Many people talk about human nature, saying that competition is “natural,” and that it leads to progress and that the selfishness of capitalism is really natural and acceptable. An important book puts a big hole in that idea, using scientific research into the emotions of animals. And it points out how capitalism has distorted the science for its own reasons by emphasizing competition over cooperation.
Marc Bekoff’s book, The Emotional Lives of Animals, (2007) records anecdotal evidence that most “higher” animals show rich emotional behaviours, more similar than different from the joy, grief and anger of humans. There is a foreword by Jane Goodall, famous for her years of observing primates in their natural habitat. Bekoff’s purpose parallels her work in his description of the interactions of many species. But by far the more interesting conclusion from his work lies in his secondary thesis that cooperation forms the basis for continuation of the species of all social animals.
Distorting Darwin
We have been taught that Darwin’s legacy is survival of the fittest (and from that, the “social Darwinist” theory that the spirit of competition ensures superiority of the wealthy under a profit system). Current capitalist philosophy takes this distortion of Darwin to promote the idea that basic human nature needs to be self-centered to win the race of life. On the contrary, Darwin and many others have observed that most animals are social beings whose collective societies can only survive through mutual aid and co-existence. Bekoff quotes Darwin, “Those communities which included the greatest number of sympathetic members would flourish best and rear the greatest number of offspring.”
In The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, Darwin argues that “emotions evolved in both animals and humans for the purpose of furthering social bonds in group-living animals.”  He believed that emotions connected us with the rest of our community and with the rest of the earth. He discussed morality as a natural extension and outgrowth of such social instincts.
As an example, Bekoff’s book cites evidence of parallel “brain-wiring” for cooperation which exists in both animals and man.  A study from The New Scientist, December 2, 2006, reported that in many species of whales — humpback, fin, killer and sperm — spindle cells were found to be in the same area of their brains as human spindle cells.  This brain region is linked with social organization, empathy, intuition about the feelings of others . . . And whales have more of them than humans! (p. xix preface)
The critical nature of social interaction has been documented through observation by Bekoff and others. His fieldwork among coyotes for over seven years in the Grand Teton National Park revealed the importance to survival of group dependence where those yearlings who drifted away from their society suffered a 55% mortality rate, compared to less than 20% for their stay-at-home peers.
Egalitarianism = Survival
Coyotes, as well as many domestic animals, compensate for differences in strength and size during play and close social connections in order to prolong the activity.  They manifest self-handicapping (lying down, exposing their stomach) and role-reversing (when a large animal plays with a much smaller one) to make the interaction more mutual. This “egalitarianism” as Darwin labelled it, is another basis for the survival of species.  
Further, Bekoff says that affiliative behaviour, the egalitarianism of fair play, and shared caring for the young is a precondition for evolution of humans. He concludes that, in the “survival of the fittest” philosophy, cooperation has long been ignored because of the ideological basis of competition. He says the “more we look for cooperation, the more we discover its presence. Animals certainly will compete, but cooperation is central in the evolution of social behaviour, and this alone makes it key for survival.”
The first primitive communist societies of tribes shared resources and cherished the land. Today, billions living in poverty survive by employing collectivity, and fighting back against their exploiters who profit off their misery. History is teaching working people that class struggle for communism is the real key to survival and happiness.

October 4 marked the 77th anniversary of a great battle against fascism — the “Battle of Cable Street” in London’s East End. Stories of that day are still talked about amongst the British working class.
For 300 years the East End of London had been a passageway of poor working-class immigrants into Britain. In 1936 the area’s population was largely Polish and Russian Jews, Irish Catholics and non-immigrant English working class. Most streets were a crooked tangle. Tiny houses were crammed together — 18th century industrial housing with flush toilets out the back. Many people worked on the nearby docks and in small factories, garment sweatshops and open air markets.
At that time, Sir Oswald Moseley’s Blackshirts — the British Union of Fascists (BUF) — was by far the largest fascist grouping of many that were growing in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. They had close ties to Hitler. Moseley’s group sent committed fascists into the East End to beat up and terrorize Jews. They wanted to divide the Jews from all the other immigrant groups. They labeled Jews “tyrants of international banking.” On the streets, fascists would scream “kill the kikes” and “get rid of the yids.” Amid a severe depression, Moseley’s movement was growing among the unemployed, white collar workers and small businessmen.
Ruling Class Funds the Fascists
A lot of Britain’s upper and ruling class funded the BUF. Some of Britain’s big newspapers — the Daily Mail, Evening News and Sunday Dispatch — promoted it. Even the recently crowned King (Edward VIII) had wealthy fascist friends in Britain, France and Germany. The police often turned a blind eye to the fascists’ beatings of Jews. Communists and trade unionists — many themselves Jews — led the attack on the fascists in the streets.
Moseley decided to show his strength by marching 10,000 uniformed Blackshirts and thousands of supporters directly through the Jewish/Irish neighborhood. Police Commissioner Sir Philip Game ordered his cops to “support the march.”
October 4th dawned bright and sunny. Ten thousand police were assigned to protect Mosley’s fascists. The official Jewish leadership advised workers to stay indoors and not show aggressiveness to them. But up to 500,000 people from the East End and other parts of London came to stop the fascist march. Mass and individual acts of heroism flooded the streets of the East End. The names of Cable Street, Gardener’s Corner and Aldgate joined the list of great working-class battles.
At Mile End (an East End street), a woman marched shouting, “They shall not pass!” and headed towards Aldgate. By the time she reached it thousands were following her. At Cable Street, jeering and singing crowds tried to breach the wall of cops to get at the fascists. The police attacked using nightsticks while mounted police charged the crowd. The horses stumbled from children hurling marbles under their hoofs and bursting bags of pepper under their noses. Women threw the contents of chamber pots from windows. The Nazis screamed, “The yids, the yids. We gotta get rid of the yids.” But the people chanted, “They will not pass!”
The masses erected barricades. A truck was turned on its side to block the street; old mattresses, bricks and pushcarts were thrown on top. An Irish anti-fascist bus driver drove his double-decker bus across the road, forming a barricade between the police and the anti-fascists. It was later pushed on its side. Red flags hung from windows. The army of fascists demanded the police escort them through the masses of people.
At Cable Street the massive wall of people held their ground and only retreated to pick up bricks or bottles to throw at the cops and fascists. Soon wounded police, fascists and protesters were carried off. The anti-fascist forces were so aggressive that a myth grew declaring that the police had surrendered to the crowd. One recently married young electrician who was hit in the face with a nightstick would talk about it proudly 30 years later.
Bearded Jews, Irish Dockers Unite
The fascists were under a constant hail of bricks, bottles and stones. As the crowd continued to fight, over 100 anti-fascist fighters were arrested, but still the police could not move the masses who held the cops within a vise grip. One demonstrator was moved to tears seeing bearded Jews and Irish dockworkers standing together to stop Moseley, saying “I shall never forget that as long as I live!”
At 4:15 the Police Commissioner canceled the BUF’s right to march. But now the police had to save them from being killed by the crowd. They surrendered Cable Street and attempted to escape two blocks away to Gardener’s Corner where they could leave the East End. The BUF hastily turned at Gardener’s Corner, but the anti-fascists — waiting for them — shouted, “Get them!” and crashed through police lines. They then chased the fascists out of London’s East End.
Later that night an elderly woman asked a bandaged fighter if he had been at that day’s battle. Fearing her disapproval, he denied being there. To his surprise and joy she said, “A curse on you that you did not fight this day.” To him it sounded like a Shakespearian quotation.
For days people celebrated throughout London. The fascists continued to try to organize, but now much of the ruling classes withdrew their open support (many began to view Hitler as a rival imperialist threat) and it was clear that workers wouldn’t be easily won to fascism. In early December, Edward VIII abdicated, having been king for only 10 months. The official story stated he left “to be with the woman he loved,” but among the working class it was common knowledge that he was forced out because of his open fascist ties.
From this battle we can see the working class should never give in to nationalist leaders. Both Jewish and Irish community and religious leaders tried to convince the masses not to fight the fascists, fearful of “causing more problems.” But if the fascists had not been fought at Cable Street, they would have been a much stronger ally of Hitler inside Britain during World War II.
The constant communist-led, anti-fascist organizing over many years led to the understanding and empowerment of the working class.
Dare to struggle — dare to win!

References
Benewick, R.: “A Study of British Fascism, Political Violence and Public Order.” The Penguin Press, London 1969.
Hutt, A.: “British Trade Unionism — A Short History.” International Publishers, New York 1953.
Ratner, R.: “The 50th Anniversay of the Battle of Cable Street.” Spotlight Magazine, October 1986.
Rudkin, W.A.: “The Growth of Fascism in Great Britain.” George Allen and Unwin, London, 1935.
Shermer, D.: “Blackshirts: Fascism in Britain.” Ballantine Press, New York, 1971.
Thomson, D.: “England in the 20th Century.” Penguin, Baltimore, 1965.
Walvin, J.: “Passage to Britain.” Penguin, Harmonsworth, Middlesex, 1984.

Following the racist tradition of police brutality in DC and Prince George’s County, cops have killed two unarmed suspects in two days. In Prince George’s County, the cops chased a man through woods and shot him as he tried to climb over a fence. The 7 year veteran of the police force claimed he feared for his life.  Of course!  No weapon was found at the scene—other than the cop’s gun.

In a gross display of brutal overkill, the Secret Service and the Capitol Police shot 17 times and killed an unarmed mentally ill young black woman who apparently tried to first crash the White House and then tried to crash the Capitol. The cops declared that there was “an active shooter incident”, but the only shooters were the trigger-happy cops. In fact, the chief of police boasted that the bollard barriers to both the White House and Capitol, put in place after 9/11, worked perfectly.  If that was the case, there was absolutely no reason to gun down the erratic driver. But in the Washington area, it seems that if you’re black, the cops shoot first and ask questions later.

The “war on drugs” by the government and cops made blacks an even bigger target of police repression, and the “war on terror” has unleashed military style attacks against any “threat to the homeland”. The working class is enduring ever greater fascist terror.  It is time to resist and fight back!

Workers and students in the Peoples Coalition in Prince George’s County recently rallied to demand the indictment of the Prince George’s cops who killed Archie Elliott, 3^rd as he sat handcuffed in the front seat of a police cruiser in 1993. The States Attorney finally agreed to meet with the Peoples Coalition, but brought the message that there was no way that her office would re-open the 20 year old case. Now there are two more bodies that the killer cops have given us.  The struggle will continue, and workers’ revolution will finally bring justice that can never be attained in a racist capitalist system!

The murderous conflict in Syria and the killings in Iraq and Kenya are becoming yet another front in the world’s inter-imperialist rivalry. Bosses are jockeying for position in the fight over Middle East oil and gas. U.S. rulers are using a divide-and-conquer strategy — both to oppress the U.S. working class and to maintain their global supremacy over their capitalist enemies.
It is the task of communists in the Progressive Labor Party to transform this imperialist struggle into a class war to overthrow capitalism. Only communism can end the bosses’ perpetual carnage.
In 1990, U.S. president George H. W. Bush invaded Iraq with more than half a million troops to recapture the Kuwaiti oil fields seized by dictator Saddam Hussein. Soon after, U.S. forces withdrew. Then President Bill Clinton used sanctions and missiles to soften up Iraq for George W. Bush’s grab for the country’s oil wealth. Bush’s advisers thought that the collapse of the Soviet Union, previously the main U.S. rival, gave them an opportunity to take over Iraq swiftly, on the cheap, and with a relatively small army.
Over the next 20 years, the U.S. ruling class killed several million Iraqis and forced four million more to flee the country. But it never achieved its goal, and Iraq remains up for grabs. The U.S. rulers are slowly learning this lesson, as their halting threats to attack Syria indicate.

Bosses Choose their ‘Heroes’

When terrorists killed dozens of shoppers in the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, the world’s media published touching stories of the victims’ lives and tales of heroism. But workers in Iraq are suffering a Nairobi-level massacre once a week with scant media coverage. Terrorists’ bombs and bullets have killed more than 4,000 people there this year, including 804 in August alone.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama used the attack in the Navy yard in Washington, DC, to tout the victims as heroes and “patriots” and heighten nationalist feeling in the U.S. Soon afterward, a Sikh Indian Columbia University professor was attacked on the street as an “enemy jihadist.”
Two causes underlie the media’s inattention to Iraq. First, since the murdered Iraqis are mainly poor workers, they matter less to capitalist media barons than affluent mall-goers. Second, full publicity would expose U.S. imperialism’s hand in the slaughter.
In 2003, the small number of troops the U.S. put on Iraq’s soil failed to pacify its warring Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions, the main sources of today’s terror attacks. In fact, it was only when the Pentagon paid off the insurgent Sunnis to switch sides — as the decisive element of its “surge” — that the U.S. was able to put al Qaeda forces on the defensive. While the payoffs stopped when the current pro-Shiite Maliki regime took control, U.S. rulers are still using religion and nationalism to provoke conflicts in their class interests.
Shaky security, among other issues, blocks U.S. and allied oil companies from significantly raising Iraqi oil production. It stands nowhere near the predicted 12 million barrels a day needed to satisfy both U.S. and foreign firms, and Iraqi factions.

Exxon Divides to Conquer

ExxonMobil also seeks to build its share of Iraqi oil by playing one group against another, further fueling sectarian flames. Exxon was supposed to come out victorious in Iraq. As the U.S.’s flagship oil firm, it had won majority rights to Iraq’s West Qurna I oil fields, one of the largest in the world, with estimated resources of around eight billion barrels. But Exxon is pumping less than a fifth of what it should from Qurna:

Exxon entered into a technical service contract with the Iraqi government in 2010, to boost the production rate from the field to 2.8 million barrels per day (MMBD) from 0.25 MMBD. The field is currently producing over 0.5 MMBD and is expected to reach a level of 0.6 MMBD by the end of the year (Trefis, 9/27/13).

The shortfall is mostly due to the constraints that Iraq’s President Maliki, a pro-Iranian Shiite, imposed on the deal (see box).In addition to dividing anti-Baghdad Kurds and the Maliki government, Exxon is emboldening anti-Shiite Sunnis against Maliki’s wishes: “The Ninewa Provincial Council has authorized Gov. Atheel Nujaifi to negotiate directly with oil companies, including ExxonMobil (Iraq Oil Report, 9/18/13). Nujaifi is a leader of the Sunni Mutahidoun political bloc. So is his brother, Osama Nujaifi, who had met with Exxon’s James Jeffrey a month before (National Iraqi News Agency, 8/19/13). Exxon put Jeffrey, formerly Obama’s ambassador to Iraq, on its payroll early this year (Iraq Oil Report, 2/8/13) to grease its anti-Maliki deals with Kurds and Sunnis.

Maliki Using Syria War vs. Exxon

Maliki, for his part, has jumped on the Syria crisis to temporarily chase Exxon from Qurna:

An Iraqi Shiite militia group has threatened to attack U.S. interests in Iraq and the region if Washington strikes Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad is backed by Tehran.....Exxon, particularly at risk because as an American firm, is taking no chances, re-basing most of its workforce from the southern West Qurna-1 oilfield project to Dubai until tensions ease. (Reuters, 9/11/13).

Exxon’s short-term plan is to ally with Sunnis and Kurds in an effort to destabilize Shiite-led Baghdad. In fact, Exxon keeps threatening to abandon its pumping operation in Iraq (see box) — a potential problem for Maliki, since Iraq lacks this expertise.
The Middle East’s political complexity makes Exxon’s path a tricky one. The oil company’s main allies, the Saudi monarchs, are Sunnis, but so are al Qaeda fanatics. And Exxon’s hired hand Jeffrey is urging a dialogue with Shiite bosses, even as his employer demonizes them:  “Keep in mind that the states where Shiites are a majority — namely Iraq and Iran — probably have more than 300 billion barrels of oil reserves between them. That is almost two-thirds of the reserves of the Gulf Cooperation Council states, including Saudi Arabia, and more than 20 percent of global reserves.”
Obama understands it would take more than a million troops to conquer Syria. With Congress paralyzed and the U.S. public leery of another Middle Eastern war, the best Obama could do was to brandish a U.S. missile strike —   and then back off as soon as Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the U.S. an out. Confronting Iran would require at least as many troops. Global conflict with China or Russia would demand a full military mobilization.

Answer Imperialism’s Hell with Communist Revolution

All of these imperialist maneuvers spell more death for the workers of the world. Besides the 100,000 killed in Syria, two million workers and their families have been forced to flee their homes to tent camps in nearby countries. U.S. drones are killing thousands in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, on top of the tens of thousands slaughtered by the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the millions killed by the two Iraqi wars and Clinton’s sanctions, including half a million Iraqi children. This does not include the 500,000 U.S. GI’s suffering from post-traumatic-stress syndrome, which results in 18 suicides a day.
There is only one answer to this world capitalist carnage, and to the mass unemployment, racism, sexism and poverty the profit system engenders. That answer is mass communist revolution, which the Progressive Labor Party is organizing. Build PLP. The time to join is now!