- Union Hacks Hide Capitalism as Cause of
Prison Labor: Fascism, U.S. Style - PARDONS CAN'T CHANGE RACIST NATURE OF BOSSES MILITARY
- PICNIC JUMP STARTS SUMMER PROJECT
- MAY DAY ORGANIZING HEIGHTENS CLASS STRUGGLE AT PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL
- MUNI CONTRACT WON'T BRAKES ON EXPLOITATION
- CHICAGO YOUTH ORGANIZE AGAINST RACIST COPS
- KOSOVO COMES TO MIAMI
- RACIST YONKERS COPS: NYPD HAS NOTHING ON THEM
- LIBERAL SCHOOL REFORMS DEFEND CAPITALISM, ATTACK STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
- ANTI-KLAN PLP'ER ELECTED UFT DELEGATE
- SRI LANKA: The Three Horseman of the Apocalypse--Racism, Nationalism, and Imperialism
- CHINA BUCKS U.S. CONTROL OF WORLDS' OIL SHIPPING LANES
- LETTERS
Union Hacks Hide Capitalism as Cause of
Prison Labor: Fascism, U.S. Style
SEATTLE, WA., May 26--"Have you seen this?" said a swing-shift machinist as he waved the latest copy of the IAM JOURNAL, organ of the International Association of Machinists. "What took 'em so long?"
He was referring to the lead article, PRISON LABOR: BUSTING OUT ALL OVER AMERICA, and the editorial, PRISON LABOR AND THE FIGHT FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE. For nearly two years we've been organizing against the company's use of prison slave labor. It seems the International has finally noticed the problem.
"It's great the Party has taken the lead on this issue," he continued. It's nice to be appreciated, but now what are we going to DO?
The prison labor article was one of the longest ever to appear in the JOURNAL. It documented how many hundreds of IAM members have lost jobs to prison labor, which pays as low as 11cents an-hour. Everything from maintenance and repair work in transit, to assembling John Deere products, to building landing gear components now uses prison labor. The article even shows how the prison population has exploded, particularly among black people and the poor. In particular, it attacks the private prison companies, like Prison Reality Corp. and Wackenhut.
After stonewalling on this issue for years, has the union leadership finally "got religion"? Have they been reading Progressive Labor Party's pamphlet, PRISON LABOR; FASCISM U.S. STYLE, or one of the thousands of other pieces of literature workers have passed through the plants?
The misleaders may have, but they're still playing their role of diverting our anger into dead-end streets. After that damning exposé, their only solution is to support two useless bills before Congress and to vote against "right-wing forces." One bill would require Federal Prison Industries (FPI), the government's prison slave labor program, to devote 20% of its budget to vocational training. The other bill would mandate that FPI no longer be the "sole source provider" for the U.S. government. Of course, at 11cents an-hour FPI would always be the lowest bidder so it would get the jobs anyway.
Social Democracy: A `Fairer Capitalism'?....
"The International is not against prison labor," declared our machinist friend. "They're just against unfair competition."
His complaint goes to the heart of the matter. No less than Thomas Friedman, the NEW YORK TIMES foreign affairs columnist and one of Rockefeller & Co./Eastern Money's chief mouthpieces, has called for social democracy: "You dare not be a globalizer in this world, an advocate of free trade and integration, without also being a social democrat," he warned. (NYT, 5/19)
By social democracy, he means joining labor, government and business together to put out the fires of class struggle--even if it means an exposé or two about capitalism's worst abuses. He's more than willing to give unions an opportunity to look like heroes and even grow in exchange for loyalty to Eastern Money's foreign policy objectives. This is exactly the role laid out for the social democrats (liberal Democrats) by the ruling class.
....OR SMASH PRISON LABOR WITH COMMUNIST REVOLUTION
On the other hand, nothing says the working class must stay within the limits set down by the Rockefeller & Co./Democratic bunch. Our machinist friend showed the way when he took a handful of the Party's prison labor pamphlets to distribute to every worker with whom he discussed the union article. The next weekend a group met to plan a campaign that would mobilize the rank and file to smash prison labor, not just reform it. Look to these pages for reports on the campaign's progress, and ways you can help.
Prison slave labor is the logical outgrowth of a system, capitalism, which requires greater and greater degrees of exploitation to survive. We're not out to make prison labor more palatable, we're out to smash it, and the system that lives off it, with communist revolution.
Editorial:
PARDONS CAN'T CHANGE RACIST NATURE OF BOSSES MILITARY
Not long ago, Clinton gave a Presidential pardon to Freddie Meeks, for the Port Chicago, Calif. mutiny 56 years ago. Meeks was one of 50 black sailors who refused to work after an explosion killed 320 sailors, 202 of them black, on July 17, 1944. Clinton was responding to a campaign to clear the names of the mutineers who "rose up for our rights," according to Meeks. Clinton also knows that black soldiers and sailors are need now to fight in U.S. imperialist oil wars to protect the profits of Exxon/Mobil.
The explosion was a typical example of the racism of the U.S. military. A book by Robert Allen on this mutiny revealed the rotten conditions under which these sailors loaded munitions. Before the explosion, the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) had warned such an accident was waiting to happen because of those dangerous working conditions. The then left-led ILWU had demanded that loading munitions into a ship require at least five years experience. But the Navy ignored all of this.
Officers: Paid Leave; Black Sailors: 15 Years Hard Labor
Lt. Col. Keith Fergurson had admitted that the black sailors were not trained for this dangerous job. After the explosion, Admiral Carleton Wright threatened the black sailors with death sentences if they refused to carry out orders during World War II Fifty sailors refused to work and were given 15 years at hard labor. After the explosion, the white officers in charge of the black sailors were rewarded with 30 days leave, although none were injured.
Compare the racism of the U.S. military during that war to the nature of the Soviet Red Army while fighting and defeating the bulk of the Nazi war machine. Not only was it a very integrated army, but it did everything possible to protect the ones the Nazi SS death squads accompanying the Werchmacht (the Army) wanted to kill first. It was Stalin's standing "order of the day" to the Red Army that all Jews be removed to safety before any advancing German force could seize them.
Not all the survivors of the mutiny accepted Clinton's pardon. Jack Crittenden of Montgomery, Alabama, told the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE he was not interested: "If the pardon means freedom from being villified," he declared, "we have already being villified for a long time." He also added that Congress should approve aid to the relatives of the 320 sailors who died during the explosion. That didn't happen either.
PICNIC JUMP STARTS SUMMER PROJECT
BROOKLYN, MAY 28,2000--Over 80 high school students, parents and teachers joined us for our annual PLP Memorial Day picnic. With great food and fun sports we enjoyed a day in the park with our base. Males and females participated in sports together. Those who knew how to play the game better taught those who were just learning. We all took turns either setting up, cooking, or cleaning up as is always done at our events. As people listened attentively, two speeches were given by PLP youth. One college student explained how PLP organizes a Summer Project every year to train youth to become communist leaders. She talked about the increased attacks on working class, high school students and their connection to the growing prison system. She urged all students to participate in a summer full of political study, revolutionary action and some summer fun. Two high school students talked about their participation in past summer projects. One mentioned our trip to Flint, Michigan where we brought our communist ideas to striking autoworkers. The other student remembered our trip to Steubenville, Ohio, where we went to prevent the KKK from spreading their racist ideas. Everyone there took CHALLENGES and invitations to our Summer Project. Our activities this summer looks promising. We have many serious and dedicated students around, but we must continue and increase our efforts to consolidate these students and reach out to many more.
MAY DAY ORGANIZING HEIGHTENS CLASS STRUGGLE AT PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL
PHILADELPHIA, May 29 -- Building PLP during a contract fight right after marching on May Day--could the timing be any better? The Local 1199C contract for 1,000 workers at Jefferson Hospital expires June 30. And PLP is in the best position yet to advance the movement for communist revolution.
This year we did our best May Day organizing. While the numbers on the May Day bus were not what we wanted, we made undeniable advances. Some members developed significantly to discuss May Day by themselves and selling many tickets. CHALLENGE distribution increased slightly. For the first time there was actually a small "buzz" at the hospital about May Day. Groups of workers were talking on their own about the March and planning to come.
But maybe most important was finally breaking down the wall in our minds that viewed May Day as somehow "separate" from the daily organizing on the job. We were busier than ever in the union and in the many job struggles. Yet we did a distinctly better job of connecting all these struggles to the need for workers to come to May Day. No longer did we see May Day as just for the smaller group of workers "close to us" who had some familiarity with PLP and communism.
With our many years of organizing and the extensive personal and political ties of some of our members, we were able to very concretely connect even with workers new to us and conduct serious struggles with them to march. For example, Luis is a part-timer interested in organizing a fight for full-time jobs. He has never discussed communism nor read CHALLENGE. From several discussions with him about the difficulties in organizing a jobs campaign, we were able to show him that participating with many other workers in the international working class solidarity of May Day would help prepare him for the ups and downs of this organizing.
Jane is a part-timer who just got a full-time job. But other part-timers are filing grievances claiming they should have received that job, making Jane feel negative. "Why aren't we more united and fighting together instead of with each other?" Jane asked a union delegate. Jane never heard of May Day. The union delegate won Jane to march by explaining that May Day was the best answer for Jane's cynicism. She would be marching with many other workers who, like her, believed in working-class solidarity.
Throughout our May Day organizing we tried to have a more mass approach while explaining to everyone the role of PLP and communism. We tried to avoid being sectarian and opportunist, with mixed results. Yet for the first time May Day became for us what it should have been, an integral part of our organizing in the union mass work. Over the next year we will deepen May Day's role in our daily work.
PLP is now involved the 1199C-contract struggle to carry May Day's red flag forward - and it's scaring the bosses and the union leaders who serve them. Before May Day, the 1199C Organizer (Business Agent) ordered all Jefferson union delegates (and any workers who might lend an ear), that they are NOT to listen to, attend any marches organized by, carry any signs made by, or do anything suggested by Fred, a long-time union delegate.
Despite these "orders," on May 22 Fred and some of the active union delegates organized almost 200 Jefferson workers, in an "underground" manner, through word of mouth, to attend a "show-of-force" solidarity lunch in the hospital cafeteria. It was so popular the union organizer was forced to "endorse" it to avoid totally exposing herself as a sellout. But the union refused to give out any 1199C hats or buttons and none of the union leaders attended. However, it was the first time such a large number of union members participated in such an action on hospital property. It was also the first time some of the action's organizers really saw the bosses' fear of large numbers of united workers.
The 1199C leaders also showed their fear of the workers. Before the solidarity lunch, 1199C had called a meeting about contract negotiations for June 3. A new union activist fought for this Saturday meeting. It would be the first time in a long while that all members would meet together instead of in staggered sessions during the week corresponding to all kinds of crazy shifts. More workers than ever planned to attend. Several declared this would be a "hot" meeting for the union leaders.
Then, a week before this Saturday meeting, some members received a mailing announcing that the starting time had been pushed back four hours! The mailing was dated May 22, the day of our solidarity lunch. Many workers suspect that the 1199C leaders heard about the success of that action and are now trying to sabotage a mass turnout for the Saturday meeting.
Through all these twists and turns PLP has had the opportunity to grow. We are tied to many workers through years of political and personal struggles. We are reaching out to newer and younger workers to fight for jobs. CHALLENGE distribution is increasing. This contract fight is heating up the class struggle a little. Our organizing in this fight can help develop a better May Day next year.
MUNI CONTRACT WON'T BRAKES ON EXPLOITATION
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 30 -- "The situation at work is like a tinder-box, ready to blow at any moment." "It's not just about money, it's about respect." At the last union meeting about upcoming negotiations, one member said: "What contract? Management does what they want."
These comments represent a tremendous and spontaneous anger among Muni drivers upon entering contract negotiations. As communist bus drivers, we must discuss capitalism's real political and economic forces attacking our quality of life and standard of living.
The ever-growing two-tier wage progression (new drivers start at 70% and wait 31 months to reach full pay) means that over that period management pays new drivers $22,000 less than drivers with more seniority for exactly the same work. Today 12% of the work force is part-time. A two-tier retirement program leaves only about 225 drivers with a livable pension while the vast majority's plan pays $1,800.00 a month maximum.
Management wants to expand efficient "rush-hour" service to the downtown business and commercial district. Think-tanks like SPUR, the Chamber of Commerce and the Committee on Jobs use the government and courts to legally enforce the increased exploitation of drivers. This means a full assault on work rules, including giving management a blank check on changing work-hours, a further weakening of rules that allow drivers time off from a stressful job and limitless use of part-time labor.
Drivers are already scrambling, at tremendous cost to personal health and family life. Many depend on the individual solution of overtime (on average 400 hours a year, or 10 extra 40-hour weeks!). One would need $27/hr to earn the same income in a 40-hour week.
Drivers are protesting the disciplining of drivers for damage to the trolley overhead lines. This is like blaming bus drivers when the vehicle's tires wear out. Many experienced drivers left the trolley division in protest. At the Metro trains' Green Division, drivers were ready to refuse a "sign-up" because of management's plan to disregard safety and re-deploy 16 drivers to a downtown line. Faced with this challenge, management temporarily backed down. At Cable Car, there is a petition about discipline and rumblings about refusal to work OT in the busy tourist period.
There is wide-spread support for another petition demanding an end to wage progression and involuntary part-time jobs.
Downtown businesses are booming. San Francisco is the gateway to trade and finance with Asia, and has "Multi-Media-Dot-Coms" galore. Our labor is vital to the profits of the big corporations whose work force we bring in and out every day. But our contract never addresses these profits, or the "free ride" big business gets from mass transit.
Any contract, no matter how good or bad, is a written agreement on how a group of capitalists will benefit from the labor of workers. Capitalism is based on this exploitation, and it's not up for discussion in contract negotiations. Labor and capital are in a constant conflict that no contract can resolve.
Of all the results we need from this contract fight, the most important is more CHALLENGE readers and distributors so that more workers can consider a revolutionary alternative to capitalism. We are ready to lead a strike to stop the bosses' attacks. But only communist revolution will end exploitation and serve the needs of the international working class.
CHICAGO YOUTH ORGANIZE AGAINST RACIST COPS
CHICAGO, IL. -- On May 24, Gonzalo Venegas and another Lincoln Park H.S. student were brutalized by the fascist Chicago police. The cops punched and spat at them for being at the school the day of a gang fight. Principal Todd had called in extra police that day because of the earlier fight. These cops kicked everyone off school grounds and out of a neighboring park. Gonzalo's "crime" was resisting this abuse.
He was taken to an isolated area and threatened by a cop who lives in his neighborhood. He told Gonzalo if he saw him again he would break his arm. Then they shoved him violently and punched him in the face. When another student who was witnessing this abuse sarcastically "cheered" them for beating on another Latino student, the cops spat at him and handed him a citation. They handcuffed Gonzalo, extra tight, and dropped him off at the park from which they had taken him. No charges were placed. The cops just wanted to brutalize and intimidate the few students who were resisting their harassment.
Lincoln Park students have been active against police brutality this year. They have several lawsuits pending against cops for a fascist search where several young female students were sexually harassed by male officers. The principal promised meetings on the situation but months have passed and nothing has happened.
Students immediately began organizing against this latest brutality. Over 50 students came to the first meeting. The principal tried to defuse the students' anger, but no one believed her empty promises since she did nothing about the previous brutality. After discussion and struggle, students decided to hold a rally at the school calling for a mass meeting with the principal to discuss these problems before the school year end.
Lincoln Park students need to understand that these cops serve the capitalist state. They bosses must force us to submit to their plans for war and fascism, to accept continuing attacks against working class youth. So far this summer the cops have already killed two young black people here and have shot at many others. This caused enough anger for PLP and the victims' families and supporters shut down last month's Police Board meeting.
It promises to be a long hot summer but we will we will never give up organizing to get rid of their murderous system.
KOSOVO COMES TO MIAMI
Miami has been "different" from any other U.S. city for many years. It is the only city in the world where one must be not only anti-communist but specifically anti-Castro as a requirement for almost everything in daily life. The Elián case (remember him?) has exposed all of this. Now one must be anti-Castro, anti-Janet Reno and anti-Juan Miguel (Elián's father).
All this has divided the city between the Cuban exiles and the rest of the population of Miami-Dade County (Anglos, African-Americans, Haitians and non-Cuban Latinos) to such an extent that many fear Miami will become another Kosovo. EL PAIS, a Madrid daily, wrote (May 28) that several people are devising a plan to halt this division. "I hope that the Balkanization of Miami won't be permanent," said Edward Foote, University of Miami president and one of the proponents of a plan to unite the residents.
However, in the city's streets, nationalism reigns supreme. "The symbols of ethnic pride are shown with pride and defiance. And frequently, with hatred....Friends, fellow workers and relatives have even stopped talking to each other," reports EL PAIS. "It has reached the point of the United Way forming four teams of professional counselor-therapists to help more than 200 companies solve ethnic problems on the job and to seal open wounds."
Miami-Dade's 2.4 million population includes 700,000 of Cuban origin, 670,000 non-Cuban Latinos, 370,000 Anglos, 145.000 Jews, 490,000 African-Americans and Haitians. The Cuban exiles, particularly the local politicians and their master behind the scene, the powerful National American Cuban Foundation, view the Elián case as part of their anti-Castro crusade. They claim it is a symbol of their "suffering" as "exiles from communism." But almost everyone else supported Elián's return to his father Juan Miguel. The INS (Immigration Service) raid to free Elián has sharpened this division even more.
There is an interesting lesson in all of this. Anti-communism and racism is a two-edge sword for those who use it. While the Cuban exiles say they "revived Miami" and turned it into what is now known as the "Capital of the Americas," most others resent the Cuban control and monopoly of almost the entire local government. (The police chief and the city administrator, both of whom supported the INS raid, either quit or were fired and replaced by Cubans). The Anglos resent the Cubans in a racist way, as just a bunch of "uppity Latinos." Meanwhile, the Cuban exiles treat the other Latinos, blacks, Haitians and even non-white Cubans just as they did in Batista's Cuba, as their servants.
For many decades, U.S. bosses used the Cuban exiles as mercenaries to wage imperialist war against communism in Central and South America and even in the Congo when leftist Patrice Lumumba was prime minister. Now many see the Miami Cubans' nationalism as "un-American" for burning the U.S. flag during the protests after the INS raid.
Meanwhile, Miami is not the "paradise" Cuban exiles paint. It has one of the highest poverty rates among major U.S. cities (particularly affecting children). Low wages are the norm. Life is generally hard for most workers (except for Elián's kidnappers who have now moved to a bigger house outside Little Havana, courtesy of some rich friends).
This "Balkanization" of Miami proves once again that you reap what you sow. Anti-communism and racism are the bosses' tools. Workers who use them are putting a noose around their necks.
RACIST YONKERS COPS: NYPD HAS NOTHING ON THEM
YONKERS, New York, May 31--The cops in this city north of New York City don't seem to be far behind their fellow NYPD goons. They've unleashed a reign of terror against the mostly Latin community around Colin Street.
Under their Zero Tolerance policy supposedly to "fight crime," cops are harassing people indiscriminately. Last night, a Spanish TV station reported that the cops beat up a couple of young men in a neighborhood Latin family. But this time, unknown to the cops, a neighbor taped their brutal attack. The TV reporter interviewed all kinds of people in the community. They all agreed that the cops indiscriminately harass and push people around. A neighborhood priest said the cops even harass little children playing in the streets.
Workers and youth in Yonkers are getting fed up with this racist terror. They need to do what workers and youth are doing in many other cities: organizing and fighting back! But it must be done without relying on liberal politicians who just tell us "vote for Hillary" and things will change. The only change these liberals are proposing is "community policing" (to get us to help the cops harass us). Yonkers cops are doing what they are paid to do: protect the racist system and attack workers. The PLP Summer Project will see youth organizing against racist terror and for communism. Join us!
LIBERAL SCHOOL REFORMS DEFEND CAPITALISM, ATTACK STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
LOS ANGELES, May 23--Over 6000 teachers marched here for clean classrooms, more books, against merit pay and for an across-the-board raise. Teachers are angry at the worsening conditions. The union leadership has mobilized this anger. Coming on the heels of the janitors' strike, this march reflects both the anger of union members and an aggressive strategy by the liberal ruling class, who need to win workers, and especially teachers, to fight for reforms and defend U.S. "democracy."
Teachers in and around PLP are involved in many levels of the union, fighting the Board of Education and the union leadership. For over a year we've opposed the union/management proposal of peer review in different union committees, allowing us to raise bigger issues about education under capitalism. We've won respect for the Party's ideas and a somewhat wider CHALLENGE readership.
The educational system's failure is well known. Racist ruling class pundits blame the working class for this failure--we either have "bad genes" or dysfunctional families--or blame a few bad teachers. As the rulers prepare for war, they are mobilizing teacher-student anger into a movement to reform education. There is a debate about this. One side says youth can't learn what's required and the standards will just punish kids, so there is also a mass movement against standardized testing, which we're also involved in. We insist that youth CAN and MUST learn, but that these tests are designed to win them to defend a racist system or flunk out. This will increase the drop-out rate and put more youth at risk of police attack.
Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, says "industrial-style, adversarial tactics" of his teachers' union must be replaced by unions that "assist in removing teachers...who are unqualified, incompetent, or burned out." So the old "F--k-the-kids, We want our money!" approach is out. Now they're fighting to "improve" the schools by firing the "bad" teachers.
Peer review puts teachers on boards alongside administrators recommending that tenured teachers be fired. Many good people are being misled, thinking this means more good teachers, committed to teaching our youth all the skills they need, and fighting for the materials with which to do it. But those very teachers, in fact, are the thorn in the principal's side. They are more likely to be victimized by such measures.
Peer review is part of a trend to tighten control over the content of education. Teachers are required to teach to national and state standards, students are tested on them, schools and teachers are ranked by the test scores, students are flunked, and teachers are given merit pay--or fired--based on students' test scores. This kind of educational system builds unquestioning patriotism, illusions, passivity, willingness to work for low wages and to send students, lock-step, off to war.
Does the ruling class really want to improve education for the vast majority of working-class youth? Look at the attacks on them by police and the judicial system! While the rulers may need to improve the skills of some students, in general the educational system educates a few people to run society. It trains the vast majority to be wage slaves and cannon fodder. Educational reform is not designed to question or change class society, just to meet its changing needs.
Do the tests on the standards guarantee that students can read, write, do math and think critically? Will the standards teach students that they will be called on to fight for profits of one of the most murderous groups of rulers the world has known? Teachers who ask students to think about U.S. imperialism, the history of racism and class struggle, will be deviating from the standards--and are likely to be recommended for "peer review" by principals who see them as "trouble-makers."
Students need to learn skills and the history of the fight against racism and oppression. We have confidence they can learn whatever they need, but it takes a fight because capitalist schools are not interested in teaching most of them. Teachers must be organizers committed to teaching needed skills to the students, as well as uniting teachers, students and parents to fight the attacks on the youth.
As the rulers move toward war and increasing fascism, they're trying to use our anger at the failures of capitalism to enlist us to demand that the government take more control. We have the opportunity to expose the racist system, fight the moves toward war and fascism, and pose what kind of educational and political system we really need. Capitalism is incapable of providing it. The solution is a communist world where production and education are organized to meet the needs of those who toil, not the profit needs of a few.
ANTI-KLAN PLP'ER ELECTED UFT DELEGATE
BROOKLYN, NY, May 29 -- Last week a PLP member at Van Arsdale H.S. here was elected to one of the union chapter's two delegate positions, after having been at the school for only seven months. How did this happen? Therein lies a communist political tale.
Last October 15, the administration at Westinghouse H.S., where this PLP'er had worked for 13 years, cut out his program and transferred him to Van Arsdale. They made this move because he had been organizing a broad rank-and-file-led union chapter that would fight for changes in the school, always with the students in mind.
At Van Arsdale he was unknown except for a few people who had previously seen him at the city-wide union Delegate Assembly meetings where he had represented his previous school. But as chance would have it, five days after he entered Van Arsdale, he was one of three people organized by the Progressive Labor Party to attack Ku Klux Klan scum at a KKK police-protected "rally" in downtown Manhattan. The fight was the lead story on all TV networks that night and in the press the next day, with this teacher's role prominently displayed.
Suddenly everyone in the school knew him--students, teachers, administration. This was both a blessing and a problem. The blessing: everyone knew the kind of person he was. The "problem": he now had to organize quickly at a school which he had just entered one week before.
That task was complicated by the fact that, (1) he had to learn new skills, teaching three completely new subjects all in a somewhat unfamiliar environment--he had only taught jewelry-making for his entire time in the public schools-- and (2) at first most of his spare time was spent in helping with the movement he had helped organize at his original school (which is continuing).
The two schools were similar in several respects: the teachers are under tremendous pressure, the students are treated like prisoners and administrators--harassed by higher administrators--harassed everyone else. In this tortuous climate, he began by distributing CHALLENGE and becoming friends with teachers and students.
With the recent police murder cases of Patrick Dorismond and Amadou Diallo in the headlines, he would wear buttons and bring literature and organizing reports to school. Some teachers thanked him for politicizing the students. He wrote a couple of articles for a local newsletter published by one of the teachers and a poem for the school on the Dorismond killing. He was asked by another teacher, a preacher who liked his anti-racist stand, to sing Amazing Grace at his church on Easter Sunday. He did this, and added three extra anti-racist verses.
In his Humanities Department, most people know him as a communist. The rest of the school knows him as an anti-racist fighter. On May First he taught May Day lessons. In English, he posed the question, "Is May Day simply a holiday to dance around the Maypole?" In Economics, "What was the 8-hour day movement all about?" In American History, "Why is the international holiday May Day an American holiday?"
He met a number of union members who wanted to run a slate against the old union officers. They talked politically among each other and formed a loose slate. Given his anti-Klan notoriety and his raising of political issues at his new school, he figured it was logical to run for delegate--having already been one at his old school.
The election was held this past week. Five people ran for two delegate positions. This communist received the highest vote. (The out-going chapter chairman got the lowest.) Of his two close running mates, one won the other delegate position and the other lost for the vacated chapter chairman's position, although doing surprisingly well.
There is much work to do. (For instance, no one came to May Day from this new school.) He aims to raise the class-consciousness at the school and to align himself with the working-class students who attend this vocational high school hard by the Williamsburg Bridge.
SRI LANKA: The Three Horseman of the Apocalypse--Racism, Nationalism, and Imperialism
Thomas Pickering, U.S. Under Secretary of State, recently visited war-torn Sri Lanka after stopping in India, and firmly said there can be no independent Tamil in the northern part of that island country at the southern tip of India. The Tamil Tigers, the group fighting the Sri Lanka army, may be on the verge of seizing the important city of Jaffna, defeating the 30,000 government soldiers protecting it.
The war between the Tamil Tigers and the India-backed Sri Lanka army has been long and bloody, with tens of thousands of deaths in the last few decades. In fact, in 1991 a Tamil suicide bomber killed India Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi (son of Indira Ghandi) for sending Indian troops to support the Sri Lanka government. India opposes an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka because, (1) it already faces a Pakistani-supported separatist movement in Kashmir in the North; and (2) it fears the rise of a separatist movement among the Tamils in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India across a narrow strait from Sri Lanka.
Why do U.S. rulers opposing the Tamil Tigers? After all, they're not calling for an end to capitalism. The Tamil leaders, like many nationalists, are taking advantage of the blatant, violent anti-Tamil racism of the Sinhalese ruling class--Sri Lanka's main ethnic group--while fighting for the privilege of exploiting their own people.
However, Sri Lanka is strategically located in the Indian Ocean. It's a key stopover for U.S. ships supplying the tiny but important Diego Garcia islands a supply base for U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf.
In addition, U.S. relations with India have changed. In the past, when India was ruled by the Ghandi-controlled Congress Party, it was armed by the former Soviet Union and had very close commercial ties with the Soviet bloc. But when Russia invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. allied with India's arch-enemy Pakistan. This enabled the CIA to use the drug-smuggling Pakistani army and Intelligence Service to arm the religious zealot guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
However, with the emergence in India of a Hindu nationalist government, the BJP Party, positions have changed. Today the U.S. sees India and its navy as a counterweight to China's ambitions in Asia (see page 8).
So contradictions abound. Racism, regional and worldwide rivalries among different imperialists, and splits among local bosses are all behind the war in Sri Lanka. Tens of thousands of workers and soldiers have already died in this capitalist bloodbath. It's time for working-class soldiers to rebel and turn the guns around to smash capitalism and imperialism, the causes of modern war. Revolutionary communist leadership is the key ingredient to make this happen.
Thomas Pickering, U.S. Under Secretary of State, recently visited war-torn Sri Lanka after stopping in India, and firmly said there can be no independent Tamil in the northern part of that island country at the southern tip of India. The Tamil Tigers, the group fighting the Sri Lanka army, may be on the verge of seizing the important city of Jaffna, defeating the 30,000 government soldiers protecting it.
The war between the Tamil Tigers and the India-backed Sri Lanka army has been long and bloody, with tens of thousands of deaths in the last few decades. In fact, in 1991 a Tamil suicide bomber killed India Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi (son of Indira Ghandi) for sending Indian troops to support the Sri Lanka government. India opposes an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka because, (1) it already faces a Pakistani-supported separatist movement in Kashmir in the North; and (2) it fears the rise of a separatist movement among the Tamils in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India across a narrow strait from Sri Lanka.
Why do U.S. rulers opposing the Tamil Tigers? After all, they're not calling for an end to capitalism. The Tamil leaders, like many nationalists, are taking advantage of the blatant, violent anti-Tamil racism of the Sinhalese ruling class--Sri Lanka's main ethnic group--while fighting for the privilege of exploiting their own people.
However, Sri Lanka is strategically located in the Indian Ocean. It's a key stopover for U.S. ships supplying the tiny but important Diego Garcia islands a supply base for U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf.
In addition, U.S. relations with India have changed. In the past, when India was ruled by the Ghandi-controlled Congress Party, it was armed by the former Soviet Union and had very close commercial ties with the Soviet bloc. But when the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. allied with India's arch-enemy Pakistan. This enabled the CIA to use the drug-smuggling Pakistani army and Intelligence Service to arm the religious zealot guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
However, with the emergence in India of a Hindu nationalist government, the BJP Party, positions have changed. Today the U.S. sees India and its navy as a counterweight to China's ambitions in Asia (see page 8).
So contradictions abound. Racism, regional and worldwide rivalries among different imperialists, and splits among local bosses are all behind the war in Sri Lanka. Tens of thousands of workers and soldiers have already died in this capitalist bloodbath. It's time for working-class soldiers to rebel and turn the guns around to smash capitalism and imperialism, the causes of modern war. Revolutionary communist leadership is the key ingredient to make this happen.
CHINA BUCKS U.S. CONTROL OF WORLDS' OIL SHIPPING LANES
Clinton's all-out push to get China admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is based on U.S. imperialism's strategy for maintaining world supremacy. Clinton's masters have identified Russia and China as their key rivals. Preventing a strategic alliance between them has become a major goal of U.S. foreign policy.
By "normalizing" trade relations with China, Clinton & Co. hope to keep Chinese bosses dependent on U.S. technology and credits. A secondary goal is the huge profit pile to be made from dealing with Chinese businesses. Many U.S. companies have billions at stake in Chinese contracts. And there's a $50 billion trade deficit in Beijing's favor that U.S. rulers want to reverse, while still enjoying the inflow of cheap goods that helps keep costs, especially wages, down.
But wishes aren't necessarily realities. For one thing, U.S. corporations aren't the only ones interested in profiting from investment in China. For one example, if the Chinese don't like what Boeing is offering them, they can turn to Europe's Airbus to buy aircraft. For another, despite the U.S., China's rulers continue to show interest in developing strategic ties with Russia, particularly purchasing military hardware and technology. China has become post-Soviet Russia's main arms customer. The reason isn't hard to figure out. China's bosses themselves have imperial designs of eventual world supremacy, and view U.S. imperialism as the main obstacle to that. Viewed in this light, all trade maneuvering becomes understandable.
NAVAL EXPANSION TIED TO OIL SHIPPING LANES
China's evolving naval strategy reflects its growth as an imperialist power. Since January, Chinese rulers have taken several steps geared to a long-range challenge to U.S. imperialism on the high seas:
* In January, the Chinese People's Liberation Army/Navy (PLAN) conducted a combined naval exercise more than 250 miles from the Chinese coast. This maneuver is consistent with the development of a "green water capability," which would allow PLAN to operate in all areas running 3,500 miles from northern Japan south to the west coast of Borneo (northern Indonesia).
* On May 5, the Russian daily KOMMERSANT announced that Russia had sold China the aircraft carrier Kiev, a major step allowing Chinese rulers to "join the ranks of the world's power projection navies" (STRATFOR, May 5).
* On May 7, the Chinese government finalized a deal allowing the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO--the world's second-largest shipping company) to use port facilities along the key Suez Canal. COSCO has strong ties to the Chinese military and has a large interest in Singapore which stands at the southern entrance to the Strait of Malacca. Another Chinese shipping company has a deal near the Panama Canal.
The Strait of Malacca, the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal are all major world oil transit centers. The U.S. Energy Information Administration calls them "chokepoints" because "disruption of oil flows through any of these export routes could have a significant impact on world oil prices" ("World Oil Transit Chokepoints," U.S.E.I.A., August 1999).
Since the collapse of the old Soviet Union, the U.S. Navy has claimed a lock on all these and other ocean shipping routes. This domination isn't about to end immediately, but Chinese bosses clearly intend to defy it over the long run. The "green water" Chinese navy of today is slated to become a "blue water" (worldwide) navy within 20 years or so. Chinese imperialism is looking to project force in the Spratley Islands in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca, controlling the shipping lanes in Southeast Asia, and the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the vast oil resources of the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. This means a direct challenge to U.S. supremacy on the high seas.
U.S. rulers are taking note and making plans. The Establishment media's main military writer, Thomas Ricks, says the Pentagon now considers China "a potential future adversary...It is now a common assumption among national security thinkers that the area from Baghdad to Tokyo will be the main location of U.S. military competition for the next several decades" (WASHINGTON POST, May 26).
The choice of Baghdad is no accident. China is the world's second-largest energy consumer, after the U.S. The growing Chinese navy will sharpen the inter-imperialist dogfight for Persian Gulf oil. Under these conditions, the Rockefeller-controlled Exxon Mobil's drive to force Saddam Hussein from power and replace him with a pro-U.S. regime in Iraq can only intensify.
By greasing the way for China's entry into the WTO, Clinton is only setting the stage for a higher level of inter-imperialist rivalry. An eventual armed conflict directly pitting U.S. bosses against China and Russia may lie in a fairly distant future, but wars leading up to it, like a likely oil bloodbath in the Persian Gulf, aren't so remote. Imperialism always leads to war. Nothing short of the complete overthrow of capitalism by communist revolution can end this vicious cycle.
LETTERS
Wage Slavery Southern Style
Comrades, how are you all doing? After a few years and a long trip through half of Central America and Mexico, I have ended up in the south. I returned because conditions back home in Colombia are horrendous (war, death squads, drug lords, etc.)
I am now working under concentration camp conditions in a tomato packaging plant, earning the minimum for 14 to 16 hours a day. We are almost all from Mexico, Central and South America, without any papers. We basically go from a cheap hotel to work and back to sleep in the hotel. The only "advantage" of not being in a major urban center is that here one doesn't spend too much money, so at least you can save a little bit, but basically as a slave.
I will try to write more and will see how I can get DESAFIO.
Red migrant worker
Bogota May Day: Don't Vote,
Join PLP
This 1st of May was a day of struggle against capitalism. It was also the working class's international day to commemorate the Chicago working-class martyrs who were assassinated on orders from the killer bosses. Thousands of workers got ready in the early morning to march. They lined up with flags, slogans and banners to vent their repressed anger over unemployment, hunger, the increased cost of living, massacres and the uprooting of masses due to capitalism and its politicians and death squads.
In Bogota the PLP contingent, participating with a good number of militants, led enthusiastic workers and students to play an important role. They marched with PLP's banner, sold our literature and distributed 3,000 communist leaflets. While leading chants, our red flags gave the march a revolutionary tone. Our signs read, "Long Live Communism," "Let Capitalism Die," "Down with the Damn Racist, Killer Bosses" and "Don't Vote, Join PLP."
We confronted the reformist-nationalist politics of capitalism's sellout servants, the bosses of the central unions who used this march to try to channel workers' discontent and anger into the next fraudulent election.
These apologists of wage slavery want to steer workers away from a truly revolutionary party. We posed the real alternative to workers, communist revolution to destroy this crisis of overproduction imposed by capitalism.
It was a good day, a successful march, a step forward for us. Our political alternative was greatly accepted by workers to whom we spoke. We know the road to revolution is a long one. That's why we're re-doubling our efforts to create trust with workers, deepen our ties and prepare them with communist ideas to advance their understanding so they can give leadership to next year's march.
PLP'er in Colombia
Don't Need Strikes Under Communism
In answer to "Grandmother Jones's" questions in her letter (Challenge, May 31):
1) Yes, unions are better than no unions. Unions were started by communists as a first step on the road to revolution. The most important lesson workers learned by participating in building unions and fighting the bosses is the power of class unity. Even though the bosses seem to have won their fight to corrupt and control workers' unions, the bosses can't change the essence of a union, which is organized unity of workers against bosses. Union members should join PLP and organize for communist revolution within their unions. In fact, this is the best plan to follow for a better future for workers on any job, whether there is a union or not.
2) Strikes have been a tactical move against the bosses in the past and present to gain more power and material resources for workers as well as better working conditions. I would think that in a communist society where social production is for the workers' needs and not for profit, that strikes would not be necessary. In a communist society the workers collectively plan and produce for everyone's needs equally, which should include the best possible working conditions for any worker doing any particular job as her/his contribution to the needs of the whole.
This may sound impossibly utopian on paper, but communism is a different model of society from capitalism. The basic economy, or plan, of a society determines what the super-structure, or the many relationships of that society will be. In nature, the cells determine what kind of body an organism will grow, internally and externally. In a communist society how we think about the material world and our relationship to it and how we form relationships within society to each other will be different because the basic "cells" of a communist society are different.
Anyway, this is how I see it at the moment, but every time I participate in class struggle with PLP, I learn more. For more in depth discussion, why not join a PLP study group in your community?
A Mid-West Comrade
Teachers Thrilled by Internationale
I'd like to tell Challenge readers about a small experience that was inspiring to me. It was May 1 and we were at a meeting of a teachers' coalition discussing reforming education. May 1 was on Monday and I was still pumped up from the May Day March in San Francisco.
Towards the end of the meeting a coalition member said that since this is May Day, we should have a moment of silence for workers who've been victims of the bosses' terror. I said we should sing the Internationale. We had a moment of silence and then I started singing the Internationale along with another comrade. A few others joined in.
As I sang, people were looking at me in awe and surprise. At the end everyone clapped. Several came to me and asked me to write down the words because they always wanted to learn them. I promised I would. At the next meeting, I plan to pass out the words to all the members of the coalition.
A Red LA Teacher
Europe's Bosses Dip Oily Fingers into Colombia
The editorial in the last CHALLENGE exposing the truth behind the exposé of Clinton's Drug Czar McCaffery was very helpful and insightful. It's clear that the top U.S. rulers, those who own Exxon, have a much greater immediate need to fight for the control of oil in Iraq than for the future of BP Amoco-Arco's oil in Colombia. However, as the editorial points out, there are secondary contradictions.
The war in Colombia continues. Totalfina (a French oil company) was, as of last September, Colombia's main oil producer (Petroleum Economist, 9/99), although BP Amoco was a very close second. They now each produce around 19% of Colombia's oil. In addition the FARC and ELN (the two guerrilla movements) have strong ties with European social democracy groups. Colombia's President Pastrana and his negotiators traveled to Germany to negotiate with FARC leaders there and together have an audience with the Pope. This is the same Pope, generally representing the interests of European imperialism, who gave a speech on May Day (!) calling for "justice" in the world and relief of "third world" debt.
On the face of it, it seems that--while for the Rockefeller oil empire, the main fight is certainly in the Middle East--the European capitalists are making inroads and supporting movements in Colombia and the rest of Latin America as well as Africa (as the last Challenge documented so well). That's why the U.S. will continue to fund a murderous war in Colombia while preparing for a bigger war in the Middle East.
This problem will not go away, but will deepen. The workers in Colombia face a drawn out, murderous war, which has already displaced over one million people and killed at least 100,000 with no let-up in sight! The only way out for the workers is to build the PLP with the goal of getting rid of all the imperialists with communist revolution.
To say that Russia and China are the main long-term strategic enemies of U.S. imperialism does not mean that the European imperialists are necessarily U.S. allies. If one lives in Colombia, the contradiction affecting you most immediately and horribly is the secondary one--between the U.S. and European imperialists fighting over control of that country's oil, politicians, land and state power. Of course, you're affected if the U.S. won't now be sending masses of troops to Colombia because, for the Rockefellers, IRAQ is crucial. Years of war without an end in sight will be the grim result of the current imperialist rivalry. None of them care how many workers die in their struggle for dominance.
A comrade
Red Eye Trapped in Sociobiology
Challenge may want to draw the conclusion that the Finicacial Times inadvertently reveals that communist morals are part of our make-up, but the conclusion shows the editors do not have an understanding of evolutionary biology or of the dialectics of historical materialism ("Red Eye on the News," Challenge, 5/10).
The conclusion betrays that Challenge has fallen into the trap of sociobiology and bourgeois science's attribution of human behavior as genetically determined. Sociology believes that human psychology is derived from evolution (from our biological make-up), whether it be altruism or selfishness. Both behavioral traits can be found in James Q. Wilson. The Mating Mind belongs to sociobiology. The reason, according to that book, that mates seek kindness, etc., is that those traits are favored for reproduction in sexual competition, although they bear no conscious trace to sexual competition. To believe that and to teach that is only a way of training very poor communists, communists who do not understand the sources of human behavior and communist morals.
The source of human psychology and of communist morals or bourgeois morals for that matter is in the history of social, political, economic and cultural structures and within those the relationship of classes to each other. Communist morals have nothing to do with evolution and natural selection. And sexual competition, ever since the human species came down to ground and out of the caves, is also a matter of attitudes and preferences related to the historical structures cited above.
I know it's nice to suddenly come upon something in the bourgeois press that reveals the contradictions and hypocrisies of capitalism or the validity of communist ideas. This is not it, however. In our zealousness to find such things, we must be careful that we don't expose our own ignorance of bourgeois science and of Marxism. We want to train deep-thinking Marxists and communists, not flip ones. I imagine the failure to do that in the Soviet Union in the 73 years before its downfall is the reason there are bloody few people in Russia with communist morals.
S. Agonistes
Red Eye Responds
Challenge reader S. Agonistes has written the above to say that it was a mistake for Red Eye to print a Financial Times article showing that human evolution favored kindness and altruistic behavior rather than the dog-eat-dog traits usually attributed to Darwin's theories. This reader correctly states that Marxists do not believe that human behavior is significantly determined by genes. Therefore, this article bolsters a false view.
However, many people believe that "communism can't work because Darwinism proves that humans are naturally violently competitive."
Therefore, I think it is useful to print articles which show that this interpretation of Darwinism is full of holes, even if the articles are non-Marxist.
Red Eye provides ammunition which can be used in arguments. Naturally the user should attempt to steer the discussion to Marxist conclusions. But I think it is useful to provide all sorts of toe-holds for a difficult journey.
Of course, this approach to assembling useful stories means a lot of close decisions have to be made, and this one may have been wrong. But the main question is: should Red Eye continue to print pieces which might provide a useful basis for an important discussion, even if the article is not "pure"? And if the answer is "yes," are there too many cases where non-Marxist ideas have been strengthened?
What do other readers think?
Red Eye Editor
- Profits At Stake In Colombia
- Wake-Up Call For McCaffrey
- General McCaffey’s Mass Murder in Iraq Was Part of Bosses’ War Methods
Imperialist, Local Bosses’ Endless Wars Murder Millions in Africa
Drive for Profits Ravage the Congo
Middle East ‘Peace Process’ Paves Way for Imperialist War
Venezuela: Oil Price Rise Exposes Phony Chavez ‘Revolution’
Gore. Union Hacks Fight over China Trade, But Both Sides Serve Big Bosses
Racist Giuliani Down, Many More to Go
Ohio State Workers Expose Liberal Bosses BS
El Salvador: PLP Growth: Answer to Bosses’ Bombs
From Border to Cities, Organize Against Racist Murderers!
Workers of the World Write LETTERS
SEIU Is as Bad with Other Workers As It Has Been with LA Janitors
- CHALLENGE Comments
‘These people should be killed...’
"The specter of communism is here to stay"
PLP Grows in NJ After May Day March
Capitalism Creates Many Wars
U.S. Big Bosses’ Dogfight Over Whether Colombia or Middle East Is Primary in their War Plans
The dominant Rockefeller wing of the U.S. ruling class continues its ruthless drive to consolidate power and cripple or neutralize its opposition. In recent weeks, CHALLENGE has described aspects of this process. The "Justice" Department’s suit against Microsoft, the general disciplining of the NASDAQ high-tech market, the collapse of NYC mayor Giuliani’s Senate campaign and Washington’s attempt to take over the LAPD figure among the most important.
The decline of four-star general Barry McCaffrey is yet another sign of the Rockefeller house-cleaning. In 1996, this killer retired from the U.S. Army. Since then he has been Clinton’s Drug Czar. He’s the main spokesman for the lie that disguises U.S. imperialism’s attempt to control Colombia as a crusade against illegal narcotics. However, he has a bloody history that goes all the way back to Vietnam and, most recently, to Exxon’s 1991 bloodbath for Iraqi oil.
On March 2, 1991—TWO DAYS AFTER THE CEASE-FIRE—when U.S imperialism’s victory in Iraq was a foregone conclusion, McCaffrey launched a massacre of retreating Iraqi soldiers and civilians and then lied about its military necessity. A long article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in the May 22 NEW YORKER magazine exposes McCaffrey’s butchery and his cover-up. In addition, it charges McCaffrey with shooting down unarmed prisoners just before the needless "battle." While the Establishment has put McCaffrey on the hot seat for his disloyalty to the Rockefeller line on Colombia, there’s a relationship between the two.
U.S. rulers don’t blink at slaughtering millions of workers anywhere in the world to protect their profits and their political power. Suddenly they’ve dredged up a nine-year-old massacre as though it was unusual for U.S. imperialism to murder unarmed civilians wholesale. Colombia is the starting point for understanding the decision to punish McCaffrey’s enthusiasm for his slaughter in Iraq.
Profits At Stake In Colombia
Colombia is important to many U.S. bosses. The 50-year-long civil war, pitting a pro-U.S. fascist government against nationalist guerrillas, has taken a toll on U.S. businesses there. Fat profits are at stake. Exxon Mobil operates the world’s biggest export coal mine, Cerrejón, in Colombia. BP Amoco, Exxon/Rockefeller’s main oil rival within the U.S. imperialist orbit, has even more at risk. BP Amoco, Colombia’s largest foreign investor, pumps half a million barrels of Colombian crude oil a day—one fourth of the company’s worldwide production. Occidental Petroleum, controlled by Exxon’s arch-competitors, the Hunt Brothers, has lost $100 million in Colombia since 1995 because of the guerrilla war. Alabama-based Drummond Coal, which imports million of tons of coal from Colombia, seems to be putting most of its eggs in the Colombian basket. So the issue among the bosses is not WHETHER to defend these interests but HOW extensively, given U.S. imperialism’s’ need to extinguish many other fires around the world.
The BP Amoco-Occidental-Drummond Coal clique has enough to lose to want Clinton to risk major ground action in Colombia. Also, the expansion into South America by French oil rivals, particularly in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela, has given BP Amoco further incentive to champion U.S. troops.
Last February, Alabama Sen. Sessions, an obvious Drummond agent, went ballistic about U.S. failure to invade. He yelled at McCaffrey, but more for failure to carry out the dirty work than for lack of will. According to the GUARDIAN, McCaffrey had already demanded "operations that go far beyond what even the Colombians are pressing for, taking the U.S. to the brink of bankrolling an all-out war" (Aug. 22, 1999).
McCaffrey’s zeal to put U.S. ground troops in Colombia didn’t sit too well with his Rockefeller masters, for whom Colombia means a lot, but not everything. The Rockefeller interests want to keep Colombia under U.S. control, and Clinton is pushing for a $1.8 billion "aid" package, 80 percent of it military. But the lords of Exxon are determined to stop short of ground war. They’ll go for helicopters, but not for GIs. They’re afraid of another Vietnam quagmire, of stuck and dying U.S. troops, and they figure the risk far outweighs the benefit. Right now the Navy has ships positioned in and just outside the Persian Gulf. Iraqi and Saudi oil means incomparably more than Colombian coal to Exxon.
Wake-Up Call For McCaffrey
While McCaffrey was calling for ground war, Rockefeller loyalist Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering blasted troop deployment as a "crazy idea" (GUARDIAN). The big bosses tried to give McCaffrey a wake-up call when the U.S. government immediately arrested the wife of McCaffrey’s chief anti-drug military commander in Colombia, Col. Hiett. The charge: cocaine smuggling. She pled guilty, and the anti-drug missionary Colonel himself is facing money-laundering charges. But even this scandal couldn’t make McCaffrey straighten up and fly right. Last February, he took Occidental Oil’s pro-invasion position before a House drug subcommittee hearing. Occidental already pays the Colombian government to maintain an army base next to its oil refinery. But the Occidental bosses and McCaffrey don’t seem to trust this protection racket. McCaffrey has lined up on the wrong side of this squabble over the prizes to be defended by U.S. troops.
So the NEW YORKER exposé of McCaffrey’s nine-year old massacre in Iraq suddenly becomes national news, and McCaffrey faces far greater disgrace than the embarrassment of seeing his underling charged with laundering drug money. The Rockefellers expect obedience and they know how to punish when they don’t get it. McCaffrey and Rudy Giuliani have a lot in common.
Aside from clarifying Establishment policy toward Colombia, throwing McCaffrey to the wolves has a secondary value for the main rulers. Preparation for major land war to secure Rockefeller control of Iraqi oil seems to head the bosses’ priorities for the next presidency. This bloody profit grab will need some sort of hypocritical "human rights" cover. That’s one of the main lessons workers can learn from Clinton’s aerial "humanitarian" genocide for oil pipelines in the Balkans last year. McCaffrey can be presented as the "bad apple" whose elimination will provide cover for the next genocide.
But by committing wanton murder for U.S. imperialism in Iraq, McCaffrey was only "doing his job." All imperialists rule at gunpoint. The more their profits are threatened, the more ruthless they become. That’s why the BP Amoco/Occidental/Drummond bosses want ground war in Colombia, and that’s why the Exxon Mobil/Rockefellers want it in the Persian Gulf. McCaffrey’s disgrace merely shows the fate awaiting a hired hand who double-crosses the most powerful gangster on the block. The deeper lesson here for workers is the basic nature of imperialism and of all imperialists. Only tactical differences divide them. In Colombia or Iraq, their goal is profit, and their methods are always bloody. None of them is a "lesser evil." All of them must be destroyed by a communist-led working class revolution, no matter how long it takes.
General McCaffey’s Mass Murder in Iraq Was Part of Bosses’ War Methods
The mass murder engineered by U.S. imperialism in Iraq makes McCaffrey’s butchery look like a tea party. Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was the architect of the strategy of Overwhelming Force that followed U.S. ruling class policy. This policy has caused the death of over one million Iraqi civilians, and still counting.
They began with a systematic 42-day aerial and missile bombardment against a basically defenseless foe. Most targets were civilian, destroying schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, shelters and residential areas. Towns, villages and highways were strafed indiscriminately. The first five weeks of bombardment amounted to the summary execution of 113,000 civilians, 60% children, according to the Jordanian Red Crescent Society [Red Cross]. It systematically destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure.
Over 100,000 died in the first year after the war from dehydration, dysentery, diseases and malnutrition caused by impure water, lack of effective medical assistance and debilitation from hunger, cold, shock and distress. Tens of thousands of defenseless Iraqi soldiers, cut off from food and water, were systematically killed. War criminal Schwartzkopf said immediate Iraqi military casualties exceeded 100,000.
Perhaps the most abominable atrocity occurred on what came to be called the "Highway of Death." U.S. tanks and trucks with massive shovels attached scooped up thousands of fleeing, unarmed Iraqi soldiers and civilians and buried them alive. U.S. warplanes simultaneously strafed them from the air. "It was like a turkey shoot, like shooting fish in a barrel," said one pilot. A seven-mile stretch of the highway was littered with untold thousands of indiscriminately slaughtered soldiers and civilians of all ages—Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Palestinians and Jordanians.
U.S. planes dropped napalm and fuel-air explosives on Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil wells, starting fires which polluted the entire Persian Gulf.
Cluster bombs and anti-personnel fragmentation bombs were used in Basra and other cities and towns against civilian convoys of fleeing vehicles.
The U.S.-dictated sanctions imposed on Iraq for the last nine years have prevented shipments of needed medicines, water purifiers, infant milk formula and food, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and illness and permanent injury to many thousands more.
This is the U.S. version of Hitler’s Final Solution. These champions of "human rights" who are censuring McCaffrey!
Imperialist, Local Bosses’ Endless Wars Murder Millions in Africa
Wars are raging across Africa like unquenchable fires. And like fire, it is spreading even more. The British have sent elite troops to intervene in the civil war to control the diamond mines of Sierra Leone. The armies of Uganda and Rwanda (both considered key allies of the U.S.) are at war over some border areas. The "cease-fire" announced periodically in the Congo civil war involving local nationalists and the armies of several other African countries never holds. And now the former "close comrades" ruling Eritrea and Ethiopia are warring agasin.
What’s behind this killing of hundred of thousands in Africa? First, the old European imperialists—Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal—who ruled most of Africa until the 1950s (1975 in the case of Mozambique, Angola and other Portuguese colonies) totally ruined those countries. The British ruled under the old tactic of divide and conquer and intensified ethnic divisions. The Belgian and Portuguese colonialists prevented the emergence of an educated group of Africans.
Then came the Cold War. The U.S. supported the worst kind of brutal rulers, like Mobutu in the Congo and Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, because they were virulently anti-communist and opposed the former Soviet Union. After the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, the Soviet Union began to seriously Challenge U.S. power in Africa. Pro-Soviet governments emerged in Ethiopia, Angola and Mozambique, some as corrupt and brutal as the ones the U.S. supported. In Angola and Mozambique, the U.S. used South Africa’s apartheid army to support anti-Soviet groups. The Cuban army was sent to help crush the anti-Soviet groups. Cuban and Angolan troops badly defeated the South African army.
But as the Soviet Union imploded, its allies in Africa either ran (like Colonel Mengistu, now exiled in Zimbabwe) or changed sides and welcomed the former imperialists. In Angola, U.S. oil companies like Gulf Oil were operating and protected by the same Cuban troops that had fought the pro-U.S./South African forces.
Today, the contradictions have changed. Now the old anti-Soviet imperialists, France, Britain and the U.S. are fighting each other for the minerals and oil of Africa. Alliances keep shifting. Their local allies change sides. For example, the rulers of Ethiopia and Eritrea were allies fighting the pro-Soviet Mengistu regime that used to rule Ethiopia (and also ruled Eritrea). Both anti-Mengistu forces fought for "national liberation." They allied themselves with the U.S. against the Soviet forces. Now, a few years after being in power, they’re fighting each other. They’re not fighting, as some believe, for a "piece of the dessert in the middle of nowhere," but rather for control of the key Red Sea coastline, crucial to the oil tankers’ maritime route.
Says the on-line Stratfor website, "When Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia in 1993, it took the entire coastline, including both Red Sea ports—leaving Ethiopia landlocked. Although Ethiopia’s government supported independence, conflicts soon arose between the two. They initially clashed over Ethiopia’s access to Eritrea’s two ports and inequitable trade. Though smaller, Eritrea held the upper hand over its larger neighbor. The government in Asmara (Eritrea) kept the country’s market effectively closed to Ethiopian goods, while Eritrean goods could freely enter neighboring Ethiopia. Border disputes erupted into war. Small unit skirmishes led to artillery duels, trench warfare, trench warfare and air strikes." (Www.Stratfor.com/ 5/17/).
Millions are dying in Africa because of these wars for profits and control of oil and oil routes and because of their consequences: hundred of thousands are constantly starving in Ethiopia/Eritrea. The local rulers and the imperialists are the modern Attila the Hun, the scourge of the earth. Unless the cause, capitalism and imperialism, is unearthed and buried, this unending graveyard will be filled only with workers and their families. The most important thing workers and their allies must do now is to build a communist movement.
Drive for Profits Ravage the Congo
"When the bosses talk about peace, better get a helmet" wrote Bertolt Brecht, the German communist playwright/poet. After the CIA murdered Patrice Lumumba, the leftist Prime Minister of the Congo soon after it became independent of Belgium in 1960, dictator Mobutu came to power and renamed the country Zaire. Mobutu was the CIA favorite until he outlived his usefulness after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since crooked Mobuir was sent packing, "peace" was supposed to come to the Congo. But things did not turn out that way. The allies of Laurent Kabila, who led the war that ousted Mobutu, turned against him, and a new civil war started. In August 1998, the armies of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda turned against Kabila. The armies of Rwanda and Uganda are now fighting each other. In the middle of all this, the armies of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia sent troops to the Congo to help Kabila. These confusing horrors, created by capitalist ghouls, are devouring millions of poor workers so a small wealthy group of rulers can sit on golden toilet seats.
The imperialists say they have no vital interests in Africa. In reality the opposite is true. France, the U.S. and Britain are involved in Africa. And they support different groups at different times to go to war for their needs. Congo is rich in many important minerals, diamonds, copper, cadmium (used for military purposes), etc.
During July and August 1999, the warring forces in the Congo signed peace agreements and have broken them constantly. The last cease-fire violation was the massacre of 300 innocent people on the evenings of May 14 and 15 by the BANYAMULENGUE, the main militia group fighting Kabila. According to ABC, Madrid (5/21): "The massacre took place in the village of Katogata…in the region of the Great Lakes. ‘It began in the late afternoon and lasted till 5 A.M. the next day,’ reported a survivor….Men, women, children and old people were massacred…with guns, knives, etc. Many bodies were thrown into a river."
When the bosses and their goons talk about peace, don’t just get a helmet but organize to fight to smash them all before they kill you.
Middle East ‘Peace Process’ Paves Way for Imperialist War
The U.S.-backed Middle East "peace process" is rapidly becoming a "war process." Israel-Palestine, Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon are all heading towards more conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Barak, with the full backing of the U.S. ruling class, got elected on a promise to end the 22-year occupation of Lebanon. But the Israeli retreat from Lebanon was disrupted with the collapse of the pro-Israeli Southern Lebanon Army (SLA). Syrian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas moved into the areas vacated by the SLA’s collapse. Seizing large amounts of Israeli weapons and ammunition, and occupying territory up to the Israeli border has "added a dangerous new element of instability to the Middle East." (New York Times, 5/23)
This is not what U.S. imperialism needs. The centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy, to the degree there is one, is to add Palestinian and Syrian peace treaties with Israel to those already signed by Egypt and Jordan. They want to "stabilize" the region in preparation for a major war against Iraq to secure Exxon’s oil profits.
For years, Syria has controlled the flow of arms to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas. Syrian president Hafez al-Assad has kept them on a tight leash, strong enough to harass the Israelis but too weak to win. Now that Israel has left Lebanon, Assad faces a dilemma. If he stops the arms flow, Israel stops bleeding and has less incentive to reach a deal with Syria. But if Hezbollah launches attacks into Israel, they will "hold the governments of Beirut and Damascus, Syria, responsible…and would not rule out retaliatory strikes." (New York Times, 5/24) The Clinton gang will press for a Syrian-Israeli peace pact, but it may be preceded by confrontation.
Meanwhile, Palestinian boss Yasir Arafat has figured out that his best bet is to let Palestinian workers rebel against Israeli occupation. Palestinian workers are getting fed up with Arafat's corruption and his vast army of 50,000 cops for three million people (four times as many cops-per-person as New York, eight times as many as in LA). Teachers in the West Bank have been striking for two months, demanding their first pay raise in four years. Arafat is using the rebellions to get workers to direct their anger against someone other than him, while he presses for more concessions from Israeli bosses.
Isreal is the dominant force in the region. Its economy is five times the size of Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine combined. U.S. imperialism provides Israeli rulers with the latest fighter planes and the most sophisticated electronic gear. Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons and the most advanced anti-missile system in the world. They are still the dominant force in the region.
Clinton huddles with Israeli and Palestinian leaders practically every month, and the U.S. pours in $5 billion in aid every year. In February, Clinton went to Syria to meet Assad only to have his every request refused. U.S. capitalists are on the horns of a dilemma as one "peace initiative" after another goes up in smoke, from Sierra Leone to Ethiopia and Eritrea to Kosovo, Colombia, Congo and many more.
U.S. imperialism has had it good since 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the victory in the Gulf War ushered in a decade of economic prosperity for U.S. capitalists. But as wars spread across the world, the good times may be coming to an end. But capitalism won’t die a natural death, we have to kill it. Building a mass international PLP can help turn the next Middle East bloodbath into communist revolution.
Venezuela: Oil Price Rise Exposes Phony Chavez ‘Revolution’
When Colonel Chavez took power in Venezuela 16 months ago, he promised to end the corrupt two-party system which enforces mass inequality in this oil-rich country. Chavez promised a "revolution," ended the old constitution and its parliament and formed a new constituent assembly. For a while he got mass support from workers and their allies.
But illusions in capitalist politicians, no matter how "revolutionary" or "nationalist" they sound, are dangerous for workers. Now Chavez’s own movement is in disarray. His former "close comrade," Francisco Arias Cárdenas, an ex-military officer, is running against him, accusing Chavez of "turning the revolution into a fiasco."
What happened to this "revolution"? Although oil prices are the highest in a decade, unemployment has doubled. Fifty percent of the workforce is unemployed or underemployed. Almost 90% of the population are below the official poverty line.
All this is caused by the crisis of capitalism. The rise in oil prices is not due to an increased demand but to a cutback in production by the leading oil exporters in OPEC. OPEC member Venezuela supported this cutback. The Chavez government ordered a 20% slash in domestic production. Oil wells were closed and 8,000 oil workers were laid off. When they struck against these layoffs, the "workers’ friend" Chavez broke it. He justified this attack with the phony excuse that union leaders are corrupt (which is true). But it was the workers who were victimized.
According to Business Week (March 3), the oil production cutback is the main reason behind the fall of the Gross Domestic Product and Venezuela’s recession.
Since international privately-owned oil companies are not member s of OPEC and therefore not governed by its decisions, production was cut back only done by PDVSA, the state oil company. Production was cut by 625,000 barrels a day in 1999, but today it can be increased only by 150,000 barrels since many of the closed wells cannot be reopened. Meanwhile, international oil companies operating in Venezuela are making huge profits.
So the Chavez "revolution" has attacked workers while its oil price hike has increased profits for the imperialist oil companies (so much for Chavez so-called anti-imperialism). The lesson: only workers’ revolution, led by communists, can free workers from the yoke of capitalism.
Gore, Union Hacks Fight over China Trade, But Both Sides Serve Big Bosses
The fight between Democratic Party presidential candidate Al Gore and the AFL-CIO over the China trade agreement is immersed in a myriad of contradictions. The AFL-CIO has endorsed Gore for President but simultaneously opposes the Clinton Administration policy on giving China permanent normal trade relations. Gore backs the Clinton policy but looks to the AFL-CIO for major support.
In general, Sweeney & Co. backs the Rockefeller wing of the ruling class but they also must retain a certain level of a base among the rank and file. They’re using their opposition to the China trade pact as a"job-saving" ploy, agreed to concession after concession to the ruling class on the job issue for decades, watching auto plant after still mill close.
Gore spoke at a UFCWUnited union gathering and was given a standing ovation despite his support for Clinton’s China policy. The New York Times reported (May 23) that "the audience appeared to be…forgiving of his pro-China position." Said one union political worker from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, "We’re not naïve….On the vast majority of issues, we’ll stand with him and he’ll stand with us."
Just as there are divisions within the ruling class, so too are there divisions among the union bosses, depending on their onstituencies. The Teamsters, Steelworkers’ and Autoworkers’ unions are vocal in their opposition to the China Trade Pact, and to some extent Gore, while others –like the UFCW—still support Gore. The UAW is "hinting" they might switch from Gore to Ralph Nader, who is financed by racist textile billionaire Milliken. This billionaire also finances Reform Party Presidential candidate Pat "I-Love-Hitler" Buchanan. Hoffa’s Teamsters are flirting with supporting Buchanan.
However, one thing is certain: the Democratic Party and Sweeney & Co. are on the same side when it comes to serving capitalism and screwing the workers. Just as with NAFTA (supported by Clinton-Gore and opposed by the AFL-CIO), the labor honchos –for the most part--and the Rockefeller-dominated Democratic Party will continue to remain thick as thieves.
Temporarily, they have opposing positions on the China Trade issue. But in the final analysis, both their positions serve U.S. imperialism. Gore is fighting to open up China for US imperialism rather than allow the Japanese and Europeans to be the main investors there. By pushing anti-Chinese sentiment and anti-communism (even though China is not communist but capitalist), the unions are really building deadly nationalism, which serves to tie workers to U.S. imperialism.
Racist Giuliani Down, Many More to Go
"There is joy from Flatbush to Harlem to the South Bronx" a black worker said when he heard about Mayor Giuliani’s fall. But, as we reported in last week’s CHALLENGE, workers have to temper that joy with the reality that Giuliani’s foes not only include anti-racist workers and youth, but also sections of the ruling class that saw him serve the wrong masters. Let’s take a look at one of those masters Giuliani served.
All of Giuliani’s major policies as NYC mayor came from his masters at the Manhattan Institute (MI). The latter’s founding funders included both Rockefeller’s Chase Bank and it’s rival Citicorp. This tactical alliance lasted through Giuliani’s first term. Each group of bosses wanted drastic reductions in NYC social services and a corresponding increase in police terror. Meanwhile, they wanted to pump up real estate values, profit from tourism and attract corporate investment.
The MI’s expertise in anti-working class savagery long pre-dates Giuliani’s arrival in City Hall. Rudolph/Adolf merely picked up the baton:
• In 1984, the MI funded the publication of Losing Ground, the racist tract by Harvard’s Charles Murray that "many people believe begat welfare reform" [i.e., fascist Workfare—Ed.] (New York Times, 5/12/97). CHALLENGE readers may remember Murray as the co-author of the viciously racist The Bell Curve. This modernized Nazi scribbling pushed the Big Lie about "genetic" causes to "explain" the difference in IQ scores between black and white children and called for dumping affirmative action policies. Shortly after the book’s 1994 publication, the MI-sponsored a luncheon in Murray’s honor (www.accuracy.org).
• By 1990, the MI was already promoting "theories" about crime and "quality of life," which Giuliani soon advanced in his first racist mayoral campaign in 1993. These ideas led to the infamous "zero tolerance" policy pursued by Giuliani’s first police commissioner, William Bratton.
• The MI provided the intellectual ammunition for Giuliani’s attacks against open admissions at New York’s City University and also laid out the justification for privatizing NYC hospitals. According to the New York Times, it is the "brains" behind Giuliani’s policies "…on such issues as the city’s tax structure, economic development, education policy, policing and quality of life." (5/12/97).
• Giuliani proudly proclaims his respect for his racist mentors at the MI. He told the New York Times that he had found [the MI publication—Ed.] City Journal "enormously helpful. I’ve read it for years. It produces…very good ideas" (5/12/97).
Now the Rockefellers have decided on a tactical approach different from the open racism of Giuliani and the MI. But workers shouldn’t make the deadly error of falling for the next "lesser evil" liberal substitute. As previous CHALLENGE articles have shown, for example, Rockefeller-backed "community policing" is hardly a "kinder, gentler" form of bosses’ dictatorship than Giuliani’s "zero tolerance" terror. "Community policing" will mean even more arrests, more long jail sentences and more violence directed against workers and working class youth in particular. In the last analysis, terror is always the name of the game the rulers must play to hold power over us.
Ohio State Workers Expose Liberal Bosses BS
COLUMBUS, OHIO, May 22, 2000 — Two thousand workers from CWA (Communications Workers of America) Local 4501 just tentatively concluded a three-week strike against the bosses that run the Ohio State University and OSU Hospitals here. OSU is one of the country’s largest universities, employing thousands workers. Thanks to the racist sexist capitalist system, a disproportionate number of black and women workers are funneled into the lowest-paying jobs. The strikers included janitors, maintenance workers, housekeepers, dietary workers, bus drivers and other categories and were led by liberal, Democratic Party sellouts. However, several lessons can be learned from this strike:
• The workers are beginning to see through the union’s phony leadership. It was militant workers who pushed for a $2 across-the-board raise for everyone rather than settle for a 4% increase.
• The workers saw the need for militant multiracial unity of workers, students and other allies to counter the bosses’ tools. Many students occupied Bricker Hall (the administration building) to show support for the strikers. Much of the student leadership came from minority student groups. The university bosses tried their best to encourage students to scab and were successful to a certain degree.
• Workers and students saw how the liberal university bosses, who blather about "diversity," really operate. They wanted the union to agree to less of a raise for the hospital workers. Surprise, surprise, these workers are mainly women and minority and are some of the lowest-paid on campus. Rank-and-file union militants (many of whom are women and minority) vocally opposed this move. To the liberal bosses "diversity" means inviting liberal speakers to hawk their books on campus while simultaneously trying to enforce a racist and sexist wage scale.
• All the contradictions of capitalism can be seen inside the university. Liberal President Kirwan makes $275,000 per year plus extras. The salary of is second in command, Provost Ed Ray, rose from $177,000 last year to $219,000 this year (a 24% hike). This pattern saturates Kirwan's administration. Like the big capitalist bosses in the larger society, they reward themselves handsomely while crying budget constraints when poorly-paid workers try to make ends meet.
The liberal university bosses threatened to punish professors who cancelled classes out of support for the strikers. They took out full-page ads in the student paper to get students to report any professor who did not "fulfill obligations". So much for academic freedom and freedom of speech. Shades of Hitler!
Area Party members and friends must be better organized, bolder and more ready to provide communist leadership to workers and students. We must ensure that the most advanced workers see the larger picture. Success cannot be measured in how much we win from the bosses economically. We will never win enough to have a decent life under capitalism. Winning is getting more workers to see the need to destroy capitalism with communist revolution if we are to create a society in which workers share all the fruits of their labors.
El Salvador: PLP Growth: Answer to Bosses’ Bombs
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador—"When the bosses talk of peace, get ready for war." So began the discussion in a new Party club of university students.
Last May 10 this slogan described events here exactly. Thousands of bombs stored by the bosses’ army in the center of San Salvador exploded in the middle of the night. The military claimed a grenade went off accidentally, causing the explosion. It damaged and destroyed the homes of 800 workers who live in the neighborhoods near the barracks. Three people died and dozens were injured. Others remain exposed to the bad weather. Sonia Vilma Sanchez, 40, mother of three, was the first to die.
The Defense Minister said there are seven more arsenals located here, without mentioning those hidden in the rest of the country.
"In peacetime, why do they need to keep huge quantities of weapons?" asked a student. Because they are part of the war against the working class to enforce the bosses’ profit system of poverty and to put down workers’ rebellions, as well as potential staging grounds for U.S. imperialist adventures (Nicaragua). The armed forces torture and murder.
Workers shouldn’t forget this explosion. We shouldn’t believe fairy tales that the rulers’ army is for "democracy and peace" and will cease its attacks on workers and students.
Now more than ever we need to organize PLP clubs, build the understanding that capitalism won’t fall by itself, that millions of workers need to fight for a new communist society.
PLP is the working class’s only weapon to destroy the ruling class by armed revolution. This is the only guarantee of a successful communist revolution and the building of a society that produces for workers’ needs.
This group of students has read and studied CHALLENGE for some time. But the latest events in El Salvador, the possibility of imperialist war, and the economic crisis of world capitalism, spurred three of these youth to take the important step of joining PLP.
On this occasion, these youth declared:
"I’m willing to fight for the communist cause no matter what the consequences."
"As long as Marxist ideas continue to be the ideas of PLP, I will be in the Party and fight for them."
"We must continue fighting to organize many more of our class brothers and sisters. We have to build more party clubs. That’s our main job."
From Border to Cities, Organize Against Racist Murderers!
LOS ANGELES, CA—Last Sunday, May 20, another undocumented immigrant worker was shot to death in Brownsville, Texas by the racist Migra (Immigration Service). The 25-year-old Mexican youth committed the "crime" of wanting to find a job to survive and to help his family. Instead he found death at the hands of the fascist policy of both Clinton and the "shoot-to-kill" Barnett brothers of "shoot to kill."
This worker’s death can be added to others in Sasabe, Arizona. On May 18, four youth were ambushed and shot by two racists on horseback armed with high-powered rifles. According to Miguel A. Palofox, survivor of the shooting, the other four fell before him and when he regained consciousness , bleeding, the other four bodies were nowhere to be found. According to these fascist vigilantes, this is only the beginning since, according to the newspaper LA REFORMA of Mexico, "in a meeting of racists in the border town of Sierra Vista, where ranchers, the Ku Klux Klan and Glen Spence of Voice of Citizens Together participated, the next step will be to put anti-personnel mines in the area."
Twenty-five years ago in Douglas, Arizona, George Hannagan stopped a group of undocumented workers crossing the border at gunpoint. He tied them up and, before turning them over to the Migra, burned their feet.
In the last five years Operation Gatekeeper, under the Clinton Administration, has killed more than 1,500 workers. This has forced many desperate workers to try to cross through these ranches of racism and death. These racist executions of black and Latino workers, both at the border as well as by the police in the big U.S. cities like LA, Chicago and New York are part of the growth of fascist terror to super-exploit the working class. These racist vigilantes are part of a movement against the liberal bosses. But the liberal fascist rulers are #1 in racist murder!
While the fascist vigilantes in Arizona murdered undocumented immigrants, the fascist LA County Sheriffs murdered 34-year-old Richard Garcia in East LA on May 20, just a few blocks from where they murdered Ricardo Close a year ago. They shot and killed Richard in front of his sister, brother and mother who had just asked the police to help him because he was depressed. Richard had had a small fight with his brother and was running away. The cops never told Richard to stop running. They just shot him, both family members and other witnesses said. PLP members have visited the family to express our anger and offered to help organize a demonstration. Our offer was gratefully received and we were invited back.
PLP is urging workers in unions and students in campus organizations to plan demonstrations and take up the fight against these fascist attacks and to join the long-term fight against this fascist system that rules through terror, lies and exploitation!
LA Teachers Fight Back
LOS ANGELES, Ca, May 23—About 6,000 teachers demonstrated today at the school board for a wage increase and against the board’s divisive merit pay proposal, which would tie pay increases to students’ test scores. They also demanded the right to grieve dirty, ill-equipped classrooms. A group of teachers passed out PLP leaflets attacking the new school plans like peer review, showing that this will be used to guarantee the retention of teachers who are loyal to this racist system. This system is attacking the students every day while it prepares more oil wars. Our leaflet called on teachers to unite with parents and students to help students fight to learn and learn to fight this racist capitalist system.
(Full story next week.)
Workers of the World Write LETTERS
SEIU Is as Bad with Other Workers As It Has Been with LA Janitors
I read with interest the May 24 CHALLENGE interviews with some of the striking janitors in Los Angeles and their criticism of SEIU (Service Employees International Union).
I was a member of this union in Western Pennsylvania for a number of years. I was local President, shop steward and was one of the rank and file chosen to re-write the constitution after the Sweeney Trusteeship thing.
Firstly, I can honestly say I was used by that union’s head honcho, who was primarily interested in feathering her own nest and later went on to a higher-paying position. Most of the workers were so disgusted with this official and the union’s inaction in helping with their problems that often very few would show up at meetings. This led to cynicism. But the blame rests with the union leadership, who operate in a top-down dictatorial fashion.
When I would go to Harrisburg with other workers once a month to work on the new constitution, hot shots from the top would be there to monitor us and usually dictate what they wanted in that constitution. At night we would sit in our hotel rooms and talk about what a farce the whole thing was, how we were merely puppets. After the constitution was re-written, nothing changed.
So I have seen the same sort of corruption and sellout leadership as those janitors. Still, I have worked at non-union jobs and it is better to have some kind of union. At least, you have some protection from the bosses. At a non-union job, I witnessed people terminated for no reason and replaced with a friend of the bosses.
But I still wonder what workers' power will mean, how workers will have more control under communism at the workplace. Will they have the right to strike if they feel important issues are being ignored on their jobs?
Finally, I was at my first May Day march on May 6, and felt a sense of hope for turning this mess around and getting rid of this rotten killing machine called capitalism.
Grandmother Jones
CHALLENGE COMMENTS: Grandmother Jones raises some interesting points: (1) working in a union place is better than not having a union, even though the union hacks are so rotten; (2) would workers be able to strike under communism if their grievances on the job were not met. What do our readers think?
May Day: More than a March
For me the bus ride to Washington, D.C. is as exciting as the May Day march itself. It's wonderful to hear people speak about their lives, especially young people. This year I was moved when one fellow apologized for his sexist actions, and one woman, in turn, was self-critical about feeding into his behavior. The incident reminded me that the bus ride represents communism today in that people get closer through struggle, collectivity and good leadership. But what motivated me to write this letter was a deep appreciation of how the Progressive Labor Party learns from history, applies lessons to current struggles and provides a realistic vision for our future—like no other organization.
Many of us have sat on union-sponsored buses where no one is encouraged to speak. The implication is that the union leaders have all the answers. They are never self-critical or ask the masses to evaluate a demonstration. When do they talk about the need for unity with other unions or immigrant workers? And forget about making the link to working class history or rebuilding all society! Only our party takes the noble lessons of the Paris Commune, the story of the first May Day, the Russian and Chinese revolutions—all spoken of on the bus. We marchers are prepared with a tangible sense that the red flag we carry came from the hands of millions of other workers.
Other so-called "leaders" tell us, "look to a higher power; just live one day at a time." On the contrary, we know that our days are welded to the years where our brothers and sisters tried to build communism. The PL videos on welfare and education seen on the bus show how our power can only come from relying on workers alongside us. It is we who must lead, recruit and make plans for tomorrow based on today's lessons.
We asked ourselves on the bus, what is communism? No better time than in a group discussion to bring out our questions about the collectivity the bosses have taught us to fear. This year one young man who sold CHALLENGE on the march talked about how he was taunted, "Don't you know you could die for communism?" We talked about the Vietnam Syndrome that showed the world how fighting for the dollar bill was defeated by communist heroism.
All this is to say that we often take for granted the unbeatable methods of dialectics by which our Party learns from the past and gives to the present and our future. Confidence in the working class is renewed on the May Day buses but equally so is our commitment to PLP.
A New Jersey Comrade
Don’t Send the Census Form
"Did you receive your Census form?" I asked my friend as I filled my tank at the gas station. "I didn't send it in," I continued "Why should I designate race? We're all equal. We all need good services in Oakland."
"You're so right" he replied. I said, "Under capitalism the fascist institutions of the State serving the ruling class—like the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the INS (Immigration Service)—and use the census information to tighten control on workers in the U.S. police state."
"It could be different," my friend said. "Yes, under communism we would use the census to provide equality for all workers," I said. "Check out our newspaper CHALLENGE. We just had our May Day march!" "It’s even in Spanish," my friend replied.
"It could even be in Chinese if you would write us a story" (my friend came to the U.S. from Taiwan). "I’ll check it out," he said.
"There’s more to come," I replied. "See you next time!"
Keep up the good work in CHALLENGE.
Oakland Comrade
Promises and Promises
The Presidential elections in the Dominican Republic replaced talk about baseball for a while among Dominican immigrants here in New York City. Opinions were divided but most people wanted a change in government and hoped that the social-democratic Dominican "Revolutionary" Party would win and "improve conditions" among poor people back home.
Hipólito Mejía, an agricultural businessman, won in the first election round, equaling the combined total of Danilo Medina, the candidate of the current ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and of 94-year-old Joaquín Balaguer (president several times in the past).
The Hipólito Mejía victory was a rejection of the current government led by the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). The PLD won four years ago, "promising" it would modernize the country and improve the lot of working people. The PLD considered itself a "national liberation" party and a cadre organization (you couldn’t just sign up but had to prove yourself first). But as soon as the PLD came to power, it adopted free market reforms (neo-liberalism), privatizing many state-owned enterprises. These policies enriched local and foreign investors and the top officials of the PLD While the Dominican economy grew by 8% a year, the highest in Latin America, nothing trickled down to the masses. So the rich got richer and poor got even poorer.
Now people have the illusion the new President will funnel some of this growth to the masses. But that’s not the way capitalism works, no matter who’s elected. In the past very little trickled down; now almost nothing does. The PRD, the new president’s Party, was in power twice between 1978 and 1986. Then corruption was rampant, including universal repression of workers and youth. In early 1981, a mass rebellion erupted against the PRD, opposing IMF austerity "reforms," making the poor even poorer. The PRD sent in the Army to crush the rebellions, murdering hundreds.
Workers and their allies do not understand that the state is the dictatorship of the capitalist class against workers and their allies. The phony left in the Dominican Republic, that used to be rather large, contributes to the illusion that something can be gained from lesser evil politicians. But the fact is no President will better conditions for the working class because all parties follow capitalism’s profit system. Elections in the Dominican Republic are mainly a fight between rival sections of the ruling class over which one will control the state, and nowadays which imperialist power to serve (the U.S. or the Europeans). Workers end up losing no matter who’s elected. Nothing less than a communist party, as PLP is, can win workers to this understanding.
Juan Pueblo
‘These people should be killed...’
....So says Professor Peter Singer talking about children with defects.
I found out a week before his visit that this Nazi-like professor from Princeton would be speaking at my university. In that week I took final exams (I'm still a student and also working full-time), wrote a flyer (with my oldest sister’s help), passed out about 550 flyers on campus (aided by a multi-racial group of 13 co-workers, family members and friends), and raised consciousness of the true issues at the event itself.
When I first heard about this event, with little time to prepare, a co-worker volunteered to get more information from the Internet for the flyer opposing Singer's views. He also enthusiastically helped distribute the flyer.
One of my co-workers brought three family members to the protest. She had been debating on whether to come, not seeing the difference one person would make. When I explained the dangers of pacifism, she agreed to participate. She later paid for more copies of the flyer after we ran out during the protest.
About 500 people came and everyone wanted to read our flyer. After Singer's speech, I attacked him, explaining that his ideas would lead to death for the poor, while wealthy families with disabled children can pay for help. Then many others attacked his ideas.
As a PLP member I was able to get input from other comrades. Sometimes I can see "a wrong" but have trouble expressing the "why." Our ability to ask questions openly within the Party without feeling one is dumb is crucial and very supportive.
The following are excerpts of the flyer distributed at Cal State University, Bakersfield:
"Who is Worthy of Life?
According to Peter Singer, some lives are not worth living. Children with Downs' Syndrome, mental retardation, disabilities, infants born with birth defects, etc., should be non-voluntarily killed since they, "are not rational and self-conscious and so not persons," as he explains in his book Practical Ethics. This is only a part of Singer's dangerous agenda, which Hitler named and practiced as eugenics.
Lies like these are used for rationing services for the poor. If a person is less worthy of life, why continue to provide tax dollars to help them live healthy lives? If services are cut, those affected the most will be minorities and poor whites. Some say, "If you don't like his ideas, don't go hear him speak." [But] if you don't show opposition whenever a Nazi racist like Singer comes to talk, then you are allowing others to listen and be won over to their ideas. You are allowing fascism to grow.
Human life is not valued by this system. There are millions of homeless in the U.S., millions more starving across the world, but in March 1989 The Wall Street Journal described overproduction in many U.S. industries. As a result, [tens of thousands] were laid off. Overproduction does not mean more was produced than was needed. It means more was produced than could be sold for profit. We have the capacity to feed and house the entire homeless and hungry population, but this would not bring profits to the capitalist system. Greed runs this system, not respect for human life.
If there were a God out there, He would want a better system for us. A system that does not live and survive off everything bad and evil in human beings. He would want us to rise up and create a society where we live in equality, where everyone gets according to need; a system where nobody is forced to work in order to eat, but instead is motivated by their commitment to their children, to their community, and to the betterment of their collective society. A system where human beings are valued not because of the worth of their production, but simply because of the worth as a HUMAN BEING.
Singer and his ideas are dangerous. They reflect the worst of a bloody profit system.
[Editor’s Note: "That better system" described in the above leaflet is called communism, which is what we in PLP fight for. But we agree with Prof. Singer that "...people should be killed," but not the ones he mentioned....]
"The specter of communism is here to stay"
The specter of communism is here to stay. We saw it and felt it in our May Day march in Washington D.C. Years ago Karl Marx said, "Communism is already acknowledged by the bosses’ power to be itself a power among the working class." An example of this was seeing Asian, Latin, black and white young people taking leadership on the march.
Our youth are sick and tired of this capitalist system which cannot provide a community without drugs, an educational system which can't teach solidarity and sharing and streets without police brutality. That's why many youngsters decide to pick up the red flag of communism and march on May Day with PLP.
When I was marching. I saw this young black man carrying the bullhorn during the whole march. It was a hot, sunny day, but it didn't stop the comrade who was teaching English to an Hispanic woman comrade who only spoke Spanish. This is communism taking power.
A New York City Worker
PLP Grows in NJ After May Day March
In the wake of a better May Day effort, two more people have joined our workers’ club. In addition, two friends of the Party attended our last club meeting. We discussed what it means to be a member of PLP, and its role in the current period.
A new member described the importance of an organization like PLP. He said there’s no other organization like our Party because we’re not afraid to speak the truth. Another comrade, a member for a few years, said for a long time he didn’t agree with communism. Now he sees the need for it, but because of family problems, he is limited in what he can do. But this comrade has taken steps to secure his family situation and, in the long run, to contribute more to the Party’s work. One of our friends, an ex-member, said the May Day march had helped bring him back around the Party.
Our club is beginning a dialectics class for new and newer members. We need to constantly return to the study of dialectical materialism. Dialectics can teach how to do work inside mass organizations. This work has posed lots of barriers for our Party, but is also the key to our advancement during this difficult and complex historical period.
All in all, our club members and friends have more confidence in the Party. We also see more clearly the growth of war and fascism. If we advance our line more strongly in the mass organizations, the working class will respond positively and our Party will grow.
Garden State Red
Less Talk More Action
In response to NYC comrade's letter in CHALLENGE (5/24), I agree—the decline in May Day numbers can't be ignored. The working class is a cautious bunch, with good reason. They’ve been told lies all their lives. Believing the lies has caused disastrous results for them. As the old song says, "You're telling me all the things your gonna do for me. Well, I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see." If the Party's plan is to take our revolutionary message to the streets, we'd better be able to withstand the scrutiny of the working class.
What distinguishes us from other political organizations? You can be sure that the working class is asking this question about PLP. We'd better have something substantial to offer them rather than idle talk about "all the things we're gonna do for them."
The Party is not a social club. Building ties with people is important, but building people’s commitment to communist revolution is more effective in the long run. We can't be just a bunch of rocks heating up in the sun. We'd better be a Party of hatching communist revolutionaries. We have to be involved in class struggle daily whether it's within our collectives, on the job or while working in mass organizations. We must learn by practice and teach others by example how to build the Party for revolution. It isn't our job to help people climb social ladders as some reformist organizations do, but to help people climb out of the hold of the capitalist slave ships, which are sinking, and organize a mutiny.
California Comrade
- What Bosses' Debate on Gun Control Hide:
Capitalist Violence Kills Million - Arizona Vigilantes Ape Racist Anti-Immigrant of Shoot To Kill of President Clinton
- Big Bosses Tell Racist Giuliani to Zip It
- IPO Another Capitalist Swindle
- Postal Workers Fight Firings
- Albright You Can't Hide (in Your Limousine). We Charge Youth With Genocide
- Black Workers Denounce Police Terror in Pa.
- Parents and Teachers Defend PLP Teacher
- Demonstrate May 22nd at the Board of Education 125 South Clark (Clark and Adams) 5:00 PM--the last day of the hearings.
CHICAGO COPS ON A SHOOTING SPREE - DETROIT COPS: ARMED AND DANGEROUS
(Do Not Attempt to Apprehend Alone!) - Janitors' Experience: Rulers' Democracy: Another Weapon Against Workers' Struggles
- A Ford in Your Future Means More Bosses' Profits, Less Jobs for Workers
- Social Democrats: Frontment for the Fourth Reich
- LETTERS
What Bosses' Debate on Gun Control Hide:
Capitalist Violence Kills Million
On May 13, nearly a million women gathered in 65 cities throughout the country, the bulk of them in Washington D.C., to demand more gun control from the government in what was labeled as the Million Mom March. Many workers and youth have been outraged by the ruthless killings by fascists in Columbine, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 13, and other shootings that have left many children dead and injured.
On the surface, this movement seems to be organized by caring mothers who really do want to end gun violence. But in essence this "mom" movement is being pushed and endorsed by the Establishment. Donna Dees-Thomases, who refers to herself as a housewife and mother of two young children, was inspired to organize the march by watching the horrific television footage of a neo-Nazi attacking young children in a Jewish-run daycare center in Granada Hills, California.
Dee-Thomases is not the ordinary mom she proclaims. According to the May 15th WALLSTREET JOURNAL, she was a former publicist for Dan Rather and now works for David Letterman. She is also the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases, who just happens to be one of Hillary Clinton's "closest friends, long-time political strategist, heavy-handed enforcer and frequently attorney of record."
The Million Mom March is an apparent attempt to continue the attack on the capitalist rivals of the Rockefeller camp by co-opting the anger and despair that many workers have about the increasing violent killing of youth by guns.
While the Clinton Administration is crying crocodile tears for the victims of gun violence, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has rebuilt itself from the ashes of its own political mess created by the Oklahoma City bombing and its ties to the fascist, racist militia movement. Now led by the fascist actor, Charleton Heston, the NRA is claiming over three million members, even in the wake of the Columbine massacre.
These rival forces are attempting to win millions to their fascist movements, especially during this election year.
Workers and youth should understand that guns are not the enemy as the liberals say. It is who is shooting who that determines the enemy. U.S. rulers, among all capitalists, are responsible for more untold millions of deaths by guns than any other group or individuals. Their cops increasingly murder black and Latin youth across the country. None of these gun control movements are fighting to reign in these racist cops.
The bosses use guns and bombs to destroy and kill millions during wars and have no problem using them. In Kosovo and continuing in Iraq, U.S. bombs killed hundreds of thousands of workers, including mothers and children and left millions homeless. On May 14, U.S. and British planes bombed civilian targets in southern Iraq, injuring nine people, including one child.
The bosses portray violence as something divorced from class interests--that it's "evil" and "mean" people who do it, rather than being inherent in capitalism. When a worker gets laid off and lives day to day, it's violence. According to a Congressional report, every 1.4% increase in U.S. unemployment leads directly over the subsequent five years to 30,000 worker deaths from stress-related diseases and suicides When workers in maquilladoras are forced to work 13 to 18 hours a day, that's violence. When young girls even younger than 10 are forced into slavery for labor or sex all over the world, it's violence. All such forms of violence are committed against the working class every day.
Communists don't oppose guns. The bosses will never surrender their riches or their system to the working class that produces that wealth without an armed struggle. We will have to use guns and other weapons against the bosses in a violent revolution. That's why we say, "Turn the Guns Around, Shoot the Bosses Down." But that can only be achieved by a movement of tens of millions of workers and youth fighting for a communist world, the only thing that can free us from capitalist class violence. Join PLP today!
Arizona Vigilantes Ape Racist Anti-Immigrant of Shoot To Kill of President Clinton
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 20--A group of racist ranchers in Cochise and Douglas, Arizona called "concerned citizens" have unleashed a "witch hunt for immigrants." The group is led by Don and Roger Barnett, together with members of the Ku Klux Klan and Glen Spence, head of Voice of Citizens Together (VCT) from Los Angeles. In a recent interview with the daily "USA Today," the Barnett brothers said they are "prepared to kill Mexicans."
These racists are using the Internet, the press and TV to recruit fascist volunteers to hunt immigrants who try to cross the border in search of a job to survive. Last May 3rd the Barnetts and two women, all on horseback, with bloodhounds and armed with rifles and pistols, invited ABC TV to see how they enjoy themselves terrorizing immigrant workers. That day nine workers were followed and captured. After threatening to kill them, and raining insults on them, they were turned over to the fascist INS. In this same area the body of another immigrant was found with rope marks on his neck and signs of having been tortured.
"The Mexican Government will not allow U.S. citizens to hunt Mexicans," said Rosario Green, Secretary of Foreign Relations. These hypocritical bosses don't say they themselves are also part of the same problem, caused by the poverty to which they have subjected the workers. How many people has the Mexican government killed in Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, etc? We shouldn't expect any help from these exploiters and their killer cops!
In the U.S., nationalist groups and politicians are calling for the defense of the Mexicans and demanding the fascist federal government stop the Barnett brothers. But Clinton is responsible for "Operation Gatekeeper" which has led to the deaths of more than 1,500 immigrants in the last five years. Barnett and his fascist gang are babies compared to the terrorist history of the Migra [immigration service] in Texas. Barnett and Clinton are birds of a feather!
The AFL-CIO, along with immigrants' rights groups, is calling for general amnesty for undocumented workers. They are organizing a massive campaign to support the Democratic Party and asking that they support a general amnesty. But what do the Democrats and the U.S. ruling class want in return? Our sons and daughters in the army to kill and die for the interests and profits of the bosses led by Rockefeller. In addition, they want us workers to passively accept the bosses' exploitation and racist police terror.
Our alternative? First, we must organize class struggle at work, in school, in the unions and mass organizations; organize work stoppages, demonstrations, resolutions and strikes against these racist acts. We need to show our fellow workers who are our friends and who are our enemies. CHALLENGE is crucial to showing all workers that such actions are in their interests. They are one step forward in building a revolutionary communist movement which will destroy borders, exploitation and imperialist wars.
A few years ago in LA, the fascist VCT received a little of what they deserve--the fists and sticks of black, white and Latino workers and youth, led by PLP. Let's fight to prepare our class massively to destroy all these Barnetts, Migra, police terror, exploitation and all the capitalists, with communist revolution.
Big Bosses Tell Racist Giuliani to Zip It
Workers are very happy to see New York City's racist mayor, Rudy Giuliani, sink like the Titanic. But, before we sing victory let's see the real iceberg that is sinking Rudy. Some of his strongest backers, including the NEW YORK TIMES and WALL STREET JOURNAL, have told him to drop his Senate campaign. The media are making a big deal about his prostate cancer and an even bigger one about his private life. But the fall in Giuliani's fortunes isn't due mainly to illness or a sordid little drama of marital infidelity. Behind it lies a shift in ruling class attitudes toward the economy.
The big bosses have a major stake in New York City. It's still the nation's biggest city and the world's most important financial center.
When Giuliani became mayor in January 1994, he had three key assignments. The first was to complete the task, started under his liberal Democrat predecessors, of attacking workers' living standards. He did this through fascist Workfare, layoffs and a variety of racist, union-busting, service-cutting tactics, to forestall resistance to these attacks.
Second, in the name of "reducing crime," he was ordered to continue and intensify a reign of police terror on large sections of NYC workers, particularly in the most oppressed black and Latin neighborhoods. He has certainly done this, even though liberals are now hypocritically complaining that he has been much too openly racist in defending police murders of black and Latin workers. However, they are certainly not opposed to this police terror, and in fact have advanced the Rockefeller-backed policy of "community policing," hardly a "kinder, gentler" form of bosses' dictatorship than Giuliani's "zero tolerance" terror. "Community policing" will mean even more arrests, more long jail sentences and more violence against workers and particularly working-class youth.
Thirdly was to make sure the major banks and financial houses reaped windfall profits from the longest bull market in the stock exchange's history. Until recently, he succeeded here too.
Rockefeller Wants Tighter Control
But the worm is turning. The Rockefeller wing of the bosses wants to bring the markets under tighter control. Recent CHALLENGE articles have described the motives behind the rulers' disciplining of maverick giants like Microsoft's Gates and the new "dot.com" billionaires. Giuliani's decline is related to this process.
Part of the stock market's rise is due to the so-called IPO (Initial Public Offering) craze. IPOs are a gimmick to raise billions for financial houses that float the capital for stocks entering the market for the first time. This is a highly speculative business. IPOs create huge profits for investors without making the companies themselves profitable. (See box.) Amazon.com is a prime example. This is a recipe for a crash, and the Rockefeller banks don't want such a crash.
Giuliani's main loyalty isn't to the Rockefeller banks but rather to the bosses that back the Manhattan Institute (MI), his key "think tank." This bunch includes Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Crédit Suisse, and Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney. They are the top underwriters for IPOs for 1999. Rockefeller's Chase and J.P. Morgan are not to be found on the MI's trustee list. In comparison, Crédit Suisse has more than 250 IPOs completed or pending. Chase has 11, J.P. Morgan seven and Rockefeller Securities none. As long as the markets were fairly steady and rising, the Rockefellers went along with Giuliani's masters, but everything has limits. The MI bosses can't see beyond speculative greed. The Rockefellers have a world to and need internal stability. In political and economic strategy, the Giuliani and Rockefeller camps diverge.
An International Fight
A second point is the question of government interference in international markets. The MI crowd, driving for immediate profits, wants to be able to invest anywhere, including Russia and China, without U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund oversight. Rockefeller rival and IMF foe Walter Wriston (former head of Citibank) leads the pack. Goldman Sachs serves as chief financial advisor to BP Amoco, Rockefeller-Exxon Mobil's main rival. BP Amoco is Russia's largest foreign investor. Other MI trustees have big bucks riding in Russia. And MI board member Maurice Greenberg, AIG's boss, has grand plans to peddle insurance to workers in Russia and China. This wheeling and dealing doesn't necessarily jibe with the liberal Rockefeller position of treating Russia and China as strategic enemies.
The liberal salvos at Giuliani are just the first line of assault in this latest bosses' dogfight. New York's Republican governor Pataki, who until now has had a foot in both camps, just crossed over to the Rockefeller side. On May 3, the $91 billion New York State Teachers' Retirement System fired two of its money managers, Manhattan Institute trustees Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and Citibank Global Asset Management, prominent Manhattan Institute backers, for "poor performance" (BLOOMBERG NEWS). Both the WALL STREET JOURNAL and the NEW YORK TIMES have called for Pataki to replace Giuliani in the Senate campaign. The Manhattan Institute, once chummy with Pataki, now despises him for toeing the Rockefeller line (CITY JOURNAL).
ROCKY'S `SONS' RETURN TO FOLD
There's more. A recent TIMES editorial was highly critical of IPO-factory Bear Stearns for its plan to "restructure" NYC's Metropolitan Transit Authority debt. It just so happens that Bear Stearns's chief agrees with Rockefeller arch-rival Wriston about abolishing the International Monetary Fund. And Rockefeller "prodigal sons" are coming back to the fold. Morgan Stanley, bitten by the IPO high-tech bug a couple of years ago, now warns about high technology stocks and recommends investing in "old economy" companies (REUTERS, April 27). Finally, longtime Rockefeller gunslinger Paul Volcker--who presided over the indictment of the Rocky arch-rival Hunt Brothers' illegal stab at cornering the silver market in the late 1970s--has also taken up his master's arms. Volcker heads a commission looking into the role of Swiss banks in hiding loot the Nazis stole from Jewish victims of Hitler's genocide. Two of the commission's biggest targets, Crédit Suisse and UBS, are represented at the Manhattan Institute.
So the attacks on Giuliani's are clearly tied to Rockefeller efforts to discipline the markets and swat down upstart rivals. There's no "lesser evil" here. Giuliani's a vicious, anti-worker racist. However, his liberal opponents are just as bad, if not worse. In fact, the Rockefeller Chase Bank gave initial funding for the Manhattan Institute when it was founded in 1978 by future Reagan CIA chief William Casey. And the Rockefeller strategy of preparing for oil wars and major imperialist bloodbaths down the road will lead to the death of more workers than Giuliani's cops and his BP Amoco and MI allies have in store for workers. The shifting sands of alliances among the rulers--for war and exploitation to see who gets the most profits--should serve only to increase our commitment to the working class and to the victorous fight for communism.
IPO Another Capitalist Swindle
In an Initial Public Offering (IPO) a big investment bank, like Goldman Sachs, underwrites--that is, buys up shares in a new company--and then sells them to the public for the first time. The start-ups, today mainly Internet schemes, usually have few assets and show no profit. But to make their own profit from selling the shares, the underwriters promise that the new firm will revolutionize business and become the next Microsoft. The "public" part of IPO is a lie. The underwriter gives first crack at the new stock to banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other ruling-class-controlled high rollers. Then, by generating hype, the underwriter lures in the small investor with the promise of a quick buck. The stock's price skyrockets. But the bubble eventually deflates or explodes.
Everybody would be happy and getting richer were it not for two sobering realities. First: the shares are worthless. Their market price may be dozens or even hundreds of times the company's real value. In fact, some companies, like Amazon.com, may actually lose money even though their soaring stock prices make billions for a few of the shareholders. The current high tech market downslide was triggered in part by bankers and insider technology executives dumping their own shares early and letting the small investor take the hit. Second: the main wing of the ruling class sees this mania as a gross waste of capital heading for a crash that will severely harm the long-term profit rate of Establishment firms. That's why Greenspan raised interest rates again this week in order to cool off the market and avoid a general crash. And that's why the Rockefeller wing is forcing a return of capital to the so-called "old economy" companies.
Postal Workers Fight Firings
CHICAGO, IL, May 11 -- Over 50 letter carriers met last Saturday to fight the firings of four carriers at the Hyde Park Station. After receiving an "anonymous tip," postal bosses fired 12 carriers for throwing mail in the dumpster behind the station. Charges were dropped against eight, leaving four out on the street.
Management dumped the mail. They do it all the time. When they get caught, they blame the workers. Carrier after carrier told how they had been harassed, written up, fired and spied on by postal bosses. Several said they had to go out on stress-related leave and were now on medication. The horror stories were endless.
Management's drive to become more competitive with UPS and FedEx has led to intense speed-up, harassment, intimidation and cutbacks. They've made billions in profits over the last five years from the blood, sweat and tears of the workers.
The workers at the meeting were nearly all black and they were not falling for the bosses' nationalist trick of using black bosses to harass them. A non-postal worker in the audience asked, "What percentage of these supervisors and union representatives are African-American?" The meeting's leader answered, "99.9!" Another worker half-jokingly added, "It's black on black crime!"
The union meeting tonight was a packed house of angry workers. A motion was made to have a demonstration at the Postmaster's Office, and it passed unanimously. The local President tried to derail the will of the workers with some mumbo-jumbo about "the process...to select a committee...blah, blah, blah." But workers want to do it with or without official union backing. We got about ten names and phone numbers after the meeting. WE will be the committee.
These struggles give us an opportunity to build ties among workers who want to fight back. Our politics of "Revolution, not Reform" can be like a breath of fresh air. Workers know how bad we're being treated, but it's not so clear why, or what we can do about it. We must view every fight against the boss as a way to increase the circulation of CHALLENGE and win workers to become leaders of the Party.
Albright You Can't Hide (in Your Limousine). We Charge Youth With Genocide
BERKELEY, CA, May 10 --No one knows how Secretary of State Madeleine Albright got invited to speak at the Univ. of California commencement here. It was announced suddenly, with only a week's notice. But everyone knows how she left--lying in the back seat of a limo, hiding from the demonstrators!
Hardly a moment in her speech was not interrupted. Despite Federal security agents checking all who entered the open-air theater, four anti-Albright banners were smuggled in and unfurled. Fifty-nine protesters were ejected.
Outside, pickets had leafleted and agitated among the graduates and their families as they had lined up to enter the stadium. A couple of PLP'ers exposed Albright's role as a servant of Exxon-Mobil and the Rockefeller ruling class, while pointing out that only communist revolution can liberate workers. Several people gave us their names and some deep discussions ensued.
However, the demonstration was organized by forces that only demanded lifting the UN sanctions against Iraq. Yes, the sanctions should be lifted. They spell death for the Iraqi working class, killing almost two million, mainly workers' kids. But to imply, as the organizers did, that lifting the sanctions would free the Iraqi working class spreads dangerous illusions.
Sanctions or no sanctions, all workers in the Mid-East are under a death sentence because the imperialist rivalry to control the region's oil is getting sharper and more desperate by the day. Death by sanctions; death by depleted uranium bombs; death by an Iran/Iraq war; death at the hands of the Taliban (fighting to secure oil pipelines through Afghanistan). Inter-imperialist rivalry kills the working class in many ways.
Even some imperialists want to end the sanctions because they block deals made with Saddam Hussein. And they will cut their deal in the United (against-the-workers-of-the-world) Nations. Yet workers in the Mid-East and elsewhere will not escape this death sentence until we build a revolutionary communist movement--the PLP--capable of putting power in the hands of the working class. That's the message we brought to the demonstration and are carrying today to the new friends we met there.
Black Workers Denounce Police Terror in Pa.
Johnstown, Pa., once a thriving steel town, is now based upon a Wal-Mart economy, with some sweatshop-like factories and fast food restaurants, all low-paying and lacking job security. Recently there has been a layoff epidemic in the city, located in the coalfields of Western Pennsylvania. Johnstown is remembered for the 1889 flood that killed 2,000 people, caused by a dam breaking at the Hunting and Fishing Club owned by robber baron steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie and other capitalist exploiters. (See "The Johnstown Flood," by David McCulloch).
Also, recently the city's black citizens have been waging a battle against police harassment and terror. Last year, the cops arrested a mentally ill black man and placed him in a holding cell. When he was found dead, the cops claimed he hanged himself with his own socks. They would not release the report to the local press.
On May 11, 100 black citizens of Johnstown met with city officials, presented overwhelming evidence of racial profiling, brutality, excessive force and false arrests and demanded the resignation of the Chief of Police. Jack Daniel, a black man and former Johnstown resident, now a vice-provost at the University of Pittsburgh, stated it was more than just racial profiling but "pure racism, racism, racism. The evidence included:
& A black man, a church deacon, charged that two cops unjustly stopped two young black males on their way home from a church revival in Pittsburgh;
& Toni Smith, a 66-year-old black woman, described how one night police crashed through her door without warrant searching for her grandson, rushed upstairs, battered down the young man's door and dragged him down the steps by his shirt.
& John Walker, Jr., a black man, told the story of his two college educated daughters and a friend being arrested by cops for driving a van with New York plates. The young women were jailed but were later released by a magistrate since there were no real charges against them. The young women were traumatized by this blatant cop terror.
& Another black man said he overheard police one night stating they were headed for Kernville, a black section, "to round up some n----rs."
Many others told similar stories of while city officials listened silently. But there are a number of problems with this fight-back. Firstly, white workers should be involved as they also have been victimized by the cops during past strikes; unity is necessary here. Secondly, it should be realized that under capitalism and developing fascism the cops exist to terrorize the oppressed and workers. So even if the Police Chief is fired, it won't solve anything since the problem is not one chief but the system of racist capitalism.
As a CHALLENGE has pointed out, the only way to halt racist police terror is through workers' revolution. Still, it's positive that Johnstown's black residents are standing up to the cops, as many did--along with white workers--against the KKK rally there last August and drove the scum out of town.
Parents and Teachers Defend PLP Teacher
CHICAGO, IL May 11 -- "The defendant will have you believe that this hearing is about his communist politics, but it's not. What it is about is the proper role of a teacher to involve students in a personal crusade, take them to political rallies for his own ideas. Mr. Bernal has a long history, and we will prove this dating back to taking students to protest the Gulf War. Also, that Chicago Vocational Career Academy [CVCA] was fertile ground for Mr. Bernal because it is 99.9% low-income black youth that attend the school." That's how Board of Education lawyer David Hemmingway opened the hearing to fire PLP member Moises Bernal.
The day before the hearings started, students, teachers and parents demonstrated in front of the Board, exposing this kangaroo court and Mayor Daley's racist "school reform." Moises was pulled out of school in January 1999. PLP member Carol Caref was pulled out of the same school in January 2000. The Board claims this is not about our politics, but after three days of testimony that's all it's about. The Board is out to get us for being anti-racists and revolutionary communists, for taking students to demonstrations against racist police brutality and the KKK.
Ringmaster Russell-Williams, a rabid anti-communist teacher and sponsor of the school Bible Study group, led their circus of witnesses. She echoed the Board's lawyer, describing CVCA as 99.9% low-income black students, some not even having bus fare to get to school. She testified that students feared Moises because he became "highly animated when discussing his beliefs." But even she admitted he was a competent teacher.
Then came four CVCA students. Russell-Williams had given their names to Board investigators, who interrogated, coerced and promised them rewards to testify. Russell-Williams was present during at least one of the interrogations. She was the key to getting everyone under the Board's big top. But even they testified he was a good teacher who cared about his students.
Their last witness was a known liar who said Moises spent five and six days a week with her son, but that she had never met him or talked to him. She had written a letter requested by the principal, which was used to investigate Moises and remove him from class.
Over the next two days we presented our case. The political struggle with our friends to defend the Party was very important and rewarding. Parents and students testified that Moises was a caring and committed teacher. One mother attacked the principal for ignoring her repeated concerns about lack of teachers and books.
A student described organizing a walkout because she had no biology books or teacher for a whole semester. When a sophomore, she complained to the principal that a security guard had sexually propositioned her. She even gave his name. The principal said she would investigate. Now the student's a senior and still hasn't heard a word. A young man testified how much he appreciated the various political discussions in the classroom, and how Party club meetings were challenging. The parents and students who testified were inspiring examples of the support we enjoy in the school and community.
We are reaching out to teachers, parents and students in the Chicago Teachers' Union, Board of Education public meetings, youth groups, PTA's, Local School Councils, classrooms and more. Reverend Paul Jakes, a liberal leader of the anti-police brutality movement testified about the role of young people in the civil rights movement. A dissident union group whose newspaper has a circulation of 5,000 readers is covering the case. We are broadening out the struggle and learning how to be communist leaders in the mass movement. Victory is not in the hands of the hearing officer. It's in ours. Building a stronger fighting PLP is the real victory.
Demonstrate May 22nd at the Board of Education 125 South Clark (Clark and Adams) 5:00 PM--the last day of the hearings.
CHICAGO COPS ON A SHOOTING SPREE
CHICAGO, IL, May 15 - Chicago police have shot four people in 10 days. Michael Taylor died Saturday. Police shot the 20-year-old on Friday, when "they saw what they thought" was a drug deal near West Harrison Street. Taylor ran when police tried to handcuff him. The cops claim they killed him after he pulled a gun on them. But Taylor's family said he did not have a gun and no drugs were involved. Witnesses say police shot him while he was trying to get up after falling. They say he ran out of fear because in 1998 police beat him after pulling him over.
On May 3, the cops killed 39-year old Joseph Zagar on his porch. They claim they "mistook" the battery pack he was holding for a gun. On May 9, 23-year old Antonio Blandin was shot in the arm after a traffic stop. A day later, police shot a man in the legs after being stopped on the South Side.
For some mothers, Mother's Day was spent holding photos of their imprisoned sons outside the Cook County Criminal Court building. Justice Is Blind/Mothers Against Injustices called for a federal probe of the city's criminal justice system. Congressman Danny Davis, Rev. Paul Jakes, Jr. and 25 friends and family of Michael Taylor also called for a federal investigation, and the creation of a civilian review board to investigate police shootings.
Investigations and review boards will not stop racist police terror. Never has, never will. Under the last seven years of the Clinton gang, the prison population has doubled. Nearly one in four young black men is either in jail, on probation or awaiting trial. Many, if not most, black and Latin workers and youth understand the futility of asking the fox to guard the hen house.
More to the point, the police are the armed thugs of the ruling class. Their job is to terrorize workers and youth into accepting a future of mass poverty, racist cutbacks and imperialist war, especially as the bosses boast of unprecedented wealth. The system of capitalist wage slavery created these cops. Only communist revolution will end racist police terror.
DETROIT COPS: ARMED AND DANGEROUS
(Do Not Attempt to Apprehend Alone!)
DETROIT, MI, May 15 -- Detroit's cops are the deadliest in the U.S. One is 20 times more likely to be killed by cops in Detroit than in NYC, and 10 times more likely than in Los Angeles. "These are Vietnam kind of numbers," said Detroit lawyer Juan Mateo. "Cops are shooting people and getting away with it."
Many of these racist atrocities will sound familiar. In August 1998, Cora Bell Jones was shot dead in her home. Arthritis, deafness, poor vision and senility hobbled the 79-year-old great-grandmother. She was trying to defend her great-grandson who was being chased by the police, and her daughter who had been knocked out of her wheelchair.
In November 1997, 40-year-old autoworker Hong Leong, with a history of mental problems, was murdered. The cops claim they "fired in self-defense." But 12 of the 16 shots hit Hong IN THE BACK and palm of his hand.
Detroit is home to one million workers, about 80% black. Over the past 20 years the downsizing of the auto industry has devastated Detroit. The old downtown is a graveyard of empty office buildings. Only two factories remain within the city limits, GM's Hamtramck Assembly and DaimlerChrysler's Jefferson Assembly plant. These two factories opened while dozens closed. The new Jefferson factory has half as many workers as the old one, and is out-producing it.
The average income in Detroit has probably been cut in half in this period. Factory jobs have been replaced by janitorial and food service work in the new gambling casinos and the new luxury-box-filled Tiger Stadium, playgrounds for the rich.
These attacks have been carried out at a terrible cost of broken homes and families, closed hospitals, collapsing schools, homelessness, prisons bursting at the seams and almost one police killing a month for the past 10 years.
In the 1960's Detroit's workers were left out of an "economic boom." Unemployment, poverty and racist police terror combined to spark the 1967 Detroit Rebellion. In July '67, Detroit exploded into flames as an armed working class, many of them recently returned Vietnam veterans, turned their guns on the rulers.
In 48 hours the Detroit police force was pinned down in their precincts and out of action. The National Guard was called in, and in another 48 hours, they too were defeated. It finally took units of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions being diverted from Vietnam to retake control of the city. Thousands of workers were arrested and dozens were killed, but many cops never lived to see the rebellion crushed. In it's wake, the shaken auto bosses hired 100,000 black workers.
But things have changed. The Vietnamese no longer inspire the masses to fight U.S. imperialism. The old communist movement has been defeated. Rather than high expectations, there is mass cynicism. And the auto bosses don't have 100,000 jobs to deliver. But the hatred of the workers for the racist rulers and their cops is constant. Even a small communist movement, dedicated and immersed among the people, can lead many. Building a mass PLP must be our answer to this current wave of police terror. Dark night shall have its dawn.
Janitors' Experience: Rulers' Democracy: Another Weapon Against Workers' Struggles
LOS ANGELES, CA. May 17 -- The following interview is a compilation of talks with different groups of janitors after their recent three-week strike.
Q: Do you know about the convention of your international union, SEIU [Service Employees International Union]?
A: No. They never tell us anything about such things. They only talk about them to the few workers they trust. They'll probably say our struggle was a great victory for unionism and for the janitors. But the truth is the opposite. The workers here are very angry with the leadership and with the results of the strike. That's why they haven't told us anything about the convention.
Q: How was the strike?
A: There was a good side. There was a lot of unity among the workers. A lot of women with their children marching and picketing in the rain, or until the middle of the night. These things gave the feel of workers in struggle. Many people used the little money they had to buy food for their fellow strikers. In these struggles, there's an opportunity for rank-and-file leaders to emerge and for them to become real revolutionary leaders, fighting for workers' power.
Q: What did you think of the marches and the militancy?
A: There was a lot of militancy by the rank and file but it was limited by the union leadership. They concentrated more on bringing Democratic Party politicians rather than relying on the rank-and-file workers. They had us march all over the city instead of concentrating on keeping scabs out of our buildings. There were workers and their children whose feet were bleeding, and they came back the next day to keep marching, because they felt they were fighting for something important for themselves and their families.
Q: How is the morale of the workers now?
A: Some are more or less OK. But we feel betrayed. When we decided to strike we said we were fighting for a $1/hr increase for all of us. The somewhat higher-paid workers got only 60cents/hr as of May 1st. The rest of us were sacrificed even more. They gave us only a 30cents increase and we don't get that until October, so overall it's only 15cents/hr averaged out over the first year.
Q; What's happening with the scabs?
A: That's a big problem, because we don't want them in our work locations. But in several buildings, the owners are giving them preference, and the union says it will "take time" to get them out. We think they made a deal, between the companies and the union leaders not to touch these traitors. But we're going to keep fighting against what we think is bad in the union. We also intend to find out what happened to the more than $2 million that some churches and others donated for the strike that was never used.
Q: What do you think of CHALLENGE newspaper?
A; We like it because it tells the truth and teaches things that the union never even mentions, things that are important to our lives.
Conclusion:
The history of the leadership of LA SEIU Local 1877 (janitors) is full of corruption and support for the capitalist system. Mike Garcia is the current president. He wasn't elected by the members, but imposed by then SEIU President John Sweeney in 1995. That year, a group of Latino, black and white workers challenged the sellout leadership of Jim Zellers, President of SEIU Local 399. The reform slate was elected to 21 of the 25 positions in the union leadership. They immediately called a meeting and tried to clean house. But Zellers was unwilling to remove his henchmen and he refused to accept the changes and the will of the membership.
The meeting turned into a fist fight between the old and new leadership. Zellers called the cops to kick the newly-elected leaders out of the union hall, saying they "threatened" him. Then he called Sweeney and asked him to prevent the keep the rank and file from taking control of the union. At the time Sweeney was running for president of the AFL-CIO under the slogan "union democracy." He put Local 399 under the "friendly leadership of the International," completely ignoring the new leaders elected by the members. He installed Mike Garcia from northern California as union chief. Days later, Garcia and Sweeney split the union into two Locals, 399 and 1877, dividing the workers by wage level and splitting the unity of the more militant workers.
This experience showed some workers what PLP had pointed out, that there can be no democracy for workers under capitalism. That's why the fight for workers' power must be the long-term fight for communist revolution. The AFL-CIO's role of is to win the workers to support the mperialist war policies of the liberal Rockefeller wing of the U.S. rulers, and get them to accept racist exploitation as the only way. PLP's goal is to win workers to fight to take power to end racist exploitation and imperialist war with communist revolution.
A Ford in Your Future Means More Bosses' Profits, Less Jobs for Workers
LONDON--Tens of thousands of autoworkers are being laid off, sped up or "transferred" as the European auto industry struggles to reduce its productive capacity. Ford is at the center of this "restructuring."
Current over-all European productive capacity is 21 million cars per year. But production is 14.4 million. One-third of the productive capacity is unused. Ford in Europe has the capacity to produce 2.2 million cars, but last year sold only 1.65 million. It netted a profit of $28 million on sales of $30 billion. "Totally unacceptable," says Ford's European CEO. Its "future growth depends on capturing market share from its rivals." (London FINANCIAL TIMES, May 13)
But Ford is losing market share. "The European Automobile Manufacturers Association said that new car sales in Western Europe fell by 7% in April. Ford was hardest hit with sales dropping 17.7 percent. And while European new car sales reached a record 15.1 million vehicles last year, Ford's share of the market slipped to 9.09 percent from 9.87 percent in 1998." (NEW YORK TIMES, 5/13)
To cut costs by $1 billion, and productive capacity by half a million cars, Ford is wiping out nearly 15,000 jobs and closing plants in Britain, Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Belarus. British workers will take the brunt of these cutbacks. Ford's Dagenham plant, will close sacking 2,750 workers. Last year the union agreed to the closing of Ford's Halewood plant "to save the Dagenham plant." This year they agreed to boost annual productivity to 62 cars per worker.
To further complicate matters, the auto industry is consolidating. The big fish are eating the little ones. Daimler bought Chrysler. Ford now owns Jaguar and Aston Martin of Britain, Volvo of Sweden and will pay $2.9 billion for BMW's Land Rover sport utility vehicle. As production is merged into fewer, more productive factories, more plants will close and more workers will be thrown out like garbage.
Capitalism can make your head spin. While factories are being closed across Europe, Ford will spend billions to upgrade their existing plants, and build new ones, that produce more with fewer workers. Ford said it would invest $500 million to expand its Dagenham diesel engine center, and $3 billion in its British plants over the next five years. This is to destroy jobs, not create them. The capitalist dream is to have one worker sitting at a computer running an entirely automated assembly plant. And even then they would try to cut her wages.
The toothless pro-capitalist union leaders are worse than useless. They cling desperately to the bosses' promises and look on workers at the "other" company as their enemy. In Britain they also view workers in Germany, Poland and Portugal as their competitors and blame them for their loss of jobs.
Production for profit is what causes the chaos and anarchy that leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. Workers across Europe know all too well that this leads to World Wars and unthinkable destruction. As long as we labor under the system of wage slavery and production for profit, this is how it must be. The only solution is communist revolution, and production to meet the needs of the international working class. Autoworkers across Europe and around the world can answer this crisis by smashing all borders and waging international strikes and strike support. We can build a mass international PLP to organize the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist beast.
Nationalism: Deadly for Autoworkers
Time was if you got a job in auto you were made in the shade, relatively speaking.
Today, if you get hired, your job hangs on international currency rates, how cheaply you will work and nationalist slogans pushed by the unions.
"Save British jobs," the unions cried at a big march on April 1st in Birmingham, "Save British manufacturing industry!"
The march came as Honda had just cut 50% of its workforce at Swindon. Rumors were circulating about Nissan threatening 2,000 jobs at its plant in Sunderland (affecting some 10,000 supply jobs) and, of course, Ford Dagenham was about to close. The strong [[sterling]] (pound), it was claimed, had priced British-made goods out of its biggest market, Europe.
Worse still, it appeared all 24,000 jobs at Rover would be lost, affecting some 50,000 supply jobs. A buyer has come through at the last moment and will save most of the Rover jobs but the April 29th GUARDIAN reported that the West Midlands area has lost 30,000 manufacturing jobs in manufacturing since September 1998.
Get a job in auto today and one is on the front lines of inter-imperialist rivalry. You cannot be indifferent. Trade union hacks and their nationalism lead us into one side or another of the bosses. There is another choice: workers' internationalism and communist politics. That is the road PLP offer, join us!
Social Democrats: Frontment for the Fourth Reich
May 9 marks the 55th anniversary of ending Hitler's Third Reich and the raising of the red flag over Berlin's Reichstag by the communist Soviet Army. The Soviet Union lost up to 30 million people doing most of the fighting against Hitler's war machine. The Red Army fought 507 German divisions plus 100 divisions of their fascist allies, almost 3.5 times more than the Western Allies combined!
Last week the German army renamed an important military base after a Wermacht (German Army) sergeant who risked his life saving a couple of hundred Jews. Previously the base had been named after a general who began his career during World War I and then served Hitler during World War II. This was reported as a "change in the mind" of German capitalism from the old militarist mentality.
Meanwhile, a commission restructuring the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) proposed reorganizing all troops into a rapid deployment force capable of intervening overseas. After WWII, the German military, so discredited by the atrocities committed by Hitler, was supposedly reorganized mainly as a defensive force, forbidden from fighting overseas. But during last year's NATO/U.S. air war against Yugoslavia, the Bundeswehr fought as part of NATO.
Under the new proposal the military draft will end. Instead a professional force of 210,000 troops will be set up; 140,000 will be part of a "crisis reaction force for foreign actions," with Kosovo the testing ground for this new force. It reflects the growing influence of German imperialism in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
But interestingly, support for this change comes not so much from the old-fashioned reactionaries, but from the Greens, the "peace" party. They, in coalition with the Social Democrats, run the government. The Greens were known as a pacifist, environmental, anti-nuke organization, and claim this "restructuring" will abolish the draft. What they don't say is if the German bosses need more soldiers, they'll reinstate the draft. As a matter of fact, the new plan calls for a token conscript force of 30,000.
The Social-Democrats since before World War I have always been imperialism's best friend. In Germany they have served their masters well. During WWI, the Social-Democrats (SPD), calling themselves "a workers' party," voted for war credits for the bosses' military. The Bolsheviks, the revolutionary movement led by Lenin in Russia, was the only force in Europe to oppose the war and strongly attacked the Social-Democrats. The SPD played the same role in Germany as the Democratic Party do in the U.S., to lead the workers to support the ruling class. The Bolsheviks called for turning the imperialist war into a revolutionary war to destroy capitalism (which is exactly what they did in Russia). After WWI, the Social-Democrats were vital to the German bosses crushing the workers' uprising led by German communists.
During the 1920s and early 1930s, the KPD (the German Communist Party) had to fight the SPD, which ran the labor movement. The KPD never broke the SPD's hold on key sections of the proletariat. The KPD mistakenly encouraged reliance on parliamentary elections to take power, totally underestimating the rise fascism and the German ruling class. Their slogan was, "After Hitler, Thaelmann" (head of the KPD).
While today there is no communist Soviet Union, workers are not starting from scratch. We have the experiences of past communists, their great achievements as well as mistakes. As all the imperialists prepare for their constant wars, workers must also organize for these bloody battles ahead.
LETTERS
A Father-Son Conversation: Why March on May Day?
As I was preparing to go to Washington, D.C. for PLP's annual May Day march, my thirteen-year-old son asked me why I was marching. He said I had gone to numerous May Days with seemingly no results (i.e., revolution). On top of that, I had no reason to march since I have a "good" job and a house. His question made me think of my first May Day march in Boston 1975.
My sixteen-year-old sister and I had just gotten off a May Day bus from Washington, D.C. The D.C. marchers were the first to arrive at the staging point, a vacant shopping center. I recall seeing dozens of police cars and motorcycles filling over half the parking lot, waiting for the march to begin. Our attention was drawn to a ridge a few hundred yards away to our right. I was 21 and very naive. We could see people approaching with what appeared to be hockey sticks. I thought to myself, this is summer, why would anyone be carrying hockey sticks. My innocence was quickly shattered when I realized these people also had baseball bats and were about to attack us.
My sister grabbed my shirt and clung to it like there was no tomorrow. She said, "I want to go home!" I told her the buses had left and we couldn't go back. We then heard a thundering voice from the sound truck directing the security volunteers to "Go! Go!" and stop these attackers from getting too close to the marchers. The security force sprang into action. They ran up to the attackers and engaged them in battle. It became obvious in only a few minutes our security force would be victorious.
The whole time the police were just sitting and waiting to see the result of this confrontation. When the racists were being bloodied and scattering, the police decided to intercede. They started up their cars and motorcycles, raced to the battle scene, and proceeded to attack mostly our forces. At the same time, a police car cruised by my sister and me. The cops were grinning and one of them was giving us the "finger" as they went by. I realized then how much the cops hated our cause and us. There were cops in combat fatigues who approached us too, but quickly withdrew as the buses from NY and other cities started arriving.
Bus after beautiful bus, filled with May Day marchers, seemed to form an endless line, as we cheered with joy. The security force that had just won the battle of Columbia Point was welcomed back with open arms. As the marchers disembarked, the story of the battle was recounted from the sound truck for all to hear. The marchers were electrified upon hearing how the battle was fought and won.
The Party had organized a very successful march that led to the recruitment and consolidation of many new comrades (including myself). I am not the first to say that achieving communist revolution consists of many small and large battles, including the process of struggling with our friends over many issues, like their participation in May Day. May Day is step on the long, arduous road to revolution.
While it is true many workers in the USA own a house (as long as the mortgage is paid), and a number have relatively good-paying jobs, the majority live "paycheck to paycheck." If I lost my job, I could lose my house; a trauma experienced by many workers, especially in the auto and steel industries.
Under capitalism, workers have no assurances for a fulfilling and happy life (all too often, quite the opposite) because our destiny is in the hands of a few billionaires. Their system demands constant profits, which means exploitation of our labor. They have the power to decide when to go to war, whether to use nuclear weapons, and whether our young people are drafted or go to prison. They guarantee the worship of the dollar bill. The capitalist future includes imperialist wars, fascist terror and continued oppression for the profit god.
I choose a different scenario. I choose a future based on sharing everything our labor produces. I choose to have confidence in the leadership and cadre of the communist PLP. I hope some day that you join me.
Midwest Red
Weaker Sex Myth Means Big Bucks for Growers
The bosses push the line that women are the weaker sex, not to give them better treatment but to exploit them more. This idea of the weaker sex has been publicized so widely that many workers, women and men, have accepted it.
On the fields of Delano, CA, in the winter of 1965, the growers hired women to pick grapes to try to break the farm workers strike. The growers formed "Mothers Against the Strike," led by the wives of contractors and growers. They promised better treatment and higher wages to the women they hired. Of course this was a big lie.
Today women working in the fields are as super-exploited as ever. Many women in Delano work in the packing plants and produce profits for their owners. But they are actually hired by contractors, who also grab part of their wages.
These doubly-exploited women are also forced to sign a paper allowing the company to fire them without cause. The bosses have also installed cameras in the plant to spy on the women, to insure they're working fast enough. This weaker sex myth means super-profits for the bosses.
Men and women workers must unite to fight this oppression. The same bosses who super-exploit women workers to lay off and/or lower wages for men workers. Join the PLP the only organization that unites men and women workers to eliminate the system requiring this exploitation: capitalism.
Veteran of the 1965 Farm Workers Strike
What Needs to Be Done?
I just read in CHALLENGE about the May Day marches. It was encouraging to know that 60 people joined PLP and 70 expressed interest in Party study groups on the May 6th Washington march. It was good to know a new Party club has begun in Texas. The development of the Party's relationship with janitors in Los Angeles is significant, as well as PLP's May Day mobilizing in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The letters from various May Day marchers were inspiring.
However, I think it would be incorrect to be overly positive. The "modest turnout of 1300" people in the Washington march, which represents a decline over the last two years, should concern us. A "modest" turnout on May Day demands that we change and improve our efforts.
I think each Party club and section should make a sober analysis about the "turnout." I think each comrade should ask himself or herself, "What are your goals and expectations for the Party in general and for yourself in particular?" The Party must grow and everyone must help!
I think each club should make plans to at least double its membership, to consolidate new members and to develop new organizers and leaders among workers, youth and professionals. Whatever criticism and self-criticism and adjustments are required to do this, we must do it.
While it is uplifting to meet people at May Day who agree with communism, we can not allow ourselves to underestimate the effort it takes to win these and many others who are confused or unsure about communism and whether it will work.
The magic of the May Day moment doesn't by itself produce the type of plans and build the courage and commitment necessary to build the Party all year round. I recognize and appreciate the positive lessons from this May Day. I fight to have full confidence in the working class. But I don't think that communism and the Party's future is automatically secured. I don't think the Party leadership or CHALLENGE should contribute to anyone's illusion that this is true.
NYC Comrade
Learning a Lot
As a PLP member, I learn many things each time I march on May Day. It helps me understand that my job is to organize for international communist revolution. Capitalism appears to be good for everyone, but this is an illusion. It kills people or causes them to live in misery and poverty all their lives for the "good" of the bosses. It can never be reformed, or remade into a good society. Capitalism can't provide for everyone because it produces for profits, not people's needs.
Our work to build revolution can start with something as simple as asking your friends to look over a copy of CHALLENGE. Perhaps they will come with you to a forum, study group or rally in your community. Every person's collective work in the Party is unique, but equally important to the working class and our future. It all starts with your choice to accept the job or not. We cannot be neutral in this struggle. Either we remain part of the problem, or become part of the solution.
Members of PLP stand up for communism and rock the capitalist boat. It may scare those around us when we do. But the bosses are killing us in the streets and storming into our houses like Nazi troopers whenever they please. Our work for communist revolution and the daily effects of capitalism will show people we are telling the truth, so push on. There is plenty of "on-the-job training" available from comrades who know your true value and potential as a member of the working class. Choose your side, the communist side. On May Day 2000, I want to say welcome to the PLP. You won't regret your choice. Let's get to work.
Hammond, Indiana Red
`Amen!' to May Day
Whoopee! In 26 years of Party membership this is the first May Day I've underestimated the turnout from my immediate group. We thought that, at most, 12 would come from our church and soup kitchen, but 18 came. Everyone participated in the march and rallies and a lot handled the multiple bus break-downs in mature working-class fashion, by directing anger at the capitalist system.
Most important, two adults and one student indicated they wanted to join PLP, and three more people agreed to distribute CHALLENGE. We must decide which collectives will be most appropriate for our new comrades, and where to help them concentrate their efforts in sharpening class struggle, in Workfare, police terror and/or youth-schools work.
These developments have come through five years of increasing participation in many aspects of the church's life, but concentrating on the soup kitchen, base-building, trying to politicize relationships and, in the last year, guaranteeing the distribution of 16-20 CHALLENGES. As a result of this exciting activity, three professionals and one auto worker who couldn't go to May Day may now become regular readers. None of them is a church-goer but they respect the fact that we try to lead class struggle there.
I also met five more people (two artists, two teachers and a nurse) at a regional denominational social justice meeting. They liked aspects of our ideas they've seen in our church newsletter. These are modest but encouraging developments. We are beginning to learn how to work within, and the raise, the limits that now hold back the working class and us.
In struggle, Amen!
Red Churchmouse
- Turn Strike Struggles Into Schools for Communism
- General Strikes Erupt from Africa to South America
- IS THE MILITARY TRYING TO ABOLISH SEXISM?
- Methodist Hospital Strike...
OUR UNITY WILL SOON BE TESTED! - Workers Wary of AFL-CIO `Shampaign' for Amnesty
- For a Brief Period The Statue Stood for Liberty--from Slavery
- Rockefeller Forces Plot
Hostile Takeover of LA Bosses - Capitalism: Murder Inc. in Africa
- Can the Army Be All It Can Without Sexism?
- School Election Opens Doors for Left
- Peer Review a Cover for Attacks Against Students, Teachers
- LETTERS
Editorial
Turn Strike Struggles Into Schools for Communism
Workers in several countries are fighting back militantly against increased bosses' attacks. Massive general strikes occurred in Uruguay (June 8) and Argentina (June 9). A two-day general strike is slated for Ecuador June 15-16. In Africa, Nigeria was hit by a general strike protesting the government increase of fuel prices. (For details, see below).
GENERAL STRIKES ARE NOT ENOUGH
As communists we in PLP support these workers' struggles while rejecting the union leaders and opportunists behind them who mislead them and who generally serve different groups of bosses. For example, in Argentina, the union federations are led by members of the Peronista Party (founded by General Perón, a Hitler admirer).. For almost a decade, Argentina was ruled by Peronista President Menem, who relentlessly attacked the working class.Until this system that thrives on the misery of the working class is smashed, workers will continue on the treadmill of constantly fighting the bosses' attacks, while winning very few, if any, of these battles. And the bosses, holding state power, eventually take away even these small victories. Even should these strikes become a mass uprising throwing the current rulers out of office, exchanging one president for another--as has happened twice in Ecuador in the last two years and hundreds of times under capitalism--the essence of the system, a bosses' dictatorship over workers, remains.Revolutionary-minded workers must turn these struggles into schools for communism. This means, among other things:
* Building Class Solidarity. In the U.S., unity in struggle against the bosses has gone mostly downhill ever since Reagan busted the 1981 air controllers strike. All boss-fostered divisions that emerge in strike actions--white against black, Latin and Asian; men against women; citizen against immigrant; young against old; one nationality against another--must be fought. Working-class unity is an essential ingredient without which revolution is impossible.
* Battling scabs and cops. In the course of militant class struggle, workers can learn the class nature of the government (state apparatus). It's not neutral. It's a class weapon of the bosses against the working class. From this can come the understanding--with communist leadership--that the bosses' state dictatorship cannot be changed by "electing the good guys" but must be smashed and replaced by a workers' state: the dictatorship of the proletariat.
* Relating strike demands to the political needs of the working class. Immediate economic struggles often open the door to explain how racism and imperialist war are behind the bosses attacks on the working class. Overcoming boss-inspired racism unites the working class, again an essential ingredient in preparation for revolution. Organizing against the bosses' war plans, especially in the war industries and the military, could rock the rulers back on their heels and reveal just how weak they are without working class support or passivity.
* Building a mass PLP. Finally, and most important, PLP members and friends in every strike and general strike must fight to win strikers to the need to join the Party and build a mass revolutionary workers' communist party . That is the only road to a society where production is based on the needs of the working class. For workers, this is the true victory of any strike or general strike.
These are some of the ways such struggles can become schools for communism.
General Strikes Erupt from Africa to South America
* On June 8 in Uruguay, the PIT-CNT (the union federation) organized a 24-hour general strike coinciding with the 100th day of President Jorge Battle's government, protesting his economic policies. Uruguay's unemployment rate is 12%. The strike opposed huge budget cutbacks, aimed mainly at the workers, and a privatization law which will sell off even "efficient state-owned agencies." The strike was partially successful. Several workers were arrested for stoning 21 scab buses.
* On June 9, the three different trade union federations in Argentina united to call a 24-hour general strike against mass firings of government workers. The strike was 85% effective. Over 100 scab buses were burned. President de la Rúa is in a bind. He's about to visit Wall Street seeking more investments in Argentina, but the imperialist bankers (through the International Monetary Fund) are demanding even greater government cutbacks to force it to pay for its already huge foreign debt.
* "A general strike in Nigeria against increased fuel prices has left banks, schools and hospitals across the country closed," reported BBC news (June 8). The strike began on June 7 after rebellions erupted in several cities protesting the increase. Although Nigeria is a big oil producer, and the world price of oil is at its highest in many years, only Shell Oil, Chevron and local bosses and politicians benefit from this bonanza.
* In Ecuador, "The national teachers' union and public health workers began the week with new protests....The trade union federations have called for a general strike for the end of the week. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE) is meeting on June 13 to decide whether to join the call for a people's uprising." (INSIGNIA newspaper, June 12).
A few months ago, similar uprisings led by CONAIE stormed the parliament when the soldiers protecting it opened the doors to the protestors. The politicians inside ran for their lives. CONAIE and dissident military officers briefly established a government. Army generals, guided by the U.S. embassy, dissolved it a few hours later, forced President Mahuad to resign and installed Vice-President Noboa as president. Noboa has continued Mahuad's anti-working class economic policies (including replacing the Sucre with the dollar as the local currency) and now is facing a similar threat. As in Nigeria, oil profits end up in the imperialist/local bosses'/politicians' pockets.
IS THE MILITARY TRYING TO ABOLISH SEXISM?
Charges of sexual harassment brought by the highest-ranking woman in the military, Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, against her former commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Larry G. Smith, have been upheld. Kennedy has stated that in 1996 Smith tried to fondle her after a meeting at her Pentagon office. At the time she did not report it, but when Smith was assigned to handle all complaints of sexual harassment in the military, she said she felt compelled to bring these charges.
Why did Kennedy, who is retiring in June, decide to come forward now? Was it a combination of a guilty conscience for not having said something earlier plus Smith's promotion? Or did she feel that with her retirement she wouldn't have to worry about the effect on her career? Or did others encourage her to come forward to make a political statement? It's still unclear, but some things are very clear.
Kennedy received a lot of support after making the charges. Counter-charges brought against her by a friend of Smith's were dismissed within a few days. This kind of speed is rarely seen in the Pentagon. Secondly, shortly afterwards Kennedy spoke at a public banquet sponsored by several groups closely associated with the military. She urged military women to come forward with complaints of sexual harassment. This event received front-page coverage in the NEW YORK TIMES.
Integrating women into the armed forces has been huge problem for the military which they are desperately trying to solve. Since the Gulf War the military could not function without the women who comprise 30% or so of its forces. Without women volunteers they would probably need a draft, which would create more political problems for them.
The military is also committed to integrating women because it affects the U.S. rulers' strategy of maintaining their position as the dominant capitalist power. This requires preparation for large-scale war and constant deployment of troops worldwide. The ruling class needs liberal politicians to win the population to support war, large and small. Therefore, they must have a military that is large and integrated.
The military can't fully fight the sexism within its ranks without exposing the sexist nature of the society these soldiers are being asked to die to protect. Can they afford to reveal that capitalist culture is saturated with sex and destructive relationships from which the ruling class makes billions while taking young people's minds off rebelling? As young workers become more disillusioned and alienated by capitalism, more sex and decadence are offered to distract them.
Can they expose the fact that capitalism needs the billions of dollars netted by U.S. bosses from paying low wages to woman workers around the world? Yet their own need to protect more of their empire is forcing U.S. bosses to use more women in the military. Promoting more woman to generals, even supporting more women who complain about sexual harassment, won't solve the problem of sexism.
Among enlisted soldiers sexism in the military cuts both ways. On the one hand, sexism is a huge problem for working-class soldiers. Relationships between men and women in the military are strained. All the problems of a sexist society are magnified by the young age of the soldiers, the uneven ratio of men to women and the lack of good role models for healthy relationships. But the main problem is political and inherent in a profit system.
Although sexism is not inherent in our communist movement, it does exist and we are held back by the sexism of capitalism. But the communist movement is not bound by sexism. Not only do we not need it but it also acts as a brake on the unity needed to destroy capitalism. Through political struggle and practice we can overcome sexism to unite soldiers to fight for communism.
While there have been many ups and downs, the communist movement has a positive history of fighting sexism. Women played huge roles, as soldiers and organizers, in both the Soviet and Chinese revolutions. The Cultural Revolution in China explicitly sought to fight sexism in the movement and bring more women into leadership. PLP has made strides in developing women leaders. But this, like the entire struggle for revolution, is a long hard fight--500 years of capitalist ideology won't change easily in any of us.
PLP members in the military are trying to develop healthy communist relations between soldiers, relationships based more on class-consciousness, helping each other and uniting against the brass and the bosses. Over the last few months we've had some positive developments. In one mostly black National Guard unit, a young white woman soldier has earned the respect of her fellow soldiers by taking on the female First Sergeant who was giving favors to soldiers who slept with her. Our comrade fought over many little things, such as which barracks were given to soldiers on drill weekends and favoritism in duty assignments to cronies of the First Sergeant. She has also raised bigger political issues, about the war in Kosovo and racist police killings.
By doing such things and being a principled person, over the last few years she has developed a few soldiers who read CHALLENGE and has built a small base for communist ideas. This is an example of fighting sexism in the military, one that gives us hope for the future.
Methodist Hospital Strike...
OUR UNITY WILL SOON BE TESTED!
GARY, IN, June 14 -- The strike against Northlake and Southlake Methodist hospitals is in its third week. Morale is high for the 650 mostly black women housekeepers, nurses' assistants, food service and maintenance workers in SEIU Local 73.
On June 8, almost 1,000 workers and youth turned out in the blistering heat to march arm in arm with the strikers. Workers were outraged when Gary mayor compared giving a city permit for the six-block march to granting a permit to the Ku Klux Klan!
The large number of marchers and the constant blast of truck and car horns showed the overwhelming support of workers in this area. The usual gaggle of union hacks and politicians addressed the rally, declaring to the heavens, "We're with you all the way!" Some came with checks in hand for the emergency fund, used to prevent the utilities from turning off the strikers' gas and electricity.
A strike leader and 20-year veteran gave a chilling account of what life is like for her and her son on a Methodist paycheck. A letter from a nurse was read to the rally. Nurses are not in the union and are working 12-hour days. She described the unsafe and unsanitary conditions inside, and told how the security guards were trying to intimidate nurses from talking to strikers. She concluded by saying, "We are all with you." Now would be the time to add "union recognition" for the nurses to the list of demands, and pull them out as well. A black woman doctor declared her support for the strike at a rally right in front of the main entrance.
The unity and morale of the strikers is about to be tested. The bosses have brought in professional strikebreakers and a court injunction is not far off. When it comes, the big-shot union leaders and politicians will tell us to obey it. We must be prepared to defy any injunction with even greater mass picketing. This will up the ante. Strikers will face arrests, but that can be turned against the bosses with even more support from steelworkers and other hospital workers in the area.
This strike is an opportunity to learn how to take power. The bosses rule through a class dictatorship: their property, their cops, their courts, and their laws. Racist and sexist super-exploitation, driving wages down and productivity up, are what's fueling the "economic boom" in every industry. Capitalism is a system of wage slavery. Everything is produced for profit.
As long as the bosses hold power we will have endless wars, racism and poverty. Communist revolution will build a world where everything is produced for the needs of the working class. We invite every Methodist striker to join the revolutionary communist PLP and build a movement that can lead our class to power.
Workers Wary of AFL-CIO `Shampaign' for Amnesty
LOS ANGELES, CA, June 10--More than 20,000 immigrant and citizen workers attended a rally sponsored by the AFL-CIO leadership to demand unconditional amnesty for undocumented workers.
The AFL-CIO and Democratic Party, both controlled by the Rockefeller wing of the ruling class, have a long history of racism against immigrant workers. While many workers hope this campaign will bring them relief from the racist Migra (the U.S. immigration department), the Rockefellers have something else in mind. They're pushing amnesty to get workers beholden to them and more likely to fight their imperialist wars. They also want workers tied to the electoral process and to the AFL-CIO traitors.
A limited amnesty may well win over large sectors of the immigrant community. More than 70% are between 18 and 35--army age. One of every five children born in the U.S. are from immigrant families.
At the rally, workers chanted, "Workers' struggles have no borders"; "Up with workers, down with Clinton." A few chanted, "Migra Cochina racista y asesina." [Immigration cops: filthy racists and murderers."] When some leaders chanted, "People, united...," one worker led those around her to chant, Workers, united..." Several workers agreed we must sharpen the struggle against the bosses in the factories and gave her their names and addresses.
Outside, PLP members sold and distributed over 600 CHALLENGES and more than 3,500 communist leaflets. As workers streamed inside, PLP rallied, denouncing Clinton, Gore and the capitalist system, the source of racist exploitation, and "Operation Gatekeeper," which has murdered 1,500 immigrants at the border. We called for revolution to destroy wage slavery and borders so the workers who produce all the wealth will use it for their own needs.
A couple of union leaders tried to turn the crowd against us, saying we were "against the workers" because our leaflet attacked the AFL-CIO leadership. But then a worker took the bullhorn to say many "legal" workers are paid starvation wages; "amnesty will not end exploitation." He asked why the AFL-CIO didn't organize the power of garment and farm workers and all workers in California to strike for unconditional amnesty and decent wages and conditions. He called on workers to organize on the job against racist exploitation. The union leaders slunk away.
"LEADERS BUILD PATRIOTISM AND NATIONALISM
Union honchos began the event with a group playing popular Mexican music. Thousands started chanting, "Mexico, Mexico." But Christina Vasquez, garment union International Vice-President led a group of youth who recently became U.S. citizens in the Pledge of Allegiance to U.S. bosses. Behind them was a sea of U.S. flags. Then union leaders and politicians spewed their love of the U.S. and their "support" of immigrant workers.
Farmworkers' union leader Arturo Rodriguez said workers who are legal residents "are free to improve their lives." AFL-CIO Executive Vice-President Linda Chavez Thompson said that the "clause that punishes employers who employ undocumented workers, made into law in 1986, was a failure. The employers manipulated the system. That's why they're changing their strategy." A video about the Statue of Liberty said it stood for protecting immigrants in the past which should be the case again.
`HUMANITARIAN' WORDS, FASCIST DEEDS
"This is a circus," said a garment worker who brought his family and other workers. Another declared, "I'm going to fight for amnesty, but I'm not going to support a war! They're going to have a serious problem if they want to send us." Although many understood the union leaders are "humanitarian" in word and fascist in deed, the bosses are still fighting to win many thousands to support their plans for war and fascism.
Garment workers, farm workers and janitors came in groups while 4,000 workers were organized by different churches under the Metro Alliance. The field is open for us to work more deeply with them and win many to our revolutionary outlook.
Party members plan to discuss the event with their co-workers, explain the bosses' plans and organize committees in the shops and factories as well as in the churches to oppose the bosses' daily attacks. We'll fight to bring more workers and students to the next mass rally. This work and CHALLENGE are vital in giving workers the alternative to the Democrats and AFL-CIO "leaders." Only CHALLENGE exposes the hypocrisy of these "humanitarians" who need workers as cannon fodder to fight for their empire. Either we win workers to the long-term fight for workers' power or the bosses will win them to fight and kill other workers for the bosses' bloody oil profits.
For a Brief Period The Statue Stood for Liberty--from Slavery
It's called the Statue of Liberty for a reason. It was not presented to the U.S. to celebrate mass immigration. The "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..." part was added years later.
The statue was given to the U.S. by a Republican club in France when Republicans were left-wing parties advocating the overthrow of monarchies. It honored the defeat of slavery. In fact the first statue had a broken chain in her hand and was a black woman!
This apparently was too radical for the U.S. government which asked for the modifications we see today. And no black people were allowed on the island for the opening ceremony. The Statue is a clear example how the rulers rewrite history.
Later the same French Republican club struck a medallion honoring John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and presented it to his widow.
Rockefeller Forces Plot
Hostile Takeover of LA Bosses
The Rockefeller wing of the U.S. ruling class, which owns Exxon-Mobil, the Chase Bank, many media outlets--led by the NEW YORK TIMES--and controls the Democratic Party, is organizing a many-sided offensive to attack its rivals. For this, these imperialists must win as many workers as possible to their side. Their plan is to drape themselves with a "humanitarian, anti-racist, pro-immigrant, pro-labor" flag.This is why the Rockefeller-directed U.S. Justice Department is punishing Bill Gates' Microsoft, to bring it under the control of the Rockefeller Eastern Establishment. This offensive is also behind the drive for community policing and the fight to take over the schools as well as the launching of mass movements led by the AFL-CIO.
An important part of this offensive is the fight to control Los Angeles, the country's second largest city. The top Eastern bosses are disciplining the LA ruling class and fighting to win over black and Latino workers to support Rockefeller/Exxon war plans for control of Middle East oil. This is the cheapest, most plentiful and accessible oil in the world. Corporations that dominated policy in LA include: McDonnell Douglas, absorbed by Boeing; ARCO, taken over by Exxon rival BP Amoco, (limited somewhat by the Justice Department), and UNOCAL, being attacked by the AFL-CIO for its ties to the Rockefeller enemies ruling in Myanmar (Burma) and Afghanistan.Eli Broad, owner of Sun America, has been a member of LA's ruling elite. He is a friend of Mayor Riordan. It was at his home that a donor connected to the Chinese government arranged to make a large contribution to the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to influence U.S. policy toward China. Both Broad and McDonnell Douglas were willing to do business with China without any limit on technology transfers. This position was strongly opposed by the Eastern rulers, who see China as a long-range strategic enemy and competitor for control of Middle East oil. The Rockefeller Empire depends on control of Middle East oil to limit their competitors' supply of this key resource. The biggest LA-based oil firm, the Hunt brothers' Occidental--a Rockefeller/Exxon enemy--gets much of its crude from Libya, labeled a "rogue" nation by the U.S.. Rockefeller's plan for a likely ground war in Iraq, and need to win the workers to support this bloodbath, do not fit into the LA oil barons' plan. The AFL-CIO is pushing hard in LA to build a cadre of liberals loyal to Rockefeller's plan.
In other arenas, the traditional LA rulers are under attack. Their companies have been taken over or limited. The LAPD has served the LA rulers by enforcing racist terror to guarantee low wages and immediate profits. Now the Eastern Establishment is pushing for community policing which, while continuing to terrorize workers would also try to win workers to support the cops and see the Federal Government as "humanitarian."
The LA rulers have been anti-union, unwilling to use unions to win the workers to support U.S. imperialism. They sought only to terrorize workers and pay the lowest possible wages. They have preferred to hire undocumented immigrants and use the threat of deportation over the heads of thousands of garment and other manufacturing workers rather than legalize them. The Rockefeller plan is to make more workers legal residents and citizens and bring them into organizations controlled by the Democratic Party.
Roy Romer, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is being appointed LA schools Superintendent, despite the LA Times' editorializing against this Rockefeller loyalist. The Justice Department push to take control of the LAPD and the AFL-CIO's Amnesty campaign are part of a fight to win workers to see the Rockefeller liberals, the Democratic Party and the unions as their saviors from racist exploitation. Nothing could be further from the truth!
While all bosses are murderous exploiters, the Rockefeller liberals are the most dangerous. They control state power in the U.S. They've killed more workers than Hitler. They are the ones planning ground war in the Middle East soon for oil profits and stand ready to wage World War to save their empire. We can't trust or support any capitalist rulers. Our strength lies in uniting the workers in both the short run and the long run to fight for workers' power through communist revolution.
Capitalism: Murder Inc. in Africa
Some people think that Challenge exaggerates the cruelty of capitalism. In fact, the reality of capitalism is much worse than words in a newpaper can express.
Recently we have reported on wars in Africa (5/31, 6/14 issues). We've shown how deadly imperialism, capitalism and nationalism have been for the exploited African masses of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Angola, Liberia, etc. But we underestimated how many lives the profit system has destroyed. According to surveys reported in the NEW YORK TIMES, 200,000 deaths were attributable to acts of violence, while the vast majority were due to the war-related collapse of the region's health infrastructure and delivery of its health and nutrition services. In total, 1.7 million have died in the Eastern Congo because of the war.
An example of how the competing nationalist rulers have turned the Eastern Congo into a cemetery is the latest fighting between the armies of Rwanda and Uganda. A week of heavy artillery fire totally destroyed Kisangani, a city of 500,000 in the northeast Congo. Its victims were mainly civilians.
Until recently these two armies were allies in a war against Congo's President Kabila. Uganda trained and armed a Tutsi-led Rwandan force to fight against Rwanda's former government, led by the Hutu ethnic group elite, which had killed hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Tutsis supporters of the Uganda-based exiles. The U.S. army was behind the Uganda-Rwandan Tutsi forces. Uganda's president was trained at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and basically was considered an officer in the U.S. Army.
Meanwhile, the French military had also armed racist Hutu militias of the former Rwandan government which were murdering hundreds of thousands of Tutsis.
After the old pro-French Hutu rulers of Rwanda were defeated, the new rulers and their Ugandan backers invaded the Congo to oust the aging dictator Mobutu, who already had become useless for U.S. imperialism. (The CIA had installed Mobutu in power in the 1960s to side with the U.S. during the Cold War against the Soviet Union.) Mobutu's ouster opened the door for the current President Kabila to take power, aided by the armies of Rwanda and Uganda.
Africa's First Mini World War
But soon after Kabila took over, the rulers of Uganda and Rwanda decided to retain control of the Eastern Congo. Kabila reacted by supporting guerrillas opposed to both armies. Troops from the armies of Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe are in the Congo defending Kabila against the armies of Uganda and Rwanda, a mini-world war centered in Africa. Meanwhile, these "allies"--Rwanda and Uganda--are waging their own war within a war for the control of the destroyed Kinsagani, center of the diamond-rich northeastern Congo.
These constantly shifting alliances between different nationalist and ethnic forces all turn on control of the Congo's rich mineral wealth. The eastern Congo has some of the world's biggest diamond mines. Billions are at stake for those who control these minerals. That is the name of the game for all capitalists--profits, no matter how many must be murdered to amass them.
Can the Army Be All It Can Without Sexism?
Charges of sexual harassment brought by the highest-ranking woman in the military, Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, against her former commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Larry G. Smith, have been upheld. Kennedy has stated that in 1996 Smith tried to fondle her after a meeting at her Pentagon office. At the time she did not report it, but when Smith was assigned to handle all complaints of sexual harassment in the military, she said she felt compelled to bring these charges.
Why did Kennedy, who is retiring in June, decide to come forward now? Was it a combination of a guilty conscience for not having said something earlier plus Smith's promotion? Or did she feel that with her retirement she wouldn't have to worry about the effect on her career? Or did others encourage her to come forward to make a political statement? It's still unclear, but some things are very clear.
Kennedy received a lot of support after making the charges. Counter-charges brought against her by a friend of Smith's were dismissed within a few days. This kind of speed is rarely seen in the Pentagon. Secondly, shortly afterwards Kennedy spoke at a public banquet sponsored by several groups closely associated with the military. She urged military women to come forward with complaints of sexual harassment. This event received front-page coverage in the NEW YORK TIMES.
Integrating women into the armed forces has been huge problem for the military which they are desperately trying to solve. Since the Gulf War the military could not function without the women who comprise 30% or so of its forces. Without women volunteers they would probably need a draft, which would create more political problems for them.
The military is also committed to integrating women because it affects the U.S. rulers' strategy of maintaining their position as the dominant capitalist power. This requires preparation for large-scale war and constant deployment of troops worldwide. The ruling class needs liberal politicians to win the population to support war, large and small. Therefore, they must have a military that is large and integrated.
The military can't fully fight the sexism within its ranks without exposing the sexist nature of the society these soldiers are being asked to die to protect. Can they afford to reveal that capitalist culture is saturated with sex and destructive relationships from which the ruling class makes billions while taking young people's minds off rebelling? As young workers become more disillusioned and alienated by capitalism, more sex and decadence are offered to distract them.
Can they expose the fact that capitalism needs the billions of dollars netted by U.S. bosses from paying low wages to woman workers around the world? Yet their own need to protect more of their empire is forcing U.S. bosses to use more women in the military. Promoting more woman to generals, even supporting more women who complain about sexual harassment, won't solve the problem of sexism.
Among enlisted soldiers sexism in the military cuts both ways. On the one hand, sexism is a huge problem for working-class soldiers. Relationships between men and women in the military are strained. All the problems of a sexist society are magnified by the young age of the soldiers, the uneven ratio of men to women and the lack of good role models for healthy relationships. But the main problem is political and inherent in a profit system.
Although sexism is not inherent in our communist movement, it does exist and we are held back by the sexism of capitalism. But the communist movement is not bound by sexism. Not only do we not need it but it also acts as a brake on the unity needed to destroy capitalism. Through political struggle and practice we can overcome sexism to unite soldiers to fight for communism.
While there have been many ups and downs, the communist movement has a positive history of fighting sexism. Women played huge roles, as soldiers and organizers, in both the Soviet and Chinese revolutions. The Cultural Revolution in China explicitly sought to fight sexism in the movement and bring more women into leadership. PLP has made strides in developing women leaders. But this, like the entire struggle for revolution, is a long hard fight--500 years of capitalist ideology won't change easily in any of us.
PLP members in the military are trying to develop healthy communist relations between soldiers, relationships based more on class-consciousness, helping each other and uniting against the brass and the bosses. Over the last few months we've had some positive developments. In one mostly black National Guard unit, a young white woman soldier has earned the respect of her fellow soldiers by taking on the female First Sergeant who was giving favors to soldiers who slept with her. Our comrade fought over many little things, such as which barracks were given to soldiers on drill weekends and favoritism in duty assignments to cronies of the First Sergeant. She has also raised bigger political issues, about the war in Kosovo and racist police killings.
By doing such things and being a principled person, over the last few years she has developed a few soldiers who read CHALLENGE and has built a small base for communist ideas. This is an example of fighting sexism in the military, one that gives us hope for the future.
School Election Opens Doors for Left
BROOKLYN, NY -- "You mean you think it's a good thing to be attacked?" asked a co-worker in discussing the union election at a Party member's school. Our member has a history of union activity, having been a delegate for three years and run for overall union rep (chapter leader) twice, as an open communist. In this latest election it really became clear there were two sides: the class collaborationist slate--work with the boss, "we're all in this together"--and the class struggle side.
Although she was reluctant to run for chapter leader because it might take away too much time spent with students, she did agree to run for a delegate position, in alliance with two other teachers who'd been vocal and active in union struggles throughout the school year. One ran for chapter leader, the other for another delegate spot. They made it clear in our campaign literature that they'd each been involved in leading struggles in the school--for students as well as for staff--something the bosses' slate could never claim.Shortly before the election tremendous struggle emerged about our comrade's communist politics. Some teachers waged a real fight against anti-communism--"What does it matter she's a communist, look at all she's done for us"--showing some understanding that anti-communism was being used to stop class struggle in the school. (The next step is to win people to understand how being a communist relates to what we do.)
Meanwhile, the administration, in violation of Federal labor law (what else is new?), was warning people not to vote for her.
The administration's slate stood for working with the bosses. After all, they said, our school is the "beacon of hope" for its community. The incumbent chapter leader says his role is to be the liaison with the principal, instead of leading struggle to force the principal to supply copying and other materials we've needed all year, or to force the principal to meet with the union committee.
Our member received 83 votes out of 156 voters, over 50%. That wasn't enough to be elected since the three candidates on the bosses' slate received over 100 votes.
Many staff members were really upset our member wasn't elected. However, communists don't measure victory in electoral votes. This attack, and the clear alliance of forces create excellent opportunities. While our member hasn't consistently won people to attend Party events, or even to stand up to the bosses with her, this election campaign creates new openings. She's now in a better position to win people to form a caucus to organize in the school. And she's made it clear that the chapter needs to fight to support students in their struggles to pass the exams necessary to graduate.There is real interest in the caucus, but now to make this a real victory, she needs to win people to join the PLP Summer Project. Our Party section here has already planned a teacher study group and a fund-raising party for our fired teacher PLP'ers in Chicago. If our comrade can bring her friends, that's really winning!
Peer Review a Cover for Attacks Against Students, Teachers
"I'm against peer review," an older teacher in Los Angeles told a comrade who was giving her the CHALLENGE with an article on educational reform. "I don't think I'm a very good teacher--I sure don't have the energy I used to--and I don't want them to be able to get rid of me."
"Well, I know I'm a good teacher," replied the comrade, "and I've been written up for fighting for the students and for teaching the truth about the class struggle--but the pretext has been leaving my keys on the desk and being across the hall getting chalk when the tardy bell rang. And when we had a teacher here who was openly sexist and racist and refused to teach, he always got good evaluations. It took the unity of parents, teachers and students to get rid of him. The administration has never gone after teachers like that."
This is a small part of many discussions we've had this week about educational reform and peer review. The PLP teachers' club made a good effort and distributed 75 CHALLENGES to teachers this week, including seven by a friend of the Party who in the past had only gotten out one. All of us have learned a lot in this process.
At an after-school union meeting to discuss the vote on peer review, several activist teachers and CHALLENGE readers told of being pressured for standing up for students and for teaching about the fight against racism. They understood peer review could be an administration weapon against them as well. Another activist said the union should act as a defense attorney, defending all teachers no matter how they teach. A Party teacher disagreed, recounting the fight to fire the teacher who both refused to teach the students and who sexually harassed women students. In discussions following the meeting, most agreed we shouldn't defend teachers don't teach and who have openly racist and sexist behavior.
The older teacher quoted above is actually a dedicated teacher who has good rapport with the students and has defended their right to read CHALLENGE. With few exceptions, teachers in inner city schools care very much about their students and work hard to do a good job. But the problem is deeper and much less obvious. Many unintentionally sell the students short. Many students sell themselves short. Racist underestimation of students is part and parcel of the capitalist system in which we live. To fight with the certainty and commitment that everyone can learn requires a sharp understanding of the racist nature of capitalism.
For example, several of us tutor students to pass the tests required for graduation. It's an important part of showing students we care about them. We sit with a few students at a time and really try to listen to their problems--for example, with specific math operations. It's very important to know exactly the obstacles students face in understanding the operation and to develop enough rapport with the student to overcome feelings of sham. One student told us, for example, he was embarrassed to ask for help with math class because he'd have to admit he didn't understand. Establishing trust, paying very close attention to the specific problem and tutoring a few students at a time are keys in helping students pass these tests.
It's too easy and wrong to place the failure of the educational system at the feet of a few bad teachers. The problem runs throughout the whole profit system. Capitalism has always sold the working class short. The system systematically denies necessary resources to working-class students--especially black and Latino--while it also spreads racist lies, saying, "they can't learn." Parents are justifiably angry. Today, the ruling class needs to win students defend the bosses' profit system. While increasing the skill levels of a few students, it must also tighten controls over the schools and gear them up for industry and war. They use peer review to direct their fire against the teachers, and to control them.
Parents, students and teachers can see through this sham, especially as we raise these issues with them. CHALLENGE and PLP are vital in showing the real problem: schools organized to perpetuate a racist capitalist system--and the solution: organizing parents, teachers and students to fight to learn as we learn to fight for communist revolution. We have a long way to go and a lot to learn and to teach as well. Our discussions in the Party are very helpful.
LETTERS
Writers Wanted
I want to commend CHALLENGE for raising the importance of a communist paper and its distribution. The discussion of the role and the need for a communist newspaper is vital and long overdue. With that I'd like to encourage the discussion to go forward and advance the paper and its use by making some criticisms.
The issue is more than distribution, as important as that is. The issue is making CHALLENGE a mass newspaper in line with the idea of a mass party. To quote the editorial, "CHALLENGE is a mass organizer through which millions of workers can be trained politically to participate in the building of a communist world." But in its last paragraph something very important is left out, "Readers and distributors of CHALLENGE today will be members and leaders of our Party tomorrow." What about writers? How can workers and others politically participate as active, creative and wise leaders if they don't shape those ideas and communicate them in writing? And if they don't, who will? Our class needs all the leaders it can develop and workers, once they have the confidence, want to lead. Not being able to put your thoughts in writing, not being able to fully contribute to the fight for communism, erodes confidence. It makes us "employees", even in a good cause. In the fight for communism it means defeat.
Next, by putting a straw man up and knocking him down the editorial does not advance the discussion. The "very committed and active veteran member of PLP" is quoted as being unsure that increasing the readership of CHALLENGE is most important. Well what is their opinion as to what is? If someone as committed and experienced and active has a different take on the situation, shouldn't we hear the whole argument, or at least its main points? Or does doing communist work over time mean you just get more doubts? It's not my experience. Is this the message we want younger comrades to get?
Finally, the argument that distribution is most important has been made many times in the past, (the distant past), yet the circulation of the paper is at one of its lowest points. Maybe there is more to the problem. I believe that base-building and the integration of CHALLENGE in that process is the direction that growth, in all its aspects, lies. So while I commend the editors for starting the discussion, we've got to get deeper. Let's uncover the problem and its answers. We've got a world to win.
Another Veteran Comrade
Capitalism Strikes Out
With the Mudville Nine (Stockton, CA. team) vs. the San Jose Giants, minor league baseball comes to Lodi twice this year. The game started at 10:30 A.M and I thought it would be a good way to spend the morning.
Why do I like baseball? I remember playing it in the parks or in the streets until it got too dark to see the ball. You appreciate the skill it takes to hit a curve ball, or the surprise of the quickness of your own reflexes, when that bullet line drive actually ended up in your glove. You can remember the camaraderie of the players. If you played sports, the memories make going to see a game enjoyable. But capitalism corrupts and ruins everything it touches.
I went early to see batting practice. What I saw was a battering ram of fascist culture. I noticed all the school buses at the entrance to Zupo field. The stands were filled with junior high kids and a few paying adults. It was a promotional game sponsored by Lodi's biggest employer, General Mills, under the name H.L.A.Y. (Here's Looking At You). There were demonstrations by the Lodi Police K-9 Corps, showing police dogs viciously attacking victims (drug dealers), explaining to the students the dogs are not trained to bite but to take a victim down and keep him there.
If the police dogs are not enough to terrorize you, then General Mills brings in the U.S. Army National Guard. In comes the green army helicopter, landing in the center of Zupo field. Out comes McGruff, the crime dog, waving at the kids from a distance. An Army captain makes a speech about "just saying no" and he and McGruff return to their helicopter.
When the helicopter takes off it does a ground-level sweep from right to left field, facing the unsuspecting fans.
Many students were organized to leave the game after the 4th inning, once they had seen the "important part."
It is vital for our class to read and distribute CHALLENGE. This is where we learn that the highest levels of the U.S.Army (General McCaffery's henchmen) organize the drug shipments from Columbia and other countries to be distributed to our children on the streets. (CHALLENGE, May 31) CHALLENGE exposes the true nature of the police, to terrorize and control workers and especially black and Latin workers.
CHALLENGE allows us to see these subtle demonstrations of fascist terror for what they are. It also can show us a future with communist revolution--a healthy baseball game.
Lodi Red
Communists Must Lead Struggles of Immigrant and Citizen Workers United
I thought the two articles in the June 14 CHALLENGE about the AFL-CIO campaign for amnesty for undocumented workers were very important.
The capitalists are constantly looking for ways to raise profits by increasing the workers' productivity and lowering wages. In the U.S. there's an "economic boom," in part because of a fascist labor policy based on a combination of factors: contracting out, part-time or temporary work at lower wages with no benefits, super-exploitation of undocumented workers, forced labor of Workfare workers and prison slave labor. In many places workers exist in all these categories, side by side.
The resulting "competition" among workers lowers wages and constantly increases productivity, read speed-up. In this time of lower unemployment in the U.S. the bosses and the government fear workers will seek higher wages and the unions will lose control of them.
The unions are fully aware of this. The amnesty campaign, as the CHALLENGE articles pointed out, is aimed primarily at winning the allegiance of immigrant workers to the electoral process in general, and to the Democratic Party and its war plans in particular, especially as the rivalry between the capitalists of different countries intensifies.
The demand for limited amnesty is a bribe and a cover, a defensive measure so that the AFL-CIO leaders will be able to control the workers without having to unite them to really fight on the shop floor, nor to oppose all the elements of U.S. fascist labor policy.
That's where the revolutionary communist PLP comes in. Communists have always tried to lead workers onto the offensive in the class struggle, strategically and tactically. Communists organize and lead daily and long-term struggles in the factories and on the job, uniting all workers--citizen, documented and undocumented, unionized and non-unionized. Communists put teeth into international solidarity, both in word and action.
A communist-led working-class movement against imperialist war must grow directly out of these class struggles. Communists and our base functioning inside the unions and other mass organizations is the best way to expose the true role of the AFL-CIO. Communists can bring the lessons of communist history the workers and make them conscious of how capitalism works and why the international working class needs power.
NYC comrade
They Don't Eat Meat, They Eat Children!
I know this headline sounds cruel, but it really fits certain groups tending to attract people looking to escape the madness of this system and falls into something even worse. After all, Hitler not only called his movement "national socialist," but also preached "healthier living." He was a vegetarian and a supporter of healthy living, except for million of Jews, Gypsies and Soviet people. Anyway, this is about those annoying orange-robed followers of the Hare Krishna sect. Former students of this movement are suing it for $400 million for sexual and emotional abuses.
The suit claims that in the 1970s and '80s more than 1,000 children were affected, some as young as three years old. Their lawyer said it covers "the most unthinkable abuse and maltreatment of little children we have seen." Children were physically abused, scrubbed with steel wool until they bled, untreated for malaria, hepatitis, etc. Younger girls were given as brides to older men who donated to the sect.
Krishna was brought to the U.S. by a swami at the height of the Vietnam war and civil rights movement. For sure, he had the support of the U.S. government. Many turned away from militant anti-war and anti-racist actions to join the sect. Those who tried to escape the fight against capitalism and imperialism ended up providing flesh for this pedophiliac movement.
Krishna buster
Dayton Transit Workers Reject Contract Twice
I read the recent CHALLENGE article about the struggle of MUNI transit workers in San Francisco, and want to relate a struggle by transit workers in Dayton, Ohio.
For the second time in two months, ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) Local 1385 has rejected a contract recommended by union leaders. The contract not only provided for a miserable wage "hike" of 2.8%, it also called for a FOURTH wage tier. This would allow the bosses to pay "combination" drivers $11.02 an hour instead of the $19 an hour paid to regular drivers.
The union hacks were counting on the older drivers endorsing this sellout at the expense of the younger and newer drivers being paid $8 an hour less. But the senior drivers upset the hacks' applecart with an old-fashioned example of working-class unity, refusing to accept a contract on the backs of their younger brothers and sisters.
Union leaders act the same way from Sand Francisco to Dayton and beyond. They serve the bosses, and line their own pockets, at the expense of the working class.
Red Rider
a href="#‘When The Working Class Unfurls The Red Flag Of Communist Revolution’">Ma" Day Marches: ‘When The Working Class Unfurls The Red Flag Of Communist Revolution’
Janitors At SF May Day Product Of Long-Term Struggle
a href="#Workers In Dom. Rep. Bare Bosses’ Ballot Baloney">"orkers In Dom. Rep. Bare Bosses’ Ballot Baloney
a href="#G.I.s Join Workers’ Army">".I.s Join Workers’ Army
Mexico City: Sign Up For Communism
The Red Flag: Symbol Of Working Class Revolt
a href="#‘We’ll Eat The Fruit Our Labor Brings...’">‘We’"l Eat The Fruit Our Labor Brings...’
a href="#O’Connor Preyed For Capitalism">"’Connor Preyed For Capitalism
Truth About Kosovo Air Wars Stirs Pot For Ground Invasion
Imperialist Vultures Descent On Diamond-Rich Sierra Leone
Rules Of Engagement: Hitler Would Give It Four Stars
LETTERS
Workers From Ecuador Want Info On PLP
a href="#Don’t Hold Back On Red Ideas">"on’t Hold Back On Red Ideas
a href="#‘Rock The Capitalist Boat’">‘R"ck The Capitalist Boat’
a href="#‘My First May Day: One I’ll Never Forget">‘M" First May Day: One I’ll Never Forget
May Day Marches
a name="‘When The Working Class Unfurls The Red Flag Of Communist Revolution’"></">‘W"en The Working Class Unfurls The Red Flag Of Communist Revolution’
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 6 — "Today is a special day. It is the day in the year when we, the working class, march under one flag, the red flag of communist revolution. As you stand here, look around and you will see black, Latin, white and Asian workers, men and women....All here on May Day, standing together in unity. We are here today to build a movement to smash racism and exploitation of our class once and for all."
These were the welcoming words by a young teacher that inspired Progressive Labor Party’s May Day. Although there was a modest turnout of 1,300 workers and youth, 60 people joined the PLP, 70 signed up to be in study groups, and 100 bought subscriptions to CHALLENGE.
May Day was built this year through work in factories, unions, schools and churches. We held dinners and invited workers to our homes to discuss the importance of fighting for communism. In the last several weeks, we put up stickers in New York, Newark and Chicago. We brought workers, soldiers and youth who we met fighting against police terror, the KKK and sweatshop labor. This work in the mass organizations produced small breakthroughs. 20 workers and their families came from work in a church soup kitchen, 20 from an ESL class, 15 from the factory organizing project, and several busloads of high school students. As fascist conditions for workers intensify and the bosses prepare for another oil war, opportunities are created to win more workers.
Red flags flew high as all chanted and marched. "It was a great experience," one marcher said, "and it seems to me that the people were dedicated and knew what they were fighting for."
Youth from Boston and NYC gave electrifying raps about police terror and building for May Day, and the PLP chorus sang lively communist songs.
After the opening speeches, we marched through Washington chanting, "Fight For Communism, Power to the Workers!" People came to their windows to see the enthusiastic marchers. Many onlookers waved clenched fists in the air and bought CHALLENGE. Some people ran to our sellers to get a copy. As we roared, "Join the March!" Some did!
The stream of red flags lit up the streets as we arrived at the White House. When we reached the house of U.S. imperialism, anger and enthusiasm rose. One student from Brooklyn’s Clara Barton H.S. said, "This was my first May Day march and I think it turned out well but I thought we were going to take one step further by entering the White House. I would definitely attend another one next year."
By day’s end, May Day had given everyone a feeling of workers’ power. "I never went on May Day before," said one student. "I only read about it in history class. To actually be in a May Day March was a wonderful experience."
Another student from Brooklyn’s Murrow H. S. exclaimed, "People were disciplined and excited. We marched for freedom from the bosses’ chains, and we came one small but sure step closer to it. I am inspired." Another added, "This march made me feel powerful."
When the march was over, we had a picnic, with songs and raps.
The bus rides home provided time to consolidate the new friends met during the day. We signed up people for summer projects and made plans to participate in more class struggle. However, for PLP to become a mass Party of thousands and then millions, we must improve our work and spend far more time developing close ties with our co-workers and fellow students and become entrenched in their daily lives. Only if we do that can we win many more workers and youth to march next year, and more importantly, win them to join PLP and become May Day organizers themselves!
Janitors At SF May Day Product Of Long-Term Struggle
LOS ANGELES, May 9 — How did a group of 120 janitors come to march at our communist May Day in San Francisco? This has been a long-term process with many ups and downs.
We first met the janitors about ten years ago. The SEIU (Service Employees International Union was organizing the janitors into a hospital workers local. A comrade and some of his friends had been very active in that local, fighting racism against patients and unjust firings of workers. A group of his friends read CHALLENGE.
Some CHALLENGE sellers went to a janitors’ contract vote. Workers were outside cursing the leadership. They grabbed CHALLENGE and some gave their names glad to find communists in LA.
The hospital workers began meeting with a group of these janitors. Some wanted to run a multi-racial slate of hospital workers (higher-paid black, Latin and white, mainly non-immigrant) and janitors (almost all latino immigrants) for union office. They formed a caucus to fight for the rank and file.
Our comrade spent many hours and weekends at these meetings, raising the need for a militant, politicized rank and file, and for building the Party to fight for real workers’ power through communist revolution. He said winning positions in the union hierarchy by toning down the defense of rank-and-file workers would be a huge mistake. He always brought CHALLENGE to the meetings.
Over time, he became a friend of the workers, especially those most interested in CHALLENGE. Some met from time to time with a Party club. Some in the group were increasingly intent on winning the election, and less and less on politicizing the workers with revolutionary ideas.
He stuck with the group for several years. They won the election. But SEIU head John Sweeney nullified the election and put the union into receivership. He did this at the very moment he was preparing to run for president of the AFL-CIO based on his "great record" of organizing janitors! Sweeney put the janitors into a separate local from the hospital workers. Both groups fought this racist action. But the division was made.
The caucus kept meeting, now predominantly janitors. When PLP led an attack on the racist anti-immigrant group VCT (Voice of Citizens Together), caucus members invited PLP’ers to speak at a fund-raising dinner about it. Party members were introduced as heroes. They linked the growth of racism and fascism to the bosses’ crisis, showing Clinton as worse than VCT, and cited the need for revolution.
Some janitors became regular CHALLENGE readers and May Day marchers. In organizing last year’s May Day March in San Francisco, a janitor asked for 20 more tickets for union members. Plans were made. Twenty workers paid for their tickets and marched; many more knew about it. Several began attending study groups and club meetings. CHALLENGE was welcomed by many. During the AFL-CIO convention, some of these workers, who have a deep hatred for Sweeney & Co, demonstrated against him and his AFL-CIO cronies.
Building for a strike this year, it became clear there were many militant, angry janitors. At an International Woman’s Day march of 1,500 janitors, there were silly staged arrests. A PLP’er brought CHALLENGES and leaflets; the workers eagerly grabbed them.
However, some of the more angry workers abstained from some of these events. They saw the coming strike as a "show," knowing a settlement had already been agreed to. Some didn’t want to participate, but after discussion, they realized that not participating to expose the leaders wasn’t good for the working class! The leaders are mobilizing the workers for the needs of imperialism. We must be there to offer the alternative.
Several of these workers liked the idea of striking and simultaneously building for May Day as a way to win workers to the long-term fight for workers’ power and revolution.
They exposed the leadership-sponsored appearances of Jesse Jackson, Gore, Kennedy and LA Mayor Riordan as a show to win workers especially these immigrant workers) to be loyal to their system, building patriotism and nationalism to get workers to fight and die for the bosses. For that, they make promises to the workers but can’t deliver because the bosses need to maximize profits, compete with their rivals and prepare for war. These union leaders don’t act in the interests of any workers!
Before and during this year’s strike, in marches, picket lines and meetings, the Party had a presence with leaflets, CHALLENGES and by bringing workers to the picket lines. This also helped build for May Day.
In one of these marches, we re-met an old Party friend, a striker not seen for several years. He was leading a group of strikers and was known by many workers. We were both happy to become reacquainted. He introduced us to other workers and became another organizer for May Day.
Other experienced workers, angry with the union leadership, were looking for an alternative. We met with some of them to explain our politics. "But you don’t put limits on the militancy of the workers?" asked a rank-and-file leader, saying the union only focused on attacking a few buildings, not on paralyzing the whole industry.
"Well, the only limits are the workers’ strength and determination based on the circumstances," replied a comrade. "Our goal is to get rid of the bosses with armed revolution," he continued. "The May Day march won’t be an armed struggle, but a political march. We want to win millions to confront the bosses and to take power. For example, when we confronted the VCT racists we were prepared for them."
"I like that," said the worker, with a smile. "Here’s my list of 20 workers for the march."
The match was lit, and many began calling for information about the march to ask about bringing friends and family. Obviously this involved workers at different political levels, but in the final analysis 120 janitors marched. Now we have a big job, to get to know and win many.
It’s a grave error to only assume workers are won to support the bosses’ agents. When the bosses launch a war, they’ll boast that the workers support them, as they did during Desert Storm. But that’s only one side. The workers are open to alternatives, communism included! We can’t get frustrated. It’s a long-term struggle, with many ups and downs, learning from mistakes—all leading to winning.
A group of workers who came to May Day asked to be in study groups. Several called Party members to ask when the first meeting was.
Many workers are angry over the union leaders settling for different wages for janitors from different parts of the city. Scabs are getting preferred treatment.
There are hundreds of thousands of workers here in low-paying jobs. Like the group of janitors who marched on May Day, they have much class hatred. The rulers’ lackeys mobilize them to either accept their conditions under capitalism or suppress their resistance with fascism. Our job is to encourage and organize that resistance, pointing them towards joining PLP and the long-term fight for communism.
May Day’s Red Flag Flies Across Continent
a name="Workers In Dom. Rep. Bare Bosses’ Ballot Baloney">">"orkers In Dom. Rep. Bare Bosses’ Ballot Baloney
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, May 1 — The Progressive Labor Party here Challenged the bosses’ electoral politics at the gathering of workers on May Day. Revisionist (fake leftist) and union groups were at the march, but the largest political presence was that of the PLP. We brought workers from various factories in the maquiladora zone, school and university teachers, as well as youth and workers in general.
PLP distributed a Party leaflet with communist chants and 86 CHALLENGES, which were very well-received. The unions and left-wing groups have been fitting themselves into the bosses’ schemes, to culminate in the May 16th presidential election. They used this as a pretext to avoid participating in the May Day march and called on other groups to stay away as well.
During the day, four people joined PLP and contacts were made among workers who will be visited soon, to take them CHALLENGE and try to win them to the Party.
Having planned a PLP meeting after the march, we invited a number of marchers to join us, and some did. (See below.) We collectively vowed to better organize for next year’s May Day, to double the the number of workers the Party brings.
The PLP luncheon meeting after the March included members, friends and sympathizers working in different factories in the country’s northern region. Our goal was to discuss how to build a mass Party, how to overcome our weaknesses and how to make the organizing for May Day more collective.
Reports and discussions included criticism and self-criticism, commitments to strengthen the work in the zones where the Party is being built, and plans to distirbute the international CHALLENGE in the factories where Party members and friends work. We also planned a series of cadre schools.
We analyzed the weaknesses of the revisionist and economist movements and the opportunities this presents for building PLP. We also discussed the conflict between Old and New Money bosses in relation to the Dominican presidential elections and what may result from it. This conflict also creates a favorable framework to attract new workers to PLP.
a name="G.I.s Join Workers’ Army">">".I.s Join Workers’ Army
There was a great feeling of collectivism among the growing soldiers group that went to May Day. We stuck together in the march and later went out to eat. Through all this we saw that workers and soldiers can come together as one Party to organize something big.
The study group the next day went well. The soldiers who participated in the march went through four lessons on political economy, inter-imperialist rivalry, the role of the military and what the Party is fighting for.
Seeing soldiers who traveled miles to listen to, and be involved in communist philosophy motivates me to push my small club of soldiers to do more back where I am stationed. There are plans for us to get together with some of the other soldiers again.
Red Private
I thought the May Day March was cool. It was my first one, it was different but cool. I liked being with everybody. A little too much like the military, with the marching and all. But it was good getting away and seeing something new.
A Soldier
The May Day March was really inspiring. It was very diverse, people of different races. The drums were good, the youth that rapped and the reggae was good
A Soldier
Mexico City: Sign Up For Communism
MEXICO CITY, May 9 — "The PLP has confidence that the masses will fight for communism,. Communist ideas can be understood by all those who are exploited," concluded a student in a speech during a meeting before the May Day March here. These ideas kept spirits high during the entire march. From Chapultepec to the Zócalo (the city square facing the Presidential Palace) you could hear, "Struggle…Struggle…Struggle, don’t stop struggling for a communist society."
During a year-long strike, hundreds of UNAM (National University of Mexico) students heard and read PLP’s communist ideas through Party members active in it. Twenty of these students marched, raising high the red flags of PLP. "Rebellious worker, sign the list of those who fight for the communist cause." Chanting, "Reformists, step to one side, forward, forward Marxists Leninists," a group of these students joined our contingent. Our lead banner proclaimed, "Scientific and Popular Education—Only Communism Can Give it."
Electrical workers from SME and GM workers marched near us. We asked them, "What do the electrical workers, GM workers and all the world’s workers need? Communist revolution!" we answered in a chorus. A GM worker waved our banner in the middle of his contingent throughout the whole march. Dozens of CHALLENGES were distributed to these workers and they gave us donations. "One class, one Party, Workers of the World, Unite!" was our slogan.
When we neared the Zócalo where tens of thousands of workers were concentrated, the emotion of our contingent grew. "End, End the electoral farce. Advance, Advance, Communism will triumph." We sang Bandiera Rossa and Bella Ciao repeatedly. In the center of the Zócalo we ended with the workers’ anthem, Internationale. It was a good day of communist struggle.
The Red Flag: Symbol Of Working Class Revolt
This May 2000 Progressive Labor Party proudly unfurled the red flag of workers’ revolution in several cities on this continent. Why do we carry high the red flag?
In 1890, just before history’s first May Day marches, Frederick Engels wrote, "The proletariat of Europe and America is holding a review of its forces. It is mobilizing for the first time as one army, one flag, one class..." The flag was the red flag.
The red flag had first appeared as a workers' symbol in Britain during the 1768 London seamen’s’ strike. The strikers used it because it was the navy's battle flag and they were going into battle against their bosses. Again in London in 1780, when 100,000 workers marched on Newgate Prison to burn it to the ground, the multi-racial leadership carried the red flag. Their cry was, "Away with all prisons," because the working class was being increasingly incarcerated in them.
In 1831 the red flag was part of the struggle of the working class in Wales as well as in the revolution to topple the monarchy during the French revolution (1789-1794), especially during the struggle in July of 1791. But the general adoption of the red flag as the workers' own symbol occurred in 1848 when the flag appeared spontaneously on the barricades in Paris, and then everywhere throughout revolutionary Europe.
During the Paris Commune of 1871—when workers first took over a whole city and held it for two months—the red flag of the working class flew over the city of Paris. It had become the symbol of emancipation. By 1892 it flew above the May Day marches throughout Europe, Australia, South America, Cuba and Japan. In 1889, in order for the newly formed Labour Party of Great Britain to win the masses, a song was written about the red flag which became the anthem of the Party. One of the most stirring stanzas in that song goes, "The people's flag is deepest red. It shrouded oft our martyred dead. And e'er their limbs grew stiff and cold. Their heart's blood dyed its every fold." In Italy, too, the song "Bandiera Rosa" became a symbol of May Day. In it we hear the words, "Arise you workers. Your chains of slavery will vanish under the scarlet banner."
In the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the red flag became the symbol of the working class in power. And as revolutions spread around the world in the next 50 years—from China to Eastern Europe—the red flag of working-class emancipation was raised on high.
In 1971, the Progressive Labor Party picked up the red flag from where it had been dropped and has marched proudly with it in every gathering we hold throughout the world. The red flag is truly the flag of workers’ internationalism, as opposed to the hundreds of flags that the bosses-of the world fly to symbolize their respective capitalist states.
Bibliography:
"Big Red Songbook," compiled by Mal Collins, Dave Harker and Geoff White; Pluto Press, London, 1977.
"The Penguin Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century History," Edited by John Belchem and Richard Price; Penguin Books, London, 1994.
"The London Hanged—Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century," by Peter Linebaugh; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994.
"May Day—A Short History of the International Workers' Holiday 1886 to 1986," by Philip S. Foner; International Publishers, New York, 1986.
a name="Can’t Get Rid of Stalin So Easily…"></">Ca"’t Get Rid of Stalin So Easily…
Russia’s new central bank has issued a new coin with the face of communist leader Joseph Stalin, commemorating the 55th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Hitler fascism in World War II. Giant posters carrying medals, photographs and slogans from the communist era have been put up all across Moscow. Is the newly-installed war-maker president Vladimir Putin bringing back communist leadership? Hell no! But he is attempting to win support from war veterans and workers who still treasure the achievements of the Stalin-led socialist state.
While the memory of Stalin and communism may be "dead" in the Western bosses’ media, it appears to be very much alive in the hearts and minds of workers in the former Soviet Union, which lost 20 to 30 million lives in their smashing of Hitler’s Third Reich.
a name="‘We’ll Eat The Fruit Our Labor Brings...’"></a>"We’ll Eat The Fruit Our Labor Brings...’
Rockefeller’s shiny dime
can't buy this rhyme
I don’t have the time
for the blind sublime
I wanna shut the main breaker off
burn, loot
flip the car of the man
in the business suit
toss a monkey wrench
into the machine
of industrial pollution
derail all trains
bound for debt distribution
Or will we decide to take over
seize the means of production
as use value liberates technology’s function
our hammers and our sickles swing for equality
they flatten and cut out economic brutality
the war makers’ guns will point the other way
the solders will march on May Day
as united fists smash badges with nightsticks
we bust straight through their crowd control tactics
‘cause they can't hold us back
this time we're on the attack
they can't hold us down
we'll rename this town
the day is near
when we will kick the thugs and the parasites
off the end of the pier
and if they decide to swim back to shore
they will know injustice and greed
does not fly here anymore
‘cause workers run things
and we will eat the fruit
that our labor brings
a name="O’Connor Preyed For Capitalism">">"’Connor Preyed For Capitalism
NEW YORK CITY, May 7 — John Cardinal O’Connor died here last week. He had served his god well. That god was capitalism. Excelling in hypocrisy, O’Connor aided the rulers’ most vicious attacks on the working class, all the while claiming to be the "workers’ friend." The crowds at St. Patrick’s Cathedral show that thousands have made the serious mistake of falling for O’Connor’s pious lies.
In one of his last public acts, O’Connor bestowed his blessing on the cops who savagely murdered Amadou Diallo. At a meeting designed to stifle working-class outrage at the cops’ acquittal, the Cardinal intoned, "Our prayerful thoughts are with all of our police who face difficult situations each and every day, some of which end in deep tragedy for themselves and for others'' (Catholic News Service, 3/1). O’Connor had supported Giuliani’s racist thugs all along.
Shortly after Diallo’s murder, members of NYPD’s Holy Name Society heard O’Connor speak at their annual banquet. And every March 17th, O’Connor would wave an approving sign of the cross over the decadent copfest known as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. None of these racist acts prevented ruling class lieutenants like Al Sharpton from hailing O’Connor as a "man of principle," or Local 1199 union boss Dennis Rivera from calling him "a union man."
O’Connor enjoyed a reputation for being ecumenical, that is, for being a good Catholic who nevertheless befriended those of other faiths. Reality reverses the image. O’Connor strongly supported the Opus Dei (God’s Work), a secretive, virulently anti-Semitic, anti-communist sect within the church. Opus Dei backed John Paul II’s rise to the papacy. In 1998 O’Connor said a special anniversary mass for Opus Dei’s late founder Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, a Spanish fascist, before 1,000 sect members at the cathedral. Escriva idolized Hitler for his military aide in defeating the United Front government of Spain, the majority being communists and other left-wing forces in the Spanish Civil War. An ex-member of Opus Dei recalled Escriva’s words of praise, "Hitler against the Jews; Hitler against the Slavs; it was Hitler against communism" (Le Monde Diplomatique, 9/95). Known as "a friend of the Jews," O’Connor devoted his sermon to extolling this Nazi. Tear-jerking eulogies for O’Connor from New York’s leading rabbis appear especially disgusting, given their choice to ignore this man’s vile record.
O’Connor was surely no friend of the Vietnamese working class. He served as a Navy chaplain at the height of the Vietnam War, absolving U.S. sailors when they carried out the bosses’ genocide and giving them last rites when they failed. In a book he wrote about his tour in Vietnam, O’Connor repeatedly spoke of the need to "confront and destroy" communism. He was accomplice in the murder of the four million Vietnamese by the U.S. imperialist Vietnam war.
The Pope’s elevation of O’Connor to Cardinal made him boss of a vast empire of Catholic schools and hospitals. Like any boss, he followed the dictates of the profit system, somehow ignoring his "social conscience." New York’s Catholic schools cram rotten ideas down students’ throats in overcrowded classrooms (like the public schools), with many parents forced to work extra jobs to pay for the privilege. Teachers in Catholic schools make less than half what public school teachers can. When archdiocesan teachers went on strike in 1996, O’Connor, in his consummate compassion, threatened to fire them. In his hospitals, which largely serve the poor, O’Connor has left a legacy of under-staffed, poorly equipped hellholes.
For more than a millennium, the Catholic church has not missed a chance to help the ruling class of the day by stomping on the exploited masses in the name of "Christian charity." O’Connor joins the hallowed tradition of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Vatican’s support of Hitler.
Ending this pattern of murderous deceit means replacing capitalism and its religious lies with workers’ rule through communist revolution. The thousands of workers who marched with the Progressive Labor Party on May Day were, by implication, "celebrating" O’Connor’s funeral with far more love and concern for the world’s working class than O’Connor ever showed in his entire life.
Truth About Kosovo Air Wars Stirs Pot For Ground Invasion
The U.S. claim that last year’s aerial bombing decimated the Yugoslav army was grossly exaggerated according to a secret Air Force report revealed in Newsweek magazine. It found that the initial claim of 120 tanks, 220 armored personnel carriers and 450 artillery pieces being destroyed turned out to be 14 tanks, 18 carriers and 20 artillery pieces, or 93% less than first reported.
NY Daily News interviews with military experts in the area found "miles long lines of tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces being driven out of Kosovo after the bombing stopped." (Daily News, May 8)
Air Force inspectors also found that, "NATO’s high-tech aerial assault, which was carried out from an altitude of three miles to avoid casualties among pilots, was easily foiled by fake bridges, fake artillery and phony anti-missile batteries."
So much for the "overwhelming victory" of U.S./NATO forces.
Maybe the reason Newsweek magazine exploded this story is to help shatter the illusion that "invincible" air armadas win wars. It’s ground invasions, stupid....
Imperialist Vultures Descent On Diamond-Rich Sierra Leone
Since the start of the violent civil war in Sierra Leone in 1991, tens of thousands have died and half a million people have become refugees. The various warring factions mutilated many thousands. Finally, last year Britain and the U.S. got UN chief Koffin Annan to send "blue helmets" (UN "peace-keeping" soldiers) to enforce a cease-fire. They came mainly from African countries. The Nigerian army was the leading force, imposing a brutal "peace" among the various factions. Once the Nigerian army left, the 10-month old cease-fire between the government and the "Revolutionary" United Front (RUF) ended when the RUF kidnapped 500 soldiers from the remaining UN forces.
Like many other conflicts in Africa and the rest of the world, this civil war is not mainly about ethnic rivalry, as the racist Western capitalist media says. It’s about which of these warring factions will control the rich diamond mines, used to finance the armies and the power of faction leaders. The Libya-trained RUF, which began in the early 1990s as a "people’s movement" fighting the corrupt Sierra Leone ruling elite and its imperialist backers, degenerated into a brutal reactionary force. The RUF now controls the lucrative mines in eastern Sierra Leone. Over the last two years, the value of diamond exports has dropped from $60 million to $30 million. The RUF has grabbed this $30 million.
For the imperialists it is more than regaining control of the diamond mines for British and U.S. mineral companies and saving the government of their puppet, President Kabbah, from the RUF forces closing in on Freetown, the country’s capital. British and U.S. bosses fear the Sierra Leone conflict will endanger the cease-fire planned in the Congo. UN forces will be sent there shortly to end the civil/regional war involving armies from Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa. Congo is the largest country in Central Africa, and rich in many key minerals, including those used for military weapons. France, fighting for its imperialist interests, is also involved in the Congo, many times conflicting with U.S. interests.
Also, oil-rich Nigeria is not exactly a land of stability for Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, with billions invested there. Recently Nigeria has been wracked by religious and tribal clashes. Also, many workers and youth are fed up with the corrupt ruling classes, who share the oil bonanza with the big imperialist oil companies while the masses get poorer and poorer.
Britain immediately sent 800 elite troops from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, which led the NATO forces that occupied Kosovo when the war ended there last year. These paratroopers supposedly were sent to evacuate foreigners. In reality they’re trying to save the President of this former British colony. Royal marines will follow. Britain also sent a carrier off the coast of Sierra Leone, the sixth Royal Navy ship in the region.
Increasingly, oil, minerals and other huge deposits of wealth are being uncovered throughout Africa. Internally, different factions are fighting for control of this wealth. Civil wars are erupting with murderous violence, with no clear end in sight. So while UN chief Koffi Annan asked U.S. Secy. of State Madeleine Albright to send a U.S. rapid deployment force to Sierra Leone, Albright appears reluctant to committing any troops. U.S. bosses are still affected by the Vietnam and Somalia Syndrome. Both U.S. invasions ended in costly defeats, militarily, financially and, at the time, in rising opposition of an anti-imperialist character.
For African workers, already ravaged by civil wars, AIDS, mass poverty and hunger, imperialism and capitalism are a living hell. This situation cries for organizing a mass communist movement to unite workers and peasants against all their local and international tormentors.
Rules Of Engagement: Hitler Would Give It Four Stars
If there ever was a film made by U.S. bosses to promote fascism, this is it! It opens with scenes of Vietnam in which the Viet Cong kill U.S. marines with almost documentary-like realism. It focuses on the friendship of two colonels, one black, the other white. Billed as a "courtroom drama," its political implications are both subtle and glaring! The black officer (Samuel L. Jackson) is shown executing a Viet Cong soldier for refusing to call off (by radio) a group of Viet Cong soldiers about to kill his friend.
Later in the movie the black officer, ostensibly to save his own troops, orders a massacre of hundreds of men, women and children who are attacking the U.S. embassy in Yemen (The film is based on a true incident in which U.S. rangers massacred Somalians who attacked and killed several U.S. rangers and shot down a Black Hawk chopper.) Another black officer initially balks at this order, but then agrees. The scenes of gratuitous violence are impressive in their realism, right down to scenes of maimed children seen later in a decrepit hospital.
A civilian national security officer and the U.S. ambassador are portrayed as cowardly and corrupt, trying to blame the massacre on this one "rogue" soldier. The protesters, including children, are later seen in a videotape shooting at the embassy, supposedly justifying the massacre, in line with the so-called "rules of engagement."
The reason for this protest, U.S. imperialism’s role in the Middle East and its need to control oil at all costs are not addressed. For that matter the Vietnam scene implied that war is hell, but for an "honorable" cause. Near the end of the movie the Viet Cong officer, who was not summarily executed because he called off the attack, is forced to admit he would have killed a POW in an effort to save his own troops. He is seen shortly thereafter saluting the black officer.
The movie tries to imply this was a "true story" by reporting in the credits what "happened" to the characters." The theater drew an integrated audience. To their credit there was no revelry at the outcome. It was a subdued group as we filed out.
Interestingly, this movie opens right at the 25th anniversary of the defeat of U.S. imperialism in Vietnam and of John McCain's fascist pronouncements while visiting there recently. McCain, a former POW, won't "forgive" his former captors. As a bomber pilot he undoubtedly participated in the killing and maiming of untold numbers of men, women and children. He himself is a war criminal!
Jackson's character, like McCain, comes off as a hero (if a flawed one) because he followed the "rules of engagement." The message? Fight, die, kill and maim for the glory of U.S. imperialism). I'm sure the Nazi storm troopers felt the same way fighting for "Deutschland Über Alles!"
LETTERS
Journey Thru Hell
I made a long journey north from my country because I couldn’t find work there and have a family to support. The trip was miserable. The first border was crossed in a locked trailer holding 150 of us. We endured this for eight hours, but eventually couldn’t take it any more. The "coyote" (smuggler) in Guatemala had provided us with three hatchets to break open the walls just in case we ran out of air. We had to hack out a few holes from inside the trailer to keep from suffocating. Once we were unloaded from the truck, we were taken to a mountain where for eight days we were without food or water. After the fourth day, when we were starving to death, we spotted some monkeys and thought of catching one to eat, but couldn’t do it.
Following our ordeal in the mountain, all 150 of us were shoved into a bus with a maximum capacity of 70, one on top of the other. The ride was supposed to be 60 hours non-stop, but the tires could not sustain this extra weight. Frequent stops were made to fix many flat tires. After another 30 hours drive to Agua Prieta, we were dumped in the desert, but couldn’t walk because of exhaustion. We were left there that entire night amidst a huge snowstorm. Everyone began to freeze and shout or pray or demand that God explain why he had abandoned us in this endless nightmare. Everyone, particularly the children, could no longer walk because our feet had turned purple and lost all feeling. We still had no water or food. The "coyotes" told us the "solution" was "not to think about food or water."
To get us moving they showed us numerous crosses marking the graves of all those who died trying to cross the border. In the desert an older man became very sick and fainted. We helped him to his feet, but he became delirious. Another brother got very ill after losing a lot of weight. The "coyote" said, "I cannot take this guy as he is." Two coyotes grabbed him, one at his feet and the other at his wrists, and threw him to the ground. The man struggled back to his feet and begged not to be left there to die. We never found out what happened to him.
After a nightmare crossing from Mexico, we were imprisoned in a "jail" run by the Coyotes in Phoenix for another 28 days, unable to see any light this whole time. We were kept that way until our families came up with the money to get us out.
The saddest part of it all is that now I am here in the "land of opportunity" without work, without money and without family.
In El Salvador, I had met a member of PLP and now I understand what he told me about communism. I’m thinking about joining the PLP to fight for communism.
A Traveler
Workers From Ecuador Want Info On PLP
Greetings from Ecuador from a group of workers that were fired unceremoniously without any severance pay or explanation. This experience has made us form a bloc of workers willing to fight for social and labor changes. We want to know more about PLP and its politics.
Please e-mail me any comments or information about PLP.
Thanks,
A Fired Worker in the Middle of the World, Ecuador
CHALLENGE
responds: Thanks for your letter. We will gladly report about your struggle. Please send us more information about it.
Birds Of A Feather
I am writing to thank you for publishing the letter (CHALLENGE 5/10) concerning Harvard's pro-Nazi past in the context of its current Hillel controversy. I am shocked and appalled that a Jewish organization would use such a song with such obvious connections to the Nazis.
Many people consider Harvard the be-all, end-all of post-secondary education, but many don't realize it used to be, at least, a very exclusive organization that denied entry to minorities, including Jews. As a Jew, I don't think I could attend an organization that sponsored such anti-Semitism, no matter what the reputation.
Thanks again,
Avi
a name="Don’t Hold Back On Red Ideas">">"on’t Hold Back On Red Ideas
The most enduring impression I have from the May Day march in San Francisco is the many, many people who saw us in the street and began honking their horns and raising their fists in salute. Many times we ourselves hold communism back because we are afraid of what people will say. While many times people can be hostile, it is also true that lots of people have come to similar conclusions as we have, albeit independently, and are moved when they see us putting it forward on the streets.
A May Day marcher
a name="‘Rock The Capitalist Boat’"></">‘R"ck The Capitalist Boat’
As a PLP member, I learn many things each time (and over time) that I march on May Day. It helps me understand what my job is, so to speak, and what capitalism is. My job is to organize for international communist revolution. Capitalism is a system that produces profits for the few, not for the needs of the many.
Our work to build revolution can mean starting with something as simple as asking friends to look over a copy of CHALLENGE. Perhaps he/she may agree, or disagree, with PLP's active stand on an issue and be willing to come to a forum, study group or rally in your community for open minded discussion/action. Every person's collective work in the Party is unique, but equally important to the working class and our future. It all starts with our choice to accept the job or not. The working class cannot be neutral in this struggle. One can remain part of the problem (capitalism) or become a part of the solution (communist revolution).
PLP members stand up for communism and rock the capitalist boat, so to speak. It may temporarily scare those around us when we do this. While working, one may often hear, "sit down and shut up!" but just ignore that. We have no time for that because the bosses are killing us in the streets and storming into our houses like Nazi troopers whenever they please. The contrast between our work for communist revolution and its effects, and the daily effects of capitalism will show people we are telling the truth, so push on.
There is plenty of "on-the-job training" available from comrades who know your true value and potential as a member of the working class. We're just waiting for you to choose your side. Hope you joined our side, the communist side, this May Day 2000. If you did, I want to say hello and welcome to the Progressive Labor Party and communism; you won't regret your choice. Let's get to work, then.
Mid-West Comrade
Capitalism = La Vida Loca: Capitalism Makes You Nuts
A recent study of 30,000 people by the World Health Organization shows a rapid rise in mental illnesses in some of the world’s leading capitalist countries. It reports that 48% of the population in the U.S. and Germany, 40% in Holland, 37% in Canada, 20% in Mexico and 16% in Turkey suffer some kind of mental problems at least once in their lives. In those countries, half of those affected get no medical attention or are given insufficient therapy. As usual under capitalism, poor people are the most affected: "These illnesses tend to affect more unfavored social groups, especially persons with low incomes and little education as well as the unemployed and single people."
Some problems, like anxiety and behavior, become chronic and affect more women than men. More men suffer alcoholism and other addictions. The WHO blames these problems on the lack of proper health care, particularly preventive care. Gro Harlem Bruntland, WHO’s general director, said most psychiatric services are usually centralized in big cities and are inefficient and even counterproductive for those affected. She also blames the cost-efficient method prevalent the capitalist medical care systems. She warns that the rise of mental illnesses have become a modern crisis.
The WHO implies, without saying so outright, that capitalism and its many evils are the main cause of these problems. Work or jobless-related stress, war, racism, rotten medical care, drugs, alienation, sexism, etc., literally drive many workers and youth crazy. Even many forms of exploitation and mistreatment among workers themselves can be traced to a capitalist system that treats people as commodities. Indeed, only communism can free us from the ravages of capitalism.
Mad About Communism
a name="‘My First May Day: One I’ll Never Forget"></">‘M" First May Day: One I’ll Never Forget
On May 6, I was privileged to participate in the PLP May Day march in Washington, D.C., and have nothing but many positive things to say about this experience. It would take a book to give all my views.
The sight of red flags flying under the hot sun was very uplifting. I no longer felt alone in my views. I experienced camaraderie with my fellow workers, something somewhat missing in the rural area of Pennsylvania where I live. I was also extremely impressed with the youth, who demonstrated such commitment and determination to really make the march a very disciplined and militant one for workers’ power and a communist future. No reformism was present at this march.
I watched as youth and others distributed CHALLENGE to onlookers, and noticed very little, if any, hostility. I saw many reading it with great interest.
I was extremely happy with the march’s multi-racial character. I met people from various places. On the bus, I sat next to a woman who had emigrated here from Mexico. Though she spoke mostly Spanish and I know little Spanish, we communicated quite easily with each other. She was a very fine person and very moved by the march. Sitting across from me was a younger woman from Ethiopia, also very friendly and I enjoyed talking with her as well.
The experience made me realize it is truly possible to win workers and the oppressed to the need for a workers’ revolution and that those groups who attempt to hide their so-called Marxism behind reformist politics to be "popular" are doing no one in the working class a favor.
I came home feeling more inspired to keep up the fight and to reach out to more workers. I want to thank all the great people I met and all the others for making May 6 a day that I will never forget. Long live communism!
Red Rocker
Watch Out Bush, Reds In Texas
As college students in Texas, we began reading CHALLENGE and PLP’s ideas four months ago. In studying fascism, we decided to initiate a local campaign reflecting our struggle against it. We discovered that Texas has a contract with Dell Computers, which uses prison labor to make their computer components. After discussing this with our friends and members of other student groups we belonged to, we started a petition campaign demanding the university stop purchasing prison-made goods. Although the spring semester is ending, support and signatures will be gathered throughout the summer and fall.
We also wanted to attend the San Francisco May Day march to demonstrate against capitalism and fascism. To raise money for plane tickets, a garage sale was organized, helped by comrades and supporters who donated goods. Faculty and students were invited to a May Day dinner, showing the May Day video. A student spoke about our campaign against prison labor and collected donations. These projects raised enough money to fly five people to San Francisco.
When we arrived at the march site, a sense of pride filled the air, the pride of communism. Soon large numbers of Los Angeles youth arrived as well as janitors who had just come off a militant strike. The overall organization of the march was great. People stayed close together and marched in solidarity, turning hundreds into a single unit, whose chants resonated through the streets. This led many bystanders to honk their horns and raise their fists in support.
By nightfall many friends had been reunited and many new ones made. The speeches opened our eyes and inspired us to more struggle. Each of us now has a new level of understanding and dedication toward the Party, enabling us to grow stronger, each one of us working to the best of our ability until the hammer falls on capitalism and smashes it forever.
Comrades in Texas