SAN FRANCISCO, April 11—Over 200 students and workers had a spirited march through San Francisco’s working-class and predominantly Latin Mission District, protesting the ongoing attacks on the City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Angry and sometimes tearful speakers described the plans to let go of over 600 full and part-time teachers and shut down entire programs. People were very open to our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) leaflet, which brought a vision of a communist education to the struggle.
A friend leads the way
We found out about this march when a member of our PLP study group announced it at a Labor Chorus rehearsal. One of the study group leaders encouraged her to attend a study group where she proposed discussing the City College march. We turned the next study group meeting into a short discussion about the fight at CCSF and then reconvened at the demonstration. At the march  a few of us, including our friend, passed out nearly 250 leaflets and several copies of CHALLENGE.
Our PLP study group is mostly composed of progressive and anti-racist friends, many from this Labor Chorus (which happens to be threatened by the cuts at CCSF). We have discussed elections, fascism, racism, and the Party’s principles. But we have talked very little about doing political activity. So it was inspirational when this study group friend accompanied us to a Stop Asian Hate demonstration and then planned and participated with us at the CCSF march and protest.
Victories won by struggle, threatened by bosses’ cutbacks
Decades of struggle by students, workers, and teachers have expanded CCSF into a college, providing large numbers of non-credit, part-time courses for workers, older adults, English-learners, and people interested in art, music, gardening and more. At one point, 1/7 of San Francisco’s population had taken CCSF courses. Then came the attacks—an attempt to shut down the campus altogether, major budget cuts, and an attempt to revoke CCSF’s state accreditation. The many struggles had expanded CCSF’s curriculum, but as with any reform victory under capitalism, CCSF administrators are now reversing our victories.  
The California Board of Governors has a corporate-driven agenda to gut the community colleges and offer only specific vocational certificates or academic courses to a much smaller group of full-time students. Local CCSF administrators are carrying out those plans with massive cuts in faculty, classes, and programs and sabotaging the outreach and enrollment of students.
What would communist education look like?
Some of the reforms won at CCSF give a glimpse of education under communism. Workers can learn mental, manual, and social skills over a lifetime. We can become artists, writers, musicians, and dancers. There are courses for people with disabilities, for victims of domestic or sexual violence, and courses to help overcome isolation and stay physically and mentally fit. There are programs for victims of racism, sexism, ableism, homelessness, and unemployment.
These programs help us cope with some evils of capitalism, but the working class needs communism. Under communism there will be no classes about homelessness and unemployment. They will have been eliminated. Defeating racism and sexism will be primary in every aspect of society. Overcoming isolation and staying physically and mentally fit will be part of daily life, not a class that we take. We can only imagine how communism will unleash the creativity and energy of the working class.
But the bosses want capitalist education as a sorting hat for the next generation of workers—some are declared obedient workers for factories or companies. Others become petty managers and mouthpieces of capita. Still others are part of the military or the reserve army of labor. They want us on an educational conveyor belt with no time to think about what we’re doing or what’s being done to us. Education under capitalism will always serve and change based on the interests of the capitalist class.
Revolution primary over reform
Our study group has helped us be better communists. Discussion of our principles on page two of CHALLENGE has improved our understanding of nationalism and the role of wages and money, and why racism, not white supremacy, best describes what’s at play.  And our practice has improved.
Our study group friend met with us to join the City College fight and bring communist ideas to it. She helped pass out the PLP leaflet to the marchers and community members and contributed to this article. Working together to fight the bosses—now that’s communist education and action!
Capitalism is in crisis and, now more than before, cannot meet our needs for housing, health, jobs, or education. Worldwide tens of thousands of workers are fighting educational cuts like those at CCSF. Under capitalism, we get some education, limited as it is, only when we fight for it. We need communism, but it will never happen unless we organize in the class struggle and bring people closer to the Party, just like we did with this fight.
The bosses can take back any reform we win at CCSF or anywhere else. Our ultimate goal must be a communist revolution, where the working class takes power. So look for a study group in your area, an excellent way to learn about PLP’s ideas and to help plan and participate in activities. Join us!

Police are bosses’ attack dogs
On May 25th, 2020, in Minneapolis, the world watched in horror as the terrorists known as the police did what they do best - murder. The focus was on the four individual officers who were involved in the murder of George Floyd - Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao.
The truth is the police, no matter the color of their skin, have the blood of the working class on their hands. They are all just attack dogs for the capitalist ruling class.
The creation of the police in the 1700s was to capture runaway slaves. Throughout their entire existence, the police have stood against the working class, violently opposing, suppressing, and controlling them. The terrorist police that have killed so many innocent people continue to roam free. 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Alex Flores, David Flores, Cesar Rodriguez, Breonna Taylor, and many more are all victims of the devils who protect and serve the capitalist system (see editorial, page 2).
Backed by the courts and billionaire corporations, the police have a solid history of walking free after cold blooded murder and not being held accountable. If charges are applied they don’t stay, if charges do stay they end up dismissed in court by a judge or a hung jury, and if the blood thirsty police are locked up they won’t do the full time.
There are only two classes that exist in the world today. There is the capitalist ruling class - those who own the means of production, the exploiters, bankers, top military brass, corporate CEO’s, like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Kochs. These crooks are protected by  the police who serve the capitalists and their property. And there is the working class - those who do not own the means of production, those who are exploited, make every single commodity in the world, and who are forced to fight in imperialist wars. Workers outnumber the capitalists 99 to one!
Under capitalism there is no justice for the working class. In the case of George Floyd the outcome will be the same even if the cops are locked up. We in the Progressive Labor Party say that true justice for the working class will only come from the overthrow of the capitalist system with communist revolution. The establishment of communism means a society with no profit, no exploitation, no social constructs like race, and racism, no sexism and the objectification of women, no homelessness or poverty, no private property, and of course no terrorists called the police. A worker-run society to benefit all! Join us!
*****
Author of Agent Sonya is anti-communist
Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre is reviewed in the March 17 issue of CHALLENGE. The review is highly favorable and describes the book's tale of the remarkable Ursula Kuczynski who was a master spy for the world communist movement and in particular for the Soviet Union from the 1930s until after WWII and a loyal communist until her death in the 1950s. She never lost her faith in communism and the future.
The reviewer does not comment that Macintyre is quite anti-communist and the reader is left with the impression that Sonya must have been a naïve "true believer." Obviously incredibly dedicated and incredibly smart, able to outwit the intelligence agencies of the U.S., UK, Japan, and Germany, she was anything but naïve.
The New York Times (an anticommunist mouthpiece itself) reviewer, Kati Marton, criticized  Macintyre for saying that Sonya served "one of history's great monsters and his heirs only in passing."
I think many CHALLENGE readers would find the author's views sufficiently troubling to stop reading. Nevertheless, if you can put aside these "passing" references in the book to the anti-Stalin, anti-Soviet paradigm, then you will enjoy the book and feel inspired by this heroic human being who was able to live a full life with a family and friends while doing everything she could to ensure a better future for workers everywhere.

*****

The ruling class rules over society through the state apparatus. Laws, government, cops and prisons exist to keep the bosses in control of society. Highly successful and powerful U.S. high tech companies Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft (GAFAM) for many years have operated in their own self-interest and at times to the detriment of the interests of the main wing finance capitalists. As the fighting between the Big Fascist and Small Fascist (see glossary p.6) wings of the capitalists has become increasingly volatile the Big Fascists are using their state power to bring the Big Tech firms into line.
In the 20th century, the Defense Department and the intelligence community controlled the cutting-edge technologies: nuclear weapons, advanced fighter jets, spy satellites, and mainframe computers.  Now, the cutting-edge technologies are often developed by GAFAM.  The most advanced weapons are no longer just intercontinental ballistic missiles, but also super-accurate drones that allow a small state like Iran to attack the world’s most vital oil facility in Saudi Arabia. Besides developing technologies for use in weapons, GAFAM has become the biggest collector of information in the world (securelist.com, 10/23/19)
Rulers incorporate GAFAM into the state apparatus
The main way GAFAM collects information is that people volunteer it; posting pictures, turning on GPS, broadcasting their location every time they pay with a credit card.  Commercial firms collect and store that private information.  When journalist/engineer Surya Mattu did a check on the 80,000 most popular websites, 74 percent loaded Google trackers, 33 percent Facebook trackers, and 15 percent loaded “session recorders” – the digital equivalent of recording videos of what you are surfing.  Even with all trackers turned off, your phone and computer still report a unique ID number that allows Big Tech to track that number back to you.
The bosses’ state has struggled to match what Big Tech can do. After 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) started a program to monitor hundreds of millions of phone calls in order to identify terrorists by detecting key words, but in 201, the NSA ostensibly abandoned it, admitting it had detected no terror attacks.  Around that same time, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube (Google) set up the “Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism” (GIFCT) to share information about potential terrorist sympathizers and radicals (GIFCT.org). Instead of competing with Big Tech the ruling class is incorporating them into the state.
The nonprofit Upturn found at least 2,000 police agencies had searched hundreds of thousands locked, encrypted phones in recent years.  In August 2019, the FBI admitted to searching the phone records of 16,000 people even though only 7 of them had ties to an investigation.  But those numbers pale compared to the hundreds of millions of phones/computers that GAFAM monitors 24/7.  New devices either ask you to hook up to the cloud or do it automatically without telling you. Facial recognition is spreading and there are many millions of cameras on street corners, in stores and on front doors, and private drones are showing up at any newsworthy event to drive up social media rankings.
This is why the ruling class increasingly turns to Big Tech. The pro-Biden forces used GAFAM to silence Trump, closing his Twitter account and his Facebook page. After the January 6 attack on the Capitol, they shut down racist far-right social media platforms like Parler.
Big Fascists Move to Control GAFAM
All of the GAFAM firms are about 60 percent owned by the same finance capitalist institutions, not mainly individuals. The two most prominent Apple execs (Tim Cook and Arthur Levinson) own 0.12 percent of Apple stock.  The biggest shareholders are Vanguard (7.8 percent), BlackRock (6.6 percent), Berkshire Hathaway (5.6 percent), State Street (4.0 percent) and FMR (2.1 percent).  
Microsoft’s Bill Gates appears to control 4.3 percent of its stock (through his fronts), while Vanguard owns 8.4 percent, BlackRock 6.8 percent, State Street 4.2 percent, FMR 3.0 percent, and T. Rowe Price 2.4 percent.  
At Amazon, Jeff Bezos owns 11 percent, Advisor Group 7.1 percent, Vanguard 6.6 percent, BlackRock 5.4 percent, State Street 3.2 percent, and T. Rowe Price 3.2 percent.  
At Google’s parent Alphabet, the two big shots – Larry Page and Serge Brin – each own 2.8 percent, compared to Vanguard 4.5 percent, BlackRock 3.7 percent, T. Rowe Price 1.8 percent, State Street 1.4 percent, and FMR 1.4 percent.  
Facebook is something of an exception because Mark Zuckerberg controls 58 percent of the votes (which is why Facebook is sometimes more independent of the other GAFAM firms), but he owns 16.2 percent of the stock compared to Vanguard 7.5 percent, BlackRock 6. percent, FMR 5.1 percent, and T. Rowe Price 4.3 percent.  
Technology under capitalism becomes another tool for the bosses to oppress our class. Only after the workers take power with communist revolution and destroy both the capitalist state and the Big Tech bosses will technology serve the needs of the masses instead of the profits of the racist billionaires.

MYANMAR—Of the 700,000 garment workers in Myanmar 90 percent are women. They are striking against the exploitation by the  garment industry bosses and also leading the uprising against the military dictatorship that is ruling the country. They should not be pleading with the garment industry capitalists and their politician flunkies for a better deal. There is no better deal under capitalism. Capitalism means profits for the bosses and exploitation for workers. These women leaders should fight for communism, working class power, where they help lead all of society.
A major problem for the rank-and-file locals is the role of the national union leadership, which urges workers to plead to the H&M and Zara bosses to come to their aid. The garment workers must depend on their own actions, not on the bosses, who are the source of, and profit from, their exploitation. Unfortunately, no communist leadership has emerged from which the goal would be to overthrow the system of capitalism that plunges workers into abject poverty, enforced by the bosses’ cops and military. The trade union leaders do not and cannot have the aim to turn the anti-government protests into a class war against the profit system and for communist revolution.
These brave women fighters can lead a communist world
Often seen at the very front, wearing a mask and white helmet, was Ma Moe Sandar Myint, a 37-year-old mother of three and sewing machine operator. She is the rank-and-file leader of one of the largest union locals, is responsible for organizing more than 20 marches, and is among those calling for a general strike to paralyze the economy in a fight for their rights.
Ma Tin Wei, 26, a garment worker for five years who makes men’s jackets for the Italian brand OVS, organized a strike on her factory floor after the coup. She warned that, “If there were rights violations before in factories, then under a military regime there is no question things will be even worse for garment workers with low-wage jobs. This is a fight I must take on…even if it means risking arrest or death. It’s for me, my family, my union colleagues and all the people of Myanmar” (All quotes are from New York Times, 3/12).
Mai Ei Phyu, who leads 500 workers at a factory that makes jackets for Adidas, was hiding from the police looking for her. She said she was proud of the leadership role of young women  garment workers. “We were important,” she declared, “because we started the protests and came out on the streets early and set a good example for other people across the country. People are proud of us. I do what I do now for my son and daughter and the next generation.”
Myint moved to a safe house after the cops raided her own home on February 6. Leading protests by day and hiding at night, she has not seen her family since.
Harsher conditions under pandemic pressures
The number of people making less than $1.90 a day has more than tripled, to 63 percent of the population since the pandemic began. After a year of Covid-19-induced shutdowns, layoffs, pay cuts and union crackdowns, tens of thousands of garment workers have taken to the streets, many of the youth arming themselves.
Most women garment workers come from smaller cities or rural villages and have moved to the larger city of Yangon. They labor 66-hour workweeks ― 11-hour days, six days a week ― and most live in dormitories, sending part of their wages back home to their families. In such “housing,” they are vulnerable targets for the military.
Myanmar’s garment industry is vital to the economy, comprising 31 percent of all exports in 2018, worth $4.6 billion. Many Western companies such as H&M and Adidas have become important markets for the industry’s bosses. The uprising’s effects were cited by H&M’s manager in Myanmar as causing “practical difficulties and an unpredictable situation limiting our ability to operate in the country.”
The military has been a bulwark for the garment bosses against the strikers, using tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and live rounds, and killing hundreds at rallies nationwide.
The spirit that could lead to such an outcome flows from the kind of determination expressed by Moe Sandar Myint, “The more I see the suffering, the more I want to fight, even at the risk of death. This might end with my blood being spilled, but I won’t stop now!”