"Anti-Terrorism" Alerts: Paving the Way for a Fascist Police State

2003: Good Year for Halliburton, Wal-Mart Deadly for Workers

a href="#‘Disappeared’ Muslim Immigrants Tip of Patriot Act Iceberg">‘D"sappeared’ Muslim Immigrants Tip of Patriot Act Iceberg

D.C. Metro Union Election A School For Communism

a href="#Defend PLP Teacher Who Attacks NYC Rulers’ Racist School Chaos">"efend PLP Teacher Who Attacks NYC Rulers’ Racist School Chaos

Students, Teachers, Parents Fight Fascist Steel Gate

a href="#‘Serve the Patients, Fight the Bosses’">‘S"rve the Patients, Fight the Bosses’

MLA Condemns Fascist Patriot Act, Imperialist War in Iraq

MLA Conventioneers Soak Up Red Ideas

a href="#‘National Liberation’ Never Liberated Working Class">‘N"tional Liberation’ Never Liberated Working Class

a href="#Garment Marchers Indict U.S. Bosses As ‘No.1 Terrorists’">Ga"ment Marchers Indict U.S. Bosses As ‘No.1 Terrorists’

a href="#Class Conscious Soldiers Can Help Defeat Bosses’ Wars">"lass Conscious Soldiers Can Help Defeat Bosses’ Wars

Building the Party in the Heart of the Working Class

a href="#Lenin’s ‘What Is To Be Done’ Makes Revolutionary Politics Primary">Leni"’s ‘What Is To Be Done’ Makes Revolutionary Politics Primary

Video Review: Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about Iraq"

LETTERS

Scaling Hills to Deliver CHALLENGE

Living In A Society Without Money

Thanks-For-Fighting-Racism Feast

Willie Nelson Song: Oil Causes War

Archives Expose Anti-Stalin Lies

Challenging Challenge

a href="#Class Line Exposes ‘Red Scarf’ Lies">Cl"ss Line Exposes ‘Red Scarf’ Lies

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

• Saddam was ally vs. Iran
• Draft Board: Help wanted
• NY 9/11 detainees beaten
• Call it Mother of Oil Wars?
• Profit system = mad cow
• Racist Thurmond raped ‘family slave’
• Terrorists at US workplace

"Anti-Terrorism" Alerts: Paving the Way for a Fascist Police State

Did you get through the holidays without a major breakdown? Well, along with Mad Cows, the latest Michael Jackson and Britney Spears shenanigans, annoying Xmas commercials, excessive drinking, we had to deal with Code Orange and sky marshals on international flights.

Most people realize that much of this is political hype by the Bush gang and the media. They are targetting as terrorists the very same crew that the CIA and its allies in the Mid-East and South Asia trained, armed and financed for several decades — including Osama Bin Laden. Tens of thousands of these "holy warriors" were sent by Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan to fight "communism" in Afghanistan. (The fundamentalists hated the Soviets for daring to educate women and grant some rights to poor peasants). After the Soviet Union’s collapse, these holy warriors began fighting each other, while the CIA and its friends in the Pakistani Army created the Taliban to rule Afghanistan.

Bush Sr. and Clinton sent tens of thousands of these holy warriors to Bosnia to help break it away from the former Yugoslavia. Now Tom Ridge and his Homeland Security Department want to protect us from these same people.

So on Dec. 23, he declared a "Code Orange" alert. The next level, a Code Red, means that the government is completely militarized and all civil liberties are suspended (a total police state).

This is the fifth Orange alert since 9/11 (and we still don’t know exactly what happened that day). On Feb. 7, 2003, Code Orange was declared after Colin Powell showed "proof" at the UN that Saddam Hussein had WMDs (Bush recently admitted that WMDs were a non-issue). Powell’s presentation was ridiculed worldwide, but Ridge said, "there were signs Al Qaeda was going to attack." Nothing happened. Later it was shown, by the FBI no less, that it was all a CIA fabrication. Ridge admitted, "Despite the fabricated report, there are no plans to change the threat level." (ABC News, 2/11/03)

Maybe we will get another Code Orange, or even Red, just before the November elections, and the Bush gang will declare martial law to keep itself in power. General Tommy Franks, former chief of Central Command, said a massive terrorist attack in the U.S. could lead to martial law.

But the Bushites are not the only ones preparing for this. Clinton’s Hart-Rudman Commission warned that a major "Pearl Harbor-style" attack on the U.S. was probably needed to prepare the population for a police state. The rulers prefer bourgeois democracy, with heavy police-state repression when needed, to fool and rule the masses. Fascism is actually a sign of the system’s weakness, but all the bosses and politicians are prepared to play the fascist card.

Workers and their allies should also be prepared to organize against the bosses and all their plans. We cannot rely on any of the Presidential candidates running against Bush, nor on their union-hack supporters. We must build our own forces to fight the fascist economic and political attacks we’re suffering. We in PLP have a huge task ahead, in trying to lead this titanic struggle for the future of the working class and all humanity.

2003: Good Year for Halliburton, Wal-Mart Deadly for Workers

At the start of 2004, is the economy improving? Most definitely — for Haliburton and Bechtel and Wal-Mart. But for the nearly 20 million jobless, 60% of whom are not even eligible for unemployment benefits? Most definitely not. Nor for the tens of millions trying to exist on poverty wages. The rich get richer and the working class gets poorer because the owners of production — the bosses — keep most of the value produced by the labor of the workers as their profit from this mass exploitation. The producers of that value receive less and less for their labor, if they’re lucky enough to have a job at all.

This difference in wealth is skyrocketing. According to data confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office (The Nation, Jan. 5), between 1973 and 2000 the average real income of the bottom 90% FELL by 7%. But the income of the top 1% — the owners — ROSE 148%. Even worse, the income of the top one-tenth of 1% rose 343% and the income of the top one-hundredth of 1% leaped 599 percent! This is a class society in its extreme.

In this "world’s richest nation," in 2003 over 30 million experienced joblessness at some time during the year, but the bosses’ Congress refused to extend benefits an extra 13 weeks for the long-term unemployed. While profits, stocks and productivity — fewer workers working harder — are rising, the jobless "recovery" marches on.

Hunger and homelessness rose at double-digit rates; 14% of those seeking food were denied due to "short supply." In New York City last month, a record 36,638 people were "housed" in shelters in one night. Low-income households now pay an average of 46% of their income for housing.

In Michigan, one million people live below the government’s already low poverty line. In Cleveland, welfare benefits have been reduced every month for three years due to the limits imposed under Clinton’s welfare "reform" law. And 90% of the cities surveyed in a December 18th U.S. Conference of Mayors report expect homelessness and hunger to increase in 2004.

Globally one billon people suffer unemployment and half the world’s six billion population exists on an income of $2 a day.

Meanwhile, U.S. military spending has reached half a trillion dollars annually. The victims? Tens of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghanis — not to mention nearly 500 U.S. soldiers. U.S. imperialism is driven to war to guarantee its profits by controlling the world’s most vital resource — oil.

But the horrors of capitalism/imperialism are meeting resistance. In the largest single-day worldwide demonstration in history, ten million people took to the streets simultaneously last February to protest U.S. rulers’ impending war against Iraq.

Mass strikes have erupted in country after country — Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Italy, China, Dominican Rep., Nigeria, among others. In the U.S., California grocery and transit workers struck over the bosses’ attempts to shift the burden of healthcare costs onto their backs. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, black workers and youth rebelled against racist police murder.

While imperialist rivals are fighting each other over who gets to exploit the most workers at the lowest possible cost for the highest profit, they are all united on maintaining the system that permits them to ravage the world’s workers. Only one factor can fundamentally challenge the source of all these horrors: a united international working class led by a revolutionary communist party. On May Day 2004, PLP will march for that goal: a society without bosses — communism. Join Us!

More Misery

"A broader look at the levels of serious distress being faced by increasing numbers of Americans comes from the latest Index of Social Health, which is published annually….

"The categories that worsened in the latest index were children in poverty, child abuse, average weekly earnings, affordable housing, health insurance coverage, food stamp coverage, the gap between rich and poor, and out-of-pocket health costs for those over 65." (New York Times, 12/19)

a name="‘Disappeared’ Muslim Immigrants Tip of Patriot Act Iceberg"></">‘D"sappeared’ Muslim Immigrants Tip of Patriot Act Iceberg

Imperialists worldwide, especially the U.S., have used 9/11 to make fascist attacks against the working class "the new normalcy" (Vice-President Cheney addressing Republican governors, 10/25/01). This will continue as their "solution" to their never-ending crises.

Since 9/11, hundreds of Arabs (mostly Muslim immigrants and a few citizens) have disappeared in the U.S. On Sept. 20, 2001, the FBI arrested Mohammed Rafiq Butt of Pakistan on a neighbor’s "tip." He was never charged with a crime, but was ordered deported for a minor visa violation. Rafiq Butt died in a New Jersey jail five weeks later. Prisoners reported he had complained of chest pains but was refused treatment. His corpse was shipped back to Pakistan where an autopsy showed body marks consistent with extreme torture.

Agents arrested Jose Padilla on May 8, 2002 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. He disappeared completely until Attorney-General John Ashcroft announced on June 10 that Padilla had "planned" to detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb. The following day, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz admitted there had been no actual plot to detonate a bomb. Padilla is still being held without charges, as an "enemy combatant" in a military brig.

In the fall of 2001, mainstream media, including the liberal New York Times, discussed the need for the U.S. government to use torture to get information.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of workers have been disappeared over the last few years. The government refuses to release their names, their location, or even confirm they’re being held. The courts have ruled that this information "even concerning those found to have no connection to terrorism, was exempt from disclosure." (NYT, 11/3/03) The Supreme Court will consider the matter, but the ruling class manipulates its laws according to their priorities of the moment. If they need to disappear workers legally, they’ll do it. How many of the more than two million prisoners in U.S. jails are there because they were framed by racist cops and prosecutors or were victimized by the "war on drugs"? That "war" puts mostly black and Latin workers and youth behind bars for possession of a few ounces of marijuana or crack cocaine while the big banks make billions from laundering drug profits. We cannot rely on their laws for justice.

During the Clinton era, the Hart-Rudman Commission laid the basis for the repressive Patriot Act and Homeland Security Department. The new standard operating procedure is: denial of habeas corpus; military tribunals; death penalty imposed by secret military judges; use of secret or no evidence to convict or detain indefinitely; government surveillance and infiltration of community groups and political organizations; organized spying by some workers on others; increased monitoring of e-mail, internet and telephone conversations; denial of legal representation; and stripping of legal and civil rights.

The Patriot Act defines "Domestic terrorism" as "acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal laws" if they "appear to be intended to influence the policy of a government." The U.S. ruling class is waging war on the same terrorists they trained and used during the past 30 years. The repressive apparatus is capable of inflicting great harm. But the same was true of the Nazis until a Red Army of workers fighting for a communist future defeated them.

Presently, U.S. rulers are singling out Arabs for "disappearing." They may eventually return to their families — or may be buried alive in secret jail cells similar to our brothers and sisters in Latin America, Apartheid South Africa or Saddam’s dungeons.

Bosses’ Fascism Can Be Taken

But Muslim immigrants are not the only ones being victimized. They want us to quietly accept all this, quietly continue to produce profits for them, while we hope they won’t come for us or someone we know. History tells us only communist revolution can crush fascism. The Italians used to say Mussolini killed so many communists until there were two million of them. The red-led partisans defeated six Nazi Army divisions and liberated all of Northern Italy, captured and executed Il Duce, hanging him by his heels. The left-led French Resistance liberated Paris from the Nazis before the Allied Armies got there. Only assembling ourselves under these banners can we defeat and destroy the ruling class. Join the PLP!µ

(If you have any information about disappeared workers, send it to CHALLENGE.)

D.C. Metro Union Election A School For Communism

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 5 — "We activated more people and created the basis to recruit a lot of workers to PLP. If we do that, then it was successful." That’s how PLP member Mike Golash summed up his recent run for President of the 9,000-member ATU Local 689 in the Metro bus and rail system, amid imperialist war and the Homeland Security fascist build-up.

Mike described how a group of about 35 drivers, station attendants, cleaners and mechanics, led by regular readers and distributors of CHALLENGE, circulated literature, organized meetings, and held discussions with approximately 2,000 workers. Out of that effort, about 1,200 voted for a revolutionary communist to lead the fight to maintain health insurance and pensions, fight racist pay differentials and resist management’s increased attacks. This may have been the most union votes for a real, OPEN communist in 50 years, in the capital of the imperialist world, in the shadow of the White House. "Our base is disappointed that we didn’t ‘win’ the office," said Mike, "but see more clearly the need for a mass political base."

He said, "We’ve been unable to overcome the workers’ conservative ‘I’ve got a good job’ attitude." But the economic crisis and the political crises of racism, police terror, health care and war have been a process developing over years, and things may be changing. The budget crises of the cities, fueled by the Iraq war and huge tax cuts to billionaires, are leading to privatization of mass transit, which means "more cutbacks and attacks, lots of dark clouds."

Now the battle shifts to this spring’s contract negotiations, which will take place as the Iraq war drags on and possibly spreads, fascist Homeland Security intensifies and racist terror touches all workers. "The last contract cost Metro $40-$50 million in increased labor costs," Mike said. "Increased pension contributions alone, over the next three years will be over $100 million. It will be impossible for the union to maintain the current contract without a major battle."

Our job is to build a PLP club, use CHALLENGE to raise the consciousness of the workers, and provide a revolutionary, militant alternative to the sellout union leadership. Mike has carried out this fight for 28 years, as a bus operator and union activist. The response to his election campaign reflects mass confidence in communist leadership that has been earned over decades of struggle. Capitalism can never meet the needs of our class. And while every reform movement is ultimately doomed to failure, this struggle demonstrates that we can build a mass PLP out of the bosses’ mass movements.

a name="Defend PLP Teacher Who Attacks NYC Rulers’ Racist School Chaos">">"efend PLP Teacher Who Attacks NYC Rulers’ Racist School Chaos

New York City’s billionaire mayor Bloomberg is instituting more intensive fascist rule in the public school system, marking the overwhelmingly black and Latin student population for his racist attack and then blaming them for the spreading chaos. Education under capitalism is geared to defend the system, both with what the rulers want taught in the classroom and with the "choice" they give students: low-wage jobs that guarantee maximum profits for the bosses, or a military "career" to fight and die in wars to secure world domination for U.S. imperialism.

Since September this chaos has enveloped hundreds of schools: overcrowded classes, management disorganization, City Council calls for more "student accountability," the bosses’ racist media blaming violence on "out-of-control" students, new teachers struggling to get their pay and health benefits, hundreds of laid-off aides and paraprofessionals awaiting re-hiring, expansion from five large districts to 10 regions accompanied by breakdowns within each region, and mass creation of small schools by dismantling old ones with no provision for the excess students. The rulers figure they can get away with this chaos precisely because racism helps them make the hundreds of thousands of black and Latin students expendable. And the union leadership, never taking up the fight against racism as the key to fighting the bosses, has — in effect — taken the bosses’ side in this struggle.

The newly-created Department of Education was as poorly planned as the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Bloomberg aims to destroy the teachers union while making a mockery of public education. The ten newly-created regions have no organized format, have no communications between systems or districts and are incapable of handling many necessary functions.

Last year at my school a program was introduced for ninth graders in which teachers were counselors as well as teachers and were able to give students more individual direction. Even though the class limit of 24 students grew to 34, and even though none of the promised computers and equipment arrived, teachers were involved in day-to-day discussion about — and support for — the students. The absentee rate plummeted and students felt more positive about school.

This year the program was supposed to encompass the entire school. However, the funding was pulled, forcing the school back to its original format.

Then we were told the school would close soon and re-open as two or three smaller ones (format to be determined). The students quickly realized that last year’s promises had been broken. They were understandably upset.

When teachers tried to respond to this chaotic environment by making their classrooms bright and interesting, they faced a disrupted school staff with many new teachers and a new principal and assistant principals. There was no continuity. Within a few weeks children began acting up, accusing each other of "hitting my friend," etc. While there are a number of gangs present, problems escalated because of the broken promises.

All this was aggravated by Bloomberg’s new detention system. Now a student would be "disciplined" by reporting to an in-house suspension detention room within the school building. With no "cooling-off "period, the fights continued the next day. Some 60 students have been arrested up to five times and returned to the school the following day.

A few fights led to a buzz throughout the school of how this one fought and who "won," etc. Because of the way they were arrested and then returned to the school, many students feel they were fighting back against the system. The growing anger towards the school led to more fights. Students did not want to enter classrooms. Clearly they felt it was all a joke. The in-house detention room only made it worse. This promotion of pandemonium helps the administration to further blame students and individual teachers. And all many teachers can see are "students in chaos."

I am a PLP member and teach global history in this vocational school of 1,200 students. I’m an outspoken union delegate with a reputation for blaming capitalism for workers’ problems. Although I have over 17 years of classroom experience with a clean record and satisfactory evaluations, because of technicalities in state rules I am still considered a "new teacher." This denies me tenure, enabling the school bosses to more easily attack me.

Because I have explained the causes of this boss-created chaos and because when children ran into my classroom I would not give them up to security or anybody — not rat them out — in mid-October the administration began an unrelenting campaign of harassment. In barely a month, seven letters were placed in my file (all being grieved), as well as a complaint — since dismissed — of verbal abuse against a child and an unsatisfactory evaluation. As a "new teacher" three "unsatisfactories" within one semester can cancel my teacher’s license. I would seem like "easy meat," but teachers and students stunned these arrogant bosses.

At least 15 petitions are being circulated supporting me, three by teachers and 12 by students. One has 200 signatures and another has 150, so far. The students have already submitted three to the principal. The teachers held a rally/party at a local tavern amid a strong expression of unity. Although many teachers don’t agree with me politically, the majority support me, knowing of my devotion to the students, the majority of whom also support me. When the issue was raised at the Delegate Assembly as an attack on activists, it drew the support of the teachers there.

CHALLENGE sales at the school are still low but we are working to increase them. A number of friends have drawn closer to the Party. The struggle continues as management seems determined to remove me from the school. Our goal must be to turn the growing teacher/student anger into a fight against the racist capitalist system, the cause of this chaos.

A working teacher

Students, Teachers, Parents Fight Fascist Steel Gate

"It stands 10 feet tall, has curved-down spikes, and is made of steel. It’s the new gate in the science building," our school paper reported on its front page about the latest fascist attack on our students. A steel gate INSIDE THE SCHOOL BULDING erected during Thanksgiving weekend has sparked controversy and struggle by students and teachers. This, in turn, has provoked both more fascist attacks on those fighting back, and an attempt at compromise.

At this writing, the administration has offered to replace the steel gate with a wall and an ordinary door, a prettier fascism. But students will still be treated like prisoners — the administration refuses to allow open exit from the campus. They’re incapable of treating the students with dignity, the purpose of the school is to train these young people to be capitalism’s wage slaves and, increasingly, cannon fodder in imperialist wars. Only in a communist society will schools be run by the working class for our own benefit, as places where young and old can learn how to build a world where work will be for the good of all, not for the profits of a few.

When the gate was put up, students and teachers alike were shocked. Dozens of teachers and hundreds of students signed petitions opposing the gate because it makes the school look like a jail and is a hazard in case of fire or earthquake. These petitions and student activism forced the administration to call an open meeting where all concerned could comment on the gate. PL students and friends circulated a leaflet calling on students and teachers to "fight the fascist gate." We explained how it was part of the move towards a racist, fascist police state. It gets students used to being treated as criminals, and to the discipline of a factory or the army, and it also prevents class struggle such as past walkouts students have organized against racism and imperialist war. It’s one of a series of fascist attacks in our own school: drug-sniffing dogs in the classrooms and the city attorney coming to the leadership class asking students to become snitches for the cops, helping to add to the over two million already in prison, mostly black and Latin workers and youth.

At the meeting, the administration said the gate was built to keep outsiders off campus and to prevent student walkouts. Students eloquently argued that they should be treated with dignity as students, not as criminals. They said the gate was an insult and an attack. Parents were divided. Some supported the students, saying the gate should be removed. Other parents backed the gate — or a door if possible — to ensure no outsider could enter the campus. Teachers spoke on both sides, although a majority who came said the gate was not conducive to an educational environment and should either be taken down or replaced by a door.

Some staff members defended the gate and attacked the student activists and PLP. Before the meeting, they were heard reading the PL leaflet in a mocking tone. They’re nervous about being called fascists and about the issue of fascism being raised at all. Then, during the meeting, a member of the security staff accused the students present of being criminals and ditchers (cutting class). These students, frustrated at being attacked and then prevented from responding, walked out.

As we go to press, the administration, realizing it both created more controversy than it wants, and that the fascist nature of the educational system was exposed, has offered to replace the gate with a door — a prison without bars. The struggle to remove the gate will continue, but the real victory is not merely changing the way the prison looks, but in students, parents and teachers understanding that capitalist schools will always be jails — both physically and in imprisoning the mind with bosses’ ideology — and joining PLP to fight for a communist future.

a name="‘Serve the Patients, Fight the Bosses’"></">‘S"rve the Patients, Fight the Bosses’

As healthcare workers in this large eastern city take hit after hit, PLP members and friends are organizing campaigns that go beyond narrow trade unionism, not only concerned with our wages, benefits, and working conditions, but address the general attacks on patient care. One union member described it as, "Serve the patients, Fight the bosses." Such discussions always lead to exposing capitalism, in a period of war and fascism, as the source of these attacks. From Iraq to the USA, the profit system is making life worse for the working class.

This city’s eighth largest hospital is slated to close in March, scrapping 1,000 jobs, including 600 union workers. The closure was announced shortly after more than 200 nurses ended their strike against mandatory overtime, okaying a tentative agreement. The bosses claim that caring for uninsured and under-insured patients is too costly. The mostly black workers from the surrounding working-class area will have to seek care elsewhere.

Black workers suffer worse health problems due to racism. Our mostly black local union membership will now have to pay co-pays for prescriptions, making racism even more deadly. The ordering procedure is so complicated that many union members will need assistance or risk doing without their medicine.

While the rulers will have spent $150 billion of workers’ money to control Iraqi oil, our pension benefits — the only thing keeping many of our members from an old age mired in poverty — will be cut in stages. The older workers are worried about how they’ll survive. The younger ones are certain they’ll have no pensions at all.

At one hospital, rank-and-file workers and union delegates are going beyond narrow trade unionism by organizing a blood drive "to show our commitment to patient care." Other members are organizing a fashion show to strengthen union solidarity, especially among younger members. The planning meetings have introduced some of the older union activists to the younger generation. The former have benefited from many useful fashion tips while learning of the younger members’ surprisingly strong distrust of the union leaders. Some of the show’s organizers are also trying to integrate it more to reflect the multi-ethnic membership.

Last summer and fall, there were several racist and sexist conflicts between black women workers and the mainly white nurses and doctors. In one case, union members leafleted and organized a march, causing the offending nurse and her supervisor to "leave" the hospital. This campaign led two doctors to "voluntarily" apologize to the union members they’d mistreated. Workers followed up with a proposal for orientations to all incoming staff, to "put a face on the jobs we do," and challenge the racism, sexism and elitism dividing union members from nurses and doctors.

These anti-racist campaigns sparked discussions with several black doctors who’ve experienced racism and tried to combat it. They believe the hospital’s lack of black doctors and nurses discourages black students from attending the hospital’s medical school. A union committee will meet with an administrator about these issues.

Out of these varied activities we have formed several discussion groups, involving workers at various political levels. All of them are activists with ties to other workers. Most importantly, all these groups generate the introduction of anti-capitalist, pro-communist ideas, already stimulating a modest increase in CHALLENGE sales. More of such events will follow.

MLA Condemns Fascist Patriot Act, Imperialist War in Iraq

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 30 — Delegates to the 2003 Modern Language Association (MLA) convention overwhelmingly and enthusiastically approved initiatives advanced by the MLA Radical Caucus. These motions and resolutions follow proposals by the Radical Caucus and others for the MLA to aggressively advocate for academic labor justice and against racism, fascism, and imperialist war.

By huge majorities, the Delegate Assembly passed resolutions endorsing cooperation with other academic organizations to reverse the systemic exploitation of part-time, "contingent" labor; opposing the U.S. government’s pro-imperialist war rhetoric; demanding repeal of the fascist Patriot Act; attacking federal funding of the imperialist war in Iraq and calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, noting that such funds should be spent on education and other human services.

An "emergency" resolution condemning Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HR 3077) was approved 72 to 3. HR 3077 seeks to establish an International Education Advisory Board and thereby censure both teaching and scholarship in foreign languages and in areas such as Middle East Studies. This would both stifle research by approving only those projects friendly to U.S. imperialism; and guarantee the steady flow of cadre into the Foreign Office of the U.S. State Department and the C.I.A.

PLP members and friends should be gratified with these results. During the convention, over 150 CHALLENGES were sold to MLA members (see adjoining box), many to anxious graduate students desperate for employment in a system which seeks to decrease the number of tenured, full-time professors.

A new organization of radical caucuses and left-wing formations across different academic disciplines has recently met to serve as a clearing house for movements opposing academic sexism, racism, fascism and cooperation with imperialist war efforts. Only our own timidity and fear can hold back such a movement. It opens the door to PLP’ers winning academics to communist politics and to ally with the working class in organizing for a revolution which eliminates exploitation and where education serves working people.

MLA Conventioneers Soak Up Red Ideas

A group of PLP members and friends drove to San Diego during the holidays to sell CHALLENGE at the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) national convention. We hadn’t done this before and didn’t know what to expect, but we found the English professors and graduate students very interested in — and some seem to be in search of — revolutionary ideas. We distributed over 700 leaflets and distributed 150 papers for which we received over $50 in donations.

Many conventioneers were impressed that a group of young people like us had such focused answers. A lot of young MLA participants took leaflets and CHALLENGES. We discovered many of the young participants were looking for jobs that only 30% may get.

Many professors were happy to discuss the war in Iraq and the Democrats. Often one would declare opposition to the war and to Bush, leading to a discussion about whether the Democrats or revolutionary communism was the answer.

We found that some conventioneers who didn’t slow down for a leaflet would stop dead in their tracks to buy CHALLENGE when offered a communist paper. These people didn’t lack political openness, just knowledge of PLP and its ideas. This is CHALLENGE’s role. There is vast openness for the paper and for communist ideas. We hope we helped expand a presence for the paper and the Party in the MLA, as we are trying to do in our mass organizations on local campuses.

a name="‘National Liberation’ Never Liberated Working Class"></">‘N"tional Liberation’ Never Liberated Working Class

The old communist movement waged titanic struggles to achieve a society without capitalist exploitation. Unfortunately, its right-wing errors destroyed that movement and gave U.S. imperialism a clear path to commit murder and mayhem worldwide. These primarily "right opportunist"errors have many forms, but all reflect the deadly delusion that workers need a political "half-way house" short of communism to prepare them for "the real thing."

Historically, "communism light" had two overlapping versions. One was socialism, which, despite its many remarkable accomplishments, committed the fatal flaw of preserving capitalist social relations in the form of wages. Socialism was somehow supposed to transform society into communism. The other version was "left" nationalism, or "national liberation." According to this theory, communists would lead the fight against the "main" oppressor, usually a colonial or imperialist power. All forces in society who had a gripe against the "main" enemy were enlisted in this fight, including the so-called "national" bourgeoisie of local bosses who wanted a bigger share of the pie than the colonialists or imperialists were willing to give.

In the 20th century, national liberation movements led by communists inspired hundreds of millions of workers to fight heroically for the wrong goal. Tens of millions died in epic battles against fascism and imperialism. Spearheaded by the Red Army, the Soviet working class ground Hitler’s Nazi hordes into dust. Led by their own Red Army, millions of Chinese peasants and workers drove out the Japanese imperialists and the U.S.-backed Chiang Kai-shek fascists. The Vietnamese people first fought and defeated the Japanese, then drove out the French colonialists, and finally paralyzed the supposedly invincible U.S. military. Similar developments took place in Algeria against French colonialism, in a number of sub-Saharan African countries against colonialism and U.S. imperialism, in South Africa against apartheid, and elsewhere.

Yet after all this heroism and sacrifice, the international working class still labors under the horrors of the profit system. The former Soviet republics are all capitalist nations. Russian bosses are scrambling around to rebuild a modern version of the old Czarist empire. Chinese rulers have embarked on a long-range plan to replace the U.S. as the world’s chief imperialist power. In Vietnam, nationalist politics have today given Ford, Nike and other U.S. investors the opening that all the fire-power in the world couldn’t create 35 years ago.

The old communist movement’s capitulation to nationalism also unintentionally opened the door to a deadly new phenomenon: Islamic fundamentalism. Initially, it was used as an anti-communist tool, serving U.S. imperialism but now it is a weapon serving capitalists opposed to U.S. bosses. Iran’s holy rollers were the first to seize this opportunity. Now others have entered the fray, most notably bin Laden & Co., who represent a wing of capitalist Saudi malcontents anxious to change the present alliance between the Saudi royal family and Exxon Mobil. There are others. We can’t identify the forces conducting the guerrilla war in Iraq against the present U.S. occupation, but they clearly reflect nationalist ambitions to control Iraqi oil riches.

Many people around the world correctly despise U.S. imperialism and Bush. This is good. The class hatred exhibited internationally by tens of millions of demonstrators when Bush & Co. launched their Iraq adventure in February/March 2003 was an encouraging sign. But class hatred against the so-called "main enemy," no matter how justifiable and sincere, leads into a fatal trap unless it’s accompanied by uncompromising opposition to ALL bosses, big and small. Bush is bad, but bin Laden & Co. are no better just because they’re in competition with him. Sharon’s a murderer, but Arafat and his successors have a similar agenda for maximum profit. The apartheid gang were ruthless killers, but now that "black capitalism" rules in South Africa, the masses continue to groan under the yoke of horrible oppression. The current gang of Chinese bosses has developed an expertise in slave labor that the Japanese imperialists and Chiang would have envied.

It’s the same story wherever the old communist movement conceded to nationalism. The movement’s collapse has left billions of workers vulnerable to the lie that a "lesser evil" can exist among bosses. Communists today face no more important task than the exposure and demolition of this concept. The job is difficult and complicated, but it can be done.

Our own Party’s limited experiences prove that nationalism’s triumph isn’t eternal. As CHALLENGE reported (1/7), a PLP leader received 1,200 of 4,100 votes in the Amalgamated Transportation Workers Union (ATU) Local 689’s recent presidential election. The PLP’er is white. Black workers comprise 80% of the Local’s membership. These workers have been as greatly subjected to nationalist culture and ideology as anyone else in the U.S. Yet approximately 1,000 black workers voted for a white communist presidential candidate. CHALLENGE will offer a detailed analysis of this campaign in other articles. The point here is that an uncompromising communist position can overcome many obstacles, including nationalist illusions.

The PLP’er has befriended and led these workers and fought shoulder to shoulder with them for 28 years. They know that he and the Party are on their side. He has regularly sold them CHALLENGE. He has patiently and persistently explained the PLP’s position on revolution, imperialism, fascism, racism, nationalism and the role of the working class in society. The vote doesn’t necessarily mean these workers are ready to join our Party in large numbers. Some should join soon; more may join later. We are still in a period where hard work yields modest results at best. But this vote is nonetheless a resounding victory for the idea that workers will respond positively to the basic truth about capitalism and communism and that they are prepared to follow the lead of communists who stand behind a principled revolutionary position.

Nationalism wins when communists cave in to it. The working class has already paid too high a price for this surrender. The ATU Local 689 election campaign should inspire us all to begin 2004 and the May Day organizing period with renewed confidence in the working class and in our Party’s line that nothing less than communism will do. With this line, billions of workers will one day change the world.

a name="Garment Marchers Indict U.S. Bosses As ‘No.1 Terrorists’"></">Ga"ment Marchers Indict U.S. Bosses As ‘No.1 Terrorists’

It was evident here in Los Angeles that there is a great potential to organize for the real interests of the international working class inside the mass movement. The majority of the 200 workers in my garment factory didn’t go to work. Although only ten of us went to a march organized by a group of garment workers, those who did go were elated with the action that defied the bosses. Several days later PLP distributed a leaflet at the factory exposing the boycott as a bosses’ trick, led by the liberals to give immigrant workers the dangerous idea of trusting the Democratic Party politicians and their capitalist system. PLP’s alternative was the fight for communism. The leaflet sparked many good discussions among the workers.

The march had several positive effects on myself and my friends. First was the workers’ militancy. Second was a speech at city hall, attacking the bosses’ profits as the source of racism and exploitation and calling for unity with workers in China and Central America to fight the imperialists.

Afterwards we continued marching to the Placita Olvera (Central Plaza for Immigrant Workers) where hundreds of boycotters were gathered listening to music on a live radio program in Spanish. We moved through the middle of these hundreds of workers who applauded and chanted our slogans. The radio announcers raised the volume of the music to try to drown out the demonstrators, but the workers continued chanting the slogans, forcing the radio announcers to "offer" two of the demonstrators the chance to give "short speeches."

One said, "To see sweatshops we don’t have to go as far as Honduras or China. Here, two blocks away, the center of LA is full of sweatshops." And "To see terrorists, we don’t have to go to the other side of the world. Here the U.S. government is the number one terrorist. U.S. bosses during the last decade killed hundreds of thousands of workers in Central America and today are killing thousands all over the world. Our goal is to unite to fight against racism, fascism and exploitation."

The hundreds of workers applauded, chanting slogans like, "Workers struggles have no borders," and, "The workers, united, will never be defeated!" Such bold actions provide fertile ground for communist ideas.

Rebellious Garment Worker

a name="Class Conscious Soldiers Can Help Defeat Bosses’ Wars">">"lass Conscious Soldiers Can Help Defeat Bosses’ Wars

Soldiers have played a major role in wartime to change the course of history. In the Russian Revolution communist soldiers organized fraternization between Russian and German troops, fought against the abuse of soldiers and sailors and ultimately led the working class in open armed revolt against Russia’s rulers.

In pre-revolutionary China, communist-led soldiers supported worker/peasant rebellions. Years of communist organizing inside the military combined with the objective conditions of imperialist war and sharpened class struggle, led to these revolutionary developments.

In 1941 hundreds of thousands of men and women were inspired by the fight against fascism to join the U.S. Army. When World War II ended, tens of thousands of soldiers refused to stay in the Philippines to fight against the Filipino communist-led movement and demanded to be sent home. In one demonstration, 30,000 soldiers marched against the military brass.

The Vietnam war witnessed the triumph of political commitment over technology. Politics was decisive on both sides. The Vietnamese, lightly armed ,with no air support, but with great political commitment to anti-imperialism and socialism, took on helicopter gunships, tanks, heavy weapons, napalm and horrific bombing attacks, and endured tremendous hardships necessary to wage a successful guerilla war.

Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers, alienated from their imperialist mission, up against a resolute opposing force and politically influenced by the mass anti-war movement in the U.S., undercut U.S. rulers’ efforts to seize Vietnam.

However, soldiers can also do much harm to the working class. The Nazis fielded an army committed to their fascist masters and murdered millions. The U.S. Army in Vietnam, before imploding, killed millions.

Soldiers can shape history. Developments during major wars are rarely pre-ordained. Imperialism’s horrors World War I — poison gas, tanks and airplanes used as killing machines — were eventually rejected by thousands of soldiers from different countries. The Russian soldiers turned that nightmare into the most significant event of the 20th century.

In the current period of prolonged imperialist war, especially over control of Mid-East oil, the soldiers’ role will be crucial. So far they have — for the most part — followed orders to kill other workers in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. But there have also been encouraging signs of resistance.

In Israel hundreds of soldiers have refused orders to kill Palestinian workers in the occupied territories, while pilots have refused to carry out assassinations. While possibly reflecting a moralistic rather than a class outlook, it’s positive that soldiers are deciding what’s right and wrong, and refusing racist orders.

In Iraq, some U.S. soldiers have told the press they want to go home and it’s been reported that many have gone AWOL. A commander of a small reserve unit is being prosecuted for refusing to sign a waiver allowing the military to send his unit to Iraq less than a year after they’d returned from Afghanistan. He wouldn’t make the four enlisted men in his unit go who didn’t want to. Several dozen Bulgarian soldiers have just refused orders to serve in Iraq.

But these small developments won’t mean to much without the political leadership of a communist movement that gives class consciousness to these spontaneous actions. Only communist ideas will give soldiers the ability to liberate themselves and the working class from the rulers’ imperialist wars. CHALLENGE can play an important role in giving this leadership. In the past, communist ideas have inspired soldiers to refuse orders to kill for imperialism but instead to side with the working class. This can happen again.

Building the Party in the Heart of the Working Class

"Listen; someone from our area proposed I run for shop steward" said a transit worker to a comrade. "I like the idea, but I need to know what you think." The comrade answered that he’d think about it and discuss it with other workers who are CHALLENGE readers.

The next day we asked the closest workers, CHALLENGE readers and members, to come to a meeting to discuss this worker’s candidacy. At lunchtime in the brake shop, the workers came — more than we expected. An open discussion developed, with workers at different political levels, but under our leadership.

Everyone agreed we need new union leadership. Some made suggestions and jokes about the candidate, but in essence everyone thought he was a good choice.

However, we made it clear that it was important for a new leadership to be different, that the only way to get the kind of leadership workers need is by understanding revolutionary communist politics. Then we proposed to let this particular election pass and prepare for the next elections. The candidate agreed with the majority who thought this was the best path.

Collectively we decided that to train him we need a study group every two weeks at lunch time; that he participate in political activities and class struggle inside and outside the union; that he visit workers in other areas of the company; and that he read and write for CHALLENGE. Since then, we’ve had three study groups and now have a larger network of CHALLENGE readers.

In one study group, inside a bus, some workers said, "It all sounds good, but how can we guarantee that this time the same thing that happened in Russia and China doesn’t happen again?" A comrade answered that the only thing guaranteeing that communism succeeds and is maintained is precisely the massive participation of millions of workers, not as obedient followers but as leaders capable of making decisions and able to distinguish a good line from a bad one. They must recognize when the party takes a wrong turn.

Someone else explained that socialism in Russia and China didn’t fail only because of the leadership, but also because they had the wrong political line. Socialism left intact many of the bases of capitalism — money, wages, wage differentials, and even worse, production for the market, which means exploitation. Our idea is that after workers seize power with the bases ready, we’ll install communist practices from the beginning. That’s why it’s so necessary today to study revolutionary history and theory.

We emphasized the importance of becoming more committed to the Party, to ensure that CHALLENGE is read by more workers. Slowly but surely the distribution and readership of the paper has been increasing. The other two study groups dealt with "Reform and Revolution" and the "Economic Crisis of the Capitalist System."

Some time ago I read a revolutionary novel describing a factory called Putilov in which the workers trained themselves politically inside the factory. To me this action seemed impossible. But today, based on our modest experiences, I think it’s possible, and that the workers are winnable to communism. Our victory only depends on whether we take seriously our great task of giving leadership to the workers, of leading them to take state power through a mass PLP.

A comrade behind the wheel

a name="Lenin’s ‘What Is To Be Done’ Makes Revolutionary Politics Primary"></a>"enin’s ‘What Is To Be Done’ Makes Revolutionary Politics Primary

"…Party struggles lend a party strength and vitality; the greatest proof of a party’s weakness is its diffuseness and the blurring of clear demarcations…"

(From What Is To Be Done title page)

The struggle against reformism (revisionism) is a life-and-death question for the world’s workers. The international communist movement has been waging it since it began. A principal reason the old movement collapsed was its vacillation over putting revolutionary politics above reformism. We in PLP are trying to learn from the achievements and errors of past revolutionaries. V.I. Lenin, leader of the 1917 workers’ revolution in Russia, which freed 1/6 of the world’s surface from capitalism, sharpened the struggle against opportunism in his 1902 pamphlet "What Is To Be Done?." This work remains on the "must-read" list of all those interested in the political and organizational tasks necessary for communist revolution.

Lenin had planned to deal with three questions: "the character and main content of political agitation, organizational tasks, and the plan for building, simultaneously and from various sides, a militant, all-Russia organization." A more active Russian working class and the stiffening resistance of reformist elements within the Party forced Lenin to expand on his original theme. "The exposition of our views on the character and substance of political agitation developed into an explanation of the difference between trade-unionist politics and Social-Democratic politics [the latter phrase denotes "communist politics" or "the Party’s line"] while the exposition of our views on organizational tasks developed into the difference between the amateurish methods which satisfy the Economists, and the organization of revolutionaries which we hold to be indispensable. Further, I advance the ‘plan’ for an all-Russian political newspaper…"

Fight To Learn, Learn To Fight

Lenin was essentially a nineteenth century writer. His sentences are long and complicated, requiring concentration. Further, understanding Lenin requires some knowledge of the events of his day. Nonetheless, generations of revolutionaries have drawn a great deal from this communist classic.

"Talk about serious things in a serious manner…," said Lenin, concerning the training of "worker-revolutionaries." Our Party has fought for the working classes’ right to know everything from Shakespeare to mathematics. What can be more serious for a worker than the theory and practice of communist revolution? We have a collective duty to overcome any obstacles to understanding "What Is To Be Done?"

Still Burning Questions Of Our Movement

After exposing those in the Party who hid from principled struggle under the slogan "freedom of criticism," Lenin turned to combating spontaneity. Lenin’s distracters criticized him for "belittling the significance of the objective or spontaneous element of development." (All italics from here on are Lenin’s.)

"There is much talk of spontaneity," Lenin answered. "But the spontaneous development of the working-class movement leads to its subordination to bourgeois ideology… for the spontaneous working-class movement is trade-unionism…and trade-unionism means the ideological enslavement of the workers by the bourgeoisie. Hence, our task…is to combat spontaneity, to divert the working class from this spontaneous, trade-unionist striving…and to bring it under the wing of revolutionary Social-Democracy."

In the next chapter, Lenin predicted revolutionary Social-Democratic workers would confront those who worship spontaneity. "…We are not children to be fed on the thin gruel of ‘economic’ politics alone; we want to know everything that others know, we want to learn the details of all aspects of political life and to take part actively in every single political event," Lenin envisioned they would say. He then argued subservience to spontaneity was at the root of terrorism as well as trade-union Economism. He called for "comprehensive national political exposures" as an antidote.

To bring such comprehensive political knowledge to the workers, communists "must go among all classes of the population; they must dispatch units of their army in all directions." (Here Lenin noted that the Social-Democrats should beef-up their military work.) Communist consciousness was brought to the workers "only from without…the economic struggle."

From this, it follows a communist party must be organized differently than a trade union. A communist party must "raise the level of amateurs to the level of revolutionaries," which can function under any-and-all conditions.

"The fact is that society produces very many persons fit for ‘the cause,’ but we are unable to make use of them all," Lenin concluded, protesting that Economist ideology hindered the training of political leaders and organizers. He asks how best to "serve" the mass movement. Building an organization that can produce communist political leaders to bring the Party’s line to the mass movement was his answer.

Lenin devoted his final chapter to the plan for a national newspaper to serve as a communist organizing tool.

This brief summary is no substitute for reading the original.

PLP constantly struggles with the concept of making revolutionary politics primary , as against burying our ideas in reformist politics. The "Economists" Lenin fought believed that trade unionism would automatically lead to revolution. We immerse ourselves in all the struggles waged by workers and others, but see our primary role as "winning them to communist politics." Since capitalism is based on exploitation of workers, it cannot be reformed. It is now 102 years since "What Is to Be Done?" was written and capitalism is only capable of producing endless wars for profits, fascist/racist terror, mass starvation, jobless recoveries, etc. The old communist movement failed because of its own weaknesses, but it has demonstrated that a better world is possible. We have a long way to go, but communism is the only way out of this hell.

Video Review: Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about Iraq"

"Uncovered" is insightful for what it presents and what it neglects. It wants to ensure that the anti war movement stays firmly wedded to electoral politics and the multi-lateralists in the Democratic Party and doesn't become anti-imperialist, embracing an anti capitalist critique of U.S. imperialism and revolutionary communist politics.

The video consists almost entirely of interviews with retired officials from the CIA, Pentagon and State Department. It's sponsored and widely circulated by MoveOn.org, a pro-Clinton group formed during his impeachment period and now adopted by billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis, who each donated $5 million to promote the video and build support for the Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential election.

The intelligence veterans are sharply critical of the reasons given by Bush & Co. for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. They are pro-imperialists who favor a multi-lateral approach. Most of their points were made before this by journalists and activists, including the Institute or Public Accuracy and the new book "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told us About Iraq."

A fifth of the video champions patriotism, saying it's "our patriotic duty" to criticize Bush & Co., its main point. Its greatest insights are what it doesn't say about the war. These veterans of U.S. intelligence agencies present a chilling portrait of exactly how the multi-lateralist branch of US imperialism, would run U.S. foreign policy. Meanwhile:

• They never mention the words oil or oil profits, nor the U.S. drive for broad geo political control of the Middle East, nor its new bases in Iraq, nor the neo cons' aim to fortify Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza, nor why virtually the entire U.S. government and corporate media enthusiastically lined up behind the war.

• They ignore the fact that the two countries with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in the Middle East are Israel and the U.S. and that the latter not only reserved the right to use nuclear weapons against Iraq but had surrounded it with military bases and naval fleets while openly stating it was preparing to attack Iraq. Thus, the actual military threat was exactly the opposite the one Bush and Congress proclaimed.

• They don't explain that the U.S. attack on Iraq had three phases - first, the 1991 Gulf War; second, the decade from 1992 to 2003 with its deadly sanctions, almost daily bombing runs and vast missile attacks prosecuted by the Clinton administration, all of which devastated Iraq and killed over 1,000,000 Iraqis, according to UN estimates; and thirdly, the current military invasion. (The video completely overlooks these crimes of the Clinton administration, especially since those interviewed not only supported the Clinton/Bush, Sr. administrations' policies, but were then government officials who designed and implemented these policies.)

• The video never mentions the Carter Doctrine, a formal U.S. policy committed to military force to assure access to Persian Gulf oil, nor U.S. support of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party with extensive weapons, food, and intelligence for Iraq during the during the '60s, '70s and '80s when the movie's interviewees were enthusiastically pursuing careers as U.S. intelligence agents and military officers in the Middle East.

• It also omits the long history of U.S. support for other repressive regimes throughout the entire Middle East in order to control the region's energy resources.

• Finally, it virtually ignores the anti war movement and the ten million who took to the streets worldwide.

It's clear why George Soros so extensively supports MoveOn.org and promotes the wide distribution of this movie. He and kindred spirits realize that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has led to increased resistance. They want to channel this opposition back into the electoral system, especially to support the liberal Democrats.

"The Whole Truth About Iraq" could have been more aptly entitled, "How to Hide the Whole Truth…."

LETTERS

Scaling Hills to Deliver CHALLENGE

"This paper seems to be written by prophets," said a worker in El Salvador referring to the analyses in CHALLENGE the last several years about the war for oil profits in the Mid-East. The confidence workers here have in our newspaper is more evident every day.

A "young" comrade of 73 walks through the hills as much as two kilometers taking the paper to other comrades. She said, "I do it because the revolution needs it." She added that during the past war she lost four children, "but I have others to continue the struggle."

"I’m donating $5 for CHALLENGE," said another worker, "because I know it’s needed to move forward." He’s paid poverty wages but understands the need to contribute financially to CHALLENGE and to fight for communist revolution.

Comrade from El Salvador

Living In A Society Without Money

For about ten years, we lived without money. I’m a farm worker, born in Morazan, El Salvador, like working with PLP and support the Party’s ideas and activities. I can’t read or write, but still help distribute CHALLENGE.

During the armed conflict in the 1980’s, I was 13 and had to leave the country for El Refugio, Colomoncagua, Honduras. I participated in the work with the other women — 7,000 of us — in the Guerrillas’ camps. Some of us made tortillas for the old people, children and fighters wounded in battle.

The men who were able stayed in El Salvador fighting with the armed wing of the FMLN. We now know the leaders weren’t fighting for the goals we thought they were.

Everyone in our community shared what we produced. There were neither rich nor poor. I cared for children. Others were involved in making shoes, clothes, and tools, in carpentry, ceramics, and in taking care of chickens and pigs. There were also children’s centers, but when we were old enough and conditions were right, we joined the armed struggle.

We learned to live collectively; to share our food and distribute medicine, housing, clothing and all the basic necessities.

We never used money all those years in exile working together. Without money, the working class will live better. One can live very well without money. We didn’t own private property, just our hands. Our idea was to work for those most in need.

Now after the "peace accords," after they’ve given each farm worker a small plot, life’s become much harder. In the best of cases, we only have enough to eat once a day. Prices rise constantly. This is the desperate reality of our lives. We must fight together along with PLP to build a society based again on sharing and living without money.

Salvadoran Farm Worker

(Editor’s comment: Thanks for your letter, showing that workers like yourself have been, are, and can be motivated by political rather than material incentives.)

Thanks-For-Fighting- Racism Feast

Lots of food, people and political discussion marked late November’s Thanks-For-Fighting Racism Feast in Maryland. For over fifteen years workers and students come together to see old friends, make new ones and renew their activist spirit. We raised $200 for the defense of Ines Weiner (CHALLENGE, 12/5). While enjoying the delicious food, the group also was very focused on the anti-racist politics.

A mother spoke poignantly about the brutal murder of her son by the Prince Georges’ County police. He was shot 14 times while sitting cuffed in the front seat of a police cruiser wearing nothing but cut-off shorts and shoes. She was a founder of the Prince Georges County People’s Coalition for Police Accountability, which is currently leading the effort to get cop Charles Ramseur indicted for the shooting of Desmond Ray in the back and paralyzing him last year. (Ramseur was not indicted last week by a Grand Jury, but the struggle continues.)

High school students related their anti-war activities, featuring a forum packed with students and teachers who brought their classes. On the day the war started, they organized a picket line and a walkout.

A Howard Univ. graduate student urged the crowd not to give up on friends and co-workers who might be pulling back from the struggle, advising them to maintain ties — "they will return."

Activists fresh from the American Public Health Association meetings in San Francisco recounted two successful endeavors — to refuse to collaborate with Homeland Security and the police (not turning in undocumented workers who come in as patients) and refusing to participate in a smallpox vaccine campaign aimed at building war fever. (See CHALLENGE, 1/8/04)

The final speaker, a Metro bus driver, spoke about the U.S. ruling class aim to stay in Iraq to maintain control of oil routes. He explained that workers’ futures lie in getting rid of capitalism, the system responsible for more racism, imperialist wars, joblessness, and inadequate health care. He said communism is the only solution that can stop this madness, where workers’ power will rule led by the Progressive Labor Party.

Workers left satisfied in both body and spirit, Renewed and refreshed, ready to intensify the struggle against racism.

D.C. Anti-Racist

Willie Nelson Song: Oil Causes War

Willie Nelson just came out with an anti-war song titled, "Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth." He endorses Kucinich, the most anti-war of the Democratic Party candidates. Willie’s politics, of course, are limited by liberalism. But what’s interesting about him, as well as the Dixie Chicks, is how popular they remain even after they sharply opposed the war. It indicates the tremendous depth of anti-war sentiment among the working class, including sections we tend to think of as conservative.

The first stanza of Nelson’s song, while liberal, cites oil as the reason the Bush Administration went to war. Later he clearly refers to Bush as a "damn liar." Many of the most popular books, as indicated by the N.Y. Times non-fiction best-sellers list, are liberal attacks on things we say are endemic to capitalism — war, poverty, tremendous inequality — but which they say are the result of conservative policies. Al Franken’s and Michael Moore’s books are #3 and 4, respectively, on the Times’ list at this writing. (Moore’s is the better of the two; he at least attacks Clinton’s policies.)

Several people I know — family members and co-workers — have read these books, praise them and want to talk about them, which I’m very happy to do. These authors make many good points, which we can agree with, although we need to constructively point out the limitations of their analysis. We should also, myself included, be writing reviews of liberal protest culture for CHALLENGE.

An anti-war and anti-capitalist reader

Archives Expose Anti-Stalin Lies

All the "revelations" in Soviet government and Communist Party files, secret of course during the Soviet era, DISprove all the anti-Stalin stuff. Stalin comes across as not only a good leader but, as a person, one of the very best imaginable! A few specifics:

• There is NO evidence Stalin was anti-Semitic. A few books claiming this all lie, often in very obvious ways. For example, Stalin opposed the "Doctor’s Plot" arrests in 1952. He never murdered Solomon Mikhoels, and the "Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee" was certainly involved in Zionist organizing, for which it was disbanded. The trial transcripts have been published and confessed in some detail to this.

• Many of Khrushchev’s specific statements about Stalin made in his ‘secret speech’ in 1956 and again in ’61 have been proven to be lies. Probably they all are. But Khrushchev had his agents go through many archives, taking materials out and destroying them. They left notes — "X pages removed" — so Russian historians today know this happened. They don’t know what was taken out, but presumably stuff that contradicted Khrushchev’s anti-Stalin stories.

• Many interrogations — pre-trial, investigative stuff — of the major defendants in the three big "Moscow Show Trials" of 1936 to ’38 have been published (many more haven’t been). They show conclusively that these guys were all guilty; they admit it in detail and accuse each other.

• They also involve Trotsky. There are a few INDEPENDENT pieces of documentary evidence of Trotsky’s involvement with the Japanese fascists. Nothing so far about his involvement with the Germans, except:

• The confessions of Tukhachevsky and some of the other top-level generals who were accused of plotting to overthrow the government in collaboration with the Germans and Japanese in 1937 have been published in part. All of them directly implicate Trotsky, as do the interrogations of the defendants in the "show" trials.

• General Pavlov was executed in 1941 for opening the Ukrainian Front to the Nazi invaders. The trial transcript has been published. Parts have been quoted in a number of Russian-language books and articles. Pavlov was convinced the Nazis were unbeatable — they had just whipped every power in Europe in record time — and so he wanted to make himself useful to them. He refused to pass along commands from the General Staff about getting his armies into battle formation on June 18, four days before the invasion. He had also discussed doing favors for Hitler with another general, Meretskov (who wasn’t executed), in 1940. This one general’s betrayal cost the USSR millions of deaths and captives, and Pavlov admitted this!

• The Soviets did all they could to help Loyalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War. They did not execute "traitors," as they have been widely accused of doing, and in fact supplied to Spain more arms than even the Spanish gold could pay for.

• Beria turns out to have been a very good guy also, probably Stalin’s right-hand man. Khrushchev & Co. murdered him, probably because he wanted to "democratize" the USSR by getting full-time Party functionaries out of power. These are the people who took over under Khrushchev & Co.

Stalin, with all his faults, mostly only evident now in hindsight, was a great communist leader. Our Party is founded on that insight — that the errors of the USSR were political errors, not caused by "crazy, corrupt, murderous" leaders.

Red Historian

Challenging Challenge

Within the letter, "Look Forward to Challenge" (12/17/03), the author asks: "Do we need a greater variety of articles so the paper touches more aspects of people’s lives?" I admit I’m not a careful reader of every article, but the titles are a good indication of the content — i.e., analysis of the economic and political consequences of U.S. foreign policy, Medicare, education, war, etc.

While such analyses may help foster an understanding of capitalism, what is lacking are articles which give due attention to other human issues — i.e., love; a father-son relationship; dealing with the feelings from the loss of a loved one; the loss suffered from a fragmented childhood; or a beautiful sunset. Maybe these issues have been discussed, but how often are they explored, not analyzed, on a personal or human level?

In fact, here’s an idea: When such an issue as Medicare is analyzed from a Marxist perspective, more vitality can be contributed to the article with a personal interview. Instead of accepting or refuting statements from bourgeois pundits with a counter analysis, ask the elderly what are their opinions of the new bill.

Our current reality is capitalism, but still there are positive experiences between people which lend hope and optimism. There’s also some good in the world; despite hardship, people still have options to improve their personal lives via meditation, an AA meeting, a better diet or a good dosage of stand-up comedy In the least, the constant dispensing of the ills of capitalism within CHALLENGE probably do not have a good overall psychological impact on the mind. If I’ve had a bad day at work or am in a bad mood, I feel better reading something from the Twelve Steps tradition.

Despite my spirituality, I’d like nothing more than the elimination of the ruling class. But I think it’s in this paper’s interest to lighten up a bit on the overemphasis of capitalism’s failures. Facts alone will not inspire the working-class to overthrow capitalism.

A casual reader

a name="Class Line Exposes ‘Red Scarf’ Lies"></">Cl"ss Line Exposes ‘Red Scarf’ Lies

I’m a high school teacher required to teach the memoir "Red Scarf Girl," part of the new National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) "Ramp Up" curriculum. New York City recently adopted the NCEE program as part of its city-wide literacy initiative.

This memoir is a bourgeois young girl’s perspective growing up during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. This anti-communist book was chosen for purely political reasons, an example how the system teaches politics through literature. The literary quality is very poor; students really don’t find it interesting.

I taught this book by spending a week discussing communism, reading Chinese poetry, putting daily quotes from Mao’s "Red Book" on the board for analysis, and reading excerpts from "Fanshen" by William Hinton [about the commune movement in China]. In retrospect, I should have taught some of Mao’s poetry as well as Li Po’s, Tu Fu’s and Wang Wei’s. I also discussed the principles of an egalitarian society, asking students to write their idea of the perfect society. Their descriptions were all parts of communism.

This opened up a lively discussion on why communism "failed" and why they were taught communism was such a bad thing. I explained that at one time a billion people lived under socialism, and that socialism was reversed after having been established by workers.

I discussed class differences, enabling my students to then determine that Ji Li, the book’s protagonist, was bourgeois. They picked out the class differences between Ji Li and her classmates and realized that by having a larger apartment, more money and a housekeeper, she had greater advantages than her classmates and had a great deal to lose to the Red Guards. They understood how socialism was — and always will be — reversed, that a direct fight for communism is needed.

After finishing the book’s first two chapters, my students hated it. I then switched to another text, stating this one was far superior to "Red Scarf Girl." The principal agreed to the change, leading another teacher to follow suit. Now none of the NCEE English teachers in my school are planning to teach "Red Scarf Girl.

A great teacher’s aid would be a pamphlet on the Red Guards, a collection of Mao’s poetry, some proletarian memoirs portraying the working class’s experience under the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and the advancements made in Socialist China. Other help on teaching "Red Scarf Girl" would be greatly appreciated. (Anybody with information on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, please submit same to the CHALLENGE office.

A Red Teacher

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

Saddam was ally vs. Iran

Saddam Hussein "ranked with the world’s most vicious dictators." Let us not forget that the United States took advantage of this man’s talents in the 1980’s to further its own foreign policy goals.

I wonder how much evidence that demonstrates our previous collusion with this monster will be deemed "top secret" during a future war crimes trial. (Letter to NYT, 12/16)

Draft Board: Help wanted

President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld won’t go near the subject — at least not on the record. But in November the Pentagon placed a notice on its Web site seeking "men and women in the community who might be willing to serve as members of a local draft board."

Hmm. Why have draft boards if a draft is out of the question?

After the notice set off alarms, it was hastily pulled from the Web site without explanation.

The explanation is easy to figure out. It is well documented that morale has been plummeting among troops being asked to serve long tours in Afghanistan and Iraq….

In a recent poll in Stars and Stripes, a respected newspaper for the military, roughly half of the soldiers surveyed indicated they would not re-enlist when their tours ended. (Hearst Newspapers, 12/4)

NY 9/11 detainees beaten

Videos recorded inside a New York jail show Arab and Asian detainees, who were picked up in a sweep of immigrants in the wake of the September 11 attacks, being slammed and bounced off the prison walls by guards, according to an official US government report….

Across the country, more than 1,200 people, mostly Arabs and Asians, were detained on immigration violations after the 2001 explosions and held while they were investigated for possible links with terrorist groups. None was ever charged with terrorist-related crimes. (GW, 12/31)

Call it Mother of Oil Wars?

A drum roll, please: It’s time to announce the results of the Name That War Contest….

Some people suggested that instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom, this is "Operation Iraqi Liberation." I thought they were hawks until I recognized the acronym: OIL. Also on the petroleum front, Peter Wilson of Pennsylvania offered "Mother of Oil Wars…." And movie buffs urged Operation Kick the Dog," "The Empire Strikes Out," "Apocalypse Right Now…."

Scholarly readers…suggested "Pre-emptive War I," leaving room…to continue the series if [moving] on to Tehran and Pyongyang." (NYT News Service, 12/1)

Profit system = mad cow

At least 150,000 downer cattle — those who because of injury or illness cannot walk — were sold annually…. Selling damaged cows for human consumption never sat well with Mr. Behling, who in 2001 briefly had in his feed lot the Holstein cow identified last month as the downer with mad cow disease.

"It’s an absurd practice," Mr. Behling said….caused by maybe a certain amount of greed…."

In the 1990’s, meatpackers bought machines that were able to strip a few extra pounds off carcasses while saving millions in labor costs….The extra meat was sometimes laced with nerve tissues, where mad cow disease can incubate. But…getting rid of the machines would mean a loss to the industry of more than $130 million a year….

For years, the industry had a simple strategy: Fight proposals that would crimp its ability to squeeze as much revenue as possible from each cow….

The United States Department of Agriculture is by no means the first body to be captured by industry groups. In Europe and Japan the spread of the disease was facilitated by the repeated failure of government ministries to act on behalf of consumers. (NYT, 1/5)

Racist Thurmond raped ‘family slave’

There may not have been a more lowly and vulnerable position in Edgefield, S.C., in 1925 than that of a teenage black maid.

But that was how Essie Mae Washington-Williams’s mother, Carrie Butler, was employed when she and a young Strom Thurmond, the scion of a powerful white family, had what Mrs. Williams described as "an affair…."

But…the word "affair" makes it too simple — …intimidation was organic to that time and place….

"White men were king," said Valinda Littlefield, a professor of African-American history at the University of South Carolina. "She was basically a child. He can do with her what he wants. She’s more or less the family’s slave." (NYT, 12/21)

Terrorists at US workplace

Workers decapitated on assembly lines, shredded in machinery, burned beyond recognition, electrocuted, buried alive — all of them killed, investigators concluded, because their employers willfully violated workplace safety laws….

They were not accidents. They happened because a boss removed a safety device to speed up production, or because a company ignored explicit safety warnings, or because a worker was denied proper protective gear.

And for years…senior officials at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration….have repeatedly pledged to press…for criminal charges against those responsible.

These promises have not been kept….

OSHA’s reluctance…persisted even when employers had been cited before for the very same safety violations. It persisted even when the violations caused multiple deaths….

There have been repeated efforts to make it a felony to cause a worker’s death. But strong opposition from Republicans and many Democrats doomed every effort.

(NYT, 12/22)

The CIA Got Their Former Agent, But War Rages On
Saddam Was a Paid Agent of the U.S. Intelligence Services
Communist Wins Big Political Victory in D.C. Metro Vote
Nationalism Another Bosses’ Tool Used vs. Workers
Fight Racism and Nationalism
How PLP Broke with All Forms of Nationalism
Nationalism Helped Destroy Old Communist Movement
Boeing’s New Jet A Trojan Horse To Screw Workers
A Boss Is a Boss Is a Boss
No Secret Negotiations, Just ‘Informal Discussions’
Only Revolutionary Politics Will Do
Boeing’s CEO Crashes; Pentagon Reined In
Fight Militarization of Health Care At APHA Convention
Teaching Anti-racism and Class Consciousness
California Grocery Strike: Class Struggle Sharpens Political Debate
California Comrade
Immigrants’ Anti-Racist March Challenges Nationalists’ ‘Patriotic’ Strategy
Workers Fight Layoffs, Take Over Baltimore School Board
Will Bring Anti-Imperialist Stand to MLA Convention
Who are the Main Murderers?
Communist Leadership Crucial to Mass Movements
PLP Leaflet in Italy Attacks Government-Boss Gang-up
Against the Attack by the Government and Bosses’ Federation
Increasing Military Spending To Control Oil
Colombia’s Oil Workers Fight Boss / Union Traitor Privatizing Plan
LETTERS
Joblessness a Mass Killer
Use CHALLENGE to ‘Connect the Dots’
‘Over’ vs ‘More’ Consumption
$1 More Won’t Put Dent in Poverty
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
Israel trains US vs. Iraq
Scratch a liberal, find Bush
Wal-Mart exploits Mexicans
Need medicine? Bring money!
Bosses muddy the Red label
An empire has no morality

The CIA Got Their Former Agent, But War Rages On

Saddam Was a Paid Agent of the U.S. Intelligence Services

Communist Wins Big Political Victory in D.C. Metro Vote

Nationalism Another Bosses’ Tool
Used vs. Workers

Fight Racism and
Nationalism

How PLP Broke with All Forms of Nationalism

Nationalism Helped Destroy Old Communist Movement

Boeing’s New Jet A Trojan Horse To Screw Workers

A Boss Is a Boss
Is a Boss

No Secret Negotiations, Just ‘Informal Discussions’

Only Revolutionary Politics Will Do

Boeing’s CEO Crashes;
Pentagon Reined In

Fight Militarization of Health Care At
APHA Convention

Teaching Anti-racism and Class Consciousness

California Grocery Strike: Class Struggle Sharpens Political Debate

California Comrade

Immigrants’ Anti-Racist March Challenges Nationalists’ ‘Patriotic’ Strategy

Workers Fight Layoffs, Take Over Baltimore School Board

Will Bring Anti-Imperialist Stand to MLA Convention

Who are the Main Murderers?

Communist Leadership Crucial to Mass Movements

PLP Leaflet in Italy Attacks
Government-Boss Gang-up

Against the Attack by the Government and Bosses’ Federation

Increasing Military Spending To Control Oil

Colombia’s Oil Workers Fight Boss / Union Traitor Privatizing Plan

LETTERS

Joblessness a Mass Killer

Use CHALLENGE to ‘Connect the Dots’

‘Over’ vs ‘More’ Consumption

$1 More Won’t Put Dent in Poverty

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Israel trains US vs. Iraq

Scratch a liberal, find Bush

Wal-Mart exploits Mexicans

Need medicine? Bring money!

Bosses muddy the Red label

An empire has no morality

Medicare Ripoff Is Windfall For Drug And Insurance Bosses

• The Fine Print: How the Drug Benefit Works
• A Communist Alternative Plan

a href="#Liberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War">"iberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War

a href="#‘The Story Behind the Story’">‘T"e Story Behind the Story’

Mexico: Angry Workers Must Fight All Bosses

a href="#Grocery Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!">Groc"ry Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!

Free Trade Meeting Flops; Cops Riot

a href="#Cincinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again">"incinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again

a href="#Hawk Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops">Ha"k Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops

New Communist International Movement Must Bury Dark Ages

• Emerging from the Dark Ages

a href="#California Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War">"alifornia Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War

Chicago Dinner Marks CHALLENGE Role in Building PLP

Reform over Revolution Alive and Well in the Matrix Trilogy

LETTERS

a href="#‘Nickled and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power">‘Nic"led and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power

Fare Hike, Pay Cut Gives CEO Bonus

a href="#‘Over-consumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?">‘Over-"onsumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?

Interfaith Meeting Discusses War, Racism

Winning $upport For CHALLENGE

• CHALLENGE COMMENT

Look Forward to CHALLENGE

Communist Ideas Answer Fascism

a href="#Church Group Hears Need To Win GI’s">"hurch Group Hears Need To Win GI’s

Red Eye On The News

Medicare Ripoff Is Windfall For Drug And Insurance Bosses

The battle over Medicare reflects an age-old conflict in capitalism. Individual companies seek short-term profits higher than their rivals’. International competition, however, drives the ruling classes of different nations to fight for long-term survival. Short- and long-term outlooks clashed in Congress last week when the U.S. Senate passed the Medicare prescription drug "benefit," and handed drug and insurance companies a windfall by creating a new, largely privatized Medicare prescription plan. While it won’t meet the needs of most workers, it will add an estimated $13 billion to the drug companies’ current $192 billion yearly sales. Insurance companies will manage much of the program.

But as Merck’s and Aetna’s bosses rejoiced that their industries’ record $139-million lobbying had paid off, liberals like Teddy Kennedy and Jay Rockefeller bitterly denounced the vote. For the drug and insurance companies, the U.S. health care system is an inexhaustible profit source, replenished with $1.7 trillion in expenditures every year. But Kennedy and Rockefeller serve capitalists who look beyond individual industries’ bottom line toward maintaining U.S. worldwide dominance by armed force. To the imperialists, health care is first and foremost an instrument of social control, one that is becoming more important as their war-making intensifies.

Also, they see that medical costs for current workers and millions of retired and soon-to-be retiring workers are a tremendous drain on profits, especially in basic industry. They favor a more "universal" health care plan that will shift the burden from private employers to the government, paid for by workers’ taxes, and make the auto, steel and aerospace bosses more competitive with their European and Asian rivals. Their opposition to Bush has much more to do with strengthening U.S. imperialism than offering some crumbs to the working class.

The Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), a government agency charged with planning the wartime mobilization of U.S. industry, says health care profoundly affects workers in the kinds of work they can do, in their fitness for military service, and in their general quality of life. But it warns, "…the U.S. does not presently have a carefully formulated and executable national health care strategy. Ensuring national security requires devising and implementing such a strategy.... Since the federal government is the single largest payer in the industry, the Department of Health & Human Services is the appropriate executive agent..." (ICAF Industry Survey, 2002). So the liberal war makers basically want two things: a health system more directly run by the federal government and, consequently, a working class more directly dependent on the feds for its health care.

The liberals’ chief complaint about the Medicare scheme is that much of it will be out of government hands. That’s what Rockefeller and Kennedy mean when they criticize the drug and insurance profiteers. "The AARP [a big backer of the bill] is a business," said Rockefeller, "they have a product to sell." Kennedy shed crocodile tears for the elderly, "Let us not turn our backs on our senior citizens so insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies can charge senior citizens even higher prices."

The Hart-Rudman Commission, which outlined the present agenda of increasing fascism and war, raised the same objection in its January 2001 report (eight months before 9-11). "The medical community has critical roles to play in homeland security. Catastrophic acts of terrorism or violence could cause casualties far beyond any imagined heretofore. Most of the American medical system is privately owned and now operates at close to capacity. An incident involving WMD will quickly overwhelm the capacities of local hospitals and emergency management professionals."

The Medicare vote is a temporary setback for the liberal imperialists. In response they will only increase their efforts to control society. However, workers shouldn’t be fooled by their call for "universal care." This is not "socialized medicine," it is a fascist plan to increase proftis for basic industries and make workers more able to fight the bosses’ wars. The fight for communism to abolish the profit system and wage slavery will create the conditions to make the health of workers — who produce all value in society — a priority. Then preventive care will help alleviate and eventually end many of the diseases caused by capitalism — AIDS, malnutrition, stress — not to mention the myriad of illnesses spread by imperialism: Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, the malnutrition and consequent death of half a million Iraqi children, cancer-causing depleted uranium and all the mental illnesses visited on soldiers on all sides of the bosses’ wars.

The Fine Print: How the Drug Benefit Works

Until 2006, seniors just get a discount card that might save them 15% on drugs. Then, when the "real" benefit kicks in, it works like this for each year:

First $250: you pay 100%;

Next $2,000: you pay 25%, Medicare pays 75%;

Next $2,850: you pay 100%;

After that (above total yearly drug costs of $5,100) you pay 5%, Medicare pays 95%.

A Communist Alternative Plan

Since workers make, package, transport, maintain and distribute all the medicines, how about this benefit plan:

• We all get 100% of what we need and it’s all free.

a name="Liberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War">">"iberal Rulers’ Reform Plan: Education For War

The dominant liberal wing of U.S. rulers has a serious labor dilemma. On one hand, U.S. companies are laying off millions of workers in the current economic downturn while relocating millions of jobs overseas. On the other, the major capitalists will — eventually and inevitably — require millions of highly-skilled, loyal workers to man their war machine against an enemy the size of China, Europe or Russia. The Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), a secretive branch of the Defense Department responsible for planning the wartime mobilization of U.S. industry, warns of massive shortfalls in skilled labor over the next two decades resulting from downsizing in fields ranging from biotechnology to shipbuilding. Thus, even as they destroy vast numbers of jobs, the rulers’ war needs are driving them to create a large workforce well-trained in math and science. The ICAF identifies improving "math and science curricula for grades K-12" as a top priority.

School systems nationwide are aiding the liberal imperialists by "raising standards" in these areas, though the effort and results are very uneven. Because racism infects everything the capitalists do, many urban schools today, with mostly black and Latin students, barely see a dime’s worth of improvement in math and science training. At the same time, suburban schools are implementing a flood of curriculum initiatives funded by the feds and establishment corporations and foundations. But at the time when the rulers need to mobilize for world war, they will undertake advanced technical training for many in the working class. Make no mistake. The math and science reform movement is fascism in sheep’s clothing. It serves the capitalists’ interests, not the students’.

The math-science push forms an important part of the Hart-Rudman Commission reports, which stand as the clearest public expression of the rulers’ 25-year strategy for worldwide dominance. Hart-Rudman’s goal is to put the nation on a war footing for regional conflicts in the near term and world war down the road. Along with using terrorist attacks on U.S. soil to stir up patriotism, the Commission’s plans extend to refocusing schools and universities. Referring to math and science, Hart-Rudman’s 2000 report reads, "the inadequacies of our systems of research and education pose a greater threat to U.S. national security over the next quarter century than any potential conventional war that we might imagine. American national leadership must understand these deficiencies as threats to national security. If we do not invest heavily and wisely in rebuilding these two core strengths, America will be incapable of maintaining its global position."

As an example, the ICAF, in its latest industry survey, cites semiconductors, which are essential to modern manufacturing and weapons: "U.S. chipmakers will require over 15,000 new electrical engineers (EE) in the early years of this century, yet EE graduates declined by 49% from 1988 to 1998, along with decreases in other important disciplines such as math and physics." In 2002, the ICAF visited Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Intel and other heavyweights in the military-industrial sphere. It found the woeful state of education in the U.S. hampering the merchants of death. "Given the recession, none noted any shortage of applicants. However, almost without exception they were frustrated by applicants’ lack of specific skills required for their industry. Most stated that applicants lacked the mechanical aptitude, knowledge, and technical background in basic math and sciences to propel their company in this highly competitive globalized economy."

Liberal representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) is spearheading the Committee for Economic Development’s (CED) new campaign, Learning for the Future: Changing the Culture of Math and Science Education to Ensure a Competitive Workforce. It calls for the creation of business-school partnerships to make math and science more attractive to students. Executives from Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco sit on the CED’s board.

A California-based organization called the Math-Science Network (MSN) advertises a seemingly praiseworthy aim, "to nurture girls’ interest in science and math courses and to encourage them to consider science and math-based career options." But MSN’s sponsors include such pillars of U.S. imperialism as JP Morgan Chase and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which helps develop the bosses’ murderous nuclear arsenal. The National Security Agency, which furnishes military intelligence to the Pentagon, runs summer programs in the mathematical sciences for high school and middle school teachers and students.

Mathematical and scientific knowledge has a class character. Capitalists use it to exploit and make war on workers. Workers, on the other hand, must understand math and science in order to serve their own class. A working-class party cannot hope to grow or seize power without offering workable, technical solutions to a host of miseries caused or worsened by capitalism. The Soviet and Chinese Red Armies were able to make revolution and transform society in large measure because they educated the masses and themselves politically and technically to a degree unimagined by the capitalists. No one should confuse the kind of training the rulers want with the knowledge workers need.

a name="‘The Story Behind the Story’"></">‘T"e Story Behind the Story’

We are fond of saying "you got to be in it, to win it," in relation to the bosses’ mass organizations. An incident at work reminded me that "being in it" could also apply to mass sales of CHALLENGE.

A friend I hadn’t seen for nearly 20 years recently transferred into my shop. I honestly couldn’t remember what kind of political relationship we had had. He was friendly now so I hesitantly gave him copies of our paper. He’s been a "casual" reader for the last few months.

Last week, he buttonholed me as I was arriving at work. "What’s this all about," he asked, pointing to the headlines about the firing of Boeing’s CFO and a vice-president of the missile program. He was clear; he wanted to know the "story behind the story."

I gave him a quick explanation about the bosses’ need to win us to sacrifice "blood and treasure" to support their continuous wars for imperialist dominance. I referred him to an article in a prior CHALLENGE that went into more detail. He went back to his machine and read (or re-read) it. He made a point of telling me it was "a really good article." He had gotten his "story behind the story."

My friend hasn’t been in the shop long enough to be involved in any sharp class struggle with us. I sell a good number of papers, so I can’t have long, in-depth discussions with every reader, all the time. My friend was one of those co-workers with whom I’ve had only limited political discussions — and limited social relations to boot. Of course, I want to correct this over time.

Given all these weaknesses, why would my friend seek me out to find the meaning of these headlines? After all, he had other friends—even closer friends — in the shop. I can only conclude that even his "casual" reading of our paper sent him in our direction.

When we keep our eye on the ball, we are able to increase CHALLENGE circulation during sharp struggle, like contract negotiations, strikes and demonstrations. Unfortunately, we sometimes let our CHALLENGE networks wither when things quiet down. (I’m as guilty as anybody.) We mistakenly doubt the value of such "casual" readers.

This little incident is a reminder that numbers—of readers—may not be everything, but they do count. CHALLENGE must be in the hands of large numbers of our co-workers if we want the working class to look to communist analysis to explain the increasing attacks on us. You got to circulate it (CHALLENGE), to win it — a significant base for revolutionary ideas.

A Shop Comrade

Mexico: Angry Workers Must Fight All Bosses

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 27 — Over 150,000 workers, students and others — 100,000 in Mexico City and the rest in other cities — participated in a "megamarch" against the government’s plan to raise taxes on food and medicine. The protests also attacked the closing of government institutions and privatization of the energy industry, which will eliminate thousands of jobs. Politicians like M. Bartlet and C. Cárdenas, who represent the bosses who want to maintain state ownership of the energy industry, are using this mass anger for electoral purposes.

In this era of growing imperialist rivalry over markets, capitalist crisis and war, the Mexican ruling class hasn’t done so well. Mexico has dropped to 30th place among the world’s exporters. China has replaced it as the leading provider of manufactured goods to the U.S. market. In 1997, China had 7.5% of the U.S. domestic market; Mexico had 10%. Today, these figures are reversed. Mexico has also lost foreign investments. China is now receiving $56 billion a year in direct investments, equal to all of Latin America.

President Fox and COPARMEX (the bosses’ association) want to get out of this hole by taxing poor people even more, opening the energy industry to investors, slashing labor rights to increase productivity (á la the USA) and increasing exploitation.

Slim, the richest boss in Mexico, CANACINTRA (another bosses’ association), Mexico City’s municipal bosses, some opposition politicians and union hacks from the Electrical Workers’ Union and National Workers’ Union (UNT) want to keep control of the energy industry and use it as the basis to reactivate the domestic market. Neither side is interested in the well-being of the working class. They all want to control the lion’s share of the wealth produced by workers, the fees paid by utility customers, etc. The nature of all bosses is to make profits exploiting workers.

During the march, Rosendo Flores, head of the electrical workers’ union, and H. Juarez, of the telephone workers’ union, called for a nation-wide general strike if the Fox government doesn’t back down from the tax hikes and privatization plan. These union hacks want to become the "workers’ voice," replacing the old CTM labor federation hacks.

PLP members have been organizing in neighborhoods and factories to give communist leadership to the growing anger of workers and youth. We’re supporting the struggles against layoffs and fascist working conditions, and to maintain basic services while exposing the union hacks and politicians as enemies of the workers.

The distribution of CHALLENGE has grown. Many in the communities have sought our political guidance. Our political slogans in these struggles against the growing bosses’ attacks have been, "Abolish wage slavery" and "Fight local and foreign capitalists." This is a modest example of using our communist politics to build a mass base. Some of us participated in the Nov. 27 mega march, but we must increase our political work, strengthen our base-building and increase CHALLENGE distribution. This can puncture the political hold the fascist and liberal bosses and union sellouts have on the masses.

a name="Grocery Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!"></a>"rocery Strike: It’s Not Just Wal-Mart — It’s Capitalism!

Los Angeles, Dec. 2 — The strike of 70,000 grocery workers in Southern California is entering its 8th week. The strikers face a 50% increase in healthcare costs, a two-tier wage system and an hourly wage-cap for new employees of $14.90 (after six years). Most are part-time and currently earn an average of $1,300 monthly. Many strikers are young black, Latin and Asian workers.

On Oct. 11th, workers struck Vons and Pavilions. The owners of Ralph’s and Albertson’s immediately locked out their workers, swelling the total out to 70,000. Then, about two weeks into the strike, the unions announced it was alright to shop at Ralph’s, even though Ralph’s workers were locked out and the store was being run with scabs! (Pickets at other stores even carried signs saying "Shop at Ralph’s.") The strike was mainly run as a secondary boycott, asking customers not to shop at the markets.

Many other workers, students and teachers have joined the picket lines and organized rallies supporting the strikers. Many shoppers have refused to cross the lines. Then on Nov. 25, the strike’s seventh week, Teamster truck drivers began refusing to carry goods from warehouses to the stores.

The supermarket owners claim they must lower workers’ wages and heath care because Wal-Mart is coming to California with "Superstores" which will sell groceries and most everything else. Wal-Mart is non union and pays workers about $9 an hour with no health benefits. The New York Times has editorialized (11/15) in favor of the union and against Wal-Mart. They state grocery workers earn roughly $18,000 a year and lament that Wal-Mart workers earn only $14,000, "below the $15,060 poverty line for a family of three." They call for unionizing Wal-Mart and support the princely sum of $18,000 annually.

The LA Times has run a three-part exposé of Wal-Mart for paying low wages not only to its own employees but also some of the lowest wages in the world to workers in Bangladesh, China and Honduras who make the low-cost products Wal-Mart sells. Many U.S. bosses view China as a serious long-term threat to U.S. imperialist world domination. An increasing amount of Wal-Mart’s products comes from China.

Why all this concern about workers’ wages and health benefits from the bosses’ mouthpieces? One essay in the book "United We Serve" worried that immigrant workers need to be brought into the social fabric of this country, and that the unions are the best vehicle to win immigrants to trusting the system. The New York Times is not advocating decent wages and health care for all, only that workers receive the bare minimum needed to live, rather than under the minimum, and that this be sanctified by a union.

The fact is U.S. imperialism is spending half a trillion dollars a year on wars and paying for them with workers’ taxes, forcing states like California into multi-billion dollar deficits. Then Schwarzenegger follows suit by cutting social services to reduce the deficit. All this leaves nothing to cover workers’ health care, and the profit-driven bosses certainly don’t want to pay for it.

For their own reasons, the rulers are attacking Wal-Mart as the source of low wages and benefits. But the source is not just Wal-Mart. It’s capitalism that forces workers worldwide into poverty and war in its constant competition for maximum profit. It’s capitalism that must be destroyed to secure a decent future for workers’ families.

PLP members and friends have taken CHALLENGE and leaflets to the picket lines. We need to consistently go to the pickets at our local stores, developing ties with these workers that can continue long after the strike is over. Strikes usually represent more intense class struggle and offer opportunities to win workers to more advanced, communist ideas which explain the problems caused by capitalism. While calling for support for the strikers, we’ve also pointed out that a system based on competition for maximum profits is less and less able to provide the basic necessities for workers. That’s why the long-term solution to low wages, lack of health care and a war economy is to fight for a communist society based not on profits but on meeting workers’ needs.

Free Trade Meeting Flops; Cops Riot

MIAMI, Nov. 21 — The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting here was a flop for Bush’s administration plans to expand a U.S.-controlled NAFTA to the entire continent. The growing capitalist-imperialist rivalry over markets and low-paid workers caused it to fail before it even began. The biggest bosses of South American (Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina) want a bigger share of the exploitation, while the Bush gang basically wants it all. The former are working with U.S. imperialist rivals in Europe who oppose the U.S. excluding them from a free trade agreement. (Germany is the main investor in Brazil.)

Miami cops rioted against demonstrators who were protesting the FTAA meeting. The protesters were mainly from peace groups, student and anti-war organizations, as well as unions like the United Steelworkers Union. They were ordered to disperse and then surrounded, beaten, shot with rubber bullets, arrested, and held on phony charges of "assaulting" the cops.

The police riot was planned and financed with $8,000,000 according to the new rules of the fascist Homeland Security. Specific features of this cop attack include:

• "Embedding" the media (as in Iraq) — placing them under direct control of the cops and military;

• Some "embedded" reporters attacked the demonstrators alongside the cops. Independent reporters, not "embedded," were attacked as though they were demonstrators.

• Plainclothes cops dressed in black, like the anarchist "black bloc," to infiltrate and attack groups of demonstrators.

Part of the explanation for this cop violence is no doubt due to conditions specific to Florida. Jeb Bush, the President’s brother, is governor and fascist Cuban exile groups are very strong in Miami. The gusano leaders don’t allow any "freedom of speech" or unionizing activity in order to keep Miami a low-wage haven and one of the poorest urban areas in the U.S.

Cops are parasites, not workers. Their job is to protect the bosses’ profits. But on the whole, police repression is a sign of weakness, not strength. The ruling class is less tolerant of dissent, and more open to brute force, an aspect of fascism. The fact that union officials were present, protested and attacked is a sign of the polarization within the ruling class over the war, as well as over NAFTA/FTAA.

Sweeney and the AFL-CIO made a deal with the cops to protect themselves from police attack. They’re agents of that section of the ruling class that wants to use the unions to build deadly nationalism in gaining U.S. domination of Latin America. Sweeney and the AFL-CIO may oppose NAFTA/FTAA, but they support U.S. domination of Latin America.

The function of liberal candidates like Kucinich and Dean is to suck dissent back into the Democratic Party and the electoral process, like McCarthy and McGovern did in ’68 and ’72 during the Vietnam War.

When mainstream Democrats like the Al Gores and Jimmy Carters attack Homeland Security for "violating human rights," they’re really attacking the Bush gang for acting in a way that doesn’t win the masses to collaborate in their own repression. After all, the Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly for the Patriot Act.

PLP has dealt with fascist-like police in the past, from fighting the armed attack by racist ROAR in Boston in 1975, to May Day demonstrations in L.A. and New York in the ’90s, when demonstrations were banned and we had to rely on special tactics, secure planning, and discipline among demonstrators. Undisciplined, mass groups of demonstrators, no matter how well-intentioned, are sitting ducks for police and provocateur attacks like those in Miami or Milan.

The mis-leadership of the Miami demonstrations is responsible for many of the casualties. Most of the liberals, anarchists and fake leftists who oppose the war or FTAA also actively oppose discipline. They spread the anti-communist lie that proletarian discipline — acting in unity — "stifles the individual."

Casualties are never completely avoidable. But they’re maximized by encouraging large groups of demonstrators to mass and protest as a leaderless crowd, and minimized by a planned, disciplined response. Masses of people can be won to the latter.

The positive aspect of such demonstrations is that more and more people — including workers — see the need to protest. An example: when police were harassing young protestors in Guzman Park, a group of steel workers surrounded the cops and stopped their attack. With PLP’s active participation, police violence, however effective in the short run, can help people shed their illusions, and their anti-communism too. We should be working with these honest forces, to win them to revolutionary communist conclusions.

a name="Cincinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again">">"incinnati’s Killer Kops Kill Again

CINCINNATI, OH, Dec. 1 — Cincinnati’s killer cops have struck again. Last night cops Baron Osterman and James Pike beat 41-year old Nathaniel Jones to death. After clubbing him unconscious with their night sticks, they and four other cops stood around and watched him die while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. The beating was videotaped by a camera running in their police car. Racist Mayor Luken and police chief Streicher are defending their paid assassins. Although the coroner has since ruled it a homicide, don’t hold your breath waiting for any racist cop to be convicted.

Early Sunday morning, prior to the cop beating, a worker at a fast food restaurant had called for emergency medical help after seeing Jones passed out on the grass outside. By the time the EMT’s first arrived, Jones was awake, and they reported that he was "becoming a nuisance," so they left and the police were called. By the time the cops were done with him, he was finally in an ambulance, and died upon arriving at the hospital.

The Cincinnati cops are a band of racist terrorists with a history. After a string of racist killings, a rebellion erupted in April 2001. PLP made several trips there, and CHALLENGE and our comrades were warmly received by the rebels. As we go to press, we’re contacting our friends and planning to show the red flag there again.

Imperialist war and fascist Homeland Security, mass poverty, unemployment and racist police terror is how the "world’s only superpower" has ushered in the 21st century. The sooner we destroy them, the more lives we’ll save.

a name="Hawk Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops"></">Ha"k Hillary Criticizes ‘Bushites’: Not Enough Troops

Bush’s Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad airport has backfired, as has much of what his government has done in Iraq. Most Iraqis — and millions worldwide — saw it as a cheap stunt like his Top Gun landing on an aircraft carrier back in May, declaring the war over. No sooner had Bush left the airport, Spanish intelligence agents, Japanese diplomats and Korean contract workers were killed by Iraqi insurgents. Then came the Nov. 30 all-day Samarra battle which U.S. forces claim killed 54 insurgents, but Iraqis said was basically a massacre of civilians. U.S. troops have orders to shoot anything that moves if they’re attacked. So now 80% of the Iraqi population — which Bush said he would "free" from Saddam Hussein — want U.S. troops out.

Bush’s Iraqi visit was followed by Hillary Clinton’s, who wanted to prove she’s as much of a Hawk (warmaker) as the Bushites. Hillary had come from Afghanistan where the Taliban and its allies have taken the offensive, and the U.S. puppet Karzai government only controls its heavily defended Kabul compound. Hillary stayed longer than Bush in Iraq, although spending the night safely in Kuwait. She "criticized" the Bushites for not dispatching more troops to assure U.S. control of Iraqi oil.

The liberal Hawks, like the N.Y. Times, are very worried about the Bush gang’s screw-up in Iraq. The paper proposes to divide Iraq into three regions: Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni. Only the Kurds and Shiites have oil fields, which, of course, the U.S. will control. This "divide and conquer" strategy will be accompanied by ethnic cleansing, similar to the former Yugoslavia after the collapse of the old Soviet Union when Germany and the U.S. carved it up into several smaller countries run by their local lackeys.

The Iraqi working class has a long history of supporting communist politics. The old Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) was the leading political force there, with a leadership and membership reflecting Iraq’s different ethnic groups of Iraq — Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Jews. On May 1, 1959, over one million workers and others marched with Red Flags under communist leadership. But following the old communist movement, the ICP pursued the line of national liberation, uniting with "lesser evil" bosses. Instead of leading workers and their allies to power, the old ICP allied itself with nationalist politicians and generals (even with Hussein for a while), before these "progressive" bosses murdered tens of thousands of communists and others. Today, the old ICP even supports the pro-U.S. Governing Council of Iraq.

But there are still many workers and their allies who oppose the U.S.-UK occupation forces, and understand that the old Baath loyalists and Jihad (fundamentalist) fighters are not the answer. The need to build a new revolutionary communist movement is the key task facing workers in Iraq, the entire Middle East and the world. That’s what we in PLP fight for.

New Communist International Movement Must Bury Dark Ages

Our last issue explained how the 1917 communist-led Russian Revolution, which freed 1/6 of the world’s surface from capitalism, was the single most important event of the 20th Century. It was followed by the Red Army’s defeat of the Nazi war machine, freeing humanity from becoming one huge concentration camp. However, the third most important event of the 20th century for the world’s working class was the collapse of the old communist movement, marked by the rise of state capitalism and later free market capitalism in the former Soviet Union and in China.

Stalin said the destruction of the USSR and the International Communist Movement (ICM) would bring humanity back to the dark ages. History has proven him right:

The former Soviet republics and socialist camp have been turned into a hell for workers. While a few became multi-millionaires, stealing the wealth built by workers in the former socialist bloc, the norm for the majority of people is mass unemployment, gut-wrenching poverty, war, prostitution, drug trafficking and chaos. The latest example is the power struggle over the billions to be reaped from pipelines in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

While during the Cultural Revolution, left-wing forces in China tried to prevent the return to capitalism, this gigantic fight against revisionism (capitalist forces masquerading as communists) was defeated by the vacillations of the pro-Mao forces. Now China has become the world’s largest manufacturing center, based on tens of millions of workers being paid dirt wages. The return of capitalism has left hundreds of millions unemployed, with no social safety net.

The few countries that still consider themselves socialist, like Vietnam and Cuba, are basically building capitalism. To top it off, a U.S. navy frigate visited Vietnam last month for the first time since U.S. imperialist forces were kicked out of that country after murdering over three million Vietnamese.

The defeat of the old ICM also has affected workers in the rest of the capitalist world. In Western Europe and the U.S., workers have suffered wage-cuts, union-busting and a decline in their standard of living as a direct consequence of the lack of an ICM strong enough to fight capitalism. The union hacks in these countries have sold out even more to capitalism since the defeat of the ICM.

Now unions represent less than 10% of the workforce in France and figures in the U.S. and other countries are approaching that. Germany’s powerful IG Metall Union’s strikes ended earlier this year without winning even small crumbs, something not seen in many decades. Workers have paid for the anti-communism of the union leaders — or reformism of the so-called "leftist" union leaders in Italy and France — in massive job losses and wage-cuts. The racism of many union leaders, especially in the U.S., has been deadly for workers.

Emerging from the Dark Ages

While this era of wars, fascist terror, mass joblessness, diseases like AIDS killing millions in Africa and other areas, is upon us, every dark night has its end. PLP is a product of both the old ICM and the struggle against its revisionism. We are daily fighting to learn from its great battles and achievements and also from the deadly errors that led to its collapse, mainly that reformism, racism and all forms of concessions to capitalism only lead workers to defeat. Give a boss one centimeter and he/she will grab a mile.

CHALLENGE reflects that struggle, which must go on constantly since we live in a capitalist society which bribes a few to help oppress billions. Our job as communists is to bring our revolutionary politics to workers, not to create illusions that capitalism can be reformed. A mass base of readers and sellers of CHALLENGE can be the ideological tool to help turn workers’ struggles into schools for communism. But we cannot do this from the outside. We must be involved in every class struggle workers are waging, from the LA transit and Southern California grocery strikes to the recent violent mass strikes in the Dominican Republic and Bolivia; from the international anti-war movement to the fight against globalization (imperialism); from the fight against racist police brutality to the struggles against sexist exploitation of women workers in the world’s maquiladoras — but always with the outlook that the only way out of the Dark Ages is to rebuild the ICM and fight for a society without bosses: communism.

a name="California Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War">">"alifornia Fire Destruction One More Cost of Bosses’ War

The fires are out in Southern California, but the damage is enormous: 16 dead, 3,400 homes destroyed and hundreds of thousands of acres burned. Smoke and ash covered most of the county. School was canceled for a week because it was dangerous to breathe outdoors. One of the fires in San Diego County was the biggest in California history, destroying whole communities.

Given the severe drought and high winds, brush fires were inevitable. But the fires’ size and the damage done was not inevitable and would have been far less if San Diego County actually had a fire department. The city of San Diego has, but with far less equipment than needed, and what it has is ancient. In the County’s eastern part, where the fires started and most of the deaths occurred, many areas have no fire coverage at all. Local fire districts have so little taxing authority (since Proposition 13 passed) that they must run bake sales and raffles to buy equipment.

The devastation was no surprise. In a report drafted in 2002 but made public only now, San Diego officials predicted a fire of "biblical" proportions exactly where the Cedar fire actually occurred, and a probability of successful containment of under 10%.

Experienced firefighters claim they could have saved many more structures if they had had enough equipment. They also assert that projects to clear brush and provide safety zones around houses have been grossly under-funded and delayed for years — in some cases for decades — by red tape.

Preventing fire deaths and loss of homes isn’t rocket science; it’s simply way down the priority list for U. S. bosses, who are spending our taxes to grab Iraqi oil, trying to maintain their "top dog" status among imperialists. The U.S. empire’s growing crisis has led to increasingly fascist policies that reach down to the local level, resulting in deep financial crisis for state and local governments nation-wide., slashing basic services and infrastructure. Bush, Governor Davis and Governor-elect Schwarzenegger briefly visited the fire zone and cynically praised the heroism of the firefighters (one of whom died), but do nothing to change the basic situation.

The firefighters were denied the tools for this fire, and won’t get them for next fire, given California’s projected $10 billion deficit next year. The devastation of these fires is one more item on the bill U.S. bosses are making us pay to cover the cost of their drive for world domination.

San Diego Red

Chicago Dinner Marks CHALLENGE Role in Building PLP

CHICAGO, IL Nov. 22— Tonight more than 50 workers and young people participated in our CHALLENGE dinner, raising over $500 for our paper. The evening was hosted by a black woman Cook County Hospital worker who recently joined PLP. The previous night, about three dozen college and high school students and teachers held a similar event.

The black, Latin and white workers were treated to good food, entertainment from a PLP high school student rapper and a wonderful singing group of students and teachers. Another County worker, a black woman whose son is stationed in Iraq, read two revolutionary poems.

A Latin comrade who recently participated in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride explained how the liberal politicians and union hacks staged the event to build support among immigrants for U.S. imperialism and fascist Homeland Security, even as they face increased fascist attacks. She said there was no "freedom" in this ride, but there were plenty of opportunities to build a mass base for PLP and communist revolution. She was speaking from experience. Just two days earlier, a dozen young riders and their friends had attended a PLP study group.

The PLP keynote speaker described the crisis facing US imperialism in Iraq, and how it faces a possible strategic defeat in the Middle East that would dwarf the one in Vietnam. He pointed out how the liberal media and Democratic presidential candidates were even more committed than Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to staying in Iraq for the long haul, and that the liberal union leaders, clergy and all the mass organizations would pull out all the stops in the coming year to get these killers elected.

Mainly he stressed that the two most important ingredients in building PLP is confidence in the Party and confidence in the workers; they can be won and will come through. The principal aspect is having confidence that workers can and will be won to communist ideas if we struggle with them. He gave examples from 30 years of personal experience how CHALLENGE played a role in winning workers to support, defend and join PLP. He asked those at the dinner to drop their "bosses’ flags" — dollars — into the bucket so we can turn them into more red flags — CHALLENGE. They gave generously.

This talk was followed by a skit written and performed by Cook County Hospital workers about winning their co-workers to read and distribute CHALLENGE. After more songs and a "Fight-Back" rap, the evening concluded with everyone singing the Internationale.

Reform over Revolution Alive and Well in the Matrix Trilogy

"The Matrix," the first of the movie trilogy, depicted a science fiction allegory of class antagonisms in society. On the one hand was the energy-exploiting class of machines; on the other hand, the humans who are used for their energy to produce the machines’ power. The Matrix represented the illusionary world that humans believed they lived in (representing false consciousness) to mask the horrific existence of the world. The main characters Morpheus, Neo and Trinity are the leaders of the humans in Zion, the underground world where humans are living independently from the machines and preparing for a revolt against them.

The main protagonist is a messiah-type named "Neo," slated to lead the machine-enslaved people to "freedom." He uses his special forces to disable the machines. This has always been a significant weakness of the Matrix movies — they rely on the miracle savior, not the masses, to save humanity.

The machines enslave people’s minds and suck their energy in order to build their war machines, and live like parasites (an allegorical reference to the capitalist bosses) off the entire mass of humanity. Throughout these movies, Neo is pursued by Agent Smith who was sent to destroy the rebellion. In this final installment of the trilogy, Agent Smith has broken through the boundaries of the Matrix and infinitely duplicates himself to become a loose cannon force that the machines can no longer control.

"Revolutions" — the last of the trilogy — betrays the idea that the humans must defeat their greatest enemy, the machines, and sinks into petty reformism. Since the Agent Smiths have broken into the world of Zion, Neo believes he is a greater threat than the machines. The reactionary messiah Neo uses his "spiritual" sense to negotiate a deal with the machines to destroy Agent Smith.

The entire battle strength of the human revolution was wasted defending Zion, instead of attacking the machines in their own yard where the human forces would have certainly won. The combined might of the humans and Neo could have overwhelmed and destroyed the parasitic machines. Instead, we have an uneasy truce negotiated by the sellout Neo.

The movie ends with the "Architect" saying every human trapped in the Matrix would have a "choice" of whether or not to leave the Matrix. Freedom for the human race would have required the people of Zion to destroy the Architect, since he created that world.

Many left-wing people were drawn into some "progressive" elements of the Matrix movies — the multi-racial character of the people of Zion, men and women fighting together against the machines, and special effects (technology) never depicted before.

In this movie, communists can see the dangers of allying with "lesser-evil" bosses against "greater-evil" bosses. All bosses are part of the parasitic machine of capitalism — the machine that is fueled by the blood and sweat of the workers and serves the bosses’ class interests. The communist PLP leading the working class aims to destroy the machine of capitalism. We won’t ally with "lesser-evil bosses," nor follow ideologically reactionary leaders, nor lying religious and union leaders, because we want to smash the Machine, not reform or "balance" it.

LETTERS

a name="‘Nickled and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power"></a>"Nickled and Dimed’ Bets on Legislation, Not Workers’ Power

I was just "Nickled and Dimed" out of $22 and I’m not happy about it. "Nickled and Dimed" is a new play costing $22 admission. I saw it with a great group of people, many of whom, unfortunately, thought well of it.

It’s based on Barbara Ehrenreich’s book of the same name and shines a light on some of the difficulties that confront workers in poverty-wage jobs. Ehrenreich investigated by going "underground" and waitressing in a Denny’s, cleaning rooms in a motel and as a Wal-Mart sales clerk.

A nationally-published writer herself, she comes somewhere from the upper middle of the middle class and discovers during the course of the play the social distance between herself and her new-found co-workers.

Yet despite all her traveling, she goes nowhere. In key ways she merely reproduces the same assumptions about class that she thinks she is critiquing.

Lenin saw intellectuals as the social force that introduced communist ideas to a working class capable of organizing a revolution for workers’ power. Ehrenreich, the intellectual, surveys a working class that panics at the thought of militancy, remains ignorant or dis-believing of its own exploitation and lacks any class consciousness as it greedily shops at Wal-Mart.

The intellectual is stripped of any revolutionary role among workers because workers themselves are nothing but passive consumers of their own exploitation. That is a world view hardly differing from any other capitalist ideologue.

In short, "Nickled and Dimed" is anti-communist, presenting a world view where revolution is completely impractical. Unspoken in the play is the need for Uncle Sam to wrap his protective arm around the working class with liberal legislation. Legislation, not revolution — that’s the theme of her play.

A Comrade

Fare Hike, Pay Cut Gives CEO Bonus

San Francisco’s Director of Transportation Michael Burns received a 28% pay increase to $280,000 (up from $220,000). Drivers were upset because their pay was CUT 7.5% while bus fares were increased, all in the name of balancing the city’s budget.

The bosses rewarded Burns for overseeing the fare hike and pay cut without any fight-back.

Corporations frequently give their CEO’s big raises after saving millions of dollars — and increasing profits — by laying off workers. Burns’ $60,000 salary increase is small potatoes compared to what the bosses netted from the 7.5% wage-cut and fare hike.

It’s our responsibility to expose how, under capitalism, "you get what you pay for" — the bosses reward their henchmen well. When workers run the state, there will be no bosses and everyone will be provided with a quality standard of living.

Red Bus Rider

a name="‘Over-consumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?"></a>‘O"er-consumption’ vs. ‘More Consumption’?

Concerning the letter (CHALLENGE, 11/19) criticizing the article, "Enviromentalism: A Communist Perspective, A Capitalist Nightmare." The reader’s main criticisms were : (1) The article’s sources are "mainstream" bourgeois sources and are therefore bad; (2) The article says the problem is "over-consumption," a typical bourgeois Green argument that blames consumers for environmental damage and suggests individual, voluntary strategies for change. I disagree.

(1) Communists often mine bourgeois sources for vital facts with which to build their own arguments. This has been true from Marx to Lenin to PLP. The fact is that research on environmental issues is done overwhelmingly by bourgeois intellectuals. Criticizing the article merely for using bourgeois sources is just unreasonable.

(2) Nowhere does the article blame individual consumers as the source of environmental damage or suggest that individual choice is the basis for change. In fact, the first part of this series criticizes Green groups for doing just these things. Yes, the article does stress the existence of relatively high consumption rates among the imperialist nations, but mainly to show that consumption patterns are racist. It also stresses that capitalist production and "consumerism" create much unnecessary waste due to packaging brand competition, built-in premature product obsolescence, advertising costs and a lack of concern for recycling and waste management.

Because of greater efficiency and less waste in a planned communist economy, individual consumption levels will increase for all workers, while the volume of material and labor that goes into each product or service will decrease, just as it did in the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Though misleadingly worded and inadequately explained, I think this is what is meant by the phrase, "As goods and services are socialized, individual consumption levels will decrease."

For instance, socialized housing, entertainment and transportation will simultaneously meet more needs for more people while decreasing the amount of raw material and labor needed to service each person. This material and labor then can be freed up for building recycling plants and many other necessary components of a sustainable communist economy. This isn’t "barracks room communism." It’s just plain communist sense.

A Red-thumbed comrade

Interfaith Meeting Discusses War, Racism

Recently our interfaith Justice & Peace Coalition held its third annual weekend conference. There were many strengths: (1) It was planned and attended by Catholic, Protestant and Jewish people who understand the need to link the struggle against racist oppression of working people directly to the bosses’ imperialist wars and fascist repression; (2) there was significant participation by black working and professional people and a few Hispanic workers; (3) more comrades boldly attempted to raise and explain important aspects of the Party’s line, such as U.S. conquests are not due to an "ultra right" political element bent on "Empire" but derive from the imperialism which both liberal and right-wing politicians must serve to stay in the game as ruling class back-up; (4) Although there were fewer people than last year (having had the illusion we could have prevented the invasion of Iraq, given the nature of the current anti-war movement), the discussions were even more serious and focused on actions. We will have two community-based demonstrations — "JOBS, NOT OCCUPATIONS" — and concerts, vigils and seminars on justice and peace themes. Most important, 20 people signed up for committees to expand this work.

A student reporter from a university near our churches attended and shared the positive assessment but suggested there were not enough young people involved (we agreed and suggested he help to organize youth!). He also said one comrade who spoke against nationalism and for equality had equated the regimes of Mandela and DeKlerk in South Africa. With discussion, he better understood our criticisms of national liberation vs. communist revolution. He and the two chief comrade/organizers also agreed we had not focused enough on building a movement against the racist expansion of the university into our community.

We will have ample opportunity to correct this failing and will meet many new people to share experiences with and struggle to recruit in the coming months.

Gnawing At Imperialism,

Red Churchmouse

Winning $upport For CHALLENGE

I distribute over 200 copies of CHALLENGE each issue by staying in touch with people who like the paper. Each year I start the school term discussing the future. I observe who speaks up and give them CHALLENGE. Towards the end of the school year, I ask them if they would like to continue getting the paper in the summer.

I also offer the paper to adults at the school who express leftist ideas and to people I’ve known a long time. I’ve also been active in the teachers union and distribute it there as well.

Periodically I check if the regular readers want to start distributing it to others. Thirteen regular readers now take extra papers.

I leave 70 copies at various cafes and neighborhood centers where other groups leave their literature. Sometimes the people working there are also interested in the paper.

I feel it’s better to distribute the paper to many people than to sell it to a few. However, I try to have serious discussions with the regular readers about their thoughts on CHALLENGE and revolution, and ask them to support the paper financially. Presently eight people contribute. I’m sure others would donate if I made the time for such discussions.

Red Teacher

CHALLENGE COMMENT: It’s good "Red Teacher" spreads the paper so widely. However, perhaps he/she should ask for a donation after someone has received a few issues, rather than waiting an entire school year, and suggest this idea to those 13 now taking extra papers. Paying for the paper does indicate a certain level of commitment, a realization that CHALLENGE has no big boss advertisers but is dependent on the working class for its ability to publish. Circulation of CHALLENGE should not depend on pitting some limited free distribution against asking for regular donations. And we heartily agree that the writer should make time for more "serious discussions with regular readers" to win them to support the paper financially.

Look Forward to CHALLENGE

The recent article on the history of CHALLENGE-DESAFIO (CD) was important. I remember a movie depicting Russian soldiers at the front during World War I. They were eagerly grabbing "Iskra" or some other communist newspaper. They craved communist analyses of the war and other social events.

I can recall, along with friends and comrades, eagerly awaiting the next issue of C-D. What was Watergate all about? What were the strengths and weakness of the recent mass march? What about that movie everyone’s been seeing? And currently, what’s really happening in Iraq and the Middle East?

We may not be in the same pressure-packed, pre-revolutionary situation as Russian soldiers in 1917, but a lot is going on in the world. I feel today, there’s not the same craving for C-D’s information and perspectives, not the same looking forward to the next issue. Some of our friends just don’t see the paper as providing information and insights that are vital to their lives.

Is this impression correct? Is it true for many members and friends or just some? Is it a problem just for younger people? If there’s some truth to this, then we have a problem. If Party members and friends don’t look forward to the paper and see it as an important part of their lives, they are unlikely to be go-getters in distributing the paper.

I suggest Party leaders, members and readers of the paper weigh in on this issue. Is it that people just don’t read any papers these days? Should we consider other media and forms of communication? I doubt that’s all there is to it, but it’s worth considering. Do we need a greater variety of articles so the paper touches more aspects of people’s lives? Do articles need to be shorter, clearer?

What can we do to ensure that in this period, Party members, friends and co-workers really look forward to the next issue of C-D?

Mid West Comrade

Communist Ideas Answer Fascism

In early November, I attended a conference in the Chicago area on the war and healthcare. I was invited by a friend who reads and subscribes to the ideas in CHALLENGE. He helped organize the conference.

I was delighted to see a multi-racial audience that was heavily working-class. It was so crowded I had to stand.

When the first speaker denounced the war on Iraq, I got carried away but then asked myself why he didn't mention the working class taking state power.

There was a speaker explaining the horrific effects of depleted uranium ammunition the capitalist bosses used in Iraq (including the first Persian Gulf War). A Michigan war vet also gave a great talk on a soldier's view of the war and there was a discussion of the pros and cons of using electoral tactics to oppose the war. I also saw a leaflet from PLP.

Later in the evening, my friend hosted a delicious spaghetti dinner attended by many from the conference. In this relaxed atmosphere, communist ideas were more forcefully discussed.

The last two years some of us have become pessimistic because fascism has become more oppressive, but CHALLENGE has persistently opposed this. There seems to be a small break in the support for fascism.

This event should encourage us to emulate it in advancing the cause of communism.

A red pharmacist

a name="Church Group Hears Need To Win GI’s">">"hurch Group Hears Need To Win GI’s

I'm a member of a church group involved in many struggles. Recently they've launched a campaign against ROTC and military recruiters on school campuses. Unfortunately the group sees our working-class brothers and sisters in the military as enemies. But the vast majority of youth join the military because of economic, occupational or educational necessity, not because they want to sacrifice their lives to defend U.S. imperialism.

U.S. rulers are impelled to launch their wars to guarantee their control of oil profits. As long as they hold power, they'll find a way to fill their armies with working-class youth and spill barrels of blood to ensure they control the oil.

The U.S. war against Vietnam showed there's always a debate and struggle within the military. Some GI's were won to a racist outlook and participated in massacres of civilians. But others saw the officers as their real class enemy and participated in rebellions and fraggings [killing officers with fragmentary grenades]. This struggle occurs in the military now. Soldiers are asking themselves who is the real enemy, Iraqi workers or the capitalist bosses? We must put forward our answer to that question.

Many young people in the church can understand the role soldiers have played in revolutionary movements. Both in Russia and China, soldiers were crucial to the triumph of the revolutions. Will our working-class youth in the military be won to a fascist outlook in which they murder other workers for bosses' profits or will they be won to an internationalist, communist outlook to join the long-term struggle to liberate the working class from capitalist domination? Dealing with these questions with our friends forms the basis for bigger struggles.

Being involved in a church group is difficult but important. Without us, the bosses' ideas have more chance of taking hold of our working-class youth and repressing a revolutionary outlook. Reformism and an anti-working class outlook prepare the groundwork for fascism. We must see these church groups as "schools for communism" and confront the bosses' ideas and fascist plans. The role of soldiers in imperialist wars and in communist revolutionary movements is crucial. We need to be in that struggle to win it.

A Red in the mass movement

Red Eye On The News

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

Capitalists murder the most

Most credible estimates confirm that, in the aggregate, white collar and corporate crimes cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars annually — far more than conventional categories of crime such as burglary and robbery….

But corporate crime isn’t just about the money. It’s also about people’s lives. The national murder rate has hovered around 16,000 a year in recent years…. But a respected group of occupational health and safety investigations, led by J. Paul Leigh, a University of California Davis School of Medicine professor, has estimated that in 1992 alone there were 66,971 deaths resulted from job-related injuries and occupational diseases. These numbers do not include the thousands of annual deaths caused by cancers linked to corporate pollution, deaths from defective products, tainted foods and other corporate-related causes. Los Angeles Times, 11/5)

Dems would keep Iraq grab

Invading Iraq…cost so far…400 American lives and (one study suggests) at least 11,000 Iraqi lives….

Democrats are having a field day pointing out the problems, but their suggestions for what to do next are pretty unhelpful….

I’ve asked two Democratic presidential candidates, Richard Gephardt and another who spoke off the record, if it’s really credible to offer the UN and NATO as a solution to Iraq. They harrumph a bit in a way that I interpret to mean: "Maybe not, but it works in front of the cameras." (NYT, 11/19)

Afghan botch, omen for Iraq

The talk of what to do next is sounding rather like Afghanistan. And that’s alarming, because we have flubbed the peace in Afghanistan even more egregiously than in Iraq….

In at least three districts in the southeast, there is no central government representation, and the Taliban had de facto control. In Paktika and Zabul, not only have most schools closed, but the conservative madrasas are regaining strength.

"We’ve operated in Afghanistan for about 15 years," said Nancy Lindborg of Mercy Corps, the American aid group, "and we’ve never had the insecurity that we have now." (NYT, 11/15)

Afghan women still suffer

I have just read the 47-page Amnesty International report on the status of Afghan women, issued in October. And I still wouldn’t want to be a woman in Afghanistan.

Amnesty found physical violence against women in the home. Underage and forced marriage. Trading of women and girls to pay off debts, Rape and abduction by armed groups. Fear and shame hindering access to desperately needed medical, legal and social assistance. Courts colluding with families to imprison rebellious teenagers.

In parts of Afghanistan, Amnesty reported, women claim that the insecurity and the risk of sexual violence they face make their lives worse than before.

One woman said, "During the Taliban era if a woman sent to market and showed off an inch of flesh, she would have been flogged, now she’s raped." (San Antonio Express-News)

Regime-change goal: help biz

Dwight D. Eisenhower became president in 1953.

On Aug. 19, 1953, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran became the first victim of a C.I.A. coup. Ten months later, on June 27, 1954, President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala became the second….

Several dozen scholars, including leading experts on Iran and Guatemala, gathered in Chicago this month….All agreed that both coups the first that the C.I.A. carried out — had terrible long-term effects,

"It’s quite clear that the 1953 coup cut short a move toward democracy in Iran."

…."The C.I.A. intervention began a ghastly cycle of violence, assassination and torture in Guatemala….It really set the precedent for later intervention in Cuba, British Guiana, Brazil and Chile. (NYT, 11/30)

$ystem = hunger amid food

According to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization….Between 1999 and 2001,…more than 840 million people, or one in seven, went hungry [worldwide]….The number of malnourished people …grew by an average of 4.5 million a year….

The rise in hunger came even though the world produced ample food…. (NYT, 11/26)

Blue collars hung out to dry

Almost one in six manufacturing jobs has disappeared. The number of industrial workers in America has fallen from 17.3 million to 14.6 million. Unlike previous recessions, when factories downsized and then rehired, many now are closing their doors for good, either going bust or moving production to the developing world where costs are far lower. Economists agree it will be difficult to slow the decline, let alone reverse it.

The social costs are enormous. Unemployment in Buffalo, a once proud steelmaking city and trading post with Canada, is 10.2%, well above the national average. The city is bankrupt and in the hands of a control board. Schools are closing and Main Street is a forlorn picture of boarded up shops….

Ford is in the process of cutting 12,000 jobs in North America….Levi’s, an American icon, will no longer produce clothing in the U.S. Motorola…has already cut thousands of jobs. ( British Guardian Weekly, 12/3)

Brass: Smash Iraq to save it

American efforts to prevent attacks continued Tuesday, when American fighter jets bombed suspected guerilla positions near Tikrit, in central Iraq. Commanders called in AC-130 gunships, A-10 attack planes and Apache helicopter gunships, as well as Air Force F-16 and F-15E fighter-bombers with 500-pound bombs, the military said, in the largest bombardment in the area since President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1….

General Swannack said…we are not going to fight this one with one hand tied behind our backs." Echoing a historical quote from the British military, the general said the Army was going to "use a sledgehammer to smash a walnut." (NYT, 11/19)

Who Is Losing Iraq?

a href="#Private Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies">"rivate Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies

Racism Stalks Wounded Black GI

Workers Hit Fascist Sellout of LA Transit Strike

More Guns, Less Butter

a href="#150,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws">"50,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws

a href="#Workers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War">"orkers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War

a href="#Fight Rulers’ Racist Ideology">"ight Rulers’ Racist Ideology

Defend Anti-Nazi Protesters!

a href="#U.S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers">".S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers

U.S., Russian Oil Bosses Have Georgia on Their Minds

a href="#Dominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis">"ominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis

a href="#Many Wars—Same Story">"any Wars—Same Story

The Most Important Event of the 20th Century

With Babies And Banners

LETTERS

CHALLENGE in Japanese

a href="#Teachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers">"eachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers

Is CHALLENGE Moving To the Right?

• CHALLENGE Comment

Stop Privatization of Public Housing

Who Is Losing Iraq?

Soon after 1949, when the Chinese Communist Red Army defeated the U.S.-armed Chiang Kai-shek fascists, U.S. Cold Warriors pointed fingers at each other, asking, "Who Lost China?" Now they’re doing the same thing in Iraq. In an editorial titled "Iraq Goes Sour," The New York Times (11/16) blames the Bushites for the Iraq disaster and for "quitting," by looking for an exit plan from this mess. The liberals at the Times and Democratic Party presidential candidates Dean, Clark, Gephardt, Kerrey, et al, are calling for the UN to head the operation, which the Bush Neo-Con gang has opposed from the get-go. So far, most U.S. "allies" (the latest being Turkey and Japan) are vacillating over sending troops to Iraq.

The Bush gang’s swift victory and promised "cake-walk" has turned into a major quagmire and everyone’s talking about "another Vietnam." White House lies and deception over going to war, beginning with the Weapons of Mass Destruction "threat," have backfired.

Now it’s revealed that earlier this year Saddam Hussein offered a deal, basically agreeing to most U.S. demands, but Bush rejected it. The NY Times commented (11/7): "Administration officials were fond of saying that there were things Bush officials knew but could not share with the public. Little did we imagine that among those things was an offer that might have provided a way to avoid the war."

The Bushites underestimated the will of Saddam and other Arab bosses to control the region’s oil profits for themselves. Now not only is the world’s "only superpower" currently losing to what Rumsfeld calls a "ragtag leftover" of Baath Party loyalists and Jihadists (holy warriors), but it’s also being discredited worldwide and at home. U.S. polls indicate the public is slowly but surely coming to the conclusion that Iraq "was a mistake."

Mao Tse-Tung said years ago that U.S. imperialism is a "paper tiger" strategically, but capable of inflicting tremendous damage. The Pentagon still has the world’s largest arsenal, with hi-tech weapons and a budget surpassing those of the top imperialist powers combined, but is still suffering from the Vietnam Syndrome. U.S. soldiers are still not committed to die for Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil and U.S. imperialism in general.

U.S. deaths since the war began passed 400 with the latest loss of two Black Hawk helicopters. Casualties total 9,000. Medact, a medical aid organization, reported that Iraqi civilian deaths could be as high as 55,000.

A New York Times editorial (11/17) said Afghanistan, where Bush’s "war on terror" began, is as serious as Iraq. U.S. soldiers are being killed there almost daily and the Taliban is returning with a vengeance. The areas not yet recaptured by the Taliban and its allies, are run by warlords who profit from the enormous heroin trade. The U.S. puppet President Karzai barely runs his compound in Kabul.

As a wounded tiger, the U.S. will try to lash out at its enemies with even more deadly "shock and awe." Again civilian targets are being bombed in Iraq. In desperation Syria could be the next target, maybe even attacked by Sharon. Eventually, millions will die in the endless wars U.S. bosses will wage to control Persian Gulf oil, still the most abundant and cheapest to produce worldwide. U.S. control of this oil is a crucial weapon against rising imperialist powers, especially China, which will soon surpass Japan as the world’s second largest oil consumer. The other imperialists, though still not strong enough to confront the U.S. directly, will not play second fiddle forever. This inter-imperialist rivalry will lead to more and even bigger wars.

This is the future world capitalism has in store for workers, youth and soldiers worldwide. Historically, imperialist wars have opened the door to communist revolution. World War I led to the 1917 Russian revolution. World War II produced the Chinese Revolution. The Soviet and Chinese Red Armies and the communist-led partisans from France to Italy to Yugoslavia to Albania led the defeat of the Nazi and Japanese fascists. We in PLP are small in number today, but we can grow into a mass revolutionary party and win workers and soldiers worldwide to turn imperialist butchery into mass revolutionary struggle. There’s no other way out.

a name="Private Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies">">"rivate Lynch Refuses to Play Hero for Bush’s Lies

The Bush Gang’s script for their oil war on Iraq keeps getting re-written. They still can’t find the "weapons of mass destruction" that supposedly triggered the invasion. Despite their state-of-the-art intelligence, they have yet to fulfill their promise to exterminate Saddam Hussein, George W.’s mini-me fascist. In and around Baghdad, the "liberated" Iraqis who were scripted to embrace U.S. soldiers on the streets are instead shooting them out of the sky.

And now, to add insult to the growing number of deaths and injuries in Iraq, the starring role of wartime icon has been rejected by the only person who can play it: Private Jessica Lynch.

Private Lynch was at the heart of the one "feel-good" story in a war that’s gone terribly wrong for the U.S. ruling class. Her rescue from an Iraqi hospital in April was considered a turning point for Operation "Iraqi Freedom," a morale-booster for U.S. troops and for a skeptical public at home.

By the summer, however, it became clear that the rescue wasn’t quite as dramatic as U.S. government sources — and the liberal media, notably The Washington Post and The New York Times — had painted it. It turned out there was no resistance within Saddam General Hospital in Nasiriya; the Baath Party and Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary had cleared out at least a day before. No one remained but doctors, nurses and wounded Iraqis, many of them civilian casualties of the U.S. "smart" bombs. Iraqi medical personnel willingly led U.S. special op forces to Private Lynch. The "daring raid" was staged.

For the Bush Gang, it gets even worse. With Private Lynch’s book ("I Am a Soldier, Too") set for a Veteran’s Day release, she’s begun speaking up — and she keeps deviating from her lines. Private Lynch is offended by early reports that she’d kept firing at her attackers until her ammunition ran out, and that she’d suffered knife and bullet wounds in the battle. In fact, Lynch’s gun jammed before she got off a single round; her injuries were sustained when her Humvee crashed into another vehicle.

Lynch says she resents the military for videotaping the rescue (with a carefully edited version going to the media), and generally for manipulating and over-dramatizing her story: "They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff."

Like many young working-class people who have come of age in a period without a mass anti-imperialist movement, Lynch doesn’t have an especially sharp analysis of who her enemies are. She continues to refer to the Iraqi doctors and nurses who saved her life as "the enemy." But it’s a measure of Lynch’s disaffection — and the alienation of tens of millions of American youth much like her — that she wants no part of this morality play. She could have become the smiling, blond poster child for U.S. imperialism, no doubt set for life. Instead, she’s bringing down the curtain on at least one small part of the rulers’ charade, a braver act than anything she did in the desert. For that she deserves congratulations instead of the skepticism in the New York Times article about her book.

In Lynch’s refusal to play the hero game for Bush’s imperialist murders and lies, she exposes the political weakness of the bosses’ military. All the technology in the world doesn’t guarantee that working-class troops will fight and die for the profit system. Lynch’s courage should inspire our Party to intensify its organizing among working-class soldiers. We need to provide them with a new script — for communist revolution.

Racism Stalks Wounded Black GI

As the body counts mount on all sides in Operation Iraqi Conquest, Shoshana Johnson, another wounded member of Lynch’s ambushed unit, has her own problems. Johnson was shot through both legs and held prisoner in Iraq for 22 days. She still walks with a limp, cannot stand for long periods, and is plagued by insomnia and depression. She’s in no shape to support her three-year-old daughter. But where Lynch received an 80% disability benefit, Johnson is getting only a 30% benefit — about $700 a month less.

Why the difference? Why is Jessica Lynch a household name, while Shoshana Johnson has been virtually ignored by both the government and the media? Could it be because Johnson is black — and black women rarely get cast for the bosses’ really big productions?

Hard for GI’s to Find ‘Good Side’ of U.S. Imperialist War

My friends in a National Guard unit are getting ready to deploy to the Persian Gulf soon for a year. Rumors have been circulating for months but this time the word came from the brass.

One soldier excitedly told me, "Hey, by the time we come back we’ll have, like, 30 Gs." I didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm but I couldn’t lie. "The money isn’t worth it and you know it," I told him. I know it," he griped, "but I was trying to look on the bright side of things. Now you got me all depressed."

The truth doesn’t have to make soldiers depressed. The bosses want us to have things to "look forward to" in order to retain our loyalty to their army. But recognizing the despair of profit wars can help us see the necessity to fight the bosses. There’s no bright side to occupying land for control of oil profits. U.S. rulers need to murder Iraqi workers and put U.S. soldiers in harm’s way in order to protect their wealth. Realizing the army only cares about money, not human needs, can lead soldiers to be won to the fight for communism, a society that does meet human needs. The struggle for communism by soldiers on the battlefield can be a source of hope.

My friend is not the only one trying to make the best out of a bad situation. Another friend just finished three years on active duty. He joined the Guard for the educational benefits and it was his second drill when the brass laid down the news to us. "Man this sucks," he muttered. "I just got back home and started school." He wanted to get out of the army the previous drill for mainly personal reasons, but also because the work was unrewarding and seemingly useless. He eventually decided to stay in. But when he heard the news about being deployed, he reasoned, "Well, at least now we’d be doing some real work."

Like most soldiers both my friends are trying to find a good side to going to war. "I completely disagree with this war and why we’re over there," my friend said, "but we’re going, you know, so you have to see the positive side of it." The dread of separation from loved ones, the heat in Iraq and removal from jobs and schools is part of the reason that finding something to look forward to is appealing. But at the same time, many soldiers recognize this war is not in our interest. Anger at Bush and our commanders as well as the simple recognition that "this sucks" shows that thinking among soldiers is divided.

As long as working-class soldiers see being deployed as a chance to make money, do useful work or be promoted, they’ll be won to the war, however much against their interests it may be. Recognizing that oil profits and occupation aren’t worth fighting for helps us see that fighting for communism, a society based on the interests of the working class, is something worth looking forward to.

A Comrade

Workers Hit Fascist Sellout of LA Transit Strike

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 — At this juncture, transit strikers are being called back to work based on an agreement between the union leadership and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). Workers don’t yet know the details but the health plan, the main issue, is to be decided by a judge after they’re back working. Many are refusing to return until they hear the gory details. Others are urging a "no" vote on the contract.

The union leadership and the MTA Board praised this "victory," saying the "hero" of the settlement is Antonio Villaraigosa, a key liberal Democratic politician here. After all the sacrifices by workers and their families, the union president praised this boss-loving politician as their "savior." Villaraigosa was barred from participation on the MTA Board because he had received union money, but the courts lifted the ban so that he could support a settlement sending the strikers back to work while the health care issue is "arbitrated," again by a pro-capitalist judge.

The LA Times is calling on Villaraigosa to press for permanent binding arbitration, outlawing future transit strikes. The union president is delivering workers to the liberal rulers and an increasingly fascist system of exploitation and war that the workers oppose. The union leaders are supporting the side that wants to outlaw strikes. It’s like saying, "go into the Nazi labor camps quietly, for a good rest."

But class consciousness has definitely grown among workers and students. Strikers turned away scab buses at one division while others organized to find and stop more. Uniting as a class to exercise our power against the scabs goes hand in hand with the need to unite against the bosses’ profit system that creates growing poverty for the many. Strikers said an active rank and file must build ties with workers at other bus companies. They say that striking with the union hacks at the helm is like fighting with both hands tied behind your back.

During the strike, many more workers received PLP’s revolutionary ideas, even more than in the 2000 drivers’ strike. Meanwhile, strikers have organized activities independently of the treacherous union leaders. They’re advocating leading strikes and wildcats, and breaking the bosses’ laws. More workers are taking revolutionary ideas as their own.

If the MTA gets its way, mechanics will have to pay for most of their own health care, as do the mostly black First Transit drivers. The latter receive racist poverty wages. MTA retirees’ benefits would be cut 75%. If the supermarkets get their way, the striking grocery workers will have to pay 50% more for their health benefits.

More Guns, Less Butter

In Nazi Germany, all sorts of extra costs were attached to workers’ wages to pay for the rulers’ war machine. As Germany moved to a war economy, workers paid increased taxes, made forced charity contributions and suffered severe cuts in social benefits. As the Nazis cheapened wages, they cheapened life itself, a picture emerging increasingly in the U.S.

In the U.S., nearly 100,000 people die annually from lack of medical care, either uninsured or under-insured. (New England Journal of Medicine study, 1997)

Those 100,000 dying every year means over 600,000 dead since the report was published. That rate compares with U.S. combat deaths during World War II. That is war — class war! This serious death toll is downplayed by the Democrats (who push a single-payer health rationing scheme), ignored by the media (who concentrate on the 3,000 killed on Sept. 11).

Thus, these strikes are more than "industrial disputes." They’re fights against the growth of fascism and continual war. The union leaders, the media and the Democrats resist seeing things this way with all their might. They want to lock workers into narrow trade union reformism. PLP strives to fight these attacks in a way that raises revolutionary consciousness among our co-workers. The lasting victory in these strikes will be greater understanding among more workers of the need to destroy fascism and wars for profit by destroying capitalism with communist revolution for workers’ power.

a name="150,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws">">"50,000 in General Strike vs. South Korea’s Fascist Labor Laws

On Nov.12, 150,000 auto, steel, textile and chemical workers held a one-day general strike in 21 South Korean cities to protest the government’s fascist anti-worker laws. This demonstration followed a Nov. 9 battle provoked by the government when 35,000 workers armed with steel pipes fought pitched battles with cops; 130 were arrested, 100 injured and one worker remains in a coma.

The workers were protesting the "provision seizure" law, among others, which allows corporations to seize assets of union officials and garnishee up to 50% of a worker’s wages to recover company "losses" from "illegal" strikes. Workers now face indemnity suits totaling $10 million. This includes seizing assets of strike organizers.

Now the government is drafting even more fascistic laws. They will widen the circumstances under which bosses can lock out workers; allow "public" corporations and others deemed "essential" to hire scabs during strikes; lift criminal penalties for bosses accused of wrongful termination of workers, making it easier to fire them; and bar protests by any group said to have organized "illegal" violent demonstrations in the past. That would virtually ban all protests.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which called the Nov. 12 general strike, is seeing their "chickens coming home to roost." Originally they had supported the 1998 election of Kim Dae-jung as a "democrat." Kim then immediately enforced demands of the IMF, amended the country’s labor laws and privatized state-owned enterprises. Then the KCTU backed Roh Moo-hyan (who Kim had jailed) as another "pro-democrat" and it is Roh as the current president who is now imposing fascism on Korea’s working class.Recently masses of workers and students demonstrated against sending troops to Iraq.

The role of these union leaders matches the AFL-CIO traitors in the U.S. who push workers into the arms of the liberal Democrats as the "solution" to the problems caused by capitalism. They help lay a fascist trap for the working class in the name of "democracy." It is only communists who have historically led the fight to smash fascism. Such a revolutionary party is needed in Korea to lead workers to the only solution — communism.

a name="Workers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War">">"orkers Balk At Mass Layoff That Pays For Bosses’ War

"He was a glutton for punishment," an industrial worker friend told our CHALLENGE 40th anniversary dinner, describing the boss at a meeting the week before in a nearby industrial plant. Like many prior plant meetings, workers lambasted the boss with accusatory "questions." This meeting was particularly hostile. Then something happened for the first time — workers walked out on him.

"I wish they hadn’t done that," the boss said to the remaining majority, "you have to face reality." His "reality" included a plan to cut one-third of our jobs within the year. But that was only Phase I. Phase II envisions shifting more manufacturing jobs to lower-wage war subcontractors and non-union plants. But not to worry; he and his management flunkies were "going to help us through this journey."

"Isn’t that what the clergy say when you’re going to die," asked a particularly irked mechanic.

The Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), a military think-tank, spells out the "journey" the bosses have in mind. An ICAF report on Advanced Manufacturing, a necessity for the bosses’ strategy of continuous war, praises companies that "[focus] on cost-cutting efficiencies [including] out-sourcing … supply chain integration and Enterprise Resource Planning." Translation: cut industrial workers’ wages to support the enormous cost of the bosses’ wars.

We must build an alternate reality, to smash a system that can’t provide decent jobs but wages increasingly expensive wars to secure their dominance. Start on this journey by distributing this paper to your friends and co-workers. The journey we have in mind ends with workers’ power.

a name="Fight Rulers’ Racist Ideology">">"ight Rulers’ Racist Ideology

(This is the concluding part of the article on racism that began in our Nov. 19 issue. It dealt with the need to have an "unswerving commitment to smash racism," described how capitalism invented racism and how racism lies at the core of the capitalists’ ability to reap maximum profits. It showed how PLP fought racism in the shops and unions and analyzed the economic basis of racism, the first of its three components.)

The second key component of racism is ideology. Racist super-exploitation could not survive without a smokescreen to justify it. The economic base, as Marx called it, needs a "superstructure" of ideas to make it appear rational and necessary. This ideology has assumed many forms throughout U.S. capitalism’s brutal history. Native Americans were considered "savages," fit only to be killed. During slavery, the "Founding Fathers" and an army of scribblers considered people of African descent as three-fifths of a human being.

The triumph of industrial capitalism after the Civil War packaged this old poison in new bottles. Led by several generations of Harvard pseudo-scholars, racist theoreticians of the 20th century endorsed "biological determinism," the lie that genetic superiority or inferiority determine social behavior and hierarchy. If this filth resembles Hitler’s ravings, it’s no accident. The early U.S. "eugenicists" not only admired Hitler; they inspired him. The Nazis’ racial laws of 1933 were modeled after U.S. scientists’ "research" and recommendations.

After the world’s anti-fascist forces defeated Hitler’s Nazis in World War II, led by the Soviet Union and Josef Stalin, these academic racists had to lie low. But by the late 1960s, the "genes" gang made its comeback, with U.S. imperialism’s Southeast Asian genocide in full swing, and militant rebellions by black and Latin workers rocking U.S. cities. While the forms varied, the message remained the same. The arch-racist Arthur Jensen wrote that black kids scored lower than whites on IQ tests because black people had "fewer genes for intelligence" than white people. Richard Herrnstein declared that "unemployment runs in the genes, like bad teeth." Edward Banfield blamed the racist conditions of ghetto life on black peoples’ lack of "future orientation." All these "experts," and a host of others, had tight Harvard connections.

In 1975, Harvard ant specialist E.O. Wilson did Herrnstein one better with the publication of Sociobiology, claiming that genes accounted for everything, from business success to imperial conquest.

PLP led massive struggles exposing these racists, many times literally driving them off the stages of campus auditoriums, and preventing them from spewing their murderous garbage. But today, these racist "theories" about genetic inequality, particularly "sociobiology," are taught at leading universities.

Far beyond the campuses, the print and broadcast media have popularized this ideological trash, 24 hours a day, in the movies, on television, at sporting events, in books and magazines and daily newspapers. People absorb it without even realizing it. The historic struggle to destroy racism must include a systematic, uncompromising fight against racist ideology.

The third component of racism is the rulers’ ultimate use of state power, to savagely enforce their racist ideology with the iron fist of police terror. During slavery, the entire South became an armed camp to guard against slave rebellions. Most of the U.S. military’s officer corps continues to come from the South. More terror can be found in the brutal policing of the inner cities, which have the highest percentages of black and Latin workers. The U.S. prison system, the world’s largest with a population of more than two million, is two-thirds black and Latin.

The fight against racism requires mass revolutionary violence. Those workers and youth who understand this best are most open to joining and leading our Party. PLP’s forerunner, the Progressive Labor Movement, cut its teeth by actively participating in the 1964 Harlem Rebellion against police terror. CHALLENGE became the flag of the rebels. PL members went to prison as a badge of honor for their participation.

In 1975 in Detroit, a rebellion erupted when a racist bar owner who catered to cops shot a black youth who worked for him. PLP was in the center of it, flooding the city with "wanted" posters, immersed in the rebellion in the evenings while holding daytime rallies at the auto plants and being watched by the police 24 hours a day.

In 1992, after the LA cops brutally beat Rodney King, PLP served on the front lines of rebellions against the racist police. Our May Day march defied a ban on demonstrations as we marched past, and fraternized with, the National Guard troops that had been called up to stop the rebellion, spreading revolutionary communist ideas in the heat of battle.

The PLP-led International Committee Against Racism led hundreds of thousands of workers and youth — from New York and Chicago to Tupelo, Mississippi, and California — in violent confrontations with the KKK and Nazis. We integrated Chicago’s Marquette Park and drove the fascists back under their rocks. The overwhelming police protection that the big fascists give the little ones to this day is a compliment to our unending war on these racist terrorists.

As U.S. rulers move more ferociously to establish a fascist police state at home and expand their imperialist massacres abroad, all aspects of racism will intensify. Our Party will build on its long history of bringing revolutionary leadership to the fight against racism. Smash Racism with Communist Revolution!

(Future articles: Nationalism — racism’s deadly twin, the trap of "multi-cultural" identity politics, and how communists fight both racism and nationalism.)

a name="Forced Prostitution, Sale of Children Hallmark of Albania’s ‘Free Market’"></a>"orced Prostitution, Sale of Children Hallmark of Albania’s ‘Free Market’

Now that socialism has collapsed in Albania and free-market democracy has replaced it, they’re selling 3-year-old children for TV sets! Only capitalism, a system based on profiteering from human suffering, could spawn that kind of "trade."

The Albanian family that sold their son lives in a two-room shack. The mother is forced to beg on the streets to provide for her other six children and is only one of thousands harassed by traffickers in human beings.

According to a report in the New York Times (11/13), an estimated 6,000 Albanian children "have been sent abroad for use in begging and prostitution rackets." Most are older children who are "rented" to pimps in Italy and Greece. One 14-year-old girl was married to a man from a neighboring town who took her to France and forced her into prostitution.

Sure, now that Albania helped U.S. rulers in the Kosovo war and allows the drug-dealing bandits of the KLA (Kosovo "Liberation" Army) to operate freely, Albania and Kosovo have become centers of some of the world’s biggest drug-running and women slave-trading mafias.

The Times says this "trafficking is part of a larger trade in humans, including East European women shuffled through Albania for prostitution, and is an outgrowth of the misery and the organized crime that has blossomed" there.

The "crime" is capitalism. It’s no accident that children are bought and sold into prostitution and begging on the streets when the profit system reduces them and their families to abject poverty. Enslaving children is merely an extreme example of the very foundation of capitalism. The wage system, treats all workers as commodities, to pay as little as possible for their labor and dump them on the scrap heap when they no longer can create the value from which the bosses reap their profits.

Interestingly, the Times notes that, "Over the past 12 years, since the collapse of ‘Stalinism’ here, a substantial trade in children has established itself in Albania." While Albania never had a true communist system, the Times admits that child slavery "blossomed" with the "collapse" of socialism and the emergence of full-blown capitalism.

Only the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a true communist society can free children and the entire working class from the kinds of horrors described above.

Defend Anti-Nazi Protesters!

On September 14, 2002, hundreds protested a Nazi "meeting" in the Beebe Library in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Wakefield’s workers turned out en masse to totally reject racism and Nazism. Hundreds of local and state cops, federal agents and U.S. marshals had been mobilized to do their job: protect the racist Nazi terrorists and allow their unrestricted use of the supposedly "public" library, excluding all others.

Outside, a couple of Nazis wearing Hitler T-shirts provocatively approached and taunted the anti-racist demonstrators, inciting a series of minor scuffles. Several Wakefield residents confronted the Nazi scum, spat on them, tore up their signs and finally chased them out of town. Several hours later, agents of the state targeted one demonstrator, Ines Weiner, and took her into custody.

Ines, a Dominican woman, public school teacher and staunch anti-racist fighter, has been charged with "assault and battery with a dangerous weapon," disorderly conduct, and, most fascist of all, violation of the Nazis’ "civil rights"! Ines’s trial will begin December 15. She needs our help.

a name="U.S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers">">".S. Bosses’ Patriot Act Attacks All Workers

The U.S. Patriot Act gives the government new powers to wiretap phones, read our e-mail and search our homes. This and other laws form the legal basis of a fascist state similar to Nazi Germany. Already Attorney General Ashcroft has held many immigrants without charges. By imposing the most severe punishment on offenses tried in the federal court system, Ashcroft is leading judges and prosecutors at all levels to be less flexible on how to resolve cases and to impose ever harsher sentences. This will impact on Ines’s case and make it more difficult to fight in court. The state’s attack on Ines is part of this larger assault on workers, immigrants, students and black and Latin communities. It’s an attack on all of us.

With mass unemployment, cutbacks, huge deficits and tax cuts for the wealthy, U.S. rulers are forcing working people to pay for the racist oil war in Iraq. When people fight back, the bosses then turn to Nazi groups, protecting and funding them, to allow them to recruit for their violently racist movement.

The Nazis arrive in town openly protected by the government for the sole purpose of organizing for racist terror. The Nazis who came to Wakefield — organized by the white-supremacist "World Church of the Creator" (WCOTC) — have a history of racist violence. George Loeb of the WCOTC is serving a life sentence for murdering Harold Mansfield, Jr., a black U.S. army veteran, in 1991. In 1999, Ben Smith of WCOTC shot eleven non-whites and Jews in Illinois and Indiana, killing two. In January 2003, the WCOTC rallied in Lewiston, Maine, openly attempting to mobilize "white citizens" against what their leader called an "invasion of the Somalis" and to drive these new immigrants from the city. Between Nazis like those who showed up in Lewiston and Wakefield, and the U.S. "Patriot Act," the state intends to terrorize all of us.

U.S., Russian Oil Bosses Have Georgia on Their Minds

Georgia, a former Soviet republic, mirrors the horrors and chaos "free market" capitalism has brought to all the former Republics. Georgian President Shevardnadze, Gorbachev’s foreign minister in the last years of the former Soviet Union, was accused of fraud in the Nov. 2 legislative elections. His ruling New Georgia Party claimed victory with only 20% of the votes, according to all observers. The U.S. has been a key supporter of Shevardnadze, including Sen. John McCain and Daddy Bush’s Secretary of State James Baker and Clinton’s Asst. Secy. of State Strobe Talbott.

The opposition held mass protests in the capital city of Tsiblis demanding Shevardnadze’s resignation and new elections. The protestors even blockaded troop trains. On Nov. 18, pro-government forces rallied demanding harsh measures against the opposition. The potential of civil war could add even more chaos to Central Asia, a key geopolitical region for the U.S., Russia and other imperialists.

Shevardnadze & Co. want to reap the profits from the oil and pipeline business, especially the planned U.S. sponsored TBC pipeline from the oil port of Baku in the Caspian Sea, through Georgia, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. TBC would cost $3.5 billion and run through some of the world’s most dangerous regions, where local wars rage.

TBC will transport oil from two other former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, sidestepping Iran. U.S. oil companies plan to break the monopoly currently enjoyed by Russian energy companies with a parallel gas pipeline, to be finished by 2007. The deal was sealed with a U.S.-Georgia military pact this year.

The TBC deal brings lots of investments and money to Georgia in exchange for pipeline rights. Georgia’s GDP has grown to 8.6% a year, but it all goes to the oil bosses and the corrupt New Georgia officials. This has increased the masses’ hatred of the government.

Russian bosses control Georgia’s domestic energy market and 75% of its electrical network. Russia cancelled Georgia’s debt when it was part of the Soviet Union to continue its control. Gazprom — the Russian gas giant — signed a deal with Georgia to monopolize the domestic market.

Both the U.S. and Russia are pressing for a deal with the opposition, Shevardnadze has made a deal with the party led by Aslan Abashidze, a right-wing warlord in the Akharia province. But so far Shevardnadze and the rest of the opposition are not making any concessions to each other. Many fear a civil war could erupt if no deal is made.

Bush and Putin say they’re worried about events in Georgia, but they are both responsible. U.S. and Russian oil bosses don’t care who has power, as long as their own interests are protected. But in an imperialist-capitalist world, fights among local bosses end up affecting the geopolitical interests of the big powers.

Free market capitalism has been hell for the workers of the former Soviet Republics. Many look at the former Soviet Union as the "good old days." But we don’t need the state capitalism of Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev. We need to eliminate all forms of capitalism and build a communist society.

a name="Dominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis">">"ominican Workers Strike Against Paying More For Bosses’ Crisis

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Nov. 11 — Thousands of workers, students and farmworkers, led by unions and other mass organizations, participated in a 24-hour general strike that shut down this Caribbean country. President Hipolito Mejia’s army and goons attacked the protestors, killing seven and injuring and arresting dozens more.

The exploited masses here, as in Bolivia several weeks ago, are sick and tired of paying for the crisis and corruption of capitalism spawning more blackouts and thousands of job losses in the local maquiladora industry. The opposition Liberation Party’s (PLD) candidate for the 2004 presidential election, former president Leonel Fernández, is trying to use the anger of the masses to return to power. But under that PLD government all public enterprises — from the electric utilities to public health — were privatized. Conditions are worse under the current government because of corruption, imperialism’s greed for more profits and the international crisis of capitalism. But no help has come from the White House.

Just this year, three banks went bankrupt, including the country’s second largest. The bankers stole $4.2 billion. This, plus the austerity policies demanded by the IMF and the World Bank, has generated even more misery for most people. The population is surviving from money sent by Dominican immigrants in the U.S. and Europe, who make heavy personal sacrifices from their low-wage jobs to help relatives back home.

Contrary to the reformists organizing the strike, who gave the government a month to respond to their demands, PLP participants told the masses that capitalism causes exploitation, repression and war (President Mejia sent 300 Dominican soldiers to the imperialist occupation of Iraq). The problem is not only high food prices, unemployment, blackouts and crooked politicians. It’s the system itself. During the strike, we made contacts with many angry workers who can’t take it anymore. We’re working with them to win them to our Party. This would be a real victory from such struggles: turn them into schools for communism and build a mass revolutionary PLP.

a name="Many Wars—Same Story">">"any Wars—Same Story

I've been working with some anti-war veterans' groups for several years. They've realized they've been lied to and abandoned by the government but still believe politicians will help to relieve their medical and economic suffering. However, these vets are also rapidly advancing politically, understanding how imperialism has used them, so they're taking to the streets and uniting with other groups to stop the slaughter in Iraq.

The last two years I marched with them in the Veterans' Day Parades. This year's was the largest of all, with many more marching bands, floats and weapons. Some vets speculated the large parade was due to the situation in Iraq and a probable military draft after the 2004 elections. Our anti-war group was relegated to the back of the parade so before we marched we had lots of time for discussions among ourselves and with others interested in our stories.

One Gulf War Vet said the military had a new strategy to turn the policing over to Iraqis and special forces units, allowing some troops to return home. A Vietnam Vet noted they'd tried the same thing in Vietnam and when the casualties rose, they used special forces to burn villages to "protect people from terrorists" and set up concentration camps for those who resisted the occupation.

As a Korean war vet who'd seen similar tactics there, I said we'd been sent as a UN "police-action" force and today, 50 years later, there are still 37,000 troops there protecting U.S. interests in the Far East. I commented that the Middle East is even more strategic to the U.S. empire and those who think U.S. rulers will end their occupation of Iraq better look at what's still happening in Korea and what happened in Vietnam where "our government" fought till the last drop of our vet's blood to occupy that country.

When we finally started marching, I noticed many people waving and cheering. I thought it was for some soldiers with big guns and camouflaged faces that I'd seen earlier. But surprisingly there was half a block separating our group from the pro-war, patriotic parade. Their plan succeeded. However, we soon realized the crowd was waving and cheering for us and our anti-war chants: "No more Vietnams, No Blood For Oil, Bring the Troops Home Now - Alive!"; Vets Need Jobs and Medical Care, Not Parades; and, Warmongers Don't Get Killed - They Get Rich."

As support for us continued, block after block, some of us went to the barriers to shake hands and be hugged by a crowd that we later estimated at least 50% supportive.

I'll keep working with these vets to build a movement that doesn't rely on politicians and fights to shut down this war and imperialism for good.

Korean War Vet

The Most Important Event of the 20th Century

Eighty-six years ago, November 7, 1917, marked the beginning of the single most important event of the 20th century, the Bolshevik revolution. The working class of Russia, led by the revolutionary communists of the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin, freed 1/6 of the world’s surface from the yoke of capitalism. They proved once and for all that it was possible to create a world without exploitation, a world where those who produce all value, the working class, can enjoy the fruits of their labor instead of having it stolen by a few parasitical bosses and their lackeys. The Soviet Union not only freed workers but also fought racism and liberated women from capitalist, feudal and religious oppression. Women from the Ukraine to the Asian Soviet republics were no longer slaves to religious obscurantism. Prostitution was unknown. Unemployment was eliminated.

The revolution frightened the world’s bosses, who immediately sent armies from 17 countries to try to stop it in its infancy. From 1918 to 1925, millions of workers led by the Red Army fought the world’s imperialist armies and their local lackeys. Nearly five million died to defeat the enemy, many of whom were the most committed workers the revolution had produced. Lenin himself died because of injuries inflicted by a hired killer.

But the revolution continued. When the entire capitalist world sank into depression, and millions worldwide were left jobless and starving (much like today), the Soviet Union was forging ahead building a new society without unemployment and hunger.

In 1941, the bosses again tried to destroy the revolution. Hitler, using all of Europe’s resources and the largest military machine ever assembled, invaded the Soviet Union with four million soldiers. At first, the world’s bosses gleefully believed the Nazis would destroy the Soviet Union. U.S. Senator Harry Truman, later to become President, himself said, "Let Germany and the Soviets bleed each other to death." But the Soviets, knowing the fascist Axis wanted the whole world for themselves, and understanding the nature of imperialist rivalry, realized that eventually the West and Hitler could be fighting each other.

Finally, the main bosses in the U.S. and UK decided that the Hitler-Mussolini-Tojo Axis was the big immediate danger to them. The pro-Hitler forces in the U.S. and Britain — like Henry Ford and many in the British royalty—were isolated. But many U.S. companies like Ford, GM and IBM continued doing business with the Nazis while U.S. and German bankers met in "neutral" Switzerland during the war, planning for a post-war division of the spoils.

The Nazis invasion of the Soviet Union was no pushover as occurred in Western Europe. All the Quislings (pro-fascist traitors) had been eliminated, and any Japanese fascists’ attempt to seize the Soviet rear (Siberia and Mongolia) was crushed in a brief but bloody 1939 conflict, before the Nazis invaded Poland (see CHALLENGE, 11/5).

Still, it wasn’t until the Nazis were on the run following their defeats at Stalingrad and in the Battle of the Kursk (the biggest armored battle of modern history involving millions of soldiers and 6,000 tanks) that the U.S.-UK forces invaded Western Europe (June 6, 1944). The defeat of the Nazis, mostly by the Red Army, was the second most important event of the 20th century.

But this victory was very costly. The Nazis murdered over 20 million Soviet citizens, including many of the most committed and revolutionary workers. The Soviet leaders knew that the dropping of the A-Bomb on a defeated Japan was really a warning to them. The Soviets answered the Cold War by re-building the country and turning it into a mighty power. Many, including Stalin in his last writings and in the last Party Congress before his death, realized the new Soviet state had many political shortcomings, including an ideological weakness among the Party members. Once Stalin died, those weaknesses were used by Krushchev to turn the Soviet Union into its opposite, eventually leading to Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.

Today there is no socialist camp. No country is ruled by revolutionary communists. But this is a temporary historical setback. We in PLP are learning from their mistakes and vow to lead the new mass wave of revolutionary struggles towards communism, a society where workers produce for their needs, not for the profits of a few. It won’t be an easy struggle, but it is the only way out workers have to end this capitalist hell of endless wars, racist/fascist terror, mass unemployment, starvation and poverty. Fight for communism!

The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike:

With Babies And Banners

Our union showed the movie "With Babies and Banners," a 45 minute documentary about the heroic role women played in the victory of the 1936-37 Sit-down Strike against General Motors in Flint, Michigan.

In December 1936, the seventh year of the Great Depression, workers faced massive unemployment, had no unemployment insurance, no health insurance, no welfare and no Social Security. Segregation and elitism characterized the craft-dominated American Federation of Labor. GM owned Flint and controlled Michigan’s Governor as well, believing that "what’s good for GM is good for the country."

Workers had no safety equipment, came home with burned backs and swollen fingers, so tired that all they could do was eat and sleep. These conditions spawned anger and resentment.

Members of the Communist Party (CP) played a major role in creating the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) and the Flint Sit-down. Six of the seven members of the overall Strike Committee were communists.

The UAW, part of the newly organized Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), championed industrial unionism, uniting black and white, men and women, skilled and unskilled into one union.

Union organizing was dangerous and had to be done secretly. A worker caught with a union card was immediately fired. Stoolpigeons abounded. GM bosses told the wives that their husbands went to pool halls instead of union meetings. Women were isolated at home, caring for children.

The strike began on December 30, 1936, at Fisher Body No. 1. Women working in the plant left; only men stayed. As word spread, wives came down to ask why their husbands weren’t coming home. Several wives persuaded their husbands to leave, but many others organized the Women’s Emergency Brigade to support the strike.

Initially they only cooked and took food to the strikers. But soon women sought a more active role. The Emergency Brigade organized a children’s picket line, drawing national attention. That brought in food, money and bodies to walk the picket line. A daycare center was organized at the union hall, freeing women for picket duty. They wore red berets to establish their organized presence.

The Battle of Bulls Run

The turning point for the Emergency Brigade occurred soon afterwards. The police had surrounded Fisher No. 1, hurling teargas to smoke out the strikers. Unarmed workers inside threw the canisters back at the cops and then turned hoses on them! A huge crowd formed at the battle scene. Brigade leader Genora Johnson scrambled atop a car and appealed to the women of Flint to stand with their men. The police opened fire, but the women, armed with clubs, broke through the police lines, marching into the very center of the battle. The cops retreated.

Bonfires lit up the night as the women stood guard against more attacks by GM goons and the cops. Several women had blackjacks hidden in their coats. The workers’ victory at the "Battle of Bulls Run" (it was called that because the "Bulls" had run), inspired many unions to support the strike. Workers’ Committees inside the plant organized exercise programs, sports, cultural events, plays, a "Living Newspaper" reporting daily activities, meetings, dancing and games to keep spirits up. Wives and children would visit factory gates, talking to their husbands at plant windows.

Growing desperate, GM turned off the heat and water and forced Michigan’s Governor to order in the National Guard. It was time for the strikers to return to the offensive.

Chevy plant No. 4 manufactured engines for all GM cars. Shutting No. 4 would tie up GM nationally. Knowing a stool pigeon worked in Chevy No. 9, organizers leaked that as "the next target." GM’s goons and the cops descended on No. 9. But squads of workers secretly left that plant, went to Chevy No. 6, picking up all its workers to go shut the now unguarded No. 4, the real target. Meanwhile, the Emergency Brigade was dispatched to guard No. 4. When the police finally caught on and raced to No. 4, the women stalled them long enough for thousands of workers to come from the union hall and later from all over the Mid-West to ring the plant. The workers inside threatened to destroy the billion dollars worth of machinery if the National Guard was ordered to attack. GM gave up. A union agreement was signed on February 11, 1937. The UAW was born.

The Emergency Brigade was one of the strike’s backbones. It gave men a different outlook and deepened their respect for working women. Conditions improved dramatically. The workers won a wage increase, the 8-hour day and union recognition.

The Flint Sit-Down inspired hundreds of others nation-wide and gave birth to CIO unions in the electrical, rubber and steel industries. U.S. Steel gave up without a strike. Flint showed that women were ready to sacrifice their lives to better working conditions for all workers. Ironically, at the UAW’s 40th Anniversary celebration of the Flint Sit-down, women had to fight to get a speaker on the program.

Although the CP gave outstanding leadership to the strike itself, its outlook emphasized militant reform. Its primary outlook was not one of winning workers to communist revolution. Given the great respect the workers had for communists then, a huge base for communist ideas about the need for revolution could have been built. The CP — and the workers — would pay for this weakness in ten short years when UAW president Walter Reuther, aided by the government, the auto bosses, McCarthyism and the anti-communism of the Cold War, was able to oust the communists from union leadership and even from the plants. The communists fought back on the basis of "free speech" but this could not overcome the virulent red-baiting. Had they built a revolutionary communist base from the get-go and thereby recruited thousands to the party, the drive to oust them from the union and the plants would have been a monumental battle. And even if the leaders still had been forced out, there would have been thousands of new recruits to carry on and raise the stakes of the class struggle.

Still, "With Babies and Banners" is very inspiring. Workers viewing it thought it very informative, sad (the horrible working conditions) and were elated about the role women played. A group of high school girls present said "those women really kicked ass!"

(The video version of this film is available from New Day Films — www.newday.com A PLP pamphlet — The Great Flint Sit-down Strike Against GM — can be found on the PLP website, plp.org)

LETTERS

CHALLENGE in Japanese

My friends and I translated [into Japanese] your recent article on why the U.S. dropped A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (CHALLENGE, 9/10/03). We thought it was very well-researched and presented an excellent analysis of what was perhaps the first major atrocity perpetrated by the U.S. as a super-power — as the new strongest imperialist power — bent on world domination at all costs, in this case costing the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

We hope you can post the article as is, in Japanese, on your website, and if possible, to print it in CHALLENGE in Japanese as an indication to Japanese readers that the Party has friends in Japan. It will also be circulated in Japan and in neighborhoods in the U.S. where Japanese is spoken.

We intend to translate other articles to create a Japanese version of CHALLENGE in Japan.

The working class in Japan is in dire need of your analysis and Party activity. Conditions here are at their worst since the U.S. occupation ended. With unemployment and homelessness at a post-occupation peak, some 35,000 people committed suicide in 2002. The national government and Tokyo State government are headed by open fascists eager to have Japan fully rearm with nuclear weapons. The current Korean crisis may give them that pretext. The Japanese imperialists want to prevent their Chinese counterparts from taking over as the dominant economic power in Asia. Your internationalist, revolutionary line is needed more than ever.

A loyal reader

a name="Teachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers">">"eachers’ Union Hack Serves Rulers

"We want knowledgeable students who will end up committed to a system that acknowledges the weaknesses and tries to fix them," declared President Sandra Feldman of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). She was touting a recent survey that showed that youth who had taken a high school civics class were far more likely to follow politics, vote, volunteer, and participate in campaigns than youth who hadn’t.

Feldman’s words got me thinking about the AFT local at my school. People are very critical of the health insurance givebacks that the union got us to accept. We resented the union rep who told us to ration our own health care ("be better consumers") to keep down the cost to the district. But many of the same people were delighted with the union when it organized thousands of students to march against racist budget cuts. They are happy that the AFT is supporting the grocery workers’ strike. Our local has even hired a full time organizer to coordinate efforts of part time paid staff to continue to organize students and faculty.

This seems contradictory. The AFT urges passivity around bread-and-butter contract issues but activity, alongside black latin and immigrant youth (to whom the AFT leadership historically has showed only contempt) in fighting around issues that directly affect the students.

But this contradiction is explained by the analysis in the Challenge editorial (Nov 5) of "labor’s new strategy". The AFT really can’t expect to buy teachers’ loyalty to capitalism with crumbs that have already been swept off the table in the imperialist drive to war (which Feldman consistently supports). Instead, the AFT now presents the bloody racist horrors of capitalism as "weaknesses" and pushes us and our students to use elections to try to "fix" them. The message of the rally against budget cuts was that we must accept "fair" cuts and rely on our "friends" in the state capital, so "get out the vote." The "new strategy", as Challenge says, is class collaboration, nationalism and support for imperialist war and capitalism.

This analysis means I must change the way I talk to my friends about what’s wrong with unions. I need to be more careful not to imply that organizing more militant struggle (which the AFT won’t do) would likely result in significantly more gains for teachers and students. Yes, we need to fight for our class interests against those of the bureaucrats, bankers, and bond raters. We need to advance peoples’ understanding of capitalism as we explain that this isn’t a period when we can win big, costly reforms but fighting against the bosses’ attacks can show us the way to fight against a capitalist system hell bent on war and fascism.

I need to explain more clearly that when liberals in the AFT and other unions like SEIU and HERE organize political struggles, they are serving the rulers and not the working class. The rulers state openly that they need for workers to sacrifice "blood and treasure". They are using these union leaders to try to convince us to passively accept attacks on us and limit ourselves to looking for pennies and lesser evil politicians.

Finally, all of us in schools need to keep constantly in sight the struggle over the class content of education. It’s not only in Feldman’s beloved civics classes that the bosses’ ideology is force fed to working class students. Some of the most active AFT organizers I know, including some militants and "progressives" have also pushed students hard into electoral politics and nationalism. We must take on these illusions and fight to show that revolutionary change is what we need.

A red teacher

Is CHALLENGE Moving To the Right?

In the Sept. 24 issue of Challenge was an article from Chicago on P. 5 titled "Chicago County Hospitals are Really Sick." The primary emphasis the article makes is that comrades should work and be active on reforms to win communism. It cites the bad conditions affecting both workers and patients such as:

Workers fired for being sick;… vacated positions not filled or eliminated; promotions based on favoritism; over-filled emergency rooms, lack of medications, etc., etc.

All this and more are elaborated to take about 75% of the article. In the last paragraph (about the remaining 25%) is:

"We need more direct work actions instead of waiting weeks and months under the grievance system." (Challenge helps keep the readers focused on and encouraging the working on reforms by repeating this quote in big black letters in the center of the article across two columns). "In the struggle for decent health care for our patients, a safe workplace and jobs that can provide for our families, we can help workers understand capitalism and learn how communism will provide jobs and health care for all."

This is very much a mirror of articles PLP was writing in the past when it was championing reforms as the way to communism, including the one or two last sentences of how great communism is.

Disturbing as the article may be, we know that here and there working primarily on reform will be raised. But there is something more troublesome and ominous here such as:

(1) The editors of Challenge in printing such an article approves and encourages such individuals and groups planning activity overwhelmingly reform throughout its readership,

(2) It has been almost three months now and at least three issues of Challenge since the article was written. There has not been a single public word from either the local, regional, city or national leadership (and membership) about this.

Such a total lack of response is a leg up for PLP moving to the right. With such publications and "attention," [can] anyone believe it can’t happen?

NYC Comrade

CHALLENGE COMMENT: We thank the NYC comrade for his criticism of the article he cites. He is correct in saying it was reformist. It should have been returned to the writers involved in the struggle pointing that out. We receive numbers of articles parts of which reflect such views and we either discuss them with the writers and/or return them for more work. We should have done that with this one. The struggle against reformism must occur all the time.

If this article reflected the content in most or much of the articles in CHALLENGE, and the editors and leadership of the Party did nothing to change it, one could certainly conclude that it reflects "a leg up for PLP moving to the right." But based on what actually DOES appear in our pages, we think the criticism is extraordinarily one-sided. In reviewing just the three issues of the paper following the Sept. 24 issue, we find the following:

Oct. 8 — The liberal Clark exposed as a warmaker; the AFL-CIO leadership indicted as using immigrants to back the ruling class’s need for war; the liberal "Anti-Globalists Don’t See Capitalism as Root of Super-exploitation; "Third Way Won’t Solve Salvadoran Workers’ Problems" which concludes that "PLP’s goal is to stoke the fires of workers’ anger….within the unions and mass movements…to win the workers to take power through a revolution for communism"; and a back-page article putting forth why communism is the only answer to "Capitalism’s Chamber of Horrors" and explains, among other things, that, "Making revolution requires winning hundreds of millions of workers to fight for it," and "The working class needs a Party and its Party needs leadership," and, "We have a job to do: to bring revolutionary class consciousness into the mass movements and win political leadership of workers and others.

Oct. 22 — A detailed description of a struggle in which parents defended a PL teacher from being fired, making the communist point about reliance on the working class, which "can keep us on the road to building a communist society"; an exposure of why the rulers want to maintain the health of certain workers to guarantee arms production and recruits for the military; how in Mexico the "Free Market and State Capitalism [are] Two Sides of the Same Coin, again exposing the social fascist nature of the union misleaders; and in an article on the "Jobless Recovery, how "capitalism and unemployment go hand in hand," including Marx’s explanation of how overproduction is intrinsic to the profit system and inevitably leads to unemployment.

Nov. 5 — An article on the LA transit strike exposes the union leaders as allies of the bosses and details PLP’s activities on the picket lines; using CHALLENGE to initiate sharp but friendly exchanges with the strikers about communism and how to achieve it, not how to win reforms; PL’er defended by the workers when attacked by the bosses; a plan "to emerge from these strikes with a bigger, more active PLP,…more people reading and distributing CHALLENGE," with the task to steer this anger and militancy down the road to communist revolution."; an editorial on the California recall election, another indictment on lesser evil politics and stating that "Fascism will be defeated by the development of a revolutionary party among workers, soldiers, students and others, a massive task, but do-able." Another article on how the AFL-CIO leaders "Ape Hitler’s Unions," again exposing them as agents of the ruling class; an article about Bolivian workers believing that "the whole system has to go," with some calling for a revolutionary party; an analysis of how overproduction is the basis of the crisis in the steel industry how only communism — not reforms — can solve this contradiction and how "the struggles of steelworkers remain fertile ground for building a new communist movement…that will know no borders"; an article describing the rising anger in the auto plants and how building unbreakable ties and spreading CHALLENGE’S communist ideas can turn class struggle into a mass base for communist revolution, but that "you have to be in it [the class struggle] to win it"; and a back-page article on how the communist-led forces of the Soviet Union shaped World War II.

We think that the preponderance of CHALLENGE articles "encourage…individuals and groups planning activity" to make building the Party and revolution, not reform, primary. Based on that we think it is an error to indict the entire Party leadership and membership based on this one, admittedly reformist article as "a leg up for PLP moving to the right." In fact, in that very Sept. 24 issue there is an article on page 3 which describes how Party forces in a hospital are trying to turn an anti-racist struggle into a fight to build the Party.

The struggle to raise communist politics in the class struggle is constant and often difficult. We cannot and should not minimize the danger of sinking into reformist politics, considering that historically this has been the major problem in the international communist movement. Perhaps sometimes we oversimplify it; many members are new to this fight for revolution, not reform, and we must collectively help each other in that fight, but we must participate in the reform struggle so that workers can take our revolutionary politics seriously. We think that the workers, soldiers and students to whom we bring CHALLENGE are getting a message that mainly puts forward revolution, not reform.

We welcome our readers’ thoughts on this subject.

Stop Privatization of Public Housing

Over 450,000 people live in public housing in New York City, people who have nowhere else to live. The politicians would love to cut it back - the money could buy a lot of tanks - but they can't just get rid of it. However, they can chip away, so the NYC Housing Authority has started to implement a plan to privatize what they can and downsize the number of workers. with the union playing right into their hands.

The Authority¹s rationale is increased "efficiency" in construction (projects are consistently over budget). Their "solution" will award over $550 million to private construction firms and reorganize the staff into six separate divisions with a virtual disregard for job descriptions or civil service titles. The over-runs and inefficient bureaucracy are all too real, but are just a smokescreen. Given U.S. capitalism's international crisis, the plan meshes with the system's current trend to unravel social services - like public housing - and break whatever union benefits remain for the working class. They tout privatization as the most "efficient and cost-effective" way to accomplish anything. Yet private companies which take over social services always provide less services and pay lower wages. They also consistently use the sorry state of public housing to build racism and to blame workers for the lousy conditions.

The staff and tenants were completely out of the loop in the planning process. But the union's response was late, and tepid. After the plan was announced, Local 375 of AFSCME District Council 37 held only two labor/management meetings, allowing reorganization of the employees as "management¹s right." It was only when 60 members confronted the local president at a worker-organized meeting that the head of DC 37 contacted the Authority. The latter agreed to put the plan on hold while the union came up with a counter-proposal. Meanwhile, an ad hoc committee condemned the plan and is circulating a petition against it. There is growing worker opposition.

All this occurred despite the union, not because of it. After getting involved with the union, and seeing it in action (or inaction) it became easy to understand why CHALLENGE refers to union officials as misleaders and social fascists. Their job isn't to initiate struggle, it's to stifle it.

Struggle is possible - workers are angry at the Authority¹s heavy-handed and transparent attempts to cut their jobs - but for fight back to occur, we need to connect the dots back to the bosses' global crisis, openly expose the union's consistent deflating tactics, and provide the kind of militant organization that can oppose this attack and the profit system.

This particular struggle hasn't played out yet; if the local bosses and the financiers at HUD in Washington want privatization badly enough, they¹ll push it through. But the struggle against it is still vital, and if we don¹t lead it, we¹ll just watch the union hacks tell us, once again, that being sold out is the "best" we could hope for.

A City Worker

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Below are excerpts from mainstream newspapers that contain important information:abbreviations: nyt=new york times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

On soup lines, no urge to vote

Across the American heartland, the lines of people at soup kitchens and free food pantries have lengthened dramatically. Some look like images from the Great Depression….

Few said they had any intention to vote. It made no difference, they said. I heard the same lines repeatedly: all politicians are the same; they care nothing for the working poor. (GW, 11/12)

US will control the new Iraq

Mr. Bush’s aides insist that even after sovereignty passes to the provisional government, American influence will be strong. The United States military will have the heavy firepower. The $20 billion for reconstruction that Congress has approved will still be under American control, its flow directed to influencing events according to Washington’s wishes….American investors will demand…a secular government and political stability before risking billions reconstructing the Iraqi economy.

"We’ll have more levers than you think, and maybe more than the Iraqis think," one senior White House official said this week. (NYT, 11/16)

US order: No GI coffins on TV

One of the lessons the U.S. government apparently learned from the Vietnam War comes down to this: Don’t let the American public see coffins arriving home with U.S. casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan….

In a move by the Bush administration to suppress distressing images of war, the Defense Department issued a directive last March on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that declared:

"There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning…." Hearst Newspapers, 10/30)

Bosses profit from "illegals"

To really stop illegal immigration, without greatly increasing legal immigration from poor countries, would mean wiping out the U.S. agriculture and garment industries, among others. To blame the workers, rather than the system they operate in, is the core hypocrisy our immigration policy has long been based upon….

Enforceable sanctions would be opposed by most major business associations because employers would no longer be able to find a vulnerable labor force to exploit….

Immigration laws have been rigged to favor certain skilled occupations, ignoring the reality that much of our prosperity derives from the sweat of unskilled immigrant labor. (LA Times, 10/29)

Bush rewrites Filipino history

"America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people," said President Bush to a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines last week. "Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule."

Unfortunately, we then killed more than 200,000 Filipinos. Almost all of the dead were civilians, killed in the two years after we liberated them from Spanish rule in 1898. One of our generals there, a cranky Civil War veteran named Jacob Smith, told his men: "I wish you to kill and burn….I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."

"How young?" asked Maj. Waller Tazewell Waller (cq) of the U.S. Marines. "Ten years and up," said Gen. Smith.

None of this was secret at the time. (Liberal Opinion Week, 11/10)

‘People power" is never US aim

[Letter to the N. Y. Times]

Re: "Bush Asks Lands in Mideast to Try Democratic Ways"….

He might have apologized for the United States’ support of the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Chile and Guatemala….

He "sought to position the American experiment in remaking Iraq alongside the United States’ efforts to spread democracy in Asia after World War II." I don’t know of any such efforts.

We either supported the defeated colonial powers (Britain, France and the Netherlands) or indigenous militarists and dictators like Chiang Kai-shek, Syngman Rhee, Ngo Dinh Diem, General Suharto and Ferdinand E. Marcos….

President Bush may know nothing of these histories, but the people on the receiving end assuredly do. Chalmers Johnson (NYT, 11/10)

Nurses’ long hours a danger

Many hospitals and nursing homes are endangering patients by allowing or requiring nurses to work more than 12 hours a day, the National Academy of Sciences said….

Such long hours cause fatigue, reduce productivity and increase the risk that the nurses will make mistakes that harm patients….

In one study for the government, 27% of nurses at hospitals and nursing homes reported that they worked more than 13 consecutive hours at least once a week….

Nursing assistants "work double shifts on a fairly regular basis" at some nursing homes. (NYT, 1`1/5)