenged the U.S., and how widespread the coverage was in China. With such stories on the evening news, it's no wonder most Chinese see world war on the horizon. All summer, the Chinese government has made no secret of stockpiling oil, steel and other raw materials, driving up worldwide prices.

My conversations in China and this conflict over the Straights of Malacca led me to believe that this inter-imperialist rivalry might boil over even more quickly than I had ever imagined.

A reader

Recruiters Can't Hide Death in Iraq

At the Newark, NJ election day rally at a recruiting center (see CHALLENGE, Nov. 17), our chants disrupted the recruiting process enough to have one recruiter call the cops. Before they arrived, one recruiter closed the shades in a vain attempt to shield the potential recruits from our politics. When the cops came, one recruiter weakly responded to our chants by moving the large cardboard soldier cut-outs next to the window where we were marching. One demonstrator pointed out that the soldiers dying in Iraq were made of real flesh and blood, not cardboard.

Brick City comrade

Want College Info? Beware of Cops

I'm a NYC high school junior, and recently went to a college fair at the Javits center to get information on colleges. What I assumed would be a peaceful event filled with kids talking to college representatives, soon turned into a riot filled with kids being yelled -- and arrested -- by cops!

Many people showed, mostly African-American, Hispanic and Asian, so many that we were all waiting in a packed crowd outside to get in. Those in charge told us we'd have to wait. Then they let in a few people at a time, but they took in only three groups in an hour; many more were still waiting outside. Then, after letting in one more group, they told us the fair was over; we wouldn't be allowed in.

Well naturally, after waiting for an hour and a half the crowd would be angry, but we still remained non-violent.

Some people left but many stayed and began to chant, "Let us in! Let us in!" The officials continued saying there was no more room, that the colleges had "run out of information." More people left, but when many refused to go, the cops were called. About 10 showed up with some sheriffs, who explained to us how the colleges ran out of information. Then the cops yelled for us to "Get out!" They announced on a bullhorn that if we didn't leave they'd start arresting people. I began to feel I was in the twilight zone. I guess it was my first experience of a true capitalist society, arresting teens for trying to enter a college fair!

More people left after this but a good number went in. The cops barged into the crowd screaming to "get out." One cop was pushing people who wouldn't move. Then they began arresting kids. One boy was arrested for trying to go up the escalator to enter another way. A girl was arrested because she told a cop who grabbed her not to touch her. Similar arrests were made.

After the cops left, my friends and I went to the fair's exit to try to get in there; we didn't want to leave after standing for so long. But a guard stopped us, repeating the same crap the cops had told us -- no information left.

When a college representative ap-peared, we asked them if they had any information left. She said yes, and asked why we didn't come inside. We told her what had happened. She was appalled and said she'd be glad to give us information; she had 22 boxes left!

My friends and I began asking for information from more college representatives who came out and gladly gave us brochures, pamphlets and pens, and anything else they had. We left the Javits Center with bags packed with information about many colleges.

I couldn't help thinking of all the others who had left, and the ones who were arrested -- kids who came just to go to a fair, not a club or a concert, to find out about colleges. Those who got no information went home empty-handed because they were lied to and refused entry. Now why do you suppose that is?

High School youth

Cheer Anti-war Vets At Nov. 11 Parade

The TV news broadcasts of the NYC Veteran's Day parade showed only the Armed Forces drill teams marching in flashy uniforms accompanied by military bands. There was no footage of the militant, anti-war and wheelchair vets who were demanding the U.S. get out of Iraq and bring the troops home now.

From the time our anti-war veteran's group stepped off at 26th street to the parade's end at 56th Street, we were welcomed with loud cheering, clapping, and heartfelt hugs and embraces for those of us near the barricades. A young woman yelled out, "Bring my husband home, please," to our marchers, which included the mother of a soldier in Iraq. One vet had a sign showing how many millions of dollars the CIA spent training Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Looking into the faces of teenagers in the crowd, I had flashbacks to my own teens, being drafted to fight in an imperialist war in Korea. The purpose of this parade was to prepare youth for a draft, which in many ways has already begun. Our Party needs to reach out to these kids so they feel supported and less isolated.

The day before I had been picketing with the vets at the VA hospital to prevent the VA from shutting it down. Vets like these are 33% of the homeless in the U.S. They're part of a half million soldiers denied treatment for the effects of Agent Orange, a poison sprayed on people in Vietnam, and for cancer-causing depleted uranium embedded in destroyed military equipment covering much of Iraq. Over 120,000 vets are on a 6-month wait list for a doctor's appointment. Many wounded vets are housed in ancient, cold and inaccessible World War II barracks where they must walk blocks in the snow to get to an outdoor toilet.

If PLP keeps spreading our politics to future soldiers - like at recent recruitment-center rallies - about how capitalism/imperialism causes wars, we can supply the understanding these soldiers will need not only to organize against the brass, as many did in Vietnam to help stop that war, but to take it to the next level - communist revolution as the Russian soldiers did in 1917.

Korean War Vet

Union `Study' Evades Hiring of Black Workers

The activity in support of the hotel strike in San Francisco has been consistent and enthusiastic. However, the CHALLENGE article (11/17) contains an error.

All that glistens is not gold and the union's diversity clause to force bosses to hire black workers really isn't progressive. It turns out the union is demanding that the hotels hire an ombudsman to sit on a diversity committee to discuss the possibility of hiring black workers in the future, not demanding outright hiring now.

"There is an awful lot of anger," Langston Hughes used to say, "in a dream deferred." The anti-racist rebellions of the 1960s played out this story over and over again. Black workers demand immediate redress of racism; reactionaries suggest a (time-delaying) "study" of the situation.

Perhaps we could return to the picket lines with a simple demand like 10 of the next 15 workers the hotels hire must be black, a demand that strikers and their supporters could take to schools and churches asking for picketing support.

Also, we might awaken the revolutionary potential dormant in the whole working class if PLP clubs elsewhere carried the same demand to hotels in their areas. This would address the question of workers' unity in a direct and dynamic way.

Black workers joining the hotel workforce in greater numbers would counter the isolation so often felt by immigrant workers. It's demands like this that build the kind of unity we need.

We should also link the general attack on all U.S. workers stemming from the rising racism in, and the unbearable costs of, the U.S. war in Iraq to the particular situation hotel workers face here.

SF strike supporter

Disabled, Home Care Workers Have Same Class Interests

A recent article, "Home Attendants 'Zoned for Slavery,'" outlines the brutal working conditions for union members who provide home health services in New York City. It's important to build class-consciousness among these workers. To do that we must put their exploitation in context: Who are the people who rely upon home health services? Why is providing the care they need valued so little? Why is more paid to perform a task in a nursing institution than in a person's home?

The folks who need home health care services are workers, their children, siblings, and parents. Whether disabled from birth, an accident, illness or old age, they're working-class folks. I live in California, but I suspect the situation is much the same all over: Low-income disabled and elderly people get care through In-Home Support Services (IHSS) which receives funding from both the federal and state governments. Washington has cut its contribution, and California, in turn, is slashing the program. This program is for poorer people; the majority of those receiving Social Security do not qualify for IHSS because their incomes are "too high."

Caring for the working class -- particularly those who cannot produce -- is not a big priority in a capitalist society based on profit. Both the workers who provide this vital assistance and the folks who need it are treated as expendable. They're natural allies and many disabled people know it. The latter have lobbied and demonstrated for better treatment and compensation for those who assist in their survival. When they can, they supplement their helpers' wages from their own limited resources.

Finally, why is the pay better (though not by much!) in an institution? One factor is the nursing-home industry, a powerful, profit-making group which supports laws favoring institutionalization over in-home care. Disabled workers are forced into these warehouses because they cannot get government aid to stay home in their communities. Also, where more service workers are concentrated in one place (a hospital or nursing home), they may be able to squeeze a little more out of their bosses.

Disabled Worker

P.S. A good source is author and commentator, Marta Russell, whose website is http//www.martarussell.com.

Vote Or Die Is a Death Threat!

One method the bosses use to control the working class is pushing nationalism. Simply put, this belief says your group of people is superior to another group of people. One example is Pan-Africanism or black nationalism, from the late 1960's up to today. The current "Hip-Hop Power" political movement under Russell Simmons, Puff Daddy and others, wants to forge a new nationalism by making Hip Hop a political force. They seek to create a Hip Hop Party as a feeder to the Democratic Party, with a Hip Hop political action summit.

Recently I attended Russell Simmons' "Get Out The Vote Concert." It said electoral politics is the answer to the oppression of the working class. The concert was squarely aimed at students, sponsored by Playstation 2 and featured Hip Hop celebrities racing video cars. The black nationalist group "Public Enemy" also appeared, as did Mary J. Blige, and other artists who appealed to youth. They all pushed voter registration and are a major part of "Hip Hop Culture," another word for Hip Hop nationalism.

The real danger came from Democratic Congressman Charles B. Rangel, who spoke along with Democrat Andrew Cuomo. When Rangel appeared, I started yelling, "No Draft!" and began informing those around me that he sponsored the draft bill recently defeated in Congress. The audience was receptive to my ideas; some participated in shouting at him. Rangel seemed visibly shaken.

Seeing Andrew Cuomo speak also suggests he might be a potential Hip Hop candidate for political office.

The amount of glitz, glamour and cash being given to the "Vote or Die" movement clearly shows the ruling class's commitment to ideologically attach students to the system. We must show that voting is like choosing between Pepsi and Coke - either way they're both soda, contain no nutritional value and will kill you if it's all you drink.

By struggling with those who came with me, leading a chant that clearly shook Rangel, and patiently building in the arts, I'm able to keep spreading our advanced political line. More Party members should enter the arts - film acting, slam poetry and writing. Every open mike, every bare stage, every homemade movie, and every music track is a potential artistic tool for recruiting to PLP. We must create Communist culture through the arts to oppose the sugary poison of the bosses' rotten "Vote or Die!" politricks being spoon-fed to the youth.

Manhattan Comrade

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations:

NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

Troops expose lies on Iraq

Carlos Perez quit school, left his job as a firefighter in Long Island, New York, and joined the US Marine Corps.

"To be honest, I just wanted to take revenge," said Perez, 20.

Now, two months into a seven-month combat tour in Iraq, Perez said he sees little connection between the events of September 11 and the war he is fighting....

"Sometimes I see no reason why we're here," Perez said....

Perez is hardly alone. In a dozen interviews Marines from a platoon known as the "81s"expressed in blunt terms their frustration....

"I feel we're going to be here for years and years and years," said Lance Cpl Edward Elston, 22.... It's going to be like a Palestinian-type deal....

Several members of the platoon said they were struck by the difference between the way the war was being portrayed in the US and the reality of their daily lives....

"But when you're here, you know it's worse everyday." (GW, 10/28)

Sec'y cites US war crime

"We lucked out," Mr. McNamara, now 88...who was secretary of defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson....says of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. "It was luck that prevented nuclear war." Of the firebombing of Japan in World War II, and his boss, Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, he recalls: "LeMay said that if we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals. I think he's right." (NYT, 11/6)

Public anger hits US allies

Hungary announced Wednesday that it would withdraw its 300 troops from Iraq....

Many governments face increasing public opposition to the war....

Spain's Socialist government withdrew its 1,300 troops after it swept into power last March.... The Dominican Republic withdrew 302 soldiers, Nicaragua 115 and Honduras 370. The Philippines withdrew its 51 in July....Norway withdrew 155 military engineers....

Poland, the fourth largest contributor, with 2,400 troops, says it intends to withdraw by the end of next year, and the Netherlands, with 1,400 troops, said this... rotation of troops would be its last contribution to Iraq.

New Zealand is withdrawing its 60 engineers and Thailand said it wanted to bring home its 450 troops. Singapore has reduced its contingent to 33. (NYT, 11/4)

Profits outrank death risk

Merck and federal officials should have withdrawn the painkiller Vioxx from the market as early as 2000 because studies of the drug had clearly shown that it doubled the risk of heart attacks among users, according to a study released yesterday by The Lancet, a British medical journal....

"Vioxx, Merck and the F.D.A. acted out of ruthless, short signed and irresponsible self-interest," wrote Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet. (NYT, 11/5)

US backed Iran despotism

Like most observers, Mr. Pollack sees the 1953 coup against Mohammad Mossadegh as a defining moment for Iranian attitudes toward America. "What is the most knotty for the United States," he writes , "is that the popular Iranian version of history portrays Mossadegh as a wildly popular prime minister forging a new, democratic Iran fully in command of its own destiny, who was overthrown by American agents to prevent Iran from achieving political and economic freedom."

"....There is a kernel of truth in it, and therein lies the rub; the United States did help to overthrow Mossadegh, and it was culpable in the establishment of the despotism of Mohammed Reza Shah that succeeded him." (NYT, 11/9)

`Winning friends' in Iraq

Troops were still combing the deserted houses in southern Falluja on Sunday....

Fearing booby traps, the troops generally entered the houses only after tanks rammed through walls....

Outside Falluja, the insurgency rages on, amid intelligence reports that the battle has become a big recruiting draw for young Arab men in mosques from Syria to Saudi Arabia. (NYT, 11/15)

100,000 Iraqi civilians die

About 100,000 Iraqi civilians -- half of them women and children -- have died since the invasion, mostly as a result of coalition airstrikes, according to the first reliable study of the death toll from Iraqi and US public health experts.

The biggest death toll recorded by the researchers was in Falluja. (GW, 11/11)

War, Racist Cutbacks Still Hitting All Workers

History Of GI Rebellions

• a href="#History of Revolt — U.S. Military in Vietnam">"istory of Revolt — U.S. Military in Vietnam

a href="#100,000 Iraqis Massacred for U.S. Bosses’ Control of Oil">"00,000 Iraqis Massacred for U.S. Bosses’ Control of Oil

GI Off to Iraq with Red Ideas

Union Election Opens Debate on Power

• Political Base-Building Will Lead To Real Power
• a href="#Democracy vs. Workers’ Power">"emocracy vs. Workers’ Power

a href="#Judge Wipes Out Miners’ Jobs, Health Care">"udge Wipes Out Miners’ Jobs, Health Care

a href="#NYC Workers Back GI’s Who Refused Suicide Orders">"YC Workers Back GI’s Who Refused Suicide Orders

a href="#Youth Hear Voting Can’t Change Society">"outh Hear Voting Can’t Change Society

a href="#PL’ers Bring Reds Ideas to Profs’ Strike Actions">PL"ers Bring Reds Ideas to Profs’ Strike Actions

a href="#Who’s Really Paying for the Guard? A Lesson in Surplus Value">"ho’s Really Paying for the Guard? A Lesson in Surplus Value

San Francisco Hotel Strike: No Room for Scabs

A Single Step in the Long Journey Toward Revolution

PLP Leads FIght Against Military Recruiters in H.S.

PLP Exposes Police Brutality at Red Sox Celebration

a href="#China’s Rebelling Workers Need Red Leadership to Dump Exploiters">"hina’s Rebelling Workers Need Red Leadership to Dump Exploiters

a href="#Sudan’s Oil Fuels China-U.S. Imperialist Rivalry">"udan’s Oil Fuels China-U.S. Imperialist Rivalry

• Sudan and World Oil Supplies: A Comparison

LETTERS

New Wind Blowing Against the War

a href="#Daughter, PLP and CHALLENGE ‘get me through the day’">Da"ghter, PLP and CHALLENGE ‘get me through the day’

Profits vs. Patient Care

Back Reservists Who Disobeyed Orders

Traitor General

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

• Plan another war for oil
• Capitalism hurts health
• Pakistanis see oil motive
• Say goodbye to promises
• What’s ‘left’? Nothing much

• ---

Whether You Voted for Bush or Kerry, It Won’t Stop

War, Racist Cutbacks Still Hitting All Workers

As we go to press, Kerry has conceded the election, one showing a tremendous polarization in the U.S., but it’s the wrong one. Too many workers and their allies were suckered into believing voting for Bush or Kerry would change their lives. Actually, Kerry inspired virtually nobody because fundamentally his positions were the same as Bush’s.

Instead of being pro-Bush or pro-Democrat, workers, students and soldiers must become pro-communist, anti-imperialist war, anti-racist, anti-budget cuts and anti-fascist. The polarization must be between workers and their allies against the ruling class, which controls both parties. The differences between the two parties are tactical, on how to continue the quagmire in Iraq, which has murdered 100,000 Iraqis and over 1,100 GIs to make sure Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, & Co. control Iraq’s vast oil wealth. They differed on how to administer the war budget which will continue to attack workers and youth at home. PLP’s modest actions on election day point to the road workers and students need to follow:

NEWARK, NJ, Nov. 2 — A multi-racial group of workers, soldiers and students rallied and marched in front of the downtown Newark Army recruitment center (next to a polling station) from 4 to 5 p.m. on Election Day. Two young soldiers held a sign that supported the 343rd Company, which had refused to obey orders in Iraq. We also received very supportive waves from two of the soldier-recruiters.

Spirited chants included: "Bush, Kerry, You can’t hide, We charge you with genocide!"; "No Matter Who Wins The Election, The War Will Still Go On!"; and, "1-2-3-4, We Won’t Fight Your Oil War!" Many passing cars honked in cadence with our chants.

PLP members, friends and supporters leafleted the area. Capitalist elections are important for the ruling class, who use them to deal with conflicts among themselves, and to dupe workers and others into having "faith in the system." In a communist society, run by and for the working class, we’ll fight imperialism, not workers of other countries.

This excellent action encouraged many working-class people making deliveries and exiting the nearby office buildings; impressed the soldiers and potential recruits with our militancy and multi-racial unity; and inspired those who attended to keep the struggle going.

NEW YORK CITY, Nov. 2 — PLP collectives held two vigorous rallies opposing the bosses’ election day orgy of patriotism, in Brooklyn and the Bronx, selling nearly 900 CHALLENGES and distributing over a thousand leaflets. Brooklyn’s banners read, "Elections Can’t Fix Capitalism" and "Bush, Kerry = More War." They drew lots of attention and debates. Although many workers still have a lot of illusions about voting, the failures of capitalism are evident. We didn’t get a single hostile response from the mainly black and Latin workers passing our rallies. We made three contacts on the street and sold ten CHALLENGE subscriptions in one school in the last two days.

The Bronx demonstration at a military recruiting station denounced the presidential election as a lose-lose situation for the working class and its allies. We urged workers and students to reject both candidates as puppets of the ruling class, and to join with PLP to build a communist future.

We linked the imperialist oil wars to the cutbacks in education, healthcare and jobs. One person told us the military was taking our children to commit genocide in the Middle East. Others said they voted for Kerry because they hated Bush, not because Kerry could solve our problems. We must continue to organize struggle against the ruling class as we fight the "lesser evil" position. We will follow up the several contacts made and maintain a consistent presence and CHALLENGE sale in this community.

History Of GI Rebellions

The Pentagon recently acknowledged that 843 former soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) failed to report for duty as of Oct. 17. Approximately 37% of a total of 2,288 soldiers have refused to notify the military of their whereabouts. The army is "still working to establish contact." While rarely called back to active duty, the members of the IRR are highly skilled, formerly active soldiers who were honorably discharged. If over one third of them refuse to deploy, the army’s mission will be seriously undermined.

Recently the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a Stars and Stripes survey which found that half the troops described their unit’s morale as low, and one-third believed their mission had little or no value. Many perceived themselves as sitting ducks, sacrificed for questionable reasons.

Perhaps the most stunning recent news came from actions taken by the Army’s 343rd Quartermaster Company. Virtually one whole platoon of 19 soldiers refused to obey orders to deliver fuel without adequate protective escort, from Tallil to Taji, Iraq. Quickly attempting to put a spin on the combat zone refusal, a court martial offense, Major William Ritter of the 81st Support Command declared, "It was not a mutiny." The major no doubt had his political and public relations orders, but when soldiers, en masse, refuse to carry out a direct order, it is mutiny. One soldier, a 20-year-old from Vicksburg Mississippi, via e-mail, "Asked his mom to find out what the penalties were if he refused [to carry out orders] or if he ‘struck a superior officer.’"

Truck convoys are increasingly the targets of Iraqi insurgents who seek to undercut already stretched supply lines. Recent captures of foreign nationals have included truck drivers. Supply runs are increasingly dangerous as the insurgency accelerates. The 343rd’s refusal to obey orders is further evidence of weakening morale, which, if it spreads, could seriously undermine the U.S. military’s ability to sustain its occupation of Iraq.

The history of the U.S. soldiers’ resistance and rebellion in Vietnam shows that morale weakness and sporadic resistance can become a full-scale movement against racism and imperialist war itself. Russian history has shown that over time this can lead many to draw revolutionary conclusions and act on them. These developments are not guaranteed, but the potential is there.

a name="History of Revolt — U.S. Military in Vietnam">">"istory of Revolt — U.S. Military in Vietnam

By 1971, the U.S. military could no longer sustain its military objective in Vietnam because soldiers, marines, sailors and members of the Air Force were refusing to fight, committing sabotage, standing up together against racism, and some were even attempting the assassination of their own officers. David Cortright, himself a Vietnam veteran, extensively documents the GI revolt in Vietnam. In 1992, he explained that new information revealed that the revolts in Vietnam were even more widespread than he first reported. "Low-ranking GI’s organized more than 250 anti-war committees and underground newspapers….The resistance within the ranks resulted in a severe breakdown in military effectiveness and combat capability. By 1969, the army had ceased to function as an effective fighting force and it began to disintegrate rapidly. The very survival of the armed forces depended upon withdrawal from Indochina." ("Give Peace A Chance," p. 116)

In a major essay for Foreign Affairs (April 1972), Morris Janowitz, a military sociologist, wrote, "The military establishment, and especially the ground forces, are experiencing a profound crisis in legitimacy due to the impact of Vietnam, internal racial tension, corruption, extensive drug abuse, loss of command and operational effectiveness, and widespread anti-military sentiment…"

By December, 1972, Col. Robert Heinl, the dean of military historians, argued in the Armed Forces Journal that morale in the Navy was in crisis: "In addition to mounting incidents of shipboard sabotage and other . . . [attacks] and disorders short of mutiny, the Navy has undergone at least five and probably six episodes…which fully qualify within the legal definition of mutiny."

Dave Cortright in "Soldiers in Revolt" (1975) details a highly credible exposé of U.S. soldiers as critical to the U.S. ruling class’s failure to win the Vietnam War. Citing another article by Heinl, Cortright notes the Colonel’s scathing critique of U.S. military breakdown. "The morale, discipline, and battle-worthiness of the U.S. armed forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States." (Armed Forces Journal, June 1971)

Cortright traces the "GI movement" that opposed the Vietnam War as it erupted first within the Marines and Army whose troops bore the brunt of fighting and took the greatest casualties. However, as the Pentagon altered its primary reliance on army and marines to a strategy of air assaults and naval bombardment from 1970-73, the resistance exploded within the ranks of air force and naval personnel as well.

This change of U.S. military strategy and the ineffectiveness of troops on the ground was a direct result of the heroic, committed fight of the Vietnamese workers and peasants who — along with the Cambodians and Laotians — suffered some five million deaths in defeating the almighty U.S. imperialist war machine. Unfortunately their heroism has been betrayed by the "market-socialism" rulers now running the country, welcoming Nike, Ford, Sony and other capitalists to super-exploit Vietnamese workers.

Clearly, the anti-war movement at home influenced military personnel tremendously. However, Cortright refutes the widely assumed belief that college-educated, more privileged draftees spearheaded the resistance. In fact, the least privileged soldiers — especially black and Latin working-class soldiers, and also white-working class soldiers (many enlistees) — led the most heroic mutinies of the armed forces by the late 1960’s and early 1970’s until the war’s end. According to Cortright, "the Army’s own survey shows that more than half of all soldiers during 1970-1971 became involved in some form of resistance activity—a remarkable and unprecedented level of disaffection."

(This is the first article in a series on the history of revolts in the U.S. and Russian armies. Next: Critical mutinies during the Vietnam era.)

a name="100,000 Iraqis Massacred for U.S. Bosses’ Control of Oil">">"00,000 Iraqis Massacred for U.S. Bosses’ Control of Oil

"The death toll associated with the invasion and occupation of Iraq is probably about 100,000 people, and may be much higher…. More than half the deaths reportedly caused by the occupying forces were women and children. Air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths."

So wrote a team of researchers in Britain’s leading medical journal, The Lancet (10/29/04), only partly revealing the genocidal horror of U.S. imperialism’s latest oil war. The Lancet team didn’t look at deaths from diseases related to disrupted water and sewer facilities or from malnutrition in besieged cities. But the report underlines a central truth about U.S. — and all capitalist — rulers: when major sources of profit are at stake, they quickly resort to the mass destruction of human life. And it doesn’t matter who occupies the White House. The 14-year U.S. campaign for Iraq’s oil riches has been a war crime from its inception, through Republican and Democratic regimes. Atrocity has proved the rule rather than the exception.

We can expect more indiscriminate killing. As this is written, U.S. forces are preparing all-out assaults on Fallujah and Ramadi. In attacks typical of the current phase of the war, U.S. planes shower bombs, rockets and machine-gun fire on a city, "softening" it up for trigger-happy ground troops, who often can’t tell insurgents from non-combatants. Many Iraqis, including children, women and other civilians, get blown to bits immediately. Others suffocate in the rubble of their homes. Still more are maimed for life. These horrific tactics serve two purposes for U.S. rulers. One is their military need to control major population centers. The second is sheer terrorism: the rulers are demonstrating to all rivals, present and potential, the ruthlessness of the U.S. war machine.

The U.S.-led bid to wrest control of Iraq’s oil from the tyrant Saddam Hussein started with a UN-sponsored embargo in 1990. Food and medicine shortages soon began killing the very young, old and infirm. Gulf War I came in 1991. In addition to combat deaths, including massacres of Iraqis by U.S. forces, the invasion caused typhoid and cholera epidemics that a visiting team from Harvard’s School of Public Health called "apocalyptic" in their devastation. The Pentagon had deliberately targeted water and sewage treatment systems. As a result, "more than 46,900 children died between January and August 1991." (New England Journal of Medicine, 9/24/92)

But that war, while safeguarding Kuwaiti crude for Exxon Mobil and the rest, fell short of capturing Iraq’s vast reserves. So the sanctions continued, killing 350,000 Iraqi children under the age of five between 1990 and 2000, according to Columbia University researcher Richard Garfield. Bill Clinton intensified the carnage with bombardments and missile attacks recalling the Nazi World War II air raids on Britain.

But the rulers’ killing fields lie not only in Iraq. The U.S. military set a terroristic tone early on in Afghanistan when its airborne gunships wiped out a wedding party. And U.S. brass looked on approvingly while their Northern Alliance henchmen machine-gunned prisoners locked in shipping containers. U.S. world domination and wanton mass murder go hand-in-hand.

U.S. rulers now speculate about taking out Iran or North Korea. James Lindsay, vice-president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the leading U.S. foreign policy think-tank, coldly foresees rivers of blood: "Every military scenario I’ve seen about a [U.S.-led] war in the Korean Peninsula says an awful lot of people are going to get killed, and it won’t be necessarily restricted to North Koreans, it could be South Koreans, it could also be Japanese, as well." (CFR publication, 10/13/04)

As Lenin said, imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism. In it, groups of capitalists — organized into nations — compete via armed force for markets, resources and labor. Imperialists created genocide — systematic extermination — as their most effective weapon. With the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq strengthening; with bin Laden re-emerging; with Iran threatening to go nuclear, Saudi royals on a tightrope and Russian, Chinese and European bosses waiting in the wings, the capitalists’ fight over control of the Mideast’s oil is far from settled. Iran and China are near a "huge oil, gas deal. . . .The deal shows global energy needs are complicating U.S. security interests." (Wall Street Journal, 11/1)

The working class in Iraq, the Middle East and worldwide will continue to pay in blood until workers and youth realize that capitalism and wars for profits go hand in hand. GIs are beginning to oppose the war, disobey orders or refuse to report for extended duty. The way out of this endless butchery is to unite workers and soldiers and turn the imperialist wars into a revolutionary struggle for communism: workers’ power.

GI Off to Iraq with Red Ideas

One of the hardest things to realize as a communist is that I’m actually going to war, for a cause with which I completely disagree. Yet this journey opens the door for more intense Party work and experiences.

Many soldiers are asking themselves why the U.S. is in Iraq at all. The link between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and the pretext of WMD have long been debunked. In a conversation with some fellow soldiers, amid disagreement over deployment of troops to Iraq, and criticism of U.S. intentions seeking Iraq’s oil, one soldier told me that she was glad she wasn’t with a couple of patriotic gung-ho’s. This occurred on the very first week of my deployment, reassuring me that there must be many more soldiers feel as we do.

Another time walking with some friends around a town, we saw a sign reading, "End the war for oil." They all said, "Right on!"

Nevertheless, even when soldiers are dissatisfied about being away from family, put in danger’s way and not totally agreeing with the cause of the war, there’s a sense of powerlessness among soldiers. However, history teaches us that, while the imperialists set the theater for war, but the outcome is in the hands of soldiers.

This is a different experience for me because everyone is forced into this war. We will face danger, and primary to all is survival. But the objective as a communist does not change. Seeking to build a base, I must lead more political discussions and bring my ideas to my friends. Although the situation can be intimidating, we must not underestimate the power of soldiers in a strong anti-imperialist collective. As tension rises, political struggle must intensify. Building a strong base is the first step.

My journey is just beginning. There have been lots of heated discussions over assignments by the brass. Dangerous assignments have angered many soldiers. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Red Soldier

Union Election Opens Debate on Power

Nearly 40% of the workers in a basic industrial local voted for a PLP member for delegate to the union governing body. He received more votes than any other "opposition" candidate, and would have won if not for a fixed election procedure. This positive showing intensified the struggle on the shop floor, in the union and in our Party. How we gain power has become the subject of debate.

Some opposition candidates focused on illegal and undemocratic aspects of the election process. The current procedure began in 1948 to stymie the efforts of communists and other left-wingers during the reactionary McCarthy period. This industry is crucial to the bosses’ imperialist ambitions and the ruling class wanted to make sure the union leadership was firmly in its pocket.

Since then, these misleaders, with generous financial help from the company, have fixed the electoral system, enabling them to run the union for many years. For instance, there are hundreds of union appointees — many actually paid by the company according to the contract — whose jobs depend on their support of the incumbents. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Already charges have been filed against some union full-timers who unlawfully campaigned for the leadership while on the clock. Other locals introduced resolutions to eliminate "block voting." Under this scheme, members must vote for a pre-determined number of candidates, even if only a few opposition candidates are running — forcing supporters of the opposition to vote for incumbents as well. According to the misleaders’ own calculations, our comrade would have won the election if union members were allowed to vote only for those candidates they wanted.

Political Base-Building Will Lead To Real Power

Whether or not these appeals amount to anything, we can’t forget what got us here in the first place. Unlike the other opposition candidates and the union machine, our campaign focused on the imperialist war in Iraq and racism. We based our campaign on confidence that workers would understand the links between these "big" issues and conditions on the shop floor.

"What are we here for, if not to talk about the big issues, war and racism?" argued an African-American woman worker at one of the shop meetings preparing for the election.

Not only did they understand, but they acted on it. Dozens helped distribute nearly 7,000 campaign flyers, which exposed the bosses’ plans and the union misleaders’ list of promises and "happy talk." Workers linked the attacks on our jobs to the Iraq war and racism.

Another black worker gathered his friends in his area for an extended discussion on how the Iraq war was hurting us all. He angrily protested the death and destruction of Iraqi civilians. We reminded him that a decade earlier he had supported Reagan’s invasion of Grenada.

"You see where supporting imperialism anywhere gets you," said our comrade who has known him for a long time. He agreed. Facts are stubborn things and imperialism never changes its spots. If we can’t win the argument now, we will eventually!

a name="Democracy vs. Workers’ Power">">"emocracy vs. Workers’ Power

Focusing on "democracy in the union" would sell these workers short. More importantly, it would spread the illusion that democracy and elections can ever lead to power for the working class. Democracy is a tactic used by the ruling class and their labor lieutenants to legitimize the bosses’ dictatorship. For instance, they invoked the sham of democracy to justify their imperialist oil grab when all their other pretexts were exposed.

Our goal is to prepare our class to take power with communist revolution to establish the dictatorship of the working class. Tactically, we must focus on deepening the political beachhead we made during the election campaign. A campaign to support the reservists who refused orders in Iraq fits the bill. How much longer will we allow the bosses to order our destruction — either in the factory or on the battlefield?!

The bosses democratic shams are no match for a working class armed with communist political understanding. No matter what happens with this election or any other, building a base for communist revolution remains the measure of our success.

Boss Admits, ‘That’s our system’ —

a name="Judge Wipes Out Miners’ Jobs, Health Care">">"udge Wipes Out Miners’ Jobs, Health Care

In the latest example of capitalism screwing workers, the real war by terrorists has come home to about 3,800 miners and their dependents in West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana who saw their company-financed health insurance "vanish[ed] with a swipe of Judge William Howard’s pen." (New York Times, 10/24) The bankruptcy judge granted the request of Horizon Natural Resources to terminate its union contract and just like that, the miners’ "guaranteed health insurance" was gone.

The terrorist bosses and their judge dealt a death blow to miners in their forties and fifties who "suffer health problems related to lifetimes of labor underground." At the same time, their sons and daughters and thousands of Iraqis are dieing at the hands of the same ruling class attacking the miners here. Carl Leake, retired after 31 years of making profit for the Horizon-owned Cannolton mine, with a "rock-solid promise of health insurance for life" (NYT), is now facing a $200,000 bill from his wife’s breast cancer treatment.

The judge and Horizon voided the union contract and its health benefits to sweeten the deal for financier William T. Ross to buy Horizon. Ross is the same banker that has bought up "bankrupt" steel mills like Bethlehem and LTV. Ross’s crocodile tears are a perfect indictment of capitalism: "I very much sympathize with the [miners]…It’s awful that these people are displaced. Unfortunately that’s our system…" (NYT) Exactly!

Now thousands of miners are bracing for new bankruptcy filings that will void even more union contracts, lay off miners and cancel their health insurance. All the useless United Mine Workers (UMW) leadership can do is hold Kerry rallies, since they have long abandoned the militant tradition of hundreds of thousands of coal miners who fought for and won these benefits. And just as the Clinton administration didn’t lift a finger to save the steelworkers in the 1990s, neither Kerry nor Bush will come to the aid of these miners and their families.

These miners, steelworkers and all workers must return to their militant tradition of mass fight-back, but this time turning them into schools for communism. Indeed, the fight for communism — a society without profiteers like Ross and his bosses and politicians — is a life and death struggle for the working class.

a name="NYC Workers Back GI’s Who Refused Suicide Orders">">"YC Workers Back GI’s Who Refused Suicide Orders

New York City, Oct. 20 — AFSCME’s Local 371 Delegate Assembly voted overwhelmingly to support the following resolution: "Resolved, that a letter of support be sent to the 18 Army Reservists of the 343rd Quartermaster Company who refused to carry out what they deemed to be a suicide mission."

U.S. armed forces are being asked to fight and possibly die for the aims of U.S. imperialism. The refusal of the 343rd shows that there are many who don’t want to do that. Hopefully many more refusals and other types of rebellions will follow, and be more political — opposing the war as imperialist. Meanwhile, widespread support can nullify punishment of these brave reservists.

The resolution originated the previous day when retired members discussed the incident at their monthly meeting. One member reported that a leaflet passed out by PLP members supporting the rebelling soldiers at the Oct. 17 Million Worker March received widespread approval. The retirees agreed that such rebellions would hasten the departure of U.S. occupiers from Iraq. They debated and then voted to authorize the long-time union activist to introduce such a resolution at the Local’s Delegate Assembly.

Tonight, before the meeting started, many delegates (who have long read CHALLENGE) were advised of the resolution and asked to support it. After the retiree explained the motion on the floor, it was moved and seconded by many voting delegates. (A retiree cannot make, or vote on, a resolution.) It passed with only one dissenting vote.

a name="Youth Hear Voting Can’t Change Society">">"outh Hear Voting Can’t Change Society

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, Nov. 1 — Last week our PLP college club organized a successful fund-raising dinner, initiating a lively political discussion on the presidential elections, the war, and its effects on workers and students. The first speaker said we shouldn’t be fooled by the recent "get-out-the-vote" campaigns enlisting a host of celebrities to encourage people, especially young workers and students, to vote. She explained that the ruling class uses these campaigns to diffuse people’s anger towards a war that intensifies racist unemployment and cutbacks in education and healthcare.

"They tell you that people struggled and died for the right to vote," she continued, "but that was because they thought it was the only way to change society." She then explained that no matter who’s elected, their role is to carry out the ruling class’s agenda of war and fascism.

The next two speakers focused on the war in Iraq, the U.S. imperialist plan, the possibility of a draft and the GI’s who refused orders. Many students expressed concern about being drafted. However, they were encouraged when one speaker related a conversation he’d had with some students. He had been talking about how the only way to end imperialist war was to organize a communist revolution against capitalism. When one student said, "But they have the military and the guns," another countered, "I’ve never seen a boss walking around with a gun." Then the first student realized, "Oh, wait, we have the guns. We are the soldiers who they train with guns."

At the dinner, one student — reacting to this story — said she felt good being around people who were organizing to fight these attacks on young workers. Another person emphasized that the 19 GI’s who refused their dangerous orders were a good example and a sign of things to come.

The last speaker pointed to the importance of fund-raising for PLP and CHALLENGE. She explained that PLP is the party of the working class and doesn’t receive funds from corporations or ruling-class foundations. The affair raised over $200, half of the college club’s goal. Several students signed up for study groups and subscribed to CHALLENGE.

In other recent events here, a section of a teacher’s union passed a resolution supporting the GI’s who refused orders in Iraq. A teach-in on the draft at a local college was very well-attended with good discussions about imperialism and how to fight it, and the need to reach out to people in the military. At another college forum on the war, there was enthusiastic support for sending letters to the GI’s who refused their orders.

A lively, well-attended house forum discussed the imperialist war, the election and the draft — both the economic and racist draft as well as general conscription. Three students presented information about the war, the economy, racism and the need for communist revolution. Many of the youth stayed late into the night, making plans to bring anti-imperialist and communist politics into groups on their campuses.

When one said the generals in Iraq wanted to fight the war well and that’s why the reservists got publicity, another pointed out that the imperialists and the soldiers have opposing interests. The imperialists want to expand the war for oil profits and win the loyalty of the soldiers, while the soldiers and their families want to end the war sooner and return safely. These activities show there’s a lot of potential to win youth to become active members of a fighting PLP.

a name="PL’ers Bring Reds Ideas to Profs’ Strike Actions"></">PL"ers Bring Reds Ideas to Profs’ Strike Actions

CHICAGO, IL — On October 19, 750 full-time professors at the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) struck for the first time in 26 years, protesting increased workloads and class-size, and cuts in salary and health benefits. The walkout by Local 1600 of the Illinois Federation of Teachers directly affects the 60,000 working-class students they teach, and indirectly the 90,000 others taught by part-timers (two-thirds of the faculty). PLP is fighting to turn this contract struggle into a fight against racist attacks on public education and the 150,000 mostly black, Latin, women and immigrant young worker-students.

The Party has been active on a few campuses for three years and developed a small base. PLP members joined the picket lines to distribute CHALLENGE, a leaflet about the elections, and to support to the striking teachers. On the first day, we helped organize the entire first-year Physician Assistants class at Malcolm X College to join the picket line instead of taking an exam. The next day we sold about 30 CHALLENGES and distributed fliers at the Malcolm X and Harold Washington campuses, getting into many discussions about communism and the presidential elections. We met many old friends and made six new contacts.

We spent most of the afternoon with four students, discussing the strike and talking politics. We all went to a Strike Solidarity Committee (SSC) meeting, including 17 other students from all seven city colleges. PLP’ers presented a communist analysis of the strike, explaining how racist cuts in education and health care are financing the imperialist war in Iraq and fascist Homeland Security. Plans were made for two demonstrations and we persuaded the group to think about building unity with other workers, such as the CTA transit workers who just received 1,000 layoff notices.

On the third day, the Student Government Association (SGA) organized a pro-administration student rally against the strike. They claimed "neutrality," yet made anti-strike signs and had Chancellor Wayne Watson and his entourage present. Watson makes $219,000/year and has free family healthcare for life.

The SSC organized students and teachers to join this rally and confront Watson and the SGA. About six SGA members, the Chancellor and about 75 other students and teachers were in the park when about 30 students and teachers from Malcolm X College marched to the rally chanting, "Cut-Backs Mean We Got To Fight Back!" We were organized and militant, and everyone joined our chant. When Watson was booed in front of the TV cameras, he scurried off like a rat.

We held our own rally at which a Stroger-Cook County Hospital worker spoke in support of the strike, telling students and teachers they may be needed to support County healthcare workers who are in contract negotiations. The students shouted their support. We distributed more CHALLENGES, leaflets, and made more contacts. After the rally about 12 students came with us to Daley College to spread the word.

Another rally was organized for City Hall. While the Local 1600 leadership said the main goal was to pressure Mayor Daley into mediating their contract, nearly 450 teachers and students chanted, "The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated," and nearly 60 students made their way to a sit-in outside Daley’s office. The building shook with militant chants. We discussed the possibility of getting arrested and the role of the police as servants of the ruling class.

The union tried to convince us to leave while students on the outside organized more teachers and students to support the sit-in. The union leadership sent "messengers" telling us that we had won, and that the union and administration were back negotiating. The sit-in ended after a very sharp division between those who wanted to continue and others who insisted on leaving. But when we returned to our campuses we found that they lied to us — there were no new negotiations.

There has been a lot of struggle about how to circulate CHALLENGE in a mass way, how much time to spend on strengthening the SSC, and that building the Party is primary, building personal ties and using the paper.

More students are making the connections with the increasing war budget, homeland security and the militarization of the Chicago Public Schools. More students are taking responsibility for the rapidly growing Strike Committee, while we focus on building the Party. There are many contradictions working in mass organizations, but with a strong collective, we have the potential to build a CCC Party club out of this struggle.

a name="Who’s Really Paying for the Guard? A Lesson in Surplus Value">">"ho’s Really Paying for the Guard? A Lesson in Surplus Value

"The pay for a guard to watch our cars in the company parking lot shouldn’t come out of our pockets. Let the bosses pay!" said a worker emphatically. "I agree," said another. That’s how it started, or in this case continued — one of the many discussions and political debates occurring daily in this pants factory.

This grew out of a worker’s car being stolen from the parking lot. Since then, the parking lot gate has stayed locked. If one needs to go there, he must ask for, and return, the key. The boss is also replacing a fence around the lot. All this makes it more difficult to steal cars but doesn’t prevent minor damage, like broken windows or stolen stereos.

A worker who wrongly argued that we should pay the guard’s salary did so because he and others have newer cars and don’t want them damaged. But the other worker disagreed, saying, "Let the boss use the guard watching us so we won’t steal the pants watch the lot instead." Another worker added, "It’s true, the boss doesn’t care about our belongings. The guard watching us also guards the smaller parking lot, where the boss and his confidants park their cars."

"Well," argued the worker who wanted the workers to hire a guard, "the boss is doing a lot to even give us free parking. In the downtown area, the workers must pay for it and it’s expensive."

Another worker challenged this: "It’s true they allow us a place to park, but only because it serves their interests. In the downtown area, most workers use the bus and don’t need parking. Cars are the only guarantee we’ll get to work."

"But." said the worker arguing for the workers to pay, "the boss is spending lots of money. Rent here alone is costing him $27,000 a month."

"What, he doesn’t have money?" asked the other worker, a little sarcastically. "And the thousands of dollars he puts in his pocket every week made off our sweat? Some other time we’ll discuss this question at its root, about surplus value. Now let’s see approximately how much we produce in profits for the boss.

"He gets $9 for each pair of finished pants. The most he spends on wages and costs for these pants is about $4, leaving him a minimum of $5 profit per pair. When there’s enough work, we make an average of 3,000 pairs a day. That means the boss keeps an average of $15,000 a day, $75,000 a week, not counting Saturdays, which we sometimes work. That’s more than enough to pay the rent, the guard, better wages and give us many benefits we don’t have."

"Well," said the other worker, "it’s a good talk but its time to start work. We’ll continue later."

The conversation ended but not the process of politicization of the workers. We’ve had talks about the presidential elections, the war, capitalism versus communism, etc. These and several work stoppages are creating a political environment where workers are more open to our communist ideas and more willing to express them and their anger in militant actions against the boss, his foreman and his guard.

San Francisco Hotel Strike: No Room for Scabs

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 — Four thousand hotel workers struck here for two weeks and now are locked out indefinitely. Hotel bosses want to jack up workers’ health insurance payments from the current $10/month to $270/month! Bosses’ profits come before workers’ needs.

The strike is an inspiring fight-back. But the workers will get shafted if the union continues to emphasize reliance on Democratic Party politicians and "winning public opinion." The Mayor even walked the picket line for a few minutes, hypocritically declaring "support" for the workers, "support" which depends on workers’ pacifism and obeying the bosses’ laws. Once workers try to stop scabs and shut down the hotels, these politicians will disown us pronto.

Under capitalism, laws protect the bosses, not the workers. Their cops and courts defend the bosses. Strike-breaking is legal, shutting the hotels is not. The cops have even ticketed drivers for honking support for the strike.

The union’s diversity clause, to force hotel bosses to hire black workers — an anti-racist position unusual in today’s union movement — and its goal of a joint contract expiration with other locals around the country both build workers’ unity. But this position is rendered meaningless by its reliance on politicians and the bosses’ laws, and refusal to organize violent opposition to scabs.

Strikers welcomed PLP’ers who joined the picket lines, raising ideas based on working-class solidarity and militancy. Young PL’ers led chants like, "Down with the Scabs, Power to the Workers!" and "The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated!" We confronted scabs twice, yelling the chants in their faces, but this didn’t stop them. Workers’ anger was starting to boil. The PL’ers said the strike is important for the entire working class, and that capitalism never provides for the needs of the working class.

PLP workers in transit (MUNI) also advanced working-class solidarity, and brought co-workers to picket. Even after they left, some of their solidarity posters were still being carried by strikers and stuck on lampposts: "SAME ENEMY, SAME FIGHT — MUNI AND HOTEL WORKERS UNITE!"

This solidarity was just a tiny taste of the power workers would have if united as one working class. If thousands of city, hospital and construction workers, teachers, janitors, and students flooded the picket lines, it could strike fear in the scabs and shut the hotels. This, plus the leadership of communist ideas, could bring us one step closer to workers seeing they have the power to smash capitalism and its "legal" exploitation.

A Single Step in the Long Journey Toward Revolution

BROOKLYN, NY — When the bosses go to war, the working class pays.

So we organize a fight back at this grossly overcrowded high school here. A group of teachers get together because they’re really fed up. The huge number of oversized classes is the final straw. Add to this the local union chapter’s inactivity. The infrequent meetings turn into no more than a place to complain. No actions are organized.

But our small group forges ahead. We have several meetings. We reach out to the parents at several PTA meetings. Students get involved. Several petitions are circulated. We call for an informational picket line outside the school and get an excellent response. Over 30 teachers participate, 20 to 30 parents and, of course, students lead the way; 150 participate during the 50 minutes. One student after another reads a prepared speech, linking the budget cuts to the war. Students lead the demonstration with their enthusiasm and militancy.

The next day I’m talking to a friend about the teacher-contract talks and the sellout the union leadership is promoting. He says something like: "I don’t know if we can get much more. These are bad times." I think about that for a minute and he’s right. These are very hard times for the working class. Budget cuts. Government deficits. Corporate bankruptcies. Cancelled pension plans. All governments are having some sort of fiscal crisis and they can’t provide many essential services for the working class. Even the big corporations are crying "broke." Of course, it’s only the working class that is suffering. The CEO’s are still raking in million dollar paychecks.

OOPS! There’s one major exception to U.S. economic problems. The rulers seem to have no problem funding their imperialist war in Iraq.

So how does our struggle against overcrowding and for smaller classes fit into this larger world picture? The U. S. ruling class (big business) is directing all monies toward imperialist war. They want to control the planet’s oil supplies, protect profits and rule the world. They don’t care about the education of young working-class students. That includes Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein.

So we’ll have to keep up the fight for a long time. We need more small victories to show that students, teachers and parents can stand up to the school bosses when we’re united. But to maintain the fight we need to train fighters for the working class. This is just one battle, with many more ahead. Communists are dedicated to carry this fight to its conclusion. Join us.µ

PLP Leads FIght Against Military Recruiters in H.S.

BROOKLYN, NY, Oct. 16 — A healthy dose of revolutionary communism was brought into a "Peace Fair" organized by the Brooklyn Parents for Peace when PLP students and teachers led a workshop on military recruiters in our schools. The need for revolution was placed front and center by a young comrade who linked budget cuts to imperialist war and the need for a movement opposing military recruitment in our schools.

A petition demanding all charges be dropped against the 18 U.S. soldiers in Iraq who refused orders was signed by about 30 participants. This campaign should be pursued much more vigorously.

An error many people make fighting on this issue is a tendency to write off the working-class youth that wind up joining the military. But the rulers’ economic draft will continue forcing some young people into the military. More importantly, our class brothers and sisters who join the military have the potential — and the necessity — to play a revolutionary role. We must understand the opportunity as well as the danger when young people decide to join the military.

We need many more young people at such events. While our high school youth do advance the Party’s ideas in speeches and are taken seriously by adults, it’s even more critical to bring the students and teachers in our schools to events where we can take the lead. We don’t welcome the bosses’ wars and we want military recruiters out of the schools. But we also know that opening the eyes of youth in and out of uniform to the need for, and possibility of, communist revolution lays the foundation for a red army of workers and youth to smash imperialist war for good.

PLP Exposes Police Brutality at Red Sox Celebration

BOSTON, Oct. 30 — Today, over three million fans celebrated the Red Sox Major League baseball victory, its first since 1918. But at least one family was mourning, not celebrating. A week before, after the Red Sox’ incredible comeback defeated their archrival N.Y. Yankees for the American League pennant, crowds gathered outside Fenway Park. After a bottle was thrown at a cop on horseback, the police fired pepper spray bullets into the crowd, killing a female college student.

The girl’s father was outraged, so the Police Commissioner visited the family to keep them quiet and save face. One Boston newspaper printed a large front-page color photo of the girl lying in a pool of blood. The media portrayed it as an unfortunate tragedy caused by drunk, irresponsible college students. They barely mentioned that the cops fired into the crowd.

A protest against police brutality was called for the Sunday game. When we arrived, about 30 people — some anarchists, students, "Marxists," the Green Party and others — were waiting with a petition to ban the use of pepper spray guns until the cops had "adequate training" to use them. They were out of sight of all the fans and street traffic.

While the protesters began making signs for the murdered student for a vigil outside Fenway Park, PLP members and friends crossed the street and began leafleting in front of the subway station as the fans poured onto the street. We explained how the murdered student had just been standing in the crowd, and how the cops were eager to use the new weapons originally used for crowd control during the Democratic National Convention. We said the militarization of the police was an aspect of rising fascism during wartime. Then we unfurled our banners that read, "No Police State Here," and "Police Serve the Ruling Class, Not the Working Class — Join PLP!"

The response from entering fans was far from positive. Many didn’t want anything to spoil the moment" for which they had been waiting for 86 years. Some even said the murdered young woman "deserved it." But communists have the duty to spread the truth no matter how unpopular it might be at the moment.

The following day PLP was mentioned in the Boston Herald, the city’s conservative newspaper, with a photo of our "No Police State" banner, and a quote from a comrade who said he wouldn’t feel "endangered by a Red Sox celebration. I think my life would be endangered by cops with weapons." The same comrade was also called by WRKO and put on the air by two right-wing talk show hosts. The comrade stood his ground, exposing how the cops had shot at another fan 13 times, just for sitting on the outside wall of Fenway Park. He also said the police shoot at people all the time in black and Latin neighborhoods. The murder of the young college student is another aspect of how racism hurts all workers and students.

We distributed a few hundred more leaflets in Cambridge, where we often sell CHALLENGE, and received a much better response. We must continue to tell people the true role of the cops and to organize against the growing police state here.

a name="China’s Rebelling Workers Need Red Leadership to Dump Exploiters">">"hina’s Rebelling Workers Need Red Leadership to Dump Exploiters

[Ed. Note: All of the facts in the following article were taken from the Toronto Globe & Mail, Oct. 20.]

Huang Benlin is one of some 200 million Chinese peasants who have moved from their impoverished villages to the cities in the biggest migration in human history. They are the muscle of China’s "economic miracle." They build the skyscrapers and expressways, make the cheap export goods, drive the trucks and lug the steel and cement that has created the boom for China’s bosses. They do the toughest and dirtiest jobs. Their labor has transformed China into becoming "the factory to the world."

Huang has suffered 24 years of low wages, exploitation and cruel bosses. His trucking company boss has refused to pay him owed wages (about 550 US dollars) from a year of hard labor in Beijing’s construction zones. He lost in court when his boss bribed the judges. So now, "In the cramped dormitory room where [he] spends his nights…violence is on his mind."

"I’ll scout out his place," says Huang, and then "come back at night to destroy the trucks,…smash them with heavy tools… [and] ambush the trucks on the road."

Violence between workers and bosses is increasing in the desperate world of China’s migrant workers. "We feel like slaves," says Huang. "We have to obey our bosses or we won’t get our money….It’s like being a prisoner."

Migrant workers suffer an apartheid-like system, denied city residence permits, living a semi-legal or illegal existence, arrested by the cops, easily exploited, without medical insurance, unemployment or housing benefits, or education rights for their children. Living in controlled compounds, sleeping in crude dormitories shared with 15 or 20 other workers, they must beg for permission to go outside.

They earn as little as $1 for a 12-hour day, often working 6 and 7 days a week, sometimes for days and nights without a break, most being paid as little as $60 a month — much of which pays their room and board and fees for permits they need in order to work. Without any organization to protect them, their choice is either unaffordable law suits or violence if a boss refuses to pay them wages due them. More than 70% of migrant workers are owed an astounding $15 billion in unpaid wages, primarily in the construction sector.

According to the Globe & Mail, a "Sociologist notes that the unpaid migrants can be accurately described as slaves, since they toil…for nothing more than a dormitory room and a couple of meals a day. If so, China has at least 10 million slaves."

Now a growing number of unpaid workers are protesting. "Hundreds have blockaded or picketed their employers….At a factory in Guangdong province, about 6,000 workers rioted for 36 hours…when they didn’t get [their] pay…"

The growing army of alienated migrants feels a deep anger at their exploitation. They are often desperately lonely, far from their families. Mr. Huang is just returning home for the first time in two years. In his two-story mud-and-cement house, there is no running water, no heat, no telephone and only a few naked bulbs for light.

His wife tends their cotton and wheat crops, raises their children and works at a noodle factory for $2 a day in her spare time. She wants him to drop his legal action and stay home, but Mr. Huang disagrees. "He is determined to keep fighting. He believes that an explosion is coming — and it might engulf more than just his former boss…. ‘We common people, the laborers, have done a lot to improve China’s economy….a lot more than the officials. If the injustices continue, we common people will be very disappointed. And our tactics could change.’"

Workers in China do need to get organized, but not with the the so-called "human rights" activists, led by U.S. imperialism — nor with the Falung Gong sect we now see across the U.S. preaching against "rights violations" in China but ignoring the U.S. bosses’ wholesale violations of workers’ rights worldwide. These groups help prepare the U.S. masses for the coming war the White House knows it must wage against its imperialist rivals in Beijing.

We in PLP believe the development of this rampant capitalism in China, bringing hundreds of millions of peasants into the urban workplace, is a perfect example of what Karl Marx said in The Communist Manifesto: "What the bourgeoisie…produces, above all, are its own gravediggers." This grave will only be dug when a true revolutionary movement arises, a mass communist party of hundreds of millions, that will lead the working class to destroy capitalism and build a society in which workers like Mr. Huang will collectively distribute all the value they produce to the members of their class according to need.

[In our next issue, we will publish an eyewitness report from two recent visitors to China.]

a name="Sudan’s Oil Fuels China-U.S. Imperialist Rivalry">">"udan’s Oil Fuels China-U.S. Imperialist Rivalry

The article in CHALLENGE (10/20) explained how the battle in Darfur in Sudan reflects the rivalry of imperialists at each other’s throats over control and production of the country’s substantial oil reserves. China, in particular, needs huge amounts of oil imports to sustain its rapidly growing capitalist economy and seeks to profit from this industry as well. Meanwhile, significant conflicts continue among the traditional imperialist rivals — the U.S., France, Germany, Japan and Russia — over oil, especially in the Middle East. This is behind the current hue and cry over human rights violations in Sudan.

Sudan’s government estimates it has 3 billion barrels of petroleum reserves, with more than a half billion of currently proven reserves. Because of its expanding oil industry, it has recently been given "observer" status in OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries).

A key factor in world oil markets is the importance of marginal additions or reductions to world supplies. Recently such fears of marginal changes because of uncertainty in world events has the price of oil soaring to over $50/barrel from its previous range in the $20’s. This increases the importance of Sudan’s role. In a parallel sense, U.S. oil companies are aggressively investing in Equatorial Guinea, with approximately the same level of reserves as Sudan. Shell, Chevron-Texaco and other major oil companies already control Nigeria’s oil wealth, Africa’s largest producer. (Oil worker unions are calling for an indefinite strike for Nov. 16, protesting fuel prices hikes.).

But China is the major investor in, and buyer of, Sudanese oil and other energy industries. As a rising, aggressive imperialist power, China is challenging the U.S. and other imperialists worldwide, especially in resources, and has gained a powerful foothold in Sudan.

Chevron carried out the initial exploration for Sudanese oil in the early 1960s, discovering several oil fields in the South. But Chevron and its competitor Totalfina (French) both withdrew from these fields because of civil war-induced insecurity. After Chevron lost over $1 billion, Arakis, a Canadian firm, took over its rights and formed a consortium in 1996 called the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) acquired 40% of GNPOC. The balance was held by Petronas of Malaysia, Arakis and a Sudanese firm.

Eventually Arakis’ 25% share was bought from another Canadian outfit by India’s national oil company, ONGC. Further exploration by a coalition of Japanese, European and Middle Eastern firms began in 2000 in northwest Sudan, reaching into the Darfur region. That oil field extends under Darfur and into Chad, which has already begun developing oil fields in that region.

China’s current oil development rights in Sudan also include territory in southern Darfur. It has also invested substantially in the oil refineries at Khartoum and is planning to build a pipeline from western Kordofan (just east of Darfur) to that refinery. A Chinese firm is building seven electricity sub stations and 1,000 miles of transmission lines, while another Chinese company is covering 75% of the costs of a new electricity generation dam on the Nile River. Thus, China is showing a clear interest in building up the infrastructure of Sudan to better meet China’s rapidly growing energy needs.

U.S. hostility towards the Sudanese regime has been strong ever since the 1989 coup which brought an Islamic government to power. Remember, Clinton bombed a pharmaceutical company, lying that it was producing chemical weapons. Sudan also sheltered Osama bin Laden for six years. Rigid U.S. sanctions against trade with Sudanese firms has explicitly banned involvement in the oil industry, leaving the field wide open to Chinese, Indian and Malaysian firms. Thus, the U.S. alliance with rebel groups in the south and west of Sudan aims at replacing the el-Bashir government with a pro-U.S. regime so that China and other imperialists can either be expelled or brought under U.S. imperialism’s thumb. The pious hypocrisy of U.S. imperialists like Colin Powell about genocide in Darfur is simply part of their strategy to replace the Sudanese government, not because they’ve suddenly become "humanitarians." Already, the U.S. military is building a beachhead inside Sudan by ferrying several hundred Rwandan troops to Darfur as part of an African "peacekeeping" force.

There’s no magic potion to end the "oil curse," the war and devastation suffered by workers living in oil-producing regions. Only destroying all local and imperialist bosses, and creating a society based on workers’ needs, not on profits, can end this imperialist curse. What better reason than this to build a mass, international communist PLP now!

Sudan and World Oil Supplies: A Comparison

The world contains about 1.3 trillion barrels of proven reserves, 57% in the Persian Gulf region, including 115 billion in Iraq. Sudan’s share of reserves of three billion barrels is small but important. It estimates that by next year it will be producing a half million barrels per day, a significant increase from its current daily level of 345,000 barrels. Iraq’s peak daily production over the last 25 years has been three million barrels, while current Persian Gulf daily production is about 23 million barrels, 32% of the world’s total. Sudan’s level of production is approximately similar to Colombia’s.

LETTERS

New Wind Blowing Against the War

On Oct. 30, I participated in a small but spirited integrated march of black, Latin and white workers and youth against the war in Iraq called by a local Manhattan anti-war group. I helped distribute the "U.S. Out of Iraq" leaflets throughout the activity.

I’ve given out leaflets and sold CHALLENGE in this neighborhood for many years, but this is the first time in a long time I saw so many people willing to take an anti-war leaflet and also express their hatred of the war and of Bush. From the hundreds of leaflets I passed out in front of the hospital where we started and through the crowded streets we marched, the number of people who expressed support for the war could be counted on one hand.

One older fellow told me, "We got to stay and fight in Iraq," but when I asked him if he was willing to send any young person in his family to fight in Iraq, he replied, "After Bush send his twins there."

Of course, many people hope Kerry beats Bush, but our leaflet explained clearly that Bush and Kerry just represent different tactics carrying out the Iraq war. It called on people to organize instead of voting for any politician.

Siempre Rojo (Always Red)

a name="Daughter, PLP and CHALLENGE ‘get me through the day’"></">Da"ghter, PLP and CHALLENGE ‘get me through the day’

Having finished picking corn in the Mid-west [see CHALLENGE 10/20], I’m going state to state searching for another job. I’m trying to save enough to return home south of the border to my 12-year-old daughter whom I miss so much and who cannot accept not seeing me for so many months.

"If I stay with you we will starve," I told her. "Yes daddy, and when you leave we stay alone, and loneliness also can kill you," she responds.

"Damn capitalism!" I say to myself. I hate it, and must get rid of this demon, this hell. But I must calm down and understand that the devil the bosses and their religious servants have invented is in reality capitalism, crueler than the Satan they use to scare us. There will come a day when all the devils that kill workers will be just ancient history.

The work I do is harsh. One must break the Guiness World Record on daily hours worked since $5.25 an hour for 40 hours a week won’t get you too far.

I’ve traveled throughout the U.S., from warm Florida to the cold Mid-west, working on everything from packing corn to arranging flowers in cold rooms. This is the real hell migrant workers must suffer, long periods away from their loved ones. And while we’re super-exploited, unable to earn enough to satisfy basic needs, our bosses get richer and richer.

The contractors who send us from state to state are modern-day slave-traders, doing the dirty work for big agribusiness, hiring undocumented immigrants, retirees and others, and promising us "good working conditions," putting us in rundown trailers, unhealthy labor camps, and sometimes in fourth-rate motels, five to a room.

This year was different: many citizens, immigrants with papers, former professionals and others are now doing this work. The economy is so bad that many are no longer shunning "work for illegal aliens."

Capitalism strangles the working class. That’s why we must become the gravediggers of this system. And the bosses are helping dig their own graves by turning into proletarians many who never dreamed they’d be doing manual labor. Besides my daughter, PLP and CHALLENGE are the only things helping me get through this hell. But the day will come when the working class will become the masters of the universe.

Red Corn

Profits vs. Patient Care

As a clerical worker employed at a major East Coast teaching hospital, my primary responsibility is providing administrative and secretarial support to emergency medicine doctors. Recently the department chairman announced the arrival of a new attending physician (Dr. X), who would head an "expedition medicine" unit giving medical support to two "high end" travel agencies, of which he’s medical director.

These 2- or 3-week expeditions will transport participants to famous and remote parts of the world in a private Boeing 747 containing 90 first-class seats for passengers with a crew of 15. The aircraft offers a sophisticated kitchen and chef. A team of academic experts will lecture on diverse topics — anthropology, art history, history, archaeology, biology, economy, geology, geography, photography — and provide a framework for the region being visited. Cost per person ranges from $14,000 to $50,000!

Itineraries include developing countries (in Asia, Africa and South America) where medical care is substandard due to economic problems, dilapidated facilities and a shortage of educated medical workers and supplies. This underscores the obscene inequality imperialism creates: the wealthy elite have access to exclusive healthcare anywhere, anytime (even airborne), while one Washington State-based physician led a medical mission in Kenya (2003) that had a patient who walked from Tanzania for three days, carrying her child on her back, just to see a North American doctor. (www.evergreenhealthcare.org/showpage.asp?sec=2668i.artid=4266)

Physicians accompanying these expeditions receive special "perks" — expense-free participation in activities and a significant discount for their spouses. Hospital administrations enabling doctors to take such junkets eventually cut and speed up staff. They sacrifice the smooth running of the hospital and patient care by leaving the emergency room without sufficient personnel and/or pressure other attending physicians to add shifts to an overburdened schedule. Recently the department offered an extra $800 in desperation to fill one particular shift. All this demonstrates the hospital’s empty commitment to providing quality health care to patients who truly need it and corrupts the ethics of medical professionals, encouraging them to emphasize their own self-serving interests over social responsibility.

In a true communist society led by PLP, healthcare will exist to improve the quality of life, based on need, not on make profits. Hospitals will serve the working class, not rich bosses. Patients won’t be sent home or onto the streets while they’re still sick. There’ll be no one with power over healthcare workers and trying to bribe them to scrimp on patient care. Fight for communism!

East Coast Comrade

Back Reservists Who Disobeyed Orders

When the news broke about the reservists who refused to carry out a convoy mission in Iraq, I raised the issue in my peace group, which had been talking about reaching out to U.S. soldiers. We quickly drafted a statement of support denouncing the cruelty of this order, saying the platoon should be honored, not punished. The statement emphasized that instead of sending more equipment and troops to Iraq, the U.S. government should bring the troops home and end the unjust war.

Copies of this statement are being sent to the news media, but what really excited the group was the possibility of sending it to military families.

Several good conversations have already resulted. "The empire is near the end when its mercenaries refuse to fight," one person said cheerfully. He’s not entirely right — it will take a growing, serious revolutionary organization to defeat U.S. imperialism — but this is the first time that so many people in our group have grasped the importance of taking our anti-war message to workers in the military.

When a shortened version of the statement was circulated at our church, 50 people signed it, adding comments like, "Thank you!" and "More power to you!" One told me, "I wish that all the troops would do the same thing." They, too, were excited about communicating directly with military families. After all, in 1971, 55% of the U.S. military were in active or passive rebellion against the war in Vietnam, leading to the end of that U.S. imperialist intervention.

We said the Democrats were making it a campaign issue, portraying Bush as an ineffective warmaker, implying that Kerry would have sent even more troops into battle with more equipment. Early in 2003, after much discussion, our church overwhelmingly approved a statement opposing the impending war as "unjustified and immoral." Now it’s almost an article of faith that we vote for Kerry, even though he’s promising to wage this unjustified and immoral war "more effectively."

Many people were happy to sign the letter to the reservists because they saw it as a real action against the war, even though many will probably vote for Kerry. They hope electing an alternative to Bush will end the war. But others are thinking that reaching out to soldiers is more solid.

Several friends wouldn’t sign the letter because it called for withdrawal of U.S. troops. They said, "I was against the war, and I support what the reservists did, but we made a mess over there and now we must stay and clean it up." We replied that "we" hadn’t made the mess — the imperialist U.S. government did! — and that it’s only getting worse. These friends are holding the faint hope that Kerry will become president and somehow "fix" things. However, circulating the letter created a great opportunity for political struggle, which will surely continue for a long time. A West Coast Comrade

Traitor General

For those interested in World War II history, you should know that a Russian Military Tribunal heard the case for "rehabilitation" of Soviet General Andrei A. Vlasov. "Rehabilitation" means: declared to have been the victim of "political repression." Vlasov deserted to the Nazi side in 1942, and led an army of a few hundred thousand (mainly Russian former POWs) to fight with the Nazis against both the Soviets and the Allies. He and 11 of his officers were tried and hanged as traitors in 1947.

Sadly for all anti-communists, the Tribunal decided not to"rehabilitate" Vlasov — this time. But it left the door open by partially rehabilitating him. The charge of "anti-Soviet agitation" — one of the lesser charges against Vlasov — was removed. This will allow a renewed attempt to "rehabilitate" him in the future. (St. Petersburg Times, 10/6/01)

http://www.sptimesrussia.com/archive/times/719/top/t_5096.htm

Soviet History Buff

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations:

NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

Plan another war for oil

Aided by American helicopters, planning and surveillance, Colombian forces have the stated goal of penetrating the historic heart of Colombia’s largest rebel group to "strike a decisive blow to narco-terrorists"

But the Washington-backed offensive has another motive, oil, and military authorities say, one that Colombian and American officials only gingerly discuss: to make potentially oil-rich regions safe for exploration by private companies and the government-run oil company. (NYT, 10/22)

Capitalism hurts health

Angry about not getting a flu shot? Imagine being unable to find supplies of a medicine that limits damage from a spinal cord injury, a medicine that improves the health of a premature baby, or a medicine that fights systemic bacterial infectious.

Each of these drugs, and dozens of others, are in shortage in the United States right now. On any given day, 50 to 80 drugs, many of them life-saving, may be difficult or impossible to find. Some patients die waiting for them....

The larger story behind the flu vaccine shortage is that drug supply disruptions in the United States have become routine.

The immediate causes are myriad….But some economist say that they all stem from one central feature of the nation’s public health system: no one is in charge.

Ensuring adequate supplies of goods that yield such benefits is "a classic example of something that should not be left to the market alone." (NYT, 10/31)

Pakistanis see oil motive

Only 16 percent of Pakistanis support the campaign against terrorism. More than 50 percent said it was motivated by the United States’ desire to control Middle East oil, dominate the world and take aim at Muslim governments seen as hostile to America. (NYT, 11/1)

Say goodbye to promises

Lyndon Johnson famously declared during the 1964 presidential campaign that he was "not about to send American boys 9,000 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing themselves." Woodrow Wilson campaigned for re-election in 1916, the year before the United States entered World War I, on a promise of peace and prosperity. And George W. Bush pledged in 2000 that he would have a "humble" foreign policy without nation-building.

….Does it really matter what the candidates say during the long months of a campaign? (NYT, 10/31)

What’s ‘left’? Nothing much

After a 33-year struggle, the left has finally gained power here. But if the experience of a neighboring country like Brazil is any guide, Tabare Vazquez and his Broad Front, narrow winners in the election on Sunday are more likely to tinker around the edges of Uruguay’s problems than carry out the profound social transformation they have been promising. (NYT, 11/2)