Four days after his confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama’s new Secretary of War Ashton Carter traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan, and “opened up the possibility of slowing the withdrawal of the last American troops in the country to help keep the Taliban at bay”  (New York Times, 2/22/15). His speech was yet another signal that the U.S. capitalist class is accelerating toward the next round of slaughter over oil and gas in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bosses’ urgency to defend ExxonMobil’s profits in Central Asia points to a sharpening rivalry with the capitalists of Russia and China, who are vying to control the same region. A new infusion of ground troops seems inevitable. Once again, the U.S. rulers will send workers to do the fighting and dying—especially immigrant youth who have few other options in an economy with permanent, massive unemployment.
Nearly a century ago, in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Vladimir Lenin analyzed the bloodbath of World War I as the unavoidable outcome of capitalist competition over resources. The Russian communists organized workers and soldiers and ended World War I with revolution; Chinese communists did the same in World War II. Today, as inter-imperialist rivalry intensifies, Progressive Labor Party is organizing the working class in 27 countries to turn the next global conflict over profits into a war for revolution, to smash racism and imperialism and to abolish the entire capitalist system with communism!
Bosses Ratchet Up War Plans
U.S. rulers knew what they were getting in Carter, a seasoned military hard-liner who pushed for a preemptive strike against North Korea’s nuclear capability as far back as 1994, during the Bill Clinton administration, even as he noted it could lead to war and a “horrific” loss of life (Politico, 12/2/14). In his recent nomination hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he advocated lethal military aid to Ukraine against Russia’s proxy separatists, a military solution for a “lasting defeat” of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the indefinite maintenance of the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, and the recognition of Iran as a mortal threat to U.S. interests.
Carter’s Kabul speech borrows almost word-for-word from a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan think tank closely tied to ExxonMobil, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Council on Foreign Relations—the heart of the dominant finance capital wing of the U.S. ruling class. “Transition in Afghanistan: Losing the Forgotten War?” rejects Obama’s previous withdrawal timeline and calls for keeping as many soldiers in Afghanistan for as long as they are needed. Written by Anthony Cordesman, one of the leading ruling-class analysts on the intersection of military and energy policy, it warns:
The allocation of only some 11,000 US troops at the beginning of 2015, cutting that number in half by the end of 2015, and then removing all... by the end of 2016 – except for a small office of military cooperation – presents serious risks, and should – at a minimum – be cut on a conditions-based level rather than to a fixed schedule.
The latest escalation in Afghanistan also reflects the U.S. bosses’ aim to weaken Chinese and Iranian influence in the region. The Asian Development Bank, the prime sponsor of the long-stalled Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, is controlled by Japan, the U.S. and the European Union. The Diplomat, a Japanese policy magazine affiliated with the CSIS, voiced concern that the TAPI delay has already strengthened Chinese influence at U.S. expense in Turkmenistan, and risks pushing Pakistan further into the orbit of Russia and Iran:

China has turned Turkmenistan into something approaching a client state, with Ashgabat planning on transiting 65 billion cubic meters [of gas] to Beijing by 2020.. ..TAPI would create a viable alternative to the proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline... [and] Pakistan can find a way to meet some of its energy needs without providing Tehran with an economic windfall (The Diplomat, 11/20/14).

Both Pakistan and Turkmenistan are vital to U.S. imperialist control of Central Asia, which the capitalists see as the center of the world’s “grand chessboard” — a game where workers are pawns to be sacrificed as needed. Of late, the U.S. has been losing ground. Turkmenistan’s regime has rebuffed demands by ExxonMobil and Chevron for exploration and property rights in TAPI gas fields. Pakistan has been under threat of U.S. sanctions since 2010 for partnering with Iran on a rival pipeline, already under construction. U.S. rulers need a stronger troop presence in Afghanistan to give them more leverage to protect their profit interests in the region.
Mosul: Flashpoint of the Next Oil War
As Ashton Carter beat the war drums in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced plans for a near-term U.S.-led invasion to retake the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State — an attack by big terrorists against smaller ones. Top U.S. military brass are weighing whether they “will need to deploy teams of American ground forces to...advise Iraqi troops on the battlefield” (NYT, 2/22/15).
Accordingly, the Brookings Institution, bankrolled by the same capitalists as the CSIS, claims there is growing U.S. popular support for war against ISIS. In “The American People to Its Leaders: Ground Troops Against ISIS and a Stronger National Defense” (2/20/15), it reported:

According to today’s CBS Poll, the American people...favor the use of American ground forces to combat ISIS. As recently as last September, only 39% favored that course, while 55% were opposed. Today, 57% favor ground forces; only 39% remain opposed….. Last fall, fully 64% of the people already believed that ground troops would be necessary...ISIS’s horrible torture and execution of innocent civilians...has increased Americans’ sense of urgency about confronting this threat.

The bosses’ hope is that these poll numbers will translate into a surge of working-class youth enlistment in the U.S. military in order to fortify the “ground forces,” a euphemism for cannon fodder. U.S. rulers cannot afford to cede Mosul to a small-time capitalist gang like ISIS, which is using the city as a base to attack Exxon’s operations in northern Iraq and, by extension, the broader U.S. strategy to enlist Turkey as an ally in a possible World War III. “ISIS militants have attacked Peshmerga [Kurdish/ northern Iraqi] forces... north of Mosul, with the aim of seizing equipment and machinery belonging to U.S. oil company ExxonMobil. Peshmerga forces have been guarding Exxon’s equipment since the company pulled its team from the area in June” (Iraq Business News, 2/12/15). The prize, for both ISIS and the U.S. and its corrupt Iraqi partners, is the area with the richest source of oil profits in Iraq.
The Only Solution is Communist Revolution
The working class across the Middle East and Central Asia has a proud history of fighting back for workers’ power, a history the world’s capitalist bosses would like to bury. After the Russian revolution of 1917, Turkmenistan, a Soviet Republic, immediately outlawed racism and declared women and men equal, with universal education and healthcare. Iraq’s Communist Party, which at its height united one million Sunni and Shia, organized the country’s railroads, oil industry, and dockworkers while leading massive strikes and uprisings during the 1940s. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, masses of workers backed the socialist PDPA government when it came under siege by U.S.-backed mujahideen terrorists, the forerunners of ISIS. But the weaknesses of the old communist movement — including nationalism and the preservation of wages and inequality — led to its own defeat.
The road to communist revolution is to organize anti-racist battles, using CHALLENGE to share news and analysis of workers’ struggles around the world, and ultimately to build our own mass Red Army and liberate our class. We need a movement of millions of working class leaders. Join us!

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Bosses Foment Racism

The troops needed by the U.S. ruling class come from working class youth. The capitalist class is working overtime to build nationalism to support their future wars by enticing immigrants and undocumented workers into joining the military. At the same time, they are escalating anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism. The executions of three students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a call for workers to unite in solidarity with their Muslim working class sisters and brothers.
PLP calls on every club and every CHALLENGE reader to organize demonstrations, job and campus actions against the racist Chapel Hill massacre and to help build our international movement. Send letters and articles to CHALLENGE, describing what you have done and how you and your collective plan to build for May Day.

CHICAGO, February 7 — PLP medical workers club organized a “Racism, Police Violence, and Health Teach-In,” with two public health student organizations at a major university. This teach-in was built on the growing antiracist momentum against police terror. It was developed for participants to draw connections between racism and public health, capitalism and police violence, and to strategize on how to build the antiracist struggle among the masses. The teach-in provided an opportunity to fight anti-communist attacks and sharpen our relationships with friends.
To kick the event off, a panel of five speakers gave a short speech, based on their experience on the subject matter. The panelists came from a diverse professional background, ranging from a public health student, to a history professor, to a leftist reverend. A local PLP leader was also on the panel. He spoke about not only his multiple trips to Ferguson, but also called for communist revolution as the means to end racist police and state violence.
Multiracial Unity and Organized Violence Are Necessary
Following the panel, over 100 participants broke into workshops to discuss tactics, strategies, and reform. Some of the topics discussed in these sessions included: identifying the pros and cons of both identity politics and multiracial unity to fight racism; identifying alternatives to relying on electoral politics and politicians; and making healthcare more accessible and comprehensive to the working-class in an era of increasing racist privatization and soaring costs.
Identity politics offer white, male workers only the only potential to ally with the oppressed groups. It is based on the belief that white workers benefit off the exploitation of Black, immigrant, and women workers. Such an individualist outlook fractures our class and prohibits real solidarity. An attack on one member of our class is an attack, and an indicator of greater attacks, on all of the working class. We should focus our effort on uniting against the cause of racism: bosses’ profits.
PL’ers participated in the workshops and raised the need for violence by the working class. While many agreed, some were anti-communist. One individual spoke specifically to the PL panelist afterwards, and condemned the use of violence as a political tactic. A majority of the panel explained that acts of violence are endlessly being committed against our class and that organizing to fight back is, at the very least, self-defense. PLP rejects all acts of individual terror. But, a mass movement to defeat capitalism requires a mass army. Legal slavery in the U.S. was defeated through violence, and wage slavery will be buried with organized violence as well. The participant was so upset, she walked out.
Communism Is “Unprofessional?”
A few of the organizers considered it “unprofessional” to openly call for communism and revolutionary violence at a university-sponsored event. To hide one’s politics because “people aren’t ready to hear that” is utter disrespect. Communism is the best way to organize society — no cops, no profits, no bosses, no racism, no sexism — and we will say so!
People who say it doesn’t “look good” to talk about communism are the same people who criminalize our kids for what they wear. Politics of respectability pays respect to the bosses and all their anti-working-class ideologies. This attack provided PL’ers an opportunity to strengthen our relationships by clarifying the difference between fighting for reform, and fighting for revolution. Those who we strengthened our ties with are the ones who can be won closer to communism by fighting racism at its source: capitalism. Diluting politics so as to not offend anyone is a tactic for the phony leftists and organized liberals.
By and large, the event was deemed a success by organizers and participants. We look forward to advancing communist politics with our new friends as well as the masses in the #BlackLivesMatter movement in order to offer the real solution to racism.

NEW YORK CITY, January 24 — With the weather snowy and wet, the streets icy and slippery, a forum “Ferguson: Causes, Events, What Happens Now?” took place in the sanctuary of our church. Ten minutes before the beginning of the forum, it appeared that almost nobody would show up, but soon there were almost 100 people sitting in the pews awaiting the start of the forum.
Following the official welcome to the church, a worker sang a song that named and honored many victims of racist police murders. There was tremendous applause for the words and the beauty of the song.
The forum began with introductions of the five speakers:  a representative of the New York Civil Liberties Union, a Baptist minister, a mother whose daughter had died in police custody, and two young fighters who went to Ferguson to take part in the struggle. Questions followed.
Ferguson has become a symbol for fighting back militantly against a system which is unequal, corrupt, and racist. Each of the speakers, in their own way, spoke to that. Although there were differences, none of the speakers disagreed about the nature of the system — the main disagreement was on how to fight back.
The lawyer from the NYCLU spoke most forcefully about the fact that the system is not even set up to help us, and that there are many laws that hamstring struggles through the courts. She agreed with direct action on the street, which she said could then be brought to court. She wanted to see equal implementation of laws and improved laws. She is working with others to gain that.
The next speaker briefed the audience on his trip to Ferguson. He started off his talk with a chant for everybody in the church to recite. “Ferguson means fight back!” “Racism means fight back!” He then spoke to the need for mass struggle on a militant level. He called for more marches, demonstrations, etc. He pointed out that this was the lesson of Ferguson. He also spoke about local struggles to improve people’s living conditions against racist landlords and other oppressors and he insisted that they should be carried out the Ferguson way.
The minister spoke next. He had the same feelings about the terrible, oppressive racism in Ferguson and in different parts of the U.S., but said he still believed in the power of prayer. However, workers can’t pray racism away.
A young student, a member of the Progressive Labor Party who had been arrested in Ferguson at a protest, spoke about the need to make a communist revolution in order to end racism all over the world. He said the many injustices we live under cannot be destroyed until all the aspects of the system are destroyed. This means destroying capitalism.
The last speaker was Anita Neal, whose daughter had been killed by the callous racist system. She brought the people to their feet — between her anger and her tears.
Questions from the audience allowed the speakers to go more deeply into each of their philosophical differences. Despite their differences, they all agreed to the need to stand up and fight evil face on. At the end of the forum people remained to talk to each other. Quite a few went out together to eat and talk some more. The afternoon was a success for community involvement. Plans are being laid to involve the church and community more in the struggle against the racist injustice of capitalism.

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BROOKLYN, NY, February 22 — This weekend our club organized a community forum on racism, with more than 40 people attending, including members and guests. There were several topics discussed.
Racist Exploitation and Deportations
A young comrade discussed this topic, arguing that Obama’s new immigration law is a dangerous trap for the majority of immigrants because of the increased controls as a result of “registering.” In addition, immigrant youth will be vulnerable to future wars because they’ll be recruited to fight imperialist wars.
Racism is a tool to intensify capitalist exploitation of the whole working class for use as cheap labor by dividing some groups of workers against others, and allows the bosses to both control the workers and gain “super profits.” Many in the audience were asking, how can we trust this president, who has already deported more than two million immigrants? We cannot. The only people to have confidence in are workers worldwide.
Racism and Police Brutality
Another comrade spoke about this issue and called out the names of all those murdered by the police: Eric Garner, Kimani Gray, Kyam Livingston, Shantel Davis, Michael Brown, and so many more. Names were read of victims from New York, Ferguson, Missouri, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and more.
Racism in the form of police brutality means the jailing of more than two million workers and youth here in the U.S. for slave labor, 70 percent of which are Black and Latin, who have to work for private companies at the miserable wages of $0.08 an hour.
Racism – The Struggle Against Imperialist War and Imperialism
For this topic we discussed the motives and justifications used by the biggest capitalists — the imperialists — to expand their wars to control land and wealth, especially oil in the Middle East. The imperialists impose their wars to terrorize and control the world. Iraq was mentioned as an example, which the U.S. destroyed using the lie it possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Imperialist powers build and sell modern weapons to other countries, like the thousands of chemical weapons Iraq legally purchased from the U.S. during the 1980s. Then the imperialists invade these countries, destroying them so that later their own companies “rebuild” them in exchange for long-term debt.
We also discussed Cuba, which suffered an economic blockade for more than 50 years. Now Cuba is being re-engaged by the U.S. as part of a fake “peace” plan and hopes Cuba can be used as a backyard in future wars, much as how the U.S. has always viewed Latin America as its backyard since the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s.
There were some comments from the audience, which illustrated racism in the wages they received, discrimination, and exploitation at work. Some detailed kidnappings and abuses when they came into this country, and the miserable housing conditions they confront as they fight eviction efforts. We confirm what we read in CHALLENGE, that Black and Latin families experience racism in all its forms: lower wages and benefits — lousy health care, housing and education — twice the rate of unemployment and wholesale murders at the hands of racist police.
After the forum, we held a small demonstration and chanted militant slogans. We distributed CHALLENGE, and people greeted us as we went by. Everything was well organized, and with the support and presence of experienced Party members, we had a successful forum and demonstration. Now, we are planning our next event before May Day, because people want to know what’s going on with ISIS, France, China, Cuba, and Ukraine.

Brooklyn, February 21 — “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”
“No justice, no peace! No racist police!”
 “We want justice for Kyam Livingston killed in a prison cell.”
And so the chants continue now for 18 months. Kyam Livingston’s mother, along with many church members, teachers, union members, activists and PL’ers, have stood strong fighting for justice. Kyam was left to die in a holding cell in Central Booking in Brooklyn on July 21, 2013. As the family continues its struggle, Kyam’s mother has forged ties with the families of other victims of racist police murder. PL’s strategy and tactics have helped lead this fightback. We will not stand aside under any circumstances whatsoever. The Justice for Kyam Committee speaks against systemic racism of the criminal justice system.
We seek change the whole system. We don’t rely on elected officials or politicians or others in high places. Our power is generated by the activities of working people enraged by the ongoing murders from Ferguson to Staten Island to Flatbush. When we chant “Fight like Ferguson,” we salute the leadership given by the mainly young Black workers of Ferguson. They refused to back down in the face of a highly militarized police terror campaign instituted to stop them from the murder of Mike Brown.
For 18 months, whether at Central Booking or in front of racist liar District Attorney Ken Thompson’s office, we have stood through snow, rain and heat asking simple questions. Still no answers. We have confronted Ken Thompson’s office, but still no answers. We have confronted Central Booking as they laugh at death through their windows. We have the names and we have the tapes of the murder.  We will continue to fight. 
One thing is very clear. The only solution is communist revolution and only through the Progressive Labor Party can we smash a system that doesn’t deserve to exist, and build a system for all working class people. 
One theme becoming more apparent with Kyam’s mother’s leadership is she does not want to see this happen ever again to other workers’ children and she will stand out here fighting until this system is gone and begins anew. We in the Progressive Labor Party stand with her. Join us on the 21st of every month in solidarity, as the working class stands strong.