Editorial 1
Workers in Washington, DC are under attack. The schools cannot even teach children how to read and write on grade level. Thousands of people are homeless. Trash pick-up is irregular. All city workers have had their pay cut, while some have been laid off. Crime and drugs are rampant in the city. Incidences of infant mortality, TB, and AIDS are comparable to a Third World city.
In the city elections of November, 1994, Marion Barry was voted in as mayor promising jobs and reforms to the workers of DC. Many black workers rallied to his cause as he attacked the white establishment. During his first year in office, Barry continued to talk about reform and to blame the city's problems on the Republicans in Congress.
The Washington Post, the bosses' mouthpiece in DC, editorialized against Barry. They told him that if he was not prepared to cut government spending, they could replace him.
The ruling class cracked the whip and Barry quickly fell into line. Last week he announced plans to lay off 10,000 city workers. He will drastically cut all city services to balance the budget. The Mayor's office will offer no more resistance.
The bosses' drive to reduce government spending on working people brings out the true political beliefs of black nationalist politicians like Barry. They support capitalism. When the interests of workers and capitalists come into open conflict, black nationalist politicians side with the bosses, helping the capitalists to super-exploit black workers..
Workers in DC need revolutionary communist leadership that seeks to destroy the system of capitalism. Because of the growing competition among the various capitalist countries of the world, the U.S. rulers will not reduce the intensity of these attacks. Only communist revolution can meet the needs of the workers of DC. As workers join the communist movement for revolution, the bosses might toss us a few crumbs. These crumbs have one purpose: to poison our minds with the idea that capitalism can work.
At this point look around at the city and the world. See the destruction capitalism has created. Now renew your commitment to fight for communism. Join PLP and march to the White House on May Day!
editorial 2
SOUTH AFRICA - South Africa is an example of how capitalism cannot solve the unemployment problem. Challenge-Desafío was one of the few voices in the world that warned black workers and youth that it was a deadly illusion to think the ravages of apartheid would end with the election of Nelson Mandela.
The bosses are saying that South Africa has a "booming economy," recording a 3.5% growth in 1995 and a promise of increasing to 4% this year. But the growth in Africa's largest economy had zero impact on job creation...about half of all blacks are unemployed.
Take the case of Jayce Radazivhoni, who lost her job just before Christmas, 1995. A job she held for 15 years at a zipper factory. She still has not found a job. "I'm looking for any job-any job." But the odds of her finding anything are against her.
The problem is capitalism. The South African bosses and the imperialists that are investing heavily here, are not in the business of creating jobs, they are in the business of making profits.
A close look at the mining industry, a major employer, shows this clearly: "It has been bleeding jobs by tens of thousands each year, despite the recent surge in price of gold beyond the $400-an-ounce barrier....The manufacturing sector is also busy with 'cutbacks and cost-cuttings and downsizings.' ''(New York Newsday 3/3).
The South African economy, primarily controlled by five super-conglomerates, is led by the huge Anglo-American/De Beers group, which has its hands in everything, from chickens to beer to shoes, from platinum to diamonds to gold.
"Mandela's government appears wary of going into battle with the powerful conglomerates."(Newsday) Mandela won't bite the capitalist hands that feed him. He came into power with the support of Harry Oppenheimer, head of the Anglo-American/De Beers group, and a close ally of the Rockefellers in the U.S. (who also supported Mandela).
The struggle against apartheid inspired workers and youth all over the world. Thousands died fighting the apartheid rulers. Millions protested worldwide against racist apartheid. But the struggle lacked a key ingredient: a revolutionary communist leadership.
Militant black workers and youth wrongly trusted Mandela, the African National Congress, and the fake South African "Communist" Party to destroy apartheid and capitalism. These forces were not revolutionary. They were reformist and nationalist and were co-opted by the Oppenheimer-Rockefeller capitalists. A few changes were made, but the essence of racist capitalism remained. The struggle now is harder, but it must go forward towards communist revolution. That is the road PLP is taking, join us!
NEW YORK CITY, March 4 - The clerical workers at Barnard College are still on strike. The majority of these workers are women. Barnard is a women's college, led by feminist Judith Shapiro.
Barnard claims to be an institution that totally represents a positive development for women. The striking workers of Local 2110 UAW can tell a different story about Barnard's supposed concern for women. These mothers and their families will face the choice between seeing the doctor and paying rent because of Barnard's greed.
Barnard's only answer to these workers is, "sorry folks, but bosses all across the world are taking health care from their workers, and we need to do the same." The Barnard bosses openly admit that they want the workers to pay for the worldwide crisis of capitalism.
This women's college is making it impossible for dozens of working class women to raise their children in a healthy environment. This is the feminism that many young Barnard graduates are committed to.
These young women are trained to look at workers thrown on the trash heap and feel no remorse. They are trained to do nothing about how capitalism attacks workers; but still feel they are "on the right side" because they are feminist.
Feminism builds capitalism. Feminism means death to the working class. Ask the Barnard workers...they'll tell you.
Some students resist this training, as witnessed by the hundreds that have supported the strike. Students have walked the picket line, demanded that their professors move classes off of the campus and confronted the administration.
PLP students and their friends have been involved in all of these actions. We distributed a leaflet on campus and to workers, saying that under capitalism health care is a business and only under communism will it be a right. Challenge calls on all student supporters of the strike to join the PLP and march on May Day.
History has given us an example of what proletarian dictatorship has done for women. Lenin, the great leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, led a movement and a society that advanced the masses of women further than anywhere else in the world, before or since.
He wrote a piece called "Soviet Power and the Status of Women" in 1921. In this article Lenin pointed out that once the working class took over the factories, land and mills-when a dictatorship of the proletariat was achieved-working class women, through the leadership of their communist party, advanced to positions and opportunities in society. The positions that only men held while there was a dictatorship of the capitalists. This is a fact of history. Sexism is can only be destroyed when workers destroy capitalism.
The Bolsheviks went further than any group to free women workers, and all workers, from the chains of capitalism. But, history has also taught us that we have to go even further. Socialism, which kept many remnants of capitalism, limited the liberation of all workers. We in PLP believe that workers now have to fight for communism, to smash all forms of capitalism, and truly liberate all workers.
This week's award goes to Mary Jane Cruz, an agent for the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas. The Christian Science Monitor profiled Cruz and the extra hardships and flak she receives as a hispanic woman who busts would be illegal immigrants.
Cruz says that she "loves her work on the front line of America's battle against illegal immigration." Who could love busting the hopes of workers seeking better lives?
Workers crossing the border say that latin cops are no less brutal than white or black cops. One worker who crosses regularly said, "they're more likely to beat us up or treat us poorly, as if to put a distance between us and them." This is how black and latin cops prove their loyalty to the bosses.
Mary Jane Cruz proves that it doesn't matter if you're a white cop, black cop, latin cop, a male cop, or female cop. A cop is a cop.
Racism goes with the badge, but some cops stick out because of their exceptional hatred. If you have a candidate for the Furhman Award send it in to us.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador-During the month of January more than 2,000 Salvadorans were deported from the U.S. The majority were unemployed youth, some of them absorbed by the same capitalist-inspired drugs, racism and gangs that affect other youth in the U.S.
The Salvadoran bosses and their politicians "welcomed" many of these youth by calling them "social garbage" and declaring that El Salvador didn't want them either.
The cowardly and shameless ruling class wants people to think that the main problem in the country are the gangs and that their organizers are those who were deported from the U.S. These politicians want to make more severe laws against these youth; to investigate them when they come into the country; to organize a special police force to watch them; to put them into prison when they arrive; or to ask the U.S. government to put them into concentration camps.
The main problem is capitalism, not the gangs. It is the bosses who are social garbage and it is they who have to be destroyed. It is the bosses who create poverty, unemployment, and the alienation that many youth feel when they confront this situation.
It is President Calderon Sol and his government, together with the big industrialists, who have put the workers in a desperate situation. The damage caused by the gangs is child's play compared to what the U.S. and Salvadoran government have done to the workers. Also many of these gangs are controlled by the police to terrorize and rob the population.
The solution does not lay in attacking these youth, but fighting to destroy the capitalist profit system. The doors of PLP are open to all those youth who want to join with us to destroy the bosses system and build a new society of equality, a society where these youth can develop, work, and be treasured by all of society.
PLP will struggle with these youth to turn their hatred against the bosses and to help build a collective struggle against capitalism, instead of an individualistic struggle.
Under communism, borders won't exist. All workers will work wherever they are needed, without becoming second class. But communism won't come by itself, spontaneously, nor by election, nor by negotiating with the bosses. The only way to win communism is for all of us to organize into clubs, and factory committees, organizing workers, students, soldiers, unemployed, deportees, etc., led by one Party, the PLP, fighting for communist revolution.
HAVERFORD, PA, Feb. 25 - "We don't need free speech for racists. What we need is students and workers fighting to free themselves from the racist capitalist system. The best way to fight racist free speech is with communism and by going on May 4 to May Day." This is what two PLP'ers said to more than 400 people at the Haverford College Student Plenary.
The school has an "honor code" that prohibits hate speech such as racism. A group of students came to the Student Plenary with a "freedom of speech" resolution that would have changed this. The resolution failed by just one vote.
Many students are won to the liberal notion that everyone has the right to their own ideas, no matter how backward. But do these ideas just pop up out of nowhere? Racism is an idea that is consciously pushed by the ruling class to divide and super-exploit workers. It has been used to murder millions of workers throughout history and, as an ideology, it is justified in the name of free speech.
One student said that he should have the right to voice his opinion of "purple people," no matter what degrading thoughts he had against them. A PLP'er yelled at him, "No, you should go to jail."
About a third of the students voted against the "free speech for racism" resolution. Their main argument was that racist speech is immoral and cannot be tolerated. Though that may be true, what is even more important to recognize is that racism is necessary for the bosses to stay in power and make profits-racism is necessary for capitalism.
We explained that if we want to build a world without racism and sexism we can start by building the communist PLP. Our Party struggles for everyone's speech and actions to contribute to building equality and uniting the working class to make a revolution. Racism and sexism will be illegal under communism, the dictatorship of the proletariat. The issue isn't "free speech." The issue is what kind of society we need.
Students in the Haverford Challenge Readers' Group and other friends of PLP grew closer to the Party through this activity. One friend, an activist in the latin student organization, LASO, announced at that organization's meeting that "we must fight for communism." Communist ideas are not yet mass ideas at Haverford, but we are moving in that direction.
The terrorist bombings have once again made the front pages over the world and exploded the myth that there will be peace between the bosses in the Middle East.
We would like to briefly mention the following:
The bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are not the work of communists. The terrorists blowing up buses and 59 workers and young people (including Romanian and Ethiopian workers) have an Islamic capitalist state as their goal. Their objective is to replace the Israelis; to be bosses over Palestinian workers.
Israel takes a back seat to no one when it comes to terrorism. During the whole of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and especially the recent Intifada, nazi-like terror was the tactic of choice for Israeli fascists.
The "peace process" will fail. U.S. imperialists and their Israeli junior partners are counting on leader Arafat to control exploited Palestinian workers. He hasn't got enough cops. Ultimately, there never are enough for these fascists. Clinton and Israeli leader Peres think that the fraud of elections and a flag will cover their schemes.
The most significant conflict in the Middle East-which is dictating this struggle-is over the control of oil. Iran, the main enemy of U.S. imperialism, is a supporter of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the two groups responsible for terrorism directed at Israel. U.S. bosses want stability in the region to maintain its control over the flow of oil and the petro-dollars to U.S. concerns. Iran and its allies have other ideas. Sooner or later, this will lead to another Middle East war. Does the threat by Clinton and Peres to "go anywhere" to fight terrorism mean Teheran? This possibility cannot be ignored by workers.
Workers in the Middle East as well as in the U.S. must reject the cynical and greedy plots of all these bosses. Building the communist revolution and Progressive Labor Party throughout the world is the order of the day.
LOS ANGELES, CA., March 5 - "For years the other HMO's have been ruthless in their cost cutting. Kaiser must do the same if we don't want to get left in the dust....There is a point at which you cannot cut any more without really compromising quality of care. We'll know we're at that point when patients are dying, lawsuits are mounting, and the public says 'that's enough'. But we're not there yet." That's what Amy Brosman, a Kaiser administrator, said at a recent meeting of workers at Kaiser Sunset.
This was just one of many meetings called to tell us that keeping Kaiser competitive will keep us our jobs. The bosses want us to shortchange patients and risk their lives to help Kaiser compete with other for-profit health industry vampires. That will mean more layoffs, not less!
The Kaiser Administration is so confident that workers are going to buy their bull that Joseph Hummel, chief administrator of Kaiser Sunset is going to have a series of open meetings for workers next week.
A PLP leaflet was reproduced and put up in many departments in the hospital. Workers plan to confront these shameless hatchetmen and turn their meetings into a fight against these threats and cuts. We should refuse to institute their cuts, and fight against all layoffs.
We have to fight for a system where the almighty dollar doesn't dictate who gets care and work. It's a question of profits versus lives. We choose lives! We're not on Joseph Hummel or Amy Brosman's side. The workers and patients are on the same side and Joseph Hummel, who makes his millions at the expense of the patients' health and the workers' jobs, is on the other.
When Kaiser laid off our co-workers, we worked our butts off to try to get the work done anyway, hoping we'd be spared. But the workload keeps getting bigger, especially for the more senior workers, who Kaiser is more anxious to get rid of. One worker was given 95 rooms to clean and told to spend five minutes on each room. He and his co-workers said this would take more than eight hours with no breaks!
Over 20 radiology techs were laid off, leaving not enough staff to cover the workload. In the appointment service, the workload is so heavy that the workers there, mostly women, are told when they can and can't go to the bathroom, and they are watched constantly by supervisors. Many older workers have gone out on medical leave because of the stress. Now the bosses plan more layoffs.
Every union contract negotiated with Kaiser has meant a loss for the workers and a win for Hummel & Co. The unions set the ground-rules for the "right" way to discipline, fire, and lay off workers. But there is no right way to take a worker's job away, or to refuse someone health care.
We filed grievances and lawsuits. We went on strike in 1990 for higher wages and here we are in 1996 in worse shape than ever. The small raise that was won in that strike has been eaten away over the last six years. And we are working harder than ever.
Now we're looking for a real solution to our problems. The PLP has the solution: communist revolution. Communism, where there is complete equality and the workers run everything according to the rule "to each according to need, from each according to commitment."
Kaiser bosses Hugh Jones, Oliver Goldsmith, and Joseph Hummel: you aren't worried about these things yet. But Kaiser workers are getting fed up. PLP will grow and when we have millions, we won't be your wage slaves any more. We'll destroy the profit system and build hospitals that will take care of all people who need it-with no profits. And we'll know how to take care of you.
SEATTLE, March 5--"I never realized how dangerous nationalism is," said an activist International Association of Machinists (IAM) Shop Steward at Boeing during the strike. "I just never thought about it. I used to be a big Buy American guy. I now know that international organizing is our only chance....And I think a lot of people are reaching the same conclusion."
This steward makes many good points. Despite a barrage of nationalist propaganda, as the strike progressed, many Boeing workers began to look to workers in other countries as our natural allies.
"Your struggle gives us the opportunity to show our need and readiness to build international unity which is in the best interest of the whole working class," wrote Mexican autoworkers in an inspiring letter of support.
But organizing unions in other countries won't solve our problems. When IAM president Kourpias says, "German workers aren't our enemies; Chinese workers aren't our enemies; and Mexican workers aren't our enemies," as he did at the Everett rally in support of the Boeing strike, he calls for unions similar to the IAM in other countries.
Just like the IAM, these unions will insure profits for Boeing, and other U.S. corporations, while guaranteeing the enslavement and impoverishment of workers. International organizing by these unions is not part of the answer; it's part of the problem!
Take, for example, the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), the Latin American arm of the AFL-CIO. It is led by William Doherty, whom former top CIA official Philip Agee once tagged as a "career CIA agent." AIFLD's training program for Latin American labor leaders at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Springs, Maryland is to "shape labor organizers as accomplices in the (U.S.) corporate model of free trade." The Institute's chief goal was "teaching the workers to increase their company's business" in the words of multi-millionaire shipping magnate J. Peter Grace, who once sat on AIFLD's board of directors.
When Kourpias and the other AFL-CIO leaders talk of international organizing, they really mean building support for U.S. imperialism at the expense of workers here and abroad. Even their lip service to international organizing is really support for the national bosses.
These union leaders don't believe workers can seize power and run society. They are left with no alternative but to support "their" boss against any and all competing bosses.
Make no mistake about it, that support will extend to nationalist wars and even world war when the U.S. bosses decide they need to destroy competing capitalists to preserve their profits. In fact, the logic of trade unionism dictates that union leaders, no matter what the country, follow their masters into one imperialist camp or another as the crisis of capitalism deepens. The shop steward learned well from this strike-nationalism is dangerous for us workers.
The union leadership's vision of international organizing is in sharp contrast to international working class consciousness. We don't need more AFL-CIO unions in more countries "teaching workers to increase their company's business." We need one international communist party-the Progressive Labor Party-teaching and learning from workers how to rid ourselves of a system that feeds on our exploitation. We need communism, where we produce for collective need, not compete for business and jobs. We don't need borders to divide us from our class brothers and sisters. We need to smash all borders. Nationalism-and the union's "international" organizing-diverts us onto the road of exploitation, imperialism and war. We need to travel the road to revolution illuminated by international working class consciousness.
CHICAGO, IL., March 4 -- Chicago State University (CSU) students will have to wait until April 20 to get their spring semester financial-aid checks. This CSU administration policy is causing many problems for students. Many of us are unemployed workers who need this money to live.
Having a job is wage-slavery, but being in school is not much different. We're still scraping to survive. Racist unemployment forces us to take low-paying jobs and/or live off these measly financial aid checks.
The money for these checks comes from the MAPP and PELL grant programs. These programs were designed to tie working class youth to capitalism and believe that they have a future under the system.
Last year, the black nationalists that run CSU enforced the racist policy and withheld the student financial aid checks until four weeks before the semester ended. The administration withheld the checks in order to prevent some students from getting their money and then dropping out of school.
Previously, students were recruited to the university on the promise of getting this money. The administration then boasted of the increased enrollment.
Currently the federal government is cracking down. The feds threaten to withhold all financial aid if the dropout rate doesn't decrease. The administration's solution is to hold the checks until after the last day to drop classes.
When this happened last year, students held two rallies to demand the checks. The second rally ended in a sit-in at the Administration building, where the KKKops brutally arrested student leaders. The next week the checks were released.
After every fight to squeeze a few dollars out of the system, the bosses take the gains back as soon as they can. Here we are a year later fighting again for the checks.
This time the checks are being held until 16 days before the end of the semester. By the time we get the checks some of us may be homeless.
Capitalism just doesn't work. The university, supposedly a center of learning and enlightenment, is little more than a way to scratch out a living.
Many students at Chicago State enroll in classes because they think this will lead to a good-paying job. Along the way, part of the contract with capitalism is that they will go to school and get financial aid. These checks become their livelihoods.
The effects of dire poverty make attending school regularly impossible. Trying to put together part-time jobs and hustling for a few dollars here and there don't leave time to study, take care of a family, and write papers. Many who hope to succeed by going to college end up dropping out.
The capitalists tell us to work hard, do what we're told and we'll make it. But university education can't resolve the crisis of capitalism. In the end many students get frustrated, not knowing who to blame.
Millions of workers, including university students, are barely surviving day-to-day. The university knows this. The state and federal governments know this. Rather than acknowledge their system's failure they attack and blame the students.
The PLP invites all students to help organize a demonstration to demand the checks on Friday, March 15 at noon in front of the Library. We know CSU students aren't failures. They have learned to hate the system and they will learn to destroy it. We will denounce capitalism, a system that can't meet our needs. Only communism can.
ARGENTINA - Elections are the ultimate reformist trick bosses play on workers. When downsizing, cutbacks, etc. are rampant, the rulers and their mouthpieces tell workers "just vote the incumbent out and elect a new politician to improve things."
Workers usually end up losing, getting attacked even more by "their candidate." Capitalist democracy is a sham that covers the bosses' dictatorship. The only system that can serve workers' interest is the dictatorship of the working class over the bosses (egalitarian communism).
A clear example of that can be seen in the province of Tucuman, Argentina. Imagine Himmler, Eichmann or some other Nazi butcher being elected to head a German state a few years after World War II. That was exactly what happened in Tucuman.
Antonio Domingo Bussi was elected five months ago as governor of that province. Who is Mr. Bussi? Twenty years ago he was appointed by the military junta ruling Argentina to this same job.
Former subordinates of Mr. Bussi, during the period the Junta waged their dirty war of terror against workers and youth in the mid-1970s, "testified before a national human rights commission that the general sometimes stopped by a prison camp and shot prisoners in the head. His security apparatus employed 'all the elements of Nazi Germany,' concluded a report issued by the commission." (Wall Street Journal, 2/28).
He is accused of being directly involved in the disappearance (a misnomer for the murder) of 387 opponents of the Junta.
How could this butcher now become a "born-again-democratic governor"? The reformist politicians that have ruled Tucuman since the collapse of the Junta have not done a thing to help workers.
"During the past decade, a string of governors from the ruling Peronist Party created a bloated state bureaucracy and stole money from its financial institutions. The most recent governor Ramon 'Palito' Ortega, a pop singer with an Elvis-like bouffant, spent more time positioning himself for his current presidential bid than managing local affairs....As a result, Tucuman's economy is a mess."(WSJ)
Bussi won't be able to solve any of the problems facing workers; problems that are caused not only by the inept-crooked politicians but also by the worldwide crisis of capitalism. The point is that when workers and their allies don't have a revolutionary communist alternative to capitalism, they turn to reformist hacks, who then open the doors to open fascists like Bussi.
OAKLAND, CA , March. 4 - The teachers' strike here entered day 12 with no sign of a settlement. On Wed., Feb. 28, hundreds of teachers, parents and students demonstrated at the School Board meeting.
A few angry demonstrators made it through the police cordon into the meeting, but most were kept outside because the Board had filled the hall with administrators who got there early to prevent militant confrontations with the Board members. Union president Ben Visnick blocked the entrance door himself and threatened students, to keep them from rushing the door.
PLP members at the demonstration leafleted and sold Challenges. We have passed out over 2,000 leaflets and sold and distributed over 200 Challenges. Response by teachers, parents and other schoolworkers has been positive.
Our call to turn this reform battle into a revolutionary one by building and joining PLP has been met with interest. Some teachers introduced a PLP member to the pickets as "a communist, with some ideas for us to consider in this strike." One striker declared to his fellow pickets, "Every movement that benefited workers, no matter where in the world, has been led by communists."
Many lively discussions have occurred around questions we raised: Is good education possible for workers under capitalism? What causes racism? How can there be a budget crisis when a few people are richer than anyone in the history of the world? Is communism really dead?
As in all battles led by reformists, certain illusions are pushed by the union leaders. Among them are that the crisis can be solved by cutting a few fat-cat administrators and that local politicians can solve the problems through negotiations.
Probably the biggest illusion is that if only class-size wasn't so large, students would succeed. This ignores the fact that the schools exist within capitalism-a profit system that exploits workers using wage slavery, racism, unemployment, war, etc. Smaller classes won't change any of these basic facts. In fact, the School Board has already signaled that, if the teachers force the issue, it will lay off other school personnel to pay for smaller classes.
Such are the contradictions of capitalism: what seems like a good demand is turned into a divisive issue to encourage different groups of workers to attack each other.
Though all honest people here want to improve the schools, capitalism can't accomplish it. PLP has explained in an open and honest way that only communism can create a system of equality; only communism will end racism and unemployment by ending the wage system, which is the material basis for inequality and all the other ills flowing from exploitation.
We intend to keep bringing this issue sharply to the forefront. We have already reached thousands with our analysis. We aim to win people to march on May Day and some new friends and members to the Party. That is the only measure of success that matters in this or any other class battle.
PHILADELPHIA, PA., March 1 - "There's gonna be a riot! There's gonna be a riot!" exclaimed a Jefferson Hospital Dietary worker who received a layoff notice this week.
The scheduled mass layoffs are developing anger among the workers that could indeed explode. For the first time, many, many workers are coming to the Progressive Labor Party for a communist explanation. Today, this anger and our explanation came out today at a PLP protest against the layoffs when a dozen Party members and friends, including Jefferson workers and college students, rallied in front of a PNC Bank office next to Jefferson.
PNC is one of the largest banks in the U.S. Five of its directors sit on Jefferson's Board of Trustees, which ordered the hospital cuts. We attacked the cuts as an inevitable part of capitalism, explaining that communism was the only society where health care could be a right.
Jefferson workers joined us. Some held communist posters, distributed communist leaflets, and sold Challenges. Others came to support the protest despite their disagreements with communism. Many Jefferson workers came by to check out the protest. Forty bought Challenges, and hundreds took PLP flyers.
The PLP leaflet announcing this demonstration received a strong response. Workers posted it in the Housekeeping and Transportation departments.
Supply department supervisors searched the locker rooms to keep the leaflets from the workers. The 1199C union leaders showed a union delegate the flyer after having apparently received it from the bosses.
The bosses and the union leaders are worried that more workers are paying more attention to PLP and communism. After our leaflet appeared, the union hurriedly announced the first membership meeting in over six months. The bosses sent a labor relations flunky to check out our protest. He slunk away when we asked him to come to the microphone and explain the cuts.
These defenders of capitalism should be worried. The Jefferson PLP club is planning a series of actions leading up to May Day. Our goal is to bring a busload of hospital workers to Washington for the march. Never has the opportunity been greater.
LOS ANGELES, CA. - A cheap trick by the owner of a garment shop here to buy workers' loyalty backfired this past week.
The owner of A & A Fashion offered a bonus of $50. to buy lunch for a section of the factory where workers gave leadership to two past strikes. The bribe was offered to a worker the boss thinks is the leader of the Party in the shop.
This led to a political discussion both in the Party and among the workers about what to do. At first, some workers were uncertain about how to respond. One comrade thought that since it was the workers' money anyway, we should accept it and denounce the boss at the same time. Another thought we should have thrown it in his face.
The workers involved raised the issue at a Party meeting, seeking leadership.
During the discussion, it was pointed out that what we do and how we do it gives meaning to what we say. It wasn't alot of money, but it was the principal that we won't be bribed. The comrades agreed, and enthusiastically took this discussion to the workers, who responded in this way:
Worker A: "Listen, friends, I think this 'extra' money that the boss gave us on the sly, was made as a bribe and we should return it."
Worker B: "I agree that we should return it. If we don't he'll have our hands tied. And what will the other workers think?"
Worker C: "I say we accept it, because it's our own money. And we have no reason to tell the others."
Worker A: "We have to tell the others so they know how the boss wants to divide us. The boss does all this to weaken our unity and to create an atmosphere of suspicion among the workers."
Worker D: "I'll do what you all decide."
At the end of the discussion, four workers in the section of the factory decided not to accept the bribe and two others took the money. One of the workers who firmly rejected the money has participated in activities with the Party and we think he will join soon. We've invited him to study groups and we are discussing more deeply the political ideas of PLP with him.
Workers in other sections were notified of this incident and supported the decision to return the money to show this shameless boss that workers' loyalty, especially that of communists, can't be bought. Many said that they understand that the boss is trying to silence or bribe the leaders.
The boss' bribe doesn't interest us, our goal is to take all for everyone. What we offer to the working class is a world where everything we need to live will be produced and distributed in an equal manner, according to the needs of the workers. This can only be possible through building the PLP to organize the fight for a society of communist equality.
Dear Challenge:
(My first garment job brought back memories of the fascist attacks I lived under as a child during El Salvador's civil war. So after my first day on the job, I felt I had to write to you.)
It's 2:30pm on Feb. 21, and two hours have passed since I started working in a garment factory in NYC. I noticed latin workers and Russian workers.
I see that the Russian workers identify themselves more with the Russian bosses instead of identifying with their class, the working class, including me and the other latins. I also see that some latin workers view all the Russians as bosses; but in fact, most Russians in the factory are workers, too.
Something is happening! I don't know what it is. Workers are running all over the place, seems like they are trying to escape from something or somebody. They couldn't even take their jackets with them. When I first came, I noticed how fast they work. Now, I see how fast they run away. The escape took less than five minutes. I was trembling with fear. The boss came near me and shouted, "You have to escape, too. Somebody yelled, "Immigration, Immigration."
Memories came to my mind; I can hear a similar voice yell, "The army is coming to sack houses; run away, run away" I wake up and I ask myself, run away, where? What a helpless feeling!
This afternoon I also see the solidarity among workers helping each other in their moment of torment. In this case, latin and white workers were helping each other to escape. This time workers made fun of the immigration agents after they escaped.
After this experience, I can see the necessity for the working class to unite. I can see the necessity of a vanguard plan. We have to respond to these attacks. And now I don't feel helpless because now I can count on our Party.
There is only one militant organization capable of success in this plan. It's the communist Progressive Labor Party, led by workers, for workers. Comrades and workers, let's unite and organize for May Day.
Personally, what I'm trying to do now is to organize a Readers' Group as soon as possible to present communist ideas to my fellow workers. Now is the time to build a base with them. Inviting them to participate in protests against anti-immigrant laws and most importantly to invite them to the May Day March are my current goals.
So you can see the degree of exploitation at these factories, I must tell you that after working 12 long hours on this my first day, I was paid only $20.00!
A worker
Dear Challenge:
This is to inform you of my willingness to be receiving more copies of Challenge. For myself, I cannot do without Challenge since it has opened my eyes to the unbridled opportunism, armed robbery, and the systematic looting of the treasury, and hypocrisy perpetuated by world leaders.
Over the years, especially within this present period of crisis in Nigeria, I have maintained to my friends that communism is the only way out!
I will need more copies, in addition to my own regular copies for distribution and education of my friends, colleagues, neighbors, workers, unemployed, traders, and students.
I also need pamphlets on Stalin, Racism, Sexism, Welfare, Immigration, etc.
I graduated from the university four years ago with a degree in microbiology, but today I'm virtually suffering and helpless-no nice job.
Ever since I started receiving Challenge more than eight years ago, my life has really changed for the better. I naturally expect nothing good from the local bosses.
Please let me know whether you'll want me to be contributing news stories in Challenge. I can do that.
Comrade in Nigeria.
[Editor's note: We are frequently asked to spread our around the world. It is very expensive to do this. Please contribute to support this essential effort.]
Dear Challenge:
The article in the 3/6 issue about how bosses are terrified of workers facing mass downsizing, and the box predicting mass rebellions if corporations and politicians continue downsizing and cutting back show how the Party's emphasis on putting communist politics up front are right on the button.
Capitalism cannot offer workers, and many so-called middle class people, any more crumbs as they did in the past. Things are so bad that even the NY Times has had to run a series of articles on its front page on how, since 1979, 43 million jobs in the U.S. have been "downsized" to lower-paying jobs or no jobs.
The drive for maximum profits by AT&T, Chase-Chemical Bank, and other large corporations (in the U.S. and all over the world) is not only due to their greed, but also to the need to cut costs to compete with other capitalists. If they don't maximize profits, they go out of business.
Those who beg corporations not to be so greedy are dreaming. Capitalism must downsize. In the long run, the only real capitalist solution will be to go to war to eliminate some of the competition.
Others daydreamers are those people, many of whom are honest, who are fighting to retain some of the crumbs the bosses have been forced to give workers and youth in the past (affirmative action, more money for schools, better paying jobs, etc.).
Our Party must put forward the line that capitalism has nothing good to offer workers, that the only solution for workers is to recognize that the enemy is capitalism, and therefore, we must fight to destroy it. We must be involved in all actions and movements of workers and students fighting for some reforms, but while supporting the fightback, we must not be opportunistic and feed their illusions.
We must clearly explain the current historical period (that is, worldwide capitalist crisis), and present our communist politics. If we do our job correctly, our Party will be respected and will grow. May Day offers great opportunities to take a big step in that direction.
NYC PL'er
Dear Challenge:
The Feb. 7 editorial criticizes Affirmative Action (AA) and education under capitalism. Most of the points raised are correct, but they are raised in a one-sided (undialectical) way.
The editorial leaves us without guidance as to what attitudes and actions to take, which paralyzes us, and will inevitably divide the Party,
It divides the Party from certain sections of the working class, and,
It divides the working class.
Anything deliberately pushed on us by the ruling class, it assumes, must be all bad for the working class, requiring no further analysis. But, whether AA was an intentional plot or a contradictory concept containing aspects which the capitalists could exploit for their own ends, AA is far more complex than that.
After all, has the Party not always fought for more jobs and, at the same time, preferential hiring for black, latin, and women workers? Is this not our form of demand for AA?
Is the editorial telling us that we should never have added preferential hiring as part of the demand, and that we should drop that demand as an unwitting aid to racism, or sexism?
We are left by the editorial with several possible conclusions: First, we should remain outside the current struggle for AA, versus we should participate in a certain way. If we stay outside, we can either attack or ignore the struggle. If we participate, we can either try to divert it to a different struggle, be passive and not give leadership to it, or give leadership but broaden it to include the demands for enough jobs for the entire working class or enough admissions for all aspiring students.
As for capitalist education, the editorial makes a one-sided claim, which we have debated in the past, that "Education under capitalism serves only the capitalist class." It goes on to list all the bad things that schools teach us, including racism, sexism, selfishness, etc. All true, but there is a contradictory effect of capitalist education-it is the one place where the working class can learn certain skills which we need to get jobs and survive under capitalism.
Furthermore these skills, such as reading-writing-math-research, while intended by the capitalists for their own ends, have the contradictory aspect that many of us have put these skills to use for the Party and the working class.
A reader unfamiliar with our paper would never know that many of our members and leaders gained much of their skill in understanding history and the best ways to present ideas, in just those capitalist institutions of higher learning.
The reader would never know that many of our friends and members contribute much larger amounts of money to the Party from the better paying jobs they have been able to achieve, and that they continue to win students and other professionals to support the working class and communism.
The Party has lawyers who defend us , doctors who struggle for health care for all, and teachers who teach communism in the classroom. What are these supporters of communism to take out of such a one-sided statement that capitalist education serves only the capitalists? What are those millions of workers, who themselves have been able to get jobs through capitalist education, to think of such a statement?
It is true that we do not learn to analyze things dialectically in capitalist institutions, but only learn this in the Party. However, we often forget how to do it, and regress to our capitalist trained habits of one-sided thought.
By failing to present communist ideas dialectically, we end up saying things which the real lives of readers convince them are untrue. We look like we come from another planet and isolate the Party from such readers, and divide our own members. Granted Challenge has limited space, but saving space at the expense of losing readers is not a good trade.
A comrade
In brief, Challenge stands by the editorial. It was not one-sided or "undialectical" as the comrade charges. It did put forward the communist side on the issue of affirmative action. It pointed out that:
Racism is more oppressive today than since the beginning of affirmative action.
The crumbs of affirmative action are pointed to by the liberals and other defenders of the system as examples of how capitalism "works."
Defending affirmative action ultimately excuses capitalism's inequality, a system that means a decent life for the few near the top. Affirmative action is divisive. It concedes capitalism's inability to provide a decent life for tens of millions. Communists shouldn't compromise on the issue of equality.
The Party mistakenly has supported affirmative action and other such reforms in the past. We built the illusion that militant reform struggles-like the current defense of affirmative action-can be turned into revolutionary action for communism.
Many years of struggle have led us to the opposite conclusion. The role of the Party in these struggles is to point out the narrow, defeatist limits of trying to reform capitalism and, more importantly, raise the absolute necessity of communist revolution as the anti-racist struggle.
Workers and students who support affirmative action generally are fighting for an equal society. They will only get that with the success of communism. Fighting for that reality does not divide the Party or the workers. In fact, it is the opposite.
The comrade takes exception to our contempt for capitalist education. We have no apologies. Capitalist education is overwhelmingly bad. What is useful-reading and a little bit of writing, math, etc.-is meager, at best. Capitalist education is aimed at creating workers who can survive the system's oppression. It does not and will not provide the kind of education that revolutionaries need. Only the Party can do that.
The comrade correctly points out that dialectical materialism, the philosophy of communism cannot be learned from our enemies' schools. We can all benefit from a more careful study of our pamphlet, Jailbreak.]
Dear Challenge:
Recent articles in Challenge have been critical of the role universities play in capitalist society. "Higher learning" under capitalism has been characterized as an exercise in excuses for every kind of inequality. The following story makes this point:
I am a graduate student of philosophy at a major Midwestern university. I am studying for the highest degree capitalism has to offer. The subject matter of the course is "political conservatism." We are supposed to be doing a systematic study of right-wing liberalism.
One argument of bourgeois philosophy is that the inequality between rich and poor people may have originated because while the ancestors of the rich were working hard, the ancestors of the poor were sitting around relaxing. I pointed out in class that this is an absurdity that is contrary to everything that we know about human social anthropology and the development of class society.
My instructor, who holds a Ph.D. and is the department Marxist, said, "You must admit that if this story were true it could be a plausible explanation for current inequality. Are you saying that just because the story isn't in accordance with the facts, we shouldn't consider it?"
"If is a very powerful word," I said. "That is a lovely little story. If all we are supposed to be doing here is telling little stories then O.K. but if we are supposed to be discussing reality then it isn't of much use."
Then the Ph.D. said, "Let's set that part of the discussion to the side for now."
I then said, "If you want to have an understanding of how the world really works and what we can do to change it then you should read this." I promptly handed out copies of the new Road to Revolution 4 pamphlet.
That's capitalist education for you-setting reality off to the side. The ruling class spends billions training teachers who will justify their system. We must expose capitalist ideology wherever we can. Workers, students, soldiers and professionals need the communist philosophy of PLP, so that we can take power and establish communist society.
In my next class session I will offer "Jailbreak" pamphlets and Challenge to the members of my class and invite them to discuss them with me. We can win the ideological struggle for communism with bolder agitation and basebuilding in the classroom. Let's turn the strongholds of bourgeois education into schools for class struggle. Otherwise there is no point in being there.
Dear Challenge:
I would just like to show how the bosses in Virginia keep the workers in check. First, in order to get a job here, you need to buy a car from one of the thousands of "bloodsucking" car dealerships. You have to purchase a car because mass transit is almost non-existent. Often you have to wait 2½ hours for a bus, making it impossible to depend on. In order to afford a car, workers are tied to steady monthly car payments or "car notes."
These workers are also tied to apartment rent payments which on average costs about $500, not including heat or gas or hot water. In order to get these necessities you need to pay Virginia Power major dollars.
So take the car payments of about $250-$300 a month, $500 rent, $200 electrical charges, and the other unavoidable expenses like food, clothing, baby-sitting and you'll see how the bosses keep the workers in check by paying them minimum wages.
Talking to some workers I was able to find out first hand how the bosses have fired individuals who decided to fight back. I have been trying to drive home the point that unity is key for all workers, that one or two getting fired is not the solution. If all workers are fed up with the crumbs these bosses give them they should organize and fight these intolerable conditions.
I also explained that the fight should not stop there. It should continue into the fight for communism, the only system in which the workers will get a fair share of what's produced. Bringing these workers to May Day will definitely be helpful to organizing workers in this little town of Virginia and everywhere workers are oppressed.
Let's fight for communism!
Comrade in Virginia
Dear Challenge:
On March 14, students around the U.S. will protest the many racist attacks on workers and students. These demonstrations grew out of a conference at Howard University last October, and are in response to the rapid growth of fascist trends.
Vicious racist attacks on affirmative action, severe slashes in various social programs and social service delivery, and an upsurge in academic racism (pseudo-scientific theories about racial differences in intelligence and behavior) have all made millions more aware of the crisis of the capitalist system.
California is at the cutting edge of fascist attacks with its current ban on affirmative action in universities and its upcoming vote to outlaw any programs to remedy past discrimination. Demonstrations in that state will be large and militant.
At forums on campuses in the DC area, speakers have shown how these developments reflect capitalism in decline, and that no reform can reverse this tide. As large numbers of students fight back on these immediate problems, we must struggle with each other to understand that mass militant battles will not create a new system where education is automatically part of our daily lives and available to all workers.
Only a new system of communism can do that. Such a system is based on the egalitarian collective principles that we all must help each other to become more capable of serving the interests of the working class on a daily basis.
As we picket Newt Gingrich's house, and as we close down universities in protest of their racist policies, let us prepare ourselves for the lifelong battle to win and preserve a communist system as the real solution to the racist attacks of a desperate capitalist system in crisis.
Maryland PL student
Join PLP to Sell Challenge and Build for May Day at the Spring Offensive Against Racism (SOAR) in Washington, DC, March 14
Rallies at George Washington University and Howard University, 11am
Assemble at Union Station at 12:45
March to Newt Gingrich's home
Picket 1:00-3:00
For more information, call (202) 806-9558