Medicare Ripoff Is Windfall For Drug And Insurance Bosses
a href="#Liberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War">"iberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War
a href="#‘The Story Behind the Story’">‘T"e Story Behind the Story’
Mexico: Angry Workers Must Fight All Bosses
a href="#Grocery Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!">Groc"ry Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!
Free Trade Meeting Flops; Cops Riot
a href="#Cincinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again">"incinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again
a href="#Hawk Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops">Ha"k Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops
New Communist International Movement Must Bury Dark Ages
a href="#California Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War">"alifornia Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War
Chicago Dinner Marks CHALLENGE Role in Building PLP
Reform over Revolution Alive and Well in the Matrix Trilogy
LETTERS
a href="#‘Nickled and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power">‘Nic"led and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power
Fare Hike, Pay Cut Gives CEO Bonus
a href="#‘Over-consumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?">‘Over-"onsumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?
Interfaith Meeting Discusses War, Racism
Communist Ideas Answer Fascism
a href="#Church Group Hears Need To Win GI’s">"hurch Group Hears Need To Win GI’s
Medicare Ripoff Is Windfall For Drug And Insurance Bosses
The battle over Medicare reflects an age-old conflict in capitalism. Individual companies seek short-term profits higher than their rivals’. International competition, however, drives the ruling classes of different nations to fight for long-term survival. Short- and long-term outlooks clashed in Congress last week when the U.S. Senate passed the Medicare prescription drug "benefit," and handed drug and insurance companies a windfall by creating a new, largely privatized Medicare prescription plan. While it won’t meet the needs of most workers, it will add an estimated $13 billion to the drug companies’ current $192 billion yearly sales. Insurance companies will manage much of the program.
But as Merck’s and Aetna’s bosses rejoiced that their industries’ record $139-million lobbying had paid off, liberals like Teddy Kennedy and Jay Rockefeller bitterly denounced the vote. For the drug and insurance companies, the U.S. health care system is an inexhaustible profit source, replenished with $1.7 trillion in expenditures every year. But Kennedy and Rockefeller serve capitalists who look beyond individual industries’ bottom line toward maintaining U.S. worldwide dominance by armed force. To the imperialists, health care is first and foremost an instrument of social control, one that is becoming more important as their war-making intensifies.
Also, they see that medical costs for current workers and millions of retired and soon-to-be retiring workers are a tremendous drain on profits, especially in basic industry. They favor a more "universal" health care plan that will shift the burden from private employers to the government, paid for by workers’ taxes, and make the auto, steel and aerospace bosses more competitive with their European and Asian rivals. Their opposition to Bush has much more to do with strengthening U.S. imperialism than offering some crumbs to the working class.
The Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), a government agency charged with planning the wartime mobilization of U.S. industry, says health care profoundly affects workers in the kinds of work they can do, in their fitness for military service, and in their general quality of life. But it warns, "…the U.S. does not presently have a carefully formulated and executable national health care strategy. Ensuring national security requires devising and implementing such a strategy.... Since the federal government is the single largest payer in the industry, the Department of Health & Human Services is the appropriate executive agent..." (ICAF Industry Survey, 2002). So the liberal war makers basically want two things: a health system more directly run by the federal government and, consequently, a working class more directly dependent on the feds for its health care.
The liberals’ chief complaint about the Medicare scheme is that much of it will be out of government hands. That’s what Rockefeller and Kennedy mean when they criticize the drug and insurance profiteers. "The AARP [a big backer of the bill] is a business," said Rockefeller, "they have a product to sell." Kennedy shed crocodile tears for the elderly, "Let us not turn our backs on our senior citizens so insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies can charge senior citizens even higher prices."
The Hart-Rudman Commission, which outlined the present agenda of increasing fascism and war, raised the same objection in its January 2001 report (eight months before 9-11). "The medical community has critical roles to play in homeland security. Catastrophic acts of terrorism or violence could cause casualties far beyond any imagined heretofore. Most of the American medical system is privately owned and now operates at close to capacity. An incident involving WMD will quickly overwhelm the capacities of local hospitals and emergency management professionals."
The Medicare vote is a temporary setback for the liberal imperialists. In response they will only increase their efforts to control society. However, workers shouldn’t be fooled by their call for "universal care." This is not "socialized medicine," it is a fascist plan to increase proftis for basic industries and make workers more able to fight the bosses’ wars. The fight for communism to abolish the profit system and wage slavery will create the conditions to make the health of workers — who produce all value in society — a priority. Then preventive care will help alleviate and eventually end many of the diseases caused by capitalism — AIDS, malnutrition, stress — not to mention the myriad of illnesses spread by imperialism: Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, the malnutrition and consequent death of half a million Iraqi children, cancer-causing depleted uranium and all the mental illnesses visited on soldiers on all sides of the bosses’ wars.
The Fine Print: How the Drug Benefit Works
Until 2006, seniors just get a discount card that might save them 15% on drugs. Then, when the "real" benefit kicks in, it works like this for each year:
First $250: you pay 100%;
Next $2,000: you pay 25%, Medicare pays 75%;
Next $2,850: you pay 100%;
After that (above total yearly drug costs of $5,100) you pay 5%, Medicare pays 95%.
A Communist Alternative Plan
Since workers make, package, transport, maintain and distribute all the medicines, how about this benefit plan:
• We all get 100% of what we need and it’s all free.
a name="Liberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War">">"iberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War
The dominant liberal wing of U.S. rulers has a serious labor dilemma. On one hand, U.S. companies are laying off millions of workers in the current economic downturn while relocating millions of jobs overseas. On the other, the major capitalists will — eventually and inevitably — require millions of highly-skilled, loyal workers to man their war machine against an enemy the size of China, Europe or Russia. The Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), a secretive branch of the Defense Department responsible for planning the wartime mobilization of U.S. industry, warns of massive shortfalls in skilled labor over the next two decades resulting from downsizing in fields ranging from biotechnology to shipbuilding. Thus, even as they destroy vast numbers of jobs, the rulers’ war needs are driving them to create a large workforce well-trained in math and science. The ICAF identifies improving "math and science curricula for grades K-12" as a top priority.
School systems nationwide are aiding the liberal imperialists by "raising standards" in these areas, though the effort and results are very uneven. Because racism infects everything the capitalists do, many urban schools today, with mostly black and Latin students, barely see a dime’s worth of improvement in math and science training. At the same time, suburban schools are implementing a flood of curriculum initiatives funded by the feds and establishment corporations and foundations. But at the time when the rulers need to mobilize for world war, they will undertake advanced technical training for many in the working class. Make no mistake. The math and science reform movement is fascism in sheep’s clothing. It serves the capitalists’ interests, not the students’.
The math-science push forms an important part of the Hart-Rudman Commission reports, which stand as the clearest public expression of the rulers’ 25-year strategy for worldwide dominance. Hart-Rudman’s goal is to put the nation on a war footing for regional conflicts in the near term and world war down the road. Along with using terrorist attacks on U.S. soil to stir up patriotism, the Commission’s plans extend to refocusing schools and universities. Referring to math and science, Hart-Rudman’s 2000 report reads, "the inadequacies of our systems of research and education pose a greater threat to U.S. national security over the next quarter century than any potential conventional war that we might imagine. American national leadership must understand these deficiencies as threats to national security. If we do not invest heavily and wisely in rebuilding these two core strengths, America will be incapable of maintaining its global position."
As an example, the ICAF, in its latest industry survey, cites semiconductors, which are essential to modern manufacturing and weapons: "U.S. chipmakers will require over 15,000 new electrical engineers (EE) in the early years of this century, yet EE graduates declined by 49% from 1988 to 1998, along with decreases in other important disciplines such as math and physics." In 2002, the ICAF visited Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Intel and other heavyweights in the military-industrial sphere. It found the woeful state of education in the U.S. hampering the merchants of death. "Given the recession, none noted any shortage of applicants. However, almost without exception they were frustrated by applicants’ lack of specific skills required for their industry. Most stated that applicants lacked the mechanical aptitude, knowledge, and technical background in basic math and sciences to propel their company in this highly competitive globalized economy."
Liberal representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) is spearheading the Committee for Economic Development’s (CED) new campaign, Learning for the Future: Changing the Culture of Math and Science Education to Ensure a Competitive Workforce. It calls for the creation of business-school partnerships to make math and science more attractive to students. Executives from Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco sit on the CED’s board.
A California-based organization called the Math-Science Network (MSN) advertises a seemingly praiseworthy aim, "to nurture girls’ interest in science and math courses and to encourage them to consider science and math-based career options." But MSN’s sponsors include such pillars of U.S. imperialism as JP Morgan Chase and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which helps develop the bosses’ murderous nuclear arsenal. The National Security Agency, which furnishes military intelligence to the Pentagon, runs summer programs in the mathematical sciences for high school and middle school teachers and students.
Mathematical and scientific knowledge has a class character. Capitalists use it to exploit and make war on workers. Workers, on the other hand, must understand math and science in order to serve their own class. A working-class party cannot hope to grow or seize power without offering workable, technical solutions to a host of miseries caused or worsened by capitalism. The Soviet and Chinese Red Armies were able to make revolution and transform society in large measure because they educated the masses and themselves politically and technically to a degree unimagined by the capitalists. No one should confuse the kind of training the rulers want with the knowledge workers need.
a name="‘The Story Behind the Story’"></">‘T"e Story Behind the Story’
We are fond of saying "you got to be in it, to win it," in relation to the bosses’ mass organizations. An incident at work reminded me that "being in it" could also apply to mass sales of CHALLENGE.
A friend I hadn’t seen for nearly 20 years recently transferred into my shop. I honestly couldn’t remember what kind of political relationship we had had. He was friendly now so I hesitantly gave him copies of our paper. He’s been a "casual" reader for the last few months.
Last week, he buttonholed me as I was arriving at work. "What’s this all about," he asked, pointing to the headlines about the firing of Boeing’s CFO and a vice-president of the missile program. He was clear; he wanted to know the "story behind the story."
I gave him a quick explanation about the bosses’ need to win us to sacrifice "blood and treasure" to support their continuous wars for imperialist dominance. I referred him to an article in a prior CHALLENGE that went into more detail. He went back to his machine and read (or re-read) it. He made a point of telling me it was "a really good article." He had gotten his "story behind the story."
My friend hasn’t been in the shop long enough to be involved in any sharp class struggle with us. I sell a good number of papers, so I can’t have long, in-depth discussions with every reader, all the time. My friend was one of those co-workers with whom I’ve had only limited political discussions — and limited social relations to boot. Of course, I want to correct this over time.
Given all these weaknesses, why would my friend seek me out to find the meaning of these headlines? After all, he had other friends—even closer friends — in the shop. I can only conclude that even his "casual" reading of our paper sent him in our direction.
When we keep our eye on the ball, we are able to increase CHALLENGE circulation during sharp struggle, like contract negotiations, strikes and demonstrations. Unfortunately, we sometimes let our CHALLENGE networks wither when things quiet down. (I’m as guilty as anybody.) We mistakenly doubt the value of such "casual" readers.
This little incident is a reminder that numbers—of readers—may not be everything, but they do count. CHALLENGE must be in the hands of large numbers of our co-workers if we want the working class to look to communist analysis to explain the increasing attacks on us. You got to circulate it (CHALLENGE), to win it — a significant base for revolutionary ideas.
A Shop Comrade
Mexico: Angry Workers Must Fight All Bosses
MEXICO CITY, Nov. 27 — Over 150,000 workers, students and others — 100,000 in Mexico City and the rest in other cities — participated in a "megamarch" against the government’s plan to raise taxes on food and medicine. The protests also attacked the closing of government institutions and privatization of the energy industry, which will eliminate thousands of jobs. Politicians like M. Bartlet and C. Cárdenas, who represent the bosses who want to maintain state ownership of the energy industry, are using this mass anger for electoral purposes.
In this era of growing imperialist rivalry over markets, capitalist crisis and war, the Mexican ruling class hasn’t done so well. Mexico has dropped to 30th place among the world’s exporters. China has replaced it as the leading provider of manufactured goods to the U.S. market. In 1997, China had 7.5% of the U.S. domestic market; Mexico had 10%. Today, these figures are reversed. Mexico has also lost foreign investments. China is now receiving $56 billion a year in direct investments, equal to all of Latin America.
President Fox and COPARMEX (the bosses’ association) want to get out of this hole by taxing poor people even more, opening the energy industry to investors, slashing labor rights to increase productivity (á la the USA) and increasing exploitation.
Slim, the richest boss in Mexico, CANACINTRA (another bosses’ association), Mexico City’s municipal bosses, some opposition politicians and union hacks from the Electrical Workers’ Union and National Workers’ Union (UNT) want to keep control of the energy industry and use it as the basis to reactivate the domestic market. Neither side is interested in the well-being of the working class. They all want to control the lion’s share of the wealth produced by workers, the fees paid by utility customers, etc. The nature of all bosses is to make profits exploiting workers.
During the march, Rosendo Flores, head of the electrical workers’ union, and H. Juarez, of the telephone workers’ union, called for a nation-wide general strike if the Fox government doesn’t back down from the tax hikes and privatization plan. These union hacks want to become the "workers’ voice," replacing the old CTM labor federation hacks.
PLP members have been organizing in neighborhoods and factories to give communist leadership to the growing anger of workers and youth. We’re supporting the struggles against layoffs and fascist working conditions, and to maintain basic services while exposing the union hacks and politicians as enemies of the workers.
The distribution of CHALLENGE has grown. Many in the communities have sought our political guidance. Our political slogans in these struggles against the growing bosses’ attacks have been, "Abolish wage slavery" and "Fight local and foreign capitalists." This is a modest example of using our communist politics to build a mass base. Some of us participated in the Nov. 27 mega march, but we must increase our political work, strengthen our base-building and increase CHALLENGE distribution. This can puncture the political hold the fascist and liberal bosses and union sellouts have on the masses.
a name="Grocery Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!"></a>"rocery Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!
Los Angeles, Dec. 2 — The strike of 70,000 grocery workers in Southern California is entering its 8th week. The strikers face a 50% increase in healthcare costs, a two-tier wage system and an hourly wage-cap for new employees of $14.90 (after six years). Most are part-time and currently earn an average of $1,300 monthly. Many strikers are young black, Latin and Asian workers.
On Oct. 11th, workers struck Vons and Pavilions. The owners of Ralph’s and Albertson’s immediately locked out their workers, swelling the total out to 70,000. Then, about two weeks into the strike, the unions announced it was alright to shop at Ralph’s, even though Ralph’s workers were locked out and the store was being run with scabs! (Pickets at other stores even carried signs saying "Shop at Ralph’s.") The strike was mainly run as a secondary boycott, asking customers not to shop at the markets.
Many other workers, students and teachers have joined the picket lines and organized rallies supporting the strikers. Many shoppers have refused to cross the lines. Then on Nov. 25, the strike’s seventh week, Teamster truck drivers began refusing to carry goods from warehouses to the stores.
The supermarket owners claim they must lower workers’ wages and heath care because Wal-Mart is coming to California with "Superstores" which will sell groceries and most everything else. Wal-Mart is non union and pays workers about $9 an hour with no health benefits. The New York Times has editorialized (11/15) in favor of the union and against Wal-Mart. They state grocery workers earn roughly $18,000 a year and lament that Wal-Mart workers earn only $14,000, "below the $15,060 poverty line for a family of three." They call for unionizing Wal-Mart and support the princely sum of $18,000 annually.
The LA Times has run a three-part exposé of Wal-Mart for paying low wages not only to its own employees but also some of the lowest wages in the world to workers in Bangladesh, China and Honduras who make the low-cost products Wal-Mart sells. Many U.S. bosses view China as a serious long-term threat to U.S. imperialist world domination. An increasing amount of Wal-Mart’s products comes from China.
Why all this concern about workers’ wages and health benefits from the bosses’ mouthpieces? One essay in the book "United We Serve" worried that immigrant workers need to be brought into the social fabric of this country, and that the unions are the best vehicle to win immigrants to trusting the system. The New York Times is not advocating decent wages and health care for all, only that workers receive the bare minimum needed to live, rather than under the minimum, and that this be sanctified by a union.
The fact is U.S. imperialism is spending half a trillion dollars a year on wars and paying for them with workers’ taxes, forcing states like California into multi-billion dollar deficits. Then Schwarzenegger follows suit by cutting social services to reduce the deficit. All this leaves nothing to cover workers’ health care, and the profit-driven bosses certainly don’t want to pay for it.
For their own reasons, the rulers are attacking Wal-Mart as the source of low wages and benefits. But the source is not just Wal-Mart. It’s capitalism that forces workers worldwide into poverty and war in its constant competition for maximum profit. It’s capitalism that must be destroyed to secure a decent future for workers’ families.
PLP members and friends have taken CHALLENGE and leaflets to the picket lines. We need to consistently go to the pickets at our local stores, developing ties with these workers that can continue long after the strike is over. Strikes usually represent more intense class struggle and offer opportunities to win workers to more advanced, communist ideas which explain the problems caused by capitalism. While calling for support for the strikers, we’ve also pointed out that a system based on competition for maximum profits is less and less able to provide the basic necessities for workers. That’s why the long-term solution to low wages, lack of health care and a war economy is to fight for a communist society based not on profits but on meeting workers’ needs.
Free Trade Meeting Flops; Cops Riot
MIAMI, Nov. 21 — The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting here was a flop for Bush’s administration plans to expand a U.S.-controlled NAFTA to the entire continent. The growing capitalist-imperialist rivalry over markets and low-paid workers caused it to fail before it even began. The biggest bosses of South American (Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina) want a bigger share of the exploitation, while the Bush gang basically wants it all. The former are working with U.S. imperialist rivals in Europe who oppose the U.S. excluding them from a free trade agreement. (Germany is the main investor in Brazil.)
Miami cops rioted against demonstrators who were protesting the FTAA meeting. The protesters were mainly from peace groups, student and anti-war organizations, as well as unions like the United Steelworkers Union. They were ordered to disperse and then surrounded, beaten, shot with rubber bullets, arrested, and held on phony charges of "assaulting" the cops.
The police riot was planned and financed with $8,000,000 according to the new rules of the fascist Homeland Security. Specific features of this cop attack include:
• "Embedding" the media (as in Iraq) — placing them under direct control of the cops and military;
• Some "embedded" reporters attacked the demonstrators alongside the cops. Independent reporters, not "embedded," were attacked as though they were demonstrators.
• Plainclothes cops dressed in black, like the anarchist "black bloc," to infiltrate and attack groups of demonstrators.
Part of the explanation for this cop violence is no doubt due to conditions specific to Florida. Jeb Bush, the President’s brother, is governor and fascist Cuban exile groups are very strong in Miami. The gusano leaders don’t allow any "freedom of speech" or unionizing activity in order to keep Miami a low-wage haven and one of the poorest urban areas in the U.S.
Cops are parasites, not workers. Their job is to protect the bosses’ profits. But on the whole, police repression is a sign of weakness, not strength. The ruling class is less tolerant of dissent, and more open to brute force, an aspect of fascism. The fact that union officials were present, protested and attacked is a sign of the polarization within the ruling class over the war, as well as over NAFTA/FTAA.
Sweeney and the AFL-CIO made a deal with the cops to protect themselves from police attack. They’re agents of that section of the ruling class that wants to use the unions to build deadly nationalism in gaining U.S. domination of Latin America. Sweeney and the AFL-CIO may oppose NAFTA/FTAA, but they support U.S. domination of Latin America.
The function of liberal candidates like Kucinich and Dean is to suck dissent back into the Democratic Party and the electoral process, like McCarthy and McGovern did in ’68 and ’72 during the Vietnam War.
When mainstream Democrats like the Al Gores and Jimmy Carters attack Homeland Security for "violating human rights," they’re really attacking the Bush gang for acting in a way that doesn’t win the masses to collaborate in their own repression. After all, the Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly for the Patriot Act.
PLP has dealt with fascist-like police in the past, from fighting the armed attack by racist ROAR in Boston in 1975, to May Day demonstrations in L.A. and New York in the ’90s, when demonstrations were banned and we had to rely on special tactics, secure planning, and discipline among demonstrators. Undisciplined, mass groups of demonstrators, no matter how well-intentioned, are sitting ducks for police and provocateur attacks like those in Miami or Milan.
The mis-leadership of the Miami demonstrations is responsible for many of the casualties. Most of the liberals, anarchists and fake leftists who oppose the war or FTAA also actively oppose discipline. They spread the anti-communist lie that proletarian discipline — acting in unity — "stifles the individual."
Casualties are never completely avoidable. But they’re maximized by encouraging large groups of demonstrators to mass and protest as a leaderless crowd, and minimized by a planned, disciplined response. Masses of people can be won to the latter.
The positive aspect of such demonstrations is that more and more people — including workers — see the need to protest. An example: when police were harassing young protestors in Guzman Park, a group of steel workers surrounded the cops and stopped their attack. With PLP’s active participation, police violence, however effective in the short run, can help people shed their illusions, and their anti-communism too. We should be working with these honest forces, to win them to revolutionary communist conclusions.
a name="Cincinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again">">"incinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again
CINCINNATI, OH, Dec. 1 — Cincinnati’s killer cops have struck again. Last night cops Baron Osterman and James Pike beat 41-year old Nathaniel Jones to death. After clubbing him unconscious with their night sticks, they and four other cops stood around and watched him die while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. The beating was videotaped by a camera running in their police car. Racist Mayor Luken and police chief Streicher are defending their paid assassins. Although the coroner has since ruled it a homicide, don’t hold your breath waiting for any racist cop to be convicted.
Early Sunday morning, prior to the cop beating, a worker at a fast food restaurant had called for emergency medical help after seeing Jones passed out on the grass outside. By the time the EMT’s first arrived, Jones was awake, and they reported that he was "becoming a nuisance," so they left and the police were called. By the time the cops were done with him, he was finally in an ambulance, and died upon arriving at the hospital.
The Cincinnati cops are a band of racist terrorists with a history. After a string of racist killings, a rebellion erupted in April 2001. PLP made several trips there, and CHALLENGE and our comrades were warmly received by the rebels. As we go to press, we’re contacting our friends and planning to show the red flag there again.
Imperialist war and fascist Homeland Security, mass poverty, unemployment and racist police terror is how the "world’s only superpower" has ushered in the 21st century. The sooner we destroy them, the more lives we’ll save.
a name="Hawk Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops"></">Ha"k Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops
Bush’s Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad airport has backfired, as has much of what his government has done in Iraq. Most Iraqis — and millions worldwide — saw it as a cheap stunt like his Top Gun landing on an aircraft carrier back in May, declaring the war over. No sooner had Bush left the airport, Spanish intelligence agents, Japanese diplomats and Korean contract workers were killed by Iraqi insurgents. Then came the Nov. 30 all-day Samarra battle which U.S. forces claim killed 54 insurgents, but Iraqis said was basically a massacre of civilians. U.S. troops have orders to shoot anything that moves if they’re attacked. So now 80% of the Iraqi population — which Bush said he would "free" from Saddam Hussein — want U.S. troops out.
Bush’s Iraqi visit was followed by Hillary Clinton’s, who wanted to prove she’s as much of a Hawk (warmaker) as the Bushites. Hillary had come from Afghanistan where the Taliban and its allies have taken the offensive, and the U.S. puppet Karzai government only controls its heavily defended Kabul compound. Hillary stayed longer than Bush in Iraq, although spending the night safely in Kuwait. She "criticized" the Bushites for not dispatching more troops to assure U.S. control of Iraqi oil.
The liberal Hawks, like the N.Y. Times, are very worried about the Bush gang’s screw-up in Iraq. The paper proposes to divide Iraq into three regions: Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni. Only the Kurds and Shiites have oil fields, which, of course, the U.S. will control. This "divide and conquer" strategy will be accompanied by ethnic cleansing, similar to the former Yugoslavia after the collapse of the old Soviet Union when Germany and the U.S. carved it up into several smaller countries run by their local lackeys.
The Iraqi working class has a long history of supporting communist politics. The old Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) was the leading political force there, with a leadership and membership reflecting Iraq’s different ethnic groups of Iraq — Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Jews. On May 1, 1959, over one million workers and others marched with Red Flags under communist leadership. But following the old communist movement, the ICP pursued the line of national liberation, uniting with "lesser evil" bosses. Instead of leading workers and their allies to power, the old ICP allied itself with nationalist politicians and generals (even with Hussein for a while), before these "progressive" bosses murdered tens of thousands of communists and others. Today, the old ICP even supports the pro-U.S. Governing Council of Iraq.
But there are still many workers and their allies who oppose the U.S.-UK occupation forces, and understand that the old Baath loyalists and Jihad (fundamentalist) fighters are not the answer. The need to build a new revolutionary communist movement is the key task facing workers in Iraq, the entire Middle East and the world. That’s what we in PLP fight for.
New Communist International Movement Must Bury Dark Ages
Our last issue explained how the 1917 communist-led Russian Revolution, which freed 1/6 of the world’s surface from capitalism, was the single most important event of the 20th Century. It was followed by the Red Army’s defeat of the Nazi war machine, freeing humanity from becoming one huge concentration camp. However, the third most important event of the 20th century for the world’s working class was the collapse of the old communist movement, marked by the rise of state capitalism and later free market capitalism in the former Soviet Union and in China.
Stalin said the destruction of the USSR and the International Communist Movement (ICM) would bring humanity back to the dark ages. History has proven him right:
The former Soviet republics and socialist camp have been turned into a hell for workers. While a few became multi-millionaires, stealing the wealth built by workers in the former socialist bloc, the norm for the majority of people is mass unemployment, gut-wrenching poverty, war, prostitution, drug trafficking and chaos. The latest example is the power struggle over the billions to be reaped from pipelines in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
While during the Cultural Revolution, left-wing forces in China tried to prevent the return to capitalism, this gigantic fight against revisionism (capitalist forces masquerading as communists) was defeated by the vacillations of the pro-Mao forces. Now China has become the world’s largest manufacturing center, based on tens of millions of workers being paid dirt wages. The return of capitalism has left hundreds of millions unemployed, with no social safety net.
The few countries that still consider themselves socialist, like Vietnam and Cuba, are basically building capitalism. To top it off, a U.S. navy frigate visited Vietnam last month for the first time since U.S. imperialist forces were kicked out of that country after murdering over three million Vietnamese.
The defeat of the old ICM also has affected workers in the rest of the capitalist world. In Western Europe and the U.S., workers have suffered wage-cuts, union-busting and a decline in their standard of living as a direct consequence of the lack of an ICM strong enough to fight capitalism. The union hacks in these countries have sold out even more to capitalism since the defeat of the ICM.
Now unions represent less than 10% of the workforce in France and figures in the U.S. and other countries are approaching that. Germany’s powerful IG Metall Union’s strikes ended earlier this year without winning even small crumbs, something not seen in many decades. Workers have paid for the anti-communism of the union leaders — or reformism of the so-called "leftist" union leaders in Italy and France — in massive job losses and wage-cuts. The racism of many union leaders, especially in the U.S., has been deadly for workers.
Emerging from the Dark Ages
While this era of wars, fascist terror, mass joblessness, diseases like AIDS killing millions in Africa and other areas, is upon us, every dark night has its end. PLP is a product of both the old ICM and the struggle against its revisionism. We are daily fighting to learn from its great battles and achievements and also from the deadly errors that led to its collapse, mainly that reformism, racism and all forms of concessions to capitalism only lead workers to defeat. Give a boss one centimeter and he/she will grab a mile.
CHALLENGE reflects that struggle, which must go on constantly since we live in a capitalist society which bribes a few to help oppress billions. Our job as communists is to bring our revolutionary politics to workers, not to create illusions that capitalism can be reformed. A mass base of readers and sellers of CHALLENGE can be the ideological tool to help turn workers’ struggles into schools for communism. But we cannot do this from the outside. We must be involved in every class struggle workers are waging, from the LA transit and Southern California grocery strikes to the recent violent mass strikes in the Dominican Republic and Bolivia; from the international anti-war movement to the fight against globalization (imperialism); from the fight against racist police brutality to the struggles against sexist exploitation of women workers in the world’s maquiladoras — but always with the outlook that the only way out of the Dark Ages is to rebuild the ICM and fight for a society without bosses: communism.
a name="California Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War">">"alifornia Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War
The fires are out in Southern California, but the damage is enormous: 16 dead, 3,400 homes destroyed and hundreds of thousands of acres burned. Smoke and ash covered most of the county. School was canceled for a week because it was dangerous to breathe outdoors. One of the fires in San Diego County was the biggest in California history, destroying whole communities.
Given the severe drought and high winds, brush fires were inevitable. But the fires’ size and the damage done was not inevitable and would have been far less if San Diego County actually had a fire department. The city of San Diego has, but with far less equipment than needed, and what it has is ancient. In the County’s eastern part, where the fires started and most of the deaths occurred, many areas have no fire coverage at all. Local fire districts have so little taxing authority (since Proposition 13 passed) that they must run bake sales and raffles to buy equipment.
The devastation was no surprise. In a report drafted in 2002 but made public only now, San Diego officials predicted a fire of "biblical" proportions exactly where the Cedar fire actually occurred, and a probability of successful containment of under 10%.
Experienced firefighters claim they could have saved many more structures if they had had enough equipment. They also assert that projects to clear brush and provide safety zones around houses have been grossly under-funded and delayed for years — in some cases for decades — by red tape.
Preventing fire deaths and loss of homes isn’t rocket science; it’s simply way down the priority list for U. S. bosses, who are spending our taxes to grab Iraqi oil, trying to maintain their "top dog" status among imperialists. The U.S. empire’s growing crisis has led to increasingly fascist policies that reach down to the local level, resulting in deep financial crisis for state and local governments nation-wide., slashing basic services and infrastructure. Bush, Governor Davis and Governor-elect Schwarzenegger briefly visited the fire zone and cynically praised the heroism of the firefighters (one of whom died), but do nothing to change the basic situation.
The firefighters were denied the tools for this fire, and won’t get them for next fire, given California’s projected $10 billion deficit next year. The devastation of these fires is one more item on the bill U.S. bosses are making us pay to cover the cost of their drive for world domination.
San Diego Red
Chicago Dinner Marks CHALLENGE Role in Building PLP
CHICAGO, IL Nov. 22— Tonight more than 50 workers and young people participated in our CHALLENGE dinner, raising over $500 for our paper. The evening was hosted by a black woman Cook County Hospital worker who recently joined PLP. The previous night, about three dozen college and high school students and teachers held a similar event.
The black, Latin and white workers were treated to good food, entertainment from a PLP high school student rapper and a wonderful singing group of students and teachers. Another County worker, a black woman whose son is stationed in Iraq, read two revolutionary poems.
A Latin comrade who recently participated in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride explained how the liberal politicians and union hacks staged the event to build support among immigrants for U.S. imperialism and fascist Homeland Security, even as they face increased fascist attacks. She said there was no "freedom" in this ride, but there were plenty of opportunities to build a mass base for PLP and communist revolution. She was speaking from experience. Just two days earlier, a dozen young riders and their friends had attended a PLP study group.
The PLP keynote speaker described the crisis facing US imperialism in Iraq, and how it faces a possible strategic defeat in the Middle East that would dwarf the one in Vietnam. He pointed out how the liberal media and Democratic presidential candidates were even more committed than Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to staying in Iraq for the long haul, and that the liberal union leaders, clergy and all the mass organizations would pull out all the stops in the coming year to get these killers elected.
Mainly he stressed that the two most important ingredients in building PLP is confidence in the Party and confidence in the workers; they can be won and will come through. The principal aspect is having confidence that workers can and will be won to communist ideas if we struggle with them. He gave examples from 30 years of personal experience how CHALLENGE played a role in winning workers to support, defend and join PLP. He asked those at the dinner to drop their "bosses’ flags" — dollars — into the bucket so we can turn them into more red flags — CHALLENGE. They gave generously.
This talk was followed by a skit written and performed by Cook County Hospital workers about winning their co-workers to read and distribute CHALLENGE. After more songs and a "Fight-Back" rap, the evening concluded with everyone singing the Internationale.
Reform over Revolution Alive and Well in the Matrix Trilogy
"The Matrix," the first of the movie trilogy, depicted a science fiction allegory of class antagonisms in society. On the one hand was the energy-exploiting class of machines; on the other hand, the humans who are used for their energy to produce the machines’ power. The Matrix represented the illusionary world that humans believed they lived in (representing false consciousness) to mask the horrific existence of the world. The main characters Morpheus, Neo and Trinity are the leaders of the humans in Zion, the underground world where humans are living independently from the machines and preparing for a revolt against them.
The main protagonist is a messiah-type named "Neo," slated to lead the machine-enslaved people to "freedom." He uses his special forces to disable the machines. This has always been a significant weakness of the Matrix movies — they rely on the miracle savior, not the masses, to save humanity.
The machines enslave people’s minds and suck their energy in order to build their war machines, and live like parasites (an allegorical reference to the capitalist bosses) off the entire mass of humanity. Throughout these movies, Neo is pursued by Agent Smith who was sent to destroy the rebellion. In this final installment of the trilogy, Agent Smith has broken through the boundaries of the Matrix and infinitely duplicates himself to become a loose cannon force that the machines can no longer control.
"Revolutions" — the last of the trilogy — betrays the idea that the humans must defeat their greatest enemy, the machines, and sinks into petty reformism. Since the Agent Smiths have broken into the world of Zion, Neo believes he is a greater threat than the machines. The reactionary messiah Neo uses his "spiritual" sense to negotiate a deal with the machines to destroy Agent Smith.
The entire battle strength of the human revolution was wasted defending Zion, instead of attacking the machines in their own yard where the human forces would have certainly won. The combined might of the humans and Neo could have overwhelmed and destroyed the parasitic machines. Instead, we have an uneasy truce negotiated by the sellout Neo.
The movie ends with the "Architect" saying every human trapped in the Matrix would have a "choice" of whether or not to leave the Matrix. Freedom for the human race would have required the people of Zion to destroy the Architect, since he created that world.
Many left-wing people were drawn into some "progressive" elements of the Matrix movies — the multi-racial character of the people of Zion, men and women fighting together against the machines, and special effects (technology) never depicted before.
In this movie, communists can see the dangers of allying with "lesser-evil" bosses against "greater-evil" bosses. All bosses are part of the parasitic machine of capitalism — the machine that is fueled by the blood and sweat of the workers and serves the bosses’ class interests. The communist PLP leading the working class aims to destroy the machine of capitalism. We won’t ally with "lesser-evil bosses," nor follow ideologically reactionary leaders, nor lying religious and union leaders, because we want to smash the Machine, not reform or "balance" it.
LETTERS
a name="‘Nickled and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power"></a>"Nickled and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power
I was just "Nickled and Dimed" out of $22 and I’m not happy about it. "Nickled and Dimed" is a new play costing $22 admission. I saw it with a great group of people, many of whom, unfortunately, thought well of it.
It’s based on Barbara Ehrenreich’s book of the same name and shines a light on some of the difficulties that confront workers in poverty-wage jobs. Ehrenreich investigated by going "underground" and waitressing in a Denny’s, cleaning rooms in a motel and as a Wal-Mart sales clerk.
A nationally-published writer herself, she comes somewhere from the upper middle of the middle class and discovers during the course of the play the social distance between herself and her new-found co-workers.
Yet despite all her traveling, she goes nowhere. In key ways she merely reproduces the same assumptions about class that she thinks she is critiquing.
Lenin saw intellectuals as the social force that introduced communist ideas to a working class capable of organizing a revolution for workers’ power. Ehrenreich, the intellectual, surveys a working class that panics at the thought of militancy, remains ignorant or dis-believing of its own exploitation and lacks any class consciousness as it greedily shops at Wal-Mart.
The intellectual is stripped of any revolutionary role among workers because workers themselves are nothing but passive consumers of their own exploitation. That is a world view hardly differing from any other capitalist ideologue.
In short, "Nickled and Dimed" is anti-communist, presenting a world view where revolution is completely impractical. Unspoken in the play is the need for Uncle Sam to wrap his protective arm around the working class with liberal legislation. Legislation, not revolution — that’s the theme of her play.
A Comrade
Fare Hike, Pay Cut Gives CEO Bonus
San Francisco’s Director of Transportation Michael Burns received a 28% pay increase to $280,000 (up from $220,000). Drivers were upset because their pay was CUT 7.5% while bus fares were increased, all in the name of balancing the city’s budget.
The bosses rewarded Burns for overseeing the fare hike and pay cut without any fight-back.
Corporations frequently give their CEO’s big raises after saving millions of dollars — and increasing profits — by laying off workers. Burns’ $60,000 salary increase is small potatoes compared to what the bosses netted from the 7.5% wage-cut and fare hike.
It’s our responsibility to expose how, under capitalism, "you get what you pay for" — the bosses reward their henchmen well. When workers run the state, there will be no bosses and everyone will be provided with a quality standard of living.
Red Bus Rider
a name="‘Over-consumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?"></a>‘O"er-consumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?
Concerning the letter (CHALLENGE, 11/19) criticizing the article, "Enviromentalism: A Communist Perspective, A Capitalist Nightmare." The reader’s main criticisms were : (1) The article’s sources are "mainstream" bourgeois sources and are therefore bad; (2) The article says the problem is "over-consumption," a typical bourgeois Green argument that blames consumers for environmental damage and suggests individual, voluntary strategies for change. I disagree.
(1) Communists often mine bourgeois sources for vital facts with which to build their own arguments. This has been true from Marx to Lenin to PLP. The fact is that research on environmental issues is done overwhelmingly by bourgeois intellectuals. Criticizing the article merely for using bourgeois sources is just unreasonable.
(2) Nowhere does the article blame individual consumers as the source of environmental damage or suggest that individual choice is the basis for change. In fact, the first part of this series criticizes Green groups for doing just these things. Yes, the article does stress the existence of relatively high consumption rates among the imperialist nations, but mainly to show that consumption patterns are racist. It also stresses that capitalist production and "consumerism" create much unnecessary waste due to packaging brand competition, built-in premature product obsolescence, advertising costs and a lack of concern for recycling and waste management.
Because of greater efficiency and less waste in a planned communist economy, individual consumption levels will increase for all workers, while the volume of material and labor that goes into each product or service will decrease, just as it did in the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Though misleadingly worded and inadequately explained, I think this is what is meant by the phrase, "As goods and services are socialized, individual consumption levels will decrease."
For instance, socialized housing, entertainment and transportation will simultaneously meet more needs for more people while decreasing the amount of raw material and labor needed to service each person. This material and labor then can be freed up for building recycling plants and many other necessary components of a sustainable communist economy. This isn’t "barracks room communism." It’s just plain communist sense.
A Red-thumbed comrade
Interfaith Meeting Discusses War, Racism
Recently our interfaith Justice & Peace Coalition held its third annual weekend conference. There were many strengths: (1) It was planned and attended by Catholic, Protestant and Jewish people who understand the need to link the struggle against racist oppression of working people directly to the bosses’ imperialist wars and fascist repression; (2) there was significant participation by black working and professional people and a few Hispanic workers; (3) more comrades boldly attempted to raise and explain important aspects of the Party’s line, such as U.S. conquests are not due to an "ultra right" political element bent on "Empire" but derive from the imperialism which both liberal and right-wing politicians must serve to stay in the game as ruling class back-up; (4) Although there were fewer people than last year (having had the illusion we could have prevented the invasion of Iraq, given the nature of the current anti-war movement), the discussions were even more serious and focused on actions. We will have two community-based demonstrations — "JOBS, NOT OCCUPATIONS" — and concerts, vigils and seminars on justice and peace themes. Most important, 20 people signed up for committees to expand this work.
A student reporter from a university near our churches attended and shared the positive assessment but suggested there were not enough young people involved (we agreed and suggested he help to organize youth!). He also said one comrade who spoke against nationalism and for equality had equated the regimes of Mandela and DeKlerk in South Africa. With discussion, he better understood our criticisms of national liberation vs. communist revolution. He and the two chief comrade/organizers also agreed we had not focused enough on building a movement against the racist expansion of the university into our community.
We will have ample opportunity to correct this failing and will meet many new people to share experiences with and struggle to recruit in the coming months.
Gnawing At Imperialism,
Red Churchmouse
Winning $upport For CHALLENGE
I distribute over 200 copies of CHALLENGE each issue by staying in touch with people who like the paper. Each year I start the school term discussing the future. I observe who speaks up and give them CHALLENGE. Towards the end of the school year, I ask them if they would like to continue getting the paper in the summer.
I also offer the paper to adults at the school who express leftist ideas and to people I’ve known a long time. I’ve also been active in the teachers union and distribute it there as well.
Periodically I check if the regular readers want to start distributing it to others. Thirteen regular readers now take extra papers.
I leave 70 copies at various cafes and neighborhood centers where other groups leave their literature. Sometimes the people working there are also interested in the paper.
I feel it’s better to distribute the paper to many people than to sell it to a few. However, I try to have serious discussions with the regular readers about their thoughts on CHALLENGE and revolution, and ask them to support the paper financially. Presently eight people contribute. I’m sure others would donate if I made the time for such discussions.
Red Teacher
CHALLENGE COMMENT: It’s good "Red Teacher" spreads the paper so widely. However, perhaps he/she should ask for a donation after someone has received a few issues, rather than waiting an entire school year, and suggest this idea to those 13 now taking extra papers. Paying for the paper does indicate a certain level of commitment, a realization that CHALLENGE has no big boss advertisers but is dependent on the working class for its ability to publish. Circulation of CHALLENGE should not depend on pitting some limited free distribution against asking for regular donations. And we heartily agree that the writer should make time for more "serious discussions with regular readers" to win them to support the paper financially.
Look Forward to CHALLENGE
The recent article on the history of CHALLENGE-DESAFIO (CD) was important. I remember a movie depicting Russian soldiers at the front during World War I. They were eagerly grabbing "Iskra" or some other communist newspaper. They craved communist analyses of the war and other social events.
I can recall, along with friends and comrades, eagerly awaiting the next issue of C-D. What was Watergate all about? What were the strengths and weakness of the recent mass march? What about that movie everyone’s been seeing? And currently, what’s really happening in Iraq and the Middle East?
We may not be in the same pressure-packed, pre-revolutionary situation as Russian soldiers in 1917, but a lot is going on in the world. I feel today, there’s not the same craving for C-D’s information and perspectives, not the same looking forward to the next issue. Some of our friends just don’t see the paper as providing information and insights that are vital to their lives.
Is this impression correct? Is it true for many members and friends or just some? Is it a problem just for younger people? If there’s some truth to this, then we have a problem. If Party members and friends don’t look forward to the paper and see it as an important part of their lives, they are unlikely to be go-getters in distributing the paper.
I suggest Party leaders, members and readers of the paper weigh in on this issue. Is it that people just don’t read any papers these days? Should we consider other media and forms of communication? I doubt that’s all there is to it, but it’s worth considering. Do we need a greater variety of articles so the paper touches more aspects of people’s lives? Do articles need to be shorter, clearer?
What can we do to ensure that in this period, Party members, friends and co-workers really look forward to the next issue of C-D?
Mid West Comrade
Communist Ideas Answer Fascism
In early November, I attended a conference in the Chicago area on the war and healthcare. I was invited by a friend who reads and subscribes to the ideas in CHALLENGE. He helped organize the conference.
I was delighted to see a multi-racial audience that was heavily working-class. It was so crowded I had to stand.
When the first speaker denounced the war on Iraq, I got carried away but then asked myself why he didn't mention the working class taking state power.
There was a speaker explaining the horrific effects of depleted uranium ammunition the capitalist bosses used in Iraq (including the first Persian Gulf War). A Michigan war vet also gave a great talk on a soldier's view of the war and there was a discussion of the pros and cons of using electoral tactics to oppose the war. I also saw a leaflet from PLP.
Later in the evening, my friend hosted a delicious spaghetti dinner attended by many from the conference. In this relaxed atmosphere, communist ideas were more forcefully discussed.
The last two years some of us have become pessimistic because fascism has become more oppressive, but CHALLENGE has persistently opposed this. There seems to be a small break in the support for fascism.
This event should encourage us to emulate it in advancing the cause of communism.
A red pharmacist
a name="Church Group Hears Need To Win GI’s">">"hurch Group Hears Need To Win GI’s
I'm a member of a church group involved in many struggles. Recently they've launched a campaign against ROTC and military recruiters on school campuses. Unfortunately the group sees our working-class brothers and sisters in the military as enemies. But the vast majority of youth join the military because of economic, occupational or educational necessity, not because they want to sacrifice their lives to defend U.S. imperialism.
U.S. rulers are impelled to launch their wars to guarantee their control of oil profits. As long as they hold power, they'll find a way to fill their armies with working-class youth and spill barrels of blood to ensure they control the oil.
The U.S. war against Vietnam showed there's always a debate and struggle within the military. Some GI's were won to a racist outlook and participated in massacres of civilians. But others saw the officers as their real class enemy and participated in rebellions and fraggings [killing officers with fragmentary grenades]. This struggle occurs in the military now. Soldiers are asking themselves who is the real enemy, Iraqi workers or the capitalist bosses? We must put forward our answer to that question.
Many young people in the church can understand the role soldiers have played in revolutionary movements. Both in Russia and China, soldiers were crucial to the triumph of the revolutions. Will our working-class youth in the military be won to a fascist outlook in which they murder other workers for bosses' profits or will they be won to an internationalist, communist outlook to join the long-term struggle to liberate the working class from capitalist domination? Dealing with these questions with our friends forms the basis for bigger struggles.
Being involved in a church group is difficult but important. Without us, the bosses' ideas have more chance of taking hold of our working-class youth and repressing a revolutionary outlook. Reformism and an anti-working class outlook prepare the groundwork for fascism. We must see these church groups as "schools for communism" and confront the bosses' ideas and fascist plans. The role of soldiers in imperialist wars and in communist revolutionary movements is crucial. We need to be in that struggle to win it.
A Red in the mass movement
Red Eye On The News
BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)
Capitalists murder the most
Most credible estimates confirm that, in the aggregate, white collar and corporate crimes cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars annually — far more than conventional categories of crime such as burglary and robbery….
But corporate crime isn’t just about the money. It’s also about people’s lives. The national murder rate has hovered around 16,000 a year in recent years…. But a respected group of occupational health and safety investigations, led by J. Paul Leigh, a University of California Davis School of Medicine professor, has estimated that in 1992 alone there were 66,971 deaths resulted from job-related injuries and occupational diseases. These numbers do not include the thousands of annual deaths caused by cancers linked to corporate pollution, deaths from defective products, tainted foods and other corporate-related causes. Los Angeles Times, 11/5)
Dems would keep Iraq grab
Invading Iraq…cost so far…400 American lives and (one study suggests) at least 11,000 Iraqi lives….
Democrats are having a field day pointing out the problems, but their suggestions for what to do next are pretty unhelpful….
I’ve asked two Democratic presidential candidates, Richard Gephardt and another who spoke off the record, if it’s really credible to offer the UN and NATO as a solution to Iraq. They harrumph a bit in a way that I interpret to mean: "Maybe not, but it works in front of the cameras." (NYT, 11/19)
Afghan botch, omen for Iraq
The talk of what to do next is sounding rather like Afghanistan. And that’s alarming, because we have flubbed the peace in Afghanistan even more egregiously than in Iraq….
In at least three districts in the southeast, there is no central government representation, and the Taliban had de facto control. In Paktika and Zabul, not only have most schools closed, but the conservative madrasas are regaining strength.
"We’ve operated in Afghanistan for about 15 years," said Nancy Lindborg of Mercy Corps, the American aid group, "and we’ve never had the insecurity that we have now." (NYT, 11/15)
Afghan women still suffer
I have just read the 47-page Amnesty International report on the status of Afghan women, issued in October. And I still wouldn’t want to be a woman in Afghanistan.
Amnesty found physical violence against women in the home. Underage and forced marriage. Trading of women and girls to pay off debts, Rape and abduction by armed groups. Fear and shame hindering access to desperately needed medical, legal and social assistance. Courts colluding with families to imprison rebellious teenagers.
In parts of Afghanistan, Amnesty reported, women claim that the insecurity and the risk of sexual violence they face make their lives worse than before.
One woman said, "During the Taliban era if a woman sent to market and showed off an inch of flesh, she would have been flogged, now she’s raped." (San Antonio Express-News)
Regime-change goal: help biz
Dwight D. Eisenhower became president in 1953.
On Aug. 19, 1953, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran became the first victim of a C.I.A. coup. Ten months later, on June 27, 1954, President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala became the second….
Several dozen scholars, including leading experts on Iran and Guatemala, gathered in Chicago this month….All agreed that both coups the first that the C.I.A. carried out — had terrible long-term effects,
"It’s quite clear that the 1953 coup cut short a move toward democracy in Iran."
…."The C.I.A. intervention began a ghastly cycle of violence, assassination and torture in Guatemala….It really set the precedent for later intervention in Cuba, British Guiana, Brazil and Chile. (NYT, 11/30)
$ystem = hunger amid food
According to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization….Between 1999 and 2001,…more than 840 million people, or one in seven, went hungry [worldwide]….The number of malnourished people …grew by an average of 4.5 million a year….
The rise in hunger came even though the world produced ample food…. (NYT, 11/26)
Blue collars hung out to dry
Almost one in six manufacturing jobs has disappeared. The number of industrial workers in America has fallen from 17.3 million to 14.6 million. Unlike previous recessions, when factories downsized and then rehired, many now are closing their doors for good, either going bust or moving production to the developing world where costs are far lower. Economists agree it will be difficult to slow the decline, let alone reverse it.
The social costs are enormous. Unemployment in Buffalo, a once proud steelmaking city and trading post with Canada, is 10.2%, well above the national average. The city is bankrupt and in the hands of a control board. Schools are closing and Main Street is a forlorn picture of boarded up shops….
Ford is in the process of cutting 12,000 jobs in North America….Levi’s, an American icon, will no longer produce clothing in the U.S. Motorola…has already cut thousands of jobs. ( British Guardian Weekly, 12/3)
Brass: Smash Iraq to save it
American efforts to prevent attacks continued Tuesday, when American fighter jets bombed suspected guerilla positions near Tikrit, in central Iraq. Commanders called in AC-130 gunships, A-10 attack planes and Apache helicopter gunships, as well as Air Force F-16 and F-15E fighter-bombers with 500-pound bombs, the military said, in the largest bombardment in the area since President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1….
General Swannack said…we are not going to fight this one with one hand tied behind our backs." Echoing a historical quote from the British military, the general said the Army was going to "use a sledgehammer to smash a walnut." (NYT, 11/19)
a href="#Private Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies">"rivate Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies
Racism Stalks Wounded Black GI
Workers Hit Fascist Sellout of LA Transit Strike
a href="#150,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws">"50,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws
a href="#Workers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War">"orkers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War
a href="#Fight Rulers’ Racist Ideology">"ight Rulers’ Racist Ideology
a href="#U.S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers">".S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers
U.S., Russian Oil Bosses Have Georgia on Their Minds
a href="#Dominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis">"ominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis
a href="#Many Wars—Same Story">"any Wars—Same Story
The Most Important Event of the 20th Century
LETTERS
a href="#Teachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers">"eachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers
Is CHALLENGE Moving To the Right?
Stop Privatization of Public Housing
Who Is Losing Iraq?
Soon after 1949, when the Chinese Communist Red Army defeated the U.S.-armed Chiang Kai-shek fascists, U.S. Cold Warriors pointed fingers at each other, asking, "Who Lost China?" Now they’re doing the same thing in Iraq. In an editorial titled "Iraq Goes Sour," The New York Times (11/16) blames the Bushites for the Iraq disaster and for "quitting," by looking for an exit plan from this mess. The liberals at the Times and Democratic Party presidential candidates Dean, Clark, Gephardt, Kerrey, et al, are calling for the UN to head the operation, which the Bush Neo-Con gang has opposed from the get-go. So far, most U.S. "allies" (the latest being Turkey and Japan) are vacillating over sending troops to Iraq.
The Bush gang’s swift victory and promised "cake-walk" has turned into a major quagmire and everyone’s talking about "another Vietnam." White House lies and deception over going to war, beginning with the Weapons of Mass Destruction "threat," have backfired.
Now it’s revealed that earlier this year Saddam Hussein offered a deal, basically agreeing to most U.S. demands, but Bush rejected it. The NY Times commented (11/7): "Administration officials were fond of saying that there were things Bush officials knew but could not share with the public. Little did we imagine that among those things was an offer that might have provided a way to avoid the war."
The Bushites underestimated the will of Saddam and other Arab bosses to control the region’s oil profits for themselves. Now not only is the world’s "only superpower" currently losing to what Rumsfeld calls a "ragtag leftover" of Baath Party loyalists and Jihadists (holy warriors), but it’s also being discredited worldwide and at home. U.S. polls indicate the public is slowly but surely coming to the conclusion that Iraq "was a mistake."
Mao Tse-Tung said years ago that U.S. imperialism is a "paper tiger" strategically, but capable of inflicting tremendous damage. The Pentagon still has the world’s largest arsenal, with hi-tech weapons and a budget surpassing those of the top imperialist powers combined, but is still suffering from the Vietnam Syndrome. U.S. soldiers are still not committed to die for Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil and U.S. imperialism in general.
U.S. deaths since the war began passed 400 with the latest loss of two Black Hawk helicopters. Casualties total 9,000. Medact, a medical aid organization, reported that Iraqi civilian deaths could be as high as 55,000.
A New York Times editorial (11/17) said Afghanistan, where Bush’s "war on terror" began, is as serious as Iraq. U.S. soldiers are being killed there almost daily and the Taliban is returning with a vengeance. The areas not yet recaptured by the Taliban and its allies, are run by warlords who profit from the enormous heroin trade. The U.S. puppet President Karzai barely runs his compound in Kabul.
As a wounded tiger, the U.S. will try to lash out at its enemies with even more deadly "shock and awe." Again civilian targets are being bombed in Iraq. In desperation Syria could be the next target, maybe even attacked by Sharon. Eventually, millions will die in the endless wars U.S. bosses will wage to control Persian Gulf oil, still the most abundant and cheapest to produce worldwide. U.S. control of this oil is a crucial weapon against rising imperialist powers, especially China, which will soon surpass Japan as the world’s second largest oil consumer. The other imperialists, though still not strong enough to confront the U.S. directly, will not play second fiddle forever. This inter-imperialist rivalry will lead to more and even bigger wars.
This is the future world capitalism has in store for workers, youth and soldiers worldwide. Historically, imperialist wars have opened the door to communist revolution. World War I led to the 1917 Russian revolution. World War II produced the Chinese Revolution. The Soviet and Chinese Red Armies and the communist-led partisans from France to Italy to Yugoslavia to Albania led the defeat of the Nazi and Japanese fascists. We in PLP are small in number today, but we can grow into a mass revolutionary party and win workers and soldiers worldwide to turn imperialist butchery into mass revolutionary struggle. There’s no other way out.
a name="Private Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies">">"rivate Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies
The Bush Gang’s script for their oil war on Iraq keeps getting re-written. They still can’t find the "weapons of mass destruction" that supposedly triggered the invasion. Despite their state-of-the-art intelligence, they have yet to fulfill their promise to exterminate Saddam Hussein, George W.’s mini-me fascist. In and around Baghdad, the "liberated" Iraqis who were scripted to embrace U.S. soldiers on the streets are instead shooting them out of the sky.
And now, to add insult to the growing number of deaths and injuries in Iraq, the starring role of wartime icon has been rejected by the only person who can play it: Private Jessica Lynch.
Private Lynch was at the heart of the one "feel-good" story in a war that’s gone terribly wrong for the U.S. ruling class. Her rescue from an Iraqi hospital in April was considered a turning point for Operation "Iraqi Freedom," a morale-booster for U.S. troops and for a skeptical public at home.
By the summer, however, it became clear that the rescue wasn’t quite as dramatic as U.S. government sources — and the liberal media, notably The Washington Post and The New York Times — had painted it. It turned out there was no resistance within Saddam General Hospital in Nasiriya; the Baath Party and Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary had cleared out at least a day before. No one remained but doctors, nurses and wounded Iraqis, many of them civilian casualties of the U.S. "smart" bombs. Iraqi medical personnel willingly led U.S. special op forces to Private Lynch. The "daring raid" was staged.
For the Bush Gang, it gets even worse. With Private Lynch’s book ("I Am a Soldier, Too") set for a Veteran’s Day release, she’s begun speaking up — and she keeps deviating from her lines. Private Lynch is offended by early reports that she’d kept firing at her attackers until her ammunition ran out, and that she’d suffered knife and bullet wounds in the battle. In fact, Lynch’s gun jammed before she got off a single round; her injuries were sustained when her Humvee crashed into another vehicle.
Lynch says she resents the military for videotaping the rescue (with a carefully edited version going to the media), and generally for manipulating and over-dramatizing her story: "They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff."
Like many young working-class people who have come of age in a period without a mass anti-imperialist movement, Lynch doesn’t have an especially sharp analysis of who her enemies are. She continues to refer to the Iraqi doctors and nurses who saved her life as "the enemy." But it’s a measure of Lynch’s disaffection — and the alienation of tens of millions of American youth much like her — that she wants no part of this morality play. She could have become the smiling, blond poster child for U.S. imperialism, no doubt set for life. Instead, she’s bringing down the curtain on at least one small part of the rulers’ charade, a braver act than anything she did in the desert. For that she deserves congratulations instead of the skepticism in the New York Times article about her book.
In Lynch’s refusal to play the hero game for Bush’s imperialist murders and lies, she exposes the political weakness of the bosses’ military. All the technology in the world doesn’t guarantee that working-class troops will fight and die for the profit system. Lynch’s courage should inspire our Party to intensify its organizing among working-class soldiers. We need to provide them with a new script — for communist revolution.
Racism Stalks Wounded Black GI
As the body counts mount on all sides in Operation Iraqi Conquest, Shoshana Johnson, another wounded member of Lynch’s ambushed unit, has her own problems. Johnson was shot through both legs and held prisoner in Iraq for 22 days. She still walks with a limp, cannot stand for long periods, and is plagued by insomnia and depression. She’s in no shape to support her three-year-old daughter. But where Lynch received an 80% disability benefit, Johnson is getting only a 30% benefit — about $700 a month less.
Why the difference? Why is Jessica Lynch a household name, while Shoshana Johnson has been virtually ignored by both the government and the media? Could it be because Johnson is black — and black women rarely get cast for the bosses’ really big productions?
Hard for GI’s to Find ‘Good Side’ of U.S. Imperialist War
My friends in a National Guard unit are getting ready to deploy to the Persian Gulf soon for a year. Rumors have been circulating for months but this time the word came from the brass.
One soldier excitedly told me, "Hey, by the time we come back we’ll have, like, 30 Gs." I didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm but I couldn’t lie. "The money isn’t worth it and you know it," I told him. I know it," he griped, "but I was trying to look on the bright side of things. Now you got me all depressed."
The truth doesn’t have to make soldiers depressed. The bosses want us to have things to "look forward to" in order to retain our loyalty to their army. But recognizing the despair of profit wars can help us see the necessity to fight the bosses. There’s no bright side to occupying land for control of oil profits. U.S. rulers need to murder Iraqi workers and put U.S. soldiers in harm’s way in order to protect their wealth. Realizing the army only cares about money, not human needs, can lead soldiers to be won to the fight for communism, a society that does meet human needs. The struggle for communism by soldiers on the battlefield can be a source of hope.
My friend is not the only one trying to make the best out of a bad situation. Another friend just finished three years on active duty. He joined the Guard for the educational benefits and it was his second drill when the brass laid down the news to us. "Man this sucks," he muttered. "I just got back home and started school." He wanted to get out of the army the previous drill for mainly personal reasons, but also because the work was unrewarding and seemingly useless. He eventually decided to stay in. But when he heard the news about being deployed, he reasoned, "Well, at least now we’d be doing some real work."
Like most soldiers both my friends are trying to find a good side to going to war. "I completely disagree with this war and why we’re over there," my friend said, "but we’re going, you know, so you have to see the positive side of it." The dread of separation from loved ones, the heat in Iraq and removal from jobs and schools is part of the reason that finding something to look forward to is appealing. But at the same time, many soldiers recognize this war is not in our interest. Anger at Bush and our commanders as well as the simple recognition that "this sucks" shows that thinking among soldiers is divided.
As long as working-class soldiers see being deployed as a chance to make money, do useful work or be promoted, they’ll be won to the war, however much against their interests it may be. Recognizing that oil profits and occupation aren’t worth fighting for helps us see that fighting for communism, a society based on the interests of the working class, is something worth looking forward to.
A Comrade
Workers Hit Fascist Sellout of LA Transit Strike
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 — At this juncture, transit strikers are being called back to work based on an agreement between the union leadership and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). Workers don’t yet know the details but the health plan, the main issue, is to be decided by a judge after they’re back working. Many are refusing to return until they hear the gory details. Others are urging a "no" vote on the contract.
The union leadership and the MTA Board praised this "victory," saying the "hero" of the settlement is Antonio Villaraigosa, a key liberal Democratic politician here. After all the sacrifices by workers and their families, the union president praised this boss-loving politician as their "savior." Villaraigosa was barred from participation on the MTA Board because he had received union money, but the courts lifted the ban so that he could support a settlement sending the strikers back to work while the health care issue is "arbitrated," again by a pro-capitalist judge.
The LA Times is calling on Villaraigosa to press for permanent binding arbitration, outlawing future transit strikes. The union president is delivering workers to the liberal rulers and an increasingly fascist system of exploitation and war that the workers oppose. The union leaders are supporting the side that wants to outlaw strikes. It’s like saying, "go into the Nazi labor camps quietly, for a good rest."
But class consciousness has definitely grown among workers and students. Strikers turned away scab buses at one division while others organized to find and stop more. Uniting as a class to exercise our power against the scabs goes hand in hand with the need to unite against the bosses’ profit system that creates growing poverty for the many. Strikers said an active rank and file must build ties with workers at other bus companies. They say that striking with the union hacks at the helm is like fighting with both hands tied behind your back.
During the strike, many more workers received PLP’s revolutionary ideas, even more than in the 2000 drivers’ strike. Meanwhile, strikers have organized activities independently of the treacherous union leaders. They’re advocating leading strikes and wildcats, and breaking the bosses’ laws. More workers are taking revolutionary ideas as their own.
If the MTA gets its way, mechanics will have to pay for most of their own health care, as do the mostly black First Transit drivers. The latter receive racist poverty wages. MTA retirees’ benefits would be cut 75%. If the supermarkets get their way, the striking grocery workers will have to pay 50% more for their health benefits.
More Guns, Less Butter
In Nazi Germany, all sorts of extra costs were attached to workers’ wages to pay for the rulers’ war machine. As Germany moved to a war economy, workers paid increased taxes, made forced charity contributions and suffered severe cuts in social benefits. As the Nazis cheapened wages, they cheapened life itself, a picture emerging increasingly in the U.S.
In the U.S., nearly 100,000 people die annually from lack of medical care, either uninsured or under-insured. (New England Journal of Medicine study, 1997)
Those 100,000 dying every year means over 600,000 dead since the report was published. That rate compares with U.S. combat deaths during World War II. That is war — class war! This serious death toll is downplayed by the Democrats (who push a single-payer health rationing scheme), ignored by the media (who concentrate on the 3,000 killed on Sept. 11).
Thus, these strikes are more than "industrial disputes." They’re fights against the growth of fascism and continual war. The union leaders, the media and the Democrats resist seeing things this way with all their might. They want to lock workers into narrow trade union reformism. PLP strives to fight these attacks in a way that raises revolutionary consciousness among our co-workers. The lasting victory in these strikes will be greater understanding among more workers of the need to destroy fascism and wars for profit by destroying capitalism with communist revolution for workers’ power.
a name="150,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws">">"50,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws
On Nov.12, 150,000 auto, steel, textile and chemical workers held a one-day general strike in 21 South Korean cities to protest the government’s fascist anti-worker laws. This demonstration followed a Nov. 9 battle provoked by the government when 35,000 workers armed with steel pipes fought pitched battles with cops; 130 were arrested, 100 injured and one worker remains in a coma.
The workers were protesting the "provision seizure" law, among others, which allows corporations to seize assets of union officials and garnishee up to 50% of a worker’s wages to recover company "losses" from "illegal" strikes. Workers now face indemnity suits totaling $10 million. This includes seizing assets of strike organizers.
Now the government is drafting even more fascistic laws. They will widen the circumstances under which bosses can lock out workers; allow "public" corporations and others deemed "essential" to hire scabs during strikes; lift criminal penalties for bosses accused of wrongful termination of workers, making it easier to fire them; and bar protests by any group said to have organized "illegal" violent demonstrations in the past. That would virtually ban all protests.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which called the Nov. 12 general strike, is seeing their "chickens coming home to roost." Originally they had supported the 1998 election of Kim Dae-jung as a "democrat." Kim then immediately enforced demands of the IMF, amended the country’s labor laws and privatized state-owned enterprises. Then the KCTU backed Roh Moo-hyan (who Kim had jailed) as another "pro-democrat" and it is Roh as the current president who is now imposing fascism on Korea’s working class.Recently masses of workers and students demonstrated against sending troops to Iraq.
The role of these union leaders matches the AFL-CIO traitors in the U.S. who push workers into the arms of the liberal Democrats as the "solution" to the problems caused by capitalism. They help lay a fascist trap for the working class in the name of "democracy." It is only communists who have historically led the fight to smash fascism. Such a revolutionary party is needed in Korea to lead workers to the only solution — communism.
a name="Workers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War">">"orkers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War
"He was a glutton for punishment," an industrial worker friend told our CHALLENGE 40th anniversary dinner, describing the boss at a meeting the week before in a nearby industrial plant. Like many prior plant meetings, workers lambasted the boss with accusatory "questions." This meeting was particularly hostile. Then something happened for the first time — workers walked out on him.
"I wish they hadn’t done that," the boss said to the remaining majority, "you have to face reality." His "reality" included a plan to cut one-third of our jobs within the year. But that was only Phase I. Phase II envisions shifting more manufacturing jobs to lower-wage war subcontractors and non-union plants. But not to worry; he and his management flunkies were "going to help us through this journey."
"Isn’t that what the clergy say when you’re going to die," asked a particularly irked mechanic.
The Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), a military think-tank, spells out the "journey" the bosses have in mind. An ICAF report on Advanced Manufacturing, a necessity for the bosses’ strategy of continuous war, praises companies that "[focus] on cost-cutting efficiencies [including] out-sourcing … supply chain integration and Enterprise Resource Planning." Translation: cut industrial workers’ wages to support the enormous cost of the bosses’ wars.
We must build an alternate reality, to smash a system that can’t provide decent jobs but wages increasingly expensive wars to secure their dominance. Start on this journey by distributing this paper to your friends and co-workers. The journey we have in mind ends with workers’ power.
a name="Fight Rulers’ Racist Ideology">">"ight Rulers’ Racist Ideology
(This is the concluding part of the article on racism that began in our Nov. 19 issue. It dealt with the need to have an "unswerving commitment to smash racism," described how capitalism invented racism and how racism lies at the core of the capitalists’ ability to reap maximum profits. It showed how PLP fought racism in the shops and unions and analyzed the economic basis of racism, the first of its three components.)
The second key component of racism is ideology. Racist super-exploitation could not survive without a smokescreen to justify it. The economic base, as Marx called it, needs a "superstructure" of ideas to make it appear rational and necessary. This ideology has assumed many forms throughout U.S. capitalism’s brutal history. Native Americans were considered "savages," fit only to be killed. During slavery, the "Founding Fathers" and an army of scribblers considered people of African descent as three-fifths of a human being.
The triumph of industrial capitalism after the Civil War packaged this old poison in new bottles. Led by several generations of Harvard pseudo-scholars, racist theoreticians of the 20th century endorsed "biological determinism," the lie that genetic superiority or inferiority determine social behavior and hierarchy. If this filth resembles Hitler’s ravings, it’s no accident. The early U.S. "eugenicists" not only admired Hitler; they inspired him. The Nazis’ racial laws of 1933 were modeled after U.S. scientists’ "research" and recommendations.
After the world’s anti-fascist forces defeated Hitler’s Nazis in World War II, led by the Soviet Union and Josef Stalin, these academic racists had to lie low. But by the late 1960s, the "genes" gang made its comeback, with U.S. imperialism’s Southeast Asian genocide in full swing, and militant rebellions by black and Latin workers rocking U.S. cities. While the forms varied, the message remained the same. The arch-racist Arthur Jensen wrote that black kids scored lower than whites on IQ tests because black people had "fewer genes for intelligence" than white people. Richard Herrnstein declared that "unemployment runs in the genes, like bad teeth." Edward Banfield blamed the racist conditions of ghetto life on black peoples’ lack of "future orientation." All these "experts," and a host of others, had tight Harvard connections.
In 1975, Harvard ant specialist E.O. Wilson did Herrnstein one better with the publication of Sociobiology, claiming that genes accounted for everything, from business success to imperial conquest.
PLP led massive struggles exposing these racists, many times literally driving them off the stages of campus auditoriums, and preventing them from spewing their murderous garbage. But today, these racist "theories" about genetic inequality, particularly "sociobiology," are taught at leading universities.
Far beyond the campuses, the print and broadcast media have popularized this ideological trash, 24 hours a day, in the movies, on television, at sporting events, in books and magazines and daily newspapers. People absorb it without even realizing it. The historic struggle to destroy racism must include a systematic, uncompromising fight against racist ideology.
The third component of racism is the rulers’ ultimate use of state power, to savagely enforce their racist ideology with the iron fist of police terror. During slavery, the entire South became an armed camp to guard against slave rebellions. Most of the U.S. military’s officer corps continues to come from the South. More terror can be found in the brutal policing of the inner cities, which have the highest percentages of black and Latin workers. The U.S. prison system, the world’s largest with a population of more than two million, is two-thirds black and Latin.
The fight against racism requires mass revolutionary violence. Those workers and youth who understand this best are most open to joining and leading our Party. PLP’s forerunner, the Progressive Labor Movement, cut its teeth by actively participating in the 1964 Harlem Rebellion against police terror. CHALLENGE became the flag of the rebels. PL members went to prison as a badge of honor for their participation.
In 1975 in Detroit, a rebellion erupted when a racist bar owner who catered to cops shot a black youth who worked for him. PLP was in the center of it, flooding the city with "wanted" posters, immersed in the rebellion in the evenings while holding daytime rallies at the auto plants and being watched by the police 24 hours a day.
In 1992, after the LA cops brutally beat Rodney King, PLP served on the front lines of rebellions against the racist police. Our May Day march defied a ban on demonstrations as we marched past, and fraternized with, the National Guard troops that had been called up to stop the rebellion, spreading revolutionary communist ideas in the heat of battle.
The PLP-led International Committee Against Racism led hundreds of thousands of workers and youth — from New York and Chicago to Tupelo, Mississippi, and California — in violent confrontations with the KKK and Nazis. We integrated Chicago’s Marquette Park and drove the fascists back under their rocks. The overwhelming police protection that the big fascists give the little ones to this day is a compliment to our unending war on these racist terrorists.
As U.S. rulers move more ferociously to establish a fascist police state at home and expand their imperialist massacres abroad, all aspects of racism will intensify. Our Party will build on its long history of bringing revolutionary leadership to the fight against racism. Smash Racism with Communist Revolution!
(Future articles: Nationalism — racism’s deadly twin, the trap of "multi-cultural" identity politics, and how communists fight both racism and nationalism.)
a name="Forced Prostitution, Sale of Children Hallmark of Albania’s ‘Free Market’"></a>"orced Prostitution, Sale of Children Hallmark of Albania’s ‘Free Market’
Now that socialism has collapsed in Albania and free-market democracy has replaced it, they’re selling 3-year-old children for TV sets! Only capitalism, a system based on profiteering from human suffering, could spawn that kind of "trade."
The Albanian family that sold their son lives in a two-room shack. The mother is forced to beg on the streets to provide for her other six children and is only one of thousands harassed by traffickers in human beings.
According to a report in the New York Times (11/13), an estimated 6,000 Albanian children "have been sent abroad for use in begging and prostitution rackets." Most are older children who are "rented" to pimps in Italy and Greece. One 14-year-old girl was married to a man from a neighboring town who took her to France and forced her into prostitution.
Sure, now that Albania helped U.S. rulers in the Kosovo war and allows the drug-dealing bandits of the KLA (Kosovo "Liberation" Army) to operate freely, Albania and Kosovo have become centers of some of the world’s biggest drug-running and women slave-trading mafias.
The Times says this "trafficking is part of a larger trade in humans, including East European women shuffled through Albania for prostitution, and is an outgrowth of the misery and the organized crime that has blossomed" there.
The "crime" is capitalism. It’s no accident that children are bought and sold into prostitution and begging on the streets when the profit system reduces them and their families to abject poverty. Enslaving children is merely an extreme example of the very foundation of capitalism. The wage system, treats all workers as commodities, to pay as little as possible for their labor and dump them on the scrap heap when they no longer can create the value from which the bosses reap their profits.
Interestingly, the Times notes that, "Over the past 12 years, since the collapse of ‘Stalinism’ here, a substantial trade in children has established itself in Albania." While Albania never had a true communist system, the Times admits that child slavery "blossomed" with the "collapse" of socialism and the emergence of full-blown capitalism.
Only the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a true communist society can free children and the entire working class from the kinds of horrors described above.
Defend Anti-Nazi Protesters!
On September 14, 2002, hundreds protested a Nazi "meeting" in the Beebe Library in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Wakefield’s workers turned out en masse to totally reject racism and Nazism. Hundreds of local and state cops, federal agents and U.S. marshals had been mobilized to do their job: protect the racist Nazi terrorists and allow their unrestricted use of the supposedly "public" library, excluding all others.
Outside, a couple of Nazis wearing Hitler T-shirts provocatively approached and taunted the anti-racist demonstrators, inciting a series of minor scuffles. Several Wakefield residents confronted the Nazi scum, spat on them, tore up their signs and finally chased them out of town. Several hours later, agents of the state targeted one demonstrator, Ines Weiner, and took her into custody.
Ines, a Dominican woman, public school teacher and staunch anti-racist fighter, has been charged with "assault and battery with a dangerous weapon," disorderly conduct, and, most fascist of all, violation of the Nazis’ "civil rights"! Ines’s trial will begin December 15. She needs our help.
a name="U.S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers">">".S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers
The U.S. Patriot Act gives the government new powers to wiretap phones, read our e-mail and search our homes. This and other laws form the legal basis of a fascist state similar to Nazi Germany. Already Attorney General Ashcroft has held many immigrants without charges. By imposing the most severe punishment on offenses tried in the federal court system, Ashcroft is leading judges and prosecutors at all levels to be less flexible on how to resolve cases and to impose ever harsher sentences. This will impact on Ines’s case and make it more difficult to fight in court. The state’s attack on Ines is part of this larger assault on workers, immigrants, students and black and Latin communities. It’s an attack on all of us.
With mass unemployment, cutbacks, huge deficits and tax cuts for the wealthy, U.S. rulers are forcing working people to pay for the racist oil war in Iraq. When people fight back, the bosses then turn to Nazi groups, protecting and funding them, to allow them to recruit for their violently racist movement.
The Nazis arrive in town openly protected by the government for the sole purpose of organizing for racist terror. The Nazis who came to Wakefield — organized by the white-supremacist "World Church of the Creator" (WCOTC) — have a history of racist violence. George Loeb of the WCOTC is serving a life sentence for murdering Harold Mansfield, Jr., a black U.S. army veteran, in 1991. In 1999, Ben Smith of WCOTC shot eleven non-whites and Jews in Illinois and Indiana, killing two. In January 2003, the WCOTC rallied in Lewiston, Maine, openly attempting to mobilize "white citizens" against what their leader called an "invasion of the Somalis" and to drive these new immigrants from the city. Between Nazis like those who showed up in Lewiston and Wakefield, and the U.S. "Patriot Act," the state intends to terrorize all of us.
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Fund-Raising Dinner for Ines Weiner Saturday December 6, 2003 5:30-8:00 PM Third Avenue YWCA 30 Third Avenue Brooklyn, NY |
U.S., Russian Oil Bosses Have Georgia on Their Minds
Georgia, a former Soviet republic, mirrors the horrors and chaos "free market" capitalism has brought to all the former Republics. Georgian President Shevardnadze, Gorbachev’s foreign minister in the last years of the former Soviet Union, was accused of fraud in the Nov. 2 legislative elections. His ruling New Georgia Party claimed victory with only 20% of the votes, according to all observers. The U.S. has been a key supporter of Shevardnadze, including Sen. John McCain and Daddy Bush’s Secretary of State James Baker and Clinton’s Asst. Secy. of State Strobe Talbott.
The opposition held mass protests in the capital city of Tsiblis demanding Shevardnadze’s resignation and new elections. The protestors even blockaded troop trains. On Nov. 18, pro-government forces rallied demanding harsh measures against the opposition. The potential of civil war could add even more chaos to Central Asia, a key geopolitical region for the U.S., Russia and other imperialists.
Shevardnadze & Co. want to reap the profits from the oil and pipeline business, especially the planned U.S. sponsored TBC pipeline from the oil port of Baku in the Caspian Sea, through Georgia, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. TBC would cost $3.5 billion and run through some of the world’s most dangerous regions, where local wars rage.
TBC will transport oil from two other former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, sidestepping Iran. U.S. oil companies plan to break the monopoly currently enjoyed by Russian energy companies with a parallel gas pipeline, to be finished by 2007. The deal was sealed with a U.S.-Georgia military pact this year.
The TBC deal brings lots of investments and money to Georgia in exchange for pipeline rights. Georgia’s GDP has grown to 8.6% a year, but it all goes to the oil bosses and the corrupt New Georgia officials. This has increased the masses’ hatred of the government.
Russian bosses control Georgia’s domestic energy market and 75% of its electrical network. Russia cancelled Georgia’s debt when it was part of the Soviet Union to continue its control. Gazprom — the Russian gas giant — signed a deal with Georgia to monopolize the domestic market.
Both the U.S. and Russia are pressing for a deal with the opposition, Shevardnadze has made a deal with the party led by Aslan Abashidze, a right-wing warlord in the Akharia province. But so far Shevardnadze and the rest of the opposition are not making any concessions to each other. Many fear a civil war could erupt if no deal is made.
Bush and Putin say they’re worried about events in Georgia, but they are both responsible. U.S. and Russian oil bosses don’t care who has power, as long as their own interests are protected. But in an imperialist-capitalist world, fights among local bosses end up affecting the geopolitical interests of the big powers.
Free market capitalism has been hell for the workers of the former Soviet Republics. Many look at the former Soviet Union as the "good old days." But we don’t need the state capitalism of Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev. We need to eliminate all forms of capitalism and build a communist society.
a name="Dominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis">">"ominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Nov. 11 — Thousands of workers, students and farmworkers, led by unions and other mass organizations, participated in a 24-hour general strike that shut down this Caribbean country. President Hipolito Mejia’s army and goons attacked the protestors, killing seven and injuring and arresting dozens more.
The exploited masses here, as in Bolivia several weeks ago, are sick and tired of paying for the crisis and corruption of capitalism spawning more blackouts and thousands of job losses in the local maquiladora industry. The opposition Liberation Party’s (PLD) candidate for the 2004 presidential election, former president Leonel Fernández, is trying to use the anger of the masses to return to power. But under that PLD government all public enterprises — from the electric utilities to public health — were privatized. Conditions are worse under the current government because of corruption, imperialism’s greed for more profits and the international crisis of capitalism. But no help has come from the White House.
Just this year, three banks went bankrupt, including the country’s second largest. The bankers stole $4.2 billion. This, plus the austerity policies demanded by the IMF and the World Bank, has generated even more misery for most people. The population is surviving from money sent by Dominican immigrants in the U.S. and Europe, who make heavy personal sacrifices from their low-wage jobs to help relatives back home.
Contrary to the reformists organizing the strike, who gave the government a month to respond to their demands, PLP participants told the masses that capitalism causes exploitation, repression and war (President Mejia sent 300 Dominican soldiers to the imperialist occupation of Iraq). The problem is not only high food prices, unemployment, blackouts and crooked politicians. It’s the system itself. During the strike, we made contacts with many angry workers who can’t take it anymore. We’re working with them to win them to our Party. This would be a real victory from such struggles: turn them into schools for communism and build a mass revolutionary PLP.
a name="Many Wars—Same Story">">"any Wars—Same Story
I've been working with some anti-war veterans' groups for several years. They've realized they've been lied to and abandoned by the government but still believe politicians will help to relieve their medical and economic suffering. However, these vets are also rapidly advancing politically, understanding how imperialism has used them, so they're taking to the streets and uniting with other groups to stop the slaughter in Iraq.
The last two years I marched with them in the Veterans' Day Parades. This year's was the largest of all, with many more marching bands, floats and weapons. Some vets speculated the large parade was due to the situation in Iraq and a probable military draft after the 2004 elections. Our anti-war group was relegated to the back of the parade so before we marched we had lots of time for discussions among ourselves and with others interested in our stories.
One Gulf War Vet said the military had a new strategy to turn the policing over to Iraqis and special forces units, allowing some troops to return home. A Vietnam Vet noted they'd tried the same thing in Vietnam and when the casualties rose, they used special forces to burn villages to "protect people from terrorists" and set up concentration camps for those who resisted the occupation.
As a Korean war vet who'd seen similar tactics there, I said we'd been sent as a UN "police-action" force and today, 50 years later, there are still 37,000 troops there protecting U.S. interests in the Far East. I commented that the Middle East is even more strategic to the U.S. empire and those who think U.S. rulers will end their occupation of Iraq better look at what's still happening in Korea and what happened in Vietnam where "our government" fought till the last drop of our vet's blood to occupy that country.
When we finally started marching, I noticed many people waving and cheering. I thought it was for some soldiers with big guns and camouflaged faces that I'd seen earlier. But surprisingly there was half a block separating our group from the pro-war, patriotic parade. Their plan succeeded. However, we soon realized the crowd was waving and cheering for us and our anti-war chants: "No more Vietnams, No Blood For Oil, Bring the Troops Home Now - Alive!"; Vets Need Jobs and Medical Care, Not Parades; and, Warmongers Don't Get Killed - They Get Rich."
As support for us continued, block after block, some of us went to the barriers to shake hands and be hugged by a crowd that we later estimated at least 50% supportive.
I'll keep working with these vets to build a movement that doesn't rely on politicians and fights to shut down this war and imperialism for good.
Korean War Vet
The Most Important Event of the 20th Century
Eighty-six years ago, November 7, 1917, marked the beginning of the single most important event of the 20th century, the Bolshevik revolution. The working class of Russia, led by the revolutionary communists of the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin, freed 1/6 of the world’s surface from the yoke of capitalism. They proved once and for all that it was possible to create a world without exploitation, a world where those who produce all value, the working class, can enjoy the fruits of their labor instead of having it stolen by a few parasitical bosses and their lackeys. The Soviet Union not only freed workers but also fought racism and liberated women from capitalist, feudal and religious oppression. Women from the Ukraine to the Asian Soviet republics were no longer slaves to religious obscurantism. Prostitution was unknown. Unemployment was eliminated.
The revolution frightened the world’s bosses, who immediately sent armies from 17 countries to try to stop it in its infancy. From 1918 to 1925, millions of workers led by the Red Army fought the world’s imperialist armies and their local lackeys. Nearly five million died to defeat the enemy, many of whom were the most committed workers the revolution had produced. Lenin himself died because of injuries inflicted by a hired killer.
But the revolution continued. When the entire capitalist world sank into depression, and millions worldwide were left jobless and starving (much like today), the Soviet Union was forging ahead building a new society without unemployment and hunger.
In 1941, the bosses again tried to destroy the revolution. Hitler, using all of Europe’s resources and the largest military machine ever assembled, invaded the Soviet Union with four million soldiers. At first, the world’s bosses gleefully believed the Nazis would destroy the Soviet Union. U.S. Senator Harry Truman, later to become President, himself said, "Let Germany and the Soviets bleed each other to death." But the Soviets, knowing the fascist Axis wanted the whole world for themselves, and understanding the nature of imperialist rivalry, realized that eventually the West and Hitler could be fighting each other.
Finally, the main bosses in the U.S. and UK decided that the Hitler-Mussolini-Tojo Axis was the big immediate danger to them. The pro-Hitler forces in the U.S. and Britain — like Henry Ford and many in the British royalty—were isolated. But many U.S. companies like Ford, GM and IBM continued doing business with the Nazis while U.S. and German bankers met in "neutral" Switzerland during the war, planning for a post-war division of the spoils.
The Nazis invasion of the Soviet Union was no pushover as occurred in Western Europe. All the Quislings (pro-fascist traitors) had been eliminated, and any Japanese fascists’ attempt to seize the Soviet rear (Siberia and Mongolia) was crushed in a brief but bloody 1939 conflict, before the Nazis invaded Poland (see CHALLENGE, 11/5).
Still, it wasn’t until the Nazis were on the run following their defeats at Stalingrad and in the Battle of the Kursk (the biggest armored battle of modern history involving millions of soldiers and 6,000 tanks) that the U.S.-UK forces invaded Western Europe (June 6, 1944). The defeat of the Nazis, mostly by the Red Army, was the second most important event of the 20th century.
But this victory was very costly. The Nazis murdered over 20 million Soviet citizens, including many of the most committed and revolutionary workers. The Soviet leaders knew that the dropping of the A-Bomb on a defeated Japan was really a warning to them. The Soviets answered the Cold War by re-building the country and turning it into a mighty power. Many, including Stalin in his last writings and in the last Party Congress before his death, realized the new Soviet state had many political shortcomings, including an ideological weakness among the Party members. Once Stalin died, those weaknesses were used by Krushchev to turn the Soviet Union into its opposite, eventually leading to Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.
Today there is no socialist camp. No country is ruled by revolutionary communists. But this is a temporary historical setback. We in PLP are learning from their mistakes and vow to lead the new mass wave of revolutionary struggles towards communism, a society where workers produce for their needs, not for the profits of a few. It won’t be an easy struggle, but it is the only way out workers have to end this capitalist hell of endless wars, racist/fascist terror, mass unemployment, starvation and poverty. Fight for communism!
The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike:
With Babies And Banners
Our union showed the movie "With Babies and Banners," a 45 minute documentary about the heroic role women played in the victory of the 1936-37 Sit-down Strike against General Motors in Flint, Michigan.
In December 1936, the seventh year of the Great Depression, workers faced massive unemployment, had no unemployment insurance, no health insurance, no welfare and no Social Security. Segregation and elitism characterized the craft-dominated American Federation of Labor. GM owned Flint and controlled Michigan’s Governor as well, believing that "what’s good for GM is good for the country."
Workers had no safety equipment, came home with burned backs and swollen fingers, so tired that all they could do was eat and sleep. These conditions spawned anger and resentment.
Members of the Communist Party (CP) played a major role in creating the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) and the Flint Sit-down. Six of the seven members of the overall Strike Committee were communists.
The UAW, part of the newly organized Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), championed industrial unionism, uniting black and white, men and women, skilled and unskilled into one union.
Union organizing was dangerous and had to be done secretly. A worker caught with a union card was immediately fired. Stoolpigeons abounded. GM bosses told the wives that their husbands went to pool halls instead of union meetings. Women were isolated at home, caring for children.
The strike began on December 30, 1936, at Fisher Body No. 1. Women working in the plant left; only men stayed. As word spread, wives came down to ask why their husbands weren’t coming home. Several wives persuaded their husbands to leave, but many others organized the Women’s Emergency Brigade to support the strike.
Initially they only cooked and took food to the strikers. But soon women sought a more active role. The Emergency Brigade organized a children’s picket line, drawing national attention. That brought in food, money and bodies to walk the picket line. A daycare center was organized at the union hall, freeing women for picket duty. They wore red berets to establish their organized presence.
The Battle of Bulls Run
The turning point for the Emergency Brigade occurred soon afterwards. The police had surrounded Fisher No. 1, hurling teargas to smoke out the strikers. Unarmed workers inside threw the canisters back at the cops and then turned hoses on them! A huge crowd formed at the battle scene. Brigade leader Genora Johnson scrambled atop a car and appealed to the women of Flint to stand with their men. The police opened fire, but the women, armed with clubs, broke through the police lines, marching into the very center of the battle. The cops retreated.
Bonfires lit up the night as the women stood guard against more attacks by GM goons and the cops. Several women had blackjacks hidden in their coats. The workers’ victory at the "Battle of Bulls Run" (it was called that because the "Bulls" had run), inspired many unions to support the strike. Workers’ Committees inside the plant organized exercise programs, sports, cultural events, plays, a "Living Newspaper" reporting daily activities, meetings, dancing and games to keep spirits up. Wives and children would visit factory gates, talking to their husbands at plant windows.
Growing desperate, GM turned off the heat and water and forced Michigan’s Governor to order in the National Guard. It was time for the strikers to return to the offensive.
Chevy plant No. 4 manufactured engines for all GM cars. Shutting No. 4 would tie up GM nationally. Knowing a stool pigeon worked in Chevy No. 9, organizers leaked that as "the next target." GM’s goons and the cops descended on No. 9. But squads of workers secretly left that plant, went to Chevy No. 6, picking up all its workers to go shut the now unguarded No. 4, the real target. Meanwhile, the Emergency Brigade was dispatched to guard No. 4. When the police finally caught on and raced to No. 4, the women stalled them long enough for thousands of workers to come from the union hall and later from all over the Mid-West to ring the plant. The workers inside threatened to destroy the billion dollars worth of machinery if the National Guard was ordered to attack. GM gave up. A union agreement was signed on February 11, 1937. The UAW was born.
The Emergency Brigade was one of the strike’s backbones. It gave men a different outlook and deepened their respect for working women. Conditions improved dramatically. The workers won a wage increase, the 8-hour day and union recognition.
The Flint Sit-Down inspired hundreds of others nation-wide and gave birth to CIO unions in the electrical, rubber and steel industries. U.S. Steel gave up without a strike. Flint showed that women were ready to sacrifice their lives to better working conditions for all workers. Ironically, at the UAW’s 40th Anniversary celebration of the Flint Sit-down, women had to fight to get a speaker on the program.
Although the CP gave outstanding leadership to the strike itself, its outlook emphasized militant reform. Its primary outlook was not one of winning workers to communist revolution. Given the great respect the workers had for communists then, a huge base for communist ideas about the need for revolution could have been built. The CP — and the workers — would pay for this weakness in ten short years when UAW president Walter Reuther, aided by the government, the auto bosses, McCarthyism and the anti-communism of the Cold War, was able to oust the communists from union leadership and even from the plants. The communists fought back on the basis of "free speech" but this could not overcome the virulent red-baiting. Had they built a revolutionary communist base from the get-go and thereby recruited thousands to the party, the drive to oust them from the union and the plants would have been a monumental battle. And even if the leaders still had been forced out, there would have been thousands of new recruits to carry on and raise the stakes of the class struggle.
Still, "With Babies and Banners" is very inspiring. Workers viewing it thought it very informative, sad (the horrible working conditions) and were elated about the role women played. A group of high school girls present said "those women really kicked ass!"
(The video version of this film is available from New Day Films — www.newday.com A PLP pamphlet — The Great Flint Sit-down Strike Against GM — can be found on the PLP website, plp.org)
LETTERS
CHALLENGE in Japanese
My friends and I translated [into Japanese] your recent article on why the U.S. dropped A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (CHALLENGE, 9/10/03). We thought it was very well-researched and presented an excellent analysis of what was perhaps the first major atrocity perpetrated by the U.S. as a super-power — as the new strongest imperialist power — bent on world domination at all costs, in this case costing the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
We hope you can post the article as is, in Japanese, on your website, and if possible, to print it in CHALLENGE in Japanese as an indication to Japanese readers that the Party has friends in Japan. It will also be circulated in Japan and in neighborhoods in the U.S. where Japanese is spoken.
We intend to translate other articles to create a Japanese version of CHALLENGE in Japan.
The working class in Japan is in dire need of your analysis and Party activity. Conditions here are at their worst since the U.S. occupation ended. With unemployment and homelessness at a post-occupation peak, some 35,000 people committed suicide in 2002. The national government and Tokyo State government are headed by open fascists eager to have Japan fully rearm with nuclear weapons. The current Korean crisis may give them that pretext. The Japanese imperialists want to prevent their Chinese counterparts from taking over as the dominant economic power in Asia. Your internationalist, revolutionary line is needed more than ever.
A loyal reader
a name="Teachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers">">"eachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers
"We want knowledgeable students who will end up committed to a system that acknowledges the weaknesses and tries to fix them," declared President Sandra Feldman of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). She was touting a recent survey that showed that youth who had taken a high school civics class were far more likely to follow politics, vote, volunteer, and participate in campaigns than youth who hadn’t.
Feldman’s words got me thinking about the AFT local at my school. People are very critical of the health insurance givebacks that the union got us to accept. We resented the union rep who told us to ration our own health care ("be better consumers") to keep down the cost to the district. But many of the same people were delighted with the union when it organized thousands of students to march against racist budget cuts. They are happy that the AFT is supporting the grocery workers’ strike. Our local has even hired a full time organizer to coordinate efforts of part time paid staff to continue to organize students and faculty.
This seems contradictory. The AFT urges passivity around bread-and-butter contract issues but activity, alongside black latin and immigrant youth (to whom the AFT leadership historically has showed only contempt) in fighting around issues that directly affect the students.
But this contradiction is explained by the analysis in the Challenge editorial (Nov 5) of "labor’s new strategy". The AFT really can’t expect to buy teachers’ loyalty to capitalism with crumbs that have already been swept off the table in the imperialist drive to war (which Feldman consistently supports). Instead, the AFT now presents the bloody racist horrors of capitalism as "weaknesses" and pushes us and our students to use elections to try to "fix" them. The message of the rally against budget cuts was that we must accept "fair" cuts and rely on our "friends" in the state capital, so "get out the vote." The "new strategy", as Challenge says, is class collaboration, nationalism and support for imperialist war and capitalism.
This analysis means I must change the way I talk to my friends about what’s wrong with unions. I need to be more careful not to imply that organizing more militant struggle (which the AFT won’t do) would likely result in significantly more gains for teachers and students. Yes, we need to fight for our class interests against those of the bureaucrats, bankers, and bond raters. We need to advance peoples’ understanding of capitalism as we explain that this isn’t a period when we can win big, costly reforms but fighting against the bosses’ attacks can show us the way to fight against a capitalist system hell bent on war and fascism.
I need to explain more clearly that when liberals in the AFT and other unions like SEIU and HERE organize political struggles, they are serving the rulers and not the working class. The rulers state openly that they need for workers to sacrifice "blood and treasure". They are using these union leaders to try to convince us to passively accept attacks on us and limit ourselves to looking for pennies and lesser evil politicians.
Finally, all of us in schools need to keep constantly in sight the struggle over the class content of education. It’s not only in Feldman’s beloved civics classes that the bosses’ ideology is force fed to working class students. Some of the most active AFT organizers I know, including some militants and "progressives" have also pushed students hard into electoral politics and nationalism. We must take on these illusions and fight to show that revolutionary change is what we need.
A red teacher
Is CHALLENGE Moving To the Right?
In the Sept. 24 issue of Challenge was an article from Chicago on P. 5 titled "Chicago County Hospitals are Really Sick." The primary emphasis the article makes is that comrades should work and be active on reforms to win communism. It cites the bad conditions affecting both workers and patients such as:
Workers fired for being sick;… vacated positions not filled or eliminated; promotions based on favoritism; over-filled emergency rooms, lack of medications, etc., etc.
All this and more are elaborated to take about 75% of the article. In the last paragraph (about the remaining 25%) is:
"We need more direct work actions instead of waiting weeks and months under the grievance system." (Challenge helps keep the readers focused on and encouraging the working on reforms by repeating this quote in big black letters in the center of the article across two columns). "In the struggle for decent health care for our patients, a safe workplace and jobs that can provide for our families, we can help workers understand capitalism and learn how communism will provide jobs and health care for all."
This is very much a mirror of articles PLP was writing in the past when it was championing reforms as the way to communism, including the one or two last sentences of how great communism is.
Disturbing as the article may be, we know that here and there working primarily on reform will be raised. But there is something more troublesome and ominous here such as:
(1) The editors of Challenge in printing such an article approves and encourages such individuals and groups planning activity overwhelmingly reform throughout its readership,
(2) It has been almost three months now and at least three issues of Challenge since the article was written. There has not been a single public word from either the local, regional, city or national leadership (and membership) about this.
Such a total lack of response is a leg up for PLP moving to the right. With such publications and "attention," [can] anyone believe it can’t happen?
NYC Comrade
CHALLENGE COMMENT: We thank the NYC comrade for his criticism of the article he cites. He is correct in saying it was reformist. It should have been returned to the writers involved in the struggle pointing that out. We receive numbers of articles parts of which reflect such views and we either discuss them with the writers and/or return them for more work. We should have done that with this one. The struggle against reformism must occur all the time.
If this article reflected the content in most or much of the articles in CHALLENGE, and the editors and leadership of the Party did nothing to change it, one could certainly conclude that it reflects "a leg up for PLP moving to the right." But based on what actually DOES appear in our pages, we think the criticism is extraordinarily one-sided. In reviewing just the three issues of the paper following the Sept. 24 issue, we find the following:
Oct. 8 — The liberal Clark exposed as a warmaker; the AFL-CIO leadership indicted as using immigrants to back the ruling class’s need for war; the liberal "Anti-Globalists Don’t See Capitalism as Root of Super-exploitation; "Third Way Won’t Solve Salvadoran Workers’ Problems" which concludes that "PLP’s goal is to stoke the fires of workers’ anger….within the unions and mass movements…to win the workers to take power through a revolution for communism"; and a back-page article putting forth why communism is the only answer to "Capitalism’s Chamber of Horrors" and explains, among other things, that, "Making revolution requires winning hundreds of millions of workers to fight for it," and "The working class needs a Party and its Party needs leadership," and, "We have a job to do: to bring revolutionary class consciousness into the mass movements and win political leadership of workers and others.
Oct. 22 — A detailed description of a struggle in which parents defended a PL teacher from being fired, making the communist point about reliance on the working class, which "can keep us on the road to building a communist society"; an exposure of why the rulers want to maintain the health of certain workers to guarantee arms production and recruits for the military; how in Mexico the "Free Market and State Capitalism [are] Two Sides of the Same Coin, again exposing the social fascist nature of the union misleaders; and in an article on the "Jobless Recovery, how "capitalism and unemployment go hand in hand," including Marx’s explanation of how overproduction is intrinsic to the profit system and inevitably leads to unemployment.
Nov. 5 — An article on the LA transit strike exposes the union leaders as allies of the bosses and details PLP’s activities on the picket lines; using CHALLENGE to initiate sharp but friendly exchanges with the strikers about communism and how to achieve it, not how to win reforms; PL’er defended by the workers when attacked by the bosses; a plan "to emerge from these strikes with a bigger, more active PLP,…more people reading and distributing CHALLENGE," with the task to steer this anger and militancy down the road to communist revolution."; an editorial on the California recall election, another indictment on lesser evil politics and stating that "Fascism will be defeated by the development of a revolutionary party among workers, soldiers, students and others, a massive task, but do-able." Another article on how the AFL-CIO leaders "Ape Hitler’s Unions," again exposing them as agents of the ruling class; an article about Bolivian workers believing that "the whole system has to go," with some calling for a revolutionary party; an analysis of how overproduction is the basis of the crisis in the steel industry how only communism — not reforms — can solve this contradiction and how "the struggles of steelworkers remain fertile ground for building a new communist movement…that will know no borders"; an article describing the rising anger in the auto plants and how building unbreakable ties and spreading CHALLENGE’S communist ideas can turn class struggle into a mass base for communist revolution, but that "you have to be in it [the class struggle] to win it"; and a back-page article on how the communist-led forces of the Soviet Union shaped World War II.
We think that the preponderance of CHALLENGE articles "encourage…individuals and groups planning activity" to make building the Party and revolution, not reform, primary. Based on that we think it is an error to indict the entire Party leadership and membership based on this one, admittedly reformist article as "a leg up for PLP moving to the right." In fact, in that very Sept. 24 issue there is an article on page 3 which describes how Party forces in a hospital are trying to turn an anti-racist struggle into a fight to build the Party.
The struggle to raise communist politics in the class struggle is constant and often difficult. We cannot and should not minimize the danger of sinking into reformist politics, considering that historically this has been the major problem in the international communist movement. Perhaps sometimes we oversimplify it; many members are new to this fight for revolution, not reform, and we must collectively help each other in that fight, but we must participate in the reform struggle so that workers can take our revolutionary politics seriously. We think that the workers, soldiers and students to whom we bring CHALLENGE are getting a message that mainly puts forward revolution, not reform.
We welcome our readers’ thoughts on this subject.
Stop Privatization of Public Housing
Over 450,000 people live in public housing in New York City, people who have nowhere else to live. The politicians would love to cut it back - the money could buy a lot of tanks - but they can't just get rid of it. However, they can chip away, so the NYC Housing Authority has started to implement a plan to privatize what they can and downsize the number of workers. with the union playing right into their hands.
The Authority¹s rationale is increased "efficiency" in construction (projects are consistently over budget). Their "solution" will award over $550 million to private construction firms and reorganize the staff into six separate divisions with a virtual disregard for job descriptions or civil service titles. The over-runs and inefficient bureaucracy are all too real, but are just a smokescreen. Given U.S. capitalism's international crisis, the plan meshes with the system's current trend to unravel social services - like public housing - and break whatever union benefits remain for the working class. They tout privatization as the most "efficient and cost-effective" way to accomplish anything. Yet private companies which take over social services always provide less services and pay lower wages. They also consistently use the sorry state of public housing to build racism and to blame workers for the lousy conditions.
The staff and tenants were completely out of the loop in the planning process. But the union's response was late, and tepid. After the plan was announced, Local 375 of AFSCME District Council 37 held only two labor/management meetings, allowing reorganization of the employees as "management¹s right." It was only when 60 members confronted the local president at a worker-organized meeting that the head of DC 37 contacted the Authority. The latter agreed to put the plan on hold while the union came up with a counter-proposal. Meanwhile, an ad hoc committee condemned the plan and is circulating a petition against it. There is growing worker opposition.
All this occurred despite the union, not because of it. After getting involved with the union, and seeing it in action (or inaction) it became easy to understand why CHALLENGE refers to union officials as misleaders and social fascists. Their job isn't to initiate struggle, it's to stifle it.
Struggle is possible - workers are angry at the Authority¹s heavy-handed and transparent attempts to cut their jobs - but for fight back to occur, we need to connect the dots back to the bosses' global crisis, openly expose the union's consistent deflating tactics, and provide the kind of militant organization that can oppose this attack and the profit system.
This particular struggle hasn't played out yet; if the local bosses and the financiers at HUD in Washington want privatization badly enough, they¹ll push it through. But the struggle against it is still vital, and if we don¹t lead it, we¹ll just watch the union hacks tell us, once again, that being sold out is the "best" we could hope for.
A City Worker
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
Below are excerpts from mainstream newspapers that contain important information:abbreviations: nyt=new york times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)
On soup lines, no urge to vote
Across the American heartland, the lines of people at soup kitchens and free food pantries have lengthened dramatically. Some look like images from the Great Depression….
Few said they had any intention to vote. It made no difference, they said. I heard the same lines repeatedly: all politicians are the same; they care nothing for the working poor. (GW, 11/12)
US will control the new Iraq
Mr. Bush’s aides insist that even after sovereignty passes to the provisional government, American influence will be strong. The United States military will have the heavy firepower. The $20 billion for reconstruction that Congress has approved will still be under American control, its flow directed to influencing events according to Washington’s wishes….American investors will demand…a secular government and political stability before risking billions reconstructing the Iraqi economy.
"We’ll have more levers than you think, and maybe more than the Iraqis think," one senior White House official said this week. (NYT, 11/16)
US order: No GI coffins on TV
One of the lessons the U.S. government apparently learned from the Vietnam War comes down to this: Don’t let the American public see coffins arriving home with U.S. casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan….
In a move by the Bush administration to suppress distressing images of war, the Defense Department issued a directive last March on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that declared:
"There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning…." Hearst Newspapers, 10/30)
Bosses profit from "illegals"
To really stop illegal immigration, without greatly increasing legal immigration from poor countries, would mean wiping out the U.S. agriculture and garment industries, among others. To blame the workers, rather than the system they operate in, is the core hypocrisy our immigration policy has long been based upon….
Enforceable sanctions would be opposed by most major business associations because employers would no longer be able to find a vulnerable labor force to exploit….
Immigration laws have been rigged to favor certain skilled occupations, ignoring the reality that much of our prosperity derives from the sweat of unskilled immigrant labor. (LA Times, 10/29)
Bush rewrites Filipino history
"America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people," said President Bush to a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines last week. "Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule."
Unfortunately, we then killed more than 200,000 Filipinos. Almost all of the dead were civilians, killed in the two years after we liberated them from Spanish rule in 1898. One of our generals there, a cranky Civil War veteran named Jacob Smith, told his men: "I wish you to kill and burn….I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."
"How young?" asked Maj. Waller Tazewell Waller (cq) of the U.S. Marines. "Ten years and up," said Gen. Smith.
None of this was secret at the time. (Liberal Opinion Week, 11/10)
‘People power" is never US aim
[Letter to the N. Y. Times]
Re: "Bush Asks Lands in Mideast to Try Democratic Ways"….
He might have apologized for the United States’ support of the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Chile and Guatemala….
He "sought to position the American experiment in remaking Iraq alongside the United States’ efforts to spread democracy in Asia after World War II." I don’t know of any such efforts.
We either supported the defeated colonial powers (Britain, France and the Netherlands) or indigenous militarists and dictators like Chiang Kai-shek, Syngman Rhee, Ngo Dinh Diem, General Suharto and Ferdinand E. Marcos….
President Bush may know nothing of these histories, but the people on the receiving end assuredly do. Chalmers Johnson (NYT, 11/10)
Nurses’ long hours a danger
Many hospitals and nursing homes are endangering patients by allowing or requiring nurses to work more than 12 hours a day, the National Academy of Sciences said….
Such long hours cause fatigue, reduce productivity and increase the risk that the nurses will make mistakes that harm patients….
In one study for the government, 27% of nurses at hospitals and nursing homes reported that they worked more than 13 consecutive hours at least once a week….
Nursing assistants "work double shifts on a fairly regular basis" at some nursing homes. (NYT, 1`1/5)
Attack The Source of Capitalism’s Super-Profits:
FIGHT RACISM!
Communist revolution requires an unswerving commitment to smash racism. As Karl Marx wrote a century and a half ago: "Labor in the white skin cannot emancipate itself as long as labor in the black skin is branded."
Marx was referring to the U.S. Civil War and the struggle to abolish slavery. But his comment remains valid today. A modern version might read: "No section of the working class can achieve liberation as long as the system can continue to super-exploit and super-oppress others." Our liberation requires unbreakable class unity against our common enemy. Nothing prevents this unity or cripples us more than racism. Our future as a class depends on destroying racism within our own ranks.
Capitalism invented racism. In the so-called "New World," the profit system was born from the corpses of tens of millions of Native Americans. It thrived on the blood and sweat of many more millions of Africans brought here in chains. It began to reach maturity on the backs of their descendants. It grew still bigger and stronger on the strength and toil of underpaid immigrant labor.
Today U.S. capitalism tries to rule the world by grinding down its domestic working class and by treating the rest of the international working class as fair game for its low-wage, maximum-profit schemes. On the home front, black, Latin, and Asian workers experience this oppression daily. Worldwide, workers reap the "rewards" of globalized U.S. racism: especially low wages, skyrocketing unemployment, the degradation of women, police-state terror and perpetual war. Iraq and Afghanistan are only the most recent examples of U. S. imperialist adventures. Since 1950, these "interventions" have murdered more people than the Nazis.
Racism has three components. The first is economic. Capitalists need more than average profit or even super-profit. They need maximum profit. Only maximum profit enables a capitalist to defeat his competitors. This is true not just for individual capitalists, but also for entire industries and countries. The ability to super-exploit sections of the working class — to pay lower wages to one group of workers for the same amount of labor power furnished by another — lies at the core of maximum profit. This is the dirty little secret behind the historic income inequality between black and white workers.
Despite the bosses’ claims of "progress," the wage gap between black and white workers continues to widen. In addition, the unemployment rate for black workers is at least double that for white workers. Consequently, huge numbers of black families live in poverty, even as those with jobs work increasingly long hours to eke out a living — 500 hours more annually in 2000 than in 1979. Finally, black workers are penalized for getting sick or old; they are less likely than white workers to have health insurance or a pension plan.
All the money from these racist differentials — amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars — goes straight into the bosses’ pockets. Multiply this by the millions of Latino workers suffering from racist exploitation and the totals become astronomical.
The capitalists would love us to believe that white workers have an interest in perpetuating these inequalities. But in pure economic terms, this is a Big Lie. To begin with, workers know that a capitalist will pay the least he can get away with. The more he can depress wages for the most exploited workers, the more other workers’ wages (and benefits) will drop as well; the lowest wages define the rest.
This logic is confirmed by the bosses’ own studies of the largest Statistical Metropolitan Survey Areas, which show that a decline in wages and benefits for all workers accompanies every spike in economic racism. W.E.B. Dubois, founder of the NAACP, later to join the old U.S. Communist Party, wrote: "So long as white labor must compete with black labor, it must approximate black labor conditions — long hours, small wages."
From the 1969 Figure Flattery strike in the New York City garment center to the daily struggles of 150,000 garment workers in Los Angeles today, the Progressive Labor Party has a long history of fighting racism on the job and in the unions. In 1973, PLP led over 200 autoworkers in seizing Chrysler’s Mack Stamping plant in Detroit against racist speed-ups and deplorable health and safety conditions. In countless contract fights and union elections, PLP has fought racist firings and layoffs, plant closings and wage cuts, worker harassment and abuse. In healthcare, welfare and education, we’ve united with patients, clients, students and parents. We’ve pointed out how cutbacks at hospitals, offices and schools were really racist attacks aimed at workers and youth who use these services. In 1975, PLP politically and violently helped defeat the racist anti-busing movement in Boston. In all of these fights, we’ve proven how fighting racism is in the interests of all workers.
(Our next issue will contain the 2nd and 3rd components of racism — ideology and the rulers’ use of state power — and PLP’s answer to the latter in fighting the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis, in the black rebellions and in countless struggles against racist police brutality.)
Lesser Evil Politics Feeds Imperialist War
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 25 — Today tens of thousands marched to protest the U.S. occupation of Iraq, encircling the White House and halting traffic for a short time. Families of soldiers and sailors condemned the government for using their children as cannon fodder for the rich man’s war. Other speakers denounced the Bush administration for lying about its reasons for invading Iraq. While no "weapons of mass destruction" have been found, billions in workers’ taxes are helping restore Iraq’s oil industry for U.S. corporations in their quest both for greater profits and an edge over their imperialist rivals in Europe, China and Japan.
While calling for continued resistance to war and occupation, the main push focused on ousting Bush. Supporters of Democratic contenders — Kucinich, Dean, Clark, Sharpton (who spoke from the podium), and even the Gore and Hillary Clinton "draft" movements — engaged in sidewalk debates over who was the best.
Progressive Labor Party advanced a different strategy, marching under the banner, "Communist revolution, not liberal politicians." We cited imperialism as responsible for the oil war in Iraq, not just the "neo-conservative" neanderthals (Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz). Explaining that imperialism inevitably leads to more wars, including world wars, we said that any liberals elected will merely sugarcoat poisonous military actions to secure the U.S. empire, not stop them.
Over 1,100 people bought our newspaper CHALLENGE. Over 4,000 leaflets attacking imperialism and calling for revolution were distributed.
Some PLP’ers worked with two local anti-racist organizations at the march, linking racist oppression at home to imperialist oppression abroad and tying racism’s central role to the propaganda justifying the war, and its special impact on Latino and African American families.
The Peoples Coalition for Police Accountability distributed over 1,000 flyers relating the war in Iraq to the war at home (police brutality), and obtained an additional 48 signatures on its petition demanding the indictment of racist cop Charles Ramseur, who shot a young black man in the back for no reason, paralyzing him for life. The Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association has been intensely fighting racist disparities in health care. They circulated their material and recruited additional members. Both these mass organizations will grow from the additional interested people met at this event.
As the electoral season heats up, pressure will build to back "lesser-evil, anyone-but-Bush" politics. We must continue the struggle for local, militant actions against the war and racism in workplaces, on campuses and in communities, and to win those supporting liberals to instead rely on the working class and back revolutionary social change.
It’s Bigger Than Bush!
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 25 — It seems impossible that anyone could claim the war in Iraq was just about Bush. But that’s just what the liberals are doing!
PLP’s contingent at the Oct. 25 protest here was very young, disciplined and multi-racial. Similar to the Washington rally the liberal theme was, "Bush is the main problem."
Before the march, a Party study group organized our plan of action. At the demonstration, PLP’s young communists spread our ideas through CHALLENGE, leaflets and chants: capitalism is the cause of war; Bush and the Democrats are just different sides of the same war-making machine.
Marine Shook Up Over Orders to Kill Iraqi Kids
Recently I had a conversation with a fellow teacher about the military and the war in Iraq. She said her son was in the Marines and had recently returned from Baghdad. I told her that Marines were usually cannon fodder, the first to be thrown into combat situations. I said my uncle was a 20-year-old Marine sent to Korea in September 1950, three months after that conflict broke out and that when he came home a year later, he didn’t want to talk about his wartime experiences. He was a changed person, quiet and reticent, not like the personable, sociable young man our family knew before his Korean duty.
The teacher said her son also did not want to talk about his Baghdad duty, that he, too, had become very quiet. Once when he did open up to her, he said, "Mom, they told us to run over children," apparently in their military vehicles. I asked why. She said soldiers were told that children may have concealed explosives on their bodies.
Comrades, a system that traumatizes its children, and the children of workers worldwide for the sake of empire must be smashed. Our children, indeed all of us, deserve to live in a world that promotes and fosters humanity, not profit. Communism is that system and the hope for humanity.
A SF Bay Area Teacher Comrade
LA Dinner Marks CHALLENGE Birthday
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 1 — About 60 friends and comrades joined together to discuss the history and future of CHALLENGE and our communist movement. We began with a discussion about the nature of a revolutionary newspaper.
"Just what is Challenge? Is it something like the New York Times, or the Los Angeles Times, to be dumped in the trash after reading it once, or is it something more? CHALLENGE is more than a newspaper in the traditional sense. It’s a living, contemporary history of the working class’ struggle for liberation, from the workers’ point of view. It’s an educator and an organizer, something to be studied and grasped, and saved for future generations to read, learn and understand."
(Full story next issue on this dinner and others held to honor the 40th anniversary of the newspaper that strives to be the communist voice of the world’s working class.)
TEN MILLION WORKERS STRIKE VS. ITALY’S PENSION ‘REFORM’
"[Italy’s] Schools, banks, factories, post offices, airports and rail and bus networks were shut down for at least four hours in the most widespread anti-government demonstrations since April 2002" (Financial Times, 10/25). Workers, the unemployed, retirees and students, carried banners reading "Defend Our Future." Over 10 million workers participated in this Oct. 24 General Strike and 1.5 million rallied in the main cities, protesting the Berlusconi government’s plan to "reform" the pension plan. These "reforms" would make workers pay into the pension plan for 40 years instead of the current 35 years before retiring at 62 (now 57).
In 1994, workers’ defeated the first Berlusconi government’s scheme to "reform" the pension plan, forcing him to resign.
Even though the three major union federations (CGIL, CSIL and UIL) supported the strike, they’re part of the problem. (COBAS, a rank-and-file group, also supported the strike and held its own protest in Rome.)
In 2002, the UIL and Christian-Democratic CSIL, signed a "Pact for Italy" with Berlusconi that enabled the government to pass Law 30, giving the bosses more leeway in firing workers. CGIL, the biggest federation, wants to elect the "Olive Tree" — a coalition of the old opportunist "Communist" Party and mainstream bourgeois groups. The CGIL blanketed its march in Rome with Italian flags, backing a strong Italian capitalism to better compete with other imperialists.
The metalworkers union Fiom-CGIL, is planning another nationwide strike for Nov. 7, with a massive demonstration in Rome. Last May, the metalworker unions affiliated with CSIL and UIL, agreed to a total sellout and refused to let the workers vote on the contract that covers 1.5 million metalworkers. Fiom-CGIL, the largest metalworkers union, didn’t sign the deal and proposed local strikes, which are less effective than a nationwide walkout.
Militant shop stewards organized a series of wildcat strikes, work stoppages and road blockades, forcing the bosses to sign local agreements in 260 plants disavowing the national sellout, but covering only 40,000 of the 1.5 million metalworkers.
Some in the government are calling on the Home Minister to use the cops to "restore order" in the factories of the Emilia Romagna area, where the struggles are more widespread. On the morning of the General Strike, hundreds of cops rampaged throughout Italy, arresting four men and two women for alleged membership in the terrorist Red Brigades. These police raids have not intimidated the workers.
Around the world, 22 million industrial jobs have been lost in the last few years. The global crisis of overproduction is bigger than any one politician and is sharpening the class struggle from Rome to Rio. More war and inter-imperialist rivalry will only force the nationalist union leaders further into the arms of their rulers, regardless of momentary strikes and contradictions.
Industrial workers of the world remain a key force for communist revolution. Their struggles are fertile ground for building an international PLP to coordinate these struggles and turn them into schools for communism.
Brazil: Strikers Tired of Paying for Auto Bosses’ Crisis
SAO PAULO, Oct. 30 — Facing the worst industry crisis in years, about three-quarters of the auto workforce in São Paulo’s industrial belt went on strike, halting about one-third of Brazil’s auto and truck production at Ford, Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Scania. According to the Metalworkers Union in the ABC regioin, 24,000 workers were on strike after rejecting a 16% raise. Workers at Ford’s São Bernardo do Campo plant were told to prepare for "a long fight."
The crisis of overcapacity is at the core of the struggle. In the early 1990’s, the world’s major auto manufacturers spent billions of dollars building plants here, counting on a potential market of three million car sales a year. But the economy has soured, the market in neighboring Argentina has collapsed and sales never rose above 1.4 million cars a year.
All the major manufacturers are scrambling to export more to make up for the South American slump. Volkswagen recently slashed nearly 4,000 workers from its factories here, while setting up a plant in China to assemble the Brazilian Gol. As China becomes the world’s most promising auto market, Brazil will lose investments.
These autoworkers are making it clear they won’t continue to pay for the general crisis of capitalism and the problems of the auto bosses. Many workers are also tired of the broken promises of President Lula, a former autoworkers’ union leader, who is as unable to improve workers’ lives as Bush or Berlosconi. A mass international PLP can turn the struggles of workers in Brazil’s industrial belt into a school for communism.
LA Transit Strikers Unite vs. Health Cuts, Racist Pay Scales
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3 — On Oct. 29, 150 to 200 rank-and-file workers among the 2,300 striking the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and First Transit, a company holding a contract with MTA, picketed MTA headquarters. They are fighting to unite mechanics, drivers and riders. First Transit uses racism to pay its mostly black drivers only $8.15 an hour. Some workers’ signs read, "The U.S. government has $ billions for invading Iraq, but pennies for workers’ healthcare." Workers spoke about the potential power of a united working class to build a powerful force opposing the union leaders’ class collaboration outlook. The rally was "unsanctioned" and ignored by the union leadership, but the participants were high-spirited and called for another rally.
The next day, with Southern California hillsides in flames and the strike entering its third week, the liberal LA Times demanded action. "Los Angeles must have reliable public transit," it declared, practically ordering the mechanics’ union and the company into binding arbitration. LA has the highest concentration of low-paid manufacturing workers in the country. Nearly two million medically uninsured workers live and work in LA County. They depend on mass transit to get to work.
The liberal bosses want the MTA to concentrate on getting these workers transported efficiently to their sweatshops which the unions have refused to organize for the last 30 years.
The day after the Times’ editorial, Neil Silver, President of ATU Local 1277 (mechanics’ union) and Miguel Contreras, head of the LA Federation of Labor, jumped into line, offering to end the strike immediately and go to binding arbitration. But the bosses’ side is divided. The MTA bosses, for now, refuse to arbitrate, publicize lies about the strikers’ conditions, threaten to hire scabs to operate the buses and make deals with other bus companies to expand their routes. They want to negotiate lucrative rail agreements with contractors and engineering companies, while the liberal bosses want the MTA to put `these deals aside in favor of more buses in south and central LA and concentrate on ending the strike through arbitration, .
Union acceptance of binding arbitration sucks the workers into relying on the government, controlled by the bosses to guarantee the maintenance of their system of exploitation for profit. Arbitrators are ex-judges or lawyers who spend their careers defending the profit system.
The arbitration tactic has sown confusion among workers. It chains us to the liberal rulers which contrasts with workers exercising our power as a class to stop production and affect the movement of manufacturing workers here. This temporarily halts the bosses’ profits.
But this unholy alliance between the liberal bosses and the union misleaders will not mean decent benefits for transit workers or for riders forced to pay higher fares. This class collaboration and arbitration holds workers back. All LA workers’ interests’ lie in uniting against these attacks.
The labor misleaders’ failure to unite the large number of striking workers here — thousands of grocery workers are still out — has not stopped rank and filers. MTA strikers have joined the picket lines of 250 striking drivers from Teamsters Local 572 at First Transit in Compton who are fighting racist low wages. One driver said, "Bring more MTA workers down here. If MTA can run it the way they want, these will be the conditions for all of us." He described the bosses’ attacks as fascist labor conditions in a country preparing for a permanent war economy.
Many workers understand that our power lies in uniting the whole working class against all the bosses. To be successful, that struggle must lead to workers’ power, fighting for a workers’ state through communist revolution, not to just a better medical plan. PLP is involving the workers in reading and discussing the ideas in CHALLENGE. Their response has been excellent. More workers see that the bosses’ system is incapable of meeting our needs, and, as they read the paper and our leaflets, are talking about revolution.
CHALLENGE At the Picket Lines
At a LA transit picket line, a CHALLENGE seller asked a worker if he wanted the paper. "No, I don’t like communism," he said. "Why not?" she asked. "Because the government controls everything under communism," he replied. "No, that’s what we have here right now," remarked the seller. "It’s called capitalism. Under communism, those who produce all the value would run things and use it to benefit our class." His friends who were listening laughed and agreed, urging him to get the paper. He told the CHALLENGE seller to bring more people to the picket line next week. She promised she would. In turn, she asked him to read the paper carefully and let her know what he thinks. He agreed.
Anti-Racist Actions Spur Unity of Workers, Doctors, Nurses
"It’s revolutionary!" declared John. "This opens up the whole system," said Bonita. "Race, class, all of capitalism. Workers can learn a lot through this." These were responses about orientations that Local 1199 healthcare workers want to give to all medical and nursing students, doctors and nurses at this large teaching hospital. This idea began last summer when a rash of conflicts arose between black women workers and white and Asian doctors and nurses.
In one incident, a white nurse accused a union member of stealing. In another, an Asian doctor tried to grab a computer keyboard from a black woman unit clerk. He argued with the unit’s nursing supervisor. As he left, dietary workers heard him say, "I hate these f——-g bitches!" In a third, a doctor pushed his way between two black women workers to replace a patient chart. When a housekeeper noted his rude behavior, he patted her shoulder and said, "Don’t you know who I am?"
In past conflicts, our "victories" in obtaining apologies often intensified racism and nationalism, leaving nurses or doctors even more divided from workers. This time, PLP organized to achieve greater unity.
After the first incident a group of black and white housekeepers marched on the office of the top hospital boss demanding he fire the nurse who refused to apologize (see CHALLENGE, 10/6). Several nurses helped plan the campaign, although none marched with us. Afterwards, the bosses began an investigation, which became the talk of the hospital. Now we’ve learned the nurse is resigning and the supervisor, who also called the housekeeper a "thief," is gone as well.
In the second and third incidents, the bosses, remembering our march in the first incident, made the doctors apologize before we could even organize a fight.
These small victories have electrified the workers involved and have led to many political discussions centered on equality, racism, sexism and elitism. Many union members believe the education that doctors and nurses receive builds anti-working class ideas that divide healthcare workers. Meanwhile, for the first time we’ve involved doctors and nurses in these discussions. Some doctors said they’re concerned that this inner-city hospital actually has very few black and Latin doctors and nurses. We’re exploring how union members can join the doctors in this struggle.
The labor we contribute to patient care is as important as anything the doctors and nurses do. The patient-care cutbacks in this era of war and fascism require the strongest unity of all healthcare workers and patients. This factor led to the proposal that union members orient the nursing and medical staff. In late October, two union delegates formally proposed this idea to two hospital vice-presidents. We’re awaiting their response.
But for these activities to be truly "revolutionary," we must strengthen the Party collectives and keep our eye on the primary prize: building the Party and communist revolution. But the attention paid to CHALLENGE distribution and Party recruitment had slipped these last few weeks. A big step in correcting this is re-building the Party collectives city-wide. Some Party members have been "too busy" for collective meetings, leaving them without collective struggle and accountability for recruitment and CHALLENGE distribution. Less "busy" members are often unconnected to the energetic struggles.
As the more active comrades report on CHALLENGE and recruitment, their enthusiasm is having a positive affect on the rest of the collective. Recently two somewhat inactive comrades began job actions protesting a suburban hospital agreeing to a racist’s demand that no black, Latin or Jewish workers care for his pregnant wife. Our next article will report on getting "busy" with building communism.
Anti-Racist Strike Can Challenge Chicago Bankers’ Veto of Teachers’ Demand
CHICAGO, IL Oct. 29 — Over 30,000 Chicago public school teachers could be on strike by December 4. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) delegates today voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike vote for mid-November. PLP leaflets and CHALLENGE played a leadership role in the debates. The Delegates and members rejected a tentative 5-year agreement between the Board of Education and the new CTU reform leadership that increases healthcare costs, lengthens the work-day, and fails to reduce class size.
According to union negotiators, we can’t win lower class size because the banks and bonding agencies say it could interfere with the Board’s flexibility needed to lay off teachers, and would force a lower bond rating. This exposed how the bankers can force a racist attack on Chicago’s more than 400,000 mainly black and Latin students.
The union leadership, elected three years ago on a smaller-class-size platform, has caved in on this issue as did their predecessors for the past 30 years. The opportunists who were defeated in that election rejected the contract and the strike vote and are plotting their comeback.
The rejected contract allocated only $1 million for "class-size reduction" out of a $4.5 billion budget. That million dollars is $50,000 less than the Board paid the outside law firm that handled the negotiations. Now they’re telling us we must persuade the state legislature to fund smaller classes. But state budgets have been ravaged by Federal tax breaks for the rich, soaring unemployment and the hundreds of billions of dollars being used to wage the unending "war on terror" in Iraq and Afghanistan and finance the "Homeland Security" police state.
By rejecting the contract, many teachers were reacting to the fascist conditions students and school workers face daily. The typical elementary school has no recess. Thirty or more students, many with emotional, economic and/or learning problems, must sit all day, sometimes in a small portable classroom, a section of an auditorium, or even hallways in overcrowded schools. Most teachers work long past the end of the official school day, spend their own money for school supplies, are social workers and nurses as well as teachers, and attend mandated classes and conferences at their own expense. Several dozen teachers have organized "Advocates for Smaller Classes and Better Work Environments" to keep fighting for demands that meet the needs of students, parents and teachers, not the Illinois Business Roundtable or Standard and Poor bond-raters.
The union and the Board are tinkering with the rejected contract, cutting the work-day by five minutes, a 4-year deal instead of five and a smaller increase in healthcare costs But lower class size and other demands to improve the rotten school conditions are off the table. They want us to accept a few pennies to betray the interests of the students and parents we serve.
An anti-racist strike against the third largest school system in the U.S., uniting over 500,000 school workers and students against the bankers who run the city, could tap into a vein of growing anger among millions of workers and challenge mass passivity and cynicism. It’s the best way to engage in political struggle, overcome obstacles and shed illusions, creating the conditions for winning parents, students and teachers to join PLP.
Boeing/Air Force Tanker Scandal Explodes
Boeing’s campaign to win a lucrative contract leasing 100 aerial tankers to the Air Force is in trouble. The Washington Post has run daily exposés of the mounting scandal surrounding the most costly government lease in U.S. history. By the end of October, Secretary of War Rumsfeld abandoned the original deal, announcing he would accept any one Congress wants.
Darleen Druyun, the chief Air Force official pushing the lease, recently left the Air Force to work for Boeing, after selling her $692,000 northern Virginia home to a Boeing lawyer. Her daughter also works for Boeing.
Boeing circumvented the usual Pentagon regulations. Internal e-mails show Boeing actually changed the requirements for the new tanker, like dropping the demand that they match or exceed the capabilities of the old ones, so that the only plane that would qualify was a modified 767, a model that had reached the end of its commercial life. The Pentagon lied about the current state of the aerial tanker fleet to push through the deal.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) snuck the lease into a war appropriations bill after receiving an unprecedented $21,900 in donations from Boeing execs. His wife works for a law firm that represents Boeing. Then Boeing secured political backing by playing the "union card." When the Machinists union ran ads demanding that Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), a lease opponent, register as a foreign agent for Europe’s Airbus, a Boeing email noted that the "union strategy [was] in play."
Boeing was taken aback by the public criticism. After all, one company official noted, "the lobbying effort was common practice and the only atypical thing about it was having it on public display…" (Washington Post, 10/27).
Something Even Bigger than Boeing’s Profits?
The lease plan involved a lot of Enron-like financial shenanigans. According to the Post, "It is a first in a series of big leases the Pentagon is contemplating, all of which push costs into the future."
The bosses’ foreign policy establishment is highly critical of Bush & Co. for not winning the U.S. working class to the need to sacrifice "blood and treasure" for U.S. imperialism. Mid-East wars for oil domination are critical, they reason, and can’t be done "on the cheap." These lease deals could backfire when the costs balloon in the near future, antagonizing a working class already unsettled by the Iraq quagmire. "Maybe, it’s time to stop trying to run a Bush foreign policy on a Clinton defense budget," warned New York Times columnist David Brooks (10/28).
Best Laid Plans…
In 1996, the ruling class forced McDonnell-Douglas to merge with Boeing after the former sold military technology to the Chinese and tried to virtually give away commercial production to Taiwan for a few bucks just to stay in business. The bosses’ strategists figured a larger, dominant Boeing would resist such temptations for the greater interest of the ruling class. But today, Airbus has surpassed Boeing in commercial production.
Even more frightening to U.S. rulers, Europe, Russia and China are poised to challenge U.S. military aerospace leadership. Russia and France have formed a military aerospace alliance (Aviation Week and Space Technology, 10/13), and the European Commission is pushing military research and development, like the new 400M military cargo plane. China is helping finance the European Global Positioning System (space satellite technology), and sent its first astronaut into orbit, boosting its military ambitions in space.
No longer the unchallenged aerospace giant, Boeing put the fast buck above the longer-range strategic interests of the ruling class with this lease plan. It committed the very "sin" for which the ruling class condemned McDonnell-Douglas. Even the bosses’ best-laid plans flounder as the capitalist crisis sharpens.
Hospital Bosses’ Solution For Un-paid Bills: Jail!
"This concept of debtor’s prison, you read about it in Dickens, but it’s still going on." The former member of the Champaign County, IL. Board of Review was commenting on the arrests of patients for failing to pay hospital bills or appear in court. (All quotes from Wall Street Journal, 10/30) The whole fascist business is called "body attachment" — if you don’t pay your bill, we’ll "attach" your body!
A North Carolina patient advocate said, "If it’s a car or a vacuum cleaner, they will simply repossess it. What do you want them to do? Give the heart valve back?"
Some hospitals now rank among the country’s most aggressive debt collectors. "Hospitals in…Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan and Oklahoma have secured the arrest and even jailing of patients who miss court hearings on their debts." Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, IL., a teaching hospital for the University of Illinois and affiliated with the United Church of Christ, has sought 164 arrest warrants for patients with unpaid bills. Yale-New Haven Hospital, Connecticut’s largest, has obtained 65 arrest warrants for patients missing court hearings.
The pressure is greatest on the 43.6 million people with no health insurance. They are charged more than insured patients who get discounted rates through HMO’s, private insurers and government agencies. Add mounting interest on unpaid debt and court costs, and it is impossible for patients to either pay for, or even obtain, decent health care.
As the hospital industry increasingly becomes a profit-making operation, it uses the bosses’ government, police and courts to profit off those already desperate and drive them into grinding poverty. Taking these profits out of healthcare can only happen in a communist society, run by workers to provide for our collective needs.
A TALE OF TWO
‘MEDICAL ARRESTS’
Kara Atteberry, a single uninsured mother who worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1998, was subjected to a "body attachment" order from Carle Foundation hospital for a medical debt of $1,514. Nine months pregnant, "I was freaking out. I didn’t want to go into labor when they arrested me." So she turned herself in and was jailed while her $250 bail payment was being processed.
She was served with another warrant for a bill from a miscarriage. Again, she turned herself in after working her shift in a local pizzeria because she didn’t want to be arrested in front of her two daughters. Jailed until making bail, the court pressured her into accepting payment terms she couldn’t afford, including an order not to spend her tax-refund money! The judge summoned her back but she didn’t go, fearing "the whole hounding process" would start all over again.
The CFO of Provena Covenant, a Catholic hospital that was a party to her arrest, said her "treatment…was consistent with general practices in the industry." (Wall Street Journal, 10/30)
Marlin Bushman, a truck driver in Champaign-Urbana, Il., is a diabetic who has sought care for his wife and three sons at Carle Foundation Hospital. At times he had health insurance that didn’t meet his total bill. At other times he had no coverage. In 1998, Carle sued him for a $579 unpaid bill. At a court hearing he agreed to pay within a month. After failing to make the payment, he missed another court appointment because he didn’t want to lose a day’s pay. On June 13, 2000, his teenage son was picked up for "violating curfew." When the cops brought him home, his last name triggered an alert about his father’s outstanding arrest warrant. They arrested him while his wife Diane tried to borrow $250 to pay the $2,500 bail. She remembered thinking, "You bring home my son and take away my husband." Despite being paid thousands of dollars, Carle still wanted that $579.
N.Y. City Workers Need General Strike
NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 29 — Tonight thousands of angry city workers in AFSCME’s District Council 37 rallied at City Hall park chanting for a decent contract now. The last one, involving 125,000 current and 50,000 retired city workers, expired June 30. The workers are enraged about 5,000 layoffs last year (although that city fiscal year ended with a $100 million surplus) and the threat of still more layoffs to come. They’re furious that their stagnant wages can’t pay for soaring city taxes, medical costs, transit fares, bridge tolls, etc. The racist city bosses think they can get away with these attacks because a great majority of the city workers are black and Latin.
They’re part of at least 37 states and countless cities facing budget crises because billions are financing the bosses’ wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their Homeland Security fascism here in the guise of a "war on terror." In part, it’s caused by the bosses’ drive to lower labor costs to meet economic challenges from capitalist rivals abroad.
Tonight union leaders said we must rely on "friends in high places." DC37 executive director Lillian Roberts trotted out every Democratic Party office-holder she could find to promise us a "fair" contract. This diverts workers from relying on the direct power of the working class. Neither Municipal Labor Committee chairperson Randi Weingarten nor NYC Central Labor Council chairperson Brian Mcloughlin called for a general strike of all city workers which put up a real fight for a decent wage increase and stop givebacks and layoffs. Only one union speaker in a two-hour rally mentioned the war in Iraq and the latest $87 billion to continue it. The rally served to let off steam and make workers think these labor fakers were fighting for workers’ interests. B.S. rallies with empty slogans that lead nowhere are the hallmark of these pro-capitalist traitors.
As communists participate in these daily struggles, we strive to explain how the system works and what must done to overthrow it. Today, the potential power and unity of NYC workers could really challenge Mayor Bloomberg’s plans. To realize this potential, we must build Progressive Labor Party and spread its communist ideas via CHALLENGE among city workers. This will sharpen the class struggle against city bosses and bring communist revolution that much closer.
Rank and File Storm Bosses’ Office, Reverse Sub-contracting
On September 30th, a group of environmental service workers at a Brooklyn hospital representing the day and evening shifts, stormed into the director’s office demanding that sub-contracting cease immediately. These workers toil every day to keep a safe and clean environment for patients in crowded wards. They are on the front lines in the fight to prevent the spread of hospital-borne infections. With staffing cutbacks, the floors and hallways are not being maintained. So the bosses turned to subcontractors.
A worker related this story: Some workers informed him that the director of environmental services had hired a sub-contractor, who in turn hired non-union workers to maintain and clean areas within the hospital. In this department, union workers’ hourly wages are $15 to $16 plus benefits. A sub-contractor pays $6/hour — a real profit grab for the bosses.
The worker discovered that the director had changed the assignments of the union workers, saying it was "due to staffing issues on the evening shift." One worker aggressively challenged his reasoning and decision about sub-contracting, saying it was unacceptable; that he would discuss the problem with the director’s boss and, if necessary, with the Personnel department. The director replied he would "need a day to resolve the problem."
However, the workers secretly planned a counter-attack. Later, learning that the director had lied to them, their anger got their adrenaline flowing. The next day, workers from both evening and day shifts assembled and, chanting "No sub-contracting," stormed into the bosses’ office. The director and his boss were totally shocked. Ultimately, they caved in to the workers’ demands.
This small victory is not the end of sub-contracting. The bosses will go to any length to maximize their profits. The workers can learn from this struggle — by moving more workers into the fight against capitalism, the root cause of the problem.
The hospital management knows that competition in the healthcare industry impels hospitals to minimize the number of workers they employ, driving smaller ones to close, creating a huge pool of unemployed workers and reaping greater profits for the bosses. That’s how capitalism works.
The close collaboration between the Local 1199/SEIU union leadership with the hospital bosses and politicians has resulted in a flood of per diem workers and agency workers, skilled and unskilled, in the healthcare industry. While their wages are slightly above a union worker’s, they receive no benefits, sick time or vacations and must pay for their own health insurance. Once again, the healthcare bosses save millions. Class unity between union and non-union workers is a must to answer this attack.
Expanding these struggles to a fight against capitalism can develop a mass base for communist ideas and provide fertile ground for recruiting to the Party.
Jobless ‘Recovery’ KOs Everlast Workers
BRONX, N.Y., Nov. 1 — "I’ve given all my life here and I’m leaving with nothing in my hands," declared Gina Ynsante, 46, a shop steward who is losing her job at Everlast after 30 years. "My husband isn’t working right now and I have a $520-a-month car payment. I don’t know how I’m going to make it."
Don’t tell these Everlast workers about the 7% 3rd quarter growth in the economy. The world’s largest manufacturer of boxing equipment landed a knockout punch on its 100 mostly immigrant workers, kicking them out in the street by closing its factory here and "absorbing" the work in its Missouri plant. That 7% "growth" rate saw over 50,000 more jobs lost in the third quarter, so the only thing growing for workers is the length of the unemployment lines.
Xiomara Lopez, 51, with 12 years at Everlast, worries about finding another job. "Everybody here lives paycheck to paycheck," she says. "We’re mostly poor people."
Everlast’s CEO says, "This move is really a very good thing for the company financially," a necessary step to save $2.8 million a year and satisfy shareholders. (N.Y. Daily News, 11/1) So the 100 workers, mostly from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Ecuador, are left with 2 or 3 weeks severance pay, not much when earning $8 to $12 an hour.
Meanwhile, the Everlast workers in Moberly, Missouri — who make even less than the Bronx workers — will be working a lot harder, with no new hiring, to "absorb" the production of the closed Bronx plant. That’s how the bosses maintain profits — on the backs of workers.
This is part of the larger attack on the working class caused by the current capitalist crisis. Productivity is up — fewer workers working harder — while the "jobless recovery" marches on. Three million jobs lost in three years, and counting, adding to the nearly 20 million unemployed.
As long as there’s a profit system, the bosses will move production to wherever they can make the most bucks. The only solution for the working class is to deliver the knockout blow to capitalism: kick out the bosses and establish workers rule — communism.
Rap Rulers’ Delight:
Super-exploitation and Profits
Hip hop producer and boss Sean ("P Diddy") Combs had more than marathon woes this week. The owner of Sean Jean clothing had to deal with accusations of horrible working conditions in a Honduran plant that produces his clothing.
Lydda Eli Gonzalez, a garment worker, charged that the factory making Sean Jean clothing, Southeast Textiles, grossly underpays its workers. She was fired for trying to unionize workers there, fighting the daily body searches, contaminated drinking water and 11- to 12-hour shifts. Workers received only 15 cents per completed shirt that they sell at major retail stores for about $40. Others have charged that female workers were given mandatory pregnancy tests; those who tested positive were fired. Gonzalez also said workers were allowed only two timed toilet breaks a day!
P Diddy and his partners claim regular inspections take place and that they’re investigating all the accusations.
The Hip Hop ruling class — Sean Combs, Russell Simmons (head of Def Jam Records) and Andre Harrell (CEO of Uptown Entertainment) — has made millions off the sweat and blood of others. According to the Recording Industry Association of America 2000 consumer profile, rap music is a $1.8 billion industry. Like good capitalists, these rap entrepreneurs had to expand their power and wealth beyond the music industry. These three (as well as others) have made an industry out of the commodification of black working-class culture.
Sean Jean Clothing’s only reason for manufacturing in Honduras is the low wages there. The Associated Press reported that the minimum wage in Honduras is 55¢ an hour. The owner of Southeast Textiles proudly claimed his workers are paid "better" than that: 90¢ an hour!
Well, Sean Combs’ company has run all the way to the bank by super-exploiting workers both here in the U.S. as well as in Latin America. It made over $25 million in 1999 and over $100 million in 2000. Combs’ worth now in 2003 is nearly half a billion dollars. Kaching!
His isn’t the only hip hop company making clothing at Southeast. Roca-wear, co-founded by rapper Jay Z and producer Damon Dash, also produces its line there. Roca-wear, coincidentally, is jointly owned by Russell Simmons who manufactures Phat Farm clothing as well.
Politically, these rap rulers have proclaimed liberal politics and claim to speak for legions of black working-class youth. Combs ran in the 2003 New York City Marathon to raise money ($2 million) for these youth. But actions speak louder than words. Like all good capitalists, they seek the cheapest labor to produce their goods, in effect lowering the wages of black, Latin and white workers here in the U.S. (See page 1 article on racism.) Then they smack us in the face by charging $40 a shirt. These bosses are no friends to the working class anywhere in the world.
(Information from: Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music; Edited by Norman Kelly; Akachic Books)
NY Times Uses Nazi Anti-Red Lies to Recall Pulitzer Prize
The bosses claim communism is dead, so "dead" they must continue to slander and bury it. Joseph Stalin remains the main target of their vilification. Dead more than 50 years, he is still the man upon whom they love to heap abuse.
During the Cold War, the U.S. government propaganda machine identified Stalin as a monster equal to Hitler. During the McCarthy period, apologists for the profit system coined new words like "totalitarianism" to equate communism with fascism. After Stalin’s death, the rulers said he was "worse" than Hitler. They summoned squadrons of scribblers to invent wild fables about the numbers of Soviet workers and peasants whom Stalin supposedly murdered. These lies pass for official history in many school and college textbooks.
The lies serve the present interests of U.S. imperialism. But although the rulers always hated Stalin and communism, they didn’t always push these fictions. In fact, the Roosevelt administration entered into a tactical alliance with the Soviet Union after Hitler had double-crossed his imperialist pals in Europe at the beginning of World War II. The U.S. was one of 17 countries to invade the infant Soviet Union in 1919, causing the deaths of 4½ million Russians — trying to "strangle the infant in its cradle," as the arch-imperialist Winston Churchill vainly boasted. But in the 1930’s U.S. and UK bosses decided Hitler was a major danger to their interests. (Ford, Charles Lindbergh and a good chunk of the UK Royals had been pushing for an alliance with the Führer). Finally, in June 1944, realizing the Red Army might beat Hitler all by itself, the U.S. and U.K. invaded Nazi Occupied Western Europe.
To prepare the way for this tactical alliance, the anti-Hitler U.S. bosses allowed some of their most prominent diplomats and journalists to write somewhat objectively about the Soviet Union of the 1930s. Books like Ambassador Joseph Davies’ "Mission to Moscow" told the truth about the "purge trials" of the 1930s, namely that the people whom Stalin had put on trial were indeed guilty of conspiring to destroy Soviet socialism in secret alliance with Hitler and the Nazis. The most prominent journalist who wrote about the Soviet Union then was Walter Duranty of the New York Times. Duranty had no love for communism. A British citizen, he always voted liberal. But he objectively described the prodigious achievements of socialist construction in Russia, and he wrote about the extraordinary accomplishments and political commitment of Stalin and his closest associates, Molotov, Voroshilov, Zhukhov and others.
Now, many years after his death, Duranty is receiving the same vilification treatment as Stalin. A campaign, led by the same Ukrainian nationalists that fought on the Nazis’ side and right-wing scribblers in the U.S., is under way to revoke the Pulitzer Prize he won in 1932 for his reports on the USSR. His greatest supposed "crime"? Minimizing the number of deaths due to malnutrition in the Ukraine during 1932-3.
In fact, Duranty never denied that some, perhaps as many as a million, starved during this period. After World War II, he wrote: "1932 was a year of famine in Russia..." Duranty knew, as Mao Zedong once wrote, that "revolution is not a tea party." But the figure of "10 million dead" in the Ukraine is a hoax, perpetrated then by pro-Hitler groups of Ukrainian nationalists and perpetuated today by their contemporary descendants, as well as by anti-communist shill Robert Conquest, whose CIA links have long been established.
In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, CHALLENGE published a series of exhaustive articles debunking the lies of the Ukrainian nationalist-Conquest axis. We quoted evidence cited by many prominent scholars, including anti-communists, which exposed Conquest’s figures as "rubbish." Yet as recently as November 2, the Times continued to cite Conquest as gospel. The Times editors would apparently happily sacrifice Duranty’s reputation on the altar of anti-communism.
This orgy of hypocrisy about the so-called "starvation" policy of the world’s first socialist regime hides the unspeakable conditions contemporary imperialism foists upon the vast majority of the world’s workers. A billion live on the equivalent of $1 a day; two billion others on $2. Even Conquest’s inflated falsehoods pale before the true horror of the millions of deaths caused each year by the profit system’s economic crimes. And these murders don’t include the butcheries committed by capitalism in its wars for power and profit.
As we’ve written elsewhere, Stalin and the movement he led made many errors. But he, and it, helped our class achieve some of its greatest triumphs. We can learn from and build upon these triumphs. Despite many weaknesses, Walter Duranty’s books and articles provide useful insight into this crucial period of working class history. We must not fall for today’s anti-communist slanders against Stalin. We can still learn much from him, and a great deal of it is available in Duranty’s well-written prose.
(Next issue: how, on Nov. 7, 1917, the Bolsheviks led workers to power, marking the most important event of the 20th Century for the world’s workers; and how the Stalin leadership rebuilt the USSR after the devastation caused by the Nazi invasion and led the fight against the rise of U.S. imperialism as the leading imperialist world power.)
CHALLENGE: 40 Years of Communist Journalism
CHALLENGE is entering its 40th year as a revolutionary communist newspaper voicing the interests of the international working class. The paper was born in the summer of 1964 during the Harlem Rebellion, the first of the many anti-racist anti-cop-brutality uprisings that shook major U.S. cities in the 1960s and early ’70s. J Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s wannabe Führer, accused PL of leading the rebellion. The Harlem rebels flashed a PL poster as their banner, titled "Gilligan the Cop, Wanted for Murder." Racist Cop Gilligan had killed James Powell, a 15-year-old black Harlem youth. Several PL members were arrested and sentenced to prison, accused of leading that rebellion.
During those early years, CHALLENGE and the Progressive Labor Movement (PLM, forerunner of the Progressive Labor Party) led another major struggle to smash Congress’s fascist House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the Homeland Security gang of that time. HUAC was a witch-hunting outfit which for years had destroyed the lives of many decent people, accusing them of being "Reds" and "Moscow agents."
PL-Led Trip to Cuba Broke JFK’s State Department Ban
The first confrontation occurred in 1963. The N.Y. Times reported: "Current investigations by the grand jury in Brooklyn and the House Un-American Activities Committee involve travel to Cuba in defiance of a State Department ban. Mr. Rosen [a PLM leader] says nine of the 58 students who made the eight-week trip this summer were PL members…"
Traveling to Cuba then was a real political defiance of the Kennedy administration, which had just declared a embargo on the island and, it was later revealed, was trying to assassinate Fidel Castro, including using Mafia hit-men. Ironically, the chickens came home to roost when later that year JFK himself was murdered by the same kinds of forces he used to attack Cuba.
"More than 500 students had contacted PL to join with us in defying the State Dept. travel ban.…75 were selected to go by the PL-led Ad Hoc Committee to Travel to Cuba. An official invitation was secured from the Cuban Federation of University Students." (History of PLP, PL Magazine, August-Sept. 1975). Many opportunists in the phony left labeled us "crazy adventurists" for trying to break the ban.
When Canadian authorities denied the request to fly via that country, we announced our next route to be through Mexico, knowing full-well the FBI and, CIA, would try to stop us. But the real plan was to travel to Prague in Europe and then on to Cuba. That tactic worked. When the young travelers returned to NYC, their passports were declared invalid.
PL’ers who led the trip faced up to 20 years in jail. PLM then decided the best defense was to take the offensive. Another trip was organized. Over 1,000 applied to go; 84 were chosen. The State Dept. was taken aback. A fight went all the way to the Supreme Court and the charges were dropped. The ban on travel to Cuba was broken.
The next confrontation with HUAC occurred in Buffalo, N.Y. in April 1964 where the witch-hunters were ostensibly holding hearings on the activities of "new communist organizations," but were really trying to drive us out of basic industries. Again, PL members took the offensive. "Some 200…picketed outside the courthouse," reported the N.Y. Times (4/30/64). "Tonight’s fourth and last witness, identified as Tobias Schwartz, was dragged from the hearing room. He had walked up to a table, picked up a microphone and screamed: ‘Is this table bugged?’ Then he charged that the committee was illegal. Four marshals seized him and he slammed the microphone on the table as he was hauled away.
"His wife, Helen, who had been called earlier…as a witness, jumped up…and shouted several times, ‘Leave him alone!’" HUAC’s intimidation failed once again.
The final confrontation occurred in Washington, D.C. in 1966 after the PLM had become the Progressive Labor Party. PL was called to HUAC hearings "investigating" opponents to the bosses’ invasion of Vietnam. Again, instead of cowering in front of these fascists and "refusing to answer by taking the 5th amendment," PL members openly declared that they were communists and denounced HUAC as a fascist group.
While hundreds picketed outside the hearings, marshals dragged a PLP leader out of the session as he shouted, "U.S. imperialism get out of Vietnam!" His picture hit every front page in the country. This action effectively ended HUAC; soon afterwards Congress dissolved it as a House committee, although its witch-hunting would become the forerunner of the present Homeland Security mob.
LETTERS
Overconsuming Capitalist Ideas?
I read every issue of your paper online and usually I agree with most of what you say. But I strongly DISAGREE with the article "Environmentalism, A Communist Perspective A Capitalist Nightmare" (10/22). It claimed to offer a "communist" perspective on environmentalism, but basically was a rehash of bourgeois "voluntary simplicity." The author seemed to think that workers consume too much, and working-class consumption and standards of living have to be reduced to save the ecology.
Worse yet, the hyperlinks attached to the article were to mainstream bourgeois environmentalist groups, that basically advocated what might be called "green consumerism" — that is, buying higher-priced goods that supposedly are "good for the environment."
Now, of course, in the real world, the REAL problem is NOT "over-consumption" but the fact that workers DO NOT CONSUME ENOUGH. Just go to any ghetto or barrio and you’ll see people who can’t afford to eat the right foods, people who don’t get dental care or eyeglasses or prescription medicines because they can’t afford them, and all the other myriad ways in which this system prevents workers from getting enough of what they need.
And beyond the United States, literally hundreds of millions of workers and farmers die because they can’t even get basic needs like running water and refrigeration.
So, honestly, what in the blue hell is this comrade talking about when he/she says that, under communism "individual consumption levels will decrease"?!
Are you guys trying to advocate a starvation version of barracks room communism? I sure as hell hope not...
GB, New York City
Anti-War Marchers Can’t Rely on UN, Democrats
On October 25, a group of us involved in our church social action activities and a neighborhood anti-war group held a march and rally of about 60 people demanding an end to the war and occupation of Iraq. It coincided with the one in Washington and grew out of a discussion we had been having on the nature and history of imperialism. It was a spirited march, with chants and songs. Many cars honked their support. Hundreds of leaflets were distributed.
One highlight was a speech linking the U.S./Iraqi war with inter-imperialist rivalry among the U.S., Europe and Asia. Another speaker felt our predominantly white group should be more integrated and anti-racist, and that our next rally should go to the nearby black community.
Unfortunately, the demonstration’s mass line was weak. It called on the United Nations to rebuild Iraq and relied on electoral politics and the Democratic Party in the struggle against imperialism. However, we did bring out a group of people familiar with PLP and CHALLENGE, and with our belief that only communist revolution can defeat imperialism. In the future, we must rely more on such friends to guarantee that PLP’s ideas are front and center in these actions.
October 25th Marcher
Racism Is No Joke
"Tough Crowd" is a daily program on Comedy Central, a cable TV station owned by Disney-ABC. It’s an example of how what passes for "humor" has become increasingly disgusting and a reflection of a racist/fascist society. Colin Quinn, who used to play a "Brooklyn working-class Irish guy" on Saturday Night Live, hosts this show. It gathers a group of comedians to discuss current events. The comments of Quinn and the comedians are racist, pro-war, sexist and generally disgusting. Supposedly all of these things are acceptable because the comedians include some blacks, Latinos, women and gays.
For example, recent comments on the Kobe Bryant incident not only included how the woman "asked for it," but also that Bryant was applauded during his first appearance at an LA game after the incident because "California is controlled by minorities." When the panel was asked about a recent demonstration against NBC-TV protesting a Law and Order SVU episode which referred to Dominicans as "animals," the panel attacked the demonstrators. The black and Latino comedians usually respond to the racist comments by Quinn and the white comedians by attacking all whites, or even attacking blacks and Latinos themselves.
All comments seem to wind up attacking blacks and Latinos, particularly the young people. All the comedians supported the war in Iraq. Some called for the elimination of all Muslims.
Comedy Central began as a "hip" cable network to give comics free reign. It has become a toilet. Programs like "The Man Show" are all based on degrading women. "The Daily Show", a spoof on the networks’ nightly news programs, has also become very reactionary. South Park, a supposedly hip adult children’s cartoon, is full of conservative, reactionary ideas.
Cable TV indeed has become another cesspool of a decadent system which considers degrading human beings as "funny."
Rex Red
Freedom Riders
Discuss The
Long Road Ahead
Often we think about struggles as strikes, walkouts, meetings, study groups, etc. But struggle can also be waged in social events, even if they’re not Party events.
Recently everyone who traveled on the same bus on the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride came to a party and many brought friends. We celebrated our new friendship and the road of struggle we’re building together. There was good food, drinks, and many pictures reminding us of the week we spent with each other. But there were also discussions about the road ahead. Most of these young people had never heard our ideas, other than half-truths and lies. They were very impressed by the fact that there is still a communist movement. Several took CHALLENGE so we decided to organize a study group.
Someone said political work should be done with urgency and patience. I think I’m learning that lesson. The road to communism is paved by working-class people joining together to build the mass movement that will destroy the capitalist system. That road will be built by millions of class-conscious people joining the working-class party, the communist PLP. The road to communism looks bright.
Red Rider
‘Dream Act’:
A Military Recruiter
In the article titled, " Freedom Rider Challenges Hack's Pro-War Patriotism" 10/22) the rider said: "There were fourteen nationalities trying to get the Student Adjustment Act/ Dream Act passed," implying this is a spontaneous grass roots project, but the opposite is true.
The Dream Act (also known as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) is sponsored by Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Act would grant legal status to teenagers with five years in the country, have a high school diploma and no criminal record. It would also make it easier for undocumented students to pay the lower in-state tuition at state universities. The bill has the support of 36 senators, including 12 Republicans.
Obviously this bill is a pet project of the liberal rulers who are trying to win immigrants, and especially their children, to feel welcome here, to develop the gratitude and loyalty that would inspire them to fight and die defending U.S. imperialism. Many who would get legal status would go straight into the military. College graduates could then lead organizations and public institutions, and win immigrants and others to have confidence in the bosses' government, especially in Homeland Security. Who better to lead immigrant soldiers into battle than the officers graduated from these institutions? War and fascism is the bosses' only agenda. Electoral politics is a big part of achieving both.
The rider also says, "We talked with congressmen about legalization, etc…" Obviously, the caravan went to Capitol Hill, but there's no mention of the caravan leaders' treachery for having taken the riders to the den of the greatest terrorists and mass killers in history to have amicable discussions. This should have been used as more proof that the caravan sponsors-unions, churches, student and community organizations - are consciously helping the U.S. liberal rulers win support for their imperialist wars and their brand of fascism, while keeping us trapped in their electoral circus.
We should work inside these mass organizations to recruit to the Party and expose the liberal bosses and their patriotic fascist agenda.
A comrade
Is National Health Plan the Solution?
The LA grocery and transit strikes center on rising health care costs the bosses are shifting onto workers. Kent Wong, head of UCLA’s Labor Strategy Center says the only solution is a government-paid national health plan. Some Democrats say something similar. It sounds good, but is it?
First, as CHALLENGE has shown, the bosses want to improve the health of potential soldiers so they’re fit to serve in the military, as well as the health of workers in war plants. But in this period of permanent wars for oil profits, a national health plan will ration health care, with some care for those deemed necessary for the war economy and from less to none for all others. Some union contracts already provide that a national health plan would cancel workers’ health insurance, saving employers like GM, GE and Boeing billons in coverage of retirees and current workers.
California Red
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)
Liberals helped US into war
The Iraq Liberation Act, signed into law by President Clinton [was] a piece of legislation that made regime change in Iraq the official policy of the United States. (NYT, 11/2)
Capitalism can’t fill needs
There is enough land to grow the staples for the world population and to provide a mixed diet — fruit and vegetables and some meat — which delivers our nutritional requirements. But there is not enough global capacity to support a population whose eating habits are being pushed by commerce towards ever greater consumption of meat….
So why do we farm so perversely? Because everything in agriculture, as elsewhere, is translated into money. Efficiency is measured in cash terms, and livestock are a way of making more money out of staples….
Other concerns — social, moral — do not even get onto the balance sheet, because you cannot measure them in cash terms. (GW, 10/8)
US no help to Afghan women
Afghan women still face shocking patterns of rape, domestic violence, forced marriage and the routine denial of justice, with the international community failing to protect them in the two years since the Taliban regime ended, according to Amnesty International….
The US, Britain and other foreign governments have also done little to promote better standards….
The report paints a picture of women being treated as chattel, which long predates the Taliban. (GW, 10/15)
US suicides high in Iraq
One anomaly in the casualty list is a high rate of suicide among the military in Iraq compared with the troops in Vietnam. This does not square with reports that say morale is good in Iraq….
On average, American soldiers are attacked 30 times a day across Iraq. (NYT, 11/2)
Biz success = robbing workers
Wal-Mart has already helped push more than two dozen national supermarket chains into bankruptcy….And unionized supermarket workers feat that Wal-Mart’s invasion will…pull…down their wages and benefits, which, taken together, are more than 50% higher than those of Wal-Mart workers. At Wal-Mart, the average wage is about $8.50 and hour, compared with $13 at unionized supermarkets….
A big savings for Wal-Mart comes in health care, where Wal-Mart pays 30% less for coverage for each insured worker than the industry average. An estimated 40% of employees are not covered. (NYT, 10/19)
Typical democracy a cruel flop
Guatemala’s Gen. Efrain Rios Montt … waged a scorched-earth campaign, ostensibly directed against leftist guerrillas, and engaged in hundreds of massacres of rural Mayan Indians
Twenty years later the general….is a candidate in Sunday’s election….
In Guatemala, as elsewhere in Latin America, criminals and mafiosos have found in "democracy" the perfect Trojan horse for attaining and preserving real power inside essentially hijacked states…."At the end of the 1970’s, the army established a new organization…which,…with complete impunity, dedicated itself to assaulting Guatemalans."
….The army’s power is based on organized crime….
What chance, then, can "democracy" really have in Guatemala….Guatemala isn’t the only place….How can it succeed elsewhere? (NYT, 11/3)
Organize to revolt, not to vote
Bolivians…tend to take to the streets rather than write to their MR [Congressman]. Experience has taught them that governments give them little that the people have not wrested by force…. (GW, 11/5)
Million of US youth: no future
Chicago…is roughly representative of conditions in other major urban areas….And 22% of all Chicago residents between the ages of 16 and 24 are both out of school and out of work….
They hustle, doing what they can — much of it illegal — to get along. Some are homeless….
An incredible 45% of black men in Chicago aged 20 to 24 are out of work and out of school….
Among…immediate effects of this disconnect from both educational experience and the labor market are increased rates of crime, drug use and gang membership. Among the less obvious but most tragic effects is the failure of healthy young men and women to realize their potential to live satisfying, constructive lives. (NYT, 10/20)
No poverty: ‘bad’ kids turn good
New research that coincided with the opening of an Indian casino may…suggest that lifting children out of poverty can diminish some psychiatric symptoms….
Rates of deviant behaviors, the study noted, declined as incomes rose….
As time went on, the children were less inclined to stubbornness, temper tantrums, stealing, bullying and vandalism….
After four years, the rate of such behavior had dropped to the same levels found among children whose families had never been poor. (NYT, 10/21)
a href="#AFL-CIO’s ‘New Strategy’ Apes Hitler’s Unions">AFL-CI"’s ‘New Strategy’ Apes Hitler’s Unions
To Fight Fascism, Terminate Lesser Evil Politics
Grocery, Transit Strikers Battle Over Health Cuts, Give-backs
a href="#Talkin’ the Talk and Walkin’ the Walk on the MTA Picket Lines">Ta"kin’ the Talk and Walkin’ the Walk on the MTA Picket Lines
Garment Workers Back LA Strikers
Rotten Auto Contracts Betray Future Generations
Miners March With Dynamite: One Down, A Whole System to Go
a href="#Workers’ Anger Rising in Auto Plants">"orkers’ Anger Rising in Auto Plants
Boeing Workers Fed Up With Pro-Boss Rallies
March Against Domestic Violence
Environmentalism: A Communist Perspective, Part Three:
Molotov Remembers Anti-Revolutionaries in Soviet Union
Soviet Defeat of Japan in 1939 Shaped World War 2
Capitalism Breeds Unemployment: 22 Million Jobs Lost Worldwide
LETTERS
a name="AFL-CIO’s ‘New Strategy’ Apes Hitler’s Unions"></a>AF"-CIO’s ‘New Strategy’ Apes Hitler’s Unions
The British Union of Fascists, in its short definition of fascism, declared, "We believe in the co-operation of all classes, in the solidarity of all units of a nation, and in justice. And in the mystery of patriotism." ("The Blackshirt," No. 34, 1933)
United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger, at the conclusion of the contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers and their parts-maker spin-offs, said, "Since the start of these negotiations, one of our goals has been to bring this industry together." (New York Times, 8/20)
United Auto Workers (UAW) contracts with the Big Three automakers set the pattern for major manufacturing contracts throughout the nation. One of every 10 jobs in the U.S. is auto-related. This fall the New York Times declared that the UAW negotiations signaled a "new strategy" for labor. "Even corporate executives are acknowledging that labor’s first concern has changed from demanding more…to making sure that companies survive," the Times reported.
Unions at G.M., Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Delphi, Visteon, Goodyear and Verizon have all agreed to a wage freeze. Hundreds of thousands of industrial workers have seen their plants sold or spun off, and wages cut drastically. Last spring, the UAW agreed to cut hourly wages from $26 to $16 when DaimlerChrysler sold an auto-parts plant to Metalydyne. Knowing a good thing when they see it, Metaldyne agreed to allow the UAW to organize their ten remaining non-union parts plants.
Even worse, 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last three years, hitting black workers in auto, steel, aerospace and textiles especially hard. This has led to a widening of the wage gap between black and white workers, and increased the poverty rate among black workers at more than twice the rate of their white brothers and sisters.
"They’re like sharks that smell blood in the water," observed a Boeing Machinist, referring to the industrial bosses. "No amount of concessions will satisfy them." Alan Mulally, Boeing’s Commercial Airlines chief, said Washington State’s business climate still "sucked," even after the state, with the union’s blessing, cut unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation, and gave Boeing a $3.2 billion tax break. David Groves, of the Washington State Labor Council, thinks Mulally’s broadside is part of a campaign to gut what is left of workers’ comp. "Unions are still not giving up enough to make their employers truly competitive in the global market," threatens the New York Times.
A Labor Strategy for Constant War
The leaders of the major industrial unions have always served the bosses’ interests. Their "new strategy" reflects the increasing challenges to U.S. industrial leadership. U.S. rulers aim to maintain their imperialist dominance through the control of Mid-East oil, a strategic resource. This requires unending wars, like the occupation of Iraq.
Two keys to continuing this bloodbath are the control of industrial workers and soldiers. These two groups, where black and Latin workers are concentrated with white workers, can also spearhead our liberation from this racist, imperialist nightmare.
After World War II, the union leaders maintained their control over us by delivering economic crumbs. Simultaneously, the bosses used their government, laws, cops and courts to persecute communists and other anti-racist, class-conscious opponents.
Now that financing endless wars is the priority, and Europe and Asia are challenging U.S supremacy, even the crumbs have been taken off the table. Today, the main role of the union leaders is to win us to class-collaboration and nationalism, paving the way for even sharper attacks. So the UAW "give[s] the automakers a green light to shut 12 assembly plants" and calls it a plan to save jobs (New York Times, 8/20).
Historical Precedent
This "new" strategy is not really new. In March 1933, as fascism began in Nazi Germany, the German unions declared, "The trade unions are fully prepared, even beyond the field of wages and working conditions, to enter into permanent co-operation with the employers’ organizations."
British communist R. Palme Dutt wrote, in "Fascism and Social Revolution":
"The whole propaganda and line of [the pro-capitalist union misleaders] confused, weakened and battered down the class-conscious socialist outlook of those workers under its influence, prevented the spread of revolutionary Marxist understanding, fostered semi-fascist conceptions of nationalism, imperialism and class collaboration, and thus left the masses an easy prey to fascism."
Fascism doesn’t emerge out of the blue. The bosses and their labor lieutenants who lead the industrial unions will try to maintain the traditional organizational forms of liberal "democracy," but with a more pro-imperialist, nationalist, class-collaborationist essence.
Historical Responsibility
To repeat the mistakes of the past would be unforgivable. We must answer "labor’s new strategy" with a renewed commitment to anti-racist class struggle, exposing the industrial union leaders’ betrayal of the working class at every turn. Every union meeting, strike or grievance on the shop floor, every campaign involving our fellow workers provides another opportunity to build a revolutionary communist outlook among industrial workers. We must let no opportunity pass to expose the racist, capitalist system and its inevitable drive to war and fascism.
Class struggle combined with patient base-building and increased ideological debate, spurred on by the increased circulation of CHALLENGE, can build a mass base for PLP. The fight will be long and hard, but revolution is inevitable. Armed with revolutionary communist ideas, black, Latin and white workers can sweep labor’s "new strategy" into the dustbin of history, and fulfill our historic mission to smash the bosses’ endless wars and racist exploitation with communist revolution. Start today! Read and discuss CHALLENGE articles on industrial workers.
To Fight Fascism, Terminate Lesser Evil Politics
On October 11, many Californians voted for either Davis or Schwarzenegger out of the belief that their choice represented the lesser evil. But both candidates have solid evil credentials.
The winner, Schwarzenegger, came from former governor Pete Wilson’s anti-immigrant camp. He is sexist, has ties to Nazis and was very friendly with Enron and the energy barons who milked California of $9 billion. But Davis also took Enron money, voted for de-regulation and cut many vital programs. Those who voted against either Schwarzenegger or Davis as a vote against fascism seemed to be saying, "If fascism is capitalism without the democratic mask, let’s keep the mask!"
The capitalist rulers use elections to fight out their tactical differences. For the working class, elections are an "empowerment" gimmick to make workers feel they’re part of the decision-making process. Yet their voting has no bearing on strategic decisions, which are made by capital in the privacy of their board rooms, carefully shielded from public scrutiny. Elections cannot stop the drive towards war and fascism because they cannot solve the capitalist structural problems of declining profit rates, overproduction, increased competition, exploitation and war. Fascism is capitalism in this acute crisis.
The Democrats’ lesser-evil claim — to stop or slow the drive towards war and fascism — was exposed in this election. Aligning with them is aligning with one of the major forces ushering in war and fascism. Lesser evilism presents class enemies as friends. After all, it was Clinton who killed welfare and bombed Yugoslavia, commanded by current Democratic candidate General Wesley Clark.
In a recent pre-election forum, we presented these views and noted that the U.S. ruling class’s response to 9/11 brought it closer to a point of no alternative other than war abroad against its competitors and fascism at home.
Many students at the forum largely agreed. Several left with bunches of CHALLENGES. Some older adults thought Democrats would help workers and minorities. We replied that capitalism in crisis has less and less carrots for workers, mostly sticks. Some thought multilateralists were better than unilateralists. Someone else reasoned that if you’re an Iraqi, there’s no difference in being shot at by one army or several armies.
The Democrats’ program includes cutbacks, prison construction (their $40 billion baby), the Hart-Rudman Commission’s Department of Homeland Security, putting more "troops on the ground" in the Middle East, and centralizing health care and energy under the Federal government.
Both major parties favor military mobilization and related domestic repression. No ballot-box strategy can prevent a series of escalating post-Iraq wars. While it’s useful to participate in electoral groups as long as we develop a base exposing the whole system, voting Democrat instead of Republican won’t work because Democrats champion the above program.
The Greens, represented by Nader, favor cutting one-third of the Pentagon budget by eliminating weapons systems which the brass thought were unnecessary. The military’s basic role remains. Similarly, the leading California Green, Peter Camejo, wants to maintain the occupation of Iraq via the UN. He’s silent on the underlying U.S. agenda, oil.
There are two choices for anti-fascists: make peace with a fascist regime or pursue an activist — and ultimately revolutionary communist — approach. We cannot wait for the legal structure of fascism that combines Patriot Acts I with II and an expanded Department of Homeland Security.
Fascism will be defeated by the development of a revolutionary communist party among workers, soldiers, students and others, a massive task, but do-able. "A journey of a thousand miles," our revolutionary Chinese comrades used to say, "begins with a single step." Organize your friends and co-workers with CHALLENGE. Defeat fascism with communist revolution!
Grocery, Transit Strikers Battle Over Health Cuts, Give-backs
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 — The transit and grocery workers’ strikes over the issue of health care are entering their second week. Grocery workers would have to pay 50% more for their health benefits, while MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) management wants mechanics to pay $200 a month more and cut retiree benefits by 75% (the union offered worker payments of $80 more each month, which management rejected)! The bosses also want service workers to do mechanic’s work for $9 an hour less and contract out millions of dollars of work to companies paying poverty wages. In January, MTA plans to increase bus passes by $10 a month. Workers have called these give-backs a "war tax," since transit funds have been cut to pay for the war in Iraq.
When 2,200 ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) mechanics and service attendants struck the third largest transit system in the U.S., they had been without a contract since Sept 30, 2002. About 6,200 transit workers in three different unions are honoring the picket lines. MTA workers are divided into four unions while LA mass transit as a whole is divided into a dozen different locals.
AFL-CIO leaders say they support the strike, but Teamsters are driving for Foothill transit and the Dash lines and other transit company workers are running expanded routes. No worker should be doing the work of the struck MTA. Some rank-and-filers are fighting to unite mechanics and drivers, other transit workers and the riding public. But AFL-CIO union leaders, rather than organizing a city-wide general strike, try to keep us tied to the profit system, and divert us into voting Democrat as the "solution" to these attacks.
Students have been distributing CHALLENGES on the picket lines, along with a PLP leaflet saying, "A system that cannot provide decent health care should be destroyed." We’ve had many sharp and friendly talks with workers about the strike, revolution and communism.
At one location, a General Manager was bragging to a group of workers that he had insulted two PLP students. One worker told him, "You have no right to harass anyone who comes to support our strike." This led to a sharp discussion on the pros and cons of communism.
A supervisor said, "Immigrants come here from all over the world. They don’t go to the communist countries." A worker answered, "If the U.S. is the best, why are there so many homeless and why do workers have to work in terrible conditions like in Wal-Mart with low wages and no benefits?" Another added, "Capitalism in Central and South America and Africa forces the majority of people to live in the worst conditions. The U.S. government has a lot to do with that." The discussion sharpened, appearing to become physical. The manager who started out puffed up left with his mouth closed, knowing that a group of workers rejected his anti-communism. We plan to return with more supporters. We think the strikers will greet us and exchange strike experiences.
At another transit division, a group of students and teachers joined picket lines with signs calling for "Health care for all"; "Don’t raise the bus fare"; and "An attack against workers is an attack against us." Students have been seriously affected by the strike, but see the attack on the workers as an attack on them. The strikers were elated, having many good conversations. One striker wants to keep in touch with PLP.
Winning more workers to become CHALLENGE sellers is one important Party goal in this strike. A Party friend brought another worker to a garment district rally where they distributed over 1,000 leaflets. He’s read CHALLENGE for years and is overcoming his frustration with the passivity of other workers by becoming active in the fight against the transit bosses and capitalism itself.
Another young worker who has come with his friends to May Day marches for the last few years, agreed to talk about the strike to a group at a local college. "I’m not sure about speaking in front of people, but I’ll give it a try." Exactly the right attitude! The same young worker wants to start a study group with some of his friends.
These two strikes have put the issue of health care front and center for workers throughout southern California. Over 43 million workers in the U.S. have no health insurance and the bosses are attacking those who do. Some union leaders call for "national health insurance," but their plan would save billions for the huge steel, auto and other corporations by removing health care costs from their declining profits and shifting it to workers’ taxes. Either way, workers will be getting less while paying more. This racist, imperialist system is in crisis, and will not provide decent health care for workers. Our health and lives depend on building a mass revolutionary communist party.
There seems to be more activity than Party members can handle, a good problem impelling us to rely on more people. We plan to emerge from these strikes with a bigger, more active PLP, more people fighting for workers’ unity, and more people reading and distributing CHALLENGE. Our task is to steer this anger and militancy down the road to communist revolution.
a name="Talkin’ the Talk and Walkin’ the Walk on the MTA Picket Lines"></">Ta"kin’ the Talk and Walkin’ the Walk on the MTA Picket Lines
Student: "We came to show that your fight is our fight and if you lose, we all lose." (He handed the striker a flier and a CHALLENGE.)
Striker: "You’re a communist?"
Student: "Yes. We represent the future of the working class. Capitalism is grinding down the standard of living of the entire working class. Whatever cuts in health care and benefits you suffer, we’ll suffer too."
Another Striker: "You’re right about that. But what does communism have to do with it?"
Student: "You guys are very powerful. You have the power to shut down the whole city."
A third worker: "The government doesn’t have the money to pay health benefits and higher salaries but we at least have to defend what we have."
Student: "Yes, because they are spending billions on war in Iraq. Workers create all value but we don’t control any of it. Imagine committees of workers organizing and deciding everything, what to produce and how — for our own class."
First Striker: "I don’t think that can happen."
Student: "It already happened in Russia and in China. We can learn from their success and their mistakes, see what they did wrong and correct it."
Striker: "That’s going to take a revolution."
Student: "Yeah, and revolution is a long process. It starts in these strikes and in discussions like this."
Garment Workers Back LA Strikers
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 — "If the bosses can attack the transit and grocery workers so hard, what will they do to us?" remarked a garment worker here. "Even though this transit strike is hard on us because we all use public transportation, we must back the strike and organize to fight against the garment bosses too."
The majority of the more than 100,000 garment workers here use buses to get to work. Despite this inconvenience, most workers support the strike, some passively by not saying anything against the strikers, others by declaring, "This is what we need in the garment industry, so they’ll stop exploiting us." Public transportation is actually a government subsidy to the garment bosses and big clothing stores, all of whom pay poverty wages, which don’t permit these workers to buy cars, a necessity, not a luxury, in LA. So this government-run bus system gets these workers to the bosses’ shops.
Some transit strikers joined garment workers and students for a protest rally in the center of the garment industry. They called for multi-racial unity between citizens and immigrants against the racist bosses and their attacks on the whole working class, demanding health care for all, and calling for organization of the unorganized.
PLP distributed thousands of leaflets exposing capitalism — based on super exploitation and war — as incapable of providing decent health care for the working class. While we support the fight against every cut in benefits, the long-term fight must be for communist revolution and a society who’s very essence is the well-being of the workers.
We’ve sold hundred of CHALLENGES, calling on garment workers to join the strikers and not support a fake reform like minimal "national health care" paid from workers’ taxes. We championed the building of a mass revolutionary movement. The sharpening of the political struggle has sparked new CHALLENGE networks among garment workers and an atmosphere of struggle in preparation for CHALLENGE dinners.
NYC Teachers Hit The Streets!
NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 21 — Twenty thousand teachers and parents protest at City Hall rally against Mayor’s bureaucratic maze of new rules and codes that dictate everything down to the placement of chairs and desks while doing nothing to reduce class size. These new rules have given way to overcrowded rooms and worsen work conditions. Negotiations are at a standstill over a new contract to replace the one that expired May 31.
Rotten Auto Contracts Betray Future Generations
DETROIT —Facing an increasing threat from Japanese and European competition, the UAW, the Big Three auto makers and their former auto-parts subsidiaries Delphi and Visteon broke with tradition and signed five contracts in five days covering about 302,500 active workers and nearly 370,000 retired workers. The deals include a two-tier wage system for new hires at Delphi and Visteon, the two giant parts suppliers spun off from GM and Ford in 1999 and 2000, formally ending the 70-year commitment to "equal pay for equal work." This will hit black, Latin and women workers first and hardest, and accelerate the slide to lower wages and benefits for all.
A UAW International VP called the new contracts, "remarkable achievements given the state of the economy, outsourcing, jobs moving to Mexico and China and the tremendous downward pressure on wages and benefits." He said we must be "realistic" about the times, and that "in this period, confrontation would not help."
What’s less remarkable is the union trying to win workers to unite with the racist bosses "in this period" of increasing inter-imperialist rivalry, widening war and increasing fascist terror.
The UAW maintained current health-care benefits, 30 and Out retirement at any age, and pensions, but will pay for them with a wage freeze, job cuts, plant closings and increased productivity.
Referring to the two-tier system, one Delphi worker called it a "sellout of the next generation," and said, "When the company goes to these workers a few years down the road and tells them they can’t afford a pay raise because of the retiree costs, this will come back to haunt those who voted for it." Thousands of higher paid Visteon and Delphi workers will be offered transfers back to Ford and GM to make room for "second-tier" new hires.
Ford will close four U.S. factories and announced 7,700 job cuts on the day the contract was ratified. Days later, Delphi Corp., the world’s largest automotive parts supplier, said it will cut 500 salaried jobs by the end of the year. In addition to the two-tier wage system, the new four-year contract could allow Delphi to close or sell some plants.
Toyota, Honda and BMW are expanding production with non-union workers and suppliers while GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler are losing domestic market share.
Through August, Detroit’s Big Three held 63% of the U.S. market, down from 64% in 2002 and 75% in 1980. Toyota outsold Chrysler in August for the first month ever and is building a new truck plant in Texas with plans to pass DaimlerChrysler for good within two to three years.
According to the Harbour Report, an annual study on auto productivity, GM, the most profitable of the Big Three, earned $701 per vehicle in North America in 2002 while Toyota earned $1,214. Labor costs are lower at the non-union transplant factories, and the workforce is younger, so there is a much smaller cost for pension and health-care. GM has 2.5 times as many retirees as active workers in the U.S.
The chairman of UAW Local 594 in Pontiac, Mich. said UAW leaders are hoping that "working in partnership with the Big Three will take away any reluctance [of the non-union auto makers] to welcome them in." But if collaborating with the bosses meant more members, the UAW would be about 100 times its size rather than half of what it was in 1980.
From the racist bashing of Japanese imports in the 1970’s, to the Chrysler concessions, GM and Ford plant closings of the 1980’s, which crippled cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Flint, and Pontiac, the UAW leadership has been fiercely loyal to the racist profit system. With their numbers shrinking, they are out to prove they can still play a vital role for U.S. imperialism. "In this period," these are war contracts that show the racist face of industrial fascism. We are dug in for the long haul, confident that black, Latin, women and white autoworkers remain a key force for revolution and with patience and struggle, are open to building a mass PLP.
Stand Up Against Steel Bosses
WHEELING, W.VA., Oct. 8 — Wierton Steel announced plans to cut 950 of 3,500 jobs and eliminate pension and healthcare benefits for 10,000 former workers and their dependents (New York Times 10/8). The USWA (United Steel Workers of America) will cry crocodile tears over these losses, but this is what it means to "Stand Up for Steel [Bosses]!" (SUFS) This is the industry consolidation the union supports.
On Sept. 20, SUFS rallies were held in Pittsburgh, Detroit and Gary, IN. cities devastated by racist unemployment due to the sharpening challenges to the U.S. auto and steel industries. The rallies were to demand that Bush maintain the current steel tariffs, to give the steel bosses more time to consolidate and restructure (about 36 have declared bankruptcy in the current crisis). The tariffs of up to 30% on imported steel have increased costs and raised protests from other sectors, like the auto industry and the UAW.
But not all steelworkers are marching to the bosses’ tune. Over 500 voted against the latest contract at Wheeling-Pittsburgh, a 5-year restructuring as W-P comes out of bankruptcy (the contract passed 1,875-545). And workers in Logansport, IN recently rejected their latest contract offer. None of these workers were featured speakers at the SUFS rallies.
The steel industry, like auto and aerospace, is caught in a crisis of overproduction and overcapacity. Steelabor, the USWA paper says, "There is still a glut of excess steel and over-production in the world market. Some estimates have put the number at more than 240 million metric tons of excess world-wide capacity." Mergers of steel giants in Europe and rapidly expanding production in China and eastern Europe are adding to the glut, which will globalize poverty and unemployment for steel workers.
The Brookings Institution, a liberal Eastern establishment think-tank, says part of the solution is to ditch the old integrated mills requiring large workforces and expensive coke plants and blast furnaces (only integrated mills can make the steel used for outside car panels). Mini-mills like Nucor produce 50% of the country’s steel, using scrap steel, electric furnaces and non-union workers. Brookings says this must be increased.
Only under capitalism can the production of "too much" steel, which could be used to make life better for workers worldwide, become the cause of widespread poverty. The crisis of overproduction is caused by the contradiction between thousands of workers who produce the steel and a few rich capitalists who own the mills and decide how the steel will be distributed, based on what’s good for their profits. Only communist revolution can resolve this contradiction. Then the working class will produce, own and distribute the steel based on our needs.
During the Great Steel Strike of 1919 — headed by the great communist leader, William Z. Foster — every steel worker in the U.S. was on strike. Strike bulletins were printed in 35 languages. That movement was inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution that had led the working class to power in the Soviet Union two years earlier, for the first time in history. We are a long way from that now. But the struggles of steelworkers remain fertile ground for building a new communist movement that, unlike SUFS, will know no borders.
Miners March With Dynamite: One Down, A Whole System to Go
BOLIVIA, Oct. 20 — "One down, many more to go." President Lozada became the fourth South American President to flee in the last several years (Fujimori from Peru, Mahuad from Ecuador, De la Rua from Argentina and now Lozada). The mass mobilizations of workers, peasants and students, led by miners armed with dynamite sticks, forced Lozada to flee. Just before escaping to Miami, Lozada sent tanks against demonstrators, killing many more and heightening their anger.
The indefinite general strike, begun on Sept. 29 by the Labor Federation (COB) under rank-and-file pressure, widened. Tens of thousands of protestors jammed La Paz and all major cities after the latest massacre. Thousands of miners from the Hunani region marched towards La Paz armed with dynamite sticks to "defend the people." In a striking display of working-class unity, soldiers refused orders to shoot the masses, scaring the bosses. On Oct 17, as the miners began their march, U.S. Ambassador David Greeley met with Vice-President Mesa and "solved" the crisis by dumping millionaire Lozada, long-time U.S. lackey.
The new government is weak. Already opportunists like Evo Morales, one of the main anti-Lozada leaders, is biding his time to figure out his next move. The ruling class will use this time to reorganize itself.
The rulers’ $1.4 billion deal that sparked the rebellion was to allow Pacific LNG (a British Gas-controlled consortium) to send gas to Chile for liquification, then ship it to Mexico, to be turned back into gas and then sent to the U.S. The Bolivian government would get only $40-70 million. This will probably be reworked with some minor changes.
The bosses will get away with their plans, and the misery and suffering of workers and their allies will continue. Bolivia is one of the poorest countries on the continent.
At mass celebrations after Lozada’s fall, thousands of workers and their allies swore to continue the struggle. Many called for a mass revolutionary Party. That’s the missing ingredient to turn the struggles into a school for communism. PLP is fighting to build an international communist Party to end the hell of capitalism once and for all.
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Iraq is not the only war. Every day, the class war rages. Over three million jobs have been lost since January 2001; more than 15 million workers are either unemployed, working part-time, or have quit looking for non-existent jobs. Over 44 million workers and their families have no health insurance. In one UAW region, 29 plants are closing and union membership has dropped from 180,000 in 1980 to 66,000 today.
•In one plant, a 500-member "independent" union voted to affiliate with the UAW in 1996. Rather than negotiate a contract, the company formed a "free" union. In January 2003, the UAW won a bargaining order from the NLRB, but because of the huge turnover rate, the core of union activists had shrunk to just 10-15 workers. They have struggled to raise union membership to just over 50% since March, and are still without a first contract.
•A chain of 18 plants making fiberglass parts for Ford and GM and hoods for semi-trucks was bought by a new owner who wanted $18 in hourly wage and benefit concessions, to end the defined pensions and to end health care for retirees, even though a contract was still in effect. Last December, 1,800 workers at one plant began a health and safety strike. The company took $10-$12 in hourly concessions, announced the plant closing (without giving the required 60-day notice), and refused to negotiate a plant-closing agreement. As of October 1, retirees lost all health care benefits and the company is closing four more UAW plants, moving the work to non-union plants in the U.S. and Mexico.
•At a factory in a "Right-to-Work" state that makes parts for Electrolux, 3,000 workers are threatened with suspensions and firings for wearing pro-union T-shirts. The company said that a union newsletter could not be distributed on company property, so the workers organized plant gate distributions at shift change. The company stopped that, ordering security guards to confiscate all union literature. Recently, 200 workers were hired and most joined the union, pushing union membership to about 90%.
•156 workers struck for 27 weeks to stop a plant from closing and moving their work to China. For over 40 years this company made more than half of all the highway pavers used in the U.S. They also make small construction equipment being used in Iraq. They were bought out seven years ago and the union was notified last winter that there would be no new contract. For six months, not one worker crossed the picket line or missed picket duty. One worker described the support rallies as "the biggest held in this county since Grant organized the Union army." The plant closed, but the workers were able to get $1.7 million in severance pay and health care included in the pension plan.
•A United Technology (UTC) plant that makes parts for the aerospace industry locked out 850 workers in a contract dispute in a city with the highest unemployment rate in the state. UTC is a billion-dollar corporation and owns defense contractors like Pratt-Whitney and Sikorski helicopter. The company wanted to slash health care, raise insurance premiums 15% a year, eliminate retiree healthcare and outsource work. After three weeks, the company announced it was taking replacement applications. The workers turned most applicants away and flooded the office with their own "applicants." After six weeks, the workers gave in, "accepting" a 5-year deal that ends retiree healthcare for those retiring after 2008. Their numbers had dropped to 680 and more will be retiring.
•An organizing drive is underway at three Textron plants, another billion-dollar company that owns Bell and Cessna. The workforce has dropped from 2,000 in 1999 to about 800 today, with the work moving to non-union plants in the U.S., Mexico and China. Workers have active committees in all three plants with workers from nearby factories helping with rallies and house calls. Elections are coming soon. One worker said, "We’re ready for a battle."
•On another organizing drive at a company making parts for Maytag, Frigidaire, John Deere and Mitsubishi, workers earn between $8-$8.50/hour, work 7-day weeks, and must pay $70/week for their health insurance. Seven workers have been fired over health and safety and workers’ compensation issues.
•Contract talks will open with Catepillar in December. The company said it is "preparing for negotiations, and permenant replacements."
Multiply these struggles by the tens of thousands. Add to them the largest prison population on earth (more than 2 MILLION, mostly black and Latin young men) and the round-ups of thousands of immigrant workers, many held without charges or deported for minor visa violations, and the face of fascism becomes a lot clearer. It’s not just the face of Bush, Rumsfeld or Ashcroft, but the racist face of capitalism and wage slavery!
The bosses have a big problem; they need the loyalty of those they’re attacking and they aren’t making any friends. The working class is not rolling over for fascism. The union leaders want to use these struggles to elect the Democrats, which will only lead to more fascism and war. With patience and persistance, building unbreakable ties and spreading CHALLENGE, we can turn these struggles into a mass base for communist revolution. But we have to be in it to win it.
Boeing Workers Fed Up With Pro-Boss Rallies
AUBURN, WA., Oct 17 — The Boeing Machinist Union (IAM) rallied today, lobbying for production of the new 7E7 jet in Washington State and for the purchase of the 767 aerial tanker now held up in Congress because of a scandal over Pentagon /Boeing collusion to overcharge the government. Billed as a demonstration "to keep our jobs in Washington State," a few hundred union officials, shop stewards and sprinkling of rank-and-filers heard IAM District President Mark Blondin list the "achievements" of the union’s "We Can Do It" campaign. After Blondin finished listing what we gave the company, one shop steward remarked, "If this is the way we are going to deal with the company, we might as well rename our next contract negotiations, ‘giftings!’"
"Airbus is the enemy," began Blondin. "We want to partner with the company, but partnership is a two-way street."
The company needed unemployment insurance reform so we got it for them, he continued. "We can do it!" he exclaimed. The same with a tax-paid pier in Everett, workers’ compensation reform, $3.2 billion in tax "relief" and a myriad of other gifts: "we can do it, we can do it, and we can do it." He praised the Governor for bringing together opposing interests to hammer out legislation that protected our laid-off members from unemployment insurance cuts, a bold-faced lie since a freeze was instituted. Even more importantly, he failed to mention that the unemployment reform bill included a racist attack on the State’s poorest workers, denying unemployment insurance altogether to seasonal workers, like farm laborers.
Alan Mulally, Boeing Commercial Airline chief, responded to this largess by announcing that the State’s business climate still "sucked." The bosses are never satisfied.
Who Cares About Racist Unemployment When We Can Have Good Press?
When workers complained about these concessions at the pre-rally union meeting before the rally, the misleaders said we had to be "positive," get behind this plane and "get good press."
"Who cares what happens to the cranes in Everett," remarked one official, referring to the complaint that the company was eliminating crane operator jobs.
Seeing the handwriting on the wall, rank-and-fillers wrote their own rally leaflet entitled, "35,000 Laid-Off Workers Demand: No Concessions, Jobs Now!" We circulated and posted hundreds in the plants. "Ask the laid-off about being positive!" said one enthusiastic leafleter, ruefully.
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"We’re witnessing the beginning of the end," commented a disappointed union member, surveying the rally.
"This is way past the beginning!" answered his shop steward.
The current crisis of capitalism highlights the hacks’ inability to deliver jobs, or even mount a significant fight-back. They’ve been revealed as racist apologists for the company.
The same crisis that has forced the union misleaders to reveal their true colors has depleted our ranks, making it more difficult to launching campaigns free of the misleaders’ pro-capitalist politics. Nonetheless, our experience has shown there is a great reservoir of class hatred ready to be tapped if we take the initiative. Our network of CHALLENGE readers can turn, over time, into "the spark that ignites the prairie fire."
March Against Domestic Violence
NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 15 — Carrying pictures of victims of domestic violence, dozens of people marched in Upper Manhattan chanting, "No more violence against women." So far this year, 16 have died from such attacks. The marchers, many of them young women, gathered in front of the Pediatrics Emergency room of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where many of the victims come for treatment. A City Council hearing revealed that last year over 220,000 cases of domestic violence were reported
The demonstrators marched to 181st St. and St. Nicholas Ave., where a minute of silence honored the memory of Melissa Pérez, found in a closet in January, murdered by her boyfriend. A poll of young women 14 to 17 reported that 40% knew someone who had been beaten by a boyfriend. The most famous victim in the area was Gladys Ricart, who was murdered several years ago on her wedding day by a jealous former boyfriend, a "successful local businessman."
Capitalism is based on all forms of violence against workers, particularly women, who carry the double burden of being exploited on the job and doing most of the housework and child-rearing. Many workers ape the sexist violence of the system and its music and culture which degrade women. This should not be tolerated.
Environmentalism: A Communist Perspective, Part Three:
Workers Starve, Profits Rise
Throughout the world, famine is a major problem and increasing rapidly. Many wonder how this can happen on a planet abundant with nutritional food sources. Examining the contradictions of capitalism answers this question. Capitalist "logic" means paying farmers not to plant but to destroy crops to keep supplies low and prices high. It also means that millions of pounds of healthy and nutritious grains are wasted on cattle and other livestock instead of using them to end world hunger. In the U.S. alone, 77% of the country’s corn supply is fed to livestock; only 2% is eaten by people. Four million acres of U.S. farmland is used to produce vegetables while 56 million acres produces hay for livestock. The bosses have chosen to support and supply an unhealthy meat-based diet rather than a nutrient-rich, healthier and more abundant plant-based one because meat is a more profitable commodity. This capitalist approach to food production wastes natural resources, destroys the environment and starves workers worldwide.
Through control of state power and agencies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, the bosses drive under local food production with cheaper, subsidized imports. This forces agriculture-rich "third world" countries to become dependent on foreign food imports while simultaneously producing grain to feed the livestock whose meat is sold back to them at prices most super-exploited workers can’t afford. For example, in Bangladesh, where famine and malnutrition are common, enough grain was grown in 1979 to supply each person with 2,200 calories per day; yet its agricultural potential was hardly tapped. Pressure from imperialist powers drove under local, diversified food production in favor of an import-based food economy and an export-based grain economy — grain that would go to feed livestock. The result was that millions of workers and peasants needlessly endure starvation conditions there and worldwide.
Millions of people do not know the process their food goes through to get to their plate and what effect it has on workers and their environment. Dyes, additives and preservatives pollute the foods we eat. Usually, these foods are produced under wasteful and unsanitary conditions. The meat and dairy industries are among the worst offenders. To generate a single pound of beef, cattle must be fed 16 lbs. of grain and 5,000 gallons of water, not to mention the 400 gallons of water needed to produce the grains. Grazing herds of cattle destroy forests and eco-systems, leaving their waste behind to pollute the ground and then be washed away by rainwater into rivers, lakes and drinking water. That is, if they are even allowed to graze. Most livestock are housed in factory-farms covering 60 acres of land with 20-acre waste pits. They’re crammed into tiny cages, unable to move, covered in their own vomit and excrement, and fed a steady cocktail of drugs to keep them docile and "healthy." In some cases, they’re fed the pureed remains of dead or slaughtered cattle, a destructive "cost-efficient" practice which has led to an epidemic of Mad Cow Disease among humans. From these conditions the cheap mass-production of meat products supplies fast-food and franchise businesses.
The bosses claim a plant-based diet doesn’t satisfy the nutritional standards humans need to survive. They say daily consumption of their products will help you become lean, fit and healthy, although actual studies show that a high meat and dairy diet are linked to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, colon cancer and osteoporosis. Antibiotics, hormones, and steroids injected into mass-produced livestock also help increase cancer risks. Also, improper handling can spread deadly diseases such as E.coli and salmonella poisoning. Yet a mostly vegetable diet with some organic meats would eliminate the need for unhealthy, mass-produced meat and dairy products, and would greatly reduce the risk of disease. Vegetables have no known links to diseases and can supply the nutrients and vitamins we need to survive. Above all, the transition to a plant-based diet — impossible under a profit system — could free up millions of tons of food to feed undernourished and starving workers around the world.
Recently, the bosses have spread the lie that food shortages result naturally from poor crops, claiming that high-tech, genetically-modified plants are the solution. Many staple crops such as corn, wheat and soy are now grown from modified seeds altered to resist damage from pesticides. Despite the fact that tests have proven modified plants are unhealthy and pesticides downright deadly, the use of modified seeds and pesticides continues to increase rapidly, mainly because these products reap huge profits for the bosses.
So why continue to feed ourselves with un-safe food when a better source is more widely available and environmentally friendly? With so many workers starving and unhealthy, animals suffering and the environment being destroyed, we must consider a healthier, more reliable food source. Sections of the bosses’ media will hypocritically print advice on a proper diet and exercise while capitalism saturates us with the opposite in the way of polluted food, obesity through empty calories and unhealthy mass-produced meat and dairy products that prevent masses of people from having bodies fit and healthy — all because the bosses are interested in only one thing, maximum profits.
Interestingly, the Chinese Revolution developed a health system that not only wiped out many diseases plaguing past generations but also greatly reduced others resulting from unhealthy diets. Now, with capitalism restored in China, location of the world’s largest Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, heart disease is climbing.
Under communism, workers will finally have control over their diets. Free from the bosses’ lies and terror, workers will be able to rationally plan agricultural production to meet human need.
Sources:
Lappe, Frances Moore. Diet for a Small Planet. New York; Ballantine, 1991.
McMichael, A.J. Planetary Overload. London; Cambridge UP, 1993.
Robbins, John. The Food Revolution. Boston; Red Wheel/Weiser, 2001.
Molotov Remembers Anti-Revolutionaries in Soviet Union
Over two decades before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Progressive Labor Party documents analyzed the victory of the pro-capitalist forces in the USSR and the restoration of capitalism there and in China. These failures, despite important successes and accomplishments of the old communist movement, allowed us to understand that socialism — a compromise between communism and capitalism, supposedly an intermediate stage before the establishment of communism — cannot work. Instead of leading forward to a classless society, socialism inevitably leads back to capitalism, with all its miseries. The book, "Molotov Remembers : Inside Kremlin Politics," (by Felix Chuev, Chicago, 1993), shows how — in a limited way — one leader of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) understood and resisted the pro-capitalist politics in that party. This book is a series of conversations between V. M. Molotov and journalist Felix Chuev, from 1968 to 1986.
Molotov was an active communist for over 4 decades. He held leading party and government positions, and was a trusted associate of Stalin for most of that period. After Stalin’s death, he was involved in an attempt to remove Khrushchev for his anti-revolutionary policies, but was defeated, removed from leadership, and expelled from the party.
Molotov considered Stalin to have been a great leader of the working-class movement, and defends most of his policies as correct, acknowledging that "grave errors" were also committed. The most interesting interviews are those in which Molotov explains his disagreement with Stalin and with the pro-capitalist politicians who succeeded him. One persistent theme is the need to promptly abolish money and commodity relations, and to take concrete steps to eliminate classes under socialism. Molotov continued to accept the idea that distinct stages are needed prior to communism: a transitional stage, a socialist stage, and then communism. He insisted, however, that money, commodity relations and social classes be abolished under socialism (pp. 382-4, 394, 403). He claims that he tried — unsuccessfully — to get Stalin to put these policies into the 1936 Constitution and then into Stalin’s 1952 book, "Economic Problems of Socialism" (pp. 205-6, 392, 398-9). Abolition of classes is the main task of socialism, he said. It can’t be postponed.
The CPSU claimed that the wage system and inequality were needed as a "material incentive" (i.e., higher pay) to get people to work hard and build up the economy. Although Molotov does not say that material incentives had never been legitimate in the USSR, he argues that they must be abolished. He proposed six substitutes: (1) competent and scientific planning of production; (2) socialist competition of different organizations and workplaces with each other; (3) selection of personnel; (4) a social orientation, so that all organizations work toward a common goal; (5) international socialist economic integration; and (6) the party’s ideological education, covering all internal and external policies (pp. 371, 381). He proposed elimination of material incentives for workers and that government officials not be paid more than the average worker (p. 380).
Despite these insights, and his interesting comments on many other subjects — collectivization, the anti-Nazi war, the "purge trials, etc. — and given the benefit of hindsight, we should note some limitations of Molotov’s views. Although he said that "Khrushchevism is the bourgeois spirit," and attacked the anti-revolutionary policies of the Soviet leaders and the growing inequality in the USSR, Molotov did not see that capitalism had already been restored. He still held out hope that the CPSU could move forward to communism. He did not see that the wage system and class structure of socialism cannot lead to communism. It’s also worth noting, however, that some of the hard-won lessons PLP was learning in the 1970s and ’80s were also being learned by some people in the USSR. (See the documents, "Road to Revolution III" and "Road to Revolution IV" for the full story.)
Soviet Defeat of Japan in 1939 Shaped World War 2
"Officially," World War II began in Sept. 1, 1939 with the Nazi invasion of Poland. But to many, the war started when the Japanese fascist army occupied Manchuria, China, in 1931; or in 1936 when the Hitler-Mussolini axis helped fascist General Franco overthrow the Republican government of Spain; or even when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1937 (see CHALLENGE, 10/22), murdering one million. To this list, we must add the Khalkin-Gol war. "World War II began here," said retired Mongolian Col. Zhavzanglin Yadmaa (quoted by Rafael Poch de Feliu, reporting for La Vanguardia, Barcelona, and reprinted in Lainsignia.org). This war is largely ignored or unknown. The 500-page World Almanac of WWII devotes one paragraph to it. Yet this short-lived war had an important influence over the outcome of WWII.
The Japanese fascists aimed to capture Mongolia and Siberia, to control the Soviet Union’s rearguard and facilitate the Nazi invasion from the West. "Stalin considered Mongolia a vital zone for his defense and communication systems against a Japanese attack against Siberia and the Soviet Far East, says Mongolian historian Tsedendambyn Batbayar. "Soviet leaders, were determined to teach the Japanese military a lesson if they attacked Mongolia.…Then the Soviets could concentrate their efforts on the European front."
In 1927, Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka, one of the architects of the invasion of China, announced that the Russian Far East and Mongolia had to be conquered. In 1935, when the fascist Axis powers signed an anti-Komintern pact vowing to crush the Soviet Union and the international communist movement, Soviet-Japanese relations deteriorated. In 1937, Stalin sent 30,000 Red Army soldiers to Mongolia. Axis agents in the Mongolian army and government were purged. Without these measures, the Japanese fascists’ plan would have succeeded, just as the Nazis did in Western Europe.
On May 11, 1939, the Japanese army attacked Mongolia, an invasion which the Western powers refused to condemn. Many Western ruling-class forces — including Henry Ford and many in the British royalty — wanted the fascists to crush the Soviet Union. It wasn’t until they saw Hitler & Co. wanted everything that they took action, and even then waited until 1944 to invade Europe when the Soviets had already defeated the bulk of the Nazi army (and might have liberated all of Western Europe). Even during the war itself, GM, IBM and Wall Street bankers were doing business with Nazi Germany.
The Soviet army, led by Gen. Khuzov, counter-attacked, routing the Japanese invaders before Hitler invaded Poland. The struggle in the East was a prelude to the major battles of World War II, integrating the use of tanks, artillery, aircraft and infantry for the first time in modern warfare. The Soviets flew 500 planes and fielded 500 T-34 tanks, a training ground for later use against the Nazis. Some 30,000 soldiers died on both sides. The Japanese lost 660 planes and took over 60,000 casualties. The Soviet-Mongolian forces lost 207 planes and 18,500 soldiers. They were also led by Gen. Choybalsan, nicknamed "the Stalin of Mongolia" for his role in defeating the fascists.
This war witnessed real cavalry charges, as distinct from the WW II mythology about Polish cavalry attacking Nazi tanks, more fiction than fact. Tens of thousands of Mongolian horsemen played a crucial role in defeating the Japanese army. "We attacked them with sabres in hand, rifles with bayonets, wearing gas masks, fearing the Japanese would use poison gas," says 88-years old retired Mongolian Col. Cegengiin Dorzh. He commanded 6,000 horsemen. They loved their horses and tried to protect them with their very lives. Col. Dorzh adds that, "The cavarly never launched frontal attacks.…Our enemy was very powerful, well armed and had the experience of having conquered Korea and Manchuria. They also used mercenaries, like the remnants of the White Army, the anti-communist Russians who waged a civil war against the Bolsheviks in the early 1920s in Siberia and the Soviet Far East." Dorzh’s cavalry lost 400 men.
Today, a decade after the implosion of the Soviet Union, Mongolians still revere the Red Army and the leadership of Stalin in their liberation. They would have faced the same fate as China, where the Japanese fascists killed millions of innocent civilians. Racism against Mongolians is entrenched in Western and capitalist culture; the racist legends about Genghis Kahn and the Mongol barbarians still exist. The Japanese fascists’ defeat in Mongolia forced them to sign a non-agression pact with Moscow. Then Japan’s rulers attacked the French, British, Dutch and U.S. colonies in the Pacific, leading to Pearl Harbor. After finishing off the Nazis, the Red Army defeated the bulk of the Japanese army in Manchuria just when the U.S. was dropping the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a warning to the victorious Soviets that a "Cold War" was beginning.
The Mongolia war also disproved another anti-communist myth, that the Soviet leadership was "unprepared" for the Nazi invasion. This myth was enhanced by the Nazis’ early victories in their 1941 invasion. But unlike Western Europe, where Quislings (pro-Nazi traitors) helped the Nazis conquer, these traitors were destroyed in the Soviet Union before and during the invasion. The defeat of the Nazis at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43 was the turning point of WW II. After that, the Red Army drove relentlessly all the way to Berlin. The committed communist-led Red Army accomplished virtually by itself what the capitalist armies could not.
Capitalism Breeds Unemployment: 22 Million Jobs Lost Worldwide
How come there is so much talk about a "jobless recovery" in the U.S — that is, the economy is growing while unemployment remains high?
Unemployment ALWAYS exists under capitalism. Even in the 1990s "boom," millions were unemployed. But the "boom" lays the basis for the bust, for recessions/depressions.
Capitalism is a planless productive system, in search of maximum profits. To beat out competitors and stay in business, companies produce far more than the market can sustain. Procter & Gamble built new factories in the ’90s with the anticipation of reaching $50 billion in sales but only reached $43 billion. "We overbuilt capacity," said P&G’s president A.G. Laftley. (New York Times, 10/19) "Struggling to get rid of this costly glut,…companies…shut plants and lay off workers….
"The glut of boom-era investment …continues to litter the economy with underused factories." (NYT) Right now U.S. manufacturers are using less than 73% of their capacity.
This is a worldwide phenomenon. "Countries everywhere…are struggling to reduce excess capacity. ‘We’ve got too many steel plants in the world, too many auto companies,’ says [the] chief economist for Asia at J.P. Morgan Chase." (Wall Street Journal, 10/20) Each company builds new plants with the aim of outdoing its competitors, eventually littering the world with underused factories. From 1995 to 2002, a study of 20 large economies "found that from 1995 to 2002, more than 22 million jobs in the manufacturing sector were eliminated, a decline of more than 11%." (WSJ)
As Karl Marx pointed out, each capitalist not only lays off "excess" workers, but invests more heavily in new technology to try to increase productivity, that is, produce more with less. The Wall Street Journal (10/20) confirms this: "Gains in technology and competitive pressure have forced factories to become more efficient, allowing them to boost output with far fewer workers." While 22 million factory workers were laid off worldwide, "global industrial output rose more than 30%. (WSJ)
In the U.S., 15 to 20 million workers search for non-existent jobs. Meanwhile in the past 2½ years, "The productivity growth rate jumped to an annual rate of more than 4%…firms were able to increase output by 10%…without hiring any new workers or increasing the average hours worked per week," says Reagan’s former Chairman of Economic Advisors, Martin Feldstein. (WSJ, 10/13) During the second quarter of this year, productivity rose at an annual rate of 7% as fewer workers work harder and produce more. This is real exploitation.
Bush’s tax cuts, approved by Democrats and Republicans alike, are accelerating this process. By cutting capital gains taxes and taxes on dividends, corporate investors are given more money to pay for new technology and equipment, which intensifies productivity growth. This results in more layoffs and does not create new jobs for the millions entering the labor force for the first time. The less workers, the less profits, the more the rate of profit drops, driving the bosses to invest in still more technology which results in more layoffs, and so on.
The racist bosses super-exploit black and Latin workers to shift the crisis onto the backs of the working class. They use racism to pay these workers 30%-40% less than white workers, netting the rulers nearly $250 billion annually — the difference in median family income between these two groups — and lowering the wages of white workers as well. Black and Latin workers also suffer twice the jobless rate of white workers. This racism has always been the key to the profit system, used to divide and weaken the working class.
The bosses get away with their attacks as long as we workers let them. We must launch intense struggle against the racist bosses and their labor leaders who serve them. Out of that fight, in which PLP must immerse itself and help lead, workers can be won to understand that capitalism, racist unemployment, poverty and war go hand in hand. Only communism can provide for the needs of the working class, eliminating the anarchy of production for profit and creating jobs for all to produce for the collective enrichment of our class.
LETTERS
Health Care, Capitalist Style
A young woman came into my clinic with mouth sores and severe joint pain, barely able to walk. She suffers from systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE), a terrible disease of the immune system, which disproportionately affects African-American women. Treatment exists and is often quite effective. In fact, until recently my patient had been responding well to several medications prescribed by a private physician. Then she was laid off, losing her health insurance. She soon ran out of her medications. Within weeks her SLE symptoms returned with a vengeance.
As a primary care provider in a public clinic serving a mostly black and Latin working-class community, I see some of the best and the worst health care under capitalism. Our clinic staffers work themselves to the bone. The number of patients has expanded tremendously in recent months, but people still work with amazing politeness and caring. There’s a limit to the number of patients who can be seen in a day, but still they keep coming, with uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes and cancer, often seriously ill after years of medical neglect. Many lost their insurance when they lost their jobs. Black and Latin workers, the last hired and first fired, are the worst off.
Over 43 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance. Every year 18,000 workers die prematurely because of poor health care. Why? The reasons are many, but ultimately boil down to the bosses’ insatiable drive for profits. Racism plays a major role. Black workers are the first to die from a stroke or lose a leg from diabetes under this racist system.
Recently an insured patient receiving private care came to our clinic to get medicine not covered by his insurance. I indicated I wanted to help him, but could not copy his prescriptions so he could get them through our clinic. He became slightly angry, declaring he had worked his whole life in the steel mills and was entitled to health care, including medication. I felt bad. He was correct. I worry about my patients. They could become part of the 18,000 who end up dead. They are workers — unemployed, ill or retired. They produced profits for the capitalists, but they can’t have health care because the capitalist system now considers them "superfluous," expendable. During wartime it’s even worse. U.S. rulers would rather spend $87 billion for their empire in Iraq than on workers’ health care.
These minority workers represent the most oppressed. Many already recognize that bosses and workers are enemies. This understanding can put them on the road to becoming communists. Under capitalism, health care is delivered only crumbs at a time to quell potential anger. Much energy is spent seeking these crumbs, making it harder to think about a collective way out of this horrendous situation.
Red Doc
Priests in the Class Struggle
Padre Rogelio Cruz, a Salesian priest from the Dominican Republic, came to New York recently on a visit hosted by Padre Luis Barrios, an Episcopalian priest very much involved in the struggles of poor working people in the city and a fervent anti-war activist. These priests believe as Father Barrios noted in his weekly column in NYC’s El Diario-La Prensa, "Father Rogelio reminds us of what two historical figures wrote. First, St. James, who told us: ‘Don’t say you have faith; show me what you are doing and I will tell if you have faith.’ The other was Karl Marx, the father of communism, who declared, ‘It is not just a question of explaining the world. The point is to change it.’"
Padre Rogelio has organized the people, particularly the youth, of the poor working-class neighborhood of Cristo Rey in the capital city of the Dominican Republic, protesting the constant blackouts there (electricity was privatized, sold at bargain prices to Spanish-owned energy companies, which have worsened the blackout problem). He has organized against the corruption of all recent governments, including the current one led by President Hipolito Mejia, and their anti-people deals with the IMF. He has also constantly denounced the rash of police murders of young people and led militant marches and protests. He’s been attacked by the police, the government and Cardinal López Rodriguez of the archdiocese of Santo Domingo. They are threatening to exile him to Madrid or Rome.
There are many honest priests and religious people like Father Rogelio and Barrios, all followers of one version or another of Liberation Theology. Some years ago, I was in a PLP study group along with a Cuban-born priest like these two, who was expelled from another Latin American country for organizing peasants, and a former theological student who instead of becoming a priest joined a Communist movement in his native country. We were studying Engels’ "Anti-Dühring," a critique of the German philosopher Dühring in which Engels outlined the laws and categories of dialectical materialism. We discussed idealism vs. materialism, the origin of religion and how it is used as opiate of the masses. But ultimately, the former priest just couldn’t break with the idea that humans created God, never agreeing that the universe is eternal and that therefore there couldn’t be an eternal God.
These militant priests are honest fighters and could become allies of a revolutionary communist movement that is actively organizing among the masses. This is even more important today when the bosses — from bin Laden to Bush ("appointed by God to fight Satanic Islam," according to U.S. General Boykin) — are cloaking their oil wars as a jihad. But a struggle must be waged about these priests’ idealism, and how to really change the world.
A Teo
Pro Sports A Diversion?
My Friend: "Aren’t you excited about the upcoming baseball playoffs and World Series?"
Me: "Yes, a little bit, but there are a lot
more important things happening in the world."
But I must "confess," the first thing I did the following Saturday was to turn on the TV to watch the Giants-Marlins game. When you grow up playing baseball and other sports, you’re continually sucked in to watching them on TV and getting excited about a home run or the great catch.
I go to a gym and enjoy working out. I also enjoy talking sports and having political discussion with my friends. I get CHALLENGE out to a number of them.
Many of these workers think capitalism "with all its faults" is the only game in town. I raise the communist alternative. What would gym life be under communist equality? It would be free and accessible to all workers. We would not have professional sports with superstars like Barry Bonds or Lance Armstrong. We would have intramural games where all workers could participate, without all this competitive and dollar-driven nonsense. This would be a better world!
Sports Comrade
- Vietnam Syndrome Still Haunts U.S. Bosses
AWOL GIs Shock and Awe Brass - GI in Iraq: Brass Are F@#$%! Us
- RULERS WANT HEALTHY WORKERS . . .
FOR ARMS PRODUCTION, WAR - Putting Aside Your Fears In Time Of Need!
- What You Do Counts
- Freedom Rider Challenges Hacks' Pro-war Patriotism
- Bolivia is Burning, Again
- Free Market and State Capitalism --Two Sides of the Same Coin
- China: New World's Maquiladora
- Jobless `Recovery': Fewer Workers Working Harder for Lower Wages
- UMASS Prof Framed by Patriot Act
- CalState University Trustees `Option': Terminate Higher Education
- Fascism 101: Become A Stoolie for the LAPD
- AFGHAN WOMEN FIGHT U.S./WARLORD OPPRESSION
- IL Duce No Lesser Evil Führer
- LETTERS
- RED EYE ON THE NEWS
Vietnam Syndrome Still Haunts U.S. Bosses
AWOL GIs Shock and Awe Brass
Sagging morale and rising desertions among U.S. troops have raised the specter of the Vietnam Syndrome haunting the U.S. imperialist military brass in Iraq. Even according to Rupert Murdoch's rabidly pro-war N.Y. Post (10/5), "Morale among...war-weary GIs...[is] so low that a growing number of soldiers -- including some now home on R&R [rest and rehabilitation] -- are researching the consequences of going AWOL [absent without official leave]." "I'm going to shoot myself in the foot," said one soldier, referring to his "solution"for getting home. "There is no morale here," another wrote his aunt. "The leadership doesn't care about us. I don't want anything to do with this mess anymore."
The GI Rights Hotline, a national soldiers' support service, reports a 75% increase in calls over the last three months, from 2,000 to 3,500, over 100 from soldiers or their families asking about penalties for going AWOL. Many come from those on 15-day leaves, some saying they won't return. "Some...are so desperate that they have called directly from the war zone...when they can get satellite-phone access or after waiting in line for hours in the desert for a military phone." (NYP) They complain about the length of the campaign, the rough desert conditions and the rising death toll.
The brass is so worried about desertions that they're encouraging soldiers to take their R&R leaves in Germany, "to avoid temptation stateside." Says Hotline coordinator Teresa Panepinto, "They're concerned these people are going to come home and not go back."
Lt. General James Helmly, commander of the 205,000-member Army Reserve, warned about an exodus of active and reserve forces if the U.S. fails to get other countries to supply troops in Iraq. Corporal José Alvarez, now on duty in Iraq, told his wife he will not re-enlist. "I'm definitely getting out," he wrote her. "To heck with the Army." "He hates it," says his wife Wendy from her home on the base at Fort Hood. "He basically has given up."
During the Vietnam War, over 500,000 GI's deserted and open rebellion erupted among thousands of soldiers and sailors, "fragging" (shooting) their officers and sabotaging aircraft carriers, putting them out of action. This was the last straw leading to the U.S. defeat, with its overwhelming hi-tech advantage no match for an intensely committed Vietnamese guerilla army.
Vietnam showed that soldiers' commitment to a cause, especially the troops on the ground, is crucial in achieving military victory. All the "smart bombs" in the world are no substitute for a committed infantry.
One reason for the initial Nazi sweep through Europe in World War II was their highly committed army. But it was the still higher commitment of the communist-led Soviet Red Army that eventually overwhelmed and smashed Hitler's legions.
All the "shock and awe," "hi-tech" warfare, and "pinpoint bombing" are no match for sinking morale among an increasingly uncommitted ground army. How widespread troop dissatisfaction will become remains to be seen. But the Vietnam Syndrome is alive and well in Iraq.
GI in Iraq: Brass Are F@#$%! Us
A friend of mine received this letter from her son. She told me, "You've got to put this in your paper!" He joined the reserves to pay for college and ended up in Iraq. His letter reflects the growing awareness among working-class soldiers that imperialist wars are not in their interests.
To my Mother, Brother and family:
I love you all and miss you all very much. I cannot express the remorse I am having and also the clarity I am experiencing. I will make it home, sound mind, sound body. I am keeping the faith and I have also witnessed the darkness come to light. You read this and be the judge.
We received a letter informing us that we have been extended. These people are full of shit. We have pulled duty without our ballistic [bullet-proof] vests. Active duty infantry [has] tanks all over the place. We only have humvees, duces and five-tons. The weapons we have are M16A2 rifles, SAWS and one .50-caliber. They have also taken away our atropine injections [emergency antidote for poison gas].
In short, we don't even have enough force to protect ourselves, (let alone our assigned objective). We're not protected or supported here by our government or the officials appointed over us.
We are being extended so that we'll be staying longer than the active duty units. On top of this, they are not paying us the right amount of money. Most of the soldiers here are missing out on one or two semesters of school. Jobs will be lost because of this extension. We are here longer because of the election year. They don't want to upset the voters, and can't get the support of other countries to send troops here. We were to go stateside and do one year (there). But our commander...pushed for us to come up here. We believe it's so he can make colonel -- being in war for six months is one of the qualifications he needs for promotion.
Family, please write and pray for me and the people here. We're getting fucked over. Mom, write to Congress addressing the problems I have listed. Also write to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (even though we know they have no power), just to get the word out.
This mother's plan "to get the word out" was to bring her son's letter to CHALLENGE. Growing "clarity" like this soldier is experiencing, spells danger for the oil-hungry U.S. capitalists and the military brass that do their bidding. The bosses' worst nightmare is young soldiers like this with guns in their hands and rebellion in their heads.
RULERS WANT HEALTHY WORKERS . . .
FOR ARMS PRODUCTION, WAR
On October 2, a New York Times editorial decried the "health insurance crisis." It lamented that 43.6 million workers lacked insurance, 10% more than two years ago. Electing a Democrat would help relieve the problem, the Times said. "At least six candidates competing for the Democratic nomination have put forth health insurance plans of one size or another." When the media, politicians and other liberal spokesmen for the leading U.S. capitalists worry about workers' health, watch out. For the bosses, health care is an instrument of social control.
The rulers need a healthy working class for two basic purposes: profits in their industries and fighting their wars. The latter is becoming increasingly critical for U.S. bosses. Military analysts at Stratfor.com (Internet intelligence service) note that the U.S. faces a severe troop shortfall in its open-ended conflict with Al Qaeda and other Islamic militants: "The United States is engaged in a global war, but its personnel policies have not adjusted to that reality." What's needed in the short term, says Stratfor, is "a large expansion of the armed forces" (9/29/03). Even now to cover 100 U.S. bases worldwide and especially down the road, confronting China, Russia or Europe will require millions of additional troops.
The rulers fear, however, that workers' worsening fitness may limit the deadliness of the U.S. war machine. A little-publicized branch of the Defense Department called the Industrial College of the Armed Forces is responsible for planning the wartime mobilization of U.S. industry. In its most recent report on the health care sector, the ICAF warned, "militarily, the failure to mobilize and field a healthy workforce could negatively impact our ability to project force and form alliances, hence compromising national security. Furthermore, a strong military force requires a healthy population from which to draw potential recruits." But, said the colonels and captains at the ICAF, "about 16% of Americans...are without health care coverage." The warmakers' conclusion might as well have come from a Kennedy, or a Clinton or one of the Democrats running for president: "The U.S. does not presently have a carefully formulated and executable national health care strategy. In our opinion, ensuring national security requires devising and implementing such a strategy."
The ICAF report called for "universal access to medically necessary care." It also launched a National Focus on Wellness and Prevention -- Healthy Lifestyles, with an emphasis on childhood obesity. This effort has actually brought about minor reforms in the food served at McDonald's and in schools. Keeping children healthy seems a noble goal. But the capitalists are interested only in producing cannon fodder. Their real motive here emerges in a Pentagon-backed study dubbed "Too Fat to Fight" published in the American Journal of Medicine (10/15/02). It found that "if the U.S. military needed to recruit substantial numbers of young men and women into their forces quickly...at least 13 percent of young men and 17 percent of young women of prime recruitment age would fail the weight requirements of all four services." Carlos Crespo, a co-author of the study, patriotically declared, "Obesity is not just a public health issue, it's a national security concern."
The Times expects health care to "become a significant issue in the presidential campaign." But don't be taken in by the candidates' liberal promises. The capitalists' concern for workers' well-being leads to the battlefield and the grave.
Communists want good health for the working class. But that means decent living conditions, job security and a medical policy of disease prevention. The profit system can never achieve these goals. It creates the opposite. The best way to guarantee a healthy future for our class and our descendants is to join the Progressive Labor Party and the fight for communism.
(Next article in this series on the state of the working class: Why and how the rulers plan to "educate" the working class for war and fascism.)
Parents Defeat School
Bosses' Frame-up of PL Teacher
BRONX, NY, Oct. 7 -- Approximately 50 parents at an elementary school here rose up to defend a PL teacher from a vicious attack by the school administration and scored a great victory. The parents' actions were part of a continuing fight with the same fascist administration and their many attempts to force students and teachers to recite the bosses' pledge of allegiance. (See CHALLENGE, 3/19/03) That battle -- which the administration lost -- resulted in two new recruits to the Party and solidified the multi-racial unity of parents and teachers.
In early September the principal broke up all the school's teaching teams, leaving many in an unfamiliar environment, including the PL teacher's classroom in which the pledge fight occurred. The principal deliberately disrupted these productive, and very successful, teaching partnerships to divide the instructional staff, a move which hurt the students the most.
Following this attack, on a recent Friday, the PL teacher received an answering machine message charging him with "corporal punishment"-- hitting a child. The family filing the complaint has a history of creating problems with other teachers. The administration knew this family would do something to make the PL'er's job difficult, setting up a volatile situation.
That weekend, eight parents met as a "defense" committee to take the offensive against the manufactured charges. They agreed to issue a leaflet first thing Monday morning exposing this attack and calling on the community to defend this hard-working, respected teacher. They vowed to picket outside the school and escort him to his classroom, never leaving him alone. The committee called other parents that weekend, aiming to build a mass presence outside the school.
On Monday morning, parents and members of PLP were ready to fight! An initial group of eight more than doubled after 20 minutes of leafleting. Parents dropping their children off to school were angry, asking how something like this could happen to such a good teacher. Many volunteered to help defend him. Six joined the defense committee.
The principal and union representative tried to dissuade the demonstrators from leafleting. When the principal approached some demonstrators, they demanded, "What are you doing to our teacher?" The principal said she knew nothing about the situation, being "out of town." Then one parent confronted her, declaring, "We know you're lying! We've got a copy of the answering machine tape....You know what's going on." The principal, frustrated, then left. Later the parents heard she had called the cops.
Then the union rep tried to trick the demonstrators into leaving the premises and return at 9:20 a.m. (when the streets would be empty). They ignored her, continued to hold their signs, distributing approximately 300 leaflets and dozens of CHALLENGES. One parent took a stack of leaflets and distributed them to another school down the block. Those parents and teachers were outraged at the attack and told the parent they supported the PL teacher 100 percent. (See adjoining letter.)
When the PL teacher arrived, the parents hugged him. One PLP leafleteer told him, "These parents are pissed off!" Ten parents escorted him into the building, one parent saying, "We're not leaving until we know you're alright."
When he entered his classroom the union rep tried to convince him to stop the demonstration (as if he was controlling the parents). She said no phone call was placed charging him with corporal punishment, that he was "blowing things out of proportion," hiding the fact that an investigation was underway. When the union rep was questioned about the cops coming, she replied they were called to protect him from the child's father, but it was learned later they were most likely looking to arrest him. When three cops arrived they actually asked, "Do you know where this teacher is? We were told to come and get him." However, they didn't arrest him because the school administration, seeing the parents guarding the PL'er's classroom, feared a massive protest inside the school.
There were now 20 parents outside his door, where one parent gave an impassioned speech expressing outrage against the administration's attack on this teacher. She called on the parents to unite and fight. Then the parents began to chant, "Let us in! We want to see our teacher! We want our teacher!" The door opened and the parents of his current class greeted him with hugs of support. Seeing he would be allowed to teach his class, they left the hallway, moving to the front of the school.
The union rep returned, "assuring" them that nothing would happen to him. While the union rep acted all along "within the limits of the union rules," the comrades and parents didn't trust her, refusing to leave until the three cops outside his door also dispersed. The cops took off at 10:00 a.m. so the parents left at 10:30.
The victory was clear. Nobody was taking the PL teacher out of the school that day. The administration was forced to speed a quick in-house investigation as opposed to a dragged-out trial. A 30-minute investigation revealed that the incident never occurred.
The next morning the mother arrived with her child and confessed to the PL teacher that the child had made up the whole story. The mother wrote a letter confessing the lie and declaring the PL teacher innocent.
While the administration has the power of the capitalist state behind it, the Progressive Labor Party has something more powerful, the power of its base in the working class! Experiences like this remind us that relying on our class can keep us on the road to building a communist society, where education serves the interests of working class children and their families.
Putting Aside Your Fears In Time Of Need!
Dear CHALLENGE,
There were lots of parents outside the school to support Mr. S. I myself was at another school in the community giving out flyers defending him. I stood in shock when parents and teachers read the flyer and said, "NO WAY...MR. S.; I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" This assured me that Mr. S. is somebody well-known and respected in the community. I myself have never given out flyers before. At first my fears got hold of me, but when you believe in something, you know you can do it. When a friend becomes family, you will do anything to help them out.
Sincerely
A Bronx Parent
CHALLENGE
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What You Do Counts
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, Oct. 7 -- Recently a union leader in my plant surprisingly, and for the first time, asked us to support the volunteers for the "Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride" headed for Washington to back immigrant workers' rights. I've been working here many years. Many of my co-workers read CHALLENGE and the Party's communist leaflets. Seeing this as a good opportunity, my department organized more than a dozen workers to support the protest. We received Party leaflets explaining why the politicians and liberal union sellouts are behind the pro-immigrant campaign. Some workers knew that several years ago the AFL-CIO leaders were attacking immigrant workers for supposedly "stealing jobs" from citizens. Now they treat us like heroes in a movie. During the next week the leaflets appeared in many places, amid much discussion.
Convinced the bosses are trying to win workers to fascist patriotism and their imperialist wars, I returned the following week determined to win workers to a communist outlook and advance the struggle to the next level.
The discussion began on Monday at 7 a.m. A Russian immigrant worker greeted me in Russian, calling me "comrade." Both of us were whistling the Internationale when my Russian friend said to a Central American worker in Spanish, "Revolution!" and he answered, "Until death!" Then I told another worker that some Chicago workers who, fed up with waiting for a new contract, are organizing to disqualify the old sellout union and join Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition." "Really?" he replied. "They're going from bad to worse. I hate that guy because when I was a driver and we fought for a better contract, he arrived and then left us in even more hot water. What he's looking for is money." There were comments about the bosses using Jackson to repress future rebellions.
Currently our union is negotiating a new contract. Everything indicates we're stuck in quicksand. The bosses want mechanics and maintenance workers to pay $200 a month for health insurance (we currently pay $6) and retirees to pay $375 a month, and want us to "accept" a wage "increase" of 1% the first and second years. The bosses and the union advocate "United We Stand" -- united in attacking the working class.
Then the conversation shifted to the role of the Democrats and the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Some said he's anti-worker and if elected will develop fascism. But under Democrat Davis, we workers are also facing huge cuts. By now six workers were in the discussion.
Someone said at least Schwarzenegger wouldn't be corrupted. Others answered "not true," that some bosses backed him because he represented their interests; he openly said he was anti-union and would give concessions to bosses moving to California.
Another worker declared, "I'm against this bastard but still think too many workers abuse workers' compensation." Others labeled this a bosses' lie to justify cuts in our benefits, that it's the bosses who are robbing us. For example, how much does a worker at Level 2 get compared to a worker at Level One, doing the same work? How much money do the bosses pocket in two years of "progressive wages" (paying different levels different wages)?
Still another worker warned we're being attacked "because the Board of Directors is half Democrats and do nothing for us, despite all the money we give to their campaigns. We workers must defend ourselves. Our strike should be militant." Some recalled the armed strikes of the coal miners. A worker said, "We can't retreat. We have to defend ourselves."
Then an Asian worker commented, "A lot of the newer workers aren't even interested in what's happening in the union." "That's not their fault," replied another worker, "it's our fault. We workers with more understanding must teach the rest that it's the workers who have the power to move this society. The current crisis is a crisis of the system and we must participate in the workers' movement to strengthen the working class."
We discussed the maquilladoras in Mexico and China, the war in Iraq and the coming of World War III. But the most important thing growing out of all this was five workers agreeing to join a study group about communist ideas.
An immigrant worker
Freedom Rider Challenges Hacks' Pro-war Patriotism
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride was very enlightening. I traveled on a bus from the Midwest and we were welcomed everywhere.
From the beginning, the ride was filled with speeches from union sellouts and politicians. They had prior warning that a group of racist Nazi thugs would hold a counter-rally, and they worked with the police to ensure the dozen fascists were well protected. Despite this, one Nazi was beaten to a pulp on the train ride home. The conductor held the door open as the Nazi was thrown off.
The politicians and union hacks pushed patriotism to try to win us to support fascist Homeland Security and imperialist war. The bus captains made sure that every time we stopped everyone carried a small American flag amid patriotic rhetoric. Many people asked me why I refused to carry a flag. I explained that the flag represents murder, racism and exploitation. They praised my conviction but they all carried a flag.
The most powerful speeches came from the riders themselves, mostly undocumented workers and students. There were fourteen nationalities, mostly young students trying to get the Student Adjustment Act/Dream Act passed. Most came from community organizations, churches and unions. The discussions focused on the issues at hand and what we were going to do along the way: a rally here and there, lunch with community or church organizations.
On the last two days, we talked with Congressmen about legalization, the Student Adjustment Act and the Clear Act (a law making any local government organization act as the federal Immigration Service), becoming very knowledgeable about these points. Most people were hopeful about winning our demands but knew it would be difficult. Even if we "won," we couldn't change much. Most realized that even if all undocumented workers were "legalized, the problem will persist because there will always be workers looking for a better life.
Our time together made us feel like a family, sharing thoughts never shared before. Myself and my co-worker who traveled with me discussed imperialism, PLP, and how this event was pushing patriotism to sucker us into supporting imperialist wars and fascist Homeland Security. The politicians and union leaders want us to think voting will solve the problems, yet we all know this isn't true.
This was a "base building" ride. I met all these wonderful people who want to change the system. Even though they think we can do it through elections, they all want to fight. Many were undocumented and were demanding their status be changed.
If we work correctly, these are future communists. Our unity, based in struggle against capitalism, enables us to wage the sharp, long-term ideological struggle necessary to build a mass PLP. I could have been more aggressive with CHALLENGE, but I'm confident I can sharpen the struggle, win new readers and, sooner rather than later, new members of PLP. We have a long road ahead, but the future looks bright for communism.
Bolivia is Burning, Again
BOLIVIA, Oct. 6 -- This country, one of the poorest in Latin America, is again burning with mass rebellions. In February, demonstrations of up to 80,000 attacked the government's "impuestazo" (a wage cut by means of a big tax hike on salaries). The army shot many when they demonstrated in La Paz, the capital city.
The current struggle began with protests against the selling of Bolivian gas deposits, the second largest in Latin America, to an international consortium called Pacific LNG, formed by BP, Repsol-YPF and British Gas. The gas will go through a pipeline to the Chilean port of Iquique (Bolivia lost its seashore in a war with Chile in the 1870s).
There the gas will be liquefied and shipped to Mexico, where it will again be turned into gas and exported to the U.S. The Bolivian government's "share" of this $1.3 billion-a-year deal will be only $40 to $70 million.
On Sept. 20, army troops shot at farmworkers, students and teachers blocking roads in the Andean region of Warisata, killing five (including an 8-year-old girl). This sparked a mass movement.
On Sept. 29, rank-and-file pressure forced the COB (Labor Federation) to call an indefinite general strike, which has been a partial success in its first week. One of the main demands is nationalization of the gas industry. Another is the resignation of President "Goni" Lozada, a U.S.-educated multi-millionaire, hated by the masses.
But the movement has many weaknesses. First, nationalization has never worked here. In 1952, the mining industry was nationalized and land reform imposed. But this "nationalist revolution" turned into its opposite, and the mining industry was privatized again. Miners and all workers are now more exploited and poorer than ever.
Second, the movement is weak in fighting the racism suffered by the majority indigenous population, super-exploited for 500 years. Many want to return to the old, pre-capitalist communal ways, but this is impossible. Society moves forward. Only communist revolution can liberate indigenous and all workers, not replacing President Lozada with some "lesser evil" capitalist politician, while capitalism remains intact.
This requires building a revolutionary communist party. In the February rebellion, the system could have been taken. But the union leaders and other anti-Goni politicians like Evo Morales did their best to prevent this outcome. The same thing will happen now. Revolutionary leadership can unite workers and their allies to defeat these traitors.
The young workers drafted into the army could be a big factor in this struggle. The National Association of Parents of Conscripts demanded the government pull the troops out of the Andean region after the shooting on Sept. 20. Most of these soldiers are poorly fed and mistreated by their officers. Revolutionary leadership could win soldiers to support the general strike and refuse to fire on strikers, as well as build unity with workers in Chile.
Workers and soldiers, united under revolutionary leadership, can destroy the system that has oppressed us for so many centuries.
Free Market and State Capitalism --Two Sides of the Same Coin
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 1 -- Led by the Electrical Workers Union (SME), thousands filled El Zócalo, the plaza outside the Presidential Palace, to denounce President Vicente Fox's plans to privatize the energy and electrical industries. Fox was cursed, denounced and ridiculed in chants, signs and speeches. But equally hated by the marchers was Ms. Elba Gordillo, leader of the National Teachers Union (SNTE) and also the most powerful PRI politician in the Congress. (The PRI is the former ruling party and now in the "opposition.") She was called a "killer of teachers" -- when she ran the union directly, several dissident teachers were murdered -- and a sellout for collaborating with Fox's privatization plans for the oil and electrical industries and public services like education and health. "Daughter of Fox" many called her.
The SME represents nationalist feelings among workers and a group of bosses. The "opposition" Revolutionary Democratic Party leader and former presidential candidate, Cuauhémoc Cárdenas, was one of the few speakers at the protest, saying that state capitalism is "better" than the free market variety. The bosses and their union hack allies fighting for "state capitalism" don't do it to protect workers, but to control the exploitation of the rich state-owned monopolies like PEMEX (the oil giant) for their own private profit and benefit. Workers will be exploited no matter which group of local bosses or imperialist vultures controls the means of production.
Contrary to fake leftists and union hacks, we in PLP call on workers to fight to abolish wage slavery -- capitalism in all its forms -- and fight for a society where workers produce to satisfy their needs.
China: New World's Maquiladora
Job elimination has been the main "achievement" of Mexico's President Fox. In July, employment in the maquiladora industry (foreign-owned plants mostly near the U.S. border that import parts to assemble in Mexico for re-export) fell by 2.3%. The National Statistics Institute of Geography and Information reported that maquiladora employment overall had dropped from one million workers in early 2001 to 821,500 by last July. (Financial Times, 10/2)
The slowdown in the maquiladoras began with the U.S. recession and an overvalued peso, but now another capitalist country where labor is even more exploited than Mexico has worsened the situation. Since workers are paid even less in China, it is cheaper to produce there even with the lengthy transportation to the U.S. market. And just as CHALLENGE has reported the misery brought by the maquiladoras to young women workers in northern Mexico -- including hundreds of women from the maquiladoras murdered in Ciudad Juarez -- the same is happening in China.
The N.Y. Times (10/2) reported on young girls being super-exploited and cheated of their pitiful wages in a maquiladora-type cosmetic factory in northern China. "These girls' ill-fated foray to work at Daxu Cosmetics and their attempt to flee one moonless night in May illustrate how even rudimentary workers' rights lag far behind job creation and profits in China's surging economy."
The defeat of communism in China has been a nightmare for tens of millions workers like these young women.
Jobless `Recovery': Fewer Workers Working Harder for Lower Wages
Despite the wishful thinking by the Bush administration, a jobless recovery is the name of the game. There are three million fewer jobs today than when "Dubya" took power in January 2001. "Based on 220 million people of working age today, there should be at least 134 million jobs. Surveys report...fewer than 130 million jobs. Just to return to some form of normal state, employment would have to increase by 4 million. That is the `job gap.' It is the sum of jobs that have been actually lost plus those that growth should have added since the beginning of 2001."(London Financial Times, 10/1)
Over the next year, the number of people of working age will grow by 2.75 million, 61% of whom will need jobs. So closing the job gap involves not only creating jobs for those already unemployed but also creating another 150,000 per month for these new workers entering the job market.
The Bush administration and especially some textile manufacturers blame China for the job losses. They are demanding China adjust its currency to make Chinese goods more expensive, slowing Chinese exports to the U.S. market and therefore reduce the transfer of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China where workers are more super-exploited.
But Marx explained the real problem over 150 years ago: in the quest for maximum profits, each company tries to capture as much market share as possible. They build new factories which in turn leads to overproduction of the means of production. Since more is produced than the market can bear, the excess factories are closed and mass layoffs ensue, as the bosses shift their losses onto the backs of the workers. Then they use this army of unemployed as a club to drive down the wages and increase the productivity of those still working.
Capitalism will never create jobs for everyone (except during World War II when 14 million workers were drafted into the military). Even in the "boom years" of the '90s, joblessness was higher than reported because "discouraged" workers, those on welfare and those imprisoned (more than two million, mostly black and Latino men) aren't counted as unemployed.
In the past, workers laid off in recessions were re-hired when the recession ended. But today's "recovery" is mainly based on increased productivity, meaning fewer workers are producing more while wages drop and many laid off workers are not re-hired. Ford recently celebrated their new four-year contract with the UAW by announcing 3,000 job cuts on the day the deal was ratified.
The Bush administration also claims tax cuts have helped the recovery. While some workers who received a few hundred dollars may have used them to buy school supplies for their kids, the major cuts were in capital gains taxes. These are designed to raise savings and lower the cost of capital, not to increase consumption. As the cost of capital falls, companies invest more in automation, which "drives output per worker sharply upwards. Over the past two years labor productivity has gone up by more than 4% a year, roughly twice the average of the previous five years." (FT)
The Bush administration hoped seizing Iraqi oil would boost the recovery. The war is helping some companies make big profits (particularly those associated with Bush, Cheney & Co.), but the war has created other problems. Iraqi oil production is well below expectations, partly because of continuous sabotage of oil pipelines. U.S. bosses may have to share the Iraqi oil bonanza with France's Totalfina, Russia's Lukoil and other imperialist oil companies as the price for getting international aid in rebuilding Iraq.
The Democrats are using unemployment as an election issue. But the Clinton boom of the '90s was based on the speculation of the "new economy." This "dot.com" bubble burst before 9/11, and contributed to the current problem. The real Clinton "boom" was the rapid expansion of slave labor Workfare and prison labor, and the creation of low-wage jobs. Currently over 30% of all U.S. jobs pay wages below the poverty line.
Capitalism and unemployment go hand in hand. This system offers workers and youth a future of endless wars, jobless recoveries, racist and fascist terror. Such a system must be smashed. Workers produce all value. We don't need bosses. We need a communist society where production is based on workers' needs.
UMASS Prof Framed by Patriot Act
BOSTON, MASS., Oct. 5 -- On Nov. 6, UMass and Roxbury Community College Professor Tony Van Der Meer will be tried for assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. The charges stem from an incident at UMass-Boston last April when anti-war students were passing out leaflets quoting Martin Luther King's condemnation of the Vietnam War. A near-by military recruiter shouted ugly racist smears ("You should be shot in the head, too") at the students and Prof. Van Der Meer, who came to the students' defense. Van Der Meer, a black man, was then tackled, arrested and shackled by the UMass police, while the white military recruiter walked away scot free.
Freedom of speech has always been a sham under capitalism because the bosses use their media to control which "speech" is heard. And the courts have always sided with the police. But now, since passage of the Patriot Act, District Attorneys and judges are increasingly refusing to use their discretion to dismiss cases involving protests against racism and fascism. This has motivated Van Der Meer to use his case as " a vehicle to inform people about how our so-called constitutional rights are being violated" as well as build the movement against the war in Iraq. He wants people to understand that this attack "is really happening to them, too." The government is "chiseling away our rights," and the attack against him could become a "precedent to deny others their rights."
Professor Van Der Meer uses his classroom to "try to help working-class students empower themselves." He sees education as a "process of social transformation rather than a way for students to better commodify themselves". He views his role as a professor at a working-class university as helping to "make new human beings in this society".
The D.A.'s office has offered to dismiss his case if Van Der Meer doesn't press charges against the UMass police and the National Guard's recruiter. Van Der Meer courageously refuses to make this deal. Once the criminal case has been resolved, he wants to take the offense and expose the "injustice system" for squashing dissent, which "has become a criminal act in this post 9/11 society."
PLP applauds Van Der Meer for his willingness to oppose growing fascism. We're mobilizing to support him, just as everyone around the country should actively defend those being victimized by the Patriot Act -- Muslims, South Asians, Arabs and political activists. In these struggles, communists must win others to a mass approach rather than relying on liberal politicians, who try to keep us passive until it's too late to fight back. We must not compromise our commitment to sharpen the class struggle. If politicians, loyal to the capitalist system, legitimize us, we're selling out the working class.
CalState University Trustees `Option': Terminate Higher Education
Working-class students, professors and staff in the California State University System (CSU) are under attack. The largest public higher education system in the U.S., serving nearly a half million students, increased student fees 10% last January and another 30% in July, in anticipation of a $200 million cut in the system. In early August, the California Legislature cut $345.2 million, leading Chancellor Reed to eliminate 2,300 faculty jobs, lay off countless part-time instructors, close a large number of classes, slash outreach and recruitment, freeze wages, and cap enrollment for next year, denying 30,000 eligible graduating high school students enrollment into the CSU system. (www.calstate.edu/BudgetCentral/index/html).
The Chancellor, Trustees and State Legislature are servants of corporate profit. Eleven of the twenty Trustees are CEO's of corporations, including Robert Foster, CEO of Southern California Edison. The others are lawyers and real estate developers. Only one is a CSU professor.
Next year looks even worse. All state agencies must cut 20% from the 2004 budget. Recently the Board of Trustees said this cut would mean one of four options: 1) turn away 100,000 students; 2) cut 54,000 courses; 3) raise student fees by 90%; or 4) lay off nearly 7,000 faculty.
But students and faculty are fighting back. At one campus, students and faculty organized a large demonstration against the budget cuts and fee increases. In the face of continual threats by the administration, the demonstration linked the budget cuts to the "war on terrorism" and the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout the day, over 2,000 students heard speakers, watched guerilla theater, music and poetry. We marched through the campus chanting, "Money for books and education, not for war and occupation," and "Fee increases and layoffs mean you got to fight back." We distributed over 200 CHALLENGES.
The overall campaign includes classroom presentations about the budget cuts, fee increases, war and occupation. This is helping build the anti-budget cut, anti-war coalition. Over 50 students have joined the campaign in the past two weeks, with more contacting the organizing group every day. The next step is to intensify day-to-day political struggle for a revolutionary position. Most importantly, CHALLENGE distribution helps PL members advance a sharp communist analysis within this struggle.
The CSU crisis reflects the deepening crisis of capitalism, whether run by Democrats or Republicans. The ruling class cuts healthcare and education while pumping billions into an occupation that will never "liberate" anyone. They create the crisis, and then balance it on the backs of the working class.
A system causing endless wars for profits, racist cutbacks and crooked politicians must be replaced by one serving the needs of workers and their families: communism. Join PLP!
Fascism 101: Become A Stoolie for the LAPD
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 -- "This is what fascism looks like!" said a teacher at a public high school here last week. On Tuesday, lawyers from the L.A. City Attorney's office spoke to the faculty meeting, outlining the new neighborhood "block project." In conjunction with the L.A.P.D. under Police Chief William Bratton, the Federal "Weed and Seed," two federal agencies and the State Police, the city attorney's office will target "quality-of-life crimes," youth gangs, graffiti and drugs. On Wednesday, drug-sniffing dogs were brought on campus, and students and teachers in several classes were ordered into the hall while the cops took the dogs around to sniff all the purses and back-packs -- supposedly for drugs. On Thursday, students in the leadership class (student council) were called from class to an urgent meeting with the L.A. City Attorney and told they were to be snitches for the LAPD.
Many people are angry about this increase in police presence. They're beginning to organize against it, both in school and in the union. Some parents are wondering why they've not been told that their children's belongings are being searched. Teachers are angry that students would be used as informers on city workers -- such as if trash collectors are doing their job. Students are angry about being searched and treated like criminals.
The "Weed and Seed" program -- created after the LA rebellion protesting the acquittal of the cops who beat Rodney King -- targets young black and Latino males, calling them "weeds," and jails them. This program, started by George Bush Sr., was fought in Seattle. The lessons of that fight are being studied here. It was supposed to create urban enterprise zones to "gentrify" the inner city. The only "seeding" in our neighborhood is a tiny amount to pay for a new football scoreboard at the school and for some of the tutoring already going on. Like "community policing," Weed and Seed's real goal is to win one section of the community to trust the police and other city officials rather than our class, and to pit older residents against the youth, who are all seen as "weeds" -- or criminals.
Last year Bratton declared war on the gangs, and in one weekend the cops killed six civilians. Two victims were students at this school -- passengers in a car the police shot at when the driver didn't stop fast enough. Many students were angry; they protested, but community agencies strove to deflect the anger into prayer vigils.
This year, two students were killed near the school in a drive-by shooting. Quickly Bratton was on TV, announcing the arrest of gang member "suspects." The following week, the city attorney was at the school rolling out the LAPD/City Attorney/Weed&Seed block project. The ruling class takes our pain and our fear, a fear caused by their system, and uses it to build a fascist police state. After all, the gangs became a serious problem after drugs like crack cocaine were made available in huge amounts by the same rulers who then use the turf war over drug "territory" to terrorize all the youth in these neighborhoods.
While the big gangsters in the White House and Congress recruit young people to fight their class brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and Iraq, the little gangsters in the neighborhood recruit young people to fight their class brothers and sisters in the next street for control of drug trade and turf. Young people must be won to fight for our own class -- the working class -- against those who would win us to risk our lives and to kill our class brothers, in the Middle East or on the next block. The solution to imperialist war, unemployment and racist police terror is a working class movement uniting us against these fascist attacks and against the whole capitalist system that needs fascism when it's in crisis.
More people are open to reading CHALLENGE, to see how this attack fits into the rulers' plans to win youth and their parents to look to them for protection, to militarize the neighborhoods and all of society in preparation for more war. Growing awareness of their plans can lead to a fight against them and to many seeing that the long-term solution to this crisis is communist revolution.
Environmentalism: A Communist Perspective
A Capitalist Nightmare
This is part two.
Since 1940, North Americans have consumed a larger share of mineral resources than the combined total of all human beings who previously lived on the planet. At present rates, many scientists predict that most natural resources will be depleted by the end of the century.
The "Consumer Societies" of the U.S., Western Europe and Japan produced a tremendous rise in consumption and living standards after World War II. However, because of increasing international competition and continued economic crises, workers today are forced to rely increasingly on credit and loans to maintain consumption. Today, the average U.S. household debt makes up 95% of disposable income (the amount remaining after paying for all neccessities).
The U.S. population consumes an average of over 124 lbs. of material per person per day, excluding water. The U.S. population tripled since 1900, while consumption of raw materials rose 17-fold. With less than 5% of the world's population, the U.S. consumes 33% of the world's paper, 22% of its oil, 23% of its coal, 27% of its aluminum, 19% of its copper, and accounts for 24% of carbon dioxide emissions. Even so, 30 million U.S. workers, including 12 million children under the age of 12, go hungry each day.
By comparison, the poorest fifth of the world population -- over 1 billion workers -- live on less than a dollar a day. Under this racist, imperialist system, the richest one-fifth of world population accounts for 86% of private consumption, while the poorest fifth only accounts for 1.3%.
In the past 50 years, suburban sprawl has led to even more racist segregation of housing, polluted vital watersheds and destroyed valuable farmland. Urban congestion has also worsened. There are currently 24 cities worldwide with a population exceeding 10 million. This vast and concentrated population is producing mountains of garbage and oceans of sewage.
The typical person in the U.S. discards nearly a ton of trash per year, consisting of 39% paper, 13% yard trimmings, and 10% plastics and food waste. Industrial waste is even worse. The production of one laptop computer generates 4,000 times its weight in waste. Because recycling is unprofitable, much of this waste ends up in landfills near low-income neighborhoods. Built-in product obsolescence, sales packaging, and overproduction have added to the heap. U.S. bosses have been among the worst offenders, cutting corners on fuel emissions, waste reduction and recycling programs to maintain profits.
Trees, crops, soil and water are being consumed faster than they can be replenished. Since 1970, pollution and intensive production techniques have led to a 50% decline in freshwater ecosystems, a 30% decline in marine ecosystems, and a 10% decline in forests, resulting in soil erosion, plummeting fish stocks and an extinction rate nearly 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than normal. Drinkable water is disappearing so rapidly that many speculate it will soon replace oil as the most sought-after commodity.
Consumerism is a product of capitalism's need to create reliable markets for its immense overproduction of goods and services. It builds bourgeois individualism. With the elimination of capitalist competition, production will be centralized and rationally planned. As goods and services are socialized, individual consumption levels will decrease. With centralized housing communities, all major services (food, health, entertainment, etc.) will be centralized and made more efficient, reducing individual consumption.
Parasitic industries like advertising and packaging will disappear. Labor will shift to developing recycling programs to clean up the environment and provide reusable resources for future generations. Eventually, the automobile industry will be replaced by a cheap, efficient and clean public transportation system to serve centralized housing and production.
As the need for large pools of cheap labor is eliminated, industry will spread out more evenly near housing communities connected by a web of public transportation. All workers will enjoy healthy, un-congested, stress-free environments close to nature. Above all, in this classless society, workers will collectively determine what goods and services we need, how they will be made, and how they will be distributed.
However, such achievements will have to first overcome the huge havoc and destruction wrought by imperialist world war. Communist revolutionaries will have the monumental task of re-building huge chunks of the world's production, but in ways that create the kind of changes described above.
Sources:
1."Overcoming Consumerism."
http://www.verdant.net/index.htm.
2. Tilford, David. "Why Consumption Matters?." Sierra Club. 2000
http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/tilford.asp#cost.
3 "World Population, Development, and ResourceConsumption."http://classes.maxwell.syr.edu/geo315/Students/web%20page/02500.htm.
AFGHAN WOMEN FIGHT U.S./WARLORD OPPRESSION
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Two years ago Oct. 7, U.S. rulers began the bombing "liberation" of Afghanistan, including the supposed liberation of women. Here are the results.
We now see girls, ages 10 to 17, crowd into a small room, at the top of a mud-walled house, in a dusty village outside Kabul. A teacher writes basic sentences on a blackboard. They read from their only text book. Across Afghanistan, women of all ages, forbidden education during the Taliban years (1995-2001), are eagerly studying, often in primitive schools set up by non-governmental organizations, staffed by dedicated poorly-paid women. "We're here to learn so we can be independent," said one eager 13-year-old.
But going to school can still be risky; almost two years since the fall of the Taliban, schools have been fire-bombed and students and teachers threatened. Women face similar difficulties working outside the home. Many need the permission of husbands and fathers in all decisions, sometimes even to leave the house. In a women's prison a 16-year-old told of her "crime": running away from home to escape an abusive uncle. Imprisonment of girls and women attempting to escape forced marriages and abusive husbands and other extreme forms of oppression like kidnaps, attacks and rapes are ongoing.
Fascism takes different forms around the world and in Afghanistan it operates under the guise of religion, with women as its major target. The country's history over the past 25 years is one of terror, death and destruction, with women's fate tied to the political climate. In personal stories over and over again women told of the brutality of the Mujahedeen (trained by the CIA to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan) who equated communism with women learning to read and write and other basic rights. The CIA and their Pakistani and Saudi buddies used Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviets in the 1980s.
Over one million Afghans were killed in this imperialist war. When the holy warriors took over, the bloodletting continued. The Taliban religious fanatics were created by the Pakistani army to oust the mujahedeen gang of religious fascists who took over after the Soviets left.
The post-Taliban government headed by U.S. puppet President Harmid Karzai is a façade and only rules in Kabul. (Karzai is a former executive of Unocal oil which wanted to construct a pipeline through Afghanistan.) Power in much of the country is in the hands of the fundamentalists, the familiar old warlords to whom the Bush administration gave cash and weapons in return for helping oust the Taliban in 2001.
The country is still reeling from the war years. The only social movement is that of the women. Kabul, like the rest of the country, has no electricity during the day, no street lights, no traffic lights. Mountains of rubble, and uncollected garbage, picked over by the desperately poor, are everywhere. Buildings are covered with bullet and rocket holes. People make homes on the ground floors of bombed buildings, collapsed floors precariously hanging over their heads. Jobs are scarce. Iraqis can learn from events in Afghanistan what U.S. "democracy" has in store for them.
The government has no money, supposedly getting less than 20% of the international aid. Much of it goes into the pockets of the warlords. There are some very large mansions being built for a wealthy few but there is very little reconstruction going on. There are still hundreds of thousands of internal refugees living in very primitive conditions. Many people are traumatized by the atrocities they lived through in the past two decades. That was what was so extraordinary about these women. They told the most horrific stories of unspeakable violence but still had the courage to stand up and make demands.
Today women are mobilizing despite the current dominance of the fundamentalists and with the Taliban staging a comeback in the south and east. Recently women from around the country came up with demands to be included in a new constitution. Priorities were education, health care and equal pay. They called for criminal charges to be brought against men for domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Their demands may seem mild and some of the women understand that change takes more than having demands made into law, but after living through two decades of inhuman abuse and in a current atmosphere of continuing violence, these small steps take on heroic proportions.
Ironically, the "holy warriors" had it right. Only communism can free women from capitalist-religious oppression.
IL Duce No Lesser Evil Führer
A recent N.Y. Times article reported that the term fascism means different things to different people. But fascism has a definite meaning: it is capitalism without its mask of "democracy." Open terror is the name of the game.
Many try to distinguish between different forms of fascism. Some say Mussolini's in Italy was "soft" compared to Nazi Germany. Last August 27, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's right-wing Prime Minister, said Il Duce (Mussolini), "never killed anyone. The most he did was send people to a long vacation in confinement." In the U.S., we hear similar lies from the Neo-Nazi "historic revisionists" who claim Auschwitz and the holocaust is a "Jewish invention."
Mussolini was only "softer" than the Führer (Hitler) because capitalism in Italy was much weaker. In some ways, Italian fascism was as much a warmaker and killer as the Nazis. Mussolini arrested all his opponents and killed many. He was part of the fascist Axis (with Germany and Japan) during World War II (WWII). He also launched his own criminal wars. Heinz Dieterich, a Latin-American political analyst, wrote in Rebelion.org (Sept. 27) that Il Duce would say, "In order to stay healthy," a country must wage war every 25 years or so.
Mussolini's wars in Africa killed over one million. In October 1935, with no provocation, and violating all international treaties (a la Bush in Iraq), Il Duce sent 650,000 troops to attack Ethiopia, a very poor country run by feudal Emperor Haile Selassie. France and Britain, particularly the latter's Winston Churchill (strongly sympathetic to Il Duce), tolerated this invasion. The fascist pilots used toxic mustard gas to kill civilians, bombing hospitals and other civilian targets (as Clinton and Gen. Clark did in Belgrade in 1999 and Bush did to Baghdad). They burned hundreds of villages and shot the residents, even those who surrendered after being promised amnesty. Many prisoners were saturated with oil and burned alive. The racist invaders had explicit orders to murder 10 Africans for every Italian soldier killed. Anyone considered an intellectual was systematically slain, including elementary school teachers. Three hundred monks and 1,000 deacons were murdered when weapons were found in Ethiopia's most famous monastery. The Vatican kept totally silent, as it did during the holocaust several years later, claiming it "wasn't strong enough" to denounce these atrocities.
One difference between fascism in Italy and Germany was the development of the Italian Communist Party. While the KPD (the German CP) was crushed by the Nazis, the Italian CP grew under fascism. It used to say, "Mussolini killed us and killed us until there were two million of us." One of PLP's founders who served in the U.S. Army in Italy at the end of WWII tells how the red flag, hammer and sickle and "Viva Stalin" were painted on every wall left standing in Italy's cities, towns and villages. The communist guerrillas captured, executed and hung Il Duce and his mistress.
But after the war, the Italian CP made the fatal error of not taking power when it could have tried. Instead it entered the capitalist electoral circus and went the way of all parties that abandon the goal of workers' power. This tragic error, which prolonged capitalism, is a mistake we in PLP will avoid as we fight against the fascism and wars of world capitalism today.
LETTERS
Chicago Teachers Veto Contract;
Strike Possible
Chicago Teachers Union delegates voted 402 - 289 advising members to reject a proposed 5-year contract, setting the stage for a possible strike. The membership votes on October 16. The school system's predominately black and Latin working-class students attend overcrowded schools, in classrooms with 30 or more students. Administrative abuses make teachers' jobs even more difficult. The proposed contract doesn't resolve these issues.
Many teachers and ESP's (Educational Support Personnel) are ready to walk out. Some want to strike to gain respect. Others believe teachers and ESP's will get a better deal by striking. PLP distributed fliers saying, "During a strike, we get a taste of power. We get an opportunity to bring together the strength of our membership."
The union leadership argues that this is the best we can do, that striking will hurt our cause. The deal includes a 4% raise for 5 years, or 20%, although at least half the raise is offset by increased health insurance costs and a longer school day. The other half will be eaten up by inflation, so actually it's no raise at all. The leadership says these are hard times economically, that parents won't support the union if members reject this contract. But parents want their children to get a good education and would support a strike for smaller classes.
Teachers, ESP's, parents and students are all angry at the hundreds of billions the government spends on war, on raises for themselves, on fancy sports stadiums and on tax cuts to the rich, while never having enough for the schools. But the servants of the racist capitalists spend tax money to guarantee profits. They set up schools to brainwash students into believing that capitalism is great, educate some for their own purposes, and prepare most for the army, low-wage jobs, prison or unemployment. They want to achieve this at the least possible cost.
Teachers are the country's biggest group of voters. The union leaders are pushing for legislation to win smaller classes and urging more members to contribute to the political action fund. Instead of pinning their hopes on the capitalist electoral system, teachers need to join the fight for a society where education serves the needs of students, teachers and all workers instead of a few racist bosses and bureaucrats. That is the goal of the communist PLP.
A strike is an opportunity for teachers and ESP's to challenge the capitalists' control of education and consider what it would take to give students the schools they deserve. PLP members will be there to give leadership to a strike while struggling with strikers, students and parents to read and distribute CHALLENGE, the voice of communism.
Red Teacher
Union Hacks A Bad Brew
I'm saddened but not surprised by the situation suffered by the Bavaria brewery workers here in Bogota, Colombia. I'm one of the many fired by the company. I participated in many militant struggles, marches, meetings and other actions against the bosses who tried to take everything our predecessors had won in a century of struggle. Now the union leaders have given up everything.
The hyenas who run the company tried to blind us with all kinds of capitalist lies, like "United, We Are More," and "Good Ideas Will Be Rewarded." But the workers were not swallowing this crap, so the bosses bought off the weakest link: the union's executive committee. The hacks signed a contract behind our backs which divides the workers and supports the bosses' fascist attacks.
Boss Ricardo Obregón took advantage of this sellout and began firing workers while sanctioning, pressuring and slandering those who remained on the job. Only 90 are left of the 550 that worked here. Now the union leaders are busy running for office in the local city government, telling workers to vote for them as the "answer" to their problems.
There are still some rank-and-file workers trying to resist the attacks, without any support from the union hacks. PLP members are using CHALLENGE to show how the attacks of the bosses and the union leaders' betrayals are part and parcel of capitalism worldwide. Workers needs to understand that we belong to an international working class which needs to rebuild the communist movement and fight for a society without bosses and their lackeys.
Red Worker
Killing Kids A Capitalist Scourge
We have seen the pictures of the children warriors in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, etc. who die and kill in the civil conflicts waged by local warlords for control of the diamonds, cobalt, oil and the rest of the mineral wealth of Africa. But violence and death are not limited to African children. UNICEF (the UN Fund for Children) reports that 3,500 youth under 15 are killed each year in the so-called developed countries.
The U.S., Mexico (a member of the Organization for the Economic Development and Cooperation, which groups the 30 top economies of the world) and Portugal lead the pack. The infant mortality rates of these three countries are 10 to 15 times higher than the other developed countries. France and Belgium follow.
Eighty percent of child murders occur at home. The biological parents (fathers and mothers equally) are the culprits. Stress because of poverty, work problems, drugs, alcohol and other social diseases caused by capitalism are the main causes. Thirty to forty percent of fathers who treat their children violently also beat their spouses.
UNICEF correctly calls this a failure of society and calls on governments to do something to reduce and eliminate these murders. But how can societies based on wars and racist and sexist super-exploitation eradicate this? We have all seen horrific news stories of children beaten or starved by their parents, while the social services that are supposed to protect children are cut back in this age of endless wars and capitalist crisis.
For the sake of the children, we've got to destroy capitalism, the cause of this violence, and fight for a communism.
A Concerned Parent
`When the workers unite, the bosses tremble!'
In one of our garment worker meetings in LA, a woman mentioned how she was forced to change factories, with two days of work unpaid. The boss told the woman she wouldn't pay her for the two days because the worker hadn't written down the work she did the way the boss wanted. As always, the bosses blame the victim so they can continue super-exploiting us. The workers at the meeting were indignant and began planning action.
A few days later, during her lunch break, a comrade went to the new factory to visit the worker who had been robbed of her wages. Other co-workers joined the discussion and decided to go to the other factory to demand the approximately $100 that the boss owed the worker.
This same day a group of six workers confronted the boss to demand the pay. At first, the boss denied owing the worker money and started yelling and blaming the supervisor for the problem. But when she saw the workers' anger and determination, the frightened boss paid the $100.
The worker and her supporters left elated at being able to achieve a small victory, and mainly at seeing the strength workers have when they unite. "When the workers unite, the bosses tremble," said one worker. Garment workers are the most super-exploited, but have a long tradition of struggle. These small battles help us build revolutionary spirit to organize our fellow workers. They make us feel stronger as a class and as communists. Let's go forward, comrades. Let's continue organizing more massively, not only for wages that have been stolen from us but to end wage slavery and profits, for communism and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
A garment worker comrade
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)
Foreign money will exploit Iraq
Iraq's new finance minister, Kamel al-Gallani, announced a sweeping liberalization of his country's economy . . . . The plan, already approved by L. Paul Bremer III, the American in charge of the Coalition Provisional Authority, is extreme -- in fact, stunning. It would immediately make Iraq's economy one of the most open to trade and capital flows in the world, and put it among the lowest taxed in the world, rich or poor. . . .
It would allow a handful of foreign banks to take over the domestic banking system. . . . Moreover, the radical laws have been adopted without a democratic Iraqi government to discuss or approve them.
One would have thought that the failures of swift and sudden free market changes in Russia in the 1990's would have made even extremist economists cautious. . . .
[A]s has been characteristic of such shock therapy in the past, the new economic planners have not included provisions for social programs. . . .
Its consequences, as in Russia, could be widespread cruelty. (NYT, 10/2)
Oil shapes decisions on Iraq
. . . . It's a Russian ambition to have a role in Iraq.
There is a great deal of speculation in Moscow these days that Russia would agree to send troops to help the American-led coalition in Iraq if the Bush administration moved to protect Russian oil interests in that country. (NYT, 9/27)
Pro-worker laws are a con
The federal No Child Left Behind law of 2002 may go down in history as the most unpopular piece of education legislation ever created. . . .
The law allows students at schools labeled failing to transfer out. . . . Everyone knows 40 in a class is not sound educationally.
And yet, that is precisely what has happened in New York City. The mayor and the chancellor -- who have been quite restrained in their comments about the law -- said yes to all 8,000 federal transfer requests, contributing to the worst overcrowding of city schools in years.
Now it turns out that about a third of the 8,000 transfers -- children often traveling over an hour to attend crowded schools -- have been moved from one school labeled failing under the law to another failing school.
But principals of small high schools, like Louis Delgado of Vanguard in Manhattan, say transfers have devastated them this year. Vanguard went to 440 students from 330. . . . Until this year, he had 22 to a class; now it is 30. "We've had more fighting in one month than we did all last year," he said. (NYT, 10/1)
Newton thought dialectically
What Newton perceived was . . . . everything is process; life and death, growth and decay, collapse and regeneration. "All things are generable." We tend to think of Newton as the great conservator, the law-giver, but in fact he was a radical and a revolutionary. (GW, 9/17)
Lessons of S.A. `terror' wars
The argument goes that war is war and both sides do hellish, demonic things that cannot be examined fairly in peacetime.
This is a dangerous argument. On a numerical basis alone, it does not stand up. In Argentina leftist guerillas in a 20-year period were responsible for an estimated 600 deaths, compared with the state's 15,000 killings and disappearances. In Chile the military was responsible for an estimated 3,000 deaths while around 150 members of the security forces were killed. In the Peru the Shining Path is blamed for a larger proportion of deaths, but the state is held responsible for around 20,000.
. . . .Murders and torture were carried out under the authority of the state. . . . Once a state suspends its laws and excuses its actions on a threat of terrorism, the slope is a slippery one . . . . (GW, 9/17)
Patriot Act = ethnic profiling
The Patriot Act . . . allowed the FBI to pull records from libraries and book stores, defined "terrorism" to include direct action by protesters, widened the use of wire-tapping on phone calls and emails and paved the way for the mass internment without charge of several thousand foreign nationals. The most vulnerable are Arabs, Asians and Muslims.
"Essentially this is the most massive case of ethnic profiling since the internment of Japanese Americans during the second world war," said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. (GW, 9/17)
