1. March for Communism on May Day, International Working Class Holiday!
2. Permanent War Rules Out `Peace Dividend'
3. New Pope: Political Tool in Imperialists' Rivalry
4. Immigrant Workers, Youth Key Force to Fight U.S. Bosses
5. Dream or Nightmare?
6. Foster Kids `Guinea Pigs' in Racist AIDS Experiments
7. 1199 Unity with Bosses Cuts Hospital Workers
8. War Budget Chops the Hell Out of Chicago Schools
9. Baltimore May Day Dinner Inspires Youth
10. `Made in Jersey' No More
11. Ecuador: Prez Flees; Get `Same Dog with Different Collar'
12. Police State Now Official in Paraguay!
13. EU Constitution: European Bosses Aim to Confront U.S. Rivals
14. Karl Marx Enters Retirees' Wal-Mart Debate
15. Immigrants Rally Against Budget Cuts
16. The Vietnamese Women Who Defeated U.S. War Machine
17. Sailors and Workers Unite in 1905 Russian Revolution
18. LETTERS
    1. H.S. `Security' Like Israel's Wall
    2. Union Hacks in Bed With Airport Bosses
    3. Bosses' Sick Culture Led to Red Lake Tragedy
    4. Punk and Violence?
    5. Colombia's Jobless Vendors Organize
19. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. New pope's long-time plan: fight Marxism
    2. U.S. management leaves Latinos poor
    3. John Brown, no Unabomber, battled slavery
    4. 2 million in prison, black men worst hit
    5. Big U.S. aid goes to shooting workers
    6. U.S.: ten times worse than Berlin Wall
    7. Big Biz poisons kids with mercury

March for Communism on May Day, International Working Class Holiday!

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

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

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

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

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

The tens of thousands who won the 8-hour day saw it eroded, so another general strike was called for May 1, 1890. At the July 1889 meeting of the International Workers Association, organized and led by Karl Marx, the U.S. delegate reported on the struggle. The Association decided "to organize a great international demonstration, so that...on one appointed day the [world's] toiling masses shall demand..." the 8-hour day. "Since a similar demonstration has already been decided upon by the American Federation of Labor....this day is adopted for the international demonstration." [This kind of international solidarity is vitally needed today.]

As it progressed, the international communist movement took up the struggle and organized May 1st celebrations every year. In the U.S., it was championed for many years by the old Communist Party, with 250,000 marching in New York City in the 1940's. But when that party abandoned its principles, May Day was resurrected by the Progressive Labor Party in 1971 which advanced more revolutionary ideas. May Day marches have been organized by the PLP for the past 35 years, in cities such as Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, Delano, California and others, as well as PLP contingents in Latin America.

While the bosses try to smear May Day as being "imported from Soviet Russia," it remains as a signal contribution of the world's workers that grew from the actions of those Chicago strikers over a century ago. Today we march for the universal demands of all workers, regardless of capitalist-created borders: against imperialist war, against racism and sexism, for unity of immigrant and citizen workers, against wage slavery, against fascist police terror and for the communist solution to all these attacks facing the international working class.

How prophetic were the last words of Haymarket martyr August Spies as the hangman's noose was tied around his neck and he declared, "There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!"

Permanent War Rules Out `Peace Dividend'

While the ruling class cuts workers' wages, benefits and vital services, it simultaneously devours trillions for imperialist wars. It's necessary to show how these racist attacks and cutbacks are financing these imperialist wars and the Homeland Security police state at home. But we must also expose the liberal/revisionist (phony "left") myth of the "peace dividend": that if there were no war or astronomical war budget, there would be more spent on workers' needs. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Capitalism always seeks maximum profits. Even if the rulers could reduce the war budget, the reduction would be invested in the search for maximum profits. These profits come from exploiting workers even more. That's how capitalism operates.

There can be no "peace dividend" because U.S. capitalism -- built on the slavery of millions of black people and genocide against Native Americans -- has been at war throughout its history, invading scores of countries, and has been on a permanent war footing for 65 years. After the end of World War II, U.S. rulers launched the Cold War against the then-socialist Soviet Union and China. They poured billions down the Chiang-Kai Shek rat-hole, trying to defeat the then-Chinese communists. They spent more hundreds of billions in the Korean and Vietnam wars, trying to "stop the spread of communism." During the Cold War they spent trillions establishing military bases around the world, encircling the Soviet Union and China.

After the collapse of the then capitalist Soviet Union, the wishful thoughts of a "peace dividend" were dashed with the invasion of Somalia, Gulf War I, the air war against Yugoslavia and the current invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. More wars are on the horizon -- Iran, North Korea, Syria, and who knows where else.

When they're not spending trillions on open hostilities, they're spending billions on "proxy wars" in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Colombia, or overthrowing anti-U.S. forces in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Chile (1973), Grenada (1983) and the failed interventions in Cuba (Bay of Pigs) or sending 38,000 Marines to crush a popular uprising in the Dominican Republic (1965) and Haiti (1997 under Clinton and 2004 under Bush).

The U.S. ruling class has military bases in over 60 countries, plus 14 floating aircraft carrier bases containing 200,000 personnel on the accompanying destroyers, cruisers, submarines, bombers and fighter aircraft, missiles and thousands of ground troops.

Maintaining a U.S. military presence in the Middle East without the Iraq war costs a billion dollars a week. The war in Iraq costs another billion a week. Wherever the U.S. launches a war, it builds new military bases to be used in future wars, producing billions in profits for the likes of Haliburton & Co. After the murderous attack on Yugoslavia, the U.S. built a base in Kosovo, housing 7,000 military personnel, with stores, schools, airfields, supply depots, and the largest hospital in Europe. In Iraq, the U.S. is building fourteen permanent military bases.

These wars and war budgets are supported by all sections of the U.S. ruling class. Neither liberals nor conservatives call for the U.S. withdrawing its military from around the world. After all,every president -- Democrat and Republican -- from Truman to Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon to Ford to Carter to Reagan to Bush to Clinton to Bush put them there. Ever since the Carter administration, U.S. rulers' strategy has been based on maintaining control of Middle East oil as part of the bosses' "national interest."

The "liberals" criticize Bush for not having spent the hundreds of billions for war "wisely," not for attacking the workers' standard of living or for the racist attacks against blacks and immigrants, particularly Muslim. They say that after 9/11 Bush's ineptitude wasted a window of opportunity to mobilize the entire country for racist, endless wars and a fascist police state. Instead, now the military is having problems meeting its recruitment quotas.

We should continue to expose how the imperialist war budget is slashing workers' wages, jobs and healthcare, and sharpen the class struggle to fight these attacks and the bosses' imperialist slaughter. We should explain that these attacks are built into capitalism and its drive for maximum profits.

Capitalism can only produce permanent war, not a "peace dividend."

The few gains workers made in the past -- mainly when communists led the class struggle -- are now being reversed, from Moscow to Berlin to Beijing to Detroit to Mexico City to Lagos. This May Day we in PLP vow to avoid the errors of the old communist movement -- which limited itself to reforming an unreformable capitalism. We vow to lead the international working class to turn all struggles into schools for communism, to turn the imperialist wars into class war to wipe out all the bosses and build a society based on workers' needs, not on the warmaking bosses' drive for maximum profits.

New Pope: Political Tool in Imperialists' Rivalry

Many people feel uneasy about Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict XVI. The U.S. rulers' liberal media keep reminding us he was an ex-Hitler Youth and Nazi soldier, and headed the modern Vatican's version of the Inquisition. He's closely related to the fascist Opus Dei sect within the Church. But what really angers the main section of the U.S. ruling class is his current pro-European opposition to their imperialist agenda.

Ratzinger denounced the most recent U.S. invasion of Iraq as not meeting Catholicism's criteria for a "just war." He said the U.S. should have followed the lead of the UN Security Council -- essentially France and Russia. Ratzinger slapped a form of excommunication on Democrat John Kerry -- who had war plans far grander than the Bush gang's -- by ordering priests not to give the pro-choice, remarried candidate communion. So the liberal media in turn attack the new pope's right-wing orthodoxy, recalling that the man who styles himself Benedict (blessed) was dubbed God's Rottweiler and Panzerkardinal even by loyal Catholics.

The New York Times (4/21) worried on its front page, "The election of an unstintingly conservative pope could inject a powerful new force into the intense conflicts in American politics....Catholic voters, long overwhelmingly Democratic, have become a critical swing vote." The leading liberal mouthpiece lamented the church's role in defeating the potentially more capable warmaker Kerry: "Mr. Bush carried 56 percent of the white Catholic vote in 2004, up from 51 percent in 2000 -- a formidable part of his conservative coalition."

To distance an important part of this bloc from Rome, the Times-owned Boston Globe impugned Benedict's credibility regarding his Nazi episode. In the Globe's target area, the Democratic Party and leadership are heavily white and Catholic. Under the headline, "Questions Over Wartime Past, Church's Future," the Globe (4/21) flatly contradicted Ratzinger's claim that belonging to the Hitler Youth was compulsory. It quoted Rev. Rupert Berger, a former classmate of Ratzinger's, who refused to join because his resistance leader father had been shipped off to Dachau. "You could not be forced to join" Berger said, adding that his only punishment was a steep hike in his school tuition.

Back in New York, with a different electoral landscape, the Times (4/21) printed the lie, "enrollment in the Hitler Youth was mandatory." So much for the liberals' vaunted "truth and objectivity." Although granting full absolution on the Nazi issue, the opportunistic Times plays to its own liberal middle-class audience and slams Benedict's views on abortion, birth control, euthanasia and stem cell research.

But Benedict's role in the imperialist rivalry troubles U.S. rulers even more than his meddling in domestic politics. His anti-U.S. stance on Iraq is just one example. The Times' April 20 editorial decried the pope's staunch opposition to admitting Turkey into the European Union. Turkey, a poor nation by European standards, will soon have more people than Germany. U.S. rulers want it in the EU to dilute the political power of France and Germany and saddle their treasuries with tens of billions of dollars in aid handouts. Turkey is also home to the U.S. Air Force's huge Incirlik base, which supports the carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan and guards Persian Gulf oil routes. The pope's position, gaining favor in Paris and Bonn, could dash the Pentagon's dreams of an EU checked by U.S. bases stretching from Scotland to the Black Sea. Rather than full membership, France has proposed granting Turkey "special status." Germany's Christian Democrats have suggested a "privileged partnership."

The old Third Reich warrior now soldiers for grateful European imperialists. In 1998, France made Ratzinger commander in its prestigious Legion of Honor. In his acceptance speech, Ratzinger spoke, not of the church, but of fostering political unity between France and Germany. Unlike John Paul, who turned against U.S. rulers late in life, Benedict has loathed them ever since he swore fealty to the Fuhrer at age 14.

Workers and youth have good reasons to fear Benedict XVI, Yes, he was a Nazi and stands to the right of Torquemada (the original Inquisitor). He wants to go back to the dark ages. But we shouldn't fall for the trap of siding with U.S. liberals on this or any issue. They seek to further U.S. imperialism through ever more murderous wars, and the pope stands in their way. Our struggle is for a world without any bosses and their defenders, be they the Vatican or the New York Times. That's the side the communist PLP takes. Join us!

Immigrant Workers, Youth Key Force to Fight U.S. Bosses

For more than 200 years the bosses have super-exploited the labor of immigrants. This horror can never end under capitalism. Only communist revolution can achieve that, by destroying the system forcing billions of workers to sell their labor power to survive. Under the profit system, the search for jobs is a life-and-death question for millions of workers.

This has forced tens of millions of workers from Latin America, Asia and Africa to migrate to the more industrialized capitalist countries. The U.S. has been a main recipient of this migration. Despite what they might claim, all U.S. bosses agree on the need to exploit this immigrant labor. Both their Democrat and Republican politicians have enacted racist immigration laws to better super-exploit this labor and drive down the cost of all labor.

It's worked wonders for them. In the last decade, when more immigrants than ever entered the U.S., the U.S. gross domestic product has grown more relative to its main competitors, except China. "The main factor driving higher U.S. economic growth is not greater productivity gains; it is a more rapidly expanding population." ("Mind the Gap," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2005)

But productivity is also a big factor. Despite U.S. bosses' claims, European workers are actually more productive than U.S. workers. However, U.S. workers seem to be more productive because they work 40% more than Europeans workers, mainly because of the "labor flexibility" U.S. bosses enjoy.

"Labor flexibility...critical to GDP growth" is closely related to the "receptivity to immigrants....The U.S. has ten times more foreign-born citizens than the EU." (Foreign Affairs) "Labor flexibility" refers to the U.S. bosses' ability to absorb and exploit skilled and unskilled immigrant workers, as well as other workers, subjecting them to low wages, speed-up, and long hours with little or no benefits.

While this attack on U.S. workers has bolstered U.S. bosses' profits, their competitive edge is now being erased because their main rivals are also using this tactic to attack their own workers. During this period, most U.S. workers' wages and living standards have declined sharply, while their work-hours have increased.

Immigrants have also become an important factor in U.S. imperialism's military, helping to project its global power. Tens of thousands serve in the bosses' armed forces. Hundreds of thousands work in war-related industries. Immigrants contribute substantially to local and federal government coffers. Undocumented workers alone pay over $7.5 billion yearly into Social Security, money they'll never see. It builds the surplus the government robs to pay its bills and for its oil wars.

Immigrant workers are therefore crucial to propping up the bosses' system. As the imperialists' international competition for markets, natural resources and cheap labor sharpens, so does the bosses' need to intensify the exploitation of these and all workers. Therefore, they're forced to integrate immigrants more into their key industries and armed forces. So the bosses must deal with what to do with the more than 10 million undocumented workers living here.

The debate isn't whether to deport them, but how to best exploit them. Some bosses and their politicians advocate a more openly racist/fascist immigration "reform"; others want to give it a more "humane" face. But regardless, their main goals are: (1) to win immigrants to patriotism, so they'll enlist in the armed forces to fight for U.S. imperialism; and (2) to secure a source of cheap, loyal labor for their expanding war industry. This issue is also being use to pass fascist laws that will be used against all U.S. citizens. (See box)

Immigrant workers are very important economically, militarily and politically. They're not "insignificant" as the bosses want us believe or "defenseless victims" as others portray them. They're in key positions, able to play a leading role in the struggle for the liberation of the international working class. Their future lies with uniting with their working-class citizen brothers and sisters -- black, Latin, white, Arab and Asian -- not voting for pro-imperialist Democratic or Republican politicians.

United, immigrant and citizen workers have the potential to paralyze the bosses' military-industrial complex and lead rebellions inside the bosses' war machine against imperialist war. They do not need pity, charity or mercy from any politician or boss. They do need two things: communist ideas and to join the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party.

Together we'll forge the international unity, determination and long-term commitment of workers, students and soldiers to fight for communism, where production for need, not for profit, will utilize the creative power of the entire working class to the fullest. No worker will need to migrate searching for a job. Yet, in a world with no borders, all workers will always be welcome everywhere.

We don't march behind the "red, white and blue" of U.S. imperialism, or the flag of any other boss. We march holding high the red flag of workers' power, which means: "Workers of the World, Unite! Fight for Communism!"

Dream or Nightmare?

The Dream Act, supported by many Republican and Democratic politicians, promoted as a way to put young undocumented students on a long road to legalization and to go to college. But workers and youth must always look suspiciously at what these pols do supposedly to "help us." The Dream Act would become a way to force many of these youth into the military in exchange for legal status. Defeated when it was first introduced, it's being reintroduced with provisions stating that to qualify for legalization, applicants must perform two year of national service, either in the armed forces or in Homeland Security or complete two years of college. A similar law applying to all college students is being contemplated. The excuse behind this national service scheme?  To "share the sacrifices of war more evenly."

What's Next? Hard Time for Not Doing Homework? ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. April 23 - First, they arrest two teenagers in New York City and accused them of being "possible suicide bombers" just because they are Muslim. Then, an assistant principal treats 4th grade Haitian students at a Queens Village, NY school like animals and forces them to eat on the floor without silverware just because a couple of students in their class had a little fight. Now, a 5-year old girl [!] in a St. Petersburg school is handcuffed by three cops and put in the back of a police car just because she had a temper tantrum. What's next? Hard time for any kids not doing their homework? Welcome to public school systems across these United States under the Patriot Act.

A video camera captured images of the girl tearing papers off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and flailing her arms in front of an assistant principal before police were called to Fairmount Park Elementary.

Then it shows the child appearing to calm down before three officers approach, pin her arms behind her back and handcuff her as she screams, "No!" After being placed in the back of a police cruiser, police released the girl to her mother but only after prosecutors informed the cops they wouldn't bring charges against a 5-year-old.

Inga Atkins, the outraged mother, has hired an attorney to bring charges against the cops who handcuffed her daughter. Lawyer John Trevena, who provided the tape to the media this week after obtaining it from police, says the officers went too far. "The image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her," said Trevena. "It's incomprehensible ... There was no need for that," he added.

But in the minds of the school administrators and cops who did this, it's very comprehensible, based on the racist profiling of black and Latino students -- even 5-year-olds -- and on the fascist-like mentality created by the Patriot Act and the endless wars of U.S. imperialism.

Paraphrasing what a German minister said as the Nazis were arresting him: "First they came for the Muslim high school girls, then for the Haitian 4th graders, then for a 5-year-old girl... When they came for my kids there was no one left to protest." Let's make sure there are plenty of people to protest this racist outrage.

Foster Kids `Guinea Pigs' in Racist AIDS Experiments

NEW YORK CITY, April 25 -- "Hundreds of New York City foster children" were used as "guinea pigs" in AIDS drug trials. This resembled U.S. government experiments on black Alabama sharecroppers who were used as `lab rats' during the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment....from the 1930s to the 1970s," when it denied treatment to black people with syphilis "because the doctors needed autopsies for the experiments." (All information and quotes from AM New York, 4/25)

The Administration for Children's Services is being investigated for allegedly using "465 foster children in HIV drug trials, sometimes without testing them for the disease.... Most of the children...were black or Hispanic."

Vera Sharov, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, said many of the children were tested without their consent. On some occasions, she reported, children were removed from foster parents who refused to approve of the drug tests.

Sharov said, "Those experiments were not about helping children. Helpless children of color were exploited and made to suffer so that others could make money."

Such is the racist profit system's "regard" for children, particularly black and Latino kids. It seems that no matter what the nature of the horror, capitalism can always top itself.

1199 Unity with Bosses Cuts Hospital Workers

NEW YORK CITY, April 23 -- When thousands of Asian, black, Latino and white health care workers rallied in midtown Manhattan on April 7 protesting proposed health care cuts in the New York State budget, a PLP leaflet circulated there pointed out that the crisis of capitalism forces millions of working-class families to go without health insurance, closes hospitals in poor communities and generates mass unemployment, while spending hundreds of billions on imperialist wars. This profit system, controlled by all bosses who own everything and defended by their politicians from both parties, is based on the exploitation of the working class.

The demonstrators included home health care aides, nursing home and hospital workers. An alliance of the 1199/SEIU union leadership and the greater New York Hospital Association organized the rally. Not one speaker had a cure for capitalism's on-going health care crisis.

Several workers from one hospital were disappointed with the union uniting with the hospital bosses to fight cuts. Clearly this alliance will mislead workers to rely on the hospital bosses and politicians who represent the profit system. As one worker stated, "The politicians and the bosses must be held accountable for any health care cuts that would result in workers deaths and layoffs."

However, the budget was passed. The union, Governor Pataki and the legislature claimed "victory." Pataki's $400 million cut in the Medicaid program will have a great impact on the working-class poor.

Pataki, the hospital bosses and the labor leaders have said more hospitals must close so that the survivors can "thrive." The 1199/SEIU union leadership agrees with the appointment of a commission to oversee this process.

So far, since 1996, 33 hospitals have closed in NY State, mostly in poor communities. St. Mary's Hospital and North General Hospital, both located in predominantly black communities, are candidates for closing. Institutional racism has made these closings particularly devastating for black and Latino workers since they already have a high unemployment rate. These actions will cause more suffering in those communities.

The health care system is in terminal crisis. Every day thousands of workers search for medical care. They may lose a full day's pay for a single doctor's appointment, whether with a private physician or a hospital clinic. Meanwhile, workers are constantly waging battles with their bosses against short-staffing, violations of patient care and to keep whatever benefits they have.

Workers must fight union leaders who defend the bosses' system, uniting workers across all borders to wage war against capitalist exploitation. Capitalism cannot meet the needs of workers and patients to improve health care through preventive measures and to assure health care for all in a non-racist health care system. Only in a communist-run system, without bosses, politicians and rich people, can the working class have a commitment to each other.

War Budget Chops the Hell Out of Chicago Schools

CHICAGO, April 25 -- "I really don't know what they [human resources] are talking about when they say that we're overpaid. The many unpaid hours that I spend working with the students here, they owe me money."

So stated a support staff worker after a recent union meeting at Evanston High School (ETHS.) The Director of Human Resources attended the meeting to blame us for the school district losing money by not reporting time off the job. The Director announced a new policy: all employees who've exhausted their sick or vacation time must now sign a time sheet (this affected 4 of 125 support staff members; most of their lost time was due to medical issues). The Friday before spring break, these four workers received only a fraction of their normal pay and others received layoff notices.

In March the ETHS school board unanimously passed a budget that cuts teachers, staff and programs for September. The administration plans to chop an additional $2.5 million next year. These cuts will be dwarfed by the slashing of almost 1,000 teacher positions, program cuts, and increased class sizes in Chicago's public schools next year. While billions are going for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to Homeland Security, 80% of Illinois schools are sinking under a $175 million budget deficit! Chicago receives $350 million a year in Homeland Security funding, while the public schools, with 90% black and Latin students, will be devastated by these racist cuts.

Our response is to build a fighting PLP among teachers, students and school workers, and from Evanston and Chicago, we will be marching on May Day.

Baltimore May Day Dinner Inspires Youth

BALTIMORE, MD, April 17 -- Our May Day dinner here was a resounding success. Those attending seemed to enjoy one another even more than the food (which was also a great potluck). Many politically-conscious students came, among the youth drawn by recent actions of the Algebra Project and work at Towson University. The diversity of ages and the multi-racial unity expressed sparked new fire to our efforts to recruit more black and Latino workers in this majority-African American city.

The opening May Day speech was so impassioned that we couldn't show the movie right away; we had to discuss questions like what communism means, what it would look like and if violent revolution is necessary.

A highlight of the evening was a middle-aged African American woman's response to the need to overthrow capitalism. She recalled the Vietnam War, when her son was first born, and that she had cried when she first held him in her arms, thinking of how he would probably be sent overseas to die for some boss's profits. "I was very much aligned with the Black Panther Party," she said. "...But I came to realize...that when a mother cries, her tears have no color. Suffering has no color."

She said she's not allied with communism in particular, but she's not against it either. She knows that capitalism kills and must be destroyed, and a new life built for workers everywhere, on workers' terms. Whatever brings that about, she said, "I'm for it."

We need to strengthen our work here to become a force in the Baltimore area generally, a city certainly in dire need of revolutionary politics. The murder rate here is three times that of Los Angeles and five times that of New York. The vast majority live in pretty horrendous poverty by U.S. standards. Many are illiterate.

Our successful May Day dinner is a good step on the road to expansion, reflected in one dinner participant's enthusiastic question, "Hey, when's your next meeting?"

Young Red

`Made in Jersey' No More

On April 20, the last vehicle rolled off the last assembly line in the last auto plant in New Jersey. It was a Chevrolet Blazer in GM's Linden assembly plant, first opened in 1937. Just days before, GM reported a $1.1 billion loss in the first quarter of 2005. GM had planned to close the factory this summer, but slumping sales and shrinking market share moved them to pull the plug early.

In 1970, there were 46,000 autoworkers in New Jersey assembly plants, in Edison, Edgewater, Kearny and Mahwah. Now there are none. The Ford Edison plant closed in February 2004.

While the Linden plant is not yet officially closed, 1,700 workers are being permanently laid off and there are no plans to restart the line. Some will move to GM plants in Texas, Michigan and Missouri and others will retire.

Over almost 70 years, the Linden plant produced nearly nine million Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. It once employed 6,000 workers and was the first factory outside of Detroit to build Cadillacs. During World War II, women worked the line building fighter planes.

A few of us in PLP worked at Linden for a short time, after having been fired from the Ford Mahwah plant in 1973. We had done a fair amount of communist and anti-racist political organizing at the Ford plant, selling plenty of CHALLENGES and culminating in a week-long series of wildcat strikes and physical fights with the union leadership in June.

In August, the Party led 350 Chrysler workers to take over the Mack Ave. stamping plant against racism, health and safety hazards and the firing of another PLP member. After the 1973 Mack Sit-Down in Detroit, UAW President Leonard Woodcock declared PLP "Public Enemy #1," and the union worked with the auto bosses to purge PLP from the auto industry.

That fall, a group of NJ industrial unions called for a mass rally protesting the OPEC oil embargo against the U.S. We went, CHALLENGES and leaflets in hand, with our union, Linden UAW local 595. The Ford Mahwah union hacks saw us and told the Linden union hacks who we were. The Linden hacks then told GM, who immediately fired us for "falsifying job applications." The fact that there are no more auto plants in Jersey is, at least in part, the legacy of this pro-boss, racist and anti-communist union leadership.

Former Linden GM Red

Ecuador: Prez Flees; Get `Same Dog with Different Collar'

QUITO, ECUADOR, April 25 -- "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") chanted tens of thousands of demonstrators surrounding the national palace here, finally forcing President Lucio Gutierrez to flee for his life in a helicopter. Demonstrators then moved to the airport to ensure he didn't flee the country. Lucio escaped to the Brazilian embassy and was flown at night to Brazil. Colonel Gutierrez was the third president in less than a decade to be ousted here by mass mobilizations.

Gutierrez supported the mass uprising that ousted President Mahuad in 2000. He then won the 2002 election, backed by the leadership of the mass movement, CONAIE (the native people's organization) and the fake leftist People's Democratic Movement. Their leaders even became cabinet members early in the Gutierrez government. But soon Gutierrez turned from a "friend of the people" to another supporter of the Bush-Uribe Plan Colombia (militarization of the region) and the International Monetary Fund. Recently, Gutierrez came to NYC and was hailed by Wall Street. He was praised by LatinSource, a Wall Street analyst of Latin American economies, for "Ecuador outperforming even the most optimistic scenario." (NY Times, 4/25). Of course, this was at the expense of Ecuador's workers, peasants and youth. Four-fifths of the population live in poverty; hundreds of thousands have been forced to immigrate to the U.S. and Europe in search of a job; the dollarization of the economy actually ruined many small businesses.

A section of the bourgeoisie began to fight Gutierrez over the spoils. Former President Febres Cordero and his right-wing Social Christian Party led the struggle to oust Gutierrez. They had major disagreements over the privatization loot (the state-owned oil company Petroecuador and the telecommunication companies Pacifictel and Andinatel are on the privatization table). Gutierrez fought back, making alliances with the hated and crooked former President Bucaram ("el loco"), toppled by mass protests in 1997. He replaced the Supreme Court judges with his appointees, pardoning Bucaram -- convicted of corruption -- allowing him to return to Ecuador in April. This was the final straw, leading to mass protests sacking Gutierrez.

Now Gutierrez's Vice-President Palacio, who recently broke with him, is the new President. He's taken a less pro-U.S. position, even promising to review the presence of U.S. troops in the Manta military base on the Pacific Coast. Whether the new government actually fulfills its promises is questionable. After all, Gutierrez also came to power as a "pro-people" candidate.

What remains is "the same dog with a different collar." The same ruling class is still in power; capitalism remains intact. Racism is still rampant, attacking the indigenous people. The opportunism of the indigenous movement's and fake left's leadership hasn't changed -- just as in Bolivia, where mass protests also ousted a very unpopular president two years ago, but conditions are the same. As a matter of fact, Febres Cordero and the old bourgeoisie seem to be the real winners.

So one aspiring dictator was ousted to be replaced by the old bourgeois dictators. The missing ingredient is a red leadership that turns the anger of the masses into a revolutionary storm to oust all of them -- the bosses and their system -- instead of replacing one fascist for another.

Police State Now Official in Paraguay!

Asunción, PARAGUAY, April 18 -- The Paraguayan government announced a "maximum security alert" today to tighten the bosses' grip on power. Police and military presence will increase throughout the country. The blatant move to implement a police state comes from President Duarte Frutos, member of the same Colorado Party that produced the pro-Nazi, fascist dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.

This occurs a month after a military/police invasion of several farmer "liberated zones" and the kidnapping/murder of an ex-president's daughter, supposedly carried out by an armed wing of the Socialist Party (PPL) and by police allegedly trained in kidnapping by Colombia's FARC guerillas.

The Interior Minister asked the press "to be responsible" and not to "alarm" the public with "big headlines" like "militarization" or "policization" of the country. Simultaneously with the launching of the official police state, President Duarte Frutos repeated his request for a national intelligence service. Paraguayan Secret Service will keep track of "agitators" and threats to the ruling class -- teachers, students, farmers and workers.

Paraguay is South America's second poorest country and the second most corrupt in the world. Discontent is widespread. Farmers "without roofs/land" frequently protest. However, their demands for agrarian reform have been ignored. Duarte Frutos has attacked farmers who squat on government land, and has threatened to "pull them out by their ears." Students also protest at the National University in their struggle to receive a cost-friendly education. Teachers are constantly striking, many working for more than five years without pay! Indigenous groups are the targets of racism and are relegated to selling jewelry at the bus stations and airport. The economic crisis constantly breeds kidnappings and crime, the supposed reason for the maximum-security alert. The ruling class feels its interests are threatened and therefore enforces the police state.

This all occurs with the support and under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam, with military bases and CIA agents across the country supposedly fighting drugs and international terrorism. So capitalism in crisis and its endless wars are creating the police state. Neither the oppositionist PPL, the Beloved Motherland Party (Patria Querida PPQ), the Liberal Party or the ruling Colorado Party, which has been in power for over 50 years, can make conditions better since they all serve one form or another of capitalism. Although the farmers' resistance (even with armed struggle) and organizing is encouraging, the key ingredient missing here and throughout the continent is a revolutionary communist leadership.

With that, the struggles of workers, peasants and students can become one for a society free of capitalism, its permanent wars, misery, corruption and racism. The dictatorship of the bosses can be replaced by a revolutionary workers' dictatorship to build a society based on each according to commitment, to each according to need.

EU Constitution: European Bosses Aim to Confront U.S. Rivals

PARIS, FRANCE -- A new phase of rivalry has begun among the world's imperialist powers. U.S. imperialism has begun preparing for a new war. (See "Rulers Direct `Global War on Terror' Against U.S. Workers," CHALLENGE, 4/13) This has not gone unnoticed in Europe, whose bosses are preparing to defend -- and if possible, extend -- their turf. One of the European bosses' main drawbacks is their lack of unity. Whereas the U.S. has a centralized national government, the European Union (EU) is a federation of 25 countries. The EU has no common foreign policy or military force to oppose the U.S. One principal way EU bosses intend to develop a Europe-wide military is with a European constitution, which would also launch a massive attack on workers' living standards.

The writing of the European constitution reflects the divisions that weaken the continent's rulers. The main contradiction is between the bosses of the big countries -- France, Germany and the U.K. -- and those of the smaller ones. The big countries were accustomed to running the EU. When it was enlarged from 15 to 25 members, they demanded that the small countries surrender their veto power, instituting a qualified majority voting system favoring the big countries. But in December 2000, the small countries, led by Poland and Spain, used a temporary contradiction between the French and German bosses to give themselves a bigger say in EU votes. After 9/11, the French and German bosses became worried about the U.S. military power build-up. They agreed to maintain their hegemony in the EU. In early 2002, a 74-member commission, headed by former French president Valéry d'Estaing, was named (not elected) to write a constitution. They spent 16 months haggling over the text.

But the small countries' bosses said the constitution depleted too much of their power, so in 2003 inter-governmental conferences postponed approval of the constitution, especially since the U.K. bosses claimed it lacked anti-worker measures. Finally, the French and German bosses made a few concessions so last June the heads of the 25 EU member states approved the constitution.

EU's bosses never really disagreed about the need for, or contents of, this constitution, only about how much power each group of bosses would have.

Now each member country must ratify the constitution, either by legislature vote or by popular referendum. Two main reasons for this are: (1) bourgeois ideology forces the bosses to maintain the fiction of "democracy," that "the people" are supposedly the source of all power and therefore should approve the constitution; and (2) the bosses hope to whip up patriotic fervor in the constitution's approval process.

But this constitution is not about democracy whatsoever. Its purpose is creation of an imperialist bloc to rival the U.S. José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission and leader of the Portuguese Social-Democratic Party (and a Maoist 30 years ago), said the constitution intends "to make the EU the most competitive zone in the world."

The constitution's clearest anti-democratic feature has laws written by the European Commission, whose unelected members are named by the various national governments. The European parliament can only approve or veto laws the commission sends it. Also, some EU countries, including France, have "the right to a job" in their constitutions. The European constitution replaces that with "the right to look for a job"!

Almost half the constitution's text contains similar neo-conservative policies. In fact, rather than establishing a system of government, the constitution prescribes the bosses' favorite economic policies in the name of "untrammeled free trade" -- finishing what Europe's bosses began 20 years ago: privatizing nationalized industries, deregulating (eliminating protection for workers), downsizing, outsourcing and globalizing. The constitution gives the bosses a free hand to massively attack workers' standards of living.

Much of the constitution encompasses the "fight against terrorism" and development of a European military force. Article III-276 provides for collecting, storing, processing and analyzing information on terrorists and criminals, without defining them. Article III-297 gives the unelected European commission the power to intervene internationally, and unilaterally decide on the goals, means, extent and time period of its intervention.

Article I-41 gives the European Council (member states' government heads) the power to declare war (by unanimous decision). Article III-309 says the EU can use its military to send military "advisors" and aid and "to maintain peace." The EU can use military force for crisis management and to fight against terrorism, both inside and outside Europe.

Article III-311 establishes a European Defense Agency and defines its job, including harmonizing and strengthening the military in each country. The agency is also responsible for promoting military research and development and for reinforcing the industrial and technological base necessary for the arms industry. Article I-41 provides for a common European military force representing Europe's most powerful countries, even if the smaller ones drag their heels.

(Next issue: how EU members are already beefing up their military, and the various splits within France's political parties on ratification of the constitution.)

Karl Marx Enters Retirees' Wal-Mart Debate

NEW YORK CITY, April 20 -- It was slated to be a brief report to some union retirees about the NYC Central Labor Council's efforts to stop Wal-Mart from opening a store here. I said Wal-Mart had been prevented from building in Queens but now Staten Island was the new target. Then wise guy Sidney said, "It wasn't the Central Labor Council that stopped Wal-Mart, it was the local business association."

I then explained that Wal-Mart's strategy of driving down wages to drive down prices hurts many groups. In fact local merchants --many grocery, clothing and hardware stores are forced out of business by Wal-Mart -- were part of the labor-led coalition to stop Wal-Mart. So are immigrant rights groups (Wal-Mart's subcontractors super-exploit undocumented workers to clean its stores); women's rights groups (Wal-Mart doesn't pay or promote women at the same rates as men); and taxpayer groups (Wal-Mart's low pay and lack of benefits force many of its workers onto supplemental welfare, food stamps and Medicaid).

Then the good questions started coming. Mary asked, "how do they think low-paid workers will be able to buy the things in the stores?" This provoked us to think about how capitalism works. "Workers never get paid a salary equal to the value they've produced," explained a friend of the Party. "Marx wrote about `surplus value' in "Capital." That's where profits come from."

"What about production being moved to the world's low-wage areas?" asked Manny, adding that "there are more products produced than can be sold."

Now we were getting into the crisis of overproduction. The discussion couldn't have been more timely as GM's Linden, N.J. auto plant had closed this week. I explained that a "race-to-the-bottom" strategy exists in every industry as one set of capitalists intensifies its efforts to maintain and expand its market share. This is also true worldwide as capitalists try to control sources of raw material and cheap labor as well. When capitalism takes on this international dimension, it becomes imperialism.

Howie asked, "What about the dollar? It's been losing value relative to the Euro." I said this change reflects the increasing challenge to U.S. capitalists' control of the world. As this competition intensifies, we see increases in the military budget -- war becomes the only way the U.S. tries to stay on top.

There was much agreement among this group of retirees. A notable exception was a union staffer who wanted to focus the discussion on winning on Staten Island and not those "old-time" ideas. 

I had hesitated to get involved in the Stop Wal-Mart campaign because it's tightly controlled by the Labor Council's leaders. I didn't think I could raise advanced ideas in that struggle. Boy, was I wrong!

An active red retiree

Immigrants Rally Against Budget Cuts

NEW YORK CITY, April 22 -- Well over 2,000 workers and youth in Manhattan's Union Squareprotested the Bush administration's slashing of two-thirds of the allotment for the city's network of adult literacy programs. The federal and state cuts would shrink the literacy budget from $26 million to $8.3 million.

The militant and enthusiastic demonstrators included immigrants from scores of countries from Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, striving to learn English, and youth working for their GED's. They carried signs reading, "Increases, Not Cuts"; "Books, Not Bombs"; and "Don't Cut Our Classes". One young woman who earned her GED said , "I have a brother who's in Iraq fighting, and what is he really fighting for? If they cut these education programs.... where are we going to go, to McDonald's?" (NY Times, 4/3)

The rulers' hypocrisy knows no bounds. While they "reform" welfare in the name of forcing people to work, they deny workers and youth the tools which might lead to jobs. Of course, capitalism thrives on permanent unemployment, and these cuts fit that mold. As a PLP leaflet distributed at the rally pointed out, the anger of these protestors must be directed against the system, not just Bush.

The Vietnamese Women Who Defeated U.S. War Machine

May Day 2005 coincides with anniversaries of heroic battles waged by working-class people. It's the 100th anniversary of the 1905 Revolution in Russia (see article this page); the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Red Army's defeat of the Nazi war machine; and the 30th anniversary of the trouncing suffered by U.S. imperialism in Vietnam. Although capitalism has returned to the former socialist countries, the battles waged by these workers will not have been in vain.

The U.S. bosses murdered some three million people in Vietnam, and two million more in Laos and Cambodia, but still lost. It ended with U.S. helicopters taking off from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, carrying U.S. personnel and local lackeys fleeing from the victorious anti-U.S. forces. The Vietnam Syndrome still haunts U.S. bosses, particularly in Iraq. But compared to the fascist-religious anti-U.S. opposition in Iraq, Vietnamese workers and peasants were guided by many communist and anti-imperialist ideas.

One example is Vo Thi Mo, a young woman then, who was featured in a long article in El Mundo (Madrid, 1/17/05). She joined the National Liberation Front (as anti-U.S. forces were known) after seeing U.S. planes bomb her native Cu Chi province in southern Vietnam, killing two of her brothers.

Like many women fighters, they weren't accepted initially by the guerrillas, but the women proved them wrong. Vo and the women she led were so brave that by the end of the 1960's, the U.S. Command put a price on her head. In 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson -- elected the previous year as the "peace candidate" -- began sending more troops to Vietnam, the all-women C3 battalion was formed, young women mainly 16 years old. They took on all kinds of missions, becoming legendary in Vietnam and worldwide. They fought in the jungles, rode motorcycles in Saigon and other cities to execute chosen targets, and also carried out what Vo and her comrades call the "most painful missions," sleeping with the enemy to spy on them. These women were ordered not to become "bar girls" (prostitutes serving GI's) but "girlfriends" of soldiers and officers. They did it despite suffering daily insults from fellow Vietnamese, calling them "whores." She remembered drawing maps she discovered during these spy operations.

Vo was also very compassionate. She recalls surprising three GI's resting in the middle of the jungle. She aimed her AK-47, ready to fire against an easy target oblivious to her presence, when one soldier took out a picture of his family. The others started reading letters from home out loud. They began to cry, missing their loved ones. "For the first time I saw them as persons," Vo said. "I turned around and left." The three GIs' lives were saved without them knowing it.

She was mocked by other guerrillas for being "soft," but nobody doubted her loyalty to the struggle. She won the medal of Military Victory after killing 10 enemy combatants. The C3 Battalion became known as "the women who defeated America."

With such a fighting spirit, nothing the U.S. and its lackeys did could crush them. When General Harkins tried to put "the fear of god" into these "invincible men and women" by using napalm, Agent Orange and carpet-bombing the jungles, causing many casualties, their fighting spirit just grew.

In 1970, Thanh, another member of the C3 Batallion, was captured and tortured for three months by the South Vietnamese lackey army. She was released with an infected left arm (many women incurred such injuries). Her arm was amputated in the jungle with a knife, without anesthesia. But three months later, she was out on mission riding a motorcycle, using what was left of her arm to rest her gun while shooting.

Interestingly enough, these former fighters don't think much of the insurgency in Iraq. "Why do they kill innocent people?" asked Le Thi Suong, 59, a vet of the C3 Battalion. "If it's a people's war, everyone, including women and children, fight to expel the invaders and victory is assured. If you kill civilians it's because you don't have a clear mission, nor a leader guiding you nor a just cause," she continued. "When we saw houses next to a military camp, we never attacked."

Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War ("America's War" the Vietnamese call it since they weren't "the ones who went half-way around the world" to make war), these former guerrillas live very simple lives, mostly in their villages. They are also saddened about what's happened in Vietnam. Their dream of an egalitarian society seems now far away as the likes of Ford, Nissan, Sony, Samsung and Nike super-exploit workers while bars like "Apocalypse Now" serve foreign tourists and young Vietnamese. "We fought two wars," says Vo, "one for the liberation of our country and the other for the liberation of women. We won the first, but the second one is still pending. We already did our part. Now the new generations must continue the struggle."

Sailors and Workers Unite in 1905 Russian Revolution

For the international working class, the outstanding event of the 20th Century was the Soviet Revolution of 1917. For the first time in history, the oppressed class seized state power from the oppressing class. Although making titanic advances for the working class, including the defeat of Hitler in World War II, that revolution was reversed mainly by its own internal weaknesses, taking too many capitalist features into the building of Socialism. That's why PLP is building a movement that fights directly for communism, abolishing the wage system and establishing a society based on "from each according to their commitment, to each according to need."

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution was preceded by the great uprising of 1905, both of which have important lessons. The latter is reviewed below.

A century ago, imperial powers Russia and Japan were locked in a deadly war over control of parts of China. Workers were paying dearly in blood and taxes for this bosses' imperialist war.

Despite tsarist repression, in January 1905 440,000 struck the steel mills, oil fields and other industries -- a huge number for that time. The young comrade Stalin, a leader among the Baku oil workers, and other communists helped organize the strikes.

Communist leaflets distributed amongst the workers called for "international fraternity." They exposed and opposed tsarist attempts to pit Armenians against Tartars, Georgians against Russians. "Long Live the Red Flag!" became a mass slogan in Tbilisi.

Mass May Day marches led to clashes with police and troops. In Warsaw, several hundred workers were killed or wounded, and workers launched a general strike. For three days, they erected barricades in the industrial center of Lodz and fought the tsarist troops. Lenin called this the first armed action of the workers in Greater Russia.

The Bolsheviks had been working among the sailors, opposing imperialist war and calling for internationalism. In June, Odessa workers were on a general strike when sailors revolted on the Potemkin, a battleship of the Black Sea Fleet. These working-class sailors' grievances included harsh treatment and rotten food. In an historic mutiny, they seized their ship, raised the red flag and put it at the service of the revolution.

Sailors on other ships in the Black Sea fleet refused to fire on the Potemkin. But communist leadership amongst those sailors was not strong enough, and these other ships didn't join the revolt, which was finally crushed.

The Potemkin rebellion was "an event of the utmost importance ... the first occasion on which a large unit of the armed forces of the tsar sided with the revolution. This revolt made the idea of the army and navy joining forces with the working class...more comprehensible and nearer to the heart of the workers and peasants, and especially of the soldiers and sailors themselves." ("History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union") The great Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein immortalized this uprising in the silent film "Potemkin."

Debate within the Social-Democratic Party intensified during this period. Communists struggled for the importance of building the Party and calling for socialist revolution, while the "economists" glorified "the spontaneous movement" and promoted bourgeois ideology.

"Our duty," wrote Stalin, "is to deflect the spontaneous working-class movement from the path of narrow trade-unionism to the Social-Democratic [Communist] path. Our duty is to introduce socialist consciousness into this movement and unite the advanced forces of the working class in one centralized party. Our task is always to be at the head of the movement and combat tirelessly all those -- whether they be foes or `friends' -- who hinder the accomplishment of this task."

After a year of heroic struggle, the 1905 Revolution was crushed. Communists had too small a mass base amongst soldiers, sailors and industrial workers to take and hold power. The Party was not yet strongly unified around the left line for which Lenin and Stalin fought, but they learned many important lessons. Twelve years later -- amidst an even larger and more devastating imperialist war -- they led a history-making revolution which established working-class state power.

LETTERS

H.S. `Security' Like Israel's Wall

Recently, after just returning from Palestine, I was invited to a large Bronx high school -- with a black and Latino working-class student body -- to give a talk to a class studying the Middle East.

Carrying my slide projector and dressed in my professional best, I entered at the sole ground floor entrance, which had a guard and a sign stating, "No parents or visitors may enter here." The guard told me the correct entrance was on the other side of the building on the fourth floor, which required about a 20-minute walk up a steep hill or driving to a location where there was no parking. I explained I couldn't carry around this heavy equipment or get there in time and called the teacher. Even when he arrived, I was still not allowed inside as I couldn't be properly "scanned and searched" at this entrance. The upshot was I couldn't give my talk. Clearly, parents are not welcome at this school.

Ironically, I was prepared to show slides of the checkpoints and harassment suffered by Palestinians and of the Israeli-built Wall fencing them in. Although my middle-class friends are horrified by the pictures, the students here would have recognized the similarities with their lives in the Bronx. At least in Palestine my group of health workers was ultimately able to get where we had to go.

A Red Doctor

Union Hacks in Bed With Airport Bosses

The class struggle between workers and airport bosses has grown somewhat sharper recently. Using CHALLENGE, some workers in the reform struggle can be won to a revolutionary outlook. Our union leadership is aligned with the racist bosses in this fight.

It started when the bosses issued safety glasses after a worker accidentally got a chemical in her eye. These glasses blur your vision and make some workers dizzy. The shift manager, who previously tried to spy on one of our union meetings, said the company would pay all medical expenses due to damage from wearing the glasses.

Workers are also upset about not having enough supplies, especially gloves, to do our jobs properly. We need them to handle certain materials.

The union officials came out for a meeting with the workers. When we arrived, the company managers and a vice-president were there as well! Naturally, many workers were reluctant to speak in front of our racist oppressors, but some did. Our shop steward pointed out that it was wrong to invite the bosses to a union meeting; others agreed.

Afterwards, workers leveled some serious criticisms of the union officials for pulling this stunt. These social fascists, who claim to be our friends but collaborate with the bosses, completely whitewash workers' demands for more full-time work for part-time workers.

In this struggle we have an opportunity to win workers to communist politics, how capitalism and their union flunkies can never serve workers' interests. Only communist revolution will allow workers to run society and our workplaces without racist bosses and sellout unions. We'll fight to have union meetings without bosses, and keep CHALLENGE readers posted on our progress.

Airport Red

Bosses' Sick Culture Led to Red Lake Tragedy

Minnesota workers were shocked over the senseless killings at Red Lake Indian Reservation. A few weeks ago, 16-year old Native American student Jeffrey Wiese went on a shooting spree, leaving a number of students and teachers dead, before killing himself.

The racist treatment of Native Americans made young Wiese snap. The reservations are no more than Bantustans similar to the old Apartheid South Africa. Whether on the reservation or in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Native Americans have the highest unemployment in Minnesota. Red Lake reservation is the most economically backward area in the state. Also, alcoholism is a serious problem for Native American workers. Capitalism and the racist bosses have done nothing but perpetuate genocide against Native Americans ever since the mass murderer Columbus "discovered" America.

Ironically, Wiese was both a victim of the racist ideology he embraced as a Nazi sympathizer and the systemic racism directed against him. This sick capitalist culture produced the second worst school shooting since Columbine. Native American, and all workers, deserve much better.

Capitalism and the racist bosses must be destroyed with communist revolution. Communism, under the leadership of a mass PLP, will abolish the reservations, help Native Americans end alcoholism and overcome centuries of racist abuse. Communist multi-racial unity with the international working class is the best hope for our Native American brothers and sisters.

Minnesota Red

Punk and Violence?

For working-class youth who feel disenfranchised and reject capitalist indoctrination, there's a subculture laying in wait with arms wide open -- the punk rock scene. It's full of youth, mainly boys, who are angry, active and potentially ready to be mobilized. Seeing this dangerous pocket of potential resistance, capitalist culture managers are breeding apathy and chemical dependence into this punk scene.

In mainstream music, they've chosen to promote only bands with no political agenda in an effort to depoliticize what was traditionally a politically driven musical style. This began in the early 1990's with the explosion of the So-Cal scene when bands like Green Day (which just won a Grammy for a song attacking Bush as an "American Idiot"), the Offspring, and Rancid were promoted to dilute the resurgence of political punk rock groups then. While these new bubblegum punk bands had little effect in the punk underground at the time, they did shape the next generation of punk rock musicians. Once it was about working-class angst; now it's about selling albums, making money, looking good and getting girls.

For people who remained true to the roots of the punk style, the culture managers had an even more insidious plan. The scenes that remained "underground" were flooded with drugs and succumbed to racist/sexist violence. Substance abuse and chemical dependence had always been a problem in the punk scene, but where at one time punk clubs were constantly being raided by police in order to make drug busts and do warrant searches, they're now being largely ignored. A punk show is a place where you can now freely buy and sell narcotics, which were in all likelihood supplied by the police, and drink until you're disgustingly drunk.

The bands have all come to embrace this desensitization. Where punk bands always bragged about drinking a lot, now they also openly brag about crack and heroine use. Even overtly political bands like Choking Victim will in the same song sing about how screwed up the system is and about how you should just smoke crack and drop out. This mentality is decidedly anti-revolutionary and anti-working class and has completely immobilized a large segment of potentially revolutionary working-class youth.

The violence and machismo so crassly promoted by the mainstream media have also worked to infiltrate and demobilize the punk underground. Violence has always been a part of punk culture, as an expression of working youths' frustration, but never has it been directed at others in such a racist/sexist way. White power punk bands and nazi skinheads, who are typically linked to the punk underground, have never been more popular. Skrewdriver, the original nazi punk band, sells more records now than they ever did when their singer was still alive. Violence against women in the punk scene has also increased dramatically in the last 15 years. Rape, sexual assault, spousal abuse and deadbeat dads are all common occurrences in the punk scene now.

The punk underground, like all enclaves of working-class people, has always struck fear into the hearts of the ruling class. These are kids who did not buy into the mainstream indoctrination in their schools or on TV. Their rebellion, while directionless and generally misguided, was originally their own and anti-capitalist, but now it's being sold to them by the ruling class. In their "rebellion," youth in the punk scene are buying into the racism/sexism of the capitalist rulers and are being sedated by the same chemical and alcohol dependencies that the ruling class has always used to subdue working-class movements.

Southwest Youth

Colombia's Jobless Vendors Organize

For two years now I have been part of the 10 million unemployed in Colombia. The need to survive has forced 6.5 million of us to become street vendors, trying to sell shoes, cigarettes, books, handcraft goods, food and anything else to help feed our families. At the same time, we have to face daily harassment by the cops, who steal our merchandise, arrest us and even beat us up. This "informal" economy really helps the big corporations who use us as another way to sell their products. This situation can be seen in many big cities all over Latin America.

Unfortunately, many street vendors are not organized; they are influenced by individualism and many other bourgeois ideologies. Plus, they have very little time to do anything else besides trying to survive.

I am trying to build ties with many of these "informal" workers. Last December, the rent was raised a lot for the temporary places we work at. Some of these places are owned by a rich guy who arbitrarily sets the rent prices. I met with some fellow vendors and told them that we need to organize to fight this abuse. If the owner sees that we are united, he would think twice about what he does. When we went to see him, he tried to say we were sabotaging his business, but we remained firm. A few days later, he let us know he was going to lower our rent so we could see he wasn't such a monster. But if we hadn't protested, nothing would have changed.

We still face the daily harassment of the cops and the local government, which treat us like delinquents, blaming us for many street crimes, of not paying taxes, of causing the bankruptcy of "regular businesses," etc. But the real culprit of mass unemployment, of the closing of many plants, of the drug-gangs, is the capitalism, which the cops and politicians defend. We want regular jobs which it cannot provide. Indeed, a system like this must be smashed and replaced by a communist society which would provide decent jobs for all, instead of profits for a few bosses.

A Street Organizer

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

New pope's long-time plan: fight Marxism

For Pope Benedict XVI...in the late 1960's....it was the protests of student radicals at Tübingen University...that seem to have pushed him definitively toward deep conservatism....

He was already deeply suspicious of the left wing inside the church...in 1966....

"Marxism revolution kindled the whole university with its fervor, shaking it to its very foundations," he wrote (NYT, 4/24)

U.S. management leaves Latinos poor

Across Latin America....Economic growth for the region hit 5.5 percent last year, the best in a generation, inflation is down, foreign reserves are growing, and credit ratings are solid. But the positive economic news has not translated into housing for the poor, more teachers, better hospitals or social peace.

After years of fiscal prudence, privatizations and other market reforms prescribed by Washington, [unemployment] and poverty rates have hardly budged. Poverty remains pervasive, engulfing 44 percent of the population....

The cynicism among Latin Americans who feel shortchanged is palpable.... (NYT,4/25)

John Brown, no Unabomber, battled slavery

Even before the war on terrorism, John Brown had been largely relegated to a loony sidebar of American history. The high school history textbooks...either brushed Brown off or labeled him insane.... "John Brown, Abolitionist" [says] that Brown was not the Unabomber of his time, but a reasonable man, well connected to his era's intellectual currents and a salutary force for change....

Brown's long study of slave revolts suggested that an act of exemplary violence would set off huge slave uprisings and self-emancipation....

To those who argue that Brown's commendable goals were sullied by his bloody methods, [author] Reynolds retorts that violence was in fact central to his message and his legacy. In the 1850's, it was the pro-slavery forces that held a monopoly on armed force -- terrorizing antislavery citizens in the Midwest as well as the South....

With his guns and pikes, Brown reversed the equation -- stiffening the backbones of Northern abolitionists, terrifying the white South -- and hastening, through both effects, the Civil War and emancipation....

If terrorism is defined as the random killing of civilians to make a political point,, then it is not just misleading to call Brown a terrorist, it is flat-out wrong. Brown selected his victims carefully; all had reportedly threatened abolitionists and the Brown family in particular....

In our own time, some may discern equivalent evils in continuing racial oppression, economic exploitation....Far better to have future generations complain about your methods than condemn you for doing nothing. (NYT Book Review, 4/17)

2 million in prison, black men worst hit

The nation's prisons and jails held 2.1 million people in mid-2004....Nearly 60 percent of prison and jail inmates were racial or ethnic minorities, the report said. An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men age 25 to 29 were in jails or prisons, compared with 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group....(NYT, 4/25)

Big U.S. aid goes to shooting workers

Since 1990 about 90% of assassinations of trade unionists across the world have taken place in Colombia....

Female members of trade unions are increasingly in the line of fire....The rise is due to more women participating in the labour movement....

The seeming impunity enjoyed by those who commit crimes against union members suggests that the repression of workers' rights is to some extent government-backed. Of the some 3,500 trade unionists murdered over the past 15 years, only 600 cases have been investigated, resulting in a mere six convictions....

An anti-union culture appears to pervade government actions, reminiscent of the McCarthy communist witch-hunt in the US. (GW, 4/21)

U.S.: ten times worse than Berlin Wall

The Centre for Comparative Migration Studies in San Diego...shows...students "slides of the Berlin wall, and then tells them that only 239 people lost their lives during the 45 years of the wall's existence -- a tenth of the number who have died on the Mexico-California border."

Running through all these tragedies is the story of how the most powerful countries in the world ignore the factors that lead to the destabilization that sets populations on the move....

In the wake of 9/11, the refugees said that the emphasis during interviews was on lies, how best to catch...the asylum-seekers, find holes in their testimonies so that they could be turned down...A new stamp had been devised -- LOC, `lack of credibility' -- and it was now stamped on to most of the files as a reason for rejection....

The government's perception of refugees altered with the end of the cold war, when the "good" refugees fleeing communism suddenly transformed into "bad" refugees threatening civilization. (GW, 4/21)

Big Biz poisons kids with mercury

Here's a weapon of mass destruction that shouldn't be too tough to find.

Every year, an estimated 300,000 to 600,000 children are born in...[the US] with lower IQ's because of exposure to mercury pollution....

And the Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a new rule regulating mercury. The goal is to cut emissions by 69 percent by 2018.

Yep. An estimated 300,000 to 600,000 children are born every year with lower IQs because of exposure to mercury. And we're bravely aiming to get the problem partially fixed in 15 years or so....

The Bush administration decided on a slower, less-expensive approach favored by the chief polluters in the utility industry. (International Herald Tribune)

 

No Tears for Pope Who Blessed Death Squads

Hundreds Blast Anti-Communists At Transit Union Meeting

Sabotage of Lockheed Strike Shows Need for Communist Class Consciousness

Lessons of the 1970 Postal Wildcat

PLP Anti-War Marchers Raise Political Consciousness

Racism Runs Rampant vs. Haitian, Muslim Students

Muslim Teenagers Threatened With Deportation

Philly Transit, Healthcare Workers Must Unite Contract Battles

Use Wage Fight to Sharpen Class Struggle

a href="#Racist Terror is LAPD’s Main Job">"acist Terror is LAPD’s Main Job

Union Retirees and Social Justice Church Group Discuss Legal Fascism

Legal Fascism Discussed at Church Social Justice Group

Bosses Hunt, Exploit Immigrants and Kill Them in Wars

UAW Helps Sinking GM Screw Workers

Baltimore-D.C. Youth Learn About May Day

Eulogy for Lucia Flammia: Soy comunista, toda la vida!

War Budget Ravages Literacy Programs

a href="#‘Hotel Rwanda’ Fosters the Illusion of Relying on Imperialists">‘H"tel Rwanda’ Fosters the Illusion of Relying on Imperialists

a href="#Students, Faculty Defend Prof Against Right-Wingers’ Anti-Stalin Attack">"tudents, Faculty Defend Prof Against Right-Wingers’ Anti-Stalin Attack

LETTERS

Minnesotans March Against Iraq War

How Would Communism Treat Older Workers?

Links Iraq War to Social Security Privatization

A Class Outlook and Communist Culture

a href="#PLP’ers Make A Difference">"LP’ers Make A Difference

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

• Hitler, too, did everything ‘legally’
• Capitalism feeds on unemployment
• Secret rules bleed former colonies
• ‘American dream’ today is gambling
• Crazy Iraq info was gospel to gov’t

---

No Tears for Pope Who Blessed Death Squads

Reactionary John Paul II consecrated his considerable energy and talents to a life of anti-communism. For his help in preserving their murderous profit system, liberal U.S. rulers are pouring out their gratitude to the late pope, despite their recent differences with him. The church John Paul led, like all religions, immeasurably helps capitalist classes around the world by preventing workers from identifying the capitalist causes of their oppression and organizing revolution. Catholicism — along with Judaism, Islam, Protestantism, Buddhism, and the rest — boils down to the dead-end concept of idealism. In the idealist view, there exists beyond the real, material world a supreme being that guides the course of events no matter what people do. War and oppression become the "will of god." Fighting back is pointless.

John Paul embraced and espoused religious, anti-communist defeatism body and soul. When the Soviet example was attracting thousands of workers into Europe’s communist parties in the 1930’s, John Paul (Karol Wojtyla at the time) entered a Polish seminary, hoping to rise high in the vast church hierarchy. When the Nazis invaded Poland, he joined an underground Catholic sect, which, unlike red-led partisans, followed the official Vatican line, doing and saying nothing that would antagonize the Nazis. The anti-communist Catholic "quietism" young Karol preached helped make Poland the heart of the Nazis’ extermination camp system. During the war, in fact, the future pope developed an admiration for the Nazis that resurfaced when in 1994 he bestowed a papal knighthood on former Nazi officer Kurt Waldheim, who also became UN Secy. General and President of Austria.

A decade before John Paul became pope in 1978, Catholic bishops in Latin America, dismayed that their support for U.S.-backed dictators impelled masses of workers to search for revolutionary answers, concocted Liberation Theology. This doctrine blended grass-roots organizing and mild criticisms of capitalism with Catholic teachings, but explicitly ruled out armed revolution (although many of its rank-and-file followers believed in exactly that). John Paul, however, couldn’t stomach the slightest hint of Marxism. He pulled the plug, forbidding priests to participate in politics and threatened to excommunicate activists in Nicaragua and El Salvador. John Paul did not protest the CIA-trained death-squad murder of El Salvador’s Bishop Romero, a critic of that government’s wholesle slaughter of civilians. Even the Jesuit Democratic congressman Robert Drinan of Massachusetts, who was no more a revolutionary than his mentor Teddy Kennedy, had to vacate his seat under John Paul’s order.

John Paul’s next big anti-communist coup soon followed. By then, serious political errors, such as maintaining wages and a state separate from the party, had turned all the once-communist parties in the world into their opposites. The Soviet sphere and China, which remained threats to U.S. interests, had become thoroughly capitalist. But they falsely still used the label "communist." This offered U.S. rulers the chance to attack their strategic enemies while simultaneously denouncing communism as a corrupt failure.

Ever the opportunist, the pontiff prostituted his services immediately. In addition to funneling funds into Lech Walesa’s reactionary Solidarity union movement, also financed by the CIA and the AFL-CIO, John Paul made a 1979 barnstorming tour of Poland that helped build it and eventually topple the teetering pro-Moscow regime in Warsaw. When Walesa eventually became Poland’s leader, his corrupt government attacked the workers he claimed to represent, with mass layoffs and cutbacks in social services.

Even though today the pundits claim John Paul and Reagan were responsible for the fall of the Soviet bloc, the main reason behind its demise was the contradiction inside the Soviet system as local capitalists drove to eliminate all the gains made by workers under real communist leadership.

The crack-up of the Soviet Union altered the political landscape of Europe, and John Paul’s role there. No longer needing the U.S. nuclear umbrella to protect them, Europe’s rulers began to behave more independently. They rejected U.S. dominance of Persian Gulf oil, a given since 1945. John Paul himself soon cemented his ties to the fanatically anti-communist Opus Dei sect, founded by the now beatified Monsignor Escrivá, private confessor of Spain’s fascist ruler Francisco Franco, and now bankrolled by French capitalists like Claude Bébéar, head of financial giant AXA. When John Paul took a pro-European stance against U.S.-led plans to invade Iraq, the U.S. rulers’ liberal media pounced on the well-known dirty secret that many priests were pedophilic predators.

Criminal cases in U.S. courts have jailed predator priests once coddled by John Paul, and lawsuits have forced the church to sell off crown jewels of its real estate empire. U.S. rulers want to politically distance U.S. Catholics from a pro-European Vatican. The coming pontifical election will in many ways reflect this inter-imperialist rivalry.

Under John Paul, Catholic Church membership rose from 750,000,000 to over a billion. But still the Pope exacerbated the many troubles facing the Catholic church. Many Christians in Western Europe don’t practice their religion. In Latin America, fascistic pro-U.S. protestant sects are gaining ground, particularly in Central America. Many catholic schools and churches are being shut down in the U.S.

All these things present both difficulty and opportunity to those of us who fight for a world without capitalism and its racism, wars, starvation, fascist terror and mass unemployment. That so many people call themselves members of institutions that explicitly condemns communist revolution presents a real obstacle to building a mass revolutionary international movement like PLP. But most people belong out of a desire to be a part of something larger than themselves and to share in some aspect of the social good works the church shamelessly promises but seldom delivers. The majority of the mourners filling the streets of Rome and churches everywhere have aspirations for a world free of exploitation and the hell on earth that is capitalism. Our job is to win them to the rational, communist outlook of building for a revolution.

Hundreds Blast Anti-Communists At Transit Union Meeting

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 6 — The road to revolution is filled with obstacles, some large some small, that slow down the working class. But 650 members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 — almost three times the usual turnout for a union meeting — cleared away a couple of these roadblocks as militant workers ripped into right-wingers who brought up the local’s red president, Mike Golash, on bogus charges.

It was an odd motley crew of right-wing former union officials, black nationalists and white reactionaries whose intent was clear: rally anybody they could against a communist who is providing militant, anti-racist leadership. They don’t care about the union members; they just want to reclaim union office and feather their own nests. Several pro-communists in the union took new steps in the struggle, writing and distributing a leaflet defending Mike, circulating a petition demanding the charges be dropped, and vigorously defending Mike, rejecting anti-communism on the union floor.

The charges were as phony as a three-dollar bill. They claimed Mike hired a union office administrator without official authorization, but the International was forced to overrule them, saying union rules supported Mike’s action. The new office administrator is building a union web site and strengthening the newsletter, among other things, to help increase communication among union members. This is a crime?

The right-wingers also charged a union member took photos at the "Sweetheart Ball" instead of the union hiring an outside vendor. Yet another charge: Mike allowed a union member, having a difficult time due to illness, to use the union hall for a fundraising event. (Aren’t union members supposed to look out for each other?) They also claimed the union’s Committee on Political Education conference was not about elections but about broad politics and fighting management — a charge to which Mike pleads guilty, and is proud of it, since that’s the kind of political education the union needs more of.

Union members were furious with the gaggle of right-wingers out to get Mike, and let them know it. One of Mike’s supporters ripped the microphone out of one of the lying right-winger’s hands and told him to shut the f--- up! When another right-winger attacked Mike for being a communist, a loud chorus of boos erupted throughout the union hall. The vote was decisive — two-thirds voted to reject the charges against Mike.

But these right-wingers are determined. One got in Mike’s face after the meeting, declaring that Mike had won a battle, but they would crush him next time. This is no idle threat. They did mobilize a core of 50 right-wingers and dupe another 200 to support the charges. With a looming battle over health insurance cuts (higher deductibles, co-payments and prescription drug prices) and other basic benefits, a battle that cannot be won without a major fight, the right-wingers will surely blame Mike for any setbacks, and may gain support.

Mike cannot win simply by promising steady improvements through clever negotiating. To maintain communist leadership, workers must increasingly understand the long-term character of the struggle, especially as capitalism’s crisis intensifies and a communist-led union is seen as a threat by more than these bugs in the road. These self-aggrandizing bandits will ultimately be backed by management, the government, and their police forces.

An ever-bigger battle is looming. But the reds are ready!

Sabotage of Lockheed Strike Shows Need for Communist Class Consciousness

PUGET SOUND, WA. — The Aero Mechanic, the newspaper of Boeing’s largest IAM union, hyped Lockheed Machinists’ ratification of a "New Agreement" in its April issue. It rarely covers contracts at other locals, particularly those ending week-long strikes as far away as Georgia, Mississippi and West Virginia. The Aero Mechanic listed all the "goodies" in the Lockheed contract, but omitted the issue that caused the strike in the first place: new workers will still not receive retiree medical benefits.

These strikers threatened to break the IAM/UAW aerospace pattern established the past two years. Showing class consciousness — despite objections by the Local and International leadership — they struck on behalf of the new, younger workers who hadn’t even been hired yet! A Boeing-area local passed a support resolution after the local leadership unsuccessfully attempted to end the whole meeting to avoid discussing the strike’s implications.

As soon as these brave workers overrode the union leadership, the entire bosses’ propaganda machine acted. The media claimed large numbers of scabs; the local Congressmen and Senators called the timing "unfortunate"; the Pentagon threatened to cancel or relocate production. The International — knowing that its job is to guarantee war production as cheaply as possible in order to more efficiently back imperialism’s attacking other workers — immediately met with the company again, quickly following that with a new vote. Democracy in action: keep voting until you get it right!

Under such pressure, it’s not surprising this isolated group of about 3,000 strikers caved in. Nonetheless, many workers in Boeing’s Puget Sound plants were disappointed, provoking discussion on how to end this cycle of attacks and weak responses. "That’s what happens when you have these small groups," said one local Machinist. "When they go out, we have to go out!"

Lessons of the 1970 Postal Wildcat

In 1970, a dozen black, rank-and-file workers stormed the stage at a meeting of the Manhattan-Bronx (N.Y.C.) Postal Clerks Union, chasing the hacks off the stage, starting a multi-racial, illegal, national wildcat that spread to 200,000 in days. "That’s just it!" complained another machine operator. "You just can’t get guys today to chase out the union leadership like they did."

These black, rank-and-file leaders were no doubt greatly influenced by the politics of the day, as was the whole postal workforce. A few years before, Harlem exploded in anti-racist rebellion. Anti-imperialist politics had migrated from the campuses to the army and back again. During that year, 55% of the Army had been involved in mass refusal of orders or outright rebellion against racism and the Vietnam War, according to the Pentagon’s own internal studies. There had been "a general weakening in the authority of all institutions," said the N.Y. Times (3/26/70). The "crisis in…public and private employment… [was caused] by two…factors. One…the erosion of pay envelopes….[Secondly a] general weakening in the authority of all institutions….No longer command[ing]…respect…." this led to "the postmen’s defiance of the law" and their "refusal to heed the pleas of their own union leaders [to]…return to work."

"Oh, that could happen again!" said the same guy who complained workers won’t chase away the union misleaders.

This time we can get it right! No matter how militant the class struggle, the ruling class must eventually prevail if the politics remain within the bounds of capitalism. Indeed, relying solely on militant class struggle ultimately leads to cynicism and the burying of class consciousness as the ruling class reasserts its control. Instead, we must measure our success in the growth of revolutionary forces — our Party, its base and the circulation of our press. None will come quick and easy. "We had class consciousness in the 1980s," said a Salvadoran worker, describing the fierce battles in his native country during that decade—like the massive general strike of July 1980, led by industrial workers.,. "Now, I have something better — communist class consciousness."

Imagine what even a few comrades in the post office with a significant political base built through networks of CHALLENGE readers and sellers could have accomplished during the postal wildcat. Building such political networks of readers and sellers now will help prepare us for when it "happens again" — and could spark it.

PLP Anti-War Marchers Raise Political Consciousness

On March19, three teachers and ten students from my high school joined the anti-imperialist contingent at a local anti-war march. The day before we stayed after school creating posters. One sign depicted an Iraqi woman and a female U.S. soldier and read, "NO LIVES FOR LIE$." The "I" showed a picture of the burning twin towers, signifying the use of 9/11 to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The morning of the march, one student said the day before he’d been "walking home from school. A cop shouted at me, saying I did something wrong, and sprayed me in the eyes with pepper spray. It burned so bad, I thought I went blind." I asked him why he thought the cop acted this way. He replied, "Because my black face fit the description." The student enjoyed the march because we "agitated police and stood up for what we believe in." I heard him screaming, "Racist cops mean…We got to fight back!"

At the march, several of my students chanted on the mike with me, in English and in Spanish. One student was nervous about speaking, but she said, "I felt confident when I saw that everyone wanted to hear what I had to say, and were chanting along with me. I felt so much pain and energy while chanting that I wanted to cry."

Another student mentioned the diversity of the Party marchers. "There were so many people of different colors and ages, and teachers marching with students. We are fighting together instead of against each other."

One student like the chant, "Shitty schools mean…we got to fight back." She said, "I’m happy to see people actually care about how messed up capitalism is. Our schools are garbage, and the rich are just getting richer."

Our school was a sweatshop before it was transformed into a high school. This means small spaces, poor heating systems and few windows. Many of our classes have no textbooks, we have no music teacher, and the copy machine has been broken for a month.

Initially I was hesitant to expose some of my students and colleagues to the Party for fear of being fired. I’ve been teaching for only four months. Some of my students read CHALLENGE, some have heard the word communism. Teachers discuss politics with me at lunch, but I’ve only told a few I’m a communist. After marching with the Party’s contingent, things changed.

My students are excited about participating in an April 20th day of action against imperialist war. So far, more than half the teachers in my school agreed to incorporate the issue of present-day imperialism in their lessons — including the Spanish, Art, Math and Science teachers. One of my students asked about attending May Day; another wants to know more about PLP. Monday morning, I walked into the classroom of a teacher who had marched on Saturday. In big block letters, the "Do Now" on the board read: "SMASH IMPERIALIST WAR. How does imperialism exist today?" I realized I could be more open about my politics with my friends.

Racism Runs Rampant vs. Haitian, Muslim Students

QUEENS VILLAGE, NY, April 12 — Today, dozens of angry parents and supporters picketed P.S. 34 demanding the firing and punishment of assistant principal Nancy Miller and principal Pauline Shakespeare for their racist treatment of Haitian children. After a squabble among two Haitian students, on March 16, Miller ordered 13 Haitian children of a 4th grade bilingual class to sit on the floor and eat their lunch with their bare hands. Talk about Nazi-like collective punishment! Miller said, "In Haiti they treat you like animals and I will treat you the same here." Parents are enraged that these two racists have not been punished although the incident occurred a month ago.

"She’s got to be fired," said parent Francia Devil. Miller has requested a transfer to a desk job in a regional Education Dept. office while the attack is "being investigated."

Since this outrageous act happened in the cafeteria, other adults were probably there and should have stopped it.

Muslim Teenagers Threatened With Deportation

NYC students are experiencing a racist rampage. Recently two 16-year-old Muslim women H.S. students, one from Guinea and the other from Bangladesh, were arrested in the middle of the night by Homeland Security and threatened with deportation, based on pure anti-Muslim racism. The FBI has asserted that both teenagers are "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based on evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." Teachers and students at Heritage H.S. in East Harlem — which the Guinean youth attended — are outraged. The president of the parent-teacher association, Deleen Carr, said, "I know in my heart of hearts that this is bogus." Ms. Carr welcomed the young woman to her house daily, saying, "...how dare they?"

UFT’ers Against the War intends to bring a resolution before the teachers’ union’s Delegate Assembly condemning the arrests and Homeland Security.

The same rulers that increasingly slash school programs to pay for the Iraq war and the Homeland Security police state are pushing this vile racism. All parents, students and teachers must oppose these fascist attacks!

Philly Transit, Healthcare Workers Must Unite Contract Battles

PHILADELPHIA, April 8 — In the next four months, union contracts expire here for almost 20,000 workers in transit and healthcare. Health benefits, pensions and jobs are key issues in both, but they also share a common cause.

The U.S. government continues to cut money from social programs needed to pay for the bosses’ widening wars. This fuels ever-greater funding crises in both industries. They are ultimately insolvable: the needs of the capitalist class to protect its profit empire are diametrically opposed to workers’ needs for transit and healthcare.

The urgency for revolutionary communist PLP leadership was never greater. When the pro-capitalist union leaders aren’t fighting each other, they ally with one group of bosses or another and make concession after concession. They will never organize the working class for communist revolution, the only solution for these capitalist funding crises. PLP here will participate in these contract fights to spread the need for workers to join PLP and fight for communism.

On April 15, the contract expires for 5,000 transit workers in Transit Workers Union Local 234, employed by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority). SEPTA is demanding that workers begin paying for health benefits and prescriptions.

The union agreed to extend the original March 15 contract expiration date by 30 days. In early March, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell announced a surprise federal grant which meant "no need for service cuts, layoffs or fare increases." Rendell nonetheless warned transit workers against striking, declaring that a strike would "anger" state legislators and jeopardize further state funding.

For several years, Local 234 union leaders have been fighting each other. At one point, the International stepped in and took over the local. Because of the infighting and the continuing funding crises, the previous union leaders decided to accept a one-year contract with no salary increase. A former union activist complains that, with the contract expiring in just one week, "nobody knows what’s going on."

The more than 12,000 Local 1199C healthcare workers — whose contracts expire in July — have an advantage over their transit brothers and sisters. PLP has been active in that Local for years and PLP members are playing significant roles in these contract fights. They explain how a capitalist system in a period of war and fascism increases these healthcare cuts. We organize the workers to build a revolutionary movement, not just limiting our fight to winning the local contract battle — something pretty difficult to do these days! PLP is also organizing healthcare workers to support transit workers should they strike.

In transit and healthcare, the real crisis is the lack of communist class-consciousness among the workers. The solution is more workers reading CHALLENGE and joining PLP.

Use Wage Fight to Sharpen Class Struggle

NEWARK, NJ — "Should I be struggling with my fellow workers to fight for better wages?" asked George, a Party club member here and an immigrant worker from a Central American country. He makes bricks for a construction company for $7 an hour.

"Have you talked to your co-workers on whether they’d want to fight for higher wages?" asked comrade Linda.

"Yes, we all feel the same way," answered George. "Every year we get a measly 20-cent raise, while every summer the work doubles. They’re making plenty of money off of us to be able to give us more."

Then comrade Francisco said, "It would be a great struggle to launch against your bosses; it would expose the contradiction between the workers and the bosses. But we must show that this is the essence of capitalism. The bosses rely on you and your co-workers for cheap labor."

Then George said, "Many of us came here from Latin America thinking life would be better, but in reality many struggles here are almost the same. Eighty percent of us are immigrant labor."

A few months ago George’s arm was crushed in a brick-making machine. Fortunately, no bones were broken but his arm was in a sling for several weeks. These workers have no health benefits.

"Well, should I struggle with my workers for better wages?" George asked again.

"Of course you should," replied Francisco, "but we also have to emphasize that capitalism will never resolve workers’ problems. If we press hard enough, the bosses may throw crumbs — more wages, better benefits — at us. They will, however, continue to exploit us for our surplus value [the source of their profits]. We need to win our fellow workers to fight for a new society, communism, where workers worldwide will run things."

"Yes," George responded, "I guess, with these particular struggles we, as well as our fellow workers, learn that we can fight and sometimes win and lose. But we need to learn to keep fighting the bosses."

"Exactly," exclaimed Linda. "And don’t forget to distribute CHALLENGE to show them workers are doing the same around the globe."

a name="Racist Terror is LAPD’s Main Job">">"acist Terror is LAPD’s Main Job

LOS ANGELES, March 28 — "The LAPD has declared war on black and Latino young men," I said to a middle-aged black man as I handed him a leaflet about the two latest victims of police terror: Devin Brown and Tony Diaz, both murdered by the LAPD. "This has been going on for years," he responded. "It’s not new."

"Here’s our newspaper [CHALLENGE] saying we need a communist revolution to change all this," I said. "They’re killing our young people here and in the war in Iraq. Over 1,500 U.S. soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. They’re not sending the politicians’ or rich folks’ sons and daughters, just our own," I continued. "This paper shows the revolutionary potential of the whole working class, especially the youth. We’re asking for a donation." The man pulled out a $5 bill and took the paper.

Earlier this month, teachers in three different union area meetings passed a motion proposing that the union condemn the cops’ racist murder of Devin Brown as a violation of human rights. The motion will now go to the union’s House of Representatives.

At several schools, students have distributed hundreds of leaflets condemning racist police terror and the war in Iraq. They call for the unity of students and workers to march on May Day as part of building a mass movement against these evils and the capitalist system that relies on them. Another group of students is circulating a petition against the LAPD’s racist attacks.

Workers and youth in the community have been outraged at these recent police killings. Several marches and rallies have condemned them, but the leadership is proposing "community oversight of the LAPD" to reform the police department, and to "stop the killing of us by us." These two demands, while on the surface sounding good, divert us from the real culprit, the capitalist system itself. They’re spreading the illusion that the LAPD and the system can be reformed to stop racist killings — this at the very time we’re being attacked even harder. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.

The misleaders use the highly-publicized teen homicides (mainly gang shootings) to try to build support for the cops. These shootings have been declining slowly for several years. Besides, gangs and gang ideology were encouraged by the cops and their capitalist masters — including Hollywood and the music industry — in an effort to keep young people from uniting against racism, unemployment and the capitalist system behind them. The gangs actually copy the rulers’ wars for control. We can’t rely on the cops or their fascist ideas to end the gangs.

"Community oversight of the police" is a trap to involve workers and youth in fingering others and going along with the rulers’ drive towards their police state. We must reject this trap and expose the police as armed agents of the ruling class whose role is to protect and serve the racist capitalist system in crisis.

To continue their imperialist wars for control of oil profits, U.S. rulers are cutting more from education — Gov. Schwarzenegger is slashing millions from California’s education budget —while closing the MLK trauma center and many other social programs. This lowers all workers’ standard of living. As workers and youth fight these fascist attacks, the rulers will use their racist cops to terrorize us and use their "reform movement" to try to pacify us.

Workers need a different outlook to avoid the "police reform" trap. The bosses will send increasing numbers of youth into the military and into low-wage jobs with few benefits. Capitalism needs police terror. By organizing our class against their fascism and war machine, building unity between students, workers and soldiers with a multi-racial, international working-class revolutionary communist movement, we can challenge the rulers’ imperialist war and fascist police terror, and ultimately destroy them.

We invite youth and workers to march on May Day and to join the fight for our future: a communist society run by the working class in our own interests.

Union Retirees and Social Justice Church Group Discuss Legal Fascism

NEW YORK CITY, April 5 — At a meeting of the Hispanic/Solidarity committee of AFSCME’s District Council 37, retiree activists heard Lynne Stewart present the chilling facts of her recent trial. She was convicted of "providing or concealing material support to terrorist activity" and making false statements to the government (saying she would abide by "special administrative measures"). She was then disbarred.

Following her presentation, one long-time activist noted that, "If they can attack an activist lawyer like Ms. Stewart, then we’re all threatened." A committee leader concluded that the changes in laws and rules, which were the basis for her conviction, were clear steps in the development of fascism.

The discussion turned to building concrete support for Ms. Stewart, including inviting her to speak at other union, retiree, church and community meetings. It was clear to the audience that broadening the defense campaign was more important than merely sending personal letters to the sentencing judge calling for leniency.

Finally, there was a wide-ranging discussion over why this was happening now. One black worker recalled former activist and anti-racist lawyer Alton Maddox who has been barred from practicing law for the past 16 years, wondering why there wasn’t a widespread movement to defend him. Another noted the post-9/11 round-up of hundreds of Muslim and Arabic men, none of whom were ever charged with any crimes, and raised the possibility of the Patriot Act being used to break workers’ strikes.

Bringing this "outside" issue to the committee proved to be an exciting and useful day for the retired unionists, and for Lynne Stewart and her husband.

Legal Fascism Discussed at Church Social Justice Group

Seventy-five people came to a recent talk by Lynne Stewart about her case and its "implications for defense lawyers and our civil liberties." A social justice group of a large urban church I attend sponsored the event.

Although Lynne had nothing to do with supporting or aiding terrorism, she’s been convicted of violating rules for lawyers and conspiring to help her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, foment terrorism. She faces a 30-year sentence.

Lynne explained that although other lawyers were involved in the Sheik’s legal defense, she was "chosen by Attorney General John Ashcroft to be his poster girl." In short she’s been persecuted so the U.S. government, under "Homeland Security," can demonstrate how far it will go to break its own "rules and laws" and gut peoples’ so-called Constitutional rights to squash any dissent. As Lynne put it, "Fascism in the U.S. is no longer creeping, it’s galloping."

The attentive audience rose to applaud Lynne’s courage in fighting her conviction. Plans were made to write hundreds of letters to the judge who will sentence Lynne on Sept. 23. He will no longer use the old "sentencing grid," but under new guidelines implemented in early 2005 will have "latitude" to use his own "discretion." We plan to bring as many church members as possible to court that day.

During the question and answer period, a young lawyer described his fear and asked Lynne how she overcomes hers. She spoke about her path from a Queens girl to one who came to understand the vile nature of racism and her decision to fight it and all forms of oppression. Yes, there is fear, she said, but the desire to do the right thing is stronger.

Another person asked if a Democratic Party election victory would have made a difference. "Not really," she answered. "I’ve come to understand that corporate wealth rules America, not a particular party."

I spoke, pointing out that Lynne’s case shows we’ve reached a new stage in the development of fascism in the U.S. Now the IRS is investigating liberal churches and institutions and civil rights organizations for so-called tax violations, a clear attempt to muzzle political dissent. The church congregation recently endorsed a mildly-worded resolution against "excesses" in the Patriot Act. The church lawyer and institutional leaders have refused to make it public for fear of further IRS probing. A fight is underway, pitting the principles of the social justice activists here against the political and institutional interests of the church leadership.

Before the program began I placed 50 copies on the literature table of a speech I gave at a local church in November, on a panel with Lynne Stewart and others. It outlined the development of U.S. fascism, how it’s linked to the global objectives of U.S. imperialism, how fascism was defeated in the past and how we must fight it now. All 50 copies were taken. One friend said the speech was "as straight to the point as an arrow." I plan to invite him and a few others to our May Day program.

The Party’s roots are growing deeper. We’re seizing the moment and preparing for the long-term struggle to defeat fascism with communist revolution.µ

A comrade

Bosses Hunt, Exploit Immigrants and Kill Them in Wars

LOS ANGELES, CA. — "They didn’t want to renew my driver’s license," exclaimed a garment worker. "I’ll have to risk having my car taken away." He’s lived in California 15 years, has a family and needs his car to get to work. The DMV denies driver’s licenses to hundreds of immigrant workers because they’re undocumented.

Life in the U.S. is becoming harder for all workers, but for undocumented workers it’s already a living hell. They suffer super-exploitation in garment sweatshops, steel foundries, construction and aerospace parts production. The bosses impose minimum wages, speed-up and deny benefits. Without a driver’s license or ID, one can be arrested and deported for jay-walking or forced to pay up to10% of a check to have it cashed.

With U.S. bosses fending off imperialist rivals and stuck in a quagmire fighting for Iraq’s oil, they need to squeeze all workers more, but especially the undocumented. To accomplish this, one group of bosses want to openly use the racism and terror of groups like the "Minutemen." Other bosses have a liberal approach: win millions of undocumented workers, their children and the immigrant population in general to patriotism, and promise an amnesty program. They hope to get low-paid, "grateful" and stable workers for their expanding war industries and enlist patriotic soldiers for their wars. But they could get the opposite!

The "Minutemen" have gotten floods of publicity about their campaign to "patrol" the border and stop undocumented workers from immigrating. They’re also demanding Bush use the Army to seal the border and more widely implement the fascist Homeland Security Act. Although they boasted they’d have thousands, barely 200 racists appeared, with a similar number of reporters.

They bosses scapegoat undocumented workers, blaming them for all the problems caused by their decadent capitalist system. Yet undocumented workers contribute greatly to the bosses’ economy. Although they’re ineligible for Social Security and other benefits, seven million undocumented workers contribute about $7.5 billion annually in Social Security taxes. (New York Times) Despite the bosses’ rabid anti-immigrant racism, there are more than 30,000 non-citizens on active duty in the armed forces. Another 25,000 have become citizens, or applied for it post-9/11. Another 11,000 are in the Reserves. The liberal bosses hope they can lure many more.

Workers and soldiers, whether citizen, legal immigrants or undocumented, are brothers and sisters of one international working class. We have the same interest: destroying this rotten system. Immigrant workers play a growing, key role in industry and the military. They can help turn the situation into its opposite by rejecting the bosses’ patriotism and nationalism, uniting with citizen workers and organizing against every attack, aiming to fight for power for the whole working class.

The bosses and their politicians, whether open fascists or liberal fascists, belong to the same capitalist class, which lives off our exploitation. In order to fight their attacks, we should take our struggle to our unions, churches and mass organizations. In the struggle for driver’s licenses, amnesty or higher wages, we must show that the only lasting victory is the growth of a mass, revolutionary communist party fighting for workers’ power.

The upcoming May Day celebrations can help our unity and understanding grow in the factories, schools, churches and everywhere, a foundation for building a revolutionary communist movement to smash racism, imperialist wars, capitalist borders and exploitation.

UAW Helps Sinking GM Screw Workers

DETROIT, MI, April 3 — GM chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner, took direct control of the company’s North American operations today to try to strengthen the company’s weakening grip on the domestic auto market. In the first quarter, GM’s domestic market share fell to 25.7% from 27% a year earlier, according to the AutoData Corporation. A decade ago, GM held about 33% of the domestic market. Overall U.S. market share for GM, Ford and Chrysler sank to a low of 57.6% in February.

GM’s two most senior North American executives, Robert A. Lutz and Gary Cowger, had their responsibilities reduced. Peter Morici, a University of Maryland business school professor, compared it to "moving around the chairs on the deck of the Titanic."

GM cut production by 12% in the first quarter and 10% for the second quarter, and will permanently close three assembly plants in Baltimore, Lansing, Michigan and Linden, NJ. They will continue a five-year trend of cutting 1,000 to 2,000 white-collar jobs annually. At a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley, GM vice-chairman Lutz said that GM might phase out another brand, as they did with Oldsmobile.

The world’s largest automaker announced an $846 million loss for the first quarter of 2005, its second consecutive quarterly loss, and the largest since 1992, when GM was on the verge of bankruptcy. GM stock plummeted by 14% — the steepest decline since the 1987 stock market crash — to under $28, down from over $80 five years ago. GM’s bond rating was downgraded by all major ratings firms, indicating Wall Street’s lack of confidence in the company’s future.

GM is facing a sharp decline in sales and market share, increased competition from Asian and European auto bosses and rising material costs. Health care costs are expected to climb from $5.2 billion last year to $5.6 billion (Chrysler’s health care costs are about $2 billion; Ford, about $3 billion). Over 1.1 million current and retired workers and their families make GM the largest private health care provider in the U.S. (about two and a half retirees for every GM worker still on the job).

GM is counting on the UAW to help them out of their deep financial hole. They may negotiate a buyout package similar to the one it got from its German union last fall, when Opel cut 12,000 jobs. But healthcare will be the big target. GM will look for concessions similar to the ones UAW gave Caterpillar and DaimlerChrysler, forcing workers to pay more of their health care costs. Lutz said, "It’s very difficult to say how or where this is going to go, but we have to maintain the dialogue and impress upon our partners [the UAW] how important this is." If "dialogue" fails, GM could threaten to go to bankruptcy court, like many airlines and steel companies have done to eliminate their healthcare and pension responsibilities.

In the 2003 contract talks, the union conceded increases in co-payments for drugs and some doctors’ visits. Last month, Chrysler and the UAW agreed to raise out-of-pocket medical expenses for 35,000 workers, retirees and their families who use preferred-provider plans. Chrysler began secret talks with the UAW about six months ago, and negotiated those changes without re-opening its national contract. They used a little-known pact, negotiated in 1982 but never invoked, allowing Chrysler to seek relief if health costs spiral out of control. Stephen D’Arcy, in charge of automotive practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Detroit said, "There’s going to be significant changes in the way health care is provided to auto workers, retirees and their families in the future. This is just the beginning."

The crisis of GM reflects the sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry and the capitalist crisis of overproduction. Morgan Stanley auto analyst Stephen Girsky said, "They have too many plants, too many workers, too many models, too many dealers and their employee benefits are too high."

GM’s problems reflect the decline of the U.S. auto industry over several decades. But the real crisis facing workers is the lack of any leadership that fights pro-war patriotism/nationalism; that would never accept "what is good for GM is good for workers"; that would fight racism and anti-communism; and that wouldn’t accept concessions destroying jobs, wages and benefits. This loyalty to the bosses’ profit system has brought the UAW and U.S. labor movement to the brink of extinction.

To remain the top imperialist dog, the rulers must rely more and more on their military muscle, ultimately leading to another world war. That’s how the imperialists settle their battles for markets, resources and cheap labor. This May Day we will fight to win more industrial workers, soldiers and youth to build a communist leadership that will eventually bury the warmakers and their agents inside our ranks.

Baltimore-D.C. Youth Learn About May Day

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 1 — Workers and students here and from Baltimore gathered to watch the May Day video, eat pizza and discuss politics, in preparation for the upcoming May Day march in Brooklyn. After socializing while having pizza, two young comrades presented the history of May Day and the Progressive Labor Party. Then we watched the May Day video and discussed the issues talked about by workers in the march: workers’ rights; how capitalism takes power away from workers and why; questions like "Do workers have power?" and "How can workers obtain power?"

People asked how communists can legally exist today, how people perceive communism and how we can open up our fellow workers’ consciousness. This led us to a discussion about fighting for multi-racial class unity, and how the ruling class divides us by "race" in order to oppress us. Since many of the participants had never heard of May Day or the Progressive Labor Party, we partly focused on ways the ruling class uses fear to create an atmosphere of anti-communism.

Everyone took a CHALLENGE and a flyer about upcoming events. After the formal presentation, many of the youth stayed to talk more about capitalism and how to change it. Even speaking informally, a young comrade’s knowledge and class analysis of who controls wealth in the U.S. impressed an audience member. The comrade gave him the "Who Rules the U.S." article for more detailed information. The evening concluded with the youth leaders arranging for follow-up with the workers who attended, to consolidate their coming to May Day.

Eulogy for Lucia Flammia: Soy comunista, toda la vida!

At the Boston May Day dinner and at a memorial service the following day, we paid our final respects to Lucia Flammia, our dear friend and comrade for 15 years. Lucia was a wonderful mixture of militancy and passion, determination and stubbornness. Both as an individual and as a comrade she made a positive impact on many peoples’ lives. Lucia loved life, and did her best to enjoy her life. She never held back. Whether she was cooking for and entertaining her friends and family, enjoying a night on the town or demonstrating against the evils of capitalism, she always did it with gusto and more. When those attending one of Lucia’s social gatherings often asked her why she prepared far more food than could possibly be eaten, she would reply, "Don’t worry, I’m Italian and that’s the way we do it."

Lucia first met PLP as a student at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She was already a committed communist and was working to organize against budget cuts and the English proficiency exam. She helped lead a student march to take over the president’s office. The president was dumbfounded as Lucia yelled in her face. The students joked that the president ran from the wrath of Lucia. Lucia wanted to show students here how Italy’s students did things, so they would learn to be militant.

Lucia soon joined PLP and was involved in many activities. She went to Seattle to help organize soldiers; mobilized residents of a Boston housing project to protest the police murder of a young man; and helped organize the Worcester community to protest the brutal police murder of Cristino Hernandez. Lucia used her knowledge of Spanish and Italian to enthusiastically bring the communist ideas of PLP to immigrant workers here as well as in other countries. While a professional tutor at Roxbury Community College, she organized the other tutors to demand their paychecks, delayed by the administration. Many people admired and loved her.

People sometimes say that communists are the best people they’ve ever met. However, communist are still people, with all the flaws and weaknesses people have. But communists differ in that they struggle collectively to transform both the world and themselves so that humanity can move forward.

Lucia’s communism was born in the struggles of the Italian partisans against fascism. She came from a communist family. Her grandfather attended the founding convention of the Italian Communist Party. He later organized the peasants of his region to seize the land from a local prince and the Catholic Church and to establish a commune when World War II ended. As a young girl, Lucia’s mother served as a courier for the communist anti-fascist underground.

During the 1970’s, Lucia participated in the massive left-wing youth movement that swept Italy, including communists as well as anarchists and the terrorist Red Brigades. As the movement began to destabilize the country, the Italian police responded with a combination of massive repression and encouragement of drug use among the young militants. In the aftermath of the Red Brigades’ kidnapping and execution of the former Italian prime-minister, Aldo Moro, 13,000 leftists were rounded up, imprisoned and tortured. Massive cynicism and depression swept the movement. Many of the best communist youth became shackled with the chains of addiction and alcoholism. Some recovered, some died, and some, like Lucia, fought a lifetime battle to stay sober. For much of her life, Lucia won that battle and was able to accomplish many things. She worked to raise a son and to rebuild the communist movement. Ultimately, she became a casualty of the class battles that she and other Italian youth had fought 30 years earlier.

The Italian partisan song Bella Ciao, which means beautiful goodbye, says that if I die, pick up my gun and continue to fight. It says that I am a communist all of my life. Lucia, too, was a life-long communist, and we know that she would want us to continue her fight.

Bella Ciao, Lucia. You will be missed and you will be remembered!

War Budget Ravages Literacy Programs

NEW YORK CITY, April 12 — Millions of U.S. workers are facing drastic federal budget cuts for many already under-funded programs, like medical care and housing. Little-known adult literacy programs face a proposed 64% cut in federal funding. Meanwhile, money for the military, FBI and CIA, is being increased.

Over 50,000 mostly low-income and immigrant adults here attend literacy and ESL classes to improve their English language abilities, prepare for the GED exam, and/or improve their overall academic skills. The cuts will ravage this program.

Adult literacy staff and students in NYC are fighting back with letter-writing campaigns, petitions and demands on politicians. Staff in the CUNY adult literacy programs has spearheaded a coalition, including some community-based programs, in planning a large "Rally to Protect NYC Adult Literacy Programs" for April 22 at 10 A.M. in Union Square. Several students will give important speeches.

Progressive Labor Party supports these efforts but feels certain aspects could undermine the best interests of current and future students. First, by focusing almost solely on adult literacy programs, the coalition is not reaching out enough to others affected by the budget cuts and might allow the rulers to use one group against another. Last week thousands of healthcare workers rallied in Manhattan against budget cuts. Imagine how much more powerful a unified demonstration with those workers would be in fighting the war budget and fascist Homeland Security. The bosses are waging an offensive against the entire working class to appropriate even more federal tax dollars for their imperialist military machine.

Secondly, by relying heavily on the "good will" of mainly Democratic Party politicians, the anti-budget cut coalition is trusting the fox to protect the hen house. Some coalition leaders decided not to connect the dots, not to show the direct link between the budget cuts for adult literacy programs and the government’s continued war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They fear alienating some of the politicians "friendly" to our struggle. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Salvadoran Workers Support May Day

SAN SALVADOR April 12 — "May Day is a great opportunity worldwide to carry forward the fight for unity of the international working class," declared a university professor here. Wherever we march, PLP sees May Day as an occasion to show the workers that the red flag of communism is alive and well and that, one day, the working class will destroy the fascist, racist, capitalist system.

On this day, the bosses’ borders don’t exist for the working class as millions of workers march to end the bosses’ oppression.

PLP is the force pushing for the abolition of the wage system, and the profits imposed by the capitalist bosses. Those who negotiate with the fascists are either dangerously naïve or represent another arm of the capitalist system whose goal is to fool the international working class.

Expressions from workers common on these marches include: "CHALLENGE is the only paper that calls things by their correct name and calls for international workers’ unity"; "Give me another to take to a friend"; "I’ll help you pass out leaflets." Communist ideas belong to the working class and we must share them with everyone.

Since the fight of the Chicago martyrs in 1886 — where May Day was born — the working class has shown the bosses that our struggle continues through every worker who is oppressed in every corner of the world. The millions of workers worldwide who the bosses have killed, "disappeared" or tortured reminds us we should ignore the misleaders who say capitalism can work for us through elections while the working class dies from hunger and war.

Men, women, children, students, farmworkers, soldiers — let’s unite our forces to defeat the enemies of the working class. Organize in your neighborhood, factory, school. Join study groups and help bring CHALLENGE to your friends.

a name="‘Hotel Rwanda’ Fosters the Illusion of Relying on Imperialists"></">‘H"tel Rwanda’ Fosters the Illusion of Relying on Imperialists

In 1994, the Rwandan genocide took millions of working-class lives. "Hotel Rwanda" follows the experiences of Paul (Don Cheadle), a Rwandan manager’s assistant at a wealthy Belgian four-star hotel. The movie begins shortly before the murder of president Juvenal Habyarimana and the start of the Rwandan massacres. Paul is portrayed as the unintentional hero in a country of chaos where people are brutally murdered for their ethnic background; men, women and children are cut to pieces with machetes, bodies cover the streets. "Hotel Rwanda" through its well-crafted script and its gruesome and often heart-wrenching moments makes the strong case that the U.S. should have intervened.

The movie boldly blames the lack of intervention on racism. A pivotal scene in which the U.N. allied forces are sent "to save" the people and the refugees in the hotel makes this clear. The commander of the U.N. forces (Nick Nolte) argues with the head of the allied forces because their orders were to escort the tourists — not the Rwandan people — out of the country. Immediately afterwards the U.N. general tells Paul, "They think you’re dirt. You’re black. You’re not even a n-----. You’re an African."

This argument masks the real reason why capitalists support U.N. interventions in any country: whether or not they’ll profit from their resources and labor. The world’s bosses don’t care about the massacres of innocent working-class people.

"Hotel Rwanda" briefly describes the origin of the ethnic cleansing. The conflict began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when imperialist European bosses changed Rwandan history. "Imposing their own racist superiority on the Tutsi ‘Hamito-semites’ and a corresponding inferiority on the Hutu." (N.Y. Times, 8/30/03) The Tutsi’s were only 18% of the population but were given many of the government and administrative jobs. This segregation and racism created by the imperialists caused the tensions that propelled the massacres of millions of Tutsi people. The Hutu’s misdirected their hatred towards their own working-class brothers and sisters, the Tutsis. The Hutu’s nationalism, like many nationalist and ethnic movements, encouraged workers to fight one another instead of their real enemy, the imperialist bosses. Actually the Tutsi’s were, and still are, the favored ruling class for the Belgian imperialists.

As the movie’s plot thickens, the Rwandan refugees fight for their survival within the walls of this four-star Hotel de Mille-Collines owned by the Belgian giant Sabena. During the genocide, the company called the Belgian government and stopped the militia from killing all the refugees for a few days. Paul, the main character, plays the role of the bosses’ lackey. He even charges the refugees for staying in the hotel. He mainly wants to keep up the "dignity" of the hotel. In the midst of his struggle, Paul realizes he’s just being used as a ruling-class stooge.

This film fosters the illusion that only pleading for help from foreign capitalists can save the working class from racist genocide. The movie’s timely release directly relates to U.S. interest in a UN intervention in Sudan, specifically Darfur. Intervention for "human rights" is a capitalist excuse. Sudan and its neighboring regions are strategically important for their oil reserves. If U.S. bosses "intervene" in Sudan under the guise of "human rights," they can get a bigger piece of the profits at the expense of their rival oil bosses in China who are now exploiting Sudan’s oil.

The real murderers are the capitalists whose every step is based on maximum profits. They put the machetes into the hands of the Hutus and they push nationalist/racist propaganda. Workers can never be free from racist genocide until we smash the system that creates these superficial separations. Fighting for communism is fighting for the future of the international working class.

a name="Students, Faculty Defend Prof Against Right-Wingers’ Anti-Stalin Attack">">"tudents, Faculty Defend Prof Against Right-Wingers’ Anti-Stalin Attack

Students, former students and faculty have come to the defense of a professor whose research on Stalin has brought the slander of some right-wingers and an attack by editors of his university’s student newspaper.

Grover Furr, a Montclair State University English professor, has been researching the Stalin years in the Soviet Union since the 1970’s. "I opposed the Vietnam War," says Furr, "and respected the Vietnamese Communist Party for its anti-imperialism and defense of the peasants against the landlords, the French imperialists, and the U.S. imperialists who replaced the French."

"But in the 1970’s I was told: ‘The Vietnamese communists could not be any good, because they got started under Stalin, the biggest mass murderer of all time.’ So I thought I should learn something about Stalin."

What he found was that the anti-Stalinists, from Khrushchev to Robert Conquest and the Trotskyists, were liars. "Amazing!" says Furr. "Trotsky started the lies. Khrushchev elaborated them. And the defenders of capitalist exploitation loved Khrushchev, drank up whatever he said, and made up yet more stuff. It’s all false."

More recently Furr has been refuting anti-Stalin lies on an academic mailing list, H-HOAC, where his knowledge of Russian enables him to prove anti-communists are lying. Furr suspects this spurred the recent attack on him as "A Scholar For Stalin" in David Horowitz’s far-right scandal sheet "Front Page." He learned Russian in college to read Russian literature. But now he’s able to read documents from formerly secret Soviet archives, documents, Furr says, which show Stalin to have been a highly principled fighter for the working class.

"The article takes anti-Stalin lies as fact and then attacks me for proving they’re wrong," Furr declares. "But he also claimed I’m ‘indoctrinating’ my students, though he never spoke to any of them, nor visited my classes. He made it all up."

Furr says this attack produced very little. "This article has a link urging readers to bombard me with e-mail. I received a total of eight!"

But then the student newspaper wrote a viciously anti-communist editorial and cartoon charging that Furr teaches "communism" and that his department should consider "disciplining" him. "They took all their facts, even my photo, from Horowitz’s page, though their office is a few hundred yards from mine. They did no fact-checking at all. When I met with them, they were very embarrassed."

What did Furr do? First he sent an e-mail to all his students, with the URLs of all the attacks on him, explaining that it was his responsibility to do so, since he was charged with "indoctrinating" them. Then he sent the same e-mail to the university’s faculty and staff.

The campus reaction has been very supportive. "I’ve received many e-mails from former students, including two former editors of the student newspaper who were then, and are now, political conservatives. They all wrote to defend me and my teaching, pointing out the unethical nature of the editorial and cartoon, both of which were based solely on Horowitz’s lies."

The student newspaper has now printed a full page of articles supporting Furr and criticizing the editors. But so far they’ve made no retraction, or even correction, though they state it’s their policy to correct factual errors, and have not put the letters on their web page.

Meanwhile Furr has received many more e-mails of support than the newspaper has published. "My students, present and former, and my colleagues have rushed to defend me, and attack the student newspaper for their outrageous lies about my teaching. I have always treated my students with respect."

"What the anti-communists fear is the truth," says Furr. "The truth shows that capitalism is terrible, and that the communist movement, with all its failures and errors, was the best thing produced for working people in the 20th century." He believes, "We’re still suffering the effects of its collapse."

Part of the criticism leveled at Furr was his links to some articles on the PLP web page. "PLP is a good source of political analysis of the Stalin years and the history of the communist movement," says Furr. "I’m glad to link to articles on the PLP page, and of course to many other articles elsewhere on the Internet that expose the horrors of capitalism and imperialism. There are other ‘pro-Stalin’ sites," says Furr, "but as far as I can tell, PLP is the only source that tries to look at the Stalin years dialectically — not only defending the Bolsheviks’ achievements but also trying to identify and understand their mistakes."

"Naturally I’m called a communist for standing up for the truth," says Furr. "In the capitalist world, being called a communist is a kind of badge of honor. If you make the supporters of exploitation squeal with anger, maybe you’re doing something right. Keep up your good work," Furr says to CHALLENGE.

What’s next in his research? "I’m writing an article to show, in detail, that Khrushchev’s infamous ‘Secret Speech’ of 1956, in which he viciously attacked Stalin, is at least 90% lies," says Furr. "Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communists, and others, like PLP’s founders, thought this must be true," Furr says. "But they did not have the evidence to prove it, which is now available from formerly secret Soviet documents."

"I’m also writing an article summing up very strong evidence that Trotsky was, in fact, conspiring with the Nazis and Japanese fascists, more or less as charged in the 1937 and 1938 Moscow Trials," Furr concluded.

LETTERS

Minnesotans March Against Iraq War

About 1,900 black, Latin, Native American, Asian and white workers and students marched in Minneapolis and St. Paul to observe the second anniversary of the U.S. bosses’ imperialist invasion of Iraq. About 1,500 marched in the Loring Park neighborhood of downtown Minneapolis while 400 rallied at the State Capitol in St. Paul. The liberal and revisionist (fake leftist) leadership of the demonstrations misled the marchers with pacifist politics.

Pacifism is no match for the murderous racist bosses who control state power. A violent armed struggle for communism, with a clear class analysis of who are the friends and enemies of the working class, is the key to ending our oppression at the hands of the bosses. Pacifism did not end slavery. It was ended by the militant efforts of people like Harriet Tubman and John Brown and by the Civil War.

The marchers were way ahead of the leadership. There was a lot of anti-imperialist sentiment. Many people driving by honked their horns in support. There was a "counter-demonstration" of seven pro-war fascist Bush supporters.

There are good people in the working class who hate U.S. policies that have murdered more than 100,000 Iraqis and 1,500 U.S. soldiers. They need PLP’s revolutionary politics as we build for May Day and communist revolution, from Minneapolis to Baghdad.

Minnesota Red

How Would Communism Treat Older Workers?

The March 16 editorial on the trillion-dollar Social Security swindle did a great job exposing liberals as the workers’ worst enemies. The Democrats and unions claim they are defending Social Security against Bush and the nasty Republicans. But the editorial showed that for forty years, eight presidents, three Democrats and five Republicans, have all stolen $2,000,000,000,000 in workers’ money which was supposed to be set aside for our retirement. Instead of preserving the money we paid in Social Security taxes, the bosses raided its so-called "trust fund" to pay for their war machine. They stole $7,100 per person in the U.S. And as the editorial points out, they plan to steal another $2,600,000,000,000 over the next ten years, which works out to more than $9,000 per person per year.

The article was great at exposing the liberals, and called for communist revolution, but missed an opportunity to explain how communism works. In an article about retirement under capitalism, we should discuss retirement under communism. Retirement is a polite word for firing workers, paying them pennies on Social Security, forcing them to take low-paying, part-time jobs or live in poverty, and telling them how lucky they are to be unemployed. Only capitalism would think it makes sense to get rid of the most experienced workers and isolate them from young workers.

Under communism, older workers would have jobs appropriate to their condition (fewer hours, less physically demanding), and would be encouraged to share their experiences with the next generation. By explaining to our readers how we would do things differently under communism, we can point how we can do better.

A long-time reader

Links Iraq War to Social Security Privatization

About 60 people attended the March monthly meeting of the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) to discuss how to stop Social Security privatization. Ed Ott, Political Action Director of the AFL-CIO City Central Labor Council, outlined the unions’ strategy — continuing to use rallies, petitions and the Internet to pressure the politicians.

After he left, I took the floor to explain why privatization is bad, how there’s no current crisis of Social Security, how benefits would be cut, how the government was out to destroy Medicare and Medicaid. But I then linked the drive for privatization to the war and occupation of Iraq. That war is eating up hundreds of billions of dollars that could be used for workers’ services. I said that "patriotism" on behalf of the U.S. government is against workers’ interests. As Samuel Johnson said long ago, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

An ARA leader from the teachers union replied that although he agreed about the war, and that all unions agreed on the need to fight privatization (and are winning that fight), the unions are divided on Iraq. Suddenly the meeting’s main issue became not Social Security but the war in Iraq.

Speaker after speaker outlined why the unions must fight this war openly, along with privatization; that it wasn’t only an economic question of the amount of money spent on the war; or that the war’s purpose was seizing Iraqi oil for U.S. corporate profit. The war, they said, was destroying everyone’s quality of life through the Patriot Act, the complete media censorship; and through a general increase in corporate fascism. The great majority strongly sided with linking U.S. imperialist strategies with Social Security privatization, with the need of U.S. capitalists to squeeze the assets of U.S. workers for the former’s drive to maintain global supremacy.

Afterwards, one organizing committee head approached me to say, "Your bringing up the connection between the war in Iraq and the privatization of Social Security changed the whole nature of the meeting and brought an energy to the meeting we hadn’t had before." He said the unions must openly deal with the war issue, that the only way there could be any real unity of the labor movement comes from the struggle of ideas, not from solidarity without struggle.

At least for this meeting, economism was exposed, developing unity on a higher level, more political in a larger sense and therefore more effective.

AFSCME ARA member

A Class Outlook and Communist Culture

As a member of PLP’s new cultural committee it was good to see the lively discussion in recent issues over "Million Dollar Baby." As one long-time reader wrote, "PLP should be destructively critical of the capitalist" views. Under capitalism, we’re constantly bombarded with culture full of racist, sexist, materialistic and self-destructive messages. As communists we strive to resist these ideas by struggling amongst ourselves and with our friends, family and co-workers. Criticizing the rulers’ media through a class outlook helps us keep things in perspective.

Of course, we must simultaneously struggle to build our own communist culture, in two main ways. Firstly, we should all "hang out" with both our comrades and our base of friends and try to be "good communists," being as collective as possible, having to function under the profit system. Secondly, we can build communist culture by literally making it. There are many in and around PLP who write, sing, rap, draw and create other kinds of art. We should encourage everyone to submit their work and in turn struggle over how to best represent our Party and use our skills for the good of the working class.

Currently the committee is reproducing a two-CD set of past PLP musical albums. We hope to have them ready by May Day. We’re also creating and beginning to revise new work for a new PLP CD. Self-critically we’ve been limiting ourselves to mostly musical culture and so far have not contributed much to critiquing capitalist culture. One idea is to write a more in-depth pamphlet on the role of culture and the media under capitalism. Do others feel this would be useful? Please send comments and suggestions to Challenge at PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202, or e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.µ

Culturally Red Student

a name="PLP’ers Make A Difference">">"LP’ers Make A Difference

As reported in CHALLENGE (April 13), PLP’ers played a much-needed role at the national conference of the mostly Latino student group MeCHA, held in Cal State Northridge, Los Angeles.

As a college student in PLP and MeCHA, I learned that nationalism can and must be fought and internationalism built. I also learned the importance of working in national organizations to build a strong base for a revolutionary movement.

Imperialism and war were hot topics as many students want the war to end. In a workshop I helped lead, we discussed the role of students, workers and soldiers in the anti-war movement. The students wanted a solution to endless war and were open to building an anti-imperialist movement.

I said that under capitalism we will always have wars because this system runs on maximum profits and competition for world markets and low wages. I explained that we need a system where there are no profits or exploitation, that we need a communist revolution.

This provoked much discussion; almost everyone agreed with many aspects of PLP’s line. Many students, however, wanted a solution right now; they didn’t have a long-term outlook. I invited everyone to march on May Day as something we could do right now to help build the anti-imperialist, communist movement. This fits our strategy to make building for May Day a focus of our activities there.

This conference revealed what collective effort can accomplish. It was truly inspiriting to see the great work of other comrades. I left ready to continue our work because I know what a difference PLP makes, and now many more students know that too.

A red Mechista

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Hitler, too, did everything ‘legally’

…Sen. Robert Byrd compared George W. Bush to Hitler last month….quoting historian Alan Bullock to make the following point:

"Hitler’s originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the state: The correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal." (Hearst Newspapers, 3/18)

Capitalism feeds on unemployment

The headline said it all: "Weak job growth boosts market."

You see, when there’s bad news on your street (the lack of new jobs), there’s joy on Wall Street. As one market analyst explained it: Since the economy is not spinning out enough new jobs even to keep up with the increase in the number of new workers entering the job market, "there’s not a lot of labor-cost pressure in the system."

When economists use the term "labor cost," they mean you — or, more specifically, your wages. By holding down your wages, corporations fatten their profits, stock price rise, and Wall Street’s high-rolling investors rejoice. Twisted as it is, this in fact, is the economic policy in the United States today. Another market analyst explained that January’s lack of growth has created the perfect economic environment: "It really is the sweet spot," he gushed.

Unless, of course, you need a job or are struggling to make ends meet on stagnant wages, which includes most people. (MinutemanMedia.org 3/10)

Secret rules bleed former colonies

Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules by Philippe Sands

By far the most important body of international law concerns trade and overseas investment. Sands shows how rules governing overseas investment began to take shape in the 1960s as a direct response to the emergence of the newly independent former colonies and a conscious attempt to shackle their political freedom. It is these laws — secretive, hidden from view and, and about all, binding — that have underpinned the neoliberal globalization project. The chapters on trade and investment reveal how biased these rules are in favor of the West, and how they are made and exercised in institutional recesses that are unaccountable, even to cabinets, let alone parliaments, and utterly invisible to the public eye. (GW,4/14)

‘American dream’ today is gambling

Ah, the American dream.

If it was once about working hard to build a life, it has been replaced by reveries of striking it rich through toil no more onerous than dipping into the pocket for a buck to play Take 5 or Pick 10. This is the modern American dream, exploited enthusiastically by governments….

To see the corrosive potential of those get-rich-quick seductions, you had to go no farther the other day than West 33rd Street, where The Daily News has its office….

A misprinted number two weeks ago led hundreds of people to believe that they had each won the top prize of $100,000….

"Thousands of people thought they had their shot at the American dream," said Steven Gildin, lawyer in Briarwood, Queens, who plans to file a class-action suit.

… "A lot of people keep their hopes alive on these lotteries."…

The lure, understandably, is irresistible to many living in or near poverty…. "You will not see one Armani suit in the crowd,"Mr. Gilden correctly observed on 33rd Street.

…Nearly all the protesters are blacks and Latinos… (NYT,4/1)

Crazy Iraq info was gospel to gov’t

The claim — that Mr. Hussein was building a hidden network of mobile labs in Iraq capable of producing a witch’s brew of biological weapons — was based almost entirely on the account of a single Iraqi defector, code named Curveball….

"You don’t want to see him because he’s crazy".…Curveball, the official was told, had had a nervous breakdown.

There were also reports of a drinking problem and unexplained disappearances. What was more, the official was told there were serious reservations about the reliability of Curveball’s information and about whether he was a "fabricator…."

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell,…made Curveball’s claims regarding mobile labs a crucial part of his presentation to the United Nations Security Council….

Analysts who voiced concern about Curveball were "forced to leave"… (NYT, 4/1)

1. Capitalism Thrives on Murder and Torture
   PL'ers Chase Jesse Jackson From Anti-War Rally
2. Schiavo Case Exposes Bosses' Extreme Hypocrisy
3. The Texas Oil Massacre: Profit Drive Kills 15 Workers
4. PLP Youth Lead Anti-Imperialist Contingent
5. Brooklyn anti-imperialist war forum
6. Anti-Oil War Politics Spark MeCHA Convention
7. Students Demonstrate Against Two-Year War in Iraq
8. UAW Pro-boss Nationalism Continues to Destroy Union
9. 230,000 Students Go On Strike in Quebec
10. Steel Union Hacks Suck Up to Companies Killing Workers
11. Philly Hospital Contract Fight: `No Cuts Due to Iraq Oil War'
12. Baltimore Students Strike Against Racist School Under-funding
13. Educators Call for Local Job Actions Against Budget Cuts, War
14. PL Students Link Anti-Sweatshop Fight to Imperialist War
15. Gutter-Fascists, Liberals, Homeland Security Gang Up On Immigrant Workers
16. Robots: Revolt Falls Prey to Idea of `Good Bosses'
17. Rulers Direct `Global War on Terror' Against U.S. Workers
18. LETTERS
    1. STUDENT STANDS UP TO NAZI COP
    2. GI's Question Iraq War
    3. `Million Dollar Baby' Anti-Working Class
    4. Movie `Probed Human Condition'
    5. CHALLENGE Needs More Coverage of French General Strike
19. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. Dems won't curb US imperialism
    2. Some GI's desperate to get out
    3. Recruiters can't sell war, go AWOL too
    4. Blame higher-ups for torture
    5. Capitalism undermines Russia
    6. Locked-in janitors accuse bosses
    7. `US aid' really anti-red fund
    8. Arabs know invaders want loot
    9. Lawbreakers steal school funds

---

Capitalism Thrives on Murder and Torture
PL'ers Chase Jesse Jackson From Anti-War Rally

CHICAGO, IL, March 19 -- City College students, led by PLP, headed the anti-imperialist forces in today's anti-war rally, marching under the banner, "CCC Students Against Imperialist War." The day's high point was chasing millionaire sellout Jesse Jackson from the stage in Federal Plaza. We started chanting, "Jesse Jackson Means We Got To Fight Back!" A comrade's speech exposed Jackson's support for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, saying he had no business at an anti-war rally. Security tried to shut the comrade up but other workers defended him. People encouraged us to go on stage. When we did, Jackson scurried down like a rat and left the rally in his limo.

Earlier in the day, we joined one of the feeder marches, chanting, "Soldiers Turn Your Guns Around, Shoot The Profit System Down!" While march organizers argued with the cops about what street to take, we made speeches linking the war to inter-imperialist rivalry and calling on students, teachers, workers and soldiers to destroy this system with communist revolution. Many were drawn to our line and bought CHALLENGE. When we finally did march, many joined us and gave contact information.

After an hour of stall tactics by the cops and protest organizers, we led a breakaway march down another street with hundreds following. Immediately the cops and organizers took the other half down the original street we proposed. By this time other comrades and marchers joined our contingent. While the Trotskyist International Socialist Organization (ISO) was chanting, "Iraq for Iraqis," we chanted, "Asian, Latin, black, and white, Workers of the World, Unite!"

Throughout the march we called on workers to unite under the red flag of communism, to March on May Day (born in the streets of Chicago), and to destroy capitalism. Workers responded. We sold all 250 current CHALLENGES we had and then sold some older issues.

Two days earlier, about 60 students and teachers from various Chicago City Colleges (CCC) attended a forum sponsored by S.P.E.C. (Students for Public Education Club). This group formed out of the Strike Solidarity Committee (SSC) during the 2004 CCC teacher strike.

Two days before the forum, an S.P.E.C. planning meeting turned into a huge struggle around whether we should take a stand against imperialist war.

A week earlier, a PLP member made a motion for a City College contingent at the March 19 anti-war rally. Everyone agreed and we distributed a flyer connecting the war to cutbacks in education. The administration told the group's leader that the war has nothing to do with education, and if we didn't stop distributing the flyer they'll cut our funding. So at our meeting, the "leadership" decided we shouldn't leaflet or oppose the war. Two ISO members said we shouldn't call the war " imperialist." This struggle exposed the limits of reformist politics and tctics.

Overall, this was an important victory because we took our revolutionary line into the mass movement and challenged the bosses and fake leftists for political leadership. We confronted nationalism, pacifism . We also opposed the idea of supporting without criticizing Baath-fascist politics of the insurgency. Amid a huge police presence, one of their speakers had even encouraged the crowd to support the cops!

We left with high spirits and new potential comrades who saw the differences between our line and the rest of the so-called "left." Young people took leadership, renewed their commitment, and expressed serious interest in the Party as an alternative to capitalism. The next day we had a club meeting with two new students.

`It's Not Just A Few Rotten Apples'The liberal media are filled with hand-wringing articles that condemn atrocities the U.S. military commits against prisoners of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Pundits like New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman decry the murder of 26 prisoners in U.S. custody since 2002. A Times' lead story (3/27) announces: "U.S. Is Examining Plan To Bolster Detainee Rights."

The pompous, self-righteous scribblers in the bosses' press would have us believe these atrocities are "aberrations," deviant behavior that can be fixed by throwing the book at a handful of criminal elements in the military. Just punish the bad apples, the theory goes, and the U.S. armed forces can set themselves straight to carry out their mission properly.

The real atrocity is imperialism itself. Murder and torture of prisoners and civilians are standard operating procedure and cannot be otherwise under capitalism. Wars like those the U.S. is waging in Iraq and Afghanistan are genocidal by their very nature. The mass slaughter of civilians, the high percentage of casualties among women and young children, the devastation of cities and rural areas, come as inevitable by-products of wars waged for conquest, profit and domination.

Of course, those who murder prisoners of war deserve the severest punishment. But this begs the question. The U.S. rulers' plan to conquer Iraq and its oil has already caused more than a million deaths. In the Democrat Clinton's eight-year presidency, economic sanctions alone killed hundreds of thousands, mostly small children, through starvation, drought and preventable or curable disease. As CHALLENGE reported last fall, The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, estimated that nearly 100,000 Iraqis had died since Bush, Jr. launched Desert Storm II in 2003. A study in 1991 shortly after Bush, Sr.'s Desert Storm I described conditions for civilians throughout Iraq as "apocalyptic," after the military action had killed tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

But Iraq is no exception. U.S. bombs and bullets are slaughtering thousands of Afghani civilians. The Clinton-NATO air war over the former Yugoslavia in 1999 poisoned water supplies, perhaps for decades, with an incalculable consequence of future mortality among civilians. When U.S. rulers went to war in Vietnam, they murdered millions, using a variety of obscene weapons and tactics, whose only reason for existence was to spread terror and mayhem among civilians. These included carpet-bombing, flesh-burning napalm, agent orange defoilation and "strategic hamlet" concentration camps.

In World War II -- the so-called "good war" -- the U.S. military copied the Nazis in routinely bombing and slaughtering thousands of civilians in places like Dresden and Tokyo. The U.S. is still the only power to have dropped atomic bombs. It did so over hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and now in Iraq routinely uses nuclear-type weaponry -- containing depleted uranium -- with deadly consequences not only for the immediate victims but also for future generations of unborn and never-to-be-born.

This type of genocide is not exclusive to U.S. rulers. As the world's main military power, stopping at nothing to defend and extend its economic and political domination, U.S. imperialism naturally commits the greatest number of atrocities at the present time. However, it has plenty of worthy predecessors, and until communist revolution ends imperialism altogether, it will have worthy successors.

Hitler and the Nazis are the most obvious and well known masters of past genocide. But they learned from other European bosses. Hitlerite racism took more than one page from the U.S.-born "eugenics" movement. British colonialism and imperialism established an admirable record of mass murder throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The bosses love to sing the praises of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a great statesman and "savior" of Western civilization. Well, Churchill helped concoct the idea of mass terror bombing against civilians in the Middle East during the 1920's, when air warfare was in its infancy. France, the birthplace of "The Rights of Man," systematically tortured and exterminated civilians throughout its colonial history in western and northern Africa. For years, apartheid regimes in South Africa carried out racist havoc while their U.S. pals looked the other way. U.S. supplies Israel with billions of dollars worth of arms with which to slaughter masses of Palestinians, such as the murder by Sharon-led Lebanese fascists of thousands in refugee camps in the early 1980's. During the Cold War, dozens of fascist butchers throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America used U.S. weapons and "foreign aid" to back the U.S. rulers' anti-communist crusade.

The examples are so numerous because imperialism knows no exceptions. Imperialism = mass murder and atrocity. The biggest of all the big lies would have us believe that the killings of Iraqi and Afghani POWs and the shooting of women and babies represent "exceptional behavior."

The truth is that in its imperialist form, the profit system is the bloodiest, cruelest, most genocidal type of social organization in history. Its "peace" is the peace of the grave, and its wars can never serve a purpose other than determining the international pecking order among the world's biggest gangsters and thugs. Turning these wars into their opposite -- mass armed struggle for communism and a revolutionary new society -- will take generations. But it remains the only goal worth fighting and, if need be, dying for.

Schiavo Case Exposes Bosses' Extreme Hypocrisy

The current media/religious/political feeding frenzy surrounding the permanently and severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo gives the word "hypocrisy" new meaning. Schiavo, the victim of medical malpractice 15 years ago, suffered irreversible brain damage with no possibility of recovery.

Her husband collected about $1 million; about $700,000 went for Terri's care. Her husband and parents have been fighting for years over whether or not to continue her hospice care, and as we go to press, it appears she's near death.

The Bush brothers, W. and Jeb, and Republican slime-ball Tom DeLay, who declared that "God has brought us...Terri Schiavo," jumped at the opportunity to pander to their Christian fundamentalist base who have staged a vigil at the hospice center demanding that Schiavo's feeding tube be reconnected. According to the Miami Herald, Governor Jeb sent state police to seize Terri and remove her from the hospice, but the mission was canceled when a judge ordered all police to make sure she wasn't moved. Senate Majority leader Frist, an MD, went so far as to diagnose Terri from a four-year old videotape. To hear them tell it, she's talking and about to jump up and walk out of the center. Of course, they also believe in mysticism and reject science.

The list of contradictions and hypocrisy is almost too overwhelming to mention. President Bush ran for reelection demanding a cap on medical malpractice suites, and as Governor of Texas, signed a law that would have terminated Terri's care long ago. DeLay voted for a $15 billion cut in Medicaid that will remove feeding tubes from thousands of patients, and pulled the plug on his own father 16 years ago. Randall Terry, an anti-abortion fascist serving as spokesman for Terri's parents, has a close ally serving time for murdering a doctor who performed abortions.

Most of these religious fascists kneeling at the hospice are also on their knees praying for the execution of young black men on death row, even those who are minors, or severely brain-damaged or retarded. And they have nothing to say about the "right to life" of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed over the past 15 years by two wars and ten years of U.S.-backed sanctions. They have nothing to say about the millions dying from AIDS and curable diseases throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. And it's doubtful if they'd be there if Terri were black.

The "liberal" Democrats are as bad or worse. They are Bush's accomplices in imperialist slaughter worldwide. They chose to hide under their desks when the Republicans staged a late-night Schiavo show to pass "Terri's law" for Bush to sign in his pajamas. Meanwhile, the opportunist Jesse Jackson joined the religious chorus demanding the feeding tube be reconnected.

Under communism, money won't be a factor in medical decisions. Life will truly be precious, and every life will be society's responsibility, not left to the "personal choice" of a husband or mother. And the bosses and their politicians, media vultures and fascist gangs will no longer exist.

The Texas Oil Massacre: Profit Drive Kills 15 Workers

TEXAS CITY, TEXAS, March 26 -- "It looked like a...war zone of bodies being loaded up," said a fire department official (New York Times, 3/24) in describing the effects of the enormous blast that rocked BP Amoco's huge oil refinery here on March 23, killing 15 workers and injuring another 100. And the root cause for this attack on workers' lives was every bit the same as the one causing the deaths of tens of thousands dying in the Iraq war zone: the drive for oil profits.

The blast occurred during a "start-up" of the refinery, following a 3-week maintenance shut-down. "It is a more dangerous period because of the high level of activity," said a chemical safety board official. "Equipment is being opened....potentially exposing flammable materials to air.... Welding, cutting and grinding and use of power tools are all...sources of ignition." (NYT, 3/26)

"The shutdown periods are kept as brief as possible, especially in the past few years when the difference between the cost of crude oil and the value of gasoline and other products has been large, making profits strong.... The pressure to complete the work is intense." (NYT, 3/26; our emphasis -- Ed.)

There's plenty of profits to be made from this plant, BP-Amoco's largest, which refines 460,000 barrels of crude per day. That's why the oil companies turn to non-union contractors to cut costs using workers who "aren't as well trained" and "did not have the job security to raise safety concerns" with the bosses, according to Allan Jamail, an official with Pipefitters Union Local 211.

All 15 workers who were killed were supplied by contractors.

"Accidents" are nothing new at this refinery. On March 31, 2004, a series of explosions rocked the plant. Last September two workers were killed by superheated steam. The previous month OSHA cited 14 serious safety violations and proposed a $63,000 fine, but settled for $13,000 when the company "promised to make changes." Now the drive for oil profits, and therefore the intense drive to make these shut-downs as short as possible, have destroyed so many workers' lives.

At first, many thought the blast was "an al Qaeda terrorist act." It was terrorism alright, but by the biggest murderers of them all: oil bosses and their drive for maximum profits.

PLP Youth Lead Anti-Imperialist Contingent

NEW YORK CITY, March 19 -- "The Working Class is under attack, Cops out of the 'hood, troops outta Iraq." This wasone of the many chants PLP-led students and teachers bellowed through Harlem streets in the anti-imperialist section of the 2nd anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It was the first time most young PL'ers experienced an anti-war march in a working-class neighborhood.

While gathering at Marcus Garvey Park, we began making speeches and distributing CHALLENGE to the many workers, Iraqi war veterans, students, teachers and professionals there. Almost everyone stopped to read our literature and discuss our political world view. When we started marching our militant chant moved onlookers to chant with us. Our energy brought the feeling of May Day and inspired us even more when workers pumped their fists in solidarity.

Our section drew the most energetic vibes from those watching. Our chants urged people to join PLP and condemned all Republican and Democratic politicians as murderers -- our class enemies.

As hundreds of people took CHALLENGES, they asked about our group, and gave positive feedback. Our collective spirit had an impact on others, and drew them to us, rather than us having to go after them. We had a marked influence in the march. Our ability to function as a unit sparked others' willingness to listen.

Recently, as we've rooted ourselves deeper into the working class, it's produced a qualitative change -- more people, weary of just talking, are taking to our action-orientated revolutionary ideas. They want more direct action against the oppressive instruments of the state. We must keep our eyes on the prize of a communist revolution, and win those we work with to make that prize their struggle also.u

Brooklyn anti-imperialist war forum

BROOKLYN, NY, March 18 -- On the eve of the 2nd anniversary of the Iraq war, high school and college PL'ers, and friends held a forum at Medgar Evers College here. Young people who led it reviewed some of their successful campaigns against the profit system's increasing attacks on students and the working class.

After each presentation, we had a short discussion on the topic. This showed to people that while as communists we've been fighting this exploitative system for some time, we're not particularly smarter nor have everything figured out; the input of all is needed to arrive at a correct way forward for the international working class.

The students who attended were filled with militancy and liked our revolutionary ideas. The students at Medgar Evers are tired of the deplorable treatment they receive from the administration and are ready to take action. One woman told us she was here for the long-term struggle. Another high school student read a moving poem explaining why she became a communist.

Afterwards, we made signs with anti-imperialist slogans to carry at the anti-war march the next day. Small groups met to discuss world events and what the working class's outlook should be in responding to ruling-class attacks.

These conversations were very productive in building for May Day at our respective schools. Many agreed that taking a long-term outlook and organizing among industrial workers, soldiers and students could build a massive working class party to lead communist revolution, ridding us of the profit mongering bosses.

Anti-Oil War Politics Spark MeCHA Convention

LOS ANGELES, March 24 -- Last weekend MeCHA (a mostly Latino student group) had its national conference at Cal State Northridge. About 800 students registered, mostly from Western states. The theme was "Education, Not War." Those bringing information about the nature of imperialism were greeted enthusiastically. The chapter representatives unanimously passed a resolution to oppose the imperialist war in Iraq and build a campus movement against the war and the cutbacks in education caused by the war, allying with workers and soldiers in the process. Many students helped to make this resolution a reality. About 80 students marched to a nearby recruiting center to protest the war and military recruitment.

Some PLP students participated and helped lead several of the workshops, highlighting the importance of building a base for anti-imperialism and revolution in national organizations. While many MeCHA leaders advocate voting for "progressive" politicians, many Mechistas are looking for an alternative. They're open to PLP's ideas and plans for action, including fighting ROTC, supporting workers' struggles, celebrating May Day, the international workers' day, and breaking through the limits of reform movements. About 100 at the conference came away with CHALLENGE and 240 got PLP's leaflet inviting them to May Day.

One workshop discussed the anti-war movement and the role of students, workers and soldiers in fighting imperialism. Students want the war ended. They wanted a solution to endless war and were open to building an anti-imperialist movement, and reaching out to workers and soldiers. Another workshop discussed why the anti-war movement must be anti-imperialist. The presenter explained how capitalism inevitably leads to imperialism and war. A second presenter explained how we need to fight the universities' role in war, targeting recruiters, military research and the cutbacks caused by the growing war budget.

We presented a vision of a communist future based on production for need, not profit. Many wanted to stay in contact with the Party and learn more about imperialism, PLP and May Day. Some students wanted to have similar presentations on their campuses.

The conference encouraged us to be more active in mass organizations and to push for more coordinated action against the war, the cutbacks and racist terror. What we've accomplished is based on participation over several years in the mass movement, developing friendships among students who are more open to discussing imperialism and its connection to capitalism. Some want to know how we can stop all wars for profit, not just the current one.

The struggle in MeCHA and on the campuses must continue and heat up. To students wanting a quick solution to end the war, we stressed that it will be a long-term struggle, but we also need to act against imperialism now. Our revolutionary communist message stands out to students who are questioning the limits of the current reform movements. We underestimated how open people are and how thirsty for leadership and answers in the fight to end racist, imperialist war.

Students Demonstrate Against Two-Year War in Iraq

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, March 15 -- More than 150 students, workers and faculty gathered outside the Administration building at a local university to protest the U.S.-led war in Iraq and its "war on terror." The event was organized by an alliance of progressive student groups.

When classes let out at 12:30, protestors began a circular march with signs reading, "No More Imperialist War!" and "If War is the Answer, We Are Asking the Wrong Question." One student with a bullhorn led everyone in popular anti-war chants.

Once a sizable crowd had gathered, they listened to speakers from an array of cultural, religious, political and humanitarian organizations, exhibiting true anti-imperialist solidarity within the campus community. The speakers addressed the illegal occupation of Iraq, Abu Ghraib atrocities, and the rise of fascist and racist policies at home, like increased attacks on immigrants and the murder of 13-year-old Devin Brown in South Los Angeles.

Students distributed a leaflet condemning the university administration's "open endorsement of spokesmen of imperialist terror," viewing this as a "deliberate effort to win students and workers to a pro-war, pro-torture mindset." The leaflet referred to numerous apologists of U.S. imperialism who had been invited to speak at the university recently. More importantly, the leaflet stressed the need to build a student-soldier alliance, and to actively support all soldiers who resist and rebel against the injustices of U.S. wars. The success of this protest, as well as of other recent activities on campus, reflects a more general change in the political attitude and outlook of students and workers that bodes well for the growing fight against imperialism worldwide.

Red Friend

UAW Pro-boss Nationalism Continues to Destroy Union

DETROIT, MI, March 16 -- UAW President Ron Gettlefinger was itching for a fight. It wasn't going to be with Chrysler -- he just gave them precedent-shattering health care concessions. It wasn't going to be with GM or Ford who are cutting production, closing plants and slashing jobs. It wasn't going to be with the parts suppliers, where he has negotiated two- and three-tier wage systems that don't offer pensions or health care for retirees. And it wasn't going to be with the transplants, where the UAW still hasn't organized one "foreign"-owned plant.

Instead he decided to attack some Marine reservists, young workers and potential union members who drill at the armory a few blocks from Solidarity House, UAW headquarters. For more than a decade, the UAW had let reservists use the Solidarity House parking lot during drill weekends. But Gettlefinger decided he was going to ban any reservist who drove an import, or sported a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker, even on a Ford!

Now, if the UAW was doing this as an anti-war position, some of this could be defensible, but the UAW is pro-war and racist. So by the time the story hit the papers, TV and radio talk shows were bombarded with anti-union hate calls. Union-busting companies, hired to thwart UAW organizing campaigns, were spreading the story like wildfire. Having succeeded in shooting himself and the union in the foot, Gettelfinger raised the white flag and backed off on the ban. But the Marines told him they had found other parking facilities.

Attacking imported or transplant cars is the type of racist, nationalist, pro-boss ideology that has just about destroyed the UAW. Back in the 1980's, when Japanese auto bosses were gaining a significant grip on the U.S. market, the union banned foreign cars from their parking lots and sponsored flag-waving rallies where workers took sledge-hammers to imports. Two racist Chrysler employees beat Vincent Chin, a young Chinese student, to death in a Detroit bar because they thought he was Japanese. All this drove workers further into the arms of the bosses, disarming them in the face of huge racist cutbacks and job losses. Loyalty to the bosses set the workers up to go down with the ship, rather than mutiny.

Communists have another idea. We fight racism and struggle to smash all borders and win soldiers to really fight the warmakers. We are loyal to no boss. Workers of the world, Unite! That's our banner. And we're organizing industrial workers and soldiers to build a mass PLP to lead the working class to communist revolution.

(Next issue: what is bad for GM is what is bad with U.S. capitalism).

230,000 Students Go On Strike in Quebec

Quebec, Canada-- Students on strike in opposition to $103 million cuts in university programs by the liberal government

Steel Union Hacks Suck Up to Companies Killing Workers

GARY, IN, March 16 -- Recently in Northwest Indiana, a worker was killed at BP Amoco when a defective guard rail broke. OSHA fined the company $1,500! A contractor was killed at a local steel mill. OSHA cited the company for unsafe practices and fine it $10,500, later reduced to $4,380! Twelve steelworkers have been killed here in several years. The average fine was $3,791. From 1991 to 2003 the average fine for "serious violations" of OSHA rules has been $862.74.

Last September, electrician Herbert Tolman was killed at US Steel's Gary Works while working on an overhead crane. He and three other crew members were changing a wheel, work they were not trained to do.

OSHA cited the company for using unsafe material and improper training. US Steel was fined $6,125 for his death, while the three workers who survived, plus two supervisors, were fired (one supervisor was at home in bed when Tolman was killed.) The only difference between US Steel and the Nazis' use of collective punishment is that the Nazis would have just shot the other workers.

We can expect more attacks and deaths. All the mills are working short-handed, forcing people onto jobs for which they've not been properly trained. The bosses call it "teamwork" and "problem-solving." We call it speed-up and profiteering.

This is all part of the consolidation and restructuring of the steel industry. In Northwest Indiana there used to be almost a dozen companies; now there are only two: Mittal Steel and US Steel. Lakshmi Mittal owns what used to be Inland, Bethlehem, LTV and Acme and is now the world's third richest man. Workers at what used to be LTV, now ISG, soon to be Mittal, are experiencing the same sort of speed-up and job-jumping that caused Herbert Tolman's death. Practically every department is working short. At the pickle line, workers on 12-hour shifts eat lunch at their station. There's no one to cover breaks.

Steel union president Leo Gerard and the rest of his leadership support the industry's consolidation and restructuring. They even invited ISG head Rodney Mott to speak at the union convention last year, the same Mott who has made millions off the backs of thousands of LTV retirees and laid-off workers.

Franco, head of Local 1066, hasn't organized any action against the murder of Herbert Tolman or the firing of his co-workers by US Steel. No demonstrations or pickets, let alone a strike. When OSHA fined US Steel $6,125 for killing Tolman, Franco said, "OSHA tries to do the right thing."

Behind these attacks and industry restructuring is a permanent war economy and the ability for U.S. bosses to compete with China's bosses. They know the only way they can survive global competition is to drive down costs by bringing us in line with reduced man-hours and increased productivity. The bosses see the threat of war on the horizon, and the union bosses are their willing accomplices. Fighting to sharpen the class struggle and win more CHALLENGE-reading steel workers to participate in May Day will be our response.

Philly Hospital Contract Fight: `No Cuts Due to Iraq Oil War'

PHILADELHIA, March 25 -- In July, union contracts expire for thousands of Philadelphia hospital and nursing home workers in Local 1199C. Specific issues at each institution may differ but several things can unite the entire local. Hundreds have lost jobs. Part-time work is replacing full-time. Workloads have increased. Patient care is worse. The Benefit Fund covering healthcare is running out of money. The Pension Fund is facing more cuts. The Jefferson Hospital bosses want to double the amount union members already pay for healthcare.

All these attacks have sharpened because the capitalist profit system that causes them is in crisis and war. That's why workers need political contract demands that attack capitalism and war, not just the local bosses. Such demands will help build the communist movement that can destroy the bosses' system. And that's why CHALLENGE and PLP members in the union are linking the contract fight to that bosses' system.

One hospital's negotiating team approved a contract demand of "No Cuts Due To the Iraq Oil War." Compared to several years ago, many more workers agree the war is about oil and oil control. Many people blame it for draining money away from social programs like healthcare. The idea that this is a "war" contract is no longer seen as so radical.

However, the 1199C leaders omitted this demand from the list for the membership to review. When confronted with this "oversight," union leaders said, "Don't worry, we'll put it in." That still hasn't happened. The union leaders clearly won't risk anything that might point workers towards communism.

Responding to their crisis, the bosses have stopped pretending that workers or any opposition have legal rights. The continuing development of open fascist dictatorship in the U.S. labels strikes "a threat to national security." With low wages and mass unemployment, the bosses believe finding strikebreakers will be easy.

Union members are forming rank-and-file groups to organize for a strike. We're especially trying to build more leadership among young workers, particularly women. There have already been some small group confrontations with the bosses over issues related to short-staffing.

PLP members are participating in these actions. Those who see strikes as a school to build communist revolution will show the greatest determination. We've discussed how each comrade's work in mass organizations could be tied to this city-wide contract struggle, and how the collective, not just the PL'ers who are hospital workers, should lead the Party's actions in this battle.

There's truly a lot at stake for 1199C members. The increased activity in these contract fights can be intense. The more active union delegates can't walk anywhere without being stopped by workers who want some discussion. It's easy for PL'ers to get lost in the reform issues. The workers' greatest gains would be more CHALLENGE readers and more PLP members to give greater communist leadership to the workers. That's our main goal in this fight.

Baltimore Students Strike Against Racist School Under-funding

BALTIMORE, March 16 -- "Asian, Latin, black and white, against under-funding we must unite!" and "Potato chip, potato chip, crunch crunch crunch, Nancy Grasmick, feel our punch!" were powerful chants of striking high school students and adult supporters at a strike rally near Maryland's State Board of Education in downtown Baltimore today. The more than 200 participants expressed deep anger at State Superintendent of Schools Grasmick for under-funding public education in this predominately African American city. And they cheered a PLP speaker while eagerly grabbing all his CHALLENGES.

The school under-funding issue clearly illustrates the communist understanding that capitalist government, courts, jails and police -- their state power -- are organized violence to suppress the working class. Capitalism's own court system has repeatedly ruled that: (1) Baltimore City public schools are providing inadequate education; (2) Maryland violates its own constitution which requires the state to provide every student with a "thorough and efficient" education; and (3) Maryland must provide $2,000 to $2,600 more per student to the City schools each year. That additional money would only achieve "adequacy," certainly not equality with the wealthy Howard and Montgomery Counties, but state officials have still not fulfilled the court rulings.

Last summer, the court ordered the State and City to target additional dollars for immediate educational improvements, like filling teacher-vacancies so students wouldn't suffer near-total lack of learning from a succession of substitutes. The City totally ignored that court order, while the State first ignored and then appealed it. The real power behind the scenes, the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) -- the area's largest businesses -- does what's best for themselves, what's best for capitalism. They're perfectly willing the break their own rules. Immediately after the August court order, GBC President Fry said, "I don't think it is best to have your school system run through a court . . ." (Baltimore Sun, 8/6/04).

Today, that arrogance was enforced by a large number of cops at the rally, prepared to violently prevent strikers from approaching the nearby offices of the Maryland Department of Education.

Students -- members of Algebra Project -- did a terrific job, leading today's rally, doing much of the planning and organizing, chairing the event, and giving most of the speeches.

A PLP member's speech was received enthusiastically. He explained that Baltimore's educational genocide was caused by racism, maintenance of the city's class structure and funneling billions of dollars to the U.S. imperialist war in Iraq.

Firstly, in the 1960's, when Baltimore was mostly white, the City's school system was fourth in money per student among Maryland's 24 school districts. A decade later, when African American students became the majority, Baltimore's per-pupil funding plummeted to 21st, remaining low ever since!

Secondly, the schools' real function is to re-create today's class structure in the next generation. Since 65% of Baltimore area jobs are unskilled, companies benefit when the schools churn out large numbers of poorly-educated students to fill low-wage jobs. An over-abundance of unskilled workers creates intense competition for these unskilled jobs, driving wages lower and profits higher.

All this delights the GBC, which is why CEO Bonnie Copeland was promoted from her GBC position to head the Baltimore school system. Upon her appointment, GBC President Frye said: "Having worked with the Greater Baltimore Committee for many years, Bonnie brings the clarity and focus of a business perspective to one of the most important management positions in the region." Education assuredly is the ruling class's business!

Finally, less than one-half of one percent of the billions spent on the war in Iraq would double Baltimore's education budget. The deadly U.S. war for world domination, by oil companies in particular and U.S. imperialism in general, is simultaneously a war on education.

The PLP member, cheered throughout this speech, then held CHALLENGE aloft and encouraged everyone to read Progressive Labor Party's communist newspaper. The call was heeded -- he ran out of papers.

The struggle continues. Participants are learning a great deal. Dare to struggle, dare to win!

Educators Call for Local Job Actions Against Budget Cuts, War

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA, March 23 -- Delegates to the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) convention advocated job actions to fight cutbacks. They defied leaders who tried to limit union activities to media campaigns and electoral politics. Leaders lamely pushed the slogan "Stop Arnold" but teachers and classified staff embraced anti-war politics. They carried signs saying "Schools Not Bombs -- US Out Of Iraq."

CFT delegates reaffirmed opposition to the Iraq war and occupation. Some rallied at lunchtime outside the convention to mark the second anniversary of the war. They voted to support students trying to ban military recruiters from community colleges.

Delegates were angry (and some frightened) by Governor Schwarzenegger's campaign to cut pension benefits and education funds and impose "merit" pay. He slanders public employees as "special interests" while raking in huge donations from financial, real estate and other large corporations.

The CFT leadership responded by joining other public employee unions to support Democratic politicians. State Treasurer Phil Angelides (running against Schwarzenegger) and Assemblyman Dario Frommer. (majority floor leader) received enthusiastic applause at the convention but delegates were less enthusiastic about a dues increase to pay for this.

CFT leaders pushed a "Don't Sign the Petition" drive to oppose the Governor's attempted ballot initiatives. They called for a weekday rally in Sacramento. Who can go to that?

These dead end policies to support the Democrats, the other party of war and cutbacks, were countered from the floor. Several local-sponsored resolutions for a statewide work-stoppage to fight the cutbacks were killed in committee. But activists inserted a call for "local actions" into the Sacramento rally resolution. Then an amendment proposing "job actions" was offered from the convention floor. A heated struggle followed.

Many delegates rose to argue that job actions, including strikes and especially a general strike, are labor's most effective weapons. Several recalled a speaker who asked us to think about "a twenty- or thirty-year strategy for workers to gain power." One said that workers' power lay not in a contract but in their international solidarity and the power to shut down production. Unfortunately, nobody spoke for the need for revolution to win power. The problem is not "neoliberalism" but capitalism itself.

Meanwhile, union officials whined that work stoppages are "illegal." A few delegates complained that "if we have job actions now, what will we do later?" "More militant actions," others responded.

"We didn't think we'd win the vote," one delegate commented later, "but we thought it would be good to start talking about militant action." To the surprise of many, the amendment passed! Now it's up to locals to plan these May 25th actions.

As fight-back develops against budget cuts and the war, opportunities will increase to deepen class consciousness and understanding of the imperialist war system and the need for the long-term fight to destroy it with communist revolution.

PL Students Link Anti-Sweatshop Fight to Imperialist War

AUSTIN, TEXAS, Feb. 11 -- A group of PLP students were among 200 attending the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) national conference here. We distributed about 50 CHALLENGES and 100 PLP leaflets titled "Students, Workers and Soldiers Must Unite to Smash Imperialist War for Oil." We exchanged contact information with nearly everyone we met.

Many students in USAS are very committed to fighting exploitation and oppression. Besides meeting people and distributing literature, our other main goal was to pass a resolution against university support for war.

Our proposal explained that universities are ideological factories for capitalism which justify racism and imperialism, that they concretely aid and abet U.S. imperialism's mass slaughter in Iraq by supporting its war machine. Universities develop U.S. foreign policy, conduct critical military research, train military officers and recruit students to be soldiers.

Many students were against the war in Iraq. A few, like at Seattle Community College and City College New York, had recently driven military recruiters off their campuses. Our proposal called for multi-racial, worker-student campus campaigns opposing military recruiters, ROTC and military research, and to encourage soldiers to refuse to kill innocent Iraqis.

When someone said an anti-war proposal has nothing to do with stopping sweatshops, we linked the two: major imperialist powers move factories overseas in search of cheap labor (sweatshops) and make wars to capture resources and markets. Capitalism has led to imperialism -- capitalist competition on a global scale -- and always results in war.

The proposal also called for opposing professors, think-tanks and administrators who push pro-"war-on-terror" or pro-war-in-Iraq positions. Some students disagreed, claiming this violates their free speech. We said professors who advance pro-war policy and who do weapons research are carrying out violence against workers and must be stopped.

We received more support for the anti-war proposal (which was narrowly defeated) than at last year's conference. Some students spoke in favor, including the importance of students and soldiers uniting. We also supported the anti-racist proposal which had a class outlook on -- and opposed university support for -- racism. This one was accepted overwhelmingly.

Many people were interested in PLP's views. Some liked our anti-war leaflet, sparking a good discussion about PLP's ideas. During workshops and meetings, we explained that racism and sexism are class issues (hurt all workers while benefiting bosses), not race or gender ones. Some agreed and believed our politics were good. A few were very receptive to the view that only communist revolution can eliminate racism, sexism, war and capitalism. But we must improve our practice, launching more campus campaigns against military recruiters, sweatshops and the above evils. Such activities will steel us and sharpen us politically.

During the Vietnam era, militant student-led struggles against any military presence on campuses (attacking and even burning down ROTC buildings from Harvard to the Univ. of Puerto Rico) further emboldened U.S. soldiers to rebel against the war via sabotage and mutiny.

The U.S. ruling class wants all colleges to become recruiting grounds for soldiers and centers for war research. Today, U.S. students must play an important role in the movement against the U.S. imperialist war in Iraq. As students, we must not let our campuses become havens for the war-makers! Students, workers and soldiers who target the facilities, materials and institutions used to make war can help stop the war machine. A worker/student/soldier alliance must be built to fight exploitation, sexism, racism and imperialist war, moving on to defeat capitalism itself with communist revolution.

Gutter-Fascists, Liberals, Homeland Security Gang Up On Immigrant Workers

On the same day that the liberal N.Y. Times published an editorial criticizing the Bush administration for not securing U.S. borders, allowing terrorists to easily enter the country, a deranged Native American youth in Minnesota went on a rampage killing his grandfather, the latter's companion, a teacher and six students at his school. While himself a victim of racism against Native Americans, ironically this youth was so twisted he praised Hitler. Many around the world saw this as U.S. ruling-class violence breeding domestic terrorists.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is following the Times' advice, launching a multi-million dollar security initiative along a 260-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border trying "to shut down the main artery for illegal immigration into the United States. "(MSNBC.com)

The operation, run by the Customs and Border Protection unit of the Department of Homeland Security, will increase the number of agents in the region 40%. It's designed to thwart both "illegal immigration" as well as the potential for "terrorist infiltration" along the border area -- the "Tucson sector."

The goal is to "establish and maintain operational control" of the border, according to planning documents for "Operation Full Court Press," the initiative's code name. It will redeploy Black Hawk helicopters and significant numbers of air and ground forces.

The border's militarization is being joined by a mobilization of the Minutemen, an anti-immigration fascist group.

Thus, the liberals, the gutter fascists and the bosses' government are joining hands to militarize the U.S. even more. This is an attack not only against immigrants entering the U.S. to be super-exploited, but is also an attack against all workers. This militarization will be used increasingly against anyone opposing racism, cutbacks in social programs, the war in Iraq, etc. We in PLP pledge to build international and multi-racial unity to fight these attacks. Join us on May Day to march against a racist police state and imperialist war and for communism.u

Robots: Revolt Falls Prey to Idea of `Good Bosses'

"Robots," a new computer-animated film, is both entertaining and full of politics. It's supposed to be a kid's movie, but the adults in the audience were laughing constantly. The jokes are clever, and will appeal to both adults and younger kids. As for the politics...they're both good and bad.

The "Robots" society is all robots and machines, and includes different classes. All the robots seem to be built and sold by one corporation. Due to falling profits, the company's owner (Bigweld, an older guy played by Mel Brooks), hands over the company's operation to a young, super-greedy boss, "Ratchet" (remember "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"?). He wears robot gear resembling a flashy business suit, is controlled by his twisted, evil mother, and -- like all bosses -- only cares about making the company more profitable.

In contrast, Bigweld's goal had been "to make things better." He had allowed the poorer, older model robots to buy the spare parts they needed to continue to exist. But Ratchet stops producing these spare parts, forcing the poorer robots to buy the flashy new parts they can't afford. (This is an obvious jab at the computer, DVD and other industries whose products become obsolete after a few years, forcing us to "upgrade." Some critics see this plot-strand as an attack on the plastic surgery and similar industries that con us into spending big bucks to "improve" our appearance).

Even worse, horrifying new machines are sent around the city rounding up the older-model robots for melting down in the oven, paralleling the Holocaust.

The film's big political weakness portrays the original owner, Bigweld, as basically altruistic, while the new boss is an evil Hitlerite. This seems to mirror the "anyone-but-Bush" movement, looking to some mythical past when capitalism was "better."

The movie does have major political strengths, too. It also focuses on a poor family, with a dishwasher dad and a wide-eyed young son named Rodney Copperbottom who heads to the city to try making it as an inventor with the robot company. After being viciously ridiculed and then turned down, he discovers the new boss's operation.

At first he helps the robots who are too poor to upgrade and buy new parts by repairing them with cheap spare parts. Soon he realizes the need to confront the company directly, and leads an armed struggle of the poor robots against the fascist corporate robots!

The movie ends with a hilarious musical number in which all the blue-collar robots celebrate their victory, joined by one corporate robot (played by Halle Berry) who has defected. Unfortunately, this revolt was fought only to reinstate the old, "less exploitative" version of corporate capitalism in which the poor are allowed to survive, rather than the new genocidal version in which they are rounded up for the ovens.

This movie is worth seeing. It features almost constant puns, satire, cultural references, etc., geared toward the parents in the audience. The slapstick visual humor should appeal to both pre-teen kids and their parents. For example, one hilarious character is an older female robot who's known for taking in those who can't make it on their own. She's described as somewhat "earthy cruncy" with an ass so big it knocks over the other robots around her.

Robin Williams plays one of the "Rusties," the blue-collar family that helps lead the uprising. The politics are clear enough to be understood by kids (in fact, the 9-year-old I took described it as a movie about class conflicts even before we saw it) but it can be discussed by adults, too.

Rulers Direct `Global War on Terror' Against U.S. Workers

The ruling class is widening the "global war on terror" to go after U.S. citizens. A leader in this process is new Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. As a federal judge, he said that the challenge for the ruling class was to be able to detain U.S. citizens without trial, just as they have done with immigrants. As our Party stresses, racism is the cutting edge of fascist attacks, which end up hurting the entire working class.

Going after U.S. citizens inside the U.S. is controversial because it goes against all the hype about a "Bill of Rights." Plus, each group of bosses worries that once a crackdown starts; it could be used against their favorite storm troopers (like the violent anti-abortionists). Chertoff laid out a series of options (see the ABA's National Security Law Report, October 2004):
* Declare "suspects" to be "illegal combatants" who can be held indefinitely without charges or lawyers;
* Haul civilian "suspects" before military commissions that are allowed to ignore normal court procedures;
* Change existing laws to allow more use of secret evidence and to make more activities illegal for "supporting" terrorism (for instance, outlawing "terrorist propaganda" which could then be used against any group or individual that opposes the war).

Last year's intelligence "reform" said that terrorism suspects have no right to bail. The suspect is presumed guilty. This was used for the first time to hold Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen who the FBI had the Saudis arrest when he was in Saudi Arabia. They held and tortured him for two years. He was brought back to the U.S. and charged with plotting to kill Bush, even though the head of the Washington FBI office wrote that there was no case against him. Now he's locked up, and his family cannot visit him unless they agree to say nothing about how he's being treated or what he tells them.

The FBI is being transformed from a "crime- fighting" to an anti-terror organization. It's adding lots of agents and following people who have committed no crime - just as it persecuted communists in the 1950s and civil rights and anti-Vietnam-war activists in the 1960s. Rules restricting the FBI were radically re-interpreted by the Clinton administration after the Oklahoma City bombing, and then entirely re-written by Attorney General Ashcroft after 9-11. The liberal-led 9-11 Commission argued that even more "intelligence" should be collected. (For an idea, see the February 2005 ABA National Security Law Report)

Bush's budget will hire 500 more "intelligence analysts." Congress wants to make sure these "analysts" -- spies to report on workers who oppose administration policy -- are in every one of the more than 100 field offices. The ruling class is using anti-Muslim hysteria to establish this network, but the FBI will have lots of resources to look at other dissidents. The FBI started collecting intelligence on "domestic terrorists" after the murder of the husband and mother of federal Judge Lefkow in Chicago. Before the Republican and Democratic conventions, the Feds bragged about how much they know about anarchists and anti-globalization activists. Before Bush's second inaugural, Washington police chief Ramsey refused to deny that his cops had infiltrated protest groups, and emphasized how closely the Feds were following various groups.

Meanwhile, the CIA is under attack and losing its powers. New director Porter Goss plans to fire hundreds of top officials. The new National Intelligence Director is taking over the job of briefing the President and preparing the "national intelligence estimates" (the annual definitive estimate of what all the spy agencies think will happen in each problem area). The FBI is recruiting people inside the U.S. who have contacts abroad or immigrants who may return abroad. The military plans to further expand its own network of spies.

There are several reasons the Bush gang is gutting the CIA. It hates them for talking too much and producing stacks of books and op-ed articles attacking their plans. They even exposed a covert agent to punish her husband for publishing a critical book. But mainly, they need to develop new repressive techniques that break from the old Cold War model, which can apply to foreigners first, but then to U.S. workers too.

This is not some Bush right-wing plot. The Democrats often criticize Bush for "being soft" on homeland security. Chertoff himself has long-time liberal credentials (see CHALLENGE, 2/2/05).

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is on the cutting edge of spying on protesters. One thousand cops work in the NYPD's own intelligence agency, under a former high-ranking CIA officer David Cohen, laying the "stepping stones to more radical groups," to quote an analyst cited in the New York Times. Another 100 work on the FBI-led "Joint Terrorism Task Force" (these units now exist in more than 100 cities). They have hired Ivy League graduates, fluent in Middle East languages, starting at $50,000-75,000 a year. The NYPD has offices in Britain, France, Israel, Canada, and Singapore and liaison officers in dozens of cities throughout the U.S.

The crackdown on domestic dissent has been limited. But the ruling class is working to put in place all the things it needs to outlaw dissent: intelligence on protestors, laws which prevent challenges to indefinite detentions and the atmosphere to justify rounding up innocent civilians on suspicion. The enemy is at work.

LETTERS

STUDENT STANDS UP TO NAZI COP

Around 5:00 P.M. on March 10th I was headed home from my school-required internship. I walked toward crowded Times Square, the center of NYC, the quintessential city of the capitalist U.S. That was where I, a 16-year-old Latina, almost got arrested for the lamest "crime" ever.

You'd think the world's most powerful nation wouldn't waste time on such trivia. But U.S bosses have perfected oppression so people who just want to live decently find themselves perpetually at dead-ends. So, these bosses, the biggest criminals of them all, put a zillion cops on the streets to keep people from resorting to some real change. NYPD cops are ordered to hide in subway stations and accuse people -- especially black and Latin teenagers -- of possible "crimes."

Entering the station, I used my mother's disability Metro card in the turnstile and put it back in my wallet with her picture hidden.

Then two cops approached me, one demanding I show him the Metro card. I did. He looked at my mother's picture, then asked for identification. I produced it. He told me I wasn't allowed to use my mother's disability Metro card. I said, "Sir, she's my mother; why can't I use her card?"

I began questioning him: Why do the lights go off when people swipe their cards through the turnstiles? What are they looking out for? How important is it for cops to hang around subway stations just to make sure nobody's using other people's Metro cards? What happens to people who must go somewhere and can't afford to pay because they can't get jobs?

The cop gave me a serious look and said he would write up a summons and arrest me, saying I would be fined for using my mother's Metro card. I was scared and angry even talking to a cop. All I'd done was borrow a piece of plastic to make it to my internship and back home without a problem.

I started shouting, "I'm being arrested because I'm poor!" When the cop said he was "just doing his job," I screamed that's what the Nazis had said.

I shouted more questions -- why and where had he been hiding; what did he think about my mom and me having to share her Metro card simply because she couldn't afford to give me four dollars for the day's trip. I asked if he knew that people had to use parents' or friends' disability Metro cards for the same reason, why was fining them the next step in resolving this issue. I told him and the gathering crowd that if my mom couldn't afford to give me four dollars, how could she afford to pay a fine.

I figured if I'd be arrested for some stupid nonsense, I might as well make it worthwhile. I placed my wrists in front of me and shouted about how racist, oppressive, unnecessary and unimportant his job was. I asked him whether he thought that he was helping members of society.

I told the people watching that the real criminals go free, while the bankers and the MTA raise the fares and make the working class pay for their imperialist wars and the interest on the debt the government is creating.

He asked the other cop what he thought should be done. They both looked at me, then at the people watching and listening. The train was arriving; the cop told me to never do it again. I laughed and told him maybe he should follow his own advice. I was pretty sure he knew what was behind all this: the Metro card, transportation fare, people of color, workers, money, oppression, a fear system.

I boarded the train and the cops went back to watching the lights at the turnstiles and deciding whether the people matched what the lights determined. I took deep breaths and looked around. The people who had witnessed the scene seemed happy for me.

I realize that a different cop might have arrested me. But either way, I learned that fighting back makes you and the people around you stronger and less afraid.

Communist Student

GI's Question Iraq War

A lot of soldiers in Iraq talked about the elections there. They were really much like those in the U.S. Even though many Iraqis voted, the election won't solve their problems. I said people wouldn't get what they want or need through the elections. They're just choosing from different evils.

Governments use religion to control the masses. That was true of Saddam Hussein's government. So one element has been "defeated." Ironically, the organization replacing Saddam is the U.S. military. Now it's the Super Power that rules.

Some soldiers think at least the U.S. military is better than Saddam. But it was the U.S. who helped put Saddam in power in the first place to give the U.S. access to Iraq's oil. Also, there have been many more deaths from U.S. sanctions, bombings and military invasion than even the murderous Saddam committed. All over Iraq, people are really poor. Most housing doesn't have plumbing, with the few exceptions of spectacular artsy houses. Innocent Iraqi workers have been killed so U.S. rulers can control the oil and low-wage labor. The Iraqi people's problems are caused by capitalism and imperialism. So imperialists can't be the "good guys" or the solution.

Iraqi workers enter many U.S. bases to collect trash, take out sewage without gloves and do other very hard jobs. Some are paid about $7 a day. Some younger workers just work for one meal a day. Even though many soldiers want a better life for the Iraqi people, that's not the military's mission, even though they say it is. These are things that we talk about -- imperialism is the enemy of all workers.

Since the military constantly changes what soldiers will be doing, people move around a lot. Some friends have been in some pretty tough situations. Many realize how worthless this war is. Even people who originally volunteered for harder assignments feel far differently when actually in them.

People are thinking about these things. One guy complained a lot, but would also justify why we're here. His problem for a long time was with the armed forces as an organization. But recently he changed. Now, not only does he dislike the military structure, he distrusts its whole reason for existing. Most important is to emphasize the big picture: why we're here to begin with. More of us talk about this.

An issue that may seem small is big here -- the slowness of the mail. For the brass, this means little. But for us it's very important. As we press this issue, we know that small struggles can lead to bigger ones in the future.

Red GI

`Million Dollar Baby' Anti-Working Class

CHALLENGE NOTE: The following two letters are the last we will print in these pages about Million Dollar Baby movie.

I strongly disagree with the two letters (3/16) criticizing the review of "Million Dollar Baby." The original review was on target exactly because it did not focus on the debate over euthanasia, but on the film's anti-working class aspects. Neither of the two critics said a word about the anti-working class stereotypes that Maggie had to "escape from." Her family is portrayed in vicious, terribly stereotyped ways. And wasn't one of the villains a black female prostitute?

But don't take my word for it; listen to Clint Eastwood's response to conservatives who were criticizing his film; he said something like, "All the bad people in the film were either black or welfare cheats. Why are the conservatives complaining?"

An aspect of fascism is the suppression of creativity in culture and various other individual "rights." Many liberals and leftists focus on the reactionary culture rather than on the anti-working class nature of fascism. The cultural aspect is important, but fascism's main danger isn't from those who are "cultural conservatives and pro-capitalist/anti-working class in their politics and economics," such as many in Bush's base. The main danger is from those who are "culturally liberal and pro-capitalist/anti-working class in their politics and economics." Politicians like Schwarzenegger and other cultural relativists appeal to those who oppose those aspects of fascism that threaten their own middle-class individual rights, while the anti-working class core of their ideas is primary.

One critical letter actually apologized for Eastwood's performing in the "Dirty Harry" films, considered pro-fascist even by moderate liberals, saying he didn't direct those films, he "only starred" in them.

Films can be reactionary and still have some positive aspects. We should become skilled in understanding and pointing out both aspects. But in discussing the positive, we should be clear about those film's basic reactionary nature. Otherwise, we risk misleading people into failing to expose anti-working class culture. And if we don't, who will?

Midwest Film Fan

Movie `Probed Human Condition'

Rather than answer each criticism of my response to the review of "Million Dollar Baby," I'd rather discuss why I liked it. The main characters are interesting, and flawed. Each has traits I admire (a certain strength, respect for others, loyalty to friends and real feelings for their fellow man). Obviously they're also in a terrible business. I think boxing should be banned. They're clearly loners caught inside a lonely world of boxing. And they have no class understanding of the world.

The interaction of the characters had depth and probed into the human condition. The turn of events and Eastwood's ultimate decision also made the film deeply moving and emotional. I fail to see how euthanasia -- which Eastwood eventually accepts to end the life of the woman boxer -- makes the film fascist. Is it fascist to end one's life because of a grave injury? It may be right or wrong, but each case should be taken individually. I don't believe it was a "fascist" move to end her life. I know communists who have pulled the plug on their loved ones, are they fascists? I don't think so!

We don't have much communist culture to look at. Movies, certainly controlled and manipulated by capitalist ideas, are a form of entertainment that gives people a break from the rotten world we live in. Yes, it's also a way to indoctrinate and get people to accept this world and be mired in the cynicism of most movies. So it's vital to critique these movies and discuss them with our friends. But if every movie that has bad ideas -- and almost all do -- are fascist then we should just dismiss all of them and forget why we're attracted to aspects of the film.

I did like "Million Dollar Baby," and laughed almost continually at "Sideways."  There is clearly something about these films that's attractive and entertaining. I don't think it should be dismissed and swept under the fascist rug. That's too easy. Despite what some of the letters implied, I don't think I was suckered into Eastwood's "fascist ideology" and view of the world.

Talking to friends about how our world view contrasts with Eastwood's cynical and individualist view is well worth the discussion. I just didn't agree with the reviewer's ideas on the film. I also felt -- as I stated -- that the reviewer's interpretation was just wrong in many places. If I hurt his/her feelings I didn't mean to. I was just stating how I felt. Strong criticism, from either position, makes for a more lively discussion. It's all good! 

Big Red

CHALLENGE Needs More Coverage of French General Strike

The clip that appeared in the last issue of CHALLENGE about the general strike in France in the very least should have been a full article. It really should have been the editorial. In this period of low class-consciousness and struggle, we as a working class need to know what's happening around the world involving any portion of the working class. The bosses' media didn't inform the U.S. working class about it, and we shouldn't expect them to. CHALLENGE, on the other hand, is the working-class paper and as such should have done a better job disseminating news and analysis of this important event.

Brooklyn reader

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Dems won't curb US imperialism

Kerry considers himself to be a national-security-oriented Democrat....

Most national-security Democrats...agree that the Party should be more open to the idea of military action, and even pre-emption, and although they did not agree about the timing of the Iraq war and the manner in which Bush Launched it, they believe that the stated rationale -- Saddam's brutality and his flouting of United Nations resolutions -- was ideologically and morally sound....

Lieberman...is unapologetic about his defense of Bush's Iraq policy, saying, "Bottom line, I think Bush has it right...."

Few of the most frequently mentioned contenders for the Party's Presidential nomination in 2008 -- including Clinton, Bayh, Edwards, and Biden-- belong to the Democratic Party's left. Instead, the most likely would-be nominees are at pains to appear hawkish on defense. Hilary Clinton has been particularly skillful... (The New Yorker, 3/21)

Some GI's desperate to get out

One by one, a trickle of soldiers and marines -- some just back from duty in Iraq, others facing a trip there soon -- are seeking ways out.

Soldiers, their advocates and lawyers who specialize in military law say that they watched a few service members try ever more unlikely and desperate routes: taking drugs in the hope that they will be kept home after positive urine tests, for example; or seeking psychological or medical reasons to be declared nondeployable, including last-minute pregnancies. Specialist Marquise J. Roberts is accused of asking a relative in Philadelphia to shoot him in the leg so he would not have to return to war. (NYT, 3/18)

Recruiters can't sell war, go AWOL too

The Army is seeking 101,200 new active-duty Army and Reserve soldiers this year alone to replenish the ranks....That means each of the Army's 7,500 recruiters faces the grind of an unyielding human math, a quota of two new recruits a month, at a time of extended war without a draft....

At least 37 members of the Army Recruiting Command, which oversees enlistment, have gone AWOL since October 2002...

"The recruiter is struck in the situation where your're not going to make mission, It just won't happen," the New York recruiter said. "And your're getting chewed out for every day for it. It's horrible." He said the assignment was more strenuous than the time he was shot at while deployed in Africa....

One recruiter in the New York area said that when he steps outside his office for a cigarette, he often is barraged with epithets from passers-by angry about the war.

In January, the brother-in-law of a prospective recruit lashed into him. "He swore at me," the recruiter said, "and said the he would rather have his brother-in-law in jail for selling crack than in the Army." (NYT, 3/27)

Blame higher-ups for torture

...The American Civil Liberties Union....charges that Mr. Rumsfeld personally authorized unlawful interrogation techniques....It contends that the abuse of detainees was widespread and that Mr. Rumsfeld and other top administration officials were well aware of it....

According to the suit, it is unreasonable to believe that Mr. Rumsfeld could have remained in the dark about the rampant mistreatment...It cites a wealth of evidence readily available to the secretary, including...internal government reports, and concerns expressed by such reputable groups as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

(The committee has noted, among other things, that military intelligence estimates suggest that 70 percent to 90 percent of the people detained in Iraq had been seized by mistake.) (NYT, 3/28)

Capitalism undermines Russia

The Russian academy of sciences has estimated that since 1995 the poorest fifth of Muscovites have seen their incomes drop by nearly two-thirds. The next richest 50% have seen their income fall by a third. Only the top 20% have got richer -- by 50%. The cash has mostly gone abroad, draining the reserve of capital necessary for investment in business. (GW, 3/24)

Locked-in janitors accuse bosses

Three immigrant janitors will file a lawsuit today against two supermarkets in the Bronx, accusing them of endangering their lives by locking them in at night, with the fire exits blocked or padlocked....

The lawyers plan to file the lawsuit...today, the 94th anniversary of the Triangle fire, in which 146 garment workers died when locked and blocked factory doors prevented them from escaping a fire. (NYT, 3/25)

`US aid' really anti-red fund

The cold war entrenched corruption in some African countries, where aid bought the support of the leadership rather than benefiting the poor.

"In too many cases, such as US aid to Mobutu [Sese Seko, former dictator of Zaire], aid has ended up in bank accounts because a kleptocrat was seen as preferable to a communist." (GW, 3/24)

Arabs know invaders want loot

The shape of the contemporary Middle East -- the shape that we are trying to get Syria and Iraq and the others to change -- was in large part designed by the British after 1918....Officials who did the designing proclaimed Arab independence as their goal, but meant by that a mere formal independence subject to continuing British influence and control.

The West, embodied now by the United States, speaks the language of freedom again but, unsurprisingly, is not widely believed in the Arab world. A Middle Easterner need not be especially cynical, considering the region's oil and strategic situation, to suspect that America is pursuing its national interests rather than disinterestedly promoting democracy and the welfare of western Asia. (NYT, 3/24)

Lawbreakers steal school funds

Albany, March 18 -- As state lawmakers strive to put together a budget by the April 1 deadline, any attempt to comply with a court order to pump more money into New York City's public schools has been left out of the debate....

Many said they felt most betrayed by the Assembly's proposal...which would bring total spending to just more than half of the $1.4 bullion increase that a judge ordered spent on the city schools alone. (NYT, 3/19)

 

Hundreds At Anti-War Conference: Must Organize to Fight Imperialism

Class Consciousness and Red Politics Key to Crushing Warmakers

Brass Wants Token Sacrifice From Elite School Youth

Bosses To Bankrupt Workers: Drop Dead!

PLP H.S. and College Students Bring Revolutionary Ideas to Anti-War Conference

Hundreds March for Immigrant Rights; Need to By-Pass Liberal Dems

a href="#CUNY Students Blast Military Recruitment for ‘Career’ in War">CU"Y Students Blast Military Recruitment for ‘Career’ in War

Union Misleaders Derail MUNI Work-Action

Boeing Union Resolution Supports Lockheed Strikers

General Strike Hits France to Keep 35-Hour Work-week

Philadelphia City Hall Scandal: ALL Politicians Are Crooks

Palestinian and Israeli Workers Must Unite to Tear Down Apartheid Wall

600 Protest Racist LAPD Murder of Teenager; Boo Ex-Police Chief

a href="#Everyone Can Learn Math — And Communist Politics">"veryone Can Learn Math — And Communist Politics

Concentration Camps: Second Nature to Capitalism

LETTERS

Staying in for the Long Haul

Banning Unions Before They Start

a href="#A ‘Life-Changing’ Experience">A "Life-Changing’ Experience

a href="#Youth’s Vital Role At Anti-War Conference">"outh’s Vital Role At Anti-War Conference

a href="#Women ‘Hold Up Half The Sky’">Wo"en ‘Hold Up Half The Sky’

a href="#‘Million Dollar Baby’: Capitalist View of Human Nature">‘M"llion Dollar Baby’: Capitalist View of Human Nature

a href="#Eastwood’s Fascist Attack on Disabled">"astwood’s Fascist Attack on Disabled

a href="#Reviewer’s Response">"eviewer’s Response

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

• Poll makes Marx a Founding Father
• Iraq shows limits of US power
• Vets left uninsured and homeless
• Over $500 billion yearly for army
• Double death rate for black men
• Inter-imperialist rivalry heating up
• Afghans’ abusers set up Abu Ghraib
• ‘Democracy’ serves Big Business

---

Hundreds At Anti-War Conference: Must Organize to Fight Imperialism

NEW YORK CITY, March 5 — "Imperialist War Means: Fight Back!"; "Racism Means: Fight Back!"; "Shut It Down!"; "Students and Teachers, United, Will Never Be Defeated!"

An explosive mix of militant urban youth and radical teachers’ chants rang through the hall at the close of today’s conference of Educators to Stop the War as 750 East Coast teachers and students from schools and colleges as far as Florida and Indiana convened to discuss how to stop the war in Iraq. The title itself was a call to action for teachers from kindergarten to grad school, and by 260 students, half from high school.

The event was sponsored by U.S. Labor against the War and many teacher union locals from SUNY, CUNY, and Rutgers. PLP teachers and students also worked hard to build the conference and brought many participants.

The title raised the key question: who can stop the war, and how? Teachers and students allying with soldiers and industrial workers? Protests? Prolonged resistance in the army and the workplace, such as strikes and rebellions? What about the politics of the Iraqi insurgency? Can we end imperialist wars while leaving capitalism intact, or take the road to revolution? These questions were prevalent but challenged: "I’m just a student with asthma from the Bronx," asked one. "What does capitalism have to do with me?"

Some hoped education could be a "free zone" in capitalism. Many didn’t think about class as the "hidden curriculum" of capitalist schooling, reproducing this brutal system with deep links to the imperialist war machine. (However, everyone understood the role of recruiters in schools, a hot topic with students.)

Teacher unionists debated their contract and education budget fights as struggles against a "war contract" and a "war budget." But teachers were galvanized by the young students, who clearly loved being with their teachers as equal comrades in struggle. "Student-teacher alliance" was the cry everywhere.

The Conference generated tremendous excitement and hope in a period of downturn in anti-war actions. Communists presented a glimpse of schooling in the communist society PLP fights for: multi-racial and non-sexist; collective leadership; non-hierarchical, with presentations from high school students and doctoral faculty; soldiers and vets offering their perspective; Marx’s "relentless critique of absolutely everything"; the role of the Party pushing constantly for working-class interests. Communist schooling will be the ultimate student-teacher alliance.

Soon the success of the conference emerged, anti-war action against military recruiters exploding at CCNY (See page 3). Other counter-recruiter protests were blocked by police at Bronx Community College, and were planned at Hunter College March 16. Many, including PLP, wanted to make April 20 a day of such mass actions, linking anti-war to contract and tuition demands.

It was an action-oriented conference, with an emerging student-teacher alliance in 42 workshops discussing: organizing in the teacher unions, schools and campuses, in curriculum and teaching methods, the roots of the war, and critiques of ideologies that support the war. The more than 150 workshop presenters were one-third black, Latino/a, Asian or Middle Eastern, more multi-racial than most anti-war events.

Some leaders of Educators to Stop the War red-baited PLP and its allies. They don’t want communists and their ideas to influence anti-war activists and to challenge liberal anti-war organizations like United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). But the war in Iraq is an imperialist war for U.S. ruling-class interests, it does have its roots in rival capitalists’ drive for endless accumulation, we do need a full understanding of these processes to know how to better fight the warmakers. Finally, communism — for all its past weaknesses — has been the only philosophy with the ability to mobilize millions to end capitalism itself, the root of modern war.

Organizing mass militant action at work, fighting racism that pervades capitalist education, building unbreakable lifelong ties with co-workers, bringing them closer to communist thinking by patient work, and forging a mass party out of daily struggle, is the way ahead. A global worker-soldier-student-teacher alliance can create a communist future, free of imperialist war and capitalist mis-education.

Class Consciousness and Red Politics Key to Crushing Warmakers

A recent meeting of the Progressive Labor Party’s Steering Committee discussed a lengthy, detailed report about the contradictions facing U.S. rulers. The report covered the state of inter-imperialist rivalry and the likelihood that the present oil war in Iraq will soon broaden. It reinforced the estimate that the economic and military rise of Chinese capitalism will eventually lead to armed struggle with the U.S.

The PLP leadership confirmed its view that this remains a period of widening war for world domination and that although the U.S. will remain top dog for some number of years, the general trend will see its chief competitors in Asia and Europe gain strength and boldness. PLP’s Steering Committee once again endorsed the idea that communist revolution can be forged in the crucible of the world war that will erupt in coming decades.

The discussion took into account the wide tactical maneuverability the bosses still enjoy and underscored the importance of properly assessing their strength and the advantages they hold over the working class at the moment.

The most important of these advantages remains the low level of communist class consciousness in the U.S. and throughout the world in general. Weak class consciousness leads to weak class struggle. Both at home and abroad, the rulers are getting away with racist murder. From the military’s routine slaughter of civilians in Iraq to the denial of health insurance to 45 million people here, CHALLENGE constantly describes the atrocities U.S. capitalism commits daily.

The self-inflicted failure of the old communist movement has temporarily placed our class in a position of weakness without historical precedent since Marx and Engels wrote "The Communist Manifesto" nearly 160 years ago. Strikes provide a good gauge of working-class militancy. In the U.S., they are very low by historical standards. Scabbing — the use of strike-breakers to replace striking workers — has risen steadily since the benchmark year of 1981. Then Reagan hired scabs to replace 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, without a peep from the labor union brass. The percentage of unionized workers continues to decline. In both the U.S. and Europe, the union "leadership" has long since made the commitment to serve as the bosses’ henchmen in the system’s drive to suck maximum profit from our labor power.

The bad news is the present picture is bleak. The good news is we can do something about it. The working class is still paying dearly for the deadly errors committed in the course of previous revolutions. But errors can be analyzed and corrected. This process will be long and difficult, but can be accomplished. The profit system can neither solve nor abolish the contradictions and problems it creates. That job remains the role of the working class and the responsibility of its communist party, the PLP.

Our chief task today is rebuilding militant, communist class consciousness until it becomes the order of the day throughout the working class. The word "scab" must once again become the foulest word in any language, and scabbing must come to include not just strike-breaking but also the failure to respond vigorously to any and all attacks against our class brothers and sisters worldwide.

Even in these difficult times, opportunities arise. CHALLENGE articles about actions against racism, economic attacks or imperialist war in Iraq prove that the bosses can never totally extinguish the flame of class struggle. But we can do better, particularly on the ideological front of promoting and sharpening class consciousness.

As always, the correction of weakness or error begins with leadership. Our Party’s Steering Committee recognizes its responsibility in this regard. As May Day approaches, we challenge ourselves once again to deepen our commitment to the principle of militant, revolutionary, international communist working-class solidarity against all bosses and all forms of scabbing.

Brass Wants Token Sacrifice From Elite School Youth

As U.S. rulers pursue an agenda of ever widening war, they face a crisis of class consciousness in their own ranks. Very few children of the ruling class serve, even briefly, in the war machine that maintains their wealth, power, and privilege. But the more far-sighted of the rulers fear two consequences: (1) Working-class GIs and their families will rebel against having to bear an obscenely high casualty rate; and (2) the ruling class will soon lack the military expertise necessary for an all-out mobilization.

General Josiah Bunting wrote an article for the Winter 2005 "American Scholar" entitled "Class Warfare: It is Wrong that America’s Most Privileged Families Have Abandoned Military Service." He decries "the deepening chasm that is separating those who serve from those whom they serve."

Bunting laments the declining numbers of war dead among alumni of the elite Lawrenceville School near Princeton, where he was once headmaster: sixty in World War II, ten in Korea, five in Vietnam, and none for Gulf War I or the current slaughters in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the working class continues to bear all the killing and maiming, he worries, domestic tranquility could suffer.

Bunting sees a need for the token burden sharing of WWII, in which young Roosevelts and Kennedys, but few Rockefellers, saw heavy action. Bunting hopes for a sea change. Envisioning world-wide conflicts, he dreams of a fully militarized future, in which the children of today’s rulers "appointed or elected to offices...will carry the inestimable benefit of having themselves done what they will be asking another young generation to do."

Bunting speaks for the liberal, imperialist wing of U.S. capitalists. He recently oversaw the admission of women to the Virginia Military Institute. Bunting now presides over the New York-based Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, which, under him, increasingly focuses on military leadership and the relationship of the military to the rest of society. This foundation counts as "life trustees" General William Westmoreland, who commanded the U.S. genocide in Vietnam, and Jeremiah Milbank, whose family has managed the Rockefellers’ billions for over a century.

By choosing the "American Scholar" as his vehicle, Bunting targets administrators at elite universities, who, while cashing Pentagon research checks, persist in hindering military recruitment. One college president who needs no convincing, however, is Harvard’s Larry Summers. Last June, he held the first commissioning on Harvard grounds of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) since 1969, when students led by the Progressive Labor Party booted the bloodsuckers out. Summers is pushing to re-establish Harvard’s ties to the military completely. When the rulers’ media complain about Summers’ abrupt shifts to the right, they’re attacking his lack of finesse, not his politics.

Along with Bunting’s persuasion, the rulers are using the coercion of state power to bring their own class in line by putting more of its children in uniform. A bill before Congress, variously known as H.R. 3699 and the Solomon Amendment, will end the ability of colleges to block recruiters and ROTC. It sailed through the House last year, with overwhelming backing from Democrats and Republicans.

The rulers know that, ultimately, only one solution exists. They can hardly expect their pampered offspring to renounce selfishness willingly. Selfishness lies at the heart of capitalist philosophy. Pining for the Good Old Days, Bunting says that, in 1956, Princeton sent 400 of its 900 graduating seniors into the military and that the figure for 2004 was nine out of 1,100. He pointedly leaves unsaid the glaring fact that the great "motivator" back then was the draft. The rulers will have to restore it, sooner or later.

Bosses To Bankrupt Workers: Drop Dead!

The latest change in the bosses’ bankruptcy laws is one of the more blatant pieces of class legislation enacted in decades. It will extract another pound of flesh from working-class families ruined by health costs and job loss and add billions to the already swollen profits of the banks and credit card companies. Meanwhile, Congress refused to raise the already paltry minimum wage above the 1996 level, which is falling even further below the poverty line.

These kinds of fascist attacks on workers will continue until the working class mounts an organized fight-back to limit them and eventually turns them back on the ruling class with a communist revolution eliminating the capitalist system that breeds them.

Most people are forced to file for bankruptcy because of sudden illness, layoffs or divorce. A Harvard study found that medical bills account for over half of all bankruptcy filings, and most of those families had health insurance but it didn’t cover the cost of medical debts. One-third of all bankruptcies are filed by people with incomes already below the poverty line.

This new law — already passed by the Senate and soon-to-be enacted by the House — will push millions of working-class families still deeper into poverty. It will require debtors with incomes above the median in their states to file for bankruptcy under a Chapter 13 proceeding, in which a judge orders a repayment plan, rather than under a Chapter 7 filing where debts are erased once most of the debtors’ assets are liquidated. This will force hundreds of thousands of families to make large payments to creditors from their current income even if they subsequently lose their jobs or incur huge medical bills.

Meanwhile, the wealthy will retain their loophole of the "asset protection trust" which enables them to maintain their riches even if declaring bankruptcy.

The banks and credit card companies have been pushing for such legislation for eight years. The likes of the American Bankers Association, Ford Motor Credit, GMAC, Visa, MasterCard, Citicorp, Capital One and MBNA, among others, have made more than $40 million in political contributions over that period, an investment that will now reap a multi-billion dollar bonanza.

Interestingly, the ten states with the highest bankruptcy filings are "red" states in the South and West, many of whom voted for Bush based on racism and support for the Iraq war. Even though all ten voted Republican last November, their Senators will still punish them with this new law. But the Democrats are guilty as well — 14 Democratic Senators joined 55 Republicans to bar any filibuster from killing the bill, including such stalwarts as Delaware’s Joe Biden, Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman, West Virginia’s Robert Byrd and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow (whose state has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates, driving workers to bankruptcy).

As the U.S. debt burden skyrockets, billions will be extracted by the banks from bankrupted families. Bankruptcy filings leaped from 200,000/yr in 1978 to 1.6 million last year. In 1946, consumer debt was 22% of after-tax income. By last year it had jumped to 110%. The probability that a family’s income will be cut in half from one year to the next has doubled from the 1970’s to over 20%. That could mean that tens of millions can slide from relative comfort into poverty due to illness or job loss, and then be subject to the impossible squeeze of this new bankruptcy swindle.

The credit card companies prey on the weakest sections of the population: credit card debt among seniors has increased 149%, and among families with income below $10,000 it’s rocketed 184%. A family of three earning a minimum wage and working five days a week, 52 weeks a year, is already below the federal poverty line.

All capitalists in general are like vultures circling above tens of millions of families falling deeper into debt, and then swooping down with this new bankruptcy rip-off to dig their profit talons into defenseless debtors. They’ll keep succeeding until the working class stops them.

PLP H.S. and College Students Bring Revolutionary Ideas to Anti-War Conference

NEW YORK CITY, March 5 — Over 250 high school and college students at the Educators to Stop the War Conference were on the verge of marching on an Army recruiting station in Harlem until we discovered the center was closed. About 50 of us were from one Brooklyn high school where we made buttons and held a forum with two soldiers speaking, to build interest in the event. Students who attended the conference were very moved by it.

The militancy at this anti-war conference was unexpected, but the revolutionary leadership given by young PL’ers changed the tone of the day. Students were fed up with limiting anti-war activity to marches — which end up supporting Democratic Party politicians — and wanted to take direct action against the war machine.

We made plans to return to our campuses and high schools to organize more students for a demonstration at a recruiting center in the near future.

A multi-racial contingent of PL students led workshops on Creating a Student Anti-war movement, Stopping Military Research and Homeland Security Programs on Campuses, Recruiters and the Draft, Racism, Imperialism and building a teacher-student alliance. These workshops helped make the conference a huge success. We were able to advance the Party’s line against pseudo-leftist and liberal reformist ideas.

In the Recruiters and the Draft workshop one student described how he helped kicked military recruiters off the City College campus one day last fall. An ex-recruiter revealed how he was duped into becoming a salesman for the military. Another speaker discussed the draft, explaining that an economic draft existed already for many workers, even before the Iraq War. He declared that when the "real draft" comes we should advise youth who will go in and actively organize soldiers to stop the war rather than dodge military service. He said while students’ and teachers’ anti-war activity is important to opposing the war, only U.S. soldiers and industrial workers in solidarity with workers in Iraq can stop it. We need to support these workers’ actions. Some further comments from students about their feelings on the conference:

"I think the conference was a good step towards making people knowledgeable about the war. It was good to see teachers and students come together on a more synchronized level. It was a good experience and other things should be done to follow up."

"I think I understand the war a bit more and it makes me want to get involved to assist the movement. I would like to see more students involved in protesting this Imperialist war. There should be workshops in the school to explain the war to students."

"In order to show how informed we students are and how we disagree with the war, the entire school should walk out to voice our opinions on the war. I realized that the minority of the country is controlling the majority of the working class. It makes me think about how wrong this government is. I am not sure if I totally agree with the concept of communism, but I would like to learn more."

"I do believe capitalism is a very bloody type of government. The war is being fought by poor and working-class soldiers and they are killing other poor and working-class people. END THE WAR NOW!"

The conference and the militancy of many of its participants show that following Bush’s re-election the "depression" suffered by many who oppose the imperialist invasion and occupation of Iraq is over among many activists. We must ensure that the idea of "It’s not just Bush, it’s also the Democrats and capitalism" takes hold among many of these anti-war activists. Being anti-imperialist means being anti-capitalist and a communist, serving the working class and helping lead a working-class movement to totally destroy capitalism.

Hundreds March for Immigrant Rights; Need to By-Pass Liberal Dems

QUEENS, NY, March 12 — Capitalists and their flunky politicians in the Federal, State and local governments have no shame. They’ve launched virulently racist attacks against immigrants, especially since 9/11, blaming them for the problems created by capitalism itself.

Immigrant workers are fighting back here on two fronts: against denial of drivers’ licenses and against budget cuts for adult education, but all within the limits set by the bosses. However, as CHALLENGE readers know, this is very much like running on a treadmill, getting nowhere fast. While waging these important struggles, it is vital that we raise the bar by building a movement for a communist revolution as the best and longest-lasting solution to eliminate these vile anti-immigrant attacks.

On March 5, more than 300 immigrants and other workers and students marched in Jackson Heights as part of the Queens Drivers License Coalition to demand that officials and the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) end their discriminatory and irresponsible plan to suspend the driver’s licenses of about 300,000 immigrant workers (cab drivers, delivery truck drivers, etc.). Over 7,000 immigrants in NYS have already lost their licenses because of the new rule requiring a valid Social Security number to obtain a legal driver’s license.

Shouting "El Pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido!" (The people, united, will never be defeated"), and "Inquilaab zindabad!" (Freedom now!" in Bengali), the protesters’ leaflets and demands that the politicians stop their irresponsible plan were well-received by thousands of passers-by.

Fight Adult Education Budget Cuts

Also, in recent weeks dozens of teachers and students in the CUNY Adult Literacy Programs have begun organizing against the Bush administration’s proposal to cut by 2/3 the amount of federal money for adult education. The vast majority of students in these programs are immigrant workers looking to earn their GED diplomas in order to improve their jobs and/or go on to college. They’re planning a protest demonstration for April 22.

The weakness in both of these struggles is the tendency to look to politicians, especially liberal Democrats, for help. The strength has been the involvement of many immigrant and other workers. These cuts are aimed at many groups. The ruling class hopes each group will struggle for itself only. Each one must reach out to other groups to support each other. In these struggles, PLP’ers must show how these attacks on immigrants and major cutbacks in social services are part and parcel of the imperialists’ endless wars and Homeland Security police state, supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

a name="CUNY Students Blast Military Recruitment for ‘Career’ in War"></">CU"Y Students Blast Military Recruitment for ‘Career’ in War

NEW YORK CITY, March 9 — About 15 students and professors at City College — part of the City University of New York (CUNY) — entered the annual Career Fair and brought the message to the college administration and the Army that fighting in imperialist wars is not a career option. Upon entering the Great Hall, campus security met us and announced that any type of protesting or anyone entering with anything remotely political would be escorted out.

At the fair, we saw the careers the administration and ruling class are offering working-class students as they raise our tuition and cut financial aid. Military and police recruiters dominated the Fair. Tables for the National Guard, Army, Marines, Air force, NYPD and State Troopers lined the row of "employers."

Some of us began distributing leaflets linking CUNY’s $500-a-year tuition hike to the Iraq war. We assembled next to the National Guard table, near a line of students who were having their resumés reviewed. We started chanting, "U.S. out of Iraq, Recruiters off our campus!" In three minutes, campus cops surrounded us and told us if we didn’t stop chanting we’d have to leave. We chanted even louder. Everyone in the Hall took notice.

The guards then threw us out of the Great Hall. We rallied in the hallway but were told we couldn’t protest there either, that we had to go outside in front of the building. Someone called to us, "Whose school?"; we replied "Our School!" This chant prompted students inside the fair to pump their fists in solidarity, forcing security to close the door to the Fair, isolating most of us from those inside.

Since they couldn’t get us to stop chanting or to leave and more students were assembling in the hallway, they started threatening to arrest us. We didn’t budge. They brutally arrested three people, throwing one on the floor and pushing his face into the wall. Another cop assaulted a second person from the back and his buddies stomped on him. The third was taking pictures and screaming at the cops, along with all of us, to let them go. We then distributed literature to all the students who were standing around.

We all made speeches in our classes, urging everyone to join a rally we were having the next day protesting tuition hikes and supporting the "Great Hall Three." They’re charged with misdemeanor counts of "assaulting an officer, resisting arrest" and "disturbing the peace."

The next day a vigorous picket line took place, joined by other students, including PLP, and the City College chapter of the faculty and staff union. The administration "answered" by arresting a professor — charging her with assaulting an officer — and suspending one student, while defending their fascist campus security.

While we weren’t able to kick the recruiters off the campus, in trying to silence us they’ve added more fuel to our fire. This class war is a long-term one. As the college administrations join more and more the bosses’ plans to militarize the entire society, the unity of workers, students and soldiers to build a mass communist movement is the road to end this system based on endless wars and of police state.

Union Misleaders Derail MUNI Work-Action

SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 — "Union Shuts Down Cable Cars"… "Wildcat"…"Strike"…"Job Action." On March 2, these were unusual headlines about this city’s Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 250a which covers all transit operators for SF MUNI. Drivers at many garages greeted this action with enthusiasm and solidarity. "Great!…Finally…See, we can do it…Let’s spread it!" "If anything happens to the cable car drivers we all should go out." "We can run the show, we can bring the City to a stop." Momentarily our potential power was a reality.

Then the cable car operators returned to work while the top Downtown TWU leadership negotiated. When "Union Apologizes for Job Action…" hit Friday’s headlines, drivers were pissed off — "Apologize for what? Can [General Manager] Burn’s discipline the union or the cable car operators?" But the Downtown TWU leadership frittered away a chance to stop service and pay cuts and a fare increase.

In appearance the union leadership called the job action because MUNI management refused to follow the contract in a grievance appeal for two cable car operators. But in essence the real cause of this action was general frustration and tremendous anger after nine months of continuous threats to cut wages and transit service, and raise MUNI fares. Drivers have constantly demanded a real plan for action from the union leadership. Frustration intensified when the transit bosses adopted a budget on Feb. 28 that cut $13.5 million in services, demanding labor "efficiencies" and $13 million in fare increases — but absolutely no increased revenue from downtown Big Business.

The Cable Car action came after a rumored "sick-out," and although unorganized, some workers stayed off at two work-sites. Management flipped at the very whiff of a MUNI "sick-out" and prepared contingency plans and counter-attacks. The Downtown TWU leadership attacked the rumored MUNI action as "unauthorized." Then they called the Cable Car action a few days later.

Management, City politicians and the media had poured gas on this potential fire for months. When the union leadership lit the match, the cable car drivers did the rest, pulling all cable cars into the garage and struggling for solidarity, to overcome individual concerns over losing pay.

We drivers have an unsolvable, antagonistic relationship to MUNI management and the Downtown Corporate Businesses that run SF. Their attacks on us stem from capitalism which dictates a widening war for Mid-East oil and tax cuts for the rich. This won’t go away by changing General Managers. Negotiations usually amount to lowering the wages and benefits of the newest and future workers, often our children, to pay for any improvement for more senior workers.

In discussions following these actions, communists in PLP have tried to encourage more workers to become leaders of our class. The lessons learned will last longer than any material gains.

True to form, the top union leadership didn’t spread the action or organize riders to join us, while refusing to challenge the right of Big Business to profit from our labors. Unions now function to negotiate the terms of our exploitation and contain our struggle. A work stoppage can change the power equation somewhat but the bosses will regroup to hit us again.

Management and the union leadership will exploit a divided workforce (along lines of "race," nationality, age, new hires vs. senior workers, different garages, etc.). We need an integrated PLP-led group that advances communist ideas, such as raising the class consciousness and unity of all workers — viewing transit as a service that’s vital to the working class; uniting with passengers, other city workers and all drivers.

We need organization, not spontaneity, to confront such a powerful enemy. Media-driven actions don’t work. In a war, we need a general staff to plan and evaluate the battles. Historically, communist parties have played this role.

Communists fight for the working class to take over so our class runs society and shares the fruits of our labors. Transit workers in a communist society would collectively decide, along with passengers and other workers, how to best meet everyone’s transit needs. Communism is the only alternative to the profit system.

Class Consciousness Wins One:

Boeing Union Resolution Supports Lockheed Strikers

SEATTLE — The union leadership tried to adjourn the last membership meeting early, but were shouted down, in a voice vote, by shop stewards and rank-and-filers determined to discuss unity with Lockheed Martin strikers. Twenty of us prepared a resolution supporting these workers who’ve taken the lead this contract season. The union mis-leaders feared going on record opposing solidarity, so they and their hangers-on abstained and the resolution passed unanimously. There’s still a deep yearning for class unity that can be tapped when we lead boldly or even when workers spontaneously fight back.

These 2,800 Marietta, Ga. workers struck mainly over a provision denying retiree health care benefits to newly-hired workers. "How can we ask someone to join the union and then slap them in the face!" said one Machinist, during the contract vote at which over 70% rejected the deal recommended by the IAM Local 709 leadership. Since the average age in the plant is 54, these workers struck for a workforce that largely has not even been hired yet. The strikers hit the bricks March 8 for the second time in three years.

Breaking the Pattern; Taking the Lead

These Marietta strikers broke the pattern set by the IAM and UAW in aerospace. Lockheed IAM Locals in Palmdale and Sunnyvale, CA as well as three UAW Boeing Locals already accepted similar contracts with the same provision dividing older from newer workers. "It’s very rare that you see the local of a union break from a pattern that’s been established in bargaining," said Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. (Fort Worth Star Telegram, 3/9)

The International sees the danger to their plans to guarantee production, particularly war production. "This could be the crack that will eventually blow apart the whole plan for a sellout," said a past union officer in Seattle, referring to the strike and our support resolution. Upcoming contracts at Boeing on September 1 and next year at the Forth Worth, TX. Lockheed plant hang in the balance.

The International has quickly moved to settle, while offering only lukewarm support for the strikers. "The majority has spoken at Local 709 and the international will support them," said John Crowdis, national IAM negotiator, "I’m disappointed we weren’t able to reach an agreement… They believe they’re fighting for what’s right." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/8) The union had already scheduled new talks for March 12.

Georgia U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson and Representative Phil Gingrey, both Republicans, have come to the aid of the International, warning that the timing of the strike was "unfortunate." (Columbus, Ga. Ledger-Enquirer, 3/9) They implied that production might be shifted to Lockheed’s Fort Worth plant by a Pentagon that wants cheaper weapons to run its "stunningly expensive war in Iraq" and other imperialist adventures. "It’s [Lockheed’s Marietta plant] an old facility in which the workforce is difficult to deal with," said Loren Thompson, a war analyst at the Lexington Institute. "I’m sure Fort Worth and St. Louis [Boeing subcontractor] are wondering what this strike means for them."

Conscious of Our Class’s Revolutionary Role

The broader implications of this strike-support resolution didn’t escape the rank and file at the meeting or those on the shop floor. After it passed, many stewards took copies back to their shops. A lower-level union functionary noted that the top union leadership was opposed to the strike. "This is really messed up," he complained.

"I hope there is no attempt to do anything like this with retiree medical care in our contract and I don’t care how you try to disguise it," said another retired member, who made a special trip to attend this meeting.

All agreed that the local leadership didn’t want to publicize this strike because it might upset their plans for the next contract, hence the attempt to adjourn the meeting before it arose. "This dishonesty pissed me off more than anything," said an assembler at lunch the next day. We vowed to write our own reports on this strike, not trusting the leadership to implement the reporting provisions of the resolution.

Class consciousness carried the day at this meeting. Given the bosses’ determination to steal our retirement, both private and public, to finance their imperialist wars, our class also needs to be conscious of our historical role. We industrial workers can help lead the way to revolution, where imperialist war and the need to steal from workers to finance these bloodbaths will be nothing but history. Then the only weapons we produce will be destined to support the working class.

FLASH — As expected, the IAM agreed to a new deal to shut down this pattern-breaking strike. Details were not released but the company is on record saying it would not reward Marietta strikers for rejecting the offers that others have accepted. Lockheed Local 709 members were under extreme pressure from the company, the government, the union hierarchy and the media, which claims there are larger numbers of scabs this time around than last time.

On March 15th, a tentative agreement was reached but the workers will remain on strike until the result of the vote is known.

General Strike Hits France to Keep 35-Hour Work-week

A massive general strike shook France on March 10, with mass marches across the country. Capitalism worldwide is trying to make workers pay for their crisis. One 32-year-old auto striker, Moussa, showed the anger and frustration which led to the strike:

"I’ve been working for the past two and a half years for Citroën, I make 1,200 euros [$1,600] a month. Management wants to force us to accept workless days paid at 60%, but I can’t accept that.…Management is offering to let us make up the workless days next year, but I don’t want to. The work conditions are too hard. We would have to work on Saturdays, in other words, six-day weeks, when we’re already really tired after four days! It’s hard on the assembly line. You have to be fast, patient, resilient, and the bosses keep us under pressure all the time…"

Philadelphia City Hall Scandal: ALL Politicians Are Crooks

PHILADELPHIA, March 12 — The scandal that has hit this city is just one more example of the kind of corruption found among all capitalist politicians, from mayors to governors to senators to presidents. We live under a system controlled completely by rich bosses. Mayor John Street answers to these people, not to the workers of Philadelphia.

Prior to the November, 2003 mayoral election, a listening device was found in the Mayor’s office, eventually revealing that the FBI was investigating the wide-spread "pay-to-play" scandal in the Street administration. "Pay-to-Play" means "if you want favorable action from City Hall, you’ll have to pay for it."

FBI involvement in such routine corruption doesn’t mean it has become a crime-fighting organization. The FBI is just as corrupt as the politicians. Street and his cronies have funneled hundreds of millions to themselves while claiming the city is "broke." This "investigation’s" purpose is to send a clear message to small-fry politicos that such sloppy selfishness won’t be allowed by the big capitalists who rule Philadelphia.

The fact is: (1) ALL politicians are crooks, no matter what their skin color; and (2) Counting on a black mayor to "do the right thing" is no different than letting a fox "guard" the chicken coop. When workers need higher wages or better mass transit, Street cries "poverty." But when the bosses want a downtown, no-tax, "enterprise zone" or a cut in their taxes, Street always claims it "benefits" the city. These anti-worker schemes create bosses’ benefits on workers’ backs.

Black politicians claim that because they’re black they’re "better." But black politicians are just as corrupt, anti-worker and pro-boss as white politicians. Many people voted for Street thinking he was "better" than Republican Sam Katz. But BOTH are hucksters. Only the color of their skin and the particular business people who back them are different. Neither has ever fought for workers’ interests.

The FBI just released a tape of a telephone conversation between Street and one of his cronies, Philadelphia lawyer Ronald White. White was up to his ears in the pay-to-play scandal but died last November before his trial began. Street and White were caught on tape discussing how they were "now forced to play the race card." These two-bit crooks want people to think they’re being attacked "just because we’re black." What hypocrisy! All mayors and city officials have enforced the real effects of racism: cops gunning down black teenagers at will as well as black people suffering from higher unemployment and lower wages. These guys couldn’t care less about the sufferings of any workers. Once again, nationalism gets you nowhere. Elections under capitalism are designed to maintain the capitalist system. They only give workers a choice of who will oppress them. Workers need internationalism and a communist system to smash all bosses and their politician servants.

Palestinian and Israeli Workers Must Unite to Tear Down Apartheid Wall

I was part of a 12-person U.S, medical delegation, including 10 Jews, wh ich recently returned from 11 days in the West Bank, occupied by Israel for 40 years. This was the latest of several trips to provide medical assistance and gather information, in partnership with Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. We found that Israel has created conditions for the Palestinians resembling the oppression Jews themselves have suffered in the past.

The most startling aspect of the Occupied Territories (OT), which include the West Bank and Gaza, is the overwhelming presence of the Israeli military and the Wall. There are over 700 checkpoints in an area the size of New Jersey. One cannot travel over 30 minutes without being stopped. Access to every city is controlled by concrete barriers and barbed wire, where people and vehicles must line up to be scrutinized by teenage Israeli soldiers with machine guns. No Palestinian can pass a checkpoint or leave his/her town without a permit. In 2003, only 56,000 permits were issued for a population of 2,300,000.

Israel plans to surround the entire OT with a 2-story-high wall, now over 1/3 complete. Although the OT border was decided in 1967 and labeled the "Green Line," Israel is building 85% of the wall inside this border, thereby seizing 11.5% of territory supposedly in the West Bank. This is partly to surround Israeli settlements illegally built throughout the Palestinian territory, and partly to capture the land on the western border containing the greatest underground water supply. Israelis and Palestinians have separate road systems, with the former able to whiz from the settlements to Israel on modern highways while the latter drive on indirect rutted roads.

The inability of people to move freely has a tremendous impact on health. Even pregnant women about to deliver must stop at checkpoints and may not be allowed to pass. Fifty-six births have occurred at these barriers, causing several deaths. Fearful of this, fewer women are getting pregnant; 30% of new-borns are delivered at home. Although several sophisticated tertiary care hospitals exist in the West Bank, patient access is virtually impossible.

A new medical school in East Jerusalem has an impressive faculty and student body, but days are lost as faculty and students try to travel from clinical settings to the school for lectures and exams. The medical library has no journals later than 2001; obtaining replacement parts for CT scanners can take over a month. Patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or kidney disease cannot get regular access to medications, specialists or dialysis, even if only a short distance from these centers. Up to 70% of children’s inoculations may be ineffective because the long delays in transit render the vaccines useless.

Israel has seized control of 90% of the water, so farmers’ crops wither while Israeli settlers enjoy swimming pools and gardens. Barriers block many farmers from their fields. Palestinians can’t work in Israel, which now imports "guest workers," creating an unemployment rate of over 50% in most Palestinian cities and villages. Two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line. Mental health and family relations suffer as children witness their parents being humiliated daily by soldiers and attacked by settlers.

The ostensible reason for this apartheid is to "protect Israel from terrorist attack," but terrorists do not cross checkpoints, and an agile person could easily skirt the barriers. Instead, the system degrades, impoverishes and humiliates all 3.5 million Palestinians and reinforces virulent racism among Israelis. Lack of contact between the two groups encourages nationalism and makes unified resistance very difficult.

There are fight-backs on both sides, sometimes uniting Israelis and Palestinians. Together, hundreds have gathered to harvest olives in barricaded groves or blocked or torn down sections of the fence and wall. Hundreds of Israeli students have refused to serve in the occupation; many have gone to prison. However, the so-called militant factions in Palestine, such as Hamas or the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, seem to fluctuate between cooperating with the Fatah party of Arafat and Abbas or launching terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. This is the nature of "national liberation" politics, followed by many OT activists.

The Israeli peace movement still believes Jewish persecution is "special" in the world, and that a Jewish state is needed to protect worldwide Jewry from present and future persecution. They don’t grasp the universal nature of racism and nationalism as bosses’ tools to oppress and divide workers and induce them to fight wars against each other. Many on both sides see Bush and Sharon as "special cases" of warmongers and fail to understand that U.S. imperialism’s need to control Mid-East oil will insure ongoing war and support for a militaristic Israel, no matter who’s in office.

In the 1970s, Israeli and Arab communists, friends of PLP, were building a revolutionary movement uniting workers in Israel and Palestine to fight for a united society without capitalism and racism. The politics of this small group was powerful enough for the Golda Meir regime to jail them for ten years. This movement must be rebuilt, based on the communist politics of fighting for multi-ethnic and international unity of all workers and youth. That’s the road out of the hell of endless wars and terror affecting the Middle East and the world.

600 Protest Racist LAPD Murder of Teenager;Boo Ex-Police Chief

LOS ANGELES, Feb 26 — Over 600 people marched to protest the LAPD police murder of Devin Brown. While politicians leading the march chanted "Stop the Killing," most marchers added, "LAPD, Stop the Killing!"

At the post-march rally, politicians tried to turn this outpouring of anger into a campaign opportunity for the Mayoral election. When mayoral candidate and ex-police chief Bernard Parks tried to co-opt this outrage, speaking about the "supposed excessive force" the police used against Devin Brown, many audience members booed and loudly expressed their anger at the word "supposed" in his speech. He barely stayed on stage for ten minutes.

Many bought CHALLENGE, agreeing that the bosses are increasing their terror because they fear the revolutionary potential of angry black and Latino youth in the military and in the factories.

Since this killing, the police killed 23-year-old Tony Diaz, shooting over 100 times into a moving vehicle. They claim he shot at them first, a story his friends refuted.

On May Day, PLP will march against racist police terror and the imperialist war in Iraq, calling for an alliance of workers, soldiers and students to fight for communist revolution to end these capitalist evils for good.

a name="Everyone Can Learn Math — And Communist Politics">">"veryone Can Learn Math — And Communist Politics

"The Myth of Ability," by John Mighton. Walker & Company, New York 2003.

Mighton is a University of Toronto math professor who demonstrates in this short book that all children are equally capable of learning mathematics — a principle — as will be seen — that can be applied to political development as well. Mighton disproves the almost universal belief that children differ in ability based on their genetic make-up.

He has developed a written program called JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies) for teaching teachers how to teach — demonstrating that every child can be a prodigy, if taught correctly.

Mighton says the main aspect of correct teaching lies partly in the breaking down of mathematical ideas into the most basic elements, but mainly in convincing every child that she or he is capable of learning math at the same high level as the fastest students in the class. A student’s initial speed is generally a culmination of a series of events in early childhood, often not discoverable since it is interwoven in their daily lives. Nevertheless Mighton found that proper training can overcome these initial differences.

The main obstacle to learning math is discouragement after not succeeding immediately, stemming from teachers and parents falling for the myth that math ability is an innate genetic quality. Consequently, teachers and parents only reinforce the child’s discouragement when the latter doesn’t succeed immediately, crating a vicious circle in which success breeds success and failure breeds failure.

Mighton has written a JUMP program and taught it to hundreds of teachers and volunteers who are not necessarily mathematically trained themselves. The volunteers help teachers in Canada’s overcrowded classes, enabling entire classes of children — without exception — to succeed in math.

Mighton’s says no class should proceed until every child has grasped the current step. His methods include holding the interest of children who grasp a concept more quickly, and this changes from one step to the next.

Mighton has discovered that children’s intellectual development happens in discontinuous leaps and bounds. JUMP convinces teachers who initially believe that a particular child is incapable of learning that they were wrong. The implications of this approach go far beyond teaching children math. The principles apply to political work as well.

Part of the working class’s ability to win a revolution depends on its revolutionary Party becoming convinced that every worker is capable of learning to think as a dialectical materialist and to act as a communist. That every worker is capable of adopting a class outlook and understanding that capitalism is the source of almost all our problems. That every worker is capable of learning that only a revolution led by a revolutionary communist party, the PLP, can end the almost universal misery and horror of imperialism, racism, sexism, endless war and genocide.

PLP has adopted and developed this principle of universal political ability. However, capitalist propaganda about inherent ability and the dominance of one’s individual genetic makeup over her/his life partly undermines the conviction of many of us. Most professionals buy into that myth and lie. While PLP’s success in organizing workers, students and soldiers is a much greater antidote to this fatal capitalist concept, Mighton’s book is a partial antidote and can reinforce our resolve.

The ruling class — through research grants from its foundations, through think tanks, publishing houses and publicity in its mass media — fosters the belief that ability is innate and genetic. It serves the rulers’ interests for the working class and its children to believe they’re incapable of doing higher math or any kind of serious conceptual thinking, whether about science, literature or politics.

A recent U.S. governor’s conference bemoaned the fact that most high school students are ill-trained to cope with the technological world. They realize that they suffer from a shortage of scientists who can help develop increasingly sophisticated weaponry for the ruling class’s imperialist designs of control over the world’s oil supply and other resources, as well as over markets and labor supplies. The high school drop-out rate is also cutting into the ruling class’s ability to train workers to run the industrial machine. So they are looking for ways to train more, but not most, of the working class because generally they want to keep workers in the dark about their own abilities.

The book is particularly useful for PLP teachers and parents. It should help in struggles to improve the quality of teaching in the schools, a reform that is possible only to a very limited extent under capitalism, but can help organize working-class students for capitalism’s demise.

Concentration Camps: Second Nature to Capitalism (Conclusion of a five-part series.)

May 5 marks the 60th anniversary of the raising of the Red Flag over the Reichstag, the Nazi parliament in Berlin. Previous articles detailed OSS (predecessor of the CIA) recruitment of war criminals like SS Major Von Braun and other top Nazi scientists. They later became top honchos in NASA. Auschwitz and other concentration camps were used not only for the Nazi "final solution" but also to make super-profits for German industrialists. But the Nazis did not invent concentration camps; they are part and parcel of modern capitalism-imperialism.

The Southern slave plantations and Indian reservations in the U.S. preceded Auschwitz, murdering untold black and Native peoples. The Southern plantations resembled the Nazi labor camps, extracting huge profits from slave labor.

At the end of the 19th century, the British interned many thousands in concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer Wars. Actually many capitalist countries have used concentration camps at one time or another. During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans were interned in camps in California and the Western U.S.

Today, U.S. bosses have their own concentration camps in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan, and even send prisoners to be tortured in other countries. Michael Ratner, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, has written a book entitled, "Guantánamo: What the World Should Know," comparing the U.S. interrogation camps in that naval base to the WWII Nazi camps. Ratner states that the 1949 Geneva Convention specifically bans such camps to mistreat "enemy combatants," that they should be treated as POWs. That Geneva agreement was meant to prevent Nazi-type atrocities.

The U.S. government refuses to recognize prisoners in Guantánamo and other camps in Iraq and Afghanistan as POWs, instead labeling them "enemy combatants": "There is no legal justification for what they do, it matters little what they call the prisoners," adds Ratner. "The U.S. interrogators don’t use the regular questioning methods demanded by the Geneva Convention. They harass prisoners from morning to evening, torturing them, using cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment, violating international treaties."

Ratner recalls that the U.S. military in Afghanistan put hundreds of people arrested by the Northern Alliance (U.S. allies) in containers so densely packed that the prisoners literally lay on top of one another. The heat was unbearable. Then soldiers shot the containers full of holes, slaughtering several hundred prisoners inside.

To whose who know the history of capitalism, how it was born in blood worldwide — as Marx said in "The Genesis of Capital" — none of this is surprising. But many still believe the U.S. is fighting "for democracy" in the Muslim world, and that torture is committed by "bad regimes" (like Saddam’s). But concentration camps, torture and mass terror are universal aspects of capitalism. The cruelty and murder may vary according to particular situations, but whether it’s Auschwitz or Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo, terror and capitalism go hand-in-hand.

Bosses Desperate to Win Latin Youth for Its Imperialist Wars

In the U.S. Army’s latest TV commercial, a Latino youth is talking to his mother. "You taught me right from wrong; how to have confidence in myself. You want me to go to college," he says, trying to convince her of something. Soon the scene fades to blank with a big "Go Army" symbol and a phone number to call the recruiter.

The bosses are desperate for young Latino soldiers and for low-wage labor to work in their war-retooled industries. They’re campaigning to win Latin youth to believe the illusion that their future lies with U.S. imperialism. One of the bosses’ tricks is promoting new "American" heroes for us to die for.

In February, the City of San Antonio and corporate sponsors like Doritos organized a massive Martin Luther King Day march. Despite San Antonio being a racist city with a small black population, its MLK march of 60,000 was the country’s largest. In late March, San Antonio will sponsor a Caesar Chavez March.

To some, this seems like progress: the U.S. has recognized past racism and has become "more democratic." Many workers and students may march again to pay homage to these past struggles. But these marches are actually tools to fool workers into thinking freedom can be achieved through patriotic U.S. politics.

As head of the United Farm Workers (UFW), Chavez represented the powerful and connected, not the working class. During the Vietnam War, he argued that farm workers should rely on their class enemies, the federal government and the war-making Democratic Party, to win their rights. While militant farm workers organized to stop scabs, Chavez insisted upon pacifism, organizing boycotts that took workers far from the workplace — the site of their real power. Rank-and-file Mexican and Filipino workers tried to build unity, but Chavez promoted divisions. Most importantly, Chavez attacked undocumented workers.

The UFW organized vigilante squads to attack immigrants trying to cross the border, and required that workers wanting to join the union produce legal immigration papers. Chavez argued that U.S. workers would be better off if undocumented immigrants were barred from the U.S.

This divide-and-conquer line promoted U.S. nationalism — the idea that Chicanos were "better" than undocumented immigrants because they were born in the U.S. Yet ultimately farm workers were just as exploited as before. No wonder U.S. bosses are interested in promoting nationalists like Chavez to the working class. Facing declining Army enlistments, they hope to shovel large numbers of Latin youth into their army to fight and kill other workers in imperialist wars.

In Iraq, U.S. imperialists are fighting to keep oil away from their rivals. To justify this war, they claim they’re spreading "democracy" worldwide. Elevating union sellouts like Chavez as U.S. heroes is part of their effort to win workers to support U.S. imperialism. Workers and students must demand "U.S. out of Iraq!" and work to smash all imperialist wars and all nationalism with revolutionary communist internationalism. We should attend these marches with our friends to spread those ideas. We must challenge the bosses’ efforts to offer us heroes and holidays.

We should bring friends we meet at these bosses’ events to May Day — the working class’s real holiday. We celebrate the millions of working-class heroes who have stood for uncompromising unity against the racist and imperialist bosses.

LETTERS

Staying in for the Long Haul

My Senior Officers decided not to send me before the Captain for missing a day due to inclement weather. Their decision was based on what they perceive to be a change in my attitude towards the brass. They’re wrong; tactics may change, not the outlook.

A group of us had been struggling against a tyrannical Officer, managing to slow his attacks. However, the chain of command began to closely monitor my buddies and me. Usually, when you can’t report back on time for duty, you may be assigned extra duty. However, in my case, they took me before a Disciplinary Review Board.

At the hearing, the NCO (highest enlisted person) accused me of "skipping duty," having a "superiority complex" towards the Chain of Command and treating white superiors different from black superiors (even though some of my buddies who I’ve been struggling with are white). After the draconian hearing (essentially attempting to discipline an insubordinate worker), I decided on my own to either consciously disobey orders or leave the base. I left the base and met with a comrade.

He talked some sense to me — stay in it for the long haul, accept whatever discipline they hand out, momentarily hold back on directly attacking the brass, focus on building the base but don’t get too far ahead of them.

When I returned, several of my buddies (one white, one black) chastised me for leaving the base. They said I should have stayed and continued to struggle instead of running off. Both were right. Another buddy agreed with them. I felt my individualism had let down both my base and the collective by taking matters into my own hands instead of relying on my buddies and the Party for guidance.

Since the incident, while reducing direct attacks on the brass, I’ve continued to carefully distribute CHALLENGE and base-build. As a result, four buddies joined me at a local meeting about police brutality and some have committed to attend May Day.

I’ve learned that right now there are limits to our struggle, a practical feature of living under a bosses’ dictatorship. This has also taught me to have some patience and a stronger faith in the people I’m working with — to look to one’s base. I will continue to take a longer-term approach, knowing that we must stay in this struggle for the long haul in order to build a workers’ state. All Power to the Workers!

Red Soldier

Banning Unions Before They Start

When is a custodian not a custodian? Apparently, when he or she is not a member of a union. By labeling them "clean-up crews," public school districts have been able to keep some of the most essential workers without union protection, and in some cases without contracts. According to a number of school representatives, workers who are not already in a union are not to be labeled custodians.

In the local school system I attended, the custodians, teachers’ aides and typists had gone three years without a contract, despite mass support from both faculty and staff. This increasingly common practice is forcing thousands of workers into low-paying jobs without benefits or decent working conditions.

A friend who is a part-time custodian at an upstate New York school told me about some of his experiences. First, it’s stated up front that no employees shall join or form a union. Secondly, part-time workers are sometimes forced to stay until 10:00 P.M. (well beyond their normal shift, thus extending beyond legal part-time hours) but are denied contracts. Raises were promised every six months depending on job performance evaluation; however, no evaluation was ever made — therefore, no raise.

My friend told me about a worker who was the model employee: he stayed late when needed, never called in sick or took personal days, always worked to the best of his abilities and never complained. The only time he missed work was to look after his sick child. Apparently, under his contract as a full-time custodian, he had exhausted his sick days (which he had been forced to use not for himself, but for his child) and was fired on the spot.

Abuses like this against workers happen all the time, many of whom are unaware of their rights as workers. Upon hearing this, I gave my friend pamphlets on workers’ rights and offered him some copies of CHALLENGE to distribute amongst his fellow workers. He was more than happy to take them and told me that the others would be very excited to read them. I’m awaiting a report on the situation and remain ready and willing to do whatever it takes to help them in their cause.

A new comrade

a name="A ‘Life-Changing’ Experience"></">A "Life-Changing’ Experience

On February 26th, my family and I went to a CHALLENGE/May Day Dinner at a friend’s house. I was the only high school student among many adults and children. Little did I know my eyes would be opened to all the hardships we must endure, everyday things we take for granted. Amid all the eating and hanging out, suddenly a conversation began about the things happening in our world, ranging from the war in Iraq to personal issues. I discovered many problems we don’t know about but need to be researched.

The people at the dinner are very involved in workers’ struggles, in spreading the truth and their ideas on what’s going on. Newspapers only give some of the facts. Who better to hear the truth from than those who actually live it?

We heard that CHALLENGE is written by the working class and has information we can’t get from a regular newspaper. It also teaches workers and students how to fight back.

Amid my amazement, the new May Day DVD was played. I marched on May Day four years ago but didn’t know much about why we were marching. This discussion revealed the importance of the march. I noticed people of all ages participating. I was inspired by all those people standing together, fighting for one cause, particularly by all the youth my age. It made me question what I’m learning in school. The video made me think, "Why shouldn’t I be able to stand up against the cruelty of racism and sexism in the work-place, my school and in my daily life? Why can’t I stand up against police brutality? WHY?" The dinner answered my question: "Why not?"

In the video a woman said she attended May Day as a "present" from her best friend. When she continued "…and it’s the best present I could ever get," it struck me that the ability to stand up to what others might fear is life-changing.

One person at the dinner said cops had approached her son after he greeted his friends and accused him of purchasing drugs. So many emotions ran inside me hearing that. Her son is my age. Now I want to let people know my opinions on people’s struggles and about my own. We made plans to organize a CHALLENGE student study group and involve my friends.

We’re off to a good start. Thirteen May Day DVDs and many CHALLENGES were distributed. I’m happy knowing that I too can contribute to the objectives of CHALLENGE and its supporters.

Bronx high school student

a name="Youth’s Vital Role At Anti-War Conference">">"outh’s Vital Role At Anti-War Conference

Some friends and I helped lead a workshop at the Educators to Stop the War Conference. I really enjoyed it. It was good to learn things about topics I never would have otherwise. I also was able to present a speech about my feelings as a youth growing up in New York, about my experience at a college fair, and what I face in the future if this society remains the same.

I liked the reaction to my speech. Many people asked a lot of questions and were interested in what I had to say, including my view that capitalism offers no future to youth, that we need a communist revolution.

I think it’s important for more youth to become active in the type of work my friends and I have been exposed to. We’re taken more seriously as young adults who matter, who have important things to say. The conference was very beneficial for others to see three young panelists who care enough to take action; and for us to see adults who care about the youth.

High School Red

a name="Women ‘Hold Up Half The Sky’"></">Wo"en ‘Hold Up Half The Sky’

Solidarity greetings on International Women’s Day (IWD) from political prisoners in Peru.

Women along with our male brothers must carry forward the struggle for common interests, not reducing them to gender, and fight for a better material and spiritual life. United we must break the chains that bind us. And as women suffering double oppression, we clearly see the need to break them.

In primitive communities life was not ruled by economic or social pressures. Those pressures came with slave societies (Greece, Rome, Ancient Egypt) where a state apparatus was formed. This led to women’s first major defeat, the end of matriarchal society, turning men against us. Women entered domestic servitude, beholden to their husbands, even though both belonged to the same social class. The state, religion and the family structure were used to keep women down.

We’re never told that women discovered agriculture because their daily duties led them to see how seeds sown into earth developed and flourished. Just this fact exposes how the role of women in history’s social and economic development is always ignored.

The church continued this oppression. "St." Thomas de Aquinas labeled women the "embodiment of the devil, perverse," helping keep women oppressed and ignorant. Feudalism maintained women in domestic chores, without the right to learn reading and writing In many societies women had to walk behind men.

The 20th century saw women joining the struggle for social emancipation of all. The great revolutions of the last century helped spur the fight against oppression of women. Their participation in production as workers and the great social upheavals helped women not only to fight for many rights which they deserved but also for the need to share everything with their fellow male workers. The idea that women hold half the sky helped shatter the narrow concept that it was just a gender fight, but rather one for total liberation from class oppression.

We are always fighting to break the isolation and rules our jailers have imposed on us here. Our comrade Myriam suffers very inhuman total isolation from the rest of us, even after 10 years of imprisonment.

These are our brief comments on IWD. We hope you succeed in your goals, and would appreciate any help in ending our isolation.

Revolutionary prisoners, Chorrillos, Lima, Peru

CHALLENGE COMMENT: The struggle for the liberation of women and all workers is linked to the struggle to defeat capitalism in all its forms: free market, state capitalist, Christian or Islamic fundamentalist. The defeat of the international revolutionary movement has been very costly for all workers in Peru and worldwide. But the struggle will continue, this time for a communist society where men and women will finally be freed from all forms of oppression.

a name="‘Million Dollar Baby’: Capitalist View of Human Nature"></">‘M"llion Dollar Baby’: Capitalist View of Human Nature

The letters in CHALLENGE (3/16) regarding the review of "Million Dollar Baby" (3/2) were unnecessarily negative. The comrade from the "Frozen North" deserves a great deal of credit for analyzing a bit of capitalist culture, especially since such critiques are rare in CHALLENGE.

Resources are in short supply I’m sure; and, true, the review could have been longer and more explanatory. However, the letter writers’ missed the comrade’s correct point: capitalism chooses what to portray and how to express the portrayal. In this case Eastwood created a film in the genre of hopelessness, a sub-species of the main genre: collective struggle is impossible. Daytime TV specializes in this field, particularly the "innocent victim" variety.

Capitalist culture is intended to manipulate the audience to accept a particular view of "human nature": greedy, helpless, mired in religious superstition, pointlessly brutal and rescued only by a "hero." Clearly the letter writers were profoundly affected by this manipulation.

In the absence of Communist culture, PLP should be destructively critical of the capitalist view of "human nature" in all its media forms. Instead of being "gut wrenchingly" moved, workers might become angry at such insidious manipulation.

A long-time reader

a name="Eastwood’s Fascist Attack on Disabled">">"astwood’s Fascist Attack on Disabled

My friends and I think the movie "Million Dollar Baby" is fascist because it promotes euthanasia or murder of disabled people. The working class is under attack, and our disabled, ill and elderly are the most vulnerable. Politicians discuss taking apart Social Security and Medicare; Medicaid and in-home support services are slashed; millions have no access to health care whatsoever; and the bosses’ wars disable more people daily. So what does Hollywood offer us? Death in the form of an unlikely injury with suicide as the only reasonable resolution.

Director and millionaire Clint Eastwood is no friend of the disabled. Angered by a lawsuit against a hotel he owns where restrooms were inaccessible, he testified before Congress against the Americans with Disabilities Act, calling it "a form of extortion." He’s made a movie in which no one on the hospital staff offers support, counseling or medication to someone struggling with depression from a new and devastating injury. Eastwood’s message is clear: life with disability is without value and better ended. This was a position implemented by the Nazis in the 1930’s and extended to the elderly and other "undesirables."

In the article, "Why Disability Studies Matter," Leonard J. Davis points out, "It’s a lot easier to make a movie in which we weep for the personal defeat of a person who loses a leg or two, or cry with joy for the triumph of an individual with disabilities, than it is to change the whole way we as a society envision, think about, and deal with people who are disabled." As workers and organizers, we need to learn to look beyond individual problems to societal causes. Disability is a part of life that sooner or later touches us all. How can we raise these issues with our friends, neighbors, and co-workers? How would a communist society deal with and integrate those with illness and limitations?

a name="Reviewer’s Response">">"eviewer’s Response

I don’t think my review of "Million Dollar Baby" (CHALLENGE, 3/2) deserved such nasty, uncomradely attacks as printed in CHALLENGE (3/16). One writer says the Morgan Freeman character was anything but an uncle tom: "He could have been any color." That’s true, and Freeman is a good actor, but he was chosen for the role, I contend, for the same reason a black actor was chosen to play the betraying Judas in "Jesus Christ, Superstar." In whose interest was making the bad guy in that movie black? Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice do their fascist jobs very well, regardless of their color, but anyone who doubts that the rulers use them for other motives is sadly naïve. Would it be wrong to call them uncle toms?

My examining the two vicious black fighters and comparing them to Freeman’s character suggested his was not the best way a black character might have acted. He accepts with an ironic smile an incredibly racist, though naïve, remark from one fighter. Couldn’t he have explained to the guy that he was a victim of racist propaganda, but should watch his mouth in the future? Apparently Eastwood felt this would have been wrong. (Freeman was right in beating up a black fighter who had been sadistically pounding on the same man who called Freeman the "n" word. But from a structural point of view, what did this imply?)

A comrade once told me a southern guy he worked with said to a terrific black co- worker, "If I ever use a word that offends you, please forgive me. That’s how I was raised." The black worker replied: "Sure, and if I wind up punching you out, please understand that’s how I was raised." Which irony do you prefer?

Also, I don’t see that Eastwood’s previous openness as a fascist figure has been modified, either by this movie or "The Unforgiven," A friend suggested I see "Unforgiven." When I told a friend I thought Eastwood’s a fascist, the friend said, "He was a fascist, but here he’s apologizing for it." After seeing it I told him, "Unforgiven’s more fascistic." In the last scene when Eastwood’s riding out of town, one of the bad has a perfect shot at Eastwood’s retreating back but doesn’t fire. This simply implies he’s a Nazi "superman." Many people watch movies and think they’re just looking in someone’s window. No! Writers and directors are using a general over-riding metaphor — called by fascist poet T.S. Eliot "the objective correlative."

I don’t think the movie is an "indictment of boxing," or that it’s a "great film," though my review said it was generally well-made and well-acted. Which makes it even worse, having more power to suck us in. "The Godfather" was a great movie, but I have no illusions about its not being racist, anti-Semitic, pro-business and ultimately fascist. It was wonderfully written, made and acted, and its power is what I have against it. More so than this movie, which — except for what happens to Maggie — is a fairly trite story, and not at all anti-boxing. (If the film had continued the rise of Maggie’s character, there essentially wouldn’t have been a movie.)

Why didn’t anyone attack my point about the disgusting anti-white working-class message of the film? Doesn’t that matter? My charge of racism against black people was denied, not answered.

The tone of the letters is the way to shut people up. It takes more thought and political arguing than is shown by saying, "I liked it." So what? I somewhat liked it too, until after some thought I separated what it says from how it says it. Hollywood, and especially Eastwood, with his pro-vicious cop, anti-people persona he carries around like a third arm, poisons and deludes good people. I think the two fans fall into this category. Cleaning up at the Oscars further proves my point.

Perhaps I’m way off in my analysis, but don’t question my motives: prove me wrong. If you only want people to repeat what they "feel," you’re not going to have any dialogue at all. You can’t learn without struggle.

North Country Red

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Excerpts from mainstream newspapers exposing a bit of the true nature of the system

Poll makes Marx a Founding Father

Most adults haven’t read the Constitution since grade school….

Another recent survey found that two out of three Americans believe that Karl Marx’s blueprint for communism — "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" — is part of this nation’s defining document. (L.A. Times)

Iraq shows limits of US power

A low-tech enemy force estimated at about 10,000 fighters has stymied the mightiest military establishment the world has ever seen. To be sure, the adversary cannot defeat us militarily. But neither can we defeat it…

The actual limits of American power now lay exposed for all to see…. (LA Times, 2/23)

Vets left uninsured and homeless

But when a vet does return to home and hearth you might suppose that at the very least he would be well cared for. Forget it. The president has reduced the income threshold for entitlement to health care. Now if you earn more than $25,000 from all sources, you’re medically on your own. Consequently whole regiments of vets have no health insurance at all, while damage to their lungs, brains and nervous systems is not considered "service-connected." Nor are there any longer housing programs, so traumatized vets are homeless far beyond their ratio in the community. (Liberal Opinion Week, 3/2)

Over $500 billion yearly for army

To fund the war machine needed to push foreign policy objectives in the Middle East and to guarantee military dominance in the world….[yearly] spending will rise to $419.3 billion, not including the $100 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, and billions more for the military hidden in other agency budgets.

U.S. military spending is now larger than the rest of the world’s combined. The second largest is by China, at $51 billion….

Double death rate for black men

Middle-aged black men are dying at nearly twice the rate of white men of a similar age, reflecting lower incomes and poorer access to health care, a study has found….

The death rate for black men ages 45 to 54 was 1,060 per 100,000 in 2000, compared with a rate of 503 for white men. (NYT, 2/10)

Inter-imperialist rivalry heating up

Adm. William Fallon,…to become commander, U.S. Pacific Command said…the United States must closely watch China’s "unprecedented" growth in military spending and maintain a "credible" deterrence against North Korea to facilitate six-party nuclear talks.

"Although the economic relationship between the United States and China is expanding, we must gain greater insight into China’s growth in military spending, its intentions toward Taiwan, and its regional strategy in Asia and the Pacific," Fallon said….

…Fallon said the planned U.S. military global realignment will not affect the capabilities to defend South Korea and Japan and to deal with a possible crisis in the Taiwan Strait.

As for the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Fallon said, "The U.S. Pacific Command’s job is to facilitate ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at addressing the threat, while maintaining a credible deterrent posture." (Navy Times, 2/28)

Afghans’ abusers set up Abu Ghraib

Afghan prisoners who died in American custody in December 2002 were chained to the ceiling, kicked and beaten by American soldiers in sustained assaults that caused their deaths, according to Army criminal investigative reports that have not yet been made public….

The attacks on Mr. Dilawar were so severe that "even if he had survived, both legs would have had to be amputated," the Army report said….

…The battalion went on to Iraq, where some members established the interrogation unit at Abu Ghraib and have been implicated in some abuses there. (NYT, 3/12)

‘Democracy’ serves Big Business

Watching the 109th Congress, one would be forgiven for thinking our Constitution was the blueprint for a government of Big Business, by Big Business and for Big Business….

Here’s the agenda….First, limit people’s power to right wrongs done to them by corporations. Next force people to repay usurious loans to credit card companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for coup de grace, hand over [U.S.] history’s most successful public safety net [Social Security] to Wall Street.

Of course,…."Tort reform," "eliminating abuse of bankruptcy" and "keeping Social Security solvent" are the preferred Beltway phrasings for messing with the little guy. (LA Times, 2/23)