The latest last-minute bargain over auto imports may delay, but cannot prevent this development. Basically, it was almost a standoff, although the Japanese came out of it with a slight edge. To avoid $5.9 billion worth of tariffs on luxury imports to the U.S., they agreed to throw U.S. auto companies some crumbs. But the deal has no teeth, because it doesn't call for enforceable quotas, and quotas were Clinton's main demand. Even if the Japanese make good on their promise to buy $9 billion worth of U.S.-made auto parts, the effect on the huge U.S. trade deficit with Japan and on U.S. unemployment will be almost meaningless.
A few days after Clinton & Co. had tried to put a smiling face on their auto "victory," another trade battle loomed large, this time between Kodak and Fuji over photographic film markets. And just on the horizon is a scuffle over air cargo routes. U.S. and Japanese imperialists may not have gone to the wall this time over automobile competition, but every one of these disputes brings them closer on a one-way trip to the point of no return.
All these dogfights between the two main imperialist rivals reflect the deepening overproduction crisis of the worldwide profit system. The U.S. economy is in shambles, and the Japanese economy is the other shoe waiting to drop. Throughout the 1980s, Japanese rulers piled up billions in superprofits, mostly from their favorable trade deficit with the U.S. They went on a frenzy of speculation. By 1990, the "bubble economy" had burst. The Tokyo real estate market fell through the floor. Then the Japanese stock market collapsed.
This boom-bust cycle is all part of capitalism's vicious treadmill. The system creates problems it can't solve. The U.S. trade deficit means that the dollar sinks against the yen. With the yen rising out of control, Japanese bosses begin exporting production. Unemployment in Japan, "officially" at three percent but really at nine percent, counting discouraged workers, starts to soar. To prop up their sagging stock market, Japanese rulers then sell off their massive overseas investments ($13 billion last March alone). They have already begun to pull the plug on their huge holdings in U.S. treasury bonds.
This maneuver has two consequences. First, Clinton & Co. or their successors will have a harder time financing the U.S. federal deficit. Therefore, racist unemployment and budget cuts can only worsen here. Second, the dollar will continue to sink against the yen; the collapse of the Japanese stock market will speed up; Japanese banks will continue to fold; unemployment will rise in Japan and throughout the world.
In some form, this scenario is more likely than not. The collapse of the Japanese banking system could easily undermine the entire financial structure of world capitalism and bring on a depression that would dwarf 1929. The face of U.S. society in the near future wears a sign that says: "50 percent unemployment."
For the time being, workers can draw an important lesson from the deadly fencing over trade between U.S. and Japanese billionaires. We mustn't cast our lot with the profit system! It offers us nothing but unemployment and death from misery or war. Our future lies in the international unity against all bosses and in communist revolution. The still gradual but steady international growth of our Party, most recently in Japan, proves that this future is more than just a dream.
If one thinks that nuclear war among these rival imperialist powers is "unthinkable," we need only examine how the U.S. ruling class, the only power ever to use the atomic bomb, practiced genocidal warfare against a defeated Japan in 1945, killing over 250,000 civilians, men women and children, injuring hundreds of thousands more and leaving future generations with everlasting genetic defects. The fact is that first, the Japanese were defeated without the use of atomic bombs; second, militarily it was absolutely unnecessary to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and thirdly, the atomic bombing of these two cities was not the final military act of World War II, but rather it was a political decision, the opening shot of the Cold War. It showed what U.S. bosses are capable of.
The Truman Administration defended the use of the A-Bomb as a military necessity to defeat Japan without a land invasion that would cost "over a million U.S. casualties." That was as big a lie as Hitler ever told.
Declassified military planning documents show a worst-case scenario of no more than 46,000 deaths. But even that is meaningless, since U.S. rulers knew by early 1945 that not only was Japan militarily defeated but that it had been trying for months to surrender! On May 5, 1945, the U.S. intercepted and decoded a cable from the German ambassador in Japan, sent to Berlin, stating: "Since the situation is...hopeless, large sections of Japan's armed forces would [favor] an American request for capitulation even if the terms were hard." (N. Y. Times, 8/11/93, p. 9)
In fact, President's Truman own diary, released in 1979, shows he knew from decoded Japanese cables that Japan was about to surrender unconditionally. Truman referred to this as the cable from the "Jap Emperor asking for peace." On July 17, three weeks before the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Truman wrote he believed the Soviet Union would "be in the Jap war by Aug. 15. Fini Japs when that comes about."
By 1945, Japan's entire industrial and military machine had ground to a halt. In the Spring of '45, its oil lifeline was severed. By June, U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay complained that there was nothing left to bomb in Japanese cities but "garbage can targets." Japan could no longer defend itself.
The evidence is overwhelming that the atomic bombing of Japan was, militarily, absolutely unnecessary. General Dwight Eisenhower, later to succeed Truman as President, told Secretary of War Henry Stimson in 1945 that, "Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary....I thought our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of `face.' "<
It is clear that the liberal Democratic Truman Administration didn't want Japan to surrender before the A-Bomb could be used. On June 6, 1945, Stimson told Truman that he was "fearful" that before the A-bombs were delivered, the U.S. Air Force would have Japan so "bombed out" that the A-Bomb "would not have a fair background to show its strength." "Show its strength" to whom? Certainly not to Japan which was already defeated and frantically trying to surrender. In fact, on July 25, the day before Truman and his Secretary of State James Byrnes had issued a "final warning" to Japan to surrender, Truman had already approved the order to nuke Hiroshima.
If U.S. rulers were demonstrating the power of the bomb to force Japan to surrender, how come they didn't even pause long enough for Japanese officials to travel to Hiroshima and examine the extent of the destruction of the August 6 bomb before dropping a second bomb on Nagasaki just three days later and killing another 100,000 civilians?
No, these two bombs were not dropped for the military reason of forcing Japan to surrender without a land invasion, the decision "was clearly a political one."
A-Bomb Project scientist Leo Szilard said Byrnes told him that the bomb's biggest benefit was not its effect on Japan, but rather "rattling the bomb might make Russia more manageable."
This mass murder by U.S. rulers in the name of anti-communism was not new. It was part of a U.S. offensive against communism that began with the U.S. invasion of the Soviet Union in 1918. As Churchill had said about the A-Bomb, "We now had something in our hands that would redress the balance with the Russians."
It is an inescapable fact that U.S. rulers murdered over a quarter of a million Japanese civilians and tortured endless future generations with genetic defects solely as a dagger aimed straight at the heart of the Soviet Union. Rather than the dropping of the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki being the last act of World War II, it was actually the first act in launching the Cold War against the USSR.
Our main focus this year is to recruit into the Party workers in the garment industry centralized in Los Angeles. Our secondary focus is to organize workers to fight back against the soon-to-be-shut-down LA County Hospital. Closing the hospital will cause 18,000 heath care worker layoffs and will deprive thousands of workers of health care. Garment workers in particular will suffer most since the garment industry doesn't provide health insurance.
The garment industry employs 150,000 workers, most of them immigrants. Only 2000 are unionized and are paid higher wages. The majority of workers get paid by the piece, which comes to a little less than minimum wage. For example, in order for a worker to make $50 a day, 300 collars have to be made at 13cents per collar.
On July 6, Summer Project volunteers woke up at 5:00 am to join enthusiastic garment strikers at Good Times, a Guess? contractor. The bosses plan to lower the piece rate. The youth arrived chanting, "The Workers United Will Never Be Defeated". We sold many Challenge-Desafíos.
On July 8, all volunteers participated in a motorcade around the Manual Arts HS neighborhood, where many garment workers live. Two hundred sixty-two Challenge-Desafíos were sold and 500 leaflets distributed. We made a positive impression and contacted hundreds of workers.
The volunteers have made such an impact that many garment workers participated in our successful social and political events. About 110 people came to a welcome party at a comrade's house. Many of them were garment workers and their families.
The last contract gave us the sorry spectacle of joint union/management committees figuring out which jobs to eliminate and combine. In return for union cooperation in wiping out jobs and work rules, LTV did not oppose unionization at its new finishing mills in Ohio, which were built in the late 1980s.
But now the deal is off. LTV plans to build a non-union mini-mill, TRICO Steel, in Alabama. This mill will produce 2.2 million tons of steel with 320 workers, but not a penny in dues for the union leadership. The USW International feels betrayed, sold out by the company. Steel workers certainly know the feeling.
Now the union wants to organize a campaign against this union-busting, low-wage mini-mill. To date, the campaign consists of petitions against the new mill, meetings with local union leaders, USWA head George Becker addressing a meeting of LTV's Board of Directors, and assigning a local president to work full-time on the campaign. The problem is, many workers are suspicious of the union leadership. We have seen the union sell us out for fifteen years, agreeing to a mini-mill type operation, eliminating and combining jobs, as long as the dues kept coming in.
What are the issues for steelworkers in this struggle? It is not important where the plant is built. In Decatur, Alabama or Gary, Indiana, this plant will soon lead to thousands more jobs being lost. The main issue is not even making the new plant a union shop. A union shop with 320 workers will still be used to wipe out jobs in older plants. The main thing is to turn this into a fight for jobs. And the only way to fight for jobs is to fight for shorter hours. Seventy years ago, steelworkers worked twelve hours a day; and once a week, they worked twenty-four hours straight. They fought for the eight hour day, and won it. Workers fought for it, it was not a gift from the bosses. Now we must fight for the six hour day.
The alternative is more jobs wiped out, increasing speed-up and harassment for those few workers left on the job. For years, the union leadership has told steelworkers to cooperate with the bosses, that "you can't fight progress." That didn't work then, and it won't work now. TRICO is proof once again that capitalism does not work for us. Steelworkers bailed out LTV bosses when they were in bankruptcy, taking pay-cuts, losing vacations, and benefits. In return, the bosses took the money made from our labor, and concessions, and built a plant to wipe out our jobs. While the union bosses feel betrayed, workers in PLP say, "What's new? That's how capitalism works." The 6-hour day at 8-hours pay will win back some more of what we produce. Communist revolution will take it all back.
As far as these bosses are concerned, there is obviously no reason why workers should expect to keep up with the bosses when it comes to pay, let alone keep up with inflation! After all, workers, as is well known, are another class altogether. We eat far less, do not need holidays, cars, and can buy all our clothes from second-hand stores.
It is obvious that the bosses count on our frugal existence. But, in fact, in the lower grade and part-time jobs in the entire public sector, including the NHS, making ends meet means worse than that. It means inability to afford paying all the bills and getting deeper and deeper in debt, no matter low frugal you try to be.
While the Royal College of Nurses' talk of industrial action may well be just big talk on their part, given the rate of pay increase being offered to workers these days, talking big is definitely in order.
Other workers are protesting the layoffs and cuts. SEIU 660 Executive Director, Gilbert Cedillo, has called for marches and civil disobedience. Last week over 1000 County workers demonstrated at the Board of Supervisors and marched in downtown. Twenty were arrested for blocking traffic.
The union is showing activists a video of a Justice for Janitor's march taken five years ago in Century City that was attacked by the police. It is being described as an example of a workers' victory. In fact, the leaders ordered the workers not to fight against the police. Several workers were severely injured, two were permanently paralyzed. What kind of victory is this?
The workers were told by the union leadership to be passive while the police beat them up, so they could get "sympathetic publicity." In other words, workers should rely on the state, and the "good will" of politicians, rather than the unity and strength of the working class.
At the march and rally last Thursday, PLP students, teachers and workers sold Challenge-Desafío and chanted "No Layoffs, No Cutbacks. We Need A General Strike!" Many workers chanted with us and took Party leaflets, and about 100 workers bought Challenge-Desafío.
For all its civil disobedience, the leadership did not like this chant and sent others to try to drown us out. Cedillo said he is in a partnership with the Board of Supervisors against the Governor. The union leaders led the chant, "Pete, give the money back" (Telling the Governor to return the $1 billion that the County of LA has been forced to give to the State each year for the past three years).
While the State's tax-base has shrunk, the aerospace industry laid off over 400,000 workers, and corporations had their taxes cut, more tax money is being spent to build prisons. The Board of Supervisors paid $381 million in interest to bond holders last year, while cutting jobs and health care. All these politicians support and defend the capitalist profit system which is tearing workers' lives apart.
Civil disobedience drains workers' anger and diverts, rather than organizes, our forces to confront this deepening crisis as a class. County workers, 85,000 of them, together with hundreds of thousands of industrial workers who are forced to use County facilities, are the most powerful force in the County, if united and organized with communist leadership. They could stop the bosses' profits from flowing. They could bring the system to a halt. They could see that the working class is the most powerful class there is. Cedillo's job is to try to prevent that with promises, speeches, whistles, press conferences, smoke and mirrors.
PLP has the opposite task: to show workers that we can forge powerful ties with communist leaders who will turn the bosses' crisis into a fight for workers' power. We need leaders who are in partnership with the international working class, not with the County Board of Supervisors. It's not a question of whether to cut LA County hospital or some other hospital. It's a question of power. The bosses have it, and we, the working class, need to prepare ourselves to take it.
In Paterson and Jersey City, several young latin and black men have been brutally murdered by local cops. Many more men and women have been verbally and physically harassed and beaten throughout the state.
Members of PLP are participating in the New Jersey Committee Against Police Brutality, a multi-racial group calling for the prosecution of the killer cops and an end to police brutality The Committee is petitioning in working class neighborhoods, has organized a speak-out against police brutality and is planning a rally in front of the County Courthouse.
Some honest forces within the Committee believe that the solution to police brutality is hiring more black and latin cops, creating civilian police review boards (CPRB), and relying on politicians. Cops, whether they're black, latin or women have only one purpose -- to protect private property and instill fear in workers in an attempt to squash fightback. CPRB's do nothing but support the cops in their violence. In New York City, for example, victims of police brutality who file complaints have to wait months, or even years, while the CPRB "investigates" their claims. The role of the liberal politicians is simply to try to buy off workers' anger with empty promises of change.
Only a communist revolution will bring an end to police brutality. Workers must join the PLP and fight for a communist society, one in which the working class will work together to ensure that our common needs are met.
On June 23, anti-riot cops attacked with tear gas a protest by over 50 women workers from the Emsambles and Confecciones plant demanding that the Ministry of Economy ensure their pay. The owner, Juana Calderin, a Cuban exile living in the U.S., had fled to Miami without giving the 1300 workers their last paychecks and severance pay.
Two days later, 300 unionized garment workers, all of them women, protested against the Korean-owned Mandarin International garment plant. The workers were demanding their pay after the boss fired them and said it would only pay some of the workers. The angry workers fought the company's security guards.
Garment has become the main industry in many regions all over the world, from Los Angeles to San Salvador, from Sri Lanka to theDominican Republic. These workers are superexploited by contractors working for big corporations like J.C. Penney, Levi Straus, Dayton Hudson's Target Stores, Wal-Mart, Guess, etc. Even though these big corporations claim to have "codes" to avoid the kind of abuses these women workers in El Salvador have just suffered, their main concern is maximum profits, and these "codes" are only a façade, as the headline of a front page article in the Wall Street Journal (7/3/95) shows: "Conduct Codes Garner Goodwill for Retailers, But Violations Go On. Factories in Latin America Still Hire Minors Illegally and Unionists Get Killed."
The immediate solution to end these attacks is to organize all garment workers across all borders and fight for decent pay for all. This kind of organization needs an internationalist outlook, in order to stop garment bosses from moving from place to place in their constant search for cheaper labor. PLP is starting do this, from San Salvador to Los Angeles, putting into practice the communist slogan of "Workers of the World, Unite!
The owner of Good Times also owns another factory, "Son of California", with more than 200 workers. After the first day of the strike, the workers from Good Times went to picket in front of the Son of California plant. A group of workers walked out to join the strike, but others continued working. Everyday the striking workers picket both factories, to get all workers to strike to pressure the owners to meet their demands.
These factories are sub-contractors for GUESS, one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in LA County, with about 60 contractors. GUESS has an average of 150 workers at each sub-contractor, or about 9000 workers. The majority of these make less than minimum wage and have no medical benefits or vacations. Last year the owners of GUESS took home profits of $575 million.
On Friday morning, July 7, volunteers from the PLP Summer Project, and a group of garment workers went to support the strikers. We were well-received by the majority of strikers. Many of those who went inside to work said they were afraid about losing their jobs. They were friendly, but showed they didn't have confidence that workers can unite and win anything.
Our speeches attacked these obstacles. We pointed out the potential strength of 150,000 garment workers and that a united strike would put all workers on the offensive. If we want to change our lives, we need militancy and multi-racial, working-class unity. We also said we are collecting money and food for the strikers. We said we need unions to strengthen the hand of all workers in the fight against the bosses, not to promise "peace" between workers and bosses at this time of sharpening attacks. Many were listening attentively to the speeches, reading our leaflets and 40 workers bought Challenge-Desafío.
ILGWU leaders told the workers not to listen to us. They sneered that our communist politics would make the workers lose the strike. A teacher, a member of PLP, took the bullhorn to explain why PLP'ers, including students and teachers, had come to support the strike, and that communists fight for the short-term and long-term interests of the working class. After this, these union leaders led the striking workers away to a meeting, and refused to let any of the supporters in. The struggle to win the workers to a class struggle and communist outlook will not be easy, but during this unionizing campaign many workers will see whose actions are for the workers and whose aren't. Many workers will join us, not just in fighting for a union, but in fighting for a communist society.
That afternoon, a group of volunteers went to sell Challenge-Desafíos and give out leaflets at a bus stop a half-block from the strikers. 300 to 400 workers congregate there from different garment shops. When the workers came out of work, a comrade gave a militant speech, saying that the capitalist system is so rotten you can smell its stench, and the strike should spread.
Many garment workers were excited to see our multi-racial group supporting the strike and calling on the workers to destroy the capitalist system. They listened intently to the speeches and bought 115 Challenge-Desafíos. Some were the strikers. At the same time, other volunteers were distributing leaflets and calling on workers to support the strike at other garment shops. They sold another 100 papers. The next day, Saturday, we had a car caravan in a nearby working class neighborhood and collected money for the strikers and sold 263 papers.
The ILGWU leaders and the big liberal bosses have their own reasons to organize a union in the LA garment center. They want to gain members, collect dues and, most important, win workers to think we can have peace and justice with the bosses, so they will defend the capitalist system rather fight all out against it. Clearly, they don't want communists involved. It's very important that all angry, militant garment workers build shop committees and go to the union to seek support.
We shouldn't be surprised by the leaders' anti-communism. It won't stop us. These liberal leaders greatly underestimate the workers and their openness to the communist view of the class struggle, to communist leadership. For communists, this struggle will be a school where thousands of workers can see the possibility and necessity of building a system without bosses, cops, immigration, racists, banks, or money. This new, communist, society will be based on production for the needs of the workers, not the bosses' profits. The fight is sharpening.
As one AC driver spoke, he held three fingers upside down. This is the " `M of Me' -- a sign of people divided." As he turned those fingers over he said, "We're turning the Me into the `W of We' -- riders and drivers, young and old united." He then curled those fingers into a fist. "This is the fist of solidarity and power, the power we're building to fight these cuts and layoffs." He was cheered wildly.
After this driver. a rider also spoke up boldly. The driver added the rider's name, and the names of six other people sitting nearby, onto a contact list. The PLP shop steward called on all workers to join in a class war against the top 1 percent -- the ruling class thieves who were ruining AC and all public services. In all, we made several contacts and sold 40 Challenge-Desafíos. In contrast Alameda Transit Union President Zook came with one other shop steward and told people not to be "tricked," but offered no strategy to fight back.
This meeting was the high point of two weeks of struggle that began with a public workshop on June 24. At that meeting President Zook verbally and physically attacked PLP shop steward Dave Lyons, for calling on riders and workers to strike for jobs. After the assault, riders got in Zook's face. "You don't do nothing! I've been calling you for days and you never return my calls. How dare you attack somebody who is fighting for us when you don't do s..t!" Comments like these have been common since the incident. Never had anyone seen Zook show that much anger against the AC bosses.
While union charges have been filed against Zook, the main issue remains building the class conscious leadership of rank-and-file workers needed to fight the cuts. In discussions with drivers, we've struggled with those who don't feel they can make enough of a difference in influencing others. We've shown by example, that they can build ties with angry riders by being determined and having confidence in the working class.
While we weren't able to win the 2/3 vote to reduce union dues for part-timers at the last union meeting, we did win a majority, 27-24. At a time of continued attacks by the capitalists and their lieutenants in the union leadership, PLP and Challenge-Desafío are starting to win the fight against cynicism and preparing the working class for battle. As we go to press, we have just collected the $170 (at $4 per worker) needed to start a local Challenge-Desafío bulk mailing to 200 transit workers.
There were hikes, beautiful scenery, stories around the campfire. It was a weekend filled with stunning beauty because of the fact that all of us -- blacks, whites, asians -- worked hard and had fun without prejudice, something very precious in this hate-filled world. It once more provided proof that people have much more in common than just being able to talk and walk on two legs.
The first big activity that we did as a group was the night hike. No one was allowed to use flashlights -- only their "night vision". We played a game while we let our eyes adjust to the darkness. In the darkness of the surrounding woods we could see fireflies blinking and the stars spread out in the clear night sky, as we crossed a swinging bridge.
The next morning we took another hike. This one was much more grueling than the night hike. It involved going up rocky hills, crossing streams both deep and shallow and going through dense underbrush. Afterwards, even though we were tired and hungry, and most people's shoes were soaked, many people seemed to enjoy the hike.
On Sunday night, after a wonderful spaghetti and salad dinner, there was a campfire program. There were poems, songs, sketches and stories written by people from the U.S., the Netherlands, Spain, England and Australia. Among the many performances was an especially poignant poem that reflected the struggle for freedom from Chile. There was also a skit showing how wrong it was to write racist poems, even if you are Robert Louis Stevenson, who is regarded as one of the "greatest writers in British literature."
There was a skit about the life and times of abolitionist Sojourner Truth (aka Isabella Baumfree), and a folk tale from Australia that gave an important lesson in cooperation. There were many songs and poems, one that reflected on the life of Anne Frank, one relating to the importance of self-criticism, and a play about fighting racism at Rutgers University. All of the performances talked about the need to fight for equality.
The most important aspect of the trip, politically, were the group discussions. The first one was about developing into a communist, which culminated in giving self-criticism about instances in which they could have done a better job of helping others or standing up for their feelings and values. The second discussion was about racism in our daily lives and whether we thought it could be eradicated. The last discussion was about sexism. The group discussed what sexism is and times when they had experienced sexism or had been sexist themselves. All in all this trip was very enjoyable and many people commented on how fun the trip was. There is sure to be great interest and a comparable turnout next year.
Thank You,
D.H.
I had some interesting moments on this camping trip. Things like the campfire, night-hike, and the fact of girls being on this camping trip. Most trips I have been on are always boys and it seldom got boring. The only thing that I really didn't agree on was all the discussions, because they were too long.
M.M.
This was a very interesting camping trip. The people were very friendly who camp. Discussion time had many educational points, and I look forward to it again next year.
Looking Forward
I think the overall trip was fun and educational. I learned many things about racism and sexism during the talks. I am really looking forward to coming back next year.
Yours Truly,
A Happy Camper
Even though this was my first year I had a lot of fun. To be outdoors for a couple of days was a terrific feeling or experience. This trip has shown me how the outside is a great treasure to the world by meeting new friends and enjoying the environment. The topics that we have discussed made me realize a lot more important issues. Thank you so much for everything!
Love,
Dear Friend
The camping trip was fun. The best part was the campfire and the lake. If I hadn't gotten stuck in the mud, that would have been even better. I will be back next year!
Happy I Came
P.S. The mountain lookout was cool, also!
Once again I went, I saw and was ready to leave earlier than it was time,
But I do always have some memories that I try to sum up in a rhyme.
I was pleased and surprised to see so many new faces,
And I was less surprised that the hikes were in such strange places.
Although I don't think I will be returning and the fifth time will be my last one,
I've grown to respect the things accomplished, the people I've met and always have fun.
A Veteran Camper
I truly enjoyed my first camping trip along with my three lovely daughters and three other friends. I enjoyed the food and both hiking trips. I met a lot of new friends. Also the campfire talent show was quite an experience. I really look forward to coming back next year. I really look forward to coming back next year. Overall, the whole camping trip was loads of fun. Keep up the good work all of you!
A Truly Happy Camper
Camping was a new experience for me and I had a great time. Also the group discussions were interesting.
New Camper
Young or old, master of the "basic skills," or not -- you're still going to get the boot. Boeing has cut 60,500 jobs in the last five years.
In case you might think this is temporary and that jobs will return with a recovery of orders -- think again! "We're not looking at an increase in employment," said Nancy Bethel, a vice president of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. "Our goal is to do more with less."
Boeing President Phil Condit tries to justify this policy with a particularly absurd piece of pretzel logic. He said "increased efficiency will translate into a job security for all of us, and allow Boeing to move away from the pattern of hiring and laying off thousands of employees during each market cycle." He plans to move away from hiring, all right, while laying off thousands during both good times and bad!
This means that tens of thousands of job cuts will gut the tax base of the area's school districts. The Seattle School District has already cut over $10 million from next year's budget. Hundreds of school jobs have been cut. Entire programs, including drug and alcohol counseling, have been eliminated.
But, Boeing does want a few applicants "with basic skills" because its workforce is aging. The gutted school system will become even more racist. Young people who don't qualify to be trained as applicants for Boeing will be "discarded," into a no-opportunity school track.
The system that Shrontz, Bethel and Condit run -- capitalism -- can no longer meet the needs of masses of workers and their children. Capitalism's crisis presents us workers with a challenge. This challenge can't be met solely with education or educational reform. This crisis requires a mass movement for 6-hours work for 8-hours pay to create thousands of jobs here at Boeing and millions more throughout the world.
Workers and students need to unite in this fight. Students have already mailed Challenge-Desafío to Boeing workers. These students wrote letters that highlight articles of local interest and urge Boeing workers to subscribe. Summer project volunteers have contacted other aerospace workers. We plan to expand this unity at the contract votes for school employees (SEA) and Boeing workers (IAM) this fall. Fighting for jobs is truly a family affair.
Recently, two people from a public school Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) joined PLP. They have known about the Party for a few months. When I told them I was a communist and a member of PLP, neither was surprised. They (as well as other people I've told about the Party) have told me they "knew there was more to me than met the eye."
In the past few years conditions in this school have rapidly deteriorated. Nearly $3 billion has been cut from the NYC Board of Education budget. Our after-school center was eliminated. Physical conditions have deteriorated. Only 35% of the children read at their grade levels. And first and foremost, most teachers follow the standard curriculum of teaching the racist, sexist and patriotic claptrap that keeps the principal and the Bd. of Ed. happy (although teaching capitalist ideas doesn't guarantee the teachers their jobs).
What attracted these comrades were our efforts within the PTA, including regular flyers and rallies. But it was my relationship with them, as well as that of other comrades, that won them to join the Party. And it was the constant struggle in my Party club that guaranteed this would occur.
Why weren't they surprised to find out I was in PLP? I live my life as much as possible by communist principles. I do my best to carry out the line of the PLP as laid out in the document called Road to Revolution IV. My wife and I have multi-racial and multi-national friendships. We welcome people to our apartment, just as we enjoy visiting our friends' homes. We treat people the way we want to be treated. We take no crap from the agents of the ruling class at our school (the principal and his flunkies) and we are seen as mass leaders. We teach English to immigrant parents on a volunteer basis. All I did by telling these comrades about the Party was put a label on the way we live our lives.
Our two new comrades make our organizing in the school much stronger. Our strength can only be gauged by how much we are building the fight for communist revolution. In the course of that fight , we want to meet garment workers and other workers. We want to organize parents, students, and teachers to shut the school down. But communist relations are essential, not simply because it is the main way people will join the Party, but because through our actions today we show the way towards a future society of egalitarian communism.
PL PTA Members
At the recent convention of UNITE, the union created by the merger of the ILGWU and ACTWU, 1500 workers got to hear some new material by Jesse Jackson. Jackson made two points in his speech that grabbed the crowd and got standing ovations. First he said that workers have no responsibility for the government's budget deficit. "Asking us to pay for the defcit is like asking us to pay for a party we weren't invited to."
Then he called on white workers specifically to fight racism, not because of morality alone, but because it is in their interest. "If they can put a black face on welfare, a black face on poverty, they will cut back against the millions of poor white workers, women and children in this country."
While Jackson seemed to have a class line on racism his solution was purely capitalist, instead of calling for mass strikes, Jackson called on workers to vote. "The Republicans won because we didn't take the time to vote." Jackson is a sellout, but he's no dummy. He's appealing to workers who are fed up with the inequalities of capitalism. The people at this convention work in low paying industrial jobs, and they have seen their wages drop over the last few years. Jackson is trying to build a base around a line that will appeal to this growing number of angry and alienated workers.
Will Jackson form a third party and run for President, or will he just try to be a force in the Democratic Party? It's not clear, but watch out. From Rush to LaRouche and everything in-between, the ruling class tries to create a politican for everybody. For the bosses a vote for anybody is better than workers fighting for communism.
East Coast Steward
Approximately six years ago I wrote to Challenge-Desafío, signed "Solitary Soldier." This signature meant that I was confident that as an individual I could fight the bosses by myself and win.
A woman on my job, an active member of PLP, warned me that "safety comes in numbers." She pleaded with me to stop my solo efforts, my loner fighting tactics. She related her past experiences of waging war against the bosses. She understood the ills associated with fighting as an individual; she was aware of the paranoia (not knowing who you can trust, therefore opting to fight alone), before concluding that she needed to join with those of similar thought and capable of giving support.
Even when I experienced the most "tunnel-vision," my comrade never abandoned me despite the frustration she must have felt. She was aware of what awaited me on my path for change. It was during these times that she grew in stature. She provided me with literature (Challenge, magazines, and books) and conversations about the Party. I always respected her because she was a "front-line" soldier who saw me in a similar light. I respected her opinion because of her experiences in fighting the bosses.
I fought several successful battles against the bosses. I spoke and wrote to forestall the bosses' efforts to fire me. I corresponded with a multitude of offices and agencies (inside and outside of the confines of the Los Angeles County System). My efforts were focused on the sole goal to gain as much exposure as I could.
I sought help from the "powers-that-be" to no avail. The bosses worked hard to continue their racist attacks against me. I, as an individual became an irritant, a mosquito buzzing in the bosses' collective ears. I was the eyesore in the bosses' ideal "planned-community/workplace." I was called "insatiable," and "ungrateful."
The bosses toss crumbs to workers under the guise of "doing the right thing." Bosses don't possess any motivation to afford workers true parity. The world doesn't need another unsung hero or martyr. I implore readers to affiliate and align with others who agree with them. Organize locally but think always in terms of ultimate global change. Maintenance of the "big picture" tends to motivate one to continue to struggle and fight for change. Unite , 0rganize and fight!
No Longer A Solitary Soldier
Ebola virus has killed 57 people so far (official figures) in the latest outbreak in Zaire. Panic spread quickly because of its lethal reputation and the lack of a cure. But the first outbreak in Zaire in 1976, when this virus was first identified and killed 274 people, was mostly due to the re-use of needles and syringes, a practice created by poverty and shortages. This allowed Ebola to spread through contact with infected blood.
A similar outbreak in the Sudan proved that, with hygienic conditions, care and re-hydration, only slightly more than half those infected actually died. In fact, with good intensive care, there should be a fair chance of survival for all, even without an actual cure.
Of course, such conditons rarely apply in exploited African countries. Vaccines are really needed against such viruses. But in the 16 years since the discovery of Ebola, almost no progress has been made in understanding it better or in developing a vaccine against it. Why? Because poor African countries will never be a big source of profit for the companies which are perfectly capable of developing research for the Ebola virus' vaccines and drugs.
So they spread vicious racist lies, like the idea that this is the "jungle taking revenge," or they stir up fears of "new" diseases coming out of Africa. Yet the new drug-resistant strains of TB which are beginning to ravage the poor in the slums of New York, Glasgow and London do not come from the African jungle but from social degradation.The "developed" capitalist world proves quite capable of cultivating its own killer microbes in the deprived urban jungles it creates right here.
A Reader