Hart-Rudman Report 2: A Blueprint for More War and a Fascist Police State

a href="#It IS About Oil—Iraq’s Is Plentiful and Cheap">It"IS About Oil—Iraq’s Is Plentiful and Cheap

a href="#‘Maverick’ Wellstone Supported Wars from Kosovo to Iraq">‘M"verick’ Wellstone Supported Wars from Kosovo to Iraq

a href="#War Maker, Strike-Breaker — Smash GE!">"ar Maker, Strike-Breaker — Smash GE!

• a href="#How Anti-Communist Union Hacks Served Bosses To ‘De-Unionize’ 250,000 Workers">Ho" Anti-Communist Union Hacks Served Bosses To ‘De-Unionize’ 250,000 Workers

a href="#PLP Exposes City Colleges’ Pro-War Show">"LP Exposes City Colleges’ Pro-War Show

Liberals Divert Huge Anti-War Marches Away From Anti-Imperialis

California Campus Workers Blast War, Police State

Profit System Grinds Down Home Health Care Workers

Anti-Cop Rebels Confront Bush On Iraq War

a href="#Laws Are Bosses’ Fascist Tool">"aws Are Bosses’ Fascist Tool

LETTERS

a href="#Rely on Workers, Not ‘Lesser Evils’">Re"y on Workers, Not ‘Lesser Evils’

Anti-Racists Block KKK Movie

Unions A Tool Of Rockefeller Forces

Two Steel Workers In The Lunch Room

Bring Anti-War Message to Mass Organizations

Red Eye On The News

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Hart-Rudman Report 2: A Blueprint for More War and a Fascist Police State

Another war with Iraq appears to be only a matter of time. U.S. bosses may haggle about the timing and details of this adventure, but they all share the strategic goal of world domination. This requires maintaining a chokehold on their rivals’ access to the world’s cheapest energy supplies, which are concentrated primarily in the Persian Gulf. A series of increasingly bloody wars will force them to militarize society to try to crush any organized, militant opposition to their agenda, at gunpoint if necessary. War and fascism go hand in hand.

The Clinton-appointed Hart-Rudman Commission on National Security in the 21st Century laid out the broad outlines for a "Homeland Security" reign of terror months before 9/11. However, the rulers still don’t have their house in order. So former Senators Hart (Democrat) and Rudman (Republican) have just produced a sequel, entitled "America Still Unprepared — America Still in Danger." It is the brainchild of an "Independent" Task Force convened by the Council on Foreign Relations, a key Rockefeller-led think-tank.

Hart-Rudman II implies a scathing criticism of Bush for not moving far enough and fast enough toward fascism. The report’s recommendations include:

•Immediate, emergency action to shore up "homeland security," especially now that war with Iraq is likely.

•The government must intervene to ensure the security of U.S.-based refineries, pipelines and power grids. H-R II wants the feds to control ruling class upstarts like Enron while protecting the energy infrastructure from al Qaeda.

•The private sector must share its security expertise with the government. Companies that comply will get the carrots of government information and an exemption from anti-trust actions.

•The National Guard must "make homeland security a primary mission." This includes treating the victims of bio-terrorism and "maintaining civil order." Striking workers and anyone contemplating militant activity should expect to be arrested or shot by the National Guard.

•Local and state cops must have access to "terrorist watch lists" available to the State Department.

•Massive infusions of federal cash must be made available to implement these and other measures. Therefore, repeal the Bush-sponsored 2001 tax cut, which hinders the plans for a police state by enriching individual members of the ruling class while sacrificing the class-wide agenda favored by the liberals.

The report’s co-signers include two former Secretaries of State, three Nobel prizewinners, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former CIA and FBI director and a bunch of financial, legal and medical heavy hitters. The rulers are deadly serious about carrying out this agenda. If the Bush White House is not up to the task, the rulers will find a new cast of characters to do the dirty work.

The next war could eventually lead to far wider armed struggle throughout the Persian Gulf. Over the very long run, U.S. imperialism will probably have to go it alone against their Chinese, Russian, French and other competitors. We are entering a new period of inter-imperialist rivalry. U.S. rulers will stop at nothing, including world war and the use of nuclear weapons, to remain top-dog in the international profit system.

Capitalism makes war and fascism inevitable. Peace movements like the present one, backed by the same liberal rulers who are organizing wider, far more lethal wars, can’t stop the inter-imperialist rivalry. Voting and legal action cannot stop the advance of fascism.

The way to confront imperialist war is to win workers, soldiers and students to understand that as long as capitalism exists there can’t be peace. Making revolutionary war to get rid of all the warmakers is the only solution to endless imperialist bloodbaths. This requires bringing communist politics to the mass actions and organizations of workers and youth. At the moment, the rulers have the upper hand. But they are not invincible. As conditions sharpen, their weaknesses will magnify and multiply. Imperialist war and police terror will provide many opportunities for our Party to grow. Our efforts can eventually turn this period of homicidal rivalries among the world’s bosses into a movement for communism and workers’ power.

a name="It IS About Oil—Iraq’s Is Plentiful and Cheap"></">It"IS About Oil—Iraq’s Is Plentiful and Cheap

Many in the anti-war movement are beginning to link oil to the U.S. bosses’ plan to attack Iraq. Even the liberal media has been forced to mention the oil connection, albeit always emphasizing it is "not the main reason" to invade Iraq (Sunday New York Times News of the Week section, Nov. 4).

But it is the main reason. The U.S. ruling class spends tens of billions to maintain a permanent naval and military force in the region, fully aware that the control of Middle East oil supplies and profits is crucial to keeping their rival imperialists at bay. That’s why French, Russian, Chinese and other oil companies and their governments are not too happy with the U.S. plan to turn a post-Saddam Iraq into a U.S. protectorate. Even the chairman of BP (ousted from Iraq in the ’60s) said he’s worried that U.S. oil companies plan to carve up Iraq for themselves. For that reason a section of the British ruling class is bitterly opposed to Tony Blair being a lapdog of Bush.

The world’s biggest corporations are oil companies, headed by the biggest financial capitalists. The Rockefeller section of the U.S. ruling class controls Exxon-Mobil, the world’s largest corporation. Without oil, capitalist armies and industries can’t operate. Today there’s no alternative energy to oil. And the cheapest and best quality is in the Middle East. Iraq has 11% of the world’s reserves (second only to Saudi Arabia). With 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and at least 220 billion barrels of probable reserves "Iraq is universally acknowledged to be the new promised land of oil…The war of positioning for a possible post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi environment is getting more ruthless by the minute. American oil conglomerates are openly courting representatives of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the umbrella opposition. The darling of Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco is Ahmed Chalabi….Dick Cheney’s pal and major contender for the title of Iraq’s number one opposition figure…" writes Pepe Escobar (ATimes.com).

Chalabi already favors creation of a U.S.-led consortium to develop Iraqi oil fields once Saddam is gone. This is the main reason France and Russia oppose the U.S. vision of a future Iraq.

Iraqi oil is plentiful and cheap. "Industry sources in the Gulf and Singapore confirm the production cost of a barrel of oil in Caspian Sea is around US$8. The same thing in Iraq costs only 70 cents. So the new oil frontier in Central Asia for the moment is little more than a mirage." (Atimes.com).

That is why the U.S. rulers must wage imperialist war to control Iraq.

a name="‘Maverick’ Wellstone Supported Wars from Kosovo to Iraq"></">‘M"verick’ Wellstone Supported Wars from Kosovo to Iraq

Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone was known as a "maverick" in the Senate, who supposedly defended workers and opposed Bush’s war aims. Many of those who demonstrated for peace in Washington on October 26 viewed him as a friend and fighter for social justice. But in his last Senate speech before he died in a recent airplane "accident," he boasted of having voted for the use of military force in Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Wellstone was loyal to the Liberal Establishment and its plans for imperialist war and home-front fascism. His "opposition" to the war on Iraq was unprincipled. He thought the US shouldn’t act alone, but with the blessings of the UN. He supported the USA Patriot Act and the fascist Israeli rulers.

The Institute for America’s Future (IAF), a small foundation that lists the Rockefeller Foundation as its main financial supporter, formulated his social and fiscal policies. He appeared regularly at IAF conferences and referred to its research almost exclusively in his campaign literature.

The IAF opposes tax cuts and the privatization of Social Security. This is consistent with the Hart-Rudman recommendations for massive funding of a reinvigorated "Homeland Security" police state. The IAF echoes the Brookings Institution, the Council of Foreign Relations and other liberal think-tanks, who support "nation building" and a massive U.S. occupation of Iraq. The IAF also demands a homeland security bill with more muscle than Bush and Ashcroft have shown.

Wellstone was no "lesser evil." That’s why his memorial service turned into a pep rally for the "un-maverick" former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale. Liberals like Wellstone remain the major political threat to our class. In the name of "peace" they will launch imperialist wars for world domination. In the name of "defending our democratic civil rights," they will move ruthlessly toward a fascist, "homeland security" police state.

We don’t need the mis-leadership of liberal sweet-talkers funded by the most murderous ruling class in history. We need to build our own revolutionary forces under the leadership of the communist PLP. Wellstone was a mouthpiece for the bosses. We shouldn’t mourn him. We should organize the movement to smash them all.

a name="War Maker, Strike-Breaker — Smash GE!">">"ar Maker, Strike-Breaker — Smash GE!

LYNN, MASS, Nov. 5 — About 2,500 GE aircraft engine workers in the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA) Local 201 went on a four-day strike at the General Electric River Works plant here. The strike involved just over half of the plant’s 4,400 workers, who build and test engines used in jets and helicopters. GE’s aircraft engine business employs about 26,000 worldwide.

GE is the world’s most profitable electronics company and a major war contractor, with 310,000 workers internationally. It netted $16 billion in profits last year, much of it from supplying the weapons to be used when young workers are sent to kill and die in a Middle East oil war.

Earlier this month, GE Aircraft Engines announced it would eliminate 1,000 jobs this year and as many as 1,800 jobs next year, adding to the growing list of aerospace workers being tossed overboard, including 30,000 at Boeing. GE boss Gorham said, "The aerospace industry is in crisis mode..."

The capitalist crisis of overproduction, too much productive capacity, is sending millions of better-paying manufacturing jobs to wherever labor is cheapest. GE has been farming out work to Romania, Russia, China, Mexico and other countries where wages are about $2 an hour.

The job action was sparked when GE failed to replace machine operators lost through attrition. When these operators are not replaced, maintenance problems arise and equipment is shut down. If the machines aren’t running, the work gets shipped out.

Despite their best intentions, the workers are trapped by the pro-capitalist, patriotic outlook of the union leadership. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka opposes sending defense contracts abroad because it "will teach production techniques" to U.S. imperialism’s rivals. (Boston Globe, 10/20) The IUE-CWA leaders have been unwilling and/or unable to fight the massive speed-up, outsourcing and mandatory overtime forced on GE workers in recent decades. They want to save the very same bosses who are attacking us and will support the bosses’ war drive.

Locals in Erie, Pa. (the largest) and Schenectady, N.Y. have also issued strike notices as things heat up for national contract talks next spring. The current contract expires in June, which could mean a strike in the midst of a Middle East oil war. Such a strike would defy the U.S. bosses’ "national interest" crap and meet the class interests of both U.S. and Iraqi workers.

In 1970, GE workers went on a nation-wide strike at the height of the Vietnam War. Nixon told the workers to return to work because they were hurting the war effort. On a picket line in Schenectady the workers chanted, "Screw the War Effort!" Now here we are decades later, facing another war and another GE strike. Building a mass PLP and fighting for communist revolution will stop this endless treadmill. "War-Maker, Strike-Breaker, Smash GE!"

a name="How Anti-Communist Union Hacks Served Bosses To ‘De-Unionize’ 250,000 Workers"></">Ho" Anti-Communist Union Hacks Served Bosses To ‘De-Unionize’ 250,000 Workers

The union bosses have been screwing GE workers for over 50 years, when they set up the IUE to bust the left-led UE that wouldn’t kowtow to the U.S. bosses’ Cold War. When the dust cleared, the IUE had stolen 350,000 workers from the UE, which was left with 50,000 of its original 650,000 membership. This anti-communist attack left 250,000 unionized workers out in the cold. Now GE workers are divided among six unions, and many are in none. These divisions have weakened workers’ resistance (and put zillions in the pocket of former GE CEO Jack Welch).

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CHICAGO, IL Oct. 22 — "Don’t believe anything the government tells you about why they’re going to war. Nothing!" declared a black marine Gulf War veteran who condemned U.S. involvement in past wars at the Chicago City Colleges’ Town Hall Meeting entitled "Iraq: Where Are We Heading?" About 300 black and Latin students and faculty attended the meeting from the seven city colleges.

There were three mandatory meetings to script the televised forum, and prepare us with the "dos" and "don’ts" of debating. In these meetings, many students supported the war.

One "don’t" emphasized was, "Don’t attempt to persuade someone." The forum was to encourage students to vote, not to debate or, more importantly, not to oppose U.S. imperialism.

Despite the moderator’s facade of "neutrality" and obvious support for war, there were stirring debates. After the first two scripted questions, two student panelists supported a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Then a PLP student panelist from Malcolm X College, a veteran who had been stationed in the Middle East, raised the question of oil. Many students in the audience spoke passionately against the war.

The moderator tried to center the debate on terrorism and other smokescreens like religion and morality. Nevertheless, the students’ anger and opposition intensified as we linked war, racist police terror and the massive education cutbacks at the City Colleges. One student we didn’t even know made copies of the CHALLENGE article on the cuts, approached a comrade and said, "Here, give these out."

In closing remarks, the PLP comrade declared that capitalism is the root of imperialist wars and that revolution, not voting, is the answer. Not surprisingly, this was cut from the broadcast version. We distributed about 100 CHALLENGES and even more PLP leaflets. Afterwards we discussed our communist politics with students. Many liked what they heard. Later a group of us confronted the Chancellor to demand the college pay for a bus to the anti-war march in Washington D.C. While we could have done better, this is an example of how the bosses’ drive to war can provide us with the "on-the-job" training we need to build a mass anti-racist, anti-imperialist movement and a mass base for PLP. The ruling class will give us many more opportunities, and we can’t afford to pass them by. µ

Liberals Divert Huge Anti-War Marches Away From Anti-Imperialis

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26 — Over 50,000 workers and students marched here, joining hundreds of thousands who demonstrated in Washington, D.C., in the biggest anti-war demonstrations since Vietnam.

The crowd marched down Market Street, passing bank after bank that fund the "war against terrorism" and department stores selling garments made by exploited workers targeted by the Patriot Act. The contradictions of capitalism were everywhere.

The demonstration itself was a confusing mix of revisionist (phony leftist) and liberal politics. The march Call, "Drop Bush, not bombs," did not criticize imperialism, the cause of war, nor the liberal democratic leadership. The latter favors more preparation than the Bush administration is offering, in order to ready people for a long-term war throughout the Middle East. The Congressional vote two weeks ago shows liberals support war.

PLP played an active role. The sharpened contradictions enabled us to discuss with our friends the differences between reform and revolution. Our anti-imperialist banners, speeches and chants stood out. Our leaflets and CHALLENGES brought the much-needed message of working-class revolution against capitalism as the only solution to end wars for profit.

A group of Southern California students drove to the march together. We collectively raised money on our campus so many more people could make the trip. We prepared meals, shared the clean-up, had long political discussions and made new friends. In short, a multi-racial group worked together without hostility and collectively struggled about how to fight against racism and imperialist war. Our success builds confidence in the collective fight of the working class to liberate itself from capitalism.

Our next step is to get CHALLENGE to workers and students who couldn’t join us, so we can organize more struggles against racism and imperialism on our campus and throughout the world. One class, one fight; workers of the world unite!

California Campus Workers Blast War, Police State

BEREKELEY, CA., Oct. 18 — Delegates at a Univ. of California (UC) campus union state-wide convention applauded a worker’s condemnation of the "War on Terrorism" as a War on Workers. The worker related UC’s attack on employees to the U.S. rulers’ current drive to invade Iraq for control of Mideast oil and the creation of a police state at home. The delegates then passed resolutions condemning both. This was especially significant given that the union represents workers at UC’s two nuclear labs.

These developments were no accident. On October 14-15, lecturers, clerical workers, staff researchers and technicians struck five of the nine UC campuses. University bosses assumed workers would accept pay cuts and increased health care costs. They thought workers wouldn’t strike because "we’re lucky to have University jobs." They were wrong!

The University, a powerful ruling-class tool, has sharpened its attacks on workers. Its chief negotiator said, "We’re not interested in employees that can’t pay their rent." That enraged many workers.

The strike was preceded by lively discussions about the need to strike and rally co-workers. UC is seen by some as a "worker-friendly" haven. Workers’ direct actions defied this view. They don’t want collections to lobby politicians.

On one campus, we organized rallies and invited student support. At one rally, a union member attacked capitalism and advanced the need for workers uniting to take power. Only education under workers’ control would serve our class’s needs.

On the strike’s second day, this organizing produced a rally and march through campus of over 450 workers and 150 students. Hundreds more wore red ribbons in support. We shut down several large construction sites. Our worker/student alliance message was well received. Our chants and energy reverberated throughout the campus. Workers gave and received leadership.

Amid these actions and excitement, real political advances occurred. For example, after a deeper discussion of the differences between socialism and communism, one student said she better understood the need for revolutionary communism. Others saw CHALLENGE for the first time and were open to it.

This sharper class struggle helps develop bonds of friendship and heighten class consciousness. We all grow. We learn that workers need communism. Only one organization, the PLP, can make that happen.

Profit System Grinds Down Home Health Care Workers

NEW YORK CITY — "The boss of Premier Home Health Care Services and 1199/SEIU leadership are good for nothing. We were sold out," declared a home health care (HHC) worker about the contract settlement that averted a Sept. 18 strike.

The HHC workers — mostly black and Latin women — provide compassionate care in the homes of people discharged from hospitals. The latter try to minimize patients’ hospital stays to increase their profits. Therefore, patients tend to have more ailments upon discharge and need extra assistance at home. HHC workers administer medication, monitor pulse and temperature, assist with physical therapy exercise, bathing and feeding, dress the patients, run errands and accompany them to doctor appointments.

This strenuous work is just as important as a health care worker’s in a hospital. However, wages are much lower. The new contract left the HHC workers the lowest paid in the state. It grants a 20% increase this year (above the present $6 to $7 an hour) and a similar increase in 2003; health insurance worth 79¢ an hour; participation in the union education program; and five paid vacation/sick days after working 1,400 hours.

This agreement will have little impact on the home care workers’ ability to feed, clothe and house their families.

The capitalist home health care system is built for profit. It works through agencies that make millions off these low-paid workers and the lack of patient care. It’s financed by Medicaid and Medicare. The money comes from workers’ taxes and bosses’ taxes extracted from the working class.

Medicaid and Medicare are channeled through Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHA) which keep a substantial amount for administrative costs and their own profits. They employ mostly nurses and therapists. CHHA subcontract to Licensed Home Care Service Agencies, who in turn are paid by the CHHAs to cover their administrative costs and profits. At the bottom of this profit pyramid is the little left for the home health care workers themselves, the only productive group in the entire system.

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 reduced Medicare funding for home health care. The Clinton/Bush Congressional Budget Office has projected a $69 billion cut between 1998 and 2002. These cuts help pay for the U.S. bosses’ oil wars. They aim to reduce health care funding and drive down the wages of the entire working class. We must answer these attacks by building the PLP around the revolutionary communist ideas in CHALLENGE.

Anti-Cop Rebels Confront Bush On Iraq War

CINCINNATI, OHIO, Oct. 7 — "All indications are that this will be…a war about oil…we should address…the domestic terrorists like the KKK," declared a black worker to 5,000 people protesting a war on Iraq. They demonstrated as Bush spoke at the Cincinnati Museum Center. The crowd included many black workers and youth, from dozens of churches, several universities and high schools. Some carried signs reading, "No blood for oil."

This largest anti-war protest here in decades can in part be traced back to April 2001, when Cincinnati police murdered Timothy Thomas, an unarmed black youth. Black, Latin and white workers and youth fought back. Police used shotguns loaded with beanbags to shoot mourners at Thomas’s funeral, and met other protests with a massive number of cops in riot gear. On June 2, 2001, 2,500 demonstrators marched against racist police terror, the largest integrated demonstration in Cincinnati’s modern history. PLP participated in that rebellion and was warmly embraced by the workers. (One friend met at that time provided the information for this article.)

Miami University students carried a large banner while Earlham College students from southern Indiana chanted and snaked their way through the crowd. Others came from universities in Lexington, Kentucky. Earlier a group of 15-year-old students distributed 1,000 leaflets at Walnut Hills High School. Students from many other schools were also there. Black, Latin, Muslim, Middle Eastern and white youth could be seen everywhere.

A few hundred protesters blocked the exit from the Museum Center parking lot, keeping several hundred Bush supporters from leaving. Cops on horseback rode through the crowd and arrested six demonstrators.

While the size, youthful energy and integrated character of the protest was impressive, the politics were not. It was led by the Democratic Party, through the leadership of various mass organizations, as a way to bash Bush and get out the vote. The aspirations of the anti-war demonstrators will never be realized by marching behind these liberals who gave Bush the war powers he was seeking, and is planning an even deadlier conflict. Only communist revolution will end imperialist wars. Building the Party here is a step in that direction.

a name="Laws Are Bosses’ Fascist Tool">">"aws Are Bosses’ Fascist Tool

(This is another in a series of articles analyzing the "legal" development of fascism.)

The U.S.A. Patriot Act, passed in the wake of 9/11, has given the rulers a green light to massively wiretap everyone who disagrees with the "war on terror." Under changes in FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), tracking "foreign intelligence" must be a significant aim of the wiretap, even if "domestic law enforcement" is the main purpose. The law makes it easier for the FBI to get wiretaps (including on multiple computers or phones), and encourages intelligence sharing between the FBI and CIA.

Ashcroft applied to the secret court for even more power. This court itself is long-standing. During the Johnson and first Nixon administration (1968-1972), at the height of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, the government was wiretapping many revolutionaries, anti-war radicals and liberals, much of it without a warrant. Legal interpretations of the Constitution’s 4th Amendment and supsequent Supreme Court decisions required warrants for wiretaps, mandating the government to show "probable cause" a crime had been, or was being committed.

Supposing Ashcroft decides an anti-war activist who encourages civil disobedience on federal property is aiding foreign terrorists. And supposing some of these people meet with Iraqi, Palestinian or other organizations that the FBI considers "fronts for terrorism." The Patriot Act allows the FBI to tap the phones/computers of these people because "foreign intelligence" is a "significant" purpose of the wiretap. Now Ashcroft wants to give these wiretaps to criminal prosecutors to go after the activists. Before the Patriot Act, this was illegal.

The secret court was angry that under Clinton, and later Bush, the FBI was already sharing information from "foreign intelligence" wiretaps with criminal prosecutors, and denied Ashcroft these additional powers. But that ruling is only a slap on the wrist. Even if upheld on appeal, it only prevents the open sharing of evidence between intelligence investigators and criminal prosecutors. Nobody’s been punished for past violations. The government is appealing to the FISA appeals court. If it loses, it can appeal to a secret session of the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the Patriot Act, more warrant requests will be granted.

Many people are becoming more aware of the Gestapo tactics of Ashcroft and others. Both the New York Times and Washington Post have featured Op-Ed pieces calling for "reining in" the more openly fascist aspects of FISA and the Patriot Act. The internal struggle within the ruling class is reflected in the fact that the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee sat on the secret court opinion for three months. It was finally made public in late August, followed closely by major media attacks on Bush and Ashcroft (not Clinton) engineered by the liberal rulers.

The liberals are upset over the clumsiness and arrogance of Ashcroft and Bush. No one is questioning whether there should be a secret court. The liberals want to limit Ashcroft and have confirmation power over whoever is proposed to head Homeland Security.

Revolutionary communists must unmask ruling-class wolves who pose as friends. The liberals are no more "anti-fascist" than they are "anti-war." Liberal Democrats like Carter and Clinton are up to their ears in these fascist laws. The ACLU claims fascism can be stopped through vigorous public debate, and new laws to "fix" the old ones. The rulers use "democracy" when it helps them maintain power but scrap it when fascism better suits their needs.

LETTERS

Workers Of The World Write!

a name="Rely on Workers, Not ‘Lesser Evils’"></">Re"y on Workers, Not ‘Lesser Evils’

After a lecture on Iraq and U.S. foreign policy, a group I belong to met to plan an anti-war demonstration. People were steamed that "our" representative, a Democrat, voted for Bush’s war resolution.

Someone suggested we march by his office with a big poster of a voided check made out to him. "We should send our money to the ones who voted against Bush." "I voted for him already, by absentee ballot," another said. "Now I wish I hadn’t."

"But, objected a Green Party activist, "he’s still better than a Republican on education and welfare," to which another Green responded, "Someone can be a really great person, but if they kill someone, they’re a murderer."

I was cheered at the widespread disgust with Congress. People were particularly angered because "our" Senator admitted that phone calls, e-mails and letters were overwhelmingly against the war resolution, but she voted for it anyway. Our friends made a lot of those calls, but for what?

Then I realized they were mad at Congress because they still rely on politicians to stop war or improve society — a dangerous illusion.

Then someone raised the West Coast longshore situation. When Bush’s "homeland security" chief, fascist Tom Ridge, told the union a strike would interfere with the "war on terrorism," ILWU leader Stallone reassured Ridge he would never allow such a thing. But imagine if longshore workers did strike against the war! After all, in 1919 they refused to load ships with arms to attack the new Soviet revolution.

"It might take a long time to convince workers to oppose the war, but I’d bet on that before I’d take my chances with Congress," he added.

This group of mostly middle-aged, middle-class white folks seemed more skeptical about the working class than their congressman. Without a pro-working-class perspective, anti-war activists will cling to "lesser-evil" imperialist politicians, or throw their bodies "against the machine" in grand but ineffective pacifist gestures, or lapse into cynicism. But relying on workers to build an anti-war movement will open the door to more meaningful discussions about communist revolution.

Later I spoke with a woman who, with two friends, had raised anti-war signs on a main street in one of the port neighborhoods. She said responses were positive, especially from truck drivers. I wish I’d known that, to tell the group. But there will be lots more opportunities for conversation, because everyone wanted to stay in touch.

A Reader

Anti-Racists Block KKK Movie

Workers organized and stopped the scheduled October 5 showing of D.W. Graffiti’s film "Birth of a Nation," part of a "classic" film series co-sponsored by Maryland’s Prince Georges County Public Library System and the Greenbelt Theatre. The 1915 film glorifies the Ku Klux Klan who use it to recruit members.

Author Donald Bogle wrote, "Griffith presented all the [stereo] types with such force and power that his film touched off a wave of controversy and was denounced as the most slanderous anti-Negro movie ever released." (Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films).

This scheduled film showing followed several recent incidents of racist police brutality in the County and four Nazi demonstrations in the Washington, D.C. area. A letter to the theatre owner expressed outrage, asking the film be canceled. The owner had an employee reply, "I tried to contact the NAACP to get a speaker on the Negro point of view…I did not contact the KKK because I had some of the same concerns about the movie as you did." The Library Director claimed it would be an "academic discussion." Co-workers, friends and colleagues made opposing calls to the Director. By the second day the movie was pulled.

This campaign generated intense discussion. Initially, most people were appalled at the movie but felt discussing it would teach young people analytical and critical thinking. But the theatre employee’s letter changed peoples’ minds. They agreed it should not be shown at all. Racist speech should not be tolerated, period. The first chapter of Donald Bogle’s book was copied and widely distributed, marshalling wider support for this campaign. We’ll celebrate this victory and show Bill Cosby’s film "Black History, Lost and Stolen," which critically discusses "Birth of a Nation."

I’ve been in a book club for the past five years, formed to discuss issues of race and bridge cultural gaps. Several book club members were willing to talk to the theatre owners and demand that he cancel the showing. We’re making sure the movie does not pop up again unexpectedly.

The role of music, films, books, TV and radio programs all need to be analyzed more frequently in CHALLENGE and with our friends, children and co-workers. A neighbor thought young people would find the black-face characters in the movie ridiculous. I explained how my 20-year-old son, raised with anti-racist values, found it sickening and disgusting. But what about a 20-year-old with racist values? The neo-fascist National Alliance is growing rapidly among young white workers through its white supremacist music and attracted many young people to their August march.

Red

Unions A Tool Of Rockefeller Forces

I want to reply to the comment from "A reader" (CHALLENGE, 11/6) about the letter in the paper Oct. 23 about the West Coast dockworkers. First, I completely agree with the comrade that the job of communists is building a mass international PLP, not reformism (fighting for reforms as our goal). But I disagree over a political assessment of the role of U.S. unions today.

Unions play a vital role in supporting the Rockefeller wing of the U.S. ruling class in its struggles against other capitalist forces with heavy investments centered on domestic oil and other domestic industries. This is an ongoing dispute that sees periods of unity disrupted by periods of struggle within the ruling class. Both sides agree, of course, on keeping profits flowing at the expense of workers' lives.

The letter points out that the New York Times praised Bush for using Taft-Hartley to open the West Coast docks. In the view of the letter, this is evidence of the overall unity of the ruling class when dealing with workers.

But Taft-Hartley isn't ordering workers back to work after a strike (like it did in 1971). It is ordering the PMA - the bosses - to end their lockout of the workers. The ILWU leaders are glad to be back at work, although they don't like Taft-Hartley.

The Bush administration had originally spoken through Tom Ridge, Homeland Security Czar, who had warned the military would load ships in the event of a dockworkers' strike. I think the New York Times editorial was praising the Bush administration for using Taft-Hartley instead of its original Tom Ridge plan. The Bush administration backed down. Democrats, including Tom Daschle, attacked the Ridge plan.

Furthermore, a Times editorial (10/20) entitled "The Week of Living Dangerously" said:

"Congress has left town without approving the Homeland Security bill. Although this particular failure has many parents, the Bush administration's insistence on tying the plan to an ideological attack on job security for the new department's unionized employees is the biggest stumbling block."

Homeland security and the unions, with Bush and Rockefeller forces at loggerheads with each other!

The unions are very important to the Rockefeller forces as an ideological tool, as long as, (1) they don't organize militant working-class struggle, like a march with auto workers against the lockout-caused layoffs at Nummi Motors, or stop supplies to overseas military bases (in which case the Rockefeller forces would certainly use troops also), or (2) to the extent that they don't become schools for communism. The ILWU knows this and has carefully avoided mobilizing the working class.

A long marcher

Two Steel Workers In The Lunch Room

PL'er: Did you hear the District Director is calling for the steel mills to consolidate? He says Europe and Japan have already done it, and consolidation is coming here to the U.S.

Joe: Did he give any reasons?

PL'er: Yes. He said when he hired in during the 1970's there were 18,000 workers in the plant. Now there are less than 6,000, but the plant makes the same amount of steel. He said you would think the steel companies made lots of profits, but they didn't. The auto companies would tell the steel mills that since your making steel more cheaply, you should sell it for less. There was always one company ready to undercut the price.

Joe: So he thinks that fewer, larger mills could stand up to Detroit?

PL'er: That's right. He said the mills could tell the auto companies, "Our workers are efficient and productive, and they deserve good wages and benefits. The price will stay where it is."

Joe: Well, I guess fewer companies might make the union stronger. We used to have one steel contract for everybody. When the union started negotiating separately with individual companies, it really weakened us. So it would be like going back to the "good old" days. We would have the power to shut down the whole industry, like they do in Europe. That's what we need, but the union will never do it.

PL'er: The Director's call for consolidation reminds me of the so-called "corporate state" under Mussolini in Italy in the 1920's-30s. The fascists tried to convince the workers that what was good for the corporation was good for them! This is a dangerous illusion that the Director is planting among us. He may get away with it temporarily because workers don't see any alternative.

He said nothing about the approaching war with Iraq, but his call for a more efficient steel industry will help the bosses simplify war production. He's telling us to get down in a crouch and try to fend off the blows and hopefully we'll survive. But we must come out swinging, using our heads and communist politics to win workers to communist revolution—the only way we'll survive.

*********************

We're in the midst of developing all our contacts with steel workers. This struggle will continue. All suggestions for a campaign will be greatly appreciated.

Consolidated Red

Bring Anti-War Message to Mass Organizations

I went to the Washington, D.C. Oct. 26 anti-war march with a co-worker and her friend. Another friend who has been to many of the anti-nazi rallies also hooked up with us. My co-worker’s sign read, "Don’t send the snipers to Iraq" (the sniper and his accomplice had just been caught days before). She said a U.S. invasion of Iraq will terrorize workers there like the sniper was doing to workers in the Washington, D.C. area. My sign said, "Jobs for all, No racist war." I wore a T-shirt saying, "Fight racism with multi-racial unity."

We stood at Constitution Gardens listening to the speeches. My co-worker was heartened by the large numbers. We struck up conversations with folks in the crowd. My co-worker, an African American, was disappointed at the low turnout of black people. She vowed to return to her organizations and try to win people to build for and attend the next anti-war march (January 18).

We discussed how best to do that. She tends to fight battles by herself instead of gathering support from friends or co-workers. I reminded her that I usually have a base of support in the union meeting when I introduce an important resolution such as opposing a Nazi rally.

We were interviewed by an independent media reporter from a small radio station on Chicago’s Northside. I’m sure it was because of the anti-racist messages on my sign and T-shirt. We both talked about the racist nature of war. We reported our plans to introduce an anti-war resolution in our union. Other marchers overheard this comment. We talked with New York City teachers who told us of their unsuccessful struggle to get such a resolution passed at a union delegates meeting. They will try again.

We were angry at the march organizers for allowing the speakers to go on for over three hours. Many workers left the rally site, took to the streets and were starting to march! We made plans to bring up a resolution at the next union meeting.

D.C. Red

Red Eye On The News

Below Are Excerpts From Mainstream Newspapers That Contain Important Information:

Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, MG=Manchester Guardian

"Grande" Mexican muralist was lifelong revolutionary

Siqueiros, a towering figure in the history of Latin American Art, is remembered especially as one of Los Tres Grandes, along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who pioneered the use of monumental public murals to tell epic stories of poverty, rebellion and the tortured history of their native Mexico….

Siqueiros was a militant communist….who fought in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War….

The same issues Siqueiros painted about in 1932 still exist today in Mexico, in places like Chiapas, as well as throughout Latin America and the rest of the world. (NYT, 10/29)

US sucked Saddam into Kuwait

In the week before invading Kuwait President Saddam asked for, and received, permission from the US government, which had supported him in the war against Iran. He asked the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, what Washington’s response to an invasion would be. She assured him of the US government’s continued support. After the invasion, James Baker, then US Secretary of State, tried to deny that she was acting on his instructions. But she had kept the cable he sent her, and made it public. (MG, 10/23)

Famous photographer stays Red

…94-year-old Henri Cartier-Bresson, the world’s most famous photographer….still regards communism as "the best idea."

"Above all, my parents were ashamed of money. It was suspect, immoral and dangerous." As a child, Cartier-Bresson pinned…in his bedroom the headline of an article he had cut out of L’Echo de Paris: "Where does the money come from?…Cartier-Bresson said, "it’s a question that still bothers me."(MG. 10/16)

‘No Child Left Behind’ just another political lie

Washington, Oct. 14 — Less than a year after passage of No Child Left Behind, the sweeping overhaul that promised a new era of accountability in public education, federal, state and local officials are taking steps…to weaken crucial elements of the law.

The law demands that schools put a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom by 2006….

States and school districts have begun maneuvering to soften the law’s effect, while the federal government has proposed regulations that would deem even teachers in training "highly qualified." (NYT, 10/15)

Iraqi chemicals home-grown?

We ought to know exactly how many chemical weapons are in Iraq. After all, they were made in the USA and we should have copies of the receipts. (Mark Russell, Tribune Media Service)

Majority will not rule if US runs Iraq

Listen to the American hawks ….After overthrowing Saddam Hussein we’re going to turn Iraq into a flourishing democracy.

But I’m afraid it’s a pipe dream, a marketing ploy to sell the war….

"There will not be a democracy in Iraq, not a real democracy," said Mohammed Al-Jassem, editor of the newspaper Al-Watan in Kuwait. "That would mean allowing a Shiite state. America and the gulf countries cannot afford that."

….Kuwait rulers seem to think, based on assurances from U.S. officials, that Shiite domination is potentially so destabilizing that democracy is not even an option for Iraq….The prattle about creating a democratic model on the Tigris is just a shrewd White House marketing attempt to bait and switch. (NYT), 10/18)

1. Profit System Breeds Imperialist Oil Wars
   1. SECURITY COUNCIL GANGSTERS FIGHT OVER IRAQI SPOILS
   2. NO `LESSER EVIL' IMPERIALISTS
2. RULERS USE SNIPER SCARE TO IMPOSE POLICE STATE MEASURES
3. North Korea Road to Free Market Capitalism Hits a Nuclear Bump
4. GARMENT WORKERS BEAT BACK PAY CUT
5. Not Only Bushites, Democrats Also Want War
6. ANTI-WAR RALLY AT
   FROSTBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
7. . CAPITALISM AND FORD ROUGE COMPLEX:
   HAZARDOUS TO WORKERS' HEALTH
8. Crisis of Overproduction Hits FIAT
9. MD's and Health Workers Strike
   Against Privatization
10. Capital And Labor Will Never Mix
11. Link Faculty Contract Struggle With
    Fight Against Oil War
12. Workers of the World, Write!
    LETTERS
    1. Reformism Is Not The `Job Of Communists'
    2. Atrocities Against Migrant Workers
    3. `The Revolution Is Waiting On Us!'
    4. Using Films To Fight Imperialist War
    5. Problem Is Lack of Care, Not Drugs
    6. It's a Fight for Oil Profits

---

Profit System Breeds Imperialist Oil Wars

Over the past two weeks, several events have combined to slow down Bush's "Oil War Express" on the way to Iraq:

*While the DC sniper scare made the Bushites changed their focus for the moment, they used the sniper murders to win support for "Homeland Security" and his police state measures.

* In Indonesia the terror bombing that killed 200 civilians proves that al Qaeda and its pals are far from done.

* CIA chief Tenet told Congress that the likelihood of another mass terror attack on U.S. soil is as great now as in the months before 9/11.

* North Korea, another nation in Bush's "axis of evil," just admitted having had nuclear weapons for several years.

Tactically, the liberal U.S. rulers have come out on both sides of Bush's war plans. On the one hand, Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Richard Gephardt, and Joe Lieberman have given him the green light. On the other, The New York Times, in its lead editorial on October 20, complains that Bush has unnecessarily delayed approving the "Homeland Security" bill, that the Immigration and Naturalization Service is a "mess," and that Bush's boast about having routed al Qaeda is "to say the least, premature." The Times concludes by warning Bush to get his "priorities in order" before beginning "any risky foreign initiative."

The liberals agree that U.S. oil giants must control the spigot of Persian Gulf energy wealth. They understand that this means military action, but are increasingly concerned about timing and consequences. That's why they are also backing the latest version of a peace movement. They want to buy time in order to prepare for a future of Persian Gulf oil wars on a scale far grander and deadlier than Iraq.

A number of military bigwigs side with the liberals. Among them is the former head of the U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, Anthony Zinni, who said, "I'm not convinced we need to [invade Iraq] now...[Saddam] can be deterred and is containable at this moment." He warns that war with Iraq will require hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops, and that the cost will be high. More significantly, he predicts that installing a pro-U.S. government in Iraq "will [not] occur easily." (Salon.com, 10/17)

Bush/Cheney seem to think they can oust Saddam on the cheap, leave a few troops for show, and then set up a puppet regime that will pump the oil in any direction the U.S. wants. The liberals want to get rid of Saddam, but fear that an ill-conceived invasion could provoke mass anti-U.S. uprisings throughout the Arab world, upsetting their goal of dominating the world's richest oil supplies for the foreseeable future. This is the bin Laden-al Qaeda strategy, and so far, U.S. rulers have yet to prove that they can counter it.

SECURITY COUNCIL GANGSTERS FIGHT OVER IRAQI SPOILS

Further complicating matters is the effort to win UN Security Council approval for invading Iraq. The details of arms inspections and "weapons of mass destruction" is a smokescreen. Developing the world's second-largest oil reserves is what concerns the imperialists at the UN.

The Bush gang is trying to guarantee that the U.S. will honor the multi-billion dollar contracts that the Russian and European oil barons already have in Iraq. But Saddam Hussein has dropped the surcharge on Iraqi oil, encouraging French, Italian and Spanish oil firms to sign new deals. He's also trying to increase ties to Russian energy businesses. One of them, Zarubezhneft, may have won concessions worth up to $90 billion. "There are now over 30 deals signed and ready to be implemented the moment that sanctions are lifted." (The Economist 10/10)

The price for European and Russian "support" for war will increase as their investments in Iraq grow. A pro-U.S. Iraqi puppet government declaring all contracts signed by Saddam null and void would drastically sharpen the contradictions between the U.S. and their European and Russian "allies." The liberals want a more measured approach toward sharing the Iraqi energy treasure with potential junior partners. But agreements among imperialists are built on sand, broken whenever a better deal comes along. Imperialist rivalry inevitably leads to war.

NO `LESSER EVIL' IMPERIALISTS

A shaky post-Saddam Iraq may require an open-ended U.S. military occupation of Iraqi oil fields and the entire Persian Gulf. The liberals know that for many reasons, both on the home front and internationally, they aren't ready. Yet.

The profit system offers us a choice between a two-bit, half-cocked war-maker like Bush and an Exxon Mobil Democratic Party war machine with long-range plans to dwarf any slaughter for oil that he can envisioned. No one should mistake these liberals for "lesser-evil" alternatives to Bush & Co.

Our hope lies in destroying the profit system, which makes imperialist oil wars inevitable, not in a liberal-led "peace movement." We should fight, but not for the rulers' agenda. Our battles must lead to revolutionary communism. Building a mass, international PLP is the key to achieving this goal.

RULERS USE SNIPER SCARE TO IMPOSE POLICE STATE MEASURES

Washington, D.C., October 24--As we go to press, two suspects have been arrested for the sniper case, one of them a Desert Storm vet The politics of the following article, even though written before the suspects were caught, still applies.

First, the PLP extends its sympathy to the innocent working class victims of these assaults and their families and loved ones. There is no possible rationale for murdering innocent people.

At the same time the capitalists are using the sniper to practice their plans for domestic repression of the working class. The rulers fear opposition to the war and depression which lie ahead. Why not get ready, they think, for the inevitable opposition? They've already passed a host of new laws that make civil liberties an outdated joke. The day of the shooting in Ashland, Va. (Sat. Oct. 19), every car leaving DC and going to Maryland at Chevy Chase Circle (and other sites) were stopped and searched -- over 80 miles from the scene of the crime! Drivers were detained, trunks were opened and items were pulled out. Terrified drivers allowed these illegal and invasive searches thinking they would help find the sniper even though they made no difference. These measures set up people for fuller fascist measures in the future, for any excuse the cops might invent.

Capitalism creates the conditions for murderous rampages. For example, the government mobilized 1000 cops, complete with helicopters and rooftop snipers, to protect 300 Nazis in August in D.C. The Nazis are terroristic, racist murderers, like the Chicago area serial murderer a couple of years ago who was a member of Matthew Hale's racist World Church of the Creator. In fact, on the Nazi website, two books are prominently advertised--the Turner Diaries, a manual for race war that was a blueprint for Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing, and Hunter, a manual for white supremacist urban snipers which strongly parallels today's maniac. The Nazis love this kind of terror! And the ruling class loves them! It keeps the Nazis around as possible paramilitary forces against communists and others who fight back against the capitalist system. If the sniper is not a white supremacist, he/she is acting just like one!

In this case, the police implemented a post-9/11 collaboration plan among all police agencies in the area in order to deal with the sniper; the military, in partnership with the FBI and multiple police departments, is flying special surveillance planes in the Washington, D.C. airspace in a clear departure from the late 19^th century law banning the use of the military for domestic purposes. None of their high-tech gadgets or collaborative planning has helped track down the sniper, but it has surely been good practice for using more repressive measures against urban rebellions and mass protest.

And so, as we mourn with the families and victims of the sniper, we must keep a clear perspective and a clear eye on the prize - capitalism has much worse in store for us, and the depredations of the system can only be stopped by workers' revolution.

North Korea Road to Free Market Capitalism Hits a Nuclear Bump

The revelations that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons (with help from Pakistan, the U.S. "ally") come in the middle of its turn towards free market capitalism. The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) had a reputation as the last "hard line communist" country. Communism is a political and economic system based on workers' needs. Under communism, private profit and wage slavery won't exist. But, this is far from the reality in North Korea.

A few weeks ago, the North Korean government announced the establishment of an "international financial zone" in Sinuiju, an area that borders China. This free market zone, the "Korean Hong Kong," will operate autonomously with its own legal and economic system. It will issue its own passports and name its own police chief. As The Economist (10/12) says: "The idea of a capitalist zone in Sinuiju appeared to be...even bolder than China's decision in 1980 to establish what it called `special economic zones,' in which capitalist-style policies were introduced."

Yang Bin, the second richest man of China, was named director of this new region. Yang, who holds dual Chinese-Dutch citizenship, owns the Hong Kong-based EuroAsia Agricultural Holdings. He was arrested as he was crossing the border from China to North Korea, accused of tax violations and of siphoning money from his Hong Kong company to Holland Villages, a Dutch construction company he also owns. The Chinese ruling class is afraid that their North Korean "allies" might offer even cheaper labor than that available in China. This is capitalist competition -- not communism.

In July, the North Korean government announced the end of its rationing and distribution system that gave workers free food and electricity. One government official said the new method has been instituted to make workers "show enthusiasm for work." Workers' wages rose by an average of 1700%, but the price of rice increased by 43,750%! "Increased wages for factory and corporation workers fell short of what they had anticipated, and some corporations, due to fund shortages, issued `promissory certificates' to their employees instead of wages in cash." (English.chosun.com, 9/4). Workers must now increase their productivity to get paid.

Meanwhile, North Korea's road to normalize relations with Japan, South Korea and the U.S., and get their investments, hit a little nuclear bump. North Korean admissions that it is building nuclear weapons have caused a major turmoil, putting the Bushites on the spot. Knowing well that U.S. imperialism now only attacks militarily weak countries with oil (like Iraq), the military powerful North Korean rulers are using the nuclear issue "as part of a broader strategy to push Washington into final peace talks...And, as the U.S. has tacitly revealed that it does not consider a pre-emptive military strike an option for dealing with a state already in possession of nuclear weapons -- as opposed to one still developing them like Iraq -- Pyongyang is fairly confident that Washington will engage in negotiations rather than military brinkmanship."(Stratfor.com, 10/18).

While government officials and bureaucrats might become richer as the country runs into free market capitalism, most North Korean workers will suffer even more exploitation. Free markets will never solve the problems caused by capitalism. Only by establishing a communist society, where workers rule without bosses, can we serve the needs of the international working class.

GARMENT WORKERS BEAT BACK PAY CUT

`If you don't leave, I am going to call immigration," yelled the angry garment boss. "Call the `Migra' if you want. We don't care," answered one of 300 garment workers facing down the boss in a 6-hour sit-down strike. "We'll lock the doors and won't let them in and we won't allow anyone to leave either."

It all started when workers found out that the boss had knocked off two pennies from the piece price of their operation. The boss said she had no alternative but to lower the piece rate because the manufacturer, Lucky Brand, lowered the price it paid her for each garment. The workers refused to accept this.

Other workers not immediately affected by the cuts, decided to take on the fight as their own. As one worker put it, "We are all in the same boat. What affects one affects us all." Women workers took the lead, going from section to section until all the sewing machines stood idle and all 300 workers had joined the strike.

The boss went crazy. Never before had she faced the unity and militancy shown by these workers. Her first reaction was to yell, "If you don't want to work, go home!" The workers responded, "We are not working and we are not leaving. We won't let you bring in other workers to do our job."

The boss tried different tricks and threats but the workers stood firm. The strike started at 8:00 A.M. No worker went to breakfast. At lunchtime, no one went out lunch. By 1:30 P.M., the boss was desperate. She ordered her foreman to start closing the doors, while yelling at the workers to go home. The workers refused one more time. "I'll call the cops to kick you out and arrest you!" roared the boss. "Call the cops, we don't care. We are not moving. We are fighting for our rights," responded the workers.

Then the boss used the biggest threat of all: to call the hated "Migra." When this failed, the boss gave into the workers' demand.

This was a very impressive show of workers' power. The unity, determination and fighting spirit of the working class shone brightly in spite of the individualism, selfishness, competitiveness, pessimism and despair that the bosses constantly barrage our class with.

It was a spontaneous strike. Its demands were very modest. Some of the workers know our Party, and our communist ideas played a small conscious part in the struggle. Yet it is very inspiring to see workers militantly taking on our class enemies. It is completely the opposite of the electoral approach preached and practiced by the bosses' politicians, their leaders in the unions and community organizations.

It bodes well for the communist movement. It shows that workers are mad and ready to fight. It is up to us to build the ties and develop the tactics and strategy that will enable us to lead the workers' daily struggles for survival with communist ideas. CHALLENGE and PLP must grow among these workers so that these struggles will become part of the fight to eliminate the bosses and their exploitation with communist revolution.

Not Only Bushites, Democrats Also Want War

LOS ANGELES, CA. Oct. 6 -- Over 5,000 anti-war demonstrators marched towards the Army Reserve building here to protest the impending war in Iraq. Unlike recent anti-war demonstrations, large numbers of parents, children, workers and spectators joined students and activists.

PLP showed a powerful and much needed presence by carrying banners attacking imperialism and holding red flags high. A multi-racial contingent of youth and workers marched under our banners. We distributed a couple of thousand leaflets, hundreds of CHALLENGES, for which we received donations, and led other marchers in anti-imperialist chants. Our signs and chants were in clear contrast to the hundreds of "Stop Bush," signs distributed by march organizers.

The liberals are trying to focus people's anger solely towards Bush. Yet the vote in Congress to give Bush power to attack Iraq reveals the class nature of imperialism. It is the capitalist class, including Gephardt, Daschle, and all the other profit-mongers that perpetuate endless imperialist war to protect their power.

Several comrades invited friends from the anti-war coalitions and campus organizations where we are active to join us for dinner afterwards. The energy in the room was extremely moving. A comrade stood and invited everyone to sing the Internationale in English and Spanish. This provided a revolutionary atmosphere, dramatically different from the march.

We introduced ourselves and shared our ideas, which covered a wide range of topics. One friend spoke about the need to turn the anti-war movement into a revolutionary anti-imperialist movement to smash capitalism. Another friend spoke about a communist future where our children will live in a world without exploitation and the miseries of capitalism. Several people spoke about fighting for immigrants' rights, indigenous rights, and fighting racism. Others said how happy they were to see they are not alone in opposing the war. CHALLENGE was distributed to all and plans were made to meet again.

We learned several things from this experience. The liberals maintain a stranglehold on most anti-war demonstrations, and we should not spend most of our time fighting for the leadership of coalition meetings. Our strength lies in doing the hard day-to-day work of fighting racism, fascism and connecting the struggle of workers with the political struggle on our campuses, at our jobs and at our places of worship. This is where we build long-term friendships and honest political alliances. With our friends and allies we can sharpen the contradictions inside the reformist movements. We can also create alternative spaces (like the restaurant where we had dinner) where people can express their righteous anger and revolutionary hope for the future. The best way we can give leadership to these demonstrations is by winning people to fight imperialism, racism and to ally with the working class so that we can fight for communist revolution.

ANTI-WAR RALLY AT
FROSTBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

FROSTBURG, MD, Oct. 11 -- Today about 75 demonstrators in this tiny coal mining town rallied against the U.S. imperialist oil war. Speakers included a philosophy professor, a history professor, a PLPer and an alumnus of the school, a member of the Feminist Majority League as well as a student who was pro-police and pro-military but anti-war. We rallied to educate the students and workers and build a mass antiwar movement.

About 10-15 pro-war demonstrators said they were coming to "f *** them up!" The PLP member welcomed all in attendance, including those who were pro-war, because he did not want to "preach to the choir." This disarmed the hostility of the pro-war forces. Of all the anti-war speakers, only one, other than the PLP member, gave the true reason for the war -- which is oil.

Although the rally was held indoors due to inclement weather, the crowd participated in chants and was given a variety of information including CHALLENGE and PLP leaflets.

A pro-war Gulf War veteran gave a speech, which consisted of the same flag-waving racist propaganda that the fascist administration has been dishing out for over a year. The response he received was less than encouraging. The crowd laughed, only the other pro-war folks in the room clapped. Another pro-war veteran demanded to speak, but stormed off with the rest of his fascist friends when he was told he would have to wait until the planned speakers had finished.

The PLP member spoke about how U.S. imperialism wants to control the 100 billion barrels of oil reserves in Iraq, and showed a map of the Iraqi oilfields, making the connection between capitalism, oil and U.S. imperialism. He discussed the corporate connections of the Bush administration and the large U.S. military buildup to protect the oil pipelines and shipping routes in Afghanistan and the Philippines. He said, "The U.S. is the only country to use nuclear weapons on another country...and...is currently using chemical and biological weapons...to eradicate the coca crops in Colombia, poisoning water supplies, destroying livestock, and...killing children."

The audience gave him a standing ovation. One demonstrator said, "He told the truth. He urged people to get involved." Teachers thanked him for giving a message that "needed to be heard." This rally showed that people are hungry for change and for a revolutionary party to take charge and lead the way towards a better future. People in this tiny coal-mining town seek revolution. Developing a PLP group is the next item on the anti-war agenda!

. CAPITALISM AND FORD ROUGE COMPLEX:
HAZARDOUS TO WORKERS' HEALTH

DETROIT, MI, Oct. 16 -- "Capitalism makes war on the working class on the job every day." (CHALLENGE 10/23) And the bodies are piling up. Two workers, ages 21 and 25, are in critical condition after they inhaled steam, causing internal burns, and their skin was burned as well. They were performing routine maintenance on a device that washes a byproduct gas on Blast Furnace B at the Rouge Steel plant. The gas is then transported for use in a new power plant across the street. Around 10 A.M. steam hit the men. This was at least the sixth accident at the Rouge complex since 1999.

The workers were lowered from the furnace by a crane basket and rushed by helicopters to the University of Michigan hospital. Both had second- and third-degree burns and injuries to their airways. If they survive, they will be hospitalized for months. One Rouge worker said, "The high-pressure steam will cut right through you. It can cut your arm off, your leg off." Rouge Steel boss Hornberger said there wasn't any pattern of safety problems. But a Rouge worker said, "Nothing's changed. They're never held responsible for any deaths."

Even though the State Department of Consumer and Industry Services, a government agency, which oversees workplace safety in Michigan, and Rouge Steel, is "investigating" how the steam escaped. The government always protects capitalists like Henry Ford, a friend and admirer of Hitler, and the founder of the Rouge Steel plant. A Rouge worker said, "Nothing's changed. They're never held responsible for any deaths." But workers must make the change and hold the bosses responsible as we move toward communism -- where safety of the workers is primary.

According to the UN's International Labor Organization (ILO), at least half of the 5,000 daily job related deaths could be prevented by safe working conditions, and all accidents are preventable. But under the profit system, profits come first. The best health and safety measure we can take is to build a mass PLP and literally, fight for our lives.

NO PATTERN OF SAFETY PROBLEMS?

The 1,100-acre Rouge complex comprises six Ford Motor Co. plants and Rouge Steel. Recent serious accidents at the Rouge complex:

Feb. 24, 2001: One man is killed and another injured when a steam turbine ruptured while the men were testing it.

Jan. 6, 2001: Four explosions and spillage of 2,000-degree molten steel at the Rouge Steel plant left two workers with minor injuries.

Jan. 7, 2000: Molten steel exploded in a vat at Rouge Steel, sparking a series of small fires and causing two minor injuries.

Aug. 19, 1999: One worker died and four others were treated after being overcome by fumes while performing routine maintenance work at Rouge Steel.

Feb. 1, 1999: A boiler undergoing routine maintenance exploded at a Ford power plant within the complex, killing six employees and injuring 14. State regulators later found 15 workplace safety violations for which Ford was fined $1.5 million.

Source: Detroit Free Press library.

Crisis of Overproduction Hits FIAT

ROME, Oct. 18 -- Millions of workers took part in mass protests in support of a general strike all over Italy. The strike, against the government's plan to make it easier for bosses to fire workers, also supported FIAT workers. FIAT has become the latest victim of the worldwide capitalist crisis of overproduction. "The central problem is that the European car market has long had too much manufacturing capacity--30% too much..."(TheEconomist.com, 10/16). As always, workers pay for the bosses' economic ills. FIAT is planning to close plants and eliminate thousands of jobs, and its workers have held several strikes to fight for their jobs.

Today's strike was not supported by two of the three major union federations (CISL and UIL) in Italy, which are hoping to make a deal with the rightwing Berlusconi government. Meanwhile, the CGIL union federation, which organized the general strike, is using the working class to bring in a "lesser evil" government.

No bourgeois government functions in the interests of the working class, they all represent the bosses. The power shown by workers in Italy, through their mass general strikes in the last year, must become a school for communism. Workers must learn from their struggles that the only solution for workers' is to build a revolutionary communist movement to smash capitalism.

MD's and Health Workers Strike
Against Privatization

SAN SALVADOR -- "This is a strike that we're going to win," said a doctor, a member of the Union of Doctors and Workers of the Salvadoran Institute of Social Security (SIMETRISSS) that is striking against the privatization of the Institute. Rightwing president Francisco Flores suspended his vacation to Europe to try to deal with this enormous crisis.

Another doctor said, "We always waited for others to take the initiative to strike in the Social Security Institute (public healthcare). It was time that we saw that the capitalist system affects all the workers no matter what they do."

A patient of the Social Security Institute(ISSS) said, "One can survive the privatization of electricity or the telephones. But with health care as a commodity to generate profits, a person has only one choice, pay or die."

Salvadoran capitalists have targeted the ISSS for several years. The businessmen's group ENADE 2002 concluded, "Social Security must be modernized and this can only be done by making it private." The World Bank and the IMF have told the local pro-U.S. capitalists that privatization can lower their debt. "The electoral parties have tried to profit from our struggle," said one of the doctors. The FMLN, as the voice of European imperialism here, prefers the "social security" system á la European. But "private" or "public," there is no "lesser evil" boss.

When Social Security was established in 1950, there were jailings and disappearances. The bosses saw it only as an expense, even though the money for it comes from the profits generated by the labor of the workers who use it. Now that the institution presents the possibility of being profitable, they fall on it like starving hyenas.

We support the striking workers who are showing that there are only two classes -- the oppressed and the oppressors. But militant union struggle by itself will never liberate the working class from the chains of the bosses' profit system. Only by destroying capitalism can we build a society that serves the working class. To lead the workers to power we must involve ourselves in the battles in which our class confronts the capitalist enemy. That's why PLP is supporting the strike. In this struggle we can spread communist ideas and expand the circulation of CHALLENGE. "The working class has no borders!"

Capital And Labor Will Never Mix

BRAZIL -- On Oct 6, Workers Party (PT) candidates Luiz Ignacio Lula de Silva (ex-union leader) and his multi-millionaire vice-presidential running mate, Jose Alencar, won 46% of the votes. Even if Lula and the Workers Party win the Oct. 27 runoff election, poverty and chronic unemployment will continue. Brazil is the ninth richest economy in the world in natural resources and productivity. It also has one of the highest rates of poverty with millions of workers and their families facing starvation.

The Brazilian ruling class, represented by the big industrialists in São Paulo, the church, the hierarchy of the army and part of international finance capital, is using the Workers Party to negotiate with the IMF. "Lula represents labor and I represent capital," said Alencar, who owns the Coteminas textile company, with a payroll of more than 18,000 workers. Enrique Iglesias, president of the Inter-American Development Bank said of Lula, ".... the markets will negotiate with him." The Financial Times, representing liberal European capital, asked the IMF to "give an opportunity to Lula and to Brazil." Roberto Setubal, owner of ITAU, the second largest private bank in Brazil, supports Lula's candidacy and defended him in a meeting of big finance capital in Washington, DC.

Lula's past as a union leader and his past anti-American rhetoric maintain the illusion that his election will benefit the workers. But the downturn in the Asian, African and South American economies has been caused by overproduction and overcapacity internationally, not the lack of a "workers" president (whether a "leftist" like Chavez or a rightist like Lech Walesa). We need communist revolution that will base production on meeting the needs of the working class and not capitalist profits.

The nationalist bosses want Lula's PT to breathe life into the MERCOSUR trading block (Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina). They want to dominate the South American trading block as a counter weight to the Free Trade Agreement pushed by Washington, and to strengthen their position in doing business with European and U.S. imperialists. Brazilian rulers dream of leading an alliance with Venezuela, and MERCOSUR.

The U.S. imperialists are using the IMF loan of $30 billion to save the bankrupt Brazilian capitalists and U.S. investments in Brazil. This is both a threat and a bribe. South America is one more battlefield between U.S. and European imperialists. Workers have nothing to gain by supporting Lula and the PT. We must build a mass international communist movement which will lead the working class to power that's the goal of PLP.

Link Faculty Contract Struggle With
Fight Against Oil War

RIVERSIDE, CA-- Nearly 300 teachers, students and campus workers picketed a visiting accreditation team session at this large college. Solidarity among the main teachers' union, two campus workers' unions, and the student union continues to grow. Some marchers are in the Students for Justice, which sponsored a teach-in of 500 students on the Middle East crisis and U.S. plans to invade Iraq. These two streams of political activism need to be linked into one political movement.

Faculty contract negotiations have stalled. Teachers are talking about job actions, including a strike, for the first time in campus history. The president, who has never taught, is trying to break the union through backroom negotiating with the faculty senate. As with the Chicago teachers (CHALLENGE 10/23) the status of Part-Timers is a major issue. They are over 800 strong and teach 50% of the English and math courses and 30% of all classes. They have no health care, job security, or conference hours, and they are among the lowest paid Part-Timers in the state.

The college is awash in money, but the president refuses the most minimal concessions. Even the conservative accreditation team criticized the college's morale problem. Hundreds of students have supported the faculty and are ready to go on strike. The campus is buzzing with activism.

In this atmosphere, Students for Social Justice has raised broader political issues, sponsoring the teach-in on the imperialist struggle over control of oil. One major issue is challenging the assumption, promoted by so-called leftists like Tom Hayden, that we are all to blame for the oil wars because of our wasteful lifestyles and gas guzzling SUV's. Not many students have SUV's on this working class campus!

At the teach-in, one speaker showed how only 14% of the oil consumed here comes from the Middle East, while Europe and Japan must import much or all of their oil. The intense imperialist rivalry over petroleum resources will profit the wealthiest oil companies like Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Texaco but will provide nothing for working people except cutbacks in social services and genocidal war.

Other speakers criticized U.S. policies and the atrocities in Afghanistan since 9/11 in which "nation-building" amounts to bombing civilians and hiring warlord thugs to do their bidding. Another person spoke about their recent trip to Palestine and Israel where full-blown Israeli government fascism holds Palestinians in the most abysmal conditions. Finally, an attorney addressed the abuses in the USA PATRIOT Act and related legal assaults on all immigrants. When a member of the audience pointed out that oil profits went to the ruling class and called for a fight to end the capitalist profit system, he was applauded.

A core leadership group is growing in Students for Social Justice. Some of them are attending anti-war demonstrations off-campus for the first time. Ideologically, they are shaking themselves free of anarchist influences and liberal illusions through a combination of activism and study of capitalism's contradictions and the bloody legacy of imperialist war. An anti-war rally is planned for next week.

Workers of the World, Write!
LETTERS

Reformism Is Not The `Job Of Communists'

While I agree with much of the letter "Dockworkers Need Militant Solidarity" (CD, 10/23), I disagree with the main point. The letter claims that the lockout of 10,500 West Coast longshoremen was a result of a "simmering division in the U.S. ruling class...over how to conduct a war on Iraq." It implied that the Bush gang was behind the PMA (Pacific Maritime Association) while the "liberal Rockefeller, Exxon Mobil, imperialists" were behind the union.

There are contradictions within the ruling class, but when it comes to attacking the workers, there is usually more unity than disunity. As the CD editorial pointed out, the New York Times praised Bush for using Taft-Hartley to open the docks saying he "was fully justified," and that "most Presidents would have taken similar action under the circumstances."

The bosses are united in driving down the workers living conditions, pensions, health care, etc. Clinton and Bush, Democrats and Republicans, all backed NAFTA and doing away with welfare. While the liberals want to use the unions to campaign during elections and to win them to war, the fact is that union membership nationally has dropped to about 10% of the workforce. In formerly union-dominated industries like auto, steel and coal mining, between 30%-40% of the workforce belonged to unions. For their own political purposes the AFL-CIO has "organized" some janitors and home health care workers, but that hasn't put a dent in the overall trend. The LA garment center remains a 150,000-worker open shop. The liberals didn't come to the aid of the longshoremen any more than they defended the Boeing workers from their recently imposed contract.

The letter also implies that we should demand a shorter workweek with no loss in pay, and concludes, "The job of communists in the unions is to demand and organize action against lockouts, against layoffs and outsourcing of jobs, and against the war plans of all the U.S. bosses!"

I think this is reformism based on frustration at the slow pace of the revolutionary struggle. The main job of communists, in the unions or anywhere else, is to fight for communism by building a mass, international PLP. That is why we fight layoffs, outsourcing, war plans, or police terror. PLP spent a long time fighting for the shorter workweek, and decided some time ago that it did more harm than good in building the Party and mass communist consciousness.

We are on our own "Long March" to communist revolution. We have to struggle with each other against mechanical thinking. "Objectivity" and "Patience" must be our watchwords.

A Reader

Atrocities Against Migrant Workers

Governments around the world have vastly increased security efforts since Sept. 11, 2001. But, as a recent wave of government-sanctioned atrocities against migrant workers shows, this new "security" protects only the rulers' wealth and profits. Three weeks after the Twin Towers fell, Senegal's President Wade convened an anti-terrorism conference in Dakar, urging delegates from 30 African nations to focus their military on security issues.

On Sept. 26, 2002, the Senegalese navy packed over 1,200 workers and their families on a state-owned ferry built for half that number. The ferry quickly capsized and more than a 1,000 passengers died. At about the same time, 120 Somalis and Ethiopians seeking jobs in Persian Gulf oil fields boarded another boat. Its engine failed and the craft drifted for 17 days in the Gulf of Aden, crossing the paths of countless U.S. warships, none of which bothered to help. The U.S. Navy has an armada in the Gulf, protecting Exxon Mobil's tankers, seeking al Qaeda forces, and preparing to invade Iraq. By the time the boat finally washed up back in Somalia, at least 70 workers had died of thirst or starvation.

Just as horrifying was the discovery on Oct. 15 in Iowa of the skeletons of 11 workers who had been locked into a railroad freight car four months earlier in Mexico. A smuggler had promised them good jobs in U.S. Tightening cargo inspection at U.S. borders is supposed to be a centerpiece of U.S. rulers' multi-billion dollar Homeland Security scheme. But because Mexican migrants represent cheap labor to U.S. bosses, the workers' future coffin rolled unhindered past Customs and the Border Patrol. When the labor market turned downward, the smuggler, the potential employer, and the Feds all left the workers to rot.

The African and Mexican workers died because capitalists use the meaningless concepts of "race" and "nationality" to pay some workers less than others. The hardest hit have to flee their homes in search of wages. The rulers also push the lie that uprooted workers are somehow responsible for the ills of capitalism. The city council of Holyoke, Mass., and the mayor of Lewiston, Maine, citing unemployment, oppose the resettlement of 1,500 Somalis in their cities.

For all their talk of "security," capitalists cannot and will not safeguard workers' lives. Our Party's goal is to build a movement that can put an end to the profit system and profit-driven murders like these.

An Internationalist

`The Revolution Is Waiting On Us!'

"We're not waiting on the revolution, the revolution's waiting on us." That captures the spirit offered by young workers to our Oct. 12 cadre school. About 30 workers met to study the situation facing the working class, learn from history and steel us to build the Party in this period of growing fascism and war.

The biggest "positive" was the young people. They were leaders of significant portions of the school and made inspiring comments throughout the day. Older members can bring stability to the Party, but the energy of the youth is necessary to achieving communist revolution.

It was a good meeting. We need more like this. The commitment of cadre determines everything. The bosses appear strong. The old communist movement has collapsed. But dialectics teaches us that the internal is primary. We can make the Party strong by using Party literature to strengthen coworkers, friends and ourselves.

We discussed the layoffs and cutbacks, while the rulers push ahead for an oil war in Iraq. We discussed the struggle of a comrade and her coworkers in an upcoming union election. The current president is a black woman and our comrade is white. She is known as a fighter for the workers, but black nationalism is being pushed to create divisions. She has mixed feelings about running on a slate against the president because she has known her for a long time. While the president has made deals with the bosses, someone pointed out that all union leaders make deals, including those on the slate she may run with. Someone else said it's not what class you're born into, but what class you serve. The important thing is to build the Party from this election struggle. We need a plan to win our personal and political base closer to the Party.

Another comrade said that in his union, he submits 50 grievances but sells only five CHALLENGES. He is somewhat cynical and demoralized at the huge task facing us. He feels better actually winning something for the workers, like back pay or sick leave. Over the years, probably hundreds of his coworkers have seen the paper, and voted for him. Doing political organizing every day, on the same job, with the same workers, is very hard. He needs more help from his collective in focusing on specific workers and struggles.

We will struggle with each other to raise our level of commitment, learn more, and do more for the Party. We have to be able to act independently. Every activity can put us in touch with good people. So seize the time! Know your friends and enemies. Build the Party!

Chicago Reader

Using Films To Fight Imperialist War

A group of high school and college teachers have been compiling articles, cartoons, and films about Iraq to share and use in our schools. These resources provide some understanding that, despite the government's excuses, the coming invasion of Iraq is an imperialist war aimed at tightening U.S. control over Persian Gulf oil. Two films we've been using recently are "Forum on Iraq: Sanctions and the Politics of Weapons Inspections," a 30-minute video that features two opponents of a U.S. invasion, and "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm."

In the "Forum" film Scott Ritter, the former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, argues that his UN inspection team dismantled the Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" and that the Iraqi regime has not had the time or resources to rebuild. The second opponent is Simon Harak, a Jesuit priest and leader of Voices in the Wilderness. This group brings food and medicine to Iraq, defying the U.S.-led sanctions which have caused the deaths of up to a million Iraqis.

Both Ritter and Harak offer clear evidence that the Bush Administration has repeatedly lied about Iraq. Harak correctly states that the policy-makers' true goal is to install an Iraqi regime friendly to U.S. oil companies so that they can squeeze out competing French and Russian firms. Yet neither Ritter (a Republican) nor Harak (a pacifist) offer a clear understanding that this war is an unavoidable outgrowth of capitalism.

"Hidden Wars" runs for an hour, and contains both fascinating footage of the 1991 Gulf War and interviews with military and government officials. The film questions the official version of that war, showing for example how the U.S. lied about Iraqi forces massing on the Saudi border in order to be allowed to establish a huge military presence there. It also has a historical section that students find interesting. They learn how U.S. imperialism has been intervening in the Persian Gulf for decades, helping to overthrow leaders and aiding tyrants like the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein when it was convenient.

The final part of the film looks at how thousands of U.S. soldiers became sick after returning home -- the "Gulf War Syndrome." The U.S., which uses working-class soldiers as cannon fodder in its wars, denied any link between its use of depleted uranium in its weapons and the cancers that have wracked the bodies of these soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

"Forum on Iraq" can be purchased for $25 from JDM Productions, Inc, 139 Fulton Street #917, New York, NY 10038. Information about buying "Hidden Wars" can be found at http://www.hiddenwars.org.

NYC Teacher

Problem Is Lack of Care, Not Drugs

I would like to respond to the article on "warping Children's Brains with Psychiatric Drugs" in CHALLENGE (10/9). I am a comrade psychiatrist who has spent her life in public healthcare facilities treating children who cannot afford private treatment. The important issue the writer raises is that children are being given medicine to control their behavior without an "in-depth investigation of what, if anything, is bothering the child, which may range from lack of sleep to learning disabilities to boredom to stresses in the home." I would add "coming to school hungry" to that list.

A "Blue Ribbon Panel" of child psychiatry, pediatrics, education and public health experts conducted a national review in the early 1970's. They concluded that if these medicines were prescribed without a thorough investigation of the causes of the child's behavior, they could be misused. And further, that too often the necessary remedial education was not provided.

But "drugs" are not the problem. Appropriate medicine does not "warp the brain." It is a lifesaver for many children and adults with psychiatric problems. It would be incorrect to wage a campaign against "mind-altering drugs" when many patients need medicine as part of their treatment. The problem is that too often, appropriate treatment is out of reach for all but the wealthy.

We must raise more specific issues than simply "the growth of war and fascism" as the cause. Since Johnson's "Great Society" went up in the flames of the Vietnam War, poor children have been treated increasingly as expendable by the ruling class. Public education at all levels, from Head Start to job training for youth, and remedial education have been starved for funds. Teachers who are underpaid, and burdened with classes that are too large, cannot spend the time needed to help children with learning or behavioral problems.

The same goes for health care, including psychiatric care, which used to be readily available in public hospitals and clinics. Most often the necessary "in-depth investigation" is unavailable in money-starved city and county clinics and millions of children have no health insurance. We need to stress that our younger generation is being ruined in order to pay for imperialist war in which many other children will be killed.

A Comrade

It's a Fight for Oil Profits

A recent experience at a college anti-war teach-in bodes well for our Party. Hundreds of students were present to hear speakers discuss the U.S. preparations for war in Iraq. While the politics of the panelists varied, several talked about the importance of oil in Iraq. It was explained that the U.S. is fighting to control Iraq's oil, not for consumers, but for oil profits made by selling the oil to countries in Europe and Asia.

People in the audience were very attentive and asked many questions. One main question was, "What can I do?" This is a good sign. The students leading the teach-in urged them to join a campus group that will be planning activities against the war.

Someone else said that he concluded from the panel discussion that all this killing and mayhem is being caused for the control of oil profits; and that the root cause is the capitalist profit system itself, which has to be destroyed. The person attacked the liberals as being just as much warmongers as the Bushites, and called for an alliance with workers, like the dockworkers who are being attacked by the bosses. The audience applauded and many asked for the leaflets and CHALLENGES that this person carried.

College Student

 

War On Terror Hits Dockwokers

• ILWU 3-Tier Weakens Struggle

Liberal Democrats are Also Warmakers

The Profit System Makes War Inevitable

Garment Workers Talk About War

Working Under Capitalism Is Dangerous To Your Health

And Now Another 1.6 Million Die from War, Murder and Suicide

a href="#Brazil Elections: Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing">"razil Elections: Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

Part-time teachers struggle at Chicago City Colleges

a href="#USAS Conference – Boston, MA, August 2002">"SAS Conference – Boston, MA, August 2002

Real Unemployment Figures Explode Myth of Prosperous 90s

Red Eye On The News

LETTERS

Bavaria Brewery Enforces Plan Colombia

PLP at Anti-Globalization DC Protests

Jailbreak from Greens Jail

Dockworkers Need Militant Solidarity

Anti-Muslim Racism on the Rise as War Looms

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War On Terror Hits Dockwokers

The latest targets in Bush’s "War on Terror" are not some small suspected terrorist cell, but the 10,500 International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) workers. Bush invoked the strike breaking Taft-Hartley law, ordering workers back to work for an 80-day cooling off period. They had been locked out since September 27. The last President to use Taft-Hartley was Nixon to break a dock strike in 1971.

There will be no outcry from the liberal Democrat "pro- labor" politicians. On the contrary, the liberal New York Times editorialized that "Mr. Bush was fully justified," and that "most Presidents would have taken similar action under the circumstances." Labor Solicitor Eugene Scalia said this is the first time a president has taken such action during a lockout. He previously represented the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) employer group as a private-sector lawyer.

Before negotiations broke down on Oct. 6, the union agreed to work under their expired contract and end the lockout for shipments to Hawaii and Alaska and for military cargo. They had reached a tentative agreement on how new technology would be implemented on the docks. Then the PMA backed off, giving Bush the green light.

The lockout shut down 29 major West Coast ports from Seattle to San Diego and cost the bosses around $2 billion a day. (West Coast shipping accounts for about 3% of the Gross Domestic Product). Key sectors of the economy that use just-in-time inventory, like auto and computer manufacturing, scaled back production and closed plants.

The PMA wants to cripple the union and speed up the number of containers loaded and unloaded per hour. They want workers to compete with dockworkers in Hong Kong, who move three times more cargo per acre at a fraction of the wages. The union wants the new jobs created by new technology to be in their bargaining unit. Union workers moved a record amount of cargo in the last three months, and five workers died in the last seven months due to the incredibly high volume of cargo moved at the West Coast ports.

ILWU President James Spinosa offered to concede hundreds of union jobs to technology and outsourcing while the PMA imposed speedups and firings. In Portland and Oakland, workers protested and refused overtime. When locals passed resolutions to enforce the safety code, the PMA locked out the workers indefinitely.

The ILWU was founded by the old communist movement and opposed the war in Vietnam and apartheid. More recently they staged one-day strikes to stop the execution of Mumia and played a prominent role in the anti-WTO demonstrations. They hoped concessions would satisfy the bosses and that Democratic Party politicians would keep the White House from getting involved. U.S. bosses are in no mood for this type of challenge and will do everything necessary to whip the workers into line.

Instead of calling a strike, Spinosa is trying to outdo Ashcroft and Ridge as the defender of "national security." Before the contract expired on July 1, Homeland Security furher Ridge told the union that any job action would hurt "national security." Spinosa countered, "…anything our country needs in the interests of national defense, this union will provide." (Pacific Business News, 10/1) Oil imports and military cargo vessels were getting through.

Longshore workers are key to U.S. Homeland Security plans for a police state. At dozens of U.S. seaports and border crossings, special trucks are the "newest high-tech weapon for U.S. customs inspectors in the war on terrorism" (San Francisco Chronicle, 9/21). One contract issue is whether the use of gamma rays by security scanning devices could pose a serious long-term health hazard, similar to asbestos.

Bush and Co. want to make the new Homeland Security Agency a non-union shop. They feel that even the slightest organization of the workers is a threat to national security. The liberals and union leaders are out to prove they are more red, white and blue than the "right-wingers." Both sides are leading the working class to fascism and war.

When millions of workers fought under communist leadership, sailors mutinied to defend a general strike in pre-revolutionary Russia. Longshore workers in Seattle threw military weapons into the Pacific Ocean that were being loaded for the invasion of the infant Soviet Union. As conditions sharpen over the coming years, a mass PLP will have the opportunity to transform these struggles into a force for revolutionary communism.

ILWU 3 Tier Weakens Struggle

The media claims that union dockworkers make $85,000 a year. The average pay is actually $68,000, unless a worker works double shifts, seven days a week, or is a foreman. But that’s not half the story.

The ILWU has three classes: "Steady men," "A men" and "B men." "Steady men" work every day, even if no ships are in the harbor. The "A men" work every day a ship is in port, and are guaranteed six days pay a month. That’s about half the 10,500 union membership. The other half is "B men," who only work when a ship’s in the harbor and all the "Steady men" and "A men" are working. "B men" get no work guarantees, and pay the same union dues as the other two groups.

Then there are 11,500 non-union "casuals." These workers are allowed into the union after accumulating 3,000 hours. They only work if the other 10,500 union members are all working. Many must juggle multiple temporary jobs along with dock work to support their families. For most it takes seven years to get into the union, and then they’re "B men."

How did this all happen to a communist-led union that was founded in the cauldron of the 1934 General Strike that shut down the Bay Area? The signing of the 1962 "mechanization" agreement that brought in containerization guaranteed "jobs for life" for all union members. But the bosses cut the workforce by not replacing all those who retired, quit, were fired or disabled. In effect, the union stopped fighting for the future of all working class young people who would be seeking jobs on the docks and the number of jobs dropped precipitously. The U.S. Labor Department used this contract as a model of how to usher in job-cutting mechanization and automation without a strike.

Slowly but surely, such pro-boss contracts spread the racist atmosphere that would shut out future black and Latin job seekers. The current union leadership boasts of its patriotism and support for the war. This ties the workers into defending the very system that exploits them and kills millions of our class brothers and sisters in imperialist wars. Once union officials become pro-capitalist, these developments are inevitable.

Liberal Democrats are Also Warmakers

The stakes are enormous as the bosses debate the details of invading Iraq. They all agree that U.S. imperialism must expand its chokehold on the energy treasures of the Persian Gulf and that this means war. They run the risk of needing to have the U.S. military occupying the entire region, slaughtering and terrorizing tens of millions of Arab Muslim workers and provoking mass anti-U.S. uprisings that could dwarf the Vietnam war.

The continuing status of U.S. imperialism as the top dog of the international profit system is at stake. This is why many liberal bosses, politicians, and their media mouthpieces have begun to rein in the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz faction of the Bush White House that wants to "go it alone" in Iraq. They forced Bush to address the UN in September. On October 5, the New York Times applauded Bush’s October 1 statement that "the military option is not the first choice" in Iraq.

The liberals want to cut deals with their most important junior partners in international crime to get them on board. The Russians are at the top of the list. U.S. and Russian oil bosses want Moscow to become an important U.S. energy supplier in the future. The Russians need money, and the U.S. energy barons would like to diversify their own sources of supply. This will take years to achieve. In any event, the U.S. will always need to control cheap Persian Gulf crude. So "a quick victory over Iraq seems to be a faster and easier way to maintain U.S. energy security…" (Stratfor.com, 10/2).

The Russians have considerable interests in Iraq. The Iraqi government owes them billions in arms debt, a holdover from the Cold War. More significantly, Russian energy companies, as well as the French and Germans, have multi-billion dollar energy contracts pending to develop Iraqi oil and gas fields. They want assurances before the invasion, that the U.S. will honor these contracts after Saddam is gone. New York Times op-ed columnist Bill Keller sums up the situation: "…Saddam Hussein represents an insufferable menace, and…a convincing preparation for war is a prerequisite for any serious reckoning with him…[but] it would not kill us to offer some public assurances that Russia’s genuine economic stake in Iraq will be protected if Saddam is overthrown" (Oct. 5). This is what the liberals mean when they call for "the broadest possible international unity,": make sure all the jackals get a bite.

While the liberals joust with the Bush White House, preparations for war are well under way. The Pentagon is preparing for a "rapid massing of U.S. forces around Iraq in the weeks ahead" (Washington Post, Oct. 5). This mobilization allows for an attack as early as January and for a faster deployment once U.S. diplomacy manages to bribe Russian, French, and other imperialists into OK’ing the massacre. Liberal Democratic House Minority leader Gephardt waved a peace flag at a Sept. 29 fundraiser, then returned to Washington to broker a deal authorizing Bush to launch war in Iraq as he sees fit. Other important Democratic senators greasing the war machine’s skids include presidential hopefuls Joe Lieberman and John Edwards. Most House and Senate Democrats, writes the pacifist Nation, "are expected to vote in favor of authorizing Bush to mount a war—even a unilateral one—against Saddam Hussein" (Oct. 3).

War is coming, possibly within the next few months. While the New York Times calls for "farsighted" Congressional debate before the bloodletting begins (Editorial Oct. 5), we shouldn’t be fooled into believing that one gang of U.S. bosses wants peace while another wants war. The liberals’ caution is based on some of the possible far-reaching consequences: widespread urban fighting, use of Iraqi chemical-biological weapons against Israeli cities and Saudi oil fields, pre-emptive attacks against U.S. forces, unilateral Israeli pre-emption or retaliation, instability without end in post-Saddam Iraq, and an outbreak of anti-U.S. violence throughout the region by millions of impoverished, angry Arab workers with nothing to lose.

Imperialist war is not the end of history. Previous experiences in World Wars I and II proves that it can lead to the growth of revolutionary communist movements and the armed seizure of power by revolutionary communist parties. The class struggle has entered the early stages of a new period in the bloody rivalry for super-power status among the world’s bosses. Our job, in the years and decades ahead, is to create the conditions for a new period of international communist revolutions. Our Party’s modest growth in the short run, can help set the stage for this momentous transformation.

The Profit System Makes War Inevitable

NEW YORK CITY—On Oct. 6, tens of thousands of people took part in mass anti-war rallies in several cities, called by Not In Our Name (NION). The biggest one was in Central Park with about 20,000 demonstrators. PLP participated in several of these protests, distributing thousands of leaflets and hundreds of CHALLENGES.

Contrary to a year ago after 9-11, anti-war sentiment among the population is growing. A NY Times/CBS opinion poll reflects a widespread concern over Bush’s plans to attack Iraq. The poll, devised by the liberal media to reflect their own position, shows that 44% of those polled don’t want a "pre-emptive attack" against Iraq, and want the UN inspectors to be given a chance. While 54% said they would back military action even if it involved substantial U.S. losses, that figure dropped to 49% if the attack involved huge Iraqi civilian casualties. In addition, only 49% would support the war even if it became a prolonged one.

This poll reflects that the liberal Establishment section of the ruling class fears that "going it alone" in Iraq could be a domestic and international disaster for U.S. imperialism á la Vietnam (the Vietnam Syndrome still haunts the U.S. bosses). It also reflects that more people are concerned about being unemployed, paying the rent, putting food on the table and being able to retire with a pension and getting health care than about Hussein.

The morning after Bush’s latest televised speech on the need to invade Iraq (based on a "slanted and sometimes entirely false reading of the available US intelligence," London’s Guardian, 10/9), the New York Times editorial warned, "Not quite four decades ago, Lyndon Johnson learned to his and the nation’s sorrow that taking a reluctant country to war can severely damage the body politic. President Bush must be mindful of that danger as he draws the US ever closer to military conflict with Iraq."(10/8)

These protests, as well as those to be held on Oct. 26 in Washington, DC and on the West Coast, reflect the liberal point of view pushed by the NY Times. The fake leftists and celebrity organizers of NION do the work of the liberal bosses. The speeches at the rallies ignored the fact that imperialism and war go hand in hand. They called for everything from alternative energy sources to letting the UN inspectors do their work. But they didn’t have any analysis about why the U.S. needs war now to protect the bosses’ oil in the Middle East.

The only difference between the Bushites and the liberals is how and when U.S. imperialism should wage war to control the flow and profits of oil (see front page). Peace doesn’t have a chance under capitalism. As communists we don’t welcome war, but we do understand that it will happen as long as imperialism exists. Our task is to organize a mass communist movement that will prepare workers, soldiers and students to destroy the war makers and strike breakers once and for all. Join PLP

Garment Workers Talk About War

Angel: I don’t know much about history. I didn’t have much schooling. But I think this war is bad. It’s a question of those in power — and those who always suffer and die are the poor. But what can we do? We can’t do anything. We have to put up with it.

Alex: I don’t know anything about these things. At my job, no one talks about this. I’m new at the factory, and I haven’t made friends yet. The older ones talk among themselves, but not about these things. But I say they should stop this war because many innocent people are dying, especially children.

Jorge: The policy of the U.S. government is to obtain oil profits and spill the blood of innocent people. The fight is for oil in Iraq, to have more control, and make more millions. The war isn’t necessary. It will mean the deaths of innocent people: old people, women and children, who don’t know why or for what. But the millionaires in their competition don’t care about the lives of human beings, of the workers.

Sonia: Lately the news media is bombarding us with stupid patriotism. They ask that we pray for all the heroes who died in the Twin Towers. I don’t think they’re heroes. Yes, a lot of innocent people died without knowing they were going to be sacrificed for oil profits, the bosses’ thirst for profits. If they had known they were going to be sacrificed, they wouldn’t have been in this job.

Susana: I think about what will happen to my children. I don’t care if I die for my cause or my convictions. But workers who die to make capitalism more powerful, and think they’ll be heroes, are only leaving their children more years of exploitation, more years without providing solutions or changes in the way of life of the whole working class. I think the best inheritance we can leave our children and the youth is communist ideology so that maybe they can see our red flags over the White House or the Capitol, like the day the workers waved the red flag over Stalingrad after defeating the Nazi’s.

Lupe: I am filled with anger every time they talk about war, to think that so many people can be won to support the destruction of other human beings. Just to listen to the lies the bosses bombard us with everyday on the radio and television. They repeatedly tell you in a hypnotic manner that the devil of terrorism, Saddam Hussein, has to be smashed and that we must kill thousands of Iraqi’s to prevent this devil from attacking again. This doesn’t fool me. But if I didn’t know about politics, I would also be swallowing this fishhook. Fortunately I know a little bit about dialectics, thanks to PLP. And I can analyze the cause and effects of this bosses’ war. War means two important things: power for the bosses and destruction for workers. I don’t think it should be too hard to help a fellow worker to think the same way, to see the truth behind the news.

Working Under Capitalism Is Dangerous To Your Health

More than three workers die every minute worldwide, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from occupational injuries and illnesses. These 5,000 daily deaths — "much of which is attributable to unsafe working practices" — add up to two million a year, says an April 24th report by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO). The study revealed that:

• Accidents cause 350,000 deaths a year;

• For every fatal accident, there are an estimated 1,000 non-fatal injuries, many of which result in lost earnings, permanent disability and poverty;

• Work kills more people than alcohol and drugs together;

• Hazardous substances kill 340,000 per year, asbestos accounting for 100,000;

• Exposure to daily occupational hazards such as dust, chemicals, noise and radiation cause untold suffering and illness, including cancer, heart diseases and strokes;

• Farm labor, construction and mining are the three most hazardous occupations.

The ILO says at least half the deaths from accidents could be prevented by safe working practices and that ALL accidents are avoidable and preventable. But workers know that unsafe conditions are directly traceable to the bosses’ drive to reap maximum profits by cutting corners on safety and by deliberately ignoring the danger of diseases at the workplace.

Capitalism makes war on the working class on the job every day. Truly, capitalism is a killer.

And Now Another 1.6 Million Die from War, Murder and Suicide

A new report by the UN’s World Health Organization says violence kills 1.6 million people per year worldwide. (They don’t include the two million the bosses kill at the workplace as "violence.")

This latest total includes war, suicide and murder. The report says, "Violence…is tied to income; the vast majority of violence-related deaths occurred in low-income countries." Interestingly, "violence, particularly war, seems to beget more violence…After wars, the levels of assault and violence remain higher than before," because more guns are available and more people have been trained to fight.

The report also says the solution is to treat violence as a "public health problem." But wars and low incomes are caused by capitalism, the same as workplace deaths and injuries. And the solution is the same — get rid of the profit system.

a name="Brazil Elections: Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing">">"razil Elections: Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

Socialist Lula da Silva got 47% of the votes in the Oct. 6 Presidential election in Brazil. Since he didn’t win a majority there will be a second round in a few weeks. Some time ago, Lula, former head of the Metal Workers Union and head of the Labor Party (PT), changed his tune of favoring class struggle to one of "love and peace" with the bosses. He finalized it by choosing a millionaire textile boss as his running partner. This made him the favorite candidate of a large section of the São Paulo (the New York of Brazil) bourgeoisie and other bosses, religious leaders and even of many generals. They see Lula as the best way to control the angry masses of Brazil and avoid an Argentinean-type of mass rebellion. The PT already runs 7 cities in Brazil, including São Paulo. The PT politicians have been able to make workers sacrifice for the well-being of capitalism. It is clear that Lula will most likely win the election.

Lula promises to tax the rich more and fight the deep inequality in the country by doubling the buying power of workers, but these are just words in air. The reality is that the economy of Brazil is on the verge of collapsing because of the worldwide recession, the crisis of overproduction and the war among the imperialists for control of the world’s markets and labor. Eventually the working class will realize that Lula is nothing but a capitalist wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing.

Some U.S. imperialists don’t see Lula as their ally. Lula’s PT has sponsored mass anti-free market activities in Brazil (the most recent one in Porto Alegre, a city run by the PT). These activities are mainly against the U.S. imperialists, and are supported by many who see the European Union as a "kinder imperialist." But many among the U.S. bosses also see that Lula can be good for U.S. interests in Brazil. After all, Lula has promised to keep on paying Brazil’s debt to the world’s bankers, keep public spending down, and open the Brazilian economy to more foreign investment. All of this is part of an IMF and World Bank $37 billion rescue plan for Brazil.

These promises to the world’s imperialists show that all the pro-working class promises made by Lula in his campaign are empty ones. Lula and the PT, just like the PRD in the cities it controls in Mexico, will just keep a lid on public spending, making workers accept more austerity measures.

The Brazilian bosses dream of joining the club of the imperialist masters of the world. That is why they don’t want just to be lap dogs of U.S. imperialism. This means that they need to control the MERCOSUR (the Common Market with Argentina and other smaller regional economies) and not become part of the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. To do that they must diversify, e.g. use the European imperialists to counter the U.S., and oppose U.S. plans (like Plan Colombia) that keep it in total control of South America. All these lead to a sharpening rivalry among the world’s imperialists and capitalists.

We in PLP must again warn workers that it is very dangerous to believe that some former union hack turned capitalist politician can save us from the hell of capitalism and imperialism. The only road to our liberation is the long, and hard struggle for a successful communist revolution.

Part-time teachers struggle at Chicago City Colleges

CHICAGO, IL October 8 — Today picketers greeted Truman College Board of Trustee member, Wayne Watson. In the midst of massive budget cuts, and negotiations for a new contract, part time teachers will take a strike authorization vote in two weeks. The old one expired on June 30. Teachers are demanding full-time jobs, one sick day per month, paid vacation and health care benefits with classroom hourly pay equal to Chicago Public School teachers. We also demand one hour’s preparation pay for every four hours of classroom instruction.

The City Colleges of Chicago serve 160,000 students, mainly immigrant workers who do not speak English, adults working long hours, young workers who didn’t finish high school, young single parents, etc. Severe city and state budget shortfalls, caused in part by cuts in federal funds, might close down this slice of public education for good.

Over the summer, the Illinois Community Colleges Board (ICCB) reported that state budget cuts of $500 million would have a big impact on the City Colleges. Grants and special budgets were eliminated or reduced. The $11.3 million Special Populations grant to help disabled students was wiped out. The $160,000 Special Initiatives grant and the $150,000 Leadership and Core Values grant were eliminated. Adult education was cut by $3.7 million, the base operations money by $1.9 million. At Daley College, the positions of coordinators, tutors and counselors have all been cut. At Truman, 43 employees were laid off. Student financial aid was slashed and more cuts are coming.

The Board has offered 750 Adult Education teachers and coordinators no raise for this year and 20 cents an hour for each of the following three years. They refused to give any paid sick days, health insurance, vacation days or increase in prep time. While the Board claims poverty, they voted to give administrators a 4% raise. Administrators with seven years seniority get free, lifetime health insurance. Adult educators and coordinators get none. Administrators get $500/month transportation allowances while their offer to us won’t pay for a bus ride.

At several campuses, PLP teachers and students are pointing out that the bosses’ priorities are war and a police state not educating immigrants and workers. We have participated in pickets, marches and teach-ins against the cuts. The best education workers and students can get out of this struggle is to learn how to fight for a society that serve their needs and not those of the warmakers and their stooges. Join the communist PLP.

a name="USAS Conference – Boston, MA, August 2002">">"SAS Conference – Boston, MA, August 2002

BOSTON, MA — Six PLP members were asked to leave the affiliate’s conference of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) last August. USAS works closely with SEIU and UNITE and is a training ground for union activists and future misleaders. The ruling class needs groups like this to win workers and students to support the Democratic Party, the fascist Homeland Security and the invasion of Iraq.

We were expelled on the first day of the conference, solely on the grounds of our communist politics. A comrade from the Worker/Student Alliance at SUNY/Binghamton submitted a proposal that put forward anti-racist politics. But the USAS leadership destroyed this, the only proposal dealing with racism and proposed nothing in its place. Furthermore, any attempt to discuss, question or change USAS policies were put down.

When we asked why we were being expelled, some of the leadership whimpered, "I’m sorry, it just has to be this way." Others said, "There will be no discussion!" When we refused to leave, these liberal fascists called the police and we were thrown out.

Removing us did not keep us from fighting. We distributed a leaflet describing our expulsion to students attending the conference. We participated in USAS rallies to support striking Boston janitors and GAP workers, showing up with our own signs calling for international working class unity.

We defied the leadership and returned to the conference the next day. Three PLP members awaited the start of the "Solidarity Training" workshop, which was supposed to improve USAS anti-racist work. When the leadership told us we had to leave, we stood and explained to others that they were going to call the police to throw us out to prevent discussion on putting fighting racism on the USAS agenda. Sure enough, the police were called again and we were forced to leave. From the speech we gave at the workshop, to the suppression of our anti-racist proposal, to the presence of the police, everyone got a crystal-clear picture of the agenda of the USAS leadership.

We sold Challenge and made contacts with over 10% of the students at the conference. We found that some students were supportive of us, bothered that we were thrown out, but felt intimidated by the leadership. We explained our anti-racist and anti-imperialist ideas, and how only communist revolution can end sweatshops, racism, and fascist-style leadership. The most important battle for the student movement is exposing the role of the universities in building racism and support for imperialist war.

Real Unemployment Figures Explode Myth of Prosperous 90s

For decades CHALLENGE has been exposing the "official" unemployment and poverty rates as phony. Now the bosses’ media is finding it increasingly difficult to hide this fact.

While we’ve always known that one trick the rulers use is to omit from the jobless figures workers who’ve given up looking for work, it turns out that the numbers of such workers are far larger than customarily reported. Millions of male workers have dropped out of the labor force over the past "prosperity" decade, unable to find work paying nearly what their old blue-collar jobs paid. The bosses, in true capitalist/imperialist style, have moved many of these jobs to low-wage areas of the world. Over five million workers are forced to accept disability checks — averaging $800 a month, far less than unemployment insurance benefits — and are not counted in the unemployment rates. And even for those who keep looking and are counted, there has been a "long-term rise in the duration of unemployment."

The New York Times reported (9/29) that, "Today the real level of unemployment for men approaches the level of the recession-mired early ’80s." This increase occurred under Clinton’s so-called prosperity decade. In addition, as CHALLENGE has consistently reiterated, the prison population has skyrocketed to over two million (doubling under Clinton’s watch). This not only takes these workers out of the "official" labor force but causes millions more in their families to "suffer many of the consequences of joblessness," such as evictions and lack of health care. No wonder the French say the "U.S. has jailed its unemployment problem."

The Times admits this "Rise in the number of ‘missing workers’ calls into question the ‘great achievement’ of the 1990s economy." Of course, this mouthpiece for the ruling class does not admit it "calls into question" the ability of capitalism to provide a decent life for the working class. The Times even printed an op-ed article in the same issue entitled "Poverty Is More Than a Matter of Income."

While recent Census Bureau figures stated that 33 million people in the U.S. live below an all-too-narrowly defined poverty level (see CHALLENGE, 10/9), when measuring the assets of the poor, 25% of the U.S. population are "asset-poor." That is, if they lost their jobs and "had to live on only net worth — savings, home equity and other assets — they could survive at poverty levels for only three months."

Astoundingly, if they only had liquid assets to ride out unemployment (that is, not giving up their home), "the poverty rate jumps to nearly 40%"!

But this is not surprising when one considers that the top 20% of households own 83% of U.S. wealth (assets). and the bottom 60%, the majority, own less than 5%. Still worse, the bottom 40% own LESS THAN ONE PERCENT of total U.S. wealth.

All this, of course, hits black and Latino workers doubly hard because the bosses’ racism forces them to suffer double the jobless and poverty rates of white workers, and fills the jails with 70% black and Latino prisoners.

Given this sorry picture of U.S. capitalism sitting on the backs of its working class, now the rulers want to enhance their ability to intensify this hell by embarking on a series of imperialist wars to further control the world’s oil supply and increase their pool of exploited workers worldwide.

Yes, Karl Marx was right in analyzing the profit system as one that rests on the robbery of the value workers produce and control of the state apparatus to enforce that robbery. Need any more reason to join with the revolutionary communist PLP to wipe out that system and build a communist society that eliminates bosses, profits and their endless wars?

Red Eye On The News

RED EYE reprints clippings from the New York Times, British Manchester Guardian Weekly, and many other well-known capitalist publications. From their own papers we collect material which communists find useful in exposing capitalist maneuvers and weaknesses. Especially useful for students and others who want an "official source for important facts. Abbreviations: MG= Manchester Guardian; NYT= New York Times; MM=Multinational Monitor; LOW=Liberal Opinion Weekly; FT=Financial Times

Arabs distrust US plan for Iraq

A senior Arab official said Washington had not shared any of its ideas on who might rule Iraq if Mr. Hussein is ousted by force. "Everyone is asking, ‘Where is the Karzai for Iraq?’" he said, referring to Hamid Karzai, the American-backed leader of Afghanistan.

"But what is Karzai?" the official said, "He’s a U.S. stooge. No one wants a U.S. stooge in the region." (NYT 10/8)

US oil firms $upport war

A U.S.-led ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could open a bonanza for American oil companies long banished from Iraq, scuttling oil deals between Baghdad and Russia, France and other countries and reshuffling world petroleum markets, according to industry officials and leaders of the Iraqi opposition.

(MG 9/25)

People don’t want this war

Representative Lynn Woolsey, Northern California Democrat, said mail and calls from district residents were running 200 to 1 against a war with Iraq.

(NYT 9/21)

Capitalism-as-usual (no security) comes to Japan, and schoolkids turn violent

YOKOHAMA, Japan — By sixth grade, a growing generation of preteenage rebels has begun walking in and out of classrooms at will, mocking the authority of adults and even attacking teachers who try to restrain them.

Similar problems show up in higher grades too, with nearly half of all high schools reporting violence, higher dropout rates and problems like student prostitution.

"Up until now, Japan was a society in which children obeyed adults, but this relationship between children and adults is no longer workable, because the system was built around the idea that by doing well in school you should enter a good company, and having lifetime security," said Naoki Ogi, an education expert. "Over the last 10 years, however, Japan hasn’t found a way out of its economic depression, and from the children’s viewpoint, the academic record-oriented system has collapsed. Moral values are collapsing, too.

"So children feel they have no one they can trust, no adult society they can look up to."

(NYT 9/23)

Darwin said humans gain by cooperation, NOT by dog-eat-dog

So why is it that most of us don’t know what a great guy Darwin was?

In his case, bias has been compounded between his theory of evolution by natural selection and the perversion by philosopher Herbert Spencer of one aspect of this idea, so-called "social Darwinism." This is the view, explicitly rejected by Darwin, that all human existence is a cutthroat competition in which only the fittest are meant to survive.

This idea isn’t science at all. Our capacity to cooperate has given our species a powerful selective advantage. What a hideous irony that the tiny amount of science that many of us think we know is merely a perversion of a profound spiritual insight — that all life is kinship.

(MG 9/25)

LETTERS

Workers of the World, Write!

Bavaria Brewery Enforces Plan Colombia

"You are with the company or against it!" Repeating fascist Bush’s warning to the entire world, the Bavaria brewery bosses are telling workers to accept the company’s new contract offer. The company is using its flunkeys in the plant to force workers to quit the union (Sinaltrabavaria). The bosses even offered workers $300 as an incentive to quit the union.

Unfortunately some workers, lacking any class-consciousness, accepted the bribe and gave up the years of struggle it took to get the few benefits from the company. This is a betrayal of those workers who are still fighting for the union and our rights.

This is the kind of democracy the bosses want. In Colombia, only 3% of the labor force is unionized. Now that the friend of the Death Squad, Uribe, is President, the attacks against unionists will increase. Already, the death squads have killed thousands of unionists in the last few years (CHALLENGE has had numerous articles on the murders of several Coca Cola union activists). Unfortunately, many union leaders still have illusions in the bosses’ democracy. The Sinaltrabavaria leaders are still hoping to defeat the company’s latest attacks through legal means.

PLP supports the struggle of Bavaria workers for their union. At the same time, we must point out the limitations of struggling just for trade unionism in this time of growing war and fascism. The best way to fight the bosses and their terrorist death squads is to build a massive struggle for a society where workers produce according to their needs, a communist society without any bosses.

Red Worker

PLP at Anti-Globalization DC Protests

The last weekend of September in DC saw PLP’ers engaged in a wide variety of agitation and base building during the protests and demonstrations. On Friday during the "People’s Strike" comrades handed out leaflets about the Oil War, about PLP, as well as some Challenge/Desafíos. Several Latino workers were very responsive to the Desafío distribution.

On Saturday comrades did the same at the Anti-Globalization Rally at the Washington Monument. Many ISO folks were out there, but people seemed to be much more responsive to us. People were finding out who the REAL revolutionaries are!

On Sunday comrades distributed Challenge and leaflets to over 900 demonstrators at the Anti-War Rally in Dupont Circle. Throughout the whole weekend, we handed out over 1,500 leaflets and distributed over 250 Challenges.

Forward to REVOLUTION! Forward PLP!

Komrade

Jailbreak from Greens Jail

Recently, the Green Party candidate for governor of California, Peter Miguel Camejo, spoke on a Los Angeles university campus. He said that the African American and Latino communities are prisoners of the Democratic Party, and the Greens represent the "jailbreak." While he presented many interesting facts about the world situation, his analysis reveals that the Green Party is really a prisoner of doomed reformism.

We wrote a statement/question to expose the failure of electoral politics and move the discussion to the left. The participation and comments of others helped sharpen the question.

After the speech the floor was opened for questions. A comrade said, "After studying the Patriot Act, secret evidence, secret trials, the arrest and deportation of thousands of our Muslim and Latin brothers and sisters, the FBI requesting student records even on our own campus without probable cause, the TIPS program asking workers to spy on other workers, the Homeland Security department threatening to break the dock worker’s strike, many people including myself think we are in a time of growing fascism…" She said that historically electoral, reformist parties like the Greens spread deadly illusions about the nature of fascism and misled workers and students towards elections instead of organizing to fight capitalism, the cause of war and fascism. "How would you differentiate the Green Party from these failed and ultimately dangerous reformist parties?" she asked.

Camejo revealed there is absolutely no difference. He said "the U.S. is not in a period of growing fascism" because "most citizens and the Republican and Democratic Parties still believe in democracy." He said we could reform the system by voting for Green Party candidates. This is exactly what the German and Italian Social-Democratic Parties said even as Mussolini and Hitler took power.

Capitalist elections never lead to workers taking power. The Greens won’t fight for workers’ power or to end capitalism: the source of racist inequality and wars for profit. They want the capitalist pie divided more equally, which will not happen, especially in this period of crisis. The Greens are appealing because they give many facts that Democrats and Republicans cover up. But unless they are connected to a larger political-economic analysis of imperialism, they mean nothing. While the Greens feel they are a jailbreak from the Democratic Party, the only jailbreak for the working class is studying dialectical materialism and fighting for communist revolution.

After the event we distributed CHALLENGE and made plans to meet several people for coffee to discuss these ideas further. Since then, Governor Davis again betrayed immigrant workers by refusing to sign a bill granting drivers’ licenses to those in the process of becoming permanent residents. Some immigrants’ rights leaders are supporting Camejo for Governor in response to this slap in the face by Davis. Many people are attracted to the Greens because Davis was involved with the energy companies in robbing the California treasury of billions of dollars. But no politician can change the nature of capitalism. Fighting the illusion that capitalism can be worker-friendly and peaceful is an important step toward building a mass PL to destroy capitalism.

Red not Green

Dockworkers Need Militant Solidarity

The Bush gang invoked the Taft Hartley Act to reopen the 29 West Coast ports shut by the lockout of 10,500 Longshoremen. The bosses are playing hardball. In Oakland alone some 30 carriers move 20% of West Coast exports, including electronic parts and foodstuffs from the Central Valley.

These negotiations hit at the heart of a simmering division in the US ruling class that has resurfaced over how to conduct a war on Iraq. US bosses with heavy investments in domestic oil and domestic industries have cultivated mass movements in groups like the Christian Fundamentalists. The liberal Rockefeller, Exxon Mobil, imperialists have replied by turning, among other things, to the unions. The ILWU has been a poster boy for the liberals, and has not won any favors with the White House. But it is the strategic role the West Coast ports play in the Bush scheme of things that has brought Tom Ridge and the matter for Homeland Security into the picture.

It is a sorry state of affairs for dockworkers, made even sorrier by a union leadership that is not prepared to tap into the potential strength and unity of the whole working class to answer these attacks.

Over 4,700 autoworkers at the joint GM-Toyota NUMMI plant were laid off when the engines and transmissions shipped via the port to this just-in-time assembly plant could not be unloaded. Yet no march of autoworkers and longshoremen protesting the lockout was called.

The port of Oakland lies next to some of the poorest neighborhoods in California. Yet, the union doesn't demand that the benefits of automation be passed on to the working class through a shorter workweek with no loss in pay. (The union won the 6-hour day over 30 years ago. Longshoremen work 8-hour shifts with 2 hours of overtime.)

Longshoremen are vital links in a chain of West Coast workers who create billions of dollars every just-in-time day. Their enormous potential is wasted by pro-capitalist, pro-Rockefeller union leaders. The job of communists in the unions is to demand and organize action against lockouts, against layoffs and outsourcing of jobs, and against the war plans of all the US bosses!

A Reader

Anti-Muslim Racism on the Rise as War Looms

On September 13, a racist woman in a roadside restaurant claimed she overheard three Muslim medical students making "suspicious comments." The students had stopped to eat in Georgia on their drive south to Larkin Community Hospital in Miami where they were assigned to work. The racist called the cops who sent out bulletins all over Florida for three young men, including one with a long beard wearing a skullcap. The students were pulled over on a Florida highway, their car was ransacked and they were held and questioned in a hot police van for 17 hours. Despite news reports that some of their belongings had been "detonated," they were finally released and the police called it "a mistake."

The only "terror" involved was experienced by the Muslim students. The hospital withdrew its offer for their medical training, even though this harassment was based on racist profiling. Ayman Gheith, who is from Illinois, finished his pre-med courses at the university where I teach and is well thought of here. Family members and classmates were shocked and angry. An article appeared in the campus paper. Meanwhile, cops and pro-war patriots hailed the racist as a good citizen who did the right thing!

This is what the rulers have in mind when they speak of Homeland Security, a nation of snitches reporting to the police, who can detain or kill a "suspect" on the whim of an ignorant racist. Thousands of immigrants have been rounded up, questioned, held without charges and deported in the name of the "War on Terror." This racist is a good Nazi soldier, goose-stepping in line. And we can expect to see more.

Homeland Security Fuhrer Tom Ridge is the scheduled keynote speaker at the APHA (American Public Health Association) Convention in Philadelphia next month. While over 45 million live with no health insurance and public hospitals like Cook County are reduced from 900 to 400 beds, the entire emphasis of public health is being turned toward "fighting terrorism" (bio-chemical attacks, anthrax, etc). For the Muslim students held in Florida, for the thousands being detained and deported, for the millions with no insurance, and the millions more with no hospital beds, we should give fascist Tom Ridge the welcome he deserves.

By the way …

Quote of the Year

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trial, 1946

Barefoot Doc

Imperialism = War, War and More War

Exxon Uses Indonesian Butchers to Pump Gas

• Exxon Enters Indonesia After 1965 Holocaust

With PLP Leadership, Hundreds of Workers and Youth Repel Nazi Vermin

Nazi Hale Preaches Racist Terror

a href="http://www.plp.org/cd02pdf/cd1009.pdf#Defending Boston Police Chief Won’t Stop Racist Killer Cops">"efending Boston Police Chief Won’t Stop Racist Killer Cops

a href="#Union ‘Partnership’ With Bosses Sinks Boeing Workers">Un"on ‘Partnership’ With Bosses Sinks Boeing Workers

a href="http://www.plp.org/cd02pdf/cd1009.pdf#Union Hacks Dicker Over Dues While Bosses, Gov’t Attack Dockers">"nion Hacks Dicker Over Dues While Bosses, Gov’t Attack Dockers

a href="#Standing Shoulder to Shoulder Against Bosses’ War on Workers">"tanding Shoulder to Shoulder Against Bosses’ War on Workers

Overproduction Shows Capitalism Must Be Destroyed

a href="#‘War on Terror’ Impoverishes Millions">‘W"r on Terror’ Impoverishes Millions

Calif. Student Marchers Oppose Imperialist War

a href="#Warping Children’s Brains With Psychiatric Drugs">"arping Children’s Brains With Psychiatric Drugs

Secret Court Legalizes Fascism

a href="#My Family Saw the Building of the First Workers’ State">"y Family Saw the Building of the First Workers’ State

LETTERS

PLP, Workers Jolt Nazis

Signs Fire Up Candlelight Vigil

Organizing With CHALLENGE

Film Exposes U.S. Terrorists

Profits Carry Ball In Pro Football

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Imperialism = War, War and More War

As Bush and the liberals continue to haggle over going to war in Iraq, all sides agree on doing whatever it takes to continue U.S. dominance of Persian Gulf oil. This isn’t an argument between a peace camp and a war camp within the ruling class. Both gangs want the U.S. to rule the world. War is coming, either now or in the not-too-distant future. War is inevitable under the profit system. We must not fall into the trap of backing one side against the other.

The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz crew wants to invade Iraq very soon, even if they must go it alone. Since 9/11, the U.S. has erected military bases housing 60,000 troops in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and Bulgaria. The latest addition is in Djibouti, strategically located along the oil route of the Horn of Africa and which "boasts a modern deep water port…ideally situated for monitoring sea traffic in the southern end of the Red Sea, the Bab al Mandeb strait, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean." (CNN.com, 9/19). Bush is sending troops, aircraft carriers, bombers and commandos into the Persian Gulf as a build-up for war in Iraq.

Powell and liberal Republicans and Democrats worry that if U.S. imperialism launches a war on its own, it could boomerang. Russian, French, German, and Chinese bosses won’t go along unless they get major oil concessions, which the U.S. has yet to grant. For the moment, Powell and the liberals appear to be dragging Bush over to their side.

The liberals fear being sucked into al Qaeda’s plan for an ever-widening war. Bin Laden, alive or dead, represents a faction of Arab bosses who want to end the U.S. stranglehold on Persian Gulf oil. They have significant support within Saudi Arabia and from forces inside the Arab ruling classes, who want a cut of oil profits. They have support throughout the Muslim world and from economically threatened elements of the middle classes. Most important, they hope to turn growing numbers of brutally oppressed workers into an army based on religion, nationalism and hatred of U.S. imperialism to achieve their goals.

Al Qaeda is counting on U.S. imperialism to supply the kindling for the firestorm. They want their terrorist acts to provoke U.S. rulers into military retaliation, creating tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim casualties. Al Qaeda is hoping that the resulting outrage will create the conditions for massive uprisings throughout the Arab and Muslim world that drive Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco from the oil fields.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. policymakers appear to be doing exactly what al Qaeda hopes. They continue to butcher Afghan civilians while their fascist Israeli pals are murdering Palestinian workers and children every day. Each death further fans the flames of anti-U.S. hatred. The U.S. now has "status of forces" agreements authorizing the presence of U.S. troops in 93 countries. (L.A. Times, 9/6/02)

Invading Iraq and possibly overthrowing Saddam Hussein is one thing. Installing a stable pro-U.S. regime that can pump oil for Exxon Mobil is quite another. Saudi oil bosses have a very shaky hold on power, due to their own corrupt brutality and history as the U.S. energy puppet. War in Iraq could fan the flames of rebellion in Saudi Arabia and force the U.S. to invade and occupy that country as well. Egypt, with the largest population in the Arab world, remains highly unstable. Oil-rich Iran could pose an even bigger problem than it does now. Pakistan too could erupt. Strategically crucial Indonesia isn’t in Washington’s bag. U.S. imperialism needs all these countries firmly in its orbit.

So the liberals are telling Bush to slow down before he drives over a cliff, taking them with him. Before going to war, they want to soothe the other imperialists and bribe into existence a pro-U.S. middle class in the important oil-producing nations. This is what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman means when he calls for "democratization" and "modernization" in these states.

But the liberals have spilled oceans of working-class blood: Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam — leading to three million deaths — and Clinton/Gore in their air war over Yugoslavia and maintaining genocidal sanctions against Iraq, leading to a million deaths. These liberals expanded overseas military bases, paving the way for the current Bush deployments.

We can’t predict what the immediate future holds. Bush may invade Iraq very soon, or the liberals may slow down the process for a while. Over the long term, however, U.S. imperialism will make war not only in Iraq, but also throughout the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. It will field armies of occupation. These oil wars will lead to sharpened conflict between the U.S. and other imperialists.

Workers, students and youth in the Middle East and the U.S. won’t sit still forever while U.S. imperialism kills and exploits them. Despite the dominance of purely reactionary, nationalist and religious ideology, eventually revolutionary communists will emerge to offer the only true alternative to imperialist war, building the revolutionary communist PLP across all borders. The bosses will dig their grave, but they won’t jump in. That’s up to us.

Exxon Uses Indonesian Butchers to Pump Gas

It’s now clear U.S. rulers’ plans to attack Iraq have very little to do with "weapons of mass destruction," or "regime change" to bring democracy to Iraq. As CHALLENGE has reported, it’s about oil. U.S. bosses need to control Middle East oil (Iraq is second only to Saudi Arabia) to maintain its world status as imperialist top dog.

That U.S. imperialism — particularly its oil companies — is not interested in democracy or toppling brutal dictators in Iraq or anywhere else is evident from a lawsuit filed recently in a Washington, D.C. federal court. Eleven residents of Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province and site of a vicious war between separatist guerrillas and the Indonesia military, charge they were raped, tortured, kidnapped and their relatives murdered, "by Indonesian soldiers paid to protect a big Exxon-Mobil natural gas plant in the province." (International Herald Tribune, 8/14). The suit accuses Exxon of providing the Indonesian military "with equipment to dig mass graves, as well as building interrogation and torture centres." (BBC News, 6/22/01).

At Exxon’s suggestion, the judge sought the opinion of the U.S. State Dept. William Taft 4^th, the latter’s legal adviser, responded that the suit would adversely affect U.S. bosses’ interests and recommended it be dropped.

Exxon Enters Indonesia After 1965 Holocaust

In 1965, a CIA-backed fascist coup by General Suharto murdered a million people and crushed the massive Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The PKI was the largest Communist Party outside China and the former USSR. (Mel Gibson’s film, The Year of Living Dangerously, had some great shots of the huge protests organized by the PKI.) Just like in Iraq, Iran, etc., The PKI was able to win masses of workers and others to communist politics in a predominantly Muslim country, just as communists did at one time in Iraq and Iran. But instead of fighting for workers’ power, the PKI made a deadly mistake. It tried to ally with "lesser evil progressive nationalist" capitalists.

Exxon began operating in Aceh three years after the 1965 fascist coup. In those days, U.S. imperialism built Islamic fundamentalism to wage holy war against communism. Suharto and his family maintained a bloody dictatorship and became super-rich by opening Indonesia to Exxon and other imperialists.

Suharto is gone now, but the Indonesian military continues to massacre its population. In Aceh, the guerrilla movement is now labeled "Islamic terrorism." Human rights groups estimate that at least 2,000 civilians, including children and the elderly, were killed between 1989 and 1993. And the killings continue.

As U.S. bosses prepare to wage more imperialist wars, millions of lives will be sacrificed on the altar of oil profits. The essence of the bosses’ "war on terror" is mass murder of workers and others worldwide. The only way out of this holocaust is to wage war on bosses and build a communist society without Exxon, all the imperialists and their fascist death squads.

With PLP Leadership, Hundreds of Workers and Youth Repel Nazi Vermin

WAKEFIELD, MASS., Sept. 15 — Boston PLP and the working class here successfully attacked a Nazi meeting and disrupted their attempt to spread their racist, fascist filth. Several of the Nazis barely escaped, bleeding and shaking, one crumpled on the sidewalk, whimpering and yelling for the cops.

Nazi Matt Hale, leader of the so-called World Church of the Creator (see box) got the Wakefield town government to give him a library meeting room to bring his message of racial holy war to the state. During a year-long search, two other Massachusetts towns had flatly refused him. Wakefield is a working-class town, 97% white.

When PLP heard the fascists were coming, we began by issuing a leaflet literature in Wakefield and some surrounding towns calling for a demonstration to drive Hale and his Nazi scum out of Wakefield. Responses ranged from enthusiastic support, especially among young people at the Wakefield high school to the usual free speech concerns ("I-hate-them-too-but-this-is-America"). The students proved to be a significant force at yesterday’s protest.

Meanwhile, the free-speech forces were organizing an alternative protest at a church several miles away — "Love Lives Here." We countered with a leaflet explaining the need for working people to unite to drive the Nazis out of Massachusetts.

When September 14^th rolled around, about 40 Boston PLP members and friends arrived in Wakefield an hour before the 1:00 PM starting time and established our picket line in front of the library. The first hour about 100 people listened, but as we picketed, the crowd gradually grew in size and support. By 1:15 it had swollen to about 600 (Boston Globe, 9/15), many clearly anti-Nazi, and included quite a few youth from the high school. Some joined the line; a few agreed to speak on the bullhorn.

Meanwhile Hale and 10 supporters had been standing on the street corner across from our picket line, surrounded by the press. Two Nazi supporters showed up and approached the picket line. One jostled a picket and was immediately hit with a flying object. Bleeding from a scalp wound, the two retreated, chased by a dozen anti-Nazis, soon joined by dozens more, until about 100 angry workers and youth were shouting slogans, throwing rocks, spitting on the fascists and tearing up their signs. The leadership we had provided in our picket line and our militancy confronting the two Nazis had won the crowd to our line.

At this point we closed the picket line and joined the crowd attacking the Nazis, continuing to grab and tear up the Nazis’ signs. Others quickly raised $300 in bail money from the protesters for two young people who’d been arrested.

The 200 cops in their Darth Vader uniforms — plus state police and federal marshals — failed to regain control. Finally they led Hale and his nine Nazis, all drenched in spit, away from their corner and into the library. Thirty more of his vermin snuck in through the back door. Outside, PLP led the crowd in chants of, "Let us in." After 20 minutes, the cops let in ten anti-Nazis, five from our picket line. Once inside, the five PL’ers began to chant anti-Nazi slogans, confronting 40 Nazis screaming "Sieg Heil" and giving the Hitler salute. Some anti-Nazis are expelled. Those remaining shouted down Hale’s speech. Outside, the crowd waits patiently for the Nazis to make their exit.

Around 3:00 PM, the cops quietly escorted the Nazis into vans to slip out of town, but six left through the front door and then walked down Main Street chased by the crowd. Two protesters whacked two of the Nazis repeatedly with poles. The Boston Herald reported that one "burly neo-Nazi crumpled to the sidewalk with a whimper, yelling ‘Help! Police!’" Soon he fled with his companions down a side street, pursued by protesters. When the cops hand-cuffed two anti-Nazis to take them in for "questioning," about 150 protesters chased after the cops, yelling, "Let ’em go! Let ’em go!" The two were later released. Some of us then went to the police station to check on an arrested comrade.

The Wakefield demonstration has taught us that, (1) when we act boldly and honestly, the working class will respond to our ideas and tactics; and (2) in this period youth are very receptive to what we have to say and more than willing to follow our leadership.

Nazi Hale Preaches Racist Terror

Nazi Hale and his World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) are part of a new slicked-up and extremely well-financed coalition of Nazi groups called the National Alliance. Their late leader William Pierce wrote the Turner Diaries, the book that inspired Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The WCOTC, following the Nazi movement’s new "peaceable" style, renounces hate and violence, except in "racial self-defense," which includes any act of racist violence. They aim to mobilize a racial holy war ("RAHOWA") that will "shrink" [exterminate] the non-white populations, enabling the "White Race" to dominate the Earth.

While preaching non-violence, WCOTC is believed to have been behind a number of racist murders, most notably in Peoria, IL where in 1999 Hale’s leading protégé, Benjamin Smith, went on a rampage killing two people and wounding nine — all black, Latin or Asian — and then committed suicide. Hale’s comment was, "only one white man died that day."

These Nazis, protected by the rulers’ cops, help spread the racism the bosses need to institute full-blown fascism, the better to help the ruling class launch its imperialist oil wars. None of them will be defeated by pacifist love-ins.

a name="Defending Boston Police Chief Won’t Stop Racist Killer Cops">">"efending Boston Police Chief Won’t Stop Racist Killer Cops

BOSTON, September 20 — On Sept. 7, Eveline Barros-Cepeda, a 25-year-old mother from Cape Verde, was murdered when a racist cop pumped a fusillade of bullets into the back seat of a fleeing car. She was the eighth victim of racist police terror here in the past 22 months.  A few hours later, a black man, a carjacking suspect, was shot and severely injured in his moving vehicle. Within minutes, a small rebellion against the police broke out at the scene.

The day after the Cepeda murder, police commissioner Paul Evans called for rule changes to restrict police from shooting at moving vehicles. The police union responded with a vote of "no confidence" in Evans, the first in the history of the Boston police. The detective’s union backed them up. The cops claim that terrorism and rising street violence require them to have "a free hand."

Today, a group of black religious misleaders led by Reverend Rivers called on the black community "to close ranks behind" the embattled police chief. These black clergy and businessmen have never rushed to the defense of black and Latin workers and youth, even after the eight unnecessary deaths at the hands of the police. And they never criticized Evans as these killer cops were exonerated, one after another.

Reverend Rivers has worked closely with the Boston ruling class for the last several years, hosting the police department’s weekly "community policing" meetings at his church (one of the liberals’ main strategies to win workers to collaborate with the fascist police). He cozied up to Bush in an effort to get his share of the faith-based money the White House was planning to dole out to charity organizations.

These junior partners of the ruling class are desperately trying to prevent class-conscious militancy from growing among black and Latin workers and youth. They are rewarded with a little bit of money and power. As they bend over backwards to save Paul Evans’ skin, workers and youth should ignore their traitorous pleas.

a name="Union ‘Partnership’ With Bosses Sinks Boeing Workers"></">Un"on ‘Partnership’ With Bosses Sinks Boeing Workers

September 13 — Members of the International Association of Machinist (IAM) failed to muster the two-third’s majority needed to authorize a strike against Boeing. Sixty-two percent rejected the takeaway contract, while 61% reaffirmed the strike sanction vote taken last July. This was the second strike vote. International President Thomas Buffenbarger sealed the first one on August 29 to accommodate the federal mediator.

The mediation yielded nothing, as could be expected. Demoralization and confusion set in during the two-week delay as the company and the local press attempted to spread fear through our ranks. Buffenbarger branded members who thought federal mediation was a mistake as "those that think they know it all." There must have been a lot of "know-it-alls" — the general feeling on the shop floor was, "It’s all over but the crying."

Seattle area District 751 President Mark Blondin sent a letter to every union member concluding, "the company decided it is against us." Apparently this was news to the union leadership! But we workers have known this all along, ever since there’s been a working class!

The union’s reformist politics — especially in this post 9/11 period of fascist attacks against the working class — all but guaranteed the failure to get the necessary 2/3 majority in the final strike vote. The union issued three or four leaflets a day that last week, all focused on the contract’s economics. We all knew the contract was a job-eating, benefits-busting disaster. What we wanted to know was how to win in these tough times. The union’s years of pushing "partnership," patriotic unity with the bosses and reliance on friends in the government left us unprepared for the fight.

Two days after the final strike vote, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Alan Mulally told the Seattle Times, "Nobody can guarantee jobs and security in market-based economies," implying even more layoffs. Therefore, our number one job over the life of this contract must be to prepare to smash Mulally’s market-based economy.

The Party and our base organized for building revolutionary class-consciousness as the only realistic strategy for winning, now and in the future. We made modest progress rebuilding our Challenge networks, which had been devastated by 30,000 layoffs. We will devote even more energy to consolidate these hard-won advances. Out of the chaos of the last weeks, we must learn to politically and organizationally prepare for the long, hard road to communist revolution.

a name="Union Hacks Dicker Over Dues While Bosses, Gov’t Attack Dockers">">"nion Hacks Dicker Over Dues While Bosses, Gov’t Attack Dockers

In mid-September, Machinists union (IAM) president Tom Buffenbarger threatened to cross dockworkers’ picket lines if the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) struck. The ILWU is demanding that shipping bosses agree to make all new technology positions union jobs. But since some maintenance and repair workers on the docks are IAM members, IAM bosses are very ready to sacrifice unity with striking dockworkers to get their cut of these jobs. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka called a secret meeting to try to keep the lid on this jurisdictional squabble over members and dues money.

The ILWU has been working without a contract since July 1. Bush, in consultation with the Homeland Security Department, plans to send in federal troops to bust any longshore strike. Groups of rank-and-file workers have taken on the task of building working-class solidarity in response to this post 9/11 offensive against our brothers and sisters. Petitions of solidarity, signed by hundreds of IAM members, have been presented to dockworkers as a down payment on workers’ solidarity and power.

a name="Standing Shoulder to Shoulder Against Bosses’ War on Workers">">"tanding Shoulder to Shoulder Against Bosses’ War on Workers

An IAM rank-and-filer brought greetings of solidarity to a recent ILWU meeting. Referring to the latest fiasco with the federal mediator, she noted that Boeing workers had learned, "We can’t rely on the federal government. We can’t rely on the bosses’ politicians. We can only rely on the power of a united working class." She asked the packed union hall whether she could return to the IAM membership with the promise that we would stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight for decent-paying jobs everywhere in the world. Would we stand with the working class against this bosses’ war on workers? The answer was a resounding yes, followed by vows to stand on the picket lines with IAM members and more!

Outside the meeting, workers from both unions discussed the "war on terrorism." "Don’t get me started on that," warned one ILWU member. "I get furious when I think how they’ve used that so-called ‘war on terrorism’ to attack us." The workers vowed to keep in contact — strike or no strike.

So here’s the picture. The pro-capitalist union leadership squabbles over dues money while "Rome burns." On the other hand, our Party supports rank-and-file attempts to build a united-front-from-below to answer the bosses’ offensive and the hacks’ self-serving treachery. The difference between the hacks’ outlook and ours? We’re communists, and communists understand the need to build revolutionary class-consciousness.

Overproduction Shows Capitalism Must Be Destroyed

"To understand why the U.S. economy can’t seem to muster a stronger recovery," comments the Washington Post (8/29), "it helps to look for clues in Victorville, Calif., where 500 unused and unwanted passenger jets — some of them brand new — sit wingtip to wingtip in the desert. Or in Detroit, where the Big Three continue to churn out large numbers of passenger cars that they sell at little or no profit, just to keep their factories busy. Or in nearly every major metropolitan area, where office vacancy rates are still rising after 18 months, and have reached 25 percent in Dallas, 24 percent in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and 18 percent in San Francisco…. Falling prices shoppers find for clothing, televisions, hotel rooms and cellular phone service…are being paid in the form of continued corporate layoffs, lackluster stock prices and a sky-high trade deficit — in short, an economy that’s having trouble building up a head of steam. Economists refer to this phenomenon as overcapacity, which is really nothing more than too much supply chasing too little demand. And it can be found these days across a wide swath: agriculture, autos, advertising, chemicals, computer hardware and software, consulting, financial services, forest products, furniture, mining, retail, steel, textiles, telecommunications, trucking, and electric generation, just to mention a few. In most every case, it is accompanied by prices that are flat or falling."

The bosses call it "overcapacity"; communists call it overproduction. In a world where millions go hungry and lack basic necessities, the capitalists produce more than they can profitably sell. But they never give it to those who need it.

This leads to even more layoffs and misery. It’s built into capitalism, where ownership of the means of production and the vast wealth created by the working class lies in fewer and fewer hands while the masses of workers who actually produce the value are exploited even harder. Workers’ resistance is met by armed attacks and new laws restricting them even more, adding up to fascism.

As competition for maximum profits sharpens, the bosses automate, lay off workers and produce more with fewer workers. Rates of profits and actual profits decline because the bosses invest still more in machinery to try to out-produce their rivals with fewer workers — but fewer workers are able to buy the greater quantities of products.

The bosses "solve" these problems by lowering labor costs even more: moving factories to low-wage areas and eventually either destroying the productive capacity of their rivals in wars or seizing their factories and resources (oil wells, etc.). But without a mass communist party leading workers to take state power, these crises have never and will never, by themselves, topple capitalism.

Says the Washington Post, "The big culprit in the supply-demand mismatch was the investment boom of the late 1990s, arguably the longest and most exuberant since the 1920s. Flush with cheap money made available by Wall Street, businesses of all sorts rushed out and expanded their capacity — not simply to satisfy the increased demand of the moment, but in anticipation of continued high economic growth rates well into the future. When the growth failed to materialize, they suddenly found themselves with more capacity than they could profitably employ. ‘In hindsight, it’s now clear that we invested too much in plant and equipment during the last boom — maybe 20 to 25 percent too much,’ said Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers. ‘We were looking at things in an analytically flawed way.’"

The very nature of a profit system creates problems that it can only solve by creating mass misery, fascism and war. These inherent contradictions of capitalism are not "mistakes" and cannot be done away with. Inevitably they come to the fore as competition between the bosses, especially imperialist rivals, sharpens.

The Progressive Labor Party is committed to building a mass communist party among workers, soldiers and students to insure a successful communist revolution. This and only this can destroy a system based on exploitation and war for profit.

a name="‘War on Terror’ Impoverishes Millions"></">‘W"r on Terror’ Impoverishes Millions

As U.S. rulers head for war against Iraq, they’re not neglecting the war at home — the one against the poor. According to the Census Bureau’s latest report on income and poverty, "Americans living in poverty rose significantly last year," to 33 million. [All quotes and figures from New York Times, 9/25.] Interestingly, percentage-wise, more white people fell below poverty levels last year than black and Latin people, although the annual household incomes for the latter was far below that of whites. The racism that produces 40% lower income for black and Latin workers thus helps the bosses drag down income for white workers as well.

But of course, the government’s definition of "poverty" is ridiculously understated. They say a family of four whose income is above $18,104 is NOT in poverty; similarly $14,128 for a family of three, $11,569 for a married couple and $9,039 for an individual. That would mean, for instance, that an individual who earns $10,000 annually and pays $500 a month rent would be using $6,000 a year for housing, 60% of his or her yearly income! And such a person is not included in the 33 million considered below the poverty level.

Worse still is the family of four: say they were "above" the poverty level, at $20,000 a year, and paid $800 a month rent. That’s $9,600 annually, or nearly half their income, leaving little more than $10,000 a year for food, clothing, health care, transportation, etc., for father, mother and two children! And that’s not poverty?

No wonder the disparity between rich and poor is skyrocketing. The richest fifth of the population accounts for HALF of all household income. The poorest fifth receives 3.5% of total household income. And this is supposedly the richest country in the world.

Now U.S. imperialism is preparing to spend $100 billion to $200 billion (Bush’s Budget Director’s figures) to enable Exxon Mobil to grab Iraq’s oil, killing millions of Middle Eastern workers, while possibly half of U.S. workers can’t keep their heads above water. For tens of millions the "American Dream" is really a nightmare.

Calif. Student Marchers Oppose Imperialist War

On September 11, over 300 progressive students, faculty and community members from a State University in California marched against war. At the same time a speech by the University president attracted only 100 people. The marchers strode through the entire campus holding signs and banners that said, "Workers of the world unite against imperialist war"; "No Blood for Oil Profit"; "Peace, not War"; and, "Wanted: Bush, Reward: Peace." Many people joined us. We finished by forming a circle in the center of campus and held a speak-out.

The entire event was powerful because of the high level of student organization and the multi-racial unity of black, white, Chicano, Latino, Asian, Muslim and Filipino students. Students collectively organized every aspect of the march independently of faculty or administration, from public outreach, to planning the route, to security, to leadership. We spent countless late nights making flyers, banners and signs. Part of our elation came from seeing the power of organized working-class student unity.

While this action represents a great potential for building a campus anti-imperialist movement, during the speak-out many students expressed anger only against Bush. The rulers would want to control any emerging anti-war movement, so the liberals use their media and their leaders to channel student and worker outrage into simply trying to remove Bush. This shows the need for sharper political struggle. Capitalism creates monsters like Bush. But if he’s ousted, the ruling class will only replace him with another monster.

Conservatives and liberals both need war. Workers and students should not fight for a "lesser evil" warmonger. Only by destroying capitalism through communist revolution will we collectively free ourselves from imperialism.

Struggling for a common goal brought many of us closer together. This bodes well for the coming period. PLP’s long-term commitment to class struggle in mass organizations and distributing CHALLENGE will win students and workers to anti-imperialist, revolutionary action. Many of these students already hate imperialism because of their families’ experiences in Latin American and Muslim countries. Participating in campus groups and circulating this newspaper built the confidence to struggle inside the coalition for agreement to change the march’s call from "We oppose all forms of war" to "We oppose all forms of imperialist war which profits the ruling class." During the event, a comrade gave a speech condemning capitalism while other comrades distributed leaflets about fighting imperialism.

Our next step is to become closer to our new friends and build a teach-in to sharpen the political struggle against imperialism and for the long-term fight to destroy it. The majority of students at this rally want peace now. PLP brings to this fight the understanding that to achieve peace, we must get rid of the cause of wars: capitalist production for profit, and its inevitable creation, imperialism. Building a mass PLP will put us on the road to doing just that.

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The diagnosis of mental illness in children is booming. The most popular is ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), but bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety are close behind. Recently, shyness (social phobia disorder) and separation anxiety have also been labeled "mental illnesses." In 1999, Surgeon General Satcher’s Report on Mental Illness stated that 20% of children (and adults) have a significant mental health problem in any given year. The diagnosis of ADHD has increased about 20 fold in 20 years. There is now a national study evaluating the use of Ritalin in 3-5 year olds.

Psychiatry in general now declares that mental illness is caused by abnormal brain chemistry, although there is little exact knowledge of the abnormalities, even in severe diseases like schizophrenia. Moreover, psychiatry has lost sight of the divide between psychosis, in which patients have lost touch with reality, and deviations from maximal happiness or functioning brought on by the stresses and losses of life experienced by everyone. Now any depressed mood, anxiety or social ineptness is said to represent a "disease" and a "disordered brain." The consequences of this biologically determined view of life is that the treatment of all "disorders" is said to be pharmacological, and psychiatric drugs have become some of the most often prescribed, from Prozac to Ritalin. About 5% of school age children are now taking psychotropic medications, including 1.5% of toddlers. Many are on multiple drugs.

Of course, the drug companies promote this trend and finance the research supporting it. Most academic psychiatrists are paid almost exclusively by drug companies to study the very drugs they manufacture. However, the main reason drugging children is so popular stems from teachers finding them "difficult" to manage in class — restless, disobedient or aggressive. The parent is then notified the child has a problem, likely to be a "chemical imbalance" of the brain, and recommended to get a prescription from a doctor. If the parents refuse, their children are sometimes threatened with expulsion or even removal from the home (see a recent New York Post series). Rarely is there an in-depth investigation of what, if anything, is bothering the child, which may range from lack of sleep to learning disabilities to boredom to stresses in the home.

This medication craze is spawned by capitalist society’s need to control its citizens and blame social problems on the poorest and weakest. In overcrowded and poorly staffed schools, increasingly emphasizing standardized curriculum and tests, more and more children will not "fit in" easily. Instead of dealing with these problems and analyzing what individual children need in terms of their personality and skills, the school system declares such children to be "damaged" and drugs them until they’re easy to control.

Entering an era of prolonged war and economic depression, the rulers fear a citizenry that is alert and rebellious. They fear that soldiers, students, workers and others will object to shedding their blood for oil bosses, that anger over unemployment, falling wages and disappearing social services will spark class struggle. So they rely on building patriotic fervor, fear of terrorism, jingoism, racism, police terror and fascist laws like the Patriot Act. But if unhappy people are led to think there’s something wrong with them rather than with their society, they may accept mind-altering drugs which prevent them from thinking clearly and/or fighting back against such fascist measures. When the process starts in childhood, imagine how debilitating it is and becomes.

There is some nation-wide fight back against this trend. Public pressure has forced several states to ban schools from diagnosing children or forcing drug use. In New York City a group of parents and community activists is leafleting parents about their rights, has demonstrated in the streets, been on the radio and has spoken to PTAs, school boards and at professional meetings. PLP members stimulate discussion here and relate the issue to the growth of war and fascism.

Comrades are also raising it with CHALLENGE readers, parents and teachers in our local school district. We aim to expand this work in NYC.

Secret Court Legalizes Fascism

[Part of a series of communist analyses of law and legal issues.]

Recently, the New York Times and others publicized a secret U.S. court ruling criticizing the Bush administration. The Times article implied that the court was protecting civil liberties from fascist Attorney General Ashcroft’s wiretap excesses. But a closer look paints us a quite different picture.

First it should be noted that capitalism is always a class dictatorship, even under liberal democracy. Fascism is only the more open form of this dictatorship. It’s not enough to destroy fascism. We must get at the roots behind its growth of fascism, and why the rulers need it.

The secret court itself is long-standing. During the Johnson and first Nixon administration (1968-1972), at the height of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, the government was wiretapping many revolutionaries, anti-war radicals and liberals, much of it without a warrant. The Constitution’s 4th Amendment and earlier Supreme Court decisions required warrants for wiretaps, mandating the government to show "probable cause" a crime had been, or was being committed.

In the early 1970s, anti-war radicals being prosecuted for "conspiring to blow up a CIA office and other buildings" in Michigan suspected their phones had been tapped. Their lawyers demanded the government turn over the transcripts. The government refused. In the U.S. Supreme Court, then Attorney-General Mitchell argued that "national security" was enough of a legal basis to permit phone wiretaps without a warrant. Although rejecting that argument, the Court — in a footnote — allowed the possibility of wiretapping without warrants in "foreign intelligence" cases.

In 1978, Democrat President Jimmy Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This law created the secret FISA court to hear government applications to wiretap "foreign intelligence" sources without the "probable cause" required for regular warrants. Amid the Cold War. U.S. rulers said their spies needed to listen in on their Soviet counterparts.

The FISA Court is located inside a windowless, vault-like room, locked and guarded by security 24 hours a day, on the top floor of the U.S. "Justice" Department, the agency applying for the wiretap authority. In nearly 25 years of its existence, of about 10,000 wiretap warrant requests, not one has been rejected. So much for the bosses’ "checks and balances" theory.

The post-Cold War era has seen a drastic increase in wiretap applications. During the Clinton administration, this huge increase was based on investigations of "terrorism" suspects. The original FISA law barred the government from using intelligence wiretaps as evidence in domestic prosecutions or sharing intelligence information with prosecutors. But Clinton’s FBI routinely lied to the Court. Such information was being given to, and used by, prosecutors in their investigations. Even after the government admitted its lies — in September 2000 — the FISA Court continued granting warrants on every single application submitted. (Next article: the USA Patriot Act.)

a name="My Family Saw the Building of the First Workers’ State">">"y Family Saw the Building of the First Workers’ State

We print this memoir in commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Great October Bolshevik Revolution. Given that it was the first attempt to build a communist society, it recorded some monumental achievements. Its goal of a classless system, free of bosses, profits, racism and war, so frightened

world capitalism that the latter tried — in the words of one of imperialism’s masters, Winston Churchill — to "strangle the baby in the cradle."

From the Soviet Union’s very inception, the capitalists vowed to destroy it. This first successful workers’ state fought them off for 40 years, only to succumb to its own internal weaknesses. Meanwhile in less than one generation it transformed a backward, feudal order into an advanced industrial society that was able to save the world from fascism by becoming the first force to destroy the Nazi invaders. It suffered the deaths of 20 to 30 million Soviet citizens, far more than the entire Western capitalist world combined.

PLP is committed to taking the best the Soviets gave to the world’s working class while learning from their errors, to build a mass international party that will spread communism across the planet.

Both my parents had personal contact with the Russian Revolution. My mother’s family left Russia before World War I, but couldn’t afford to take everyone, leaving my mother — 12-year-old Sarra — behind to stay with an uncle who was a quasi-foreman for a landowner-farmer. Five years later the "Reds" arrived. She and other high school friends were already reading about the revolution and forming study groups supporting it. Naturally the big landowners opposed it and influenced the village government and schools.

In came the Reds — not exactly an army, not exactly a new government, but rough-and-ready types with whom the villagers could identify and who quickly kicked the landowners off the land and out of their huge houses. This went over big with the laborers and the poor farmers, who were given the land.

Of course, later armed intervention by 17 countries (including the U.S.) spread counter-revolutionary chaos but the Reds eventually triumphed. Having joined her parents abroad, my mother had no first-hand experience with those events but her life among the villagers who greeted the Bolsheviks’ arrival stayed with her forever.

She became a communist here, and in 1928 joined a broad-based delegation to the USSR to see the revolution’s achievements first-hand. In fact, the day this group spent many hours in Stalin’s office, she became the closest to the main man! When Stalin realized the visitors still had many questions, he agreed to stay well into the night. However, he didn’t want to force his interpreter to work a double shift, so he asked if anyone in the group could take over. My mother was amazingly fluent in both languages, so for that one day she became Stalin’s interpreter!

My father, also on this trip, though "progressive," wasn’t a communist. He worked for his brother, a rising owner of a small textile company here. My father had started as a mill hand but later designed plants for the company. He knew plenty about mills and working conditions.

He told many times about a visit on this trip to a cold, desolate area where the Bolsheviks were erecting a steel mill, part of the industrialization drive which later included the famous "Five-Year Plans." My father, Harry, asked one worker, "How can you stand working a full day in such miserable, hostile conditions? Don’t you feel you’re being asked to do too much for such low wages?"

The worker replied, "Yes, it’s hard here. But [making a huge gesture taking in the whole area] look at this mill we’re building!" It was apparent the workers felt the mill was THEIRS. They were proud of it. It meant so much to them that the hardships just weren’t worth worrying about.

No doubt this isn’t "scientific evidence" complete with polls and percentages. But my parents saw, in 1928, that there were many workers who could have done without the wage system, and their enthusiasm could have been harnessed for a more persistent drive to real communism.

In the 1930s my Aunt Rachel — my father’s sister — left the U.S. to become an English teacher in Moscow. She had been a charter member of the U.S. Communist Party. Her husband, Al Stone, was a rank-and-file red who fascinated me as a youngster because he seemed to have worked in almost every conceivable job in his knockabout life — short-order cook, construction worker, semi-cowboy — his stories covered the waterfront.

In the USSR he did construction work throughout the 1930s. Capitalism’s history books describe this period as mainly one of famine and massacres of Stalin’s political opponents. But my uncle’s letters to us in the U.S., and later his personal reminiscences back here, presented quite a different picture. (They returned because my aunt needed medical treatment unobtainable in Russian hospitals then.)

He remembered how full and rich the days were there. It wasn’t just "Thank god it’s Friday." After work the workers got together to rehearse a play, or for chorus practice or for discussions of conditions at work, in the city and in the nation and what they could do to improve things or jostle the higher-ups. Al boasted that he was the only member of the Moscow chorus who couldn’t sing. (He claimed he hid in a back row.)

One reminiscence which stuck with me: around 1938, although there was no official declaration, in effect the USSR had achieved the era of free bread. (Remember, the hearty Russian bread was THE staple food.) One could enter a cafeteria, order little or nothing, sit at a table and fill up on bread. Nobody gave you dirty looks or told you to leave. You needed, you received — at least to that extent.

This occurred when the whole country was urgently building up heavy industry and the army, knowing that world capitalism was only temporarily quieted by the great depression but would go on the warpath again. Even during this heavy-industry drive, living standards rose measurably during the 1930s when the rest of the world was in wretched shape.

It’s easy to talk about how "communism failed." While this "diary" isn’t an analysis of what happened, we should recognize that when the Soviets forged a system where things were produced for use instead of for profit, they wiped out hunger and created a decent life for workers in an incredibly short time. AND built the weaponry and the type of men and women who smashed Hitler.

White Teeth Bites Away Hope for Future Against Racism and Capitalism

At first, White Teeth by Zadie Smith seems to be a welcome relief from the onslaught of bourgeois literature, which hails the divisions between "races" and sexes. The story describes three generations of immigrants living and working in a multi-ethnic London suburb where over 100 languages are spoken at the local high school. The main characters are Bengali, Jamaican and English. One of the featured marriages is between an English man and a Jamaican woman (her parents are an English man and an African woman). Issues of racism are addressed, the language is witty and the story moves along quickly.

However, in this comedy the actors are fools, losers, religious fanatics, political extremists and mad scientists. It’s unkind buffoonery and no one redeems him- or herself. No one emerges as the voice of reason or hope for the future. Any multi-racialism or anti-sexism is countered by the total alienation among spouses, siblings, parents and children.

The two main characters are Sadam and Archie, two fathers leading frustrating, aimless, disappointing lives, which characterize the author’s cynical worldview. Sadam (from Bengladesh) and Archie (an Englishman) were assigned to the same tank during World War II. They were sent into action during the last two months of the war, had no idea why they were there, got lost, and continued to think they were combatants after it was all over. They joined some Russians who were assigned to capture a French scientist who had aided the Nazi sterilization program. Sadam wins the scientist in a card game, and sets out to shoot him to prove to himself that he is carrying out his family tradition as a war hero. But he gives the task to Archie, who fails to carry it out.

The interpersonal relationships offer no relief to the main characters’ exploited/pathetic lives. These two think they know what the world is all about. After all, they were heroes in WWII. They marry women over 20 years younger, ignore and neglect their wives and children, have dead-end jobs, and spend all their time in a greasy bar that excludes women. Their whole lives are consumed in debating whether Sadam’s great grandfather had actually spearheaded the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Sadam parades as an intellectual, but knows very little. He engages in hypocritical nods to the Muslim religion while constantly violating it. His only real role in life becomes one of controlling Archie.

At the point where the reader feels lost in this alienated capitalist hell, a political polarization of the characters shatters any hope of things improving. The solutions to our characters’ boring, disappointing, lonely lives are fanatical, foolish and selfish.

The pro-Nazi French scientist re-emerges as the mentor of a mad scientist who is altering the genes of mice to determine their life-span. Sadam and Archie’s family and friends obsessively oppose or support the mad scientist. The opposing groups are fanatical and foolish (Jehovah’s Witnesses, animal rights advocates and Islamic fundamentalists). The scientist’s son joins an animal rights group because he’s fascinated with the body of one of its leaders. She’s involved in animal rights because she can’t tolerate the in-fighting among leftist groups. One of Sadam’s sons joins the Islamic fundamentalists because he’s a violent juvenile delinquent looking for an outlet. Sadam’s other son becomes the mad scientist’s protégé. On the way to the public gathering sponsored by the mad scientist, many of the characters are on the same bus, but are so angry at each other, they sit in separate seats.

At the gathering the bar owner supports the scientist because he believes he’ll find a cure for his genetically-induced skin disorder. Archie supports the scientist because his daughter works for him, and is senselessly killed in the process. His mother-in-law intends to stop the scientist from interfering with the Lord’s will. No one can get along with anyone, men and women are hopelessly divided, life is meaningless and intelligent people go with the flow.

The book is beautifully written. Some would say cynicism is funny and does no harm. But the author’s dark worldview builds images that erode the trust between people. Without trust, and the belief that most people are intelligent and well motivated, there is no hope for building a movement to fight against oppression. There’s no way to create a better society if most workers are fools, hypocrites, bigots and misogynists. These cynical images are everywhere in the culture, and they erode our trust in other workers.

LETTERS

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, WRITE!

PLP, Workers Jolt Nazis

[For details of this protest, see front page — Ed.]

Although I joined the protest against the neo-nazi "World Church of the Creator" in Wakefield Mass., I was somewhat skeptical about its possible effectiveness. Wakefield is a small blue-collar town, 97% white. Although leafleting the local high school the day before drew a generally good response, the same was not true in the downtown area. Local cops grabbed our leaflet there. Both the high school principal and local religious and community "activists" had been planning a counter-rally across town. I cynically figured: (1) not enough local residents would attend our militant protest, given the lack of leafleting and the well-publicized pacifists’ weeks-long organizing their event across town; and (2) hundreds of cops would completely block any confrontation with the racists. This has been the cops’ strategy in recent anti-racist protests, including metal pens or cages to contain and separate anti-racist groups like PLP from the fascists.

I was completely surprised, thanks to PLP’s initiative and to the leadership of the local working class! PLP established a militant picket line right in front of the library witnessed by 600 local, mostly white workers who listened to our militant speeches, stressing historical reasons why we should fight racism and fascism. People read our signs saying "Death to the Nazis" and similar slogans. A few joined our line. The turning point came when a couple of racists walked past the picket line and were surrounded by dozens of onlookers, including many youth. One nazi was soon bleeding. The anti-racists pursued them as they scrambled back to the racists on the corner.

About 100 people confronted them, shouting, spitting, tearing up their signs (thanks to one PLP’er). We joined the angry crowd and led it with bullhorn chants of "let us in." About 10 anti-racists were allowed in the hall and began to try to shout the Nazis down. Outside, hundreds of protesters again followed our lead in confronting the few racists who were foolish enough to leave the meeting without police escorts.

In sum, the protest was a great success because the Party influenced hundreds to fight back. Most of the crowd confronting the fascists was local, white and many were young "punk rock" types. PLP was the only identifiable political group there, but despite anti-communism from a few in the crowd, hundreds followed our leadership, and in some cases led us, in fighting back. Several have expressed interest in working with PLP to fight racism in the future. Things are looking up for the working class in Massachusetts.

A PLP member

Signs Fire Up Candlelight Vigil

We drew a very positive anti-imperialist, anti-war response to a small but significant political statement we made on September 11, 2002, participating in a Brooklyn Candlelight vigil on the Promenade overlooking the East River. This is a popular location for viewing the New York skyline and especially the World Trade Center which used to tower over all.

We made our sign at the Promenade and carried our candle for the victims and so the sign could be read. With just the first sentence, "Imperialism is the main terror," people walking by began making helpful suggestions. The next sentence was, "Oil is now their main goal," and lastly, "Fight ALL terror with international, multi-racial unity."

Then we added examples of imperialist terror such as Vietnam = 2 million Vietnamese killed; Indonesia = 200,000 East Timorese killed; Belgium, King Leopold = 10 million Congolese killed, U.S. bombing of Panama City killing 7,000 (a midnight attack 10 years ago). There were so many other examples that we put Etc, Etc, Etc. Hundreds walked by and encouraged us. Several stopped to talk — black, Muslim, white, foreign visitors, mothers, daughters. A cameraman said this was the best sign he’d seen all day. A Latin-American man talked with us for a long time and wondered how we had so much courage. We said we had to stand up but experience in struggles gave us confidence.

Workers need to see someone raise these ideas. We made contacts for future events. For two hours we enjoyed the positive remarks and this was even before the vigil walked by. Only one remark was negative. This taught us that with just a little leadership from militant rank and filers working in a mass organization like a union, the response is terrific and could be effective in fighting the war moves.

A comrade

Organizing With CHALLENGE

Regular readers know that CHALLENGE tells the truth. Sometimes we forget it’s also an organizer.

We’ve been teaching at a high school for many years and are active in the union. Our union leadership just negotiated a contract with a 3% wage increase, which saves our health benefits. Meanwhile, the district has increased class size by two students, raising some class averages to 40.5 students. Every student’s education will suffer and teachers will work harder, while new teachers have been laid off.

When the union leadership solicited pro and con statements on the contract offer, we circulated our ideas among fellow teachers. Thirty-six teachers read CHALLENGE regularly, although in the year-round school system a dozen are on vacation at any given time.

Before the school union meeting, we asked our friends for suggestions to improve our statement. The final version termed the district’s proposal a bad-faith offer. We said we weren’t impressed by talk of "hard times" or a "budget crisis"; that there was money for prisons and military adventures, but health clinics were being closed and class size increased. We asserted our opposition to this attack on our students and the community we serve.

When we raised our statement at the lunchtime union meeting, it started a good debate. No one proposed support for the contract. The controversy was about including the sentence on prisons and war. Several people said this was an irrelevant point because the school district didn’t make war or build prisons, and we should stick to the contract questions. Many friends who read CHALLENGE supported raising the larger question of a war budget. They argued that it was obvious social services are being sacrificed to fund war and we should say so. We said that the working class produces all value and that we’re fighting for a bigger chunk of the surplus value we create to improve the life of our class.

The following week we read the statement at the faculty meeting, and later at the city-wide union meeting, as part of the debate over recommending contract approval. While the city-wide vote narrowly endorsed the contract, many teachers asked us for copies of the statement from our school. In another union meeting covering our area of the city, teachers asked for copies and urged a "NO" vote on the contract.

This activity has reminded us how important CHALLENGE is as an organizer, and encouraged us to offer it to more teachers and youth. We haven’t always been consistent enough in our CHALLENGE distribution, but we’re encouraged to broaden our base of regular readers.

The war budget leaves every working-class child behind. We should use CHALLENGE to help our friends see the nature of the crisis and the need to fight for revolution, to build a society where all the value created by the workers is used to meet the workers’ needs, instead of the warmongers’!

Red teachers

Film Exposes U.S. Terrorists

I recently ordered a video to use in school during the 9/11 memorials. It’s called "The New Patriots" and was made for SOA Watch, a mostly pacifist group that’s been organizing and demonstrating against the School of Americas (SOA; renamed WHISC)), the Ft. Benning, GA training school for Latin American officers. These "graduates" are responsible for an unparalleled record of terror against workers and peasants in their countries. The video lasts 18 minutes and was made after the 9/11 attacks. The documentary’s theme is that the U.S. government’s call for an "end to terrorism" and the dismantling of terrorist bases worldwide is pure hypocrisy as long as such terrorist training operations as the SOA exist and as long as the U.S. supports regimes that practice terror against their civilian populations on such a worldwide scale. They make 9/11 seem like street mugging.

There are interviews with military veterans who, at an early age, were uncritical patriots, but who now realize that the U.S. military has been used to try to crush the aspirations of ordinary people — in Vietnam, El Salvador, Colombia and elsewhere. Two veterans state that the U.S. military’s real goal is to protect the profits of U.S. multi-nationals. These interviews alone make the video worthwhile showing.

The film’s downside is it’s preaching of non-violence. Pacifism is an attractive ideology for many students and many of the groups leading the anti-war movement — SOA Watch, the War Resisters League, Voices in the Wilderness — are pacifist. We should try to gradually win people attracted to pacifism away from an ideology that actually perpetuates the very violent system they sincerely oppose. Christopher Caudwell’s 1930’s essay, Pacifism and Violence: A Study in Bourgeois Ethics, is a wonderful examination of the contradictions of pacifism.

"The New Patriots" costs $15 (including shipping and handling). Order from SOA Watch, P.O. Box 4566, Washington, D.C. 20017 (202-234-3440). More information can be found at http://www.soaw.org

Red Teacher

Profits Carry Ball In Pro Football

On Sept. 11, Johnny Unitas died, having been twice voted the greatest quarterback in U.S. professional football, most recently in the year 2000.

During the football season the games are watched by tens of millions every week. Players’ annual salaries range from $350,000 for rookies up to $10 million for leading stars. Spectators pay tens of millions over a season to attend the games. Television networks fork over billions more to broadcast them. And uncounted billions are gambled on the games, much of it illegally.

The average player career is about three years due to the brutal physical nature of the sport. Unitas was 69 when he died. The injuries he suffered during his 20-year career was reported in a New York Times obituary (9/12):

"Like most players, Unitas took a physical beating from football, and he had both knees replaced. His right arm was so injured…that…he could not pick up a fork and feed himself with that hand.

"He played golf by strapping his gloved hand to the club shaft with a Velcro strip. The middle three fingers on his right hand did not work….In 1997, he underwent five hours of surgery on the arm. The condition did not improve. He hoped to receive league-financed disability payments but learned that because he was receiving a monthly pension, he could not also collect disability because he had not filed by age 55, as the pension-fund rules required."

Not one multi-million dollar football team owner, media conglomerate or player offered Unitas a lousy nickel or denounced such cruelty and callousness. That’s the American sport and sportsmanship of the wealthy.

A Comrade