A PLP cadre school discussed reform struggles and communism, and building an international revolutionary party to counter nationalism and racism. Fifty people came to the cadre school, and five joined the Party. Today, the Party met with a group from Ruta 100 giving them food to help them continue their on-the-job struggle. PLP members talked to the workers about the need to build a revolutionary party to counter the growing fascist attacks on workers.
Workers sang The Internationale at the end of the conference. This project left us with rich experiences, not only in bringing our ideas to the masses but in struggling against our own weaknesses like individualism and liberalism. We have a long way to go in defeating the capitalist monster, but this summer was a major step in that revolutionary direction.
In May layoffs were announced supposedly due to Medicaid cuts. But this hospital will lose only a small amount in Medicaid payments, since they rely heavily on private insurance payments.
Workers from every department, as well as the community came. Workers are angry at the bosses for breaking the contract that calls for job security for workers with two or more years in exchange for giving up a pay raise for the year 1995. Many workers with fifteen years were on the layoff list. In spite of what the 1199 leadership says, this is a bosses' contract; they can close positions and lay off workers with two or more years. Workers have marched to the president's office and held many meetings with the bosses, to express concern for patients; leaflets were written demanding that bosses be laid off, not workers.
The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), whose contract is up on June 30, are having an informational line. 1199 plans to support this action. Nurses, 50 of whom have been laid off and who have been working without a contract since March, supported 1199 workers in this action. These struggles are vital in showing workers and patients that capitalist run health care system is hazardous to our health and needs to be smashed before it kills us. The struggle continues...
Los Angeles County has the largest concentration of industrial workers in the United States. Many, like the 150,000 garment workers, make low wages and have no health insurance. The County health system, with its understaffing, long waits, and out-of-date facilities, is the only health care these workers have. The County has been trimming services for years. Now Reed wants to swing a bigger ax. Whether the County makes all the cuts in her plan, or just some, more workers and their children will die from lack of medical care. Most will be black or latin.
But, not cut from the budget was $381 million in interest payments on bonds held by banks and the wealthy. In fact, Reed just returned from a trip to Wall Street, where the investment bankers ordered the County to make cuts to qualify for further loans, at higher interest rates.
The capitalists around the world are at each others throats. The U.S.-Japanese trade war over automobiles is one symptom of this struggle. Capitalists must maximize their profits, or be defeated by those with more money to invest.
One way the bosses maximize profits is to reduce their taxes, by getting bought-and-paid-for politicians to change the laws. In 1947, corporations paid 25 percent of federal revenues. Today they pay less than 8 percent. In California, Prop. 13 was passed in 1978, giving huge tax breaks to commercial property owners, and depriving counties of one of their main sources of revenue.
All profits are based on exploiting workers. But some goes back to the working class in the form of "social wages," such as health care, schools, libraries, parks. When the corporations cut their taxes, they cut social wages.
Gilbert Cedillo, leader of SEIU Local 660, which represents 40,000 of the 85,000 L.A. County workers and Gloria Molina, latin member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, say they are against Reed's cuts. But all these two talk about cutting are executive salaries, which is fine but doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared to interest to banks; or they call for the State to bail out the County. Now that's absurd! The State of California took $1 billion out of the L.A. County treasury in 1993.
While Cedillo and Molina are telling us to look anywhere for money but the banks. A small but growing number of workers appear ready to take more drastic measures. At a rally of 2000 workers and patients at County Hospital on June 19, 400 communist flyers calling for a general strike were snatched up in minutes. Workers pinned the flyers to their uniforms. A meeting of 35 shop stewards chose six to speak at the rally, including a nurse who is in PLP. Molina, through Cedillo, told the group they could not speak. But the stewards refused to take no for an answer, and the communist used her speech to call for a strike. This nurse has also won the RN bargaining committee to vote for 6-hours work-for8-hours pay as a contract demand.
A teacher in Los Angeles proposed a general strike to prevent the closing of County Hospital at a meeting of chapter chairpersons. Many agreed, and now some teachers are planning to raise in the union's House of Representatives that the UTLA call on the County Federation of Labor to organize a general strike.
But the time of greatest danger is also the time of greatest opportunity. In L.A. we will lead thousands of workers into class struggle and help them learn that they can, and must, overthrow the capitalist system. It must go, and be replaced with communism, where health care and production will be run based on the needs of the workers, without profit or banks.
The recent G-7 conference in Halifax, Canada, attended by the seven so-called leading economic powers, confirmed that the entire international capitalist system is in a crisis of new dimensions. Every participant, including the two leading industrial powers, the U.S. and Japan, said their economies were in deep trouble.
Workers can only expect to be attacked much harder on every front by the greedy, desperate bosses. Even the New York Times has caught on. In the June 24 editorial titled, "Bad News For Workers," it says, "A disturbing report released by the Labor Department shows that average wages and salaries fell by more that two percent, after accounting for inflation, between March 1994 and March 1995." While the trend of falling wages has been with us for the last twenty years, this is an increase - almost doubling - of the rate of falling wages.
In the previous week the Wall Street Journal had an article revealing how this coming period is going to hit workers like a ton of bricks. The piece is called, "Worried Workers." This is followed by "Service Productivity is Rising Fast -- and So Is The Fear of Lost Jobs." Now comes the double whammy, the article says: "Unlike innovations of the past, networks of computers may bring lasting pain." A few weeks after Boeing announced thousands of layoffs, another hi-tech defense contractor, Lockheed-Martin, announced at least 12,000 layoffs in the next few years. This includes many plant closings.
This coming period increases the development of war and fascism. War and fascism are the inevitable consequence of capitalism and imperialism. The rulers' crisis of overproduction is deepening -- new technology intensifies the productive process and creates overflowing markets that can't absorb the increased productive capacity. This crisis is leading to the inescapable conclusion that capitalism can't work and that communism, which produces for workers' needs instead of profits, must come to the forefront again. The only way to deal with all the negative consequences of capitalism is with communist revolution.
Angry workers fought the cops, burnt stores and tried to burn the the offices of UCR, the local ruling party. Workers from the chabolas (poor neighborhoods), ransacked food stores and tried to loot three supermarkets but were stopped by armored police cars. The bosses are afraid of a repetition of the 1969 rebellion led by autoworkers, that toppled dictator, Juan Carlos Onganio. President. Menem, who has impoverished Argentinian workers with his privatization, free-market programs that serve the international bankers, blamed the rebellion on the ultra-left. The workers should turn their fears into reality by building a revolutionary party to lead towards a communist revolution.
Over a thousand workers represented by various unions, homeless, welfare, women's and immigrant groups marched today, angry about the attacks on the poor and working class. As more workers see the need to fight back and take to the streets, there is an increased effort by union leaders and politicians to turn this anger into a dead-end path leading straight to the Democratic Party.
The `Jobs with Justice' bill of rights for workers is worth fighting for: livable wages, right to organize unions, affordable housing and health care, the right to be free of discrimination, the right to a job, etc. But their main plan to fight for these demands is by supporting politicians.
The PLP contingent went to Saturday's rally with a plan to attack the ideas of voting and supporting one politician over another. As a result of our boldness in putting forward communism, we sold over 160 Challenge-Desafíos and `Fight for Communism and Jobs' pamphlets. Our task now is to raise these ideas and heighten the contradiction within many of the unions and mass organizations represented at the march. Capitalism will only provide workers around the world with the "right" to be exploited by the same capitalists who control both Democrats and Republicans.
At the evening meeting, except for the report of Shop Steward Dave Lyons, from the Emeryville Division, there was little talk of fighting layoffs. Again, the leadership was on its heels. Five Emeryville workers raked the leadership over its involvement in the "Vision Team Concept." They told how teams try to get workers to work faster, eliminate jobs, and undermine the union. One driver said, "productivity quotas pit worker against worker. Recently I refused to drive a bus overcome with toxic fumes - only to be disciplined because a mechanic said I made an "unnecessary road call." It turned out three passengers went to the hospital because of those fumes!" A service employee asked, "Can I be forced to work overtime? I worked overtime four days last week because our service crew was up to 8 workers short. When I refused to work on Friday, the Team leader - (another union member) - made me feel like I was "letting down the team." I think other workers should get those jobs."
Riders and workers are angry over 1000 hours of service cuts and 200 layoffs, a 16% cutback. There should be special union meetings and outreach efforts, but that's not happening - except at the Emeryville, where 20-25 workers twice turned out for division meetings. Several workers have stepped forward, including those drivers at the union meetings. A resolution to reduce part-time union dues was brought to the meeting by a Emeryville part-timer. Several hundred leaflets opposing the cutbacks went out to riders, and 10 Emeryville workers attended the May 24th AC Board of Directors meeting.
These activities can lead to more serious commitments. The line has been drawn. "Class collaboration" and the Team Concept means speed-up, overtime, and layoffs in the face of massive racist unemployment. The collapse of capitalism has overwhelmed the strategy of collaborating with the boss to save jobs. In addition to the current $11 million deficit, AC projects deficits of $15 and $27 million for the next two years!
"Class Struggle" under the leadership of PLP, means a fight for jobs and Revolution . At the Sunday division run sign-up, 45 workers bought Challenge and 200 took PLP leaflets, connecting the layoffs to the crisis of capitalism, and calling on workers to become active in class struggle. More workers can be won closer to the Party. Already 15 have agreed to contribute $4 each for a mailing to the 200 Bay Area transit workers who read Challenge, but we can't reach regularly. We have had some modest success in drawing workers into the fight, but the potential is much greater. We are becoming more thoughtful in preparing for the political development of each worker. These efforts should produce more skilled working class leaders. Several have indicated interest in writing for a Division Newsletter and building a rank & file caucus. That's good, but the quality of work can be even better if workers join a PLP study group.
In May layoffs were announced supposedly due to Medicaid cuts. But this hospital will lose only a small amount in Medicaid payments, since they rely heavily on private insurance payments.
Workers from every department, as well as the community came. Workers are angry at the bosses for breaking the contract that calls for job security for workers with two or more years in exchange for giving up a pay raise for the year 1995. Many workers with fifteen years were on the layoff list. In spite of what the 1199 leadership says, this is a bosses' contract; they can close positions and lay off workers with two or more years. Workers have marched to the president's office and held many meetings with the bosses, to express concern for patients; leaflets were written demanding that bosses be laid off, not workers.
The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), whose contract is up on June 30, are having an informational line. 1199 plans to support this action. Nurses, 50 of whom have been laid off and who have been working without a contract since March, supported 1199 workers in this action. These struggles are vital in showing workers and patients that a capitalist run health care system is hazardous to our health and needs to be smashed before it kills us. The struggle continues...
Unions are very angry, and are talking about a general strike against this reactionary law. But workers should not have any faith in the union leadership, which is totally faithful to capitalism. Workers need to organize rank-and-file committees to confront this attack and organize a massive general strike.
The protestors carried signs that dramatized how they produce huge profits for the bosses. One placard which showed a dress worth $120 divided up into sections exposed how bosses make huge profits from the superexploitation of garment workers.The bosses pay only $10 for labor costs while making $60 in profits.
This kind of understanding of how capitalism works, instead of relying on the Democratic Party policies of the union leadership (Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez was one of the speakers at the rally), is key to defeating sweatshop conditions.
Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam's (NOI) support of the Sudanese government has shown again that this reactionary group is no friend of black workers and youth anywhere The City Sun and the Daily Challenge, two black newspapers in New York City, have led the debate against Abdul Akbar Muhhamad, the international representative of the NOI for attacking as `Jewish conspiracy" the allegations of slavery in Sudan. Sudan is suffering a long and bloody civil war between the central government, led by pro-Iranian Islamic fundamentalists, and mostly Christian and Animist forces in Southern Sudan.The central government has turned tens of thousands of southern Sudanese into slaves.
This is a case of both sides being enemies of workers and youth in Sudan and Africa. The opposition forces in the South are being supported by the U.S., the most racist and cruelest rulers in the world.
A Reader
I am a worker at Kaiser, Sunset in Los Angeles. I work in the cafeteria where they have cut our day from 8 to 6 hours a day. This change was worse for young workers who work only part-time or on-call and sometimes only work 20-25 hours a week. It is even harder for immigrant workers who have to send money home while they support their own family in the U.S.
Chris Spears, one of our fellow workers from Jamaica, who had recently become a father was forced by these cutbacks to look for a more secure job. So he took vacation time and took a job as a truck driver. In Detroit, Michigan, where he was waiting to relieve another driver, he was found dead, floating in the swimming pool of the hotel. The police still have not solved this mystery.
We are sure that he would never have left his job for something that would have cost him his life, but he was forced by the situation to take this job. What lessons can we learn from this? We must take a firm step forward and fight for our jobs and our lives. We don't want to be victims -- or killers. Those who killed Chris are also victims of the system which causes so much unemployment. (Millions of jobs have been lost in Detroit because of the closings of auto, steel and other factories. The hopelessness this causes makes workers feel that crime is their only alternative.)
We must demand that the Kaiser bosses respect our need to work and our rights as workers. The bosses' profit from our work, while we sweat to put food on the table for our families. Chris' death should inspire us to fight and to join hands together to fight for jobs! Down with oppression! Down with this system with its unemployment and racism! Capitalism only serves the bosses. It must be replaced with a system of equality and jobs for all.
Thank you for your attention. Let's raise our voices until the bosses have to listen!
A Worker At Kaiser Sunset.
The article in the 6/28 issue of Challenge about the election of the Multi-Racial Alliance to the leadership of SEIU Local 399 in L.A., reflects some of the confusion and one-sidedness we are grappling with in the unions and other mass organizations.
The gist of the article is that a rank-and-file caucus, uniting Spanish-speaking immigrant workers in Justice for Janitors, and mainly English-speaking workers from Kaiser Permanente Hospital, overcame many obstacles and divisions to capture the leadership of the local. They were elected on a program of putting the union in the hands of the workers, fighting concessions, layoffs, firings, and sub-contracting, and fighting against anti-immigrant and anti-labor laws, and for affirmative action. But the author then goes on to say that the unions are rotten, can never serve the workers, are controlled by the bosses, and will always serve their interests. You come away asking the question, "Then why did we bother?"
Part of the confusion lies in the contradiction between reform and revolution. Forget about how bad the union leaders are and what they have turned the unions into. Unions can serve the immediate interests of the workers. Didn't they win the 8-hour day, don't they sometimes win wage increases, aren't we trying to organize 150,000 L.A. garment workers into a union? Are non-union workers better off with no contracts, working at the will of the boss? It is true that no matter how good a union is, workers can never rid themselves of the endless wars, racism, depression, and fascism of the profit system short of communist revolution. Reforms don't lead to revolution, only a mass communist party can do that.
So the question then becomes, how can we build PLP and advance the struggle for communist revolution by operating within the unions? Can we sharpen the class struggle on many fronts against the rulers? Can we train many workers in the heat of class struggle to become organizers, leaders, writers, printers, speakers, etc.? Can we expand the sale of Challenge-Desafio, openly and through non-public networks of workers? Can we win the union, or sections of it, to embrace aspects of the Party's line around anti-racism, international solidarity, for jobs, for the 6-hour day, etc.? Can we from our election victory, organize a rank-and-file caucus to draw out the most militant, anti-racist workers, and develop them as leaders, and as communists? Would that lead to a bigger May Day? Would that lead to sharper class struggle on the job, and around L.A.? What if we were able to get a union to commit time, money, and hundreds of volunteer organizers to help in organizing the garment center? There is plenty of potential within the unions, for Party building, if we see that the opportunities are primary over the obstacles.
What the article doesn't reflect is that the Party has been very active in both the Janitors and at Kaiser. Workers marched on May Day and there has been recruitment. The struggle has been very difficult and complicated, but we are on the right track. We played an important role in the SEIU developments, because we do see the opportunities for Party building, and sharpening the class struggle.
None of this is to minimize the obstacles. They are real, and formidable. The "natural" tendency of the class struggle pulls us to the right, to subordinate the Party for the sake of the immediate battle. To keep focused on Party building while fighting for immediate demands, takes struggle, struggle, and more struggle. We have the very difficult task of bringing communist ideas, from the outside, into the class struggle, and steering the reform struggle onto the road to revolution. No one said it was going to be easy. But if we don't immerse ourselves in the class struggle, and in the mass organizations, we will never build a mass PLP.
Red Union Member
Dear Challenge:
I'm writing this in response to the letter in Challenge-Desafio (6/28) which described the participation of some PLP members in a demonstration against the impending execution of Mumia Abu Jamal.
I assume that Jamal is innocent of killing the racist cop, and is another victim of a police frame-up. I agree that he -- like thousands of others -- should not be in jail.
That does not mean that I sympathize at all with the Jamal's statements -- for example, about the MOVE movement. As I understand them, MOVE was or is a nationalist -- which is to say, racist -- sect which had thoroughly offended their neighbors in Philadelphia, most of them black, by their anti-social behavior and lack of hygiene.
The Philadelphia mayor and cops committed a major crime in massacring them and incinerating the entire neighborhood. This does not, however, ennoble MOVE. Jamal is apparently a member of MOVE, a professed admirer of John Africa, a MOVE leader.
There are plenty of groups which the U.S. and other governments attack and slaughter which are not worthy of our sympathy and support -- Koresh's right-wing sect or the various Identity fascists in the West. MOVE should not have been slaughtered, but they are reactionary and in this way are more similar to the government than different.
As for Jamal, I have seen no evidence that he is a fighter for the working class or an anti-racist; much less a communist. He was not noted for supporting strikes or as a working-class organizer.
I have asked supporters of his for copies of Jamal's journalism which caused the Philadelphia police department to hate him so, but have never received any. Therefore, it's impossible to be sure what his politics were. However, excerpts from them published by some revisionist groups suggest that Jamal denounced police racism from a reformist and nationalist perspective. Jamal writes a regular column for the Spartacist League newspaper, a reactionary Trotskyite sect which supports nationalism for blacks but not for whites. Jamal's columns contain no suggestion that he is pro-working class or for multi-racial unity. How can we "support" a person who does not fit these criteria?
Jamal is a nationalist, a certain kind of racist. He is the victim of a terrible injustice, like many, many others, but he is not someone whose views deserve to be spread abroad. He is certainly not someone who should be built into a "leader" in any sense. Yet this is precisely what the "Free Mumia" movement is doing!
PLP should not participate in coalitions that build Jamal as a leader. And the Party should never share a platform, or form a coalition, with revisionists or capitalist politicians! To do so would be lying to the working class -- saying, in effect, that one can and should unite with the enemies of the working-class around certain reform demands like the demand to free Jamal.
Maybe it can be tactically useful to leaflet demonstrations like the "Free Mumia" march in Philadelphia. But it should be done in such a way that the rotten politics of Jamal, the revisionist leaders of the demonstration, and the misleaders of the working class are attacked. If this is not done, the Party's participation in the demonstration serves only to build the rotten, anti-working-class politics of the demonstration's leaders.
We need to reach any honest, non-revisionist forces, and anyone open on the question of multi-racial unity. If there are no significant forces of this kind present, then we should stay away from such activities, and build a base among the working class elsewhere.
A New Jersey Comrade
I think the letter on Mumia in this issue fails to give the whole picture of what Jamal faced at his trial. He is not a revolutionary communist, but rather a "radical nationalist," and because of his use of Marxist-sounding rhetoric while he was a Black Panther, anti-communism and anti-revolutionary violence ideology was used in the courts to frame and put him into prison. Mumia is not just another black victim of the racist courts. He is a Political Prisoner.
The point I try to make is that the method used by the ruling class to incarcerate him is the same one they will use to kill us, if indeed they do use the legal system. There is no "sympathy" involved in supporting Mumia. It is a politically driven motive that can only serve to strengthen us.
In fact, MOVE is so reactionary that they are known for having broken strikes at Temple University. There is no real progressive aspect of MOVE. The support for Mumia is similar to the kind that we give to strikes and labor unions. Mumia's case is one of those issues where we face contradictions that must be dealt with in the way that I have attempted: going to the protests and meetings that deal with his lynching with leaflets and Challenges (this does not mean that my attempts at a PLP presence have been good). It's hard, but the truth is that if we intend to follow the Party line on working in mass organizations, such contradictions come up.
I agree that we shouldn't endorse Mumia's views. His nationalism should be explicitly and openly criticized. But I do not think that PLP is making Mumia any leader of anything. I might however, be wrong. The Philly PLP club will have a discussion of Piatnitsky's essay on "Bolshevism vs. Reformism" where such lines can be clarified.
In principle I agree with what the other letter says. In practice, however, I do not really understand some of its points. The truth is that there were many good people at the march. There were also massive numbers of hacks from Workers' World (WWP), The Spartacist (who were very hostile to Challenge and the PLP presence), nationalists, etc. But if we leave the revisionists and the nationalists to take over, then we are done.
Again, it's hard. But our presence at meetings with these enemies of the working class does make a difference. For example, I was reading in Challenge that comrades in California had struggles with nationalist leaders in Compton, among them, Jose Gutierrez, a Chicano leader. These struggles culminated in the proliferation of multi-racial unity and a banner with PLP's slogan "Asian, Latin, Black, and White, To Fight Racism, We Must Unite!" I later met Gutierrez at a National Peoples' Campaign (NPC) meeting with many other organizers against Prop. 187 and multi-racial unity was the key line that we all agreed on. I was surprised that no political hack form the NPC, including Gutierrez, attacked PL for being anti-nationalist. I am sure that I would have had a harder time at the NPC meeting against Prop 187 if this struggle had not taken place before by the comrades in California.
In other words, it seems that even the little that we do, counts. Again, in principle I cannot disagree. What this means in practice becomes fuzzier -- at least for me.
Penn. Comrade
After months of talking about Challenge-Desafío Readers Groups we finally held our first meeting. It was great!
Our discussion's starting point was the June 28 editorial "Capitalism Makes Decent Jobs an Endangered Species"
We talked about the limits of fighting capitalism through the unions, how the bosses steal surplus value from our labor, and how in an acute economic crisis the bosses will smash unions.
The non-Party people in the group argued that the solution was for honest, militant workers to take over the unions. They felt that instead of communist revolution we needed a mass reform movement like that of the 1960s.
They also had heard that communism will make all of us poor. "Aren't we poor already thanks to capitalism?" we asked. They laughed and agreed. We then went on to discuss the Party's view of abolishing wage slavery and the idea of "to each according to need".
An interesting turn in this discussion was a non-Party person asking a Party member why the Party member wasn't more open to friends about being a communist. This helped move a long-running struggle we're having with this comrade, and led to a talk about ideological struggle and how people's views can change.
Right now we're organizing two more Readers' Groups. We think they should be small, 3 to 6 people, to encourage discussion. They should be enjoyable and short, 30 to 60 minutes, to fit into our friends' busy lives. In each group a comrade whose Party activity is low at this time is included. We believe that their participation in Challenge-Desafío discussions with non-Party people will help motivate them toward greater Party work. In this first discussion the comrade who is not that active played a good role and thought the meeting was "great".
By the end of our discussion our non-Party friends still disagreed with us on many things. But we did agree to continue the discussions every 3-4 weeks. We will keep you posted.
Philadelphia Comrade
The U.S. bosses have a "solution" to the massive budget cuts which are destroying public education -- caning youth like they do in the fascist city-state of Singapore. Across the U.S., especially in the South, school officials and politicians are reviving corporal punishment. Although 27 states have banned corporal punishment in schools, only one southern state, Virginia, is among them.
Early this year, a second grade teacher in Itta Bena, Miss., walloped for 20 minutes a student in front of the entire class. Paddling is permitted in elementary schools in Miss., but it is supposed to be done temperately and in private.The teacher was convicted of assault. But as The Christian Science Monitor (6/21) said reporting on this case: "Such punishment, of the teacher, may be more the exception than the rule these days....If corporal punishment makes a comeback...it will....also mark another triumph for the growing number of Americans who believe that when it comes to social problems...the best solution is more discipline."
Now, corporal punishment is being revived elsewhere. New paddling laws. or old ones being upheld is the order of the day in nine states, including New York, California and Missouri.
Many believe that corporal punishment worked in the past, and will work again. This is pure nonsense. Corporal punishment is basically part of the growing fascist trend. The reason corporal punishment is making a comeback is that the bosses believe that when there is not a carrot, use a bigger stick. The bosses cut back school budgets, fire teachers, turn schools into prisons, and offer no positive future for youth; then hypocritically, wonder why kids are not "well behaved."
Like everything else in this society, corporal punishment is extremely racist. According to the National Coalition of Advocates for Students, 32 to 33 percent of students paddled are black; they are twice as likely to be paddled than whites.
A NYC Parent of Several Schoolchildren
But instead of leading this huge mass of angry workers to stop the scabs and shut down the plants, the union leadership had the workers march past the plant gates into the Decatur Civic Center. Just when you thought it couldn't get much worse, it did! Workers were then subjected to an endless series of speeches by politicians and international union presidents.
Several Staley workers told us that the leadership is going to push through the same contract offer they've been fighting against for two years, but now with enhanced retirement and severance packages. This strategy will divide the older from the younger workers. While the more militant workers are dead-set against this, chances are the Intemational and Local leadership will ram it through. The union hacks hope to end the struggle, stop paying lockout benefits, and start collecting dues again. They have absolutely no plan to win except to wait "one day longer" (the union's slogan). Hundreds of Staley workers have already abandoned the fight and found other jobs -
This was basically a funeral march for the Staley struggle. Some of the biggest sellouts were trotted out. Jesse Jackson and son, along with Rich Trumka, all had the same solution, vote and depend on politicians. Well, we have a better answer!
Our PLP contingent, made up mostly of high school and college students, carried our banner that read, `Fight for Jobs --Fight for Communism,' and led chants throughout the march.
Over 1300 "Only Communist Revolution will defeat strike-breaking bosses" leaflets along with Challenge-Desafío were distributed along the march and inside the rally. One worker gave a $5 donation for a Challenge-Desafío, and some people signed up to be visited.
Out of our participation in the Decatur class struggle, there is now a small base of workers around the Party. The only long range victory in any of these struggles is winning more workers to organize for communism. their jobs, in their unions and on the picket lines.
According to the annual survey published June 13 by the Confederation of Free Trade Unions, an organization based in Belgium which represents trade unions worldwide, the number of countries where workers' rights were violated rose to 98, the highest total so far recorded. According to its survey,in 1994, 528 workers were murdered in 17 countries as a result of trade union activities. 1,983 were injured and 4,533 were arrested for the same reasons. The largest number of trade unionists killed, 300, was in Algeria, where a civil war is raging between the capitalist government and the reactionary Islamic fundamentalist opposition. Colombia was second with 178 workers murdered.
According to the survey, a new trend has emerged where power was being transferred increasingly "to uncontrolled and unbridled free market forces and large financial trusts that control them, often with the collaboration of local political leaders."
Conditions for workers today in thd industrial ``democracies'' (Japan, U.S., Western Europe), etc. are now worse than ever. For workers in the U.S. real wages have fallen 20% in the last two decades. Just in a 12-month period from March 1994-March 1995, wages plunged 2.3% after adjusting for inflation, "the largest in the eight years the Labor Dept. has calculated these figures." (N.Y. Times, 6/23/95).
These massive wage cuts have been accompanied by mass layoffs.. On top of that, the amount of workers in unions is the lowest in recent history, and even those in unions are not doing that well since union hacks have accepted every major cutback by the bosses. Those massive attacks have been accompanied by a rise in racist terror: both trademarks of fascism.
While Peru is now considered by the world's capitalists as a model of free market "reforms," 30% of all children under 5 years of age are undernourished (50% in the countryside). In Brazil, 200,000 children live in the streets, and everyday four children are murdered. The murder of children rose by 40% in just one year (1993-1994). Most of these murders are carried out by cops.
Any worker who get suckered into fighting for bosses' democracy is just begging for more layoffs, more police terror, more starvation, etc. The only real freedom workers can get is by fighting to destroy all the capitalists and set up a society based on social equality, a communist society.