When U.S. rulers hype old news from Afghanistan, one has to wonder what’s really happening. The NY Times, a leading ruling-class mouthpiece, treated the recent Wikileaking of old Afghan war documents from the Bush, Jr. era as a blockbuster exposé. In June 2010, the Pentagon re-released a 2007 geological study identifying a trillion-dollar Afghan treasure trove of minerals. Hardly breaking news, these sudden front-page “revelations” reflect major policy disputes within the capitalist class.

Phony Peacenik Wikileaks Aids War-Makers’ Planning

Wikileaks is by no means anti-war (see box). Rather it focuses ruling-class and public attention on the unresolved question of what form of murder best serves U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan. The rulers have two main choices, counterinsurgency or counterterrorism:

• Counter-insurgency amounts to full-scale, vastly expensive colonial occupation that subjugates the entire population, largely through the deadly seizure of cities;

• Counter-terrorism, less costly and perhaps less effective for U.S. invaders, targets suspected al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and allies for assassination in hopes that the rank and file will see the pro-U.S. light.

Wikileaks’ 92,000 dumped memos disclose long-known facts bearing on this debate: U.S. and allied forces have killed thousands of Afghan civilians, thus unintentionally swelling pro-Taliban sentiment; since 2001, the U.S. has employed Special Operations death squads; U.S. “ally” Pakistan aids the Afghan Taliban; and U.S. puppet Afghan ruler Karzai is crooked and unreliable.

Obama & Co. waver on Afghan tactics. Obama at first stressed counter-insurgency with his 30,000-soldier surge. Now with U.S. forces stretched close to the breaking point, counter-terrorism seems to reign in the White House. Richard Haass, president of the Rockefeller-led Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the leading U.S. imperialist think-tank, wrote in Newsweek (7/18/10): “The military price [for counter-insurgency in Afghanistan] is also great, not just in lives and material but also in distraction, at a time when the United States could well face crises with Iran and North Korea.”

Wikileaks, emphasizing obstacles to nation-building, justifies the rulers’ current shift away from old-style colonialism towards assassination. The Times (8/1/10) reports, “Eight months later, that counterinsurgency strategy has shown little success, as demonstrated by the flagging military and civilian operations in Marja and Kandahar and the spread of Taliban influence in other areas of the country. Instead, what has turned out to work well is an approach American officials have talked much less about: counterterrorism, military-speak for the targeted killings of insurgents from Al Qaeda and the Taliban.”

Naked U.S. War-makers Feel A Draft

But there’s an even bigger war story the bosses can’t put on the front page or in prime time because they haven’t yet won the working class, or their own class, to the unity and sacrifice needed for wider conflict. It concerns the rulers’ covert plans to restore the draft and militarize industry, if fighting extends beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. The recently-issued “Final Report of the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel,” ordered by Congress, has buried it on page 64:

“[T]he Panel is concerned that an expansion of the [military] force might be necessary in response to an unexpected attack; to support a longer term, more intensive combat circumstance than Iraq and Afghanistan; or perhaps operations on a third front. While the nation has a Selective Service System, we don‘t see that it has a matching plan even in concept to train and equip an expansion of either conscripts or volunteers and recommend that such a concept plan be prepared. The industrial base has long been a concern and while we should not prop up businesses that cannot survive on their own, neither should we be without the ability to ramp up production in response to crisis.”

Military Focus on Afghan Pipeline?
Or on Minerals?

Afghanistan’s newly-trumpeted mineral wealth underscores another policy quandary for U.S. rulers. Should the main economic goal of U.S.-led military efforts be to secure the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, or should it be to secure access to Afghan iron, copper and lithium?

Geography plays a role as crucial as politics here. If absolute U.S. control of TAPI is paramount, Obama must lead the U.S. war machine in counter-insurgency to forcibly seize the southern, Taliban-dominated Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand through which TAPI will run. TAPI has important ramifications in the sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry. “India has recently reaffirmed its interest in progressing with the TAPI pipeline project. Considerations other than commercial may be contributing to this [such as] countering the expanding presence of China in Central Asia.” (“Journal of Energy Security,” 7/26/10)

Minerals, however, lie in abundance in Afghanistan’s northern, western and eastern regions, according to a 2004-2007 study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) publicized this June by the Defense Department. These findings alter U.S. imperialism’s troop-basing requirements.

CFR’s Haass suggests (Newsweek article) a “de facto partition of Afghanistan. Under this approach, the United States would accept Taliban control of the Pashtun-dominated south so long as the Taliban did not welcome back Al Qaeda and did not seek to undermine stability in non-Pashtun areas of the country. If the Taliban violated these rules, the United States would attack them with bombers, drones, and Special Forces. U.S. economic and military support would continue to flow to non-Pashtun Afghans in the north and west of the country.” Haass needn’t mention the east, the border with Pakistan, Osama bin Laden’s hideaway, which gets permanent U.S. attention. 

Haass’s redeployment scheme is consistent with both Wikileaks and the Pentagon/USGS. Minerals may, in fact, hold greater importance for U.S. bosses. The report calls Afghanistan the Saudi Arabia of lithium, an essential ingredient in batteries from cell phones to electric cars. And the exploding economy of U.S. competitor China needs iron and copper. 

Workers shouldn’t fall for the Wikileakers’ fake pacifism. To effectively oppose U.S. wars with Iraqi, Afghan, Iranian and Chinese or other bosses, we must destroy the profit system which creates this deadly imperialist rivalry. Smashing capitalism will take a communist revolution, which is why we strive to bring this understanding to the rank and file in the shops and unions, in the schools and military, churches and other mass organizations. Such is our Party’s ultimate goal. J

Wikileaks: Another Liberal Rulers’ Mouthpiece

Wikileaks didn’t fall from the sky. Its mastermind Julian Assange sports a lengthening liberal imperialist pedigree. In June, a profile in the ultra-liberal, Establishment New Yorker magazine canonized him as a quirky but supremely well intentioned truth seeker. Assange and pals were front-runners for a $500,000 grant from the Knight Foundation whose president, Alberto Ibarguen, sits on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, the top U.S. imperialist think tank. Knight eventually turned Assange down, but only when dealing with the Times proved far more lucrative to liberal rulers in terms of public opinion. The Rockefeller-led liberal cabal of National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting System, and Corporation for Public Broadcasting have become, through their grantees Radio Pacifica and its “Democracy Now” program, the main media defenders of Assange and his Army intelligence mole Private Bradley Manning.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 10 — Over 100 workers occupied a vacant parcel of government-owned land and erected a tent city, demanding that the government keep its promise to build affordable housing there and throughout the city instead of catering to the needs of the rich. This action was led by a community-based organization Organizing Neighborhood Equity (ONE DC) and included members and friends of PLP who understand that the demands will not be met without a revolution.

Capitalism is a racist system, with the riches of the bosses coming from increasing the poverty of the workers. This is clear in the housing conditions faced by the world’s working class. In the U.S., millions are ill-housed and hundreds of thousands are actually homeless, including many workers whose jobs pay so little that they can’t afford housing at all!

The History of Parcel 42

As in every arena of exploitation, the working class fights back and resists its dehumanization by the bosses. The battle against gentrification and for decent affordable housing shows this resistance, both overt and subterranean.

For 15 years, D.C. has seen the steady erosion of affordable housing and the encroachment of high-priced condominiums in many historically black working-class neighborhoods. The city has housing waiting lists for 26,000 households and 700 people living with AIDS. Rich developers working with their politicians have created this racist, anti-working class process. The previous mayor, Anthony Williams, declared that he wanted to bring in 100,000 new residents to the District, with the clear message that these would be well-to-do professionals who would increase the tax base.

Meanwhile affordable housing eroded and was replaced by housing for the rich. This was nowhere as evident as in the Shaw and U Street neighborhoods, where hundreds of condos costing $400,000-$800,000 each have been erected overlooking the historic U Street’s “Black Broadway,” the center of black entertainment during the period of Jim Crow and racial segregation. The current mayor, Adrian Fenty, intensified this gentrification process while paying lip service to expanding affordable housing. He occasionally endorsed “community benefits agreements” that require developers to include a certain percentage of affordable units in new residential construction to gain city support.

One example was the mayor’s negotiation with ONE DC over Parcel 42, a now-vacant piece of land that previously housed a city-run community health clinic. ONE DC argued that residential development on that parcel should include affordable housing, with some rents or mortgages low enough so that very low-income households (earning less than $25,000 annually) could live there. Then the Mayor changed his mind. All units would be priced for people making about $50,000, with no provision for the housing needs of lower-income workers.

Workers Seize the Parcel

So ONE DC and its allies decided that direct action was needed to mobilize opposition to what they saw as a betrayal by the Mayor. At the end of its annual block party, ONE DC led workers to Parcel 42, surrounded it and then seized it! This was a bold act of working-class resistance to the deepening crisis of capitalism. At the seizure rally, several local residents declared that they had lost their homes due to rent increases and job loss and could no longer live in the community they grew up in.

ONE DC established a tent city on the site in a matter of minutes and placed large signs on the fence around it, declaring that the parcel now belonged to the community and that affordable housing was needed throughout the city. Police threatened to tear down the tents and arrest the “trespassers,” but ultimately backed down due to the politically sensitive nature of such an action in the run-up to the election.

Management illegally threatened nearby low-income residents in subsidized housing with eviction if they joined the occupation. But as we go to press, the occupation continues and the bold signs remain in place.

Where will this struggle go from here? Some activists are calling for more seizures of city land and establishing sustainable “intentional communities.” Others are calling for putting more pressure on the local politicians to support affordable housing. PLP’ers argue that, while bold actions are good, we should have no illusions about the lying politicians of all stripes or about the limits of this direct action struggle. The bosses will order the police to smash this effort if they feel threatened, so we must use this experience to become steeled for the long haul of communist revolution. As Engels noted in 1872 (see box), the housing crisis of the working class can only be solved by workers smashing the state, seizing the leadership of society and re-organizing it to meet workers’ needs.

PLP’s work in the housing struggles was on display with several members and friends participating in the block party and the rally. These students have been active in the struggle for housing for patients with HIV/AIDS and several have been involved in PLP study groups. The next step is for friends of the PLP in the housing struggle to become anti-racist, communist members of the PLP to strengthen the long-range ability of the working class to seize power through revolution. J

‘Every City Has One or More Slums...’

In 1844, Friedrich Engels, the co-author of  the Communist Manifesto, wrote of the despicable housing conditions that early capitalism foisted on the young proletariat: “Every great city has one or more slums, where the working class is crowded together. True, poverty often dwells in hidden alleys close to the palaces of the rich; but, in general, a separate territory has been assigned to it, where, removed from the sight of the happier classes, it may struggle along as it can (The Condition of the English Working Class in 1844.)

In 1872, in a debate with German socialists who believed that capitalism could be reformed to improve housing, Engels forcefully argued that, “[Only by] the abolition of the capitalist mode of production is the solution of the housing question made possible.” (The Housing Question). The same analysis applies today!

JERUSALEM, JULY 21 — Over 700 striking daycare workers — who have recently unionized in the “Workers’ Power” union federation — demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The workers, Jewish and Palestinian women from all parts of Israel/Palestine, fought for workers’ control over regulations, a living wage and normal working conditions.

The “family” daycare system, first created in the 1980’s, was an attempt by the Israeli government to provide subsidized daycare facilities for children up to the age of 3, using small groups hosted at the workers’ homes rather than in an ordinary kindergarten. This service is especially valuable for impoverished families where both parents work but cannot pay the steep prices of private daycare.

However, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which operates this system, has essentially privatized it, transferring its funds to the hands of local operators instead of paying the workers directly. The Ministry, as well as the local operators, have found a way to super-exploit these daycare workers: instead of being employed directly by either the Ministry or the operators, and thus entitled to a full wage and benefits, they are technically treated as “freelance contractors” and paid a flat monthly sum.

Capitalist Sexist Exploitation

These women work up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, yet earn less than 4,000 NIS (about $1,000) a month! And even that low wage is subject to payment delays. Additionally, these workers have to pay their operational costs out of their own pockets, and are constantly harassed by new regulations by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, regulations that often require them to spend more of their meager income on various safety features.

Faced with such brutal exploitation, the daycare workers decided to unionize in 2008 as part of the “Workers’ Power” union federation. Today, after two years of organizing, the union includes approximately 1,000 out of the 2,400 “family” daycare workers in Israel/Palestine. The workers, both Jewish and Palestinian women, are fighting for direct employment by the Ministry rather than the exploitative “freelancer” scam, for a living wage and benefits, for the payment of operation costs by the Ministry, and for workers’ control over the various regulations.

The Ministry and the local bosses first tried to ignore the union, and then moved to more aggressive methods against it, including the delaying of pay and the firing of several workers. Additionally, in the town of Elad, some women who were religious Jews were threatened with excommunication unless they leave the union; this has led several workers to withdraw from the union. This is a classic example of the role of religion as one of the bosses’ weapons against the working class.

Faced with these repressive steps, workers are fighting back nonetheless, demonstrating and striking against the bosses, and are trying to expand their union.

However, even if this reform struggle is won by the workers, the capitalist Israeli government will undoubtedly try to erode its achievements and rob the workers once again. Only a workers’ communist revolution and the seizure of state power by the working class will ensure good working conditions for all workers as well as free, high-quality daycare and education for all children. PLP is spreading our ideas among these workers, as well as building a base for our Party. 

In the coming school year thousands of high school students will be debating the pros and cons of removing U.S. troops from bases in South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

But don’t be fooled: nobody in the ruling class is debating troop withdrawals. They’re debating
re-deployments. There’s a long-lasting and broad consensus among political and military elites that U.S. imperialism must remain dominant in the Middle East. This consensus, persisting since World War II, was boldly and publicly expressed in president Jimmy Carter’s warning to the USSR when the latter entered Afghanistan in 1979:

The U.S. Case for Control of Oil

“The region…now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world’s exportable oil.…Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and…will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

This is the Carter Doctrine. No president since Carter has renounced it, and none ever will. Those U.S. troops who’ve departed Iraq have headed to Afghanistan. Air strikes have killed untold numbers in Pakistan and Yemen, both of which (along with Somalia) are repeatedly announced as the “next” targets in an ongoing “long war” against “terror.”

There are no withdrawals, only shifts from one target to the next and back again in a treadmill of invasion, occupation and escalation. This is the general trend of inter-imperialist rivalry in the Middle East.

“Terrorism” constantly emerges in high school debates but, as in the general U.S. population, is poorly understood and riddled with anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism. U.S. imperialism is the world’s greatest terrorist threat. The British medical journal Lancet placed invasion-caused Iraqi casualties at a conservative 600,000. Remote-controlled drone missile strikes and commando Special Forces raids have slaughtered thousands in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is terrorism.

However, the so-called “insurgents” who resist U.S. invasion are hardly better than the invaders. Local bosses, cloaked in the guise of radical Islam, simply want Arab control of Arab oil profits, wrenched from the exploitation of “their” workers.

Turn the Guns on the Exploiters

The young men (and increasingly young women) pointing weapons at each other in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond have much more in common with each other than with the bosses and generals who send them off to die. From the Middle East to the U.S., unemployment forces the youth into the military. These young people need to turn their guns on their exploiters as revolutionary soldiers did in Russia and then in China, in a communist seizure of power.

Currently, imperialists, whether U.S., European, Russian or Chinese, tend to pick on smaller powers. But rivalry between the imperialists will intensify and sooner or later will erupt in open conflict, leading to world war. Only communist revolution can chase the imperialists from power. Workers’ power abolishes capitalist competition for profits which lies behind inter-imperialist rivalry and war.

This coming school year thousands of student debaters will join tens of millions of their peers in facing the most vicious budget cuts public schools have suffered in our time. Unemployment continues at sky-high levels for tens of millions of workers. Meanwhile, profits climb; corporations sit on over a trillion dollars, waiting for the most profitable time to invest. They refuse to rehire the workers they discarded like so much trash in recent years.

The money from corporate profiteering and imperialist war expenses could restore every single budget cut to every school, send everyone to college and provide everybody with a job and a home. But that’s not how capitalism operates. The “National Priorities Project” website, totally lacking in class analysis, can provide a sense of the dollar amounts involved.

Connect the Dots

The challenge now for all students, teachers and parents is to organize fight-back, not merely to restore school funding (though a start) but must connect the cuts to the wars. After all, even fully-funded schools will still only lie to us about the wars. U.S. capitalism, partly to help pay the trillions of dollars spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is moving to squeeze ever more profits out of the working class.

But awareness alone, while important, is insufficient. We need to build a movement to smash the system that makes these cuts and these wars increasingly intense. We must smash racist notions that place more value on the lives of U.S. soldiers than on our working-class brothers and sisters overseas. CHALLENGE will continue as a resource of timely, accurate and class-conscious news about world events and class struggles against the bosses and their system. Student debaters should use CHALLENGE articles for discussion in team practices.  Building a stronger communist movement is winning the “insurgency” to capitalism’s endless chamber of horrors. Join PLP!