- WORKERS MUST FIGHT RACIST RULERS
BUSH AND GORE: MORE TERROR AND WAR - TRUTH ABOUT BROOKLY WALKOUTS FOUND ONLY IN CHALLENGE
- STUDENTS FIND ALTERNATIVE TO FIGHT AGAINST COP TERROR
- Explanation of Profit System Wins the Day:
Philly Hospital Workers Defy `Leaders,' Demand Strike! - BOEING MACHINISTS ACT TO HONOR PICKET LINES
- CAMPUSES RALLY VS. RACIST DIALLO VERDICT
QUEENS: STUDENTS HURDLE ADMINISTRATION ROADBLOCK FIGHT RACIST POLICE TERROR - RUTGERS: PLP GETS BALL ROLLING TO RALLY AGAINST KOPS, KELLING AND KOURTS
- LAPD: NOT JUST A FEW BAD APPLES...
- FLINT SHOOTING: BLOOD ON THE BOSSES' HANDS!
- POSTAL WORKERS TO MARCH AGAINST POLICE TERROR
- NY Metro Area Postal Union Election
Shows Workers Open to PLP - CHURCH SAYS WE KILLED MILLIONS, SORRY ABOUT THAT
HOLOCAUST BEGAN 2,000 YEARS AGO - STUDENT DENOUNCES SYSTEM, CALLS FOR ACTION AT MASS PROTEST
- LETTERS
WORKERS MUST FIGHT RACIST RULERS
BUSH AND GORE: MORE TERROR AND WAR
The beauty contest passing itself off as a presidential campaign proves once again that workers have everything to lose by supporting capitalist politicians. In 1996, the bosses were divided, and the fight over control of the Republican Party reflected this split. Now, the dominant, Rockefeller wing firmly controls both parties.
Whether the rulers are divided amongst themselves or more or less together, we must not line up behind any of them. Our job remains the same, regardless of the clique the profit system puts in the White House. We must build our own forces and fight for communist revolution, no matter how long it takes. At the moment, this means organizing successful, mass May Day 2000 marches, sharpening the class struggle on as many fronts as possible, and winning fresh recruits into the Progressive Labor Party.
The bosses' media all recognize that no fundamental distinction separates Bush from Gore. One leading pundit, the New York Times's Frank Rich, says that they're about as "different...as J. Crew and Banana Republic" (March 11). He refers to both parties as bastions of "Rockefeller Republicanism" and takes a few shots at the non-issues raised in the primary campaigns. It's easy to laugh at Bush, who governs the country's most polluted state, when he tries to parade as an environmentalist. Or at Gore, who has pocketed all kinds of funny money, when he starts posing as a champion of campaign finance reform.
But for our class, these insults to our intelligence cover the bosses' real plans, and this reality is no laughing matter. Let's look at two key questions: the rulers' long-range preparations for war and the rise of fascist terror at home.
Neither Gore nor Bush is going to change U.S. foreign policy much. The Rockefeller interests are determined to keep U.S. imperialism on top. They need to continue dictating the flow and pricing of Middle Eastern oil. Every one of their rivals needs to break free of this yoke. The fight to control the cheapest energy sources, which lie in Iraq, can only sharpen. For several years, CHALLENGE has predicted another Persian Gulf oil war. We're sticking to that estimate. President Gore or Bush may well be the one to start it. Workers have absolutely no interest in killing and dying for Exxon Mobil.
But the Rockefellers' long-range interests go beyond the question of oil. Staying on top in a world driven by the violent scramble for maximum profit also means preventing the rise of a rival "super-power." The collapse of the old communist movement and the temporary break-up of the Soviet empire cut U.S. rulers some slack, but only temporarily. Their primary strategy is still geared against the re-emergence of Russia and the rise of Chinese imperialism. Trends in the U.S. military budget make this goal crystal-clear.
Right now, U.S. military expenses are greater than China's, Russia's, Great Britain's, and Germany's COMBINED. The 1997 budget represented 85 percent of the average military budgets at the height of the Cold War. "The supposedly `centrist' Clinton administration is therefore looking to stabilize military expenses at a full-fledged Cold War level into the first years of the 21st century" (Gilbert Achcar, The New Cold War, translation ours, ed.).
U.S. imperialism will probably invade the Middle Easter oil fields again. But this amount of firepower far outstrips the muscle necessary to take on the two-bit military machines of countries like Iraq or even North Korea. The ultimate targets of this buildup remain Russia and China. U.S. imperialism is orienting its entire foreign policy toward the eventuality of a third world war. We aren't crying: "Wolf!" here. This process may take years to unfold. But its general direction is clear, and both Bush and Gore will keep it going.
However, plans for world war require more than military hardware. The political mobilization of the home front is also key. As CHALLENGE has often written, the liberals, who parade as friends of the working class, tell more dangerous, less obvious lies than the more openly right wing Republicans. Gore's support from Sweeney and other labor union bosses is more deceptive than Bush's ridiculous "compassionate conservatism." However, once again, facts are stubborn things.
We still live in an economic boom. For the time being, many workers don't yet have it so bad. But look at the 40+ million who have no health insurance. Look at the millions thrown off welfare and forced into slave labor conditions on "Workfare." Look at the rise in police terror, since the liberal Clinton, with Gore as his vice-president, put 100,000 more racist killer cops on the streets. Look at the growth of the "prison-industrial complex," which combines police state social control tactics with windfall billion-dollar profits made off prison labor." Look at the drastic rise in racist oppression due to all of the above. Black people make up only 12 percent of the United States population, but nearly half of all inmates are black.
As Governor of Texas, Bush is a champion of capital punishment. Gore is a clone of cop-lover Clinton. As president, either one will help sharpen the trend toward all types of racist terror against our class, as well as the long-range drift toward world war.
This isn't a matter of personality or choice. The profit system makes war and fascism inevitable. As the process developing both intensifies, our Party will have a lot to say about the direction in which the working class decides to head. The bosses can't choose whether or not they want to fight each other or conduct reigns of terror against us. But we can choose communist revolution as the only way out of the capitalist nightmare. The last few weeks have seen a healthy upsurge in militant Party activity around racist police terror. We have seen thousands of workers respond positively to our direct leadership and our press. Continuing to sharpen the struggle, organizing large May Day actions, and recruiting to the PLP are the best answers to the murdering lies of Gore-Bush and their billionaire puppet-masters.
TRUTH ABOUT BROOKLY WALKOUTS FOUND ONLY IN CHALLENGE
BROOKLYN, NY -- On March 8, a couple of hundred students walked out of Clara Barton, Brooklyn Tech and Prospect Heights high schools, protesting the not guilty verdict in the Diallo case.
The youth were inspired by the March 3 walkouts and protest by 1,000 students from other high schools all across the city. PLP youth played a leading role in those walkouts and participated on March 8. Hundreds of CHALLENGES were sold at both protests.
At both walkouts, youth first marched and protested in downtown Brooklyn, then streamed across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall. On March 8 an undercover cop used a bullhorn to try to persuade students to end their protest. Militant youth took the bullhorn away from her.
The March 3 protests received lots of publicity in the bosses' press, the NY Times tried to depict it as a civil libertarian action led by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). But only CHALLENGE covered the March 8.
To many youth activists this was an eye-opening experience. They saw first-hand how the bosses' press operates. They try their best to censure or distort any actions led by forces not in their hip pockets, especially where communists in the PLP are involved.
That's why CHALLENGE is a key weapon for workers and youth fighting the ruling racist bosses. CHALLENGE, the communist newspaper, reports events from the working-class point of view. Reading, studying and distributing CHALLENGE is the best antidote to the lies of the NY Times and all the bosses' media.
STUDENTS FIND ALTERNATIVE TO FIGHT AGAINST COP TERROR
NEW YORK, March 15 -- On Monday, March 6, students at the alternative high school I teach in returned to school disappointed. Hundreds of their peers marched Friday, March 3 against the Diallo verdict. At our school we only talked about police brutality.
I meet with about 15 students for an hour each day in an Advisory. On Monday, I placed a leaflet on the board and two articles about the Friday demonstrations. "What is to be done here," I asked. "What can we do?" was the reply. Many agreed that the problems of racism and police brutality are not easily mended. We discussed the role of police in a class society and the need to fight to change the kind of society we live in. "But what can we do?" they continued.
The idea came from some corner of the room that we should all wear black armbands on Wednesday. The next day, with a contribution of black cloth from my wife, eight students made 200 armbands in about 10 minutes. "Not enough!" students said. The next morning six students arrived early and finished the next 200. Hesitant at first, these students passed out the armbands to friends who also passed out armbands. By second period, with the exception of late students who made their way to my classroom to get more, nearly every student and staff member had them on.
Everyone was very excited. More importantly, during Wednesday's Advisory we discussed how people can change things, themselves and others by organizing--a lesson we all need to remind each other about throughout the rest of the term and our lives.
East Harlem Red
Explanation of Profit System Wins the Day:
Philly Hospital Workers Defy `Leaders,' Demand Strike!
PHILADELPHIA, PA, March 11 -- Today the Philadelphia local of the National Hospital Workers Union (1199C) held a "leadership summit" on the impact of rising healthcare costs on the June 2000 contract negotiations. Fortunately the leadership emerging from this summit was not totally what the union leadership wanted.
The 1199C leaders called the meeting of over 100 union delegates because the current capitalist crisis has squeezed Philadelphia's major hospitals, leaving the union's citywide health plan $10 million short. Hundreds have been laid off. Only one hospital has declared a profit. The bosses want 1199C members to pay into the health plan for the first time. The 1199C leaders claim Jefferson bosses won't even start negotiations until we agree to pay $10 weekly toward the health plan.
The 1199C leaders' plan was to bombard us with numbers that clearly showed we had no choice but to surrender $10 million worth of health benefits. The delegates would then tell the union leaders what benefits to cut. Then the delegates could be used as a buffer to protect the union leaders because it would look like the delegates were responsible for the cuts, not the leaders.
Obviously $10 million can only be saved by significantly cutting the benefits of the mainly black union members who have greater health problems due to the racism of capitalism. One of the union delegates later agreed that the 1199C leaders wanted us to play the same role as the "Judenrat" in Nazi Germany. Just as these "Jewish Rats" sold out their brothers and sisters by aiding the Nazis, so the 1199C leaders want the union delegates to serve the bosses by helping to cut the health benefits of the workers we're supposed to represent.
Surplus Value Explanation Strikes A Chord
Just before the delegate body broke up into smaller groups, a Jefferson hospital delegate took the floor and pointed out that actually the hospital bosses were NOT paying for our health benefits. Those benefits and our wages came from the value that all the hospital workers produced. Those benefits and wages are only part of the total value that we produce because the bosses steal the rest as profit. If we start paying toward our health benefits or agree to any cuts, the bosses are actually increasing the amount they steal from the value we produce. The delegate said these cuts would have a terrible racist impact on our membership and must be met with serious organizing for a strike.
A wave of agreement swept through the delegates on the floor. Union President Nicholas shot the Executive Vice-president an angry look and then launched into a 45-minute tirade. He said workers weren't ready to fight, almost all the hospitals are "losing" money, so we have no choice but to agree to give-backs. He then dismissed us into smaller groups to figure out what benefits we should give up.
But at the table where the Jefferson delegates sat, the talk was not of give-backs but rather of the need to organize a strike. The 1199C Organizer assigned to our table did her best to steer the conversation toward cutting benefits. Yet the majority of the Jefferson delegates always returned the discussion to the need to strike against givebacks.
Each table had posterboard on which to write our suggestions to show the rest of the delegates. The Organizer at our table finally gave in and wrote in large letters on our posterboard: "STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!" When each table showed the rest of the delegates their ideas, our call for a strike received loud applause and cheers.
But just as interesting was that over half the other tables of union delegates also called for a strike against the givebacks. The tables that actually proposed particular cutbacks were roundly booed. It got so fierce that delegates who had followed the President's call to find cuts became very defensive and would apologize or beg for us to give them a chance to finish before they were booed.
After each table finished their presentation, President Nicholas lamented that the union leaders actually had not received the kinds of suggestions they wanted from the union delegates. He finished by challenging us to take up the task of organizing the workers to strike, adding that this challenge might make one of the Jefferson delegates "stop wishing for the revolution." What he fears is that struggles like today, to intensify the class struggle, can become a school for communism, building PLP and changing the "wish for revolution" to reality.
BOEING MACHINISTS ACT TO HONOR PICKET LINES
SEATTLE, WA, March 9 -- At tonight's union meeting International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 751C passed a resolution, seconded by 25 Boeing workers, calling for a "Day of Solidarity" with striking Boeing Engineers and Technical workers. "I want to thank you for raising that resolution," said one shop steward from another building to the member who introduced it. "Call on me and we'll join your building on the picket lines."
This comment reflects the widespread distrust of the IAM leadership. They have organized next to nothing in support of the SPEEA (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace) strike. Nevertheless, hundreds of Machinists have joined the picket lines and organized material support on their own. In fact, our Party and friends organized 35 workers on each shift in just one building to join the lines at lunch-time in answer to SPEEA's invitation the same day. These same workers wrote, introduced and seconded the "Day of Solidarity" resolution.
No sooner was the resolution passed then the leadership tried to "clarify" it. They began pushing to hold the "Day of Solidarity" on a weekend in order not to violate Article 18--the no-strike clause in our contract. Rules are rules, they say. As usual, as soon as the Local president mentioned Article 18, members shouted, "Get rid of it!"
The resolution will now be kicked upstairs to the District Council to be voted on March 14. Rank and filers are organizing to make sure our "Day of Solidarity" is held during the workweek. Our aim is to "get hundreds, if not more, of our members to the picket lines," as stated in the passed resolution.
Honoring Picket Lines Is Top Priority In Contract Negotiations
Negotiations began Tuesday between Boeing and Teamster Local 174, which represents hundreds of truck, bus and taxi drivers at the company. The contract expires March 31. Under organized pressure from the rank and file and shop stewards, the union president vowed a "top-priority bargaining item" would be the removal of a clause forbidding Teamsters from honoring the picket lines.
"Good luck," said an IAM spokesman, who asked the local papers not to identify him. He said he'd be surprised if the company would agree to such a change. So we must organize to force that agreement.
The union leadership has been hiding behind the "no-strike" clause for too long. Honoring picket lines is a key test of working-class solidarity. That's become all the more important now that the mergers have multiplied many fold the number of contracts and unions at Boeing. Are we going to allow the company to pick us off one at a time?
Revolutionary Outlook Requires Class Consciousness
Changing the history whereby each union "goes alone" at Boeing will not be easy. We will have to start thinking as a class. Our Party has proved indispensable in this effort.
The Party and our friends can do more around the country. Expressions of solidarity from other unions and professional organizations will help highlight the class nature of the demands of the day. When we fight racism, fascist police terror and imperialist wars, we always emphasize it is the working class--conscious of itself and its historic mission--that will put an end to these capitalist evils with communist revolution. This strike gives us another avenue to fight for that revolutionary class perspective.
GOLDEN RULE: BOSSES' GOLD MAKES THE RULES
So this is their democracy where "majority rules"! Take a poll of Boeing Machinists. They'd vote in the thousands to walk the lines in solidarity with the engineers. It's in their class interests to support the strike. But the law says they can't!
The law rides roughshod over the wishes of the vast majority and defends the class interests of industrialists and bankers who sit on Boeing's Board of Directors. The majority doesn't rule; the majority is ruled! That's why communists call capitalism a class dictatorship.
And that's why thousands of Boeing Machinists feel frustrated. Seven thousand non-union engineers have joined the strike, but tens of thousands of union machinists have been held back.
Don't talk about democracy! The law is even-handed all right; it even hands the bosses everything they want! But when it comes to "hands," workers have thousands and thousands of them. And on any day they're quite capable of "taking the law into their own hands!"
CAMPUSES RALLY VS. RACIST DIALLO VERDICT
QUEENS: STUDENTS HURDLE ADMINISTRATION ROADBLOCK FIGHT RACIST POLICE TERROR
QUEENS, NY, March 12 -- Approximately 30 students participated in a rally protesting the murder of Amadou Diallo and the not-guilty verdict of four NYPD killers. It was a great turnout and many students passing by joined in. Others stood at a distance but listened to what we had to say.
It all started a few weeks ago right before the verdict. Although people were angry at the blatantly racist murder, they were not angry enough to begin organizing a rally the day of the murder. Many students had confidence in the courts and believed they would provide "justice" for Amadou and his family. Many good discussions took place about the nature of this racist system and its need for the cops to terrorize black and Latino youth.
After the verdict was announced, the Party once again tried to organize a rally and this time students were ready. With another Queens College student, we began the process: we wrote leaflets, talked to other campus student organizations and had heated discussions with other students about the importance of fighting back against attacks on the working class.
After looking back we realize we made one big mistake--going through the administration. Since other students thought it would be best to do things the "right way," we asked permission for our rally. The administration really jerked us around. Different administrators told us to do different things, and very conveniently "forgot" conversations they had with us about the rally.
Because we waited for their go-ahead, we did not distribute our leaflets until the last moment, two days before the rally. We, and many other students, learned a good lesson. They saw the way the administration protects its system.
Despite these few setbacks it was a good rally. Students angrily attacked this racist murder. After having read PLP's new pamphlet, one student tied it to the growing prison labor. CHALLENGES, leaflets and more prison labor pamphlets were distributed. But, most important, we were able to get to know many more students and struggle sharply over the inherent necessity for racism under capitalism and its only solution, communism! This won't be the last fight at Queens College. Many students are now excited about organizing another rally.
RUTGERS: PLP GETS BALL ROLLING TO RALLY AGAINST KOPS, KELLING AND KOURTS
NEWARK, NJ March 8 -- About 150 students at Rutgers-Newark University (RNU) rallied in opposition to the racist murder of Amadou Diallo and the acquittal of the killer cops. Students were serious, listening attentively to the speakers. The latter expressed outrage at the murder and the verdict and held serious doubts about, and criticisms of, the criminal injustice system.
PLP comrades played a key role in organizing the rally. Some groups probably would not have taken participated in such a mass event if PLP members had not raised it in mass organizations.
Once the ball got rolling, many students actively helped make the event happen. Initially, two organizations dropped out because they refused to take a position on the verdict. They only wanted an "open-ended" discussion. One student organizer responded, "If they won't be against this verdict we don't need them. Cross their name off the list!" By the week of the rally at least four other student clubs stood up to take their place.
The rally was sponsored by a multi-racial group of students and clubs. However, most of the clubs and rally participants were black. During the rally, a petition against the verdict and police brutality was circulated. In addition, about 30 students signed a contact sheet indicating their interests in helping to organize further mass demonstrations around this issue. One Party member, along with a close friend, distributed about 20 CHALLENGES toward the end of the rally.
One Party speaker described the general trend toward fascism shown by the rise of police murders of working-class youth. While presenting a general class analysis of racism and the police, the Party speaker also encouraged further class struggle by calling for more organizing. At the end the comrade strongly everyone to oppose all capitalist exploitation by marching on May Day in Washington D.C., May 6.
A RNU professor spoke more specifically about the fascist professor George Kelling. Students were shown the implications of having their university participate in the development of fascist ideology and policy designed to oppress and further exploit the working class. The method of police terror called "community policing" is largely the brainchild of this ivory tower fascist, Kelling. This professor held up Kelling's book Fixing Broken Windows and urged everyone to read and expose it, particularly where Kelling refers to black youths as "predators."
The racist murder of Amadou Diallo must be taken up by the Party to expose the true fascist nature of the capitalist system. We can turn it against the bosses. With the acquittal of the four murdering cops the bosses have thrown down the gauntlet and are daring the working class to strike back. Let's give them the shock of their new millennium and organize our class to take up their challenge with the red gauntlet of communism.
LAPD: NOT JUST A FEW BAD APPLES...
LOS ANGELES, CA.--The Rampart police division has again exposed the corrupt, racist and murderous U.S. justice system, as well as the role played by the capitalist politicians, in this case the Latino elected officials here.
"I don't want to attack the agents who protect my wife and my children, just because there are a few rotten apples in the LAPD," said U.S. Congressman Javier Becerra. "No one asked me anything until now," said Antonio Villaraigosa, State Assemblyman and Speaker of the California House. Other Latino politicians remaining silent are: Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, Assemblywoman Gloria Romero, U.S. Senator Richard Polanco, and Board of Supervisors member Gloria Molina.
Even though most of these "leaders" are liberals, and call for FBI and Federal investigation of the LAPD, they live in LA where the LAPD has powerful friends who retaliate against any and all criticism. These politicians have no principles. They side with whoever pays them. The power struggle over policing strategy and how to hoodwink the masses is coming out into the open. At a City Hall press conference, Mayor Riorden presented the LAPD's report on "cleaning up its own house." He supported it. Councilwomen Rita Walters and Jackie Goldberg tried to attend the press conference to attack the report and call for civilian over-site of the LAPD, but Riorden ordered City Hall security guards to keep them locked in their offices.
Walters and Goldberg are reading from the script of the Rockefeller Eastern establishment which wants civilian review of the LAPD. They want politicians who denounce the supposedly few "rotten apples" and call for police reform. The LA ruling class has traditionally demanded that black and Latino politicians support the cops, but this adds to a huge cynicism and mistrust of all politicians. It was the absence of such a buffer of "trusted" polliticians which allowed the 1992 rebellion to erupt here after the acquittal of the cops who beat Rodney King.
One reason these up-and-coming capitalist politicians haven't spoken out is that the community which the Rampart police terrorize isn't powerful and doesn't vote. Many are not citizens and many see no point in voting. These same politicians view the terrorist LA Police Association as a force capable of deciding the next LA mayorality. "When the theme is police brutality, the reaction of the City Hall is to hide," said LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
Rather than defending the workers, these Latino politicians are opportunist defenders of capitalism. They do the bosses' bidding. Who needs leaders like this?
The LAPD history has always been filled with racism, terror, murder, fomenting gang violence and corruption, directed mainly against black and Latin workers and youth. What's new is the publicity the bosses' media has given these cases. The biggest bosses, controlled by Rockefeller, are using these events to try to discipline and control the LA cops. They worry about controlling the workers and winning them to have confidence in a system that attacks workers every day. Their problem is how to terrorize workers but simultaneously win them to be loyal to their system and plans for war. The racism and corruption of the LAPD inspire the opposite. That's why they need politicians who call for getting rid of a "few bad apples." But it's not a few bad apples. The whole system is rotten.
Both the police and these politicians are enemies of the workers. PLP is supporting a mass demonstration against the Rampart police called by community organizations on Saturday, April 1st at noon. It's very important to show unity against these fascists.
The best way to answer the Rampart police scandal is organizing in the factories, schools, churches and neighborhoods to expose the role of the bosses, their cops and politicians. CHALLENGE newspaper is crucial. That's how thousands of youth and workers will see that the best way to "clean up" the police is by destroying the profit system--based on exploitation and terror--with communist revolution. The key answer to the Rampart scandal is to March on May Day and join the long-term fight to end the rule of the racist bosses.
Becerra and Villaraigosa remained silent on Proposition 21, which targets youth, especially Latino and black youth, for prison. On the other hand, Henry Cisneros, Director of Univision and Clinton's ex-Secretary of Housing, used his TV station to rabidly back Prop 21. Cisneros attacks youth as gang bangers, but fails to say that the cops foment gang violence and attack those who work for gang truces. These politicians help the bosses build fascism.
FLINT SHOOTING: BLOOD ON THE BOSSES' HANDS!
(Most of this letter is reprinted from Michael Moore's [`Roger and Me,' and `The Big One'] Web page)
Isn't it enough that tens of thousands of lives in Flint have been wrecked, destroyed by the greed of General Motors? Isn't it enough that tens of thousands of others had to leave Flint in the past 20 years to find work far from family and friends? Isn't it enough that Flint suffers the highest or near-highest per capita rates of murder, rape and theft in the nation?
What else must the people of Flint go through while the evening news proclaims, "This is the best economy ever!" Yesterday, a 6-year old boy brought a semi-automatic gun to Buell Elementary school and killed 6-year old Kayla Rolland in their first grade classroom. Six years old!
That's about the only thing the national media got right about the story. Twenty satellite trucks ring the school, but all that technology cannot find the truth. The local officials hide from the responsibility they share in Flint's destruction.
You have probably heard that this school shooting took place in "Mount Morris Township," a "suburb somewhere near Flint." There is no such place. Buell Elementary is in the Flint Beecher school district, the poorest in Genesee County, and perhaps the poorest in Michigan. According to the federal government, 82% of its children live below the "official" poverty level (meaning the number of kids in total poverty is even higher).
The family of the little boy who killed the girl had been evicted from their home just last week. Homeless and fatherless (his dad is in jail as 30% of all black men in the U.S. will be at some point in their lives), the boy was staying at his uncle's. In the house were guns, as there are in every home in this devastated and desperate area. The media shows the school sitting in the middle of a bombed-out neighborhood and says, "This is the youngest child to kill another child in a school shooting."
Beecher is 60% black, 40% white. No municipality in Genesee County wants to govern it, so it exists as a No Man's Land on Flint's northern city limits. It covers a small portion of two different townships. But when you hear the word "township" used in the case of Beecher, they mean it in the way the word was used in South Africa. Buell Elementary has a Flint address and a Flint phone number, but the black city officials in bed with General Motors claim, "This school really isn't in Flint!"
Let's do something about the poverty in which so many kids still dwell. What are we waiting for? This tragedy took place in a township that no town will claim and was followed by a gun nut near Pittsburgh entering a McDonald's or Burger King on the same day. Fried or flame-broiled, it's our unique American Hell.
A Reader
POSTAL WORKERS TO MARCH AGAINST POLICE TERROR
CHICAGO, IL, March 13 -- "We did all the right things. We worked hard. We moved to a good neighborhood in the suburbs. We put Bobby in a good school. We got him into one of the best colleges [Northwestern], so that he could live a good life. But all of that didn't matter. Two weeks before he was to graduate, the police bumped him off the road, got him out of his car, put him on his knees, and killed him. Why? Because he was a young black man." These were the opening comments of Vera Love, a retired postal worker and the mother of Robert Russ, who was murdered by the police last June.
There was silence as she spoke but enthusiastic applause when she finished her talk to the monthly meeting of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Chicago Local. A fellow postal worker had invited her, to bring the fight against racist police terror to the union.
The Local vice-president chairing the meeting said, "We have to take this issue of police brutality seriously. I was picking up someone at the union hall a few weeks ago, waiting out front. A squad car pulled up and two cops jumped out with guns drawn, demanding to know what was I doing there. All I could think was that they could kill me right here."
The worker who invited Ms. Love spoke from the floor saying, "The bosses need cops like these because they have no future for young black and Latin workers. There are two Americas being built by the bosses. One consists of millionaires and billionaires getting rich off the stock market. The other consists of two million mainly minority workers locked up in prison. We need to take a stand. I move that our local union endorse the April 4 march against police brutality and the massive growth of the prison population, and that we organize workers to march behind our union banner." The motion was seconded several times and passed unanimously.
The growing hatred of the cops, fueled by the racist acquittal of the four NYC cops that killed Amadou Diallo, is a good opportunity to build the Party at work and in the union. The hard work begins now. Many postal workers know about PLP and have read CHALLENGE. We are building a committee to win workers to participate in the April 4 march, called by Jesse Jackson and PUSH.
We are deepening our involvement in the union, while at the same time showing how it is led by the bosses' ideology. This is true of every mass organization. Workers are fighting against unsafe conditions on the job. When management moved most of the manual flat cases to make room for the latest automated sorting machines, they put the cases directly under the overhead belts, which move the tubs and trays of mail around the building. There is a constant danger of being hit on the head by falling grease, debris and whole trays of mail.
After weeks of complaining, several workers wrote up a petition demanding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) force the U.S. Postal Service to correct this situation. The petition explains how the bosses' need for increased profits through automation drives all of their decisions. They have no concern for our safety. They use prison labor to repair all postal mail sacks, and want to replace as many career employees as possible with low-paid, temporary workers. Two workers got almost 40 signatures in their area, and we will bring them, "Priority Mail," to OSHA.
To build the revolutionary movement, we must fight for the political leadership of millions of workers who are being mis-led by organizations like the APWU and PUSH. By winning workers to participate in the PUSH march under our leadership, we can change the political climate at work, in the union, and set the stage for our best May Day yet.
NY Metro Area Postal Union Election
Shows Workers Open to PLP
NEW YORK CITY, March 13 -- Supervisors often unjustly discipline postal workers. The experience of so many delayed and/or lost grievances proves that the grievance procedure gives little hope for justice. Referring to some problem or supervisor's direct order, postal workers often ask, "Can they really make me do that?" Frequently the answer is, "Yes, because the contract says..."
The contract and the Employee and Labor Relations Manual were not designed to be fair. They were written to control, and get the greatest productivity out of, postal workers. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has not received any government funding for decades. In fact, they neeted between hundreds of millions and over a billion dollars in profits in each of the past five years!
Isn't the same true of the so-called "justice system?" We need look no further than the acquittal of the four racist NYC cops who murdered Amadou Diallo. If a defendant is wealthy, or is a cop, they get away with murder. If a person is poor, especially black or Latin, forget it!
There are some capitalists (UPS, FedEx, etc.) who want to grab some of those profits for themselves. The threat to privatize the USPS is not idle talk. There are others who want to keep the booty out of their competitors' hands, and have so far successfully had their hand-picked politicians vote against privatization in Congress. The fact is, public or private, no workers will benefit from these bosses.
The only long-term solution is for workers to seize power from the bosses with communist revolution, and take control of all of society. We must establish workers' power through the dictatorship of the working class, led by a PLP of millions. By acting in our own best interest, including eliminating profits and money, postal workers and all workers can achieve a meaningful level of security.
There are several slates of candidates running in the NY Metro Area Postal Union election. The "Candidates For Change" (CFC) slogan is, "Members First." They have made union meetings more accessible to differing points of view, cut the salaries of full-time union officers, and refused to allow two increases in union dues as mandated by the national union (APWU). These new union leaders invited others to join their slate, including some experienced shop stewards (among them a PLP member).
The other slates are led by one or another former union leader who claim they are "experienced" at filing grievances. For years they helped run the union with unquestioned loyalty to Josie McMillian, the long-time President who was defeated last April. They want to regain control of the union.
While focusing on the corruption of the old leaders, the CFC slate has sounded the alarm about the threat of privatization. However, explaining the threat of capitalism, and the need to destroy it, is the responsibility of PLP. The hand-to-hand distribution of CHALLENGE has more than doubled over the past three issues, from an average of 25-30 copies during the past couple of years. Several of the 32 members of the CFC slate have begun to read and discuss CHALLENGE for the first time.
CHURCH SAYS WE KILLED MILLIONS, SORRY ABOUT THAT
HOLOCAUST BEGAN 2,000 YEARS AGO
The anti-Semitism for which the Pope is asking "repentance" began simultaneously with the birth of Christianity, when Jews were accused of "murdering Christ." The first known Church pogrom exploded in the year 388, when a bishop led hundreds of Christians in the main city of Byzantine, Mesopotamia to burn synagogues and kill Jews. Word of this pogrom spread and synagogues were burned in Italy and North Africa, and many more Jews were murdered. The Church then criticized Roman Emperor Theodosious for trying to keep the peace in the empire by rebuilding the synagogues. The Church won and by 438 a Roman imperial law branded Jews as an "evil sect."
From then on anti-Semitism reigned supreme. In the years 556 and 600 there were rebellions by Jews in Caesarea and Antioch, followed by mass reprisals. When the Persians invaded Jerusalem, Jews welcomed Islam, which was much more tolerant of Jews. In Arab-dominated Southern Spain, Jews were welcome. In the year 1096 the first Crusade was organized, supposedly to "liberate" Jerusalem. On the way to Jerusalem, the crusaders murdered and pillaged in the name of the Cross. The massacres that followed reached a level never seen before, mainly in France and Germany where one-fourth to one-third of all Jews were slaughtered in less than six months, many burned inside synagogues.
Four centuries later, the Spanish Catholic kings kicked out the Arabs and the Church launched the Inquisition, which murdered thousands of Jews and Arabs. The Inquisition spread to the "New World", as Columbus and the Conquerors murdered millions of indigenous people and African slaves with the Church's blessing. Britain, Portugal, France, and later the U.S. took part in this mass murder, probably the biggest holocaust ever.
When scientific advances made many of the old feudal anti-Semitic beliefs outdated (for example, bad crops had been blamed on the "evil magic" of the Talmud), a new form of anti-Semitism developed, based more on physical features than religion. The Nazis transformed the old religious anti-Semitism into its new, more deadly form, mixing it with anti-communism and blaming Jews for the Bolshevik revolution. This led to the holocaust during World War II. While the Vatican kept silent and even helped the Third Reich, the communist-led Soviet Red Army smashed the Nazis murderers and their fascist allies.
The Vatican is still a pillar of capitalism and fascism all over the world.
STUDENT DENOUNCES SYSTEM, CALLS FOR ACTION AT MASS PROTEST
LOS ANGELES, CA, March 9 -- More than 1,000 students from the Evans adult school marched to the Board of Education offices to protest its plan to move students to another school to make room for the Belmont students. These students have no school after the banks, construction companies and Board of Ed. spent $100 million to build one that can't be used because it was built over a toxic dump. During the protest, one speaker said, "The bosses spend billions of dollars on their wars to protect markets and oil. They spent billions to build Twin Towers Prison, the city will spend $2 billion for the Rampart scandal, yet they don't have a single dollar to spare to build schools."
Some teachers furiously criticized the student speaker for attacking the police, stating the police had "protected" the march and that if the bosses want to spend lots of money on their wars, it's no business of ours. Other teachers and students defended the student, shouting that what the speaker said was true: "She said what a lot of us wanted to say."
A black worker hugged the student, saying, "What you said about the police is true. I have family members who have been attacked by the police. I really feel badly that some of the teachers have attacked you. Thanks for helping."
The truth is, the police were not there to protect the students, but to protect the School Board FROM the students. They built the useless Belmont school. Now they are using the adult students as guinea pigs to avoid building a good school for them.
Many students and teachers applauded when the speaker stressed the need to join together to demand the construction of a new school. Unlike the other speeches, limited to begging on bended knee, the student who created the firestorm sparked heated discussions about the true nature of the problem. What we say and do counts. Now we are inviting our classmates to come to the April 1 march on the Rampart police station and to march on May Day. When we are attacked by the enemy, it is because we are advancing.
LETTERS
CAPITALISM SOURCE OF WOMEN'S OPPRESSION
March 8 was International Women's Day. Here in the Dominican Republic each year more and more women are victims of domestic violence, many time at the hands of their spouses our boy friends. But this is just one form of violence women suffer under capitalism. As many more women sell their labor power as wage slaves in the free-trade zones and other workplaces, rotten working conditions maim thousands and kill many, sometimes little by little, but kill them anyway.
For example, chemicals poison many women who work in cigarette factories and warehouses. Horrendous working conditions in the free trade zones' garment shops are another cause of death.
Over 60% of the workforce in this Caribbean country are female; 35% of them are heads of households. Working hours run to 60 hours a week. Wages, although low for both genders, are even still lower for women. On top of that, many bosses make women pass pregnancy and infertility tests before hiring them.
Prostitution is another major form of exploitation, particularly in the tourist zones. Poverty forces thousands of Dominican women to travel to Europe and other countries to sell their bodies. Just a few weeks ago, a Spanish newspaper exposed a ring led by Spanish mobsters and a Dominican Army intelligence officer, that charges thousands to bars in Spain to smuggle young Dominican women into that country. The tourist zone hotels hire many women as temporary workers to do cleaning work. They are fired after three months, making them ineligible for benefits due permanent workers.
Women organized in the PLP know that only capitalism is capable of creating so much death and division among the working class. PLP plans to increase CHALLENGE circulation in the free trade zones, cigarette factories and hotels, and win more women and men workers to fight together to end this living hell of capitalism.
PLP Comrades, Dominican Republic
LA DINNER SPURS MAY DAY BUILDING
"Who wants tickets for the march?" asked a PLP member and many hands shot up as people said, "Give me five"; "I'll take ten"; and, "I think you should take 15." This was part of a pre-May Day dinner of workers who had braved a driving rain to attend.
There was a warm atmosphere of struggle, helped along by the PLP video, "Red Flag." This was followed by speeches about the history and importance of May Day and the need for building a new communist movement.
New members spoke about the impact of growing fascism in the U.S. One of these young workers recited a dramatic poem called "Bitter Truths," with revolutionary changes to the original. Others reported on the struggle at UNAM in Mexico, a coming demonstration in front of the LA Ramparts police station on April 1st and the need to fight fascism every day and build the revolutionary movement to destroy it.
The inspiring speeches, the delicious food, and the personal discussions spurred the unity and struggle to build the May Day March on Saturday, April 29 in San Francisco.
LA Comrades
PROPOSITION 21 FOLLOWS NAZI MODEL
Last week I attended a forum on California's Proposition 21 here at the University of California's Davis campus and was inspired by the students' response to the call for action against this fascist attack on the working class. There were three speakers: an assistant to a California Assembly person, a former prison guard-turned-teacher, and a UC Davis student who had been in the custody of the California Youth Authority several times since age 14. As recently as three weeks ago, police in his hometown of Richmond had threatened him, apparently ready to plant stuff on him if he didn't cooperate with them.
The room was packed with black, Asian, white, Latino and Middle-Eastern students-every section of the working class. It was the most diverse crowd at any political event I've been to on this campus. The mood quickly moved towards expressions of anger as we listened to the speakers' experiences with the "injustice" system.
The best part was the dialogue created by the assemblyperson assistant. He gave a really well analyzed description of what this law meant for the working class. He made comparisons of this proposition to laws targeting Jews in Nazi Germany before things got really nasty. Some questioned his comments about fascism. Through those questions the speaker and the audience agreed that this was a move toward fascism. It really brought a feeling of solidarity to the forum.
Even people who favored the Proposition engaged in the kind of good debate that sharpened the distinction between the ruling class' desires and the well being of the working class. I distributed several copies of the new PLP pamphlet on fighting prison labor in the U.S. and made several contacts. A fellow student said, "I'm glad to see you guys are here and putting out these information packets!"
The most satisfying thing about this whole event was the unity of a diverse group of students, representing how the working class could be united against attacks on our fellow workers. There was a common goal, a common ideal and a common anger toward this attack on our class. This unity can be built, and from what I saw that night the task is not as hard to accomplish as it can seem to be.
In solidarity, A Comrade in Davis
WE NEED WORK GLOVES AND COMMUNISM!
A recent departmental meeting on my job had a couple of sharp exchanges between the workers and our head supervisor. He said, "I've been telling you guys for years that if you don't work hard, they're going to give our work away." An alert worker quickly responded, "Oh, so you're saying that if work real hard, you're going to hire more people?" "Well, of course not," he stammered in reply. "That's what we thought," the worker angrily pointed out.
Then this same supervisor passed an ugly ultimatum to us from the district head. If any one of us was seen wearing work gloves from the line department, they will be confiscated! Several people jumped on this. Only linemen are supposed to have them, but for a while we have also been able to get them out of the storeroom. We are wearing old ones that we found or saved, and a couple of beaten-up gloves were provided as evidence.
This glove issue really insulted us. You would think if the boss knew that we liked the gloves, and need them for our work, that he would make sure we all had them! But oh, no! We are thieves that had to be watched and threatened. This reminded me of an incident just before the Bolshevik Revolution where the workers in a factory demanded Ventilation and Socialism.
I have been getting more involved in the union over the past year, and I'm running for union office. I must distribute more CHALLENGES, and see more of my co-workers off the job. This will give me the opportunity to raise the Party's ideas. More to follow.
Red Gloves
Iranian Workers Reject Fascist Election Circus
Ten days after the election in Iran, the situation is still confused. Twelve million working class people did not even vote. Many groups, including the revolutionary communists, do not accept the "Islamic Republic of Iran." The Iranian working class must take power; this is the alternative to the election.
The liberal-fascist parties have split into two groups. One supports the religious-fascist mullahs (priests) and their leader Rafsanjdany, who is more nationalist and allied with Iranian capitalists. The other group is allied with the monopoly capitalists and wants closer ties with the imperialists from Europe and North America. They support more liberal cultural regulations but also support the fascist oppression of the working class.
This fascist circus must now come to an end! Iranian workers will destroy this system! We are not like the moderate pro-imperialist social-democrats and we are not like the "Euro-revisionists" who pretend to be Marxists! The only "election" we support is the revolutionary war to destroy the capitalist system and build a communist society! We are the only alternative to the liberals playing their games.
Long live communism! Power to the Workers! Fight alongside the PLP!
Iranian Comrade
DEFEAT KKK WITH MILITANT ACTION
A high school counselor in my town was recently arrested for assaulting a KKK member during a rally. This led to a lot of discussion in the high school and local newspaper. Both a newspaper editorial and an opinion piece by the head of the Board of Education attacked the counselor for "flying off at the handle" and setting a "bad example" for students. But many students supported this action, knowing the difference between uncontrolled rage and planned, militant, anti-racist action.
I wrote a letter to the newspaper, responding to their attacks on this anti-racist. I pointed out that sometimes violence is justifiable and necessary to combat racists. The history of anti-racist struggle is filled with effective, violent actions, including slave rebellions, the Civil War, World War II and more recent struggles.
Several people responded positively to this letter, including a teacher in my daughter's middle school and some of my fellow church members. However, my church minister said he never disagreed so strongly with one of his members. He offered to debate violent vs. non-violent methods in fighting racism. I agreed. This debate will open more people 's eyes to the nature of racism , the role of the government and newspapers in siding with the KKK against anti-racists; and the need for both violent and non-violent tactics in fighting racists.
Suburban Church Member
NOTE FROM A STEEL WORKER
Hello. How are you again? This is L., the one that works at Inland ISPAT Co. I want to thank you for sending me the revolutionary CHALLENGE newspaper. I read it, and share them with my co-workers. They look forward to getting them, and are involved in fighting for workers' rights. Please continue to send them. Send them more often. I thank you so much for being involved from your heart. Keep up the good work. I am very much involved! I look forward to much more.
Red Steel Worker
- NEW YORK, LA:
YOUTH SLAM RACIST COP TERROR - WELFARE, HOSPITAL WORKERS MARCH AGAINST KILLER KOPS
- High School Students Become Communist Leaders
- Students walk out against Proposition 21
- COP MURDERS BELIE NY TIMES' SAN DIEGO `PARADISE'
- PROP. 21: VOTING CAN'T DEFEAT LIBERALS' FASCISM
- All Cops Are Like the Ramparts Thugs
- POLICE KILL YOUTH TRYING TO STOP NOSE-BLEED
- OPPOSE BOEING BRIBE TO SCAB
- PHILLY HOSPITAL WORKERS BATTLE BENEFIT CUTBACK
- ANTI-RACIST OUTRAGE AT B'KLYN HOSPITAL
- DIALLO MURDER ECHOES IN OAKLAND TRANSIT FIGHT-BACK
- WORKERS' UNITY ANSWER TO COP TERROR
- OIL GLUT LEADS TO WAR
- MEXICO: BOSSES `TEACH' ILLITERACY; WORKERS LEARN VIA CLASS STRUGGLE
- SALVADORAN WORKERS WIELD MACHETES TO ROUT COPS
- LETTERS
NEW YORK, LA:
YOUTH SLAM RACIST COP TERROR
If you read the New York newspapers' lies, you might get the impression that the New York Civil Liberties Union led mainly white students from top high schools to walk out in protest of the Amadou Diallo verdict. In reality, PLP students from several working class schools organized and led an angry multi-racial protest of masses of students.
Students from Murrow, Wingate, Robeson, John Jay, Erasmus and other schools went into their classrooms and mass organizations on Monday with a plan for action. We were inspired by a weekend cadre school in February where we read Mao's "On Practice." During the week, we distributed stickers ("Who's next? Stop legal lynching") and flyers calling for a walkout. We got our teachers to discuss the case in class. We talked to everyone we knew and got friends to help plan.
By Friday, many of us had been attacked by our school administrators, which only increased the militancy of our friends. In every school hundreds of students gathered. Some were stopped by the NYPD, some walked out. Over 1,000 students made it to the demonstration in downtown Brooklyn. We struggled with liberal leadership from a few schools to keep the speeches and chants to the left, with the support of our friends.
The key to our success was the strength of the Party's communist politics. We worked not as individuals, but as part of a collective. We worked with the masses of youth at our schools, building strong ties with our friends for weeks and even years before the action. Walkout organizers drew on the experience of Party leadership, their own work and the experiences of other members of the Party collective.
Finally, it was the Party's correct estimate of the importance of the case and the political climate of the city that allowed us to move quickly when we needed to. At the end of the demonstration, one PLP student on the bullhorn called for the students to continue the walkouts. Names and numbers of the main organizers from each school were collected and plans are already being made for these students to meet to plan further actions. Many students from the walkouts came the next day to our demonstration in Flatbush.
RED-LED YOUTH WALKOUTS RIP RACIST COPS
LEARNING TO FIGHT
WINGATE HIGH SCHOOL
The school day began when a student got to the PA system and announced to the whole school, "You know what to do!" Hundreds of students rallied for almost two hours in front of Wingate. What began as a group of 20 students giving speeches about the racist Diallo verdict grew to about 300 as students left school and joined the protest. The hundreds who participated made a very important decision that day. Many were warned there would be serious consequences if they participated. But they stood their ground, even though administrators wanted them to either leave the school premises or stay inside. However, the numbers kept growing as students cheered everyone who crossed the street to join.
MURROW HIGH SCHOOL
Over 150 students gathered in the Music Hall at the time we planned to walk out. School security cops and the NYPD lined up to try to stop us. When they saw our numbers they switched tactics, saying they would let us leave if we agreed not to rally outside and go straight to the subway station. After discussion among the leaders, we agreed. We had spread the plans for the walkout to Stuyvesant and Beacon High Schools so we felt it was important to meet up with the other schools downtown.
As we flooded to the subway we grew in size. The cops opened the subway gates and sent us all off for free. By the time we joined the other schools downtown there were over 300 of us.
JOHN JAY HIGH SCHOOL
Our day started with an announcement from the principal reminding us that it was a regular school day. He "understood our concerns" but we should "make the right decision" and stay in school. At 10:00 A.M. it seemed like the whole school got up at once and left their classrooms. Hundreds of students started for the stairwells.
We quickly discovered that the principal and the NYPD had made the decision for us. Every exit and stairwell was blocked by cops. Some chased students back into classrooms. One cop told a student, "if you get up again I'm going to handcuff you to the desk". It was like a prison lockdown.
We felt really bad to miss the rally downtown and not to be able to join the other schools. But we discussed how important it is to see that what we did was a victory not a defeat.
PAUL ROBESON HIGH SCHOOL
As soon as we got to school that morning we started distributing flyers calling for the walkout, and announcing the time. Word spread and the students were really excited. When we started to leave, school security and cops were there but it seemed they couldn't decide what to do. We just kept marching out. Over 350 left with us.
When we got to the subway the cops opened the gates for us but we soon realized it was a plot to stop us. They let us onto the subway platform but then the train ran through the station without stopping. Most of us were stuck there for quite awhile. Some students who were arriving and saw what was happening went back upstairs and got on the bus. So even though it wasn't a big number Robeson made it downtown! We were glad to join the other schools and had a great day.
ERASMUS HIGH-SCHOOL
Several of us took leaflets into school in our backpacks that morning announcing the exact time of the walkout. So even though one student had literature confiscated others were able to get it out. There was a lot of excitement but also some uncertainty about whether we could actually have a walkout.
When the time came there was a dedicated core of leaders who marched out even though very few students followed us. We felt determined to meet up with our comrades downtown and knew it was right to go no matter how small the group. We felt it was no time to back down when we had been struggling all week with other students to come through and participate. When we made it downtown we were thrilled to see 40 other Erasmus students had joined us! We felt part of a much larger movement.
HUNTER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
One hundred and twenty students along with eight faculty members, marched from Hunter College H.S. at 94th St. and Park Ave. to 59th St. and 5th Ave., where an hour-long rally was held protested the acquittal of four cops in the killing of Amadou Diallo. Students had organized for this event all week, holding daily discussions in the schoolyard, putting up posters in the hallways, distributing leaflets in front of the school and signing up students in their classes to march. They also obtained a police permit themselves, made up chant sheets and prepared speeches.
Everyone was thrilled by the turnout and the enthusiasm of our group of black, Asian, Latino, and white students and faculty as we marched down 5th Avenue chanting, "They say `Let Em Go,' We Say Hell No!" At the rally, students gave impassioned speeches denouncing the racist brutality of NYC cops.
The large turnout for this march is partly the result of two years of political activity in the school, including forums and film showings on prison labor, sweatshops, and the racist criminal justice system. This week one organizer is distributing copies of PLP's Prison Labor pamphlet to the marchers.
CLARA BARTON
The Diallo trial had started many discussions and some activity. Before the verdict many students and a few teachers wore black armbands. The not guilty verdict surprised many and inspired lots of anger. The Student Security Council planned to extend the idea of wearing armbands and also decided to write some letters. The March 3rd walkouts sparked renewed activity at our school. A walkout flyer appeared Monday morning (March 6) calling for a walkout Wednesday (March 8) after period #7. Many students and some teachers really liked this idea. Talk about the walkout spread everywhere. Everyone had to decide what to do. Students were going to make some history, instead of just reading about it. [As we can see below, they did it! --Ed.]
MORE WALKOUTS....and Over the Bridge
FLASH: BROOKLYN, NY, March 8 -- Continuing last Friday's actions, hundreds of students walked out of Brooklyn Tech, Clara Barton, Science Skills and Prospect Heights High Schools to rally at Fulton Mall in downtown Brooklyn, protesting the freeing of Diallo's killers. The demonstration was organized and led by students.
The cops responded with a massive presence and attempted to divide them into small groups. But students persevered, chanting and rallying. In outmaneuvering the cops, over 100 students marched over the Brooklyn Bridge to have another rally in City Hall.
TAKE AWAY COP'S BULLHORN
A "student" at the Fulton Mall began speaking over a bullhorn, trying to pacify the demonstrators. But that exposed her as a plainclothes cop, shut her up and grabbed the bullhorn. When a black cop approached some black students and began spewing his bosses' divisive nationalist ideas, the black students grouped with white fellow students told him off, saying "we're all together."
PLP members and friends distributed 150 CHALLENGES and hundreds of leaflets. Some students said it was great and will be even better next time.
`A COMMUNIST SPARK CAN START A REVOLUTIONARY FIRE...'
Everything Progressive Labor Party does to carry out our ideas has both immediate and long-range consequences. Everything done by the Party counts. Our recent efforts around racist police terror in New York provide a valuable case in point.
When the mock trial of Amadou Diallo's murderers began, the Party leadership called on every club to make plans for responding to the verdict. When the verdict was announced the Party was able to take action on a number of fronts. Of course, we raised our ideas in demonstrations called by various liberal misleaders. We were also able to stimulate small but significant actions on our own. We led student walkouts in a number of high schools. We raised our ideas about the police on the job. We organized a work stoppage at a welfare center to discuss the verdict and then led welfare and hospital workers in a lunch-hour march and rally in downtown Brooklyn. We led an action at the Rutgers U. headquarters of community policing guru Kelling and raised the issue on other campuses, in the community and in several mass movements.
Each of these activities by themselves or all of them together didn't give us the leverage to alter the relationship of forces. But what we did around the Diallo murder has tremendous importance nonetheless. Without us the ruling class would have been in total control of the situation. The mass anger would have had no outlet other than impotent spontaneity or self-destructive tailing after the Sharpton gang: either aimless, apolitical rage or else the dead-end of the "justice" system and electoral politics.
Only PLP offered a real alternative. Only PLP exposed the class role of the cops and the liberal fascists. Only PLP pointed toward the working class as the key force to mobilize. Only PLP singled out capitalism as the enemy. The bosses' media can lie to make it appear as though liberal lawyers provided the key political leadership for the hundreds of high school students who marched against police terror over the Brooklyn Bridge on March 3. But the students from Wingate, LaGuardia, Murrow, Stuyvesant and Beacon high schools know better. And we see them every day.
Currently, PLP's influence over important events remains limited. The international working class is still recovering from the collapse of the old communist movement, the worst defeat in our history. The road leading to favorable conditions for revolution and the seizure of power will be long and difficult. So in one important sense, you could say we're building for the future. But the future will be determined by the actions and struggles of the present.
What we did around the Diallo case creates the potential to do much more in the future. Thousands witnessed and applauded these actions. Workers and others are influenced through our actions and our press. The potential exists to sharpen the struggle against police terror, to increase our participation in the mass movement, to build a bigger May Day, and most importantly, to win new PLP recruits. In the words of the Party leader who organized the walkout from his welfare center: "Before this, we were planning to fill one bus for May Day. Nothing's in the bag, but I think we can now double that."
How would the political landscape have appeared around the Diallo case if there were no PLP or if we hadn't functioned? The same could be said about our presence and activity everywhere throughout our history. Imagine the anti-Vietnam war upsurge and the ghetto rebellions 35 years ago without PLP. We were decisive in setting back the fascist anti-busing movement in Boston during the mid-1970s. The rising KKK in the 1970s and 1980s publicly stated PLP was its fiercest opponent. Our mass fight against racist attacks by the Migra in California in the same years still continues. At last October's KKK rally in New York, only PLP smashed the fascists and exposed their alliance with the police and the liberal bosses. Imagine the L.A. rebellion of 1992, the Gulf War and the Kosovo war, the Clinton impeachment circus, or the WTO conference in Seattle without our Party and its press helping workers make sense of a world that often seems incoherent, absurd or hopeless? Who else will keep the flame of communism alive and pick up the red flag that was thrown in the mud and hoist it high under any and all conditions?
We live in a difficult, grim period. It won't last forever. We don't deny the reality of objective conditions. But we can still act to build the Party and sharpen the struggle. Everything we do now, no matter how apparently insignificant, creates the potential to do more and eventually to turn the character of the period into its opposite. At the height of revolutionary struggle in China, the communist leader Mao Zedong wrote a pamphlet entitled: "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire." Our prairie fire may take some time to erupt. But we have to keep setting as many sparks as we can. Our struggles will set the stage for eventual victory.
These are the main lessons our Party and friends can draw from our important, positive activity around the Diallo murder case. This is the spirit in which we should organize for May Day 2000. Communists fight for a glorious future. But the future is now as well.
WELFARE, HOSPITAL WORKERS MARCH AGAINST KILLER KOPS
BROOKLYN, NY, March 2 -- Approximately 75 workers participated in a march through the downtown Brooklyn shopping area protesting the acquittal of cops Murphy, Carroll, Boss and McMellon for the murder of Amadou Diallo. About one-third of the marchers came from a child support (welfare) office where the demonstration had initially been planned during a work-stoppage earlier this week.
As the welfare workers began the march, they were joined by workers from a nearby Brooklyn hospital. We chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, racist cops have got to go! Racism means...fight back! Amadou means...fight back!" While we counted out the 41 shots by which these racist butchers had murdered this unarmed and totally innocent young African immigrant worker, hundreds of shoppers and workers on their lunch-hour greeted us with tremendous enthusiasm.
"That was great, what are we going to do next?" was the reaction of more than a few of the workers who took part. A PLP organizer suggested marching in PLP's May Day demonstration. Several workers who had never been to PLP's May Day said they would march this year.
Clearly, our response to the Diallo verdict has borne fruit, counteracting passivity and pessimism. Members of two AFSCME unions built this march together with per-diem office temps and Workfare workers. This active response to a racist outrage builds confidence in, and the potential for, working-class unity. This increased class struggle can become a school for communism.
High School Students Become Communist Leaders
NEW YORK CITY, March 6 -- Progressive Labor Party has been developing a better understanding of the role of schools under capitalism and the role of communists in those schools. As a result we developed a slogan: "Learn To Fight, Fight To Learn." This reflects the dual tasks of learning to lead day-to-day struggles against the current fascist character of schools while struggling to understand the importance of teaching and learning within those same capitalist schools. It's complicated.
The wave of walkouts from NY and NJ high schools last week (see accompanying articles) reflect these ideas and our efforts to understand them and put them into practice. An important event before the walkouts was a Youth Cadre School/Camping Trip the weekend of February 12th. Organizing for it was an important part of our activities for several months before that. We struggled with youth and teachers to see the need for political study. We also organized the weekend as an experience of life under communism where we all share responsibilities and fun.
Fifty students and more than a dozen teachers and parents met to read and study Mao's "On Practice." This important piece of communist literature emphasizes that practice, doing and acting in the real world, is primary--the groundwork for real learning--and that theory--which is organizing our practice into a comprehensive understanding of the laws of the real world--can only grow as our practice grows. The workshops that studied this document were remarkable. We also saw how learning is a collective process that succeeds best when everyone participates.
During the Weekend Cadre School we discussed the Diallo case and the upcoming verdict. We understood we had to prepare to lead struggles at our schools when the bosses finally release their verdict (which we also understood would not provide justice for a black worker).
Ten people joined the Party that weekend. Those ten, and the many others who attended, were the main organizers of the walkouts in their high schools. Every step of the process to plan, organize and carry out the events of this past week were aspects of "the practice" they had discussed just three weeks before.
As others see the fruits of this process, the exhilarating news of mass walkouts organized and led by our Party, it is important to understand the steps that helped bring it about. We are truly "Learning to fight, fighting to learn"!
Students walk out against Proposition 21
LOS ANGELES, March 3 -- Students at George Washington Prep H.S. walked out against Proposition 21. "It was great," said one student at the walkout. Students felt strong, finding themselves fighting for what they believe in.
Today, there are more teenagers being imprisoned for minor crimes, more young people involved in what the rulers call "gang-related" situations--but why? Because of the "big plan" thrown at us by racists who run this whole system of inequality. We're under attack from those who deny us our "rights." Prop 21 was recently put down on paper to allow racism and a corrupt system to continue growing around our community. This is where we come in.
The march circled the school campus and went down three main streets. Students felt good. We need people to start standing up for what they believe in and showing that they care, that they don't want to live frustrated and beaten by the system that is forced upon them. They need to show these people who are controlling them that they can take control in a fight for a better world.
Some people got intimidated by Asst. Principal Jones. He threatened to suspend and expel the students involved. He also threatened to give students $1,000 "tickets" for participating in the walkout. He was screaming on his bullhorn that the communists were using us because we were easily brainwashed and didn't really know the issues involved in Prop 21.
But we all really knew exactly what we were doing and why we were there. Jones went back inside after two people told him he didn't know what he was talking about and was supporting fascism. The police followed us through the walkout as if we were criminals. A lot of people supported us by honking their horns. None of us were suspended or expelled.
COP MURDERS BELIE NY TIMES' SAN DIEGO `PARADISE'
SAN DIEGO. March 7 -- In the wake of the police murders in New York and the scandals in Los Angeles, the ruling class is looking for strategies to deal with workers' hatred of the cops. A New York Times article (March 4) outlined one of their ideas for "enhancing public confidence in the agencies of justice." It praised the "less confrontational law enforcement measures" supposedly practiced in Boston and San Diego. It particularly praised the strategy of "consulting with black ministers to win their cooperation."
That the San Diego cops are "less confrontational" would come as a big surprise to the families and friends of those murdered here by the cops. A few recent cases:
* Demetrious DuBose, a former Notre Dame and NFL football player, was shot to death by two San Diego cops on a sidewalk in Mission Beach, July 24, 1999. Mr. DuBose, unarmed, was shot 12 times, five times in the back.
* Federico Adame, III, 27, died on Nov. 10, 1999 after being
beaten, kicked, maced and batoned by five San Diego County Sheriffs. Adame had refused to leave a yard party.
* On February 8, William Anthony Miller, Jr., a 42-year-old mentally ill homeless man, reportedly hit someone with a thin tree branch. Five cops and a police dog were "unable" to handle one guy with a stick, so they killed him with seven shots.
* Sonserra Holloway, 20, was murdered February 3 by a Border Patrol agent working with the San Diego Police. Holloway had been arrested on a drug charge and was handcuffed in a police cruiser. Police said she "tried to escape."
There have been many protests about these and others recently killed by police. The protests illustrate, however, the other part of the Times' strategy: getting black ministers either to say the shootings were justified, or to say "it's just a few bad cops." After the District Attorney said the DuBose killing was justified, City Councilman George Stevens, a prominent black minister, endorsed his statement. He did say, however, that the cops should not have shot DuBose so many times! (Kill him quicker?)
Other black ministers and businessmen had already started a group to protest the Dubose shooting. They were not allowed to say that the murdering cops should go to jail, although most wanted to say so. The ministers, the main speakers at the group's one large demonstration, did not say it was wrong to kill Dubose. Instead they concentrated on soothing peoples' anger and preventing a militant demonstration like one in nearby Riverside, where cops murdered a young black woman, Tyisha Miller. Meanwhile, activists formed the Committee Against Police Brutality, which organized protests about the above cases.
Experience in San Diego shows clearly what the bosses want from making junior partners of black ministers: criticize the cops just enough to make it sound like a movement against the police. In reality they will take the line that only a few cops or a few police policies are bad, adding that the federal cops or the Department of Justice are the good guys who can prosecute the "few bad cops." That's Al Sharpton's line in New York. In San Diego the marshals at the DuBose demonstration were actually "trained" by Department of Justice officials.
The stakes are big. U. S capitalists, worried about workers' increasing lack of confidence in the cops, need the ministers to push the idea that the "the Feds are good." The bosses must mold a U. S. population that would support the next oil war. They can't stomach workers and soldiers, especially black and Latin, looking at the system with hatred or cynicism.
Our job is to help people understand that intimidation, brutality and murder is the cops' main job in capitalist society, federal or local. The capitalists can't rule without them, so they call in the ministers to cover their crimes.
PROP. 21: VOTING CAN'T DEFEAT LIBERALS' FASCISM
LOS ANGELES, March 7 -- Youth in and around PLP led a walkout at Washington H.S. against Proposition 21, the murderous Ramparts cops and the Diallo verdict. They did this in the face of threats of suspension and red baiting. (SEE ARTICLE PAGE 3) The liberals told the youth not to walk out, but to urge people to vote against Prop 21. PLP members have participated in the anti-Prop 21 marches and rallies led by the liberals. We have sold many copies of the new PLP prison labor pamphlet. Our ideas have been welcomed at these activities.
Prop 21 is a dangerous fascist measure, which will increase the number of youth in prison. California already has more prisoners than Britain, France, Germany, Holland and Japan combined, and they have eleven times the population of California! One of the main reasons the rulers launched the Prop 21 campaign was to spread the racist lie among millions of adult voters, that youth, especially all black and Latin youth, are in violent gangs and threaten public safety in California. Yet it's the police who have fomented gang warfare. Then time and again they have targeted honest black and now Latino residents who have worked to end gang fighting, and provide alternatives for youth.
The Ramparts cops physically attacked, arrested and deported those who were bringing small numbers of different gang members together. Prop 21 scapegoats youth and increasingly targets black and Latin youth for prison, making it a crime for three or more "suspected" gang members to even walk together.
But just as dangerous is the liberal leadership and line of the anti-Prop 21 movement. They refuse to mention the Ramparts police scandal, the Diallo case or the Three Strikes law in their activities. Of course they don't point to the source of all this racism-the capitalist system and its crisis. They attack PLP for saying this and try to prevent us from speaking. They push a fantasy world: defeat Prop 21 and then we can all go to college, get good jobs and be part of the "American dream."
They don't want the youth to know about the two million people in prison; about the racist injustice system, beginning with the Federal government; about the bosses planning a ground war in Iraq with some "humanitarian" pretext to fight for Exxon's oil profits.
They welcome the Federal "clean-up" of the LAPD. We've shown that the Feds want cosmetic changes and more Al Sharptons in LA to mislead workers into trusting reform, the Federal government and community policing. It was Clinton who financed the addition of 100,000 more killer cops on the streets.
These fascist propositions appear to be enacted through the "democratic process." This is a hoax. Several years ago Prop 103-to lower insurance rates-was passed as a reform measure. It was never implemented because the insurance companies took it to court where the bosses' judges ruled in their favor. Whatever the vote, Prop 21 will be implemented if the rulers decide it will help build terror and also get more youth, especially imprisoned black and Latin youth into the army. If not, they'll rule parts of Prop 21 illegal.
Many honest activists fighting Prop. 21 know the problem goes beyond what the liberals say. Our fight has to grow and deepen. No reform will stop fascism. PLP invites them to March on May Day to help build the movement that will win the working class to crush fascism with communist revolution.
All Cops Are Like the Ramparts Thugs
As one speaker pointed out at the March 4th rally, all cops are like the Ramparts division. They are the ones who framed, beat and sometimes murdered an untold number of innocent youth and workers while stealing and dealing in drugs themselves. The latest revelation is that DA Gil Garcetti knew that Rafael Perez, the Ramparts cop who stole and sold cocaine, was crooked when Garcetti accepted his testimony and put Mr. Olvando in jail for years. The real criminals are Garcetti, Riorden, Parks, the LAPD, the FBI and the INS.
Part of the fight against Prop 21 is to win workers and students to march on the Ramparts police station Sat., April 1st, to expose Ramparts, all the cops, the DA, the Police Chief and Mayor Riorden as racist defenders of police terror and prison slave labor. {They all worked together to frame, jail, and deport community members who were trying to bring about gang truces.} We urge unions and student groups to take up this fight with mass actions, walkouts and strikes, rather than trust the liberals to "reform" the cops.
POLICE KILL YOUTH TRYING TO STOP NOSE-BLEED
MONTEBELLO, CA, March 7 -- On February 12, the racist Police Department here executed 20 year-old Jason Rodriguez like an animal. Jason had entered a 7-11 to use the bathroom to stop a bleeding nose. The clerk refused the request and pressed the silent alarm summoning the cops. Jason walked out to explain to the cop what was happening. Before he could utter a word, without any warning, a female cop fired a shotgun into his head.
The cops then kept his ID, stripped him naked and turned over the still breathing but brain-dead body to St. Francis Medical Center, about 20 miles away. They told the staff Jason was "homeless." Doctors questioned this, saying, "He looks like a well-nourished, clean-cut young man who must have a family." For five days the staff called the Montebello cops for Jason's ID. The cops said they couldn't locate the family and insisted he be taken off the life-support machine! Five days later, Jason was located by friends who in turn notified his parents.
They came to the hospital, asked that their brain-dead son be taken off life support, and then buried him.
Jason had lots of friends who loved him and cared for him. He had recently taken up boxing, which was why his nose bled unexpectedly. His friends and family organized a demonstration at the Montebello Police Station and are planning another one this Saturday (March 11) at noon to demand the cops be tried for murder.
LA Times' exposés of the cops are not making a dent in police terror. As the Diallo verdict in New York showed, there is no justice for workers under capitalism. Justice will come only when we bury these murderers, the rich they serve and this rotten, racist capitalist system with communist revolution.
OPPOSE BOEING BRIBE TO SCAB
SEATTLE, March 6 -- Today the Boeing Company--after declaring an impasse in negotiations--unilaterally put into effect the salaries of their last contract offer. They did not implement other conditions they were demanding, like the medical cutbacks. In essence Boeing is trying to bribe those who would get the bigger wage increases into scabbing.
This "bribe to scab" not only incensed SPEEA (engineers) members, who came out in force to picket on Monday morning, but also many blue-collar IAM (machinists) members as well. We're now organizing to demand the IAM give more than token support.
Meanwhile, the SPEEA leadership continues to gamble on "friends" in high places, like Gore and Sweeney. ALF-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Trumka is scheduled to speak March 7th. But it is precisely these "friends" who are beholden to the Boeing Board. For example, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney dutifully signed a letter, along with Boeing Director Lewis Platt, supporting "U.S. objectives" at the recent WTO fiasco. They both served on Clinton's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. With friends like this who needs enemies!
Our real friends are the workers of the world. Join us this May Day to show and build real workers' power!
PHILLY HOSPITAL WORKERS BATTLE BENEFIT CUTBACK
PHILADELPHIA, March 3 - Many workers at Jefferson hospital here are asking, "Could there be a change in the air?"
In February the contract for 100 maintenance workers in the Teamsters expired. To the surprise of the bosses, the contract was overwhelmingly rejected. The bosses' demanded that the Teamsters nearly triple their payments to their health plan, from $260/yr to $676/yr. This pushed many Teamster members over the edge. They are continuing to work under their old contract, but many are hoping to time their strike to the June 30th expiration of the 1,100 members of Local 1199C.
At a recent 1199C membership meeting the mood of was also surprising. Again the union leadership is not allowing the union delegates enough time to develop a larger turnout. Yet many workers who did attend declared they would rather strike than pay anything toward their health benefits. (Presently 1199C members are the only workers in the hospital who pay nothing toward their health benefits. The bosses say they won't even begin contract negotiations until the union agrees that the workers begin paying $10.00 weekly toward their benefits.
The workers' reaction is mixed. At the union meetings it was the veteran workers who were the vocal militants. They remember the days before the union, and several workers gave impassioned speeches calling on everyone to refuse to give anything back or to pay for their health benefits. But a larger group of workers doesn't see how we can fight and win, "when everyone else is paying for their health benefits."
PLP members have been meeting with groups of 1199C members to build a strike movement. We're proposing we strike around two main issues: (1) more full-time jobs to improve patient care; and, (2) pay nothing toward our health benefits.
We are meeting with several groups of part-timers to develop a rank-and-file collective to lead a fight for jobs. Many of these workers are eager to try to build some kind of fight. "A lot of us are scared, or out for ourselves or kiss up to the supervisor for extra work hours," she reported, but she's willing to contribute to the organizing.
At another meeting a full-time worker declared, "You know, even if we do win a fight for jobs, Jefferson's gonna come back at us to take some stuff back". "You're right", replied a PLP member, "That's why we need communist revolution!" Later those same two workers were discussing how long PLP has been organizing for that goal. "The fight for communism is gonna be a long hard fight," said the PLP'er. "Yeah," said the worker, "but if they keep cutting jobs and do more things like when the cops killed that guy in New York, you can see how it might happen."
ANTI-RACIST OUTRAGE AT B'KLYN HOSPITAL
BROOKLYN, NY, March 3 -- A large block of workers met at a Brooklyn hospital during their dinner break to discuss the trial of the four cops who were acquitted of murdering Amadou Diallo last year . Several joined the March 2 protest rally and march of AFSCME welfare workers in downtown Brooklyn.
Many workers were outraged at the verdict. Workers felt the trial should have been in the Bronx, with jurors coming from the community, and thought the prosecutors made a weak case. They felt the issue of racism should have been the main point. Four white cops would not have fired 41 shots at a white man standing in front of his building.
Another worker said these remarks may be true but the fact is under the capitalist system the four cops would never get the death penalty they deserve. Still another worker pointed out that cops of any nationality are the armed servants of the bosses' state, the chief instruments of the bosses' state power. Their job is to keep the working class in submission whenever workers are fighting back. The cops terrorize black and Hispanic working-class communities , frame and arrest thousands, overcrowding the prisons with our brothers and sisters.
Capitalism's greatest crime is the exploitation of workers as wage slaves. This creates billionaires on the backs of the working class . Our anger must help build an army of workers to fight back against racist police terror.
Many CHALLENGES were distributed after the meeting. Many workers said they wanted to participate in the May Day march in Washington, D.C., May 6.
DIALLO MURDER ECHOES IN OAKLAND TRANSIT FIGHT-BACK
OAKLAND, CA., March 6 -- Enraged by the acquittal of the four racist NYC cops who murdered Amadou Diallo, over 100 AC transit workers are now wearing "Justice 4 Diallo" ribbons on their uniforms.
"The Amadou Diallo case? Yes, I'm mad. I'm still mad at the Tyisha Miller case!" this single mother of four said as she pinned the "Justice 4 Diallo" black ribbon to her uniform.
"It was last February that the cops killed Amadou," said another driver. "And this February they acquitted his murderers. This is how they celebrate Black History Month?"
Forty-one "democratic" bullets fired at the unarmed immigrant worker; 21 at Tyisha and 37 at Ricardo Close, a Southern California truck mechanic whose murder by the cops had also been condemned by ATU Local 192 members.
At the morning union meeting workers voted unanimously to: (1) send a letter of condolence to the family condemning the acquittal; (2) support the charges that the cops violated Diallo's civil rights; and (3) organize a day of protest against racist cop killings.
We hope to bring this struggle to other unions and community groups. " We have to take a stand!" said one of the activist drivers, a father of a large family, all of them threatened by this climate of police terror. Up and down the West Coast, LA transit workers, students and Boeing workers in Seattle are wearing similar ribbons.
The reception to these efforts shows an enthusiasm for political action. Another parent echoed the feelings of almost all the members: "I'm afraid every time I leave my house. I tell my kids to always keep their hands up when stopped by a cop and to tell the cops in advance where their ID is." This is everyday life in world's leading capitalist country. Everybody agrees that the predominantly black and Latin communities are becoming more of a police state, victims of rampant racism.
This has led to some deep political discussions. Some workers think not all cops are racist and that these killings could stop if more cops had "better attitudes." They hope the federal government will help. But it was the Clinton administration that put 100,000 more cops on the street and coordinated programs like the Street Crimes Unit.
Another driver said that racist cop units like NYC's are connected with the needs of the capitalist class for more racist slave labor in prison. He feels there's an effort to "criminalize everything" to jail more people. He said more black and Latin cops will not help.
We are struggling with such workers to understand that only a revolution will stop racist killings. Some argue revolution will not be necessary--"the Federal Courts will correct the verdict." We argue US imperialism has always spoken with a "forked tongue!" The Bush-Clinton "Federal government" has killed millions in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and scored of other countries.
Thirteen months ago 41 fascist bullets were fired. The sound of those shots is still echoing all around the country in the political anger that is sparking a response. Winning more workers to read and distribute CHALLENGE and to march on May Day are the next steps in this direction.
WORKERS' UNITY ANSWER TO COP TERROR
CHICAGO, March 7 -- "We are all at risk. The lives of black and Latin people are worth nothing in this country. That's how they got away with murdering my son. That's the lesson of the Diallo `not guilty' verdict. And if the cops can get away with murder just because they `feel threatened,' then white people are in danger too." So declared Vera Love, a retired postal worker whose son Robert Russ was murdered this past June by a Chicago cop. He was two weeks away from graduating Northwestern University. The cop received a 15-day suspension.
This was the high point of the March 1 forum on Racism and Social Policy at Chicago State University (CSU). Initiated by PLP and sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the forum involved dozens in the planning and presentations to the nearly 700 students, faculty and staff who participated. This could lead to a growing anti-racist movement here, and a large CSU contingent marching on May Day.
Following Vera's presentation, a black woman cop, like the one who killed Latanya Haggerty last June ("mistaking" her cell phone for a gun), said, "We're not all like that," and told how "dangerous" it is to be a cop. Vera and her daughter Brandy would have none of it. The audience was outraged. A CSU student in PLP told of her experience last May Day as a bus captain and marcher. She urged everyone to march this May Day, and to organize a CSU protest rally against police racism.
Another young comrade said, "I don't identify myself as a `black man.' I'm more than that. I'm a revolutionary communist in PLP. Since getting involved in the movement, I'm not afraid anymore." Then he looked the cop in the eye and said, "I'm not afraid of you!"
A white postal worker, who met Vera and organized support in his union for her when Robert was killed, took the floor and asked the young black students, "What would happen if the next time the cops kill someone, thousands of workers walked off their jobs?" The students burst into applause. He and Vera hugged as he invited her to speak at his next union meeting. This showed the potential power of a united working class and dealt a blow to the black nationalist undercurrent in the auditorium.
The all-day forum included sessions on "Zero Tolerance" in the schools, the federal "Violence Initiative" and the fascist Levitt-Donohue report linking the drop in crime to increased abortions and "fewer criminals being born."
The sharpest debate occurred in the panel discussing a program offering $200 to crack addicts to be sterilized. Two speakers from the Black Student Union bought into the myth of the "crack baby," and used the increased enrollment in "Special Ed." classes as proof. They said that "crack sterilization" was part of genocide aimed at the "Black Race," and called on black people to drive the drug dealers out of "our" community. Others argued that all workers need to unite against racism.
The debate continued the next day in a class on race and society. Finally one student said that now was the time for action. Another student proposed a plan to petition the CSU President, demanding cancellation of classes for a day in order to go to City Hall to protest police racism. Another proposed a protest against CSU's failure to come up with financial aid. A student spoke of how her uncle had been unjustly imprisoned for 20 years on a police frame-up. Then most of the class exchanged phone numbers to work on the City Hall plan.
On March 4, about 25 students attended a May Day Dinner, enjoying good food, sharp discussion and the May Day video. Fifteen students left with books of May Day bus tickets in hand. We must link the struggle against police terror to the need to smash capitalism, which creates and protects racist cops. The road ahead is difficult but full of promise. Communist revolution will end the brutalities of capitalism.
LOS ANGELES -- "Who wants tickets for the march?" asked a PLP member and many hands shot up as people said, "Give me five"; "I'll take ten"; and, "I think you should take 15." This was part of a pre-May Day dinner of workers who had braved a driving rain to attend.
There was a warm atmosphere of struggle, helped along by the PLP video, "Red Flag." This was followed by speeches about the history and importance of May Day and the need for building a new communist movement.
New members spoke about the impact of growing fascism in the U.S. One of these young workers recited a dramatic poem called "Bitter Truths," with revolutionary changes to the original. Others reported on the struggle at UNAM in Mexico, a coming demonstration in front of the LA Ramparts police station on April 1st and the need to fight fascism everyday and build the revolutionary movement to destroy it.
The inspiring speeches, the delicious food, and the personal discussions spurred the unity and struggle to build the May Day March on Saturday, April 29th in San Francisco.
OIL GLUT LEADS TO WAR
"Contrary to much received wisdom, the energy problem looming in the early 21st century is neither skyrocketing prices nor shortages that heralds the beginning of the end of the oil age. Instead, the danger is precisely the opposite; long-term trends point to a prolonged oil surplus and low oil prices over the next two decades." (Amy Jaffe of the James A. Baker Institute and Robert Manning of the Council on Foreign Relations in Foreign Affairs, January/February 2000)
Advances in exploration and drilling techniques have led to a sevenfold increase in the amount of producible crude. In 1972, analysts thought only 550 billion barrels lay under ground. But today, "the International Energy Agency says that there are 2.3 trillion barrels in ultimate recoverable reserves." (Foreign Affairs)
Oil industry insiders assume that prices will fall dramatically. Contracts for oil to be delivered in January 2001 are trading at $24 a barrel, well below the current $32 price tag. Later contracts dip to $19. Thierry Desmarest, president of French oil giant TotalFina Elf, said, "We invest only in projects that will be profitable with oil at $13 a barrel and break even at $10." (La Tribune, 2/16/00)
Overcapacity and the need to maximize profits force oil companies to compete for the cheapest sources. A barrel of North American oil costs as much as $5 to pump from the ground. Russian production costs run about $2. But "crude oil in Saudi Arabia costs no more than 50 cents a barrel to produce, sometimes as little as 20 cents." (Reuters, 11/26/99) Similar conditions prevail in Iraq.
The rush for cheap oil rivets the imperialists' attention on the Middle East. "Persian Gulf oil's share of the current world market, now at 24%, will rise to 32% by 2010." (Foreign Affairs)
The key question is: who will control these super-profits? The Rockefeller oil companies are trying to cut deals with Saudi and Kuwaiti rulers for greater access to their 20-cent-a barrel bonanza. Rockefeller's competitors--French, Russian, and Chinese oil barons--have contracts to double Iraqi production.
Whoever controls oil supplies controls the industrial world and the profits resulting from it. Ultimately, competing imperialists have only one way to solve this fight between each other--war. That was the reason for the Gulf War and for the continual U.S. bombing of, and sanctions against, Iraq (to limit Iraqi oil exports until the U.S. can launch a ground war to control them.)
Only the destruction of capitalism by communist revolution can end these oil wars which kill millions of workers.
MEXICO: BOSSES `TEACH' ILLITERACY; WORKERS LEARN VIA CLASS STRUGGLE
OAXACA, Mexico, March 6 -- Last month members of the teachers union in the Televised Learning High Schools met here to discuss the fight to improve their living and working conditions and a strategy for "better education" for the outlying, poorest communities in the state of Oaxaca.
The televised learning high school is an education practice through which the PRI government has cut costs in secondary education, especially among the poorest students, since the majority of schools using televised instruction only have three teachers. On the other hand, the lack of teachers and materials in these schools shows how little the poor and oppressed count for the rulers. For the bosses, even a low-quality education is spending too much on the indigenous people.
In the state of Oaxaca, more than 60% of the people over 15 years old can't read or write. This figure increases annually. As if this weren't bad enough, the Zedillo government has announced a $120 million cutback in this year's education budget. This racist and unjust capitalist education system only benefits a small rich group while deepening the poverty and illiteracy of the great majority. This month we have begun to carry out the conference's plan of actions to fight for our demands.
Despite the teachers' militancy and dedication to the struggle, this movement lacks class consciousness and a revolutionary communist perspective. Its reformist view creates many illusions among the workers. It approves and legitimizes racist and divisive policies like the Teaching Career, which only benefit a minority, instead of fighting to improve the living conditions of all workers. The most blatant sellouts use the movement as a trampoline to leap into government positions, or to become deputies or senators of the various ruling class parties. Corruption is spreading. The mis-leaders betray the workers by making deals with the government and isolating the movement from other popular struggles, like the UNAM strike, the class war in Mexe, Hidalgo, among the miners of Canenea, etc. PLP participates in this struggle while presenting communism to the workers and students as the solution to the problems created by capitalism.
We distributed over 80 CHALLENGES at this conference. Several workers were very interested in our Party. We try to make it clear to the workers that our oppressed and exploited class will only get true education and a life of dignity when we take power and build communism. That's our goal. Join us!
SALVADORAN WORKERS WIELD MACHETES TO ROUT COPS
SAN SALVADOR, March 6 -- Machete-wielding farmworkers and city workers with rocks and sticks routed strike-breaking police here, forcing them to flee the scene of their crimes, while striking workers and doctors closed the western entrance to the capital. The workers' counter-attack was a reaction to an assault by the fascist National Civil Police on striking workers and doctors from the Medical Surgery Hospital and the Social Security Rosales Hospital.
The cowardly cops had no qualms about shooting tear gas grenades and bullets at defenseless children, the elderly, or pregnant women in these hospitals. This was the bosses' answer to the union leaders' pleas to the government for a dialogue. There were unconfirmed reports that two workers were killed and a journalist injured when he was covering this savage attack on the working class.
Once these defenders of capitalism had felled patients with tear gas, workers and doctors from the two hospitals, joined by street vendors and by many other angry workers around the hospital, pelted these fascist dogs with rocks and sticks. Near-by this battle there happened to be hundreds of farmworkers who had fought with the guerrilla movement. These workers, also victimized by the same profit system, and seeing their class brothers and sisters under attack, waded into the police with sticks and machetes.
The cops suddenly saw themselves between two fires: on the one side city workers, on the other side, farmworkers. The fascists fled, with local television stations filming their cowardly retreat, defeated by the unity of the working class.
At the same time that striking workers and doctors from the San Rafael Hospital of Santa Tecla had sealed the western entrance to the capital city, resident doctors, nurses, and administration workers of San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Miguel were on a protest march in the eastern part of the country.
These militant working-class actions provide a great opportunity to bring the ideas of PLP to the workers and to recruit new members to fight for communist revolution. We need to be bolder in giving this leadership. The workers' example of armed action against the bosses' police shows the potential for the communist idea of working-class seizure of state power.
LETTERS
To Re-Enlist or Not to Re-enlist?
Today about 15 the soldiers nearing the end of their active duty military time were gathered together and asked to re-enlist. The battery commander and First Sergeant were present.
The soldiers' gripes and complaints were overwhelming. There were the Commander and First Sergeant trying to convince soldiers to re-enlist. Of the 15, only one was sure he would stay. All the others, including myself, complained about what's wrong with the military and why the morale and motivation are very low in my unit.
There are three main reasons why soldiers will not re-enlist. Three weaknesses of the army that play an important role in how a soldier feels. Firstly, and the most widespread among soldiers, is low pay. The Army's budget hurts soldiers financially. It's one thing for the Army to say it guarantees a paycheck every month. But just how much is that paycheck? There are soldiers who work on the weekends and make more money than they do all week in the military. A second job to keep up with bills is very common. Recently pay raises may increase earnings 15% in a couple of years. But there's : other benefit programs will be cut dramatically, such as BAQ benefits, which are offered to married soldiers.
Secondly, (which I brought up) the Army is short of personnel. One reason is increased military deployments in the last 10 years, more than any other period of history. So from the beginning there is more hesitation to join the military. In turn this shortage of enlistees creates a heavy workload for every soldier. This explains the hardships for cooks and mechanics. There is simply too much work and not enough soldiers. Therefore, active soldiers are overworked, stressed out and demoralized, preventing them from re-enlisting. This continuing cycle makes it difficult for the Army to maintain a stable number of soldiers on active duty.
Thirdly, is how the Army works. Putting it nicely, soldiers experience a variety of "leadership." Officers vary from being a real "good friend" and work-partner type to a total asshole. The strict military conduct the Army requires of soldiers does not give us leadership skills but rather the skills of a slave who only has the "right" to follow orders.
A soldier made an interesting comparison to a civilian job. He explained how a soldier couldn't speak up to a higher-ranking (non-commissioned officer (NCO) or commissioned officer without facing the egotistic power trip most of them develop throughout their careers. The re-enlisting NCO replied that the same thing happens in civilian jobs. But then I made it clear if a boss made me put my feet on a chair and perform repetitious push-ups until he felt like stopping me, I'd punch him in his face. It's also clear we should organize as a whole against any injustice in the Army.
The Army is set up to make soldiers fight, kill and be killed so that U.S. rulers can maintain control over the resources and profits made by the world's workers.
I've been talking to many friends about the Party and intend to invite them to May Day. Seven have been reading CHALLENGE. I don't know for sure if I want to re-enlist. To understand the above problems is easy. It seems that the Army is automatically driving itself into a hole, setting itself up for failure.
Nevertheless, things will change and the ruling class will find ways to win the hearts, minds and lives of many soldiers. There's no doubt that current conditions in the military make it easier to introduce our ideas to soldiers, although it's a struggle to have soldiers accept and follow them. If I do not re-enlist in the active component, I will definitely join the Reserves. Meanwhile, I'll invite fellow soldiers to march on May Day.
Red Soldier
Diallo Verdict Inspires Anger and Action
"What are people doing? I'm going. I'll bring my other son;" "Thanks for telling me. I'll meet you there." Those were some of the reactions of parents of high school students after hearing the Amadou Diallo verdict last Friday Feb. 25. Several people who hadn't participated in demonstrations before (and one student who had) stepped forward to march for four hours throughout the Manhattan streets
One exciting moment came when protesters spontaneously took over the streets in Greenwich Village. The area was packed on a Saturday night and it seemed as if the entire world united with us as we marched by. We marched for blocks in angry defiance, roaring our righteous indignation. Several marchers marched holding up the CHALLENGE headline: "Cops, Courts, Capitalism: GUILTY of Racist Murder!"
The police were obviously not in favor of us openly taking over streets. At one point, they used a clever trick, running their little motorcars in a diagonal line to run us onto the sidewalk. Yeah, right! The crowd started chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets!" and took the street again. The cops continued to try to cut off the march, setting up roadblocks, but the marchers continued taking detours down side streets to elude them. It was thrilling to see the potential power of the working class.
As a result of the work done to get people out for the march, there is renewed interest among the youth (and their parents) in the Party and communism. We are planning meetings and activities around the Diallo case, increasing our distribution of CHALLENGE and more work to prepare for a larger May Day than last year. There are scores of students in our base who need to get themselves involved in the class struggle. We will need to keep up consistent work to accomplish our goals, but the Diallo verdict is a school to teach young people that they and communism are our future.
Red Prof
Attacking the KKK is an Example to Follow
A high school counselor in my town was recently arrested for assaulting a KKK member during a rally. This led to a lot of discussion in the high school and local newspaper. Both a newspaper editorial and an opinion piece by the head of the Board of Education attacked the counselor for "flying off at the handle" and setting a "bad example" for students. But many students supported this action, knowing the difference between uncontrolled rage and planned, militant, anti-racist action.
I wrote a letter to the newspaper, responding to their attacks on this anti-racist. I pointed out that sometimes violence is justifiable and necessary to combat racists. The history of anti-racist struggle is filled with effective, violent actions, including slave rebellions, the Civil War, World War II and more recent struggles.
Several people responded positively to this letter, including a teacher in my daughter's middle school and some of my fellow church members. However, my church minister said he never disagreed so strongly with one of his members. He offered to debate violent vs. non-violent methods in fighting racism. I agreed. This debate will open more people 's eyes to the nature of racism , the role of the government and newspapers in siding with the KKK against anti-racists; and the need for both violent and non-violent tactics in fighting racists.
Suburban Church Member
Capitalism Kills A Kent Coal Miner
"Terry French, 49, of Celtic Road was found dead in a river in Amster near Amsterdam. He had been shot in the head twice."(East Kent Mercury, an English newspaper)
On a number of occasions during the 1984-85 British coal miners strike, I went to England to bring the strikers our PLP political literature and money our Party had collected from workers all over the U.S. The miners fought a heroic strike against the ruling class and its then political leader, Margaret Thatcher. All the miners, from Scotland to Kent, were heroic. But more by accident than anything else, we came to develop a relationship with the miners of Kent.
I first met Terry French at Maidstone jail where he was serving five years for his struggles during the strike. He, along with many other brave lads, was arrested for sitting-in at the Betteshanger colliery (coal mine). He and others were also arrested for attacking scabs, and harassing the cops' attempts to break the strike. At Orgreve in Yorkshire in July 1984, thousands of miners fought a pitched battle against the police for two days and almost brought down the British government.
During that year and later, we met many fine, heroic Kent miners and members of the Women's Support Group: Liz French, Peter Holden, Margaret Holden, Hazel Hatser, Chris Tazey, Mark Best, Emlyn Davies, Ken Ridyard, Ken Evans, Brian Day, Garry Newell, Jimmy Waddell, John O'Conner. There were others whose names I apologize for missing.
Some Kent miners helped us organize farmworkers in California and sang at our May Day March in Washington. Their story is well-documented.
Although this was not a strike to build a movement towards communism, it was a titanic class struggle. The miners were fighting to save their livelihood and the livelihood of future miners because the mines were being closed down. When the strike started, there were 160,000 coal miners in the United Kingdom. A year later, there were 30,000. Today there are under 11,000. (PLP Magazine articles have documented the reasons why the ruling class went from a coal-burning economy to an oil-burning one.)
When I visited Terry at Maidstone jail, he fervently asked me to send him some Motown tapes. He talked a little bit about the strike and seemed like a modest and brave worker. I had met his wife Elizabeth, a working-class Scotswoman and an important strike leader. She brought us the wonderful ballad "We are Women, We are Strong." Over the years, as the mines were closed one after another, we tried to stay in contact with the Kent miners. It was hard for Terry and the other lads to get other jobs--they were marked men. But like workers everywhere, they survived.
Much later, apparently Terry got involved with the drug trade. According to articles and gossip, he became a courier. This is a bad development for the working class. We cannot support someone involved in this kind of activity. It's a poison that destroys the working class. But Terry, 20 years a coal miner, had been a hero, one of the brave workers whose life had been torn to shreds by capitalism. Unfortunately we had never been able to win him to PLP, which would have helped him to better understand the world.
The drug scum who killed Terry French were finishing off the work that Margaret Thatcher's government started in 1984. For myself, I will try to recruit one friend to PLP in honor of this good and brave worker who was brought down by the sickness that is capitalism. In conclusion, here are some lines from a poem written by a miner during the 1984-85 strike:
"Come all ye jolly miner lads and listen to my tales,
About the brave flying pickets from Yorkshire, Kent and Wales."
A Friend of the Kent Miners
Struggle in the Classroom
This past week we had discussions in all my college classes about the murder of Amadou Diallo by New York City cops. Many students were furious. Not just angry, but furious! Nearly all of them had heard about the case. Nobody took the side of the cops. One student raised a point in a confused way. He was not justifying the cops' behavior, but he said he didn't think it was racist because he didn't think that those cops planned to kill a black man just because he was black. People who raise this point don't understand that the system as a whole is racist and the cops are the enforcers of that racist system. That's why, for example, a black cop can commit a racist act against a black worker.
When the student raised this, other students just blew up! One young white woman was especially furious. "How can you say it wasn't racist?" she shouted. In my other classes the reaction was the same. When I asked: "What about the argument that the cops were protecting themselves?" students shouted, "They shot him forty-one times!" Interestingly, the great majority of white students were very angry about the killings and saw it was a racist attack.
This contradicts the common falsehood that, "All white people are racist." The overwhelming majority was very upset and quite ready to describe the cops' actions as racist. The white students, like the black and Latino students, are mainly from blue-collar working-class families. Many have had bad experiences with cops. The class discussions brought out these experiences.
The racist attacks against black and Latino working-class people are just part of the general attack against the whole working class, although it is especially vicious against black and Latino youth. Understanding this builds genuine working-class unity against racism, and it is this kind of unity that builds a solid working class struggle, rather than the phony unity of the liberals who preach "pity and pacifism."
Many workers and youth see more clearly the fascist terror that lies under the surface of phony "U.S. democracy." It is up to us to build deep ties with them and organize struggles against this racist, capitalist system. It is through action, on a personal basis and in direct conflict against the system, that the best lessons are learned and the strongest movement can be built. Organizing in our classes is a good first step-getting out leaflets, CHALLENGES, building for May Day, and especially developing long-term relationships with other students to expose anything in the course that promotes racist or other anti-working-class ideas!
Midwest Teacher
Editorial: Liberal Democrats Derail Anti-Racist Rage: Cops Get Away With Murder, Again
- The Federal Government Is Not on the Side of "Justice"
- The Cops Cannot Be Reformed
- What Communists and Militant Anti-Racists Must Do
NYC Welfare Work Stoppage Plans March Against Diallo Verdict
a href="#‘Praying won’t stop police killings’">‘Pra"ing won’t stop police killings’
Newark March Links Professor Kelling Theories to Police Terror
Diallo Verdict Is Changing Mood in Campus
Racist Frame Ups Is Regular LAPD Work
Rising Class Unity Among Boeing Strikers
Beware Of Liberal Politicians And AFL-CIO Misleaders Bearing Gifts.
a href="#Postal Workers’ Union Election Opens Doors And Trapdoors">"ostal Workers’ Union Election Opens Doors And Trapdoors
Chicago Postal Workers Fight Police Terror!
Pinochet: Another Pawn in Imperialist Rivalry
El Salvador: Health Care Strikers Take Back Centers from Cops
LETTERS
U.S. Rulers, Racist Murder Inc.
Diallo Verdict Raised at Injustice Conference
On Being a Student and Capitalist Education
Youth Experience at Diallo Trial in Albany
PRD Is No Allied of Students in Mexico
Faculty Should Strike Because Getting into Trouble is Good!
Editorial:
Liberal Democrats Derail Anti-Racist Rage
Cops Get Away With Murder, Again
It should have been a no-brainer. Obviously, the 41 shots fired by four NY Police Department (NYPD) cops at African immigrant worker Amadou Diallo (he was hit by 19 of those bullets) was not "a tragic mistake." It was racist murder carried out by cops following Mayor Giuliani’s Zero Tolerance policies. (As we go to press, another black man was killed, shot in the head, by cops a couple of blocks away from where Diallo was mudered a year ago. Again, local politicians came to the area to calm down angry protestors against this latest killing).
The "justice" system is not blind; it is racist to the core. Never in NYC has a cop being jailed for homicide while on duty. Only one was convicted for manslaughter. Very rarely do cops pay for killing black or Latin workers and youth. The four cops were guaranteed a not guilty verdict from the outset, because both the prosecution and defense agreed that they were "just doing their job," just as the Nazis said at the end of World War II, they were "just following orders."
The racist verdict outraged millions. Mass protests were held in NYC and elsewhere (see articles in this issue). Many are now seeing clearly the racist nature of the cops and the "justice" system. This is good, but much more needs to be done to strengthen the movement against racist terror and its cause, capitalism.
Most of the demonstrators blame it all on NYC Republican Mayor Giuliani, correctly calling him a fascist, even a clone of Hitler. They understand that the four cops who murdered Amadou Diallo were "doing their job" of terrorizing black and Latin workers and youth. In the last few years under Giuliani’s "Zero Tolerance" police policies, "every year tens of thousands"(NY Times, 2/29) have been harassed, beaten and arrested by the cops, and scores have been killed, based on the color of their skin.
The liberal Democrats, like Al Sharpton, Congressmen Charles Rangel, José Serrano, former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, Dennis Rivera, head of the hospital workers union Local 1199 and a big shot in the NY Democratic Party, have done all they could to turn the anti-racist protests into a movement to elect Hillary Clinton NY Senator over Giuliani, and Gore or Bradley president (or whoever becomes the Democratic Party candidate).
These liberal Democrats have also strained to keep the anti-racist protests peaceful, to avoid the 1992 mass rebellions, when the cops brutalized Rodney King in LA and got off. Before the verdict they held "peace" vigils in the area where Diallo was killed.
The Federal Government Is Not on the Side of "Justice"
Now these politicians build peoples’ hope that justice could still be served through the Federal government’s Justice Department. This is the same Clinton administration which paid for the hiring of 100,000 more cops nationally under the guise of "gun control"; the same government which ordered mass racist cutbacks in social services; the same Federal government which has bombed and murdered many thousands in Iraq and Yugoslavia. Building illusions that the Federal government could be on the side of "justice" is also a way to build patriotism for "our" government among those who will be needed to fight Exxon-Mobil’s next oil war in the Middle East. It is hard to convince black and Latin youth to fight and die for Rockefeller oil billionaires when they are being abused and killed by the NYPD, LAPD, etc.
All the liberals, from the New York Times (Feb. 29 editorial.) to Sharpton and Hillary Clinton are calling once again for "police reform." By this they mean adding more black and Latin cops. However, the Klan in blue is still the Klan in blue, regardless of the uniform wearer's skin color. Under the profit system, the police serve as the rulers' first line of defense against the working class. This can never change as long as the bosses remain in power. The police can't be reformed. Racist cop terror against our class can't be voted away. It will disappear only when the working class wins state power through armed struggle and communist revolution.
What Communists and Militant Anti-Racists Must Do
The liberal Democrats can only derail the movement to the extent workers and youth let them. We must fight the negative influence these liberals have on the mass movement. That means getting deeply involved in all the mass movements of workers and youth, and influencing masses of people with the communist understanding of the way capitalism and its state work. The cops, the courts, the entire system serve and protect the bosses. And they MUST be racist, because capitalism since its birth has been based on racism. First it was slavery, and now it’s racist wage slavery: the bosses making hundreds of billions a year in extra profits from paying less to black, Latin and Asian workers. Racism also keeps workers divided, preventing them from uniting against the bosses’ attacks.
If we don’t get deeply involved in the unions, community, church and school organizations, building a political and social base among as many workers and youth as we can, we will be unable to defeat the bosses’ agents who now derail all struggles.
Some in PLP are already doing that kind of work in the mass movement. We raised calls for work stoppages in several places (see page ??? on the Feb. 28 work stoppage at a NYC welfare office), linking it to the march on May Day. But many more comrades and other honest anti-racist workers and youth need to do that.
In the coming weeks we can spread the idea among workers and youth that capitalism is racist to the core and no reforms can change this system, including the cops’ role as racist goons for the bosses. Organizing alll militant anti-racist workers and youth to march with PLP on May Day and recruiting them to PLP is the best way to avenge the brutal murder of Amadou Diallo and all other victims of racist terror and capitalist misery.
NYC Welfare Work Stoppage Plans March Against Diallo Verdict
BROOKLYN, NY, Feb. 28 —"We’re going to have a special union meeting at 11:00 this morning. Everyone stop work and come up to the third floor. We’re going to discuss the Diallo murder case verdict and how we should respond to it."
That’s how a red shop steward called a meeting of workers at a NYC child support welfare office. Members of two AFSCME locals, Workfare workers, per diem office temps and workers employed by the wildcat contract agency all attended. This meeting of about 100 workers showed the most unity in this office in years. Only a few workers did not attend.
Together we decided to demand that our union leaders call a one-day walkout protesting the Diallo verdict, organize a lunch-time demonstration in the downtown Brooklyn shopping area, boycott companies that helped pay the costs of the defense of the four murderers, contact the U.S. attorney’s office and contact local politicians to protest the acquittal of cops Murphy, Carroll, Boss and McMellon.
Although differing strategies were proposed, we wanted to maintain maximum unity and allow workers to participate in the way they thought was most appropriate. Most workers were happy that it wasn’t "business as usual" on the job today. The non-AFSCME workers attending, not used to this kind of open meeting, applauded at the end. We were taking steps to continue the fight
Flash: On March 2, the day after the police shot another black man several blocks from where Diallo was killed, some 25 workers walked off their job from the Child Support office and, along with hospital workers and people from the area, marched in downtown Brooklyn against police terror. More next issue.
a name="‘Praying won’t stop police killings’"></a>"Praying won’t stop police killings’
BRONX, NY, Feb. 25— "Hell no! We are tired of praying while the police go on killing us. We need to be angry! Praying will not stop the cops!"
That was the fury vent by working-class woman at a handful of black ministers and one white priest attempting to divert an angry group of demonstrators protesting the "not guilty" verdict for four racist cops who murdered African immigrant worker Amadou Diallo in cold blood. Members and friends of PLP joined several hundred outraged residents of this working-class Soundview section of the Bronx where Diallo lived and was murdered, taking to the streets moments after the Albany jury announced its decision. That result and the ferocity of this racist crime—41 shots aimed at an innocent and well-liked man—had left many in a state of shock and disbelief. They marched to a near-by police precinct but were fended off by the cops. Then it was back to block where Diallo was murdered. Cops flooded the neighborhood, to be met with angry defiance and obscenities. Several people had to be pulled away from physically charging the Klan in blue.
It was when the demonstrators demanded that the cops leave the community that the ministers and priest descended upon the crowd and invited the protesters to form a "circle of prayer." And it was then that the courageous woman vented her rage at this spectacle. Others joined her in shouting down the praying. The youth present began to chant. Even some gang members joined the protest. The clergymen failed to pacify anyone.
The cops and their undercover informants planted in the crowd did not deter the workers’ anger. Some local residents managed to evade the police line, organizing a small march across from the barricade. This action surprised the cops, who were trying to contain the crowd behind the barricade. These cowardly cops were nervous, not knowing what to expect from the working class here. Nonetheless, they were prepared to terrorize people engaging in any decisive organized action. Cold-blooded Mayor Ghouliani had announced ahead of time that the cops would "respond" to any "breaking of the law."
This trial has taught many not to expect one iota of justice from the bosses’ racist courts. Workers may be starting to realize what many workers learned from communists around the world: the best protection against state fascism is our class unity, reliance on each other and mutual hatred of the oppressive ruling class. (
PLP aims to win the working class to destroy capitalism and its countless atrocities of war and racism. Workers and youth need to join our movement. To avenge the death of Amadu Diallo and scores of similar brutalities, become a RED—join PLP and get others to do the same. Only then can we totally destroy this murderous ruling class.
Newark March Links Professor Kelling Theories to Police Terror
NEWARK, NJ, Feb. 28 — About 30 workers and Rutgers students rallied and marched here protesting the acquittal of the four NYPD murderers of Amadou Diallo. Two days before over 200 workers and youth marched downtown demonstrating against the Diallo verdict. PLP members sold over 120 CHALLENGES at that march.
Today’s rally began at the newly-built Rutgers University "Law and Justice Center." This is the headquarters of Professor George Kelling, hired by the Giuliani administration to help institute the NYPD’s "community policing program."
Designed to intensify the oppression and imprisonment of unemployed young black and Latin men, Kelling's program fostered the police-state atmosphere in NYC that made the execution of Diallo inevitable. Fueled by billions from Clinton's government, Kelling's ideas are being spread into many major U.S. urban areas like Newark, targeting black and Latin communities.
After several speeches at the Law Center attacking Kelling, the criminal injustice system and capitalism, we marched to the federal government's office building, several blocks away. Chants of "Racist cops, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!"; "Amadou, could be you"; and "The cops, the courts, the Ku Klux Klan, all a part of the bosses plan" filled the air of downtown Newark.
As we marched, many people either raised their fists, joined our chants or held up their wallets along with us. (The four cops claimed Amadou's wallet "looked like a gun"). As one onlooker observed: "Wouldn’t you reach for your wallet in the belief that you were being robbed if you were an African and four white strangers approached you waving guns and yelling at you to stick your hands up?"
This comments and others reveal the mass anger at this racist, fascist verdict. We in PLP and others who came to this rally need to see the real possibilities for organizing large numbers against racist police terror, against the fascist program aimed at preventing urban rebellions by locking up black and Latin youth. This feeds an ever-growing enslaved prison labor pool, providing maximum profits for the bosses.
Resisting The Cops
From the federal building we moved to the Plaza and rallied near a giant bosses’ flag, the stars and stripes. Soon federal cops ordered us off of their "government property." Local cops told us we couldn’t use our bullhorn. We held firm and pressed the limits, refusing to stop our rally until WE were ready.
Many people saw the cops’ role in trying to suppress our anti-fascist action right under their symbol of "freedom and democracy." As the cops tried to grab our bullhorn, a speaker explained clearly that the bosses’ real flag is the dollar bill. The rulers will use force to terrorize the workers in order to protect their profits. The speaker said that just as it took armed struggle involving millions to smash chattel slavery, even more millions would be needed to smash the current system of wage slavery and put state power in the hands of the working class.
The party moved into action with more urgency. Now we need to continue the hard, day-to-day, work that can help move masses of workers and students into motion against cop terror, mass imprisonment and slave labor. This coordinated effort can result in the biggest mass May Day turn out from NJ in years, and recruitment to PLP.
Diallo Verdict Is Changing Mood in Campus
I teach in a school hundreds of miles from New York City. I’ve been discussing the Amadou Diallo case in my classes since the day of the verdict. Before the verdict was announced, I wrote Diallo’s name on the board in two of my classes and asked the students if they knew who he was. Only a few knew much about it. So I summarized the story. In both classes the students were furious.
A student said the Diallo murder was worse than the beating of Rodney King and wondered if people would rebel if the cops were acquitted.
I read to the students a few sentences from an article in the February 24th New York Times It report that Bronx borough president Ferrer had convened a meeting of clergy, and that they had walked through Bronx neighborhoods telling residents "God would want them to act" non-violently, so that they could "close the rifts between the police and residents."
This was the last straw. One student, who is from New York and had participated in a demonstration against the killing, denounced the ministers and especially singled out ex-Congressman and Minister Floyd Flake. Two other students said today was just like under slavery: the oppressors used ministers to control the people. Another student was even more blunt. He said, "Sometimes you’ve gotta throw some rocks and bottles at the cops or burn down a couple of buildings."
At the beginning of class, students had been restless. They would have preferred to be outside on this beautiful sunny Friday with 75-degree temperatures. But once the discussion started, everybody got involved; no one was in a hurry to leave.
On Monday and Tuesday, following the verdict, I discussed the case in all four of my classes. All the students were extremely angry and intensely interested, both those who were surprised by the verdict and those who weren’t. In my two upper-level courses, where previously I had had considerable discussion about racism, capitalism, fascism and communism, the discussion worked its way from the specifics of the Diallo case to the broader trends in society. We went from the Street Crimes Unit in NY to Kelling’s community policing strategy to two million people in prison to the LA cops corruption scandal to the innocent people on death row in Illinois to Prop 21 in California that will put many more young people in prison. We discussed Prop 21 as a "head start" program for prisons.
Some students came to my office to tell me that they want my help in planning a forum or rally. They have a lot of good ideas and are moving forward.
Nearly all of my 160 students are black, and this issue has moved them like no other recent issue. I think the mood is changing, and the opportunities will increase. I distribute about seven CHALLENGES each week among these students, and I hope to increase that soon. I know that circumstances are different at different colleges, but the general trend can probably be felt everywhere.
Red Prof
Brooklyn High School Roundup
Wingate
This promises to be an exciting week at Wingate H.S. The Monday after the Diallo verdict many Social Studies teachers suspended business as usual and taught lessons about the racist murder. Many of these discussions focused on how students could become activists, and what kind of activities to organize. Things heated up Tuesday when a group of teachers put up posters around the school urging everyone to wear black on Wednesday to protest the verdict. The principal demanded the posters be taken down, and guards went around the building, including classrooms, removing them. As quickly as the posters came down they went back up again. There was an exciting meeting after school of PLP students who are eager to organize a mass demonstration. Plans include circulating "Guilty" stickers throughout the school and a picket line outside.
Erasmus
Erasmus students and teachers are outraged and angry about the Diallo verdict. PLP students met after school Monday to plan a walkout protesting of the verdict. Our newest comrades committed themselves to leaflet, organize their friends to wear stickers and make speeches in the lunchroom. Several teachers discussed the verdict in their classes and agreed to support the students’ actions. Dozens of students have agreed to wear stickers and to walk out.
Boys and Girls
In some classrooms at Boys and Girls HS lessons have been suspended for discussion of the Diallo verdict. Students came to a teacher’s classroom eager to talk because the verdict has angered them so much. Students are writing a petition to circulate in school. Some teachers have changed the petition into a resolution that teachers can sign and have the union delegates and chapter leader bring to next week’s city-wide UFT Delegate Assembly. Meanwhile, we will begin distribution of "Guilty" stickers.
John Jay
The week at John Jay High School started with discussions in many classes about the Diallo verdict and what response we should organize. Monday after school over 100 students remained outside the building chanting, "It's only a wallet, not a gun" at the cops who are lined up there every day to "patrol."
New members of PLP at the school have eagerly started to organize a student walkout and protest. One PLP’er had another student approach her to ask if she would be part of the walkout. This blew her away! Word and interest had spread that quickly through the building.
"I'm glad you introduced me to communism," she excitedly told her teacher. "This is really the way to change the world."
Robeson
Students are calling for, and organizing, a forum on the Diallo verdict.
Westinghouse
The students and many teachers are angry about this verdict. The students and teachers are taking as many "Guilty" stickers as can be produced. The Phoenix council of students and teachers is meeting to talk about turning this anger into action. Staff members are supporting the student walkout.
Murrow
Organizing a walkout at Murrow has been going great. On Monday, five students met after school to plan it. We’re also trying to combine all schools having walkouts in a large student demonstration in Downtown Brooklyn. We’ve written a flyer and are distributing stickers. The response in general for walkout is very positive.
Racist Frame Ups Is Regular LAPD Work
LOS ANGELES, March 1 — The ongoing scandal at the LAPD Ramparts precinct is exposing the cops as murderers, thieves and liars. The neighborhood around Ramparts is made up of Latino immigrants. Rafael Perez, a cop-turned-informant, has revealed that he and his fascist buddies planted evidence (drugs and guns), shot victims and routinely lied to put victims behind bars for years. He reported that the Ramparts cops had the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) deport at least 160 people for being "gang members" even though the cops knew they were not. These victims were witnesses to LAPD crimes and were deported so they wouldn't testify or expose the cops' lies.
One of those being held for deportation is Alex Sanchez. He was a witness to the fact that 15-year-old Jose Rodriguez was with him at a meeting and could not have committed the murder the cops accused him of. Even more importantly, he was a community activist who organized meetings at a local church to end gang in-fighting. For this, he was constantly harassed and threatened by the Ramparts cops until they had him deported.
The unraveling of this scandal has different government agencies pointing the finger at each other for crimes they all commit every day. The Feds have come in to "clean up" the LAPD. Meanwhile, Chief Parks and DA Gil Garcetti (famous for prosecuting all "Three Strikes" cases to the limit) are accusing each other of being too slow to act.
The real agenda here is to bring the LAPD under the firm control of the Rockefeller wing of the U.S. rulers. These bosses want to "reform" the LAPD in order to fool us into thinking they’re on the anti-racist side. But Clinton, who represents the Rockefeller interests, beefed up the border patrol to deport more workers and put 100,000 more killer cops on the street.
While some of the victims will have their cases reviewed and could be released from jail after serving years for crimes they didn't commit, we shouldn't have illusions this will change the racist nature of the cops. The FBI and the Attorney General's office are investigating the cops. But the same FBI told INS agents to cooperate with the Ramparts cops as they arrested and deported witnesses to police crimes. It was the FBI whose agents infiltrated the KKK in the 60's and instigated the burning of black churches to terrorize civil rights organizers. The Federal Government is just as racist as the LAPD, and has been responsible for the deaths of infinitely more people in the rulers’ fight to defend their empire.
It's a bigger illusion to think that the LAPD will stop using racist terror against the working class just because this scandal is being exposed. They'll fire some people and set up a new review board to "supervise" the cops. Even if the bosses want to curb the more outlandish gang-style CRASH units, the fact is they need the cops to terrorize youth and workers, especially black and Latin youth. Therefore, they’ll carry out racist terror against the working class. That's their job. After the 1992 rebellion, when the cops who beat Rodney King were acquitted, the Christopher Commission was established to "reform" the LAPD. Now there are even more cases of racist terror—this time against Latino immigrants.
PLP is organizing a demonstration at the Ramparts police station to condemn these racist cops and their cynical attacks. They are a product of the capitalist system. Capitalism is racist to the core. The bosses fret that they must "clean up" the LAPD so people will have confidence in the system. We must not fall for the liberals' assurance that capitalism will reform itself. The way to deal with the Ramparts cops, the Diallo verdict, Proposition 21, expanding prisons and prison labor is to march on May Day and build the revolutionary movement for communism, workers' power.
Rising Class Unity Among Boeing Strikers
SEATTLE, WA., Feb. 28 — Striking members and friends of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) ringed the Downtown Four Seasons Olympic Hotel picketing the Boeing Board of Directors meeting. Last weekend negotiations broke down when the company insisted on medical give-backs and "merit" raises, both of which have already been rejected—twice!
The negotiations were preceded last Wednesday by a march of 2,500 to Corporate Headquarters in Tukwila, WA. These workers seem to have been mobilized solely about economic issues. Nevertheless, whenever Boeing workers do battle with Boeing bosses over "economic" issues, the political ramifications soon reveal themselves.
The key provision of the proposed contract deals with "merit" raises. For example, the company proposes to give engineers raises from a pool of money representing 8% of their salaries the first year and 4.5% each of the next two years. The increase for Techs will be less. Not only will the amount you actually get depend on the whim of your boss, but a large portion of the pool, if not the majority, is reserved for software engineers and others the company deems vital. In order to hold onto these employees who command higher salaries in today’s economy, Boeing is perfectly willing to sacrifice the rest.
Boeing’s chief competitor, Europe’s Airbus, plans to build a number of new commercial jets. Boeing’s strategy, on the other hand, is to ring the last ounce of profit out of existing programs. They plan to lay off and cut to the bone.
Boeing’s "people strategy," as the bosses refer to it, is to split a few privileged elite from the rest of the technical workforce. Most engineers and technicians will get next to nothing as the company diverts the funds from the pool to their privileged few. Much to the bosses’ surprise, the technicians and engineers have responded with a spontaneous, albeit limited, class unity.
Beware Of Liberal Politicians And AFL-CIO Misleaders Bearing Gifts.
When it became apparent that the SPEEA strike was for real, Bill Bradley and Al Gore made a beeline for the picket lines. Last Sunday, Gore kissed a few babies on the line, but refused to speak before the crowd lest he seem to encourage their class consciousness. This pathetic show didn’t deter the SPEEA Executive Director Charles Bofferding from declaring "friends" in high places, like Gore, would pressure Boeing to settle.
Tomorrow, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney was scheduled to visit the lines. He, like his pal Al Gore, wants to divert this new-found class consciousness into support for the liberal bosses who run the Democratic Party. A quick look at the Boeing Board shows it is precisely these same bosses, the main section of the old Eastern money crowd, who run Boeing. So much for friends in high places!
We in Progressive Labor Party have a different strategy—to follow class consciousness to its logical conclusion, communist revolution. The development of revolutionary workers is the great promise of this strike.
Our party has joined the lines, organizing supporters from the factory floor, the schools and other work-sites to build on this class consciousness. When striking Boeing workers and their working-class supporters march on May Day, in San Francisco on April 29, they will take a crucial step in fulfilling the promise of this strike.
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NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 28 — PLP is participating in the upcoming New York Metro-Area Postal Union (NY-MAPU) elections. In this campaign, we will use CHALLENGE to expose workers to broader issues affecting our lives, and try to convince them of the necessity of fighting back, joining PLP, marching on May Day and building a revolutionary communist movement.
One key issue is the threat of privatization. The work at ten Priority Mail centers around the country has been contracted out to Emory Air Freight, along with the sale of postage on the Internet to a few private companies. Privatization reflects the larger pattern of anti-worker attacks by U.S. bosses. Specifically, the loss of full time industrial jobs coupled with the dramatic increase of part time and temporary jobs, and the growing use of prison labor and Workfare. A ruling class that must allocate billions for war to control Mid-East oil necessarily must cut costs of workers’ benefits at home.
At the February 23rd regular membership meeting, over 100 workers were nominated to compete for 32 full- and part-time positions as officers and trustees. A PLP member was invited to run for "Trustee" on the CANDIDATES FOR CHANGE slate (CFC).
NY-MAPU has over 10,000 members. It is the largest local of the American Postal Workers’ Union (APWU). For almost 20 years it was tightly controlled by President Josie McMillian. She was hand-picked to succeed Moe Biller after he was elected President of APWU. Her leadership was characterized by the "file-a-grievance" strategy, even though the grievance procedure is stacked for management. She was rarely opposed, even as workers became increasingly dissatisfied with the leadership.
In 1997 a group of six rank and filers and one experienced shop steward were ruled ineligible to run against the top union leadership. This insurgent CFC group won an appeal to the Department of Labor. Last Spring, McMillian was forced to hold an election. The arrogant full-time union leaders did little campaigning. The CFC campaigned vigorously on a platform of making the union serve the members, and won a surprising victory by an average of about 55% to 45% of the 3,500 ballots cast.
Immediately, the defeated leaders and the remaining part-time officers who ran unopposed in the election began disrupting the membership and Executive Board meetings to thwart the new leadership. The CFC persevered with support from some shop stewards and many newly-involved rank-and-file union members.
While McMillian dropped out of the picture after her loss, the old leadership planned to regain control of the union in the March/April 2000 election. But they could not agree on details and broke into a few different slates.
The new leadership cut the exorbitant salaries of all full-time union officers, and used union funds for the first ever NY-MAPU picnic. They also exposed the improper use of union funds, which could lead to criminal charges against the old officers.
PLP disagrees with some CFC strategies. For example, they rely heavily on the Courts to "enforce the contract." Firstly, the contract overwhelmingly favors postal management; secondly, the acquittal of the four NYC cops in the racist murder of Amadou Diallo once again reveals a legal system stacked against workers. A system run by and for profiteers cannot, by definition, favor workers, whether in contracts, courts or racist police actions. The bosses establish this apparatus to protect their own class interests.
The CFC has also injected religion into union meetings. Nonetheless, it has the support of many honest rank-and-file workers who want to fight the bosses, and has formed a full slate of nominees.
The campaign has begun in earnest with mass leafleting at the huge Morgan, JAF and Bronx GPO postal buildings. Distribution of CHALLENGE has increased, including to several members of the CFC slate. (More in future issues.)
Postal Workers Fight Police Terror!
CHICAGO, Feb. 28 — The cops who killed Amadou Diallo get away with murder. The Chicago cop who murdered Northwestern University senior Robert Russ last June, gets a 15 day suspension (postal workers are suspended for two weeks for calling in sick or being late too many times)! The bosses are letting their fascist cops know that it’s open season on black and Latin workers and youth.
At the Chicago post office, we’re organizing against these racist murders. The parents of Robert Russ are both postal workers, who worked hard all their lives to give him a chance to "make it" in this capitalist world. Two weeks before graduation, he was gunned down by "Chicago's Swinest." PLP members and friends at the post office collected money and signatures of support, which we presented to the family.
We are trying to have Robert's mother speak at our monthly union meeting. We’re collecting signatures on a resolution condemning the killer cops, so it can be raised on behalf of many workers. Most workers have long ago written off the union as the bosses' best friends. It is hard winning them to see why we want to raise this resolution. Although there is a lot of truth in that, the union is the mass organization to which workers turn, to fight the boss. Our Party must be fighting inside the union, to expose the dead-end of reformism, and, through struggle, to win through struggle, workers who are open to communist ideas.
Pinochet: Another Pawn in Imperialist Rivalry
On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende, ushering in an orgy of fascist terror and murder, leaving thousands dead and tortured. But Pinochet was not alone Behind him was IT&T, Kissinger and Richard Nixon, along with the biggest bosses of Chile and the heads of the Catholic Church.
Twenty-seven years later, we in Chile have not forgotten the Pinochet terror. For over a year this dictator has been under arrest in Britain but still hasn’t paid for his crimes. Millions have been spent by his defenders and prosecutors with no real movement. Why? Everyone knows he’s guilty of mass murder. Was Pinochet arrested while in London for surgery for other reasons? Are the rulers of Spain, Britain and France—his main accusers—now anti-fascist? Of course not. The European imperialists are as much butchers as the U.S.
The fact is, the European rulers are using Pinochet as a pawn in their rivalry with U.S. imperialism. Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that Europe is now challenging the U.S. as the leading investor in Latin America. The arrest of Pinochet is being used by the Europeans to portray themselves as "more concerned" about human rights than the U.S. which instigated Pinochet’s bloody coup (just as U.S. bosses pretend "concern" for "human rights" around the world to "expose" their competitors in the World Trade Organization).
If we workers, youth and the thousands of victims of Pinochet’s terror want Pinochet, Kissinger and all the murderous bosses to pay for their crimes against the working class, we need to fight for a world without any bosses, for communism. The PLP Club in Chile is contributing its efforts towards that goal.
Comrades in Santiago, Chile
PS: After sending this letter, Pinochet was released from London for "medical reasons" and is being sent back to Chile. Again, workers shouldn’t expect justice from any capitalist.the8e
Health Care Strikers Take Back Centers From Cops
SAN SALVADOR, Feb. 29 — Striking doctors and workers at ten community clinics of the ISSS (Social Security Institute) here were evicted by rifle-toting cops who crept in during the early morning hours. The cops were ordered in by the ISSS director who had sworn previously never to do that.
The ISSS bosses plan to militarize all the struck clinics and hospitals, using the army as scabs. But the strikers have upped the ante to stop more police actions. They told other workers, "If any administrators come to remove medicine from the pharmacy, or for anything else, call us."
Strikers at the Zacamil medical center re-took the center after being evicted by the cops. Yesterday workers barred hospital administrators from the building. Strikers at the MQ (Surgery Medical Hospital), largest in the ISSS system, took over the main streets of San Salvador. When the anti-riot cops appeared, the strikers blocked the streets with ambulances.
The ISSS workers and doctors have had mass support from other workers. "I’m not going to a military hospital," said an angry patient, referring to the ISSS bosses’ use of military clinics and hospitals to provide scab health care. The ISSS has also used paramedics and untrained soldiers to pose as doctors to scab.
We in PLP support these heroic strikers. But these doctors and health care workers must see the contradictions that cause their strikes. Capitalism and its health care are deadly for all workers. It says, "if you don’t have money, you don’t get care." This causes the suffering of patients and health care workers.
Many strikers are beginning to learn this through PLP’s activities. CHALLENGE is being read by many. "Every week I download CHALLENGE and read its excellent articles on the strike," said a young doctor. "Several workers discuss those articles." A hospital worker also hit by the CHALLENGE "bug" told us, "PLP is a Party with a very well-defined line against capitalism. That’s what we workers need."
We in PLP are trying to become the international Party of the working class, fighting to end the cancer of capitalism with communist revolution.
CHALLENGE
readers can send solidarity e-mail to the ISSS strikers: to ST
LETTERS
U.S. Rulers, Racist Murder Inc.
I happened to catch a short video clip about the verdict in the trial for Amadou Diallo tonight. It was the first time I'd heard the news. While mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters cry real tears, one of the murderers is taped crying crocodile tears on the witness stand while the same outrageous message can be heard in the background: People of the working class are "fair game" for brutal, racist cops everywhere.
If we listen to their explanations, Amadou Diallo's murder was a "mistake" made in the "war against crime". This so-called war against crime only exists in the bosses' media. The real criminals are trained, protected and paid by the bosses to sell out their class and keep the wage slaves in line. This is systematic murder of working class youth by the bosses' goons.
Perhaps the bosses think they are "conditioning" us to accept the murders of our brothers and sisters everywhere in the world with their media hype about "rising crime in our schools and in our communities" and "violation of human rights" in "foreign nations". I hear them: Step out of line and we blow you away. Nothing gets in the way of our profits.
The U.S. bosses are afraid that we will repeat our struggles of the past when the working class here rose up in organized solidarity against racist oppression and imperialist war for profits. Even then, some fought for communism. If the bosses' want to believe they have us in check, that's ok. In reality, there is a social movement in the world that will never accept anything less than the complete freedom that only a communist society can guarantee for the international working class.
Working class brothers and sisters should hit the streets and march against racist police terror in every community across the U.S. Show the bosses that we are unified and will never be intimidated by their fascist attacks on our class no matter how long, in how many ways, or how often they attack us. If you've reached a point of zero tolerance for racist police terror, read Challenge and join a PLP study group in your community and learn what lurks behind the thin veneer of the "war against crime". Learn why racist police brutality and police states are a necessary evil of capitalism. Learn why, as a unified class, we have a solution--communist revolution. The only way to eliminate an effect is to eliminate its cause. Join us wherever you are in the world in our marches on May Day 2000 against capitalism.
Indiana Reader
Diallo Verdict Raised at Injustice Conference
As we were driving to a conference on women and the criminal "injustice" system, a friend and I heard about the acquittal of the racist murderers who killed Amadou Diallo. We arrived in the middle of a session, and did not know anyone there. But we were both mad as hell, so when the session ended 15 minutes later, I told the conference organizers about the verdict and suggested the conference speak out against it. They seemed open to the idea, but hesitant about doing anything.
But during the conference break, another woman (whom I was told was completely outraged about the verdict) stood up on a bench and announced it to everyone. Since some people did not hear her, I rose after her and repeated it. By then the place was buzzing.
The next session was about the "Prison-Industrial Complex." During the discussion period, I commented on the crisis of U.S. capitalism as the root of both the rapidly growing prison system and the trend toward war. A few minutes later, a different woman (who said she represented a community center) read a statement that she and others had drafted. It said: "We hereby express outrage at the verdict exonerating the four police officers that murdered Diallo and resolve that there should be an immediate investigation into the mishandling of that investigation. We are infuriated at the actions taken by the City of Claremont [where the conference was held] concerning the [police] murder of Irvin Landrum, Jr. We demand that justice be sought and realized concerning the misconduct of the Los Angeles Police Department Rampart 77th Division, and all other existing corruption."
A student volunteered to type it up, and the next day it was on the table for people to sign. I think they’re sending it as a letter to the newspapers.
I am planning to stay in touch with several of the activists I met at this conference. But for me the biggest "plus" was the effect on my friend. She really liked what happened, though she says she is too shy to do anything like that. She was especially pleased when I told her (truthfully) that without her I would not have had the confidence to speak up when I did, and might not have gone to the conference at all. When I asked whether my comments at the session made sense to her, she said, "You always make sense."
On the way home, we made a plan to bring materials from the conference to our union meeting. We intend to raise a resolution that the union take some real action to implement its stated position against Proposition 21, the fascist measure that would expand California’s "Three Strikes" law and allow prosecutors to try 14-year-olds as adults.
California Reader
On Being a Student and Capitalist Education
In response to "Red Bengal’s" letter to CHALLENGE (2/23):
You are struggling with the most vital questions of your life. As a student, I felt much as you do now. But that was 40 years ago. The USSR had just launched sputnik, the first satellite, which scared the U.S. bosses silly. They felt a panic to catch up, so they decided to start a mass campaign to train engineers. Suddenly they wanted myself and hundreds of thousands more (white male) students to be rocket scientists.
Even though I did poorly in school through lack of effort, I was continually given "another chance." This continued through college. I even got a scholarship my senior year. Of course, life as an engineer wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. I alternated between 60-hour weeks and unemployment for about a decade until I couldn’t take it any more. But with my degree I was able to get a job teaching, which I liked much more.
Today, things are different. The education I was able to get basically tuiition-free now costs tens of thousands of dollars. Though the bosses still need some engineers and technicians, this whole industry is now much more efficient, mainly due to the computer. They need fewer scientists, engineers and technicians (as a percentage of the workforce) than when I graduated.
I give you that personal history to make these points. First: you need math and science to think well enough to make things happen that you want. The bosses understood that—that’s why they trained me in math and science. As members of the working class, we need those skills to make a revolution. The struggle for communism is long and protracted, and science is our most powerful tool for understanding reality. We need it and we must learn it.
Second: the bosses fill our heads with a lot of crap in school, as you correctly point out. But mixed in with all that crap are elements of the tools we need. We must plow through the garbage to find what we need. This takes incredible stamina and determination, especially now that the bosses see less and less reason to teach most of us the skills to learn how to think. Those skills are reading, math and science.
I don’t remember most of the math and science I studied. But I can analyze information. I can separate disciplined analysis from bullshit. And I can communicate effectively. It was these skills which left me open to a communist analysis of the world. I am living proof of the reason why the capitalist class doesn’t want to educate workers beyond the point they need to, in order to exploit our labor.
Yes, it’s hard and it’s frustrating. But out of this struggle we’ll grow strong. Nothing worth doing has ever been easy. Don’t fall for the bosses’ line and take "the easy way out." You’ll only be hurting your self and your class, the working class.
A Communist Student, Parent, Teacher
Youth Experience at Diallo Trial in Albany
Today three PLP members (two teachers and a student) came here to protest (before the verdict) at the trial of the four cops who murdered Amadou Diallo. We joined two busloads of mostly workers who were organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a liberal legal reform group, and others.
We'd hoped to go with at least nine other students from our recent communist camping trip. But when only the three of us could (or would) go, we debated whether it was "worth it." But since we had told all of our students, friends and many co-workers we were going, we felt we had to go. We brought about 50-60 Challenges with us.
On the bus, in talking to several people sitting around us. We found why some had come. One worker said because she'd been "out there" during the civil rights movement, and felt this protest was continuing the fights that had begun back then. Others were there because they were fighting for their kids—young black men like Diallo. One woman argued that we, as teachers, should strike for our students.
In our experience, liberal groups and unions often try to stop us from distributing CHALLENGE, but that never happened on this bus. We met great people, and the limits were only ours.
Once here, we joined a rally across the street from the courthouse. In front of a platform with a mike there were around 175 protesters, some holding signs and some distributing leaflets.
We sold many CHALLENGES and spoke to many angry people. Most of the speakers were reverends or priests; their speeches tended to be religious and passive. However, some speakers were angry workers, ready to fight, with fairly class-conscious ideas.
A comrade who had signed up to speak said it’s not just a few bad cops, it's the whole system. He presented the big picture and tied everything into the need for communist revolution.
We continued to sell CHALLENGES, and on the return bus made several contacts. We had distributed about fifty papers, and made many friends. Most important, we won the struggle with ourselves not to stay home because there were only three of us, and to lead with a revolutionary communist line.
Because of our doubts, we had left our bullhorn and signs at home, all of which would have been useful. But overall it was a great day. We regretted leaving our new friends with whom we'd argued and laughed, but that, too, was a lesson—to always have confidence in our class.
A Brooklyn High School Student
PRD Is No Allied of Students in Mexico
Recently the people of Tepatepec Hidalgo, Mexico were brutalized by cops sent by the state of Hidalgo (one of the poorest in Mexico) to the town of Mexe to oust students guarding the Rural Normal (a school over 100 years old). The students were trying to prevent the government from closing the school. The police attack on the students and the general population unleashed a furious worker/student counter-attack that drove out the police, re-took the school and paraded 65 of the cops (many in just their underwear) in the town square, tied together by rope. (See CHALLENGE, March 1.) What happened here inspired us and showed the need to organize and do everything possible to support the struggle of the masses.
This provided one more example of the need to build a new society. Capitalism gives us no alternative but to win workers and youth to take up arms and fight for communist revolution.
The PRD (the liberal opposition party) is acting sympathetically to the students of the Rural Normal school and population of Mexe, supposedly "bravely" supporting them, but really only to solicit votes for the 2000 presidential election. We know very well that the PRD is in no way interested in the students’ well-being. On the one hand they helped the government seize City University (UNAM) and jail many of the UNAM student strikers. On the other hand they act as if they support what happened in Mexe.
This, dear comrades and friends, shows us that any party that fights for capitalist democracy, that participates in the capitalists' electoral contests, that represses and supports repression of the working class, is an opportunist party. It is not fighting for the workers’ class interests.
We should organize international support for these jailed students and for the many who participated in the struggles in UNAM and Mexe whose whereabouts are unknown. Now more than ever, we need to organize and explain the role of education under capitalism, sell CHALLENGES and distribute leaflets. Our best weapon is the understanding of, and reliance on, the working class. We must work now to prepare the road to communist revolution.
To be a revolutionary is to be a radical and to be radical is to get to the roots of the problem.
Mexican Student
Faculty Should Strike Because Getting into Trouble is Good!
As I walked across campus carrying my picket sign on February 22, I was told, "Don’t get into trouble!" Those words were spoken with real working-class solidarity and concern. For this was the first time in at least 12 years that picketing had been called at this southwestern college. The faculty had authorized a week-long informational picket line to publicize their two-year struggle to win a new contract. The pickets had started the day after a rousing rally, which brought together faculty, students, staff and local unions fighting similar struggles. The primary issues in the contract fight were a retroactive wage increase, paid office hours for part-time instructors, and increased funding for classroom instruction.
I, too, wondered if I would "get into trouble." One of the first things we learn in capitalist society is that it is bad to get into trouble, whether with our parents, our teachers, the principal, our supervisor, or with anyone who has the authority to punish us. And who could punish us more than our boss, who has the authority to fire us and make it difficult for us to find another job? Our parents may want to protect us, our teachers may want to make sure we graduate, but the boss has none of theses concerns; s/he is driven by economic and political interests, not by love. So yes, "getting into trouble" is particularly dangerous on the job.
My walk across campus carrying a picket sign could have been seen as a job action, expressly forbidden in our staff contract, and might have led to disciplinary action. What it did do was enable me to talk to several students about the faculty’s contract demands, and about the importance of confronting the administration with anger and determination. It also allowed me to think about the need to increase our struggle against the ruling class. Not to struggle, not to "get into trouble" allows the ruling class to accelerate its devastating oppression of the working class. Communist theory and practice has taught us that to not push in every way we can for the victory of the working class is to allow capitalism to increase its grip on our lives and in fact to kill us! In order to build a movement capable of overthrowing capitalism, we must fight against police terrorism, Klan demonstrations, and hate crimes. We must carry picket signs across campus and put them in prominent display in our offices, regardless of "no-strike" clauses. We in the Progressive Labor Party have a responsibility to "get into trouble" and to help our working class brothers and sisters to do the same.
Red Professor
WELFARE WORKERS ENDORSE MAY DAY;
May Day Resolution Passed by SEIU Local 371 Delegates Assembly
BROOKLY PLP YOUTH BRING COMMUNISM TO DIALLO TRIAL IN ALBANY
MEXICO: WORKERS SEIZE SCHOOL, 65 COPS; THREAT TO ‘BURN’EM,’ FREES JAILED STUDENTS
IMPRISONED UNAM STUDENTS CONTINUE STRUGGLE INSIDE JAIL
HITLER ALIVE IN HAIDER’S AUSTRIA;
NEWARK WORKERS AIM ACTION AT DIALLO KILLER COPS
BOEING WORKERS’ POWER MUST AXE BOSSES CONTRACTS
H.S. STUDENTS AIM WALKOUTS AT PROP. 21, RACIST ATTACK ON YOUTH
LIBERALS’ ‘END SANCTIONS’ PLEA COVER FOR GULF WAR II
FAIR TRADERS IGNORE RACIST U.S. PRISON LABOR
DC SCHOOLWORKERS: DEFY THE INJUNCTION! STRIKE!
BEWARE OF AFL-CIO HACKS BEARING AMNESTY ‘GIFT’
CONTRADICTION AROUND IMMIGRANTS IN THE ROCKEFELLER CAMP
LETTERS
Jail Can’t Defeat Unam Striker: Jailed striker writes to CHALLENGE
Diallo Murder: A Question Of Class
‘Practice Is Great Teacher...’
Multi-Racial Unity Goes To Church
Teaching Dialectics In Math Class
Bosses’ Solution Healthcare Not
WELFARE WORKERS ENDORSE MAY DAY;
PLP URGES WALKOUTS IF DIALLO COPS GET OFF
NEW YORK CITY-Feb. 16 — The Social Service Employees Union (SSEU) Local 371 Delegates Assembly voted tonight to urge its members to participate in May Day events, including the PLP May Day march in Washington. The resolution called for the Local to purchase up to 50 bus tickets for members, family and friends. (See adjoining box.)
PLP members raised two issues at the Delegates meeting. We put forward our May Day march in a mass way, calling for an official endorsement. We also raised the idea of workers taking mass action if the four cops on trial for killing Amadou Diallo get off.
Prior to tonight’s meeting, we had many discussions about the Diallo murder, as workers listened to live radio broadcasts of the trial. At one office, a worker urged calls be made to the Bronx D.A. to complain about the poor prosecution case. PLP’ers pointed out that the D.A. couldn’t properly attack the murderous police without also attacking the whole legal system. As CHALLENGE has reported, the fascist community policing strategy advocated by George KKKelling is what led to the killing. That, not just the 41 shots by four racist cops, was part of the reason why Amadou was murdered.
We discussed what to do if the cops were found not guilty or convicted on lesser charges. One worker said a federal case should be started. He pointed out that black workers have never been treated as equals, citing the pre-Civil War section of U.S. Constitution that counted black slaves as "3/5 of a person" (in order to increase Southern representation in Congress).
A PLP comrade concluded that we shouldn’t rely on the bosses’ government for "justice." Rather we should prepare to stop work and hold mass demonstrations. "What would happen if the members of AFSCME District Council 37, SEIU, and Local 1199 all walked off their jobs?" he asked. This electrified the discussion. All agreed this would be a great action against racist police violence. It led to further questions of why the union has been silent about the trial. The PLP member who is the delegate from the office where the discussions were held promised to raise this at the Delegates Assembly.
Before that meeting, a PLP delegate, along with a retired former delegate, sold 45 CHALLENGES and engaged many rank-and-file delegates in discussions. After the usual long speeches by the officers, none of whom mentioned the Diallo trial, a PLP delegate quickly rose to call for each delegate to hold local work-site meetings on the Diallo murder. If the cops get off, he said delegates should urge workers to walk off their jobs.
This idea was first discussed in Party meetings, then among workers on the job, and then brought to the delegates of the 15,000-member union. This call for immediate action on the Diallo murder was followed by the May Day resolution. Thus, our May Day march was seen by the delegates as a logical way to participate in the struggle against the racist capitalist system that murdered Amadou Diallo.
May Day Resolution Passed by SEIU Local 371 Delegates Assembly
WHEREAS, May Day is the international holiday of the working class; and,
WHEREAS, May Day demonstrates the fighting unity of the working class; and,
WHEREAS, members of this local have traditionally participated in May Day events; and,
WHEREAS, issues like the threat of war, prison labor and slave labor Workfare, police brutality and racism affect all members of this Local and must be fought; therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED that SSEU Local 371 urges its members to participate in May Day events, including the March on Washington organized by the Progressive Labor Party; and,
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Local purchase up to 50 bus tickets for members, family and friends who wish to attend.
BROOKLY PLP YOUTH BRING COMMUNISM TO DIALLO TRIAL IN ALBANY
ALBANY, NY, Feb. 22 — Communist-led youth piled out of cars and vans driven by teachers who are members and friends of PLP in central Brooklyn. We rocked the spot. Our signs read, "NO JUSTICE FOR WORKERS UNDER CAPITALISM," "FASCISM MEANS FIGHT BACK" and "THE ONLY SOLUTION IS COMMUNIST REVOLUTION." They couldn’t be missed in the 150 person demonstration. Seventy-five CHALLENGES were distributed.
As two Albany cops stepped into the crowd we led chants and speeches demanding they depart immediately. We told the world that while some may seek justice, we speak for those who seek vengeance.
The speakers from the stage suggested that we "not worry about them [the cops]." What’s the point of a rally protesting the cops’ murder of Diallo if we’re not supposed to "worry" about the police? One speaker from Brooklyn Tech who called for students to join mass organizations and walk out of their schools to protest the cop invasion of school security was a bright point. But the bankruptcy of the leadership of the demonstration became more evident as the rally wore on. They refused to allow a PLP member to speak. Upon returning to our contingent, numbers of youth suggested we return to the stage as a group and demand the right to speak. The leadership was concerned the PLP member might "incite" the crowd and barred us from speaking. At this point our youth were very angry.
The liberals are right about half the story: we communists seek to both incite and educate the crowd. Sharpton and the other liberal mis-leaders seek to pacify and mystify the crowd.
The majority of our youth have only known the Party for a few months, but they saw the real deal at today’s rally. They led sharp struggle against the liberal mis-leaders and for their communist Party. A sharp young comrade compared the mis-leaders to the house slaves (tied to the master, yet still a slave), while we, the Brooklyn youth, represented the field slaves who have only a world to win.
As many speakers in Albany lamented the "miscarriage of justice" inside the Appeals Court, we responded: "Let them do their thing in the courts...we’ll do our thing when we get back to Brooklyn."
Many thousands of angry workers and youth are watching this case closely. PLP will work in the schools and communities to focus a part of this tremendous energy into the positive and only solution: marching on May Day for communist revolution.
MEXICO: WORKERS SEIZE SCHOOL, 65 COPS; THREAT TO ‘BURN’EM,’ FREES JAILED STUDENTS
HIDALGO, Mexico, Feb. 20 — Thousands of farm workers, workers and students in Tepatepec, Hidalgo captured 65 cops and re-took the National Rural School of Mexe. Two hours earlier it had been seized by the police sent from the state capital. The cops’ were disarmed and their cars were burned. Those cops who weren’t able to run away met with popular justice. They were tied up with the ropes they used to arrest workers, undressed and taken to the town’s central plaza. The population sent an ultimatum to the governor: "If you don’t free the jailed students, the cops will be burned." Hours later the governor let hundreds of students go free. They had been in jail for months for the "crime" of occupying the school to stop the government from closing it. The rulers tried to justify this by saying there was no academic excellence.
"We need these kinds of actions in the factory to confront the company and their union thugs," was a general comment by many auto workers who joyously celebrated with joy the Mexe rebellion. "We can follow their example to get rid of all the bosses," proposed another. The set the workers thinking.
For decades, students and graduates of this school have taught the farm workers and community here and throughout the state of Hidalgo to read and write. They’ve also politicized the workers. That’s the real reason the rulers are trying to close the school. These militant students believe in the fight for socialist revolution. The communists of PLP have concluded that the socialist revolutions in Russia and China maintained key aspects of capitalism, like the wage system and division of labor that led to the return of capitalism in those countries. We call on these socialist students and the workers of Mexe to take an ideological step forward and help advance the fight for communism, where the wealth created by the working class will be distributed "from each according to his/her commitment, to each according to his needs". That’s the only way that the working class can maintain power and prevent capitalism from returning.
IMPRISONED UNAM STUDENTS CONTINUE STRUGGLE INSIDE JAIL
Meanwhile, in nearby Mexico City, the fascist judge handling the cases of the 260 students jailed after the 9-month UNAM strike, presented a huge broadside of charges under capitalist laws that condemned 16-year-olds as "terrorists." He declared, "The students will not be freed because they are a social danger." In doing so, he carried out the exact wishes of the top bosses to punish the strikers under phony charges.
"They can jail us but not our consciousness!" is the united cry of all those in jail. [See Letter p. 6] This spirit of struggle has spread to the other prisoners who also chant slogans with the strikers. Ever since the students were arrested, thousands of people have camped day and night in front of the jail demanding their freedom. Shouts of struggle from the outside are answered from those inside.
All this has put the authorities on the defensive. They’ve had to give unusual treatment to those who have been arrested. Now the other prisoners are demanding the same treatment. The discussions, assemblies and even study groups that were begun during the UNAM strike have been transferred inside and in front of the prison. "I already felt like a communist," said one 17-year old when he heard an explanation of communism after just being freed from jail when he heard an explanation of communism.
HITLER ALIVE IN HAIDER’S AUSTRIA;
Goose-Stepping German Bosses Next?
VIENNA, Feb. 19 — Over 100,000 people marched here today to denounce fascism, racism and the new coalition government, which includes pro-Nazi Jörg Haider’s Liberal Party. The march occurred in the Plaza of Heroes, the same place where thousands cheered Adolf Hitler in 1938 during the official confirmation of Anchluss (when Austria joined the Third Reich).
The Vienna march was part of an international campaign against racism and fascism. Smaller marches took place in other European cities as well as a protest in front of the Austrian consulate in New York City. It’s good for so many people to protest fascism and racism. However, many of these protestors don’t want to recognize that racism, fascism and capitalism go together.
For example, Austria’s Social Democratic Party—which ruled the country before pro-Nazi Haider and the Conservative Party formed a new government last month—is the same party that in the past enforced many of the anti-immigrant attacks which Haider now pushes. Many of the international celebrities at the Vienna march, like French philosopher Bernard Henry-Levy, are very right-wing and anti-communist and feel that Haider and the Conservatives in Austria "exposed" their own conservative politics for what they are: fascistic.
But more important is what’s happening in Germany. The corruption scandal surrounding former Prime Minister Kohl and his Christian-Democratic Party (CDU) has discredited both. An interview in the Argentine daily "Página 12" with Alfred Bauer, an Austrian anti-fascist exiled in Buenos Aires since the 1938 Anchluss, describes how the CDU’s collapse could lead to the formation of another right-wing party. However, this time it would be openly pro-Nazi, uniting all the smaller neo-Nazi groups in Germany now that the CDU umbrella is discredited.
He also warns about the "revanchist" elements in Germany: "It attracted my attention the trip made to Berlin by Haider and Schuessel (the conservative who shares power in Austria)….While most of the attacks against Haider come from France and Belgium, Germany defends him. It must be understood that the real power in Germany, the monopolies or big capital, is trying to aggressively recover from the defeat it suffered in 1945. It wasn’t just the Nazis who lost in 1945; German imperialism lost, too. Up to now with Khol, and without any serious resistance from the SPD (German Social-Democrats), these monopolies are doing very well. Kohl was able to swallow East Germany and extends their power eastward. But now they will need a more aggressive tool, and I see what is happening in Austria coming to Germany."
We in PLP don’t believe that history simply repeats itself. The Fourth Reich that German bosses are dreaming about will not exactly duplicate Nazi Germany. But it will have the same goal: grab as much power for German big capital as possible. Sharpening rivalry among the world’s imperialists means war. All mass, anti-fascist movements must have this understanding: capitalism makes war and fascism inevitable. The only alternative is to build a mass revolutionary communist movement to destroy capitalism.
NEWARK WORKERS AIM ACTION AT DIALLO KILLER COPS
NEWARK, NJ, Feb. 21 — Workers here are angry about the possibility that the four cops who murdered Amadou Diallo may go scot free, or be convicted on lesser charges, getting a "slap on the wrist." We in PLP are planning to mobilize this anger when the verdict comes down. A Party member pointed out that Diallo, a black immigrant worker, had to slave twelve hours a day as a street vendor only to be shot down like a dog by the Klan in blue That’s something no jury verdict can cure.
Our demonstration will attack Rutgers professor George KKKelling, whose "community policing" strategy is being used by politicians to win workers to actively support a racist police state. Two months after the execution of Diallo, Kelling was featured in the NY Daily News and Wall Street Journal, basically calling for not guilty verdicts in this case. Kelling and his followers have been funded and built by the liberal section of the U.S. ruling class.
The demonstration will end at the federal building here. Clinton made the hiring of 100,000 "community policing" cops a centerpiece of his program for "fighting crime." Hundreds of thousands have been added to the prison population as a result of this and other bosses’ programs. One-fourth of all prisoners in the world are now in U.S. jails. Racist cop terror, prisons and prison labor, welfare slave labor—these are the faces of U.S.-style fascism. Our Party’s job is to organize communist revolution to put fascism and its backers under the ground. This demonstration is a step toward that goal.
BOEING WORKERS’ POWER MUST AXE BOSSES CONTRACTS
SEATTLE, WA, Feb. 18 — As the Boeing SPEEA (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace) strike enters its second week, our Party can be proud of the dozens we’ve organized in the plants to join the picket lines in solidarity. Hundreds more have spontaneously joined the lines. This coming week, our Party will mobilize our members, friends and co-workers in the schools and in other unions to join the lines. Meanwhile, some blue-collar Boeing workers refused to run scab programs or work with scab techs or engineers. All this is happening without the aid of the Machinists’ union (IAM) leadership. These small but significant acts of class solidarity are happening, in many cases, despite the downright opposition of the union hierarchy.
The strikers have won the grudging respect of the blue-collar workers (Machinists). It isn’t every day that 19,000 workers walk out and stay out even though only 12,000 are in the union. The strikers’ resolve and the solidarity we’ve organized have changed the climate somewhat in the shops. Opposition, such as there was, to our active support of SPEEA members has become less vocal.
Class Struggle Helps Create Leaders
One argument expressed by some Machinists opposing the campaign to (eventually) honor the SPEEA picket lines is, "They [SPEEA] crossed our lines [in a previous IAM strike]." "But," another Machinist answered, "We’re the big brothers here!"
Blue-collar IAM workers have had more experience in class struggle and strikes. Little by little, these struggles have changed how we workers think and relate to one another. When the engineers and technical workers marched through the plants and drummed on their desks with pencils, they were doing more than just imitating our tactics of "Rolling Thunder." The strikers were benefiting from the blue-collar workers’ greater understanding of the true nature of class relations.
It stands to reason that production workers will lead the struggle for working-class unity and to end the division between "mental" and "manual" labor. Our practical participation in class struggle—and for some of us, revolutionary struggle—has equipped us with greater knowledge in this arena. Who, but the more advanced, will lead?
This lesson can be applied to our class as a whole. Black and Latin workers are the most exploited and oppressed. This oppression has taught many of these "minority" workers invaluable lessons that will benefit our whole class. Fighting racism does more than unify our class; it allows all workers to benefit from the most militant leadership.
As we build unity between unionized white-collar and blue-collar workers, we should remember that more than 50% of each Boeing plane is produced by low-paid subcontractors. Boeing even uses prison slave labor. We have to unite with, and take leadership from, these super-exploited workers if we are to build a fighting force capable of battling this global giant.
Working Class Power Or Contracts?
The union leadership says we can’t honor the picket line because of the contract’s no-strike clause. They’ve even tried to convince workers to use scab programs or work with scab labor "because of the contract," although many workers have drawn the line there! "There’s the law, the Company policy and the contract. If one doesn’t get you, the other will," insisted a woman on the shop floor.
Under capitalism, we are wage-slaves. The contract only spells out the terms of our enslavement. The tiny class of capitalists invented the law, the state and contracts (with the help of union leaders) to exploit the vast majority. The power of a unified strike would benefit the vast majority of Boeing workers. So the bosses use the contract and their laws to impose their will on the rest of us. To end this domination, we have to assert the will of our class. "If we honored those lines," said an IAM member at the last union meeting, "that would be the end of that damn ‘no-strike’ clause!"
Ultimately, it all comes down to power. Do we, the working class the vast majority, exercise our power? Do we unite with the leadership of the most exploited of our class brothers and sisters to forge a revolutionary party to smash the power of the bosses’ state and all its legalities? Do we absorb the lessons of class struggle to wield ourselves into a Red Army that can build a communist future, where collective labor will smash elitism and privilege? A contingent of Boeing workers at this year’s May Day march in San Francisco will lay the groundwork for a positive answer to those questions.
H.S. STUDENTS AIM WALKOUTS AT PROP. 21, RACIST ATTACK ON YOUTH
"Fighting against these racists attack will train us to become revolutionary leaders of our class…."
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 21 — This last week here, high school and college students, teachers, comrades and friends of the Party participated in a lively forum on California’s Proposition 21 (known as the "Juvenile Gang Crime and Prevention Initiative"). If passed the proposition will allow for the increased wholesale incarceration of youth, particularly working-class youth of color, into adult courts and adult prisons by placing the decision of whether to try a juvenile as an adult into the hands of the prosecutor. But it doesn’t stop there.
The Proposition will also expand the current "3 Strikes Law" which has played a major role in California’s huge prisoner growth. In many cases it will lower the limit on what is considered a felony (thus making it easier to get a "strike") and create new felonies as well.
Prop. 21 also includes new powers for police repression, allowing them to: wiretap suspected "gang members," create and expand databases on people they "consider" gang members, and make some "gang-affiliated" crimes punishable by death. Prop. 21 even prevents the courts from sealing a juvenile’s record, making it almost impossible for someone who was involved in the courts as a youth to ever find a job.
A community activist spoke about the fight to amend the 3 Strikes Law, saying that control in prisons is becoming a guide for control in schools. One student pointed out that at his school if more than three students are walking together, they are considered a "threat" and separated! A student said, "The schools are becoming mini-prisons." The rulers are afraid of youth, especially the most oppressed.
Panelists and audience members at the forum connected the Proposition to the educational system, prison labor, racism, and ruling class interests under capitalism. They showed that this Proposition is not about the ballot box or the interests of a few evil government "right-wingers," but rather, it is a logical byproduct of an inherently racist system based on exploitation and oppression. Thus when participants raised the need for direct action in the streets and in our communities, local high school students took leadership by suggesting walkouts at their school. Plans were made to start coordinating the walkouts. People committed themselves to take the struggle further by joining PLP in some upcoming demonstrations and educating their friends, students and co-workers.
"This generation is being attacked more and this generation will produce leaders for revolution," said one participant. We talked about the ongoing scandal at the Ramparts Police Station. This is the tip of the iceberg, showing that the racist cops’ job is to put thousands of people in jail by lying, planting evidence and murdering thousands in cold blood. Participants said that a system that uses terror, forces youth into prison, and gives the army as the alternative, is a system that has to go. We need a revolution for communism. Many took tickets and vowed to build for a big April 29th May Day March in San Francisco to answer these attacks.
LIBERALS’ ‘END SANCTIONS’ PLEA COVER FOR GULF WAR II
The U.S. bosses’ Big Lie, "War = Peace," has taken on a new twist in recent weeks. The focus is Iraq.
On February. 1, 70 Congressmen sent Clinton a letter demanding the removal of economic sanctions begun by U.S. imperialism in 1991. The leaders included California Republican Campbell and Michigan Democrats Conyers and Bonior—all liberals, like most others on the list.
The sanctions were designed to make Saddam Hussein bow to U.S. wishes. CHALLENGE readers know the Iraqi working class has been the main victim. The cost in human terms has reached genocidal proportions: more than one million Iraqis have died since the elder Bush began the blockade in 1991. The majority of these deaths are children under the age of five. Sanction-related hunger and disease kill more than 4,500 children every month (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF).
So how come all these U.S. politicians are calling for ending the sanctions? Have these liberals suddenly had a change of heart and decided a ground war to take over Iraqi oil is no longer necessary? Don’t believe appearances. People over 50 remember that the same Kennedy liberals who had begun a war of mass murder in Vietnam in the early 1960’s suddenly started singing "Give Peace a Chance" a few years later when they realized the U.S. military was going to be beaten on the battlefield.
Something similar is happening in Iraq, on a smaller scale. A million dead Iraqi workers and children, as well as daily terror bombings by the U.S. and British haven’t done the trick. Saddam Hussein remains in power and continues to thumb his nose at the U.S. The sanctions and bombings have been a political fiasco. The liberals now recognize this. These repulsive hypocrites, who supported all of Bush/Clinton’s murderous tactical policies until recently, also understand that murdering Iraqi babies isn’t exactly compatible with the "human rights" cover U.S. imperialism has been trying to use to hide its aggression (remember Kosovo and Clinton’s "humanitarian" air war?).
The liberal politicians who front for the Rockefeller oil companies haven’t budged an inch on the goal of removing Saddam Hussein. This is clear to anyone who reads the fine print of the bosses’ media. For example, Ohio Rep. Kucinich told a February 16 press conference: "It could be argued that the sanctions have in fact strengthened the regime and weakened the people who would be needed to overthrow the regime." (Dow Jones Newswires) The letter’s signers make a point of saying they oppose only the economic warfare. Though decrying the sanctions, they stand squarely behind military action against Iraq. Overthrowing a government as firmly in control of the state apparatus as Saddam Hussein’s can’t be done from the air. And overthrowing Saddam Hussein has become one of the Rockefeller interests’ main aims. "Blueprint"—the Democratic Leadership Council’s magazine—leaves little to the imagination. The DLC, which promoted Clinton and backs Gore, speaks for Rockefeller. Here are its winter 2000 marching orders: "Urgent planning must begin now [for] Saddam Hussein’s ouster. Now that we have defined [this] as our goal, every day that he remains in power is a setback for U.S. interests, prestige, and credibility." (article by Robert Satloff)
As CHALLENGE said two issues ago, all four of the presidential candidates have foreign policy advisors who are pushing for Gulf War II. As the campaign heats up we should expect a torrent of Big Lies about defending "human rights in Iraq," neutralizing Saddam Hussein’s "weapons of mass destruction," and bringing "democracy" to the Persian Gulf. But the truth is that liberal bosses’ only concern here is Exxon-Mobil’s "right" to control the world’s cheapest source of oil. As our Party kicks its May Day organizing into high gear, we must continue to expose the truth behind the rulers’ hypocrisy, to sharpen the class struggle and to show workers that only communist revolution can end the bloodbaths for oil and profit that imperialism makes inevitable.
WITH ‘FRIENDS’ LIKE THESE WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?
The liberals leading the charge to end sanctions and prepare for ground war in Iraq include politicians with close links to the AFL-CIA. Democrats Bonior and Conyers, for example, get their main backing from the labor unions. Bonior is an ally of Jay Rockefeller. He works closely with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a think-tank hoping to mobilize working-class support for Rockefeller policies. The EPI is closely linked to the Brookings Institute, one of the liberals’ most hawkish foreign policy mouthpieces. Last year Bonior helped implement a "community policing" project that has cops working inside schools in his district. As for Conyers, he has long carried out the assignment of trying to convince Detroit’s working class to back U.S. imperialism. Other congressional signers of the petition to end sanctions include such Establishment bootlickers as NY’s LaFalce and Major Owens, Ohio’s Strickland, Texas’s Jackson-Lee and, of course, Illinois’ Jesse Jackson Jr. With "friends" like these, who needs enemies?
ROCKEFELLER NEEDS WAR FOR CHEAP IRAQI OIL
Four years ago, John Deutch headed the CIA. He led the Clinton administration’s efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein through a combination of murderous economic sanctions and aerial terror bombing. After nine years of this campaign, Saddam is still in power. Now Deutch is being raked over the coals in the liberal media. His supposed crime? Conducting CIA business from his home computer!
On the face of it, this is a joke. Why would a former CIA director show up as a bad boy on the front pages of the New York Times for the equivalent of sending job-related e-mail from his house? Actually, Deutch is a "fall guy," taking the rap so that the big criminals over him can keep their business going.
The real deal is related to the liberal bosses’ need to punish others who carried out a flawed policy. Deutch represented a faction that wanted to dislodge Hussein without a ground invasion. It didn’t work.
This tactical difference reflects a somewhat deeper conflict among the rulers. Deutch is now on the board of Schlumberger, an international oil equipment firm currently helping service Iraqi oil rigs. His present job isn’t exactly in tune with the Rockefeller position of ousting Saddam Hussein. Deutch isn’t the only former U.S. government big shot "guilty" of offending Exxon. President Bush’s Defense Secretary Dick Cheney is in the same boat. Cheney helped Bush murder 500,000 Iraqis during Desert Storm in 1991. Now he’s CEO of Halliburton, a Dallas-based oil equipment giant fulfilling a huge contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry.
Iraqi oil is the world’s cheapest to produce. Therefore, it reaps the biggest profit. And whoever controls the cheapest source of a commodity controls the market, especially during a glut. Rockefeller’s oil empire is threatened by its lack of control over Iraqi oil.
For Iraq’s oil industry to get completely back on its feet (it could more than double its current daily production of two million barrels), Iraqi bosses need the U.S. oil equipment industry for the job. Deutch’s Schlumberger and Cheney’s Halliburton can make a fast few billion bucks by helping Iraqi bosses reach that goal.
But Rockefeller’s oil empire (Exxon-Mobil and Chevron) can’t permit that to happen if it doesn’t control Iraq’s oil, which is the case now. In fact, currently Rockefeller’s oil companies are buying up one-third of Iraq’s production in an attempt to gain some measure of control over Iraqi oil. However, because the sanctions policy prohibits U.S. oil companies from making direct purchases, "The Chevrons and Exxons of this world have to buy from the Russians, the French, and the Chinese traders…" (International Herald Tribune, Feb. 21) This means Rockefeller & Co. must pay even more for this Iraqi oil, and pay it to their chief competitors to boot!
As long as Hussein holds power and makes deals with Exxon’s international rivals, the Rockefeller interests must prevent Iraq from reaching its capacity. But meanwhile Halliburton, Dressler-Rand, Ingersoll (Cheney has ties to all three), as well as internationals like Deutch’s Schlumberger are looking to make the fastest buck they can, re-building Hussein’s oil industry.
The dominant Rockefeller interests can’t accept having to enrich their chief international competitors in order to get at cheap Iraqi oil. Nor can they continue permitting Halliburton or Schlumberger to build up Saddam Hussein at Exxon’s expense. So the Rockefeller interests have no choice but to plan Hussein’s ouster in the only way possible: a ground invasion by U.S. troops.
The current presidential campaign will see this set of contradictions sharpen and shake out as the rulers prepare for the next stage of their struggle for world domination. But the most likely outcome will be another war to plant the Exxon flag, with its star$ and stripe$, in the Iraqi desert.
FAIR TRADERS IGNORE RACIST U.S. PRISON LABOR
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22 — Nearly two dozen people attended our PLP club forum on the Fair Trade movement. Several contacted us afterwards to continue the lively discussion. Two comrades who participated in the "Battle of Seattle" last November said the Fair Trade leadership was building a movement to support U.S. imperialist wars, in the name of "freedom and democracy."
One person argued that there wasn’t enough evidence that the U.S. would become embroiled in major wars, and that trade treaties such as the WTO might prevent trade wars from becoming shooting wars. We said that the historical record proves that the capitalists violently attack each other, as well as the working class, in their competition for maximum profits. The past 140 years has seen an unending series of wars, including World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Kosovo, and hundreds of others. The speakers pointed out that the internal contradictions among the capitalists caused the collapse of the WTO meeting, not the anti-WTO demonstrations.
We criticized the labor leaders, environmentalists and consumer advocates for crying crocodile tears over prison labor in China. Several people said it sounded like we were defending exploitation in China, and that people who oppose China’s abuses deserve support, not condemnation.
We agreed that Chinese workers are suffering terrible exploitation. In fact, during the late 1960’s and 1970’s, PLP broke with the Chinese Communist Party over its return to capitalism, and predicted the exploitative labor conditions currently condemned by the Fair Traders. But PLP advocates another communist revolution in China, while U.S. imperialist reformers collaborate with the exploiters of prison labor here. The AFL-CIO "carefully supports" the use of prison labor in the U.S., and has done absolutely nothing to stop Boeing’s use of prison labor at the Monroe State Reformatory. When U.S. troops invade foreign countries, they wear uniforms made by prison labor.
We were criticized for "condemning" the tens of thousands of workers and students who demonstrated against the WTO. We differentiate the angry, honest demonstrators from the conniving leaders who are in bed with the ruling class. We were inspired by the big turnout in Seattle, which also inspired our friends to come to our forum.
However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Millions of German workers and students joined the Nazis to fight against corruption and unemployment in Germany and surrounding countries. How can we compare this movement to the Nazis, who were openly racist and anti-Semitic? The leaders of the Fair Trade movement stress "national sovereignty," and the dangerous idea that bosses and workers in an industry need government protection. They ignore or "carefully support" prison labor here, among overwhelmingly black prisoners.
Someone else said that we don’t seem to have any plan for moving people from their present reform beliefs to revolution; no way of getting "from point A to point B." We were on the streets of Seattle, and we are involved in mass organizations, to expose the Fair Trade movement, struggle against racist oppression, and win masses to communism. By moving people into struggle around our ideas, such as opposing racist prison labor, we expose the true allegiances of the reformist leadership, and show the fundamental need to destroy the profit system.
A campus worker brought two co-workers to the forum. One told how she had first met our comrade during the Gulf War. At a union meeting, the chapter president made a motion for a day honoring U.S. troops. Our comrade proposed a day to honor those who refused to fight, and defended her position despite heated attacks from the local leadership and several patriotic members. Her co-worker heard about it and figured our comrade was someone she wanted to meet. Through her, she met the other worker. This kind of consistent communist work in mass organizations, over years, is a critical part of going "from A to B."
We need all of our friends to bring PLP’s analysis into mass organizations. Based on the tremendous interest in our speeches, leaflets and CHALLENGE among the masses in Seattle, it’s a good time for doing so. The ideological struggle generated at our forum, and the growing Fair Trade movement, is a growth opportunity for PLP. Progress can be measured in how many of these militant fighters march with us on May Day.
LA Comrades
DC SCHOOLWORKERS: DEFY THE INJUNCTION! STRIKE!
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 19— Angry public school workers in the courtroom let out a collective, "NO!" Judge Zeldon shot back, "There will be silence in my courtroom," as she extended the temporary restraining order (TRO) until March 3. The TRO basically makes it illegal for workers to even breathe the word "Strike" or "Job Action." A hearing on ordering a permanent injunction was set for February 28. The union and school management have met twice in contract negotiations, but the bosses refuse to give back any wage concessions lost from 1997-99.
We drafted a Party leaflet calling for a strike on March 4, defying any court injunction. We’ll use this at the next two union meetings to counter the judge’s intimidation tactics. At the last union meeting, we distributed about 30 CHALLENGES with the article about the District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) workers and handed out many leaflets before the meeting. Workers read the article and asked for fliers to pass out to co-workers. It is very isolating to have only three or four maintenance workers at a school, and many say they never see the union on their job. Some were so ill-informed, they thought they were voting on a new contract!
Letting the union hacks know their feelings about the injunction, workers inside the hall shouted at union leader Feaster, "When are we going to jail?" "What’s going to happen March 4?" The workers were more agitated than at the last meeting. When one of the union hacks handed Feaster a copy of our leaflet, he read the whole thing out loud. He denied having a "cushy job," but said his retirement package was so good, he could leave anytime he wanted! However, he stayed on for another term, he said, because some members had asked him to. Feeling the heat, Feaster called on the goons to remove a non- DCPS employee out of the union hall and off the premises.
We want to win more workers to write, produce and distribute PLP and strike literature in the schools. This includes teachers who can distribute literature to maintenance workers. We are also trying to win teachers to show up in solidarity at the next union meeting.
The fight for communist revolution is an uphill battle. But we are raising communist politics in this contract fight to show how the system works. DCPS workers can use these ideas as a weapon against the bosses and union sellouts. Even more, we can win some of these workers to march on May Day and see the need for a communist revolution to end this rotten system.
BEWARE OF AFL-CIO HACKS BEARING AMNESTY ‘GIFT’
LOS ANGELES — The recent call by the AFL-CIO for "Unconditional Amnesty for Undocumented Workers" for the six million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has created a torrent of questions among thousands of garment workers here. "When the bosses need low-paid workers, they open the border a little more," said a garment worker. But with this call for "amnesty," the bosses are thinking about filling something in addition to the factories and the fields. They want to use immigrant workers to fill the army, the unions and their campaigns to support the imperialist bosses. In essence it’s another step in building fascism in the U.S.
The new AFL-CIO policy seems to contradict its position for the last 100 years and its position during the 1986 campaign for the law which treated immigrant workers as criminals. The hacks accused immigrants of being strike-breakers, stealing jobs and causing many other of society’s problems. It was the AFL-CIO that pushed for the law to fine employers who hire undocumented workers. Why have they changed their line?
The AFL-CIO leaders are not really responding to the interests of the working class, but rather to their agenda of bringing workers into the camp of the main wing of the U.S. ruling class, Rockefeller, Inc. Firstly, today the economic and political situation confronting these bosses differs from that of the 1980’s. Currently, U.S. bosses feel their economy is growing and they need low-paid workers. But they also need to control them politically. Today, they view their main problem as the fight with European and Asian imperialists for markets and cheap labor. War in the short- and long-run is their solution. And war, despite all the hi-tech weapons the bosses flaunt, still needs foot soldiers to fight and control territory.
The AFL-CIO, always loyal to the U.S. bosses’ plans for war and fascism, wants to play an important role in winning the confidence and loyalty of the workers here to get them to accept low wages and send their children into the army. The call for unconditional amnesty is part of that plan. According to studies, the majority of Latin immigrants are between the ages of 17 to 34. Other studies show that Latin males are the group currently most willing to stay in the army. The army desperately needs more recruits.
CONTRADICTION AROUND IMMIGRANTS IN THE ROCKEFELLER CAMP
The New York Times (2/22) editorialized against a general amnesty. The liberal rulers need to keep using the Migra as a club over the heads of immigrant and all workers to force them to accept low wages. But the union hacks still have their own agenda, even inside the Rockefeller camp and will wage this campaign.
PLP members will get involved in this struggle, putting forward our politics of amnesty for all workers and to smash the bosses’ borders with communist revolution. By getting involved with many workers in this fight, we can win many to fight the bosses, the hacks and join PLP.
We will tell workers that whether or not this campaign is successful in winning amnesty, we will still be oppressed by capitalism, through low wages, racist police and INS terror, sending our youth to fight the bosses’ wars to die and kill other workers. We will also fight for the unity of all workers, immigrant and citizens, black, Latins, Asian or whites.
Building a communist PLP to fight for a society where production corresponds to workers’ needs is the only way to eliminate the "undocumented" label. PLP’ers will fight to organize factory committees to build a garment workers’ contingent for the May Day march in San Francisco demanding amnesty for all workers, "deporting" the bosses and hacks to the land of no return!
LETTERS
Jail Can’t Defeat Unam Striker: Jailed striker writes to CHALLENGE
Comrades,
Two hundred sixty students, teachers and workers of UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico], members of the CGH (the General Strike Counsel) are imprisoned in the Northern Jail of Mexico City due to the fascist repression led by Zedillo and the capitalists he represents.
Far from smashing the student movement, we’ve stayed strong and firm in defense of education for all people and against the capitalists and their imperialist partners who repress us today. We understand that fascism is growing daily. We live in inhuman conditions inside the jails, and outside as well. Here inside we see how the evils of capitalism are sharpening. The capitalists claim that the jails are "centers of social rehabilitation." But it’s one more form of oppression. We also know that it’s not human nature to be violent and criminal. It’s capitalist exploitation, poverty and oppression that corrupts society and drives some to petty crimes. Our struggle has been understood and supported by many of the regular prisoners.
Yesterday the guards beat, robbed and tear-gassed prisoners who demonstrated in support of us. This gives us the responsibility to be more committed in organizing among the prisoners. We’re planning a protest against the prison authorities. We’ll be participating in cultural committees with other prisoners. I’ve had good discussions with my fellow prisoner-strikers. We will overcome the anti-communism among some of them, ideas the capitalists prejudices that the capitalists push every day.
Striker Jailed for Class Consciousness
Note from CHALLENGE: To help the jailed students we urge people to send donations, resolutions and letters of support to GPO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202
Diallo Murder: A Question Of Class
The murder of Amadou Diallo a year ago by four cops has outraged many decent anti-racists in New York and elsewhere. This creates the opportunity to start these people thinking about the nature of our society in class terms.
I recently began working with a community organization that actively attempts to combat racism. However, they view the problems of society in terms of "fairness" and "justice." Most people in this group believe racism can be overcome within the framework of capitalism. The Diallo case enables me to talk with them about cops not merely as individuals who act in a racist manner, but who—given their role as guardians of the ruling class—did what they were supposed to do. This case enables me to talk about the class nature of society.
It seems to me that a substantial part of our activity as communists in this period should consist of involving ourselves in, and leading, the struggles of working people around many issues, which in and of themselves may not be revolutionary. We must get to know these honest people and offer a revolutionary way of thinking so they can understand these problems are not solvable aberrations, but rather inevitable and constant under capitalism. The problems can be solved only by communist revolution.
Old NY Red
‘Practice Is Great Teacher...’
Once again our camping/cadre school in Connecticut was a great success. Many east coast high school students, teachers and parents attended last weekend. Our slogan, "Learn to fight and fight to learn," was definitely carried out.
The weekend began with a very uplifting speech on the necessity of patience, urgency and a good dose of class hatred in the life of a Communist. It was very inspiring to see so many young people taking PLP so seriously. We all received a small taste of what communism will be like. Young people arose early to make breakfast, clean up and start our meetings on time. Everyone worked collectively to make sure things went smoothly.
We all read, discussed and struggled over the article,"On Practice" by Mao Tse Tung. Everyone learned that in order to understand anything there must be practice and an attempt to change it. No one can truly know what a pear is until it is tasted, just like no one can truly understand class struggle without participating in and leading it. Everyone made plans to return to their areas and organize class struggle at all levels to protest the racist murder of Amadu Diallo by four fascist New York City cops. This Cadre school was a big step towards realizing the Biggest May Day March in years.
Brooklyn Comrade
Multi-Racial Unity Goes To Church
We have had some modest victories at the church where we have been members for about seven years. One was a multi-racial unity party (we called it the Unity 2000 party) in January. Nearly 75 people attended on a cold, snowy night for a potluck dinner and a dance in the sanctuary to the music of a DJ. It was the kind of multi-racial crowd I have seldom seen except at PLP events. At one point about 30 people of all ages, including the minister, the custodian, long-time and new members, teenagers (including one on crutches) and elementary school kids were dancing and clowning around while most of the others watched.
The prevailing analysis of racism in our denomination is "White Skin Privilege." This means that all white people, not capitalism, are responsible for racism. Therefore, the way to fight it is for white people to "confess" (to paid trainers) and repent. Since all black people are victims of racism, they can’t be racist, from killer cops to budget slashing politicians. The multi-racial unity party was, in part, a way to combat this flawed analysis.
We introduced the idea of this party into one of the committees we lead and sought co-sponsorship by another committee in which we participate and which is led by a close friend. She suggested we get even broader co-sponsorship. The Religious Education Council agreed to support it also. Eventually, we had nearly one-third of the families in the church committed to doing something for the party. Many said we should make this an annual event.
We have also been working with other church members to fight Chicago’s new anti-loitering law, as well as the school superintendent’s continued enforcement of the "no-beeper" law for public school students, even though it was repealed by the City Council. We are trying to extend discussions on the class nature of racism in two committees into church-wide discussions (including a discussion of the book, "Learning To Be White"), and to involve our church in the campaign against racist sterilizations of drug addicts.
One might ask, "How does this build the Party?" We distribute an average of six CHALLENGES every week. Over the years, one person has joined the Party, and others have attended various Party activities, or mass activities under the Party’s leadership. We have a small study group that meets infrequently, and have raised communist ideas about the wars in Kosovo and Iraq, and police brutality. Sometimes we wonder how we will lead large numbers of people under the Party’s line. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but the main thing is, organizing our lives around the people we’re trying to lead.
‘Does The Chicken Ever Cross The Road?’ Teaching Dialectics In Math Class
A report about the Party’s work among teachers emphasizes the importance of bringing communist ideas into the classroom. Part of the report dealt with how teachers could introduce dialectical materialism into math classes.
An article entitled, "The Dialectics of Mathematics," appeared in CHALLENGE (9/21/88).It was based in part on a book by Soviet communist mathematicians. The article makes two major points: (1) Math is very dialectical. The laws and categories of dialectical materialism operate throughout the world of numbers, shapes, and formulas; and, (2) mathematical ideas reflect the real world. They didn’t drop out of the sky or arise from the brains of a few geniuses. Math’s ideas grow out of humanity’s practical needs and real life struggles. Some highlights of that article are:
(1) Counting, and the simplest arithmetic involves dialectical categories like likeness and difference, general and particular. Suppose you’re counting cars in a parking lot. The cars are alike in having a gas combustion engine and four wheels (that’s part of what makes them "cars"). But cars also differ in color, size, age, rust, etc. When you just count cars, you focus on the general, not the particular.
(2) Math involves abstract concepts (things outside the material object itself). When you count, you focus on the general (the abstract). This is called abstraction. Workers handle abstract ideas every day (counting, adding, subtracting). Abstraction is not something reserved for professors with lots of advanced degrees.
(3) Early humans went through this abstracting process over many thousands of years. They progressed from concretely counting, "one, two three logs," or adding "one log plus two logs makes three logs," to the abstract mathematical concepts of—and symbols for—numbers (1,2,3) and addition (1+2=3).
(4) Similarly in geometry: humans took geometric forms from nature: a circle, the crescent of the moon, the straightness of a ray of light or a tree, etc. They worked out more general, abstract notions of these figures when they had to manufacture objects more regular in shape (cutting stones, stretching bowstrings, etc.). In measuring fields and estimating their area, for example, early humans developed the more general and abstract notions of geometric shapes and formulas for calculating areas.
(5) How do you divide three eggs evenly between two children? Simple. You make scrambled eggs. This illustrates an important dialectical category in mathematics: discrete—limited, confined—(the simple eggs) vs. continuous (the expanded "smooth scrambled eggs).
6) Does the chicken ever really cross the road? First it has to go half way. Then it has to go one half of what’s left. Then it has to go half of that quarter that remains. And so on. It appears the chicken never gets there. But in fact, the chicken does cross the road. This illustrates the dialectical concept of finite vs. infinite. The sum of the infinite (unending) series of finite (definite endings) fractions, ½+1/4+1/8… is the finite quantity 1—that is, the chicken finally crosses the whole (one) road.
Marx, Engels, and Lenin all wrote about mathematics or the process of abstraction. Excerpts from these communist leaders could be used in the classroom. Integrating dialectical materialism into math classes is just one example of how communist theory will become the intellectual property of billions of workers.
Midwest Math Teacher
Bosses’ Solution Healthcare Not
Several years ago some of our Party members joined a liberal group that’s demanding universal healthcare. We thought the growing healthcare crisis might become a mass issue. The organization’s growth proved us correct, but we may have been right for the wrong reasons!
Our club leader believed universal healthcare would become a mass issue because of the widespread anger among workers at the lousy healthcare system under capitalism. He thought a struggle would grow from the needs of the working class. It now appears that there WILL be a mass struggle around this issue, but it is arising from the needs of the main wing of the ruling class.
The Party pamphlet on healthcare reform points out that the "Old Money" Eastern Establishment capitalists have a desperate need to gain control of the healthcare industry. This sector of the economy is a major drain on the profits they need for war preparations. They will build a movement for universal healthcare in order to gain government control of healthcare and institute rationing.
Our discussions paid off at the next general meeting. One of the liberal leaders of this group reported on his experiences at the Families USA Conference. He said there is now a groundswell of support for universal healthcare—that we are no longer viewed as the political opposition but are now "part of the mainstream of American political thought."
Party members along with other people in this group jumped into this discussion. We introduced aspects of the Party’s ideas. We won support for a continuing discussion of what this group means by the slogan "universal healthcare." We saw that most people in this group do not want to build a movement that is co-opted by the bosses to serve their own profit interests. Our Party discussions made us realize we will not be able to stop this co-optation merely through agitation. We will have to build a base around our ideas. We would like anyone with ideas on universal healthcare to contact us through the CHALLENGE office. Thanks.
Philadelphia comrades
Bush’s Texas: Death Row, Inc
A friend and a member of the Socialist Party USA gave me a copy of The Socialist, his organization’s magazine. This party has broken with its social-democratic past, and now speaks out against liberal reforms. It is advocating a grass roots movement to overturn the capitalist system. Although PLP would not agree with everything this group stands for, the ruling class hates them.
On December 9, Socialist Party member James Beathard was executed by the state of Texas. George W. Bush, the bloodthirsty governor of Texas and presidential candidate, signed the death warrant. Beathard was convicted of helping his friend kill the friend’s parents in 1984, although the friend stated plainly that Beathard was innocent.
Texas is now a killing machine, and leads all states in executions. Bush also signed a death warrant for a mentally retarded man. Bush has used execution as a tool to further his political career. While on Death Row, Beathard counseled other death row inmates and talked about the racist, anti-poor nature of the death penalty.
I think that it is important for communists to know about this since it was known by Bush that Beathard was against capitalism and that Bush wanted him dead primarily for that reason. This is another example of the growth of fascism, and it demonstrates that in "human rights" capitalist America that those who stand up against this system are viewed as enemies to be destroyed, framed and killed, just as the Nazis had trade unionists, socialists and communists rounded up and killed or placed in death camps. All were forced to wear a red badge, regardless of their particular socialist or communist convictions.
Prisons are being built rapidly, and-as PLP has pointed-out, more people will be placed there. It is highly likely that the filthy rich ruling class will attempt to use them to jail opponents of capitalism. Thus, the necessity of building a mass party now to fight against fascism and capitalism.
James Beathard was killed and died as a socialist opponent of this capitalist system. He did not back down, and I think that his execution by fascist killer George W. Bush should be known. Smash Fascism with Workers’ Power.
Road Runner
Boeing Strike: Shutdown The Warmarkers
Solidarity With Boeing Strikers
Pogrom In Spain: Fascism Spreading Across Europe
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Rethinking Education Under Capitalism
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Imperialist Dogfight Over Colombia:
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LETTERS
Communist Youth Page In the House
Goodyear Flattens Italian Workers
Red Youth Hates School: What to Do?
Cradle Red, But Not Red Enough
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The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
PA HS Student Fights Anti-Communist Brainwashing
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BOEING STRIKE: SHUTDOWN THE WARMARKERS
SEATTLE, WA, Feb. 10 —"When the fighting Machinists honor the SPEEA picket lines, it will bring this strike to a quick and successful conclusion," declared an IAM (International Association of Machinists) member addressing tonight’s union meeting. He had finished, but the debate was just starting.
Nineteen thousand SPEEA (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace) workers went on strike yesterday against the Boeing Company (the largest war plane producer in U.S,) in what many are calling the largest white-collar strike in U.S. history. This surprised Boeing since only 12,000 in the bargaining unit of 22,600 are actually members of the union. Technical workers, who comprise slightly less than half the bargaining unit and earn salaries similar to blue-collar IAM workers, led the way. Many had had worked in the shops and participated in strikes before. Even so, the vast majority of Engineers, who average about $57,000/year, also walked.
Everyone expected the Machinist contract, signed last fall, to set the pattern. Despite raking in billions in profits, Boeing had other plans. Since the mergers with McDonnell Douglas, parts of Rockwell and now Hughes, the company signs dozens of contracts with different unions; sometimes even different locals of the same union sign different contracts at different times. The crisis of overproduction is particularly sharp in aerospace. The battle amongst the world’s aerospace firms, intensified by this crisis, takes on political dimensions, as this industry is crucial to war production. Boeing decided it needed to set a new pattern. It picked SPEEA in Seattle as a good target because it is a union with no history of militancy or strikes, and the fact that it is Boeing’s second largest union means its defeat would have a big impact on thousands of other Boeing workers.
Despite the ominous implications for the next IAM contract fight, the IAM leadership has been conspicuously absent from the many expressions of solidarity. Teamsters and railroad workers are refusing to cross the picket lines. When one member at the meeting called for the IAM to honor the pickets, he was called a hothead by the leadership. Other members and shop stewards jumped to his defense.
"They’re labor, damn it," said another speaker at the union meeting. "I’m proud they got the smarts to walk, but they’re new at this. We have the obligation to teach them how it’s done!"
The union leadership cited the "no-strike" clause in the IAM contract to justify our crossing the picket lines. "What will it take to get rid of that clause?" shouted another member from the floor.
"You’ll have to strike for six months," answered the hack.
"O.K., let’s strike for six months!" shot back the fighting Machinist.
Another union official tried to divert the conversation. "I’m not going to talk about SPEEA," he started.
"Then sit down!" shouted yet another member.
Another, older shop steward, who was not inclined to shout out his opinion, approached the member that started this brouhaha. "I’ve been coming to these meetings for 20 years," he began by way of introduction. "I’ve got respect for that union official, but he shouldn’t have called you a hothead."
"Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been called a lot worse," our friend assured him.
"Yeah, but, still, he shouldn’t have called you that. Anyway, you are right! If we all honored that picket line that would be the end of that damn ‘no strike’ clause!"
Up The Ante
Meanwhile, rank-and-file Machinists are taking matters into their own hands. We’re joining the line at lunch. As the strike goes on, more blue-collar workers are participating: bringing coffee, snacks and pizza along with our own picket signs. Some of the picketers swear they are going to have to go on a diet after this strike is over. Our party is proud of helping organize some of the more regular trips to the lines.
The IAM has a tradition of marches through the plants as contracts come up. Our Party helped initiate those marches. We should organize such marches to the plant gate in support of the strikers. No doubt, we’ll develop other imaginative ways to build strike support.
In order to "up the ante," rank-and-filers are circulating a union resolution for members to sign linking prison labor and unity in the working class——uniting white and blue collar, different jobs, different wage grades, mental and manual labor—to the need to honor the picket lines and May Day. This may not be the easy road, but the alternative is to sit back and get used to crossing picket lines!
Contradictions Within The Working Class
Many Machinists are upset about crossing the picket lines. The union leadership and even some confused members are looking for excuses to justify their actions. SPEEA’s motto "No Brains, No Planes" doesn’t help any—even thought SPEEA announced on their Web page they didn’t mean to offend blue-collar workers. "The Engineers will have to get off their high horse if they are going to get real support," warned one rank-and-file leader.
Capitalism separates mental and manual labor. The boss justifies exploiting blue-collar workers more by promoting this conflict. To further divide us, the capitalist, in true racist fashion, makes sure few black and Latin workers become Engineers.
The capitalists believe their ideas are the most important element in production, not the sweat and smarts of the working class. But without the latter, there would be no production. Only a communist revolution can resolve the contradiction between mental and manual labor. Collective labor, with each contributing according to their commitment to the working class, will replace college degrees on the wall.
Building working class unity, in struggle with the most exploited leading, will help prepare us to take power. Therein lies the potential for success in this strike.
Why Communists Always Want To ‘Up The Ante’
As we’ve struggled to build support for the SPEEA strikers among our fellow workers, some honest and sincere friends have asked us, "Why do you communists always want to promote more class struggle to ‘up-the-ante?’"
You can’t learn everything from books. Practice is primary. As the working class engages the bosses in sharper and sharper class struggle, our class learns how to gain and hold power. We learn how to resolve contradictions within our class—racism, sexism, mental and manual labor—to bring a higher level of unity to our battle with the capitalists. We learn who’s our friends and who’s our enemies in these struggles. We deal first-hand with the reformist traps.
Labor peace is an illusion. Whether we fight back or not, the bosses’ need for maximum profits forces them to continually attack the working class. They are continually upping the ante. So our upping the ante becomes a question of survival. Indeed, building a revolutionary communist party becomes the clearest expression of the needs of the working class.
SOLIDARITY WITH BOEING STRIKERS
SEATTLE, Feb. 16 — Blue-collar workers throughout Boeing have "adopted" the picket lines near their work buildings. Some are spontaneous expressions of support. Others are more planned—complete with "Adopt-a-Picket-Line" posters in the plants to recruit aid and around-the-clock shadow organizations to get the material to the picket lines. "You guys have really showed us about solidarity," said some picketers to IAM members joining the lines at lunch. "We want to do more," the factory hands answered. We all agreed that the real way to take on the bosses would be for all of us strike together.
POGROM IN SPAIN: FASCISM SPREADING ACROSS EUROPE
EL EJIDO, Spain, Feb. 15 — "What nerve the European Union has in criticizing us. Look at the pogrom against North Africans in Spain," wrote an Austrian newspaper. It was right: racism and capitalism go hand in hand all over the world. Hundreds of racists, organized by fascists, went on a pogrom against Moroccan and other North African farmworkers in El Ejido. The three-day racist rampage took place after a mentally ill Moroccan supposedly killed a Spanish woman. The immigrant farmworkers reacted with a strike that shut down production here. Eventually, the bosses and the government made a deal with the workers, which included replacing homes lost in the pogrom, investigation of the pogrom, normalization of the immigration status of many of these farmworkers, etc.
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WAR CRIMINAL FAVORS GULF WAR II
The "McCain insurgency" is the bosses’ latest gimmick for drumming up interest in the 2000 presidential campaign. In 1996, more than half the electorate stayed home rather than vote for Clinton or Dole. This lack of participation in the profit system’s electoral circus has the rulers worried. They want our enthusiastic support for the office-seekers who help them exploit us, oppress us, and lead us into oil wars.
In the wake of the Clinton scandals, more people than ever have become cynical about politicians. The bosses understand this. They’ve decided to misrepresent McCain as the "anti-Clinton," a man of "character" and "integrity." Well, let’s take a closer look.
John McCain is the son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals. During U.S. imperialism’s war of genocide in Vietnam, he was a Navy attack pilot. His squadron carried out daily terror bombings against Vietnamese civilians. In other words, McCain is a mass murderer. His plane was eventually shot down, and he spent several years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. After World War II, of the handful of Nazis—not nearly enough—who got the death penalty for war crimes, some had committed fewer atrocities than McCain. But of course, for U.S. rulers, McCain is a "war hero."
This background gave McCain his start in politics. At first, he flirted with the "New Money" crowd who wanted to horn in on the Rockefeller financial empire. Remember the "Keating five" and the Savings and Loan scandals of the 1980s, which threatened hundreds of thousands of workers’ life savings? (Eventually workers’ taxes will help pay for the more than one TRILLION dollars this fraud will wind up costing.) McCain was involved in all that up to his eyeballs. But then he figured that the Establishment offered him a better future, so he cast his lot with, and supported, the military-industrial complex barons who stood to reap billions from NATO expansion.
Next, McCain saw the wisdom of joining the Rockefeller camp’s campaign to launch the next ground war for oil in the Persian Gulf. In fact, as late as March 15, 1999, he gave only lukewarm support to the U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia, calling instead for action against Saddam Hussein. This is a straight Rockefeller position.
But McCain wasn’t yet entirely won over to the Exxon Mobil camp. The BP Amoco faction of the rulers managed to dangle a few carrots to woo him temporarily away. Only two weeks later, at the end of March, Wall Street brokerage giant Goldman Sachs managing director John Thain became McCain’s fundraising chairman. Goldman is BP Amoco’s main financier. The firms share two board members. On April 13, McCain demanded ground troops to protect BP Amoco’s Balkan pipeline project.
But last summer, "shifty John" the prodigal son returned to the fold. The McCain campaign began benefiting from donations pouring in from Rockefeller-affiliated money houses like Brown Brothers Harriman, Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity. Rockefeller mouthpiece Henry Kissinger hosted a New York reception for McCain’s book launch in September. Early this year, Laurence Rockefeller, Jr. personally ensured McCain’s appearance on the New York State presidential primary ballot. Laurence and his father are the Rockefellers most closely associated with the "environmental" movement. CHALLENGE readers may remember that the liberal environmentalists provide the point of attack against the domestic Oil Patch barons’ attempts to compete with Rockefeller energy companies.
As we reported last week, McCain, like the other three candidates, is now pushing for the next Gulf War to protect Rockefeller oil. He may have bounced around in the past, looking to sell himself to the highest bidder, but he seems to have found religion, and he knows his lines.
This election is about finding the candidate, Democrat or Republican, who can line up the most working-class support for the Rockefeller agenda of liberal fascism, imminent oil war, and eventual world war. This week, McCain’s presidential chances appear to be improving. But regardless of who winds up in the White House, our job as a class is not to be fooled by any of these stooges for the big bosses. Millions have already stayed home on election day. But staying home isn’t enough. This vicious system has to be destroyed; merely ignoring it only allows it to continue.
The best vote a worker can cast is for a commitment to the struggle for communist revolution. The only way to make this commitment is to join the Progressive Labor Party. The best way to start is to march with our Party for communism on May Day 2000.
LEADING MOUTHPIECE FOR BOSSES SPILLS THE BEANS:
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Last week’s CHALLENGE editorial demonstrated that Gore, Bradley, Bush and McCain all have foreign policy advisors urging U.S. imperialism to launch its next Middle East oil war as soon as possible. Every day evidence mounts that Gulf War II is already front-burner priority for the next president. The New York Times is leading the way, with daily articles, editorials and op-ed pieces warning about Saddam Hussein and his "weapons of mass destruction."
The Boston Globe, wholly-owned by the Times, reflects the thinking of the Rockefeller foreign policy inner circle. A February 13 Globe editorial called Saddam Hussein’s continued "defiance" of U.S. rulers "the most flagrant and protracted failure of President Clinton’s foreign policy." It accused Clinton of trying to "ignore, obscure and represent the threat from Saddam." It ended by demanding that the Iraqi ruler "be forced to permit weapons inspections or be removed from power," and demanded that Gore, Bradley, Bush and McCain make "the failure to contain [Saddam] a central issue in the current presidential campaign."
There are barely microscopic differences among the candidates on this matter. The Rockefeller interests aren’t going to allow their Russian, Western European and Chinese rivals to make separate deals for cheap Iraqi oil. The 2000 presidential campaign will blow a lot of hot air to mobilize working-class support for a new version of "humanitarian" genocide in the Persian Gulf. U.S. rulers are already the greatest mass murderers in history. They’re about to add to their record. Our Party must organize now to lead mass opposition against this imperialist slaughter whenever it breaks out.
RETHINKING EDUCATION UNDER CAPITALISM
CHICAGO, Feb. 16 — "As communist teachers, we have the responsibility to go beyond the curriculum to educate today’s youth," said a PLP teacher at the education conference held here January 22-23. High school students, parents and teachers from New York and Chicago focused on the crisis in the public schools, the role of communist teachers, and developing high school youth as mass leaders in the face of growing fascism.
A PLP member active in the schools as a parent gave the first report. She focused on the long-term struggle for communist revolution. Although inevitable, the process has been slowed by the defeat of the old communist movement. While U.S. bosses face many serious contradictions, for the moment they face no mortal threat either from a revolutionary working class or other imperialist powers. The rulers’ ability to get away with murder, from wiping out welfare to bombing Iraq and Yugoslavia, gives the bosses room to maneuver. Despite their temporary strength, they have failed to win workers and youth to be loyal storm troopers. We can build a mass PLP, but we’re in for a long hard fight.
Another PLP teacher reported on the need to integrate communist politics into our classrooms, while teaching literacy and educating our youth. This is vital for a mass PLP and a communist future. To maintain their system of wage slavery, the bosses’ schools are training working-class youth to be non-thinking. In Chicago, teachers have been forced to use scripted lesson plans. We need critical thinkers, curious and hungry for knowledge.
A comrade who recently finished her student teaching gave a third report, on increasing fascism. It’s dangerous, she said, to be passive in the face of metal detectors and cops in the schools. When she was a high school student eight years ago, the first metal detectors were put up in her school. Her class responded with anger and rage in protest. She said, "Now students don’t respond at all…they just accept it on daily basis." Others pointed out that high school students are subjected to random searches, with little or no protest from anyone. This passivity is due in part to the bosses creating racist hysteria about "unsafe schools" and "dangerous youth."
A young comrade from Curie HS said she was suspended for three days for taking pictures of her friends in the hallway. A student from Morgan Park HS reported he was accused of being a terrorist for bringing a carpenter’s mask to school to show his friends. "They thought I was going to bomb the school!"
Several Brooklyn youth said they’d been mistreated by some teachers and administrators because of how they dressed. Two other students said they disliked going to school. One said it was too stressful. The other felt that teachers were not interested in teaching.
This part of the conference ended with the question, "What can we do to educate our youth in this period of developing fascism?"
The next day students and teachers met separately. We agreed to create a CHALLENGE youth section, written by young comrades and addressing issues they face. Teachers also agreed to stay in touch, sharing ideas and lesson plans—particularly to improve our raising of communist politics in math and science classes while still teaching the curriculum. And we vowed to have more conferences like this.
a name="PLP RAISES RED FLAG AT BOSSES’ T.U. CONFERENCE">">"LP RAISES RED FLAG AT BOSSES’ T.U. CONFERENCE
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14 — "We have to organize workers all over the world," declared a worker from Latin-America. "The capitalists are global. We need a great leader and that is a communist party. I came here looking for a communist party."
"You have found one," replied a PLP member.
That exchange occurred at a PLP forum held during a lunch break at the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union and Independence Rights.
Attended by workers from many countries, the forum was in sharp contrast to the Conference, which talked defense, defense, defense for three days. "Defend the International Labor Conventions (the ILO)." "Defend trade unions and democracy." "Defend ‘National Sovereignty!’" It detailed the global attacks on the working class, but only rarely did a maverick speaker explain their cause—capitalism.
Coming from 70 different countries, each delegation was given time to present its issues. Every militant or class conscious idea was applauded. An African speaker pointed out that every year, U.S. bankers suck $35 billion out of Africa, saying that capitalism and imperialism had to be smashed. Revolutionary ideas kept breaking through in the workshops, too. A delegate from Brazil spoke of the origin of racism in the birth of capitalism and slavery. A delegate from India explained how all Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) were agents of imperialism.
The biggest applause came when a garment worker from LA spoke. She explained how 150,000 garment workers in LA sweatshops remain unorganized through no fault of their own. Groups of workers repeatedly approach unions like UNITE! and repeatedly the unions fail to follow through. Most sweatshop owners are Korean, and the workers come from many countries. She described organizing a struggle that united these workers.
This was not a speech of complaints and statistics. Here was a leader who was changing the balance of forces. Small of stature, her head barely above the podium, we were thinking, "If she can do it, we can do it too!" She introduced a petition that attacked prison slave labor in the U.S. and the AFL-CIO for supporting it. She got a standing ovation and the entire conference chanted, "Obreros, Unidos! Jamas Seran Vencidos!" ("The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated!")
When the conference opened the next day, the reactionary leadership condemned the petition for "slandering" the AFL-CIO. The petitioners asked for five minutes to defend their message, but were denied. So much for "Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights."
Also, by this time security was following us. PLP was the only force to raise the crisis of overproduction. We showed how the death, destruction and impoverishment of the world’s workers were caused by capitalism, and only a communist revolution could liberate us.
Even a reactionary conference can open up opportunities to meet militant and political workers, and build the PLP. We set up an "unofficial" literature table and sold CHALLENGE while leafleting for our forum. We raised our May Day demonstrations in the workshops and with individual delegates. We were able to involve many friends in this conference, and this helped them understand how the Party fights for our politics in the mass movement. Everyone who helped us was energized. One worker joined the Party.
At the forum, a veteran worker said he liked PLP and CHALLENGE, but didn’t agree with abolishing wages. A production worker with several years seniority replied, "[The conference organizers] want to restrict us to fight within the system. But we will still be wage slaves. We go to work every day and give the bosses the creative part of us that could be developed. But we in PLP fight for that creative part. Our liberation will mean being able to develop all the things a human being can be."
No wonder the agents of capitalism follow us. When workers like the unionist from India, and the LA garment worker grasp these ideas, the revolutionary movement will become an unstoppable material force!
a name="SWEENEY’S ‘GLOBALIZATION’ GARBAGE SOURS DOMINO STRIKERS"></a>"WEENEY’S ‘GLOBALIZATION’ GARBAGE SOURS DOMINO STRIKERS
"Hey, Sweeney, Here’s your globalization, right here in Brooklyn":
Domino Sugar Workers Holding Out in 8-Month Strike
BROOKLYN, NY, Feb. 15 — "We were out there and we were cold. Our feet were cold. Our hands were cold. Sometimes the way the wind whips off the river, it feels like 35 below. The only thing that kept us going was we didn’t want them to think the cold was going to stop us. They’re always looking for weakness."
So stated Domino Sugar striker Robert Shelton, one of 300 workers who have been out for eight months against Domino’s parent company, the British "global" conglomerate Tate & Lyle, one of the world’s largest sweetener producers. In an extraordinary display of working-class unity, not one worker has crossed the picket line.
With all of AFL-CIO president John Sweeney’s blather about "fighting globalization’s effects abroad," he, the NYC Central Labor Council and the workers’ own union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, have done zilch for these workers, victims of the globalization Sweeney is always crying about. The Labor Council, "representing" two million union members, has contributed the paltry sum of $9,000.
The workers are from a myriad of backgrounds (see "Red Eye" column, page 7). Through scorching summer sun and fierce winter winds blowing off the East River, the workers have held fast against company demands to lay off 100, virtually abolish seniority, eliminate full-time job guarantees, and slash sick pay and holidays—"in order to compete globally." The company is using a small number of scabs but the strikers say normal daily production of 4,000,000 pounds has been cut 90%.
Last week another Domino refinery in Louisiana was struck which might pressure the company, but the Brooklyn strikers’ unemployment insurance runs out later this month. They need all the help that rank-and-file workers can give them.
The magnificent class unity displayed by these workers answers the bosses’ lie that workers are somehow "different" because of their color or capitalist-created "nationalities." All workers belong to one class, the one that’s exploited by the ruling class. The strength of these strikers, once combined with the fight for commnist revolution, will be able to destroy the wage slavery profit system that has put them in their current bind.
IMPERIALIST DOGFIGHT OVER COLOMBIA:
EUROPEAN BOSSES INVADING U.S. ‘BACKYARD’ AS INTER-IMPERIALIST RIVALRY INTENSIFIES WORLDWIDE:
U.S. BOSSES DIVIDED OVER ITS COLOMBIA’S POLICY
Last week the U.S. Congress started debating Clinton’s $1.3 billion aid package for Colombia, including $955 million for military assistance. Up to last week, it seemed that the U.S. ruling class has opted for the "military card" to deal with the Colombian "drug problem" and its 40-year old civil war. But, like in all major foreign policy issues facing U.S. bosses, contradictions abound.
The New York Times (2/13), Rockefeller’s main mouthpiece, criticized this military card for not being "a realistic strategy to fight illegal drugs or…to establish peace and stability. Instead it risks dragging the U.S. into a costly counter-insurgency war…Peace talks….represent the best solution to both the drug problem and the war."
The NYT/Rockefeller position stems from the need to concentrate most of their military efforts in the Persian Gulf. Control of the Middle East oil is crucial for Rocky’s Exxon-Mobil oil empire.
Contradiction Within U.S. Ruling Class Itself
But other U.S. bosses don’t see the Middle East as strategic for their interests. Their priority is protecting their interests in Latin America now. Their outlook is more of a "Fortress America." They listen to "Republicans in Congress…..warning that the Clinton White House risked ‘losing’ Colombia to rebel groups…." They understand the strategic importance of Colombia. (Stratfor, an internet news service, 1/28) puts it this way:
"As Colombia’s troubles spill across its borders and drug logistics intersect with U.S. oil supplies and the Panama Canal, the ability of the U.S. to ignore the problems is limited. Indeed as global great-power rivalries increase, the willingness of the other great powers to use these conflicts as a means for containing the U.S. cannot be discounted. The northern tier of Latin America (Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and Peru) is more dangerous than it appears."
Even within the Rockefeller camp there is both disagreement and a changing of positions. After all, Clinton is a Rockefeller man. But his aid plan, if approved, "will end the peace negotiations between the rebels and the government and re-ignite the war. Ultimately, the plan does little more than pave the way for greater U.S. involvement." (Stratfor (01/28).
According to Stratfor, the government doesn’t appear to want a peace settlement right now. First, it could give the guerrillas permanent control of the demilitarized zone. U.S. officials claim that this area is a major producer of coca and a main cocaine corridor for Bolivia and Peru. So the drug problem would not be solved. Second, allowing the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—its major guerrilla movement) a free range in this area, which borders Venezuela’s oil fields, would leave that country vulnerable to FARC’s incursions. Venezuela is a major U.S. oil supplier. Oil, not drugs, is at the heart of this conflict.
But such a peace treaty now would give the European-backed FARC a major say in the Colombian government. This would have an important impact in Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and Mexico, where some sectors of their ruling classes want to dump the U.S. bosses and ally with the Europeans. Allowing European influence at this level has always been unacceptable to all U.S. bosses. Yet the Rockefeller gang is advising Clinton to support the European bosses’ brokered peace process! This might not be so easy to win.
Contradictions Within Colombian Ruling Class
Of course, all these contradictions reflect on the Colombian ruling class. One week President Pastrana is in the U.S. lobbying for money for his Peace Plan. And later Colombian officials announced in Sweden (2/9) that an "… end to Latin America’s longest conflict was closer than ever before, after secret talks with the country’s main Marxist guerrilla force." After Sweden they will convene "in Norway, and travel together to Italy, Switzerland and Spain." (Reuters 2/9) The peace accord claims it would also eradicate drug trafficking from Colombia.
Can’t Omit One Main Aspect Of The Contradiction
Even though U.S. bosses claim to be "top dogs" in the imperialist world, their competitors are not accepting this quietly. The European imperialists are taking advantage of U.S. bosses’ worldwide. They can see their difficulties in (1) grappling with their "Vietnam Syndrome;" (2) in trying to fight on two fronts, Iraq and Colombia, simultaneously; and (3) trying to organize a regional army capable of invading Colombia.
Understanding all this, the Europeans are gaining ground, intensifying their efforts throughout Latin America. They supported a failed coup in Ecuador last month. They are on the brink of brokering a peace accord in Colombia. They support several Salvadoran ex-guerrillas in office. President Chavez in Venezuela leans toward the Europeans. European bosses broke into the energy field in the ’70s and are now major producers of oil and gas in South America. They now surpass the U.S. in investments in Latin America.
The Rockefeller gang’s advice to Clinton to support the European peace process is a retreat, possible a strategic one. The rest of the ruling class may disagree or be unwilling to accept it.
Only Communist Revolution Can End Imperialist Rivalry And War
But whether Clinton’s aid plan is accepted, rejected or modified, one thing is certain: the inter-imperialist rivalry in Latin America will intensify, eventually leading to war. If the plan is approved, "In two years ….. the U.S. will be forced to send more money or more troops—or both." (Stratfor 1/28).
If not approved and the European peace process succeeds, eventually U.S. bosses will need to counterattack. If they can’t do this through elections (U.S. anti-drug Czar McCaffrey holds that the guerrillas could not win at the ballot box) or by their death squads exterminating ex-rebels, they will once more start their genocidal war.
But that is their concern. Ours is to build a mass communist PLP to eliminate all contradictions within and between all the capitalists by eliminating them all with communist revolution.
a name="DOMINICAN YOUTH: DON’T ‘PRAISE THE LORD,’ BUILD PLP"></a>"OMINICAN YOUTH: DON’T ‘PRAISE THE LORD,’ BUILD PLP
PLP Youth Win Fellow Youth to the Party
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC—A PLP youth club here agrees with the idea that writing for CHALLENGE about our Party-building is very important. Here is our first attempt.
For several months we have been working with some workers and students, discussing our newspaper DESAFIO-CHALLENGE and "Jailbreak" (PLP pamphlet on Dialectical Materialism), to win them to become communists.
In our last meeting we talked about religion and the role this idealist philosophy plays. We discussed how it has helped the rulers and exploiters throughout history make us believe that the rulers’ wealth and the masses’ poverty is a divine decision (God’s will).
With that in mind we agreed to go to church, not to "praise the Lord," but to build the Party among the many young men and women there. We want to explain to them the real reason why there are poor and rich and that we will only transform the world by building a communist society led by Red workers and youth.
We have also made a plan to help the party sell DESAFIO and distribute leaflets at factories. We are also planning a camping trip to help build May Day among many youth. We are clear that we are the future of the working class, and that by winning more workers and youth to PLP the day will come sooner when capitalism will be a thing of the past.
a name="SALVADORAN WORKERS FED UP WITH FMLN, LINKS TO ‘EURO-IMPERIALISTS’"></">SA"VADORAN WORKERS FED UP WITH FMLN, LINKS TO ‘EURO-IMPERIALISTS’
SAN SALVADOR — On Feb. 12, about 200 people came to a meeting in San Miguel that opened the FMLN’s (former guerilla group) national electoral campaign. On the same day the other political parties, the PDC and ARENA launched their activities. All were similar: a low turn-out and a lot of speeches. That’s because the working class lacks interest in demagogic speeches that don’t meet the needs of our class. All these electoral parties have government positions supporting the economic power of the bankers. They all have the same objectives: exploitation and repression of the working class, serving the profit system.
A veteran FMLN member at the meeting said, "None of the candidates have a revolutionary ideology. They’re all opportunists!" This is the feeling of many people who’ve been "forgotten" by the FMLN’s old and the new leadership. "They only call you when they need to fill the chairs in their meetings. This is lousy," said another ex-guerilla fighter. Such comments are common.
At this meeting we met an old member of PLP who had emigrated years ago. He was happy to again meet with PLP members and agreed to attend the next meeting of our PLP club/study group.
PLP has said for many years that there’s no lesser evil—whether it’s a government led by the FMLN, financed by European imperialism, or a government of ARENA supported by U.S. imperialism, it’s just more of the same exploitation.
Capitalism’s job of super-exploiting the working class is being distributed more "equally" among the different electoral parties. Today we see more mayors and deputies from the FMLN challenging the old ruling class to see who can exploit our class more and better. The World Bank, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Economic Community are the ones making the rules of the game in these elections. Whichever party wins, we workers lose.
Therefore the question arises: will these elections resolve the poverty, crime, unemployment, etc., to which the workers are subject? The meeting’s small turn-out and the election results confirm the answer: "No!" The capitalist system can’t give workers any more, and we workers know elections won’t solve this. The only solution to the problems of our class is organizing the fight for communism, being led by PLP.
Our class’ alternative is not voting but to fight this deadly situation we face. This May Day we must take our communist message to the thousands of workers celebrating our international workers’ day. We’ll be there to say that only under a communist system will we live better, and only with PLP’s leadership will we achieve our goal.
a name="THE MOVIES OF LUIS BUÑUEL SHOW: ART AND CLASS STRUGGLE DO MIX""THE MOVIES OF LUIS BUÑUEL SHOW: ART AND CLASS STRUGGLE DO MIX
The Oscar nominations were just announced. This year’s Academy Awards show won’t have last year’s controversy, when PLP and many others picketed Elia "The Rat" Kazan being given a special award. Kazan is an example of the point of this letter.
The reason that 95% of today’s movies suck in form and content is because there is no good social content. Despite all the crap the public is fed about how politics and art don’t mix, the best art is art that is political. Kazan stopped making good movies when he squealed on his fellow communists and gave their names to HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee).
In my opinion, there are presently very few good movie directors and even those are not great compared to Eisenstein, Buñuel, etc. The latter were inspired by the great working-class political struggles of the first half of the 20th Century: the Bolshevik revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the anti-fascist struggles, the Chinese Revolution, etc.
This leads to my point: to honor Luis Buñuel on the 100th anniversary of his birth (February 22, 1900). Although Buñuel began as a surrealist, and his movies were greatly influenced by this, in 1932 he broke with this movement and joined the Communist Party of Spain (PCE).
El Cultural, El Mundo’s literary magazine (Madrid 2/13) reprinted the letter Buñuel sent to Andre Breton, the French poet and the father of surrealism, where he said, "I did not believe in the possibility of an apparent violent contradiction between the surrealist and the communist discipline. But the latest events have shown that these two activities are incompatible…It is impossible today to maintain a ‘closed’ concept of poetry above the class struggle. This word ‘closed’ is what makes me disagree with you. The subversive value of poetry outside of this class content will only be subjective..."
Buñuel used his talent on the side of the working class and the fight against fascism. His film, Las Hurdes (1932), was banned because it exposed hunger in rural Spain. It was made soon after he broke with surrealism. In 1937 he was sent to Hollywood by Spaon’s Republican government—which was fighting the Hitler-supported Franco forces—to advise U.S. filmmakers about the Spanish Civil War. Then the order came from Washington not to make these movies (the Roosevelt administration, although offically "neutral," actually helped Franco). During World War II Buñuel worked in Hollywood, turning Nazi propaganda into its opposite, anti-Nazi films. When the Cold War began in 1946, he was fired and went to Mexico.
While in Mexico, Buñuel made "Los Olvidados" which describes capitalist poverty as a horror for young people. His film "Viridiana" (made in 1961 in Spain by deceiving Franco’s censors) is one of the best movies ever made exposing the Catholic Church and feudalism. One of the scenes in "Viridiana" satirizes Leonard Da Vinci’s Last Supper. It was a superb movie. Indeed, Luis Buñuel was a superb artist for the working class.
Rex Red
LETTERS
Communist Youth Page In The House!
YO! YO! YO! This is a call out to all the youth in and around the Party, from Coast to Coast, from the U.S. Midwest to Central America, from Mexico City to Santiago, Chile, and anywhere in between. Voice our opinions, struggles, questions, criticisms, reviews about movies, music, books, etc. Whatever you are feeling needs to be known. The PLP is starting a new Youth Page made for and by youth. You can send in artwork, poems, letters, raps, etc., basically how you feel like expressing yourself. Send us everything you have.
Youth Page Collective
Goodyear Flattens Italian Workers
Politicians and bosses always tell us to defend the national economy and the companies we work for. They never stop demanding sacrifices to "save our jobs." The deeper the economic crisis, the bigger the sacrifices they demand, so "our company" can compete in the global market. In this way, the bosses tie us to our bosses, build a nationalist "culture" and prepare us for the logical conclusion of capitalist competition: war for markets and higher profits. Communists, contrary to reformists and union leaders, reject this defense of the bosses’ economy and their state.
A current example is Goodyear’s intention to close its plant in Italy. For several years, Goodyear has pushed for more productivity among its Italian workers, who have improved production techniques, enabling the plant to function better. The bosses have pitted its Italian workers against their fellow Goodyear workers in Germany, France and Poland.
But in spite of higher productivity and sacrifices, Goodyear will close in Italy. This again, has taught us the hard way that: (1) capitalist competition, and defending "our" company and "our" country, are harmful to our interests; (2) when workers sacrifice for the company and the rulers, only the bosses benefit; the workers lose; and, (3) when workers are loyal to "their" company, we end up competing with our fellow workers in other countries. Again, the bosses win and we lose.
When workers increase productivity in one company, we hurt our fellow workers and ourselves.
When the British coal miners struck in 1983, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher bought scab coal from Poland. This helped defeat the strike. Today coal miners in Poland are also losing their jobs and being attacked by the return of open capitalism. The answer to globalization, and the attacks of capitalism, is organizing international unity of the working class to destroy capitalism.
A Comrade, Italy
Red Youth Hates School: What To Do?
I’m a high school student from Chicago. Like other Party areas, we have been having a big struggle about the role and importance of schools. I’m a red diaper baby [a child of a communist] and it’s been my personal practice for a long time to pretty much disregard the necessity of school. Now that I’m in high school and the Party has been waging this huge campaign for students to do well in school it has become very hard for me to change.
There are a few reasons why this transition has been so difficult for me: 1) I really don’t want to change, and 2) I still don’t see the relevance of some of the subjects that they teach us in school (Algebra, Trig, Chemistry, etc.). Like most of my classmates, math and science are the most difficult for us. We don’t see how they relate to our daily lives or our futures. So we don’t apply the time and effort it takes to pass these classes. My teachers in both of these subjects have been feeling the frustration that we have been feeling for a long time and it saddens me to see that they are "burning out" at a rapid pace. Both of these teachers would really like to see their students understand the concepts that they are trying to teach us, but most of the students in these two classes find the curriculum extremely difficult, and most end up failing.
The struggle being waged with me is that as communists, we need to be able to understand this capitalist system, what they teach, and how to defeat them. I agree we need to understand the system, and how to defeat the bosses. But most of what they teach is lies, and what they don’t lie to us about I don’t feel we need to understand in great depth. For instance, I agree that we need to know some forms of math and science, but I don’t think that most of us need to know how to balance a chemical equation (Chemistry) or Algebra Trig altogether. I say most of us because only some of us will become astrophysicists and nuclear scientists.
I know some other students agree, and some others think I’m wrong. I would like to hear both sides so please write back. I wrote this letter to get some feedback and to start some debate about the school system and how other people feel about it.
Red Bengal
Cradle Red, But Not Red Enough
The recent movie "The Cradle Will Rock" was a welcome change from the crap that movies and TV usually offer, a well-meant, beautifully done telling of the ‘30s, the depression, and left-wing art. Unsurprisingly, the movie was attacked by much of the press, notably the New York Times pimp Walter Goodman, who wrote a snide review, predictably attacking Tim Robbins for making the movie at all. (Robbins wrote a really good reply to the Times, Jan. 23.)
I’m grateful for any movie that attacks capitalism, and especially the murderous Rockefeller family, as was done here, and if it shows leftists in a good light, so much the better—how often do we get that treatment? How we’re normally treated is through lies and attacks.
The Challenge review properly noted that neither the movie nor the play of the same title was communist art. I would like to further emphasize the point. Both the movie and the original play are good, they told fine and significant stories.
But we should keep perspective, even while we enjoy the film—it’s too easy to settle for crumbs, calling some movie that may be sympathetic to the working class "revolutionary," when it’s just…sympathetic to the working class.
Twenty years or so back, I saw a production of the play "The Cradle Will Rock," probably off-Broadway. It was touching and exciting, but I most remember one interchange between the big capitalist Mr. Mister and the union organizer Larry Foreman. Mr. Mister is telling the workers how great everything would be if they only stopped fighting for a union. "There will be nurseries for the kiddies, swimming pools, cars," that sort of thing.
Larry Foreman comments, "I thought we just wanted a union."
But isn’t that the whole problem with trade union politics? If the bosses in good times (if they’ll ever come back: much of the industrial base has been laid off) did manage to build a municipal pool, a nursery, etc., would Larry Foreman have been satisfied? I hope not.
The reality is there’s no "fair share" for the working class, and no body knows this better that the bosses, who are taking the largest percent of the wealth since capitalism started. The cliché "The rich get rich and the poor get poorer," should properly be "The rich get rich because the poor get poorer."
Let’s not lose sight of our goal: To take it all away from the rich so society may be run by and for the working class.
I was happy to see "The Cradle Will Rock," and as Challenge noted people should take their base to see it and discuss it afterward. But remember it’s essentially a romantic look at an era when the bosses screwed up their system and then further tried to exploit the workers by throwing them on the streets to starve.
The play more or less suggested that, but of course it didn’t go one step further and say we need a revolution and communism to keep the ruling class from ever making a comeback, as they have done in Russia and China.
North Country Comrade
Moved By "Hurricane"
That I loved "The Hurricane" is only important when one considers why. This movie made me angry at racism (a positive thing, I would say). Nor would I attribute this to an alleged state of politicization that I have put myself through, as many of my friends got the same message who would see themselves as "good liberals."
Secondly, nothing was mentioned in the review of the movie about relationships. This movie moved me deeply, and that is important politically. There was no mention of the Afro-American youth who turned his life around by his contact with Carter.
It does concern me as someone who gets so much out of CHALLENGE that the review seemed a little bit created by a rigid standard of what is politically correct. Of course the movie is capitalistic and not revolutionary—that, at least in my mind, does not mean it is not an important movie.
Brooklyn PLP’er
a name="It’s Capitalism That’s ‘Genetically Dysfunctional’"></a>It"s Capitalism That’s ‘Genetically Dysfunctional’
Last Sunday, I gave a talk about racist psychiatric testing of inner-city youth to a congregation in Virginia. Over the past year I have done this for nine other churches and organizations. Usually I just speak extemporaneously and refer to notes. This time I read from letters, testimony and a prepared text. The presentation, while much more complete in details, came out too one-sided. While generally open and appreciative, the audience got the impression that I was against all psychiatric research and treatment, which is not the case.
Time and again, as a patient advocate as well as a parent, I have seen children (and adults) who suffer genuine mental illness (usually caused or exacerbated by capitalist society) and who benefit from treatment, including medication. But these represent only 2-3% of the population, not 18-20%, as the medical establishment claims. Fueled by a drive for drug-company profits, and more importantly, by a need for tighter and tighter social control, the ruling class, especially its dominant Rockefeller segment, is steamrollering the idea that all mental "dysfunction" is genetic and biological. They claim the primary example of this lies in inner-city youth who rebel against inhuman conditions of housing, education and medical "care."
This dangerously fascist position must be opposed by all patients, educators and health workers. In my speaking rounds I have met dozens of honest people who want to understand this phenomenon more deeply and to fight back against it in some way. Our chief job is to sharpen struggle and friendships with them in a way that explains the overall perspective of the Progressive Labor Party and to recruit as many of them as possible.
Red Churchmouse
The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg
If you’re a movie-goer who’s also interested in the history of sports and politics, go see this documentary about a great ball player. Greenberg was born into an immigrant Jewish family and lived in the Bronx, New York. He was one of a very few Jewish baseball players and was subject to rampaging racism because of his religion. He came to the Detroit Tigers in 1934. That city was a hotbed of anti-Semitism.
The movie depicts the arch pro-Hitlerite, racist and anti-Semite Henry Ford who, along with GM and Chrysler, ran Detroit; the fascist "priest" Father Coughlin and his Nazi rantings; and a Madison Square Garden in New York City filled with German Bund followers.
Hank Greenberg was a great home run hitter who hit in the clutch with a high batting average. He vehemently fought anti-Semitism which took a lot of guts when such racism was the rule in baseball as well as the country as a whole. He once entered the Chicago White Sox clubhouse after a particularly vicious vebal attack from their dugout and Challenged all those John Rocker types to admit which ones had showered him with this racism. Not one of those spineless cowards opened their mouths.
When Jackie Robinson broke the color ban in 1947, Greenberg—in his final season—was involved in an accidental collision with Robinson at first base. Greenberg helped Robinson up and encouraged him to answer back the way Greenberg had: by showing these racists up with great play on the field. Robinson later acknowledged that Greenberg was one of the few white ball players who had publicly shown support for him.
When Greenberg returned from the army after World War II, he said he had come to the conclusion that all religion was harmful, that it divides people and even leads to mass murder.
The film’s photography is excellent. Many parents and grandparents brought their offspring to see it. Given that the ruling class censors so much history, when many people are unaware of the role of the Henry Fords in those days, I strongly recommend this film.
Former Bronxite
PA HS Student Fights Anti-Communist Brainwashing
I am a high school student at a school in Pennsylvania and I have some problems learning math. I read the article on math in CHALLENGE about how others have trouble too. This week the students were told that the teacher of the week was a math teacher. The announcement said that her favorite book of all times was "The God That Failed," which I learned was a bunch of essays from people against communism. Some students thought the book was about religion, and the teacher was saying "God failed." I thought that was funny. That book is hardly read by anyone. The annoucement also said that her favorite movie was "The Hunt for Red October," based on a book by Tom Clancey, who I read gives talks at the CIA.
Then they said her advice to students was to make your own choices to succeed or someone will make them for you. Then it all made sense. She was always giving me dirty looks. (I wear a hat with a red star on it.)
Last week she reported me to the office saying I had been grabbing girls in the hall and hit one on her butt. The letter was sent to my parents, and I was given detention. She tried to picture me as a sexual harrasser of girls. That is just crazy. She doesn’t like me ’cause she is a fanatic anti-communist. No wonder people would have trouble learning from the old witch.
Also, a history teacher who saw my hat told me that his buddies died fighting people like me. I don’t advocate communism in school but I raise questions and I make mostly good grades. I told him it wasn’t a communist hat, and that was the truth ’cause I bought it at a record store in a mall.
These people are nuts in the head when it comes to communism. They don’t call those who are racist and some with shaved heads Nazis and bother them. Just wanted to let this be known.
Student Against Capitalist Brainwashing
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I’m sure it will come as no surprise to CHALLENGE readers that our schools are becoming more like jails every day. One of the more obvious manifestations are the metal detectors now required in all high schools. Some schools, primarily those in the so-called "high-crime" black and Latin neighborhoods, have had them for a long time and always keep them on. Other more affluent, largely white magnet schools only recently started using them occasionally. Over 1,000 students per year have been arrested during these various metal detector checks.
If these students were carrying weapons, like. knives or guns, these arrests might be justified. But over 90% of these arrests were for the heinous crime of carrying a pager! The Chicago City Council decided in 1988 that pager-carrying students were gang-banging drug dealers and should be hauled off to jail. This law is racist in that it only affects the mainly minority Chicago School District, and not the white suburbs where students carry pagers without any repercussions.
In the winter of 1998, this was raised at a city-wide high school PTA meeting. At that time, while some of us pointed out the fascist, racist nature of this law, others still felt it was necessary to insure the safety of our children. During that year we struggled with various PTA members to change their minds, and by early 1999, the city-wide PTA voted for the City Council to repeal this law. The School Board was asked to join in the request to repeal this law, but they refused. During 1999, as more and more white students were arrested because of increased use of metal detectors at the magnet schools, pressure grew to repeal this law. Finally this month, the School Board joined in the PTA’s request to repeal it.
At last week’s City Council education committee meeting, Chicago School CEO Vallas testified that mainly "good" kids are getting arrested, and he didn’t think that was necessary any longer to maintain safety of the schools. However, he wants to continue to ban pagers from school, with students being suspended and pagers confiscated, under the school's Discipline Code. All of the Alderman agreed that allowing pagers in school, even if they are turned off, would be a disruption to the education process. They felt no exceptions could be made, because that would open "a can of worms." While Vallas and the Aldermen want to be tough on kids who carry pagers, they didn’t seem to care that Vallas’ pager went off three times during his testimony! The PTA agreed to carry on the struggle to allow pagers in the school.
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