SAN FRANCISCO, CA. -- 32,000 clerks and butchers, union members (United Food & Commercial Workers-UFCW) at Safeway, Lucky's, and SaveMart, struck for 9 days. The strike ended April 14 with both sides claiming victory. The companies wanted a 10-hour day, elimination of and cuts in health benefits, contracting out, replacement of full time workers with part timers who have no benefits, and more. The Safeway stores, where the union leaders concentrated the pickets, were almost deserted.
These 3 food chains claimed that they needed these givebacks to compete with warehouse food retailers such as Price-Costco, Pak & Save, etc. The unions pointed to higher profits and painted the companies as greedy. Communists see this strike as an important battle in the class war between workers and capitalists.
The retail grocery business has not yet been fully monopolized. By the year 2000, large companies like WalMart (Sam's Club) plan to take about 80 percent of the retail food business from the smaller ones like Safeway. They use warehouse markets that need fewer workers -- non- union, lower wage, and without benefits. Finance capital invests in WalMart, not Safeway because capitalists operate under an iron law: they must make a maximum rate of profit. The corporation that doesn't maximize profits, in time, will be driven out of business by the corporation that can. In a sense, Safeway and the rest are right: it's not just greed -- if they can't compete, they're going out of business.
The result is that Safeway, Lucky and SaveMart give workers the choice of either unemployment, or a job with lower wages and less benefits. During the 1930's, Communists in the CIO organized whole industries into one union to fight this kind of tactic. This removed the bosses' ability to set non-union workers against union workers. In this way, workers won the 8 hour day in the middle of the depression.
Today, PLP helps to organize within the entire labor movement to fight for 6-hours work for 8-hours pay. This will mean better pay and working conditions for workers who already have jobs, and more jobs for the unemployed. It takes away the bosses' ability to pit unemployed workers against strikers or to pit part-time, low-wage workers (WalMart/KMart) against unionized full-timers.It makes the new standard for a livable job a 6 hour day, as the 8 hour standard was set in the '30s.
Most important, this struggle sets the stage for a fight for communism, using the militancy and working class consciousness that are developed in the fight for 6-for-8. Communist society, based on equality and the end of wages and profit, will be achieved when millions join Progressive Labor Party.
NEW YORK CITY, April 17 -- Students at City College staged a hunger strike on April 11, 12, and 13, against the budget cuts. This hunger strike turned into a militant action, showing that the fight against the cuts has not lost steam.
On the night of April 12, 300 students, mostly from CUNY, marched through Harlem to Columbia in a demonstration of the strength to be found in the unity of all students in NYC. We neutralized the efforts of some 30-40 pigs to control our march by preventing us from getting to Columbia. Workers on the streets raised their fists in support.
PLP members pushed for the march to Columbia and took leadership of it. However, as we became swept up in the struggle of the moment we sold only three Challenge-Desafíos and didn't make a strong political effort to build for May Day.
A much bigger action is planned for April 25, and the NYC PLP college club is in a position, because of work already done and friends already made, to seize leadership of the whole march from the liberals and raise the political stakes of the student movement as we raise our red flags. Our plan is to arrive with our Challenges and May Day tickets in hand, and do our best to let the students know that PLP is on the scene. We mean business, and we're going to be right in there with all struggles against the system while we lay the basis for overthrowing the capitalist system.
NEW YORK CITY, April 12 -- Today, the administration of the City College of New York (CCNY) ordered city cops to arrest 47 students as they tried to occupy a school building in support of students on a hunger strike for the "right to an education."
On April 6 students from CCNY and other CUNY schools (City University system) and city high schools marched through Harlem and Upper Manhattan to protest the $448 million in cutbacks proposed by Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani.
In the last few weeks, there have been dozens of student demonstrations against the cutbacks, which will reduce the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) for working class students, increasing tuition by over $1000. This will force thousands of students to drop out of CUNY, which are mainly black, latin and asian. The cutbacks will also eliminate thousands of courses, and many teaching jobs in CUNY and SUNY (State University).
In midst of this struggle against the cutbacks, thousands of working class youth are learning much more about the racist nature of the capitalist society than they can learn in any college course.
They are learning that the bosses are hypocrites when they tell young people to "stay in school and get an education to get a good job." Well, the never-ending capitalist economic crisis means less money for schools and increased unemployment, while the few jobs that are available are for low paid unskilled positions.
The students' illusions in capitalism, based on their demand of the "right to an education" in the racist, anti-communist centers of "higher education" are being shattered by the racism of the cutbacks and the rulers. Mayor Giuliani, front man for the City bosses and banks, responded to the 20,000 strong student protest on March 23 by using thousands of cops to attack and arrest them. He insulted the students, telling them to "get a job to help pay for the tuition rise," even though great numbers of these students already work part or full time.
These racist attacks are products of both the Democrats and Republicans. Democrat Clinton is adding more money to the federal budget to encourage cities, many with Republican mayors, to hire hundreds of thousands of more cops nationwide to curb angry workers and youth.
The Progressive Labor Party's college club, active in the struggle against the cutbacks, are bringing to these youth the best lesson they can learn from this fightback: capitalism doesn't work for workers and students. Join the fight to build an anti-racist communist movement. March on May Day!
A CCNY alumnus remembers and applies the lessons of struggle:
I recall the spring of 1969 and the many debates that took place among black and latin students during our 2-week takeover of the South Campus of CCNY. One key debate was on whether Open Admissions, a key demand of the sit-in, will be used by the rulers to co-opt black and Latin youth into the system. Eventually, this sit-in was the key action to winning "Open Admissions."
Forced to grant that demand, the rulers saw it as a way of cooling off militant black and latin youth who were rebelling nationwide against racism. The ruling class tried to build the illusion that the students could "make it under the system" -- that is, get out of the working class. They also saw an opportunity to indoctrinate the more militant youth of the country with the "higher education"of racism, anti-communism and anti-working class ideas.
But, as soon as capitalism began its long economic plunge, during the first NYC fiscal crisis in the mid-1970s, the carrot gave way to the big stick. When students at CUNY represented the elite of the white working class, tuition was free. After Open Admissions, and CUNY was opened to all high school graduates, and the city school population became more black, latin and asian, tuition was instituted. As the crisis of capitalism deepened, tuition increased, dimming the students' illusions of "making it." Today, Giuliani and Pataki are stepping up this racist attack, begun under liberal Democratic mayor Abe Beame and continued under Koch and Dinkins.
Knowing well that more oppression leads to rebellion, the rulers are now building more jails and hiring more cops to repress them. NY State is following California's lead in spending more on its prison system than on its university system. "[California]... has seen spending on prisons climb to 9.9 percent of the budget this year, from 2 percent in 1980, while spending on higher education had shrunk to 9.5 percent from 12.6 in 1980....Under Gov. George E. Pataki's proposed new budget for New York, spending for higher education will be cut; spending for prisons is the only part of the budget that is being spared." (New York Times, 4/12)In preparation of filling these prisons, the cops report that "given the eventual wave of disturbances and social protests to take place against the cutbacks in Upper Manhattan and other areas...NYPD is preparing a counterinsurgency plan, to be put into effect by five special police units as soon as any of these actions take place during the summer." (El Diario-La Prensa 4/11)
Students Rise Up and Sit-In
CHICAGO, DePaul University -- On April 1 a group of 25 to 50 students stormed the office of the school newspaper, The DePaulia, to protest continuous racist reporting by the paper's staff. Staff members were forced out of the office as the students began a sit-in that has gone on for two weeks. Students are demanding the resignation of key members of the staff and a formal apology from the paper and the college administration.
After numerous attempts to forge an agreement with the staff and administration, the only solution has been to stop printing the paper. This sit-in comes after a series of racist attacks against black and other "minority" students on the part of DePaul's administration, the paper and security guards. Of DePaul's 16,800 students, less than 10 percent are black, while 70 percent are white. A flyer from the students who are sitting-in put it this way, "an attack against black students is an attack on all students." The struggle against academic racism at DePaul has just begun!
STORRS, University of Connecticut -- On April 12, eighty students attended a forum at which a speaker from Holy Cross College in Worcester Mass., led a discussion about Herrnstein and Murray's racist book, The Bell Curve. The meeting was sponsored by a coalition of InCAR, the African American Cultural Center, Hillel, and the Muslim Student's Association.
Main points of the discussion included the fact that IQ exams do not measure human intelligence, and that these tests really measure only how well students have been trained to take them. The audience also discussed how human history has proved that all cultures made important major contributions to human history, thought and technology. In this way, it was shown that all humans are more alike than different.
In solidarity with anti-racist resistance on campuses across the country, a resolution was passed to support the Rutgers' students anti-racist struggle. Petitions against academic racism were circulated as well.
CHICAGO, University of Illinois at Chicago- On Thursday, April 13, Stephen Jay Gould spoke to the Coalition Against the Violence Intitiative against the racist book, The Bell Curve. The Coalition is an organization of students and workers committed to fighting the theory and practice of biological determinism, which has been the racist pseudo-scientific Nazi ideology that blames the problems of society on working class individuals.
Before 1500 faculty and students, Gould made a one hour speech attacking the book, making many good points. A student who proposed building an anti-racist movement on campus asked Gould to donate money to the cause. When asked specifically if he would be willing to donate some of the $20,000 fee he received for speaking, Gould left the podium.
BOSTON, MA., March 25 -- Tonight 65 workers and students from the Boston and Worcester areas attended our annual May Day Dinner. The theme of this Dinner was "50 Years of Fighting Fascism," and included a speech, a slide show and a photo mural on the fight against fascism during World War II. We also commemorated the 20 anniversary of PLP and InCAR's 1975 Boston Summer Project, which fought the anti-busing fascists. The Dinner attendees came from a number of areas of our organizing, including the welfare-rights group CBHN and the leftist science group Student Pugwash. Our other May Day building activities include distributing 10,000 leaflets city-wide and an upcoming party at a comrade's house.
An AFP (the French Press Agency) release says that the Hanoi government revealed on April 3 that the true civilian casualties of the Vietnam war amounted to 2,000,000 in the North, and 2,000,000 in the South. Military casualties were 1.1 million killed and 600,000 wounded in 21 years of war, first against the French and later against the U.S.-led forces when most casualties occurred.
These figures were deliberately falsified during the war by the North Vietnam nationalists to avoid demoralizing the population, according to the French article. On the U.S. side, the figures given are 58,200 U.S. soldiers, 223,748 South Vietnamese soldiers, and 5,200 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Thais, all killed in the fight for U.S. imperialism.
The total comes to around 5.4 million deaths in Vietnam alone for both sides, and these figures don't factor in casualties in Laos and Cambodia. The casualties of Vietnamese represent 12-13% of its total population of approximately 38 million during the war years. So anyone who thinks that U.S. bosses aren't as bad as Hitler is living on an oasis in Disneyland.
BOSTON, MA., April 7 -- Harvard University today revoked its admission of an applicant who, when she was 14, had killed her abusive, alcoholic mother. Does this mean that Harvard will posthumously expel JFK or retroactively fire professors Henry Kissinger and Samuel P. Huntington? These butchers have on their hands the blood of 5,000,000 Vietnamese workers and 58,200 U.S. GIs.
NEW YORK CITY, April 7 -- In just two days racism ran amok more than usual on the radio. First, N.Y. Senator Alfonse D'Amato mimicked Judge Ito with a stereotypical Japanese accent on the syndicated program of radio jock Don Imus. He attacked Ito for prolonging the O.J. Simpson trial. Then on his program, Howard Stern demeaned the singer Selena and Tejano music, while the sound of machine guns roared in the background.
Once again, these racist comments prove that U.S. bourgeois culture is rotten to the core. Les Payne, a black columnist in <M>New York Newsday (4/9) said it rather well, "European movie buffs puzzled by the American success of Forrest Gump would do well to study the `Imus in the Morning' radio show as another gauge of just how far down the rabbit hole the leader of the Free World has slipped. Although Imus' favorite targets for stereotyping are blacks and Hispanics, this comedic Gila monster encourages his sidekicks and guests to indulge whatever bigotry keeps them awake nights."
But this racism also fits right into the sharpening contradictions
between U.S. and Japanese imperialists. Les Payne adds, "While denying
involvement (in the recent gas attacks on the Tokyo subway), the fanatical Aum
Shinri Kyo leader took pains to add: `If we are going to start a war, it will
be with the United States.' D'Amato's insult has given comfort to Nippophobia
and pause to those who contend that U.S. leaders are willing to let World War
II bygones be bygones."
Vienna Cardinal Groer quit as Head Bishop of Austria just a few days after being elected to the post. He was forced to resign because of revelations by Josef Hartmann, a 37-year old engineer, that Groer molested him sexually when he was 14 years old. Others have come forward with the same accusations. But even after these accusations came to light, the bishops still elected Groer Head Bishop. This scandal also reveals the hypocrisy of the Catholic hierarchy. It was just a few years ago that Groer denounced child molesters, saying "pedophiliacs have very little chance of entering of the kingdom of Heaven."
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --Last month, a former military officer publicly "repented" for his role in drugging and placing people into military planes and then dumping them into the ocean. Hundreds of the 30,000 killed for opposing the military dictatorship in the mid-1970s were killed this way. According to the officer, this was done with the blessing of the Catholic hierarchy, including the Papal Nuncio (the pope's ambassador in Buenos Aires), who said it was not a sin to murder "subversives."
LOS ANGELES, CA. -- "The Southern California Apparel Industry had a $15.2 billion regional impact and employed 141,000 people in 1992, 10,000 more than the fabled New York garment industry." says a recent study published by Southern California Con Edison.
According to the report, the industry is made up of over 6600 shops, 90 percent of which employ less than 50 people. In addition, at least 100,000 workers toil in sewing factories and associated businesses in downtown L.A alone. The industry has skyrocketed for years, while the wages of garment workers have been dropping sharply, helped by the Prop.187 campaign against immigrants. The majority of workers get paid minimum wage, some even less. Meanwhile last year's L.A. garment industry production retailed nationally for $63 billion. This comes out to roughly $500,000 produced by each garment worker slaving under sweatshop conditions.
Now California bosses are projecting that "if the industry can better train its workers, adopt new technology and jump into world trade, then Southern California -- and Downtown with its thousands of businesses -- can become the apparel trade capital of the Western Hemisphere." The report brags that Southern California has replaced Hong Kong as a leading garment center. That means wages in LA compete favorably with those in Hong Kong!
But the bosses have a few hurdles to overcome in their world conquest dreams. One is "foreign competitors who not only boast lower labor costs, but also offer unmatched production and turn around time." Another is how to increase each worker's productivity without setting off the explosive time bomb that 140,000 superexploited garment workers represent.
For this, the big California garment bosses need to have a firmer grip on the industry. They want more control over the contractors who get the garment workers to do the sewing. They want to force the contractors to invest heavily in expensive computerized equipment which will make them more dependent and accountable to the manufacturers. It will also give the bigger bosses the leverage to curtail the amount of profits they share with these contractors. At the same time they want to try to lessen the workers' anger caused by the sweatshops conditions of the industry. The bigger manufacturers want to guarantee a stable, super-exploited workforce, and a friendly union would help them in this effort.
As Robert Walter put it, "We need basic personnel management. Basic safety issues that are absolutely critical in training owners, supervisors and laborers on how to be productive. There has to be an acknowledgement and an understanding that you can be profitable and obey labor laws. The underground contractors must see that there is an advantage to working competitively and legally."
Some of the liberal ruling class in the U.S. think the unions should play the role of guaranteeing a disciplined, stable labor force to control the workers' anger and prevent constant work stoppages. As the bosses increase their attacks on immigrants and all workers, they also want to lead and control the "anti-fascist" response. There have been several recent strikes against lower piece rates. We must convert these actions and anger into a serious campaign to build a mass union and revolutionary movement.
The strategy of the PLP garment clubs is building shop committees, especially concentrating in the bigger shops. These committees lead the daily fight against lowering the piece rate. We also raise the political struggle about the need for a mass union campaign and for the outlook of using the struggle in one shop to organize others. These committees also organize social activities and talk about the nature of capitalist exploitation and the building of a revolutionary movement. They can be mass organizers for May Day.
These committees have the outlook of taking workers to the ILGWU to build one garment union. They will also sharpen the struggle for a decent hourly wage, ending divisive piece work, for health insurance, for equal pay for all garment workers, and an end to layoffs. The committees help prepare the workers to lead this fight.
The bosses are making changes in the industry to increase the amount each worker produces. Super-exploitation of garment workers is the key to the bosses' plans. They want to use the unions to control the workers' anger. Workers in PLP are building a mass union campaign to organize garment workers into a powerful force to take on the bosses.
The fight is to build a united garment workers' movement in L.A. and world wide to spur the growth of an international revolutionary communist movement among the most exploited workers. Borders should be no barrier! Our message to the bosses-from L.A. to Central America to Hong Kong should be "You can run but you can't hide!" Smash all borders! Every garment worker who marches on May Day means an organizer to make these goals a reality.
SEATTLE, WA. -- IAM. District 751 is rallying on Sunday, April 23. It has been called both "Unity Rally For Jobs" and a "Contract '95 Kick-Off Rally." Resolutions have been passed in Seattle and Wichita calling for "unity with laid-off workers." Rank-and-file plant gate pickets have already been held with this theme. Due to this pressure, laid-off workers have been invited to the rally, but rank-and-file union members must guarantee they attend.
IAM members have placed notices in the classified section of the Seattle newspapers, and are contacting all the laid-off workers we can find. One worker printed on the back of the union flyers: "<M>The Laid-Off Are Not Dead. Give The Unemployed A Face. Invite Them To The Rally." The presence of laid-off workers makes it harder for the company and those union leaders who want to sell "teamwork" schemes. Laid-off workers focus our attention on the fight for jobs. We need to bring the laid-off into the contract struggle if we are to avoid a sellout come October 3.
MEXICO CITY -- The "historical achievement" that union hack Sosa claimed for Ford workers in Cuatitlán, was nothing more than a wage cut.How does a 25 percent wage "hike" stack up to the recent peso crisis, reducing the buying power of workers by 42 percent, and 50 percent inflation? The contract did not address the recent firings of 400 workers, or line speed. In addition, Ford is increasing production by 50 percent in May, and planning more layoffs. Ford has made a bundle from the peso crisis, despite a drop in domestic sales, since 80 percent of its Mexican production is exported to the U.S. and Canada.
The 25 percent "raise," was only possible because four days before the contract expired, the rank-and-file plant committee led workers to protest outside the plant, demanding a 40 percent wage increase (Sosa was only asking for 12 percent). The workers protested every day, preparing to strike. Ford accused the organizers of being "professional outside agitators," and threatened the workers, who were not intimidated. They told the bosses they would defend their leaders with a strike if anyone was fired.
Ford then used the union hacks to threaten workers against any "illegal
action." The sellouts were kicked off the assembly lines by angry workers.
Twenty hours before the deadline, with a strike certain, Ford doubled its
offer. Most workers thought this was better than the government-imposed wage
hike, but there are still hundreds who will continue to struggle, and
understand that when workers are organized and fight back, it is possible to
win. PLP is organizing in Mexico and the U.S., to demand equal wages across all
borders, and expanding the readership of
Desafío-Challenge.
Union Caucus Grows Out Of Failed School Bus Strike
SEATTLE, WA. -- School bus drivers recently returned to work after a bitter 3-week strike against the Laidlaw Co., a Toronto based international conglomerate whose revenue last year was in excess of $2.1 billion. These drivers, members of Teamsters Local 763, worked without a contract for 7 months. Their main demand was for a pension plan.
The drivers organized themselves, and had tremendous support from other union members, schoolworkers, community and parents. The company and the school district used scab buses, and the press printed every lie the company could come up with. The union misleadership, led by John Rabine, refused to tap the support that was being offered, a factor that could have won the strike. The drivers' own limitations prevented them from taking control away from the sellouts, or stopping the scab buses. Instead, they were forced to accept a lousy contract with no pension. On April 5, hundreds of angry drivers and parents crowded into the school board meeting, and blasted the board for their role in the strike.
What was won from this strike? An alliance between the drivers, other workers, and parents that did not exist before. The drivers are setting up a strike fund for next time, vowing to carry on this fight. They are talking about contacting other Teamsters to run a slate to oust the sellouts. And, most importantly, a rank-and-file leader of the strike is now in close contact with PLP, and with other active fighters in transit, who are considering forming a caucus. This is exactly what the working class needs if we are to have a fighting chance against the bosses.
WASHINGTON, DC April 18 -- Tempers flared at the April meeting of ATU Local 689. The president and his goons attacked several recently laid-off workers, who came to ask for help. The union president said that they were no longer union members and therefore could not speak at the meeting. One of the goons tried to forcibly remove a laid-off worker. He quickly backed down as several members rushed to this worker's defense.
The union leadership is tied to the notion of the union as a business. Once a worker is laid off and no longer able to pay his union dues, he is cast out. It is just like a landlord treats an unemployed worker who cannot pay the rent.
After the meeting, many workers told the one Executive Board member (also a member of PLP) who had supported the laid off workers that they were willing to join a rank-and-file caucus to fight the incumbent leadership.
The struggle in Local 689 by the workers for power in the union is a microcosm of the broader struggle in society for workers power. The bosses understand this and so must the workers. The bosses are determined to keep Local 689 under their control because of its strategic role in the mass transit system of Washington, DC. The last strike in 1978 so disrupted the city the bosses promised to never let it happen again.
The bosses are confident they have the situation under control. They are asking for massive concessions in the union contract which goes into effect on April 30, 1995. Local 689 members will be marching here on May Day, May 6, under the banners of job security without concessions. They will also attend a public hearing on April 26 to oppose another fare increase and to build an alliance with the riding public that was started in January during the fight against cutbacks in bus service.
LETTERS:
Budget Cuts Or No, Schools Teach Capitalist Ideas
Dear Challenge:
Articles in Challenge-Desafío show how the Party is involved in the anti-budget cut battles. These efforts are good and should be intensified. But in organizing ever more militant actions against budget cuts, we must try to avoid economist mistakes.
The actions against budget cuts in the schools are areas in which one is likely to make reformist errors. The primary problem with the schools are not the budget cuts. Even if the education budget cuts were rescinded, which is not going to happen, the schools would still be rotten. If the education budget was increased four-fold (impossible), the schools would still be bad. We should concentrate a good deal of our fire on the political nature of the educational system.
Schools are the ideological sewers of the ruling class. The schools, no matter their level of funding, teach racism, nationalism, anti-working class ideas, and above all anti-communism. This is what makes the schools bad. Budget cuts reflect the declining fortunes of the U.S. bosses, and their contempt, hatred, and fear of the working class.
Another area to concern ourselves with, relative to the budget cuts, is the leadership. Often the anti-budget cut battles are led by the Democratic Party and nationalists on the campuses who are in the student government. Our forces must try and wrest the tactical and political leadership of the anti-budget cut movement. One way to do this is by organizing vigorously -- more vigorously than we organize any particular anti-budget cut demonstration -- for May Day.
Workers and students should be united under communist leadership for the complete destruction of the capitalist system.
NYC Comrade
College Students Support SEPTA Strike
Dear Challenge:
On April 5 our PL club and supporters at Haverford College had a table out for four hours to collect support for the Philadephia SEPTA workers. These transit workers were on strike for better pay and benefits (especially pensions). In the four hours we collected sixty-five signatures on a petition that called for Worker and Student Unity in order to win our class battles against the bourgeoisie. We also organized students to go to the picket lines at the bus station.
On April 6 we went to the picket line at 69 street to greet the workers, show our support, give them the signed petitions, and talk to them. It was very stirring because the solidarity and companionship could be felt even in the cold and rather empty alley where the bus station stands. At our campus everybody does their own thing, and companionship is never felt.
The conditions of workers require them to unite in "comradeship" in order to win against the bosses. They are also "smarter" than most people I have met in my "elite" college. These workers understand how capitalism functions: the need for maximizing profit, how it hurts them, "divide and conquer tactics" that racist bosses try to use, etc. At Haverford many students pay $25,000 a year to learn about the "structural" obstacles people face. It is interesting how much of this is already common knowledge to workers.
A lesson to learn from the strike is that the working class is far from permanently winning. SEPTA workers won their strike, but it does not guarantee a bright future. Many demands of these workers were for gains they had won in the past and were now being threatened by the bosses. Integrating workers' immediate struggles with the fight for communism is what we have to build in order to end the system that oppresses them. Although we did increase working class consciousness on our campus, we really did little to build for communism. We will continue to struggle for this real, revolutionary goal.
A Philly PL Supporter
Dominican Rep: Young C-D Readers Refute Bell Curve Racism
Dear Challenge:
A group of eight youth in a small town in the northern part of the Dominican Republic met for the first time to read Desafío-Challenge and understand the problems facing local youth and workers and those of the international working class.
We decided to get together because we understand the need for workers and youth to fight this rotten system. After two hours of discussion, we all agreed on the need to use the communist politics of C-D to fight the bosses, and to fight for a new society where workers and youth can rule for the benefit of their class. We also agreed to meet regularly, and to win others in our town to join our movement to fight not only for immediate reforms, but also for communism.
We read an article in Desafío-Challenge about the racist book The Bell Curve. One comrade said that the author, Charles Murray, is just like many other ideologues of the worldwide system, whose role is to justify the oppression of workers and youth. Murray's line is that workers are "genetically inferior" to their rulers, and therefore deserve to be oppressed. A young worker said: "The rulers' so-called superiority consists only of being able to spend the wealth workers produce. Workers have proven that they are quite capable of ruling the entire society. We are going to prove it by destroying the bosses and their lackeys, like Mr. Murray."
A Comrade, Dominican Republic
Charles Barkley:`Sun'of Another Phony Punk
Dear
Challenge:
Capitalism is so phony! They use Hollywood and television to take liars and phonies and give them fake images. Take Charles Barkley, a Phoenix Sun basketball player. A lot of young people think that he is cool, that he is tough, that he is a rebel who stands up against the system.
That's all bull! Barkley says that his greatest hero in politics is Clarence Thomas, the black Supreme Court Justice who tap-dances to the racist bosses. Thomas even voted alone, against all the other racist judges, to say that if a jail guard beats a prisoner who is handcuffed to the cell, it is not a violation of the prisoner's "constitutional" rights.
Thomas supports the worst sort of racism and is a total puppet of the racist system. And he is Charles Barkley's hero. Barkley recently met with Thomas to discuss how Barkley might get into politics, too. Barkley is a rebel the way that George Bush is a rebel! Bull!
The bosses have lots of tricks to deceive us. This bull about sports heroes is one trick they use especially against youth. But it is all phony! We don't need their fake, made-up actors to be our heroes. Our heroes are the working class rebels who are building a movement to smash this racist, capitalist system! And it doesn't take a special kind of person to do that. Anyone can, just join PLP!
Still Learning
Young Comrade's Death Inspires Youth To Fight System
Dear Challenge:
Cornil Cain , an immigrant from Trinidad, was raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Cornil learned about communism from his teacher who brought him Challenge-Desafío in the classroom.
Though poverty choked his family and his neighborhood, Cornil was an optimist and a fighter. He eventually joined the Party and was active in the youth club. Unfortunately, this young man could not keep his mind focused.
After graduating from high school he drifted away from us. We heard from him now and then, but he was always busy. He was looking for a future, but capitalism offers youth nothing -- no real work, no money for college, no ticket out of the city.
Cornil was found drowned March 30. A good young man, Cornil died from a capitalist disease: he ran out of hope. We will miss Cornil every day, and we will honor his memory by fighting this rotten system.
Brooklyn Youth Club
Japan:Fascism/Racism Poisonous for Workers
Dear Challenge:
The recent Tokyo subway gas poisoning apparently by "The Supreme Truth" sect (which considers Hitler a hero) is an example of chickens coming home to roost. A popular magazine in Japan, Marco Polo, carried a Nazi story claiming that "there was no holocaust...and no gas chambers at Auschwitz." It was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Red Army's liberation of prison camps. The publishing industry in Japan makes a fortune from the sale of anti-Semitic literature.
Japan's fascists are spreading racial hatred to mis-educate people about the causes of wars and other social problems. We have to be aware of how systematic the capitalist class is in its effort to spread false ideas and keep workers divided along national, religious, and racial lines.
After the last earthquake, fascist politicians tried to spur anti-Korean racist attacks. E. Nakamura, a member of the "opposition" New Pioneer Party, stated at a hearing to discuss the "fair allocation" of the few temporary homes made available to thousands left homeless, that "a Korean...told me that he...heard rumors that `the reason the fires that swept the city spread from Kobe's central Nagata Ward was that Koreans probably had [set the fires].' "
This racist attempt to make Koreans scapegoats for existing substandard housing and the lack of proper safety measures that caused the widespread fires, has a history. In 1923, after the Tokyo earthquake in which 100,000 died, thousands of Koreans were massacred. The cops and their allies in fascist groups spread rumors causing racist hysteria. The military police also hunted down and killed communist leaders.
These two related incidents show the danger of Japanese fascists. The bosses have the upper hand now, using their money to buy and sell politicians and control the media. We have to make full use of our advantage: numbers. We must build PLP and our own fighting organizations to crush our enemies -- racism, fascism and capitalism.
A Comrade in Tokyo
Russian Scientists Expose Fascist Rulers
(The following is an abridged version of a letter from Russia circulated through the Internet.)
We feel compelled to write to you because we feel that the terrible crimes committed by Russian authorities and armed forces in Chechnya are not accidental and that we are all responsible for them....
These crimes (according to testimony by journalists, defenders of human rights and mothers of the soldiers fighting there) include not only bombing towns and villages inhabited by civilians, but also the capture of hostages and outright looting. There are also `filtration' camps where people, incarcerated on the basis of their race, are cruelly beaten, tortured, maimed and murdered.
All these actions should be characterized as genocide and "crimes against humanity; " and should not be considered merely as an internal affair of Russia.
The Chechen crisis is not accidental. It reveals the criminal essence of the political regime that is being formed. The most dangerous aspect of the present situation is the absence of a clear appreciation of this fact....The regime is supporting democracy and human rights through words while persecuting people in a cynical and brutal way....There are beatings and killings of honest journalists and human rights defenders who get and publish information dangerous for them, such as the criminal and corrupted methods of privatization.... Now there is an attempt of annihilation of a whole nation.
Acting through fascist methods, the regime uses Zhirinovsky and the threat of fascism to manipulate public opinion. Russia is not moving on the path of democracy and human rights. A new regime, unusual in its cruelty and falsehood, is being born.
Whether the criminal regime or democracy with a human face will take over in Russia will in the first place depend on people in Russia; our ability to understand the danger and take responsibility; and our courage and will to stand against evil.
Russian Scientists
END OF LETTERS
Janitors Answer Sellouts By Marching On May Day
LOS ANGELES, CA. April 18 -- On April 11, Eric Mann, a liberal labor organizer, wrote in the LA Times, "At 6 am on April 3, more than 500 of us -- janitors and their supporters in the community -- reported for action at the headquarters of the Justice for Janitors, SEIU Local 399, ready for creative civil disobedience. But instead we enjoyed an impromptu victory rally....Minutes before, the seven biggest contractors, together with the Building Owners' Management Association, had agreed to almost all the union's key demands. The union had been prepared to escalate its militant street demonstrations and pull 8,000 janitors out of Los Angeles' luxury office buildings for what might have been a long and high-risk strike."
This is not true. The truth is that the union leadership had not prepared for a strike, much less a long one. Many janitors believe that the contract was already signed by the time of the rally. The contract promises the janitors that by December, 1996, they'll be earning $6.80 per hour. Some already earn this, and won't get any increase. Others will get a $1.00 an hour wage increase after 5 years. Eric Mann tries to put a pretty face on this lousy contract: "The workers with higher salaries will have to sacrifice so that their less fortunate brothers rise, showing class solidarity." The contract promises health coverage in five years. The workers don't see these poverty wages as any big triumph. Unlike Mann, they know that the "corporate campaign" of the union leaders has not resulted in a victory for the workers. Here is what some of the janitors say:
"In the last two months there were several marches and massive protests to `pressure and embarrass' the owners and building contractors. But there were no strike preparations. The union leadership is racist and undemocratic. They never informed us nor took us into account during the contract negotiations."
"The main fight should take place at the point of production, which means striking the buildings we clean."
"There is now a group of militant and honest workers in the union who want to change the leadership, including the firing of Dave Stilwel, the vice president, who was in charge of negotiating the contract. This group, called `Reform Caucus/ Change 95,' believes in multi-racial unity and militancy, and in class struggle, not class collaboration."
Many of the janitors are militant and want real changes. These struggles are good when they advance the goals of workers' power, and win workers to see that capitalism is the main enemy. It is significant that a group of janitors will be marching on May Day with PLP. These union contracts are aimed at putting a halt to militant struggle. If we want a real change, we need to fight for a society where everything we produce is distributed in an equal manner among all the workers, where we have communist equality. The struggle in the unions can be schools for this understanding.
Workers Need a Communist Party--Not a Labor Party
Does the working class need a Labor Party?
How do you stop a scab? It used to be with a 2 x 4. Today the experts of the U.S. labor movement are telling frustrated strikers that salvation for the working class lies in the formation of a Labor Party. If the Democrats won't support the unions we'll form our own party goes the song.
What would a Labor Party do?
The Staley workers are in a desperate situation. They are going to lose because Staley is open and operating with scabs, as are Bridgestone and Caterpillar. What would a Labor Party do about that? Lobby Congress? Boycott Pepsi? Buy Michelin's? These strikes are being lost because the leadership of the UPIU, URW, and UAW refuse to break the law. 10,000 workers peacefully marching down the streets of Decatur don't mean anything if you're not willing to ignore an injunction.
There is not enough money coming in to support the fight in Decatur. Why? Because there isn't much of a fight to support. A Labor Party won't change that, but 10,000 workers shutting down Staley would. A Labor Party that obeys the bosses' laws is another gimmick to avoid hitting the enemy where it hurts, at the worksite.
Class Struggle Key to Victory
Capitalism pits workers and bosses against each other. The Labor Party advocates push an illusion that capitalism can serve workers. In fact the opposite is true. Any government under capitalism must create conditions for the maximum growth of profits. This leads to conditions where economics dominate government decisions.
It was this understanding that helped build the communist movement of the '30s and '40s and the militant, law-breaking union movement. It was the realization also that voting wouldn't change anything for the better, only class struggle could.
The labor laws that were favorable to unions came as a result of the class struggle, not a Labor Party. The Wagner Act and the NLRB were created by Roosevelt because the ruling class was terrified of the mass militancy of workers.
Communism Inspired the
Labor Movement
The unions whose leaders now advocate forming a Labor Party were created by masses of ordinary people fighting together. These workers fought the National Guard, police, armed thugs and company spies. They were fired, beaten up and assassinated, but they weren't defeated. And the best of these fighters at that time became organizers for the Communist Party.
These communists weren't concerned with keeping the capitalists in business. Their movement took inspiration from the achievements of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Soviet workers had taken power and held it against all odds. Soviet workers controlled the factories in which they worked. Hiring and firing their "managers." Contrast that with the team concept pushed today.
It was this communist party that built the CIO, and led the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike against GM. It was this strike that gave birth to the UAW. Sure, this Communist Party had flaws. After all it was the first one that we built. But if we built one then, surely we can learn from our experience and build a bigger and better one today. That's what Progressive Labor Party is doing, building a revolutionary communist party.
NYC School Bus Drivers Must Break Law To Beat Back Board of Ed.
NEW YORK CITY, April 18 -- As the Board of Education, with Mayor Giuliani's encouragement, plans to save tens of millions of dollars in new school bus contracts, 6000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 are preparing to strike to protect their jobs and pay scales.
Communist leadership is needed by these workers to understand the fascist nature of this union-busting attack. Giuliani and Cortines must first pay off the annual $2 billion the City owes to the banks and bondholders at the expense of school and other city workers. The only real solution is to build a communist-led workers' movement to fight the bosses.
In 1979, a three month strike won job security by seniority for the drivers, escorts, and mechanics who work for private companies under contract to the NYC Board of Education. Although the job of transporting 150,000 schoolchildren daily has been contracted out for years, the issue facing these workers is the wave of privatization facing municipal workers throughout the U.S. A concerted effort is underway to replace higher paid, unionized government workers with lower paid, non-union workers.
As the move towards fascism speeds up, unemployment increases and workers are made desperate to take any job. Bosses are using these racist budget cuts which will throw tens of thousands of people off welfare to create this desperation that causes workers to defy their class interest and scab. If organized workers fought for the shorter workday -- six hours work for eight hours pay -- to create more jobs, this would build the unity between employed and unemployed needed to combat scab mentality.
Local 1181 has $4.7 million in assets that can be used as a strike war chest. The members of this Local seem prepared to fight. However, what will happen if and when the bosses' legal system seizes the union's funds, or when mass picketing is declared illegal, or the city recruits scabs to drive the buses? Teachers must not let themselves be scabs for the drivers. Parents and students should go to picket lines to support the strikers. CUNY students are already supporting the drivers, linking their fight against the budget cuts.
Capitalism has made it impossible to win a strike without breaking the bosses' laws. Members of Local 1181 must prepare for these possible events and for the likelihood that their leaders will not be willing to lead such a fight.
Mexico City Bus Drivers and Riders Fight Privatization
MEXICO CITY, April 18 -- 12,000 bus drivers and mechanics met on April 15 to demand their jobs back and reject the government union-busting attack on Ruta 100. Ruta 100 is the only public bus system in this city of over 20 million. Ruta 100 went bankrupt a week ago and the workers, members of one of the most militant unions in Mexico, were told they had no jobs. They could apply to the new bus companies if they quit their union.
Six union leaders were jailed, and the top official was beaten. Several days before, two Ruta 100 buses full of passengers, were burned by private bus operators, with the help of the police, killing three. In areas surrounding Mexico City, the government and private bus companies attacked mass demonstrations demanding Ruta 100 be expanded.
Workers have responded with demonstrations, demanding they keep their jobs, and the release of the jailed union leaders. Also, riders are demanding that bus service continue to be subsidized. Fares on private buses will be much higher.
This is an attempt to destroy the union, and attack riders, under the guise of "fighting corruption." The head of the bus company "committed suicide," shooting himself in the chest, twice. The dead boss, and the union leaders are being blamed for a "missing" $6 million.
The violence being carried out by the private operators, shows the advance of fascism. On April 17, the Ruta 100 buses began to run with scabs and cops as drivers with massive police protection, including the use of police helicopters.
As May Day approaches, it will be a hot one, in spite of the cancellation of the official May Day parade by the sellout CTM union federation.
PLP is fighting to unite all workers, public and private, and to unionize all drivers with decent wages and lower fares. Transit workers in the U.S. should support these demands. The best answer is to build PLP, and smash capitalism with communist revolution.