Whether Bush or Dems: Big Bosses Still Win in November
Two of the greatest tasks currently facing a U.S. president are winning popular support for imperialist wars and putting the economy on a wartime footing. The major U.S. capitalists continue to fault Bush as a military leader but give him mixed marks on the economy, even as they boost John Kerry as a possible replacement.
First the main rulers’ liberal media complained that Bush’s weapons of mass destruction lies were turning public opinion against the war in Iraq. Now it’s Bush’s dogged avoidance of combat in the Vietnam era that, in contrast to the decorated Kerry, undermines his status as commander in chief. A recent New York Times editorial (2/9) emphasizes that the rulers’ first and foremost goal is finding a leader who can rally the masses for war: "When Americans choose a president, their most profound consideration is whether a candidate can make the wisest possible decisions when it comes to war." But these rulers feel Bush squandered a golden opportunity to militarize the nation after 9/11. He sent far too few troops into Afghanistan and Iraq, having failed either to spur recruitment at home or create a UN-backed international alliance.
On the home front, the major capitalists who watch out for their class as a whole, not just for their own firms, require an economy geared toward war, more tightly controlled from the top. This means increased military spending and more consolidation and government policing of business and industry. They also need a loyal working class won to patriotism and electoral politics.
The rulers fear that Bush’s tax cuts will severely hinder any future mobilization of the U.S. war machine. But they praise his efforts in promoting mergers that benefit the major capitalists and cracking down on bosses whose individual greed interferes with the general needs of the ruling class. (See box on page 2.) The liberal media shed crocodile tears for workers in Bush’s "jobless recovery." Growing unemployment is actually pushing wages down and profits up. The media’s focus on unemployment aims cynically at luring workers to the Democratic Party.
The media are portraying Kerry as a more attractive military leader than Bush, as a "warrior president with a conscience." He fought "gallantly" in Vietnam but returned his medals to protest the war. He voted for the latest Iraq war but "agonized" over the decision. Kerry is also getting coached in the new economic realities. Time Magazine reports (2/8) that Kerry has repeatedly assailed "special interests and greedy corporations" on his primary tour. But now Harold Ickes, Jr., who steered Clinton’s 1996 re-election bid, "is criticizing a central theme of Senator John Kerry’s campaign for President: populist attacks on ‘special interests.’" (New York Observer, 2/15) Ickes’ point is that the interests of Exxon Mobil and JP Morgan Chase are, and should be, what drives U.S. policy. Ickes knows a thing or two about reorganizing society to benefit the bigger capitalists. His father was a top advisor to Franklin Roosevelt during the last full U.S. wartime mobilization.
Kerry may well unseat Bush. Bush may well keep the White House. A dark horse might emerge. We don’t have a crystal ball. But one thing is certain: the capitalist class, which is the real party of war, will win at the polls in November. Capitalism cannot be voted out. Getting rid of the system that brings wars without end and constant mass unemployment will take a communist revolution.
Liberal Bosses Laud Bush On Mega-Mergers
Business Week (2/23) extols Bush’s Justice Department for its ongoing criminal prosecutions of Adelphia, Martha Stewart, Worldcom, Credit Suisse First Boston, Healthsouth, and Enron. It also gave a glowing first-year evaluation of William Donaldson, the Securities and Exchange Commission chief who has hired 1,000 "securities enforcers" to see that Wall Street does the rulers’ bidding.
The liberal media have blessed mega-mergers in finance, such as Bank of America’s takeover of Fleet and JP Morgan Chase’s impending buyout of Bank One. But they call on Bush to exercise greater scrutiny of the proposed Comcast-Disney deal. The rulers worry that Microsoft, Comcast’s largest shareholder, will gain too much influence from it. Microsoft has run afoul of the big boys before and been swatted down for it in a huge anti-trust case. One of Microsoft’s sins was selling advanced technologies indiscriminately to potential U.S. enemies like China.
Dead, Wounded GI’s Sacrificed on Altar of Halliburton’s Profits
The Bush gang’s imperialist war has slaughtered tens of thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians, all to grab Iraqi oil and make huge profits for such as Halliburton (VP Cheney was its CEO), Bechtel, MCI WorldCom, KBR, Dyncorp, etc. Many pundits now claim they were "duped" by the administration’s lies about Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction.
They weren’t duped. They knew the Iraqi exile crew led by Chalabi, the crooked banker wanted for fraud in Jordan, manufactured these lies. Ever since the Clinton administration, the Chalabi-led Iraqi National Congress was getting millions through the State Department to push its tales as the reason to attack Iraq.
But the Bush gang did a lousy job, going it alone without UN cover. Latest Pentagon reports reveal that the invaders’ supply system and preparations were so bad that, had they confronted a real army, not the collapsing Iraqi forces, the results would have been disastrous.
Because of all these miscalculations, the war continues for almost a year. Bush’s May victory claims atop the Lincoln aircraft carrier made him look like the idiot he may very well be. And still, even after Saddam was captured (more likely by Kurdish forces, handed over to the U.S. Army), more U.S. soldiers and Iraqis are dying daily.
The Bush administration has displayed absolutely no sympathy towards the dead or wounded GI’s in Iraq. Besides the 500-plus already killed, "9,000 servicemen and women have been wounded, sickened or injured….[and] 6,891 troops medically evacuated for non-combat conditions between March 19 and Oct. 30, 2003" (Charlotte Post-Gazette, 2/9).
"There are about 2,500 combat casualties," said Dave Autry of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). "The rest are attempted suicides, vehicle accidents, other accidents, illness. Something that’s becoming a big concern is lesions caused by exposure to sand fleas that carry a particularly virulent bacteria."
The Post-Gazette adds: "…the scandal is what is happening to these survivors once their government brings them home. Tom Keller, the immediate past commander of the DAV in Ohio, wrote to me [Autry] last month about the secretive nature of the process…. ‘Tom…[feels] the Bush administration is bringing the casualties back to the States in the middle of the night…to keep organizations like the DAV away from them…. to keep the American people in the dark about the number of troops being wounded, the severity of the injuries they are receiving and the types of illnesses that may be surfacing.’"
Besides these obvious political reasons to hide the human cost of this imperialist war, there’s also the classic capitalist reason: money. "It appears the government does not want these veterans even to be aware of, let alone receive, the benefits due them for donating their limbs and their souls and their innocence…" (Post-Gazette)
The DAV’s executive director, David Gorman, who left both his legs in Vietnam over 30 years ago, wrote Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld: "For more than six decades the DAV has always been granted access to military hospitals so our professionally-trained and fully-accredited representatives could provide such crucial information and counseling to service members to help smooth their transition from military to civilian life. Sadly, that is no longer the case. The current policies of the Department of Defense citing the Privacy Act and security are preventing our skilled representatives from carrying out our congressionally-chartered mission.
"At one facility in particular — Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. — our efforts to visit with wounded patients have been severely restricted…. Headquarters…selects the patients we may visit and strictly limits information about the patients. Even the patient’s name and the nature of the injury are withheld without express permission."
Soldiers in the bosses’ army are used like workers in civilian life: as cannon fodder in the bosses’ endless war for profits, and then discarded when they’re no longer needed. During the Vietnam war, soldiers and sailors rebelled en masse. Instead of fighting the Vietnamese rebels, they fragged (threw grenades at) their officers. How long before this begins happening in Iraq or in other imperialist wars hatched by U.S. bosses?
Haitian Workers Must Unite Vs. Pro-Duvalier Thugs, Aristide
The endless wars and economic downturns that mark the failure of capitalism to provide the most basic necessities to billions worldwide has spawned another rebellion in Latin America. This time it’s in Haiti, against the regime of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose own corruption and fall from grace with the Bush administration has made life even more hellish for the masses.
The rebellion — which has turned mainly into a right-wing uprising — erupted in the Artibonite Valley, where small rice growers have been particularly hard-hit by importation of cheap, subsidized foreign rice. Perhaps here, even more than elsewhere in Haiti, people are starving and have nothing to lose.
For several months, both the cops and Aristide’s gangs have viciously attacked mass demonstrations of students and workers. Recently, cities and towns in the Artibonite region, including population centers Gonaïves and St. Marc, have been seized by armed rebels. They have stormed police stations — key targets because they’re seen as a political arm of Aristide’s repression — and freed prisoners. Aristide’s cops were trained by Raymond Kelly — currently NYC police commissioner — as part of the last U.S. occupation that returned Aristide to power during the Clinton administration.
CIA-Trained Duvalier Thugs Return
The opposition is composed of several groups, one supported by elements in the Bush administration and by former CIA-trained Duvalier thugs, like the para-miltary FRAPH group. When 20,000 U.S. troops. invaded Haiti in 1994 to return Aristide to power, the FRAPH files were seized and hidden from the public since they exposed the CIA connection.
The other opposition side is composed of former Aristide supporters. It includes paramilitary groups previously armed by Aristide, who they had supported until a falling out among these thieves last fall.
There is another group formed by the Democratic Platform, a coalition of the Group of 184 and the Democratic Convergence. The Group of 184 (named for the original number of member civil organizations — businessmen, professionals, peasants, unions, students, women) is headed by industrialist Andy Arpaid, who has extensive holdings in Haiti and Miami. Democratic Convergence comprises small, historically anti-Duvalier political parties now opposed to Aristide. One key member is OPL (Organization of People in Struggle), which split from Aristide’s Lavalas Party several years ago. It’s led by Gerard Pierre-Charles, a "leftist" with ties to Cuba. The so-called left-wing opposition, however, has scarcely tried to distance itself from the right-wing opposition.
The Democratic Platform was forced to cancel a Feb. 12 march in Port-au-Prince because of threats by pro-Aristide forces, who erected burning barricades in the Canapé Vert section before dawn and prevented medical staff from working at a neighborhood hospital.
Like François "Papa Doc" Duvalier before him, Aristide came into power as a democrat with the support of workers, peasants and students. He quickly went from savior to devil with the aid of armed, organized thugs: today’s armed chimeres ("bandits" in Creole), increasingly 12- to 14-year-olds recruited in the slums of Port-au-Prince, are yesterday’s Tonton Macoute.
Recently Aristide signed several agreements impoverishing the masses even more, including concessions to the International Monetary Fund. Cuts in food and transportation subsidies have added to Aristide’s growing unpopularity with the working class. The government has promised 13 free-trade zones which normally grant corporations freedom from taxes and any kind of labor standards. Two are already functioning on the border with the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, the imperialists are licking their chops. France is threatening to intervene, perhaps wanting to crush Aristide for having demanded that France repay the billions of dollars (in today’s terms) that it extorted from the newly-independent Haiti 200 years ago. Washington is also moving towards intervention if Aristide doesn’t step down, either through its puppets in Caricom (Caribbean governments’ association) or through calling on Canada and the U.N., and is preparing to repel any refugees that may flee to Florida. U.S. initiatives have blocked at least $145 million in badly-needed foreign aid packages.
Like in all recent mass uprisings in neighboring Dominican Republic and in Bolivia, workers, youths and their allies in Haiti need a revolutionary red leadership so that their fight-back isn’t wasted supporting the Aristide regime or the bourgeois opposition. History teaches us that the only way to take on the class enemy is by "rache manyòk," that is, pulling it out by the roots and creating a new system based on workers’ power. International working-class solidarity and communist leadership is the road out of this hell. That’s PLP’s goal. Join us!
Haitian Refugees Will Be Sent to Guantanamo Concentration Camp
Last April, U.S. Attorney-General Ashcroft said Haitians posed a "threat" to U.S. national security because Haiti was a transit point for Islamic terrorists, making it virtually impossible for Haitians to get refugee status in the U.S. It allows the U.S. to detain undocumented Haitians indefinitely. Now, the racist-inspired fear that tens of thousands of Haitian workers and peasants will land on the shores of Florida — fleeing both the violence and poverty imposed upon them by the world’s capitalists — has led to pre-emptive plans by Bush & Co. to intercept the refugees on the high seas and return them to Haiti.
According to one Miami observer, the State Department has even contacted relief organizations for help in opening the doors to the concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay for 50,000 refugees. Guantanamo is where 70,000 Haitian refugees were incarcerated from 1991-1994. Then U.S. bosses sent 20,000 U.S. troops to restore Aristide to power following his deposal in a military coup.
Workers Reject School Bosses-Union Gang-up
BALTIMORE, Feb. 13 — During any reform struggle against the abuses of capitalism, the most important measure of success is the degree of growth among workers and youth in real understanding of communism and the growth of Progressive Labor Party. Both of these were in evidence as teachers here resoundingly rejected major pay cuts in two successive union votes, six days apart. Amid a flurry of CHALLENGE sales, distribution of over 1,600 PLP leaflets and a PLP teacher’s speech to a rally at a School Board meeting, several teachers – for the very first time – have begun to attend PLP club meetings.
On Feb. 6, thousands of teachers braved an ice storm, waiting for hours in snarled traffic and freezing outdoor lines, to get into a high school auditorium for the first of two union votes. Teachers and paraprofessionals eagerly took about 700 PL flyers. When one comrade distributing the flyers would say, "Vote no to furloughs, no to layoffs, and no to capitalism!" some who didn’t stop at first said, "Yeah, let me have one of those," after hearing the part about "No to capitalism!"
Teachers rejected furloughs and a 7% pay cut for the remainder of this school year, the majority voting for "None of the above."
Three days later in Annapolis, thousands of people from Baltimore City and from counties throughout Maryland participated in the largest state-wide rally in recent memory, demanding more state funding for public education. Marchers took about 800 PL flyers and bought 50 CHALLENGES at that event where PLP high school students joined their parents and teachers.
Then in Baltimore on the next day, teachers jammed the School Board meeting, the adjoining lobby and the steps outside, angrily opposing any cuts in pay or staff. When a PLP’er spoke to the rally, condemning racism, teachers eagerly asked for PLP flyers.
After the first "No" vote, Mayor O’Malley suddenly "found" $8 million. Then the Mayor and Bonnie Copeland, school system CEO, "offered" a new deal, a 3.5% pay cut. If rejected, they threatened again to lay off up to 1,200 teachers and/or invoke involuntary wage-cuts that would brazenly violate the union contract.
When O’Malley announced this new "offer," Baltimore Teachers’ Union president Marietta English thanked him and then treacherously explained her hope, on live television, that teachers should vote for the wage cut! But when it soon became clear this position would isolate her from masses of teachers, she backtracked, saying teachers should vote as they see fit. Like most of today’s U.S. union leaders, she’s loyal to capitalism. Her co-president, Loretta Johnson – head of the union’s paraprofessional chapter and a national union VP – told one teacher that the leadership wouldn’t help him if he were jailed or fired for organizing a sick-out against layoffs.
In Maryland, a state law bans teachers’ strikes. Rather than breaking that bosses’ rule, union leaders have consistently told teachers a strike is unwinnable. Actually, many workers won the right to strike by striking illegally! While workers can’t win every battle in the war with capitalism, rolling over and playing dead is a sure loser. Playing by the bosses’ rules is self-defeating.
Angry teachers and paraprofessionals answered the 3.5% pay-cut "offer" with a resounding "No!" vote of 3,824 to 1,402, delivering a stinging rebuke to the Mayor, the School Board and the CEO. Custodians, cafeteria workers and secretaries in two other unions did likewise.
Within this militancy, PLP’s revolutionary communist ideas have played a modest but growing role. The teachers who attended the PLP club meeting had lots of questions and friendly disagreements. They all enjoyed participating in an exciting discussion about communism, one based on a series of inspiring essays about the Soviet Union by the poet Langston Hughes, expressing his personal observations after living in the Soviet Union for a year. These teachers plan to return to the next club meeting, which will discuss Lenin’s "What Is To Be Done."
These developments are precisely what’s needed to do better in upcoming struggles, especially in the decisive struggle to finally put an end to the dictatorship of the capitalist class!
Racism Rules the Roost for Baltimore's Students
The Baltimore School Board claims there’s a $58 million deficit, a burden they’ve tried to thrust onto the backs of school workers (see CHALLENGE, 2/18). But the bigger issue is racism. Baltimore’s public schools — in which 90% of the students are African American — need $250 million more each year for per-pupil funding to equal Maryland’s richer, mostly white counties. During the approximate four years of deficit growth, City schools — if funded equally — would have received an additional billion dollars, far more than this $58 million. Thus, the threatened pay and job cuts mainly stem from racist inequality. The Greater Baltimore Committee (CEO Copeland used to be its Executive V-P) comprises the area’s most powerful businesses, and has contempt for the City’s working-class students. The schools are preparing most of them either to compete for unskilled and semi-skilled, low-wage jobs, or for unemployment-induced military service, or jail. The rulers’ attack on teachers reflects a more fundamental, racist attack upon Baltimore’s mostly African American students.
Braceros Battle 60-yr-old U.S. Billion $windle
MEXICO CITY, Feb. 9 — Some 4,000 of the previous braceros and supporters marched today to the Presidential Palace, stopping to picket the U.S. embassy, demanding return of the money stolen from them during the U.S. "guest workers" program, 1942 to 1966. Ten percent was deducted from their U.S. wages — $1 BILLION — and allegedly placed in a pension fund in the Wells Fargo Bank, which sent the money to the now defunct National Rural Credit Bank of Mexico (Banrural). The money was probably stolen. So far these two million workers (totaling five million bracero contracts) involved in the previous bracero program (or their relatives) have seen zilch of that money. With interest it would probably be triple the original billion.
Earlier, 2,000 angry former braceros and supporters stormed President Fox’s family ranch in the state of Guanajuato and reached his mother’s house. Supposedly, she fainted when she saw the protestors, but the latter said they never saw Mrs. Fox. They said they acted because they’re tired of waiting for what belongs to them.
Fox reacted angrily, saying he won’t allow this "violation of private property." But that stolen $1 billion is these farmworkers’ property. Capitalism only respects the bosses’ property — the profits workers produce for the bosses’ system (surplus value). To steal from workers through the horrible racist exploitation of these braceros (see letter page 6) or through the 10% scheme is fair game and very much legal under capitalism. This racist robbery will be part and parcel of Bush’s new bracero "immigration reform" plan.
Under communism, private property won’t exist. All property will belong to the working class, the class that produces all value. There’ll be no braceros or "immigration problem" because there’ll be no borders.
Racist Police Murder in Georgia
I write to make you aware of the fact that the so-called "law enforcement" in Columbus, Georgia, brutally murdered another innocent, unarmed African American male, a senseless tragedy that is all too familiar in this country. Kenneth "Kenny" Walker was an extremely close friend.
On Jan. 28, a local sheriff’s special unit targeted four black men, riding in an expensive SUV, as possible "drug suspects." Actually all four were college graduates, never "in trouble" with the law. These four innocent men were dragged from their vehicle at gunpoint, and forced to lie on the side of a major Interstate like animals. Simultaneously, one of the "John Wayne" sheriffs made a conscious decision to shoot Kenny twice in the forehead with an assault rifle.
This coward claimed that he made a "judgment call" because he "couldn’t see" Kenny’s right hand. While Kenny lay dying on the roadside, the bastards — knowing full well that they had targeted the wrong vehicle — placed the other three in three separate cars and held them in three separate cells. Kenny had been shot at 9:00 p.m. but his family was not notified until 1:30 a.m., never getting a chance to say their farewells because he died before they arrived.
Of course, they found no guns or contraband in the vehicle. Six hours later they released the other men. They gave the driver his keys and said, "You’re free to go; by the way your friend is dead."
Kenny Walker was a loving husband, devoted father and a responsible civic-oriented individual, involved in his local community. Kenny had never been in trouble with the law; when they pulled his record, they couldn’t even find a speeding ticket! If you’re a black male in this country, no matter how righteous, your life comes down to a "judgment call."
To add insult to injustice, this tragedy is being stonewalled and quietly swept under the rug by local government officials. The entire incident was caught on tape, but the Sheriff’s Department is refusing to release it, although it’s a matter of public record under the "Freedom of Information" Act.
Columbus is a small town. The "Good Old Boy" network is very much alive here and the longer they hold the tape, the more likely it will be altered or disappear altogether. If this had happened in a major city it would have gained national attention by now.
A Friend
Capitalist (In)Justice
Once again the capitalist courts have proven to be on the side of the bosses. New York City Housing cop Richard Neri was cleared of all criminal charges after murdering Timothy Stansbury on the roof top of a housing complex. Despite the lies put foward by liberal ‘misleaders’ who sided with Mayor Bloomberg and Police Chief Kelley when they sympathized with the Stansbury family, the courts or politicians can’t be trusted to fight racist police terror.
PLP Youth Conference Highlights Fight vs. Fascism
For two months some PLP youth organized for what turned out to be a successful day-long forum on imperialism and fascism, and the need for communist revolution. Our efforts brought some 50 campus friends and others from our mass organizations and that strengthened the PLP youths’ revolutionary politics. Overall it led to formation of a PLP club and to various people joining the Party; others agreed to join study groups.
We presented imperialism as a modern stage of capitalism and that imperialism and fascism cannot be separated from capitalism. It was also discussed how imperialism sharpens capitalism’s contradictions, and historically has led to more misery for the international working class and to world war. We highlighted the need for communist revolution and the importance of base-building in both the working class and the military. This culminated in the final presentation on the need to organize now for the long-term fight to turn the current imperialist dogfight into a massive revolutionary struggle led by communists.
We also studied fascism, how it’s an extreme attack on the working class so the murderous profit system can try to get out of their crisis and keep on exploiting and murdering workers. After presenting its historical context, we then noted the signs of fascism developing in the U.S. The ruling class has been implementing fascism as inter-imperialist rivalries and the instabilities of capitalism shake their position. This emphasized the importance to learn from both the achievements of past revolutionaries — particularly during World War II, when the world communist movement led by the Soviet Red Army defeated the bulk of the German-Italian-Japanese fascist axis — as well as the movement’s mistakes.
The latter had forged a United Front with "anti-fascist forces" like "lesser evil" capitalists, union misleaders and liberals (social democrats), thinking their help was needed in fighting fascism. This flawed theory and practice hid the fact that capitalism — not just certain capitalists — was the true source of fascism. In Italy communists led hundreds of thousands of armed partisans, defeated six Nazi divisions and liberated most of the north, while hanging Mussolini and his mistress. But the Italian Communist Party abandoned the dictatorship of the proletariat. This allowed the Christian Democrat/Vatican/Mafia axis — backed by the U.S. — to take power after the war.
The discussions were among the most important parts of the forum. Each presentation was followed by a general discussion and then a breakout session with many smaller groups which later reported back to each other. Each group had a question guide dealing with nationalism, racism and the military in relation to imperialism.
Even more productive discussions dealt with practice, with the use of CHALLENGE, with spreading communist ideas while working in mass groups and winning people to the Party when the ruling class is trying to mislead the masses into anti-Bush politicians. The latter’s only disagreement with the Bushites is over the tactics of how to make war and impose fascism. The breakout groups gave everyone, especially people new to these ideas, the chance to ask questions and deal with any of their concerns.
By the end, most feedback was positive; CHALLENGES were quickly gobbled up. The PLP youth felt empowered and many others felt inspired to fight for communism. Capitalism — imperialism and fascism — watch out!
Anti-Racist Students Flush Mr. Pipes
BERKELEY, CA, Feb. 10 — "Racist! Racist! Racist!" chanted at least 50 students against the racist Daniel Pipes here tonight. We interrupted his speech several times, booing and ranking him out as a fascist and racist. Our bold attack startled Pipes; he fumbled to get back on track.
Pipes heads the Middle East Forum, a neo-conservative group pushing for racial profiling against Arabs and Muslims. He labeled the Muslim students’ organization "terrorist" and called for war against "militant Islam." He listed how many Israelis had died in Palestinian bombings, but ignored the much larger number of Palestinians killed by Israeli "Defense" Forces. His racism was clear. The racial profiling he calls for is part of a fascist police state.
The anti-racist students showed courage to disrupt Pipes, despite the tons of cops filming everything. But most people don’t think of racists like Pipes being part of a bigger movement toward fascism. However, CHALLENGE’S communist analysis reveals that larger picture: the Patriot Act/Homeland Security police state; a massive, racist prison build-up, complete with prison slave labor; "disappeared" prisoners held indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay; genocidal sanctions and war for oil against Iraq; and cutbacks in vital social services, among other things.
Some students who understand the implications of the fascist "security" developments unfortunately then fear protesting militantly. But our willingness to fight fascism is our best protection. That’s the lesson of the PLP-led attack against the Nazis on the latter’s turf in Chicago’s Marquette Park (see page 8) .
Young people here in the Bay Area are learning how to fight fascism and build a revolutionary communist party to flush the Daniel Pipes and all other racists and fascists into the sewage of history.
300,000 Workers, Youth and Elderly Left in the Cold
CHICAGO, IL — A trial of fire and ice is the racist winter ritual for workers and the unemployed under capitalism.
On February 3, 56-year old Sterling Coleman was found frozen to death in his South Side basement apartment. The previous week an unidentified homeless man was found frozen to death under a bridge overlooking the Chicago River.
On February 10, a 46-year old woman and her 2-year old grandson were killed in a deadly apartment blaze. Almost every day fires injure, kill or make poor people homeless who are just trying to stay warm in their fire-trap apartments. Two disabled women died in house fires last December. Both were wheelchair-bound, and their gas had been shut off. In one case, a toaster oven was being used to heat the home. The other fire was caused by a space heater.
April and Alvin use two kerosene heaters, three electric space heaters and layers of sweaters and coats to try to keep themselves and their four grandchildren warm. The gas was shut off in their South Side flat in October. April receives disability payments and Alvin has been unable to find steady work since he lost his job in 2001. Even though he just started a new job, they will continue to live with towels stuffed under the doors to keep the cold air out.
Utilities are prohibited from turning off gas service from November through March. But 10,000 households whose gas was shut off before November have not been reconnected. Millions of dollars in federal assistance ran out in late December. April and Alvin owe $5,207, but received only $600 in federal assistance. Peoples Gas is demanding full payment.
While there are more workers needing of assistance, with over three million jobs destroyed since January 2001, less aid is available. The money is being used to finance the occupation of Iraqi oil fields, pay for the fascist Homeland Security police state, and line the pockets of the billionaires who profit from all of this — on top of their huge tax cuts. Capitalism will never meet our needs. Build a mass PLP and fight for communist revolution to destroy the fascist warmakers, who would have us freeze or burn to maintain their profits.
County Hospital Workers Fight Racist Attacks
CHICAGO, IL, Feb. 16 — After 18 years here, Martha often looks out on the snow-clogged streets and wishes she could see the warm green countryside in south India and see her children grow up with their grandparents. But then she remembers the impossible poverty. Brenda grew up here and some days she would like to just walk out of this damned County job where they try to work you to death and treat you like you’re stupid. They swipe in at the time clock, glance at each other, but don’t speak. Their boss thinks he’s got them where he wants them.
But for the last two weeks, PLP has been fighting racism in the Respiratory Care Department of Stroger Cook County Hospital. The bosses are threatening to fire all the higher seniority, mostly black licensed therapists if they do not pass the certification exam by March 31. They act like these experienced workers, licensed by the State and assigned to the most complex patients, are suddenly unable to do their jobs. They plan to replace them with a few of the most senior, certified Indian therapists, while maintaining a two-tier wage system.
We distributed more than 150 CHALLENGES and hundreds of PLP fliers, relying on our network of regular CHALLENGE readers and distributors. This has created quite a buzz, with many discussions about racism as the cutting edge of fascism, the role of the union (SEIU), nationalism, and about the PLP. Also, a group of black, white and immigrant workers and professionals, including some therapists, have collected over 100 signatures on a petition demanding that none of the black workers be fired and that all of the Indian workers be upgraded.
The response has been mixed. Some of the Indian therapists felt they were unfairly accused of being racist toward their co-workers. One said he understood the racist attack against the Indian technicians, but didn’t understand why it was racist to require the black therapists to take the test, especially when the department’s Director is black and certified. Others asked how this could be racism when there are no white managers or workers in the department.
All this made us realize we need to do a better job of explaining a communist understanding of racism, how it is the fiber that holds the profit system together and the cutting edge of developing fascism and imperialist war, and how communist revolution offers the only path to destroying racism.
There seems to be increasing unity in the Respiratory Department. Even if some don’t agree with us most techs and therapists don’t want anyone fired. We have personal ties with most of them. Those we’re closest to are helping circulate Party literature and the petition. Two therapists, one black and the other Indian, criticized SEIU for not leading this fight.
We will get more practice fighting for the Party’s line by inviting people to May Day, winning new readers and distributors of CHALLENGE (about 20 more this past issue), and recruiting more workers to PLP. The boss’s job is to squeeze the most possible work out of three dozen therapists and save money for the big bosses. The job of the dozens of techs and therapists is to keep people alive. Our patients need oxygen, and workers who know how to hook it up for them. The job of communists is to build a mass, international PLP and lead the working class to power.
Limiting Malpractice Awards:
Another Right-Wing Movement?
ANNAPOLIS, MD. Jan. 21, -— Over 2,000 doctors rallied at the Maryland Statehouse, calling for limits to monetary damage awards for medical malpractice. A PLP’er and a group of medical residents and students from Prince George’s County Hospital Center (which mainly serves poor patients) went with 30 of the hospital’s attending physicians to assess the growing movement around this issue.
The ruling class views health care for the working class as a needless expense. As long as there are enough workers able to make profits for the capitalists each day, the rest can be left untreated. That’s why over 44 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance and millions more are locked into abusive, limited HMOs. We workers care greatly, though, about the health of our class, so the rulers are constantly proposing various plans to distract us from the basic truth about capitalist health care — profits must be increased by cutting health care. Physicians and other health care professionals are caught in this fundamental contradiction.
The malpractice limitation movement — encouraged by Bush in his State of the Union message and reinforced by Maryland’s Republican Governor Ehrlich at the rally — targets the working class, as do most other health reform measures currently being debated. Here’s how:
OB-GYN physicians told the Annapolis rally how they could no longer practice obstetrics because the cost of malpractice insurance for delivering babies is too high while health insurers pay less than ever for delivering babies. Caught between rising insurance costs and lower payments, many are quitting entirely, while others are limiting their practice to the safer office practice of gynecology alone. The Bush/Ehrlich solution: put a limit on settlements for injured or killed patients. This policy, they argue, would lower rates for malpractice insurance and thus allow doctors’ bills to stay under HMO/health insurance limits, keeping the health insurance companies happy.
Why not go after the multi-billion-dollar insurance companies instead of injured workers? Because the ruling class makes money from robust profit margins in insurance companies, and none from injured workers. When physicians organize a movement led by capitalists, they’re attacking workers, accepting the norms of capitalism, and objectively joining the forces of fascism. Instead they should join with workers in fighting the insurance companies and their ruling-class cohorts.
The Plight of Worker/Patients
Malpractice payment is no solution for a societal problem, but it may be the only way for a worker to cover rehabilitation costs or for a family to survive in dire medical circumstances. This creates distrust between patient and physician. Science may not even enter the equation. If a baby is not normal at birth, damages from a malpractice claim may be needed for future expenses, whether or not the physician or hospital were negligent. Juries may agree and settlements arranged in order to solve the family’s problem. Demands on physicians for documentation to cover themselves have escalated, detracting from time to talk with patients and families or read the latest journals. So capitalism works against a decent health care delivery system.
Malpractice payments for a few cannot substitute for a system that serves all workers. But this cannot happen unless the workers themselves run society and make decisions about handling health issues. Without a system that provides safer care and supports workers when they’re sick due to natural illness or malpractice, fighting among lawyers, insurers, politicians and professionals will continue to destroy the ability to treat worker/patients. But that’s the name of the capitalist game: profits come first. (For a useful article on this subject, see the New England Journal of Medicine, 1/15,03.)
The History of Malpractice Insurance in the U.S.
In the 1960s and 1970s, barriers to suing doctors for malpractice were reduced. Patients at charity hospitals were able to sue physicians and national standards of care were increasingly developed. Lawsuits rose sharply in some states, and malpractice insurance carriers left as total pay-outs increased. From the 1970s to the 1980s, states had to develop special boards, arbitrators and other ways of keeping the system in balance. Higher insurance rates charged to doctors lured insurers back into the market, but once again more cases and higher settlements have driven them out. Reforms never consistently decreased the number of claims, claim payouts or doctors’ malpractice costs. Patients suffering injury often don’t sue so current methods don’t compensate injured parties.
Today, the issue is more complex, as medical science is also more complex. Doctors’ ability to raise fees to cover malpractice is limited by HMOs and Medicare cost restrictions. The patient safety movement realizes that many errors and injuries arise from systemic problems and are not necessarily due to physician negligence. Physicians are encouraged to disclose their mistakes to fit in with a concept of "blameless" problem-solving but still fear litigation if error is admitted.
Forum Traces Spread of
HIV-AIDS to U.S. Racism
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 21 — An animated hour of discussion among public health activists and 25 parents of pre-schoolers at the Northwest Settlement House here about the causes of HIV/AIDS ignited a political discussion about capitalism and the strategies for defeating it, including a revolutionary one.
To spark the conversation, the Racial Disparities Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association had written a short fictional account about "Bernard," a 27-year-old neighborhood African-American man from the neighborhood whose family had been systematically harmed by racist U.S. policies, beginning with housing discrimination after World War II. "Bernard" suffered poor educational and job opportunities, became involved in a relationship with a woman in the drug trade, did a stint in prison followed by efforts at rehabilitation and finally stable employment in landscaping. In the story, this outcome came too late to prevent his developing renal failure due to the HIV virus and requiring dialysis. We asked the audience, "Why Did Bernard Get HIV/AIDS?"
Initially, the pre-schooler parents blamed it on "Bernard’s" parents and teachers. But the discussion moved quickly to blaming the government for not providing better education and jobs over past decades, and for pushing drugs in the community. The parents advanced many strategies for fighting this. Several volunteered to get involved in more political and educational programs around HIV/AIDS.
"Bernard’s story" became an excellent starting point to expose capitalism as the cause of these problems and reveal a revolutionary strategy to defeat it. For others involved in public health education work, or for other interested parties, the script is available at www.plp.org, or from the PLP office.
25 Years Ago, PLP Led Anti-Racist Struggle that Crushed the Nazi Hold on Marquette Park
(This begins a three-part series on events leading up to the May Day March that integrated Chicago’s Marquette Park in 1979.)
Marquette Park is an area of the city as well as a major park. In 1977, it was strictly off limits to black people. It was the home of racist cops, firemen and city workers. The primarily Baltic and Lithuanian neighborhood has a long history of segregated housing imposed by Chicago’s industrial bosses and bankers. Segregation has always been one of the bosses’ main weapons in dividing workers and maintaining state power. The U.S. State Department made it a relocation point for Nazi war criminals after World War II. So when the Nazis established headquarters at Rockwell and 71st St., quite a few people supported them. Part of their purpose was to terrorize any anti-racist white people.
In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. was violently attacked when he tried to march there for open housing, and bring his campaign of non-violence to the north. Hundreds of marchers were pelted with rocks, bottles, bricks and cherry bombs. As racist Mayor Daley’s police looked on, King was hit in the head by a rock and the march retreated in disarray. After that, no other attempt was made to integrate Marquette Park for more than a decade.
In 1977, the Nazis planned to march in Skokie, a community with a large Jewish population of Holocaust survivors. The Democratic Party, with the support of then-president Jimmy Carter, offered up Marquette Park as an alternative. The Nazis took it and thousands turned out under the protective eyes of the Chicago Nazis in blue. It was the biggest pro-Nazi rally since before WWII. Hundreds of racist white youth wore T-shirts reading, "6 Million More." A few brave Holocaust survivors went into the rally to shout at the Nazis. Several anti-racists were beaten while the KKKops looked on.
But some anti-racists sent a few Nazis to the hospital. PLP and the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR), along with hundreds of other anti-racists, were held at bay at police barricades inside the black community. Sellout community leaders told their members to either stay home or to attend a prayer vigil far from the barricades. Thousands of INCAR and PLP leaflets and CHALLENGES were distributed at street corner rallies. This event triggered the plan to stage a communist/anti-racist rally in Marquette Park in the spring of 1978.
Spurred on by black industrial workers from Ford, U.S. Steel and Stewart-Warner, more black teachers, county, state and city workers were moving west toward Marquette Park like a great internal migration. They fueled the movement west of the Dan Ryan expressway, a canyon between black and white Chicago on the south side. One by one barriers began to fall, Halsted, Ashland, Damen, and finally Western Avenue, the eastern border of Marquette Park.
The Nazis would make raids across Western. A black worker had his hand blown off by a bomb in his mailbox. The Nazis would smash cars and paint racist graffiti. Any black or dark skinned person caught at the White Castle at Western and 67th St., when Nazis were around, were attacked and beaten, along with their white friends. Blacks who worked at the hospital there were often harassed waiting for the bus. Often their white co-workers would defend them. Meanwhile, black and white leaders of the Chicago Democratic Party did nothing. The Nazis seemed invincible. They were interviewed by radio and TV talk shows and newspapers, which ran pictures of Nazis in full uniform.
In June 1978, the Nazis began a series of rallies in suburban areas undergoing desegregation: South Holland, Lansing, Blue Island, Berwyn, Oak Park, and Evanston. The Nazi assaults were continuing, rallying in shopping centers and recruiting high school students. If we were to prepare for a successful march in Marquette Park, we had to take the fight to them.
The offensive began with picketing Nazi Headquarters during their Midwest Conference. We used leaflets and CHALLENGE sales around the area. We met with friends in the black community and in Marquette Park itself. We held forums on the role of Nazi racism. INCAR spread a petition to kick the Nazis out of Marquette Park.
On the day of the Nazi meeting, we put out a fake leaflet calling for a demonstration at an incorrect time, to throw off the police protecting the Nazi HQ. Carloads of INCAR and PLP members met at a park. A security team, armed with clubs and baseball bats, would protect the pickets. Their job was to secure the area in front of the Nazi office.
Three cars led the way. We crossed Western, into the all-white area, to Nazi HQ with its Nazi flag and the hateful racist sign on the side of the building. We jumped out and started shouting "Death, Death, Death to the Nazis; Power, Power, Power to the Workers!" The Nazi security team emerged from the HQ and a battle erupted.
Communists and anti-racists fought the Nazis in the street. Storm troopers tasted our bats, picket signs and fists. The Nazis fought back with sticks and mace. We suffered some injuries and a few comrades were arrested. After our attack, people shared their exhilaration of having participated in the action.
Pictures and stories about the fight appeared in the local papers and CHALLENGE, and many people around the city applauded our action. One picture of a group of comrades attacking a Nazi appeared on thousands of leaflets and was printed in the Chicago Defender, a major black newspaper, as a part of an ad announcing our May Day march. We had raised the red flag outside the Nazi office. Next we would raise it inside.
(Part. II: The PLP Raid on the Nazi Office)
Non-Violence Can’t Beat Fascists
CHICAGO — "I was a young man in Alabama when Dr. King was organizing there. He said that if you didn’t believe in non-violence, you couldn’t march with him. I didn’t believe in non-violence."
So declared a black worker at a forum on the history of "Marquette Park — Then and Now," the neighborhood where he currently resides. The forum was sponsored by the International Human Relations Commission, a coalition of neighborhood organizations formed by the city in response to the post-9/11 attacks against Arab and Muslim residents.
Historically, Marquette Park was the most racist neighborhood in Chicago, all white, with its own Nazi party office, as well as many resettled World War II Nazis, cops and city workers. No black workers had ever lived there. Black workers who ventured into the area were regularly attacked. Today Marquette Park is a mix of black, Latin, white and Arab workers, due in part to the fight waged by Progressive Labor Party.
PLP broke the back of this racism when we organized an anti-racist campaign to smash the Nazis and integrate Marquette Park. A PLP speaker told how in 1978, amid massive publicity about the Nazis’ planned march in Skokie (a largely Jewish town), dozens of PLP members and friends invaded the Nazi office and physically smashed them. This raid ended the Nazi’s "myth of invincibility" and led to their demise. In 1979, PLP organized a May Day march of 700 black, Latin and white workers and youth to integrate Marquette Park and finish off that particular Nazi group.
The PL’er’s speech sparked a spirited discussion about the need for violence as against non-violence. One speaker, Rev. John Porter, had brought Martin Luther King to Marquette Park in the mid-1960’s, and racists violently attacked their march. A PLP member pointed out that it was the non-violence of people like King that emboldened the racists, who were definitely not non-violent.
Several other speakers talked about their experiences fighting racism in this area. One explained that the real estate agents and their bankers made millions out of block-busting and red-lining, and kept up a barrage of racist lies to keep white workers fearful of blacks moving into "their" neighborhood.
Most accounts of fighting racism and segregation lacked a real class analysis. The real cause of racism is the capitalist profit system. The only solution is communist revolution.
On the 25th anniversary of the integration of Marquette Park, official government policy far surpasses the level of racism and fascist terror those Nazis ever dreamed of. This May Day we continue the struggle to build a mass international PLP that can grow under fascism and prepare for the workers’ seizure of power.
How A Young Communist Honored Stalin At His Death
(Note: This version is abbreviated for print. For the full version, go here)
We in PLP don’t believe in building "cults of personality," but the working-class movement has great ancestry!
The great communist leader Joseph Stalin died 51 years ago. Among working-class people and many others, he was the most loved and respected person in the world because he represented the great achievements of the Soviet Union and the world communist movement. That love and respect can be measured, partly, by the witness of ordinary people.
One such person, V.A Atsiukovsky, eventually became a physicist and engineer. In 1994, past retirement age, he wrote "Communism — the Future of the Human Race. The account below is excerpted from his autobiography, The Adventures of an Engineer, the Notes of an Activist, 1998.
Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. For the overwhelming majority of my generation, which had not fought in the war, and of the older generation that did, Stalin’s death was an immense tragedy. Of course, among us there were people who were silently glad at his death, but at that time they didn’t dare breath a word of such feelings. Later they tried hard to…disgrace not only Stalin but everything that had been done in his time. But during those days we were seized with grief, and with a single thought — to go to Moscow to pay our respects to our deceased Leader and Teacher.
Our plan was to use local commuter trains to get through all the cordons, which would…be stationed…to prevent any great crowds in Moscow, and then on the most distant train, which would no doubt still be running, to get to our goal.
My plan could not have worked better. Lying on the floor under a shelf in an almost empty commuter-train car, I heard patrols walking the platform at Liuban and stopping someone, but no one even entered the car I was in; soon the train moved farther along…. I managed to find a seat in the farthest train, which was completely packed, arriving in Moscow on the morning of the second day of the funeral, and set off to say goodbye to Stalin.
I managed to get through to Sverdlov Square only because I was wearing a military overcoat.… Towards the evening…there were about 100 persons, "interlopers" like me, gathered together.
About seven o’clock on the third day…, we were formed into a general column and, with us, began that gigantic line of those who wished to bid farewell to Stalin, a line that stretched throughout the whole of Moscow. … I went with the first group of 100, said farewell to the person for whom I had the most respect of anyone in the world, and went home to my Institute dormitory.
….Two days [later] I was called into the Young Communist bureau of my faculty…to give my explanation of how I had dared to abandon my Institute during such a time. …
"Did you understand that it was forbidden to go to Moscow?" they asked me.
"Of course!"
"And did you know that you’d get into trouble for that?"
"Of course!"
"And you went anyway? And will you do it again the next time?"
"How can there be a ‘next time’! We only had one Stalin, and I went to say farewell to him, and not to you. There cannot be any ‘next time.’"
"And you don’t regret that you did this?"
"I don’t regret it," I answered.
Movie Makes Anti-Fascist ‘Statement’
I recently saw "The Statement," starring Michael Caine and directed by liberal humanist Norman Jewison. The movie opens with French Nazis, called the Milice, killing seven Jewish workers. Then fast-forward to the present where a hit man, allegedly working for a Jewish Commando team, is hunting one of the Milice, Pierre Brossard.
Meanwhile, two French officials are also looking for Brossard. He’s guilty of crimes against humanity, based on a law passed to run down old fascists once and for all. But one of the officials, a woman who is an investigating judge, is looking for Brossard so he can identify a powerful member of the French government who also belonged to the Milice. The ending is pretty ironic and because it’s a vital part of the movie, I won’t give it away.
While the movie deals with the hunt for Brossard and his frantic efforts to escape, it also reveals how sections of the Roman Catholic Church in France helped hide Nazi collaborators after World War II, and how sections of the French police and "justice" system helped Nazis avoid punishment. The movie is very compelling in depicting the chief character, Brossard, as both a cunning fugitive, a vicious, treacherous member of the French Nazi movement, and a frightened, true-believing, right-wing Catholic. Simultaneously, it shows the dedication of the French anti-fascist officials in taking on both the church and members of the government. So, there’s a lot of detective work going on.
Clearly Jewison is not a communist, but he does give communists and Uncle Joe (Stalin) their due as leaders of the anti-Nazi resistance. Indeed, one reason why a section of the Catholic Church supported the Nazis was their belief that Stalin was the "anti-Christ" and that the "Jews" created communism. Could the same group be behind Mel Gibson’s anti-Jewish version of the crucifixion?
However, like most bourgeois humanist movies, Jewison says the system is basically O.K. and that dedicated seekers of justice will eliminate the "bad guys" who are the problem. What’s not shown is how racist ideology was used to create a Brossard, and how anti-Jewish racism was a cornerstone of Nazi capitalism.
This movie is a good starting point for discussions about Nazi fascism, the old "alliance" of Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, and the major role of the police in the fascist movement. Most important, we can discuss the positives and negatives of the old communist movement, to avoid the same mistakes of allying with liberal and conservative anti-fascists in current and future wars.
One last point: the movie was never shown in Chicago itself. I had to go to suburban Wilmette to see it. While the neo-fascist LORD OF THE RING gets massive publicity and mass showings, curiously a film about fighting fascism, with pro-communist sympathies, gets shown way out of town.
An Old World War II Participant
LETTERS
New Bracero Plan: Same Old Robbery
If the rulers of the USA and Mexico re-establish the bracero program, it won’t differ from the old system. And the bosses will be the big winners.
Bush’s new proposal, accepted by Mexico’s President Vicente Fox, will repeat the same racist super-exploitation and robbery of the old bracero program. As contract labor, they can be easily controlled. Violators will be chased by the Migra (Immigration Service) and deported. The same applies for other "liberal" immigration reform plans, like the "Dream Act, which aims to create illusions among immigrant youth about capitalism and win their loyalty to U.S. imperialism’s endless wars.
Since the Fox government is even less capable of creating jobs than the Bush gang, it needs to export workers. Fox figures he can get away with the massive job losses Mexico has seen in the last couple of years by sending workers to the U.S., where they need even cheaper labor. The billions sent by Mexican workers in the U.S. to their relatives back home has become one of the biggest sources of foreign exchange after PEMEX (state-owned oil company) and tourism. On top of that, the bosses may figure they can get away with the same scheme in which they stole $1 billion from the old braceros, taking 10% of their wages for a so-called pension fund, money which they’ve never seen. (See article, page 3)
For U.S. bosses, the bracero program is a good source of super-profits, and lowers wages for all workers. In the old bracero program, farmworkers were paid 80¢ an hour, far less than the minimum wage.
Workers were told the lie that if they worked hard, their contract would be renewed. They competed with each other to work harder and harder, increasing productivity and the bosses’ profits. That’s why many workers preferred to be undocumented rather than a bracero or "guest worker."
This is also part of the bosses’ ideology: convince workers to feel "since we’re going to be screwed anyway, I’d rather be screwed this way than that way, and maybe I can get out of this hell by ‘making it’ and becoming a straw boss or a foreman."
Mexico’s government aided that ideological attack against workers by telling the braceros, "make sure you represent your country well in the U.S., work hard and send your money back so the country can progress." Well, the old braceros — now fighting to get back those stolen wages — are seeing the bosses’ lies first-hand.
Only class-consciousness can counter this divisive ideology. Whether workers are braceros, undocumented, documented or citizens, we’re all part of the international working class. We must fight for jobs and decent living conditions wherever we are.
But this class concept won’t fall from the sky. Communists must bring it. That’s what PLP has been trying to do in its many years of organizing among California’s farmworkers. Let’s fight for communism, with no borders, where production serves our needs as workers.
A veteran California farmworker
‘Kill ’em — There Are More Where Those Soldiers Came From’
Mel Gibson is in the news for his movie "The Passion of Christ," depicting Jesus’ last hours. It’s basically a new "Protocols of Zion," the forgery created by the Tsar’s secret police a century ago and used to justify the pogroms that murdered thousands of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe. This forgery was then spread worldwide by Henry Ford, and became one of the Nazis’ ideological weapons to carry out their holocaust.
But this letter concerns one of Gibson’s few good roles (probably the only one):"Braveheart." It depicted the power struggle between the Scottish and English ruling classes. It also exposed the Scottish rulers’ betrayal of the Scottish people who fought the English King.
One great scene reveals the rulers’ view of their own soldiers throughout millenniums of class struggles. When the English and Scottish soldiers were fighting in close combat. King Edward I ordered his archers to shoot at random. One Knight told the King, "But our men will die too." The King replied that there are many more to take their place.
During the 1980’s Iraq-Iran war (when the Reagan-Bush, Sr.-Cheney-Rumsfeld crowd sided with Saddam Hussein), the Iranian Ayatollahs (today buddies with the British and helping the U.S. in Iraq) used young children as martyrs, sending them in droves to clear mine fields planted by the Iraqi army. Their "martyrdom" would guarantee them "a place in paradise." These were never the children of Iran’s Ayatollahs or rich bosses.
Today, Dubya, Blair. Rumsfeld and Spain’s Aznar couldn’t care less about the "Coalition" soldiers being killed in Iraq, since they know there are many more workers back home to take their places. They don’t even care to honor or visit the war’s casualties (see front page).
At some point, soldiers worldwide will realize there’s no honor in dying for any capitalist. We should do our utmost to ensure this happens sooner rather than later.
A Movie Buff
Bosses’ Borders Devastate Families
I’m a Party member in Mexico. Two years ago some friends and myself were fired from a factory for disagreeing with the bosses and being a threat to them and the union leaders.
For these two long years I’ve had a lot of trouble finding a job, so I had to immigrate to the country of illusions, leaving my family, my friends and everything one cares about.
This could be a bad scene from a movie. This situation has provoked tremendous anger in me against this system. I hope my wife and family have the same reaction and that it strengthens our conviction to organize to destroy this system. Everything we’re living through is caused by a system that cannot solve the problems of the working class.
This letter has been hard to write, but I really want to share my experiences with the CHALLENGE readers, including those in Mexico.
A while ago the Fidel Castro regime was sharply criticized, reporting that people had to leave Cuba or die of hunger. Part of my motivation in writing this letter is to say that immigration is not exclusive to Cuba but a product of the unemployment produced by capitalism. I hope this letter helps motivate those who read it to continue organizing, and together to replace this system with one that will meet workers’ needs without dividing families.
A comrade
Capitalism and Winter Deadly for Homeless
In Minneapolis capitalism and a harsh winter are a deadly combination for homeless workers. This January was the coldest since 1996. Many workers in Minneapolis-St. Paul have a serious homeless problem. Because of the economy, affordable housing is non-existent. Minneapolis leads the nation in this regard, ahead of Chicago and San Francisco.
The bosses are building plenty of luxury condominiums here. The Party is absolutely right in saying that capitalism produces for profit, not for need.
In the Twin Cities, the homeless are disproportionately black or Native American due to racism. Homeless workers are turned away from overcrowded shelters, given blankets and told to walk to the next shelter, about two miles away! Workers are sent out to risk death in 40° below zero temperature. Capitalism is truly criminal.
There’s $87 billion available for U.S. imperialist adventures in Iraq, but nothing for homeless workers, many of whom are veterans of the last Gulf War and from Vietnam. U.S. imperialism used them and threw them away.
Governor Pawlety says he "wants to solve" Minnesota’s homeless problem, but he can’t. He’s a servant of the ruling class. He threw 20,000 workers off Minnesota Care, the affordable health insurance here.
Workers must join PLP to destroy capitalism and create a communist society. Then the working class will erect homes based on need. Money and profits won’t exist. "To each according to needs" is a world worth fighting for. March on May Day for communist revolution.
Minnesota Red
Grocery Strikers Break With Union Hacks
My friend is on strike against the California grocery bosses and was forced to find another job. Many rank-and-filers are dispirited. The last union-organized event showed the union leadership is not fighting for the workers. Over 14,000 people marched in a massive demonstration along a terrible route only four blocks long. It's good that so many people came, but the leadership led them into an isolated part of Inglewood through empty streets. At the end the street was blocked with a stage where they made speeches telling us to vote for capitalist politicians.
I marched with the father and sister of my striker-friend. The strike has provoked much anger and frustration among supporters of the workers. My friend's father said it was like having a demonstration in their dining room, not taking it out to the public. He thought it should be held in downtown LA where throngs of people could see it and join. I added that, with appropriate leadership, markets along the route could have been shut down by the marchers.
After picketing every day, my striking friend stopped going because the union retreated, not allowing Ralph's Store workers to picket their own workplaces. She was assigned to a Pavillions store far from her home. No wonder morale is low. The union leadership is to blame. It's no exaggeration to picture them holding hands with the bosses, selling out the 70,000 strikers. Meanwhile, union chief Rick Icaza's $273,000 yearly salary was not cut one cent during the walkout.
Some friends and I started circulating a petition demanding regular meetings to inform everyone as well as a more militant union effort. The striker's sister said demonstrations and strikes are not as militant as they used to be, when they stopped production and scabs. That's exactly what workers need to do to cut off the bosses' profits. That's why we need class consciousness and communist leaders who organize the potential power of the working class, not union leaders who only want to control our anger and manipulate us into dead ends.
A striker's friend
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)
Liars push ‘job training’
For 20 years, every job crisis…has been met with calls for retraining….
The trouble is, it doesn’t work, and the government knows it. The most comprehensive evaluation of training programs, conducted by the Department of Labor, followed 20,000 people over four years. For the vast majority, the government concluded that training made no difference whatsoever.
People got the same kind of jobs whether or not they’d been through the program….
In studying more than 40 years of job training policy,…not…one program…,on average, enabled its participants to earn their way out of poverty….
There are simply not enough decent-paying jobs….
In this context, to promote training in order to make workers think that unemployment is their own fault is a cruel joke…. (L.A. Times)
Imperialists always use lies
In 1846 President James Polk announced that Mexican troops had fired on American soldiers on American soil, and he took the country to war that eventually gained it California, New Mexico and Arizona. Was the disputed soil ours? Probably not. Did Polk distort the information he had? Almost certainly. He wanted the territory, and he needed a war to get it….
Presidents and other decision-makers usually get the intelligence they want….In 1961…I climbed to…a high-level meeting to discuss the planned invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs….Richard Bissell, a legendary figure of cold war intelligence,…assured us that once the American-backed rebels had established themselves, the Cuban people would rise up against Castro….
In 1967….our Vietnam intelligence … could have been off by 10 percent or by 300 percent because "the data is so soft that we cannot state with confidence whether we have been doing better or worse militarily over the past year…." The generals and the president wanted higher body counts….and that’s what they got.
Those now trying to figure out what went wrong before the war in Iraq should bear in mind a simple truth: we [U.S. rulers] are more likely to "know" what we want to know than what we don’t want to know.
(Richard Goodwin was a White House assistant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.) (NYT)
US women’s pay really 44% of men’s
In a study commissioned by Representatives Carolyn Maloney and John Dingell, the federal General Accounting office reported that women’s earnings in proportion to men have actually gone backward. In 1983 it was 80.4 cents for every dollar for men. It is now 79.7.
Conservatives argue that it is due to women’s work patterns — leaving for child care, elder care, following husbands to new areas, etc. This study of more than 9,300 citizens and 18 years of data indicates that if these things were not [sic] factored in it would have been an astounding 44 cents to every dollar! (Liberal Opinion Week, 2/3)
Real disaster: the system
Millions of lives could be saved if poor countries were better prepared for natural disasters that now kill on average nearly 70,000 people each year….
Wealthy countries represent 15 percent of the population exposed to natural disasters but fewer than 2 percent of the deaths. The very poorest countries contain 11 percent of all those exposed to disasters, but account for 53 percent of the deaths.
"In a sense, this report is arguing that there is nothing natural about these disasters." (Financial Times, 2/3)
Hospitals charge poor more
A hospital sets a fee for each service it provides, but in the case of insured patients, no one pays the retail price….
The only patients who are truly charged the full prices are the uninsured, who are usually poor. (NYT, 2/3)
Dems won’t let Iraq go
The Bush administration…has not acknowledged its fundamental problem, which can be stated very simply.
The Bush administration wants the appearance of handing over sovereignty to a provisional government in June, but at the same time it wants to continue to control Iraq….
Democrats, including John Kerry…offer another fantasy: that the United States can hand security over to NATO, and the political problems to the UN, and pull out….
The Democratic presidential candidates have to understand that the United States cannot expect the UN — or NATO — to take over the task of installing in Iraq, against national and sectarian resistance, what would amount to an American satellite government. But is the United States, under this or any other administration, prepared to accept anything else? (Tribune, 1/21)
Elections 2004: Two Parties, One Warmaking-Racist Ruling Class
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a href="#Red Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico">"ed Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico
Celebrate 40 Years Of Challenge
a href="#‘One Party for one international working class . . .’">‘O"e Party for one international working class . . .’
Soldiers Back From Iraq Attack General Strike In Dominican Republic
Fight Racist Attacks On Black And Immigrant Respiratory Therapists
a href="#Domino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits">Do"ino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits
Internationalism Trumps Nationalism At MEChA Conference
Fighting for the Party in a Mass Student Organization
a href="#Schwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services">"chwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services
Bosses Use Union Leaders to Scab on Grocery Strike
Ford, DaimlerChrysler: Once A Nazi Always a Nazi
UAW Helps Auto Bosses Gear Up to Axe Workers
Rawlings Scores Big From Exploiting Baseball Workers
a href="#1911 Triangle Fire Didn’t End Sweatshops">"911 Triangle Fire Didn’t End Sweatshops
LETTERS
Anti-War Activists Need Red Politics
Teacher Salutes Anti-Fascist Stand
a href="#Boycott, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’">Boyc"tt, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’
a href="#‘Community Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle">‘C"mmunity Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle
Elections 2004: Two Parties, One Warmaking-Racist Ruling Class
All Democratic . The nation’s biggest capitalists are searching for an effective wartime leader. Their dissatisfaction with George Bush is growing daily. Senator Jay Rockefeller called for a "full investigation" following weapons inspector David Kay’s charge that Bush had invaded Iraq under false pretenses. Rockefeller whined that Bush had "rushed into this war," that is, without first preparing public opinion to fight and die for U.S. rulers’ strategic oil interests. The imperialist wing of U.S. capital that Rockefeller represents needs a president who can win large numbers of people to militarism in the guise of "serving the nation."
That’s the real significance of John Kerry’s leapfrogging in the Democrats’ race for the White House, whether or not he gains the nomination. Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a top think-tank for U.S. imperialism, commended Kerry’s success in Iowa: "With more than 80% of Iowa caucus-goers endorsing candidates who voted at least to authorize the U.S. strike against Iraq, it is beginning to look as if the Democrats are ready to put the anti-war temptation behind them....That would be good news for the Democrats. No anti-war candidate can win a national contest in 2004. It would also be good news for the country and for the world" (Wall Street Journal, 1/21). Mead adds, "historically, the Democrats have been America’s war party."
Of all the candidates, Kerry has the most fully-developed "national service" plan to build the military and enlist popular support for a police state. A major plank in Kerry’s platform is a program called "A New Army of Patriots." It demands a compulsory year of service for high schoolers. That service includes assisting local and federal law enforcement in homeland security. Kerry also promises college tuition in return for two years in the military, which he calls "the highest form of service." In addition to expanding the existing Police Corps program, Kerry would create a fascistic "Community Defense Service" with local captains functioning as the eyes and ears of the government.
Despite his recent stumbling, Howard Dean is also proving useful to the rulers’ war efforts. While U.S. imperialists see a Dean presidency as less and less likely, they praise his skill in leading young people into the dead end of electoral politics.
Michael O’Hanlon, who studies military affairs for the Brookings Institution, has written no fewer than six op-ed articles since December in various papers criticizing Dean’s lack of foreign policy experience. But the New York Times (2/1) editorializes: "If the product of the Dean movement is thousands of young people who are slightly hardened to the lure of a charismatic candidate, but determined to keep on fighting for a better world, it will have been a success no matter what happens to the former governor of Vermont." The Times quickly explains that "fighting for a better world" means working for the Democratic Party and, implicitly, for its war plans: "The real heroics come from you and your friends with the pamphlets, stolidly going door to door."
War criminal Wesley Clark remains in the race. The Butcher of Kosovo could become a more viable candidate for the rulers if events, such as another attack like Sept. 11, were to dictate a more rapid militarization of society.
The CFR’s Mead recites the old saying, "Vote for a Republican, and you get a Depression. Vote for a Democrat, and you get a war." But it’s wrong. Both parties serve capitalism. And it is the profit system itself that, continually and inevitably, brings economic misery, fascism and war.
NYPD Murders Black Youth:
Bloomberg’s Crocodile Tears Won’t End Racist Cop Terror
On January 24, the New York City Police Department added to its long history of racist murders. Many workers may ask: "What else is new?" The cold-blooded killing of black teenagers, defenseless women and children are among the NYPD’s specialties. But the city’s liberal bosses and politicians are putting a particular spin on this crime, trying to lead us into a dangerous political trap.
The facts of the atrocity are simple enough. Shortly before 1:00 A.M., cop Richard Neri shot 19 year-old Timothy Stansbury on a building roof in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, while the unarmed youth was taking a short-cut to a party.
A devoted family member, Mr. Stansbury held a night-shift job at McDonald’s. He was pursuing a GED diploma at Thomas Jefferson H.S. In short, he seemed to be a role model. Well, the cops have murdered many young black and Hispanic role models over the years, and the NYPD brass and mayor’s office have almost without exception taken the classic racist "blame-the-victim" approach to the deed.
This case seems different. Immediately after Neri had executed Mr. Stansbury, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelley described the shooting as "unjustified." NYC’s Mayor, billionaire media baron Michael Bloomberg, echoed Kelley and rushed to comfort the youth’s grieving family. On January 30, when Bloomberg attended the funeral, the Brooklyn D.A. asked a grand jury to indict Neri.
One black city councilman, Albert Vann of Bedford-Stuyvesant, called the gestures by Bloomberg a "defining moment," and predicted a brighter future for relations between New York’s black working class and the NYPD.And that’s the trap we must avoid.
The cops can never become less racist or lethal to the working class than they have always been. They provide the domestic front line of the profit system’s government, which communists call the state apparatus. They serve the big bosses and embody the bosses’ class dictatorship over us.
The bosses love to pretend that the cops’ role is to "prevent crime." But it’s just the opposite. The cops exist to help the rulers commit the crimes against us that their maximum profits require. Bloomberg, for example, has carried out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of budget cuts, slashing health, education, day care, the parks, etc., to the bare bones. These cuts have undoubtedly led to more workers’ deaths than all the many police murders in the last decade. The cuts serve the profit interests of NYC’s major banks. The cops’ legalized terrorism gives the rulers firepower to use against working-class rebellions that eventually explode against racist oppression.
The disgusting hypocrisy of Bloomberg, Kelley and Vann is an act designed to lure us into backing the bosses’ long-range plans for foreign wars and the police state that the profit system will need to carry out this scenario. Even before 9/11, the rulers were engaged in a sharp tactical fight over the best way to package the cops. One side, represented by the Manhattan Institute and its star pupil, racist Rudy Giuliani, NYC’s former mayor, didn’t believe too much in subtlety. Their tactic consisted of giving the cops the order to "shoot first and ask questions later." The cops happily complied. Giuliani’s administrations have a lot of innocent blood on their hands.
The other side, represented by police "theoretician" George Kelling, by Al Sharpton, by former NYPD Commissioner Bratton (now "serving" LA), by Kelley, and now, apparently, by Bloomberg, wants to dress up the racist wolf in sheep’s clothing. These liberals call for "community policing," which would recruit workers to snitch on each other and police each other. "Community policing" is a scheme to water down and/or squash the class struggles that will inevitably erupt in the wake of U.S. rulers’ oil wars and economic vise-tightening against our class. Under "community policing," the cops will still carry guns and use them against us.
A boss is a boss is a boss, and a cop is a cop is a cop. The main dangers for our class remain less in the policeman’s bullet than in the bullet disguised as balm for the wounds the bosses inflict on us.
We must never rely on the rulers or their politicians. Police terror is, and will always remain, an indispensable ingredient of capitalist state power. Bloomberg’s crocodile tears and "community policing" won’t change the fundamental class forces in play here. That’s the main lesson of Bloomberg’s repulsive posturing around the latest racist cop murder in New York.
a name="Law Of Capitalist Market: Half the Workers Can’t Meet Basic Needs">">"aw Of Capitalist Market: Half the Workers Can’t Meet Basic Needs
Wage inequality is widening in the U.S., due to capitalism’s drive for maximum profits and increasing international competition, especially among the bosses of the imperialist countries. Corporations are cutting labor costs by laying off workers, pushing those remaining harder for longer hours and shifting production to cheaper labor areas overseas.
As Karl Marx pointed out long ago, capitalists are driven to invest in technology and machinery — and now automation — that displace even more workers. All this plus shrinking unions, a stagnant minimum wage and the reduction in the manufacturing sector’s share of employment combines to uproot unskilled workers from higher-paying jobs.
This has produced "far more job-seekers than jobs…a recipe for higher inequality." (Economic Policy Institute) The lowest 10% of the pay range has seen their wages fall while the highest 10% has experienced a rise in pay, not to mention the astronomical increase for the top 1% of the super-rich. The bulk of the Bush tax cuts — approved by both parties in Congress — goes to the wealthy.
"More than 30 million Americans — one in four workers — are stuck in low-wage jobs that do not provide…a decent life….Thirty million…make less than $8.70 an hour, the official U.S. poverty level for a family of four. …It takes at least double this level for a family to provide for its basic needs. Their low-wage, no-benefit jobs translate into billions of dollars in profits, executive pay, [and] high stock prices…" (The Nation, 2/9)
These figures cover only the 100 million who work full-time. It excludes part-timers and the unemployed. Sixty percent of the unemployed are ineligible for benefits and receive zero income. The other 40% who do receive unemployment benefits get no more than half their pay, and then only for 26 weeks. Now 375,000 jobless workers whose benefits expired in January were denied an extension by Congress, and another two million workers will also exhaust their 26 weeks in the first half of this year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. So these nearly 2.4 million workers will also have zero income.
The so-called average wage, or even the median level, does not include these 20 million unemployed — the majority of whom have no income at all — nor the millions of part-timers (who traditionally earn less per hour than full-timers). So the average income of the entire working class is far lower than the figures reported just for those working full-time.
Capitalism is driven by the laws of the market to squeeze workers into lower wage levels to maximize profits. The laws of the market cannot be reformed. The international working class can only lead a decent life when we reap the full value of our labor, without the bosses stealing most of that value (see article on baseball-manufacturing workers in Costa Rica, page 8). The only solution is to destroy the profit system that thrives on this inequality and abolish wage slavery with communist revolution, the goal of PLP.
GI Writes:
a name="Brass Says GI Deaths ‘Cost of Doing Business’"></">Br"ss Says GI Deaths ‘Cost of Doing Business’
Recently our unit took leave for a few days. Before releasing us, one officer briefed us on safety, stressing careful driving and preventing injuries by avoiding dangerous activities. After formation, one soldier cracked, "Stay safe and make sure you don’t injure yourself so we can send you to Iraq." What activity could be more dangerous than having the brass send us to war? The soldier’s joke struck at the nerve of the officer’s and NCO’s concern for us.
The unit promotes recreation — drinking, playing pool, watching movies — and keeping each other in good spirits to maintain morale. Recently our first sergeant encouraged us to talk to our families and friends if we were down or depressed. "We want you to be able to focus on your work," he told us. Basically, they only care about our well-being as it affects our commitment to fight the war.
When we arrived here, a general told us to "know your enemy." He mentioned the continuing attacks on U. S. soldiers and the number of U. S. fatalities since the war supposedly ended and then said, "The most dangerous enemy is the soldier sitting next to you." He noted that most of the some 9,000 casualties (both injuries and deaths) were from accidents, mishandled weapons and the heat.
What a bastard! In Iraq the brass regularly order soldiers onto 12- and 24-hour shifts. One Gulf War veteran in our unit was a truck driver in Saudi Arabia. He said the brass made drivers repair, maintain, and operate vehicles for as long as 36 hours at a stretch. One driver was killed when he was run over by a 5-ton truck. He was sleeping under the truck after working two long missions. "Most of the driving accidents happened when we were working beyond exhaustion," our veteran friend told us.
Our senior NCO’s and officers tell us repeatedly they’re gonna bring us back home safe, but their job is to take us to Iraq to fight this war; coming home safe is optional. Our commander said his first priority is the mission and that he would sacrifice some of us for it. Sensing the chill in the room he smartly added, "That’s the cost of doing business." Of course, he didn’t mention the Iraqis slaughtered for the greater glory of Haliburton’s profits.
Red Soldier
a name="Red Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico">">"ed Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico
MEXICO CITY, Jan. 27 — A mass movement is growing in a working-class community here, demanding basic services like water, street pavements and drainage systems. Amid this struggle, many are reading, studying and distributing DESAFIO-CHALLENGE, gaining the understanding that the struggle is more than one for services, but mainly to end the oppression, misery and exploitation of capitalism.
Communism is the only way out. We’re looking for an historical and necessary change. Although we know it will take a long time, it’s worth waging the battles needed to get there.
A neighbor reading DESAFIO said, "I am hungry to know more about communism, to be able to destroy all the profiteers so that my children will no longer be cannon fodder to be exploited." In a recent PL study group, we read the article, "The Foolish Old Man that Moved Mountains." We agreed to challenge the ignorance and distortions many in the community have about communism.
Some workers here work for a transportation company. Many have been fired in the last few years. Some have gone beyond the limits set by the bosses, exposing the exploitative origin of the company’s wealth. Meanwhile, workers are fighting the bosses’ firings, wage-cuts and abuses. Fearing the workers’ anger will grow, so far the bosses have not fired the leaders of the struggle. Instead, they were transferred to other departments. Recently new workers were hired, but at lower wages and benefits. They will try to spread this to all workers.
We must build the Party and a mass communist movement to end this bloodsucking system. In another study group one worker asked, "What does communism have to do with firings?" Another responded, "If you have a better proposal, please put it forward." This kind of friendly but sharp exchange of ideas is crucial to building the Party.
Some workers have called for "a bigger PLP. We need to win more workers to visit and talk to workers about our Party instead of wasting our time watching TV at night."
We’ve taken some important steps, establishing a network of DESAFIO distributors with about 50 readers. We have also won a couple of dozen people into study groups, discussing the need to build the communist PLP. Even though some workers have been fired, we’re still in contact with them. The political potential is growing.
Celebrate 40 Years Of Challenge
BROOKLYN, NY, Jan. 24—About fifty teachers and other workers, students and friends of PLP celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the greatest working class paper around, CHALLENGE-DESAFIO in a hall decorated with working-class art and a collage of the paper’s headlines over the last four decades. we ate great food donated by comrades and friends.
A group of high school students read Bertolt Brecht ‘s poem, "General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle." describing how the technology of the bosses’ war machine must depend on humans to function. Earlier in the day a youth group had discussed the article on the key role of soldiers in stopping imperialist wars by using their training and knowledge to fight the generals and the ruling class which use them as cannon fodder . The ruling class’s biggest problem is that workers can think. Our Party and its paper continues to train workers to think and act as revolutionaries.
The evening’s highlight was a speech by a comrade who described the impact CHALLENGE and the Party has had on an elementary school over a ten-year period. The consistency in spreading the paper and organizing discussions around it in this school sparked an important struggle against forcing children to recite the pledge of allegiance.
The attack on anti-fascist fighter Inez Weiner was kept front and center with a speech that inspired us to keep pushing forward. CHALLENGE will be a central part of our campaign to bring supporters to the courtroom at her April trial.
An older man attending the dinner revealed he had been a CHALLENGE reader 30 years ago in Ecuador. A teacher who came with him was impressed enough to take 100 papers to distribute in her classes.
We must continue to fight for the paper that is a breath of fresh air to the millions who are searching for a way out of the hell of capitalism.
a name="‘One Party for one international working class . . .’"></">‘O"e Party for one international working class . . .’
NEW YORK CITY, January 31—It was very emotional to see over 200 people participate in CHALLENGE’s 40th anniversary celebration in Manhattan. Lenin said the revolutionary press has a key role in the Party’s development, each of which were outlined by the first three speakers, in noting CHALLENGE’s accomplishments over four decades in serving the international working class.
The first speaker said our paper has struggled against the opportunist tendencies of the old communist movement. While learning from the giants in our history, we’ve also gone beyond that in organizing one Party for one international working class across all capitalist borders.
A second comrade declared that CHALLENGE has played a significant role in most of our political development. He said the first time he read the paper, he was very skeptical. He still remembered the front-page headline which said that capitalism, with its "booms" and economic crises, will only end when workers bury it. He read it three times that night. The next morning he sat with a co-worker at his job to discuss communism, Stalin, the history of the Soviet Union, the Vietnam War, and so on. For the first time in his life, the ideas of communism and the class struggle made him very emotional. When he joined PLP he understood that he was now responsible to win others to fight for communism.
A third speaker said that sometimes we feel like we’re isolated in a forest, not knowing what’s happening on in the world. "I bet all of us sometimes feel like we’re trapped in a hole. CHALLENGE can help us get out of that hole. It puts the entire world in front of us. Fight for communism!"
People talked about fighting racism, against imperialist war in Iraq, the fascist Patriot Act and other horrors capitalism has in store for our class. We also enjoyed delicious food served by comrades, along with some revolutionary culture. We concluded by singing the revolutionary working-class anthem The Internationale in several languages.
An Upper Manhattan Worker
Soldiers Back From Iraq Attack General Strike In Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, Jan. 29 — A 48-hour general strike shut down most of this Caribbean nation. Several demonstrators were killed and hundreds were arrested. The strike demanded an end to the government’s deal with the International Monetary Fund imposing more austerity measures on the masses, as well as a 100% wage hike for government and private workers, lower prices on basic foodstuff and an end to the constant blackouts. The country has been lurching from one economic crisis to another. In the last year, the peso’s value has dropped from 17 to the dollar to more than 50. Many Dominicans are risking their lives crossing the dangerous Mona Channel to go to Puerto Rico en route to the U.S.
The strike was called by some mass reformist organizations and supported by politicians opposed to President Hipólito Mejía’s scheme to get himself re-elected for a second term in the May balloting. The government blames the rotten economy on the world crisis of capitalism and the price of oil (imported from Venezuela). This is partially true, but the government’s corruption and ineptness has made conditions worse.
Last year, the rich Bainter bank collapsed amid a Parmalat/Enron-style fraud. The government spent over $2 billion bailing out the big investors while working people lost their savings.
Soldiers just returning from duty in Iraq patrolled the city during the strike (the D.R. being one of the few countries worldwide sending troops to help the U.S.-UK occupation). They even wore the desert camouflage uniforms used in Iraq, not the green olive ones used by the other thousands patrolling the cities. They used their Iraqi training to occupy working-class neighborhoods and attack strike protestors. A few days earlier, one Iraqi veteran killed a young man at a beer hall in San Francisco de Macoris.
The strike itself is mainly an electoral maneuver to dump the President. Most people supported it because they hate his government. But more than a general strike (a similar strike took place on Nov. 11), or changing one crooked President for another, is needed to end the misery suffered by workers here and abroad. Two days after the strike, the President ignored the mass outpouring against his policies and got himself nominated by a faction inside the divided ruling Party. A similar crisis is enveloping neighboring Haiti, where the U.S.-supported "Democratic Convergence" is trying to topple the former Clinton lackey, President Aristide. Only a united struggle on both sides of the island, based on PLP’s revolutionary communist politics, can free workers and their allies from this capitalist hell.
Fight Racist Attacks On Black And Immigrant Respiratory Therapists
CHICAGO, IL, Jan. 29 — The racist Cook County bosses are doing their best to divide the black, Latino, East Indian, Filipino and Mid-Eastern workers who comprise the Respiratory Therapy Department at Stroger Hospital. Armed with an agreement from SEIU Local 73 HC, they’re threatening to fire nine black therapists and technicians if they do not pass a "certification" test by March 31. This is a racist attack on all health workers and patients.
Racism is the cutting edge in the rulers’ push to fascism and war. Racist budget cuts in health, education, heating allowance and mass transit are financing the imperialist occupation of Iraqi oil fields and the Homeland Security police state. Stroger Hospital and County bosses are collaborating in this process, which arrests and deports Arab and Muslim immigrants, and imprisons more people — mainly young black and Latin men — than any other country in the world.
The Improving Community Health Survey shows racist disparities in health care from one Chicago community to another, and the gaps are growing. David Ansell, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital said, "This is not a problem of individuals who have bad genes. I’ve been dealing with this for 25 years and it’s gotten worse, not better. Despite all these technological advances, the disparities have worsened between the haves and have-nots." (Chicago Tribune, 1/8)
These licensed and experienced workers have helped our patients breathe for over 20 years. Several black therapists are certified, but most were promoted and licensed based on seniority and work performance. Most have been out of school for 20 years and are heads of households, which makes studying difficult. The exam, which is not required by the State, costs $190 each time one takes it.
They are being sacrificed to settle the grievances of nine mostly East Indian therapists, who passed their certification but were never promoted. In February 2003, they filed a grievance, tired of doing the same work as the mostly black therapists for $4,000 less per year (Stroger Hospital already pays certified therapists the lowest wages in the city.) In May, Local 73 HC gave the bosses the racist solution they were looking for: give all non-certified (black) therapists six months to pass the exam or lose their jobs. All the new union leadership has done so far is to get a three-month extension.
Rather than play by the bosses’ rules and be bound by their agreement with the union, we will fight to stop the racist firing of the black therapists, and fight to upgrade the immigrant therapists. In battling this racist attack, we can unite citizen and immigrant, black and white, and explain how racism is at the very core of the profit system.
This an opportunity to unite the working class and build the revolutionary communist movement. On this 25th Anniversary of PLP defeating the Nazis and integrating Marquette Park, we can build a mass May Day aimed at defeating fascism with communist revolution.
a name="Domino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits"></">Do"ino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Jan. 31 — At one time over 1,300 workers were employed at the Domino sugar refining and packing plant here in the borough’s Williamsburg neighborhood. Now the last 240 workers are being sacked, over 220 today and the rest later this year when the plant closes its doors for good.
The American Sugar Refining company claims the firings are due to the "falling demand for cane sugar," compared to competing sweeteners. But the real cause is capitalism, where profits trump workers’ lives.
In June 1958, Brooklyn had 222,000 manufacturing workers. By June of ’84, the number was down to 88,800; and by June of 2003 it had sunk to 33,967. The reason is that more profits can be made from real estate and "the gentrification rippling across" Brooklyn. (N.Y. Times, 1/31) Now the bosses want to use our taxes to build a new stadium for the "Brooklyn Nets," and build high-priced housing from which they can reap still more billions in profits.
The bosses’ drive for maximum profits pushes them to invest in machinery to lower the cost of labor (see Wages article on page 2). Nine hundred Domino workers lost their jobs to automation by 1992, while the company was making huge profits. Now capitalism’s "free market" finds greener pastures for profits in other industries, sugar substitutes or cheaper labor overseas.
In 1992-93, the 350 workers struck after rejecting a sellout proposal from the union leaders. No one attempted to scab or cross the picket lines. Yet this militancy and solidarity could not stop the bosses unstoppable drive for maximum profits.
What was missing was the communist leadership needed to point out to thousands of workers that capitalism is the root of the workers’ problems. Out of such a political struggle, and building on the militancy of the workers to sharpen the class struggle and involving hundreds of thousands of other workers in the city — spreading workers’ consciousness as a class — a revolutionary Party could grow and eventually become strong enough to destroy capitalism altogether. Under communism, workers will never be thrown out like garbage because of a new product but will do other useful things for our class, working for the benefit of the international working class.
Internationalism Trumps Nationalism At MEChA Conference
SEATTLE, WA, Jan. 16 — Because of the planning and presence of PLP, working-class internationalism won out over nationalism and liberalism at the annual MEChA Regional Conference for the Pacific Northwest at my campus here. I am an officer and active member of MEChA, a Chicano student organization. Since the conference theme was "Empowering la Mujer" [Women], we had arranged for a young women worker to speak about conditions in her plant, a subcontractor that makes parts for Boeing airplanes (commercial and military), super-exploiting their mostly immigrant, female workforce. Since Boeing is still one of the state’s largest employers, this hit home with many of the students at the conference.
The worker discussed the current world situation, how the ruling class is waging its wars by exploiting immigrant workers and using their children as cannon fodder. She concluded chanting, "Men, women, students, workers and soldiers united will never be defeated." All 300 students chanted along with her and gave her a standing ovation.
This reaction in an organization known for its nationalist politics shows the potential to win many of these young people to a more internationalist, class-conscious ideology if we continue to struggle with them. This is really what MEChA members need to answer the problems they face every day.
None of this happened by accident. Without a Party presence, the world situation either would not have been discussed at all or, if so, the solution presented would have been a very nationalist one. I have been trying to recruit members of this particular chapter for almost a year now, so my club knew the conference was an opportunity we couldn’t let pass by. It was important to do the work of the conference while also building the Party. My comrades’ help was invaluable, as always. After the conference our club decided it was imperative that more Party members get to know my friends in MEChA.
To further the political development of people in the mass movement, we must be there and raise our politics at these big events as well as in the day-to-day struggles. Because we were organized and politically conscious during this conference, we won two new contacts.
Our club now sees its main goal as furthering this internationalist, anti-imperialist line by struggling with our friends and the two new contacts to develop a class-conscious political ideology. My first step will be to ask my close friends to join PLP. Ultimately, the only thing that will help them is a strong Party to lead the fight against capitalism and towards communism.
Fighting for the Party in a Mass Student Organization
Recently I attended a student conference on worker-student solidarity, sponsored by a student organization in which the Party has been doing good work for a while. Before going, my Party club discussed the importance of revolutionary theory, how Lenin exposed the left fakers for failing to understand that a communist party takes revolutionary consciousness to the mass movement where it fights for these politics.
In several workshops about trade unions, it became clear that the contradiction really was between reform and revolution. At one workshop, people were asked about their organizations. I said I was in the Progressive Labor Party, that we were a multi-racial, international party whose platform was to eliminate racism and the system of capitalism, and that we make revolutionary politics primary in order to create a communist society free from exploitation, racism and sexism. I received a warm response.
The younger students asked if Cuba had communism. I said "no" and started to explain what communism was, but one of the facilitators said talking about communism would "take too long," that we weren’t there for that but rather for the presentation — advancing student-worker solidarity. So then we talked about that.
After that workshop one of the facilitators, who was in a union, said she really liked what I said and gave me information to contact her. I then gave her a CHALLENGE and said one of my comrades would call her. When I asked the whole crowd to take the paper, I made the mistake of not asking individual people, so I didn’t get too many out.
At another workshop, a United Farm Workers (UFW) representative described conditions for farm workers, warning there would be a major push by right-wing republicans to lower the minimum wage for these workers. He also criticized Bush’s immigration "reform" proposals and concluded that we must vote in the next elections. I then said relying on the unions and especially on voting to solve our problems was like a pet in a cage, trying to escape to freedom by running on the treadmill. Instead we need to place revolution at the forefront of our politics, to end exploitation by abolishing the wage system once and for all, meaning communism.
Again the union official said we couldn’t talk about that now, but rather about immediate solutions. I felt my position was clearly stated, and that any further talk of revolution would probably lead to me being kicked out. Later, someone asked what Cesar Chavez would do. I said Chavez turned in the names of union members to the Immigration Service. Ultimately I corrected my previous mistake, and distributed CHALLENGE to every PERSON who was interested.
In further meetings, we continued the struggle, crucial for developing some of our friends.
Liberal led organizations won’t give up leadership without a fight. We’re a small party and must do the painstaking, detailed work to win people closest to our ideas to the Party. Putting communist politics primary is most important. I learned that the collective is the key to organizing. We must investigate the contradictions, and determine which are primary and which secondary. Had I taken on all the contradictions at once, I probably would have isolated myself. I made a contact who will help continue the struggle of the group’s rank and file. Our strength is the line of the Party. We’re on the long road to building a mass communist party to take state power.
a name="Schwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services">">"chwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services
On January 10, California’s Governor released a proposed budget for 2004 containing sweeping cuts in desperately needed healthcare, social services and education for the working class. These cuts are part of the larger attack on the entire working class as U.S. rulers spend workers’ tax monies on fighting war after war to maintain their profits and world domination.
While state prisons received a hefty increase, Governor Swarzenegger proposed a $240-million cut from the State University budget. This will slash all higher education outreach and recruitment programs. The state’s largest outreach project is the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) which recruits a clear majority of low-income students, especially black and Latino, into higher education. The budget also increases tuition by 10% for undergraduates and 40% for graduates. This is on top of ex-Governor Davis’s 40% increase last year.
The reform leaders are focusing on saving EOP. They say we should ignore the openly racist nature of the cuts and appeal to the middle class — keep the message "simple." Their slogan is, "EOP equals social stability."
But if college education produces social stability, then we should see an increasing rate of stability as more and more people get college degrees. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that more people than ever graduated from college in 1996 and that rate has been continuing. It also reported substantial increases in graduation rates for all racial categories, but racism continues to mean lower numbers of black and Latino grads. According to the reformers’ logic, these increased rates should produce at least a small improvement in social stability. But, in fact, the 2000 census reported just the opposite. The gap between poor and rich doubled from 1979 to 2000 (N.Y. Times, 9/25). All major poverty indicators have worsened — unemployment, homelessness, children living in poverty, people without health insurance, etc.
There can be no social stability under capitalism, which is inherently unstable. A system that cannot provide healthcare, education, and needed social services for workers should be destroyed. The ruling class does not support public education to liberate workers from exploitation. From kindergarten through college, education exists predominantly to justify the exploitative capitalist system. New workers are trained and indoctrinated to enter different levels of the class hierarchy based on the family’s income level. Meanwhile, vast numbers of working-class youth are excluded through a combination of high tuition, racist under-education and high-stakes testing. While all workers are exploited, those excluded from education are forced into the most super-exploited jobs and/or into the bosses’ military.
PLP members and friends are participating in the fight against these racist budget cuts that are part of the bosses’ war budget and attacks on our class from Iraq to California. We can achieve a big victory and help to build a mass PLP by showing that this system needs inequality and uses racism and sexism to justify it. Capitalism will never provide the services the working class needs. PLP is fighting to organize students, workers, and soldiers to destroy the profit system and build a communist world based on creating a decent life for the working class. Join us!
Bosses Use Union Leaders to Scab on Grocery Strike
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31 — Thousands of workers and students rallied and marched here, supporting the four-month-long grocery workers’ strike. The AFL-CIO, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), religious and community groups sponsored it. PLP distributed thousands of leaflets calling for action to stop scabs, shut stores tight, march on May Day and fight for workers’ power — communist revolution — because "a system that can’t provide decent health care for workers should be smashed." Many strikers and supporters bought CHALLENGE, saying the union leaders have refused to organize a strike based on the workers’ power and unity.
The demonstrators were angry at the attacks on the workers, whose health benefits have been cancelled, and whose strike benefits have been sliced in half. Some are also angry at the union leaders’ refusal to organize against the scabs and shut the stores. These union fakers also encouraged people to shop at a chain which has locked workers out and is using scabs. Except for one month, the UFCW and Teamster leadership allowed and urged teamsters to drive their trucks up to the picket lines, from where the store managers take the merchandise to the loading docks. The UFCW leadership has also pulled pickets from the distribution centers, allowing the teamsters to scab. Several teamsters said they wanted to honor the lines, but "without UFCW pickets, we were told we must do the work." Others encouraged them to reject this rotten leadership and back the strike.
While many are boycotting the stores, they’re open and many others are shopping. Ringing the stores with strikers and other workers throughout southern California might not guarantee the workers’ health benefits but, with red leadership, it could certainly show workers their potential power to act as a class against the bosses’ profit system, with its exploitation and imperialist wars.
Rick Icaza, head UFCW’s LA-based Local 770, with 30,000 members, was paid $273,000 in 2002. (LA Times, 1/26) His wages weren’t cut during the strike! He and the other AFL-CIO leaders are serving the liberal bosses, telling workers we’re powerless, that our only hope lies in voting for Democratic politicians whose health scheme would mean continued rationing based on the bosses’ war economy needs.
One of the rally’s main speakers was California State Attorney-General Bill Locklear, hailed as a "hero" by the union leaders for pursuing an anti-trust action against the three grocery chains. The unions want workers to rely on the bosses’ laws, the same ones that make it legal to scab and illegal to stop them, that label workers’ violence against scabs "illegal" while the U.S. government’s mass violence against the workers of Iraq in the drive for oil profits is completely "legal."
Many strikers and their supporters are open to an alternative to the bosses’ agents and their outlook. PLP is fighting to turn some of this potential into actual growth for the revolutionary communist movement.
Ford, DaimlerChrysler:
Once A Nazi Always a Nazi
Several developments in the auto industry confirm the fact that capitalists defend their interests and profits by any means necessary, including fighting ferociously for markets, using death squads to torture and kill workers, and joining hands with Nazis.
On the production front, Toyota has surpassed Ford as the world’s second leading automaker, a position it has held for 70 years. In 2003, GM sold 8.59 million units worldwide, followed by Toyota with 6.78 million and Ford with 6.72 million (not including Ford-controlled Mazda). Not only has Toyota passed Ford, but it is also set to displace DaimlerChrysler as the number three seller in the U.S. market. U.S. auto bosses are also trailing Toyota in the fast-growing Asian market, particularly China, where Toyota’s profits have outdone any one of the U.S. "Big 3."
Also, Ford is being sued in an LA federal court for participating in "crimes against humanity" during the ruthless military dictatorship that ruled Argentina in the late 1970’s. Between 1976 and 1978, death squads kidnapped 25 union delegates at the General Pacheco Ford plant. Ford bosses fingered the militant workers. The death squads entered the plant, tied the workers’ hands with barbed wire, put hoods on their heads, and took them to a sports center (a clandestine jail) at the plant complex where they were tortured for five hours. Then they were taken in a company truck to a police station where they were held secretly for several months. They were then jailed in Villa Devoto and La Plata for over a year. Two never returned.
On January 14, relatives and former workers filed a similar suit in a Northern California federal court, accusing DaimlerChrysler of conspiring to jail and murder 22 workers in an Argentine Mercedes-Benz plant during the military regime (Daimler owned Mercedes-Benz even before it took over Chrysler). An internal "investigation" recently "cleared" the company, but workers won’t retreat from exposing that the Mercedes plant bosses provided the military government with pictures of the more militant workers. Mercedes worker Esteban Reimer, labeled an "agitator" by the company, was kidnapped and murdered by the death squads. The plant’s chief of production, Juan Tasselkraut, worked for the Argentine intelligence services.
Both Ford and Mercedes were Nazi supporters. Mercedes was a major part of the Nazi war machine and used slave labor in its factories. Ford’s German subsidiary built trucks and other war vehicles for the Nazis, even during the war. Ford, like Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Kennedy (the Kennedy clan’s daddy) and Bush’s granddaddy loved Hítler. Henry Ford wrote the anti-Semitic "International Jew," praising anti-Semitism. Its Argentine edition contained the Protocols of Zion, a forgery concocted by the Russian Tsar’s secret police, which became the basis for modern anti-Semitism. Ford distributed this forgery worldwide, and published the first English translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Ford visited the Führer, who awarded him the "Iron Cross." For decades, Ford’s hometown of Dearborn, MI was off-limits to black workers, unless they were going to or from work in his factories, and was run by white supremacist Mayor Orville Hubbard.
Lawsuits won’t end this era of endless wars, racism and police-state-Homeland Security, which are part and parcel of capitalism’s defense of its profits. Scratch any boss and you’ll find a Nazi. PLP is building an international revolutionary communist movement. That’s the best weapon to fight fascism! "Workers of the World, Unite!"
UAW Helps Auto Bosses Gear Up to Axe Workers
THREE RIVERS, MI. — "The new agreement makes doing business here…on par with Mexico. They don’t have to move the jobs to Mexico," squealed City Manager Joe Bippus about United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2093 adopting a three-tier wage scale at the American Axle parts plant here. It’s not the first time the UAW has agreed to wage concessions for "job security," but this is the first three-tier wage scale in U.S. auto plants.
Of the 1,000 UAW members who build axles and drive shafts, the 420 high-seniority top-tier workers earning about $26-an-hour will take a 64 cents-an-hour pay cut. The 580 second-tier employees earn $13.50 to $17 an hour. For new hires in the new, third tier, pay begins at $13.50 an hour, with no cost-of-living increases for at least two years and they will pay a bigger share of their health costs. About 100 third-tier workers will be hired later this year as part of the $28 million plant expansion.
Recently UAW President Gettelfinger assured an industry conference, "The perception of the UAW is that a relationship with our union can be a drag on your production process. The reality is far different." The "production process" reflects the growth of fascism in preparation for endless wars. "The reality" is that the nationalist, pro-capitalist union leaders are trying to stay in business by delivering workers to fascism and war.
About 2.7 million factory jobs have disappeared since January, 2001. Michigan has lost 170,000 manufacturing jobs during this time, and GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler are expected to slash up to 50,000 more jobs under the current UAW contract.
The union is renegotiating a new master contract covering American Axle’s U.S. operations. The current one expires Feb. 24. They’re also in talks with auto parts giants Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp., spun off from GM and Ford, to adopt permanent two-tier wages. Last year they signed a $10-an-hour wage cut "to save jobs" at a Chrysler parts plant that was sold to Metaldyne Corp.
The union has spent the last 25 years, since the1979 Chrysler bailout, surrendering hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in wage and benefit concessions, to make U.S. bosses "more competitive." This is how Gettlefinger and the whole generation of UAW leaders have developed. Now they stand at the brink of irrelevancy. UAW membership has dropped from 1.5 million in 1979 to 638,722 at the end of 2002. Of about 500,000 hourly jobs at U.S. auto parts suppliers, 80% are non-union, up from 50% in the 1970s. They’ve failed to organize a single European- or Asian-owned "transplant." And their choice for President, Gephardt, was the first Democratic hopeful to fall.
We don’t have to follow them over the cliff. Today they sacrifice jobs and benefits. Tomorrow they will sacrifice workers’ lives and limbs as international "car wars" become imperialist shooting wars. Building a mass, international PLP, that knows no nations or borders, can turn these imperialist wars into class wars for communist revolution.
Rawlings Scores Big From Exploiting Baseball Workers
Karl Marx discovered the "secret" of capitalist exploitation, the fact that workers are paid far less than the value they add to the production of finished goods. The rather complicated computations he used to arrive at the source of capitalist profits can be understood by the men and women of Turrialba, Costa Rica who make the nearly 2,000,000 baseballs used annually by major league baseball, for which they are paid approximately $2,750 a year. This is a mere pittance compared to the profits of the Rawlings Sporting Goods company that manufactures the baseballs.
Each worker handcrafts 4 baseballs an hour and is paid an average of 30¢ a ball. Rawlings sells the balls in the U.S. at $14.99 each.
"After I make the first two or three balls…they have already paid my salary," says 37-year-old Overly Monge. "Imagine that."
That’s surplus value in a nutshell. In the first hour, Monge makes his weekly wage. Rawlings grosses $60 (at $14.99 per ball) from those first four baseballs, more than Monge’s $55 weekly salary. For the next 54 hours he’s making profits for Rawlings. At 4 balls an hour, for a minimum 55 hours a week, he produces 220 baseballs. Rawlings profits from 216 of them, which brings them $3,237.84 PER WORKER EVERY WEEK! PLP fights for communist revolution to abolish this exploitive capitalist wage system altogether.
Not all of that is pure profit. But Rawlings profits from the Costa Rican government’s "free trade zone": no taxes, no import duties for the materials needed to manufacture the balls, on a 54,000-square-foot area awarded free to Rawlings. No wonder U.S. bosses want that free-trade zone extended to ALL of Costa Rica in the prospective NAFTA-like accord now being negotiated.
Brother Monge is earning the same $55 a week as when he started 13 years ago. And for that he suffocates in 95-degree heat sewing 108 perfect stitches along the seams in a process that can only be done by hand. "A machine can’t make them…but it demands the precision and speed of a machine." The worker becomes the machine.
"It messes up your hands…hurts your shoulders" and "deforms your fingers and arms." After nine years at Rawlings, Soledad Castillo, 46, cannot make a fist or touch her right palm with her middle finger. From 1991-1997, one-third of the workers developed carpel tunnel syndrome and 90% experienced pain of some kind.
Could there be any clearer reason to destroy capitalism and its wage system? A communist society in which workers reap the full benefit of the value they produce, will put the health of the working class first and foremost.
(All information and quotes from the New York Times, 1/25/04)
a name="1911 Triangle Fire Didn’t End Sweatshops">">"911 Triangle Fire Didn’t End Sweatshops
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle.
Atlantic Monthly Press, 340 pages, $25
On March 25, 1911, a flash fire on two floors of the Asch Building, took the lives of 146 workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Nearly all were Jewish and Italian immigrants, mostly young women. It was the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history until the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, 90 years later.
The Asch Building still stands, at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street in Greenwich Village, and billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared it an historic landmark this past year. It’s how the bosses and their politicians co-opt history. They’ve done the same thing with New York’s Tenement Museum and Ellis Island, and with the textile-mill museums in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Some of the history is surprisingly candid about workers’ conditions, but it’s all presented as "ancient history." They’ll condemn the Triangle fire, and use it to show how the tragedy led to better working conditions, while ignoring the sweatshops that still exist, some within walking distance of the site of the Triangle fire. Yes, working conditions have changed, somewhat, through workers’ struggles against the bosses, but the essence of capitalism’s racist super-exploitation is a fact of life for most garment workers today, many of them immigrant women. And tens of thousands of workers still die every year in industrial "accidents." Only communist revolution can permanently improve workers’ lives and working conditions.
Washington Post reporter David Von Drehle’s book is a compelling account of the disaster, with all the horrifying details — the scores of victims who jumped to their deaths from a 9th-floor window rather than be burned alive and the locked doors that prevented their escape down the stairs. It also provides vivid accounts of the 1909 blouse-makers’ strike that emboldened the growing trade-union movement, some of whose leaders died in the fire, leading to some reforms of labor and worker-safety laws.
Von Drehle has compiled the first complete list of victims, and presents the only existing transcript of the subsequent manslaughter trial of the company’s owners, a document lost for decades. It includes heartbreaking testimony from survivors of the raging inferno. It also punctures the longstanding myth that defense lawyer Max Steuer won his clients’ acquittal by getting a key witness to repeat her testimony verbatim four times, showing it was rehearsed. Her testimony was not repetitive, except for some phrases that Steuer prompted her into repeating.
The owners were freed because the judge’s instructions to the jury all but forced an acquittal. To convict, the jury would have had to conclude that the owners knew the doors were locked and that the victims would otherwise have survived. This same judge had been forced to resign as city tenement commissioner seven years earlier, being held responsible for a Lower East Side fire that killed 20 people.
No one was held criminally responsible for the Triangle disaster. The company’s owners actually profited by collecting more insurance than their true losses, and successfully fought most of the civil lawsuits filed against them. Ultimately, 23 victims’ families and survivors settled for just $75 per claim!
The struggle against sweatshop conditions in the NYC garment industry strengthened the ILGWU (the garment workers’ union, today’s UNITE). But its Social-Democratic leadership became rabidly anti-communist, opposed the old Communist Party (which fought and beat gangsters who worked for the bosses), and allowed sweatshop conditions to flourish. But even if the more militant reformers of the old CP had won, today there would still be few unionized workers in New York’s garment industry or nationally. Sweatshops abound among many subcontractors to major apparel companies. Most garment workers in the U.S. are immigrants from Latin America and Asia, adding racism to the equation, a source of capitalist super-exploitation.
Ironically, N.Y. Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff just wrote (1/14) that the problem isn’t too many third-world sweatshops, "but too few." From China to NYC, from LA to the maquiladoras of Central America and the Caribbean, garment workers need communist revolution, not another century of meager, short-lived reforms. (Information drawn from the NY Post, 1/11/04.)
LETTERS
Anti-War Activists Need Red Politics
Last month a work-buddy and neighbor of mine asked me to attend a neighborhood meeting of the Dean Campaign which showed the film "Uncovered…."
A crowd of 60 to 70 people in their twenties and thirties and several of our vintage were told that similar showings were occurring across the country. Afterwards we’d be able to e-mail questions to the film’s producers and hear their answers over a speaker phone in the front of the room.
When the film ended and we were waiting for the phone to ring, I rose and said, "I hope it’s O.K. to make some comments while we’re waiting. Was anyone else disturbed, as I was, by…the voices of ethics and righteousness [from] veteran CIA agents, top military officers and high-level government officials, many of whom must have been the architects or agents of murderous U.S. policies throughout the world over the past several decades. Some may have even trained Saddam Hussein back in the ’80s or planned the murder of Salvadore Allende of Chile and tens of thousands of Chilean leftists."
One young woman replied, "That was to establish credibility for the film because there are a lot of people who don’t even know that the war was built on lies." I responded, "Yes, but it established credibility for more than just the film. By using these spokespeople, it makes it seem as though just the wrong people are in office, rather than that the whole system is criminal. And look at what the film omitted. Not a word about what the war was really about — control of Mid East oil. This glaring omission shows that the film’s real purpose is to build patriotism and hook all the disaffected anti-war people into the ‘anyone-but-Bush’ movement. The film makes it seem as though the U.S. government’s worst crime is lying. No! The worst crime is occupying a country — destroying and harming lives — to control its resources…."
When I finished, several people were nodding in agreement. I got the names and phone numbers of two people, after telling them about PLP. Although I didn’t talk about communism, I did induce the audience to think about this film in a new way.
Everyone should seek out these kinds of opportunities to bring communist politics into the anti-war movement. The people leading the meetings will never hand them to us. We must be bold and respectful, and build unity. I was nervous and my heart was beating hard, but I did it anyway. We communists have a responsibility to challenge the patriotic liberalism that is being promoted to build a base for U.S. imperialism and fascism. We must train ourselves to be bold!
Boston Reader
Red Army Liberated Auschwitz
January 27 marked the 59th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest and most infamous of the Nazi death camps. A group of Auschwitz survivors went to the site where many of Poland’s 2.6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis and their Polish lackeys, to honor this day and call for world peace. A monument dedicated to the victims of Shoa (the Holocaust) will be completed near the Berlin Parliament by 2005.
I read a brief report about these celebrations in the NY Daily News and in the Dwelles-World, a German news agency. Neither mentioned the Red Army’s role in liberating Auschwitz and many of the death camps. By Jan. 27, 1945, the end of the Third Reich was only a few months away. The Red Army was advancing swiftly through Poland, headed for Berlin.
Many people still believe that the U.S.-led Allies won World War II. CHALLENGE has frequently exposed this fraud, but it’s worth repeating. Recently I talked with a young Israeli man living in NYC who considered himself "knowledgeable" in history. He repeated this fraud. He thought D-Day — the June 6, 1944 landing of U.S. and British troops in western France — was the turning point of the war. But by the time Churchill and Roosevelt decided to launch this Second Front, the Soviet Red Army had already decimated most of the Nazi war machine, defeating it at the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943, at the huge battle between 6,000 Nazi and Soviet tanks at Kursk soon afterwards, and in other battles.
These lies comprise the anti-communist rewriting of history by the world’s capitalists. Without the Soviet Red Army, history would have been quite different.
An aspiring historian
Teacher Salutes Anti-Fascist Stand
Because I’ve been struggling in my school against the chaos created by the racist school system, the administration has harassed and punished me in many small ways. One was being sent to the New Teachers Workshops (NTW) which occupied me for three full Sundays.
As part of this ongoing struggle, at the union’s Delegate Assembly two months ago I had championed the defense of activists. At my first Sunday NTW, one teacher told me she had heard me at the Delegate Assembly and we had a little discussion about the school chaos created by the racist capitalist system.
At the next Delegate Assembly I challenged the resolution to stand silently to honor just the U.S. dead, saying we should also stand for the Iraqi dead, (Challenge, 2/4). At the next Sunday class, this same woman told me that she again had heard me at the Assembly and said, "I wanted to stand with you. It was wonderful what you did. But I was there with a friend and I’m not a delegate."
By standing up against the forces of fascism we give other people heart. They may not be ready to stand yet, but we must believe that at some point they will.
A working teacher
a name="Boycott, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’"></a>"oycott, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’
Hollywood actor/producer Mel Gibson is poised to bring out his anti-Semitic movie, "Passion of the Christ," a depiction of the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life. Gibson’s personal hate- and horror-filled version of Jesus’ trial/execution and his rejection of the "liberalized" Roman Catholic Church flood the film. Set to appear in over 2,000 theaters on February 25, the movie should be boycotted and picketed. The controversy already swirling around it should be used now and in the weeks to come to build working-class solidarity and explain how and why capitalism uses its mass media to build fascism.
Philly Anti-fascist
a name="‘Community Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle"></">‘C"mmunity Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle
In CHALLENGE’s Red Eye on the News (2/4), the article, "It helps to act like Reds!" equates Harvard’s Dr. Earl’s theory about crime prevention (N.Y. Times, 1/6/04) with communist practice. I disagree. Can we imagine the American Society of Criminology, the National Institute of Justice, the McArthur Foundation and other government agencies funding $51 million to Dr. Earl to teach people how to act like reds?
Dr. Earl’s Ten Point Coalition used a group of black ministers with plenty of time and resources to convince some people to act as Homeland Security-style spies and reporters against graffiti scrawlers and teenagers who hang out on the corners. His theory challenges the Giuliani-type fascist crackdown currently used by police here and worldwide which results only in overcrowding the prison systems and creating potentially rebellious soldiers. He proposes instead community meetings to get volunteers to clean up and police neighborhoods, asking kids to rat out crime ringleaders and to "coordinate their activities with policemen" (a possible model for Iraq, using Shi’ite holy men?).
Dr. Earl says we can solve problems through neighborhood meetings, but most community groups say they need living-wage jobs, smaller class sizes, after-school programs, child care, medical care, affordable housing, places for the homeless, etc. Dr. Earl’s article or theories never mentions these issues or war spending that robs the funds to pay for them.
From the Vietnam War to the war in Iraq, PLP communists have participated in many community groups, picketing welfare and unemployment offices, leading mass anti-war marches in many cities and pointing out how capitalism was responsible for their neglected neighborhoods.
To equate Dr. Earl’s pro-cop, stoolie program with how red comrades have worked among the people is either a mistake or a gross error in judgment.
Red Comrade
The U.S. as the Fourth Reich
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican congressman from Long Beach, California, has introduced legislation that would force emergency room doctors to report and fingerprint any undocumented immigrants they treat. "America has become the HMO to the whole world," he said. "We are taking care of any illegal immigrant who can get to our country and get to that emergency room."
This means that ER personnel would ask people seeking emergency care, "Do you have your papers?" Most patients without papers would simply stay away — and die. Denying care is clearly the intent of this vicious racist bill. It also seeks to win workers and patients to blame immigrants for the horrors caused by the war budget.
Every week we hear over the hospital P.A. system, "Code blue, radiology waiting room, 2nd floor." That means another patient has had a cardiac arrest waiting for a bed in our overcrowded, downsized hospital.
Working in a hospital used by thousands of working-class patients from many countries, I see the next phase of intensifying fascism as particularly ugly for my co-workers and myself. We need to organize to resist and refuse these neo-Nazi proposals before they become law. As we raise resolutions in unions and professional organizations, we must educate those around us about the history of medicine in Nazi Germany. Our friends need to know how the Soviet Red Army eventually ended these atrocities militarily defeating the Nazi army. Must be time to start building a new Red Army.
Red Doctor
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)
Cop violence not impartial
Far from being impartial enforcers of the law, New York police officers have historically taken sides against anyone threatening…particular ideas of order and authority — even when that meant clubbing workingmen demanding an eight-hour day or teenage girls striking outside sweatshops. (NYT, 1/25)
Contracts show war plans
A spokesman for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary for Halliburton, claims that a contract for logistical services for troops in Iraq was awarded two years ago.... This contact…predates the invasion of Iraq by more than a year. How could a company get a contract for an event that had not yet taken place unless it surely knew that it would?
….Almost from the inauguration the Bush administration was involved in planning to invade Iraq. (Letter to NYT, 1/29)
US sells out Afghan women
U.S. support of fundamentalists in powerful positions throughout the country has left Afghanistan’s dreams of freedom dashed, and women far from liberated….
The moujahedeen do not approve of women leading any part of their lives in public, and harshly intimidate those who think differently….
The United Nations and international human rights groups recently released reports detailing widespread beatings, kidnappings and rape by these warlords and their militias. And several girls’ schools around the country have been set on fire. (LA Times)
Profits come before health
Sugars added to food….made up 11 percent of calories in American diets in the late 1970’s; they are now 16 percent overall and 20 percent for teenagers. By itself, that 20-ounce Coke or Pepsi in a school vending machine provides 15 teaspoons of sugars.
Understandably, industry lobbyists are uneasy about calls to cut consumption of sugars….Threatened by such conclusions, food companies and their friends in government try to…delay action, just as the cigarette industry did for so many years. (NYT, 1/23)
Iraq war long planned
[Paul] O’Neill, the former treasury secretary fired in December 2002….portrays an administration bent on invading Iraq from day one. "It was all about,… "Go find me a way to do this…."
When O’Neill goes to see Cheney in November 2002, to try to persuade him that another round of enormous tax cuts favoring the rich could cause deficits of a size that could cripple the country’s long-term economic future, the vice-president tells him….that we won the elections and we can do what we like for our backers….
The White House response has been to belittle O’Neill…. (GW, 1/29)
Arab youths losing hope
Of the 90 million Arab youth today (between the ages of 15 and 24), 14 million are unemployed….There’s not enough jobs and not enough hope," Jordan’s King Abdullah told the Davos economic forum. (NYT, 1/25)
Halliburton dodges taxes
Halliburton…goes to great lengths — literally to the ends of the earth — to escape paying…taxes to the government that has been so good to it.
Annual reports…showed Halliburton subsidiaries incorporated in such places as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Liechtenstein and Vanuatu….as a corporate tax shelter. (NYT, 1/30)
Women’s wages still super-low
Equal Pay for Equal Work is the oldest demand in the feminist repertoire….
In the mid-’60s, women were paid 69 cents for every dollar a man made. After 30 years of struggle and hard work, we now make 74 cents for every dollar a man makes….
Except, of course, for black and Hispanic women, who are now making 63 cents and 54 cents respectively for every dollar men make. (Molly Ivens, Liberal Opinion Week, 1/12)
Rob Palestinians of water
More than 80% of water from the West Bank goes to Israel. The Palestinians are allotted just 18% of the water that is extracted from their own land. Palestinian villages and farmers are monitored by meters fitted to pumps and punished for overuse. Jewish settlers…use 10 times as much water per capita as each Palestinian. (GW, 1/28)
US-Pakistan terror tactic
Pakistan massed several thousand troops….Using a harsh century-old British method, officials handed local tribal elders a list and issued an ultimatum.
If 72 men wanted for sheltering Al Qaeda were not produced, they said, the Pakistani Army would punish the tribe as a group, demolishing houses, withdrawing funds….
Pakistani officials…conceded that they had been under intense American pressure to act in the tribal areas. They said they hoped the new approach would prove fruitful. (NYT, 1/31)
Former Bushite Sharpens Fight Between U.S. Rulers
LIBERALS SAY BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY ENDANGERS BIG OIL
Imperialist Rivalry Reaches the Moon and Mars
Teacher Stands Up For Iraqi Workers
Using Bosses’ Statistics To Teach Anti-Racism
‘Bracero’ Plan A Presciption for Exploitation, Fascism
Racist Immigration Scheme Reminds Farmworker of ‘Bad Old Days’
Racist NYC Mayor Turning Schools into Police State
Explodes Lies About School Violence
Election Charade Means More Misery for Salvadoran Workers
Aristide: From Liberal ‘Savior’ to Fascist Dictator
That’s Capitalism: Execs Profit From Workers’ Health Cuts
Talk About Robbing Workers: Bosses Steal Women’s Paychecks
Iraq War Sharpens U.S.-Russian Rivalry Over Oil
Feudalism or Capitalism? Both Hara-Kiri For Workers
LETTERS
Ezploitation Can’t Be ‘Voted Out’
Racist Jokes Used to Divide Us
When China Was Red Heroin Gangs Were Busted
U.S. Bosses Split Over China
Drug Barons Profit From Flu Epidemic
Making Communists is Crucial
Rule of Law Ties Us to the System
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
Cutting $ for kids’ health
‘Better under Communists’
Cruel squeeze at Wal-Mart
US OK’s terror vs. rebels
America accepts child poverty
Imperialist war: old story
Filipino rebel army 10,000
Another war for Iraq oil?
US grabbed half of Mexico
It helps to act like Reds!
Former Bushite Sharpens
Fight Between U.S. Rulers
LIBERALS SAY BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY ENDANGERS BIG OIL
Imperialist Rivalry Reaches the Moon and Mars
Teacher Stands Up For Iraqi Workers
Using Bosses’ Statistics To Teach Anti-Racism
‘Bracero’ Plan A Presciption for Exploitation, Fascism
Racist Immigration Scheme Reminds Farmworker of ‘Bad Old Days’
Racist NYC Mayor Turning Schools into Police State
Explodes Lies About School Violence
Election Charade Means More Misery for Salvadoran Workers
Aristide: From Liberal ‘Savior’ to Fascist Dictator
That’s Capitalism:
Execs Profit From Workers’ Health Cuts
Talk About Robbing Workers:
Bosses Steal Women’s Paychecks
Iraq War Sharpens U.S.-Russian Rivalry Over Oil
Feudalism or Capitalism?
Both Hara-Kiri For Workers
LETTERS
Ezploitation Can’t Be ‘Voted Out’
Racist Jokes Used to Divide Us
When China Was Red Heroin Gangs Were Busted
U.S. Bosses Split Over China
Drug Barons Profit From Flu Epidemic
Making Communists is Crucial
Rule of Law Ties Us to the System
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
Cutting $ for kids’ health
‘Better under Communists’
Cruel squeeze at Wal-Mart
US OK’s terror vs. rebels
America accepts child poverty
Imperialist war: old story
Filipino rebel army 10,000
Another war for Iraq oil?
US grabbed half of Mexico
It helps to act like Reds!
"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
a href="#Class Line Exposes ‘Red Scarf’ Lies">Cl"ss Line Exposes ‘Red Scarf’ Lies
- 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.
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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
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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
‘Coporate Governance’ = Disciplining the Ruling Class
