a href="#U.S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder">".S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder
a href="#PLP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn">"LP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn
Capitalism Only Guarantees Profits, Not Jobs
Fight Racist Frame Up of Black Dockworkers
Janitors Fight Gang Up of Bosses, Sellouts
a href="#Fox Doesn’t Fool Workers">"ox Doesn’t Fool Workers
Build Red power to Fight Union Hacks
a href="#Déjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe">"éjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe
Appearance and Essence: Two Sides of a Strike
Music, Food, Comic Kick Off Summer Project
LETTERS
a href="#South Africa—Apartheid ANC Style">"outh Africa—Apartheid ANC Style
Dairy Workers Sour on Sellouts
Did U.S. Navy Missile Down TWA 800?
a name="U.S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder">">".S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder
Editorial
After the 1991 Persian Gulf oil war, U.S. rulers boasted about a "new world order." They portrayed themselves as the chieftains of the "only remaining super-power" and predicted a long future for unchallenged U.S. global domination.
In a one-sided way, they had a point. U.S. imperialism remains in command. None of its potential key rivals can yet challenge it directly. Chinese bosses, who are developing a long-range strategy for a face-off with the U.S., can’t yet contemplate military action even to take back Taiwan, which is in their own back yard. Russian capitalists are making progress toward restoring themselves as a major force, but they have their hands full for the time being with a bunch of upstart gangsters in Chechnya, whom they can’t manage to pacify. The German-led European Union wants to raise its political and military might to the level of its economic strength, but is still years away from that goal.
So U.S. bosses, while sitting on top of the heap, are far from sitting pretty. They face many contradictions, both external and internal, which will sharpen over time.
Two Sides To U.S. Power
We communists must see both aspects of this process. We must not fool ourselves either into underestimating U.S. imperialism’s current power or interpreting every hint of bad news for U.S. rulers as a sign of their impending collapse. On the other hand, we must also see that every one of the imperialists’ solutions leads to bigger problems for them, problems which will eventually mature into crisis and war. Recognizing this duality clarifies the hard work we must do today, tomorrow and even long after working class seizure of power, to help our Party grow under all conditions.
The U.S. rulers’ major dilemmas include the following:
• A decade after the Gulf War, the bosses’ main foreign policy think tank, their Council on Foreign Relations (June 2001), admits that all the killing solved nothing: "Saddam Hussein and his regime pose a growing danger to the Middle East and the United States. The regime cannot be rehabilitated." At the moment, U.S. Iraq policy is in disarray. The bosses can’t mobilize Arab support for a war to invade Iraq and overthrow Hussein. Russian rulers, who have big energy deals pending with Iraq, have a strong reason to oppose a revised U.S. sanctions policy: They need to use Iraq also as a bargaining chip against the U.S. plan to expand NATO up to their borders.
• The breakdown of the peace deal the U.S. had wanted to broker between Israeli and Palestinian bosses is largely and ironically due to the U.S. "victory" in the Gulf War. The war produced millions of refugees, including more than a million Palestinian, Jordanian and Yemeni oil workers expelled from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as politically unreliable. U.S. and Saudi oil barons feared that these workers would side with Arab nationalists against them. Now the dirty work in the oil fields is done by super-exploited workers from the Indian subcontinent and the Philippines. The 500,000 impoverished Palestinian refugees forced to return to the West Bank and the Gaza strip add significantly to Israel’s inability to pacify those areas and to Arafat’s failure to impose his political will on his base. The continued violence between Israel and the Palestinians is a direct consequence of the "new world order."
• The U.S. ruling class really doesn’t have a coherent foreign policy. As influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (7/10) complains about U.S. failure to deal with enemies like Iraq’s Hussein, Libya’s Khadaffi, Arafat, and North Korea’s, Kim Jong Il, "[Washington] has run out of ideas for how to deal with a certain foreign leader, so your whole approach is waiting for that leader to die. Biology!" The rulers aren’t stupid. The Bush White House’s inability to produce a unified foreign policy reflects ongoing conflicts and rivalries among different factions of U.S. imperialism. Its sharpest present form is the debate now raging over military policy between forces around Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who view technological superiority as primary, and generals and admirals who know that wars are won on the ground and the sea by politically committed soldiers and sailors (see Nicholas Lemann, "Dreaming About War,"The New Yorker, 7/16).
• The rulers are indeed "dreaming about war." The Eastern Establishment knows that its continuing world domination depends on ruling the international oil supply. The Russians and Chinese have long-range plans for replacing the U.S. Therefore, a third world war is inevitable, and the U.S. ruling class needs to prepare for it now, even if it may lie decades in the future. Such a war requires millions of young workers prepared to kill and die for imperialism. The rulers don’t have this ingredient in their arsenal, and its absence is their Achilles’ Heel. Nobody in the imperialist think-tanks, not even in the Hart-Rudman Commission (a coalition of Republicans and Democrats calling for militarizing society and gearing for war) dares utter the words "military draft" aloud. Yet carrying out the big bosses’ agenda will eventually require a restored draft.
As conditions continue to sharpen, this key weakness will present our Party with expanding opportunities for growth. Even today, despite our small size and therefore relative tactical weakness, due to the rulers’ Achilles’ Heel we have good potential to advance. Our recent successful anti-fascist action in Morristown and our vigorous work at the National Education Association Convention provide good examples. The future will hold many such opportunities, both small and large.
Our Side Will Win
The real "new world order" is the road to communist revolution. It is long, uphill and hard, but as the great Russian revolutionary author Maxim Gorky wrote: "Our children are going into the world, our children are going, our blood is going for the truth; with honesty in their hearts they open the gates of the new road—a straight, wide road…" (The Mother). Later Gorki’s heroine shouts: "We will cleanse the whole of life."
We communists must never forget that this remains our mission. However long the process, our side will win.
Anti-Racists Silence Fascists
MORRISTOWN, NJ, July 4 — Hundreds of militant workers and students prevented Richard Barrett and his fascist Nationalist Movement from being heard here today. With shouts, chants, banging on signs and the action of two brave anti-racists who wrecked Barrett’s sound equipment, the multi-racial crowd followed the lead of communists in PLP to silence the fascists. Today’s action was a victory for the working class and for PLP. Many comrades, particularly younger ones, took leadership.
There was a sharper struggle about fascism and the current period within the Party and among our friends this past year. Many agree fascism is increasing. But many still ask: what can the Party do about it?
Our first planning meeting revealed many disagreements. Some felt the Party should retreat because our numbers were "too small" to accomplish much; we should not risk more arrests.
But others thought that staying away and not vigorously organizing against the fascists would be a big mistake. Many recalled the Party’s history in fighting fascism. The 1975 Boston Summer Project was a militant struggle led by young comrades, showing it’s possible to mobilize thousands to fight the bosses’ attacks. We ended the organizing meeting with a collective decision to participate on the 4th and guarantee certain plans.
We corrected last year’s mistake by going every weekend, along with our friends, to different parts of the community with leaflets and CHALLENGE. Many people there had no idea Barrett was returning. Some said they wouldn’t come on the Fourth but would be attending the candlelight vigil called by politicians and church misleaders. We struggled with them about the importance of being militant and vocal the day of the demonstration.
Other workers from the community agreed immediately that the only way to stop Barrett from spreading his racist lies was to fight back. They promised to join us and said they were happy we were there. This made many of our comrades confident about what we could do, that our strength and power does come from the working class. The more time we spent in the community, the less fearful we became. They were impressed with the youth and with the active roles they took. They led many chants and speeches on the bullhorn.
On the morning of July 4, we held a march and rally with about 30 people at a local housing complex. We marched through the complex leafleting and chanting, "The workers, united, will never be defeated," and "Las luchas obreras no tienen fronteras" ("Workers’ struggles have no borders"). We were very well received. Many residents took leaflets and supported us. Some came and joined us at the front of the demonstration across from the fascists.
Despite massive police protection, the open fascists were unable to bring out anyone. Steve Ucci, the "Grand Marshal" for their rally, who had promised to bring out hundreds only three weeks before, didn’t even show up. PLP’s activities before July 4, including leafleting and postering his neighborhood, certainly helped to "discourage" him.
When we reached the police barricades, we led chants. Another group of anti-racists nearby led chants and gave speeches on their bullhorns. It was then that two young anti-racists, who had appeared to be with Barrett, began throwing down his flags, kicking over and disabling his sound system, before being arrested by the cops. These and all the previous actions invigorated the crowd, who began shouting, "Death, death, death to the fascists!" and then tore up the Confederate flag.
Scores of immigrant workers from Morristown joined us in chanting loudly and preventing Barrett from being heard. When Barrett and the one lone fascist with him brought out their pro-cop "Profiling Saves Lives" banner, the crowd began chanting, "Killing fascists saves lives!"
Many of our goals were achieved. The 350 cops ordered out to protect a grand total of two fascists didn’t stop us. We prevented Barrett from being heard. Our confidence that the working class, if given the chance, would join us proved to be correct.
Scratch a Liberal, Find a Fascist
The battle against fascism in Morristown is rich with lessons for our comrades, friends and the working class.
Many people do not yet see that the liberal rulers who pose as anti-racist are the main forces behind fascism, U.S. style. It was Clinton who signed the "welfare reform" bill into law that has greatly expanded slave labor Workfare and forced millions off the rolls. It was under Clinton that the prison population soared to two million, 70% black and Latin. And yes, it is the liberals who are building the apparatus of the U.S. police state, including community policing, metal detectors and cameras in most public buildings and a national police/military/ intelligence force, under the guise of fighting "terrorism."
Fascism is a product of the capitalist system in crisis. It is not a sign of strength of the rulers or their system. Rather, it exposes capitalism for what it really is — a bosses’ dictatorship. Under fascism, the capitalists attack the working class, including communists, harder. But the more we inflict defeats on fascism, the weaker the ruling class becomes when it exposes itself as openly fascist. Despite all obstacles, the bosses and their system can be taken. We can further rebuild the communist movement in the heat of these battles.
Fighting the open Nazis is only one part of the struggle against fascism. The same black and immigrant workers who Barrett came to Morristown to attack are part of a super-exploited workforce that fascism generates. The rise of fascism is intense at the point of production.
Right now, the mass organizations we work in are the main battlefront in the fight against fascism. In part because of our efforts against the Nazis/KKK, there is not yet a mass base for open fascism. But it is mainly in the unions, the PTAs, the churches, the communities and the military that the liberal rulers are trying to win large numbers of workers to support their version of fascism and their war plans. This is where communists must recruit anti-fascist workers and others. This is the harder battle, day in and day out. But it is the only way that capitalism will be defeated and communism will triumph.
Historically communists are the leading force in the fight against fascism. This struggle has always required a disciplined party, not the individualism of the anarchists. Only the destruction of capitalism through a communist-led revolution can put fascism in the garbage bin of history where it belongs.
a name="PLP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn">">"LP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn
LOS ANGELES, July 6 — "Let me give you a hug. I’m so proud of you and what you said up there yesterday," a black woman delegate told a PLP member at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly here. She was reacting to a proposal brought by PLP members and friends and adopted by this annual national NEA convention calling on the nearly 10,000 delegates to condemn the racist theories of "biologically-determined IQ," culture of poverty and related ideas, and to base their pre-professional and professional development programs on the idea that everyone can reach high levels of learning. The woman delegate said she, too, had attended staff development workshops where a NEA consultant taught the same racist "culture-of-poverty" analysis.
The resolution struck a nerve, and helped us show that communists take the lead in fighting racism. In the struggle we met dozens of people who helped us fight for it in caucuses, state delegations and on the floor. Hundreds took CHALLENGE and our pamphlet, Racism, Intelligence, and the Working Class.
When we raised the motion in the Hispanic caucus, someone objected, saying this proposal would undercut the inservice training currently given on working with poor children. A delegate answered, "I’ve been in NEA-sponsored workshops, where the speaker said that poor people’s homes were chaotic, and that poor people have no respect for education. These training sessions are based on the idea of a ‘culture of poverty’ and must change. As a teacher and a child of poverty, I support this New Business Item [NBI — the above resolution]." She also spoke for it from the convention floor. Another speaker said that the Nebraska caucus had supported our proposal because they were concerned the press was labeling the children of Mexican immigrants in the meat-packing industry there as "hard to educate."
Another delegate spoke from the convention floor supporting the resolution with tears in her eyes as she recalled being taught in teacher education classes that black and Latino people have "smaller brains" and are "thus less able to learn." All these friends were undeterred by the red-baiting of an anti-communist speaker who attacked the resolution as "communist-inspired" by the PLP.
The speech moving this resolution stressed that racist ideas underpin the racist and blatantly unequal outcome of our educational system, justify the income gaps between rich and poor and lower expectations of students’ abilities to learn. These racist ideas also flood the public schools and justify class society. In fighting these ideas, we encourage our students to fight to learn and learn to fight for a world without racism and inequality. It emphasized that teachers must be defenders of the working class.
We also presented NBI 47 which called on the NEA to support Joan Heymont, a New York PLP member and veteran science teacher, attacked for inviting students to our May Day march in Washington, D.C. This resolution had been endorsed in principle by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Our supporters in UTLA willingly backed it in the California caucus and helped get it to the floor. After it was moved and we spoke for it, someone objected to it being considered. That required a 2/3 vote, which they barely achieved. At least 2,000 teachers rose to vote in favor of considering the resolution supporting our comrade. When over 2,000 teachers are ready to stand up openly to defend a communist, you know anti-communism has taken a beating.
A PLP dinner meeting emphasized that, as Marx said, it is the historical destiny of the working class to eliminate class society and rule the earth. Racist ideas saying not all students can learn at a high level are part of the ruling classes’ justification of the growing inequality and attacks of capitalism. Students and workers can and must learn to read, write, do math, think and analyze the world. We can’t wait for the capitalists to do it because it is not in their class interest.
This struggle cannot take a back seat to reform struggles for smaller class size or more supplies. Instead, we should learn the lessons of the literacy campaigns in Russia, China and Cuba that sent people to teach reading to millions of others and were successful because much of their motivation was to create working-class leaders. Contrast this with the failure of United Nations progams to reproduce these literacy campaigns in countries with fascist/imperialist rulers.
As teachers and students join together to fight against racism, imperialist war and capitalist exploitation, education takes on new importance. The relationship between teacher and student becomes one of comrades, where each learns from the other. Capitalist schools have been failing to teach what most students need to know. Either we blame the students and their parents, or we ally with them to fight to teach and learn how to understand the world and change it.
NEA teachers are open to these ideas. We can and must win them to join us in teaching our students to understand the world, fight racism, to make a revolution and build a communist society. Part of this is a struggle against racist ideology in classrooms, lunchrooms and union halls. Another part is the fight over the content of what we teach.
The work at this convention strengthened our understanding of what it means to "Fight to Teach/Teach to Fight." Our collective met daily to discuss the day’s events, plan strategy and struggle over the content of the resolutions, leaflets and the CHALLENGE article. Participants in the LA Summer Project passed out literature outside the convention as well. Altogether we distributed 3,000 leaflets and 350 CHALLENGES. Many of our friends actively supported the fights for these resolutions. We’re in a better position to struggle at a higher level in the future, including at next year’s convention in Dallas.
Capitalism Only Guarantees Profits, Not Jobs
One feature that’s built into capitalism says that any concession workers wrest from their bosses will drive those bosses to invest in new technology that will wipe away those workers’ gains and lead to even worse conditions. Under capitalism, bosses are impelled to seek maximum profits or be driven out of business by their competitors. In every case, it’s the working class that suffers the brunt of this cutthroat system.
A clear example of this axiom can be seen in the problem facing U.S. longshore workers. In the 1960s, containerization was introduced to ports on the East and West coasts. By packing individual products into a single large container perhaps one story high that are placed aboard ships and unloaded that way, the individual manual handling and checking of thousands of these items is avoided. This time-saving process reaps much greater profits for the companies.
The bosses, however, faced temporary opposition to this from the two longshore unions, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) on the West Coast and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) on the East and Gulf coasts. Containerization threatened thousands of jobs. Soon the two unions agreed to it if the bosses would guarantee the jobs of the then current workforce. This also guaranteed that the bosses would have a free hand in using containers that would cut down on the number of future jobs required to handle a growing volume of cargo. So the unions, in "looking out for themselves" (and the ILWU was a left-led union), screwed the job potential for other unemployed workers and for the children of the working class in general. This clamping down on the number of higher-paying jobs lowered the overall wage standards of the entire working class.
Now the inevitable "worm has turned." Asian and European shipping bosses are using still newer technologies to speed cargo faster and cheaper than in the U.S. Hong Kong’s port can handle up to four times the amount of containers per acre than Los Angeles. In Singapore, a "crane driver" operates a joystick and video monitors and shuffles huge cargo containers by remote control as if they were children’s building blocks. In Los Angeles, the same operation requires two drivers, a clerk to coordinate and a signalman who acts as the drivers’ eyes and ears; some work still performed manually. Meanwhile, in Rotterdam, Holland, unmanned robotic cranes controlled by sensors have cut the workforce in half. Asian ports can load and unload ships in 40 hours. In Southern California it takes 76 hours.
Thus U.S. bosses are losing the battle to keep up with the growth in world trade, costing them an estimated $1 billion annually. With the volume of cargo expected to double in the next decade, if U.S. shipping bosses don’t improve productivity once again, the congestion of waiting truck traffic and ships will produce gridlock at U.S. ports. Still further, U.S. bound cargo could be shifted to ports in Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean and transported the rest of the way by truck, rail and feeder ships.
U.S. shipping bosses blame the union work-rules they negotiated in the ’60s in exchange for the efficiencies of that era. The unions took those efficiencies on the theory they’d be saving those workers’ jobs. But now the laws of capitalism have driven the bosses to new technologies and/or shifting cargo work to lower-paying, non-union sites. The West Coast shipping bosses say they will "guarantee" the ILWU’s current 10,000-worker force if they get a free hand to use the new technology. That "guarantee" will last only as long as the introduction of some new technology, to make still greater maximum profit.
Therefore, winning some temporary reform concession can never cut it. The more the trade-offs by any workers, the more other and future workers are screwed into lower-paying jobs or unemployment.
Only with the elimination of the profit system will new technologies be sued to produce a better life for ALL workers. That will only happen when workers get off the treadmill of reform crumbs and take the high road of communist revolution.`
Fight Racist Frame Up of Black Dockworkers
CHARLESTON, SC — Black dock workers in this port, in leading a fight to stop scab labor, are facing the full wrath of the bosses’ state apparatus. In January 2000, hundreds of mostly black members of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) Local 1422 massed at the waterfront to stop the unloading of a freighter by scabs. They were attacked by hundreds of city cops and state troopers and fought back with whatever weapons they could lay their hands on. Eight workers were arrested and five of them (the Charleston Five) have been held under house arrest awaiting trial on felony charges, facing five-year prison terms.
These militant workers’ answer to the bosses’ drive to lower wages and conditions on Charleston’s docks sharply contrasts with the union leadership’s policies on both coasts to "negotiate" job-cutting productivity increases. (See adjoining article.)
On June 9, over 4,000 workers and their allies from near and far rallied in the State Capitol at Columbia demanding freedom for the arrested longshoremen. Speakers included representatives of South Korean Daewoo autoworkers who face mass layoffs under a GM take-over. But the rally was organized and led by AFL-CIO hacks who are using it to divert the workers’ anger into supporting the Democratic Party as their "savior." This is the same party that has maintained the anti-union, racist "right-to-work" laws in the state and throughout the South for decades. Charleston mayor Joseph Riley, who had his police chief order the anti-worker onslaught, is himself a Democrat. Trusting these capitalist politicians and their labor lieutenants is like cutting your own throats.
All workers should raise the cry in their own unions to stop these pro-boss trials immediately and release the Charleston Five. Masses of workers could be organized to descend on Charleston and surround the courthouse. Charleston’s working class, with rank-and-file leadership, could map a general strike to shut down the city unless the dockers were freed.
The battle of these militant workers proves once again that the government — local, state or national — is not "neutral" but represents the class rule of the bosses. The only permanent answer to such attacks is smashing the capitalist state apparatus with communist revolution which installs the working class in power.
Janitors Fight Gang Up of Bosses, Sellouts
LOS ANGELES, July 17 — "With anger and sadness, hundreds of cleaning workers left their jobs and part of their lives in these luxurious buildings," said a janitor here. "Some had 15 years seniority. Now, once more and under worse conditions, they must confront looking for another job in order to survive," said another. The DMS cleaning company fired 550 men and women janitors after a racist Congressman sparked an INS (Immigration Department) investigation by complaining that undocumented workers were cleaning his offices.
Both the owner of DMS and SEIU Local 1877 union leader Mike Garcia kept this attack secret from the majority of janitors and the working class in general. The union never called a general meeting or mass protest to expose this racist attack.
With the help of the PLP youth Summer Project, the Party distributed a leaflet calling on workers to fight back. Capitalism uses borders and the Migra to terrorize all workers. In the long run, workers need to destroy capitalism with communist revolution.
The workers were glad to see us. Many bought CHALLENGE and some gave their names to plan action against this attack. Summer Project volunteers leafleted as workers angrily confronted SEIU reps visiting the area.
There is a lot of anger towards the union leaders, who only a few months ago called on the janitors to support and give money to Democratic Party politicians. Now that the workers are being attacked, these leaders try to blame the workers for not having "legal" documents.
Some workers believe the bosses are attacking because they don’t want other workers to follow the militant lead of the janitors. Others believe that the Republicans are attacking union members for having supported the Democrats during past elections. The union organized many of these workers to actively support Antonio Villaraigosa, who recently lost the mayoral election.
In work locations around the U.S., thousands of workers are being harassed and fired for not having "legal documents." Meanwhile, four million people, mainly single mothers of nine million children, will soon be barred from welfare. They could also be sent to work in the few jobs still left in the garment industry (and the worst-paying).
The essence of this racist attack is to terrorize all workers in order to increase profits. Recently, different cleaning companies have begun using "work teams" to eliminate jobs. "The work that ten of us have done will now be done by six," said a janitor.
Rank-and-file janitors aim to fight these firings and those that are sure to follow. They plan to fight for these jobs and for the union to pay a monthly stipend to the fired workers so they can survive until they find other work. PLP will fully support this janitors’ fight.
This struggle gives us the opportunity to build the PLP and CHALLENGE among the janitors. This will help build the long-term fight to destroy this rotten capitalist system, which thinks nothing of sending 550 workers and their families into the streets. Liberal union leaders, who defend capitalist laws, cannot meet workers’ needs. The solution is to build the PLP and develop leaders who rely on the workers to fight for our interests. We must unite as a class and build a communist world without borders, documents or exploitation.
a name="Fox Doesn’t Fool Workers">">"ox Doesn’t Fool Workers
CHICAGO, July 15 — The visit of Mexico’s President Vicente Fox did not turn out as well as planned. A "verbena" (Mexican style fiesta) was planned in the mostly Mexican working-class Pilsen neighborhood. About 50,000 people were expected to welcome Fox but only 4,000 showed up.
Many expected Fox to discuss a general amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Others, like the V&V Supremo strikers (see CHALLENGE, 7/18), said they wanted to talk to Fox about intervening on their behalf with their Mexican-owned company. The strikers marched to the park to present Fox with their grievances. Fox ignored them and did not talk about amnesty. He supports Bush’s proposal for a slave-labor bracero-style temporary visa program.
Community leaders from 100 organizations came to voice their concerns. But Fox paid very little attention during the meeting, his eyes often wandering to the ceiling. Some of the participants yelled several times, "Let’s talk about amnesty, about political rights for undocumented immigrants."
Finally Fox said his government had no money for protecting those forced to come to the U.S. Someone yelled, "Return the towels!" (recently "Los Pinos," Mexico’s White House, bought $1,400 luxury towels and bed sheets worth thousands). Others said if the Mexico-U.S. border is open to free trade among bosses, it should also be open for free transit of workers. Fox basically said forget about amnesty, the bracero program is what’s coming.
Workers knew Fox wouldn’t respond to their demands. They know they have no friends in high places. PLP received a warm welcome from workers in the park. We distributed thousands of PLP leaflets and strengthened our ties with the V&V Supremo strikers. Over 1,400 signatures have been collected on petitions demanding unconditional amnesty for all undocumented workers. We must work to win many of these workers to PLP and fight for communism from Mexico City to Chicago.
Build Red power to Fight Union Hacks
NEW YORK CITY, July 14 — On June 20, the SSEU-Local 371 Delegate Assembly approved a second $1,000 union contribution to the Morristown Legal Fund to help defray the legal expenses of those anti-racist fighters arrested at the July 4, 2000 demonstration against Richard Barrett and his fascist, pro-racial profiling Nationalists. A PLP member made the motion, which was seconded by several delegates. Local president Charles Ensley promised to recommend it strongly to the appropriate union financial committee, which meant the check would be forthcoming. The motion was then passed unanimously.
Our next PLP club meeting discussed why Ensley did not oppose this motion. The member making the motion felt that because the Party has not been attacking him for his hypocritical do-nothingism, Ensley decided it was politic to throw us a bone. This fit right in with his policy of "inclusion" — everyone from conservative to communist can work together under the union umbrella.
The club leader said this was too one-sided. He pointed out that 30 to 40 CHALLENGES are sold every month at the Delegate Assembly. Another 60 to 70 are sold every issue at work locations. We have collected over $160 from rank-and-file members of our local for the Morristown Legal Fund in the last two months. At almost every DA, a Party member will speak from the floor, advancing some Party idea. These efforts have influenced a significant number of Delegates to accept our positions on such issues as Workfare and the need to fight racism. This, in turn, has forced Ensley and the Local’s leadership to at least mouth opposition to Workfare and other anti-worker policies.
The club leader granted that Ensley accepted the motion because of his policy of inclusion. He added that building a massive movement against the scheduled ruling class plan for ending benefits for welfare recipients reaching their five-year limit and turning welfare centers into Jobs First Centers would be the fight that revealed the difference between our communist strategy and the tacit support Ensley and other union leaders give to the Rockefeller/liberal wing of the ruling class. It’s important to have secured this $1,000, but the Party’s main task in Local 371 remains to expand our CHALLENGE sales and our base to build a real political force pointing workers towards communism as the solution to the ravages of capitalism.
Racist Mayor Schell Cracked
SEATTLE,WA., July 17 — The big hit everybody’s talking about has nothing to do with the recent baseball All-Star game here. Rather, it’s about Mayor Paul Schell being smacked across the face with a megaphone at the Unity Festival in the Central District (C.D.). Standing only a few feet from a memorial erected by neighborhood residents to Aaron Roberts — a 35-year old black father of three gunned down by Seattle cops last month — Schell was decked by a nationalist as he spoke of "unity" to promote redevelopment of the area.
Schell originally ran for mayor years ago on his record as city economic development director and Dean of the University of Washington’s School of Architecture and Urban Development. He lost because he was pegged as a tool of downtown developers.
Immediately upon losing, he proved his critics correct. He became head of Weyerhauser development and proceeded to destroy all the low-income housing on Seattle’s waterfront, making room for high-priced condos and Microsoft millionaires.
Now, that he has finally been elected mayor, he has the same plan for the Central District. For the past forty years it has been a predominately black working-class area with modest homes. It is also near downtown, making it a prime target for Schell’s gentrification.
"I’m mad because my kids will never be able to afford a house in this neighborhood where they grew up." said one long-time resident.
Apparently, making black workers the target of cop bullets is also part of Schell’s plan.
"What do they expect with these cop murders?" said another neighbor when informed by a reporter of the hit, "Everybody to go around happy?!"
The vast majority of the thousands that have fought and demonstrated against cop murders and gentrification justly hate what the racist bosses have done to themselves and their children. Unfortunately, the established opposition to Schell—and even Schell’s attacker—still believes in capitalist redevelopment. Schell and the established opposition are only fighting over who gets the spoils.
As our Party members and friends continue and broaden the fight against racist cop murders and gentrification, it is imperative that we struggle against the notion of black capitalism, as well as against having faith in liberal reforms. Defeating racism requires smashing capitalism—in any and all forms. There can be no justice under capitalism, even with one or a million civilian review boards. Make no mistake about it recruiting more fighters for communist revolution is — the true victory for our class in this struggle. The thousands that are fighting racism deserve no less!
a name="Déjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe">">"éjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe
First, former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic is deported to The Hague to face the international war crimes tribunal. Then the same court indicts two Croatian generals for war crimes during that country’s war with Serbia ten years ago. But the biggest war criminals are the imperialist rulers in Washington, London, Berlin, Brussels and Paris. They were behind the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and armed their own factions to wage war. They won’t be facing any war crimes tribunal.
The trials of Milosevic and the Croatian generals reflect the imperialist dogfight over control of the Balkans and Europe. Despite apparent collaboration in the Balkans, particularly during the 1999 air war against the former Yugoslavia over control of Caspian oil pipelines to Western Europe, contradictions abound.
Milosevic was overthrown last year and is now on trial because of U.S. and German pressure and aid to the opposition. The indictment of the Croatian generals has more negative implications for the U.S. Heavy U.S. aid enabled the Croatian army to wage war. London’s OBSERVER (7/8) proceeded "to lift the lid on one of the murkiest episodes of the Balkan wars: the secret arming of the Croats by the U.S. The history of U.S. assistance to the nationalist regime of former President Franjo Tudjman [a Nazi collaborator during World War II, Ed.] dated back to March 1994." The U.S. government has refused to collaborate with The Hague tribunals on the Croatian situation.
The Croatian army was trained by Military Professional Resource Inc. (MPRI), based in Virginia, a private Pentagon contractor run by former U.S. generals. In 1995, the Croatian army attacked the Krajina region, home of Serbs in Croatia. With MPRI advising, an "ethnic cleansing" expelled 150,000 Serbs, destroyed 22,000 homes and murdered hundreds, many of them elderly or sick.
Since 1994, MPRI has flourished like many other contractors that make up what is known as "Mercenary Inc." Founded by Ret. General Vernon Lewis, in 1988 it had three full time employees. Today it has 850. It is so profitable that it has been acquired by L-3 Communications (an offshoot of Lockheed) and is traded on the stock market.
Germany vs. the U.S.
While the U.S. and German imperialists’ imposed a Nazi-like ethnic-cleansing division of the former Yugoslavia, their overall differences widened. Bush’s recent visit to Europe failed to resolve any of the major disagreements between the European Union and Washington, from Bush’s missile shield to the Kyoto environmental protocols to the death penalty.
The main dispute revolves around the kind of Europe being forged. Berlin wants to take political control of Europe as the next step to being the economic engine of the "old" continent. Germany is proposing a political structure for Europe similar to the federal (lander) set-up of Germany’s state system.
U.S. rulers fought two World Wars to keep Germany from controlling Europe, and aren’t eager for a third. A Europe unified around Germany could forge an alliance with Russia, with its military power and access to Caspian oil and eventually Iraqi oil. This could mean the end of U.S. domination here, especially over Britain. The U.S. ruling class will surely do everything possible — including using London and Paris — to sabotage German plans for a 4th Reich. They will try to maintain a U.S.-controlled NATO, especially as a check on the "independent" European Rapid Deployment Force.
Imperialism Makes War Inevitable
The 1990 collapse of the former Soviet Union left the U.S. as the "world’s only superpower." Now the old imperialist contradictions that sparked two world wars in the 20th century are sharpening. Lenin’s study of World War I proved that "imperialism inevitably leads to war." The Hague trials may eventually bring more instability. According to Stratfor.com (7/9), "When the realization sinks in that little of substance will actually occur, the pro-Western politicians in the Balkans will likely be swept aside in an anti-Western and nationalist rage. Apart from the opportunity of Russia to take advantage of [this], the fact is it will create a situation that will make the 1990s pale."
The international working class must be prepared for another round of imperialist wars. World War III may not be around the corner, but there won’t be "peace on earth." Building a mass PLP now will eventually allow us to turn the next imperialist war into communist revolution.
Appearance and Essence: Two Sides of a Strike
NEW YORK CITY, July 16 — A funny thing happened on the way to our study group about dialectical materialism. We went to a support rally for striking workers. The class was to discuss appearance and essence. We decided to apply this philosophical category to the rally we had just attended.
What was the appearance? Thirty-two young Mexican men were striking because one had been fired for distributing a "know-your-rights" flyer at the Tuv Taam kosher food processing plant in Brooklyn. He was the second worker fired for union organizing. About 25 older Polish women who feared loss of income were still working. The bosses had also recruited about seven Latin workers to continue working there. The strike was nine days old.
Many in the study group detailed the conditions described by the strikers: Wages of $4 an hour or less with no time and a half for overtime (they’re demanding $6.50); 12-hour shifts, often reaching 70 hours a week; few breaks, no water, filthy bathrooms, no vacations, no health insurance, etc. No wonder the workers are striking. They want a union and are organizing in the United Electrical Workers.
The rally drew many supporters. Everyone was very spirited and determined to win. Speakers included a rabbi who said plant conditions violated kosher laws. A Party member received a loud cheer when advancing the need for revolution. Everyone followed his lead in chanting in Spanish that workers should not recognize any borders.
In our study group we disagreed about whether the various groups at the rally were just trying to put forward their agenda or if it was a real show of strength and solidarity. We then tried to figure out the essence of the situation. This was more complicated.
Several said this was a very heroic struggle. They could find other jobs that were equally lousy and maybe better, but they chose to stay and fight. One comrade said these workers could lose. A male striker had said they operated some of the more complicated machines and the women workers did not, which would force the bosses to rehire them. But several youth felt the bosses could train others to operate these machines.
One comrade noted the bosses’ preparedness for workers unity: "It’s no coincidence they only hired young Mexican men and older Polish women." One of the strike’s main weaknesses is nationalism. The language barrier makes it difficult for the strikers to organize the Polish workers. They must win the inside workers to see that striking is in their class interest and that they have a better chance to win better wages and conditions if united. Another difficulty is coinciding the hours of the picket line to the times workers enter and leave the plant. But we all agreed that the strikers showed amazing class solidarity in standing up for their fellow workers.
Then came the questions. Was it wrong for the workers to fight only for a union and better conditions? Should they also fight for communism? After all, $6.50 an hour is still lousy pay. The workers would still be exploited. Does defiance alone equal revolution?
Several comrades thought that fighting back means the strikers are already winning. Someone said a strike is a step to communism. Another said only communists can bring communist ideas to a strike: "Workers can’t learn about communism from their strike. Communist ideas have developed over 150 years of both study and struggle. No one can figure all this out by themselves. That’s why we have a communist Progressive Labor Party, to lead the working class to overthrow the capitalists with revolution."
Our disagreements remained unsettled. Understanding the essence of the strike comes not only through investigation in a study group but also through the practice of the workers and the Party. This understanding will deepen with the outcome of the strike and what the workers and the Party take from it.
The strikers are facing tremendous obstacles in a militant wildcat strike at a time when even union-led strikes are rare. The strikers’ efforts should not be underestimated. We will return to support them and continue bringing them our idea of revolutionary communism.
Music, Food, Comic Kick Off Summer Project
NEW YORK CITY, July 14 — A Saturday, July 7th dinner kicked off PLP’s annual summer project. Since joining the Party, I’ve been to three and co-hosted two with a young comrade.
Usually there’s food, entertainment and politics but this year was a little different — the appearance of two accomplished "professors."
The PLP Singers opened the evening and gave their usual sterling performance throughout.Next came Professor Irwin Corey, "The world’s foremost authority on everything," who entertained the crowd with political jokes of yesteryear and today. ("A committee investigating if Gorbachev was a communist found no evidence to that effect.") Then "Professor Louie" performed political rap/poems about drugs, romance and Mayor Giuliani, among other subjects. He was accompanied by "Fast Eddie" on the drums. Two comrades performed a punk song about the Morristown case, "A bullet named Barrett."
Another two comrades related their experiences at last year’s July 4th demonstration. Still another comrade was justly greeted with a hero’s welcome for his actions in this year’s event. He was one of two comrades who disabled the sound equipment at the Nationalist Movement’s fascist rally. Money was collected towards their legal defense.
This kick-off dinner promoted the importance of a worker/student alliance and got everyone psyched up for the upcoming summer projects. A great time was had by all.
LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write!
a name="South Africa—Apartheid ANC Style">">"outh Africa—Apartheid ANC Style
Well, it’s been seven years since South Africa got its black president, which supposedly brought liberty for black people because apartheid is over, but the present situation shows otherwise. South Africa’s government, complying with the court, last week evicted more than 2,000 squatters from Bredel, outside Johannesburg. They were settled in a ragged stretch of land which government agencies and a private farmer claimed to own. This is part of a policy to make investment more profitable and win Western capitalist support.
When the ruling African National Congress came to power in 1994, the masses of black South Africans believed they finally had tasted the fruits of black liberation. But appearances are deceiving; the color of the rulers does not change the logic of capitalism. The oppression and exploitation of workers remain the same regardless of white or black rulers.
The South African black government claimed "since coming to power it had built 1.1 million low-cost houses providing five million people with shelter, water and sanitation." (L.A. Times, 7/14). But government statistics show that about 7.5 million South Africans lack proper housing.
Instead of building shelters for the squatters, the government sent more than 300 cops equipped with water cannons and emergency crews to Bredel to destroy flimsy shacks built by the squatters. This clearly exposes on what side the government stands and the illusion that black rulers mean a better South Africa for blacks.
The major South African press never mentioned this action. Unemployment and racism, the twin evils of capitalism, are rampant. That’s what created this volatile situation.
Many people are angry and feel the government has betrayed them. The only liberation for black or white workers is to destroy capitalism and build a communist society based on the interests of the whole working class. For this to happen we need to build Progressive Labor Party all over the globe.
An LA Reader
Communism is the Best
I am a student at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). I’m very interested to learn more about PLP. I am totally convinced that communism is the best socio-economic and political system, but my practice has been limited. In 1999 I participated in the UNAM strike. We carried out a fierce struggle against the pro-capitalist school authorities. Although the Strike Committee made some errors, I gained lots of experience. It demonstrated that to achieve communism we’ll have to wage a violent bloody revolution to destroy the savagery of capitalism.
I met PLP through some close friends at the university. PLP attracted my attention because since its birth it’s understood the necessity for violent revolution. I’m also impressed with PLP’s fight against racism, nationalism and sexism.
I haven’t met any organizations calling themselves communist that carried on that kind of struggle on these three issues. PLP also develops a form of struggle that unites its members. Such unity is crucial in building a strong force against capitalism/imperialism.I want to keep in touch by all possible means.
A UNAM Student
Dairy Workers Sour on Sellouts
I work in a Chicago dairy company. We went on strike May 29, after the company refused to bargain with the Teamsters as our union. This dairy has been in business 36 years and is one of the market’s strongest because of the quality of its products, which can be traced to the quality of the workforce. But we receive inhuman treatment. The bosses exploit us to the maximum, refuse us wage hikes and force us to pay for our health insurance.
Fed up with all this we struck. The bosses thought we couldn’t do it. We’ve been out for a month, but since most of us don’t speak English we don’t know what’s going on. After the first week the union told us the company had accepted our demands and we would soon have contract. But now we’re told there is no contract.
I ask, who’s winning with this strike? On the one hand, the lawyers on both sides seem to be raking in lots of money. But we workers have no money to pay our debts. Why doesn’t the union tell us what’s going on in the negotiations if we are the most interested party?
A striker
Liberals Invade Vieques
Ask an activist in Puerto Rico about Vieques and you'll get a speech and an attempt to recruit you. Vieques is still a hot topic amongst workers here, but not as intense as in the past two years.
One reason for this decline is the leadership offered - it's plagued with reformist views that don’t deliver the goods for the working class. This leadership is a coalition of civic organizations like the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, a great number of churches and, since the past elections, the power and logistics of Puerto Rico's Governor and her political party (PPD).
Governor Sila Maria Calderon has used this issue first to advance her cause during the elections and second to take command of this movement. By making it an official cause she has essentially pacified it. Throughout the island's history, revolutionaries and independence-seekers (though different in nature) have been marginalized, persecuted, attacked, incarcerated and killed by the Federal government and by its main collaborator, the PPD, the party in power! So now this party has officially taken command of the struggle, thereby weakening it and promoting disinterest amongst the workers.
The local government can also always count on the "usual suspects" for help. Recently more professional advocates of human causes like Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Dennis Rivera have visited the islands of Puerto Rico and Vieques and have gotten themselves arrested in solidarity with the leaders of the reformist movement. The latest was Jesse Jackson's wife. She was viewed by all as she trespassed through a hole in the fence and waited to be arrested, proclaiming that her "actions were justified because they were inspired by humanitarian righteousness." She didn't specify when or how, but added that the people of Vieques had the right to live in peace and that this struggle would be won.
Most Puerto Ricans view her intervention (as well as others like Edward J. Olmos, Al Sharpton, etc.) as comical. The island's workers didn't identify with her presence or actions. We were upset that once again we were invaded, even in our own struggles. Many Puerto Ricans told me they were witnessing an attempt to revitalize a Kennedy-type liberal movement with the visits of these professional activists.
There is dissatisfaction everywhere. The daily news reports yet another government official attempting to steal public funds. Outsiders would think that these politicians are persecuted because it happens so often. Meanwhile, the workers face murders, robberies, mass firings, mental health issues, fathers sexually attacking their natural or stepdaughters. Another phenomena are the recurrent births of Siamese twins and the struggle to gather enough money to operate for a successful disconnection. The powers-that-be lack the courage to state that these births are not "blessings from God" but really the result of contamination of our food and the environment.
Communism is the real and only solution to these dramas here. The workers are ready to hear and see something different. It will not be as easy as it sounds. Repression here is very real. The island of Puerto Rico is their "jewel," as the armed forces have stated on many occasions. The bosses with their mercenaries will not tolerate an attack on their training site and base of Operations for the Americas. But it shall be done and subsequent reports will verify our progress.
A Comrade in Puerto Rico
Did U.S. Navy Missile Down TWA 800?
On the fifth anniversary of the crash of TWA flight 800, Long Island Newsday (7/15) has reawakened claims that a missile, not a mechanical problem, was responsible for killing all 230 people aboard. Scores of eyewitnesses, who testified to seeing "a streak of light" shooting towards the plane moments before it exploded, were ignored or dismissed by the FBI and other government agencies.
According to The Downing of TWA Flight 800 (James Sanders, 1997), just as Flight 800 was in its final boarding process at 8:00 P.M. on July 17, 1996, the U.S. Navy activated military zone W-105 for the final testing of a new tracking system. This zone covers thousands of square miles south and southeast of Long Island.
Since the end of the Persian Gulf War, the military had been developing a multi-billion dollar radar tracking system to distinguish "friend" and "foe," among commercial aircraft and hostile missiles. They chose this area off Long Island to test the new targeting software because it was as close to the Persian Gulf environment as they could get without leaving U.S. coastal waters.
The Navy launched a pilot-less drone "hostile" target near Shinnecock Bay, at about the same time Flight 800 was leaving Kennedy airport. A Navy Standard anti-missile missile was then launched from the east to "attack" the drone missile. Its on-board computer was supposed to lock in on the drone target.
As TWA 800 headed east it unknowingly crossed into the military exercise zone. The missile's on-board electronic receiver waited for commands from the Navy task force below, but heavy electronic jamming caused the tracking system to go blind (as it had in two earlier tests). The anti-missile missile, no longer under Navy control, continued westward at 3,000 feet per second "searching" for a target. Its radar locked in on TWA 800, painting an electronic bull's-eye just in front of the right wing. Then it slammed into the fuselage at full speed, just below the passenger cabin, slicing through and exiting the plane's left side.
A Federal Aviation radar technician filed a report saying he saw "conflicting radar tracks that indicated a missile" approaching Flight 800 just before it disappeared from radar. Two officers of the New York Air National Guard piloting an HH-106 helicopter saw "something" traveling from east to west slam into Flight 800 and saw it break up and crash into the ocean. They were close enough to see bodies falling into the water.
With Clinton's re-nomination only weeks away, a massive cover-up began to hide the fact that a mis-directed Navy missile had killed 230 U.S. and French citizens. Gradually, the few clues discovered by a few reporters were neutralized. A ruling class that killed half a million Iraqi civilians in the 1991 Gulf War could easily dismiss 230 civilian guinea pigs to develop a weapons system to kill millions more to protect their profits.
A Brooklyn Old-timer
- New Labor Aristocracy Undercuts Working Class
- Fighting fascists in Morristown, NJ
- Workers and Youth Salute PLP Marchers
- FLASH: MORRISTOWN
- BACK V&V SUPREMO STRIKE
`Take what is ours! - Trust a Capitalist Politician and Lose Your Job
- Haitian and Dominican Workers Unite to Fight Free Trade Zones Bosses
- PLP Organizes Political School Uniting Workers from Both Sides of the Island
- Union Hacks Betray Mass Workers' Protests
- Garment Workers Show the Source of Bosses' Profits
- What We Must Teach Our Youth: Change the World!
- The Profit System Spawns Racism
- A Trip to Havana
Workers in Cuba and All Over the World Need Communist Political Consciousness - The Myth of a Magic Gene
- Book Review: No Limits to U.S Rulers' Horrors
- LETTERS
Workers of the World. Write!
Editorial
New Labor Aristocracy Undercuts Working Class
The fight for communism requires a long-range outlook. A crucial part of this process involves the ability to evaluate our efforts and their results. For example, many Party members, especially young comrades and teachers, worked very hard to organize for May Day. Yet the results were modest. Basically, we held our ground. How can we explain this contradiction between improved effort and relatively unchanged results?
In the first place, holding one's own in the present period is no small accomplishment for our Party. We live in a time when every major process that would favor revolutionary growth has been significantly retarded. These are the lingering negative effects of the collapse of the old communist movement. We're fighting a long uphill battle.
The old movement's demise generated new contradictions and continued the relative supremacy of U.S. imperialism. At present, U.S. imperialists remain in the driver's seat. While they face serious internal problems and challenges on every front, we must understand their present strength, in order to evaluate our efforts and make proper estimates.
The U.S. economy remains dominant despite the "business cycle" and the ongoing problems of overproduction. Even though the long boom has ended and a recession may well be under way, this doesn't necessarily mean imminent economic crisis for U.S. capitalists. The bosses have the potential to recover from a recession, even a severe one. As long as they hold state power, their system will continue, no matter how severe their economic downturns. Only communist revolution can topple capitalism.
TENS OF MILLIONS STILL
SUFFERING
Racist poverty, fascist slave labor and the destruction of social services, have become permanent features for tens of millions of U.S. workers. The end of the boom has brought layoffs in every industry, including high tech. All these developments offer opportunities to raise our political line and to lead workers in class struggle.
The supremacy of U.S. information technology has brought about a number of significant changes in the economy, which for the time being, are not in our favor. One is the rise of a new "aristocracy of labor," to use a term coined by the great revolutionary communist, Vladimir Lenin.
As Lenin pointed out, "Certain strata of the working class (the bureaucracy of the labor movement and the labor aristocracy)" get "a fraction of the profits from the exploitation of the colonies and from the privileged position of their `fatherlands' in the world market." The imperialists' ability to throw some crumbs to these workers spreads tremendous illusions, not only among those who get the crumbs but among the rest of the working class as well.
In the period following World War II, the U.S. "labor aristocracy" consisted, among others, of building trades and aerospace workers, tool and dye makers, printers, railroad operating crafts, etc. Their position of relative privilege made them a convenient buffer protecting the big bosses from the more viciously exploited sections of workers. Many bought into racism and backed the war of genocide in Vietnam.
The face of this "labor aristocracy" is now changing, as an economic result of the boom in information technology (see box). The rulers enjoy a free hand to create this new division in the working class largely thanks to the complete capitulation of the union leaders who, over the past 25 years, have dropped all pretense of leading class struggle and now openly back a capitalist/fascist agenda.
Business spending for information technology now accounts for 7% of the entire U.S. economy (New York Times, 4/28). This translates into hundreds of billions of dollars. To cushion themselves against the potential militancy of other workers, the rulers bribe this new "aristocracy." For example, in greater New York City, which leads the U.S. in the creation of these jobs, the average salary for new media positions is $80,010, more than double the citywide average for all industries excluding the securities sector.
An economy that can continue to create hundreds of thousands of jobs such as these isn't likely to collapse any time soon. U.S. world domination may continue for a good number of years. However, an economy heavily influenced by war production and by the need to protect U.S. imperialism's worldwide supremacy confronts the rulers with additional contradictions, which will sharpen over time.
Our job remains the same regardless of the difficult objective conditions we face. Even under the toughest of circumstances, we can grow. We can steel ourselves both ideologically and in practice. Our recent experiences in Washington, D.C. Metro, in the fight against fascism and state terror in Morristown, N.J., in the Cincinnati anti-racist rebellion, the Harvard sit-in, and elsewhere prove that we can play an important role under any and all conditions. Workers, soldiers, students and others will seriously consider a communist analysis and respect the efforts of dedicated communists.
The current relative privilege of the new "labor aristocracy" will not last forever. The low level of class struggle will turn into its opposite. The work we do now will enable us to grow more dramatically when the system inevitably enters a crisis. Even some of the "labor aristocracy" will eventually become open to our ideas.
If, for the foreseeable future, hard work yields modest results, so be it. We have a crucial role to play, on every front and among every section of the workers. A lifetime commitment to serve the working class and fighting for communist revolution remains the best choice anyone can make.
Labor Force Changes, Exploitation Remains
According to the current Statistical Abstract of the United States, between 1983 and 1999 the number of employed grew from 100,834,000 to 133,488,000. In that time, those employed in managerial or professional specialties rose from 23,592,000 to 40,467,000. Within this category, systems analysts went from 276,000 to 1,549,000, and medicine and health managers from 91,000 to 716,000.
Machine operators, on the other hand, fell from 7,744,000 to 7,386,000.
From 1980 to 1999, jobs in manufacturing as a whole dropped from 21,942,000 to 20,070,000, while employment in services jumped from 28,752,000 to 48,687,000.
Most of these service jobs pay poorly. And production workers are suffering both pay cuts through tiered wage systems and elimination. But among an important sector of skilled workers, the rulers are fostering a false identity of "professional" or "manager." Now everybody's a manager or professional. The glorified clerk who denies people services at an HMO is now a "health services manager.
The Abstract foresees the largest job growth in computer systems analysts, which it predicts will double by 2008. Systems analysts today earn more than $100,000 a year.
Naturally there's a racist aspect to the transformation of the labor aristocracy. Black workers hold 15.5% of the jobs in the declining machine operator sector but only 7.4% in the growing systems analyst category. Black workers constitute 11.3% of the workforce.
16 million Unemployed and Counting....
The government has been reporting unemployment figures as the lowest in decades, 4.4% in May. That represents 6.2 million people out of work. But they've been conveniently omitting or playing down several other categories to avoid revealing the real number of jobless:
* Out of work but not looking in previous four weeks -- 5.2 million.
* Holding part-time jobs because cannot find full-time work -- 3.4 million (the government counts workers "employed" if they work one hour a week)
* Officially unemployed -- 6.2 million
* Total -- 14.8 million (or 10%, more than double the "official" rate).
However, that's not the whole story. There are 2 million in federal, state or local jails. Of those approximately two-thirds are non-violent offenders (mostly drug possession) who in most countries would not be in prison at all (rehab, community service, fines). At least another 1.2 million of those in prison would most likely be jobless or, if hired, replace someone else who's working. (The French media says the U.S. "jails its unemployment problem.") Add that 1.2 million to the above 14.8 million, and the total jobless figure rises to 16 million. or 11.3%.
And how does one figure in the jobless who've joined the military because they can't find work (but are no longer counted as unemployed)? And what about the millions still on welfare who would be working if decent jobs and daycare were available (also not counted as unemployed)?
So the real unemployment total is nearly triple the 6.2 million reported. Figures don't lie but liars do figure....
At the same time, we should understand that unemployment is an integral part of the capitalist system. The bosses need a "reserve army of unemployed" to drive wages down. They try to hide this by not publicizing the true extent of joblessness. Meanwhile, they force hundreds of thousands of prisoners to work as slave laborers at a few cents an hour, creating another thriving profitable business from building more prisons to "house" them. Many sections of the capitalist cash in from this racket.
But so far U.S. capitalism has been able to handle the current number of unemployed, even creating new, still-lower-wage jobs. Their ability to continue to handle it depends partly on how much worse their crisis gets and partly on how fiercely the working class fights back. Communists in PLP can give leadership to that struggle, and more importantly, turn it into a "school for communism."
Fighting fascists in Morristown, NJ
MORRISTOWN, NJ, July 2 -- When asked why he hadn't stood up to the Nazis when they first came to power, a famous German pastor said he thought the fascists were going after people who he thought were "different" from him. When the Nazis finally came for him, he said, there was no one else left to fight back.
Politicians and church leaders were urging the anti-racist population of Morristown to stay home during a fascist rally July 4 honoring four racist killer cops. It's up to the working class of this whole area to not repeat the mistake made in Germany. PLP has confidence that workers, if not betrayed again, will make the right decision.
Hogan, Kenna, Roach, and Robertson are all guilty of shooting unarmed black people. If there were any justice in this racist system, these cops would have been executed or jailed long ago. The "Grand Marshal" for the Nationalists' Nazi rally is Steve Ucci. Ucci puts out flyers congratulating the cops for their murderous racism. Ucci used to work security at the Morris County Courthouse. This is the same courthouse where six anti-racists will be standing trial for fighting back against racism at last year's fascist rally.
Racism is rearing its ugly head here. There is frequent police harassment of immigrant day laborers. The same politicians telling people to stay away from the fascist rally were considering passing an ordinance to prevent day laborers from standing on the street! If the fascists' base of support grows in this city, we can expect stepped-up anti-immigrant, anti-black and anti-Latin racism.
Liberal politicians and clergy deplore the Nationalists' racism, but tell us that: (1) if we ignore the racists, they'll go away; and (2) the racists must be allowed to "speak their mind." Bot are deadly errors. Racism has a bloody 350-year history in the U.S.. It is deeply entrenched and has caused millions of deaths. These gutter racists are part of capitalism. The capitalist system needs racism to divide the working class, which helps bosses more easily make super-profits off the labor of immigrant, black and other more exploited workers.
Racism is on the rise nationally. It is the cutting edge of a developing U.S. police state. Rampant police terror is rarely, if ever, punished by the legal system. The U.S. has jailed 2,000,000, the largest prison population in the world, 70% black and Latin. Workfare, sanctions and time limits for welfare are ravaging countless households. A score of racist immigration laws is on the books and is being used to terrorize the immigrant population. In this political climate, open fascist scum like Ucci and Richard Barrett -- head of the fascist Nationalist scum -- feel safe to crawl out from under their rocks.
The majority of Morristown residents are against racism. But staying at home or going to the "other side of town" on the 4th will not make the fascists disappear. History's lesson is clear: whether it be the struggle against slavery, or the fight against fascism, racism must be confronted, fought and ultimately defeated. PLP will be in Morristown on July 4 again this year. The communist movement, and PLP in particular, has a long and proud history of anti-fascist struggle. Communist revolution will put an end to the bosses' racist system. Join us on July 4!
Workers and Youth Salute PLP Marchers
MORRISTOWN, NJ, July 1 -- Fresh from attending a 4-day cadre school filled with ideological struggle, over 50 enthusiastic members and friends of PLP put their theory into practice, militantly marching through an apartment complex and onto a main street here to rally support for a counter-demonstration against the fascist Nationalist movement on July 4.
Black and Latin workers proudly raised clenched fists as we passed by chanting in English and Spanish, "The workers, united, will never be defeated!" Local politicians and clergy are attempting to intimidate and divert many residents into staying home on the Fourth.
We were asking all to demonstrate against these fascists. During the march many came out and said they would join the counter-demonstration against Richard Barrett's racist Nationalist Movement.
After we strode through the working-class Manahan Apartment Complex, we stepped out onto Speedwell Avenue to be greeted by many workers and honking car horns. Just as it began raining, our bus arrived to pick us up. The cops, who we had caught by surprise and hadn't arrived till the very end, were confused. They threatened to ticket our bus driver if he didn't leave and then threatened to arrest us because we had no permit. We chanted even louder. Workers and youth came to their windows and stepped out of nearby convenience stores to grab our leaflets.
We were scheduling many activities in the days before and on the Fourth to insure that our working-class brothers and sisters demonstrate against this racist filth. ALL OUT AGAINST THE FASCIST NATIONALIST MOVEMENT!
FLASH: MORRISTOWN
MORRISTOWN, New Jersey, July 4--"Die fascist, die" chanted hundreds of anti-racist black, Latin and white demonstrators as Richard Barrett held his "independence from crime" rally here, "honoring" the cops guilty of shooting at black and Latin youth riding in a van. He also honored the cop guilty of shooting an unarmed young black man in Cincinnati, sparking a mass rebellion in that city in April.
While he read a 3-hour speech, the anti-racists shouted him down. Nobody heard his racist filth. Earlier, two young anti-racists infiltrated the heavy police protection that Barrett received (350 cops from 36 municipalities) and tore down the flag of the racists and threw the flags into the street. They cut off the switches of his sound system, which never worked again, and kicked the speakers onto the floor, before they were arrested by the cops.
Barrett's rally was a total flop. Last year, he drew six racists, this year there was only him and two other fascists. The "march" around Morris County courthouse was just Barrett alone after his two supporters chickened out.
PLP is proud of playing a leading role in mobilizing workers and youth to show fascist scum like Barrett and his cop friends that it is not safe to be a gutter racist. More next time in CHALLENGE!
BACK V&V SUPREMO STRIKE
`Take what is ours!
CHICAGO, IL', July 1 -- "We are conscious of what we are doing. We are not taking their crumbs. We will take what is ours!" declared one worker at a rally as the strike against V&V Supremo entered its second month. Workers voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 703 and are striking to get their first contract. They've given a very warm welcome to PLP and CHALLENGE.
V&V Supremo makes cheese and sour cream for restaurants and supermarkets. They netted $71 million last year, stolen from the workers who earn as little as $5.65/hour. One worker with over 20 years seniority is making $8.00/hour. Workers pay for their own health insurance which doesn't cover their families. Many put in 50-70 hour weeks, and aren't paid the overtime.
The Villasenor brothers have hired professional strikebreakers to videotape every move the strikers make. But these cowards always remain safely out of reach. For what they're spending on strike-breaking, they could have signed a contract.
This strike exposes nationalism as a false allegiance. The Villasenor family (from Mexico) has grown rich off the super-exploitation of Mexican immigrant workers. A boss is a boss. PLP says that working people have no nation, that we should smash all borders! "Workers of the World, Unite!"
The Teamsters have not contributed one dollar to help sustain the striking workers. With tens of thousands of members in the Chicago area, and hundreds of millions of dollars, the Teamster leadership has left the strikers high and dry. In contrast, we are organizing strike support among postal and Cook County Hospital workers and will participate in a fund-raising dinner.
All workers should support the Supremo strike! Walk the picket lines. Donate money and food. But even a successful strike will not solve our problems. Just ask 1.5 million other Teamsters, steel workers and others threatened with plant closings.
As long as the bosses hold power, we will always be wage slaves fighting for p[ennies, facing racist police terror, anti-immigrant attacks, unemployment and endless wars. Whatever we win will always be taken back. That's why hundreds of electrical workers are on strike against ComEd and thousands of bus drivers are threatening to walk out. Capitalism is an endless struggle just to survive.
Only communist revolution will put our class in power and abolish wage slavery. We will produce what we need, not what makes the Supremo bosses rich. The striker is right; we must "take what is ours." This strike can help us learn how.
Trust a Capitalist Politician and Lose Your Job
NEW YORK CITY, July 1 -- You can't trust a capitalist politician as far as you can spit. When the Swingline stapler manufacturer told its workers four years ago it was moving to Mexico, Mayor Giuliani made what he called an "ironclad promise": "Any person that wants a job...we will be able to find a job for." The workers were headed "to a better career and a better future," he declared.
Here's the situation four years later (as reported in the NY Daily News, 7/1):
* The News tracked down nearly two dozen former Swingline workers and found no one who obtained a job through the city's assistance or knew of anyone who did;
* Those lucky enough to find jobs work for a lot less pay and get fewer benefit (no "better career and future" for them);
* Betty Garham, 55, at Swingline for 20 years at $13.50 an hour, survives on disability benefits from ailments contracted at Swingline;
* Laurine Gibbons, 61, got her G.E.D. but hasn't found work since;
* Julie Edge, 55, earned $14 an hour after 33 years at Swingline, saw her unemployment checks end in April and is still hunting for work ("I'm trying to find a job before I spend all my savings");
* Many Swingline workers "called their two years of federally-funded classes or job training [remember NAFTA's big promise?] a waste, saying it did little to help them compete for new jobs."
When the bosses, under Clinton, instituted NAFTA, Swingline was the first outfit here to shut down under that pact. Its purpose was to make it "easier for companies to move even further away in their quest to cut costs." In Nogales, Mexico, Swingline pays workers a dollar an hour.
Republican Giuliani, Democrat Clinton & Co. all serve capitalism. Capitalists will grind down workers as low as they can in their drive for maximum profits. Contrary to most union leaders who blame workers in other countries for exploitation here, communists fight for the slogan "Workers of the World, Unite" to abolish wage slavery with communist revolution.
Haitian and Dominican Workers Unite to Fight Free Trade Zones Bosses
SANTIAGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, June 18-- Unions and community groups organized nationwide protests, shutting down most of the country. Thousands of workers and youth participated in marches against the government, the utility bosses and jacked-up food prices. PLP has called on these angry workers to join in building a movement to end this hell of capitalism.
While there is a building boom of dozens of luxury high rises in the capital city of Santo Domingo, for most of the people capitalism's economic crisis is making life even more miserable. The rulers are incapable of providing electricity and other basic services to most of the population. This is leading workers and their allies to mass protests, which can be turned into a school for communism. The system doesn't serve the working class. It must be smashed. Production must be organized for the needs of workers instead of the profits of local and imperialist bosses.
The rulers are privatizing public enterprises. The previous government of President Leonel Fernández and the Liberation Party (PLD) gave the electric company to Union Fenosa of Spain, saying the government could no longer afford to "subsidize" public utilities due to rising oil prices.
Last year, social-democratic landlord Hipolito Mejia (PRD party) became the new President. He promised to "revise" the deal with Union Fenosa. He increased its subsidy while they blacked out working-class neighborhoods up to 14 hours a day.
We must convert the growing anger and militancy into winning many workers and others to our Party. We must participate in all the struggles to show that the system cannot be reformed and must be smashed with communist revolution.
PLP Organizes Political School Uniting Workers from Both Sides of the Island
In early June, PLP organized a political school of three dozen comrades and friends working in the free trade zones. In some shops, the bosses wanted workers to work for free on Saturday. PLP comrades struggled with co-workers to refuse work on those days. With production based on the modular system, if some workers are absent, nothing can be produced.
We discussed factory conditions, how to build the Party and how to use CHALLENGE as an organizer against the bosses. A group of Haitian comrades also participated. Local bosses are planning to set up free trade shops in Haiti and at the border (Haiti and Dominican Rep. share the same island). Plans were made to coordinate our organizing efforts,
and create a Workers' Forum to unite free trade zone workers and win them to PLP. We're planning a PLP meeting in Haiti with workers from both sides of the border. Since May Day, several workers have joined the Party. This is the best way to take the offensive against our exploiters.
Union Hacks Betray Mass Workers' Protests
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Thousands of health workers, teachers, students and parents protested in all the major cities here against growing unemployment, state-sponsored terrorism, continuing increases in the cost of public services and against the so-called labor reform laws. The latter make it easier for bosses to attack the few rights workers still have left. Workers also protested the recently-enacted Law 012, which will cut $1.3 billion in government services under the austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These cutbacks will eliminate 2.3 million from state-subsidized health services and 1.2 million seats in public schools. Consequently masses of teachers and public health workers will be laid off and workers will have to pay more to educate their children.
Mass anger was fueled by these cuts occurring simultaneously with billions being spent on Plan Colombia (the U.S. scheme to finance the government's war against the guerrillas). The cops brutally attacked protestors, armed with sticks, trying to storm the Parliament building, injuring many, including school children. The protestors fought back against the rulers' fascist goons.
Unfortunately, these militant workers and youth were misled by hacks from the unions of teachers and of health care workers. These traitors try to channel the anger of the masses into the dead-end electoral circus, pushing their respective candidates.
The PLP group here participated in all these protests, distributing our literature and agitating with our revolutionary chants and speeches. A comrade gave several talks in schools, exposing to parents, teachers and students the capitalist essence of the little learning they do receive. This education emphasizes the system's class divisions needed to keep reaping profits from workers' labor and building illusions in their system. The comrade said that under communism, education will serve workers' needs and the understanding of society will be based on dialectical and historical materialism. Communism will use the experiences of the history of humanity to build a new society without wage slavery, imperialist war or death squads.
Garment Workers Show the Source of Bosses' Profits
LOS ANGELES, June 30 -- "We demand a guaranteed minimum wage every week! We don't come to play on the machines," declared one of more than ten garment workers, including a Chinese worker, who stopped work to confront the boss. "We work very hard but the prices for each piece are too low to make minimum wage," she charged.
"I can't guarantee the minimum," said the boss. "If in a week you make $100, even though you work 40 hours, I can't just give you $150 to make the minimum wage."
"Well, you'll have to or we're all leaving because the prices are too low to make even the pitiful minimum wage," declared another worker.
Finally the boss reluctantly agreed to guarantee the minimum wage every week.
Since this new factory opened, the bosses said they wouldn't guarantee the minimum. No matter how many hours we worked, they'd only pay us what we made by the piece. They gave one operator $50 for 2_ days. The boss is robbing virtually everything we workers produce -- that's his profit.
The competition among garment bosses for maximum profits drives them to pay the lowest possible wage, lowering the prices paid per piece. It's so low that even workers with 15 or 20 years experience who put in 40 hours don't make the minimum wage. Workers feel pressure to speed up, and even feel guilty for not producing enough to feed their families. Then the bosses say they're "victimized" by these workers, as if they're "giving away" money!
Three partners own this factory, one white, one Arab and a Latino, all focused on reaping maximum profits. We exposed their lie of "not making enough to pay the minimum wage." We declared that our labor produces the value the boss gets from selling the clothes. That's why many workers were ready to strike.
This small victory excited many of our fellow workers. But some workers are worried. This factory is expanding and some workers fear that as more workers are hired, we'll lose the unity we gained in this struggle. But we've said we can take advantage of this, making friends with the new workers and winning them to unite and fight the bosses.
One striker said she's ready to help organize a union. We're fighting to organize a factory struggle committee. We'll combine plans to fight back with plans to expose the bosses' drive for maximum profits as being the source of our problems. We will also increase CHALLENGE circulation.
This is a good beginning on a long road of struggles, getting to know each other better and distributing CHALLENGE, our crucial weapon against the profit-driven bosses.
What We Must Teach Our Youth: Change the World!
LOS ANGELES, July 2 -- "These people don't think our kids can learn!" whispered a teacher in the Bilingual Education Committee of the LA teachers union as she sat in the California Caucus of the National Education Association Representative Assembly here. A state NEA official was rattling off statistics about the large numbers of poor, non-white and non-English speaking California school children. His point was that despite the state's wealth, it doesn't spend enough on education. And more money is needed because these students are supposedly "harder to educate." Of course we fight for more money, particularly in the overcrowded, rundown, understaffed schools which working-class students are forced to attend, but that's not the main battle we must win in order for all students to learn.
Conditions in capitalist schools and neighborhoods teach working-class students that society doesn't value them or their parents. It tells them the only way to have a decent life is to escape the working class. The curriculum justifies the capitalist system. ROTC openly recruits students to be cannon fodder in imperialist wars. No wonder students don't trust the schools that claim to be helping them.
When the working class holds state power, students will be liberated to learn without the alienation so prevalent in capitalism's schools. Students and their families will know that there are no bosses to exploit their labor, that the fruits of their labor go to the working class and that the more they learn the better they can help the whole society. Evidence? Successful literacy campaigns in the Soviet Union and China when they had workers' rule contrasted with the failure of UNESCO campaigns to replicate these results in poor countries which suffer capitalist oppression.
This implies that the politics of education are crucial. When teachers join with their students to change society while educating them, students see their education differently. They see that they can and must learn everything they need to understand the world and how to change it. In this struggle, the relationship between teacher and student becomes one of comrades, each learning from the other.
PLP teachers at the NEA convention have fought for a resolution declaring that all students can learn. The resolution emphasizes the role of racist ideology in justifying class oppression and winning teachers to the racist and anti-working class notion that our students "can't learn." We're also fighting for a resolution defending Joan Heymont, a NYC PLP member given an unsatisfactory rating for putting this into practice.
Our kids -- the children of wage slaves and the wage slaves of the future -- can and must learn all they need to know to liberate our class. Communist teachers are allying with our friends, like the ones in the Bilingual Education committee, to fight to teach, and to teach our children to fight for a communist future.
The Profit System Spawns Racism
The day-to-day struggles at this large East Coast hospital allow PLP members to bring up many of our Party's ideas.
For example, in a recent ugly racial incident, a black transportation aide (escort) said a white nurse had called her a "black b----." The aide, a temporary worker, has no rights under the union contract, cannot be represented by the union and can be fired at any time. But our Party has been active here for many years, especially in anti-racist fights. The hospital bosses, well aware of what would happen if they denied the aide representation, gave in and allowed union representation for the aide.
However, the bosses refused to allow one of the more "political" union delegates to represent the aide because he's considered a "rabble-rouser." This "rabble-rouser" is the designated union delegate for the Transportation workers, but the hospital bosses demanded a union delegate from a completely different branch of the hospital.
Secret meetings were arranged with the aide to avoid involving the "political" delegate. No matter. The Party's years of activity and-building relationships with workers guaranteed we'd know everything that happened.
The nurse then claimed she didn't use the epithet towards the aide. Yet the nurse admitted she "might have said something," she just "couldn't remember" what. Had the nurse then told the aide, "If I said anything to offend you, I apologize," it would have cooled things and satisfied the aide who only wanted an apology. But no. The nurse refused to apologize. And to her credit, the aide -- who could have been fired at any time with no legal recourse -- refused to accept the situation. She, the escort workers and the "political rabble-rouser" continued a campaign for an apology, simply demanding that the bosses let the nurse and the aide meet themselves and talk it out. Plans were made with the escorts to respond if the aide was fired. Hospital bosses at the highest levels took over the case to cover it up. They even issued their own "apology" for the nurse!
"Why won't the nurse just apologize?" asked two transportation workers, one a regular CHALLENGE reader. "Why are the Nursing and Human Resources (HRD) bosses trying to keep this thing going?"
"To me it comes from the class system we live under," said the "rabble-rouser." "The capitalist class wants workers to accept the class system as some kind of "natural law" so we don't overthrow them. They impose their class system and racism on everything, even among the workers. We're supposed to believe that nurses are `better' than transportation aides, that white workers are `better' than black workers," he continued. "Fights between workers of different colors only benefit the bosses because it keeps us divided. The only hope I know of for a classless society without racism is communism."
So far there's still no apology. Last week an anonymous newsletter appeared in the locker rooms, with one article about the racial incident. Someone had written:
"Apparently the Nursing and HRD bosses are determined to keep these racial divisions going. Problems like this keep nurses and other workers divided when we need to unite to fight for more workers to provide for better patient care.
"We encourage the nurse and the transportation aide to sit down together and put this matter behind them. Keep the Nursing and HRD bosses out of it. Obviously they're only interested in making things worse.
But if the nurse is so racist that she won't apologize, we don't need her taking care of patients of any color or `race'!"
A Trip to Havana
Workers in Cuba and All Over the World Need Communist Political Consciousness
I recently went on a church-sponsored trip to Cuba. Our delegation visited a school, a clinic, a church-run neighborhood organization, an English-speaking church, a seminary, as well as tourist places -- restaurants, beaches, museums and Old Havana. We talked to top officials at the Cuban Council of Churches, the Yoruba museum, a member of Parliament and an official of the Ministry of Religions of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Our visit and many others helps both the Cuban government and U.S. imperialists. Recently David Rockefeller met with Fidel Castro in Havana, indicating the desire by the Eastern Establishment to invest in Cuba and exploit its workers and markets. This section of the U.S. bosses wants to compete with its European imperialist rivals who are far ahead of them, especially in the tourism industry. At our licensed bed and breakfast my hostess said her husband works for a joint oil-drilling venture between the Cuban government and the France's Total. "Esso is there, too," she added.
For some time the Cuban government has courted U.S. groups, and European groups, as one community leader said, "... to relate to black churches and civil rights groups, particularly in the southern U.S., and to attract solidarity [money and materials] from abroad." Trips like ours, and those sponsored by the "Pastors for Peace" movement -- to "know Cuba and show solidarity with the Cuban people" (thereby politically isolating the Miami exile Cubans) -- have been increasing since the Elián case.
Despite the managed, staged aspects of the trip, we learned a lot. The U.S. travelers had various anti-communist concepts, but also sincerely wanted to learn about socialism. In touring, light conversation -- tropical scenery, weather, the warmth of the Cuban people and the lure of the sun and salsa -- turned to deep political discussion.
"How do your teams work in developing young people with Downs syndrome?" asked a visitor to the Cuban director of the school. "Our teams include doctors, psychologists, social and physical therapists, teachers," he replied, "but also the families and the young people themselves. We nourish each other." "What's the relationship between the number of staff to Downs young people?" "Each team works with about 10. Here they're testing organic fertilizers and pest control."
I asked some taxi drivers about wages. "We are simple workers and receive 160 pesos a month," one replied. The top work category of professionals, engineers, doctors, etc., receive 800 pesos a month."
"What about factory workers?" "They work eight hours with a morning, afternoon and lunch break. They work hard, are simple workers, like us." (But with no dollar tips.)
"What do you think about a society without a money and wage system in which one can be both a factory worker and a doctor?" I asked. "Do you mean like in the U.S. where workers can work two jobs to earn more money? Here we can work only one job." "No," I said, "I mean a communist society where work would not be measured by wages and workers can do different kinds of work." "We never heard about that, but we'll think about it," one driver answered. "Are workers here politically conscious?" I continued. "Have you studied dialectical materialism?" "Well, we use to, but not now. We have a class society. It's gotten worse since the `special period' [the collapse of the Soviet Union] because the government is accommodating the imperialists." "So, you're politically conscious, " I replied.
"What's the difference between socialism and communism?" a U.S. traveler asked a Central Committee member. "Well, socialism is what we're after. It's real. Marxism-Leninism is a theory, a guide, how we study history." "Why are there only 500,000 members of the Communist Party in a country of 11 million?" asked another traveler. "We're a vanguard party..." Not very satisfying answers, leading to interesting discussion later.
"This experience is changing me deeply," a friend told me as we drank beer at a tourist marina in Havana, a marina illegally frequented by travelers in fancy yachts with both Cuban and U.S. flags (just 90 miles from Florida). Abundant contradictions, open and hidden.
The collapse of the socialist bloc has led to cynicism and discouraged workers and their allies. But far from being dead, the "socialist experience" is also leading to questions that can help rebuild a communist international movement: What will a communist system without wages look like? How will production and distribution for need work? How will the working class hold power under the dictatorship of the proletariat? How will a mass communist party function? How and why is politics primary over production? How will internationalist working-class solidarity function? How can the communist Party fight for political education of masses of workers?
The world's working class must face these questions. Now PLP's young workers and students in must take leadership in this ideological struggle.
The Myth of a Magic Gene
Hardly a week goes by without front-page pronouncements about a gene for this or a gene for that. Their purpose is to convince us there is an entity controlling our very nature. The rulers want us to believe that genes limit human potential. They tell us there's a gene for everything from math skills to a propensity for violence. The bosses have mystified "the gene." They want us to believe our brain is not in control of our behavior. The false idea of "genetically limited" portions of the population enables the bosses to justify the inequality of capitalism.
Biologists have long known that all life resides in the cell. Each cell has the potential to react to changes in the environment and to reproduce. In fact they must change their functioning to survive ever-changing environments. The trillion cells that make up the human body rely on the contribution of each cell to maintain the life process in the face of changing environments.
In the human body, liver cells process foodstuffs, the cardiac cells pump blood, the red blood cells take oxygen to the other tissues. Each cell type contributes to the well being of the organism. So what do genes do?
In each cell there is a repository of information to make chains of amino acids, which are later processed into proteins by the cellular machinery. A good analogy of the gene is the cookbook. Say you want to make sweet potato pie. First you take the cookbook off the shelf and open it. Then you read off the ingredients. Then you measure out (process) the ingredients, mix the ingredients and then bake your pie. The cookbook would be the genes. The baker is the cell. Did the cookbook make the pie? Did it even know that you wanted a sweet potato pie? Does it know what happens to the pie once the ingredients are read off? No, and neither do genes.
In order for the code of the gene to be read, certain molecules must act on the DNA. Transcription factors (protein) must first bind to the DNA so that another molecule, RNA polymerase, can read off the code. Does the gene decide to make a certain protein? No, the cellular machinery sensing a changing environment needed a molecule to help the life process adjust to the changing environment. The cell produced or imported transcription factors that go to a specific portion of the DNA and read off the ingredients for making the protein the cell needs. The code is locked up until the cellular machinery decides to "look something up." Then and only then is the DNA molecule unwrapped (opened) to read off the code.
The bosses' scientists want to convince us that genes have a mind of their own. They tell us that genes determine the ultimate outcome of our lives. But the cell is the functional unit of life, using all of its components to maintain the life process. DNA is just one component necessary to carry out the life process.
Genes do not control the events of the cell. Cellular machinery positioned between the DNA and the environment controls the genes' output. When a certain gene needs to be expressed, the cellular machinery activates that portion of the DNA containing the gene. The genes themselves don't decide to express themselves. "Nature vs. nurture," is a false argument. The environment, inside and outside the organism interacts with the environment of the cell. The life process adjusts itself by adjusting the production of cellular components. Sometimes these adjustments require the readout of the genes and sometimes not. The collective activities of trillions of cells in our body determine which strategies allow survival. Much of this is recorded in the genes and replayed when the cells require it.
But what about "I look just like my Dad?" The result of processing the genetic information results in similar organisms. If you follow the recipe for sweet potato pie, you get a similar, but not exactly the same pie every time. If you bake the pie at different temperatures, the results will vary. The cookbook has no control over what happens after you read off the ingredients. The cookbook doesn't decide whether to make sweet potato pie or chop suey.
Even if human cloning was successful, the outcome could not be the exact copy. "Cellular noise" causes the gene readout to vary each time. Each individual has its own microenvironment that influences every aspect of our existence. Even identical twins have noticeable physical differences when their genetic material is identical. No two fingerprints are the same.
The human collective can move mountains and drain seas. Genes control none of these behaviors, whether basketball or math skills. The environment created by humans can produce wars or plenty. Under capitalism wars are inevitable. Under worldwide communism the potential of humankind can be realized.
Book Review: No Limits to U.S Rulers' Horrors
UNDUE RISK: SECRET STATE EXPERIMENTS ON HUMANS
by Jonathan D. Moreno
1. Human beings dropped out of airplanes to test survival from high altitude falls.
2. Men frozen in ice and then allowed to thaw among naked warm bodies of women to discover the best way to re-warm frozen pilots.
3. Human beings, without their knowledge, inoculated with anthrax, plague, cholera and scores of other diseases, and then killed by injections of poison.
4. Hundreds of thousands of human beings vaporized by nuclear weapons.
5. Hundreds of thousands of human beings incinerated by fire bombs.
6. Thousands of human beings set afire by jellied gasoline.
7. Hundreds of thousands of children's legs blown off by hidden explosives.
8. Human beings subjected to radioactive gases released into the atmosphere to determine how well they survive and how far away the radiation will drift.
9. Human beings injected with radioactive substances to observe body responses.
10. Miners secretly exposed to radioactive radon to test their survival.
11. Bacteria released into subway vents to discover how many people get sick.
12. LSD secretly given to people, causing mental illness to see if it's possible to control people's minds.
13. Hundreds of black men deliberately untreated for syphilis to identify the effects on them.
All this occurred within the last 75 years. Which were acts of war against soldiers and which against civilians? Which were experiments? Which countries committed which acts of war, and in which countries were each of the experiments performed?
None were acts of war against soldiers. Numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7 were acts of war against civilians. All the others were experiments.
The first two were committed by Nazi Germany, the third by Imperial Japan during World War II. The U.S. government committed numbers 4 through 13. Only the last, the so-called Tuskegee experiment, is common knowledge; the rest have been closely guarded military secrets until recently.
Jonathan Moreno, the author of Undue Risk, published last year, was a member of former President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, organized in 1995. He had official access to tremendous amounts of recently declassified information about experiments performed over the last 75 years on human subjects. He views the U.S. Government's need to protect its military troops and citizens from foreign attack as overriding the need to protect human subjects. Such "reasoning" justifies virtually any experimentation.
Moreno completely ignores why the U.S. enters these wars. Using circular reasoning, based on the U.S. government's supposed superior morality, he presents all U.S. wars as "defensive." But, U.S. capitalism's imperialist needs drive the U.S. into all its wars. Working-class soldiers re used as the battering ram. There is no "informed consent" by working-class U.S. soldiers for being used in imperialist war to secure the profits of U.S. corporations.
The same U.S. Atomic Energy Commission responsible for the secret radiation experiments on U.S. citizens listed above sponsored the genocidal experiments against the Yanomami Indians of Brazil and Venezuela. (See CHALLENGE, April 11.)
Despite Moreno's unquestioning defense of the U.S. government and military, this book is still useful as an antidote to a common and dangerous illusion: many think there are limits to the horrors the U.S. government and military will inflict on workers in the U.S., let alone on workers abroad. This book demonstrates there is no experiment too horrendous for U.S. rulers to carry out -- as long as they can keep it secret.
These experiments show that capitalism is itself a weapon of mass destruction and murder, constantly warring on the working class. This list of horrors once again confirms why the working class desperately needs communism, under which these war criminals will be executed.
LETTERS
Workers of the World. Write!
Grad Exposes Harvard's Racism
I wore a sign at my graduation saying Harvard University Supports Racism and Imperialism. The sign also had Progressive Labor Party on it, as well as the PLP fist and star symbol. I wore it outside my graduation gown for most of the ceremony inside Harvard yard and raised it when I stood. When they gave an honorary degree to Arthur Schlesinger Jr., I turned to the audience and raised the sign over my head.
I also wore the sign when I received my degree at my dorm. None of the administrative types said anything, except for the Housemaster who congratulated me. After the ceremony, a Harvard graduate (who was there to see his sister graduate) thanked me for what I did.
The Red Graduate
Chief French Imperialist A Trot Mole
The infighting between French President Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is getting downright dirty. It was just revealed that Chirac had misused millions in secret state funds, including over $300,000 in free travel for himself and his entourage. That followed the disclosure that Jospin was a member of OCI, a Trotskyite (Trot) organization (now called Parti des Travailleurs-Workers Party). Crooked politicians using state funds for freebies are really nothing new, but a member of a so-called left-wing group being a leader of an imperialist government is quite amusing.
Trotskyite groups are always portraying themselves as "the real left." They attack groups like PLP as "Stalinist," implying they're not really revolutionary. Well, the worldwide history of Trotskyism has always reflected anti-communism and a willingness to serve a particular group of capitalists. The Jospin situation just confirms this.
Apparently Pierre Lambert (the top OCI leader) trained young Jospin to be a "mole" (secreting one's self in a mass reformist party like the Socialist Party of France - PSF). Jospin was a student in an elite French college and had leftist ideas. Lambert prepared him for his job in the Socialist Party. PSF's deceased leader, Francois Mitterrand, took Jospin under his wing (along with some other Trotskyite moles) and trained them to lead the PSF and the French government.
Mitterrand, in his youth, collaborated for a while with the Nazis occupying France. Then as Interior Minister of France - controlling all police and internal security forces - he oversaw French Army terrorism during Algeria's war of independence and helped prepare the way for the massacre of hundreds of North African immigrants during a Paris protest in October 1961. This is the same Mitterrand who believed Trotskyites could become worthy cadres for French imperialism, the same Mitterand who, as a presidential candidate, offered a full pardon to the fascist Secret Army Organization general Salan in exchange for Salan's political support. Now most of the leadership of the Socialist Party and the French government are probably moles. But political observers have often noted the obvious, stating, "What's the difference; they're all right-wing social-democrats."
The lesson for workers and students fighting for revolutionary politics: groups who serve imperialism cannot, by definition, be revolutionaries.
Monsieur Rouge
Cooking Communism in A Soup Kitchen
There are exciting developments emerging from my 6-year participation in the life of a small, inner-city parish. On May Day our soup kitchen organized almost 30 marchers. Two friends who had consistently distributed CHALLENGE the previous year took more leadership, including serving as bus co-captains. They each made a firm commitment to join the Party as well. We've now had one club meeting and one study group meeting.
Hopefully, this qualitative step will shortly lead to a quantitative and qualitative step. Because my comrades have energized Party activity in the soup kitchen so well, other church members, including the pastor, are more open to participating in Party-led mass work -- particularly in organizing for one of our more significant anti-fascist activities in years.
The comrades, two black working-class women, fully understand the danger posed every day by inner-city police and the fascist forces. Based on the support these comrades have built within the church, I was able to get the church board to unanimously pass a resolution supporting the comrades and friends facing felony charges. They also voted to fund a bus to take protestors to this summer's militant event. The church's 300-person mailing list was made available to build the struggle.
The new quality that may well develop now is, of course, more Party recruits and more struggle. The church leaders and the City's politicians are becoming aware of all this activity. Attacks on us will follow, sooner or later. But with tighter ties of political friendship and sharper ideological struggle (and teaching dialectics) the Party will continue to grow!
Two, Three, Many Red Churchmice
Communism for the Soul
I'm a volunteer worker at a church soup kitchen in New York City. I'm also in a PLP study group.
What I liked most about May Day: Well, when I first heard about the bus rides I really wasn't interested. I was just going for the ride. But continuing to go, I started paying attention to what was going on. I liked how every one joined together to try to put an end to violence, police brutality, poisoning kids and this really must stop. But we need more people to get together as one.
I also liked the chants. My favorite one was, "Bush, Bush you dirty liar; we'll set your ass on fire!" I also liked how a lot of young ones attended the last May Day. I'm looking forward to many more May Day marches. Communists, PLP, keep up the good work. Continue going to the march!
A new PLP member
Dr. Bethune's Rx: Serve the People
On a recent Sunday, ten NYC high school and college students and five teachers watched a film about a communist doctor and discussed politics. This was an opportunity for students who have been politically active at their own schools to get to know each other as well as learn about the PLP summer project and other up-coming events.
The film, Dr. Bethune, is a dramatized biography of Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who became famous during the late 1930's for serving as a surgeon for the 8th Route Army of the Chinese Communist Party, which was then fighting the Japanese fascist occupiers. His story is fascinating and has many lessons for students and others.
Bethune came from a wealthy family and became a prominent surgeon during the 1920's. He could have made lots of money treating rich patients. Instead, he chose to work in clinics for the poor and advocate socialized medicine. Although concerned for working people, Bethune was then a liberal reformer, unwilling to challenge the capitalist society that created rich and poor in the first place.
In the 1930's Bethune was radicalized by the Great Depression, rising fascism, the growth of the communist movement and a 1935 trip to the Soviet Union, whose health care system greatly impressed him. He was very interested in curing tuberculosis caused by the government-perpetrated foul environment in poor working-class areas. The Soviets had reduced the incidence of TB more than 50%. All these factors convinced Bethune to become a communist and use his medical knowledge in the battle against fascism. He went to Spain and treated soldiers wounded in the battles against Franco's fascist troops. His innovation of bringing blood transfusions to the fighting area saved thousands then and eventually millions.
Though he had advanced politically, Bethune continued to display serious personal weaknesses. He was a womanizer, often drank heavily and was sometimes arrogant and impatient. His experiences in China would change him. After his service in Spain, Bethune went to China where he revolutionized combat surgery by developing a mobile, battlefield hospital for treating wounded Red Army soldiers at the front, greatly improving their survival rate. While Chinese doctors learned from Bethune, he in turn began to learn from the Chinese communists' commitment to serving the people. He became less arrogant, less moody and more supportive of those he worked with. Even after contracting a disease that would kill him, he described his time in China as the happiest moments of his life.
Afterwards, students and teachers discussed whether it's possible for people to change, to become committed to fighting for communism and to become less selfish. Some agreed; others were doubtful. We hope to have more such discussions and to work together in the future.
Manhattan teacher
PLP'ers Take on Racist Wage Schemes
One of the main issues in the mass transit industry is the fight against the racism in wage progression (lower wages for the same job). This battle has exposed the institutional racism we see here in the Bay Area towards both drivers and riders. Jim Crow racism (segregation by law) has been replaced by the destruction of living-wage jobs through wage progression, part-timing, downsizing (particularly in basic industry), and the criminalization of our youth. The police just gunned down a young black man with 20 bullets in front of the Metreon.
Transit service that allows urban minority communities to go about their daily lives is under attack as commute and rush-hour services take up scarce resources. This compounds the economic attack on entry-level jobs available to younger workers. Capitalism constantly pushes down the standard of living of minority workers in order to lower the living standards of all workers.
We fought against wage progression in our contract last year, reducing the progression to 18 months by June, 2003. Of far greater significance, transit workers in Washington, D.C. Metro read about our struggle in CHALLENGE. PLP members at Metro then organized to make this demand real. One union negotiator told management that workers would not accept anything less than the 18-month wage progression won in San Francisco.
Our contract gave the youngest workers approximately a 10.6% raise and offered full-time jobs to those who wanted it. Other drivers received 5.6%. Young and old at MUNI saw this contract as a fight for the future, for new workers and for the children of the working class. Fighting for equality is a powerful force. CHALLENGE is full of examples of how workers worldwide are motivated by this ideology of fighting for the future and for equality of their class. Even with all of this, we recognize the limits of unions under capitalism. Contract improvements do little more than spell out the terms of our exploitation or modify the constant use of racist wage differentials. CHALLENGE and PLP put us on the offensive. We fight the problems of capitalism and its institutional racism. But we understand the need for a mass communist party to lead the revolutionary movement to remove capitalism if working people are to have real equality.
Bay Area MUNI Transit Workers
a href="#Liberal U.S. Bosses’ Army Following in Nazi Footsteps">"iberal U.S. Bosses’ Army Following in Nazi Footsteps
PLP Targets Racism in D.C. Metro Contract Fight
a href="#'Stand Up For Steel’ vs. Sit-Down Strike for LTV Workers">"Stand Up For Steel’ vs. Sit-Down Strike for LTV Workers
Rank-&-File Mass Militancy Can Foil 1199 Electoral Schemes
a href="#For Bosses Kids ‘R’ Guns">Fo" Bosses Kids ‘R’ Guns
- a href="#Editor’s Comment:">"ditors' Comment
LA Mayoral Vote-Racism/Nationalism A Deadly Trap
a href="#Boeing, Union Back Bush— Exploit Us Here, Bomb Us Abroad">"oeing, Union Back Bush— Exploit Us Here, Bomb Us Abroad
LA Teachers Back Removed B'klyn PL'er
a href="#The Dialectics of Biology: There’s More to Life Than Genes">"he Dialectics of Biology: There’s More to Life Than Genes
Unity with Jesse Jackson Is Pact with the Devil
60th Anniversary of Hitler Attack on USSR -- Red Army Smashed Nazi War Machine
Movie Review: This Rose Smells Rotten
LETTERS
a href="#Racist Ideas Don’t Fall From the Sky">"acist Ideas Don’t Fall From the Sky
a href="#Now It’s Ritalin To 3-Year-Olds!">"ow It’s Ritalin To 3-Year-Olds!
Peru CIA Man Was Capo of Drug Cartel
Anti-Racists Link Fight From Strike To Cop Murder
a href="#‘Peace Carnival’ Won’t Cut It">‘Pea"e Carnival’ Won’t Cut It
Steel Steals In More Ways Than One
a name="Liberal U.S. Bosses’ Army Following in Nazi Footsteps">">"iberal U.S. Bosses’ Army Following in Nazi Footsteps
After decades of imitating Hitler, U.S. bosses have finally begun to give him credit for inspiring them. As they prepare for long-range confrontation with their Russian and Chinese rivals, the rulers look to copy the Nazi army that conquered Europe in the first phase of World War II.
According to the New York paper Newsday (6/13), "A retired general advising Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on transforming the military…recommended following in the footsteps of the Nazi army by changing the combat capability of only a small percentage of U.S. forces to achieve a dramatic improvement on future battlefields."
The "adviser" is James P. McCarthy, a former Air Force general. He wants to borrow from the German Army’s general staff, which relied on advanced technology to start Hitler’s war and on infantry to consolidate strategic victories: "…only about 10 percent of the force was transformed with [high technology, — Ed.]; 90 % of the forces that eventually conquered much of Europe was foot soldiers…So we are seeking a similar type of approach" (Newsday).
Liberals Are Masterminds Of ‘Springtime For Rumsfeld’
Life is now imitating the Broadway stage. The biggest hit in many years is Mel Brooks’ The Producers, a spoof about two crooks who try to pocket the fortune in money they raise for a show they plan as a sure-fire flop, a musical comedy called Springtime for Hitler. But the "flop" becomes a hit, and the "producers" wind up in jail. Now we’re getting Springtime for Rumsfeld. But there’s nothing funny about this plan. McCarthy’s advice to Rumsfeld represents an important step toward gearing society and the military for a future of imperialist warfare whose casualties will dwarf the tens of millions murdered by Hitler & Co.
The Rumsfeld-commissioned report is not the work of the open fascists in the Republican "right." It is the brainchild of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a think-tank with impeccable mainstream liberal credentials. Of the IDA’s twelve trustees, seven, including retired Army generals John Galvin and Andrew Goodpaster, are members of or advisors to the Rockefeller-run Council on Foreign Relations. Another, Ruth Davis, received the Rockefeller Public Service Award for her work as undersecretary in the Defense and Energy Departments. IDA trustee Sheila Widnall holds a Rockefeller-endowed professorship at MIT.
New Army Secretary Wants ‘More Lethal’ Force To Fight Bosses’ Wars
The bosses’ recognition of Hitler as a model comes in the wake of two other important developments that underscore the character of the period we are entering. The first is the recent appointment of Thomas White as Bush’s new Secretary of the Army. White is a former vice-chairman of the Enron Corporation, which has often pursued profit interests contradictory to the liberal Establishment’s. However, Enron also has a foot in the Rockefeller/Exxon camp. At his swearing-in, White made clear that he endorses the policy of copying the Nazis: "The Army today is in the midst of an enormous transformation, White said, from a Cold War-oriented force to one that is lighter, faster, more flexible, and—most of all—more lethal." (Stars and Stripes, 6/13, our emphasis — Ed.)
Imperialists Expand Oil Empire Defense Plans
The second important development occurred in October 1999, when Clinton’s Defense Department announced a major shift in U.S. imperialist strategic thinking. U.S. forces in central Asia, which used to be under the Pacific Command, are now under Central Command. This means that all U.S. military operations from the Persian Gulf to the Ural Mountains to China’s western border have been centralized.
"Since the Central Command already controls the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, its assumption of control over Central Asia means that this area will now receive close attention from the people whose primary task is to protect the flow of oil to the United States and its allies. (Michael Klare, "The New Geography of Conflict," Foreign Affairs, May-June 2001, our emphasis — Ed.) This move clearly benefits Rockefeller/Exxon.
Klare explains "this shift in strategic geography" as a "new emphasis on the protection of supplies of vital resources, especially oil and natural gas…with global energy consumption rising by an estimated two percent annually, competition for access to large energy reserves will only grow more intense in the years to come." The problem for the main wing of U.S. bosses has become far more complex than simply dealing with pests like Saddam Hussein. The rulers must now devise a strategy that prepares for eventual military confrontation with both Russia and China.
Dump Liberal Warmakers, Build PLP
This is the context in which "Springtime for Rumsfeld" and the expansion of the U.S. Central Command must be viewed. We don’t know how far in the future the next war among the main imperialist powers will occur. But it is brewing, and we must prepare for it now. The working class must learn that war and fascism are inevitable under the profit system. Workers must shed the deadly illusion that liberal politicians and bosses who parade as our friends are anything other than gangsters and mass murderers willing to spill our class’s blood for their own maximum profits and the preservation of their political power. Only the growth of the Progressive Labor Party can help workers learn these lessons and put us in a position to smash the system that causes such wars.
Turkey-Russia Pipeline Deal Thumbs Nose At U.S.
At the moment, U.S. imperialism retains a lot of muscle and maneuverability. But these advantages are beginning to erode. Remember that the 1999 Clinton/NATO "humanitarian" bombing of the former Yugoslavia was conducted to ensure the U.S. could choose the pipelines that would bring Caspian oil through Turkey to market. The U.S. had favored a pipeline that would reach Turkey via the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, bypassing Russia. The Russians countered with a pipeline deal that would connect Russia to Turkey via the Black Sea. Well, the Turkish ruling class has just signed up for the Russian pipeline, which will increase Turkey’s dependence on Russian natural gas from 66 to 80 percent. The U.S. deal is dead in the water, and Turkey is supposedly a U.S. pal. This is a serious defeat for U.S. imperialism, specifically for U.S. oil interests at the hands of their Russian rivals, one the bosses will look to reverse by any and all means.
Who Won the 1999 Balkan War?
The recent Bush-Putin love-fest in Slovenia revealed the steadily widening conflicts between U.S. and Russian rulers. After making clear his opposition to NATO’s expansion to countries in the former Soviet Union, Putin flew to Kosovo, where he attacked U.S. Balkan policy and pinned medals on the Russian soldiers who still occupy Pristina airport. Russia had seized it from under NATO’s nose at the end of the 1999 "humanitarian" air war for energy pipelines (Associated Press, 6/18). The Albanian-backed forces Putin opposes in Kosovo are fighting for the route sponsored by Bush’s ally, the Halliburton company, which would transport oil and gas from Bulgaria through Macedonia to Albania. When bosses disagree about pumping, transporting, refining and selling oil, don’t expect an outbreak of peace to accompany the discussion.
As we go to press, another conflict emerged: Putin announced that if the U.S. constructed a missile defense shield, "Russia would eventually upgrade its strategic nuclear arsenal with multiple warheads [reversing the arms control agreements] to ensure that it would be able to overwhelm such a shield." (New York Times, 6/19)
PLP Targets Racism in D.C. Metro Contract Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6 — Hundreds of workers gathered at the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 meeting for an update on contract negotiations. The local president reported that management continues to stall on the union’s big five issues. The union will not continue discussion much longer unless the issues of wage progression (lower wages for the same work), a wage increase, improvements in health care and pensions and restrictions on contracting out of work are discussed seriously.
The Financial-Secretary then reported on wage progression, the union’s number one bargaining issue. It’s the issue that workers must win on to reach a contract settlement. It’s also the issue meeting the greatest resistance from Metro bosses.
When the Metro transit system was created in 1973, wage progression was one year. New operators started at 90% and moved up to full pay after 12 months but new unskilled workers stayed at 90% of operators’ pay. With the 1974 contract, management began an unrelentingly 27-year fight to extend wage progression for operators and to introduce it into the non-operating classifications, all in order to lower wages.
The basis of these policies is racism, pure and simple. Management gives them many different names (progression, restructuring, longevity), but the bottom line is a racist system keeping black workers pay as low as possible for as long as possible.
The fight against progression is much more than one to raise wages for new operators and unskilled workers. It’s a struggle to prevent further erosion of the value of transit jobs. These jobs were won because of the civil rights movement and rebellions of the 1960’s. They’ve been the vehicles for thousands of black workers in this area to achieve a decent standard of living. The bosses are using and intensifying racism to push us back.
This racist attack is not only against transit workers. The average life span for a black man here is 59 years and the infant mortality rate is double the national average. The closing of D.C. General Hospital will leave thousands, mainly black people, without any medical care and schools that are a disaster in D.C. and Prince George County. Racist police terror threatens every black worker in the region. Ending wage progression is an important part of continuing the fight against racism.
Workers Applaud Anti-Racist Unionist
The workers at the meeting loudly applauded the Financial Secretary’s report.
Making wage progression the central issue of the negotiations is no accident. PLP has been fighting over this issue for 25 years. These struggles have slowly raised the political consciousness — and awareness of PLP — of thousands of workers at Metro, both young and old.
Keeping wage progression central means: (1) Workers understand its relation to the fight against racism; (2) The development of a union committee to provide leadership on the issue; and (3) A more militant approach to achieving progress on the issue.
Ending wage progression will not destroy the wage system or end racism. But we can beat back a racist attack and get a glimpse of the strength of a unified working class guided by communist ideas. More workers can become CHALLENGE readers and distributors, to spread the influence of PLP and win workers to the long-term struggle for communist revolution.
a name="'Stand Up For Steel’ vs. Sit-Down Strike for LTV Workers">">"Stand Up For Steel’ vs. Sit-Down Strike for LTV Workers
E. CHICAGO, IN, June 14 — More than 300 steel workers rallied in the blistering heat against the closing of LTV Steel. Unfortunately, the politicians and union hacks only added to the hot air. LTV, the country’s third largest steel producer, is bankrupt and fighting for its life, losing more than one million dollars a day.
LTV is looking for more than $1 billion in wage and benefit concessions over the next five years. They’re closing a Cleveland mill, wiping out 900 jobs. They want to cut pension and healthcare benefits to retirees by as much as $600 a month, with the option to terminate pensions altogether "if necessary." They want no limits on contracting out work. They left the negotiations, saying, "Take it or leave it."
This may be more than the United Steel Workers union can give. If the union grants these concessions, the rest of the industry will demand the same. A bankruptcy judge may impose a settlement, taking them off the hook. Or LTV may be thrown to the wolves to cut the productive capacity of the steel industry.
This is a painful reminder that as long as the bosses hold power, the only guarantee is a hard way to go. The working class must seize power and organize production to meet our needs. Profits and wages must be abolished. These are our jobs, our pensions and our mill. But this is not our system. Capitalism is wage slavery. The bosses fight it out for markets, resources and cheap labor. We are cannon fodder, whether in their trade wars or shooting wars. We must keep our eye on the prize of communist revolution as this struggle unfolds.
The USWA has "led" us to "STAND UP FOR STEEL," against Permanent Favored Nation Trade Status for China, and for "import restrictions." "Import restrictions" are a con game. Big Steel imports 20% of all imported semi-finished steel. USX purchased a huge mill in Slovakia, which will account for 25% of its worldwide production. Workers at this mill make $2/hour. Nationalism only serves the bosses. We share one common flag with steelworkers in Russia, Slovakia, Korea, Japan and Brazil: the red flag of internationalism and communist revolution.
"STAND UP FOR STEEL" is an example of how the interests of individual steel companies have run up against the interests of the ruling class as a whole. Wall Street and the auto industry (to name a few) have opposed import restrictions from the start. They are demanding a leaner and meaner steel industry. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has proposed that the government subsidize a 20% cut in the productive capacity. That’s not good news for the 18 bankrupt steel companies or their workers.
Now is no time for passivity. Now is the time to occupy the mill with a sit-down strike! We can call on US and Inland workers to threaten a General Strike. Young workers, fed up with dead-end jobs and racist police terror, can defend the strike. LTV is the weak fish in a tank of piranhas. That’s their problem. A sit-down strike can be a shot heard around the world, teaching the need to overthrow the profit system. It may not win. It cannot lose. Right now, fighting is winning.
Rank-&-File Mass Militancy Can Foil 1199 Electoral Schemes
BRONX, NY, June 18 — On May 16 nearly 4,000 Local 1199/SEIU workers and their supporters rallied at Lawrence Hospital here. The rally was protesting the bosses’ coercion and intimidation blocking the workers from joining the union. The mostly black workers were given a rough time.
The bosses threatened to replace them; made calls to workers homes pushing a no-vote on unionization; and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire a Kentucky-based anti-union "consultant" to wage this dirty campaign, money the hospital received largely from New York State. The union lost by five votes, 119 to 124.
In 1965 Lawrence hospital workers had struck for 55 days for the right to organize into 1199. At that time hospital workers in New York State were excluded from collective bargaining rights. The Lawrence strike paved the way for such rights for all hospital workers in the State and for the growth of 1199.
However, the comparatively small turnout at the rally demonstrated that the 1199 union leadership refuses to wage all-out battle against Lawrence bosses. The union has over 150,000 workers at its command, but the leadership uses this large group only as an electoral bargaining chip to win a few reforms (maybe) from the bosses’ politicians. The bosses recognize that the union won’t wage an all-out fight. The 1199 leadership is loyal to the bosses’ capitalist system. They want to keep oppressed black, Latin and white workers in the polling booths instead of waging class struggles against the racist profit system.
The bosses use intimidation, threats, harassment and firing of workers to keep them in line. They violate union contracts. Very often many cases are tied up in arbitration. If the boss loses, the penalties are trivial. However, as long as the 1199/SEIU leadership refuses to mobilize all healthcare workers to fight the bosses’ attacks, the bosses will have free reign. Through communist leadership which doesn’t operate within the bosses’ laws, the working class can learn the necessity to get rid of the capitalist system.
a name="For Bosses Kids ‘R’ Guns"></">Fo" Bosses Kids ‘R’ Guns
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers released a report on June 12 protesting the use of 500,000 children worldwide as cannon fodder. It was issued in South Africa because most of the children used in wars are in Africa, although 87 countries throughout the world use child soldiers. The report says Britain and the U.S. are among the few imperialist countries who do. Britain recruits as young as 16 — sending them into combat at 17.The U.S. used youth under 18 in the Gulf War, Somalia and the Balkans. Capitalism’s technology has developed very light weapons, making it possible for children to use them.
Although a worldwide phenomenon (see CHALLENGE 6/6)), it is worse in Africa because of the many wars for diamonds and other resources. Judit Arenas, Coalition spokeswoman, reported that warring factions and even governments in Africa use children to guard lucrative oil and diamond fields that finance their wars. "Children are actually being kidnapped from other regions and countries where there are no conflicts."
It’s obvious that capitalism and imperialism are the world’s worst killers of children. Just prior to this report, another one detailed the worldwide use of millions of children as cheap and even slave labor, including the U.S.
However, these reports won’t change the situation of working-class children one bit. For the sake of our children, we must destroy the cause of this horror — capitalism — by fighting for communism.
A comrade
a name="Editor’s Comment:">">">">"ditor’s Comment
: To organize this communist revolution, a revolutionary leadership is needed. These children, who these murderers already train to wage war, can play a key role in turning the guns around to smash the biggest killer of children in modern history — capitalism/imperialism — once and for all.
LA Mayoral Vote-Racism/Nationalism A Deadly Trap
LOS ANGELES, June 18 — The LA Mayoral election runoff pitted two liberal Democrats against each other. The campaign’s last two weeks became a bitter fight based on racism from both sides. As CHALLENGE reported, Villaraigosa was supported by billionaire businessman Eli Broad and LA’s current mayor Riordan as well as by the Eastern Establishment and their liberal loyalists. The LA Times revealed that he received a big chunk of money from the East Coast. The old-line LA bosses backed Jim Hahn.
Hahn’s racism claimed Villaraigosa would be "soft on crime because of his background" and because he had asked Clinton to pardon a former drug dealer whose father is a millionaire businessman and a past Villaraigosa supporter. Hahn said he was a "friend" to black workers. Magic Johnson and black politicians like Assemblywoman Yvonne Braithwaite Burke supported Hahn. But the Police Officer’s Union also backed him. Hahn has been an LA City Attorney since the 1980’s. In 1987 he first implemented massive gang sweeps and gang injunctions. These measures gave cops open season for stopping and arresting anyone they "suspected" of being a "gang member" in any area defined as "gang-infested." This so called "friend" of the black community started by arresting and attacking hundreds of black youth in West LA’s Cadillac Corning neighborhood. His gang injunctions have been repeated city-wide—directed at Latino and black youth—and now in cities across the country as well.
The day after the election, Assemblywoman Burke told the LA Times that Mayor-elect Hahn must retain LAPD Chief Bernard Parks because Hahn’s black political supporters back Parks. Parks is a close ally and protegé of Darryl Gates, a previous arch racist police chief, a product of the old-line LA bosses.
One of the main issues in this election was LA policing policy. Villaraigosa supported "community policing," the liberal/fascist plan backed by the Eastern Establishment to win black and Latino ministers and others to support the cops and their attacks on black and Latino youth. Villaraigosa was pretty committed to dumping Parks. It remains to be seen how this fight develops.
Villaraigosa had the support of most unions. He appealed both to Latino nationalism and to a multi-racial coalition. He said he was from the heart of LA and "would make LA work for all." But Villaraigosa promised to be even tougher on crime than Hahn. He means it—for black and Latino youth, not for the drug-dealing son of a millionaire supporter. Villaraigosa doesn’t represent the interests of Latino, black or other workers anymore than Hahn does! He serves the interests of the country’s top rulers.
A New York Times op-ed article noted that even though Villaraigosa lost, he is the future. These rulers want the politicians who run the country’s second largest city to be loyal to them and their plans for community policing. Their goal is to win Latino workers (now 50% of LA) and black, Asian and white workers to vote and to believe that this system can be reformed to meet their needs. They desperately need a loyal working class to accept starvation wages and willingly send their children to fight coming imperialist wars for the bosses’ control of oil and empire. Neither Villaraigosa nor Hahn said a word or intend to lift a finger for the thousands of people here who will soon be kicked off welfare and forced into low-paying slave labor jobs.
Since the 1992 multi-racial rebellion, some LA rulers have been trying to build divisions between black and Latino workers. In this election, the bosses pushed racism in their dogfight for control of LA. They also spread the dangerous illusion that racism can be ended by voting for the "lesser evil" politician, or "one of our own."
Voting for slick politicians is a deadly trap. It’s clear that PLP must fight hard to unite the working class on every front. The working class must unite so that we can get rid of racist police terror, slave labor, wage slavery and imperialist war with communist revolution. Our urgent job is to build our party and Challenge among black, Latino, Asian and white youth and workers.
a name="Boeing, Union Back Bush— Exploit Us Here, Bomb Us Abroad">">"oeing, Union Back Bush— Exploit Us Here, Bomb Us Abroad
The recently signed contract between the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the military division of the Boeing Company in St. Louis generated a lot of interest at the last union meeting here in Seattle. The original deal was overwhelmingly rejected, the rank and file shouting down the union leadership at the ratification meeting. Workers were particularly angry at a provision allowing the company to shift workers among several "families" of job categories, thereby eliminating jobs. The leadership finally railroaded a new deal, seven days later, by offering a few extra bucks and a promise by the company of no more layoffs unless a "catastrophic" setback occurs. As one worker said at the last union meeting, the "no-layoff" pledge was a "sucker punch."
The average age of the St. Louis workforce is 49. (In Seattle it’s 46.) Many workers will be retiring during the three-year contract. The "no-layoff" pledge focuses our attention on our own job, while allowing the company to eliminate many more jobs through attrition.
"We’re supposed to organize for the common good of the working class," a member reminded us. "Is this what Dick Schneider, [International head negotiator] calls ‘good security language’?"
But class-consciousness is the last thing these misleaders want us to develop. "Think only about your own job" is their motto.
The International has taken this selfish ideology to its logical conclusion in the latest IAM Journal. "Bombs Bursting in Air" is the lead article and subject of International President Buffenbarger’s editorial. In supporting Bush’s plan to build a star wars missile "defense," the International pushes the usual imperialist claptrap about "rogue nations." Besides devoting nearly the whole magazine to this warmongering, they’re also distributing a free "Bombs Bursting In Air" video as well.
Class-consciousness, on the other hand, can lead to questioning to what use our labor is put. The bosses want to exploit us as much as possible to build weapons that kill other workers — in pursuit of still more exploitation and profit. We must reject not only the union misleaders’ sellout contracts, but their nationalism and selfishness as well.
For the bosses it’s "Bombs Bursting In Air"; for us it must be "Workers of the World, Unite!"
Boeing worker
LA Teachers Back Removed B'klyn PL'er
LOS ANGELES, CA, June 6 — Teachers in United Teachers Los Angeles’ Central Area voted overwhelmingly to support Progressive Labor Party member Joan Heymont in her struggle to return to her Brooklyn, NY science teaching position today. Teachers pledged to endorse a new business initiative supporting Joan in the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly in Los Angeles this summer.
As readers will remember, Joan Heymont is a veteran science teacher at Brooklyn’s Boys and Girls High School. She was removed from her job and sent to mark time in a district office for inviting students to a Saturday May Day march in Washington, D.C. Her colleagues, students and parents have mobilized to support her, and to protest the harassment and threats against students who have worn stickers and circulated petitions calling for her return. They have been threatened with suspension or not being allowed to graduate, and her students had no regular teacher to prepare them for the Regents exams.
The struggle to return Joan Heymont to her job teaching science at Boys and Girls HS — and years of PLP activity in the union’s Delegate Assembly — has forced the teachers union leadership to offer nominal support, evidenced by an overwhelming vote favoring her at the union’s Delegate Assembly meeting. Union president Randi Weingarten promised to move quickly in Joan’s defense, but as of this writing, the case is not yet resolved. Teachers around the country must support her fight.
a name="The Dialectics of Biology: There’s More to Life Than Genes">">"he Dialectics of Biology: There’s More to Life Than Genes
The Triple Helix
, by Richard Lewontin, discusses evolution and genetics from the perspective of dialectical materialism. It is a useful weapon to combat biological determinism being pushed at college campuses and medical centers. According to Lewontin, the idea that the development of living beings (organisms) is just a matter of genes is wrong.
Proteins–Not from DNA Alone
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the large molecule that makes up our genetic material. The idea that DNA sequence determines protein structure is overly simplistic and mechanical (as opposed to dialectical). One example of the dialectical complexity of protein formation is the production of artificial insulin.
Insulin controls blood sugar and is a critical medicine for people with severe diabetes. Scientists learned to transfer the insulin gene to bacteria, and tried to use these bacteria to create insulin in vats. They had the right protein sequence, but the "insulin" didn’t work right. They had to change the environmental conditions in the vat to get the bacteria to produce insulin.
Genes and Environment
One of the major themes in this book is the dialectical contradiction between genes and environment. Lewontin explains how knowing the genes of an organism (genotype), isn’t enough to understand its physical properties (phenotype). One must know about the environment in which the organism develops.
Lewontin gives several examples. Flowering plant A is genetically different from Flowering plant B. Plant A is taller than plant B at sea level. In the mountains, B is taller than A. Or, fruit fly Type A lives longer than Type B at one temperature; at another temperature, fly B lives longer than fly A. The characteristics of living beings reflect the dialectical contradiction between genes and the environment (elevation or temperature.)
Lewontin notes that geneticists tend to use a mechanical outlook in which genes alone determine physical characteristics. They ignore all the dialectical contradictions of genes and environment.
Chance is a Part of Life
Lewontin again uses fruit flies to explain the general dialectical category of contingency (chance) and necessity. The number of sensory hairs beneath the wings is different under each wing. This can’t be due to genes, since it’s the same genes in one fly. It can’t be due to the environment, since it is the same on the left and right side. The answer lies in random (chance) events.
Three cells give rise to the sensory hairs. They come from one "starter" cell. To produce hair, the three cells migrate to the surface of the developing fly. If division of the "starter" cell takes too long, the three cells may not arrive in time. Such random processes, not genes or environment, underlie a great deal of the differences between organisms.
Organisms Change Their Environment and Function Within Limits
Environment is not fixed and unchanging. For example, waste products for one species are food for another. We breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The flower takes in carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen. All organisms alter not only their own environments, but the environments of other species as well. Genes, organisms and environments have a dialectical interrelation.
Organisms are built on the complex interaction of many relatively weak forces that keep it functioning fairly stable. For example, no matter what the temperature is outside or how hard we’re working, our body temperature stays around 98.6° F. This is due to many different biochemical and physiologic processes. Only when the organism is subject to major stresses that push it beyond certain limits do these regulatory devices break down. If you sit out in 120° weather for a few hours without water and shade, you’ll end up with hyperthermia (elevated body temperature, or heat stroke). Mechanical geneticists often ignore the many influences on the development of a biologic function.
History Matters
The "sensitive dependence of initial conditions" is an example of the second law of dialectics, quantity into quality. Very small differences in starting conditions can result in extreme differences in the final outcome. All species are the result of a unique historical process that might have taken many paths other than the one it actually took.
There are two kinds of rhinoceros. The one in India is one-horned. The one in Africa has two. The best explanation for this is two alternative outcomes of the same selective process (the horns probably serve a protective function) beginning with somewhat different initial genetic conditions.
The Big Picture: Levels of Causation
Finally, Lewontin shows that one must view "causes" at many levels. The death rate among the working class declined dramatically in 19th Century Europe. The "cause" was the decline in infectious disease. The bigger "cause" was the rise in wages and nutrition. And this could be traced to the struggle of the working class. Or, consider pollution caused by deforested mountainsides and non-degradable waste dumps. The "greater" cause is capitalist production for profit.
The Triple Helix (136 pages) is not easy reading. But it will reward you with a deeper understanding of the dialectical interplay of genes and environment in the development of all living beings.
At An Anti-Racist Conference:
Unity with Jesse Jackson Is Pact with the Devil
ANN ARBOR, MI, June 3 — This weekend a multi-racial group of hundreds of students met at a National Conference to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration, proclaimed by the leadership as the founding of "a new Civil Rights movement.
Reports included student fights: at Berkeley and Michigan against attacks on Affirmative Action; at Brown against the racist ad placed by David Horowitz, (see CHALLENGE, 4/25); at Penn St., against a state of racist terror on the campus; and at Harvard by students and workers fighting for a "Living Wage."
Conference participants discussed linking these struggles, and what’s next in the anti-racist fight. The conference was led by the Michigan chapter of the National Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration by Any Means Necessary, or BAM (By Any Means). Many BAM members were in the Trotskyite Revolutionary Workers’ League, which — despite its name — advocated forming alliances with Jesse Jackson.
Jackson spoke and tried to win support for the Democratic Party, saying (when pressed) that he’d help mobilize a September rally against racism at Penn State. A PLP’er moved to amend the Conference’s basic statement to disassociate the new movement from Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH coalition, declaring that Jackson was part of the ruling class. He noted that Jackson supported Clinton’s Democratic administration that attacked workers with more prisons and prison labor, Workfare, more racist cops and the accompanying terror, the bombing of Yugoslavia, etc. He said Clinton was a war criminal, noting that Jackson was Clinton’s "spiritual adviser," supports U.S. imperialism and pushes U.S. patriotism. He declared that support for Jackson legitimizes capitalism and the racist/fascist attacks it was increasingly launching due to its growing crisis. He said Jackson has no place in our struggles against racism, exploitation and oppression. His motion of opposing Jackson was voted down 62-25 with 7 abstentions. In later discussions with students, several from Penn State agreed with this analysis of Jackson.
Our comrade kept communist ideas in the forefront. In discussions of the Harvard Living Wage sit-in and in a flyer he exposed Harvard as a booster of racism, capitalism and imperialism, inventing napalm; having Herrnstein, author of the racist Bell Curve, as head of its psychology department; Henry Kissinger as a professor; promoting E.O. Wilson, a Harvard professor responsible for sociobiology — "all human behavior is determined by genes"; and sponsoring the liberal fascist professor William J. Wilson who divides anti-racists by arguing that white workers are "too racist to be won to anti-racism." Professors like Wilson, along with the AFL-CIO leadership, are attempting to build a worker-student alliance for imperialism.
The PLP’er also noted that the whole capitalist education system generates inequality. He called on all those at the conference to fight for a communist revolution to destroy capitalism and its universities. He distributed nearly 40 CHALLENGES and obtained around 20 contacts.
The Penn State struggle highlighted the conference. In the past year, ten black students received death threats. Many racist/fascist groups are on campus and in the area. Campus cops’ racist tattoos signify membership in fascist groups and/or that they’ve killed at least one person of color. Lucrecia Wolf (Black Student Organization president) received a death threat; a week later the dead body of a young black man was found near where the death note had indicated.
In response, a multi-racial group of hundreds of students took over the building which houses the African American studies department. Thousands rallied outside. They decided to hold a demonstration in early September at Penn State protesting this racism.
Communists in PLP must be there to join the fight against the fascists, and to expose misleaders like Jackson as enemies who must be dumped for the fight against racism and fascism to succeed.
60th Anniversary of Hitler Attack on USSR
Red Army Smashed Nazi War Machine
On June 22, 1941, more than 3,000,000 Nazi troops invaded the Soviet Union. Fascist troops from Finland, Rumania, Hungary, Italy and Spain later joined them. The largest military attack in history was a second attempt by the capitalists to smash the world’s first workers’ state. Only 16 years earlier the Bolsheviks had defeated imperialist troops from 14 countries, including the U.S., Britain and France, who had invaded the Soviet Union in 1917 to "strangle the socialist infant in its cradle." Though 4.5 million Soviet workers lost their lives, the communist-led Red Army defeated them. Now Hitler’s armies would meet a similar fate.
Virtually all Western military experts predicted Hitler would be in Moscow in six weeks. Less than four years later, Soviet troops marched triumphantly into Berlin, having smashed the "invincible" Nazi war machine.
About 80% of Hitler’s armies were tied down in Russia on the 2,000-mile-long Eastern Front. By the time the allies launched the D-Day invasion of France in 1944, the Red Army had already swept the Nazis out of all of occupied Russia and part of Eastern Europe and Soviet tanks were rolling towards Germany at 40 miles a day.
Today a flood of movies, books and TV specials tell us how the US single-handedly won World War II, saving "Private Ryan" and the world. In fact, U.S. rulers were worried that if they didn’t invade France when they did, the Red Army would liberate all of Western Europe by itself.
Even Western historians agree the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the battle against Hitler and the Soviet victory at Stalingrad was the turning point of the WWII. The USSR lost over 20 million lives defeating the Nazis (75 times the 300,000 U.S. deaths). In the Nazi-occupied areas of the Soviet Union, "about two-thirds of the houses and productive capacity was destroyed." Not one bomb fell on the U.S. during the entire war. [All figures from The World Almanac of World War II.]
The imperialist conspiracy to smash the Soviet Union began long before WW II. The British and French rejected five separate Soviet proposals for an alliance against Hitler in the 1930s. The West supplied Hitler with oil, rubber and bank loans for his war machine. They hoped Hitler would move east and crush the Soviet Union and thereby prevent the spread of the overthrow of the profit system. When Hitler marched into Poland, Britain and France "declared war," the "Phony War," because 110 Western divisions did nothing while the Nazis mopped up in Poland, hoping Hitler would continue to move east.
But before they took on the Soviets, the Germans occupied Holland, Belgium and Norway. Hitler then invaded France. The French high command went over to Hitler’s side, allowing him to march into Paris in three weeks, driving British troops into the sea at Dunkirk.
In almost all of Europe, the communist underground led the resistance that helped defeat the Nazis over the next four years. Communist-led partisans behind enemy lines in the Soviet Union alone destroyed one million Nazi troops, more than the combined total destroyed by the U.S. and British in the entire war.
When Hitler finally invaded the Soviet Union, the predicted "six weeks" victory never happened. German troops found total destruction and desolation in every captured Russian city or town — the "scorched earth" policy. Soviet defenders burned everything to the ground that they could not take with them — and then organized armed resistance behind enemy lines. Over 6,000 factories were dismantled and moved east of the Ural Mountains, re-assembled to produce weapons again, a feat requiring total unity and support of Soviet workers, unmatched by any country, before or since.
By Dec. 2, 1941, the Nazis were just 20 miles from the Kremlin. Stalin stayed in Moscow throughout this period and rallied the Soviet workers and Red Army. On Dec. 6 (the day before Pearl Harbor), the Soviets launched a counter-attack on a 500-mile front and drove the fascists from the gates of Moscow. Hitler was forced to halt this offensive.
By September 1942, the Nazis had begun another offensive, reaching the outskirts of Stalingrad. They planned to take that city and then seize the oil of the Caucuses to the south (bordering oil-rich Iran) and drive on Moscow to the north. But it was not to be. Soviet soldiers and workers fought for Stalingrad block-by-block, house-by-house and room-by-room to halt the "unbeatable" Nazi invaders. Workers in arms factories produced weapons for the Red Army working 24 hours a day. When Nazi troops captured factories, heroic Soviet workers and soldiers would take them back.
The entire German Sixth Army and 24 of Hitler’s generals were surrounded and killed or captured in the battle of Stalingrad. Never again would the Nazis mount an offensive against the Red Army. Stalingrad was truly the turning point of the Second World War. The communist-led Soviet Union smashed the largest and most powerful army every mounted by a capitalist power.
Internal weaknesses eventually destroyed the first workers’ state. Socialism retained too many capitalist concepts, especially wages and money. But as a British general remarked in introducing a documentary about the Battle of Russia, "if it were not for the heroism of the Soviet workers, if Hitler had conquered the Soviet Union, millions of citizens in Britain and the United States would be dead today." We are slowly learning the hard lessons from the defeat of the old communist movement. But emulating the mass heroism and determination they displayed in defeating fascism is the goal of PLP in our fight for communist revolution.
Movie Review: This Rose Smells Rotten
"The union leaders gave free tickets to see the movie. My friends and I tore them up!" exclaimed Julio, a janitor for 20 years and a rank-and-file leader, about the new film "Bread and Roses." "They told us we could be extras in the movie for $200 but how many millions are they going to make? They put the sellout union leaders in the movie to make them look good."
Another worker commented, "They’re trying to use our struggle to make people think the system can be made to serve our needs."
This started a lively discussion on a film, made by Ken Loch, about the struggle to build the union among Los Angeles janitors. The New York Times and the head of the LA County Federation of Labor are recommending it. Union organizers are being encouraged to see it as a "training film." It says that capitalism can be made to be worker-friendly and democratic — today’s unions can give immigrant workers a piece of the "Great American dream."
The movie does show immigrants forced to cross the border illegally and then clean the big LA office buildings, "rewarded" with racist and sexist harassment. One good scene shows a worker teaching his new co-worker how to clean the grooves on the ground at an elevator entrance. Two lawyers literally walk over them to get on the elevator, never even noticing them. But the film never blames capitalism for the rotten conditions workers face.
In the movie, two Mexican capitalists offer a scholarship to a janitor struggling to go to law school if he can only raise the rest of the money. Mexican capitalists are big friends of the workers, right? An activist janitor tells him not to forget about his co-workers and then risks everything to help him. It’s clear: college is the way up and out.
The janitors’ leader is a young ex-college student who "defies" his leaders by organizing actions to embarrass the building owners into recognizing the union. But his leaders let him do this. And the owners give in because his publicity stunt makes them look bad. It’s not the loss of profits based on workers’ strength that forces the boss to give in temporarily — it’s the exposé in the liberal media. The student tells the union leader that the union is more interested in giving money to the Democratic Party than organizing the workers. In reality, the janitors are forced to pay increasing union dues for Democratic Party candidates like Antonio Villaraigosa who are loyal only to the liberal bosses.
The older sister of the movie’s central character tells her she’d become a prostitute to support the family in Mexico, going on and on about it. While some women are forced into prostitution, making this the symbol of immigrant women is a racist and sexist slap at all the women who’ve worked long hours in factories, clean houses and lead fights against oppression to support their families.
Most striking janitors felt they got next to nothing — about a 30¢ hourly increase — not the huge victory depicted in the movie, which says small reforms, led by the AFL-CIO, are our only goal.
The janitors did win a victory. Some now see the fight against racist and sexist oppression as part of the international working class fight against the capitalist system. More see the limits of reform struggle and the need for a long-term, revolutionary communist outlook.
If you see this movie, see it with friends and then discuss workers’ real conditions, what causes them and how to end oppression and racism.
In the movie, a janitor tells a rally that he had organized workers, students and farmworkers in El Salvador to unite, and that he was doing the same here in LA. The promoters of this movie would like to turn such past fighters against U.S. imperialism into current fighters for crumbs, loyal to the AFL-CIO, liberal Democratic politicians and U.S. bosses. While our task, to fight for communist revolution, is not easy, capitalism is bucking the tide of history.
LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write Us!
Donate Rebate to PLP
George W. Bush has presented us with a great opportunity to collectively spit in the government’s eye. Let’s take the tax rebate most of us will get this summer and give it all to the Party.
Think of the satisfaction! The ruling class is in desperate straits, brought on by the contradictions of capitalism, and some of them are hoping this tax rebate will help their economy. Instead, let’s use it to build the Party that is working for their destruction. If every Party member and friend contributed their tax rebates, that would be a big help to the Party’s continuing to build for communist revolution, covering the expenses of international work, youth work and publishing CHALLENGE.
Of course, we could use this tax rebate for many things, but let’s face it, we didn’t expect to have this money and most of us can do without it. Think of how much more satisfying it will be to be part of a collective cash donation to the Party.
I’m Always Broke Too But That’s How It Is Under Capitalism And That’s One Reason We Need Communism"
a name="Racist Ideas Don’t Fall From the Sky">">"acist Ideas Don’t Fall From the Sky
I work in a large Chicago area hospital. Over the years I’ve experienced a number of racist incidents. Once a black man, a pedestrian hit by a car, arrived in the emergency room via ambulance. A resident doctor examined him, and although the man was unconscious, complained about how bad the patients’ feet smelled. A co-worker and I wrote a letter to the head trauma doctor about the incident. Although we received no reply, the offending doctor was not seen again.
On another occasion, a co-worker stated, "They hired another dirty n——- while we were getting her report for the previous shift. When I confronted her about her racist remark, she blamed her mother for raising her that way and verbally attacked me for my communist ideas. After word spread about the incident, I was called into the boss’s office and threatened with suspension if I continued mentioning it.
Most recently, a co-worker described racist remarks she’d heard from the night shift nurses. Some disparage the young black and Latino patients because they assume they’re all gang members. My co-worker had a similar experience when visiting a relative who’d been shot. She thought his treatment was affected by some of the nurses’ less-than-favorable attitudes. I encourage my co-worker to write to CHALLENGE to expose these incidents.
Racist ideas don’t fall from the sky. They are fostered and nurtured by the capitalist system (through TV, books, newspapers, movies, etc.). If we are only exposed to racist ideology, racism will flourish. By distributing more Party literature, like CHALLENGE, and discussing anti-racist ideas with our friends and co-workers, we can make progress in the anti-racist/anti-capitalist fight.
Chicago hospital worker
a name="Now It’s Ritalin To 3-Year-Olds!">">"ow It’s Ritalin To 3-Year-Olds!
Last week 50 people from various churches and organizations concerned about the abuses of the foster care system and the overmedication of children with psychiatric drugs picketed an office of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in the Harlem State Office Building.
The most moving speaker was Cecil Reed, whose 16-year-old son died while a patient at Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Hospital. Unbeknownst to Mr. Reed, his ex-wife had turned over custody of their son to ACS, which approved the use of multiple anti-psychotic drugs for Cecil, Jr., over the objections of Mr. Reed. He pointed out that nearly all the children in state psychiatric facilities are black or Latino, and that nearly all are on multiple psychotropics.
Presumably his previously healthy son died from the effects of these drugs, although now, a year later, an investigation has yet to be launched. Moreover, the main reason the son was barred from moving in with Mr. Reed and his second wife was that their apartment was "too small." But neither ACS nor the Housing Authority, for which Mr. Reed works, was willing to help them find a larger apartment.
Over half of all children in foster care are on psychiatric medications, many because of the trauma suffered by being removed from their families abruptly and placed in group homes or in multiple foster families. Although ACS may save some children from imminent danger, they remove many children on the slimmest of pretenses and without any investigation. Recently, children have been removed for "medical negligence," meaning parents object to giving drugs like Ritalin to their children. Poor parents, the main victims of this system, have no access to meaningful legal assistance. It often takes years for them to recover their children despite the often fraudulent allegations against them.
Other speakers discussed the rash of psychiatric medication of school children, 20% of whom are diagnosed with "mental illness" and given drugs like Ritalin or Prozac. The National Institute of Mental Health is currently sponsoring a national study of Ritalin in 3-year-olds. They want to pacify our children so they will not become restless or distracted in crumbling, overcrowded schools whose aim is to teach children to conform and take multiple choice tests. A union member from AFSCME Local 371 of welfare and ACS workers pointed out that an alliance between his members, professionals and the workers they serve is necessary to fight these fascist conditions that are increasingly evident in education, social services and psychiatry.
Healthcare Worker
Years of Work Pay Off In UFT
Relative to the article, "Fight Grows Behind PL Teacher’s Battle for Job"(CHALLENGE, 5/6), for eight years PLP members have been active in the UFT Delegate Assembly. Some were also active 30 years ago. People often remind us about the "old days," but most of us know little about that, not having been involved in those struggles — though we understand our history.
The CHALLENGE article made it appear as though we had some kind of power that overwhelmed the UFT leadership who then let Joan Heymont speak after she boldly demanded the floor. However, eight years of hard work and gaining the respect of the membership did that.
During these years we’ve sold CHALLENGE outside every meeting (more than 80), and distributed communist leaflets on some current issue. We have raised May Day on the floor every year, struggled with people, made friends (and enemies), had suppers with friends after the meetings, brought friends from work to the Assembly, and so on. After every Assembly we would write a delegate’s report for our respective schools, always raising communist ideas. We’ve brought specific problems in our schools to the Assembly and brought the answers back to the schools, including fights over a fired teacher, a teacher removed from his school, etc. We have also become active in UFT committees.
Because of our consistency and the fact that we make sense, teachers have become more interested in our communist ideas. Eight years ago we had a more reformist line in the Assembly. Since the PLP document "Road to Revolution 4.5" we have brought more advanced political ideas directly to the Assembly (after some struggle among PLP members).
In some respects we have helped change the nature of the Delegate Assembly. Because of our presence and our communist ideas, other people are now able to express more left idethat previously would have been considered "too radical." In addition, the former UFT local president, Sandy Feldman, has become the head of the national union and been replaced here by Randi Weingarten. With a new contract currently being negotiated, Weingarten — who has her own style — must take into account membership rejection of the previous contract recommended by the Feldman leadership and therefore be wary about the reaction to any new contract. (When the UFT membership finally accepted the last contract, it followed the AFSCME DC 37 contract pattern which, as it turned out, had been "approved" by a fraudulent vote concocted by DC 37 leaders who have since been convicted of vote-fixing.)
Over the last five years we usually get the floor regularly, now being recognized as the 3rd or 4th force in the Assembly. In our struggles there and with individuals members as well as in our work in general, we have gained confidence in our ability and experience in action. And within the Assembly we’ve gained grudging respect for our persistence and for our communist ideas.
No victory comes easy under capitalism, and all victories come under attack within a short time. In the Delegate Assembly and in our schools we have become a little more seasoned and can make our way through some of the muck and mire. The article does not give full credit to that process.
A Brooklyn teacher
Peru CIA Man Was Capo of Drug Cartel
General Barry McCraffey, anti-drug Czar during the Clinton administration, used to congratulate the now fugitive Vladimiro Montesinos, for "his important actions against drug trafficking." Montesinos was the real power during the Peruvian regime of Alberto K. Fujimori (1990-2000). Montesinos was also an active operative of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Now, a 1500-page report issued by the interim government which replaced the Fujimori-Montesinos duo, revealed that all along Montesinos had been Peru’s biggest drug dealer. He ran a cocaine-processing lab in the port of Pisco, south of Lima, and supplied the drug cartel of Tijuana, Mexico, with mountains of drugs.
Montesinos also dealt with drug cartels in Colombia. Roberto Escobar, brother of slain Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar, reported that Pablo and Montesinos worked together, and that Escobar helped finance the 1990 Fujimori electoral campaign. Montesinos, along with General Nicolas Hermoza, army chief, jointly protected landing strips used by drug lords in Peru. They also stole $246 million from overcharging the government for MIG-28s purchased from Belarus (part of the former Soviet Union). The aircraft were so run-down they couldn’t be used (one pilot died during a crash when testing one).
The Drug Enforcement Administration not only praised Montesinos and Fujimori, but also ran bases in Peru to supposedly interdict drug shipments. Today, the U.S. government’s Plan Colombia is supposed to be fighting drugs in that country. Well, expect the drug problem to worsen as U.S. involvement grows in that part of the world.
Say no to drugs. Fight capitalism!
Siempre Rojo
Anti-Racists Link Fight From Strike To Cop Murder
Class struggle has been heating up in two Seattle neighborhoods. In a 3-week period, three groups of workers struck at the University of Washington. Meanwhile, nearby the cops killed Aaron Roberts, an African-American father of three. Angry workers immediately took to the streets of the Central District, spontaneously showing hatred for the racist cops.
The rulers' response in both areas was to ensure its lackeys maintained control. The union misleaders carefully led striking workers away from militant actions, from truly uniting with students, and from fighting for their class interests against police brutality (see recent CHALLENGE articles).
Meanwhile, so-called "community leaders" are diverting anger over the Roberts murder away from a class outlook, pushing nationalism and pleading to reform the system. The People's Coalition for Justice, associated with the New Hope Baptist Church, held a rally and march. Hundreds showed up. Speakers were mainly leaders of churches and nationalist groups advocating "unity" but emphasizing that a civilian review board and electing better politicians would bring justice. Despite this crap, the marchers were spirited and seemed glad to be in the streets.We started some good chants and people joined in. Another brief rally was held at the spot where Roberts was murdered. From there the march headed to the nearest "cop shop," where more speeches and some disagreements about tactics ensued. Eventually the crowd scattered.
At a community meeting the following Saturday, a multi-racial group of over 300 filled the New Hope Baptist Church The main speaker was the church minister Rev. Jeffrey, a powerful orater. Within minutes most of the crowd was vehemently responding to his emphatic message. (He reminded me of another black minister who has misled large numbers of black and other workers, Jesse Jackson.) He called for an Independent Review Board for the cops. These powerless boards are designed to deceive people into thinking justice is possible under capitalism. The other proposal was a boycott of the Central District Starbucks. I'm happy to boycott Starbucks, a notorious exploiter of workers in coffee-growing regions as well as of its own workers here, but his demand was for more black-owned businesses. (Ironically, this Starbucks is owned by Magic Johnson!) Just like Jackson, he calls for black capitalism to solve the problems of black workers. Capitalism exploits workers no matter what the boss's color.
We brought some people to the rally and had some good struggles with them. We sold too few CHALLENGES, which hampers out winning workers and students away from these misleaders. We will try harder to connect these two struggles for our friends. When university workers see the importance of fighting racism and police murders, and black workers and youth join strikers on the picket lines to demand access to university jobs, then real class unity will emerge.
Struggling Seattle Comrade
a name="‘Peace Carnival’ Won’t Cut It"></a>"Peace Carnival’ Won’t Cut It
On June 2, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held a "peace carnival" in Glasgow, Scotland. They were very disappointed at the turnout, expecting 2,000 and getting about 300.
Literature stalls included Trident Ploughshares, the Communist Party of Scotland, Communist Party of Britain, the Greens, the Scargill Labor Party and several others.
About 12:15 we marched around the block led by the Socialist Workers Party’s (SWP) front group, Globalize Resistance. There was little chance to get active in the march, as the SWP had the megaphones.
Speakers included Robin Harper from the Green Party, who, standing with his hands on his hips, acted as though he was superior "because he’s a Green." He pictured himself as a left activist, bragging, "a few months ago, we were demonstrating in Paris against the French", while totally forgetting why he was demonstrating. This brought a few laughs from the local anarchists.
Then Tommy Sheridan, a left standby, spoke, in a sense doing exactly what Hitler did in his book, Mein Kampf — he criticized present society and gave only a very vague picture of what "socialism" would be like. Sheridan seems to love himself; he’s depicted on all of The Scottish Socialist Party’s election posters shaking his fist.
After this, people lost interest and started leaving — a very unsuccessful day for the anti-nuclear movement. The event was scheduled to last until 6 P.M. but most people, including this PLP member, left around 3.
The people in power are not going to be pressured into getting rid of nukes just because people want them to. They’ve had them 40 years and still have them. We need to organize within one party and take over the positions these politicians hold so that we don’t just demand a better world, we take it for ourselves.
Glasgow Youth Comrade
Steel Steals In More Ways Than One
The crisis in the steel industry is affecting the schools that depend on tax revenues from steel mill jobs. Retired steelworkers could lose a large portion of their pensions and healthcare. If they do, it will affect the health-care providers that depend on the workers’ health insurance to pay medical costs. Directly or indirectly the working class pays out a large portion of their income for education and healthcare. The bosses steal the best for themselves and spend a small portion of their profits for education and healthcare for the working class.
Workers produce the steel and should control education and healthcare. In a capitalist economy, the bosses’ control these things based on their need for profits. Money, wage labor and profits will not exist under communism. Workers, led by their revolutionary PLP, will decide what and how much to produce, and control the distribution of necessities like education and healthcare. The choice for international communist revolution, led by PLP, is a choice to begin the process of achieving control of our labor as a class. At the moment, taking control means leading all workers in your community to join PLP and work for communist revolution.
Mid-West Comrade
- Senate Counter-Coup:
Working Class Unity Answer to Liberals' Trap - Oppose AFL-CIO `Me-Firstism'
Link Workers' Struggles Worldwide - Jailed Anti-Racist Cincy Rebels Need Mass Support
- Morristown Trial:
`No Plea Offer For Fighting Racism' - Washington Strikers Need To Defend Entire Class
- CONTRACT STRUGGLE CAN DERAIL METRO RACISM
- Faculty-Student Worker Alliance Backs Anti-Racist Teacher
- Corrupt AFSCME Honchos Ape Rotten System
- STRIKE SHUTS [RICH] PEOPLE'S ENERGY
- Death in the Desert...
SMASH ALL BORDERS! - Mexico's Fox Sells Slaves to Canada
- NO Free Spech for Racism
- Chile's `Democracy': Big Bucks on Workers' Backs
- Capitalism Fails This Test
Book Review: How To Take an Exam...& Remake the World, by Bertell Ollman. - Youths Puncture Rulers' Free Trade Balloon
- LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write! - KIDNEY DONOR NEEDED
Editorial:
Senate Counter-Coup:
Working Class Unity Answer to Liberals' Trap
Don't believe the hype that glorifies Vermont Republican Senator Jeffords as a "man of conscience" because he turned his back on Bush and the Republican Party. Jeffords' only "conscience" is his loyalty to the Eastern Establishment wing of U.S. imperialism. His recent move is part of a counter-coup, in which the liberal rulers are trying to teach upstarts in the Bush camp who's really boss. It could be called "The Empire Strikes Back." Workers must not fall into the trap of following the liberals, who parade as our friends. Their agenda -- if we accept it -- will lead us straight into mass graves.
After using vicious racism to steal the Florida electoral vote -- a racism which the Gore Democrats refused to challenge -- the Bush gang took over the White House as though they had won by a landslide. They began promising all sorts of goodies to domestic oil, gas, and arms interests that had helped Bush's electoral campaign. This didn't sit too well with the liberal rulers, who, for reasons related to their own class interests, don't like Bush's plans for tax cuts, Alaskan oil and missile defense, much of which aids Bush's backers. The liberals also worry that Bush & Co.'s open pandering to giant energy companies like Enron and Halliburton will alienate the majority of U.S. workers. The liberals want to win workers to their own agenda for war and fascism.
To force Bush to recognize his true masters, along comes "white knight" Jeffords -- whose move out of the Republican Party gives the Democrats control of the Senate. He's followed closely by Republican McCain, in open conflict with Bush while meeting with Democratic leaders, and then by the Democrat Daschle, the new Senate majority leader, being lauded as "the people's leader." A closer look at these characters should reinforce our conviction that the liberals are by far the greatest danger to our political development as a class. This is, once again, the story of the wolf in sheep's clothing.
Beware of Wolves in Sheep Clothings
Jeffords is a dyed-in-the wool imperialist. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserves from 1956 until 1990, right through the Vietnam War, retiring as a captain. In 1991, he voted to authorize Papa Bush's Desert Storm, in which the U.S. military slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers and children to defend the Persian Gulf oil interests of Exxon et al.
John McCain, the so-called "war hero," is really a war criminal. McCain, as a Navy pilot, committed his own share of mass murders in Vietnam from the air. (His liberal colleague, former Senator Kerrey, massacred Vietnamese peasants on the ground.) CHALLENGE readers may remember McCain's angry demand that Clinton send ground troops to Kosovo in 1999, when U.S. and NATO rulers were dropping "humanitarian" bombs to ensure access to energy pipelines. McCain has since learned his lesson -- U.S. imperialism will indeed need ground troops for oil, but for Exxon in the Persian Gulf rather than for Halliburton and BP Amoco in the Balkans. Unlike Bush, McCain isn't a slow learner. He now understands whom to salute.
Daschle, now the Democratic majority leader, has also spilled plenty of blood to serve the liberal rulers. After graduating college in 1969, he joined the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command, one of the military's most openly fascistic branches, as an intelligence officer. He voted with Jeffords in 1991 to authorize oil genocide in Iraq. More recently, in the final days of the Clinton administration, he argued for continuing to bomb Iraqi kids, "despite domestic political differences in the United States...in defense of our nation's vital interests" (Associated Press). Liberal Missouri Democrat Gephardt joined Daschle in this call. Daschle also voted for Clinton's racist welfare "reform," known as "Workfare," forcing masses of workers into a form of slave labor. And Daschle fully backs the liberals' "community policing" strategy, which is implementing police terror with a smiling face. Daschle's own public relations releases boast of putting "300 new cops on the beat since 1994 [in South Dakota]...and of plac[ing]...officers in our schools."
Of all Bush's proposals, the tax cut has drawn the most fire from the liberals. They state the obvious in order to cover their true purpose. Sure, Bush's plan represents a huge gift to certain corporations. The liberals object, because they want to use that money to carry out U.S. imperialism's long-range plans for war with its emerging Chinese and Russian rivals: "Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut...is...one of the largest obstacles to his military agenda. The fiscal plan has drastically reduced the amount of surplus dollars available to develop the kind of advanced weaponry the administration desires, not only for its missile shield but also for modernizing conventional forces" (NY Times, 6/3; emphasis ours--Ed.). Conventional forces are vital to the success of the liberals' war against rising capitalist rivals. Just to make sure the point is clear, West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, who knows a thing or two about what makes his family's Exxon Mobil happy, says the Bush tax plan "saves too little and it invests far too little in America's long-term needs" (MSNBC).
The liberals' counter-coup is an attempt to forge the class unity the big bosses will require to meet these "long-term needs." But their needs and ours have nothing in common. They require class unity to continue ruling the world and oppressing us. They also require workers' political allegiance and obedience, including the mass sacrifice of our lives. We must not give it to them! We must recognize the traps set for us by these liberal imperialists and keep our heads clear. We have to forge our own working-class unity, against them and for communist revolution. Its most important expression, now and in the future, is the Progressive Labor Party
Editorial 2
Oppose AFL-CIO `Me-Firstism'
Link Workers' Struggles Worldwide
At a spring anti-globalization teach-in, a University of Washington (UW) professor predicted this academic year would be "hot," filled with activism. That forecast appears to be on the mark (see article on Washington State strikers), especially since it follows on the heels of similar struggles reported in the past few issues of CHALLENGE. But these articles also point out another disturbing trend. The AFL-CIO union leadership and those student groups allied with them have fought hard to contain these struggles within the federation's economist "take-care-of-No.-1-first" philosophy.
The AFL-CIO has always peddled crass individualism -- think only about yourself, or your trade, or your own job. Even when pushed to unite workers and students, these misleaders have sought to limit the struggle to a 1% pay raise here or defeating a $10 deductible there. When more advanced graduate students wanted to talk about the class content of university courses, the union leaders shelved that demand for "later" (meaning never). When students asked the sweatshop groups to build political support for campus workers, the sweatshop group leaders said they hadn't received a "formal invitation" from the AFL-CIO.
The AFL-CIO's petty reformism builds cynicism. Sure we fight against the bosses' economic attacks, but focusing solely on your job or a better contract for your union doesn't build the class-consciousness that can inspire masses of workers and students.
For instance, on May 30 Seattle cops (SPD) gunned down Aaron Roberts, a 36-year-old black father of three in the nearby Central District (C.D.) where many campus workers live. An SEIU member at the UW lost her son at the hands of the SPD recently. The UW has the largest law enforcement school in the Northwest. It is not only a strikebreaker but a promoter of racist terror as well.
Communists must lead workers away from the poison of individualism and trade union reformism. Fighting racist terror is a class question. The same capitalist system that attacks campus staff and Teaching Assistants murders black workers.
This type of class-consciousness has suffered from the lack of impact of a strong communist party and the demise of the old communist movement. Reversing that is difficult but not impossible. Our Party is organizing to win UW pickets to demonstrate against racist terror in the nearby C.D. We're bringing the issue of racist terror as a class question to all the unions and student groups in which we participate. We will make a special effort, in the classrooms and the lecture halls, to confront racist and anti-working class ideology that attempts to justify these racist murders.
Our class-conscious approach to racist terror stands in stark contrast to the debilitating economism of the trade unions. The think-of-yourself-or-your-own-little-group mentality often leads to a "my-city, my-state, my-country" nationalism. It's also a backhanded defense of "exploit-someone-else" imperialism. On the other hand, putting your class first can lead to revolutionary understanding in the heat of class struggle.
Jailed Anti-Racist Cincy Rebels Need Mass Support
CINCINNATI, OH, June 2--"There they go again. They want to make sure we understand this is a peaceful march," a black worker commented as 2,000 black, white, Latin and union workers marched to protest the racist police murder of Timothy Thomas. The 19-year-old unarmed black worker was killed on April 7 by cop Roach who chased him because of traffic warrants. He was the 16th black man killed by the Cincinnati police in the last five years.
A huge rebellion exploded in response to this racist police terror. The bosses, politicians and cops used even more terror and violence to suppress it, arresting over 600 people and imposing martial law. Many are still in jail facing federal charges.
However, today there were no cops in riot gear. During a two-hour rally, speakers called for "peace," from Rev. Damon Lynch of the "Black United Front" to former Ohio Governor John Gilligan. A black cop from "Black Cops Against Police Brutality" said he represented the "good cops," working hard to fight against the "bad cops."
PLP participated in the march. A high school student we met during the rebellion marched with us. Our flyer, "Wanted for Racist Murder -- Cop Stephen Roach," cautioned workers not to act alone, but to organize millions for communist revolution. We sold 150 CHALLENGES and distributed hundreds of the Cincinnati CHALLENGE special edition.
We marched to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, site of the racist murder and rebellion, and led many anti-racist and communist chants. A young student chanted "Over the Rhine to Palestine, Fight Back!" Many joined us. A young woman asked to help pass out our literature. The march ended at a park in West-End, another poor black neighborhood being heavily gentrified.
These "peace makers" have no plan to fight for the jailed workers. A 15-year-old black youth is being tried as an adult, charged with a "federal hate" crime for attacking a white truck driver. He faces 25 years. Racist killer cop Roach, who murdered Timothy in cold blood, is charged with two misdemeanors and faces less than nine months (if convicted). There's no justice for the working class under capitalism, and therefore there can be no peace. We are planning a speaking tour for some friends we made during the rebellion, to raise money for those still locked up.
Morristown Trial:
`No Plea Offer For Fighting Racism'
MORRISTOWN, NJ, June 5 -- Six of the remaining adults arrested on trumped-up charges for opposing a Nazi rally in Morristown last July 4th were finally arraigned yesterday, ten months later. The only juvenile began fighting her case now against the Morris County court. These anti-racist fighters refused to take any plea bargains for fighting racism!
Over 30 supporters packed the courtroom yesterday to show solidarity. As the first "defendant" was arraigned, the judge read off the indictment and asked if we would accept a plea offer. The defendant's attorney said "we wouldn't accept any offer for fighting racism." The crowd in the courthouse applauded, annoying the judge who then threatened to kick everyone out if the "disruption" continued.
Last July 4th, Morristown authorities made clear which side they're on. They employed more than 20 state, local and federal police agencies to guard the openly-fascist white supremacist Richard Barrett and his Nationalist Movement. They coordinated an assault on anyone who protested Barrett's racist filth. Ten protesters were arrested on various trumped-up charges.
Barrett was in town to support racial profiling and to demand the rehiring of former NJ State Police Chief Carl Williams, an architect of that racist policy. Barrett was opposed by ministers and their congregations, members of groups like Food Not Bombs, National Organization for Women, People's Organization for Progress, the Progressive Labor Party, as well as many local residents. Barrett plans to demonstrate again this July 4th to celebrate "Independence from Crime Day." He has invited murdering KKKops like Steven Roach, who killed Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati, as well as other gestapos-in-blue.
Morristown has become a base for racist attacks and terror. Over a year ago the church across the street from the Morris County Courthouse was suspiciously burnt down. The church is known for providing help to the homeless. Then, resembling the attacks against immigrant day-workers in Farmingville, NY, Morristown officials wanted to implement an "anti-loitering" law that would fine immigrant workers $500 for waiting for work on street corners. In Farmingville, two of these day-workers were viciously attacked and beaten by racists. Immigrant workers couldn't even play soccer in Morristown public parks! The recent murder of a Latino child, Walter Contreras Valenzuela, has united Morristown residents against racism even more so. Now the racist Nationalists are coming back to divide this community once again, protected by the cops.
The recent police killings in Cincinnati demonstrate that police terror and racism are intensifying. As conditions worsen for us workers, these arrests and terror campaigns become part of the bosses' fascist plan to subdue working-class anger against capitalism. After all, it's this profit system that exploits these immigrant workers, spreads racism to divide and weaken workers' fight-back against this exploitation and then -- under the guise of "free speech" -- protects Nazis like Barrett who serve the bosses by spreading capitalism's racist ideology.
The Progressive Labor Party opposes the rise of fascism by (1) actively leading campaigns in some of these cases to fight the arrests and court cases, fighting all criminal charges as they arise; and (2) fighting for a society run by the working class that outlaws bosses and their profits, eliminating racism, police terror and exploitation of workers. That's communism!
Washington Strikers Need To Defend Entire Class
SEATTLE, WA, May 24 -- Washington State workers had a one-day strike, appealing to the State Legislature to give us a 3.7% cost-of-living raise and maintain our healthcare benefits (see CHALLENGE, 5/23). At the University of Washington (UW), over 500 workers stayed out of work and attended a rally led by the SEIU (Service Employees Int'l Union), Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) and the King County Labor Council. The union leadership extolled the virtues of the Democratic Party, setting up the enthusiastic, multi-racial crowd to be misled by reliance on the bosses' politicians.
Many workers understand that neither the Democratic Party nor the Legislature has workers' best interests at heart. However, that doesn't mean that they understand that capitalism is the their enemy.
Some are cynical about what workers are willing to do. This only benefits the ruling class -- it keeps workers from being willing to unite and fight.
A lack of class-consciousness weakens workers' ability to struggle. One co-worker, exemplifying the feelings of many others, said, "We need to not get rough or angry, because we need to have the public on our side." This concept of a classless "public" is a losing one for government employees. Strike issues are class issues. We need to fight for what's good for the whole working class, not for some faceless "public" which mixes the bosses' interests with workers' interests.
The night before the strike some union members went to the SEIU office to make picket signs. When one member made a sign saying, "On Strike for Decent Healthcare," he was told not to use the word "strike," only "job action," as agreed to by the union coalition. Such ideas hold workers back from really fighting in their own interests. Ironically, the day of the strike hundreds of WFSE members -- SEIU's "coalition partners" -- were carrying pre-printed pickets signs with "On Strike" in big red letters.
We distributed about 150 PLP flyers calling for a general strike and explaining whom the law really serves. Too few CHALLENGES were sold, considering the size and nature of the crowd. We underestimated the potential to make contacts and get information to more people.
Class Struggle Cancels Classes
As we go to press, the graduate teaching assistants are on strike, fighting for their right to bargain with the University with a binding, enforceable union contract. We plan to raise our ideas among these workers and among students. The strike may go on for more than a few days. These struggles can become a training ground for revolution if we use the tools of dialectical materialism and spread CHALLENGE with that information. Building hand-to-hand CHALLENGE networks is job # 1 in the coming period.
CONTRACT STRUGGLE CAN DERAIL METRO RACISM
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5 -- The fight for a new contract for over 6,000 Metro transit workers is underway. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 is making the fight against wage progression (a multi-tier wage system) a key demand. Management has expanded wage progression for 25 years and says it will not move on this issue. The potential exists for a sharp struggle.
Metro's wage system has created many contradictions for the union and the bosses. Young bus drivers make $11.31 per hour, while senior operators make $22.66 doing the same work. The last contract drove down starting wages so low, the bosses are having a tough time hiring and retaining drivers. Thousands of young, mainly black men and women drivers are looking for a raise to feed their families.
Meanwhile, the mostly white skilled workers want to widen the "skill" differential between themselves and the mostly black operators. Management will use this racism within the union to divide and weaken all Metro workers.
The underlying problem is the capitalist system of wage slavery. Even if we win a few demands, it will not significantly alter our lives. To keep moving forward, the Party and its revolutionary ideas must grow. One of our main goals is to expand the number of workers reading, distributing and writing for CHALLENGE.
A group of workers has been meeting informally to focus the struggle on wage progression, because it raises the issue of class solidarity and our concern for the next generation of workers and the future of our class.
Metro transit workers have a long and militant history. They have won some battles and lost others. As this struggle unfolds, many ideas about how to fight will emerge. There are thousands of young militant workers who are tired of being attacked by management. PLP will fight against racist wage progression and link this fight to the racist terror faced in every facet of life here in the capital of the U.S. imperialist butchers. But primarily in such struggles we can win many more to see the need to abolish wage slavery and fight for communism.
Faculty-Student Worker Alliance Backs Anti-Racist Teacher
BOSTON, MA, May 29 -- Thirty-five Roxbury Community College (RCC) students, faculty and workers picketed the meeting of the RCC Board of Trustees where it was voting to deny tenure to a highly-qualified faculty member, Ruth Kiefson-Roberts. RCC faculty and students widely recognize that denying tenure to Kiefson-Roberts is blatant retaliation against her for standing up for students and other faculty. It's clearly designed to intimidate the entire RCC faculty.
RCC is the State's only college serving an explicitly black, Latino and immigrant population. The State has allowed the Brown Administration's corrupt mismanagement to run RCC into the ground, including worn, ill-kept school buildings with no cafeteria, no librarians, poor quality tutorial programs and computer labs and under-funded academic programs. Because of inadequate training, RCC students don't get admissions priority into state-certified nursing programs. President Grace Brown and her administration have wasted millions of our tax dollars giving themselves big raises and perks and dealing out high-priced consulting contracts to their cronies instead of beefing up student services and academic programs.
Unrest against the RCC administration is exploding. Law suits and union grievances are being filed against Brown and her managers for using vindictiveness, threats and intimidation. Two weeks ago 100 students demonstrated against Brown and Provost Jones. Two days later an historic meeting of all three RCC unions discussed the racist education foisted on students and the need to dump the Brown administration. The following day at graduation almost the entire faculty wore stickers saying, "Tenure for Quality Faculty" and gave out fliers to students and their families explaining the reasons for the protest.
The State aims to reduce and privatize public education at every level. Ten years ago it cut the community college budget by one-third. It also let each of the 15 colleges negotiate individually with the State Legislature for funds. In 1997, they required each college to assess its own "effectiveness," preparing for the elimination of "failing" schools. Now it will compare and assess the community colleges according to "measurable outcomes" and then deal with "failing" community colleges the way it's dealt with 12 "failing" elementary schools: eliminate some outright and "restructure" others into training academies for low-level workers.
Although these may be politically risky racist attacks on the Northeast's only historically black college, the ruling class is clearly determined to "solve" its economic crisis by cutting back public education as it did the welfare system. They will step up attempts to intimidate, terrorize and divide us with every kind of racism and sharpening fascism. Students, campus workers and faculty are beginning to understand these developments and to respond militantly; they're increasingly open to class struggle.
PLP is right in the middle of this struggle to beat back the bosses' attacks on RCC. Through CHALLENGE, PLP leaflets and our direct participation, we will fight to win RCC'ers to see we're not just confronting a collection of corrupt and racist stooges, but also a concerted attack on the working class by the capitalist class. In this battle students, workers and faculty can become involved with PLP and together we can learn how to fight capitalism and be won to comunist revolution.
Corrupt AFSCME Honchos Ape Rotten System
NEW YORK CITY, June 4 -- An audit of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) NYC District Council 37 was just made public. Detailing four years of corruption, it could have been subtitled, "let `em eat shrimp," declared the May 18th edition of the civil service newspaper the CHIEF-LEADER. (The leadership spent $23,000 to supply shrimp as "finger food" at a union conference.)
Under capitalism unions negotiate the terms and conditions under which workers are exploited. Class struggle reflects the need for workers to fight back against their exploitation. Union reformers say with honest leaders we could live well under capitalism. On the other hand, communists have long understood that unions can be schools for communism. Involvement in the class struggle enables communists to unmask the capitalist system and its henchmen.
The audit reveals that AFSCME's DC 37 is a corrupt business union. It exists mainly as a cash cow to be milked by the bureaucrats who run it. It offers little pretense of organizing workers to fight the bosses. Because workers do want to fight back, the bosses need to create a facade of "honest reformers." They want workers to rely on the federal government apparatus (as the national Teamsters union has done), or on the international union leaders (as is happening in the NYC Transport Workers Union Local 100) or on the local District Attorney's office as in the DC 37 investigation.
A facade, however, is all they want. As the recently ratified DC 37 contract shows, a trustee installed to replace corrupt officials can sell out workers more effectively than can the overt thieves. Indeed, Mark Rosenthal, one of the leaders of the reform movement in DC 37, praised the negotiating process as being "open."
The audit details how: (1) in a four-year period starting in 1995, $18 million in assets were stolen and squandered; (2) a five-year contract providing for a two-year wage freeze and allowing slave labor Workfare was passed via massive vote fraud; and (3) the leadership of DC 37 used corrupt practices to keep themselves in power.
Since 1998, AFSCME's national leadership put DC 37 and two of its biggest locals (1549 and 372) in receivership. The presidents of these two locals, Diop and Hughes, have each been convicted of stealing over $2 million. Half of the Council leadership has either pleaded guilty, been convicted or is under indictment. At the June 2000 AFSCME convention, President Gerald McEntee declared that "DC 37 is back." This was widely understood to be a threat against anyone who would fight against the pro-McEntee old guard rather than indicating DC 37 would fight for the working class. The fact is, the International commissioned the audit to convince workers that the union no longer has any corrupt officials. However, McEntee's "DC-37-is-back" catchword revealed its true meaning when one of McEntee's International Vice-Presidents and Secretary of DC 37 Helen Green, Local 758's President, was indicted just last month.
STRIKE SHUTS [RICH] PEOPLE'S ENERGY
CHICAGO, IL, June 5 -- As we go to press, 1,050 members of Gas Workers Union Local 18007 are in the third week of their strike against People's Energy (PE). The union has no strike fund, and the workers must pay hundreds of dollars a month to maintain their family health insurance.
PE is trying to cut labor costs by changing work rules and increasing workers' health cost payments. They want to eliminate two-man crews to one, attack seniority and contract out more work.
The bosses made their "final offer" and broke off contract talks. On May 31, about 500 workers picketed PE headquarters in a show of unity. The morale of the strikers is good and their willingness to fight is strong. But the SEIU and AFL-CIO leadership does not seem to share their enthusiasm.
One of the statewide AFL-CIO leaders said, "You are not alone. One million union members are behind you." But if she collected one dollar from each of its one million members, the strikers' health insurance would be paid for the duration of the strike. Another fat cat talked about "unity," meaning strikers should shut up and stop complaining about being kept in the dark.
Even Jesse Jackson has gotten into the act, hosting strike-support "rallies" and showing up on the picket line. But give the Devil his due. Jackson has organized the only protest movement against utility shutoffs. If a ban on shutoffs became a workers' demand, it would greatly strengthen the strike.
We plan to get Party members and friends out to the picket lines to introduce more strikers to CHALLENGE, and to raise money from our local unions to send to the strikers.
Death in the Desert...
SMASH ALL BORDERS!
LOS ANGELES, CA -- "The price of coffee has dropped so much we can't live. We have no choice but to risk everything and try to make it to the other side," said a farm worker from Guerrero, Mexico. She was waiting at the airport for the body of her son. He was one of 14 youths who died May 21, trying to cross the desert near Yuma, Arizona in 109[[ordmasculine]] temperatures without water or shade.
During the past "Holy Week," eight women and children died crossing the freezing mountains of California. More than 1,600 have died since 1995, when Clinton's Operation Gatekeeper began using an unscalable fence with increased military control at the U.S.-Mexican border, forcing workers to seek death-risking alternatives.
There is sharpening imperialist competition between the U.S., Europe and Asia for markets, resources and cheap labor. As this rivalry sharpens, and the crisis of overproduction deepens, more workers are forced to immigrate anywhere they can to sell their labor. While Operation Gatekeeper is the immediate cause of these deaths, the underlying killer is capitalist exploitation. These same U.S. bosses are responsible for killing hundreds of thousands in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua and millions throughout Latin America.
The bosses are fighting over immigration policy. President Bush sent condolences to Mexico's President Fox over the 14 deaths. The U.S. State Department and the Mexican Foreign Minister issued a joint communiqué about, "...the urgent need...[for] a new agreement on immigration and security at the border." (LA Times, 5/25) Bush and others want to re-establish the bracero ("guest worker") program, where Mexican workers would temporarily work in the fields in the U.S. They would be rented slaves at the mercy of the bosses, not allowed to bring their families or fight for their rights.
The New York Times (5/29) ran a front-page article praising immigrant workers as beneficial to the U.S. economy and their families in Mexico. The liberal New York Times first praised, but now criticizes Operation Gatekeeper. The Democratic Party and AFL-CIO call for legalizing more immigrants and modifying Operation Gatekeeper. They want to fill the depleted ranks of the Army with immigrant workers to defend the Exxon-Mobil empire. This is the "best" capitalism can do.
Hundreds of garment workers, janitors and others here are angry over these border deaths. Workers shouldn't have illusions. Politicians like LA mayoral candidate Villaraigosa, are the most dangerous because they pose as friends of the workers. In fact, the bosses cannot rule without Latino and black politicians!
We need to build a new communist society, where there are no borders and we produce for the benefit of our class. The best way to avenge the deaths of millions is to build PLP in the factories, schools and unions. Smash All Borders! Workers of the World, Unite!
Mexico's Fox Sells Slaves to Canada
LEAMINGTOWN, ONTARIO, Canada --On April 23, 109 temporary workers (braceros) struck the Mastron-Enterprise Green House farm for four days. They were fighting the bosses' harrassment, rotten living conditions and the lack of decent medical insurance. "In the last five years they have only raised our pay 10 cents and we must buy our own gloves for applying pesticides," said 71-year-old Juan Gomez. "When we get sick, they refuse to take us to the doctor." (Los Angeles La Opinión, 6/4).
The Mexican consul in Toronto, Manuel Uribe, defended the bosses, saying the "guest worker" program had many advantages. After the bosses fired 19 strikers, the consul -- who intervened to break the strike -- said the firings were "a misunderstanding...questions of language." These workers were then flown back to Mexico, with the cost of the tickets deducted from their pay.
The bracero program between Canada and Mexico goes back 27 years and employs some 10,000 workers. "They promise us $7.10 per hour, but with deductions, including the unemployment insurance which doesn't cover us, they pay us only $4.20 per hour," charged Juan López. Another worker declared that, "Fox [president of Mexico] only came to Quebec to sell more slaves to Canada."
Workers' struggles have no borders, one more reason to fight for a communist society without bosses.
NO Free Spech for Racism
Anti-Racists Fit KKK Hood On Fascist Horowitz's Head
David Horowitz, the fascist author on a speaking tour to promote his racist ad, was invited to the University of California-Santa Barbara by the Future Fascists of America (aka, the Young Republicans). After reading about him being run off the Berkley campus, I decided to help protest his speaking engagement. To my dismay only a brave few showed up. Our group rallied together and entered the hall with the hope that our jeering alone might be able to throw Horowitz off guard.
We attacked him after comments like "Blacks in America should never be paid reparations" and "Black problems are not America's problems." We yelled at him with great energy amidst threats from the crowd full of the bosses' minions. One comment in particular by Horowitz really set our group on fire. Horowitz, apparently taking liberties because of the number of fascists like himself in the crowd, voiced support for the mass murder Bob Kerry had committed in Vietnam. We quickly fashioned a KKKlan hat out of paper and attempted to place it on Horowitz's head. After a struggle we were kicked out.
We didn't give up, however, and decided to call some friends including a couple of local black fraternities to help stop this racist piece of dung from talking on campus. Within 20 minutes we had about 30 protestors, including many African-American students. We marched back into the lecture hall and stood in the aisle to the dismay of the fascist. This apparently made Horowitz very nervous because he started to stutter and sweat and drink lots of water. Making more noise now, we were eventually driven out by the university cops but with our heads high. I invite every student to battle this fascist if and when he comes to your school!
Between organizing for May Day and the above action, CHALLENGE sales are moving ahead. Some people are stopping by my house every issue to pick them up. I will be starting a reader-discussion group in the fall.
Chile's `Democracy': Big Bucks on Workers' Backs
SANTIAGO, CHILE--For several years this country was being called a "Jaguar" for its so-called economic growth. It was "bound" to follow the path of the Asian Tigers (Thailand, S. Korea, Taiwan, etc.) in its economic dynamism. Well, that was before capitalism's crisis hit these "Tigers" and the rest of the world.
The economic growth of the late '80s and early 1990s was based on the super-exploitation and extreme oppression of the working class which accelerated after the bloody 1973 Nixon-Kissinger-AT&T-organized coup by General Pinochet. Within three years of the coup workers' real wages fell 35% below the 1970 level. By 1983 they had dropped 86.7% below the 1970 level.
When the leftist Allende became President in 1970, Chile's poor numbered one million. By 1992 seven million were living below the poverty level (today's population is about 15 million). By 1987, Chile's ruling class junked the Pinochet regime, not because of its attacks on workers, but rather because its policies were harming the entire capitalist class, while benefiting only his family and a few of his allies.
The return of bourgeois democracy in the second half of the 1980s didn't change much for most workers. Now, under socialist President Lagos, the extreme exploitation imposed by capitalist wage slavery has accelerated. Unemployment has reached double digits (the official figure is 9%).
But where there is oppression inevitably there is rebellion. Lately we have seen:
* Mass protests by the Mapuche indigenous people against the racist discrimination they have long suffered, worsening in the last few years.
* Two weeks of protests by high school students last month, fighting street battles with the cops in Santiago and other cities, demanding reduction of the cost of a school transportation pass and rescinding of massive school cutbacks.
* College students demonstrating against government "reforms" which will increase the cost of entering college.
* Rebellions by inmates against rotten prison conditions (30 prisoners have died in these rebellions).
* A larger-than-usual turnout by workers and others to the May Day marches throughout the country. This is a response to the intensifying exploitation of the working class imposed by the bosses and their "socialist" government.
Unfortunately, all these protests have resulted only in "dialogues" with the authorities, solving nothing. The reformist leadership of these struggles uses them to gain advantages in the coming elections. Whether workers and their allies follow the official slogan of "Growth with Equality and Social Justice" or the right-wing opposition call for "changes" or the reformist/left call for "growth for all," it leads to the same dead end road of preserving capitalist exploitation.
The government is trying to change its image. Under the new slogan of "Think Positive," it is trying to make us believe that all its reforms in health care, education, work, etc. will make the system work for us. But capitalism can never be reformed permanently -- the socialist rulers know that very well. They just approved $2.3 billion for Pinochet's Armed Forces. Their idea of fighting poverty is to fight poor people. Indeed, social-democrats (reformists) are the best friends fascists have.
As the bosses prepare a circus in December to elect new hacks to Congress here, PLP will again issue its leaflet "Voting: the Big Con," calling on workers not to vote or vote blank, and to join us in building a revolutionary communist movement as the only way out of the constant exploitation capitalism requires.
Capitalism Fails This Test
Book Review: How To Take an Exam...& Remake the World, by Bertell Ollman.
Say you're a student or a teacher and you'd like to read a good book on test-taking strategies to help you or your students perform better on exams. But you'd also like to read a book that explains why capitalism can't serve the interests of the vast majority of people, and how socialism and communism can. Which do you read first? Thanks to Bertell Ollman, a college professor and author of this entertaining and politically enlightening book, you can do both at the same time!
Ollman's main goal is to convince the reader that capitalism has long outlived whatever usefulness it once had, and that Marxism is necessary for both understanding capitalism and replacing it with a social system run by working people. In easy-to-read and lively language he explains how capitalism--with its bottom-line concern for maximizing profits--produces poverty, miserable jobs for some and none for others, wars, alienation and environmental destruction. Cartoons, photos, poems and songs all illuminate the excellent points of the text.
The author does a great job of introducing and explaining key Marxist concepts, such as class struggle, the labor theory of value, surplus value, alienation, how nationalist (patriotic) ideas help capitalism, the features of imperialism (what is popularly called globalization), how and why the government serves the interests of capitalism and the differences between socialism and communism. This makes it a valuable resource to use in PLP study groups with students and teachers.
But how does the book's test advice fit in? While giving students helpful tips on how to prepare for and take tests, Ollman also explains how exams are used to place students into slots A, B, C or F, and how they are used to prepare students to take their place within the capitalist order and to accept those places. His criticism of exams under capitalism is connected to his criticism of capitalist society itself.
This is a very enjoyable and insightful book but also has its weaknesses. It doesn't say enough about racism and sexism, and in spots puts forth liberalism, such as the possibility to vote out capitalism in a few countries.
Almost 100 years ago, Jack London wrote a book called The Iron Heel, explaining how the capitalists would resort to fascism rather than give up their wealth and power. History has proven London right.
Recently, Ollman gave a well-received talk at our school to about 20 students and four teachers. Now a half-dozen students and teachers are reading his book and we hope to have many more discussions of revolutionary Marxism and the need to overthrow capitalism.
Reviewed by NYC teacher
Youths Puncture Rulers' Free Trade Balloon
As a member of a citywide, high school-age activity/discussion group, I've been attending meetings of a heavy-duty, Rockefeller-dominated international think-tank. It and the youth group are influenced by various Rockefeller/Clinton liberals -- George Stephanopoulos and Peggy Rockefeller Dulany are on the advisory council. Dulany also sits on the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, which funds the youth group. These regular think-tank meetings train young people to advocate the Eastern Establishment "program" for youth.
The last meeting covered the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The discussion posed the questions of whether free trade is good or bad and what are the effects on poorer countries vs. rich countries. Students' opinions teetered between Free Trade helping to lower wages and cut jobs to Free Trade mutually benefiting all participating countries. I said the FTAA is a form through which the U.S. imperialists try to keep other imperialist rivals out of the Americas.
A lot is at stake here for the bosses. "The planned Free Trade Area of the Americas could also turn the region into a powerful force in international economic diplomacy. With 800 million people, a third of the global economic output and more than a quarter of the total exports, it would be the world's largest trade grouping." (London Financial Times, 4/20) U.S. bosses want to reassert their dominance in the region over the European bosses' increasing influence (CHALLENGE, 4/25).
But Brazilian and Venezuelan rulers have both made it clear they will no longer crack to the U.S. whip. Peter Hokin, President of the Inter-American Dialogue, fears, "The country [Brazil] seems bent on establishing a second pole of power in the western hemisphere....Brazil's independence policy has put it at odds with the United States....Venezuela has refused U.S. planes permission to fly over its territory for counter-narcotics activities.
Among OPEC members, it has most strongly resisted U.S. appeals to increase oil production to ease pressure on prices. In August, Chavez [President of Venezuela] became the first head of state since the Persian Gulf War to disregard UN sanctions by visiting Saddam Hussein. And Chavez has consistently flaunted his friendship with Fidel Castro, recently agreeing to subsidize petroleum exports to Cuba. A direct clash with the U.S. may be brewing, particularly if the Venezuelan leader suffers political reversals at home and starts looking for scapegoats." (Foreign Affairs, March-April 2000 issue)
Essentially "Free Trade" determines which bosses get to control lush markets and cheap labor. The imperialists' profits do not wind up in the pockets of workers of any countries. Under NAFTA, "40% of so called U.S. exports are parts for assembly at low-wage, U.S.-owned plants which quickly return finished products to the United States for sale." (HoustonChronicle.com, 1/1/99) NAFTA cut jobs in the U.S. and lowered wages for Mexico's workers (which in turn lowered wages for US and all workers), all amid a bosses' economic boom. The U.S. bosses' pretense of making concessions to labor and environmental rights in the FTAA agreements always proves to be a mirage. Our class in every country can only answer the Free Trade attack by uniting to fight for communist revolution, not by allying with bosses in any nation.
Although ties between the youth group and the think-tank are strong, the latter has not won students or even some of the staff politically. The group develops leadership skills and multi-racial unity, giving students a feeling of activism, awareness, friendship and some academic guidance, but it fails to really analyze social, political and economic relations. Instead it delivers a misleading goal of liberal reform through vague ideas, games and role-playing.
However, one student raised the danger of trade wars leading to shooting wars. Other students took up that point. The youth group president tried to "clear it up" by falsely stating there was no war in Latin America! I later pointed out that the war in Colombia is very much linked to trade. The U.S. Plan Colombia, a $1.6 billion "aid" package, mainly purchases military hardware to reassert U.S. dominance in the Americas.
This contradiction between the liberal imperialist line and a communist analysis -- through the Party and Challenge -- provides an opportunity to introduce youth to PLP. These liberals actively recruit those students most interested in understanding how to change the world. It then offers them a ruling-class point of view, a little bit here, a little bit there but always under capitalism. Our Party strives for the revolutionary understanding and practice to change the world for the betterment of workers. I am trying to bring some young people around to PLP, to participate in that revolutionary change.
LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write!
Vieques Arrests A Warning to All
The "Vieques Four" -- Al Sharpton, Adolfo Carrión, Roberto Ramírez and José Rivera (all linked to the Democratic Party here) -- are now serving time in Brooklyn after being sentenced in a one-day trial in Puerto Rico for protesting the Navy bombing of the island of Vieques. Ruben Berrios, leader of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, was also given four months.
It is interesting how fast these defendants were tried and sentenced. Berrios and Sharpton got the heavier penalties, supposedly for prior convictions for political protests.
These verdicts must be seen as part of the growing fascism of the U.S. judicial system. On May 22, the Vieques Four were told their case would be tried the next day by a federal judge in Puerto Rico and were denied any delay. Then they were convicted in a one-day trial and jailed immediately for civil disobedience against the Navy's use of Vieques island as a bombing range.
This is a message to anyone involved in anti-imperialist political activities -- even if they are liberal politicians -- that protests against the bosses' plans for war and fascism won't be tolerated.
This shouldn't surprise workers and students. After all, the U.S. already has more people in prison than any other country in the world --two million. Seventy percent are black and Latin workers and youth, most jailed for non-violent offenses, and many framed. We shouldn't fear these attacks but should organize to continue the struggle against capitalism and for a society without bosses -- communism.
A Reader
Are There Any
`Good Cops'?
I found the article "New Jersey Police Terror Proves No Such Thing as a Good Cop" (CHALLENGE, 5/23), of much interest.
I've been involved in the Police Committee of PUEBLO (People United for a Better Oakland) where the question of reform, revolution and capitalism has become much sharper.
On May 22, we had a march of about 200 people from the main police station in downtown Oakland to City Hall, to protest the racist murder of a young black man, Jamil Muuwakil, by the cops. For several years, Oakland has had a Civilian Police Review Board which channels the anger of workers away from the ruling class. At most, guilty cops receive a "slap on the hands." This board was set up largely in response to the militancy of the Black Panthers and Oakland's working class.
I agree with CHALLENGE that the police were established to protect the interests of capitalism's ruling class, and operates in a racist, fascist manner. But I have also seen a few "good cops," those willing to stand up for principle. What about police reform? Is it possible to organize within the police? What did the Bolsheviks do? What should be our strategy in mass organizations like PUEBLO?
Keep up the good work in CHALLENGE.
Oakland Comrade
CHALLENGE comment: Your question is a common one. Some say there are just a few rotten apples in the barrel, others that the few rotten apples make all cops look bad. But that's really not the point. There may be a few cops who really believe their job is to fight crime, like Serpico (a NYPD cop shot at by fellow cops because he refused to go along with taking bribes from criminals). But the fact is the primary function of all police departments is to protect the bosses' criminal attacks on the working class, not to fight "crime." It's almost like saying there were a few decent Gestapo cops; it didn't really matter.
Workers' Unity Rides The May Day Bus
Our bus ride to the Washington May Day demonstration was a really good example of "you never know where things will go." Many on the bus were workers from a large Philadelphia hospital and the bus captain who gave the opening welcome urged some of his fellow workers to speak from the truck when they arrived at the demonstration. There was much reluctance to do this. It seemed as if it just wouldn't happen.
Then someone involved with the Connecticut nursing home strike pointed out that those workers were in the same union and fighting the same kind of battles as were the Philadelphia hospital workers. This led to several of the latter detailing the many horrible aspects of their jobs. One young woman said she and her co-workers were very likely exposed to an agent causing Parkinson's Disease! Not only is the hospital denying everything but the workers are being harassed daily for revealing what happened.
After this, someone suggested it would be a good idea for the Philadelphia hospital workers to write a letter of support to Connecticut strikers. Again some reluctance, but someone started writing some things down and asked the Philly workers to help. Very soon, several people were busily engaged in composing a letter. Following this, two people who had felt that they couldn't speak at the march, said they would. Both overcame any remaining fears and spoke.
When the Connecticut marcher delivered the letter to the striking nursing home workers, it was a huge success. The workers were elated to learn that other workers were supporting them.
So what seemed to be a "dead end" at one point in our bus ride quickly mushroomed into a significant event. People discovered they really could do things they initially thought they couldn't. Out of this the fight against both bosses in Philadelphia and those in Connecticut was greatly advanced. Workers have taught themselves some very good lessons in how to do it.
A Pennsylvania May Day Marcher
Business of Unions Today is Capitalism
The June 11 issue of the liberal weekly The Nation has a whiny little article titled, "Writers Wilt, [Screen Actors Guild ] SAG Sags." As usual, liberalism cannot look at capitalism realistically.
At one time in the nineteenth century, virtually all union constitutions and by-laws contained an explicit call for eventual socialism as a goal. This was true whether for a trade or craft union, whether run by militants or moderates.
Eventually, though, because of corrupt sweetheart deals and sellouts, the principle of socialism was abandoned.
Practically, what this meant was that, without socialism as a goal, capitalism was implicitly accepted as the permanent reality. So the logic of the workers' need for a strike was always tempered by a simple argument by business: "We're broke. If we give you more money, we can't survive"--and survival of business, with no alternative presented by union leadership, was primary. That is, there's a limit to what a union can ask for and still maintain capitalism.
We've all seen in recent years that business and the rich are doing great--at the cost of wages, here and abroad. Autoworkers and others gave back benefits in order to keep their jobs in this country. But those jobs are almost all gone and former autoworkers now have to compete with their children for McDonalds wages.
To fault only the SAG and the Writers Guild is to ignore the true enemy, capitalism itself. With the exception of militant locals, all unions enter bargaining crippled by the assumption that the rich and the poor have common goals. They don't and never did.
Brooklynite
Who's Teaching Who?
I am a pink diaper baby. My Mom works at Cook County Hospital and knows some PLP members. I wrote this letter about my day at St. Luke (Lutheran)Academy, a racist and fascist school.
Graduation. It's supposed to be a time of celebration. For me it is a time to tell the truth and anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist history. Eighth grade graduation is a time to go on to high school. As we were getting ready for our end of the year field trip, everyone had noticed my shirt except the teachers. I had gone to Cincinnati for the police brutality march. I purchased the "Danger - Police In Area" T-shirt. My friends and other students liked this shirt.
As the school day ended around 2:00 p.m., the eighth grade class went to graduation practice. Finally a teacher noticed my shirt, but did not do anything until after practice. My homeroom teacher asked to see the front of my shirt. Then she asked to see the back of it. She said, "Don't wear your political ideas, which are mixed up anyway." Then I said, "No, my political ideas are not mixed up." When we get in the hallway she tells the class to go ahead and for me to wait. Then she starts telling me, "Why are you wearing something that is not true?" Then I said, "Oh. So ten innocent black men who are shot just because they are black is not true?" Then she says, "Oh that stuff just happens." Then, when I am going up the stairs I say, "No, that's called racism."
Young Red
KIDNEY DONOR NEEDED
To All CHALLENGE Readers:
An ailing comrade needs a kidney transplant. Anyone interested in being a possible donor, please contact PLP at
1-800-330-9953
a href="#Boom or Bust Crises Won’t Topple the System: Workers Must Bury Capitalism">"ditorial: Boom or Bust Crises Won’t Topple the System: Workers Must Bury Capitalism
- All for One and One for All
- Youth Fight to Learn and Learn to Fight
- Ideological Struggle Is Key
- a href="#Crisis Can’t Bust Capitalism, Only Workers’ Revolution Can">Cr"sis Can’t Bust Capitalism, Only Workers’ Revolution Can
a href="#Fight Grows Behind PL Teacher’s Battle for Job">"ight Grows Behind PL Teacher’s Battle for Job
Workers, Students Step Up Drive vs. Racist/Imperialist Harvard
Jews, Arabs Unite Vs. U.S.-Israeli Fascism
Diamond Wars Murder Millions in Africa
Salvador Struggle Shows No Lesser Evil Capitalism
a href="#Ecuador’s Sellouts Use May Day For Electoral Rally">"cuador’s Sellouts Use May Day For Electoral Rally
Janitors Union Oppresses Rank and File
a href="#Rezulin—Bosses’ Prescription for Death">Re"ulin—Bosses’ Prescription for Death
a href="#FBI McVeigh Blunder Explodes Rulers’ ‘Humane’ Mask">FBI "cVeigh Blunder Explodes Rulers’ ‘Humane’ Mask
LETTERS
a href="#May Day: Revolution’s ‘Theme Park’">May "ay: Revolution’s ‘Theme Park’
First-time Marcher Puts Communism In New Light
Misdemeanor or Murder? Racism Decides Verdict
a href="#For Bosses’ Media, Racism Defines Terrorism">"or Bosses’ Media, Racism Defines Terrorism
a name="Boom or Bust Crises Won’t Topple the System: Workers Must Bury Capitalism">">"oom or Bust Crises Won’t Topple the System: Workers Must Bury Capitalism
(The following is based on a discussion at the recent PLP central committee.)
The U.S. bosses’ long economic boom is now sputtering. No one can say for sure whether the present slowdown will end in a few months or become a full-blown, long-term recession. The bosses don’t seem to know. Neither do we.
Nevertheless, our Party and our friends can learn an important lesson from the current economic downturn and its effect on the working class. As the article on page 2 points out, booms and busts are an inevitable part of the profit system’s economic cycle, and workers pay for both. This will continue as long as capitalists hold state power. A bad economy, even a disastrous depression, won’t by themselves lead to revolution or fundamentally change society. Communist leadership is needed to win workers and soldiers to turn the bosses’ endless crises and wars into revolutionary battles. The absence of this leadership and of mass revolutionary communist parties explains why communist revolutions have not occurred in many parts of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, where misery and starvation devastate billions of lives.
In the past, communists, including some of the movement’s greatest leaders, have often made the mistake of believing that economic conditions were primary. Our class has paid dearly for this error. So the main lesson we must learn from today’s economy is a political one.
The rulers still enjoy great maneuverability in the class struggle. The death of the old communist movement has removed their mortal enemy from the front lines—for now, but only for now. Communists understand the crucial necessity of building class consciousness. For example, our Party must win the entire working class to take decisive, militant action against murderous imperialist wars and U.S. fascist slave labor schemes like Workfare or racist prison labor.
All for One and One for All
Communists must lead workers away from the poison of individualism — each one out for him- or herself — and replace it with collective solidarity that can lead to revolutionary understanding in the heat of class struggle.
Our Party fights for these ideas. But we are still not strong enough to lead masses of workers onto the offensive against the ruling class. This is the primary reason why the ruling class can continue attacking workers here and around the world in times of both boom and relative bust. The bosses’ leverage remains a consequence of the old communist movement’s demise. A defeat of this magnitude can’t be reversed overnight. However, it can be reversed.
The PLP has a long, hard road to travel before it can lead the fight for state power, but despite our present small size, we have great opportunities for significant growth on many fronts. Viewed in terms of numbers alone, our recent May Day actions represented only a slight improvement over last year. We held our own. This in itself is no small achievement in today’s political climate. But in the immediate future, we have the potential to do much more than just hold our own. The May Day period offers some solid reasons for optimism—provided we make necessary improvements.
Youth Fight to Learn and Learn to Fight
More young comrades than ever played an important leadership role in most aspects of the May Day organizing, particularly among our young teachers, who are constantly trying hard to carry out the line of "fighting to learn and learning to fight" in the public schools. Workers at key industrial sites, including many who didn’t march on May Day, continue to react favorably to CHALLENGE. The mass response to our Party by hundreds of Cincinnati rebels against police terror shows that workers in struggle quickly realize who’s on their side. Despite some mistakes—an inevitable part of class struggle—our members played an important role in the recent Harvard University sit-in for a "living wage." A number of our comrades in greater New York, New Jersey and Chicago have faced a variety of serious attacks by the bosses and emerged the better for it. These attacks prove repeatedly that the class enemy fears our Party’s key potential for influencing workers toward revolutionary politics.
Ideological Struggle Is Key
In the class struggle the crucial battle we must wage now and in the future is ideological. True, the bosses rule at gunpoint, but the guns can be turned around. Doing so depends on the ideas in the heads of those who hold them. The bosses know this and work 24/7, including holidays, to imprison us in capitalist thinking. Look at popular "culture." Tens of millions of people watch the Survivor show and others like it. These vile spectacles try to convince us that society is a contest for the "survival of the fittest," and that our main relationship with others should be to get ahead at their expense. This greed and cruelty is justified by theories like "sociobiology," which teach that everything from wealth to warfare is pre-determined in the genes. "Sociobiology" is becoming the standard curriculum in science "education."
These two examples, among many others, show we have our work cut out for us, particularly in broadening the struggle against racism. But that’s exactly the point. We have plenty of good, essential work to do on all fronts and among all sections of the working class and its allies. In doing it, we will find ways to sharpen the struggles we enter or launch. Our young cadre will gain experience; our older cadre will become reinvigorated; and we will begin to win growing numbers of fresh recruits among workers, students, and soldiers. Capitalism knows nothing outside the cycles of boom, bust and war. We fight for a different sort of world, and everything we do to advance our line will sooner or later bear fruit.
a name="Crisis Can’t Bust Capitalism, Only Workers’ Revolution Can"></">Cr"sis Can’t Bust Capitalism, Only Workers’ Revolution Can
With all the talk about the "boom of the Nineties," capitalism still means mass joblessness, racist unemployment and plenty of pain and suffering. As each capitalist tries to capture as much of the market as possible, this anarchy adds up to a tremendous overproduction and unsold goods, leading to the need to cut costs to preserve profits. And the costs most likely to be cut are workers’ jobs, wages and benefits.
The "difference" between boom and bust is that millions suffer during a boom but millions more suffer during a bust. As unemployment dropped during the ‘90’s, so did workers’ wages. Millions who worked for poverty wages sought second and third jobs to support their families.
Now unemployment is at 4.5%. This represents 6.2 million workers. These figures do not include two million in prisons, the jobless joining the armed forces, those who’ve given up looking for jobs, or people on welfare. The jobless rate for white workers is 4%. For black workers it is 8.2%. This shows the racist nature of unemployment.
In the last ten months, 500,000 factory jobs have been lost. Overall, 223,000 jobs were lost in April alone, the highest monthly total in ten years. Industrial production has been down for seven consecutive months. The utilization of productive capacity is the lowest in a decade. Business Week reports that profits of 900 leading companies fell 25% in the first quarter of this year, the largest quarterly decline since the 1990-91 recession.
In the late 1990’s, business poured huge sums into machinery, office buildings, factories, computers, software, new airlines, Web sites, trucks, cell phone networks and more, based on "the promise — or mirage — of fat profits." (New York Times, 5/14) Then last spring they "pulled back abruptly on their spending...realizing… they could produce much more than they could profitably sell."
The recession began in the telecommunications high-tech industry. This "power of the new economy," was built on debt that increased from $75 billion to $300 billion in five years. This led to a collapse of investment. Companies went bankrupt and tens of thousands were laid off.
According to Morgan Stanley’s chief economist (London Financial Times), this cycle of overproduction is worse than anything experienced in the past 50 years, and very similar to the pre-World War Two recessions resulting from over-capacity. A number of "structural flaws" have developed in the U.S. economy: record capital spending, rising corporate and consumer debt and a record balance of payments gap (more imports than exports). Since "these structural and cyclical excesses took years to build, it seems highly unlikely they will be purged quickly." The Washington Post says that the Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates may not do the job. "Companies will not borrow and invest if they already have ample ability to meet demand."
But capitalism’s crises don’t mean the profit system will topple by itself. As long as the ruling class holds state power to enforce its system and is not challenged by a revolutionary movement to overthrow it, capitalism will always be able to climb out of any hole it has dug for itself.
a name="Fight Grows Behind PL Teacher’s Battle for Job">">"ight Grows Behind PL Teacher’s Battle for Job
BROOKLYN, NY, May 21 — The struggle to return Progressive Labor Party member Joan Heymont to her job teaching science at Boys and Girls HS (BGHS) has forced the teachers union leadership to offer nominal support, evidenced by an overwhelming vote favoring her at the union’s Delegate Assembly meeting. Joan was removed from her job for organizing students to go to May Day. The campaign to win her job back opens the door to win students, parents and teachers closer to and into PLP.
A first step was asking many of Joan’s students’ parents to call the school to protest her removal and rally with us. In fact, when an Assistant Principal called one student to the office to question him about his participation in May Day, the next day his mother confronted this AP to say emphatically that she supported May Day and her son’s participation and that any further questions should be addressed to her.
The response to leaflets, stickers and petitions we distributed outside the school has been really great, despite administration threats and harassment. Some students gave us their names and pledged their help.
Then we took the struggle to the May 9 citywide Delegate Assembly union meeting. Everyone entering the meeting knew something was happening. Progressive Labor Party brought signs, leaflets, petitions and CHALLENGE. The signs criticized the educational system, supported the students and protested the removal of this communist teacher from BGHS, where she is a respected and loved science teacher. However, the administration is opposed to Joan taking students on an educational and political trip to celebrate May Day, our international working-class holiday. They ignored the fact that it was a weekend trip and that Joan had permission and support from the students’ parents.
She has been removed from her classes when the students need her most, just before the Regents exams. No charges have been brought against her while she marks time in an isolated office away from the children to whom she has dedicated her life.
A combination of the clearly unjust nature of the administration’s action and delegates’ awareness of it due to our efforts forced union president Randi Weingarten to call a special vote which passed overwhelmingly, supporting Joan’s right to speak. Joan gave a rousing statement, centering on fighting for students’ needs. Weingarten promised to move quickly in Joan’s defense. Of course, experience and a class analysis make us skeptical of Weingarten’s pledge of support, but it provides an opportunity to continue to raise Joan’s case on the floor of the Delegate Assembly and in other union forums. It demonstrates that the union considers Joan and the collective she leads a force to be reckoned with.
The union’s real face was revealed when a group of PLP teachers attended its May 12 Spring Conference to attack the union’s presentation of its top award to Bill Clinton, as "the education president of the century." When we distributed CHALLENGE and a leaflet entitled "Politicians are not our Friends," we were moved still further away from the conference site by what appeared to be Secret Service agents, no doubt because the response to our literature and to the petition defending Joan’s job was very positive. Workers and students grabbed even more papers when the Secret Service forced us to leave.
On May 17, the UFT had a contract rally. The UFT leadership further exposed who their friends are when they urged 20,000 frustrated education workers to form an alliance with the police union! We distributed over 100 CHALLENGES and 2,000 flyers calling on workers to: (1) reject a contract which doesn’t fight for our students, and which supports merit pay; (2) form committees to oppose such a contract; and (3) support the fight for Joan’s job. Workers eagerly gabbed the leaflets while many teachers stopped to discuss Joan’s removal, offering support and suggestions for the struggle.
We hope to bring many BGHS parents, students and staff together at our annual Brooklyn-wide Memorial Weekend Picnic on Sunday, May 27. We’re forming a committee to plan and build the next steps in this struggle.
All these activities create the opportunity to discuss communist ideas and the need to join PLP to fight for a revolution based on these ideas.
Workers, Students Step Up Drive vs. Racist/Imperialist Harvard
CAMBRIDGE, MA, May 22 — The Living Wage student sit-in at Harvard ended without granting a living wage to all Harvard workers ($10.25/hr + benefits). This past week, dining workers ratified a new contract. Despite union leaders praising it as "the best contract in history," it does not guarantee all workers a living wage. For many it doesn’t even keep pace with inflation. Worst of all, the union misleaders inserted a no strike clause promising five years of "labor peace" (which workers can break).
Even so, students and workers have continued to struggle against Harvard’s poverty wages. PLP members and friends continue their involvement in these struggles, declaring that no matter what Harvard pays its workers, it will remain an exploiter and a bastion of racism, capitalism and imperialism. After all, Harvard is the intellectual center for concocting and then justifying U.S. rulers’ murderous policies, including the following, partly or wholly devised at Harvard:
• The strategy for killing 3,000,000 Vietnamese and 58,000 U.S. soldiers, the "strategic hamlets," napalm, etc.;
• Controlling Mid-East oil and murdering a half million Iraqis;
• The fascistic "community policing" concept;
• The racist eugenics theories, used by Hitler;
• The Herrnstein-Banfield racist garbage which paved the way for Clinton’s welfare repeal;
• The "sociobiology" nonsense which traces all human behavior — racism, exploitation, sexism, etc. — to one’s genes, not to capitalism.
The need to fight Harvard is part of the struggle to win workers and students to join the struggle for communism.
Currently, we are leading the fight against Harvard’s intimidation of workers who spoke out in this recent battle. Dining workers in the freshman dining hall (the largest) have been threatened if they put up a sign thanking the students for the sit-in. Harvard has suspended one custodian, Wilson St. Clair, for supporting the sit-in (CHALLENGE, 5/23). Along with Wilson and other workers and students we’ve organized, we’ve gotten at least 200 signatures on a petition calling on Harvard to remove the suspension letter from Wilson’s file and are helping him get the union to defend him against Harvard. In addition to circulating a leaflet in English, Spanish and Creole protesting Harvard’s harassment of its workers, we’re trying to contact and work with other custodians being attacked similarly to Wilson.
The Katz committee established by Harvard to deal with the workers’ demands dilutes students’ and workers’ understanding about Harvard being the enemy. While students have not agreed with us that "winning" this committee is not a victory, many have understood that continued actions are necessary. We’ve called for militant actions like strikes (including a general strike) to win a living wage and proposed a rally against Harvard during commencement. One student said it would be best to win a living wage through a strike, since Harvard would still be seen as the enemy. After the dining workers’ contract did not win a living wage for all workers, another student said: "Especially when the SEIU (custodians) negotiations start in December, we need to hammer it home that regardless of what the committee declares, if every worker...doesn’t get a living wage, we must be willing to shower Harvard with a hail of actions the likes of which it hasn’t seen before: strikes, civil disobedience, etc."
In general, comrades have raised revolutionary communist class-consciousness in this struggle also by distributing CHALLENGES and leaflets as well as a pamphlet outlining Harvard’s support for racist police terror and imperialist war. It also exposes the liberal fascist Harvard professor William J. Wilson, who downplays the importance of fighting racism even as it intensifies. In meetings bringing together workers from the different unions, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, we’ve placed this struggle in the broader context of fighting capitalism and exposed the union leaders’ role in serving the bosses.
Inside and outside the union meetings, we’ve explained why the sit-in is a victory but the settlement is not, and raised the attack on St. Clair among dining workers. Indeed, the dining workers’ union leader revealed his true anti-worker colors by stopping us from collecting signatures for the St. Clair petition at the contract ratification vote. In discussing the contract with the dining worker who marched on May Day, we’ve helped him see it is not what the leadership says it is. Our learning continues step by step and they all lead toward fighting for a society without capitalist institutions like Harvard and the big bosses who control it.
Jews, Arabs Unite Vs. U.S.-Israeli Fascism
NEW YORK CITY, May 20 — Today over 300 Jews, Arabs and others united to protest the murderous campaign of the Israeli government to suppress Palestinian Arabs seeking an independent state as well as the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes.
The occasion was the annual "Salute to Israel" parade. It’s an opportunity for local politicians to pander to the worst nationalist and chauvinist ideas of a substantial bloc of voters. Most of the mayoral candidates turned out, including the leading liberal, Mark Green. Probably 75% of the paraders were children from Jewish parochial schools, herded along by their teachers. These children were astonished to see people denouncing the racism of the Israeli rulers, probably the first time they’d heard this. Most of the opposition to the counter-demonstration came from a few adults.
A coalition of about 10 different groups opposed to Israeli government policies organized the protest. Jews Against the Occupation (JATO) and Al-Awda took the lead. JATO’s members are mainly militant young people very hostile to the vicious racism of the Israeli leadership. Al-Awda is made up of mostly Arab youth intensely concerned with the right of refugees to return to the land from which the Israelis expelled them. JATO also supports the right of return, a crucial anti-nationalist issue. If implemented, it would change the area’s demographics. This could open the doors for serious anti-racists to unite all workers and youth, Palestinian and Jewish, to build a mass revolutionary movement in this region across religious and ethnic lines. This is the way to fight all forms of nationalism on all sides (whether pushed by Sharon, Arafat or Hamas) and help build the only kind of state that can liberate our class, a working-class state.
The coalition ranged from several dozen members of an anti-zionist orthodox Jewish Hasidic sect to a large number of militant young Arab women to a fair number of older Jewish people, more so than in previous actions.
The coalition demands include: end the illegal occupation of all captured territories; support the Right of Return for the Palestinians; stop U.S. aid to Israel; and stop the killing, torture and home demolitions of Palestinians.
The protesters were very militant. Signs read, "Israel is an Apartheid state"; "End the Occupation"; and "End U.S. Aid to Israel." They shouted, "1-2-3-4, We won’t fight a racist war, 5-6-7-8, Israel is a racist state!"; "It’s a racist march"; and "Ariel Sharon, whaddaya say, How many kids have you killed today?" The loud protesters startled many of the marching schoolchildren by chanting, "Your parents are lying, Children are dying."
After this protest, many participants marched as a group from 5th Avenue to Columbus Circle to hold a rally. A JATO activist pointed out the lessons of anti-semitism and past persecution of the Jews. She explained that the leaders are fostering racism and nationalism, dividing Jewish and Arab workers to control the situation for profits and prevent workers from uniting in their own interests. She said U.S. rulers supported the Israeli leadership in order to maintain Israel as an anchor in its effort to control Middle East oil.
But some of the rulers’ efforts are faltering. Thousands of Israeli military reservists are refusing to serve in the occupied territories despite being imprisoned for doing so. And here Arabs, Jews and Palestinians protesting together defied the rulers’ racist campaign.
PLP members at the protest distributed 500 leaflets emphasizing that control of Mid-East oil was crucial to explaining the rulers’ policies. The latest fighting engineered by the U.S. and Israeli ruling classes has killed over 400 Palestinians and over 100 Israelis. The leaflet said there could be no permanent peace in the region until a united Arab-Jewish working class carried out a communist revolution and workers’ power is in control.
Diamond Wars Murder Millions in Africa
Imagine the entire population of Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Seattle and Boston killed or injured in the last few years. Well, that’s what’s happened to nearly three million people in the Congo.
In 1998, the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi invaded the eastern part of the Congo and still occupy it despite many agreements to leave. Responding to that invasion, the governments of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe have backed Congo’s central government with troops and aid. The imperialists, particularly France and the U.S., are also involved in this regional war.
Although the Congo is rich in many minerals, some very important for the imperialists’ war industries (like cobalt), the fight for control of diamonds is behind this regional war. Diamonds are not the "best friends" of workers and peasants in Africa. This industry generates $6.7 billion annually. It’s not just lucrative as a business; 4% of that total finances wars throughout Africa.
The rulers of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi control an area of the Congo 15 times the size of their countries combined. A UN report states that General Saleh, brother of Uganda’s President, and General Kazini, head of the Ugandan forces occupying the Congo, run very profitable businesses dealing in diamonds, gold and copper.
The main opponent of these occupying armies was Congo’s President Joseph Kabila, who originally came to power backed by these very same armies of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. But with the support of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, he soon changed sides to fight the "invaders." Then Kabila became too much of a liability even to his own allies. He was killed some months ago by one of his bodyguards soon after he had given the Israeli company Idi Diamonds the exclusive franchise to commercialize Congolese diamonds. When Kabila’s son was named successor to his murdered father, his first act was to revoke that deal and then travel to Paris, London, Brussels and Washington to get his new orders.
The assassination of Kabila, Sr., brought hope for a peace deal but no one wanted to forego the huge profits being made from this continuing war with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, which is now on the "rogue" state list of Britain and the U.S., is unlikely to pull out a quarter of his army stationed in the Congo, not while his economy is in such bad shape. South Africa’s DeBeers, with a near monopoly of the world’s diamonds, relies on the military support given by Namibia to the central government of the Congo, plus the diplomatic pull of the South African government, to prevent these invading competitors from moving in on that country’s diamond wealth. DeBeers, along with liberals and pacifists in Europe and the U.S., is behind the "clean diamonds" campaign, to push jewelers and traders not to buy diamonds sold by forces in Africa not allied with DeBeers.
In addition to the Congo, Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia are also being ravaged by civil wars over diamonds. These wars create and massively spread death-dealing effects on Africa’s masses — AIDS and other diseases, starvation from unemployment, and much more.
The only way out of this hell is to take the long but sure road of building a revolutionary communist movement to smash all the local and imperialist bosses and their tribalism and nationalism. This movement must build a society uniting all workers and their allies from Pretoria to Kinshasha.
Salvador Struggle Shows No Lesser Evil Capitalism
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The May Day march here was bigger than in recent years, but not because its organizers represented workers’ class interests.
Driving his car, donated by the European Economic Community, a mayor and member of the FMLN (the former guerrilla group turned electoral party) said, "Fabio Castillo [General Coordinator of the FMLN] ordered FMLN mayors to mobilize their townspeople to attend the May Day march in San Salvador, to make it a forceful demonstration."
The orthodox pro-European FMLN leadership had two main reasons to ensure May Day was a huge success, neither serving workers’ interests: (1) build momentum for the FMLN electoral campaign; and (2) show their European sponsors that the FMLN is a major force here willing to ally itself with the European imperialists against their U.S. rivals.
But when you mobilize masses of workers and youth not everything will necessarily go according to your treacherous plans. Students shouted down speeches by FMLN leaders, yelling, "Get down, you liars! You just want people to vote for you!" and "We don’t want any election speeches!"
Another group in the FMLN, the "Renewed Tendency," led by Facundo Guardado — a supporter of the U.S. bosses — was nowhere to be seen. This opposition to the leading FMLN faction has become a tiny minority in the group.
There Is No "Lesser Evil" Capitalism
Obviously neither FMLN faction defends the best interests of the working class. Workers and youth should not support any "lesser evil" alternative to the ruling right-wing ARENA Party. They are all capitalists fighting among themselves over which group will be the main exploiters of workers.
PLP was warmly welcomed by thousands of workers at the May Day march. Our communist leaflets and DESAFIOS were widely distributed (see CHALLENGE, May 23). Although our Party is still small, we have the potential to become a revolutionary alternative for workers and youth sick and tired of all bosses. Our job is to bring our politics to workers so no politicians will ever again use our struggles to further their capitalist profit needs.
a name="Ecuador’s Sellouts Use May Day For Electoral Rally">">"cuador’s Sellouts Use May Day For Electoral Rally
QUITO, ECUADOR — May Day exposed the growing contradictions between workers from the cities and countryside (mainly indigenous) and the sellout leadership of the unions and other mass organizations. While workers came out on May Day to fight the bosses and their system, the opportunists used the marches as another electoral rally to get themselves and their friends elected to Congress.
These traitors have used every mass struggle in the last few years—like the uprising by indigenous people in 2000 — to get a better deal for themselves inside the system.
In the last general elections, some of them supported right-wing retired General Paco Moncayo’s candidacy for mayor of this capital city. Now one of these opportunists, Napoleón Saltos, has been exposed as a CIA agent. The imperialists mobilize on all fronts to sabotage the mass struggles.
Meanwhile, the so-called left of this movement, like the heads of the Pachatucik indigenous group and the congressmen of the Democratic Popular Movement (led by fake communists), voted in Congress to increase the IVA (value added) tax on consumer goods. These politicians then had the audacity to attack globalization and free market capitalism during the May Day rallies.
PLP came here with a contingent of workers, teachers and students. Some comrades marched with their mass organizations while the rest formed a small independent PLP group in the march. From all this we were able to distribute 2,500 leaflets and many CHALLENGES. Our leaflets contained a brief history of the revolutionary birth of May Day and attacked Plan Colombia, the U.S. war plan for the region.
We’ve got a long way to go but we are on the road to forging a revolutionary alternative for all workers looking for a way out of the misery and oppression of capitalism.
Janitors Union Oppresses Rank and File
LOS ANGELES, CA. — The top-down leadership and betrayal of the workers by the leadership of Local 1877 of the Janitors Union is more evident every day. The following story, beginning two years ago, shows the struggle of one woman and her co-workers against the bosses and union misleader Mike Garcia.
"Although I am a worker who cleans bathrooms and floors, I have dignity and deserve respect. But if I have offended you in any way, I ask you to forgive me," said the janitor.
"This apology didn’t come from your heart...you didn’t even cry, " shouted the boss, and left his office, leaving the worker and the union representative behind.
"Why didn’t you cry?" shouted the union rep furiously. "If it was necessary, you should have kissed his feet!"
The worker could have expected something like this from the bosses, but never from the person who was supposed to help her. Feeling humiliated and alone, she started to cry. "That’s how you should have cried with the boss," the union rep told her. "If you had, you’d have gotten your job back." With "friends" like that, who needs enemies?
Months before this incident, the worker was being harassed by the boss about her legal residency documents. Although she’s a legal resident, and had given proof of it, the boss wasn’t satisfied. During an informational meeting between bosses and workers, the boss harassed this worker again. She couldn’t take it, angrily slapped the boss’s desk and walked out of the meeting. The boss fired her immediately. Her fellow workers pressured the union to get her job back which led to the first "apology" meeting.
Later, the union organized a second meeting, where the worker would "apologize from her heart" and would sign a document surrendering all her rights. One more "problem" and she’d be fired without warning. But this meeting never occurred. The boss received a letter from the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) — the worker had sued him for discrimination. Then the NLRB ruled for the boss, a common occurrence. These government agencies exist to help the bosses, not the workers.
"Señor García [the union leader], what’s going to happen with my case? I have always supported the union; I’ve gone to the marches; even though I’m not working, my union dues are paid up," said the desperate worker.
"It was your decision not to apologize," said the union "leader." But he said he would help her. Months passed, a year, and nothing happened.
"This was a very hard year," the worker told CHALLENGE. "Without work, with my father very sick, my son in the hospital, and being a single mother, I didn’t know what to do,"
Some workers advised her to sue the union in small claims court. She won the suit and the judge ordered the union to pay her $5,000. But she still had no job.
Union honcho García, who earns about $90,000 a year, decided to appeal the case. Although this worker believed she had finally gained a little bit from the system two years after losing her job, but Local 1877 wouldn’t allow even that. The union was exposed essentially as an exploiter of workers, no matter who leads it.
When members and friends of PLP among the janitors discovered this injustice, we decided that the Committee of Janitors in Struggle would organize support for this worker. We want the thousands of janitors and garment workers to know this story, so we are writing this to CHALLENGE. We will spread leaflets to these workers, organizing social and political activities to involve dozens of workers in this fight.
This injustice demonstrates clearly how the capitalist system, and its many Union servants like Mike Garcia, crush workers’ lives. We need to destroy this system of profits, corruption and exploitation and build a communist society where workers won’t have to apologize to racist exploiters, where the bosses and their lackeys will be six feet under.
a name="Rezulin—Bosses’ Prescription for Death"></">Re"ulin—Bosses’ Prescription for Death
CHALLENGE often says capitalism kills. This again was proven true in the story of the diabetes drug Rezulin. Officials of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) conspired with Warner-Lambert, a giant pharmaceutical company, to bring Rezulin to market in 1996, despite evidence that the drug killed some of its users (Los Angeles Times, 3/11). This collusion occurred while Clinton and Congress were directing the FDA to act like "partners" of the $100-billion-a-year drug industry. The FDA is merely the regulatory agency responsible for protecting us against unsafe foods, cosmetics, drugs, blood products and medical devices.
Rezulin was only taken off the market a year ago after killing 391 people, 63 dying from liver failure.
The FDA uses outside "expert" panels to advise on which drugs to approve, but the panel chair, Dr. Henry Bone, was part of the collusion. He helped the company hide Rezulin-caused liver problems from the rest of the panel. As a result the panel recommended approval, despite the fact that an FDA medical officer (a doctor who reviews drug applications), Dr. John Gueriguian, criticized Rezulin for having serious side effects, revealed during clinical trials in which hundreds of volunteers took the drug to test its safety and effectiveness.
The panel members never saw Gueriguian’s review. According to internal Warner-Lambert (W-L) memos, Gueriguian was taken off the case by the Deputy Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation, Dr. Mac Lumpkin, in response to W-L’s complaints that Gueriguian was impeding the drug company’s effort to sell Rezulin. W-L raked in over $2 billion from Rezulin in its three years on the market, about $5 million per death. By last October, W-L was facing 383 law suits.
In 1998, after it became glaringly obvious the drug was causing liver failure and deaths, another FDA medical officer, Dr. Robert Misbin, asked Parke-Davis (W-L’s drug unit) to warn all doctors of Rezulin’s dangers. Instead the company merely sent a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, prompting the company’s Japanese partner to criticize it for not having told them sooner.
In 1998, a scheduled public talk by Dr. Misbin on the drug’s dangers was canceled by Deputy Director Mac Lumpkin. Company memos "thanked Mac for his help" in preventing Misbin’s appearance.
Even during the approval process back in 1996, FDA officials Lumpkin, Dr. Alexander Fleming and advisory panel chair Bone colluded with W-L to keep a warning off the drug label instructing doctors to monitor the liver functions of all patients for whom they prescribed the drug. W-L knew this warning could have prevented liver damage from going too far. But they also knew this would hurt their sales, since there were nine similar, but safer, anti-diabetes drugs already on the market.
W-L told an advisory panel meeting in 1996 that in the clinical trial the Rezulin group had no more side effects than the group taking a placebo (a fake drug). Such so-called control groups are used to compare those taking the tested drug with those taking a useless one, in evaluating the drug’s safety and effectiveness. But actually almost four times as many Rezulin users suffered serious side effects compared to the control group — 2.2% versus 0.6%.
When its lie was exposed, W-L claimed there was no big difference between two such small numbers. While the percent of people suffering serious side effects from a drug is usually small, when millions of people take one, the difference between 2.2% and 0.6% affects tens of thousands of people. These figures clearly proved the drug was terribly dangerous. Furthermore, as it turned out, it was not significantly more effective than taking nothing.
In 1998, still a third FDA medical officer, Dr. James Bilstad, was foiled when trying to force W-L to add to its label the warning to doctors about monitoring liver functions. Throughout the more than three years Rezulin was killing people, many of the internal FDA documents concerning the approval of Rezulin were declared off-limits to the Freedom of Information Act by Deputy Director Lumpkin.
This story illustrates how, under capitalism, government officials serve big business. The health of the working class is often endangered by such a system, even though in this case many honest medical officers tried to protect the public health, only to receive reprimands and warnings from their bosses. Workers cannot rely on a bosses’ government to protect their health but can only do so through working-class rule — communism.
a name="FBI McVeigh Blunder Explodes Rulers’ ‘Humane’ Mask"></a>"BI McVeigh Blunder Explodes Rulers’ ‘Humane’ Mask
U.S. rulers hope that postponing the killing of one man, Timothy McVeigh, will help them build up for the slaughter of millions. The Oklahoma bomber avoided lethal injection on May 16th because the white knight image with which the bosses cover their imperialist wars needs serious polishing. The U.S. tries to sell the next Persian Gulf oil war as "rescuing" Iraqis from the tyrant Hussein. In Washington double-talk, the goal in a major conflict with Russia or China will be "democracy," not capitalist domination of markets and resources. But the U.S. bosses’ sanctions policy in Iraq exposes them as baby killers. And executing McVeigh in a frenzied media circus rivaling the Super Bowl wouldn’t have helped matters. The delay in Terre Haute must be seen in the same light as the U.S. move to lessen openly barbaric sanctions on Iraq.
Pretending to be a benevolent protector of justice, the government has made the FBI the fall guy for the McVeigh fiasco. The Boston Globe demands a "top-to-bottom shake-up" at the bureau (5/12). Steeped in a time-honored culture of brutally enforcing some laws while colluding with organized crime in other areas, the FBI has sinned in ignoring the greater political needs of the rulers. News of the FBI’s mishandling of the Oklahoma files followed hard on the heels of the Hanssen spy case flap and revelations that the bureau’s Boston office had made gangsters like Whitey Bulger virtual G-men. (As a high-level "protected informant" doing dirty work for the ruling class—see CHALLENGE, May 23—Bulger committed murder, rape and extortion and trafficked in prostition in prostitution, drugs and guns.)
Time Magazine, a major popularizer of the rulers’ ideas, blamed the FBI for tarnishing the government’s supposed reputation as a guardian of liberal tolerance. "We don’t want people stockpiling weapons and holding children hostage in Texas religious sects, but we don’t want tanks firing on church camps in Waco either. We want something done about hate groups, but we don’t want FBI sharpshooters killing militants’ wives on Idaho mountaintops. We don’t want China stealing our nuclear secrets, but we don’t want a racial-profiling witch-hunt (5/21)."
For their war efforts, the bosses require allegiance to the flag from all quarters. The FBI’s bungling of the McVeigh case threatened to revive the militia movement that the main wing of the ruling class had tried so hard to suppress. "Keeping this mistake under cover would have only fed the anti-government paranoia that was, in part, the root of the Oklahoma bombing in the first place," commented James Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School.
U.S. rulers are trying desperately to project the appearance of "fairness" in the McVeigh case. We must continue to expose their essence as the deadliest gang of murderers in history.
LETTERS
WORKERS OF THE WORLD, WRITE!
a name="May Day: Revolution’s ‘Theme Park’"></a>"ay Day: Revolution’s ‘Theme Park’
Thank you PLP for once again providing my daughter, stepson and me with one of our most enjoyable "vacation" experiences ever. While most people plan their vacations around visiting amusement parks, relatives, different countries, etc., the highlight of my vacation plans is participating in the annual May Day march.
This was my seventh May Day march (third in a row in Washington) and this year’s event was without a doubt the most enjoyable and satisfying for my children and me.
As part of the Chicago contingent, our group was near the front of the march as we left Malcolm X Park. As we wound our way through Washington’s streets, I would turn around from time to time to look at the marchers behind me.
The thrill and elation I felt seeing hundreds of red banners held high and waving proudly in the wind, hearing the thousands of voices raised in unified protest was again another personal mind-blowing experience and a sight to behold. It just seems like each May Day march keeps getting better and better. The enthusiasm of the marchers as they chanted loudly, the seemingly boundless energy of those selling and distributing CHALLENGE was exciting beyond words.
As an older individual getting closer to senior citizen status, I like to think I’ve seen and done it all. However, nothing can compare to the intensity, enjoyment and personal satisfaction I feel after each May Day march. It’s a humbling experience to be a participant in such an ever-increasing mass movement dedicated to improving the life of the workers of the world. Our work will never be finished until we wipe out this fascist government and way of life. Our May Day march once again proved that there are workers in this world willing to demonstrate and dedicate their lives toward this goal.
I can’t wait until next year’s May Day march, but in the meantime there is work to be done. I urge all workers to join us in rising up against the bosses and overthrowing this capitalist government we live under. Remember it’s your life, your liberty and your freedom that’s at stake here. Stand up and fight for it! Power to the Workers! PLP Forever!
May Day Forever
First-time Marcher Puts Communism In New Light
The following comments occurred at a youth club meeting after May Day:
May Day was very organized this year. People actually wanted to be there to fight against the bosses. We concluded that to get someone to want to be in the Party, we must bring them to May Day where you actually see the entire Party in action, see we’re a big group of people that can do whatever we set out to do.
I’ve been going to May Day for at least six years. This one was different. It was like going for the first time all over again. For the first time I brought a friend from my school. She asked many provocative questions on the bus ride. She put communism and May Day in a new light for me. She was skeptical, curious and excited, and chanted throughout the march. I am encouraged by her reaction to "my secret communism." It should not be a secret and I will continue to struggle about this with myself and others.
To make that extra leap of bringing a person to this special day makes all the difference. I could have easily not told her about May Day but I’m so glad I did. The best part is I think she’s glad too. To bring more people next year will only feel better. This was my qualitative change after years of internal struggle. I know there are more changes to come because life is struggle, conflict and change, not necessarily in that order.
What impressed me most about my first May Day march was the pure energy and enthusiasm of almost everyone involved. PLP members had a much larger purpose in mind than just a "show." Maybe this pure energy was a result of the meeting of so many diverse bodies and minds. It felt, to me, like a community….hmm….community — communism. People wanted to be together and enjoy the march and its contents, as I did. I saw two people join the march from the sidelines and they looked pretty happy in it. I liked the discussion that we had on the bus.
But I appreciate most what I left with: the sheer joy of knowing that others want to actively work for change to benefit all people.
Red Youth
Quantity Leads to Quality
This letter follows up on our May Day organizing efforts in light of the dialectical materialist principle of quantity into quality. After all our hard work, some of it on the mark and some off, about 54 people came, including many minorities and a few youth. A block of young workers showed up as enthusiastic participants. The ride to Washington, the opening rally and march, the closing rally and picnic, the ride back, even a bus breaking down, all added up to an exciting, politically engaging event.
We held a successful picnic on May 5. Some 45 people came, many who had marched and some who didn’t. We heard some music, watched an amateur video of the march, looked at pictures, socialized and ate. The kitchen was packed with people, as it was rather cold outside. People were on the porch and in all the rooms, interacting in a very multi-racial way, with old and young, black, Latin and white.
Toward the end, we discussed people’s reactions to the march and heard stirring reports about how people felt. The overall response was enthusiasm and being impressed with the character of the march. Three of the youth, all first-time marchers, stated that they enjoyed it, and were looking forward to the next march.
There was some constructive criticism about how to make it better. One woman, silent at first, gave a stirring picture of the march. Someone said the bosses have their CIA and we have ours: "Communism In Action." CHALLENGE was distributed. A really positive woman worker was so impressed by the march and the people she met, she joined the Party.
So all the quantitative work we did in preparing for May Day — the fundraisers, dinners, desserts, discussions, leafleting and paper sales — paid off qualitatively in strengthening the Party and drawing people closer to us. One of the next qualitative goals is to ensure that this new member eventually becomes a Party leader.
Midwest Comrades
Misdemeanor or Murder? Racism Decides Verdict
Want to see an example of how racist the justice system is? In Cincinnati, cop Stephen Roach, who killed 19-year-old Timothy Thomas sparking a rebellion that shook that city for several days, only faces two charges: "obstructing official business" and negligent homicide, both misdemeanors. It’s very unlikely this cop will spend any time in jail. Most cops who commit racist murder in the U.S. don’t. The four NYPD cops who fired 41 shots killing African immigrant Amadou Diallo were all exonerated.
While Roach faces misdemeanor charges for racist murder, Timothy was murdered by the cops for alleged misdemeanors — traffic violations. He was the 15th black man shot by Cincinnati cops in the last few years.
Indeed, for workers and youth, particularly blacks, there is no justice under this racist system.
A Reader
a name="For Bosses’ Media, Racism Defines Terrorism">">"or Bosses’ Media, Racism Defines Terrorism
I just searched the last two weeks of the Washington Post website for articles concerning the following: "Birmingham bombing"; "Thanh Phong" [Kerrey’s massacre]; and "terrorism" or "terrorist." There are 15 articles on the "Birmingham bombing" list, 13 on "Thanh Phong" eight on the "terrorism/terrorist" list, which includes articles about Tim McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber), Sudan, Peru, Macedonia, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Guess what? Not one article that appears on either of the first two lists also appears on the third list. That is, neither the 1963 bombing of the church that killed four black girls in Birmingham nor Kerrey’s 1969 killing of more than 13 Vietnamese women and children are included on the list of terrorist events.
Conclusion: According to the media and the government, terrorism means the killing only of white people.
A reader
Moving Left
We had a Pueblo (People United for a Better Oakland) forum against police brutality at Laney College, the local community college. Twenty-five people attended, including 15 who were new, most of whom signed up to be contacted by Pueblo.
At the end, a Pueblo staff member summed up by saying, "We’re a diverse group of communists and non-communists." To me that meant we moved the debate to the left.
Bay Area PL’er
Nurse Of The Revolution
To my mother who has gone, the nurse of the revolution,
"My Mother" Trinidad died at 77. Her life was hard, like that of all workers, but she was always ready to participate in PLP cadre schools and always said she dreamed of being the "nurse of the revolution." She used to say she imagined PLP leading the revolution and herself, together with hundreds of others, taking care of the wounded and urging them to return to the battle.
Trinidad was a Dominican worker who dedicated her life to the cause of communist revolution. Several of her children are members of the Party, and she always said she wished she had had more to dedicate to the revolutionary cause.
Trinidad was not my natural mother. The first time I arrived at a cadre school in the Dominican Republic, she called all of us "my children" and we responded affectionately, calling her "Mother." Through her house passed comrades from many parts of the world.
Our "Mother" has gone, but with her spirit of revolutionary solidarity, she has left us with the resolve to continue the struggle. Both her natural children, as well as her children in other parts of the world, can say her life was not in vain, but in fact her actions helped to build the Party that will create the new communist society she dreamed of.
A Los Angeles Comrade
