Of course, you can look at a strike like the union hacks do, as a trade or economic dispute. That would be a fatal error. No strike is merely (or even mainly) a trade dispute. Strikes are eruptions of class war. And that is especially true in the case of Boeing. Billions of dollars of capital are concentrated in the Boeing Corp. These investments haven't been made by private, individual capitalists. They have been made by a coalition of big bankers, big financiers and big industrialists. In short, capitalists as a class have a vested interest in Boeing.
Much is at stake. Boeing is central to the U.S. aerospace industry. That is a profitable industry in its own right. And one where the U.S. still has the leading position in world trade; and aerospace is central to military power. Military power is a vital component to what the capitalists call "free trade," and to their ability to exploit our brothers and sisters around the world. So, although the picket lines are in Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Wichita, Kan., the effects will be felt far beyond those cities. The Board of Directors of the Boeing Corp. has no doubt about what they are doing in this strike: they are waging class war!
The cops and jails and injunctions are part of this class war. And the media are key parts -- influencing us, our family, our friends. Even the unions and the wage system itself (which keeps all of us just a few paychecks away from poverty) are part of their class war. The capitalists, it seems, have everything lined up in their favor.
Except Rolling Thunder...thousands upon thousands of workers in rebellion. Rallying. Marching. Hammering for a strike. Not the company, not the cops, not the news media, not the union leaders, not the capitalist class itself could stop Boeing workers from launching this strike. The working class has made its move!
The workers at Boeing should be saluted. They have given us all a glimpse of the power that lies dormant within our class. In the last five years the capitalists have wrecked the livelihoods of a half million aerospace workers -- throwing them out of work. Now they plan on playing the unemployed off against the employed. They want to outsource 52% of the production at Boeing. Last week the workers defiantly said "No!" to such a scheme. They said their interests were inseparable from the workers who were jobless. And in saying so, they acted as a class -- a working class.
They heightened the class struggle. Yet at the same time they uncovered our strategic weakness. Our class has no developed "general staff;" PLP is not yet a mass communist party. And that's what we desperately need -- tens of thousands in the communist PLP, which puts the interests of the whole working class first and foremost. A mass Party that insists the fight of the Boeing worker is the fight of the jobless worker is the fight of the "illegal" immigrant worker, and so on and so on.
Communism is the "ism" of the working class. How can we unite employed and unemployed, worker and student, black and white without a mass communist party? What can we win if we have to spend our time reacting to the cops, reacting to the company, reacting to the union hacks -- in short on the defensive?
Contract strikes are a limited form of class struggle. They are fights over the degree of our exploitation. They are not revolutionary fights over ending exploitation once and for all. As a result, they fail to mobilize the full strength of workers. Nevertheless by demonstrating the potential -- by letting the thunder roll -- they inspire a real confidence in the working class. Communism -- the idea that workers can win power and run society -- is the clearest expression of that confidence. If this strike truly becomes a school for communism, then it will see our Party grow both in members and influence, no matter what the outcome of the contract battle!
Neither the company nor the union leadership expected this eruption of class war. Thousands of Boeing workers, at dozens of plants, in three states, rebelled. Insurrection was in the air. By the end of the week, there was no doubt about the strike, as 78% voted to hit the bricks. Thousands marched militantly out of the plants.
Some line-bosses were actually happy to see us strike. At least, it got us out of the plants. Take, for example, the march last Wednesday at the Auburn complex. We marched out of the Sheet Metal Center (SMC) chanting, "Strike! Strike!" and "[CEO] Frank [Schrontz] Got the Gold , We Got the Shaft," until our numbers grew to 400. Led by two black women, this group of mostly white men -- which also included black men and white women -- took a sharp turn to the left into the tooling building next door. Chanting "Strike! Strike!" as loud as we could, we still could not be heard. We were surrounded by hundreds of supportive whistling, hammer-banging, horn-blowing, fist-pounding toolmakers as soon as we entered the building. A local radio station carried the thunder live, reporting the building shook from the noise.
Not only did the building shake! Management and plant security were also shaking by the time we entered the machine parts building. They called the cops, saying there was a riot. The local cops were too scared and/or to unprepared to respond. The Seattle riot squad had to be summoned. But it was too late, we had already returned to the SMC. After marching through four buildings, we entered the doors of SMC chanting. Workers welcomed us with shouts and applause.
Similar scenes were repeated throughout the Puget Sound area as the insurrection built through the week. "If I Had a Hammer" flyers were posted and worn on clothing as whole complexes of buildings shook with the rolling thunder of hammer on steel every hour on the hour. Line bosses ran for cover into their air-conditioned offices -- helpless in the face of this mass rebellion. A few foolhardy managers tried to stem this tide of anger only to be overcome by a tidal wave of noise. By the end of the week, nearly a thousand workers had rallied on the flight line in Everett, thousands had marched out of nearly every major complex and 1,500 marched from the Auburn complex to the union hall to guarantee a strike.
Frank Schrontz and Boeing president Phil Condit sent a letter to every International Association of Machinists (IAM) member in a last desperate attempt to weaken our resolve. "Airbus has accomplished what it set out to do...," they wrote. "We need to take decisive action to control our own destiny. If we don't, our competitors will control it for us." But the pleas of these bosses, who between them stand to pocket $9.5 million in stock options alone, fell on deaf ears. "Airbus, blah, blah, blah," said one SMC worker. Many workers showed their intense hatred of the company's global competitiveness bull. Others still have some illusions. We've already made contact with Airbus workers to make this fight international. We must answer the bosses' crisis of excess production capacity with an international fight for shorter hours of work without a loss in pay -- 6 hours work for 8 hours pay -- to create millions of living-wage jobs.
Today workers at the Auburn plant have been debating PLP's communist ideas. Workers have discussed the crisis of overproduction and sharpening capitalist rivalry. They have debated and organized around international interests -- contacting aerospace workers in Europe and Mexico. In doing so, they have challenged the narrow nationalist and defeatist union position of, "export planes, not jobs!" There have been sharp individual debates over workers' power versus capitalist power.
The union leadership hopes to regain "their place at the table" by showing they can control us when the bosses can't. Picket captains are already being instructed by the business agents to reign in militancy. "The kids were getting a little carried away, but the strike captains have taken control of it," said Lt. Jim Baugh of the Everett police. In Wichita, Kansas, the strike was less than 24 hours old when Boeing got a court injunction against mass picketing. Here only 50% of the work-force is on strike, and one rank-and-file leader estimates that within three weeks, 30% of the strikers might cross the picket lines. Wichita workers must defy the courts and IAM leaders, break the injunction, and make sure nothing moves in or out of the plant.
Of course, the bosses' police are doing their part. Record numbers of cops have been deployed to intimidate scores of workers who have walked the picket lines, despite only two pickets being assigned to a gate. Cops have told Auburn strikers that pedestrians don't have the right of way, even in a cross walk -- especially in front of a Boeing plant. Two Everett pickets have already been arrested and fined $500 each. We need hundreds to shut the gates down and stop production cold. If that fails, we need to take over the plants -- again!
A revolutionary movement requires more than a militant trade union. It requires more than communists and their friends leading mass, militant struggle -- as good as that is. It requires a mass revolutionary communist party -- the Progressive Labor Party. The company negotiator called us "old dogs who can't cut it anymore." Join us and show that these "old dogs" have learned some new tricks! ...And when our class moves to take power, no force on earth can stop us.
For the last several issues, 40-50 copies of Challenge-Desafío have been sold in the Sheet Metal Center at Boeing. In some areas, there are more Challenge-Desafío than issues of the Seattle Times. Debates about the articles in Challenge-Desafío are common -- especially, the Boeing articles.
Party members and friends at Boeing have helped organize petitions that have included a thousand signatures opposing the company/union plans to eliminate our jobs with a "teamwork" scheme. The union hall received hundreds of irate phone calls form our building on this issue. Scores of SMC workers have gone to union meetings to build the fight for jobs. We proposed a resolution that was passed for rallies in support of laid-off workers. When the leadership dragged its feet on implementing our resolution, we, along with others in Everett and Wichita, held our own rallies of 60 workers at the plant gates. The banner we made for that demonstration, "Employed and Laid-off: Unite for Jobs," has been proudly flown at every major milestone leading up to this strike. It now flies boldly on the picket lines.
The left, in which we are active, tightened up the struggle another notch at the strike sanction vote. We distributed over 4,000 newsletters at the strike sanction vote and in the plants that call for 6 hours work for 8 hours pay to create millions of jobs world wide. We opposed the reactionary nationalist bull pushed by IAM International president Kourpias by contacting workers at Airbus and in Mexico. We included the open letters we sent to these workers in our newsletter.
All this activity has taken the discussion to a higher level, helping to formulate the militant attitude that would eventually lead to rebellion and strike. In fact, Party members and friends took decisive action at crucial times to advance the struggle. Many of the events described in this issue that have taken place in the last week were moved ahead because of the direct action of our friends in the plants.
At this time, both the company and the union are controlled by forces with undying loyalty to capitalism. Unfortunately, this will result in many more losses for the working class. On the other hand, what we do counts. The job now is to expand our modest influence.
The Pope waxed poetic about the plight of the poor in the U.S. As his tears poured out over the condition of the poor, the poor were attacked ever harder by the bosses' budget cuts. As the Pope spoke, the poor were getting poorer and the rich and the Pope, richer.
Hundreds of thousands of the faithful turned out to see and hear the Pope. The masses are desperate to find some answers and relief from the grinding capitalist oppression. But the Pope, the "Shepherd," threw a balmy mix over the desperate masses. The Pope's flock is becoming more impoverished. The base of the Church is becoming more heavily populated by very poor latin workers.
The main role of the Church is to preserve the "status quo." In doing this the Pope calls on the masses to be passive and pray in the face of increased oppression. But prayers aren't going to stop the budget cuts. Only militant mass action for communism can end the blight of capitalism. The Church calls on the masses to accept their plight on earth. The Church tells the workers "be good on earth and you will find the kingdom of heaven for eternity." Fight the bosses and "you go to hell forever!" "Heaven" on earth can only be achieved by fighting for the dictatorship of the proletariat and communism. Only communism can secure egalitarianism and a sharing-caring society.
Major cities in this country have been rocked by similar protests. Even the pro-government union hacks heading the CGT (Labor Federation) were forced to call a national day of protest early in Sept. to try to calm the anger of the workers.
Free market capitalism, imposed by President Menem, has been a bonanza for local and imperialist bosses, but it has been deadly for workers' jobs and standard of living. The militancy and anger of workers are good, but more is needed. Workers have to learn from these struggles that a system that cannot provide jobs must be smashed by communist revolution.
The very size of this conference was significant. More importantly, there was not a single one of the 300 participants who was not introduced to PLP and our line: that building a movement for, and achieving, a worker's dictatorship is the best plan for fighting racist attacks on affirmative action, cutbacks and the fascist "scientists."
All conference participants reported on their struggles against racist program cuts and attacks on Affirmative Action. We emerged from the conference with a plan to center our spring offensive against racism with a unified date of protest on all campuses on March 27.
About 50 members and friends of PLP attended. The promotion of our line at the conference sharpened the ideological struggle there. The main contradiction at the Conference was between our line of working class unity and nationalism. The results were mixed. We made sure to expose the fact that the Nation of Islam, who had a few representatives, was just a group that wanted to replace white exploiters of the black working class with black ones. They were proposing black capitalism, including black banks and money markets. One comrade summed it up this way, "The purpose of a bank is to make money. If your house note is due, and you can't pay, the bank will take your house."
We were able to move all the discussions to the Left by presenting communist ideas. This kind of sharp ideological struggle dominated the workshops. This was good, but often the discussion was too abstract. The workers in the sessions turned to PLP members and said, "We agree with you on the problems of capitalism, but what do we do now? We are tired of ideological battles that do not result in practical solutions."
We could have done a better job in describing the struggles in which we have been involved recently, like the teach-in we had against racism and mass student struggles against budget cuts at Chicago State University last year, or our activity in NYC against fascist research and budget cuts. This would have given us more credibility, because the fact is that we are involved in, and leading, struggles against the system that many came to the conference to change. We could have reported on even more activity if we were more involved in mass organizations at our schools.
Our line was well received by the Conference participants. We are more entrenched in the mass movement than before. We are in a position to make our Spring Offensive Against Racism huge, encompassing 50 or even 100 campuses on March 27, keeping in mind the whole time that this movement must be directed toward building a mass communist march on May Day.
The primary victims of police oppression and terror are black workers. The latest figures show that one of three young black men are involved with the criminal "justice" system. Of course, black workers, among others, hate the police with an overriding venom. Black workers, by the millions, cheered O.J. Simpson's acquittal. Most did so not because Simpson was a hero, although a minority might have felt that way; they cheered because the police and the courts were defeated.
White workers, even some who realize the class nature of the police, generally opposed the not guilty decision. Many see the police as their protectors. One line the rulers pushed about Fuhrman was that he was an "aberration." Many people fell for this lie. Why? Unlike most black workers, white workers are not subjected to the same daily terrorism as black workers are.
The main political aspect of the Simpson trial was that the role of the police was partially exposed. Sure, racism, sexism, diversion, and nationalism were important aspects. But the primary thing was that once the Fuhrman tapes became public, this rather mundane trial became an important political event. Again, the innocence or guilt of O.J. is not the main thing. The primary thing is police terrorism. Fuhrman and LAPD are only the tip of the iceberg.
Mao once said something to the effect that, "the masses are our teachers. We should be modest in the face of the wisdom of the masses." Black workers represent the advanced section of the U.S. working class -- they understood the primary aspect of the not guilty decision. Our job is to use these opportunities to win white workers away from racism and to expose the universal class role of the police. We must build the Party among the advanced section of the working class by winning them away from self-defeating nationalist solutions, and winning them to the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat!
Presently, the rulers are whipping up more racism. They have been pushing and still push the lie that black men are wife-beaters, brutal, etc., and as such are the enemies of all workers. These racist lies will fail as more and more workers understand the role of the police who are the trained goons of the rulers. Every militant action that we are involved in, and many we are not involved in, can be used to unmask the unchangeable role of the police. No matter how hard the ruling class tries to cover up the oppressive role of the police they will fail.
The period we are in will increase the contradiction between all workers and the bosses. Increasingly, the police will be used more vigorously by the bosses to keep workers in line. Every police action against workers should be used to build on the existing hatred of the police, and the need for revolution.
At this rate, 20 years from now, every single black man in his 20's will be in jail or just out! These figures come as no surprise to black workers who experience police terror on a daily basis. They also expose the ruler's lie that communism will take away our freedom. What freedom?
The ruling class calls it a war on drugs but really it's a war on the working class. Yes, many workers get caught up in drugs. However, the capitalists primarily use the drug issue as an excuse to maintain cops as an occupying force in black workers' neighborhoods.
The capitalists themselves are the biggest drug pushers. They know that getting high keeps workers from organizing against the rulers. But while blacks make up only 12% of the nation's population and 13% of drug users, they represent 35% of arrests, 55% of convictions, and a remarkable 74% of prison sentences for drug possession. Yet we're supposed to believe there's "liberty and justice for all."
These figures indicate the rulers are on the offensive. Fearful of rebellion from the most oppressed -- black workers -- the bosses are increasing their repression. As the capitalist system declines, this oppression will intensify. This will put many thousands more in jail. It will also put many more millions in opposition to the fascist rulers. Those who still have the illusion of capitalist "justice" will have their eyes opened.
While the rulers cut funds for education, job training, health care, food stamps, or anything else which might make life under capitalism a little less unbearable, they are increasing spending for police and prisons. But for how much longer? How long will it be before capital punishment becomes the rule, not the exception? How long will it be before the rulers decide it costs too much money to lock people up -- killing them is much cheaper?
They are laying the basis for this fascism now. Whites, latins, asians and higher-income blacks are targeted for a barrage of anti-black lies. "They're criminals and gangbangers, don't want to work, and don't take care of their kids." The essence of the attack on welfare is that it's their own fault they need government assistance, and the government can't afford to take care of them anymore. Can the gas ovens be far behind?
Is there any solution to this horrendous situation short of revolution? NO! Let's not waste another day while more young black men are jailed. Let's not waste another day while the rulers build racist ideology. The time to build the communist Progressive Labor Party is now!
The U.S. ruling class -- the biggest bosses, bankers and politicians -- wants workers to be scared passive and divided in the face of mass unemployment and cutbacks in welfare and health care.
Grandell's friends and relatives will be marching Sat. Oct. 14, to fight back against police terror. They see Grandell's shooting not as an isolated problem but rather as part of the general trend of attacks on the working class. Building PLP and the movement for communist revolution is the fitting answer to the problem of ending police terror here, and everywhere.
I am very much interested in your newspaper. I have five friends who are also very much interested. Please send us copies of Challenge and whatever other documents you might print. Please add my name to your mailing and subscription list.
New Friend in Nigeria
At our Oct. 2 Local 1199 hospital union Delegate Assembly meeting about the health care cuts in Medicaid and Medicare proposed by Congress, the leadership came under fiery criticism from the membership.
Union members from Angelica Laundry, facing the closing of their shop on Oct. 4, were very angry because of the lack of support shown by the union leadership. They had not received their vacation pay, and have been fighting against subcontracting for four years. These workers supplied laundry to Staten Island, Interfaith and Presbyterian Hospitals. The union leadership chose arbitration and knuckling under to the bosses' laws instead of organizing militant mass struggle to stop the company from subcontracting.
Dennis Rivera, 1199 union president, reporting on the proposed health care cuts, said about 30,000 jobs could be lost in the health care industry here in New York City. Once again he blamed the Republicans. And once again he told us to elect Democrats to office, to rely on the Democrats to stop the cuts.
We must rely on ourselves, on the health care workers, patients and communities, to roll back these cuts. Depending on those rotten politicians who have sold out the working class is a big mistake.
Workers took the floor to heatedly accuse the 1199 leadership of shutting down the hiring hall since June 12 and laying off the employment service staff and other union staff members. And they denounced Rivera's doubling his annual salary to over $100,000. The leadership had no answer and refused to deal with those issues. The struggle continues....
Brooklyn Red
Congratulations to our Party's members and friends who demonstrated at the Courthouse in LA during the Simpson verdict. Their picket signs put the correct emphasis on the racist police. Exposing the class role of the police is fundamental.
The editorial on the international auto industry was excellent. It was needed. Follow-up articles should evaluate our efforts, both past and present. It would also be very useful to show the composition of the auto workforce, especially in the U.S. Previously, I vaguely recall that a large number of black workers toiled in the auto plants.
Brooklyn Sam
PLP played an excellent role in the Howard Conference on Race and Inequity. (See article p. 3). It was a major victory for our forces in campus organizations and elsewhere in the struggle against nationalism and liberalism. The upsurge on campuses last year was not an aberration, but a sign of sharpening class struggle. Together with the Boeing strike, this shows the tremendous potential for a communist-led worker-student alliance leading in a revolutionary direction.
All the more reason for criticism and self-criticism. One of the workshops on cutbacks had three speakers: a member of PLP, a member of the Nation of Islam, and a former militant in SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, a group very active in the 1960s) who later became a political advisor to Coleman Young and Marion Barry. Nationalism was dealt a heavy blow in this workshop, both by the PLP and the ex-SNCC speakers. However, in the course of defending the Million Man March, the NOI speaker said several times: "We have an alternative; what is your alternative?" We understand that nationalism is no alternative to capitalism, but is rather a thoroughly capitalist ideology. As PL'ers we could have spent more time explaining what our communist alternative is.
This raised the question: What would a communist government do to destroy racism? While most of what follows is nothing new, it would be helpful if we came right out and said what we plan to do after the working class seizes power:
* Racism has a dual nature: racist ideas and racist practices. The material basis for racist ideas is the capitalist economic system, specifically wage slavery. Communism will abolish the wage slavery system and operate on the principle from each according to ability and commitment, to each according to need. This principle will not allow economic decisions to be made on the basis of race, sex, or some other artificial characteristic used by capitalism.
* Racist ideas cannot be abolished immediately. A protracted period of struggle will be necessary to wipe them out. A number of things would be done right away to launch this struggle.
* Communism would make the advocacy or propagation of racist ideas a crime. We would kill all the KKK and Nazi elements (of whatever skin color) along with their capitalist masters. We would severely punish any attempt to push genetic inferiority or determinism. We would make illegal any use of racist slurs or "jokes".
* Communism would abolish the concept of race. We would teach people that skin color makes no difference in ability, "intelligence", or class consciousness. Young children do not think skin color matters. The education system would educate children about how capitalism used race and other phony ideas to divide workers, and why race has no scientific validity.
* Communism would consciously integrate all of society. This would include education, housing, and employment. We would encourage "interracial" marriage. All attempts to segregate any "racial" or ethnic group would be illegal.
* Communism would encourage the leadership of working class youth, particularly black, latin, and asian youth, and women, in all Party groups. We would assess the issue of need by taking into account the special oppression and super-exploitation suffered under capitalism by black, latin, and asian male and female workers.
Much of this is based on the excellent just released pamphlet Smash Racism With Communist Revolution. I encourage everyone in the Party to read and circulate this pamphlet. The more we connect the current fight against racism under communist leadership to what communism will do to smash racism, the more clearly millions of workers and students worldwide will see PLP as the only alternative to capitalist racism.
PLP participant at the conference
I went with some people from my community organization to the Conference at Howard University on "Race and Inequity" on Oct. 6-7.
Mostly all of us were glad we went and found the Conference informative, well-organized and thought-provoking. The participation of college and high school students both in PL and not in PL, in the planning and the Conference itself was inspiring. We look forward to the follow-up which we can share with people in our organization.
In one of the workshops I was in, three people raised three different points. One said that she thought the Conference was about "race and inequity', but that it seemed to be about "class and inequity." Another said he was confused about what was meant by race and racism. Anther said he considered himself a Marxist and used Marxism in his academic work; but he expressed concern that Marxists sometime tend to refer to racism in a one-sided, one-dimensional or surface way that would not give African-Americans or people of color enough confidence in Marxism's ability to end racism. These points were raised constructively and I think directed, in part, to members of Progressive Labor Party.
I think the points were well-taken. In our fervor to correctly link racism to building class consciousness and to show the concept of race as anti-scientific, I think we in PLP sometime don't get at the profound meaning of racism in history and capitalist society today. Racism has been around a long time and permeates this society in all classes and sectors, in cultural, educational, "political," legal, health, "justice," psychological, religious, etc. institutions. We are deeply conditioned by racism from different vantage points depending on who we are in this society.
That doesn't mean that we communists don't sharply explain the close connection between racism and class, but we must recognize the many levels and inter-related aspects of racism in, as one panelist at the Conference said, "institutions, ideology, and individuals." Racism will not automatically go away with the destruction of capitalism and the introduction of egalitarian communist society. But communist society will create the conditions to eliminate racism. It will be a prolonged struggle in communist society on many different levels to weed out racism in all its forms.
Two comments (made by white people) that I heard over the week-end, made in reference to sharp struggle, show stereotypical judgment and are racist. One was, "I thought he was Howard security because he was wearing a suit." The other was, "I thought they were Nation of Islam because of the way they were dressed."
These comments were made by good, well-meaning people, but show how deeply racism is ingrained. We should be always on the alert, more conscious, critical, and sensitized. Learn from each other and through fight-back.
Committed anti-racist, NYC Comrade
Dear Challenge:
On Sept. 14, members of different organizations, including individuals from neighboring communities, colleges, high schools, and the telephone workers' union. the CWA, working to combat racism and promote equality gathered and demonstrated against The Bell Curve.
In addition to showing a strong presence with signs and chanting, individuals moved through the crowd, answering questions about the demonstration and inviting dialogue and membership to the sponsoring groups.
This united front of students, faculty and community members against academic, economic, and social racism was exhilarating, and demonstrated that together, diverse members of the working class united by values can make their mark on the direction of society.
In the meantime, Charles Murray and Alvin Poussaint continue to bring their dog and pony show to other universities across the country. Murray is defending his book as being not about racism and racist dogma; and Poussaint mildly countering, but never getting to the point of really challenging Murray for his dependence on Nazi primary sources or condemning him for writing the outline for the current Social Contract on America.
While neither has a chance at gaining master status because both are also workers, both identify themselves more with the master class than the slave class in the current economic and social structure. Because of his support, Murray may actually have a chance at becoming a master in the Nazi society he promotes if it is not confronted and defeated.
Then next time you greet someone who is homeless or has lost his job, or is just plain poor, try telling him that according to Charles Murray it is because he is genetically intellectually inferior and stupid. Perhaps that will lead to a multi-racial working class response to promote understanding and the end of both individual racism and racist social programs.
Unitarian Church member
The lead article in Challenge-Desafío (10/4) "Communists lead shut down of racist genetics conference," had the basis to be inspiring and instructive. It showed how racist ideas were being pushed at this conference under the disguise of "objective" science and needed to be attacked, which we did successfully.
A few crucial items, however, were missing from the article: it never said what conference was being attacked, who organized it, why they called it, or who attended. It is obviously very difficult for a reader of the paper, especially a first time reader, to understand the politics of the situation if the situating isn't described. Please comrades, pay a little more attention to basic reporting editing next time, especially when we do something this important and put it one cover of the paper.
In struggle, Boston reader