Killer Kops, Kourts Wanted For Murder

Chicago May Day Dinner Unites Axle Strikers, Miss. Shipbuilders

Big Bosses, Obama Pull Plug on Wright

• Wright’s Religious Dissent Once Aided Rulers

Pushing Police State, Obama O.K.S Cops Who Gunned Down Sean Bell

Racist Profiling Sky-High

NYC Students Walk Out Over Killer Kops, Racist Budget Cuts

a href="#Howard U. Students Invade Pol’s Office, Back Katrina Victims">"oward U. Students Invade Pol’s Office, Back Katrina Victims

a href="#May Day Sees PL’s Ideas Growing in Spain">"ay Day Sees PL’s Ideas Growing in Spain

a href="#PLP’ers Make Mark At Colombia May Day">"LP’ers Make Mark At Colombia May Day

Celebrating May Day Coast to Coast

a href="#The State of the World….">"he State of the World….

a href="#Life Teaches the Reason for — and History of — PLP">Li"e Teaches the Reason for — and History of — PLP

Stay Tuned for Communist Revolution!

Los Angeles; Detroit

S.F. Bay Area: PLP’s May Day Activities Cover the Waterfront

Mexico May Day Inspires Re-commitment to PLP

May Day Spirit Spurs Seattle Summer Project

a href="#PL-led Action Hits Mexico University’s Oppressive Rules">"L-led Action Hits Mexico University’s Oppressive Rules

LETTERS

Ira Gollobin Advised Draftees Too

a href="#Don’t Let The Fascists Tell Us Who The Heroes Are">"on’t Let The Fascists Tell Us Who The Heroes Are

a href="#Shed Illusions About Imperialism’s Allies">"hed Illusions About Imperialism’s Allies

Striking Immigrant Workers Head Up Paris May Day

Anti-Fascists Battle German Neo-Nazis, Cops on May Day

REDEYE

• US racism has Obama on leash
• Gitmo liars: Brass, not inmates
• Elections: The fix is always in
• Zimbabwe, Tibet: Imperialist guilt

Marching On May Day!!

Los Angeles; El Salvador; Washington D.C.; Chicago

---

Killer Kops, Kourts Wanted For Murder

On the morning of April 26, the racist court system fired the final shot in the execution of Sean Bell, acquitting the three cops who murdered him on his wedding day. The killer cops walk free to kill again, after firing 50 rounds at three unarmed young black men. These events, plus the $2 billion-a-week bloodbath in Iraq, reflect what the bosses have in store for us, and why we need a revolutionary movement to smash them.

The racist judge disliked the "demeanor" of the two witnesses — the other two shooting victims, who survived the assassination — who testified against the kkkiller cops. He also didn’t like the fact that the two witnesses had prior criminal records! Yet the courts use people with records as witnesses every day. But more to the point, in this racist society, with the world’s highest prison population, overwhelmingly black and Latino, it’s becoming much more common for a young black male to be in the criminal justice system than in college.

From the time the shooting occurred, racist mayor Bloomberg and the police department were orchestrating a plan to prepare the other klansmen in blue to be ready for mass outrage. The racist mayor met with black and Latino "community leaders" and criticized the police conduct. Meanwhile, the misleaders of NYC’s workers bought into his garbage, conveniently forgetting this is the same mayor who slashed the school budget by over $100 million in one night, affecting mainly black and Latino students.

One of the main henchmen in this plot is the "former" FBI informer Al Sharpton, who told people immediately after the verdict they should respond with "non-violence." He went so far as moving any demonstration away from the Queens site of the murder and the surrounding angry community. The aim of Sharpton and other politicians is to divert people into demanding an "independent investigation" of the NYPD. Mayor Bloomberg called the original killing "deplorable," taking the liberal road, in contrast to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s more Nazi-like tactics. This is the same Bloomberg who says he can’t pay municipal workers enough to keep food on their table (30% must resort to food pantries and food stamps).

But history shows that essentially nothing will be done to punish the killers. "It is extraordinarily hard to criminally prosecute officers who were on duty," said CUNY Professor of Police Science Eugene O’Donnell (NY Daily News, 11/29/2006).

Cops will continue to be racist goons because that’s the role they serve for the bosses. The entire judicial system is racist to the core. Over two million people are imprisoned in the U.S., 70% of them black and Latino workers, two-thirds for non-violent crimes. Ironically, the black and Latino youth who are victims of these murders are the very same people who the racist rulers want to recruit to fight and die in Iraq, killing other workers who the oil bosses exploit for billions in profits.

On the day of the verdict there were two protests, one in the morning where PLP’ers organized a picket line and led chants of "Racist cops you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!" Another rally in the afternoon sparked a spontaneous march through Queens’ streets to the murder site and the surrounding housing projects. As the marchers passed by, workers on buses, at their windows and in shops came out and chanted, in solidarity and anger over the verdict.

PLP played a small but important role in the events leading up to and following the Sean Bell verdict. We brought the message that workers can never get justice in the bosses’ racist court system and that a communist revolution is needed to destroy this capitalist system.

Chicago May Day Dinner Unites Axle Strikers, Miss. Shipbuilders

CHICAGO, IL, May 3 –– "And now I’m going to do for you what these people [PLP] did for us last year," said a returning black worker from Mississippi and one of the 7,000 strikers against Northrop Grumman and U.S. navy last year. We passed the hat and this worker returned to the stage and presented the 2 striking American Axle workers with over $1,000 we had just collected. It was a stirring show of communist-led working class solidarity and brought many to their feet. This was one of the many high points of our May Day dinner.

Our dinner tonight was attended by more than 150 workers and youth –– with a lot of new young faces. The crowd reflected the revolutionary movement we are building across all the bosses’ artificial borders. There were auto and transit workers, battle tested health care workers and professionals, college and high school teachers and students, immigrant and community activists, black, Latin and white, women and men, young and old. The program was planned and carried out by newer and younger cadre who are beginning to take the reins of leadership.

There were many other high points as well.

• A taped interview was played from two PLP Iraqi war veterans who could not be here.

• A veteran Party leader told how a PLP summer project among farm workers had changed her life and urged everyone to either attend or support the upcoming summer projects in Los Angeles and Seattle around aerospace workers and the military.

• A worker who has been through a two-year struggle against racist health cuts spoke about the need for communist revolution. "This system can’t be fixed. It must be torn down," she said.

• A teacher told how an 18-year old Chicago State University student was murdered by these racist cutbacks, when she was sent home from the ER instead of being properly examined. Instead of a "keynote address," another comrade stirred the crowd with an original revolutionary poem.

• A comedy skit skewered Clinton, Obama and McCain, and the evening ended with everyone on their feet, fists raised, singing the Internationale.

This May Day showed that despite overwhelming odds, we can build the revolutionary communist PLP. In the face of massive attacks on all fronts, from war, racist terror and mass poverty, workers and youth are seeking answers and can be won to PLP. The road to revolution will be long and difficult, but like the song says, "a better world’s in birth."

Big Bosses, Obama Pull Plug on Wright

Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a creature of the ruling class, bankrolled by the bosses with deep pockets. He began his religious career as a Rockefeller Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. From 1970 to 1975, the Rockefeller family paid Wright’s way through the Fund for Theological Education they had established in the 1950s. Elite universities like Duke, Yale and Princeton have invited Wright to preach. The Rockefellers’ own Riverside Church in New York opened its pulpit to him in 1997.

With his broad popular base, Wright helped Barack Obama enter the U.S. Senate. But the White House hopeful had to dump his old mentor last month. Wright’s black liberation theology, long useful to the rulers in misdirecting working-class anger, now clashes with their imperialist war agenda. While Wright offers twisted critiques of U.S. foreign policy, Obama seeks to muster support and troops for U.S. rulers’ widening wars. He vows to add 92,000 soldiers once in office. Meanwhile, Obama minimizes racism — "We’re 90% there [equality]," he tells black voters — and calls Wright:

"Divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems — two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all."

Thus, Obama not only lumps workers and bosses into one group ("us all") rather than defining them as opposing classes; he also, in effect, denies the racism directed against black, Latino and Asian workers by equalizing the "problems that confront all of us," ignoring the double unemployment rates, lower incomes and second-class schools and housing afflicting these groups brought on by the rulers’ racism.

At odds only over tactics, however, Obama and Wright serve the same war-making capitalist class. While Obama may have slipped slightly in the polls, he is feeding quite well at the contributions trough. "Through the first three months of the year, employees [that is, executives, who can afford big payoffs, Ed.] of nine major industries — from communications and defense to transportation and Wall Street — gave the majority of their donations to the Illinois senator over rival Hillary Clinton." (Wall Street Journal, 5/3/08)

Wright’s Religious Dissent Once Aided Rulers

Wright’s nationalist religious movement served U.S. rulers well near the end of, and after, the Vietnam War. By pushing electoral politics, it provided a safety valve to black workers disgusted with genocide, subjected disproportionately to casualties in the war and to imprisonment at home, and hardest hit by a permanent slide in manufacturing jobs and wages. Wright helped lead spirited rallies and demonstrations decrying racism but demanding the election of black politicians as the solution. Scores of black mayors, who, in fact, helped perpetuate the rulers’ racism, won office in major cities aided by activists like Wright.

The first official act of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, backed by Wright, was to lay off 3,000 city workers, the majority black. New York’s David Dinkins, also that city’s first black mayor, cut the budget of all vital services, especially affecting black and Latino workers while increasing only one department — the cops, the very ones responsible for a series of racist murders.

Obama, however, had higher ambitions than Wright. Though an outsider fresh from Harvard Law School and the New York business world, he gained a ready-made, mobilized base by joining Wright’s 12,000-strong Trinity congregation in Chicago before he started running for the Illinois state senate in 1996. At the time, Obama’s Project Vote effort to register black youth dovetailed with Wright’s phony militancy.

Pushing Police State, Obama O.K.S Cops Who Gunned Down Sean Bell

But, as their Iraq oil war threatens to spread to Iran and go global with China, U.S. rulers’ needs have changed. Until they can bring back the draft (and even after) they require willing recruits for their armed forces of every so-called "race." Furthermore, organized opposition, however harmless to imperialism and racist atrocities, no longer suits U.S. capitalists, who want a domestic police state. So Rockefeller protégé Wright’s usefulness has dwindled.

Freed of Wright’s baggage, Obama waves the bosses’ war-and-fascism banner openly. His immediate racist, pro-cop, pro-capitalist, anti-militant response to the clearing of the NYPD cops who murdered Sean Bell with a 50-bullet onslaught tells all. "We’re a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down," says Obama, later adding, "Resorting to violence to express displeasure over a verdict is something that is completely unacceptable and is counterproductive." Obama stood even to the right of outright warmonger Hillary Clinton, who suggested the feds "look into" the Bell case.

Obama faces racist criticism from presidential opponents hoping to make Jeremiah Wright the next Willie Horton. [In 1988, Bush, Sr.’s campaign ran ceaseless TV ads depicting Horton, a black Massachusetts man convicted of raping a white woman (a charge he denied) of being put back on the streets by Democratic candidate Dukakis after being paroled in a Dukakis-sponsored program.] Obama also is being warned by backers like the New York Times, who say the "loony" pastor hurts Obama’s election chances.

But Obama’s plight deserves no sympathy from the working class. He, just as much as Clinton and McCain, and perhaps more effectively, serves capitalists who need to expand their war-making and crack down severely on domestic dissent. Voting for any of the candidates won’t change a thing. Neither will praying or demonstrating with pampered frauds like Wright.

The profit system that ceaselessly creates war needs to be destroyed and replaced with workers’ rule. That is the ultimate goal of our revolutionary, communist Progressive Labor Party.

Racist Profiling Sky-High

The number of people subject to police stop-and-frisk actions in the first quarter of 2008 rose by more than 35,000 compared to the previous quarter, to a total of 145,098, the largest ever seen in one 3-month period. In both quarters 82% were black or Latino. And the number of bullets fired by the cops increased between 2001 and 2006.

Police stopped releasing data on the "race," gender or age of shooting human victims around the same time they begun reporting on the breed of dogs shot by cops each year. (Information from NY Sun, 5/6.)

NYC Students Walk Out Over Killer Kops, Racist Budget Cuts

NEW YORK CITY, May 3 — Students at several high schools walked out on May 1 to protest the acquittal of the kkkops who assassinated Sean Bell and against the racist budget cuts hitting NYC schools. Scores of students joined the rally at Union Square to show solidarity with the immigrant-rights May Day rallies.

A city-wide walkout was called for at a budget-cuts conference weeks earlier where scores of students gathered to plan upping the ante against Mayor Bloomberg’s recent racist attacks on NYC students. Those who’ve been meeting with PLP became the walkout’s leadership. They met with others from different schools to organize a plan; struggled with their classmates over the importance of fighting back as a class; distributed leaflets this morning at train stations most students use; and led students out school doors.

Despite intimidation by the administration and the dozen police cars and fire truck stationed at the school, most students overcame their fears and walked out.

Students displayed real solidarity and leadership, belying the stereotype that youth care only about themselves. When one assistant principal ordered teachers to lock students inside classrooms, students avoided classes the period they were planning to walk out, and instead spread the word to go to classrooms of teachers who supported the walkout.

One student overheard a dean calling students "idiots and stupid" for planning a walkout and ordering safety agents to lock them in. That student and her friends struggled with safety agents to refuse, leading most of the safety agents to support the students, even encouraging them to leave.

When the students finally reached Union Square, they heroically marched behind a banner proclaiming, "Asian, Latin, black and white, smash police terror with communist revolution," chanting, "The workers, united, will never be defeated!" They then chanted in solidarity with marching workers and gave speeches on why they walked out and why the budget cuts were racist. PLP students who led the walkout and demonstration explained the need for a communist revolution to smash capitalism. All the students cheered and helped distribute our literature.

Earlier, most students spent the entire day with the Party contingent preparing for the immigrant-rights march. During that time, the students encountered a black party who tried to tell the predominantly black group of students they needed to think about "themselves" as black people first, before anyone else. After a heated debate the discussion ended with the students chanting in their faces, "Asian, Latin, black and white, workers of the world unite!"

When the march began, many more students had joined our growing contingent and were eager to spread our communist message through city streets. As the marchers passed by, we gave out the last of 10,000 leaflets and 900 CHALLENGES and then joined them, chanting along the way.

The following day (Friday) PL students invited all those who had attended the Union Square rally to our Saturday May Day march and dinner. Now we must maintain the momentum in the school and recruit those students who have grown close to the Party. We also must organize the other students who understood the importance of taking action against racism and spreading communist ideas at the Union Square rally to read CHALLENGE regularly, join a study group and eventually join the Party.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Twenty students from Howard University marched from campus to the office of Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) who has been complicit in the gentrification process of New Orleans by blocking a moderate bill that would have supposedly guaranteed one-for-one replacement of demolished affordable housing. Vitter was "unavailable," so the students sat-in, demanding action. A dozen cops were called to intimidate the students, to no avail. The students presented a petition signed by 400 students to Vitter’s aide demanding that Vitter stop blocking the bill, and the students vowed to return to his office in solidarity with public housing residents in New Orleans, while several students will also return this summer to continue the struggle in New Orleans itself. Several of these bold students joined the May Day march in New York City and brought their message of struggle against fascism to the May Day dinner.

These actions were a result of Howard University Political Education and Action Committee spending spring break in New Orleans working with "C3/Hands Off Iberville," a coalition of New Orleans activists and public housing residents fighting against the demolition of their public housing homes. Major real estate developers, with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New Orleans City Council, are using the lie that Hurricane Katrina made public housing uninhabitable to demolish affordable housing and replace it with high-end condos. They already did this—before the storm!—by demolishing St. Thomas public housing and creating River Garden, with only 200 affordable of the 700 that had been promised to the community.

New Orleans gives us an early look at fascism USA. Bulldozers and police brutalize people and their homes, while the ruling class tests out strategies of social control while letting their buddies make huge profits from the "recovery." All the more reason to fight for revolution!

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Spain, May 1st — "I knew the PLP in the United States," said a Spanish youth when he got a PLP leaflet. He was happy to find out that communist political work is a lot bigger throughout the world than he thought. "Long Live May Day! Long live the working class!," we chanted today. Here and in all parts of the world, the work of the Progressive Labor Party is clear: spread the true ideas of communism far and wide.

The Workers’ Commissions unions Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (UGI in Spanish) in Spain organized a May Day march for workers from all over, but in reality workers know that these reformists and revisionists are part of the capitalist system and that the only thing they’re good for is to try to pacify the masses. We won’t rest. We’ll keep working hard to bring the workers the real revolutionary struggle, not like these sellouts.

It was a real celebration. There were workers from all parts of the world, and we passed out many communist leaflets in the march. I believe that with a lot of concentration, our work will grow a lot. We have made ties with workers and have vowed to bring them CHALLENGE and other material to be able to build the fight to destroy this capitalist system that kills the working class and finally to implant the only solution for the international working class: THE COMMUNIST SYSTEM!J

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BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, May 1 — A 100-strong contingent led by PLP participated in the May Day march here. Amid pro-capitalist reformist ideas pushed by union hacks and fake leftists as the "solution" to the pro-war policies of President Uribe’s death-squad government, U.S. rulers’ most loyal ally in the region, PLP’s internationalist communist politics stood out. Our revolutionary chants, distribution of 3,000 communist leaflets and hundreds of DESAFIOS brought many workers and youth around our contingent and joined our chants. (More next issue.)

Celebrating May Day Coast to Coast

NEW YORK CITY, May 3 — Over 800 workers, students and soldiers from the East Coast kicked off PLP May Day here with a bang. Activities spread across the city.

"The Workers, United, Will Never be Defeated" chanted nearly 200 members and friends of PLP marching through Brooklyn streets carrying red flags and banners calling for unity of the international working class and the need to smash police terror with a communist revolution. Anger over the acquittal of Sean Bell’s NYPD execution squad and billionaire Mayor Bloomberg’s racist budget cuts spurred several high schools walkouts on May 1 (see page 3) and lent an extra urgency to this year’s May Day. Passing cars responded enthusiastically to our signs, "Honk if you hate racist police murder." Over 2,600 CHALLENGES were distributed.

a name="The State of the World….">">"he State of the World….

All the events heard state-of-the-world talks, one showing why capitalism only offers a future of more war and fascism regardless of who wins the 2008 election and inspired renewed optimism by connecting the growth represented on May Day with the necessity and ability of the working class to create a communist future, without minimizing the hard reality of the difficulties in building such a movement.

At another dinner the two keynote speeches were written and delivered by young female comrades who showed polished political analysis, poise and righteous anger over the capitalist system that wages war against the working class for bosses’ profit. The speeches emphasized class struggle and the unity of female and male workers worldwide, as well as a call to combat a capitalist society mired in crisis and marked by endless wars.

And a third dinner’s speech stressed that despite what cynics say, workers can be won to fight capitalism. But these ideas don’t fall from the sky. Workers need communist leadership and need to become communist leaders themselves.

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A highlight at one celebration was hearing why comrades from three generations joined the Party: One who met a PL’er in his church was physically confronted by cops on horseback at an anti-war march, sparking the realization that democracy does not work. Everything learned over time from the PL’er then clicked; he now knew the real solution was to fight for communism.

Another joined after several hard experiences in community organizations led to the conclusion that reform doesn’t work. Although initially disagreeing with some things, after years of struggle he realized that they were necessary. Being in PLP and building a base in the working class simply became the right thing to do.

The third joined at age 12 to "be part of a group," but after two years of study groups, club meetings, summer projects and ideological struggle, fighting for communism and being a member of PLP took on a whole new meaning.

A brief history of PLP was viewed through the lens of one member’s life experience as a teacher. When NYC parents fought for more control of their children’s schools in the 1960’s, thousands of teachers followed their racist union leadership to strike against a mostly black and Latino community. This member was part of a PLP-led fight to physically open the schools as well as launch "freedom schools." One member recalled being called a racist epithet at five years old for crossing the racist picket line.

Stay Tuned for Communist Revolution!

Young people were front and center throughout the evening, from the planning to the speeches to the cultural performances, showing the Party’s growing vitality and attention to developing new leadership. A poignant skit created by a group of twenty young people highlighted youth leadership as it exposed military recruitment as a scam to win youth to fight and die in imperialist wars to defend the profit system. The skits and an open mic showcased the drive and enthusiasm youth have to grasp revolutionary ideas and make them their own.

Several veterans of PLP’s military work emphasized the importance of youth enlisting to build PLP. Many ideas were also presented on how to win veterans who return home disillusioned from receiving nothing of what they were promised and scarred by U.S. imperialist atrocities. A young female industrial worker did a great job explaining to the young people present just how powerful the workers can be when won to communist ideas.

The crowd was inspired by an outpouring of original communist music, poetry and visual art by three generations of comrades and friends of the Party. Individual comrades took the floor to give detailed answers to key questions, such as, "How will communism fight to destroy racism, sexism, and nationalism?" and "How can joining the Party change the world?"

All in all, these workers, soldiers and students assembled on a highly-charged day that both celebrated past achievements and pointed toward a challenging but ultimately victorious future on the road to a communist society. "Stay tuned!"

Los Angeles

April 26 — "The bosses can’t carry on their wars without workers producing for these wars," declared a woman industrial worker at a May Day Dinner. "We are those industrial workers! The factories are the heart of the society and they need to be the heart of the revolution. That’s why it’s so important that we organize in the factories using CHALLENGE networks….I’m an industrial worker and CHALLENGE opened my eyes to the reality of capitalism, oppression and discrimination at work….It’s very important to expand the readership of CHALLENGE so that our fellow workers can understand the racism, sexism and exploitation which we are forced to live with and can join with us in the PLP. Long live Communism!"

Another comrade explained that "Revolutions only happen if there’s a communist party with the correct ideas and a political base among workers and others, especially industrial workers." The speaker cited "the Bolsheviks [who] didn’t retreat….under fascist repression, concentrating in the factories and the armed forces…. [With] unbreakable confidence in the working class and in turn the workers’ great confidence in them, they achieved the ‘impossible’ in 1917 when the workers took power."

One speaker reported on the struggles in the colleges against cutbacks and on the Summer Project to bring communist politics to workers. Speakers highlighted the key role of soldiers in fighting to end imperialist war with revolution. At one event a high school student presented the historic importance of May Day, followed by a comrade who linked the legacy of May Day to the 1968 worker-student uprising in France, citing the decisive role of workers, the need for the worker-student alliance and the political leadership of a truly communist party like PLP. A moving poem captured outrage at the effects of capitalism as well as the desire to fight for communism.

About 300 people participated in these activities, enjoying songs and delicious international food and camaraderie. They reflected intense political struggle throughout the year to bring communist politics to workplaces, schools and friends. We concluded with enthusiastic preparations for the distribution of CHALLENGE, leaflets and flags for the May Day immigrant-rights march. J

Detroit

April 26 — Today PLP re-established its May Day tradition in Detroit with a dinner of over two dozen workers, teachers and youth, including special guests from the American Axle picket lines.

A young community college teacher gave a brief history of May Day, how the PLP re-established May Day in the U.S., and how he looks forward to marching each year to advance international communist revolution. A couple from American Axle spoke about the difficulties of the strike and how the UAW leadership was in bed with the AAM bosses and GM to cut their wages.

A third speaker talked about the acquittal of the killer cops who murdered an unarmed black man Sean Bell in NYC on his wedding day. He said that the bosses need racist police terror to enforce a future of wage cuts, poverty and war, and that the Sean bell case and the American Axle strike were two very good reasons to join PLP and build a revolutionary movement to smash the racist rulers.

This may be a small step in the big picture, but it can be an important event for the future of PLP and the class struggle in Detroit. J

S.F. Bay Area: PLP’s May Day Activities Cover the Waterfront

BAY AREA, Calif. — PLP members and friends celebrated May Day in activities throughout Northern California, providing many opportunities to advance our communist politics. Despite the limitations of liberal-led marches and rallies, workers were open to our revolutionary message. The ongoing struggle to develop newer Party members and recruit new ones remains the main limitation of our potential. Despite this we spread our communist ideas throughout all the May Day events.

In the inland port city of Stockton, Party members made contacts with longshoremen who had struck for eight hours to protest the war in Iraq. In San Francisco, by selling CHALLENGE and distributing leaflets to the dockers, significantly we brought a communist revolutionary analysis to this otherwise liberal-led march and rally. Previously, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU) had struck against the World Trade Organization in Seattle; for the framed Mumia Abu Jamal; and an "unofficial" one-day protest of an on-the-job death of one of their comrades.

These actions refute the lie that workers won’t fight around "political issues." But they’re all framed to appeal to the capitalist electoral system. This ties into those capitalists who trace the Iraq war to the Bush administration attempt to run the Iraq war "on the cheap," while undermining the overall U.S. world position. This is a far cry from the workers taking the bosses’ war head on. (See box.) Our challenge is to push beyond these limits and bring revolutionary politics to the forefront.

We also attended a rally and March in Dolores Park where a PL teacher met with former students who helped distribute our literature there.

In Oakland, PLP members joined the immigrant rights march. Those around us picked up our chants, focused on internationalism, working-class unity and revolutionary ideas. The march grew larger as it progressed and was the most multi-racial in recent years. Four student friends of the Party from a local university marched with us. Several Party members have already followed up contacts made there.

Elsewhere in the inland Bay Area, a young teacher comrade participated in a march organized by teachers against the budget cuts at their school. We hope to continue to develop this class struggle.

Transit workers, teachers and college students attended a May Day dinner this weekend. Old friends enjoyed good food, great speeches, and an afternoon of communist celebration. A conversation with an old friend revealed how the reality of life can be used to show workers that capitalism is the root of our problems. Our challenge is to present communist revolution as the answer. Overall, this May Day helped build the influence of the Bay Area Party.

Mexico May Day Inspires Re-commitment to PLP

Mexico CITY, May 1st— A group of members and friends of PLP participated in the mass May Day March in Mexico City where hundreds of thousands of workers come to show their anger against the capitalist system and its government. We distributed 15,000 leaflets and 300 CHALLENGES in which we exposed the capitalist system including the privatization of oil and the need for a communist revolution in order to build a society that meets the needs of the working class.

Our contingent marched with banners and chanted slogans like , "LONG LIVE COMMUNISM! DEATH TO CAPITALISM!’’ AND "ONE CLASS ONE PARTY, WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!" We also sang songs like "Bandera Roja" and "Bella Chao" and of course the INTERNATIONAL. We were a small militant group but we captured the attention of many marchers.

After the march we had a gathering where we talked about the day’s activities. One of the things that inspired many comrades was that many new youth participated with us who hadn’t before. One of them said that he’d participated in other organizations and that none of them had convinced him as PLP had. That’s why he asked that we keep inviting him to future meetings. We decided to have a meeting this same week to plan some activities and to maintain constant communication.

Another thing that inspired many was the participation of someone who had been inactive in the last few years. At the end of the march, this friend gave a small speech in which he talked about why it’s important to celebrate May Day and the need to continue organizing the working class, thus announcing his recommitment to the Party. Some suggested that he help organize a cadre school about political economy and help in continuing to deepen the political understanding of more comrades.

We hope that next year we’ll have a bigger contingent with more political leadership.J

May Day Spirit Spurs Seattle Summer Project

SEATTLE, WA., May 3 — "The world needs communist politics now more than ever," declared a young Party worker, our keynote speaker, at tonight’s May Day Dinner. He followed an Iraq veteran who urged all to continue fighting U.S. imperialism’s Mid-East occupation at the upcoming "Winter Soldier" events. Finally, a student leader invited the multi-racial group of students, educators, campus workers, military veterans, active-duty soldiers, Boeing workers and families to join our July Summer Project.

The keynote speaker outlined the brutal attacks from U.S. bosses preparing for wider wars, eventually World War III, how they need to attack workers at home in order to attack workers abroad. Fascist intimidations cited included 2.4 million now languishing in prisons, neglected Katrina survivors, the assassination of Sean Bell, the brutal exploitation of Latino immigrants in war factories and government immigration raids.

"Ultimately," our speaker said, "this racism is used to divide us and hide the fact that wage slavery is the curse of all workers regardless of ‘race’ and gender." Just ask the striking American Axel workers how the wage system "serves" them!

Many volunteered for our July Summer Project as we fight for "the hearts and minds" of Boeing workers whose contract expires this fall, and of soldiers at nearby Ft. Lewis (one in attendance) and McChord Air Force base.

One friend brought her husband, who "loves to talk politics." He was not disappointed. Between mouthfuls of food, we discussed how communist society could and should function, how to make communist politics primary, and how to have confidence that our Party and the working class can lead society.

Between the dinner and Thursday’s May Day immigration march we distributed EVERY CHALLENGE in the city to readers and sellers. A thousand leaflets about the communist international spirit of May Day and another about Sean Bell circulated among marchers, in Boeing shops and other workplaces, homes and classes. Friends gave generously as we passed the hat to help pay for all the literature.

A Boeing retiree we’ve known for over 30 years made a special contribution and then took extra literature for a mosque and a mostly black church. "I’m glad to see you passing the hat," he said. "This good stuff costs plenty."

On weekends prior to May Day, a team visited Boeing readers and sellers at their homes to discuss the ideas our friends were already reading in CHALLENGE over coffee (a Seattle obsession!). This helped make our dinner a modest success.

Class struggle and agitation are crucial, but without these personal ties, we will remain stuck in neutral.

We’ll expand these team visits between now and the Summer Project to bring the communist class-consciousness expressed by our young keynote speaker to many more in the area.

"Today on May Day," he concluded, "we remember that it’s the working class who built this world; we planted every field and laid every brick. All the wealth of the world was created through the labor of the working class. This world is not for us to slave in, but to master and to own. We have nothing to lose but our chains and a world to win."

a name="PL-led Action Hits Mexico University’s Oppressive Rules">">"L-led Action Hits Mexico University’s Oppressive Rules

MEXICO, April 16 — PLP organized a protest at a school in UNAM (Autonomous University of Mexico) against the Rules of Inscription reproduced on April 7th, in an edition of the "Rights and Obligations of the Universities" by the Administration’s Committee in " Defense of the University Students."

These rules require that only students who have finished their Bachelor’s degree in three years and with an average grade of nine (barely 10% of the students achieve this) are allowed to choose a major and their preferred school. This same rule excludes from UNAM those who finish their bachelor’s degree in more than 4 years. And for the faculty, to achieve permanent status, a professor would have to work 5 times longer (505% more) than the current plan.

The UNAM student strike of 1999-2000 demanded the repeal of this same rule. In the face of the mass and prolonged protest against the police intervention to smash the strike, the Rector declared that this rule would be suspended until it was discussed in the University Congress (that they could never organize). However, since the protests got smaller, now the government in using the Administration’s Committee in the Defense "of the university students" to remind us of their regulation. The majority of students are against this.

The PLP quickly called for a protest inside one of the schools where we demanded that the Director take the message of our anger against this ruling to his superiors. We also demanded a cafeteria for the students, improvements in the showers in the sports area, and permanent status for the "interim" professors, some of whom have been in this interim situation for 10 years, and other demands.

About 60 students came to the protest and hundreds watched it, including teachers and workers who’ve shown their support and agreement. We brought red banners of PLP and we talked abut the need to build a new type of proletarian party that fights directly for Communism.

We recognize that even though we’ve been timid in putting forward the ideas of the liberation of the working class, we’ve taken steps that have also led to the math professors demanding the same things of the school administration. We’ve also carried out a campaign to distribute copies of PLP’s Road to Revolution IV. Several professors have shown us their support and encouragement to continue fighting actively for revolution.

Greetings to all the comrades!

LETTERS

Ira Gollobin Advised Draftees Too

I was saddened to learn of the death of Ira Gollobin, a long-time fighter for the legal, political and ideological interests of the working class [see CHALLENGE, 5/7]. A personal incident can give some idea of the service he rendered to working people.

In the 1950’s, immediately after the cease-fire in the Korean War, I received a draft notice. (Military conscription still existed.) Being a member then of the old Communist Party (CP), I took the notice to my CP section organizer (local leader) and asked her what to do. She said that, as of that moment, I was dropped from membership and that no one would talk to me.

This was a period of intense government attacks on communist activists, and understandably, I felt somewhat confused at this news. I spoke to some leaders in the old movement, and, indeed, no one would talk to me. Finally, after approaching numerous people about my predicament, a friend told me of a lawyer who operated out of a storefront office on the Lower East Side, and advised political activists who were being drafted. This lawyer turned out to be Ira Gollobin.

He gave me extremely sound advice which, after entering the Army, enabled me to fend off pressures by military intelligence and other officers to become a political informer. In fact, Ira’s advice permitted me to participate in a legal and political struggle that ultimately ended the Army’s practice of giving bad discharges based on a draftee’s political activity prior to military service.

Incidentally, the section organizer who told me I was dropped from membership gave up on the working class and became a Democratic Party state committee-person. So much for the commitment of that "leadership."

Experiences like these eventually led me to help organize in Progressive Labor, an organization that has never turned its back on the working class.

An Old Red

a name="Don’t Let The Fascists Tell Us Who The Heroes Are">">"on’t Let The Fascists Tell Us Who The Heroes Are

Recently, the liberal media and people like political comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show, were telling us constantly that Valerie Plame was a hero we should all admire. She was the CIA agent outed by a right-wing politician-newsman —there’s absolutely no loyalty among these thieves.

On the Maher show, she was cheered, and when Maher asked if she had been involved in killing operations, she said yes. After all, that’s what these bloody hired killers do for a "living." They strongly front for U.S. aggression and murders worldwide, back since the end of World War II, when the CIA was formed.

Anti-communist CIA-trained mercenaries invaded Cuba at Playa Girón (the Bay of Pigs) to try to topple the Castro regime and resurrect a pro-U.S. regime similar to former dictator Batista who had enslaved the population for decades. But the invaders’ dream of local support turned into its opposite, and the population helped the Castro army defeat them quickly. (Interestingly, Havana traded the captured mercenaries for badly-needed medical supplies, and the Kennedy administration sent diet products! That’s about how far you can trust these fascists to keep their word.)

Currently there’s a growing opposition worldwide. You should examine these people who the press extols as the latest hero or spokesperson, for example the documentary film-maker Michael Moore and Barack "Archer-Daniels-Midland-Ethanol" Obama.

And the Progressive Labor Party should continue exposing these vermin.

Up-North Reader

a name="Shed Illusions About Imperialism’s Allies">">"hed Illusions About Imperialism’s Allies

I was confused by the CHALLENGE article (4/9) about the 20th anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, celebrated on March 25th in Cuba.

It described Angola’s MPLA government backed by Soviet imperialism and its satellite Cuba pitted against the U.S./South African-backed UNITA "rebels." Both were rotten, pro-capitalist nationalist organizations.

Raul Castro and the government representatives from Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa have good reason to celebrate — this victory enabled them to rule over and exploit the working class for a long time.

The article said the battle marked the beginning of the end of the hated South African apartheid regime and the myth of its army’s invincibility. But the Cuban army was not a red army like the Soviet Red Army that drove the Nazis from Stalingrad all the way to Berlin. During the 1970’s, Castro sent 13,000 Cuban soldiers to Ethiopia to support the fascist military Junta (Dergue), a Soviet puppet, helping it maintain power and murder workers.

The current rulers of South Africa, Angola and Namibia, who were the leaders of those "liberation" movements, were in bed with the imperialists then and still are. Now Cuba (where Fidel replaced U.S.-style capitalism with Soviet-type state capitalism) is turning to China because its former imperialist master, the Soviet Union, is gone.

It was South Africa’s heroic students and workers, not the Russian imperialists or their puppets, who fought apartheid with the goal of liberating the working class. But the African National Congress (ANC) reformist leadership and the revisionist (phony leftist) South African Communist Party dashed their aspirations. Capitalism and racism are alive and well in South Africa today. Under the current ANC leaders, the country’s workers are still oppressed and exploited.

The following editorial is from CHALLENGE 4/6/1988:

"Angola and Namibia are other scenes of capitalist carnage. In Angola, over 215,000 have died since 1975. The Cuban/Soviet-backed Angolan government is fighting the U.S./South African-backed UNITA ‘rebels.’ Each side is rotten to the core. The Angolan people will be oppressed no matter who ‘wins.’ In Namibia, over 5,000 have been killed in a war between the South Africans and the Namibian nationalists. This war is closely linked to the war in Angola….The record of imperialism is clear!.... Capitalism, imperialism, or nationalism breeds death and destruction. To…end these evils…you must destroy capitalism."

We can’t have illusions in any nationalist/ capitalist allies of imperialism, whether U.S., Russian or Chinese. We must win the world’s workers to fight for our own class interests: communism.

An African immigrant

Striking Immigrant Workers Head Up Paris May Day

PARIS, May 1 — It’s in the street that it happens / When something happens / A ballot in a ballot box / Doesn’t change much!

Sound trucks in May Day demonstrations across France blasted out the new song by the radical Jolie Môme theater company. Over 200,000 marched in 150 cities, demanding more buying power and condemning the government "reform" requiring 41 years’ work (instead of 40) for a full retirement pension. The demands reflected the reformism of the trade unions that organize May Day here.

Nevertheless, in Paris (30,000 marchers), pride of place was given to undocumented immigrants who’ve been striking since April 15, demanding legalization. In Marseilles, 30,000 marched behind a banner reading "May ’68, May 2008: the struggle continues." In Nantes, a student union contingent chanted their banner’s slogan: "The struggle is ... class against class!"

Today’s demonstrations kick off a month of struggle, including a coming teachers’ and government workers’ strike and nation-wide protests opposing retirement "reform." The government is cutting 11,200 education jobs.

But without revolutionary communist leadership, the May actions will likely be sold out. An April 10 agreement with the bosses on union representation will prevent small unions from blocking sweetheart contracts, making the CGT the key union player. It will use this position to sell out workers the way it sold out last November’s rail strike (see CHALLENGE 12/12/07). The right-wing French parliament will certainly ratify the agreement.

A recent poll shows unfortunately that 64% of the workers here still trust the union hacks to defend their interests. It’s up to communists to turn the disappointment that these labor fakers will inevitably generate into revolutionary anger and organizing.

Anti-Fascists Battle German Neo-Nazis, Cops on May Day

HAMBURG, GERMANY, May 1 — Large anti-fascist May Day demonstrations opposed neo-Nazi marches here and in Nuremberg. Over 4,000 people attended the kick-off rally here, and 10,000 marched. Burning barricades were erected on commuter train tracks and in streets to stop the 1,100 neo-Nazis from marching around Barmbek, the Hamburg neighborhood that was the center of the 1923 communist uprising.

The cops used water cannon to protect the neo-Nazis, whose buses were nevertheless stoned. Some were punched when the anti-fascists were able to get near them. A police car was overturned.

In Nuremberg, 4,000 protestors marched north from the city center towards the planned neo-Nazi demonstration. Some 3,000 helmeted, club-swinging cops cracked heads in trying to protect the neo-Nazis from the anti-fascist demonstrators. The cops also attacked the anti-fascists with pepper spray and water cannons. The Nuremberg mayor exhorted people to ignore the neo-Nazis.

Only 200 anti-capitalist demonstrators attended a May Day rally in Hanover, most having gone to the protests in nearby Hamburg. The Hanover rally speaker said: "It is right to demand better working conditions and higher wages, but it is wrong not to make demands that go further. We are so bold as to ask: Wherefore work? Wherefore wages? And we demand the abolition of wage labor!"

On April 30, a dozen neo-Nazi thugs attacked five immigrants in Dortmund. German anti-fascists who happened to be nearby rushed up and together with the immigrant and native-born workers routed the neo-Nazis.

In Tübingen, 600 people marched on May Day.

Heribert Prantl, writing in the conservative Sueddeutsche Zeitung, said German unions’ failure to protect workers from the consequences of the Harz IV "reforms," which notably ended benefits for the long-term unemployed, has made workers here realize they must fight, which has breathed new life into May Day.

REDEYE

US racism has Obama on leash

To the Editor:

Bob Herbert complains that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is harming Barack Obama’s campaign by "roaming the country with the press corps in tow, happily promoting the one issue Mr Obama has tried to avoid: race."

How can anyone — Mr. Wright or anyone else — be faulted for forcing a black candidate to address the issue of race? It’s absurd. If America will elect a black man as president only if he avoids the issue of race, then the fault lies with… American racism…(NYT, 5/1)

Gitmo liars: Brass, not inmates

A… powerful new book about Guantánamo, by an American lawyer named Steven Wax, is summed up by its title: "Kafka Comes to America."

The new material suggests two essential truths about Guantánamo:

First, most of the inmates were probably innocent all along, but Pakistanis or Afghans turned them over to America in exchange for large cash awards. The moment we offered $25,000 rewards for Al Qaeda supporters, any Arab in the region risked being kidnapped and turned over as a terrorism suspect.

Second, torture was routine, especially early on. That’s why more than 100 prisoners have died in American custody in Afghanistan, Irag and Guantánamo….

When I started writing about Guantánamo several years ago, I thought the inmates might be lying and the Pentagon telling the truth…. But over time — and it’s painful to write this — I’ve found the inmates to be more credible than American officials.(NYT, 5/4)

Elections: The fix is always in

Serious presidential candidates:….what makes them "serious" is their understanding that American politics is settled, a done deal. The deal is this: While real Republicans can drift, unchecked, to the dark side of empire and neofascism, Democrats are supposed to campaign and govern as moderate, "responsible" Republicans.

We live, in other words, in a corporate state, the basic terms of which are no longer open to debate….

All hail the (invisible) corporate state and its sacred fetishes: God, guns, flag. All hail the McWorkers of the new economy, who roll up their sleeves and vote for one smiling liar or another on their way to their second job. All hail the dearth of health care, the children left behind, the endless billions for war and most of all the fact that these matters are not — I repeat, NOT — open for discussion in this presidential election year or… the next one or the next.(Robert Koehler)(GW, 4/25)

Zimbabwe, Tibet: Imperialist guilt

Zimbabwe… was not just a British colony, but where Britain refused to act against a white racist coup, triggering a bloody 15-year liberation war, and then imposed racial parliamentary quotas and a 10-year moratorium on land reform at independance. The subsequent failure by Britain and the US to finance land buyouts as expected, along with the impact of IMF programmes, aided the current impasse.

As for Tibet… the CIA… bankrolled the Dalai Lama’s operations for many years. Such arrangements have in recent years passed to other US agencies and western NGOs…. For a US administration that has designated China as the main threat to its global dominance its minorities are still a stick that can be used to poke the dragon.(GW, 4/25)

Marching On May Day!!

Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, May 1 — The red banners of communism waved high on Broadway in downtown LA, while PLP’ers distributed 8,000 communist leaflets and 3,600 CHALLENGES during the immigrant-rights march here. Our literature exposed the hypocrisy of the bosses and their politicians — both the liberal and conservative racists — their plans for wider imperialist war and the role of the pro-immigrant "leaders" who support deadly patriotic loyalty to the ruling class and the Democratic Party.

Fascism emerged early. Police and School District agents stopped some students from boarding a bus to go to the march, claiming "parental permission is not enough — you need permission from the District." Nonetheless, many of these students came, even more determined. Our multi-racial contingent had a strong, visible impact with our red shirts and flags, but most importantly with our chants calling for working-class unity and communist revolution.

The police, business leaders, march organizers and LAPD are congratulating themselves for their "good job." This march was smaller than last year’s, partly because the leaders are pushing voting over marching, and partly from fear instilled in workers by last year’s racist police attack in MacArthur Park and the constant propaganda about the police preparing to "handle provocateurs." In response we chanted, "Sean Bell’s killer cops mean…FIGHT BACK!"; and, "LAPD you can’t hide… We charge you with genocide!"

Street speeches, followed by slogans celebrating May Day as International Workers’ Day resonated throughout the march like: "The magic of our hands, that from nothing make everything. From the clothes, to the buildings to the cars to the airplanes. And even then, the bosses call us ignorant. We workers make everything of value in this society, that’s why we raise our fist and chant, "See this fist; Workers to Power!"

"Today millions of workers around the world march as one class against this rotten capitalist system, source of hunger, murders and wars…"

Some workers asked for and contributed money for our red flags. Others bought red shirts that call for workers’ unity and communism. The red flags contrasted sharply with the U.S. bosses’ flag march organizers imposed on workers. From the few years we’ve had contingents in the "immigrant-rights" marches, we have a presence many workers and youth now expect.

From these May Day activities, several people joined PLP. Others have become CHALLENGE distributors. The Party was strengthened and is preparing for our coming Summer Project. We will be bolder in taking CHALLENGE to our friends to help build the Project. These activities will provide communist political leadership to the working class which needs it more than ever, facing growing fascism and imperialist war. J

El Salvador

A PLP leaflet provoked anger of leaders of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the May Day march of more than 75,000 workers through San Salvador, the capital. Workers demanded rice, beans, and some proclaimed support for the FMLN Presidential candidate, Mauricio Funes. A group of high school and university students painted on the walls "Proletarians of the World, Unite!" and chanted the slogan "Capitalists watch out—here come the communists!"

As usual CHALLENGE is anticipated by the working class every May Day. The PLP distributed 530 CHALLENGES and 3,800 communist leaflets. The moment the leaflets and CHALLENGES began to be distributed, many workers came to get them. This caused a big impact because it attacked the electoral parties.

FMLN leaders in the sound trucks read a part of our leaflet and alerted workers to destroy the leaflets. This made people read the leaflet on the spot. The FMLN security said they wouldn’t allow any propaganda that was not from them, following the same repressive practices as the right-wing ruling party, pro-U.S., Arena government.

Carlos Ruiz, Mayor of Soyapango and former leader of the extinct Salvadoran Communist Party and now the FMLN, stopped a comrade and questioned him about the leadership of PLP in El Salvador. A worker responded to him "Now, we don’t only have the oppressors of the government but we also have you." An ex-combatant of the FMLN reacted angrily and told him, "I fought so that these things would no longer happen and now you are the police."

Confronted by this reaction, those from the FMLN retreated and the distribution of the paper and the leaflets continued. However, the comrades were followed and at one point a small part of their material (200 leaflets and 20 CHALLENGES) were taken. "This has to be shown to the leader of the FMLN," said a servile follower of the electoral front.

Funes stated in the closing speech "Those who have damaged private property [referring to the graffiti] are social movements." They have nothing to do with the FMLN as a political party." He, along with other FMLN leaders, also expressed his gratitude for the presence of more than 600 uniformed police during the march and promised to raise their wages.

"Today ends the romance of some comrades who held some illusions about the FMLN," said a comrade. Once more it’s been shown that the working class can’t trust these electoral parties, which are part of the capitalist system. The PLP’ers and friends activities felt stronger and with more confidence in the working class. Now our goal is to consolidate and recruit more comrades to PLP, as a step toward the communist revolution that will end the murderous capitalist system.J

Washington D.C.

May 1 — PLP members here distributed over 100 CHALLENGES and hundreds of leaflets to the 200 people that attended this year’s immigration justice rally. The rally was smaller than last year, but more than half the marchers took home a copy of our communist newspaper! Many wore t-shirts and carried banners emphasizing unity among workers regardless of country or race.

Other organizations participating in the rally focused on reforming the system with new immigration laws, better housing policies, statehood for DC, and electoral politics in El Salvador. We spoke to rally-goers instead about the working class taking power through a revolutionary struggle.

One man from Central America agreed with our analysis that elections in the US or Latin America would not serve the working class. He was thrilled to learn that there was a party that rejected nationalism and organized one party for all workers everywhere, and intends to work with us.J

Chicago, Il

May 1st – Our PLP contingent, an integrated and international group of around 50 people, raised the red flag and marched behind the banner, "Long Live Communism." We led militant chants, distributed 1,000 CHALLENGES and DESAFIOS and 2,000 PLP May Day leaflets. We handed out 500 posters that read, "Smash All Borders/Destruir Todos Fronteras," with the Party’s name and logo. A small but spirited health care contingent marched from Stroger (County) Hospital. Other Party members marched with their community and student organizations and an Iraq veterans group.

In just two years, the May Day March for Immigrant Rights has gone from over 500,000 in 2006 to maybe 15,000 in 2008. Unlike the previous two years, the bosses were not united behind the march, factories were not closed and workers were not given the day off to march. This shows that when you march under the bosses’ leadership, without a mass communist movement to challenge them, they can turn the movement off and on at will.

Other reasons for the poor turnout were increased fear and intimidation due to continuous immigration raids and deportations. Organizers warned marchers that the police attacks in L.A. last year were due to "other groups with different agendas." Mayor Daley, whose cops are murdering young black and Latino men in record numbers, shared the stage with nationalists and revisionists, rappers and folk singers.

This march underlined the need to build the Party in the bosses’ mass organizations in this period of war and developing fascism. As the Presidential electoral circus moves millions to the ballot box, we must be patiently struggling to break them away from the racist rulers. J